By Christopher Leong, 30th President of the Malaysian Bar
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is a pleasure that I find myself before all of you this evening on the occasion of the Annual Dinner & Dance of the Malaysian Bar, which stands in my opinion as one of the greatest independent Bars. It is a Bar which is ever faithful to the rule of law; dedicated to justice; steeped in a sense of duty; active in service to society, country and the profession; and tireless in our endeavours.
I am here this evening to fête and honour, on behalf of the Malaysian Bar, one amongst us who has, through the many decades, come to represent and exemplify these values, ethos and principles of our Bar. Tonight, with the Malaysian Bar Lifetime Achievement Award 2017, we recognise the inimitable Tan Sri Dato’ Vadaketh Chacko George, otherwise known as Tan Sri V C George or just V C George.
V C George is the eighth President of the Malaysian Bar. He has been honoured many times. In 1987, he was conferred the Selangor State honours of Dato’ Paduka Mahkota Selangor by His Royal Highness the Sultan of Selangor. In 2012, he was conferred Federal honours of Panglima Setia Mahkota, which carries the title of “Tan Sri”, by His Majesty the Yang di–Pertuan Agong. These are well deserved and were in recognition of the many contributions of V C George to state and country.
It may be said by some that our recognition of him this evening is therefore belated. It is not. We waited in the knowledge that he had much more to give, and indeed he has given. It is after all, a Lifetime Achievement Award.
The global, regional and local stature of V C George as a lawyer, judge, and leader of the Malaysian Bar and of the community, is as towering as it is widespread. His name is well known, his reputation precedes him, his visage is easily recognisable and his presence in any room is immediately discernible. He carries himself effortlessly; whether engaging in social banter with his usual good humour, anecdotes and charm; or participating in keen intellectual discourse. At just about 6 feet 1 inch, V C George strikes an imposing figure. He has been described variously as debonair, dashing, suave, immaculate, even dangerous with a slight hint of an Errol Flynn moustache, a glint in his eyes and mischief in his smile. For those of you who are too young to have heard of Errol Flynn, then think of Sean Connery instead. If you are still too young to have heard of either of them, I am unable to assist with further examples as they no longer make them in that mould. But he is not just a pretty face.
V C George was born on 13 December 1930 in the royal town of Klang, Selangor to school teachers, V E Chacko and Thankamma Chacko. Both his parents came from distinguished families within the Syrian Christian community of Kerala in South India. They belonged to the Mar Thoma denomination within this community. His parents moved from Kerala to Klang, where his father taught at the Anglo–Chinese School.
V C George attended that school from kindergarten, right through to secondary school. This included three years when it was run as a Japanese school during the Occupation. His Japanese was good enough that, at the age of 14, he left school to work first as a Tamil–Japanese interpreter, and then as an Assistant Land Surveyor for a Japanese company. Upon finishing his Senior Cambridge, he went to the Anglo–Chinese School in Ipoh for a short stint while waiting to go to university.
V C George’s journey here tonight to receive this Award may have taken a different turn. There was a time in V C’s early years when the Malaysian Bar and the country could have been deprived of his brilliant and erudite legal mind, and his contributions to the law. Although his Latin and Mathematics teacher, V K Arumugam, had encouraged him to read law, believing he had a special aptitude for it, V C’s father wanted him to read medicine. Being an obedient and dutiful son, he enrolled at the University of Malaya in Singapore, and got admission into the Dental Faculty in 1951. Within months, he knew that this was not for him.
He then applied to London to read law, and arrived by ship in London in April 1952 to a beautiful but freezing, snow–covered Tilbury Docks. He could not afford to go to university, and instead went straight into Lincoln’s Inn (which was allowed back then). V C George came home in 1957 with great expectations as a newly minted Utter Barrister of The Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn. Destiny beckoned.
According to Mahadev Shankar (himself a recipient of the Malaysian Bar Lifetime Achievement Award, in 2014), V C’s first port of call for a place to read in chambers was the Chambers of Braddell and Ramani, and I quote Mahadev Shankar as follows — “[T]he imperious Radhakrishna Ramani [another recipient of the Malaysian Bar Lifetime Achievement Award, in 2015] kept V C standing as the interview proceeded. Undeterred by this, V C grabbed a chair, sat square in front of Ramani and said, ‘Now Mr. Ramani, do let us continue!’ That they did not. A few moments later, V C found himself back where he started, on the pavement. But he had made his point. He was not to be ignored, not ever.”
V C George was enrolled and admitted under the Advocates and Solicitors Ordinance 1947 as an advocate and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Malaya in late 1957, and started practice in Seremban as a litigation lawyer. Apparently, there were at that time 14 lawyers in Seremban, V C being the fifteenth, and all the lawyers in Seremban were litigation lawyers. His contemporaries in Seremban included Mahadev Shankar, Edgar Joseph and Balwant Singh.
It soon became clear that V C George was made of the right stuff and well on his way to making his mark as a lawyer. Mahadev Shankar recounted to us the one and only case he had with V C George as his opponent. V C George was acting for an Indian cyclist and Mahadev Shankar was acting for a Chinese driver who had collided into him. Unknown to Shankar, his client and V C George were drinking buddies. In the course of a sustained and vigorous cross–examination, the Chinese driver apparently, quite frustrated, said to V C George, “Eh lawyer, you don’t even know how to drive so how you ask me so many questions?” The judge asked V C if this was true. In true V C style, he replied, “Yes my Lord, but just because I can’t cook does not mean I don’t know the finer points of a good meal.” The judge turned to the witness and said to him that he was to answer the lawyer’s questions and not to ask him any. V C George won the case, and promptly thereafter quietly took driving lessons.
