by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjong, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Friday, April 22, 1994:
DAP Central Executive Committee to discuss the meeting of the Lord President, Tun Hamid with MBf Chief Executive Officer, Tan Sri Loy Hean Heong, at its meeting on Tueaday
At its meeting on Tuesday, DAP Central Executive Committee will discuss the meeting of the Lord President, Tun Hamid with MBf Chief Executive Officer, Tan Sri Loy Hean Heong at the Lord President’s Chambers on 24th March 1994 for 35 minutes.
I welcome the statement by the Law Minister, Datuk Syed Hamid Albar during the winding-up of the debate on the Royal Address in Parliament yesterday that it was improper for judges to meet litigants when cases, including appeals, are pending in court to avoid arousing suspicious on their decisions. This is to ensure the credibility of the judiciary.
All Malaysians, in particular the Malaysian Bar, must be concerned about such an impropriety for two reasons:
• firstly, the fact that such a meeting took place, which has been confirmed by the Law Minister; and
• secondly, that such judicial impropriety involves not an ordinary judge but the Lord President himself.
Tun Hamid cannot be unaware of the fact that Tan Sri Loy is the main litigant involved in a series of cases between MBf and DAP MP for Bukit Bintang, Wee Choo Keong, including the contempt case under which Choo Keong had been sentenced to two years’ jail. The two-year sentence is awaiting appeal to the Supreme Court.
In my speech in Parliament on April 13, I referred to two other circumstances:
• the replacement of the Supreme Court Registry Book of Visitors the next day as the Book of Visitors had recorded that Tan Sri Loy met the Lord President from 10.05 a.m. to 10.40 a.m. in the Supreme Court on 24th March 1994; and
• after the meeting between the Lord President and Tan Sri Loy, Choo Keong’s lawyers received notice later on the same day that the Supreme Court hearing of the appeal has been fixed in Penang on May 9,1994.
As I said in Parliament, the two-year jail sentence imposed on Wee Choo Keong by the Kuala Lumpur High Court for contempt has raised the issue of the harshness of the sentence, as the most severe contempt sentence in Malaysian history is a three-month jail sentence.
Now, with the impropriety of the meeting between the Lord President and the main litigant in the contempt case against Choo Keong, Tan Sri Loy, public concerns about the judiciary have been deepened and aggravated.
The DAP Central Executive Committee at its meeting on Tuesday will discuss all aspects of the Tun Hamid-Tan Sri Loy meeting, Syed Hamid’s reply on Parliament and the discussion on Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting on the judicial impropriety committed by the Lord President.