There seems to be a concerted effort in getting the current attorney-general out of office because of his so called lack of enthusiasm in ensuring that Malaysia had retained Pulau Batu Puteh in the territorial dispute with our neighbour Singapore. But is this all nothing but a charade that is being played to the people about the office of the attorney-general?

From the looks of it, it doesn't take much intellect to note that the office of the attorney-general has been used by those who hold sway in the corridors of power in Putrajaya.

Right from the time of attorney-general Mohtar Abdullah, the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) has been used for the selfish political manoeuvres of certain political barons to ensure their iron grip on power. Numerous cases will come to fore if we were to see the way in which the Attorney-General’s Chambers were used. A certain political personality would not have got away with rape of the minor if the Chambers had not been compromised.

The role of the attorney-general here is of utmost importance because he and his office are seen as the balancer between the power of the executive and the rights and liberties of the people. If this important office is compromised and dominated upon by the dictats of those in the corridors of power in Putrajaya, then all is lost in the system of administration of justice in this country.

Just like the Judiciary after 1988, the Attorney-General’s Chambers, too, has come under immense pressure from those who control the pendulum of power in Putrajaya.

With these two arms of the state which traditionally play the role of check and balance in any parliamentary democracy in the pocket of the government of the day, virtually anything can be done. Magic can take place and an innocent person can become an accused and thereafter sentenced to his doom if these two arms of the power of the state so wish.

But what we have to note here is that, we have a unique system of prime ministerial supremacy instead of parliamentary supremacy in the democracy that we practice here.

Once a upon a time we had parliamentary supremacy, the decision taken by the august house of the ‘Dewan Rakyat’ could not be challenged in any court of law but of late since 2008, we see this enshrined rule being made a mockery of when its decisions were challenged in court, making the state assembly in point look very disabled and helpless.

All this could have been avoided had the Attorney-General’s Chambers chosen advise the state government and the federal government on how unconstitutional it would be if such a move is actually challenged in court and what it would do to our constitutional jurisprudence here.

The Attorney-General’s Chambers ought to be an independent body with of course the role it plays as the public prosecutor for the state, but if it is compromised and emasculated as had happened to the Judiciary after 1988, then there is no use challenging any act of tyranny or abuse of power on part of the state in court. We would already know what the verdict would be right from the start.

The Anwar Ibrahim trials made the Attorney-General’s Chambers and the office of the AG himself look very bad and corrupt. If not for the public pressure that had been mounting since his arrest in 1997-1998, the Attorney-General’s Chambers and the Judiciary would have put Anwar into political pasture long ago.

It was only because the world was watching, did the Attorney-General’s Chambers submit to the ruling of the court when Anwar was finally exonerated. But that did not stop them from trying again a few years later with new characters playing the same role that those in episode one had played. If it was an independant and fair AGC, such a case would not be worth filing an investigation paper in the first place.

Therefore be there the presence of CIA agents, or even malice in the way prosecutions are carried out against those who have no voice at all, all the AGC’s activities are tacitly approved of by those who wield the magic wand of power in Putrajaya.

Why must this AG go?

Now there seems to be an effort to get rid of this AG because he seems to have completed his shelf life and the powers that be find him a little difficult when it comes to executing their ways with the law on those who oppose and question the state. Why must this AG go? What did he do so wrong that was not known to those who wield the magic wand of political power in Putrajaya?

If this AG so decides, he can put many powerful people behind bars for what they have done or have been doing all this while. One is not saying that this AG is an angel but he deserves to be defended for what is out of his control in a country that practices prime ministerial supremacy as opposed to parliamentary supremacy.

We ought to remember that the office of the AG is not a simple office from which one can just be removed, Article 145(6) of the federal constitution clearly states that “... that the AG shall not be removed from office except on the like grounds and in the like manner as a judge of the Federal Court”.

Therefore it will be difficult to simply remove the person just because his political usefulness is not needed any more. A full tribunal like what we had witnessed for the former Lord President in 1988 must be commenced.

If the AG thinks that he ought to leave his office due to the pressure that is being put on to him, then this is the best time he ought to use to bring all those, no matter how powerful they are, who have been using and abusing his office to help keep themselves in power and to also clear all the skeletons in their closets. This ought to be pay back time from the AG.

We have in place a very good system which the British Military Administration left us with when they left in the mid-50s.

It is a system of good checks and balances if all the stakeholders and office bearers play their role well and without fear or favour and seek to honour their final allegiance to the people of this nation through the federal constitution which is a fairly drafted instrument taking into account the vast diversity that we have in our social fabric that makes us a unique place in the geo-political map of the world.

We have misused and abused our good system for the selfish gains of those in power for far too long. It is up to us the people to regain what we have lost. The AG himself cannot do it alone.