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De-politicise campus student elections – UPM VC should publicly apologise for porno lie

Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) Vice Chancellor Nik Mustapha should publicly apologise for the baseless charge that student activist Yee Yang Yang had pornographic material in his laptop and ensure free and fair student campus elections so as not to attract for the UPM the epithet of Mat Rempit University.

I commend the UPM for owning up to “flaws” in the Mat Rempit-action by the UPM security unit in its high-handed arrogance in confiscating Yee’s laptop, mobile phone, MP3 player and 10 other items valued at RM6,000 during a spot check of his hostel room but what is unpardonable and inexcusable is the lie that Yee had pornographic material in his laptop.

I do not believe that this lie was concocted by the Vice Chancellor but he would have relied on it based on a report by the security unit, which had no password to access Yee’s notebook.

I do not call for Nik Mustapha’s resignation as UPM Vice Chancellor although this is a grave mistake but he should at least publicly apologise for his error and misjudgment in running an university administration where his departmental heads and officers are not aware of the importance of truth and integrity. In the process, they have brought brought UPM into public shame and disrepute.

Apart from his public apology to Yee for the lie about pornographic material in the notebook, he must take disciplinary action against the security personnel for their Mat Rempit behaviour against UPM students, whether anti or pro-establishment, including expulsion of the security officer who had embarrassed him and UPM publicly in telling the lie against Yee. Continue reading “De-politicise campus student elections – UPM VC should publicly apologise for porno lie”

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Saffron revolution in Burma – Malaysia and ASEAN must do more to avoid bloodbath

Malaysia and ASEAN must do more to impress on the Myanmese military junta to seek a peaceful solution to the “saffron revolution” and not to turn it into a bloodbath as in 1988.

Malaysia and ASEAN must come into the very forefront in regional and international efforts to support a peaceful resolution of the monk-led mass protest marches in Rangoon and Mandalay especially as ASEAN had given the Myanmar military junta a new legitimacy and fresh lease of life by admitting Myanmar into ASEAN ten years ago.

However, the Myanmar military junta’s promises of national reconciliation and democratization have all come to nought in the past decade, with increasing repression and pauperization of the Burmese people while the constitution-writing and elections appear to have become a century-long project.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has been incarcerated about 12 of the past 18 years while the prisons teem with political prisoners.

Every ASEAN leader taking part in the current United Nations General Assembly debate should use the forum to call on the Myanmar military junta to open up a dialogue with the protest movement to work out an acceptable programme of national reconciliation and democratization — starting with the immediate and unconditional release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners.

They should also demand that the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon should personally take a more direct charge of the UN initiatives with regard to issues of democracy and human rights in Burma, instead of leaving it to his special adviser Ibrahim Gambari who has nothing to show for his portfolio to date. Continue reading “Saffron revolution in Burma – Malaysia and ASEAN must do more to avoid bloodbath”

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Lingam Tape – Haidar, Shanker and Lam Thye should decline or withdraw from “Independent Panel”

Former Chief Judge of Malaya, Tan Sri Haidar Mohd Noor, should decline or withdraw as Chairman of the three-man panel on the authenticity of the Lingam Tape in view of his controversial role in the 1988 Judicial Crisis to allow for a Royal Commission of Inquiry to be formed to conduct full and comprehensive inquiries into the erosion and ravages of the independence, impartiality and integrity of the judiciary since 1988.

I also call on the other two members earmarked for the Lingam Tape panel, former Court of Appeal judge Datuk Mahadev Shanker and Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye to similarly decline or withdraw from the panel to send a clear and unmistakable message on behalf of all Malaysians and future generations — that the time has come not only for an untrammelled inquiry into the Lingam Tape with all its far-reaching and horrendous implications about perversion of the course of justice but the opportunity must not be missed to right the historic and generational wrongs in the past 19 years which saw Malaysia stumbling from one judicial crisis to another.

The question which Malaysiakini editor-in-chief, Steven Gan, asked in his editorial yesterday, “Will we miss the boat again”, must be asked by all Malaysians, including Shanker and Lam Thye.

Steven cannot be more right when he wrote:

“Almost a generation has suffered because of our ‘tidak apa’ attitude to the judicial crisis. Here’s another chance for us to make amends.

“We have missed the boat – not once but twice. Indeed, for the sake of the country, we cannot afford to blow this one chance.”

The establishment of an “Independent Panel” into the authenticity of the Lingam Tape instead of a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the rot in the system of justice in the past two decades and which had been highlighted by the Lingam Tape is the height of irresponsibility in trying to reduce the shocking scandal into a joke and a farce. Continue reading “Lingam Tape – Haidar, Shanker and Lam Thye should decline or withdraw from “Independent Panel””