Wednesday 3 September 2014
NEWS ALERT: Islamic State Militants Rape Detained Christians For Refusing To Convert
The female detainees in Mosul's Badush prison are among those who were unable to join as many as 200,000 Christians and others fleeing IS fighters, who have declared an Islamic "caliphate" in an area straddling Iraq and Syria.
United Nations officials in Iraq said at least some 1,500 people from religious minorities, including Christians, may have been forced into sexual slavery.
IS militants have been gang-raping some and selling others as brides for as low as $25, according to investigators. Many victims are reportedly as young as 14 years old, survivors said.
A captive woman told reporters that her daughter, who managed to hide a mobile phone in the prison, spoke of horrific experiences, including being raped by dozens of men over a few hours.
CHILDREN BORN
Other women said children born out of rape were ripped from their mothers’ arms, and never seen again.
BosNewsLife was not immediately able to confirm these reports independently, but IS militants have boosted about violence, posting videos of fighters executing people on a massive scale.
Additionally, at least four IS hostages in Syria were reportedly waterboarded during their captivity. Waterboarding is an interrogation technique in which water is poured over a cloth covering the subject’s face, creating the sensation of drowning.
Among those waterboarded was James Foley, the young American journalist who was beheaded by the terror group for ongoing U.S. airstrikes against the militants.
Amid the crisis, churches in Iraq's Kurdistan region are helping refugee, including in the city of Erbil. "We wanted to show those people that we don't care if they are Christians, Yazidis or Muslims," Majeed Mohammed, a pastor in the area, explained in published remarks.
"They are human beings and they have been kicked out of their homes by ISIS. We want to show them that as Christians we love them...."
CHURCHES HELP
The long-term fate of the vast number of refugees remains one of the major questions in this urgent humanitarian crisis, warned Voice Of the Martyrs Canada (VOMC), an advocacy group supporting persecuted Christians.
"Praise God for Pastor Majeed and other 'Good Samaritans' like him who are opening up their churches, homes and hearts to the overwhelming number of refugees in dire need," VOMC said in a statement to BosNewsLife.
VOMC added that it urged its supporters to pray "for continued provision so shelter and
basic necessities can be made available" to those in their care.
"May this fine example of love and service greatly encourage the faith of believers and serve as a bold witness to those who do not yet know Jesus Christ in a personal way," the group said.
It also prayed for a "long-term solutions for the thousands of refugees, so they may have
the hope of a brighter future"" and that "the hearts of the militants be touched as well, bringing an end to the atrocious violence in Iraq."
'I'm back, Obama': ISIS executioner Jihadi John taunts President as he beheads second US journalist, Steven Sotloff . . . and then threatens to kill a Briton next
- Steven Sotloff, 31, from Miami, was captured in Syria in August 2013
- The video is titled ‘A Second Message to America’
- In the video, Sotloff describes himself as 'paying the price' for the Obama administration’s decision to attack ISIS in Iraq
- His execution follows the beheading of fellow journalist James Foley last month
- Sotloff freelanced for Time and Foreign Policy magazines
- Family of Steven Sotloff said they 'know of this horrific tragedy and are grieving privately'
- The White House today said: 'Our thoughts and prayers are with Mr Sotloff and Mr Sotloff's family’
(Dailymail)ISIS has released a video that shows the beheading of U.S. journalist Steven Sotloff and says the murder is retaliation for the Obama administration’s continued airstrikes in Iraq.
Sotloff is the second American journalist to be killed by ISIS, and his death comes two weeks after James Foley was executed in a similar video.
In the video entitled 'A Second Message to America,' Sotloff appears in a orange jumpsuit before he is beheaded by an Islamic State fighter.
The executioner appears to be the same man who killed Foley – known as ‘Jihadi John’ - and tells the camera: 'I’m back, Obama, and I’m back because of your arrogant foreign policy towards the Islamic State.”
He also threatens to kill a Briton held hostage by the group next.
Tonight Prime Minister David Cameron condemned the video and said: ‘It is an absolutely disgusting and despicable act.” He added he will be making a statement on the video later.
Sotloff, 31, from Miami, who freelanced for Time and Foreign Policy magazines, vanished in Syria in August 2013 and was not seen again until he appeared in a video released online last month that showed Foley's beheading.
In the new video that shows the killing of Sotloff, the executioner points his knife menacingly at the camera as he speaks.
Clad in the same black garb he wore during Foley’s execution, the killer has a pistol strapped under his arm in a shoulder holster. The black flag of the Islamic State can be seen waving in the background.
Sotloff calmly read a statement moments before his murder. ‘I’m sure you know exactly who I am by now and why I am appearing,' he says.
He adds to the camera: ‘Obama, your foreign policy of intervention in Iraq was supposed to be for preservation of American lives and interests, so why is it that I am paying the price of your interference with my life?’
While he speaks, a militant calmly holds a knife at his side and stands next to Sotloff.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2740998/ISIS-release-video-showing-beheading-American-journalist-Steven-Sotloff.html
Burmese Beauty Queen May Myat Noe Refuses To Return Tiara After Row With Pageant Organizers
(IBTIMES) May Myat Noe, a Burmese beauty queen who was stripped of her title last week, refused on Tuesday to return her bejeweled crown, reportedly worth $100,000, until the pageant organizers apologized for calling her a liar and a thief. Noe has been accused of failing to go through a breast enhancement surgery that was paid for by the pageant.
Noe reportedly said at a news conference that she had done nothing wrong and had been dethroned over false allegations, while David Kim, a spokesperson for the pageant, which was held in South Korea, said that the 18-year-old “lied and never had respect for the main organisation, the national director, the manager, media or fans who made her the winner." The pageant committee reportedly wanted Noe to undergo a breast enhancement surgery in order to secure her a record deal.
"I don't want a crown from an organization with such a bad reputation," Noe said at the press conference, according to The Associated Press. "But I won't give it back to the Koreans unless they apologize, not just to me but my country for giving it a bad image.”
“I'm not even proud of this crown,” Noe reportedly said, adding that she had no interest in keeping the crown with her.
Noe also reportedly responded to allegations made by the organizers of the pageant, which is now in its fourth year, by saying that she had boarded a plane back to her home country before she learned the organizers had decided to take away her title.
"I was put under duress to undergo head-to-toe cosmetic surgery which I refused...I didn't have breast implants, but I don't want to go into details, to preserve my dignity,” Noe reportedly said.
The pageant organizers claimed that they had paid for a 10-day trip for Noe to Seoul for the surgical procedure, but she remained in the South Korean capital for three months, at the expense of the pageant, without going through the operation.
Crackdown may lead to nine by-elections
The recent spate of arbitrary arrests and selective prosecution of Pakatan Rakyat leaders represents a gross affront to the democratic process and signifies a breakdown in the rule of law.
To date, five members of Parliament and two state assemblypersons as well as several other Pakatan leaders have been prosecuted.
It is a long list which is growing even longer, with no one being spared except Umno leaders and their right-wing racist cohorts.
They are PKR MP for Pandan Rafizi Ramli, PKR MP for Padang Serai N Surendran (centre in photo),
PKR Youth chief and deputy Selangor state assembly speaker Nik Nazmi
Nik Ahmad, DAP MP for Seputeh Teresa Kok, PKR vice- president and MP for
Batu Tian Chua, PAS MP for Shah Alam Khalid Samad, and DAP Seri Delima
assemblyperson RSN Rayer and former Perak menteri besar and Changkat
Jering assemblyperson Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin.Today, this wave of repression has taken on the hue of an outrageous farce with the prosecution of law professor Azmi Sharom for expressing his academic opinion on the Selangor MB crisis.
Incidentally, though it was not a view that was pro-Umno, neither was it pro-PKR in any way. But as a firm believer in academic freedom, I maintain that Azmi has every right to express his views.
