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Nazri: No need for lawyers to march to PM’s Office

Tuesday, 25 September 2007 07:23am

Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz ©The Star (Used by permission)

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Bar Council should not behave like the opposition by marching to the Prime Minister’s Office to hand over a memorandum calling for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the judiciary, Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz said.

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department said there were other proper ways for the memorandum to be submitted to the Prime Minister.

“They can set up an appointment and send a delegation to meet the Prime Minister,” he said.

He was commenting on the Bar Council’s plan to march from the Palace of Justice to the Prime Minister’s Office to submit the memorandum tomorrow.

The plan was made at the council’s emergency meeting last Saturday to discuss the controversial video clip of a lawyer supposedly talking to a senior judge over the brokering of the judge appointments.

Nazri however said the lawyers were free to hold the march as long as it was a peaceful one.

“That is entirely up to them but they should consider the stature of lawyers who are officers of court.

“Unless they want to show their hostility, why should they stoop so low by behaving like Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), DAP and PAS?” he said.

Bar Council president Ambiga Sreneevasan said the call arose out of the council’s belief that the independence of the judiciary was the highest ideal that it must “cherish and be prepared to stand up for.”

“In any event, how can the call for strengthening of the Judiciary be only the position of opposition parties when surely it must be the Government’s stand too,” she said.

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There is also no need to...
written by Alex Tan Ken Seng, Tuesday, September 25 2007 11:50 am

Yes, there's no need for lawyers to march to see the PM. But there was also no need to build the tallest twin towers in the world, and no need to increase toll rates on our "express" ways. There is no need to detain people at Kamunting, since we have the Penal Code and many other criminal statutes. There was no need to go to the North and South Poles, and there is definitely no need to send someone to outerspace (it's been done before-lah, many decades ago!)

But the government still proceeded with all of the above. So we'll proceed with our peaceful demonstration, thank you very much. And we believe we are justified in doing so, and have not shied away from explaining why.

Alex Tan Ken Seng

...
written by Brian Jit Singh, Tuesday, September 25 2007 02:56 pm

The Last Men Standing..

Can he actually dictate how the Bar should "behave"? Or rather, should he have even tried?

The fundamental issue, for which we are peacefully marching, is the possible non-existence of any "check and balance" within two critical branches of the government. Heaven forbid that the third, and only other, had not already been so infected. Really, if the claims are true, the judiciary is the executive's. There could still be "enough soldiers inside".

The only other institution (apart from the equally out-numbered opposition parties) who can "watchdog" and safeguard the interests of the public under such dire circumstances IS the bar. The accusations here are serious and frankly, with this "warning" that our march tomorrow is being equated to a march by opposition parties and not of the bar, I am disappointed more than anything else. I think its lame to try and discourage in the hope that a few will shy away. Why not, the ONLY other conclusion I can make for his behaviour is that he is "on defensive. I'm sure he is not.

Therefore, in keeping with traditions, I hope all of us will march for what its worth because if we don't, NO one other institution would. Without fear or favour my friends. Peaceably, we are the last shot!

Brian Jit Singh

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