CoverJB Anual Report17-1.indd 1 2/8/17 3:44 PM CoverJB Anual Report17-1.indd 2 2/8/17 3:44 PM 47th ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING JOHORE BAR JOHORE BAR ANNUAL REPORT 2016/17 CONTENTS Page 1. Agenda 2 2. Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on 19th February 2016 3 - 14 3. Calendar of the Johore Bar 2016/17 15 - 20 4. Chairman’s Report 21 - 29 5. Honorary Secretary’s Report 30 - 31 6. Courts Liaison & Public Relations Sub-Committee Report 32 - 39 7. Building, House, Library & Member’s Welfare Sub-Committee Report 40 - 41 8. Conveyancing Sub-Committee Report 42 - 44 9. Legal Aid Sub-Committee Report 45 - 46 10. Continuing Professional Development Sub-Committee Report 47 - 50 11. Publication & Information Technology Sub-Committee Report 51 12. North Johore Affairs Sub-Committee Report 52 - 53 13. Sports Sub-Committee Report 54 - 55 14. Human Rights Sub-Committee Report 56 - 57 15. Social, Charity & Welfare Sub-Committee Report 58 16. Young Lawyers & Chambering Pupils Sub-Committee Report 59 - 60 17. Shariah Sub-Committee Report 61 18. Johore Bar Representative’s Report 62 - 69 19. Johore Bar Events Gallery 70 - 75 20. Statement of Accounts for the year ended 31st December 2016 76-97 21. Statement by the Internal Auditors 98 www.johorebar.org.my 1 47th ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING JOHORE BAR ANNUAL REPORT 2016/17 JOHORE BAR 47TH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE JOHORE BAR 2017/18 Date : Friday 24th February 2017 Time : 3.00 p.m. Venue : Berjaya Waterfront Hotel, Johor Bahru AGENDA 1. To confirm and if approved, to adopt the Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on 19th February 2016. 2. To discuss matters arising therefrom. 3. To consider the Johore Bar Committee’s Annual Report for the year 2016/17. 4. To consider and if approved, to adopt the Johore Bar Committee’s Statement of Accounts for the year 2016. 5. To fix the annual subscription for the year 2017. 6. To elect : (a) The Chairman for the year 2017/18. (b) Not less than four (4) members and not more than ten (10) members to the Johore Bar Committee for the year 2017/18. (c) One (1) member to represent the Johore Bar in the Bar Council, Malaysia for the year 2017/18. (d) Two Internal Auditors for the year 2017/18. 7. To discuss any other matters. Dated this 20th January 2017. AIMI SYARIZAD BINTI DATUK HJ. KUTHUBUL ZAMAN Honorary Secretary Johore Bar Committee 2016/17 1. Any member wishing to bring up any resolution at the meeting must lodge notice of the same with the Hon. Secretary not less than seven (7) days before the date of the Annual General Meeting. 2. Immediately after the Annual General Meeting the Incoming Committee will hold its first meeting. Those elected are kindly requested to attend this meeting. 3. The quorum is 5% of the total number of members of the State Bar. We have 1939 and 5% is 97. 2 www.johorebar.org.my 47th ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING JOHORE BAR JOHORE BAR ANNUAL REPORT 2016/17 MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING HELD ON 19TH FEBRUARY 2016 1.1 The Chairman, Mr. R Jayabalan addressed the Meeting at 3.00 p.m. 1.2 The Chairman informed the members that under Section 70(2) of the Legal Profession Act, 1976 the required quorum for the Annual General Meeting of the State Bar was 5% of the membership. As the membership of the Johore Bar was 1,870, the required quorum was 93 members, and since the quorum was not present, the meeting shall stand adjourned to 4.00 p.m. on the same day and at the same venue as per the Notice of Meeting issued to members. 1.3 The Chairman then called the meeting to order at 4.00 p.m. and announced that there were 140 members who had registered their attendance. 1.4 The Chairman made the following announcements before moving on with the agenda: (a) Members were reminded to be concise and precise in making their points; (b) Members were reminded to introduce themselves before making their comment or query; (c) Members were requested to either switch off their handphones or to keep them in silent mode; and (d) Only Members of the Johore Bar were entitled to vote and pupils in chambers shall be seated at the designated area and were ineligible to vote. 1.5 The Chairman then requested members to rise and observe a minute of silence as a mark of respect for the following members: (a) Sethu a/l Arumugam who passed away on 24/2/2015; (b) Dato’ Sauffee Afandi bin Mohamad who passed away on 11/3/2015; (c) Santharan a/l Ganapathi who passed away on 4/8/2015; and (d) Ahmad bin Kemin who passed away on 21/8/2015. 