Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
- What has happened to our rule of law?
- Invitation to the MCLM forums on Rakyat Reform Agenda (RARA)
- Religion vs Politics
- The stream runs its course
| What has happened to our rule of law? Posted: 24 Sep 2011 10:30 PM PDT Surely someone must be answerable. Shouldn't the Inspector-General of Police who is the head of the police force be held accountable for this? Shouldn't the Minister of Home Affairs be taken to task for this break-down in the rule of law? Why didn't the judge who is responsible for granting the remand order demand proof before granting such an order? By P Ramakrishnan (President, Aliran) While we are somewhat relieved that the Barisan government had decided to drop the charges against the 30 PSM members, the issues surrounding their case have not been resolved. The BN government created this untenable position which cannot be sustained by logic and facts. As a cover-up for its high-handedness, it is posturing itself as a generous institution that is capable of being considerate. The fact is it is trying to extricate itself from this unjustified and cruel action against these helpless people who only meant well. It is unthinkable that people will be deluded by this gesture of the police. Malaysians are no more gullible or naïve to be easily fooled by such tokenism. The reprehensible conduct of the police cannot be condoned. These 30 PSM members are innocent and not guilty of any offence by any stretch of the imagination under any Malaysian law. That was the reason why the police tried desperately to incriminate them by all sorts of ridiculous accusations:
The police invoked Section 122 of the Penal Code, Section 48 and Section 43 of the Societies Act, Section 29 (1) of the Internal Security Act and the Emergency Ordinance to build up a case that these are indeed dangerous criminals. The police threw everything available at them in an attempt to crush them and frighten other Malaysians in an attempt to prevent them from joining the Bersih 2.0 Walk for Democracy. They were incarcerated unjustly under intolerable conditions. On 4 July – after nine days of imprisonment – 24 of them were charged in court while the rest of the six were charged in court on 3 August after having been held for 28 days in solitary confinement. The court imposed bail of RM8000 each, which meant they had to scramble desperately to raise RM240000 to seek their freedom – almost a quarter of a million ringgit! How could these poor people raise such a huge sum to post bail? All this, however, failed to break the spirit of these 30 stalwarts; it failed to discourage outraged Malaysians from marching for democracy on 9 July 2011. If anything it only spurred Malaysians to discard their fear and stand up for their rights. But the worrying thing about the whole episode involving these 30 Malaysians is the conduct of the police force. We are perturbed that the police can detain anyone under baseless charges with impunity. It looks that they can accuse anyone for whatever reason without a shred of evidence to back up their claim and detain them. How could they accuse them of waging a war against the King, which is a serious criminal offence – Section 122 allows for 20 years or even life imprisonment – without an iota of incriminating evidence. This is clearly an abuse of their authority. How could they accuse them of carrying weapons in their bus when no weapon was found in the bus? How could they accuse them of possessing subversive material when this was not established? How could they accuse them of being a national threat without proving the existence of such a threat? Who cooked up these stories? Surely someone must be answerable. Who will be held accountable for this sordid affair? Shouldn't the Inspector-General of Police who is the head of the police force be held accountable for this? Shouldn't the Minister of Home Affairs be taken to task for this break-down in the rule of law? Why didn't the judge who is responsible for granting the remand order demand proof before granting such an order? Aren't the fundamental rights and freedoms of a person his concern? Isn't he the person who ensures that justice must be upheld and every person under the law is entitled to the protection of the law? Why did he fail miserably in his duty to uphold the constitution? The rule of law should not become a myth in our country. The police must not be a law unto themselves. The rule of law must prevail at all times. To prevent similar incidences from occurring in future we need to go deep into this episode and ferret out those who were callous in accusing innocent Malaysians without just cause. We need a Royal Commission of Inquiry to examine how and why the detention of the 30 PSM members took place. We need to know what gives the police the authority to behave in the manner they have without being accountable for their action. We need to establish the fact that there is such a thing as Rule of Law in this country. |
| Invitation to the MCLM forums on Rakyat Reform Agenda (RARA) Posted: 24 Sep 2011 04:53 PM PDT The Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement (MCLM) have successfully launched its series of forums to be held nationwide on the 'Rakyat Reform Agenda' on 19th September 2011 in Kuala Lumpur at the Kuala Lumpur Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (KLSCAH).
It is MCLM's fervent hope that in order for Malaysia to be the great inclusive nation envisioned by our founding fathers, we must return to basic principles. How will we achieve this? The answer - Through the Rakyat Reform Agenda (RARA), which is a four-point plan to: 1. Honour the agreements made in 1963 between the Federation of Malaya and Sabah and Sarawak prior to the formation of the Federation of Malaysia 2. Restore the national institutions to the Rakyat – the judiciary, Election Commission, police force, Attorney-General, etc. 3. Restore the liberties guaranteed to the Rakyat under the Federal Constitution by repealing the ISA, OSA, PPPA, UUCA and Sedition Act 4. Adopt the Social Inclusion Agenda, designed to raise the living standards of all marginalised persons in Malaysia.
