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Aung San Suu Kyi – AIPMC calls for ASEAN suspension of Myanmar and to consider sanctions option

[The ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Caucus on Myanmar (AIPMC) after a meeting in Bangkok on Monday night (25th May 2009) issued the following statement]

ASEAN MPs call on tougher ASEAN actions on Myanmar including Suspension

The ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) calls on ASEAN to suspend Myanmar’s membership in the regional bloc if the country’s military regime continues to detain its democracy leader, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s unjust current six-year house arrest is due to expire on 27 May 2009, but the regime has brought on further trumped-up charges against her and is likely to detain her for a further three to five years. Continue reading “Aung San Suu Kyi – AIPMC calls for ASEAN suspension of Myanmar and to consider sanctions option”

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Najib is the primary target in Penanti by-election – referendum on his first 2 months as PM

The Penanti by-election has been described as a dull and unexciting contest because of the absence of the Barisan Nasional candidate.

The PKR and PR candidate, Mansor Othman is challenged by three independent candidates. The real battle however is not between Mansor and the three independent candidates, but with the main protoganist publicly “hiding” from the contest, the Barisan Nasional and its leader, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Although there is no BN candidate, Najib is undoubtedly the primary target in the Penanti by-election, which is a referendum on the credibility, integrity and legitimacy of Najib in his second month as Prime Minister

Last night, Najib allowed the police to do what five previous Prime Ministers, Tengku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein Onn, Tun Mahathir and Tun Abdullah had never done – police raid on DAP Hqrs in Petaling Jaya, the first time in 43 years, as if the DAP is a terrorist organisation when we had demonstrated our commitment to peaceful, democratic and constitutional change for over four decades.
Continue reading “Najib is the primary target in Penanti by-election – referendum on his first 2 months as PM”

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Najib’s 1 Malaysia has morphed to 1 Police State

By Dr. Chen Man Hin

The sudden police raid of party headquarters without a search warrant means that the police does not care about ‘rule of law’ in a civilised society.

Barging into the party premises and snatching a ‘server’, brazenly ignoring the objections of party personnel is tantamount to the behaviour of police in communist and totalitarian states like Nazi Germany and Communist Russia.

The police in Malaysia has changed its character.from a guardian of the people, to become a secret police.

Malaysia’s own secret police behaviour is no different from the behaviour of the Gestapo, the Kempetai of Japan. We are living in a police state.

DEFINITION OF A POLICE STATE.
The term police state describes a state in which the government exercises rigid and repressive control over the social, economic and political life of the population. A police state typically exhibits elements of totalitarianism and social control and there is usually little or no distinction between the law and the exercise of political power by the executive.
Continue reading “Najib’s 1 Malaysia has morphed to 1 Police State”

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Losers On All Sides

By M. Bakri Musa,

It reflects how low the public’s respect for our judiciary is that a unanimous reversal by the appellate court of a High Court’s decision should be greeted with such widespread scorn.

We must await the Appeal Court’s written judgment so we could weight its wisdom, legal and otherwise, and compare it to that of High Court Judge Aziz Rahim who made the initial ruling in Nizar vs. Zamry. Justice Aziz gave his within a week. Let us hope the Appeal Court judges, being more senior and higher in the judicial pecking order, would do better and come out with theirs faster. After all they have to set the proper example.

At least the Appeal Court had the common sense to have a quorum of three to hear the appeal. It would have been better on a case of such import involving fundamental constitutional issues to be heard with the full quorum. At least those judges showed better judgment if not common sense than Appeal Court Judge Ramli who in his wisdom decided to hear by himself the appeal on the associated stay of execution.
Continue reading “Losers On All Sides”

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Malaysian Ambassador to US – why Ghazzali and JJ on the short-list?

Foreign Minister Datuk Anifah Aman told the Sunday Star yesterday that former Ambassador to the United States 1999 – 2005, Tan Sri Ghazzali Sheikh Abdul Khalid is among the four persons being considered for the plum post of ambassador to the United States.

