Chief Justice Eusoff Chin should respond to a scathing international report criticising the system of justice in Malaysia, according to DAP chairman Lim Kit Siang.

Lim noted that it was strange that the Chief Justice could respond to the comments by Minister in Prime Minister's Department Rais Yatim over his purported "improper behaviour" in socialising with lawyer V.K Lingam, but has chosen to keep mum over the "terrible indictment" that the Malaysian legal system is being manipulated for political ends.

He was referring to the report entitled "Justice in Jeopardy: Malaysia 2000", which was prepared by the International Bar Association, and three other international organisations, which visited Malaysia on a 10-day fact-finding mission in April last year.

The report concluded that "the extremely powerful executive in Malaysia has not acted with due regard for the essential elements of a free and democratic society based on the rule of law"("[#1] Malaysia's judiciary attacked by international law bodies,[/#] " April 7).

Yesterday, Eusoff had lashed out against Rais for saying in a Radio Australia interview that he had intimated to Eusoff, in no uncertain terms, that socialising with a lawyer was improper behaviour ("[#2] Improper to holiday with lawyer, Chief Justice told[/#] ", May 30).

Rather than responding to Rais' comments alone, Eusoff should have responded to the report, since the events leading to the report's damning conclusion took place under his tenure, Lim said.

"The image that the Malaysian judiciary has given to the nation and the world is that it did not care for national and international opinion, however adverse about its independence ... which is clearly not conducive to the government's objective to transform Malaysia into a K-economy,".

Lim said that his call for a parliamentary debate to respond to the report has went unheeded.

The report, written by two top judges and a jurist, urged the government to recognise the constitutional position of the judiciary and not interfere with its independence.

"The extremely powerful executive in Malaysia has not acted with due regard for the essential elements of a free and democratic society based on the rule of law," it said.

Meanwhile, Court of Appeal president Lamin Yunus said today that it is improper for Rais to criticised Malaysia's judiciary system when he was in Australia.

"The issue should have been settled internally," Lamin was quoted as saying by Sin Chew Jit Poh 's website, sinchew-i.com .

"I personally think that a minister should not have made such statements in foreign countries. A minister should be more cautious, as many issues can be solved in the country via different ways," he said.

He said that the issue of the judiciary is highly sensitive.

"Eusoff is senior to Rais and he (Eusoff) is the No.1 person in the judiciary system. Therefore, it is not proper for Rais to say that Eusoff has over-reacted on the issue of his holiday in New Zealand with a lawyer," he added.

Lamin said that Rais has not visited the courts since he was appointed as minister (in charge of law) in the PM's Department.