The four-volume 186-page Lingam Video Clip Royal Commission of Inquiry Report, which was submitted to the Yang di Pertuan Agong yesterday, should be tabled in Parliament on Monday, in toto without any abridgement, regardless of whether the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had read or approved of it or not.
In first-world developed countries where governments are held strictly to international best practices of accountability, transparency, integrity and good governance, it would be completely unthinkable for the reports of Royal Commissions of Inquiry to be withheld from the public.
In fact, it is the practice of these countries for reports of Royal Commissions of Inquiry or other public investigations to be simultaneously released to the public when the reports or findings are submitted to the appointing authorities, whether the ruling monarch, the head of state or government.
Yesterday, Abdullah said he would decide whether to make the Royal Commission report public once he has read it.
He said: “I haven’t seen it yet. If it was submitted to the Prime Minister’s Department, it must have been while the cabinet was meeting.”
Does it really matter whether the Prime Minister had personally seen or read it or not, or whether it had been submitted to the Prime Minister’s Department while the cabinet was meeting?
The notion that the government, whether the Prime Minister or Cabinet, in first-world developed countries could exercise the right of veto as to whether such reports should be made public would be anathema and offends every sense of accountability, transparency, integrity and good governance and sufficient basis to create a political crisis resulting in the resignation or downfall of such a Cabinet.
Five years ago, Abdullah promised to transform Malaysia from a “first-world infrastructure, third-world mentality” nation to one with “first-world infrastructure, first-world mentality” under his premiership.
Let Abdullah set the example of such “first-world infrastructure, first-world mentality” by announcing that the report of the Lingam Video Clip Royal Commission of Inquiry would be made public and tabled in Parliament on Monday, regardless of whether he could finish reading it or his personal reactions to it.
It is time the Prime Minister and the Cabinet realize that reports of Royal Commissions of Inquiry must be made public because national interests must prevail over individual, sectional or even government interests.
Abdullah should not set the bad example of giving Royal Commissions of Inquiry a bad name by setting them up yet refusing to make their findings public, regardless of their contents and recommendations.
Abdullah should be mindful that he would be destroying his credibility that he is capable of fulfilling, though belatedly, his reformist pledges in his second term of premiership if he refuses to make public the Lingam Video Tape Royal Commission of Inquiry report – unless forced by the pressure of public opinion.