New Bar president commits to strengthening sexual harassment complaints mechanism

The Malaysian Bar is committed to addressing allegations of sexual harassments within the legal profession by strengthening its internal complaints mechanisms, said its newly-elected president, AG Kalidas.

Kalidas (above), who was appointed for the 2021/2022 term after the Bar Council AGM today, said the improved mechanism would seek to protect the rights of sexual harassment victims.

"What we intend to do is we will look into our internal mechanism to see if we can somehow entrench the rights of those who should not be harassed in the first place, sexual harassment (victims) in other words.

"We have already worked on something [...] but we are careful. We want to see what we are going to pass will not be deemed ultra vires," he said during a press conference at the Wisma Badan Peguam in Kuala Lumpur today.

"I can tell you this much, we will do something, for example, a ruling of the Bar Council. Perhaps soon we will come up with a ruling as far as sexual harassment is concerned," he said.

Kalidas said the improved complaints mechanism would also be available for victims from outside the legal profession to resolve sexual harassment complaints made against a member of the Bar.

"Yes, it does. If they (the victims) complain to the disciplinary board," he added.

Earlier, motions requesting that the Malaysian Bar make a stand on longstanding issues of sexual harassment and on a minimum wage for chambering pupils were passed along with seven other motions.

However, the annual general meeting - which was held online for the first time in the Bar's 75-year history - appeared to have encountered some disruptions.

The motion demanding that the Bar clarify the validity of its 14-year-old internal sexual harassment mechanism was passed with an overwhelming 444 votes in favour of it.

Thirty-eight voted against it while 21 abstained.

Malaysiakini previously reported faults with the mechanism, including a legal impediment that only allowed the Legal Profession Disciplinary Board to hold inquiries against members of the Bar.

Two other motions requesting the Bar to take a stand on minimum remuneration for pupils and clarify a policy on how this would be implemented were also passed.

The former was passed with 465 votes with 228 voting against and 48 abstentions. The latter passed with 436 votes with 182 voting against and 29 abstentions.

Malaysiakini understands that these motions were met with some resistance.

Actions protested

Several lawyers who attended the virtual AGM claimed that outgoing Bar Council president Salim Bashir, who chaired the meeting, had acted “disruptively”.

He was alleged to have asked if the sexual harassment motion would be retracted, had “rebutted” arguments and “interrupted” debates on the minimum wage motions.

Points of order were allegedly registered in protest of his actions. Malaysiakini has contacted Salim for comment.

Legal practitioners also took to Twitter to express their disagreement at how the AGM was conducted.

These motions were previously proposed by a group of legal practitioners called the Young Lawyers Movement (YLM).

When contacted, YLM representative Goh Cia Yee told Malaysiakini he was glad the motions had been passed.

He saw it as a result of their efforts over the past few months to mobilise support for both issues, including organising online town hall sessions to seek feedback from young lawyers.

“I think it's a symbol of a greater movement for young lawyers across Malaysia.

“It is a sign that if we really believe in an issue, then we can make the change that we wish to. We just have to take action,” he said.

Aside from Kalidas, other office-bearers elected today were incumbent Malaysian Bar vice-president Surindar Singh Chain Singh, Shahareen Begun Abdul Subhan (secretary) and Murshidah Mustafa (treasurer).

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