I am calling this media conference on the release of the three Hindraf leaders, P. Uthayakumar, DAP Selangor Assemblyman for Kota Alam Shah M. Manoharan and K. Vasanthakumar from Kamunting Detention Centre under the Internal Security Act (ISA) two hours ago.
The formation of Hindraf, the arbitrary, undemocratic and unjust detention of the five Hindraf leaders in December and the Makkal Sakti phenomenon were important factors resulting in the March 8 “political tsunami” in last year’s general election.
The time has come for the Barisan Nasional government not just to release the three remaining Hindraf leaders under the ISA today but to come to terms and address the root causes for the alienation and marginalisation of the Indian community in the country after half-a-century of nationhood.
Neither the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak nor the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein should entertain any notion that the Malaysian Indians should “membalas budi” for the release of the Hindraf leaders, as they should not be detained without trial under the ISA in the first place.
To realistically and boldly address the root causes of the Hindraf and Makkal
Sakti phenomena, I call on Najib to implement three measures:
• Remove all the restrictive and draconian conditions for the release of the three Hindraf leaders today, as well as on the two other Hindraf leaders, Ganapathi Rao and R. Kenghadharan, who were released on April 5, barring them from speaking in public, taking part in political and NGO activities, and restricting both space and time as barring them from leaving their restricted locality, to be at home by 7 pm every day and requiring them to report regularly to the police.
• Lift the government ban on Hindraf as an unlawful organisation so that it could take part in the nation-building process; and
• Appoint Uthayakumar as a member of Royal Commission of Inquiry into the marginalisation of Malaysian Indians which have reduced them into a new underclass in Malaysia after half-a-century of nationhood. (More than one Royal Commission should be formed on the marginalisation of substantial segments of the Malaysian population, whether the ordinary Malays, Orang Asli, Kadazan-Dusun-Murut or Ibans).
The last few days have seen the public credibility and legitimacy of the Malaysian police plummet to a new low, especially with its crackdown on peaceful dissent and human rights, resulting in the police arrest of 116 persons in three days – including 69 arrests with 10 MPs/State Assembly members in the Ipoh lockdown on the Day of Infamy of May 7 – reminiscent of the Operation Lalang 22 years ago.
All because of legitimate nation-wide protests at the unethical, undemocratic, illegal and unconstitutional power grab, which reached a new infamy in the May 7 Perak State Assembly when the Perak Speaker, V. Sivakumar, in Speaker robes and in the Speaker chair, was bodily dragged out of the Assembly by police officers and goons.
There are three things which the Police must do to repair the damage it has done to its reputation and credibility in the past three days:
Firstly, Najib and Hishammuddin should direct all police personnel to back off from the crackdown on peaceful dissent and human rights expressions, regarding candlelight vigils as greater threats to national security than capital crimes or endemic crime, providing a glimpse of the return of Mahathirism.
Secondly, a clear directive to all police personnel to return to their basic and first duty to protect the lives and property of ordinary Malaysians, which are under great peril as a result of endemic crime as highlighted by the death of two pregnant women, Saripah Mohd in Kota Baru and Jamilah Selamat in Batu Pahat within 72 hours, both killed in two separate snatch thefts when they fell off their motorcycles!
Thirdly, Hishammuddin and the Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan should publicly apologise for the outrage of the police arrest of five lawyers, Fadiah Nadwa Fikri, Murnie Hidayah Anuar, Puspawati Rosman, Ravinder Singh Dhalliwal and Syuhaini Safwan, all members of the Bar Council legal aid centre for going to the aid of those arrested in candlelight vigils in protest at the arrest of BERSIH spokesman Wong Chin Huat.
(Media Conference Statement at DAP Office in Alor Star, Kedah on Saturday, 9th May 2009 at 4.30 pm)
Uncle Kit,
i don’t think the tamil love you…after what u did to Siva…u should offer M Mano as the successor to LGE for the secretary post of DAP?…
LKS just talk big only. dap only use hindraf for their political advantage, they never care for indian. They represent chinese only.
mca and mic just talk big only. they only use barisan for their political advantage, they never care for chinese or indian. They represent themselves only.
Kit,
We can achieve nothing by talking sense to an immoral, unprincipled and decadent regime that cannot even distinguish between right and wrong.
lawyers arrested for performing duties as lawyers.
lawyers arrested for performing duties as lawyers.
unprecedented in malaysia. Yay! malaysia boleh!
mca, mic and gerakan condones the arrest of lawyers performing their duties as lawyers.
lawyers can represent murderers and rapist, but cannot represent prisoners of conscience.
