Basically, Justice Datuk H C Ian Chin, a high court judge in Sarawak, revealed yesterday that the former PM had threatened to remove judges that didn’t rule in government’s favour in a number of cases.

Also revealed are other attempts from the previous government to indoctrinate judges to hold the view that the (BN) government interest as being more important than all else when considering their judgement.

Another bomb to our judicial independence… another blow for TDM.

Facts, fictions, arguments, debates, excuses, or whatever… I have no way to verify what Tun M has written. It’s undeniable though, at least in public expression, that the 1988 crisis has marked the downfall of Malaysia’s judicial independence… and Tun M can never hide from that fact, ever.

Not sure if any common citizens would want to read through the 191 pages though; a few of the key highlights have been published in major newspapers anyway…

1. The video clip was authentic;

2. Lingam was having a phone conversation with former chief justice Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim;

3. Lingam was actively involved in the appointment of Ahmad Fairuz as President of the Court of Appeal, with the possible aim of his further appointment as Chief Justice;

4. Lingam had asked his close friends tycoon Tan Sri Vincent Tan and Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor to involve themselves actively in the appointment of judges, in particular the appointment of Ahmad Fairuz as the Chief Judge of Malaya and subsequently, President of the Court of Appeal;

5. The phone conversation indicated Lingam’s ‘uncanny knowledge’ of what could be considered as matters protected under the Official Secrets Act; and that,

6. Tengku Adnan appeared to be Lingam’s ‘source’ in the Prime Minister’s Department. [Thestar]

Meanwhile, Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail has ordered a thorough follow-up on all the findings made by the Royal Commission of Inquiry as well as the 14-minute recording… which they probably should have done at the first place.

From Bernama…

The judgement in a civil suit awarding RM10 million in damages to corporate figure Tan Sri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun was written by lawyer Datuk V. K. Lingam, the Royal Commission of Inquiry was told today.

Lingam’s former secretary, L. G. Jayanthi said it was subsequently incorporated as the official judgment of the then High Court judge, Datuk Mokhtar Sidin who heard the case.

She made this revelation in her statutory declaration which was produced at the inquiry, affirming that the contents of her statutory declaration were true.

Jayanthi, 45, said that between November and early December 1994, she and two other colleagues, Sumanti Jaaman and Jamilah Abdul Rahman who also worked as secretaries for Lingam, were ‘detained’ by their boss to type a confidential document.

She later discovered that the purpose of their ‘detention’ was to prepare and type a judgement in relation to a civil suit brought by Tan against seven defendants, namely Haji Hassan Hamzah, Saw Eng Lim, the late M.G.G Pillai, V. Thavanesan, Dr Barjoyai Bardai, Media Printext (M) Sdn Bhd and Ling Wah Press Sdn Bhd.

“Lingam was dictating from some handwritten notes, the draft judgment in that case, for Sumanti to type.

“I was seated somewhere in the vicinity of the office and every now and then, Lingam would order me to get various reported judgements from the library to be incorporated in the judgment,” said Jayanthi, adding that the lawyer completed dictating the full judgement about 3am, before the judgement was printed out for Lingam to read.

“Lingam then corrected in red ink on certain pages of the draft judgement such as pages 3,7,9,19,24,28,32,35,39,40,42. Sumanti then did the corrections accordingly, and made a copy of the said draft judgment in a floppy disk which was to be given to Justice Datuk Mokhtar Sidin by Lingam,” she said.

Jayanthi said she later discovered that the judgment as was written by Lingam, was fully incorporated as the official judgment of the said judge.

“I must stress here, that when Lingam was dictating the judgment that night, he was aided by his brother, Datuk V.Sivaparanjothi and Adam Bachek and W. Satchithanandan.

“I have kept Lingam’s handwritten corrections of the draft judgement in my possession until handing it over, together with the corresponding formal judgement, to lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah on the same date which I handed over the other exhibits,” she added.

Questioned by conducting officer Datuk Nordin Hassan on why she kept all documents and photographs of the holiday trip of Lingam and former chief justice Tun Eusoff Chin, Jayanthi said before she resigned from the firm, Satchithanandan advised her to keep all the document because according to Satchithanandan, Lingam was a dangerous and vengeful person.

Jayanthi also revealed that she had booked the flight tickets for both Lingam and former chief justice Eusoff Chin for their infamous New Zealand holiday in late 1994, which Lingam and Eusoff Chin have claimed that they met coincidentally.

The main story of the video is that former Chief Judge Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah (2000-2003) was alledged to have accepted bribe from VK Lingam and Vincent Tan.

However saucey the story is, the video provides no breakthrough to the probe besides opening another source of investigation.

Lingam might be an idiot, but he is one clever fox. If he keep on with his “I was just talking thrash at home” statement, nobody could really prove that he was really involved in anything.

Off course we can argue that he knew too much about the supposedly secretive documents, that he must be involved some how… but he can always argue that whatever he said was mere coincidence; and with the benefit of doubts, he walks away (which probably means everyone else is walking free too).

The royal panel need to do more than just listening to these fellas, and the ACA needs to continue digging evidences from other sources. The videos might raise some eyebrows of the public, but when it comes to real conviction.. the videos are close to worthless at the moment.

Don’t let Lingam Tape overshadowed other issues

Btw, don’t let this Lingam tape saga overshadowed other issues we are facing in Malaysia. The press (and perhaps the public as well) are giving too much focus on this case while there are other matters that are happening in Malaysia.

It has become apparent that Badawi is not involved in the saga; he probably won’t mind having this scandal diverting public attention from other issues that Malaysia is facing.

Gan Eng Gor, or Amir Gan Abdullah, was deemed to have converted to Islam last July, according to the state Islamic religious council and his eldest son, who is also a Muslim.

Gan’s other family members however denied this, stating that the deceased had suffered a severe stroke in 2006 and was immobilized, mentally unsound and could not speak.

My condolences to the family. It is sad enough to lost a family member, and this entire saga has made life more difficult for the family members.

I guess the first question that needs to be answered is how Gan was converted at the first place. Does a converter required to have proper conscience to convert to Islam?

As far as I know, a person could be converted to become a Muslim by reading a declaration, something about Allah being the only God and that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. I assumed in Malaysia, a religious council officer would need to be there when the declaration is made.

What else do we have beside a testimonial from a religious council officer that someone has converted to Islam? What would happen if that particular officer is a crook or has some agenda of his own… does that mean that the family would have no chance to challenge his one-sided words?

Sadly, this is not an issue of whether such cases are being referred to a Syariah Court or Civil Court… it is about a huge flaw in religious practices and the lack of governance to prevent any wrong doings among religious officers in our country.

It doesn’t matter if this particular case was judged at the Syariah Court or Civil Court; the Gan family would need to produce solid evidence that the deceased had no intention and/or capability to convert to Islam. If they could have produced that, I doubt the Syariah Court would be barbaric enough to ignore their plea.

On contrary, if they could not produce enough proof, a Civil Court would have produced the same ruling that the deceased was an Islam and to be buried as a Muslim, same as what the Syariah Court has produced.

Malaysia’s law makers need to work on finding a solution from preventing any wrong or unlawful conversion at the first place. It would be an uphill task, but it must be done; otherwise there will be more and more similar disputes, and these cases are not doing any good for our national unity at all.

Anti-Corruption Agency officials has told the royal commission on the VK Lingam tape that the room featured in the video clip was indeed the lawyer’s living room, as mentioned by businessman Loh Mui Fah during some earlier press interviews.

Loh has admitted that he was the person who talked to VK Lingam in the video, and that the video clip is authentic and was taken by his son in late December 2001. Loh however claimed that neither he nor his son knew how the video clip managed to get into public.

The most dramatic event of the day is perhaps the application being made for the disqualification of its chairperson and two other members.

M. Puravelan, who is representing three witnesses from Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), said that the three commissioners (chairman Tan Sri Haidar Mohamed Nor, Tan Sri Amar Steve Shim Lip Kiong and Puan Sri Zaitun Zawiyah Puteh) should disqualify themselves because they have connections with either the case or the witnesses.

Puravelan (obviously just telling what Anwar Ibrahim told him to) said Haidar is a trustee of Perdana Foundation of which two other witnesses, former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and prominent businessman Tan Sri Vincent Tan, are also trustees.

Personally I think the application is unnecessary. Mahathir had been Malaysia’s PM for more than 2 decades, most if not all of the prominent businessmen, government leaders and top judiciary officials for the past 30 years would have certain relationship with him (could be friends or enemies).

Besides, there are 17 people on the list (could be more in future) of inquiry; it’s close to impossible to find a team of qualified yet totally unrelated personnel to become the royal panel members. It would be wonderful if we managed to do so, but we have to be realistic and content with what we have at the moment.

