KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 10 — The government will be submitting a list of members of Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to investigate the book written by Tan Sri Tommy Thomas, entitled My Story: Justice in the Wilderness, said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
The name list will be tabled by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said to the Cabinet, and to obtain the consent of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah.
“The Cabinet approved the establishment of the RCI, but basically a task force was created, but Tommy Thomas took legal action against the members of the task force. So the basis of the details contained in the task force may be backed up by the new RCI members who have not yet been appointed.
“I feel that the Minister of Law and Institutional Reform should submit a name list to the Cabinet to get the consent of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong for this RCI to speed up their work,” he said, after officiating the 15th Annual General Meeting of the Makkal Sakti Party earlier today.
Earlier, Azalina said the government expressed its approval for establishing the RCI to comprehensively examine issues related to the integrity and independence of the country’s judiciary and legislation.
The book written by Tommy Thomas, which was published in January 2021, became controversial when the former Attorney General in his book claimed to have held discussions with former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, when both were in government, in the appointment of the Chief Justice, President of the Court of Appeal and Chief Justice Sabah and Sarawak.
Regarding the Makkal Sakti Party’s annual general meeting, Ahmad Zahid who is also the Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman said he would consider giving a senator post to Friends of BN.
He also called on all BN component parties and Friends of BN to make eradicating the urban poor a struggle in support of the Unity Government’s efforts to eradicate poverty.
“The problem of urban poverty is not only an Indian problem; the Malays and Chinese also have urban poor, so the Prime Minister’s (Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim) desire to eradicate extreme poverty must have everyone’s support because this is a national agenda and not a political agenda,” he said.
Earlier, Makkal Sakti president Datuk Seri R. S. Thanenthiran in his keynote speech requested Ahmad Zahid to consider the position of Senator to the party’s leaders as appreciating the spirit of comradeship shown for almost 15 years and also requested that their application to become a BN component partner be scrutinised.
— Bernama
