On Power

 

During a constitutional law lecture by Prof Shad over a topic that I can no longer recall I remembered as a closing remark of the day’s lecture he repeated the oft referred to cautionary quote on power: Power is like wine. It goes to the head. Or something to that effect in that Indian twang of his.

The lecture was probably about powers and role of the YDPA (Yang DiPertuan Agong) in the government machinery. The quote seems fitting there. I think so. Far from being an absolute High (not that one) King of Malaysia he is bound by the Constitution to act upon advice, most of the time.  

I’ve never had and never will drink wine (I prefer sirap ais) for obvious reasons but I can surmise its meaning in relation to Power. Unlike sirap, once you have a taste of it, it is hard to let go. Calix meus inebrians indeed. You just want to keep on ‘’drinking’’.

The story of Power is as old as time and will continue so long as Man walks upon this Earth. Gilgamesh was a tyrant until Enkidu came out of the wilderness to knock some sense into him (The scribe who scratched the story on clay tablets thousands of years ago was probably shitting on his boss or his paramount ruler) just as much as Madey was until Bang Non came into the picture to do the same or rather until Bang Non turned on him.

History taught us countless of times the dangers of succumbing to the allure of Power that there is scarcely a need to name too many names. You know them. You have heard of them. Yet there are those who naturally gravitate towards Power and its accumulation despite all the warnings. These would be drunks. For them Power is about what you can do with it, not what you must not do with it. It is the sheer potentiality of Power that drives them. They are like a kid with a magnifying glass having discovered what concentrated sunlight can do to ants and anything flammable. You often see them as macais hanging around politicians before they too rose to the top of the dunghill to join the ranks of the smooth talkers, the wily and the bent (Re: Mat Jargon).

Then there are people like Stan Lee who preached the Tao of Peter Parker. That with great Power comes great Responsibility. How apt. It is because Power is a great responsibility that it should be split into pieces, not concentrated upon one person or body alone like the belief of the Romans of the early republican era. Ultimate Power should be broken up into pieces, into the two Consuls, the Senate and other public offices. Not only to avoid the emergence of tyranny, not out of jealousy but also so that each of us should know that we to certain extent, hold Power over our own fate. That there should be check and balance to Power. That having Power means the duty to be responsible to the fate those around and under us until that Power is passed on, or surrendered or Death takes us. The would be drunks often forget this fact. Most of us do. I don’t blame you. I don't blame them. Their cup makes them drunk. Just like it did to the Romans who exchanged their republic with an empire under Augustus Caesar (Princeps my ass!). Power. Ah, Power. Ever so alluring. Forever corrupting

Always we are of two minds. As much as we have the potential to be good, we have the same potential to be evil. Good and evil is in our choice every day but good is often the harder of the two choices. But Power makes the line between Good and Evil blurry. It makes Evil the convenient choice, the seemingly good choice. A teacher of mine once told me, doing good takes times. How true that is. Far easier to surrender to our tyrannical instincts of because-i-am-the-boss rather than to work at being a wise and just leader. Easier to keep silent and plod on mindlessly compared to stopping to admit that we are lost and to take bearings of our direction before trying again. 

That could be the cause. We do not want to wait. We think we have better things to do than wait in this day and age of instant things. We want it easy. We would rather post bullshit and phony pictures of our so called life on social media for the likes than to attend to the dangers of power and it attendant responsibilities as a practitioner. We want it easy. We fooled ourselves into thinking that it is easy. 

Maybe it is too much to expect one who has held power to return to his or her plow like Lucius Quinticus Cincinnatus, or even willingly share power in the name of farming out the responsibility like Marcus Aurelius did but a tall hope that would be. When Power had sunk its talons into you, there is no letting go or sharing willingly. Just look at Madey. Just look at Bang Non. Power is all consuming. 

Perhaps it is the way of the world. That for all good that we intended to do in the beginning, we all surrender to our baser desires and wants in the end because of Power. That we would rather be the hand that hold the whip rather than the hand that mends. That we would rather remain the fool wearing a paper crown than toil like the others because Power has inflated our ego to grotesque proportions.

Ah, Power. Never have I asked for you and now, I wash my hands of you. 

