Zaid Ibrahim's Interview

'I'm here to do the job, not for popularity'
NST - March 23, 2008

Q: Do you have any immediate priorities as you take office?

A: Yes. I'm going to propose to the government that we apologise to Tun Salleh (former Supreme Court Lord President Tun Mohd Salleh Abas) and the judges who had been sacked... and to their families.

I'm not suggesting we re-open the case. I'm saying it's clear to everyone, to the world, that serious transgressions had been committed by the previous administration.

And I believe the prime minister (Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) is big enough and man enough to say that we had done wrong to these people and we are sorry.

Q: So there are no plans to review the case?

A: I think to review would be too painful. I don't want to go into details but I hope this gesture will be sufficient to heal the wounds.

Q: Any other priorities?

A: The way we appoint judges, the way we promote judges, the way we recruit them, I think that will be institutionalised.

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