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Animal Farm our Parliament has become?

Azly Rahman
http://www.azlyrahman-illuminations.blogspot.com/

Bodoh. Bodoh. Bodoh. Bangang. Bengap. Bahlul. Bengap. Biol. Bebal. Binatang. Berok. Baghal. Baboon. Bocor. Booooooo! Bodoh. Bodoh. Bodoh.

These are some of the recurring B-words that have become the common nouns, adjectives, and adverb lacing our parliamentary debates. Like the chorus of clanking machines in W.S. Rendra’s play “Perjuangan Suku Naga”

It’s like Bronx gangsta rappers trying to rhyme the vulgar “B____” and “N_____” words to sell their albums and their degenerative ideology.

Don’t we have any shame being representatives of the people who are supposed to not waste time spewing vulgarities and linguistic diarrhea in a house that is supposed to urgently and efficiently solve the problems of the poor, needy, the marginalized, and the dispossessed?

How much time gets wasted in parliamentary debates that thrive on cajouling and the hurling of abuses? Why do we still have rude, vulgar, and diplomatically incompetent “elected representatives” still sitting in those debates, representing the rakyat?

Is this the picture of progressive thinking we have developed as a political culture — 50 years after Merdeka?

Shame. Shame. Shame! Continue reading “Animal Farm our Parliament has become?”

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Najib to “check” on corruption allegations against IGP – what next?

The statement by the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak yesterday that he was not aware of the postings on a website on allegations of corruption and involvement with underworld figures against the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Musa Hassan and top police officers and that he would “check” strains credulity to the utmost.

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This is because these allegations against Musa and other top police officers have been made almost a month ago, the first article appearing on June 3 and the second article on June 9, 2007.

It appeared on a known website, Malaysia-Today news portal and by an identified writer, Raja Petra Kamaruddin in his series “The Corridor of Power” — unlike the earlier Internet allegations of RM5.5 million corruption accusing the Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Johari Baharum for releasing three men held under the Emergency Ordinance which appeared on anonymous websites three months ago.

Furthermore, on June 19, I had sought to adjourn Dewan Rakyat to have an urgent parliamentary debate on the serious corruption allegations against both Johari and Musa, and although my motion was rejected by the Speaker, Tan Sri Ramli Ngah as not “urgent”, is it conceivable that the Deputy Prime Minister continued to be unaware or uninterested about the serious corruption allegations against the Inspector-General of Police? Continue reading “Najib to “check” on corruption allegations against IGP – what next?”

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JB crime under control? – speak up at public hearing of Parliamentary Human Rights Caucus in JB on Sunday

The Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Musa Hassan’s claim yesterday that the crime situation in Johor was under control as figures indicated the crime rate had declined by four per cent is most premature and unconvincing.

The police must not be satisfied with any improvement of the crime situation until the people in Johor Baru can feel safe in the streets, public places and privacy of their homes and be assured that they are free from crime and the fear of crime.

The people most qualified to pass judgment as to whether the crime situation in JB is “under control” are the people in the Johor capital and not the police, and such a situation must be felt by the people in JB and not artificially generated by media spins or newspaper headlines like “IGP says situation in Johor under control” (New Sunday Times 1.7.07) or “JB FOLK FEELING SAFER NOW” (NST front-page headline 30.6.07).

True, the people in JB do feel safer with the greater visibility of policemen and patrol cars in the streets these few days. But they do not want to just feel safer before the spate of brutal and horrendous crimes of abduction-robbery-gang rape in the past two months, with victims from all races, but to be fully restored their most important human rights — to be free from crime and the fear of crime, whether in the streets, public places or privacy of their homes.

The Police was in denial just two weeks ago when faced with the outrage in JB and the nation at the rampant crime and lawlessness in the Johor capital, and they will be seen to be still in denial if they claim that the crime situation is under control when the people have yet to feel so. Continue reading “JB crime under control? – speak up at public hearing of Parliamentary Human Rights Caucus in JB on Sunday”