Taking back our judiciary(1)

The petition to His Majesty to intervene in the matter of impending appointments to the judiciary pending the establishment of a Judicial Appointments Commission can be accessed HERE. If you have not yet signed the petition, please make time to read the same and give it your support. The nation needs you to stand up now and be counted.

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Imagine having two Umno men at the top of the judicial hierarchy, one as AG and the other as CJ. You will be able to literally get away with murder (as if they are not already getting away with it). And just like how Britannia used to rule the waves, Umno just needs to wave and rule that your arse gets thrown into prison for the rest of your miserable life and you become history, like Britannia’ – Raja Petra

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I had lunch with an UMNO man today.

“Do you think the people power momentum can hold?”, he asked me.

This was my reply.

“In September through to October last year, it took over one month to garner just over 5,000 signatures for a petition to the Agong. I launched another one on Monday at about noon, also relating to the judiciary. We are almost at 4,000 in just over four days. No, the momentum is not holding. it is growing”.

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At 6.10pm today, the number of signatories to the petition hit 4,000.

To the 3,999 of you who have to-date joined me in this petition, I am proud and honoured to be associated with you in this initiative.

Last night I was at Gus’s Wharf.

He’s making ready to go out and get 2,000 signatures. He’s made copies of the petition and armed himself with signing pages which he hopes to pass out to his customers who have signed to get their friends and relatives to sign against hard copies of the petition.

And I know many of you have e-mailed friends, colleagues at work and relatives asking them to support the petition.

Thank you, but can I ask that we step up efforts to get more people to sign up, please?

If each of the 4,000 would commit to getting another 10 persons to sign up, we would be on our way to hitting 44,000 signatures very, very soon.

And if we can get each of those whom we persuade to sign in support to similarly get 10 more to sign, crossing the 100,000 mark will not be impossible.

Or emulate Gus.

Reproduced below is the full text of the petition, both in BM and English.

Copy, paste and print the text and then prepare a signing page with 4 columns (number column, name column, ic number column and signature column ) and get friends you meet at the mosque tomorrow for prayers and church-goers this Sunday, to sign. If you’re going to balik kampung this weekend, get the folks back home to sign .

You can then send the completed signing pages to The Peoples Parliament, c/o Blog House, 66 Lorong Setiabistari 1, Damansara Heights, 50490 Kuala Lumpur.

Remember that we are hoping to submit the petition to His Majesty around the middle of next month.

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Tanggal 18 April 2008, Perdana Menteri Malaysia, Dato’ Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi telah mengutarakan komitmen berikut kepada rakyat:

‘…sesebuah negara tidak boleh diiktiraf sebagai adil dan saksama tanpa kewujudan institusi perundangan yang efisyen serta mempunyai keyakinan dan kepercayaan rakyat. ‘Kepercayaan’ yang saya maksudkan dalam konteks ini merujuk kepada sebuah sistem kehakiman yang bukan sahaja menegakkan keadilan, malah dilihat sebagai menegakkan keadilan dan mencetuskan keyakinan terhadap kedaulatan undang-undang…Apa yang nyata, kita tidak lagi boleh membiarkan institusi yang begitu kritikal peranannya, kepada cuma harapan dan kebetulan semata-mata. Institusi ini perlu mempunyai sebuah sistem yang telus dan kukuh bagi mencegah sebarang manipulasi serta eksploitasi. Sistem tersebut perlu dilengkapi dengan proses yang mampu mengenalpasti serta mendorong individu-individu yang terbaik bagi menyertai serta menerajui badan kehakiman….Oleh itu, kerajaan mengusulkan perubahan bagi memastikan proses pencalonan, perlantikan, dan kenaikan pangkat bagi hakim lebih telus serta mengambil kira kerterlibatan yang lebih menyeluruh.’

Suruhanjaya Siasatan Diraja yang dimandatkan bagi menyiasat kes klip video V K Linggam, dalam usul penubuhan Suruhanjaya Perlantikan Kehakiman, telah mengemukakan pemerhatian berikut dalam laporan yang dipersembahkan kepada Tuanku pada 9hb Mei 2008 (mukasurat 174 dan 175):

