Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz announced yesterday that three senior ministers have been appointed to study the three-man Haidar Panel report on the Lingam Tape on the perversion of the course of justice on fixing of judicial appointments and court judgments.
Nazri said that the three Ministers, i.e. Home Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Radzi Sheikh Ahmad, Culture and Arts and Heritage Minister Datuk Seri Dr. Rais Yatim and he himself, were given the task by the Cabinet due to their legal background and because all three had been in charge of law affairs in their ministerial portfolios and to make recommendations on the appropriate action to be taken at the next Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
The Cabinet had also decided that each minister be given a copy of the report.
Two questions immediately come to mind.
Firstly, why wasn’t the Haider Report made public immediately? Why must Cabinet Ministers read the Haider Report first, to find out whether it is good or bad for the government, before deciding whether it should be made public?
We should follow the best international practices of countries which fully practice accountability, transparency and integrity where such inquiry reports, whether by Royal Commission or inquiry committees, are made public at the same time they are submitted to the appointing authorities — to show that the government has nothing to hide, regardless of the findings.
Secondly, why should there be another three-man Ministerial Committee to study the Report of the three-man Haider Panel on the Lingam Tape? One does not need to have any legal background or experience in Cabinet in charge of law affairs to decide what is right and proper to be done on a question of accountability, transparency and integrity, not only about the Lingam Tape revelations about the perversion of the course of justice on fixing of judicial appointments and judicial decisions but the urgent need for judicial reforms.
The New Straits Times today reported that the three-man Haider Panel into “Lingamgate” have all agreed that a Royal Commission of Inquiry should be established to investigate although they have submitted separate reports.
This follows the “scoop” by Sin Chew Daily yesterday that the three panel members have separately recommended a Royal Commission of Inquiry.
Why then is the Prime Minister and the Cabinet dragging their feet in immediately announcing agreement in principle to establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry, unless they have things to hide?
I suggest that the three ministers of the Nazri Committee to study the Report of the three-man Haider Panel as well as all Cabinet Ministers should be given a copy of Rais Yatim’s 1995 book “Freedom under Executive Power in Malaysia — A Study of Executive Supremacy” to understand why the foot-dragging for judicial reforms must end with a Royal Commission of Inquiry to restore independence and integrity of judiciary.
Let me quote three passages from Rais Yatim’s book:
“Since merdeka the judiciary had by and large enjoyed its share of independence and none of the previous three Prime Ministers, who had incidentally received their legal training in England, as much as nudged the judiciary let alone ‘assaulted’ it in Parliament as did Dr. Mahathir.” (page 302 – 7.2)
“The period 1986-1989 could perhaps be summarised to be the finest hour of the Malaysian Judiciary for it was during this short period that it handed down those few judgements that gave freedom a boost. These judgements did not go down well with the Prime Minister. His dissatisfaction with the judiciary came into sharp focus when he was clearly stung by the various decisions of the court.” (p. 313 – 7.2)
“Since the dismissals of the three Supreme Court judges in 1988, the government has not taken steps to restore confidence in the Malaysian judiciary. Instead, key judicial posts have been filled by judges who participated in the government’s administrative actions against the judges. Recent legislation has eliminated judicial review of important national security legislation. The government has been openly critical of the Malaysian Bar Council, which has sought to defend judicial independence in Malaysia. This criticism, in conjunction with a recent action for contempt of court against the Secretary of the Bar Council, indicates a continued willingness to maintain pressure against the judiciary and those who seek to defend it.”
National and international confidence in the independence, integrity and quality of the judiciary have suffered from one crisis to another since Rais’ book, culminating in the latest LingamGate.
This should be the finest hour of the Cabinet Ministers to prove that they are not “half-past six” and are capable of doing the greatest service to the nation by establishing a Royal Commission of Inquiry with full and untrammeled powers to delve into the deep-seated causes for the decline and fall of the independence, integrity and quality of the judiciary in the past two decades and to make recommendations to re-establish a world-class judiciary as an important element of Malaysia’s international competitiveness to face the challenges of globalization.
After this another three Ministers from other BN parties will be appointed to study this Ministerial report. The UMNO will be appointed to study the Nn-UMNO Ministers report.
Lets see what Rais has got to say.
Sorry, it should be ” The UMNO Youth will be appointed the non-UMNO Ministers report.
In any case why weren’t any MCA or MIC ministers appointed into the 3 man panel. Why confine it to UMNO.
