Bar votes against death penalty

The New Sunday Times, London
19 March 2006


Bar votes against death penalty
By Anis Ibrahim

KUALA LUMPUR, Sat.
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The Malaysian Bar today called for the abolition of the death penalty
and an immediate freeze on all executions.


Lawyers also urged that death-row sentences be commuted, or reduced
to life sentences or fixed jail terms.

The resolutions were part of a motion carried out by the Bar at its
60th annual general meeting today.

Co-proposer Amer Hamzah Arshad said although the abolition of the
death penalty was often discussed by lawyers, this was the first time
such a motion had been proposed at a Bar AGM.

"It came about because a few of us realised that lawyers as a
collective body had not made a clear announcement on the matter."

Lawyers voted overwhelmingly in favour of abolishing the death
penalty, with 105 in favour, two votes against and 21 abstentions.

One of the resolutions passed called for an ‘immediate moratorium on
all executions pending abolition’.

"We will work with the Bar Council, non-governmental organisations
and the authorities to realise this.

"The workings of the moratorium will be looked into in detail," added
Amer.

At the AGM today, 2,404 lawyers signed in by 11.15 am, above the
quorum of 2,337.

Yeo Yang Poh, Ambiga Sreenevasan, Ragunath Kesavan and Vazeer Alam
Mydin Meera were returned unopposed as the Bar president, vice-
president, secretary and treasurer respectively for a second term.

"Credit goes to members of the Bar for being here so soon after the
reconvened 59th AGM in October.

"They’ve come today despite an unfair and oppressive quorum
requirement," said Yeo at a Press conference after the AGM.

One-fifth of the Bar must attend an AGM for it to be considered
valid. "This is seen as difficult to achieve, owing to the number of
lawyers, and unfair, as other professional bodies are not subject to
similar requirements.

Yeo, however, said it was unlikely that lawyers would be faced with
the same problem at the next AGM.

"The authorities have indicated that they understand the difficulties
we face and they are in principle agreeable to changing the quorum
requirement.

"We are confident it will be a more workable and practical figure by
next year."

The Bar has proposed that the quorum for AGMs and extraordinary
general meetings be fixed at 350 and 700 respectively.

The Bar also unanimously carried a motion to ask the Prime Minister
to urgently implement the Independent Police Complaints and
Misconduct Commission as recommended by the Royal Commissions on the
Police Force.

A motion of no confidence against the Attorney-General for being
"extremely slow" in prosecuting criminal abuse of police powers was,
however, defeated.

Yeo said while there had been few suits against police personnel for
alleged abuse of power, lawyers felt it was unfair to blame the A-G
for it.

"We were unanimous in deciding that the problem should not be
attributed to one person.

"Many things are not within the A-G’s powers."

Ends