NATIVE COURT: CATECHIST FINED ONE PIG FOR DEFAMING VILLAGE CHIEF

 first draft:  Thur 3 Mar 2016

PENAMPANG. A catechist from a semi-remote village here was ordered to pay a customary fine or “sogit” of one pig or in default RM500.00 for defaming his own village chief.

 

District Chief Bryan Matasing together with Native Chiefs Andrew S Lidaun and Woritus Paulus unanimously found after investigating the complaint that the defendant had breached the native adat Part VI, Section 36 of the Native Court Enactment 1992/1995. They gave their verdict also based on admissions by the defendant himself.

 

According to the facts of the case the catechist had accused the plaintiff via SMS that, he had damaged the villagers’  source of living, had lied to several villagers, had lied to the Park’s Rangers and would soon be arrested.

The defendant also told the plaintiff that whatever said via fast messaging system cannot be stored in the cellphone, a statement he admitted not knowing what that meant !

 

When the village chief called him to his house to discuss his messages, he answered that he is too busy carrying wild boar out of the jungle, which was later found to be untrue.

 

The catechist also told members of the church that he will not bother to attend any native court hearing until the third summon is issued.

 

In his defence, he said he was awarded a small contract from the Sabah Parks clearing the boundary but the plaintiff wants half of it. However he could not reply if the plaintiff had demanded or actually took half of the works.  When he denied making some of the statements, the bench also read all the messages he sent to the plaintiff’s cellphone after confirming the phone numbers.

 

In his concluding remark, the District Chief request that village leaders should work together to unite their people while carrying out their separate duties. He reminded both parties that the payment of “sogit” is a peace making process however any party who is not satisfied with the verdict can appeal to the District Native Court within 60 days. The defendant faced 1 month jail if he refused to pay the fine.