Life in prison very painful and humbling, says ex-magistrate
KUALA LUMPUR: The life behind the prison walls has been very painful and humbling experience for former magistrate Mohd Firdaus Ramlan that has also made him remorseful for his past wrongdoings.
Mohd Firdaus, 36, who was sentenced to two years in prison for corruption, said what made things worse for him was thinking of his family who was forced to face the public ridicule as the result of his greediness and short-sightedness.
“Prison life was very painful and humbling and you will not know how painful it is until you are placed in it (prison). The most humbling is knowing that my family out there being ostracised and penalised because of my mistakes.
“My wife, mother and in-laws are being shunned, ridiculed and looked down at. The public perceptions are beyond our control,” he said in a radio talk show programme titled “SPRM 360”, a collaboration between Radio MACC.fm and Bernama Radio yesterday.
He said the stigma that followed exconvict such as himself was huge, but he also had made conscious decision to turn his status into a force for him to turning over a new leaf.
Kelantanese Mohd Firdaus, who has since relocated to Putrajaya, said his family never stopped supporting him although it was very difficult for him to face the community following his release from the prison.
“At first it was very difficult, Alhamdulillah (praise be to Allah) the stigma of an ex-convict has been slowly removed from me,” he explained. Based on his painful experiences, Mohd Firdaus urged the public to stay away from corruption and to return to one’s religious foundation, to know and be aware of the consequences of one’s every deed.
In October 2009, his corrupt practices had been uncovered by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) as the agency worked with his subordinate to catch him in the act and subsequently, he was convicted of two offences in the Sessions Court for asking for and receiving bribes.
Mohd Firdaus was sentenced to prison in 2012 and released in 2014, and has been active since in delivering talks on corruption by sharing his experiences at various institutions, particularly government agencies.