The Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) said it will continue to object and bid to strike out Dr Mahathir Mohamad's legal challenge on the findings of the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on the 1990s foreign exchange losses.

This comes as Mahathir, who is now the prime minister, moved last December to include portions of evidence from his testimony and submissions from his lawyer.

The High Court in Kuala Lumpur today heard submissions on the striking-out application of the judicial challenge after attorney-general Tommy Thomas did not respond to the letter from Mahathir's lawyer Mohd Haniff Khatri Abdullah, sent last August for the AG not to object to Mahathir's application.

Senior federal counsel Mazlifah Ayob told reporters that the objection from the AGC to the application to strike out the RCI's findings was that the move was non-justiciable.

Furthermore, she argued, the matter had become academic as the findings had been released to the public and it would be too late to change anything now.

Mazlifah said Mahathir's challenge did not stipulate the cause of action.

"For these reasons, the chambers asked that the application be struck out," she said.

Her submissions were made in Justice Azizah Nawawi's chambers.

Mahathir filed the originating summons last December against all the six forex RCI members, claiming that their report was incomplete.

He named RCI chairperson Mohd Sidek Hassan, Kamaludin Mohd Said, Tajuddin Atan, Saw Choon Boon, K Pushpanathan and Yusof Ismail, along with former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak, the cabinet and government as respondents.

Meanwhile, Haniff in his reply said the report had been presented to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, the Parliament and made public as well. 

Discretion must be exercised fairly

"We felt that the public should know what goes on and what should have gone into the report.

"Here we are not seeking damages but a declaration from the court... Section 22 of the Commissions of Enquiry Act 1950 stipulates that discretion must be exercised by the commissioners judiciously and fairly.

"You cannot pick and choose the evidence to be in the final report," he added.

Haniff said he cannot answer as to why Thomas did not respond to his August letter requesting the AGC to refrain from objecting to the application, and that the question had to be posed to the attorney-general himself.

"It is quite disappointing that we did not get a response," he added.

It had previously been reported that Haniff wanted to seek the attorney-general's stand on Mahathir's challenge, as his client felt that every document used and transcripts of the proceedings, including all witness testimonies, should be produced in the final RCI report.

He added that the AGC's stand was needed following the change in government after the May 9 general election.

Justice Azizah fixed Dec 17 to deliver her decision on the striking-out application.