Press Statement: Bar Council’s immediate response to the Report in the Borneo Post dated 10 June 2008

The disclosures made today by High Court Judge Ian Chin J are both startling and damning. They speak to forms of executive and other interference in the judiciary which have undermined the institution. Judges must make known and if necessary make public any such acts of interference by any party.

One of the more significant disclosures made by the Judge is that he was informed by another High Court Judge Muhammad Kamil Awang J (as he then was), that he had received a telephone call from the then Chief Justice asking the latter to dismiss an election petition that was heard in 2001 in relation to the Likas constituency elections in March 1999. This corroborates the similar disclosure made by Muhammad Kamil Awang J himself in his judgment on that election petition namely in the case of Harris Mohd Salleh v The Returning Officer, Ismail Majin & Ors [2001] 3 CLJ 161. In that case, the Judge said:

“The only guide to a man is his conscience, the only shield to his memory is the rectitude and the sincerity of his action. In my view, it is an insult to one’s intelligence to be given a directive over the phone that these petitions should be stuck off without a hearing, and above all, it is with prescience conscience that I heard these petitions. God has given me the strength and fortitude, as a lesser mortal, to act without fear or favour, for fear of a breach of oath of office and sacrifice justice, and above all to truly act as a judge and not a “yes-man”.”

Another disclosure by Ian Chin J about the conduct of a “boot camp” for judges and judicial officers was equally shocking and should be investigated.

These allegations and all the other disclosures made by Ian Chin J must of course be comprehensively looked into, not only by the Chief Justice but by all other relevant authorities. Judges, both present and past, must be encouraged to come forward and provide information of any such instances of interference so that further action may be taken.

Ambiga Sreenevasan
President
Bar Council

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