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A-G bad choice to draw up ISA replacement laws, says ex-CID chief

By Debra Chong | September 23, 2011
The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 23 – Datuk Seri Najib Razak has picked the wrong man to spearhead his legal transformation programme, a former senior police officer said today.

Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim urged the prime minister to rethink his choice of Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail to lead the government group tasked with drawing up two new security laws to replace the soon-to-be repealed Internal Security Act (ISA) and other laws that allow for preventive detention.

“Concern arises because PM Najib is still using the services of an Attorney-General whom the government itself has confirmed to be involved in criminal wrongdoing in the name of public justice,” the ex-Criminal Investigation Department (CID) chief said today in an open letter.

“Is he still qualified and suitable to lead a taskforce to draft vital laws that control freedom of speech and national security?” he asked, referring to the government’s top lawyer whom he described as being dishonest and having serious credibility issues.

Though the three-page letter was addressed to Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar, Mat Zain reminded Najib that the criminal allegations against Abdul Gani were made publicly in two previous parliamentary sessions — the first in March 2009 and the other just last December.

The ex-cop stressed that it was no ordinary group that had mounted the investigations into Abdul Gani but an independent three-man panel, which included the Solicitor-General, and that one of the panellists had concluded the A-G was involved in evidence tampering.

While Mat Zain left out the case, it is believed he was referring to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s controversial “black eye” incident in Sodomy I, over a decade ago. The deputy prime minister-turned-opposition leader is back in the dock on a similar charge of sodomising a former male aide.

The retired policeman said the prime minister’s intention to open up laws controlling basic human rights was noble and welcome, but warned that public confidence depended on him actually carrying out what he had pledged.

He added the public will find it hard to believe they can get a fair hearing or have any trust in the new laws if Abdul Gani is the one drafting them.

18 Replies to “A-G bad choice to draw up ISA replacement laws, says ex-CID chief”

  5. The choice of Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail to draw up ISA replacement laws could be a boon to Pakatan. I believe Pakatan will get wider voter support come GE13 if the Attorney-General reincarnates the repealed ISA in the replacement laws.

  8. Hey Najip UMNO, please don’t waste public money and time to “abolish” ISA because that’s clearly not your intention. The rakyat know your dirty tricks and the sooner we kick you and UMNO out the better.

  9. You may make an oversight, once in a while but looking at the comments made against the AG, there must be some truth as they say: no smoke wothout fire! Then why does the PM having moved some Malaysians with his announcement on ISA insists on reversing it by getting this bloke to be involved again? The more one reads into this, the more I like to conclude it is willed in heaven! Time to go! a bloke cannot expect to sutvive with so many wrong moves! Quo vadis, PM?

  10. Law making is AG’s Dept separate from issue whether Gani Patail is fit to hold AG’s post.

    Quite aside from the actual merits and veracity of Mat Zain’s accusations against the AG and why he’s not fit for office, when has our government itself ever confirmed that the AG was “involved in criminal wrongdoing in the name of public justice” as Mat Zain alleges??? What’s the basis of Mat Zain’s saying so – the fact alone that the govt earlier agreed to appoint a three-man panel to look into Mat Zain’s accusations of the AG of evidence tampering ? The panel had returned a 2-1 decision, with one member (minority) having found testimony linking Abdul Gani to wrongdoing. Mat Zain was unhappy that the majority of 2 however had decided to exonerate the AG and had criticised the govt’s formation of such the panel itself as “unconstitutional”. And now Mat Zain wants to rely on the minority 1 decision of the very panel that he himself has alleged as unconstitutional to argue that the govt has already confirmed that the AG was implicated in evidence tampering? For the ex cop to try take on the AG and bring him down, surely Mat Zain has to show greater credibility in how he reasons and makes/takes his case to the public other than this way.

  11. Per earlier thread Mat Zain himself noted that one minority panel-member had established a prima facie case against Gani. A prima facie case does not imply a proven case. Besides there’s a majority of the other 2 that didn’t even acknowledge that there was a prima facie case. Of course the Govt did defend the panel’s legitimacy and authority through a ministerial statement to Parliament last December but that alone does not infer Putrajaya had validated the minority finding or confirmed that the falsifying of evidence by AG did take place, as Mat Zain argues in his letter sent to selected news organisations. Such reasoning & conclusions by ex CID will undermine his own cause of pursuing the AG out of office (aside from te actual merits of his cause).

  12. Chua Soiled Leg said will take the MCA out of the BN f umno implements hoodood. But he can’t do that because the moment there is any inkling he is going to, Bukit Aman will call him up over his Batu Pahat video.

    In 2010, at the height of a power tussle with his predecessor Ong Tee Keat, Soi Lek had said he was thinking of quitting the MCA for the Pakatan Rakyat. Immediately, Soi Lek was called to the police headquarters in Bukit Aman and quizzed for having oral sex with his heavenly angel Angela, which in Malaysia is a crime.

  13. First the good news by Najib..which we doubt are made sincerely for people.
    It is a vote catching tactic….no more….no less.
    Then UMNO b crooks get frightened…no way to shut mouths.
    Out come replacement laws in the name of security again.
    We are so peaceful and loving people.
    What so much loop holes …weaknesses that need so much securities?
    All we know…all arrests made are to protect UMNO b …..not the country…and they still want to try fooling Malaysians?
    When will they stop twisting and turning like snakes?

  16. When the three-men panel returned a 2-1 decision that the AG was clean, the AG might be clean but he was not seen to be clean. That minority vote said so.

    A Judge must be fair and seen to be fair. The AG must be clean and seen to be clean. He was seen not to be clean by a panel member based on information provided. He is therefore not fit to continue.

    Any government position is supposed to serve the nation, not the incumbent holding the position. The government can certainly advise the AG to resign, with full pension. Failing that, the AG should be impeached and a special Tribunal such as the one for the judges should be convened to determine his suitability to remain.

    But are we sure the AG was not involved in the Gua-Tolong-Lu scheme?

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