that OLY 2021 in both Putrajaya Jed a Ihave relayed that information to all Advocates. L \ a “virtue of being the President; tam a di Wy, Eee ADVOCATES ASSOCIATION of SARAWAK | PERSATUAN PEGUAMBELA’ SARAWAK PRESIDENT’S REPORT 2020 Date: 26" December 2020 1, Thanksto all of you for arene apa Delegates Conference (ADC), fortunately, Sarawak has seén “stent Niggas cases to enable the restrictions to be reduced ‘ae hin turn has see e return to the ability to travel relatively safely with Seek and hence abitey st ADC. me. ee] 020 in ‘fem was well i to asfist the Kuching 00 to the Kuching ave been informed 2. branch to cover some He eT 3. Lamsure th held in 2039/1 cd activities cha they {respe Sstansdte he istance’to =e = ar a have Red aon Presiden or tne B WV formed _ by the YBGK Manager that the there eas shortfall of the budget of a about RM 4 million for 2021, however ret its will be made to the Government to cover this shortfall. Page 4 of 95. During the Movement Control Order, as and when requested by Advocates letters were issued by me on behalf of the AAS to Advocates to enable them to travel to and from Court to attend to YBGK matters especially remand matters. | understand that there were quite a few matters that were attended to especially in Kuching and Sibu and especially in Sibu some that were even appealed in as far as sentence is concerned to the High Court. {commend those Advocates that had taken the time and the risk to their own health to go to Court and attend to those matters and needless to say gratitude also ought to be shown to those Magistrates, Judges and DPP’s who attended to their respective duties. Practicing Certificates 6. Despite repeated emalls being sent out to all Advocates to close thelr Clients Accounts by the end of June or July to obtain their Auditors Certificate and Letters Of No Objection (LONO) well before the end of the year, there are still many Advocates who have chosen to leave it until almost the end of the year. This has caused an influx of applications at the eleventh hour. The bar room secretary, the Secretary and | have done our best to have them processed, however we have just received some more applications for LONO. Since our term ends today, the Secretary and | will no longer be authorized to approve the issuance of LONO. 7. In November 2016, when | first was elected as President and Mr. Arthur Lee as Secretary, we were informed that some Advocates were told to take their applications for LONO’s back from the Bar Room at Kuching and resubmit the same to the Bar Room at Miri for issuance of the same. It was November 2016 at that time, whilst there were some administrative difficulties at that time, we managed to clear those hurdles quite efficiently despite some delays. 8. It won’t be easy this time because the elections are being held on 26" December 2020 and there is no time left. Even on Christmas day, David and | have been clearing some more applications and Ina is working overtime to upload them. In order to avoid the difficulties that were faced in 2016, | am proposing that the Delegates authorize the Secretary (Mr. David Teo) and myself Page 20f9to continue issuing the LONO’s until the middle or end of January 2021. | make this proposition to ensure the transition to which ever administration that takes over is smooth, so that the Advocates do not suffer any inconvenience or delay in obtaining their Practicing Certificates. Whatever itis, please bear in mind that Central will continue to have to pay the Bar Room Secretary one third of her salary so that she can continue to assist us in the issuance of the LONO. | take this opportunity to extend our greatest appreciation to Miss Ina, the Bar Room secretary in the Bar Room at Miri. Her hard work has assisted in the efficiency with which the AAS operates. Statutory Body 9. | have tried to get consensus from the branches in our move to become a Statutory body. The various options as to the form it should take have been submitted to branches for the branches to come up with their preferred structure. There was no majority. The pandemic ensured that we could take no further action on this front. 10. Whatever the form that the AAS as a statutory body will take, please take note that nothing is written in stone. As and when the will exists amongst the members, the form can be changed, the Bar Council is in the process of amending the LPA and the SLS is in the process of amending their Ordinance we can learn lessons from them. 11. All other matters were put on hold such as the legalizing of contingency fees, etc which were discussed in Central Meetings. Medi 12. BHEUU has set up a mediation services pursuant to the COVID-19 bill. Each Bar is organizing it in their respective jurisdictions. Page 30f913. | had posted the contract that Gurvir and | signed on behalf ot the ASS Central Chatgroup for approval. That contract has now been signed but is pending waiver of stamp duty. We haven’t submitted it for the same as yet. Further, | had on Christmas Eve received a phone call from BHEUU to state that there will be a supplementary contract for us to enter into to reflect that the parties can be represented by Advocates during mediation. 