Bar membership

I visited Malaysian Bar Council’s website today and found something interesting.

A person is disqualified from being a member of the Bar Council or a Bar Committee, or of any committee of the Bar Council or a Bar Committee -

(a) if he is a member of either House of Parliament, or of a State Legislative Assembly, or of any local authority; or

(b) if he holds any office in-

(i) any trade union; or
(ii) any political party; or
(iii) any other organisation, body or group of persons whatsoever, whether or not it is established under any law, whether it is in Malaysia or outside Malaysia, which has objectives or carries on activities which can be construed as being political in nature, character or effect, or which is declared by the Attorney General by order published in the Gazette, to be an organization, body or group of persons which has such objectives or carries on such activities.
Where a member of the Bar Council or a Bar Committee, or of any committee of the Bar Council or a Bar Committee, becomes so disqualified, he is immediately deemed to have vacated his membership in the Bar Council any office that he may hold therein.

A person is disqualified as bar member if he is a Member of Parliament, state assemblyman or hold an office in any political party.

Well, this is weird, weird, weird. Our ‘Singh is King’ – Karpal Singh, is a veteran MP, but somehow he can still appear in court. Shouldn’t he be stripped off his bar membership if according to what was written above?

Besides that, lots of politicians in our country are lawyers. They hold offices in their respective political parties and at the same time, they practice law. Isn’t it rather contradicting?

This is confusing. Hi reader, are you a lawyer? Or do you have friends who are lawyers? Could you please explain this to me?

Thank you.