Former Umno supreme council member Lokman Noor Adam told the media outside the Kuala Lumpur Courts Complex yesterday that according to the agreement reached by Ismail Sabri and Perikatan Nasional (PN), in addition to asking for the expedited trial of Najib and Zahid’s court cases, it also includes the terms of not replacing Attorney General (AG), Idrus bin Azizan Harun, the Cabinet ministers and GLC positions held by BERSATU and PAS.
Umno Pengarang MP Azalina asserted at the Umno President’s special briefing last Saturday that the prime minister should appoint “his own people” as the Attorney General so that matters can be handled easily. This statement appears to be an attempt to abuse the prosecutorial power of the Attorney General.
The Attorney General’s power to prosecute and dismiss cases should be accountable to Parliament, not the Prime Minister.
More importantly, the appointment and removal of the Attorney General must subject to the procedure before the Federal Constitution amendment in 1985. Before the amendment, the procedure for dismissing the Attorney General was the same as the procedure for dismissing judges of the High Court. They had to be dismissed according to a ruling made by a five-member Special Tribunal specially appointed by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Malaysia (Supreme Head of Malaysia). Tribunal members must be former or current judges from the Federal Court, Court of Appeal or High Court.
After the amendment of the Federal Constitution, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Malaysia can appoint and remove a new Attorney General only based on the advice of the Prime Minister. After the 1MDB corruption case was exposed, the former Attorney Generals, Abdul Gani Patail and Mohamed Apandi Ali were removed and appointed respectively under the amended Federal Constitution procedure.
The Attorney General has jurisdiction over criminal proceedings, with the exception of proceedings in Syariah Courts, Native Courts or Martial Court. Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy. It adopts a responsible parliamentary system to implement the separation of powers. The parliament (legislative power), the judiciary (judicial power) and the government (executive power) exercise their functions independently of each other and check and balance each other to prevent the abuse of power by any authority.
Therefore, give order to consolidate the separation of powers, the article in the Federal Constitution before the 1985 amendment should be restored as soon as possible, and the security of tenure for AG should be guaranteed. The relevant provisions on the appointment and removal of the Attorney General should be adjudicated through an arbitral tribunal. The appointment and removal the Attorney General should not be decided based on the advice by the Prime Minister alone. The Attorney General should also be accountable to the parliament when prosecuting or dismissing a case.