'Laws catch flies but let the hornets go free'. This is a Scottish saying that many Malaysians may not have heard of. But you can be sure that it also carries the same tragic message reflected in the Cantonese (dialect) proverb of the 'black dog commits a wrong but the white dog got punished'.

The latest controversial Lingam tape exposure by PKR is almost tantamount to the Malay proverb, "The turtle lays thousands of eggs without anyone knowing but when the hen lays an egg, the whole country is informed." The rot of the judiciary had its beginning following the events in 1988 when appointments and promotions of judges were left basically to the chief justice and the prime minister. Many on the contrary knew about the "thousands of turtle eggs" but why was this latest egg laid by the proverbial hen that sent conscientious Malaysians and the professional Bar Council screaming in protest?

Is it because politics in our landscape has become like a rotten egg? It had been broken and it stinks, borrowing the Russian proverbial language. Or what American preacher and author of several publications Todd F Eklof in his article, 'The Scales of Justice' narrated Erich Fromm's warning that humankind is on the slippery reality of justice in governance and political control by the few.

Uncannily as it is, perhaps Eklof 's narration here provides some clue why the hen's egg has caused the stink that spurred a wave of awareness and concerns among Malaysians. "Most of us like to think we are pursuing our own interests and fulfilling the calling that makes us each unique. Yet, from the time we are toddlers our process of standardisation begins and we grow into the kind of human automatons, spending the best part of our lives unwittingly working to keep tyrants in power and the bank vaults of an elite few overflowing with wealth. In short, we have become little more than batteries in a vast social machine so inefficient it produces enough daily bread for an infinitesimally small but powerful minority. In the process, our power, our richness and our meaning is drained, stolen and stored in someone else's fattened coffers."

Silent Malaysians

The law fraternity is perhaps familiar with the word "justice" but to many ordinary Malaysians, the definition remains blur and hazy. After all the confusion of Malaysians is further compounded by the fact that the powerful Barisan Nasional ruling elites' handling of the latest Lingam tape controversy seemed further from the truth of its coalition's logo of the "scales". The decision of the top Umno leadership in setting up the three-man panel committee (instead of a Royal Commission) falls short of a higher symbolic presentation of the Greek mythology Themis, the goddess of justice and law, holding a pair of scales ( the BN logo).

To many, the decision was instead off tangent to the balance and equilibrium, represented by BN's logo. Justice in our political sphere in view of the latest episode has become rather a good denial, the best point in law.

And Malaysians should be blamed for this state of affairs. Many have often taken the silent and apathetic path despite the cancer of corruption, nepotism and injustices in governance.

"Corruption, lust, false allegations, revenge are elements that brought about the destruction of Malacca. This is the cancer that can weaken any society and nation. Not only was a city state like Malacca destroyed. Even a mighty empire can collapse," Anwar Ibrahim, then Umno Youth chief warned the Umno Youth and Wanita assembly in 1996. "A society that allows the spread of corruption should be prepared to wrestle with all sorts of brutality. How can a society kiss the shoulder of justice when justice can be bought and sold," he asked.

Irish statesman and political theorist Edmund Burke (1729 1797) in his writing "Reflections on the revolution of France," said, "Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society; and any eminent departure from it, under any circumstances, lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all."

A parallel saying of English philosopher Francis Bacon (15611626): "If we do not maintain justice, justice will not maintain us." This is relevant to Umno. If the Umno leadership does not maintain justice, then justice will not ultimately maintain Umno. One of the priceless legacies today's generation of the Umno leadership had inherited from its party founders and pioneers are the principles of democracy, justice and freedom. The conscientious followings in Umno must now ensure that democracy and the principles of justice should not be violated by others. They must not defend the perverted kind of democracy and injustices that only serve the powerful and the rich, leaving the ordinary people out.

Anwar voiced out in 1996 that the objective of democracy is no different from justice and harmony for everyone. He narrated that "Fester and violations can emerge from a corrupted form of justice or injustice like the Roman Governor, Gaius Verres (115-43 BC) who carried out all sorts of brutality in the form of corruption and injustices that was truly frightening. He not only sentenced people to death on false charges but even demanded payment from the families of his victims on the method of killing to be used - whether it is done with a single strike of an axe or many strikes, instant death or suffering before death. If that was not enough, the victims' families had to pay bribes to get the body (of the victims). Without this payment, the corpse would be thrown elsewhere to be fed on by wild animals."

Divine justice

Why do human civilisations philosophically speak so highly of 'divine justice' when in reality, dispensed "justice" behaves so slippery like an eel in murky waters? Is our officialdom version of "human justice" falling short of our myths of divine justice? Is justice merely a twin-pan scale upon which our crimes in this life and our sins in the next must be balanced with equal punishment? Or is the sort of justice our gods demand of us, something more - something that commands balance, equality and equilibrium among the world's inhabitants?

Of great relevance to us as a nation, once pondered by Todd, "Are we to bring people to justice, or are we to bring justice to people?"

Two of the seven principles affirmed by Unitarian Universalism include the word, "justice." Todd argued in his article, 'The Scales of Justice' that we seek justice, equity and compassion in human relations and maintain the "goal of world community with peace, justice and liberty for all." Whether or not this lofty goal is really possible, it seems most of us desire justice for ourselves and for others. "But just what is this illusive notion we esteem so highly? If we look at the innumerable injustices saturating human history and consider the global inequity that exists in our own time, we can, at best conclude justice has existed rarely for only a few. Yet if it has only existed for a few, we must wonder if it has ever existed at all, since, by definition, justice seems to have something to do with treating everyone equally."

There are no simple answers even for academicians and students professing in law and justice. Rather, the question and answer appropriately lies in the citizenry. Should ordinary Malaysians continue to remain indifferent and apathetic on the issue of pressing for judiciary reforms? Martin Luther King had this advice: "Injustices anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream."

Elie Wiesel seemed to support King, when he said, "There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest." Confucius reaffirmed this saying, ' yi zheng ya bai xie ' (One justice can overcome a hundred evils.) That justice lies in our hearts.

STANLEY KOH works for a Malaysian think-tank.