'Let AG sit in cabinet to avoid more buck passing'

 

The Najib Abdul Razak administration should revive the previous practice of allowing the attorney-general (AG) to sit in cabinet meetings so as to avoid more passing of the buck, said law professor Abdul Aziz Bari.

Referring to the furore over the decision not to persecute Perkasa chief Ibrahim Ali for threatening to burn Bibles, he said that this way, the minister need not answer for the AG.

He said that this will avoid the government and the AG’s Chambers from "blaming each other", especially in "controversial" cases and selective prosecutions.

"The fact remains that the AG is part of the government of the day; namely the executive and that is why the better arrangement is to have the AG sit in the cabinet, as part of the administration.

"This renders the law minister portfolio unnecessary," Aziz (right) said in an email to Malaysiakini.

He added that this has been the practice before Dr Mahathir Mohamad took over as prime minister in 1981, with attorneys-general like Abdul Kadir Yusof and Hamzah Abu Samah sitting in cabinet meetings.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nancy Shukri has come under fire after saying that Ibrahim is not prosecuted as he was defending Islam, in a parliamentary reply.

She later said that she was only relaying the AG’s Chambers decision and that the government cannot meddle in the AG's decision.

Meanwhile, DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang contended that while Nancy was correct that the cabinet cannot meddle in the AG’s duties, it is not “impotent” in handling allegations of selective prosecution.

He said in a statement today that the cabinet cannot remain silent as public opinion views the attorney-general as being responsible for selective prosecution in this and other cases, such as the spate of charges under the Sedition Act since August.

“By the principle of cabinet collective responsibility, the other ministers should also have come to her assistance, but no minister is prepared to stick his or her neck out over what is clearly a totally unacceptable and indefensible action,” he added.

In response to Nancy’s plea today not to harp on the issue any further on grounds that it is “unhealthy”, Lim said what is truly unhealthy was for the Najib administration to fail to recognise this as a miscarriage of justice - that Ibrahim would get away scot-free while others were prosecuted without having made incendiary remarks.