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On Memory and Forgetfulness

 

I cannot remember who or where I heard/read it but it was said that Man is the only being that thinks in three modes, the past, the future and the present. Ruminants only think in the present. When there is predator lurking in the shadows a ruminant would flee. When it is safe again, it would continue grazing. All thoughts of danger forgotten. Only chewing and more chewing of cud. On the other hand Man would see danger in the past, the present and the future. We are on the look out for danger constantly from past, present and the future. This is especially true when you are a practitioner. You can’t help it. It is what you are trained for. But, the line between vigilance and mere worry is a thin one and the price is anxiety and/or hypertension.

We rush for the future but often we look back in the past hoping to not repeat the same mistakes, to avoid the hole we fell in once but in doing so we are blind of what is in front of us right now. Our children wanting our attention, maybe a bedtime story or two, a walk in the park. Our wives wanting no more than to hold hands, a hug (I think. Who knows what a woman wants, really) Our aging parents needing nothing more than our company. Our beat-up body wanting rest. Our tired minds begging for some activity other than work. We are prisoners of thoughts and worries of the future.

Ah, to hell with the future. The future is yet to be written, all we have is the present to live in, in preparation for the future. We often forget that. I often forget that. I write now not about the present or the future but of the past. About memories both good and bad. About the irony of remembering (for me at least).

I’ve been working my way through The Liar’s Club, A memoir by Mary Karr, poet, essayist and memoirist. Like most books I read, I came upon it entirely by accident while trawling through old yellowing books at my local Books for Better World. Wasn’t really looking for it but I knew of Mary Karr previously when I picked up Lit (by accident), also by her at The Curve’s Borders bargain bin almost a year earlier. Lit was such a blast to read so when I saw The Liars Club sitting there with its cover coming off, I had to get it. While Lit was about Mary’s attempts to get herself published, her marriage and its dissolution, her single motherhood and her battle with the bottle and her final grudging acceptance of Catholicism. The Liar Clubs was about Mary as a little girl growing up in Texas witnessing her parent’s slow drift and eventual separation and her mother’s gradual descent into alcoholism. Reading that, it made perfect sense. There was a morbid symmetry on why Mary turned out the way she did in Lit.

Having been more than halfway through The Liar’s Club reinforces my suspicion that bad, traumatic memories can be as sharp as knives and cuts just as real. Sometimes there is no helping it. They keep on replaying in your head no matter what you do until time and space (and maybe some help) wash them away. All we can do is learn from it and try, try to remind ourselves that it is in the past and not let it be the chain holding us back. We try. Sometimes we succeed. Sometimes we do not.

There are those who say that the trauma and pain you had suffered can be harnessed to drive you. Mary Karr certainly did. For the rest of us? Maybe. They say the same thing about anger being a great driving force. I have my doubts. One sure thing I know about anger is that it is tiring. But that is just me. I could be wrong. Maybe it is all about perspective, on how we choose to frame things, memories included.

Memories too can be our soothing balm, a warming presence deep within us when all seems cold, when you are at the lowest. Thinking of them reminds us for a brief moment that it is not all bad. That things have been okay once and will be okay again. Things like the feeling when we took our first bicycle ride with the training wheels off, listening to our grandfather’s jokes or the memory of our grandmother in her kitchen realm serving up dishes that fed generations, our day at the beach, our first date with our significant other, the memory of a teacher encouraging you to keep on reading, going on the stage for that school award, our goofy pet cat being stuck and finally un-stuck from the drain two sizes too small for him or a simple family dinner where all family members are present and where life was simpler.

Maybe that is why when we listen to tunes from our days of youth, we can to certain extent remember how it feels during those days. Maybe the heart remembers what the head can forget.

Memories can make or break you as a person but as powerful we would like to think it to be, it is at the same time fragile. Liable to be forgotten. Maybe due to old age or just plain passage of time where those who were there and remember are long dead. Then comes the question: Is forgetfulness a gift or a curse upon the living? The lawyer in me whispers: it depends (diam lah) but the vanilla old me does not really believe that to be the truth. I’ve seen what dementia had done to my grandmother before she passed away. From asking for my name and when I am to have children despite having my wife and two boys in tow every time and to constantly ask my mother to prepare lunch or dinner for my long dead Grandfather and yet, not once she ever forgot to ask if I have had my meal. Even as old age take you, some things you remember. Heartbreaking? To me to those who was there, certainly but to her?

