KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Bar should work hand-in-hand with the judiciary to help shed any negative public perception of the latter, said Chief Justice Tan Sri Richard Malanjum.
In his speech during the launch of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report on the International Framework for Court Excellence (IFCE) Malaysia 2018 today, Malanjum said a collaboration between the judiciary and the legal fraternity is needed on the matter as it concerns both parties.
“We must remember that we are only one hand, the other hand is the lawyers,” he said during the event held at the J.W Marriot Hotel, here.
Malanjum also highlighted the unhealthy practise among lawyers of dropping the names of prominent judges, prosecutors, policemen and investigating officers to impress prospective clients.
“This could be quite destructive to the image of the judiciary... Imagine the impact of it on the client, especially when the client does not understand the judiciary system.
“I hope this is not happening (on a large scale), because it also has (ramifications for) the judiciary. These are the challenges that we are facing today (and amidst all this), we get flogged by the public,” he said.
The IFCE report, which Malanjum described as the ‘medical report for the judiciary’, is the result of an assessment which was conducted in Oct 2018 to analyse the court’s performance and quality, based on seven areas of court excellence.
The seven criteria are court leadership and management, court planning and policies, court resources (human material and finance), court proceedings and procedures, client needs and satisfaction, affordable and accessible court services, and public trust and confidence.
The criteria were also used to assist courts in drawing up a path for improvement in the way services are delivered.
Malanjum said according to the report, the judiciary had obtained a score of 840 out of 1,000.
“We are trying to achieve the high end of the assessment, which is a score of 1,000 and with the help of the UNDP, I hope we can do it. This (the assessment) is the first step to the 1,000-mile journey.
“Let’s hope we can tailor it as we go along,” he said, adding that all parties must work harder to achieve the maximum score.
Malaysia’s top judge also said that he hopes the IFCE will be a good guide so that the judiciary will be on a better footing a year or two from now.
He added that a taskforce should be set up for each of the seven areas and proposed monthly meetings with the taskforce to see where they were heading.
“The biggest weakness in the system now is that there is no checklist on how we are doing, especially with regard to public perception (of us),” he said.
Malanjum added that the issue of negative public perception should be addressed properly.
“(For example) in Singapore, they have a good public relations (PR) office to deal with the mass media, especially in the world of social media. We don’t have a professional PR (unit) to handle this,” he said.
During the event, Malanjum also launched a Self-Represented Litigant’ segment on the Malaysian judiciary’s official website.
The segment provides information and details on procedures for members of the public who choose to be self-represented, either in civil or criminal case in courts.
The resident representative for the UNDP in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, Niloy Banerjee, and UNDP’s governance and institutional reform specialist, Mir Nadia Nivin, as well as judges and former judges were also present at the launch.
Meanwhile, when asked by reporters about his successor, Malanjum, who is retiring in April, cheekily answered with a wink: ‘I am suffering a bit of amnesia… I don’t remember.’