Sabahans’ knowledge on M’sian laws low – UMS

KOTA KINABALU: The findings of a survey carried out by Universiti Malaysia (UMS) in April 2018 revealed that the level of knowledge and attitude of Sabahans towards the nation’s laws is generally low and that there is an urgent need to conduct a legal literacy campaign.

It was also found that some of the laws need to be taught in schools at an early age, the findings stated, disclosed Professor Datuk Mohd Hamdan Haji Adnan of UMS’ Faculty of Humanities, Arts & Heritage, here recently.

“Sabah society comprises indigenous people and those coming from neighbouring countries like Indonesia and the Philippines including from Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia. All these add to the diversity of Sabah communities with regard to religions, customs, cultures and traditions.

“This challenges inter-ethnic relations, unity and law enforcement. Usually good laws and effective enforcement lead to peace and harmony among diverse groups. However, the knowledge and attitude of residents towards laws of the nation do have a bearing on honouring and respecting the laws to ensure peace prevails,” he said.

He added that ignorance of the law is no excuse. “Anyone breaking any laws will have to bear the consequences. In the eyes of the law everyone is equal and whether the public perceive it as such is subjective and based on experiences.”

The survey was conducted to study the level of knowledge and attitude of the diverse communities in Sabah towards the laws of Malaysia including the Federal Constitution and the experiences they have, facing with the law.

He said the research method used was opinion survey with random sampling involving 500 male and 500 female respondents at a number of locations throughout Sabah where the students originated. This was to ensure as many ethnic groups as possible were covered in the survey so as to give an accurate representation of the people of Sabah.

He said 50 creative writing third year UMS students were entrusted to interview 20 persons each. The number of indigenous ethnic groups in Sabah is said to be more than 60 including sub ethnic groups. These do not include nationals of other countries and more from neighbouring nations like Indonesia and the Philippines who have legal and illegal status by the thousands.

“Students from the other states in Malaysia basically conduct their survey in and around Kota Kinabalu and neighbouring areas like Penampang, Telipok, Sepanggar, Putatan, Inanam, Likas and more,” he said, adding that one of the objectives of this study was to demonstrate to them the importance of knowing the law.

Generally, the survey findings confirmed that the level of knowledge and attitude of Sabahans towards the nation’s laws is very average to low and that there is an urgent need to conduct legal literacy campaigns and some of the laws need to be taught in schools at an early age.

“Most people discover the maxim ‘ignorance of the law’ only when they break the law. Thus, logically everyone should make an effort to master laws that are relevant to their daily living at the very least.” Mohd Hamdan said many studies had shown that citizens were generally rather ignorant of laws may it be national or state or customary or religious even when it affects their daily lives. “Everyone is supposed to be equal in the court of law. However, perceptions of just or unjust laws are usually determined by the person experiencing it,” he pointed out.

“Laws are very powerful instrument only when people understood it well. Hence, citizens of every nation should at least be literate on laws pertaining to their everyday living. This means relevant laws for daily life like fundamental rights in the national constitution, contract laws, traffic laws and the like should be taught in schools at which level deem most essential for enjoying human rights.

“The level of legal literacy should be at level making citizens to respect and uphold all laws of the nation. Legal literacy means making people aware of their rights under the law. Legal awareness can empower people to demand justice, accountability and effective remedies at all levels. Low legal literacy hinders or blocks people’s access to justice,” he said, stating that there were cases where literacy requirement was employed to deny access to rights and benefits.

“Legal awareness or legal consciousness, also called public legal education empowers individuals on issues involving laws. Public legal education or civic education is a range of activities meant to instil public awareness and skills associated with the law and the justice system. Mohd Hamdan reiterated that the hypothesis of the study was that the awareness of the public in Sabah towards legal literacy is average to low, particularly with regard to the less educated and people in the rural areas.

