RIFLE RANGE BOY: All the justice money can buy.

Chief Justices Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, Chief Judge of Sabah and

Sarawak Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim, and apex court judges

Nallini Pathmanathan, Mary Lim and Mohamad Zabidin Diah.

The naive, straight-thinking, law-abiding me with no background in the legal field used to think that the buck stopped at the Court Of Appeal. If one fails at the Appellate Court, it was pretty much that. One goes to jail to complete a sentence or meets his maker as he hits the gallows.

Now we know there is life after the appeal. One can seek justice by pleading at the Federal Court. If the results there are not to his liking, he further argues to have a judicial review of the panel of judges that meted his sentence. Even the Federal Court can be held at ransom. This is called justice in the world of the high-heeled. Everyone deserves adequate legal representation, and it is his human right. Of course, it becomes mandatory if the client can afford the obscene amount of retainer fees involved as the case goes higher in the hierarchy of the legal accolade. Nobody has the guts to inquire about these people's seemingly bottomless coffers and the disproportional amount they save from their structured civil servant pay.

Not to forget the special treatment these VIP client is entitled to. In the eyes of the law, unlike what everybody else says, he is not a criminal until he has exhausted all his legal avenues. Till then, he will be roaming freely, still flashing his designer outfits and not repeating wearing the same tunic more than once. He can perhaps add a tinge of tangerine in his tie to mock naysayers who miss the joy of seeing him in an orange prison suit. The shiny steel cuff links can remind them of the handcuffs that he does not have to wear.

We, the mere mortal we are, are also told that everyone deserves a second chance. Like a true religious confession, with a single stroke of the royal quill, one can get a clean slate, free to do what he seems fit, sniggering at the whole parody of it all.

In the true mantra of cash is king, money can buy friends, love, liaisons with the rich and famous and definitely justice and freedom. Laws are made to make the powerless remain so and squirm at the sight of the stick. For the privileged 1%, it is just an inconvenience. Laws are meant to be broken. The rich can challenge it. The poor just have to oblige.