Day: May 12, 2012

— Maha Balakrishnan
The Malaysian Insider
May 12, 2012

MAY 12 — At a press conference on April 29 and in reference to the Bersih 3.0 rally the day before, the prime minister was reported to have stated that “the rally was the first test for the police in translating the action stipulated under the new legislation following the political transformation implemented by the government, including….. introducing the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012”.

The Peaceful Assembly Act (PAA) came into force on April 23. The prime minister therefore had basis for saying that Bersih 3.0 was the first test for the police in translating the action stipulated under the PAA.

The question is: did the police pass or fail that test?

In my view, they failed. Here’s why: Continue reading “Bersih 3.0: The first test for the police under the Peaceful Assembly Act?”

– Sam Peh
The Malaysian Insider
May 12, 2012

MAY 12 – Even during the most dictatorial days of Mahathir Mohamad, the mainstream media has not been this inept, corrupt, dishonest and even clumsy.

But during the Najib reign, the New Straits Times, the Star and the Malay language papers have crawled to depths never before experienced. Take today’s NST.

Yesterday more than 1,200 lawyers voted at a Bar Council EGM to condemn police brutality at Bersih 3.0 but the Umno owned paper focussed on 16 little known lawyers who dissented. And to make matters worse, the report focussed on whether the quorum was reached (which it was) and whether all those who turned up were lawyers. What rubbish reporting.

I am making public this dishonest reporting because this is the stock in trade of the NST . Remember how the paper tried to stitch up Lim Guan Eng as unpatriotic and Senator Xenophon as anti-Islam. Continue reading “Malaysia’s sad media”

— Aspan Alias
The Malaysian Insider
May 12, 2012

12 MEI — Saya begitu terpanggil untuk memberikan komen tentang “conduct” PM Najib sebagai pemimpin utama negara sehari dua ini yang ramai menganggap sebagai tidak semenggah itu. Najib nampaknya sudah hilang kesabaran untuk menerima cabaran demokrasi yang belum pernah beliau alami selama ini.

Sejak mula berpolitik dan memegang jawatan besar-besar dalam parti dan kerajaan Najib belum lagi berhadapan dengan krisis sebesar ini. Apabila krisis seperti yang berlaku hari ini menghadapi beliau, Najib mula melatah dan menari tanpa megikut rentak yang sangat susah untuk beliau ikuti. Langkah beliau sumbang dan beliau seolah-olah menari di atas tanah yang tidak rata.

“Najib has never gone through the mill,” kata seorang sahabat saya yang selalu menghubungi saya setiap hari. Najib tidak lagi dapat meletakkan diri beliau sebagai seorang pemimpin nombor satu negara. Tingkah dan laku beliau menampakkan yang beliau belum lagi dapat mengendalikan krisis kepimpinan yang beliau sedang hadapi dengan baik dan matang.

Semasa mengumumkan “durian runtuh” di Jengka dua tiga hari yang lepas, beliau bercakap dengan penuh emosi dan bercakap dengan sombong dan bongkak sambil mengatakan yang pihak yang menentang IPO FELDA Global Ventures itu sebagai “Haram Jadah”. Tidak disangka-sangka yang Najib sanggup mengeluarkan kata-kata yang menghina itu kepada pihak yang tidak sekata dengan beliau. Kata-katanya itu hanya melambangkan nilai peribadi beliau yang sebenar yang mudah difahami oleh rakyat yang rata-rata sudah cerdik dan pandai membuat penilaian kepada seseorang itu.

“Haram Jadah” ini bermakna anak haram yang disumpah. Najib telah menghina pihak yang tidak seiring dengan beliau dengan kata-kata yang tidak ada tolok banding hinanya apatah lagi ia datang dari seorang Perdana Menteri. Malahan rakyat amat terkejut dengan kata-kata kesat itu datangnya dari keluarga Tun Abdul Razak, keluarga yang disangka baik oleh rakyat jelata. Saya tidak dapat memahami apakah perasaan beliau semasa berucap itu dan berani beliau memutuskan yang penentang beliau itu semua anak haram yang dilaknat. Continue reading “Benarkah penentang Najib/Umno itu ‘haram jadah’?”

