SHAH ALAM, 9 Nov: The central government’s refusal to file an appeal against the high-profile case involving the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) is deemed to be the practice of ‘double standards’.
The Vice-President of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), N.Surendran, said that the move is also seen as biased and proved that our legal system is not independent and has no integrity.
He said the failure of the Attorney General in cases such as this has caused the people to lose confidence in not only the central government, but also institutions such as the Attorney General, the police and the court, and it affects the reputation of the country in attracting investors.
“This matter is serious and I was surprised when the Attorney General refused to make an appeal, and the same thing happened in the Altantuya case. We can clearly see that the Attorney General is biased in making appeals for high-profile cases,” he said when contacted by the Selangor Kini portal today.
Surendran also gave examples of ‘double standard’ practiced in the Opposition Leader, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s sodomy case when the Attorney General worked towards imprisoning Anwar when making an appeal, and he also brought in Datuk Shafei Abdullah as a prosecutor even though there was no basis for the case and it was rejected by the High Court Judge.
“However, in the cases of PKFZ and Altantuya, the prosecution was not very interested. This shows the practice of ‘double standards’ happening when the Attorney General and our legal system are not independent and have no integrity, and it shows that the prosecution against Anwar was politically motivated,” he said.
Yesterday, Deputy Solicitor II, Datuk Tun Abdul Majid Tun Hamzah, via a text message to Malaysiakini, confirmed that the Attorney General’s Office did not file an appeal against the release of former Transport Minister, Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik, in the PKFZ fraud case.
Liong Sik was charged, causing the Cabinet to approve the purchase of land which incurred losses when the PKFZ project, which was estimated to cost RM1.1 billion after it was started in 1997, to grow by four times to RM4.6 billion in year 2007.
