Malaysia's former attorney-general Tommy Thomas has been branded anti-Malay after the recent publication of his memoir, which caused a furious backlash for perceived insults against the country's majority race.
My Story: Justice In The Wilderness details - among other things - the many racialised controversies that riddled and ultimately destabilised the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government that lasted all of 22 months after its shock victory at the May 2018 election.
Tan Sri Thomas, 69, who is of Indian ethnicity and served during PH's short-lived administration, was the first non-Malay to be appointed the country's top legal adviser.
The book recounts how his appointment, as well as those of former finance minister Lim Guan Eng and Tan Sri Richard Malanjum, who was the first non-Muslim Chief Justice, drew fire for placing non-Malays and non-Muslims in senior government posts.
Other claims in the book have riled right-wing elements in the Malay-Muslim community, a dominant presence in government and other institutions of power.
The memoir describes the civil service - more than three-quarters of which comprise Malays - as lacking in commitment and incompetent.
It also questions the discretionary powers of the King, who is revered as the guardian of Malay and Islamic interests.
And it accuses Malaysia's second prime minister Abdul Razak Hussein of masterminding a coup by igniting the 1969 race riots in which "hundreds of Malay youths brandishing parangs, krises and knives turn on their fellow citizens, the Chinese".
A total of 134 police reports have been lodged over the book so far, and there are calls for it to be banned and copies seized.
The backlash, especially from Umno and Parti Islam SeMalaysia - the strongest proponents of Malay-Muslim political dominance - demonstrates how this issue will continue to weigh on multicultural PH at the next election, which could be held as soon as the second half of this year.
"Malay supremacy has become a permanent fixture in the day-to-day running of the country. Pakatan can present the most progressive plans for Malaysia at the next general election, but in practice it will have to work around the ideology," BowerGroupAsia political analyst Adib Zalkapli told The Sunday Times.
In theory, Mr Thomas' views are personal to him, and based on his knowledge and experience as a constitutional law expert. But he used to wield considerable power as the ultimate decision-maker on who to prosecute, and his words and deeds reflect on the PH administration that appointed him in 2018.
Under his watch, criminal proceedings against 12 suspects accused of being sympathisers of the defunct Sri Lankan terror group Tamil Tigers were halted, in stark contrast to the hundreds of Muslims who have been arrested or charged over links with Islamic extremists in recent years.
Meanwhile, a graft case against Mr Lim, secretary-general of the Chinese-dominated Democratic Action Party, was dropped.
The concept of Malay supremacy is so entrenched in politics that Mr Thomas has been labelled anti-Malay even by his own erstwhile allies.
Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has quickly sought to distance his PH coalition from the senior lawyer, who has since returned to private practice.
"It betrays a deep-seated, even Freudian-like, prejudice against Malays fomented through years of racism," the PH chief has said of the memoir.
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Other key revelations in book
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Interim PM should've been Wan Azizah
Former attorney-general Tommy Thomas claims in his book that Malaysia's King, Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah, wanted to appoint then Deputy Prime Minister Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as interim premier when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad resigned last Feb 24. This came after members of Dr Mahathir's Pakatan Harapan (PH) government defected and joined the then opposition parties, effectively blocking Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim from succeeding Dr Mahathir as prime minister as agreed by PH.
Mr Thomas argued that appointing Datuk Seri Wan Azizah was constitutionally the right thing to do. However, he said, Dr Mahathir put forward his own name to continue as caretaker prime minister. Dr Mahathir has denied this, insisting that Sultan Abdullah did not put up any other name and had asked him to stay on until the political crisis could be resolved.
Altantuya murder
Thirteen years after the gruesome killing of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu, the two policemen convicted of her murder "confessed" that they were ordered to do so by former prime minister Najib Razak on the grounds that she was a foreign spy. Mr Thomas said the policemen's versions of events leading up to the October 2006 killing corroborated each other despite them being "incarcerated in different detention centres in two countries with no means of contacting each other".
Both officers were then part of Najib's security detail, but he has consistently denied links to the murder. He has threatened to sue Mr Thomas over these allegations, demanding an apology and RM10 million (S$3.3 million) in damages. Mr Thomas denies that he has defamed Najib.
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Sale of superyacht Equanimity
Malaysia put the Equanimity up for sale after seizing it in 2018 from fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, who is accused of purchasing the superyacht for US$250 million (S$331 million) using funds embezzled from 1MDB. Despite the yacht being valued at US$130 million, few offers came in above the US$100 million mark. This spurred Mr Thomas to directly negotiate a deal with Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay, whose Genting group runs a cruise line. "Tan Sri Lim said the highest he could go was US$126 million. I immediately accepted. It was perhaps the most profitable half an hour of my professional career," Mr Thomas wrote. The direct negotiation also saved the government over US$4 million in commission.
Shannon Teoh
Even the prime minister who appointed Mr Thomas has not given the nearly 600-page book a glowing review.
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad insisted that he defended the Attorney-General even when "the anger of the Malays against me was terrible". However, Mr Thomas said that Dr Mahathir had asked him to step down the day after the King assented to his appointment, due to the outcry from the Malay community.
Mr Thomas wrote in his memoir: "Everything I did was painted in racial tones and hues. The brainwashing achieved its objectives. Objectively speaking, attacks on non-Malay holders of two offices (himself and Mr Lim) in a government otherwise dominated by Malays just did not make any sense. It was neither rational nor logical."