Hijacking democracy and the electoral process
If the prosecutions are successful, it is likely that at least six parliamentary by-elections and three state assembly by-elections will ensue, if we include my own impending Federal Court appeal which, going by the current state of the judiciary, holds not much promise that justice will prevail.
What we are seeing is thus a blatant and shameless attempt by Najib Abdul Razak to hijack democracy by having duly elected law makers from Pakatan to be stripped of their democratic entitlements and disqualified from contesting in the subsequent by-elections.
This will be a grave perversion of justice via the back door of the Attorney-General's Chambers.Yesterday, the dragnet of repression was extended to haul in members of civil society with the police arresting 156 Penang Voluntary Patrol Unit (PPS) members - essentially citizens who have volunteered to perform their civic responsibilities to keep the peace.
There is also the audacious threat by the home minister to take action against PAS's Unit Amal which has been for years recognised by the people as effective in crowd control during opposition rallies apart from its other humanitarian and welfare work.
The statement from the Prime Minister's Office that the Sedition Act will be repealed is not only hollow but a gross lie considering the spate of prosecutions being carried.
How can such flagrant use of an archaic and repressive law convince anyone that the government is serious about legislative reform?
On the contrary, it nails the lie to the elaborate game of deception played by Najib when in July 2012, he proclaimed with much fanfare and PR blitz, his National Transformation Plan.
By holding out such a big promise to the people of making Malaysia the "best democracy in the world", while in reality imposing a new reign of Executive terror, Najib has therefore perpetrated a gross and reckless fraud on the people.
The volleyball blame game being played by the Home Ministry in tossing the blame on the attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail for this heightened pace of prosecutions is futile because at the end of the day, all are culpable in this despicable enterprise as they are part and parcel of the Executive.
Attack on justice and freedom
In a fully functioning democracy, such abuse of power by the Executive can and will be checked by the judiciary by summary dismissal of the charges for they are not just frivolous and an abuse of legal process but constitute a general affront to our basic sense of justice and freedom.
These are attacks on the very foundation of our constitution which guarantees freedom from arbitrary arrests and prosecution.
They are direct assaults on the democratic process which renders elected representatives to be duty-bound to speak for the people against injustice and abuse of power.
The
question is: Do we have a strong, independent and vibrant judiciary
that believes that politicians and their appointees who hold high
executive office must act according to the rule of law, and not the rule
of political expediency?Do we have the requisite number of judges who will judge without fear or favour according to the criterion of justice?
Will they have the moral courage and conviction to send a clear message that they will not be party to the Executive's attempt to pervert the course of justice and violate the liberties and rights of the people as enshrined in the constitution?
A government must not only administer efficiently though in this regard the Najib government has failed miserably. But even more profound is the moral obligation to administer justly.
Racist speeches by Umno ministers and MPs, given full media coverage by Umno's propaganda network machine, are on the uptake.
Extreme right-wing groups and countless other racist organisations continue to spread and incite communal hatred.
But what does it say for justice and democracy when these racists and purveyors of religious extremism get off scot free while those who speak the truth for the sake of a better, more harmonious Malaysia are treated as criminals?
Merdeka Day has just come and gone and two days ago the Malaysian people were treated to a grand show to mark our day of independence.
It is supposed to be a celebration from the yoke of colonialism for our new found freedoms and rights.
Indeed, what a tragic irony it is that we are in fact witnessing the unbridled use of the Sedition Act that is nothing but a relic of this era of colonialism.
True Merdeka means that we must reject this law, not use it as what the Najib government is doing, with renewed vigour and determination as an instrument of injustice and a weapon of mass oppression.
ANWAR IBRAHIM is Opposition Leader and MP for Permatang Pauh.
'Arrogant non-Malays' jab aimed at DAP, says Zahid - Malaysiakini
He said the majority of non-Malays in Malaysia are moderates who respect the sentiments and sensitivities of other races.
“But it cannot be denied that DAP supporters had taken a different approach with their arrogant method of politicking,” The Star quoted him as saying today.
He reportedly said that earlier reports quoting him as saying that non-Malays are increasing arrogant and are insulting the bumiputera, the royalty and Islam, had been taken out of context.
Zahid was apparently referring to theSun, which carried a report today quoting him as making the “arrogant” statement.
“We allowed them to be indebted to us without needing them to pay it back; they are now insulting Islam and Malays under the pretext of democracy, freedom of speech, and globalisation,” he is quoted as saying.
According to The Star, Zahid said this was evident from the comments made by DAP and its supporters, especially those posted on news portals and the social media.
Non-Malays getting arrogant says Ahmad Zahid
He said non-Malays are getting increasingly arrogant and are insulting the bumiputras, the royalty and Islam.
“We allowed them to be indebted to us without needing them to pay it back; they are now insulting Islam and the Malays under the pretence of democracy, freedom of speech, and globalisation,” he said when launching the Umno Segambut divisional meeting today.
He attributed this to the perception that foreign cultural norms are inherently better than Malaysia’s, and urged non-Malays to respect the bumiputras.
Ahmad Zahid, who is home minister, also urged Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail to expedite high-profile sedition cases to protect the government’s credibility and stave off accusations of selective prosecution.
He was responding to Umno Segambut division chief Kamaruddin Ambok’s allegation that Malays are being selectively prosecuted while those who insulted Malays, royalty and Islam are escaping quick punishment.
For example, Kamaruddin said, the road rage incident involving Siti Fairrah Ashykin Kamaruddin, otherwise known as Kiki, saw her sentenced in court within eight days of the act while Seputeh MP Teresa Kok is still free.
He was referring to Kok’s political satire video “Onederful Malaysia”, which was posted on the internet during this year’s Chinese New Year celebrations. Kok is facing a sedition charge over the video.
Kamaruddin cited many other cases where non-Malays posted inflammatory comments on the social media and said this is a sign that non-bumiputras in the country are getting increasingly “biadap” and “kurang ajar”.
He said this is because the Malay community is divided and weak, and there are now even Malays joining DAP, a multi-racial but majority Chinese opposition party.
PAS Selangor serah nama-nama calon MB
Pesuruhjaya PAS Selangor Iskandar Abdul Samad berkata, nama-nama wakil rakyat itu dihantar kepada pucuk pimpinan parti untuk dipersetujui sebelum dipersembahkan kepada Sultan Selangor Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah.
“Di peringkat Selangor kita telah serah beberapa nama kepada pusat dan terpulang kepada PAS Pusat nama-nama yang mereka nak berikan kepada Sultan.
“Kita sendiri tidak dimaklumkan siapa calon yang dipilih (oleh PAS Pusat) dan kita terima siapa sahaja yang dicalonkan mereka,” katanya.
Pada 26 Ogos lalu, Sultan Selangor menangguhkan peletakan jawatan Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim sebagai Menteri Besar sehingga menteri besar baharu dilantik.
Baginda menitahkan parti-parti dalam Pakatan Rakyat (PAS, PKR, DAP) supaya masing-masing mengemukakan lebih daripada dua nama calon untuk dipertimbangkan bagi jawatan itu, selewat-lewatnya esok (3 September).
Baru-baru ini Setiausaha Agung PAS Datuk Mustafa Ali dipetik sebagai berkata PAS tetap mengemukakan dua calon iaitu Presiden Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, dan timbalan presiden parti itu Azmin Ali.
Dalam satu laporan portal berita, beliau berkata PAS akan berpegang dengan keputusan Jawatankuasa PAS Pusat pada 17 Ogos lalu yang mahu Azmin dicalonkan sebagai calon kedua untuk dilantik ke jawatan itu.
BN is still under the colonial yoke
After 57 years of independence the country has not moved forward but backwards.
