THE Legal Profession Qualifying Board’s (LPQB) announcement on November 5, 2019, stipulates that candidates registered to sit the Certificate in Legal Practice (CLP) examination will be given four opportunities to pass, and if they fail to pass within four consecutive years, they will be barred from sitting the CLP again.

Accordingly, on November 15, 2021, the LPQB had announced that they had made a surprising decision by allowing candidates who registered in 2017 until 2020 who had exhausted all four attempts in sitting the CLP to have one last attempt to sit the examination. This new policy will apply to all future CLP candidates.

The purpose of CLP is to ensure that law graduates from foreign institutions as well as students taking a bachelor’s degree in jurisprudence or legal studies from local universities undergo this rigorous test to ensure the quality of lawyers is maintained.

The time limit policy issued by the LPQB is clearly against one’s human right to fulfil their desire to become a legal practitioner in this country, not to mention that this matter is also closely related to the status of local graduates. 

In 2021, we were shocked by former attorney-general Tommy Thomas as the chairman of the board adopting the Unified Examination Certificate qualification at Senior Middle 3 level for CLP purposes from January 2021. Now, the attorney-general is seen as seemingly ignoring the grievances of prospective legal practitioners. 

Good lawyers are not only formed by sitting exams, but encompass a holistic range of abilities such as advocacy, drafting, consulting and communication as well as problem-solving skills. Thus, the time limit policy imposed clearly does not contribute to the quality of the litigation.

This leads to one burden after another imposed on young people, especially on those who have not finished repaying their PTPTN loans, who also have to cope with the burden of the time limit policy that is clearly irrelevant. 

In my opinion, the law minister should pay attention to this issue in finding the appropriate solution.

* Mahathir Mohd Rais is Segambut Bersatu division chief.