Abdullah putting pressure on AG to prosecute Karpal - bad and dangerous precedent

blog.limkitsiang - The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is setting a bad and dangerous precedent in publicly pressurizing the Attorney-General, Tan Sri Gani Patail to charge DAP National Chairman and MP for Bukit Gelugor, Karpal Singh for sedition and turn a legal issue into a political and racial one.

This is the first time in 50 years that a Prime Minister had so flagrantly and blatantly put public pressure on the Attorney-General to prosecute an Opposition leader, making a total mockery of the absolute discretion of the Attorney-General as entrenched in Article 145(3) of the Constitution “to institute, conduct or discontinue any proceedings for an offence, other than proceedings before a Syariah Court, a native court or a court-martial”.

On Thursday, Abdullah said he had instructed Umno secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor to lodge a police report against Karpal for making allegedly seditious remarks about the Sultan of Perak when Karpal had reiterated publicly that he had not questioned Sultan Azlan Shah’s prerogatives as the state’s head of religion of Islam.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister has upped the ante by publicly demanding that the Attorney-General speed up the probe against Karpal.

Abdullah has never shown interest or concern as Prime Minister about high-profile cases, whether police reports previously made against Cabinet Ministers or recently against Umno for the series of seditious conduct against the Malay Rulers after the March 8 general election over the appointment of the Terengganu Mentri Besar.


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