//Appoint Uthayakumar as a member of Royal Commission of Inquiry into the marginalisation of Malaysian Indians which have reduced them into a new underclass in Malaysia after half-a-century of nationhood//
This will only happen when Velupillay Prabakaran becomes malaysian PM. Until then, dream on
There are pictures and videos of the infamous Ms Hee, the Deputy Perak State Assembly Speaker, using a pepper spray against a DAP Assemblyman in the State Legislative Assembly on Thursday. She was also seen to be tearing up Malaysian currency notes.
Now I am told that both of these are offences. Pepper sprays are banned, I am told, as they may be considered as weapons. If so, has Ms Hee committed an offence?
Secondly, as many people have commented, the tearing up of currency notes is also an offence. So will Bank Negara and the Police take the necessary actions?
Both incidents occured in the State Assembly. Is this place sacred and free from any civil and criminal actions? Is there immunity there? But if “officials”, Police, Military, Special Forces etc, can barge in and violate the place, thereby setting a bad precedent, then I think the Police etc can act against Ms Hee. (Siva too should consider taking action against those who detained him.)
Its about time she’s cut down to size.
By the way, she says she was pointing her “hotel room key”. Does anybody know which hotel she’s been staying for the past 100 days? I like to come invite her out for coffee.
ada dua orang yang bodoh beri komen la
welcome the new bodoh nckeat to the blog, still cant get away from racial party, sure he’s from mca, tidor selamanya di mca, bn will sink in near future.
I’M A RACIST TOO, I criticize chinese for being selfish, kiasu and kiasi, I’m a Malaysian and I’m proud that I stay here rather than running away oversea.
Of course DAP need to reform too to get a composition of members to represent the multi-ethnics in Malaysia, I support nobody and I hate nobody. now, mca is really not relevant laaa!
Is it prudent to investigate every claim of being “marginalisation” by one ethnic race or another? The government has acknowledged that work needs to be done to bring the Indian community up to par with the others in the peninsular, however Hindraf are not helping to this effect. Their revolutionary ideas are not fit for Malaysia and leads to unnecessary political tension and social instability.
If the Indians continue to place their support with BN, they will understand that the BN is the future of Malaysian Indians and all Malaysians. The future will be better if you Indians within the system and not against it.
Mr LKS … all you do is to demand and demand and demand, it has fallen on deaf ears. You have no clout in your demands. Put your time to better use. Work with the people who have elected you. Make a mark for your political career as a man who cares for the people and works for them. Not the man who only makes demands that get no where.
Times have changed. To be frank many out there, the general public are worried that their votes for DAP/PKR etc is really not working. Look at Ipoh … who came to storm the so called Bastille? Even Anwar could not care less to attend to show some support. He could not care less. He always shuts his mouth up and play Tok Dalang! Are you so blind to be in bed with someone who you hated to much once?
Mr LKS … work to make this nation great. Make the people feel that their votes were well cast in your favour.
Ok,the NEP is needed to protect the malays and other bumis.In the process the non-malays bumis especially the orang asli,kadazan/dusun/murut{Sabah} and iban/dayak{Sarawak} were marginalised socially,economically and politically. The indians and chinese were also being sidelined at the same time.Areas which reflex the unbalance composition of the employment ratio between malays and non-malays bumis,indians and chinese are the civil service,police,military,GLC and university. I think it’s about time the federal policies should be implemented immediately to create a good mixed balance of races in all the abovementioned areas in the country in order to have a good and harmonious country.As a starter our PM should ensure that certain percentage say atleast 30 % be reserved for all non-malays bumis ,indians and chinese for all recruitement by the Federal and state governemts.
Chengho the young virgin…does not know what love is and
“SpeakUp” commentator does not understand smart moves by Anwar nor LKS’s as a great politician.
How old are these two….and how much they know about our country can clearly be seen by their pro BN attitudes…writing to dare judge LKS with no counter offers to their useless messages….especially from chengho..day in day out…put out shit comments.
Chengho the inexperienced …does not know what love is and
“SpeakUp” commentator does not understand smart political moves by Anwar and LKS.
How old are these two….and how much they know about our country can clearly be seen by their pro BN attitudes…writing to dare judge LKS with no counter offers to their useless messages….especially from chengho..day in day out…put out useless comments.
As all of us can see, everyday, in almost every post, there are 2 nasty bastar9s, namely ”Chengho” and ”nckeat”, fooling around by giving some sorts of irrelevant and racist nonsense. It has be really funny to see the comment they give, sometimes they just simply throw some comments, without even looking into the detail of the post. Obviously, all they did everyday, are just to inject some negative comments into this space, as evil as possible, and that’s it, their jobs have done.