Mr. Lim,
They need to buy time to find an escape route. They need to scrutise to see if there is any discriminating facts in the fact which incriminate the government. He himself is not competent enough to decide on the report. All he knows is to shout bodoh, bodoh, bodoh in parliament for all and sundry to see how paliamentarian he is. Look how the world is now laughing at Malaysia.
You form a committee to study a report then you form another sub-committee to study the committee report. After that you form another sub-sub-committee to study the sub-committee report and so on. Forever forming committee to study report. Finally, semua lupa. life goes on as usual nothing happen. ZZZZZ PM goes on holiday down under happily ever after
The case will be closed eventually, and people will forget very soon.
And we thought this farce couldn’t get any worse.
See how useless and hypocrite is our PM Bodohwi!!
nope, it will not be forgotten that easily… remember that Anwar has more of that video which he has yet to release… of course he would have known that UMNO will use delay tactics and the people will soon forget. that is why he keeps the juicier parts for later.
in addition, this formation of a 3 man panel to study the report from the 3 man haider panel just shows one thing… that AAB is just too stupid to be able to read and understand the initial report in the first place. or will he just once again say that he is too busy to read such reports. if so, then what is he busy with and if his other tasks are as important as judiciary corruption.
i seriously find BN is now filled to the brim with village idiots… it is also good to know that there are currently ZERO capably people in BN. it makes it easier to spot their lies as most of their lies are said ad hoc without much consideration.
YB Lim, another 3-member panel.
Dr Rais and Mohd Radzi, the two would be over-shadowed by this third man… the man who shouted “bodoh..bodoh.” Both Dr Rais and Mohd Radzi would preserve their intergrity by making the conclusion, “A Royal Commission is needed.” But they would be out-shouted by the third person.
After the three senior ministers have studied the three-man Haidar Panel report on the Lingam Tape, yet another 3 clowns would be appointed to study the report of the three senior ministers…the study will never end
Three minister from UMNO – no! no! government to do the job?
It is a “no! no!” if impartial judgment is the objective.
“…//….One does not need to have any legal background or experience in Cabinet in charge of law affairs to decide what is right and proper to be done on a question of accountability, transparency and integrity…//..†– YB Kit.
Absolutely correct! The question of what is right and proper is known to the common man : who does not know that a referee whether in a football game or in the courts need to be fair and independent so that parties in a contest shall be placed in level playing field for the contest – especially before judges in the courts of the land in which grave and weighty issues of rights and obligations of citizens are in contention requiring determination and adjudication?
The same however is however not so true about the uncommon man with power. He tends to be blinded by power. This is because power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely, so said Lord Acton, a British historian from his study of man’s nature throughout history!
Nor is it necessarily true of those with legal background : their knowledge of the law mixed with power is the most dangerous concoction. Instead of upholding the spirit of the law and justice, they may in position of power, use their knowledge of the law to circumvent it or give it a good spin to further the interest of power than the well being of the common folks.
I say it is not necessary for three Ministers – Nazri, Radzi and Dr. Rais Yatim – to have the first right to recommend to the cabinet what to do with the Haidar Panel’s findings just because of their legal background and training.
Dr Rais Yatim in particular is caught between a rock and a hard place.
When he was out of power (for being in Team B) he wrote “since the dismissals of the three Supreme Court judges in 1988, the government has not taken steps to restore confidence in the Malaysian judiciary in “Freedom under Executive Power in Malaysia – A Study of Executive Supremacyâ€Â
Now that he is back in power and having a ministerial position is he going to say that there is no need to restore confidence in the Malaysian judiciary especially in the face of disclosure of the Lingam’s video clip and widespread public demand for the Royal Commission supported by even the government appointed Haidar Panel?
Frankly there’s no other way to go on this one, Rais.
As for Nazri he should be asked whether he still thinks what Ahmad Fairuz ostensibly told him – that the ex CJ wasn’t the one on the other side of the telephone line with lawyer Lingam – is still plausible.
I think the answers are already in everyone’s mind, and it is simple and very fundamental.
They actually left out Zam? He would have been an ideal candidate for this yet another “high-powered” panel.
When you ask monkeys to assess the tastiness of bananas, well you know what to expect. Will they now do what they have been opposing all along i.e. opposing the need for a Royal Commission? Will Nazri now have to do a “turn” and eat his words? Will Rais revise his thesis? Will Radzi say everything is OK in this country, not to worry?
Ah, yes. This is a country of dilly-dallys and procrastinations, of unfocussed, muddled minds with “loose wires”, of denials and of deceit, of twists and turns, of high handedness and suppression, and of magic and mumbo jumbo. The powers there be are lost and don’t know what to do but continue to live in a world of make-believe. Hanuman help us!
