What is the nation doing about the Malaysian Bar's Hall of Fame?
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[1]. We are all merely a package of our memories
You take away the memories, and you take away your personality.
[2] There are many and varied members of the Bar Some departed, some lingering at the edges of life,
who have contributed to the well-being, progress and growth of the nation, the law, and importantly, the Malaysian Bar.
Their efforts and sacrifices continue to visit upon us a shower of salutary effects.
They make for the structure and the stability of the Bar – all of which we take for granted.
For example, there was Dr Radhakrishna Ramani, David Marshall, the Seenivasagam brothers, and VK Palasuntharam.
Of recent vintage, but gone, alas, is Karam Singh Veriyah, or the great judicial icon, Datuk Seri George Seah, who cast his mortal bonds on 19 April, 2013.
Then there are the Penang lions, Lim Kean Chye and Karpal…
And Karpal Singh has, sadly, departed in April 2014.
[3] The five Supreme Court Judges in 1988
And who can forget the five Supreme Court judges,Tan Sri Azmi Kamaruddin, Tan Sri Eusoffe Abdoolcader, Tan Sri Wan Hamzah Mohamed Salleh,Tan Sri Wan Suleiman Pawanteh and Datuk George Seah.
During the 1988 Judicial Crisis, they stood their ground.
That disaster which inhabits our memories like a dark stain, resulted in removal of the Lord President Tun Salleh Abas by Executive Interference.
In the end, Tan Sri Wan Suleiman Pawanteh and
Datuk George Seah paid a heavy price.
They lost everything they had worked for decades.
[4]. So also the counsel who fought so bravely,
for so long, and against so many odds –
starting with Raja Aziz Addruse, Cyrus Das,
Cecil Abraham, Varughese George, or the late RR Sethu.
Or the intrepid group of lawyers, including Mr. KN Segara, who calmly marched into Parliament, were arrested, and lived to tell the tale?
Or the Rapporteur to the United Nations, Param Cumaraswamy, who found himself charged in his own country for speaking the truth?
Or the silent Irishman, Peter Mooney, who contributed his entire energy and income to strengthen the institutions of democracy, or welfare?
[5] Can they not at least (and at long last) gain our appreciation?
Many are the legends—but who is there to recount their deeds,or to appreciate, no matter how fleeting a moment,
their unstinting gifts to us all?
Some we do not know; some we have forgotten.
It is a great pity that we have overlooked the contributions of so many women and men.
Mere observances of silence, or the occasional wakes, or memorials, where only a small clutch of old friends are invited, are insufficient and inadequate.
There are many super-seniors among us, and retired judges — only if we take the trouble to ask—who will be too happy to relate to us tales of such men and women.
Among them are Dato VC George and Dato Mahadev Shankar.
George Seah once declared that ‘history would be my judge’.
But how can history be his judge, unless his heroic deeds are preserved?
So it is time to gather all the names of these knights
… and produce a record of their contributions in a book form.
For example, some past interviews of judges or articles written by them, or their reminiscences, can be included.
Their photographs, or specially commissioned
paintings ought to adorn the halls of the Bar.
Before every AGM, perhaps a brief video of 20 minutes can relate their contributions.
We need set up an archive, so that at a drop of a hat, an exhibition or a talk can be organized.
We are all merely a package of our memories.
You take away the memories, and you take away your personality.
We have to start now, before what little memory we have, fades.
Thank you for watching
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Gratitude:
I wish to thank for their unceasing and often Olympian efforts of the Japanese artist, En. Samad Hassan, KN Geetha, JD Prabhkirat, GS Saran, Wan Nursalena Wan Abdullah, Nathan Sithambaram, and ‘Rajan’ Ratna Kumar, and Ms. Amuthambigai Tharmarajah
