COMMENT | It has to be one of the strangest occurrences in the history of a presumably democratic country - a prime minister, who came in through the back door without the support of voters, has instructed that a probe be made on a former attorney-general who wrote a book and who initiated prosecutions against prominent people.

Strangely, one of the long lists of things that authorities have been “instructed” to investigate former attorney-general Tommy Thomas by Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob is abuse of power. But isn’t that exactly what Ismail Sabri is doing right there - abusing his power?

The investigations cover amongst others, the Sedition Act, Section 8 of the Official Secrets Act (OSA) for divulging secrets, Section 23 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act for abuse of power, and Sections 124I (disseminating false reports) and 203A (disclosing information) of the Penal Code.

Thomas, attorney-general from June 4, 2018 to Feb 28, 2020, was investigated by a special task force of the cabinet (how independent can you get!) for the book he wrote titled ‘My Story: Justice in the Wilderness’ launched in January last year.

In the wake of the book, numerous police reports were made against Thomas and predictably the police and others did launch investigations. Thomas was questioned by the police regarding the case then but the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) pressed no charges...