14. _Asstated in the Central Chatgroup, | had nominated Mr. David Teo to be the Administrator of the mediations in Sarawak. There is a Salary to be paid through the AAS from the funds provided on a monthly basis less administrative costs that may be incurred by the AAS. 15. _Tofacilitate the receipt of the funds, we had to open a bank account which has now been opened in CIMB Bank. The signatories are Mr. Antonio Sim, Mr. David Teo and myself in our respective positions in the AAS. Meetiny Zoom 16. We need to amend our constitution to allow for Central Meetings to be held by zoom. This will save the cost of travel and accommodation to all branches. The call to the Sarawak Bar of Tan Sri Ri David Wong {TSDW) 17. TSRM has been called to the Sarawak Bar. He has Permanent Residency status in Sarawak. The Decision on Tan Sri David’s call has been rescheduled again to 19" January 2021, no doubt due the travel restrictions. Final submissions have been done. jum M) and Tan Sri 18. | understand that there are some issues with some Advocates about their call to the Sarawak Bar. Page 40f919. Allegation: 1SRM and ISDW Petition for call to the Sarawak Bar was filed before their respective Petitions for exemptions. This allegation is incorrect. The Petition for exemption was filed before the Petition for call to the Sarawak Bar. 20. Allegation: The Petition for call to the Sarawak Bar is void/defective because TSRM and TSDW did not have an Order to waive pupilage period Petition was filed. The call to the bar was dane immediately after it was pronounced by YAA ISS that full exemption was granted. That order was pronounced in my presence and as such there was no issue. In my view, regard was given to the justice’ of the case and technical non compliance carries no weight unless the technical non compliance results in substantial miscarriage of justice, which is not the case here. The application for exemption and call to the bar were fixed ‘on the same day by the Court and no one else. They were heard one after the other. YAA CISS must have taken Judicial Notice of the exemption and proceeded to hear the call to the Bar. ithas only now been brought to my attention that this is an issue for some Advocates. Previous incidents were not brought to my attention. The records of previous calls prior to November 2016 were kept in the Kuching Bar room | presume. As is the case now, even minutes of our meetings cannat be located thus far for about 4 years regarding the issue of whether Central would subsidize the one third of one secretary's salary or one third of each secretary's salary in the Kuching Bar Room. In any event, noone ever informed me that they had any view to objecting to their exemption. The only issue was whether TSRM and TSDW had established Sarawak Connections. | recall the Petitions of the late Robert Pasang Alam and Mr. Johan. They were granted full exemption. 21. Allegation: Petitions were not put on the Notice Board. | had given instructions and obtained undertakings for the respective Chairman’s not to circulate the Petitions. The Petitions could be shown on the Page 5 of 9computer devices to branch committee member for their considerations and views to be given. In my view the Petition’s only should be put on the Notice Board if full exemption from pupilage is not given. In any event, | have been reliably informed that in the past in was quite common not to put the Petitions on the Notice Board as these were rules which although should be complied with do not carry the force of law but carry the force of guidelines. | have also given my reasons for not publishing the petitions in the Rules Committee Chatgroup which I shall not repeat here. Rule 12 states: “The Association shall, upon being served with the petition, cause a copy thereof to be posted on the Notice Board of the High Court where the Petitioner is serving his pupilage.” As | said before, neither Petitioner had served pupilage because full exemption was granted. YAA CSS obviously has the discretion to take Judicial Notice of his own decision. The Order for exemption takes effect from the moment it is pronounced by the Judge. 