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Was Teoh Beng Hock “forced to commit suicide” when he plunged to his death from 14th floor of MACC headquarters in Shah Alam on July 16 last year?

The Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail should be censured for the travesty of justice in exposing details of “new evidence” not yet tendered in the Teoh Beng Hock inquest.

This is in addition to the gross irregularity and impropriety of the Attorney-General in suppressing the “new evidence”, which should have been introduced at the beginning of the inquest as it would affect the whole course and direction of the inquest through cross-examination of witnesses.

Because of deliberate “leaks” in the media, the country is awash with talk that there is a “suicide note” left by Teoh Beng Hock, which has been countered and challenged by Teoh’s family counsel Gobind Singh Deo.
Continue reading “Was Teoh Beng Hock “forced to commit suicide” when he plunged to his death from 14th floor of MACC headquarters in Shah Alam on July 16 last year?”

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Rebuttal to Josh Treviño on Anwar Ibrahim’s Trial

by Azeem Ibrahim
Research Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School’s International Security Program
August 10, 2010

In Malaysia, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has been put on trial for sodomy. In the main, the Western political establishment is skeptical about the trial, believing it to be a politically motivated attempt to remove the popular opposition leader from the political scene before he can take power. As is the Malaysian public. Only 11 percent believe the charge, and 88 percent think it’s a political conspiracy.

Public Relations professional Joshua Treviño has been on “attack-Anwar” mode lately, authoring several pieces in recent months critiquing Anwar and questioning his credibility in the West. In his most recent piece, Treviño doesn’t come right out and say that the trial is genuine, but he does try to give a few reasons as to why we should question the conventional wisdom that the trial is merely a political maneuver to get rid of Anwar. Those reasons fall short. Let us look at them one by one.

In the article Treviño argues that Anwar’s relative popularity in the West is based on the mistaken impression that he shares many of the West’s political values.

But Anwar is popular in the West because he has consistently called for democracy, good governance, accountability, and dialogue of civilizations. Compare this to the current Prime Minister, or any of his predecessors, who have said relatively little about such things in Malaysia and done even less to reform a system saddled with endemic corruption. Continue reading “Rebuttal to Josh Treviño on Anwar Ibrahim’s Trial”

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Enough is enough of Little Napoleons

By Thomas Lee

It surely comes as a big surprise that less than two weeks after the cabinet lifted the iniquitous illegal curb on non-Muslim religious clubs and societies that a Little Napoleon school head should unilaterally reject the application to set up a Chinese society in his school.

The Sin Chew Daily reported that parents of a school in Petaling Jaya are upset that its school head has rejected the application to set up a Chinese society in school.

A parent was quoted by the Sin Chew Daily that he had been fighting for the establishment of a Chinese society in his son’s school since February this year, but the school head did not give his approval even though there are Chinese language teachers willing to supervise the proposed society.

The Education Ministry has on 4 August 2010 revoked a decade-old directive compelling those who want to form non-Muslim clubs or societies in schools to first obtain its permission.

The federal government decision to revoke the directive came about following the public disclosure of several sham treatments of non-Muslim religious clubs and societies in several schools.
Continue reading “Enough is enough of Little Napoleons”