KOTA KINABALU: The Justice on Wheels (JOW) service should be expanded to other parts of the country, namely the Peninsula, says Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said.
The Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Law and Institutional Reform) said that this service can benefit more people not only in Sabah, but also other parts of the country.
“Hopefully in the next Budget, there will be allocations to have JOW services to all states, which will also be expanded to evidence vans for children’s cases, among other things,” she said when launching the JOW service in Putatan near here, Tuesday (Aug 26).
Azalina said this is part of the objectives of bringing legal aid to everyone in line with the just passed Legal Aid and Public Defence Bill 2025.
She said legal practitioners nationwide were not enough to cater to the needs of the whole nation, and there was a need to consider alternative dispute resolutions such as mediation.
“If people have better knowledge of their legal rights, then it would help both sides better,” she said, adding that not everything has to go to court to be settled, and this is where basic legal knowledge comes into play.
Azalina said the Legal Aid Department will try to also seek more funding to hold awareness programmes and seminars to educate all levels of the public on legal rights and issues.
She said there was no point in having great laws in the country which could not be implemented right because people did not know their rights.
“Like in Parliament when I was debating the Bill but they have to talk about my clothing - but that is another issue,” she said, emphasising that there was no point in having good laws if people did not know their rights.
Earlier, Azalina said JOW is an initiative by the government to bring legal aid to the people, especially those who have limited (or no) access to legal services or advice.
She said the objective is to see every state being equipped with JOW services, and another one to be provided to Sabah by the end of this year.
She said with the existing JOW vans, the Legal Aid Department had held a total of 28 programmes nationwide in 2024.
For Sabah, five were held in 2024, namely in Pitas, Tongod. Papar, Sipitang and Paitan between February and June.
This year, the JOW services continued to Sandakan on Feb 15, Tawau on Feb 23, Lahad Datu on Feb 24, Beaufort on July 1 and Tuaran on Aug 20.
