Attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail today took aim at the Bar Council, saying that it was inappropriate for the body to take up "politically fashionable" issues.

Addressing a room full of judges, lawyers, and judicial officers, Gani said the Bar Council's primary responsibility is to advance the cause of justice and rule of law.

"In this vein, it would be even less appropriate for a nation's legal professional body, which is statutorily established to regulate the legal profession, to be focused on politically fashionable issues of the day, while the profession itself runs asunder," he said at the opening of Legal Year 2015.

However, he did not specify what he meant by "politically fashionable issues" taken up by the Malaysian Bar.

He went on to quote former attorney-general and lord chancellor of England Francis Bacon, stating that judges should be "more learned than witty, more reverent than plausible, and more advised than confident".

"In my view, this applies in equal measures to all lawyers," he told the audience in Putrajaya today.

Gani added that efforts were being made to ensure the high quality of personnel in his chambers through stringent recruitment and promotion, but then took another swipe at the Malaysian Bar.

 

"Admittedly, the Bar has less control over the quality of those who enter the legal profession," he said.

 

He said professionalism of lawyers are fostered during the chambering process, adding: "I hope the Bar will make it a point to take a huge interest in the chambering process".

 

Gani made the remarks after Bar Council Christopher Leong delivered his speech.

 

'Bar Council not into fashion'

In a response later, Leong said the Malaysian Bar only speaks up on public interest issues and matters concerning party politics do not interest the body.

 

"The Bar is certainly not interested in fashion or what is fashionable. We do not speak only when it is convenient.

 

"We are always guided by and respond on principle and rule of law, without fear or favour, and certainly not by fashion," he told Malaysiakini .

 

The Malaysian Bar has in recent years earned the ire of the government for its vocal stance on several laws seen to be draconian.

 

The Bar in October last year gathered some 2,000 lawyers in a protest and marched to Parliament to oppose the Sedition Act.

 

In his speech today, Leong ( left ) said he regretted the government decision to go back on its initial pledge to abolish the Sedition Act and continued to speak out against the law.

 

"The Sedition Act is the antithesis of democracy, rule of law, and justice. It denies the constitutional freedoms of thought and speech.

 

"It punishes the speaker or publisher if there are others who shout 'we are insulted and disrespected'," he said.

 

Leong also expressed concern that the government may plan to expand preventive detention without trial in a proposed anti-terorrism law to combat the Islamic State.

 

However, responding to this, Gani said any law, including the Sedition Act, depended on the people's acceptance.

 

"The law is only as good as how it is accepted by the citizens of the country, not by the standards of the lawyers or the Attorney-general's Chambers," he said.