In the past few days, Rais had been publicly demanding that the Attorney-General’s Chambers should prosecute the PAS leaders for sedition and contempt of court for saying that the Sauk Al-Maunah incident was a “sandiwara”.
Today’s Utusan Malaysia carried the following report, under the heading
“Peguam Negara diarah kaji tindakan undang-undang terhadap PAS”, which
said:
“Kuala Lumpur 11 Jan. - Kerajaan sudah mengarahkan Peguam Negara, Datuk Abdul Ghani Patail untuk mengkaji kemungkinan mengambil tindakan undang-undang terhadap Pas yang mendakwa peristiwa berdarah di Sauk sebagai sandiwara.“Menteri Di Jabatan Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Dr. Rais Yatim berkata, tindakan akan diambil berdasarkan kepada dua aspek iaitu penghinaan kepada mahkamah dan serta adanya unsur hasutan.
“’Ada beberapa undang-undang yang berkaitan dan akta hasutan adalah satu daripadanya,’ katanya kepada pemberita pada majlis rumah terbuka di kediamannya di sini hari ini.”
In publicly badgering and pressurising the Attorney-General
to initiate prosecution proceedings against PAS leaders, Rais has
violated a fundamental constitutional principle on the independence of
the office of the Attorney-General from any interference or pressure from
the government of the day which constitutes a cardinal principle of the
administration of justice in Malaysia.
Rais cannot be unaware of his serious trespass of the constitutional principle of the independence of the office of the Attorney-General as he is the nation’s first person with the highest academic legal qualifications, holding a Ph.D. in Law from the University of London, to ever sit in the Cabinet since Independence in the past 45 years - although he may not believe in what he had written for his doctoral thesis!
Article 145(3) grants the Attorney-General the sole prosecutorial discretion in vesting in him the “power, exercisable at his discretion, to institute, conduct or discontinue any proceedings for an offence, other than proceedings before a Syariah Court, a native court or a court martial”.
As former Lord President, the late Tun Suffian, wrote in “An
Introduction to The Constitution of Malaysia” way back in the seventies
on the powers of the Attorney-General:
“Before prosecuting anybody in the ordinary courts, he is not legally obliged to consult anybody: this is to ensure his independence, especially when considering charges against VIPs. A minister who interferes with his discretion should not be surprised to find himself in political hot water.”
There is no reason why Rais should not be in “political hot water”
for trespassing on the sole prosecutorial discretion and constitutional
independence of the office of Attorney-General in badgering, pressurising
and directing Gani Patail to prosecute PAS leaders over the Sauk “sandiwara”
statement - for which he should tender an unfettered public apology.
Although Malaysians find the statement by PAS leaders after the High Court trial that the Sauk Al-Maunah incident was a sandiwara most distressing and even shocking, this can be no justification for any Cabinet Minister - including the de factor Law Minister - to subvert the constitutionally-entrenched independence of the office of Attorney-General.
If the DAP is still in the Barisan Alternative, the DAP representatives would have expressed our distress and shock to PAS leaders at such a statement and would have suggested that the PAS leadership should tender an open apology, not to the Barisan Nasional government, but to the Malaysian people for such a statement.
(12/1/2002)