Anwar, PH only pay ‘lip service’ about rule of law, says Zaid

 

Former law minister Zaid Ibrahim lamented the Bar Council’s refusal to participate in the task force’s inquiry.

PETALING JAYA: Zaid Ibrahim has questioned Anwar Ibrahim’s commitment to the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary given his failure to state his stand on the findings of a special task force investigating a controversial book written by former attorney-general (AG) Tommy Thomas.

This comes after a special task force investigating the book identified multiple legal infractions involving Thomas and former Pakatan Harapan (PH) prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad during the opposition coalition’s 22-month stint in power between 2018 and 2020.

“Anwar Ibrahim’s deafening silence in the wake of such damning findings shows that PH only pays lip service about upholding the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary,” the former law minister told FMT.

Zaid said startling revelations contained in Thomas’ memoir showed a penchant on PH’s part “to manipulate the justice system for nefarious gain”.

He pointed to findings made in the report which concluded that Mahathir and Thomas had run afoul of the Judicial Appointments Commission Act, 2009 (Act 695) by deciding on their own who would occupy the top four positions in the judiciary.

“By law, the task of selection is vested in the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC), not the prime minister, and certainly not the AG,” said Zaid.

The report cited a passage from the book in which Thomas said that Mahathir and he had “agreed” in June 2018 on the appointment of Richard Malanjum as Chief Justice, Ahmad Maarop as President of the Court of Appeal (PCA), Zaharah Ibrahim as Chief Judge (CJ) (Malaya) and Wong Dak Wah as Chief Judge (Sabah and Sarawak).

This was despite the JAC nominating different judges for three of the four posts, namely, Azahar Mohamed as Chief Justice, Rohana Yusuf as PCA, and Abdul Rahman Sebli as the CJ (Sabah and Sarawak).

“Mahathir and Thomas broke the law by completely disregarding the candidates recommended by the JAC in 2018,” said Zaid.

Zaid noted that within a week after the judges identified by Mahathir and Thomas were appointed, the trial judge for Najib’s SRC trial was removed and replaced by justice Nazlan Ghazali who had no criminal case experience.

“That cannot be a coincidence,” he said.

The former law minister also said that the task force’s report shows that Mahathir and Thomas did the same thing the following year.

“In 2019, the JAC recommended the appointment of Ahmad Maarop as the Chief Justice, Wong as PCA, Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat as the CJ (Malaya), and Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim as CJ (Sabah & Sarawak),” said Zaid.

“However, Mahathir, acting on Thomas’ advice, again broke the law by recommending Tengku Maimun as Chief Justice, Rohana Yusuf as PCA, Abang Iskandar as the CJ (Malaya) and Wong as CJ (Sabah and Sarawak).”

According to Zaid, Tengku Maimun was named for the top judge’s post despite only being elevated to the Federal Court in November the previous year, bypassing Ahmad Maarop and Azhar, who had been promoted in 2011 and 2014, respectively.

Zaid said it was inconceivable that PKR and DAP were not privy to these “unusual goings-on” at the time.

“Will PH continue the same shenanigans if elected to office? Is this its idea of justice? Will it carry on manipulating the legal system by appointing judges in violation of the law?” asked Zaid.

Zaid also asked whether PH was prepared to institute real reforms in the judicial system by:

• separating the offices of AG and public prosecutor;
• restructuring the composition of the JAC so that it is truly independent of political influence;
• tightening the legislation to compel the prime minister to only recommend to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong nominations made by the commission; and
• ensuring that every accused person has proper legal representation.

The former law minister also lamented the Bar Council’s refusal to participate in the task force’s inquiry, despite a request being made for them to do so.

“The Bar Council’s position is regrettable and is further proof that it is engaged in partisan politics,” said Zaid.

“What does Anwar intend to do about that,” he asked.

Thomas’ book, “My Story: Justice in the Wilderness”, which was intended as a personal memoir of his journey as AG, was published in January last year.

Its controversial contents drew criticism from multiple quarters, including current AG Idrus Harun, lawyers, politicians and the general public, leading to the filing of more than a hundred police reports.

On Oct 8 last year, the Cabinet established the special task force to undertake a preliminary study of disclosures made by Thomas in the book.

On Dec 22, the Cabinet approved the task force’s terms of reference which involved investigating allegations about the judiciary, exposure of government secrets, abuse of power, professional negligence and seditious statements.

The task force met between Dec 23 last year and Aug 25.

In September, its report was tabled before the Cabinet.

Shortly after that, the Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement that Thomas would be investigated for sedition and various other offences as recommended in the report.

The report was made public last Friday. - FMT