Archive for category Judiciary
Umno and BN’s post-March 8 schizophrenia
Umno and Barisan Nasional leaders should end its post-March 8 schizophrenia – claiming to have finally heard the voice of the people and yet still refusing to “walk the talk” of reforms like closing down the Tamil daily Makkal Osai, continued detention of Hindraf leaders under the Internal Security Act (ISA) and stonewalling the proposal for an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) to create an efficient, incorruptible, professional world-class police service to keep crime low and make the country safe for Malaysians, visitors and investors.
Such political schizophrenia seizing Umno and Barisan Nasional has become a daily staple in the mass media, as illustrated by the following two headlines today:
• Najib tells BN: Win over support from non-Malays (NST);
• Makkal Osai loses licence – Tamil daily’s application rejected (The Star)
Has it occurred to the Umno and Barisan Nasional leadership, including the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, that the best way to ensure that the Barisan Nasional will lose even more support from the non-Malays are high-handed, arrogant and undemocratic actions like the closure of Makkal Osai, the refusal to release the five Hindraf leaders, P. Uthayakumar, newly-elected Selangor DAP State Assemblyman for Kota Alam Shah A. Manoharan, V. Ganabatirau, R. Kenghadharan and T. Vasantha Kumar or refusal to give Uthayakumar the best medical treatment while under ISA detention?
In fact, such political arrogance and contempt for human rights will also offend all right-thinking and justice-loving Malays, as illustrated by the March 8 “political tsunami” which saw Malaysians voting across racial and religious divides. Read the rest of this entry »
DAP welcomes signs of imminent judicial reforms
Posted by Kit in Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Judiciary on Wednesday, 16 April 2008
DAP welcomes developments indicating that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is finally prepared to carry out long-overdue reforms to take the first step to restore national and international confidence in the independence, impartiality, integrity and quality of the judiciary.
I have been calling for judicial reforms both in and outside Parliament in the past two decades when the country reeled from one judiciary crisis to another since the “Mother of Judicial Crisis” in 1988 with the arbitrary sacking of Tun Salleh Abas as Lord President and two Supreme Court Judges, the late Tan Sri Wan Suleiman Pawanteh and Datuk George Seah as Supreme Court judges, and the victimization of independent-minded judges.
Abdullah should not take half-hearted measures but must initiate far-reaching judicial reforms to restore the Malaysian judiciary to its world-class pedestal which it had enjoyed since Independence in 1957 until two decades ago. Read the rest of this entry »
Questions about the charging of ex-sessions judge for falsifying document
Last Friday, former sessions court judge Zunaidah Mohd Idris was produced in the Raub sessions court where she had sat as presiding judge from 2004 to 2005 and charged with falsifying a document written by magistrate Nurul Mardhiah Redza in relation to a drug case in the magistrate’s court.
Zunaidah, 48, pleaded not guilty to committing the offence in her chambers on Sept. 14, 2005.
If convicted, Zunaidah can be sentenced to seven years’ jail and fined. She was released on RM2,000 bail and the hearing fixed for July 8.
Without getting into the merits of the charge, the prosecution handling of the case has raised questions.
Firstly, deputy public prosecutor Mohamad Hanafiah Zakaria told the court the prosecution would be conducted by prosecution division head of the Attorney-General’s Chambers Datuk Mohd Yusof Zainal Abiden.
This has raised eyebrows and question why the head of the Attorney-General’s Chambers is conducting the prosecution of this comparatively minor case when neither he nor the Attorney-General is conducting the prosecution in the high-profile Mongolian Altantunya Shariibuu murder trial with its far reaching political and good governance implications. Read the rest of this entry »
Pakatan Rakyat MPs will support judicial and other belated institutional reforms
Posted by Kit in Judiciary, Parliament on Monday, 14 April 2008
(Speech at the DAP Public Ceramah/Consultation with DAP MPs/State Excos in Sri Kembangan at the Seri Kembangan Dewan Serbaguna on Sunday, April 13, 2008)
During the 2008 general election campaign, the “kingmaker” of the Abdullah administration, the Prime Minister’s son-in-law Khairy Jamaluddin vowed to destroy the Opposition. In the end, he nearly destroyed Umno and Barisan Nasional.