‘…terdapat keperluan bagi memberikan perhatian yang lebih serius terhadap cara perlantikan hakim bagi jawatan-jawatan tertinggi dalam badan kehakiman serta kriteria pemilihan yang dijadikan panduan. Keterangan yang diberikan kepada Suruhanjaya ini telah secara spesifik mengenalpasti kepincangan serta kelemahan dalam proses pemilihan serta kenaikan pangkat bukan sahaja bagi jawatan hakim Mahkamah Tinggi, malah jawatan Ketua Hakim Negara, Presiden Mahkamah Rayuan, dan juga Ketua Hakim Mahkamah Persekutuan. Setelah mendengar keterangan yang diberikan kepada Suruhanjaya ini berkaitan klip video tersebut, adalah jelas bahawa perlantikan dan kenaikan pangkat hakim-hakim bagi jawatan-jawatan tertinggi terdedah kepada campur tangan dan manipulasi badan Eksekutif serta pihak luar termasuk individu awam…Kelemahan serta kepincangan dalam proses perlantikan hakim serta keadaannya yang terdedah terhadap campur tangan dan manipulasi boleh memberi impak negatif yang serius terhadap integriti badan kehakiman sebagai sebuah badan bebas khususnya dan terhadap negara amnya.’

Kami, sekalian rakyat jelata, telah menanti dengan harapan berbaur gelisah bagi rombakan yang diusulkan diberi perhatian serta merta. Ini bagi membolehkan perubahan tersebut diimplementasi secepat mungkin demi restorasi peranan sebenar badan kehakiman sebagai sebuah institusi yang benar-benar bebas dari sebarang pengaruh badan Eksekutif supaya badan kehakiman berupaya melaksanakan peranannya seperti yang termaktub dalam perlembagaan, yakni, sebagai pembela rakyat. Oleh yang sedemikian, kami amat berterima kasih apabila melihat laporan media yang menyatakan Menteri perundangan, Dato’ Zaid Ibrahim mengambil serius serta menjadikan penubuhan Suruhanjaya Perlantikan Kehakiman sebagai agenda utama.

Kami, sekalian rakyat jelata, kini berasa amat kecewa dengan laporan media terkini yang menyatakan bahawa beberapa menteri UMNO telah menolak usul Menteri Perundangan bagi penubuhan Suruhanjaya Perlantikan Kehakiman. Menteri Perundangan juga telah mengesahkan bahawa masa tidak mencukupi dalam persidangan parlimen kali ini bagi membentangkan serta mendebatkan usul bagi penubuhan Suruhanjaya Perlantikan Kehakiman.

Kami, sekalian rakyat jelata, mengambil maklum, pada bulan September 2007, Perdana Menteri telah mencadangkan dan memperoleh perkenan Tuanku bagi melantik Tan Sri Dato’ Zaki Tun Azmi secara langsung ke Mahkamah Persekutuan, mengenepikan beberapa hakim yang telah lebih lama dalam perkhidmatan di Mahkamah Rayuan.

Pada Disember 2007, tatkala Tan Sri Dato’ Zaki telah hanya berkhidmat selama 3 bulan sebagai Hakim Mahkamah Persekutuan, Perdana Menteri sekali lagi telah memohon dan menerima perkenan Tuanku bagi melantik Tan Sri Dato’ Zaki untuk menjawat jawatan Presiden Mahkamah Rayuan, kali ini mengenepikan beberapa hakim yang telah jauh lebih lama berkhidmat di Mahkamah Persekutuan.

Kami, sekalian rakyat jelata, mengambil maklum dengan rasa prihatin bahawa kenaikan pangkat Tan Sri Dato’ Zaki yang mendadak dalam badan kehakiman tanpa sebarang penjelasan rasional mengenai sebab pengenepian hakim-hakim yang telah jauh lebih lama berkhidmat hanya mengembalikan ingatan terhadap episod dimana Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul mengenepikan Allahyarham Tan Sri Malek Ahmed yang telah jauh lebih lama dalam perkhidmatan bagi menyandang jawatan Presiden Mahkamah Rayuan, sebuah episod yang telah menjadi subjek yang diselidik secara teliti oleh Suruhanjaya Penyiasatan Diraja awal tahun ini.

Kami, sekalian rakyat jelata, turut mengambil maklum dengan rasa prihatin perkara berikut:

1) Tan Sri Dato’ Zaki adalah hakim yang paling junior berbanding semua hakim Mahkamah Tinggi, Mahkamah Rayuan dan Mahkamah Persekutuan.

2) Tan Sri Dato’ Zaki merupakan hakim yang paling junior di kalangan 8 hakim Mahkamah Persekutuan dan perlantikan beliau sebagai Presiden Mahkamah Rayuan pastinya telah memberi gambaran yang kurang wajar terhadap kemampuan dan kewibawaan 7 hakim Mahkamah Persekutuan yang jauh lebih senior.

