PETALING JAYA: The head of electoral reform group Bersih has defended his criticism of Azalina Othman Said over her comments about the appointment of an attorney-general.
Bersih chairman Thomas Fann said Azalina, MP for Pengerang, had insinuated that prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob should have interfered with the Najib Razak corruption case by appointing his choice as AG.
Azalina’s comments were in a speech at a special Umno briefing late last month.
“She never said (for Ismail to interfere) but the implication and the context of that (Umno special briefing) were quite clear,” Fann said in an interview with FMT.
“If I heard it wrong, then so did the 2,000 others at the meeting, as well as the other MPs who criticised her, and the media. ”
Fann also asked why Azalina had resigned (as the prime minister’s special adviser for law and human rights) shortly afterwards.
Azalina, a former law minister, had said that whoever became prime minister would usually “appoint one of their own” to become the attorney-general.
Fann accused Azalina of having apparently changed her stance about splitting the attorney-general’s concurrent roles as legal adviser to the government as well as the public prosecutor.
Fann said Bersih had not changed one bit.
“We (have been) committed to our principles and reforms long before Azalina came along and we are not going to change for anyone,” he said.
Last month, Azalina said her remarks had nothing to do with her stand on the separation of powers and that the AG and public prosecutor must be separate posts.
She said it was not her intention to suggest that a new AG appointee would be manipulated to drop criminal charges against Umno members or arrange for them to be pardoned of all charges. - FMT
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