Umno Information chief and newly-resurrected Minister for Rural and Regional Development, Muhd Muhammad Taib, has admitted that the arrogance of some Umno leaders was to be blamed for the Barisan Nasional’s poor performance in the March polls.
In fact, it it not “some” but most Umno leaders who were arrogant while some, like Khairy, were “very” and insufferably arrogant!
The pressure is on in Umno for Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to assume full responsibility for the March 8 “political tsunami” and to step down as Prime Minister.
The biggest question today is how long Abdullah can survive as Prime Minister, whether until after the Umno polls in December or whether he will have to step down even earlier, with former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad leading the campaign to demand that his successor should vacate Sri Perdana immediately.
The future of Abdullah as Umno President and Prime Minister of Malaysia will have to be decided by the internal politics of Umno, but Malaysians are entitled to know whether there is the political will to honour the post-election statements by Abdullah and other Barisan Nasional leaders that they have finally heard the voices of the people and would belatedly implement the pledges of reform made in the 2004 general election – that the new 12th Parliament would open at the end of the month with a full parliamentary agenda of wide-ranging reforms! Read the rest of this entry »
Judicial renaissance – start with retirement of judges who deliver “cut-n-paste” judgments or those written by others
Let the annual conference of judges this year, held after the March 8 “political tsunami”, be really different from the annual conferences of judges in the past two decades – when the judiciary except for a very brief period was smothered by a cloud of denial that it had increasingly lost national and international confidence in its independence, integrity and competence with one judicial crisis after another.
The most infamous Judges’ Conference was the one held in Kuching in March 1996 where the then Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohtar Abdullah shocked Malaysians with the revelation of a 33-page poison-pen letter which made 112 allegations of corruption, abuses of power and misconduct against 12 judges, together with his directive to the police to launch investigations to “ferret out” and “bring to justice” the “conspirators” and “brutish beasts” so as to strike “at the venomous elements who are out to discredit the judiciary and subvert justice in our beloved country”. Read the rest of this entry »
Abdullah found belated political will or just “reform sloganeering” against Mahathir?
Posted by Kit in Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Judiciary, Police on Tuesday, 8 April 2008
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said in Kota Kinabalu yesterday that the reforms promised by Barisan Nasional in its election manifesto will be aggressively pursued.
He said it should be noted that the reforms in the judiciary and police began when he was appointed prime minister and there had been no let up since.
Abdullah said he would not run away from his responsibility of continuing with the reforms despite BN not securing a two-thirds majority in the recent general election and that the effort to fight corruption would also be continued.
He said: “I have implemented many things since I became prime minister but I recognize that people are still not happy.”
Malaysians react with mixed feelings to Abdullah’s promise that there will be no let-up on reforms.
The question Malaysians are asking is whether the Prime Minister will go full steam in reforms to make up for the lost four years or he is just “reform sloganeering” in his open war with his nemesis, Tun Dr. Mahathir. Read the rest of this entry »
Public inquiry into several billions of ringgit of Wang Ehsan “black gold” expenditures in Terengganu
Posted by Kit in Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Good Governance, Judiciary on Friday, 28 March 2008
The constitutional crisis in Terengganu over the appointment of Datuk Ahmad Said as the new Mentri Besar has come to an end with the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi backing off from his original nominee of the former Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh.
As a result, the front-page article of former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad in The Sun on “Role of rulers in picking mentri besar” has been overtaken by events.
However, Mahathir’s views on two ongoing controversies – Wang Ehsan and the judicial crisis – are very pertinent.
On the Wang Ehsan issue, Mahathir wrote:
Terengganu is blessed with petroleum deposits. It should get 5% of the total earning from oil production. The Federal Government; fearing the previous PAS government might use this money wrongly had withheld payment.
