Mama Mia! It's the Chief Justice!

Not all judges are nice. Many are nasty, some spiteful, others viciously offensive. I do not want to be one of them.

Being a judge means leading a terribly lonely life. Which means: - no socializing, no friends, no party, no drinking (unless you are ok with drinking alone). I am no party animal, but to be devoid of a social circle seems a tad bit cruel.

Browsing lazily on the weekend daily, I chanced upon a photo in the Saturday Metro (Saturday, 20 December 2008) under “Events”. There it was, a photo of Chief Justice Tan Sri Zaki Tun Azmi, standing grandly, attending the Mamma Mia! Gala musical show; flanked on his right and left by ministers and corporate leaders. Egad! I thought. Isn’t the Chief Justice socializing?

I did a quick check on judges’ conduct and found the following provisions in the Judges’ Code of Ethics 1994: -

Section 3 (1) A judge shall not—

(b) conduct himself in such manner as is likely to bring his private interests into conflict with his judicial duties;

(c) conduct himself in any manner likely to cause a reasonable suspicion that—

(i) he has allowed his private interests to come into conflict with his judicial duties so as to impair his usefulness as a judge; or

(ii) he has used his judicial position for his personal advantage;

(d) conduct himself dishonestly or in such manner as to bring the Judiciary into disrepute or to bring discredit thereto;

I am no expert on a judges’ code of ethics but the photo shows the Chief Justice surrounded by SP Setia director Datuk Eddy Leong, Datuk Fu Ah Kiow, Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy, Health Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai, The Star’s group chief editor Datuk Wong Chun Wai and SP Setia managing director and CEO Tan Sri Liew Kee Sin.

Here is the Chief Justice, seen socializing with members of the corporate industry and members of the MCA. To make matters worse, the Mamma Mia! show that day was hosted by SP Setia and was dedicated to all of SP Setia’s business partners, corporate clients and customers. Which makes one wonders, who is the Chief Justice to SP Setia: - Business partner? Client? Customer?

The appointment of Tan Sri Zaki as Chief Justice has received a lot of flak due to his rather illustrious background. He holds many directorships in many companies prior to his appointment, including being a director to PETRONAS and the Board of Trustee for SP Setia. He was also the legal advisor for UMNO.

His rise in the judiciary has also been of concern, having being appointed directly to the Federal Court as a private practitioner, by-passing several senior judges along the way. All in all, he spent less than 5 years in the judiciary before being made the Chief Justice.

Tan Sri Zaki began his job by announcing that he would get tough and take action against errant judges to prevent the image of the judiciary from being tarnished. But judging from these Mamma Mia! photos, he has taken the lead in tarnishing the already battered image of the judiciary.

- by The Dandelions @ Dandelions.Wordpress