ENACT PROVISIONS IN THE COMMUNITY SERVICE ORDER

ENACT PROVISIONS IN THE COMMUNITY SERVICE ORDER

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I refer to your report," Community Service awaits NS dodgers," (nst Nov.15) I wonder how the National Service Training Department is going to impose the Community Service Order ( CSO ) on dodgers of the National Service ( NS ) training programme, when the provisions in the CSO itself, I think is not yet fully or legally enacted.
Although an amendment has been made to the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC ) Section 293 (1) (e) which introduced the CSO in 2006, as an alternative to imprisonment, is it already fully workable ,in view of the absence of proper provisions and programmes to implement it effectively, namely:
The minimum or maximum number of hours the offender must work per day. The number of weeks or months the offender must serve. Which department is to supervise.Where will the offender be accommodated. Will he be paid for the services..Must he wears a special uniform. What type of work will he be doing.Is he insured against injury or death. These are but some of the provisions that should be considered and legally enacted before the CSO could be implemented.
Community Service Order is a non-custodial penalty that should only be imposed by the court, requiring offenders to carry out unpaid work in the community under the supervision of a probation or welfare officer. We have been talking about the CSO for more than a couple of decades, and yet it has not been implemented.
Legislators have been inclined to design custodial sentences for every minor and major offences, as they are both punitive and deterrent in nature. The absence of community-based punitive strategies as an alternative to imprisonment has led to imprisonment being used as the sentence of first resort. This has resulted in serious overcrowding in our prisons.
In my view the community-based custodial system not only offers the best solution to prison overcrowding, but also the offences are not registrable and as such would not have criminal records, and at the same time makes recompense to the society the offender has wronged by serving it unpaid over time in ways and for periods determined as a criminal sentence.
I think Malaysia could do well to study the CSO system or model as practiced by the United Kingdom, Australia, and nearer home, Singapore and Hong Kong.It would be better if the CSO could be blended into the Malaysian Criminal Justice System, so that it may be extended to a wider swath of offenders as a punishment for vandalism, Traffic offenders, Mat Rempit and polluters who throw rubbish indiscriminately.
The community service order contains variable elements of reform and retribution, Perhaps the humiliating experience should be enough to deter even the most hardcore Vandals, litterbugs, traffic offenders and Mat Rempit.



NOR SHAHID MOHD NOR
PETALING JAYA.