But when the Barisan Nasional (BN) regained Terengganu the money, now called “Wang Ehsan”, was lavishly spent by the Federal Government on Terengganu. It is not a small sum. Over these years “Wang Ehsan” totalled several billion.
We know that since the BN regained Terengganu in 2004, all kinds of projects have been developed in Terengganu. This includes The Monsoon Cup, luxury housing for sale to foreigners, Crystal Mosque and theme park, university, etc. Some of these projects are very good but many are totally unnecessary and wasteful.
But what the Terengganu people are saying is that all these mega projects costing billions of Ringgit have been contracted out to people outside Terengganu. Terengganu contractors got practically nothing.
But additionally, they say the contracts all went to one person and they are suspicious that behind this person are members of the first family.The rumours also say that the previous Mentri Besar was responsible for these things happening and of course, they think that he might have benefited financially.
The rumours went on to say that the Prime Minister might have influenced the Mentri Besar into doing wrong things. These are all rumours. It will be quite impossible to prove anything as the perpetrators are skilled in hiding themselves.
This is not good for a Government keen to abolish corruption and be transparent. To clear its name, an investigation should be made.
With former Prime Minister Mahathir coming round to the view that there should be an investigation into the expenditures of Wang Ehsan, Abdullah should take up the challenge to institute a public inquiry on accountability and integrity of expenditures of several billions of ringgit of “black gold” through Wang Ehsan in Terengganu in the past seven years since 2000. Read the rest of this entry »
Shanty Chong will be ideal Chairperson of Parliamentary Select Committee for Independence and Integrity of Judiciary
Over a thouand people at the DAP Sandakan ceramah last night for our parliamentary candidate and two State Assembly candidates in the Sandakan area.
DAP parliamentary candidate for Sandakan, Shanty Chong delivered her maiden political speech – humorous but hard-hitting which will strike fear and terror among erring Barisan Nasional leaders.
She had served 17 years in the judical service and very few can compare with her in integrity as nobody could or would doubt her incorruptibility.
No time to write more, except to record that I announced that she would make an ideal choice as Chairperson of a Parliamentary Select Committee on Independence and Integrity of the Judiciary in the new Parliament.
Lingam Tape RCI – Subpoena Syed Ahmad Idid
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Judiciary on Thursday, 14 February 2008
RCI Lingam Tape – subpoena Syed Ahmad Idid on 112 corruption allegations against 12 judges in 1996
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Judiciary on Monday, 11 February 2008
The testimony by the 13th witness to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Lingam Tape, Thirunama Karasu, the estranged brother of the “star” of the inquiry, senior lawyer V.K. Lingam, about bribery and corruption of judges including the then Chief Justice, of free gifts, handphones, cash and other goodies to judges in 1996 would have reminded political leaders, Parliamentarians, judges and lawyers of the notorious “Ides of March” speech in 1996, when the then Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohtar Abdullah shocked Malaysians with the revelation of a 33-page poison-pen letter which made 112 allegations of corruption, abuses of power and misconduct against 12 judges at the Conference of Judges in Kuching in March 1996.
Publicly issuing a directive to the police to launch investigations to “ferret out” and “bring to justice” the “conspirators” and “brutish beasts”, Mohtar Abdullah said:
“The investigation is aimed at striking at the venomous elements who are out to discredit the judiciary and subvert justice in our beloved country.
“As Attorney-General and Public Prosecutor, it is my duty and responsibility to ensure that the judiciary and the legal profession be cleansed of these treacherous elements who, by their vile, insidious, devious and scurrilous allegations in this pamphlet had sought to undermine the integrity of the judiciary and the administration of justice in this country.
