Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has filed for a judicial review over the ongoing royal commission of inquiry (RCI) proceedings investigating sovereignty issues regarding Batu Puteh, Middle Rocks, and South Ledge.
He is seeking to make the closed-door proceedings open to public and to remove three of the seven members of the RCI panel due to an alleged risk of bias.
He is also seeking a court declaration he is a “person whose conduct is the subject of enquiry or who is implicated in the matter” investigated by the RCI, as per Section 18 of the Royal Commission of Enquiry Act 1950.
Section 18 of the Royal Commission of Enquiry Act entitles such a person to be represented by a lawyer throughout the proceedings and for that lawyer to address the commissioners.
He also wants the RCI to serve him and his lawyers with all documents, a list of witnesses, and other documentary evidence that will be presented at the inquiry.
He is seeking a court order for the RCI proceedings to be put on hold, pending the resolution of the judicial review.
“A certificate of urgency has also been filed for the hearing to be held as soon as possible by the Kuala Lumpur Special Powers and Appellate High Court, considering that our client (Mahathir) has been subpoenaed to attend RCI proceedings on June 12,” said his lawyer Rafique Rashid Ali in a statement today.
Previously, Mahathir had claimed that the RCI proceedings were being held behind closed doors without notifying him or his legal team.
Real danger of bias
When his lawyers inadvertently found out about the proceedings and went to a May 21 hearing to make several applications and objections, they were rejected and were forced to stay out of the remainder of the proceedings.
He was only subpoenaed later to appear before an RCI hearing on June 12.
The judicial review application today named all seven RCI commissioners as respondents, in addition to its secretary Zamri Misman.
The RCI panel members are Md Raus Sharif (chairperson), Zainun Ali (deputy chairperson), Baljit Singh Sidhu, Johan Shamsuddin Sabaruddin, Faridah Jalil, Mohammed Ridha Abd Kadir and Dickson Dollah.
In his statement of claim, Mahathir reiterated his position that there is a “real danger of bias” due to past animosity between him and Raus.
This is because in 2017, Mahathir filed a judicial review to challenge his appointment as an additional Federal Court judge past his retirement age.
After Mahathir became prime minister again, Raus purportedly met him in May 2018 to express his intention to resign as chief justice and then tendered his resignation a month later.
He alleged Baljit and Ridha also have a conflict of interest in the Pulau Batu Puteh issue because they were members of the special government task force that investigated the issue.
He claimed the establishment of the special task force in 2021 was political in nature, blaming him for giving away sovereignty over Pulau Batu Puteh to Singapore.
The task force was also chaired by former attorney-general Mohd Apandi Ali, who has a “bitter history” with him.
Mahathir was prime minister when the cabinet decided to withdraw Malaysia’s application for the International Court of Justice to review its decision to award sovereignty over Pulau Batu Puteh to Singapore, Middle Rocks to Malaysia, and South Ledge to “the state in the territorial waters of which it is located”.
He removed Apandi soon after returning to power in 2018, but his successor Ismail Sabri Yaakob later appointed Apandi to head the special task force to investigate whether there was any “misfeasance” in the decision to discontinue the review. - Mkini
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