PKR communications director Fahmi Fadzil today queried if Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was the first home minister to write a letter to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

 

This comes after former home ministers Syed Hamid Syed Albar and Hishammuddin Hussein denied ever writing a letter to the FBI.

 

“The question that is on everyone’s mind now is Zahid the first home minister to have done so?” Fahmi asked in a statement today.

 

Previously, Zahid had said that his predecessors had also issued similar letters like the one he issued to deny Paul Phua’s involvement with the 14K triad.

 

Fahmi also queried if there was a specific Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for cabinet members to issue such letters.

 

“Does a SOP exist for cabinet ministers to write a letter to any organisation or body on the advice of a lawyer who is not the attorney-general, like the letter that was written by Zahid?” Fahmi inquired.

 

Zahid, who has been receiving flak from various factions in Malaysia for penning the letter, said he wrote it at the request of Phua’s lawyers in US.

 

When the issue gathered publicity in the country, after Zahid’s letter was published, Phua’s lawyer in Malaysia, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, said the minister’s letter was meant to correct a “big mistake” by the Malaysian police regarding Phua.

 

The police in turn defended their findings and denied that Phua had ever assisted them in national security matters, as claimed by Zahid in his letter.

Ironically, Zahid later said that Phua did assist on national security matters, but he refused to divulge any detail, saying the projects were classified "top secret" and protected under the Official Secrets Act.