PUTRAJAYA: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak yesterday launched a foundation which will provide legal aid to the poor.
For the poor: Najib (third right) launches National Legal Aid Foundation which will provide legal aid to the poor.
People from households with an annual income of less than RM25,000 can seek aid from this National Legal Aid Foundation.
The foundation has 12 members on its board of directors, with Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail as the chairman and Malaysian Bar Council President K Ragunath as the deputy chairman.
Its assistance will cover criminal, civil and Syariah court cases.
At the launch at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC) here, Najib said justice was a prerequisite in a progressive and successful nation.
He said the foundation, set up under the initiative of the government and the Bar Council, would meet the desire of the government to ensure that justice was for all.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, Chief Justice Tun Zaki Tun Azmi, Abdul Gani and Ragunath were also present at the launch.
Najib said about 80 per cent of the accused in criminal cases were without legal representation because they could not afford to pay the legal fees.
The Bar Council had proposed that a foundation be set up to help these people, and the Cabinet agreed, he said.
He said the government gave a launching grant of RM5 million as a gesture of support for the foundation to uphold justice and ensure equal rights in terms of legal representation for all Malaysians.
“I wish to state here that funding should not be a hindrance to secure justice. As such, we will try to seek additional funds if the allocation is insufficient,” he said.
Najib said the setting up of the foundation was an effort of a responsible government, in line with the 1Malaysia concept, and it did not mean that the government was championing criminals.
It was to ensure that all accused could get a fair and transparent hearing in the courts, in line with Clause 3, Article 5 of the Federal Constitution, he said.
The clause states that an accused must be allowed to consult and be defended by a legal practitioner of his choice.
Najib said the lawyers on the panel of the foundation would offer their services at a minimum fee, and suggested that more lawyers come forward to help as part of their social responsibility to society.
“This can avert cases where the accused receive heavy penalties in court because they had no legal representation and pleaded guilty as they could not put forth an effective defence,” he said.
He said the foundation could provide legal aid and advisory services to all citizens, both the haves and haves-not, for all kinds of crime, from the time of arrest, to remand and to release on bail.
Najib said, however, that the aid did not cover offences which carried the death sentence as the High Court would assign a counsel for accused persons in such cases.
He said the foundation would complement the legal aid services provided by the Legal Aid Department in the Prime Minister’s Department and the Legal Aid Centre of the Bar Council, and added that the foundation was not a government agency but an independent and neutral charitable company.
Najib then witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the foundation and enforcement agencies such as the police.
“When a person is caught for an alleged offence, it is the responsibility of the police and the other enforcement agencies to contact the foundation’s panel of lawyers, unless that person wants to engage a lawyer himself,” he said.
He also said that law firm Messrs Shearn Delamore & Co had offered to be the company secretaryof the foundation for free, and added that more companies should emulate this example to help the foundation. — Bernama