Deputy Minister in Prime Minister’s Department Hanipa Maidin said the ruling government did not have a two-third majority in Parliament and that this was a “clear constraint”.

“But if there is a guarantee (of support) from the opposition side, we are ready (to amend),” he told lawmakers.

He was asked by Hassan Abdul Karim (PH-Pasir Gudang) if the promised separation of powers between the Attorney-General and public prosecutor would be carried out.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had said the move to separate the powers of the public prosecutor and the AG had been postponed as it required amendments to the Federal Constitution.

Meanwhile, Khairy Jamaluddin (BN-Rembau) raised the issue of separation of powers between the judiciary and the executive in the appointment of judges.

“Now the appointment is done through the Judicial Appointments Commission. But the prime minister is not bound to JAC’s decision to appoint a judge.”

Hanipa replied that changes to the method of appointing judges involved constitutional amendments.

“Matters relating to the constitution, we are slow a bit. We are dealing with matters that do not require amendments first,” Hanipa added.

The deputy minister said this was because they had had a bad experience when repealing the Anti-Fake News law where the lower house passed it but senators in the upper house rejected it.