KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's law minister announced plans Wednesday (11 June) to change the constitution to grant more authority to the country's courts after the government curtailed judicial independence 20 years ago.
Lawyers and opposition leaders say the judiciary has suffered since a constitutional amendment during former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's rule in 1988 declared that courts would only have jurisdiction and powers that Parliament specified for them.
Law Minister Zaid Ibrahim said the government is planning to return the law to its previous wording, in which the courts were vested with the "judicial power of the federation." Activists say this would give judges more freedom to interpret the law.
Parliament could approve the change within the next few months, Zaid said, stressing that the move reflects the government's acknowledgment of "judicial power that lies with the court."
"It's a very significant principle that we need to recognize," Zaid told reporters.
Zaid added that he believed an accusation made by a senior judge earlier this week that Mahathir once threatened to oust judges if he disagreed with their verdicts.
"I have no reason to doubt that it is not true," Zaid said. "We need to look at making sure that such incidents do not recur."
Zaid nevertheless rejected lawyers' calls for an investigation into High Court Judge Ian Chin's claim that Mahathir made a "thinly veiled threat" to judges who attended a conference in 1997 that they could be removed "if any judgment is to his dislike."
"That is a bad reflection on our country and our judicial system, but we have to move on," the minister said.
Mahathir _ who led Malaysia between 1981 and 2003 _ wrote on his blog Wednesday that he would "refrain from commenting for now and will do so in due time."
Mahathir has long been accused by opposition leaders of interfering in the courts. He dismissed or suspended several top judges for alleged misconduct in 1988 in what was widely considered a move to quash the independence of the judiciary.
A panel set up by the government to investigate possible judicial corruption said last month that it believed that prominent government and judicial figures _ including Mahathir _ may have been involved in a conspiracy several years ago to manipulate the appointment of top judges.
By JULIA ZAPPEI/ AP
Associated Press Writer Sean Yoong contributed to this report.
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