The welcome for the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s announcement of a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Lingam Tape scandal will have to be conditional as there is disturbing indication that it will be a very restricted and circumscribed inquiry denied the task to resolve the long-standing national and international crisis of confidence in the independence and integrity of the judiciary which had gone from bad to worse for nearly two decades.

It is most unusual and not a very good sign that Abdullah’s announcement of a royal commission came solely from a Bernama report instead of a proper media conference before a battery of local and foreign journalists.

Abdullah had stumbled from one faux pax to another in the mishandling of the Lingam Tape scandal, taking two full months to arrive at the decision to establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry, when such a decision should have been made right from the very beginning when Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim made public the first eight minutes of the 14-minute Lingam Tape if the Prime Minister had been serious with his pledges of integrity and a trustworthy government, two of the ten principles of Islam Hadhari.

Abdullah said in the Bernama report that the Cabinet had decided at its last meeting on Wednesday to set up the royal commission and the Cabinet will decide next Wednesday on the commission’s terms of reference. The members of the royal commission will be determined after its terms of reference were finalized.

Something is clearly amiss, which does not reflect well on the Cabinet with regard to the professionalism, competence or high standards of the Cabinet decision-making process.

For 55 hours after the Cabinet meeting, i.e. Wednesday to Friday until the Bernama report released at 7.01 pm yesterday, Malaysians were told that every Cabinet Minister would be provided with a copy of the Haider Report to study so that the Cabinet next Wednesday can decide whether a Royal Commission should be established.

If the Cabinet had already taken the decision last Wednesday to establish a Royal Commission — as disclosed by Abdullah yesterday – then what is the purpose of giving all Cabinet Ministers a week’s homework to read the Haider Report?

In fact, what is the purpose of setting up a three-man Ministerial Committee, comprising three senior Cabinet Ministers, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, Home Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Radzi Sheikh Ahmad and Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Rais Yatim to give the “legal perspective” — which, in any event, should be before and not after the decision to set up a Royal Commission!

I had been baffled when Nazri had told the press on Thursday that the three ministers tasked with looking into the Haider Report will not meet, and neither will they consult or correlate their findings before Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting, wondering how this Nazri Ministerial Committee was going to function or operate. Now, I understand, as there is nothing for it to function, so nothing to meet when the Cabinet has already decided to establish a Royal Commission!

The MCA Youth was extraordinarily courageous yesterday when after its 14th MCA Youth Central Committee meeting yesterday, the MCA Youth leader, Datuk Liow Tiong Lai summoned a press conference to call for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Lingam Tape. But this was apparently two days after the Cabinet had decided to set up such a Royal Commission! What courage!

The question that pops up immediately is why the Prime Minister has not made public the Haider Panel Report when the Cabinet has already made the decision to set up a Royal Commission.

I am doubly concerned however whether the Royal Commission that Abdullah has in mind will be a serious response from the government to get to the root of the Lingam Tape scandal and the important corollary issue of the long-standing crisis of confidence in the independence and integrity of the judiciary, or a charade just to try to shut up rising public clamour for government action on the Lingam Tape scandal.

My first concern stemmed from a comment by Nazri after Abdullah’s announcement of a Royal Commission reported by Utusan Malaysia, where he said: “Penubuhan suruhanjaya ini tidak ada kaitan dengan persoalan mahu mengembalikan kredibiliti badan kehakiman. Sebaliknya, penubuhan suruhanjaya ini adalah cara bagi mengenal pasti dan mengambil tindakan terhadap mana-mana pihak yang didapati bersalah.”

Nazri cannot be more wrong. The core objective of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Lingam Tape must be to restore public confidence in the judiciary. If this is not the overriding agenda, then why have a Royal Commission of Inquiry at all?

If the Royal Commission is to be estopped from probing into the deep-seated causes for the crisis of judiciary which had rocked the country for close to two decades, and which had again been brought to national and global limelight by the Lingam Tape, and to make recommendations for the immediate and effective restoration of national and international confidence in the independence and integrity of the judiciary, then I must forewarn the Prime Minister that such a Royal Commission of Inquiry would be a complete let-down, utterly useless and totally unacceptable.

This gives rise to my second concern. If its terms of reference are going to be so restrictive and unacceptable, then it is unlikely that public hopes and expectations of credible, legitimate and eminent Malaysians being appointed as Commissioners would be met.