Liverpool Law

FEATURE 31
Justice, Malaysian Style
I’d never heard of Isabella Bird
till I found one of her books in
a charity shop – The Golden
Chersonese, about her trip to
Malaysia in 1879. She was one
of those indefatigable
Victorian women travellers;
she visited remote parts of
Persia, Kurdistan, Tibet, Korea,
and China, and wrote them
up in books which are still
available as e-books, usually
free. She was in Malaysia for
only five weeks, but described
it in such detail to her sister
that it filled a whole book.
For instance:
In the day’s journey I counted
one hundred and twenty-six
differing trees and shrubs, fiftythree
trailers [hanging
creepers], seventeen
epiphytes [plants growing on
other plants] and twenty–eight
ferns.
She noted a local delicacy,
but did not try it.
It is made by tramping a mass
of putrefying prawns and
shrimps into a paste with bare
feet. This is seasoned with salt.
She particularly liked the
colour and vivacity of Canton,
except when she came to the
prison, whicb was as bad as
the mind can conceive. I give
no details.
If crime, vice, despair,
suffering, filth and cruelty can
make a hell on earth, this is
one.
Then she came to the hall of
justice, where a single
Malaysian judge, quite a
young man, richly robed, sat in
an ebony chair. On a clear
day one can distinguish
between him and most
judges in the QE II.
He spoke loud and with much
rapidity and emphasis, and
often beat impatiently on the
floor with his foot.
A civil case took a long time,
and was adjourned, and the
aged claimant was so
exhausted with kneeling
before the judge, that he was
obliged to be assisted away
by two men.
That was followed by criminal
cases.
Then a guard led in by a chain
a prisoner, heavily manacled,
and with a heavy stone
attached to his neck, who
knelt with his forehead
touching the ground. There
was no Counsel, and no
witnesses, and the judge asked
but one question as he beat
his feet impatiently on the floor.
“Are you guilty?"
Isabella continues,
There is no regular legal
process, no jury, no one
admitted to plead for the
accused, and owing to the
way in which accusations are
made and the intimate
association of trial with bribery,
it is as certain that many
innocent persons suffer as it as
that many guilty escape.
It made Isabella’s heart bleed.
She noted:
Severe flogging with the
bamboo, rattan, cudgel, and
knotted whip successively, is
one of the most usual means
of extorting confession; and
when death results from the
process, the Magistrate reports
that the criminal has died of
sickness, and in the few cases
in which there may be reason
to dread investigation, the
administration of a bribe to the
deceased man's friends
ensures silence.
If justice was ever done, it was
probably by accident. She
added:
it is possible in some cases for a
criminal who is fortunate
enough to have rich relations
to procure a substitute; a
coolie sells himself to death in
such a man's stead for $100,
and for a week before his
surrender indulges in every kind
of expensive debauchery, and
when the day of dying arrives
is so completely stupefied by
wine and opium, as to know
nothing of the terror of death.
So much for Malaysian justice
during the Victorian era.
But in the 1960s the BBC
published Tales from the South
China Seas, edited by Charles
Allen, in which people who
had lived in Malaysia during
the last days of Empire, gave
their own accounts of life
there. One District Magistrate
had only one failing. When he
conducted a trial, he was
supposed to provide an
account of the evidence and
his findings. But if the accused
was found guilty, he simply
noted “Pleaded Guilty,” which
saved a lot of paperwork.
Another District Magistrate had
an experience which I quote
as a Cautionary Tale, against
the time when court
proceedings are televised. He
sat at a table covered with a
green baize cloth, which
reached to the ground. One
very hot and sticky day he
had an insufferable itch in his
nether regions. He undid the
top button of his trousers and
had a quiet scratch. The itch
persisted; he undid the
second button, and repeated
the performance. Bliss. Finally
he undid the third button, and
was just enjoying a really
luxurious scratch when he was
aware that little boys inside the
court were dancing up and
down, shrieking with glee. The
Clerk of the Court turned
round, and with a face of
horror told the District
Magistrate that the green
baize cloth had been taken
away for cleaning.
Justice should not only be
done, it should be seen to be
believed.
Dick Hamilton
Isabella Bird
Contract & Commercial
Update
This course will
provide practitioners with an update on case
law and legislativee
developments over the last year. Covering:
Edwards v Ashik [2014]
EWHC
2454
on
fraudule
nt
misrepresentation
Polypearl Lt
d v Eon
Energy Solutions [2014] EWHC 3045 on
direct and indirect
loss
Ramsey v Lo
ve [2015] EWHC 65 on execution of
guarantees
Thwaytes v S
otheby's [2015] EWHC 36 on the
standard of
care expected of specialists
Barclays v G
rant Thornton LLP [2015] EWHC 320
on
disclaimer of liability
by auditors
Watts v Watt
s (unreported) 21 August 2014 on illegality
defence
on Friday
20th
November 1.30pm - 4.45pm
CPD 3
Venue: Liverpool
Law Society, 2nd Floor Cotton Exchange,
Bixteth
Street, Liverpool, L3 9LQ
To see the
full seminar details or to book, visit:
www.liverpoollawsociety.org.uk