The keenly contested Bar Council elections

Those outside the legal fraternity may not be aware, but the month of November is when lawyers are given the opportunity to vote for the 12 members of their Bar Council.

For the uninitiated, all practising advocates and solicitors are members of the Malaysian Bar. The Malaysian Bar is a statutory body created by the Legal Profession Act, with a specific objective and mandate given by Parliament.

The Bar Council comprises 38 members to manage the affairs and execute the functions of the Malaysian Bar.

Besides the 12 members elected from throughout Peninsular Malaysia by way of postal ballot, the Bar Council also comprises the immediate past president and vice-president of the Malaysian Bar, the chairpersons of each of the 12 State Bar Committees, and one member elected by each of the said 12 State Bar Committees to be its representative in the Bar Council.

The term of office of a Bar Council member is one year. This means that elections, both at the state Bar level and the national ballot, are held annually.

The national ballot elections take place in the whole month of November, with results declared usually on the first day of December.

The ballots are posted by the Bar Council to each individual member of the Malaysian Bar. Each member has 12 votes which he or she can cast. Of course, he or she can elect not to vote for 12 members, and instead vote for less.

Similarly, there is no compulsion or requirement for members to even cast their ballot at all. Last year, 19,000 ballots were issued. Only around 5,000 were returned. The year before that, 17,000 ballots were issued and around 3,900 were returned.

In other words, less than half of the members bothered to vote. The majority of members were not concerned about who got elected to the Bar Council.

There are many reasons for this, but chief among them is the perception that, regardless of who gets voted in, as long as the annual practising certificates are issued, then it makes no great difference to the individual member.

Before I jumped into politics, I served in the Bar Council from 2012 to 2017. I participated in the Bar elections as a candidate as well. During those times, Bar Council elections were fairly muted affairs. Overt campaigning was not practised and, I would say, frowned upon. At most, a candidate would make phone calls or send out e-mails to inform people that he or she was running, and politely ask for a vote.

This year is different. For one, there appears to be ‘teams’ or ‘lists’ of candidates. Candidates have posters and some even have videos, which are shared on social media.

This year, there are 35 contenders vying for the 12 places. This is more than usual. This is the reason why the campaigning, and one should not shy away from calling it that, has reached a new level.

As someone who has served the Bar Council before, I can say that it is largely a thankless job, without much recognition and no reward. That there are more people willing to offer themselves to serve the Bar, this can only be a good thing.

To lawyers, happy voting and choose wisely. To the candidates, good luck, and may the best people be elected.

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SYAHREDZAN JOHAN is a civil liberties lawyer and political secretary to Iskandar Puteri MP Lim Kit Siang. - Mkini