— Sakmongkol AK47
The Malaysian Insider
May 11, 2012

11 MEI — Apa pasal kita menibai Umno? Jawapannya sama seperti mengapa Umno menibai parti lawannya. Kita membantai Umno sebab Umno jadi penghadang kepada pencapaian demokrasi untuk rakyat. Umno pula menibai parti lawan, kerana meraka menghalang jalan untuknya mendapat kuasa mutlak atau fascism.

Umno mewakili system demokrasi totalitarian. Rakyat mahukan demokrasi penyertaan dimana mereka menjadi equal stakeholders dalam menentukan masa depan negara. Jadi “demokrasi” yang disokong dan didukung oleh Umno bertentangan dengan demokrasi yang rakyat mahukan.

Umno bercakap mengenai demokrasi yang maksudnya, tidak sama dengan demokrasi yang di fahami oleh rakyat. Cara mencapai demokrasi kita berbeza- Umno menggunakan cara fascis , rakyat mahukan cara penyertaan bersama.

Kita semua tahu akan bahaya jika kuasa di monopoli oleh satu orang atau oleh kumpulan yang kecil. Hari ini peneroka Felda di haramjadahkan. Esok semua rakyat akan di perlakukan serupa. Sebutan dan pengucapan itu datang dari orang yang gila- gila kuasa. Hanya orang yang gila kuasa sahaja yang megeluarkan kata2 kesat sedemikian rupa. Kita yang mewakili rakyat bukan gila kuasa, tapi kita mahu ambil kuasa dari orang gila. Continue reading “Politik fascism Umno lawan politik demokrasi rakyat (Bahagian 1)”

Malaysians, including the hundreds of thousands regardless of race, religion, class, region, age or gender, who had come out peacefully for the Bersih 3.0 “sit-in” at Dataran Merdeka on April 28, armed at most with salt and water bottles, are shocked and outraged at Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein’s allegation today that “some parties wanted serious injuries and deaths” at Bersih 3.0 – 24 days after the event! (The Malaysian Insider)

I believe I could speak on their behalf, as well as all decent and rational Malaysians, to urge Hishammuddin to stop spreading lies and falsehoods about Bersih 3.0 as his allegation that “some parties wanted serious injuries and deaths” is most wild, irresponsible and deplorable.

There is no iota of evidence whatsoever to back this latest but totally wild and contemptible allegation emanating from government quarters.

Malaysians can still vividly remember Hishammuddin’s declaration a week before April 28 that the Bersih 3.0 rally was not a security threat and his dismissive statement that “April 28 is not an issue” as it had gained “little traction” with the public.

Clearly, Hishammuddin had not expected Bersih 3.0 to garner much crowd, probably a few thousands but definitely not more than the Bersih 1.0 and 2.0 crowds. The hundreds of thousands of Malaysians who gathered in peace must have totally caught him and the Barisan Nasional leadership by surprise.

When did Hishammuddin get the “intelligence” that there were “some parties at the April 28 Bersih rally who wanted serious injuries and deaths to occur”? Was it before or after Bersih 3.0 on April 28? Continue reading “Hishammuddin – stop spreading lies and falsehoods about Bersih 3.0 as his allegation that “some parties wanted serious injuries and deaths” most wild, irresponsible and deplorable”

By Shannon Teoh
The Malaysian Insider
May 12, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR, May 12 — The Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) called today for Putrajaya’s panel probing violence in the April 28 Bersih rally to be impartial after growing criticism over the selection of Tun Hanif Omar as the team’s chief.

The opposition and civil society have called on the former police chief to be disqualified due to anti-Bersih statements that came immediately after the rally for free and fair elections, which had spiralled into chaos when protestors tried to enter Dataran Merdeka.

“The Commission awaits the determination of the terms of reference of the Panel in the hope and expectation that they are consistent with the requirements of an inquiry that will conduct its work in a manner that is independent, impartial, transparent, and with integrity and without fear or favour.

