Feedbacks received of the demonstration ahead of the ruling in front of the Palace of Justice, Putrajaya, with some politicians addressing the crowd about the suit filed by Nik Elin Zurina Nik Abdul Rashid and her daughter Tengku Yasmin Nastasha Tengku Abdul Rahman, challenging the constitutionality of 20 provisions under Kelantan’s syariah criminal enactment should be of concern for all Malaysians.
We are not concern of the Suit being filed, but, we should be concerned of the mammoth demonstration outside the Palace of Justice ahead of the decision.
It is feared that such mammoth demonstration will lead to many such demonstrations in the future to “influence” or “intimidate” the court to give decisions to favour of the demonstrators. This is not how justice in a democratic society should settle disputes among people any country. We have to trust the judges and respect their decisions so that peace and harmony in the country could be maintained.
The Suit filed before the Palace of Justice is a matter for the court to decide as empowered by the federal constitution, and citizens should not put any undue pressure to the court to come to a decision in accordance with the law.
We pray that the Judges would not be swayed by emotions of people outside the court. To preserve the independence of the judiciary against any influence, citizens should be solidly behind the judiciary so that judges presiding the case would have a clear mind to decide cases before them in accordance with law and justice of the case. We do not want the judges to make wrong decisions caused by emotions of citizens outside the court.
Let lawyers argue their case for their clients.
Citizens should also understand that if court could be made to succumb to pressures of the public by way of demonstrations ahead of any decision, the court would not be able to function effectively as arbiter of disputes in our society. This is because decisions by the court would not be stable and unpredictable as precedents to do justice in our democratic society.
