Sunday, September 30, 2007

Azmi Sharom unplugged

"Who cares what the judge said?". Associate Prof Azmi Sharom was at the historic Walk for Justice last Wednesday to see for himself what the lawyers were made of. In his column in the Star today, he tells the readers what he saw and tells off some people refusing to see the point. I hope his column stays.

Some passages from Azmi Sharom's Judiciary Must be Protected.

The government has to set up a Royal Commission with the necessary powers to thoroughly investigate the entire judiciary. There is a desperate need to clean house and to do so comprehensively. Sure, since the video came out, the government has set up a three-man panel to look into the matter.

But their ambit is merely to determine the legitimacy of the video recording. Let them do their work, by all means, but really that is only the tip of the iceberg.

We need a Royal Commission to determine the legitimacy of the entire judiciary, and we need it now.

Let’s just take a look at how low the legal system has sunk. The judge who was supposed to be at the other end of the videotaped phone conversation, in true Bart Simpson style, told the de facto Minister of Law that it wasn’t him. The Minister then told this to the press.

My question is: “So what”? Does that mean the next time someone is accused of murder or corruption, all he needs to say is “I didn’t do it”?

Who cares what the judge said. If the video is not a fake (and it looks mighty authentic to me, no Tian Chua Photoshop trickery here), the suspects must be cross-examined.

And to top it off, the Minister tried to deflect the situation by saying that an opposition political party released the videotape and therefore there had to be a political agenda.

I’m sorry YB, but I don’t care who came up and delivered the video. If it is true, it shows that we need major changes in our judiciary and no political blame shifting is going to alter that. [Read more....]


6 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:54 pm

    Dear Rocky

    Congraulation to lecturer Azmi Sharom, who at least has the courage to join the "walk for Justice". Unlike Karpal Singh, who love to be in the limelight, was not to be found.

    Actually one cannot blame Karpal Singh he is a very close friend of Tun Ahamd Fairuz, the Chief Justice in the centre of the "Lingam Video Clip". So he had to at least pretend that he did not know about this famous video clip!!

    What a special breed of politician - the DAP style of being selective in what to do in devoid of principle!

    Just like Karpal Singh's boss, Lim Kit Siang, who has never say a word in Parliament about Khairy, AirAsia, ECM Libra and any scandal in connection with Badawi. So Malaysian please take not of such politician - harpa pagar pagar makan padi.

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  2. Anonymous11:30 pm

    Dear Anonymous,

    Maybe you have overlooked the fact that Learned Counsel Karpal Singh is wheelchair bound these days - the result of a car accident sometime ago. As such it is more than reasonable that he was not to be seen at the Istana Keadilan aka Palace of Justice in Putrajaya - heaven forbid what would happen if the "water cannon & baton charge" happy FRU were to indulge in their raison d'etre.

    I cannot tell if the DAP is anyway linked with the powers that be ; but surely Lim Guan Eng (DAP Secretary General) and a few others were sighted at the Walk for Justice.

    Paramewara

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  3. Anonymous11:53 pm

    Rocky here is an alternate view of the column


    When Idealists become tyrants: Azmi Sharom’s column in The Star

    People say the darndest thing don’t they, Why just on Saturday this associate professor say the most unbelievable thing about the subject he knew very well about, the law.


    Like so many people tripping over themselves while rushing to comment about things Azmi Shahrom put the horse before the cart or, in his case, the gavel before the judge.

    I hate posting entire articles so please go here if you want to read the rest

    http://www.malaysiaaktif.com/default.asp?id=1&ACT=5&content=429&mnu=1

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  4. Anonymous12:05 am

    Couldn't have said it better than Azmi Sharom.

    The sickening part of the story in all this is that the powers-that-be have fire-walled themselves with closeted minds and with riot squads.

    They have become powers unto themselves. And unless you are part of the UMNO-package, or part of the moving furniture residing on Level 4, what you say is irrelevant or inconsequential.

    Nonetheless, we must still speak out loudly and clearly.

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  5. Anonymous12:34 am

    Dear Paramewara

    Karpal Singh may be wheel chair bound so he is immobile. I fhe was there I do not think that the FRU dare to use the water cannon. During the walk the FRU did not use any force. After all it was just a peaceful walk to the PM department to hand over a memorandum.

    Despite Karpal Singh has been wheel chair bound, he has been issuing press statements after press statements on other judicial matters accept matters involving Tun Ahmad Fairuz. WHY? Is he not a close friend of Tun Ahmad Fairuz?

    Surely such revelations in the video clip of a lawyer trying to fix up his promotion, promotion of other judges and the fixing of cases, are serious matters that warrant Karpal Singh, a senior lawyer and MP, to speak up against such scandals. We heard nothing from him. Most probably Karpal Singh was not aware of this video clip scandal!

    We have also not heard of Karpal Singh speaking up in and out of Parliament on matters/scandals involving Khairy, ECM Libra and Badawi. His silence on such matters must definitely due to him being wheel chair bound!

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  6. Anonymous4:33 pm

    Setting up a 3-men committee tyo ascertain the authencity of the tape is like in the event of a forest fire, asking 3 firemen to ascertain if the forest fire is really genuine burning wild. It is like asking for a "pail of water" to douse a 1000-acre forest fire. You see, this denial mode of the government shows it is bankrupt of wisdom in governance in protecting its own can of worms.A minister even remarked that lawyers should not be "made use" of by Opposition parties. This minister should asked himself instead, who are the ones screwing up this country? Is it the Opposition?

    You know some of these ministers are so stupid, it's outrageous and they keep reminding us of their stupidity without fail.

    madmonk

    ReplyDelete