KUALA LUMPUR – Then Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Muhammad V did not receive favourable feedback when he sought some lawyers’ views on the possibility of Tommy Thomas being appointed attorney-general in 2018.
In his new book, My Story: Justice in the Wilderness, Thomas said the king sought the opinion of others because His Majesty was not familiar with him.
When Thomas was informed about who opposed his appointment, he told the Agong that it was due to the “animosity between us”.
“I replied that there was animosity between us. Jealousy characterises the profession, and I was a victim of envy.”
He said the Agong did look forward to the prospect of working with him, and was told that he would be consulted on constitutional and legal matters.
However, things did not work out following the “Sheraton Move” last February.
Then Dewan Rakyat speaker Tan Sri Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof was advised to convene Parliament to determine which MP had the confidence of the legislature to hold the Prime Minister’s Office, but he objected on technical grounds.
Knowing that Pakatan Harapan’s collapse was inevitable, Thomas resigned.
“It must be kept in mind that while a private practitioner has hundreds of clients, an AG has just one: the government. The AG has to deal frequently with the prime minister as the head of government.”
He said he would never serve as AG to an Umno prime minister.
When Bersatu’s Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was appointed to the top job, “I could not serve Muhyiddin. Neither would he wish to continue with my services. I had a most difficult time with him on the LTTE cases”, said Thomas.
He had dropped the cases against 12 individuals allegedly linked to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
There are “no realistic prospects of conviction” for the 12 accused on the 34 charges filed against them under the Penal Code for allegedly supporting the terror group in 2014 and 2019, said Thomas in an 11-page statement released on February 21 last year.
My Story: Justice in the Wilderness is now available for purchase. Those interested in obtaining the book can do so via Gerakbudaya’s website. – The Vibes, January 31, 2021
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