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. COURT DECISION AGAINST SPEAKER: ‘IT’S INTERFERENCE’ |  |  |  |
(The Star) - The judiciary has now interfered with the legislative powers of the Perak State Assembly and its Speaker, said former state senior executive council (exco) member Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham. He was responding to Federal Court’s decision Thursday that Speaker V. Sivakumar did not have the power to suspend Mentri Besar Datuk Dr Zambry Abd Kadir and his six exco members from the assembly. “The court has set a precedent as now whatever the Speaker says or do can be subject to review in the court,” he said. Saying that the legislative assembly can ignore the court’s decision as it is only a declaration, Ngeh said: “The court is expressing an opinion about the legislative assembly while the state assembly has clear rules on governing itself.” Ngeh claimed that the court’s decision had created more confusion. “When there is a political problem, it must be solved through political means,” he said, noting that the decision on who should be the rightful government of the day must be decided by people and the court cannot usurp that power. “As far as we are concerned the Speaker’s power is paramount. He will exercise his power as a Speaker,” he added. In Kota Baru, Kelantan Mentri Besar Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat said the crisis in Perak could only end with a state election. “I cannot exclude that the people may get frustrated and take matters into their hands and by that time things may be too late. “The Barisan Government ... should have used the proper channel by going back to the people,” he told reporters after officiating a fund to refurbish the Al-Muhlisin mosque at Jalan Hospital here Thursday. The old robed ones on the hallowed benches are saying “balls!” to the Gordon Brown Labour Administration in the United Kingdom. From The Guardian The government was censured over its anti-terror laws in the courts again yesterday when a judge ruled that five men had had their assets frozen unlawfully after being labelled terrorists by the Treasury. The five, all British nationals, have never been convicted of any terrorist offence and said the orders had had a “humiliating and devastating” effect. Mr Justice Collins, sitting at the high court in London, ruled in favour of the men, saying a “fair and just” consideration of who should have their assets frozen was impossible in most cases. He said that the government had bypassed scrutiny by parliament in introducing the orders. Judges are all that stand between you and hostile government should the government choose to make life shitty for you. Don’t you think they are a very crucial means of checking a hawkish government? I know there are pros and cons to the decision above, but hey, the judge said it was unconstitutional didn’t he? He knows what he’s talking about. That he made that decision while living in a country that is an Al Qaeda target and has been subject to acts of terror, would tell you something about upholding the spirit of the law and justice through the most trying times. We certainly have something to learn from these lions of the law. You know guys, we had some too. Let’s bring them back. |
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