Alkisah Kes Mahkamah

Among the most thriving businesses here are legal firms. Kat sini sikit-sikit, saman (jadi kalau nak menang, elok guna lawyer la). Kat Malaysia kita lebih banyak berlapang dada menerima malang, dan kita kurang cepat menyalahkan orang lain.. itu secara amnya la.

So the past few weeks kami sibuk dengan kes mahkamah, antara Rashad dan bekas tuan rumah. I didn't believe how oppressive landlords here can be to tenants. Penyelenggaraan rumah ampeh, dan mereka cari peluang aje nak cekik darah.. Biasalah kalau landlord sengaja rosakkan rumah lepas penyewa pindah, supaya dia boleh hanguskan security deposit. Ataupun, dia guna cara undang-undang untuk saman bekas penyewa.. Macam-macam dia boleh reka. And to make it worse, most of the times the court favors the wealthy landlords or companies against the "little guys". Tapi ini cuma pendapat dan pandangan kami, statistik sebenar tu wallahu'alam.

Cerita sebenarnya tak bolehlah nak diperincikan di sini. Banyak masa (dan duit) habis untuk kami kumpulkan bukti (gambar, resit, dan dokumen-dokumen lain) dan untuk prepare arguments. Ni especially busy sebab lawyer dia tak dapat datang pada hari court appearance tu. Wah, terpaksalah Rashad jadi lawyer kejap. Nasib baik dia memang jenis prokprek dan selalu menang arguments. (Pst, Nieza [my old argue partner]!! Trust me, kami suka "gaduh" sampai terkedu aku nak argue balik.. susah-susah aku cakap Melayu je! Tapi kadang aku terkedu sebab cepat nak nangis, biasa lah part ni memang aku belum matang lagi. Grr!!)

So rasmilah aku jadi PA (Puteri Azlina the Personal Assistant) kepada Rashad.. buat filing nya, bincang arguments, jadi devil advocate, temankan dia pergi sana-sini, dengar dia berlatih opening statement dan cross-examination dan counter-arguments lagi dan lagi dan lagi. Letih woo...! Disebabkan kes ni macam complicated dan mengelirukan sikit, nak aje aku prepare presentation slides.. dok kelahi dengan Rashad kenapa tak boleh guna such things kat mahkamah. He said all the judge cares about is the narrative and the evidence. Rasa ketinggalan zaman ye dak? Hehe

Malam sebelum the day, kami pergi jumpa lawyer dia, Daire, to go thru the things, and to get (free) advice. Kelakar mamat tu - rambut panjang, naik motorbike, pakai dan sembang sempoi aje. Rashad kata Daire ni hippies - jenis conscience terlebih sikit. Daire kata dia tengok aku pakai cover seluruh badan ni, tentu aku serious pasal agama? Dan dia terkejut bila aku jawab "Yes, it's one of the most important things in my life." (Isk, patutnya THE MOST important thing kan?.. Tapi malas la kang depe terus anggap fanatic la.. fundamentalist la..) So mula lah sembang pasal Islam, pasal Shi'ah, pasal rujukan agama.. Daire was raised a Catholic but now considers himself an atheist, and he, as I put it, "picks and chooses" values from different religions/beliefs. What a lost soul.. tapi yang bagusnya dia memikir dan mencari. Katanya ada beberapa buah buku pasal Islam yang dia baca. We warned him against misleading ones. Rashad kata kalau nak tahu pasal Islam jangan pergi masjid atau cakap dengan orang Islam, sebab dari pengalaman dia, ia mungkin mengelirukan. Lebih baik terus rujuk kepada sumber asal (Quran dan Sunnah). Jadi sebagai balasan kepada 2-3 jam yang Daire habiskan malam tu untuk kes ni, dia minta kami bagi dia "a good translation of the Quran, together with a good book to explain it."

Anyway, his advice for tomorrow was to keep things simple, and to present straight to the point (bam! bam! bam!). Be polite and hold the head high - we are the good guy.

So the landlord came with a lawyer. And mengikut cerita Rashad, kemain over-confident deme. Tapi alhamdulillah we think he did a good job - we had the story and the evidences and the counter-arguments. Things seemed to go well on our side (perasan kot) and at least we feel good about it. We hope the judge is fair and smart enough to see the truth.

Lega gila when it's over. Cumanya saspen la tak dapat keputusan lagi, inshaAllah minggu ni melalui surat.

Yang tak bestnya ialah the landlord tu pun orang Islam.. Isn't that disappointing? Mula-mula kami nak cancel kes or panggil Imam aje untuk tolong jadi orang tengah, tapi dia tanak.. So we had to do this to stand up for ourselves. May Allah help us.

Macam-macam hair!