Kurt Waldheim: A Comparative ‘Reminiscence’
- By AdminL
- August 1, 2007
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contributed by Dr Myint Zan
With the death of Kurt Waldheim (1918-2007) the world now has (only) three instead of four former UN Secretaries-General alive. For nearly six months when Kofi Annan retired on the last day of 2006 after serving two terms as the seventh UN Secretary-General there were an unprecedented four former UN Secretaries-General. The obituaries of Dr. Waldheim that the writer has read deals mainly with his Nazi past and in comparison not much mention is made of Waldheim’s achievements and failures when he was at the helm of the United Nations from 1972 to 1981.
It is not for me to further add to what Time magazine obituary has called the ‘Waldheim affair’ i.e. the ‘discovery’ and publicity of his Nazi past, his evasions and to put it diplomatically ‘untruths’ or partial truths he had made when this issue came to the fore in 1986. The discovery and controversy regarding Waldheim’s Nazi past took place nearly five years after he was forced to retire from the helm of the United Nations in December 1981 when he successfully campaigned for the Austrian presidency. (Waldheim had also unsuccessfully campaigned for the presidency of Austria in 1971 – the year he became UN Secretary-General.)
Instead, I intend to discuss the issue of campaigning for the UN Secretary-General position which, roughly, started in what can now being called the Waldheim era. It is now established practice within and outside UN circles that when a UN Secretary-General retires (as in the case of voluntary retirements of U Thant, the third UN Secretary-General, Javier Perez de Cuellar, the fifth, Kofi Annan, the seventh as well as in the ‘involuntary retirements’ of Waldheim himself in 1981 and Boutros Boutros-Ghali in 1996) there is from both within and outside the UN circles ‘campaigning’ for the job. The first three Secretaries-General of the UN did not ‘campaign’ for the job and there was, during those times of the selection for the Secretary-General position, much less –if any- ’campaigning’ at all by the candidates whose names have been mentioned as possible UN Secretaries-General. In those good old days it was the office that sought the person rather than the other way around.
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Urgent Notice
- By AdminL
- July 31, 2007
- 4 Comments
The Malacca Bar regrets to inform that the wife of Mr Markhan Singh had passed away and the funeral is scheduled at 2 pm today. For more information, kindly contact Lawrence Ang of the Malacca Bar Committee office.
The Malacca Bar Committee extends its deepest symphaty and joins Mr Markhan in his loss and sorrows.
Wong Fook Meng
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Law Awareness Day 2007
- By AdminL
- July 24, 2007
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contributed by Desmond Ho
On 21st July 2007, the Multimedia University School of Law organized a Law Awareness Day within their campus for their law students with the assistance of the Malacca Young Lawyers and Chambering Pupils Committee. Five prominent members of the Malacca Bar were invited to speak on their life as lawyers in their respective fields of practice.
The 2nd to 4th year students were already anticipating an “interesting” talk from our panel of speakers for the day and Wong Fook Meng started the talk by giving an overview of the transition from law school to legal practice and the challenges facing a “young” practitioner. Chee Kong Chi was then invited to speak about life as a corporate lawyer. With his vast experience, he astounded even the lawyers in attendance about what corporate legal practice entails. Phrases like Reverse Take Over (RTO) and Mergers and Acquisition (M&A) would have baffled many, but Chee advised the students that beyond the conundrum of legal terms, “soft skills” were equally as important for a lawyer.
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Malacca High Court
- By AdminL
- July 16, 2007
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posted by Wong Fook Meng
Kindly be informed that the Malacca High Court Judge will be attending a Judges’ Conference from 15th to 20th August 2007 and will be in the Kuala Lumpur High Court to hear part heard matters from 21st to 24th August 2007.
Furthermore, for cases fixed on 14th August 2007, only uncontested matters will be heard. Contested hearings and full trial will be adjourned.
Please be guided accordingly.
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Malacca Bar Idol Nite at the Melaka Charity Nite
- By AdminL
- July 9, 2007
- 4 Comments
contributed by Pierre Lim and Desmond Ho
What do the Bee Gees, Willie Nelson, Everly Brothers and a Mandarin rendition of a Chinese nursery rhyme, “Father Is Not Home”, have in common? Why, nothing of course! Except that they were all sung by our very own Bar Idols and members of the Malacca Bar on the first ever Malacca Bar Idol competition in conjunction with the West Coast Charity Night jointly organized by 4 state Young Lawyers Committees.
The fund-raiser, attended by more than 110 people which was organised in Malacca together with the Liason, Charity and Welfare Sub- Committee of the Malacca Bar in aid of the Pusat Kanak-kanak Terencat Akal Bahagia witnessed a Malaccan version of the Popular TV Show American Idol, featuring our very own panel of the famous threesome, Simon Ng Kong Peng, Randy Desmond Ho and Paula Fiona Tan. It was an evening to remember as our Bar Idol hopefuls belted out tune after tune of tone-challenged popular hits much to the delight of the diners. And that’s not all folks. We had a “slave auction” in which a rather sporting member of the Malacca Bar volunteered his “Man-Friday” services for the night to the highest bidder, all in the name of good fun and charity. Our Man-Friday did not only raise funds from the auction but when his Master for the night instructed him to sing, he was paid to stop singing candidly by another Bar member.
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Meeting with Hospital Melaka
contributed by Desmond Ho
On 28th May 2007, the Liaison, Charity & Welfare Sub-Committee of the Malacca Bar, headed by Mr. Nizam Bashir organized a meeting between the Bar Committee members and the administrators of Hospital Melaka. The purpose of the visit was to address problems or matters that arose in our fellow member’s dealings with the hospital administration and staff and to seek further cooperation in other areas of concern.
Dr Hj Abu Bakar bin Mohamud, the Pengarah of Hospital Melaka chaired the meeting which began at 2:30pm. The meeting was well attended by his officers from the respective departments. The Bar Committee was represented by Ng Kong Peng (Chairman of the Malacca Bar), Sekar Palaniandy, Jaspal Singh Gill, Fiona Tan, Nizam Bashir and Desmond Ho.
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