SINGAPORE – The Malay word “dekat” has multiple meanings. In local parlance, it means “at” or “in”, while in Bahasa Indonesia, it is more commonly interpreted as “near”.
It sounds like a simple difference, but it became a point of contention in the high-profile case of former domestic helper Parti Liyani, who was acquitted in 2020 of stealing from her influential employers.
Parti, an Indonesian, had said that she placed some items “dekat” a cardboard box. She meant “near”, but during police interviews, an officer who spoke Malay understood it to mean “in” the box, said Gusti Seruni, who was then a volunteer interpreter for Parti’s legal team.
Gusti was not present during the police interviews but spoke to Parti multiple times to prepare for the court trial. Resolving such language differences was important to understanding her testimony, she said.
“It was one of the highlights of my life,” said the 42-year-old sole proprietor of a jewellery business, referring to her more than four years of volunteering for the long-drawn legal battle. She spoke to the media at law charity Pro Bono SG’s annual awards ceremony on July 21.
Parti was initially convicted in 2019 of stealing more than $30,000 worth of items from the Liew family and was sentenced to two years and two months in jail.
The High Court overturned Parti’s conviction on appeal, ruling that the original conviction was unsafe and highlighting issues with the police’s handling of the evidence. The family’s patriarch, Liew Mun Leong – the former chairman of Changi Airport Group – stepped down after the acquittal.
Originally from Indonesia, Gusti came to Singapore in 2017 when she married a Singaporean art curator. She first volunteered as a befriender for the Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics (HOME) after hearing about its work involving domestic workers.
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