DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang today questioned new Chief Justice Zaki Azmi as to why he has not lodged a report against “two corrupt judges he knows personally” to the Anti-Corruption Agency.

Expressing his disbelief over the ‘shocking’ revelation made by the chief justice yesterday in Kuching who claimed that there was corruption involved within the top judiciary, Lim also put Zaki to task as to why he has not settled the matter a long time ago.

lim kit siang parliament pc 201008 02 Today, Zaki was quoted as saying in the New Straits Times: “God helped me because when I came (into the judiciary), they were gone. No, I didn't dismiss them, they retired.”

Lim posed in his statement today: “The question is whether the two corrupt judges “were gone” when Zaki became chief justice last month or when he was elevated to President of Court of Appeal on Dec 11 last year, three months after he made the triple jump from the private sector to be appointed Federal Court judge straightaway?”

If the former, Lim added, then the question arose as to why Zaki did not set in motion the establishment of judicial tribunals to impeach these two corrupt judges in the past 11 months.

“Secondly, why hadn't he reported the two corrupt judges to the ACA as the crime of corruption has neither time bar nor statute of limitations?” he asked.

Lim further expressed his disappointment on corruption infesting the nation’s judicial system, saying that the country had “suffered the plunge of judiciary’s international reputation as a world-class institution” since the 1988 judiciary crisis .

ACA should probe immediately

The DAP stalwart and Ipoh Timur MP also said the ACA should now track down the two retired judges and put them to task.

“Zaki's expose should prompt the ACA to immediately open investigations on the recently retired judges who were corrupt to make public examples of them for betraying their oath of judicial office,” urged Lim.

zaki azmi palace of justice 291008 oath ceremony There should be no need for the ACA, he said, to advise Zaki not to be afraid or that there could be no excuse for him not to give information to the agency on the ‘retired corrupt judges’.

According to the NST report, Zaki also recalled an incident in 1987, where he was “blacklisted” when he complained to the chief registrar of two missing files belonging to his clients.

“It took me six months to be nice, to bribe each and every individual to get back into their good books before our files were being attended to.

“That was my personal experience, and I am telling this to all the clerks and all the registries to stop this nonsense and I know this is happening,” Zaki was quoted as saying.

“Is Zaki prepared to spearhead a crusade to clean up the corruption and malpractice at all levels of the judiciary, by giving personal attention to all complaints about corruption, malpractice and abuses of power at all levels of the judicial hierarchy?” asked Lim.