INFO Johore Bar - May 2014

MAY 2014 BULLETIN OF THE JOHORE BAR

FOR MEMBERS ONLY Private Circulation

LEAD ARTICLE

THE MALAYSIAN BAR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 2014 - CITATION FOR DATO’ MAHADEV SHANKAR.

- By Tan Sri Dato’ VC George

I have it from our President, Christopher Leong, that it was in the year 2011 that the Bar Council instituted the conferment of an award from time to time, to be called The Malaysian Bar Lifetime Achievement Award, in recognition by the Malaysian Bar of past or present members, Dato’ Mahadev for outstanding contributions to the Shankar Malaysian Bar “inter alia in terms of leadership, service to the Bar and/or to the Nation, and/or in their practice at the Bar, which contributions had a significant, historical and lasting impact the legal profession and on the community at large”.

The first recipient of the inaugural Award was the late Raja Aziz Addruse; it was conferred on him posthumously in March 2012. For 2013, there was one recipient, Dato’ Dr Sir Peter Mooney.

For this year, 2014, the recipient is Dato’ Mahadev Shankar.

I have been greatly honoured by the Bar Council requesting me to prepare, on behalf of the Bar Council, the citation for the conferment of the Award upon Dato’ Mahadev Shankar.

Dato’ Mahadev Shankar was born in Kuala Lumpur in 1932. His father, the late Mr T V Mahadevan, had been from 1931 to 1958 (when he retired from Government service), Private Secretary to the Chief Justice of Malaya. Shankar’s primary schooling started in 1940 at the Pasar Road School. Two years later, the Japanese occupied Malaya. Under the Japanese military administration, the Japanese language, Nippon-go, became the mandatory language of education in our schools. Shankar went to one school, Tek Sin Gakko, and by the end of 1942, Shankar had acquired a working knowledge of basic Japanese.

(Continued at Page 4)

In This Issue …

1.

The Malaysian Bar Lifetime Achievement Award 2014 – Dato’ Mahadev Shankar - Tan Sri Dato’ VC George

2.

Johore Bar Chair Writes : - R. Jayabalan

3.

Meeting between Bar Council and the Judiciary on 6 January 2014 - Courts Liaison Committee, Bar Council

4.

PTG Johor Guidelines 2014 - Yang Pei Keng

11 - 14

5.

... Lest Ye Be Judged - By Allen Yu

15 - 23

6.

Three Cheers to Justice M. Shankar and Education Sub-Committee (Reprint) - 1984 Info Johore Bar by CKG Pillay

24 – 25

7.

A Potpourri On Poems - S. Balarajah

26 - 32

1 & 4-8 2&3 9 – 10

8. Elevation Ceremony & Dinner In

Honour of YA Tuan Samsudin Bin Hassan

33 - 44

9.

45 - 46

A British View on the Burka - The Times of London

10. Hyde Park Corner

- S. Balarajah

47 – 51

11. Johore Bar Annual Dinner 2014

52 – 58

12. Johore Bar Activities in Pictures

59 – 68

13. On Aging – Words of Wisdom

- H.E Lee Kuan Yew in EdgeDavao

69 - 73

14. Accidental Lawyer – Chan Sek Keong

- Lawlink

74 – 77

15. New Admissions to the Bar

78

16. Pic’s from the Past

79 – 82

17. Reference - Late Ng Lam Hua

83 – 89

18. 3 obits by S. Balarajah

a) The late YB Karpal Singh

b) The late Zainuddin Bin Embong

c) The late Idris Bin Idrus

90 – 94

19. Karpal Singh, True Humanitarian

- Lee Min Choon

95 - 97

20. Advertisements

BAR – MAY 2014 21. INFO JohoreJOHORE Bar Statistics

98– 99

1

100

JOHORE BAR COMMITTEE 2014/2015

Message from the Chairman…

Dear members of the Johore Bar,

Chairman R. Jayabalan

Committee Members Puan Shahareen Begum Binti Abdul Subhan Hardip Singh Mathews George Kuna Nadasen C. Sankaran Ms. Santhi a/p Balachandran Ms. Gun Huei Shin Fadhil Ihsan Bin Mohamad Hassan Ng Kai Choy Andrew Wong Fook Hin (Co-opted)

Representative to the Bar Council S. Gunasegaran

Hon. Secretary Puan Nik Raihan Binti Nik Ja’afar

INFO JOHORE BAR EDITORIAL Chairperson – Mathews George Deputy – Kuna Nadasen S. Balarajah Chandra Sekran Norman Fernandez Ms. Thilagavathy Rama Loo

Yang Pei Keng Pn. Shahareen Begum Goh Tiong Sin Cik Aimi Syarizad

INFO JOHORE BAR welcomes articles be they legal non legal or extra-legal. We do not want the INFO Johore Bar to be a dull government gazette-like publication.

Please therefore put pen to paper and let us have articles, stories, views and reviews for publication.

The editorial sub-committee’s decision on materials submitted is final and matters that infringe on sedition, defamation inflammation or provocation will most definitely be excluded and might find their way back. The views of the writers of articles etc are not reflective of the views of the Bar Committee neither does the Bar endorse or adopt their views.

Editorial Committee Info Johore Bar 2014/2015

JOHORE BAR COMMITTEE No. 5, Jalan Tun Abdul Razak Susur 1/1 80000 Johor Bahru, Johor Tel : 07-276 3888 Fax: 07-276 1188 Email: secretariat@johorebar.org.my Website: www.johorebar.org.my

R. Jayabalan

The new Johore Bar Committee took office after the AGM on 22.2.2014. On behalf of the new Committee I would like to express our sincere thanks to all members for giving us the opportunity to lead the Johore Bar for the incoming year.

This Committee consists of several seniors and many young practitioners. Members would not have missed noticing this fact.

We have members in the Committee who have practiced for more than 18 years and yet there are those who have been in practice for less than 4 years. I believe that this is good for the Bar as it reflects the cross section of practitioners from different levels at the Bar. Whilst the importance of senior members is an acknowledged fact, the importance of the younger members however need to be more emphasized and recognized. These young members are not only the majority at the Bar, they are the future of the Bar and if given the opportunity to contribute towards leadership of the Bar, they can bring in new ideas, fresh perspectives and in the process refresh the Bar. To the senior members of the Johore Bar, I appeal that you continue giving us your support, thoughts and guidance. Lend us a hand in leading the Bar by coming to our programs; sharing with us your views and thoughts; and don’t let us forget you!

To the young members: please step up and be counted. You are the future of the Bar. We want to see you and hear you more often not only at our functions but also in our discussions on issues relevant to the Bar. This Committee values your role at the Bar and you would realize this by seeing that many of your peers are also in the Committee and have been given the opportunity to lead the Bar. We wish to continue with the efforts to maintain a good relationship with the judiciary in Johore. However it must be a relationship that is based on mutual respect and understanding. This is necessary because as much as we support the judiciary’s objective to dispose off cases within the 6-9 months target and not to create backlog of cases that could harken back to the bad old days; there must also be an understanding that the necessary rules must still be followed and judicial discretion in the management of cases must be exercised according to law. It must be realized that some cases would require more time for preparation and there will inevitably be cases where lawyers had no choice but to ask for more time or to adjourn proceedings for reasons that are beyond anyone’s control. In such instances, we hope to impress that the courts should be guided by the prevailing rules, the requirement of what is just and fair to the parties and not by case disposal rate alone.

As we know by now, the judiciary’s approach in managing cases is based on the concept of ‘just, expeditious and economical disposal’ of cases. Whilst all three components are important, the first in the order is to do justice. It is also the most important.

(Continued at page 3)

2

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

It is the core of the judicial system and the very reason for its existence. After all one comes before the court not only for expeditious and economic disposal of his dispute but most importantly to seek justice.

The conveyancing practice in Johore is set to undergo major changes with the implementation of the new PTG guidelines on acquisition of property by foreigners beginning from 1.5.2014. This is coming at the back of months of uncertainty on what the changes would entail. Whilst the dust have more or less settled now with the announcement of the guidelines, we are however concerned that there appears to be still some ambiguities lingering over the guidelines. We foresee problems arising from these ambiguities at the implementation stage and this would have to be addressed so as the guidelines could be made clearer to lawyers and general public and to make it consistent with other prevailing laws. We intend to work with PTG to clarify the guidelines as soon as possible and for this we hope that the PTG will be more inclusive and receptive towards our suggestions.

One current issue that is of great concern to members is the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Scheme. At the AGM of the Malaysian Bar on 15.3.2014 members have rejected the Bar’s motion that had proposed a schedule for implementation of the mandatory CPD scheme. Following this there were some initial confusion amongst members on the way forward. However the Bar Council had addressed this vide Cwircular No 075/2014 dated 1.4.2014. The CPD scheme remains on voluntary basis as it is now until a mandatory scheme is put in place in the near future. In the meanwhile, members would still have to collect the 16 CPD points albeit voluntarily.

On the early morning of 17th April 2014 we woke up to shocking news that our fellow member YB Karpal Singh had passed away in a road accident. He was 74 years old. His passing was tragic and came unexpected. YB Karpal had contributed so much to the jurisprudence in Malaysia. He was a bold and stout defender of rule of law and freedom under the Constitution. He persistently stood up for what was right under the law regardless of the stature of his adversary and despite outcomes that to most of us would have been a foregone conclusion. He will remain as a legend at the Bar and to the general public for years to come. His final words in Parliament “Jangan main-main dengan Perlembagaan” shall be his final message that every citizen and authorities in this country should keep etched in mind forever. On behalf of the Johore Bar I extend our deepest condolences to his beloved family and may his soul rest in peace.

R. JAYABALAN Chairman

Johore Bar Committee 2014/2015

Standing from left : Seated from left :

Not in the picture :

C. Sankaran, Kuna Nadesan, Mathews George, Hardip Singh, Fadhil Ihsan, Ng Kai Choy Andrew Wong Fook Hin (Co-opted), S. Gunasegaran (Bar Rep), R. Jayabalan (Chairman), Shahareen Begum Binti Abdul Subhan, Santhi a/p Balachandran, Nik Raihan Binti Nik Ja’afar (Hon. Secretary) Gun Huei Shin

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

3

Dato’ Shankar

The Mahadevans lived in government quarters on Peel Road between Cheras and Pudu, in Kuala Lumpur. Shankar has recalled that the community of government servants in Peel Road, Cochrane Road and Shelly Road was a healthy mix of the main ethnic groups, with the children picking up each other’s dialect. By the time he was 12 or 13, Shankar was fluent in Cantonese and spoke Malay, Tamil and Malayalam as well as basic Japanese. However, English was the general medium of communication among the children. Shankar had a propensity for languages and eventually had a working knowledge of spoken Hindi and Punjabi as well.

By 1943, with the Japanese occupation of Malaya, the populace was subjected to extreme hard times. The country was cut off from the rest of the world and from the source of rice, the staple food of Asians. Acute food shortages in the country compelled Shankar at the tender age of 11 to go to work, the inducement being a monthly ration of rice, coconut oil and sugar, and two cartons of cigarettes that could be sold in the black market! He was not caught black marketeering and in fact was promoted to be assistant storekeeper and continued to be employed until the Japanese surrendered in August 1945.

Reflecting on the travails of the war years, Shankar, in an interview in 2011 by the Victoria Institution’s students’ Cosmic Magazine, summarised the lessons learnt: So what were the lessons learnt here. “Sweet are the uses of adversity, which like the venomous toad, has yet a precious jewel in his head”. Common hardship is a great unifying force provided it affects everybody equally. We were still a united people despite our different ethnic groups. Eternal vigilance was the other lesson learnt especially in matters of security of property entrusted to my care. The next lesson was an instinctive knowing of what was important. On three occasions I had seen a person being killed right before my eyes and on other occasions, seeing dead bodies at close range was a regular occurrence. But such was the ingrained sense of youthful immortality it never seems to faze me that I too could be next in line.

He went on to say in that interview: When the war ended I was only 13 years old. But I had the mindset of a young man of twenty. The lost childhood had given way to an accelerated maturity and a burning curiosity to find out what lay on the other side of the hill.

Under the British Military Administration of the country, after the Japanese were ousted, the schools reopened in late 1946 or early 1947 and Shankar, the 13-year-old adult, was back at Pasar Road School, and with a double promotion moved on to the Victoria Institution (“VI”). There he was particularly active in debating and in the activities of the drama society. He also made his mark as a scholar, as evidenced by his being made, in 1949, the Treacher Scholar and in 1951, the Rodger Scholar, prestigious VI awards for scholarship.

To the great delight of his father, Shankar chose, and went on to England, to read law. He was called to the English Bar from the Inner Temple in 1955 and to the Malaysian Bar in July 1956 when he was accepted as a Legal Assistant in Shearn Delamore and Company. He began to make his mark as an advocate and was at the early age of 29 made a partner of the firm, in 1961.

4

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

Shankar was actively involved in general litigation. He achieved great success at the Bar as an advocate, and by the early 1970s was striding the corridors of the superior courts of the land, a veritable colossus, shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Ramani, David Marshall, R R Chelliah, Ng Ek Teong, Eusoffe Abdoolcader, Lim Kean Chye and Peter Mooney. A measure of Shankar’s contribution to the law can be seen in the many judgments, in which he was counsel, which found their way into the law journals. His skill as a counsel and legal advisor straddled many fields of the law, including in commercial, civil and medical negligence issues and cases. He even found time to appear and excel in the criminal courts. The written judgment in many of the cases in which Shankar had appeared as counsel are reported in the law journals from as early as 1962.

A criminal case that he handled brilliantly, of which I know something because he used to try out some aspects of the cross-examination and submissions he was going to make, on me, was the trial of an Englishman, Dr Kingsley Lewis, who had been a senior official in the British Council in Kuala Lumpur, and who was charged with the murder of his Congolese wife, whose chopped-up body was found in a trunk in the accused’s home together with a meat chopper which apparently he had purchased. Between the evidence of an astute pathologist from Singapore, handpicked by Shankar, and the brilliant conduct of the case by Shankar, as counsel for the accused, the accused was found guilty, not of murder, but of the lesser charge of culpable homicide, reminiscent of the spectacular Brighton trunk murder in which Norman Birkett provided one of the great defences. That other great English lawyer Sir Patrick Hasting once remarked: If it had ever been my lot to decide to cut up a lady in small pieces and put her in an unwanted suitcase, I should without hesitation have placed my future in Norman Birkett’s hands. He would have satisfied the jury (a) that I was not there; (b) that I had not cut up the lady; and (c) that if I had she thoroughly deserved it anyway.

Sir Patrick Hasting

Busy as he was in his legal practice, somehow Shankar found the time and spared no effort to render public services over a wide field. I emphasise that it was indeed a wide field.

During the troubled times, the aftermath of May 13, 1969, he was very active in resettling the refugees of the riots, regardless of their origins. He served as a member of the prestigious National Emergency Fund and the National Goodwill Council. In the field of community service, he played a useful part in the education of the underprivileged members of the community in his capacity as a Trustee of the Gandhi Memorial Fund. He was the founder Chairman of the Koperasi Nesa. He was President of the Astronomical Society of Malaysia. He was Vice-President of Zoo Negara for many years.

He had been a member of the Whitley Council Staff Panel, of the Industrial Arbitration Tribunal, a member of the Bar Council and editor of INSAF. He was in great demand as a speaker at legal and other conferences. He was one of the earliest members of SUHAKAM. He was the founder president of the Malaysian Medico-Legal Society.

He is a Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary International and had been nominated by the Human Rights Commission as its Advisory Jurist to the Asia Pacific Forum. In 1985, he was made a Freeman of the City of London.

Since 1974 and up to the time of his elevation to the Bench in 1983, he had been a director on the Board of our national airlines — Malaysian Airlines System Bhd. He made valuable contributions towards the development of the airline and took keen interest in the welfare of its staff.

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

5

A Royal Commission is a major ad hoc formal public inquiry into a defined issue in some monarchies, including in Malaysia, created by the Head of the State — in Malaysia by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong — on the advice of the Government. Royal Commissions are called to look into matters of great importance, some of which could be controversial.

Mahadev Shankar holds a record of sorts, having been appointed to and served on no less than three Royal Commissions — the first being as early as 1971 — the very important Royal Commission on Law Reform of the Laws of Marriage and Divorce. In 1999, he was on the Royal Commission to enquire into the injuries including the notorious black eye, alleged to have been suffered by Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim, and in 2007, on the Royal Commission Inquiry into the startling and revealing Lingam video clip.

In 1983, Dato’ Shankar was elevated to the Bench of the High Court in Malaya and thereby sacrificed a very lucrative legal career at the Bar. He served as a Judge with distinction in Johore, Shah Alam and in Kuala Lumpur. In 1994, he was promoted and appointed to the new Court of Appeal. He retired from the Bench in 1997, on attaining the retirement age. A large number of his written judgments grace the pages of the law journals. I can say without fear of contradiction that Dato’ Mahadev Shankar, the Judge, epitomises what a great Judge should be.

Recognition of his contribution to the law and his work as a Judge came from many quarters, including

by His Royal Highness the Sultan of Selangor, who awarded him the prestigious DPMS, by virtue of which he has to be addressed as “Dato’”. But the greater feather in his cap is not having been given the recognition he so much deserved, by the Chief Justices and the Government of that time in their bypassing him when it came to promotion to the apex Court, an indication of recognition of the independent spirit of the man since it could not have been a lack of merit!

After his retirement from the Bench, Dato’ Shankar was appointed as legal consultant with Zaid Ibrahim & Co. He found himself being actively involved as an arbitrator, both in domestic and international arbitrations. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the Malaysian Institute of Arbitrators and is a registered panel member of the Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre for Arbitration and of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre.

Meanwhile academia was given to tapping from his vast knowledge and experience: he has been a visiting Professor to the University of Malaya and of Monash University, Melbourne, and an Associate of the College of Law of Sydney.

Shankar’s interests went well beyond law. He has always been a voracious and serious reader of all forms of writing, and being endowed with both a photographic and an elephantine memory, was and is able to spout out at a drop of a hat, apt quotations from where you will, including from the Holy Bible, the Holy Qur’an and from the Holy Hindu scriptures, the Vedas; from Shakespeare to D H Lawrence and even from Frank Harris’s Life and Loves.

6

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

I pause to note that Shankar attributes his elephantine memory to the fact that from a very early age, his Brahmin parents, devoted Hindus, insisted on his learning, by heart, extensive passages from the Vedas.

It was just a few weeks ago that Shankar sent me a copy of an email he had sent in response to a friend’s website on different forms of love defined by the ancient Greek philosophers. Shankar’s response, was to refer to and to quote, inter alia from Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot, Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, Thomas Hardy’s Return of the Native (or he wondered whether it was from Tess), and before ending his piece by “plumbing the bowels of Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White”, and then quoting from Eliot with a caveat that, now he is eighty he may not be word perfect!

All that in a response by return of email, by a man who suffers from a serious deterioration of the gift of eyesight!

Shankar had been an enthusiastic ornithologist, including birdwatching. I have seen him in action at the annual birdwatching competition in Fraser’s Hill, armed with camera and binoculars and leechresistant boots. At his insistence, I gave it a try. My reaction: “Fraser’s Hill” is a misnomer — it’s a bloody mountain. No, thank you! I reserve my birdwatching to the featherless kind!”

Apart from reciting from the Vedas, often in verse, Shankar never had any education in music. He has always regretted that. But he eventually became a student of aspects of music, Western and Carnatic.

He actually gave a lecture at the Lincoln Centre, the American version of the British Council, on Jalan Ampang, on the history of music!

I recollect his pestering me to hear him hold forth on the Gregorian Chant, a form of Medieval plain song, with video recordings of hours of somewhat boring verses of the Gregorian Chant!

When I once stayed overnight at the Judge’s House in Johor Bahru, I was awakened in the very early hours by the haunting sound of a flute coming from the roof just outside my window. Shankar was the flautist!

I respectfully suggest that Mahadev Shankar is without any doubt one of the very small number of us Malaysians who can be said to be of the literati.

A matter of great pride and joy to Shankar, is the fact that his three children have done well: the elder son, a chemical engineer working in a senior position between China and Malaysia; and the other, a solicitor in London; and his daughter, a great gift to the community, using her Montessori training to focus on little children with special needs.

Finally, Shankar has been a passionate participant of that which I myself am somewhat familiar — food, drink and witty conversation. Shankar is a bon vivant, a veritable gourmand and connoisseur of good wines. With his walking stick, hearing aid and magnifying glasses, he turns up at many a food-and-wine gathering, often hosting it and contributing to the evening with his large store of anecdotes, with his knowledge of good food and quality wines, with his hearty wit!

Shankar has had a long and meaningful life experiencing a lot of good and some bad. When I see him at those gatherings of friends, turning up year after year, I am reminded of the old Negro spiritual, Old Man River. The world changes, Shankar had his share of toting barges and lifting bales, but Old Man River just keeps rolling, rolling along and may Mahadev Shankar himself, roll on for many more years.

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

7

Having been close to Shankar for some 60 years and been with him in some of his bad times and in many of his good times, I think it relevant to end by quoting from Lord Alfred Tennyson’s Ulysses: I cannot rest from travel: I will drink Life to the lees: All times I have enjoy’d Greatly, have suffer’d greatly, both with those That loved me, and along, on shore, and when Thro’ scudding drifts the rainy Hyades Vext the dim sea: I am become a name; For always roaming with a hungry heart.

Much have I seen and known; cities of men And manners, climates, councils, governments Myself not least, but honour’d of them all; And drink delight of battle with my peers

Tan Sri Dato’ VC George

Mr President, Honoured Judges, Members of the Bar, ladies and gentlemen, ecce homo — Behold the man, Mahadev Shankar!

Citation penned by Tan Sri Dato’ VC George, retired Judge of the Court of Appeal & former President of the Malaysian Bar. Oration by Dato’ V.Letchumi Kandan on the 15th of March 2014 at the Malaysian Bar Annual Dinner KL Dato’ VL Kandan

8

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

Circular No 077/2014 Dated 2 Apr 2014 To Members of the Malaysian Bar

Meeting between Bar Council and the Judiciary on 6 Jan 2014 Bar Council members met with YAA Tun Arifin b Zakaria, Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Malaysia (“CJ”), and other members of the Judiciary on 6 Jan 2014 to discuss issues relating to court matters and the administration of justice.

The following issues were discussed: (1) Fixing of Hearing Dates Some Judges appear to rush through cases in a mechanical fashion, and bring forward hearing dates without consulting counsel. The CJ took note of Bar Council’s concern and stated that guidance had already been provided in Arahan Amalan Hakim Besar Malaya Bil 1 Tahun 2011 (“Penjadualan Semula Tarikh Bicara”) and Arahan Amalan Hakim Besar Malaya Bil 2 Tahun 2011 (“Arahan Berkaitan Prosiding Mahkamah”).

If a presiding Judge does not comply with the two abovementioned Arahan Amalan, Members are urged to immediately alert the relevant Registrar or the Managing Judge.

(2) Costs in the Court of Appeal Bar Council provided feedback on the Judiciary’s draft proposal regarding costs in the Court of Appeal, and suggested that similar guidelines be drawn up for appeals that originate in the Sessions Court, and for interlocutory matters. The CJ agreed, and assigned Court of Appeal Judge, YA Dato’ Mah Weng Kwai to prepare a draft recommendation.

(3) Adverse Impact of Increase in Filing Fees and Imposition of High Costs Bar Council highlighted its concern that the increase in filing fees may deprive poor litigants of their right to access to justice. Bar Council informed the CJ that it will submit a memorandum recommending the reintroduction of a pauper provision into the Rules of Court 2012 so that all impecunious litigants would have their filing fees waived. The CJ agreed to consider the proposal.

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

9

Bar Council also noted that the imposition of high costs may deter public interest litigation. The CJ requested that Bar Council submit a paper on protective costs orders for the Judiciary’s consideration.

(4) Amendment to Section 96 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964 (“CJA”) Bar Council expressed concern about cases where, despite there being clear injustice, there are insufficient grounds to obtain leave to appeal. Bar Council’s view is that leave to appeal to the Federal Court should be allowed in such circumstances, and a proposal to amend section 96 of the CJA has been submitted to the Judiciary for its consideration. The CJ said that the Federal Court is already inundated with leave applications, and adoption of the Bar Council’s proposal will result in too many matters going up on appeal.

He added that he had asked Judges to grant leave to appeal when they see instances of injustice. According to him, Judges are already adopting such an approach, hence the proposed amendment is unnecessary.

(5) Written Judgments by Court of Appeal Judges Bar Council expressed its view that Court of Appeal Judges ought to write judgments irrespective of whether or not there is an appeal. This practice will enhance accountability, transparency and the prestige of the Malaysian justice system, and is good for the development of law in the country. The CJ concurred that at least a brief reasoning should be prepared, while lengthy written judgments are not required.

(6) Prohibition against Retired Judges Appearing in Court as Counsel Bar Council opined that retired Judges should be prohibited from appearing in court as counsel, and recommended that a statutory bar, as exists in Singapore, should be considered. To this, the CJ said that any such prohibition should only apply to Court of Appeal and Federal Court Judges, and should not be extended to High Court Judges, as the latter’s decisions are not binding.

(7) Feedback from State Bar Chairmen Bar Council members raised issues that were of particular concern in their respective states. The CJ took note, and said that in future, such issues should be raised immediately with the relevant Managing Judge for a speedy resolution. Matters that remained unresolved should be referred to Azimah bt Omar, Chief Registrar of the Federal Court of Malaysia.

A list of the Managing Judges, including their contact details, is attached for your reference.

Members of the Bar are urged to provide their feedback, as Bar Council will continue to hold meetings with the Judiciary.

For any enquiries, comments and feedback, please contact Vilashini Vijayan by telephone at 03-2050 2095, or by email at vila@malaysianbar.org.my.

Thank you.

