After MACC Grilling over Mindef Land Swap Deals, Hisham Says Probe All Ex-Defence Ministers

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Former defence minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein was grilled for hours by graft busters yesterday over the land swap deals involving the Defence Ministry (Mindef).

The Sembrong MP arrived at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) headquarters at Putrajaya at 11am yesterday and only emerged at 6pm.

“I have given full cooperation to MACC, as it is important to help them find the truth to the matter.

“And I have done so without fear or favour.

“If they need to speak with me again, I will not hesitate to come, even if it means spending seven hours here,” he said before leaving the MACC headquarters.

Hishammuddin said he was not sure if he would be called up again to be questioned.

“You’ll have to ask MACC, but I’m ready anytime to get to the bottom of this,” he said.

Hishammuddin, who was the defence minister between 2013 and 2018, however, added that MACC should not be selective in its probe on the matter.

He said the anti-graft body should also question previous defence ministers who had involvement in the deals.

“If you want to talk about the land swap case, make sure you talk about all 16 land swaps.

“Out of the 16 land swap deals, only one, in Paloh, was during my ministership.

“What is so special about mine? Who actually benefited from these deals?

“I have stated categorically that I didn’t earn a single sen from any of the land swaps,” he said.

“If you want to talk about procedure, let’s see what was the procedure used by the previous leadership, either by the then prime minister or minister of defence. 

“Let’s see who the culprits are. Let’s see who is at wrong because we want to get to the truth. 

“If I’m guilty, then charge me. But don’t charge me alone. We want justice and not selective prosecution,” he told reporters. 

Hishamuddin was defence minister from 2013 to 2018.

Last February, Mindef revealed that the government had lost more than RM500 million in land swap deals since 1997.

On May 17, the ministry handed over 14 reports on the alleged dubious land swap, after surrendering two reports earlier.

The reports were the findings of the Governance, Procurement and Finance Investigating Committee that had investigated 16 deals involving 1,183ha of land belonging to Mindef.

Besides the land value, the cost of the projects was estimated at RM4.88 billion.

Findings on one of the audit reports stated that a former prime minister and former defence ministers were found to have been clearly involved in the land swap deal for the development of the Muara Tuang and Penrissen camps in Sarawak.

Datuk Seri Najib Razak was prime minister and Ahmad Zahid was defence minister at the time.

On the purchase of six helicopters worth over RM300 million by the ministry in 2015, Hishammuddin said it was not raised by MACC yesterday.

“I have given my answer over the case of the helicopters and I have nothing to hide. What is wrong is wrong and if it involves my previous officers, I won’t obstruct,” he said.

On June 13, the Defence Ministry lodged a report with MACC on the purchase of six helicopters worth over RM300 million in 2015 which the Malaysian Armed Forces had not received until today.

According to media reports, the light combat MD530G helicopter manufactured by McDonnell Douglas of the United States was supposed to have been received in two phases, namely, two in July 2017 and the rest in December 2018.