Council member Muhammad Rafique Rashid Ali said that as the sole body representing about 20,000 lawyers in the peninsula, it must be seen as being responsible for every statement it made.
“We will refrain from any representation that will allow certain parties to insinuate public discord,” he said in a statement.
Rafique said the council placed full trust in its president to issue media statements as long as they were within the tenets of the Legal Profession Act (LPA) 1976.
Earlier today, lawyer Syed Iskandar Syed Jaafar Al Mahdzar called on the council to speak up on public interest issues such as those concerning preacher Dr Zakir Naik and the recent High Court ruling that women’s group Sisters in Islam (SIS) must go to the shariah court to challenge the fatwa declaring it a deviant group.
In an FMT report, Syed Iskandar said the council, which manages the day-to-day affairs of the Malaysian Bar, should take a position on such issues based on the rule of law.
The council has so far remained silent on the remarks of Naik, who caused a stir last month when he was believed to have cast doubts on the loyalty of Malaysian Hindus and questioned the position of the Chinese community in Malaysia in several public speeches in Kelantan.
It was also silent on the High Court ruling on SIS, the proposal by the Selangor government that its Islamic enactment be amended to allow for unilateral conversion, and the recent raids by religious authorities on Shia Muslims in Selangor and Johor.
Syed Iskandar said the council’s leaders had always been ready to give their legal opinion even if it did not go down well with the establishment or views of the majority.
Rafique said the council took notice of Section 42 of the Legal Profession Act, which lists its objectives, among others, to uphold the cause of justice without fear or favour.
“Be reminded that the council and the Bar will not be cowered in its pursuit to uphold the rule of law,” he said, adding that Syed Iskandar’s remark that the council had relented in its duty was an unfair swipe.
Rafique said the council was also mandated to explore all opportunities to ease the practice and benefit of its members.
“The council is a statutory body and is expected to fulfil its bounden duty to take care of ‘bread and butter issues’ of its members, and to perform its regulatory functions,” he said.
He said the council had been working and involved actively at amending the LPA, introducing a slew of law reforms, assisting in setting up an oversight body to check the police and instilling public confidence in the judiciary.
“Council members are working hard with Bar members for the benefit of the public. So, we only make public statements if the need arises,” he said.