Our government is regularly headed by people who are either lazy or stupid (likely both). I’ve written about this in my Law blog but the logic behind the amendments to the Evidence Act that shift the burden of proof from the accuser to the accused is either lazy or stupid.
Our MCMC Chairman, Datuk Mohamed Sharil Mohamed Tarmizi, was quoted as claiming that it was easy for people to deny that they’re the perpetrators of crime by just saying that “it wasn’t me”. Therefore, the burden of proof needs to be shifted as there is no other proof that the authorities can muster to support their case.
This kind of logic is either plain stupid or lazy. That’s why we have to beat confessions out of people, or throw them out of windows. Our authorities are filled with people who are plain stupid and lazy.
Elsewhere in the world, the authorities are able to catch cyber criminals doing all sorts of bad things, from hacking, to piracy and pornography. However, our local authorities are unable to do it and now wish to make a presumption of guilt onto any accused party.
And to top it off, they’re holding children hostage. “As more of the young are connected online, who is going to watch over these kids when there are real people who want to harm them.” This kind of statement is only designed to evoke an emotional response, rather than a rational one.
If the issue was child pornography or crimes against children, then make that an “exception” to the general rule. Even then, it’s dicey. Two can play at this game as a child rapist would still be presumed innocent until proven otherwise. Why should someone who posts defamatory comments be considered worse than a child rapist?
However, making it a general rule and then using an exception to explain it away, is just stupid. That’s right. I’ve used the word ‘stupid’ so many times in this entry, but I’ll need to use it another time.
It is evidence of stupidity, laziness, the lack of education and training when someone tries to introduce a Law to force the accused to prove something that doesn’t exist. It is nigh impossible for the accused to present any evidence to prove that they didn’t do it. The only way to do it would be to find out who actually did it.
Maybe the right thing would be to just allow this amendment to go through and to have a free-for-all festival on-line targeting all the law enforcement and major government figures. Let’s just go around making defamatory comments masquerading as the MCMC chair and let him try to prove his own innocence.
Stupidity isn’t a valid defence either.
Related articles
- Re Evidence Act (illegitcode.wordpress.com)
Sybreon Ones Nought 