12.06.2000

All justice loving Malaysians must have applauded the swift and correct action
taken by the Bar Council on the raging Chief Justice misconduct scandal.  The
Chairman of the Bar Council has just announced that the Council will meet on
23rd June to move for a) the setting up of a Tribunal or Royal Commission of
Inquiry to investigate the conduct of Chief Justice Eusoff Chin, and b) the
suspension of Eusoff pending the investigations.

The Eusoff misconduct scandal suddenly plunged to crisis level when journalist
M.G.G.Pillai revealed several days ago incriminating details relating to the
flights taken together by Eusoff and lawyer Lingam to and within New Zealand,
directly contradicting Eusoff’s “pumping into each other” story.  In spite of
DAP Chairman Lim Kit Siang’s call on 10th June to Eusoff to “rebut or quit”, the
latter has not responded to date.

Eusoff’s failure to give a prompt response at this critical instant has serious
and sinister overtone – the Chief Justice may be caught lying to the Nation
red-handed!  If so, the probe into Eusoff will have to go beyond a simple
“improper socialising” to other aspects of a criminal nature.  For common sense
tells us that the Chief Justice of a country cannot reasonably be expected to
commit the desperate act of lying to the nation, if the offence is merely “an
improper social contact” – there must be a lot more at stake.

This latest development calls for the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) to move in
swiftly to probe into possible collusion and corruption evolving around not only
Eusoff and Lingam, but also Limgam’s client Vincent Tan (the latter’s body guard
was found to be travelling with the Eusoffs and Lingams in New Zealand,
according Pillai).  The backdrop to this investigation is a multi-million dollar
defamation suit in which Vincent was awarded an unprecedented massive sum of RM
10 million, the Appeal of which was upheld in the Federal Court chaired by
Eusoff.

ACA’s response (or rather non-response) to this scandal has not been
encouraging, as it has not to date given a public statement, in spite of
Eusoff’s claim on 6th June that ACA as well as the Attorney General (AG) had
investigated and cleared him of improprieties.  Now that this scandal has
rapidly developed into a full-blown crisis, riveting national and international
attention, ACA and Attorney General can ill afford to continue nestling in their
hideouts.  The public must demand that they honour their oath of office and
openly state their position to the Nation this time.

On another front, Minister in charge of law Rais Yatim seems to be beating a
fast retreat.  According to Sin Chew Jit Poh dated 1lth June, Rais called for a
cessation of “open dispute” between himself and the judiciary, particularly
Eusoff, and asked society to be the judge.  He hoped the judiciary would
consider the people’s feelings and improve on its image and transparency.  He
said “Let us all concentrate on our own works.  What has been said, let it be”.

That conciliatory tone by Rais might have been acceptable if the controversy is
over an argument on routine matters between himself and Eusoff, but it is
certainly not okay when the Chief Justice is entangled with unfolding
incriminating evidence that is fast developing into a full scale national crisis
of confidence in the judiciary.  The stance taken by Rais can only be taken as
the Cabinet shirking its responsibility in upholding the integrity of our
judicial system.  Worse, it smells of complicity to cover up the decadence in
the judiciary.

Our judicial system has been mauled and mutilated by the Executive so many times
in the past dozen years that many Malaysians must be numb to another
transgression.  But I appeal to all who love this Country to draw a line this
time.  Let us stand united to oppose the further destruction of the last
guardian of our individual rights – the judiciary.  Let us take full advantage
of of the marvels of this IT age to make our will known to those in power.  Let
the citizens of this Country flood the Prime Minister and other leaders and the
press with emails and fax and letters to express our determination to see that
justice be executed expeditiously this time, as a forerunner to the process of
reversing the rotting of our judicial system.  And let political parties and
NGOs lead the way by organising activities to charge up the campaign.
 

Kim Quek