The irony seems to be lost on the BN government that on the day we celebrated 57 years of independence, it was using pre-independence laws that had been concocted by the old colonial power to defeat the anti-colonial struggle, especially the Malayan workers’ movement.
These laws include the Societies Ordinance that is being used against the PPS in Penang, and the Sedition Act used against elected members of Parliament and even a “moderate” senior academic!
The Societies Ordinance goes as far back as 1889 when the British colonial power enacted the law to deal with a radical working class as well as an anti-colonial nationalist movement.
The Ordinance was used to register and deregister unions at the behest of the colonial power during the turn of the century when the Malayan working class was being progressively unionised.
An example was the Pineapple Cutters Association which was registered in 1908 but was deregistered in 1913. (Hua Wu Yin, “Class & Communalism in Malaysia”, Zed Press, London, 1984:84)
During the strikes by estate workers just after the Second World War, the United Planting Association of Malaya urged the colonial government to enforce the pre-war Societies Ordinance in order to control the unions.
Then as the struggle by the workers and anti-colonial forces gathered strength against the Federation of Malaya proposals in 1948, the colonial authorities enforced the registration of all unions under the restrictive 1940 Societies Ordinance.
Among the clauses of the Act, government employees were not allowed to join unions of non-government employees, an obvious attempt to divide the workers’ movement. The Societies Ordinance was again used by the colonial power to deal with the Pan-Malayan Federation of Trade Unions which was leading the unions in the country during the 1940s.
Through its recent actions against NGOs and community groups, the Malaysian government has violated the right to freedom of association by regulations requiring that any society comprising seven or more people be registered by the Registrar of Societies.
As in colonial times, the home affairs minister has absolute discretion to declare a society unlawful if he believes it would prejudice the “security of Malaysia” or “public order or morality.” The Registrar of Societies may refuse or cancel the registration of a society on similar grounds.
In 2012, at least six government agencies were ordered to investigate Suaram to see if we had illegally circumvented registration. We were accused of being “foreign agents” and even suspected of money laundering. However, after six months of exhaustive investigation by those agencies, such accusations were proven groundless.
Today, while the country is feeling increasingly insecure with the failure of the security forces to maintain law and order, the Home Minister and the ROS have misplaced their priorities by deciding to use colonial methods on the PPS in Penang and threatened to do the same with PAS’ Unit Amal.
Likewise, the most recent charging of MPs and even a “moderate” academic under the colonial “Sedition Act” is an affront to the Merdeka spirit. Starting from the sentencing of Hindraf leader P Uthayakumar to 30 months jail for allegedly publishing seditious material in 2007, this shows bad faith by the Najib government when the prime minister had already pledged to repeal the Orwellian Sedition Act just before the 13th general election.
Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak himself had been quoted as saying that the Sedition Act represented a “bygone era” and would be replaced with a new law to prevent incitement of religious or racial hatred in an effort to protect civil liberties:
“We mark another step forward in Malaysia’s development. The new National Harmony Act will balance the right of freedom of expression as enshrined in the Constitution, while at the same time ensuring that all races and religions are protected,” Najib said not too long ago.”
Sedition laws in most Commonwealth countries have been repealed because they have been seen as an infringement on freedom of speech and a tool of colonial political persecution. More fundamentally, a truly independent post-colonial nation tries its best to discard all the repressive apparatus of the shameful colonial era.
The recent arrests of politicians and an academic puts us back at least 50 years into the dark colonial period. And just when I was about to join the Movement of Moderates, they go and charge one of my favourite moderate heroes for sedition. Maybe we are in the era of zombies for, as Frantz Fanon warned us in the Wretched of the Earth:
“Zombies, believe me, are more terrifying than colonialists.”
Kua Kia Soong is a Suaram adviser
These laws include the Societies Ordinance that is being used against the PPS in Penang, and the Sedition Act used against elected members of Parliament and even a “moderate” senior academic!
The Societies Ordinance goes as far back as 1889 when the British colonial power enacted the law to deal with a radical working class as well as an anti-colonial nationalist movement.
The Ordinance was used to register and deregister unions at the behest of the colonial power during the turn of the century when the Malayan working class was being progressively unionised.
An example was the Pineapple Cutters Association which was registered in 1908 but was deregistered in 1913. (Hua Wu Yin, “Class & Communalism in Malaysia”, Zed Press, London, 1984:84)
During the strikes by estate workers just after the Second World War, the United Planting Association of Malaya urged the colonial government to enforce the pre-war Societies Ordinance in order to control the unions.
Then as the struggle by the workers and anti-colonial forces gathered strength against the Federation of Malaya proposals in 1948, the colonial authorities enforced the registration of all unions under the restrictive 1940 Societies Ordinance.
Among the clauses of the Act, government employees were not allowed to join unions of non-government employees, an obvious attempt to divide the workers’ movement. The Societies Ordinance was again used by the colonial power to deal with the Pan-Malayan Federation of Trade Unions which was leading the unions in the country during the 1940s.
Through its recent actions against NGOs and community groups, the Malaysian government has violated the right to freedom of association by regulations requiring that any society comprising seven or more people be registered by the Registrar of Societies.
As in colonial times, the home affairs minister has absolute discretion to declare a society unlawful if he believes it would prejudice the “security of Malaysia” or “public order or morality.” The Registrar of Societies may refuse or cancel the registration of a society on similar grounds.
In 2012, at least six government agencies were ordered to investigate Suaram to see if we had illegally circumvented registration. We were accused of being “foreign agents” and even suspected of money laundering. However, after six months of exhaustive investigation by those agencies, such accusations were proven groundless.
Today, while the country is feeling increasingly insecure with the failure of the security forces to maintain law and order, the Home Minister and the ROS have misplaced their priorities by deciding to use colonial methods on the PPS in Penang and threatened to do the same with PAS’ Unit Amal.
Likewise, the most recent charging of MPs and even a “moderate” academic under the colonial “Sedition Act” is an affront to the Merdeka spirit. Starting from the sentencing of Hindraf leader P Uthayakumar to 30 months jail for allegedly publishing seditious material in 2007, this shows bad faith by the Najib government when the prime minister had already pledged to repeal the Orwellian Sedition Act just before the 13th general election.
Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak himself had been quoted as saying that the Sedition Act represented a “bygone era” and would be replaced with a new law to prevent incitement of religious or racial hatred in an effort to protect civil liberties:
“We mark another step forward in Malaysia’s development. The new National Harmony Act will balance the right of freedom of expression as enshrined in the Constitution, while at the same time ensuring that all races and religions are protected,” Najib said not too long ago.”
Sedition laws in most Commonwealth countries have been repealed because they have been seen as an infringement on freedom of speech and a tool of colonial political persecution. More fundamentally, a truly independent post-colonial nation tries its best to discard all the repressive apparatus of the shameful colonial era.
The recent arrests of politicians and an academic puts us back at least 50 years into the dark colonial period. And just when I was about to join the Movement of Moderates, they go and charge one of my favourite moderate heroes for sedition. Maybe we are in the era of zombies for, as Frantz Fanon warned us in the Wretched of the Earth:
“Zombies, believe me, are more terrifying than colonialists.”
Kua Kia Soong is a Suaram adviser
Use of Sedition Act thwarts academic freedom
The Centre for Independent Journalism is alarmed that even academicians are not spared now.
PETALING JAYA: The Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) is alarmed that the Sedition Act is being used to thwart the freedom of expression of academicians as well.
Speaking on behalf of CIJ, directors Sonia Randhawa and Jac SM Kee said, “This constitutes a threat to the fundamental liberty of freedom of expression guaranteed in our Constitution.”
They were referring to the charge of sedition levelled at Universiti Malaya associate professor of law, Azmi Sharom saying, “The censuring of an academic for giving an opinion in their area of expertise is also a threat to academic freedom in Malaysia.”
