Vacation Photos Land Top Malaysia Judge in Hot Water 
International Herald Tribune
June 15, 2000
Thomas Fuller

A government minister's recent comments about "improper" socializing on the part of Malaysia's chief justice have snowballed into a rare, public debate on the independence of the judiciary.

The controversy centers on photographs of Eusoff Chin, the top judge, who is shown with his arm around a prominent lawyer during a vacation in New Zealand. The photographs, which were posted on the Internet, have been called a matter of "grave public concern," by the Bar Council, which says it is considering holding an inquiry over the matter.

The controversy comes at a crucial time for the court system, with a decision in the sodomy trial of Anwar Ibrahim, the former deputy prime minister, possibly just weeks away. Final arguments in that case will be heard next week.

Malaysian government officials seldom quarrel in public, but the debate over Judge Eusoff's 1994 vacation in New Zealand has been unusually overt and contentious. The minister charged with legal affairs, Rais Yatim, criticized the chief justice's behavior last month during an Australian radio interview.

"Certainly such socializing, shall I say, is not in keeping with the proper behavior of a judicial personality," Mr. Rais said, adding that this had been conveyed to the chief justice "in no uncertain terms." Judge Eusoff is seen in the photographs with V.K. Lingam, a lawyer for one of Malaysia's biggest business tycoons. Mr. Lingam has in the past appeared before Judge Eusoff in court.

Last week Judge Eusoff called a press conference to say that the meeting with Mr. Lingam was a chance encounter.

"I bumped into him there," Judge Eusoff was quoted as saying in the Sun newspaper. "As a Malaysian in a foreign country, I was happy to see a fellow countryman. I told him I was going to the zoo, and he asked if he could tag along." But Malaysia's most influential online newspaper, Malaysiakini.com, challenged that version of events Wednesday, citing a report by a private investigator that included ticket stubs showing that the chief justice and his family were on the same flights as Mr. Lingam and his family.

The report, a copy of which was obtained by the International Herald Tribune, was prepared by Dan McCarthy of Bowman Investigations Ltd., a London-based firm. It was commissioned by a Malaysian law firm for use in a case that has since been settled.

"We are able to show, through flight tickets and itinerary, that both families returned from Christchurch via Auckland and Singapore to Kuala Lumpur on 30th December 1994," the report says.

The Malaysian judiciary has come under heavy criticism by opposition politicians and legal groups in the past two years after several controversial judgments involving high-profile politicians, including Mr. Anwar.

Sulaiman Abdullah, president of the Malaysian Bar Council, said last week the issue of the chief justice's holiday in New Zealand had given rise to "serious public concern as to the administration of justice" and the "proper relationship between members of the judiciary and members of the bar."

The private investigator's 45-page report provides no evidence that Judge Eusoff's travel expenses and those of his family were paid for by anyone but himself. Judge Eusoff told reporters last week that he would sue anyone who alleged that the trip was paid for by someone else.

Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad, who returned late Tuesday from a trip overseas, said there was a "political agenda" in the controversy.

"There is ill intention to pit the government against the judges," he said.

Mr. Lingam is representing the business tycoon Vincent Tan in a defamation suit against M.G.G. Pillai, a free-lance journalist whose appeal in the Federal Court, the country's highest court, was heard by a panel headed by the chief justice.

Mr. Pillai, whom a lower court ordered in late 1998 to pay 2 million ringgit ($526,000) to Mr. Tan, is still awaiting a decision on his appeal.

Copyright © 2006 the International Herald Tribune