MANJUNG: Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Saarani Mohamad is ready to cooperate with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) if called to give evidence in connection with the case of fraud on the status of Malay reserve land covering over 600 hectares in 2012.
Saarani said so far he has not received any call from MACC regarding the case.
"(I) Haven't (received a call)... No problem (in giving cooperation)... I will comply. If the MACC calls us to testify, we will testify because I don't know the year, but I was in the Exco of the state government during that entire period.
"Starting in 2004 I was in the state Exco, stopped for a while in 2008, resumed from 2009 until 2018. So if it (the fraud) happened during that period, if you want to call me, I am ready to cooperate with the MACC," he said after attending today's debate for the Report on the Second Year Progress of Perak Sejahtera 2030 (Prosperous Perak 2030 blueprint).
Asked about the development of the state government's status on the land issue, he said the status of the land is still Malay Reserve but it (the land parcels sold) is owned by a non-Malay company.
"If (the land) is to be replaced, PTG (Department of Lands and Mines) is currently increasing the number of Malay reserves. That one (land in dispute) is still Malay reserve status but we are working to increase the number of Malay reserves," he said.
For the record, Saarani had previously been the Exco of the Perak state government holding several portfolios including Chairman of the Rural Development and Plantation Committee; Chairman of the Committee on Information and Human Capital Development, and Chairman of the Committee on Rural Development, Entrepreneur Development, Cooperatives and Consumer Affairs.
Yesterday, MACC Chief Commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki said the commission would likely call several more witnesses to testify in connection with the case of fraud on the status of Malay reserve land covering more than 600 hectares in Perak in 2012.
He said the witnesses included the former Exco of the state government and Perak PTG officers in service at that time.
On April 30 (2024), a former deputy Registrar of Titles of PTG Perak was brought before the Sessions Court in Ipoh on charges of deceiving (the Perak Agricultural Land Board) that land parcels to be sold in the 649.2 hectares in Mukim (district) Sitiawan, Manjung, were not Malay reserve land for the board's approval 12 years ago.
On May 28, a managing director of a real estate company was arrested by the MACC and remanded for three days in connection with the case but was released on May 30.