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Lingam Tape – Another “Three No’s” to Haider Panel’s “Five No’s”

How pathetic! After three weeks, no one has come forward to give information to the Haidar Panel on the Lingam Tape!

This itself speaks louder than anything about the confidence the Haidar Panel commands among the Malaysian public concerning its credibility, independence, authority and legitimacy — which is zero!

The Haidar Panel has proved to be very “creative” in interpreting its month-long duration to complete its narrow term of reference to establish the authenticity of the Lingam Tape from Sept. 27 to 30 working days rather than 30 calender days — stretching its tenure to November 8, after the retirement of Tun Ahmad Fairuz as Chief Justice unless he gets an extension.

The Haidar Panel had started with the infamous “Five No’s” — no power to administer oaths, no power to compel witnesses to come forward, no power to commit anybody for contempt, no power to provide immunity and no power to protect witnesses.

It appears to have acquired another Three No’s after three weeks – not knowing whether Chief Justice Tun Ahmad Fairuz was at end of the phone, not knowing whether senior lawyer V.T. Lingam who appeared in the tape was the real one and not knowing whether the video clip is genuine!

We are now told that the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) is sending the Lingam Tape to experts in Hong Kong to determine its authenticity.

Why did the ACA waste one whole month since the public expose of the Lingam Tape by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim on Sept. 19 before seeking expert help to determine its authenticity?

Why didn’t the Haidar Panel simply asked Lingam and Ahmad Fairuz to state whether they admitted or denied the veracity of the Lingam Tape?

Or the Haidar Panel didn’t even have such powers to ask?

Today, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, who seemed to have been assigned a new portfolio of being the Minister responsible for the Lingam Tape, disclosed a new gem of information.

Nazri said: “The panel does not have the power to investigate unless it gets the consent of the attorney-general”.

Nazri made this statement when he said that the Haidar Panel would have to depend on ACA investigations if no one volunteers to provide information on the authenticity of the video clip.

This is a most ludicrous situation. The Haidar Panel is appointed as an Independent Panel, but one attribute it clearly does not possess is being “independent”.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had publicly said that the Haidar Penal was not to call any witness. Now it is revealed that the Haidar Panel does not have the power of investigations unless it gets the consent of the Attorney-General.

What are its other limitations or “un-doables” which have not been revealed?

What is the role of the Police in the Haidar Panel inquiry, as the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Musa Hassan also turned up at the first meeting of the panel, apart from the Attorney-General and the ACA’s No. 2.

It is ridiculous that the Haidar Panel’s job is reduced to accepting or rejecting the ACA’s investigations on the authenticity of the tape. The ACA is supposed to be an independent and professional body, working according to the highest standards of investigation.

It is a serious aspersion on the professionalism of the ACA that its investigations should be subject to the second-guessing of the three-man Haidar Panel whose members enjoy no expertise whatsoever in the field.

The rigmarole of feet-dragging over a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Lingam Tape and the pressing issue of restoration of confidence in the independence, integrity and meritocracy of the judiciary had been dragged out for too long and in the national interest, the Prime Minister should establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry without any further delay.

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25 Replies to “Lingam Tape – Another “Three No’s” to Haider Panel’s “Five No’s””

  1. My 2 sens worth is that the government is stalling as we all know Malaysians are poor at maintenance culture.

    Just drag on long enough and we lose interest. After all we probably will create a record for the C4 murder case that has become a little stale.

  2. DSAI would have wished that his case back then been treated in this same manner. However, back then the ELITE group wanted so much to nailed him down. Our CJ case today, the ELITE cannot afford to nailed him as this would meant that their scandal can be further expose ….. some guy have all the luck here.

