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©Malaysiakini (Used by permission)
by Soon Li Tsin

Lawyers pushing for a royal commission to investigate the state of the judiciary will keep up the momentum at a public forum tomorrow night.

Organised by the Young Lawyers Committee of the Kuala Lumpur Bar, the forum is to apply more pressure for attention to the issue.

“I think there is a need to apply a bit of pressure to get this issue about the judicial crisis resolved and we needed to continue the momentum after the march,” chairperson Dipendra Harshad Rai said when contacted today.

“After the march, everyone was on a high and naturally we want to continue with something that is a little bit more sedate compared to the walk.”

Entitled ‘Walk for Justice Part 2 - The Walk is Over, Now It's Time to Talk’ the forum is a follow up to the monumental march by 2,000 lawyers in Putrajaya on Sept 26.

The ‘Walk for Justice’ was a response to the scandal over a videotape that showed senior lawyer VK Lingam apparently brokering the appointment of judges with current Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim in 2002.

The march resulted in two memoranda being handed over at the Prime Minister’s Department, calling for a royal commission to investigate the state of the judiciary and calling for the establishment of a judicial commission.

Dipendra stressed that the forum is for lawyers and members of the public to air their views and not for anything else.

“We will be getting lawyers and members of the public at the Bar Auditorium to air their views and to share recommendations on how to address the judicial crisis further,” he said.

“It is not an avenue to bash the government or judges. The objective it to call for a royal commission of inquiry to look into the affairs of the judiciary.”

Speakers include law academician Dr Azmi Sharom and human rights lawyers Haris Ibrahim. There will also be readings and poetry recitation.

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Asked to comment on the independent panel set up to look into the authenticity of the videotape, the Anti-Corruption Agency’s investigations and the government’s response to the issue, Dipendra was optimistic about the possible outcome.

“I believe that if we bang on the door hard enough, one day it will open. It is easy to give up but at the same time, we must go on. We only mean well for the judiciary and the country. As young lawyers, we want to see a fair judiciary as some see that this as not being the case in past few years.

“Whether it was a senior lawyer (in the video) or not is besides the point. It is not a witch hunt and it’s not just about the video, but the bigger view that we want an independent and strong judiciary.”

Panel chairperson, former Chief Judge of Malaya Haidar Mohd Noor, had said no one has come forward to give information on the video clip, three weeks since the panel was set up.

De facto law minister Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz said the investigation may be closed if people refuse to come forward.

ACA director-general Ahmad Said Hamdan said as long as the original video clip is not obtained, the agency cannot continue its investigations.

Two PKR members and its de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim are under pressure to reveal the two sources of the video clip, but have refused to do so in the absence of iron-clad guarantees of protection for those involved.

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