After years of research, a bill to separate the roles of attorney-general and public prosecutor will be up for debate in Parliament this Tuesday.
However, the constitutional amendment in its current form may not receive enough support to pass if the government does not make any changes.
Ten PKR MPs have signalled that they would be withholding their support for the bill if the government does not - among others - introduce a clause that would allow Parliament to vet public prosecutor candidates.
The bill at present recommends that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong appoint the public prosecutor at his discretion, after receiving advice from the Judicial and Legal Service Commission - a body whose chair the prime minister appoints.
The group also raised concerns about the proposed seven-year tenure for the public prosecutor.
The government has 153 MPs on its side, and needs 148 votes to pass a constitutional amendment.
This means that if the 10 PKR lawmakers hold their ground should Putrajaya try to bulldoze the bill without amendments, it would not pass.
Stance unchanged
When contacted, one of the 10 lawmakers, Pasir Gudang MP Hassan Karim, indicated that his stance remains unchanged.
"In principal I support the separation bill. I will debate and state several weaknesses that a Parliamentary Special Select Committee (PSSC) needs to review.
"I hope the bill will be postponed; there's no need to rush. But if the government still wants to bulldoze it, I will make a final consideration during the vote," he told Malaysiakini.
Besides the group of PKR MPs, Malaysiakini was made to understand that some DAP lawmakers are also working behind the scenes to improve the bill.
"We are doing what we can internally," an MP who declined to be named told Malaysiakini.
Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) M Kulasegaran is a DAP MP.
However, the DAP MPs Malaysiakini contacted did not indicate whether or not they would withhold support for the bill if the government attempts to push it through without amendments.
The government will not be able to count on opposition support, as they too have called for the bill to be refined.
Perikatan Nasional chief whip Takiyuddin Hassan said the government had merely "copy-pasted" articles concerning the attorney-general to the public prosecutor, while failing to address the problem of an official wielding vast powers to initiate, conduct, or discontinue criminal proceedings without accountability.
Improvements needed
The PSSC that oversees reforms had on Thursday said while it supported the bill's intent, it should be sent to the committee for improvements.
A letter expressing this stand had been sent to Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Azalina Othman Said.
So far, neither Azalina nor the government has responded to calls for them to pump the brakes on the bill.
The last time a constitutional amendment failed to pass was in 2019, when the government at the time failed to get enough support for a bill that was intended to restore Sabah and Sarawak as equal partners to the peninsula.
This is after the Gabungan Parti Sarawak bloc abstained from voting, following the government's refusal to send the bill to a PSSC for refinement.
The current administration, however, has shown more willingness to send legislation back for review when opposition to it is clear.
The Federal Territories Mufti Bill has been on ice since 2024 after objections from rulers; while the Urban Renewal Act has been postponed twice to be reworked. - Mkini
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