PETALING JAYA: The Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) had nominated Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat for the post of chief justice despite her being a junior Federal Court judge at the time, according to a former member of the appointing authority.
The former JAC member, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad accepted the proposal without objections.
“However, I can confirm that her name was submitted by the nine-member JAC, chaired by then chief justice Richard Malanjum, and we strictly followed all procedures,” the former JAC member said.
The comments come in the wake of claims by former chief justice Abdul Hamid Mohamad that Tengku Maimun’s appointment did not go through the JAC, a claim based on a passage in former attorney-general Tommy Thomas’s memoir.
Thomas had written that he suggested Tengku Maimun’s name to Mahathir, who then took it to the Conference of Rulers for approval.
Hamid questioned whether the appointment, although widely welcomed as a historic first for a woman, followed the procedure laid out in the law.
The former member, however, said Hamid could not be blamed for relying on the passage in Thomas’s memoir, which was “quite inaccurate”.
The source also said Mahathir had the right to consult the attorney-general, who is the chief legal adviser to the government.
“Thomas was the right person to provide some details of Tengku Maimun, as Mahathir never knew her,” said the former JAC member.
Mahathir returned for a second stint as prime minister on May 10, 2018.
Tengku Maimun was appointed a judicial commissioner in 2006, followed by her service as a High Court judge in 2007.
She was promoted to the Court of Appeal in 2013 before being elevated to the Federal Court in November 2018.
Despite being in the apex court for just six months, she was appointed chief justice on May 2, 2019, at the age of 59 – a move that surprised many at the time.
Asked later whether she was surprised by the appointment, Tengku Maimun reportedly responded: “All praise to the Almighty. Alhamdulillah.”
She is the youngest person to assume the post since Suffian Mohamed Hashim, who became chief justice at 57 in 1974.
