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On 709 Bersih 1Malaysia come of age

On 709, the Bersih 1Malaysia generation came of age, where Malaysians regardless of race, religion, region, gender or age overcame fear to come together for a peaceful demonstration of their love, loyalty and patriotism to king and country and their resolve and commitment to bring about change where there is clean elections, trustworthy politics and incorrupt national governance.

Let 716 be another gold-lettered day in Malaysian history when Malaysians all over the country and the world diaspora begin to wear yellow every Saturday until: Continue reading “On 709 Bersih 1Malaysia come of age”

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Police allow three MPs to visit EO detainee Jeyakumar

By MalaysiaKini
Jul 14, 11

After drawn-out negotiations, police today gave permission for three lawmakers to visit Sungai Siput MP Dr Michael Jeyakumar, now held under the Emergency Ordinance in Kuala Lumpur.

According to Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, the inspector-general of police allowed only three parliamentarians to visit Jeyakumar at 11am, tomorrow.

They are Lim Kit Siang (Ipoh Timor), Salahuddin Ayub (Kubang Kerian) and R Sivarasa (Subang), said Guan Eng in a statement.

According to Guan Eng, the IGP had also written to him, saying that Jeyakumar had been discharged from the Institut Jantung Negara at 2.30pm yesterday. b Continue reading “Police allow three MPs to visit EO detainee Jeyakumar”

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Jeyakumar, the activist doctor

By Khoo Boo Teik
Jul 14, 11 | MalaysiaKini

COMMENT Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj, or Kumar as I call him, is a public figure of enormous stature. Very much respected for his achievements and contributions to medicine and public health in Malaysia, he was the recipient of the Malaysian Medical Association’s 1999 Award for Community Service.

As a government physician, Kumar served many years in hospitals in Penang, Sarawak and Perak, and chose optional retirement when he ran in the 1999 general elections. In addition, Kumar is a tireless social advocate and activist. Continue reading “Jeyakumar, the activist doctor”

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I did the BERSIH thing for my babies

By Goh Siu Lin
July 13, 2011 | AWL

I am a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister and I happen to be a lawyer too.

Mine was a spontaneous decision to go to the rally.

Something struck a chord in me when I heard my senior partner tell stories of BERSIH 2007, of volunteer lawyers at remand hearings, on their feet, hours on end, tirelessly going through file after file before a Magistrate, till the wee hours of the morning. So, I decided to take the plunge, and give my support to BERSIH 2.0 by offering my legal skills. Continue reading “I did the BERSIH thing for my babies”

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Raja Aziz – A legal mandarin’s sad last days

By Terence Netto
Jul 14, 11 | MalaysiaKini

Raja Aziz Addruse, for all his ultimate eminence as a lawyer, must have felt himself a marginal man, especially in the last decades before his death on Tuesday from lymphatic cancer at the age of 75.

Nothing exemplified this peripheral stature than the refusal of the Federal Court to grant him consideration when questions on the constitutional monarchy were referred to it in a dispute on the royal succession in Kelantan last year that pitted the former sultan against his successor, the regent.

The former sultan had retained an ailing Raja Aziz as counsel when he challenged the constitutionality of the succession. Continue reading “Raja Aziz – A legal mandarin’s sad last days”

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Bersih 2.0: Arrested and sent to Pulapol

By CL Shue
Jul 14, 11 | MalaysiaKini

EYEWITNESS On July 8, 2011, my doctor friend SMS-ed me and said he was not sure whether he would be able to get into Kuala Lumpur by the next day. I was also not sure whether I would be able to get near Stadium Merdeka on July 9. But I had to go and see.

On July 9 after work in the morning, I drove to the Pavilion and parked my car there, and took a taxi to Petaling Street to meet my friend. He got into KL without any problems. He introduced two other people to me. Continue reading “Bersih 2.0: Arrested and sent to Pulapol”

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Malaysia’s Najib must abandon the Mubarak model

By Simon Tisdall
13 July 2011 | Guardian

It is not in the same league as Arab spring uprisings in Egypt and elsewhere. But Malaysia’s fancifully named “hibiscus revolution” has potential, at least, to inflict a winter of discontent on the gormless government of prime minister Najib Razak. That’s something David Cameron should bear in mind when Najib comes touting for business in Downing Street on Thursday. Bilateral trade and investment is important. Respect for basic human rights more so.

Najib reacted with characteristic heavy-handedness when tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Kuala Lumpur at the weekend demanding “reformasi” – democratic reform – and an end to a defective electoral system that guarantees Najib’s party representing the Malay majority, Umno, stays in power indefinitely. About 1,700 people were arrested and many injured as police used baton charges, watercannon and teargas to break up peaceful protests. Continue reading “Malaysia’s Najib must abandon the Mubarak model”

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Kit Siang: I will wear yellow every Saturday

Malaysiakini | Jul 13, 11

DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang has vowed to wear yellow every Saturday until the government accedes to the demands of civil society and political activists pertaining to electoral and political reform.

The demands include the release of the six PSM activists currently detained under the Emergency Ordinance (EO), the end to the ban on materials promoting the Bersih 2.0 coalition and the BN-led government’s xanthophobia (‘fear of yellow’), and the implementation of Bersih 2.0’s eight demands for electoral reforms.

The eight demands are for a clean electoral roll, reform of postal voting, the use of indelible ink, a minimum 21-day campaign period, free and fair media access, the strengthening of public institutions, and the end to corruption and dirty politics.
Continue reading “Kit Siang: I will wear yellow every Saturday”

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Minister Liow, photos and videos don’t lie

Malaysiakini Your Say | Jul 14, 11

‘Fearing the consequences of being called a liar, he flipped and has pointed the finger squarely now at the Tung Shin hospital’s board.’

Liow takes tear gas explanation to Twitter

Karma: How about MCA chief Dr Chua Soi Lek who said that despite video or photo evidence, it is an optical illusion that caused people to believe that tear gas could have been fired into the hospital?

Admit it. Police, except the good ones, were too focused on firing the rounds at the people and forgot their purpose was to maintain peace. No one was violent that day and no one was throwing any stones at the police, so there was no need to attack.
Continue reading “Minister Liow, photos and videos don’t lie”

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BN’s stupidity is Godsend for Bersih

Malaysiakini Your Say | Jul 14, 11

‘It brought about a unity among the races which we had never been seen before. If ever there was such thing as 1Malaysia, we saw it on Saturday.’

Ambiga: Never any intention to topple BN

Quigonbond: The government’s resistance to entertain Bersih 2.0’s demands is an unambiguous sign that they do not believe nor want free and fair elections. If we were to have one, BN would fall.

Consider this – Singapore reformed its electoral process and immediately it lost five percent of the popular vote. BN was already at the brink in 2008 with just 53 percent of the popular vote.
Continue reading “BN’s stupidity is Godsend for Bersih”

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Bersih’s Ambiga is tool of the rakyat

Malaysiakini Your Say | Jul 14, 11

‘When I saw Anwar, Kit Siang and Saifuddin next to Ambiga while she gave the PC, I knew this was a new beginning for a multiracial Malaysia.’

Noh Omar: Pakatan MPs have become Ambiga’s tool

Jiminy Qrikert: As usual, Umno-BN is now spinning their lies into truths. Earlier, they said S Ambiga is Anwar Ibrahim’s tool. That was during the run-up to the Bersih rally.

Now that the rally was such an astounding success with 50,000 of the rakyat slipping through the police blockade and the total lock-down of Kuala Lumpur, an Umno idiot pops up to say Anwar is Ambiga’s tool.
Continue reading “Bersih’s Ambiga is tool of the rakyat”

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Family: We still don’t know how Baharudin died

Salhan K Ahmad
Malaysiakini
Jul 13, 11

Closure appears to be slow in coming for the family of Baharudin Ahmad, the sole fatality allegedly linked to the Bersih 2.0 rally last Saturday.

The police recently claimed that a preliminary report based on the post-mortem on the 59-year-old taxi driver indicated that he had died of heart failure.

This however is not conclusive enough to satisfy his wife, Rosni Malan, and the family.

As it is, Baharudin’s family was only given a letter of consent to take his body for burial last Sunday without any explanation for his death.

Rosni, 55, said there has been so much speculation surrounding the events that lead to her husband’s death, that she and her family do not know what to believe. Continue reading “Family: We still don’t know how Baharudin died”

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Doctors say cops fired tear gas into Tung Shin compound

The Malaysian Insider
Jul 13, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, July 13 — A group of doctors said today they were prepared to provide sworn affidavits to say that police had fired tear gas and chemical-laced water into the compounds of the Tung Shin and Chinese Maternity Hospitals during the Bersih rally last Saturday.

In a statement tonight, 11 doctors, including some who were at the scene, said they were outraged at the actions of the police in firing tear gas and water cannons without scant regard for the safety of patients and doctors.

“We, the undersigned doctors, wish not to enter into the polemics of the Bersih 2.0 march on 9th July 2011 but would like to clarify the inconvenient truth.

“We are outraged at the incidents, and the subsequent responses from the authorities, to the events where tear gas and chemical-laced water were shot into the compounds of the Tung Shin and Chinese Maternity Hospitals, two adjacent buildings along Jalan Pudu, Kuala Lumpur, with scant regard for the safety of patients, staff and the general public who were at the buildings that afternoon,” the doctors said. Continue reading “Doctors say cops fired tear gas into Tung Shin compound”

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Lessons learnt in a walk with friends

— Sheila Santharamohana
The Malaysian Insider
Jul 13, 2011

JULY 13 — Like all others who came alone for Saturday’s Bersih rally, I found that I needn’t have worried. In the confusion and chaos with each blinding onslaught, we reached out and found each other. The strong supported the overcome, the sighted helped the blinded and in the fog of it all, we were one.

If anything, the rally brought to light that our lives, whatever our race may be, are interconnected. Malaysia is woven of the different strands, where in the tapestry of our destiny and shared experience, there can inevitably be only one outcome.

