By P. Gunasegaram
When nine MPs from his own party want a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to investigate judicial appointments, drawing parallels with the infamous VK Lingam tape which revealed attempts to manipulate judicial positions, prime minister Anwar Ibrahim must sit up and take notice.
Yesterday, at a news conference, former PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli , who was ousted from his position at the most recent PKR polls in a controversial party poll, led nine PKR MPs who called for an RCI to be set up to investigate serious allegations related to judicial appointments.
Anwar needs to address the issues and foster public confidence in the steps he takes and the people he chooses to take the judiciary forward, dealing with key vacancies already there and coming up in the next few months.
The law is framed such that the PM has more power than anyone to appoint judges to the apex Federal Court. He will have to take full responsibility for the consequences of his actions to ensure that confidence in the judiciary is maintained among all parties.
Confidence is key
In addition to the all-important public, he needs to show that his own party has confidence in his moves, the coalition partners, the opposition and others. There must be no doubt that the persons who lead the judiciary deserve their positions and will uphold good jurisprudence and independence.
PMX is now on a whirlwind tour of Italy and France, culminating in a meeting of the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and associated countries in Rio de Janeiro.
He left Malaysia in the wake of the departure of Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat last week when the usual extension of her term by six months did not happen, leading to speculation that Anwar wants to see a change at the top. It was entirely up to Anwar to make the extension.
His preferred candidate is widely speculated to be former attorney general Ahmad Terrirudin bin Mohd Salleh who has seen an astonishing rise in his fortunes in recent times.
Controversially, he was special officer to the Chief Justice then, Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim, in 2003. Ahmad Fairuz was accused of discussing key judicial appointments with lawyer VK Lingam in a video tape released in 2002 when he was Chief Judge of Malaya. He was appointed Chief Justice in 2003.
A rapid advance
Ahmad Terrirudin was the Kedah State Legal Adviser in 2019. He was the Chief Registrar of the Federal Court before being appointed as the Solicitor-General on 25 March 2022. On September 6, 2023, he was appointed attorney general and served until 11 November 2024. The following day he was appointed to the Federal Court.
During the time he was attorney general, Ahmad Terrirudin sat on the Federal Territories Pardon Board which halved Najib Razak’s sentence. However he declined to comment on his position with respect to the decision.
Among allegations the PKR MPs want investigated by the RCI are:
- That the government did not act on judges proposed by the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC), causing dire vacancies.
- That the JAC, prior to Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat’s retirement, had nominated candidates for the chief justice and the Court of Appeal president to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, but this was not acted on, leading to the current vacancies.
- That the JAC was summoned on Friday, without abiding by the 10-day notice rule, to propose new candidates for the vacancies. (Acting Chief Justice Hasnah Hashim called an urgent JAC meeting on July 4 following the mandatory retirements of former chief justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat and Court of Appeal president Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim.)
- That the JAC in a previous meeting had summoned a Federal Court judge to answer allegations of judicial interference.
Malaysiakini also reported that the fourth matter is based on a leaked police report filed by the judge’s aide over queries by Malaysiakini regarding judicial interference allegations.
While Malaysiakini did not identify the judge, other reports have mentioned Ahmad Terrirudin.
These are all serious allegations and it is necessary that they are investigated to get to the root of the matter. An immediate problem at the judiciary could have been avoided if Anwar had just taken steps to extend Tengku Maimun’s tenure by six months on its expiry last week, buying time to fix the problem.
The same could have been done for Court of Appeal president Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim who retired a day after. Another Federal Court Judge, Nallini Pathmanathan’s term ends on Aug 22, but no announcements were made.
However the current Acting Chief Justice Hasmah Hashim’s term ended on May 13 when she was Chief Judge of Malaya, the third highest position, when she reached the mandatory retirement age but she got a 6-month extension, allowing her to remain in office until Nov 14.
In a situation where four senior judges were retiring one after another in a space of a few months, it would have been prudent for PMX to ensure there was no lacuna in the judicial services. There was plenty of time to do that.
As I wrote in this article, titled Anwar’s Umno State of Mind, the current judicial shortfalls are entirely Anwar’s doing and he should have acted firmly and decisively earlier to ensure proper judicial appointments using the JAC to identify the best candidates.
It seems rather unlikely that he will set up an RCI at this stage. He has his hands rather full trying to navigate his way out of the crisis at this rather late stage. If his appointments look less than above board, the public opinion against him will be crushing.
The irony is that Anwar may end up doing Umno’s bidding now, or at least pushing a strong alliance with Umno which he believes will be to his and his followers’ benefit, but he may end up destroying his political future in the end.
At this stage in his political career and as the head of a country poised at a major crossroads it is vital he focuses on important things, stays at home, stares the problems in the eye and comes up with workable solutions.
Taking for granted the strong support he has had from his most ardent followers before is the wrong thing to do. Now is the time to show that he is made of sterner, straighter stuff.
P Gunasegaram likes this saying attributed to Jawaharlal Nehru: “Crises and deadlocks when they occur have at least this advantage, that they force us to think.” He hopes Anwar is thinking.
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