MANY Pakatan Harapan (PH) diehards have hit out at DAP for waiting until the last minute to call for an extension to the tenure of former chief justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat and that of Court of Appeal president Tan Sri Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim who is scheduled to retire today.
While it is always better to be late than never, they believe the DAP Central Working Committee (CWC) has no excuse to wait until the day when Tengku Maimun was supposed to clock out yesterday (July 1) upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 66 for judges to voice its support.
For the record, Tengku Maimun had on May 20 confirmed that she had yet to receive an offer for her tenure extension which effectively made DAP’s sincerity questionable.
This led to the hurling of brickbats with presumably disillusioned Pakatan Harapan (PH) backers labelling DAP’s action as “bikin badut” (clowning) and engaging in Drama Minggu Ini” (play-acting) given Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim “is no longer in town”.
Worse still, the sincerity of DAP’s gesture was questionable given its announcement “only came after office hour” yesterday (July 1).
Little wonder some commenters chided DAP for having “re-discovered its fangs atter PMX has left the country” or “dare not tell it to PMX face”.
The only credit that DAP deserved perhaps is that the party’s “better later than never” stance (which unfortunately is of no avail) runs parallel with the view of former PKR president Datuk Seri Rafizi Ramli that “these positions should be extended for six months to ensure the smooth handling of cases during the transition period”.
At the end of the day, one commenter wondered wouldn’t the Yang di-Pertuan Agong be able to use his own discretion extend the tenure of judges to which another replied that “the real power lies with PMX”. – July 2, 2025
