In an encouraging sign that the rule of law is not entirely dead in Malaysia an opposition political party has filed suit asking for a declaration that Chief Justice Raus is holding office illegally and should be removed from that office.

Legally speaking the argument is unanswerable. Inche Raus has passed the age for retirement of Chief Judges and should have left the Bench gracefully. He did not

do so and was, illegally and contrary to the Constitution, extended in the office of Chief Judge for three years.

Few Malaysians will be in any doubt why this illegal appointment was made. Mega crook Najib needs a tame Court to ensure that he is not in any personal jeopardy and, more significantly, that all judgments go the way he wants them to, law and precedent notwithstanding. Inche Raus, it seems, is thought to be someone who can ensure those objectives.

If this was just a favour to an elderly judge who did not want to leave his post that would be bad enough. But, much worse, the re-appointment breaches the Constitution. What is more, if this was just a favour to an elderly reluctant retiree, it could have been granted perfectly legally,if morally repugnantly, by appointing him as an “additional judge” under the relevant section of the Constitution.

Why not?. The simple explanation is that “additional judges” however highly qualified and  experienced do not control the Federal Court. It needs a Chief Judge to do that. So an appointment that could have been legally made was discarded in favour of an illegal one.

If it was solely down to mega crook Najib, who approved it, that would just add one more crime for which he will have to answer. Unfortunately the appointment needed the approval of the Agong as required by the Constitution. Since no statement has been made public it remains a question whether the Agong was lied to and so gave his approval, or was not aware of the relevant section of the Constitution or.

Whatever the truth of that may be the fact remains that Raus, whose name in German means OUT, is illegally sitting in the Federal Court. It is beyond question that any judgment of that Court in which he participates is null and void. A further question is whether a Federal Court illegally constituted has any viable jurisdiction at all.Thus no Malaysian can know if he can rely on any judgment of that Court. That is a public scandal in a country riddled with scandals. And they are all down to one man. Arch criminal Najib Razak. He has to go.