Baseless criticism, says Wan Junaidi of Bar’s doubts of Thomas task force

KUALA LUMPUR – Caretaker law minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar has dismissed suspicions about the special task force (STF) formed to investigate allegations in former attorney-general (AG) Tan Sri Tommy Thomas’ memoir published early last year.

Referring to Malaysian Bar president Karen Cheah’s doubts of the STF’s impartiality, Wan Junaidi said that such assertions are “baseless and inaccurate”. 

This is especially so since the Bar had declined the STF’s invitation to participate in consultation sessions aimed at ensuring that all parties’ views are taken into consideration when preparing the report, he said. 

“As such, it is baseless to cast a negative perception of the STF members’ impartiality,” Wan Junaidi said in a statement today. 

“The Malaysian Bar ought to have come forward and given their views on the various allegations identified by the STF. 

“To refuse participation and then question the impartiality of the STF and its members should not be the way to confront issues of this kind.” 

He emphasised that the STF report had recorded details on the consultation session, including methodology used, issues analysed, stakeholders involved, as well as those who had refused participation. 

“This clearly shows that the STF had conducted the job in a responsible, transparent, and impartial manner,” the minister said. 

Cheah had previously claimed that the “rightful approach” to probe the contents of Thomas’ memoir should have been by way of an independent investigation under a royal commission of inquiry. 

She also said that the Bar had declined to participate in the STF exercise as the consultation session “appeared to delve into the veracity and accuracy of contents of the memoirs, which the Bar has no direct or personal knowledge of”. 

Additionally, she said that the Bar turned down the invitation to eliminate the likelihood of it being utilised as a “tool of any political manoeuvring.” 

Thomas’ book, titled My Story: Justice in the Wilderness became a top seller soon after it was published.  It earned a top spot under global e-commerce platform Amazon’s “Biographies of Lawyers and Judges” category.

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

Besides Umno members, those who lodged the reports included fellow former attorney-general and predecessor Tan Sri Apandi Ali and former solicitor-general III Datuk Mohamad Hanafiah Zakaria, who accused Thomas of tarnishing their names and that of the public legal service.

Police had initiated investigations under the Penal Code for defamation, as well as under the Official Secrets Act 1972 and the Sedition Act 1948. 

Thomas himself has said that he would not cooperate with the STF. 

In a letter to the task force’s chairman Datuk Seri Fong Joo Chung, which was shared with the media, Thomas told Fong that the establishment and existence of the task force was without any legal basis or precedent.

He said the task force was ultra vires, or beyond one’s legal power, unlike an appointment by the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong under the Commissions of Enquiry Act 1950. – The Vibes, October 27, 2022