1.6 The Chairman thanked the Committee members and Secretariat staff for their effort in compiling and preparing the Annual Report for 2015/16 and to make it available to members two weeks before the AGM. ITEM 1 OF THE AGENDA TO CONFIRM AND IF APPROVED, TO ADOPT THE MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING HELD ON 14TH FEBRUARY 2015 1.7 There being no amendments, the minutes were adopted as proposed by Mr. T. Balaskanda and seconded by Mr. Chandra Sekran. ITEM 2 OF THE AGENDA: TO DISCUSS MATTERS ARISING THEREFROM 2.1 There were no queries raised. www.johorebar.org.my 3 47th ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING JOHORE BAR ANNUAL REPORT 2016/17 JOHORE BAR ITEM 3 OF THE AGENDA: TO CONSIDER THE JOHORE BAR COMMITTEE’S ANNUAL REPORT FOR THE YEAR 2015/16 3.1 The Chairman said that the Calendar of Events for 2015/16 was reported from pages 12 to 17 of the Annual Report. 3.2 The Chairman referred to page 17 of the forthcoming events and informed members that the Welcoming Hi-tea for YA Tuan Muhammad Jamil bin Hussin, Judicial Commissioner of the Muar High Court, was held on 17th February 2016. A. Chairman’s report 3.3 Mr. Norman Fernandez referred to page 21 of the Chairman’s report, item “Poor response of members to Bar activities”, and said that the Chairman has informed in his report the lack of support from the members of the Johore Bar to the Bar activities. He was of the view that the members of the Johore Bar had not been supportive enough of the activities organised by the Committee. He further said that the Committee had done a thankless job to serve about 1,800 members and requested the House to give their support to the activities organized by the Committee. 3.4 Mr. Norman Fernandez informed the House that he had received for the first time a whatsapp message on race and religion issue in relation to the Johore Bar apparently by certain members seeking to run for the Committee election later and asking for members to support them. He added that the Johore Bar had never stopped any member regardless of race or religion from coming forward to serve the Bar or to run for the Committee elections. He asked if the Committee had heard of the said message that appeared to have gone viral. He also said he felt sad about the nature of the message and strongly deplored what has happened. 3.5 The Chairman agreed that there could have been more support for the Bar activities. However this has been a perennial problem. The Committee members though understand that it is a thankless job had nevertheless been committed in serving the Bar. 3.6 The Chairman said that the Committee was there not to ‘memperkasakan’ any particular group of members or race at the Bar but to ‘memperkasakan Bar Johor’. The Johore Bar had members from the Malay, Chinese, Indians and Punjabi community in the Committee and the sole intention was always to serve the Bar and not any particular race or religion. He further said that anyone from amongst the members is free to run for the Bar but they should have good intention in doing so namely to serve the Bar. The Johore Bar had members like Datuk Zaman, Dato’ Abdul Rahman and Abdullah A. Rahman as the Chairman of the Johore Bar in the past and they had always received good support from members of the Johore Bar regardless of race or religion. Race and religion had never been an issue when it came to electing leaders at the Johore Bar. As an example, he added that, the Johore Bar auditorium was recently named as Abdullah A. Rahman Auditorium in order to recognize the services of the late Abdullah A. Rahman and the proposal had come from a non-Malay member of the Johore Bar. The Bar had always been multi-racial and members had participated at the Bar activities like sports, social events, seminars etc - and race or religion had never been an issue. 4 www.johorebar.org.my 47th ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING JOHORE BAR JOHORE BAR ANNUAL REPORT 2016/17 3.7 The Chairman further added that he has seen the messages that Mr. Norman referred to and was disappointed by the contents and having personally known some of the members whose names were mentioned in the messages over the years, he believed that even these members would not had wanted to be associated with such messages. 3.8 Mr. N. Jegatheeson commented that the Committee had organized too many events for the Judges. He suggested that the Committee organise welcoming tea only instead of farewell dinner for the judges.