Likewise with my late Grandfather (on my father’s side) who was a former copper. My uncles and aunts told me once that during his service despite his modest rank he was the go to person for PO’s (Prosecuting Officers) when it comes to criminal law. Towards the end of his life he was bedridden with the attendant tubes and bags, barely lucid. No longer recognizing anyone. When I came to visit after a plea in mitigation at the nearby state court (some suitor fighting at a coffee shop for his lady love’s honour. Accused family begged to differ. The lady was a known two-timer. The only time I was asked by the family to pray for maximum fine from court). I thought my grandfather could use a bit of conversation with only my aunt to talk to and so I told him I had just attended a matter that falls under Section 159 of the Penal Code, talked to him about the case. ‘’Tuk ingat tak Seksyen 159?’’ I asked him remembering what my uncles and aunts told me before. ‘’Gaduh kecil (affray)’’ he slowly answered.

When your body is no longer as it was used to be and all that fire within is gone all that is left to you would be your thoughts and memories. To swim in both the currents of past and the present at the same time, is that really a bad thing? I don’t know.

Sometimes I have problem remembering things I want to remember without reminders in my calendar (anniversaries, birthdays and school holidays, that damn speech or line of arguments) and yet the scary, embarrassing, painful, dumb shit I really want to forget remains stubbornly lodged in my head and I don’t even know why. Is that a human thing or is it just me? From my reading and/or listening to interviews of prominent judges and practitioners, most of them have prodigious memories. If I ever have the opportunity to talk to some of them I’d ask, do they have the same problem like mine; Forgetting what I was meant to remember and to remember things I’d rather forget?

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Ter-sebut

Sebelum ada sistem E-Review, semua pengurusan kes dijalankan secara fizikal tak kira kes jenayah atau kes sivil. Jadi mahkamah-mahkamah termasuklah Mahkamah Rayuan dan Mahkamah Persekutuan jauh lebih riuh daripada sekarang ini dengan peguam-peguam ke sana ke mari, duduk menunggu diluar kamar pengurusan kes atau bilik Mahkamah. Ada yang tunggu berjam hanya untuk menghadiri pengurusan kes tak sampai 5 minit. Kalau mahkamah dalam negeri dan dalam mukim kau tak apa lagi. Yang jadi masalah bila kes kau di luar mukim kau beramal sebagai contoh, kau beramal di luar Lembah Klang dan kau ada pengurusan di Istana Kehakiman. Memandu atau naik kapal terbang semata-mata untuk beritahu penolong pendaftar yang kau dah failkan segala dokumen pra-perbicaraan adalah tidak berbaloi. Sangat tidak berbaloi dari segi kos dan masa kau cari tiket kapal terbang atau memandu berjam-jam.

Satu amalan yang diterimapakai dikalangan peguam dan sistem perundangan adalah bila ada kes di luar kawasan untuk minta peguam dalam mukim untuk hadir ke mahkamah bagi pihaknya. Amalan ini disebut sebagai Menyebut Bagi Pihak atau dalam Bahasa Inggerisnya, Mention on Behalf (MOB). Fahri ada tulis dengan panjang lebar berkenaan sejarah amalan MOB ini dalam buku beliau, The Malaysian Guide to Advocacy (Ya, ini adalah iklan). Di Annexure 2 tak silap aku.

Kalau ikut cerita old timer, MOB ini dahulu satu servis tak berbayar, satu bentuk mutual aid dikalangan pengamal. Bila aku mula beramal yang aku tahu MOB ini berbayar melainkan kau buat bagi lawan kau dalam kes atau untuk kawan-kawan rapat. Aku cuma tahu MOB itu berbayar kerana MOB itu punca pendapatan utama aku. Kadar bayaran itu pun mula-mula aku main letak aja. Congak kos minyak, tol dan penat. Bila kau freshly called to the Bar, tak ada nama, tak ada kes tapi ada tanggungan. MOB la jawab nya. Jadi bahan belasahan untuk warga Kehakiman umpama Kevin Costner menahan peluru untuk Whitney Houston.

