Former Malaysian Bar president Ambiga Sreenevasan warned that another judicial crisis might be brewing.
At a Bar Council forum, she said that the government taking nearly 10 months to fill the Chief Judge of Malaya (CJM) post was a warning sign.
“So, coming from that era, what I see now reminds me a little bit of what happened then. That’s why I’m terrified.
“There are signs of it, I’m telling you from my experience.
“And what are the signs? Ten months, no appointment of a chief judge,” she told the audience at Wisma Badan Peguam in Kuala Lumpur.
What was perplexing was that no explanation had been given for the delay, she added.
She said the government’s intentions would be seen next year when several progressive Federal Court judges retire, adding that she wondered if the judges would be given a six-month extension.
Last month, Federal Court judge Hasnah Mohammed Hashim was sworn in as the CJM after Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah retired in February.
The 1988 judicial crisis occurred when Dr Mahathir Mohamad was serving his first tenure as prime minister and he is widely blamed for the sacking of the judges after they declared Umno illegal.
However, he claimed that he had only acted on the instructions of the then Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Iskandar Ismail, whose son refuted the statement by saying that Mahathir had “used” his father to remove then-lord president Mohamed Salleh Abas.
Salleh’s removal is widely perceived as the beginning of the judiciary’s loss of independence.
During her speech, Ambiga asked if a person in power had an eye on undermining the judiciary, considering Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s previous remarks on the importance of an independent judiciary.
She remarked that she would not vote for any government that interferes with the independence of the judiciary.
“I think we need to make it clear to this government that certain red lines cannot be crossed and one of them is the judiciary,” she said.
“That it’s happening under the watchful eye of Pakatan Harapan is a huge shock to me,” she added.
She also expressed her disappointment in the Harapan-led government, especially regarding regressive legislation such as the Mufti Bill.
“Every week we seem to be having to keep an eye on what legislation they’re going to bring forward,” she said.
Besides that, lawyer and Muda co-founder Lim Wei Jiet expressed hopes that Anwar will stand by the judiciary’s independence.
“I hope he knows what is expected of him and I hope that, of all people, he knows how important judicial independence is and he exercises his discretion accordingly,” he said. – Malaysiakini