KUALA LUMPUR, July 24 — DAP today offered free legal service to Siti Fairrah Ashykin Kamaruddin, the disgraced road bully filmed hammering an elderly ethnic Chinese man’s vehicle with a steering lock, if she plans to appeal against her conviction.
Veteran DAP leader Lim Kit Siang extended the offer as he felt that she had been “punished enough” by the flurry of social media attacks after the video of her losing her temper after a fender bender went viral.
“I feel Kiki had been punished enough. She had expressed regret and remorse for what she had done,” Lim said in a statement, referring to Siti Fairrah’s nickname.
“She was the subject of universal scorn and condemnation in the social media – a punishment never envisaged when the Penal Code was drafted in the last century, which was pre-Internet era and before the advent of the social media,” he said.
On Tuesday, Siti Fairrah was slapped with a RM5,000 fine and ordered to do 240 hours of community service by the Kuantan Sessions Court for causing mischief and damaging the car of Sim Siak Hong using a steering lock.
She was said to have committed the offence at the parking lot of UTC, Jalan Sekilau in Kuantan on July 14 at about 1.10pm.
A social media storm erupted after the video documenting her verbally abusing Sim and hitting his car with a steering lock was uploaded on video-sharing site YouTube, though Sim refused to press charges.
The Gelang Patah MP stressed that it is unacceptable for anyone to frame the incident in racial terms, training his sights on former Information Minister Tan Sri Zainuddin Maidin for allegedly insinuating that the Chinese would have reacted very differently if Kiki were from the community.
Lim said it is the “height of irresponsibility” for Zainuddin to have questioned the patriotism of the Malaysian Chinese in a recent blog post.
“Even more reprehensible and deplorable is his dismissal of “Chinese press, Chinese social media, Chinese parties and Chinese NGOs” as communal organisations utterly bereft of Malaysian nationalism or patriotism,” Lim said in a statement.
The Gelang Patah MP stressed that Zainuddin must come clean as to whether his allegiance lies either with his country or race first, saying only a citizen who puts country first can engage in a discussion on inter-racial and inter-religious harmony that is “worthwhile, useful and productive”.
Lim added that the Federal Constitution clearly states that all are equal before the law and entitled to equal protection by the law, which makes the race of a perpetrator irrelevant.
“Whether ‘Kiki’ is Malay, Chinese, Indian, Kadazan or Iban, she must face the consequences of the law for any infringement...” Lim said.
The senior opposition lawmaker noted that the law must not discriminate between racial, religious or political affiliations, and must take equal action against anyone who threatens the peace and security of the nation.
“Again, if any DAP leader had threatened May 13 riots in the country, he or she would have to face the full weight of the law — and rightly so, because all Malaysians cherish peace, harmony and unity in our multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-cultural nation.
“But Zainuddin is quite happy that no action is being taken by the police or authorities although May 13 threats had been openly made at least three times this year by racial and religious extremists and chauvinists.
He then invited Zainuddin to jointly discard the language of division, extremism, hatred and injustice and to embrace the language of unity, moderation, tolerance and justice, in the interest of Malaysian unity.
The Selangor chapter of Malay rights group Perkasa today also launched a fund to pay for Kiki’s RM5,000 fine.
