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Contributed by Joshua Kevin

• KL Bar Young Lawyers’ Committee AID LEGAL AID month

With power comes great responsibility (Spiderman II) and as lawyers, we cannot deny that we are the only privileged individuals who are able to represent and speak for another in pursuit of justice, a privilege that no other professions possess. It is common for many of us to have overlooked this issue and if we did give heed, we would have brushed the importance of the power bestowed upon us as Advocates & Solicitors of the High Court of Malaya. I would not deny the fact that I too had taken my role in society rather lightly until my involvement in the Legal Aid programme.

I am not hesitant to admit that it was through the Legal Aid programme, I realised my salt. Until being involved in the programme, I was no better then being like a fish, swimming endlessly and keeping myself busy whilst believing that I am doing something important in life without realising that I was doing the one and only thing which all of us are guilty of doing, that being, either making ourselves rich (if we are an employer) or making the partners of the firm rich (if we are an employee).

The Legal Aid programme is synonymous to helping the poor and needy because those who seek this aid are destitute. But I must also add that not all those who seek legal aid are guilty of crime but rather they are victims of circumstances.

An example of an individual being a victim of circumstances is the recent case which I had conducted. This young chap from the state of Kelantan had come to Kuala Lumpur with the hope of securing a job and only managed to secure a job as a car wash attendant. After several months of not being able to make ends meet, he decided to return home and work in his uncle’s orchard. So he got a bus ticket for his journey home and stopped by a shop before hopping into the bus to buy a small parang as a tool for his work at the orchard. He had a valid receipt to prove his purchase was made on the same date and the accompanying bus ticket. Nonetheless, before he could board on the bus, he was arrested by the police and thereafter charged in court. This chap could not comprehend the charges that were against him and neither could he understand the purpose of the charge. He had not had previous records and yet he was imprisoned for several months pending trial. It only took me a short while during the trial to secure his freedom, a freedom which he would not have possibly had if it was not for the intervention of the Legal Aid Bureau. This is merely one example whilst there are several other cases which are of such similarities.

The Bar Council and the Bar Committee do have many programmes, almost all of which are focused on public interest issues. As lawyers, we have never been too selfish to spare our time and attention on these issues but, comparing all the programmes and that of the Legal Aid programme, I am of the humble opinion that the Legal Aid programme gives us the opportunity to address issues which are pertinent particularly since it involves the immediate freedom of an individual and I must stress here the fact that the individual in question is poor.

Besides, I would not deny the fact that there are some who seek the Legal Aid despite being guilty of the offence alleged against them. I have come across such circumstances and I avoided the anger and frustration against them when I reminded myself that I too had offended many spiritual laws and God has always been merciful and forgiving to me. I have always been given a second chance and as such these individuals also deserve a second chance in life and I am glad that Heaven has decided to use me as a tool to grant the individual a second chance.

Alas, legal practice for me is no longer a matter of pride but of joy and purposefulness, an enlightenment acquired through Legal Aid.

I remember the past,
It wasn’t too long ago,
I look at the future,
Although with hope I only saw a shadow,
It was wealth which my eyes could only show,
Blinded by the existing pain and sorrow,
Of those who prayed for a better tomorrow,
Tomorrow, tomorrow I will help the poor tomorrow,
Those are the only words I know to blind my eyes from their pain and sorrow.

There were many tomorrows,
But each tomorrow saw an individual languish,
The individual languished because I said tomorrow,
But I said tomorrow because I do not languish…….the languish is not painful to me,

The languish is not painful to me,
No it is not painful to me,
It is painful to the mother, who sees her child languishing,
It is painful for a nursing child to be deprived of the warmth of the mother,
But it is not painful to me.

It would not painful to me till the purpose of my life is questioned by the Creator when I do not have anymore tomorrows.

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