He said in fact, it was expected that those with higher education, knowledge of the laws and their attitudes toward it is almost apathetic. “Also, this can relate to their knowledge of the Federal and State constitution.” The survey also found that Malaysians including people in Sabah are seldom exposed to the Federal Constitution and laws that are essential to their lives.

“They are only exposed to these laws when they are being prosecuted for breaching it or when attending programs organised by relevant authorities or non-governmental organisations that are meant to enhance their knowledge and make them sensitive to issues like environmental or consumer protection, road safety, know your medicine, and the like.

“Usually citizens who join political parties or public interest organisations are more conscious of their human and civil rights as well public and national interest.”

“It is often assumed that laws are very difficult subject to comprehend or learn. Therefore, it is best to just refer it to lawyers and the experts. Thus, majority of citizens are almost totally ignorant of laws that are essential to know to lead a secure and happy life.

“Most will only realise the essential of learning laws that are relevant to their life when they are facing a legal crisis like being overcharge for products or services, contracts, being sued and so on.

Therefore, Mohd Hamdan reiterated that the primary objective of the study was to gather information about legal literacy level in Sabah and the people’s attitude towards the law so that an effective campaign can be conducted to enhance their knowledge and respect for the laws.

He said specifically the study has six objectives: to know the level of legal literacy among the people in Sabah, to know if the people in Sabah can discuss on the law of the country, to know the involvement of the people in Sabah with regard to legal issues, to know the attitude of the people of Sabah toward the law of the nation, to know which media is the most effective in promoting legal literacy and to expose “Literary Work and Copyright” students to research the law of the nation.

The study confirmed the first hypothesis that the awareness of the public in Sabah toward laws of the nation is generally low. This is based on the basic questions that were asked on laws that are usually confronting them in their daily lives that usually less than half of them were abled to answer correctly. This is despite the fact that 15% of respondents claimed that their knowledge of the laws is very good, another 50% said their knowledge of the laws is good, 30% said it is average while only 5% admitted it is weak. Also, the findings claimed that 31.3% are aware of the laws when they are between the ages of ten to 15 and another 31% between the ages of 16 to 20 years. Further, 9% of respondents even claimed they were beginning to be aware of the laws whey they are below the age of nine.

The second hypothesis that the people in Sabah are seldom exposed to the Federal Constitution and the laws that are essentials to their daily lives also ring true. This conclusion is based on the findings that they are generally ignorance of laws that they are facing in their daily lives. More so, only 14% of respondents are aware that the Federal Constitution is the supreme law of the nation. Also, only 42% of the respondents anwered correctly that the maximum speed in Malaysia is 110 kilometres an hour. Further, only 58% of the respondents correctly said that laws are legislated in parliament while only 13% mentioned state legislatures.

The findings further showed that the third hypothesis which stated the public in Sabah assumed that laws are too difficult to comprehend and therefore it is best to refer to the experts as generally right. This conclusion is based on the findings that the public in Sabah are generally ignorant of even the basic laws like traffic laws and where the laws are being legislated.

Consequently, it can be concluded that they have to depend on lawyers or experts to defend themselves when they fell foul of the laws. It means also that they are vulnerable to abuses because of their ignorance of the laws.

In terms of the study five objectives, the first one with regard to legal literacy among the people in Sabah the finding proved that it is generally low despite the claimed by many respondents that they are aware of the laws relatively early in their lives and a significant number of them said they know the laws well.

Regarding the second objective of the study the findings showed that with the respondents’ knowledge of the laws which are rather limited and it would be difficult for them to discuss on its strengths and weaknesses and offer suggestions to improve it.

As revealed only slightly more than half of them know where laws are legislated and can name them. With regard to the third objective of knowing the involvement of the public in Sabah in relations to legal issues it can be concluded that a majority are not capable or are not in a position to do so. With many too busy to just survive in their daily life and their low level of knowledge of the laws it is doubted where they would have the finance or time or capability to do so.

Thus, it is critical for the relevant authorities and the non-governmental organisations and even corporations under public services or corporate social responsibilities to be involved in legal literacy campaigns especially with laws relevants to their existence. Relating to Sabah public attitude toward the law of the nation their almost complete ignorance of the laws can only be concluded that they are rather apathetic towards it. Many reasons can be offered for these state of affair. First, the education system of Malaysia do not provide the environment for them to understand even the most basic of laws relating to their life and as mentioned not many of them knows where laws in Malaysia are being legislated or what are are their rights under the Federal Constituion and that it is the supreme law of the nation.

Secondly, many of the laws are to complex or complicated for them to understand and needs legal professionals to interpretate it to them. Thirdly, many of the people are too busy earning their livelihood and only get to know them when confronted by legal problerms, and so on. Further, the findings revealed that 51% said they respected the alws and 49% feared it. In regard to the fifth objective which relates to media habits, the study finding showed that most respondents knows how to utilise the media well and getting optimum benefits from its utilisations. Internet has become top media with 50% respondents stating it as well the chief channels for news and information.

However, the most trusted or credible media are newspapers with 40% respondents declaring it. Further, printed brochures, leaflets and phamplets are still useful with 59% respondents claiming that they do read it.

Also, these small media online have become increasingly popular, meaning it is still worthwhile to utilise it for legal literacy campaigns since it is relatively cheap to produce in its printed or online format. Thus, this study conclude that the media, whether big or small and especially online are essential instrument for promoting legal literacy.

Finally, regarding the sixth objective, 87% of the students involved in the study claimed that it had made them more aware of the importance to know the laws, especially those relevant in their future career like the Contract Act, the Copyright Act and the Sedition Act. They said they would make sure that they are knowledgeable about the laws that are going to affect them in their lives and careers. The remaining 13% of the students admitted that they had learned from the study the importance of the laws but let the experts represent them so that they do not have to spend a lot of time on it. It can be concluded that after the study all the students feel the need to be aware of laws relevant to their lives and a significant number of them promised to better understand them.

In recognizing the generally low level of legal literacy among the people in Sabah it is recommended that all parties in authorities or power and public interest organisations to urgently budget, plan and launch legal literacy campaigns that are relevant to their areas of enforcements, businesses and interest all the time. It should be part of their public service duties or corporate social responsibilities. It can be even recommended that this legal literacy campaigns be made mandatory for all organisations when they have an interest in it.

In this endeavour the media professionals and organisations should assist any organisations that are involved in legal literacy campaigns by giving them the space and air time for free or at minimum fees.

They should also be involved by writing and producing programs that are legal literacy campaigns in nature. At the very least their professional organisations should be involved in educating their consumers with laws relating to freedom of speech and legislations like the sedition law and even relevant content of the federal constitution and human rights.

Also, it is recommended that the laws are written at a level that most citizens can understand it in the national language as well as the languages of the indigenous people where possible and the majority groups like in Mandarin and Tamil plus English as the commercial lingua franca.

Further recommended is that leaflets, phamplets, brochures as well as in the new media relevant laws are made easily available. Homepages of all organisations should explain laws that they are involved in even including those doing businesses online.

It is interesting to note that nearly all respondents suggested that laws important in their daily lives as citizens be taught at all levels of the education system.

They further recommended that the Federal Constitution content, at least the ones relevant to the rights of citizens be taught at the school levels, if possible even at the lowest levels so that even if they are unable to pursue their education at a higher level they are aware of their rights as citizens as well as their human rights and know where to get counseling and protection when their rights are being abused.

The level of legal literacy should be at level making citizens to respect and uphold all laws of the nation. Legal literacy means making people aware of their rights under the law. Legal awareness can empower people to demand justice, accountability and effective remedies at all levels. Professor Datuk Mohd Hamdan Haji Adnan of UMS’ Faculty of Humanities, Arts & Heritage