Raja Aziz Addruse

He was without a doubt a tenacious and learned lawyer, and a great believer in the sanctity of the Rule of Law. He was my first boss and I was with him for the first four years of my working life. He was also instrumental in me becoming involved with the activities of the Bar Council.

Datuk Zaid Ibrahim

This towering Malay lawyer passed away last week, at 75. I was fortunate enough to have been in town and was able to pay him one last visit at his home. With his death, the country and the profession has lost a symbol of justice.

He was without a doubt a tenacious and learned lawyer, and a great believer in the sanctity of the Rule of Law. He was my first boss and I was with him for the first four years of my working life. He was also instrumental in me becoming involved with the activities of the Bar Council. I did not achieve the success that he earned for himself, but he taught me a few things that I cherish to this day. A lawyer, he told us, must not be afraid to do what is right by the law – the reason why we refer to the profession as an honourable one is because we have the capacity to fight for justice. The day we no longer care enough about justice is the day we cease to be a member of an honourable profession.

The country needs more people like Raja Aziz to stem the tide of authoritarian rule. There are many young lawyers joining the profession and I hope the gifted ones will continue the struggle to uphold just laws and protect the rights of individuals. Today, fortunately, we still have the courageous Maliq Imtiaz, Haris Ibrahim and Azhar Azizan Harun, who are relentless in their pursuit of justice in cases that other lawyers are too afraid to touch, and judges are too afraid to decide on. I am refering to cases involving the issue of religious freedom. Although enshrined in the Constitution, this right has become meaningless as it’s politically not acceptable.

Every other day we hear of heartwrenching stories about such cases, all of which could be avoided if our leaders, adminstrators, and judges had a small dose of compassion in their hearts. Look at what happened recently to Ashraf Hafiz Abdul Aziz, who underwent a sex-change operation in 2008. All she wanted was for the Registration Department to change her gender from male to female, but she was refused because the religious authorities will not condone such action. The judge Datuk Yazid Mustafa said he could not do much, and Women, Family and Community Development Minister Dato’ Sri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil has also said she cannot do much beyond offer welfare assistance. The truth is they all can, but they won’t.

The details in our IC have only one purpose: to help identify the person carrying the card. That means the details are necessarily all personal in nature. If the cardholder says he lives in Tropicana, does the Registeration Department accept that as true or does it have a verification exercise before accepting that statement as correct? When it come to gender, Ashraf knows best the condition her body is in. Why refer to the religious authorities? What does the Religious Department know about genetics, human anatomy, or biology? Ashraf knows herself best.

But in our heartless country, it is the officials who know best, the judges who know best, the politicians who know best. They tell you what religion you belong to, what gender you are, what colour you can wear. They do not care about yourself, your beliefs, your rights or your dignity. Some people tell me that they are like that because they are all God-fearing. I don’t think so. A God-fearing people would not condone injustice, corruption and abuse of power. More accurately, they are playing God. We have to continue to fight for these fundamental rights if we want to protect the little freedom we still enjoy. This is how we can best remember Raja Aziz and all the other great lawyers who have gone before us.