Judge Nursinah Adzmi made the decision after allowing the application by Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail to withdraw the charges against them. [Bernama]

This have to be one of the biggest Malaysia jokes in 2007… it was a murder attempt charge, not chicken stealing. The AG should not have press the charges at the first place if he didn’t have enough evidence to prove the case… and if he does have solid evidence to prove it, they shouldn’t withdraw it at all.

I am not a law expert, but I know simple enough that our law should not be treated as a game… it’s controversial to press the charge, but it’s even worse to drop the case rather easily. The whole thing is just stupid.

Well, at least it’s good news for these 31 people… I hope that they are really innocent and not being let off for political reasons.

Five other members of the commission are former Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Tan Sri Amar Steve Shim Lip Kiong, former Court of Appeal Judge Datuk Mahadev Shankar, former Solicitor-General Puan Sri Zaitun Zawiyah Puteh, Academician-Historian Prof Emeritus Datuk Dr Khoo Kay Kim and Datuk Abdullah Sani Ab Hamid (as commission secretary).

I don’t have enough knowledge to justify if these people are suitable candidates to investigate the matter, and I am not sure if the royal panel could produce anything more meaningful than the earlier 3-men panel.

Regardless of the result, I doubt that the findings could change the current situation where our judiciary system is being controlled (or at least influenced) by our BN lead government.

Even if the tape is found genuine, the people that will be penalized would probably be Lingam and Fairuz while the rest of the VIPs that are involved would keep hidden behind the curtain and not being punished.

The tape might help raise some public awareness that our country administration is not as clean as the government is trying to portray… perhaps it is the only meaningful purpose that it could serve in the end.

Meanwhile, Anwar Ibrahim has released the full version of the video…

What concerned some people though… is the promotion of Umno-man Zaki Tun Azmi to take over Abdul Hamid as Court of Appeal president, which makes Zaki the #2 top judge in Malaysia and possibly the next Chief Justice.

Zaki Azmi is Umno’s former top legal adviser. He was controversially appointed as a Federal Court judge in Sept 2007 as the first ever person to be elevated directly to the highest court without having served as a judge in the lower courts.

Now here he is, the Court of Appeal president. The appointment is an indication that there were no other suitable candidates in terms of seniority and service in the judiciary, or perhaps a more logical explanation… that Umno led government is appointing their own man in top judiciary positions. It’s not a good sign either way.

Malaysian Bar has expressed their surprise with Zaki’s appointment, but trusted that “these concerns will be dispelled by a display of integrity and exemplary performance on the Bench by Zaki.” [Malaysianbar]

I can’t share the same optimism though. While the society is still having doubts over our judiciary system following the Lingam tape scandal, the Zaki Azmi’s amazing promotion is likely to further dent the reputation our judiciary independence.

No sympathy from me. I know some people will argue that the police were using tear gases, water cannons and some violent acts as well, but two wrongs don’t make one right… it doesn’t mean that it’s ok to throw bricks and iron pipes at the police when the cops were using force.

Yes, the charges might be biased and discriminative. It’s uncommon for Attorney General Abdul Gani Patail to personally handle the case when he is ignoring some other more pressing cases (Altantuya’s murder for example)… and besides that, I can’t stop wondering what has happened to the officer that fired 4 shots to the crowd at Batu Buruk fracas.

Still, it doesn’t mean that it is wrong to charge the Hindraf supporters. If there is anything to concern about… it’s to make sure that the prosecutors are not framing the accused but have solid proof to press the charges, and that the trial is handle fair and square with proper transparency.

HINDRAF
Hindu Rights Action Force
No. 135-3-A, Jalan Toman 7,
Kemayan Square,
70200 Seremban, Negeri Sembilan
Malaysia. Tel : 06-7672995/6
Fax: 06-7672997 Email waytha@hotmail.com

15.11.2007
The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown
Prime Minister of the United Kindom
10 Downing Street, Fax: +442079250918
London, URGENT
SW1A 2AA

Dear Sirs,

RE: 1. COMMONWEALTH ETHNIC INDIAN PEACE LOVING SUBJECTS IN MALAYSIA PERSECUTED BY GOVERNMENT BACKED ISLAMIC EXTREMIST VIOLENT ARMED TERRORIST WHO LAUNCHED A PRE DAWN VIOLENT ARMED ATTACK AND DESTROYED THE KG JAWA MARIAMAN HINDU TEMPLE AT 4.00 A.M THIS MORNING (15.11.2007).

