Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad has declared that he is prepared to be investigated over allegations he had interfered with the judiciary when he was prime minister.
He said he was not afraid of being investigated and would give his full assistance to the police.
Malaysians hope that Mahathir is sincere and truthful in pledging full co-operation in any such investigation and that he would not do another repeat of the Lingam Videotape Royal Commission of Inquiry where he pleaded a massive attack of loss of his famous elephant memory!
Mahathir should demonstrate his bona fide in wanting the truth about the two decades of judicial darkness to be told and that he has fully recovered his elephant memory by giving details about the “boot camp for judges” which were held during his premiership to indoctrinate judges to be servile and subservient to the government-of-the-day.
The “boot camp for judges” were first revealed by High Court judge Justice Datuk Ian Chin when he revealed that a month after the April 1997 judges’ conference where Mahathir expressed unhappiness over Chin’s decision on a libel suit and an election petition and issued “a thinly veiled threat to remove judges by referring to the tribunal that was set up before”, he was “packed off to boot camp with selected judges and judicial officers to be indoctrinated to hold the view that the government’s interest was more important than all else when considering our judgements”.
How many such “boot camps” to indoctrinate judges to be servile and subservient to the government were held during the last decade of Mahathir’s 22-year premiership and who were the judges who aided and abetted in organising such “boot camps”?
#1 by Tickler on Saturday, 14 June 2008 - 11:59 am
Is it possible that in regards to the Ayer Molek case, Mahathir is not aware of the Court of Appeal’s dicta in that case,”Something is rotten in the State of Denmark”?, despite the extensive coverage given the matter and that dicta?
On the other hand, did Mahathir choose Lingam for the job of defending himself against Anwar’s claim in defamation precisely because Lingam had been reported to be the agent responsible for the rotting of the House of Denmark?
Mahathir must choose between being seen to be very stupid or very cunning.
http://malaysianjudges.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2008-01-18T04%3A06%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=7
#2 by Tickler on Saturday, 14 June 2008 - 12:09 pm
MggPillai (now decd.) wrote 2006-01-28:
Tan Sri Vincent Tan, a friend of the UMNO establishment then but not anymore, took me to court, arranged for a hearing at double-quick time, without my knowledge. I had some lawyer who called me saying he was going to discharge himself if I did not give him any instructions.
That was a Saturday before the Monday of the trial in 1994, and when I first knew I was being sued. I asked the lawyer for proof that I had engaged him. He had none, either from me or the seven other defendants. I went to Mr Karpal Singh, who could only come at the weekend, so I defended myself. In such circumstances where the plaintiff had not given his side of the dispute, there is provision for the plaintiff’s defence to be adduced in open court. I was not allowed to. The judge was hostile from the start. He would not give a postponement so that I could a lawyer of my choice of lawyer “because I would then not be the judge.” We lost. in the Court of Appeal, Mr Justice Sri Ram told Mr Karpal, early in the proceedings, to look out of the windows. He looked, and said he could see nothing. “Well, don’t you see your appeal floating down the window.” We knew then we had lost. But as we were leaving the court building, one of the three judges asked us to look at a certain page of the judgement. We did and gave us the reason to get the permission to appeal to the Federal Court, which we got.
The chief justice, Tun Eusoff Chin, decided he would be part of the three judges, while he was around, who heard permission to appeal. In the Federal Court, Tun Eusoff sat. My lawyer asked that he be recused, but he refused, saying there were not enough judges to go around. This request was made after I had distributed photographs of he and Tan Sri Vincent Tan’s lawyer and their families holidaying in New Zealand. But Tun Eusoff took the view that it did not matter as there was no further appeal. So he thought. I lost again, but I appealed to the Federal Court to reverse itself. But I could do it only after Tun Eusoff retired. I filed the appeal, with a different set of lawyers as Mr Karpal Singh felt the Federal Court would not order what I wanted, shortly before Tun Eusoff was due to be sworn in as governor of Penang. Since he was a party of a court action, he was not appointed. The Federal Court in 2003 said it would rehear my appeal. So far it has not.
This is what ordinary people face.
#3 by Jeffrey on Saturday, 14 June 2008 - 12:57 pm
Re : ///…“This is what ordinary people face..” /// – Tickler & other comments.
Had the Kedah State government, as a matter of historical accident, given Mahathir the scholarship to study law instead of medicine, maybe he might – not sure but just might – acquire a little more understanding of legal precepts and evinced greater respect for the constitutional checks and balance rather than impose his will on every branch of government and all and sundry and the nation might just have taken another course.
I agree that the above is speculative – he might not, even with legal training, turn out different, but the chances might be better.
The ultimate safeguard is not so much the one wields power – for power tends to corrupt those who wield it – but in those like us over whom power is wielded to check and demand for limits to power.
What we Malaysians must from now on learn and condition our thinking to is that if power tends to corrupt those who wield it, then we should be eternally vigilant to scrutinize and check such an exercise of power to ensure that it is wielded substantially for the proper purpose it is vested and intended, and not for extraneous collateral purpose of benefiting the person who wields and his friends and cronies. Here power is not confined to Judicial Power. It can be power of majority in Parliament or in Government (Executive) both Federal and State Level, power of civil servants and uniformed services like police or even corporate power in boardrooms and extra general meeting of shareholders.
However to have an understanding of powers and the proper limits of its exercise, it would behoove us, as laymen, to also acquire a modicum of knowledge of law, rules and regulations governing our lives. It helps to safeguard vigilance of our rights.
#4 by kanthanboy on Saturday, 14 June 2008 - 4:08 pm
Datuk Zaid is not wrong in saying that RCI is a waste of public funds.
