LawEddie.com

I still remembered vividly when I was serving my pupilage in chamber, I had attended an ethical course (which was made compulsory to all the chambering students to attend) and Ms Ambiga Sreenevasan (Ambiga) was one of the speakers. She spoke about the social duty of lawyers and the role of Malaysian Bar. The most interesting part was when she talked about how Malaysian Bar reacted (including holding a peaceful match) against the 1988 judicial crisis. We were shown with the slides in which lawyers were matching around the then Federal Court vicinity at Jalan Raja. That was my first impression of Ambiga, a lawyer who deeply believed that Malasyian Bar should go all the way to uphold the cause of justice without regard to its own interests or that of its members, uninfluenced by fear or favour.

This year Ambiga has been elected as the president of Malaysian Bar Council. During her service, there was the exposure of the VK Lingam’s video invloving the scandal of judges appointment fixing. This is another most serious judicial crisis in Malaysia since 1988.

This time under the leadership of Ambiga, the Malaysian Bar had acted swiftly against this issue and bravely called for a peaceful walk from The Palace of Justice to the Prime Minister’s office to express their concern about this issue. On that day, there were more than 1,000 lawyers attended the walk.

From the swift, firm and bold reaction of Malaysian Bar against this issue, I see that Ambiga is not merely a “preacher of what she believes in” but she practised what she has preached. I salute you, Ambiga. You have done a really good job this time.

Below are the video clips about the rally, which you will never see in our national TV.

“Police Makes Lawyers Walk Longer”

“DAP version”

“Malaysia Kini version”

“Interview With Associate Professor from Law Faculty Of UM”

“Keadilan version”

Oops…Ambiga mentioned that this was the 3rd time lawyers were “walking”. The 2nd time was in 1988, anyone knows when was the 1st time?