The ruling by the Kuala Lumpur High Court that it is unwilling to make a judicial review of the statement by the Election Commission that the three Keadilan members are disqualified from contesting in the upcoming general election constitutes an insult to the chairman and secretary of the EC.

This is because, in effect the court is saying that their opinions (expressed in public) have no effect on how the elections are conducted; in this instance, it is the returning officers who have the final say on how the election rules are to be interpreted. Hence it would appear that the opinion of the EC on how the elections rules should be interpreted, is of no consequence and has equal weight to the rambling of coffee shop politicians who hold forth on constitutional rights.

The chairman and secretary of the Election Commission should therefore stop making public statements about the general elections, because they are of no significance and will only confuse the public. Alternatively, they should resign their posts, since the court has in effect stated that their interpretations of the election laws are not worth reviewing.

At the same time, the reluctance of the court to make a ruling on the interpretation of the law, especially when it has serious consequences of the constitutional right of a citizen to contest in an election, does not inspire confidence in the judiciary as a forum in which citizens can seek justice. That is something else for Malaysians to think about.