“Today is the Ides of March. But unlike that fateful day in ancient Rome, when brutish beasts succeeded in killing Caesar, today we launch this pre-emptive strike at these conspirators and Insya Allah, we will ferret them out, whoever they are, and bring them to justice.” Read the rest of this entry »
“He was the chief justice that the country should not have, but had”
The report of the expected six-month extension of Datuk Abdul Hamid Mohamad’s tenure as Chief Justice from April 18 to Oct 17 this year is the only bright spark in a desolate wasteland of the judiciary highlighted by three weeks of public hearing of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Lingam Tape.
After the three-week public hearing of the RCI into the Lingam Tape, the integrity, honour and reputation of the previous four highest judicial officers of the land – the occupant of the office of Chief Justice previously known as Lord President – spanning two decades had been dragged through the mud.
Nobody would dared imagine just one month ago that national and international confidence in the judiciary, which has reached unprecedented lows in the past two decades, could plumb new depths – but this is what happened since the RCI public hearing on 14th January 2008.
Last Thursday, a glowing tribute was rightly given to the former Court of Appeal President, Tan Sri Abdul Malek Ahmad by retired Court of Appeal judge K. C. Vohrah who said: “He was the chief justice that the country should have, but never had”.
Unfortunately, there are more than two persons whom Malaysians could rightly point to and say: “He was the chief justice that the country should not have, but had.”
It is most fortunate that Abdul Hamid is now the Chief Justice as he could hold his head high as the highest judicial officer of the land despite the judicial mud exposed to public light in the past three weeks. Read the rest of this entry »
Dr. Basmullah’s jailing – is Ka Ting the worst Acting Health Minister in nation’s history?
I am here with Norliza binti Hassan, 44, wife of Dr. Basmullah Yusoff – the first doctor be to criminalized and jailed under the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act (PHFSA) – her counsel Karpal Singh (DAP National Chairman) and Dr. Lo’Lo Mohd Gazali, Dr. Basmullah’s medical colleague (PAS Wanita leader) for an application to the High Court to get Dr. Basmullah out of Kajang Prison.
Two days ago, New Sunday Times quoted former Health Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Chua Soi Lek as asking the medical fraternity not to blame him for the jailing of Dr. Basmullah who failed to register his clinic under the PHFSA 1998.
Chua said the PHFSA was never intended to criminalize doctors. He said PHFSA, which came into force on May 1, 2006 when he was Health Minister, was intended to weed out bogus doctors who posed a threat to public health and safety.
Now that a qualified doctor, who has an annual practicing certificate issued by the Malaysian Medical Council has been criminalized and sentenced to three months jail for his inability to pay RM120,000 fine, why has Chua failed to speak up firstly, to admit that the enforcement of the PHFSA should be suspended until there is iron-clad guarantee that there would not be another case of criminalizing of a doctor like that of Dr. Basmullah; and secondly, that it is grossly unjust for Dr. Basmullah to spend another day in jail.
Dr. Basmullah has been jailed for 18 days which is equivalent to paying a fine of over RM24,000 – which is already too hefty a fine for a technical offence committed by Dr. Basmullah.
Is Chua prepared to publicly state that as Dr. Basmullah has paid an equivalent of over RM24,000 fine in serving 18 day’s jail sentence, justice demand that he be released immediately without any extra day in Kajang Prison?
I am very disappointed that for more than two weeks, there has been deafening silence from the Acting Health Minister, Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting on the Dr. Basmullah case – whether he is utterly indifferent about the sufferings imposed on the father of eight or whether he is totally lost as to how to rectify the injustice suffered by Dr. Basmullah. Read the rest of this entry »
Will public support Court action to uphold “caretaker government” concept once Parliament dissolved?
