KUALA LUMPUR: The report on the findings of the Council of Eminent Persons (CEP) in the first 100 days of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration can be made public.
However, there are two things involving laws and diplomatic relations which need to be vetted first as such things can be misused by certain parties.
Economist and CEP member Professor Jomo Kwame Sundaram said it was his personal opinion that there was no harm if the people wanted to see the report, as long as some sensitive issues were not revealed, for the sake of national interests.
“We need to be careful with this kind of information as there are some things which could affect Malaysia’s relations with other countries. But other things that don’t have anything to do with sensitive information can be revealed. Whatever it is, it is up to the prime minister,” he told the New Straits Times Press.
Jomo was commenting on DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang’s statement urging that the report be made public to allow the people to know the results and to get clear information as to the state of the administration.
On the report itself, he said not all the five CEP members agreed on every single point, stressing however that this was commonplace as everyone had their own opinions.
He said it was not easy for everyone to come to a consensus, but at the end, the decision was placed in the hands of CEP chairman and former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin.
“If we were to have waited for all the CEP members to agree... I think until today that report would still not have been completed. However, in principle, all the members of the CEP agreed with the decisions made by the chairman (in drafting the report),” he said.
Jomo said the report was also drafted in order to assess the previous administration and contained certain criticisms, and if these were revealed to the public, it would seem as though the CEP had made their own conclusions.
“This is why I stress that we need to be careful with such information as not everything can be made public,” he said.
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had said recently that the CEP report was a government matter and should not be made public.
“The CEP was formed to carry out a specific, special task, including investigating (certain issues) and filing reports... whether I receive the reports or otherwise, is my business. The main thing is that they provide the information that I need to make decisions, so this is a government matter,” he said.
The CEP was formed immediately after PH formed the government following its victory in the May 9 general election.
Besides Jomo and Daim, the other members were former Bank Negara governor Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Petronas president and chief executive Tan Sri Hassan Merican and corporate tycoon Robert Kuok.
In the 100 days it existed, CEP met with some 350 different people, including representatives of more than 200 organisations and agencies.