Labuan association regrets transfer of legal aid officers
LABUAN: The Association of Women Affairs Labuan chapter (HAWA) yesterday appealed the Public Services Department (JPA) to reconsider the recent ‘scrap' of legal assistant posts in the Legal Aid Department here to be reinstated.
Its chairman Fauziah Datuk Mohd Din said two legal assistants were each transferred to Putrajaya and Kota Kinabalu on August 1, leaving only one legal assistant to deal with only syariah-related cases.
“The two legal assistants who are tasked and experienced to deal with civil and crime-related cases had been transferred since this week, and this will create difficulties to the people, especially those low income earner to obtain legal advice,” she said at a press conference in her officer yesterday.
She said the availability of the legal assistants since 2003 here had helped a lot of people who were having legal disputes about civil and criminal, without having to fork out a minimum of RM300RM500 in legal fees from private legal practitioner.
Fauziah said the two legal assistants had given instant legal advice almost every day in a week to those who were caught in cheating and investment scams, mortgage-related cases, and family abuse among others.
“As we only have one legal assistant to deal with syariah cases, what about those with financial constraints and having civil and criminal cases, we hope the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department for Legal Affairs will look into this pressing issue,” Fauziah said.
She said the scrap of the post would be a burden to those with conflict in legal actions as they might have to travel to Kota Kinabalu or have to wait for the 'visiting legal assistant' for the service and that would take a longer time for solution.
“Labuan, being a federal territory, must not be sidelined, but the government must continuously look at the plight and the needs of the people here, scraping the post is tantamount to downgrading the department status, which is still relevant to the people,” she said.