The Federal Court, in judging the Bato Bagi case, refused to pass its judgement on whether the land acquisition/grab laws in Sarawak is violating the Constitution, which protects the rights to property of all Malaysian citizens. This is but 1 of many instances where citizens seek protection from the highest laws of the land -only to find that the highest court refused to clarify its stand on the apparent conflict between the Highest laws and those lower. Actually there are plenty of such conflicts eg The Constitution protect most human rights eg freedom to assembly, freedom of speech, freedom of movement etc. However there are laws that restrict these rights to the point of extinguishing them practically. Why isn’t there a Court that focus on such conflicts and tell the citizens where the laws stands? Poor Indonesia had a Constitutional Court. A citizen does not have to have a lawyer to send a petition to it and expect a ruling within a short time-2 weeks if memory serve me right! A citizen asked :when 25% of Indonesians are not registered as voters -would the election results be credible and acceptable? The Constitutional Court came back with the brave judgement: any citizen who shows a Identity card can vote in the area where they are registered on the ID! By this judgement the Court affirm that indeed every Indonesian citizen has voting rights-including convicted prisoners!
A Constitutional Court sits just a short flight away, across the sea. Time for Malaysians to have a Constitutional Court???
democracy4now
lucia
TP
sicnewsmirisite
timchoo
