MALAYSIA BOLEH!

Published: Friday December 3, 2010 MYT 12:48:00 PM

Bi-Anne custody battle: Mediation through video conferencing

By M.MAGESWARI, The Star Online

PUTRAJAYA: A 11-year-old girl caught in the custody battle between her father and mother will have her case mediated through video conferencing at the court as her mother is abroad.

Court of Appeal judge Justice Low Hop Bing said he wanted the mediation process to result in a win-win situation to parties involved in the custody case.

"The most important is the interest of the child (Low Bi-Anne). It is the welfare of the child as to what she deserved, that is the primary concern," he told the court Friday.

Lawyer K. Bowanes, who acted for the girl's mother London-based restaurant manager Tan Siew Siew, said her client could not be present in the appellate court Friday as she had exhausted her leave.

Justice Low, however, said the court wanted to know if Tan was prepared for mediation as it was a voluntary exercise to resolve the matter.

Bowanes said Tan, 37, was unable to attend the court proceedings Friday but her client could be available through telephone conversation.

Justice Low suggested video conferencing saying that it had been done in England and that the facility could be set up in Malaysian court.

"It is Malaysia Boleh, " the judge said causing the court to break into laughter.
Justice Low said the court could provide the facility without any cost to the parties.

"We have a video conferencing, at least every people will appear on screen. Every matter is full of emotion," he said adding that facial expression and body language were important in mediation process could be observed through the facility.

Lead counsel Sulaiman Abdullah, who represented the girl's father Low Swee Siong, applied to judge to speak to Bi-Anne saying that he had difficulty in convincing her to be present in court.

"Talk to her, just to say that she will be listened to," Sulaiman said.
Justice Low said he would definitely meet Bi-Anne, Tan and Low separately and agreed to meet the girl alone in chambers in the presence of his registrar.

"I will see them in private meeting as this kind of thing cannot be done inter-parte. There are three parties to be convinced, including the child," added the judge.

At this juncture, Bi-Anne, who was seated on her father's lap at the Bar table, cried and continuously wiped her tears using her jacket sleeve. Bi-Anne shook her head and refused to meet the judge.

Low's co-counsel Pushpa Ratnam tried to coax Bi-Anne but the girl pulled her father along. The court register and interpreter, Low and Pushpa accompanied the girl and left her to meet the judge alone.
The judge met Bi-Anne for 25 minutes and the girl came out smiling.

Justice Low set Jan 21 at 5pm for the video conferencing and granted an interim stay over the fine for the day.The couple married in 1999 and divorced in 2006 and custody of Bi-Anne was given to the father but two years later, Tan applied and won custody and Low was given reasonable access.

However, the order could not be executed because Bi-Anne refused to go to her mother.On Sept 13, Low, 40, who is a real estate negotiator, was cited by the Family Court for contempt of court and jailed for failing to pay a RM20,000 fine for not obeying the court order to hand over his daughter to Tan.

The Family Court ruled that Low would also be fined RM400 every day he did not surrender Bi-Anne or her passport.

Low is now appealing at the Court of Appeal against the contempt order and trying to stay the court orders that included granting Tan to take her daughter to Britain.Outside the court, Pushpa said Low would appeal to Court of Appeal president to get an early date to hear their stay application due to financial reasons.

Our Civil Courts should re-look into the current practice or system so that a more fair and balanced approach is used in providing child custody

Judges and Lawyers and Malaysia

Is there a thing such respect for kids. They have their own mind ok. And they know what is going to make them happy. You can only see that the girl's mother has money to feed her BUT you are forgetting that somehow someway the father has taken care of the girl for 11 years. He has kept her a live and also with love. Obviously he did not abuse here because any deaf person can see that she LOVES her father unconditionally. PLEASE think about the girl and her feelings. Think that she is going to school here in Malaysia now and she has friends in school and a loving father. IF you send her with the mother whom she has said she does not love then she is be struggling with her feelings, hating to go to school in UK, hating the weather there and hating UK maybe. Then who is going to listen to her. Her mother willbe busy working and if the mother has a bfriend then no time for the poor girl who is she going to turn to. Why can't you guys just respect her feelings. She is a human being come on she needs to be heard and don't push your feelings on her. Please listen to her. She is happy with the father. And the poor father is asked to pay fine for something he did not do. He did not leave the girl or abandon her then why ask him to pay fine.  He did not even get married la. What the ####..why punish him.