CIJ said that too liberal a use of the Sedition Act would stunt the function of universities and institutions of higher learning to the point it could not function appropriately.
“Restrictions must be necessary and proportionate. To censure legal opinion without demonstrating the threat to national security, public order or public morality is unnecessary and disproportionate,” the statement read.
The journalist body was also sceptical of the government’s statement that sedition charges were “a matter for the courts”.
“In Malaysia, the Attorney-General is both the chief legal adviser to the government as well as having the power to initiate proceedings for any offence.
“The combination of both functions in one person has led to allegations of bias or selectivity in the institution of criminal proceedings,” CIJ said especially when it was used by the government against its political opponents.
CIJ also said the continued use of the Sedition Act “makes a mockery” of the Prime Minister’s legislative reforms and his pledge to repeal the act more than two years ago.
Speaking on behalf of CIJ, directors Sonia Randhawa and Jac SM Kee said, “This constitutes a threat to the fundamental liberty of freedom of expression guaranteed in our Constitution.”
They were referring to the charge of sedition levelled at Universiti Malaya associate professor of law, Azmi Sharom saying, “The censuring of an academic for giving an opinion in their area of expertise is also a threat to academic freedom in Malaysia.”
CIJ said that too liberal a use of the Sedition Act would stunt the function of universities and institutions of higher learning to the point it could not function appropriately.
“Restrictions must be necessary and proportionate. To censure legal opinion without demonstrating the threat to national security, public order or public morality is unnecessary and disproportionate,” the statement read.
The journalist body was also sceptical of the government’s statement that sedition charges were “a matter for the courts”.
“In Malaysia, the Attorney-General is both the chief legal adviser to the government as well as having the power to initiate proceedings for any offence.
“The combination of both functions in one person has led to allegations of bias or selectivity in the institution of criminal proceedings,” CIJ said especially when it was used by the government against its political opponents.
CIJ also said the continued use of the Sedition Act “makes a mockery” of the Prime Minister’s legislative reforms and his pledge to repeal the act more than two years ago.
“F… off to India,” NZ cop tells M’sian Indian
A Malaysian Indian cab driver racially abused by a New Zealand policewoman has his day in court.
WELLINGTON: Malaysian cab driver Ganesh Paramanathan who suffered racial abuse at the hands of a policewoman, told the court what transpired on Nov 3 at Queenstown, New Zealand last year.
According to stuff.co.nz, Ganesh said policewoman Jeanette May McNee, 44, told him, “F… off to India, you come here and get all the Kiwi jobs. Eat your curry. This is a Kiwi job.”
The incident took place in Rere Road, Lake Hayes Estate, after Ganesh picked up a group of six people from central Queenstown and drove to drop-off points in Quail Rise and Lake Hayes Estate.
Ganesh said, “She was pointing her finger towards my face and I pointed back at her and said, ‘Don’t be abusive and racist, I am only doing my job as a taxi driver.’
According to Ganesh, his reply got her even more riled up, and he claimed she said, “Don’t point your fingers at me.”
McNee is then alleged by Ganesh to have grabbed his left wrist, squeezing and twisting it.
When Ganesh told her not to touch him, warning he would call police, the cab driver told the court, “She got very aggressive, she held the door open and said, ‘I am the police’.”
McNee was found guilty on one charge of offensive language stemming from the incident.
According to stuff.co.nz, Ganesh said policewoman Jeanette May McNee, 44, told him, “F… off to India, you come here and get all the Kiwi jobs. Eat your curry. This is a Kiwi job.”
The incident took place in Rere Road, Lake Hayes Estate, after Ganesh picked up a group of six people from central Queenstown and drove to drop-off points in Quail Rise and Lake Hayes Estate.
Ganesh said, “She was pointing her finger towards my face and I pointed back at her and said, ‘Don’t be abusive and racist, I am only doing my job as a taxi driver.’
According to Ganesh, his reply got her even more riled up, and he claimed she said, “Don’t point your fingers at me.”
McNee is then alleged by Ganesh to have grabbed his left wrist, squeezing and twisting it.
When Ganesh told her not to touch him, warning he would call police, the cab driver told the court, “She got very aggressive, she held the door open and said, ‘I am the police’.”
McNee was found guilty on one charge of offensive language stemming from the incident.
Malaysian Government Nails Opponents with Sedition Act
Facing an internal crisis and weakened from scandal, UMNO seeks to silence opponents
By
The Sept. 2 decision by Malaysian authorities to charge Universiti Malaya law professor Azmi Sharom with sedition represents the latest development in a new front as the government seeks to hamstring its opponents using the law, critics say.
Eight top opposition figures have been charged with sedition in the past few weeks, with some of the charges relating to speeches made as long as two years ago. Sharom was told he would be charged over an article he wrote on Aug. 14 dealing with the continuing succession crisis in Selangor, Malaysia’s biggest and richest state, where the opposition Pakatan Rakyat coalition is squabbling over naming a new chief minister.
While Sharom is not known to be an opposition figure or a party member, he is the latest to face the sedition threat, apparently because something in the paper he wrote offended the powerful. This despite Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s promise to do away with the sedition law in 2012. Najib also promised to do away with the country’s draconian Internal Security Act, which allows for detention without trial, only to shepherd a bill through Parliament that retained many of the act’s provisions.
However, the feeling among legal sources in Kuala Lumpur is that an injured United Malays National Organization, dogged by a long list of corruption scandals and faced by an attack on Najib by the octogenarian former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, has adopted the strategy to attempt to cripple the opposition as a political force as much as possible.
In coming weeks, the controversial reorganization of badly wounded Malaysian Airlines will be on the cards, along with the possible passage of a goods and services tax that is expected to be unpopular with the general public. In the meantime, a massive scandal is said to be bubbling under the 1MDB sovereign fund that Najib helped to create. Mahathir, in a private letter to Najib, demanded that the prime minister do something about the fund.
“Some people are genuinely frightened by this, they liken it to Operation Lalang [in which 106 NGO activists, opposition politicians, intellectuals, students, artists, scientists and others were jailed under the Internal Security Act in 1987],” said a prominent lawyer in Kuala Lumpur.
The spate of charges come as opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim awaits a decision from the Federal Court, the country’s highest tribunal, on his appeal of a decision by a lower court to reverse his January 2012 acquittal on charges of sodomy with a former aide. The trial, which began in 2010, resulted from charges brought by the government in 2008. A trial court exonerated him in 2012, saying the evidence was irrevocably tainted.
Sources close to Anwar say the opposition leader is dejected and fully expects to be imprisoned, despite the fact that independent observers said the evidence was badly flawed and that the case appeared to be trumped up to drive him from politics. Political leaders in the United States, Australia and other countries have condemned the case as politically motivated and damaging to the country’s reputation.
Both the ruling Barisan Nasional and the opposition Pakatan Rakyat are reeling from internal political crises that are causing widespread disgust and outrage in the wider population. The opposition crisis is largely due to Anwar’s attempts to replace Selangor Chief Minister Khalid Ibrahim and with his wife, Wan Azizah Ismail, over a variety of concerns. Khalid has refused to go for weeks. The mess has paralyzed the state government, with residents complaining that a wide range of services have been interrupted from garbage collection to doing something about a drought, one of the longest in recent Malaysian history,
The crisis marks a dramatic comedown from the opposition coalition’s performance in the May 2013 general election, in which it won the popular vote for the first time since 1969 but didn’t gain control of the parliament due to the country’s first-past-the-post electoral system and widespread gerrymandering.