22. Allegation: No YBGK Pledge given by Petitioners. There exemptions and call to the Bar were done Zoom. The pledge could not be signed in the Petitioners absence. Be that it may, Both TSRM and TSOW have no intention to practice in Sarawak. The procedure is simple, if a PC is applied for a LONO has to be issued by the ASS. The LONO will not be issued without the undertaking being signed. That has been the procedure all the while. We have also been extending the performance of the undertakings for all Advocates who could not complete their 20 YBGK cases within the period of one year provided they write in to us and state the reasons. 23. Allegation: TSRM and TSDW did not attend the Ethics and Etiquette Course: As is well known to the Central Committee members. We have not been conducting any courses and in fact we have cancelled the YBGK course during Page 6 of 9the pandemic. Without conducting courses, they can’t be expected to attend such courses. Pupils are being called to the Bar just by giving their undertaking to the attend the Course. In actual fact, | am embarrassed that this issue even came up, one would expect the AAS to allow the exemption of persons of their knowledge and stature in the field of Law to be exempted. The purpose of YBGK and the ethics course is to familiarize the young Advocates to the practical aspects of practice. To even require TSRM and TSDW to attend this course is not the intention for the introduction of these courses especially when they are here to contribute towards the acquisition of legal knowledge. 24. Allegation: TSRM is not a PR of Sarawak. The SAG did not object to his call. The SAG has the authority of the State Government. The Affidavit and documents annexed confirm that TSRM is a PR of Sarawak. 25. —_ Inas far as TSRM is concerned, the decision of the YAA CISS is correct. The admission is allowed because TSRM is qualified. As for TSDW, 5 will not say anything as yet as it is pending the decision of YAA CJSS. What | wanted to say has been said during submission which | have emailed to all members. From what | have been informed, both of them have no intention of depriving Advocates of work and income by practicing in Sarawak. They wanted to be call to the Sarawak Bar so that they can be called one of our own when they give courses, webinars etc to improve the standards of practice in Sarawak. Surely, the least we can do is show them some gratitude for their years of service and their good intentions instead of bowing down to others whose motives are best known to themselves. 26. There are no flood gates being opened with their call to the Bar. in fact, the call to the Bar of Puan Portia Tham which we objected to is more likely to get more Judicial Officers who were not born in Sarawak called to the Bar. | take this opportunity to acknowledge and to thank Mr. Janting Antalai and Mr. Leslie Linton for their efforts in assisting me to prepare the submissions. Further, the Page 7 of 9call to the Bar of ISDW is premised on the fact that he was CJSS at the time when the Registry of the High Court of Sabah and Sarawak was domiciled in Kuching. There have only been 9 persons thus far who have held that post. There is no question of the floodgates being opened. We should not object for the sake of objecting. | sent out the authorities | had to consult the 4 Chairman’s who in turn would consult the branch committees. The call to the bar is a question of law. It requires consultation on the interpretation of the law. In my view its not a question which can be voted on. Consultation was done. The very same authorities which | sent out were in an instance returned to me with its own spin. The question of law here requires principles of statutory interpretation to be applied which was done in this case. Inquiry Committee 27. The Inquiry Committee (IC) has been disposing of cases expeditiously under the Chairman Ship of Retired Justice John Ko. | extend our appreciation to him. Further the IC Secretary {Mr Adrian Chiew) has spent a lot of time inorganizing IC matters. He has introduced technology in our meetings and the was we preside over panel hearings. A special thanks to him for all his hard work. Not to forget, all the IC panel members have contributed their time to the AAS. lextend our appreciation to them as well Acknowledgements 28. Once again! would like to extend my appreciation to Mr. Arthur Lee for his service to the Association from 2016 to 2018. To Mr. Antonio Sim for sorting out the Consolidated Accounts which were pending since 2014. To Mr. David Teo who has tirelessly worked side by side with me through weekends and through holidays to get the work of the AAS done. To all Central Committee members and delegates. Thank you all for your service to the Association. 27. To the best of my knowledge | have been very transparent in the administration of the AAS. The honour of serving as President for two terms had Page 8 of 9been a learning experience for me, once again I thank alll of you for giving me the opportunity to serve, [BIR SINGH SANGHA Date: 26" December 2020 Page 9 of 9