Beneath the smoke-screen ( 5 ): The PM's Chief Judge
Replace 'English Common Law', says Chief Justice
UPDATED VERSION. In a function at Institut Kefahaman Islam Malaysia (IKIM) yesterday, Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim suggested citation of the English Common Law to be abolished and replaced by local civil law as the country should not be seen under continual colonisation.
The story is frontpaged in Utusan Malaysia today. Quote:
Sambil menyifatkan mereka sebagai ‘katak di bawah tempurung penjajah’, Ahmad Fairuz menegaskan, gejala tersebut tidak seharusnya berlaku selepas 50 tahun Malaysia mencapai kemerdekaan.
Menurut beliau, setelah negara merdeka selama lima dekad, pakar-pakar perundangan tempatan seharusnya sudah mampu mewujudkan undang-undang yang lebih bermutu dan sesuai dengan keadaan semasa.
‘‘Sudah 50 tahun kita merdeka, sudah 50 tahun kita terlepas daripada cengkaman penjajah, tetapi Seksyen 3 dan 5 Undang-Undang Sivil 1956 masih kekal dalam perundangan kita.
‘‘Apakah ini petanda bahawa Common Law Inggeris itu adalah undang-undang yang paling baik di dunia? Apakah ini petanda bahawa pakar undang-undang kita masih di bawah tempurung penjajah?’’ soalnya.
The Chief Juctice, however, did not elaborate whether the English Common Law is to be replaced with the Syariah Law or the Son-in-Law.
ORIGINAL POSTING
We are quite aware that the NameWee Negaraku-ku issue and Utusan's incessant frontpage bashing of MCA can be made an effective tactic to distract us from an unprecedented host of grave issues affecting this country, aren't we? Let's put away the shades that wool your eyes.
There's more development to the Screenshots entry dated August 20 and August 21 on the candidate nominated by the Prime Minister to be the Chief Justice of Malaysia.
August 21, Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim went on record to refute claims that judges who have not written grounds of decision have been promoted and challenged the allegations to be proved.
He said the judiciary has records of judges and preliminary investigations revealed the allegations to be untrue, said theSun in a frontpage story today.

"...You know it is very dangerous when we say something which is not the truth. In Islam it is called "fitnah" (slanderous). It is very bad, we don't say anything which is not the truth," added Ahmad Fairuz.
n an immediate response to Ahmad Fairuz's comments, lawyer Karpal Singh, who yesterday filed an application to the Court of Appeal for his client to be freed due to the absence of a written judgment, urged other lawyers handling similar cases to come forward and show proof that the written grounds of decision were in fact not provided. Quote:
"In the interest of justice, the Chief Justice, who in his capacity as the acting Chief Judge of Malaya would have access to all the details, should disclose who among the judges had failed to provide the written grounds of their judgments," said Karpal.
He said by looking at the record of appeal which would contain the notes of proceedings, one would be able to see whether the written judgments are available.
There were numerous media reports in the last few days exposing that a Court of Appeal judge who had failed to write about 30 grounds of decision had been elevated to the Federal Court.
Another report also stated there were at least three cases involving death row prisoners who were unable to continue with their appeals because the judges who heard their cases have not given their written judgment, and they too have been promoted.
The controversy started after Straits Times Singapore reported August 9 that the the Conference of Rulers (Majlis Raja-Raja) had made a rare ruling by rejecting the PM's nominated candidate to fill the vacant post of Chief Judge of Malaya.
Thus far, the Abdullah Administration has yet to confirm or deny the Singapore newspaper's story.
Comments
The more shit these guys try to cover, the more the stink appears.
Why can't they see it is so simple just to do the right and honourable thing and you do not have to tell lies after lies to cover the first lie.
Posted by: Justice Bao
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August 22, 2007 10:09 AM
First we see thick face politikus infest the public space. Then the PD-RinggitMalaysia. Am I surprised when the CJ give the last blow?
In Aghanistan, Taliban are using their law in a corrupted way. So call "justice" can be "corrected" with money. Those with money can bribe their way OUT from taliban "punishment". While minorities who cannot pay perished. Oh yes, Taliban denied it.
Posted by: moo_t
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August 22, 2007 11:39 AM
Let's get Judge Dredd!
Posted by: klonetrooper
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August 22, 2007 12:36 PM
Let's get Judge Dredd! On the spot enforcement, trial and sentencing!!! Hey! this may come true in the future you know!
Posted by: klonetrooper
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August 22, 2007 12:37 PM
"Show me the proof"
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What have to be spoonfed???
Looks like he thinks that he is an emperor or king or what?
Every thing has to be presented to him and all he has to do is just flip the documents.
Who do he think he works for?
Sit down there and expect things to just appear on his table.
If that is the attitude he has, I guess any Tom, Dick or Harry can be a Chief (Cheap or Chip) Justice.
