Politics 101 Malaysia

by Soon Li Tsin, malaysiakini, 9 July.

More interveners are expected to participate in Herald’s legal challenge against the government ban on the Catholic weekly in using the word ‘Allah’ in its Bahasa Malaysia section.

Kuala Lumpur High Court Judge Lau Bee Lan today heard counsels representing seven Islamic and one Sikh religious council expressing their vested interest in the case.

The appellate and special powers division judge proceeded to fix Nov 21 to give all interested intervening parties in the judicial review adequate time to respond to both the applicants and respondents.

She also agreed with Sulaiman Abdullah, who was representing the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Council, that it would be more convenient for the court to hear the applications from all the state Islamic religious councils concurrently. ”Continued”

The furious exchanges of soiled panties in public between, in one corner Justice Ian Chin, and in the other Dr M and his affectionate fear peddler, Matthias Chang, make fascinating reading.

If this was a boxing match, it’s anybody’s guess who’s in front on points.

Chin dropped a bombshell and a sucker punch at the Old Man, alleging the latter ran a boot camp-style judiciary. The sucker punch was making the allegation with absolute immunity from behind the Bench.

Dr M, using his remote control toy for his broadside, said the boot camps were motivational courses. If they were, I wonder what Dr M does for motivation.

Like a pitbull, Dr M threw allegations back into Chin’s court, saying Chin was no choir boy, that Chin did not stand down in a case where the judge allegedly had vested interest. ”Continued”

by Sharon Tan, The Edge Daily.

Zaid Ibrahim & Co created history by being the first Asian legal firm to export services to the Middle East, after receiving approval from the Dubai Financial Services Authority to provide legal services to local, regional and international clients in and from Dubai International Finance Centre (DIFC).

The firm’s Dubai office would start operation in July, just about a year after it established a Middle East desk.

Its chairman Datuk Dr Nik Norzrul Thani said the law firm was positioning itself as the gateway for Malaysian and Southeast Asian clients making their way to the Middle Eastern market and as a springboard for Middle Eastern clients coming to Malaysia and the region. ”Continued”

For latest on Justice Chin, by Matthias Chang, Mahathir’s adviser on Chinese issues.

www.futurefastforward.com

by K Kabilan, malaysiakini, Mar 14

A constitutional expert today dismissed claims being made by the Selangor royal household that the deputy menteri besar should ideally be a Malay to assist the menteri besar in Islamic and cultural duties.

“The Sultan of Selangor does not need the menteri besar or the deputy menteri besar in matters pertaining to religion and Malay custom,” Prof Abdul Aziz Bari who lectures law at the International Islamic University Malaysia, told Malaysiakini.

He added that the sultan, being the head of Islamic matters and the Malay adat, is the person in charge of such matters in the state, and not the menteri besar or his deputy.

Abdul Aziz was referring to media statements made by the Selangor sultan’s private secretary Muhammad Munir Bani on the palace’s "preference" for a Malay deputy menteri besar.

Yesterday Muhammad Munir denied reports that the sultan wanted “a deputy from a particular race”. ”Continued”

AsiaSentinel, Jan 30.

A Royal Commission appointed to probe questions of political favoritism in the appointment of some top judges is threatening to spin out of control and envelop the entire Malaysian judiciary in charges of deceit, corruption and factionalism. Fingers are also being pointed at some of the would-be reformers in the Malaysian Bar Association.

The commission was appointed by the government last year after opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim made public an eight-minute segment of a 2002 videotape purporting to show a prominent lawyer discussing the appointment of top judges.

With Malaysia’s courts often accused of being under the thumb of the country’s political leaders, the commission’s work offers up a tantalizing look into how the judiciary may be compromised by intervention from on high. It remains to be seen if there is any real appetite to rattle the skeletons in the judicial closet, however. ”Continued”

AsiaSentinel, Dec 30.

Malaysia has found itself once again in middle of a messy religious and judicial controversy after the country’s highest court earlier this week threw out a bid by a 28-year-old Indian woman who took her estranged husband to court in an effort to prevent him from converting the couple’s 2-year-old son to Islam.

The woman, a Hindu housewife and secretary identified only as R Subashini, went to the courts in an effort to prevent her 32-year-old businessman spouse, T Saravanan, who assumed the name Muhammad Shafi Saravan Abdullah and converted to Islam in 2006, from taking matrimonial proceedings to Malaysia’s syariah, or religious court. ”Continued”

To: All NGOs, NGI, Political Parties and Organizations,

Re: Invitation to Parliamentary Roundtable on Special Complaints Commission Bill

This is to invite you to the Parliamentary Roundtable on Special Complaints Commission (SCC) Bill (or the fake IPCMC bill) at Committee Room One, Parliament, on Friday, 28th December, 2007 at 9.30 am.

The main purpose of the Roundtable is to discuss how to salvage the original proposal of the Royal Police Commission to have an independent external oversight mechanism to check police abuses, misconduct and corruption and not a fake Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC)Bill, which best describes the SCC Bill.

As former Royal Police Commissioner Tunku Abdul Aziz, told the Emergency Public Consultation on the Special Complaints Commission (SCC) Bill in Kuala Lumpur on Monday night, there is no police in the world which had been capable of or successful in policing itself, which was why the Royal Police Commission was unanimous in its key proposal for the establishment of IPCMC.

Although the Cabinet has agreed to defer the second reading of the SCC Bill to the next meeting of Parliament starting on March 17, 2008 (provided there is no earlier dissolution of Parliament for the holding of the 12th general election), there are two matters which are most regrettable, viz: ”Continued”

Tunku Abdul Aziz, a member of the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operation and Management of the Royal Malaysian Police (Royal Police Commission) which was setup in 2005, expressed his utter disappointment at the Special Complaints Commission (SCC) Bill that will be tabled for a second reading in Parliament today.

The SCC, which was tabled for first reading in the Dewan Rakyat last Thursday, has been panned by its critics as being a fraudulent version of the much-anticipated Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC).

The setting up of the IPCMC was a major proposal made by the Royal Police Commission.

(malaysiakini report, Dec 17.)