A Judge Indicts the Malaysian Judiciary

Way back 15 years ago, I turned up on the courts beat, as a frightened rookie scribe. Just my luck, I thought, that my first day on the beat and I get to follow my senior into the intimidating Court of Appeal.

The proceedings seemed so hushed that my racing heartbeat seemed louder than the judges’ words. There were three robed blokes up there.

My senior told me who they were. Mahadev Shankar, Gopal Sri Ram and N.H Chan. The names stayed with me over the years.

Today N.H Chan’s name came up again in a brave stand that reminded me of the heydays, of the guy dubbed Lion of Law, Justice Eusoffe Abdoolcader (tragically deceased).

Retired Justice N.H Chan could have shut up and spent his retirement in peace. But such are the ways of the men of conscience. Men who still thought the law should be about upholding justice.

Today, this learned judge stood up to expose, yet again another evidence of the prostitution of the Malaysian judiciary.

The hallowed halls of the judiciary were stained 20 years ago, with the intervention of the executive, but that doesn’t make it any easier for me to read of this mockery. Read it. Here’s a guy who is firing his salvos with such bullets as established legal precedents. LOCAL legal precedents, mind you.

I can’t resist stealing some juicy paragraphs from the link above. This is calling a spade a spade, a rotten judge, well…A ROTTEN JUDGE!

I don’t have to tell you how to judge the judge. You must know by now how to do it if you have read my articles in the Internet. You will know he is a bad judge if he behaves unfairly to one side as against the other. It is your perception as a member of the public that matters and not what the judge thinks of himself.

A judge who does not appear to be fair is useless to the judicial process. As such he is a bad judge and is therefore unfit to sit on the bench. The other essential qualification of a judge is to administer justice according to law. That said, we can now judge this judge.

Article 72, Clause (1) of the Federal Constitution clearly states:

72. (1) The validity of any proceedings in the Legislative Assembly of any State shall not be questioned in any court.

Yet Mr Justice Balia Yusuf Wahi, who knew that the Speaker’s order which was made in the Legislative Assembly was a proceeding in the Legislative Assembly, dismissed the Speaker’s application to strike out the summons of the three turncoat assemblymen who were asking the court to question the validity of what the Speaker had done in the Assembly.

As you know what the Speaker did in the Assembly, rightly or wrongly, is not to be questioned in any court. Isn’t what the judge had done by dismissing the Speaker’s application to strike out the turncoats’ summons, not administering justice according to law? The judge had gone against the Constitution of Malaysia which is the supreme law of the land. What do you call a judge who has defied the law of the land? A renegade judge? - The Malaysian Insider

So, what Justice N.H Chan is saying essentially is that Justice Balia Yusuf Wahi has gone against the Malaysian Constitution.

According to our laws essentially, the Perak Speaker’s decision in Assembly is not something that can be challenged by any court. Justice Balia Wahi effectively ruled he can.

Bad judgement. Bad judge. Dangerous precedent. Taking the Malaysia Boleh spirit to murky depths don’t you think?

I’m no legal scholar. I’m an interested layman. What this tells me is that if an elected representative of the people, that too a Legislative Assembly Speaker (and himself a lawyer), can’t depend on the judiciary to uphold the letter of law, and justice, WHAT HOPE DOES AN ORDINARY MALAYSIAN HAVE?

Cry, Malaysia! This is the depths our so-called guardians of peace, freedom and democracy have reduced to. Right-minded individuals, pillars of society, people who stand up to question the wrongs committed, are sued, intimidated or bribed into silence.

And those who still won’t keep quiet, will have their compromising pictures circulated or be victim of sting operations. Hey, we have demonstrated that Malaysians are way up there with the world’s best when it comes to political skullduggery.

I don’t want this shameful state of affairs to continue. Neither do millions of Malaysians who voted the other way last year.

We have no other recourse but to seek change through the ballot box. 82 seats in Parliament has resulted in many cans of worms being opened. There are more, much much more.

All these wrongs have to be righted. They can only be righted if you choose to participate as citizens. Go and register as voters. And vote for change.

This country deserves much better.

link:- http://dansemacabre.wordpress.com/2009/04/16/a-judge-indicts-the-malaysian-judiciary/