YAA Datuk Seri Utama Wan Ahmad Farid bin Wan Salleh, the Chief Justice of Malaysia;
Dato’ Mah Weng Kwai;
Dato’ Mohamad Ezri bin Abdul Wahab, President of the Malaysian Bar
Past Presidents of the Malaysian Bar
Past Recipients of the Malaysian Bar Lifetime Achievement Award;
Family and friends of Dato’ Mah Weng Kwai;
My compatriots of the Malaysian Bar
- Good afternoon to all of you and welcome to the Malaysian Bar Lifetime Achievement Award 2025 ceremony to recognise and honour Dato’ Mah Weng Kwai.
- The privilege falls upon me to say a few words on behalf of the Malaysian Bar about the man and lawyer who stands as an exemplar to us.
- All of us present know Dato’ Mah well and have in some way been influenced by him. Please permit me nevertheless to say a few words and share with you some snippets about Dato’ Mah.
- In preparing this recitation, I have been fortunate to have had substantive input from Raymond Mah, who is the proud son of Dato’ Mah. As such, please expect this recitation to be a sanitised version, that is, sans of details not appropriate for public consumption. My thanks to my colleague, Anneliz George, who very ably assisted in the preparation of this recitation.
A. Early Years
- Dato’ Mah Weng Kwai was born in 1949, at home in a small wooden house at No. 4C Ceylon Road, Kuala Lumpur.
- I am informed that Dato’ Mah grew up in the same house – a small, rented semi-detached home with thin walls and a leaky roof. His father worked as a translator in the Special Branch at Bukit Aman, and his mother looked after ten children.
- I confess that as I read this snippet of information, I momentarily wondered that even with thin walls the elder Mahs managed to produce 10 children. Pardon me, I meant to say small house.
- As some may know, Ceylon Road is now named Lorong Ceylon at Bukit Ceylon, which has over the many years transformed into an up-market neighbourhood with boutique hotels, restaurants and trendy bars. It is adjacent to the infamous Jalan Alor, reputed in the old days as being a district for members of the oldest profession. It is adjacent to this that our future esteem member of the second oldest profession would emerge.
- But life was not easy. Dato’ Mah grew up with the attendant disadvantages of a hard life, and consequently also with a determination to make things better. The rent was fifty dollars a month, and sometimes the family could not afford to pay it. I am informed that when the landlady came to collect the rent, young Mah and his siblings would hide, listening as she scolded and threatened to throw them out onto the street. Those early experiences made a deep impression on him. He began to think about fairness, justice, and how the law could serve the disadvantaged. That was where his interest in law began.
- Dato’ Mah studied at La Salle Brickfields and St. John’s Institution, from primary to secondary school. He knew he was not good at mathematics, so he chose the arts stream in Form 4. Law was his choice for tertiary education. He obtained the necessary principal passes within his first year of Form 6, saving a year of school. He left for the UK in September 1967, after teaching English for six months, and was admitted to Lincoln’s Inn in London.
- Over the years, Dato’ Mah has served with distinction in every part of the legal system – in public service, at the Bar, and in the judiciary; and contributing to the wider community and society.
B. The Conscientious Lawyer
- Much that may be said of Dato’ Mah’s journey in law is found in the printed Citation by the Malaysian Bar Lifetime Achievement Award Committee of the Bar Council. I will refer to parts of it.
- Dato’ Mah was called to the English Bar as an Utter Barrister of the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn, London in 1971, and as an Advocate and Solicitor of the High Court of Malaya in July 1972. He embarked in legal practice at the Bar, and thus became a member of the Malaysian Bar.
