Separating A-G, public prosecutor roles – here we go again


SET up a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) to reform the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC).

So urged Pengerang MP and Deputy Dewan Rakyat Speaker Azalina Othman Said. Among others, Azalina said the RCI should look into breaking up the roles of the AGC to prevent internal conflicts of interest.

It’s not the first call by Azalina on the matter. In February, she had made the same call for reforms to the appointment and functions of the attorney-general.

“One crucial reform urgently required to restore the public’s faith in the office of the A-G and by extension, in the government of any day is to speedily separate the A-G from the public prosecutor. I have been insisting on this since way back in June 2018,” said Azalina.

Azalina’s call then followed the furore and controversies generated by the publication of the memoir of former A-G Tommy Thomas. https://www.themalaysianinsight.com/s/299785

The call for the separation of the roles was also incidentally made out by Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) following the release of its 2020 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) on January 28. Malaysia’s score deteriorated to 51 points last year compared with 53 points in 2019. Malaysia’s ranking in the CPI also deteriorated from 51 in 2019 to 57 in 2020.

The drop of six places meant that compared with other countries Malaysia was not improving as well as other countries in efforts to fight corruption. According to TI-M, one of the possible reasons for this deterioration was that “institutional reforms have stalled”, including “the separation of powers between the attorney-general and public prosecutor, which has yet to be initiated by the government.” 

Following calls to separate the roles by Azalina and TI-M, made two weeks apart, I wrote, offering two models of separation.

Now, following Azalina’s most recent call, de facto law minister Takiyuddin Hassan said the federal government is discussing the possibility of separating both roles.

“In order to guarantee fairness and by adhering to the rule of law, the government is taking steps to separate the functions of the AG and the PP in order to avoid any conflicts of interests.

“This matter shall be improved by comparing them with other nations to find a suitable solution for us,” said Takiyuddin.

According to Takiyuddin, the government is not opposed to calling for an RCI if there is a need for it. If there are individuals who raise concerns of integrity and confidence against the legislature then the RCI will be called to be the gatekeepers of criminal justice.

I hereby beg to propose to the minister to see the two models of separation if any or both are suitable for the country.

Now, the minister will have to go back to November last year when, in response to a question from Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad on separation of the roles of the A-G, he said as follows:

“A meeting was held among the attorney-general, solicitor-general and the prosecution unit chief of the AGC to finalise the cabinet meeting memorandum and complete an amendment bill into Article 145. The government of the day is very serious in implementing this matter and it will be brought to the cabinet this year itself.” (See Hansard dated November 5, 2020 at page 48)

So, has the cabinet received the meeting memorandum?

Unless the report on the separation of the roles of the A-G has been received by the cabinet, it’s here we go again. – July 24, 2021.

* Hafiz Hassan reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.


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