ERRANT JUDGE Datuk Hashim Yussof – failed to deliver 35 judgments; Is this characteristics of a Good Judge straying from the proper standards?

ABOVE: Malaysiakini on(21 Aug 07) highlighted Abu Talib response to the rot H E R E

The CJ refutes all allegation and asked for "evidence" And Now Karapl has provided the facts and we await his response to allegations and justification of his questionable promotions
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No wonder the Chief Judge was so “gloomy face” disinterested (See Pic BELOW) during the opening of the new Courts Complex. He must have heard about the disclosure from Karpal Singh in Parliament and was fully weighted down to follow the opening ceremony (he was looking at the other side) wondering how he should respond in facing this "truth" from Karpal

ABOVE: The Chief Justice at center; When DYMMSPBYD Agong Tuanku Mizan
hit the button with the "Mallet" it cleared off the mist revealing a model of the Courts Complex (Below) thus declaring officially the opening of the complex. This is another Malaysia Bolih "creative idea". Gone are the old ways of unviewing a plaque. More pics below

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Karpal: It's Federal Court judge Datuk Hashim Yusoff

by B. Suresh Ram, Sun

KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 27, 2007): Bukit Gelugor MP Karpal Singh today named Federal Court judge Datuk Hashim Yusoff in the Dewan Rakyat as the judge who failed to deliver about 35 judgments. The veteran lawyer, who is DAP chairman, took the opportunity during the debate on the Industrial Relations Act (Amendment) Bill 2007 to make the allegations, offering evidence. He said Chief Justice Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim had said he would investigate if there was any evidence. "I have the evidence right here and I can prove it in Parliament," he said. Karpal said as such, the ball is in the court of Ahmad Fairuz to resolve the matter by looking into his allegation. He said the Federal judge in question had not written judgment in 35 cases, including four in which the convicted are languishing in jail despite being sentenced to death seven years ago. "Does he (Hashim) have the characteristics of a good judge?" he asked. As Karpal sought to continue his debate by calling for "bad judges" to be fired, Deputy Speaker Lim Si Cheng cut him off, saying that what he was saying had nothing to do with the Bill. Later, in a press conference in Parliament house lobby, Karpal said Ahmad Fairuz must explain the delay in appointing the new Chief Judge of Malaya. He also questioned why only one name was given to the Rulers Conference for consideration. Karpal also called for a Royal Commission to be set up to look into how judges are promoted. "The CJ promised that the post of the Chief Judge of Malaya would be filled by the end of this month. We are more than nearing the end of the month." The previous Chief Judge, Tan Sri Siti Normah Yaakob, retired on Jan 5. On Aug 21, Ahmad Fairuz had disputed allegations that he had erred in promoting judicial officers who had not written judgments. He had also asked for proof that he had elevated undeserving judges. Hashim was High Court judge between June 16, 1995, and Aug 8, 2002, after which he was appointed Court of Appeal judge. He was elevated on July 28 to the Federal Court. In an immediate response later, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz said the rulers did not object to the list of potential candidates for the post of Chief Judge of Malaya in their recent conference as claimed by some parties, reports Malaysia's national news agency Bernama. "They (the Conference of Rulers) did not object but they did raise some points," he said. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi would be making an announcement on the appointment soon, he told reporters after the official opening of the new RM270 million court complex by Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin in Jalan Duta.

Nazri said Abdullah met Tuanku Mizan last Wednesday (Aug 22) to discuss the list of potential candidates to fill the post. On another issue, Nazri said the writing of judgments was not the only criterion to promote judges. There were other criteria like patience and hard work which were considered before a person got his promotion, he said.

Updated: 08:17PM Mon, 27 Aug 2007

= == = =from Bernama; 2007 19:41 PM

Rulers Did Not Object To Candidate For CJM Post, Says Nazri

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 27 (Bernama) -- The rulers did not object to the list of potential candidates for the post of Chief Justice of Malaya at their recent conference as claimed by some parties, Minister at the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz (ABOVE) said today. "They (the Conference of Rulers) did not object but they did raise some points," he said.

