INTERVIEW The key part of a democracy is separation of powers and every country claiming to practice democracy must be concerned with the rule of law and fairness by ensuring independence of the judiciary.

The US ambassador to Malaysia, Joseph Y Yun, also said that as prosecution solely lies with the executive branch of powers, it is incumbent for the government to ensure that the prosecution is free from any political influences and that courts, lawyers and judges are independent.

Yun said this in an exclusive interview with Malaysiakini to mark the end of the year.

“Independence of the judiciary means independence of courts, of lawyers, of judges - it does not mean independence of prosecution. And prosecution is part of the enforcement of laws that have been passed for protecting the constitution, so in that sense prosecution is often part of the executive branch as it is in the US as well as in Malaysia,” said Yun.

(The United States of America has often been touted to be the world’s oldest democracy, although this has often been challenged.)

“Now, how the prosecution goes about prosecuting - it should be fair, it should be independent of political environment and it should take into account constitution and legalities of the system.

“There is a very important distinction between the independence of courts and fairness, and how you go about processing cases for the prosecution, because prosecution mostly is part of the executive branch,” said Yun.

Yun said this when asked how US views the parliamentary democracy as practised in Malaysia. Yun has followed Malaysian politics very closely for years as he once worked on Malaysian political issues in Washington DC.

Need for debate

Members of the US government have also recently made statements with alleged political cases such as that of former deputy PM Anwar Ibrahim.

Yun also said that in a democracy, there must be debate on the existing laws.

He said that the US welcomes the abolition of any laws that hinder rule of law.  

“I think every country has to worry about that, worry about the the fairness, worry about the rule of law.

“Right now in Malaysia, there is a very healthy debate on for e.g. the Sedition Act - whether it should be repealed or not repealed, whether it should be strengthened, or whether it should be replaced by another Act.

“You (Malaysia) for e.g. got rid of ISA (Internal Security Act), which was very much celebrated and these are issues - I think as we become more global in our approach to everything we do - whether it is trade and investment, whether it is environment, whether it is human rights or concept of rule of law - they become issues everywhere and clearly Malaysia is not an exception,” said Yun.

Yun had earlier expressed the US’ concern on the U-turn by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak over the repeal of the Sedition Act during the last Umno general assembly.

Potential to soar with First World

Notwithstanding the hurdles Malaysia is going through, Yun said that US sees much potential in Malaysia to rise on par with the First World countries.

“You have a great country which has grown enormously over the past decades per capita income is over US$10,000 a year. You have incredible natural wealth as well as human resources.

“No doubt, this is a country which will prosper and succeed. We are very happy to be a partner in this - both in the political sites as well as development sides and as well as trade and investment sites.  this why when President Obama was here in April, he and Prime Minister Najib agreed to a comprehensive partnership.

“I am lucky to be in Malaysia at a time when relations are improving, when Malaysia is becoming a much bigger international player - you have just been elected to UN Security Council, next year you will be chairing Asean.

“There is always an ‘IF’ but given the resources given the human resource here, the well educated labour force here, you will prosper, and I do believe the government will lead the way and pave the way, and I look forward to a very successful Malaysia,” said Yun, who took up the post just over a year ago.  

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