MGG Pillai Commentary View

<< Previous || Next >>

Istana Keadilan is why KeADILan is denied its name

THE NATIONAL FRONT (BN) GOVERNMENT RECENTLY denied the right of Parti Keadian Nasional (the National Justice Party), enlarged after its merger with Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM), to call itself KeADILan when it applied for registration under the law. A party which contested the 1999 General Election as KeADILan is now told it cannot. The Registrar of Societies is not bound to say why, and that is that. But a visit last night (10 October 2003) to Putrajaya showed it had to do with one man's megalomania and shared by UMNO and BN. The building which houses the appellate courts - the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court - is known incongruously as "The Palace of Justice" in English and not Istana Keadilan, as it should be. Official names of buildings must be vetted by the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustake (the Language and Literature Agency). An UMNO politician heads it. He approved it. So this stands out like a sore thumb. Every other ministry department along the Bouleward - with the Prime Minister's Office at one end and National Convention Centre at the other - and Putrajaya have Malay or Arabic names - the finance ministry, for instance, is Khazanah, from the Arabic, not Perbendaharan, the Malay word.

The palace of justice stems neither from Malay or the English Common Law tradition but from the Roman. It is still alive and well where Roman Law took root, and is found in the remotest corner. I once interviewed a magistrate in Mahe, one of the four bits of French territory in South India that is now the Indian state of Pondicherry. in its palais de justice. English Common Law requires justice to be available to those who need it most. Which is why England has lay magistrates known as justices of the peace. But these traditions do not travel well. In Malaysia, JPs are a source of money making and a privilege with a ranking lower than dato's and distributed to all and sundry. I have met several holders of the title who knows not what justice and peace means, but they know how lucrative it is - they can attest documents as commisioners of oaths and earn a comfortable living from that; for lawyers more so: as notaries public they more than run-of-the-mill JPs. The Malaysian palace of justice - I cannot see the Malay newspapers referring it as "palace of justice" in English in their references to it, especially in reporting of appellate cases, and would soon refer to it as Istana Keadilan, a direct translation is a pastiche to hope the courts' injustice is mistaken for justice, by the world outside.

The idea of a palace of justice is not new. The tower block at Bukit Aman, beside the police headquarters was built, was to have housed a Palace of Justice. But all involved in the administration of justice were horrified at the idea, and turned it down. A parliamentary draftsman, the late Mr Shiv Charan Singh, said in a comment which killed it: "Is there so much justice about that you need a palace to house it?" It became the administrative centre of the Royal Malaysian Police instead. Much water flowed under the bridge since. Justice is so raped and battered that a palace of justice is needed to reiterate to Malaysians and the world that justice is injustice in the finest Orwellian tradition. The more we build monuments for lost ideals and concepts, the more degraded they are. In Malaysia the Istana Keadilan is so Sultan Keadilan could dispense justice at the pleasure of the Emperor of Putrajaya. Only that he would be gone before the istana begins to function.

The only other countries where palaces of justice prevail as in Putrajaya are the communist countries, where opulent buildings, political vendettas and capricious justice were encapsulated in the halls of justice. It is often forgotten that the communist system took root after as a revolution to rid decaying authoritarian states, and the system which replaced it had some elements of the system it destroyed with creative rules and systems which reflected the philosophy of communism. They were accepted for it was fairer than what it replaced. Long years in power turned this into one of abuse, political harrassment and corruption. As opposition to the regimes rose, these centres of justice dispensed hinjustice.

In Putrajaya the Istana Keadilan is a monument for injustice. It is built after a sound judicial tradition had been deliberately destroyed. We mourn for what we have lost. The BN government celebrates it with an Istana Keadilan. And insists no one, not even a political party, should ever have justice as a rallying cry. That a political party even considers calling itself a Justice Party is a plea for the idea. That the BN government allowed a political party formed to protest against the deliberate capricious denial of rights to its eminence grise is proof it did not believe it had staying power, and would go the way of the PPP. It has not. It gained ground, attract multiracial support and weans UMNO members fearful at their party's lurch into Islamic extremism.

The fright in UMNO and BN at the recent KeADILan-PRM merger, with its multiracialism underpinning rock-hard, is real. KeADILan had to stopped by howsoever means. The BN government could not call the palace of justice as Istana Keadilan, for that would have been obvious. It says much of Malaysia's political hatred and confrontation that no one is prepared to explain it. If the palace had been called Istana Keadilan officially, it would have been the butt of political jokes even before it opened its doors. It is now a political disaster. The Keadilan minister, Dato' Seri Rais Yatim, has much to answer for to KeADILan - and the people.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamyx.com