PENAMPANG, Jan 25 — Legal literacy and legal awareness programmes should be expanded, especially to rural residents, to make them better understand the law and their legal rights so that they do not easily fall victim to fraud, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said.

The minister said it worries her to hear of rural residents falling victim to fraud due to lack of knowledge.

"Sometimes they become victims of circumstances such as online scammers, sexual offences against children, the legal awareness programmes in rural areas need to be increased,” she said.

She told this to reporters after launching the "Justice On Wheels” van, an initiative by the Legal Aid Department, at Dewan Gawir, Kampung Madsiang here today. Also present was the Minister of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Datuk Ewon Benedick, who is a Penampang Member of Parliament and also Kadamaian Assemblyman.

Azalina said the Justice On Wheels van service by the Legal Aid Department was set up, among others, to provide legal services in family, civil and criminal cases to rural residents.

Azalina said the mobile legal aid service was introduced to facilitate rural residents in filing their legal cases and that she would look into ways to assist residents in areas that could not be reached by the Justice on Wheels vans and with no access to telecommunication services.

She said assistance and cooperation from the elected representatives in the affected areas are important to facilitate the implementation of the law awareness campaign.

"There is no point having laws, but the people do not feel the advantages of the law. They want their rights, but do not know where to go,” she said.

Last year, the federal government approved an allocation of RM1 million to the Legal Aid Department for the purchase of three vans to be used as mobile legal clinics that were then modified with legal service equipment for the convenience of the people in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak. — Bernama