It is Dr M who must apologise to victimised judges, not present Government: Karpal

NST online

By : Danutcha Chelliah

KUALA LUMPUR, Mon:

DAP national chairman Karpal Singh has called on former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to apologise to the judges victimized in the 1998 judicial crisis. “It is not the present administration that convened those tribunals. It was Dr Mahathir who initiated it for his own political reasons,” he claimed. “Calling the present administration to apologise is not a step in the right direction.”

Karpal was responding to Law Minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim’s proposal that the Federal Government must make an open apology to those victimised during the crisis which led to the sacking of then Lord President Tun Mohd Salleh Abbas and Supreme Court judges, Tan Sri Wan Sulaiman Pawanteh and Datuk George Seah.

According to Karpal, under Article 125 (3) of the Federal Constitution, a judge could not be removed unless a tribunal was convened at the behest of the Prime Minister, who advises the Yang Dipertuan Agong to convene a tribunal, to remove a judge on grounds of misconduct.

“The Prime Minister who advised then Yang Dipertuan Agong Sultan of Johor was Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad,” he said.

He said it was Dr. Mahathir who should aplogise to Mohd Salleh Abbas, Seah, the family of deceased Wan Sulaiman and the benefits due to them up to date and thereafter should be reinstated.
Karpal also called on the King to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry, whose terms of reference should be to decide if the tribunals were set up on sufficient basis and grounds.

“The royal commission of inquiry would establish whether there was ‘misconduct on the part of Dr Mahathir’ and if there was any abuse of the Federal Constitution,” he said.

When questioned on the Bar Council’s acceptance of the apology, Karpal criticised the Bar Council for not looking at Zaid’s proposal in depth. “The issue in fact requires an emergency meeting for the entire Bar Council to decide, not just the chairman,” he said.

Karpal also described Zaid as not “having the credibility or high moral ground” to speak on issues affecting the legal fraternity.

“He should not have been brought into Cabinet through the backdoor via the Senate. He was not even given a seat to contest,” he said.

On the calls to ban party hopping, Karpal said the Prime Minister should publicly announce whether the government was prepared to amend the Federal Constitution to outlaw party hopping as the DAP supports the move.

“If the Prime Minister is not prepared to make the move, then I propose a private member’s Bill to seek the amendment to outlaw party switching,” he said.