CALONKINI | Though he came from a family that is heavily involved in politics, Pakatan Harapan’s Masjid Tanah candidate Sabirin Jaafar never really thought about joining the political fray himself.

That is until former attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail’s tenure was abruptly cut short, just a mere few months before it was supposed to end.

“I was so shocked to see an attorney-general... to be terminated that way.

“The way he was treated was shockingly shameful for a man of that stature. In the government service, he is the second most senior after the chief secretary to the government (KSN),” Sabirin, a former judicial commissioner, told Malaysiakini in an interview last Friday.

A judicial commissioner in Malaysia has the same powers a judge of the High Court, but is appointed on a contract basis.

What happened to Gani, along with the 2015 cabinet reshuffle which saw the sacking of the then deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin, as well as the promotion of the then Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairperson Nur Jazlan Mohamed to a deputy minister, among others, were what finally drove Sabirin into politics.

He decided to join Bersatu, which is now fielding him in the parliamentary seat of Masjid Tanah, against BN’s Mas Ermieyati Samsudin and PAS’ Mohd Nasir Othman.

Highly educated, with two PhDs related to maritime affairs from the UK, Sabirin said he came from humble beginnings in a remote village called Ramuan China Besar in Masjid Tanah.

But through government assistance and scholarships, he worked his way to a boarding school and later on got into the pioneer batch of students at the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM) in 1983, where he read law.

This eventually led him into joining the Malaysian judicial service, where he spent the next 30 years of his life, starting off as a magistrate, a deputy registrar, a deputy public prosecutor and a senior federal counsel, among others.

But even if he did not join politics, he still would have left the judicial system, he said.

“I was not happy. The job is not for me,” he said, pointing out that his contract as a judicial commissioner ended in November 2016, and he spent a few months after that as a partner in a law firm before his entry into politics.

Now he is tasked with taking on Masjid Tanah, which has always been a BN stronghold. Incumbent Mas Ermieyati won the Malay-majority seat with a 16,200-vote majority in the past election.

But Sabirin believes the changing sentiment on the ground will sway things his way, as well as him being a local boy who can easily connect with the people of Masjid Tanah.

This is Sabirin’s story, in his own words:

I WAS A GOVERNMENT SCHOLAR, so I joined the Malaysian judicial and legal service after graduating in 1987, starting as a magistrate, then I later rose to become the deputy registrar of the Federal Court.

Then I was a deputy public prosecutor and a senior federal counsel, and then a legal adviser to a few ministries.

I then served three years as a law professor at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, after which I was offered to become a judicial commissioner of the High Court in Johor Baru, on a two-year contract.

I WAS NOT HAPPY. The job is not for me. There is too much restriction.

You can feel a lot of pressure, sometimes you have to sacrifice your principles in order to get confirmation, to get a promotion.

I AM A TRADITIONALIST. I think the judge’s job is one thing only: to listen and decide, and listen to the fullest.

But the trend now is they want to do shortcuts, which means you must be more active as a judge in stopping things here and there so you can hear cases more speedily.

AFTER SEVEN MONTHS on the job, I told my wife I am not going to continue after the contract. Two years is more than enough because I want more freedom.

I SERVED EARLIER JUDGES. Ask (former Lord President) Salleh Abas what happened after (the judicial crisis of) 1988.

You see most of the judges now in the High Court, they are the generation that came after this episode. They did not see the real freedom of a judiciary like I experienced before.

When I was a registrar, I served Justices Anuar Zainal Abidin and Harun Hashim, among others. They were all fiercely independent.

THE WAY IT WORKS NOW, JUDICIAL CREATIVITY is no longer there. Why? The law is so restrictive.

The government formulated laws which are restrictive so a judge can be wrong in law if he gives another judgment.

For example, in (PKR vice-president) Rafizi Ramli’s National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) case. I read the judgment and it was correct to me, in point of law. But the law itself was repressive.

There was no direct interference (in the judiciary), but I think because these judges came after the tribunal (in 1988), they could see what happened to some, as they call it, independent judges.

Some judges, though there is nothing wrong with their performance and they are brilliant as a judge, never reach the apex court. Why?

MY FATHER WAS A DIEHARD PAS SUPPORTER in my village full of Umno people. But he was a very tough, highly principled man and that actually coloured us, the children.

There are 12 of us siblings and eight of us went to university on government scholarships.

WE ENDED UP BECOMING SO CRITICAL OF THE GOVERNMENT because we see the deterioration of the government. My eldest sister quit her job as a graduate teacher to join the Reformasi movement. My brother was Anwar Ibrahim’s press secretary.

OUR FAMILY MADE QUITE A BIG CONTRIBUTION to the inroads of all these opposition parties in Malacca. My two siblings were in PKR, and the rest as well, but I chose to be with Bersatu because I have a different way of thinking.

MAS ERMIEYATI IS A DISTANT RELATIVE. She is a niece. Her grandmother and my grandfather are siblings.

IT IS QUITE ALARMING TO SEE the trend in legal matters. First, I was so shocked to see an attorney-general, although I never liked him (Gani Patail) as a person when he was my boss, to be terminated that way.

THE WAY HE WAS TREATED WAS SHOCKINGLY SHAMEFUL for a man of that stature.

And then what happened in the aftermath of the 1MDB exposure, when you see what happened to lots of senior government functionaries with the Bank Negara governor, the new attorney-general, the dismissal and retirement of a few senior MACC officers and the way they manoeuvre the PAC chairperson by promoting him. And then, at the end of the day, you see what happened to Muhyiddin and (former Kedah menteri besar) Mukhriz Mahathir.

It has gone beyond politics. That means the current government, the Umno/BN backbone, could not tolerate any more criticism.

YOU MUST HAVE SELF-CRITICISM FOR YOU TO MOVE FORWARD, isn’t it? Otherwise, it becomes self-destruction if you do not correct yourself.

THIS IS ANOTHER SHOCKING NEWS, POLITICALLY. How can a legal party (Bersatu) be deregistered a day before the dissolution of Parliament? I tried to read history and I cannot find this.

PRAISE BE TO GOD that our first judicial review for leave was rejected but the second one was accepted by the court so we are now back to status quo.

I STILL HAVE HOPE FOR THE JUDICIARY. I know, they are all my friends, the majority act like real judges.

THE MALAY PSYCHE sees that the Malays have been very conservative and loyal to their rulers and leaders, so long as the leaders do not betray them. This is the Malay code of conduct.

YOU NEVER TOPPLE A LEADER unless they become zalim (oppressive) to you and I believe what the leaders are doing now to the people, with the GST and rising price of goods, this is a form of zalim (oppression).

IN MY PERSONAL VIEW, the opposition before never selected the right candidates in Masjid Tanah. They choose outsiders, and PAS has been the regular candidates for Masjid Tanah for the opposition, but for the first time, because we are from Bersatu, we have a different perception.

I AM AN ANAK JATI HERE (local boy). I belong to them.

The voting pattern before this is because we did not have a good opposition so the people did not see the alternative. But now they have seen the alternative, in Selangor and in Penang.

I DO NOT HAVE A DREAM OF WINNING BY 20,000 votes or something like that. If I win, it will be by a few hundred votes.

CALONKINI introduces new faces from all sides of the political divide in the run-up to the 14th general election.

These interviews are not an endorsement by Malaysiakini.

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