HIP Career Guidance

HIP Cafe at The Spring (same level as MBO Cineplex) organises a series of Monday evening talks on diverse topics aimed at the youth. The latest is career guidance for secondary school students. Last Monday I attended an enlightening and funny talk by Min, one of the partners in Kuching's premier firm of architects, DNA.


Coming up, on 4 Oct around 8pm, I will give a talk about the law, aided and abetted by Gladys Lee, who will field questions on uni admissions and such. (My information on that is only 25 years out of date!) Tell your friends and come along.....

This is J L A Dot Com.

MotoGP Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo of Spain in practice. (picture credit: MSNBC)

3 casualties notched up in Malaysia's War...

...on Humour -- in less than 30 days:

First, Namewee investigated over his foul-mouthed rap against racism.

Then, Hassan Skodeng charged over his Onion-style parody piece on TNB's intention to sue over Earth Hour.

Now, Zunar locked up over his funny pictures (to quote the man himself, Malaysia's progressed from "a fear of communists" to "a fear of cartoonists").

This country is in serious need of a funny bone!

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY

Patriotism is the conviction that your country is superior to all others because you were born in it.

George Bernard Shaw, writer, Nobel laureate (1856-1950)

The Wheels of Justice...

... grind slow, but they grind exceedingly fine, so the old saying goes. It appears however that these wheels are about to be kicked up a gear or three.

When I first started practice, almost two decades ago, it was not unusual for a civil case to take nine years to be concluded. Of course many cases moved faster than that, but nine years was far from the slowest case that I had encountered. Now Chief Judge Tun Zaki is announcing the launch of the New Civil Court in Kuala Lumpur, whose stated aim is to dispose of all new cases filed there within nine months.

You heard me right. From nine years to nine months. Does this mean we're finally a developed nation?

Run, Cary, run!

To my friends at the Bar in KL, my Brothers and Sisters in Law, I wish you well. Such expeditious dispensation of justice is a noble goal... but at what cost?

UPDATED TO ADD:

Today, our judicial officers and judges work very hard.   It is commonplace to hear of trials starting at 9 am and going on until 8pm.   But judges and lawyers are human.   If they are pushed beyond endurance, we may have to build a hospital almost as large the courthouse next to it.   While it is important to clear the backlog, it is equally important to ensure that true justice according to law is done.   As justice delayed is justice denied, so too is justice buried when hurried.

Gopal Sri Ram, former Federal Court Judge, full speech may be read here.

This is J L A Dot Com.

A first grader in Tbilisi, Georgia, attends his first English language class on Sept. 15. Hundreds of native English speakers joined the first day of school as teaching assistants under an ambitious program to have every child aged five to 16 speak English. English is now compulsory, and Russian optional. (Picture credit: MSNBC)

Karpal: Bar Council can act

Veteran lawyer and MP Karpal Singh disagrees with Bar Council president Ragunath Kesavan that the council can monitor only the professional conduct and practice of lawyers and has no authority to look into their personal lives.

“I am somewhat taken aback by the statement of the Bar Council president,” Karpal said in a press statement today.

“Section 94 of the Legal Profession Act 1976 empowers the Disciplinary Board to take action against any advocate and solicitor for misconduct, including striking off the rolls," he said.

Karpal said Section 94(3) defines misconduct as conduct by a lawyer "in a professional capacity or otherwise" which amounts to grave impropriety. It includes being "guilty of any conduct which is unbefitting of an advocate and solicitor or which brings or is calculated to bring the legal profession into disrepute".

"This subsection brings, within its striking range, misconduct in private life."

Full article in the Sun Online by Tan Yi Liang can be read HERE.