Surat Datuk Pencen Kepada Dr. Mahathir
Lim Teng Siow,
23 Jalan Dato Kramat,
Pulau Pinang
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YAB Perdana Menteri,
Kuala Lumpur
Yang Amat Berhormat,
As a senior citizen I am very concerned at the conduct of some of the
judges of the High Court. They are supposed to represent an institution
of highest integrity and Honor. They are the personification of His
Majesty's Fountain of Justice. They are to command the kind of respect
the Unisted States Supreme Court commands in America and the world. The
institution must be above suspicion, like Caesar's wife. They are to
conduct themselves in a manner that commands the respect of the
Citizenry. They do not have to demand that they should be respected on
pain of being punished for contempt. The respect shuld come naturally
because of the Honourable way the Judges should conduct themselves both
in and out of Court.
Please look back to the days prior to the regime of Tun Abdul Hamid
Omar. How highly was our judges regarded by the public and the
Government. At the time of the Regime of Tun Hamid there were signs of
lack of respect towards the Judges. When Tun Eusoff Chin took over
there was unmitigated disaster. He was a very Junior and incompetent
judge. Tun Hamid had a choice to nominate Justice Annuar or Eusoff Chin
and he nominated Eusoff thinking he will be more pliable than Annuar
because Annuar was much senior and would not be beholden to Tun Hamid
whilst Eusoff would fall at the feet for being elevated above the head
of 17 others who are more Senior to him.
To be fair, Tun Hamid was able to control his Judges and there was no
such open and deplorable conduct of Judges as it is happening now.
Eusoff is not up to that mark and has let the courts go to the Dogs. I
now refer to the Penang case where Lawyer Darshan Singh filed a case
against the Judge Jeffery Tan. In the first place, Jeffery TanTan has
no business to make personal remarks of Counsels behind the back of the
Counsels concerned. The same thing happened in the case of Justice
Augustine Paul. He too passed remarks about Lawyer Fernando and when
Lawyer Fernando cited him for contempt, he apologized in open Court.
Well such conduct did not go well with the public and he was criticized
by the public for acting in a way that brought disgrace to his office.
As for Jeffery Tan he was very worried about the case against him. The
only way that case could be disposed off would be for the Attorney
General to apply to the Court to strike off as an abuse of the process
of the Court.
In fairness to him, the Attorney General has openly shown his
displeasure of the conduct of the Judges. On one occasion he openly
took the Judges to task for inducting their children and for taking
large sums of money in golfbets. Having known him from the Ipoh days he
may not intervene in the cse of Jeffery Tan and that would mean the case
has to go through the ugly spectre of a full blown trial with the media
reporting it in full. Therefore what Jeffery Tan wanted was to have the
trial struck off without any hearing. So he actually abused the powers
of his office for a personal reason. he should have been charged by the
A G just like Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Jeffery Tan rushed to K L and
held a Meeting with Eusoff Chin and Edgar Joseph in the Morning of 27
May 1999. He wanted the blessing of Eusoff chin for citing the couple
for contempt. Eusoff gave the green light and the contempt proceeding.
But what happened in open court was the Honour and Dignity of his
Majesty's Court and the integrity (not that there is much, but whatever
little that remained) went to the Dogs. That was the day of public
shame for the Judiciary as a whole. When the counsel decides that you
are using your power to hurt him he is not going to keep quiet. He
lambasted Jeffery Tan in a Language that was calculated to have the
greatest impact on the public and it certainly had the desired effect.
Jeffery Tan should be removed from his post as he brought shame to the
Judiciary and Eusoff Chin should take responsibility for the debacle.
There is Proverb 'fire is a good servant but a bad master'. It is very
true. Contempt as an instrument to punish culpable conduct is a good
servant but it should not be used to demand respect. Respect should be
earned. It cannot be demanded.
Having said that, I do not want it to be understood that all the
High Court judges are misfit. In Penang, Dato Hamid, Dato Zaleha are
excellent material. Dato Wan Adnan has learnt his lessons in Petaling
Jaya. As for Kuala Lumpur, there are some excellent judges who bring
Honour and Dignity to the Office they hold. Dato A C Vohrah, Steve
Shim, Abdul Aziz Mohamed are Model judges in every respect. The next
ranking judges are Augustine Paul, K L Rekhraj, Faiza Thamby Chik, James
Foong, Selventhiranathan and Wira Mohamed Noor. The others are of the
ordinary type and carry on with their jobs without much problems. A few
require special mention. Arifin Jaka is an empty vessel. He knows no
law and uses his common sense as a substitute. Azmel is a complete
write off. he cannot and will not write any judgement. If he writes
then it will show he is the stupidest judge in Malaysia. So in his
court he spend his time citing lawyers for contempt for coming late to
his court or not turning up. The other thing is to look for technical
errors in the court documents and strike off the case. This is an easy
way to avoid learned judgement at all. Despite his stupidity he has
then the audiacity to ask Eusoff Chin to appoint him as the Presiding
Judge of the proposed Industrial Appeal court. The Industrial Court
Presidents are ten times better than our Azmel.
There is one other chap that require mention because he is most
talked about by the lawyers and the public. he likes to think that
being a judge is being next to God. If you have a chance to go to his
court you will see the Aura in his court. He imagines that he is
sitting on the Agong's chair and is dispensing justice. He wants the
lawyers only to quote his judgements, to cite his book on negligence and
the press must report all his remarks and learned comments, and of
course his learned judgements. He thinks that he is Eusoffe Abdul Kader
reborn as A running down lawyer and then elevated to the High Court
again. He is R K Nathan.
In Malacca, Seremban, Ipoh and Johore the judges are of reasonably
good quality. Of these the oustanding ones are Abdul Malik bin Haji
Ishak and Suryadi bin Halim. Abdul Malik is certainly an excellent
candidate for the Court of Appeal and a Potential Chief Justice. He is
dynamic and intellectually comparable to the best. The idiot, is of
course none other than Abdul Kadir Musa. He is one step worse than
Azmel Maamor.
As for the Court of Appeal the Ones with the best quality as judges
are two. Shaik Daud and Haidar Mohd Noor are the outstanding judges.
They are people who do justice in the true sense of the word. They have
the qualities of intellectual skill, judicial temperament, patience and
a desire to do justice to the parties before them. They do not prejudge
the case and insist on their judicial infallibility.
I now come to the Federal Court. There is one man in the Federal
court who I believe can turn the Judiciary to its former glory. He is
an intelligent Judge and has a sound knowledge of the laws, and has good
judicial temperament. He is above corruption and does not tolerate
corruption. he is comparatively youthful and is a man of highest
integrity. I do not want to name him lest I do injustice to him.
Please find out yourself and let him be the nexct Chief Justice. The
judiciary will change for the better and the judges would not have to
use contempt proceedings to shore-up their sinking dignity and honour.
The people and the country will at last get their honour back and do not
have to go into the streets Shouting the slogan "Rakyat Hakim Negara".
This statement is a public testimony of th dissatisfaction of the public
with Eusoff Chin and his cronies.
Yours Faithfully,
SD: (Intelligible)
cc: The Cabinet Ministers
Conference of Rules
Eusoff China.