Talks with govt on Legal Profession Act ongoing

GEORGE TOWN: The Bar Council is currently in discussion with the government over the proposal to amend the Legal Profession (LPA) Act 1976, said its president Steven Thiru (pix).
He said the government is willing to consider the Bar Council's concerns and the Bar Council is doing all it can to persuade the government to drop the proposal.
Thiru said this to a full house, comprised of Members of the Malaysian Bar and members of the public, at the Penang Bar auditorium during a forum to discuss the proposed amendments at Penang Bar auditorium yesterday.
When ask on whether the proposal was mooted by the government in order to control the Bar Council, Thiru said "at this point of time the whole thing is only at the proposal stage and nothing has been finalised yet".
"The government is talking to us, and it is open to discussion. The process is ongoing," he said.
Thiru was among the three-member-panel of the forum. The other two were Penang Bar Committee chairman Shyama Nair and former Bar Council president Christopher Leong.
Among the key features of the amendments are to appoint two government representatives to the Bar Council and to raise the quorum at Malaysian Bar general meetings.
Meanwhile, Shyama in a statement said the state bar committee considered the proposed amendments to the LPA Act 1976 to be a serious threat to the independence of the Malaysian Bar.
She said it is an attempt to control and silence the Bar.
"It is totally unacceptable that the government intends to appoint two members of the Bar to sit in the Bar Council to represent the government.
"It is seriously objectionable that the minister in charge of legal affairs is to be empowered to regulate our internal workings by determining the electoral rules and regulations of the Malaysian Bar," she said in the statement.
She further pointed out that the amendments will compromise the ability of the Malaysian Bar to act without fear or favour in upholding the cause of justice.