Keeping mum is the best option

FOLLOWING the grant of leave from the Court of Appeal in a split 2-1 decision on Monday, former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s application for judicial review has now proceeded to the substantive stage. This is where the full merit of the case for judicial review gets ventilated and decided by the High Court.

Meanwhile, the current Attorney General and his predecessor have kept mum on the issue of a royal addendum order relating to the former prime minister’s house arrest, “AGs keep mum on Najib’s royal addendum” (The Star, Jan 9).

So too the Federal Territories Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa, “Dr Zaliha stays mum on calls to disclose Najib’s pardon deliberations” (The Star, Jan 9).

The Minister is not named as a respondent, but the AG is. The AG is the third respondent. The others are the Home Minister (first respondent), the Commissioner General of Prisons (second respondent), the Federal Territories Pardons Board (fourth respondent), the Minister at the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) (fifth respondent), the director-general of legal affairs at the Prime Minister’s Department (sixth respondent) and the government of Malaysia (seventh respondent).

The matter is now sub judice, that is, before the court, so let’s respect the legal process. Stand down and hold our guns.

Do like the AG and his predecessor and say “No comment.”

HAFIZ HASSAN

Bukit Baru, Melaka