Posted by: AverageJoe
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August 22, 2007 01:04 PM
Is he the Acting Chief Judge or acting as a chief judge?
For someone schooled in the subtleties of legalese, his language in response is all wrong. Defensive, abrasive, inconclusive and arrogant. And the last time one checked, Karpal Singh is not a muslim so bringing in the islamic code of conduct over a secular law matter doesn't add any value. The judiciary and journalistic systems of this land aren't just run by muslims.
On second thought, maybe i should take that back, huh?
By trying to throw the ball back, he's abnegating his responsibility as a chief judge to right what appears to the public to be a wrong in any sense you would care to define the word.
Why not just spell out the names of those submitted for promotion and how many written cases they have yet to write that can be overlooked? Again, the last one checked, judges have two open eyes.
Preliminary investigation, he said? If you're going to promote judges up, all facts should already have been submitted, so they are available, so why preliminary? Not sure? Then the promotion process sucks.
Also why philosophise whether a read statement doesn't rank pari passu with a written statement as a misconduct?
No one should have to languish in prison for nine years. What if the judge dies before the prisoner? What then will have to take place before the order is carried out? If stayed, what is the appealate to do? If thrown out in a case lacuna, how is justice to be finally served?
Indeed, lying is bad. But prevarication and procrastination aren't far away too. So are being irresponsible and reactive.
Do you know why things rankle so much? The rakyat want to be confident of the judiciary system, the last bastion of integrity, in this land when the executive arm cannot be trusted because it lies so that it can practise double standard, the parliament canot be trusted because it is more interested in the length of hemlines, the civil service cannot be trusted because it is only interested in what's under the table, the integration of agencies cannot be trusted because they have no brains to even know what to look for, the enforcement cannot be trusted because it is beholden as slave to master who is the Executive arm.
Now if the Judiciary wanks as well, who do the rakyat have left to depend on? Datuk Kong?
Posted by: Neil
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August 22, 2007 02:02 PM
The acting Chief Judge wants the truth yet what we see is that he was defensive (over the Judiciary questionable promotions under him) and he was evasive when the “nine year wait” case was posted to him and he is still investigating. He seems to have refuted the entire allegation on him. Truth contains no distortions and he still wants to deny the facts that are staring at him. For a listen from the horses exact words & the manner he replied over the pertinent issues & inter alia check it at:
http://powerpresent.blogspot.com/2007/08/video-clip-cj-defensive-evasive-on-many.html
Posted by: mwt
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August 22, 2007 02:18 PM
What about the English Common Law that this CJ finds difficulty with? A little inconvenient I suppose as it prompts a guilt consciousness when he wants to do something contrary to common sense, logic and honest.
You want to loacalise then in the absence of any acknowledged right and wrong about so many things I guess the law can be like a yoyo. After all corruption being so common can be regarded acceptable practice and part of the culture of the people of this country and in the absence of English Common Law, I suppose I might be able to get away with such an argument.
Posted by: Observer
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August 22, 2007 05:22 PM
What about the English Common Law that this CJ finds difficulty with? A little inconvenient I suppose as it prompts a guilt consciousness when he wants to do something contrary to common sense, logic and honest.
You want to loacalise then in the absence of any acknowledged right and wrong about so many things I guess the law can be like a yoyo. After all corruption being so common can be regarded acceptable practice and part of the culture of the people of this country and in the absence of English Common Law, I suppose I might be able to get away with such an argument.
This same argument was used when discarding the Privy Council. Hand the banana plantations to monkeys expecting them to know what to do..But hardly 3-4 years later what we saw was the Abas Salleh episode. The monkeys sure did take over the banana plantation.
Posted by: Observer
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August 22, 2007 05:23 PM
Glad to show you proof if you dare to give me full access.
Posted by: lupus
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August 22, 2007 06:48 PM
It is indeed very frightening that the CJ should react the way he did! Indeed, this is a country of denials. The fact is that the more you deny the more the opposites that the rakyat will believe to be the truth. So why not come clean?
It looks like there are factions within the judiciary. Such "highly" learned men can also play a game of the politicians. Where can the ordinary folks turn to for justice. In this case, the CJ is asking "what common law?" - the law of the jungle or the laws of the group of monkeys made to look after the banana plantation. I dread for our future generations that we have such "learned" men behaving the way it is! I thought the situation cannot be that bad but indeed it is really bad when a prisioner sentenced to death has no means of appeal because the judgement is not written and he is languishing in the death cell not knowing whether he will one day go to the gallows! This is pure torture.
Again, that reminds me of another case where a judge finally delivered his written judgement two or three years down the line and when the appeal was made, it succeeded because, the facts of the case have changed and no longer hold true to the moment when the sentence was pronounced again from the mouth without the written judgement, And it came to past that a lot of water has flown under the bridge......
Posted by: peterpan
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August 22, 2007 08:38 PM