I have still not seen the written judgments of the seven judges; and yes, I think if you sit on the Federal Court bench, unless it is a unanimous judgment, there must be made available all their views, considerations, and judgments of each of the seven judges in writing. We need to develop this standard operating procedure (SOP); otherwise we can never become a developed country, if judges decide with mere feelings.
Otherwise also, we will never know who the real ‘idiocrats’ are; i.e. those who do not use the brains and knowledge endowed by the Creator but instead they use their emotions and feelings of fear to make their judgment.
I have written at length about this new coinage word, ‘idiocrat’ which is now even a legitimate word in dictionary.com
Idiocracy
Id`i*oc\”ra*cy\\, n.; pl. Idiocrasies. [Idio- + Gr. ? a mixture, fr. ? to mix: cf. F. idiocrasie.] Peculiarity of constitution; that temperament, or state of constitution, which is peculiar to a person; idiosyncrasy.
The singular form is a person who denies logical processes of inductive or deductive reasoning to arrive at conclusions but instead, uses mere emotions and personal feelings, to draw conclusions for issues and concerns. Such a person is more idiosyncratic than others.
Were our four judges idiosyncratic?
All our civil court judges are sworn to uphold the federal constitution; the supreme law of the federation. They should also know that there is only one appeal system, even though we did away with the appeal to foreign parties, and that system is a civil jurisdiction not a religious one. There cannot be two parallel system of governance within the framework of a secular constitution.
There is also no doubt in anyone’s mind that the current civil courts are on a higher platform and status than the state-enacted syariah or hudud enactments of the nine states of Malaya. The civil court is a federal establishment that is one created by the constitution, and legitimised by all three forming members of the federation at their time of birth in 1963. The three still remain in the same federation, while one has left the federation.
The very fact that we have a Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak or the Borneo states, established this point of definition by the constitution.
I suspect, even in the mind of the current attorney-general (AG), this is a non-issue and that this is why in the ‘Allah’ case, he did not make a judgment to take the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM) to court over the issue but instead closed the file with a no further action (NFA) decision, which is the current status quo, but which is currently being disobeyed by the Selangor Islamic Religious Council (Mais) and the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais), by not returning the bibles to BSM.
So, why is it so difficult for our Federal Court Judges, if they want us to continue to respect them, to come out and become fully accountable for their logic about how and why they voted against the right to appeal to the Federal Court; after both the High Court and Appeal Courts have given their written judgments?
And, please do not give me any argument that these Judges’ decision is sacrosanct because even their three colleagues, including the Chief Judge of the Borneo States wrote against that judgment.
Because of this singular judgment, Malaysia is now gaining popularity as another potentially failed state where the so-called Boko Haram and ISIS kind of non-logic but pure emotive crap prevails. Really, is Malaysia so morally corrupt and equally ignorant in terms of logic and reason?
Is our judiciary above the corruption of power?
Having served 32 years in the public service, from 1972 to 2004, and with the government of Malaysia still owing me some two years of public service, until my agreed 56th year of age of compulsory retirement, I have seen the corruption of power grow in the public services; regardless of which arm of governance we are talking about.
Yes, there was a time when the Singapore’s chief secretary asked our Intan director, “How is it that the Administrative and Diplomatic Service (PTD) is able to say no to Dr Mahathir Mohamad whereas the Singapore public servants can only say yes to their political leadership?” Those days are gone now; today’s public servant only asks for the deadline to get an instruction done, not whether it serves the public interest.
The judiciary is but one arm of good governance in Malaysia. The setting up of the Commission for Appointments within the Judiciary was after admission of ‘the process of moral corruption of the judiciary’ after the abuse of Salleh Abas and other judges became publicly evident.
Consequently, under the Abdullah Ahmad Badwi (Pak Lah) administration they even paid some compensation to these judges and in some cases posthumously. The only thing the government of Malaysia did not want to do was to apologise verbally for all the wrong-doing; in case that constitutes an admission of wrong-doing and they become culpable for further suits thereafter.
Forgiveness is an essential human value
In all of human life, learning to forgive is considered divine. Therefore the dictum: To err is human and to forgive is divine. Therefore, my question to all Malaysians is can we forgive Dr Mahathir for his compulsive political behaviour and orchestrating the sacking of the then-Lord President of Malaysia? Even as the PM of Malaysia; to err is equally human, and to forgive equally divine!
I am now reading a book called The search for forgiveness: Pardon and Punishment in Islam and Christianity by Chawkat Moucarry published by Inter-Varsity Press. My goal is to seek to understand and appreciate the human capacity for forgiveness in both systems of belief.
My genuine concern is that, having worked so many years within the public services, and knowing all of my classmates from the Royal Military College (RMC) for almost 50 years, it has become apparent to me that many are not able to earnestly and sincerely forgive and forget even small issues but some of which occurred when we were all younger people and did not know any better.
Malaysia as a country cannot move forward if the people cannot forgive older leaders who have failed us in the past, and when we do not learn to say NO to the current leadership when they do wrong, simply because of the lack of moral courage to do what is right, good and true. May God continue to bless Malaysia regardless.
