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The Chief Justice Visits A Friend For Deepavali

The Chief Justice, Tun Eusoff Chin, like hundreds of thousands of Malaysians, visited Hindu friends to celebrate Deepavali, to mark Lord Krishna's victory over the demon Naragasura, of good over evil, light over darkness. And where does His Lordship makes his most public appearance? Where does the sun rise in the morning? Of course, you dolt, to his holiday companion to New Zealand, the one-and-only brilliantly eminent lawyer, Dato' V.K. Lingam whose frightening reputation is such he has never lost a case, especially in the court of Tun Eusoff Chin. He arrived in his official car, spent three hours in this worthy's house, surrounded by lawyers and others in the legal fraternity. So, the man he met accidently on holiday and which decorum made it churlish to recognise, as Tun Eusoff, in the face of overwhelming evidence, insists, has become such a close friend since that he spends three hours in his house. Did he spend three hours too at each Indian judge in his court? At the Law Minister's house? At the Bar Council chairman's house? Unlikely. The irony is missed: the two men does not represent, to not put a fine point to it, the light one expects of the Malaysian judiciary.

But such judicial behaviour is the norm in the Malaysian judiciary these days. If Tun Eusoff behaves such, why should we blame other judges for actions once verboten. One judge, some years ago, informed his son's school that he should in future be addressed in view of his elevated circumstance. Recently, a credit card company's marketing department, sending out computer-generated names for a promotion, was shocked to find a reply from one esteemed judge. It was given a ticking off, and told bluntly how he should be addressed, and that he would ignore all such communication improperly addressed. (I, not a judge or titled, just throw such communication into the nearest waste-paper basket; but then I do not have a dignity to maintain and nurture!) He must have worked himself into a frenzy and one suspects if this had happened in open court, he would have commenced contempt proceedings immediately. Luckily, the marketing department contained no members of the Bar. We had had recently a judge who refused to recognise in court a lawyer who allegedly did not him in a supermarket. Another defamed a litigant in court in his presence, after first telling the reporters present it was off-the-record..

The Chief Justice has another seven weeks before he retires into judicial infamy. Feelers abound of a constitutional change to extend him sine die. Many lawyers believe this could well happen. It would not. The constitution clearly states an extension of six months past retirement age and no more. Few chief justices in the past availed of this. But he did. Tun Eusoff was a judicial hatchet man. But he presumed his strength on this role, which now is an embarassment to the Prime Minister. So when he took on the law minister, Dato' Rais Yatim, his usefulness ended. He should have seen the writing on the wall, and pulled back. But he could not. He is so deep in the judicial quagmire, stuck further in by his refusal to recuse in the Anwar Ibrahim appeal, after Dato' Seri Anwar mercilessly listed his acts of corruption and judicial misbehaviour. Dato' Seri Anwar no doubt would be pleased to learn that he was right all along. Tun Eusoff retires on the Prime Minister's birthday in December. Now, that is another, unintended, irony!

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my