PENANG, Thurs: There was a familiar ambience in the air as distinguished–looking ladies and gentlemen, mostly dressed in black and white, arrived at the ballroom of the Bayview Hotel, Penang.
They slowly trickled in, mingling amongst themselves with cups of coffee and tea, helping themselves to the delicious fried noodles prepared outside the ballroom. The occasion was none other than our Penang Bar Annual General Meeting.
After making small talk and catching up with colleagues and friends, the lawyers
made their way inside the ballroom where the AGM was ready to begin.
The Chairman of the Penang Bar Committee, Ms Lalitha Menon called the meeting to
order at approximately 2.45 p.m. She announced that the quorum was sufficient to
begin the meeting and she commended the Penang Bar for turning up in large
numbers despite the quorum now being reduced to only 52 members.
As in the years before, the Chairman proposed that the election of the Penang
Bar Committee Chairman and Committee Members be first on the agenda, in order to
save time as the rest of the agenda could be discussed while the votes were
being counted. First up on the list was the election of the Penang Bar Commitee
Chairman.
Nominations were called for from the floor and the first and only nomination received was for Mr Mureli Navaratnam. There being no other nominations, Mr Mureli Navaratnam was duly elected the Chairman of the Penang Bar Committee, amidst loud applause.
Next came the elections for the Committee Members. Eleven names were proposed, namely Ms Jo–Anne Leslie De Vries, Mr Nicholas Tan, Ms Pravin Kaur, Mr Rajdev Singh, Ms Yuslinov Ahmad, Mr Parthiban, Mr Thanges, Ms Saw Hoay Hoon, Mr Clement Cheng, and Ms Angeline Cheah. Ms Yuslinov declined the nomination and as such, the ten remaining nominations were duly elected into the Penang Bar Committee.
There were also no other nominations for the Penang Bar
Representative to the Bar Council, so Ms Lalitha Menon was duly elected the
same.
After the elections, the Chairman then addressed the issue of the Young Lawyers
Committee (YLC) and whether or not it should be re–started in Penang as per the
decision made by Bar Council. She suggested that it should be open to the floor
to hear the views of the members and then to take a vote to decide on the
outcome. Before it was open to the floor, however, Mr Mureli Navaratnam and Dato'
Sithambaram took the mike to explain to the members how the YLC came to be and
since the repeal of Section 42A of the Legal Profession Act, the Penang Bar felt
that it was no longer necessary to have a YLC in Penang since seven out of 10
members of the Penang Bar Committee were in fact young lawyers.
Dato' Sitham also said that there should be no discrimination
between senior lawyers and young lawyers and all lawyers could in fact serve the
Bar, irrespective of their age or years in practice. The floor was then opened
for members to share their views. It can be said that not many members chose to
state their opinions, the reasons of which could be many. But for some brave
ones they chose to defend the Bar Council's decision, making certain suggestions
such as maybe changing the definition to that of 7 years of practice and below
and under the age of 30 (not 40). In the end when it came to vote, 104 voted
against having a YLC and only 13 voted in support of it.
Having closed the issue, the Chairman went on to the next item on the agenda
which was to adopt the minutes of last year's AGM. There being no amendments,
the minutes were duly adopted.
She then went on to discuss the various reports of the
sub–committees, as well as the Chairman's Report and the Treasurer's Report.
There were a number of questions raised by the floor in respect to the
Chairman's Report and the Treasurer's Report, both of which were responded to
respectively by the Chairman and the Treasurer, Mr Nicholas Tan.
The floor was then open again for the members to air their views about issues in
general affecting the Penang Bar. Some of the issues raised were regarding the
increase in Bar subscriptions, lack of volunteer lawyers for the Legal Aid
Centre, as well as parking at the new court complex. There was also the issue of
the Bar Room at the new court complex.
Currently the Bar Room at the new court complex has been
described as a "fish bowl". Many of the members would like the old Bar Room to
be retained, a room currently known as "The Gallery". As such, the Chairman has
assured that they have written to the Head Judge to try to procure the old Bar
Room and would keep members informed of any updates.
There being no other matters to discuss, the Chairman then passed the mike to
the new Chairman for him to say a few words.
The meeting ended at 4.30 p.m and the members then adjourned downstairs for Happy Hour courtesy of our new Chairman.