PENAMPANG. The Native Court here found a 32-year-old mechanic and his 19-year-old companion and a fresh school leaver guilty of “mianu-anu”under Part III, 10(1) under the Native Court Enactment 1992. Their illicit affair resulted in the birth of a baby boy which is now 4 months old.
District Chief Christopher Mojungkim, Native Chief Andrew S Lidaun and Village Head Michael Sigawal were unanimous in their verdict and fined them a total of RM 7000.00 consisting of sogit of two heads of livestock (RM3000) for the wife as plaintiff, a full cost of RM2500 for a water buffalo as “Kepanasan Kampung” (appeasement of the village), one pig (RM500) for sogit to the three children and court cost of RM1000 (after the mechanic begged for a reduction) of which RM300 is to be paid by the companion as second defendant.
According to the facts of the case, the wife filed the case at the Native Court upon discovering her husband’s secret affair with her young cousin whom he would fetch from school and brought her out for a date. It was wrongly report on February 21, in Daily Express that the girl was the cousin of the husband instead of the wife’s cousin.
The mechanic and his wife married under the native tradition and their marriage certificate were registered on 6 April 2002 at the Native Courts of Penampang. They have three children aged 2 years and six months, nine and twelve.
In mitigation, the husband had given the court a quotable excuse that the girl’s pregnancy “was not requested, not planned and not done on purpose” and signed with his thumb prints, however failed to impress the native judges. He has now decided to marry the girl who is a muslim which will initiate another divorce proceedings by the wife who has declared to the court that she and her three children will remain firm as Christians.
The court gave the mechanic 14 days to pay all the fines or face 6 months jail while the girl faced 1 month jail if she fails to pay her RM300 court cost fine. He can also appeal within 60 days however was advised that since he had admitted his offence during the proceedings, appealing may aggravate his case.
After the verdict and fines were read, the mechanic pleaded to be given more time to pay the fines and asked if he can give a cow instead of RM2500 for the village. The court allowed that a cow and not a calf is acceptable since it is also considered as one head of livestock and he may delivered the whole cow to the village head who will then issue a receipt.
Outside the court, the village head and the father of the plaintiff who were both present for the verdict informed that they will carry out the ritual sacrifice of the cow and the pig in accordance to the practices of the natives when the mechanic has honoured his promise.
Case Title : Secret Liaison of Husband with the cousin of his wife
Plaintiff: Wife from Kg Madsiang
Date of Hearing: 18 Nov 2013
Plaintiff Plea: Request the Native Court to settle her case, punish the husband if found guilty.
Briefs of the Case: ( names will not be mentioned due to underaged involved)
The plaintiff appeared incapable of making her statements and had to be coaxed by the judges.
She informed that they have 3 children, 2 are already schooling
The husband is a self employed mechanic who had a baby born early this year to a schoolgirl and her cousin. She initially claim to maintain affection for her husband.
Her cousin is a moslem while she is a Roman Catholic.
She told the court that should her husband be forced to marry the girl and convert to Islam, she will definitely not follow in the conversion and if forced to divorce the husband due to this, that she will claim both compensation, maintenance and custody of all the children. The judges have to coax her if she also wanted to have alimony for herself.
In response, the husband simply admitted to everything said by his wife and said nothing else. He signed the statement both with a pen and a right hand thumbprint.
Later the Ketua Kampung also informed the judges that he had seen the husband with the student before and warned them not to play with "fire",
( he said saya nasihat mereka jangan main api, but really they did "main api" after all, and sadly in local malay idiom, "main api" means to have illicit sex) This also prompted the judge to count the months from the month of the birth of the child and the month when the ketua kampung gave them the advice, and concluded that his advice was too late, that the stomach was already filled with a baby !!)
This case was postponed to a later date in order to summon the other woman (student) as second defendant.
THE father of the plaintiff also informed this reporter that he had already made a police report against his son in law and after this case is dealt with in this court there will be another charge of Statutory Rape against his son in law.
UPDATE: Hearing on 6th Dec 2013.
The defendant and schoolgirl was unable to be present in court on time because they travelled in the morning all the way from Kota Belud.
The panel of judges waited until 10 am and then recorded a postponement to a later date in January 2014.
Half an hour later, the defendant and schoolgirl arrived outside the courtroom door but the judge has already left the building. However, he managed to talk to the two ladies who are village chiefs of different kampungs and also acted as members of the panels. The defendant informed them and this reporter that they were stucked in a flooded road between Inanam and Menggatal and their vehicle broke down and had to call for assistance. Also he had called the handphone of the Village Chief from Kg Madsiang who passed the hphone to his father in law.
However, the father in law did not inform the court of his predicament during the morning hearing while the Kg Madsiang village chief did not attend the hearing.
Thus the defendant remarked to this reporter that the Ketua Kg of Madsiang is biased because he is related to his father in law.
The lady ketua kampung suggested to him to stay in Penampang during the next hearing instead of travelling all the way from Kota Belud while this reporter adviced him that he should have called the official number of the admin section of the native court instead.
HEARING CONTINUED ON 20 JAN 2014
More particulars on 1st defendant: Born in 1982 - 32 y.o. mechanic
2nd defendant from Kg Kasau Minansud Kota Belud now 19 yr o.
