Can ALL the lawyers in Malaysia kick AG Apandi Ali out?

“I am satisfied with the findings that the funds (RM2.6 billion in the PM’s account) were not a form of graft or bribery.” – Attorney-General Apandi Ali, as quoted by The Guardian

So yea… this news didn’t make our new Attorney General (who’s kinda like Malaysia’s top lawyer) very popular with our old ex-PM Tun M, foreign governments and of course, the opposition (but to be fair, not much makes them happy these days la).

And as you might know, Apandi is still there.

But RECENTLY, another group of people started complaining very loudly as well – The Malaysian Bar, who represent ALL the lawyers in the country.

Wait. So all the lawyers in Malaysia are challenging the HEAD lawyer of Malaysia?

Sounds doable right? But first….

 

Apa ni Malaysian Bar and Attorney General semua? Seems kinda serious

Yes, it is. So serious that we weren’t crazy enough to write this without some guidance. So we spoke to Eric Paulsen from Lawyers for Liberty, and Fahri Azzat from Loyar Burok to help us understand this whole situation. Fahri also asked that we tell ugaiz that he is the solicitor for the suit involving the AG and the Malaysian Bar (which we’ll talk about later), and thus we should declare his interest in the case, for transparency purposes.

But before we go into what actually is happening now, we need to understand how the AG and the Malaysian Bar work together.

In a nutshell,

The Malaysian Bar is a professional body representing all the lawyers in Malaysia, and Attorney-General is Malaysia’s top lawyer.

Ok, but what does Malaysia’s top lawyer actually mean? For those of you not familiar with who or what the AG of Malaysia is, we talk about it in detail in another article here. Very briefly, he’s ‘top lawyer’ because his main ‘clients’ are The Malaysian Government (IMPORTANT: Not the PM yea) and the King. 

As for The Malaysian Bar… ever watched Suits, or Ally McBeal, or Boston Legal and heard the term “PASSING THE BAR“ being mentioned in them? Yep… that’s the Malaysian BAR that calls them, requiring new lawyers to have a certain level of qualification, before they’re called to the Bar under the Legal Profession Act (LPA) 1976).

This also means that means EVERY practising lawyer in Malaysia is automatically a member of the Malaysian Bar (which is led by the Bar Council).

That’s why we say that the views of the Malaysian Bar are representative of every lawyer in Semenanjung Malaysia (the East Malaysia lawyers have their own organisations).

But now that we know what the AG and Malaysian Bar are, the next question would be what connection do they have to each other? 

Eric tells us that the AG and Malaysian Bar are 2 completely separate bodies. Like they come under totally different laws.  The AG comes under the Constitution, and the Malaysian Bar comes under the LPA. And despite being a lawyer, the AG is NOT a member of the Malaysian Bar. But the reason they have to work together is because they are both like important pillars in keeping our legal system functioning. 

Eric compared the relationship between the Malaysian Bar and the Attorney General like a husband and wife. They might have a different set of values and different jobs, but they need to work together to maintain the family.

So while they don’t necessarily have to hold hands and skip into the courtroom with rainbows (although that would be great), it’s a relationship that is based upon ensuring the justice system runs smoothly.

But that is where all the recent news about the AG and the Malaysian Bar comes in, because right now there is trouble in paradise.

 

So how exactly are these lawyers gonna remove Malaysia’s top lawyer?

Well sorta, because they represent all the lawyers, but not like all make noise one shot la. Recently the Malaysian Bar filed a 2 things against the AG –

• A judicial review of Apandi’s decision to clear Najib of corruption charges regarding the RM2.6 billion
• A motion to remove the Attorney General because of how he’s been handling the case above, and most things 1MDB related

Remember, the Attorney General’s ‘client’ is the gomen, not the PM. So basically he should be making sure the PM is held accountable for any wrongdoing. However, we understand it’s kinda difficult to prosecute the guy that appointed you (It’s like correcting our Editor’s grammar).

And what the Malaysian Bar has done is file a judicial review on his decision not to prosecute our PM.

“A judicial review is basically to challenge an authority’s decision if an affected party feels the decision was not done in accordance with the law.” – Eric Paulsen

 (They also call for a few other things but you can read about them in their press statement.)

