Hamid revealed racial prejudice in a High Court judgment, says retired judge
(TMI) – Hamid, who had wrriten the judgment in Bahasa Malaysia, accepted the claim by the Malay defendant because “as a Muslim he would not tell lies”.
Former chief justice Tun Abdul Hamid Mohamad, who has come under fire for his incendiary comments that the position of Islam is under threat in Penang, had revealed his racial and religious prejudice in a decision on a civil case which he heard as a High Court judge in the 90s, says a former federal court judge.
Retired Federal Court judge Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram said he had sat on a Court of Appeal bench in 1996 which came across Hamid’s decision in a civil case that belied his prejudice.
In that case, a bank had sued two business partners, a Malay and an Indian, who had stood guarantors for a loan. Both the defendants relied on the defence that their signatures were forged by a third party.
Sri Ram (pic) told The Malaysian Insider that Hamid, who had wrriten the judgment in Bahasa Malaysia, accepted the claim by the Malay defendant because “as a Muslim he would not tell lies”.
“He, however, did not accept the allegation of the Indian. The bank and the Indian appealed to the Court of Appeal.
“The Court of Appeal dismissed the bank’s appeal, set aside Hamid’s judgment and ordered a trial,” said Sri Ram, who sat together with the late Tan Sri Abdul Malek Ahmad and Tan Sri Siti Normah Yaakob.
He said the Court of Appeal did not provide written grounds because it was a case where summary judgment was entered.
Sri Ram, who retired in 2010, was weighing in on whether litigants could review their cases since Hamid has now openly showed his religious and racial preferences.
