LABUAN : The Labuan Association for Women’s Affairs (HAWA) yesterday appealed to the Public Service Department (PSD) to reconsider the “scrapping” of two posts of legal assistant in the Legal Aid Department here. Its chairman, Fauziah Datuk Mohd Din, s a id two l e g a l assistants were transferred to Putrajaya and Kota Kinabalu, respectively, on August 1, leaving one legal assistant to deal with only Syariah-related cases.
“The two legal assi stant s tasked and experienced to deal with civil and criminal-related cases have been transferred this week, and this will create difficulties for the people, especially the low-income earners seeking legal advice,” she said at a press conference at her office.
Fauziah said the availability of the legal assistants here since 2003 had helped a lot of people having had to deal with legal disputes of a civil and criminal nature, without them having to fork out the minimum of RM300 to RM500 in legal fees charged by private legal practitioners. She said the two legal assistants had given instant legal advice almost every day of the week to those who had to deal with cheating and investment scams, mortgage-related cases and family abuse, among others.
“As we now have only one legal assistant to deal with Syariah cases, what about those with financial constraints and having to deal with civil and criminal cases.
We hope the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department for Legal Affairs will look into this pressing issue,” she said. Fauziah said the scrapping of the posts would impose an additional burden for those facing legal action as they might have to travel to Kota Kinabalu or wait for the visiting legal assistant for the service and that would take a longer time to arrive at solutions.
“Labuan, being a federal territory, must not be sidelined. The government must continuously look into the plight and needs of the people here. Scrapping the posts is tantamount to downgrading the department’s status, which is still relevant to the people,” she said. – Bernama