Posted by Kit in Election, Good Governance, Judiciary on Saturday, 2 February 2008
Media Conference Statement(2) by Parliamentary Opposition Leader and DAP MP for Ipoh Timur at the start of a two-day whistle-stop campaign in Perak to launch the second DAP general election theme on “Say no to corruption and rising prices” at the Pokok Assam market, Taiping on Saturday, 2nd February 2008 at 9 am:
Mulling legal suit for court declaration on caretaker government once Parliament is dissolved to prevent abuses of power by Prime Minister and Cabinet Ministers in misuse of government resources and funds for BN electioneering
The Cabinet on Wednesday spent three hours discussing the next general election – a gross abuse of government resources as well as another shocking example of the failure and increasing inability of government leaders to respect the important distinctions among the government, party and personal which is the root cause of rampant corruption in Malaysia.
I want to ask the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi whether in the three-hour Cabinet meeting on the next general election, he had issued a clear directive to all the Ministers that they should set an example of ethics and integrity once Parliament is dissolved, and should not abuse their “caretaker” responsibilities to abuse government positions, resources, manpower and funds for Barisan Nasional electioneering purposes. Read the rest of this entry »
Dr. Basmullah’s jailing – Ismail Merican inconsiderate, callous, heartless and unbecoming of top civil servant
The comment by the Director-General of Health Tan Sri Dr. Ismail Merican that Dr. Basmullah Yusom, the first doctor to be jailed under the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act 1998 preferred jail to paying the RM120,000 fine in instalments is most inconsiderate, callous, heartless and totally unbecoming of a top civil servant.
New Straits Times today quoted Dr. Ismail as saying that Dr. Basmullah “declined the Health Ministry’s offer to stay out of jail”.
He said the offer was made to the doctor by the ministry’s prosecuting officer.
Dr. Ismail said: “It’s not that we do not care for doctors or are unsympathetic to them.”
If Dr. Ismail really “care” or sympathetic to doctors, how could he use language which is so inconsiderate, callous and heartless?
From Dr. Ismail’s account, it would appear that Dr. Basmullah is a pervert who prefers to go to jail instead of enjoying his personal freedom outside prison!
Dr. Ismail went on to say that if Dr. Basmullah feels he has been harshly sentenced by the Sessions Court, he has the right to appeal to a higher court.
I am just shocked and outraged beyond belief that even up till now, Dr. Ismail does not see or accept that Dr. Basmullah just do not have the means to hire counsel to appeal against the sentence of RM120,000 fine or three months’ jail – when he had not been able to afford the expenses to retain counsel to represent him at the Sessions Court or to take up the “offer” to pay the hefty RM120,000 fine by instalments.
This is why Dr. Basmullah is in jail in Kajang Prison for the past two weeks – creating outrage to the extent that a online “Don’t Jail Doctors Blog Campaign” has been launched.
Many are asking why is the system of justice in Malaysia is so perverted that a doctor could be jailed for not registering his clinic although he has the annual practicing certificate of a medical practitioner, while criminals whether the corrupt or those guilty of heinous crimes can get away scot-free, moving freely in society! Read the rest of this entry »
Dr. Basmullah in Kajang Prison – Karpal takes up case pro bono publico
DAP National Chairman Karpal Singh will take up the case of Dr. Basmullah Yusom, 44, the first doctor to be jailed under a technicality under the Private Health Facilities and Services Act (PHFSA) 1998 as pro bono publico to get him released from Kajang Prison.
As reported by New Straits Times on 19th November 2008, Dr. Basmullah has earned the dubious reputation of being the first person to be convicted under the PHFSA for not registering his 10-year-old clinic in Desa Pandan, Kuala Lumpur.
Fined RM120,000 or three months jail, Dr. Basmullah had been languishing in Kajang Prison for the past fortnight as he does not have the money to pay the fine.
In Penang on Sunday, I had called on the Attorney-General, Tan Sri Gani Patail to intervene in this case of grave injustice and to invoke the revisionary powers inherent in his office to call up Dr. Basmullah’s case to get the Univeristi Sains Malaysia (USM)-trained doctor and father of eight out of jail without any moment of delay.
Alternatively, I had also called on the Chief Judge of Malaya or the Chief Justice of Malaysia to invoke their revisionary powers to call up the case to quash the jail sentence imposed on Dr. Basmullah.
