COMMENT | The recent public revelations in the media about the MACC, police and Inland Revenue Board (IRB) investigating 1MDB and its related companies, is timely and to be welcomed.

The new Pakatan Harapan government should not compromise on the fight against corruption and abuse of power provided that the rule of law is observed and adhered to strictly to ensure that there is due process, and substantive fairness in the investigations and in any ensuing criminal prosecution of the suspects.

The investigations premised on such laws as the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds from Unlawful Activities Act 2001, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009, the Income Tax Act 1967 and the Penal Code should be wide-ranging and embrace all allegations of abuse or misuse of power and corruption, not just by politicians and civil servants but it should also include others in public service, such as judges and lawyers.

As a lawyer in practice for the last 25 years, it was disheartening to witness the degradation of the legal profession by unscrupulous and unethical legal practitioners who were solely motivated by greed and self-interest, willingly encouraging and condoning, if not aiding and abetting, in perverting the rule of law and undermining the administration of justice in this country by colluding with corrupt judges and government officials under the previous administration.

Probe lawyers who 'abetted' previous gov't

It was an open secret that many lawyers who had provided services to the former government and ruling party had become instant millionaires with considerable assets at home and abroad, and not all of them could be considered to be exceptional professionally, to justify the accumulation of such wealth over a relatively short period of time.

There is no denying that some lawyers were not only rewarded with lucrative government contracts and appointments to the board of directors of government-linked companies (GLCs) but they were also allowed to charge and get paid exorbitant fees for services rendered to these GLCs, public corporations and statutory bodies that were over and above what would be considered to be fair and reasonable in the legal profession...