| Subject: New Improved Justice System
Announced! Date: Sun, 29 Nov 1998 19:10:08 +1100 From: Jasper <Jasper@deja-news.com> Organization: Customer of OzEmail/Access One Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Australia Newsgroups: soc.culture.malaysia KUALA LUMPUR, 27 NOV (New Shit Times)-- Attorney General Mohtar Abdullah and Chief Justice Eusoff Chin today announced a new "compounded" system of justice that will cover all criminal cases and take as little as 24 hours to complete a case. Under the new proposed system, persons once charged will not be required to enter a plea at all and will not be allowed to claim trial. All defendants will be deemed guilty as charged. The charges will be sent straight to the CJ's office to determine sentences against which, no appeals will be allowed. The turnaround time for a particular case could take as little as 24 hours as no court appearance will be necessary. The new system is reported to have met the approval of Prime Minister Mahathir and will be tabled at the next sitting of Parliament. The Bill is expected to be passed although fierce opposition is expected from DAP and PAS members. In a joint press conference held at the Supreme Court today, Mohtar Abdullah and Eusoff Chin criticised the existing system as being "incredibly wasteful of time, money and resources." AG Mohtar explained: "First of all, I have to frame the charges, then police have to fabricate the evidence, and my prosecutors have to coach the witnesses. Then Eusoff Chin has to find a suitably compliant judge. Then we have to go through goodness how many weeks or months of hearings, evidences, witnesses, lawyers and so on and so forth. After that, there are appeals and more appeals. And after all these, the defendant will be found guilty anyway. So why not save time and money all round by "compounding" the charges. Eusoff Chin added that the western system of justice was not appropriate for a developing country like Malaysia, particularly during times of economic hardship. He cited the ongoing trial of Anwar Ibrahim as having prompted a review of the entire system. He asked: "Do we have to go through this whole charade until June when even the man in the street can tell you what the verdict is going to be? After all, police have better things to do than fabricate evidence, extract confessions by torture and attend court hearings all the time." He noted that the proposed system would also be much better for the defendant and his family who would not have to waste big money on lawyers trying to launch a useless defence. He agreed, however, that lawyers are unlikely to be happy with the proposal but joked that "they can always cari makan by sweeping streets." AG Mohtar said that even the trial of Datuk Nalla would have benefited from such a system. He said, "Datuk Nalla would have been put to death without having to be dragged through a long and painful trial. It would have been so quick and clean without the months of waiting agony for him and his family." |