- After a year in such practice, Dato’ Mah served in the Judicial and Legal Services of Malaysia from 1973 to 1985 as a Magistrate, Sessions Court Judge, Senior Assistant Registrar, Deputy Public Prosecutor, Senior Federal Counsel and Senior Assistant Parliamentary Draftsman. I was informed that in those days, the best and brightest are assigned or tasked to be Parliamentary draftsman. Another such luminary is the late Yang Mulia Raja Aziz Addruse, our beloved past president thrice over and the inaugural recipient of the Malaysian Bar’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
- As a Deputy Public Prosecutor, Dato’ Mah appeared in many criminal cases and learned much from the judges before whom he appeared. One of them, Tun Mohamed Suffian Hashim, became a role model. Dato’ Mah fondly recalls that Tun Suffian was humble and respectful to everyone in court. He never scolded lawyers nor Deputy Public Prosecutors, no matter how junior. Tun Suffian’s judgments were clear, concise, and easy to understand. Dato’ Mah admired him greatly and often said that Tun Suffian was “a master of the short sentence.” My own recollection of Tun Suffian was that he never spoke ill nor criticised anyone, save when he witnessed the institution of the judiciary being torn asunder with the complicity of some judges and inaction by others.
- Dato’ Mah’s pursuit of excellence led him to Australia where he went on to obtain his Master of Laws degree with Honours in 1985 from the University of Sydney, Australia, and in 1999 was appointed a Fellow of the Senate of the University of Sydney, a rare honour that speaks to his continued contributions to legal scholarship.
- He further expanded his legal horizons by being admitted as a Barrister of the High Court of Canberra, Australia and as a Barrister of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Australia in 1984.
- Dato’ Mah began his involvement with the Malaysian Bar in the early 1990s, serving on the committee of the then Selangor and Wilayah Bar, later the Kuala Lumpur Bar. He became Secretary of the Malaysian Bar in 1998-1999, under the presidency of Dato’ Cyrus Das, and later was elected and served as President of the Malaysian Bar from 2001 to 2003.
- Under his stewardship, the Malaysian Bar maintained vigorous engagement with the Judiciary and government, holding substantive discussions with the then Chief Justice of Malaysia, Chief Judge of Malaya, Chief Registrar of the Federal Court, the Attorney General, the then Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Dr Rais Yatim, and the Inspector-General of Police on matters of importance to the profession and the public interests.
- His tenure witnessed significant judicial reforms — for instance, the amendments to the Rules of the Federal Court 1995, Rules of the Court of Appeal 1994, and Rules of the High Court 1980, which introduced a transformative provision ensuring Judges prioritise substantive justice over mere technical compliance, a change the Malaysian Bar had assiduously advocated for.
- He championed the establishment of Family Courts, and when the Academy of Law Bill 2002 threatened far-reaching ramifications for the legal profession at the Bar, he convened an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Malaysia Bar, mobilised an ad hoc committee, and led delegations to articulate the Bar's concerns to the authorities.
- Recognising the inexorable tide of globalisation, he chaired the GATS Committee of the Bar Council in the mid-2000’s (until I followed in his steps – this unknown to me at that time would become a recurring pattern – and took over as chair during the presidency of Dato’ Ambiga Sreenevasan), strategically positioning the profession for cross-border practice through meticulously drafted market access requests, comprehensive surveys, and strategic collaborations with MITI, the Professional Services Development Centre, MATRADE, and the Attorney General's Chambers.
- At the Bar, Dato’ Mah has said that he drew inspiration from others like the late Karam Singh, whose humour and common-sense enlivened Bar AGMs, and the late Karpal Singh, whose courage and commitment to justice set the highest standard for the profession. Dato’ Mah respected Karpal’s fearlessness in defending his clients and his ability to persuade with short, sharp submissions.
- As President of the Malaysian Bar his influence also transcended national boundaries. Dato’ Mah was a member of an International Bar Association delegation in a fact-finding mission to Sri Lanka in August 2001. The delegation was helmed by:
a. Justice Malimath – former Chief Justice of Karnataka and Kerala, and a former Member of the National Human Rights Commission of India;
b. Lord Brennan QC, the former Chair of the Bar Council of England and Wales; and
c. Dato’ Mah, the then President of the Malaysian Bar.
