FORMER prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he appointed Tommy Thomas as attorney-general as he was known to be “impartial” and a lawyer who followed the “rule of law”.

Dr Mahathir, who is also Pejuang president, however, said that was before Thomas wrote his memoir, “My Story: Justice In The Wilderness”.

“After he wrote the book, he started to voice out his opinions. But his appointment was before he wrote the book,” Dr Mahathir told The Star in an exclusive interview.

“We knew at the time that he was a lawyer who sticks to the rule of law. So, he was appointed as he was known for this.

“He was not biased in favour of the government. In fact, he was very critical of me when I was the prime minister. He was impartial, that is why he was appointed,” Dr Mahathir said.

Thomas wrote his book after the fall of Pakatan Harapan government and has since been under investigation.

Dr Mahathir said if he had to do it again, he would appoint someone else.

“The previous AG Abdul Gani Patail investigated former prime minister Najib Razak over the 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal.

“When Najib got to know about it, he dismissed Gani and immediately appointed Mohamed Apandi Ali.

“The moment Apandi was appointed, he declared Najib was not wrong but later on, when a new AG (Thomas) was appointed, the AG found that there were a lot of wrong deeds committed by Najib.

“Thomas, upon looking at the evidence, decided that this must be sent to the courts. When it was sent to the courts, nine judges and three courts over four years decided that Najib had committed a lot of crimes, which showed that Apandi was not doing his work properly,” Dr Mahathir said.

Apandi replaced Gani as the AG and served from 2015 to 2018, before Thomas replaced him in 2018.

The report by a special task force investigating 19 allegations made in the memoirs disclosed that Thomas in a letter dated January 5 to the chairman stated categorically that he would neither cooperate nor participate in the proceedings of the task force.

The task force said Thomas had also questioned its setup and legitimacy.

The book, published on January 30, caused a public uproar resulting in some 244 police reports lodged by various individuals and groups against Thomas and the book.

The task force, formed as a fact-finding body to undertake an in-depth review and analysis of the entire book, held no fewer than 37 deliberation sessions, among others to examine whether the publication of the book had potentially violated or contravened any laws or regulations applicable to the office of the AG.

It was also to determine whether the book had disclosed potential abuse of power by the author, breach of professional ethics or conduct by him. – October 25, 2022.