She, however, stressed to the Dewan Rakyat that this was her personal opinion.

“To me, personally, I am of the same opinion as you,” she told opposition lawmakers.

“Rightfully, for the professional bodies in the country, regardless of whether it’s the Malaysian Bar, medical, engineering or any other bodies, there is no need and not right to have direct government intervention,” she said, emphasising again it was her personal opinion.

Azalina said as the de facto law minister, professional bodies could only move forward if it was governed by its members.

She was commenting on the proposed intervention by the government under the proposed Legal Profession Act (LPA) 1976.

The proposed LPA  seeks to appoint two government representatives to the Bar Council, to change its election process and to increase the quorum of the Bar’s general meetings to 4,000 lawyers from the present 500.

It will also give more powers to the minister in charge of legal affairs to make rules and regulations on the conduct of the Bar Council elections.

However, it received flak from lawyers and the Malaysian Bar who felt this was interfering in the affairs of their management.

Ramkarpal Singh (DAP-Bukit Gelugor) asked if he could take Azalina’s word as an assurance. To this, the Pengerang lawmaker replied she was unable to give a guarantee as it was merely her personal opinion.