Maritime Arbitrators.

This post is a definite cross over between my pleasurable pursuit and my work. Its about the birth of the first batch of maritime arbitrators in Malaysia. IKMAL and KLRCA have worked hard to establish the base for this alternative dispute resolution for the maritime sector. Litigation or going to court will take years, arbitration considerably less. Litigation will inadvertently break commercial relationship whilst arbitration strive to maintain that relationship for mutual benefits. To all those in the Malaysian maritime fraternity, could you please now include KLRCA for dispute resolution in your contracts or charter parties instead of Singapore, Hong Kong or London.

Hj. Rahman (Yeop) is "THE" person responsible for this. He has put in a lot of work and effort in coming up with the "Maritime Arbitration Small Claims Rules 2007". No easy task as he is also a practising lawyer with loads of his own work to sort out. And to those curios on how much he or anyone else is making on this project, the answer is NOTHING. Not Yeop, me, the drafters, KLRCA or anyone else. Not a cent is made. Blood and tears is spent. As far as IKMAL is concerned, this is our effort to give back to the community and industry. All the people in these pictures provide their time and effort as best they can for the betterment of the nation. Sorry for the rant, I just get tired of question like "errr, how much did you guys make for drafting this".

Mr. Ramadas, another person that should be credited as he assisted Hj. Rahman with the legalese of the document. The others I don't need to mention, maybe one person who is not here, Jalila from MIMA who has been helping to draft and edit the Small Claims Rules.

The mock preliminary hearing with the "appointed" presiding arbitrators disqualifying himself with the excuse that the claimant is his brother in law....

It was an eye opening and enjoyable course. Everyone participated whole-heartedly, that's because they enjoy what they were doing and that it really feels good be givers instead of takers. Ok, perhaps its also because of the privilege to be among the first ever maritime arbitrator accredited by KLRCA. BTW, I am 005.

Finally, Dato' Norasyikin - thank you for being an excellent host - trying to arbitrate the group of maritime arbitrators to set themselves up for the photo session....