2. APPEAL FOR U.K TO MOVE EMERGENCY U.N RESOLUTION CONDEMNING “ETHNIC CLEANSING” IN MALAYSIA.

3. APPEAL TO REFER MALAYSIA TO THE WORLD COURT AND INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT FOR CRIMES AGAINST IT’S OWN ETHNIC MINORITY INDIANS.

We refer to the above critical matters in Malaysia but which generally gets the least attention locally even by the Opposition parties, NGO’s, the Malaysian Human Rights Commission and the media for this community is generally regarded as politically insignificant, do not draw local or international funding and are deemed not pressworthy. To the contrary the Malaysian government has successfully projected itself to the world as a modern Islamic thinking country which is not true.

The ethnic minority Indians in Malaysia were brought in to Malaysia by the British some 200 over years ago. Since independence in 1957 the Malaysian Indians have been permanently colonialised by the Islamic fundamentalist and Malay chauvinists UMNO led Malaysian government.

Among the recent atrocities committed by this government are as follows:-

1.100 over Indians were slashed and killed by the UMNO controlled Malaysian government in the Kampung Medan mini genocide. Despite numerous appeals, the Malaysian Human Rights Commission has refused to hold a Public Inquiry. The UMNO controlled Malaysian courts struck off a victim’s public interest civil suit for a Public Inquiry to be held without even the said UMNO controlled government having to file in their defence. The UMNO controlled Attorney General and the Inspector General of Police refused to investigate and / or initiate an inquest into the death of at least six Indians in this tragedy despite.

2. Every week one person at average is killed in a shot to kill policy and in every 2 weeks one person is killed in police custody. About 60% of these victims are Indians though they form only 8% of the Malaysian population.

3. In every three weeks one Hindu temple is demolished in Malaysia.

The latest being the demolishment of the Mariaman temple in Padang Jawa, Shah Alam, Selangor early this morning (15.11.2007) and the next being the (Mutaiya) Hindu temple in Sungai Petani scheduled for the 29.11.2007.

A violent armed pre down attack at 4.00a.m this morning was launched by the UMNO controlled Malaysian government backed by about 600 police, riot police, Islamic extremist and armed terrorists which completely destroyed this temple.

In an attack two weeks ago, uniformed police, riot police and city Council officers hurled rocks and attacked unarmed Hindu devotees with knives, sticks and iron rods.

At least 20 Hindu devotees were seriously injured and 19 arrested including 4 of their United Kingdom trained lawyers in direct violation of Article 5 (Right to life) Article 8 (Equality) Article 11 (Freedom of Religion) Section 295 (defiling a place of worship), Section 296 (disturbing a religious assembly), 298A(causing racial disharmony) and Section 441(criminal trespass) of the Malaysian Penal Code.

These authorities are plagued by an above the law mindset and in fact liberally take the law into their own hands. These atrocities however does not happen to almost all Islamic places of worship. Please visit www.policewatchmalaysia.com for further and better particulars.

4. State sponsored direct discrimination against the Indians in Public University intakes, Indian (Tamil) Schools, skills training institutes, civil service and private sector job opportunities, business and license opportunities and in almost all other aspects of daily life.

Despite our hundreds of letters, appeals and pleas to the Malaysian King and Sultans, the Prime Minister, Attorney General, Inspector General of Police, Ministers, Chief Ministers and the latest being our letters to the Prime Minister dated 29.10.2007 and 30.10.2007 and to the Attorney General dated 1.11.2007 the Malaysian authorities are only proceeding with greater ferocity and with impunity with very little regard for the Federal Constitution and laws of Malaysia. So please help us.

CONCLUSION

We fear that this peace loving Indian community of Tamil origin having been pushed to the corner and the persecution getting worse by the day may be forced to into terrorism in a matter of time as what has happened to the Sri Lankan Tamils.

APPEAL

On our part we are committed to a peaceful and lawful struggle and pray and appeal that the Government of the United Kingdom:-

1. Moves an emergency United Nations resolution condemning these state sponsored atrocities and persecutions of Malaysian Indians in Malaysia.

2. Refers Malaysia to the World Court and the International Criminal Court for Crimes against it’s own ethnic minority Indians

Thank You,

Yours Faithfully

P.Uthayakumar
Legal Adviser