Parliamentary Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang is convinced that senior lawyer VK Lingam was chatting with Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim in the latest video scandal to rock the nation.

In a press statement today, the veteran politician listed out several reasons for this conclusion.

The most obvious being that although two days have passed since the video clip was exposed , there has been pin drop silence from both Lingam and Ahmad Fairuz.

"It would be the first reaction of anyone to a doctored video clip," he said. "But Ahmad Fairuz has been in ex-communicado for the past two days, although he would have no difficulty accessing the video on the Internet."

He said the person Lingam spoke to was referred to as 'Datuk' and there were talks of the person getting a 'Tan Sri-ship' in the same year.

Lim pointed out that Ahmad Fairuz was awarded the Panglima Setia Mahkota (PSM) by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong in June 2002, making him a Tan Sri.

The video clip, revealed by PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim, was said to have been recorded in 2002.

Lim also noted that there were references making "Datuk Heliliah, Datuk Ramli and Datuk Maroop" as judges.

On Feb 8, 2002, former solicitor-general Heliliah Mohd Yusuf, former chief registrar Ramly Aliand, former commissioner of law revision Ahmad Maarop received their letters of appointment as High Court judges from the King. Their appointments were from Feb 1, 2002.

There was also reference that "in three months time" the person, whom Lingam was talking to, would be made Court of Appeal president and "six months time" he was going to be chief justice.

Ahmad Fairuz was sworn in as Court of Appeal president on Dec 1, 2002 and appointed chief justice on March 17, 2003.

AG rapped

Meanwhile, Lim also took a swipe at Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail for saying that there were no criminal elements in the video clip and that Lingam's conversation was a 'monologue' in nature.

Yesterday, Abdul Gani said it was unclear who the lawyer was speaking to in the eight-minute video clip.

"There is no clear reference that he was talking to a top judicial officer," he was reported as saying.

Describing Abdul Gani's comments as "outrageous", Lim said the video clip raised important questions on the chief justice's commitment to judicial accountability.

"How can the chief legal officer of the government try to minimise the gravity of the judicial misconduct exposed by the Lingam tape and shirk off his responsibility by claiming that Lingam was in a monologue?" he asked.

The video clip showed Lingam, among others, discussing Ahmad Fairuz's appointment as chief justice of Malaya and chief justice.

There was also a discussion on the appointment of 'friendly' senior judges.

Lim also noted that Abdul Gani had not challenged the authenticity of the conversation.

Background to the Lingam tape

The grainy eight-minute video footage was taken in 2002 at senior lawyer VK Lingam's Kelana Jaya house. At that time, Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah was chief justice. Appointed in 2000, he was seen as a fresh break from his two previous predecessors - Mohd Eusoff Chin (1994-2000) and Abdul Hamid Omar (1988-1994).

Dzaiddin was to retire in 2003, and the video showed Lingam expressing concerned that the outgoing CJ was moving his 'men' into top judiciary posts. The conversation revolved around the urgent need to get Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim, then chief judge of Malaya - the judiciary's No 3 - appointed as Court of Appeal president (No 2) and then chief justice (No 1). There was also the plan to get former attorney-general Mokhtar Abdullah, who was then a Federal Court judge, to replace Ahmad Fairuz as No 3.

To do that, Lingam had roped in tycoon Vincent Tan, a close crony of then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, and Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, a key minister in PM's Department. They were to talk to Mahathir on the appointment of judges.

Postscript

Ahmad Fairuz was appointed Court of Appeal president in December 2002 - months after the telephone conversation. Dzaiddin stepped down as CJ in 2003 and he was replaced by Ahmad Fairuz. Mokhtar, however, could not take the No 3 post as he was in coma after suffering from a fall in August 2002. He died in 2003. Ahmad Fairuz' term as CJ will end in October 2007.

Watch eight-minute video here

Transcript of Lingam's conversation with Ahmad Fairuz