At the same time, however, the Barisan Nasional, led by UMNO, is split over Mahathir’s attack on Najib, whom Mahathir helped to put into office after leading the charge to oust Najib’s predecessor, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. It is questionable how much clout the 89-year-old Mahathir still has. Although UMNO chieftains have rallied around the prime minister, sources have told Asia Sentinel that party rebels are preparing to go after Najib’s allies with anonymous charges of corruption. UMNO’s annual general meeting, to be held later this year, is expected to be a focus of the squabble
Among those charged in the past two weeks are Rafizi Ramli, the vice president of Anwar’s Parti Keadilan Rakyat, who was cited over remarks he made seven months ago alleging political attempts by radical Malay superiority groups to create racial and religious discord in Selangor. Another is N. Surendran, also from Parti Keadilan, who earlier this year criticized the court decision renewing the charges against Anwar. Others are Khalid Samad, a parliamentarian from PAS, the Islamic opposition party, who was accused of insulting the Sultan of Selangor, and R.S.N. Rayer of the opposition Democratic Action Party who was arrested for “insulting the feelings” of UMNO members in a speech in Penang in May.
Teresa Kok of the DAP, who made a video that allegedly insulted Malay women, and Tian Chua of Parti Keadilan also face charges. Former Perak MP Nizar Jamaluddin of PAS has been charged with criminal defamation for a statement he allegedly made two years ago.
Lawyers for Liberty executive director Eric Paulsen told Malaysian Insider that it would seem that one is only "safe if you keep silent or support the government.” He said it appeared as though Malaysia was a totalitarian state where no dissenting views were tolerated.
“The manner in which the Sedition Act has been misused to target all and sundry is unprecedented,” Paulsen said. "What we are witnessing now is Ops Lalang II and sedition is the new ISA, a catch all offence that the authorities can use with impunity against anyone who disagrees with them.”
The Sept. 2 decision by Malaysian authorities to charge Universiti Malaya law professor Azmi Sharom with sedition represents the latest development in a new front as the government seeks to hamstring its opponents using the law, critics say.
Eight top opposition figures have been charged with sedition in the past few weeks, with some of the charges relating to speeches made as long as two years ago. Sharom was told he would be charged over an article he wrote on Aug. 14 dealing with the continuing succession crisis in Selangor, Malaysia’s biggest and richest state, where the opposition Pakatan Rakyat coalition is squabbling over naming a new chief minister.
While Sharom is not known to be an opposition figure or a party member, he is the latest to face the sedition threat, apparently because something in the paper he wrote offended the powerful. This despite Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s promise to do away with the sedition law in 2012. Najib also promised to do away with the country’s draconian Internal Security Act, which allows for detention without trial, only to shepherd a bill through Parliament that retained many of the act’s provisions.
However, the feeling among legal sources in Kuala Lumpur is that an injured United Malays National Organization, dogged by a long list of corruption scandals and faced by an attack on Najib by the octogenarian former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, has adopted the strategy to attempt to cripple the opposition as a political force as much as possible.
In coming weeks, the controversial reorganization of badly wounded Malaysian Airlines will be on the cards, along with the possible passage of a goods and services tax that is expected to be unpopular with the general public. In the meantime, a massive scandal is said to be bubbling under the 1MDB sovereign fund that Najib helped to create. Mahathir, in a private letter to Najib, demanded that the prime minister do something about the fund.
“Some people are genuinely frightened by this, they liken it to Operation Lalang [in which 106 NGO activists, opposition politicians, intellectuals, students, artists, scientists and others were jailed under the Internal Security Act in 1987],” said a prominent lawyer in Kuala Lumpur.
The spate of charges come as opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim awaits a decision from the Federal Court, the country’s highest tribunal, on his appeal of a decision by a lower court to reverse his January 2012 acquittal on charges of sodomy with a former aide. The trial, which began in 2010, resulted from charges brought by the government in 2008. A trial court exonerated him in 2012, saying the evidence was irrevocably tainted.
Sources close to Anwar say the opposition leader is dejected and fully expects to be imprisoned, despite the fact that independent observers said the evidence was badly flawed and that the case appeared to be trumped up to drive him from politics. Political leaders in the United States, Australia and other countries have condemned the case as politically motivated and damaging to the country’s reputation.
Both the ruling Barisan Nasional and the opposition Pakatan Rakyat are reeling from internal political crises that are causing widespread disgust and outrage in the wider population. The opposition crisis is largely due to Anwar’s attempts to replace Selangor Chief Minister Khalid Ibrahim and with his wife, Wan Azizah Ismail, over a variety of concerns. Khalid has refused to go for weeks. The mess has paralyzed the state government, with residents complaining that a wide range of services have been interrupted from garbage collection to doing something about a drought, one of the longest in recent Malaysian history,
The crisis marks a dramatic comedown from the opposition coalition’s performance in the May 2013 general election, in which it won the popular vote for the first time since 1969 but didn’t gain control of the parliament due to the country’s first-past-the-post electoral system and widespread gerrymandering.
At the same time, however, the Barisan Nasional, led by UMNO, is split over Mahathir’s attack on Najib, whom Mahathir helped to put into office after leading the charge to oust Najib’s predecessor, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. It is questionable how much clout the 89-year-old Mahathir still has. Although UMNO chieftains have rallied around the prime minister, sources have told Asia Sentinel that party rebels are preparing to go after Najib’s allies with anonymous charges of corruption. UMNO’s annual general meeting, to be held later this year, is expected to be a focus of the squabble
Among those charged in the past two weeks are Rafizi Ramli, the vice president of Anwar’s Parti Keadilan Rakyat, who was cited over remarks he made seven months ago alleging political attempts by radical Malay superiority groups to create racial and religious discord in Selangor. Another is N. Surendran, also from Parti Keadilan, who earlier this year criticized the court decision renewing the charges against Anwar. Others are Khalid Samad, a parliamentarian from PAS, the Islamic opposition party, who was accused of insulting the Sultan of Selangor, and R.S.N. Rayer of the opposition Democratic Action Party who was arrested for “insulting the feelings” of UMNO members in a speech in Penang in May.
Teresa Kok of the DAP, who made a video that allegedly insulted Malay women, and Tian Chua of Parti Keadilan also face charges. Former Perak MP Nizar Jamaluddin of PAS has been charged with criminal defamation for a statement he allegedly made two years ago.
Lawyers for Liberty executive director Eric Paulsen told Malaysian Insider that it would seem that one is only "safe if you keep silent or support the government.” He said it appeared as though Malaysia was a totalitarian state where no dissenting views were tolerated.
“The manner in which the Sedition Act has been misused to target all and sundry is unprecedented,” Paulsen said. "What we are witnessing now is Ops Lalang II and sedition is the new ISA, a catch all offence that the authorities can use with impunity against anyone who disagrees with them.”
Stop the injustice and mass oppression
The Sedition Act is now clearly used as an instrument of gross injustice and a weapon of mass oppression. The recent spate of arbitrary arrests and selective prosecution of Pakatan Rakyat leadersrepresents a gross affront to the democratic process and signifies a breakdown in the rule of law.
The dragnet
To date, five Members of Parliament and two State Assemblymen as well as several other Pakatan leaders have been prosecuted. It is a long list whichis growing even longer with no one being spared except UMNO leaders and their right-wing racist cohorts.
They are PKR MP for Pandan Rafizi Ramli, PKR MP for Padang Serai N Surendran, PKR Youth chiefand Deputy Selangor State Assembly Speaker Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, DAP MP for Seputeh Teresa Kok, PKR MP for Batu Tian Chua, PAS MP for Shah Alam Khalid Samad, and DAP Seri Delima assemblyman R.S.N. Rayer and former Perak MP and Changkat Jering assemblyman Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin.
Today, this wave of repression has taken on the hue of an outrageous farce with the prosecution of law professor Azmi Sharom for expressing his academic opinion on the Selangor MB crisis. Incidentally, though it was not a view that was pro-UMNO, neither was it pro-PKR in any way. But as a firm believer in academic freedom, I maintain that Azmi has every right to express his views.
