Psm Vows To Defend Workers After Lawyer Threatens To Sue Over Coconuts

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PSM has pledged free legal representation to the migrant garbage collectors who were threatened with legal action for allegedly plucking three coconuts.
Its deputy chairperson S Arutchelvan told Malaysiakini this in response to a viral video showing a woman - claiming to be a lawyer - berating the workers.
In the video, the woman refers to the workers as “bodoh” (stupid) and “bloody fool”, threatening to sue them for theft and demanding RM5 for each coconut.
“I want my money or I will not let you leave… bloody fool!” she thundered.
ADSExpressing disappointment, Arutchelvan said the incident revealed a “disturbing lack of empathy and basic decency”.
“Whether they paid her the RM15 or not is beside the point. What matters is the appalling conduct, especially from someone claiming to be a legal professional.
“This so-called ‘lawyer’ clearly fails to understand a simple truth: her job, which others can perform, pales in comparison to the backbreaking, dirty, dangerous, and difficult (3D) work these migrants endure - work that most Malaysians shun due to social stigma,” he added.
Good values in education system
Arutchelvan recounted a recent Khazanah Research Institute roundtable on “Building a Caring Society,” where discussions focused on instilling compassion, dignity and respect into the education system.
“I made one point clear: children must be taught - and adults reminded - to treat all workers with dignity. Garbage collectors, and all who do the thankless work of keeping our society clean, deserve to be addressed as ‘sir’ or ‘uncle,’ not treated as subhuman,” he added.
Arutchelvan described the “coconut incident” as a “stab to our collective conscience” and said it should serve as a national wake-up call on empathy.
“A society that exploits and humiliates its most vulnerable workers is a society stripped of morality - worse still when such cruelty comes from those who claim to uphold justice,” he added.
Bad attitude
In a Facebook post, former law minister Zaid Ibrahim also criticised the incident, emphasising that a lawyer is not merely an enforcer of rules, but a custodian of justice, fairness, and empathy.
Former law minister Zaid Ibrahim“Yes, the workers may have been wrong to take something that didn’t belong to them. But the lady lawyer’s reaction - shouting, berating, and wielding her professional title like a weapon was not only disproportionate, it exposed a disturbing sense of class entitlement and moral superiority.
“Declaring ‘I am a lawyer’ as if that gives her the right to intimidate others is exactly the kind of arrogance that erodes public trust in the legal profession,” he added. - Mkini

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