Thesun 2008-12-23 Page01 Umno Steps Up Probes

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No. 4665 PP 2644/12/2008 (020369)

Tuesday December 23, 2008

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We have not just been working in Kuala Lumpur, we have gone to Sabah and other states to conduct investigations. As it is sometimes difficult to call them to come to Kuala Lumpur, we are willing to go to them to investigate what truly happened.”

by Tan Yi Liang [email protected]

UALA LUMPUR: The Umno Disciplinary Board vehemently denied that it was sitting pretty and delaying its probe on cases of alleged corrupt practices. Its chairman Tan Sri Tengku Ahmad Rithauddeen Tengku Ismail says “we are working on the complaints”. And to show it means business, 11 members were appointed to the board in the past week to speed up investigations and hear cases, bringing the total to 25 members. “I wish to deny the claims in newspaper reports on Dec 19 by Mubarak (the association of former Umno elected representatives) that we are not working,” he said, adding that the statistics proved that the board was working actively to clear all complaints lodged. “The investigations panel has sat 39 times, involving 119 divisions, and the Disciplinary Board Tribunal sat 10 times, involving 25 divisions, and the Appeals Panel sat twice, involving two divisions,” he said. “We have not just been working in Kuala Lumpur, we have gone to Sabah and other states to conduct investigations. As it is sometimes difficult to call them to come to Kuala Lumpur, we are willing to go to them to investigate what truly happened,” he told a press conference at Umno headquarters yesterday to announce the board’s statistics for 2007-2008. Of the 865 complaints received to date, investigations had been conducted on 224, investigations had yet to be started against 93, additional documents were required for 82, no further action would be taken against 133, the disciplinary board had no jurisdiction on 177, no decision had been taken on 151 and five were pending. Fifty people who had complaints against them were called up for investigations and 23 were found guilty. Twenty-six were found not guilty and one had yet to be called. Rithauddeen appealed to party members to complain based only

K

– Tengku Ahmad Rithauddeen

Umno steps up probes on real and not “hearsay” evidence. “We have been accused of many things, that we are not working, practising favouritism and the like. If there are witnesses willing to come forth, bring them forward. We do not want to hear hearsay cases, we want witnesses who were there,” he said. “We also need to see the witness, the way and the manner in which they testify. We must see the demeanour of a witness.” He said the party would expel

members who brought their internal disputes to court as provided by the party constitution. He also announced two suspensions. Pokok Sena division head Datuk Ahmad Lebai Sudin for two years effective Dec 17 for sabotaging the party in the general election. The division’s Wanita member Halimah Hanafi was suspended for three years for lodging a false report. She alleged there was corruption in divisional elections but when called up by the

board, she amended her complaint. Another three were suspended for violating the party’s Code of Ethics. They are former Hulu Langat Umno head Datuk Ahamad Kuris Mohd Nor, who was given a warning after being found guilty of campaigning for a party post in his web blog; and Batu Umno committee members Abdul Kadir Abdul Karim and Remlah Abdul Rahman, who became agents for organising a dinner for the purpose of campaigning.

Malaysian passports misused overseas KOTA KINABALU: Police are cooperating with immigration and Interpol to investigate the misuse of Malaysian passports by irresponsible persons or elements, including terrorists. Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan found this out during an Interpol conference in Russia recently, said Deputy IGP Tan Sri Ismail Omar. “At that recent Interpol conference, they brought up (that) quite a number of Malaysian passports are found to be used by irresponsible people in other parts of the world. “So we are looking into that ... who are the people, if local syndicates are cooperating with international syndicates, what are they doing, what is the objective of the misuse of passports, and how many are involved,” Ismail said after officiating a crime prevention seminar yesterday organised by the Sabah police contingent. He said if the matter was not taken care of, it will give an impression that there were many such syndicates in Malaysia. Asked if the passports involved were genuine, he said: “We don’t have the details. We are working with Interpol to get more accurate data, how many are genuine and how many may be false.” Earlier, in his speech, he said information technology, which had made the world a borderless one, had made crime fighting more challenging. On crime statistics for this year, Ismail said crime was still under control in that the rise in recorded cases was just above 2%. He also said the police force would be increased from 100,000 to 150,000 personnel by 2011. “The number has to be increased to reduce the population to police ratio. In Petaling Jaya, the ratio is one policeman to a few thousands of population ... This is high so it has to be reduced.” – Bernama