LIKAS CASE – WHO REALLY ORDERED?Parti
Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) welcomes the move by the police to investigate into the claim by
Judge Datuk Muhammad Kamil Awang that he received a directive by telephone to strike off
petitions against the Likas state election results. To be credible, the police must carry
out a thorough and fair investigation.
We were shocked to hear earlier when Deputy
Prime Minister cum Home Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi, stated in a television
interview that the call received by the judge was a hoax. It was most irresponsible
for him to make such statement. Such statement should not influence the police, even if it
comes from their political master.
Now it is becoming clearer than ever, especially
after explanations given by Judge Muhammad Kamil, as reported in the media today, that the
call was not a hoax, but originated from none other than the ex-Chie Justice, Tun Eusoff
Chin. It has also been disclosed through the media that a few other judges had received
similar directive, in connection with other election petitions, from the ex-CJ.
We
fail to see what interests the ex-CJ had to make such directives. We can only surmise that
he might have acted at the behest of someone higher than he, namely his political master,
who could be none other than the Prime Minister himself. The truth of the matter is still
not fully known. We call upon the police to investigate if there was any involvement of
the Prime Minister or any other minister too.
The Likas case confirmed that there
indeed existed phantom voters in that constituency. Actually there have been reports
before of phantom voters in many constituencies all over the country. In the case of
Likas, the Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) had already submitted a list of phantom voters to the
Election Commission. But the Commission did not take any action to investigate or rectify
this, as required by the law. The credibility of the Commission is being strongly
questioned now. The Commission cannot absolve itself merely by blaming other departments
for not cooperating with them. This is a separate issue that has to be looked into too and
rectified as early as possible.
Finally, the existence of phantom voters involves
also the Gaya parliamentary constituency, where Likas state constituency is located.
Although no case has been brought to court against the results of the Gaya parliamentary
election, we believe that it should logically follow from the outcome of the Likas case
that the election results in Gaya should also be declared null and void. We call upon the
Commission to take a stand on this matter.
Dr Syed Husin Ali
PRM President
15th
June 2001
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