Plaintiff was again put in witness dock for more questions. She said:
Her children were aged 12 yrs, 9 yrs and 2yrs 5 months ( one girl)
If husband marries the moslem girl, she cannot do anything because he would automatically divorce me as a wife as she is RC and would never wants to convert to another religion including her children and would accept the consequence that the three children will never be able to inherit any properties of the father. She is already too lazy to investigate if her husband had married or not the other girl.
Her husbands workshop business at Madsiang is already closed, still got licence but no clients.
If divorced, she will still asked for maintenance as there is no one else to feed the children.
Defendant 1 inside the witness dock:
Judge repeat part of his previous testimony that the affair is true and not denied. When asked what why and what purpose, the defendant replied with the classic statement:-
"Bukan diminta, bukan dirancang dan tidak disengajakan."
He said he only pitied the student at that time.
Judge asked him if he pitied his own wife and 3 children and whether he can control his lust (nafsu). No answer.
He claimed he regretted what happened and wish to take care of both women.
Claims he had not planned to marry the girl due to different religion and at the moment still has not converted to Islam but when he is with the girl, they lived in the same house like husband and wife. Sometimes go back to Madsiang to stay with the legal wife.
If possible he wants both the women.
Married for 12 years with the legal wife
At present he had not made any decision because have not discussed with the girl's parent and needs more time to get confirmation once he meets the parents.
So the court decided that one month time will be given.
Next hearing will be 19 feb 2014, 9 am
Before that Testimony form girl taken from the witness dock:
She confirmed that the affair occured and that she gave birth to the baby boy which is now 2 months old and currently being taken care by the mechanics parents.
He plans were to "mau jalan sendiri" or continue with her own life and do not really wants to get married to the man and do not want any more relations.
Initially my father wants me to get married since I already bore a child but at present we still have not married yet.
It was the mechanic who planned to have a wedding but now not confirmed.
( at this point of testimony, the plaintiff pointed her fingers to her head)
She also said that the mechanic still wants to go to her house to be with her.
Judge then adjourned the hearing to 19 Feb 2014.
HEARING Continued on 19 Feb 2014 as planned.
Again plaintiff was put into the witness dock;
Again confirmed she and her children will not want to convert to Islam even if the children cannot inherit anything from the father, but demands maintenance for the children. She also informed that her parents in law could not care less what her husband is doing, dont want to be involved, however the court informed her that she can take this issue privately with her parents in law as the court is only looking into the secret affair issue.
She was warned not to be in contempt of court for her previous outburst that the court was taking too long to settle this case. ( she signed the statements)
The first defendant (mechanic) again placed in the witness stand.
He was asked if after the one month break if he had met with the girl's parent.
He instead asked the court if true that if he converts to Islam, that his children are still allowed to be given his properties, the court replied that he should go and seek confirmation with MUIS himself.
He informed the court that the girls parent gave the following conditions:
If he goes back to his legal wife, ok but he has to pay all the expenses incurred by the daughter and full maintenance for the baby. If he wants to marry her also allowed meaning the girls parents now wants the mechanic to make the decision. However he said that the girls parent dont consider her their daughter anymore because of her accidental pregnancy.
Meanwhile he claimed that his wife do not want to accept him as a husband anymore because her parents scolds her if she returns to their marital home.
If I go back to the wife, she always raised up past issues and will be in argument over that. So I cannot go back because the whole of wifes family now hates him and even rammed my car.
If we divorced he said, I wanted his 3 children to be given the freedom of choice to be with him or the wife. However the judge said that they are only hearing the issues of his secret affair and not a divorce petition.
The question is whether the affair and pregnancy was done on purpose or not.
Having nothing else to say, mechanic signed his statement with his thumbprint.
Verdict set on 14 March 2014 because the mechanic is busy looking for a new place to stay.
VERDICT: as on 14th March, 9:30 am
Panel reading the verdict
District Chief: Christopher Mojungkim
Native chief: Andrew Lidaun
Village Chief: Michael Sigawal
Facts taken into account of judgement:
1. First defendant admission that the baby is his
2. Regret his action but claimed it was not planned
3. The girl is still not married and had just left school
4. Allowed to see the parents of the girl by the court
5. If the defendant returns to his own wife, he has to take full responsibility of the expenses of the girl and baby
Facts and statement from 2nd defendant (girl) is effectively the same
The panel thus find both defendants guilty of offence against the native adat. The fines are:
1. Under section 3 (10) mianu anu = 2 ekor kerabau (RM 3000)
2. Appeasement for village = 1 full cost of buffalo (RM2500)
3. Sogit for 3 children of his own: = 1 pig (RM500)
4. Court cost discounted to RM1000 from 1500.
(defendant 1 pays rm800, defendant 2 pays rm700)
TOTAL: RM 7000.
14 days to pay or face jail of 6 months, 1 month for the girl
Can appeal but was advised that he had admitted the offence
Mechanic asked if he can give a cow instead of buffalo. Allowed provided it is an adult cow and can deliver to the ketua kampong Madsiang who will give a receipt.
Mechanic begs to give more time for payment and in installment.
Court adjourned. (bang bang)
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