To tame the reptilian mind?

A Nearly Normal Family (Swedish, Season 1, E1-E6; 2023)
Director: Per Hanefjord

Maybe there is no one there watching you. You are just out there alone on the small blue dot amid all that emptiness.; a blob in that awful waste of space. That’s all. Above us, only sky, and there is no hell below us.

Perhaps the wise men who came long ago knew about this all the while. They also knew that an observing eye in the sky ensured conformity and obedience. Could they know about the double-slit lamp examination findings and how the results vary when an observer is included in the experiment? The reality changes when observed. Putting the fear of prancing eyes would ensure people act within social mores. That would prevent straying from the needs of the societies, sticking together against the elements of Nature and from predators eyeing the exact needs.

As time passed, things were added and amended to suit the demands of the times. A certain amount of legitimacy was sealed by infusing a divine infusion into the equation. For a while, things went on smoothly.

The great leap forward in the sciences made people question many of the so-called God-sanctioned laws they had blindly followed. Words like empowerment, personal spaces and choices began to be mentioned. Suddenly, the religious fervour lost its lustre.

The world then noticed that everyone had their own vision of the world, and they wanted to live it as they chose. Life rules do not matter anymore. Rational reasoning took precedence. Unfortunately, humans are not so disciplined. They let their heart and minds sway. Soon, they fell prey to their primal needs.

Getting into mess after mess, they soon realise that religion, whether a God existed, paved a safe journey to the destination.

This thought went through me as I watched this miniseries about a pastor, his philandering lawyer wife, and their precocious teenage daughter. The daughter, when she was 16, befriended an older boy who sexually assaulted her. The family decided not to report the rape to the police. The daughter grew up with unresolved issues, opting out of her studies but continuing her carefree social life. One day, she is accused of murdering a 32-year-old young man who turned out to be her lover.

Life takes a turn for all three. The rest of the story is about how the family stays together to resolve the issue at hand. As if realising that divine guidance is necessary for peace of mind, the series ends with the daughter lighting a candle at a church when everything is resolved.

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No change?

WUSA (1970)

Director: Stuart Rosenberg

The idea of critical race theory came about because of this observation. The constitution enshrines that everyone is equal in the eye of the law and is innocent unless proven otherwise. Day in and day out, the disparity between different groups is apparent. Disproportionately high numbers of people of a particular group occupy the prisons and fill up the low socioeconomic strata of society. Proponents of critical theory insist that they are victims of systemic discrimination in society. Even though the law paints an image of fairness, in reality, the system is biased. The disadvantaged people will always stay disadvantaged. The system makes sure of that. 

The perception of the people is easily swayed. The public can easily be zombified to tell a particular narrative with all the communication tools at the disposal of the powers that be. This idea was initially mooted by the left-leaning Frankfurt School and perfected by Hitler's propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels. The widespread of social media and the rampant algorithmic manipulation in creating echo chambers are proof of this.

This 1971 film tells the narrative above in its own way. The setting is somewhat different, though. Set in the 70s Confederate town of New Orleans, it speaks of a meeting of a radio announcer (Reinhart, Paul Newman), a social worker (Rainey, Anthony Perkins), a preacher and a job-seeking recently widowed 30-something lady (Geraldine, Joanne Woodward). Rainey discovers that the research results handed to him are all fake. The powers that be in town have no interest in improving the state of the downtrodden. The white supremacists in town are pretty happy with the status quo. The radio station helps to paint a rosy picture of the bleak situation of the poor. Rainey confronts the radio owner but is just turned away. As a radio DJ, Reinhart knows very well that his job involves spreading false information and carries on anyway for the money. The preacher in it to escape his demons and sway towards where the power lies. And Geraldine is confused about the whole thing, especially so after having her husband gunned down by one supremacist. 

Things take a turn for the worse when the head of the radio station sponsors a white supremacy rally. Pandemonium struck as Rainey tried to assassinate the radio station owner during a performance as black militants demonstrated outside the venue.

