Rais to find out what academicians said to Rulers

KUALA LUMPUR : Tan Sri Rais Yatim says he will make it his personal mission to find out what the four academicians said to the Malay Rulers regarding the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

The former International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) president said he would meet them personally to find out what they said, so the matter can be resolved amicably.

“We need to know what they said to the Sultans,” he said, adding that the academics should also hear the Bar Council’s views.

The academicians had presented a paper on the Rome Statute, alleging the sovereignty of the Rulers would be at stake if Malaysia went ahead with the ratification

The four were Universiti Teknologi Mara law professor Datuk Dr Rahmat Mohamad, IIUM’s Dr Shamrahayu Abdul Aziz and Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia law lecturers Dr Fareed Mohd Hassan and Hisham Hanapi.

Rais said he would meet the academics to hear their arguments, as he knew them personally.

He said it would be impossible to debate on the subject positively if only bits and pieces of their summary were available on social media.

“How can we tackle this when we do not know their entire point of argument,” said Rais, who was among the panellists at the Public Forum on The Rome Statute Pullout, organised by the Bar Council Human Rights Committee.

The other panellists include Attorney General Tommy Thomas, National Human Rights Society president Prof Datuk Dr Gurdial Singh Nijar and Bar constitutional law committee co-chairman Surendra Ananth.

Rais said they could not rely on one-sided reports claiming the Malay Rulers had rejected the Rome Statute and that this had sparked public fear.

Malaysia withdrew from ratifying the Rome Statute, citing political confusion, last month.