Please sir, can i have some more?

No, i won't blog about the ludicrous statements made by our Home Minister. Instead, lemme describe to you how someone who is detained under ISA is treated. No, better still, let an ex-ISA detainee tell you:-

Murugiah (Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department and head of the Public Complaints Bureau under the Prime Minister's Department) said Kok told him during their meeting that she was given bread with cream and Teh-O for breakfast; rice, fried egg and a soupy vegetable for lunch; and two pieces of chicken meat with rice and gravy for dinner on her first day.

The breakfast remained the same but on the second day she was given fish and cucumber with rice for lunch and then boiled eggs and cucumber with rice for dinner.

It was boiled eggs and cucumber for both meals on the third day while on the fourth day the cucumber was substituted with vegetables.

(read the report here)

Only RM5.80 is allocated per person per day. Less than 1 quid a day for 3 meals.

On top of that, Kok was kept in solitary confinement in a 2 m by 3 m cell.

Bear in mind that she was not charged for any crime - and she was released after denying the allegations made against her!

Imagine how they would treat someone who is not a Member of Parliament and who does not have good connections and who doesn't know his/her rights.

Malaysia boleh!

ADDENDUM:- It's not RM5.80 a day. Today (23/9/08), the papers report that it is a mere RM4.50!!!!! See here.

More lies?

When asked if he would meet Anwar if there was a request, Abdullah said he would.

Reported on 16 September 2008 here.

When asked if he would entertain Anwar’s request to have a meeting to ensure a smooth and peaceful transition of power, Abdullah rejected the idea.

"There is no reason for me to meet him..."

Reported also on 16 September 2008 in the same newspapers here.

Malaysia boleh!

Not right

The facts speaks for itself. Something is not right.

Malaysia boleh!

Not very intelligent intelligence?

The cops issued a statement on why the reporter, Tan was detained under the ISA. The Deputy IGP said this:-

When the police decided to invoke the ISA, the decision was based on intelligence and observation that certain acts by the individuals concerned were detrimental to the calm, peace and harmony of the country.

These acts if not curtailed would cause public disorder and be a threat to national security. An arrest under the ISA is only made when the police strongly believes that certain acts by individual can pose a serious threat to public order and national security.

In the case of the Sin Chew Daily news reporter, she was released as soon as the police had verified the intelligence and found no grounds to detain her further.

(Read the full statement here).

So am i wrong in concluding that the police obtained intelligence that certain acts of the reporter 'can pose a serious threat to public order and national security'?

What a departure from the Home Minister's allegations earlier (see here). Someone is lying - as both cannot be the truth!

In any event, the reporter was released after detained for 18 hours - apparently, according to the Deputy IGP, the police 'verified' the intelligence and found no grounds to detain her.

Wait a minute - verified? More like proven wrong, isn't it? Less than 24 hours after her arrest, they managed to find out the 'intelligence' was wrong! The fact that it took them so fast to do so showed the quality of the intelligence that was received! In fact, if they did not take so much effort to get the papers and arrest her under the ISA, the intelligence could have been discarded much faster!

Some 'intelligence' the police has. Scary, isn't it?

Malaysia boleh!

All by myself

Your jedi mind tricks won't work!

Syed Hamid is all alone after his attempts to be a hero and tried to paint the government and police in good light by brilliantly alleging that a reporter was arrested and detained in order to protect her (see here).

The absurdity of such a claim is evident for all to see. No surprise the opposition shot down such ludicrous statement. but it did not stop there. Fellow party members quickly spoke out against it, among others, the Education Minister, the de facto Law Minister, the VP for MCA.

Today, the police issued a statement regarding the arrest - and nothing suggested that the arrest and detention of the reporter was for her own safety! See here.

So what happened? Syed Hamid did it on his own accord? Or he was asked to say it and when the response was bad, he's left standing on his own?

So even the Home Minister has no idea what is going on - and even then, he does not keep his mouth close. It's closed now. His foot is in it.

Malaysia boleh!

Let us protect you!

This is priceless, i tell ya!

The reporter detained under section 73 of the ISA has been released less than 24 hours after her arrest - see here.

Now our Home Minister gave stupid reasons why she was arrested and detained under the ISA (emphasis mine). He said:-

Tan was detained under Section 73(1) of the Act in order to ensure her safety.

