Witnesses’ lack of cooperation an obstacle in prosecuting offenders
MIRI: Lack of cooperation from key witnesses is among the obstacles faced by the Malaysian AntiCorruption Commission ( MACC) in prosecuting the offenders.
MACC Miri chief Othman Anyan said there were cases of witnesses cooperating with the commission, but when testifying in court, they said their statement was made after being by coerced by MACC.
“Many witnesses refused to be present in court fearing for their safety, and corruption cases are getting very sophisticated these days, involving syndicates,” he said during a half- day seminar and forum ‘ Making Integrity a Community Culture’ run by Pustaka Miri here yesterday.
Othman assured all that under the Witness Protection Law, witnesses of high-profile cases could even request for 24-hour protection from police.
“Be rest assured that not all members of the public reporting corruption cases to MACC are required to testify in court. They can write in without stating their names. All we want is information as we can’t function without information from the public.”
He added MACC personnel upon receiving all information would investigate, adding: “If there’s a case, our staff will testify.”
According to him, MACC now receives more confidence from the public to settle issues such as Native Customary Rights ( NCR) land, government projects, illegal cyber gambling, prostitution and human trafficking.
However, he said MACC viewed seriously the increasing reports on these problems in that it is believed that many have been induced by corruption, and that syndicates have been aggressively committing crimes such as human trafficking and prostitution because they are lucrative businesses.
Besides Othman, three others spoke at the programme, which was moderated by RTM Miri deejay Jude Juda. They were Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) Sarawak Branch’s Control and Compliance Unit head Ahmad Bakhtiar Hamdan, Malaysian Institute of Integrity ( Integriti) president and chief executive office Dr Anis Yusal Yusoff, and local syariah and civil laywer Raihan Usop.
In his presentation, Ahmad Bakhtiar spoke about consumers’ rights, online crimes including cheating, blackmailing, slandering, love scam and ‘sex extortion’.
“Cases of love scam and ‘sex extortion’ are very common, with three to four cases reported on weekly basis.
The recent case involved a widow in Kuching being cheated of RM52,000 by her social media boyfriend, while an air hostess was also cheated by her so- called ‘ Facebook boyfriend’ of almost RM8,000.
“Lonely women are easy targets. Don’t believe in any man no matter how handsome they look on their pictures, as well as friends on social media whom you have never met, especially if they want money from you,” he said.
Raihan, meanwhile, talked about integrity and its close relation to the ‘Rukun Negara’ (Five National Ideals) and other laws of the country.
She said the lack of integrity would not only spur one to be corrupted and irresponsible, but also lead to defamation and slander.