Federal court judge says public have to live with wrong judgement

And another judge thought that a bridging loan was a loan to construct a bridge. (A bridge loan  also known in some applications as a swing loan is a type of short-term loan, typically taken out for a period of 2 weeks to 3 years pending the arrangement of larger or longer-term financing).

Former High Court judge Syed Ahmad Idid Syed Abdullah said this when revealing glimpses of a forthcoming book about miscues (improper, unlawful or incorrect use) in Malaysian courts for which he wrote the forward.

Read the rest of what he has to say in the article below, Book on court miscues to hit the shelves after polls, courtesy of Malaysiakini:

Book on court miscues to hit the shelves after polls

Hafiz Yatim
2:11PM Apr 23, 2012

A book about miscues in Malaysian courts, and confounding and fallacy judgments is in the works and is expected to be out after the 13th general election.
The book, which yet to be titled, will only be published after the upcoming election to ensure politicians do not misuse or abuse its contents.
Former High Court judge Syed Ahmad Idid Syed Abdullah (left) said he was writing the foreword to the book.
Giving some glimpses of the contents, Syed Ahmad Idid said he was informed of a statement made by a judge in the country’s highest court.
“We are the Federal Court, even if we hand you a wrong decision, you have to live with it,” he quoted the judge’s statement and described such statements from the bench as “terror”.
“I can sense that you are keen to know who that judge is and in which case this occurred.

"This book will be published after the 13th general election, in which the authors will offer incorrect statements made in the various courts.

“They (the authors) do not want the politicians to misuse, abuse or use the contents in their confrontation with the opposing parties. It will be about vendetta and abuse of power.
“How do I know about the book? I was invited to write the foreword,” he said.
Syed Ahmad Idid who has authored the 'Writing of Judgments - a Practical Guide for Courts and Tribunals' revealed this in his speech at Universiti Malaya’s ‘Legal Night’ over the weekend.
He also mentioned a case cited in the book where the witnesses had given testimony of land measurement in hectares, but when the judge pronounced the court’s decision the land measurement was in acres.
Art of advocacy 'diminishing'

Syed Ahmad voiced concern that the art of advocacy in courts is diminishing.
“I am saddened ... Many among you who have trained to be advocates or wish in your dreams to appear as successful or famous advocates are disappointed.
“It seems our courts are so crammed with cases that the judges now resort to ‘quickies’ and written submissions.You do not have sufficient time to make your claims or put up your clients’ defence properly."

Syed Ahmad Idid also offered some words of wisdom: “One huge challenge is the negative perception of lawyers and the (present) justice system.
“It is our duty to improve the quality of court-life and judgments. By so doing we can change the perception.”
He advised students to keep themselves up to date with the law.
“It is a necessity and may soon become mandatory! Please prepare your own way and discover as much as possible as to what you must know to facilitate your journey.
“There was no Internet before. We did not know of the galaxy which now makes our earth look like a dot on a piece of paper.
“The present situation requires all of us, myself included, to keep abreast of developments in many fields.
“Of course, we need to be ahead particularly in law and justice. We cannot be like the judge in a matter where he did not know that a bridging loan (or 'swing loan') is a short-term financing arrangement.
“He thought the loan was for the construction of bridges."

Syed Ahmad Idid noted the interesting debate in Kedah following the passage of the Mufti and Fatwa Enactment 2012 last week.
“The former Perlis mufti (Asri Zainul Abidin) had stated that such an enactment was “unIslamic”.
“The exchange of views coming from these two Muslims has invited the MCA to judge whether the fatwa is acceptable or not. I hope you will write an article on this argument.

"You can connect it to other fatwas like those against (Indian author) Salman Rushdie and (Bangladeshi author) Taslima Nasreen and discuss the effect of the fatwa, with one of the longest judgments ever written,” he said without naming the case.
The Kedah legislative assembly passed an amendment to the enactment barring challenges of fatwas in the civil and Syariah Courts.

Most important reform: just independent judiciary

Because of decades of power abuses and wanton corruptions by unrepentent UMNO/BN, Malaysia urgently need reforms, but the one of the most important reform is the tainted judiciary. The Judiciary is the Last Bastion of Hope and Justice especially if our rights are trampled upon by the executive and its croonies and we need to seek justice from the courts and judges.

Just look at how Anwar is denied access to his accuser Saiful Bukhari's police statement. When one is accused of a crime, how can the accused be denied such crucial information in order to defend oneself? Imagine if you are the one who stand accused in the dock and you are unable to get whatever needed to enable you to defend yourself. Do you want to face such a desperate situation? I hope not.

