By Shannon Teoh
KUALA LUMPUR, March 25 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak must explain if he dismissed a tribunal to investigate claims of abuse of power against Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail based solely on the advice of the Attorney-General himself, says Lim Kit Siang.
Former Bukit Aman commercial criminal investigation chief Datuk Ramli Yusoff had recently joined ex-city criminal investigation chief Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim’s longstanding campaign against Abdul Gani but the prime minister has refused to act on their claims.
DAP parliamentary leader Lim (picture) asked in a statement if the prime minister consulted other experts besides the government’s official legal advisor before concluding there is insufficient evidence to probe the AG.
“Najib should be forthcoming and tell Parliament whether and how many times he consulted Gani, and who are the other judicial, legal and other officers he consulted before he came to the conclusion to reject the call for a tribunal to investigate serious allegations of abuses of power against Gani.
“Najib’s own credibility and legitimacy as prime minister will suffer a serious blow if he dismissed out-of-hand the “new evidence” offered by two former top police officers... without any expert advice whatsoever,” the Ipoh Timor MP said.
The prime minister had said on Friday Ramli’s claim that he was fixed up with corruption charges by Abdul Gani and then police chief Tan Sri Musa Hassan after stumbling upon Musa’s alleged involvement with organised crime did not merit a tribunal as they were mere allegations.
This comes after Mat Zain’s repeated accusations in the past three years that Abdul Gani and the former Inspector General of Police fabricated evidence in Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s 1998 “black eye” case which he investigated.
He also said Najib admitted to knowledge of Abdul Gani’s alleged wrongdoings when they had met privately in 2008, and challenged the PM to axe the AG over the latter’s failure to act in high-profile cases such as the death of DAP aide Teoh Beng Hock while in the care of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
Putrajaya has repeatedly said, most recently in November, it will not reopen investigations into the case as an independent panel set up in 2009 had cleared Abdul Gani of any wrongdoing.
But Mat Zain said the panel was unconstitutional as only a tribunal, formed by the Agong on the advice of the PM, can investigate the conduct of the AG.
Lim added today the “least Najib” should have done is establish the tribunal to “establish once and for all whether there is any basis to the allegations that until recently, the country’s topmost legal and police officers in the land... were themselves criminals – with the same AG still in office.”