- The inclusion of Dato’ Mah in helming the delegation, with the luminaries mentioned, is a testament to the high regard held by the international legal community for Dato Mah and the Malaysian Bar.
- The mission became necessary in view of the constitutional crisis and concerns as to the position of the Chief Justice of Sri Lanka, the independence of the judiciary and the state of the rule of law in Sri Lanka.
- A focus of the mission was to assess the constitutional position of the rule of law, the Constitutional guarantees for the independence of the judiciary, and the practical respect these guarantees received from the other arms of the government.
- Permit me to set out briefly the circumstance of that experience as it has echoes of our own experience, in particular our 1988 Judicial crisis:
a. The crisis in Sri Lanka began with the appointment of the then-Attorney General to the post of Chief Justice;
b. This resulted in three petitions being filed at the Supreme Court to challenge the said appointment, and a Bill to Parliament to repeal and replace the 1978 Constitution;
c. A motion by 77 MPs for the impeachment of the Chief Justice was filed with the Speaker of Parliament. But on the same day, the Supreme Court issued an order restraining the Speaker of Parliament from appointing a select committee for the purposes of the said motion – shades of our 1988 Judicial Crisis which concerned a Supreme Court stay order of the tribunal proceedings.
d. The Speaker of Parliament ruled that the Order of the Supreme Court was not binding on Parliament. The Speaker proceeded to place the motion on the parliamentary order paper with a view to setting up a select committee to look into the impeachment motion;
e. The President of Sri Lanka thereafter exercised her powers under their Constitution to prorogue Parliament and declared a referendum;
f. The referendum was later cancelled; fresh elections were called and the motion to impeach the AG turned Chief Justice was never proceeded with.
- During the mission, Dato’ Mah as part of the delegation consulted widely with government ministers, the Leader of the Opposition, representatives of political parties, lawyers, the professions, the media, academics and judges who have been dismissed or who have retired.
- This herculean and arduous task was skilfully executed by the delegation and resulted in a widely accepted report titled Sri Lanka: Failing to Protect the Rule of Law and the Independence of the Judiciary published by the International Bar Association.
- In 2005, Dato’ Mah participated in an observer mission, this time to Nepal, led by former LAWASIA President the late Mr GL Sanghi, to ascertain the abuses of civil liberties and human rights following a time when the then monarch, King Gyanendra, had not only dismissed the elected parliament but had transferred executive power to a Council of Ministers, which he himself headed. In short, there was no democracy in Nepal, a situation that severely concerned the Nepali people, who had at that time recently won the right to self–determination.1
- The observer mission was able to conclude, after wide-ranging discussions, that despite the lifting of the state of emergency whilst they were in Kathmandu, the abuses of civil liberties and human rights were very real and that there appeared to be a distinct reluctance on the part of the governing authorities to facilitate a return to democracy.
- I refer to these events because there were at that time real concerns for the safety and security of the delegation. Dato’ Mah and his colleagues nevertheless put themselves at personal risks in service of the rule of law.
- Following this, Dato’ Mah was elected President of LAWASIA – The Law Association for Asia and the Pacific – from 2006 to 2008.
- As President of LAWASIA, Dato’ Mah was called on to lead 3 more missions:
(a) A 4-member team on a 3-day observer mission to Suva, Fiji in March 2007, following the suspension of Chief Justice Fatiaki by the newly installed Fijian Government which triggered concerns about threats to the independence of the judiciary.
(b) Next, an international observer mission to Nepal in April 2008 to monitor the historic Constituent Assembly elections in Nepal and to offer support to the Nepali colleagues in their efforts to reinstate the rule of law in Nepal.
Dato’ Mah spoke at the Nepal Bar Association about the experience of the Malaysian Bar in its dealings with the Malaysian government and in doing so, provided a voice of encouragement and inspiration;
(c) And of personal significance to me, Dato Mah led a 4 member LAWASIA team on a 5-day fact-finding mission to Pakistan from 17-21 July 2008. I was a member of that team and witnessed in close proximity the leadership of Dato Mah. Again, concerns for the safety and security of the delegation were real.