He added that police intelligence indicated that there were threats to her life after she reported on Bukit Bendera division Umno chairman Datuk Ahmad Ismail’s allegedly racist remarks.

“We have no intention of holding a reporter as after all she was just taking notes of the comments made by a certain party that led to a public debate."

(Read the report here).

So let's get some things straight.

1. He admits that she did not do anything wrong - she was just doing her job.
2. She was detained FOR HER OWN SAFETY!!!!!! What a load of crap! Does he expect us to believe that???

So the ISA is used to ARREST and DETAIN citizens of the country who did not do anything wrong!!!

Instead of putting her under protective custody as they alleged that there were threats to her life, they decided to ARREST and DETAIN her under ISA!!!!

Now, less than 24 hours later, she is released. Have the police successfully quell the threat to her life? Were those making those threats arrested and put away?

This is indeed brilliant - but not in the good way. i can imagine the reaction of me Human Rights' coursemates when they read about this!!!!

I have heard of situations when citizens are threatened and harassed but the police stand in one side and say they cannot do anything. But in this case, Tan was ARRESTED and DETAINED for her own safety!!!!!

Whoa! Malaysia boleh!

Don't talk about it

This is the way how our government works! When an issue arises, don't talk about it. If people want to talk about it, make them stop.

Blogger blogs against the Government and politicians. He is detained indefinitely without trial (see here).

Newspaper reports on racist politicians, corrupt practices etc. They receive a show cause letter from the government (see here).

Reported does her job (bravely) by reporting an incident where racist and seditious words were made in public by a politician. She is detained indefinitely without trial (see here).

Members of the cabinet disagrees on the timeline set by the PM to step down. PM tells them to stop talking about it (see here).

Malaysia boleh!

Suspended

Umno has suspended its Bukit Bendera division chief Datuk Ahmad Ismail of his
membership rights and stripped him of his posts for three years for making remarks which were deemed offensive by the Chinese community.

The decision was made at a specially convened supreme council meeting yesterday(10/09/08).

(reported in The Star here)

The conclusion is that the supreme council made a finding that Ahmad did indeed make remarks which 'were deemed offensive' by the Chinese community. What the....? Crap!

Call a spade a spade. If it was a racist remark, then say it was. But they cannot bring themselves to say so. Now it appears that Ahmad is innocent - it's just that the Chinese community are sensitive or overreacted. They deemed it to be sensitive.

Hello? You do not have to be from the Chinese community to find such remarks offensive as it is racist! Anyone from any community will find it offensive - unless maybe if you are from the Malay community (i'm saying that since the Malay leaders i.e. UMNO could not bring themselves to say they find it offensive and it would be safe to assume they speak for the community?).

Is it any wonder Ahmad remains unrepentant and defiant? (see here).

Furthermore, a 3 months suspension is like a slap on the wrist! He uttered words which were racist in nature. It was against the constitutiion of our country which guarantees equality for all Malaysians. It threaten to harm the unity of the country.

I read this this morning:-

An Australian politician has had to resign after dancing in his underpants at a staff party.

Matt Brown, a state minister in New South Wales, admitted he had made a "mistake" and was "embarrassed".

Mr Brown then admitted conduct unbecoming to a minister, and resigned only three days after being sworn into office as minister for the police.

"I'm a human being and I made a mistake and I'm going to cop the consequences of that mistake," Mr Brown told reporters, without elaborating.

(reported in full here)

He did the honourable thing. He admitted his conduct was not becoming of a minister and he stepped down after he was asked to.

Not in my country. In my country, he would deny he did any wrong and would refuse to step down.

Malaysia boleh!

Turn the tables

I was almost impressed by how the government turned the tables against the media and the reporters - in a last ditch effort to cover their racism. or at the least, the racism of one of those in their ranks.

If you read the previous post - or if you have been following the local news in the past week or so - you would know that a certain politician made racist remarks against the Chinese community.

He then conveniently disappeared - so much so the cops and the PM could not contact him.

Apparently, he was overseas - in neighbouring Thailand. But in our day and age, do you expect us to believe that just because you are there, you cannot be contacted?

10 days after he made those racist remarks, he comes forward and say that he was misquoted out of context. The reporters were all behind it.

The PM quickly changed his tune and stood by his man and pushed the blame on the media and the reporters.

The reporter quickly stood by her story (see here).

So who do we believe?

I dun believe the politician. It is clearly an afterthought - his explanation. It took him so long to come up with this story. If it was indeed the truth, why wait til after 10 days?

