No more obstruction of justice, says AG

PUTRAJAYA: Attorney General Tommy Thomas says the full force of the law will be applied to wrongdoers.

In his speech at the Opening of the Legal Year 2019, he said the new government would not tolerate any inter­­fer­ence in or obstruction of justice.

“The administration of justice has not been immune from the cancer of corruption which spread in the conditions created by the former government,” he said.

Thomas said it was no doubt that one of the key factors leading to the defeat of the Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak administration was the perception of the ordinary man in the street that the then prime minister and his close associates were above the law.

“The double standard applied by law enforcement had undermined public confidence in our legal institutions,” said Thomas in his first address as the top prosecutor and legal adviser to the government.

“The law must be liberated from the shackles of injustice and allowed to flower, as was the intention when our Merdeka voyage began in 1957 and 1963,” he said.

He said that when the history of Malaysia is written, scholars would regard the outcome of the 14th General Election on May 9, 2018, as a landmark event, a turning point in the nation’s evolution into a truly functioning democracy.

Thomas acknowledged that many of the ills that marred the legal landscape were caused by the actions and omissions of the professional class of lawyers that was employed on a full-time basis at taxpayers’ cost by the executive branch to serve the interests of their one client – the government.

“Whether one refers to the drafting of bad or oppressive laws, the instituting of politically motivated prosecutions against persons who are not popular with the executive, the putting forward of specious or untenable arguments in order to succeed in litigation or the giving of poor advice to politicians and civil servants, the Chambers that I now represent must take its fair share of responsibility,” he said.

Meanwhile, Bar president George Varughese in his speech said the Malaysian Bar will continue voicing out its concerns over the continued use of oppressive laws.

He urged the government to demonstrate full commitment to its election manifesto to abolish oppressive laws such as the Sedition Act 1948, the Prevention of Terr­orism Act 2015 (Pota), the Prevention of Crime Act 1959 (Poca), and the Security Offences (Special Measu­res) Act 2012 (Sosma) without delay.

“Our legislative landscape need not be a time capsule of our regressive colonial past.

“These laws ought to be repealed as existing laws are sufficient to address the threats of crime and terrorism,” he said.