On a humid July afternoon in Putrajaya, Ambiga Sreenevasan donned her black lawyer’s robes, feeling the weight of history bearing down on her.
Advertisement
Four decades after her first revolt against judicial interference, she was once again on the streets – this time, joined by hundreds protesting against Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s alleged meddling in the appointment of Malaysia’s top judges.
What felt like history repeating itself was in fact the country’s legal practitioners taking a stand in defence of Malaysia’s fragile system of legal checks and balances, the 68-year-old veteran lawyer told This Week in Asia.
“We have had to watch [the government] like a hawk and constantly keep tabs, which we never wanted to do,” she said, her frustration sharpened by experience. And Ambiga is far from alone.
Around 1,000 lawyers marched on the prime minister’s office in the administrative capital of Putrajaya on July 14, accusing Anwar of overstepping his mandate. Thousands more lent their support to the peaceful protest’s call for an urgent course correction.
For Ambiga, the parallels with 1988 were inescapable. Then, a judicial crisis erupted after long-serving prime minister Mahathir Mohamad removed a string of the country’s senior judges over contentious rulings. Today, as Anwar’s government stalled over the appointment of a new chief justice, she found herself fighting old battles in a new guise.
Advertisement