Hijacking democracy and the electoral process
If the prosecutions are successful, it is likely that at least six parliamentary by-elections and three state assembly by-elections will ensue, if we include myown impending Federal Court appeal which, going by the current state of the judiciary, holds not much promise that justice will prevail.
What we are seeing is thus a blatant and shameless attempt by Najib to hijack democracy by having duly elected law makers from Pakatan to be stripped of their democratic entitlements and disqualified from contesting in the subsequent by-elections. This will be a grave perversion of justice via the back door of the Attorney-General’s chambers.
Yesterday, the dragnet of repression was extended to haul in members of civil society with the police arresting 156 Penang Voluntary Patrol Unit (PPS) members – essentially citizens who have volunteered to perform their civic responsibilities to keep the peace. There is also the audacious threat by the Home Minister to take action against PAS’s Unit Amal which has been for years recognised by the people as effective in crowd control during opposition rallies apart from its other humanitarian and welfare work.
The statement from the Prime Minister’s Office that the Sedition Act will be repealed is not only hollow but a gross lie considering the spate of prosecutions being carried. How can such flagrant use of an archaic and repressive law convince anyone that the government is serious about legislative reform?
On the contrary, it nails the lie to the elaborate game of deception played by Najib when in July 2012, he proclaimed with much fanfare and PR blitz, his National Transformation Plan.
By holding out such a big promise to the people of making Malaysia the “best democracy in the world”, while in reality imposing a new reign of Executiveterror, Najib has therefore perpetrated a gross and reckless fraud on the people.
The volley ball blame game being played by the Home Ministry in tossing the blame on the Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail for this heightened pace of prosecutions is futile because at the end of the day,all are culpable in this despicable enterprise as they are part and parcel of the Executive.
Attack on justice and freedom
In a fully functioning democracy, such abuse of power by the Executive can and will be checked by the judiciary by summary dismissal of the chargesfor they are not just frivolous and an abuse of legal process but constitute a general affront to our basic sense of justice and freedom.
These are attacks on the very foundation of our constitution which guarantees freedom from arbitrary arrests and prosecution. They are direct assaults on the democratic process which renders elected representatives to be duty-bound to speak for the people against injustice and abuse of power.
The question is: Do we have a strong, independent and vibrant judiciary that believes that politicians and their appointees who hold high executive office must act according to the rule of law, and not the rule of political expediency?
Do we have the requisite number of judges who will judge without fear or favour according to the criterion of justice? Will they have the moral courage and conviction to send a clear message that they will not be party to the Executive’s attempt to pervert the course of justice and violate the liberties and rights of the people as enshrined in the Constitution?
A government must not only administer efficiently though in this regard the Najib government has failed miserably. But even more profound is the moral obligation to administer justly.
Racist speeches by UMNO ministers and MPs, given full media coverage by UMNO’s propaganda network machine, are on the uptake. Extreme right-wing groups and countless other racist organizations continue to spread and incite communal hatred.
But what does it say for justice and democracy whenthese racists and purveyors of religious extremism get off scot free while those who speak the truth for the sake of a better, more harmonious Malaysia are treated as criminals?
Conclusion
Merdeka Day has just come and gone and two days ago the Malaysian people were treated to a grand show to mark our day of independence. It is supposed to be a celebration from the yoke of colonialism for our new found freedoms and rights.
Indeed, what a tragic irony it is that we are in fact witnessing the unbridled use of the Sedition Act that is nothing but a relic of this era of colonialism. TrueMerdeka means that we must reject this law, not use it as what the Najib government is doing, with renewed vigour and determination as an instrument of injustice and a weapon of mass oppression.
Anwar Ibrahim
Opposition leader
The dragnet
To date, five Members of Parliament and two State Assemblymen as well as several other Pakatan leaders have been prosecuted. It is a long list whichis growing even longer with no one being spared except UMNO leaders and their right-wing racist cohorts.
They are PKR MP for Pandan Rafizi Ramli, PKR MP for Padang Serai N Surendran, PKR Youth chiefand Deputy Selangor State Assembly Speaker Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, DAP MP for Seputeh Teresa Kok, PKR MP for Batu Tian Chua, PAS MP for Shah Alam Khalid Samad, and DAP Seri Delima assemblyman R.S.N. Rayer and former Perak MP and Changkat Jering assemblyman Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin.
Today, this wave of repression has taken on the hue of an outrageous farce with the prosecution of law professor Azmi Sharom for expressing his academic opinion on the Selangor MB crisis. Incidentally, though it was not a view that was pro-UMNO, neither was it pro-PKR in any way. But as a firm believer in academic freedom, I maintain that Azmi has every right to express his views.
Hijacking democracy and the electoral process
If the prosecutions are successful, it is likely that at least six parliamentary by-elections and three state assembly by-elections will ensue, if we include myown impending Federal Court appeal which, going by the current state of the judiciary, holds not much promise that justice will prevail.
What we are seeing is thus a blatant and shameless attempt by Najib to hijack democracy by having duly elected law makers from Pakatan to be stripped of their democratic entitlements and disqualified from contesting in the subsequent by-elections. This will be a grave perversion of justice via the back door of the Attorney-General’s chambers.
Yesterday, the dragnet of repression was extended to haul in members of civil society with the police arresting 156 Penang Voluntary Patrol Unit (PPS) members – essentially citizens who have volunteered to perform their civic responsibilities to keep the peace. There is also the audacious threat by the Home Minister to take action against PAS’s Unit Amal which has been for years recognised by the people as effective in crowd control during opposition rallies apart from its other humanitarian and welfare work.
The statement from the Prime Minister’s Office that the Sedition Act will be repealed is not only hollow but a gross lie considering the spate of prosecutions being carried. How can such flagrant use of an archaic and repressive law convince anyone that the government is serious about legislative reform?
On the contrary, it nails the lie to the elaborate game of deception played by Najib when in July 2012, he proclaimed with much fanfare and PR blitz, his National Transformation Plan.
By holding out such a big promise to the people of making Malaysia the “best democracy in the world”, while in reality imposing a new reign of Executiveterror, Najib has therefore perpetrated a gross and reckless fraud on the people.
The volley ball blame game being played by the Home Ministry in tossing the blame on the Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail for this heightened pace of prosecutions is futile because at the end of the day,all are culpable in this despicable enterprise as they are part and parcel of the Executive.
Attack on justice and freedom
In a fully functioning democracy, such abuse of power by the Executive can and will be checked by the judiciary by summary dismissal of the chargesfor they are not just frivolous and an abuse of legal process but constitute a general affront to our basic sense of justice and freedom.
These are attacks on the very foundation of our constitution which guarantees freedom from arbitrary arrests and prosecution. They are direct assaults on the democratic process which renders elected representatives to be duty-bound to speak for the people against injustice and abuse of power.
The question is: Do we have a strong, independent and vibrant judiciary that believes that politicians and their appointees who hold high executive office must act according to the rule of law, and not the rule of political expediency?
Do we have the requisite number of judges who will judge without fear or favour according to the criterion of justice? Will they have the moral courage and conviction to send a clear message that they will not be party to the Executive’s attempt to pervert the course of justice and violate the liberties and rights of the people as enshrined in the Constitution?
A government must not only administer efficiently though in this regard the Najib government has failed miserably. But even more profound is the moral obligation to administer justly.
Racist speeches by UMNO ministers and MPs, given full media coverage by UMNO’s propaganda network machine, are on the uptake. Extreme right-wing groups and countless other racist organizations continue to spread and incite communal hatred.
But what does it say for justice and democracy whenthese racists and purveyors of religious extremism get off scot free while those who speak the truth for the sake of a better, more harmonious Malaysia are treated as criminals?
