Najib should explain to Parliament whether he is acting on the Attorney-General Gani Patail's advice that there is insufficient evidence for a judicial tribunal to be empannelled against the Attorney-General himself?

http://blog.limkitsiang.com

Media statement by Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, 25^th March 2012:

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak should explain to Parliament whether he is acting on the Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail’s advice that there is insufficient evidence for a judicial tribunal to be empanelled against the Attorney-General himself?

Or has Najib acted on the advice of the de facto Law Minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz?

Najib should be forthcoming and tell Parliament whether and how many times he had consulted Gani on the issue, and who are the other judicial, legal and other officers he had consulted before he came to the conclusion to reject the call for a tribunal to investigate serious allegations of abuses of power against Gani Patail which have been made not only by the former Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) chief Datuk Ramli Yusoff but also the former KL CID Director Datuk Mat Zain.

In my 10-minute speech in Parliament on Thursday during the last day of the debate on the motion of Thanks for the Royal Address, I had specifically referred to this issue, viz:

“In his campaign rounds, Najib recently extended an apology for past Barisan Nasional (BN) mistakes resulting in its loss of several states and electoral seats in the last general elections.

“Some three weeks have passed but nobody knows what mistakes Najib was apologizing for.

“There are many past UMNO/BN mistakes he needs to tender an apology, but there are also many of his own mistakes made during his 35-month premiership which he needs to apologise for.

“Time does not permit me to enumerate these mistakes made by Najib. I will just mention one – his failure to restore public confidence in the efficiency, independence and professionalism of key national institutions, whether the judiciary, police, the Attorney-General’s Chambers, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, the Elections Commission.

“The refusal of the Prime Minister to set up a judicial tribunal into grave allegations of abuses of power, subversion of the rule of law and the perversion of the course of justice, made against the Attorney-General, Tan Sri Gani Patail and the former IGP Tan Sri Musa Hassan, made by former top police officers, including former CCID Director Datuk Ramli Yusof and the former KL CID Director Datuk Mat Zain, going back to the fabrication of evidence in the Anwar Ibrahim ‘black eye’ incident, the Anwar trials in 1998, the Tajudin Ramli MAS bailouts, and the new information on the ‘bizarre five-year-old case allegedly involving the country's most powerful police officer, the attorney-general and an underworld figure’, implicating even the Deputy Home Minister at the time, Datuk Johari Baharum, raises grave questions about the Prime Minister's commitment to the rule of law.

“Is the Prime Minister going to avoid taking a stand when it is seriously alleged that only very recently, the country's topmost legal and police officers in the land, the Attorney-General and the Inspector-General of Police, were criminals – and the same AG is still in office?”

Najib’s own credibility and legitimacy as Prime Minister will suffer a serious blow if he dismissed out-of-hand the “new evidence” offered by two former top police officers substantiating their serious allegations against Gani as well as the former Inspector-General of Police – whether this is based on “advice” by Gani as Attorney-General when he is a self-interested party or without any expert advice whatsoever!

The least Najib should have done is to establish a judicial tribunal into the serious allegations and “new evidence” offered by the two former top police officers as well as other former police officials, to establish once and for all whether there is any basis to the allegations that until recently, the country’s topmost legal and police officers in the land, viz the Attorney-General and the Inspector-General of Police were themselves criminals – with the same Attorney-General still in office!

*Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary Leader & MP for Ipoh Timor