Malaysia is no more a democratic country and is subject to the whims and fancies of the corrupt and mediocre UMNO based government. I foresee more social upheavels coming in line with what’s going on in some neighboring countries. Justice must be returned to the people!
This is no weird coincidence.
Shakespeare (in Macbeth), likens the forces of evil as a triumvirate.
“Fair is foul and foul is fair
Hovers through the fog and filthy air”
Values are topsy-turvy and reversed. What’s pure and pristine may be brine or bile. The times are uncertain. Dark and evil forces brood over the land. The three Weird Sisters (witches) gather to make announcements on the fate of the nation’s leaders. But there is a kingpin, Hecate, the goddess of witches, who probably pulls the strings from behind the curtains.
Ah, but that’s ShakespeaRE. And all that’s pure imagination.
Well, imagine with me…what if one triumvirate is succeeded by another triumvirate, and one or both have dark and dirty purposes best left closeted in corridors of power. Then all the ingredients of a witches’ potion would be complete.
I shudder to think any further…though the Truth must be told.
YB Lim, when will our PM ever realise that his time and resource have been towards maintenance and nothing else? If the problem warrants immediate and drastic decision, leave everything aside and resolve that problem first. What the PM did was to instruct the ACA, then the 3-man panel and then another 3-man ministers; when is this going to end? How much time had been wasted? How much damage had been done?
This year alone, how many issues surfaced? At the present rate, new issues are surfacing every other week. Mr PM, you are the PM not only for UMNO or the coalition. You are the PM for all Malaysians, even if you don’t like some of our faces or political leanings. Therefore in all of these issues, please I beg you, act righteously, courageously and conclusively.
more delaying tactics from the government, delay delay delay until more serious scandals comes out and took over the heat. Its like a relaying process, anyone remember who is Altantuya now? What we must do now is keep on reminding malaysians about all these shits that came out from the government.
One Question.
Is de facto Law Minister now also De Facto Senior Minister?
Another shameful charade, a panel to study the findings of the fisrt panel. So utterly contemptous of the people’s intelligence and sense of fairness.
And they pray 5 times a day.
My blood boils !!!!!!!!!
I salute LKS for having the patience to endure such rubbish from the beruk nasional umno for so many years.
YB
AAiyah ! One panel cannot, another one lah. Finally, someone will tutup semua mata, mah! Boloh…. all you pondans + beruks.
By the way….ah…..how come….no need panel before using those riot gears the other day….ah ??? Don’t kacau the PM lah….dia nak sambung tidur…….
AAB was not the one who started this whole mess with the judiciary; it was his predecessor who now has no love for him and when his health permits, have been attacking him and calling him half past six. Why is he not taking this opportunity to get back at Dr M by reforming the judiciary and undo what Dr M had done. He would be looked upon as a great leader and reformer if he has the guts to do this.
Our previous MM was a man in a hurry, rules and institutional safeguards were nullified to satisfy his megalomaniac ambitions.
I shall not mourn his passing, a small footnote in the history of our nation…he institutionalised corruption, sodomised our judiciary and treated the Constitiution as a piece of toilet paper.
In the 3-ring circus(an old movie)the clowns were experts in the juggling of the 3 rings from one to another in an ‘never-ending’ manner. Are we now watching a replay of the modern version of the same movie?
Samuel Goh Kim Eng
http://MotivationInMotion.blogspot.com
Thu. 15th Nov. 2007.
YB Lim,
Interesting to see the 3 previous ministers have been belittled and slapped on their faces, their findings and their testimonies not good enuff, now another 3 stooges have been elected, we’ll see who will slam them the next round…
They have just declared the previous 3 as not so useful ministers~
What a load of rubbish!!! Absolute farce. Starting from the top, these guys are too dumb even to see the shame they are bringing on to their country and themselves with this shameful display of “tai chi”.
“DESENSITIZATION” – that is the operative word here. They are hoping by heaping layer after layer of committees and panels, the public will be so tired of the whole episode that they will be desensitized to this shit and accept whwtever crap is dished out in the end. They are also playing for time hoping to drag this issue past GE so that it does not become a embarassment to them.
If my memory serves me right( and someone help me out on this), I thought it was pledged by the Govt. they will accept the recommendations of the three man panel. If I am right, then why are they backtracking now? AAB started with a “three man independent panel” now regressing to a “three minister non independent panel” . What’s next? A “three UMNO member panel” followed by a “three former judges panel” comprising of the just retired Chief Justice and the two retired CJs implicated with the Tun Salleh sackings?
