Time for chief justice to crack the whip

Time for chief justice to crack the whip
KUALA LUMPUR, APRIL 12 — When Chief Justice Datuk Abdul Hamid Mohamed spoke about the need for judges to write their own judgments this week, some of his brethren must have been wondering if he was merely playing to the gallery. Speaking at the Conference of Malaysian Judges, he said that judgment were something that every member of the Bench should be proud of.

“They reflect our knowledge, our intellectual honesty, our analytical power, our ability to grasp the issues, our ability to think straight or otherwise, our ability to express ourselves clearly or whether we ourselves are confused, our command of the language, our style of writing, indeed our whole character," he said.

“I think it is a dereliction of duty for a judge to ask someone, including his or her research officer, to draft his or her judgment, and it is a misconduct to get someone, including his or her research officer, to write it for him or her. A judge who writes a judgment for another judge, a judge whose judgment is written by another judge and a judge who allows himself to be influenced by another person in arriving at his decision, commits a misconduct."

Omitted was any mention of judges who fail to deliver any written judgments and keep the litigants in a state of limbo for years. Among the 90 judges from the High Court, Court of Appeal and Federal Court in the audience when Abdul Hamid spoke was a Federal Court judge who to date has not handed down written judgments in more than 40 cases.

Only the intervention of the Rulers Conference last year prevented him from becoming the Chief Justice. Their grounds of judgment on him: a judge who does not hand down decisions cannot be qualified to lead the judiciary.

Yet, he continues to hear cases as a member of the apex court of the land.

If Abdul Hamid is serious about cleaning up the judiciary in the six months he has left, he should suggest that this judge retire or refer him to the tribunal. DAP leader Lim Kit Siang noted in a statement that the CJ appears to be more interested in rhetoric than in shaking things up at the Palace of Justice.

He noted: “There can be a faster start to the 'judicial renaissance' with the retirement of judges guilty of misconduct such as not delivering judgments, giving 'cut-and-paste judgments' or delivering judgments written by others."

In this regard, the CJ should follow the example of his counterpart in Indonesia. Between January 2007 and March this year, 18 judges were disciplined, including three who were sacked. The Indonesian Supreme Court also disclosed the names of judges who were disciplined as a reminder to others on the Bench.