Penampang Native Court case no. 102/13 verdict date 8-7-2013

Small drama outside court after the verdict

Two elderly housewives and sisters (IM and SM) continued to have a spat outside the native court even after the verdict was given by the native judges.

These two sisters live in the same village as this blogger.

The Offence: Causing Fear and Threatening to commit harm

Verdict: The younger sister and defendant was found guilty as charged.
The judge informed that under Part2 Section 7 of the Native Courts Enactment, the maximum fine for this offence are:
1.  Sogit of two buffaloes (RM1500 each)
2.  RM 500 court cost
Failure to pay would be fined another RM300 and 1 month jail, and failure to pay this additional fine would incur further fine of one buffalo and another month jail.

However, the judge said the court is very considerate and humanitarian since the case is between two elderly sisters and fine the defendant only RM500 in court cost to be paid within 14 days.
He strongly advised both families to have a family party to patch things up and even commented further that being a family and elderly, they should always help one another in times of needs.

Also present in court was the Village Headman or Ketua Kampong.

FACTS OF THE CASE:
The argument started just because a grandchild of the elderly sister delivered a bottle of "montoku" or rice wine as requested by the younger sister's husband.
In the heat of the argument, the defendant had threatened to use her husband's shotgun to shoot somebody. The exact words as testified was "Saya tembak kau ".
One witness was the son-in-law of the plaintiff who is an indonesian.
Both the defendant and her son denied touching the gun but the son admitted hearing his mum yelling "saya tembak kau" ( I will shoot you).
Despite the gun was never touch, still the 5 policemen in two squad cars turned up to the house and took away the gun while advising the parties to make a police report.
Despite saying sorry during her own testimony, the defendant could not accept being fined making the judge retort that if she is not happy, she can go and appeal to the District Officer by filling a form at the clerical section of the Native Court. Until today it is not known if she did.

Although a simple case, the hearing still took 2 days starting from 14th June 2013 with several witnesses.

==============================================

Moral of the case:  Family should stick together and help one another even in the modern world instead of arguing over nothing. Also elderly parents have tendencies to be short tempered and intorelant probably due to ill health, therefore the children should understand and learn to take control over the situation and seek professional help if necessary.

Penampang Native Court Case 379/11 verdict date 27/3/2013

PENAMPANG NATIVE COURT VERDICT
Case No. 379/11, Date: 27 March 2013

Issue: Wife had secret sexual relation with another man or in Bahasa Malaysia "Hubungan Sulit" or in Kadazan "Mianu - anu"

The husband CG as plaintiff testified during an open hearing on 7/3/2013 at the Penampang Native Courtroom ( groundfloor Mini Secretariat Building) that: -
1. His wife had a secret relation with another man resulting in the birth of a third child which is definitely not his
2. He and wife have not lived together for 5 years due to irreconcilable differences.
3.  He has been away working in Tawau for the last 3 years
4.  He had continuously paid maintenance for his two daughters through the bank account of his mother in law, and the daughters are staying with his wife.
5. He was informed between Aug and Sept 2012 that his wife gave birth to another child and was confirmed by his mum in law and he does not know the surname of the child while his wife admitted that the child is not his.
6. He does not know the present occupation of his wife since she does not treat him as her husband any longer.
7.  He cannot accept the circumstances and will divorce his wife after the Native Court has disposed this case.

In response, the wife SJ simply admitted the statement by the husband as true, and that the child has no surname, but being raised by her as a single mother, and that she is in the process of getting a birth certificate through the National Registration Dept.

The second defendant, the other man also admitted that his secret relation lasted for 7 months, and did not receive the earlier summons by the native courts and also did not know that the woman was married.
DL admits he is a sino-kadazan and is aware of the customary laws of the natives.

After 20 days the native court announced their verdict: -

1.  Both defendants were guilty of "mianu-anu" under Section 10/3 of the native courts ordinance
2. The 2nd defendant (the other man) have to pay a "sogit" (appeasement) of 2 buffaloes (or RM3000) to the plaintiff
3.  Both defendant have to pay one buffalo (sogit) to the Ketua Kampung (village headman) or RM1500 to be spent by the ketua kampung for appeasement to the people of the village where this husband and wife used to live (practically they have a small party at the village community centre)
4. Both defendant pays court cost as follows
    first defendant RM500, second defendant RM1000
5.  The wife also pays sogit to her two children a total of RM500.

In summary, the other man had to pay a higher sogit totalling RM5000, while the wife have to come up with RM1500 only.

Payment must be made within 14 days to the Native Court, in default the wife can be jailed 1 to 2 months while the other man (2nd defendant) can be jailed 2 to 6 months.

The judge also warned the wife that until a formal divorce is finalised, she is still the wife and if she commits the same offence again, the sogit will be doubled.

******************************************
Moral of the case, all non-moslem men in Sabah better don't fool around with somebody's wife unless you are 100 percent sure she is free to marry again. !!
Note: applies to non-moslems only since moslems are under the jurisdiction of the Syariah Court. However the native court may still hear cases if one party is still a native and non-moslem.

Announcement of Blog Opening

Dear Readers,

I am just learning to do this blogging stuff. I have done some trial blog accounts in blogspot before but suddenly and without reason my account was terminated so I was grossly disappointed with the site.

Since google has this blogger facility and there seems to be an invitation, so I just try this out.

Also the contents of my future reports will be mostly stories from the Native Courts of Penampang open hearings which should be interesting to all natives of Sabah.

I will not mention names of plaintiffs and defendants but will refer to them with initials or labels because it is the case problems and how the native court judges (or WKAN and KAN) solves these people's made problems and the processes involved that is more interesting and may help all our local populations in future.

The structure of the Native Courts is as follows:

Head:  District Officer
Also serves as the first point of appeal if there is disatisfaction from the ruling by the Native Court.

Chief of Native Court Judge: Ketua Anak Negeri (KAN)
Members under him are called Wakil Ketua Anak Negeri (WKAN)
Also every Village Chief or Ketua Kampongs are considered members of the native court systems and they are usually called to attend the court hearings if the people involved comes from his village

At the time of writing, all members of the Native Court system are appointed through the politically elected members of the State Legislative Assembly or YBs as they are locally referred to and hence the Native Court is under the state administration as provided for in the Native Courts Ordinance that was introduced by the British Colonial Government.

That is all for now, if there are factual errors in my interpretation, you are all welcomed to comment.

Ozziewozzie, Penampang
Note: the 2007 is the year I first opened a youtube account and the name have now got stucked.