The Malaysian Bar - YL Personality: Sia Teng Teng

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YL Personality: Sia Teng Teng

Thursday, 27 March 2008 05:15am

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.