PETALING JAYA: Council of Eminent Persons chairman Tun Daim Zainuddin (pic), along with another CEP member, supports the release of a 100-day report. In it are recommendations that was prepared by the council.
“I will release it. Release it to the public but that is not for me to decide. I was asked to chair the meetings and get the information, facts, analyse and make the recommendations. That is my role and I shouldn’t go beyond that,” he told The Star in an interview yesterday.
“I like to share information and debate so that you get the best.
“But there is information in the report that rightly is under Official Secrets Act (OSA).
“We always need feedback from the rakyat, what they are not happy about and what the government is not doing right. This feedback is very important as in the end, we have to solve their problems.”
The call for the full release of the report has grown louder in recent days with Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Azmin Ali admitting that the report was not a matter of national security.
The report was prepared during the first 100 days of the Pakatan Harapan government after defeating Barisan Nasional at the 14th general election.
Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mohamed Hanipa Maidin said the report had been classified under the OSA and was not for public consumption.
“It was submitted to the Prime Minister and the government has no intention to make the findings public,” he said in reply to a supplementary question from Wong Kah Woh during Question Time in Parliament on Thursday.
Daim said the report was prepared for Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and the purpose of forming the CEP was to calm investors and markets as the Cabinet had not been formed then.
“Before that, no one thought Barisan was going to lose – even investors. They, the investors, want continuity and suddenly this happened. The PM wanted to calm the markets,” he said.
“We were given 100 days to get all the information, which we did. We submitted (recommendations on) about 70 topics. We briefed the PM and some of it were highly technical. In the end, it is up to the government (to release the CEP report).”
Professor Jomo Kwame Sundram, a member of the CEP, now agreed that the report should be made public. He had reservations earlier as he felt there were legal and diplomatically sensitive matters. These are no longer present.
Jomo: There were sensitive issues but not anymore
PETALING JAYA: Prof Dr Jomo Kwame Sundram, who is part of the five-member Council of Eminent Persons (CEP), says its findings should be made public.
The economist said although he had earlier voiced his reservations because there were legally and diplomatically sensitive issues involved, these were not part of the report finalised by the CEP that was headed by Tun Daim Zainuddin.
“I agree to it being published.
“My earlier concerns were because of legally or diplomatically sensitive matters, which are not there anymore,” he said.
Jomo’s latest comments were in contrast to his statements last August when he said the 100-day report was never meant to be published for the public.
“We never wrote it with the intention of getting it published.
“Our intention was always to provide advice to the Prime Minister and we expected him to, in turn, share it with the relevant ministers – and then they will make the decisions.
“Some of the items are sensitive.
“The government must be capable of getting advice, which not everyone (is privy to).
“There are many things which are very delicate.
“Information can be abused,” Jomo explained then.
Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mohamed Hanipa Maidin, who said on Wednesday that the report had been classified under the Official Secrets Act, said he was not privy to the report.
“It is with the Prime Minister. He alone has the privilege to it,” said Hanipa.
THE STAR
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