It is a big sigh of relief all round that Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim has indeed retired as Chief Justice and his application for the customary six-month extension had been rejected.
But why should it take a “shadow” constitutional crisis to effect something which is right and proper for the country?
It bespeaks of a constitution and system of justice which have gone seriously awry and should be put right without any more delay.
The following quotes from the 14th Law Conference are more than sufficient to demand bold and far-reaching reforms to restore public confidence in the independence, integrity and quality of the judiciary, viz:
“It is time for the judiciary to regain the public’s confidence and bring back the glory years.” — Sultan Azlan Shah
“The golden era of the judiciary was before 1988.
“Then came the watershed in 1988 and the system deteriorated so rapidly, so much so that I gratefully retired in 1995.” — former Court of Appeal judge Datuk V.C.George.“What does the Constitution mean to me? It means nothing to me at the moment, because it can be changed at any time.” Raja Aziz Addruse, senior lawyer.
Although Fairuz is no more Chief Justice averting a constitutional crisis, the prolonged crisis of judiciary reaching its full second decade continues without any let up — reason why the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi should end the charade of Haidar Panel into Lingam Tape scandal and establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry to restore confidence in the independence, integrity and quality of judiciary to its golden era before 1988.
Yb Lim,
we should all be thankful that HRH the king and the sultans hears the voice of the raayat. in one way, the chinese have a saying, that “fung shui” have cycles. i am glad to see the cycle that the judiciary is at least being attempted by the raayat , the bar , and the rulers to install some dignity.
on the second issue, uncle lim, pakcik dollah does not work in paces like you. he is quite at snail pace, and for that you must give him time to make us “feel good” again. but time and tide waits for no man, and i wonder if he have the right karma with him now,that he is advised by ill advice. also he just married recently, and be fair to him. uncle lim, dah kahwin lama. did you not read in the star newspaper that jeanne had to advised our pm that wept is the past tense of weep. so when we wept, we are happy. that is the malay abb for ecer ( wilayah ekon pembangunan timur ) .i pun lupa la. so many corridors and multi billion projects.
i shall celebrate this victory of the rulers and raayat with you sir.
one teh tarik and roti bakar ( we share ).cos price of bread shot up. poor muthusamy, his putumayam getting smaller and thinner. but i will still support to buy .
God is with the righteous.
YB Lim KS, sorry to post here, but I really want to know what happen to YM RPK and MT. There is a complete black out today.
The reason I am asking is that I follow all your comments in MT.
No, Adam Yong, we have just won one battle but the war is still a long way more. Now they are striking back. I am not sure if YB Lim’s blog is safe from them, especially when some MT readers are turning here. It seems they really striking back with vengeance. We know this is their modus operandi – intimidation. If what had been highlighted were wrong, they are free to take legal action (the court belongs to them anyway), but if the issues were true, this is their way of silencing the people.
YB Lim, I agree the CJ case is just one of the questionable thing in the judiciary. Now, all they need is to get another CJ of their kind there to retain status quo.
Sad, really sad.
I agree with Mr. Lim.
Had pak Lah been more alert and stop sleeping and jetting around the world so frequently, he should know that the rakyat are really fed up with this Ahmad Fairuz.
All this while Pak Lah is out of touch with the rakyat. He gets all the info from that supid guy, Nazri. Nazri said that there was no judiciary crisis when almost all lawyers nsisted there was.
I really do blame pak Lah for this mess. He does not know what he is doing. Dia syok show off only.
Oh yes, Mr Lim. Don’t let this issue comes to pass. Pursue this matter until there is result.
Last time Eusoff Chin’s holiday with Lingam gone without any conclusion. Now he again appeared in the tape. Don’t let up!
We must thank DYMM Sultan of Perak and his pirince Raja Nazrin for championing the rights of the rakyat!
