KUALA LUMPUR: Former Lord President Tun Salleh Abas and five supreme court judges were paid a total of RM10.5mil as ex-gratia payment.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Abd Aziz said Tun Salleh was paid RM5mil; Supreme Court judges the late Tan Sri Wan Suleiman Pawan Teh and George Edward Seah Kim Seng RM2mil each; while Tan Sri Wan Hamzah Mohd Salleh, Tan Sri Azmi Kamaruddin and the late Tan Sri Eusoffe Abdoolcader were paid RM500,000 each.
Nazri said this when he replied on behalf of the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department during the committee stage.
Nazri said the six were also paid monthly pensions, of which Salleh received RM5,102, Wan Suleiman RM4,815, Seah RM5,917, Eusoffe (last pension received prior to his death) RM4,815, Wan Hamzah RM6,549 and Wan Azmi RM5,917.
“The payments do not consitute an admission of guilt on the part of the Government. I wish to clarify that their services were terminated, so they have been given pensions for the past 20 years.
“Does that mean that they were considered guilty?,” he said when queried by Wee Choo Keong (PKR-Wangsa Maju) on why the judges were given pensions.
Nazri said that there would be no end to arguments on whether the payments were too high or too low.
“The ex-gratia payments are not about closure (of the issue), they are about moving on.
“We cannot quantify the quantum that should be given to them based on their services,” he added.
On why the ex-judges were given pensions, Nazri said since it involved early retirement and not dismissal, the Pensions Department had to follow the law and give them their payments.
“They were not sacked, the Government told them to retire early. So they chose to retire and they received their pensions,” he said.
Nazri told the MPs to refer to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s speech during the Malaysian Bar dinner in April, in which Abdullah had said the Government wanted to recognise “the contributions of these six judges, their commitment towards upholding justice and to acknowledge the pain and loss they have endured.”
Khalid Abd Samad (PAS-Shah Alam) said there should be a proper closure of the issue.
“If we really want to clear their names, then the Government has to come clean.
“The Government should admit that there was abuse of power by the Executive against the judiciary. If not, the lesson from this experience would not have been learnt,” he said.
Nazri said MPs cannot bring media reports into the House and claimed that the judges were sacked, because the media had its own “slant” on the issue.
To a question from Datuk Kamaruddin Jaafar (PAS-Tumpat), Nazri said there would not be a judicial review of the case if no fresh evidence was found.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Abd Aziz said Tun Salleh was paid RM5mil; Supreme Court judges the late Tan Sri Wan Suleiman Pawan Teh and George Edward Seah Kim Seng RM2mil each; while Tan Sri Wan Hamzah Mohd Salleh, Tan Sri Azmi Kamaruddin and the late Tan Sri Eusoffe Abdoolcader were paid RM500,000 each.
Nazri said this when he replied on behalf of the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department during the committee stage.
Nazri said the six were also paid monthly pensions, of which Salleh received RM5,102, Wan Suleiman RM4,815, Seah RM5,917, Eusoffe (last pension received prior to his death) RM4,815, Wan Hamzah RM6,549 and Wan Azmi RM5,917.
“The payments do not consitute an admission of guilt on the part of the Government. I wish to clarify that their services were terminated, so they have been given pensions for the past 20 years.
“Does that mean that they were considered guilty?,” he said when queried by Wee Choo Keong (PKR-Wangsa Maju) on why the judges were given pensions.
Nazri said that there would be no end to arguments on whether the payments were too high or too low.
“The ex-gratia payments are not about closure (of the issue), they are about moving on.
“We cannot quantify the quantum that should be given to them based on their services,” he added.
On why the ex-judges were given pensions, Nazri said since it involved early retirement and not dismissal, the Pensions Department had to follow the law and give them their payments.
“They were not sacked, the Government told them to retire early. So they chose to retire and they received their pensions,” he said.
Nazri told the MPs to refer to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s speech during the Malaysian Bar dinner in April, in which Abdullah had said the Government wanted to recognise “the contributions of these six judges, their commitment towards upholding justice and to acknowledge the pain and loss they have endured.”
Khalid Abd Samad (PAS-Shah Alam) said there should be a proper closure of the issue.
“If we really want to clear their names, then the Government has to come clean.
“The Government should admit that there was abuse of power by the Executive against the judiciary. If not, the lesson from this experience would not have been learnt,” he said.
Nazri said MPs cannot bring media reports into the House and claimed that the judges were sacked, because the media had its own “slant” on the issue.
To a question from Datuk Kamaruddin Jaafar (PAS-Tumpat), Nazri said there would not be a judicial review of the case if no fresh evidence was found.
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