Legal Profession Qualifying Board isn’t governed by govt: Teo Nie Cheng must not blame govt for everything

The MCA Youth Young Professionals and Varsity Students Affairs Bureau wishes to point out that the Legal Profession Qualifying Board (LPQB) does not fall within the jurisdiction of the government. As such, the decision by the LPQB to not recognise the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) is not within the control of the government, and thus, our Bureau is of the view that the DAP MP for Kulai Teo Nie Ching, and the supporters of the opposition should not pass the blame on every single matter to the government and MCA.

Our Bureau wishes to clarify that the issue of LPQB not recognising UEC as a qualification for the Certificate of Legal Practice (CLP) was raised by Teo, and this has led to many misunderstandings by the people against the government.

In actual fact, the LPQB is not controlled by the government. The decision whether or not to recognise any form of qualification is decided by the Board Members of the LPQB ultimately. Based on the information available, the current Board Members of the LPQB include the President of the Malaysian Bar George Varughese, the Attorney General Tan Sri Apandi Ali, the Federal Court Judge Tan Sri Zaharah Ibrahim, the Court of Appeal Judge Datuk Setia Hj Mohd Nawawi Salleh and the UiTM Law Faculty Lecturer Professor Madya Datin Paduka Saudah Sulaiman.

The decision to not recognise the UEC was made by LPQB in 2005. The then President of the Malaysian Bar was Dato’ Yeo Yang Poh, where he was also the Board Member of the LPQB. Dato’ Yeo is now the Chairman of the Planning Appeal Board in the State of Penang and at the same time, the Chairman of the Penang State Commission of Inquiry on the Tanjung Bungah Landslide. From these positions of Yeo, it does appear that he has a close relationship with DAP leaders and thus, Teo should check from Dato’ Yeo the actual situation.

Teo is advised that should she wish to question on this matter, she should direct her questions to Dato’ Yeo as to why the LPQB had ade such decision to not recognise the UEC during his tenure as a Board Member of the LPQB, instead of blaming the government on every single matter and lead the general public to hate the government and MCA.

Eric Choo Wei Sern
MCA Youth Young Professionals Bureau Chairman
MCA Youth Central Committee Member

-MCA online-