Walk all you want, write what you like, our PM is not bothered

Mr. Opposition, YB Lim Kit Siang’s earlier fears came true. Zaki’s promotion to No.2 in the Judiciary, so soon after being parachuted from private practice seems like an insult to all fair-minded people, particularly those senior judges who have been side-lined time and again.

Previously, there were criticisms on how some judges left service to become directors of companies, now we have someone who not only had been company director before but holding high profile positions in Umno to become a Federal judge and in a short three months, elevated to be President of the Court of Appeal, without having even written a judgement to show.

Zaki is only one year away from the Chief Justice post, probably only six months, and it is almost certain that’s the plan. Isn’t independence of the Judiciary an important aspect of a true democracy? Do we care about perception of the people?

Guided democracy? Indeed, with all the right people in place, nothing can go wrong.

What we have left is the ballot box, a transparent one to signify transparency, and a system of election, which only the Chairman boasts as most efficient and fair.

Update: Latest from Malaysia-Today:

07/12: Malaysian Judiciary: from one nightmare to another
by Kim Quek

Excerpts:

"Apart from acting as UMNO’s nominee, Zaki also has held directorship in scores of major companies including some of the most well known names such as Berjaya, Metacorp, Pan Global, SP Setia, Malaysia Airports, Hume, Matsushita Electric, Pharmaniaga, etc. Zaki was reported by Bernama on 21 April 2007 to have said that his 58% owned Emrail Sdn Bhd, a railway specialist company, had only the government as employer, and that he was earnestly soliciting contracts in the northern and southern portions of the double-tracking project to turn the cash-strapped Emrail around.

Such political and business background would already have made him a poor candidate for any judicial appointment, Zaki is battered by yet another serious handicap – the question of his moral integrity arising from his controversial marriage and divorce from his second wife Nor Hayati Yahaya, who was half his age.

Following the revelation of Zaki’s marital trouble, he resigned as deputy chairman of UMNO’s disciplinary board, for which he commented: “Considering that members of the disciplinary board are of the highest integrity, I have made this decision following reports in the media.....” (New Straits Times, 9 Aug 2005)

The question we must ask now is: If Zaki is morally unfit to serve in UMNO’s disciplinary board, how could he be considered morally fit to be a federal court judge, not to mention his lightning elevation to the No. 2 position, and anticipated imminent rise to the top job in the judiciary?

Is this country so poor in legal talent and integrity that we have no choice but to appoint some one so glaringly unsuited for such important judicial position arising from his multiple conflicts of interests and questionable integrity? If not, then why did the Prime Minister make such a move? If it is not to advance the Prime Minister’s and UMNO’s interests, then what motivated such an appointment?

However, in the midst of despair over UMNO’s latest move, we detect something amiss in the Prime Minister’s announcement of this dual appointments (Hamid and Zaki). While the PM claimed that upon his advice, these appointments were assented to by the Agong after consultation with the Council of Rulers, no effective date had been decided for Zaki’s appointment, while Hamid’s was fixed on Nov 1 - the day he started duty as Acting Chief Justice. Neither had any date been decided for the handing over of the appointment letters. If these dates had not been decided, why was PM in such a hurry to make an incomplete announcement?

Whatever the case may be in regards to Zaki’s appointment, it is pertinent to take serious note of the view expressed by the Sultan of Perak, Raja Azlan Shah, on public perception of judicial impartiality in his opening address to the 14th Malaysian Law Conference on 29th Oct 2007.

Raja Azlan Shah, one of the most illustrious Lord Presidents of Malaysia, said that judiciary loses its value and service to the community if there is no public confidence in its decision-making. And the principal quality in judiciary is “impartiality”, which exists in two senses – the reality of impartiality and the appearance of impartiality. Of these two, the appearance of impartiality is the more important, stressed the Sultan.

Taking cue from this observation, Zaki’s appointment is an unmitigated disaster, as even if he has the superhuman capability to totally severe his umbilical cord to the ruling party and his commercial interests to eliminate conflict of interests, there is still the insurmountable problem of public perception. With Zaki’s questionable background, there is no way he can command complete public confidence, particularly when the interests of UMNO or his businesses are involved.

Knowing UMNO’s arrogance and supreme confidence over its political hegemony, we do not think that it is open to advice from the public. We therefore earnestly appeal to the Agong and the Rulers to exert their benevolent influence empowered by the Constitution to protect our judiciary from further injury, as they have so valiantly done in the recent past."