Chow Kon Yeow: 曹观友

I asked in my earlier blog this morning, “How could the Cabinet directs the A-G…”

Not long later, Karpal Singh gave this warning, “The whole Cabinet is in contempt of the court”. He said how could the Cabinet direct the A-G to determine the status of Rayappan.

The A-G would also be in contempt of the court if he makes any decision, he added

“This is against the doctrine of seperation of power,”Karpal added.

He said that the court should be allowed to decide, not the A-G.

The Deputy Defence Minister deliberately waited until the end of his windind-up speech to reply points raised by Kit Siang.Initially, he did not want to admit that commission was given. He relented when Kit Siang pressed on with several questions.He admitted the French company paid the commission. Before I could rise to asked who then received the commission, the Deputy Minister stood down abruptly and ended his reply. Surely he did not want to get himself entangled with the Abdul Razak Baginda’s relationship with the Defence Minister.

Parliament
Thursday December 7, 2006

Commission paid by French firm, not Government

A FRENCH company paid a commission to a local firm awarded a Government contract worth 114 million euro (RM547mil at present exchange rate) for a coordination and support services project, Deputy Defence Minister Datuk Zainal Abidin Zin said.

“We did not pay commission to anyone as claimed by Lim, and the commission was paid voluntarily by France,” said Zainal Abidin. The Lim he was referring to is Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang.

“We cannot stop them if they want to give a commission.

“All the expenditure by the ministry had been tabled in Parliament and audited,” he said.

On the purchase of submarines, Zainal Abidin said they cost 996 million euro (RM4.78bil) and were due to arrive in 2009 and 2010.

Earlier, Lim claimed that a company owned by Abdul Razak Baginda was involved in helping the ministry buy two submarines from a French-Spanish joint venture.

He claimed that Abdul Ra-zak was paid a US$100mil (RM360mil) commission to negotiate the deal between Malaysia and the company.

Malaysiakini has the following story on the Rayappan case, ” A tale of two courts”. This morning, we read that the A-G was asked by Cabinet to confirm Rayappan’s religious status. Can the AG do so, especially the matter is already before the syariah and civil courts? Looks like a tale of three courts.

Rayappan case: A tale of two courts
Andrew Ong
Dec 6, 06 7:23pm

The tussle over Rayappan Anthony’s body between his family and the Selangor Islamic Affairs Council (Mais) has been referred to a higher court by the Syariah High Court today.

In making the decision, High Court judge Abu Zaky Mohammad said his court had no jurisdiction to hear the case and set Dec 12 for the case to be heard by the appellate court.

A-G to confirm religious status (the Star)
The Cabinet has directed the Attorney-General to look into the case of Rayappan Anthony (pic) to confirm his religious status, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said. The Cabinet had discussed the issue and had agreed to hand over the case to the A-G as it was important that it be resolved.