DPM displeased by Rahim Noor's appointment as peace facilitator

Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail is displeased by the move to appoint a former inspector-general of police as the southern Thailand peace process facilitator.

However, she said, the appointment was the prerogative of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

"When he (Mahathir) asked me, I did tell him (I was displeased), but I said it was his prerogative," Wan Azizah said in a pre-recorded interview with the radio station BFM, which was aired this morning.

She added that Mahathir chose Rahim because of his experience in dealing with communist insurgents.

"Whoever is chosen, they have to deliver," she said.

Previously, Wan Azizah's daughter Nurul Izzah Anwar had called the former top police officer (photo) a "brutal assaulter of an innocent man" in reference to him assaulting her father Anwar Ibrahim in 1998.

Bersatu strategist Rais Husin also agreed with Nurul Izzah, while former Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin described the appointment as a “black eye” for Malaysia.

Following this, former minister Zainuddin Maidin defended Rahim, praising the latter's contribution to the nation as a police officer.

Rahim, on the other hand, said Nurul Izzah's response was expected but stressed that the “past is past”.

The former police chief told Malaysiakini that he was chosen for the peace facilitator role based on his experience.

“What happened at that time was the past (black eye incident).

"In my opinion, it was irrelevant for her (Nurul Izzah) to link my appointment with what had happened then, unless the decision to appoint me as the peace process facilitator was objected by Thai authorities or the Mara Pattani group,” Rahim added. - Mkini