Mohamed Suffian Mohamed Hashim

Mohamed Suffian bin Mohamed Hashim (12 November 1917 – 26 September 2000) was a Malaysian barrister, eventually serving as Lord President of the Federal Court from 1974 to 1982. He had previously served as Chief Justice of Malaya.

Suffian was born in 1917 in Kota Lama Kiri, a small village on the banks of Sungai Perak near Kuala Kangsar and went to the Malay School, Lenggong and Clifford School, Kuala Kangsar, before going to England on a Queen's scholarship in 1936.

During World War II, unable to return home from England because of the Japanese Occupation, he worked as a news broadcaster and commentator with the All-India Radio, New Delhi, and later with the BBC in London where he acquired an interest in current affairs and in lucid writing.

1982 Braddell Memorial Lecture When speaking of the Malaysian judiciary to a Singapore audience he said: In a multi-racial and multi-religious society like yours and mine, while we judges cannot help being Malay or Chinese or Indian; or being Muslim or Buddhist or Hindu or whatever, we strive not to be too identified with any particular race or religion – so that nobody reading our judgment with our name deleted could with confidence identify our race or religion, and so that the various communities, especially minority communities, are assured that we will not allow their rights to be trampled underfoot.

1988 Judicial crisis A one-sided public tribunal ratified the sacking of Salleh, while a second tribunal removed two of the senior judges from office. Few Malaysians dared speak out, but Suffian, to whom many turned for an impartial opinion, did not hold back. He said He had no children of his own.

Death He died on 26 September 2000 and was buried at the Al-Ghufran Royal Mausoleum near Ubudiah Mosque in Kuala Kangsar, Perak.

Honours Honours of Malaysia

Foreign honours

Magsaysay Award In 1975, his outstanding record as a public servant won international recognition in Manila, the Philippines, where he received a Magsaysay Award, regarded as the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize.