Law and Justice are at Best Just Distance Cousins

So goes the infamous quote that most lawmakers and practitioners could not and would not challenge. Many in the legal world would tell me, “When you study, your perspective of law itself is formed; and when you go out and involve yourself in law, your perspectives turn 180 degrees.” The truth is, I couldn’t help but think of what is the purpose of reading law when the real practice is that most of the time, these theoretical elements we hammer into our heads day and night are just pure theories and nothing else. I suddenly lost my faith in the system and what it represents. Pessimistic? You bet I am.

In a way, doing my attachment at the High Court had given so many information on the lawyer’s life….too much, in fact. I would say that practicing law is not for the faint-hearted, that lawyers are hated very much due to certain reasons and law and order could disturbingly be twisted and turned in certain angles and circumventing it could result in a criminal walking free. An independent judiciary is the way to go….so stressed in the lectures we attend, that is. In practice? I am not so sure. Is the police force as honest as is portrayed in the media or is the media controlled, too? Sometimes I really loved looking at policemen patrolling roads and streets with the feeling that I am secure under their surveillance, and sometimes I hear the terrible things that they

have allegedly done, I have no idea if I should trust them or not. What about the lawyers, public prosecutors, judges and the like? Law enforcers and law practitioners. “Lawyers are liars,” goes people’s perspectives. Never follow the book, it looks like.
And then came this revelation: Nothing ever comes out the way we expect it to. In Medicine, they learn about all the arteries and muscles and bones when in practice, they had to slice people up and tell people what kind of mess they are in by using their instincts and what experience they had. In teaching, what knowledge you had didn’t really matter as much as the way you attract your students to engage with you and listen to even 30 percent of the words you said. At the end of the day, in the judiciary, thousands of other criminals are waiting, usually years, in the prison for the fateful delivery of judgment that is supposed to rehabilitate, deter and be retributive at the same time to the criminals and other would-be criminals in the world. A further ponderings-on on the judgments would inadvertently lead to backlog of cases. And what about those who are wrongfully detained? And how many of us had the integrity to turn away a substantial amount of bribe when all we had to do is turn a blind eye to pocket the money? Not many, is my guess. And yet the system goes on for centuries and people still live on.
Recapitulating: I know that reading law gives me the impression that the legal world is so sunny, where policemen nab the bad guy, a lawyer represent him to see if his acts made sense by investigating every minutiae of his mind or body, and the judge sent him to prison to change him into a better man. In reality it is not. What kind of reality is what we learnt, anyway? This is why skills, experiences and guts come first, not stupidly playing with the books alone. Perhaps this is why these attachments are compulsory. Maybe to give us a brain space and see if we are up to it or not. Not up to it? Then pick up your stuff as fast as you can and leave.
And then the big c-word. To be honest, in my opinion, the Law leaves little space for corruption because one such offense and the whole purpose and meaning of law itself crumbles. Unfortunately, not everybody cares. And what could we do? We couldn’t even promise to not engage in it because circumstances change and human beings are such weak, weak people when it comes to uprightness. Law enforcements could only do so much, as was proven, and with it comes the flaw. One could only pray that he will not fall prey to the hands of Injustice.

So? Do I continue my Law Lexis Bachelor and hope that I could be the force that would change how the law works and make law and justice turn into sisters, not mere distant cousins? Despite of people’s skepticism of law practitioners, I will remain, forevermore, in conviction that the law is might and that a criminal will be punished even if he escaped from the arms of law. There I such a thing as retribution, you know. What we give, we get back. With this belief, where do I start in cultivating my faith? Definitely, through learning about it all I can and hope that, with this comparatively small knowledge I have, I will be able to uphold that thing called justice. May God help me find my way. In fact, may God tell those (me included) who are not cut-out to become law practitioners, to ditch the idea of studying law in the first place.
> Aminah Poh, LLB Part 5