Please Malaysians, do whatever you can to remove the unrepentant UMNO/BN from the seat of power in Putrajaya and help start this process of reforms, the birth of a counter-balancing 2 party/coalition system and truly free and fair elections which are only possible if you help put Pakatan Rakyat as the next federal government to initiate the process.

If you are unable to do more, at the very least do ensure you register as a voter and vote or if you are already a registered voter, participate in this voter-get-voter and get at least one eligible voter to register at the nearest post office plus verify you are still registered and check your voter registration also registered where you want to vote.

Appeal to get Saiful's statement dismissed
Hafiz Yatim
Oct 18, 10
3:58pm
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The Federal Court today dismissed Anwar Ibrahim's appeal to obtain Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan's witness statement which was recorded by the police.

Today's decision comes after the apex court had earlier allowed the acceptance of a two-page broad reasons by the Court of Appeal as a basis in hearing the leave application.

In a unanimous decision, the apex court led by Chief Judge of Malaya, Arifin Zakaria, ruled that the High Court ruling was not within the definition of a decision.

“It does not dispose of the rights of the appellant. Hence, the application before us is dismissed.”

Arifin agreed with the Court of Appeal judges that it is not a final order and could be raised when the trial ends.

The other judges sitting with Arifin were Justices James Foong and Md Raus Sharif.

The sodomy charge against Anwar, faces a historic contradiction when complainant and star witness Saiful alleged the June 26,2008, Desa Damansara condominium incident was non-consensual.

Despite this, the Permatang Pauh MP was charged under Section 377b of the Penal Code with consensual carnal intercourse.

Just last Thursday the Kuala Lumpur Hospital forensic pathologist, Dr Siew Sheue Feng, told the High Court that Saiful had told the doctors the alleged sodomy incident was done without force.

On May 11, High Court judge Justice Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah dismissed lead counsel Karpal Singh's application to have a copy of Saiful's witness statement.

The decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal which only provided the broad reasons of its decision rather than the lengthy detailed written grounds of judgment which under normal circumstances may run in excess of 20 pages.

Source: Appeal to get Saiful's statement dismissed

Chief Justice Zaki Azmi dare not comment on complaint against himself

There is something rotten in Malaysia, and it is the Judiciary. Look at the face of its Chief Justice on being asked to comment on a complaint filed by Karpal Singh against him in August under the Judges' Code of Ethics Act, 2009 and the Judges' Ethics Committee Act, 2009 (photos extracted from video tape 6:25):




We have a Chief Justice who allergly admitted to bribing court official with a tape of his bribery admission handed to the King in February this year. Till now, nothing was done, no enquiry or investigation, no denial nor any effort to clear his name.

Karpal Singh further filed a complaint against Zaki Azmi last month claiming Zaki Ahmad had a "defect in character" warranting disciplinary action under the Acts. The complaint was hand delivered to the Chief Justice's office on September 24 and here on being asked to confirm he had received the complaint, he grimaced and immediately clamped up saying "No comment. I do not want to enter into the political arena."

Hey this is no politics! It is about the integrity of the highest office of the Judiciary in which every Malaysians have a stake. His refusal to comment on the matter plus his demeanor is likely an admission of guilt.

Listen to the videotape of Zaki Azmi bragging about how quick the cases in the courts are being disposed of but looked so frightened upon being asked that embarassing question by the reporter. That embarassing moment is at 6:25 minute of the 6:28 minute long video:

Altantuya Shaariibuu murder - who is Musa Safri?

Look at the difference in reporting between MSM (main stream media) The Star's report of the trial of Altantuya Shaariibuu murder and that of online news portal Malaysia Insider and Malaysiakini:

The Star:

Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri told the High Court that a higher ranking police officer DSP Musa Safri had asked him to help political analyst Abdul Razak Abdullah Baginda.

Note: no mention of the position of Musa Safri and his relation with Najib Abdul Razak, just a high ranking police officer.

Malaysia Insider

Tantalising details emerged about how the two accused policemen got involved in the case on the instruction of Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s aide-de-camp Musa Safri, including the emergence of a new character, identified as a “Chinese man,” in the saga which has gripped the nation.



Malaysiakini

Azilah, 32, who is taking the witness stand for the first time, told Shah Alam High Court that the Deputy Prime Minister's aide-de-camp Musa Safri had given Abdul Razak's handphone number to him to help resolve the political analyst's problem.

