Contributed by Nizam Bashir
The President gave a short and sweet speech at the end of a very successful International Malaysia law conference. He shared how the conference came about under the leadership of Raphael Tay whose idea for IMLC he had supported from the start. However, he did panic when he saw the cost of the conference and thought that it was going to lead the Bar Council to bankruptcy . Nevertheless, it all came together and he acknowledged that this success came about from many months of hard work for which he thanked Raphael's team, the organising committee, and the sponsors. He also thanked the Chief Justice for sending a large number of judges to the conference. The purpose of the conference is to "shake, wake up and motivate members of the Bar" and he thanked Raphael and his team for arranging for the eminent speakers that have attended this conference ranging from the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice to internationally renowned speakers such as International Bridges to Justice, Karen Tse. He hopes that members of the Bar will be inspired to do more cross-border work especially after hearing how Malaysian lawyers are "as good, if not better than our counterparts elsewhere." Chee Wee ended his speech on an optimistic note that the Prime Minister just announced that the government will allocate RM 20 million to the National Legal Aid Foundation which means that the rates paid to lawyers can be revised, among other things. The Conference was then officially concluded, with the words, "See you at IMLC 2013!