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Written by Koon Yew Yin
Saturday, 23 May 2009 11:45


Malaysian Courts: Going Super Fast

Allow me to share a quote of wisdom : 'Though the wheels of justice grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small; Though with patience he stands waiting, with exactness grinds he all'.

I have read that there was a case of medical negligence, and involving the death of a lawyer, which took 23 years to reach our Court of Appeal. Yet these slow grinding wheels seem to have become supercharged for the benefit of Zambry Abd Kadir.

When the High Court on May 11 recognised Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin as the rightful Menteri Besar of Perak, the Court of Appeal lost no time in granting Zambry a stay of execution on the High Court decision. It did so within a few hours, in fact.

Malaysian courts are now creating a record with their supersonic speed in disposing cases. Yesterday (Friday, May 22), the appellate court overturned the High Court judgment favouring Nizar, and instead ruled that Zambry is the legitimate Menteri Besar.

Justices Md Raus Sharif, Zainun Ali and Ahmad Maarop made a unanimous decision in favour of Zambry, prompting Nizar's lead counsel Sulaiman Abdullah to comment that Malaysia has extraordinary judges who can pass extraordinary judgment.



Beyond the Political Checkmate

Obviously we will never see the end of Perak's battles in the courts. No sooner the court decides on one case, another legal suit pops up. Justice NH Chan has already written several articles on the Perak constitutional crisis. He had earlier boldly pointed out five errant judges; perhaps he will soon finger three plus one more.

In the meantime and on another front, Speaker V. Sivakumar has just filed a suit against R. Ganesan who took over his chair – literally – albeit with a little help from his 'friends' (the security men from outside the dewan) during the state assembly sitting in Ipoh on May 7.

So what we have is the curious cases of Menteri Besar One vs Menteri Besar Two, and Speaker One vs Speaker Two fighting it out in the courts with numerous suits and counter suits.

I wrote ‘Checkmate Barisan Nasional in Perak’ on March 21 premised on the term ‘checkmate’ in chess when an opponent has no further move to protect his king. There seems to be no viable state government now in Perak with both the BN and Pakatan Rakyat continuously checking each other's move.

I had then suggested that a quick return to the ballot box was the only morally and legally defensible option, and also the way out of this political quagmire. But Perak has remained stuck in an impasse precisely because the vote has not been returned to the rakyat.

It is expected that if Ganesan is pronounced rightful Speaker by the court, he would be calling an emergency session to oust Nizar and counting on the three defectors to deliver Barisan Nasional its majority. Is it fair for the overwhelmingly Umno-dominated coalition to govern the state by depending solely on its so-called three 'independents friendly to BN', especially when two of those assemblymen are under investigation for corruption?

On May 8, I wrote another article ‘Treason of the Malaysian hawks’ – the phrase 'treason of the hawks' borrowed from American policy analyst Fred Ikle – and which I found useful in that 'treason' bears some equivalence to the Malay term 'derhaka’.

It is treasonous if the opposing halves, by fighting too much and too long, eventually bring about untold damage to the state. In my second article on the Perak deadlock, I again urged that only the ballot box can determine the people's choice and who it is that possesses the people's trust to rule Perak. Read more here..
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