KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 3 ― The ruling Umno will not reform the Attorney-General’s Chambers to be give it greater independence as the party values its own interests over that of the country, said former minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim.
Commenting on the silence over calls for the prosecutorial powers of the Attorney-General to be carved out in order to avoid conflicts of interest, the former law minister said changing this would put Umno’s hold over the institution at risk.
The Attorney-General currently serves as the head of the country’s prosecution as well as legal advisor to the government, two roles that critics say may influence the office’s decision when it comes to bringing charges against Putrajaya.
“After what has happened with the 1MDB scandal however, I now know why Article 145 will remain intact forever.
“Umno’s agenda is somehow always going to be higher than the national interest, and all they have to do to secure that supremacy is to find the right AG every time there is a vacancy,” he wrote in his blog yesterday.
Article 145 pertains to the powers to appoint the Attorney-General as well as the duties of the office.
The so-called G25 pressure group comprising retired senior civil servants previously urged Putrajaya to transfer the prosecutorial powers from the Attorney-General to an independent Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The call came following the sudden removal of Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail from the office over “health reasons” while he was in the midst of heading a special taskforce investigating 1Malaysia Development Bhd.
Zaid concurred that it was a necessary move for the rule of law to prevail in the country, but conceded that this would never be allowed to happen so long as Umno ruled the country.
He claimed that he was told during a heated exchange at a meeting in Parliament some years ago when he was minister in charge of the law portfolio.
Then Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Gani and Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz — previously de facto law minister — were listening to his proposal to amend Article 145 of the Federal Constitution.
Zaid claimed Nazri rejected this outright, saying that it would only happen “over his dead body”.
He also claimed that Gani had told the meeting that such a constitutional amendment was unnecessary as he could delegate his powers to Deputy Public Prosecutors in the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
“I had wanted the MACC to have full prosecutorial powers so it could be effective, and was trying to tell Pak Lah that the hundreds of millions of ringgit spent on the MACC would be wasted if we did not give it the independence and power to prosecute.
“Whilst it is true that under the Criminal Procedure Code the Attorney-General can and does delegate his powers to DPPs to prosecute (if he wants to), this is an unsatisfactory arrangement as he can always revoke that delegation,” he said.
