A SARAWAK lawyer and state rights advocate has mounted a fresh legal challenge to stop former chief justice Richard Malanjum to be admitted to the Sarawak roll of advocates so he could practise in the state.

Voon Lee Shan filed an originating summons in a Kuching High Court to set aside the September 15 order of the Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim to admit Malanjum.

Voon said the admission order was in contravention of the Sarawak Advocates Ordinance 1953.

After hearing preliminary arguments from Voon’s and Malanjum’s counsels, Judicial Commissioner Alexander Siew ruled he would first like to have more documents including the notes of the admission proceedings and submissions filed or orally presented at the September hearing before proceeding further to hear the arguments of today’s originating summons.

Siew said the court “is minded to hear arguments on the preliminary objections (in the September 15 hearing) and the new originating summons at the same time”.

The crux of Voon’s legal challenge is the Tuaran-born Malanjum’s “Sarawakian connection”.

Part of the rash of agreements contained in the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), it was agreed that only Sarawakians born in the state can practise in the state, a condition under Section 2(2) of the Sarawak Advocates Ordinance 1953.

The law was in place to bar Malaysians from the peninsula or Sabah from practising in the state.

The advocates ordinance, however, also states that non-Sarawakians who have lived in the state for five continuous years qualify for admission to the Bar.

Malanjum, when he was the chief judge of Sarawak and Sabah, held a permanent resident permit and had resided in the state for 25 years.

Voon had applied to be an intervener when Malanjum’s application for admission, together with that of another former chief judge of Sarawak and Sabah, David Wong Dak Wah – Abg Iskandar’s predecessor – was heard.

His application was rejected as he had no locus standi to object.

The law states that only the state attorney-general (SAG) and the Advocates Association (AAS) of Sarawak have the locus standi.

Since the SAG and AAS did not object to the application, and Voon’s intervener application rejected, it paved the way for Malanjum’s admission.

The court has yet to make its decision on Wong’s application.

The SAG had objected to his application, arguing that Wong had failed to meet all three requirements of the so-called Sarawak connection.

Malanjum retired as chief justice in April last year while Wong retired last February.

Voon said he is mounting the fresh challenge as it was “affecting my profession as an official of the court”.

“It’s a serious breach of the law and it’s my duty to uphold the law,” he later told reporters outside the court.

Voon had earlier charged if Malanjum and Wong’s applications were allowed and said it  would “open the floodgates for West Malaysian lawyers to practise in Sarawak”.

He said the September 15 decision had further eroded the state’s rights under the MA63 and will pave the way for non-Sarawakian officers in the federal civil service to use the legal precedent to seek rights reserved for Sarawakians under the MA63.

He also has filed an appeal with the Court of Appeal against the admission order.

No date has been set to hear the appeal. – November 20, 2020.