Tommy Thomas appointed as new Attorney General of Malaysia

Tommy Thomas, an ethnic Indian Christian lawyer, has been appointed as the new attorney general of Malaysia. He succeeded Mohamad Apandi Ali. Tommy is the first practising lawyer to be appointed directly from the Malaysian Bar to be the attorney general, and the first non-Malay and non-Muslim Malaysian to hold this post. The appointment has been approved by Malaysia’s king Sultan Muhammad V, amid protests from Islamic groups that the job must be held by a Muslim. Thus, he became the first person from a minority community to hold the post since Malaysia was formed in 1963.