THE offer to head the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission came out of the blue, said Latheefa Koya, who admitted she would have turned it down if she had been given more time to think about it.

“I can’t get into details but this was out of the blue for me. When the offer came, I was given a short time to think.  

“If I had been given time to think too much, I may have turned it down. But I had to take this up, I had no choice,” she told The Malaysian Insight in jest at the MACC headquarters in Putrajaya.

It has been just slightly more than a month since the appointment and Latheefa is wasting no time in getting to know everything about the anti-graft agency.

She came into the interview after an internal briefing – the latest she had attended in her short time at MACC.

Latheefa said she did not meet Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad prior to the appointment but met him briefly after her appointment was announced. The prime minister had just returned from his three-day visit to the United Kingdom.

“He reminded me of my powers (as the MACC chief) and told me that I need to know how to use my powers.

“He also reminded me of the big task I have ahead of me,” she said.

In that short meeting, she was surprised at how much Dr Mahathir knew about her, she said.

“It was a very short meeting. He seemed to have known of me or about me. He had done his research. It’s quite a thing, I’m still trying to grasp what happened.”

When asked if Dr Mahathir told her to look into any specific case, the former activist said “no”.

“He never mentioned any specific cases to me.”

Latheefa was impressed with the inner workings at MACC, especially on investigative matters, adding that she was surprised at how much work and detail go into an investigation to make a case air-tight.

“It’s pretty interesting how much of work and how much detail go into it to make sure information is verified.

“If MACC catches you, they will not bring you to court unless they have a strong case against you. It’s that kind of standard that they have,” she said.

Latheefa, a human rights activist and former director for Lawyers for Liberty (LFL), said human rights and corruption are intertwined as corruption leads to abuse of human rights as well.

“This is different from what I’ve been doing as a lawyer and doing human rights cases. There are a lot of different perspectives.  

“Graft-busting is intertwined with human rights. Without dealing with corruption, a lot of human rights are trampled and denied. I’m able to reconcile with the work that I’m doing with MACC.

“Like understanding that a corruption-free society is intertwined with human rights.”

When asked about her first day at work, Latheefa said it was like going back to school as all the departments gave her presentations every day.

“It was amazing. I was given explanations every day to brief me on what’s going on and I had to ask a lot of questions. It’s huge!”

Latheefa was appointed as the new MACC chief on June 4, replacing Mohd Shukri Abdull, who requested that his contract be shortened from its full tenure, which was supposed to end on May 17 next year. – July 9, 2019.