By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal | September 26, 2011 The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 26 — Taking away the Attorney-General’s power to prosecute will not stop abuses of power, a former senior police officer said today.
Former Kuala Lumpur CID chief Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim said that there was nothing wrong with the functions of the A-G as defined by the Federal Constitution, and charged that it was Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail (picture) who had abused his powers as the current A-G “several times over.”
“We should not blame the Constitution. It’s the honesty of the person holding the post that matters.
“Even if we were to separate the functions of the A-G and the PP, there are no guarantees that either one or both of them will not abuse their powers,” Mat Zain wrote in an open letter to The Malaysian Insider. Mat Zain was referring to Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz’s recent remarks supporting calls to separate the functions of the A-G.
In Malaysia, the A-G is the principal legal adviser to the government and also serves as the country’s highest-ranking public prosecutor.
The former policeman continued his attacks against Abdul Gani, accusing him of fabricating evidence in an investigation back in 1998.
It is believed he was referring to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s controversial “black eye” incident.
The deputy prime minister-turned-opposition leader is back in the dock on a similar charge of sodomising a former male aide.
Mat Zain reiterated that the criminal allegations against Abdul Gani were made publicly in two previous parliamentary sessions — the first in March 2009 and the other just last December.
Mat Zain said that an independent three-man panel had also investigated the allegations against the A-G and that one of the panellists had concluded the A-G was involved in evidence tampering, which was stated in the form of three expert reports.
“The Cabinet has to explain to the public how they could clear Gani Patail from any wrongdoing when the evidence presented to them is crystal clear. The A-G must be made to account for the three expert reports in question.
“If it is the A-G himself who has committed a crime, so be it. He has to face the music like everybody else,” the former top cop added.