Md Raus Sharif and Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin should gracefully resign as Chief Justice and Court of Appeal President respectively to bring constitutional crisis over the two top judicial posts to an end

Tan Sri Md Raus Sharif and Tan Sri Zulkefli Ahmad Makinuddin should gracefully resign as Chief Justice and Court of Appeal President respectively to bring the constituional crisis over the two top judicial posts to an end.

When Raus was controversailly re-appointed as Chief Justice, he said his reappointment as Chief Justice was “unprecedented” but constitutional, that there was always a first time for everything, and that when something happens for the first time, there is bound to be many differences in opinion.

What is incontrovertible however is that re-appointment of Raus and Zulkefli to the two top judicial posts in the land had met with criticism and opposition – with the weight of juristic, legal and informed public opinion arrayed against them at the time of the re-appointments involving a former Chief Justice, a former Federal Court judge, a former Attorney-General, a former de facto Law Minister and the Malaysian Bar.

The graceful resignation of Raus as Chief Justice and Zulkefli as Court of Appeal President will allow a good start to much-needed judicial and legal reforms in the country.