Karpal Singh hopes Council of Rulers will review Zaki Azmi's position as Chief Justice

Photo of Chief Justice Zaki Azmi courtesy of Malaysiakini

On November 18, 2008, Karpal Singh, in his capacity as the chairperson of the newly-formed parliamentary caucus on judiciary independence and integrity, challenged Zaki Azmi to resign as Chief Justice of Malaysia within 7 days. "In the event Zaki does not step down as CJ within seven days from today, I will have no alternative but to move a motion against him under Article 127 of the federal constitution for having misled the country with his so-called clarification," said Karpal further. "There is an audio recording (to prove that he lied), I think you can take my word for it what has been quoted in Kuching. There is no doubt about it."

The above was related to a report in the New Straits Times which quoted Zaki Azmi as having committed corruption. Zaki delivered a speech at a convention in Kuching on Nov 7 which he recalled an incident in 1987 and allegedly said the following:

"It took me six months to be nice, to bribe each and every individual to get back into their good books before our files were attended to. That was my personal experience, and I am telling this to all the clerks and all the registries to stop this nonsense".

Zaki however issued a clarification later, saying the reporter has misinterpreted him. Karpal Singh claimed to have an audio recording of Zaki Azmi's speech and now challenged the Chief Justice to sue him for defamation. Karpal Singh had moved a motion in the Parliament to debate the matter but was turned down twice by the Speaker. Now Karpal Singh has resorted to appealing to the Agong and the Council of Rulers to remove Zaki Azmi as Chief Justice of Malaysia.

Source: Malaysiakini

Chief Justice Zaki Azmi lied? bribe?

Did Chief Justice Zaki Ahmad lied? Did the Chief Justice of Malaysia commit corruption by bribing court officials? According to New Straits Times November 8, Chief Justice Zaki Azmi at a conference in Kuching was quoted as saying:

"What I am telling you is not fiction but based on my own experience in private practice," he said at an integrity convention here.

Recalling an incident in 1987, Zaki said he was "blacklisted" when he complained to the chief registrar of two missing files belonging to his clients.

"It took me six months to be nice, to bribe each and every individual to get back into their good books before our files were being attended to.

"That was my personal experience, and I am telling this to all the clerks and all the registries to stop this nonsense and I know this is happening, even as late as last week... a lawyer came to see me."

He added that the clerk asked the lawyer to come the next day to collect the file after saying "tapi jangan lupa, ya", signalling him to come with cash.

Source: New Straits Times, Nov 8 2008: Stop it now, corrupt court staff warned

Zaki Azmi denied he made that statement. However, Karpal Singh claimed he have a recording of what Zaki Azmi said at the convention. If that is true, then the Chief Justice of Malaysia has committed 2 wrongs - bribery and lying.



Karpal Singh has given Zaki Azmi one week to resign as the Chief Justice of Malaysia, failing which he would move a motion in Parliament against him under Article 127 of the federal constitution "for having misled the country with his so-called clarification". What will come out of this development? Let us wait one week.

Photos courtesy of Malaysiakini

Malaysian Government to apologise for victims of 1988 judicial crisis

"Zaid: Govt has to apologise to victims of 1988 judicial crisis"

That was what I read at theStar Online:

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/3/23/nation/20730100&sec=nation

That way by a rare respected UMNO member, Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, who was not selected to stand for the 2008 Malaysia General Election, probably because of some remarks that didn’t go down well with UMNO. Anyway, Datuk Zaid Ibrahim has now been appointed as a Senator, then the de facto Law Minister, replacing the "stupid, stupid, stupid" Nazri, former de facto Law Minister(that word stupid wasn't meant to be used to describe Nazri, but is repeating what he uttered in the Parliament).

In the 1988 Judicial crisis, then Lord President (equivalent of current Chief Justice) Tun Mohd Salleh Abbas, was sacked, in the opinion of many, unjustly. I had the good fortune to ask Tun Mohd Salleh Abbas regarding the provision in Malaysia Constitution for free speech, free expression and free assembly plus the clause that said any laws or regulations that go against the spirit of the Constitution is invalid. I wanted to know about the validity of the requirement to get a police permit for peaceful assembly without arms.

I had to express my sympathy over what happened to him as during our conversation, if I remembered correctly, he couldn't even afford Internet access (this is from a 59 year old brain which may or may not be reliable).

I am of the opinion that the Federal Government should not only apologize, but also to compensate those who were wronged.

Song dedicated to Dr. Mahathir who had the chance to redeem himself but blown it

When Dr. Mahathir testified at the Royal Commission on the VK Lingam tape and scandal, he chose selective amnesia. Dr. Mahathir was reputed to be very sharp when he was Prime Minister of Malaysia, but at the Royal Commission, he showed a poor deterioration, real or not, we do not know. There were lots of "I don't remember". Had he chosen to remember, he would have done our nation a great service by helping to start to right the rot in the Malaysian Judiciary that started with his sacking of the then Lord President Tun Salleh Abas. Instead, he chose selective amnesia. So Farida rendered her own version of the popular song of the 70s - "I started a joke""

I started the rot
That sent this nation crumbling
But I wouldn't see
That the rot was in me.

I took all the power
And had the nation crying
But I didn't care
That my rule was unfair.

I started it all
Caused all this mess
And people had less
But I, I'm on my throne
I don't care two hoots
I can go it alone.

I've started a scheme
That'll make you want me back
A pity you can't see
That Malaysia needs me.

Royal Commissiion on VK Lingam Tape: Some statements and comments

As reported on the front page of theSun, former Chief Justice Tun Ahmad Fairuz testified on Monday, 28 January 2008. Here are excerpts of his testimonies:

"I immediately thought that it (the video) was defamatory. Two things crossed my mind First, that it may be a fabrication and the other person speaking in the video clip wanted to impress someone...."

"I issued letters to the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister in the Prime Minister's department to express my opinion and position on the video"

Note the use of "thought" and "opinion". I did not see in the report anywhere that Tun Ahmad Fairuz categorically denied he was the other person on the other line of the phone conversation. Draw your own conclusions from these "thought" and "opinion" and the lack of a direct denial.

VK Lingam says he looks like me but....

From Yahoo group

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/beritamalaysia/message/99825

Here is the infamous VK Lingam answering a question in the Royal Commissiion to investigate the VK Lingam tape that triggered the Long March for Justice. Short, sweet and meaningful:

---

>"It looks like me," said Lingam when asked whether he was the man having a
>telephone conversation in the video clip.
>
>"You (Nordin) can ask me a hundred questions (on the same matter), I will
>tell you the same answer. It looks like me," he reiterated.

---

If you see shit floating in the toilet bowl, and it looks like shit, and smells like shit... do you send it for analysis before concluding that it is shit?

Natural Justice or Natural Law: Does it apply in Malaysia?

From Wikipedia: "Natural justice is a legal philosophy used in some jurisdictions in the determination of just, or fair, processes in legal proceedings. The concept is very closely related to the principle of natural law (latin: jus naturale) which has been applied as a philosophical and practical principle in the law in several common law jurisdictions, particularly the UK and Australia.

According to Roman law certain basic legal principles are required by nature, or so obvious that they should be applied universally without needing to be enacted into law by a legislator."

It was reported in theSun that "The court also paved the way for Saravanan to carry on with his other aims, including to seek custody of the two children and conversion of the second child to Islam, when the court set aside the Erinford injunctions obtained by Subashini previously against Saravanan."

What exactly is natural justice or natural law? I am no lawyer, but a mere layman, and to a layman, it is natural that a child be subject to the authorities of both the father and the mother. In other words, a mother, to me, according to Natural Justice or Natural Law, a mother should have a say over the religious upbringing of her child or children until they grew to adulthood able to make decisions on their own.

Thus it would appear to me that it is very unfair that the mother have no say whatsoever over the religious upbringing of her child or children until they are old enough to make decisions on their own behalf. To me, it is also very unfair that children of such tender age should be converted to a religion from which they can have no escape when they reach adulthood. To me, it goes against Natural Justice or Natural Law. But who am I to say such thing. I am a mere layman, not a trained lawyer.

VK Lingam tape: More revelation: Wee Choo Keong's media conference Sunday 18 November 2007 at 11 am

Wee Choo KeongIncumbent DAP candidate Fong Kui Lun won the 2004 Bukit Bintang Parliament seat last election while Wee Choo Keong only obtained 1,106 votes and yet today demanded that DAP which have worked very hard to forge an arrangement not to split opposition votes, give way to him to contest. I no longer wish to give publicity to Wee Choo Keong and will update this post with a link later. To those who chanced upon this post and is voting in the Bukit Bintang Parliament constituent, I beg you, please do not split the opposition votes and make the task of denying the Barisan that two-third majority in Parliament

Wee Choo Keong will hold a media conference TODAY to expose more shocking details related to
the Lingam-Fairuz tape that has cast a black shadow over the integrity of the country's Judiciary. Wee said The VK Lingam video clip is child play compared to
what he is going to revealed TODAY. Hope this notice reach you in time.

Time: 11 am, Sunday, 18 Nov 2007
Place: No 60 2nd Floor
Jalan SS2/67
Petaling Jaya
(it's above Mahagony Music/Coffee Bean)


FROM VK LINGAM TAPE: "No don’t worry, Datuk, I know how much you suffer for Tun Eusoff Chin. And Tun said Datuk Ahmad Fairuz 110% loyalty. We want to make sure our friends are there for the sake of the PM and the sake of the country.

Not for our own interest, not for our own interest. We want to make sure the country come first. Well, you suffered so well, so much you have done. For the election, Wee Choo Keong, everything. How much, no body would have done all these."

Wee Choo Keong was the former DAP Member of Parliament for Bukit Bintang. The then High Court judge and current Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim made a controversial decision sitting as an Election Judge in 1995 by dismissiong Wee as Member of Parliament and declared the Barisan Nasional candidate as the new MP instead of calling for fresh election.

VK Lingam Tape: Former Lord President Tun Slleh Abas to speak

How to stop the rot

There will be a public forum on the VK Lingam tape (click BACK button to get back to this page) which showed senior lawyer Datuk VK Lingam apparently brokering judicial appointments and honorific awards with what many suspected to be the newly retired former Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz who was then Chief Judge of Malaya (2002). Recently Anwar Ibrahim release another small segment of the tape which showed VK Lingam saying that he was speaking with Ahmad Fairuz.

Details of the forum:
Title: How to stop the rot (of the Judiciary)
Date: Friday 16 November 2007
Time: 8 pm to 10 pm
Place: Federal Hotel
35, Jalan Bukit Bintang, 55100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tel : (603) 2148 9166
Fax: (603) 2148 2877
Free phone: 1800 88 3535 (within Malaysia)
Admission is free

Location map of Federal Hotel, Kuala Lumpur

(permission to use the above map will be sought from Federal Hotel)

Main speak will be former Lord President Tun Salleh Abas who was unjustly sacked from his post in 1988 which many lawyers says was the beginning of the rot in the Malaysian Judiciary.

Other speakers include Datuk Shaik Daud the former Court of Appeal judge, Ragunath Kesawan the Bar Council Vice-President and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim the adviser of PKR (Parti Keadilan Rakyat) and former deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia. The forum will be moderated by R. Sivarasa the Vice-President of PKR and Human Rights lawyer.

Organizer: Institut Kajian Dasar (IKD)

Independent Inquiry into VK Lingam tape: Report and outcome

It has been reported that 3 ministers had been tasked with the duty to give legal inputs regarding the reports of the Independent Panel to investigate the VK Lingam tape (click BACK button to get back to this page). They are Home Minister Datuk Mohd Radzi Sheikh Ahmad, Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Datuk Seri Utama Dr. Rais Yatim and the de facto Law Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz.

May I be allowed to indulge in a little bit of fortune telling which some of Malaysia's lawyers had been doing - predicting outcome of various cases that goes before some Malaysian judges. May I predict that the de facto Law Minister will come out with a legal opinion - no case because authenticiy not verified and whistle blower did not come forward to testify.

Of course he would not be concerned with the fact that the authenticity of can easily be done by an expert within a very short period of time without knowing who filmed the tape. After all, I don't think he read about CIA experts who can verify if broadcasts of Osama bin Laden without having to trace who filmed the tape used for the broadcast. They can use techniques like voice analysis, etc.

Let us wait and see. However, we don't know if the individual legal opinions will be made known, so I may not be able to tell if I have any chance of becoming a successful fortune teller.

Can the Star redeem itself?

I published a post Sultan Azlan Shah calls for Judiciary reforms (click BACK button to get back to this page), complaining about the Star not putting Sultan Azlan Shah's speech at the Law Conference on its front page, and instead chose to put a full page on Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi smiling away and officially opening the Eastern Corridor. I understand that Petronas, our national oil company is involved in this corridor. Our Prime Minister had said that the savings from increasing the petrol and diesel prices will be used for improving the public transport, which is in urgent need to improve if Malaysia is to wean our residents from using their own transport. Have the public transport improved? I don't know. You judge for yourself. Perhaps you may even do a little digging to see where the savings went to. Will the savings from the next inevitable petrol price increase be used to fund the Eastern Corridor? Time will tell, but I do not know if I would be privy to the information.

Back to the Star. I said I will copy-paste the post Sultan Azlan Shah calls for Judiciary reforms (click BACK button to get back to this page) and send it to the editors of the Star and MCA, the owner of this newspaper. The email to MCA bounced. To my surprise, I got a response from the editor of the Star, saying that it was an editorial judgment mistake, and they will try to rectify it, plus put the full speech of Sultan Azlan Shah online. I decided to do a little checking.

I found this on thestar.com.my:

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/11/1/nation/19347283&sec=nation

The article was titled "Rulers to discuss CJ’s position" by Dato WONG CHUN WAI. I dare not put the URL as an active (clickable) link to that page because I think online articles in thestar.com.my get shoved into the archives eventually, and if I make it an active (clickable) link, one day the link will become a dead link and the search engines will get sore at me. Also, if I just paste the long URL into the post, it will become a long unbroken line and can cause problems. That is why I put it into a scroll box.

If you want to read the article, you got to click on the inside of the scroll box, press the ctrl+A keys to highlight the whole URL and then press ctrl+C to copy it into clipboard. Then, preferably, using a browser like FireFox with tabbed browsing, open a new tab, and paste the URL from the clipboard into the address bar and press ENTER.

Here are others:

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/10/31/nation/20071030170340&sec=nation

Sultan Azlan Shah's Address at the Opening of the 14th Malaysian Law Conference in Kuala Lumpur on Oct 29 (full speech).

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/10/31/nation/19327719&sec=nation

Judging the judges (COMMENT BY DATO WONG CHUN WAI)

There are others. If you want, you can search for them yourself. There is a site seach box at thestar.com.my and then make your own mind if theStar have done enough to redeem themselves from their horrible oversight at our best hope for bringing positive changes to Malaysia.

Sultan Azlan Shah calls for Judiciary Reform

I just got the newspapers from the newspager vendor and Seven-Eleven this morning. The headlines that stared at me in the whole of front page the Sun was "Sultan Azlan speaks out". This place is normally reserved for a full page advertisement which theSun sacrificed to put this very significant speech and thus lost advertising revenue. The Sun is a free paper which depend only on advertising revenue to survive, and perhaps to thrive.

In the front page of New Straits Times was "Sultan Azlan Shah calls for Judiciary Reform" sharing half of the front page with a report of our Prime Minister opening what I think is the Eastern Corridor.

In In the Star? I think it was something about the Eastern Corridor" or something taking up the whole front page. No sign of that very significant speech by a highly respected former Lord President, former Agong, and current Sultan of Perak.

Why only "I think"? From habits of old, I have been buying the Star, and also some of my children wants to read the printed newspapers. I have resisted the temptation to boycott the Star for a long time and have resisted it because of my children, but this morning was the tipping point. Here is the most important issue of our country today and the Star chose not to put it on its front page. Is it inside? I don't know. I didn't buy the Star as usual. I bought New Straits Times instead. I hope someone who reads the Star tells me if it is there inside relegated to a tiny obscure column or not there at all.

I would like to know so that I can update this post, but I don't want to do that by buying the Star. I want to try to make this my small contribution to making my unhappiness with the Star known to the editors and/or the owners. In fact, I am going to copy-paste this and send it to the editors of the Star and probably MCA as well if I can find the proper email address to send it to.

The Star started out like the Sun these days. It has changed tremendously since. The New Straits Times lost its readers leadership by doing about the same thing as the Star today, and I look forward to seeing the advertising revenue of the Star and its readership falls. Here is my small contribution goes towards that end.

Now on to my other tasks as I am not really a political blogger.

Update 1.01pm 30 October 2007: Someone did respond saying now the speech by Sultan Azlan is neither in
http://thestar.com.my (the Star online)
http://www.nst.com.my (New Straits Times online)

See comments.

Looks like a cat and mouse game and someone using some strategy to boost the readership of the New Straits Times. Now got to decide what I should do

Assembly at 1.45pm Friday, 26th October 2007 in front of National Mosque

There will be an assembly to press for a Royal Commission of Inquiry on the VK Lingam tape:

Place: In front of the National Mosque, Kuala Lumpur (beside KTM headquater and opposite the Kuala Lumpur Railway Station

Date: Friday 26th October 2007

Time: 1.45pm (after Friday prayer)

Hope to see you there.

