LETTER | AG's Chambers is insulated from political interference

LETTER | Recently, it was reported that Umno secretary-general Ahmad Maslan had made a statement relating to the current Perikatan Nasional’s decision to continue with court cases. One can only assume that he was referring to criminal cases involving Umno party leaders.

Let us stop here to actually decipher the implication of such a statement made by him.

From my understanding, he seems to be of the view that it is up to the government to decide to continue with criminal cases involving Umno party leaders.

Article 145(3) of the Federal Constitution clearly states the following: “(3) The Attorney-General shall have power, exercisable at his discretion, to institute, conduct or discontinue any proceedings for an offence…”

With all due respect to the Umno secretary-general, it is not the government that decides whether or not to continue with court cases. Rather, it is the attorney-general that makes the decision.

The AG’s Chambers is insulated from political interference. Perikatan Nasional does not, and should not, dictate to the attorney-general which cases ought to be continued or discontinued.

These are considerations meant for the attorney-general based on facts and evidence.

In the circumstances, it is humbly submitted that the Umno secretary-general should immediately issue a statement correcting his position on this, and apologize to the attorney-general.

Alternatively, the AG’s Chambers should publicly rebuke him for having made such a statement in the first place.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.