“It is extremely important that any such inquiry… be conducted expeditiously, but also with great care so as to ensure that its process and outcome will… restore public confidence in the authorities, which is an essential attribute of a fully functional democracy which the people aspire for,” Suhakam chief Tan Sri Hasmy Agam said today.

He added in a press statement that Suhakam “remains seized of the matter and will continue to study the complaints and submissions from various groups, as well as media reports, pertaining to various incidences that transpired on that day.”

The so-called “Hanif panel” has already been criticised for having no legal basis by Bersih and the Bar Council and both bodies have also criticised the choice of the former police chief to head the committee. The electoral reforms movement added that the former Inspector General of Police “has already made two public comments… that communist sympathisers who were active demonstrators in the 1970s were involved.

“He has also agreed with Najib’s allegation that Bersih 3.0 was an attempted coup d’état against the government. By so doing, he has shown that he is biased and has already pre-judged the outcome of the investigation,” Bersih said. Continue reading “Putrajaya’s Bersih panel must be impartial, says Suhakam”

It is a sad commentary on the quality and judgment of the Najib premiership when both the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein could not see anything wrong in appointing Tun Hanif Omar as head to probe the Bersih 3.0 violence when the former Inspector-General of Police had clearly disqualified himself with preconceived and prejudicial views about the Bersih 3.0 rally.

It is most shocking that what seems crystal clear to ordinary citizens, even to school children, that the issue at stake is about impartiality and not Hanif’s track record, is totally beyond the grasp of the most important decision-makers in government, including the Prime Minister and Home Minister.

This is most ironic as it was only two days ago that Najib said that he could not even afford a single mistake as Prime Minister, declaring:

“When you are PM, if we have to make 10 major decisions, we need to get 10 out of 10 right. If we only get nine right and one inaccurate, that is the one that people would fault us for.”

And here we have the Najib premiership refusing to correct what could probably be Najib’s worst decision in his three years as Prime Minister, appointing Hanif as head to probe the Bersih 3.0 violence – an appointment which had elicited the unprecedented reaction of instant and all-round rejection and even condemnation by thinking and decent Malaysians, which is why the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), Suaram, Bersih 2.0, the Malaysian Bar and even the Deputy Higher Education Minister Saifuddin Abdullah have declared their objection to Hanif’s appointment.

Malaysians and the world must wonder why important personages like the Prime Minister and the Home Minister could not understand the very clear, simple and irrefutable reason for objecting to Hanif’s appointment to head the probe into the Bersih 3.0 violence – that it has nothing to do with his track record as the longest-serving IGP in the country, Deputy Chairman of the Special Commission to Enhance the Operations and Management of the Royal Malaysian Police in 2004 or as member of the panel investigating the fatal shooting of 14-year-old Aminulrasyhid Amzah. Continue reading “Stubborn insistence to have Hanif to head probe into Bersih 3.0 violence raises larger question – whether time has come for a new PM and Home Minister as incumbents are so cut off from reasonable expectations of ordinary Malaysians”

— Khairie Hisyam Aliman
The Malaysian Insider
May 12, 2012

MAY 12 — The next general election looms large, yet the ruling coalition is fumbling with the wrong issues. Could that be Barisan Nasional’s undoing this time around?

Parliament is due to be dissolved next April, but with 11 months to go there is seemingly no sign of that happening soon. Some even think it will be pushed as far as September. Many believe that the ruling coalition, the prime minister especially, was unnerved enough by Bersih 3.0’s turnout to delay calling for polls.

Indeed, what a turnout it was. Bersih organisers estimate that 250,000-300,000 people were there; independent estimates put it between 80,000 and 100,000. While we may never know the actual figure, the figures we are contemplating are large enough to worry those in power. Not everyone wearing yellow that day supports the opposition, but they sent out the same, unmistakeable message.

The people are acutely aware that the electoral process is suspect. And the people want the problem fixed.

Despite the presence of opposition figures during the rally, the purpose of many who decided to come was not to show their support to any particular politician, or to any political party. All they wanted was for their vote to be fairly accounted for come the election. All they wanted was a system of integrity that they could trust. Continue reading “Time is running out”