Restoring our faith in judges - The Star

By Shaila Koshy, Chelsea L.Y. Ng, Shahanaaz Habib, Cecil Fung, Teh Eng Hock and Jo Teh

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysians should never again see judges punished and thrown into ignominy and shamed for doing their job, de facto Law Minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim said Thursday night.

He said that amends would be made to Tun Salleh Abas.

“We have to rebuild trust in the integrity and competency of the judiciary; we must have a backbone of men and women who are respected and capable to rebuild confidence in the legal system.

“At the same time we need to remind ourselves that justice is not a cloistered virtue. It must be allowed to suffer the scrutiny of reasonable men.

“It follows that judges too must be prepared to be judged and to be subjects of scrutiny.

“If we can do this, the pain and sufferings of Salleh Abas, Wan Suleiman Pawan Teh, George Seah, Eusoffe Abdoolcader, Wan Hamzah Mohd Salleh and Mohd Azmi Kamaruddin will not have been in vain,” he said.

Later, when asked to comment on the ex-gratia payments to be made to the judges involved in the 1988 judicial crisis, Zaid said he was very happy.

[More at http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/4/18/nation/20994446&sec=nation]