Easy Blaming Biking Teens Parents Consider Society S Failure Siti Kasim

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Lawyer Siti Kasim said she believed the responsibility lies with the parents in the Johor bicycle tragedy but disagreed with calls to charge them with negligence.
She said it will be legally difficult and there are also other considerations such as societal failures.
She said this in reference to the death of eight teens in 2017 after a car hit them while they were riding on a highway at 3am without their parents' knowledge.
The incident recently regained attention after the Johor Bahru High Court overturned the driver Sam Ke Ting's acquittal and sentenced her to six years imprisonment and a RM6,000 fine.
She is appealing the conviction.
"I have been thinking more deeply about this and as a parent, I know it is not easy to be a parent.
"I still believe the children are not to be blamed but I also think now that it is easy to find faults with the parents when life is not that simple," Siti (above) said in a statement on Facebook.
She noted suggestions that the parents can be charged under Section 31(1)(a) of the Child Act 2001, which provides for a punishment of up to 10 years, or up to RM20,000 fine or both.
The section makes it an offence for any person to abuse, neglect, abandon, or expose a child in their care in a manner that is likely to cause physical or emotional injury.
Siti said the prosecution will need to prove three elements, namely whether the parents abandoned their children, neglected them, and exposed them to danger.
Lacking resources to control children
"In my opinion, it is hard for the prosecution to establish that the children were abandoned, neglected, or even exposed to danger.
"The parents may have thought the children were safely in their beds and teenagers being teenagers, they do what they want even behind their parents' back or knowledge.
"We've heard of children getting into gangsterism, taking drugs, creeping out in the wee hours to join their friends, etc.
"Do we still blame the parents when what their children do is out of their knowledge or control," she said.
Siti said not all parents can have proper control of their children, especially for families that lack the resources.
"Indeed, the children should not be where they were at that time but is it the failing of their parents?
"It is hard being a parent and if you are lucky, you will get a good filial child. But not all parents are lucky to have the money or resources to keep their children occupied," she said.
Instead, Siti said there is a need to look at structural issues that led to the tragedy.
"I believe it is a combination of failures by society… and governance in giving the right kind of education, for not providing enough stimulus, places for these children to release their energy into something more useful.
"Why don't our government build parks where these kids can go and play to their heart's desire. Just like in some countries, they have skateboarding parks for them to play," she said.
On Feb 18, 2017, eight cycling youths died, two others were critically injured, and six more were slightly injured when the car Sam was driving rammed into them in the 3am incident.
Those who were killed in the incident were Mohamad Azrie Danish Zulkefli, 14; Muhamad Shahrul Izzwan Azzuraimie, 14; Muhammad Firdauz Danish Mohd Azhar, 16; Fauzan Halmijan, 13; Mohamad Azhar Amir, 16; Muhammad Harith Iskandar Abdullah, 14; Muhammad Shahrul Nizam Marudin, 14; and Haizad Kasrin, 16.
The magistrate's court in 2019 acquitted Sam after finding that she was not under the influence of alcohol, was not using her phone, and wore a seatbelt while driving, indicating she was driving responsibly and carefully.
However, High Court Judge Abu Bakar Katar on April 13 ruled that the magistrate’s court had erred in not ruling on the 27-year-old’s defence that she did not see the teenagers and that a different vehicle had hit and run the group.
Sam's application seeking leave to appeal the verdict is set to be heard on Monday (April 18). - Mkini

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