Transmenu powered by JoomlArt.com - Mambo Joomla Professional Templates Club

©The Star (Used by permission)

KUALA LUMPUR: The Royal Commission of Inquiry adjourned its proceedings to tomorrow to allow its commissioners more time to study the applications to remove two of them. 

Chairman Tan Sri Haidar Mohd Noor made the suggestion to adjourn the proceedings the moment they began yesterday morning.  

He said more time was needed as the allegations contained in the applications to disqualify Datuk Mahadev Shankar and Professor Emeritus Datuk Dr Khoo Kay Kim were very serious. 

Both Datuk Hazman Ahmad and R. Thayalan, counsel for former Chief Justice Tun Eusoff Chin and lawyer Datuk V.K. Lingam, agreed.  

After listening to a point by Yeo Yang Poh, counsel for the Malaysian Bar, Haidar said that ideally, such applications should be heard first before continuing with the proceedings although an exception was made on Tuesday when Lingam’s former secretary G. Jayanti was called to the stand despite the applications. 

The chairman also indicated that the commission may be stricter in vetting witnesses. 

“In our view, a statutory declaration would suffice to rebut allegations, depending on the seriousness of those allegations. 

“Hopefully, we can finish by Friday afternoon or evening,” he said. 

R.S.N. Rayer, counsel for Jayanti, then told the commission that his client was concerned after making the revelations in her testimony on Tuesday.  

The lawyer proposed that Jayanti be allowed to continue her testimony first but Haidar replied that the adjournment was only for a day. 

Jayanti had, among others, claimed that: 

> LINGAM had written the judgment in the defamation case where tycoon Tan Sri Vincent Tan won RM10mil in damages in 1994; 

> THE Anti-Corruption Agency had closed its file on Lingam in 1998 because the case involved senior government officials; 

> THE ACA also gave her RM3,000 after closing the case. 

Another lawyer, Wee Choo Keong, who represents Lingam’s brother V. Thirunama Karasu, later remarked that it appeared as if the commission was wasting time considering that the panel had “imposed the guillotine” on him on Tuesday to keep things short when he re-examined his client. 

Haidar: We gave you 10 minutes. How long did you take? 

Wee: I don’t know, I wasn’t keeping count. 

Haidar: But I was. You took 45 to 50 minutes. (The courtroom burst into laughter). How many times longer is that? 

Wee: Well, I guess it’s about five times. 

Haidar: Then have we been reasonable towards you? 

Wee: Yes, Tan Sri. Thank you very much. 

Just as Haidar was about to adjourn the proceedings, Wee passed copies of his own statement with regards to the transcript for the commission’s consideration. 

Haidar: What is this? 

Wee: It’s my statement. 

Haidar: You want to be in the same shoes as (Datuk Muhammad) Shafee (Abdullah)? You want to be both counsel and witness? 

Wee: It’s just for the commission’s consideration. 

Before the adjournment, Shafee informed the commission about his concerns for Jayanti as well as a former driver of Lingam’s as there were “attempts to make inappropriate contact with them” by certain parties. 

“I hope all counsel can advise their clients not to make any contact with the witnesses either directly or though their agents,” he said.  

Noting Shafee’s request, Haidar then reminded the press that the gag order on the contents of the two applications against the two commissioners still stood. 

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed