Thursday 7 February 2008

Chinese New Year

100

days left …

Sean Yoong
Associated Press

Malaysia’s government faced mounting pressure Monday to pursue judicial reforms, as the country’s former king voiced distress that judges are losing their case in the court of public opinion.

Sultan Azlan Muhibbuddin Shah, addressing a conference of lawyers, said there have been recent “disturbing events relating to the judiciary” - an apparent reference to a scandal involving a video tape that allegedly provides proof of judicial corruption.

“Sadly I must acknowledge there has been some disquiet about our judiciary,” Azlan said. “I am driven nostalgically to look back to a time when our judiciary was the pride of our region, and our neighbors spoke admiringly of our legal system.”

Azlan, the highly respected sultan of northern Perak state, stressed that “a judiciary loses its value and service to the community if there is no public confidence in its decision-making.”

Azlan was king for five years through 1994. Each of Malaysia’s nine hereditary state rulers take turns as the country’s constitutional monarch under a unique rotational system. Their role is largely ceremonial, and the power to govern resides with Parliament and the prime minister.

The sultan’s comments come after an opposition party last month released a video clip in which a prominent lawyer is allegedly taped brokering the appointment of top judges in 2002.

The government has set up an independent panel to probe the authenticity of the video, but says there is no need to overhaul the judiciary.

Perceptions that people have lost faith in judges are the “opinion of some people, not necessarily the majority,” Malaysia’s law minister, Nazri Aziz, said Monday.

“We respect the opinions. The government has (its) own perception, but we listen,” he said.

Malaysia’s Bar Council, which represents 12,000 lawyers, has said the video scandal illustrates the need to change the procedure for appointing judges.

Currently, senior judges are chosen and recommended for appointment by the prime minister, though the king formally appoints them. The Bar Council wants an impartial commission to evaluate candidates.

Bar Council President Ambiga Sreenevasan, in a speech to the same conference that the former king addressed, said that lawyers see increasing signs of a lack of trust in judges, such as contract clauses for arbitration outside judicial jurisdiction.

“In a nation like ours with aspirations to a first-world economy, the administration of justice is key,” Ambiga said in a speech to the Bar Council’s Malaysian Law Conference.

A news report in Bernama indicates that the Election Commission (EC) is ready to hold the 12th General Election by end of November.

Well, could this mean the election will be called next month? Many people speculate that the Prime Minister will call for an election right after the UMNO assembly next month. And the hot date speculated is 25 November while the other is 15 December.

The news report here:

PUTRAJAYA, Oct 29 (Bernama) — The Election Commission (EC) expects to be ready by the end of November to conduct the next general election, EC Chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman said Monday.

“We have identified the returning officers, and the briefing for these officers and their assistants will begin on Nov 15,” he said.

The despatch to every state of election materials, including the indelible ink to be used on voters for the first time, was going on and the process was expected to be completed by the end of next month, he told reporters after attending the EC Aidilfitri reception here.

Abdul Rashid said he met Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi last month and informed him that the EC would be ready by November to conduct the next general election, which is not due until March 2009.

He also said that the EC would come out with guidelines soon on election posters, which will do away with the poster war and ensure that candidates do not have to fight for space to put up their posters.

He said the guidelines would also cover party flags and all election campaign material, and that the EC would hold sessions to explain the guidelines to political parties.

The guidelines will specify the number of posters and the places where they can be put up, and ensure that all quarters get to put up their posters.

“You don’t have to fight for space any more because the local authority will provide the space. If there are two contestants or three contestants, every contestant will have space made available,” he said.

Asked about opposition parties predicting that the next general election would be held next month or in December, Abdul Rashid said their statements could be based on the EC’s preparations which were almost complete.

On the more than 22,000 voters whose names were not in the database of the National Registration Department (JPN), he said more than 6,000 had been identified by the JPN, and the EC was looking for the remaining 16,000 nationwide.

“We will continue with our search, but only in the country. I’m giving the secretariat about two months and I think once the period is over we will decide what to do,” he said.

– BERNAMA

Today: 103 days left…

Tuesday 30 Oct 2007: 100 days left…

Wednesday 31 Oct 2007: 99 days left…

Yes, Chinese New Year on 7 February 2008 is just slightly more than 3 months away. Time flies!