Toe the line or resign, Maszlee tells AG over LTTE decision

Former education minister Maszlee Malik has urged Attorney-General Tommy Thomas to either toe the government line or resign.

This comes over a month after Maszlee himself was asked to resign as minister for allegedly disobeying cabinet directives.

In a statement today, Maszlee said Thomas's decision to drop the charges against 12 people over alleged ties to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was wrong as it had not taken into account Putrajaya's stance that the group were still considered terrorists.

"This is also against the attorney general's role as the federal government's main legal advisor," he added.

"I urge Thomas to adhere to government policies again and prioritise national security or resign as attorney-general," he said.

Maszlee, who is Simpang Renggam MP, was asked to resign as education minister by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad early last month.

A letter leaked to the media indicated that, among others, Maszlee was asked to quit for failing to follow cabinet directives on the teaching of Jawi in schools, free Internet service for schools and the free breakfast programme for pupils.

In his 11-page statement, Thomas had said he was discontinuing prosecution as the common thread among all of the 12 LTTE-linked suspects was that they simply had photos of slain LTTE leaders, such as Velupillai Prabhakaran, in their phones or Facebook accounts.

He also said the home minister's order declaring an entity a terrorist group was not meant to be permanent and should be reviewed every six months to find out whether there were still reasonable grounds for such an order to continue.

However, this was rebuffed by Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who said that LTTE would remain classified as a terrorist group and that such decisions were not under the attorney-general's ambit.

The LTTE became defunct in 2009 after it was defeated by the Sri Lankan army.