Thursday, November 1, 2012

Bar Council Should Shut Down Zain & Co.

Papers today reported how a legal firm, Zain & Co had worked alongside SUARAM to bring down the government which was chosen through a democratic process. Partner of the firm, Amir Hamzah was claimed to have signed a letter confirming that SUARAM is a legitimate organization to convince those French lawyers so that they would represent the organization in the Scorpene issue. The shocking thing about this firm is that it has been receiving a lot of legal contracts with Malaysian government. Thus, what this firm has done is not just treason to the country, they also committed treason to their clients. For a person who does not know much about politics, they would not think the headline I wrote is too much, based on newspaper reports. But, for those who are aware of Malaysian politics, the headline which I had chosen is simply funny. This is because, how can we demand the Bar Council to take actions against Zain & Co. for working with SUARAM to bring down the government when the Bar Council itself is a part of the same plan? No one can deny that Bar Council has always been biased and unprofessional when it comes to issues involving Malaysian government. For example, in the BERSIH demonstration issue, a few watchdogs revealed how Bar Council decided that police had used brutality with only evidence which benefits the opposition. While evidence provided by the police never really caught their attention. This attitude in a way supported the opposition's accusation for saying that Malaysian police are corrupt and that they do not have any integrity. But, their weird thing is, those points somewhat had given more points to the opposition. Things get worse when the Bar Council did not even show any interest in handling issues involving their problematic members such as those who cheated their clients, slow and was involved in criminal cases. The worrying part is, they are supposed to take actions against those people because it has always been their responsibility to seek for justice! The fact is, the actions committed by Zain & Co. is not a small matter. If no actions are taken against them, this would prove that there is something wrong either with the system, someone, or bodies that are responsible in this country's legal industry.

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