Parliamentary committee wants meeting with Dr M over recent appointments

PETALING JAYA: The Parliamentary Special Select Committee on Public Appointments wants to meet Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to discuss over recent appointments.

According to a report by news portal Malaysiakini on Friday (June 7), parliamentary committee chairperson William Leong said that they "will be writing to seek an appointment" with the Prime Minister.

Leong said that the "committee was not receiving cooperation from the executive on the three recent major appointments".

The major appointments Leong referred to are of Inspector-General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador, Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat and most recently, the appointment of Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commissioner (MACC) chief commissioner Latheefa Koya.

Leong, who is also PKR Selayang MP, said that the committee "was unaware of Latheefa's appointment" and "in the dark over the appointments of the Chief Justice and IGP".

"These (appointments) were not informed to us and we didn't have the opportunity to look through them. By the time we knew, it was not through official channels but from the press," Leong told Malaysiakini.

According to the report, Leong added that they were surprised that the discussions on appointments didn't come to the committee. 

As such, they are writing to the Prime Minister to "sit down and work out the system".

"We are surprised and disappointed these (discussions on appointments) didn't come to us.

"Obviously, we need to sit down to work out the system because if this continues, the committee will not be able to function.

"We are going to tell the Prime Minister that we are not taking away his power," he said.