ABOVE: The imposing Courts Complex at Jalan Duta

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi would be making an announcement on the appointment soon, he told reporters after the official opening of the new RM270 million court complex by Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin in Jalan Duta here. Nazri said Abdullah met Tuanku Mizan (ABOVE) last Wednesday to discuss the list of potential candidates to fill the post which had been vacant since the retirement of Tan Sri Siti Norma Yaakob on Jan 5. On another issue, Nazri said the writing of judgements was not the only criterion to promote judges. There were other criteria like patience and hard work which were considered before a person got his promotion, he said when asked to comment on a judge who was said to have failed to write 33 judgments.

ABOVE: Minister at the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz with (Right) stoney Chief Justice Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim

In his speech, Nazri said the government always focused on providing sufficient facilities and equipment to the judiciary to enable it to function more effectively. "For this purpose, the government always gives financial allocations to provide public amenities and repair the courthouses in all the 113 locations nationwide," he said. Nazri also said that the government was planning to build official residences for judges in selected locations.

Earlier, Chief Justice Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim, in his speech, said that having all the courts under one roof would reduce the backlog of cases. "Both the prosecution and the lawyers can be in court for a case which doesn't take up much time and then hop over to another court to continue with another case. At least in this court complex, cases that don't take up much time need not be postponed," he said

ABOVE & BELOW: The high & mighty from the Judiciary
.. and where & who is the one & only Federal Court judge Datuk Hashim Yusoff ??

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MALAYSIA-DEATH PENALTY: Nine Years on Death Row, Denied Appeal

By Baradan Kuppusamy; via IPS news
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 26 (IPS) - "Hang me or release me but don't leave me to suffer a slow death," is the cry of anguish from Baha Jambol, 45, who has been suspended helplessly here on death-row for nine long years, unable to appeal a death sentence. Jambol's desperate predicament is not unique. It is caused by a serious flaw in Malaysian criminal justice system. Jambol was sentenced to death in April 1998 for being in possession of 50 kg of cannabis. He is unable to appeal because the trial judge has failed to put pen to paper and give the grounds sentencing him to `death by hanging'.
"Without a written judgement we can't appeal," Karpal Singh, Jambol's lawyer and prominent human rights campaigner, told IPS. Jambol, a driver, was at the wheel of a car when cannabis was found inside. But the car owner, who was with him at the time, was

acquitted. The scandal of the ink-shy judge, loath to put his judgments on paper, has shocked the nation and led to renewed demands for a swift end to the death penalty.
"This case is a severe travesty of justice," said Singh. "Jambol has been languishing on death row for nine years… what can be crueler than this? I urge the government to immediately abolish the death penalty and end the misery of people on death row."

Like Jambol, dozens of others wait in great misery in the country's overcrowded jails unable to appeal their death sentences because trial judges have skipped their duty of spelling out their judgements on paper. Aziz Sharif, 28, was sentenced to death in 2001 for murdering his girlfriend, a conviction that his lawyer Harbahjan Singh says is deeply flawed. Six years on, Singh is still blocked from filing an appeal because there is no written judgement. Aziz is suffering severe mental torture while waiting to know his

fate, his family, poor rice farmers from the southern state of Negri Sembilan, told the newspaper The New Straits Times earlier this month. They have appealed to the court numerous times to get the judge to write his judgment but without success. "I wrote five letters to the court over the matter and sadly they did not have the decency to reply to any of the letters," Singh told the paper. The same predicament is currently being endured by Haszaidi Hasan, also sentenced to death for drug trafficking in 2001. Opposition politicians and rights activists are now pressing for action against Malaysia's indolent judges. "Their lackadaisical attitude has hamstrung the administration of justice to people who need it the most," opposition lawmaker Kulasegaran Murugesan told IPS.

