I refer to the Malaysiakini report Bar explains why it 'rejected' Salleh .
At a time when the Bar Council is trying to portray itself as champion of the oppressed, the persecuted, the wronged, the poor and victims of racism, I find it quite astonishing that this association of lawyers can be seen to be practicing discrimination of its own with its shabby treatment of Salleh Abbas, the former lord president no less.
And for three years this great man did not want to sensationalise his predicament because he still believed in fair-play and wisdom on the part of the council which sadly, is not quite representative of all the lawyers especially amongst the Malays.
We are not talking about Zulkifli Nordin, the nemesis of the Bar Council but Tun Salleh who by defying the former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, paid a heavy price and in the process changed the judicial landscape of this country.
Salleh was only asking for the Bar Council to allow him to return to his old firm as a consultant. Little did he expect the Bar Council to become so ‘technical’ and start to pass the buck to the attorney-general’s office who, obviously, does not want to have anything to do with it.
We could perhaps go along with the Bar Council if Salleh’s request would create a bad precedent because being a ‘closed association’, the Bar must protect the interests of its members first.
But we are certainly shocked to learn that the Bar had already entertained such a request by a former judge, KC Vohrah.
Interestingly, when the mainstream media carried the story, it conveniently chose to ignore the Vohrah factor making as if Salleh was asking the council to make an exception just for himself.
If the facts and the scenario are the same, it is incumbent upon Vohrah to come out and argue on Salleh’s behalf else he should surrender his Bar Council’s certificate to practice as a consultant.
We now want to hear the views of the many right-thinking members of the Bar like Param Cumaraswamy, Karpal Singh and other prominent non-Malay legal figures.
