The Attorney-General, Tan Sri Mohtar Abdullah, was, until recently, widely tipped to succeed Tun Eusoff Chin as chief justice. Not any more. A former High Court Judge, he was chosen five years ago over the president of the court of appeal, Tan Sri Lamin Yunos. He was under 55 and Tan Sri Lamin not, and the authorities did not want to upset the civil service applecart by appointing someone beyond retirement age. The then outgoing Attorney-General, Tan Sri Abu Talib Osman, had nominated another, but the former Lord President, Tun Hamid Omar, who remains, despite his indiscretions, a powerful figure behind the scenes on matter concerning the judiciary and the legal service, opted for Tan Sri Mohtar. And Tan Sri Mohtar it was. He quickly immersed himself in the perks of office, going off on holidays with such eminent counsel as Dato' V.K. Lingam -- the holiday company of the chief justice who returns the favour by not allowing him to lose a case -- and eminent business men as Tan Sri Vincent Tan. But such actions, which would raise many a legal eyebrow, is commonplace, or was until He Who Must Be Destroyed At All Cost's excoriating diatribe in court against the chief justice and the judiciary in general.

With the chief justice a liar who fraternises with particular lawyers and litigants, and circumvents the judicial ethics code with impunity, justice must take a back seat. The fish rots first in the head. So the judiciary, already buffetted by political constraints which ensures, at the same time, the rot elsewhere on the body. His six-month extension makes no sense, strengthens neither the office of chief justice nor the institution he heads. Tun Eusoff allowed the judiciary to be the hatchet man, as in Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim's travails; and the chief justice's own tardiness to deliver judgement in a case in which sinistral doubts abound over the conduct of the High Court Judge, the president of the court of appeal and the chief justice. That he has not delivered judgement 30 months, as now, after the hearing, raises even more doubts about the institution of justice in Malaysia. In Malaysia, justice delayed is not justice denied, but justice exposed. And the man who brought this about gets an extension, when he should have been shown the door.

As expected, the Court of Appeal affirmed the High Court concurrent four six-year jail sentences it meted out to the ousted deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim. As expected, the Court of Appeal president, Tan Sri Lamin Yunos, in not delivering the judgement, asking the lawyers instead to the collect the 59-page judgement from his office, dragged the case further into the political arena. As expected, He Must Be Destroyed At All Cost protested in strong terms at this justice not being seen to be done. As expected, the Court would not cite him for contempt for his outburst (that would have strengthened his martyrdom), but it did threaten one of his lawyers with it. As expected, the verdict underscored the government's nervousness. With respect, Tan Sri Lamin, though he need not have, should have read the judgement. He should have known that if he did not, Dato' Seri Anwar's reaction should have been as expected. Especially when he seriously considers boycotting the sodomy trial after the High Court Judge there, Judge Ariffin Jaka, would not allow the Prime Minister to appear as a defence witness. That is appealed, but the quagmire this places the government and the Prime Ministr in is so severe that it would come to haunt them.

The minister should address delays in the judiciary. One man still fights for justice denied him when a judge did not give written grounds for his judgement, making it impossible for him to appeal. This case is almost 21 years old. Another man, now in his late 70s, continues to hit his head against the judicial wall, wanting the grounds of his action, which he lost 27 years ago, which the judge did not write them and has now retired. This is such an embarassment as the case is continually postponed, hoping that the litigant would die. In the M.G.G. Pillai v Tan Sri Vincent Tan, the Federal court heard the appeal 25 months ago, and despite requests, the judgement could well not be released. All three in the cora retire this year. The lawyer in that case, Dato' V.K. Lingam, is alleged, in an affidavit, to have written the judgement in that case for the High Court Judge. Delaying writing judgements constitues judicial misconduct, but no judge has ever been penalised for it. The minister should address that -- and demand resignations or removal from the bench for persistent offenders. When the judges involved, as in the M.G.G. Pillai case, are the chief justice and two chief judges, it underlines the irrelevance of such rules enacted to ensure that justice is not delayed. If the judgement of the Court of Appeal is affirmed, as a result, it represents yet again the view that judgement goes to those lawyers who go on holidays with the chief justice.

When I married in 1967, it was he, as my guardian (my father had died four years earlier and even if he had not, in the Kerala of those days, old traditions die hard and could, possibly, have had a subsidiary role at my wedding) who found the girl for the arranged marriage that in a fortnight would complete 32 years. I could well not have learnt of the richness of Malayalam had he not been my uncle: taught Malayalam when living as a boarder with Mr R.C. Nair, then editor of the only Malayalam newspaper outside what is now Kerala, who insisted that we learn Malayalam. But skills like this die away if unpracticed. The other day, I asked Tan Sri Harun Hashim, who learnt Malayalam in Trivandrum, where his father, Mr Moodie Hashim, was a Sessions Judge (later became a High Court Judge in Malaysia), if he still remembered his Malayalam; he says lack of practice has all but made him forget it; but it was good in 1969, when he as Anti-Corruption Agency Director and I as a Malay Mail reporter would converse in Malayalam when I wanted an exclusive amidst the gaggle of reporters! When it became known I was Thakazhi's nephew, I found myself giving speeches at small gatherings, invariably in Malayalam, when I moved as a reporter around the country in the late 1960s and early 1970s; it was then that I brushed up my Malayalam and opened to me the cultural richness of that language.

Already, it has all but destroyed the reputation, what remained of it, of the former Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Rahim Noor, who admitted to a commision of inquiry that he administered the near lethal blows on the just arrested ousted deputy prime minister on the night of 20 September last year. The attorney-general, Tan Sri Mohtar Abdullah, is also on the skids; one High Court Judge is tipped to succeed him. Besides, one worthy in the Federal Court is also tipped to retire earlier than scheduled. So whatever happens in the Anwar imbroglio, the drama is only about to begin. Meanwhile, the political ramifications piles the pressure upon the embattled prime minister, who continues to be in contempt of court for his ex cathedra statements on Dato' Seri Anwar's guilt, as he did in the Bloomburg TV interview on Monday.

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