I CONGRATULATE Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat and her Federal Court counterparts in deciding on Najib Razak’s case “without fear or favour, without ill-will or motive, without any external or internal pressure and without regard to personalities… there can be no interference in the judiciary if we judges do not allow that to happen.”

The quote is taken from part of Tengku Maimun’s speech on the occasion of the appointment of new High Court judges on April 24. It is comforting to note that Tengku Maimun and her counterparts at the highest court in the country have practised what they have preached. 

This encouraging development, however, does not indicate that all is well within the judiciary. There is plenty of room for improvement, especially with regard to “integrity, competency, having a good moral personality, impartiality, assertiveness, ability to make timely judgments, hardworking and the ability to manage cases well” among judges as well as court officials.

Our judiciary has been in the wilderness since the removal of lord president Salleh Abas in 1988. Within this period, the deep state has taken root in the system. Any move to clean up and to bring back the deserved respect and dignity to the judiciary would require the removal of the deep state from the system. It is not an easy task. The fact that the highly confidential draft judgment of Najib’s case from the highest court in the country could leak out before the day of the judgment is of serious concern. The person who leaked the document was bold, confident and daring, and must have access to the office of the Federal Court. The person could be someone who is of some standing in the judiciary. The extent of depth and reach of the deep state is enormous and their prevalence could undermine the confidentiality and integrity of the system.

Tengku Maimun has said that, “When a need arises for the judiciary to be criticised, this should be done in a manner that is constructive and does not undermine its independence and public confidence in the judiciary. No one should sow the seeds of doubts among the public concerning the integrity of the judiciary or judges.” No one is sowing the seeds of doubts concerning the judiciary, except the people in the judiciary themselves. Tengku Maimun is right that, “It is important to emphasise that the judiciary is the last line of defence in a constitutional democracy and there must never be a suspicion that the judiciary is captured.” 

The leakage of Najib’s case draft judgment and its wide circulation is an indication that the deep state is able to operate freely and with impunity. As if this was not enough, a few days later another draft judgment on the case involving Rosmah Mansor made its rounds in social media. 

Relating to this, let us re-visit the 63-page affidavit of former Court of Appeal judge Hamid Sultan Abu Backer, in February 2019 alleging “judicial interference” in court cases. He alluded that, “The contents of my affidavit are prima facie to expose constitutional and judicial misconduct before the (last general) election and also after the election, which is continuing without abate as there is sufficient material to purportedly say top judges are continuing to mislead the public by conniving not to expose judicial crimes.” He claimed that certain members of the judiciary have been aiding private parties to defraud the government. He also alleged that judges could be called to the chambers of top judges and briefed on what to do. This is indeed a serious allegation and could not be expected to fade into oblivion without any positive action being taken to look into the issue. 

The confession by a former Kelantan magistrate, who was sentenced to three years’ jail in 2009 for accepting bribes, which brought to light the extent of corruption in the Malaysian judiciary, lent further credibility to Hamid’s allegation. Firdaus Ramlan alleged the corrupt system was already in place when he committed the offence and he had inherited the system, which was an “open secret”. He also revealed that, when he reported for duty on his first day as a young magistrate, middle persons or brokers had already approached him on behalf of the offenders. Firdaus identified the middle person as a senior police officer who had access to the magistrates in the courthouse. He was offered as much as RM10,000 per case. 

The Najib case has significantly restored the confidence of the public in our judicial system. But this is only a small first step, which the public would expect to be followed by other bigger strides.

The reform must be all encompassing. Only the establishment of a royal commission to comprehensively investigate all the complaints and grouses of the public can do the job, and restore the people’s absolute trust and respect of the judiciary. – August 31, 2022.

* Teh Yik Koon is an academic member and exco member of Gerak Akademik.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.