Below are excerpts of the press conference at the maiden meeting of the three-member panel headed by former chief judge of Malaya Haidar Mohd Noor to probe the authenticity of the 'judicial appointments fixing' video clip.

Also present were panel members former judge Mahadev Shankar ( left ) and National Service Training Council chairperson Lee Lam Thye. Lee, however, did not make any comment at the press conference.

Mahadev: I'm very distressed at the amount of scurrilous material that is being floated on the Internet and in blogs and so on casting aspersions - where you have spare me so far but my two colleagues have not been so lucky. I ask all of you out there, don't throw stones at us until we have finish our inquiry. I respect freedom of speech, you can say what you want, but if you want us to do our work well as an independent panel, let us finish our work first as best as we can.

If any person out there, (the) public, has got any material, information which bear on the authenticity of this tape, feel free to come to us. Please I repeat, feel free to come to us, but make sure the evidence that you are bringing here is reliable, relevant and we would have to decide on its admissibility.

Don't say 'Mr X', 'Mr Y' and so on. If you're coming with a statement, please give your name, identity card number, (and) where that person can be contacted.

Try and avoid demostration outside our door and all that, please-lah, we have got no vested interest here in what we are doing. All we want to do is finish our job as quickly as possible and go home.

Journalist: Do you have any power to compel someone to come forward?

Mahadev: The panel has got no legal power at all. The only authority that it has been given is these terms of reference and then to compile a report and send it to the appointing body. We have no power to administer oaths, to compel witnesses to come to us [...] We have no immunity under the law either.

If we were a public authority or we were a commission of inquiry, we had statutory immunity for what we are doing. But what we are doing now, the only immunity we have is our consience, our good faith and our honesty of purpose in we are trying to do this...

Haidar: Anybody, member of public (that) has personal knowledge of the video clip, you can come forward. We cannot compel you, but if you volunteer to come forward through our secretariat, with your statement or whatever...

Members of the public would have thought that you want to call the person in the video clip.

Haidar: No, no, that's not our role.

Then you will be dependent on either the police or ACA investigation on that person.

Haidar: No, no.

Mahadev: Let me put it this way to you - the responsibility of a stable and orderly society is not (on) the government alone. You know every citizen has got that same duty. As far as the public is concerned, with respect to all of you, a lot of noises being (made) in the blogs and Internet, anybody can say anything. But what is your responsibility? Somebody out there is holding the original video, has he got a responsibility?

To have the video produced so that we can look at it and see what is contained or whatever it is. Somebody out there took that video, has he got a responsibility? They may have been others there who saw what was happening and so on, have they got a responsibility? It is not just talking and talking. You create a situation and then the whole country is going up and down, worrying and wondering what is going on.

Why should the people come forward when you can't protect them from prosecution?

Haidar: We have no power (laughs).

Mahadev: The truth is the best armour, justice is the best protection. You can't pick that out of the air. The people who has got knowledge must be bold enough to come, if not for anything but for the sake of Malaysia.

In some sense, you do admit the panel is powerless in many aspects compared with a commission of inquiry.

Haidar: Of course, if you compare with the commission of inquiry that is set up under the act of Parliament. We are not set up under an act of Parliament.

Mahadev: You're very obsessed with power. There is such thing as the power of the powerless. If you haven't heard about it, please go and read Fukuda, the man who wrote the history of the last man in the world. Sometime when you don't have power, that is also power.

We don't want to force anybody. If you want to come, come, but if you don't come, don't complain. At the end of the day, we will write our report based on the materials that (are) made available to us. We will make our mind straight and we will do that.

With the very limited terms of reference, is it sufficient for the panel to uncover the truth at the end of the day?

Mahadev: You ask yourself the question everybody can ask. We depend on the material that is given to us. Tell all the people - you have got the power to disseminate information at the speed of lightning, tell the people this is how the panel is.

So in two weeks' time, the ACA, AG's Chambers and the police are going to come back with the relevant evidence that they need?

Haidar: (It's) confined to the authenticity of the video clip because we are not going into the merits of whether (there is any) truth of the content. Our terms of reference is to verify the video clip, stop there. After that is up to the government to decide.

These agencies are also carrying out their own investigation at the same time. So based on the people they have interviewed, etc, are they going to forward the evidence to the panel?

Mahadev: They will decide what is relevant, what is good and whether it helps us. If we are not satisfied, we need more, we can tell them 'why can't you give us this, why can't you give us that...'.

Coming back to the power (of the panel), a lot of Malaysians are learned people...

Mahadev: Oh, speak for yourselves, a lot of people don't think I am at all...

A lot of Malaysians are learned people and very concerned with the lack of power with the panel. You will never be able to bring out the truth.

Mahadev: They have to wait and see.

Haidar: Step by step and then we leave it to the government to decide.

If you don't have the power to call witnesses, how do you expect the person shown in the video to come forward?

Haidar: We go step by step first. Our terms of reference is to verify the authenticity of the video clip. That's all.

That means you won't call VK Lingam?

Haidar: If he wants to come... I don't know...

Mahadev: By the way, do you know where is he? Have you got a hotline to (contact) him by any chance? Maybe you can help us.

Haidar: That's what we said earlier, we can't compel. If you want to come, you come with personal knowledge. Don't give us hearsay.

Does that mean you recognise the person in the tape as Lingam?

Haidar: We don't know, people say it's VK Lingam-lah (laughs).

Mahadev: We start from scratch.

Maybe the person is afraid to come forward. What is the assurance for the owner of the original tape?

Haidar: Go and see BPR-lah (Anti-Corruption Agency), BPR can give the [...] Not for us...

Why the panel did not want to accept the memorandum (from the protestors)?

Haidar: It's not that I didn't want to accept, takkan (impossible) in the midst of the meeting, we cancel the meeting and give the priority to go out and receive the (memorandum). I gave instruction said 'Wait until we have finish the meeting' then we will receive the memorandum they want to send. It (has been) misconstrued that we don't want to see them.

They asked for a royal commission of inquiry to be set up.

Haidar: How can you question us for the commission of inquiry? Are we the right body?

They also questioned the credibility of the panel members.

Haidar: Of course, we can't stop them from questioning. Anybody want to question, question-lah but our conscience is clear. We do our work to the best of our ability. You can't stop people from making allegations, (they have to) show proof.

They were questioning your involvement in the 1988 judicial crisis.

Haidar: I don't want to enter into argument. There is no point, there is no end to it.

Is there a time frame for people with relevant evidence to come forward?

Haidar: The government has given us 30 working days (from the day of appointment). We try to work within that time frame. If for good reason we can't, we will ask for extension but we try to meet the deadline as possible.

Is the investigation going to be carried out in a form of public or open inquiry?

Haidar: With the government agencies, it will be closed (door). We will see how, we will move from there. I can't say for certain (now). You (journalists only) look at negative side - should look at the positive side. There are also those who wrote in my favour (laughs).

SPECIAL REPORT: The Lingam tape

Watch 9-min video of the press conference