ACA attempt to intimidate PKR failed

I had published a last minute announcement about a gathering Support PKR (Parti Keadilan Rakyat or Peoples' Justice Party) which mentioned that Officers of the ACA (Anti-corruption Agency) is expected to be present in the DSAI (don't know what this stand for) in regard to the directive of ACA to surrender the original copy of the (VK Lingam) video in FULL or face jail. Malaysians are requested to assemble at DSAI (Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim) HQ? at 10.30am

I was there this morning and if you have no time to look at the photos, etc., just scroll down to the bottom to the post and read the good news. Round 2 (actually don't know how many rounds are there) to PKR. We don't know how many rounds there will be and who the victors will be. But let it be on the side of Justice.

OK, here are the photos:

Assembly in front of Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim's headquater

"Siasat VK Lingam dan Siasat Ahmad Fairuz" or "Investigate VK Lingam and Investigate Ahmad Fairuz"

Here are some Malaysians holding up posters demanding that instead of harassing PKR, the ACA (Anti-corruption Agency) should focus on the main issues and investigate VK Lingam and Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz instead. I suppose these posters are prepared in anticipation of the arrival of the ACA officers.

The actual poster at close range

Anwar Ibrahim press conference announcing the good news

What good news? Anwar Ibrahim told the press that at 11:05am, the Anti Corruption Agency officer contacted him to cancel today’s appointment with him until further notice. He said that VK Lingam confirmed Ahmed Fairuz is the man he was speaking to and the “Anwar case” was mentioned.

He told the press that on Monday 22nd October 2007, he was served a notice under section 22(1)(b) of the Anti Corruption Act 1997 demanding that he deliver to the ACA the original full 14 minute version of the video recording of the VK Lingam – Fairuz conversation. This is in spite of him telling them that he did not have the tape in his possession.

He claimed that it is clear the issuance of the notice was politically motivated to create a basis for a potential prosecution for an offence under the Act and to intimidate him, Sivarasa, Vice-President of KeADILan and Sim, his special assistant from pressing the authorities to conduct the investigation properly.

He claimed that a reading of Part IV of the Act would clearly shows that it was intended to provide such powers as given in section 22 to investigating officers to allow them to obtain evidence from persons suspected of being INVOLVED in corruption so that suspects could not hide the evidence and prevent prosecution.

The powers were never intended to be used, as the ACA was then doing, to harass and threaten persons who have voluntarily, and in the public interest, DISCLOSED offences of corruption.

By doing this, Anwar Ibrahim said that the ACA is losing its credibility and in the future no one will feel confident to lodge a report with the ACA for fear of such unjust retribution.

His lawyers have advised Anwar Ibrahim to file a legal challenge to set aside the notice so that such abuses of power be exposed.

You can read the full press statement at Anwar: ACA Cancels Appointment, VK Lingam Confirms Fairuz On Other Line.

After the press conference, holding up the thumb drive which contain the video file, announced that if the ACA officers don't turn up within 5 minutes, the thumb drive will disappear. Here is Anwar Ibrahim holding up the thumb drive:

Anwar Ibrahim holding the thumb drive containing the VK Lingam tape which he said will disappear if the ACA officers do not turn up within 5 minutes

Well, the ACA officers did not turn up even after 5 minutes. So we will not know where the thumb drive will disappear to now.

A further announcement was made asking concerned Malaysians to assemble outside the National Mosque in Kuala Lumpur after the Friday prayers at 1.45pm 26th October, 2007. Hope to see you there.

Long March for Justice

The Malaysia Bar Council organised a March for Justice for Wednesday, 26 September from the Palace of Justice to the Prime Minister Department in Putrajaya to petition the Prime Minister for a thorough Investigation of the VK Lingkam tape regarding the fixing of judges and to halt (and reverse?) the rot in the Malaysian Judiciary, the third and very important pillar of democracy. This is the video that triggered the March:



The video showed a person which looked remarkably like a senior lawyer, VK Lingam apparently talking to a judge whom many say is the current Chief Justice, Tan Sri Ahmad Fairuz from the context of the conversation. The person in the video which is said to be taken in 2002 mentioned fixing of judges appointments, award of title. The "coincidences" of the appointments of the judges mentioned plus the fact that Tan Sri Ahmad Fairuz never directly denied he was the judge on the other end of the line, but after days of silence, sent a fax "no comments" to the Bar Council and chose to deny it via his "Minister", (apparently neither of them understand the meaning of separation of power and check and balance) and the rich businessman, Vincent Tan mentioned in the post also did not make any denial, cause one to think that the conversation was genuine. Sometimes, action (or non-action) can speak louder than words.

