Veteran politician calls on 57 MPs representing Sabah and Sarawak not to miss the opportunity of ensuring that a judge from Sabah/Sarawak becomes the new chief justice.
He says in a blog post that the elected representatives of these two states should not lose the opportunity of having a first-time chief justice who hails from Sabah and Sarawak .
The Prime Minister’s Office recently announced that the tenures of Chief Justice Raus Sharif and Court of Appeal President Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin had been extended. They were due to go on mandatory retirement on Aug 3 and Sept 27, respectively.
Saying the tenure extensions were unconstitutional and detrimental to the cause of nation-building, Lim adds it will be an even more glaring injustice if the elected representatives of Sabah and Sarawak were to bypass “the opportunity to appoint the first chief justice from Sabah and Sarawak in the person of Tan Sri Richard Malanjum”.
He says: “I call on all Barisan Nasional Ministers and MPs from Sabah and Sarawak to take a common and united stand with Pakatan Harapan MPs for the appointment of Richard Malanjum as the new chief justice of Malaysia.
“Let not the voiding and bypassing of the opportunity for the appointment of the first chief justice of Malaysia from Sabah and Sarawak become a real-life example of how Sabah and Sarawak are treated as step-children in the Malaysian scheme of things.”
This, he says it will be a setback for nation-building regardless of race, religion or region or even politics into one Malaysian people if no attempt is made to push for a chief justice from Sabah or Sarawak.
The Gelang Patah MP says Malanjum is most qualified to become the new chief justice of Malaysia.
“Malanjum is, in fact, the most senior Federal Court judge today, even more senior than both Raus and Zulkefli, both of whom were appointed to the Federal Court in 2011.”
Lim notes that Malanjum was elevated to the Court of Appeal and Federal Court and then appointed as the chief judge of the High Court of Sabah and Sarawak at the age of 52.
He asks what is the use of having 10 out of 35 Cabinet ministers and 57 parliamentary seats from Sabah and Sarawak if none of the Barisan Nasional ministers and MPs are prepared to stand up for the constitutional and Malaysia Agreement rights of their people.
He urged the ministers from Sabab and Sarawak to raise this matter at the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
“If the Cabinet on Wednesday is not prepared to do anything to restore justice to Sabah and Sarawak as well as to Justice Richard Malanjum, there should a meeting of all Sabah and Sarawak ministers and Members of Parliament, as well as Pakatan Rakyat MPs who uphold constitutional sanctity and integrity, to agree on a strategy on the issue for the three-week Parliamentary meeting from July 24 to August 10, 2017.” -FMT
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