Conclusion
Merdeka Day has just come and gone and two days ago the Malaysian people were treated to a grand show to mark our day of independence. It is supposed to be a celebration from the yoke of colonialism for our new found freedoms and rights.
Indeed, what a tragic irony it is that we are in fact witnessing the unbridled use of the Sedition Act that is nothing but a relic of this era of colonialism. TrueMerdeka means that we must reject this law, not use it as what the Najib government is doing, with renewed vigour and determination as an instrument of injustice and a weapon of mass oppression.
Anwar Ibrahim
Opposition leader
Cabinet meeting tomorrow must let Malaysians know whether the Barisan Nasional Malaysian government has gone bonkers
By Lim Kit Siang blog, The top agenda for the Cabinet meeting tomorrow should be to answer the question right-thinking Malaysians have been asking the past week whether the Malaysian government has gone bonkers.
The week leading to the 57th Merdeka Anniversary gives new cause for concern as to the direction and future of Malaysia under the premiership of Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
Of special concern are the speeches delivered at UMNO divisional meetings. I need refer only to three of them.
The first was the reckless and irresponsible speech by the Negri Sembilan Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Hassan at the Rembau UMNO division meeting, concocting the lie that “three days after the opposition (Pakatan Rakyat) forms the Federal Government, it will have its first cabinet meeting, where the main agenda will be the reunion of Singapore with Malaysia” coupled with the preposterous and utterly baseless allegation that this could be done (allegedly involving an increase of 89 non-Malay parliamentary seats) without having to amend the Federal Constitution in Parliament.
This was followed by the Minister for Agriculture and Agro-based Industry, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob whose speech to the Gopeng UMNO delegates meeting on Merdeka eve indulged in fear-mongering alleging that the Malays were “under attack” in Malaysia.
Ismail lamented that the Malay race is divided into ‘Umno Malays’, ‘PAS Malays’, ‘PKR Malays’ and ‘DAP Malays’ when it is imperative that the Malay race should stand united as they were when the country achieved independence.
It is most shocking and just unbelievable that Ismail could give such a speech which is totally antithetical to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razaki’s 1Malaysia policy to build a Malaysian where every Malaysian regards himself or herself as Malaysian first, and race, religion, region and socio-economic status second.
Ismail has been in Najib’s Cabinet for more than five years and clearly, he is a total failure as far as passing the 1Malaysia test is concerned.
Even more shocking is that Ismail’s racist speech is totally at variance with the Merdeka Message of Najib delivered also on Merdeka Eve, in a “live” speech instead of traditionally in pre-recorded messages, to make “eye-to-eye, heart-to-heart” connection with all Malaysians about national unity and patriotism.
Didn’t the Prime Minister brief his Ministers about the theme and thrust of his Merdeka Message so that they would not be contradicting and undermining him by saying the very opposite things?
Apparently not, for the Home Minister Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi two days after the Prime Minister’s Merdeka Day Eve Message, hammered away at the racial message when he spoke at the Umno Segambut divisional meeting yesterday, even making the shockingly irresponsible statement that “Malays are paying the price for being kind to non-Malays”, that “non-Malays are getting increasingly arrogant and are insulting the bumiputgras, the royalty and Islam”.
He said: “We allowed them to be indebted to us without needing them to pay it back; they are now insulting Islam and the Malays under the pretence of democracy, freedom of speech and globalisation”.
Zahid’s attacks on the non-Malays is most reckless, irresponsible and unfounded, especially his reckless attempt to distort and racialise the aspirations of Malaysians for good governance, rule of law, political freedoms, human rights and economic justice as a battle between Malays and non-Malays.
All these three UMNO divisional meeting speeches by the Negri Sembilan Mentri Besar and the two Cabinet Ministers are seditious – will the Attorney-General charge them under the Sedition Act?
What is incontrovertible is that all these three speeches against the unity theme and thrust of the Prime Minister’s 57th Merdeka Message.
But it is not just these speeches by UMNO Ministers, Mentri Besar and leaders which are controversial, recent government actions also raise the question whether the Barisan Nasional Malaysian government has gone bonkers.
The two most egregious examples are firstly, the mass arrests of 157 PPS members in Penang on Merdeka Day itself immediately after their participation in a Merdeka Parade, showing the Inspector-General of Police’s utter contempt not only for Merdeka Day, the Prime Minister’s Merdeka Day message of unity and patriotism but also his reckless disregard of the blemish and stain such raw abuse of power would cause to the international image and reputation of the country.
The second is the slew of sedition prosecutions against Pakatan Rakyat leaders and today, against a law professor from the leading law school in the country – Prof Azmi Sharom.
The question whether the Malaysian government has gone bonkers have become stark and brutal when we have the Prime Minister eulogising the importance of the academia on the same day when the country is faced with the worst threat to academic freedom in the nation’s history, for Azmi is the first academician to be charged with sedition in the country.
Does Najib really believe that his eulogy for academic freedom after the unprecedented prosecution of an academician for sedition would have any credibility at all?
Who will believe Najib that he and his government truly regard the scholars and intelligentsia as the country’s most important pillars, when his Attorney-General can haul an academician to court under the Sedition Act, which had never been done by the other five Prime Ministers (not even in the 22-year Dark Age of Tun Mahathir) in the past 57 years?
And what is Azmi’s sedition offence?
He is charged with saying in a press report that what happened in Perak in the 2009 Perak constitutional crisis was legally wrong.
Have Malaysia’s academic freedom in the universities degenerated to a state where law lecturers cannot give their opinion about “right and wrong” about legal cases?
Have we reached a stage where lawyers defending Azmi Sharon may themselves run the risk of committing sedition just by defending Azmi’s view on the Perak constitutional case?
Is this Najib’s meaning of academic freedom and the rule of law?
The Cabinet meeting tomorrow must let the Malaysian public know whether the Barisan Nasional government, starting with the Cabinet, has gone bonkers!
Press Release | Malaysia Must Not Become an Authoritarian State
The
Malaysian Bar is heavily critical of the recent spate of arrests under
the Societies Act 1966 and prosecutions under the Sedition Act 1948 and
Penal Code. The raft of arrests and prosecutions of individuals lately
shows that we are undergoing an intense period of oppression against
citizenry and regression in the rule of law marked by the aggressive
curtailment of rights and fundamental liberties under our Federal
Constitution.
These
individuals are being charged for allegedly criticising or insulting
political parties and critiquing or making comments, albeit adverse
ones, with respect to court judgments. These are clearly not offences
that are envisaged by, and that are within the ambit of, either the
Sedition Act 1948 or the Penal Code.
In
order for legal decisions to stand the test of time, they must survive
the test of public scrutiny. Only then can they be seen as sound
judgments that will serve to govern our conduct and direct our actions.
In no way should criticism of court decisions, or how they came to be
made, be viewed as seditious by virtue of being an affront to the
administration of justice.
The
Malaysian Bar is particularly appalled with the charges that have been
brought today against Associate Professor Azmi Sharom of Universiti
Malaya. His comments about the Perak constitutional crisis of 2009 are
wholly within the purview of academic freedom and public discourse.
This cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, constitute sedition.
Likewise,
we reiterate that questioning the exercise of discretion should not be
seen as being disrespectful to those to whom that discretion has been
given, but a legitimate examination of the proper exercise of that
discretion as permitted by law.
Secondly,
our Federal Constitution gives to the state government jurisdiction
over the administration of local government, which conceivably includes
the creation of volunteer groups to assist with local administration.
The members of the Pasukan Petugas Sukarela (“PPS”) are volunteers
recruited from the community by the state government. Any question over
the legality of such groups should be settled by way of federal-state
government discussion, and not by the arrest and detention, and the
threat of arrest and detention, of members of such volunteer groups.