Desmond Ho Chee Cheong Chairperson Court Liaison Committee

10

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

PTG Johor Guidelines 2014 Re Acquisition of Property by Foreign Interests

By Yang Pei Keng 10-4-2014 Introduction

Yang Pei Keng

This article gives a summary of the PTG Johor Guidelines 2014 described as “Dasar Baru Perolehan Hartanah oleh Kepentingan Asing di Negeri Johor”. The new Guidelines will come into force on 1 May 2014.

The new 2014 Guidelines have made some major amendments to the previous guidelines. This article highlights the changes made by the new 2014 PTG Guidelines.

Industrial land - The new PTG Johor Guidelines seem to have overlooked the parliamentary legislation that no approval is required in law for acquisition of industrial land. [See National Land Code, s 433B(1)]. A certain restriction has been erroneously imposed by the State authorities. This is certainly ultra vires the Act of Parliament [NLC]. It is believed that the Johore Bar Committee has drawn the attention of the PTG to such irregularity. An official clarification from the Johore Bar Committee or PTG is necessary for the benefit of the members of the legal profession.

The expression “Foreign interests” remains the same, referring to non-citizens and foreign companies. [See NLC, s.433A and Companies Act, s.4].

The State authorities have created a new EPU [Economic Planning Unit] applicable to the State of Johor, which was unheard of. The name given to such new creature is “Unit Perancang Ekonmi Johor” [UPENJ].

There are some unusual stipulations in the new Guidelines that certain applications for acquisitions have to be dealt with on a case by case basis. Is such a stipulation meant for the benefit of the applicant? Is this likely to give rise to abuse of power since the relevant authorities have been endowed with unfettered discretion in the relevant matters?

Major Changes in the 2014 PTG Johor Guidelines The major changes effected by the new 2014 PTG Guidelines, among other things, are as follows: 1. The minimum price of any real property that can be acquired by foreigners is RM1 million [an increase of 100% from RM500,000 under the previous 2010 Guidelines].

2. The assessment of the value of the property is based on the valuation by the Valuation Office (JPPH), not the price as stated in the sale and purchase agreement.

3. The application free for any approval by the State Authorities has been increased from RM500 to RM1000, an increase of 100%.

4. The Application for appeal fee is RM2000 per title. This seems to be a new item. It was not found in the previous guidelines.

5. Approval fee for any acquisition by foreigners: 2% of the purchase price, but there is a minimum fee of RM20,000 per title.

6. Fee for extension of approval: RM1000 per title [The approval is valid for one year only].

7. Foreigners may acquire by sub-sale any property already owned by foreign interests.

8. Purchase by way of sub-sale from a Malaysian - is to be dealt with on a case by case basis.

9. Purchase of any individual bumi lot by way of sub-sale - is also to be dealt with on a case by case basis.

10. For any non-citizen executor/administrator - application fee for acquisition is RM1000 per title.

But no approval fee for acquisition is imposed.

11. The new Guidelines only apply to any SPA dated on or after 1 May 2014. They do not apply to any SPA dated and stamped earlier than that, i.e. before 1 May 2014.

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

11

The following guidelines remain unchanged: 1. EPU is only required for certain acquisitions involving RM20 million and above.

2. No EPU is required for acquisition of real property valued at RM1 million and above [but below RM20 million].

3. Conditions are imposed relating to equity and paid-up capital. 30% bumi shareholding is a must.

4. Any love and affection case [i.e. any transfer between next-of -kin] – application fee and approval fee are payable.

5. Types of real property not allowed to be acquired by foreigners remain the same.

6. Conditions for MMSH [Malaysia My Second Home] Scheme remain the same.

THE MAIN CONTENTS OF THE PTG JOHOR GUIDELINES 2014 [Note: For ease of reference, the numbering of the guidelines in the original 2014 Guidelines remains intact.

For example, item 5 below corresponds with item 5 in the New 2014 PTG Johor Guidelines.]

5. 2014 Johor PTG Guidelines for acquisition of property by foreign interests These Guidelines commence on 1 May 2014.

Cases that require EPU’s approval Acquisitions that require approval from the EPU and the Prime Minister’s Office are: a. Direct acquisition of any real property valued at RM 20 million and above [which may dilute the ownership of bumi interests or any government agency]; b. Indirect acquisition by non-bumi interests through purchase of shares in any bumi company [or government agency].

It is to be noted that (1) the acquisition must result in the change of control of the company [or government agency]; and (2) the company/agency must have more than 50% of the total assets in the form of real property; and (3) The value of the real property must be more than RM20 million.

Cases that do not require EPU’s approval No EPU’s approval is needed for the acquisition of (a) any commercial unit valued at RM 1 million and above; and (b) any agricultural land [acquired by way of lease] valued at RM 1 million and above, or of at least 15 acres [whichever is higher in value], for the following purposes: i. commercial-agricultural activities involving modern or high technology; ii. agro-tourism project; and iii. agricultural activities or agro-based industry for manufacturing products for export.

The acquisition of any industrial land valued at RM 1 million and above requires State approval. With respect, this stipulation is legally untenable, because under the National Land Code, foreigners can freely acquire any industrial land irrespective of its value. No approval is required: s 433B (1). The State Guidelines cannot be above an Act of Parliament.]

A foreigner may acquire any new residential house [or any residential house acquired by way of sub-sale] valued at RM1 million and above.

Any transaction in consideration of “love and affection” [gifts] between next of kin needs no EPU’s approval.

Any acquisition that requires EPU approval [see para. 5.1.1 (a) and 5.1.1(b)] is subject to the following conditions relating to equity and paid-up capital : (a) Bumi equity - the company must have at least 30% bumi shareholding; (b) Paid-up capital - any local company owned by local interests must have at least RM100,000 paid-up capital, and any local company owned by foreign interests must have at least RM250,000 paid-up capital. [Note: These guidelines are the same as those found in the 2010 PTG Guidelines.]

12

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

c. Time frame for complying with conditions stipulated: Before the property can be transferred, any direct acquisition must comply with the conditions stipulated. For any indirect acquisition (i.e. purchase of shares in a company), the conditions must be complied with within 1 year of the issue of the written approval.

5.2

Minimum price and quota

The minimum price of any property to be acquired is RM 1 million. For quota of property that may be acquired, see Annexure A. The quota is based on the remaining units after deducting bumi lots.

5.3

Application Fee and Approval Fee

The Application fee is RM 1000 per title [an increase of 100% from RM500]. The application for appeal fee – RM2000 per title. [This is something new. It may operate as a deterrent against any appeal.]

The Approval fee payable for each title is 2% of the purchase price, if the acquisition is by way of SPA, but the minimum fee payable is RM20,000 per title. If the acquisition is by way of lease, the approval fee is also 2% of the price stated in the agreement duly stamped, and the minimum fee payable is RM20,000 per title.

[Note: There is a hefty increase in the approval fees (or consent fees). Previously, the approval fee was only RM10,000 for each title. This steep increase in the approval fee is certainly a deterrent against foreign acquisitions.]

The approval fee must be paid within 30 days of the date of letter of approval.

Any application for extension of approval is RM1000 per title. The extension must be applied for before expiry of one-month of approval. And the extension is valid for one year only.

For any acquisition of property of not more than RM 10 million in value, the PTG and Timbalan PTG have the power to approve.

If its value is above RM10 million, [or vacant land for future development - including development already approved by the State Authorities], only Menteri Besar Johor has the power to approve.

5.4

Application for leasing agricultural land

The Applicant must have the working paper/proposal for the project, for consideration by both the EPU Johor and the Johor Agricultural Department. Application for approval must be accompanied by comments from EPENJ and Johor Agro-cultural Department. The maximum period of lease allowed : 30 years 5.5

Types of property foreigners may acquire by way of sub-sale

Types of property that may be acquired by way of sub-sale: see Annexure B, including any property already owned by foreign interests. Acquisition of property from a Malaysian is to be considered on a case by case basis. The value of property is based on the valuation done by the Valuation Office (JPPH), not on the purchase price as stated in the SPA. 5.6

Acquisition of bumi lots

Foreigners may acquire any released bumi lot. Acquisition of any individual bumi lot by sub-sale is to be considered on a case by case basis.

5.7

Love and affection cases between next-of-kin

Foreigners may acquire any property for love and affection from their next-of-kin. This applies to any type of property and of any value.

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

13

Application fee and approval fee are payable.

Close family members [next-of-kin] include: husband and wife, children [adopted children confirmed by National Registration Department included], brothers and sisters, parents, and grandparents.

6. Types of property foreigners NOT allowed to acquire: 6.1 Low-cost houses; and medium cost houses, terrace houses [single storey and 1/2 storey] shop-lots, shops, office-lots [single-storey or double-storey] , any property within the Bumi quota in any development project [But foreigners may acquire released bumi units], any property under a court order for sale, or sale by public auction [NLC s.256-260], Malay reservation land, workshops or stalls, agricultural land converted to homestead, and property under National Heritage Act 2005.

7. Procedure for submitting any application A foreigner may apply personally or through solicitors. He must use prescribed Application Forms – [Borang KA 1/2005 to 6/2005] with supporting documents shown in check list Annexure C. For any developer’s first time application – see check list Annexure D. Presentation of any Transfer Form must be made within 12 months of the approval date, or within 12 months of the registration of the strata title. Any local and foreign financial institution may allow any charge on the property, but the financial institution is not allowed to bid at any auction pursuant to the charge. The approval is not transferable.

Non-citizen executor/administrator - Any non-citizen appointed as an executor or administrator may transfer the asset of the estate to any beneficiary. He must submit the application for permission for the acquisition with payment of RM1000 for every title. But no payment for approval will be imposed. [7.7] 8. Malaysia My Second Home [MMSH] Scheme Foreigners can only buy from developers only. Conditions: The Buyer must obtain prior approval from the Immigration Department. He must have a total fixed deposit of at least RM150,000. Income: RM7000 per person, but RM10,000 for a couple. [per month or per year? Presumably per month, but not specified.] Age: 50 and above. The architect must certify that the construction of the building is at least 50% completed; or he may produce the CFO. 9. New Guidelines do not apply to any SPA dated and stamped BEFORE 1 May 2014.

These New 2014 Guidelines do not apply to any SPA duly signed and stamped before 1 May 2014. But the application must be submitted to PTG office on or before 29 May 2014. In other words, a grace period of 29 days is given in the month of May 2014 to submit the application.

10. Revocation of previous Circulars The following are revoked with effect from 1 May 2014: Surat Edaran PTG Johor dated 15-12-2004; PTG Johor circular No. 1/2009; and PTG Johor circular No. 1/2010.

11. For further information please contact: Tel: 07-2666 865; 07- 2666 802 Fax: 07- 2661 440. See also www.ptg.johor.gov.my [Circular No. 2/2014; PTG: D 15/92 (WA) Jilid 4(20) Issued by PTG Johor [Haji Jama bin Johan] 10 Feb 2014

14

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

“…Lest Ye Be Judged”

By Allen Yu

Asked any lawyer here, who is from any of the Inns of Court, England who their favourite judge is, and you will most likely get this answer. Lord Denning, the Master of the Rolls of the Court of Appeal.

He was not only intelligent but he also wrote beautiful judgments in simple English. Many remember him as a very down to earth person. My lecturer once told his students that the judge commended nicely of my lecturer’s imitation of him at a dinner at the Inns of Court. Any other judge may be offended of people making fun of them.

Lord Denning

I met this great judge twice; once in an autograph book signing session and another time in the library of Lincoln’s Inn. I was reading a book then, when he stood beside me and asked me to hand my book to him when I have finish with it. I have yet to see any Malaysian judge being so humble with a law student, though there are some I remember well.

There’s His Lordship V.C.George. I appeared before him only just once at the High Court at Kuala Lumpur. Yet he left me with much admiration. There were many applications to be heard in his chambers that morning. The lawyers were waiting in the court room. He came out and took charge. He directed that all those seeking adjournments could come to his chambers first. Next, were those seeking to record settlements. This was course in those days when the Registrars were not delegated this duty. Thirdly, those with short submissions of 5 minutes. Then, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes. Those with submissions of 1 hour and more were told to come in the afternoon.

My matter was just before noon. However because the judge had a lot to ask, the matter went into the lunch break. At the end of the case I apologized for taking more time. He replied “Not at all. It was MY fault”. I believed he was the judge drawn in one of LAT’s cartoon.

There was also the late Tuan Kohar Kamarin, a Sessions Court judge. I appeared before him many times in Batu Pahat. But what impressed me was when I had a case in the High Court at Johor Bahru, where he was later posted there also as a Sessions Court judge. He helped me in looking for a case in the judge’s library. I was directed by the High Court judge to find a case from his library. Tuan Kohar met me and decided to help me looked for the case.

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

15

There also a funny story of Tuan Kohar when he was first posted to Batu Pahat. He came driving his van. However at the entrance, he was stopped by the guard and told to park his van outside the court. The guard was not reprimanded later.

This was not the same ending about a traffic policemen who he was. The police man replied, “Saya tahu apa itu Majistret. Dan apa itu Hakim.

Tetapi apa itu Presiden?” (translation: “I know what a Magistrate is. And what is a Judge. But a President. What is that?”) and proceeded to give him the summons and left. The President later complained to the OCPD Tuan Kohar Kamarin ( i.e. head police officer of the district) and the OCPD issued a notice much like a wanted poster of the President and his car number and gave a APB (“All Points Bulletin”) to all his traffic policemen so that they do not summon the President in future.

This is now urban legend.

I had a strange experience once with this President. I was walking along the courts corridor.

He was walking in the opposite side. As we met, he suddenly stopped and glared at the floor.

I wondered why he was doing that but as I passed by him, I said, “Good Morning, Tuan!”

He grunted a “Hmm” and continued his walk. He was WAITING for the “Good Morning” wish from me.

Another Sessions Court Judge expected a courtesy call from the local lawyers on the first day of the judge new posting. Those who did not, suffered later.

We had a visiting lawyer once from New Zealand. He came to visit a friend who was practicing in Batu Pahat. The Magistrate granted permission for him to sit with the lawyers in the open court. After the court adjourned, we treated him at the court’s warong and asked his opinion of our court. The first thing he asked was the age of the Magistrate. The Magistrate was in his first year of duty and was probably 26 or 27 years old. Next, he said the Magistrate was soft spoken. He could not hear him even though he sat with us.

There are many soft spoken Magistrates and Judges. On many occasions I did not catch a word they said as they read out their decision or written grounds of judgment. There were also many occasions I got the next mention or hearing date wrong. Even with microphones today, it is still difficult to hear some of these decisions. But then perhaps the problem is with me!!!

Yet when lawyers speak softly, as was the case of one government lawyer, His Lordship Richard Talalla, the judge chided him, “Kalau cakap seperti tikus, sila datang ke depan” (Translation: “If you are going to speak like a mouse, please come to the front.”)

This judge chided many lawyers almost every morning. All it took was one lawyer saying the wrong thing and his mood would be bad thereafter. But I noticed that he gets tired after 11 o’clock, and so I would asked the court staff to place my file at the bottom. This was before we have schedules placed on the notice board.

16

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

There was no such thing as a “mention” in his court. You “appeared” for so and so, and that being the case, you better know your file. Outstation lawyers were often told to consult the local lawyers before they appear before him.

He was quick witted, as in one occasion a lawyer from the capital asked that the case continue the next day which was a Friday (in those days, government departments in Johor also closes on Friday and Saturday). The judge remarked, “Well you can come over to my house.”

When he retired and represented the Australian Government in a ceremony commemorating the fallen Australian soldiers at Parit Sulong during the Second World War, some of the lawyers in Batu Pahat invited him for lunch. After a few glasses of wine, my tongue gain courage and I told him the lawyers used to say that he ate lawyers for breakfast. To which he replied, “Oh Allen, I wasn’t that bad”. Indeed he wasn’t bad. He has character and a firm believer of the law and justice. It was funny when you see other lawyers getting his tongue lashing. But when it was your turn, it didn’t seem funny, at that moment. He could also speak a little Chinese.

Tuan Richard Talalla

His Lordship once kept all the parties to a trial in the bar room in the afternoon, so that he could hear another case first. The parties ended up talking and a settlement was reached.

The judge was pleased with himself and said that perhaps he should lock up parties and their lawyers more often in the bar room.

He was very concerned where the life of a prisoner was at stake, and where children were concerned. He used to give a lecture to divorce petitioners before he hears their case. There was one occasion where three joint petitions for a divorce were before him. In the first case the lawyer told the judge that the wife had agreed that custody of the child goes to the husband. The judge was doubtful and said that it was very unusual that a mother did not want custody of the child and directed the court interpreter to confirm with the wife. It was confirmed. In the second case, the prayers were the same- that the custody of the child goes to the husband. Again the court interpreter was directed to ask the wife and confirmed.

Again it was confirmed. I acted for the 3rd matter and the prayers were the same. This time the judge kept quiet and did not seek a confirmation. I suppose 3 out of 3 makes such a case no longer unusual.

And I had probably the only adoption case heard in a High Court.1 He said that it SHOULD BE heard by a High Court judge.

He gave young lawyers an equal chance when they meet with senior lawyers in court.

Indeed many senior lawyers would have their own unfortunate stories to tell. And where criminal matters were concerned he gave a lot of leeway to the accused and was strict with the prosecution.

Both the High Court and the Sessions Court have jurisdiction to hear adoption matters. However it is normally done in the Sessions Court.

1

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

17

I heard this story about this judge. There was a senior lawyer who was a little hard at hearing. He was long winded in his arguments, prompting the judge to ask him to get “to the meat of the matter”. He did not and the judge again repeated that he get to the meat of the matter. After the third time, the judge asked the lawyer whether he was a vegetarian.

He taught me what a “Scott’s Schedule” was and chided me for saying that the Sessions Court Judge was “presumptuous” in an appeal matter. I apologized and use, “it was wrong for the judge to presume..” to which the judge quickly praised me. “Presumptuous” was rather rude, he said.

Kompleks Mahkamah Muar

The judge told me of one occasion when he was in a lift with his wife in a hotel in Hong Kong. Some local Hong Kongers entered the lift. One remarked to another in Cantonese, “that woman is beautiful, but I am scare to look at her husband’s face.” They did not realize our judge understood Cantonese.

Indeed his wife was not only a beautiful and charming woman, but she also has some interesting stories to tell. I met her together with other lawyers, when the judge gave a dinner to meet the lawyers. He told us that High Court judges were given an entertainment fund.

(This got some of us thinking- how come the other judges never gave us a makan?)

Anyway, one of her interesting stories that she told us was that on her first few days in Muar, she was stopped by the police during a road block. The police officer not knowing who she was, spoke to her rather arrogantly and told her to open her car booth. She did not like his manners, and told him to open it himself and started to walk back to her house. The policeman sensing she was a “somebody”, ran after her and asked who she was. She told him that who she was, was no excuse for him to be rude and continued walking back. By now all the policemen left their position and followed her, begging her to tell them who she was. She did not and continued walking. By now the neighbours were also following her and the policemen. The judge said the wife led a procession to the house. When the policemen saw the judge, they apologized.

And I heard that when the court’s cleaners said that it was impossible to scrub clean the public toilets, guess what this lady did?......... She came one day and show the cleaners how to do it. She rolled up her sleeves and did the scrubbing herself. I appreciated the courts toilet thereafter. What a lady!

A Sessions Court judge I know could equaled that with his gardening in the court’s compound after office hours. And I heard of a magistrate coming to court during his first year, in a bus.

I heard also the story (also urban legend now) that when His Lordship Eusof Chin (who could pass off as a Chinese) first came to Muar High Court, he came dressed in batik and unannounced. He was wandering around the court’s corridor without any guide, when the court’s office clerk asked, “Towkay, you nak apa?” (Translation: “(Chinese) Boss, what do you want?”).

18

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

He must have been a lonely judge at that time. Because when there was a boxing match on the TV in the afternoon which coincided with his hearing in chambers, he would stop the hearing and allowed the lawyers to watch the boxing fight with him. We enjoyed and appreciated the close relationship with the judge then.

On one occasion I was the last to leave his chambers. I stayed and he told me about his early childhood days in Kelantan. One the things I remembered was that he learned “kung tao” from the Chinese kids.

Indeed the lot of the judge is supposed to be a lonely one. In a small town like Muar, protocol requires that he can be seen only in the company of others of equal rank like the District Officer and the OCPD.

Johor Bahru High Court

In the 80’s I was told that the local magistrate would not entertained any police prosecutors coming to visit him in his house. If the matter was an official matter, they are to see him in the office. If the matter was unofficial, then he cannot see them.

However another magistrate was too sociable. He played golf with businessmen and at times he had to pretend not to know them when he fined them in court for some offences.

On one occasion I was with this magistrate and another lawyer. We were at a birthday dinner party at the house of one of my clients. When dinner was over, we chit-chatted outside the house. We noticed that there was still a lot of activity in the house and decided to investigate.

The guests were playing black jack, a card game. The Magistrate did not object to it and merely smiled.

There was also a Senior Assistant Registrar of the High Court (“SAR”)2 then who used to mix with the lawyers and the government officers at the court’s warong. On one occasion my friend and I had a “summons for directions” matter before him. When we walk through the gates and approached him to remind him of our matters, he shouted, “You two. Your application… OIT”. (OIT is short for “Order in Terms3”). I was wondering then whether to state in the court order that the decision was made “Dalam Warong Mahkamah”.

This SAR was certainly down to earth and practical. When I filed my client’s adoption papers in the High Court instead of the Sessions Court where it is normally heard, I told him that the President in Batu Pahat believed that he has no jurisdiction and directed that I file my papers in the High Court. He telephoned the President to confirm and then said, “Kepala otak engkau..” (Translation: “Your head” meaning “who says you do not have jurisdiction?”).

Sometimes High Court judges used simple logic to determine the case, ending days of testimony and arguments.

Senior Assistant Registrars administers the High Court and have jurisdiction to hear some applications in chambers.

They are judicial officers and have formerly acted as Magistrates and Sessions Court President or judge 3 Order in Terms is the standard word used by the court when they granted your application.

2

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

19

In one case (not mine) before His Lordship Talalla, the dispute was whether the claimant was the son of the deceased through his 2nd marriage. The lawyer said that a DNA test should be taken. The judge called the sons of the 1st marriage to come forward and they stood beside the claimant. The judge remarked that one look at them, one can seem the resemblance.

The matter was settled thereafter.

He applied the same test to one of my appeals before him. The Sessions Court President had decided that there were no conditions stated in the bank guarantee. My opponent from a big and prominent law firm from the capital came prepared with a thick bundle of authorities.

The judge however gave her 5 minutes to submit and not to give her “lecture notes” to him.

Thereafter he looked at the document in question and said that he could not understand why the judge said that there were no conditions when with just a look, he could see five conditions. With that observation, I won the appeal.

Another judge who used his own methods was His Lordship Jeffrey Tan. I had a divorce matter before him where I acted for the husband who was taking care of an autistic child.

The wife had abandoned the child two years earlier but decided that she wants the child when the child showed a lot of improvement. She had by that time been earning a good income. The judge directed the wife to call the child to go over to her. She tried but the child did not budge. The judge then directed the father to tell the child to go to the mother. He did and on the child panicked and cried. And with that, the judge said he could not give the child to the mother.

When bankruptcy matters were heard before the Judge and on Sundays, His Lordship Talalla used to tell the judgment debtor to pay an initial sum to the bank on that morning itself, otherwise he will proceed to make the order. One lawyer remarked that the banks should give him an award for helping them in their debt collection.

His Lordship Mustapha Hussain was more lenient. In one case where the debtor requested time to pay, the judge said that he will give a long date for the auction. I protested that the date was too long. The judge told me to give the debtor time. “Who knows he might strike lottery by that time”.

I was in the Court of Appeal in one case when His Lordship G.Sri Ram was the head of the panel of three judges. He gave the dissenting decision in favour of the appellant in an appeal to a contempt of court matter. He asked the lawyer for the appellant what he was going to do next. The lawyer after consulting his client, said that they intend to appeal to the Federal Court. To that, the Judge said, “Yes!! You must do that. You must prove that I am right.”

According to my client, Her Ladyship Lau Bee Lan (picture on the right) then the Session’s Court Judge at Muar is the happiest and friendliest judge he has ever seen. She was always smiling in court.

The prettiest Magistrate I ever encountered was Puan Hasbi. She looks like an actress playing a Magistrate in a movie.

YA Datuk Lau Bee Lan

20

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

As for the guys, there was a SAR who was also later a Sessions Court President, who could pass off as an actor. On social occasions he would wear his black shirt with two buttons open from the top. His hair was immaculately in place and his beard and mustache could match any Bollywood actors. However one female lawyer referred him as “Alice” because he always seems to be in wonderland.

In my later years of practice, I noticed that lady magistrates and judges seem to be grumpier.

They seldom smile and seem to be getting upset with lawyers and government officers alike.

I supposed it’s the KPI (Key Performance Index) introduced by the Chief Judge. Or was it the camera installed in court where they would be under the watchful eye of Putrajaya. Their male counterparts do not seem to be stressed by this. One Sessions Court judge continued to start his cases at 10 am in the morning and is friendly to lawyers. I mentioned this judge to a lady judge in chambers when she confided in me her troubles. Take it easy and let matters go if it does not cause grave injustice, I advised. Parties affected by her decisions can always apply later to set it aside or appeal against the decisions.

When a magistrate or judge is grumpy or hot tempered, it certainly makes life difficult for the lawyers. I was never ready to take on a bad tempered judge. There was one occasion when my client (who was not present in court and only communicated with through the mobile phone) refused to accept a proposal by the defendant’s lawyer because the date of commencement of the payment was almost one year away. I agreed with his decision.

However the judge seems anxious that I accept the proposal so that my appeal against the Senior Assistant Registrar’s decision in refusing to give me summary judgment could be settled. I thought that I was being fair and diplomatic when I told the judge that I could consider withdrawing the appeal if the judge could give me an early date for the hearing proper. That was contempt of court, said the judge. I was threatening the court with an ultimatum. I quickly apologize and said that was not my intention.

