About us

I am the founder, author, owner, and creative force of this legal blog known as, The Underground Mapper (abbreviated and used interchangeably as “TUM” throughout this blog). I am an advocate and solicitor of the High Court of Malaya. I was called to the Malaysian Bar in October 2015 and I practice law as a litigation legal associate (lawyer) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. As a deeply ambitious, driven, kind and compassionate professional, I blog through The Underground Mapper in my spare time.

The Underground Mapper, for all intents and purposes is a legal blog where I write and publish articles about the law and legal processes as well as articles beyond the law but relating to fairness, justice, equality, and equity.

The Underground Mapper is NOT a platform for purchasing any real-world train ticket for any real physical journey on a train.

I choose to name my legal blog, “The Underground Mapper” (TUM) as an imaginative name, and by doing that, the association and use of imagery of (mostly) trains, railway stations and rail systems as well as with the mapping of my legal and non-legal articles here on TUM reflect my strong believe that our journeys through the adversities and hardships of life are never permanent. Well, at least they should never be permanent. It is my core belief and I hope that this will be clearly reflected through all of my endeavours here on The Underground Mapper that, just like a journey on a train, although sometimes going through dark tunnels, the beauty of the human spirit and the human endeavour is that in some way or another, we always emerge back into the light and onto the right platform in our lives again. Hence, with The Underground Mapper, I hope to be able to properly map out in clear plain language the journey through adversity and hardship with the help of the law and through compassionate and sustainable writing so as to direct you out of the dark underground tunnel and into the light once again.

Big or small, problems are inescapably a part of all our lives and there really is no shame in acknowledging our problems and asking for help to solve our problems. All of us need to be advocated for, even lawyers sometimes need advocating for and even lawyers often need to pursue justice for themselves! In fact, I think it is quite a courageous act to ask for help. We are all human here and the way I see it, this life is a short one and it is meant to be lived by everyone and not just to be lived by some. So, it is important that we make the best of our lives here on earth and even more importantly, it is important to make sure that you’re happy! I would certainly argue that, the right to be happy is a fundamental 21^st century human right. : )

With this firm desire to help people solve the problems of life we so often encounter, I established The Underground Mapper in 2019 to write about and explain the law and how the legal system is set in place to work (whilst also addressing how it infrequently does not work), how meaningful access to justice while it is achievable and aims to legally protect and uplift all of us, is however, for many of us here in Malaysia and around the world still, slow, expensive, murky, uncertain, and ultimately, still very hard to attain or is even completely unattainable for some of us. Because of this, it has created – a global justice gap where more than 5 billion people lack meaningful access to justice. This paragraph was important for me to write here because I hope for anyone who has stumbled upon and who reads my blog, The Underground Mapper and if you are currently facing any kind of unfairness or injustice in your life where you maybe also do not believe or have given up and lost faith in the legal system and in the good of humanity – I hope that you feel seen and heard here on TUM.

As a lawyer who has been in the disputes side of practice for a while now, I encounter the good, the great, but also the not so great, the bad and the evil in life every day! So, my purpose of starting The Underground Mapper is to successfully demonstrate to my reader a deep desire for all things that is good in this world that we live in today, a concern about unfairness, injustice, and inhumane treatments, but most importantly, to demonstrate a great desire for fairness, justice, equality, and equity in this world. Often, when a person is so engulfed and muddled with a problem in their life which can very often seem complex and where solutions seem elusive, the feeling of being in the dark as if in a dark tunnel underground and all alone is a well fathomable reality for any person. This feeling can especially heighten and intensify if upon seeking recourse to the legal system, you find the law and the legal system to be completely foreign and impenetrable.

Because of this, through all of my endeavours and all my articles published here on The Underground Mapper about the law, the legal system and about the pursuit of fairness and justice it is my firm hope that I may narrow the gap of ambiguous fear of the law and the legal system often expressed by the general public by providing, clear explanation in plain language of the law in areas that I am exposed to and in areas which is of great interest and concern to me. By doing this, I hope to show my reader the light at the end of the tunnel because as much as there may be darkness sometimes, I believe there is a lot of light here for all of us and for all of us to coexist in this light together.

I want my reader to also know that the law and the legal system is not an arbitrary and formless force. It is a tool and more often than not, aims to be a source of (legal) protection of all things good to humanity. By administering the law, lawyers aim to provide clients with quality and cost-efficient legal solutions where structure is created to help our clients succeed in their lives. The law is about harnessing bright ideas and imaginative solutions and making life sustainable while also taking the future into consideration. But most significantly and at the end of the day, lawyers just like doctors, ultimately care for the wellbeing of our clients and it is our sole aim above anything else, to give our clients a peace of mind.

Hence, akin to a carefully engineered journey on a train – every legal process runs along a defined track, with methodical steps, procedures and rules that must be followed not to frustrate but to ensure order, fairness, equality, equity, and ultimately, justice!

Beyond showing my readers how to get to the light at the end of the tunnel in respect of the law and legal processes, upon reviving The Underground Mapper since establishing it in 2019, I have this time around, reinvented the previous tabs I’ve had on TUM before and also, added a few new tabs on my page. Through years of dedicated work and a keen passion to advocate for a fair, just, equal, and equitable life for more of us here if not, all of us, my work as an advocate and solicitor has certainly shaped my outlook of life and broadened my horizon of what I can achieve and do through my lawyering. It has also refined the ways I can make an impact and effectively contribute to my immediate community and, in a broader way, to society. It is such a privilege to be able to make a difference to another’s life, and it gives me great joy and immense fulfilment to be able to do what I do. I therefore present to you the renamed and new tabs (besides this About tab), on The Underground Mapper being – Mind The Law, The Rush Hour Line, Historia Legum, The Inspection Line, The Moral Underground Line, Beyond The Law And In The Community, TUM Events and the normal tabs such as – Platform Notices, Caution (Disclaimer), and Contact TUM. As I go along and further establish and flesh things out on here I may or may not substitute some tabs or add further tabs. The explanation and site navigation for all my tabs can be found on the TUM Site Navigation section under the “About” tab found here.