Further, what was the purpose of him saying wat he said - he alleged he was making reference to history. Why did he suddenly make a historical observation in his speech? No explanation given.

The PM? He wasn't there so his view is worth nothing.

The reporter? Well, i believe her. Read her explanation - the context of when those words were actually spoken.

But i worry for her. In her bravery to do her job, the right thing, to stand up for the truth and expose contemptuous behavior, she could be made the scapegoat.

Malaysia boleh!

Hard to say I'm sorry

Right. So everyone knows about this man oredi


Unrepentant racist?

Wait. He looks a little familiar, doesn't he? Like a movie star! I think i saw him in a movie very recently! Was it in The Clone Wars?

But moving on.

He called the Malaysians of Chinese ethnicity 'immigrants' who do not deserve equal rights (as reported in a local paper which is linked later in this post).

The DPM apologised on his behalf. He also apologised on behalf of the Malay political party, UMNO (see here).

The PM was of the view that the DPM's action was 'the right thing to do' (see here).

But now, our fren Jabba Ahmad has come out of 'hiding' - and not only does he refuse to apologise, he is demanding that the Chinese community leaders apologise to him (see here)!!!! What the...?????

Further, '...state Umno liaison committee deputy chairman Datuk Abdul Rashid Abdullah said Umno’s 13 divisions in the state supported Ahmad’s decision not to apologise over his remark'.

Oh, it gets better - our former PM who does not know his time is up but still must stick his butt in everything goes public and questions why the Malay leaders should apologise (see here)! His reasoning is that when non-Malays utter racist sentiments, the Chinese leaders do not apologise.

Hello???? In the first place, that is not true. If non-Malays make racist remarks against the Malays, the Malays will take to the streets and riot and perhaps kill. And even if his remark is true - but is strongly denied - does 2 wrongs make a right? Can you justify your wrongdoing by pointing out that others are doing it also?

Is it also not a basic Constitutional law principle that there must be collective responsibility? Should not the political party take a collectiuve responsibility over the wrongdoing of a party member - especially when it was a leader speaking in such capacity?


Doesn't know basic consti principles?

So that's how it is folks. A leader utters racist remarks in public. he refuses to apologise. he demands to be apologised to. His fellow leaders support him. His superiors apologised but their actions are not followed (shows how much respect they have for their party leaders). Former leaders go public and say Malay leaders should not apologise.

Oh, someone was blogging about this and commented what a country we live in. A comment was left asking why he was still in this country. Typical response.

Malaysia boleh!

Emergency

Stae of Emergency has been declared in Thailand. This happened after

"...street fighting overnight between opponents and supporters of the government
left one man dead and dozens of people injured. The violence heightened a
national crisis brought on when anti-government protesters occupied the prime
minister’s office compound Aug 26 and vowed to hold it until Samak (the PM)
stepped down"

Read the report here.

So what does it mean? According to the news report linked earlier, it means this:-

• Bans gatherings of more than five people in Bangkok.
• Bars the media from disseminating any news that "causes panic, instigates
  violence or affects stability.''
• Allows security officials to close or block roads or deny citizens the right
  to use vehicles.
• Allows security forces to evacuate or close buildings and other areas as
  they see fit for maintaining public order.
• Under the constitution, emergency rule also allows security officials to
  hold suspects without charge for up to 30 days if they get permission from a
  court.

Hey, wait a minute? Doesn't this sound familiar? Isn't this happenning in our country now?

The Police Act 1967, section 27 provides that it is an illegal gathering in Malaysia if it consists of 3 (not 5) people or more.

Our media is not allowed to disseminate news that "causes panic, instigates violence or affects stability." Newspapers had been shutdown in the past because of this and a local blog was even blocked recently!

Roads had been closed and blocked in recent times to disallow members of the public to join peaceful demonstrations.

Buildings were evacuated - the forum in Bar Council had to be ended abruptly and those attending had to be evacuated (see post before this).

Hold suspects without charging them for up to 30 days with permission from the court? In our country, people can be held up to 2 years WITHOUT permission from the court!!!!

Are we under a state of emergency? Is there violence that threatens the safety of the country? Are we facing a national crisis?

No? But it appears like we are! At least the state of emergency in Thailand is supposed to be temporal. In our country, it is the status quo.

Proud to be a Malaysian?

Malaysia boleh!