Anifah, who said he would submit the shortlist to the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak within a week, expressed “shock” that the Washington posting had not been filled for about a year when the US is the country’s biggest trading partner.

In announcing that Ghazzali is in the short-list of four persons for the top-notch dipolomatic posting to be submitted to the Prime Minister, Anifah has gone against his public claim that he would get the best people to serve the country in the various diplomatic postings abroad.

Anifah cannot be so naïve as not to know the reason why the post of Malaysian Ambassador to the US had been vacant since June 20 last year after the retirement of Datuk Rajmah Hussain, a career diplomat, or he is casting aspersion on the competence and professionalism of his predecessor as Foreign Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Rais Yatim. Continue reading “Malaysian Ambassador to US – why Ghazzali and JJ on the short-list?”

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Aung San Suu Kyi – AIPMC to meet in Bangkok to demand ASEAN governments take tough stand to secure her release

The United Nations Security Council has called for the release of Burmese pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners in Burma and expressed its concern over her current trial.

In a unanimous statement, the 15-council members expressed their concern about the “political impact” of the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi charging her with violating the terms of her house arrest.

What is Malaysia and ASEAN doing to express in the strongest possible terms that Aung San Suu Kyi should be released on Wednesday May 27 on the expiry of her six-year illegal detention or the Myanmar military junta must face condemnation by the other ASEAN states? Continue reading “Aung San Suu Kyi – AIPMC to meet in Bangkok to demand ASEAN governments take tough stand to secure her release”

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Emergency assembly an option to end Perak crisis? Forget about it Najib, impasse will get worse. Only option – hold elections now!

Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak said today that an emergency meeting of the Perak State Assembly is an option to end the political and constitutional impasse in Perak.

Let me tell Najib – forget about it, as such an emergency Assembly meeting is no viable option and it could only make the impasse worse, dragging the nearly four-month-old political and constitutional crisis and stalemate indefinitely into the future.

What is worse, the protracted political and constitutional crisis and stalemate will stand as the strongest testament debunking Najib’s slogan of “1Malaysia. People First. Performance Now”.

What right has anyone to talk about 1Malaysia when he is incapable of promoting 1Perak, in fact single-handedly responsible for the political and constitutional impasse in orchestrating the unethical, undemocratic, illegal and unconstitutional power grab since early February?

Najib should bite the bullet and agree that the only way to end the political and constitutional impasse in Perak is to dissolve Perak State Assembly and return the mandate to Perakians in a state-wide general elections so that Malaysians can turn from the Perak stalemate to reunite to face the worst global economic crisis in a century. Continue reading “Emergency assembly an option to end Perak crisis? Forget about it Najib, impasse will get worse. Only option – hold elections now!”

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Najib must apologise for what five previous Prime Ministers had not done – police raid on DAP Hqrs as if DAP is a terrorist organization like Al Maunah

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak should apologise for what five previous Prime Ministers had not done in the 43 year history of the DAP – police raid on DAP Hqrs as if the DAP is a terrorist organization like Al Maunah.

I was enroute to Air Kala for a DAP branch function and had stopped in Sauk for dinner for its famous fresh-water fish, jerawat and malau, when I received a phone call at 6.27 pm from DAP IT manager, Goh Kheng Teong that a police party of 12 in plainclothes had brought along a handcuffed DAPSY political education director Ooi Leng Heng in a police raid of DAP hqrs.

I was unable to tweet the outrageous police action as I could not access the Internet with Maxis 3G and I later authorized Goh to update the twitter on my behalf.

Why has Najib, who had committed himself to an open and democratic premiership only seven weeks ago, allowed the police to go on a rampage to the extent of doing things which the previous five Prime Ministers had not allowed the police to do for 43 years – a police raid on DAP Hqrs as if the DAP is a terrorist organization like Al Maunah. Continue reading “Najib must apologise for what five previous Prime Ministers had not done – police raid on DAP Hqrs as if DAP is a terrorist organization like Al Maunah”

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Education DG bluffing when he suggested limiting subjects for students in SPM exam can transform education system into quality world-class

The Education director-general Datuk Alimuddin Mohd Dom is simply bluffing when he suggested limiting students sitting Sijil Pelajarian Malaysia examination to not more than 10 subjects can transform the education system into a quality world-class one.

