Tuesday, September 6, 2016

THE RULE OF LAW

7btc
As posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at Che Det on September 06, 2016

1. Laws are made essentially for the safety, good life and well- being of the people. For the laws to do all these Government must govern according to the laws of the nation. An elected Government must do nothing less.

2. But what we are seeing in Malaysia today is a Government which ignores and abuses the laws so that they no longer protect the people or even provide good government.

3. I list below the abuses of the laws by Najib as Prime Minister and his Government.

4. While the law permits citizens to criticise and condemn the Government, Najib’s Government acts to stop members of his party, civil servants and the media from criticising his Government.

5. Action is taken to expel them from their post, transfer them, demote them, harass them and their friends and force them to retire early etc.

Police Reports.

6. By law when a report on criminal acts are made to the police, the police must conduct investigations before submitting to the Attorney General their findings.

7. Instead the police subjected the person reporting to questioning, detention and charging him for breach of the SOSMA law leading to a trial.

8. The police also questioned the complainant’s lawyer, detained and charged him also under SOSMA and had him tried in a court of law. This is unprecedented and contrary to accepted practice.

9. When 2.6 billion Ringgit was found in Najib’s private account, an open full investigation of the source of the money was not carried out by the police.

The Attorney General

10. The A.G. denied there was anything incriminating Najib in the reports of Bank Negara, MACC and the Auditor General. Instead the reports were made official secrets under the OSA. This is against the provision of the constitution which stipulates that all reports by the Auditor General should be submitted to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong who would then cause it to be laid before the Parliament.

11. In submitting the report to the PAC which in turn submitted it to the Attorney General who then made it an official secret, the Prime Minister who had actually ordered the Auditor General to audit 1MDB has breached the law.

12. The assumption by the Attorney General that Najib had committed no wrong doings simply because he, Najib, said so, the A.G. disregarded due process. A suspect who merely denies that he did anything wrong will not be discharged by the courts.

13. To be discharged he needs to show proof in the form of alibi, witnesses, documents, finger prints etc. to convince the presiding judge and later the appeal courts and Federal Court that he is innocent.

14. Yet we hear the A.G. claiming that Najib in innocent because he says he is innocent. If this is adequate, than all who are charged for criminal acts need only to say they are innocent and the judge will acquit them.

15. By saying this the A.G. and Najib are actually breaching the processes of the law. The A.G. is guilty of dereliction of duty.

16. The police, by not fully investigating the allegations made in the reports are also guilty of not doing what is required of them when reports are made.

17. The official secrets act does not apply to crimes committed while in office. In fact it is the duty of officers to report on any criminal act committed by anyone while employed by the Government. Official secrets refer to Government papers, cabinet papers, proposals, agreements yet to be approved etc.

18. Najib’s directive to the A.G. to put reports on the 1MDB by Bank Negara, the MACC and the Auditor General under the OSA is in fact a breach of the law on official secrets, because what is being reported is not official secrets but on crimes committed while in office.

19. Then there is the early retirement of Gani Patail as Attorney General Najib simply told the Yang di-Pertuan Agong that Gani was sick and had to be retired on medical ground. This is completely improper.

20. For a senior servant like the A.G. who is appointed by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, retirement must be by the approval of Duli Yang Maha Mulia. If the early retirement is due to ill-health, a medical board has to be set up. The report of the Medical Board must be presented to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong together with the request for early retirement on medical grounds.

21. There is no evidence that a medical board was set up. Gani himself claimed that he was well.

22. Yet Najib simply told the Yang di-Pertuan Agong that Gani had to be retired on medical grounds. This is a blatant misrepresentation by Najib.

23. Then he proposed Apandi as the new Attorney General. Yang di-Pertuan Agong was not given any choice. Again this is totally improper.

24. There are many other cases where Dato Sri Najib ignores the law, rules and regulations in the conduct of Government business. In many cases these irregularities breaches the laws of the country.

25. On 1MDB, as far as we know no special paper was presented to cabinet for approval. Because the takeover of the Terengganu Investment Authority failed, 1MDB replaced it and took over the 5 billion Ringgit loan.

26. The loan was not approved by 1MDB board in the usual manner.

27. There is a conflict of interest in this approval because Najib was the Minister of Finance and also the principal adviser to IMDB (effectively the CEO).

28. There is also a conflict of interest in the sale of Government land at RM60/- psf because Najib as Minister of Finance sold to Najib as 1MDB sole executive adviser.

29. The article of association of 1MDB gives sole authority to Najib as adviser to sign all agreements and transactions of 1MDB. But before that the board must approve. Frequently Najib signed before Board approval. Signing seals the approval.

30. The J.V of 1MDB with Petro Saudi was not approved by the board of 1MDB.

31. Subsequently the J.V was dissolved but the 1 billion USD was not returned to 1MDB. It was converted to a loan to Petro Saudi. Again no board approval was made.

32. And now, with the setting up of the security council, laws have been suspended. This include the abolition of the inquest over deaths.

33. Malaysia no longer practices the rule of law. We have become a lawless state.