WHO decides Malaysian judges have broken their code of ethics? Is it a criminal offence? 

For sure, it is only the Judicial Ethics Committee that decides on judges, no one else. 

Let’s say that one more time: no one else. 

Yet by the looks of it, some have taken it upon themselves to pronounce their judgment and opinion on judges and ethics, particularly in the curious case of Justice Mohd Nazlan Ghazali.

In case you missed it, he is the judge who sent disgraced former prime minister Najib Razak to prison and whose judgment was affirmed by the vast majority of his seniors in the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court.

Yet, his stint as general counsel in Malaysia’s top lender, Malayan Banking Bhd, is being used to indicate bias and a breach of ethics, because Maybank has loaned money to SRC International, the funds of which found their way to Najib’s private accounts. 

It is strange that this has only now become an issue when everybody knew from day one of the trial that Nazlan had worked for Maybank. Everybody except, apparently, Najib’s defence lawyers. 

It is strange because there are about 20,000 lawyers in Malaysia and less than 10 banking groups.

How hard is it to verify a judge’s experience and employers from the private sector? 

Still, do we have to humour those who still fight tooth and nail to get Najib his freedom, despite losing so many times in court?

Is the court of public opinion now the arbiter of Najib’s guilt or Nazlan’s ethics?

Was Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Azalina Othman Said ignorant of the Judicial Ethics Committee when she replied to Najib’s lawyers about a probe by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission into Nazlan’s alleged conflict of interest? 

Hasn’t Malaysia’s highest court decided on this issue? 

What’s the use of rules or confirming separation of powers if the executive wades in without following procedures?

The executive – from ministers to enforcement agencies – need to know that the judiciary today has more trust and integrity than they do.

These shenanigans of looking into a judge’s ethics and conflict of interest only reinforces the distrust people have with the government and its agencies. 

This is something Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has to examine.

After all he spent nearly 25 years in prison and the political wilderness because of such shenanigans. – April 6, 2023.