©New
Straits Times (Used by permission)
by V. Anbalagan, Sonia Ramachandran and Evangeline Majawat
"It is time for the judiciary to regain the public's confidence and bring back
the glory years."
KUALA LUMPUR: The Sultan of Perak Sultan Azlan Shah yesterday called for
major reforms in the judiciary.
He said it was time for the judiciary to regain the public’s confidence and
bring back the glory years. For this, he added, mere cosmetic changes were not
enough.
Sultan Azlan Shah said recent reports about “disturbing events” relating to the
judiciary, together with other serious criticisms against it were cause for
concern.
“I am driven nostalgically to look back to a time when our judiciary was the
pride of the region and our neighbours spoke admiringly of our legal system.
“We were then second to none and the judgments of our courts
were quoted confidently in other common law jurisdictions,” said Sultan Azlan
Shah, a former Lord President, in his opening address at the 14th Malaysian Law
Conference.
He said there was no reason why judges, with the security of tenure they enjoyed
under the Constitution, could not discharge their duties impartially,
confidently and competently.
Judges, said Azlan, had to be both independent and competent. Therefore, he
said, judges had to piously resist the lure of socialising with business
personages and other well-connected people.
“They may discover at their peril that they have compromised themselves in the
cases that come before them with the unedifying spectacle of recusal
applications.
“Nothing destroys more the confidence the general public, or the business
community has in the judiciary than the belief that the judge was biased when he
decided a case, or that the judge would not be independent where powerful
individuals or corporations are the litigants before him,” he said.
Confidence in the judiciary may also be eroded where the business community
perceived incompetence in decision-making, said Sultan Azlan Shah.
“Our attempts to establish ourselves as a leading financial and commercial
centre will fail if we do not have a competent judiciary to decide on complex
commercial disputes.
“In this regard, it is of utmost importance that the foreign investors have
faith in the competence and integrity of our judiciary,” he said.
Foreign investors, he added, would also expect a speedy resolution of their
cases before the courts as delays caused loss of profits.
Sultan Azlan Shah said Malaysia ranked 63 among 178 economies in a recent World
Bank survey on resolution of commercial disputes, published in the report
entitled Doing Business 2008.
“A similar report by the US State Department warns American businessmen to be
wary of the slow process of adjudication of cases before Malaysian courts.
“This is indeed a poor reflection on our courts,” he said.
Countries such as Singapore and Hong Kong with similar legal systems and laws,
and whose judges and lawyers were trained like those here were ranked among the
best in the world in the surveys, with Hong Kong placed first and Singapore
fourth.
“The reason is obvious. These countries have undertaken major reforms in their
court structure and procedures and have introduced more efficient and
transparent commercial courts so as to attract the foreign investor.
“Maybe it is also time for us to consider such changes in our legal system and
introduce a strong central commercial court in Putrajaya as in London, with
specially trained judges who are familiar with the new and ever changing
commercial laws and developments, so that we too can become the centre for the
resolution of commercial disputes in the region,” he said.
Mere cosmetic changes, said Sultan Azlan Shah, would not suffice.
“If we wish to achieve this goal, it is imperative that major reforms are
introduced,” he said.
The inevitable consequence of incompetence, said Sultan Azlan Shah, was delayed
judgments and a backlog in cases.
“Only last week, I read in the latest Malaysian law report that a case of
medical negligence involving the death of a lawyer took 23 years to reach the
Court of Appeal.
“Similarly, there have been reports that some judges have taken years to write
their grounds of judgments involving accused persons who had been convicted and
were languishing in death row.
“Surely, such a situation cannot be tolerated in any progressive nation.”
Sultan Azlan Shah said judges in Malaysia had to be mindful that they were
appointed judges for all Malaysians.
“They must be sensitive to the feelings of all parties, irrespective of race,
religion or creed, and be careful not to bring a predisposed mind to an issue
before them that is capable of being misconstrued by the watching public or
segments of them.”
Sultan Azlan Shah also said he was reminded of a proud accolade of the late
former Lord President Tun Suffian Hashim in his Braddell Memorial Lecture in
1982: “ ...while we judges cannot help being Malay or Chinese or Indian; or
being Muslim or Buddhist or Hindu or whatever, we strive not to be too
identified with any particular race or religion — so that nobody reading our
judgment with our name deleted could, with confidence, identify our race or
religion and so that the various communities, are assured that we will not allow
their rights to be trampled underfoot".
