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Press Statement 
by Karpal Singh  
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(Kuala Lumpur, Tuesday) : The statement by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, that the Bar Council should not behave like the opposition by marching to the Prime Minister’s Office to hand over a memorandum calling for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the judiciary is mischievous, uncalled for and without any basis. Members of the Malaysian Bar have a right to march to the Prime Minister’s office so long as such an assembly is a peaceful one. Section 46A of the Legal Profession Act, 1976 clearly provides for Members of Parliament, State Assemblymen and officials of any political party from holding office in the Bar Council, a Bar committee or any committee thereof.  This section has been in force since 24.1.1978. In fact, I was a sitting member of the Bar Council when this amendment came into force. I was then State Assemblyman for Alor Star Bandar and therefore, legislated out of the Bar Council.

The Bar Council is no way influenced by the opposition. In keeping with section 42 of the Legal Profession Act, the Malaysian Bar is obliged to uphold the cause of justice without regard to its own interests or that of its members, uninfluenced by fear or favor.  The video clip which has surfaced clearly shows extraneous influence in the appointment and promotion of judges. Prima facie, there is more than cause for the Malaysian Bar to present the memorandum to the Prime Minister in Putrajaya tomorrow.

‘Don’t be like the opposition’

 

Nazri: No need for lawyers to march to PM’s Office

 

Kuala Lumpur: The Malaysian Bar Council should not behave like the opposition by marching to the Prime Minister’s Office to hand over a memorandum calling for Royal Commission of Inquiry into the judiciary, Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz said.

 

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department said there were other proper ways for the memorandum to be submitted to the Prime Minister.

 

“They can set up an appointment and send a delegation to meet the Prime Minister,” he said.

 

He was commenting on the Bar Council’s plan to march from the Palace of Justice to the Prime Minister’s Office to submit the memorandum tomorrow.

 

The plan was made at the council’s emergency meeting last Saturday to discuss the controversial video clip of a lawyer supposedly talking to a senior judge over the brokering of the judge appointments. 

 

Nazri however said the lawyers were free to hold the march as long as it was a peaceful one.

 

“That is entirely up to them but they should consider the statute of lawyers who are officers of court.

 

“Unless they want to show their hostility, why should they stoop so low by behaving like Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), DAP and PAS?” he said.

 

Bar Council President Ambiga Sreneevasan said the call arose out of the council’s belief that the independence of judiciary was the highest ideal that it must “cherish and be prepared to stand up for.”

 

“In any event, how can the call for strengthening of the Judiciary be only the position of opposition parties when surely it must be the Government’s stand too,” she said.

(25/9/2007)