Human rights violated

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966) is regarded as the authority when it comes to the universal standard of civil and political rights in the world.

The substantive rights protected in it are found in Part III (Articles 6 – 27) of the Covenant.

In the past few weeks, Malaysia has violated almost all the rights contained in the ICCPR. Quite an achievement?

Article 6

1. Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life.

There were many death threats made against the leaders of Bersih, especially against Ambiga. Perkasa has clearly insinuated that non-Malays will be killed when he made reference to the May 13 incident.

Yet no action seems to be taken to protect the right to life. Najib even endorse the silat group who threatened to wage war against Bersih – war meaning to go and kill.

Yesterday, an individual was reported to have died while trying to run away from the police shooting tear gas in his direction.

Article 7

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

The detainees under the Emergency Ordinance have given evidence of how they have been tortured and treated inhumanely while in custody.

Article 9

1. Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention. No one shall be deprived of his liberty except on such grounds and in accordance with such procedure as are established by law.

Clear example will be again those held under the EO. And the many others arrested today.

Article 10

1. All persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person.

See Article 7 above.

Article 12

1. Everyone lawfully within the territory of a State shall, within that territory, have the right to liberty of movement and freedom to choose his residence.

91 people including the leaders of Bersih have had this freedom restricted.

Article 13

An alien lawfully in the territory of a State Party to the present Covenant may be expelled therefrom only in pursuance of a decision reached in accordance with law and shall, except where compelling reasons of national security otherwise require, be allowed to submit the reasons against his expulsion and to have his case reviewed by, and be represented for the purpose before, the competent authority or a person or persons especially designated by the competent authority.

This needs to be verified but I heard that a foreigner has been deported due to allegations of his/her involvement in funding Bersih.

Article 14

1. All persons shall be equal before the courts and tribunals. In the determination of any criminal charge against him, or of his rights and obligations in a suit at law, everyone shall be entitled to a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by law.

See Article 9 above – detained without a hearing.

Article 15

1 . No one shall be held guilty of any criminal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a criminal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed.

The government has outlawed the wearing of certain t-shirts!!! How can it be a criminal offence?

Article 16

Everyone shall have the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

This is basically the right to a legal personality – which involves the right to the protection of the law and be equally protected everywhere by law and in practice. See Articles 6, 7, 9, 10, 14 above.

Article 17

1. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his honour and reputation.

See Articles 6, 7, 9, 10 above.

Article 18

1. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice, and freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching.

Bersih has been outlawed.

Article 19

1. Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference.

See Article 18 above.

Article 20

1. Any propaganda for war shall be prohibited by law.
2. Any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law.

Propaganda for war by the silat groups against Bersih has been endorsed and supported by our PM directly and/or indirectly.

Article 21

The right of peaceful assembly shall be recognized. No restrictions may be placed on the exercise of this right other than those imposed in conformity with the law and which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety, public order (ordre public), the protection of public health or morals or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.

The Bersih rally had not been allowed – in fact, the police had threatened Bersih not to go on with their rally.

Article 22

1. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Bersih is considered an illegal organisation.

Article 23

1. The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

The right to family life of those detained (mentioned above) has not been protected.

Article 24

1. Every child shall have, without any discrimination as to race, colour, sex, language, religion, national or social origin, property or birth, the right to such measures of protection as are required by his status as a minor, on the part of his family, society and the State.

The rights of the children of those detained have not been protected.

Article 25

Every citizen shall have the right and the opportunity, without any of the distinctions mentioned in article 2 and without unreasonable restrictions:
(a) To take part in the conduct of public affairs, directly or through freely chosen representatives;
(b) To vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret ballot, guaranteeing the free expression of the will of the electors;

This is the whole purpose of Bersih! But they are not allowed to exist.

Article 26

All persons are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to the equal protection of the law. In this respect, the law shall prohibit any discrimination and guarantee to all persons equal and effective protection against discrimination on any ground such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

People are discriminated because they agree with the objectives championed by Bersih.

Article 27

In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied the right, in community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practise their own religion, or to use their own language

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Ambiga has been labelled as “anti-Islam” allegedly due to the views she held about the Lina Joy’s case and other things she did when she was the President of the Bar Council.

Rights not mentioned:-

Article 8 which talks about slavery

Article 11 which talks about imprisonment for failure to fulfil a contractual obligation

Not bad - almost a clean sweep! No wonder Malaysia has continued to resist ratifying the ICCPR!

Malaysia boleh!

We facilitate illegal activities!

The Home Minister* said that Bersih is still deemed illegal in this country (see here).

But the strange thing (or to a lot of us, these kind of things are not "strange" anymore) is that he said that if Bersih succeeds in applying to gather in a stadium, "the government would facilitate the gathering".

So putting it together, the conclusion is that our givernment doesn't mind facilitating what it deems to be illegal activities (activities of an illegal group should be illegal activities, no?).

Malaysia boleh!

*Him again!!! Maybe i should make a special label just for him!!!

Living up to expectations!

Influential and prominent people (who speak the truth fearlessly) from entering the state.

NRICs not issued to the Penans who have suffered much - this way, they cannot vote.

Certain websites were "interfered" with.

Ceramahs cut short.