This is too simplistic and unprofessional an approach.

When Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin
proposed on Thursday that the number of subjects each student could take in the SPM examination be limited, it was his idea of putting an end to the perennial complaints of injustices in the award of Public Service Department scholarships, where students with 11, 12, 13 and even 14A1s are denied scholarships as compared to students with fewer distinctions.

There have bouquets and brickbats for Muhyiddin’s suggestion for limiting the number of SPM subjects a student can take, but the proposal does not really address the issue of injustices and lack of transparency in the PSD awards – which are the root causes of the perennial annual national outrage over the PSD scholarship selections.

But how could the Education director-general make the quantum leap as to claim that Muhyiddin’s proposal to limit the number of SPM subjects a student can take in an examination could transform the education system into a quality world-class one? Continue reading “Education DG bluffing when he suggested limiting subjects for students in SPM exam can transform education system into quality world-class”

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STOP PRESS: DAP HQ Raided!

First time in the 42 years history of DAP, police raided our HQ.

11 plain clothes police came to the HQ this evening around 6.25pm, brought along with them one HQ staff, Ooi Leng Hang, who was arrested last Thursday at the Teratai vigil and who is still under remand.

The police did not have any warrant of search with them, and the office was not opened. We suspect they forced Ooi to let them in.

They took away a CPU, a 19″ monitor (obviously these officers are computer illiterates), some DVDs, a keyboard and a tablet.

Party leaders, Tan Kok Wai, Fong Kui Lun, Gobind Singh and Lim Lip Eng, who were alerted of the raid, managed to reached the HQ before the police left, which was about an hour later.

The leaders are holding a press conference in the HQ now.

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Khir Toyo – Suspend him from Selangor State Assembly but not his assemblyman’s allowances

The Selangor State Assembly should not suspend Datuk Seri Dr. Mohd Khir Toyo’s state assemblyman allowances even if it endorses the Selangor State Assembly Rights and Privileges Committee recommendations to punish and suspend the former Selangor Mentri Besar from the Assembly for grave breach of privileges.

The Selangor State Assembly Rights and Privileges Committee has recommended that Khir be suspended for a year from the state assembly without state assemblyman’s allowances and privileges for not attending an inquiry conducted by the state’s Select Committee on Competence, Accountability and Transparency (Selcat) in March on the disbursement of state agency funds to Balis – the Wives of Selangor Assemblymen and MPs Welfare and Charity Organisation.

Khir is also found guilty of three other charges of making disparaging remarks and negative statements about Selcat in the media and on his blog, with the recommended sentence of six months’ suspension each, with all the suspensions to run concurrently. Continue reading “Khir Toyo – Suspend him from Selangor State Assembly but not his assemblyman’s allowances”

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Perak – the epicentre of Umno fault-line

by Augustine Anthony
22.3.09

(This article was written in anticipation of the Court of Appeal judgment in Nizar vs Zambry)

The judgment of Justice Abdul Aziz Abd. Rahim in the case of Nizar vs Zambry has attained clairvoyance status.

It had positioned the institution of rulers above politics, dignified the sultans and preserved the revered constitutional monarchy for generations to come.

In the ancient times the announcement of gestation or birth of crown prince will usually send sages and spiritual leaders into solitude in meditation and prayers in the harsh wilderness with the hope that the ruler to come will be benevolent to the subjects. History bears testimony of such adoration with monuments and poems of virtues and valour of such kings. Continue reading “Perak – the epicentre of Umno fault-line”

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5-minute finding (not judgment) of Ct of Appeal shot-gun session declaring Zambry lawful Perak MB – hydra-headed monster claims another victim

The hydra-headed monster of the Perak crisis has claimed another victim with the 5-minute finding (and not judgment) of Court of Appeal shot-gun session declaring Zambry lawful Perak Mentri Besar.

