Sunday, September 23, 2012

When justice is tempered with mercy


An Indonesian judge by the name of Marzuki was sitting in judgment of an old lady who pleaded guilty of stealing some tapioca from a plantation. In her defense, she admitted to the judge that she was indeed guilty of the crime because she was poor and her son was sick while her grandchild was hungry.

The plantation manager insisted that she be punished as a deterrent to others. The judge going through the documents then looked up and said to the old lady, “I’m sorry but I cannot make any exception to the law and you must be punished.” The old lady was fined Rp. 1 million (USD 100) and if she could not pay the fine then she will be jailed for 2 and a half years as demanded by the law.

She wept as she could not pay the fine. The judge then took off his hat and put in Rp. 1 million into the hat and said “In the name of justice, I fined all who are in the court Rp. 50 thousand (USD 5.50) as dwellers of this city and letting a child to starve until her grandmother have to steal to feed her grandchild. The registrar will now collect the fines from all the accused.” The court managed to collect Rp 3.5 million (USD 200) whereby once the fine was paid off, the rest was given to the old lady … .including the fine collected from the plantation manager.

WILL WE EVER SEE SUCH A HAPPENING IN OUR MALAYSIAN COURTS?

10 comments:

  1. Some of good judges in this country are inclined to look the other way while the bad ones are busy polishing their masters' shoes. Hard to find this type of "human" judges in our country. Thank you for this piece of news article.

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  2. In M'sia, judges don't administer justice - don't know the meaning of it.

    In M'sia, judges don't often pronounce judgement - one noted monkey judge left it to Lingam's Girl Friday to do it (heck, talk about self-service !!!)

    In M'sia, judges can share fraternity with all sorts ie take holidays, play golf with known crooks and criminals, without batting an eyelid.

    And only in M'sia do the Prosecutor's Office and Police force act to protect suspect lawless characters instead of serving the needs of the public.

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  3. hi ,, jika di malaysia hakim atau mejestret akan beri hukuman yg setimpal tampa ada belas ehsan ,,,

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  4. in malaysia it seems that we have more monkey judges than the monkeys.

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    1. Are you one among the Monkeys:)

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  5. No way that will ever happen. Maybe the only consolation is the recent Lynas TOL hold but that may also change. But 1 out of a million is really joke. I hope when PKR takes over they will change the court systems into a jury system just like it was back in the early days. That is what we call FAIR.

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  6. In M'sia, a judge dispensing similar tempered justice could find him/herself planting ubi kayu in some god forgiven jungle land before the grandma even reached her home.

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  7. Shubh
    Every one should have the heart in real.

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  8. This comment has been removed by the author.

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