The Malaysian Bar's extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to discuss issues relating to judicial appointments has to be called off today due to lack of quorum.

However, its president Kuthubul Zaman Bukhari stressed that the failure to fulfil the statutory one-fifth quorum requirement is not an indication that members are not interested in the issue.

"Although the Bar Council is disappointed that we failed to obtain the quorum needed to start the EGM, we are also happy that a total of 1,458 members turned up. This speaks aloud of members' concern on the issue," he said.

"To say that members are not interested is wrong. The high turn-out shows that there is a lot of interest on the issue. It has also generated a high degree of public concern and to a certain extent, we have attained our objective."

In place of the EGM, Kuthubul said members decided to hold an informal discussion where a unanimous decision was made to give the council the mandate to forge the issue ahead with the relevant parties.

Unanimous stand

"The members were unanimous in their stand to support the council in calling for the judicial appointment system to be reformed. We are encouraged by the stand and one of our plans is to distribute copies of the memorandum (on appointment of judges) to all members of Parliament," he added.

In August, Kuthubul called for the EGM after his colleagues in the council felt that the issue was serious enough to be discussed further by all members of the Bar.

The Bar had planned to discuss the unsatisfactory justification for July's controversial appointment of judges where senior members of the judiciary were overlooked for promotions to the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court.

The meeting also seeks to establish an independent judicial commission to ensure a more transparent and systematic procedure for future appointments - a suggestion which was criticised by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Kuthubul said that the Bar's decision to call for the EGM should not be construed as "politicising the issue".

"It is not a political issue and we have no intention to politicise the matter. It's also not a new issue. It is something that we have discussed which resulted in the memorandum we have submitted to the judiciary and the government," he said.

In October 2002, the Bar had send a memorandum calling for the reformation of judicial appointment to the then Chief Justice Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah and de facto Law Minister Dr Rais Yatim. A copy was later sent to the current Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim.

To date, none of them has responded to the memorandum.

"I would like to point out that when Dzaiddin was made the Chief Justice, he publicly acknowledged that the judiciary was at its lowest and he wanted to restore its image. The issue here is what had been done to improve the people's confidence in the judiciary? Has the recent promotion helped in improving the judiciary's public image? The answer is no," said Kuthubul.

"When (former Chief Justice) Eusoff Chin was asked about the appointment, he said that he chose his judge the same like he buys his fish - he sees their eyes, check the gills and poke at the fish to see whether the fish is suitable.

Unrealistic and ridiculous

"So the Bar feels that if that is the system we are currently using in appointing judges, we should move to a better system. And we feel that a better system is no other than the one we have proposed - a commission."

As to the failure to hold the EGM, Kuthubul blamed the high percentage required for a quorum calling the one-fifth requirement "unrealistic" and "ridiculous".

Section 67 of the Legal Profession Act 1976 states that the Bar must secure the attendance of at least one-fifth of its members to hold any general meeting. To date, there are 11,059 members which means that the Bar needs 2,212 members to sign up to hold the EGM today.

"This requirement is unrealistic. No such professional organisation in the world has such a high quorum percentage. The government has promised that the number would be reduced to 500 or 800 for every EGM or AGM but until today the amendment has not been made," he said.

He quipped that if the government continues to ignore the issue, the Bar may have to hold their meetings at the Bukit Jalil stadium considering that its membership goes up by 1,000 to 1,200 a year.

Asked what efforts have been made to cajole the government to reduce the quorum, Kuthubul said that the Bar has raised the issue in every meeting with Rais and the Attorney General.

"Other than that, there is nothing more we can do. The ball is now in their court."