Rommel was kind with his departing comments. I would really love to hear what he would tell the potential EU investors in private about Malaysia.
Is anyone surprised?
Ha, ha, now we expect to see the real decision from our three senior ministers.
Anyone ready to bet the outcome?
We must salute our PM for entertaining us with first class wayang kulit.
“This should be the finest hour of the Cabinet Ministers to prove that they are not “half-past six ”
They are half-past six, and you are asking them to prove that they are not. Something is amiss here.
They are adding insult to injury of the Malaysian intelligence. Totally no integrity and accountability. My guess is they want to try to clean the mess up before the general election. As long as this mess is not cleaned, Badawi will not announce the date of general election. That is unless of course he caved into pressure of the people of Malaysia.
The appointment of the three Ministers on this small but simple to resolve issue actually means that most Ministers are actually very free.
What do you think? A battery of 36 Ministers in a nation of 25 million people.
Even Australia does not have the same number of Ministers. But then, one wit actually said that the political health of a country actually can be seen from the number of Ministers it has.
So, go figure that one out.
Of course, the MCA and MIC Ministers are not appointed because we know all along that they are nothing but window-dressing to reinforce Umno’s empty claim of sharing power.
How we can reinforce something empty is truly Malaysian! It has nothing to do with our current drive for tourists. That slogan is Truly Asia!
“..who does not know that a referee whether in a football game or in the courts need to be fair and independent >.”Jeffrey
Limkaput does not know.
It is obvious what they are doing.
First, they go into the denial mode to try and deflect public interest. Then when clearly this is failing, in an attempt to try to appease the Malaysian public and under pressure to do something they formed a panel without giving those sitting on the panel the tools to work on.
Now they formed yet another committee of senior Ministers to try and decide whether further action is needed. This is an insult to our intelligence! It is like making the robber act as judge to try to decide if there was a robbery.
OJ Simpson would be happy to oblige.
Firstly, why wasn’t the Haider Report made public immediately?
Simply contrary to the best principles of public accounatbility.
Secondly, why should there be another three-man Ministerial Committee to study the Report of the three-man Haider Panel on the Lingam Tape?
Simply contrary to the best practices of transparency.
Thirdly, a 3-man Ministerial committe: Nazri is singularly incredible (need I repeat the litany of his stupidity!); Rais is obsequiously obeisant to the system (and shame on him – it’s the proverbial prostitution of principles before power!); Radzi – to be fair, I know too little of this man to comment. But since Radzi has been around for so long with so little impact (EXCEPTION: his handling of the foreign manpower issue sucks!), what good is there to have someone who makes so little difference to Malaysian society.
Simply pointless.
Now the point I am trying to make – cut out the sham and the shenanigans & simply come out with the truth! No one needs to lie, distort, camuflage or white-wash the truth. Let the Royal Commission of Inquiry do their job. Why stand in the way of a fact-finding, quasi-judicial committe intent on establishing whether there has been perversion of justice and corruption of public office.
Any ‘roadblock’ must be dealt with the greatest contempt that it deserves.
When I first viewed the Lingam tape, I thought that it was unspinable. After two months, it is still unspinable. Give up lah, Nazri. The authenticity of the tape and the evidence within it are undisputable. The smoking gun is “slam-dunk”. Recommend to your pondan boss to set up the Royal Commission and save whatever little credibility that this Administration has left.
Here’s a wild, wild guess as to why the Report is not made public immediately, and why a sub-committee of 3 “senior ministers” are formed to first review the report.
The wild speculative guess is simply this – the Haidar panel is holding the ruling party at ransom for more money to come up with no RCI recommendation. In the mean time, they leaked the content of the report to SinChew and a few other papers for good measure. This should really put the pressure on PM and ruling party to pay the bigger ransom money. If the ransom money is paid, then, the report can be changed over the weekend and noone will be none the wiser, since the report is kept secret and not revealed to the public. Further, only the 3 senior ministers who are aligned with the ruling party has seen it, whilst the opposition ministers have not.
Pretty convenient isn’t it NOT to reveal the report to the public immediately? And pretty convenient isn’t it for the report to be first reviewed by 3 “senior ministers” when all 3 are aligned to the ruling party?
Of course, I don’t know what will happen for sure this weekend. But doing it this way invites a lot of speculative / conspiracy theories. And when we have so little trust of the ruling party, this is not the right way to handle the situation. Bottom line = this sort of decisions (secrecy, biased sub-committee) are simply not transparent at all.
Old Observer.
