Malaysian Insider
Any decision by a public officer, made in bad faith, can be challenged in court, former Court of Appeal judge Datuk Mohd Noor Abdullah says.
Speaking in his personal capacity and not as a Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) special committee member, Noor said the court was the ultimate judge to correct any wrongdoing.
"Anything done in bad faith, whoever makes public decisions, can be challenged in court," he told reporters after the Operation Review and special panels met at the MACC headquarters in Putrajaya today.
Noor, however, said he did not think that Attorney-General (A-G) Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali had abused his power in the probes into the RM2.6 billion donation and SRC International Sdn Bhd.
He added that while the A-G could make a final decision, he was answerable to the public.
"You must give reasons for your decision so that the public will know why you decided in a certain way."
Noor said under Malaysia's system of government, the A-G is appointed by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on the advice of the prime minister.
He added that under the rule of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the recommendation of the prime minister had to be taken, where the A- G then becomes a nominee of the prime minister.
"So what is the A-G to do when, for example, the PM has a case?
"Which A-G will prosecute the PM under our current system of government?" he asked, qualifying that he was speaking broadly and not in reference to any particular case.
Noor added that in the current scenario, while it was the A-G's exclusive right whether to prosecute or otherwise, it was not "palatable" for the A-G to order a stop to investigations into the RM2.6 billion donation and SRC International.
He added that if there was something lacking in the investigations, the A-G could always ask MACC to gather further evidence to strengthen the case for instance.
"Let MACC continue its job until the end of the journey.
"Then he can say, in spite of all this, there is something lacking, there is no reliable evidence to proceed or whatever.
"But when he says close the case and don't proceed, the A-G is overstepping somewhat."
Meanwhile former inspector-general of police Tan Sri Musa Hassan said the A-G had absolute power to prosecute, but added that the panels decided to ask MACC to engage with the A-G for the sake of the people.
"Since the panel represents public opinion, we advised MACC to engage with the A-G as we felt there are certain things that need to be known about why the cases were ordered closed.
"MACC has five independent panels and these panels cannot engage with the A-G, they have no locus standi, but they represent the views of the people.
"The people need to be satisfied to remove any uncertainty," Musa said. – January 28, 2016.
