G25, a group of prominent former civil servants, welcomed the new government’s initiative to review the Islamic Development Department (Jakim).

“We are very supportive of the prime minister’s announcement to review Jakim and Islamic institutions.

“Iksim (Malaysia Islamic Strategic Research Institute) should be abolished, too. They are going around maligning other Muslims as liberals and apostates,” G25 member Noor Farida Mohd Ariffin said after the group’s meeting with the Institutional Reform Committee at Ilham Tower today.

Iksim is Jakim’s research arm.

It had accused G25 and other moderate Muslim civil society groups, such as Ikram, the Islamic Renaissance Front and Sisters In Islam, and political parties like Amanah, of being “liberal” and a “threat” to Islam and the country’s sovereignty in a booklet.

“We were very concerned when we heard they had been given a contract to brainwash students and government officers to their way of extremist thinking,” she added.

She said they also supported the abolition of Biro Tatanegara: “They are promoting racism and hatred. This is not acceptable in the new Malaysia.”

Noor Farida said G25 also made recommendations concerning other institutional reforms, especially the independence of public institutions and political financing, to the committee.

To prevent a repeat of political interference by top politicians in corruption investigations during the Barisan Nasional regime, the appointments of key positions in public institutions, like the Attorney-General Chambers, judiciary, police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), must be free from the executive’s control, it said.

“You have to take away the power to hire and fire from the prime minister. 

“The PM should have no say whatsoever in these appointments, so that you create independent institutions.

“They should never be beholden to the PM or any member of the executive,” said Noor Farida.

She said the committee recommended that the Attorney-General’s office be separated from public prosecutors.

“If you have independent prosecutors and an independent judiciary, then we can be assured that any wrongdoings by politicians, even cabinet ministers, will be punished.” – May 31, 2018.