The lawyers are mulling the boycott to protest against Chief Justice Tun Zaki Azmi’s key performance indicators (KPIs). “They are free to do what they want to do but they will be held responsible for their own actions,” the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department said of a proposed boycott of court proceedings by the Bar Council.
“Their resolution has no significance outside their meetings. They are free to protest and we are free to ignore them,” the de facto law minister added.
The Malaysian Insider reported today that the Bar Council has been given the mandate by lawyers to consider a boycott of the courts or to organise a march to protest against the KPIs that it says has resulted in judges insisting on their appearance in different courts because of pressure to clear cases from the KPIs.
In its annual general meeting last weekend, the Bar passed a no-confidence resolution against Zaki and gave council members the power to decide on “appropriate steps to protest.”
Criminal lawyers and police investigating officers approached by The Malaysian Insider have also confirmed that KPIs are wreaking havoc on the criminal justice system.
This is because police investigating officers are required to appear as prosecution witnesses, but their involvement in different cases at the same time is compounded by the insistence of various judges for them to turn up in different courts at the same time.
Lawyers were “crying out” as they were not being given enough time to interview witnesses, prepare written submissions or draft appeals due to the current “compacted” nature of court proceedings, he said.
However, Nazri said today that the Bar was wrong to generalise and should instead file official complaints on specific judges with the chief justice.
At last weekend’s Bar AGM, newly-elected Bar Council president Lim Chee Wee told reporters that despite talks with Zaki, judges and judicial officers still “misbehaved” in order to meet the KPI requirements, which in turn affected the administration of justice.
Lim had said the courts sometimes brought forward hearing dates without counsel’s consent, rushed to close cases and failed to give enough time for lawyers to prepare a defence in criminal trials involving serious offences. - Malaysian Insider
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