Which of the judges in the tribunal would come forward and say that they were instructed to do so? The main point is that when there is manifest injustice, any failure to redress or correct them would point to a breakdown of the rule of law, efficacy of our judicial system and independence of our judiciary. Sadly, Cabinet has continued with former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s legacy of condoning interference in the independence of the judiciary and turned its back to justice by refusing a review.

Nazri’s reliance of finality as an excuse not to review is a futile exercise as finality should not stand in the way of preventing a miscarriage of justice. Neither Tun Salleh Abbas nor the two Supreme Court judges are seeking compensation or punishment of Tun Dr Mahathir or those involved in framing them for offences and wrongdoings they did not commit. All they and ordinary Malaysians want is for justice to prevail and the rule of law be upheld. For their service and contribution to the country, their names should be cleared from this taint of misconduct.

After all if even the top judges in our land can not get justice, what can ordinary Malaysians expect and hope for? Many Malaysians have read the affirmation by Mahathir that he had asked Tun Salleh Abbas to resign to prevent any private scandal even though he did not say what the scandal was. That by itself shows a gross interference in the judiciary contrary to the concept of separation of powers as enshrined in our Constitution.

DAP urges the Cabinet to heed the wishes of the majority of justice-loving Malaysians as demonstrated to more than 1,000 crowd in the DAP forum on September 11 2006  and conduct an independent review of the events leading to the 1988 judiciary crisis to restore judicial independence.