How the hunter became the hunted

Posted By: Raja Petra

Soon after Ramli was suspended, ‘Tengku’ Goh, the underworld kingpin of the prostitution, drugs, gambling and loan-sharking syndicate was quietly released from detention. It makes one wonder if this is the real crux of the matter, the detention of ‘Tengku’ Goh, which was initiated by Ramli much to the displeasure of the IGP, the patron of the underworld.

In our previous article on 29 January 2008, Keystone Cops galore, we spoke about how the one-time Director of the Commercial Crime Division, Ramli Yusuff, was charged for flying around the Sabah jungles in a small police plane. Considering all the Ministers do the same and have thus far never been charged for ‘abuse of power’ or ‘corruption’, it makes one wonder whether this is a legitimate charge or just an excuse to get rid of Ramli.

In fact, the Prime Minister and his entire family and retinue of friends take overseas holidays -- which are therefore private visits -- using a government-owned Airbus. In the old days, Tunku Abdul Rahman would take six months leave without pay just to campaign for the general elections. And they say the Tunku is not as Islamic as Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Ramli was further charged for not declaring 20,000 Telekom Malaysia shares that he owns. When he made his asset declaration in August 2007, he had not yet purchased those shares. He purchased them the month after the asset declaration was made. The asset declaration was for the period 1970 until August 2007 and the Anti-Corruption Agency could not find anything incriminating in the statement of accounts the thickness of an Encyclopaedia that was submitted.

Initially, some ‘sources’ leaked information to the media that Ramli was being investigated for amassing assets worth RM27 million. The impression they tried to create was that he had illegally acquired these assets. Nothing was mentioned about the investigation being about non-declaration of assets and not for illegally acquiring them.

Only the ACA knew about this investigation and, under the Anti-Corruption Act, any ACA investigation is confidential and even the one being investigated is prohibited from talking about it. Furthermore, ACA investigation papers are stamped RAHSIA so they come under the Official Secrets Act. So, two laws were violated when these ‘sources’ leaked the facts of this case to the media.

Anyway, soon after Ramli was suspended, ‘Tengku’ Goh, the underworld kingpin of the prostitution, drugs, gambling and loan-sharking syndicate was quietly released from detention. It makes one wonder if this is the real crux of the matter, the detention of ‘Tengku’ Goh, which was initiated by Ramli much to the displeasure of the IGP, the patron of the underworld.

The one-time Deputy Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, was charged for sodomising his driver in an apartment building that did not exist yet. When they realised their error, they amended the date of the charge to a time when the building had been completed. But then, on that second date, the driver was no longer in his employment so Anwar could not have sodomised a driver he did not have. So, yet again, they amended the date of the charge to a time when both the building was standing as well as the driver was still in his employment.

But they still could not pinpoint the date the sodomy act was supposed to have occurred. So, instead of proving that Anwar did in fact commit sodomy, they chose 90 days from 1 January to 31 March when the sodomy act PROBABLY could have taken place and then they made Anwar prove that it did not happen. The onus, therefore, was on Anwar to prove he DID NOT commit the crime instead of on the investigator and prosecutor to prove that he did, as what would normally be required in a criminal indictment.

And, today, this chief investigator and chief prosecutor in the Anwar case are the reigning Chief of Police (IGP) and Attorney-General (AG) respectively, the same two people who are putting Ramli out to dry.

Let us talk about the date discrepancy in Ramli's case, just like what happened in Anwar’s case. We have already addressed the issue of the 20,000 Telekom Malaysia shares. Ramli did not fail to declare them in his August 2007 asset declaration. He purchased them the month after the asset declaration was made. Now, on 17 July 2007, the month before the asset declaration, Ramli received a letter from the Pendakwa Raya of the Anti-Corruption Agency saying that he is being investigated for a crime as per ACA report number 098/2007. The ACA letter can be viewed below.

ACA report number 098/2007 was made by Azmi Ismail on 2 April 2007. The ACA report number 098/2007 can be viewed below.

According to Azmi’s ACA report, he said he SUSPECTS Ramli has committed an act of corruption based on another ACA report number 075/2007 made by Fikri Ab. Rahim on 8 March 2007. The ACA report number 075/2007 can be viewed below.

Now, what does ACA report number 075/2007 have to say since this whole case seems to rest on this first report?

Fikri said in his ACA report number 075/2007 that he has received information that between 1996 and 2006 a few police officers in Bukit Aman and in Perak received bribes from someone named Moo Sai Chin to settle a murder case.

Now, Ramli was never in Perak and he was never in charge of any murder investigation. Furthermore, no names were mentioned in Fikri’s ACA report but it can be assumed that it implicates those officers linked to the murder investigation, which was not Ramli. Fikri just said that he received information that certain police officers were believed to have received bribes. Since this report is vague and could have meant anybody, they conveniently picked this report up and linked Ramli to it.

Note the serial numbers of the ACA reports. The serial number of the 075/2007 report is 030348 while the serial number of the 098/2007 report is 030353. And both reports were made at the same place about one month apart. 23 reports later, the serial numbers moved only five places. And while everything has been typed, the number of the 075/2007 report is hand-written. Just that one item, the report number, has been hand-written.

What shoddy work. I don’t know about you but I certainly smell a rat. Another mattress in and out of court maybe? That is certainly reminiscent of what happened ten years ago in 1998 during Anwar Ibrahim’s trial that involved the same two people who are going for Ramli Yusuff’s throat.

Ramli's reply to this entire fiasco can be read in the 'Statement Under Oath' below.