KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 17 — Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today insisted that the terms of the Malaysian government’s settlement of a lawsuit by former attorney-general Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali should not be kept a secret under the Official Secrets Act.
Dr Mahathir said he was “mystified” over the government’s decision to keep secret the settlement it agreed with Apandi over the latter’s demand for compensation over his dismissal as attorney-general.
“Apandi, the former AG of the Government of Najib Tun Razak, made his demand publicly. He even named the amount of RM2,233,599.36.
“Yet the compensation made by the Government is a secret. Why?
“I have reason to find out why because I do not think he deserves to be compensated at all,” he wrote in a statement.
In a written parliamentary reply to Ipoh Barat MP M. Kulasegaran on February 14, law and institutional reform minister Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said had said Apandi’s lawsuit against Dr Mahathir and the government had been settled out of court without any admission of liability.
Azalina said that Apandi’s lawyers and the Attorney-General’s Chambers had agreed during the negotiations for settlement that the settlement terms would be kept confidential and not disclosed to the public.
Azalina had said that all communications regarding the settlement negotiations and the agreed settlement terms have been classified as a secret according to the Official Secrets Act, in line with the agreement to keep the terms confidential.
On October 13, 2020, Apandi filed the lawsuit and sought court declarations that his dismissal in 2018 as attorney general was unlawful and not in compliance with the Federal Constitution, as well as compensation including RM2,233,599.36 in special damages.
In 2015 when Apandi was first appointed as AG to replace Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail, Datuk Seri Najib Razak was the prime minister heading the Barisan Nasional administration.
Apandi was appointed to the role for a three-year term from July 27, 2015 to July 26, 2018.
He had claimed in his lawsuit that the government had told him in April 2018 that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong had consented to his reappointment from July 27, 2018 onwards and that he had accepted this, but said it was allegedly cut short after Dr Mahathir became prime minister from May 10, 2018.
In that lawsuit, Apandi had claimed that Dr Mahathir had instructed the chief secretary of the government to convey the instructions for Apandi to take a 30-day unrecorded leave from May 14, 2018 until June 14, 2018, and that the chief secretary of the government had in a June 5, 2018 letter notified him that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong had consented to the termination of his appointment as the attorney general.
On April 13, 2022, High Court judge Datuk Akhtar Tahir recorded a consent judgement on the settlement which Apandi and the Malaysian government had agreed to.
As Apandi’s lawsuit was filed against both the federal government and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in his capacity as the then prime minister, the settlement means the entire case was settled and struck out with Apandi not being able to file the same lawsuit again.
It is unclear if the settlement involves any payment of compensation, as the terms of the settlement were kept confidential.