Aku ingat lagi bila pertama kali MOB di Istana Kehakiman. Waktu itu aku tak tahu berapa rate untuk hadir ke Istana Kehakiman jadi aku caj lebih kurang RM 150.00 (Istana Kehakiman kot!), seingat aku lah. Instructing lawyer (yang mewakili Perayu) punya instruction pula hanyalah emel pendek yang berbunyi: Please obtain a new appeal date. Aku pun okay kan sahaja dalam hati. Duit punya pasal, tak pikir panjang. Lagipun itu bukan kali pertama terima instruction one-line sebegitu dari instructing lawyer dan seterusnya lunyai dihambur Hakim atau Majistret. Tapi itu kali pertama dalam instruction sebegitu bagi kes di Istana Kehakiman. Tapi masih juga aku minta kertas kausa dan dokumen-dokumen berkaitan di emel kepada aku, just in case.

Pada waktu itu, kali terakhir aku ke dalam salah satu bilik Mahkamah di Istana Kehakiman adalah pada waktu lawatan sambil belajar waktu sebelum betul-betul buat Degree. Aku datang nak tengok hujahan berbalas hujahan, the bloodsport where the both opponents would pummel each other (verbally) until the judge would signal for the parties would disengage and a ruling made whereupon the Victor would howl in triumph (dalam hati). Tapi takde, cuma ada sesi taklimat dari pegawai Istana Kehakiman. Potong stim betul.

Pagi hari jadi itu aku memang datang paling awal ke Istana Kehakiman, sarapan pun tak. Resah pun ya, teruja pun ya. Tapi mostly rasa nak pitam. Baru pagi itu realiti sebenar apa yang aku bakal buat sampai ke otak aku. Aku datang dengan bersedia untuk kena tibai di Mahkamah Terbuka tapi bila fikir balik, pagi itu aku akan kena tibai dengan 3 hakim. Waktu itu segala benda dalam badan yang boleh dirembes, diteran keluar dari badan terasa nak keluar. Panik sekejap. Sebelum masuk ke bilik Mahkamah, aku telefon semula instructing solicitor minta butiran penting rayuan. Dia akhirnya bagi butiran kes (aku dah minta lama dah) tapi memang tak cukup untuk aku bawa rayuan kalau perlu.

Bawa rayuan. Kecut perut aku bila fikirkan. Apa la aku tau tentang bawa rayuan di Istana Kehakiman. Aku cuba call mana-mana peguam senior yang aku kenal untuk mintak last minute pointer nak kendalikan soalan-soalan hakim peringkat Rayuan sebegini. Clutching at straws lah pendek kata. Yang jawab panggilan telefon cuma seorang dan itupun dia cakap dia tak pernah sampai Mahkamah Rayuan jadi memang tak tahu apa langsung. Dari resah jadi redha. Sarung jubah dan buka pintu bilik Mahkamah.

Bila masuk ke bilik Mahkamah terus aku ternampak para peguam beratur depan satu komputer sebelah meja Polis Mahkamah. Ramai peguam berkeliaran, berbual. Boleh nampak di situ ada dua jenis peguam. Yang sibuk menelaah bundle masing-masing kebanyakkannya yang muda-muda. Yang lebih senior sibuk berbual dengan rakan-rakan yang sama usia. Pegi jumpa Pendaftar dulu (masa tu aku ingat dia Jurubahasa) bagi nombor rayuan. Dia bagi sekeping kertas ada nama Hakim-hakim yang menjadi panel pagi itu dan suruh aku daftar kehadiran sambil tunjuk kepada komputer yang ada ramai peguam beratur didepannya.

Selesai daftar nama aku duduk di tempat paling dekat dengan pintu, paling belakang sekali. Kalau kelaut MOBnya nak lari senang. Gitulah agaknya mind bawah sedar aku berfikir. Nasib baik kes-kes lain dipanggil dulu. Seingat aku kes aku pada pagi itu adalah kes ke empat dalam senarai. Rupanya pagi itu rayuan yang ada permintaan untuk adjourn akan di dengar terlebih dahulu. Aku perhatikan satu persatu kes yang dibawa, lenggok bahasa dan cara peguam pujuk panel, ambik nota sambil menunggu. Kes-kes yang berjalan semua ada alasan kukuh untuk adjournment tapi bukan kes aku. Aku tak ingat apa alasan yang instructing solicitor bagi. Yang aku betul-betul ingat alasan dia merapu.

