updated version

An apparent split among the 36-member Bar Council resulted in Mah Weng Kwai wresting the leadership from incumbent Sulaiman Abdullah in a close contest today.

The results were 19 to 17 in favour of Mah to lead the 9,653 members of the Malaysian Bar at the end of the council's 55th annual general meeting. The meeting also saw a record attendance of 3,493 members.

Mah told a press conference later that the change in the leadership was due to the concerns shown by some members on the "silence on the part of the Bar Council in the past couple of months in some issues, especially pertaining to the freedom of religion".

In another contest, challenger Tommy Thomas failed to dispose of vice-president Roy Rajasingam. Rajasingam edged Thomas by a majority of four votes.

Meanwhile, Kuthubul Zaman Bukhari and Mohd Sofian Abdul Razak were returned unopposed as the secretary and treasurer respectively.

Acted with constraints

Mah said that the members felt that the council under Sulaiman's leadership was not responding swiftly to pressing issues.

"The council should respond to issues of public concern without constraints. Lots of sentiments were expressed regarding this, especially by the Bar's human rights committee," said Mah.

Mah's challenge to the post departed from the stand taken in the council in previous elections as an incumbent leader is normally allowed to be in his post for two consecutive years before any challenge is made. Sulaiman was only voted in as the chairman last year.

Many lawyers believe that the Bar will play a more activist role under the new chief.

Settlement rejected

Earlier at the AGM, lawyers unanimously rejected the call by justice RK Nathan for the Bar to mend its relationship with lawyer K Rajasegaran who has filed two law suits against the Bar.

The council had tabled a motion for the lawyers to debate on whether they should heed the advice of the High Court judge that all proceedings between Rajasegaran and the Malaysian Bar be amicably settled and resolved accordingly.

On March 18, Nathan asked the council and Rajasegaran to bury the hatchet and try to settle the matter. Nathan made the plea on the day he was supposed to have decided on the suit by Rajasegaran to stop an extraordinary general meeting of the Bar in 1999 to discuss the allegations of judicial misconduct involving former chief justice Eusoff Chin.

Rajasegaran had sued the Malaysian Bar, the Bar Council and its then chairman RR Chelvarajah seeking a permanent injunction to restrain the Bar from holding the EGM scheduled for Nov 20, 1999.

The meeting was planned to discuss, among others, allegations pertaining the judiciary as contained in an affidavit filed by Asian Wall Street Journal correspondent Raphael Pura in a defamation suit filed against him by two companies.

Loud message from lawyers

Nathan also asked the Rajasegaran to consider withdrawing his other suit against the Bar and 11 council members to stop another EGM scheduled for June 23 last year.

This suit, which involved allegations related to the AWSJ affidavit, was to stop another EGM held by the Bar to discuss charges of judicial misconduct.

The suit claimed that the defendants had committed sedition and contempt of court for deciding to discuss allegations of Eusoff going on a Christmas holiday in New Zealand with a prominent corporate lawyer. Nathan said that since Eusoff has retired, the matter was no longer an issue.

"There was a clear message from our members that we should not settle this matter. We are also not aware of who is actually making the offer to settle," said Mah.

He also said that Bar was not going to compromise on this issue, adding that it was not up to the Malaysian Bar or the Bar Council to withdraw the suits.

Mah said that the members wanted the judge to deliver his decision on the matter, and let the Bar decide how to proceed next.

Tactic to attract crowd

The much spoken-about motion proposed by the council for the compulsory subscription fee to be fixed at different levels did not materialise as it was withdrawn by the council, prompting many to speculate that it was only introduced to entice a high turnout for the AGM.

The proposal called for the division of the lawyers into two groups, class A involving those who had attended the meeting and class B for the absentees.

Lawyers who fail to turn up at the AGM were supposed to pay an increased amount of RM1,000 as annual subscription and other fees, as opposed to RM650 paid by the others.

The proposal was mooted to encourage members to take an active interest in the affairs of the Bar and to participate in the AGM.

Stop police brutality

The lawyers however passed a motion to express their concerns on the merciless killings, assaults and deaths in police lock-ups and incidents of police brutality.

The resolution, proposed by lawyer P Uthayakumar, urged the police to stop the unlawful shootings to death of individuals which were occurring at an alarming rate of 1.3 persons per week.

The Attorney-General was urged to prosecute each and every member of the police force for the murder of the individuals shot dead by the force.

However, a motion calling for the censure and to caution the police for these merciless killings and police brutality of those in detention was withdrawn.

The lawyers also agreed unanimously to ask the Bar Council to immediately act on all past resolutions of the Malaysian Bar by giving detailed reports on what has been done since the resolutions were passed.

Publicity needed

The members also urged the Bar to publish the report on the resolution, proposed by member Charles Hector, within three months.

Hector said that important resolutions such as the recognition of one phone call to all suspects arrested by police and the recognition of the right of access of lawyer upon arrest had received very little publicity after being approved in previous meetings.

The lawyers, however, defeated a motion calling for more active role given to young lawyers on the grounds that there were already in place various committees both in national and state levels Malaysian Bar for the young lawyers to participate in.

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