PM announcement on Judicial Appointment

While chatting in the court canteen with Mr. Ng Kong Peng (Malacca Bar Chairman & Partner of KP Ng & Amardas), Mr. Kee Tong Kiak and Mr. Wong Fook Meng (Partners of Chee Siah Le Kee & Partners), Mr. Surendran (Partner in JS Gill & Surendran) and Mr. Tony Choo (Kesavan & Associates) we anticipate that the night dinner meeting organised by the Malaysian Bar and the government of Malaysia would be exciting.

Of course, since it is just a chat and a lot of wishful thinking on what is going to happen during the dinner, we even go as far as tembaking that the famous lawyer Mr. Karpal Singh be appointed as Attorney General, Tun Mahatir will face a Judicial Commission of Inquiry to the Tun Salleh's episode, the PM will apologised for the attack on the judiciary in 1988, a formation of Judicial Inquiry on Independence of Judiciary, the Commission for the appointment of Judiciary etc.

Haha that is what we want. And YES we enjoy these cakap-cakap angin. We love wind and tsunami such as the recent political tsunami.

So after all the talks, reality sets in as the Prime Minister has just announced that the government plans to set up a Judicial Appointments Commission that would make the process of nominating, appointing and promoting judges more transparent and representative. The Prime Minister after losing it's 2/3 in Parliament vowed that the government is committed to the rakyat that it will begin a process of judicial reform. He even went further to state that the government recognise that the process of appointment must be undertaken with the spirit and belief that no one, not even those entrusted to govern or to make laws, must assume to be above the law.

The VK Lingam videotape saga not only put our judiciary in a very bad light but worst still Malaysia as a whole. I am so embarrassed with what had happened. I still remember when my other professional friends from the accounting and engineering streams would even laugh at me and just say, SEE THIS IS MALAYSIAN LAWYERS AND JUDGES. With this announcement at least I feel a little vindicated. Not for myself but the legal profession and the judiciary as a whole.

Well though I am happy with such proclamation, I hope that the Prime Minister this round will WALK THE TALK instead of TALK THE TALK. Seriously we are already fed up with all the empty promises made by the government. 92% in Parliament since 2004 made the BN government truly arrogant. Now after the general election, and for the first time in the 50 years history of our country, BN was shaken and made powerless for the first time.

It is our hope that Malaysians will never again see the demise of the judiciary in the years to come. All of us MUST protect this very dignity the judiciary once had.