51. Panel absolves judges
by Azura Abas, New Straits Times
A six-man panel of prominent names in the judiciary, both local and foreign, has absolved the senior judges involved in the 1988 judicial crisis.
The panel comprised former Chief Justice of India J.S. Verma; retired Attorney-General of Pakistan Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim; Pakistan Human Rights Commission chairman Dr Asma Jahangir; Law Association for Asia and the Pacific (LAWASIA) past president Dr Gordon Hughes; lawyer Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman and legal consultant Datuk W.S.W. Bill Davidson.
They examined the proceedings of the first tribunal which had found former lord president Tun Salleh Abas guilty of misbehaviour and the second tribunal that had recommended the removal of senior judges Datuk George Edward Seah and Tan Sri Wan Suleiman Pawan Teh.
For almost a year, looking through materials made available in both tribunals, the six concluded that Salleh was innocent of all charges against him and determined that he had performed his constitutional duty to uphold and protect the doctrine of separation of power and the rule of law in the larger interest of the country.
For the conclusions and findings reached by the second tribunal, they had found "glaring inconsistencies between enunciation of the legal principles and their application to the facts by the tribunal" which they had deemed as "incomprehensible".
One of the recommendations listed in the 79-page report to rebuild public confidence in the country's judiciary system was to use the Beijing Statement of Principles of the Independence of the Judiciary in the LAWASIA Region, 1997, of which Malaysia is one of the signatories, as guidelines for the nation's independence of the judiciary and judicial accountability.
The panel also prescribed the Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conduct 2002 that Malaysia could consider as a guideline. The code of conduct was built with reference to several codes and international instruments, including the Code of Judicial Conduct adopted by the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association, August 1972; the European Charter on the Statute for Judges, Council of Europe, July 1998; as well as the Judges' Code of Ethics of Malaysia, prescribed by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on the recommendation of the chief justice, the president of the Court of Appeal and the chief judges of the High Courts, in the exercise of powers conferred by Article 125(3A) of the Federal Constitution of Malaysia, 1994.
Later, Bar Council president Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan said the review made on the 1988 crisis was to clear the record for those involved.
"We knew these judges were innocent but there are published records that state otherwise," she said.
"The Government should accept it in full."
Ambiga said the report, commissioned by Malaysian Bar, LAWASIA, International Bar Association's Human Rights Institute, and Transparency International Malaysia would be forwarded to the government, Bar associations abroad and international organisations.
Together with the report and the payment of exgratia to the senior judges involved, she also believed the 1988 judicial crisis chapter could now be closed.
However, she hoped the crisis would act as a reminder to the nation on the importance of having an independent judiciary by keeping it separate from the executive and to have a judicial reform.