Unfortunately, there has been no response whatsoever from the Attorney-General’s Office or the judiciary.
This was why DAP MP for Ipoh Barat, M. Kulasegaran and I visited Kajang Prisons two days ago where we received confirmation that Dr. Basmullah was serving his jail sentence although we did not get to see him.
I have since been in contact with Dr. Basmullah’s wife, Nurlizah Hassan, who also met Karpal over Dr. Basmullah’s jail term. Read the rest of this entry »
Mahathir should be recalled to Lingam Tape RCI now that he has recovered his “elephant memory”
Former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad has clearly recovered his “elephant memory” from his comments on the death of former Indonesian President Suharto.
Mahathir told Bernama that accounts the former Indonesian leader killed some 500,000 people after taking power in 1965 were “absolute nonsense”.
He said: “I know this for a fact. I knew what happened. Indonesia was in a state of anarchy then and he has no authority. At the time of the killings, he was not even the president. He did not order the killing.”
Mahathir, who ruled for two decades before stepping down in 2003, said he regarded Suharto as a friend of Malaysia and a personal friend.
“We looked up to him as a great leader and as an international statesman. For me, it’s quite personal. I know him and I have worked with him for a very long time.
“Even though Indonesia was not an ideal democracy during Suharto’s time, the fact remained that he brought stability to Indonesia.”
Mahathir added: “Of course, there is a price to be paid,” acknowledging that some people had suffered under Suharto’s administration.
Without getting into a debate on Mahathir’s assessment of Suharto’s leadership of Indonesia, it is good to see Mahathir’s recovery from his recent lapse of memory. He gave his comments on Suharto with confidence and authority, in total command of his memory.
This was very unlike his appearance before the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on Lingam Tape eleven days ago on January 17, when he had to repeatedly plead loss of memory in his 90-minute testimony.
Read the rest of this entry »
Do we need a RCI on RCI on Lingam Tape to restore confidence in judiciary?
The second-week proceedings of the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into the Lingam Tape has delivered three body blows undermining the commission’s public credibility as an independent and fearless agency to restore national and international confidence in the independence, integrity and quality of the Malaysian judiciary.
The first blow stems from the continued testimony of senior lawyer V. K.Lingam, coming on the heels of former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and former Chief Justice Tun Eusoff Chin, turning the Royal Commission of Inquiry into a public circus to the extent that a Malaysian quiz could be created to ask who had respectively been responsible for the following unforgettable words:
“Correct, correct, correct”;
“No, No, No”;
“Coincidence, coincidence, coincidence”; and
“Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit”.
Malaysians are astounded as to how the Royal Commission of Inquiry had allowed the “star witness” of the “it looks like me, it sounds like me but I will not say 100% that it’s me” quote to turn it into a circus – reflecting adversely not just on Lingam but even more seriously, on all the five Commissioners.
The language used by Lingam in his testimony at the RCI on Lingam Tape was unprecedentedly offensive in any court or public hearing – and which would have been disallowed as “unparliamentary” in Parliament. In fact, the language used was so unprintable for polite society that two leading dailies had to use asterisks for part of the word instead of printing it in full! Read the rest of this entry »
Will RCI get infamy of being a “It looks like me, it sounds like me” royal commission?
Senior lawyer V.K. Lingam has probably coined the quote of the century with his “It looks like me and it sounds like me” statement to the Royal Commission of Inquiry hearing yesterday.
What is even more serious, the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Lingam Tape may forever be known as a “It looks like me and its sounds like me” Royal Commission unless it can shake off the infamy of being dismissed as a “cover-up” commission.
After the scandalous competition between former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and former Chief Justice, Tun Eusuff Chin to out-forget each other in their testimony before the Royal Commission of Inquiry last week, it would be hard-put for anyone to out-scandalise the public – but Lingam was clearly up to the task in putting the two Tuns in the shade!
