Statement
by Lim Kit Siang - Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjong
in Petaling Jaya
on Wednesday 23rd October 1996

Is the Attorney-General’s Chambers proposing that the Legal Profession Act should be amended to make the Attorney-General or his nominee the head of the Bar Council?

The Attorney-General, Tan Sri Mohtar Abdullah, should explain whether he accepts the principle of accountability to Parliament for his official actions, including his speech to the Medico-Legal Society Annual Dinner in Kuala Lumpur on 19th July this year, where he announced proposals to amend the Legal Profession Act to restructure the Bar Council to include government lawyers and law lecturers.

In this speech, the Attorney-General also used very disparaging and derogatory language in his reference to the Bar Council, talking about “a few minor surgeries, implantations and transplantations” to “cure” the Bar Council of its “malignant illness”.

Mohtar should spell out his position on his concept and understanding of the principle of accountability to Parliament and its application to the institution and office-holder of Attorney-General as the Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Nazri Abdul Aziz had told Parliament yesterday that Mohtar’s speech at the Medico-Legal Society was a “personal” matter and has nothing to do with the office of Attorney-General.

Unless Mohtar holds that the speech he made to the Medico-Legal Society was made in his personal capacity and not as Attorney-General, Mohtar must submit to the principle of accountability to Parliament and explain to Parliament why he used such derogatory and scathing language against the Bar Council.

I had asked in Parliament yesterday whether among the “few minor surgeries, implantations and transplantations” was the proposal to make the Attorney-General or his nominee the head of the Bar Council. Nazri did not give a direct answer but said that there were merit in such an arrangement.

The Attorney-General should be more straightforward and forthcoming and state publicly whether one of the amendments to the Legal Profession Act which the Attorney-General’s Chambers is working on is to restructure the Bar Council whereby the Attorney-General or his nominee become the head of the Bar Council.

(23/10/96)