Bar unfazed by PM's comments
Soon Li TsinPublished: Oct 30, 2007 10:52 AM | Updated: Jan 29, 2008 10:21 AM
The Malaysian Bar has no issues with Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's view of the legal body's recent actions, said its president S Ambiga.
The Malaysian Bar has no issues with Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's view of the legal body's recent actions, said its president S Ambiga.
Speaking to reporters in between sessions at the 14th Malaysian Law Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Ambiga said the PM was entitled to his views.
"As far as the Bar is concerned, that's fine. We believe in the freedom of speech completely which means we also have to listen to the government's viewpoint," she told Malaysiakini.
At a dinner last night, Abdullah said the judiciary crisis in the country has not reached a critical point and the Bar should be prepared for repercussions when they decided to organised the 'Walk
for Justice'.
On Oct 26, 2,000 lawyers marched from the Palace of Justice to the PM's Department and two memoranda were handed to Abdullah's political secretary Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh.
The memoranda called for a royal commission of inquiry to be set up to examine the claims made in the scandalous VK Lingam video clip, as well as the state of the judiciary and the establishment of a judicial appointments commission for the appointment and promotion of judges.
The premier also viewed that the march had sent "negative vibes to domestic and foreign investors, undermining the tireless efforts of industry and government in attracting investments".
However, the Bar president remained unperturbed and said the PM was entitled to explain how the government sees thing.
"The PM is entitled to give us his view as to how the government sees things. That's fine, we have no issues with that at all. We see things differently.
"We think problems with the judiciary is what damages investment than freedom of expression. It is other things that affect foreign investments more than us expressing our views," she said.
Not feeling the pressure
She elaborated that the body is not feeling the pressure from the executive to tone down in light of the PM's and de facto law minister Nazri Abdul Aziz's comments.
"Whether we feel the pressure to tone down? No. It is because of the nature of the issues that have arisen now we feel that we have to pick up so we cannot be restrained in relation to the recent incidents," she said.
Yesterday Nazri shot down several judicial reform proposals from the Bar Council including the abolition of detention without trial laws and legislation restriction freedom of speech.
However, Ambiga opined that the most positive thing from the premier's speech was that he said he was prepared to meet the Bar Council office bearers.
"The things that we would like to discuss and explain to him what drove us to walk to his office with the memoranda.
"We certainly felt that no one was listening (to us) and because we think matters are very serious and it has come to a point that something has to be done so that's what drove us to walk.
"So this a good opportunity to show the PM how we operate because he may have been given an impression that we are driven by certain forces - that's entirely untrue," she added.
She also defended the Bar Council's move in supporting dissenting judgments and the view that the country was a secular state.
"Those views are entirely based on the law. We cannot speak unless we have a legal basis so that's what drives us.
"We don't take any particular sector's view unless he's saying the sector is 13,000 lawyers in the country," she said.
Tomorrow is the last day of the law conference and among the topics are the right of the indigenous people, role of Asean in Burma and a special session to discuss the Lingam tape.
Speaking to reporters in between sessions at the 14th Malaysian Law Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Ambiga said the PM was entitled to his views.
"As far as the Bar is concerned, that's fine. We believe in the freedom of speech completely which means we also have to listen to the government's viewpoint," she told Malaysiakini. At a dinner last night, Abdullah said the judiciary crisis in the country has not reached a critical point and the Bar should be prepared for repercussions when they decided to organised the 'Walk
for Justice'.
On Oct 26, 2,000 lawyers marched from the Palace of Justice to the PM's Department and two memoranda were handed to Abdullah's political secretary Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh.
The memoranda called for a royal commission of inquiry to be set up to examine the claims made in the scandalous VK Lingam video clip, as well as the state of the judiciary and the establishment of a judicial appointments commission for the appointment and promotion of judges.
The premier also viewed that the march had sent "negative vibes to domestic and foreign investors, undermining the tireless efforts of industry and government in attracting investments".
However, the Bar president remained unperturbed and said the PM was entitled to explain how the government sees thing.
"The PM is entitled to give us his view as to how the government sees things. That's fine, we have no issues with that at all. We see things differently.
"We think problems with the judiciary is what damages investment than freedom of expression. It is other things that affect foreign investments more than us expressing our views," she said.
Not feeling the pressure
She elaborated that the body is not feeling the pressure from the executive to tone down in light of the PM's and de facto law minister Nazri Abdul Aziz's comments.
"Whether we feel the pressure to tone down? No. It is because of the nature of the issues that have arisen now we feel that we have to pick up so we cannot be restrained in relation to the recent incidents," she said.
Yesterday Nazri shot down several judicial reform proposals from the Bar Council including the abolition of detention without trial laws and legislation restriction freedom of speech. However, Ambiga opined that the most positive thing from the premier's speech was that he said he was prepared to meet the Bar Council office bearers.
"The things that we would like to discuss and explain to him what drove us to walk to his office with the memoranda.
"We certainly felt that no one was listening (to us) and because we think matters are very serious and it has come to a point that something has to be done so that's what drove us to walk.
"So this a good opportunity to show the PM how we operate because he may have been given an impression that we are driven by certain forces - that's entirely untrue," she added.
She also defended the Bar Council's move in supporting dissenting judgments and the view that the country was a secular state.
"Those views are entirely based on the law. We cannot speak unless we have a legal basis so that's what drives us.
"We don't take any particular sector's view unless he's saying the sector is 13,000 lawyers in the country," she said.
Tomorrow is the last day of the law conference and among the topics are the right of the indigenous people, role of Asean in Burma and a special session to discuss the Lingam tape.
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