Through this lens named imaginatively, but written in fact, I aim to shift the focus of my reader away from the paralysis of hopelessness and darkness of uncertainty toward the quiet logic, assurance and promise embedded within the legal system and through sustainable, rational, and compassionate thinking and writing – where problems are identified and broken down into manageable parts, approached with clarity, and resolved step by step and sometimes, with some creativity too. I therefore hope to guide my reader out of the dark underground and onto the correct platform – once again, back in the light!

The Underground Mapper was first established and launched in 2019, where I published various articles exploring various aspects of the law back then. The blog later went offline at the end of 2020 as I took time to pursue and explore different opportunities within the legal and corporate world. Since 2021, The Underground Mapper has remained in quiet hibernation – until now, as it is being re-established and brought back to life once again.

An article from my blog, The Underground Mapper (TUM) titled “Industrial Court Proceedings In Malaysia” written and published on TUM in April 2020 was requested for republication by the Malaysian Institute of Chartered Secretaries And Administrator’s (MAICSA) and the article was published in their corporate magazine called “Corporate Voice” in 2020.

Professionally, I intend on using The Underground Mapper to showcase my skillset and knowledge in legal practice and beyond legal practice. TUM therefore acts as a virtual demonstration of my professional portfolio and my areas of interest and concern in the law and beyond the law. While this is a professional platform through which I demonstrate my skillset and reflections on legal practice and beyond, it remains, at heart, also a personal blog – so in some measure, you may encounter the occasional article in which I candidly vent, question, or rant about some part of life, but done so because I feel that there could be some degree of improvement in the area written about.

I am a litigator practising law in Malaysia specifically, in the area of civil litigation. My work has exposed me to a wide range of civil disputes including, commercial and contractual disputes, industrial court matters, company disputes, family law matters, bankruptcy and winding-up proceedings, defamation law and other areas of legal practice. I also have some experience in Conveyancing practice, although rudimentary.

Through my professional experience, I have gained practical insights into how the law operates not only in theory, but in the reality of everyday life.

The Underground Mapper is engineered for everyone – the general public, my clients or potential clients, advocates and solicitors (my peers in the legal profession), judges as well as professionals who regularly encounter the law in the course of their professional capacity.

Beyond the law itself, it is also a platform through which I hope to reflect on broader questions within society. From time to time, I will write about issues of social justice and social inequity in my community and in the world that I think deserve greater attention and protection or deeper protection than already given. As an advocate and solicitor, I believe that part of our role in society is not only to interpret and administer the law, but also to lend our voices and our legal platform to those who are often unheard and unseen – the marginalised, the disabled, the poor, the weak, and the vulnerable within our community. Through meaningful reflection and writing, I hope in some small way to contribute towards advancing the rights of all of us in this 21^st century time that we live in, so that fairness, justice, equity, and equality may be pursued and experienced – in a more dignified manner by all. (Yes, I said 21^st century time. You will very often see on TUM that I often make comparisons and critic life in the 21^st century compared to the previous century as I think we live in the most intellectually advanced era in human history because of an unprecedent explosion of knowledge, technology, and access to information. It is therefore for this reason that I remain resolute in the amount of good we can do collectively as the most advanced people of human history to improve equity, justice, and fairness for more of us and to almost annul the disparities around us (well, one can always hope!). And to do all of this, in a contemporary way.)

Please direct all enquiries to The Underground Mapper’s email address at [email protected].

Occasionally, I also welcome meaningful and respectful written contributions from my readers – particularly for my “Beyond The Law & In The Community” tab on TUM though, meaningful submissions relating to other areas of my blog (as well as if you wish to respectfully respond to an article I have published on TUM) may be equally received.

All contributions however, are carefully screened and reviewed to ensure that the intention and substance of the article align with the values and purpose of                     The Underground Mapper. Additionally, on some of my selected articles I will also indicate at the end of the said selected article that a response to the said article is welcome. Here, a selected reader or in some rare cases a few selected readers will be allowed to publish their respectful response to my said selected article. It is however to be noted that I remain the sole author and contributor of The Underground Mapper and the vast majority of articles published on The Underground Mapper will always and at any given time be written and published by me alone.

Further, those who wish to publish any of my articles from The Underground Mapper are warmly invited to get in touch. Kindly reach out via email at [email protected] to get approval and to receive the article in the format that you need for publishing.

In certain areas of my work in which I am particularly well-versed with, and where a corresponding article has been published on The Underground Mapper, I may also, on a case-by-case basis and subject to my professional schedule, be available to conduct short corporate meetings or conferences or training sessions (on an in-house basis) for organisations interested in that particular area. These sessions are intended to provide practical insights and discussions tailored to the organisations needs and will be conducted in-house at the organisation’s preferred location. A corporate fee will apply for such arrangements. Organisations interested in arranging a meeting or conference or training session are welcome to get in touch via email at [email protected] to obtain more information and enquire into the applicable rates. This will also be indicated at the end of the specific article if a meeting, conference, or training session can be provided.

📍 I currently write from: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.