Justice is Everywhere

The justice system in Ancient China was simple and practical. Back then each town will have its own court. This is followed by provincial court and then of course the equivalent to the Appeal Court in Malaysia the Ministry of Justice or something like it at the Ancient China Capital (Peking.. Beijing.. not really sure ;>). The highest authority however is the Emperor himself who can give Royal Pardon to any accuse. But what make this really interesting is that the Town Courts presided by magistrate. These town judges who often would be appointed by the government will conduct hearing right in the middle of town. They start by announcing impending trials by hitting the drum or wooden sticks to the floor. Here is when the court gates will be open to the public and everyone can enter and hear the proceedings. Next the accuse is brought before the judge. Any complainant and witness alike would have to show respect the court or else the judge has at his disposal an array of punishment like slapping the mouth and flogging the backside finger clamps and even leg clamps. The plus point for this is that the members of the public present in the court will know about what constitute an offence under the Empire law and what's the punishment. These very people will then leave the court and spread the court's happenings by word of mouth. This way the community that reside in that town will be informed. With time however this method is super seeded by technology and the power of the media. Currently the media play a major role as the eyes and ears of the public to report court cases. Cases dealt with in the interior district needs media exposure to spread awareness especially to the people that reside in that district. Such cases like the following news clipping is for the people of Kudat and Kota Marudu. Parting message.. justice is everywhere..

We do The Talking via Our Action

One thing for sure is, we don't utilise the press that much. Unlike other enforcement agency in this country we seldom hold press release of seizure and operation success as such. We seldom see articles in the press publicising our operations. It is not too much to state that Pharmacy Enforcement is an underrated enforcement entity especially here in Sabah. This is not helped by our small contingent of 12 hardworking officers. However we don't benchmark ourselves with the other enforcement agencies. Compare to the their workforce, logistics and facilities we are no way near their strengths. However press coverage on our enforcement activity can only be seen at the end stage which is the reports on court cases. For this a big thank you to the diligent reporters based at the courts.

All in all we prefer to do the talking on our own term even though lambasted and criticised by some quarters who don't have all the facts on our background and activities. These are the same people who claim that we are not doing enough. We don't owe anyone an explanation because we do all the work from behind the scene...

The case above involved a Kota Kinabalu based medical practitioner in possession of unregistered psychotropic medicine. In the same court a sundry shop proprietor in Kota Marudu was fined for possession of controlled medicine without authorization.