Lingam Tape: chickens coming home...?

Looks like the chickens are coming home to roost...

1988 Judicial Crisis

Five Supreme Court Judges were initially suspended
Y.A. Tan Sri Wan Suleiman Pawan Teh
Y.A. Datuk George Edward Seah Kim Seng
Y.A. Tan Sri Mohamed Azmi Haji Kamaruddin
Y.A. Tan Sri Eusoffe Abdoolcader
Y.A. Tan Sri Wan Hamzah Haji Wan Mohamed Salleh

After a hastily convened Tribunal,
Former Lord President Tun Salleh Abbas was sacked.
Datuk George Seah and the late Tan Sri Wan Suleiman
were also sacked together with Salleh.
The 1988 Judicial Crisis scarred the Judiciary forever.

Malaysia-Today Special Report here.
Tun Salleh Abbas' story here.

Senior lawyer Datuk VK Lingam cozies up to
Berjaya's Tan Sri Dato' Seri Vincent Tan
and then Chief Justice Eusoff Chin in 1994

Bowman Papers:
Eusoff, Lingam allegations here.

The shocking 2002 video clip starring VK Lingam.
The damning 8-minute expose about 'soldiers', friendly parties,
and secret meetings, to fix judicial appointments
"for the sake of PM and for the sake of the country."
Who's at the other end of the line?
Apparently it's 8 minutes from a 14-minute recording,
according to PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim.

Malaysiakini Special Report here.

Chief Justice Tun Dato' Sri Ahmad Fairuz has no comments...

... and then denies all to de facto law minister
in the Prime Minister's Dept Dato'Sei Mohd Nazri.
First, in a most telling gaffe, when questioned why he was speaking
on behalf of the CJ, Nazri says,
"Because I'm his minister."

Aliran asks: Where is judicial independence?

Now, Nazri asks in Malaysiakini: What crisis?
“No crisis, no problems. I don't see any scandal.”
“These are all efforts by the opposition to create distrust
and erode public confidence in the judiciary.”

(27 Sept)

Lawyers who were stopped from entering Putrajaya
walked 3.5km up to the Palace of Justice.
Bar Council chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan:
"We walk peacefully and with dignity."
It's a rare and unprecedented show of unity.

Malaysian Bar Council report here
Malaysia Today pics here
(27 Sept)

The heat is on.
While a 3-member panel to probe the video
is short of the Bar Council's call for a royal commission,
it’s an indication that enough feathers have been ruffled.
Question: Are these gentlemen the best we have to handle the probe?
Tan Sri Haidar was Registrar of the Supreme Court during the Judicial Crisis.

"But when all is said and done,
what’s the moral of this story?
It’s that we cannot expect our political leaders
- those in office and,
yes, those retired too - to bring the much-needed
reforms to this country.
That, we will have to do ourselves."

Steven Gan, Malaysiakini, 2006