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Terima kasih saudara Syah.

YB V.K. Liew Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s department, Yang Berbahagia Datuk Seri Abdul Kadir Sulaiman retired judge of the Federal Court, His Excellency Frank Van de Craen, Ambassador of Belgium, diplomats, professors, learned members of higher learning institutions, esteemed speakers for today’s forum, ladies and gentlemen.

Edmund is right, we never had so many people in the auditorium for a long long time. The last time we organized a forum which attracted a lot of attention made a lot of people gather outside the building.

And Edmund is also right that we have not had this much positive publicity, every time we organize a forum there will be huge objections or huge support. I think this is one forum, this is one campaign, this is one project where I have not heard of anyone objecting to it. So finally I think the Bar Council has done something right in everybody’s eyes.

The Constitutional Law Committee of the Bar Council, the new committee in the Bar Council. Edmund has gone through the whole process of explaining the objective and what we intend to do, the Bar Council is very much in support of this. This is one of the few items in the agenda which Edmund likes to speak a lot about but nobody wants to listen to him not for any reason but because there is no objection at all to whatever he is doing in respect of the constitutional law committee… and he’s got 99 members of the committee, 99 working, 99 committed, 99 active members of the committee. And I say this, we have 36 committees, this is by far the most active committee. And the representation is amazing. The Bar Council is normally very conservative. It is a committee of lawyers so we don’t like non-lawyers coming into our activities but in the last four, five years we have become a little bit more inclusive. Now Edmund has taken that to a really huge step, most of the members of his committee are non-lawyers. So I think that is a fantastic achievement Edmund.

When we speak about the Constitution, in the last few years controversial issues arise. For example: Islamic State versus Secular State, Federalism, State laws, Federal laws, Social Contract, Article 153, Rights of Citizenship.

We tend to look at these issues in isolation, I don’t think very many amongst us understand the Federal Constitution. When we speak of issues, it is taken out of context, so when it is taken out of context it can be misinterpreted. I think the objective of this committee is not to make or state positions on the issues but to make everybody understand the Federal Constitution. Read the Constitution as a whole, understand the issues behind the Constitution. Look at the Reid Constitution Report for instance, the rationale behind some of the issues that were brought up. So these are important issues and we need to create awareness amongst Malaysians.

And I think when we talk about this project, it is not only for lawyers as Edmund has said that. I think eventually we want awareness of the Constitution to start at schools, primary schools for instance.

You have the Rukun Negara, keluhuran Perlembagaan, kedaulatan undang-undang, what does it mean? Even lawyers struggle to grasp the fundamentals of rule of law for instance, fundamentals of keluhuran perlembagaan. Hopefully in the next two years when we talk about the federal constitution, when you talk about rule of law, when you talk about various rule of parliament for instance, elections. All this will become clear when you understand the Federal Constitution, taking it in isolation sometimes create doubts, you may then have questions but when you understand the Federal Constitution, the basis of the Constitution which was started in 1957. These issues will become clear to everyone.

And again, we are pleased that we have the federal government with us on this project. It will make our job so much easier. Hopefully it will be part of the school curriculum, universities should adopt this project as well.

And again it is amazing that in facebook we have so much of response, so much of participation. Datuk Seri Kadir Sulaiman was telling me that he heard about this constitution project because he had a facebook account. I don’t have one yet but I think I should start one soon.

The success of this campaign is very much determined by each and every one of you, this is a cause that we need each and every one of you to individually take up in your own way. Also in the coming months additional guides will be published. Please take them, make use of them, talk about them in your homes, in your classrooms, in your workplaces. This may be but a small step but it is an important step none the less.

On behalf of the Bar Council I would like to thank everybody. I am so pleased to see so many people here on a Friday afternoon at 3.00 p.m., it is fantastic. I would like to see this to be successful. I speak on behalf of the Bar Council. We are so pleased to have all of you here. And we hope that this is the start of something huge, something fantastic, something great for all Malaysians.

Thank you.

Ragunath Kesavan
President
Malaysian Bar