Jamil Khir Tak Reti Perlembagaan

Yesterday I had lunch with some friends. Two of them are products of British universities. Both recalled that despite passing all their exams in their universities and Inns (one is a lawyer by training) they could not graduate unil they had attended a series of “dinners”. Three dinners in one university and 10 in the Inn.

At these dinners the Brits showed them how to eat in the English style – dinner table etiquette, how to dress for dinner, which fork to use when, what to say, not to say, what jokes are allowed or not allowed etc. Their seniors would also be present  to observe them and will later (in a separate meeting) make known their observations and tell them the proper etiquette and decorum. In the Inn, if you are married, then it is important that your wife also attend the series of dinners where they will also coach the wife of the student (future barristers or lawyers) how to behave at a formal dinner table.

If the students do not attend these dinners and do not make the grade for dinner etiquette and decorum, then they will not be able to graduate – no matter how clever they are or how high are their grades.

(In Malaysia I think the proper dinner etiquette is how much food the dinner guests can observe – inside your mouth.)

Why do the Brits go to such trouble? Or to such lengths? The answer is standardisation. There is a proper way of doing things – even something as simple as having dinner – and we must all do it this way.  It is also a projection of their culture and the British way of doing things.  Through trial and error, tried and tested methods and perhaps a thousand years of civilisation they have come to certain established methods which work. And they take the trouble to perpetuate the system.  That is how a tiny island nation ruled (and still rules) more than half the world.

This morning my wife (who is a lawyer by training and a Member of the Bar) and I were discussing the Rules of the Court. This is actually a very,very old British Law or Act which we also have in our country. We have the Subordinate Courts Rules Act 1955, Rules of Court 2012 etc.

These laws determine how the Courts should carry out their day to day functions. Why is it so important to make Laws in Parliament to govern how the Court functions everyday? Because the Court can hang people, send them to jail, wind up a business, take children away from parents and such. This is very, very serious business. Jangan main main.

So we cannot have kangaroo courts like some shariah courts in Sudan, Nigeria, Pakistan or elsewhere. The Court procedures must be fixed, predictable, easily understood, completely transparent and known to the public.

I recall one of our human rights lawyers (and rabble rouser) who was shocked when he first went to the shariah court. At one point the shariah judge just shouted at one of the accused ‘Awak bertaubat’. It was shocking because the case was still in progress, the lawyers were still presenting their case and the judgement had not yet been passed.  Dont know if it has changed much since then.

In 2000 I first visited Tun Dr Mahathir in his office at Putrajaya. I have visited the PM’s Office a few times since, not always to see the PM though. When I was in the NEAC (circa 2002) I had a security pass that would take me directly to the fourth foor of the PM’s Office, even without an appointment. (I used to meet Dr Mahathir’s communications people – actually just two only). During Dr Mahathir’s time the conduct of the PM’s office was super duper professional.

Of course you needed an appointment to see the PM. Everythng was properly monitored. You had to walk through that famous maze of corridors to get to his office. At the fourth floor that Police woman would escort you up to the fifth floor. There were very few people around. Everything was quiet. You would meet exactly who you were supposed to meet. No one else.

Then everything changed. During the time of Slumberjack I once had to visit the Ministry of Finance. Slumberjack was the Finance Minister. The place was a mess.  We went straight up and the door was opened by some unemployable DKK guy from Permatang Pauh.  The about 60 year old guy was wearing blue jeans, a faded denim shirt and had a cowboy lariat tied around his neck.  I am NOT making this up. He stopped us at the door – although we had an appointment – and asked in thick DKK Malay “Nak jumpaq sapa?”

I doubt he had anything better than a Std Six education. The question is who the hell was this guy and what was he doing at the PM cum FM’s office in Putrajaya? It turned out that he was from UMNO Permatang Pauh and just hung out at Slumberjack’s office, trying to intercept and hijack contracts.

The inmates had taken over the mental asylum. The super duper efficiency under Dr Mahathir had all gone out the window.

We are still a Third World country. We do not have well established rules and procedures. Even if we have them we do not respect or follow procedures. We dont even obey our own laws. We need to create rock solid, secular (aka Islamic) procedures in all our affairs. And we must stick to it.

I have mentioned this before. The advanced countries or Negara Maju, which we aspire to be in 66 months from now, have one set of laws and procedures that are robust and Islamic. I am talking about Japan, UK, US, Singapore, Korea, Australia etc. These are the real Islamic countries. That is why so many Muslim refugees from the Islamic countries want to migrate to Australia, UK and the US. Which idiot wants to migrate to Saudi Arabia? You may be stupid but you need not be mad too.

The Islamic countries have a confusing mix up of laws. I  wrote about this in my book ‘To Digress A Little’ way back in 2005.  They have uptofourdifferent sets of laws which all contribute to screw up their countries.

First they have the really Islamc Laws inherited from the colonials. In Malaysia this is our Federal Constitution and the British Civil and Criminal Laws.

Then secondly they have the confusing shariah laws, which often are not very Islamic.  Then thirdly many Islamic countries have tribal and customary laws which are different from the Western Law or the shariah law.

Fourth and final the Islamic countries suffer one more law ie ‘My own law’ of the ruler. In Brunei and Kelantan their hudud law says that the Sultan is not bound by the hudud law. That  is so uncool. They can make up their own laws as they go along.  With so many laws there is confusion in the country.

Read more at: http://syedsoutsidethebox.blogspot.com/2014/06/jamil-khir-tak-reti-perlembagaan.html