Salleh Abas

Mohamed Salleh bin Abas (Jawi: محمد صالح بن عباس; ‎25 August 1929 – 16 January 2021) was a Malaysian judge and politician.

He was a Lord President of the Federal (then Supreme) Court of Malaysia.

He left in 1949 for the United Kingdom, where he graduated with a degree in law from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.

In 1957 when he returned, he joined the legal service.

He then served in Kota Baru, Kelantan as a magistrate.

Soon after independence that same year, he was transferred to the national capital of Kuala Lumpur, where he served as Deputy Public Prosecutor.

He then returned to Britain to obtain a master's degree in international law and constitution at the University of London.

He returned in 1962, upon which he was appointed state legal adviser and Deputy Public Prosecutor for both Negeri Sembilan and Melaka.

He returned to Kuala Lumpur a year later, and served in a variety of posts under the Attorney-General, culminating in an appointment as Solicitor-General.

At the age of 50, he wanted to retire but was persuaded otherwise by then Lord President of the Federal Court, Tun Suffian Hashim.

Salleh was appointed a Federal Court judge instead.

Although the work bored him, he continued.

When Suffian retired in 1982 and was replaced by Raja Azlan Shah, Salleh became Chief Justice of Malaya.

However, within two years, the Sultan of Perak died.

Raja Azlan was forced to resign to ascend the throne, and Salleh became Lord President in 1984.

During Salleh's tenure, the Federal Court became officially the highest court in the land.

Previously, its decisions could have been appealed to the British Privy Council, but due to concern over this colonial legacy, the link was officially cut.

Salleh later expressed regret over this, as he believed he might not have been fired had the link to the Privy Council been maintained.

In 1985, the Federal Court was renamed the Supreme Court.

United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) was the major component party and leader of the governing Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, and its President presumably will become Prime Minister of Malaysia.

In the 1987 UMNO leadership election, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah had challenged the incumbent UMNO President and Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, and was widely touted to win the Presidency.

However, Mahathir won 761 votes to Razaleigh's 718 and remained President.

Many of Razaleigh's supporters refused to accept this and argued that the election was tainted.

12 UMNO members filed suit in the High Court, attempting to get a court order for new elections.

As part of their evidence, they presented claims that 78 of the 1,479 delegates eligible to vote in the elections were illegal and that several documents involved in the election had been tampered with.

Later, one of the 12 plaintiffs withdrew from the suit.

Although Razaleigh was not involved in the case, it was widely believed he had been funding and supporting the suit.

On 30 September 1987, the High Court gave the parties two weeks to reach a negotiated settlement.

A "Unity Panel" was formed to negotiate between the Mahathir and Razaleigh camps, but it soon appeared the differences were interminable.

Razaleigh's supporters wanted new elections held, while Mahathir's supporters insisted that the elections stand and that Razaleigh's camp accept a compromise "face-saving" solution.

On 19 October, the plaintiffs announced the continuation of the suit.

Mahathir, who had never been fond of the judiciary, began making heated statements about it at this time.

Mahathir declared, "The judiciary says, 'Although you passed a law with a certain thing in mind, we think that your mind is wrong, and we want to give our interpretation.' If we disagree, the courts will say, 'We will interpret your disagreement.' ... We know exactly what we want to do, but once we do it, it is interpreted in a different way." Mahathir also lambasted "black sheep ... who want to be ... fiercely independent" and play to public opinion.

Soon after, nine judges sitting on the High Court were reassigned to different divisions; Justice Harun Hashim, who presided over the UMNO case, was transferred from appellate and special powers cases to commercial crimes.

However, because the UMNO case was already in progress, his transfer did not take effect until the case closed.

Harun later ruled that under the evidence presented, it was clear several UMNO delegates had come from unregistered branches of the party.

In line with the law, he declared he was forced to declare UMNO an illegal society, and thereby dismissed the case of the plaintiffs.

He was dismissed from his post during the 1988 Malaysian constitutional crisis.

This action was condemned internationally and widely considered to be the event that triggered a marked reduction in the independence of the Malaysian judiciary.

Salleh was born in Kampung Raja, Besut, Terengganu.