Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia:-
The Prime Minister of Malaysia, Datuk Abdullah Badawi last night announced that the Government of Malaysia will make an ex-gratia payment to all six former High Court Judges who was sacked by the Government under the former Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohammad.
According to realiable sources, this is the best that the Government can do to conclude this sad episode. In 1988 six High Court Judges including the Chief Judge, Tun Salleh Abbas, was sacked by by the Government under the Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohammad. It was this single stroke that started the crisis betwenn the Judiciary and the Executive.
From that very moment the relationship between the executive and the Law Fraternity has been strained.
Indiscipline was the reason behind their sacking, so cried the news then. What was plain then was that this judges refused to be influenced by the Government in power when passing on their judgements.
It was this stand that irked the Executive then. so much so, that from then on the appointment of Judges was very much under the influence of the Prime Minister. As a result Malaysia was shunned by the Law community worldwide.
Abdullah Badawi, himself a Lawyer, promised to end the many problems that he inherited from Dr Mahathir. One of them is the independence of the Judiciary. Upon taking over from Dr Mahathir in 2003, he immediately promised a fair and clean government.
The Ex-Gratia payment which the Prime Minister announced at a luncheon organised by the Law Community included pensions and other non-monetary benefits.
Datuk Abdullah Badawi also announced the proposal to set up a commission to vet and recommend the appointment of Judges. At the moment, the Prime Minister said that the Government welcomed inputs from the various sectors namely the people concerned.