It surprises me that the government is promoting and supporting all these half-past-six and sevens to their jobs, whether they be in the Judiciary, the Police, the Cabinet, the Civil Service etc. It is very obvious that the personalities are of inferior material and should not be there in the first place but the powers there be thinks otherwise. Maybe their standards of measurement and assessment are flawed or very low.
So mediocrity breeds and support mediocrity. I suppose they cannot see beyond their mediocrity and so we are doomed for more mediocrity while others march on. Must be the hari-hari philosophy.
Anyway, bye-bye Fairuz. Won’t miss you. But don’t worry. Pak Lah will find something “important” for you to do, just to hit back at his detractors.
Take things one at a time, this is a big development in my opinion. True that we shouldn’t be complacent when fighting for the rights of the public, but we shouldn’t bite off more than we can chew.
oknyua, according to Ronnie MT wensite was hacked and so was his.
MT is up with old posting and recent ones seen to have been removed by the hackers.
Regarding the judiciary, in some ways the rulers themselves are to be blamed for allowing the judiciary to deteriorate. They could have objected to the elevation of Augustine Paul to the Federal Court and the appointment of the UMNO judge from nowhere to the FC.
But then they were not that daring during Mahathir’s rule a she was capable of attacking the rulers.
Strange!!!
My postings just got wiped out before they were even submitted!
raja petra did not respond to his mobile call. ringing tone but unanswered. libra 2. pls post if you have any news. thanks mate.
anyone can help. ?
There is this NEW video on youtube regarding VK Lingham with very funny descriptions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L5tTlZYSaI
Do take a look :)
“..we have just won one battle but the war is still a long way more.” oknyua
Have we won anythng?
This CJ is supposed to retire which is what he did! He could have had second thoughts and had it withdrawn himself to protect whatever is left of his own legacy. Had he continued he might end up giving the appearance that he has been run out of office if he were to retire prematurely after the extension. That would be worse for him – and what’s left of his tattered legacy.
Or could it be just be a peace offering over this one issue. I don’t think it is anything. Obviously it is too much to expect a statement from the country’s head of the executive to the effect that the “Linggam Tape is still being investigated and steps will be taken to not only bolster the notion that justice must not only be done but seen to be done. In this case justice does not need any doing but ‘justice’ has been done nonetheless?
There is nothing to rejoice! The fight must go on.
I put my ears both on the ground, in both the oceans and the grapevine tells me all is not well.
Who is VK Lingham? The judge fixing lawyer who was caught on video.
Actually the BN has commenced an all out war to wipe out the alternative media….the internet…….like Burma…….but they will of course burn their rice bowls and FDIs with them……I suspect they are getting ready for the UMNO assembly and the GE……so to all bloggers and Internet sites…FORTIFY YOURSELVES….YOU HAVE BEEN PRE WARNED….
You have two ears on one side? And your grapevine can talk? Amazing. Take two painadol and quickly see the vet in the morning.
“Who is VK Lingham? The judge fixing lawyer who was caught on video.” chriss
He is not ‘Lingham’ of the ‘Lingham’s Hot Sauce’ fame but just a plain Tamil whose parents were from south India, of Malaysian nationality who studied law in England in the mid-80s after a mid- career change. This one is a different Lingam from that ‘Lingham’ of Lingham & Sons which has a factory in B’worth manufacturing the ‘sweet n spicy’ sauce – which is popular among Malaysian students abroad. This one is busy churning out ‘friendly judges’.
Only a battle has been won but there are so many more to come before Malaysia can join ranks with progressive nations like Norway, Finland,Switzerland, Japan and not be happy saying that we’re better off than pariah nations like Zimbabwe, sierra Leone,Hati,Pakistan,Sudan etc,etc
“we should all be thankful that HRH the king and the sultans hears the voice of the raayat.” ADAM YONG IBNI ABDULLAH
Why should we be thankful? If the rulers has no interest and benefits do you think they bother to step in? This is what they should have done in 1988. The rulers should be thankful the rakyats have been patience (or dumb) for so long.
