Muhyiddin is among the most unqualified persons in the Najib Cabinet to talk about the doctrine of separation of powers

By Lim Kit Siang,

I never thought that a day would come when Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin could prate about the doctrine of separation of powers.

Who is he to suggest that I am confused and do not understand separation of powers for asking for an emergency Parliamentary meeting on Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s Sodomy2 charges.

This is because Muhyiddin is among the most unqualified persons in the Najib Cabinet to talk about the doctrine of separation of powers.

The doctrine of separation of powers among the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary suffered the worst erosion and emasculation, subversion and sabotage since the “mother of all judicial crisis” in 1988 when the then Lord President Tun Salleh Abas and Supreme Court judges were sacked for not complying with the whims and fancies of the then Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad.

If Muhyiddin had any doubts about the perversion and subversion of the doctrine of separation of powers in the past two decades, he need only ask his Cabinet colleague, Datuk Dr. Rais Yatim who had written a doctoral thesis on the subject – although Rais had recanted his views to get back to the Cabinet.

Did Muhyiddin, who was already occupying high government and political office in 1988, ever spoken up or lifted a finger against the subversion and sabotage of the doctrine of separation of powers in the past two decades – when the judiciary fell from its high international fame and standing before 1988 to the lowest depths of world-wide notoriety equivalent to a “rogue judiciary”?

If not, what right has he now to feign or claim concern about separation of powers?

It is precisely because the doctrine of separation of powers had been so battered and subverted, with the Malaysian judiciary fighting a losing battle to regain national and international confidence in its independence, impartiality and integrity seven years after the end of Mahathir premiership, that the dropping of Anwar’s Sodomy2 charges is generally regarded as an important step to re-establish the doctrine of separation of powers in Malaysia.

Hence, the relevance and importance of the call for an emergency meeting of Parliament on Anwar’s Sodomy2 charges.