He went on with, “Judges are like cats. You must stroke it in the right direction.

If you stroke it in the wrong direction, we can be equally nasty. So do you want to continue with the appeal?” I replied, “Yes”. He lost his cool and told us to come back in the afternoon.

In the afternoon there was another case, and we have to wait for that case to finish. By 4.00 pm, the judge asked us whether we wanted to go on. My head was saying, “What’s to go on?

Half an hour for our submissions would not have been enough.” I took another date, which was 3 months away. Before that date came, the court informed us by letter that the case was postponed again by 3 months. After that I told my client to accept the offer.

On one occasion a lawyer represented a hair dresser, in her divorce petition. The judge remarked that people in her profession are in the same category of actresses and singers.

They have a high divorce tendency. My friend replied, “Are you speaking from experience, My Lord?” Perhaps it was the smirk from the lawyer because the judge took it wrongly. He asked the lawyer to repeat what he said. The lawyer just chuckle and said, “never mind.”

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

21

It was awkward to appear before new Magistrates, who were still wet behind their ears.

In some cases, where they have chambered with a master, before applying to join the government’s legal services, their master appearing before their former student now have to address them as, “Tuan” or “Puan”.

It was also awkward for a senior lawyer to have a young magistrate telling him the law. The late Lee Buck Heng, a senior lawyer once scolded a young lawyer with, “I was practicing law when you were still sucking your mother’s tits”. I had a case where the magistrate decided that fighting inside a house compound amounts to “public” fighting. Or gambling4 itself is a crime. Evidence laws were often not followed as hearsay evidences are often accepted. In one appeal I had, the High Court Judge said that he can’t decide whether the decisions of the magistrate were right or not, because the grounds of decision did not have any grounds.

The matter went back for a rehearing before another magistrate.

But if their poor knowledge was frustrating to the lawyers, corrupt legal officers gave me a stomach ulcer. We can forgive them for the inexperience, but their corruption damages the reputation of the judiciary and our legal system.

Like most lawyers when we lost a case which we felt strongly we will win, we wondered whether the magistrate was on the take. Most of the time there was no evidence to support of belief, and parties listening to our gripes may think that we are sore losers.

But when a member of the public comes to a magistrates chambers and gave a stack of RM50 notes to him and said, “This is the money I lost to you in a golf bet” it does make you think.

When his Lordship Talalla left the High Court, he left in his office all the gifts given to him by the various government departments to his staff. Unfortunately he did not offer the gifts to the lawyers.

In my early years, a lawyer was approached by some people who asked him whether he wanted to do “sure win” cases. “Sure win” cases?? Why not? The lawyer was curious.

They were criminal cases of “managing a common gaming house”. He was instructed not to interview the accused, not to cross examine and just to make a submission of no case to answer. They gave him two of such cases. When he appeared in the first case, he felt uncomfortable not cross examining the gaming expert and proceeded to do so. The Magistrate halted the hearing and asked him to see him in chambers. There he lecture the lawyer on wasting the courts time if the defense was there was no management of common gaming house. And so the lawyer did not cross examined thereafter and make a submission based on a previous case which he had lost before another magistrate. This time he won. The 2nd case was called and before noon, both cases were thrown out. He concluded that from this show or wayang, the players must have been the magistrate, the police prosecutor, the defense counsel and maybe also the investigating officer.

4

Gambling in a common gaming house and gaming in the public are offences punishable under the law.

22

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

However the magistrate did not get away for long. He was soon summoned by the Chief Justice and the High Court and later transferred to another court, and I heard, with the strict direction that he could not hear criminal cases. The lawyer did not take any further cases from them.

But I better write something in fairness to the judges and magistrates. They are under tremendous pressure to get everything right- from making the right decisions to completing the hearing within a stipulated time frame. And all this time doing it with patience and maturity of a wise and experienced person. And not forgetting to live within their salary.

When I was a young lawyer, I had the ambition of being a judge one day so that I could dispense justice. I no longer have that ambition now as I have other priorities now. And being imperfect and blunt, I would have been judge badly by others.

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

23

THREE CHEERS TO JUSTICE M. SHANKAR AND EDUCATION SUB-COMMITTEE

BY CKG PILLAY 1984 INFO JOHORE BAR

It has been a novel idea on the part of Johor Bar Committee to organise an education “seminar”. The first “workshop” session was held in Holiday Inn on Wednesday, 30th November, 1983. Not being used to such lectures, I attended the function more out of curiosity but I am glad to say without hesitation that the exercise was worthwhile, interesting and stimulating. Everyone, both the Seniors, Semi-Senior and Juniors must have all enjoyed every moment of the two hour session. The meeting was opened by our Chairman W.D. Mossess and the first item way a speech by Mr. H.L.Tennakoon, a Senior lawyer on “The Practice of Law as seen by the Practioner”. He spoke very lucidly focussing on the difficulties practioners face from time to time in particular he forcussed on the delay in getting cases heard, Dato’ Mahadev Shankar the petty quarrels among brother lawyers, lack of reciprocity from the Bench on occasions and various other problems. It was a well balanced speech with malice towards none, using temperate language to express delicate problems. He was followed by Justice M. Shankar, whose eloquency is superb. The Judge’s speech was philosophy oriented with great emphasis on spiritual and moral values. Within the short time available, he left no stone unturned in his attempt to exhort lawyers to be absolutely truthful. He exposed the “fallacy” of the expression embodied in the wit­ness’s oath to speak the truth, nothing but the truth and the whole truth. A statement is either true or false and there is no middle way. His short speech, which he limited for the sake of time was followed by a video film, par­tially displaying a talk by Singapore lawyer H. Cashin on the art of cross-examination. Then there was another film taken in Dallas, United States, a tutor giving lessons on “how to cross-examine”. It was a humorous experience, when everyone was too excited with laughter. The speaker has a personal appeal to attract your attention by the use of common language with dramatic gesticulation making you feel that he is having a direct talk with you.

The speaker gave 10 Commandments, as a guide for cross-examination. I understand that the display of these tapes were arranged by the courtesy of Mr. Richard Ennis, who is a lecturer at the Law Faculty of the National University of Singapore at the request of Justice Shankar. All of us owe our thanks to both of them. Justice Shanker has promised that these or such tapes can again be made available.

Having said the above, let me point out, my own humble views. Perhaps what is more appropriate for occasions like this is a dialogue session when opinions can be more freely exchanged. I believe that according to Socrates, one method of learning is through question and answer sessions. The idea of the committee should be to inculcate more self-confidence among the young law­yers, some of whom may have talented gifts, yet shy or tongue-tied, The whole focus should be on mutual sharing of knowledge and ex­changing same, as distinguished from unilateral import. The Bar will degenerate to sterotyped thinking unless there is provocation, stimulation and encouragement of the coming generation. Although the tapes were very interesting, I wonder whether the methods advocated are applicable in this climate where virtually there is no jury trial and there is the language barrier between the witness and, the examiner, very often all depending upon the help of interpreters. As suggested by the tape “tutor”, if you ask a witness to repeat the same story “three times”, you will get rapped on your knuckles. Also, if you suggest leading questions with absurd propositions, you will only get either rebuked or become a laughing stock. “Perry Mason” type of advocacy has no

24

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

place in Malaysia. However, the majority of 10 Commandments are very useful especially suggestions like, to be brief and never ask a question the answer of which you are not sure. Anyway, all said and done, I will say that those who did not attend really missed a great opportunity of amusement and some learning.

Let us hope that the enthusiasm of the education sub-committee will survive the test of time and that next time there will be 100% attendance of all members, as learning is a never-ending process whatever be your own experience, wealth or self-estimation.

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

25

A POTPOURRI ON POETS, POEMS, PROSE-POETRY, PROSE AND THE PINT

By S. Balarajah

Poetry and poets are held in high estimation amongst language lovers. They are a special lot. Wallace Stevens said that a poet looks at the world the way a man looks at a woman and Somerset Maugham (who made the Raffles Hotel and the sleazy Singapore sling; a gin based drink, famous) flatters poets by saying “the crown of literature is poetry. It is its end and aim. It is the sublimest activity of the human mind. It is the achievement of beauty and delicacy. The writer of prose can only step aside when the poet passes.” And President John F Kennedy noted that “when power leads man to arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When politics narrows the areas of man’s concerns, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. For art establishes the basic human truths which must serve as the touchstone of our judgment.” E.B White in “Here in New York” said that “a poem compresses much in a small space and adds music thus heightening its meaning.”

Omar Khayyam (Persian 1048-1131) penned ‘The Rubaiyat.’ Each Rubaiyat is akin to a pantun. It is said to be a 2 line stanza with 2 parts per line. The Arabic Word ‘Rubaiyat’ means a quatrain i.e a 4 line stanza. They are little poems on life, philosophy and religion. Some serious, some fatalistic and some, most depressing. It is believed that Khayam loved his tipple and alluded to the intoxicating ambrosia in a number of his Rubaiyats.

In one he penned: ‘Drink, for you know not When you came or why Drink for you know not Why you go nor whence!

Khayam was a Sufi, a mystic, a teacher, mathematician, astronomer and philosopher. His works have been given spiritual interpretation and one of his famous oft quoted one is: “The moving finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: not all they Piety nor Wit

26

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

shall lure it back to cancel half a line, Nor all they Tears wash out a word of it.”

This appears fatalistic and refers to doom, gloom and predestination. Everything in life is pre-planned and your prayers, piety and sacrifices or burnt offerings will not enable you to avoid all that is laid out for you. It is curious that Agatha Christie is said to have used ‘The Moving Finger’ as a title to one of her stories and Stephen King penned “And Having Writ,” a novel.

Another of Omar Khayam’s Rubaiyat goes thus about life and its mysteries and it can be used to describe a game of cricket! But note HE in capitals alluding to the Great One: “The Ball no question makes of Ayes and Noes, But Here or There, as strikes The Player goes; And HE that tossed you Down into the Field, HE knows about it all – HE knows – HE knows.”

Khayam probably did not have cricket in mind when he wrote the aforesaid lines. He probably alluded to the infinite and all powerful God who controls our every destiny and to whom we must all give an account of our lives when we come face to face before Him when we appear in front of Him in His great Courts above.

Fate is usually a pre-determined course beyond our control. Whatever happens, happens and we cannot avoid or amend it. We are not the sovereign makers of our fate. Only God is sovereign. Fighting against God’s plan is useless. Divine providence – God controls all this and the universe. If our free will and wish can override God’s providence then who is God? Now, Rumi was an Afghan. Persian (Iranians) and Afghans called him Jelaludin Balki (1207-1273). Ancient Persia is now modern Iran, a name derived from Afghan denoting “a noble race”. He was a Sufi poet, philosopher and writer. It is said that the central doctrine of Sufism is that of the “Divine Unity.” The Sufis believe that in theological terms, first and foremost that there can only be ONE GOD. “La ilaha illallah” – meaning there is “no God but God, who is One”.

Writers say that the practice of Sufism is that of seeking of the truth through love, sacrifice, piety and devotion to the one God and to follow the spiritual path towards God. Rumi wrote: “There is a Soul inside your Soul.

Search that Soul.

There is a jewel in the mountain of body.

Look for the mine of that jewel.

Oh, Sufi, passing by, Search inside if you can, not outside.”

Rumi

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

27

Rumi said that God is in our hearts. He wrote his personal and private experience thus: “God in our heart” “I searched for God among the Christians and on the cross but therein found him not. I went into the ancient temples of idolatry; no trace of him was there. I entered the mountain cave of Hira (where the archangel Gabriel appeared to the Prophet) and then went as far as Qandhar but God found I not, neither in low nor in high places. With set purpose I fared to the summit of Mount Caucasus and found there only anqa’s habitation. There I directed my search to the Ka’bah, the resort of old and young; God was not there either. Turning to philosophy, I inquired about Him from Ibn Sina but found Him not within his range.

I fared then to the scene of the prophet’s experience of a great divine manifestation only a ‘two-bow lengths distance from him’ but God was not there, even in that exalted court.

Finally I looked into my own heart and there I saw Him: He was nowhere else.”

“The Kabir Book – Forty–Four of the Ecstatic Poems of Kabir” (versions by Robert Bly) is a mind stirring collection of Kabir’s poems.

Now who was Kabir? The writer Bly seems to suggest that no one knows much about Kabir. Bly claims that it is not known if he was a son of Moslem parents or if he was found on the streets and brought up by a Moslem couple. Kabir eventually grew-up to become a highly spiritual and respected man and a Sufi poet. It is believed that Kabir (1398-1518) lived up to 120 years.

Plaque outside College Hill, formerly the Rosslyn Inn

Bly says that in Kabir’s poems you see an astonishing feat – highly religious and intensely spiritual poems written outside of, and in opposition to, the standard Hindu, Mohammedan, or Christian dogmas. Kabir says, “Suppose you scrub your ethical skin until it shines, but inside there is no music, then what?” Mind boggling is it not? He also attacks the simple-minded Yoga practices and guru cults, such as we see growing up all around in the United States. It’s valuable to have these practices discussed by an Indian, not a Westerner. Kabir says, “The Yogi comes along in his famous orange. But if inside he is colorless, then what?” To Kabir, the main danger is spiritual passivity and Kabir was opposed to repeating any truth from another teacher, whether of English literature or Buddhism, that you yourself have not experienced.

Let us look at Kabir’s poem 37 and pontificate the thoughts of this Sufi:

“The spiritual athlete often changes the color of his clothes,

and his mind remains gray and loveless.

He sits inside a shrine room all day,

so that the Guest has to go outdoors and praise the rocks.

Or he drills holes in his ears, his beard grows enormous and matted,

people mistake him for a goat…

He goes out into wilderness areas, strangles his impulses,

and makes himself neither male nor female ….

He shaves his skull, puts his robe in an orange vat,

reads the Bhagavad-Gita, and becomes a terrific talker.

Kabir says: Actually you are going in a hearse to the

country of death,

bound hand and foot!”

28

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

Kahlil Gibran (Jubran Kahlil Jubran; 1883-1931) was a Lebanese – U.S. Arabic novelist, essayist, poet and painter. Gibran studied art with the sculptor Auguste Rodin in Paris and Arabic literature in Beirut before settling in New York City in 1912. A romantic mystic and visionary, he preached love, beauty, freedom, and redemption in his works. In his book ‘The Tempest’ Gibran writes of one Yusif El Fakhri: “The People of the nearby villages heard various tales concerning Yusif; some related that his was a wealthy and noble family, and that he loved a woman who betrayed him and caused him to lead a solitary life, while others said that he was a poet who deserted the clamourous city and retired to that place in order to record his thoughts and compose his inspiration; and many were sure that he was a mystic who was contented with the spiritual world, although most people insisted that he was a madman.”

When he was harassed by an impertinent and inquisitive lady who kept on asking him, “But have you never been in love?” Gibran unashamed answered:

“I will tell you a thing you may not know.

The most highly sexed beings upon the planet are the creators, the poets, sculptors, painters, musicians – and so it had been from the beginning. And among them sex is always beautiful, and it is always shy.”

Kahlil Gibran

Kahlil Gibran in “Of Reasons and knowledge” felt that music is the language of the spirits. It awakens memories, stirs love while the sad strains of music induces tearful and melancholic memories. He said that the Song of the heart awakens man from slumber and Kahlil Gibran wrote of poets, composers and architects as follows:

“Divine Music!

Daughter of the Soul of Love Vase of bitterness and of Love Dream of the human heart, fruit of sorrow Flower of joy, fragrance and bloom of feeling Tongue of lovers, revealer of secrets Mother of the tears of hidden love Inspirer of poets, composers architects Unity of thoughts within fragments of words Designer of love out of beauty Wine of the exulting heart in a world of dreams Heartener of warriors, and strengthener of souls Ocean of mercy and sea of tenderness O Music In your depths we deposit our hearts and souls Thou hast taught us to see without ears And hear with our hearts.”

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

29

Kahlil Gibran in his wisdom described poetry thus: “Poetry, my dear friends, is a sacred incarnation of a smile. Poetry is a sigh that dries the tears. Poetry is a spirit who dwells in the soul, whose nourishment is the heart, whose wine is affection. Poetry that comes not in this form is a false Messiah.”

There is a book by Kahlil Gibran titled “Prose Poems.” It has been noted that this book was not written by Gibran in English. It is in fact a collection of his works originally written in Arabic. Some reviewers took it as a young writer’s sketch book i.e stories and works in draft but prophesied the seeds of the skill, assiduity and the spiritual insight that would later on in years produce literary masterpieces. In “Prose Poems” the skill, assiduity and craftsmanship of a skilled scribe had not yet emerged. They were spiritual and were in poetic English prose.

It took some time for the skilled craftsmen to blossom into a master of words and thoughts. “The Storm” is a well known piece of prose poetry. If the spirits of Homer, Virgil, Al-Maary, and Milton had known that poetry would become a lapdog of the rich, they would have forsaken a world in which this could occur.

A delightful treasury of poems stimulates the mind. There are mystical poems, aesthetic poems, political poems, spiritual poems and all manner of poems.

Let’s go back to the old country England. Dr Samuel Johnson’s father, Michael Johnson was a poor and a rather unsuccessful seller of books in a wee city called Lichfield in Staffordshire in the English Midlands. In his years, Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) became a celebrity a essayist, scholar, philosopher and a literary critic. It was said that no man had a more ardent love for literature or a higher respect for it then Johnson himself.

By 1747 Johnson’s arduous and important work ‘Dictionary of the English Language’ was announced. It was one of his greatest triumphs. And in 1749 he published the “Vanity of Human Wishes – The Tenth Satire of Juvenal Imitated” It is a reflection on life in general, and life in London in particular. Samuel Johnson’s life it is said was a life of conflict. To nurse the conflict, he developed an affinity to wine. It was said that Johnson “loved to exhilarate himself with wine.” Then he stopped. He was said to have told friends in 1778: “I drink no wine sir. Early in Life I drank wine; for many years I drank none. I then for some years drank a great deal.” But by 1781 was drinking again. It was said he could practice abstinence but not temperance. It seems he used to say he drank to ‘send myself away.’

In the Rambler 19.5.1750 Johnson quoted one Francis’ poem. Enjoy the choice of words and the philosopher thoughts there from: “Not there the guiltless step-dame knows The baleful draught for orphans to compose; No wife high portion’d rules her spouse, Or trusts her essenc’d lover’s faithless vows; The lovers there for dow’ry claim The father’s virtue, and the spotless fame, Which dares not break the nuptial tie.”

- Francis Johnson commented: “That there is no observation more frequently made by such as employ themselves in surveying the conduct of mankind, than that marriage, though the dictate of nature, and the institution of Providence, is yet very often the cause of misery, and that those who enter into that state can seldom forbear to express their repentance, and their envy of those whom either chance or caution had withheld from it.

30

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

This general unhappiness has given occasion to many sage maxims among the serious, and smart remarks among the gay; the moralist and the writer of epigrams have equally shown their abilities upon it; some have lamented, and some have ridiculed it; but as the faculty of writing has been chiefly a masculine endowment, the reproach of making the world miserable has been always thrown upon the women, and the grave and the merry have equally thought themselves at liberty to conclude either with declamatory complaints, or satirical censures, of female folly or fickleness, ambition or cruelty, extravagance or lust.”

Louis Pasteur is reported to have said “A bottle of wine contains more philosophy then do all the books in the world.” A Limerick is a short and often funny 5 line poem. Limericks originated in the Irish city of Limerick in Ireland: “There once was a man from Peru, Who had a lot of growing up to do, He’d ring a doorbell, Then run like hell, Until the owner shot him with a. 22.

An Irish toast goes like this: “Here is to wine we love to drink And to the food we love to eat Here’s to our wives and sweethearts Lets pray they never meet.”

And Dorothy Parker is said to have penned: “I love to drink Martinis Two at the very most Three I’m under the table And 4 under the host.”

Joyce Grenfell penned these lines which could decorate a rather nice obit: “If I should die before the rest of you, Break not a flower nor inscribe a stone Nor when I’m gone speak in a Sunday voice But be the usual selves that I have known.

Weep if you must, Parting is hell But life goes on, So sing as well.”

- Joyce Grenfell

Joyce Grenfell

One should not tarry too much on being poets and imbibing wines or any such stimulating beverages. For it was Dudley Moore who said: “Not everyone who drinks is a poet. Some of us drink because we are not poets.”

Cecil Rajendra of the Penang Bar is an internationally acclaimed activist lawyer and poet (not sure if the order is correct). I had the pleasure and privilege of raising a glass or two with Cecil in the opulent residence of the former Malaysian Bar Chief, Ragunath Kesavan. No, this is only a half truth. In the rambunctious end of the year brouhaha atmosphere, we probably cleared off Ragu’s cellar and the ratio decidendi: even a ruby red dry wine will turn sweet in exquisite company! Ragu was probably awaiting clearance of his cellar to make way for the Beaujolais Nouveau; a 6 week old easy drinking wine released in late November.

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

31

The notion that writers, poets and booze are conjoined seems to be prevalent in other worlds too. In China in 3 AD, the 7 sages of Bamboo Grove retired to the country to drink wine and compose verse: “Once drunk, a cup of wine can produce 100 stanzas” the poet Xiuxi Yin is said to have claimed. Does a good wine help writers?

For some it helps overcome inhibitions and so the truth and real feelings emerge out. It frees one’s imagination and brilliant works might explode. A few glasses may well make us funnier, wittier and gives us lots more confidence, helps us to ride over daunting and embarrassing situations. It makes us explode out of inhibitions and coyness and perhaps some form of inferiority complex or some withdrawal symptoms.

But too much of anything can be deadly, Dylan Thomas was diagnosed to be an alcoholic, so were Dorothy Parker, Scot Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and James Joyce.

A caveat or two for good measure on wines and alcohol; someone once observed alcohol may not be the answer to all questions but alcohol helps you to forget the entire question itself! And a senior English Barrister in The Commentator observed that one of the twin hazards of life at the English Bar was alcohol. The other, being infidelity! God save us! I end as I begun with Khayam. Who is not enchanted or tempted by wine, woman and song? England had a King (1936, King Emperor Edward VIII) who abdicated the throne of England for one Mrs Wallis Simpson who was twice divorced. As the great Khayam penned:

Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough, A Book of Verse, a Flask of Wine – and Thou Beside me singing in the Wilderness – And Wilderness is Paradise enow.

History reveals that many mighty and powerful ones have surrendered or lost their kingdoms for the alleged love of some woman. Kingdom is said to be from 2 words: King and domain; an area over which a King had control. The Old Testament tells us that King Solomon had a bevy of strange women as wives and the Lord God of Israel was upset with him for not having kept his covenants to God and so took away his Kingdom and gave it to his servant! “As usual, there is a great woman behind every idiot” – John Lennon.

Wise and experienced men have observed that when you are in love, miracles and wonders happen but after you get married and the years take its toll, you wonder what happened. You wonder why in the beginning the wife treats the husband as God but along life’s arduous ways, the alphabets gets reverted. And when you marry, you promise to “love one another” and along the way the last word takes its place in the centre! Miracles too?

S. Balarajah 25th April 2014 Johore Bar

32

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

ELEVATION CEREMONY AND DINNER IN HONOUR OF YA TUAN SAMSUDIN BIN HASSAN on the 30th of april 2014 The Johore Bar takes great pleasure in congratulating the Honourable Tuan Samsudin bin Hassan on his elevation to the Bench of the High Court of Malaya. The appointment took effect on 19th February 2014. The Elevation ceremony was held in the Criminal High Court of Johore Bahru on Wednesday, 30th of April 2014 to mark His Lordship’s elevation and followed by a Dinner at the KSL Resort Johor Bahru. The proceedings commenced with Mr. R. Jayabalan, Chairman of the Johore Bar Committee, offering his felicitations welcoming His Lordship to the Bench, followed by Mr. S. Gunasegaran, representing the Malaysian Bar and Tuan Umar Saifuddin bin Jaafar, Head of Prosecution Units, representing the Honourable Attorney General of Malaysia. In reply, the Honourable Justice Tuan Samsudin Bin Hassan expressed his sincere appreciation for the kind words said about him. For the benefits of our readers, we reproduce here the speeches made at the said Elevation Ceremony.

Speech by Mr R. Jayabalan, Chairman of the Johore Bar Committee May it please you My Lord, My name is R. Jayabalan and I am appearing on behalf of the Johore Bar. My learned friend Mr S Gunasegaran is appearing on behalf of the President of the Malaysian Bar. And my learned friend Ketua Unit Pendakwaan Tuan Umar Saifuddin Bin Jaafar is appearing on behalf of the Attorney General’s Chambers.

R. Jayabalan

I would also like to acknowledge and put on record the presence of many members of the Bar and the judicial officers to witness today’s proceedings.

On behalf of the Johore Bar I take great pleasure to welcome and congratulate Your Lordship on your elevation as a Judge of the High Court of Malaya by His Majesty the Yang Dipertuan Agong on 19.2.2014.

There is no doubt that this is a very proud and momentous occasion for Your Lordship. It must be so for Your Lordship’s beloved family as well. To be appointed as His Majesty’s Judge is a great honour and recognition of Your Lordship’s years of diligent service in the administration of justice and of Your Lordship’s ability, integrity and intellectual.

Please allow me to trace Your Lordship’s journey of public service.

Your Lordship was born on 22.2.1952 in Perak and underwent early education at the Clifford School Kuala Kangsar and later at Anderson School Ipoh.

Your Lordship’s public service began in 1974 at the Foreign Ministry with designations at the embassies in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and Vienna, Austria.

In 1980 Your Lordship set out to read law at Ealing College in London and graduated in 1984 with LLB. Hons. and passed the CLP with Honours in 1985.

Armed with the law degree, in 1986 Your Lordship commenced service as a DPP and served at the AG’s Chambers in Kuala Lumpur.