Ask the wealthy mother to pay maintenance for the girl and allow the girl to stay with her dad. That way the kid will be happy. Don't make it another case of 'making the kid suffer'.

I also want to say that I have two girls too and my kids don't want to go to their father. They always say that they want to stay with me and agree to see their father on occasions. aND WE ARE HAPPY. ... For once please listen to the poor girl and let her stay with the father and stop punishing the father.
Then it will be Malaysia boleh!

It is natural even in adopted child cases the feelings of the kids are important.

Wednesday December 15, 2010
Syariah judge gets 19 years’ jail
By SYLVIA LOOI
sylvia@thestar.com.my

IPOH: Perak Syariah Court judge Hassan Basri Markum was sentenced to a total of 19 years’ jail and fined RM210,000 after he was found guilty of seven corruption charges by the Sessions Court here.

He is the first Syariah judge to be sentenced for corruption.

However, as Sessions judge Tan Hooi Leng ruled yesterday that some of the sentences are to run concurrently, Hassan Basri, 56, will only need to serve 10 years in jail.

In passing judgment, Tan said the defence had failed to cast reasonable doubt on the charges against Hassan Basri.


Guilty of corruption: Former Perak Syariah court judge Hassan Basri Markum being escorted out of the Ipoh Sessions Court yesterday after he was sentenced to 19 years’ jail and fined RM210,000 over seven corruption charges. — SAIFUL BAHRI / The Star
”The court cannot accept the money was meant to pay off a loan,” she said.

Tan, however, allowed the defence’s application for a stay of execution pending an appeal and set RM5,000 (total RM35,000) bail for each charge.

As Tan was reading out her judgment, Hassan Basri’s wife Maznah Idris was seen sobbing in the public gallery.

Hassan Basri, who was charged under the Anti-Corruption Act 1997, was accused of:

> Soliciting a bribe of RM3,000 from Mohamad Imran Abdullah to release bail money to Yoong Hor Kit over several criminal cases at Restoran Wawa in Tambun at 8.15pm on Aug 15, 2007;

> Receiving the bribe in a car at D.R. Seenivasagam Park at 3.25pm on Sept 6 (over the case involving Yoong);

> Soliciting a bribe of RM1,100 to help Mohamad Asri A. Bakar marry Nor Farihan Hassan without going through proper procedures at the same restaurant in Tambun at 8.30pm on Aug 15;

> Agreeing to receive the bribe in a car at the Hillcity Hotel at 6pm on Aug 17 (in the case involving Asri and his girlfriend);

> Agreeing to receive another bribe of RM1,100 from Mohamad Imran to produce a marriage certificate allowing another couple, Mohd Jefri Afandi Ahmad and Nur Liza Musa to marry without going through proper procedures in a car at D.R. Seenivasagam Park at 3.20pm on Sept 6;

> Soliciting RM20,000 from Yoong Hor Kit, through Mohd Sharif Abdul Ghani, to release bail money and reduce sentences in several criminal cases at the Perak Shooting Asso­ciation building at Jalan Raja Dr Nazrin Shah here at 8.30pm on Aug 7, 2006; and

> Receiving RM10,000 from Yoong to release bail money and reduce the sentences on several cases at the same place on Aug 9, 2006, at 11pm.

In mitigation, defence counsel T. Shan appealed for a lower sentence as the accused had been jobless since he was charged.

”He is now working in a restaurant,” he said.

In pressing for a heavier sentence, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Com­mission (MACC) head of prosecution unit Datuk Abdul Razak Musa said the court must send a clear signal that corruption would not be condoned.

CHILDREN ARE BECOMING VICTIMS OF THE SYSTEM & ABOVE ALL THEY ARE THE VICTIMS OF CUSTODY BATTLES BETWEEN MOM AND DAD!!!

HOW ARE WE GOING TO STOP THIS FOR GOOD? HOW CAN ANYBODY STOP THIS IF THEY ARE BEING SELFISH AND THINKING OF THEIR OWN WELLBEING?

WHAT IS THE ROOT CAUSE FOR ALL THIS UNWANTED BEHAVIOR OF TODAYS ADULTS???