News Bar News/Berita Badan Peguam More than 80% of those polled want an EGM 
| More than 80% of those polled want an EGM |
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| Monday, 03 September 2007 12:01am | |
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On the other hand, 79 members or 15.4% voted against it whilst 7 of them or 1.36% said they were not sure of which way the Council should take. The online poll was called on August 25 after the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Datuk Dr Abdullah Zin was reported to have said on August 23 that any move to use Syariah law to replace the English common law in court proceedings should be done in stages. Dr Abdullah was lauding the proposal made by Chief Justice Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim to replace the English common law after 50 years of independence. Speaking when officially opening the “Ahmad
Ibrahim: Thoughts and Knowledge Contribution” seminar on August 21, Ahmad Fairuz said any reference to the common law only depicted colonised minds among
the local legal practitioners. He also criticised those legal practitioners who
continued to apply the English common law during the hearing of their relevant
cases. The Utusan Malaysia also reported Ahmad Fairuz as saying the time had come to raise up Syariah law not only in the national law but also in the international law. A day later, Utusan Malaysia also quoted Attorney General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail as saying Syariah Law was the best because it emphasised on justice and distribution of equal rights. Abdul Ghani added that time had also come for us to apply these principles of justice in our culture, way of life, religion including the Islamic religion as well as the customary law as practised in Sabah and Sarawak. Then on August 24, the President of the Malaysian Bar, Ambiga Sreenevasan issued a strong statement,saying that any attempt to dismantle the common law system would be a direct attack on our Federal Constitution. She added: "It is a backdoor attempt to rewrite it and to move Malaysia towards becoming a theocratic state which our founding fathers and recently our Prime Minister have recognised we are not. It violates the social contract. That it comes from those who ought to uphold the law and Constitution is all the more regrettable." The Bar Council which meets this Saturday, September 8 will discuss the poll result and this matter. Comments (1)
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KUALA LUMPUR, Mon: Of the 513 registered members of
the Malaysian Bar who took part in the week-long poll since August 25, 427 or 83.24% of them
voted in favour of the Bar Council convening an extraordinary general meeting to
re-affirm the supremacy of the Federal Constitution and the application of the
Common Law.
Describing these legal practitioners as ‘katak di bawah tempurung penjajah’, Ahmad
Fairuz said such phenomenon should not be happening as Malaysia has achieved
independence 50 years ago.
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Circular No 106/2012: Accountant’s Report 2011
The results show a big majority is for holding an extraordinary general meeting (EGM).
The Bar Council thus has an option as to whether it wants to hold an EGM or not, although technically, an EGM has been held online, barring the debate and the passage of the resolutions.
Please bear in mind that nothing has so far been said by the proposers about what the Islamic law they have in mind entails. I am intrigued that although no details have been given, support for "Islamic law" has been declared.
Stephen Tan Ban Cheng