Sunday, September 03, 2006
A setback for Mr Lingam
On Friday, the High Court decided that a London-based magazine did not defame lawyer Datuk V.K Lingam in a 1995 article that alluded that this lawyer had resorted to corrupt ways to undermine the Malaysian judiciary. The judge Justice Hishamudin Yunus, who is reputed to be a a judge who carefully rules within the ambit of the law, dismissed Lingam's RM100 million defamation suit which he had filed against the International Commercial Litigation magazine (ICL).
This judgement would have cheered my late father MGG Pillai who passed away just a few months ago. He was sued for RM2 million by Tan Sri Vincent Tan for alleged defamatory comments in an article my father wrote in the mid-1990s. The businessman used a certain lawyer, none other than Lingam himself, to feebly attempt to silence my father into submission on pain of bankruptcy.
At that time, there were murmurs that "something is rotten in the state of Denmark", a somewhat theatrical description about the degradation of the Malaysian judiciary. Somehow Lingam's name kept popping up when lawyers, even judges started started questioning the integrity of the judiciary. Lingam however escaped any official condemnation. To put matters into perspective, Lingam was also spotted in photos with the then Chief Justice Tun Eusoff Chin, apparently holidaying in some foreign country. Needless to say, tongues continued to wag about the state of the judiciary.
In dismissing Lingam's case against the ICL, Justice Hishamudin blamed Lingam's own wrongful conduct in the Ayer Molek case that led to the publication of the article in ICL, entitled "Malaysian Justice On Trial" in a 1995 November issue. "That the plaintiff (Lingam) is guilty of wrongdoings, namely abusing and manipulating the process of courts so as to cause injustice to the defendants before the High Court in the Ayer Molek Rubber Company Bhd case, is clear from the judgement of the Court of Appeal in the case, which is the main subject of the article," so said Justice Hishamudin as quoted in the Star newspaper dated September 2, 2006. The Justice further stated that a 1995 Court of Appeal judgement regarding the Ayer Molek case, "severely criticised" Lingam's conduct in obtaining the order and found him guilty of "abusing and manipulating the process of court so as to cause injustice to the defendants in the case."
Justice Hishamudin added "such a course of action might give the impression to right-thinking people that he (Lingam) was choosing the judge." Sweet words indeed to me and my family. My father would have been heartened to hear this. Thank you Justice Hishamudin. Something then was truly rotten in the state of Denmark, when my father was judged. ¶ 4:09 PM
This judgement would have cheered my late father MGG Pillai who passed away just a few months ago. He was sued for RM2 million by Tan Sri Vincent Tan for alleged defamatory comments in an article my father wrote in the mid-1990s. The businessman used a certain lawyer, none other than Lingam himself, to feebly attempt to silence my father into submission on pain of bankruptcy.
At that time, there were murmurs that "something is rotten in the state of Denmark", a somewhat theatrical description about the degradation of the Malaysian judiciary. Somehow Lingam's name kept popping up when lawyers, even judges started started questioning the integrity of the judiciary. Lingam however escaped any official condemnation. To put matters into perspective, Lingam was also spotted in photos with the then Chief Justice Tun Eusoff Chin, apparently holidaying in some foreign country. Needless to say, tongues continued to wag about the state of the judiciary.
In dismissing Lingam's case against the ICL, Justice Hishamudin blamed Lingam's own wrongful conduct in the Ayer Molek case that led to the publication of the article in ICL, entitled "Malaysian Justice On Trial" in a 1995 November issue. "That the plaintiff (Lingam) is guilty of wrongdoings, namely abusing and manipulating the process of courts so as to cause injustice to the defendants before the High Court in the Ayer Molek Rubber Company Bhd case, is clear from the judgement of the Court of Appeal in the case, which is the main subject of the article," so said Justice Hishamudin as quoted in the Star newspaper dated September 2, 2006. The Justice further stated that a 1995 Court of Appeal judgement regarding the Ayer Molek case, "severely criticised" Lingam's conduct in obtaining the order and found him guilty of "abusing and manipulating the process of court so as to cause injustice to the defendants in the case."
Justice Hishamudin added "such a course of action might give the impression to right-thinking people that he (Lingam) was choosing the judge." Sweet words indeed to me and my family. My father would have been heartened to hear this. Thank you Justice Hishamudin. Something then was truly rotten in the state of Denmark, when my father was judged. ¶ 4:09 PM
