KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 12): Civic group G25 has come out to support calls to restore the pensions of former High Court judge Datuk Syed Ahmad Idid Syed Abdullah, which he reportedly did not receive from the government since his forced resignation in 1996.
In a statement, G25 urged the government to “find an appropriate and lawful means” of restoring his pensions with arrears and other public service entitlements.
Idid, who is also a member of G25, “was compelled to resign from the Judiciary in 1996 after exposing serious allegations of corruption and misconduct within the Judiciary”, the group said in a statement.
“If we expect public officers to have the courage to speak up against corruption and abuse of power, they must have confidence that the system will protect, rather than punish them for acting in the public interest,” it said.
A restoration of Idid’s pensions “would send a powerful message to present and future public officers that integrity, honesty and the courage to speak against corruption are values that Malaysia respects and upholds”, it added.
Idid, in an interview with The Edge Malaysia weekly published on Aug 31, stressed the need to protect whistle-blowers, describing his forced resignation as having “frightened every other honest Malaysian”.
Idid at the time exposed then-Chief Justice Tun Mohamed Eusoff Chin and senior lawyer Datuk V K Lingam holidaying together in New Zealand. The late Eusoff had claimed that the meeting was a mere coincidence.
Idid’s experience, said G25 in its statement, “is an important reminder of the personal cost that whistle-blowers can bear when they expose wrongdoing”.
“The failure of the government to properly investigate the allegations, and the decision instead to punish the whistle-blower, set a dangerous precedent,” it said.
“The consequences of this failure are far-reaching and Malaysia has since made international headlines over scandals such as 1MDB and more recently, Tabung Haji, among other cases of long-standing corruption,” it added.
The restoration of the pension, said G25, would demonstrate that the government is prepared to correct past injustices and affirm its commitment to institutional reforms and justice.
“It must be emphasised that justice must not only be spoken of as a principle, but must be acted upon,” it added.