That a former top judge said he received 'instruction' from his bosses on how to handle court cases should not surprise anyone. After all, that's an open secret.

Especially after ex-High Court judge Muhammad Kamil Awang revealed last June that his superior pressured him to drop a politically sensitive case alleging electoral fraud in Sabah.

He didn't name the culprit. But most suspected that he was none other than controversial former Chief Justice Eusoff Chin — who is infamous for his holiday snapshots with a prominent lawyer while in New Zealand.

Indeed, Eusoff later conceded that he did telephone Muhammad Kamil to discuss the matter, but denied telling the judge to strike out the petition.

Now, former Court of Appeal judge Shaik Daud Ismail (photo) confirmed that much the same happened to him when he was a member of the judiciary.

Confronted with this latest revelation, de facto Law Minister Rais Yatim said Shaik Daud should have reported the matter to the police.

That is, of course, easier said than done.

Surely Rais is aware that just as there is a lack of public confidence in the judiciary, the same can be said about the police. This is especially true when the police are, at times, more interested in investigating the accuser, rather than the accused.

Which is why judges have to resort to poison-pen letters to expose alleged wrongdoings by their colleagues, some of whom are their bosses.

Indeed, instead of investigating the allegations, the writers of such poison-pen letters — Shaik Daud would prefer to refer to them as 'petitions' — were the ones made to face the music.

Remember justice Syed Ahmad Idid? He was asked to resign from the High Court six years ago for allegedly penning a 'petition' about judicial corruption, which was distributed at a conference of judges.

'Black hole'

No doubt, Rais knows of at least one reason why judges don't make police reports. Immediately after ticking off Shaik Daud, the minister went on to lament that police probes of high-profile cases often disappeared into a 'black hole' and do not result in prosecution.

He added that several cases had received a lot of publicity at the start of the investigation but nothing happened after that although there was proof of irregularities.

According to Rais, there are some 21 high-profile cases whose status are in limbo. He, however, did not name them.

But a few do come to mind — Perwaja Steel's Eric Chia, MAS' Tajudin Ramli, Tabung Haji, PUNB's multibillion ringgit bond scam, and a number involving politicians — Annuar Musa, Mohd Khir Toyo, Rafidah Aziz and Rahim Tamby Chik.

"If such a trend continues and people under investigation are not brought to face justice, our system of law will not be respected," said Rais.

He is dead right.

The joke in town is that the best way to kill an investigation into allegation of corruption involving a politically well-connected individual is to make a report to the police, or for that matter, to that other 'secretive' organisation, the Anti-Corruption Agency.

Both are funded by taxpayers, and yet they appeared to be more accountable to their political masters than the public. And that, too, is the public perception of our judiciary.

So, is there respect for our system of law? Go figure.