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Friday, October 17, 2014

What are Nancy and A-G doing about Kassim Ahmad’s case? – Zaid Ibrahim



On October 20, 2014, 82-year-old Dr Kassim Ahmad will be tried in the Federal Territory Shariah Court despite the Court of Appeal granting him leave for judicial review of his case.
His lawyer Rosli Dahlan has written to the Shariah Court seeking a postponement of the hearing since the judicial review application will only be heard next month.
The Shariah Court refused to entertain the request, ignoring the decision of the High Court and the Court of Appeal on the matter.
Here is yet another example of the many instances where the Shariah Court in Malaysia has refused to recognise that it is an inferior tribunal to the High Court and the Court of Appeal, which are clearly superior courts in our legal system.
It is unbecoming for an Islamic institution to refuse to respect the law of the land. When I say that those in the Shariah Court are behaving like extremists, they do not like it, and yet this is exactly what extremists do: they completely disregard the laws of the country.
The most disappointing aspect to this case is the total silence and lack of action on the parts of the de facto Law Minister, Nancy Shukri and the Attorney-General, Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail.
I thought that after the Ibrahim Ali fiasco, they would have tried to do some good by prevailing on the Shariah Court to comply and respect the civil judiciary’s decisions.
I thought that they should have offered some sound advice and guidance to the various heads of government departments, reminding them that we remain a country where laws must be respected and followed.
They could also have written to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong as head of Islam in the Federal Territories and sought His Majesty’s decision on the recalcitrant bureaucrats.
If both the law minister and A-G somehow believe in the notion that the Shariah Courts are on par with or superior to the High Court in our system, then they should seek constitutional changes in Parliament to give legal effect to this new status.
Maybe this is what the prime minister meant when he said that he would make sure the country would be truly “transformed”! – www.zaid.my
* Datuk Zaid Ibrahim is a lawyer turned politician and a former minister in the prime minister's department in charge of legal affairs and judicial reform. TMI

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