Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong has lamented being made a punching bag over unhappiness at the conviction of a woman who hit a group of teenage bicyclists riding on a highway in the early hours of the morning, causing the death of eight.
Wee was responding to reports in the Chinese press highlighting criticisms levelled against him on his Facebook page.
Wee, who is the MCA president and Ayer Hitam MP, stressed there the concept of separation of powers and judicial independence.
"Any decision by the judiciary must be respected and cannot be interfered with.
"You can disagree with the court decision, you have a right to express your feelings but you have no right to curse others.
"Any doubts should go through an appeal in the courts, making Wee Ka Siong a punching bag will not help," he said in a Chinese statement on Facebook.
Among the criticisms against him, Wee noted, are complaints that the parents of the children were not charged for negligence.
Tougher punishment
However, Wee pointed out that enforcement matters are powers that lie with the police.
As a lawmaker, Wee said he had pushed for tougher punishment for driving under the influence and also bicycle offences under the Road Transport Act 1987. The amendments were passed in 2020.
Wee noted that Sam Ke Ting's application for leave to appeal her conviction at the Court of Appeal will be heard next Monday and he wished her all the best.
He also urged people to behave rationally.
The Johor Bahru High Court on April 13 overturned Sam's acquittal and sentenced her to six years in prison and an RM2,000 fine for reckless driving which caused the death of eight teenagers in 2017.
Eight teenagers killed
On Feb 18, 2017, eight cycling youths died, two others were critically injured and six more were slightly injured when the car Sam was driving rammed into them in the 3am incident.
Those who were killed in the incident were Mohamad Azrie Danish Zulkefli, 14; Muhamad Shahrul Izzwan Azzuraimie, 14; Muhammad Firdauz Danish Mohd Azhar, 16; Fauzan Halmijan, 13; Mohamad Azhar Amir, 16; Muhammad Harith Iskandar Abdullah, 14; Muhammad Shahrul Nizam Marudin, 14 and Haizad Kasrin, 16.
In 2019, magistrate Siti Hajar Ali acquitted Sam without calling her to the stand after finding that the prosecution had failed to prove a prima facie case.
In her judgment, Siti Hajar said the court took into consideration several factors, namely that it was a dark, hilly and winding road where the driver - who was not local to the area - could not foresee that there would be a group of cyclists on the road at 3am.
The magistrate added that the bicycle group had put themselves in danger.
Siti Hajar said investigations found that Sam was not under the influence of alcohol, was not using her phone, and wore a seatbelt while driving, proving that the accused was driving responsibly and carefully.
Acquitted again
Siti Hajar acquitted Sam again in 2021 when the High Court ordered the plaintiff to enter her defence. The magistrate said that the prosecution had failed to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.
However, High Court Judge Abu Bakar Katar ruled that the magistrate’s court had erred in not ruling on the 27-year-old’s defence that she did not see the teenagers and that a different vehicle had hit and run the group.
Sam had also given an unsworn statement from the dock for her defence, which carries less weight compared to a sworn statement. - Mkini
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