They chartered 7 buses to take Bar members and I found out from an email from Haris Ibrahim on the night before the planned March that the public can join. I immediately decided I will join the march to lend my support. I started from my house at 7am, took the LRT to Masjid Jamek and walked to Dataran Merdeka. I was the first there. We started off at just after 10am.

There is the first obstacle, a road block preventing the buses from entering Putrajaya:



The leaders negotiated with the police and they allowed us to march (on foot) to Putrajaya, so a short 300 meter march became a long 5 km. plus 300m March for Justice. I don't know if the authorities who ordered the buses to be stopped caused the marchers inconveniences for hardship, but I thank them for this excuse for much needed exercise plus the vital Vitamin D from the sunshine.

Here is a photo of the marchers getting their caps, badges, banners, fans and message "Free the Judiciary" printed on A4 paper to get ready for the unplanned 5 km Long March for Justice:



Here are photos of the banner bearers leading the unplanned Long March for Justice and the procession from head to tail:





I only had on a long sleeve white white plus black pants, but the Bar members (lawyers) had on their heavy black coat. It took us an estimated 1 hour to reach the Palace of Justice where the rest of the marchers were waiting. We received a thunderous round of applause from those who drove in their own cars and their passengers when we arrived at at about 11.30am.

Here is a photo of the 2,000 plus strong marchers in front of the Palace of Justice with the majority of Bar members (in black coats) and supporters in front of the Palace of Justice:



The Chairman of the Bar Council Ambiga Sreenevasan started off with a speech: "Lawyers don't walk everyday. Not even every month. But when they walk, then something must be very wrong," said Chairman of the Bar Council Ambiga Sreenevasan when addressing a strong crowd of more than 2,000 members of the Malaysian Bar and some concerned citizens at the Palace of Justice before the commencement of the walk to the Prime Minister's office to hand over the Bar's memorandum urging the government to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry to probe the state of judiciary and memorandum on the establishment of a judicial appointments and promotion commission."

After the speech, the march started off at about 11.45am. Here is a photo of the beginning of the March of Justice to the Prime Minister Department:



There were chants of "Who are we?" and "What do we want?" led by Amer with a loud hailer and these were answered with roars of "Malaysia Bar" and "Justice". The funny one was "We are doing this for the sake of the country" answered with shouts of "correct, correct, correct", mimicking VK Lingam frequent use of the repetitive response in the now infamous VK Lingam video.

There were FRU (Federal Reserve Unit) trucks along the way and here is a photo of some of them with one taking a video of us while I took a photo of them:



There were also plenty of policemen. We were not intimated.

Finally a row of helmeted FRU (Federal Reserve Unit) policemen at the beginning of the staircase to the Prime Minister Department blocked our way to the building when we arrived at about 12.30pm, and we stopped there.

Photo by Haris Ibrahim, Human Rights lawyer

Bar Concil office bearers, Ambiga, Vice-President Raguanth Kesavan, Secretary Lim Chee Wee and Treasurer George Varughese then proceeded on to the Prime Minister's office to hand over two memoranda to the Prime Minister's Principal Secretary. The first memorandum called for a royal commission of inquiry to be set up to examine the claims made in the video clip, as well as the state of the judiciary while the second memorandum urged the establishment of a judicial appointments commission for the appointment and promotion of judges.

The rest stay behind chanting away in support of the four-man delegation. Here are some banners to declare what the Bar Council are demanding for:

Clean up the Judiciary	No to corruption	Stop the patronage, stop the rot

A short while after, the sky started pouring. But even the heavy rain did not dampened the spirit. This is a day the Malaysians should be proud of the Malaysian Bar and their members who marched under the hot sun and endured the searing heat of the blazing sun in their black suits plus pouring rain.

When the office bearers returned, the Chairman of the Bar Council, Ambiga Sreenevasan started off with another speech saying the government have started an investigation and should be supported as a first step, but I shouted "I don't agree. They are only investigating the authencity of the tape". Anyway, after the end of the speech, we dispersed and I want to the waiting buses which surprisingly were allowed in to the nearby car park. At least the authorities have some heart.

We were dropped off at Dataran Merdeka, and a kind 70 year-old man from Sabah kindly shared an umbrella with me and we and Tan Ban Cheng, a Penang lawyer who came all the way to Kuala Lumpur to join the march, went to the corner coffee shop in front of the Malaysia Bar Council and Medan Pasar for a drink. We had a nice long chat about various matters.