KUALA LUMPUR – The Malaysian Bar will convene an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) soon to discuss its options on how it can address the legal fraternity’s concerns of judicial intimidation tied to investigations on an appellate court judge by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
Malaysian Bar president Karen Cheah said the full details of the EGM will be finalised soon and the notice will be issued to all members of the bar by tomorrow.
“I am fully aware of the petition by members of the bar to hold a walk, and as a matter of record, the bar council has been putting in all its efforts to discuss the matter, even prior to such a petition,” she said in a statement.
Cheah said it was decided during an emergency meeting by the bar council last month that an EGM is necessary to discuss the possible options available to the Malaysian Bar in addressing the allegations of judicial intimidation.
She said they hope members of the bar including past presidents will turn out in force at the meeting to ventilate, debate and vote on motions that would be significant to the future of the judiciary and ensure there is no repeat of attempts to undermine it, “as it was done during one of its darkest hours in 1988”.
Cheah was referring to the judicial crisis that year, which saw the eventual removal of the Lord President of the Supreme Court Tun Salleh Abas in the aftermath of the deregistration of the then ruling party Umno during the presidency of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Earlier today, six former Malaysian Bar presidents launched a petition urging the bar’s current leadership to hold a walk for justice against what they described as intimidation of the judiciary.
Among the initiators of the petition include Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, Mah Weng Kwai, Kuthubul Zaman Bukhari, Yeo Yang Poh, Lim Chee Wee and Steven Thiru.
Last month, MACC said it had launched a probe on Court of Appeal judge Datuk Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali after receiving several reports regarding allegations of unexplained money in his account.
The probe earned swift condemnation from lawyers and former judges, who described it as an attack on the judiciary and rule of law.
In his previous role as a high court judge, Nazlan had in 2020 convicted and sentenced former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak on corruption related to SRC International, a former subsidiary of the scandal-tainted 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) fund.
Najib has denied all wrongdoing and is appealing his sentence. – The Vibes, May 4, 2022
