Comments Posted in eLawyer Website

Loke Yuen Hong September 17th, 2008 12:56 pm :

I have a few takes on this;

First of all, the Bar did not mention anything as to why UUM is not recognised. Meaning - not reasoned decision, at least to the most affected parties i.e. the UUM students. Now, is that transparent? Is that to be expected of the Bar Council?

CLP notoriously alledgely having a low passing rate, rightly or wrongly. Then at least tell the world why it is so. Saying ‘we strive to ensure the quality of the Bar’ or something like that is inadequate.

CBE and CBC? Learn the mistakes from CLP before screwing up again.

It is the reasonably expected level of a propecting chambering student but not other factors that matters. If UUM or those who failed CLP cannot attain the reasonably expected standard of a propecting chambering student, say it so and tell us all why.

Come on, you are the torch bearer, show some higher standard.

And i am not even saying this as a part of legal fraternity.

This is my say as a citizen and a stake holder of this country

And i stand to be corrected.

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Lee Shih September 19th, 2008 8:46 am :

Hi Yuen Hong

Just to correct something. It is not the Bar Council that decides on the recognition of qualifications for the purposes of admission. It is a completely different entity, the Legal Profession Qualifying Board, that decides on this by virtue of the Legal Profession Act (LPA). More information of the Board is found in Part II of the LPA and the Board is essentially made up of:

a. the Attorney General who is the Chairman;b. two judges nominated by the Chief Justice;c. the Chairman of the Bar Council; andd. a Dean of the Faculty of Law nominated by the Minister of Education.

The CLP is also conducted by the Board by virtue of s.5(e) of the LPA.

I do agree that the Board should be more transparent in providing reasons for their decisions.

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Chong Sai Oe September 30th, 2008 10:30 pm :

Hi , young man . Please don’t make the common mistake of allowing oneself to be crowded by emotion that would obscure your objectivity if you don’t mind me saying .

Try to gather more correct facts before you commence any allegation of the unsubstantiated sorts . Apply one’s legal training 7 education into daily practical life as you may chose .

It’s entirely your own choice .

No offence is meant , to any body .

In bone fide .

Comments responded to the Article of "The Bar joins Qualifying Board's evaluation team to UUM and MMU"

Back door to LQB?

written by Richard Wee Thiam Seng, Thursday, September 11 2008 12:50 pm

I find it odd that these Universities went on to offer a Law Degree not recognised by LQB, and then now are asking it to be recognised. Isn't this a back door way to get recognition? It forces the high powered delegate from Bar Council to take into account humanitarian reasons like the welfare of the students, when by right one should look at the quality of the education before approving it's degree. Only in Malaysia we get this lah.

Richard Wee Thiam Seng

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Back door to LQB?

written by Fatima Bt Tahir Ali, Thursday, September 11 2008 01:16 pm

Dear Richard How does one assess the quality of education without actually running the course programme?? Chicken and egg situation , me thinks. Dear all What I am interested in knowing is whether the degree offered by these universities is in itself recognised by the CLP Board. Do their law graduates qualify to sit for the CLP? Should not that be the first step before they seek exemption from sitting the CLP exam? Just my 2 sens.

Fatima Bt Tahir Ali

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ARROGANCE MULTIPLIED BY CONTEMPT?

written by Stephen Tan Ban Cheng, Thursday, September 11 2008 03:12 pm

Firstly, let me congratulate the Bar Council for sending such a high-powered team for the evaluation exercise, an effort mounted probably at short notice. Secondly, I would have thought that before offering the law course, both Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) and the Multi-media University (MMU) would have gone through the preliminary paces of obtaining prior approval from the Legal Profession Qualifying Board (LPQB). In the result, those who have been conferred the degrees end up being placed in the twilight zone, surely a psychologically agonizing experience at best.

Facing the CLP examination is not a joke, neither is it a walk in the park. I am sure that the Vice Chancellors and those Education Department officers responsible owe all Malaysians an explanation for this monumental oversight which, for all we know, could have been born out of arrogance and even contempt for the very system of which they are a part. Given that these degrees are only conferred after three or four years of study, this may well show just how much the authorities in these two universities think of our legal system! Even had the approval been sought while the degree was being read by the students, it would still be wrong. Did the university authorities do even that? If the reply is in the negative, it compounds this monumental oversight into a calculated one. It means that they are confident that in the end, the interest of the students would be held paramount and LPQB approval would have been a fiat accompli (an accomplished fact).

To be fair to both UUM and the MMU, law degrees from the University of Malaya, the International Islamic University University Technology Mara and University Kebangsaan Malaysia law degrees must be subjected to a LPQB evaluation since the last four universities never went through such a stringent exercise.

By the way, who were our learned presidents at that time? Did they not speak out about such a basic thing? I hope that whoever they are, they do not belong to that category of ex-presidents who walked out of our AGM some years ago! In my days at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, the law course was a limited one. We had an annual intake of 680 students culled from thousands of applicants. Into the second year, only 180 students were left, leaving a casualty rate of more than 70 per cent. Into the final year, only 120 students graduated.

