KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 26 — Professionals such as lawyers should not be punished or discriminated for merely serving clients which Putrajaya views as anti-government, the Malaysian Bar said today.

Malaysian Bar president Steven Thiru said minister Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan’s recent threats to blacklist lawyers and law firms allegedly supporting Bersih 2.0 amounted to "overt discrimination against professionals for their purported contrary political views or affiliations”.

"Professionals, businesses and traders must not be penalised for providing goods or services to those whom the Government arbitrarily labels anti-Government or deems unpatriotic,” he said in a statement today.

Highlighting the independence of the legal profession as a critical pillar of the rule of law, Steven said threats of economic sanctions or other forms of reprisal should not be made against lawyers.  

"The Minister’s reported comments are nothing short of political blackmail and intimidation that can never be accepted, let alone tolerated. 

"Such strong-arm tactics have no place whatsoever in the civilised discourse of a robust democracy that respects the rule of law,” he said.

A mindset that law firms and lawyers can be turned into scapegoats and blackmailed economically for acting in matters that the government views as objectionable is "alarming and must be condemned”, he said.

"The Malaysian Bar strongly urges the Government of Malaysia to distance itself from the remarks made by the Minister, which are bereft of any good sense, and damaging to the international standing of Malaysia,” he concluded.​

Earlier in his statement, Steven said advocating punishment of lawyers for upholding the legal profession’s independence was a blatant disregard of the rule of law, adding that the minister’s planned actions are against the Federal Constitution and international laws.

He highlighted that prejudicial action or attempts to victimise lawyers would breach Federal Constitution’s Article 5 and Article 8, which protects against discrimination and protects the right to a livelihood respectively.

He also cited the Universal Declaration on the Independence of Justice or the Montreal Declaration, as well as the United Nations Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers’s Principles 16, 18 and 23.

Last Sunday, Abdul Rahman said on Twitter that he agreed with local daily Utusan Malaysia’s editorial view that companies who both support Bersih’s allegedly "illegal” rallies to purportedly topple the government and who obtain government contracts should be blacklisted.

Abdul Rahman, who is the minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of the Economic Planning Unit (EPU), declared he would order the EPU and the Public Private Partnership Unit to review the background of companies seeking government contracts through them and immediately blacklist firms that clearly support illegal rallies.

On Monday, Abdul Rahman was quoted saying by news portal Malaysiakini that government-linked companies should not engage law firms who assist Bersih 2.0 and lawyers who form part of the movement’s leadership, adding that they should not be appointed as GLCs’ legal advisers.

Abdul Rahman’s remarks comes less than a month before the Bersih 5 rally on November 19.