KUALA LUMPUR, July 10 — The leaked draft judgments in two high-profile cases in the Federal Court and High Court are nothing more than wicked attempts to undermine the judiciary, calculated at disrupting judicial operations and the administration of justice, said Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat.
The said leaked judgments are related to former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s SRC International Sdn Bhd case and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor’s corruption case over a solar hybrid project.
She said these are among the challenges faced by the judiciary in the transformation of courtrooms from physical to virtual, where cyber security is a paramount concern.
“Sensitive legal data, from personal testimonies to case details, must be protected. In the same way that physical courtrooms are secured by locks and guards, digital courtrooms require robust firewalls and encryption to protect the integrity of proceedings.
“In the past year, even the judiciary was targeted by certain members of society in pursuit of their ill-willed objectives,” Tengku Maimun said in her opening address at the International Malaysia Law Conference (IMLC) 2023, earlier today.
In this regard, she said the judiciary will continue to enhance its cyber security measures, with a view to continuously preserving the confidentiality and integrity of the judicial processes.
“Our judgments undergo public discourse. We ourselves are scrutinised and to speak candidly, even our private lives are not immune from such scrutiny,” Tengku Maimun said.
It is the judiciary’s earnest hope that members of the public, who may be uninformed, will harness the power of technology to acquaint themselves with judicial decisions.
Meanwhile, Malaysian Bar president Karen Cheah has urged the government to reform certain laws at the Parliamentary sitting in October.
She said among the provisions which should be amended was the Second Schedule of Part II, Section 1(b) and (c) of the Federal Constitution, where the word father should be replaced with the word parent, in relation to the citizenship issue plaguing overseas-born children of Malaysian women with foreign spouses.
“It is so our Federal Constitution moves with the times and recognises gender equality. Such amendments should be without qualifications or conditions attached.
“All other problematic proposed amendments by the Home Ministry should be taken out and left for further discussion at a later date. This is a simple and straightforward amendment, and it should not be railroaded and delayed due to other issues newly introduced causing unnecessary complication,” she said in her welcome speech at IMLC 2023.
Cheah added that other proposed amendments involve the Judicial Appointments Commission, to promote transparency and accountability in the appointment of judges and reforms to the structure of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, in order to ensure full autonomy and independence.
On the National Legal Aid Foundation (YBGK), she said its lawyers have represented clients in more than two million cases from April 2012 till June this year.
“One of the greatest sources of pride for the Malaysian Bar is the advancement of legal aid programmes in Malaysia — and we do so because we believe everyone must have access to justice,” Cheah said.
Earlier, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced a RM10 million allocation for YBGK to assist those who cannot afford legal services.
Anwar also said he would present the proposed amendments to the Conference of Malay Rulers soon, to enable Malaysian mothers to be granted equal rights in the Federal Constitution.
“We will be tabling amendments to the Federal Constitution to replace the words whose father in Part I and Part II of the Second Schedule with the words at least one of the parents,” he said.
— Bernama
