Is Gani silently defiant?

The former AG's decision to return to law practice makes the reason given for his removal ever more questionable.

COMMENT

Nearly six months after his sudden removal from the office of Attorney-General, Abdul Gani Patail made headlines again last Friday with a report that he had decided to return to legal practice.

As many will remember, he was removed from office in late July, about two months before his official retirement date. The excuse given by the government was that he was in ill health. Around the same time, several other prominent figures were demoted, shuffled off or fired as well, including then Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

Given the timing of Abdul Gani’s removal from office, speculation arose regarding a possible role he may have played in a plot to oust Prime Minister Najib Razak. The speculation was fed by lurid details from bloggers who weaved a story of intrigue and betrayal around a charge sheet Abdul Gani supposedly prepared based upon findings from MACC investigations. Abdul Gani himself kept his silence, but this only added fuel to the burning flames of suspicion.

However, until Friday’s report, the curiosity surrounding Abdul Gani had largely abated because other developments in the drama had drawn attention away from the happenings of the last days of July.

So has he recovered from his ailment? Sure, six months is a long time for recuperation, and many ailments of mind and body can be fixed with that much rest. But would six months be enough for recovery from an ailment so debilitating as to cause his abrupt removal from office? In fact, his dismissal was so sudden that the man himself learned of it only from the news.

Surely, this ailment could not simply have abated in less than six months, leaving the sixty-year-old feeling so rejuvenated that he could decide to return to practising law. The law is an extremely demanding profession, requiring sleepless nights and a lot of running around. Surely, if Abdul Gani’s health was so poor, he would not be in a rush to return to such a high-stress environment and a job that demands extraordinary dedication.

But here we are. Our former AG is about to become a professional lawyer again.

It seems reasonable to assume that his return to working life is an act of defiance. It appears to be a statement about his mental and physical health and what has been said of it. It is a statement that is bound to raise some eyebrows in Putrajaya.

It’s unlikely that Abdul Gani will be prevented from re-entering the practice. It is his right, after all. But all sides will probably be scrutinising him to see if the man around whom so many rumours revolve is for real.

The former AG may not want a fight, but he is not content to go out quietly. Whether this translates to actual action is a fair guess for any of us, but his defiant decision now raises the same questions we all asked when he was dismissed, and the Najib administration does not like those questions.