Bar Council losing its credibility, rotten, says Awang Selamat

Bar Council president Christopher Leong deserves to be reprimanded by the Attorney-General, says Umno owned daily Utusan Malaysia in a scathing editorial today. – The Malaysian Insider pic, February 22, 2015.The Bar Council has lost its credibility, its image is now diseased, rotten and an insult to the principles of the organisation, according to the editors of Umno owned Utusan Malaysia today.

This, according to the columnist Awang Selamat, which is the pseudonym for the Bahasa Malaysia daily's collective editorial team, is because of the "wild behaviour" of its leadership, who runs the organisation like an opposition lackey than that of a body that is supposed to uphold and respect the law.

"Such principle should be the cornerstone, not prostituted for some political purposes," he said, responding to a report that 100 lawyers have demanded an apology and retraction from Malaysian Bar president Christopher Leong over his remarks on Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's sodomy conviction.

Awang pointed out that the retraction of the statement and apology is not enough, adding that immediate action should be initiated against Leong by the Attorney-General's Office for contempt.

"Failure to take action will only give the wrong signal to the people, as if the Council and its leaders enjoy immunity for insulting the judges," he said.

He said the umbrella body for lawyers in the peninsular had in the past been known to have caused "troubles" and behaving like a wing of the opposition.

"In their eyes, in Malaysia, everything is bad... The support for certain political parties and this thick political agenda is so strong that it could not be contained and had to be expressed openly."

Awang said, at the rate things are going, the Bar Council might as well change its logo at its office to resemble that of its political allies.

"To Awang, the Bar Council has lost its credibility and integrity. Its image is now diseased, rotten and an insult to the body.

"At the same time, other legal entities around the world, including those from less developed countries, are far more respectable and credible. Shame on you," he said.

Yesterday, some 100 lawyers signed a petition to censure Leong for bringing the judiciary into contempt following his remarks that Anwar was "persecuted, not prosecuted", after the opposition leader lost his last appeal against a sodomy conviction.

The lawyers, all from the peninsula, demanded that Leong retract the statement and tender an unequivocal and unconditional public apology to the judiciary and the public.

They said Leong's statement is "a direct attack on the Federal Court without any legal basis with the effect of bringing the Federal Court into disrepute and odium."

Among the notable names who signed the petition are former Bar president Zainur Zakaria, senior lawyer and former MAS managing director Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Rahman and former Pahang Bar committee chairman Datuk Syed Azimal Amir Syed Abu Bakar.

The Malaysian Bar has about 15,500 members in the peninsula.

Leong, in an immediate reply said that the lawyers should raise the matter at the Bar's annual general meeting (AGM) to be held next month.

Leong has been president for the past two terms.

- TMI