Judges are not above the law although they have certain insulations to secure their independence, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers Param Cumaraswamy, said in an interview with malaysiakini .

"It will be an abuse of the judicial power to use these insulations to suppress or stifle exposure of any misconduct on their part. If they are seen misconducting, then the public must be free to express and complain. To hear such expression stifled particularly through the judicial process is beyond belief," he said at a two-hour meeting in his office in Wisma Tun Sambanthan recently.

Param added that the judiciary in Malaysia needed cleaning up. According to him, the government and the chief justice should come out publicly and respond to the contents of the controversial report on our judiciary, "Justice in Jeopardy: Malaysia 2000", rather than make vague accusations of bias.

"I would rather these people accept reality. Evaluate the scenario here before things deteriorate further. They must accept the fact that there are serious problems and start working from there," he said.

The report, which was released worldwide in April this year, is a joint effort of the International Bar Association, the Centre for the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, the Commonwealth Lawyers' Association and the International Lawyers' Union.

It was based on a visit to the country in April last year by three top judges and jurists, namely Lord Abernethy from Supreme Court, Scotland, Justice N. J. McNally, Appellate Judge of the Supreme Court, Zimbabwe and Dr. Rajeev Dhavan, Senior advocate and a commission member of the International Commission of Jurists, India.

The 121-page 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.

Five days after the report was released, Minister in Prime Minister's Department Rais Yatim said he was not aware of the report despite that the four international legal organisations had sent two copies of the report to the Malaysian Permanent Mission in Geneva on Feb 17 this year, giving the Malaysian government until March 15 to give its comments.

Rais later said that he read the whole report only on the Internet and pledged that he would bring the report to the attention of the government if it was pertinent.

However, up till now, the government and chief justice have kept a long silence on the report. Instead, they said that the key persons were not met by the commission.

Param said the international mission had tried to meet all the relevant people in Malaysia.

"Who are the key persons? The Attorney-General? He refused to see them. They wanted a meeting with him, he refused. He was a key person in the Anwar Ibrahim trial. The prime minister, in fairness to him, he was not well during that period. Some senior judges, together with the chief justice, had a five-hour meeting with them. Two meetings I was told," he said.

Meanwhile, Param said that irrespective of limitations in the legislation, the Malaysian Human Rights Commission could achieve its objectives with some creativity in addressing the issues.

"I have confidence in the chairman and the commissioners. We must give them time. Civil society must give it the support. The NGO community could annually evaluate the performance of the commission," he said.

"Human rights commissions are set up in many countries today. There is a lot of pressure on governments to set up such institutions from the UN. Nevertheless, the success of the commission will depend largely on the commitment, the independence and the courage of the commissioners," he added.

Param is currently serving his third, and final, three-year term as UN special rapporteur. His term was extended in April by the international body despite strenuous objection from the Malaysian government.

He is applying to strike out four defamation suits against him on the grounds that, as the UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, he enjoyed immunity from civil and criminal litigation in respects of statements made in his official capacity.

The defamation suits, totalling RM280 million in damages, were filed by MBF Capital and MBF Northern Securities; lawyer Lingam; business tycoon Vincent Tan, Berjaya Industrial and Berjaya Corporation (Cayman); and Insas and Megapolitan Nominees, based on an interview Param gave to the International Commercial Litigation magazine in 1995.

The plaintiffs alleged that words used in the interview, entitled "Justice on Trial" and published in the journal's November, 1995 edition, were defamatory of them.