Judicial Appointments Commission

Well if you've read the paper, you may know that Pak Lah is setting up a Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) to 'clean up' the judicial system.

Whats the Problem?

If you havent realized, the Malaysian judicial system is effectively shackled to political will. This is in direct contradiction to the principal of separation of powers, where the Executive, Judicial and Legislative powers of the state should be separated.

However, in Malaysia, there are certain laws (enacted under our former PM) that force judges to decide cases based on what parliament says. Also, the PM gets to choose our Chief Justice and Supreme Court judges. Therefore, a system that should be completely free of lobbying, political misuse, etc. is vulnerable to the wants of the politicians.

Furthermore, there have been too many cases and allegations (by former and retired judges, no less) of fixing, impropriety, etc. etc. etc.

The Brits

So this whole Judicial Appointments Commission idea is grafted from the British system. The Brits have a commission (say it with me: INDEPENDENT) that is not beholden to any political institution to appoint and promote judges based on merit. Any papers, research, findings, appointments, promotions, doodles and limericks are made public (PUBLIC: Tom, Dick, Harry and their 7 sisters can look at it if they want to).

The Malaise-yans

Of coz the great peoples of the great kingdoms of the Malaise-yans cannot be the using the established, transparent systems of the decadent west. We must make-de our own system.

In the great Malaise-yan system, the JAC advises the PM on who to choose. Meaning that the PM is still doing the choosing. Meaning that there isn't really much change is there?

And am not sure if I missed it, but there is no mention of exactly how this new system will be 'transparent and representative'. Are the appointments and promotions decision making processes going to be published and made public? No mention. And a good question that Ro asked- What happens if the PM disagrees with the decision of the JAC? Does he have the power to override them? (makes the JAC a bit redundant dont it?)

Eagerly looking forward to more news of this 'Judicial Renaissance'.