PUTRAJAYA: To be able to administer justice according to the law is what retired Court of Appeal judge Datuk Wira Low Hop Bing described as his memorable moments during his service in the judiciary.
“It is something which is our mission in the judiciary and it is something we hold dear in the course of our work,” said Low in an interview with Bernama.
Low, 66, clocked out for the last time as a Court of Appeal judge on Aug 9 after being in the judiciary for 42 years.
“It’s my mission in life to be a judge and I am happy with what I have contributed to the judiciary.
“I am proud and delighted to say that I have written almost 1,000 judgments to leave behind in the judiciary for the benefit of the legal profession, the judiciary, the academia and law students.”
Passionate about poems, Low said he would take a break first before beginning to do something useful.
“To me, retirement is entering a new era. ERA means Expert Resource Age, so I have to apply PMA – Positive Mental Attitude — to become a useful senior citizen because old is gold and we must do something useful after retirement.
“I can do LAM — Legal Writing, Arbitration and Mediation,” said Low who plans to write articles on legal issues for public dissemination to create legal awareness for them.
“I have 42 years of experience since 1970, having been a magistrate and now retired as a Court of Appeal judge. It’s certainly a wealth of knowledge, an experience which I can share with members of the public and that can be done through a form of legal writing,” he said.
Low said his articles would be reader-friendly as law had always been a technical subject and the ability to make it comprehensible to the public was something which the public would benefit.
Asked to describe his life as a judge, Low said judges led a very disciplined life.
“Upper most in my mind is always the judges’ code of ethics,” he said.
Low said judges took pride in writing their grounds of judgment where their decisions were documented to enable parties in a court case to bring up the matter to the higher courts by way of appeals and also to provide the necessary safeguards for proper performance of their duties.
As a judge, he said, there had to be a lot of balancing in time management to enable him to carry out his public duties as well as spending time with his family.
“While we do our work in the best way possible, we must always not disregard the all-important factor, that is, good health. It is only through good health that we can show commendable performance,” he said.
Low said judges managed their time in the best way to provide a balance between their performance of their public duties and the promotion of a healthy family life.
Low was in the judicial and legal service for 14 years. From 1984 to 1994, he practised as a lawyer. He was appointed judicial commissioner on June 1, 1994.
Low, who was in charge of the mediation process, said with mediation being conducted in the courts as an alternative dispute resolution for civil disputes, it had helped the judiciary to clear backlog cases.
“It is a very laudable move initiated by the judiciary. It is progressing very well in the Court of Appeal, the High Courts and Subordinate Courts. The success rate of the mediation process on the average is 40 per cent throughout the courts. It is a very workable and practicable way of resolving disputes between parties.”
He said mediation would create a more harmonious society and nation as a whole.
This year, Parliament has enacted the Mediation Act and hopefully it will come into force soon so as to provide a legal framework for private mediations.
Low said the judiciary which saw vast revamp in its administration, was moving towards speedy disposal of cases which was the primary objective, adding that the judiciary was moving in the right direction.
His last words as a judge :“I wish everybody well in the judiciary and as they are all eminent members of the judiciary, they will continue to perform their duties to the best of their ability.”
Low has composed a poem about the judiciary which reads as:
J-Judiciary is the constitutionally-proclaimed third pillar of Government,
U-Untiring judges dedicate themselves to justice and legal development,
D-Decision-making processes are significantly time-demanding,
I-Initiatives reflected in counsel’s submissions provide useful reading,
C-Concepts of law are to be applied to finding of facts concisely,
I-Illuminations of principles in judgments are pronounced publicly,
A-Assessment and evaluation of evidence is an essential part of judging,
R-Results and verdicts are subject to appeals by way of rehearing,
Y-Year-to-year law reports serve as chronicles for posterity and safekeeping. — Bernama