KUALA LUMPUR: Kedah Umno has questioned the lack of progress in putting the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) under parliamentary oversight, saying promised institutional reforms should be carried out as soon as possible.
Kedah Umno delegate Datuk Shaiful Hazizy Zainol Abidin said the party had been waiting for the reform, which was among the commitments made during the last election.
“During the election, they said they would carry out reforms. They said they would put the MACC under Parliament.
"What action has been taken now?
“Nothing has been done. We have waited long enough. Reform has become merely a slogan,” he said while debating the party president's policy speech at the World Trade Centre (WTC) on Saturday (Sept 12).
Shaiful Hafizy also questioned why several Umno leaders were repeatedly seen in orange and purple attire after being detained or remanded, saying such images could affect their public image.
"This is political intimidation. It is political harassment. It is an attempt to destroy political opponents by using government institutions," he alleged.
He cited several Kedah Umno leaders, including Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom and Datuk Seri Azeez Abdul Rahim, as examples, noting that both had been probed, subsequently detained and appeared in the coloured prison attire.
"The same people who were once imprisoned, slapped around and humiliated, and who themselves once complained about being oppressed, are now using enforcement agencies to pressure their political opponents.
"Kedah Umno proposes that the MACC be renamed the 'PKRM', because it is being used so obviously and openly as a political weapon by those in power to destroy the character and image of their political opponents," he added.
