'Ex-politicians can become judges, as long as they have integrity'

There is nothing wrong with ex-politicians becoming judges, but the main issue is that they must have integrity, says former Federal Court judge Gopal Sri Ram.

Sri Ram, who retired from the highest court in the country in 2010, said there were former politicians from the United Kingdom, Australia and India who had been appointed as judges.

He pointed out that Justice Arwyn Lynn Ungoed-Thomas was active in the Labour Party in the United Kingdom before he became a judge.

“There is also Sir Garfield Barwick, who was foreign minister, before his direct appointment as Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia.

“In India, Justice VR Krishna Iyer was a minister before his appointment as a judge,” he said.

He told this to Malaysiakini when asked whether it was alright for former politicians to become a judge, following a decision by High Court judicial commissioner Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh today to recuse himself from hearing the suit by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak against Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua.

Sri Ram said Barwick and Iyer had delivered many important judgments against the government.

“It is all a question of integrity,” the former top judge added.

On Wan Ahmad's decision to recuse himself, Sri Ram said if the judge was confident in making his judgment he need not have gone to such lengths at all.

“This is especially when parties and counsel did not seek his recusal. That is an abdication of judicial duty. If he had delivered judgment in accordance with law and the facts, none should blame him,” he said.

Ungoed-Thomas was a Welsh Labour Party politician who was elected an MP and became a High Court judge.

Meanwhile, Barwick was a Liberal Party politician in Australia, who was also the attorney-general of Australia, minister for external affairs and the seventh and longest-serving Chief Justice of the Australian High Court.

Iyer won in the Madras legislative assembly as an independent candidate. He eventually became India’s law minister, and later an Indian Supreme Court judge who helped reform the national criminal justice system.- Mkini