Constitution has to be amended to separate powers of AG and PP

The government needs to amend the Federal Constitution in order to separate the office of the attorney-general (AG) from the public prosecutor, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Liew Vui Keong said.

"This can (only) be implemented with the amendment of the relevant Article of Federal Constitution," he said in a parliamentary written reply dated Aug 1.

And getting the amendment, as promised by Pakatan Harapan in its election manifesto, passed needs the support of two-thirds of the Members of Parliament, Liew said in the reply to Wee Ka Siong (BN-Ayer Hitam).

Currently, Harapan does not command two-thirds majorities in either the Dewan Rakyat or the Dewan Negara.

Harapan controls 116 parliamentary seats in Dewan Rakyat. Warisan and GPS, which support the ruling coalition, have eight and 19 seats respectively.

This will only add up to 143 seats if Warisan and GPS back Harapan on the matter, which is still five seats short for the votes of 148 MPs required to pass the amendment.

In the Dewan Negara, there are currently 51 senators out of 70 available seats, with 28 of them from BN.

"The attorney-general has the power, exercisable at his discretion, to institute, conduct or discontinue any proceeding for an offence," Liew said.

"Section 376 of the Criminal Proceeding Code states that the attorney-general shall be the public prosecutor and shall have the control and direction of all criminal prosecutions and proceedings under this Code," he said.

Wee asked why the attorney-general still acted as public prosecutor, instead of the powers being separated, as pledged in Harapan's election manifesto.

Harapan said in its manifesto that there would be an inherent conflict of interest if the attorney-general serves as the public prosecutor as well because the government is like a “client” of the attorney-general.

Harapan said that this was in line with the practice in many countries, like Malaysia, which have adopted the Westminster system. - Mkini