Judgment Reserved On The Judiciary -Dr Azmi Sharom
SM Muthu
Judgment reserved on the judiciary -Dr Azmi Sharom
We used to have some incredible judges.
Tan Sri Eusofee Abdoolcader was an exceptionally brilliant man and this colossal intelligence was reflected in his judgments.
His mastery of the language made his judgments not just wise proclamations of law but fine examples of writing.
In particular, I am always drawn to the wit and razor-sharp analyses that he brought into his dissenting judgment in the UEM v Lim Kit Siang Supreme Court decision in 1988.
Tun Azmi Mohamad was perhaps not as brilliant as Tan Sri Eusofee, but he was a man of iron principle.
He led an austere life, away from the public eye, because he understood that one of the sacrifices a judge must make is a life of loneliness, as that is the only way to ensure that not only is he fair and uninfluenced by others, he is also seen to be that way.
Tun Suffian Mohamed Hashim, like many judges of his generation, was fundamentally conservative.
Their judgments tended to give the benefit of the doubt to the government.
But this did not mean that they were in any way not independent.
And it was Tun Suffian who proclaimed, with pride, that if one were to read the judgments of the Malaysian court without seeing the name of the judge, there was no way one could identify the person’s ethnicity or faith.
Such was their dedication to the law.
And now?
Now we have a former Chief Justice talking in purposefully evocative racial language, claiming ridiculous things despite evidence to the contrary.
Tun Abdul Hamid speaks about Malay people as though they are on the verge of being shoved into reservations akin to the Native Americans, and this, despite the recent Khazanah research findings that show that the economic distinction between the various ethnic groups is small.
In fact, we all share one thing in common, and that is that the rich, regardless of race, are bloody rich and everyone else, regardless of race, must work damned hard just to make ends meet.
And politically, the simple fact of the demographic reality of Malaysia shows that there is no way Malays will be anything less than an important force.
His fear-mongering, in other words, makes no sense at all.
Sigh.
Once we had judges who thought and spoke with rationality and reason; once we had judges of pure selflessness; once we had judges who put the nation and its laws above their own personal ethnicity and faith.
We had people on the bench whom we could look up to. I hope those days are not gone.