YOURSAY | Different laws for different folks

YOURSAY | M’sians are thrown in jail while VVIPs are only fined for MCO offences.

MCO violation: Deputy health minister, exco plead guilty, fined RM1,000

Anonymous_3b6c1f0c: How come there is a selective execution of the law when Defence Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob had openly said that no one is above it?

Many Malaysians have gone to jail - some for walking to buy food, some for waiting to get food, and some others for fishing for food, but Deputy Health Minister Noor Azmi Ghazali and Perak executive councillor Razman Zakaria had a lunch party (with 15 others) and got away with just a fine.

Why is there no jail time considering what they did was very serious as it could have created a new cluster of Covid-19 infections.

The disparity in sentences meted out must be explained.

Random Malaysian: Only a fine of RM1,000 each for Noor Azmi and Razman for a gathering with 15 other people, while a student was jailed for seven days (and fined RM800 – she was ordered to serve two months' jail should she be unable to pay the fine) for giving a cake to her boyfriend.

Also, don’t forget about Deputy Rural Development Minister Abdul Rahman Mohamad and photographs of him receiving a birthday cake earlier this month. Was he jailed?

RD: A single mother with a four-year-old was sent to 30 days in prison by the Shah Alam court for violating the movement control order (MCO) (the High Court later replaced the jailed sentence with a RM1,000 fine), why the same sentence is not applicable for politicians or VVIPs?

Meanwhile, Klang MP Charles Santiago gets called up by the police just because he was seen distributing food to the poor at a time of crisis.

Odysseus: Besides Noor Azmi and Razman, the photos taken showed many others having meals and mingling with the duo. The police should also charge these MCO offenders.

It is definitely wrong to let the rest go scot-free. The police need to be “fair” to Noor Azmi and Razman and charge the rest of them as well.

OceanMaster: Both politicians should be forced to resign as MP and state assemblyperson. It is disgraceful to call them leaders. Not only that, how on earth they were selected as deputy minister and state exco in the first place?

Do they have any idea that millions of Malaysians abide by the law despite the suffering they are going through without income and having to feed their families?

This is a show of absolute arrogance with a sense of entitlement that they are above the law. This is a sign of how Malaysia will be run by incompetent, arrogant idiots under the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government. Brace for worse things to come.

Fair Play: Noor Azmi has pleaded guilty to a violation of the MCO. The penalty upon conviction is a fine of RM1000 or six-month imprisonment, or both. So, by definition, he is a convicted person and the penalty is RM1,000 fine.

Now I wonder how Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin will explain to the rakyat and convince them he has a ‘clean’ cabinet if this person is still retained as a deputy minister.

I believe public pressure (and public disdain) would likely force him to resign from his position, sooner rather than later.

PKC: Attorney-general (AG) Idrus Harun, will your office be appealing against this sentence? Why were they only fined when the ordinary rakyat are subjected to jail sentences? Why the double standard?

Are there two sets of laws in this country - one for the ordinary rakyat and another for the VVIPs?

When will the daughter of the ex DPM be charged? She even challenged the law for action to be taken against her.

Anonymous_1544340881: This is absolutely ridiculous. I thought AG Idrus had claimed that there were guidelines. So then why is there no jail term?

If there is no jail term for them, he should then immediately apply to set aside the jail terms for everyone else.

All the judges who sentenced Malaysians to imprisonment including the deputy public prosecutors should be taken to task and replaced with those who know how to follow guidelines.

GooseNBanter: “Idrus added that while the AGC, being a public institution, welcomes criticism of its actions, they should be constructive and based on facts duly established and not on conjecture and diatribe which are not fact-checked.”

While the rakyat welcome the AGCs receptiveness to criticism of its actions, they also condemn in a constructive and fact-checked manner the inconsistent outcomes of the cases involving the deputy minister and the state exco, without any conjecture and diatribe.

"The DPPs are also governed by a code of ethics. Monitoring of court cases involving breaches of MCO is done every day by the head of the Prosecution Division and his deputies," said AG Idrus Harun.

Being governed by ethics doesn’t necessarily guarantee that the DPPs are ethical in their treatment of perpetrators, as it has been pointed out here.

Anak JB: What I couldn't get was a cardiologist was handcuffed and shamed and hauled to court in a police car for jogging alone in a public park and trying to get his exercise.

Noor Azmi and Razman actually had a feast with 15 others and had the cheek to post the gathering on Facebook.

I am really perplexed when they are supposed to be the "brighter" lot but have absolutely no clue why we have the MCO in the first place.

What is shocking is that one of them is a deputy health minister. Is this the type of leaders we want to run the country?

Cogito Ergo Sum: As expected, you can have your cake and eat it as well if you are in PN. I am sure the rakyat will be satisfied now that our elected representatives can now finally carry out their duties to help them through this difficult time.

Perhaps, the deputy health minister can visit some of his constituents in jail who were charged with the same offence as him? That would be mighty charitable of him.

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