PKR Youth calls for special parliamentary session to discuss Zahid’s DNAA
It wants the matter to be discussed in the Dewan Rakyat due to concerns about the AGC’s credibility.
PKR Youth is urging the government to hold a special parliamentary session after deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was granted a conditional discharge from his graft charges on Monday.
The youth wing of PKR, which is part of the unity government, wants the discharge not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA) that was granted to the Umno president to be discussed in the Dewan Rakyat due to concerns about the Attorney-General’s Chambers’s (AGC) credibility.
“We cannot deny that this incident has weakened the image of the unity government as a driver of change and reform, and has reduced the public’s confidence in Malaysia Madani,” said the wing’s vice-chief Tyra Hanim Razali in a statement.
“This (Zahid’s DNAA) is seen as contradicting the principles of the party, which advocates for the reform of government institutions, including independent legislative bodies free from any political influence,” she said.
Considering that a prima facie case had already been established by the previous prosecution, Tyra also urged the government to give the AGC a timeframe to find new evidence and for Zahid to be charged again.
She said failure to do so would lead to the government losing its credibility, which would “make it difficult for the Malaysia Madani administration”.
When delivering his ruling on Monday, Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah said the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission was still investigating the case after Zahid made representations to the AGC.
Sequerah also said the DNAA is in view of the royal commission of inquiry (RCI) being formed to look into claims in former attorney-general (AG) Tommy Thomas’s controversial memoir, particularly on alleged selective prosecution.
Apart from noting that then-AG Idrus Harun was on pre-retirement leave when the ruling was made, Tyra also highlighted that the previous deputy public prosecutor who had successfully established a prima facie case, Raja Rozela Raja Toran, was also reported to have applied for an early retirement.
The AGC has defended its highly criticised decision to apply for a DNAA, saying the reasons presented before the High Court were deemed “cogent” and accepted by Sequerah.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who is also the PKR president, has denied having a hand in the court’s decision to grant Zahid a DNAA.
Zahid was on Monday granted a DNAA on all 47 charges involving corruption, criminal breach of trust and money laundering.
He had been accused of embezzling millions of ringgit from his foundation, Yayasan Akalbudi, and accepting bribes for various projects during his tenure as the home minister between 2013 and 2018.
The decision, however, drew brickbats, with activists, party leaders from the unity government as well as the opposition demanding an explanation from the AG.