In 1987 Your Lordship served as DPP for the Royal Malaysian Customs and Excise Department in Kuala Lumpur - handling cases under the Dangerous Drugs Act, Customs Act, Sales Tax Act and other revenue statutes.

In 1989, public service took Your Lordship to Terengganu as DPP. In 1991-1992 Your Lordship travelled for postgraduate study and successfully completed the Master of Arts in Criminology at the University of Leicester, London.

Upon returning in 1992 Your Lordship served as the Legal Advisor for the Royal Malaysian Customs and Excise Department.

In 1994, Your Lordship moved again. This time as the Deputy Registrar of Companies – overseeing enforcement and compliance with the Companies Act 1965 and the Securities Industries Act 1973.

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

33

In 1997 – Your Lordship returned to the Chambers as the Special Officer to Attorney General.

Between 2000 - 2004 – Your Lordship served as the Legal Manager for the Malaysia-Thailand Joint Authority (MTJA).

In 2005 – Your Lordship again went back to the AG’s Chambers, this time as the Senior Federal Counsel at the Law Reform Division.

In 2006 – Your Lordship, having served as the Senior Federal Counsel, went back to criminal practice, as DPP under the Appeals Unit at the AG’s Chambers.

In the midst of these changes, and what must have been a hectic schedule, Your Lordship also successfully completed the Entry Level Exam of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.

In 2008 – Your Lordship was appointed as the Industrial Court Chairman with your first posting in Johor Bahru.

At this juncture, I am happy to say that many of us here including I had had the opportunity to appear before Your Lordship at the Industrial Court and it had always been a pleasure.

On 31.5.2010 – Your Lordship was appointed as a Judicial Commissioner and was posted to the High Court in Johor Bahru.

Almost 4 years later Your Lordship’s journey in the public service reached a momentous milestone on 18.2.2014 when Your Lordship was appointed to serve as His Majesty’s Judge of the High Court of Malaya.

Your Lordship’s public service was also recognized by His Royal Highness the Sultan of Terengganu in 1991 with Pingat Jasa Cemerlang and in 2005 with Darjah Setia Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin.

Your Lordship’s elevation is a result of a long and dedicated public service that must have also been filled with plenty of hardwork and dedication. We have no doubt that Your Lordship has not only earned this recognition but has also earned it well.

My Lord, It is usual in occasions like this that the Bar not only welcome the new Judge but also passes a word or two friendly advice. This is only natural as the Bar and the Bench are partners in the administration of justice, one cannot serve without the other; one completes the other.

A Judge is expected to live by strict moral code. This is the undertaking demanded of his office. This code defines the Judge, his life and his legacy. This is also encapsulated in the Judges Code of Ethics. A Judge is to hold firm his oath of office, uphold the Constitution and discharge his duty without fear or favour.

It is axiomatic that the judiciary must at all times retain and jealously safeguard the confidence of the public. It is the public confidence and perception that makes or breaks a judge and for that matter the judiciary.

The retired Judge of the Queensland Supreme Court, Justice James Thomas in his book Judicial Ethics in Australia, wrote in reference to Judges (and I quote) : “We form a particular group in the community. We comprise a select part of an honourable profession. We are entrusted, day after day, with the exercise of considerable power. Its exercise has dramatic effects upon the lives and fortunes of those who come before us. Citizens cannot be sure that they or their fortunes will not some day depend upon our judgment. They will not wish such power to be reposed in anyone whose honesty, ability or personal standards are questionable. It is necessary for the continuity of the system of law as we know it, that there be standards of conduct, both in and out of court, which are designed to maintain confidence in those expectations.…… If these standards are not effectively maintained, public confidence in the independence and trustworthiness of judges will erode and the administration of justice will be undermined.”

That My Lord, in my humble view has summed up rather succinctly the importance of public confidence and perception of the judiciary and by extension would apply to Judges as well.

Public confidence and perception is shaped by many indicators. One key indicator must surely be the method of managing cases in our courtrooms. As we know the current management approach is based on the concept of ‘just, expeditious and economical disposal’ of cases.

34

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

I would humbly implore that whilst all three components are important, the first in the order is the most important – that is to do justice. That is the very core of the judicial system - the reason for its existence. After all one comes before the court primarily to seek justice. To the ordinary man, the courts are his last resorts; his last great hope; the final answer to the wrong done to him. In such instances, justice should be done - and be seen to be done - guided principally by the prevailing rules, the principles of what is just and fair and NOT by performance indicators or case disposal rate. This would only further enhance the public confidence and perception of the judiciary.

In terms of the day to day operations of a Judge, a practical note, which I thought was quite interesting, was given by Justice Francis Mc Carthy from the Superior Court of California when he wrote about the Good Judge in the Journal of the American Judicature Society in 1975 and I quote: “… A Judge who takes the following precepts to heart should prove an asset to any Bench.

• Remember that you are a servant of the people – not their master • Advice your bailiff, clerk and court interpreter – that they are also public servants and must be courteous and helpful.

• Keep in mind that most witnesses are on the stand for the first time. What may appear to be arrogance or rudeness may well be the result of nervousness or outright stage fright. The same can be said of some lawyers.

• Admonish (when necessary) attorneys, witnesses gently, quietly and firmly. It is far more effective than ‘telling them off’.

• Retain your sense of humour • Make everyone in your court feel comfortable and at ease. Let others keep a normal, decent schedule. Don’t make them work through lunch hour, dinner time or late at night. To do so is inefficient, unhealthful, and many times cruel.

• Take the bench on time – in the morning, after recess, in the afternoon. An inexcusable failure to do this justifiably disturbs and upsets lawyers and witnesses.”

I have no doubt that Your Lordship will approve this friendly advice and take to it kindly.

Your Lordship has served in Johore Bahru for almost 4 years now. We have welcomed you as a newly minted Judicial Commissioner and now we celebrate you as His Majesty’s Judge. Many of my colleagues at the Bar, including me, have had the opportunity to appear before Your Lordship during this period. I must say, and I firmly believe that I speak for the whole Bar when I say that we have left Your Lordship’s courtroom each time, regardless of the outcome, deeply impressed and touched by Your Lordship’s humility, courtesy and understanding.

Your Lordship has shown over the last 4 years that whilst the administration of justice can achieve its objective in many ways – hard and soft - a genuine show of humility, common courtesy and mutual respect to all litigants and counsel who come before the court would be equally effective, efficient and productive, if not more. This approach would not only enhance the relationship between the Bar and Bench; it would also add glow to the judiciary.

The Johore Bar is indeed privileged to have Your Lordship in Johor Bahru and we hope that Your Lordship’s stay in this city shall continue for years to come - save of course, if and hopefully when a call from the bench in Court of Appeal beckons in which case, we would reluctantly but happily allow Your Lordship to take your leave from Johor Bahru.

On behalf of the members who are present here today and that of the Johore Bar , I once again congratulate Your Lordship on your elevation and I pledge the Johore Bar’s fullest support and co-operation to Your Lordship in the discharge of your judicial duty.

Last but not least we wish Your Lordship a healthy life with long, rewarding and distinguished career on the Bench.

Thank you My Lord.

(R.JAYABALAN)

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

35

Speech by Mr S. Gunasegaran, Johore Bar representative May it please you My Lord, I am most delighted to say a few words at this solemn but joyous occasion.

The President of the Malaysian Bar is unable to be present here this morning and has asked me to convey his sincere apologies to Your Lordship.

S. Gunasegaran

Before I proceed further, kindly permit me to offer the heartiest congratulations from the President and Members of the Malaysian Bar on Your Lordship’s appointment as a Judge of the High Court of Malaya by DYMM Yang Dipertuan Agong.

Your Lordship’s appointment is the culmination of a very long and distinguished career in the service of the law and the rakyat, spanning some 40 years.

The Chairman of the Johore Bar has done an excellent job of retracing the long and arduous path trodden by Your Lordship to reach the present destination, and has left me no gaps to fill up. Hence I shall be making a very brief speech.

Your Lordship hails from the Silver state, which is a matter of great pride and satisfaction for me, as I too come from the same state. Your Lordship received your education from two of the oldest and premier institutions in the country, namely, the Clifford School in Kuala Kangsar and the Anderson School in Ipoh. When Your Lordship was doing your 6th Form in Anderson, it used to rank alongside ACS and SMI among the top 3 schools in Perak.

Law was obviously not Your Lordship’s first choice of a career. It was the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Wisma Putra) that attracted you first. Your Lordship served 5 years there before proceeding to the United Kingdom on a government scholarship to read law. That marked the turning point and the beginning of Your Lordship’s affair with the law.

After obtaining the degree of LL.B. (Hons) from the Ealing College, London, and the Certificate in Legal Practice (CLP) (Hons) from University of Malaya, Your Lordship joined the Judicial and Legal Service where you served with distinction for 22 years.

In 2008 Your Lordship was appointed as Chairman of the Industrial Court Malaysia in Johor, and based in Johor Bahru.

On 31st May 2010 Your Lordship was appointed as a Judicial Commissioner and posted to the Johor Bahru High Court.

Your Lordship served in that position for close to 4 years until your appointment as His Majesty’s Judge w.e.f. 19th February 2014.

Your Lordship’s elevation is one that is richly deserved and has come after many years of hard work. Your Lordship brings with you a wealth of knowledge and experience in the law coupled with an exemplary judicial temperament, which we members if the Johore Bar had the occasion to notice and experience first hand during your stint as Judicial Commissioner here. These attributes will undoubtedly serve you well in the discharge of your onerous functions both on and off the Bench.

Your Lordship on taking your oath of office as a Judge of the High Court had pledged “to discharge your judicial duties to the best of your ability, to bear true faith and allegience to Malaysia and to preserve, protect and defend its Constitution.”

That oath is significant because the Constitution is the supreme law of the land and it is the sacrosanct duty of all judges to uphold and protect it all times. All persons from the highest to the lowest, from the mightiest to the weakest, must follow it without fail, and it is the bounden duty of the courts to ensure this, without fear or favour.

My Lord, the concepts of separation of powers and the independence of the Judiciary are the cardinal principles of a parliamentary system of government, and are enshrined and entrenched in our Constitution. But history has shown that the twin concepts of separation of powers and the independence of the Judiciary cannot always be taken for granted. The Judiciary throughout the world is vulnerable to all forms of intrusion and invasion from various quarters, in particular the Executive, often with dire consequences. The Judiciary has a duty to be vigilant against all such acts of aggression and jealously guard its independence.

The Prime Minister of Malaysia Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, at the Opening of the Commonwealth Judges and Magistrates Conference 2011 in Kuala Lumpur on 18th July 2011 said: “Safeguarding and ensuring the continued independence of the judiciary is an ideal that Malaysia is wholly committed to.”

36

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

My Lord, the Malaysian Bar is wholly committed to the independence of the judiciary, is always vigilant against any form of threat to it, and is ever willing to support and work together with the judiciary to uphold and promote it.

The courts have been set up primarily to administer justice. The Chief Justice of Malaysia, Tun Arifin bin Zakaria, at the Opening of the Legal Year 2014 on 11th January 2014 had this to say on the role of judges: “The primary duty of the Judiciary is to dispense justice as entrusted upon us by the Federal Constitution.”

Judges work within the closed confines of a courtroom. Everyday they see litigants, who come in all shapes and colours to present and argue their cases. These people do not come to court in vain or for fun. They are there because they have a problem. Their problem is vey big to them, though it might not appear to be so for others. They come to court to find a resolution to their problem. They hope that the court can help them. The courts are the last bastion of their rights and liberties. A good judge is one who knows this very well and strives to help the litigants as best as he can. He will let the litigants have their day in court and will not do anything that may dent or dash their hope. And as someone very wisely said, the most important person in the courtroom is not the judge or the lawyer, but the person who is going to lose the case. So it is important that he be heard fully and fairly.

The administration of justice In Malaysia has undergone a dramatic transformation over the last few years. We have moved away from the slow, inefficient and lethargic ways of the past and are proceeding at a very fast phase in disposing off cases now. This is both a boon and a bane. Boon because the public can hope to see a quick resolution of their disputes; bane because the desire to expedite the disposal of cases, may result in justice being sacrificed at the altar of expediency. Once again, I can do no better than to quote the salutary advice of the Rt. Hon. Chief Justice of Malaysia, Tan Sri Arifin Bin Zakaria (as he then was), given on the occasion of his own appointment of Chief Justice of Malaysia on 14th September 2011: “Dengan terlaksananya perancangan-perancangan yang saya sebutkan di atas, saya percaya, kita akan dapat mencapai tahap kecekapan yang setanding dengan Badan Kehakiman di negara-negara maju. Namun begitu, kita perlu ingat, kecekapan bukanlah segala-galanya. Apa yang perlu dititik beratkan juga ialah kualiti penghakiman kita. Perlu diingat, tugas kita yang utama ialah untuk melaksanakan keadilan di antara pihak-pihak yang bertelagah. Oleh itu, keputusan kita hendaklah dibuat dengan adil dan saksama, tidak kira dalam apa jua keadaan sekali pun. Ringkasnya, keadilan hendaklah di utamakan tanpa sebarang kompromi. Integriti dan kebebasan Kehakiman hendaklah sentiasa dipertahankan, kerana Badan Kehakiman merupakan benteng terakhir bagi rakyat mendapat keadilan. Dalam hubungan ini juga, setiap lapisan masyarakat hendaklah diberi akses yang tidak terhad kepada keadilan tanpa sebarang halangan.”

In conclusion, My Lord, may I once again congratulate you on your elevation to the Bench. I also associate myself with the sentiments expressed by the Chairman of the Johore Bar. On behalf of my colleagues at the Bar I pledge our fullest support and co-operation to you in the performance of your judicial functions and duties. I look forward to reading your learned judgments in the law journals. I also pray for your continued good health and a long and distinguished career on the Bench.

Thank You.

S. GUNASEGARAN Johore Bar Representative

Speech by Tuan Umar Saifuddin, Head of Prosecution Unit / Deputy Public Prosecutor of Johore Mr. R. Jayabalan, President, Johore Bar Committee; Mr. S.Gunasegaran, representative of the Bar Council; Officers of the Judicial and Legal Service; Members of the Johor Bar; Ladies and Gentlemen; May it please Your Lordship,

Umar Saifuddin

My Lord, It is a great honour and privilege for me to be called upon to address your Lordship this morning. Today is indeed a very auspicious and memorable day for us to be present here on the occasion of your Lordship’s elevation as a Judge.

On behalf of the Attorney General’s Chambers, I offer our heartiest congratulations on your Lordship’s appointment as a High Court Judge of Malaya.

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

37

My Lord, to be elevated to the Bench as a Judge is a great honour cherished by many, be those in the Judicial and Legal Service or in private practice. If I may say so, to be appointed as a High Court Judge is arguably one of the finest pinnacles in the lifetime of a legal practitioner. Thus, many, if not all, lawyers and officers in the Judicial and Legal Service, do aspire and hope to be one during their careers.

Having said that, the role and responsibilities of a Judge are not easy. A Judge has to interpret the law, assess the evidence presented, and control how hearings and trials unfold in their courtrooms. Most important of all, a Judge has to be an impartial decision-maker in the pursuit of justice. In the adversarial system of justice, legal cases are contests between opposing sides, which ensures that evidence and legal arguments will be fully and forcefully presented. A Judge, however, remains above the fray, providing an independent and impartial assessment of the facts and how the law applies to those facts.

Your Lordship’s illustrious career began in the Diplomatic Service at the Wisma Putra in 1974. In that Service, Your Lordship served at the Malaysian Embassies in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and then later in Vienna, Austria in 1979. In 1980, Your Lordship took up Law at the Ealing College, London and thereafter, in 1986, joined the Judicial and Legal Service as a Deputy Public Prosecutor. Your Lordship had also served at various departments and ministries including the Royal Malaysian Customs and the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs. Between 2008 – 2010, Your Lordship served as an Industrial Court Chairman before being appointed as a Judicial Commissioner in 2010. Therefore, on this appointment Your Lordship has brought together four decades of experience and knowledge, covering not just legal but as well as administrative matters. I strongly believe those experiences will greatly assist Your Lordship in imparting justice.

As a Deputy Public Prosecutor in Johor, I have appeared a number of times before Your Lordship, and I must say one of Your Lordship’s qualities that I admire so much, is Your Lordship’s patience in allowing us to present our cases and argue them. Your Lordship’s patience, keenness and attention to our presentation and argument, reflects the true character of a Judge needed in the running of the daily affairs in court.

Finally, My Lord, I hope that Your Lordship will remain steadfast and unwavering in the quest for justice. May Allah grant Your Lordship His Blessings in Your Lordship’s years to come and may Your Lordship have a long and fruitful life.

Thank you.

UMAR SAIFUDDIN BIN JAAFAR Head of Prosecution Unit/Deputy Public Prosecutor State of Johor 30 April 2014

In reply, speech by YA Tuan Samsudin Bin Hassan Mr. R. Jayabalan, Chairman of the Johor Bar, Mr. S. Gunasegaran, Bar Representative, Tuan Umar Saifuddin, Representative from AG Chambers Members of the Johor Bar, Tuan-tuan dan Puan-puan, Assalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh bagi yang beragama Islam.

And a very good morning to those who profess other religion.

YA Tuan Samsudin

First and foremost I am humbled by the honour bestowed upon me by his Majesty the Yang Di Pertuan Agong by appointing me as a Judge of the High Court of Malaya on 19th February 2014.

I feel very delighted and honoured too by the presence today of so many of you for this special ceremony, a tradition which the Johor Bar has always wanted to maintain all these years, and for that I must express special thanks for the effort done.

38

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

I wish that both my parents could have been here to witness this ceremony but fate has dictated otherwise. To them I owe a great debt of gratitude which words cannot express.

I also take this opportunity to say how grateful I am to both my wife and my only daughter for all the support and courage they have given to enable me to be sitting on the Bench here today.

Indeed I am deeply touched by the kind and generous things said about me in the speeches. Those words have brought home to me the great expectations members of the Bar, the Judicial and Legal Services and the Public have of me to dispense heavy responsibilities I have pledged to accept and uphold.

It is my observation that a judicial system can only work efficiently and produce just results when all the participants in the process do their best and work together. It is in our common interest to do all we can to ensure that the Judges give judgments that are fair and just and this is only possible when lawyers and prosecutors alike research the law well and make a commitment to serve only the ends of justice and nothing else.

Ever since I was appointed as a Judicial Commissioner (JC) on 31st May 2010 I have had a busy schedule here in this Court Building, at Cyberport (Menara Sarawak) and also at the Muar High Court every alternate week of the month, to hear criminal and civil matters and must say that I have managed to cope only because of the continuous assistance and cooperation I have received from the members of the Bar, the Deputy Public Prosecutors, Senior Federal Counsels and Federal Counsels, Deputy and Senior assistant Registrars and the staff. The assistance I received and hopefully will continue to receive provides me with encouragement in the performance of my duties which are always challenging.

I do not promise to be perfect in the execution of my duties. Neither do I profess to be impervious to the formidable demands of being a Judge. But this I would say, I shall strive towards excellence in my humble efforts serving the interests of justice guided by my conscience which is a distinctive gift Allah has given us.

Finally I pray to Almighty Allah to give me wisdom, patience and guidance to exercise my judicial duties and powers justly and honestly.

On that note bring my speech to a conclusion.

Once again, I thank all of you for your support and presence.

My pleasure to invite all of you to have some refreshment.

The court is adjourned.

Samsudin Bin Hassan Judge High Court of Malaya Johore Bahru

At The Elevation Ceremony

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

39

Elevation Dinner In Honour Of YA Tuan Samsudin Bin Hassan on 30th April 2014 at KSL Resort Johor Bahru Speech by Mr R. Jayabalan, Chairman of the Johore Bar Committee The guest of honour Yang Arif Tuan Samsuddin Bin Hassan and spouse Puan Nor Aishah Binti Khalid, YangArif Dato’ Mohd Sofian bin Tan Sri Abd Razak, Senior Judge High Court Johor Bahru Yang Arif Dato’ Abdul Rahman bin Sebli, High Court Judge Johor Bahru.

Yang Arif Tuan Teo Say Eng Judicial Commisioner High Court Johor Bahru Yang Arif Tuan Gunalan Muniandy Judicial Commisioner High Court Johor Bahru The Honourable Dato’ Ishak bin Sahari Johore State Legal Advisor And fellow members of the Bar, It is indeed my pleasure to welcome you to this dinner that is held in honour of Yang Arif Tuan Samsudin Bin Hassan who was elevated as a Judge of the High Court of Malaya by His Majesty the Yang Dipertuan Agong on 19.2.2014.

In movie parlance this evening’s dinner is what you may call a sequal. The prequel had taken place earlier today when we had the elevation ceremony in open court to commemorate His Lordship’s elevation. I wish to thank all members who had taken time to witness the proceedings.

This is a particularly happy occasion for the Johore Bar because Yang Arif Tuan Samsuddin’s first posting upon appointment as Judicial Commissioner on 31.5.2010 was to Johor Bahru and we had welcomed you then. Now after close to 4 years we are welcoming you now as His Majesty the King’s Judge.

This is definitely a very happy and proud moment for Your Lordship. It must be more so for your spouse, your life partner Puan Nor Aishah who is also here tonight to share your joy and also your beloved daughter Nor Amira – whom I understand is currently overseas.

To be appointed as His Majesty’s Judge having served as the Judicial Commissioner is a recognition that comes with great honour. It is an acknowledgement of Your Lordship’s service in the administration of justice and of your ability, integrity and intellectual in the dispensation of justice. Being a Judge also requires a heavy undertaking.

It comes with the office. You have to hold firm to your oath of office, uphold the Constitution and discharge your duty without fear or favour. And we have no doubt that Your Lordship will meet this undertaking diligently and religiously and rise to greater heights with this appointment.

Your Lordship’s destination as His Majesty’s Judge came after a long journey of service.

Your Lordship underwent early education at the Clifford School Kuala Kangsar and later at Anderson School Ipoh. Your Lordship’s public service began in 1974 at the Foreign Ministry with designations at the embassies in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and Vienna, Austria.

In 1980 Your Lordship set out to read law at Ealing College in London and graduated in 1984 and passed the CLP in 1985.

In 1986 Your Lordship commenced service as a DPP and served at the AG’s Chambers in Kuala Lumpur.

In 1987 Your Lordship served as DPP for the Royal Malaysian Customs and Excise Department in Kuala Lumpur - handling cases under the Dangerous Drugs Act, Customs Act, Sales Tax Act and other revenue statutes.

In 1989, public service took Your Lordship to Terengganu as DPP. In 1991-1992 Your Lordship travelled for postgraduate study and successfully completed the Master of Arts in Criminology at the University of Leicester, London.

Upon returning in 1992 Your Lordship served as the Legal Advisor for the Royal Malaysian Customs and Excise Department.

In 1994, Your Lordship was appointed as the Deputy Registrar of Companies.

40

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

In 1997 – Your Lordship returned to the Chambers as the Special Officer to Attorney General.

Between 2000 - 2004 – Your Lordship served as the Legal Manager for the Malaysia-Thailand Joint Authority (MTJA).

In 2005 – Your Lordship again went back to the AG’s Chambers, this time as the Senior Federal Counsel at the Law Reform Division.

In 2006 – Your Lordship, having served as the Senior Federal Counsel, went back to criminal practice, as DPP under the Appeals Unit at the AG’s Chambers.

In the midst of these changes, and what must have been a hectic schedule, Your Lordship also successfully completed the Entry Level Exam of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.

In 2008 – Your Lordship was appointed as the Industrial Court Chairman with your first posting in Johor Bahru.

On 31.5.2010 – Your Lordship was appointed as a Judicial Commissioner. Almost 4 years later, on 18.2.2014 Your Lordship was appointed to serve as His Majesty’s Judge of the High Court of Malaya.

Your Lordship’s public service was also recognized by His Royal Highness the Sultan of Terengganu in 1991 with Pingat Jasa Cemerlang and in 2005 with Darjah Setia Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin.

Your Lordship’s experience at many levels of administration and public offices would no doubt serve as a precious tool in the workings under your new appointment.

My Lords, As lawyers, we can imagine that being a Judge is not easy. It must have become more difficult now with the introduction of new case management system whereby the courts have taken over control in conduct of cases from the parties and their respective lawyers.

With the new court driven approach to case management, Judges have taken on additional roles now. The Judge is no longer only a decision maker, he is also the case manager. To carry out his new roles effectively there are now targets to be met, performance indicators to be considered, case disposal rates to be looked at and reports to be submitted. These are additional responsibilities in addition to the classical task of being a decision maker – the arbiter.

I am sure all of us here would agree that despite the means and eagerness to expedite the disposal of cases under the new case management system and the additional roles of a Judge, it is nevertheless undeniable that the priority should always be the need to do justice - for that is the public’s first expectation when they reach the corridors of the courts – and that expectation should not be left unmet. As an American jurist once said “Nothing rankles more in the human heart than a brooding sense of injustice. Illness we can put up with; but injustice makes us want to put things down”.

It behoves upon the Bar to assist the Bench. We are the two sides of currency and yet we are independent of each other. Though we come from different sides our objectives are the same – that is to administer justice. At the elevation ceremony of Justice Suffian as a High Court Judge in 1961, His Lordship, who later rose to be the Lord President, referring to this said : “I yield to no one in recognition of the difficulty and importance of the office which I now have the honour of occupying. In evenly balancing the scales of justice, I will help to maintain the rule of law and two essentials of that rule are the independence of the Bar and the independence of the Judiciary. In our separate tasks we both strive to seek the light of truth. But let us not forget that our tasks will be made much easier if we all try to discharge our duty – you to your client – I to my conscience – in as dispassionate a manner as possible each respecting the other’s integrity and intelligence with the maximum courtesy with no bickering with little or no loss of temper for much heat seldom produces much light.”

Your Lordship has served in Johore Bahru for almost 4 years as Judicial Commissioner and during this period you had impressed us with your humility, courtesy and understanding. Your Lordship may not speak much whilst on the Bench but you have shown that despite the few words, Your Lordship’s focus and attention on the matter at hand had never wavered and counsel could be rest assured that the Court was always with the parties.