“Thirdly, a 3-man Ministerial committee: …. it’s the proverbial prostitution of principles before power!” ENDANGERED HORNBILL
That says it all! A 3-man, a 6-man or a 10-man Ministerial Committee (underline “ministerial”) – what does it matter?? It is a pervesion of the law of natural justice.
The 54+ day murder trial come readily to mind about Desensitization.
Maybe the 3-man No Power Panel reports were too loaded with legal jargon for the PM to decipher. After all there were too legal guys in the panel.
So now the 3 mininsters read the 3 reports and come up with a bullet-points summary.
“It is a pervesion of the law of natural justice.”
Well, only 2,000 out of the 15,000 lawyers think justice has been perverted. I wonder if the Bar Council really represents all the lawyers, can the President come out and make clear whether or not Lingam is still a member? Anyway, who needs to be a member of the Bar Council when you can fix the appointment of the top judge? How silly of me….
You chose the right profession when you chose not to be a lawyer in Malaysia where lawyering is no longer an honorable profession but a dishonorable one!
If Dawsheng is thinking of either entering or whether to remain or leave the legal profession, he should be encouraged to enter and stay. If good people leave, we only have the bad apples behind – not helpful to the country. Lawyers – a good set of them or sufficient numbers of such – are necessary for the Rule of Law and interposing as bulwark between all powerful government and ordinary citizenry.
Lets not measure the profession by one judicial fixer with regard to presence of other legal eagles like Raja Aziz Addruse, Human Rights Defender and Lawyer, Malik Imtiaz Sarwar our DAP Karpal Singh or PKR’s Sivarasa etc . Then there are active young ones like Edmond Bon who work tirelessly in various sub committees of the Bar Council including Human Rights Committee coming out with the Bar’s inaugural ‘A Blueprint for Human Rights’ launched in May 2007 and writing in various forums to increase the public awareness of rights.
That only 2,000 out of the 15,000 lawyers walked for Justice is of course no inference that the remaining 13,000 condone judicial fixing or do not support call for justice or an independent judiciary, whatever may be said of their outrage not being sufficiently strong to translate into the walk. But perhaps they contribute to the Cause in ways other than a dramatic march to the Palace of Justice. The older and retired ones like Lim Kean Chye – too old to walk – came out, for example, in the law conference to blast half past six judges!
The description “no longer an honorable profession†is more apt in reference to rampant undercutting of professional fees and discounts due to keen competition which the big time lawyers hypocritically condemn but they themselves practise to survive.
As in other professions, there are black sheep that abscond with clients money and engage in fraudulent behaviour but they are, overall – and so far – still a very small percentage of the entire Malaysian Bar, there being many more Ok than otherwise.
In terms of defending the Rule of Law, the record of the Malaysian Bar is, I would think, quite OK.
In 1988 judiciary crisis the Bar passed a resolution against then CJ Hamid that is still unrescinded.
In response to Lingam Video Clip the Bar Council called for restoration of Judiciary Independence and the establishment of Royal Commission. Participants of the recently held law conference organized by the Bar Council took De facto law minister to task on this issue.
In any public controversy relating to issues of public interest relating to administration of Justice, the Bar Council has issued statements taking positions in favour of Rule of Law and rights of citizenry.
It is agreed that the lawyers have no record yet of behaving like their Pakistani counterparts to take to the streets during Musharaff’s emergency rule, clashing with police and facing arrests – not yet anyway.
1st sentence -….Lets not measure the profession by one judicial fixer withOUT regard…
I see the Bar Council as the only hope to make right the judiaciary in Malaysia.
Jeffrey, lawyering in Malaysia has become a less than honorable profession. Why not? When lawyers have to prostitute themselves to live and survive to support themselves and their families, they do so by abandoning the values and the training they receive to become lawyers. Ethics is a term which has long lost its meaning. We are not talking corruption here yet!
The Lingam Tape captures not only the mood of this once honorable profession, but the depth to which it has sunk over the last twenty years or more.
The reason why many lawyers stayed away from the so-called March for Justice is apparent for all to see! They were afraid of being black listed by the government and the government not only owns and controls banks with interests in property development but have themselves gone into property development. Further, the big and medium size law firms are dependent on the government for their business, and lawyers working in them are not free to do so because of the conflict of interest involved.
I’m sorry but I find it hard to see the difference between the whores who ply their trade along Bukit Bintang and lawyers in Malaysia.
I am sorry too.
“If Dawsheng is thinking of either entering or whether to remain or leave the legal profession, he should be encouraged to enter and stay. ” Jeffrey
“I am sorry too” the great ‘dawsheng’ has spoken!