The name Sam Ke Ting has been trending in Malaysia recently after she was sentenced to 6 years in jail and an RM6,000 fine for reckless driving that caused the tragic deaths of eight cycling teenagers in 2017. Five years since that fateful night, the case is now back in the limelight, with reactions being as divisive as when the case was first brought to the public attention.
While the issue is definitely a matter of public interest, it should ultimately be left to the Judiciary, with the accused potentially having one final appeal for the case at the appellate court. As reported by Malay Mail, her appeal is set to be heard on Monday (18 April 2022) and if it is granted, Sam may be allowed a stay of conviction.
Unfortunately, given the circumstances of the case, many have taken the opportunity to sensationalise the tragedy and worse, take advantage of the trial to gain political mileage. In relation to that, one particular commentary on the matter that stood out to me was from former Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Najib Razak.
Free Malaysia Today quoted Najib as accusing Pakatan Harapan (PH) of trying to politicise the tragedy and trying to ‘racialise’ the case. Though I agree with the former Prime Minister that the matter should not be politicised or racialised, there are several things that are inherently off about his statement.
Firstly, the accusation holds no merit as there have been no prominent PH leaders portraying the case in a racial context. Secondly, the statement reeks of hypocrisy as the very tragedy has been politicised since day one by none other than UMNO.
Perhaps the Member of Parliament (MP) for Pekan has forgotten the infamous statement by his party president regarding the case during the Tanjung Piai by-election in 2019. A Malaysiakini report on the matter quoted Zahid Hamidi as saying this to a full crowd during a ceramah:
“When eight children playing on their bicycles in Johor were hit by a woman (driver), that woman was released as though there was no evidence… Those children have died, they have become arwah,”
Following the statement, a crowd member then called out for the accused to be hanged. Where was Najib’s voice to not politicise and racialise the issue then?
Furthermore, during the same ceramah, Zahid alleged that the accused was acquitted in 2019 because then Attorney-General Tommy Thomas was ‘protecting’ her as well as suspects in another tragic incident, the death of firefighter Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim. The UMNO president was quoted as saying,
“The law appears to be made to protect them. The laws are lopsided and the laws are only used against those on this stage who are considered political foes, including me,”
However, in his recent statement, Najib questioned why didn’t PH blame Thomas for filing an appeal after the court had decided to acquit Sam for the first time in 2019. So, was the former Attorney-General protecting her as alleged by Zahid or was Thomas persecuting her by filing an appeal to her acquittal as alluded by Najib? UMNO can’t fully make up their minds it seems.
Besides that, another thing that many have glossed over is the fact that UMNO has spent RM350,000 to help sue Sam for the case, as reported by Berita Harian. On 6 May 2017, then Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin through UMNO Johor presented a cheque replica to a law firm representative which would help the families of the Basikal Lajak teenagers to take legal action against the accused.
The RM350,000 amount was meant to cover legal fees as well as assist in the medical fees for eight teens that were injured during the same incident. However, the way the cheque was presented made it look like the total amount was just for the legal fees, as that was the detail written on the cheque replica.
Two years after the cheque presentation and after around one year of civil litigation, both parties agreed to settle the matter outside of court in 2019. Sinar Harian reported that the civil suit ended with the insurance company covering the accused agreeing to pay an undisclosed compensation amount for the damages incurred during the tragic incident.
However, while UMNO clearly sided with the Basikal Lajak teens, their Barisan Nasional (BN) partner MCA did the opposite by recently standing up for the accused. As reported by The Star, MCA’s Legal Affairs Bureau chairman Datuk Tay Puay Chuan announced on 14 April 2022 that his team is offering legal assistance for Sam and will contact her family to make the necessary arrangements.
Surely, if PH offering legal assistance in this infamous case can be deemed as politicising the issue, then the actions of both MCA and UMNO should also be deemed the same? In fact, one can even cynically argue that the contradicting actions of the two BN parties are a classic act of ‘playing both sides’ to gain political mileage.
Nevertheless, it is the prerogative of any individuals or entities to offer legal assistance to whomever they want. However, in my humble opinion, it is best for all political parties to withhold from trying to gain any mileage from this issue. For that, I agree with the statement by MCA president and Transport Minister Dr Wee Ka Siong that any judgment of the law must be respected and must not be interfered with (though, he should be telling his fellow party members that too).
Jamie is a content writer under Headliner by Newswav, a programme where content creators get to tell their unique stories through articles and at the same time monetize their content within the Newswav app.
Register at headliner.newswav.com to become one of our content writers now!
Newswav is solely an aggregation platform and hosts the content. The views expressed and content above including media (pictures, videos, etc) were provided by the author. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.