KUALA LUMPUR, May 10 — Judges in Malaysia who retire should wait instead of immediately taking up top-paying corporate jobs such as in government-linked companies (GLCs) or public listed companies, former Court of Appeal judge Datuk Mah Weng Kwai said today.
Mah was agreeing with Bar Council’s Civil Law and Law Reform Committee co-chair Datuk Seri M Ramachelvam, that retired judges should have a “cooling-off period” to avoid any possibility of a sitting judge being potentially influenced when deciding on cases before retiring.
“I think that’s a jolly good idea, simply because the appointment doesn’t happen overnight,” the former Malaysian Bar president said during the Malaysian Bar’s forum titled “Judicial Independence in Malaysia: Past Lessons, Current Challenges”.
“So the appointments would have happened with the GLCs or the big Berhads, this would have been done and negotiated while the judge was still in office.
“The safest way of course is not to take on any money-paying job after you retire,” he added, noting that retired judges could take on work such as arbitration cases or do charitable work.
Mah said he himself does pro bono work for the St John Ambulance and Assunta Hospital.
He said judges would also have had savings over the years, saying: “So that should be enough and if you are good in time management and money management, that should be enough to tide you for at least 10 years after retirement. So don’t go start looking for top-paying jobs, that’s my advice to sitting judges.”
Earlier in the same forum, Ramachelvam had cited the “Beijing Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary” adopted in 1995 by chief justices in the Asia Pacific region, including on the judiciary’s relationship with the executive arm of government.
Ramachelvam highlighted the 39th principle in the Beijing principles, where inducements or benefits should not be offered to judges or accepted by judges if it would or might affect the performance of their judicial function.
“The other issue of great concern is judges taking up positions in GLCs and businesses immediately after retirement. You have even seen chief justices going on to hold positions in GLCs immediately upon retirement, there’s no gap and so on and so forth.
“This of course affects public confidence. Were they compromised in any manner once they were holding office or were they looking out for such lucrative GLC positions, so on and so forth. So it is imperative that a cooling-off period be introduced,” he said, putting exceptions on taking posts in non-profit or charity organisations such as the World Wildlife Fund or Malaysian Association for the Blind.
Ramachelvam also said the Malaysian Bar does not agree with retired judges who go on to be lawyers bringing up cases in the courts, saying that it would be acceptable if they were only to be legal consultants that do not appear in the courts.
Mah, Ramachelvam and Universiti Malaya’s holder of the Tunku Abdul Rahman chair Emeritus Prof Datuk Shad Saleem Faruqi were the three speakers of a panel in a lengthy session discussing the topic of “Safeguarding the Bench: Judicial Independence in Malaysia” at the forum.
