New Bar chief promises action
Christopher Leong says he will address concerns that judges and lawyers had no sufficient time to prepare cases, while vowing to lodge a disciplinary complaint against Cecil Abraham.
Leven Woon, FMT
Corporate and commercial lawyer Christopher Leong has been elected as the new Bar Council chairman for the term 2013 and 2014.
The lawyer from Choi & Company, who was previously the council’s vice president, was elected to the post by some 36 council members followed a 90-minute meeting held after the Malaysian Bar’s annual general meeting (AGM).
Besides Leong, the other three elected office bearers included Steven Thiru (vice president), Richard Wee (secretary) and Karen Cheah (treasurer).
At a press conference after the meeting, Leong said the Bar would hold talks with the judiciary, particularly with the chief judge, to discuss the concerns that both parties did not have sufficient time to prepare for cases.
“The Bar is of the view that it’s extremely important that extensive written judgment should be prepared, especially at the upper court such as Court of Appeal, Federal Court and High Court because it will lend certainty to law and confidence to of our legal system.
“It is not sufficient to have just the broad grounds (in a case). We hope the judiciary and the Bar are able to find ways to improve the time available both for judges to consider cases before them, as well as lawyers to present their cases for the judges,” he said.
Leong said the Bar has also adopted a motion today to find ways to improve the electronic filing system – an initiative to cut out queues and paperworks at the registry office – which faced frequent breakdowns.
Other motions adopted included to raise annual subscription of funds from RM10 to RM20.
Action againt senior lawyer
On a separate matter, Leong said the Bar would lodge a complaint next week against senior lawyer Cecil Abraham to the disciplinary board over concerns of “professional misconducts”.
This followed lawyer Americk Sidhu’s revelations at the AGM today that Abraham was the one who drafted a contentious statutory declaration (SD) for the late private investigator P Balasubramaniam in 2008.
Americk claimed earlier today that Abraham had said he had drafted Balasubramaniam’s second SD on the instructions of the then Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.
In his second SD, Balasubramaniam retracted all his shocking allegations linking Najib to the murder of Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu.
“We will of course be asking (carpet trader) Deepak Jaikishan, and Americk to provide us with formal statement to facilitate complaint,” Leong said.
He said the disciplinary board headed by Syed Ahmad Helmy Syed Ahmad, retired Court of Appeal judge, would be given two months to probe into the complaint and “further few months” to conclude the findings.
