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Well said, Madame President. You do us proud!

Kelvin Ng Sin Huat

As I have written long years ago - and its message can only be amplified by repetition - "Any government which does not respect the very laws on which its very legitimacy is predicated, can only invite rebellion."

This saying goes for all governments in all countries, more so when it is a democratic form of government. No, I am not advocating any rebellion. At the age of 57, I prize peace and stability. I am just trying to highlight the seriousness of the issues whose treatment have not been attached the same seriousness they deserve.

As you rightly put it, justice is politically-neutral and has always remained the legitimate and eternal quest of all freedom-loving peoples all over the world and all freedom-loving and self-respecting governments in all democracies.

It is highly irresponsible for the Minister, or any Minister worth his salt in any democratic country, for that matter, to equate or even to merely attempt to relegate the Malaysian Bar to the ranks of the Opposition.

With respect, as Minister Nazri is also a lawyer, he should know that the Malaysian Bar is a self-regulating professional body established by statute by our Founding Fathers since Merdeka in 1957 to pursue justice without fear or favour.

We are now left to "do what we have to do, and see it through without exemption," in the grand tradition of the late crooner Frank Sinatra.

If I may borrow a phrase of my learned friend Kamraj Nayagam, the "defining moment" for the present generation of Malaysian lawyers will present itself on Wednesday. It is also the "defining moment" for the democratic credentials of the present ministry led by my fellow Penangite, Pak Lah.

It does nobody any good, much less Malaysians who deserve much, much better treatment than this, for any Cabinet Minister to now try and label Malaysian lawyers as oppositionists. Enuf is enuf.

I now wonder where the self-styled custodians of the interests of the Malaysian Bar are - those who had requisitioned for the EGM a year back in the name of protecting the "rice bowls" of their fellow learned friends. I believe people know who I am referring to.

Stephen Tan Ban Cheng

Those days, they labelled you as"subversive".

Now? they say you are "pro-opposition".

Whatever the label maybe, we believe justice shall finally prevail.

Well done, Sdri Ambiga!

Ding Chu Teck

Great and dignified response, Madane President. I wonder if the Honurable Minister concerned deserves such a measured and dignified response in the first place? Keep up your great work, especially now when the Bar really needs its members to stand up and be counted. Watch out for the blacklegs and sychophants though.

K. Balasundaram

Short & brief, yet it strikes at the heart...the Bar stands up for justice, well-said, Mdm President!

Shim Wai Loon

...And while I am at it, Mr Minister, please remember that you are dealing with your fellow lawyers who are learned enough and know for sure that there is nothing wrong to be in the Opposition in a democracy where contrary views are celebrated and not castigated as it has hitherto been done.

Why do you think that in a democracy, the opposition is known as His Majesty's Loyal Opposition, nothing less? It is because the party or parties in power cannot legitimately claim that they alone enjoy the monopoly of having the interests of the nation at heart.

I am quite sure that you are aware that in a genuine democracy, there is a role, a genuine role, for His Majesty Loyal Opposition whose treatment in Malaysia so far has been dogged by the use, abuse and misuse of the Internal Security Act (ISA), the Official Secrets Act (OSA), the Sedition Act and a litany of other overly prohibitive statutes. Even their immediate families suffer their incarceration which is agianst all human rights norms in the world today.

Indeed, Mr Minister, we in Malaysia have turned full circle, if you do not already know it yet. In the 1960s and the 1970s, to be detained under the ISA would have brought a stench that all the perfumes of Arabia would never have washed away. It used to subject detainees to wearing a Badge of Disgrace.

Today, the use, abuse and misuse of the ISA against Oppositionists and other targetted groups over the years, especially in Operation Lalang in October 1987, have now turned ISA detainees into people with honour and people with courage. Now, ISA detainees are wearing the Badge of Courage.

This evolution of how ISA detainees are perceived by Malaysians - from one of disgrace to one of courage - bears eloquent testimony to and reinforces the view first held by Lord Acton that "power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

With respect, Mr Minister, as a Cabinet Minister, you are supposed to represent all Malaysians, and not just the party or parties in power. Let me pray that you will be endowed by the Divine with the wisdom when you next open your mouth. If my prayers remain unanswered, please remain quiet and spare us further agony ...

Stephen Tan Ban Cheng

If the CJ does not understand the simple doctrine of separation of powers, then he is no better than a freshie at law school.

He has proposed to throw away the laws he was meant to uphold, and gone to policy decision making, and now he even answers to "his minister"?

Does he now think he, as chief justice, is a civil servant in the prime minister's ministry of law?

Lim Chong Leong

All parties should study the Bar Motto in order to realise the duties, responsibilities, implications and effects of its actions or inactions.

It is so easy and simple for members of the Malaysian governing parties to 'bla, bla, bla' and then turn away from all the 'struggles' of the people, disregarding all complaints made.

This is in fact a testing time for all relevant leaders - to show how committed and concerned each and all have been - in matters which have become the 'struggles' of the people. In such matters, many leaders in many other countries would have resigned or would have been forced to be 'dethroned'. This shows how weak we Malaysians are, or how easily misled we can be.

Tan Peek Guat

Mr Minister your views are fundamentally flawed. The Bar has always remained apolitical. It is not swayed by the opposition or otherwise. This matter concerns every citizen of this country. Justice is being sold and bought and you Mr Minister have the gall to say that we should only send a delegation of office bearers to hand over a piece of paper? No Mr Minister I believe what is needed in the circumstances is for the Bar to show that all members are concerned.We need to walk the talk. Maybe by doing so the present administration wake up to the call of the nation.

Visvanathan Murugiah

Good response.

I hope that the Bar now has nothing further to do with Dato' Nazri who is not only an inevitable disappointment as a Minister, as a lawyer and as a force of good. He too should resign along with the CJ. Two pea heads in a pod. Pun intended.

Fahri Azzat

... I admit and aver that allegation: I will seize any opportunity, be it never so fleeting, at never such bad odds, to effect a reformation in the administration of Justice in this nation. I will do so because I see the state to which the nation's lawyers, be they in private practice or state service, have been reduced since 1988, and when I contemplate the future I wake up in a cold sweat (I have long ago given up such contemplation when conscious). So yes, this is an opportunity to effect a change, and I for one will seize it with both hands, because the only other option which Mr Minister and his ilk have left to me is black despair.

Kamraj Nayagam

Dear Lim Chong Leong, Esq.

You wrote;

"If the CJ does not understand the simple doctrine of separation of powers, then he is no better than a freshie at law school."

I have to respectfully disagree with your statement here. You see, I think some freshie at law school appreciates and understands the doctrine of separation of powers. When I was in my first year law school, I did not score very high marks for my constitutional papers and definitely my constitutional lecturer would not be aware of my existence in his class. However, I understand the doctrine of SOP quite well. I still remember it was Lord Atkin who said, "power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely" Hence the need of SOP and Rule of Law. Not bad la my memory. But then again compared to the CJ and Nazri, I am much younger. Perhaps we need to remind them of the doctrine.

Kelvin Ng Sin Huat