Are there at least  26 conscientious and responsible Barisan Nasional MPs who would support a substantive motion on judicial integrity to be moved and debated?

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Media Conference Statement
by Lim Kit Siang 

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Article 127 of the Constitution reads:

"The conduct of a judge of the Supreme Court of a High Court shall not be discussed in either House of Parliament except on a substantive motion of which notice has been given by not less than one quarter of the total number of members of that House, and shall not be discussed in the Legislative Assembly of any State."

The substantive motion I have given notice reads:

"That this House, under Standing Order 36(8),

"EXPRESSES grave concern at the  most serious allegations about judicial impropriety alleged in court in August  in the Asian Wall Street Journal  (AWSJ) defamation case, viz:
 

• that  the 1994 judgment by Justice Datuk Mohtar Sidin in the Tan Sri Vincent Tan vs MGG Pillai defamation  was ‘written in part by the plaintiff's counsel, Dato V.K. Lingam, and initially typed by the said Dato V.K. Lingam's secretaries, viz. one Jayanthi and Sumanthi’; that the judgment was corrected by the said Dato V.K. Lingam and the final  draft dispatched’ to the judge ‘on floppy disk.’
• That Datuk Lingam  placed Chief Justice Tun Eusoff Chin in his debt by getting their  families to holiday together in New Zealand. The holiday involved flights together to luxury  resorts in Queenstown and Christchurch, where Dato V.K. Lingam and the chief justice ‘posed for pictures with their arms around each other and with each other's families.’

"NOTES that neither Tun Eusuff Chin nor Datuk Mohtar Sidin had responded or cleared their name although more than a month had passed since the allegations of judicial impropriety although they strike at the very core of public confidence in judicial independence and intetgrity;

"CALLS on Tun Eusuff Chin and Datuk Mohtar Sidin to appear before the full House of the Dewan Rakyat to answer the charges of judicial impropriety and to  defend their integrity."

This is the first time in the history of Malaysian Parliament in the past four decades that an attempt has been made to move a substantive motion on judicial integrity, and it is a sad reflection on Malaysian parliamentary democracy that this could not be done.

To get one quarter of the total number of MPs to support the substantive motion on judicial integrity, endorsement  from at least 48 MPs must be secured.  It is not possible to get one quarter of the total number of MPs from opposition rlanks, as the four opposition parties in Parliament at present have a total of 22 MPs, namely seven from DAP, eight from PAS, six from PBS and one from Parti Keadilan Nasional.  We are still short of 26 MPs to make up the 48 MPs necessary for a substantive motion on judicial integrity to be moved and debated in Parliament.

Are there at least 26  conscientious and responsible Barisan Nasional MPs who would support a substantive motion on judicial integrity to be moved and debated in Parliament?

I call on Barisan Nasional MPs who support my substantive motion on judicial integrity and are prepared to put down their name to the substantive motion  to contact me latest by Wednesday.

The substantive motion on judicial integrity which I had moved made no prejudgement as to whether Tun Eusuff Chin and Justice Datuk Mohtar Sidin were guilty of the judicial improprieties as alleged in the Asian Wall Street Journal defamation case, but want to express the concern of Parliament and the nation that these allegations had not been dealt with properly especially when the country is faced with the worst  crisis of confidence in the independence of the judiciary in history – and to ask both of them to clear themselves of the serious allegations of judicial improprieties.

If there are no 26 Barisan Nasional MPs who are prepared to put down their name in support of my substantive motion on judicial integrity, this is another reason why the overwhelming Barisan Nasional majority in Parliament is unhealthy and inimical to  the  vibrant growth of democracy and  good governance in order to uphold the principles of accountability, transparency and integrity whether of the judiciary or the government as a whole.


The Malaysian voters should rectify this unhealthy Barisan Nasional political hegemony in Parliament by ensuring that in the next general election, the Barisan Nasional is denied its unbroken two-thirds parliamentary majority so that substantive motions on judicial integrity could be moved in Parliament.

(18/10/99)