Bila nombor kes dipanggil dan aku bingkas berdiri. Aku tak tahu kalau kau pernah main game CRPG point and click berjudul Diablo dalam game tersebut ada satu boss level nama dia The Butcher. Bila kau masuk ke dalam sarang dia yang penuh dengan bangkai dan mayat mereka yang disembelih, kata-kata sambutan dia pada kau adalah: Ahh! Fresh Meat!. Itu yang aku boleh nampak dari riak wajah panel pada waktu itu. Semua senyum sinis tengok aku.

Aku ingat Yang Arif Hakim yang chair adalah lelaki, Melayu, bercermin mata, aku lupa nama dia dan ahli panel lain. Perkenal diri seperti biasa kemudian maklumkan pada mahkamah bahawa perayu pohon adjournment untuk rayuan. Saat itu hilang segala gemuruh dan takut. Tau tau je aku sedang berada dalam Zen state. Zen state bagi aku adalah titik tengah di antara mengantuk dan sedar, di antara gugup teruk dan terlebih yakin. Perasaan kau semuanya diketepikan, disimpan dalam peti. Bila aku dalam Zen state semua benda yang tak ada penting akan dimute, ditolak ketepi, dan tutur kata aku akan keluar sebutir-sebutir tanpa gagap atau mumbling. Yang ada cuma aku dan perkara yang aku nak kerjakan itu. Banyak kali cuba untuk replicate kembali keadaan untuk buat aku masuk kembali dalam Zen state tapi tak selalu berjaya. Satu yang aku perasan adalah aku masuk dalam Zen state lebih mudah bila aku dapat tidur yang cukup dan tak makan apa-apa pada hari bicara/pendengaran dan bila aku ada Chronology of Case ditangan. Tanya lah apa pun, semua aku boleh jawab.

Aku tak ingat sepenuhnya apa panel tanya pada aku. Yang aku ingat panel tak bertanya alasan untuk adjournment. Sekali pun tak. Aku rasa panel memang dah tau kenapa tapi saja nak bergurau kasar dengan aku. Fresh meat kan. Panel dok tanya pasal fakta kes pada aku. Tanya mana Responden (respondent tak datang, aku tak ingat kenapa). Aku jawab setakat mana yang instructing lawyer beritahu aku sambil cakap dengan cara paling hormat bahawa aku bukan orang sesuai untuk jawab semua soalan. But you are here aren’t you? When you appear in court you are the counsel for the case for the day, you are deemed to know all there is to know about the case, kata chair pada aku. Setepek aku kena. Aku angguk setuju sebelum tunjuk dekat dia email sekeping yang aku ada. Yang Arif, I really wish I could help Yang Arif but unfortunately this is the only document that was provided to me by the instructing solicitor despite my requests for more documents (memang betul pun. Aku telefon dan emel pejabat dia banyak kali tapi staff dia layan tak layan je. Bila pagi hari MOB baru betul-betul dia bagi aku brief important facts). Panel tak pedulik, berganti-ganti tanya aku pasal fakta kes sampai last sekali bila chair tanya aku berkenaan satu fakta kes yang aku tak sure, aku balas: Yang Arif, I fear I am ill equipped to tackle Yang Arif’s insightful questions. I humbly seek an adjournment for the matter so that the Appellant’s counsel could better tackle your questions. Chair bagi aku senyuman sinis terakhir pastu suruh Pendaftar bagi tarikh baru. Dapat tarikh baru, ucap terima kasih dan terus duduk. Panel terus mengalih perhatian kepada mangsa seterusnya.

Aku tak sedar bila aku keluar dari Zen state. Yang aku tau aku rasa penat sepenat-penatnya. Lunyai beb. Bila aku keluar dari bilik Mahkamah dan call pejabat instructing lawyer pun dari plan nak marah dia pun kesudahannya aku cakap lembut tapi, aku tetap mintak extra RM 150 dari dia. Elaun kena tibai, aku cakap kat dia. Dia okay kan je. Tamat je panggilan terus emel outcome dan arahan Mahkamah bersama butiran perbankan aku.