"If the judges had done their basic duties the convicted persons could have speedily filed their appeals and probably been acquitted. A long delay is a mark of a poor criminal justice system," he said, urging the government to set free death-row inmates caught in such a tragic predicament. He added: "A more lasting and more humane solution is to abolish the death penalty." The cases have also been taken up by the rights organization Malaysians Against the Death Penalty. "Prisoners facing capital punishment are under severe pressure if their appeals are delayed," Charles Hector, the organisation's co-director and lawyer, told IPS. "Judges should understand the tremendous pressure the death penalty generates… delaying their right to appeal is an act of utmost cruelty. Family members are also left emotionally drained by the uncertainties and the long meaningless delays. It is an intolerable form of torture."

Hector added: "This tragic delay is another reason to review the death penalty. We demand an immediate moratorium on all executions pending the abolition of the death penalty in Malaysia." Amnesty International has also expressed shock at the long inordinate delays and the resulting mental torture death row inmates suffer. There should be an immediate moratorium on all further executions, the organisation agrees. The Malaysian Bar Association has taken up the scandal, calling on all the country's lawyers to report back cases where clients are enduring a "slow death" because of long-delayed or non-existent written judgements.

The association plans to present Malaysia's Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Halim with a list of serious cases. The hope is the offending judges will be penalised, a sanction that might finally end the torment of many dozens like Jambol and Aziz left dangling on death- row. Malaysia imposes the death penalty for a raft of offences, from drug trafficking (15 grams of heroin and 200 grams of cannabis) to poisoning the water supply. Mandatory death penalties are also given for murder, possession of firearms, treason. Over a thousand persons have been executed since independence in 1957 and some 300 are currently awaiting execution on death row, many of them Acehnese from Indonesia convicted of trafficking cannabis.

= == = =anyone for Merdeka Award, RM300,000? in five categories -- education, community, health, science and technology, environment,

August 27, 2007 23:46 PM

PM Outlines Three Major Challenges Ahead For Malaysia

Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi launches the Merdeka Award. Looking on is Petronas president and chief executive officer Tan Sri Mohd Hassan Marican

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 27 (Bernama) -- Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has outlined three major challenges that the country has to deal with despite the many achievements made after 50 years of independence. He said Malaysia needed to tackle issues of economic transformation, the socio-economic balance and the national unity as there was persistent perception that not enough had been done in promoting this issue in particular. "Of course, we are not a perfect country. Like any nation, we are subject to stresses and strains. This is due to external forces, as well as internal tension," he said during the official launching of the Merdeka Award here tonight. On national unity, he said, there were still many discordant voices in the country, fanning the flames of chauvinism and mistrust which aimed to provoke confrontation.

Abdullah said these voices sought to deny the virtues of compromise and tolerance. "We must never allow them to gain ground. We must never give them the room to wreck our most precious identity and national unity as there are many naysayers and detractors, both within and outside Malaysia. "They seek to paint a dark and bleak picture of Malaysia. A Malaysia that is supposedly inefficient and lacking in integrity. A Malaysia that is supposedly torn at the seams. A Malaysia that is increasingly disunited and in decline," he said. However, he said, Malaysia had proven them wrong, time and again as when others predicted Malaysia's doom, the nation had prevailed because our founding fathers held strongly to those values that made us uniquely Malaysian.

"Values such as our decency, our compassion, our tolerance for others, our integrity and our passion and dedication to the nation. He said that according to a survey carried out in April 2007 involving more than 1,000 Malaysians, 81 per cent said that things were favourable with respect to ethnic relations between the different races. On economic issue, Abdullah said the most difficult task would be transforming Malaysia into a developed nation, shifting into higher value-added activities and bring Malaysia into the new knowledge economy in a global environment that had become even more competitive. Abdullah said much still needed to be done although it was fair to say that the country had succeeded in creating an equitable and just Malaysia in the socio-economic balance of the country. "We have all but eradicated poverty. We are still far from our target of achieving income parity.

