Friday, August 22, 2014

Where there is a legal precedent by our country's highest court of justice, what should we do?

As a layman, I always have this notion that regardless of how much we disagree with certain judgments, we have to accept them... unless and until those are overruled by higher courts. But if it is a verdict by the apex court, The Federal Court, then we have to wait until there is a change in the law relating to it.

Therefore, I am puzzled why Roger Tan put it as if Pakatan critics of Perak MB case are inconsistent if they were to use its legal precedent to support a similar situation in Selangor. To my simple mind, it is a clear case of 'Heads they win, Tails we lose' kind of logic.

Excerpt of his article Keep it colour blind:

'I was also troubled that when he passed away, he had not been accorded the appropriate recognition by leaders of our legal profession of his contribution to the administration of justice in this country.

This could be due to some differences with the Sultan’s decision not to call for fresh state elections when Pakatan Rakyat lost the majority control of the Perak state assembly in February, 2009. I had at that time written extensively that the Sultan’s decision was constitutionally correct.

Interestingly, the Federal Court’s judgment which subsequently endorsed the correctness of his royal decision is now being relied upon by his then most vociferous and sometimes insolent critics in Pakatan Rakyat to justify replacement of the embattled Selangor Mentri Besar, Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim without the need for a state assembly sitting or the dissolution of the assembly.'

Rest of his article Keep it colour blind:
http://www.rogertan.com/2014/08/keep-it-colour-blind.html
which appeared in his column, Legally Speaking by Roger Tan, in The Sunday Star
on August 17, 2014

Link

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