KUCHING: The state legal profession is against the extension of either the newly drafted Legal Profession Act (LPA) or the existing one (LPA 1976) to be extended to Sarawak.
This message has been duly conveyed to Law Minister Datuk Liew Vui Kiong, said state Pakatan Harapan chairman Chong Chieng Jen.
He said he had also clarified with Liew, who confirmed that the draft of the Legal Profession Bill which went viral amongst the Sarawak legal practitioners yesterday, was merely a draft proposed by the Bar Council for feedback from the stakeholders.
“It was proposed by the Malaysian Bar Council sometime in January this year. This draft has not obtained any endorsement of the PH government.
“Nonetheless, I have conveyed to Liew the stand of the Sarawak legal profession that we do not want the LPA to be extended to Sarawak,” he said in a media statement yesterday.
Chong acknowledged that many saw the proposed Bill as an attempt to encroach upon Sarawak’s rights as currently the Legal Profession Act 1976 (LPA 1976) is not applicable to Sarawak.
Sarawak’s legal profession is governed under the Advocate Ordinance Sarawak 1953, which sets out very different criteria for admission to practise as a lawyer.
Chong, a lawyer himself, proposed that the Sarawak Advocates Association write “to its counterpart in Malaya, the Bar Council, to suggest the following (if Sabah Law Society also agrees, otherwise we confine only to Sarawak)”:
“1. as to clause 1(2), to delete the words “, Sabah and Sarawak; 2. to replace clause 2 with the following: This Act shall apply throughout West Malaysia only; and, 3. to delete clause 211(2) which provides for the repeal of the Advocates Ordinance of Sarawak and Advocates Ordinance of Sabah.”
Chong said the Sarawak legal fraternity objects to this part of the draft of the Bill which reads: “That the Minister may appoint different dates for the coming into operation of the different parts or provisions of this Act and different dates may be appointed for the coming into operation of this Act in Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak.
“That this Act shall apply throughout Malaysia but shall only be made applicable to Sabah and Sarawak with such modifications as the Yang di-Pertuan Agong may by order make, and such order shall be published in the Gazette.”
He appealed to Sarawakians, especially fellow lawyers, to stand together to defend the rights of the Sarawak legal profession as provided under the Federal Constitution when Malaysia was formed in 1963.