The gap between urban and rural incomes also continues to be a work in progress," he said. On the award, he said it symbolised and rewarded individuals and institutions for their excellence and lasting contribution and hoped that this award and its recipients would become a source of pride for the nation. The Merdeka Award was initiated by Petronas, Exxonmobil and Shell as the founding members rewarding in five categories -- education, community, health, science and technology, environment, outstanding scholastic achievement and outstanding contribution to the people of Malaysia.

Each award category carries a cash prize of RM300,000 and comes with trophy and a certificate and winners will be selected from a list of nominees on an annual basis. The three oil fraternity, which set up a RM50 million trust fund for the award would give away the award to the first recipients in August next year. Also present was Datin Seri Jeanne Abdullah, Petronas president and chief executive officer Tan Sri Mohd Hassan Marican, Exxonmobil Subsidiaries Malaysia chairman Liam M Mallon and Shell Malaysia chairman Datuk Saw Choo Boon.

= = =and the Spins and Counter-spins

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August 27, 2007 20:10 PM
Abdullah Chides Opposition For Spinning Out Issues

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 27 (Bernama) -- Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi today chided the opposition for spinning out issues pertaining to the social contract and Malaysia's status as a Muslim country. Although he had personally given explanations on the issues several times, they were still being raised, he said. "It leads me to conclude that it was deliberately prolonged for the opposition's political interest," he said in a written reply to a question by Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Barat) in the Dewan Rakyat today.

Lim had asked whether the Cabinet, in conjunction with the country's independence anniversary, would make a new pledge on the Merdeka social contract and the Malaysia Agreement that Malaysia was a secular country with Islam being the official religion instead of an Islamic country. Abdullah said he hoped that his reply to the House this time would clarify everything on the issues so that they were not being dragged on to the extent of creating uneasiness among the multiracial citizens of the country.

The prime minister reiterated that Malaysia was neither a secular nor theocratic country, instead it was a Muslim country and governed according to Islamic principles. He said Malaysia firmly believed in the principles of parliamentary democracy guided by the country's highest law, namely the Federal Constitution. The Islamic principles could be seen through the Islam Hadhari approach that was introduced and emphasised on progress skewed on building a civilisation and focused on efforts to raise the quality of life through the mastery of knowledge and human, health and physical development, he said. Abdullah said the Islam Hadhari approach, however, did not mean that Malaysia was a theocratic country. "The government that I lead is a government based on the principles of parliamentary democracy and is answerable to Parliament.

At the same time, the Cabinet comprises ministers who profess Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity and others respectively, who reach consensus based on discussions and come out with the national development policies," he said. The prime minister said that this approach in administration had been practised by the Malaysian government for over 50 years, and the unique formula had been tested and its effectiveness had been proven. "I also dismiss the argument that it contravenes the social contract negotiated by our past leaders. We must remember that the Federal Constitution was successfully drafted on the basis of compromise and cooperation demonstrated by the three major races in the country when fighting for independence," he said.He stressed that the adoption of Islamic principles in the country's administration did not in any way change the social contract or the Constitution. On the freedom of speech, the prime minister said the government did give space for various parties to speak out but there was a limit to it.

"We must realise that too many things are at stake here - the economic, political and social stability will crumble if religious or racial sensitivities are not considered. "Therefore, the government will not hesitate to take legal action if there are parties who try to take advantage and abuse the freedom of speech given," he stressed. Abdullah said that in conjunction with the country's 50th independence anniversary, it was more important to give priority to unifying the people instead of raising issues that would only create tension among the communities.

= == = = == See related previous post H E R E ON

Video Clip – CJ-Defensive & Evasive on Many Allegations; Promotions Based – Meritocracy & other factors; New Chief Judge Nominee acceptable & endorsed