Nothing But The Truth!

Years ago, me and my partner were having 39B DDA trial. During cross-examination sessions on a particular police expert witness, we asked this question :-

Defence : The reason why the Police had to sent the box to you for finger printing and dusting is that the police do not know who is the criminal in this case?

Witness : Yes I agree

Because of his answer, we opted not to proceed with more cross.

During Re-Examination by the DPP, the witness were asked on why he agreed with our question earlier. He gave all sorts of answers, from the procedures of finger printing and dusting to the procedure of matching the finger printing and so forth. However, these answer was not to DPP's satisfaction (of course it still shows the police do not know who is the actual criminal in this case).

The DPP then again rephrased the question in BM and in English and persistently trying to highlight the point that he wants to make. The Judge were also trying to help the DPP in explaining to the witness of what actually being asked by the learned DPP. It was a serious discussion and explanation made to this particular witness and it takes more than 15 minutes just the explain it to him. Then after a few minutes pause...

Witness : I think, the answer to that question can only be one answer! (with his serious loud voice).

Both me and my partner were stunned by the witness gesture. It seems that he had found the big answer that can be used by DPP against our question previously. I looked at learned DPP's face at that time and he is smiling at me showing his eyes full of satisfaction over his success in making his point in asking this witness and perhaps the witness's coming answer will definitely slashed the credible point that we have made during cross examination.

I also looked at the Judge on the bench and she looks firmly serious and preparing herself to listen attentively for the witness to answer the big question. Tension and stress were all in the air, and suddenly after few minutes of silent...

Witness : The answer to that question is....... that I AM THE EXPERT!

We all stunned with his answer and we all paused for a few second. Then we heard a big laugh from the bench and we all looking at the Judge who were like having the biggest laugh of all time.

Judge : I am sorry Learned DPP. The answer were so obvious!

Then, me, my partner and the DPP were having a long laughing sessions during the proceeding. Because of this answer, the DPP were not dared to asked further questions. But hey, the witness still there sitting firmly not knowing what are we laughing for. Talk about the truth in Court... I must give this witness the highest credit of his Truth, nothing but all truth!

Iban Terrorist

Dont get me wrong! This entry does not even reflect that Iban people are terrorist or what not. Neither do I brand the Iban people as terrorist. Its about one story that I want to share which I encountered during my chambering time in Kuching early year 2002.

I found that it is interesting to practise Law in Sarawak in particular comparing to Peninsular. We tend to meet all kind of people from different races. We all know that Sarawak had atleast 100 different races in culture and one of the most prominent and well-known is Iban. During my chambering time, I was assigned by my boss to handled one running down case (accident case) that involved a chinese family who are suing a chinese man. To my surprise, though having a chinese name, our client (the chinese family) were fluent and most of the time conversed ONLY in Iban language.

That case was fixed for full trial and I was directed to prepare a Witness Statement for this chinese family. Just for the record, in Sarawak, all court's documents were drafted and filed in English (unlike Peninsular). Obviously I am not chinese and neither do I understand or speak chinese. To make matter worst, the chinese family only spoke in Iban language which I do have no idea at all (maybe I can understand few words). These task of preparing the witness statement do gave me a lot of stress as it is futile attempt on drafting it while I could not be able to understand any words from them.

I informed by boss about it and he suggested me to asked my colleague who are one of the lawyer of the firm for some help, to which he agreed. Though he is not an Iban, but he adamantly admit that he can speak and understand Iban language. In fact, he even told me that the language is easy to converse. Without a slight doubt, I agree for him to help me to be my interpreter during the whole course of drafting the Witness Statement.

The questions and answers sessions begin where I asked the question and my colleague will interpret it in Iban language to the Chinese family. For the first 10 minutes, I realised that I have made some progress (though a bit, but its OK, I thought). Then for the next 30 minutes of the sessions, I even realised some peculiarity. It seems that whenever my colleague interpreting my questions to Iban language, I'm pretty much understand it.

I had this question playing in my mind at that time that I may actually understand Iban language. But then again, I realised that whenever the chinese family spoke back to my colleague responding to my questions, their Iban language seems harder to understand. I tried to hear my colleague interpretations in Iban language more attentively and carefully. For the next 5 minutes or so, I could barely hold it anymore and I excuse myself from the sessions and went to my office's kitchen and had a big laugh. Yeaaah.... SERIOUSLY I had a BIG LAUGH!

Few of the staffs were confused over my big laugh. They asked why. After settling down for couple of minutes, then I told them that my colleague are now helping me interpreting my questions to the chinese family into Iban language. The funny thing is that, I cant speak Iban and neither do I understand it. But I can understand every single Iban words coming out from my colleague mouth!!!!

After that incident, we all called him, "The Iban Terrorist" as obviously, his purported Iban language is actually a Sarawak Malay language hybrid with Iban accent. No wonder he said its easy.....

A Sad Day.. Elisa's version

It was sad to hear someone in the family just passed away. Since yesterday morning, I heard this news and this morning, another family member also passed away. Al-fatihah....

Last night, my mom and dad in law went to Majlis Tahlil. Since they are not home, Elisa were asking about it:-

Elisa : Pa, Mummy(my Mom in law) pegi siney?

Aku : Pegi tempat orang meninggal.

Elisa : Ah? Meninggal?

Then I realised, she do not understand what "meninggal" means.

Aku : Pegi tempat orang mati.

Elisa : Ooooo.. Mummy pegi sia buat apa?

Aku : Mummy pegi sia maok baca doa, baca Al-Fatihah.

Elisa : Ooooo.. Mummy nak, pegi sia nak, lepas baca bismillah, nya tiup orang ya.

Aku : Kenak nya tiup?

Elisa : Tiup laa.. lepas ya orang yang bangun dari tidur.

I guess, she must have misunderstood the whole concept of death. But anyway, she's only 3 years old, what more version do we expect for her to understand??