Even
if there is a dispute as to the legitimacy of the PPS, whether under
the Societies Act 1966 or otherwise, there appeared to be no imminent
threat to national security, public safety or order that necessitated
the police and Federal Reserve Unit to descend upon them in the manner
that they did. The arrest of members of the PPS immediately after their
participation, at the invitation of the Penang State Government, in the
Merdeka Day parade in Penang was therefore an unnecessary, unreasonable
and disproportionate use of police powers and discretion.
Power
and discretion are conferred by legislation on the premise or
presumption that they are to be exercised properly based on intelligence
and common sense. It appears that neither of these criteria was
present. It gives rise to the impression that the police are
arbitrarily exercising their powers merely because they believe they can
do so with impunity. This is an abuse of power and process.
In
that light, the threat by the Inspector General of Police to
investigate and possibly to charge people who criticise or allegedly
disrespect him on Twitter is seen as an intimidation of members of the
public, and is another example of a wholly inappropriate response.
The
Prime Minister once famously declared that the days of “government
knows best” are over. Yet the actions by the authorities in recent days
to detain, arrest and/or prosecute individuals who have been perceived
to have challenged or questioned the authorities, deny the very humility
that that declaration presupposes.
The
Malaysian Bar calls upon the authorities to cease acting in a
repressive and oppressive manner. These recent events have made a
mockery of the 57 years of independence that we have just celebrated.
Malaysia must not become an authoritarian state.
Christopher Leong
President
Malaysian Bar
Peguam Muda Kebangsaan akan lancar kempen
Astro Awani
KUALA
LUMPUR: Kempen #MansuhAktaHasutan yang akan dilancarkan Khamis ini
merupakan 'promosi' berpanjangan selama satu tahun untuk memberi
penerangan mengenai pemansuhan Akta Hasutan 1948.
Pengerusi
Jawatankuasa Peguam Muda Kebangsaan, Syahredzan Johan berkata, ini
merupakan kali pertama diadakan bagi menuntut Kerajaan mengotakan janji
untuk memansuhkan Akta Hasutan.
"Kempen
ini sebenarnya satu kempen yang akan dianjurkan Jawatankuasa Peguam
Muda Kebangsaan di bawah Majlis Peguam yang merupakan simbol menentang
Akta Hasutan peninggalan British.
"Ini
pertama kali kempen kebangsaan nasional yang akan dilancarkan. Ia usaha
kami bagi menuntut kerajaan supaya mengotakan janji untuk memansuhkan
Akta Hasutan," katanya ketika dihubungi Astro AWANI di sini hari ini.
Pelancaran kempen #MansuhAktaHasutan akan diadakan pada Khamis ini di Bangunan Majlis Peguam di sini.
Jelasnya,
pada Julai 2012, Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak
menyatakan Kerajaan akan memansuhkan beberapa undang-undang termasuk
Akta Hasutan.
Bagaimanapun, ia disifatkan tidak tertunai selain tiada usaha serius untuk memansuhkan undang-undang berkenaan.
Ujarnya, seramai 50 tenaga penggerak utama akan menjadi tonggak kempen berkenaan.
"Kita ada lebih daripada 50 ahli jawatankuasa dan tenaga penggerak kempen ini.
"Bukan
semuanya peguam, ada yang belum jadi peguam, penuntut, aktivis dan ada
rakyat biasa selain aktivis mahu melibatkan diri dalam kempen ini,"
jelasnya.
Dalam
pada itu katanya, antara penceramah pada hari pelancaan kempen itu
ialah, Presiden Majlis Peguam, Christopher Leong, Bekas Presiden Majlis
Peguam, Ambiga Sreenevasan dan Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif, Pergerakan
Kesederhanaan Global, Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah.
English To Be Made Compulsory To Pass At Public Universities
CYBERJAYA,
Sept 2 (Bernama) -- A new policy is on the card to make English a
compulsory subject, besides Bahasa Melayu, for students to pass at
Malaysia's public universities.Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also the Education Minister, said he had discussed the matter with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak about a week ago and the details would be announced later.
"The basic knowledge is not enough for graduates if they don't have the ability to communicate and write in English.
"Companies will have a certain benchmark. They want people who are not only qualified, but people who will be able to be the ambassador, who can communicate to the rest of the world and one of the important requirement is the ability to communicate in English," he said.
Muhyiddin said this at the launching of the Second Cyberjaya Graduate Employability Enabler (CGEE 2), here Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Muhyiddin commended Setia Haruman Sdn Bhd chairman Tan Sri Mustapha Kamal who mooted the idea to develop and execute the CGEE program, a talent development program that empowers, train and prepares local graduates, making them employable with high impact companies especially Cyberjaya.
He said CGEE had tremendous potential for making Malaysia a nation of game changers, inventors, and entrepreneurs instead of consumers, with the country, being a resource and diversely rich nation, having much to offer to the rest of the world.
"I was also made to understand that all participants from the pilot project of CGEE in 2013 are gainfully employed as of today, whereby a majority of them are employed in the high impact companies in Cyberjaya and some outside Cyberjaya," he said.
This year's program involved 139 trainees from six universities and Yayasan Sime Darby, who were being trained for some of the multi-national companies such as HSBC, IBM, Tech Mahindra, Emerio and AIG, he added.
Following the success of the CGEE Pilot Project in 2013, Setia Haruman has been allocated RM1.2 million by the Education Ministry to continue the CGEE 2 project this year.
Report made over 'behead Dayaks' postings
The postings on the page 'JIM - Jemaah ISIS Malaysia' said that this is as Dayaks are non-Muslims.One of the postings dated last Thursday alleged that Sabah and Sarawak are "kafir" (non-believer) states where Muslims are "compelled" to “slaughter" non-Muslims.
"Sabah Serawak adalah Negri kapir maka wajib ke atas umat islam menyembelih rkyat mereka di sana."
(Sabah and Sarawak are non-believer states so it is compulsory for Muslims to slaughter the people there)
In another posting today, the same user cited the Prophet Muhammad to say that the Dayaks – a loose term to refer to Sarawakian natives – are destined for hell and should be beheaded.
"Siapakah yang dimaksudkan oleh Rasulullah s.a.w. Tentang golongan yg brpakaian tetapi bertelanjang dan mereka akan menghuni api neraka? …
"Yang
dimaksudkan itu adalah Dayak. Mereka bercawat tapi masih nampak
kemaluan. Barangsiapa bertemu dengan golongan ini. Penggal lah
kepalanya."(Who did the Prophet Muhammad refer to when he spoke of those who are nude despite being clothed, who inhabit hell?...
(He means the Dayak. They wear loincloths but their private parts can still be seen. Whoever sees this group, behead them.)
Checks by Malaysiakini at 5.20pm found that the Facebook page has been closed.
More dangerous than PPS
Speaking at the Sungai Maong Police station, Kuching, DNC executive secretary Alim Mideh (below) called on the Inspector General of Police to conduct an immediate investigation as what was stated was not only seditious, but could also cause racial and religious riot.
"The
Dayaks are very angry over these statements. In order to avoid any
untoward incident, it is in the best interest of racial harmony that the
police carry out an immediate investigation and put a stop to these
seditious remarks."If the police do not take action, there are some members of the Dayak community who are too emotional may take the law into their own hands," Alim warned.
He added that so-called Jemaah ISIS Malaysia is "more dangerous than the Penang Voluntary Patrol Unit (PPS)", which 154 members were arrested as the unit is not registered with the Registrar of Societies.
"(Jemaah ISIS Malaysia) can cause racial and religious riot, if it not handled properly," Alim said urging other Dayak NGOs to come forward to lodge police reports.
He also urged leaders of Sabah and Sarawak to raise the issue with the federal government.
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