While I was in Parliament, my office regularly updated me on constituency issues, one of which is the proposed PJ “Sports City” development in SS7. Earlier this year, I gave my full support to the residents opposed to this development. I also sent a letter to PKNS to ask them for a clarification over the status of this project. Our office finally received a reply yesterday and true enough PKNS and Bayu Melati Sdn Bhd signed a joint venture in 2011 to develop this land for commercial purposes. Under the agreement, PKNS would be liable to pay Melati Sdn Bhd for any loss of profit should this development be cancelled. The Menteri Besar has yet to reply our letter on this issue.
The other case concerned an altercation in Desa Mentari. We were notified by the community leaders of Desa Mentari that a fight had occurred that resulted in the arrest of a 17-year-old boy named Ibnu Murkan. Our office conducted a thorough investigation on the matter by talking to all involved parties and the investigating officer.
What was peculiar to us was that despite numerous statements including one from the victim himself that young Ibnu wasn’t the perpetrator of the attack, he was nonetheless arrested. Our office was primarily concerned that there was no miscarriage of justice especially not one towards a 17-year-old boy and so we were shocked to find out that Ibnu was remanded in lockup for 5 days.
Yesterday my staff accompanied young Ibnu and his family to the Magistrates Court as support and to ensure that Ibnu would be released with no criminal record. He was released and paid a fine for minor misdemeanour. Though it is unfortunate that this young boy had to endure this entire process in the first place, which goes back to my point that there is a lack of fairness in the criminal justice system towards youthful “offenders”.
