UMNO president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob has agreed to establish a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) to investigate alleged political interference in key public institutions.
“The RCI will be investigating the alleged interference claimed by ex-Attorney General Tan Sri Tommy Thomas, said to have happened in the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC), judiciary and security services, which are the guardians of our Federal Constitution,” he said, in a statement.
In February, Court of Appeal judge Datuk Hamid Sultan Abu Backer was suspended by the Judge’s Ethics Committee after he filed an affidavit in 2019 alleging abuses of the judicial process by vested interests.
The distinguished judge retired yesterday but not before publishing three books on matters involving company law, construction law and the Federal Constitution.
The previous-Pakatan Harapan Government promised to establish a RCI to investigate Hamid’s claims but did not follow through the matter.
On that note, Zahid said that Umno must lead in reforming public institutions to ensure public institutions can work without fear and favour to protect the people’s wellbeing.
“This includes enacting an anti-hopping law and draft laws to protect the independence of the AGC, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the police force,” he stressed.
Loan moratorium without accrued interest
Meanwhile, Zahid urged the Government to focus its efforts to contain COVID-19 and enact comprehensive measures to help people who had lost their income due to the pandemic.
Among the measures include improving aid programmes such as the Bantuan Prihatin Rakyat (BPR) and other cash aid to the needy.
“The people also need a loan moratorium programme without being imposed with accrued interest, one-off i-Citra withdrawal (with a minimum of RM10,000) and additional aid to small and medium enterprises for their survival,” the Bagan Datuk MP mentioned.
The former deputy prime minister added: “We also called upon the prime minister to use the ‘Keluarga Malaysia’ theme to govern the country instead of using the Perikatan Nasional name as this is a loose cooperation among various political parties.” – Aug 28, 2021.
