1988 crisis : A legacy that still haunts the nation

Yesterday was as usual. Skipped up 8-10AM class because I was overslept. Besides spending the time of doing assignment and goofing around Dataran Pahlawan to look for my cousin's birthday prezzie(we ended up buying Roxy gigantic pencil case), I spend the rest of the hours reading good news of the announcement of the judicial commission. Here, I made a review.


Two decades had gone. The dark era of the judiciary since the dismissal of the Lord President, Tun Salleh Abbas, along with the grievances of his five other contemporaries back in 1988 is still an uproar. Yesterday, with the announcement of the Judicial Commission and the recognitions of the contributions by the 'long-aggrieved judges' by PakLah, with the hope of renewing the people's trust in the judiciary during the Bar Council dinner yesterday; the guests, other members from the legal fraternity and even the 'rakyat' gave thunderous cheers for the moves, notating the end of the dark era in our judiciary system. But a question arose out from my curiosity, how far could it guaranteed the light at the end of the tunnel?

Among the proposal for the Judicial Commission is to make the process of appointing, nominating, and promoting judges more transparent and representative. Our current governments had also agreed to give ex-gratia payment to those six judgement, namely Tun Salleh Abbas, Tan Sri Azmi Kamaruddin, Datuk George Seah, Tan Sri Wan Hamzah, and the representatives of the late Tan Sri Eusoffe Abdoolcader as well as the late Tan Sri Wan Suleiman. These payments might be inferred as a recognition that 'something wrong' took place in 1988. These six peoples were heroes in the battle to uphold the dignity and the independence of the judiciary, which had been tarnished by the previous government and the infamous maha-zalim.

Ambiga Sreenevasan, representing the Bar Council, applauded the moves, contending that these are the essence of what the Bar had been fighting for years.
"Tonight, we called a spade a spade, so now we can move on."

Tun Salleh Abbas praised the moves, saying "God had answered and give him a moral victory which translates to a legal victory."

But the recognition falls short of tendering apology. Although Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, the de facto Law Minister had urged the present government to apologize for the sacking of these judges, I personally believe that it's not the present government who had to apologize, it was the mistakes of the maha-zalim. He is the one who had to apologize for his atrocities and misuse of powers. In addition of setting-up the judicial commission and the ex-gratia payment towards these legal heroes, the government should have to move another step forward:to charge and convict the-one-who-shall-be-accountable for his misdemenaours, for abusing his powers, for corrupting the doctrine of separation of powers, and for divesting the judiciary's autonomy.

As this is only a first step, much more needs to be done. The effectiveness of the commission must be measured in its implementation, ie the composition and transparency. Thus, the government could only maintain the status quo of the dark era if the member of the commission is proposed like the the correct,correct,correct man.

I went over to read the news from the non-mainstream media. The above informations were acquired from NST, The Star and Bernama. I always think that by reading informations from one party only,I could not the weighed the truthfulness of the news. So, to articulate a fair and impartial views(though cannot guaranteed 100% about it), I also read the news from Harakah,Malaysiakini, SUARAM Website, Aliran, and the blogs of Anwar Ibrahim and Lim Kit Siang:


1) PAS President, Dato' Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, applauded the moves as well. However, the government should have apologized earlier than this time to these six real judiciary heroes.(Harakah, 19 April)

2) SUARAM also welcomed the Judicial Comission, claiming that the most meaningful measures that the government can take is to establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate the whole judicial crisis in 1988, especially on whether the then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad had abused his powers.

3) Lim Kit Siang, in his blog, said that he was disappointed with the Paklah's speech, because he had expected, much much more, announced by PakLah. The “contributions, pain and loss” of the six wronged judges cannot be equated with mere currency that the ex gratia payment is grossly inadequate. The six wronged judges deserve a full and proper recompense.

4) Anwar Ibrahim in his blog - 'Kenapa sukar memohon maaf?'. In Bernama Najib said that the ex-gratia payment is not an apology. He emphasized again that the commission has merely an advisory capacity. The final authority still lies with the prime minister to make the formal recommendation to the YDPA.

5) Aliran also welcomed the commission, but in a sarcastic remarks, contending that it was the Barisan Nasional that destroyed the judiciary in its desire to make it subservient to the Executive. In this scheme of things, questionable judges were appointed and promoted so that they would be beholden to the Executive.

