Malaysians must support the idea of an independent judiciary but if they remain silent then they are part of the "conspiracy of silence pushing justice into a shadowy abyss".

Speaking at a forum on judicial independence in Petaling Jaya last night, immediate past president of the Bar Council Sulaiman Abdullah who said this, added that Malaysians should speak out against injustice and oppression as "what you say matters".

"I would like to bring up the analogy that the authorities treat people like mushrooms. They keep people in the dark and feed them fecal matter. We have to go against that and have to recognise that by keeping quiet, we help to perpetuate injustice," said Sulaiman.

Calling on the people not to "close their eyes", he urged Malaysians to bring about an independent judiciary for the benefit of a brighter future for their children.

"We cannot stand aside and close our eyes. We might not succeed in our lives, but it is inherent in human beings to do our best and in our individual way we can bring about an independent judiciary," he said.

He also noted that, "the problem with developing countries is that there was very little appreciation of their Federal Constitutions".

(The Malaysian Federal Constitution has been amended 42 times since the country's independence in 1957.

One of the amendments to the Constitution was to Article 121 which limited the jurisdiction of the High Court and lower courts and empowered the Attorney-General to initiate prosecution in any court he or she may choose.)

Long nightmare

Sulaiman then fell back on the Malaysian judiciary's history to illustrate his point by stating how the judiciary faced its darkest period when former Lord President of the Supreme Court (now Federal Court) Tun Salleh Abas was removed from his position.

Salleh Abas was to hear the appeal of a case in which the High Court had declared Umno an illegal party.

Salleh was well-known at the time to be an independent judge that had made numerous judgements against the government.

"That was the beginning of a long nightmare for the judiciary. The Bar Council at that time then expressed its lack of confidence in Hamid Omar, who was appointed to replace Salleh Abas," said Sulaiman.

Hamid Omar had chaired a tribunal that removed Salleh from his position as Chief Justice after allegations of judicial misconduct were brought against him.

"We have to support the judiciary in it proper role. None of us can ever say that one day we would never need to defend our rights and that we would never need an independent judiciary.

"When there is evidence of an oversight, you must make the authorities accountable. At the end the of the day who would you turn too?" Sulaiman asked his audience of 30-odd people.

The forum was organised by the Social Justice group of the Saint Francis Xavier Church.