PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar yesterday night called Chief Justice Raus Sharif’s term extension and appointment “worse” than the sacking of the Lord President of the Supreme Court, Salleh Abas, in 1988 by then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

The sacking triggered the 1988 constitutional crisis and many Malaysians saw the removal of Salleh and two other Supreme Court judges as the end of judicial independence in Malaysia.

The Lembah Pantai MP and daughter of jailed de facto PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim said Prime Minister Najib Razak’s appointment of Raus and Court of Appeal president Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin was no different from Dr Mahathir’s sacking of Salleh.

“It’s an outrageous transgression on our judiciary,” she said.

“Obviously he (Najib) wants to emasculate the judiciary further. Najib Razak has not just caused an uproar wth his decision, he has also created a low point in the Malaysian judiciary,” Nurul said in reaction to the term extensions of Raus and Zulkefli, who are both past the mandatory retirement age of 66 years and six months.

Speaking to The Malaysian Insight at the PKR open house in Kuching, she said she was “extremely sad” because what Najib went “beyond winning the election or the survivability of any political party”.

“The appointments affect our very democratic institution. The judiciary is the bulwark against the excesses of the legislative. Where do we turn to after this?

“I don’t know what is going on in Najib’s mind.

“All I know is that this smacks of a desperate attempt by a kleptocratic regime trying to cling to power.

“The ramification of Najib’s decision will not just be felt in the legal fraternity but by all Malaysians, and Malaysian have to expect the worst in judicial outcomes after this.”

See Chee How, the elected representative of the urban Batu Lintang seat in Kuching, said the swearing-in of the chief justice was an important event that should have been conducted in a dignified manner.

“You don’t do it in the middle of the night, (as though) worried that if he waits for daybreak, someone else will be sworn in instead and steal the position from him.

“Yes, we have politicians doing that (swearing in) but this is the chief justice.

“He can’t be doing what the politicians are doing.

“That speaks a lot about Malaysia.

“I don’t think other countries swear in their chief justice in the middle of the night.”

See, a senior lawyer, said that while he was unable to categorically declare the term extension “constitutional, legal, right or wrong”, the fact that it was being challenged by so many people “on all fronts” showed that something was not right about it.

Pakatan Harapan leadership recently presented a memorandum to the King stating its opposition to the term extension, which the Bar Council deems unconstitutional and is resolved to challenge in court. – August 6, 2017.