KOTA KINABALU: A magistrate from Malacca never expected some of the life-threatening hazards he had to face when he was posted to Sabah.
Zaini Fishir is one of about 10 magistrates who mentally prepared themselves for the worst when they travelled in a 15-year-old four-wheel-drive to remote locations to extend the services of the court.
"It is so different in Sabah compared with the peninsula where you have village roads which are sealed. Here in the interior, you have logging roads and sometimes no roads.
"It is dangerous to travel during the rainy season when roads get muddy. Sometimes there are landslides and you also need to cross rivers. Once, we almost skidded into a ravine.
"I have come to realise that not all people are fortunate. They don't have access to services that most of us take for granted," he said.
The magistrates also face the challenge of having to try to understand the dialects used by the rural people, coping with 10 to 15 people who want their attention all at once and bringing with them extra fuel for generator sets and food for families who are kind enough to host them at their homes.
At the Pagalungan area in Pensiangan, which is one of the most difficult places to reach in Sabah, they risk their lives in tiny boats in raging rivers, paying up to RM100 for a one-way trip.
Some have had to come face to face with huge waves on their way to islands, arriving drenched at their destinations.
Magistrate Azreena Aziz said although she is a local, the experience of reaching faraway places has been an eye-opener.
"It has been exciting and once you meet these people, you will come to realise that there are many things that they don't know when it comes to their rights.
"Many of them really cannot afford to go to the nearest town. That is the other thing we have learned, and that is why they don't bother to get identification documents," she said.
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