From Asian Wall Street Journal 14th June 2000

By LESLIE LOPEZ Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- A public confrontation between Malaysia's law minister and its highest-ranking judge has revived a long-simmering debate over the country's judiciary.

The controversy revolves around Internet-posted pictures of the Chief Justice of Malaysia's Federal Court, Eusoff Chin, spending time in New Zealand in 1994 with a prominent lawyer who appears frequently in Malaysian courts.

Law Minister Rais Yatim told an Australian radio station two weeks ago that the Malaysian administration had registered its displeasure with the judge's behavior. "Certainly, such socializing ... is not in keeping with the proper behavior of a judicial personality and we have intimated to the chief justice that this is a behavior improper, and this has been intimated to him in no uncertain terms," Datuk Rais said. Reacting to the remark last week, Tun Eusoff said that he never discussed the matter with Datuk Rais.

Still, the minister's comments have touched off a heated public debate in Malaysia. Tun Eusoff has defended his conduct and has chastised Datuk Rais for not understanding the problems facing judges. He has threatened to sue anyone suggesting that his holiday had been paid for by someone else.

Meanwhile, senior politicians in Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's administration, including Finance Minister Daim Zainuddin, have expressed support for the idea that the judiciary isn't above censure.

The Malaysian Bar Council, the country's top legal body, representing 9,000 lawyers, wants the government to appoint a commission to investigate Tun Eusoff's conduct and to make recommendations on how to restore public confidence in the judiciary.

The furor comes at an awkward time for the Malaysian judiciary, which has long faced criticism from political opposition leaders and other public-interest groups for allegedly lacking independence. These concerns date back to 1988, when Dr. Mahathir clashed with the judiciary over several decisions by the courts that went against his administration. That confrontation ultimately led to the suspension of six Supreme Court judges and the subsequent removal of three of them, including the then head of the judiciary.

Tun Eusoff last week defended the independence of Malaysia's judiciary. "We decide purely on merits of the case. The prime minister has never called me on anything. Or any other minister for that matter. The executive basically leaves us alone," he said.

Criticisms of the judiciary have intensified over the past 18 months, largely because of the widely publicized trials of former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, which have attracted international scrutiny of the Malaysian justice system. Four international legal organizations, including the International Bar Association, issued a 121-page report in April saying there were "well-founded" concerns about judicial independence in Malaysia. "There is a widespread perception ... that in those cases in which the government has an interest, the judiciary is not independent," stated the report, which was prepared by a three-member panel led by a judge from Scotland.

The report also discussed, among other things, Tun Eusoff's trip to New Zealand. The authors of the report said they had two meetings with Tun Eusoff -- lasting about five hours -- in which a wide array of subjects was discussed. The report said the chief judge "adamantly denied" suggestions of improper behavior, "pointing out that he had been investigated by [Malaysia's] anticorruption agency, which had cleared him."

But the issue has taken on new life with Tun Eusoff's sharp public exchanges with Datuk Rais, the first cabinet-level government official to openly criticize the judge's conduct.

The seeds of the current controversy were sown two years ago, when local Web sites ran pictures showing a casually attired Tun Eusoff posing with Malaysian lawyer V.K. Lingam. Despite efforts by Malaysian opposition leaders to debate the matter on grounds that Tun Eusoff's behavior may have compromised the judiciary, the issue was never raised publicly by Dr. Mahathir's administration until Datuk Rais's remarks during an interview with Australia's Radio National, a unit of state-owned Australia Broadcasting Corp., on May 30 in Melbourne.

Last week, Malaysian news reports quoted Datuk Rais as saying that when he was shown the photographs, he responded that "a lofty figure" in the judiciary should be circumspect about socializing. "We can mix with anyone, but a certain decorum or persona has to be upkept," he was quoted as saying by local newspapers. Datuk Rais didn't mention the financing of Tun Eusoff's holiday and there is no evidence in the public domain that someone other than Tun Eusoff paid for the holidays.

Tun Eusoff bristled at the minister's remarks. At a news conference last week, he dismissed Datuk Rais's criticisms and said that he "bumped into" Datuk Lingam when he was going to visit a New Zealand "zoo." He said that the lawyer had merely "tagged along" with him. The judge also briefly showed reporters an assortment of bills and bank statements, which he said were evidence that he paid for the holiday himself.

But according to people familiar with Tun Eusoff's 1994 trip, the meeting between the chief judge and Datuk Lingam wasn't a chance encounter. In fact, Tun Eusoff's holiday itinerary closely mirrored Datuk Lingam's own New Zealand holiday over a period of eight days in December that year, these people maintain.

According to airline-ticket stubs and other travel itineraries, Tun Eusoff and Datuk Lingam, with their families, were booked on the same Air New Zealand flight from Singapore to Auckland on Dec. 22, 1994, and again four days later on a flight to Christchurch. Both families later traveled together to Queenstown on Dec. 27, a three-and-a-half hour drive from Christchurch, according to people familiar with the episode in New Zealand.

People familiar with the trip also say that Tun Eusoff complained of a stomach ailment on Dec. 28 in Queenstown. A day later, Datuk Lingam and Tun Eusoff spent time on a hired pleasure boat with their families. According to people familiar with the episode, the two Malaysians rented a 13-meter catamaran for a cruise on Lake Wakatipu just outside Queenstown. The two families were booked on the same flights to return to Kuala Lumpur Dec. 30.

Tun Eusoff didn't respond to requests to discuss the matter. An aide in his office said the chief judge was "very busy." Datuk Lingam didn't respond to requests for comment.Write to Leslie Lopez at leslie.lopez@awsj.com