The past few weeks have been turmoil for us as our government underwent a political crisis. Everything seemed to be happening in a blink of an eye. As a result, we now have a new Prime Minister, Muhyiddin, Yassin. However, the change doesn’t just stop with the Prime Minister’s role. We will be expecting lots of changes amongst the minister positions. Additionally, we also now have a new attorney general. Tan Sri Idrus Harun has been appointed as our new attorney general and here’s what we know about him.
Attorney General Tan Sri Idrus Harun
Tan Sri Idrus Harun is taking over the role of attorney general from Tommy Thomas who recently resigned. He is 65-years old and comes from a big family of nine children in Kampung Sanglang, Kedah. In fact, one of his younger brothers is Election Commission chief Azhar Harun.
Next, he has many years of exposure and experience in the attorney-general’s Chambers. In fact, he was formerly the Solicitor General before elevating to the Court of Appeal and then the Federal Court in 2018.
Therefore, the Malaysian bar is quite confident in his skills and look forward to working with Tan Sri Idrus Harun. President of the Malaysian bar, Abdul Fareed Abdul Gafoor, has said “The Bar believes that Tan Sri would be able to carry out his duties efficiently and effectively to uphold the rule of law without fear or favour.”
Moreover, back in 2018 former Federal Court Judge Gopal Sri Ram actually suggested Tan Sri Idrus Harun for the attorney-general post. Gopal believed that Idrus would be a better fit than Tommy Thomas.
Moving on, what does an attorney general do? Well, the attorney general of Malaysia is the principal legal advisor of the country. He is the highest ranking public prosecutor in the country. In fact, the attorney general may institute, conduct, or discontinue any proceedings for an offence except those before a Syariah court, a native court, or a court-martial.
