WHAT ought to happen should there be a change in government after the general election? How is the transfer of power from the caretaker prime minister to the prime minister-in-waiting meant to happen? Constitutional lawyer Tommy Thomas explains.
Tommy Thomas
BN vs PR election forecasts
By Gan Pei Ling and Jacqueline Ann SurinAS Malaysia faces the most keenly-contested general election since independence (GE13), what are both the Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat coalitions saying about their respective chances of forming government?
Remembering colonialism
By Jacqueline Ann SurinKUALA LUMPUR, 13 June 2011: The Malay peninsula was colonised exactly 500 years ago this year, and its significance in our history should be marked in some way by universities and scholars, lawyer Tommy Thomas said. “We should be having public seminars and academic conferences to remember and discuss this aspect of our history on […]
What’s that about Malay rights?
Shape of a Pocket by Jacqueline Ann SurinIF one were to take to heart everything top Umno leaders say, and what the Malay-language newspapers report on, Malay Malaysians are on the brink of political extinction. From being sidelined by the Pakatan Rakyat state governments to losing electoral power to non-Malay Malaysians, the Malays are doomed. So goes the headlines in Utusan Malaysia […]
“Tian Chua keeps seat if EC stays mum”
By Ding Jo-AnnPETALING JAYA, 23 June 2010: Batu Member of Parliament Chua Tian Chang will keep his seat if the Election Commission (EC) refuses to declare it vacant, said constitutional lawyer Tommy Thomas. This is despite Thomas’s view that Chua was disqualified as an MP when the High Court fined him RM2,000 for biting a police officer. […]
Dilemma over Batu
By Gan Pei LingConfusion reigns over the status of Batu MP Tian Chua because of a lack of understanding about what the constitution says. Found in Quotation says it all.
Terror against religious freedom
By Tommy Thomas(Pic by Jan Tabery / sxc.hu) THE attacks against churches and other places of worship that ushered in 2010 have brought into sharp focus the intolerance of an unruly minority in Malaysia. This minority is determined to destroy the delicate balance reached through compromise and consensus in a plural society by our founding leaders, which […]
“We cannot afford another Anwar prosecution” (Updated)
By Datuk Ambiga SreenevasanUpdated 3.20pm on 30 June 2009 The following is an excerpt of a public lecture by Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan titled Democracy, Law and Human Rights in an Era of Globalisation that was delivered on 23 June 2009 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Chevening Scholarship Programme THE Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim prosecution is seen […]
Pertinent questions affecting Sivakumar and Ganesan
By Mohamad Hafiz HassanTHE debate on the legality of the removal of V Sivakumar as speaker of Perak state legislative assembly (“LA”) has raised a number of pertinent questions. This is the first and most crucial question: at what point did the first meeting of the second session of the 12th state LA on 7 May (7 May […]
“Speaker Sivakumar not lawfully removed”
By Tommy ThomasSivakumarI AM asked to advise V Sivakumar, the speaker of the legislative assembly of the state of Perak, on the constitutionality of his purported removal on 7 May 2009. It is common ground that the legislative assembly was summoned that day by His Royal Highness, the sultan of Perak (HRH) pursuant to Article 36(1) of […]