I won't mention about the postal votes, the money used to buy "stuffs", the threats etc.

Well done, BN. Once again, you lived up to expectations. And the super filthy rich person is once again the CM (one wonders tho how he gets so rich when the State is so poor in comparison despite making billions of Ringgits in timber, timber products, crude oil, natural gas, pepper).

Pic taken from the Star Online

Malaysia boleh!

Oops... i stamped it!

"(Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein) said his officials had no intention to deface the bibles."

Pic taken from MI

The line is taken from this following article in the MI - Hisham: Alkitab stamping standard move.

I actually read this interview in The Star - but when i looked for it again, it had been amended (see here).

I initially wondered if it was a mistake - or was someone told not to publish it. I am thinking it is the latter.

But this is utter nonsense!!!! No intention???? So is he saying that his officials are so thick that they stamped the Bibles recklessly? But there were over 5,000 copies if i am not mistaken! Negligently? Accidentally????

Malaysia boleh!

Anti-rasuah?

I hate corrupt cops!!!!!!!

Really?

This is a true account. I was driving home from outstation today. My sister was driving her car and she was directly behind me all the way until this incident took place.

Somewhere along the highway, there was a police road block. I slowed down and the cop signaled for me to go. I drove off, expecting my sister to be told the same thing. But no!!!!! The cop told her to pull her car over to the road side.

Now here is what happened - the cop told her that she was speeding in a 80 km/h stretch along the highway. Now there was no such stretch along the part of the highway that we traveled on. I am sure of it as i kept an eye out for the speed limit all the time. My brother who was in my sister's car also did not notice such a stretch. My sister was sure there was no such stretch too.

But the cop insisted that she was speeding along the 80 km/h stretch. My sister pointed out that i was ahead of her all the time but yet they did not pull me over. He ignored that.

Seeing that there was no way and no point to argue, my sister told him to just issue her the summons. He refused and told her to drive off!!!!!

This is purely my personal take on the incident - my sister was not speeding and the cop was trying to get her to bribe him. Think about it:-

• My brother, my sister and i did not notice such a 80 km/h stretch along that part of the highway. I have also driven pass that stretch many times and never noticed it;

• If there was indeed such a stretch, and if my sister was speeding, then it would mean that i was too. So why wasn't i pulled over and my offense pointed out? I think it could be because I was driving a car with the license plate of that particular state we were driving in while my sister's car's license plate was from another state. So perhaps, the cop thought he could fool her as she was from out of the state but could not fool me?

• If my sister indeed was speeding, then why didn't he issue her a summons when she did not want to argue with him anymore? Was he scared that we would contest the matter in court and he would have to show proof of such a stretch and that my sister was speeding?
  

My sister was not speeding. My personal view is that the cop was looking for a bribe, thinking that since she was from another state, she would have wanted an easy way out. Well, my sister had principles - but i dun think that the cop did.

This angered me so much - with the high number of crimes reported in our country, policemen appear to me to be setting up road blocks along the highway to try to get bribes instead of doing real police work.

Malaysia boleh!

Interference (?)

The former Inspector-General of Police of Malaysia (the top cop of the country) said that there was excessive interference in police work. He was quoted saying "All kinds of people interfere. People from the ministry itself, outsiders and people with vested interest who want to do things that are not right". He went on to say "The ministry I mentioned is the Home Ministry, of course".

Pic obtained from UMNO online

The Home Ministry interfering with the police?

Well, dun take my word for it - the top cop should know best! Read the news report here.

The Secretary General of the Home Ministry has denied this in a later news report (see here).

OK. Something is not right here. I do not know what is the real story but it HAS to be one of these:-

1. The former IGP is a liar; or
2. The Sec-Gen of the Home Ministry is a liar; or
3. The Sec-Gen has no idea of the interference that is going on; or
4. The former IGP had been mistaken.

I can't think of any other possibilities. Can you? Let me know - it'll be appreciated.

The first 3 possibilities are worrying. The last one? Well, worrying too - the IGP has been serving all this time under the impression of there being interference by the government?

Malaysia boleh!

Learning = anti-constitution?

Kelab Belia Graduan 1Malaysia lodged a police report recently against the Bar Council. It was regarding its MyConstitution campaign and distribution of the accompanying Rakyat Guide (RG) booklets that describe the Constitution in simple, layman terms.

There was a comment about it in today's newspaper - "The Citizen and the Constitution". You can read it here. here is an excerpt from that article:-

"Its (the Kelab) secretary-general Ezaruddin Abd Rahman said they were concerned the RGs that were being distributed to the public and available over the Internet (www.perlembagaanku.com) touched on ways to amend the Constitution".

Ezaruddin (taken from the club's website)

Yes, that's true. So what is wrong with that?

Worse still, how is it "inciting hatred and feelings of being “anti” the Constitution and rejecting it as being irrelevant today"?

I only want echo the writer's last line - "A campaign giving people knowledge and helping them to think for themselves is certainly not sedition".

Are they afraid that people will start learning their rights and begin to exercise it? Is that not a good thing - or do they feel threatened by it?

It appears then that this Kelab think that helping people learn their rights under the law is sedition.

Oh, go to the Kelab's website and see who is the Club's patron:-

Malaysia boleh!