Lingam has applied to expunge all evidence tendered at the Royal Commission of Inquiry on the New Zealand holiday in 1994 taken by him and then Chief Justice Eusoff Chin at last week’s Royal Commission of Inquiry on the ground that they were irrelevant to the scope of the inquiry.
The Royal Commission of Inquiry will decide tomorrow after hearing submissions by lawyers representing various concerned parties.
Whether Lingam’s application to expunge the evidence on his holidaying with Eusoff Chin in New Zealand in 1994 from the Royal Commission of Inquiry succeeds or otherwise, nothing can expunge Eusoff’s testimony from public mind and memory, for they are most pertinent to explain why the state of the judiciary is in such a sorry state, plunging from one crisis of confidence to another about its independence, integrity and competence in the past 19 years.
Even if Eusoff’s evidence before the Royal Commission of Inquiry is expunged from the Royal Commission proceedings, they cannot be expurgated from the public mind and Eusoff owes the nation a full responsibility to come forward to fully account for his integrity as Chief Justice during the period when he held the highest judicial post in the land. Read the rest of this entry »
RCI on Lingam Tape: Boys Sent To Do The Job of Men
Posted by Kit in Bakri Musa, Judiciary on Tuesday, 22 January 2008
by M. Bakri Musa
Regardless of the outcome of the Royal Commission of Inquiry on the “Lingam Videotape,” these public hearings have already given us a rare and instructive glimpse on the inner workings of our government at the highest levels, and of the caliber of individuals in such positions.
This is also clearly demonstrated by the commissioners themselves. Their individual impressive credentials notwithstanding, they are merely boys sent to do the job of men.
In forcing Prime Minister Abdullah to convene this Royal Commission, Anwar Ibrahim has done a great service to the nation. Malaysia owes a huge debt of gratitude to him, as well as to the son of businessman Loh Mui Fah for having the foresight to tape that infamous conversation in the first place, and to the anonymous individual who subsequently gave that tape to Anwar.
The alternative media, in particular Malaysiakini and Malaysia Today, together with various bloggers and members of non-governmental entities, helped ensure that the evolving scandal was not conveniently ignored by the government. The mainstream media were, as usual, irrelevant. They not only missed this most important story but tried initially to dismiss it. Read the rest of this entry »
Lingam tape RCI competition for “I cannot remember” – Mahathir 14 times, Eusoff Chin 18 times in mid-testimony
The first five days of the public hearings of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Lingam Videotape should have been the first step to restore national pride and confidence in the excellence and integrity of national institutions, in particular the independence, integrity and quality of the judiciary which in the past 19 years had plunged from international esteem to become a global laughing stock.
However, this was not to be, and the first five days of the Royal Commission hearings were painful days for national pride and honour.
It had been a sad and a great ordeal to all Malaysians to see top national leaders like the longest-serving Prime Minister for 22 years, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and former Chief justice, Tun Eusuff Chin competing with each other in selective amnesia at the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Lingam Tape.
A quick count showed that Mahathir said “I cannot remember” or its equivalent 14 times during his 90-minute testimony before the Royal Commission on Wednesday while Eusuff Chin said “I cannot remember” or its equivalent 18 times in his half-testimony yesterday – with the former Chief Justice testimony adjourned to next week to allow him to seek legal representation and engage legal counsel!
Malaysians still do not believe that Mahathir has become so forgetful that he had to invoke the “I cannot remember” mantra 14 times in his short testimony especially as Mahathir is still famed for his poem, Melayu Muda Lupa. Is Mahathir proving himself right with his sudden forgetfulness?
As a commentator on my blog has pointed out, the Malaysian public is aghast as Mahathir’s testimony because of the public perception that Mahathir has an elephant memory (that an elephant never forgets), especially as Mahathir has a reputation for remembering details others could scantly recall as illustrated by his mastery to recall effortlessly details of Rafidah Aziz’s excesses in the AP scandal without any prodding. Read the rest of this entry »
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