I chose Thomas because he was impartial, followed rule of law, says Dr M

 

Dr Mahathir Mohamad (left) said former attorney-general Tommy Thomas was critical of him when he was the prime minister.

PETALING JAYA: Tommy Thomas was appointed attorney-general (AG) during the Pakatan Harapan government as he was known to be “impartial” and followed the “rule of law”, said former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

However, Mahathir said, this was before Thomas’ controversial memoir – which has seen him being investigated for sedition and other offences – was published.

“After he wrote the book, he started to voice out his opinions. But his appointment was done before he wrote the book,” Mahathir said in an interview with The Star.

“We knew at the time that he was a lawyer who stuck to the rule of law. So, he was appointed as he was known for this.

“He was not biased in favour of the government. In fact, he was very critical of me when I was the prime minister. He was impartial, that was why he was appointed.

“If I had to do it all over again, I would appoint a person who is not biased.”

Thomas was appointed AG by Mahathir when PH came to power in 2018 but resigned after the coalition collapsed in February 2020.

His book, “My Story: Justice in the Wilderness”, was published in January last year. A special task force was formed to investigate allegations about the judiciary, and possible exposure of government secrets, abuse of power, professional negligence and seditious statements.

One of the declassified findings of the task force was that Thomas, as AG, wanted then prime minister Mahathir “to do his bidding in a manner contrary to the law” in appointing three lawyers as Court of Appeal judges.

The task force’s report also said Thomas had “powerful vested interests” in the appointment of judges, and that his move to approach Mahathir was an “attempt to use political or executive influence” to see the proposed appointments come to pass.

In the interview, Mahathir refuted an allegation in Thomas’ memoir that a Malay government would be incompetent.

Mahathir said Malaysia had been independent for more than 65 years and that the country’s government had been “dominated by Malays” for most of this period.

“It (Malaysia) became an ‘Asian Tiger’ and became the best performing of all the former British colonies,” said Mahathir.

“So, you cannot blame the Malays for bad governance because they grew this country whereas the British did not. During the British period, Malaysia was very poor. It only developed after Independence.” - FMT