COMMENT | Don’t let racists hijack ‘basikal lajak’ discourse

COMMENT | On April 13, the Johor Bahru High Court allowed the appeal by the public prosecutor and convicted clerk Sam Ke Ting for the offence of reckless driving under Section 41(1) of the Road Transport Act 1987.

Sam was sentenced to imprisonment of six years and fined RM6,000, amongst others. Her application for stay was also denied by the High Court, which meant that she had to serve her jail time immediately.

Sam was accused to have caused the death of eight cyclists at 3.20am on Feb 18, 2017. The cyclists were said to be youths who participated in the ‘basikal lajak’ activity; drag racing modified bicycles on public roads.

The clerk was twice acquitted by the Magistrate’s Court, first in 2019 and again in 2021. Upon appeal, both decisions were reversed.

The magistrate’s grounds of decision for acquitting Sam is a 40-plus page judgment which examined the evidence thoroughly. Amongst others, the magistrate found that there were...