THE justice system in Malaysia needs to be seriously evaluated and drastically revamped to give the rakyat confidence, which is sorely lacking at the moment. It is also to purge the image that our justice system is corrupt and that many will not get their due justice.

Enough has been said about our police. They know where they stand and what they will need to do.  

As for the court system, which is what this article would like to highlight, there have been complaints by both plaintiffs and defendants, lawyers as well as judges, that there are corrupt judges who will give judgments favourable to whoever can give them enough incentive. The number is not that small, according to newspapers articles reviewed as well as conversations with lawyers and ex-judges. No matter whether there are many or a few, it will be bad for the country as long as they are in the system. As I have always written in my crime prevention papers, “a society is as good as the people in it”. You have lousy people, you will have a lousy society. Likewise, you have lousy judges, you will have a lousy judiciary.  

Cleaning up the judiciary will take a lot of effort by the relevant authorities, such as the law minister and chief justice. The rakyat should play their part, especially at this crucial period in our Malaysian history.  

I would like to propose the following method to clean up the judiciary, which will not take so much effort from the relevant authorities. Firstly, allow the Malaysian Bar to be involved in the process of cleaning up. It will task a committee to collect all reports on dubious judgments made by judges from their members, i.e. the lawyers. These lawyers will provide information of their cases as well as reasons why they believe that the judgments made for their cases are questionable. The committee at the Malaysian Bar, like the Institutional Reform Committee, will deliberate to see if there is any doubt to these judgments. The committee will act as the first stage of vetting of the cases reported.

Secondly, cases which are dubious will then be referred to the law minister or the chief justice, who will have his committee to look into the Malaysian Bar’s reports. Thirdly, should there be any judges who are suspected of being corrupt or abusing their power, they will then be referred to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission for further action.  

It should be noted that all the members of the committees must have impeccable integrity. This exercise is very much needed to bring back trust and integrity in the judiciary nationwide as well as internationally. It is a very important first step for the country to clean up corruption. The government is not alone in cleaning up the country. The rakyat is ever ready to give a helping hand. – November 19, 2018.

* Teh Yik Koon reads The Malaysian Insight.