Reading all of these things, made me contemplating for a while. If the Commission is merely an advisory body, the journey along the dark tunnel might be long again. The light might be far-reaching. More steps and amendments must be taken by the government to reach for the lights.

I was touched by the words of Salleh Abas when interviewed by the reporters:
"I’ve suffered so much in the last 20 years, so much so I ran away from the public. I found solace in farming. I talked to monkeys, birds and wild boars. I asked them not to disturb my plants."

Part II - Birthday Bash 2008

This was the 2nd celebration with my dearest classmates best buddies. Here goes their plan..

Izzati gave me a call, crying, and asked me to pick her up at JJ' Secret Recipe. She told me that Shafee, her bf, leave her alone after a fight, and she didnt bring her wallet to pay the bills. I was perplexed,in the state of whether to believe it or not to believe it, because I know her bf is a pretty cool man, not one type of hot-tempered. Then, Nat came along with me. Both of us were silent, having no words to say along the 5 minutes journey to JJ..perhaps both were shocked with what her bf did to her..I was just cursing in my heart alone..hehe.(no offense shafee). We straight ahead scurrying to the Secret Recipe entrance..and when we reached the entrance..TADA!!!!!!

Izzati and Ainna were waiting there, grinning, covering the cakes with the box and getting-ready with the candles..and singing the birthday song..Me and Nat were shocked and blurred. This were the double-celebration for us (Nat birthday falls on 19 March..6 days earlier from me). They bought a piece of cake for each of us since the real one (the ice-cream cake) was slightly messed-up due to a 'minor accident' in their car. We did not mind about it actually, but since they had bought the new pieces, we couldnt say nothing much.. Izzati apologized to me for her 'dirty-tricks', but seriously I didnt mind about it. Ainna and her had really made my dayThanks a million buddies for d surprise party and the witty deception that leads us here!Thanks for the treats as well!Heart both of you to the bits..XOXO!

The Birthday Girls..

Me blowing candle..

Natalie blowing candle..

Part I: Birthday Bash 25 March 2008

25 March, here comes my birthday!The clock stroked at 12AM..received phone call from my darling...guess he was sleeping..and set his alarm clock so that he could wake up sharp at 12 and wished me "HappyBirthdayDear!", or else I would go nuts!!Thanks for remembering my birthday dear..and thanks also for the dress and the shoes..(He asked me what I want for my birthday and I picked up these two things)..

And I started receiving text messages from my buddies.."happy birthday hanimm..".."happy bday panim"...at that time I was watching "a girl from tomorrow" tv series at youtube..deep down in my heart,I was touched..never thought that a lot of peoples remembered my birthday..thanks for the well-wishes my dearest friends..:)

When I woke up the next morning,wanis wished me..received text message from my mum also.."happy birthday nani,hope u'll b a solehah daughter"..thats the exact msg.she never meant to be sarcastic,that's her hope she always recite in prayer..my conscience said:One day I will...

My sis told that my cousin invited me,her, and wanis to go to d'cherry for d dinner on that night. Few minutes aftr we reached there,we fill the time-space before we got our meals..chatting,laughing(as usual)..was bewildered when I saw my was grinning without any reason..when I turned back..tadaaaa!!kak syaz and aida came from d kitchen..holding the birthday cake..was sooo surprised!!(they told me before..ksyaz want to have her hair-cut)..wanis was behind the plan also..but the unexpected thing was that this was the double-celebration for us..in fact k.syaz was the master-mind!:D.she didnt notice earlier that her name was written on the cake as well, after blowing the candles then only she did notice it..*blur wanis*.*Grin*.anyway, million thanks to fahmy, my cousin also for the birthday treat..(he paid the dinner)..thanks to my sis and aida for the conspiracy..thanks to wanis for her indirect involvement in the conspiracy though she's the birthday girl as well..(her birthday falls on the next 2 days,27 March)..thanks for the so-called 'pervert' pinky and polka dot bra and g-strings as the birthday gift..(kaksyaz claimed both were 'comel', not pervert)..*Grin again*.Thanks again to everyone who marked my birth-date in their mind..Heartily appreciated!

Blow the Candles..Make your Wishes..

Sis and dearest cuz,the one behind the surprise bday..

With KakSyaz..the mastermind behind d surprise..