Contributed by Joanne Leong Pooi Yaen, Member, Bar Council Constitutional Law Committee and National Young Lawyers Committee
A very good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen present here.
First, I would like to give my sincere thanks to the Bar Council of Malaysia in giving me this honour to speak to all of you today. About six years ago, I was one of you, exhausted from the exams and worried about the results. I remembered that the last words my mentor gave me before sitting for the exams were, “You better not fail”.
Time has drastically changed since then. For starters, the syllabus and the structure of the professional ethics course are different from the one that I sat. Nonetheless, I believe the essence and the reasons behind it remained unchanged.
Certainly, there are also things that remained such as the tradition of the Malaysian Bar where we fight for justice without fear or favour. I am using the term “we” since I am part of the 16,000 lawyers that make up the Bar. No, we are not the ones that give “happy hours”, in case you are wondering.
Now, many of you present here today would not need an introduction to section 42 of the Legal Profession Act 1976, but I cannot stress enough how important it is to have it applied in your practising career, especially since you are all the future representatives of the Malaysian Bar. The Bar has built the foundation over the years, so it is now your responsibility to ensure that this foundation is further strengthened.
When I say “foundation” — the Bar has fought for justice, be it in courtrooms or on the streets. Yes, we had taken to the streets as early as 1981, when the lawyers walked in opposition to the amendments to the Societies Act. In the later years, we continued to take the streets like the mammoth Walk for Justice in 2007 due to that infamous video clip; Walk for Freedom in 2011 seeking for amendments to the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012, which was going to be passed on that very day at Parliament; and only last year, the Walk for Peace and Freedom, asking for the repeal of the Sedition Act 1948. The tenacity of the Malaysian Bar did produce some good results: for example, a Royal Commission of Inquiry was set up subsequent to the Walk for Justice in 2007.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We are lawyers, or soon to become one. Walking may not be our specialty, but arguing and questioning the law definitely is. We relentlessly questioned the existence of archaic laws such as the Internal Security Act, where the constant hounding resulted in a bittersweet moment when the ISA was repealed, only to have the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 replace it. The hounding has not stopped and we are still fighting; for example, we are campaigning for the repeal of the Sedition Act 1948, an Act which has no place in modern Malaysia.
We also have lawyers standing up for issues affecting the legal profession on numerous occasions particularly in 2009, when five lawyers from the Bar Council Legal Aid Centre (Kuala Lumpur) argued with the police when they were refused to be allowed to see their clients, which is a clear breach of the arrested persons’ constitutional rights to consult a lawyer. Although they were merely exercising their professional duties as lawyers, they were subsequently arrested. It was later held by the Courts that they were wrongly arrested, and the five lawyers were awarded damages consequently. However, the message which I want to send across to you is that there was never a moment of fear by those lawyers in upholding justice. They never gave up, and neither should any of us here today.
Everything the Malaysian Bar achieved or tries to achieve could not be possible if we have acted partially or with bias. It is due to the Bar’s independence, uninfluenced by fear or favour, that its views, thoughts and decisions are accepted and followed. Therefore, I urge the same to be applied to your practice whether as a litigator or conveyancer, because there is no place for a corrupt, lying or unjust lawyer. I hope none of you will ever be described as such.
You are part of this important establishment, especially during these testing times for the country. In fact, I urge all of you to attend the EGM this coming Saturday, where you will get to witness the Malaysian Bar showcasing its voice in upholding justice without fear or favour.
I will conclude with a portion of the speech given by my mover, Encik Amer Hamzah Arshad, on the day I was admitted as an advocate and solicitor of the High Court in Malaya, which aptly stated as follows:
Without such courageous lawyers, whatever fundamental rights that are enshrined in the Federal Constitution will remain nothing more than mere words — a mere collection of pious platitudes. Lawyers, [] are the ones who can transform these mere words or abstract rights into reality, and in order to uphold these rights, lawyers must act without fear or favour. Therefore, it is important for lawyers to remember that practice should not always be about making money and that lawyers have a larger obligation to stride alongside society, not above it. Lawyers must be the rakyat’s bastion of civil liberties and human rights.
Thank you.
Joanne Leong
10 September 2015