VIDEO OF JUDGE FIXING ROCKS MALAYSIA'S JUDICIARY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 KUALA LUMPUR 001446

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/21/2017
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM KJUS MY
SUBJECT: VIDEO OF JUDGE FIXING ROCKS MALAYSIA'S JUDICIARY


Classified By: Political Section Chief Mark D. Clark for
reasons 1.4 (b and d).

Summary
--------------


1. (C) Former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim rocked
Malaysia's legal establishment on September 19 when he held a
press conference to release an eight minute videotaped
conversation purportedly showing a phone conversation between
a famously corrupt Malaysian attorney and the current Chief
Justice of Malaysia's Federal Court engaged in a judge fixing
scheme. The Malaysian Bar Association and opposition parties
called for immediate inquiries into the allegations and for
the establishment of a royal judicial commission to
investigate the Chief Justice. Malaysian political leaders,
including current Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak,
downplayed the revelations in the press, calling into doubt
the authenticity of the taped conversation. Government
controlled and influenced newspapers printed but downplayed
the release of the tape, often burying the article to the
lesser-read center pages, and avoided printing the names of
the judges and political leaders discussed in the tape.
There is speculation that Anwar released the tape at this
time in an effort to strengthen his appeal in a recently
dismissed defamation suit against former Prime Minister
Mahathir. It may also be true that the tape is intended to
force the retirement of Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz whose
ordinary contract expires in October 2007. End Summary.

Anwar alleges Chief Justice involved in "judge fixing"
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2. (U) Malaysia's judiciary came under the spotlight again on
September 19 after former DPM and de facto Peoples Justice
Party (PKR) leader Anwar Ibrahim released an eight-minute
video clip showing senior Malaysian lawyer VK Lingam in a
mobile phone conversation allegedly with current Chief
Justice Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim fixing the
appointment of "friendly" senior judges. The video
supposedly filmed in 2002, was posted on the online news
portal Malaysiakini and on PKR's party website. At the time
the tape was allegedly recorded, Ahmad Fairuz was the Chief
Judge of Malaya, in charge of all High Court judges in
Peninsular Malaysia. Among the cases "discussed" by the
chief justice and the senior lawyer were Anwar's appeals and
the potential appointment of Ahmad Fairuz as the Chief
Justice of the Federal Court-- an event which eventually took
place in 2003 when he bypassed several other senior judges in
line for the position. At the September 19 press conference,
Anwar claimed the revelations proved that his previous
appeals against his sodomy and abuse of power convictions
were tainted and that he was denied a proper and fair trial.

Explosive Conversation
--------------


3. (U) In the video clip, VK Lingam is heard telling a person
alleged to be Fairuz that "key players" should be nominated
for judicial appointments in order to hear cases and deliver
judgments accordingly. He exhorted Fairuz's loyalty and
"sacrifices" and added that even former Chief Justice Tun
Eusoff Chin had told him that Fairuz is "110% loyal." Lingam
stressed, "We want to make sure our friends are there for the
sake of the (then) PM (Mahathir) and the sake of the country.
Not for our own interest, we want to make sure the country
comes first."


4. (U) Also implicated in the conversation were business
tycoon and former PM Mahathir crony Vincent Tan and his
business partner Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, then minister in
the PM's Department, and currently the Tourism Minister.
Based on Lingam's conversation, both Tan and Adnan had
apparently played an instrumental role in the appointment of
judges as well to secure the honorific title of 'Tan Sri' for
Ahmad Fairuz. Towards the end of the eight-minute video
clip, Lingam acknowledged, "you (Fairuz) have suffered... so
much you have done, for the election, Wee Choo Keong,
everything. . .nobody would have done all this. . . God bless
you and your family." The reference to Wee Choo Keong seems
to confirm that Lingam was talking to Chief Justice Fairuz as
it was Fairuz who in 1995 as an election court judge upheld
an election petition contesting DAP candidate Wee's victory
as a Member of Parliament in Kuala Lumpur's Bukit Bintang
district. Instead of calling for fresh election, Fairuz made
an unprecedented decision by dismissing Wee and naming the
losing Barisan Nasional MCA candidate Dr. Lee Chong Meng the
winner.

