Caretaker prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob has admitted that he had declassified the report detailing Putrajaya’s investigation into former attorney-general Tommy Thomas’ book so it can be used as political “bullets” to attack Pakatan Harapan.
In a rally at Bagan Datuk yesterday, Ismail Sabri urged the party machinery to “capitalise” on the findings to attack its rivals in the upcoming general election campaign.
“I have given you bullets. In the Thomas case, we exposed (the report) by the special task force. I have given lots of bullets here.
“I asked the de facto law minister to publish it on their website, to detail what was done and what mistakes Thomas made.
“I told the attorney-general to take immediate action (against Thomas) under the Official Secrets Act (OSA), defamation law and so on. I told him to bring up this issue immediately,” he said.
“So, if this is already brought up, we cannot just leave it like that. We must capitalise on this issue to attack them.”
Ammo against Dr M
Ismail Sabri had last week announced that the report on the investigation into Thomas’ memoir “Justice in The Wilderness” will be declassified.
He did so three days after Parliament was dissolved on Oct 10.
The investigation was to see if Thomas had breached various laws including the Penal Code, Sedition Act, OSA and the MACC Act.
In his Oct 13 statement announcing the declassification, Ismail Sabri also noted how a separate task force found then-prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad negligent in the Pulau Batu Puteh case.
He said the task force found Mahathir jumped the gun when he instructed the legal team to withdraw from the sovereignty dispute with Singapore, even before the cabinet was consulted.
At the rally yesterday, he referred to the declassified information as BN’s “weapon” against Mahathir.
“In my statement I said there is a possibility of negligence on the part of Mahathir… this is a point for us. Our weapon. Don’t let this slide. Play up this issue,” he told the party machinery.
Legitimacy of Anwar’s pardon questioned
Another issue to play up, he said, was the legitimacy of the pardon obtained by Harapan chairperson Anwar Ibrahim.
He said BN should go on the offensive to question if the pardon is legitimate because it was granted so soon after Harapan came into power, and at a time when no attorney-general was in office.
“(Mohamed) Apandi Ali was sacked as attorney-general (but) the attorney-general acts as a secretary to the Pardons Board.
“Furthermore, there needs to be a chief minister, or in this case (because the case was in Kuala Lumpur), the Federal Territories minister on the board. So, the pardon was illegitimate,” he alleged.
‘Win big so we can dominate cabinet’
Meanwhile, the incumbent Bera MP tried to play down claims that there was a fissure within Umno, resulting in two camps - one led by him and another led by party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
The tensions within the party came to a head when Umno suspended party stalwart and supreme council member Tajuddin Abdul Rahman from the party for criticising Zahid.
“Actually, there is no issue. I assure you there is no issue between the president and myself. It’s only those outside (the party) who are being nasi tambah (making up stories).
“They just want to see us break up because it will benefit them… so now we must unite so they will lose out,” he said to applause.
Ismail Sabri said the 14th general election taught BN that the era of winning easily is over.
It also taught them that it is not enough to be part of the government with the help of allies, he said.
“If we only get 30 to 40 seats (like in the 14th general election), we cannot dominate the cabinet.
“If we get a minimum of 80 seats, we will be strong and people will listen to what we say. So, this time, we don’t want to just win but to win big.
“If possible, we want a two-thirds majority (in the Dewan Rakyat) because we can do a lot with that,” he said. - Mkini
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