3 months after Pamela Ling vanished, Bloomberg report casts disturbing questions on Azam-led MACC

A new report by Bloomberg on the abduction of a witness extradited from abroad by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) raises questions about the fact that the anti-graft commission did not seek an arrest warrant even after she failed to turn up for questioning on the fateful day.

The report also touched on the question of why Pamela Ling's appointment with MACC scheduled on April 10 was brought forward to April 9, when her e-hailing vehicle was surrounded by a group of individuals in police gear just 10 minutes before her arrival at the MACC headquarters in Putrajaya.

Family members say it "doesn’t make any sense" that MACC did not seek a warrant for Ling's arrest after she went missing, especially when she had been arrested before and slapped with a travel ban.

"You have hunted her, you have watched her every step, you have refused to let her leave this country on the pretext of investigation – the day she disappears you go silent," her family's lawyer Sangeet Kaur Deo told Bloomberg.

"The change in the behaviour of the MACC, going from hunting her to not caring whether she is around, also needs to be explained."

According to Bloomberg, MACC claimed Ling had been asked to come a day early in order for it to investigate her application for a second passport.

The report comes at a time when MACC under its chief commissioner Azam Baki has come under fire for launching a series of politically-charged investigations into enemies of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, which was the subject of an explosive report by Bloomberg last year.

Ling, 42, is the former wife of Sarawak tycoon Hah Tiing Siu. Both have been through a controversial divorce in Singapore and Malaysia involving a substantial fortune.

MACC said it had launched an investigation into graft and money laundering offences involving the couple, adding that Ling had not co-operated. However, in a lawsuit filed two days before her abduction, Ling claimed that MACC was using anti-money laundering law to pressure her to resolve her disputes with her ex-husband.

Among others, she stated that Hah was present during one session she was interrogated by MACC. She also named one Muslimin Chia Abdullah from MACC who "urged them to settle matters so the case could be dropped", said the Bloomberg report.

Three months have passed, but Ling's mysterious disappearance has not sparked the kind of outrage from politicians who had pressured authorities over similar cases in the past, such as the 2009 death of DAP official Teoh Beng Hock hours after he was summoned for questioning, as well as the mysterious abduction of Pastor Raymond Koh and several social and religious activists.

The government at the time had carried an official inquest, and in the case of Teoh, a royal commission of enquiry, although they failed to specifically conclude what transpired or identify the culprits.

What is chilling is that Ling's abduction took place on a busy stretch of highway leading to the MACC headquarters in Putrajaya.

It is reminiscent of how Koh was similarly kidnapped in broad daylight in 2017 by a group of men who stopped his vehicle in Petaling Jaya.

Suspicions of foul play were further fuelled after a Grab driver stepped forward and narrated how Ling was forcibly taken away.

"There were two men and one woman. One man and the woman were wearing uniforms resembling police attire, and the other man wore a vest labelled 'police'. They approached me and said that my passenger was being detained to assist with an investigation based on a police report," he reportedly said, adding that he was ordered to press the "complete trip" button on the e-hailing app.

Added to this are parts of Ling's divorce affidavits containing serious allegations against her ex-husband Hah.

"He said he had 'connections to organised crime and gang leaders in Malaysia, as well as people in powerful positions'," Bloomberg quoted one of the court filings.

Hah did not answer Bloomberg's queries. His lawyer Selva Mookiah also did not respond to questions about the couple's divorce and Hah’s dealings with MACC.

Azam under scrutiny

In its report today, Bloomberg said Ling's "disappearance has increased scrutiny of the MACC" and its chief Azam, whose tenure was "repeatedly extended by Anwar in a break from past precedent".

Azam's handling of Ling's disappearance has come under scrutiny after he reportedly claimed that MACC "never called her with the intent to arrest her".

Sangeet slammed his statement as "patently false" and reminded that MACC had arrested Ling and extradited her to Malaysia.

"For the chief commissioner to deny a matter already in the public record was alarming. It suggests not only indifference but an absence of fear of accountability," she had said last May.

Azam was at the centre of an explosive report by Bloomberg in September last year, in which three informed sources were quoted as saying that he had told his officers that investigations into Dr Mahathir Mohamad and the late Daim Zainuddin were launched on Anwar's instructions.

The sources also claimed that Anwar had told Azam not to investigate his former political secretary Farhash Wafa Salvador over the controversial purchase of shares in a company linked to the development of a new billion-ringgit immigration system.

Despite a police report calling for Anwar to be investigated for abuse of power, authorities have classified the case as "no further action".