A Day at the Courts

Just to share with you how our Malaysian judicial system works. I was summoned as a witness to appear in a magistrate court case since Year 2002. Whenever there is a mention of the case, whether with hearing or without hearing, without fail, they will sent me a summon and asked me to attend court on that day.



When they sent me a summon, I will have to attend court. By attending court means I have to wait outside the court to see whether I am wanted or not on that day. If the hearing is postponed, they will asked me to go back and come again at the next hearing when they will issue another summon to me. I will share with you some of the instances when the hearings are postponed. Lawyers unable to make it, magistrate sick, magistrate spouse sick!, magistrate on course, prosecutor on course, witnesses not present, new magistrate, new prosecutor and this whole chain of events will repeat itself over the duration of the trial, of course not in the same order.



I was so fed up with them after severat outings at the court that I approached the Public Prosecutor and asked him when am I able to take the witness stand and tell them what they wanted to hear from me. Do you know what was the reply. " I dont know why they call you, I did not ask for your attendance!" And yet at the next hearing, I will receive another summons again requiring me to attend court again. Malaysia Boleh!

After all this nonsense, I told myself that I am not going to court to waste my time and skip the next few hearings. One fine day, a policeman came calling at my house while I was working to ask me where I was. My wife told them that I was at work and give them my handphone number for them to call me. I went to the police station after work and there and then they told me that I was under arrest for not attending court! What nonsense! But the policeman who attended to me was quite nice when he said that he would offer bail to me and that I must be in court at the next hearing. But documentation has to be done before I can go home as it was way past working hours. I told them that I will report to them again the next morning but they told me that unless the documentation are completed, I would have to spend a night at the station. But luckily, things turn out well and I was able to go home.

At the next hearing, I was asked to explain to the court on my absence and thereafter the hearing started. Another shocker! The key witness who is required to be there was not around as the police said that he could not be located and that the case has to be postponed. I was informed that if the witness is a government servant, once he retires, there is no way you can get him to attend court. Probably, he would have gone back to the kampong and would be unreachable. Now you know why the guarantors for loans taken from the government can never be located and the loans never recovered.

Well, the defence lawyers have asked for DNA at the next hearing and hopefully, things would end.

By the way, DNA stands for Discharge not amounting to an acquittal and not something relating to DSAI. Just in case DSAI stands for Dato Seri ............