THE government will submit a list of members of the royal commission of inquiry (RCI) to investigate the book written by Tommy Thomas, entitled “My Story: Justice in the Wilderness”, said Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

He said the name list will be tabled by the minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Azalina Othman Said, to the Cabinet and subsequently obtain the consent of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah to proceed. 

“The Cabinet approved the establishment of the RCI, but a task force was created instead. Tommy Thomas then took legal action against the members of the task force. Therefore, the basis of the details 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 king to allow RCI to speed up their work,” he said after launching the 15th annual general meeting of the Makkal Sakti Party today.

Earlier, Azalina mentioned that the government had given its approval for the establishment of the RCI to investigate thoroughly matters concerning the integrity and independence of the judiciary and legislation of the country.

The book written by Thomas, which was published in January 2021, became controversial when the former attorney-general claimed to have held discussions with former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, when both were in government, regarding 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, 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 the eradication of the urban poor a priority and to support the unity government’s efforts in poverty eradication.

“The problem of urban poverty is not only an Indian problem, the Malays and Chinese also have urban poor, so the prime minister’s (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 R.S. Thanenthiran, in his keynote speech asked Zahid to consider awarding the position of Senator to the party’s leaders in appreciation of their spirit of comradeship, shown for almost 15 years, and also asked that their application to become a BN component partner be scrutinised. – Bernama, September 10, 2023.