(Petaling Jaya, Tuesday): The
Attorney-General Datuk Abdul Gani Patail should be summoned to the Cabinet
meeting tomorrow to advise the immediate calling off of Ops Warta II to ensure that the police first meet the legal
requirements on service of summonses before arresting traffic offenders who had
not settled their summonses.
The
Cabinet meeting tomorrow should end the farce of Ops Warta II with Cabinet Ministers in sixes and sevens. On the one
hand, the de facto Minister, Datuk Dr. Rais Yatim has pronounced Ops
Warta II illegal and that the police would have to postpone action against
offenders whose summons could not be served on them until certain provisions of
the law are amended.
However,
the Deputy Prime Minister and Home
Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has adopted the latest
position that the second deadline of May 16 for the settling of summons under Ops Warta II would not be extended - ignoring the
question as to the legality of Ops Warta
II, including its second deadline, which was why Rais had called the Ops
Warta II to be put on hold.
New
Straits Times reported
today that the Attorney-General is
expected to meet the Deputy Prime Minister within the week to discuss the issue
of traffic summonses.
The
Attorney-General is the chief legal adviser of the government, and it is a bad
reflection not only on the government but also on the Attorney-General himself
that the farce of the legality or otherwise of Ops Warta II had been allowed to drag on for so long, undermining
public confidence not only in the efficiency of the police, the
Attorney-General’s Chambers and the government as a whole but their commitment
to the rule of law.
The
Cabinet meeting tomorrow should end
the Ops Warta II farce and
the Attorney-General should advise the Cabinet, the Home Ministry and the Police
of the legal way to settle the three million outstanding traffic
summons. The Inspector-General of
Police, Tan Sri Norian Mai should initiate a dialogue with political parties,
consumer groups, trade unions, the Bar Council and other interested NGOs to
devise a satisfactory formula to
effect the settlement of the outstanding
three million traffic summons without trampling on the rule of law.
(7/5/2002)