Bila hilang sikit penat baru terfikir, aku kena tibai dengan 3 hakim dan aku selamat dan dapat apa yang diarahkan untuk pohon dari Mahkamah. Aku berjalan ke kereta dengan keyakinan membuak-buak. If I can do this, I can do anything, aku ingat aku ulang-ulang dalam kepala. Masa itu kalau kena tembak pun aku rasa boleh tepis peluru. Bila dah tua sikit ini baru lah terfikir betapa kurang bijaknya aku ambik brief tanpa tau fakta penuh, walaupun hanya kes MOB.

Petang yang sama RM 300 masuk dalam akaun aku. Sejak dari hari itu firma yang sama banyak bagi aku kerja MOB (termasuklah mintak adjournment appeal) di Istana Kehakiman hinggalah sistem E-Review digunapakai. Tak lama lepas hari tersebut aku dapat tahu rupanya standard rate MOB di Istana Kehakiman adalah sekitar RM 300 dan itu adalah caj aku selagi mana ada MOB di Istana Kehakiman. Sejak hari itu juga kalau ada yang mintak aku MOB aku akan berkeras minta segala dokumen dan kertas kausa berkaitan di emel pada aku. Sekurang-kurangnya kalau kena hentam dengan Majistret/Hakim/Yang Arif Hakim tahu apa nak di jawab. Kalau kecundang sekalipun sekurang-kurangnya melawan.

Bila kau buat kerja-kerja MOB ini bagi aku dia adalah sesi practice run bagi kau untuk menyediakan mental dan jiwa kau untuk perbicaraan penuh, pendengaran rayuan. Macam peninju berlatih dengan menumbuk beg pasir. Cuma dalam analogi ini, kau bukan peninju, kau adalah beg pasir. Tak best bagi sesetengah orang tapi bagi aku untuk salah satu cara untuk belajar memperbaiki tumbukan dan melatih daya tahan adalah untuk menerima tumbukan demi tumbukan sampai kau tahu macam mana nak roll with the punch, sampai kau tau macam mana nak bagi tumbukan.

Kata Pyotr Kropotkin, Mutual Aid is a factor in evolution, dan aku setuju. Bila selalu dihentam secukupnya buat kerja-kerja MOB untuk rakan pengamal samada yang tak dikenali atau kawan-kawan mau tak mahu kau akan jadi biasa dan makin berani berurusan dengan Mahkamah terbuka. Kulit kau makin tebal. Hati kau makin keras. Bila disergah Hakim pun kau dah tak melatah dan tahu nak jawab apa. Itu yang akan buat kau berkembang dan makin maju sebagai seorang pengamal. Dahulunya aku buat kerja-kerja MOB sebab nak makan. Tak buat tak makan. Sekarang aku buat sebab rindu merayap ke mahkamah sana sini.

Mungkin sekarang susah untuk ke Mahkamah bagi pendengaran ke apa tapi itu bukan alasan untuk takut-takut merebut peluang untuk appear di Mahkamah Terbuka. Susah beb nak dapat peluang sekarang. Semua benda online. Semuanya melalui Zoom, melalui pertukaran emel, melalui E-review. Jangan tunggu boss/partner/senior suruh baru nak ke Mahkamah. Kau tanya direct terus, mintak, rayu kalau perlu. Berbunga-bunga hati bos/partner/senior ada junior yang bersemangat macam kau. Kalau beramal/Membuat latihan dalam kamar di firma yang mengamal undang-undang jenayah memang kebanyakkan masa akan ke Mahkamah. Kalau beramal/Membuat latihan dalam kamar di firma yang mengamal praktis debt recovery pula lagi best. Sejak jumlah minimum hutang untuk tindakan kebankrapan dinaikkan kepada RM 100,000.00 banyak tindakan pelaksanaan penghakiman dibuat melalui Saman Penghutang Penghakiman yang memerlukan kau bertanyakan siri soalan kepada si Penghutang Penghakiman untuk menentukan kemampuannya untuk melangsaikan hutang penghakiman. Di situ adalah satu peluang untuk mengasah kemahiran bertanya soalan yang menjadi tunjang seorang pengamal. Pokoknya kalau ada peluang ke Mahkamah, ambik.

