Why did Abdullah take more than a month to be aware of the problem of the manifest injustice of a Federal Court judge having more than 30 outstanding grounds of judgment from High Court tenure although it was reported publicly more than a month ago on July 23, raising serious question about the competence and responsibility of his premiership

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Media Statement 
by Lim Kit Siang  
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(Parliament, Wednesday): The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said yesterday that the Chief Justice must answer the allegation that a Federal Court judge had failed to write grounds of judgment in 35 cases since his High Court tenure, covering both civil and criminal cases. 

DAP National chairman and MP for Bukit Gelugor, Karpal Singh, has named Federal Court judge Datuk Hashim Yusuf in Parliament on Monday as the judge concerned. 

The Prime Minister said it was disappointing to discover that there may be judges who had not performed their functions and duties adequately in the pursuit of justice. 

The Prime Minister is right – the Chief Justice Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim cannot continue to keep his silence after he had flatly denied that there was any Federal Court judge who had not written as many as 30 grounds of judgment and challenged for proof to be provided. 

As such proof have been provided and the Federal Court judge concerned named, Fairuz should  publicly apologise for misleading the Malaysian public and explain whether he is heading a competent, responsible, accountable  and professional judiciary. 

Will Fairuz take out the Federal Court judge concerned from all current Federal Court cases until he had written up all the grounds of judgments of 35 outstanding civil and criminal cases?

It is also equally disturbing that the Prime Minister has taken more than a month to be aware of the problem of the manifest injustice of a Federal Court judge having more than 30 outstanding grounds of judgment from High Court tenure although it was reported publicly more than a month ago on July 23, raising serious question about the competence and responsibility of the Abdullah’s government.

Would Abdullah continue to pretend that the injustices committed by judges in failing to give prompt grounds of judgments as required by the Code of Ethics for Judges do not exist if Karpal had not brought the matter to Parliament on Monday?

(29/8/2007)