DAP calls for Royal Commission of Inquiry to restore public confidence in  the integrity of the administration of justice in Malaysia


Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang  

(Petaling Jaya, Saturday): DAP calls for a Royal Commission of Inquiry to restore public confidence in the integrity of the administration of justice in Malaysia, which had been undergoing one crisis of confidence after another.

The latest episode stems from the statutory declaration by lawyer Manjeet Singh Dhillon dated Nov. 9, 1998 which annexed his letter dated Oct. 12, 1998  to the Attorney-General, Tan Sri Mohtar Abdullah, making very serious allegations against  the integrity of senior deputy public prosecutors Datuk Abdul Gani Patail and Azahar Mohamed, in connection with the  "creation" and "extortion" of evidence.

Although High Court Judge, Justice Datuk S. Augustine Paul  cancelled the warrant of arrest for Manjeet after the lawyer apologised to the High Court and the Attorney-General for the inconvenience caused  from an application filed by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, using his statutory declaration, what is most significant is that Manjeet did not retract the contents of the statutory declaration or apologise to Datuk Gani Patail and Azahar Mohamad for the serious allegations against them.

 Public interest in Manjeet’s statutory declaration is not in whether it had been used without his knowledge or authority, but in the serious allegations it contained which  if true, amounted to a serious miscarriage of justice or in Manjeet’s own words in his letter to the Attorney-General when he posed the question: "How far into your Chambers the corruption has spread I cannot say but that you will have to stop it goes without saying".

Two years ago, public confidence in the system of justice  was rocked by the 33-page pamphlet  of a High Court judge making  112 allegations of corruption, abuses of power and misconduct against 12 judges, which was hushed up with the High Court judge allowed to resign instead of an open trial.

The time has come for a Royal Commission of Inquiry to restore public confidence in the integrity of the system of justice in Malaysia so that Malaysians can feel proud that the administration of justice in the country is second to none in the world.

(5/12/98)


*Lim Kit Siang - Malaysian Parliamentary Opposition Leader, Democratic Action Party Secretary-General & Member of Parliament for Tanjong