%0 Journal Article %T Membina Keterangan: Pemeriksaan Utama Sebagai Titik Permulaan %A Norani Ibrahim %J e-BANGI : Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities %D 2008 %I Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia %X The crux of an adversarial system as practiced in Malaysian courts is the adducing of evidence through the oral tradition. This usually involves examinations in three stages. A direct examination is conducted by the party that initiates the action, while a cross examination is carried out by the opposing side. In the event where a re-examination is necessary, the initiating party can re-examine his witness to ¡®repair¡¯ the damage done during the cross-examination. Institutionalized courtroom questioning involves questions posed by the lawyers with the answers to be provided for by the witnesses. Through strategic questioning therefore, a witness summoned to court by a litigating party will establish and then strengthen the version of the party that summon him. This paper is based on a case study of a criminal case observed at the Kuala Lumpur Criminal High Court 1, will delineate and then discuss several strategies employed by a counsel during the direct examination of an expert witness, in his effort to build a narrative that is both credible and believable. %K adversarial system %K courtroom questioning %K direct examination %K oral tradition %K evidence %U http://pkukmweb.ukm.my/e-bangi/papers/2008/noraini.pdf