The deeds are very similar to the way BN practise in our country, for past 50+ years. We’ve seen these tricks being played over and over again.
Just wanted to say that your tricks are no more effective to us, you’ve FAILED! We’ve eyes to see, mind to think and brain to analyse. You can just keep your childish and racist opinions to yourself, no one would appreciate for what you’ve spoken here.
So, advice to you two, just get a life, don’t do nonsense here, put some linear opinions that would at least meet a minimum level of human’s intellingence. Or else, FFS, just stfu, and gtfo!
sheriff singh would like invite HRH Heeheehee out for coffee.
First, make sure you lace her coffee with arsenic.
Second, make sure you cabut before she collapses and rolls on the floor in agony.
ISA and Sedition Act are weapons of the BN
to create fear and to elicit gratitude.
Don’t like you or for your own safety
nab you under ISA or SA.
Fear, fear, fear.
Later, under the whimsical mercy of Umnoputra
inexplicably released, just as inexplicably detained.
Expect gratitude and to kiss their @ss.
Now kerisman and mongolian guy looked like heroes
for releasing ISA detainees
now inexplicably no danger to you and me
previously inexplicably detained
‘cos they were dangerous to you and me.
AAB and botak looked like the biggest bodoh
for wrongly detaining innocent people under ISA!
Did Sun Tze write
Be the devil’s advocate?
And some people
fall off a cliff like lemmings.
Don’t be too happy for their release, I have seen heroes turn informers or traitors after a spell in prison. They could be back with us not to unify but to destroy by dividing the minority. We have seen what V tan’ money can do.
Monsterball … you are an ignorant man. Read what I written, I said its fallen on DEAF ears, means BN could not care less. If I am so pro BN why would I ask for LKS to build the nation. Time that idi0ts like you learn to wake up. Did you bother to go to Ipoh wearing black? If you dare not get incarcerated then stop taking with so much authority. I dare not because I know I am not ready to be incarcerated.
Lihat lah … I think those 3 will not turn pro BN … I doubt it. They want to be out to be with their families and hopefully make a difference from OUTSIDE the prison walls.
Speak Up…..I sincerely hope I am wrong, but we can’t let our guard down we have to keep our eyes,ears and minds sharp and clear. There are too much uncertainty nowadays.
9 May 2009 at 19:49.52, chengho said:
Uncle Kit,
i don’t think the tamil love you…after what u did to Siva…u should offer M Mano as the successor to LGE for the secretary post of DAP?…
Seriously, you should become a party member and nominate/vote whom ever you like to take over the secretary post of DAP…
On 9 May 2009 at 20:07.09, nckeat said:
LKS just talk big only. dap only use hindraf for their political advantage, they never care for indian. They represent chinese only.
If that’s true, shouldn’t there be a mass resignation of Indian members from DAP???
On 9 May 2009 at 23:20.17, zak_hammaad said:
Is it prudent to investigate every claim of being “marginalisation” by one ethnic race or another? The government has acknowledged that work needs to be done to bring the Indian community up to par with the others in the peninsular, however Hindraf are not helping to this effect. Their revolutionary ideas are not fit for Malaysia and leads to unnecessary political tension and social instability.
If the Indians continue to place their support with BN, they will understand that the BN is the future of Malaysian Indians and all Malaysians. The future will be better if you Indians within the system and not against it.
The system is defined by the constitution, not UMNO’s BN.
Even a Hindraf member had participated in the system by being a candidate in the last general elections.
The same elections had also seen, within the system, the rejection of the leader of MIC, the party which supposedly represented the Malaysian Indians within UMNO’s BN.
Must Hindraf be compared the Malayan Communist Party which wanted to overthrow the government by force?
Lihat la … Life is all about uncertainties, that makes it fun. As uncertain as things are, its time people learn to change their ways. Time to drop the HATRED against BN and strategise to overcome the new challenges that BN is throwing at the Opposition.
More will come as I believe that the PM has a PR/Strategist team behind him now, do not think he is being dumb. So far he has prevailed. That is a fact.
Complaining and demanding WILL NOT work and HAS NOT worked. Neither will all the cursing and swearing we get from the forumers.
Dear SpeakUp,
You’re probably right.
Complaining, making demands plus cursing & swearing may not work, but we, as the people who have the right to elect whoever we choose to lead our nation’s government, must ensure that the ballot box works.