Eric Chia must be investigated pertaining to the Perwaja corruption case as Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has said that the Swiss authorities are willing to co-operate during his recent visit to Switzerland.

We all know that the Swiss have expressed their willingness to co-operate even before the visit. Mahathir was just trying to delay the case in the hope that Malaysians, who have short memory, will forget about this serious case.

Come to think of it, his sudden resignation threat at the close of the Umno general assembly recently could be designed to side-track Malaysians from this case or was he trying to force Umno to not bring up this and other cases which he has tried to cover up?

Malaysians must all demand that before Mahathir goes, he has to resolve all the corruption cases which involved him or those he tried to cover up for his cronies who include Daim Zainuddin, International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz, Transport Minister Dr Ling Liong Sik, Works Minister S Samy Vellu, and many more including a former Chief Justice.

Premier-in-waiting Abdullah Ahmad Badawi must put his foot down firmly, open up all these cases again and resolve them once and for all. He must also insist that the current chief justice's term be extended when he is due for retirement this year. We have to bring back the old glory we had when the justice system was very independent, before the sacking of former Lord President Salleh Abas.

We hope that Abdullah will also put in place a system where all the appointments of important posts like the Chief Justice, Anti-Corruption Agency chief, Attorney-General, police chief and others be done by an independent committee and not just one person, as it is being done now by Mahathir alone.