I must also put on record here that Your Lordship has always been supportive of the Johore Bar. You have supported our programs with your presence. We have had a cordial relationship with you over the years and you have been a gracious host whenever we knock on your doors. The Johore Bar is indeed grateful for your support and we look forward to more of this in the future.

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

41

On behalf of the Johore Bar, I once again congratulate Your Lordship on your elevation and I pledge the Johore Bar’s fullest support and co-operation to Your Lordship in the discharge of your judicial duty. We also wish Your Lordship a healthy life with long, rewarding and distinguished career on the Bench.

YangArif Dato’ Mohd Sofian, Yang Arif Dato’ Abdul Rahman, Yang Arif Tuan Teo Say Eng and Yang Arif Tuan Gunalan Muniandy, thank you for joining us tonight in our felicitation for your brother Judge.

The Honourable Dato’ Ishak bin Sahari, I understand that you have just taken up office in Johor and this is the first Johore Bar event that you are attending. We welcome you to Johore, sir and hope to see you in our future programs.

My fellow members, thank you for your support and presence tonight. I also wish to thank the Social Sub Committee led by En. Fadhil for organizing this wonderful event. Good night and please enjoy your dinner.

(R. JAYABALAN)

Speech by YA Tuan Samsudin Bin Hassan Mr. R. Jayabalan, Chairman of the Johor Bar, Brother Judges of the Johor Bahru High Court, YB Dato’ Ishak Sahari, Legal Adviser of the State of Johor, Mr. S. Gunasegaran, Bar Representative, Members of the Johor Bar, Assalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh, And a very good evening, Your presence tonight in such large numbers to honour my elevation is something that I shall cherish and remember for which please accept I and my wife’s sincere and deepest appreciation.

Many thanks to the Johor Bar for hosting this wonderful dinner and you have made this a memorable night for me.

My gratitude to Mr. R. Jayabalan for the kind but over generous words which he has been good enough to say about me.

(Pantun Empat Kerat) Biji-bijian Rempah Merata, Ikan Aya Masakan Lara, Puji-pujian Sudah Diperkata, Izinkan saya pula memulakan Bicara.

Being made a judge is an honourable office.

The late Tun Mohd Suffian said a good judge : “….. should be a person who has a sound understanding of general principles and has judicial temperament, i.e. to say : He is a person who is willing to listen and is capable of learning more law as he goes along; Who is courteous, has a instinctive ‘feel’ for what is proper and what is not proper, for what is right and what is not right in and out of Court; and A person who is not personal or vindictive, who will decide solely on the facts as disclosed in the evidence before him and in accordance with his perception of the law, with his ideas of justice and in accordance with his conscience.”

42

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

Judges of late are subject to very close scrutiny of their conduct on and off the bench. In their “on the Bench” conduct the Judge in trying cases especially those of public interest and of public importance have invariably been placed in positions that involves precarious juggling of public sentiments and legal principles. Hence, in upholding the fragile framework of the legal structure Judges would run the risk of public criticism and scepticism and this to me is something that a judge must accept as unavoidable occupational hazard in the face or rising expectancy of our citizenry. Such scrutiny will invariably assist in the Judge being constantly reminded of the impeccable conduct expected of them.

On the Judge’s conduct “off the Bench” the Bar has the vital role to play as it is equally importance for members of the Bar to appreciate the sensitivities of the Judge’s position and not to give the impression of being pally with the Judge to avoid misperceptions by the public.

On the dispensation of justice fairly I am minded of the sage words of the English notable Sir Francis Bacon that “laws are like cobwebs where the small flies are caught and the great break through”. The views of Sir Francis Bacon has been whittled down over the centuries by the perpetual development of the law. Since independence as evidence by the plethora of decided cases in dispensing his Majesty’s justices our Judges have ensured that all and sundry whether big or small will not break through the cobweb and be adjudicated fairly.

As a servant of justice I shall endeavour to dispense His Majesty’s justice fairly and assure you that justice shall not to be sacrificed on the altar of speed. Dispensation of justice must be scrupulously meted out in accordance with the Judge’s oath of office to dispense same without fear or favour.

Thus, being a Judge can sometimes seem to be thankless task. But I take consolation in the fact that a Judge serves a higher purpose in the overall scheme of things. Over and above society’s misconceptions, prejudices and the gripes of the naysayers, a Judge’s duty does not end nor begin at the doorways to the Courts. If the truth is to be told, Judges and all Judicial Officers the world over serve a much higher master. This has been best expressed by renowned English law-maker and Judge, Lord Acton, who is describing a judge’s role as a “protector of liberty” in his 1877 treatise.

With Almighty Allah’s grace, I shall seek to arm myself with all possible legal knowledge, wisdom and spiritual guidance that I may equip myself in the best traditions of a free and unfettered Judicial system. And in the end, I shall hope that my service in the pursuit of justice, shall not be seen as wanting in any material aspects.

In conclusion, I would like to reiterate words spoken by Justice Vernon Ong Lam Kiat in his closing speech during the dinner held in conjunction of his elevation here in Johor Bahru, Johor on 4th June 2010 : “I am a man doing an important job; not an important man doing a job. I will be slow to anger, rich in courtesy, consideration and understanding. I look forward to the continue assistance and cooperation of the Johor Bar.” Thank you again, good night and Assalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.

Samsudin Bin Hassan Judge High Court of Malaya Johor Bahru Johor

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

43

ELEVATION CEREMONY AND DINNER IN HONOUR OF YA TUAN SAMSUDIN BIN HASSAN in picture

“So, are you sure want to practice?”

Smiley faces

Wives only!

…..and the VIPs are…

44

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

“What happened to MH370?”

3D background

“I must get used to this”

“I’m starving…”

Pretty maidens

A British view on the burka Last weekend while wandering around the Serpentine in Hyde Park, I noticed two burkaclad figures sitting on a bench next to a man. I’ve grown so used to seeing women in Knightsbridge swathed in black that I didn’t think about it until my puppy started rootling enthusiastically around them. The man looked annoyed, so I called my puppy away but as I did so one of the figures in burkas kicked out its leg and I suddenly realised it was a man — with a size ten foot in a scruffy canvas trainer — and a hairy ankle.

“Mummy,” my daughter whispered, “There’s a man in there.” I found myself saying, “I know, darling, but if men want to wear burkas they can. It’s not my kind of thing but in some cultures people do cover up.” It did unsettle me, though, and we walked home slightly too quickly. I felt ridiculous for worrying until I heard the news about a terror suspect absconding from a mosque in a burka. I then realised that my views about different cultures have become strangely contorted. I feel so strongly that Britain is at its best when at its most tolerant that I am prepared to accept almost any other culture’s behaviour, however much it jars with my own beliefs.

Alice Thomson

But I also feel increasingly that my liberal views are being abused. Perhaps I am letting other women down when I tacitly condone the wearing of burkas and am not more incensed by antiquated, misogynistic and cultural traditions such as forced marriages or female genital mutilation, which are undermining my country’s values or even helping to destroy them.

I once spent a few days wearing a burka in a refugee camp on the Afghan border. The local imam asked We must be angrier at cultural traditions that promote misogyny me to don a vast blue contraption while I interviewed families who had fled the fighting. As one woman described the agony of losing four daughters and a son to mines, malnutrition and a motorbike accident, I couldn’t see her reactions until she began to sob behind her shroud. I waddled over to comfort her but, halfblinded by my veil, I tripped and we both ended up sprawled on the floor of the tent, thrashing around together.

I found the burka almost impossible to handle. It was so disorienting. I could only see straight ahead; I couldn’t hold a child’s hand or give an encouraging smile. It wasn’t just hot and impractical: it created a barrier that made it harder for me to hear, see or empathise. As Peter Butler, who has worked on face transplantation in the NHS, explained to me: “The face is the first feature we look at. It’s about survival. Its how we work out whether someone will attack or embrace us.”

I like the hijab. When I see schoolgirls, teachers, doctors or female athletes wearing headscarves, they don’t feel threatening — they look graceful. Only a generation ago, women in Britain wore hats for church and public events. The burka is different, however. It is not a religious requirement, but a passive-aggressive statement, an attack on the fundamental Western principles of openness, transparency and equality of the sexes.

The person hiding in it is suggesting that either she or her family mistrusts our society. It implies that wearers believe that men are inherently dangerous and may pounce if they view any flesh.

With body tattoos, face-piercing or almost all other attire, you can still smile, shake hands and share food to show you are a friend. A sari is a stunning form of female dress that attracts admiring comments (ask Samantha Cameron), and a niqab or chador at least shows the eyes, but a burka prevents any communication.

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

45

To ban burkas in public places, as the French have done, even if they have been used here as a disguise by fugitives, would make Britain appear draconian; but we shouldn’t be embarrassed to make it clear that we don’t support the practice. We should insist that people should not be allowed to cover their faces when interaction, freedom of movement or security is an issue. This includes The burka cuts people off from each other, undermining empathy schools where both pupils and teachers need to be able to engage fully and participate in discussions and activities (and that includes swimming for girls), hospitals, surgeries and courts of law, as Ken Clarke, one of the most liberal Tories, suggested this week. The burka could be worn in other public places but the law would send out a message that the country doesn’t approve of women being disguised and disabled by these garments.

Our attitude to female genital mutilation is even more bizarre. This gouging out of a woman’s body is a grotesque mutilation and has been illegal in Britain since 1985, and yet we are still nervous of condemning the practice. The Government is aware that more than 66,000 women in England and Wales have undergone FGM and more than 24,000 girls under the age of 16 are at risk of it. Despite this, not one Person bas been prosecuted. A report out yesterday, Tackling Female Genital - Mutilation in the UK, suggests that the practice should be treated by social workers and the medical profession as child abuse. In France again, they have taken a tougher line, with more than 100 prosecutions but it has involved allowing routine checks on young girls by the medical profession.

A few female ministers in Britain are interested in a screening programme here for teenage pupils, but this would be immensely costly and an unnecessary invasion of every girl’s privacy. Instead, health visitors and midwives could assess the girls we believe are at most risk, those whose families have close links to countries such as Somalia, Egypt, Ethiopia and Eritrea, where the practice is common. “Picking out one or two groups to be monitored would appear judgmental,” one minister said, “and may inflame religious and racial sensibilities.” I disagree. Safeguarding young girls from being tortured with a blade is more important.

We need to send out a message that, if you choose to live in Britain, you will be protected from any cruel and archaic practices, customs or traditions that belong to the medieval era. We will standup for both your best interests and our way of life - without compromise.

By Alice Thomson

The Times of London

6/11/2013

46

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

Hyde Park Corner - A Miscellany At-Law and A Potpouri compiled by S. Balarajah NEW BENCHER OF LINCOLN’S INN THE RT HON TUN ARIFIN BIN ZAKARIA made Hon. Bencher The Rt Hon Tun Arifin bin Zakaria was born in Kelantan, Malaysia. After completing his secondary education he took an LLB at Sheffield University and an LLM at University College, London, and was called to the bar by Lincoln’s Inn in July 1979. After a distinguished career in the Judicial and Legal Service of Malaysia, he became a judge of the High Court of Malaysia and later a judge of the Court of Appeal and then of the Federal Court.

On 12 September 2011 he was appointed as the Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Malaysia.

HEARTIEST CONGRATULATIONS TO YAA FROM THE JOHORE BAR! Singham calls it a day after serving on the Bench for 13 years

By M Mageswari The Star, 29th June 2013 KUALA LUMPUR: High Court judge Datuk V.T. Singham (pic), who on Wednesday delivered the landmark judgment in the case of suspected car thief A. Kugan who died in police custody, has retired.

Justice Singham clocked out as he turned 65 yesterday after serving on the Bench for 13 years. He could have served an additional year, but he chose to retire.

Chief Justice Tan Sri Arifin Zakaria explained: “He chose to retire at 65. There was an amendment over the retirement age for judges to 66.

“He is the only High Court judge who wanted to retire at the age of 65,” he said.

Arifin described Justice Singham as a dedicated judge and thanked him for his service.

Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin said Justice Singham was among the better judges in the country.

“I personally organised a farewell for him on Wednesday afternoon and delivered a letter of appreciation signed by the Chief Justice to him,” he said.

He said the judge’s retirement had nothing to do with his judgment that the Government and police were liable for Kugan’s death.

“It (the rumours) has reflected badly on the judiciary. He (Singham) decided a long time ago to retire at 65,” he added.

He was appointed as a judicial commissioner on June 1, 2000 and elevated to High Court judge on May 15, 2002.

Justice Singham’s court staff said that they admired his way of handling cases.

“He is really an efficient and dedicated judge. He did not practise any sort of favouritism,” they said.

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

47

Ex-don cleared of corruption The Star, 1st March 2014 The Straits Times / Asia News Network

Info Johore Bar Cited in Judgement In a well crafted judgment in Comsa Farms Bhd v Malaysian Assurance Alliance Bhd (2012) 10 MLJ page 537 Justice Hamid Sultan penned: “Senior advocate, S. Balarajah, of the Johore Bar, in an article published by INFO Johore Bar (2012) quoted a paragraph which is relevant to the subject matter and it reads as follows:

Justice Hamid Sultan

In the book “The Art of Writing Judgment” B.N. Chaudhuri wrote as follows: A Magistrate is fully justified in making criticisms in his judgment (provided he does so in restrained and decorous terms), of matter relevant to the conduct and merits of the case and of persons who are witnesses but he should confine his criticisms to matter that are strictly relevant to the issue involved. He should be careful to avoid criticisms of the conduct of persons who are not witnesses specially when they are in responsible official position. While on the one hand Courts are at liberty to discuss the conduct of the persons before them either as parties or as witnesses, untrammeled by any considerations on the other they are not permitted to travel beyond the record and are bound to exercise due restraint on the language employed by them.”

FORMER law professor Tey Tsun Hang (pic), who was accused of obtaining sex and gifts from one of his students, has been acquitted of corruption by the High Court. But even as he cleared Tey of criminal wrongdoing, Justice Woo Bih Li had strong words for the Tey Tsun Hang ex-professor, saying that he was “a man without honour”.

Tey, 42, was not in court to hear the decision. He had chosen to serve the five-month jail term handed down by a district court that convicted him in June last year and has since been released from prison.

Justice Woo said Tey had abused his position as a lecturer and exploited law student Darinne Ko. Justice Woo also said that the trial judge was wrong in concluding that Ko’s intention of giving Tey gifts and having sex with him was because she was trying to get better grades in return.

“The trial judge was wrong to equate morally reprehensible conduct with what is legally wrong,” said Justice Woo.

Maid believed to be worried about her bleak future and her illegal status, say police

By Charles Ramendran The Sun, 27th February 2014 PETALING JAYA: A bout of depression is believed to have driven an Indonesian maid to kill her employer’s two sons, before taking her own life.

The woman, who is in her 30s and known only as Agnes, was said to be a devout Christian and a loving babysitter to 18month-old Melvin Selvam Joseph and his stepbrother Koay Jia Hong, aged five. But on Tuesday, she allegedly slit the throats of the two boys before doing the same to herself at their home in Taman Seri Putra, Sungai Buloh.

48

The children’s mother (second from right) being accompanied by family members at the Sungai Buloh Hospital.

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

1 billion people flew without passport checked The Sun, 11th March 2014 LONDON: More than a billion air journeys were taken last year without passengers’ details being checked against a stolenpassport database, Interpol said on Sunday in a stinging sritique of aircraft security following the Malaysia Airlines incident.

The international police agency confirmed that at least two stolen passports, one Austrian and one Italian, were used by passengers on flight MH370 that disappeared over the South China Sea after taking off from Kuala Lumpur and bound for Beijing early on Saturday morning.

Improve Judicial Transparency The Star, 22nd March 2014

BEIJING : China’s top prosecutor Cao Jianming promised greater transparency in law enforcement and case handling, especially Cao Jianming for “important cases”.

Prosecuting authorities will speed up the recruitment of spokespersons who will hold briefings and publicize the handling of major cases in a more timely manner, Cao said.

He was speaking at a press conference on judicial issues of public concern, including judicial fairness and criminalizing environmental damage. Judicial fairness should be accessible to all ordinary people, said Cao. Drop in teenage rape cases The Sun, 19th March 2014 KUALA LUMPUR: Statistics show that the number of statutory rape cases declined slightly last year as compared to the previous year, Deputy Home Minister Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar told the Dewan Rakyat today.

Noting that 80% of cases involve Malay teenagers, he said this is because the community is “more sensitive” to teenagers being involved in pre-marital sex, thus the high number of cases reported.

He said in 2012, the number of rape cases involving teenagers aged 16 years and below was 1,550, consisting of 1,243 Malays (80%), 73 Chinese (5%), 45 Indians (45%) and 189 (12%) other races. Last year, it dropped to 1,424 cases, consisting of 1,147 Malays, 62 Chinese, 32 Indian and 183 other races.

The Sun, 27th February 2014

The Sun, 4th March 2014

RAPE, RAGE, AND REPLACEMENT Compared to what’s said to be a global epidemic of rape now raging, the statistics for rape in Sri Lanka are relatively mild. There is a rape taking place every four minutes in South Africa, for instance. It is almost pointless making comparisons with India, where not just rape are horrific, and mimic the blood and gore scenes of sexual violence often depicted in Bollywood flicks.

But, the ‘one billion rising march’ that was held at Lipton’s Circus the other day, and other such efforts, though harmless, also seem to be exercises that are knee-jerk, and after a fashion.

Apparently, ‘one billion rising’ was a global effort led by Jane Fonda, or some such celebrity.

Participating in an anti-rape march just because a Western celebrity deemed it the appropriate thing to do is, to say the very least cringe inducing.

The rub is that these issues are often magnified out of proportion by the political charlatans of the day, and it’s why the recent Valentine’s Day brouhaha by the JVP, and the ‘one billion rising’ march smacks of disingenuousness, though this editorial is not a quarrel with woman asserting their right not to be molested in public spaces.

The Daily News Colombo, 16.2.2013

2 Aussies want Sri Lanka job of hangman News Straits Times, 15th March 2014 COLOMBO: Two Australians have applied in vain for Sri Lanka’s hangman job after the island nation’s last official executioner got upset on seeing the gallows for the first time and quit.

“Two Australians sent emails to us, saying that they are interested,” Chandrarathna Pallegama, commissioner general of prisons, said on Thursday.

“One is a system administrator and the other had not mentioned the job he is doing,” he said. “We have not called applicants, moreover, we do not have any provisions to recruit foreigners.”

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

49

Still ‘OK’ after 175 years of use Sunday Star, 23rd March 2014 WASHINGTON : Whatever you’re doing, wherever you might be, take a moment to reflect on the most popular word in English language, OK? It will be 175 years since OK-or, as some prefer, okay – first appeared in print, on page two of The Boston Morning Post, then one of the most popular newspapers in the United States.

“I think OK should be celebrated with parades and speeches,” Allan Metcalf, an English professor in Illinois who is the world’s leading authority on the history and meaning of OK, said.

Oxford Dictionaries, on its website, rejects speculation that OK is derived from the Scottish expression “och aye”, the Greek “ola kala” (it’s good) or the French “aux Cayes”, which refers to a Haitian port famous for its rum.

Convict dies of heart attack 40 minutes after execution halted The Star, 1st May 2014 WASHINGTON: A US inmate died of a heart attack more than 40 minutes after his execution was halted due to a botched lethal injection, triggering claim of torture.

The tragic end to the life of Clayton Lockett, a convicted murder and rapist, caused Oklahoma to postpone the execution of a second inmate.

Lockett was administered a new, untested three-drug protocol in what would have been the central state’s first double execution in 80 years. But Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Robert Patton ordered the execution of Lockett stopped about three or four minutes after the start of the injection at 6.23pm on Tuesday, citing a “vein failure”, a prisons spokesman said.

Lockett died of a “massive heart attack” at 7.06pm after receiving all three drugs, spokesman Jerry Massie said. Even though he was administered the injection, “the drugs didn’t go into the system”, the spokesman added.

The drugs included a sedative, an anaesthetic and a lethal dose of potassium chloride.

Doctor gets 10 years The Sun, 27th Feb 2014 OTTAWA: A Canadian anesthesiologist was sentenced to 10 years in prison Tuesday for sexually assaulting 21 women while they were sedated but still aware of their surroundings.

George Doodnaught was convicted in November of kissing, fondling and forcing oral sex on the patients at North York General Hospital in Toronto during a fouryear period that ended in 2010.

The victims were aware of what was happening but could not move, the court heard.

In delivering the sentence, Ontario Superior Court Judge David McCombs called the crimes “shocking and abhorrent,” according to public broadcaster CBC.

50

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

Love triangle ends with trio jumping into river The Star, 22nd March 2014

THREE students jumped into a river in Fuzhou, China, when they could not solve their love triangle, Kwong Wah Yit Poh reported.

Luckily, they were saved by rescuers who rushed to the scene after receiving a distress call in the wee hours of March 18.

It is learnt that the 16-year-old trio had gone to the riverside to discuss their relationship.

When the boy could not decide who to choose among the two girls, one of them jumped into the river.

The boy quickly jumped in to save her.

However, the other girl also jumped into the river after seeing both of them in the water.

Christian woman in centre of khalwat storm The Sun, 19th March 2014

GEORGETOWN : An Indonesian Catholic woman’s effort to prove that she cannot be tried on a khalwat charge received a boost yesterday when the Syariah Court of Appeal shot down a prosecutor’s objection preventing her from being heard.

Court chairman Tan Sri Ibrahim Lembut, who led a three-man panel, ruled that the objections against Halimah’s move (she uses only one name) were technical in nature and not likely to affect the course of justice.

Son of Tan Hock Kim

WEE BIT ON WINES TO SHOW OFF! LawLink Nov 2013 Tan Hock Kim was senior partner of Tan & Tan in JB before he retired 2 decades ago The Sun, 20th March 2014

In some places, this is a bad sign?

Bordeaux Beaujolais Loire Pinot Noir Haute Cote Nouveau Brouilly Chenas

= = = = = = = =

Chiroubles Chablis Fleurie Julienas Moulin a Vent

= = = = =

Cote de Nuits

=

Cote de Beaune = Cote de Brouilly = Saone-et-Loire =

borh-doe boe-zhoe-lay Iwarh pinoe nwarh oet koet (or “oat coat”!) nu-voe brhu-yi she-na (the ‘e’ is a schwa pronounced like the ‘a’ in “ago”) shi-rhu:bl shab-li fle-rhi (the ‘e’ is a schwa) zhu-li-na mu-le ah vo (both the ‘e’ and the ‘o’ are nasal) koet de nwi (the ‘e’ in “de” is a schwa) koet de boen koet de brhu-yi sa-on-eh-Iwarh

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

51

ANNUAL DINNER & DANCE 2014

AT MUTIARA HOTEL JOHOR BAHRU ON 22nd FEBRUARY 2014 Speech by the Chairman of the Johore Bar Committee (a) The Rt. Honourable Tun Arifin bin Zakaria, the Chief Justice of Malaysia & His Lovely Spouse Toh Puan Robiah binti Abd Kadir (b) The Honourable Justice Dato’ Abdul Halim bin Aman & Datin Safiah binti Md. Tahir S. Gunasegaran (c) The Honourable Justice Dato’ Mohd Sofian bin Tan Sri Abd Razak & Datin Norhuda binti Hussin (d) The Honourable Justice Dato’ Hj. Zainal Azman bin Ab Aziz (e) The Honourable Justice Dato’ Abdul Rahman bin Sebli (f) The Honourable Justice Tuan Samsudin bin Hassan & Puan Nor Aishah binti A. Khalid (g) The Honourable Judicial Commissioner Tuan Teo Say Eng & Puan Poh Hui Lin (h) The Honourable Judicial Commissioner Tuan M. Gunalan and his Spouse Puan Sithira Devi (i) Mr Steven Thiru, Vice-President of the Malaysian Bar (j) Yang Berbahagia Dato’ Hasnan bin Hassan, Ketua Siasatan Jenayah Johor (k) Mr Huang Shze Jiun, Regional Chairman of the Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA) (l) Ir. David Lee Hoke Hai, Chairman Institution of Engineers Malaysia, Johor (m) Dr. Muruga Raj, Chairman of the Malaysian Medical Association, Johor (n) Dr. Angie Wong Chin Mee, Chairperson of the Malaysian Dental Association Johor (o) Dr. Janice Lee, Chairperson of the Institution of Surveyors Malaysia, Johor (p) AR Normal Ahmad, Chairman Malaysian Institute of Architects, Johor (q) My Fellow Brothers and Sisters at Law (r) Distinguished Guests (s) Ladies and Gentlemen.

2. I wish very good evening to all of you and welcome to the Annual Dinner and Dance of the Johor Bar. 3. Tonight we are very pleased to have the Chief Justice Malaysia, The Rt. Honourable Tun Arifin bin Zakaria as our Guest-of-Honour. Although His Lordship has attended the Dinner & Dance of the Johore Bar on previous occasions, this is his first appearance as Chief Justice. Yang Amat Arif, thank you very much for accepting our invitation and honoring us with your presence. I hope that you would enjoy the company and hospitality of Johore lawyers.

4. Before I proceed further, allow me to offer the Johore Bar’s heartiest congratulations to Justice Samsudin bin Hassan on his appointment as a Judge of the High Court of Malaya by His Majesty the Yang Dipertuan Agong last Wednesday. We are confident that the experience and knowledge that you have gained as a Judicial Commissioner for the past three years will serve you well in the discharge of your judicial functions and we wish you a successful tenure on the Bench.

4. This morning we had our Annual General Meeting. The AGM of the Johore Bar is always a very exciting event, and something that a lot of us look forward to. Not just to elect a new Chairman and Committee, but to bash the Committee for this and that and to see some fireworks. Well, we did have some sparks this morning, but thankfully, there was no explosion. As a result, I was able to complete my third year in office in one piece and hand over the reins to my successor peacefully.

