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©Malaysiakini (Used by permission)
by Beh Lih Yi

De facto law minister Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz said he issued a denial on behalf of the chief justice in relation to the explosive ‘Lingam tape’ revelations because “I am his minister”.

“I am his minister. I am the minister in charge of legal affairs, he is clever enough to know that the reporters will ask me for a response,” Nazri explained when contacted today to explain his intervention in the matter.

Most of the newspapers today had reported his comments on behalf of Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim, who himself has chosen to remain silent.

On why Ahmad Fairuz has been evading the media, Nazri said it was because the former is not answerable to the press.

Nazri, the minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, also slammed the media for “rumour-mongering” in giving widespread publicity to the video recording, released by PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim last Wednesday.

The eight-minute edited video showed senior lawyer VK Lingam talking on the phone, apparently brokering the appointment of judges with Ahmad Fairuz, who was the chief judge of Malaya in 2002 when the recording was said to have been made.

Although only Lingam is seen in the video clip, the context of the conversation indicates that the other person at the end was Ahmad Fairuz.

After maintaining silence for two days, the chief justice last Friday told malaysiakini in a two-paragraph fax that he had no comment on the matter.

The next day, Nazri told the media that Ahmad Fairuz had contacted him to deny that he was the other party in the telephone conversation.

Earlier efforts to contact Lingam for comment were futile as he was said to be abroad until the end of the month.

Bar showing hostility?

Nazri branded the Bar Council’s plan to hold a march on Wednesday to press for investigation into the scandal as an attempt to display ‘hostility’ and as support of the opposition.

“Lawyers are officials of the court, they have a place in the society. They shouldn’t behave like the opposition,” argued the clearly annoyed minister.

He said lawyers should send a memorandum to him or Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as this would be a “proper manner” of response.

“If they want to stoop so low and go there like (an) opposition demonstration, certainly they will lose my respect because I have been having a very good relationship with the Bar.

“Why do they want to lower their standard, unless they want to show they are hostile (to the government) and (that they) support the opposition.”

Saying that the Bar should remain an independent body, he equated lawyers joining the march to the conduct of opposition politicians Lim Kit Siang and Anwar.

Nazri said he was not questioning the lawyers’ right to march and that he was not calling for the plan to be scrapped, but said he was not happy with the choice of action.

Bar Council president Ambiga Sreenevasan in an earlier statement had said it was high time for lawyers and the public to act decisively and not remain in a state of denial.

“For too long we have cried out for reform, but the authorities have not heeded our pleas. Malaysians cannot afford to stand by and watch any longer,” she stated.

March to start at 11am

The lawyers plan to march from the Palace of Justice to the Prime Minister’s Department in Putrajaya to submit a memorandum calling for a royal commission of inquiry to be set up.

They are expected to be joined by members of NGOs, political parties and student groups.

In a statement today, the Bar Council - the governing body of the 13,500-strong Malaysian Bar - said those who wish to join the march should meet at the stairs of the Palace of Justice at 11am on Wednesday.

Alternatively, participants can use chartered buses that will be at Dataran Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur at 9am that morning.

At an emergency meeting on Saturday, the Bar Council had also decided to hold an extraordinary general meeting on Oct 6 to look into the rot in the judiciary since the 1988 crisis.

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