It’s not ‘the twist’ but the twisting of facts that’s wrong, says Sabah lawyers’ group

Updated 5 years ago · Published on 19 Jan 2019 8:45PM · 4 Comments

A video clip of the top placed members of the judiciary dancing on stage, which has gone viral, has drawn criticism from various quarters, including the Umno Youth chief. – Screenshot, January 19, 2019.

THE Sabah Law Society (SLS) has refuted claims that the legal fraternity acted with impropriety at yesterday’s gala dinner in Kota Kinabalu to usher in a new legal year.

There was no need to raise a fuss over the chief justice and attorney-general dancing with lawyers as that was in the “celebratory tradition” of the annual event, SLS president Brenndon Soh said in a statement today.

“The gala is a closed door celebration for the legal fraternity, namely members of the judiciary, the attorney general’s chambers and members of the bar,” he said. 

“This joint event between the bench and bar has occurred since 2001 and it is the hallmark of a mature legal community. 

“It is therefore very disappointing that certain groups are attempting to politicise what is essentially a social and harmonious occasion reflective of our East Malaysian hospitality.” 

He said he believed the people are “mature enough to recognise that the individuals in the video are able to separate their professional life from the personal.” 

The only “twist” that should be denounced, he said, is that of the facts by those who have slammed Richard Malanjum and Tommy Thomas of inappropriate social interaction.

“It would be a sad day for our legal community if members feel constrained from dancing at an annual social occasion such as the OLY 2019 as a result of such unsubstantiated criticism.”

A video clip of the top placed members of the judiciary dancing on stage, which has gone viral, has drawn criticism from various quarters, including Umno Youth chief Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki.

Asyraf  has accused Malanjum and Thomas, who did “the twist” with other legal personalities such as  Ambiga Sreenevasan and Siti Kasim, of consorting with “pro-Harapan” politicians, which Asyraf said had raised questions of “conflict of interest”.

Sabah Chief Minister Mohd Shafie Apdal had been present at the earlier part of the gala evening.

Siti has also hit back at the detractors on Facebook

“We were at a legal function. Of course the top guns in the legal area will be there you morons,” Siti wrote in a post that Facebook has since removed after someone reported the lawyer for “hate speech. – January 19, 2019.

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Comments

  • Why bother to explain??. Nobody question Umno and its gang dancing away in public at its height of the coruption in 1MDB debacles. Umno has no standing in Malaysia political landscape to questions about the legal fratenity on impropriety espcially it is the gala event hosted by themselves and spending not a cents from public. Save your despicable breath Umno Youth. You lack the integrity to even utter any sound let alone teaching the legal institutions about decorum. The more noises Umno makes be it from anyone in the party it is look at with disdain by rakyat as it is obviousy hypocrisy and lack the depth of any truth to convince. Umno is way way out to oblivion unless it is unconventional in approach and goes into a radical change as United Malaysian National Organisation ( yet !! - that also rakyat will still put it at arms length to support ). Stop all the nonsensical chants of " Hidup Melayu , Hidup Agama " and the silly cries of religious connotations and rakyat may consider that it is a party to reckon with. Face the fact Umno members are now actually less than 3 KK and even with PAS membership togather will not garner of more than 6KK vs 32 KK population. So rationaly how far can Umno go ??? . The tarnished party is too heavy to carry.

    Posted 5 years ago by Lee Lee · Reply

  • Umno youth is now godly.

    Posted 5 years ago by Tanahair Ku · Reply

  • Umno are now green with PAS and also green with envy. So be careful when you twist and dance because they can't dance now.

    Posted 5 years ago by Will Be Humble · Reply