What is the 'International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination' (‘ICERD’)? Does it prejudice Malay Rights entrenched in Article 153 of our Constitution? What should Malaysia do? Ratify it, or denounce it? How have other Muslim countries dealt with it? Read on.
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Is the current method of selecting judges, transparent? Should it be? What can be done to improve it?
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Who said the Prime Minister is not a public officer? Two separate panels of the Court of Appeal did. One panel heard Mahathir’s appeal. It delivered its decision in April of this year. The second panel of the Court of Appeal heard Tony Pua’s appeal and delivered its decision last week. Both Mahathir and Tony Pua had sued the then Prime Minister Najib for the tort of public misfeasance. Both lost. When they ...
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[Edited by S. Kamatchy and Suria Juan Pillai] In an article dated 13.07.2018, the ex-Chief Justice, Tun Abdul Hamid says that from 9:30 p.m. on July 11 up to midnight July 31, 2018 there are now two Chief Justices. Is he right? The long and short of all of this is… When the King accepted the resignations of the outgoing CJ and the PCA on 8 June 2018, their offices ceased. The King did ...
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Can Senators be fired? The answer is Yes, and, No. The ‘No’ comes from those who say that the security of tenure of a Senator is unimpeachable. They point to Article 45 (3) of the Federal Constitution, which states that: - ‘… the term of office of a member of the Senate shall be three years and shall not be affected by a dissolution of Parliament.’ A Senator may be appointed twice, making ...
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The embattled Chief Justice of the Federal Court (‘CJ’), and the President of the Court of Appeal (‘PCA’) have handed in their resignations on 07 June 2018. The King accepted them the next day. They appear to have said something in their letters—rather uniformly. They had stipulated that they would ‘post-date’ their resignations to 31 July 2018. They said they had their reasons. If this is all true, it seems odd. Can ...
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In the last few weeks we have been hearing the phrase ‘the Rule of Law’. It is time to examine this and another related concept, the ‘Separation of Powers’. If we do, we will encourage our nation rulers to work better, work more effectively, and work to produce justice. Rule of Law The concept of Rule of Law is easy to understand. You needn't be a lawyer to know what it is: you can ...
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Is every vote of equal strength? Does every vote, cast at any part of the nation, possess the same effect? Let’s use the 2018 General Elections (GE-14) as an example. The Kapar parliamentary constituency [P109] represents one seat in parliament. The Putrajaya constituency [P125] also represents one seat. What is the difference? Kapar had, in GE-14, 124,983 voters. Putrajaya had 27,314 voters. So, comparing apple-to-apple, for a single parliamentary seat, Kapar had 4.6 times ...
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The provisions of the Malaysian Federal Constitution - which regulate the powers of the AG are in a mess. Urgent reform is imperative. The starting point in understanding this mess is Article 145 of the Federal Constitution. Under Article 145(1) the King ‘shall on the advise of the PM' appoint a person who is qualified to be a judge of the Federal Court to be the AG. It is the AG’s duty to advise the ...
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Legal History The electoral tsunami is over. It is now time to rebuild institutions of state, the foremost of which is the judiciary. Now that we speak of the judiciary, the first thought that springs to mind is the concept of Rule of Law. That originated centuries ago. The English Magna Carta (‘The Great Charter’), signed in 1215, was a turning point for the development of the Rule of Law. Two principles are ...
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