Siti, who has been openly fighting for the rights of the Orang Asli and against the proposed amendments to the Shariah Courts Criminal Jurisdiction (Act 355), is now a candidate for a seat on the Bar Council, The Star reported today.

And her controversial nature is not limited to the activism mentioned above, as she has proposed for the barring of MPs and state assemblymen from continuing as lawyers, as one of her campaign proposals.

Siti, whose full name is listed in the candidates roll as Siti Zabedah binti Kasim, also proposes to limit the number of terms for the various positions in the Malaysian Bar and its committees.

Even though she was reluctant at first to accept the nomination made by her peers, she eventually agreed.

“I asked my close friend, who then said: ‘Why not? The worst thing that can happen is just not being voted in.’

“They (other lawyers) have trust in me. That is why they have nominated me without asking,” Siti told the daily.

She also denied having ever eyed any position in the Bar Council, nor that her activism work had any such ulterior motive.

“I do not want people to think that I have been doing all this just because I wanted a seat (in the Bar Council). It was never part of the plan,” she was quoted as saying by The Star.

She is up against 21 other candidates for the 12 vacant seats in the Bar Council, including incumbents Hendon Mohamed, Brendan Navin Siva and Andrew Khoo.