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By Mihar Dias July 2025
In any functioning democracy, the delicate dance between the executive, legislature, and judiciary is governed by mutual respect, boundaries, and — most critically — an understanding of the need for independence.
In Malaysia, however, this relationship has become something of a tragicomic play where candour is mistaken for betrayal, and inconvenient truths are punished not by rebuttal, but by social censure and career consequences.
Thirty years ago, Datuk Syed Ahmad Idid wrote on what ailed the judiciary then but that ended his career on the bench.
The latest chapter in this increasingly tiresome saga comes from the aftermath of remarks made by former Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat at an international conference in Malta. https://newswav.com/A2507_ZYww38?s=A_FYdvLx9&language=en
There, she addressed the glaring issue of executive influence in judicial appointments, an open secret in Malaysia’s corridors of power for decades. https://newswav.com/A2507_ZYww38?s=A_FYdvLx9&language=en
Her suggestion? That removing the prime minister’s role in such appointments would help preserve the perception — and hopefully, the reality — of an independent judiciary.
Reasonable? Evident? Necessary?
Apparently, all three — yet still scandalous in the Malaysian context.
Enter former law minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, who decided that the former Chief Justice’s cardinal sin wasn’t what she said, but where she said it. He argued that if Tengku Maimun felt there was interference, it should have been addressed privately, behind closed doors, preferably over coffee at the PMO, and certainly not at an international law conference filled with Commonwealth legal dignitaries. https://newswav.com/A2507_ZYww38?s=A_FYdvLx9&language=en
In Nazri’s world, Malaysia’s problems are best solved in dimly lit rooms where truth is negotiable and inconvenient opinions are managed, not aired. The mere public suggestion that executive interference in the judiciary exists — something anyone with even a cursory interest in Malaysian history would know has been endemic since Merdeka — is treated as personal insubordination rather than institutional critique.
But the bigger tragedy here isn’t Nazri’s remark alone. It’s what it reveals about the deep dysfunction in Malaysia’s democratic institutions. We have two distinct but increasingly co-dependent entities — the executive and the judiciary — that are supposed to act as checks and balances to one another, but instead, behave like quarrelsome relatives locked in a marriage of political convenience.
A criticism of systemic flaws is taken as a personal slight. Proposing institutional reform is interpreted as an act of betrayal. Speaking honestly in an international forum is framed as national disloyalty. Is it any wonder that public trust in both arms of government continues to wane?
The implication of this, if unaddressed, is profound. It means reform-minded leaders will retreat, future Chief Justices will think twice before voicing hard truths, and the public will be left to guess what is happening behind the velvet curtains of power.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s dream of a truly independent judiciary remains exactly that — a dream, occasionally glimpsed in the light but often smothered by political egos.
Ultimately, it isn’t what Tun Tengku Maimun said that should worry us. It’s that in Malaysia, telling the truth at the wrong venue can cost you your job, your prospects, and your dignity.
That, sadly, says everything we need to know about where we are today.
Mihar Dias (mihardias@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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