The Independence of the Judiciary has to be defended at all costs

       While lawyer, Shafee Abdullah has a duty to secure his client’s release, the rakyat (and I believe the rest of the world) are watching closely every move made by his legal team, since his client and former Prime Minister, Najib Abdul Razak was involved in "one of the world's greatest financial scandals" which the US Department of Justice declared as the "largest kleptocracy case to date" in 2016.

        In the SRC International trial, Justice Nazlan Mohd Ghazali has found Najib guilty of the charges and sentenced him to 12 years imprisonment, which is nothing in comparison to what the late Gopal Sri Ram feared, if both Najib and Rosmah are found guilty in other cases, the couple would be imprisoned for the remaining years of their natural lives.

The latest development involving Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Azalina Othman Said, whose letter addressed to Najib’s lawyers claimed that “the MACC had found Nazlan in breach with the Judges' Code of Ethics and had a conflict of interest while presiding on the SRC International case.”

It is good that Azalina has since denied that only the judiciary has authority to evaluate alleged breaches of ethics involving another High Court judge.

Otherwise, from a layman’s point of view, this appears to be a most “bizarre” development to me, as Azalina should be fully aware that in Malaysia, we practise the separation of powers. The independence of the Judiciary has to be defended at all costs.

      Azalina would have gone beyond her powers as a member of the Executive if she had sidelined the powers vested in the office of the Chief Justice, Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat.

      If a High Court Judge can be investigated by a government agency, then anything else is possible. Supposing that the chief of a government agency is himself found guilty of wrongdoing, the first thing that the loyalist within his agency can do is to look for any fault that they can find with the judge.   

      Once sufficient doubt is raised, the judge can be charged in court, say for corruption; and if found guilty, the case against the agency’s chief would be overturned, especially if the judge can be painted as being biased towards the accused.

      This is a layman’s version of what can happen, and there is no end to it once this is allowed. For that reason, I urge the Chief Justice to stand strong against any attempt to undermine the powers of the judiciary.

   If Nazlan had truly violated the Judges' Code of Ethics, the investigation and decision lie with the Judges' Ethics Committee, which is the sole authority under the Judges' Ethics Committee Act 2010 to come out with the findings.

     Since Azalina has denied and she has no reason to even divulge any information about the investigation carried out by the Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission, the "bizarre" claim by certain parties concerned raises questions, and this must be investigated further. 

     Najib and a number of others involved in the 1MDB scandal, such as the flamboyant businessman, Low Taek Jho, should serve the full prison term for their involvement in the scandal, a price too high that Malaysians now have to pay for.