A very good afternoon to the family members of the late Abdullah A Rahman:
Tengku Esah Abu Bakar,
Dato' Muthanna Bin Abdullah,
Tengku Putri Marina Tengku Ibrahim,
Cik Ferizadah binti Dato' Muthanna;
Past Presidents of the Malaysian Bar:
Puan Hendon Mohamed,
Datuk Kuthubul Zaman bin Bukhari,
Dato' Yeo Yang Poh;
Past Chairmen of Johore Bar Committee:
S Balarajah,
Datuk Abdul Rahman Abdullah,
S Gunasegaran,
K Mohan;
Johore Bar Committee Members, Members of the Bar, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am pleased to be here today in this special and meaningful ceremony to honour Abdullah A Rahman, one of the most eminent and respected members of the Johore Bar and the ninth President of the Malaysian Bar.
Abdullah A Rahman, as we have just heard, became the Chairman of the Johore Bar Committee in 1970, and served the Johore Bar for a more than a decade with distinction.
His firm, Abdullah A Rahman & Co, had offices in Johor Bahru, Batu Pahat and Kuala Lumpur. He also held various prominent positions in public as well as in private organisations. He was appointed as a Senator from 1968 to 1974.
It was John Mortimer who famously said that all that was needed of a lawyer is “common sense and relatively clean fingernails”. Abdullah A Rahman obviously felt and believed more was required of a lawyer.
As a Chairman, he extolled the time–honoured virtues and ethical values of the legal profession. He was a “lawyer’s lawyer” in that he personified the best characteristics of our profession, and sought to ensure that it was ingrained in members of the Johore Bar.
Quite apart from this, Abdullah A Rahman was instrumental in the advocacy that led to the amendment to the Advocates and Solicitors Ordinance 1947 with regard to the admission of foreign practitioners to practice in West Malaysia on an ad hoc basis.
In his years of distinguished service to the Johore Bar, he epitomised and was true to the calling of a lawyer to be not “... just a journey man, devoted to his own interests, but he has a duty to his profession which includes his duty to contribute at least some of his talents to the public good through the organized Bar”. This is a quote from a Benjamin Cardozo lecture delivered in 1968, which is aptly set out today in the Johore Bar Committee’s website.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Abdullah A Rahman had also the salutary honour of being the first member of the Johore Bar to helm the Malaysian Bar, and he served as our ninth President in the years 1978 to 1980. Since then, the Malaysian Bar has been privileged to have three more distinguished members of the Johore Bar follow in his legendary footsteps and on the path he paved as President of the Malaysian Bar, namely Puan Hendon Mohamed, the 20th President and our first woman President; Datuk Khutubul Zaman, the 25th President; and Datuk Yeo Yang Poh, our 26th President.
As Bar President, he believed in solving problems through dialogue and not through confrontation. In this regard, in his quiet manner, he prevailed upon the Members of the Bar to contribute towards the costs of establishing not only the Law Library of the Johore Bar Committee but also the Library of the Bar Council in Kuala Lumpur. He was also responsible for the Legal Profession (Practice and Etiquette) Rules 1978, which is the “rule book” of the Malaysian Bar. These are laudable achievements, and many lawyers are today very grateful for his foresight and vision.
After his tenure as President of the Malaysian Bar, Abdullah A Rahman also acted as one of the lawyers for the 42 lawyers who participated in the Bar’s first protest march, which was a march against the amendments to the Societies Act 1981. It was through the valiance of the team of lawyers of which he was a member that the accused were found guilty but discharged without convictions being recorded.
Abdullah A Rahman passed away at the age of 68 on 16 April 1987. His death was a tremendous loss to the Malaysian Bar.
It is for all his immense contributions and more, that it is apposite that we gather here to recognise and honour him. Abdullah A Rahman was a doyen of the Johore Bar and the Malaysian Bar, and his sacrifices for the betterment of the Bar will never be forgotten. It will forever be etched in our hearts, and his spirit of dedication will live on in the current and future generations of Members of the Bar.
In this regard, I speak for all Members of the Malaysian Bar in expressing our deep and sincere gratitude to his family members for their beloved husband, father and grandfather’s immeasurable service to the Malaysian Bar and the legal profession.
To honour and remember Abdullah A Rahman, we are proud today to rename the Johore Bar Auditorium as the Abdullah A Rahman Auditorium. May this be a poignant symbol of his dedication and commitment as well as to the values that he so courageously and tirelessly espoused.
Thank you.