Some Hints on Judicial Independence

Onlooker said...
YAB Tun Dr. Mahathir,

I tried not to politicise on the issue of Ian Chin's Great Revelation but I have to tell you my true opinion from the bottom of my heart.

I think it is fine if we try to train our company CEO to be independent by requiring him to wash his own dirty dish in a motivation course. It is also fine for me to ask a favour from a girl friend of mine to come to my own house and do the dish wash work, which I forgot to do before I left home, when I am busy with my outwork and not be able to come home for a few weeks.

However, in the context of judicial independence, I don't see the point why you should train a court judge to wash his own dirty dish in a boot camp organised by military forces. It is ardent inappropriate for you or your subordinates to organise such a training course for a court judge since it is irrelevant to the profession of a court judge.

This training, when involved with a court judge without his prior knowledge and without his agreeing to the course syllabus, is tantamount to the misconduct of disrepect to judicial independence. If you insist that it is ok to ask a court judge to wash his own dirty dish in the public because you as a PM also did it, someone may be justified to argue that it is nothing wrong to ask you to mob the dirty floor of Petronas Twin Towers since you are the Advisor to Petronas and you draw remuneration from Petronas.

I suggest that you read some books on the U.S. Government in order to get a much better idea about separation of powers and judicial independence before you talk further on this issue. Otherwise, you will not have the adequate knowledge to rely upon as a common reference to discuss on the issue of judicial independence.

Many a time you have insisted on other people should do thing following your way. However, within the context of separation of powers, this stubbornness simply doesn't work! Even when you work in a private organisation, you should learn how to work in accordance with the job description given to you by your employer and not to encroach upon your other colleagues' territory, since there is an internal audit function which requires clear-cut separation of different job functions for different staff within the same organisation for purpose of checks and balances.

Hope you repent and begin to learn from the past mistake. God will forgive you if you really show a true repentance!

June 18, 2008 10:25 PM