All who packed into the Court of Appeal in the Palace of Justice in Putrajaya to hear its judgment in the Nizar vs Zambry appeal could not believe that the whole shot-gun session was over in five minutes of delivery, not of a judgment, but findings of the Court of Appeal.

There was no reasoned grounds of judgment but mere findings of the Court of Appeal in an unanimous decision, i.e. 3 – 0.

As Professor Shad Faruqui had presciently written in his weekly newspaper column, the Perak crisis has become “a hydra-headed monster that cannot be eliminated by ding-dong judicial decisions”, and today, the hydra-headed monster has claimed another victim with the five-minute finding (not judgment) of the Court of Appeal shot-gun session declaring Datuk Zambry Abdul Kadir as the lawful Perak Mentri Besar.
Continue reading “5-minute finding (not judgment) of Ct of Appeal shot-gun session declaring Zambry lawful Perak MB – hydra-headed monster claims another victim”

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Hishammuddin should send the OCPDs of Brickfields and Ampang Jaya to a human rights sensitization course

Malaysians are shocked by the outrageous conduct of the OCPDs of Brickfields and Ampang Jaya, Wan Abdul Bari Wan Abdul Talib and Abd Jalil Hassan, whose boorish conduct are caught on video, serving as prime examples of police officers who have no notion or respect for human rights or even civil behaviour.

Both of them have brought shame not only to the country, but also to the Royal Malaysian Police Force, in their unprofessional conduct and excessive display of police power – showing utter contempt for elected representatives of the people and ordinary members of the public.

When police officers could summon massive police reinforcements to deal with a small and peaceful group of civic-minded Malaysians lighting candles to send their message of protest to the authorities over the unethical, undemocratic, illegal and unconstitutional power grab in Perak, something is very wrong with the training of police officers. In fact, something is very wrong with the direction the country is heading.
Continue reading “Hishammuddin should send the OCPDs of Brickfields and Ampang Jaya to a human rights sensitization course”

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Time for the government to be colour-blind and to end ethnic profiling for scholarships

If the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak is serious about his slogan of 1Malaysia, then the time has come for the government to be colour-blind and end ethnic profiling for scholarships.

The Barisan Nasional government had promised that there would not be a recurrence this year of the perennial problem of Public Service Department (PSD) scholarships selection creating grave injustices and public alienation but this is not the case.

I am very disappointed that after the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, there had been no announcement whatsoever about the solution to this year’s nation-wide uproar at the unjust PSD scholarship awards, and the MCA President and Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat had been particularly quiet after various statements about a solution for the aggrieved students who failed to get scholarships despite clear merit in their results.

May be Ong is preoccupied with the RM12 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal, on the breach of his repeated promise to make public the PricewaterhouseCooper audit report on it. However, many are saying that the gross wastage of public funds and mega financial scandals are interconnected with issues of PSD scholarships and government services, as for example the RM12 billion squandered on PKFZ would have amply provided scholarships to all the over 8,000 applicants who applied for PSD foreign degree scholarships this year.
Continue reading “Time for the government to be colour-blind and to end ethnic profiling for scholarships”

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Police must change or fail

by Tunku Aziz

MAY 22 — Criticisms of the PDRM (Polis Di-Raja Malaysia) have lately turned ugly: they have been reduced to what amounts to a hate campaign. I believe this attitude is totally counterproductive because as citizens we deserve the police service we get. In other words, unless we are prepared to work with them, they will not succeed.

That said, PDRM must change with the times, and change what is known all over the world as the police culture of impunity. Police training must naturally cover traditional aspects of policing, but in today’s terms nothing is more important than for our police to understand the issue of human rights and the rights of the individual to police protection without regard to race or colour. Officers at every level of the service must subject themselves and their actions to the closest public scrutiny. Members of the public today are no longer mesmerised by the shiny little badges of rank that elbow for space on their very crowded epaulette.