We are now proceeding to the next stage for venues in East Malaysia: a) 27th September - Kota Kinabalu - Courtyard Hotel b) 28th September - Tawau - Belmont Marco Polo, and c) 29th September - Kuching - Hotel Grand Continental (Note: All the MCLM RARA forums are scheduled for 7pm to 11pm)
We would appreciate if you can send your journalist/representative to cover the events. MCLM Secretariat
For general information, please contact the MCLM Secretariat (KL) at Tel: 03-79827101/79712244 or Fax: 03-79829097 or Email: admin@mclm.org.uk For details and registration on the RARA forums in East Malaysia, please contact tel: 012/8285442 (Sabah) 012/8893815 (Sarawak) or Email: eventsEM@mclm.org.uk |
| Posted: 24 Sep 2011 04:47 PM PDT
By John Doe Greetings. Firstly, I believe I owe some of you all an explanation for yesterday's "Top 10 Reasons why Hudud is good", it was an experiment done on MT readers as a means of a gauge on the MT populace. In line with the recently opened anonymity and the allowance of comments from unregistered commentators, I wondered what MT readers really felt in their hearts. From a bird's eye view, it approximated what was initially anticipated. I was however slightly disappointed that few had things of real substance to say, and of course, you had the occasional "Jar-Jar Binks" archetype who hopped around screaming for attention. What was worrying however, was the curiosity that why so few people openly condemned what I stated. The list which I presented yesterday consisted of nothing more than the most often misquoted and abused texts of the Holy Quran. And surprisingly, they were not misquoted by non-Muslims, but by Muslims themselves. I even made a glaring mistake in naming the Sabbath as a Friday instead of a Saturday, and save one, no one else picked it up. I did deliberately pick on the Quran, as someone rightly pointed out, for this short "test" because of its relevance to Malaysia. Do feel free to watch footage on YouTube for the following. I'll give you the brief run-down. Any NGO can confirm the following list. Item 1 was the supposed justification of wife-beating. Item 2 was the supposed justification of amputations. Item 3 was the supposed justification of multiple wives. Item 4 was the supposed justification of marriage to under-aged girls Item 5 was the supposed justification of Slavery from Prisoners of War. Item 6 was the supposed justification of anti-semitism. Item 7 was the supposed justification of marrying your daughter in-law. Item 8 was the supposed justification of inequality of Gender Item 9 was the supposed justification of inequality of the distribution of wealth and item 10 is the most often used supposed justification of the annihilation of non-Muslims by Suicide Bombers.
None picked up on this. In fact, I was complaining to my friends, while watching some of the updates. I asked "Where are the fireworks? Where are the screams of my gross (and deliberate) misinterpretation?" I was actually pretty glad when someone actually challenged me to the justification of child-brides, and I was really hesitant to give my reply, pensive if I might give the game away. Be assured that my best intentions are for Malaysia. My only wish being that Malaysian would start to think for themselves. I received an email this morning asking if "I had sold my soul to the Devil" for writing such a piece. Rest assured that I have not. It makes me sad however, that Malaysians have been brought up to simply absorb, and absorb, and absorb whatever is taught to them, and regurgitate it during exams. There is never any desire to think out-of-the-box. Teachers tell you time and again to toe-the-line instead. This hinders personal thought, cripples creativity and retards growth. This method of learning merely makes one a foot soldier, suitable only for deployment as a faceless statistic. If you want to be a leader, then you need to stop being a foot soldier. On the flip-side however, UMNO loves to have such demure citizens. Ever looking up to them, ever willing to provide corruption money to them, and in a cruder way, ever-willing to "kiss and suck up" to anyone with a Title, be it earned or bought. The whole point of the exercise yesterday was to show how easy it is to manipulate ANY Religion, by throwing in a few verses of scripture, and then use whatever "revelation" or "enlightenment" , thus allowing for pretty much ANY INTERPRETATION for WHATEVER intentions imaginable. Of course I am acutely aware of Catholic Priests and Imams who rape, Temple Priests who rob, and Monks who give themselves $5million loans. Point is they succeed not because their Religion is bad. These villains succeed because their "flock" is gullible. Please stop being gullible. I cannot say this enough times. Religions are so easy to manipulate given the correct opportunity, and "Holy-sounding words" Please educate and equip yourself for your own good. I mean this in the most sincere way. Read, digest and learn your Holy Book often, and in a Language which you understand, so that you are not easily misled. In fact, I personally gain nothing if you succeed in this. My only reward being the slight satisfaction that I could help contribute towards a better Malaysia. A Malaysia which is free of tyranny. A truly free Malaysia. It is now time the Rakyat took back this freedom. A freedom lost for exactly 500 years since 1511, when the Portuguese colonized Malaya. From a Merdeka which UMNO now claims never happened, and the Malaysia which helped them acquire the Colony States of Sabah and Sarawak. I look forward to this New Merdeka. True to my word, I, John Doe will never let Malaysians down.
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| Posted: 23 Sep 2011 11:50 PM PDT By Kek Lok Si Temple Management Two things are bad for the heart: (i) running up hill; and (ii) running down people, so said a philosopher. To be relevant to the needs of the time and the million odd people who visit the Kek Lok Si Temple and its premises, the Temple had to develop and up-grade its facilities. The land beside the stream that is called Ayer Itam River is being upgraded to accommodate the traffic congestion during public holidays and Chinese New Year. The queue would at times extend up to the State Mosque (at the junction of Jalan Masjid Negeri and Jalan Air Itam) especially after the completion of the new Penang Hill train. It is also necessary to build a new and bigger pond for the tortoises that were released by worshippers. That was a request by SPCA.Every year more that a million worshippers and tourists visit the Kek Lok Si Temple. The number is increasing. The basic infrastructures such as the access roads and parking bays are stretched to its limits. The visitors were complaining of long periods of waiting. The residents in Ayer Itam area were complaining of access disturbances. The management was responding to these genuine complaints. The management wants an efficient use of available land. The proposed upgrading of the facilities will include: The course of the stream was not interrupted. The removal of some vegetation and small boulders adjacent to the stream should not be viewed with a magnifying glass. The management of the Temple is very much alive to environmental needs. There is no destruction as claimed. If the Temple were to cater for all the gossipers, there will be no development. The Temple was established more than a hundred years ago. It cannot remain in that period. The Temple will become irrelevant if it is not allowed to develop. It needs the facilities for the visitors and the traffic. A few dissenting voices may surface once in a while but the truth should not be distorted to please the dissenting few. |
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