The allegations made by a former Court of Appeal judge on the abuse of power within the judiciary was "inappropriate" and the issue should have been raised when he was still in office, said Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Dr Rais Yatim today.

"If he has specific date and information he should have made a police report but it may not be so appropriate that only after he has resigned that he mentions it," he said.

Rais told reporters this after launching Amanah Rakyat Berhad's (ARB) new education trust fund at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur.

The minister was commenting on an article in malaysiakini yesterday where justice Shaik Daud Mohd Ismail revealed that there were attempts to "instruct" him on how to handle court cases and how he was "sidelined" when he refused to be a 'yes-man'.

"He should have taken action during his tenure but after retiring and without his post, it can be complicated but he is still allowed under the law to make a police report," said Rais who is also the de facto law minister.

Former chief justice criticised

Shaik Daud, who retired last year after spending almost 40 years in the legal line, also said that former chief justice Mohd Eusoff Chin should have been removed from office for destroying the good image of the judiciary.

He said the various allegations leveled against the country's former top judge, who retired in Nov 2000, were serious enough to warrant a dismissal.

Eusoff earned notoriety when photographs depicting a prominent litigation lawyer and him posing together during a holiday in New Zealand appeared on the Internet in 1999.

Another controversy involving Eusoff erupted last year when a former high court judge Muhammad Kamil Awang alleged that he received a telephone call from the top attempting to influence his decision regarding an election petition.

Subsequently, Eusoff admitted making the phone call, but denied trying to influence the now retired Muhammad Kamil to decide in favour of the ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional.

Asked to comment on the investigations regarding the 'phone call', Rais declined, saying that the press conference should concentrate on the ARB function.

Efficient investigations

On another matter, Rais called on enforcement officers who were investigating instances of criminal breach of trust to conduct their probes efficiently and conclude them as soon as possible.

"I also hope that enforcement officers handling cases of criminal breach of trust carry out their investigations without fear or favour.

"There has also been the trend that when a person or company is being investigated, the news is so widespread that even folks in the kampung (village) would know, but after the investigations are over, no action is taken," he added.

If this trend continues, the justice system will never reach respectable levels, he said, adding that he was only talking on this matter without referring to any specific case.

On the recent report concerning corruption in government agencies here by Transparency International (TI), Rais said he could not comment on it yet.

"Whilst I commend TI on the report I cannot comment on it as it has not been sent to me officially yet," said the minister.

The report was released last week at a forum titled 'Putting local council governance under the spotlight: Is local council governance up to the mark?' organised by TI.

The groundbreaking report, based on a joint study by TI and the Malaysian Institute of Management, claimed that 1,000 Selayang Municipal Council ratepayers rated the police force as being most corrupt followed by the Road Transport Department, the municipal council, the land office, the judicial office, the health department, the environment department and lastly the fire and rescue services department.

The study, which was funded by the Netherlands Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, was based on a strata sampling of 250 each from among users of local council services, hawkers, shop owners and households.