YOURSAY | ‘It looks like we have to be satisfied with ikan bilis. Pass the kicap, please.’

Big fish in bauxite scandal? MACC has no qualms netting them

Vijay47: Reading your statement, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) director of investigations Azam Baki, one would have expected to feel some relief and assurance that MACC is finally executing its responsibilities as it should.

But I can only feel more despair and disappointment. You almost seem to be justifying your so-far limited scope of action and even appear to be throwing a lifeline to those involved.

You are holding that "considering the extent of the damage they had caused", the ikan bilis are actually sharks.

What the small fry were doing was simply petty theft on a large scale - selling procedural forms at grossly hiked-up prices hardly counts as robbing Fort Knox. What are you doing about those who actually did rob the bank?

Those at the higher end of the pecking order who approved dodgy schemes with dubious reasons, can you imagine what they must be making?

You say that "there was little or no proper guidelines". Then under what law are you going to charge them, what law have they broken? Isn't this the very basis upon which an entire family of cattle rustlers were let off the hook?

You state that state revenue did not seem to matter to the officers concerned, that there were leakages in the royalty collected. This must have been a gold mine to all those concerned. I grant that documents would be cooked to show lower extraction.

However, at the importing end - China - I believe, more accurate figures would be reflected as the user of the bauxite would not want to lose out on the expenses to be claimed.

Have you commenced a state-to-state request from the Chinese authorities for the necessary information which I am sure would be present in bilateral agreements Malaysia would have with China?

Perhaps this is under consideration just as the repatriation of Altantuya Shaariibuu’s convicted murderer Sirul Azhar Umar from Australia and Najib Abdul Razak's suit against the Wall Street Journal are.

More frighteningly, you "could not get anything from the state authorities"! Are you serious? MACC has no power to lob a few guys into jail right now for failure to provide due cooperation to be followed up with further corruption charges?

It looks like we have to be satisfied with a diet of ikan bilis, after all. Pass the kicap, please.

Bamboo: Bauxite mining is not some small-time activity which is undetectable. After more than one year of dusty roads and bare lands, and recently red river and red sea, the activity must have received the blessing of the powers-that-be, that is, the state government and relevant government departments.

I guess all of them are allegedly in this 'extra income' scheme together. The arrest of the land office officers is just an eyewash to placate the public.

Unless MACC shows some real teeth over the RM2.6 billion ‘donation’, we are not impressed with the arrests of these ikan bilis. Sorry, the show is just not convincing.

Anonymous_1375701728: MACC, corruption is a daily occurrence in this country at all levels. Till now only a few 'small fries' are being hauled up.

Don’t tell me that the authorities in Kuantan have no eyes. Did they not see the town turning red just like Cameron Highlands being deforested for vegetable farming?

The goings-on are as clear as daylight. In the Cameron Highlands fiasco, poor G Palanivel was blamed. I wonder if the new environment minister will be hauled up for this?

Anonymous #63753867: MACC, has anyone, big or small, been found guilty in the Proton Perdana maintenance fiasco across all states before 2008?

Then there were two adulterers/China doll lovers from Perak who were caught with hard cash. What happened to them?

Were any Umno/MCA politician convicted over the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) rip-off of RM12 billion? They allegedly got rid of former MCA chief Ong Tee Keat instead, for investigating the matter.

Appum: That's how Umno typically runs a state and the country. Anything goes as far as money can be on the take and can be earned. Where is accountability, transparency and responsibility?

Look at all the Auditor-General's Reports on leakages and unaccountable losses and over-runs? It repeats every year and nobody is responsible.

Even big money like RM2.6 billion is not accounted for, how do we expect the smaller fish to be bothered about being careful?

They believe if the big fish can eat, surely they can eat, too. Something like ‘you take care of me, I take care of you’.

P Dev Anand Pillai: Please stop belittling and ridiculing yourselves, MACC.

A former senior prosecutor seconded to you from the Attorney-General's Chambers was murdered and you have just accepted that and not tried to dig deeper to find the truth, and now you expect us to believe that you will be going after the big fishes?

Oh come on, this is Malaysia. The land where big fishes rule, they will get you before you can ever get them.

The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. Over the past one year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now .

These comments are compiled to reflect the views of Malaysiakini subscribers on matters of public interest. Malaysiakini does not intend to represent these views as fact.