Half a century after this movie, we still debate the same issues. We talk about equality, equity, justice and fairness but agree on which is what. When we do not have anything, we think communism and socialism are the way forward. When we have attained a certain comfort in life, when our hard work pays off, we do not want to part with our hard-earned money. We tend to think capitalism is best. If we can pull ourselves by our own bootstraps, why can't others?

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Everything is out of order!

And Justice for All (1979)

Director: Norman Jewison

During one of those festivities gatherings, we managed to pin down one of our old schoolmates. That was quite an achievement, for he was and still is a senior partner in one of KL's outstanding law firms. We created a hypothetical situation. What if he, as a lawyer, either gets a client who admits his crime at the onset or, along the course of the trial, would he still continue to defend his client?

In so many words, with mentions of the right to proper legal representation and duty to the client, our layman's minds understood that he would still continue defending his client. His task was to ensure that his client was free of his charge. Of course, he would not purposely make his opponent win, knowing pretty well that his client committed the offence. Nowhere in the conversation was justice and seeking the truth uttered. Justice is what the court determines, and the truth is what is argued out. 

This must have been what the Sophists of the Greek tradition would have wanted - a skill in public speaking so convincing that one is able to sell ice to the Eskimo.

Recent events in this country prove that the legal arm is not there to seek the truth or dispense justice. It is just a question of who is holding the mantle of power. Seeing how often we see the arm of the Law bending backwards to the tunes of the members occupying the corridor of power is nauseating.

Arthur Kirkland (Al Pacino) sees all these in force in the courts. Haughty judges throw their weights around, suspects are treated like dirt, and the system has no time for the common man. Around him, he sees many dysfunctional attorneys move around like zombies playing to the tune of the system. Kirkland punches a judge when the judge repeatedly makes it difficult for his case to be put forward. For that, Kirkland spends a day in jail.

So Kirkland is perplexed when he is called to defend the judge he punched. The judge is charged with assault. The system feels that hiring a lawyer who abhors the judge would strengthen his case. He sees the system as existing to take of each other's interests. The last of their concerns is to improve the dispensing of justice, the welfare of the accused or reduce the number of those wrongly accused. 

Kirkland is threatened about his long-forgotten breach of client-attorney confidentiality case. He has no choice but to accept the offer. Along the way, he discovers more dirty secrets about the judge and rots about the system.

7.5/10. Good watch.

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Laws to protect the protected?

So a niece, lured by all the promises of a blissfully contended modern life by being a proud owner of an iPhone 14Pro, decided to 'not so smartly' and allegedly took her aunt's debit cards to purchase her ticket to freedom. Unfortunately, the long arms of the law had caught up with her. Her long march through the corridors of justice in handcuffs excites the journalist of the country's premier newspaper. Of course, nobody in the country will have the gravitas to question the need to handcuff a petty thief. Even someone who allegedly squandered the nation's sovereign and turned the country into an international embarrassment still cat-walked these same corridors flashing his branded suits, dressed to the nines uncuffed.

That is the thing about the law. The law and enforcements target the commoner. Paradoxically, the legal hierarchy is there to protect the high-heeled. Wealth can ease the path to procure all the lawful representation money can buy. If a person fails to obtain an acquittal, have no fear. The higher courts are at your disposal, with all the robed sharks demanding an arm or a leg to give you a clean chit. At an even higher loot, at an even higher court, if retrial should fail, experts to the experts can be summoned with much pomp and splendour to tear up the charge sheet.

A poor man can just pray for a miracle, an early discharge for good behaviour and God's grace at heaven's gate or purgatory.

With 160 criminal charges, they still
won elections and graced the august
house of democracy.

The recent triad type of killing of a gangster turned politician, Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf while under police custody in Prayagraj opened a can of worms of the politico-law enforcement- electoral machinery-mafia unholy union, at least in India. I think this web of deceit is confined to third-world countries, banana republics, and even mature democracies. Just that the mainstream media is quick to quash such bad publicity of their own nation but is super efficient in highlighting other countries as a Wild West.

