smm meeting with nazri 110907 nazri abdul aziz As if the rakyat's confidence in the judiciary isn't low enough, the de facto Law Minister Nazri Aziz ( right ) has further eroded the institution's standing.

He stunned the House on Monday by saying that there is no law criminalising brokering judicial appointments.

What does this mean? The infamous VK Lingam will go unpunished as no crime was established, despite his questionable ethical practices.

The already tainted judiciary is badly in need of a ‘total overhaul' of its image and integrity. While the claim of an absence of legislation to ‘illegalise' Lingam's actions is true, Nazri's suggestion that "Lingham might have just acted to fix the appointment of judges to impress" was a very bad joke.

But this decision has made a huge mockery of the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Lingam's fiasco. I attempted, that day, to make the minister commit to saying that ‘what may be morally wrong could be legally or politically right' in this country of ours.

He answered in the affirmative without hesitation.

Obvious ethical breach

lingam tape hearing 300108 vk lingam 02 The question of ethics and its application legally and politically has long been debated. Notwithstanding that, Lingam( right )'s action is surely so obviously wrong as much as it is immoral. Brokering, or lobbying for an appointment of the highest position of the office of the judiciary, is indeed an open assault on the integrity of the judiciary.

If judges' appointment could be fixed, then logically verdicts or judgments of judges could as well be similarly fixed, at a ‘certain price' of course.

Most atrocious in Lingam's case is that, while ‘brokering' may be immoral but legal, his writing judgments, while both immoral and illegal, also escaped punishment. The nation cannot let this slide.

Nazri claims that the MACC cannot continue further investigations as a key witness could not be located. The MACC has subsequently classified the case under ‘no further action'.

In an effort to counter Nazri's arguments, the opposition MPs have brought a key witness sought by the MACC to Parliament on Nov 10. Jayanthi LG Naidu was Lingam's former secretary at the time of the royal commission's probe into Lingam's alleged involvement in brokering the appointment of judges.

Damning claims

Reading from her writ NONE ten statement, Jayanthi ( left ) explained that she has been available to assist MACC in their investigations at all times and was very willing to cooperate with the anti-graft body.

She was also called in as a witness by the commission to testify about Lingam's holiday with the former Chief Justice Eusoff Chin to New Zealand.

She had given a full statement in 1998 regarding the trip to the former Anti-Corruption Agency (now MACC). She repeated this at the royal commission's proceedings.

She had told the ACA and the royal commission that Lingam and Chin's family holiday trip to New Zealand in 1994 was arranged and paid for by Lingam. She stands her ground to date. Kudos Jayanthi! Her safety is now the responsibility of the nation.

However, the commission found that no crime has been committed as both parties had paid for their own respective holidays and that further investigations could not be undertaken as a key witness could not be located.

The mystery witness

The rakyat now wishes to know who the person is, as only he or she is capable of putting the case to rest forever.

But both MACC and Nazri have refused to name the witness. If it's not Jayanthi, they must now name the person as it is critical to safeguard the integrity of the judiciary. Their actions are indeed at best irresponsible and at worst amounting to ‘subverting' the judiciary. Is that both moral and legal?

Jayanthi also divulged information pertaining the judgment delivered by Judge Mokhtar Sidin in the Vincent Tan vs MGG Pillai libel case that was written in the office of Lingam.

On various occasions, she said she had withdrawn large sums of cash between RM100,000 and RM300,000 under Lingam's instructions, which then were wrapped in gift boxes to be hand-delivered to individual judges.

"On one occasion I saw one of these money boxes being placed with a box containing a cake to be delivered to a judge," she testified.

Despite the commission's recommendation to conduct fresh investigations into Lingam's case, authorities decided to close two of the investigation documents and another was marked as ‘no further action'.

NONE The Pakatan MPs and the rakyat now unequivocally demand that the MACC and the relevant authorities rethink their position. The buck must stop at the premier.

Our former prime minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has already left behind a ‘legacy of lost opportunities'. Current Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak ( left ) is gifted with high-sounding rhetoric, but slogans without substance undermine trust.

This is an opportune time to placate grouses against himself and vindicate his claims of ‘putting people first'. Should he instead continue perpetuating and defending wrongdoings, then let me quote Voltaire: "It's dangerous to be right, when the government is wrong."

He shall be duly punished come the 13 th general election.

Dzulkefly Ahmad is the PAS Kuala Selangor member of parliament.