AYER KEROH: Businesswoman Mariyah Yaakob was fined RM40,000 by the Sessions Court here today for making offensive remarks in a video on social media, in which she accused Malays of being lazy, last year.
The same court, however, acquitted her son, Ezuan Hafsham Mohd Hisyam, 23, with a RM10,000 good behaviour bond for one year, with a Malaysian guarantor, for the offence of posting the video on social media.
Judge Azaraorni Abd Rahman made the judgement after Mariyah, also known as 'Makcik Kemboja', 48 and Ezuan Hafsham both pleaded guilty to the charges.
In his ruling, the judge considered the facts of the case, the defence's plea and the prosecution's arguments, ordering that Mariyah be jailed for six months if she fails to pay the fine, but she settled the amount.
Earlier, the state prosecution director Ahmad Sazali Omar, argued for a heavy and appropriate punishment for the duo.
He said the video posted by the first accused, which made hurtful remarks about the Malay community and was uploaded on TikTok by the second accused, led to 23 police reports being filed nationwide, including 12 in Melaka.
"In the 3R issue (race, religion, rulers) the first accused should have been more careful and not spoken arbitrarily to the point of causing disharmony in society.
"The second accused, as an educated person, should have thought about the impact of posting the video. If he made the video to watch himself at home, there would be no issue, but when it was uploaded to social media, this is the impact," he said.
Sazali said the issue of 3Rs is no trivial matter, and despite both accused issuing a video apologising after the incident, the offence had already occurred, and the damage was irreversible.
Meanwhile, lawyer Kamal Hisham Jaafar pleaded for Mariyah to be given the minimum fine, citing several reasons, including her responsibility for three school-age children, her 70-year-old mother, and a tahfiz centre in Johor Baru that houses orphaned and underprivileged students.
As for Ezuan Hafsham, he appealed not to be fined or jailed but merely to be given a good behaviour bond under Section 294 of the Criminal Procedure Code, as he is still pursuing a double degree at the University of Reading in Malaysia and the United Kingdom.