Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) president Dr Sim Kui Hian said the party will not force its deputy president Richard Riot Jaem to go on leave.

This is after Riot (centre in photo) was called up by the MACC yesterday to assist investigations regarding allegations that RM40 million was misappropriated from Skills Development Fund Corp (PTPK) funds.

“MACC is still investigating. If proven guilty, we will take definitive action.

“But if not guilty, I may be punishing people wrongly,” Sim said today at the SUPP headquarters, as reported by Borneo Post.

He was responding to calls from the opposition for Riot, who is also the human resources minister, to take leave following his visit to the MACC headquarters.

Sim also said that opposition parties themselves do not ask their members to take leave when they are being investigated by the authorities, referring to an MACC investigation into an “opposition leader” in Penang.

“That is double standard. When their own people are being investigated or charged at court, they would say it is politically motivated and would not ask the person to take leave from his post,” he said.

Riot spent about 10 hours at the MACC headquarters in Putrajaya to assist in their investigations yesterday, from 10am to about 8pm.

The day before that, his 61-year-old political secretary was remanded for six days to assist in the probe into the case, which has also seen four other arrests.

The others arrested are PTPK’s chief executive, secretary, assistant financial officer and a director. All the suspects allegedly collaborated with the company’s director to siphon off government allocations over the last two years.