Defeat the new Triad

Param Cumaraswamy, a former Transparency International Malaysia president revealed that he received an anonymous letter about a dodgy court case two months ago, which he had forwarded it to Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz calling for an investigation, but in keeping with national policy, there was only elegant silence from the CJ.

Param said: “Among the several allegations in the anonymous letter was one that the CJ had discussions with a High Court judge recently over a decision in a suit where VK Lingam was counsel for one of the parties.”

“The judgment eventually was delivered in favour of the party represented by Lingam.”

So it was hardly surprising that there’s a current call to all lawyers to snub (or boycott) cases in which Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim presides at the Federal Court, as reported in Malaysiakini.

My uncle said this was exactly what happened after Tun Abbas was sabo* real good, when the Lord President was ‘stabbed’ in the back. Lawyers then attempted to ‘cold shoulder’ his over ambitious Brutus during court cases.

* sabotaged

But the only people hurt were the lawyers’ own clients! Unnecessary collateral damage.

These shameless people had been put in positions in which they didn’t deserve to hold if merit had been a consideration, and they were and probably still are so thick-skin that subtle and not-so-subtle insults would fall off them like water off the back of a duck. They don’t have any conscience or shame at all.

Our national problem lies in three areas, in the Triad threatening us – no, not those Chinese samsengs* but namely: the Police, Judiciary and the Electoral Commission.

* gangsters

But what worries me has been recent letters to Malaysiakini and bloggers’ postings calling out to the Rulers for help.

Let me remind people that, save for shining examples such as Raja Nazrin and a rare few, those Rulers are as much trouble as the politicians, so let’s not leap from the fire into the frying pan.

I don’t believe our problems can be solved through the Rulers.

There’s a current letter to Malaysiakini so effusive in praise of Raja Nazrin. The author wrote:

Reading Raja Nazrin’s recent speeches, he brings to mind King Cyrus the Great of Persia (present day Iran). In 539 BC, after Cyrus conquered Babylon (now called Iraq), he declared the very first Human Rights Charter at his coronation as the King of Babylon.

Even if Raja Nazrin metamorphoses into Cyrus the Great or our political messiah, he’s only one man and he won’t be around forever. We may be confronted by a future less wise and less benign royalty. I am sorry but I cannot support any change in constitutional arrangement from our current constitutional monarchy, where those rulers have (correctly so) only a minor role in rule making or ruling.

It shall and must be the rakyat (people) who rule, through the ballot box! Let us not step back into the Middle Ages. I know many are enamoured with Raja Nazrin but let me quote a saying - one swallow doesn't a summer make.

I believe we need to start off by a loose association among the opposition – forget about an alliance because that’s not possible. The aim of the loose association is what DAP Lim Kit Siang has aspired to, deny the BN its 2/3 majority. It’s a humble but realistic step and the final objective of true democracy is something to be achieved only in the long run.

The BN’s Triad must be neutralized through the ballot box, and not as some hotheads suggest, down in the streets, or worse, through the Rulers.