Only the AG has the power to prosecute. The AG will just NAFed all RCI reports. Instead of asking for more RCI we should first campaign for the removal of the current AG.
#5 by Godfather on Saturday, 14 June 2008 - 7:25 pm
Jeffrey:
You are asking us to understand the concept of check and balance. You write the checks, credit to my account, and I will check on the balance.
#6 by sonsofsabah on Saturday, 14 June 2008 - 7:58 pm
Malaysian political process to select PM and members of cabinet need to be changed.
1. PM should be selected directly by the people. This will allow him/her to have the actual mandate of the people.
2. There should be clear separation between PM and other branches of govt. ACA, Judiciary, EC and others should report directly to parliament.
I agree PM, DPM, AG and the rest of BN are easily intimidated by Dr. Mahathir especially after they didn’t get the 2/3 majority. However, PM need to show backbone in tackling this problem. Dr. Mahathir has been vocal immediately after BN last election dismal performance. He was loud and tried his best to stay politically relevant, but thanks to the bloggers communities that shut him down period! Power to the bloggers!!! Lately, his dog, Matthias did the barking for him calling for Judge Datuk Ian Chin to resign.
Now, people are coming out of the wood work to voice the abused they experienced during Dr. Mahathir administration. Enough is enough, this is Malaysia, but Zimbabwe…
#7 by catharsis on Saturday, 14 June 2008 - 10:59 pm
IF JUDGES COULD BE INDOCTRINATED AND COWED TO SUBMISSION BY THIS ONE PERSON- THEN WHAT WOULD WE SAY OF THOSE LAW MAKERS, ACADEMIA AND INTELLECTUALS WHO STOOD BY TO WATCH IN SILENCE
#8 by justiciary on Sunday, 15 June 2008 - 6:39 am
That old man’s pitiful and invertebrate running dog has started barking.This type of behaviour befits the chinese saying ‘the eunuch becomes excited and worried instead of the emperor’.
#9 by Neobanchuan on Sunday, 15 June 2008 - 11:55 pm
One of the culture in the administration of this country is that ministers of this country will not ever admit their mistake and yet permitted to speak even louder and challenge those who pointed out their mistakes. I have never seen similar cultures in any other countries apart from Mynmar and North Korea.
#10 by sotong on Monday, 16 June 2008 - 8:11 am
Is the ex-PM prepare to be investigated, if PR is in government and Anwar is the PM?
#11 by Kasim Amat on Monday, 16 June 2008 - 12:32 pm
// Neo Ban Chuan says: “One of the culture in the administration of this country is that ministers of this country will not ever admit their mistake and yet permitted to speak even louder and challenge those who pointed out their mistakes. I have never seen similar cultures in any other countries apart from Mynmar and North Korea.”//
The minister in this country has been appointed based on their qualifications and endorsement by the people. They were appointed from the democratic process. They have used all the care they could before executing any public policy and there is no doubt all the policies are in the best interest of the Rakyat. Are you saying all the Ministers are incapable and keep making mistakes? Please let me know which Minister has made mistakes and what proof do you have?
#12 by donng55 on Tuesday, 17 June 2008 - 9:22 am
Dear Saudara Kasim
There is a world of difference between “using all the care they could before executing any public policy” and “all the policies are executed in the best interest of the rakyat”. The former involves competency and experience while the latter points to honesty and integrity. Agreed?
Examples of incompetency amongst ministers are aplenty. They can be found in the papers (even though they are all government controlled – surely you’re not going to argue on this point as well, right?).
Perhaps you should convince us instead why you think none of the current ministers has made any mistake. You have our ears …
#13 by barble on Monday, 23 June 2008 - 8:50 pm
dear kasim amat,
are you one of that ministers or maybe related to one of those ministers you say care for the people? you must be the biggest CLOWN or PUPPET walking around town believing that ever happened in the history of Malaysian politics since Mahathir was in power even until now that Badawi is power. if you say that the ministers care, why has the people lost faith in the BN government even after 5o years being in power?? they had a lot of years to actually run the country much better and if they had the citizens will not be blogging unsatisfied statements against them. but we do and that is all because all of us here(except you) believes it is high time for to change the government and make way for a new party to rule this country and since this time the people of Malaysia actually picked their MPs then the MPs would really make sure that our votes are made worth while.
unlike the current government, of which if you are BIG crook politicians BN wants you.. because they know you can contribute a lot of money into their pockets PERSONALLY!
omg! kasim amat have u not been reading the newspapers since you were born??? take for example our former minister of education hishamudin, what did he say about the nuisance of mat rempit? that it was a malay culture.. so let me ask you is the nuisance of mat rempit a Malay culture?
and not forgetting malaysians most famous idiot politician SAMYVELLU!! do you need me to give examples on his stupidity after being a minister for so long??? well since you have not read newspaper from the day you were born, i think its high time you do so and maybe catch up really fast if you want to update yourself about the malaysian politics…
#14 by barble on Monday, 23 June 2008 - 9:03 pm
and may i add our judiciary system is a total BIG JOKE to this country.. judges doing whatever they want and cases are being abandoned for a long time.. maybe even forgotten who knows.. it could happen… we need to change the system and let the public be more involve in sentencing a case such as doing jury duties then there would be fairness in our courts and cases will not be hold up so long before brought to court. boot camps for judges could be done a good way such training them to be a better people in judging the wrong and the right, not accepting briberies at all and making sure that they re obligated to give a fare and just ruling to any case presented to them. not because when money is place in front of them a murderer can get away with murder!!