3) Tan Sri Dato’ Zaki telah terlibat dalam parti politik UMNO di mana beliau pernah menyandang jawatan Pengerusi Jawatankuasa Pilihanraya Parti, Timbalan Pengerusi Badan Tindakan Disiplin serta penasihat undang-undang bagi parti. Adalah tidak jelas sama ada Tan Sri Dato’ Zaki masih lagi ahli UMNO yang aktif dan sekiranya tidak, adalah tidak jelas sejak bila beliau menghentikan pembabitan beliau dalam UMNO

4) Tan Sri Dato’ Zaki pernah dikaitkan dengan skandal kewangan yang melibatkan UMNO dimana timbul desas-desus yang menyatakan beliau akhirnya terpaksa dibantu oleh kerajaan

5) Tan Sri Dato’ Zaki telah terlibat secara mendalam dalam dunia korporat sebagai pemegang saham utama serta/atau pengarah beberapa badan korporat. Beberapa entiti korporat yang diterajui beliau diketahui mempunyai urusan perniagaan dengan kerajaan

6) Tan Sri Dato’ Zaki pernah terlibat dalam skandal peribadi yang telah mengaitkan beliau dalam penghapusan dokumen bukti, secara langsung menimbulkan keraguan terhadap integriti beliau.

Kami, sekalian rakyat jelata, mengambil iktibar serta panduan dari titah DYM Raja Nazrin Shah pada 9 April 2008:

‘Sekarang ini kita berada di saat kritikal dalam sejarah negara kita di mana institusi negara kita, yakni, asas bagi demokrasi yang telah kita bina sejak merdeka, kini di bawah pemerhatian serta pemantauan yang serius. Pilihan Raya Umum ke-12 yang baru sahaja tamat telah membawa bersama arus perubahan. Antara lain, kita saksikan sekarang perhatian yang lebih serius diberikan dan lebih banyak persoalan yang dikemukakan dalam proses penggubalan dasar, legislatif serta pentadbiran negara. Ada di antara perubahan ini bersifat sementara manakala ada yang lebih kekal. Walau apa pun soalnya, realiti politik terkini terbukti mencabar dan akan terus kekal mencabar. Mesej yang jelas telah disampaikan, yakni, kita tidak boleh lagi terus menerus dengan sikap ‘tidak apa’ kita. Tidak boleh dipertikaikan lagi bahawa pendedahan terkini mengenai salah laku dalam institusi kehakiman telah memberi kesan negatif yang mendalam dengan mencemar imej serta megikis tahap keyakinan rakyat terhadap system yang diharap mampu membela serta memastikan keadilan yang dituntut akan diperoleh. Kita perlu komited bagi mengorak langkah demi berusaha mengatasi masalah ini dan tampil lebih gagah dengan mengambil iktibar dari isu ini. Untuk itu, kita perlu bersedia berdepan dengan isu serta fakta berkaitan dengan seadanya. Dalam konteks ini, nada yang telah ditetapkan oleh YAA Dato’ Abdul Hamid dalam ucapan sempena perlantikan beliau pada bulan Disember tahun lalu adalah amat memberangsangkan. Dalam ucapan yang telah diandaikan sebagai ‘hembusan arus perubahan’, beliau telah menyentuh persoalan yang timbul berkaitan sejauh mana keputusan mahkamah adalah bersandarkan fakta dan tidak terpengaruh dengan unsur favouritisme. Beliau juga menyentuh isu perlantikan dan kenaikan pangkat hakim serta komitmen hakim dalam memikul tangunggjawab yang diamanahkan. Beliau dengan tepat telah menyatakan bahawa persoalan sama ada persepsi negatif itu berasas adalah tidak releven. Kewujudan persepsi itu sendiri adalah cukup untuk membawa padah dan langkah yang tegas perlu diambil bagi memulihkan badan kehakiman.’

Memandangkan bahawa kemungkinan untuk penubuhan Suruhanjaya Perlantikan Kehakiman mengambil tempat sebelum persaraan Ketua HakimTun Abdul Hamid Mohamad adalah sangat tipis, boleh disimpulkan bahawa pengganti beliau akan dicadangkan oleh Perdana Menteri kepada Tuanku, tanpa sebarang prosedur telus yang diharapkan, seperti mana yang pastinya dilaksanakan sekiranya Suruhanjaya Perlantikan Kehakiman telah ditubuhkan.