First step towards a fair society for all Malaysians is to deny BN’s two-third majority in Parliament, then regime change can be realized earliest in 2010. But wait a minute, you may not get your general election after all if come Nov 10… There may be surprises after surprises. Maybe you will see the Abdullah step down as Prime Minister, I don’t know.
if the si-bodoh steps down, will the one in line be the better choice? Or worse? nobody knows. If somehow the next in line got sidelined, who do you think will go up?
So rather then wishing so much for continual regime changes, perhaps we should work to strengthen the foundations of the nation namely the constitution, judiciary and brainwash the nation to forge a real malaysian identity rather than the current racially discriminatory labels and practices.
And naturally perhaps work on the corruption that plague every niche of the goverment infrastructure governed by the UMNO.
If Badawi steps down, Najib will took over, it will be the worst for everyone no doubt, but that’s the way UMNO can be destoyed, the key is Najib. How many aspiring members in UMNO dares to step up and saves the party from destruction when leaders from top to bottom are mostly corrupt? It is a matter of time before UMNO is history, to accelerate the destruction, all is needed is for corrupt leaders to reign in UMNO. Can Hishamudin be a better leaders than Najib, not unless he is better than Khairy, but it seems like nobody can be smarter than that monkey. There you have it.
Give us a break..
http://malaysiancartoons.blogspot.com/2007/11/give-us-break-man.html
When i see the corrupts i will just stare at them with disgust…and it will be the same when i see this disgrace Fairuz….they doesn’t deserve our respect at all…..the same goes to all the corrupt and arrogant politician etc.GOD SAVE OUR COUNTRY from further damage.
What I cannot understand is how they could hope to deflect public criticisms and loss of confidence in the judiciary by letting one controversial CJ go in order only for him to be replaced by another equally controversial one, albeit controversial for different reasons?
And our former Court of Appeal judge Datuk V.C.George said, “Then came the watershed in 1988 and the system deteriorated so rapidly, so much so that I gratefully retired in 1995†– well, if all the good ones with integrity are ‘grateful’ to retire and go, what are we left with when the corrupt and bad ones are equally grateful to be appointed to and promoted within the ranks of the bench? :)
“Maybe you will see the Abdullah step down as Prime Minister, I don’t know.” dawsheng
This will never even happen! Not in Malaysia. Once you taste power it is hard to just give it up. Hussein gave up for health reasons. Tunku was forced to hand over the reins to Razak. Mahathir? Mahathir is smart enough to know that if he had remained there is a real threat he would be forced out – he left Abdullah to face the music.
And what did Abdullah Badawi do?? He dances to his own music – and still does after four years. His Chinese supporters have been short changed.
Fairuz’s successor? It could be Zaki Tun Azmi who is smart enough to cultivate his ties to the palace over the years.
The likely successor could be someone in failing health. A deal would likely be made with him to step down after a year or two at the helm, giving way to the rising star of the day – Zaki Tun Azmi.
the acting ketua hakim negara have six months more to go before retirement. there we go again. it looks like we really have no choice of judges available as the chief.
if the government dispend with racial instinct, i am very sure that are good indian and chinese judges too. sri ram gopal is one i do admire.
This has been the fallback plan all along. Badawi is NEVER GOING to have a Royal Commission on judiciary. It opens up a can of worms for UMNO including having Anwar found not guilty and UMNO guility of so many things including being illegal, even the NEP may be found unconstitutional… UMNO Youth would have its ball cut off if there was a real independent court and we all know which famous son-in-law is going to head UMNO Youth soon don’t we??
Can’t have his career cut off at the front can we?
Alas, alas, alas, racism has warped the vision of the present crop of Malay leaders. How many can really claim to be Malaysian leaders?
Is there, in the first place, a Malaysian?
Correct, correct, correct!
The success, peace and survival of our country is dependent upon the integrity, credibility and effectiveness of our great institutions, including the judiciary………..not BN UMNO!