Contributed by the National Young Lawyers Committee
Sia Teng Teng is currently practising in a firm in Kuala
Lumpur, and she specialises in intellectual property. She was called to the Bar
in November 2006, having graduated from the University of Melbourne with a
double degree in law and commerce. Donovan Cheah had the privilege of
speaking to her recently.
Our country was recently swept by a "political tsunami" coming off the 12th
General Elections. What are your views on the election results?
I think it’s an interesting time for Malaysia. The election results sent
shockwaves across the board, from the Government to the people and not to
mention even the opposition themselves were taken by surprise at the magnitude
of their electoral win in 5 states. It’s a clear indication that people want
change.
Why do you think Barisan Nasional lost its 2/3 majority?
I believe that the younger generation of voters especially, have made a
significant impact in the voting trend of this year’s elections. I think it’s
all to do with the internet age. Everyone I know uses the internet. What with
the wealth of information available on the net, more and more people are
becoming well informed and as a result are able to feed off their grievances
with each other on issues relating to inflation, the rising cost of living,
resentment as to the government’s discriminatory policies with regard to
minority rights and the ones that take the cake, scandals involving government
officials and more recently, corruption in the judicial system. I think that was
the last straw. People just finally decided enough is enough.
What changes do you hope to see for our country after the general elections?
I hope that the government will address the ever increasing racial polarisation
by introducing non–discriminatory policies towards ethnic minorities. I also
hope that the government is more transparent and accountable to its people – the
patronage system only benefits a handful. There should be a system in place that
benefits all – one which would address the poverty issues surrounding all races.
I also hope that confidence is quickly restored to the judicial system.
This election saw an infusion of "young blood", with newcomers like Nurul
Izzah Anwar, Teo Nie Ching and Carol Chew taking part in the elections race.
What are your views on this?
In addition, there are Tony Pua, Nik Nazmi and Hannah Yeoh. I think we need more
of them around. I met Hannah Yeoh at a friend’s birthday party prior to the
elections and I found her to be very passionate in wanting to ensure that
policies and state legislations are fair and that the state municipalities are
accountable to the people. It’s also very inspiring to see the passion and
commitment that Tony Pua has in fighting for better education policies in
Malaysia. All in all, I believe they all bring a refreshing dimension to
politics as they have the energy, drive and enthusiasm to make the changes we
need for a better Malaysia. I look forward to that.
What do you think is the most important thing about the right to vote?
The freedom to have your say.
Let's switch the topic to something a little more personal. Your current area
of practice is intellectual property. What made you choose this field?
I have always been fascinated by the branding and merchandising of products and
services. I guess it’s one way of feeding off my fascination with big brand
names!
What do you think is the most challenging thing about your profession?
Upholding the integrity of the legal profession. Interestingly, I once read
somewhere that a US Supreme Court Justice had this to say: “I fish because trout
do not lie or cheat or cannot be bought or bribed or impressed by power, but
respond only to quietism and humility and endless patience.”
The ever increasing usage of the internet has made intellectual property
rights more difficult to protect. Larger corporations are taking tighter
measures to safeguard their rights. How do you think this affects the end users
at the end of the day?
I agree that larger corporations are taking tighter measures to protect their IP
rights. We see this through the crackdown on pirated software and DVDs, as well
as via anti–piracy awareness campaigns on the media. Although in the Malaysian
context, we have yet to see a large crackdown on piracy on the internet as
compared to other countries, end users are in fact exposed enough to be aware
that any form of piracy is wrong. They actually know that just because they can
easily copy or download a movie or song into their hard drive does not
necessarily mean that they have the legal right to do so. Many just choose to
plead ignorance.
The danger for these end users is, it’s just a matter of time before Malaysia
follows suit with the US and Singapore. There, relevant enforcement agencies can
subpoena Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to reveal the identity of their
subscribers who have been found to infringe copyright laws via file sharing
applications.
So at the end of the day, end users will just have to learn to be more
responsible for their actions instead of simply pleading ignorance.
According to the Business Software Alliance and International Data
Corporation Global Software Piracy Study 2007, Malaysia was reported to have a
software piracy rate of 60%, representing perceived losses of up to US289
million. Do you think our government is doing enough to curb the problem of
piracy?
We used to be on the Top Priority Watch list many years back. Now, although we
are no longer on that list, which is a marked improvement, we are still on some
list – ie. the Special 301 Report. Also, more recently, the government announced
the setting up of an IP court designated to exclusively hear IP cases. This is a
much welcome relief as it serves to expedite the numerous cases currently
pending. However, there’s only one such court in Kuala Lumpur. Hence the problem
of possibly overloading that IP court and again back to square one. So, in a
way, yes, the government is trying to curb the problem of piracy but whether the
measures in place are enough to curb it well, there’s definitely room for
improvement.
Do you think the problem lies with lack of legislation or lack of
enforcement?
A little bit of both. But personally, I would lean more towards a lack of
enforcement. For example, currently, we don’t have a specific governing
legislation on the landlord–tenant relationship so it’s still open as to whether
landlords should be held responsible for the tenant’s actions. However, even
with the right piece of legislation enacted, without adequate enforcement
measures, the problem remains.
I think the government needs to look at strengthening all of its relevant
enforcement agencies such as the MDTCA, the customs, the police and the MOH in
tackling the problem more effectively.
Other YL Personalities:
Alvina Mun Sook Kwan
Melisa Tai Mein–Sze
Vincent Tan Boon Siang
Muhammad Syamsulfaiz Zainuddin
Ummi Kalthum Bt Zakaria
Mohd Taufik
Bin Md Tahir
Goh Chuan
Chean
Hemalatha
Parasa Ramulu
Kho Yieng San
Ng Li Lin
Karthigesan
a/l Shanmugam
Juna Binti
Jusoh
Syamsuriatina
Ishak
Albert Ding
Choo Earn
Sulaiman Bin
Abu Bakar
Nasdrul Umur
Bin Shamsulhuda
Elaine Daly
Devkumar
Kumaraendran
Sandesh Kabir
Singh
Edelina Sophia
Binti Sophian Pulle
Mohd Busyairy
Bin Che Muda
Wong Fook Meng
Fadiah Nadwa
Fikri
Lee Chooi Peng
Angeline Cheah
Yin Leng
Mishant a/l
Thiruchelvam
Shahrizal Bin
Mohd Zin
Rezalman B.
Bahran
Gavin Tang Cheng
Loong
Noreen Ahmad
Ariff
Nadia Ashikin
binti Maduarin
David Dinesh
Mathew
Nizam Bashir
Bin Abdul Kariem Bashir
Amer Hamzah
Bin Arshad
Ernie
Suffiani Binti Salim
Ahmad Syukri
Bin Yusoff
Dipendra
Harshad Rai
Soo Wee Loon
Tracy Hah
Aminuddin bin
Abdullah