The context of the LAWASIA mission was the removal by the Executive of the then Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, and several justices of the Supreme Court. Other justices of the Supreme Court and High Court resigned in protest at the government action and in solidarity for the independence of the judiciary.
The lawyers in Pakistan likewise staged protests against this assault on the judiciary. The lawyer’s movement mounted a Long March of 1,400 km from Karachi to Islamabad to highlight the issue and showed their continued support to the deposed judges and the besieged judiciary. There were mass arrest of lawyers.
The judges were detained, and kept under house arrest. Likewise, numerous leaders of the lawyer’s movement who were maltreated by government authorities.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and a few of his senior judges were detained under house arrest in their houses located in an area cordoned off by razor wires and manned by armed soldiers. Dato’ Mah and I had occasion to be permitted to pass through the military barricades manned by the armed soldiers to interview Chief Justice Iftikhar and his judges. After the interview, the crowd of journalist and news media gathered round us and interviewed Dato Mah and I.
The fact-finding mission and its report gained media attention in Pakistan and globally. The state of emergency was shortly thereafter lifted, and a general election was held a year after and which saw an improvement in the state of judiciary. Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and his judges were reinstated.
C. The Courageous Arbiter: Judiciary & SUHAKAM
- On 4 January 2010 Dato’ Mah was appointed a Judicial Commissioner of the High Court of Malaya and on 10 August 2011 a Judge of the High Court of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur. He was elevated to the Court of Appeal, Malaysia on 21 September 2012.
- As a judge, his decisions reflected independence, courage, and compassion.
- Two notable decisions come to mind from Dato’ Mah’s tenure at the Court of Appeal:
(a) First, the appeal by the brother of Teoh Beng Hock, namely Teoh Meng Kee, against the decision of the High Court over the decision of the learned magistrate sitting as a coroner to inquire into the cause of death of Teoh Beng Hock.2
(b) Dato’ Mah and his learned brothers, namely Mohamad Ariff JCA and Hamid Sultan Abu Backer JCA, all penned separate judgments which unanimously overturned an open verdict and found that the death was caused by persons unknown, not suicide.Second, would be the appeal by Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad against Sections 9(1) and 9(5) of the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012 on grounds that they were ultra vires the Federal Constitution as the requirement for a 10-day notice was an unreasonable restriction on the constitutionally guaranteed right of citizens to assemble peaceably.3
(c) Once again, the same Court of Appeal panel, each delivering separate decisions, and I quote - “since the constitutional issues raised in this appeal are of significant public importance, and a more detailed consideration of this appeal will be best achieved by the panel writing our separate decisions”, the Court of Appeal unanimously held that Section 9(5) of the Peaceful Assembly Act was unconstitutional. This was a decision later affirmed by the Federal Court led by the then Chief Justice Tengku Maimun.4
- After his retirement from the judiciary, in February 2015 he continued his public service as a Commissioner with SUHAKAM. As Chairman of the SUHAKAM inquiry into the enforced disappearances of Pastor Raymond Koh and Amri Che Mat, he led the first inquiry of its kind in Malaysia.
- Dato’ Mah comprised a panel of 3 which conducted over 20 days of hearings beginning in October 2017 to December 2018. The panel examined 16 witnesses including eyewitnesses, family members, and police officials;5 and 117 exhibits, including official police and government documents, CCTV footage and video evidence.
- The main findings of the panel, delivered by Dato’ Mah as Chair in 2019, found that:
(a) on a balance of probabilities, that Pastor Raymond Koh and Amri Che Mat were victims of enforced disappearance; and
(b) the operation was carried out in a highly organized, efficient manner, lasting less than one minute, and was executed by State agents, specifically members of the Special Branch, Bukit Aman.
