Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
| See you on 9 July, around 2:00 pm, Stadium Merdeka Posted: 08 Jul 2011 10:12 AM PDT
Malaysia is a police state where the rule of law is meaningless; where the law and legal processes instead of being tools of justice and fairness become tools of cruelty and oppression; and where the police work in cahoots with the AG's Chambers and the judiciary with impunity. By Lawyers for Liberty Despite offering a major compromise to hold the Bersih "Free and Fair Elections" rally at Stadium Merdeka, the Prime Minister, Home Minister and the police have snubbed Bersih's offer in good faith and instead maintained that Bersih is still "illegal" and continued with their campaign of terror which essentially confirmed Malaysia's police state status. In the weeks leading up to 9 July, the authorities have acted in the most malicious, ridiculous and extreme manner: banning Bersih; banning all related symbols including the word "Bersih" and the colour yellow; arresting hundreds including Members of Parliament, opposition and civil society activists on the remotest connection to Bersih including "secretly" wearing Bersih T-shirts and wearing yellow. Many more have been unnecessarily remanded and charged for criminal offences, and most oppressive of all is the detention without trial of 6 PSM leaders including MP Dr. Jeyakumar under the Emergency Ordinance on blatantly false and absurd charges. Let there be no doubt: Malaysia is a police state where the rule of law is meaningless; where the law and legal processes instead of being tools of justice and fairness become tools of cruelty and oppression; and where the police work in cahoots with the AG's Chambers and the judiciary with impunity. Peaceful protest is a vital part of a democratic society and has a very long and respected tradition in Malaysia. Just look back at the historic protests against the Malayan Union and more importantly the All Malaya HARTAL in 1947. Many of the rights and freedoms we enjoy today were gained because the Rakyat were prepared to go out on the streets and protest. The right to peaceful protest is enshrined in the Malaysian Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and numerous other international human rights instruments. And no IGP or Home Minister can decree that our right to peaceful assembly is suspended no matter what they claim the oppressive laws state. Despite the campaign of terror and other dirty tactics, the Rakyat will gather peacefully on 9 July. Exercise caution but do not be overly cautious. We shall endure the traffic jam, police roadblock, inane questioning, harassment, verbal abuse, chemical-laced water cannon, tear gas, beating, arrest and detention. And in the process don't forget Bersih's 8 Demands for Free and Fair Elections. See you on 9 July, around 2:00 pm, Stadium Merdeka. |
| July 9, 2011: Charting or challenging the destiny of a nation? Posted: 08 Jul 2011 10:04 AM PDT
For the citizens it is already beginning to be a day that is being permanently chiseled into history. By J. D. Lovrenciear
The eve of July 9 is the most pregnant moment of apprehension as the government of Malaysia takes a hard-line stand against its own citizens. How the day will end is fodder for analysts and observers the world over. For the citizens it is already beginning to be a day that is being permanently chiseled into history. If the law enforcers take the law into their own hands and bulldoze through the determined citizens' peaceful assembly that is merely demanding for a fair, clean and free electoral system, the end result will cut the deepest wound into the souls of all Malaysians. If those against the Bersih 2.0 momentum charge in and create mayhem, Malaysians would have been guilty of maiming their own citizens, inflicting a wound that will leave a permanent scar in the political landscape of Malaysia. If Malaysians stayed away from forming the assembly owing to the water-tight dragnet barricades by the authorities - not to mention the heightened intimidation including losing one's rice bowl, nobody can fathom when the backlash will erupt. And when it does, the country will sink without mercy. We have seen this in Philippines, Indonesia and in many other countries elsewhere. If those who still brave the situation – especially the leadership team and leaders of political parties and NGOs and civil groups, and assemble and eventually all get arrested, Malaysia would have successfully migrated to the class of oppressive regimes that still dot the planet. And with that ASEAN will be dragged into a quagamire situation - given Myanmar's unhealing infestation. Malaysia is in crisis. This crisis could have easily been averted if only the BN government had the honor, dignity and sincerity to uphold first-world democracy and civil liberties instead of locking the entire episode into an impasse. But the powers that be have taken the route that most control madness regimes have attempted. They opted for one of hostile and brute force with the hope of trumpeting their success in diffusing a potential crisis. And in doing so, they have virtually obliterated the wisdom and advise of sober, sane organizations from at home and abroad. If only Malaysia had learnt from their Thai neighbor's "Red Shirt" rally, the Bersih 2.0 crisis which is of a far lesser magnitude, could have been easily harnessed to serve in the best interest of all parties or quarters. But we all know that the BN political party with UMNO as its pack leader has unfortunately suspected that the Bersih 2.0 is a direct assault on its own political survival and future. And so it is set to thwart this rally at all costs. Any means to an end is the war strategy. What remains to be seen is what is the eventual price that will be paid in this race by the citizens asking for their country's fair share of justice and fairness and what price the ruling government will be compounded with eventually for its hard and brutal stand against its own citizens. What is also conclusive even before the deadline of July 9 arrives is the give-away fact that Malaysia's sense and direction of democracy and civil liberty is being put to the final test. It is certainly not the work of a foreign enemy as some would have us believe. On the contrary, the tidal wave of citizens' awakening has reached the shores of Malaysia finally. What happened in the Philippines, Indonesia and more recently in Thailand is now in Malaysia. Will the BN led government survive this test of the times? It certainly has started on the wrong foot up. But if the proverbial 'once bitten twice shy' can be believed, a post crisis mending with sincerity might (with remote possibilities) save this dinosaur political machinery. And that includes playing politics through general elections on an even turf. In this game of high stakes then, the Constitutional Monarch and its Conference of Rulers would be better off being on the side of the citizens who are part of that global tide that is in definitive terms charting a new world order out of true democracy and civil liberties. Thus Malaysia is at its doorstep of history in the making. Its past mantras of political miracles will fail as the contours of the world's political frameworks are changing very fast.
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