By Dorcas Ting
KUCHING, Feb 17: A three-men bench led by Justice Kamaludin Mohd Said dismissed the appeal made by Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) president Voon Lee Shan to set aside the order made by Chief Justice of Sabah and Sarawak (CJSS) Datuk Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim to admit former Chief Justice of Malaysia Tan Sri Richard Malamjun and former Chief Justice of Sarawak and Sabah Tan Sri David Wong Dak Wah as advocates in Sarawak.
Justice Kamaludin Mohd Said, Justice Ravinthran A/I N Paramaguru and Justice Darryl Goon Siew Chye unanimously dismissed the appeal application by Voon.
Both Former Chief Justice of Malaysia Tan Sri Richard Malanjum and former Chief Justice of Sarawak and Sabah Tan Sri David Wong Dak Wah are Sabahans and had applied to be members of the Sarawak Bar in 2020.
Following Kuching High Court’s admission of both Malanjum and David to the Sarawak Bar, Voon appealed against the decision to disallow him to intervene in the petitions for admission and exemption orders for both Malanjum and David.
Malanjum retired in April 2019, and Wong retired in February 2020.
On Aug 26, 2020 Voon had applied to intervene, in what he termed to be a move to “safeguard Sarawak lawyers’ interest” and to “ensure that lawyers from outside Sarawak will be blocked from practicing in the State”.
On Sept 15, 2020, Justice Abang Iskandar ruled that Richard Malajum was a fit and proper person to be a member of the Sarawak Bar and had allowed Malanjum to be a member.
David Wong was allowed to be a member of the Sarawak Bar on Feb 2, 2021.
Malanjum and Wong were represented by Chong Siew Chiang, Tan Kee Heng and Michael Kong whereas Voon was represented by Lim Heng Choo.
The Sarawak Attorney Chamber was represented by Mohd Adzrul Azlan and Suppian Tarmizi and the Advocates’ Association of Sarawak represented by Gurvir Singh Sandhu and Jacqueline Hii. — DayakDaily