VK Lingam "Judge Fixer Extraordinaire"
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KUALA LUMP 00001446 002 OF 003




5. (SBU) VK Lingam is a senior lawyer who came into the
spotlight during former Chief Justice Tun Eusoff Chin's term
(1994 - 2000) in office. Dubbed locally as the "judge fixer
extraordinaire," Lingam was a sought after lawyer as he had
the ears of the then Chief Justice and his clients won all
their cases. Lingam's relationship with the former Chief
Justice was so close that their families were known to go on
joint holidays paid for by Lingam. There were also
allegations that Lingam wrote some of the judgments for his
own cases. In one example of a defamation case involving his
client Vincent Tan against journalist the late MGG Pillai, it
was alleged Lingam who wrote the judgment in his firm and
dispatched the "floppy disc with the judgment" to the judge's
chambers. He was also implicated in the Perwaja Steel Mill
fiasco (a failed development project during Mahathir's era)
where government appointed auditors investigating the failure
of the project found exorbitant fees paid to Lingam's firm
"for unsubstantiated services." However, Lingam's influence
within the judiciary waned during the term of Chief Justice
Dzaiddin (2000 - 2003) until Fairuz was named the Chief
Justice in March 2003. Lingam represented former PM Mahathir
in a defamation suit filed by Anwar Ibrahim for calling him a
homosexual at a press conference in 2005. In July 2007,
Judicial Commissioner Tengku Maimon Tuan Mat dismissed the
suit without hearing the merits of the case and ruled that
the suit was "obviously unsustainable" and "clearly an abuse
of the court process." The former DPM has filed an appeal
against the decision.

Reactions to the Expose
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6. (U) Former DPM Anwar stated that the revelations proved
his appeals against his sodomy and abuse of power convictions
"were tainted" and that he was denied a proper and fair
trial. He added that the "scandalous" expose, "serves to
collaborate our allegations of a political conspiracy of the
highest level and corruption of the highest judicial office,
seriously bringing into question the impartiality of judicial
proceedings, including mine." Anwar, who was sacked as
Deputy Prime Minister in 1998, spent six years in jail after
he was convicted of sodomy and corruption charges. Although
his sodomy conviction was later overturned, the corruption
verdict was upheld. He added that the People's Justice Party
will file a special appeal with the Conference of Rulers (a
constitutionally formed council of Malaysia's nine sitting
monarchs and four non-royal governors),to assume their
"constitutional roles" and take appropriate action. The
party has also lodged a report with the Anti-Corruption
Agency (ACA) and the Bar Council.


7. (SBU) Responding to the expose, Bar Council President
Ambiga Sreenevasan urged the government to establish a royal
commission of inquiry to investigate the video and the
judiciary. She pointed out that rumors and allegations of
such machinations have been rife and therefore, "With the
emergence of this video clip, the concerns expressed by
various quarters in relation to the judiciary can no longer
be swept aside." Echoing the Bar Council President's call,
former UN Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and
Lawyers Param Cumaraswamy (who helped represent Anwar Ibrahim
in his defamation suit against Mahathir) told poloffs that
only an independent commission of inquiry and "nothing less"
will be able to clear the tainted image of the judiciary.
However, he acknowledged that the UMNO centric government
does not have the "political will to investigate the
shenanigans in the judiciary."


8. (U) Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang stated in a letter to
PM Abdullah that Chief Justice Fairuz should be suspended
citing constitutional provisions that allow the removal of a
Federal Court judge for ethical breach. He added that he had
asked the Prime Minister to appoint an Acting Chief Justice
and take "concerted efforts to restore public confidence in
the independence, impartiality, professionalism, and
integrity of the judiciary." Human Rights NGOs have also
called on the Chief Justice to resign and urged the
government to conduct a judicial review of all politically
connected cases including former DPM Anwar Ibrahim's cases,
appointment of judges and the sacking of the former Chief
Justice and two Supreme Court Judges in 1988.

