Guys, I just want to share a story. (LONG POST WARNING) This morning I had a meeting with Datin Mary Paul, the widow of the late Datuk Augustine Paul. I met with her as a formality to speak about updating Datuk’s Evidence: Practice & Procedure, that very book we all lugged around for our Law of Evidence (at least I did). She is a lovely woman. She spoke about the last day Datuk was alive, how hard he worked, how much passion he had for the law. If he is in the midst of a big case, he will sit by himself and mull over the facts and arguments and in the middle of sleep, sometimes at 4am, he will wake up, run downstairs and start scribbling thoughts and ideas. She told me stories about him. About how as a sessions court judge he was known as a strict judge, often yelling at young lawyers, and then later on calling them into his chamber and apologizing saying he only wanted them to learn and that criticism should not be taken to heart. When he was assigned the Anwar Sodomy I case, it impacted his family tremendously. The day he passed the now infamous 6 year sentence [1999] 2 MLJ 1, his wife and children had to be removed from the office and school and taken home with a police escort and Datuk himself was ushered into the basement and quietly chauffeured out of the court. Not only that, Datin (who is an office at the Ministry of Health) began getting anonymous letters to her office saying she influenced his decision even though she herself was never told of the details of the case. Datuk was also requested to move his table away from the window (in his chamber) as they had sniper warnings and such. And now, almost 15 years later, listening to her speak about the very first case, while the sodomy II case is in the midst of the appeal had a really profound impact on me. Aside from the fanatical responses to his decision, he spoke highly of the opposition. And how good governments desperately need good oppositions, for a government that is too powerful, even a democracy risk evolving into a dictatorship. When he passed on, the late Karpal Singh said this to Datin and I paraphrase…”Datin, you have lost a beloved, your children lost their father and we in the fraternity have lost a truly great colleague”…And he really was. In my work, I am lucky to meet judges and senior counsels in an informal setting. Everytime they meet me, they always ask about his book. When the new edition is coming out and who is doing the update. And 100% of the time, when I suggest they themselves contribute, they always say they don’t want to mess with a known legacy. Now the book is in the 5th Edition. We are updating it now. For the first 4 editions, Datuk had the copyright. And one of the last things he did before he passed away was transfer the copyright to LN. He told us to keep the book alive, and to keep the knowledge going. Let’s just say, I will never look at his book the same way again.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 10:25:53 +0000
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