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Thu, 23 Aug 2007 23:28:39 +0100

My dear Datuk Param If, as no less than the Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Malaysia has said that he is in favour of a hybrid system, then I have to do a "Benchy" number on you and say that your questions are all "irrelevant"! That word, "irrelevant," was developed into a judicial term of art at one of the most celebrated cases involving none other than the former Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. So, my learned friend, your questions stand irrelevant, unless the quest for a hybrid system is nothing more than a red herring. But, is it a red herring? Of course, I note with grave concern - please read nothing morbid in that - that the idea of a hybrid system has not been fleshed out, just an idea, despite the Scandavian tour "many moons ago" - as the American Indians say it. I also note with ever graver concern that the highest judicial officer of the land has been on the record as saying that "preliminary investigations" showed no actual basis for the alleged 30 unwritten cases. Now the figure has jumped to 33 cases. If and when the Bar Council is able to collect and collate the 30 cases in the ongoing survey as alleged, then I fear that our highest judicial officer may have misled the entire country. Of course, in Bolehland, as my late journalist friend M.G.G. Pillai would have said, "punishment is never meted out to the worthy." So then, what? In other countries, top public officers and even Ministers of the Crown resign when they are found to have misled the country and/or Parliament. However, in Bolehland, such arguments will more than likely be ruled as "irrelevant" since "punishment is never meted out to the worthy." So, don't worry, Datuk Param, my arguments may in like fate end. However, that our arguments suffer such a fate becomes irrelevant in the big picture. And the pig picture is this: Public confidence would have been shattered by this nonsensical sacrifice of trust and credibility in our public service. Stephen Tan Ban Cheng - Stephen Tan Ban Cheng

Rot cloaks the judiciary

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