Ragunath believes the real power to bring about positive change is held by the people. Picture by Choo Choy May
KUALA LUMPUR, April 27 – When Ragunath Kesavan was recently elected as president of the Malaysian Bar Council, his seven-year-old son asked him, “Dad, does that mean all the lawyers have to listen to you?”
Caught off guard, 47-year-old Ragunath laughed and said “No.”
“Then what’s the point, Dad?” the son piped back.
When Ragunath recounted the incident to The Malaysian Insider, there was no doubt he was amused by his son’s blunt perception.
But his son had asked a very valid question, if one that is somewhat painful to the father’s ego: what is the point of being chief if there is no material benefit in doing so?
Especially for Ragunath, who has just marked his first month in his office with a plethora of complaints and criticism from the public. Some have even stooped to calling him derogatory names.
Fortunately for civil society, the new president is driven by principles.
“My position is this: We have benefited from society, that’s why we should give back to society,” he said.
He noted that many legal cases that interested the public were those taken on by lawyers in their youth, which helped enlarge their personal profile later on, besides keeping the Bar going.
As a lawyer with 18 years under his belt, he felt it was only right that he returned the faith placed in the Bar Council and continue its commitment to the pursuit of justice to profit the public.
On his critics, Ragunath had this to say: “Everyone gets criticised. But I believe if you speak responsibly, you should not be concerned about being criticised.”
Invariably, he has been compared to his predecessor, unfairly considering he has only sat in the chief’s chair for one month.
During her two terms as president, Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan had consistently advocated adherence for the rule of law at great personal risk, which earned her an honour as one of the eight “women of substance” from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last month.
Ragunath appeared unruffled by the comparison. As her deputy then, he knew, perhaps better than anyone else, the difficulty she faced in living up to her presidency, which had been filled by other prominent lawyers, from former United Nations Special Rapporteur Param Cumareswamy to Raja Aziz Addruse.
He articulated his admiration for her in no uncertain terms.
“Ambiga has done a great job in engaging the government,” he said, pointing to the present open-door privilege he enjoys now with the current de facto Minister of Law, Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz, which began during the previous prime minister, Tun Abdullah Badawi’s administration.
“I’ve been an office bearer for many years now. The greatest thing about it is that it’s not about one person but that there are 12,500 people supporting you
“My personal view: if you do the right thing, if you do it with the sincerest views, guided by the right principles and have the support of your council and its members, then you’re fine.
“I’m not concerned about profile. I look at myself as a foot soldier. At the end of the day, I’m answerable to the members,” he said.
In the meantime, he has been building on Ambiga’s legacy to enhance the close ties with the authorities. The rapport has enabled the Bar Council to gain access to Bill drafts and give their views on the matter before they are passed into law by Parliament.
Ragunath listed the Bar Council’s proposals to amend the Employment Act and laws on trade unions, land titles (to improve reduction in forgery) among several topics of talks that were well-received by the government.
He notes it was a far cry from Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s rule, when there was a “complete shut-out of the Bar Council”.
There is a whole laundry list of public service work Ragunath wants to lobby for, including pushing for lawyers’ welfare in the face of the government’s opening of the legal sector and amendments on Marriage Laws.
Top of that list however is creating a National Legal Aid Foundation, to provide better access to justice, particularly for the poor and the law-illiterate.
“With the Legal Aid Foundation, I believe we can have a first class judiciary,” he said, adding, “The greater the awareness people have of the law and their rights, the less abuse there is.”
The only bodies providing free legal aid at the moment are the Bar Council’s own pro bono Legal Aid Scheme and the Biro Bantuan Guaman, where lawyers volunteer to represent the poor who would otherwise have no access to legal advice.
Ragunath also hopes to encourage greater participation from the public in understanding the law and its effects on society.
He believes that the people hold the real power in bringing about positive change and he wants to develop their awareness.
With this goal in mind, he is planning more talks, such as the public forum held last Saturday at its headquarters here on the Perak crisis, which featured lawyers Tommy Thomas and Datuk Muhammad Shafee Abdullah and a Perak-born economist from social pressure group Aliran, which gave the public a chance to hear all sides of the arguments.
Ragunath hopes to include more representatives from civil society, especially from Muslim groups, to counter the impression that the Bar Council is anti-Islam and to focus on the escalating inter-religious disputes, particularly those involving Muslim conversion issues.
“There’s a lot of fear, which has caused them to put up walls and in order to take down those walls, we need to start talking to each other,” he explained.
Ragunath on:
– The current Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak: “Good sound bites from him but we’re concerned: would he be able to carry through what he has promised?
In a sense, Najib is not playing it safe. He could do what Pak Lah did but he didn’t. As I said, the sound bites are good, but there is going to be resistance because we have been conditioned for many years that if one community gives something, another community will lose something. Najib’s problem would be to break down these entrenched values and beliefs and deal with the real problem.”
– Religious conversion disputes: “For once, the government has come out with a firm policy. The fact they’ve come out is a huge factor. Previously, there was no cogent effort. They left it to the courts to decide, which had the effect of a blurring of the role between the syariah and civil.
But this requires clarification on where to draw the line. We hope that after this, they will immediately work to do it.
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