DAP national chairman Lim Kit Siang said today that the Anti-Corruption Agency should stay out of the investigations into the Telekom kickbacks scandal as it has lost all public confidence.

"Malaysians do not know whether the ACA will be investigating or covering up the allegations," Lim said. "Let an independent commission of inquiry be established to conduct a thorough investigations into the scandal."

Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun had reported last Friday that Mitsui paid RM10.64 million kickback to Telekom Malaysia via a consultant firm in Malaysia that turned out to be a dummy company in order to secure a contract to supply switchboards.

The daily added that Mitsui registered the kickbacks, paid in 1997 to the Malaysian agent under a consultant contract as "commissions" which were construed as "losses", but the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau determined that the payments were rewards for the orders and were categorised as taxable "entertainment fees".

Lim also proposed that all correspondence between Mitsui and the taxation bureau on the alleged kickbacks be tabled in Parliament for debate. He also suggested that Mitsui senior executives should appear before a Parliament committee to answer the allegations.

It has been reported that a senior executive from Mitsui will be arriving in Kuala Lumpur today to assist the ACA in its investigations into the scandal.

Lim also noted that the ACA, over the past four days, had been very tight-lipped about the Asahi Shimbun report. The ACA, he said, had been used for "ulterior purposes".

"Malaysians can still remember that immediately after former Bank Negara assistant governor Abdul Murad Khalid made public his statutory declaration that former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim had amassed a fortune of RM3 billion while in government through 20 master accounts, the ACA swung into immediate action and announced the setting up of a special team to investigate into Murad's allegations against Anwar," Lim said.

ACA director-general Ahmad Zaki Hussin said then that "almost every paragraph" of Murad's seven-page statutory declaration contained some information on corruption or corruption practices.

According to Lim, Anwar, now under detention at Sungai Buloh prison, had not been interviewed by the ACA since Murad made his allegations.

Lim also noted that Energy, Communication and Multimedia Minister Leo Moggie announced yesterday that his Ministry had asked the ACA to investigate the kickbacks allegations.

"The ACA cannot inspire any public confidence when it could only initiate action to fight corruption after it has got the green light by the government, showing that it has no independence or professionalism whatsoever," Lim said.