Former Chief Justice Mohamad Eusoff Chin must openly state if he was the person who had issued a directive two years ago to Kota Kinabalu High Court judge to dismiss the Likas election petition, opposition party DAP said today.

Party chairman Lim Kit Siang said in a statement Eusoff, who retired on Dec 19 last year, should immediately clear himself or admit to having tried to influence justice Muhammad Kamil Awang through a phone call.

"Such an instruction would constitute a blatant obstruction with the administration of justice," said Lim, who added the cabinet should set up a royal commission of inquiry into judicial independence to look into such matters.

Lim was responding to Muhammad Kamil's revelation yesterday that he had received the phone call in 1999 from his superior in the judiciary asking him to dismiss the election petition. He, however, did not reveal the identity off the superior.

Last Friday, Muhammad Kamil in his judgment on the Likas election petition, revealed that there was an apparent attempt via a phone call to influence his decision.

At the time, there were three judges higher in ranking who could have directed Muhammad Kamil - Eusoff, then Court of Appeal president Lamin Yunus and then Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Chong Siew Fai. Chong and Lamin retired on July 4 last year and March 12 this year respectively.

Muhamad Kamil yesterday also said that he had informed the present Chief Justice Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah about the call and will reveal the name of the caller through a letter today.

Correct guesses

He also said that other judges in Sabah and Sarawak had told him that they had received similar instructions over the phone from the same person.

When asked if it was from Eusoff that he received the instructions, Muhammad Kamil said that he could not confirm that, adding that most lawyers had been guessing correctly as to the identity of the caller.

Both Eusoff and Cheong are unavailable for comment but Lamin was reported as saying when asked by reporters that High Court matters were not under his jurisdiction and he had never issued such instructions.

While Eusoff was serving as chief justice, he was alleged to have spent a controversial Christmas holiday with a prominent lawyer in New Zealand. When questioned, Eusoff said that he met the corporate lawyer by accident.

Lim said in his statement that the royal commission should look into "all cases and causes for the undermining of the independence, impartiality and integrity of the judiciary in the past decade".

The party's women's wing vice-chairman Betty Chew similarly called upon Eusoff and Cheong to come out publicly to state if they were responsible for the telephone call to Muhammad Kamil.

Chew, who is also the Durian Daun state assembly person, added that the government must immediately fulfill its promise to implement transparency and accountability in the administration of justice.

Penalised judges

DAP secretary-general and member of parliament for Kota Melaka Kerk Kim Hock said Muhammad Kamil's disclosure was "too serious to be left hanging in the air" and asked Dzaiddin to carry out an immediate and full investigation into the matter.

He said that an inquiry must probe into the extent and duration of such interference into the judiciary's impartiality.

He added that the inquiry must also ask how many judges have been penalised simply because they have refused to obey such directives.

"The government and the judiciary cannot take Muhammad Kamil's disclosure lightly. If they are not fully investigated, the judiciary's image will take a further dive," said Kerk.

Muhammad Kamil, in deciding the election petition, ruled that the Likas electoral roll was illegal as it contained phantom voters and ordered former Sabah chief minister Yong Teck Lee, a member of a Barisan Nasional (BN) component party, to vacate his state assembly seat.

The ruling has paved the way for a by-election. The petition was brought by the two losing candidates in the 1999 state elections - veteran politician and former Sabah chief minister Mohd Harris Salleh and PBS supreme council member Chong Eng Leong.