Gerak blames Dr M for crisis in the judiciary

NST Online


KUALA LUMPUR: Gerak, an anti-corruption non-governmental organisation, fully supports a probe into Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's alleged interference in the governance system.

Its chairman, Ezam Mohd Nor, said Dr Mahathir was to be blamed for the crisis in the judiciary, police and Anti-Corruption Agency.

He said putting the blame on Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was illogical.

"His (Abdullah's) administration did not create our mess overnight. He inherited the system from his predecessor.

"To move forward as a nation, we must rectify the deficiency in our system by looking at the root cause and attacking it head-on."
He said the proposal to establish a royal commission to overhaul the system on the appointment of judges was welcomed to avoid corruption.

Ezam said a recent statement in a local newspaper by former United Nations special rapporteur Datuk Param Cumaraswamy showed how Dr Mahathir was complicit in damaging the governance system.

He said based on former ACA director-general Datuk Shafee Yahya's testimony in the Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim sodomy trial in June 2000, there was sufficient evidence to investigate Dr Mahathir for abuse of power and interference of justice.

"If the ex-president of Peru, Alberto Fujimori, can stand trial for abuse of power and corruption, so can Dr Mahathir," he said.

Ezam, a former key associate of Parti Keadilan Rakyat adviser Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, resigned from all party posts in February last year due to political differences with the top leadership.

Param had said Shafee had testified before the then High Court justice Ariffin Jaka in Anwar's trial in June 2000 that the former prime minister had ordered him to close a file.

He said Param produced the records of the trial as "sufficient evidence" to show that Dr Mahathir had interfered with the duties and responsibilities of the ACA.

He also said several parties had later, in the interests of justice, lodged police reports over Dr Mahathir's alleged interference in the ACA's probe.