Milo theft case: Sign of the times?

Sellamah shouldn't have stolen, but she deserves some compassion.

COMMENT

As the government dips deep into our pockets with the GST and other taxes, we may be seeing more people resorting to theft to survive. Supermarkets have probably recorded an increase in shoplifting, and we must be prepared for more cases of food theft, like the recent one involving S Sellamah.

Sellamah pleaded guilty to lifting a 2 kg pack of Milo from KK Supermart & Superstore in Kuala Lumpur. She was jailed for one day and fined RM200 for the theft. In court, she pleaded with the magistrate for forgiveness, saying she was driven to committing the crime because her two-year-old child was pestering her for a drink of Milo.

That’s not a good excuse for shoplifting. Children need to know that they cannot have everything they want. If we were to buy all the things that our children pester us for, we’d soon be poor. And to steal to satisfy their wants is certainly wrong.

On the other hand, it was rather extreme for the supermarket to pursue the case up to the level of punishment by a court of law. If this was Sellamah’s first offence, wouldn’t it have been enough to get the police to issue her a warning? For some people, being spoken to and cautioned by police officers is enough to jolt them into straightening up.

Was there no one, perhaps from among the supermarket’s security division, who could talk to Sellamah to find out what drove her to theft? Did she steal because she’s too poor to buy food?

If she could not afford the RM33 needed to pay for the Milo, how would she find the money to pay the fine? She might have had to pay a babysitter to take care of her toddler, or perhaps her husband had to take time off from work to take care of the child while she was in jail. Whatever the case, the theft has cost her more than just RM200.

Wouldn’t it have been a more compassionate alternative to ask her to do community service instead of making her spend a day in jail and taking RM200 from her?

Worse, she now has a criminal record.

In a more compassionate justice system, there would have been a welfare officer in court when Sellamah was on trial. If it was found that she was a serial shoplifter or a kleptomaniac, she should have been sent for counselling. If it was found that she was too poor to feed her children, she should at least have been directed to a soup kitchen.

Perhaps Sellamah would not have needed to steal the RM33 packet of Milo if the Umno-Baru government had not been abusing the rakyat’s money for the past 40 years.

People in high places have lifted millions of ringgit from taxpayer funds and escaped arrest and punishment despite strong evidence against them.

What’s happened to “justice for all”?

Mariam Mokhtar is an FMT columnist.