Amend constitution to hold AG accountable - Kit Siang

 

DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang said the Kuala Lumpur High Court judgment in former attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali’s defamation suit against him has highlighted the need for a constitutional amendment to hold the attorney-generals accountable for their decisions while in office.

“The judgment in the Apandi (above) defamation suit against me showed that we have in Apandi the worst attorney-general in Malaysian history and the need for a constitutional amendment to make the attorney-general accountable and responsible for his decisions if one-quarter of MPs demand in a substantive motion to review his decision in Parliament.

“For this to become a reality, both the Federal Constitution and the Dewan Rakyat Standing Orders have to be amended,” Lim said in a statement today.

On May 23, the Kuala Lumpur High Court dismissed Apandi’s defamation suit against Lim, ruling that Lim was justified in his statement urging Apandi to answer why he had absolved former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak of the 1MDB affair in 2016.

Lim today said judge Azimah Omar had addressed the “non-justiciable” and “non-reviewable” authority of the attorney-general in her 100-page judgment for the defamation suit.

DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang

The judge said Apandi had relied on the court decision in the Bar Malaysia v Peguam Negara Malaysia & Anor (2016) case to contend that nobody may scrutinise or question his actions and prerogatives during his tenure.

However, Azimah said Apandi’s reliance on that case is “sorely misplaced” as the judicial review was decided on a technicality and was never decided on its merits.

She also said the non-justiciability or non-reviewability of the attorney-general’s prerogatives is “by no means any bar of restraint against public scrutiny, dialogue, investigation or commentary” and that he cannot “fashion this decision as suit and armour to reign supreme and to act with impunity”.

Lim said other points raised by Azimah in her judgment further showed that Apandi is the worst attorney-general in the history of Malaysia.

The points he referred to are Apandi’s “perplexingly magnanimous decision to absolve and exonerate Najib and to prefer the fantastical narrative of an unproven donation”, Apandi’s “audacity to close investigations although not having properly confirmed any actual particulars and evidence of the fantastical donation by the unnamed Saudi royalty, and while being aware that RM42 million was transferred into Najib’s personal account from SRC’s account”, and finally, Apandi’s “baffling refusal either to accept or offer mutual legal assistance from the Swiss attorney-general and the US Department of Justice to investigate the 1MDB scandal”. - Mkini