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Contributed by Kuala Lumpur Bar Young Lawyers Committee

You have a say in determining who would be the decision-makers of the body governing our profession!

Yes, it is once again the time for the Bar Council Elections and you, yes YOU will be electing the candidates vying for seats on the Council for the 2011/2012 term.

This time around, there is a new reason for excitement. The Kuala Lumpur Bar Young Lawyers Committee (“KLYLC”) embarked on a new initiative called the ‘Candidate Watch’.

Essentially, the ‘Candidate Watch’ campaign hopes to provide members of the Bar with the opportunity to know and understand the candidates that have offered themselves in the Elections, up-close and better.

We understand that the Malaysian Bar, being a body that boasts a membership of approximately 13,000 members in strength, typically only received about 3,000 returned ballot papers. This translates to a mere 23% of the members of the Bar who actually exercise their right to vote – miserable figures indeed!

One of the major reasons given for the poor turnout is that members face difficulties in trying to decide who to elect as they may not know a candidate well enough or even feel affected by the outcome of the Elections, whatever it may be.

Hence, the ‘Candidate Watch’ will attempt to help members of the Bar, particularly young lawyers, to understand the candidates better, as well as to increase their awareness in respect of the Bar Council elections.

The methodology of this campaign is simple. Once the list of candidates running in the upcoming Elections is released by the Bar Council Secretariat, each candidate will be posed a set of questions. The list of questions will be sent to the candidates via post, fax and email and each candidate will be given a week to respond. Upon collating the replies from each candidate who responded to the questions, it would then be reproduced in their original form (i.e. no editing would be carried out) on the Bar website.

The KLYLC hopes that this inaugural initiative would serve as a platform for all members of the Bar, especially the young lawyers, to be more receptive towards and actively participate in the Bar Council Elections. With this, we believe that all members of the Bar would be able to make a more informed decision and have their voices heard in the Bar Council.

So, before you send in your ballot papers to the Bar Council, do wait for your candidates’ responses to the 7 questions!