Provisions in the Legal Profession Act prohibiting Bar Council members from holding posts in political parties are "unconstitutional", the Malaysian Bar passed a resolution stating so today.

"Section 46A of the LPA is unconstitutional and we cannot support a law which is such," returning Bar Council chairperson Mah Weng Kwai told reporters today after chairing the Malaysian Bar's 56th annual general meeting.

He also said that the Bar Council, representing 10,000 lawyers, would also be supporting the legal suit filed last year by Bar Council member-cum-PRM vice-president R Sivarasa, challenging the provisions set out in the LPA.

Siva's case is pending in Kuala Lumpur High Court. His application for a stay of execution was denied, disqualifying him from voting for the Bar Council leadership posts.

The Malaysian Bar's statement was a consequence of a resolution called by several lawyers to repeal Section 46A and other amendments introduced which, according to the lawyers, would hinder the Bar's ability to govern themselves.

Resolutions

The resolution, proposed by lawyer Charles Hector, was prompted by Sivarasa's legal suit and the amendment of the LPA in 1977 after lawyers refused to take up cases involving the Essential (Security Cases) Regulations 1975 as they were "manifestly unfair and unjust as to offend the conscience of all good men".

According to Mah, the Bar Council also passed a resolution, proposed by lawyer P Uthayakumar, that condemned Inspector-General of Police Norian Mai's failure in protecting the victims of the Petaling Jaya Selatan clashes.

The resolution also called for the government to commence an inquiry into the matter and censuring the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) for its failure to carry out an inquiry.

The Home Affairs Minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and Norian should also make public the findings of their investigation and the government should disburse assistance to the victims, it said.

The four-day clashes which killed six and injured scores, were said to have been sparked off by a misunderstanding between two families and another incident where a boy, using a slingshot, smashed the windscreen of his neighbour's vehicle.

Mah also told reporters that the Bar Council had passed a resolution calling for a repeal of the detention-without-trial Internal Security Act and for the release of all detainees or their trial before a court of law.

The resolution also called for a special task force to be set up to actively campaign for preventive detention laws to be repealed and for the detainees to be released.

Law Academy Bill

There were no surprises in today's Bar Council elections with Mah retaining his post as chairperson uncontested. Kuthubul Zaman Bukhari, who replaced Roy Rajasingham as vice-chairperson, also won uncontested.

The new secretary and treasurer are Mohd Sofian Abdul Razak and Apandi Ali respectively.

During the press conference, Mah also voiced his dissatisfaction with the government's "casual treatment" of the proposed Academy of Law Bill.

"We want to register our dissatisfaction because we are the body of persons most affected by the bill and we have been told that the cabinet has approved of it but we have not even been given a copy of the bill yet," Mah said.

When asked if the Academy of Law Bill would actually threaten the legal profession and the LPA, Mah said no.

"While we support the concept of the law academy, we do not agree to paragraphs which concern the membership of the Law Academy's senate and the compulsory membership of lawyers.

Lawyers are unhappy with the number of its members represented in the body's senate.

"It [Law Academy] is not a threat but rather a complement [to existing legal bodies], but people must be given a choice, and we maintain that we must look at the bill first," Mah said.

The AGM fulfilled its quorum today with a total of 2,010 lawyers present.