Public Bank Please Explain Johari Sulaiman's Status

These days, it seems like a trend for a few company employees to provide confidential information on their client's accounts to the opposition, especially PKR for their political interest.

Confidential is not in the sense of manipulation of their account or that sort, but more to keeping the good image of the client that may deter if their information gets to the wrong hands.

To be exact, preserving their professional ethics on customer's information, and this matter is not just applied in Malaysia, it goes the same way around the world.

There was already a case previously when an employee in one of the hotels in Putrajaya, revealed an internal document of the hotel to show the estimated budget of the Prime Minister's daughter's engagement ceremony, that was somehow turned to an issue by PKR saying that the PM had used rakyat's money, when it was actually a false accusation and it was answered by the Prime Minister's Office themselves.

And the latest update, Public Bank got caught in the same trap when one of its clerks (now a former clerk), Johari Sulaiman was used by PKR to reveal the details of National Feedlot Corporation's (NFC) account, when the fact is, such actions had broken the ethics of Banking and Financial Institutions Act 1989 (BAFIA).

Who is Johari Sulaiman and what is his background and role in revealing other's confidential account (in this case, NFC's), still remain as a mystery. If this goes untold, people might run away from Public Bank.

It is true that we do have a little information on Johari Sulaiman, as told by Rafizi in a press conference last Friday, but we all know that it was just a political gimmick that cannot be taken seriously. The important thing here is for Public Bank to come up with a formal statement regarding Johari Sulaiman, especially after Johari claimed that he was pushed by the bank and Bank Negara that had made him resign regarding this issue.

Besides that, Public Bank needs to reveal their find in their Domestic Inquiry that was said to have been done on Johari Sulaiman prior to his resignation.

Writer is certain that Johari Sulaiman was not alone in this. The bank definitely limited their access among employees to clients' information. A regular clerk like Johari Sulaiman might not have the access to everything, writer is convinced that he was assisted and that is what Public Bank needs to explain.

All Public Bank's depositors, especially those from the corporate sector need to know all this because they obviously do not want their information to be 'sold' by the bank's employees to those who are interested. Today it was to PKR, who knows what other competitors would want for their business, as long as the price is right.

At the same time, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) would need to intervine on Johari Sulaiman's financial affairs. From his face, writer somehow doubts that this is is honest in doing his job - if it is true that he he had broken his work ethics for the sake of the public (as if). What writer sees in this matter is that there must have been a hidden agenda or some sort of reward that had caused Johari Sulaiman to gamble everything to become a slave to PKR by leaking every each one of those confidential information.

And that is what MACC, Bank Negara and those who are involved should investigate.

Writer would also like to see Public Bank to file a civil suit against Johari Sulaiman and PKR for revealing and using their client's confidential information for the sake of their narrow political interest. Let that be a lesson for any banks' employees who wants to become like Johari Sulaiman.