The Malaysian Bar - Lim Kit Siang: Haidar as head of Lingam Tape RCI and restricted terms of reference

Lim Kit Siang: Haidar as head of Lingam Tape RCI and restricted terms of reference - most disappointing and great letdown

Wednesday, 12 December 2007 05:26pm

by Lim Kit Siang

The appointment of Tan Sri Haidar Mohd Noor as Chairman of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Lingam Tape scandal and the commission’s restricted terms of reference are most disappointing and a great letdown for Malaysians who had looked forward to a new page for Malaysia’s judiciary and administration of justice.

Haidar, who was former Chief Judge of Malaya, is clearly not acceptable or suitable to be Chairman of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Lingam Tape scandal in view of his disgraceful role in the 1988 Judicial Crisis which saw the arbitrary and unconstitutional sacking of Tun Salleh Abas as Lord President and two Supreme Court judges, Datuk George Seah and the late Tan Sri Wan Sulaiman Pawanteh – the “mother” of a string of judicial crisis in the past 19 years which rocked the country with repeated erosion and ravages of the independence, impartiality and integrity of the judiciary.

In drawing up very restricted terms of reference strictly confining the Royal Commission of Inquiry to the Lingam Tape, the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has missed the golden opportunity to put right what had been wrong and rotten with the system of justice for nearly two decades.

What Abdullah should have done is to frame the widest and most comprehensive terms of reference to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Lingam Tape with the mandate to restore national and international confidence in the independence and integrity of the judiciary.

The missed golden opportunity – which can come only once-in-a-lifetime - is felt most acutely with the brave admission by the new Chief Justice, Datuk Abdul Hamid Mohamad on the rot in the administration of justice and his vow for a “house-cleaning” of the judiciary.

A Royal Commission of Inquiry with the widest ambit to restore national and international confidence in the Malaysian judiciary would be a great ally for the new Chief Justice’s vow of “house-cleaning” of the judiciary.

Why is Abdullah backing off from such an objective – when there is a Chief Justice who has pledged to clean up the judiciary?