New Attorney-General should review all high-profile cases such as involving Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Guan Eng, Karpal Singh, Irene Fernandez, Ezam Mohamad, to ensure that there was no miscarriage of justice in the decision by the former Attorney-General in their prosecution

(Kuala Lumpur, Friday): The real basis of Malaysian national unity is not "Malay unity", "Chinese unity", "Indian unity", "Kadazan unity" or "Iban unity" but to create the conditions whereby Malaysians regardless of race, religion or political beliefs can come together  under a common national consciousness to build an united, just, prosperous and progressive nation.

If we are to lay the basis for genuine national unity, among the problems we must address urgently are  corruption and cronyism, political repression, crisis of confidence in the rule of law and an independent judiciary, full respect for the multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-religious and multi-lingual characteristics  of the nation giving expression to unity in
diversity - for these problems had created deep dissension and disunity among the people as well as alienation from the government, setting back the cause of national unity.

In this connection, the new Attorney-General Datuk Ainum Mohamed Saaid has a special responsibility to restore public confidence in the administration of justice, which had been a primary cause for national disunity in the way the Attorney-General's Chambers had been perceived  in the past several years as an instrument of oppression than as a custodian of law and justice.

Ainum  should review all high-profile cases such as involving Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Guan Eng, Karpal Singh, Irene Fernandez, Ezam Mohamad, to ensure that there was no miscarriage of justice in the decision by the former Attorney-General in their prosecution and pending a full review, all proceedings on these cases whether part-heard or yet-to-be-heard should be
suspended.

In the review, Ainum should be prepared to withdraw charges in cases which had not been tried, like Karpal Singh's sedition case or terminate prosecution of cases where trials are underway but not yet completed as in the cases of Irene Fernandez and Ezam Mohamad. In cases which had already been tried, whether pending appeal like Anwar Ibrahim's cases or where the
appeal process had been exhausted and even sentence carried out as in the case of Lim Guan Eng who had served his 18-month jail sentence, the Attorney-General's Chambers should consider ways whereby the injustices perpetrated on them  could be mitigated.

(9/2/2001)