Malaysian government knew about ‘copycat’ judge but instead taking action , promoted

Former Law Minister Rais Yatim confirmed that the government had known about the plagiarising judge, and handed the matter over to the judiciary at that time.

KUALA LUMPUR: The government admitted that it knew about the allegedly plagiarising judge, Abdul Malik Ishak.

Information, Communications and Culture Minister Rais Yatim said the matter had been handed over to the Chief Justice at that time.

“According to the case, the matter was handed over to the chief justice who was serving at that time to settle the investigation and (look into) whatever action should be taken,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby today.

Asked if the chief justice in question was Eusoff Chin, he replied: “There were two other judges since then, one of them was Eusoff Chin.”

Rais, who served as law minister at the time, said that the matter had been handed over to the judiciary at that time.

Two days ago, 60 Pakatan Rakyat MPs led by Bukit Gelugor MP Karpal Singh pushed for a motion to censure Abdul Malik for an offence he committed as a High Court Judge in early 2000.

Abdul Malik at the time was accused of plagiarising a judgment by the-then Singapore High Court judge GP Selvam.

Meanwhile, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nazri Abdul Aziz said the government could not take action against Abdul Malik as it was a matter for the current judiciary to settle.

“That is for the court to settle, because it is the judiciary, they’re independent… We’re the executive, they’re the judiciary. We cannot interfere,” he told FMT.

“It doesn’t matter whether it happened five or three years ago. The current judiciary must decide what to do with that.”

Asked why the judiciary had not censured Abdul Malik until now, he said: “I don’t know, you have to ask them.”