I refer to the letter There are some who are above the law which was written in response to my letter that was published under the title Don’t accuse ACA … yet .

HL Too’s letter mentioned many examples of abuses by those who troll the corridors of power which I hope will make people sit up and carefully consider the sort of government this country should have. We can have that say on March 8. Waste not your vote!

If the status quo is retained in the forthcoming general elections, then I do not hold out much hope that corrupt judges, politicians and leaders will ever be brought to book and pay for their crimes. A weakened BN will make it much harder for things to be swept under the rug as before. So, once again, waste not your vote.

Anyway, back to Too’s critique of my letter. This part is certainly worth commenting on: ‘Please don’t think that nobody has noticed that even after the explosive allegations at the Lingam tape royal commission of inquiry, the ACA has yet to respond’.

Well, don’t hold your breath. The ACA did just that and its response was both rapid and succinct. In an affidavit, ACA officer Wong Chee Kong says he did not mention to Jayanthi that the investigation in 1998 was closed because it involved too many high-ranking officials and he did not give her RM3,000 in cash. If you believe Wong, Jayanthi must be lying and vice-versa.

Now, where do we go from here? Who should we believe? That’s impossible to answer. However, if you put a gun to my head and ask me to nominate the truth-sayer in this ding-dong, I’m more inclined to believe Jayanthi’s version because of the stench of corruption that is so deeply entrenched in the corridors of power. The sloppy work of the ACA as evidenced by the testimony of senior superintendant Chuah Lay Choo merely adds to my belief.

Further, I simply cannot see how Jayanthi would gain by lying before the Lingam tape royal commission. On the contrary, she runs the risk of being prosecuted. My gut feeling suggests that she felt the best way for her was to simply tell the truth. Alas, life is not so simple.

Malaysia is a nation of laws. I’d guess this is what millions of Malaysians, like me, would want to believe except that the revelation of alleged corrupt conduct by a number of senior judges (which I hope will be proven in due course) has made a mockery of this notion. Being a nation of laws means there must be proof if you make an allegation.

So when I read the testimony that the payment to Jayanthi was in cash, I felt that she had needlessly pinned herself down to a case of ‘he says, she says’ that cannot be proven. I put it this down to yet another example of the feckless performance of legal counsel. Why did her lawyer lead her into a no-win situation? Just for intended public perception of the ACA as a corrupt body?

If that is the aim, counsel must be congratulated. Many are willing to point fingers without proof. Not that I would blame such people. The level of frustration with this government runs extremely high.

Fortunately for Jayanthi though, the deputy public prosecutor was equally feckless for he did not ask her why, assuming the payment was made, would she succumb to an act of corruption (if that was the aspersion she had intended to cast) in an investigation that concerns corruption. That would be quite discomforting, I’d think.

Incidentally, if one reads the report of her testimony closely (assuming her testimony to have been accurately reported), at no time did she say the ACA was trying to bribe her. In fact, she said she does not have an inkling why she was paid! She merely pocketed the cash and signed the voucher.

In her testimony she named three men who had assisted in writing the now infamous RM10 million judgment. I can only hope that she had secretly made an audio recording of the night in question using her Dictaphone or at least that one of the men named would back her story under an immunity from prosecution deal or else it will be another case of ‘she says, they say’.

For the potential criminals in this saga, when the crap hits the fan, it’s time to circle the wagons. That’s what cowboys always do.