He said it was in the judiciary that the people placed their trust and hope.
“It is my earnest hope that the Malaysian judiciary will regain the public’s
confidence and it will once again be held in the high esteem as it once was
held,” said Sultan Azlan Shah.
Nazri on judges’ behaviour
KUALA LUMPUR: A “very good” speech. That is how Minister in the Prime
Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz described Sultan of
Perak Sultan Azlan Shah’s opening address at the 14th Malaysian Law Conference
yesterday.
Nazri said he agreed with Sultan Azlan Shah’s statement that
judges had to be independent, competent and able to resist the lure of
socialising with business personages and other well-connected people.
“Judges are a special breed of persons. They cannot be seen socialising with
this kind of people. This is important because of the nature of their job,” he
said.
On Sultan Azlan Shah’s suggestion that a strong central commercial court in
Putrajaya with specially trained judges be set up, Nazri said: “That is
something that we have to look into.
“I am interested as I think it is important to stop people from settling their
disputes outside the country.”
On Sultan Azlan Shah’s perception of the judiciary, where
recent reports about “disturbing events” and other serious criticism against it
were a cause for concern, he said: “That is perception. That is also his
perception, which may not necessarily be mine.”
On public confidence in the judiciary being an integral part of it, Nazri said:
“I agree but the public... what is the public? Does the public mean 1,000 or
2,000 people or the whole nation?
“When you talk about a crisis, it has to be something that is really big, but we
respect opinions. The government has its own perception of things, but we
listen.”
He added that there was no erosion of public confidence in the judiciary.
On Bar Council president Ambiga Sreenevasan’ s call for the setting up of a
Judicial Appointments Commission, Nazri said they had “agreed to disagree".
“As I’ve said, go and talk to the judges. I’m not against what they request but
I want to do it in a proper way.
“I’m an executive, I cannot interfere. It must come from the judiciary.
“Talk to the judges; they also know how important their image is, so if they
come to us and say make some changes, then we will accommodate them, but it has
to come from the judiciary.”
Organisers sad over poor judge turnout
KUALA LUMPUR: Many judges were noticeably missing at the 14th edition of the
Malaysian law conference opened by the Sultan of Perak Sultan Azlan Shah.
At past conferences, held once in two years, there was always
good representation of judges, including those from outside the Klang Valley, at
the opening ceremony.
At yesterday’s opening, only about 15 judges were present.
Among them were Federal Court judges Tan Sri Zaki Azmi and Datuk Abdul Hamid
Mohamad, who is also Court of Appeal president.
There were also six Court of Appeal judges while the rest were judicial officers
stationed at the High Court in Kuala Lumpur.
Conspicuously absent were Chief Justice Tun Ahmad Fairuz
Sheikh Abdul Halim and Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Tan Sri Richard Malanjum.
There are 12 judges in the Federal Court, 22 in the Court of Appeal and about 50
at the High Courts in the peninsula, Sabah and Sarawak.
A High Court judge serving outside the Klang Valley was slotted to speak
yesterday, but told the organisers last Wednesday he was unable to attend.
The Bar Council, which is the organiser, had also invited 20 judicial officers
to participate in the three-day conference held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention
Centre.
Council president Ambiga Sreenevasan said an invitation was sent to Ahmad Fairuz
quite some time back but there was no reply.
Conference organising committee chairman Roger Tan, however, admitted there was
no follow-up to find out whether the top judge would be attending.
Ahmad Fairuz will retire on Thursday, the day he turns 66 which is the mandatory
age for judges to leave office.
Tan said invitations were also sent to all judges, including those serving in
Sabah and Sarawak.
He said the government had approved a grant to partly finance the meeting
attended by about 600 foreign and local participants.
He said the organisers had extended invitations two weeks ago to 20 participants
each from the judiciary and the Attorney-General’s Chambers, 10 from the
Industrial Court and 15 from the police.
“Sadly, we did not get the expected response from the judiciary,” Tan said,
adding that a letter from the Chief Judge of Malaya’s office on Thursday
informed the organising committee that they were unable to send judges to the
conference “due to unforeseen circumstances".
Chief Judge of Malaya Datuk Alauddin Mohd Sheriff is on a month’s leave and is
expected to return from abroad next month.