Thomas Fuller & Lord Denning ReQuoted

Today, we have a new quote from
Roger Tan which he attributed the same to the man who was famed for the phase, Thomas Fuller, and of which was cited by the maverick and reknown Lord Denning in the case of Gouriet (1977) at the Court of Appeal.

It was originally, "Be Ye Ever So High, The Law Is Above Thee".

It has now become, "Be Ye NEVER So High".

It certainly suits the Malaysian C-Y-N-I-C as enunciated by Dr. Mahathir when he jested about the SCENIC BRIDGE project , renamed by Pak Lah to replace the so-called "CROOKED BRIDGE" that was to be built to replace the Johor Causeway.

Paradoxically, the same phase can now be applied to the decision by the Police Chief and his deputy when they stood by the City Police Chief's contention that all Police Officers would NO LONGER exercise any form of discretion when enforcing the law but would strictly follow each and every letter written in the law book of enforcement.

What that means is that, the law will strictly be exercised using the "LITERAL INTERPRETATION" approach rather than the "PURPOSIVE" or "CONTEXTUAL" approach initiated and applied by Lord Denning and aggressively followed by Lord Steyn and the English Court currently.

The paradoxical intend would in many ways runs contrary to defeat the very purpose and intend of the law made-by-man and to correct the intended "Mischief " of the very Act of Parliament or the subordinated delegated legislation.

Why did the City Police Chief blurted such statement? Is it in retaliation of the findings and recommendations of the Royal Commission of Inquiry on the Nude-Squat scandal? Or in retaliation over the recent scrutiny and censure of the police force? Or, in response to the decision by the Prime Minister to form the New Commission for complaint against police abuses.

In clarification, deputy IGP Datuk Seri Musa Hassan said the "No-Compromise" method of enforcing the law had always been the modus operandi of the police and that it would not be left to the police officers to apply them. Any discretion will now be the sole discretion of the IGP.

Does this mean that the police will now give hell to the public to such extend that it will call for a review of such "Abuses" against the police discretion and application of power? Will the government revert back to the status quo so that the police can have the power to strip suspects and practice the naked-ear-squat again? Is this the thing that the police is looking forward to, when making the purported statement?

Maybe, the police too need more power and more wide discretion in the exercise of those power. They surely know what they want and how to get it!