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April 11th, 2016 
Awake Goy 
nsnbc : Malaysia’s governing UMNO-led coalition government proposes a bill that threatens the independence of the Judiciary by making the Attorney-General to head that independent Bar Council.
The Malaysian Bar Association was created by statute in 1947, and as an independent association. The purpose of the Bar Association is to act independently to uphold the rule of law and justice and to protect the interest of the legal profession as well as the interest of the public. The association is managed by the 38-member Bar Council that is elected annually from among the Bar Association’s members.
The institution has earned itself a reputation for contributing to maintaining the balance of power in Malaysia; a country that has continuously been governed by a UMNO-led coalition since 1957.
The UMNO-led government coalition tabled a proposal in parliament that, if adopted, would turn the leadership of the Bar over to the Attorney-General.
Opponents of the proposed legislation warn that the bill aims at silencing Malaysia’s legal profession. The association has been at the vanguard of defending human rights and the rule of law in Malaysia. This includes, especially, preventing the abuse of the Judiciary to crack down on opposition and dissent.
In a parliamentary debate on April 6, members of the governing UMNO-led coalition accused the Bar Council of ulterior motives in demanding greater government accountability while prosing that the Attorney-General should automatically be appointed as head of the Bar Council. Malaysia is plagued by political nepotism and corruption.
Nancy Shukri, a Minister in the Department of the Prime Minister, noted that the government would look into the proposal. Shukri added that adopting the legislation would require amending the Legal Profession Act of 1976. The Bar Association as well as national and international rights organizations stress that placing the bar under effective government control would be contrary to international standards promoting the independence of lawyers.
The United Nations Human Rights Council affirmed in 2015, an independent legal profession is among the “essential prerequisites for the protection of human rights, the rule of law, good governance and democracy, and for ensuring that there is no discrimination in the administration of justice.”
The proposal comes against the backdrop of a number of other controversial laws that have been adopted by the UMNO-dominated Malaysian parliament over the last year. Among them are restrictions against the right to free and peaceful assembly, the freedom of expression, and the so-called Sedition Act. One of the latest controversies prior to the current proposal arose when the UMNO-led government rushed legislation through Parliament that disenfranchised the next of kin of the victims of the “disappearance” and downing of Malaysia Airlines flights MH370 and MH17 respectively.
CH/L – nsnbc 11.04.2016
Source Article from http://nsnbc.me/2016/04/11/malaysian-government-threatens-independence-of-the-bar-council/
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