And a few days later, they passed a motion calling AG Apandi Ali to resign! 

“It (a motion), is like a press statement but obviously much stronger.” – Eric Paulsen

But still. If EVERYONE in the family don’t want you as their daddy anymore, then Daddy should leave the house right?

Actually no. It may come to nothing. This is because….

 

The Attorney-General is quite OP (overpowered/imba)

Unfortunately, Eric said that it would be very difficult to get the AG’s verdict to be reviewed, or for him to step down. We asked Eric and Fahri if the Malaysian Bar actually has the power to remove the AG. This was Fahri’s legit reply to this writer, word-for-word.

​”HAHAHAHAHA. Oh man. HAHAHAHA. I love this question, man. Thank you. You like made my evening. You are a good man. May you have many children.” – Fahri Azzat

And the reason for this isn’t because the Malaysian Bar is lazy or isn’t doing as much as they could, but rather, a problem within our legal system itself. Eric tells us that Article 145 of our constitution states that the AG is appointed and removed by the Agong – on the advice of the PM. But from the news of his appointment, the ‘advice’ sounded pretty strong.

“The Yang Di-Pertuan Agong does not have personal discretion in the appointment of the attorney-general, he must abide by the advice of the prime minister,” Syahredzan Johan, Bar Council Member to Malaysiakini, 16 March 2016.

There are also various other details about how newbie (Lower Court) judges sit in the Attorney General’s chambers that lead to conflicts of interest, but those are stories for another day.

“It is not desirable to have a judiciary that possibly has been tainted” – Eric Paulsen

 

But wait. How come this system can work in the UK?

Yes, our legal system is in fact modeled after the British legal system, just like many Commonwealth countries out there, but there are differences la.

Eric pointed out that our AG advises the GOMEN on matters of law (sorta like a Law Minister), but he’s also supposed to uphold the LAW for the sake of the COUNTRY.

Keep in mind that what’s good for the government, might not exactly be good for the country.

In other countries, these 2 roles have actually been separated. For example, in the UK, there is an Attorney-General’s Office AND the Crown Prosecution Service. In Australia, it’s also 2 different roles (links here and here).

“The AG in other countries is a political appointee. He is like a Law Minister and can sit on the cabinet.” – Eric Paulsen

And it’s not just him. Other people have also called for the roles to be separated (like here and here).

The other thing that seems broken in Malaysia is the concept of PUBLIC PRESSURE. 

There are numerous instances of leaders in other countries resigning from their positions because of things like bribery, accidents, and even things that we may find petty like plagiarism. In some of these cases, they resign even BEFORE the allegations have been proven.

But in Malaysia, even when so many people ask you to step down, it’s doesn’t seem to make a difference la.

“In a very honourable society, if you have shame, you would have resigned.” – Eric Paulsen

But if that’s the case, why would the Malaysian Bar even bother to say anything at all? Well, here’s Fahri’s perspective.

“​The Malaysian Bar can just keep on crowing about it to keep the issue in the public awareness as much as it can. But ultimately not a whole lot. As explained above, the Malaysian Bar has little legal power to influence any government body. Or any body, for that matter. But it should still keep doing what it does because it’s doing something. The alternative to that would be to shut up and that would be worse.” – Fahri Azzat

So yea, we kipidap and dongibap, just as long as we donshadap.

[Update 30/3/16] According to Malaysian Bar President Steven Thiru, the police will be questioning 4 lawyers on the Malaysian Bar’s statement to remove AG Apandi Ali, something that he has called unacceptable. 

“The Malaysian Bar urges (the police) to respect the statutory duties of the Bar Council and the statutory rights of members of the Malaysian Bar.” – Malaysian Bar President, Steven Thiru, as stated on MalaysiaKini

So it seems this battle isn’t just between lawyers anymore.

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[Update]: An earlier version of this article used Malaysian Bar and Bar Council interchangeably. The Malaysian Bar has corrected us saying they are 2 separate entities, and thus the term Bar Council is now used sparingly in this article. The writer apologises for this error.

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