Archive for May 21st, 2009

ASEM FMM 9 should endorse the proposal for an international inquiry of 15 years of human rights abuses in Myanmar like those conducted for atrocities in Darfur, Rwanda and Yugoslavia

The reimposition of restrictions on reporters and diplomats attending the trial of Burmese pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi a day after opening up the proceedings yesterday betray the true colours of the Myanmar military junta with regard to its utter disregard to universal principles of human rights and the ASEAN Charter.

The Myanmese military junta must not be allowed to get away with its nefarious agenda, which is to keep Suu Kyi in continued incarceration although her six-year illegal detention is to expire in six days time on May 27 and to extend it during next year’s elections.

It is not to ASEAN’s credit that the regional organization has been so mute and helpless to the flagrant violation of human rights in the continued persecution of Suu Kyi, who had already been detained for more than 13 of the past 19 years, as not a single ASEAN head of state or government had said a single word at the first crisis faced by the ASEAN Charter on the commitment of the individual ASEAN countries to promote and protect human rights.

It is six days to the countdown of expiry of Suu Kyi’s illegal detention on May 27 and all ASEAN governments must put maximum and daily pressure on the Myanmar military junta to release the Nobel Peace Prize Laureatte next Wednesday or face dire consequences.
Read the rest of this entry »

4 Comments

Zambry’s first Black 100 Days as squatter/usurper Perak MB – will Perak be Umno’s graveyard and Zambry the cause of Najib’s downfall as the last Umno PM?

Today is Datuk Zambry Abdul Kadir’s 100 days as the squatter and usurper Perak Mentri Besar – and the question on everybody’s mind on Zambry’s first Black 100 Days is whether Perak would be Umno’s graveyard in the 13th national general election and Zambry the cause of Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s downfall as the last Umno Prime Minister in Malaysia.

Professor Shad Saleem Faruqi has coined the most apt and powerful imagery when he likened the Perak political and constitutional crisis to a “hydra-headed monster that cannot be eliminated by ding-dong judicial decisions”.

Shad Faruqi opined that recourse to the courts is pointless and called for a stop to “this insane and naked show of unprincipled politics”.

The only way to end the hydra-headed monster of the Perak political and constitutional crisis is to return to first principles of democracy and the Constitution as spelt out by the landmark Justice Datuk Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahim judgment on the Nizar vs Zambry case last Monday that once a mentri besar is appointed, he is only answerable to the state legislative assembly and he could only be removed by a vote of no-confidence in the State Assembly and not by the Sultan.
Read the rest of this entry »

22 Comments

RM12 billion PKFZ “can of worms” – Ong Tee Keat and MACC, what games are you playing?

Malaysians today are entitled to ask the MCA President/Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) – What games are you playing with regard to the RM12 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) “can of worms”?

In the latest twist to an unprecedented long catalogue of twists, Ong now says that the question of whether the PricewaterhouseCooper (PwC) report on the PKFZ scandal will be made public rests with the cabinet.

This is most unbelievable! Wasn’t it Ong himself who issued a categorical, even commanding, instruction to the Port Klang Authority (PKA) on April 29 to release the PwC audit report on the PKFZ to the public “within seven days”?

Why one excuse after another since then to justify why the PwC report on the PKFZ has not yet seen the light of day, until the whole responsibility is thrown back to the Cabinet – when Malaysians had been told that the Cabinet had given Ong the greenlight to release the PwC report, which was the reason for Ong’s command on April 29 to the PKA to make public the PwC report within seven days?
Read the rest of this entry »

46 Comments

Abdul Aziz judgment on Nizar case

Today the Court of Appeal at the Palace of Justice, Putrajaya is hearing the appeal against the landmark judgment of Justice Datuk Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahim in the Nizar vs Zambry case delivered last Monday, 11th May 2009 declaring Nizar as the lawful Perak Mentri Besar.

Nizar is not getting a five-member Court of Appeal panel. The three judges hearing Nizar’s application to discharge Zambry’s “stay order” obtained by a single-judge Court of Appeal within 24 hours of the historic judgment and Zambry’s appeal against the Kuala Lumpur High Court judgment are justices Md Raus Sharif, Zainun Ali and Ahmad Maarop.

As I said in my tweet two hours ago:

“Parties agree that appeal proper b heard 1st and if at the end of hear’g ct cant give decision then discharge of stay will have 2 b heard.”

While we wait for the outcome from the Court of Appeal, the landmark Abdul Aziz judgment which illuminates the complicated terrain thrown up by the Perak constitutional crisis is worth reading (here).
Read the rest of this entry »

5 Comments