Lagi satu yang membuatkan seronok buat kerja-kerja MOB ini adalah kau akan dapat jumpa bermacam-macam jenis peguam dan pegawai Mahkamah dengan ragam masing-masing. Ada yang cukup anti dengan peguam MOB, ada yang sangat membantu dan tenang sebab dia tau bukan salah peguam MOB kalau instructing solicitor tak ikut arahan Mahkamah Sebelum ini. Paling seronok kalau MOB bila peguam pihak satu lagi adalah peguam senior. Memang rancak bercerita kalau kau tanya dia soalan sambil tunggu kes dipanggil tu. Kadang-kadang kes dah selesai pun dia boleh sambung balik bercerita. Selalunya mereka akan bercerita mengenai kisah-kisah perang mereka, kes-kes yang mereka pernah buat dahulu yang syiok didengar dan ambil pengajaran. Ada seorang peguam senior perempuan berbangsa Cina yang aku dah lupa nama dia bercerita tentang waktu dia di bomoh sampai tak boleh nak bawa Rayuan di Mahkamah Rayuan. Hakim bila bercakap tak keluar suara. Hanya bunyi air terjun terus menerus. Bila dia sendiri cuba buka mulut dan bercakap pun sama. Seram shit.

Lawyer senior juga selalunya bermurah hati dengan nasihat-nasihat terutamanya berkenaan strategi dan taktik untuk menangani kes-kes perbicaraan. Mereka tak kisah pun kalau kau buka buku dan ambil nota, bahkan lagi dia suka. Lagi kau banyak bertanya lagi dia suka. Siapa kata belajar kena berkursus, kena masuk kelas?

Tapi harus diingat, ini semua sebelum E-Review digunapakai di Istana Kehakiman. Sekarang lain. Sangat lain. Banyak masa dihabiskan dibelakang skrin bagi kes-kes sivil.

Bagi aku mengamal ini bila makin lama semakin berkurangan interaksi bersemuka sesama manusia itu makin hilang erti mengamal undang-undang itu sendiri. Macam mana nak timbul semangat kekitaan (camaraderie) bila berjumpa atas talian sahaja. Bila kehadiran ke Mahkamah secara fizikal itu pun dah dikurangkan (kecuali kes jenayah) adakah masih relevan untuk tahu adab dalam Mahkamah. Peguam litigation jenis apa tak ke Mahkamah? Adakah lagi perlu bangunan Mahkamah itu sendiri? Bila dibatasi skrin komputer atau peranti, kepentingan dan keseriusan perjalanan proses Mahkamah itu sendiri hilang. Apa beza peguam dengan operator dron bila kedua-duanya menghabiskan masa belakang skrin?

Aku tak tahu. Mungkin ini hanya rungutan aku seorang yang lebih suka menghadap berdepan tanpa skrin memisahkan aku dengan hakim dan lawan.

Lain perasaan dia bila kau boleh nampak tanpa batasan skrin muka lawan tahan kerut bila nampak saksi dia koyak dalam kandang saksi atau mata hakim yang buntang bila dengar saksi bagi jawapan merapu bagi soalan direct. Banyak benda yang lost in transmission bila segalanya secara atas talian. Tapi itulah kehidupan. Tak ada penyelesaian sempurna, cuma ada stopgap measure yang menerbitkan seribu satu lagi masalah.

Iya sejak pengenalan sistem E-Review dah kurang permintaan untuk kerja-kerja MOB. Jauh berkurangan. Kurang tapi bukan pupus terus. Akan ada satu hari bila mana Mahkamah secara tiba-tiba menetapkan tarikh pendengaran atau sebutan secara fizikal dan kau ada kes lain pada tarikh tersebut dan tak ada anak buah yang boleh hadir bagi pihak kau, tak mengapa. Aku ada. Kalau kau nak mintak adjournment tapi tak nak mengadap hakim atau panel, atau tak larat kena bebel secara fizikal dengan hakim atas apa sebab apa sekalipun, aku ada. Selagi di Lembah Klang, aku sentiasa ada.

I’m no Kevin Costner but will take that metaphorical bullet (or bullets) for you just the same.

~Andd aaiiiiiiiiiieeiiiiiiii will alwayys emmoobee for youuuuuhuuhuuuueaaaaah (jerit macam mendiang Whitney Houston)

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