Attorney-general should be
an MP for accountability,
says Zaid
The former law minister says Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s admission that prosecutions were rushed in 2018 highlights the need to keep the AG accountable.
In a post on X this morning, Zaid said Malaysia could emulate the United Kingdom’s system, which requires the AG to be an MP.
Richard Hermer, the current AG for England and Wales and advocate-general for Northern Ireland, is a member of the upper house of the UK Parliament.
Zaid’s comments come after Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said yesterday that the prosecution of several cases following the 2018 general election was flawed as it was hastily done and politically motivated.
Zaid said former prime minister Najib Razak suffered the most under this “injustice”, and that the Anwar administration needs to amend the system to prevent the recurrence of such cases.
He said the public prosecutor’s office must also be independent of the Attorney-General’s Chambers and called for the separation of legal and judicial services.
“It should be an independent unit and funded separately. Let it be operated by government and private lawyers, whose promotion and security of tenure do not depend on the AG.
“Such changes will end the days of an AG keeping mum and not being accountable to the public (over the actions of the public prosecutor’s office),” he said.
Yesterday, Anwar said the Cabinet had accepted the proposed division of functions between the attorney-general and the public prosecutor in the AGC.
The Cabinet draft paper on this is expected to be ready by mid-2025, he added.
Absolutely should NOT be a politician
ReplyDelete