Kami, sekalian rakyat jelata, mengambil iktibar dari kata-kata bijaksan DYM Raja Nazrin Shah, yakni, apabila nasihat yang diberi kepada Raja-Raja Melayu bercanggah dengan semangat perlembagaan, kedaulatan undang-undang serta prinsip asas keadilan, maka, Raja-Raja Melayu tidak harus tunduk kepada tekanan badan Eksekutif untuk memberi persetujuan. Sistem Raja Berperlembagaan merupakan sebuah sistem perkongsian kuasa antara monarki dan rakyat, di mana monarki merupakan sumber panduan utama apabila wujud krisis di kalangan rakyat.

Kami, sekalian rakyat jelata, dengan ini memohon doa agar Tuanku, dengan wawasan untuk memulakan restorasi keyakinan rakyat terhadap badan kehakiman akan:

1) Mensyaratkan bahawa hakim yang paling lama dalam perkhidmatan di Mahkamah Persekutuan, dilantik sebagai Ketua Hakim bersempena persaraan Ketua Hakim Tun Abdul Hamid Mohamad pad 18 Oktober 2008, dan

2) Dalam tempoh selagi mana penubuhan Jawatankuasa Perlantikan Kehakiman masih belum mengambil tempat, mensyaratkan bahawa kenaikan pangkat bagi hakim untuk ke Mahkamah Rayuan dan Mahkamah Persekutuan sekali lagi berdasarkan tempoh perkhidmatan hakim dalam Mahkamah Tinggi dan Mahkamah Rayuan.

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On 18th April, 2008, the Prime Minister, Dato Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, gave the following commitment to the rakyat :

‘…No nation can call itself fair and just without an efficient and trusted judiciary. By “trusted”, I mean a judiciary that delivers justice and is seen to deliver justice…the fact is, we can no longer leave such an important institution to hope and chance. The system must have built-in safeguards to prevent potential abuse and it must have a process that will convincingly identify the best legal minds in the country to join the judiciary…Therefore, the Government proposes a change to make the process of nominating, appointing and promoting judges more transparent and representative…

At pages 174 and 175 of its report presented to Your Majesty on 9^th May, 2008, the Royal Commission of Inquiry mandated to look into the matter of the VK Lingam video, in recommending the formation of a Judicial Appointments Commission, observed as follows

‘…there is cause for concern about how judges in the upper echelons of the judiciary were appointed and the selection criteria employed. More specifically the evidence has disclosed inherent flaws and weaknesses regarding the process of appointment and promotion of High Court judges as well as the Chief Judge Malaya, President Court of Appeal and the Chief Justice of the Federal Court…Having heard the evidence presented to the Commission in relation to the video clip it would seem clear that the appointment and promotion of judges of the higher judiciary is open to interference and manipulation by the Executive and other extrinsic forces including private citizens…the inherent weaknesses in the process of appointment of judges and its vulnerability to interference and manipulation could result in extreme damage to the independence of the judiciary in particular and to the country in general’.

We, the rakyat, have been very anxious that the requisite reforms to the Judiciary be given effect to so as to restore the same as a truly independent arm of government, free from any sort of interference from Executive so that the former could perform its constitutional role as the defender of the rakyat. We were as such gratified with the media reports that the Law Minister, Dato Zaid Ibrahim, was treating the matter of the establishment of a Judicial Appointments Commission as a matter of priority.

We, the rakyat, are now gravely disappointed with recent media reports that several Cabinet ministers, notably from UMNO, have rejected the proposal by the Law Minister for the establishment of the Judicial Appointments Commission and that the Law Minister had recently confirmed that there would now not be sufficient time during the present sitting of Parliament to table a bill for the purposes of establishing the Judicial Appointments Commission.

We, the rakyat, also note and endorse the concerns of the Law Minister that the appointment to the post of Chief Justice, which falls vacant on 18^th October, 2008 upon the retirement of the present Chief Justice Tun Abdul Hamid Mohamad, should ideally be done as transparently as might have been had the Judicial Appointments Commission been set up and entrusted with that task.

We, the rakyat, note that in September last year, the Prime Minister had recommended and Your Majesty had consented to the appointment of Tan Sri Dato’ Zaki Tun Azmi directly to the Federal Court, by-passing several senior judges of the Court of Appeal.

Then in December last year, whilst Tan Sri Dato’ Zaki had barely completed three months into his appointment as a judge of the Federal Court, the Prime Minister had again recommended and Your Majesty had consented to the appointment of Tan Sri Dato’ Zaki to the position of President of the Court of Appeal, this time bypassing several far more senior judges of the Federal Court.

