What is important, though, is that justice has finally been served to that very lovely girl named Maslinda Ishak who was wronged by the government. She may have been a GRO but she was doing an honest job and should not have been photographed naked and asked to consent to sex to secure her release.
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Ex-GRO gets RM100,000 for Rela man's frolic
New Straits Times, 25 August 2009
PUTRAJAYA: The government has to pay RM100,000 in damages to a former guest relations officer as it was vicariously liable for the act of a Rela member who took a picture of her relieving herself in a lorry.
In allowing the appeal by Maslinda Ishak, the Court of Appeal yesterday said the respondents -- the director-general of Rela, the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Department's (Jawi) enforcement officers and the government -- were jointly and severally liable.
On Sept 11 last year, the High Court ordered Mohamad Tahir Osman to pay Maslinda RM100,000 for his conduct in taking the picture six years ago. Judge Datuk Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat said what Tahir did was outside the scope of his duty and he did it purely on his own accord. Therefore, he was wholly responsible for his action on Maslinda, 32, now a dental nurse, which had injured her emotionally.
The incident happened after Maslinda and several colleagues were arrested by Jawi enforcement officers and Rela members during a raid at Kelab De Vegas, Jalan Imbi, here about 11.30pm on March 21, 2003.
After the arrest, they were led into a lorry. At 12.50am, when the vehicle was in Jalan Jejaka 5, Taman Maluri, Cheras, Maslinda asked to go to the toilet but her request was denied. Instead, Maslinda was told to relieve herself inside the lorry. She did exactly that, shielded by a scarf held by her friends, but Tahir then came, pushed her friends away and took her photograph with his camera.
Maslinda brought a RM5 million suit in damages against Tahir, the Rela director-general, Jawi and government.
Tengku Maimun ruled that the Rela director-general, Jawi and the Federal Government could not be associated with Tahir's action.
Maslinda appealed on ground that the other three were also equally liable to pay damages.
Lawyer Karpal Singh, who was assisted by Sangeet Kaur Deo, told the Court of Appeal that Tahir's act was done in the course of employment and the three respondents were equally liable.
He said Tahir did not appeal against the High Court order, that he was "a man of straw" and Maslinda could not get any compensation from him.
"Tahir had also pleaded guilty for invasion of privacy and was sentenced to four months' jail in a magistrate's court," he said.
Federal Counsel Amarjeet Singh said what was done by Tahir was a frolic of his own.
"He was not authorised by the three respondents. So the government cannot be held liable," he said.
Judges Datuk Suriyadi Halim Omar, Datuk Feffey Tan Kok Hwa and Datuk Sulaiman Daud heard the appeal and made the unanimous ruling.
Karpal later said he would enforce the judgment on the government since the respondents were all from federal agencies.
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Last year, I revealed the above. And I did so at the request of Maslinda Ishak’s husband who had asked to meet so that he could relate what happened. What I wrote last year was exactly what the court said and what the New Straits Times reported above.
The husband asked me what he should do. I advised him to get himself a lawyer and sue the government. I also suggested that Malaysia Today reveal what happened to ensure that the whole thing does not get swept under the carpet, as what happens in most cases that do not favour the government.
My argument was that all parties involved -- Rela, Jawi and the Malaysian government -- are equally guilty since the Rela officer concerned was on an official government operation and not ‘on a frolic of his own’. So I advised my friend to sue all parties concerned, not just the Rela officer.
Actually there was more that did not surface in the court hearing. The Rela officer proposed that if Maslinda were prepared to have sex with him then he would let her go. If not, then they would charge her for the ‘crime’ of working in a place that sells liquor.
Maslinda of course refused and because of that they subjected her to a photography session where she was made to pose in various sexy positions while they photographed her -- sort of like what they do in girlie magazines.
My contention is this was an operation headed by the religious authorities to arrest all those Muslims working in places that serve liquor. They also got the Rela people involved so that they had enough manpower to conduct the arrests. So it is an operation that was conducted in the name of Islam. Therefore, photographing the women naked while taking a pee and demanding sex in exchange for getting released smears Islam and gives Islam a bad name. People who did not know any better would think that this is what Islam is all about.
Anyway, the long and short of it all is the government decided that my article insulted Islam rather than insulted those government officers who hide behind Islam to do their perverted and evil deeds. And, for my crime of ‘insulting Islam’, the Minister, Syed Hamid Albar, detained me without trial under the Internal Security Act and sent me to Kamunting.
Two months later, the Shah Alam High Court declared my detention as illegal and it ordered my release. The government was not happy about that and they appealed the decision. They want me back in Kamunting so that I could be subjected to ‘religious rehabilitation’.
In fact, there are many Malays who are of the opinion that I am jahil (ignorant) about Islam and that I should be rehabilitated so that my soul can be saved and I can go to heaven. They are adamant that I must go to heaven and they are bent on making sure that I do go to heaven. The only trouble is they do not even know whether they are going to heaven, yet they are so bloody concerned about whether I am going to heaven or not.
Actually, they are very confident that they are going to heaven. That is why they are more concerned about my fate and not worried about their own fate.
Anyway, as I said in an earlier article: justice may be delayed, but it can never be denied. It might take hundreds of years like in the case of Galileo Galilei. Eventually, however, justice comes to those wronged. In my case it did not take 450 years like in Galileo Galilei’s case. It took only one year. Today, the truth emerges. I was right. The government was wrong.
Nevertheless, the government still wants to detain me under the Internal Security Act and send me to Kamunting. I am still accused of insulting Islam. What is important, though, is that justice has finally been served to that very lovely girl named Maslinda Ishak who was wronged by the government. She may have been a GRO but she was doing an honest job and should not have been photographed naked and asked to consent to sex to secure her release.
And, most important of all, those officers working for the religious department should not have used Islam to satisfy their perverted sexual needs. That is what I whacked. I never whacked Islam. And I will never stop whacking Muslims who give Islam a bad name. These are the real enemies of Islam, not the Jews. In fact, with the ‘good’ job that the Muslims are doing, the Jews need not do anything. All they need to do is sit back and watch Muslims destroy Islam.
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