Community Medicine Batch 9: Day 7 at Sik

Today, according to the schedule, we are supposed to have a talk on Law Enforcement in Public Health. As a part of the programme, we are brought to the Sik Magistrate Court which is situated very near to Sik DHO. The idea of this activity today is for us to have an exposure and experience about the court environment and some of the law acts related to public health.

So, here we are in front of Sik Magistrate Court. It was a sizzling hot day...

This is the front view of the Magistrate Court building...

This is the interior of the court room where the case discussion is held. The long compartment in the middle of the court is called the "kandang saksi" where the witnesses are called upon for further case discussion. Those people sitting in the court are the Public Prosecutors. Mr.Chin, one of the Health Officer of Sik DHO was one of the Prosecuting Officer in the court today. He was in charge of a case prosecuted under the Food Act 1983. Briefly, it was a food poisoning case where after food sampling, it was found that the food contains pathogenic microorganism called Salmonella spp.

All of us with our respected Mr.Chin.

So, more info about the Magistrate Court... The Interpretor plays an important role in the court. He does most of the talking.... Generally, he translates and reads out the charge sheet to the judge and the accused. There are very limited seats available inside the court room. Thus, it took quite some time for all of us to enter the court room one by one as people get out of the court room. Before the case discussion starts, Mr.Chin gave us a short briefing about the rules that everyone should follow. As we enter the court room, we must always bow before the judge to show our respect. The same rule applies as we exit. Besides that, we are strictly prohibited from taking any photographs inside the court room.

The environment inside the court room is completely different from what we actually have in our imagination of a court. It is definitely not like what we see in movies... it was very silent inside there...we could hardly hear what are they talking.... most of the case discussed in the court today was on some kind of addiction to "daun Ketum".

Chitchatting with Mr.Chin about some of the cases discussed in the court

Then, for the evening session we had briefing with one of Sik DHO Health Officer. He explained to us about law enforcement more in detail with examples. Here is a picture taken with him...

Well, that's all for today's entry...however we would like to continue with some of the pictures which we could not post earlier in the blog....

This is the waterfall located near Baling district... We seriously had a *mind blowing* time together...

Having a blast!!!

Our newly found friend there... who is posing proudly with the nature....lolz!

This is "Swami Nithiyanantham" and "Swami Momo" showering their blessings to the visitors of the waterfall....

We ended the day by having dinner together in Ananda Bhavan... we were promoting our delicious Indian cuisine to our colleagues and we were very glad that they enjoyed the food...