Blog Everyday May, Day 2: The Jury System

Day 2, Thursday: Educate us on something you know alot about or are good at. Take any approach you'd like (serious and educational or funny and sarcastic)

So today I shall be a little bit academic but I shall talk about the jury system and how it would apply to the Malaysian context. Now as you may or may not know the last set of jury trials in Malaysia were held in 1993/1994 for capital punishment offences and since then they have been abolished in the Federation. What are jury trials you might be wondering?

Basically the idea behind the jury is that we are judged by our fellow peers and citizens. So 12 lay persons are summoned to court based on the electoral roll and are sworn in to be the decider of the facts of the case in criminal cases. The idea is that this would put the power of the courts in the hands of the people and be a more democratic process. The jury will only decide and listen to the facts and all legal arguments are excluded from them, with juries being called to leave the room whenever a point of law is raised by an advocate or the judge. The judge in this case has no say in whether he can declare an accused person guilty or not guilty and that power lies solely in the jury whom will vote on that matter. The judge may merely direct the proceedings and deliver the sentence and punishments based on whether guilt is established by the jury.

Now once upon a time I was a strong proponent of the jury system in Malaysia to be restored. The main issue I always felt wrong with Malaysia was how judges seemed to have far too much vested interests and always seemed to be tampered by the government of the day in Malaysia. A jury system would make it harder for a single judge to condemn defendants charged on a political basis and would allow for a stronger say within the community and Rakyat. I'm refer you to the Anwar trials as an example.

Since then, I have examined the workings of the jury system in the UK and noted some of its plus points and failings. The jury system works here in UK for a number of reasons. The first is that most citizens by and large in this country speak a unified language that is English. Contrast this with Malaysia where you have people being predominantly English, Malay, Chinese or other linguistic users which could cause problems when a case is dealt with at court. The varying levels of affinity a juror may have to a language may affect his understanding of what on earth is going on and may lead to him being unable to judge a case effectively or justly. Long story short, Malaysia is too divided on the language issue.

Secondly, generally for the most part most citizens in the UK have adopted a predominantly Western secular culture. The issue then arises where Malaysia is incredibly diverse in its cultural norms and is especially divided by religion. So suppose where there is a case involving sexual offences for instance, there may be a divide between what is acceptable behaviour amongst muslims and non muslims and what is deemed moral and immoral. You then have a jury that may be split on these issues, rendering an ineffective verdict.

Thirdly, the general education levels of the lay population in the UK still seem to be relatively high in comparison to Malaysia. Whilst we are rapidly having an urbanised and educated population, a good proportion of the country is still rather ignorant and quite frankly not entirely educated to an adequate and competent level. This may include a substantial population of the older generation as it stands as well. As such, I would wager that the common person may be unable to understand the issues at hand and deliver a verdict objectively or in an informed manner. I wouldn't trust my very freedom to a potentially uneducated crowd of highly emotive people.

Fourthly, I think one major issue amongst Asians especially back home is the presumption of immediate guilt as well. As soon as someone is captured by the police and put on trial, the public back home has a tendency of assuming that the accused is already in the wrong and have judged him as so. They would probably not give fair consideration to the defense case and may just presume from the start that the defendant is already guilty and vote based on that.

And there we have it, my basic reasons as to why a jury system is untenable in Malaysia. I could go on further but I'm not trying to write a thesis here. Feel free to dispute my findings at any time.