5. And now it’s my pleasure to introduce the newly elected members of the JBC for the year 2014/15: Chairman: R. Jayabalan

52

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

Committee members: 1. Mathews George 2. Fadhil Ihsan 3. Pn. Shahareen Begum 4. C. Sankaran 5. Ms. Santhi Balachandran 6. Ms. Gun Huei Shin 7. Ng Kai Choy 8. Hardip Singh 9. Kuna Nadesan Johore Bar Representative: S. Gunasegaran 5. Looking back, the past year had been a very active year for the Johore Bar. Court issues, as usual, kept us busy for most of the year. The issues and problems were resolved through regular meetings between the Bench and the Bar. Having a friendly and understanding Senior Judge or Hakim Utama in the person of Justice Dato’ Abdul Halim bin Aman was a real blessing. We managed to thrash out a lot of issues, which not only kept our members happy, but kept me free from trouble as well.

6. Although His Lordship has since gone on transfer to the Shah Alam High Court to continue his good work there, we are pleased to have Justice Dato’ Mohd Sofian bin Tan Sri Abd Razak as his successor as Hakim Utama for he is another Judge who is friendly and will go the extra mile to resolve issues and to reduce the stress level for all of us. In fact, just last Wednesday we troubled him with a matter that had caused our members some concern, and I am pleased to report that he has agreed to resolve it soonest possible.

7. I also take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the Judge of the Muar High Court and my old University classmate, Justice Dato’ Hj. Zainal Azman bin Ab Aziz, for his support and help in keeping North Johor a troublefree zone.

8. Continuing Professional Development is a matter that has always been close to the heart of the Johore Bar. We have developed an active CPD programme for our members long before the Bar Council mooted the idea of a mandatory CPD scheme. We continued with that tradition and organized a record number of talks, seminars and workshops last year. 17 in all, of which 4 were held in Muar, for the benefit of our brethren in North Johor.

This would not have been possible if not for the dedication and commitment of the Chairperson of the CPD Sub-Committee Puan Norhayati binti Mohamed. I commend you for your excellent work.

9. But perhaps the most significant event last year was the Official Opening of the Johore Bar Building by the President of the Malaysian Bar.After functioning for years from rented premises in various buildings, the Johore Bar finally acquired a five-storey shop-house in Jalan Tun Abdul Razak in 2012, and after carrying out extensive renovations and repairs, we finally moved into our very own building last year. This is a matter of pride and joy for us. Indeed a milestone for the Johore Bar. Thanks are due to the following: Firstly, the Bar Council for providing the funds to purchase the said property.

Secondly, members of the Johore Bar for providing a sum of RM 392,750.00 through a one-time payment of RM 250.00 each to part-finance the renovation works.

Thirdly, the Chairman of the Building, Library and Members’ Welfare Sub-Committee, Mr. Andrew Wong, who not only responded to my call and came on board to serve in the Johore Bar Committee for three years in a row, but for almost single-handedly handling the building project and seeing to its successful completion. Terima Kasih Saudara Andrew.

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

53

10. This Dinner and Dance is the highlight of the social calendar of the Johore Bar. Organizing a function of this magnitude is no ordinary feat. The Social Sub-Committee led by the bubbly and dynamic Meneka has worked so hard over the past couple of months to organize this for us and believe me they have spared no effort in putting up a fantastic show for us. Meneka you have done this once before when I was Chairman eleven years ago and have done it again now. The least I can do in return is to buy myself this gold coloured tie, in compliance with your dress code for this function to wear something in gold. Prior to this I did not possess a gold colour tie. Well done and thank you Meneka.

11. We are very glad that the Rt. Honourable Chief Justice will be launching the Johore Bench and Bar Club tonight. The purpose of this Club is to promote understanding, friendship and goodwill between the Bench and the Bar. The importance of having and maintaining good relationship between the Bench and the Bar cannot be over-emphasized. We are the twin pillars of Justice. We may play different roles in court, but we serve the common master, “Justice.” We are not adversaries but friends-at-law. And as friends it is important to maintain and strengthen our friendly ties. In Johor we have over the years taken great pains to nurture and to preserve good relationship between the Bench and the Bar. The Annual Bench and Bar v Police Games which started in 1968, now in its 45th year and still going strong bears ample testimony to that. In addition we have been having the Annual Bench v Bar Games for many years and last year Justice Dato’ Abdul Halim donated a Challenge Trophy. Responding to the call of the Honourable Chief Justice to form some sort of an association to further strengthen the bond between the Bench and the Bar, the then Hakim Utama of the Johor Bahru High Court, Dato’ Abdul Halim invited the Johore Bar Committee to do a feasibility study. And after a series of meetings, the idea to form the Johore Bench and Bar Club was mooted. The Club will, among others, jointly organize social, sports and other events that are mutually beneficial to us and take the Bench and Bar relationship to greater heights in future.

12. My fellow members of the Johore Bar, it has been an honour and privilege to have been given the opportunity to lead the Johore Bar for the past three years. I thank you for placing your trust and confidence in me. I enjoyed every moment of it, thought it was taxing and at times exhausting. I have tried to fulfill your expectations and I hope that you are not disappointed with the result.

13. I owe a debt of gratitude to the members of my Committee for guiding and assisting me in the discharge of my functions, most of them for all three years. I know I could not have performed or delivered without your support. Also, a special thank you to the efficient staff of the Johore Bar Secretariat both in Johor Bahru and in Muar, ably led by the ever willing, smiling and energetic Pn. Siti, our Executive Secretary, for taking care of all secretariat matters, and for organizing and executing all our activities, including this function. You have been a great source of help and strength and I will be missing you.

14. Finally I must thank my wife Chandrika for standing by me at all times, counseling and helping me in many ways and most importantly standing in for me in the office and in court when I was busy attending to the Bar Committee and Bar Council work. Don’t worry, come Monday you will be relieved of all those burdens.

15. Thank You and have a pleasant evening.

S. GUNASEGARAN Chairman Johore Bar Committee 2013/14

54

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

“All that glitters” was the theme of this year’s Annual Dinner and Dance held at the Mutiara Hotel Johor Bahru on 22nd February 2014 and our members certainly took us up on the theme and sportingly “glittered” up for the event.

We had a record breaking 35 tables this year I am proud to say so (I guess) all that begging and cajoling made a difference. (A big thank you to all who attended) K. Meneka Our Guest of Honour, the Chief Justice of Malaysia, YAA Tun Dato’ Seri Arifin bin Zakaria , together with all the High Court Judges in Johor and their spouses were greeted by silat exponents from Yayasan Warisan Johor much to the delight of all who were there.

Mutiara Hotel did not fail to please with their sumptuous Chinese cuisine which put everyone in the mood to be entertained. And entertained we were!

Ezlynn wowed the audience with her powerful vocals and light hearted banter. She skillfully managed to get the guests to sing along with her and even managed to include several Broadway numbers in her repertoire which was a pleasant surprise.

Another first for the Johor Bar was the official inauguration of the Bench and Bar Club by our Chief Justice.

Dato’ Abdul Halim Bin Aman, our recently transferred Hakim Utama who had actually mooted the idea and was personally responsible for its inception in Johor, joined the CJ on stage to “beat” the gong (Johor Bar does everything in style!) the customary 3 times to symbolise that the “BBC Club” was now officially launched.

In a complete turnaround, we were then bombarded with the utterly hilarious antics of our comedian, Louis the Maestro who had everyone in stitches. His impersonations were complete with hysterical outfits and headgear. People could barely swallow their dessert for fear of having a coughing fit.

Once the VIPs had left, the dancing started and what a hoot that was! It was truly refreshing to see our members let their hair (and guard) down and boogie the night away.

We called off the night at about 1 am when we literally had to drag ourselves from the dance floor.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who made contributions both in cash and kind to make this event a success. Special thanks to the estate of the late Mr E Ramasamy for their generous contribution.

All in all, I thought it was a great success and a befitting tribute to our outgoing Chairman, Mr S Gunasegaran who ended his 3 year term with yet another feather in his cap.

See you all next year.

Written by, Meneka Kanasmoorthy

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

55

56

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

57

Candid Shots at Johore Bar Annual Dinner 2014

58

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

Welcome High Tea For YA Dato’ Mohd Sofian Bin Tan Sri Abd Razak on 12th of February 2014 at the Berjaya Waterfront Hotel We had great pleasure in organizing a Hi Tea for His Lordship to welcome him to Johor Bahru and introduce him to our Johore Bar custom on 12th of February 2014 at the Berjaya Waterfront Hotel. Dato’ Sofian replaces Dato’ Hj. Abdul Halim bin Aman. Being a former member of the Bar counsel and with him at the helm, we have no doubt that the Johore Bar will continue to enjoy the good rapport that we have had over the years with the Judiciary.

The VIPs at the main table. From left YA Tuan Gunalan, Bar Chair Mr Gunasegaran, YA Dato’ Mohd Sofian and Ms Serene Ong

A private shot. From left : Wong Boon Lee, Jayabalan, Ravichandran, Dato’ Dr KF Wong, Wong Boon Chong and Chua Yee Ling

3 Dato’s in a row. Dato’ Zaman and junior Aimi, Dato’ Yeo Yang Poh and Dato’ Dr KF Wong.

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

59

Workshop on Solicitors’ Remuneration Order 2005 on the 17th of February 2014 in Muar Traders Hotel, JB On 17th of February 2014, Johore Bar and Bar Council Continuing Professional Development Committee jointly organized a Workshop on Solicitors’ Remuneration Order 2005 in Muar Traders Hotel in Johor. Mr Andrew Wong, a senior and experienced member of the bar conducted the workshop which was attended by 52 members of the Bar and public.

Mr Andrew Wong holds Court

Emphasizing a point in a casual way

Paper paper everywhere!

Cor! that is funny!

So much notes…

Hello, not so near lah Andrew!

60

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

Annual General Meeting (AGM) on the 22nd Of February 2014 at JOTIC Auditorium On 22nd of February 2014, the Johore Bar‘s Annual General Meeting (AGM) was held in the JOTIC Auditorium with a quorum of 112 members. Mr R. Jayabalan was elected as the Chairman, while Mr S Gunasegaran is the Bar Representative and Pn Nik Raihan Binti Nik Ja’afar was appointed as the Honorary Secretary. The newly elected committee of 2014/2015 is as below : Chairman: R. Jayabalan Committee Members: Puan Shahareen Begum Binti Abdul Subhan Hardip Singh Mathews George Kuna Nadasen C. Sankaran Ms. Santhi a/p Balachandran Ms. Gun Huei Shin Fadhil Ihsan Bin Mohamad Hassan Ng Kai Choy Andrew Wong Fook Hin (Co-opted)

D’ new Chair (Kerusi Baru)

Bar Representative: S. Gunasegaran Hon Secretary: Puan Nik Raihan Binti Nik Ja’afar

D outgoing committee facing the firing squad?

Bar T-shirts for sale

Shedding some light

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

61

Regional Training Series 2014: Exclusive Preview for University of London Master of Laws Programme, held in Johor Bar Auditorium on the 25th of February 2014 Dr James J Busuttil, the Director of the UOL Postgraduate Laws Programme, and a staff at Queen Mary UOL and University College London gave a talk on Master of Law Programme to the members on the 25th of February 2014 in Johore Bar Auditorium. The programmes offer a wide choice of subjects and specializations, are flexible, as Members will be able to earn their postgraduate qualifications on a progressive basis. The talk was attended by about 10 members and it ended off with a token of appreciation given to Dr. Busuttil by our Chairman, Mr. R. Jayabalan.

Dr Busuttil (not a good shot, cameraman!)

Thought the Johore Bar with 1650 members was 3rd largest in the country. But only 10 attendees?

62

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

Lonely lady…

TQ sir for your efforts!

JBC Courtesy Call on the Judges and Judicial Commissioners of the High Court in Johor Bahru on 19th March 2014 The new Committee took office after the AGM and elections on 22nd of February 2014. As a tradition, the new Committee paid a courtesy call on the Judges and Judicial Commissioners of the High Court in Johor Bahru on the 19th of March 2014 at Menara Cyberport.

A photo shot – The new Johore Bar Committee and judges

A nice welcome

A cordial meet

JBC Courtesy Call on the Honourable Judge YA Dato’ Hj. Zainal Azman bin Ab Aziz on 3rd of April 2014 in Muar High Court JBC paid a courtesy call on the Honourable Judge YA Dato’ Hj. Zainal Azman bin Ab Aziz held in the Muar High Court on the 3rd of April 2014. The Committee members present were the Chairman, R Jayabalan, Hardip Singh for the Sports Committee, KC Ng for the Human Rights Committee, Ms. Gun Huei Shin for the Young Lawyers Committee, Fadhil for the Social Committee and the JBC’s member in charge of the Northern districts - Chairperson for the North Johore Affairs Ms Shahareen Begum.

The JBC with YA Dato’ Hj Zainal Azman INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

63

LUNCHEON WITH MUAR HIGH COURT JUDGE, MEMBERS OF THE JUDICIARY AND MEMBERS OF THE BAR ON THE 3RD OF APRIL 2014 IN MUAR COURT COMPLEX Speech by the Chairman of Johore Bar Committee at the luncheon Yang Arif Dato’ Haji Zainal Azman Bin Ab Aziz, High Court Judge in Muar, Puan Rajeswari a/p Kannakiah, Deputy Registrar of High Court Muar Puan Yusna Khadijah Binti Md Yusop, Senior Assistant Registrar High Court Muar Tuan Mohd Fauzi Bin Mohd Nasir, Judge Sessions Court 1, Puan Roszianayati Binti Ahmad, Judge Sessions Court 2, Magistrate Puan Suzana Binti Mokhtar, Tuan Muhammad Hidayat Bin Wahab, Senior Assistant Registrar for Sessions/ R Jayabalan Magistrate Court, Puan Nor Iza Binti Mohamed and Tuan Ramachandra Bin Koran, Registrars for Sessions Court and Magistrate Court SFC Tan Lee Chim for AG’s chambers and Ms Karen Cheah for Bar Council I wish you a very good afternoon and welcome. On behalf of the Johore Bar I would like to express our appreciation to Yang Arif and judicial officers as aforementioned for kindly accepting our invitation to attend this luncheon.

To my fellow members of the Bar, thank you for your presence here today.

As you know, the Johore Bar Committee is now – what we may call - ‘under new management’. The new Committee took office after the AGM and election on 22.2.2014. We paid a courtesy call on the High Court judges in Johor Bahru on 19.3.2014 and this morning we paid our courtesy call upon Yang Arif Dato’ Hj Zainal Azman – here at the Muar High Court.

Yang Arif, thank you for hosting us this morning.

This luncheon is the first opportunity for the Committee to meet the members of the Northern districts of Johore and introduce ourselves. For those who may still be wondering, my name is R. Jayabalan and I am, the Chairman for the Johore Bar Committee for the term 2014/15.

Let me introduce the other committee members who are present today.

Hardip Singh – Sports Committee KC Ng – Human Rights Committee Ms Gun – Young Lawyers Committee Fadhil – Social Committee Finally, the JBC’s ambassador to the Northern districts - Chairperson for the North Johore Affairs Ms Shahareen Begum. I am sure Shahareen is an all familiar person to you by now; no further introduction maybe necessary.

64

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

Dear members, It is the Johore Bar Committee’s statutory duty under sec. 73 of the LPA 1976 to promote and safeguard the interests of lawyers and to provide amenities for and generally to promote the welfare of lawyers in Johore. The various committees as I had introduced earlier were set up over the years by the Johore Bar precisely to carry out these responsibilities.

However these committees can only function with the support of the members – that is you. Without your support there is nothing much we can. For this reason I hope that the North Johore lawyers will continue giving your support to our programs at this side of Johor.

To the senior lawyers, many of whom are here today, please continue backing us up, not only with your words of encouragement and sometimes with your wallet, but also with your presence at our programs.

Your presence, and your experience is an essential guide for the Johore Bar Committee in discharging our responsibilities.

To the young lawyers, please come and join us at the Bar programs. As the saying goes the more the merrier. Come and support the seniors and learn from them in managing the Bar. You are the majority at the Bar, you are the largest group of court going lawyers so you must have your say in the way the Bar is to be managed and in the way practice should be shaped. Please do not feel intimidated. Do not feel shy.

Yang Arif, The Bench and the Bar in Johore have a close working relationship. This is something that we have carefully built over the years. There is a strong sense of understanding of each other’s problems and difficulties.

It is this two-way relationship that have helped the courts and lawyers in ensuring that cases are not only disposed off expeditiously and economically but also that justice is served to the litigant – in procedure and substance. After all, parties come to court not only to have their disputes disposed off fast but more importantly to be disposed off justly.

On this note, I must put on record the Johore Bar’s appreciation to Yang Arif for your openness towards the Bar and willingness to listen to our grouses and in searching for an amicable solution to our issues.

I also wish to express the Johore Bar’s appreciation to the Sessions Court Judges, Registrars and Magistrates at the Northern districts, many of whom are present today for your willingness and understanding to work together with the Bar in managing your cases.

The new Committee wish to continue with this good working relationship and to build upon it for the benefit of both sides.

With the extension of the jurisdiction of the Sessions Court and Magistrate’s Court last year, there has been a shift in the landscape of litigation. More cases, more complicated cases are now being litigated

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

65

at the Sessions Court and Magistrate Court level than before. More lawyers are now appearing there now than before.

As a result, there is a higher expectation now from both sides. The Sessions Court expect lawyers to be prepared and assist them in managing this new complicated cases and powers such as jurisdiction to grant declarations, injunctions and specific performance – powers that until recently were only exercised by the High Court judges.

This additional case load and the current judicial climate of just, expeditious and economic disposal of cases have brought about its own – how shall I put – ‘cross-fire, friendly fire’ – between both sides.

But fortunately and probably because of our good relationship, this friendly fire or cross-fire are rather limited and far in between.

We feel that with the changed landscape in litigation there may be a need for more interaction between lawyers and subordinate court officers so that lawyers will be clear as to what is the expectation from the Bench and the bench can understand the lawyer’s difficulties in ensuring expeditious disposal of cases.

Although the Rules are there and they are pretty standard, and we always try to comply with the Rules, there is always nevertheless what we call individual style of the Sessions Judge or Magistrate in managing cases before them – which maybe we lawyers are not aware of and thus in rare instances leads to ‘frindly fires’.

We feel that more frequent informal interactions between subordinate court judicial officers and lawyers will help both sides in managing cases under this new climate of just, expeditious and economic disposal of cases – in a much more cordial and amicable manner.

We hope Yang Arif, to explore this suggestion in our future discussions – amongst other issues.

I do apologise if I seem to have taken a fair bit of time here. It is not often that we get a chance to meet the North Johore lawyers and that too in the presence of our judicial officers. I therefore have taken a bit of liberty with time here However I shall not hold you further.

On behalf of the Johore Bar Committee I would like to thank Shahareen and her committee members for your effort in putting together todays 3 in 1 program which started that began with the courtesy call, the reference proceedings and this luncheon. It must have been torrid. Thank you very much Shahareen.

Thank you also Rozita from the Muar JBC office and our secretariat staff from Johor Bahru led by Siti for your assistance in managing our affairs here and your kind assistance to Shahareen in managing the North Johore matters.

Finally, Yang Arif, honourable judicial officers and members, thank you for your time.

66

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

LUNCHEON WITH MUAR HIGH COURT JUDGE, MEMBERS OF THE JUDICIARY AND MEMBERS OF THE BAR on the 3rd APRIL 2014 IN MUAR COURT COMPLEX Several events were planned for and held at the Muar Court Complex on the 3rd of April, 2014.

The day started with the traditional courtesy call on the Judge of the High Court, Muar Justice Dato’ Hj. Zainal Azman bin Ab. Aziz, wherein the newly elected Johore Bar were introduced by the Judge. The Johore Bar Chairman thanked the Judge for agreeing to meet the members and to hold the reference for the late Mr. Ng Lam Hua later that day.

Shahareen Begum

The reference for the late Mr. Ng Lam Hua commenced at 11.00 a.m., opening to a packed courtroom, attended by Mr. Ng’s brothers and sisters at law as well as his widow Madam Wong Pie Wan, with introductory words from the State Bar Chairman, Mr. R. Jayabalan, who also prayed for a record of the proceedings to be archived with the Court and a copy of said record be furnished to his family.

Dr. Balasekaran then followed with his tribute for the late Mr. Ng, tracing Mr. Ng’s career journey, starting as a court interpreter and pursuing his ambition to practice as an advocate and solicitor of the High Court, Malaya.

Senior Federal Council Tuan Lee Chee Thim, speaking for the Attorney-General’s Chambers and the State Legal Advisor, then followed with his tribute and Miss Karen Cheah thereafter gave tribute on for and on behalf of the Malaysian Bar. Mr. Jayabalan then closed the tributes, speaking for the State Bar. The learned Judge, Justice Dato’ Hj. Zainal Azman then delivered his speech, following which the reference proceedings were adjourned, with the granting of the prayers earlier sought by Mr. Jayabalan.

Lunch at the Bilik Bunga Raya, Muar Court Complex followed. This function was attended by the Judge, Judicial Officers of the High Court Muar, Tuan Lee and members of the Bar. During lunch, the Johore Bar Committee Chairman addressed the guests, introducing the newly elected committee members. This was followed by an address by the Judge. Lunch ended at about 1p.m.

Written by, Shahareen Begum

At the luncheon

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

67

PICTURES OF THE LUNCHEON ON THE 3RD OF APRIL 2014 IN MUAR COURT COMPLEX

The M.C Encik Fadzaial

Yang Arif Dato’ Haji Zainal Azman “ Thank you and lets work together”

Chair Jayabalan “We support all noble efforts…”

Belum buka mam?

Empty tables made for 4?

Not at a wedding dinner?

Kita menunggu lah

Some have food and can eat

Some want to wallop…

68

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

“On Aging” - Words of Wisdom by H.E. Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Minister, Mentor Singapore.

Stay Interested in the World, Take on a Challenge – Lee Kuan Yew MY CONCERN today is (at age 87), what is it I can tell you which can add to your knowledge about ageing and what ageing societies can do. You know more about this subject than I do. A lot of it is out in the media, Internet and books. So I thought the best way would be to take a personal standpoint and tell you how I approach this question of ageing.

If I cast my mind back, I can see turning points in my physical and mental health. You know, when you’re young, I didn’t bother, I assumed good health was God-given and would always be there. When it was about 1957 - I was about 34, we were competing in elections, and I was really fond of drinking beer and smoking. And after the election campaign, in Victoria Memorial Hall - we had just won the election, the City Council election - I couldn’t thank the voters because I had lost my voice. I’d been smoking furiously.

I’d take a packet of 10 to deceive myself, but I’d run through the packet just sitting on the stage, watching the crowd, getting the feeling, the mood before I speak. In other words, there were three speeches a night. Three speeches a night, 30 cigarettes, a lot of beer after that, and the voice was gone.

I remember I had a case in Kuching, Sarawak. So I took the flight and I felt awful. I had to make up my mind whether I was going to be an effective campaigner and a lawyer, in which case I cannot destroy my voice, and I can’t go on. So I stopped smoking.

It was a tremendous deprivation because I was addicted to it. And I used to wake up dreaming... the nightmare was I resumed smoking..But I made a choice and said, if I continue this, I will not be able to do my job. I didn’t know anything about cancer of the throat or oesophagus or the lungs, etc. But it turned out it had many other deleterious effects.

Strangely enough after that, I became very allergic, hyper-allergic to smoking, so much so that I would plead with my Cabinet ministers not to smoke in the Cabinet room. If you want to smoke, please go out, because I am allergic.

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

69

Then one day I was at the home of my colleague, Mr, Rajaratnam, meeting foreign correspondents including some from the London Times and they took a picture of me and I had a big belly, a beer belly. I felt no, no, this will not do.

So I started playing more golf, hit hundreds of balls on the practice tee. But this didn’t bring down my waist size. There was only one way it could go down: consume less, burn up more. Another turning point came when - this was 1976, after Rajaratnam and Lee Kuan Yew the general election - I was feeling tired. I was breathing deeply at the Istana, on the lawns. My daughter, who at that time was just graduating as a doctor, said: ‘What are you trying to do?’ I said: ‘I feel an effort to breathe in more oxygen..’ She said: ‘Don’t play golf.. Run. Aerobics.’

So she gave me a book, quite a famous book and, then, very current in America on how you score aerobic points swimming, running, whatever including cycling. I looked at it sceptically. I wasn’t very keen on running. I was keen on golf. So I said, ‘Let’s try’. So in-between golf shots while playing on my own, sometimes nine holes at the Istana, I would try and walk fast between shots.. Then I began to run between shots. And I felt better. After a while, I said: ‘Okay, after my golf, I run.’ And after a few years, I said: ‘Golf takes so long. The running takes 15 minutes.

Let’s cut out the golf and let’s run.’

I think the most important thing in ageing is you got to understand yourself. And the knowledge now is all there. When I was growing up, the knowledge wasn’t there.. I had to get the knowledge from friends, from doctors.

But perhaps the most important bit of knowledge that the doctor gave me was one day, when I said: ‘Look, I’m feeling slower and sluggish. ’So he gave me a medical encyclopaedia and he turned the pages to ageing. I read it up and it was illuminating. A lot of it was difficult jargon but I just skimmed through to get the gist of it. As you grow, you reach 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 and then, thereafter, you are on a gradual slope down physically.

Mentally, you carry on and on and on until I don’t know what age, but mathematicians will tell you that they know their best output is when they’re in their 20s and 30s when your mental energy is powerful and you haven’t lost many neurons.

I never planned to live till 85 or 84. I just didn’t think about it. I said: ‘Well, my mother died when she was 74, she had a stroke. My father died when he was 94.’ But I saw him, and he lived a long life, well, maybe it was his DNA. But more than that, he swam every day and he kept himself busy. He was working for the Shell company. He was in charge, he was a superintendent of an oil depot.

