'Gov't will agree with Bar's stand on 1MDB - after regime is changed'

Putrajaya may come to agree with the Malaysian Bar's stand on the 1MDB imbligio one day, after there has been a change in the government leadership, said former Malaysian Bar president Ragunath Kesavan.

Ragunath based his stand on the government having paid RM5 million as ex-gratia to former Lord President Salleh Abbas, who was removed from office in the 1998 judiciary crisis, and Chief Justice Arifin Zakaria's proposal to relieve the attorney-general from heading the judicial division of the magistrate’s and sessions courts.

"For the moment, the government may not agree with us on our position on 1MDB.

"But, with the government leadership changing, it may come back to us in 10 years and say, 'Yes, the position you have taken is the right position and this is the thing that should be done'," he said, optimistically.

The Bar has taken attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali to court for exonerating Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and for Apandi’s instructions to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to close its investigations.

The Bar is also standing firm on its principle that opposed the removal of Salleh Abbas and five other former judges, Ragunath said.

"There are people who dislike Tun Salleh Abbas. I do not think that this is the issue of an individual, but an attack on the institution.

"We did not give up and eventually he got back his pension (ex-gratia)," he said at a 'Attack on the Independence of Malaysian Bar' forum held in Shah Alam last night.

In 1988, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad (photo) convened a special tribunal to try Salleh on charges of misconduct and for questioning constitutional amendments that seriously eroded the powers of the judiciary. Salleh was subsequently sacked.

The then Supreme Court judges George Seah and Wan Suleiman Pawanteh - who had ruled that the tribunal was convened unconstitutionally - were also sacked after being found guilty of misconduct by another tribunal.

Three other judges - Azmi Kamaruddin, Eusoffe Abdoolcader and Wan Hamzah Mohd Salleh - were suspended.

Wan Suleiman and Seah received RM2 million each while the other three were paid RM500,000 each in compensation.

Ragunath also claimed that Bar Council's proposal to separate the judicial and legal services decades ago was picked up by the current chief justice last month.

'Bar took this position 30 years ago'

"This was the position Bar had taken 30 years ago. At that time, everybody attacked the Bar, asking if we were undermining individuals who have done a great job," he said.

The forum was organised by the Selangor Bar last night to brief the members on the impact of the proposed amendments to the Legal Profession Act, one of which is for the government to appoint two of its representatives to the Bar Council.

The Bar has viewed this proposal as a threat to its independence.

Ragunath fears that the Bar Council, the only professional self-regulatory body in the country, may ultimately end up like the bodies that govern accountants and doctors.

He also raised concern over the possibility of Bar's disciplinary board being controlled by government, just like the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC), a supreme body vested with authority to make all policy decisions, that comes under government control.

He noted that the MMC is headed by director-general of Health Ministry and it governs the disciplinary matters of the medical professionals.

"Similarly with accountants. We have have 50,000 accountants, but we don't see the accountants carrying out anything on their own (self-regulating).

"I mean, if you look at 1MDB issues, you have Deloitte and other accountancy firms as well, but we don't hear of any action been taken if they did not do their duty in a proper way," Ragunath said.

"The Bar is not critical of the government because we work with the government. But, we have issues with individuals within the government.

"You see, in 95 percent of the work we do, we work with various government bodies. Only in five percent (of our work) we disagree on.

"We have issues with individuals that we think did not carry out their duties and for that you want to punish us? How do you think this will fare in the long run, just to protect one or two individuals?" he asked.

Malaysian Bar president Steven Thiru (photo) stressed that the Bar has the public duty to voice up on public interest matters, as stipulated under Section 42 (1) of the Legal Profession Act.

The Bar's role cannot be limited to only the bread and butter issues of its members, Thiru stressed.

"We have 14 objectives under the section, which include giving views on legislation and objectives on legal aid, which are also societal rules and societal principles," he said.

"We play a mixed role. So, if people come and tell us that we should concentrate on bread and butter issues and matters that only concern our members and their practice, well, I'm sorry. If we do that, we breach our objectives.

"Our objectives do not allow us to be concentrating and looking at practice matters only. These require us to look at both practice matters as well as rule of law, law reform and legal aid issues.

"That's what our constitution says and the Legal Profession Act is our constitution," Thiru said.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Azalina Othman Said has said that the government wants the proposed Legal Profession Act amendments to address the bread and butter issues of the Bar members.

Thiru also reiterated that the planned appointment of two government representatives to the Bar Council would not improve the relationship between the Bar and the government.

"If you have two government representatives sitting inside, it will undermine all the good relationship we have with the government because we are being spied upon.

"We will not be willing to trust the government because we were are being spied upon," he added.-Mkini