Members of the Royal Malaysian Police belong to an honourable profession that, in our country, is more than two centuries old. The PDRM is older than the London Metropolitan Police (1829) and the New York City Police Department (1843). They are the inheritors of a long and proud tradition of service to the people of this country. And we owe them an enormous debt of gratitude.
Continue reading “Police must change or fail”

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Nation-Building Cannot Begin from Irrational Premises

By Farish A. Noor

It has become ever-so-trendy of late to talk about nation-building in the most inclusive and open-ended of terms. After assuming office more than a month ago, the Prime Minister of Malaysia Najib Razak began speaking at length about the notion of a ‘United Malaysia’ – which was in turn claimed by opposition parties in the country as their idea as well. In Thailand a slew of parties have claimed monopoly over the concept of a singular, united Thailand. While in Burma since the 1960s the aims of nation-building have been the same as they are now: to bring together the disparate array of ethnic, cultural and linguistic groups under the same banner of a singular Burmese identity.

Now there is nothing wrong with nation-building per se (for indeed one cannot imagine any form of governance without some semblance of a nation-building project accompanying it), and there is nothing wrong with wanting to bring different communities together. What has to be questioned critically, however, is this: What is the final aim of such nation-building projects; what are the premises upon which they are based; and can such projects ever get to their appointed destinations if the premises upon which they are laid are somehow faulty themselves? Continue reading “Nation-Building Cannot Begin from Irrational Premises”

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ASEM FMM 9 should endorse the proposal for an international inquiry of 15 years of human rights abuses in Myanmar like those conducted for atrocities in Darfur, Rwanda and Yugoslavia

The reimposition of restrictions on reporters and diplomats attending the trial of Burmese pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi a day after opening up the proceedings yesterday betray the true colours of the Myanmar military junta with regard to its utter disregard to universal principles of human rights and the ASEAN Charter.

The Myanmese military junta must not be allowed to get away with its nefarious agenda, which is to keep Suu Kyi in continued incarceration although her six-year illegal detention is to expire in six days time on May 27 and to extend it during next year’s elections.

It is not to ASEAN’s credit that the regional organization has been so mute and helpless to the flagrant violation of human rights in the continued persecution of Suu Kyi, who had already been detained for more than 13 of the past 19 years, as not a single ASEAN head of state or government had said a single word at the first crisis faced by the ASEAN Charter on the commitment of the individual ASEAN countries to promote and protect human rights.

It is six days to the countdown of expiry of Suu Kyi’s illegal detention on May 27 and all ASEAN governments must put maximum and daily pressure on the Myanmar military junta to release the Nobel Peace Prize Laureatte next Wednesday or face dire consequences.
Continue reading “ASEM FMM 9 should endorse the proposal for an international inquiry of 15 years of human rights abuses in Myanmar like those conducted for atrocities in Darfur, Rwanda and Yugoslavia”

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Zambry’s first Black 100 Days as squatter/usurper Perak MB – will Perak be Umno’s graveyard and Zambry the cause of Najib’s downfall as the last Umno PM?

Today is Datuk Zambry Abdul Kadir’s 100 days as the squatter and usurper Perak Mentri Besar – and the question on everybody’s mind on Zambry’s first Black 100 Days is whether Perak would be Umno’s graveyard in the 13th national general election and Zambry the cause of Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s downfall as the last Umno Prime Minister in Malaysia.

Professor Shad Saleem Faruqi has coined the most apt and powerful imagery when he likened the Perak political and constitutional crisis to a “hydra-headed monster that cannot be eliminated by ding-dong judicial decisions”.

Shad Faruqi opined that recourse to the courts is pointless and called for a stop to “this insane and naked show of unprincipled politics”.

The only way to end the hydra-headed monster of the Perak political and constitutional crisis is to return to first principles of democracy and the Constitution as spelt out by the landmark Justice Datuk Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahim judgment on the Nizar vs Zambry case last Monday that once a mentri besar is appointed, he is only answerable to the state legislative assembly and he could only be removed by a vote of no-confidence in the State Assembly and not by the Sultan.
Continue reading “Zambry’s first Black 100 Days as squatter/usurper Perak MB – will Perak be Umno’s graveyard and Zambry the cause of Najib’s downfall as the last Umno PM?”