Abdullah setting bad and dangerous precedent in publicly pressurizing Attorney-General to charge Karpal for sedition and turn a legal issue into a political and racial one

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is setting a bad and dangerous precedent in publicly pressurizing the Attorney-General, Tan Sri Gani Patail to charge DAP National Chairman and MP for Bukit Gelugor, Karpal Singh for sedition and turn a legal issue into a political and racial one.

This is the first time in 50 years that a Prime Minister had so flagrantly and blatantly put public pressure on the Attorney-General to prosecute an Opposition leader, making a total mockery of the absolute discretion of the Attorney-General as entrenched in Article 145(3) of the Constitution �to institute, conduct or discontinue any proceedings for an offence, other than proceedings before a Syariah Court, a native court or a court-martial�.

On Thursday, Abdullah said he had instructed UMNO secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor to lodge a police report against Karpal for making allegedly seditious remarks about the Sultan of Perak when Karpal had reiterated publicly that he had not questioned Sultan Azlan Shah�s prerogatives as the state�s head of religion of Islam.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister has upped the ante by publicly demanding that the Attorney-General to speed up the probe against Karpal.

Abdullah has never shown interest or concern as Prime Minister about high-profile cases, whether police reports previously made against Cabinet Ministers or recently against UMNO for the series of seditious conducts against the Malay Rulers after the March 8 general election over the appointment of the Terengganu Mentri Besar.

Abdullah should have used his high office to end the controversy which arose from the distortion of Karpal�s raising of a legal principle established by the case of Federal Territory Education Director and others vs Loot Ting Yee about the transfer of federal and state civil servants into a challenge of the prerogative of Sultan Azlan Shah over matters pertaining to Islam and Malay custom.

The country is trying to come out of the �judicial darkness� which it had been plunged into for two decades as a result of the series of crises of confidence and credibility in the independence, impartiality and integrity of the system of justice � not just about the judiciary but also other important players especially the Attorney-General.

The Prime Minister�s public and persistent demand for action to be taken against Karpal by the Attorney-General does not create confidence that the present administration is fully committed to end the two-decade-long �judicial darkness� in the country by allowing all the major stakeholders in the system of justice their full and unfettered independence and impartiality - whether judges or the Attorney-General.

* Lim Kit Siang,  DAP Central Policy and Strategic Planning Commission Chairman & MP for Ipoh Timor