by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Penang on Thursday, May 14, 1994:
IGP Tan Sri Rahim Noor should publicly apologise if he could not substantiate his public statement in early February that the Police had found basis in the allegation that ASIS had bribed Malaysian politicians
The Inspector General of Police, Tan Sri Rahim Noor, said yesterday that. the Malaysian Police had been denied permission by the Australian Government to interview editors and reporters of two newspapers which had alleged that the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) had paid thousands of dollars to bribe Malaysian politicians – both from Opposition and the Government, especially UMNO.
Tan Sri Rahim Noor said the Australian stand was conveyed by Interpol, whom the Malaysian police had contacted for co-operation in their investigations.
Rahim said that in the light of Australia’s refusal, the police would have to decide whether to pursue their investigations or drop the matter altogether.
He said: “We are now studying the legal aspects before making a decision.”
In early February, Tan Sri Rahim Noor publicly said preliminary police investigations showed that there was basis in the the first Australian report by the Sydney Sunday Telegraph which alleged that ASIS had bribed Opposition politicians.
However, when the second Australian report in the Canberra Times report appeared a few days later, clarifying that ASIS had bribed Government and UMNO politicians rather than Opposition politicians, there has been no further statement from Rahim Noor about the police having found ‘basis’ to the Australi¬an mass media reports.
If Tan Sri Rahim Noor cannot substantiate his early February statement that preliminary police investigations had found ‘basis’ in the Australian mass media allegations about ASIS bribery, then he should publicly apologise for his unfounded statement.
The All-Party Parliamentary Committee on Parliamentary Integrity and National Honour which was formed to investigate into the allegations which had been made against Malaysian politicians and MPs had twice invited Tan Sri Rahim Noor to their meetings to give a briefing on the preliminary police investigations which had found ‘basis’ in the Australian newspaper allega¬tions.
Tan Sri Rahim had failed to turn up at both meeting¬ of the All-Party Parliamentary Committee on Parliamentary Integrity and National Honour, on the ground that he had prior engagements.
The All-Party Parliamentary Committee on Parliamentary Integrity and National Honour at its latest meeting had decided to ask Tan Sri Rahim to fix a date and time when he had no ‘prior engagement’ where lie could give a briefing about his statement that the police had found from preliminary, investigations that there was ‘basis’ to the Australian newspaper allegations.
Tan Sri Rahim should fix a date and time to appear before the All-Party Parliamentary Committee on Parliamentary Integrity and National Honour to produce the ‘basis’ as found from preliminary police investigations, or he should publicly apologise to MPs and politicians – for casting aspersions on their honour and integrity.