AS I see the blame game going between the owners of the barge which saw nearly sixty die last week on the Bombay High Seas, and the late captain, we hear people saying we should be lenient with someone or other, but then a murder is a murder.
Callousness cannot be excused and people who are to blame have to be brought to justice, right? But here is a story where justice was delivered in a way that was Justice magnified!
An Indonesian judge by the name of Marzuki was sitting in judgment of an old lady who pleaded guilty of stealing some tapioca from a plantation.
In her defense, the old lady admitted to the Judge that she was indeed guilty of the crime because she was poor and her son was sick while her grandchild was hungry. The plantation manager insisted that she be punished as a deterrent to others.
The judge going through the documents then looked up and said to the old lady, “I’m sorry but I cannot make any exception to the Law and you must be punished accordingly”.
The old lady was fined Rp.1 million (USD 100) and if she could not pay the fine then she would be jailed for 2 1/2 years as demanded by the law. She wept as she could not pay the fine.
The Judge then took her hat and put in Rp.100,000 into the hat and said, “In the name of justice, I fine all present in the Court @ Rp.50,000 (USD 5.50) each as dwellers of this City for letting a child starve until her grandmother is compelled to steal to feed her grandchild. The Registrar will now collect the fines from all present.”
The Court managed to collect Rp 3.5 million (USD 350) including the fine collected from the plantation manager, whereby the fine was paid off and the rest was given to the old lady.
What a fine piece of justice: The judge went farther than the crime in front of him, and looked at the huge crime that allowed people to starve driving them to rob. Who is to blame for those who lost their lives in the high seas?
If Judge Marzuki was trying this case, I know I would see him looking at each and every one of us with our chalta hai attitude! None of us pay heed to safety measures. None of us take precautions.
For us we wake up only when the storm comes on us. Look around you, at faulty electric wiring in our homes or buildings, and how we wake up only when we smell the fire.
Pass the hat around, Justice Magnified, means that each of us is responsible for those who lost their lives, and till we change our attitude, such terrible incidents will keep happening..!
