continuation
There are serious doubts as to whether this audience actually took
place. The first of May 1988 fell on a Sunday, not Wednesday as the
Attorney General recorded. Even if the day of week were corrected,
there can be no Cabinet meeting on a Sunday. That the King
expressed great displeasure only on 1 May, when he had in fact
received the letter on 25 March cast further doubt over this
assertion. It is difficult to believe that the King wanted Tun
Salleh removed purely because he had protested about the public
insults directed against the entire Judiciary by the head of the
Executive. In any event, royal displeasure would not be a
constitutionally valid ground for dismissal. Indeed, Mahathir
advised the King as much in a letter written four days after this
probably fictitious audience; however, the Prime Minister went
further in the same letter to say that he would investigate Tun
Salleh for any evidence of misbehaviour. In any event, the King did
not clear up the mystery and, in an audience with Tun Salleh,
actually asked the latter to step down without giving reasons
although the Conference of Rulers had already asked for his
reinstatement. Amazingly, Tun Salleh was suspended and a Tribunal
set up to determine his fate before any formal charges were
laid.
The Constitution does not provide for the removal of a Lord
President. While the Tribunal need not be an inappropriate means,
its composition was to say the least, disgraceful. It was composed
of six acting and retired judges, although the Constitution
required an odd number to prevent deadlock. Of these -four from
Malaysia, one from Sri Lanka and one from Singapore -only the Sri
Lankan enjoyed a rank comparable to Tun Salleh's. This was contrary
to the very reasonable dictum that one should be tried by one's
peers rather than one's juniors. The fact that two retired Lord
Presidents of Malaysia were available but not invited was glaring.
There were grave conflicts of interest with three of the Malaysian
judges that should have disqualified them from sitting: Tan Sri
Abdul Hamid who was next in line to succeed as Lord President and
who had also participated in the conference of 20 judges which
resulted in the letter to the King; Tan Sri Zahir who, being also
the Speaker of the Lower House, was beholden to Mahathir, the
principal complainant in the matter at hand; and Tan Sri Abdul Aziz
who, although a former judge, was then a practising lawyer and,
more incredibly, had two suits pending against him at that time.
But Tun Salleh's objections were ignored and when the Bar Council
issued a statement calling for the Tribunal to be re-constituted,
both the New Straits Times and The Star refused to publish it.
Further, it was decided that the Tribunal would sit in closed
sessions although Tun Salleh had requested a public hearing.
The charges, when finally published, were manifestly absurd.
Running over 12 sheets of paper, it was clear that quantity had
been substituted where quality was lacking, and some of them
actually related to Tun Salleh's behaviour after suspension. Many
of them related to his speeches and press interviews, whereby
sinister meanings were imputed to various innocuous comments that
he had made. To cite an instance, in a speech at the University of
Malaya, he had said: "The role of the courts is very important to
bring about public order. If there is no public order there will be
chaos in this country and if there is chaos, no one can feel safe"
On this basis, Tun Salleh was charged with making statements
criticizing the Government which displayed prejudice and bias
against the latter. Another statement of his, "In a democratic
system, the courts play a prominent role as agent of stability but
they can perform this function only if judges are trusted,"
resulted in the charge that he had ridiculed the Government by
imputing that it did not trust the judges. These charges were
doubly ludicrous in the light of Mahathir's many poisonous attacks
against the Judiciary.
It is not surprising that Tun Salleh, after reading this catalogue
of fantasy crimes, refused to appear before what was so evidently a
kangaroo court. The Tribunal, after refusing representations made
by Raja Aziz, Tun Salleh's leading counsel, that it had no
constitutional validity to sit, chose instead to proceed so hastily
that it wound up deliberations, including the examination of
witnesses with just four hours work. As it prepared to issue its
Report, Tun Salleh's lawyers sought an urgent stay of proceedings
in the High Court. This would normally be granted immediately at
the least possibility that an injustice may be about to be done
but, here, events turned into utter farce.
Instead of immediately reaching a decision as expected, the
presiding judge, Datuk Ajaib Singh, after the court had been in
languorous session the whole day that Friday, adjourned hearings
for 9.30 am the next day. On Saturday however, the judge emerged in
court only at 11.50 am and, even then, postponed hearings again for
the Monday! In desperation, Tun Salleh's lawyers, knowing that the
Tribunal could easily release its Report before then, sought the
assistance of Supreme Court judge, Tan Sri Wan Suleiman, in his
Chambers. The latter agreed to hear them in open court in half an
hour's time and called a coram of all remaining Supreme Court, one
of whom, Tan Sri Hashim Yeop, refused to sit. The soap opera
reached an apogee of ridiculousness when Tan Sri Abdul Hamid, head
of the Tribunal and Acting Lord President, gave orders for the
doors of Supreme Court to be locked and for the seal of the Supreme
Court to be secreted away!
Undeterred, the five Supreme Court judges ordered the policeman on
duty to open the door forthwith. After less than half an hour, the
Court ordered the Tribunal not to submit any recommendation, report
or advice to the King. Tun Salleh's lawyers were typing the Order
to serve personally to the Tribunal at Parliament House when news
arrived that the gates of Parliament House had been locked! At this
point, Justice Wan Suleiman rose to the occasion and, calling the
office of the Inspector General of Police, told a senior officer
that any impediment to serving the Order would constitute contempt
of court. The gates of Parliament swung open and, at 4 pm, Raja
Aziz and his team served the Order to the Tribunal members who were
found to be still hard at work on a word-processor that Saturday
afternoon. All six members accepted service without
complaint.
It would appear that justice had at last prevailed but, four days
later, all five Supreme Court judges were suspended. Almost every
rule that was broken to suspend Tun Salleh was broken again to
suspend them. The prohibition order they had made were revoked
within days. A second Tribunal eventually reinstated three of the
judge: Tan Sri Azmi Kamaruddin, Tan Sri Eusoff Abdoolcader and Tan
Sri Wan Hamzah but Tan Sri Wan Suleiman and Datuk George Edward
Seah were removed from office.
The UMNO Eleven case was quickly dismissed. The removal of Tun
Salleh also saw the resignation of Deputy PM Datuk Musa Hitam who,
according to popular wisdom, could no longer stomach Mahathir's
ways.
