Shed negative public perception of the judiciary, CJ tells Malaysian Bar

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Bar should work hand in hand with the judiciary to shed negative public perception of the judiciary, Chief Justice Tan Sri Richard Malanjum said.

Malanjum, in his speech during the launch of the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) report on the International Framework for Court Excellence, (IFCE) Malaysia 2018, said collaboration between the judiciary and the legal fraternity was needed as it concerned both parties.

“We must remember that we are only one hand, the other hand is the lawyers.”

He said what was worse was the practice of “name-dropping”, whereby lawyers dropped names of judges, prosecutors, policemen and investigating officers to impress their clients to take up cases with them.

“This can be destructive to the image of the judiciary. Imagine the impact of it on the client, especially when the client does not understand the judiciary system.

“I hope this is not happening because it has a negative connotation to the judiciary and these are the challenges that we are facing today, yet we get flogged by the public.”

The IFCE report, which Malanjum called the “medical report for the judiciary”, was the result of an assessment that was conducted in October last year to analyse the court’s performance and quality, based on seven areas of court excellence.

The seven areas are court leadership and management, court planning and policies, court resources (human material and finance), court proceedings and procedures, client needs and satisfaction, affordable and accessible court services and public trust and confidence.

The seven areas are meant to assist the courts to introduce a path for improvement in the way they deliver services.

Malanjum said according to the report, the judiciary had obtained a score of 840 out of 1,000 of the overall points for the assessment in the seven areas of court excellence.

“We are trying to achieve the high end of the assessment, which is a score of 1,000, and with the help of UNDP, I hope we can do it. This is the first step of the 1,000-mile journey.

“Let’s hope we can tailor it as we go along,” he said, adding that they must work harder to achieve the maximum score.

The top judge said he hoped that the IFCE would be a good guide so that the judiciary would be on better footing in a year or two.