Even Tunku and karpal would have failed

Published on: Sunday, January 01, 2017

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By Denning admirer
AS a lawyer who managed to pass his CLP on his third attempt, I find it disturbing that budding lawyers can now only repeat the exam four times instead of eight.

Restricting it to only four tries does not mean a person will become a quality lawyer.

I understand late Karpal Singh took his bar exam several times and even first Prime Minister late Tunku Abdul Rahman failed it eight times or so. Hence, they would not have become who they were eventually if under such a prejudiced system.

I hope the move is not to control the number of youngsters becoming lawyers because many of them end up activists in NGOs, join the opposition or become anti-establishment.

It brings to mind why the once popular external exams conducted by various UK universities were curtailed in the 1980s.

I recall an opposition MP asking in parliament whether it was because these external degrees were attracting too many from a particular race to become lawyers.

When the CLP was introduced, it again sparked suspicion and a corruption case involving a CLP official unearthed how students managed to pass the exam.

However, the emergence of twinning programmes saved the day for many aspiring lawyers.

Fiji recently stopped giving government scholarships to study law and the honest official response was that many were drawn to activism upon return, besides skilled in conning.

But it did not impose restrictions as what is happening in our nation of surprises every other day.

Denning admirer