Separation of AG, Public Prosecutor office hindered by lack of support in Dewan Rakyat, says Hanipa

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 22 — The government needs the support of two thirds of the Dewan Rakyat before it can separate the duties and office of the Attorney-General and Public Prosecutor, said Mohamed Hanipa Maidin today.

The deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in-charge of law said that this was the constraint faced by the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government which also lacks the majority in the Dewan Negara.

“To separate the duties and office of the Attorney General and the Public Prosecutor, we need to amend the Federal Constitution. There can be no other way. At this time, the Pakatan Harapan government does not control two thirds of the Dewan Rakyat and that is our constraint.

“However, this issue has been discussed in the new government administration. If we have guarantee from the other side (Opposition) that they will support us to amend the Constitution for the better, we are committed to make the change.

“If we have the support, it would not be a problem to implement,” said Hanipa who was replying to Pasir Gudang MP Hassan Abdul Karim (PH) during Question Time today.

Rembau MP Khairy Jamaluddin then asked if the government had plans to strengthen the Judiciary Appointments Commission Act, allowing it full power on the hiring and firing of judges, where the prime minister and the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong cannot veto its decision.

Hanipa explained that this needs a constitutional amendment too and urged Khairy to advise his Barisan Nasional colleagues to support the government on matters that can strengthen the nation as a whole.

“We have had a bad experience with the (repeal) of the Fake News Act. We successfully passed it in Dewan Rakyat and gave our arguments why it must be abolished. Thank God that even the Opposition supported it in the Dewan Rakyat.

“But in Dewan Negara we faced a problem when Barisan Nasional (BN) used their majority in the Upper House to frustrate our Bill and we need one year before we can bring it back to Parliament.

“If honourable Rembau can help convince his peers to support PH when we propose something good, we can accomplish this faster than expected,” Hanipa said.