Everyone insist that we need a first-class judiciary, civil service, police force, education system and healthcare but what about the legal profession, bankers and housing and building developers?

We know about the corruption between the lawyers and the judiciary and the court staff but do we know about the corruption among lawyers doing conveyancing ?

Weren't the Highland Towers and Bukit Antarabangsa tragedies an indirect result of corrupted and unethical practices by lawyers, bankers and developers ? Shouldn't they be held responsible as well ?

As a practising lawyer in this country albeit not a famous one, I am truly ashamed of the level of integrity and dignity of the legal profession in this country. There is no respect at all given to the lawyers these days from developers, bankers, estate agents to, of course, not to mention our ever important clients. In Japan, people are afraid of their lawyers and hold them in high esteem.

So, whose fault is it? Is it the lawyers themselves? Lawyers who are willing to grovel, beg and demean themselves just for business. Lawyers who refuse to stand up to the bankers and developers for fear of losing their business.

Lawyers who allow themselves to be shouted at and who refuse to tell off the bankers and developers even when these people are clearly in the wrong. Lawyers who bend the rules to give in to these people all for the sake of money.

Lawyers who give ‘commissions’ to bankers, developers and estate agents (licence and unlicenced) to get some work with the excuse that ‘that's the way to do business these days.’

This category of lawyers, of courses, are the ones running the law firms in this country. They exploit the chambering students, they don't give them proper training - they are often used as cheap labour only - they oppress their legal assistants (‘LA’) and they allow their clerks to sign legal documents.

Legal firms are so badly run irregardless of whether they are big firms or consist of a sole proprietor or a two-partner firm. Most firms don't even give decent benefits to their employees and lawyers. The most disguring thing isthat most legal firms don't even follow labour laws.

Over in the UK, a banker can be sued for failing to explain terms to the borrower. How many bankers in Malaysia ever bother to explain anything to you, let alone know simple basic conveyancing and how many of us would dare sue the banker over this? Most of them will just shrug their shoulders, curse a little and forget all about it.

In Singapore, defect liability period can run up to 30 years. In Malaysia, count your blessings if you can find a developer who is generous enough to give you more than 24 months.

So, why isn't anybody talking about the rot in the legal profession, the banking system and the housing and building developers?