Judiciary thinks ‘govt can do no wrong’, laments ex-judge

Former Federal Court judge Gopal Sri Ram today rapped the judiciary for repeatedly striking out lawsuits involving the prime minister acting as if 'the government can do no wrong'.

“The present crop of judges […] find it a terrible nuisance to bother the government with all these suits.

“And therefore they (see these suits as being) vexatious and frivolous and should not have been brought to court in the first place.

“The old maxim now lives but in different words, ‘the king can do no wrong’ has now become ‘the government can do no wrong’. It’s sad,” said Sri Ram.

He said this in his keynote address entitled 'Challenging the constitutionality of pre-Merdeka law' at the opening of the Selangor Bar’s new auditorium in Kuala Lumpur.

He said he based his criticism on how statements of claims which named Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak or his wife Rosmah Mansor as defendants were more often than not thrown out of court.

“Even if the statement of claim says RM42 million went into (the PM’s personal bank) account from SRC International,” he said.

Former law minister Zaid Ibrahim's suit against Najib and troubled state investment firm 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) in the Kuala Lumpur High Court was previously struck out after judicial commissioner Rohani Ismail considered the suit 'frivolous and vexatious'.

DAP lawmaker Tony Pua's suit against 1MDB and Najib was also similarly struck out.

Based on publicly available documents, money from SRC International was allegedly deposited into Najib's personal account in two transactions - on Dec 26, 2014, and on Feb 10, 2015.

This after being routed through two companies - Gandingan Mentari Sdn Bhd and Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd.

Najib has repeatedly claimed he was unaware of the money from SRC International and Attorney-General Mohamed Apandi Ali has cleared him of any wrongdoing in the matter.

SRC International is a former subsidiary of 1MDB, which was set up by the Najib administration in 2009 as a sovereign wealth fund. The company is now the focus of money-laundering investigations in several overseas jurisdictions.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) is presently conducting an investigation into SRC International.

Sri Ram added that while he had his disagreements with court judgements in the past, him and former judges then were defending a government that was 'honest and cared for the people'.

“They were not defending kleptocrats,” he said.

[More to follow]

-Mkini