We, the rakyat, note with concern that the rapid rise of Tan Sri Dato’ Zaki through the judiciary, inexplicably over the heads of many more senior members, is reminiscent of the episode in which Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim bypassed the more senior late Tan Sri Malek Ahmed to the position of President of the Court of Appeal, an episode that became the subject-matter of scrutiny by the Royal Commission of Inquiry earlier this year.

We, the rakyat, also note with concern the following of and concerning Tan Sri Dato’ Zaki :

1. Tan Sri Dato’ Zaki is the most junior judge amongst all judges of the High Courts, the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court;

2. Tan Sri Dato’ Zaki is the most junior amongst the 8 Federal Court judges, and his selection as President of the Court of Appeal would most unfairly have raised questions about the competence of the other 7 very much more senior judges of the Federal Court ;

3. Tan Sri Dato’ Zaki has been very intimately involved in UMNO, having at one time held the position of chairman of the party’s election committee, deputy chairman of its disciplinary board of appeal and party legal adviser. It is unclear if he is still a card carrying member of UMNO or if he has ceased to be one, when he ceased to be one;

4. Tan Sri Dato’ Zaki has been linked to financial scandals involving UMNO that were allegedly bailed out by the government;

5. Tan Sri Dato’ Zaki has been very intimately involved in the corporate world as a major shareholder and / or director in several corporate entities, many of which were known to have business dealings with the government; and

6. Tan Sri Dato’ Zaki had previously been embroiled in a personal scandal that implicated him in the destruction of documentary evidence, thus laying him open to questions of his integrity.

We, the rakyat, in writing to Your Majesty now, are guided by the following wise words of HRH Raja Nazrin Shah on 9^th April, 2008 :

‘We are now at a critical time in our nation’s history, one where the institutions of state – indeed, the foundations of our democracy – which we have built up since Independence, are under scrutiny. The just concluded 12th General Elections has ushered in a host of changes. Among other things, it has introduced a greater degree of contestation in policy-making, legislation and administration than many would previously have thought possible. Some of these changes may be transient. Others could well be permanent. Whatever the case, the new political realities have proven to be and will continue to be challenging. They send a clear message that we cannot continue on a course of ‘business-as-usual’. It goes without saying that recent revelations of improprieties in the judiciary have been extremely damaging, not least by eroding the public’s image of, and confidence in, the system of justice in this country. We must be committed to working through our current problems and to emerge the stronger and better for them. In order to do so, we must be prepared to deal with the facts as they are, and not as we would like them to be. In this respect, it is most encouraging that YAA Dato’ Abdul Hamid has himself set the tone for us in his appointment speech in December last year. In that speech, which has been described as “a breath of fresh air”, he openly addressed concerns about the impartiality of judicial decisions, the appointment and promotion of judges, and their commitment to carrying out their work. He wisely pointed out that whether or not these perceptions were founded was immaterial. The mere fact that they exist is enough to do damage and warrant firm action’.

Given that it is unlikely that the Judicial Appointments Commission would have been set up by the time the present Chief Justice Tun Abdul Hamid Mohamad retires on 18^th October, 2008, it is almost a foregone conclusion that the proposed new Chief Justice will be recommended by the Prime Minister to Your Majesty for Your Majesty’s consent, without the attendant transparent procedures that the anticipated Judicial Appointments Commission would have introduced.

We, the rakyat, again guided by the recent wise words of HRH Raja Nazrin Shah, that when the advice given to the Malay Rulers contradicts the spirit of the constitution, sanctity of the law and the basic principle of justice, the Malay Rulers should not feel pressured to give their assent and that the constitutional monarch system involves a sharing of power between the Rulers and the people and the Rulers are often the “source of reference” whenever there was a crisis among the rakyat, now pray that Your Majesty may be so moved, with a view to begin the process of restoring the confidence of the rakyat in the Judiciary :

1. to require that the senior most judge of the Federal Court, such seniority measured by the years of service in the apex court, be appointed as the next Chief Justice upon the retirement of the present Chief Justice Tun Abdul Hamid Mohamad retires on 18^th October, 2008; and

2. pending the establishment of the Judicial Appointments Commission, to require that promotions to the Court of Appeal and to the Federal Court shall be from the senior most judges of the High Courts and Court of Appeal respectively. Again, seniority must be assessed by the years of service in the High Courts and Court of Appeal respectively.