KUALA LUMPUR, July 15 — There will be no Bar Council if the Malaysian Bar fails to hold a general meeting due to the prohibitive 4,000-member quorum proposed by Putrajaya, president Steven Thiru said.
The Malaysian Bar president pointed out that the highest quorum the peninsular legal body ever achieved in recent years for its annual general meetings (AGMs) was 1,906 members at the 69th AGM held on March 14, 2015. The current quorum is 500.
“The Bar would be effectively silenced because there would be no Bar Council, there would be no office bearers. How to speak?” Steven told Malay Mail Online during an exclusive interview yesterday.
“You would have this state of paralysis, where the Bar cannot function,” he said, adding that matters like financial accounts, reports, resolutions concerning matters of practice and public interest are discussed at the Malaysian Bar AGMs.
Steven explained that currently, the new Bar Council only takes office at the conclusion of the AGM, and Bar Council members elect the office bearers of the Malaysian Bar at their first meeting which takes place immediately after the AGM.
The government plans to make significant amendments to the Legal Profession Act 1976 that are expected to be tabled in Parliament in October. These include hiking up the quorum requirement for the Malaysian Bar’s annual and extraordinary general meetings to 25 per cent of the membership, or 4,000 members, whichever is less. The Malaysian Bar currently has about 17,000 members.
Putrajaya is also proposing to raise the quorum requirement for State Bar general meetings from five to 25 per cent of their membership.
Steven pointed out that the Bar Council, which is the executive body of the Malaysian Bar, is responsible for issuing the Sijil Annual to Members of the Malaysian Bar, without which, the court will be unable to issue the member with a Practicing Certificate. “Members’ ability to practise will be severely hampered,” he added.
The Malaysian Bar president also noted that the quorum requirement before 2006 was 20 per cent of the membership, but then de facto law minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz acknowledged that the figure, which amounted to about 2,400 members then, was not easy to achieve and this was subsequently reduced to 500.
“It’s actually nigh impossible to convene,” Steven said. “To have 4,000 members turn up is not something we’ve had ever in the past”.
The proposed amendments to the Legal Profession Act 1976 are seen by some as a way to hobble the Bar Council which many Umno leaders have accused of being pro-opposition.
