PUTRAJAYA — Chief Justice Datuk Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh today recalled how he had displayed a car sticker in respect towards five judges who were caught up in Malaysia’s 1988 judicial crisis.
Speaking just nine days after his appointment as Malaysia’s number one judge, Wan Ahmad Farid spoke of the early days of his career when he was a lawyer in Terengganu.
“I am proud to have been associated with the Malaysian Bar in the early days of my legal practice.
“I was the secretary of the Terengganu Bar Committee at the height of the judicial crisis in 1988 and my car was one of the few in the whole state of Terengganu with a sticker captioned ‘Tabik Hormat Untuk Lima Orang Hakim’,” he said in a speech at a ceremony at the Palace of Justice here in honour of his appointment as chief justice.
He had noted that one of the Malaysian Bar’s purposes under the Legal Profession Act 1976’s Section 42(1)(a) is to uphold the cause of justice without regard to its own interests or its members’ interests, and uninfluenced by fear or favour.
The message on his car sticker roughly translates to ‘Salute for the five judges’.
He did not name these five judges, but was likely referring to the five Supreme Court judges who were suspended after they made a court order to temporarily stop a tribunal from giving its recommendation to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on then Lord President Tun Mohamed Salleh Abas.
Salleh, who was holding the position equivalent to the Chief Justice role, was later removed as the Lord President.
On April 17, 2008, then prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi recognised the contributions of all these “six outstanding judges” — including two posthumously — who were affected by the 1988 judicial crisis, and announced goodwill ex gratia payments to them or their families.
The 1988 judicial crisis was one of the worst crises that Malaysia’s judiciary had ever faced, and the judiciary together with the local legal community had over the past few decades worked hard to restore public confidence in the country’s judicial system.
Wan Ahmad Farid said the Malaysian judiciary has to recognise, appreciate and learn from events that had shaped it in the past, noting that only then would the judiciary be able to chart a meaningful future for itself.
He referred to the 1988 judicial crisis, and also alluded to incidents which led to the formation of the Royal Commission of Inquiry in 2007 on the V.K. Lingam tape scandal.
That 2007 scandal erupted after the release of a video of senior lawyer VK Lingam’s 2002 phone conversation with a senior judge, featuring the alleged brokering of the appointment and promotion of judges.
