Reforming Judiciary: Appointing Umno as Judge?

PAS vice-president Datuk Husam Musa said: "The Government should not promote Tan Sri Zaki Azmi to the post of Chief Justice if it is serious about reforming the judiciary."

He added that Zaki, having been a member of the Umno disciplinary panel in the past, was not politically neutral.

“So if he is promoted to Chief Justice, then the proposed reforms would be meaningless, because it (the Judiciary) would still obviously appear to be controlled by political affiliation,” he said yesterday.

Source: Reforms meaningless if Zaki is appointed CJ, says Husam

Husam Musa is wrong. The government is Umno and Umno is the government. When reforms are discussed, it will be observed and interpreted only for the benefit of Umno as the dominant party within the Barisan Nasional ruling government, and then observed on the benefits for MCA and MIC.

In fact there are already calls that the proposed Judicial appointment committee must be selected from members of the Umno disciplinary committee or supreme council members to reflect and ensure Malay rights are protected.

Apart from this, the selection and recommendation of appointment and promotion of judges will be forwarded to the prime minister who has the absolute prerogative and discretion to choose whomever he deem fit and forward the choice to the King for endorsement and approval.

I'm not sure how rights of a class of citizen can be extended to include rights to pursue corruption, cronyism and nepotism. Somehow, it now forms part of the rights.