Blast from the Past

This is a statement I issued on 12th June 2001 calling for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Judicial Independence which would also investigate into Justice Muhammad’s shocking expose of telephone directive from a judicial superior to strike out the Likas election petitions without a hearing as well as similar directives to other election judges in Sabah and Sarawak:

(Petaling Jaya, 12.6.2001 Tuesday): Justice Datuk Muhammad Kamil Awang deserves the gratitude of the nation which is seeking to restore national and international confidence in the judiciary for exposing the telephone directive from a judicial superior in September 1999 to strike out the Likas election petitions without a hearing.

Yesterday, Muhammad Kamil said that the Likas election petitions were brought to his court in mid-1999, following the Sabah state general elections on 13th March 1999.

He said that after many preliminary objections were raised by the lawyers, he announced on September 24, 1999 that he was setting aside technical objections in favour of justice.

Muhammad Kamil said: “That started it. That’s when the phone call came.”

He said he told the caller, who had identified himself, to “drop me a note for that” but it never came. The hearing of the petitions then began on Sept 27, 1999.

Muhammad Kamil said he had disclosed the identity of the person to Chief Justice Tan Sri Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah and related the incident to several other judges in Sabah and Sarawak at that time, as they had confided in him that they had also received similar directives from the same person on election petitions before them. There were three other election judges in the two States. Read the rest of this entry »

Tuesday, June 10th, 2008
Borneo Post

High Court judge makes explosive judicial disclosures
By Danny Wong

SIBU: A High Court judge here yesterday made some startling revelations at the commencement of the proceedings of the election petition filed by the DAP candidate for the Sarikei parliamentary seat, Wong Hus She, to declare the result of the March 8 general election for the seat void.

The Barisan Nasional candidate, Ding Kuong Hing, won the seat with a slim majority of 51 votes.

Justice Datuk H C Ian Chin informed the parties in open court that he had certain disclosures to make at the start of the proceedings, saying he was doing so to forestall any complaints that might be made by the parties later.

He said complaints had been made against him in an earlier case that he had failed to disclose the detention of his father and brother during the time of the Mustapha regime in Sabah in late 1969 and the early 1970.

Chin then proceeded to make his disclosure the contents of which could only be described as explosive, coming hot on the heels of the findings of the Royal Commission in the Lingam video tape. Read the rest of this entry »