The Malaysian judiciary is not what it should be. Outside its doors are the detritus of judicial skeletons, which by the time it became public had become the norm. Political and other pressures dictated how a high profile case is decided.

This began with a vengeance after the then lord president of the Supreme Court, as the chief justice was then known, Salleh Abas, and two Supreme Court judges were denied justice in their own court and drummed out, more to warn the judges of the fate awaiting them if they did not oblige. Justice, in short, was available only to the highest or the most powerful bidder.

The chief justice ruled with an iron rod, and harassed or sidelined any judge who crossed him, or more importantly, his favourite lawyers. One judge was forced to write a "surat layang" (anonymous letter) to highlight the rot in the judiciary. He was forced to retire without a pension. He had a heart attack about that time, and he was given the option of death of his illness or resign immediately. He had no choice but to.

When the rot began

Abdul Hamid Omar, who succeeded Salleh, started the rot. His successor, Eusoff Chin, continued it. He scandalised an already scandal-proof court when photographs of him on holiday with his favourite lawyer, VK Lingam, in New Zealand appeared on the Internet.

He and his client, Vincent Tan (he of the Bukit Tinggi casino fame) were also photographed with the then attorney-general (later Federal Court judge and now comatose), Mohtar Abdullah, and their wives, on holiday in Italy.

Dzaiddin Abdullah, who succeeded him with a new broom and an unsullied reputation, could not, no matter how, turn the judiciary around. What destroyed a judicial tradition of two centuries cannot be reversed in decades, let alone in two or three years.