Friday, 2 November 2007
The demise of Malaysian judiciary
Please observe a moment of silence. The Malaysian judiciary is as good as dead. The departure of controversial magnet, Tun Ahmad Fairuz, the former Chief Justice (CJ), marks not the end of a humiliating period in the proud history of the country's judicial system-worse still, it is just reaching the climax.Tun Fairuz's first few years in office was as good as it could get. Slow and not academically assertive, he blended well with the rest of Abdullah's administration. Well, the graph could not just be horizontal forever, it has to have slopes and curves which is the exact extension path the former CJ took. He started going all wrong, from not so academically sound law lectures, to the issues of scandalous and corrupted judges, to his own VK lingam saga, the BAR council resistance, and the appointment of questionable legal practicioners to the board of judges. Gloomy indeed. When one tempered with fate, this is what one gets. If you are not meant to be in a position of power, only trouble awaits you. That is the law of the jungle- the kind of law which is Malaysia's 50th Merdeka version of the Rule of Law follows. Well, let us not reminisce the yesteryears, and look at the bleak future ahead. What do we expect from the judiciary? Surely, we can't expect the shit of two decades to be undone in two years! However, the appointment of a new CJ is the first step in repairing the damages. Let's face it, UMNO will try and promote Zaki Tun Azmi as their candidate, and trust me even if he is not chosen as CJ now, he will be appointed as the Appeal Court president sooner or later- the exact position UMNO leaders would want. With prominent cases looking to reach the appeal court in the couple of years, namely Altantuya murder trial, Anwar's commercial law suits- it would be handy to have the president of the appeals court in UMNO's bag! As for the new CJ, he will just be a temporary case, and Malaysian will not even remember his name because his predecessor has been soaked in the glamorous heat!
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A moment of silence. I rather go and dance my ass off!! I think different country has different system and has cultural and local aspects that are part of the whole system whether we like it or not. Perhaps if we let the Darwinian Evolution occur and let the system improve gradually it will. I think that's the purpose of sending so many people to good institutions overseas so that when the population is more educated, things will change for the better itself. So called great countries has evolved over time but some have undergone revolution and turned even better like Japan and Germany, but this usually occur after events that involved violence and uprising, something that is quite hard to apprehend or even supported for in Malaysia. Therefore it is the role of the would be educated person like you and others to return upon completion studies to improve on and to help the nation evolve through natural selection to become even better and better.
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