screwed!

Felt screwed days before the QB interview,adrenaline rushed all over the veins hours before it. Well, the interview was to evaluate whether our Law School could be exempted from the eerie CLP exam. A group of students were selected for each subjects, and I was among the 'unfortunate five' for Professional Practice.

It was unfortunate because I'm not good at talking. Forgive my oratory skills.Yes words are my worst weapon. But it's for the future's sake/I would be embarassed before the panel for remaining silent throughout the interview. I put all my anxiety and 'inferiority complex' away.

The interview began. The first Q popped out, "Do you know what's the meaning of 'without prejudice'?"Ugh,I was perplexed for seconds. I had heard this words before, but never learned or scrupulously checked it's meaning,I'm praying hard that the interviewer won't posed that question to me. Luckily, my fellow comrade, Raghuram volunteered to answer(He told me after the interview that he was familiarized with the term during his attachment). The interviewer seem satisfied with his answer.

The next question was pertaining to the details of the course,"What are the topics under this subject?".I volunteered to answer, since this is an easy question or else I would remained silent throughout the interview.Haha. Both of the panels just nodded.

And the tricky questions began, mostly posed by Mdm Hendon, the ex-president of the Bar Council. I cant recall all the questions, but one was "What is the difference between Bar Council and Malaysian Bar"?Everyone started to stare at each other, hoping one of us could solve the tense.She pointed one by one to answer, but all the answers given by us were wrong.She seem a bit cocky, and gave all of us 5 minutes 'lecture' about the difference.

..it's like the government and its cabinet. Can you see the difference? You can see the Cabinet,but not the government..

The other interviewer asked about the Rules of the Practice and Etiquette."Can an advocate act for himself?"All of us replied 'no'. We were confident with the answer, since an advocate cannot appear in a case where he has to be a witness at the same time. He smirked, and asked "Do you read today's news, concerning Datuk Shafee who sued RPK and there was a comment made by another lawyer that he cannot act for himself?"Once again silence filled the air. My conscience said,"Ugh you cannot expect us to read news la..We were tensed all day long..mane la sempat nk baca paper".Pn Hendon slammed us again for not being aware to the surroundings,lawyers must be updated. And one of us uttered the same matters with my conscience before, she said back "Your life would be more hectic once you do your chambering". Her tongue was so sharp, no wonder a woman like her was a President before.

Questions after questions were bombarded.Mostly relating to the topics under our syllabus, and still ANSWERABLE.Each of us were given space to answer.The interview later asked about the impact of the 1988 judicial crisis.Huan Ren answered this question talking about the intervention of Doctrine of Separation of Powers.The man tricked her with "Why the three bodies should be existed separately"?She talked about "check and balance", something we learned in 1st year which I almost forgot. No wonder Natalie called her "Walking Wikipedia".hehe

The guy keep on testing on our General Knowledge, he inquired on the names of the CJ,President of the COA & CJ of the High Court. I volunteered to answer, since I had memorized all the names during the my attachment at Court.Was fortunate enough, my memory could still recall all the names though 8 months had lapsed. He posed another Bonus Question (as what referred to),"How we should address the Judge of the Industrial Tribunal"?.We were so convinced that it is "Tuan", it was correct.

That hanky-panky ex-president posed another question pertaining to the procedure in the disciplinary proceeding. David answered it, but she said she wants to know the exact term. I said "the investigation should be made if there's a merit, if there's no merit it shall be dismissed". He slammed me for putting the word "a" in front of the word "merit", and said that my answer is right, but the usage of the word is wrong. I was SCREWED again. How could I realized that I make a grammar mistake in such a panic time. Feel like it was a MUET test, the examiner meticulously checked your grammar while you're talking..Huh..

The subsequent question was "Why do you think you should be exempted from taking CLP?".David initiated the answer, contending that our syllabus had complied with the CLP subjects. The guy pinpointed next on me, I conceded that "The period of our legal attachment is the longest compared to another uni, ours is 12 weeks, while other uni is 4 weeks, so we're exposed more to the practical aspect of learning". Raghu hit the interviewer at one point, by telling that "We're familiarized with the English conversation in our daily usage, all of the students here can speak English. There's one student at her attachment place from public uni who can't speak English and responded in BM when people speak English with her".The interviewer seem flabbergasted (yet they know it's not a fabricated statement). Quek bragged about the achievement of the ICRC Moot Comp at International Level, and the panel said that it's not a CRITERIA, but it can be a BONUS POINT.

The final question was "What is your feeling if you will be exempted and call to the Bar?".Everyone has to ask this question. Some said I will feel honoured. As for me, I never intended to practice as an advocate/solicitor. I'm planning to work straight ahead in a legal department of company as 'Legal Exec'.A lazy-ass like me cannot tahan la to chamber somemore after graduating soon and and face all the hardship in the legal profession.So I just give a simple answer, cannot think of better words, I replied "I will be happy".Sounds like a reply from a toddler.

Was tremendously relieved, the interview was over, the 'BLOODY' jurisprudence mid term also over. Both were nightmares. The interview was so tough, I couldn't predict the future of our exemption from CLP, though they said they were impressed with the seniors and some of the interview sessions. I'm just hoping that Zaid Ibrahim will make an announcement on the CBE in short times.