Malays cry foul over swift identity exposure injustice – is there a basis for their emotional outburst?

 

MALAY netizens have taken the cops and the media to task for having no qualms exposing the identity – whether in names or faces – of wrongdoers from their community but “will go at great lengths to cover up” that of other races.

Interesting enough, there were two court cases yesterday (June 3) where they claimed “are shrouded in double standards”.

The first was that of trader Asrizal Hisham Khalid, 43, who pleaded not guilty at the Kuala Terengganu Magistrate’s Court to a charge of dangerous driving that caused the death of 18-year-old Wah Han Keong oat 3.36pm on May 19. He was charged under Section 41(1) of the Road Transport Act 1987.

Recount that the accused who was driving a Volkswagen GTI dangerously on Jalan Losong Feri had rammed into a TNB pole which then crashed into the Nissan Vanette van carrying Han Keong and his father, Wah Tee Tun, 49.

The former who was a brilliant pupil had his head severed from the impact of flying TNB pole and was pronounced dead at the scene.

A check at the Harian Metro’s Facebook post which ran the court case showed that while many commenters were furious at the accused for his reckless driving, there was one agitated netizen who groused as to why “there is no hesitation whatsoever to expose the name and even age of Malay offenders”.

“If this happens to a Chinese, names wouldn’t be mentioned for months as in the case of the elderly Chinese man who caused the death of a food delivery rider (he was caught on dashcam speeding and zig-zagging),” lamented the commenter.

“This is even worse because the one you hit is the head of the family, hence pity his wife and children.”

Thankfully, another commenter schooled the netizen for his shallow understanding of the law.: “During remand detention, names cannot be revealed. Only when the prosecution is done can names be revealed.” Others chided him for inciting racial sentiment and slander.

Editor’s Note: There is no denial that media restrictions such as gag orders or unwritten publishing conventions routinely prevent the publication of a suspect’s identity, name or identifiable photos prior to formal charges.

This protection is rooted in the presumption of innocence, thus ensuring that individuals on remand who have not been officially charged are not subjected to a trial by media.

However, because these protections operate primarily as media guidelines rather than automatic, blanket statutory bans (unless a specific court order like a gag order is issued), publishers and media outlets may still blur faces or redact names during the remand stage to avoid legal complications.

Case #2

This brings us to the lambast of rightist Randuk 3.0 who hit out with this observation that the media went at great lengths “to censor” the face of the ‘surviving brother’ in the Simpang Renggam accident whereby a family of four perished but have no qualms to expose “the young stressed Malay mum who threw her baby from the 10th floor”.

The poster was referring to the case of Nuran Batrisya Jamaludin, 22, who pleaded guilty at the Johor Bahru Sessions Court to causing the death of a newborn baby. She is believed to have thrown him from the 10th floor of a Program Perumahan Rakyat (PPR) flat on May 20.

Still single and unemployed, Nuran has applied for bail on the grounds that she needed to take care of another baby who was a twin to the baby who died in the tragic incident.

Well, the aforementioned rule of thumb (on the Editor’s Note) applies but it is certainly not easy to stop netizens from comparing cases as each differs in considerations and discretions.

Or even to outrightly claim double standard treatment, notably with  political slur that “Malays are being suppressed in their own land”. 

- Focus malaysia