Comparative Study: Records of "Justice"

Result of the study
The data below is summarised from a table provided by Malaysian bar on Past LPs’ and current CJ's records of written judgments . It is a comparative study into the number of reported judgments written by the current Chief Justice, Tun Ahmad Fairuz bin Dato' Sheikh Abdul Halim and his three predecessors, Tun Salleh Abas, Raja Azlan Shah (as HRH then was) and Tun Mohamed Suffian when they sat at the High Court, Court of Appeal and the Apex court. The results are as follows:

Tun Ahmad Fairuz (current Chief Justice)
Period : 1988 to 1995
No. of years : 19 years
No. of written judgments / total no. of cases : 49 out of 198

Tun Salleh Abas
Period : 1979 to 1988
No. of years : 9 years
No. of written judgments / total no. of cases : 107 out of 244

Raja Azlan Shah
Period : 1965 to 1982
No. of years : 16 years
No. of written judgments / total no. of cases : 187

Tun Mohamed Suffian
Period : 1961 to 1982
No. of years : 16 years
No. of written judgments / total no. of cases : 254 out of 382

The exact meaning of "Written judgments" and method of research can be referred in the Malaysian Bar (Badan Peguam Malaysia) homepage .

A major conclusion can be derived from the table provided by Malaysian bar. Of the persons mentioned in the study, Tun Ahmad Fairuz is the longest serving in number of years but produces the lowest number of written judgments (both records in a combination of High Court, Court of Appeal and the Apex court). He is also the only person in the table provided which has less than 100 written judgments.

The article was closed with this paragraph:
"The above analysis provides a useful comparison for those who believe that the number of written judgments by a judge is a good yardstick to determine the suitability of character, temperament and ability of anyone wanting to assume the nation’s top judicial post. "
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Additional information (unrelated to the study)
Tun Ahmad Fairuz is one of the many names mentioned in Malaysiakini Special Report: The Lingam Tape judicial scandal . The de facto leader of Keadilan (PKR, the opposition party) , Anwar Ibrahim released the tape of a conversation between V.K. Lingam and "another" person on the receiving end, which can be watched here (with English subtitles). A draft transcript of the conversation was prepared by Keadilan.

As of 22nd October 2007, Anwar's Judicial Rot article was published in international magazine Wall Street Journal chronicling the events and happenings (to date) on the so-called investigation on the tape.