KUALA LUMPUR: The Lingam video clip inquiry report should be made public, said the chairman of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the 14-minute controversial clip, purportedly of lawyer Datuk V.K. Lingam yesterday.

However, Tan Sri Haidar Mohamed Noor said it was up to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to decide whether the contents of the report should be revealed to the public or otherwise.

"Personally, I think the report should go to the public, but it is up to the prime minister," he said after handing the four-volume, 186-page report to Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin at Istana Negara.

The former chief judge of Malaya said he was satisfied with the findings of the 17-day inquiry, which started on Jan 14.

Haidar said the five-member commission could not divulge the contents of the report but would recommend to the prime minister that the report be made public.
"We cannot reveal the four recommendations the commission made in the report."

He said commission secretary Datuk Abdullah Sani Abdul Hamid, who is also director-general of the Legal Affairs Division in the Prime Minister's Department, would submit the report to the prime minister.

Asked if one of the commission's recommendations was to charge a few individuals, Haidar said it was not true.

Asked why the commission had sought two extensions to submit the inquiry report to Tuanku Mizan, he said the commission needed more time to scrutinise the report as there were over 1,000 pieces of evidence to go through.

The commission had fixed March 11 to submit the report to the King but later sought two one-month extensions, which end tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Abdullah Sani said that Haidar submitted the report at 9.30am in the presence of commission members, retired Court of Appeal judge Datuk Mahadev Shankar, former chief judge of Sabah and Sarawak Tan Sri Amar Steve Shim Lip Kiong, former solicitor-general Datuk Zaitun Zawiyah Puteh and historian Prof Emeritus Datuk Dr Khoo Kay Kim. -- Bernama