But at 87, 88, he fell, going down the steps from his room to the dining room, broke his arm, three months incapacitated. Thereafter, he couldn’t go back to swimming.

Then he became wheelchair-bound. Then it became a problem because my house was not constructed that way. So my brother - who’s a doctor and had a flat (one-level) house - took him in. And he lived on till 94. But towards the end, he had gradual loss of mental powers.

70

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

So, by my calculations, I’m somewhere between 74 and 94. And I’ve reached the halfway point now. But have I? Well, in 1996 when I was 73, I was cycling and I felt tightening on the neck. Oh, I must retire today. So, I stopped. Next day, I returned to the bicycle. After five minutes it became worse. So I said, no, no, this is something serious, it’s got to do with the blood vessels. Rung up my doctor, who said, ‘Come tomorrow’. Went the day after, he checked me, and said: ‘Come back tomorrow for an angiogram.’ I said: ‘What’s that?’ He said: ‘We’ll pump something in and we’ll see whether the coronary arteries are clear or blocked.’

I was going to go home. But an MP who was a cardiologist happened to be around, so he came in and said: ‘What are you doing here?’ I said: ‘I’ve got this.’ He said: ’Don’t go home. You stay here tonight. I’ve sent patients home and they never came back. Just stay here. They’ll put you on the monitor. They’ll watch your heart. And if anything, an emergency arises, they will take you straight to the theatre. You go home. You’ve got no such monitor. You may never come back.’

So, I stayed there. They pumped in the dye, yes it was blocked, the left circumflex, not the critical, lead one. So, that’s lucky for me. Two weeks later, I was walking around, I felt it’s coming back. Yes it has come back, it had occluded. So, this time they said: ‘We’ll put in a stent.’ I’m one of the first few in Singapore to have the stent, so it was a brand new operation. Fortunately, the man who invented the stent was out here selling his stent. He was from San Jose, La Jolla something or the other. So, my doctor got hold of him and he supervised the operation. He said put the stent in. My doctor did the operation, he just watched it all and then that’s that. That was before all this problem about lining the stent to make sure that it doesn’t occlude and create a disturbance. So, at each stage, I learnt something more about myself and I stored that. I said: ‘Oh, this is now a danger point.’

So, all right, cut out fats, change diet, went to see a specialist in Boston, Massachusetts General Hospital. He said: ‘Take statins..’ I said: ‘What’s that?’ He said: ‘(They) help to reduce your cholesterol.’

My doctors were concerned. They said: ‘You don’t need it. Your cholesterol levels are okay.’ Two years later, more medical evidence came out. So, the doctors said: ‘Take statins.’ Had there been no angioplasty, had I not known that something was up and I cycled on, I might have been gone at 74 like my mother. So I missed that deadline.

So, next deadline: my father’s fall at 87. I’m very careful now because sometimes when I turn around too fast, I feel as if I’m going to get off balance. So, my daughter, a neurologist, she took me to the NNI, there’s this nerve conduction test, put electrodes here and there. The transmission of the messages between the feet and the brain has slowed down.

So, even with all the exercise, everything, effort put in, I’m fit, I swim, I cycle. But I can’t prevent this losing of conductivity of the nerves and this transmission.

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

71

So, just go slow. So, when I climb up the steps, I have no problem.

When I go down the steps, I need to be sure that I’ve got something I can hang on to, just in case.

So it’s a constant process of adjustment.

But I think the most important single lesson I learnt in life was that if you isolate yourself, you’re done for. The human being is a social animal - he needs stimuli, he needs to meet people, to catch up with the world.

I don’t much like travel but I travel very frequently despite the jet lag, because I get to meet people of great interest to me, who will help me in my work as chairman of our GIC. So, I know, I’m on several boards of banks, international advisory boards of banks, of oil companies and so on. And I meet them and I get to understand what’s happening in the world, what has changed since I was here one month ago, one year ago. I go to India, I go to China.

And that stimuli brings me to the world of today. I’m not living in the world, when I was active, more active 20, 30 years ago, so that’s what I tell my wife. She woke up late today. I said: ‘Never mind, you come along by 12 o’clock. I go first.’

If you sit back - part of the ending part of the encyclopaedia which I read was very depressing - as you get old, you withdraw from everything and then all you will have is your bedroom and the photographs and the furniture that you know, and that’s your world. So, if you’ve got to go to hospital, the doctor advises you to bring some photographs so that you’ll know you’re not lost in a different world, that this is like your bedroom.

I’m determined that I will not, as long as I can, be reduced to that, to have my horizons closed on me like that. It is the stimuli, it is the constant interaction with people across the world that keeps me aware and alive to what’s going on and what we can do to adjust to this different world.

In other words, you must have an interest in life. If you believe that at 55, you’re retiring, you’re going to read books, play golf and drink wine, then I think you’re done for. So, statistically, they will show you that of all the people who retire and lead sedentary lives, the pensioners, die off very quickly.

So, we now have a social problem with medical sciences, new procedures, new drugs, many more people are going to live long lives. If the mindset is that when I reach retirement age 62, I’m old, I can’t work anymore, I don’t have to work, I just sit back, now is the time I’ll enjoy life, I think you’re making the biggest mistake of your life. After one month, or after two months, even if you go travelling with nothing to do, with no purpose in life, you will just degrade, you’ll go to seed.

The human being needs a challenge, and my advice to every person in Singapore and elsewhere: Keep yourself interested, have a challenge.

72

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

If you’re not interested in the world and the world is not interested in you, the biggest punishment a man can receive is total isolation in a dungeon, black and complete withdrawal of all stimuli, that’s real torture.

So, when I read that people believe, Singaporeans say: ‘Oh, 62 I’m retiring.’ I say to them: ‘You really want to die quickly?’ If you want to see sunrise tomorrow or sunset, you must have a reason, you must have the stimuli to keep going.

Extracted from EdgeDavao, 9th April 2014

WISDOM OF KAHLIL GIBRAN On Aging, Ancestry & Brotherhood

Kahlil Gibran AGING : Seek ye counsel of the aged, for their eyes have looked on the faces of the years and their ears have hearkened to the voices of Life. Even if their counsel is displeasing to you, pay heed to them.

ANCESTRY : A man is not noble through ancestry; How many noblemen are descendants of murderers?

BROTHERHOOD : I love you because you are weak before the strong oppressor, and poor before the greedy rich. For these reasons I shed tears and comfort you; and from behind my tears I see you embraced in the arms of Justice, smiling and forgiving your persecutors.

You are my brother and I love you.

I love you, my brother, whoever you are - whether you worship in your church, kneel in your temple, or pray in your mosque. You and I are all children of one faith, for the diverse paths of religion are fingers of the loving hand of one Supreme Being, a hand extended to all, offering completeness of spirit to all, eager to receive all.

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

73

CHAN SEK KEONG ‘61: THE ACCIDENTAL LAWYER When Mr Chan became the Chief Justice six years ago, he was the first local law graduate to helm the highest court in the land. But it was just the latest in a series of firsts in a glittering career that spanned close to half a century.

By Teh Joe Lin ‘14

In 1961, Mr Chan was in the pioneer batch of law graduates from the then University o f M a l a y a , t h e forerunner of the National University of Singapore.

In public service, he was appointed Singapore’s first judicial commissioner in 1986.

In 1992, he was also the first local graduate to become the Attorney-General.

But all this was far from his mind when he decided to settle in Singapore after he was called to the Bar in Malaysia.

In an email interview with LawLink, the recently retired Chief Justice explained why he ended up practising here: “Because the girl I was then courting, and later married, was living in Singapore.”

DATE WIT DESTINY

Professor of Law and Head of the Law Department, travelled to his school in Ipoh.

The professor was recruiting students for the new law course.

He said, “My English literature teacher, Dr A Etherton, pulled me aside one day and told me that I should study law instead of some arts subject, like History or Economics, as I had a ‘crafty’ (in the good sense of the word) mind. I put the suggestion to my father, but he left it to me to decide. Since in those days, I thought that the teacher knew best about his students’ intellectual ability, I acted as advised.”

He came to law school armed with a sharp memory, which he is legendary for.

By his own admission, Mr Chan “became a law student by accident”.

Mr Chan explained that in school, he was “made the class scribe” because he knew “a little more English than his classmates”.

He had already been admitted into the arts faculty of the University of Malaya in S i n g a p o re — f o r t h e t e r m o f S e p t 1 9 5 7 — when Dr Lionel Astor Sheridan, the first

He said, “My function was to take down all the new words used by the English teacher (he was a Cambridge graduate)

74

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

and read them out in the next class whenever a student, when asked, did not remember the meaning. So, I developed a good memory from the exercise and also, as a lawyer, made sure that when I go to court I would know more about the legal issues than my opponent.”

The pioneer batch of local law graduates is widelyacknowledged as the most i l l u s t r i o u s c l a s s e v e r. M r Chan’s class roster reads like a list of “Who’s Who”.

P r o f e s s o r To m m y Koh went on to become S i n g a p o re ’ s a m b a s s a d o r t o the United States and the United Nations. There is former law dean Thio Su Mien and former law society president T P B Menon.

Former police commissioner G o h Yo n g H o n g w a s a l s o their classmate.

In the book ‘The Law I n H i s H a n d s : A Tr i b u t e to Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong’, he said, “I can’t recall that life in law school then was either difficult or was exciting...

Class of 1961 : The first local law school graduates

But social life in the campus was certainly exciting.”

He met his wife there.

“After staying (I wouldn’t want to use the word ‘living’) one week at the Dunearn Road hostel, a class­mate recommended that I move to Kingsmead Hall where he was liv­ing. I was glad I did as Kingsmead Hall was an infinitely more peace­ful and civilised place for somewhat disoriented students from up coun­t ry. Incidentally, it was also during my stay in Kingsmead Hall that I met the girl (Ms Elisabeth Eber) that I was destined to marry a few years later,” he said.

CALLED TO THE BAR An aim of many fledging lawyers is to have their court cases appear in the

The first batch of students during lecture.

law reports and/or noted in the law journals. After he graduated, Mr Chan achieved just that — but as his own petitioner in applying for admission to the Malayan Bar.

The Bar Council objected to his application to abridge the period of pupillage he had to serve under the delayed l e g i s l a t i o n re c o g n i s i n g t h e LL.B. (Hons) degree. He had in fact completed his six months’ pupillage. Mr Chan had already performed his pupillage with Bannon & Bailey in Kuala Lumpur.

The sticking point was that the law recognising the law degree had been delayed.

He petitioned to be called once the legislation was passed.

Girded for battle, the Bar Coun­c il of the Federation of M a l a y a , re p re s e n t e d b y i t s Chairman, then the leading a d v o c a t e i n t h e c o u n ­t r y, opposed the petition on the g ro u n d t h a t t h e A d v o c a t e s and Solicitors Ordinance required that the applicant to show that he had sufficient “reasons” to justify an abridgement of time. He argued that Mr Chan could muster up just one reason, ie:

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

75

delay in the passing of the legislation.

The Bar Council’s objection was rejected by Justice HT Ong, a formidable judge who later became Chief Justice of the States of Malaya.

The experience would set the tone for Mr Chan’s career in the judiciary. He has been said to be a fair judge who keeps a close eye on fairness and justice as he navigates a field of legal technicalities.

Before he entered public service, Mr Chan practised with Braddell Brothers and then Shook Lin & Bok.

Over 25 years in private practice, he became Singapore’s leading cor-porate lawyer — the go-to guy for many banks, accountants and busi-nesses.

So it was perhaps inevitable that he was called upon to lend his expertise in the aftermath of what may remain the largest corporate collapse in Singapore history.

Marine salvage company Pan-Electric sank into receivership after it failed to repay hundreds of millions in loans, dragging down with it scores of other businesses and bankrupting stockbroking firms that had been caught up in financing deals called forward contracts. This caused an unprecedented three-day closure of the Singapore and Kuala Lumpur stock exchanges.

76

But for Mr Chan, the closure in 1985 would have lasted beyond three days.

He said: “The Stock Exchange, which had closed for three days, had to open the next day, as other­w ise it might have been a setback for Singapore’s goal to be a finan­ cial centre.”

On receiving instructions from certain officers of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, he set about drafting a lifeboat agree­m ent (which he first dictated to a secretary) within a couple of hours, so that it could be signed by all the stockbrokers and fund­ ing banks by the wee hours of the morning. The exchange re-opened for business on the fourth day.

Over the next few days, he helped the stock-broking firms to execute debentures — in the form of floating charges — as secu­r ity for bank loans.

As required under the law, he went on to register the details of the charges before billing the Stock Exchange for the work.

But to his “utter surprise, they refused to pay on the ground that I had overcharged them. So, I wrote them a polite letter and informed them that I would send a full bill for work done and could have it taxed, as the bill would be much higher than the one had sent.”

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

After a few days, the Stock Exchange paid the bill, pre su mab ly af ter rec eiv ing advice from another firm of lawyers.

Mr Chan counts the episode as his most memorable experience as a lawyer.

Classmates from the Class of 1961 together again at the B u k i t Ti m a h C a m p u s

TIME AT THE BENCH Mr Chan’s achievements as an attorney-general and judge are a matter of public record.

R e c e n t l y, L a w M i n i s t e r K .

S h a n mu g a m d e s cri b e d hi m as one of Singapore’s greatest jurists. Still, it bears reminder that by the time he retired after his 75th birthday, some 380 judgments bore his name.

Recent landmark decisions included United Overseas Bank Bebe bte Mohammad in 2006, a land law case that reiterated the centrality of certainty in land dealings in Singapore.

He said of his decisions:

“My role is to administer justice. Every judgment is satisfying when I feel that my decision is the correct decision on the evidence and in the circumstances of the

case. Judicial satisfaction is best enjoyed vicariously.”

While he does not recall a particularly hard judgement to make, the toughest cases were always been those that attracted the hangman’s noose.

He said: “The hardest cases are usually the capital cases, but that may not be because of “THEY ALWAYS HAVE YOUR INTEREST AT HEART AND WANT THE BEST FOR YOU.” ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– the Law but of your own feeling about the consequences of your decision.

“Sentencing was particularly challenging and difficult.”

His experience has led him to conclude that judges are probably born and not made.

“I think the qualities of a judge are more innate than acquired. Some people have a judicial temperament. Some don’t.

Some lawyers can tolerate a lot of tedium: some may not be able to

adjust to an isolated existence,” he said.

EXPANDING LEGAL SCENE Mr Chan leaves the legal limelight at a time when the industry is expanding, with more foreign law firms and law graduates entering the fray.

In his self-effacing manner, Mr Chan said he might not be able to do well if he had been a law student today.

He said: “Legal practice today is much more competitive and therefore more chal­lenging and difficult for young lawyers to get judicial or peer recognition.

I would have a very hard time surviving, much less prosper­ing, in today’s environment.”

He has some advice for future lawyers: “Listen to your teachers.

They always have your interest at heart and want the best for you.

Your success is their pride.”

He also urged practitioners

to remember that law serves a social purpose — to hold society together.

He said: “The law is still a noble pro­fession when it is used to fulfil its social purpose. Lawyers should use and apply the law wisely for their clients as a body of ethical and moral principles.”

THE ROAD AHEAD Mr Chan said that he would stay in contact with legal practice “if my services are needed, and I can meet the need.”

Meanwhile, he will spend time reading “all the books I have collected but not read.”

So far, his only fixed plan is the one that led him to pack his bags for Singapore in the first place.

“(I have) no firm or specific plan, except to spend more time with my family,” he said.

Extracted from law link National University of Singapore December 2012 (Permission sought from Lawlink on 10/4/2014)

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

77

Congratulations To The Newly Admitted Members of The Bar 2014 (Johore) (As at 30th April 2014) 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Tan Kok Cheng Gan Shin Lein Najwa Izzatty Binti Abd Razak Zamsiatul Zeema Binti Haron Abu Daud Bin Abu Samah

20/02/2014 20/02/2014 06/03/2014 06/03/2014 23/03/2014

6. Haziq Bin Othman 7. Lee Ji Xuan 8. Fatin Sara Bin Zulkifli 9. Gunavati A/P Thangamani 10. Noraisa Binti Mohd Isa

23/03/2014 23/03/2014 23/03/2014 27/04/2014 27/04/2014

The answers for Test Ur Ability puzzle (from the Feb 2014 issue) is as below :

78

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

79

80

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

81

82

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

REFERENCE IN HONOUR OF THE LATE NG LAM HUA At Muar High Court on the 3rd of April 2014

The late Ng Lam Hua

➤ Introductory speech by R. Jayabalan - Chairman of the Johore Bar Committee Dengan izin Yang Arif, saya R. Jayabalan hadir bagi pihak Jawatankuasa Peguam Negeri Johor. Saya memohon kebenaran untuk meneruskan dalam Bahasa Inggeris, My Lord, we are gathered here this morning to pay our last respects to a departed member of the Johore Bar, Mr Ng Lam Hua who had left us on 29.9.2013.

For this My Lord, my learned friend Ms Karen Cheah is appearing for the Malaysian Bar and Bar Council.

My learned friend, Senior Federal Counsel Mr Lee Chee Thim is appearing on behalf of the Attorney-General.

My learned friend Dr Balasekaran Suppiah will appear to recall the life and memory of his dear friend the late Mr Ng. I also wish to acknowledge the presence of concerned members of the Bar here today, many of whom were friends and colleagues of Mr Ng. The family members of Mr Ng - his wife Mdm Wong Pie Wan and relatives are also with us to witness this occasion. They are seated here at the front row.

On behalf of the Johore Bar, I also wish to thank Your Lordship for graciously granting our request to preside over this proceedings.

My Lord, Reference proceedings for a deceased lawyer or judge is an ancient and cherished tradition of the legal profession.

It is one of the many practices that is treasured upon and has stood the test of time and relevance.

It is unique in the sense that, whereas we welcome a new member by calling him to the Bar – that is the ceremonial Call to the Bar proceedings - when he is called upon to meet his Maker, we bid him farewell by holding reference proceedings.

Please allow me to say a few words about the proceedings. The reference takes place when the High Court convenes a special sitting in open court in the presence of the departed member’s colleagues at the Bar, and witnessed by his loved ones, to recall his life at the Bar and honour his memory. In lay man’s term, it may simply be referred to as the legal profession’s way of sharing with the family of the departed member, their grief and bereavement.

There is however also another facet to reference proceedings. For this, I can do no better than to quote the words of the eminent counsel Mr Cyrus Das at the reference held for another eminent counsel the late Dato’ Ronald Khoo before the Federal Court Judge Tan Sri Dato’ Edgar Joseph Jr on 24.4.1998. This is what he said

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

83

“The practice of references for deceased judges and lawyers served to remind us that we belong to one body with one objective, namely, the pursuit of justice through the legal process. In that collective effort, governed by the unwritten rules of etiquette and tradition which are just as important as the written ones, the death of one of us diminishes the whole, and so we gather to mourn the loss, to pay tribute and remind ourselves that the journey must be made and the faith must be kept.”

We are here today for this same purpose – in the memory of the late Ng Lam Hua. My Lord, My learned friend Dr Balasekaran Suppiah will now speak and lead the tribute to Mr Ng’s life at the Bar. Thank you, My Lord R. Jayabalan Chairman of Johore Bar Committee 03.04.2014

R. Jayabalan

➤ Speech by Dr Balasekaran - Member of the Johore Bar, Kluang Yang Arif, My Lord, The Honourable Chairman of the Johore Bar Committee Mr.Jayabalan, the Honourable Bar Council Representative M/S Karen Cheah Yee Lynn, the Honourable representative from the Attorney General Chambers, Mr.Lee Chee Thim.

I have the Honour and Privilege to be invited by the right Honourable Chairman of the Johore Bar Committee to speak and pay tribute to the late member of the Johore Bar Mr.Ng Lam Hua.

Dr Balasekaran

It is my sad duty on behalf of the members of the Bar of Johore to express our deep sense of sorrow at the sudden passing away of Mr.Ng Lam Hua in the early hours of the morning on 29.9.2013 to Eternal Court from the High Court. There was no indication whatsoever before his departure. God Almighty, the maker and creator has fixed the time, that no human being on earth can avoid and death and exit from the world is inevitable in the end.

That is in fact the Law of Nature, the Divine Law that emanates from the Supreme being and one cannot avoid the cycle of birth and death. Everyone prays for a peaceful end. The mortal remains, the physical body perishes but the immortal soul still survives, and rest in peace at the Lotus feet of the God Almighty immune from the bodily pain and suffering in this mundane and material world. The departed soul merges with God Almighty, and the supreme being who is Omnipotent Omnipresent and Omniscient who governs our life on this earth.

I dare say that the late Ng Lam Hua is a gifted soul, who passed away peacefully and all of a sudden without much pain and sufferings.

“Death maybe defined as a long sleep or slumber when a person will never wake up.”

My lord, I crave leave of this Honourable to state the Biodata and the background of the late Ng Lam Hua. Mr. Ng Lam Hua came into this world on 8.09.1949 from a small village at Kangar Baru a typical Malaysian Kampung which is about 10km away from Yong Peng, Johor. His parents were rubber tappers at the Kampung, who were poor in wealth but rich in heart Mr.Ng Lam Hua had always felt proud of his parents during his life time.

Mr.Ng Lam Hua had his primary education at the Kampung itself and later had his Secondary education at the Yong Peng Secondary English school until form five and there after stopped his further education just like many other Kampung boys during that time.

He had to work as a part time Labourer at the Kampung Estate during most school term holidays to earn just RM2.50 per day during 1960’s to make some contribution to ease his parents financial burdens.

84

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

Having no opportunity to go for further study due to financial constraint Mr.Ng Lam Hua worked as a primary teacher from 1968 until 1971 in a small fishing village called Sungai Rengit. He was later offered a posts of a Chinese Court Interpreter, a post which be held from 1971 until 1993. His last posts held was a Chinese Interpreter attached to the High Court Kuala Lumpur (Appellate Division) Not forgetting to upgrade himself, the late Ng Lam Hua obtained unpaid leave to do law in England. He was admitted to the Malaysian Bar on 30.12.1994.

He was first employed by my firm Bala & Co Kluang on about the year 1995 as a Legal Assistant and he later joined M/S CL. Boo before he set up his own practice M/S Ng Lam Hua and Associates in Paloh Johore in the year 1996.

In the year 1997 Mr.Ng Lam Hua and his younger brother Mr.Ng Nam Chai started a Legal firm in the name of M/S Ng & Ng. Mr. Ng Lam Hua was a State assembly man for Kawasan Mengkibol Kluang Johore from the year 2008 – 2013 Mr.Ng Lam Hua married Wong Pei Wan. Both he and his wife lived a simple and decent life sharing and caring each other’s welfare. The widow of Mr.Ng Lam Hua Madam Wong Pei Wan who will sadly miss the untimely loss of her beloved husband, but the memory lane which she shared her life with her husband in Holy Matrimony will be vividly linger in her mind as fond memories. Further those members of the Bar closely associated with him pro profoundly feel the loss. Above all the members of his family the sibling would certainly miss his presence.

I have known the late Mr.Ng Lam Hua for almost 30 years upwards, when he was a Court Interpreter in the Kluang Magistrate Court and when I was a young member of the Bar. Subsequently after years I met him at the old Court house in Jalan Duta and he informed the good news that he has qualified as an Advocate and Solicitor and would like to join my firm in Kluang as a legal Assistant to gain some practical experience in Civil and criminal procedure. I readily welcomed him as my Legal Assistant and has had the opportunity to guide him.

The late Mr.Ng Lam Hua was closely associated with me during the time when he was a Court Interpreter in the Magistrate Court Kluang until he joined my firm Bala & Co Kluang in 1995 as my Legal Assistant. He has impressed me as an embodiment of patience, endurance and a sense fortitude and forbearance. He was a simple, humble and has a pleasant ways about himself.

It was indeed a profound shock to me when I heard the sad news that he has passed away suddenly on 29/9/2013.

I could not believe as I have met him a few days earlier at the Muar High Court. He appeared normal and did not manifest any sign of ill health. I rushed to the funeral parlour in Kluang with a brother member of the Bar Mr.Velaithan A/L Koran to pay my last respect.

I end up my tribute in the memory of late Mr.Ng Lam Hua by consoling his widow and his sibling by saying that the Immortal soul is resting in peace at the Lotus feet of the Lord God Almighty, the Supreme being immune from the pain and suffering of the mundane and material world. He is in the Spiritual world in his astral body.

The good attendance clearly manifests, the respect and regard which we all have for him.

My Lord I move to this Honourable Court that these proceedings to be recorded and kept in the Archives of this Court and a copy to be sent to the widowed wife and siblings.

Thank you.

Dr Balasekaran Member of the Johore Bar 03.04.2014

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

85

➤ Speech by Ms Karen Cheah Yee Lynn, Treasurer of Malaysian Bar Dengan izin Yang Arif, Saya, Karen Cheah Yee Lynn, hadir bagi pihak Majlis Peguam dan juga Badan Peguam Malaysia.

Saya pohon izin untuk meneruskan ucapan rujukan saya pada prosiding pagi ini dalam Bahasa lnggeris.

May it Please you My Lord, We are solemnly gathered here at this morning’s Reference proceedings to mark the passing of the late Ng Lam Hua, who had left us all on 31 September 2013. l wish to recognize the presence of My Learned Friend Mr. R Jayabalan appearing for and on behalf of the Johore Bar Committee and the Johore Bar, the presence of My Learned Friend Tuan Lee Chee Thim appearing for and on behalf of the Attorney General, and the presence of My Learned Friend Dr. Balasekaran Suppiah who had paid tribute to the late Ng Lam Hua only moments ago.

