Sodomy II: A perverse logic on experts' qualifications

'It appears that our prosecutors seem to have a tendency of doubting experts' qualifications from overseas.'

Prosecution: McDonald not a DNA expert

Sabahan: In advanced labs, actual tests are done by junior technicians. The chief scientist does not conduct tests, just as a financial director does not do actual audits. They only interpret results. Being senior, his qualifications were obtained donkey years ago. But that does not mean, he knows nuts about what is prevailing today.

It is similar to a doctor who obtained is degree 25 years ago and is now a consultant. This medical consultant, in the opinion of prosecutor Mohd Yusof Zainal Abiden, is now obsolete, just because his medical degree was obtained 25 years ago and since that time, medicine has progressed tremendously. What utter rubbish is being dished out in our courts.

Malaysian for Malaysia: Mohd Yusof asserts that Dr Brian McDonald's qualification obtained in 1992 is obsolete due to the developments in the field since.

By Yusof''s own perverse logic, young, recently qualified engineers and doctors are far better than those who have had 20-25 years of experience or more. Going by that logic, Yusof, you also should be replaced by a much younger lawyer who is more recently qualified.

Does Yusof not realise the field of sciences is constantly evolving and scientists are always keeping themselves up-to-date through science journals, conferences and seminars?

Rick Teo: I graduated in Sydney, Australia, in 1973. Does that mean my qualifications are obsolete when every year we are expected to keep abreast via seminars and courses in order to have our membership renewed every year as accredited professionals.

Naaah!: If Malaysia has never been colonised by British, then Dr McDonald is not an DNA expert!

I obtained my professional qualification 20 years ago, but now I am told that I am no better than my junior assistants who are doing paperwork for me to review and approve?

The prosecution only attacks the qualification of Dr McDonald, but that does not explain the weaknesses in the DNA tests.

Ong Guan Sin: It has started to feel like this is deja vu. Remember the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission lawyer (MACC) Abdul Razak Musa performing his tricks in the public court circus against renowned Thai pathologist Pornthip Rojanasunand?

Serina: That's right. The last time Dr McDonald conducted his own tests was in 2004? A scientist/physician/doctor who does not practise ceases to become one. So what we heard yesterday was a lecture by a 'retired expert' who goes round Asian countries putting other practising experts down?

Like the other Thai pathologist 'expert' in the Teoh Beng Hock case, only McDonald has a better hair do.

Wanderer: Our prosecutors seem to have a tendency of doubting experts' qualifications from overseas. At the Teoh Beng Hock inquiry it ended up with the Thai forensic expert humiliating the MACC lawyer.

Adelicia: Prosecutor Mohd Yusof just wants to show the world that Malaysia not only can re-write history, wipe off immigration records, but is also more advanced in the sciences and technology, having produced instant an 'astronaut'.

Jeremy Ng: Malaysia is really great. We now have senior officials, whose positions are attained through affirmative government policies, now questioning other experts' qualifications.

As the disputes are technical, we should be using other technical expert views for argument. But we claim to be the only experts, even though on the basis of international practices, our standard operating procedures are not complied with.

20121221Disaster: Yusof was trying to questioning a professional about his qualification while their own so-called experts whose standards are not even one-tenth of McDonald's. What the prosecutor is trying to do is to disqualify others based on our own half-past 'six experts'?

Henry Hock: This is normal for a cross-examiner (who has nothing to ask) to repeatedly cast doubts on an expert witness' qualification.

If he failed to state that it was his preliminary objection against the expert's qualification, then the DPP (deputy public prosecutor) cannot seek to throw out the whole testimony of the expert but merely try to persuade the judge that there may be error in some of the facts due to McDonald's lack of experience.

Hence, the judge must be wise to scrutinise the merits of the testimony rather than the lack of experience.

Government chemist Dr Seah Lay Hong may have strings of PhDs but it does not mean that highly qualified individuals do not make mistakes. Once a mistake in sampling the sperm is done, it is done. The burden of proof now shift back to the prosecutor to show accuracy of DNA testing.

By attacking McDonald's credentials would not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that testing was made appropriately.

Gandhi: McDonald has patently pointed out the incorrect and shoddy job of our experts. Instead of admitting the embarrassing mistakes that were made by our experts, the prosecutor goes on ad hominem attacks of the Australian.

Many of our professors at universities were qualified in the 60s and they are today churning out fresh graduates. Does that mean the professors are not fit to teach? Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were university drop-outs and they invented all the latest softwares and phones. The latest grads are taking orders from these university drop-outs.

It's the individual with integrity, ethics and moral that counts any time. Our experts surely have learnt that they can't simply get away by their answers in the court. Can you imagine - if this can happen to Anwar Ibrahim, then what's the fate of lay people?

These experts can condemn an innocent guy as criminal by their superficial knowledge. I shudder to think that. Accept the fact that Australia is not a third world nation. - Malaysiakini