KUALA LUMPUR, March 16 — The Bar Council today elected Mohamad Ezri Abdul Wahab as the president of the Malaysian Bar, and elected Anand Raj as the vice president for the new term of 2024/2025.
Mohamad Ezri was the Malaysian Bar vice-president for the immediate past two terms (2022/2023 and 2023/2024), while Anand was the Malaysian Bar secretary for the same two terms.
Murshidah Mustafa, who had served as the Bar treasurer for the immediate past two terms, was elected as the new Malaysian Bar secretary.
The new Malaysian Bar treasurer is R. Jayabalan Raman Kutty.
At a press conference today held immediately after the Bar Council elected the four Malaysian Bar office-bearers, Mohamad Ezri told reporters: "I would like to thank our previous president, Ms Karen Cheah Yee Lynn for her wonderful service to the Bar and we hope that there will be more progressive wisdom and hope everything will go well."
Cheah had served in her position as Bar president for the immediate past two terms, and the Legal Profession Act states that those elected to the three roles of Malaysian Bar president, vice-president and secretary cannot hold office for more than two consecutive years.
When asked about the quorum for the 78th annual general meeting (AGM) of the Malaysian Bar held earlier today, Mohamad Ezri said the AGM did not have the required quorum of 500 members initially as it had 368 members, but there were 382 present when the AGM was reconvened at 12.15pm and that the maximum attendance for today's AGM was 401 members.]
"We have successfully conducted our AGM and we have passed six motions, have been adopted by the house. And two motions were unanimously passed, one is regarding statelessness and the other one regarding SOSMA," he said, while later confirming that one proposed motion was withdrawn.
There were a total of nine motions listed in the AGM's agenda today, with the proposed motion that was withdrawn being a motion to promote greater attendance of lawyers who work far from Kuala Lumpur at the Malaysian Bar’s AGMs or extraordinary general meetings (EGMs) by providing compensation and other assistance.
Two motions that were not passed today were the motions urging for the increase of judges’ mandatory retirement ages to 70 and for amendment to the rules for the conduct of the Malaysian Bar’s general meetings.
The Malaysian Bar unanimously passed a motion to condemn the Malaysian government in the strongest terms over the government's proposed regressive citizenship amendments.
The other motion that was unanimously passed today was for the Malaysian Bar to appear as amicus curiae (friend of the court) in matters and trials of cases under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma) as it views Sosma to be "oppressive and against the rule of law".
In the same unanimously-passed resolution, the Malaysian Bar reiterated its call for the immediate repeal of Sosma, and also resolved that the "Bar Council consider all possible actions, including the organising a peaceful assembly or protest, to urge the government to repeal Sosma and all other draconian laws speedily".
The Malaysian Bar also passed a motion in a near-unanimous vote — with just one member voting against — to urgently file a court challenge against the Pardons Board's decision to reduce former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's 12-year jail term and RM210 million fine in the SRC case.
The other motions that were passed today are regarding the Continuing Professional Development Scheme; and the Malaysian Bar as a self-regulatory body for anti-money laundering and counter financing of terrorism matters.
Also passed was a motion to express the Malaysian Bar's disappointment over the government’s delay in repealing draconian laws and bringing about needed reforms to ensure justice in Malaysia, and for the Bar Council to once again communicate with the "prime minister, Cabinet ministers, political parties" and elected lawmakers to remind the need to speedily repeal bad laws and to enact new laws for needed reforms including enacting a "real" Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) Act.
