YOURSAY 'An alternative Bar? Can we have an alternative judiciary, police force, prison service and MACC too?

'Alternative Bar' set for September launch

ONG: In the Bar Council's EGM (extraordinary general meeting) to discuss the violence witnessed at the Bersih 3.0 protest, 12 resolutions were passed - 939 votes for and 16 against.

Nordin Yusoff must be one of the 16 who doesn't believe in the rule of majority and is now setting up an alternative bar council for the 16 lawyers.

If we the minority from the ‘pendatang' (immigrant) tribe doesn't like the way the majority from the ‘ketuanan' (supremacy) tribe run the country, can we also set up an alternative Malaysia, too?

Mogansivas: Hello Umno-BN, can we the rakyat have an alternative judiciary, police force, prison service, MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission) and, I almost forgot, can we have an alternative government whilst we are at it, too?

Anonymous #18452573: It is okay if any Tom, Nordin or Harry wants to set up a Lawyer Burok Bar, Alternatif Bar or Perkasa Bar. Just like the sudden explosion of pro-Umno NGOs, why not everything else?

This is the old regime's style of making nothing sound like something. It really comes down to whether the rakyat know how to tell the difference.

Maplesyrup: The members are only non-practising lawyers? I wonder how credible this new group is.

Pemerhati: Due to Umno's racism, the problem is in all universities. What I was referring to was reported in The Star on April 16: "A Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia lecturer who passed only four out of 157 of her law students claims she was forced to resign so that the university could protect its reputation.

Kosmo! reported that Nor (not her real name) said the reason she left was because she could not stand the pressure from the university management on her to give ‘sympathy marks'.

"How am I to give extra marks if the marks they got is what they should be getting?" she said, adding that her downfall started when she received a show-cause letter on why so many students had failed.

"She was then criticised by her superiors, who also wanted her to add marks based on attendance so as to reduce the number of failures.

"‘I stood my ground. How could I give them marks for that when it is their responsibility to show up for classes?' she added. The university declined to comment."

Any lecturer who insists on maintaining the standards and fails these sub-standard students would jeopardise her promotion prospects or lose her job as happened to this lecturer.

Umno's policy in Malaysia is very similar to the AirAsia slogan (‘Now everyone can fly') and it could be called ‘now everyone can become a graduate'.

Nordin should have no problem in getting a large number of members from this rapidly increasing pool of sub-standard professionals whose quality may be even lower than that of the MACC prosecutor, who demonstrated how he could strangle himself during the Teoh Beng Hock inquest.

Joe Fernandez: Anything launched with the BN government being the main sponsor and instigator must be viewed with great suspicion.

This new organisation reeks of racism and will be apologists and sycophants for the BN government.

Next, they will be pushing for hudud, syariah and an Islamic state in violation of the federal constitution, secularism, democracy and human rights. The public should boycott any lawyer who becomes a member of this new organisation.

Ramachandran Muniandy: Nordin Yusof, just because the Bar Council did not agree to your proposal, you want an alternate Bar Council.

Before you start a new Bar Council, what criteria have you met? How many major cases you have won?

When famed lawyer, the late R Ramani was named Malaysia's permanent UN representative, Umno asked for a Malay to replace him.

The then Prime Minister Abdul Razak subsequently told Umno to name one Malay who had the calibre, credentials and experience to replace Ramani.

Razak himself was a lawyer. So what calibre, credentials or experience do you have to lead the alternate Bar Council?

Faz: Anybody can come up with suggestions, even idiotic ones, but winning support for it is another thing. If the majority of Malaysians are not for it - even with Umno-BN support - at best, it will be a lame duck.

Go on, set up whatever Umno thinks can be set up, but ultimately the rakyat will have the final say.

Anonymous_5: I hope this is not another case of power-mad bumiputeras wanting to take control of the Bar Council even though they are not good enough to do so. It happens often enough for us to be suspicious.

Voice: Is this a bar for lawyers to hang out after office hours?

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