Is the Lim Guan Eng case a matter of MACC cherry-picking?
By Zan Azlee

It’s funny how we see the corruption charge against Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng is being debated by the public on social media.

The divide is a three way;

1. The opposition’s die-hard supporters who believe that the Chief Minister is totally innocent and that it is all just a conspiracy theory by the ruling government.
2. The ruling government’s die-hard supporters who believe that the opposition is totally corrupt and are hypocrites for always accusing the ruling party for it.
3. The apparently apolitical supporters who just think that all politicians are dirty and there never is a point to voting anyway.

These three categories of commentators are the most obvious ones and are making the most noise. But there is one small group that I would rather affiliate myself to.

There is a small group that support any form of authoritative monitoring when it comes to to the enforcement of corruption laws and regulations.

However, they have been criticising the fact that the authorities are seem to be giving out the perception that they are cherry-picking the people they want to prosecute.

Just in case, as a backgrounder, let me first explain the basics of the corruption charge that the Chief Minister is facing. The issue has been going for a while now.

He has been accused of being offered a to purchase a house below market price in return for allocating certain projects to certain business people. Hence, corruption.

Of course, a person is innocent until proven guilty so we shouldn’t look at the charge as being an automatic guilty verdict. It does, however, affect perception.

So now back to the issue of cherry-picking.

Why is it that the authorities, in this case the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), find it so easy to bring charges against the Chief Minister over such a matter?

This is questioned against the fact that the biggest corruption scandal in the country, and possibly the world, which is the 1MDB scandal, gets cleared so easily?

How come, despite all the apparent evidence reported in the local and international media, the MACC was so fast in NOT pursuing charges against Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak?

Could this be an issue where the authorities are picking on the mosquito flying in a dark corner of the auditorium rather than the giant elephant sitting right on the stage?

But of course, I can’t really say because I am not involved in the investigation and I for sure do not know if the evidence is actually damning or not.

Maybe the MACC is correct in their decision. But there is that matter of perception. What does the public think and how they see it being handled?

Hey! Maybe that calls for a poll! So here goes…

Do you think that the MACC cherry-picks (whether intentional or not) the cases that they want to pursue?