How does Judicial Independence benefit us?

By Kampong Boy on June 29, 2008 2:27 AM

Comments from Onlooker
"Please allow me to drop a few words here in response to the comment by Hai on June 27, 2008 9:14 PM in this blog.
The article posted by Hai is a good and knowledge-nourishing discussion on Judicial Independence. However, readers are advised to read it within the scope of certain judiciary system which requires the judges to be elected by the registered voters. In most countries such as Malaysia and Singapore, judges are not elected by the ordinary people who have the voting rights. In Malaysia, judges are usually being appointed by the Paramount Ruler, Yang Dipertuan Agong, based on the recommendations of the Prime Minister and the Chief Justice. The Chief Justice of Malaysia is appointed by the Paramount Ruler with the recommendation of the Prime Minister.
Therefore, the freedom of campaigning on judicial independence is severely restricted by the undemocratic system of appointment. The Prime Minister as the head of Executive Branch will usually be reluctant to grant full judicial independence to the Judicial Branch. Therefore, in my personal opinion, a thorough judicial reform in Malaysia seems to be impossible before a thorough political reform can be made happen to the Executive Branch and the Legislative Branch. The dream of Judicial Reform in Malaysia will only come true when the initiative of reform is coming directly from both the salary dispenser (Executive Branch) and the law-maker (Legislative Branch). This initiative may imply that Malaysia needs great courage and strong willingness to accept big changes by approving major overhaul in the Federal Constitution to make it resemble the Constitution of the United States."


To Onlooker:

Do we the mass population really care about this issue. The way we look at it is just political games played by politician that will only benefit them. Personally this does not benefit the rest of us.

Must we always follow the country such as US. They only preach and they do not practice. Please help all of us understand more in the case of Bush and Al Gore and perhaps many others?

Kampong Boy