Sit, Ridwan, Sit !

When I look at the Perak situation where Judicial Commissioner Ridwan Ibrahim has ruled that the State Assembly Speaker V.Sivakumar must use the State Legal Adviser Datuk Ahmad Kamal Shahid as his representative, I am saddened by how far the Malaysian judiciary has fallen from it's previous high standing. If ever there was an instance of conflict of interest, this ruling could be used as a case study.

It used to be that, in Malaysian courts, you were up against your opponent. Later on, if your opponent had the right connections, you were up against him and the judge. Now it seems that we're approaching a new level of judicial subservience - you'll be up against your opponent, the judge, and even your own lawyer ! How to win like that !

This brings to mind a photo that a classmate of mine posted on Facebook :

1st on the left, bottom row is the late Tan Sri Eusoffe Abdoolcader, one of the Supreme Court judges who was suspended in the 1988 judicial crisis. He had been invited to speak at the Penang Free School Speech Day that very same year by the headmaster, G. Krishna Iyer.

One of the reasons for the invitation was that PFS was the late Tan Sri Eusoffe Abdoolcader's alma mater, and since he was suspended, he was free to attend. And the other, I would like to believe, is that Krishna Iyer was showing his support for the suspended judge. And in doing so, showed what he thought of Mahatir's role in the judicial crisis.

Nowadays, it seems that all government schools are tacitly instructed not to invite Pakatan Rakyat MPs/assemblymen to their functions. I don't imagine that they'll be allowed to invite a Supreme Court judge suspended for ruling against UMNO !