(Borneo Post; January 27, 2008)

MIRI: The wired up Sarawak Judiciary is the epitome of efficiency in administration and the true efficacy of e-government in operation which saves time, money and resources.

This was the conclusion after a briefing of the many milestones achieved in the judiciary and the judicial process which linked lawyers, courts officials, judges and all the way up to the Chief Justice's office.

The e-court project undertaken by the Judiciary Department in Sarawak in collaboration with Sarawak government-owned company Sarawak Information Systems (SAINS) has propelled the State to the top of the pile in Asia, even ahead of Singapore.

This was the view of High Court Judge David Wong Dak Wah in his presentation of the e-court project to visiting Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Sidek Hassan and entourage in the presence of Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Tan Sri Richard Malanjun, Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Peter Chin and others.

Sidek was impressed with the efficiency and cost savings of the system which resulted in direct savings of RM100,000 monthly to the department, and millions more for lawyers and others.

The componenets included case registration, filing, notification of court status with real time updates and other which greatly assist the judicial process for lawyers through video conferencing in case disposal.

Judges can keep track of status of court cases in real time monitoring while the real time overall situation is known to the Chief Judge at the click of the button apart from the weekly automatic e-mail report of each individual judge's courts.

Instant notes of court proceedings are printed with the interpreters multi-tasking as transcribers and data update personnel in court.

"We are the number one in Asia with SMS being sent to lawyers on any change in case disposal, saving them time and money without turning up in court while they can check court case real time schedule through the net," Wong said.

Case registration which takes about 30 minutes involving two court staff now can be done from the office of lawyers where the hard copy with bar code can be decoded and registered in two minutes at the registry when they turn up.

This is possible with the infrastructure and technology introduced by SAINS and the widespread acceptance and commitment of judiciary staff from the top to the bottom of the hierarchy.

Sidek had indicated that he would like MAMPU to study the Sarawak model for possible incorporation to relevant sectors as the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is very keen on full-fledged e-government.

He pointed out that many decisions or policies of the government failed to materialise due to the lack of an effective monitoring and enforcement system and it could be tackled if addressed by the e-government.

He was referring to the impressive system put up by Sarawak Judiciary, where the police and Prisons Department had already shown interest to boost efficiency and cut costs.

Earlier on, he was briefed on the technology court with a case proceeding in a Kuching Court.

State Secretary Datuk Amar Wilson Baya Dandot, top State and federal government officers and members of the legal fraternity here were present.