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Rahim Noor should crawl back into the woodwork

by P. Ramakrishnan
1 November 2011

A man who infamously trampled upon the rights of others has no right to speak on human rights. He is the least qualified to speak on this subject.

Yet, the former Inspector–General of Police, Abdul Rahim Mohd Noor, emerging as it were from the dead, expressed some startling views on human rights.

He is quoted as having said that the coming of a “human rights wave” would threaten the principles on which this country was founded.

In what way would the “human rights wave” threaten the principles on which this country was founded?

The principles on which this country was founded is embodied in the Federal Constitution, which was agreed upon mutually by all the communities that aspired for a free and independent Malaya.

The Federal Constitution specifically guarantees the human rights of all the citizens. Indeed, it protects the rights of all Malaysians. If these rights were not guaranteed and protected, there would be no Federal Constitution to begin with and we wouldn’t have attained our independence on 31 August 1957.

The human rights wave, reflected in the Bersih 2.0 ‘Walk for Democracy’ that demanded clean and fair elections, cannot by any stretch of the imagination be termed as a “communist wave”. It is a democratic wave giving expression to the innate desire of the human spirit to be free and treated fairly and with justice.

The present wave – demanding accountability, transparency, good governance, rule oflaw, the right to information, the right to assemble peacefully, the right to publish and disseminate views – represents the universal rights that are upheld by the United Nations, As Malaysia is a member of the UN Human Rights Council, we are duty-bound to respect and protect these universal values.

Calling upon the Malays to unite against this “human rights wave” is acting foolishly and ignoring today’s political reality. The vast majority of thinking Malaysians are not narrow-minded bigots and will not fall for this call to respond along ethnic lines.

This was clearly established when the “Himpunan Sejuta” was organised to inflame the sentiments of the Malays against the Christians. The fact that only about 5000 turned up – which prompted Ibrahim Ali to confess that he was embarrassed by the turnout – is proof enough that racial politics will be spurned by citizens of goodwill who only wish to live together in peace and harmony for the betterment of the nation.

Though it was touted as having the backing of 3000 Malay NGOs, the fact was they failed even to send two representatives each, which would have boosted the attendance to 6000. The number that turned up was a far cry from the one million that was expected. The ultras and the extremists can claim anything but gutter politics will not hoodwink the majority of peace-loving Malaysians.

Rahim Noor should crawl back into the woodwork and remain there for a long time tocome.

P Ramakrishnan is president of Aliran

8 Replies to “Rahim Noor should crawl back into the woodwork”

  1. It needs convicts…braggarts…idiots…gangsters…to speak and protect the Govt.
    And it the Govt. itself….whenever the UMNO b Ministers speaks…hordes of commentators do not mince any words to expose and insult their intelligence…uttering nonsensical stuffs and weird logics.
    Rahim Noor…the handpicked IGP by Mahathir…a street gangster from Alor Gajah?
    Only a smart cunning crook like Mahathir’s knows how to handpick all sorts of cronies…to do the dirty work for him.

  2. Every authoritarian ruler will use this papa canine to do his dirty job.What a joke to have former IGP to utter such undemocratic statements.Come GE13 let’s send all these rouges to the dogs.Confine them in kennel.

  3. Until today,the most evil power shamelessly and relentlessly ransacking the nation for decades still resort to racial and religious tainted lies and allegations just to retain power.Now they make use of ex top hooligan and the faked melayu ex dictator to bullshit about human rights to pull wool over the eyes of the poor rural folks just to win their support.

  6. When Rahim Noor said that “human rights wave” would threaten the principles on which this country was founded, he must be taken to imply (i) human rights are Western notions and values and (ii) the country was founded on indigenous values whether they mean “Eastern” (as Dr Mahathir described them) or Islamic as others do or “Confucian” as SM Lee Kuan did. On the argument that the country was founded on basis of Federal Constitution guaranteeing civil liberties constructed upon human rights, one would expect Rahim Noor to argue that the Constitution itself plus its human rights bias were foisted and imposed by Colonial Masters (British) unto us without our forefathers having much power, knowledge or experience to oppose this imposition. And as to the argument that Universal Declaration of Human Rights is main banner of the United Nations of which Malaysia is member, again he and his ilk would counter that the UN is mere intrument controlled through majority of big powers led by Americans in its Security Council to impose Pax Americana/Anglo Saxon version of peace morality and world order on the rest of the world beneficial to American/Anglo-Saxon interests!

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