The Chief Justice of the Federal Court, Eusoff Chin, has completely missed the point in his responses to Dr Rais Yatim's recent remarks on the judiciary.

Instead of addressing the crucial issue of integrity and the judiciary, the Chief Justice brusquely dismissed Rais by stating that the Minister is only in charge of the Registrar's office and "ïs responsible for logistic problems", but not the law and the judiciary.

When the Chief Justice asserted, "If we lack court equipment or rooms, then we go to him", he presumably meant that Rais should keep his nose off matters that extended beyond "chairs and tables".

All Malaysians whose memory of the problems of the judiciary goes further back than this current exchange between the Chief Justice and Rais know that the executive branch of the government bears a major responsibility for the damage that has been inflicted upon the judiciary since the sacking of Salleh Abas, Wan Sulaiman and George Seah more than ten years ago.

Rais, who knows all this very well, and who has in fact written many sharp criticisms of executive encroachment upon the independence of the judiciary, is himself a member of the same executive today.

Be that as it may, Aliran holds that all citizens, including Rais, have the right to comment on matters as critical as the integrity of the judiciary. This right cannot be anyone's exclusive privilege.

Under present circumstances, and stemming from his "public feedback", Rais is not wrong to say pointedly that the judiciary needs rejuvenation. Based on our own feedback, and we are an organisation that stood with the judiciary in previous crises, Aliran suggests that the judiciary needs not only to rejuvenate itself, but to redeem its lost reputation by purging itself of the negativity in which it is publicly held today.

If the judiciary is to be a beacon of hope and justice for ordinary people, our judges must themselves face this fact that the judiciary as an institution has reached its nadir in public standing, and must strive by all necessary means to retrieve its once proud reputation.

Who's hugging whom?: ''When the man puts his hand on your shoulder, you can't simply shove it aside," said Chief Justice Eusoff Chin. But, hey, look who's putting his hand over whose shoulder? For more of these 'famous' pictures, click here

In this context, the Chief Justice's explanation of the way in which his much-publicised photographs were taken with a local lawyer, raises more questions than it answers.

In principle, no one will disagree with the Chief Justice that VIPs sometimes have no control over how people pose with them to take snapshots. Sometimes, as the Chief Justice explained, "one can even put his face next to mine", or "when the man puts his hand on your shoulder, you can't simply shove it aside".

But the relevant photographs posted on the internet shows not a man "putting his hand on (the Chief Justice's) shoulder", but the Chief Justice putting his own left hand over the man's shoulder.

While no one is so foolish, especially in these times, to make unsubstantiated accusations against any notable public figure, who can deny that the photographs, the focal point of the exchanges between Rais and the Chief Justice, have raised a lot of controversial issues?

Given that the judiciary should be seen to be as the bastion of justice, impartiality and willingness to uphold the truth, the exchanges between Rais and the Chief Justice and other judges have arguably thrown this perception of the judiciary into doubt.

If so, Aliran proposes that the Government should hold a national opinion poll on the state of the judiciary that can help to settle any lingering doubts about public perceptions of the judiciary.

Such a poll, strictly and professionally conducted, will settle the exchanges between members of the executive and the judiciary, but, more importantly, help to restore public confidence in the Malaysian judiciary.