De facto
 
 PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim told a public forum that he had tried as deputy premier to do something about judicial corruption but was told to stay on his own turf.


 <img align="right" alt="" border="0" height="64" hspace="0" src="http://mk-cdn.mkini.net/45/cf9d6a5c6eb007615ce25c60e05e756b.jpg" style="WIDTH: 64px; HEIGHT: 64px" width="64"/>
 "I tabled the Court of Appeal judgment by Justice NH Chan in the Ayer Molek case at a cabinet meeting but was told that it was beyond my area of competence and to (stay on) my own turf," he said at the event, organised by the Institute of Policy Studies on Saturday.


 The Ayer Molek case was a sensational one in 1994-1995 in which a high court judgment was overturned in the Court of Appeal by Chan, sitting with Siti Norma Yaakob and KC Vohrah. However, the decision was reversed by the Federal Court with Chief Justice Eusoff Chin writing the opinion.


 <img align="left" height="64" hspace="5" src="http://mk-cdn.mkini.net/98/bd9419983feefaf289c2e52ece7b0a2d.gif" width="64"/>
 "Something's rotten in the state of Denmark," Chan had written in judgment, a comment borrowed from Shakespeare's
 
 Hamlet
 
 and finding resonance because the Commercial Division of the High Court is located in Denmark House in Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur.


 Anwar recalled that Chan's description has come to acquire iconic status in the recent troubled history of the Malaysian judiciary.


 Questioned from the floor as to why had acquiesced on issues of corruption during Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamed's tenure, he said: "I also concurred with the Rulers' Conference which raised doubts over the recommendation that Justice Mokhtar Sidin be elevated from the High Court to the Court of Appeal."


 He then elaborated: "I would have been removed earlier had I objected earlier. When I tabled Chan's judgment at a cabinet meeting, it was the first time a minister had done so.


 "I discovered corruption was becoming endemic and to fight it from within was simply too arduous a task."


 
 
 View derided
 
 


 Anwar was finance minister at the time of the Ayer Molek controversy. Word has it that Anwar had argued in cabinet that foreign investors would shy away from Malaysia if they read Chan's judgment.


 <img align="left" height="64" hspace="5" src="http://mk-cdn.mkini.net/49/02d4c5140aaaf1d4e533136f33641d23.jpg" width="64"/>
 Mahathir is alleged to have derided that view by having statistics brought up in cabinet, showing progressive increases in investment in 1995 and 1996 compared to preceding years.


 Anwar was sacked from Umno and the government in early September 1998, a few years after the Ayer Molek judicial imbroglio. The case marked an acceleration in the rot seeping into the judiciary following the removal of Salleh Abas as Lord President in 1988.


 <img align="right" alt="" border="0" height="200" hspace="7" src="http://mk-cdn.mkini.net/90/92a077cffd77da036529369ee09150fd.jpg" style="WIDTH: 180px; HEIGHT: 200px" width="180"/>
 On Sept 19, Anwar revealed an eight-minute
 
 <a href="/news/72772" target="_blank">
 video clip
 </a>
 
 purportedly made in 2002. It recorded a phone conversation by senior lawyer VK Lingam (
 
 photo
 
 ), who made reference to brokering judicial appointments.


 Anwar had initially said that portions of the 14-minute tape had been removed to protect the identity of the person who recorded it.


 On Saturday, however, he claimed to be waiting for the "right time" to reveal the remaining footage, which he said would
 
 <a href="/news/73030" target="_blank">
 further implicate
 </a>
 
 current Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim as the other party on the telephone line.


 <img align="left" height="64" hspace="5" src="http://mk-cdn.mkini.net/42/2fcc30012e91693b1dac22b0877ca1d3.jpg" width="64"/>
 Ahmad Fairuz has
 
 <a href="/news/72710" target="_blank">
 declined comment
 </a>
 
 , but is said to have issued a
 
 <a href="/news/72771" target="_blank">
 denial
 </a>
 
 through
 
 de facto
 
 law minister Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz.


 A three-member panel of inquiry was set up last week to determine the authenticity of the recording.


 
 <a href="/news/72772" target="_blank">
 SPECIAL REPORT: The Lingam tape
 </a>

<img align="left" alt="" border="0" height="64" hspace="2" src="http://mk-cdn.mkini.net/74/120905989dc65d5ef5c31b24f6367291.jpg" style="WIDTH: 64px; HEIGHT: 64px" width="64"/>
The former deputy premier claimed he had tried to get the cabinet to discuss this, but was told to stay on his own turf.

Anwar: Stopped from stemming judicial rot

~RM12

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