Justice denied ?

 Tues 19.9.2023.

I'd wanted to sit down and put my thoughts about the DNAA case of  Jait for more than a week, but I couldn't sit down. This morning I told myself "write now or you'll never write about it."

Having 2 practicing lawyers in my immediate family, and 2 others from among first cousins and nephews (one a serving State Syariah Chief Justice, the other an Assistant Commissioner in the Police), and playing golf twice a week for the last 9 years with 1 ex Federal Court Judge and 2 ex Appeals Court Judges, I have an inkling about the Malaysian Judiciary and our legal system. I should. That does not make me tolerant of, or understanding about the quirks of Malaysian legal proceedings.

I know "dna" has come to assist courts world-wide in legal cases brought before them.. It was not there from the beginning. Tragically many miscarriages of justice have been discovered with the use of dna, when wrong convictions  were meted out without it earlier. Now DNAA?

I'm not making jokes with words. Justice is God-like. But the Malaysian Judiciary must be making a sick joke with the DNAA for the DPM. And to stress the injustice, at the same time a thief convicted with stealing RM 22 from a mosque was given a 10-year imprisonment by the same judicial system.

Stop playing with technicalities and legalese hair-splitting. Bring out the truth and use facts to decide cases. Years have passed by in this particular court case. 47 charges have been tabled. How many lawyers from both sides have taken part in the whole affair? And just like that, one day before the AG retired, he said "DNAA"!

I'm told that the Golden Saying is that Justice must not only done, but must been seen to be done.  There's even a saying that justice delayed is justice denied.

I don't see justice done. I see justice denied.

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A life - never insignificant.

 Sat 2.9.2023 (16 Safar 1445H)

Let's mark that date.

It's not about a high official, a Statesman or of Royalty. But it's of a life. It should never be insignificant.

We waited at Calit's surau after Solat Asr.  Idah and I were there after Zohor. Calit had reconfirmed that the arrangements for his late brother-in-law were for after Asr at that surau. The van eventually arrived at about 6 p.m. Remember, it was a journey from JB, a long way away, made longer by the weekend highway traffic that slows everybody. But the next journey is longer.

I watched sadly as the mother stooped to lovingly kiss the exposed face. Many times, all over that exposed part, quietly crying, hands on the shroud, her shoulders held back by assisting hands. I came close to tears myself. Other relatives followed - siblings, cousins. A lot of time was given for this final touch of farewell.

A decent number made up the final congregation for the solat jenazah led by the surau's imam. Any one of the brothers would have made a touching act in leading this final prayer. It's his fate, like all of his sad life. We make our supplications. The Almighty Receives everything.

For me, it's a goodbye with no hello. 

I never met him. I didn't know him. But I know of him, and the circumstances of his tragic life. 

Family ties obliged my attendance today, but I would have come anyway. I write now so that perhaps the poor soul is not lost and forgotten. The late father I knew very well. The surviving, grieving mother I know very well, too. My late mother was fond of her, and she had a lot to do with Calit's marriage into that family. But we were relatives anyway.

Could a different life-story have been written ? We cannot make judgement.  It's cruel and unfair to turn over the tragic history of the poor departed. We must accept God's Will. Still, the thoughts of an alternative scenario haunts me, and I didn't even know him.

Let us pray that God Accepts him, and Forgives him for the state he was in, and put him among  the blessed.

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