Are Malaysian Judges are qualified to be judges?? An expert's opinion here!

Constitutional law expert Shad Saleem Faruqi said he finds it "scandalous" that judges or the chief justices are appointed without having to study local laws.

"Almost 90 percent of all superior court judges and most of the senior lawyers of the Bar are trained abroad," he told an international conference themed 'Decolonising Our Universities' in Penang today.

"Most are steeped in the English tradition of parliamentary supremacy and that of an unwritten constitution. They are blissfully unfamiliar with constitutional jurisprudence and adroitly avoid or evade constitutional issues."

Shad Saleem (left) claimed that they do not have to study Malaysian laws for a single day, do not undergo a bridging course, and serve without understanding the philosophical and political underpinings of local legislation.

In many monumental cases attracting issues of constitutional supremacy, fundamental rights, federal-state relations, implied limits on Parliament's powers and judicial independence, constitutional arguments are "brushed aside and the case is reduced to one of administrative laws doctrine of ultra vires".

When a participant asked if any laws in the country contradict the constitution, Shad Saleem responded: "Where do I start?"
He then referred to the Printing Presses and Publications Act where the home minister has absolute discretion to approve or reject annual applications for newspaper licences.

In addition, the Official Secrets Act says that anything - even how many cups of tea a minster drinks - may be declared a 'secret'. There is also no recourse to the law to define what is secret and what is not.

"How can laws like this reconcile with Article 10 of the federal constitution which allows freedom of speech and other freedoms? When we give ministers the absolute discretion to decide, we consider them supreme and the constitution becomes irrelevant."

Shad Saleem further said the Legal Profession Act permits foreign lawyers to be admitted on an ad hoc basis to argue special cases.

He noted that a few years ago, Queen's Counsel Cherie Booth (left), the wife of former British premier Tony Blair, had been invited as a human rights expert to cover a case which hundreds of local lawyers could have handled just as well.

"Fortunately, the judge was not an Uncle Tom, and disallowed her application," he quipped.

(IdiomDictionary.com defines 'Uncle Tom' as an 'old-fashioned person who is happy to be told what to say and how to vote'.)

Shad Saleem said although most of the Malaysian law faculty staff were locally trained (at undergraduate level), the "persistence of the colonised mind exhibits itself in many ways".

This is because, the favoured destinations for Masters study courses are generally the UK or Australia, while Asia and Africa are avoided, he said.

"It is quite insulting to say this but usually it would be deemed more favourable to go for a holiday in Washington, rather than to Nagore or New Delhi," he quipped.

Contradiction in terms

He went on to say that most external examiners and visiting professors are from the UK, the US or Australia, and that Asian scholars are generally not considered for such honour.

For seminar participation or a number of prestigious lecture series, the preference is again for British or Australian lecturers. Asian scholars are either not known or are regarded as not being up the mark.

"A few years ago, Tony Blair (left) - who the world knows lied about Iraq to justify the colonial and racist war (on Iraq) - was invited by Universiti Malaya to deliver the Sultan Azlan Shah Lecture, the most prestigious law lecture series. He was also paid by a private organisation to give a talk at a private function.

"Obviously mass murderers from the US and UK still deserve our worship but Malaysian voices of concern are raised when an Asian/African miscreant like (Zimbabwe's Robert) Mugabe or (Sudan's Omar al-) Bashir seeks to visit Malaysia," he added.

Shad Saleem had served as 'judge' at the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal to look into issues related to the Iraq invasion in 2009.

He is visiting professor at Universiti Sains Malaysia which organised the seminar with Penang-based NGO Citizens International. The event drew about 200 people from across Asia.