For those who wanted to make Bersih about the Malays and the non-Malays, they were misguided. Out on that day, as we walked alongside, we knew that it was the system and the proponents of such a system, not the people who had divided us. Continue reading “Lessons learnt in a walk with friends”

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I was afraid, therefore I walked

— Celine Yong
The Malaysian Insider
Jul 13, 2011

JULY 13 — I almost didn’t make it. But I went.

The week leading up to the Bersih 2.0 rally on July 9th, I was like most of my friends; poked fun at the BN government’s decision to ban yellow outfits and Bersih T-shirts on my Facebook, changed my profile picture to a bright yellow Sponge Bob, showing my support to Bersih online. But it was all talk only.

Although I was angry with the highhandedness of the government in handling the Bersih rally, I never really thought about going. Didn’t go the last Bersih rally either. Not that I was afraid (the May 13th thing doesn’t scare me a bit, it only infuriates me), or didn’t agree with the principle of the Bersih rally (especially after what had happened in the Sarawak election, I am all for the Bersih principles), I just thought there would be enough people going; the NGOs, the activists, the politicians.

After all, I am but just one person. Continue reading “I was afraid, therefore I walked”

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Cop: Use of excessive force was wrong

Teoh El Sen | July 13, 2011
Free Malaysia Today

There were special police teams who were already targeting those leaders behind the rally, such as Bersih chairman S Ambiga, says a policeman.

EXCLUSIVE

KUALA LUMPUR: The police force has been denying the use of violence during the Bersih 2.0 march on July 9. But among them is one lone voice who condemned the use of violence on the protesters.

A brave policeman said the use of excessive force when arresting Bersih 2.0 marchers was uncalled for and wrong.

The policeman who was in charge of making arrest spoke to FMT on condition of anonymity.

“Those policemen who hit the people are in the wrong. They can actually be charged… Even if you want to say you were forced to do it, that you were attacked first, it should not reach such a stage as what we’re seeing in the video footages.”

“Usually when we make arrests, the most we do if the person struggles and fights back is to make him lie down and use our knees to stop him. Not continue to beat or kick him, even after you handcuff him. That is wrong.” Continue reading “Cop: Use of excessive force was wrong”

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Sarawak to hold reform rally in August

Joseph Tawie | July 13, 2011
Free Malaysia Today

While patriotism to country and loyalty to government is important, the same reasoning should be used to oust bad leaders and governments, says Movement of Change Sarawak.

KUCHING: Inspired by the success of Bersih 2.0′s ‘Walk For Democracy’ march last Saturday and the fact that some 100 Sarawakians had taken part, the Movement for Change Sarawak (MoCS) is planning to hold its own ‘rally for democracy and reforms’ here on Aug 13.

MoCS chief Francis Siah said the movement’s leaders had decided on Sunday to organise “A Walk for democracy and reforms” instead of organising a anti-Taib Mahmud rally originally planned for Aug 13.

He said MoCS will apply for a police permit for the event. Continue reading “Sarawak to hold reform rally in August”

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Najib ‘troubled’ by people’s willingness to act

By Mohd Ariff Sabri Aziz
July 13, 2011 | Free Malaysia Today

Comment What has Bersih 2.0 become? To me Bersih 2.0 has come to represent the people’s willingness to translate beliefs into action.

That’s what is troubling Umno president Najib Tun Razak. Bersih represents willful readiness to translate articulation into action.

The shocking thing is, he couldn’t detect the same voluntariness and missionary zeal among Umno people! In Umno it’s the ‘no money no move’ philosophy.

In response, he pressed the panic button and came out with his fiery speech to the purportedly 6,000 Umno members at PWTC, a day after Bersih’s massively successful rally on July 9. Continue reading “Najib ‘troubled’ by people’s willingness to act”

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Karpal: DAP’s presence was felt

By S Rutra
July 13, 2011 | Free Malaysia Today

KUALA LUMPUR: DAP chairman Karpal Singh said his party was committed to the Bersih 2.0 rally from the start.

Responding to allegations that DAP members did not turn up in droves for last Saturday’s rally, he said many party leaders and members were confined at the Jalan Pudu Area (near his office), Menara Maybank and Pudu Plaza.

“From day one we were committed to the rally and we never intended in taking a backseat. In fact, I was on the ground to observe and was stopped very rudely by policemen on duty near a road junction in front of the Puduraya bus station,” he told FMT. Continue reading “Karpal: DAP’s presence was felt”

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Umno, Utusan the real traitors, says Kit Siang

By Yow Hong Chieh
July 13, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, July 13 — Lim Kit Siang today turned the tables on Umno and Utusan Malaysia, which he said were “traitors to the King” for attempting to tar Bersih protesters as turncoats.

The DAP parliamentary leader said such unfounded accusations by the ruling party and its mouthpiece would only serve to turn the sentiments of the majority of patriotic Malaysians against King and country.

“Is Utusan and the Umno leadership seriously suggesting that the 50,000 Malaysians who braved police threats, mass arrests, tear gas and water cannon to peacefully gather in support of Bersih 2.0… are disloyal and traitors to King and country?” he said in a statement today. Continue reading “Umno, Utusan the real traitors, says Kit Siang”