KUALA LUMPUR, June 29 — Instead of being able to focus on fighting corruption in Malaysia as is her job, Latheefa Koya was today forced to rebut a political party which questioned her ceremonial dress at an official function earlier this week.
The first woman chief of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), Latheefa clarified that she was not wearing medals or any other decoration as alleged, but merely her permitted service ribbon — a small ribbon that is mounted on a metal bar that is generally worn by uniformed officers and is also known as a ribbon bar.
“The bar ribbons [sic] must not be confused with medals or honourary titles awarded from the palaces, whether at the Federal nor State levels,” she said in a statement.
Latheefa added that the service ribbon is in line with the Standing Order of the MACC Chief.
Commissioner, Chapter A (Policy) No 1 of 2012, which directs a chief commissioner to wear a certain number of ribbons bars by virtue of the position.
“The other details on my uniform are the ‘rank badges’ which I must wear as Chief Commissioner, and based upon the standing order,” she added.
The lawyer thanked the “great interest’’ shown by the political party — which she did not name — towards her uniform and admitted that she had just learnt about rank insignias and such decorations permitted in her new professional capacity.
However, she said her immediate priority is to tackle serious corruption cases in Malaysia.
“My immediate priority since taking office has been about several grave corruption cases, and not the details of my uniform,” she said.
Latheefa was appointed as the MACC chief from June 1, a position she will hold for two years.
Although Latheefa did not name the political party, her clarification comes after a news report regarding Umno secretary-general Tan Sri Annuar Musa’s tweet regarding her uniform and comments by Internet users regarding the alleged “medals” on her uniform.
On June 27, Annuar had on Twitter suggested that MACC could possibly detail out the “bintang kebesaran” detail on Latheefa’s official uniform for the sake of the principles of “integrity, accountability and transparency”.
Annuar’s tweet had also attached a tweet by a self-declared Umno and Barisan Nasional-aligned Twitter account, which had questioned Latheefa’s credentials as it raised questions regarding the alleged medals and rank insignia on her uniform.
Mungkin atas prinsip INTEGRITY,ACCOUNTABILITY DAN TRANSPARENCY Badan yg penting ini,SPRM boleh perincikan BINTANG KEBESARAN KP SPRM yg beliau pakai pada PAKAIAN RESMI SPRM https://t.co/8sn96Hebpa
— Annuar Musa (@AnnuarMusa) June 28, 2019
Annuar’s opposition party Umno is one of the 41 respondents of MACC’s forfeiture action via civil lawsuits filed in court last week to claim back money from government-owned investment company 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
Umno at the national level is alleged to have received RM212 million out of the RM270 million that MACC is seeking to recover through these forfeiture actions.