  3. Actually the Haidar Panel is pathetic because of eleven (11) “No”s.

    (From the Panel itself)
    · no power to administer oaths
    · no power to compel witnesses to come forward
    · no power to commit anybody for contempt
    · no power to provide immunity
    · no power to protect witnesses ;

    (From Gov’t side)

    · no need to call witnesses – Najib
    · no Witness Protection Act/Bill – Nazri
    · no authority to investigate unless it gets the consent of the attorney-general – Nazri;

    (From what public could see)

    · No independence to investigate unless helped by ACA which could have investigated without such panel;
    · No forensic expert in panel (only now ACA sending Lingam Tape to experts in Hong Kong to determine its authenticity; and
    · No public confidence in it. It is perceived a cover for CJ to stay on for a little while longer. There’s unfinished business. Always the case, expected.

  11. As ordinary citizens of Malaysia, all of us will agree that the 1st right thing to do is to get Lingam to confess or deny whether he was in fact the person in the tape.

    If he confesses then there is no need to waste time & money to send the tape for any verification.
    If he denies, then send the tape to trustworthy experts to do the audio & imaging checking.Why Hong Kong? Why not the FBI?

    PKR should send a copy to an independent body preferably under UN with international creditability for checking instead of relying on the all “powerful” Nazri or the invalid panel because it is the government which is the prime suspect for these stinking “fixing & victimising” games, they will do their their utmost to discredit the tape and close case.

    These are my 2 sen.
    Honestly we just want the truth, that”s all!

  13. Ali Rustam says UMNO does not need MCA, PPP, MIC, Gerakan and all non malays. UMNO is unsinkable. He says PM has no balls and MBs of Pahang and Perak are stupid and crazy. He is posturing for umnoputras votes to be DPM. He is sick and crazy for power.

  16. It is not the lack of trust in the panel but rather the zero trust in th Govt. that is the singular cause of not a single person offering to appear before the panel.

    How can you trust a Govt. that has been known to repeatedly lie to its people? Even on the issue of witness protection, the Law Minister, who should know better, misled the people by citing a non existent law in an attempt to trick people to meet the panel. This is a most unbecoming behaviour of a minister and only in this Bolehland do we see such minsters who do not see fit to apologise for their lies.

    Moreover the terms of reference given to the panel and the many statements given subsequently by the various Govt leaders including the Deputy PM made it very clear the panel was suppose to be a rubber stamp for a cover up to be perpetrated by the Govt. And the strange and unnecessary delays were orchestrated to buy time for various cover up activities to be completed. Any man in the street can see clearly the argument that if this Govt is sincere to get to the truth it is just a simple matter of setting up a Royal Commission and stop all these pussyfooting around.

  20. The fact that Fairuz has been given a two-month extension under the current cloud of controversy speaks volume of where the PM stands – wait-and-see.

    The only thing to do is to translate this issue into real votes. My suggestion to DAP to organize meetings all over the country and have the Bar Council members talk about why this is important to the voters.

    In fact, its crucial to step up this issue even higher because the fact that Fairuz gets two more months means that if everything dies down by then, he will be reconsidered to stay in place.

    The public have decided this man is unfit and in fact should be punished no less than for treason. Getting him to fired/quit is just a compromise and moderation on the Malaysian public part.

  21. No. 16: “No Bola”
    The country is in the hands of the jokers, the inept, the corrupt and the uncouth.
    http://malaysia-today.net/blog2006/letters.php?itemid=9150
    The Prime Minister did not know what was going on in the ferry business either. If you do not pay the bribe you do not get the ferry permit. If you are not a bumi you do not get permits anyway. The bumi operators who get permits don’t operate the ferry; they sell the permit to the non-bumi operators. The end result is there are not enough ferries. Net result: people die.

  22. I am so numbed by the senselessness and stupidity of AAB’s government. My 9 yr-old son said “why cannot call witnesses, why cannot ask d’ judge and d’ lawyer involved, and why cannot send tape for forensics (he watches CSI on Astro!)?” Then he summed up: “Either the police and panel are corrupt or they are stupid or both”. Guess what I said?

    Foreign investors are watching. If u can’t trust the courts and the judges, and you can’t trust the police and you can’t trust the government….there is nothing left to trust.

    Bye, bye, Malaysia. We are packing our bags!

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