V C George practised at the Bar for 23 years until his elevation to the Bench of the High Court of Malaya. He was a consummate advocate and a gentleman, always on top of his brief and polite to adversaries, the Bench and witnesses. V C had appeared regularly in the superior courts as senior counsel and has around 37 reported cases in the law reports, reflective of his industry in, and breadth of, practice as an advocate. He also appeared in the Privy Council, working closely with English barristers.
V C George served on the Bar Council from 1965 to 1980, save for two years in between. He was elected as Chairman of the Selangor Bar Committee, which at that time included Kuala Lumpur, for 1972 and 1973. He was elected as the eighth President of the Malaysian Bar for the term 1974 to 1976.
V C George was one of those who were instrumental in the drafting of the Legal Profession Act 1976 when he was the Chairperson of the Legal Profession Act Drafting Committee Division. This Act replaced the Advocates and Solicitors Ordinance 1947. Importantly, the Act set down in legislation for the first time what has always been in principle and practice a fundamental role and ethos of an independent Bar, namely, to uphold the course of justice without regard for our own interests, uninfluenced by fear or favour, and to protect and assist the public in all matters touching ancillary or incidental to the law.
V C George was elevated to the Bench of the High Court of Malaya in January 1981. He was appointed the Head of the Commercial Division of the High Court in March of 1991, and was elevated to the Court of Appeal in September 1994 shortly after it had been established. He retired from the Bench on 31 December 1995, the year in which he attained the age of 65 years.
V C George was regarded at that time by lawyers as the best trial judge in the courts of Malaysia. He was held in the highest esteem by the Bar for his judicial temperament, candour and disarming humour. I recall that, as a young lawyer, I had once sat at the back of V C George’s court just to observe and learn. One of the lawyers appearing that day kept addressing V C George as “Your Honour”. V C reminded the lawyer that judges of the superior courts are addressed as “My Lord”, but for some reason the lawyer could not get it right and kept addressing the judge as “Your Honour”. After a while, V C George, noted for his saintly patience, said to the lawyer, without a hint of irritation, to either address him as “My Lord” or “George”, but not as “Your Honour”. The lawyer apologised and, appearing flustered, proceeded to address V C George as “My Lord George”.
Many practitioners remember V C’s time in the Kuala Lumpur High Court as the first time that cases were judicially managed by the Court. On Monday mornings, when cases for the week were listed, V C George would come down to the well of the court, sit at the table of the court clerk and call up the cases one by one. He would ask counsel questions relating to each case and then determine the schedule for the week.
As testament to his immense contribution to the law, V C George has 130 reported High Court decisions and eight reported Court of Appeal decisions. His judgments remain a model of authority, clarity and succinctness.
Upon his retirement from the Bench, V C George came home to us at the Bar, and very quickly became much sought–after as an arbitrator. It is rumoured that he is the most popular arbitrator in Malaysia, if not the region. I do not know who started that rumour, but one may hazard a guess.
I had mentioned earlier the impressive stature and imposing figure which V C cuts. However, the records of the Bar and the people we spoke with do not recall V C being a sportsman. Perhaps this is the reason why he has not been a recipient of the other much–coveted and sought–after award, namely the Malaysian Bar Sports Personality of the Year Award. I recall one occasion when V C George and I were in Kota Kinabalu for a conference shortly after his retirement from the Bench. Whilst the conference was in session, all of the delegates in the conference room observed, through the huge ceiling–to–floor window, V C George jogging past outside in the shortest tightest pair of shorts, and a headband to stop the sweat from getting into his eyes. V C was then in his late 60s and we were impressed. At evening drinks and after a few, V C George confessed with his usual twitch of the moustache and an impish grin that he was taking a walk and only ran for the length of the conference room window as he knew we would notice him. He did not, however, explain the short tight shorts.
The Malaysian Bar always looks to V C as an elder statesman, because of its deep respect for him, and because we know that V C possesses stability and steady hands. V C George’s contributions were, however, not confined to the Bench and Bar. He made it a point, and saw it as his duty, to be of service through a wider field in society, academia, other institutions and the church.
V C George was an honorary lecturer from 1972 to 1980 at the University of Malaya for postgraduate law studies, and was an external examiner for the LLM degree at the same university. From 1990 to 1996, he served as a member of the Panel of Conciliators and of Arbitrators of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (“ICSID”). He has been a member of the Tun Razak Foundation since 2001.
In 1996, V C George was appointed as Chairman of the Council of Banking Mediation Bureau and Chairman of the Insurance Mediation Bureau (both of which have similar functions as the Banking Ombudsman and Insurance Ombudsman in England). These were amalgamated into the Financial Mediation Bureau in 2004, and he continued to serve as a member thereof.
He was the President of the Royal Selangor Club for two terms. He was active in the Malaysian International Chamber of Commerce and Industry, serving on its Arbitration and Legal Affairs Committee, and in the Olympic Council of Malaysia, having served as Chairman of an Independent Enquiry Panel on allegations of doping.
V C George is active in the Malaysian Mar Thoma Church of Malabar and is one of its leaders. He is also a trustee of the All Malaya Malayalee Association.
Ladies and gentlemen, that is but a brief recitation of the many talents and achievements, dedicated service and invaluable contributions of V C George to society, the country, the Bar and the legal profession. We are delighted that some of V C’s family members are present this evening — his lovely wife Puan Sri Dr Rebecca George, his son Chacko and his daughter Anna — to join the Malaysian Bar in honouring the man that is V C George.
The Malaysian Bar is proud to recognise Tan Sri Dato’ V C George, called to the Bar in 1957 and our eighth President, with the Malaysian Bar Lifetime Achievement Award 2017. I invite all of you to raise your glasses in a toast to Tan Sri Dato’ V C George.
Thank you.