A Mooted Response from GOM and Local Media
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9. (SBU) The GOM's response to the allegation has been
extremely feeble. Minister in the Prime Minister's
Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz, who handles the law
portfolio, stated that anyone with evidence of wrongdoing
involving the appointment of judges should forward it to the

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proper authorities to investigate. He added he would wait
for the ACA to complete its investigations before making
further comments. Similarly, Attorney General Gani Patail
opined, "No criminal offense appears to have been committed
in the video recording" but added that he was getting further
opinion on the matter and studying other information in the
video clip. Current Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak
commented to the press that the "Government will first
confirm the authenticity of the video before deciding on the
next course of action."


10. (SBU) Interestingly the mainstream newspapers, all
government controlled or heavily influenced, carried the
story but downplayed the news by placing it far from the
front page and by not naming the people mentioned in the
clip. Instead the printed press chose terms like "a
prominent lawyer", a "very senior judge", "a number of
prominent judges", "a prominent businessman and a politician,
both of whom were close to the then Prime Minister".
UMNO-owned, Malay language newspapers did not publish former
DPM Anwar Ibrahim's press conference September 20 but instead
carried pictures of the Chief Justice breaking fast with the
King and the Prime Minister at an official function.
However, in the September 21 edition although they still had
pictures of the Chief Justice breaking fast with prominent
UMNO politicians, the Malay papers carried a brief report on
the issue, buried in the back pages of the paper. Even "The
Sun", an English language newspaper considered "more
independent" than the other newspapers buried the news among
other reports, seemingly because Vincent Tan, who is
mentioned in Lingam's conversation with Fairuz, owns the
paper. Former High Court judge Visu Sinnadurai opined to
poloffs that the poor response from the government and the
press was because, "it was former DPM Anwar who released the
video." He told poloffs that the GOM will naturally maintain
a distance when any issue involves the former DPM.

Comment
--------------


11. (C) Malaysia's judiciary has suffered from allegations of
corruption and political interference since the
constitutional crisis of 1988 when the PM Mahathir fired the
Chief Justice and several other judges and stripped from the
constitution clauses guaranteeing the independence of the
judiciary. Anwar's allegations and video-taped evidence came
as little surprise to the nation, but highlighted and
reinforced long-held doubts concerning the lack of
independence in Malaysia's judicial system. The allegations
of judge fixing involve several senior UMNO leaders and
supporters, and it is highly doubtful the Government will
find the political will to thoroughly and honestly
investigate the veracity of the claims. Set against the
back-drop of Malaysia's pending elections, Anwar's release of
the tape appears to have political, as well as personal,
motivations. Anwar's PKR party, and the opposition in
general, have focused many of their recent campaigns on
anti-corruption platforms, and this story adds another
anti-corruption arrow in the opposition's campaign quiver.
These accusations also give weight to Anwar's claims that he
was unjustly convicted in 1998 and therefore should not be
prevented from contesting a seat in parliament in the next
election. While such a contention will undoubtedly fail
before the UMNO-controlled election commission, it reinforces
Anwar's PR-influenced role as a victim of a corrupt system.


12. (C) Given the story's limited billing and self-censorship
among the mainstream press, it is likely the story will
wither on the vine. In general, only Fairuz's contract
extension lies on the chopping block. Fairuz has reached the
mandatory retirement age for judges of 66, but it is common
practice for the Chief Justice to receive an intial six-month
extension possibly followed by subsequent extensions up to
the age of 68. It is commonly held among Malaysia's legal
professionals that Fairuz was seeking his initial extension
in October when his current contract was set to expire.
Whether the axe will swing remains a question.
KEITH