ATTORNEY-GENERAL Tommy Thomas is disappointed with the decision to cease the tribunal investigating allegations of misconduct during the 14th general election (GE14) by Election Commission (EC) officials.

“The fundamental question is whether it is of national or public interest to spend time investigating this allegation,” Thomas said after the tribunal’s conclusion at the Asian International Arbitration Centre in Kuala Lumpur today.

“Right-thinking Malaysians are going to ask the question: does it matter if it will take two months or will be costly to inquire about the truth to the allegations?”

Thomas said it was disappointing that the tribunal’s decision not to continue as “academic” was based on saving time, energy and expenses.

The five-member panel came to the conclusion following a majority recommendation that it would not proceed because the six ex-EC members in question had already quit voluntarily, an outcome the panel would have sought had the members been found guilty of misconduct.

The panel was chaired by retired Federal Court judge Steve Shim and included former judges Jeffery Tan Kok Wha, Zaleha Zahari, Suriyadi Halim Omar and Prasad Sandosham Abraham.

Thomas said it was disappointing if the panel was only concerned about causing inconvenience, noting that the decision to halt proceedings was not unanimous.

“The minority recognised the importance of the matter, that there is a democratic process at stake, as Tan had said.

“Prasad said it would not bode well with public confidence if matters were not investigated,” Thomas said.

It was a three-two decision where tribunal members Zaleha and Suriyadi concurred with Shim’s views to make up the majority recommendations. 

Thomas said it must not be forgotten that the whole process began when Bersih 2.0 lodged a complaint letter to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.  

“There are 13 charges that they had put forward which the tribunal should have heard. 

“Among them are on malapportionment, gerrymandering, redelineation and misleading Malaysians.

“Those complaints are legitimate issues and go to the heart of any elections,” he said.

He said Bersih 2.0 had demonstrated that there was no free and fair elections, which was why constitutionally there should be the tribunal hearing. 

“But the majority do not wish to proceed, so what can we do?

“There is going be five separate recommendations to the king and Dr Mahathir. 

“Then it will be up to the king to decide. 

“We will have to study the reports and I will advise the government to release it,” he said.

The six former EC members concerned are Othman Mahmood, Md Yusop Mansor, Abdul Aziz Khalidin, Sulaiman Narawi, K. Bala Singam Karupiah and Leo Chong Cheong.

Bersih 2.0 chairman Thomas Fann was also disappointed with the decision of the tribunal as the election watchdog was looking forward to the proceedings. 

“We had been looking forward to the tribunal going on simply because it would vindicate our assertions so far, that we did not have free and fair elections despite the result,” he said. – May 24, 2019.