Over the years, through mishaps and experience, government offices have secured a safety mechanism to ensure transparency, efficiency and accountability. Many checks and balances have been instituted towards this end. An honest leader will follow the pre-set path of prosperity, the primary aim of the nation's and citizens' well-being. Their tenure is limited, and they have to stamp their legacy in a short time. Undoubtedly, there would be backstabbers who would wait to pull their rug under your feet anytime, jealous the leader had beaten him to the post. Honey-trapping, freebies and lure to corruption would be red-carpeted for the weak-hearted to fall into. Keeping all this in mind, a leader who had gone through the rank and file would know how to protect himself. The system itself would ensure no hanky-panky is easy to carry out.

If not for opposition to bringing in foreign lawyers, bigwigs from Queen's
Counsel would be sauntering haughtily along our corridors of native justice.

With all these safety nets in place, it is challenging to unknowingly earn himself a corruption charge. Is it wrong for me to assume that a leader charged with criminal breach of people's trust is guilty unless proven otherwise? With all the dos and don'ts at their disposal, and the law feels there is a case for the leader to answer, what do you make out of all these? Small fries, sharks, and whales are surfacing with their petrifying shenanigans.

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Justice delayed is justice denied!

Indian Predator: Murder in a Courtroom (2022)

Documentary; Netflix

Humans thought living in big numbers protected them from the elements, predators and even enemies. Security concerns were taken care of by the individual community itself. It was jungle justice with no higher justice to recourse. Might decided what was right!

As communities coalesced into country-states, the job of security and protection was outsourced to the State. Suddenly there was no reason for the average citizen to hold powerful weapons. The duty to apprehend and punish wrongdoers was outsourced to State-owned agencies. These agencies were supposed to protect all levels of society, the powerful and powerless alike. It looks all nice on paper, but in reality, the mission statements of these agents are mere rhetorics to pacify the vote bank. The minorities and the weak can only cry foul, fill up the newspapers and breaking news segments and spit on the system.

People will bear with the imperfections of the system. Despite its follies, they believe that God and leaders will soon realise their shortcomings to rectify their errors. At a particular point of no return, the bow will break, and there will be no turning back. Justice must be seen to be done. Justice delayed is justice denied.

This must be what happened to Kasturba Nagar's dwellers in Nagpur, Maharashtra. Since 1999, a group of rowdies had been terrorising the inhabitants. They were brazenly beating up people and molesting girls there. Reports to local police did not achieve much. They became bolder. Akku Yadav is the de-facto leader of the pack. After a brawl, he killed one of his friends. Akku was imprisoned but was released after 10 months, bolder and blunter in his attacks on his victims. He terrorised the women, molesting, harassing and even raping them in the open. The people of Nagar were just too frightened to retaliate.

One brave lady, Asha Bhagat, went against Akku only to be stabbed to death. Another young student was almost killed by Akku but was saved by her quick thinking and when all her neighbours came to her rescue. This act empowered them. When Akku was produced in court, all the ladies of the colony planned an ambush on him. On August 13th 2004, over 200 people from Kasturba Nagar made their way to the Nagpur courts. They locked him up in the courthouse, sprinkled chilli powder into his eyes and mutilated every part of his body, including his ears and genitalia.

This took a big dent in the integrity and competence of the policing and justice systems of the country. When people take the law into their own hands, and the State has no control over protecting its own officers, how can it protect the country? The authorities arrested five random ladies for the murder of Akku. This prompted 200 over ladies from the colony to turn up at the local police station, all confessing to murdering Akku. 50 ladies were later arrested, but the justice system's slow wheel took ten long years to acquit them of all crimes.

The action of the members to ambush the court show and kill an accused in broad daylight exposed the impotence of the police and the courts. They could help but charge the authorities of caring less for them because of their depressed class status and perhaps their generally lower castes too. The purists insist that their actions could not be condoned and the State machinery must be respected. Detractors question the relevance of government servants who are only there to serve the upper echelon of society. Somewhere along the way, the Naxalites are accused of instigating the public to create anar
chy.

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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. 

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So much for 'rule of law'!

