The 1980s witnessed an ignominious shadow cast on justice with the removal of the late Salleh Abbas as Lord President. He had fought to preserve the independence of the judiciary and this drew the ire of then-prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Salleh's removal, referred to as the “constitutional crisis of 1988”, was described as the “darkest chapter in the history of the Malaysian judiciary” by current Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat.

Recalling the situation in the mid-1980s, former attorney-general Tommy Thomas said...