As an advancing student, I was on record as having lambasted this “killing field” that the law course represented. That I never faced any punitive action showed New Zealand’s democratic spirit to allow the alternative view. Now I know why numbers must be kept down. I guess to be pragmatic, a similar rationale exists for us to keep the numbers down in Malaysia.

Stephen Tan Ban Cheng

http://www.malaysianbar.org.my/bar_news/berita_badan_peguam/the_bar_joins_qualifying_board_s_evaluation_team_to_uum_and_mmu.html

Comment from Blogger

KESIAN DIA

September 14th, 2008 by sangpenchenta

Rasanya aku penah sebut dulu pasal dilema law graduates Universiti Utara Malaysia (kini lebih dikenali sebagai Universiti Ulu Malaysia dek kerana perangai tak semenggah Naib Canselornya yang tak reti beza istilah ekonomi). Lama dah bunyiknya, tapi baru-baru ni timbul lagi isu ni.

Isunya simple je. LLB UUM tak diiktiraf oleh Legal Profession Qualifying Board (LPQB) untuk dapat exemption daripada amik exam CLP (Certificate of Legal Practice). Maknanya tak macam law grads dari UIA, UiTM, UM & UKM yang boleh chambering terus lepas grad, UUM tak boleh chambering. Kalo nak amik chambering, kena amik exam CLP (fee mahal beb, RM4000 lebih, kalo kena repeat lagi naya). Bukan saja LLB UUM tak diiktiraf LPQB, malah Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam (JPA) pun nampaknya masih tak mengiktiraf LLB UUM.

Dalam hal ni aku tak salahkan pelajar & aku jugak tak salahkan LPQB. Pelajar as usual la, dapat offer masuk U pun kira cukup syukur, diorang dengan innocentnya ingat mestilah LLB UUM ni diiktiraf. Kalau tak diiktiraf, kenapa offer degree ni ye tak?

Dalam hal ni aku salahkan administration UUM (indirectly kerajaan la). Apa punya perangai offer degree dulu baru nak terkocoh-kocoh carik recognition dari JPA & LPQB? Jangan salahkan student, diorang manela tau LLB diornag diiktiraf ke tak, in fact diorang tak tau pun prosedur sebenar untuk chambering macam mana masa first year masuk U tu. Logik ke nak blame student pulak?

Ada jugak komen-komen bangang dari law practitioners yang grad oversea. Senang je dia cakap, kitorang pun amik CLP jugak, bayar mahal jugak, tak mampu jugak, tak bising-bising pun macam korang. Amik jelah CLP, apa susah. Cettt, oversea grad ni lagi tak tau pape. Compare silibes LLB kat UUM tu, 10 kali lagi relevan daripada apa yang korang belajar kat oversea tu. Apa yang perasan hebat sangat entah? Bukan aku tak tau ramai je grad LLB oversea yang bangang law, harap English jela fluent. Korang bukan belajar pun Criminal Procedure, Civil Procedure, Professional Practice, Land Law kat Malaysia, pastu nak expect student local yang belajar benda tu kat local universities untuk amik CLP macam korang? Poooodaahhh!!

Although aku tak berkenan dengan implementation LLB kat UUM yang tergesa-gesa (dari segi kegagalan UUM untuk dapat pengiktirafan daripada pihak-pihak berkenaan), tapi bagi aku silibes LLB kat UUM lebih kurang sama je dengan UIA, entah-entah UUM tiru UIA, sama je silibesnya. Mungkinla dari segi facilities ataupun experience lecturer law UUM tak sehebat UIA, tapi kalo ikutkan sebenarnya mengajar law ni taklah susah mana (cewah, macam biasa mengajar lak). Lecturer bagi guideline, explain pape yang patut je. So, amatlah karut jugak kalo LLB UUM tak diiktiraf oleh LPQB & JPA.

So, salah kembali kepada UUM jugaklah. Bukan je LLB UUM tak diiktiraf JPA, berlambak lagi rupanya degree UUM yang belum diiktiraf Lembaga Akreditasi Negara (LAN) & JPA.

Apa penyakit UUM ni sebenarnya? Takde pasal nak carik pasal? Takde glemer nak carik glemer? U lain ada LLB ko pun nak buat LLB? Penyakit ni lagi teruk daripada ‘universiti maya’ yang provide degree, Master & doctorate ‘beli’ macam Menteri Besar dari sebuah negeri tu. Tak pasal-pasal dapat ‘Dr.’, lawak tul.

Ataupun sebenarnya LLB UUM memang tak layak dapat pengiktirafan sebab silibesnye ‘cukup makan’ je? Atau takde ‘mover’ dari UUM yang boleh ‘cucuk’ orang atas supaya iktiraf LLB UUM. Well, masa time UM dulu ada Tan Sri Ahmad Ibrahim, UIA dulu pun macam tu.

Entahla…

http://sangpenchenta.blog.friendster.com/page/2/