420 IPC (Hindi; 2021)

Director: Manish Gupta

So that is how it is. Everybody claims to be adhering to the rule of law. For a simpleton like me, that sounds like sound advice. The law is there to protect the little people against the tyranny of the deep-pocketed. I was nurtured to believe that the Truth will always prevail in the end. Lady Justice is supposedly blind to coercion, they say. As I grew older, I realised that all these are just bunkum. 

The people who frequently invoke the phrases 'rule of law' and 'by the book' do not mean what they say. What they actually mean is that they have masterminded the nooks, corners and loopholes in the legal system that they can literally get away with murder. They can legitimately proclaim that they can legally needle themselves away from being caught in a comprising position. They have got all their sides, frontal and posterior, all concealed.

When and if ever they are queried, they have the fortitude to use the same law used to persecute them to shield themselves instead. No matter how hard truth tries to prevail, nothing can challenge the best brain that wealth can purchase. The way law can be interpreted as much as the defender can afford to pay. Top dollars can buy top lawyers. 

Law is written, and its execution is as good as the words and nuances it is written. Words can be manipulated. The first teachers of this art were the sophists. Greek philosophers like Socrates and Plato did not have any nice things to say about them. They were viewed as prostituting themselves by selling the art of speaking and providing wisdom to convince the impossible. They must be the first to have sold ice to the Eskimos.  

This is an engaging film about a seemingly small-scaled chartered accountant, Bansi Keswani, who is initially arrested when his client is caught for money laundering. He is discharged, but Bansi is re-arrested for stealing some cheques two months later. This time around, he has to face the whole brunt of the law. Why would an intelligent accountant do something so amateurish like stealing cheques and falsifying the issuer's signature in such a novice way? The defence digs deep into his sleeves and all roads plainly seem to lead Bansi to a lengthy jail term.

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Follow

Between the right and the just thing to do!

Sleepers (1996)
Director: Barry Levinson

Sometimes when I see how some cases are persecuted in this country, I wonder if they are some kind of arrangements between the prosecutors and defence so that the rich and famous stay immune from conviction. One does not have to look far to know the many cases that raise suspicion. Even the executive branch of the government does not mind appearing incompetent just to fulfil specific preset political agendas. All of it reminds me of a grand freak show put up by the powers-that-be for self-aggrandisement and stupefying the citizens at their own expense. Every day is a constant reminder of the 'you reap what you saw' adage. Yet 70 years of rule by a single party has created a kind of Stockholm Syndrome that people admire the very leaders that cheat them blind!

This 1996 film is based on Lorenzo Carcaterra's book. The author insists that the story is based on actual events, with the name of characters and places altered to protect the identity of the accused and victims. Despite extensive scrutiny into the records of similar cases that made it to the US Courts, nobody found any remotely resembling the story in this film. It features a lineup of many familiar faces, including Robert Ne Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Bacon and Brad Pitt.

In 1968, four boys living in Hell's Kitchen, a poor Irish-American neighbourhood in Manhattan, get into a reform school when their prank goes wrong, and they end up seriously injuring a man. During their 18-month incarceration in the school, they had to endure many life-changing physical, psychological and sexual abuses from the guards. Even though they did not report the crimes, they vowed to avenge later when the time was ripe.

The time came in 1981. Two of the four boys are now hard criminals, one an Assistant Public Prosecutor and another a journalist. One day, the criminals sighted one of the guards in a restaurant. They shoot him in cold blood.

When their case comes up in court, the prosecutor and journalist devise an elaborate plan to expose the rot in the correctional school system. The sweet smell of revenge came with a price, and it involved a priest lying under oath. The priest had to weigh between staying true to his profession as an upholder of truth and telling a white lie to uncover massive wrongdoings.

(PS. In Malaysia, in the mind of many of our holy men, the answer to the dilemma is quite a clear cut. Religion takes precedence over everything else. Doing the morally conscientious thing with humanity or upholding the truth does not arise. It is always about protecting the flock. Higher thinking is just too mentally challenging!)

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