- This was a courageous and significant finding in defence of human rights. The Panel went on to make several recommendations including:
(a) that the Government of Malaysia should review the Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code to incorporate enforced or involuntary disappearances under a category specific to cases involving missing persons. In other words, the amendments would effectively make enforced or involuntary disappearances an offence under the Penal Code, in addition to and separate from the offence of abduction and kidnapping;6
(b) establishing an independent oversight mechanism to investigate police misconduct, to form a special task force to re-investigate the cases of Pastor Raymond Koh and Amri as enforced disappearances, and to clearly define the powers and functions of the Special Branch to prevent abuse; 7
(c) improving police procedures for handling missing persons and abduction cases.8
- I understand that the Bar continues to advocate for these reforms.
- Dato’ Mah serves on the Panel of Arbitrators at the Asian International Arbitration Centre and is certified as a Mediator by the Malaysian Mediation Centre.
- His experience presiding as an arbitrator in numerous cases spans diverse and complex subject matters – from building and construction contracts to telecommunications disputes, from corporate acquisitions to marine dredging projects. Both the Asian International Arbitration Centre and the Singapore International Arbitration Centre have regularly called upon his services, testament to his international reputation in dispute resolution.
- From 2016 to 2022, he served as a Commissioner in the Malaysian Aviation Commission, bringing his legal expertise and experience to the regulation of our civil aviation industry.
- He also previously served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Securities Industry Dispute Resolution Centre - SIDREC - helping to resolve disputes in our financial markets through mediation and adjudication.
- In October 2022, he was appointed to serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Advertising Standards Malaysia, which regulates our advertising industry within established ethical frameworks.
- His community service extends to healthcare and emergency services. As Chairman of St. John Ambulance of Malaysia, he continues to contribute to the welfare of our society.
- His breadth of legal contribution in public service – spanning healthcare emergency services, aviation sector regulation, financial services regulation, and advertising standards – reflects a man who sees law not as a narrow specialty, but as a tool for building a better society across all sectors of life.
D. Life Outside the Law
- Outside of law, Dato’ Mah has always had a love for adventure and nature. In his younger days, he enjoyed off-roading in his 4x4, exploring Malaysia’s backroads and jungles. In 1995, he was part of a 4WD convoy that drove to Kunming, China. It was the first overland convoy expedition from Malaysia to China. He has trekked in Nepal six or seven times, drawn to the beauty and simplicity of mountain life.
- Today, apart from his continuing work, he spends much of his spare time on his hobby farm in Rawang. He keeps goats, cows, poultry, fish, and fruit trees. He says the physical work there is his exercise, and that it brings him back to nature and back to basics.
E. Conclusion
- When asked today about his goals and aspirations, Dato’ Mah smiles and says simply, “to retire happily, live healthily while driving into the sunset.”
- Those who know him describe him as humble, kind, and down-to-earth. He is serious about justice but never takes himself too seriously. He believes in clarity of thought, simplicity of language, and fairness in action – the very qualities that define both a great lawyer and a good man.
- It is my honour and privilege to now invite all of you to be up standing in congratulating Dato’ Mah Weng Kwai, a boy who was mathematically challenged, who became an English teacher, a Deputy Public Prosecutor, Magistrate, Sessions Court Judge, a Judge of the Superior Courts, a Human Rights Commissioner, a farmer and a towering member of the Malaysian Bar, in being honoured by the Malaysian Bar for his life’s achievements.
Christopher Leong
24 October 2025
Le Meridien Hotel, Kuala Lumpur
1 Dated November 2001. Accessed at: http://www.ahrchk.net/pdf/IBA-HRISriLankaReportNov2001.pdf.
2 Teoh Meng Kee v Public Prosecutor [2014] 5 MLJ 741.
3 Nik Nazmi bin Nik Ahmad v Public Prosecutor [2014] 4 MLJ 157.
4 Amir Hariri bin Abdul Hadi v Public Prosecutor [2025] 4 MLJ 807.
5 https://suhakam.org.my/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Website_Suhakam_Low-Res_Postor-Raymond-and-Amri.pdf, at p. 70.
6 Pg 66, para 193.
7 Pg 64
8 Pg 62.