I also wish to acknowledge the presence of concerned members of the Malaysian Bar, who are together with us at this morning’s Reference proceedings. I thank Your Lordship for graciously consenting to preside over these Reference proceedings, a tradition which was almost lost some years ago, but which was thankfully and mercifully restored recently. The legal profession treasures all its traditions as it is a mark of our deep respect for the profession and serves to remind us that humility and grace is required to carry us through this challenging profession. It is the only profession that welcomes new members with a ceremonial Call to the Bar and bids members farewell in Court when they are called to the Heavenly sphere. The Malaysian Bar is most obliged to Your Lordship for graciously ensuring that the traditions of our noble profession are preserved.

Earlier on, My Lord, we heard My Learned Friends, Mr. R. Jayabalan and Dr. Balasekaran Suppiah paid just tribute and final respect to the memory of the late Ng Lam Hua. On behalf of the Bar Council and the Malaysian Bar, I do associate myself fully with the expressions of My Learned Friends with respect to the late Ng Lam Hua, an outstanding and exemplary member of the Bar who has departed.

I crave leave from Your Lordship to add the heartfelt expressions of the Malaysian Bar. It would appear from the late Ng Lam Hua’s illustrious career that he had endured the experience of law in all its glory and its reality. It is indeed sad that he had been taken from the legal profession when he had so much more to contribute to the profession and to the society.

I do believe that the late Ng Lam Hua was proud to be a member of the Malaysian Bar, in as much as the Malaysian Bar is proud to acknowledge him with much pride for having dedicated himself to fight the good fight; he embodied the very soul and principle that the Malaysian Bar holds dearly under section 42 of the Legal Profession Act 1976 that is “To uphold the cause of justice, without any fear or favour.”

My Lord, death comes to every living being. It is not a choice he or she makes. It is the choice of the Maker and it is often said that God the Maker chooses to take home those He loves most. The late Nelson Mandela once said “Death is something inevitable. When a man has done what he considers to be his duty to his people and his country, he can rest in peace and sleep for eternity.”

I believe the late Ng Lam Hua had done exactly that during his lifetime.

86

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

Be that as it may, the painful truth is that losing a loved one leaves a gaping hole in our hearts and creates an empty space in our very existence. In this regard, the Malaysian Bar shares such loss and sorrow with the family of the late Ng Lam Hua. On behalf of the Malaysian Bar, I join my Learned Friends of the Johore Bar in extending to the bereaved family of the late Ng Lam Hua our deepest and heartfelt condolences for the loss of their loved one. May his soul rests in eternal peace.

My Lord, May I humbly and respectfully move that the record of these proceedings before this Honourable Court be preserved in the Archives of this Court and that a copy thereof be forwarded to the bereaved family of the late Ng Lam Hua. And I do so pray.

I am obliged, My Lord.

Karen Cheah Yee Lynn Treasurer Malaysian Bar

➤ Speech by Mr. Lee Chee Thim, Senior Federal Counsel, Attorney General’s Chambers Dengan Izin Yang Arif, saya Lee Chee Thim, Peguam Kanan Persekutuan yang mewakili Jabatan Peguam Negara.

Yang dihormati, rakan-rakan bijaksana saya En R Jayabalan-pengerusi Jawatankuasa Peguam Negeri Johor, Dr Balasekaran Suppiah, Cik Karen Cheah- wakil Majlis Peguam Malaysia, Puan Wong-isteri kepada mendiang Ng Lam Hua, saudara–saudari, TuanTuan dan Puan-Puan sekalian. Yang Arif, dengan izin saya pohon berucap dalam Bahasa Inggeris.

Lee Chee Thim

My Lord, on behalf of the Attorney General’s Chambers, I share the condolences and the speeches of my learned friends who have spoken before me. My Lord , it is indeed a fitting occasion today to pay our respects to the late Ng Lam Hua, an individual who had such tenacity and spirit to work all the way up from a court interpreter to become a respected member of the Bar and Johor State Legislature.

My Lord, it was indeed a privilege to have known him personally. He was a straightforward and honest man.

His sudden departure leaves many of us wondering about our own mortality and brevity of life itself.

My Lord, in conclusion, I would on behalf of the Attorney General’s Chambers accord our deepest sympathy and sorrow to Madam Wong and other relatives of the deceased. I am much obliged.

Lee Chee Thim Senior Federal Counsel Attorney General’s Chambers

➤ Closing speech by R. Jayabalan May it please you My Lord, My learned friend Dr Balasekaran Suppiah has paid just tribute and final respect to the memory of Mr Ng. On behalf of the Johore Bar, I do associate myself fully with the feelings and sentiments expressed by my learned friend. I just wish to add a few words on behalf of the Johore Bar. I must confess that I do not have the privilege of knowing Mr Ng personally. Our paths have simply never crossed before. However, having spoken to several members of the Bar from Kluang and Batu Pahat I came to know that Mr Ng was indeed a good servant and colleague of the Bar.

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

87

At the time of his passing he was close to 20 years in practice and has probably experienced the law in its many highs and as we all do, some low points as well. He was a proud lawyer and had always carried himself well not only as a member of the Bar but also more importantly as an officer of the Court.

Mr Ng always had time for the Bar. He was very supportive of the Johore Bar’s activities and was a regular at our programs. He was never too busy for the Johore Bar and was also a generous contributor for our activities.

The Johore Bar is indeed proud to acknowledge Mr Ng as one of our own.

To Mdm Wong and the family of Mr Ng, we share your pain in your moments of grief. On behalf of the Johore Bar I extend our deepest and heartfelt condolences for the loss of your beloved husband. May his soul rest in eternal peace.

With Your Lordship’s permission, I respectfully support the motion that the record of these proceedings before Your Lordship be kept in the archives of this honourable court, and that a copy thereof be extended to the bereaved family of the late Ng Lam Hua. Much obliged, My Lord.

R. Jayabalan Chairman of Johore Bar Committee

➤ Speech by the Honourable Justice, Dato’ Haji Zainal Azman bin Ab. Aziz Assalamualaikum dan salam sejahtera, Tuan Lee Chee Thim Wakil Yg. Bhg. Peguam Negara Malaysia, En R Jayabalan Pengerusi, Jawatankuasa Peguam Negeri Johor Cik Karen Cheah Yee Lynn mewakili Presiden Majlis Peguam Malaysia Ahli-Ahli, Jawatankuasa Peguam Negeri Johor, Peguam-peguam yang juga ahli-ahli Majlis Peguam Malaysia, Pegawai-pegawai Kehakiman Mahkamah Muar, Ahli-ahli keluarga serta sidang hadirin yang dihormati sekalian.

YA Dato’ Haji Zainal Azman

1. Pada pagi ini bersyukur kita dapat berkumpul di mahkamah ini untuk memperingati rakan kita yang telah pergi mendahului kita untuk selama-lamanya.

2. Saya bagi pihak mahkamah turut bersama-sama melahirkan perasaan sedih di atas pemergian mendiang Ng Lam Hua yang lebih dikenali dengan nama LH Ng dan di sini saya mengucapkan takziah kepada ahli keluarga beliau. Sesungguhnya pemergian beliau merupakan satu kehilangan yang besar kepada ahli-ahli keluarga mendiang. Berat mata memandang, berat lagi bahu yang memikul. Namun kepada ahli-ahli keluarga yang ditinggalkan, kehidupan ini harus diteruskan.

Ladies and Gentleman, 3. I must mention of the subject of tribute session we are holding today in honour of the departed Advocate & solicitor and which tribute or reference as is generally known within the Common Wealth is an age-old one going back into time and into tradition held at the instance of passing on of a member of the Bar or of the Bench.

4. Today we continue to bid farewell to a man of immense integrity, who lived a simple life, spoke simple truths, and cared deeply for those whom he loved. And so as we mourn his passing away, we remain conscious of the legacy he leaves behind. What we know is that his life was of a quality that could give a life-renewing quality to generations yet unborn.

88

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

5. From the eulogies that we heard just now, it cannot be gainsaid that the late LH Ng worked his way up through many struggles and obstacles to reach his career goal. His hard work and dedication that brought him success.

6. I fully associate myself with the sentiments expressed on behalf of the AG’s Chambers and the Bar. I did not have the privilege of knowing LH Ng at close quarters but I take particular note of his background from their contribution to the legal practice and development of jurisprudence from the various reported matters handled by him and his contribution to the Law Society during the duration of his practice.

7. By any standards, the late LH Ng was a remarkable man. His activities and interests spread far beyond the legal world - not to mention his family. He is greatly missed, he is irreplaceable, but his work and personal example will, I’m sure, inspire many to carry on regardless.

8. On behalf of the Judiciary and myself I wish to extend to the families and friends, our deepest sympathy and condolences.

9. “We are reminded that in the fleeting time we have on this Earth, what matters is not wealth, or status, or power, or fame -– but rather, how well we have loved, and what small part we have played in making the lives of other people better.”

(US President Barack Obama) 10. I quote this : Love Lives On

“Those we love are never really lost to us - we feel them in so many special ways through friends they always cared about and dreams they left behind, in beauty that they added to our days...in words of wisdom we still carry with us and memories that never will be gone...Those we love are never really lost to us - For everywhere their special love lives on”.

(by A. Bradley) 11. With that, I hereby direct that the records of the proceeding today be preserved in the archives of this court and a copy be extended to the representative of the bereaved family.

(Dato’ Haji Zainal Azman bin Ab. Aziz) Hakim Mahkamah Tinggi Muar 03.04.2014

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

89

JOHORE BAR’S TRIBUTE TO KARPAL SINGH S/O RAM SINGH (1940-2014) - By S. Balarajah

The Johore Bar records with deep regret and sorrow the passing of an icon and giant of the Malaysian Bar — Karpal Singh on 17 Apr 2014.

Karpal Singh s/o Ram Singh graduated with a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) from the University of Singapore.

Though Karpal practised mainly at the Courts of Kuala Lumpur and the Northern States, he did display his prowess at the Johore Bar of which he was a member for a number of years.

Born to a humble watchman Ram Singh and his wife, Karpal’s parents, like most Indian parents, wanted him to be a doctor. But young Karpal chose to read law and he did so at the University of Malaya in Singapore. One of his contemporaries, Tun Ling Leong Sik, recently mentioned that Karpal was in the university from 1961 to 1968 and was a cheeky undergrad who took active part in the University Students’ Union and related extracurricular activities. He was not a top student but he turned out to be a top lawyer.

Much has been said about Karpal’s antecedent achievements, and bouquets and compliments have been showered on him these few days. All that has to be written and said has been written and said, and one cannot do better. Karpal’s virtues and strengths have been extolled and the good man has been eulogised in the most superlative and flattering terms, and these can be found in newspapers and periodicals. More will be forthcoming in the next few weeks.

In his days at the Johore Bar, Karpal was most endearing, humble and approachable, as well as soft-spoken, polite and cheerful. It is not quite correct to say that he was aloof and ferocious as a tiger. Rather, he was mild-mannered, cool and calm. The ferocity in the man only erupted like the Merapi if someone’s rights were trampled upon or if some poor soul was bullied by the powerful. He gave hope to the defenceless, voice to the voiceless, and succour to the meek and the oppressed. He forsook his fees from the impecunious and for whose human rights he fought for. He did so without detriment to himself or to the laws.

90

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

Karpal’s playgrounds were the Courts and the field of national and state politics. He excelled in all spheres.

As a true-blue Sikh, he was fearless to a fault. His comrade Lim Guan Eng is quoted to have said: “Karpal was not afraid to offend anybody no matter how high or mighty, how wealthy or powerful if he felt he was right.”

In 2006, when the Johore Bar invited him to attend a post-ethics course dinner and give a talk of his experiences at the Bar, Karpal obliged. His talk was peppered with humour and historical facts and it was not used as an opportunity to sing “How great I am”. Such was the humility of the man who was a towering Malaysian by all accounts and a leader of the Bar. Junior Members of the Bar and pupils in chambers held Karpal in high esteem, and were awed by his tenacity and reputation. But Karpal did not scare the junior Members of the Bar from approaching him. In fact, he beckoned them to impart his knowledge and experience to them. He was easy to approach and steadfast in character.

16.6.2006 – From right, YA Dato’ Azahar, the late YA Dato’ Genga and YA Dato Syed Helmy (now retired) welcome Karpal for his lecture.

He was well known by the moniker “Tiger of Jelutong” and that reminds one of the poem by William Blake (1757-1827) who wrote: “Tiger! Tiger! burning bright; In the forest of the night; What immortal hand or eye; Could frame thy fearful symmetry.”

Karpal Singh

Karpal’s eyes were always bright, open and sharp — to watch out for any transgression on the rights of the common folk. He acted as counsel for peasants and common folk and acted against Kings, Rulers and Governments. He feared none. A tiger true.

It is an ancient belief that man is composed of four elements, ie Earth, Air, Fire and Water. Human perfection is said to have depended upon a well balanced mixture of the aforesaid four elements. Karpal was blessed to have been well balanced in the elements. Shakespeare’s words in Julius Caesar (Act V Sc V) may well be

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

91

appropriate: “His Life was gentle And the elements so mixed in him That nature might stand up And say to all the world This was a man.”

In our strides in the courts of law, we have seen and will continue to see great and learned lawyers making their appearances and their presence felt. But Karpal will remain in our minds as a most outstanding comet in the Malaysian legal firmament. He was, in his own way, dignified, compassionate and humble. It can be said without any compunction that Karpal was indomitable as he was formidable. He did not have to kowtow to the powers that be for whatever reason, and that was not because of arrogance or pride but because he believed that every man must be given his just dues.

After the lecture, a momento to Karpal via his wife Gurmit.

Watching Karpal going in and out of court was learning process in itself. He possessed intellectual humility and was never haughty or arrogant. Like many junior counsel, he entered the courtroom meek, humble and reserved. It can be said that he was free of the sins of pride and vanity. But when Karpal spoke, the judges listened. His advocacy was one of persuasion based on researches into the laws. If judges were puerile and/ or pugnacious, Karpal would, in his own style and manner, correct them. He had the fire in his belly till the end.

He had a razor-sharp mind and the law of evidence in his fingertips. His vocabulary was rich and he stormed the courts in his own way. He had a luminous mind and the perspicacious ability to seek out and destroy the credibility of witnesses and evidence to secure a just verdict.

Karpal was a towering Member of the Malaysian Bar. And the Bar honours him. We at the Johore Bar are grateful that he spent a few years here with us to impart some degree of his wealth of knowledge and experiences at the Bar. It is plain that Karpal was not a mere journeyman in the profession who sought to receive countenance and profit by it only. He contributed to the development of the profession and the laws. In fact, he was a major contributor to the development of the laws and has lit the paths of lawyers and litigants. Some of his efforts, especially in the realm of the criminal law, are a lantern to our feet. Karpal’s erudition on all aspects of the laws was profound. He had a remarkable and luminous mind, and no case entrusted to him was too trivial.

Such was his professionalism.

92

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

Karpal attended law conferences and presented papers, for instance at the 13th Commonwealth Law Conference in Melbourne 2003, he presented a paper on “The Death Penalty”. He did so in meetings and conferences nationally and internationally.

On Sunday the 20th day of April 2014, the mortal remains of the great lawyer were consigned to flames following Karpal’s customary and religious rights.

The Johore Bar condoles with the family of the late lawyer Karpal. May we all take some consolation from the words of Kahlil Gibran.

“The Reality of Life is Life itself, whose beginning is not in the womb, and whose ending is not in the grave. For the years that pass are naught but a moment in eternal life; and the world of matter and all in it is but a dream compared to the awakening which we call the terror of Death.” and

“The most beautiful thing in life is that our souls remain

Hovering over places where we once enjoyed ourselves” - (Kahlil Gibran)

Rest in peace — a thoroughbred lawyer, gentleman and humanitarian who had embedded in his breast, the noble aims of justice and the law. If Karpal retired in the normal fashion via effluxion of time from active practice at the Bar, he could have said as the great Lord Denning said, quoting St Paul: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”

Swami Paramhansa Yogananda said:

“Thy peace and I are one,

Thy joy and I are one,

Thy wisdom and I are one,

Thy love and I are one,

That is why Thou and I are one,

Thou and I were one, and Thou and I will be one evermore.”

And poignant the words of Sri Guru Granth Sahib:

“I am blessed with celestial peace,

Poise, bliss and pleasure, and all my

Affairs have been perfectly resolved.”

MAY GOD BE WITH YOU ALWAYS, BOLE SONE HAL. SAT SRI AKAL. S. Balarajah Johore Bar 21.4.2014

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

93

94

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

Karpal Singh, true humanitarian

BY Lee Min Choon

This has nothing to do with the Malay Bible. But I can’t help but feel a sense of loss with the passing of a colleague at the Bar and friend, Karpal Singh. So, here’s how I remember him.

It must have been around 1985 when I was helping a convict on death row who had become a Christian while in prison. Liew Weng Seng was sentenced to death under the Internal Security Act for possession of a firearm.

At the Federal Court, Liew was unrepresented and proceeded to tell the court that he was guilty and did not wish to appeal his death sentence. When the court was adjourned, his family tried to pass him a Bible but was prevented from doing so by the prison wardens.

A commotion ensued and made the news the next day. When I read the report, I thought, “Hey, this guy is a Christian and he had just told the court to go ahead to hang him.”

I called the office at Pudu Prison and arranged for an appointment to see Liew. When we met, he confirmed that what the newspapers reported was what happened in court.

I listened as he told his story of how he got into crime. It was a pitiful story of a boy growing up in the slums and being influenced by the gangs. Soon he was committing crimes. The law caught up with him.

Possession of firearms was a capital offence. Liew was not yet 30 as he faced the gallows. Since his case was over, I offered to write a petition for pardon on his behalf to the King. I would not charge him any fees. It was a favour to a fellow Christian.

Liew agreed. Over the next one year, I would visit Liew. As he spoke no English or Malay and as my Chinese was virtually incomprehensible, I always brought along a Chinese pastor with me to encourage and minister to Liew.

One day, Liew’s family called me. They said the prison had called to say that Liew will be hanged in three days. I told them I would do what I can.

I called the prison and then the palace to find out what happened to Liew’s petition for pardon. Eventually, I was told that it was rejected and the court had issued a warrant for his execution.

I went to see Liew with his family. It saddened me that our friendship over the past year was coming to an end.

Liew said that he had made his peace with God and he was not afraid. I asked him if he would consider doing some good with his death by donating his organs. He agreed.

Over the next two days, I went to the General Hospital to find out the procedure and paperwork for this sort of thing.

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

95

On the eve of his execution, I came to see Liew one last time and gave him some papers to sign to donate his organs.

I bought him a meal from the prison canteen. Then we said goodbye and I told him we will meet again one day.

I arrived home late in the afternoon, went to the backroom of my house and laid down on a bed. I did not want my wife and child to see the tears I shed for Liew. In 12 hours, Liew will be taken from his cell (at 5am the next day) and be hung by the neck till he was dead.

Suddenly, my wife walked into the room and said, “Karpal Singh is here to see you”.

I went to my front door and saw Karpal Singh and another lawyer, Ngeow Yin Ngee, standing at my front door.

“Are you Liew Weng Seng’s lawyer?” asked Karpal.

“Yes,” I replied.

Karpal then explained that he was the lawyer for two convicts who were scheduled to be hanged at the same time with Liew.

Karpal’s clients were found guilty of assassinating the Chief Police Officer of Perak. They had waited for him at a traffic junction in Ipoh and shot him to death when he passed by.

Karpal said that he had filed a court case raising some legal technicality and had obtained an ex parte stay of execution from Judge Hashim Yeop Sani (ex parte means that the order was given after hearing only one side; later, the judge would re-hear the case from both sides).

When Karpal went to Pudu Prison to serve the order for the stay of execution, he was informed that there was a third man to be executed, Liew.

“Come with me,” Karpal said, “we’ll go to my office and prepare the papers and get a stay of execution for your client as well.”

It must have been about 6pm when we drove back to Kuala Lumpur in Ngeow’s car. We reached Karpal’s office past 7pm.

Karpal then started to dictate to his clerk who typed furiously on the typewriter. I gave them Liew’s details. I was still in a daze. All the time, Karpal worked at preparing the papers like a man consumed and trying to beat a deadline.

We must have finished the paperwork about 9pm. It was eight hours to the execution.

“Let’s go see the judge,” Karpal said.

The first place we went to was the home of Madam Harwanth Kaur, the Senior Assistant Registrar to Judge Hashim.

We bundled her into the car and the four of us drove to the home of Judge Hashim in Petaling Jaya. We reached his house at 10pm and Karpal banged on his door. We were let into the Judge’s living room.

“Judge,” said Karpal as he handed the judge a stack of papers, “there is another man due to be hanged tomorrow.

Can you give a stay of execution for him as well?”

“The Attorney-General will jump!” sniggered Judge Hashim as he signed an order for the stay of Liew’s execution.

We then left the judge’s house and drove to the High Court at Kuala Lumpur. It was 11pm when we arrived.

The courthouse was in total darkess and tightly shut. We found the security guard and Harwanth ordered him to open the court doors.

The four of us went into the registry section of the court house. We were looking for the court seal.

The court order, although signed by the judge, was no good without the seal of the court imprinted on it. The four of us fanned out to look for the court seal. It was a stroke of good fortune that we found the court seal in a short time.

Harwanth sealed the court order and handed it to Karpal. We left the court house but first we had to send Harwanth back home. Her job was done.

96

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

When we arrived at the gates of Pudu prison at 12.30am the next morning, there was a crowd of reporters surrounding the huge metal prison door. Karpal banged on the doors. A warden poked his head out and said: “All of you please stay out. Only Mr Karpal, Mr Ngeow and Mr Lee can come in.”

Karpal duly served the order for a stay of Liew’s execution on the prison director. The next day, the papers reported a sensational last-minute rush to save three men from the gallows.

Within a week, we were back in Judge Hashim’s court. The Attorney-General, Abu Talib Othman, did jump and he made an application to the judge to set aside all three stay orders.

Karpal argued the case with his usual brilliance. I cannot remember the legal point. All I can remember was that it was never argued before. Karpal had no previous court decisions to rely on.

It was like going back to school to see Karpal at work and the lesson: “Think outside the box.”

At the end of arguments, the judge set aside the three stay orders, clearing the way for the men to be executed under a fresh warrant. Karpal appealed to the Federal Court. Again, it was dismissed.

Let me pause a while. Throughout this time, Karpal did all the work for Liew’s case, paid for all the court expenses and made sure I was always present to take part. He never once talked about payment. It was as if he was meant to do this.

A few months later, warrants of execution were issued again. Judge Hashim had ruled that the High Court could not order a stay of execution. It must be ordered by the Attorney-General who was the chairman of the Pardons Board.

Karpal made appeals to the Attorney-General but it fell on deaf ears.

On the eve of the execution, Karpal summoned Ngeow and I to his office. It was about 8pm when we got there.

Karpal did a lot of things at night as he would be in court the whole day doing more than one case per day.

He suggested we go to see the ambassadors of the European countries to seek their help to persuade the government to delay the executions. Karpal had discounted the US ambassador as the Malaysian government under Dr Mahathir (Mohamad) was hostile to the US. However, the government had good ties with the Europeans.

We went to see the German ambassador. He informed us that the European embassies have a system where they would appoint one of the European ambassadors on rotation as a representative to speak to the Malaysian government on behalf of the rest of them.

At that time, the French ambassador was the chairman. So, off we went to the French ambassador’s house. I cannot remember the conversation as it was a long time ago. But the ambassador told us that he was not able to help.

We went back to Karpal’s office at midnight. Five hours to the execution. Karpal was wracking his brain to think of something. I was exhausted and had almost given up but I hoped that Karpal would again pull something out of his hat.

How about this? No, won’t work. How about that? On and on we went. About 2am, three hours to execution, Karpal said that there’s nothing more we could do. He asked us to go home. A few hours later, Liew and the other two convicts were dead.

Lawyers can be the most heartless of men. Society had a reason for calling lawyers sharks. Its because we thrive on the misfortunes of others. Most lawyers I met are in it for the money. They have no heart for their clients who they see to be nothing more than a source of income.

Karpal was not like that. In my encounter with him over Liew’s case, Karpal demonstrated true humanity and a genuine care for his clients. Whatever their crimes were, he saw them as human beings and felt a sense of responsibility for them over and above the call of duty.

Karpal Singh was a true humanitarian. We will miss him. – malaysianbible.net, April 23, 2014. * Lee Min Choon is The Bible Society of Malaysia chairman. * This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider. * Contributed by Teng Fong Lin

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

97

With Best Compliments From Gulam & Wong Advocates & Solicitors

Suites 1103-1106, 11th Floor, Johor Tower, No. 15, Jalan Gereja, 80100 Johor Bahru, Johor Darul Takzim Tel : 07- 2246851 / 07- 2246852 Fax : 07- 2246854 Email: gw-jb@hotmail.com

With Best Compliments From Ong Ban Chai & Co Advocates & Solicitors

We specialize in company winding up matters. All the members of the Bar are welcome to enquire from Mr. Ong if they face difficulty.

Suite 704-707, 7th Floor, Johor Tower, No. 15, Jalan Gereja, 80100 Johor Bahru, Johor Darul Takzim Tel : 07- 2245808 Fax : 07- 2245800 Email: general@ongbc.com

98

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

99

Total Membership As at 30.04.2014, the total membership of the Johore Bar is 1654. There has been an increase of 8 members since the last statistics (on 10.02.2014). The total membership of the Johore Bar constitutes 10.7% approx. of that of the Malaysian Bar. 1.

Lawyers in Johor Bahru

There are 1158 members practising in the city of Johor Bahru. They account for 70% of the total membership in the State of Johor (i.e. 1158/1654 members).

2.

Law Firms in Johor Bahru

The total number of law firms in the State of Johor is 675. There has been an increase of 14 law firms since February 2014. The number of law firms in Johor Bahru has increased (from 380 to 390). They constitute 57% approx. (i.e. 390/675) of the law firms in the State of Johor.

Number of lawyers in the State of Johor

100

INFO JOHORE BAR – MAY 2014

Number of law firms in the State of Johor