Archive for category Law & Order
Putrajaya’s sledgehammer strategy might blow up in its face
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Court, Law & Order, Najib Razak on Tuesday, 2 September 2014
COMMENTARY BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER
1 September 2014
Somewhere in there, lurks a strategy to the Najib government’s decision to use the Sedition Act as a dragnet against citizens of this country.
Critics argue that it is to cower Malaysians into silence, to discourage dissent of any kind, to send a chilling message that thinking is not allowed.
Others say Putrajaya is borrowing out of the playbook of the PAP government in Singapore, a government famous for its sledgehammer approach. In fact, just recently, Umno’s main mouthpiece Utusan Malaysia even suggested that Malaysia look south. Read the rest of this entry »
AG should resign or be replaced if he cannot discharge his duty of public accountability to explain whether he has been guilty of selective and malicious prosecution in recent slew of charges against PR MPs and Assemblymen
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Court, Crime, Law & Order on Friday, 29 August 2014
Although the Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail is vested with the sole discretion under Article 145 of the Malaysian Constitution “to institute, conduct or discontinue any proceedings for an offence” , he owes the Malaysian people a duty of public accountability to explain whether he has been guilty of selective and malicious prosecution in the recent slew of arrests and charges against Pakatan Rakyat Members of Parliament and State Assemblymen.
The new-fangled charge against the PKR Vice President Rafizi Ramli yesterday, for example, was just incredulous and most extraordinary.
Rafizi is charged under Section 504 of the Penal Code on “Intentional insult with intent to provoke a breach of the peace” which states: “Whoever intentionally insults, and thereby gives provocation to any person, intending or knowing it to be likely that such provocation will cause him to break the public peace, or to commit any offence, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years or with fine or with both”.
Rafizi was accused of issuing “defamatory and provocative statements” against Umno members through a statement he made in February, linking Umno with an incident where a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a church.
There have been legion cases of DAP, PKR and PAS members being “defamed” and “provoked” by UMNO/BN leaders and spokespersons, particularly since the 12th General Elections in 2008, but have anyone been arrested and prosecuted in the past six years under Section 504 of the Penal Code, which could lead to the disqualification of a sitting Member of Parliament or State Assemblyperson, resulting in by-elections?
Absolutely none. Why then has this new-fangled charge been trotted out against Rafizi which could lead to his disqualification as MP for Pandan followed by a parliamentary by-election? Read the rest of this entry »
DAP lawmaker accuses A-G of selective prosecution in sedition charge
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Court, Law & Order, Pakatan Rakyat on Friday, 29 August 2014
BY V. ANBALAGAN, ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
The Malaysian Insider
29 August 2014
Seputeh MP Teresa Kok wants to transfer her sedition charge from the Sessions Court to the High Court in a bid to expose what she says is selective prosecution by Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail.
The DAP national vice-chairman said in an application to transfer her case that Gani refused to frame charges against racists and extremists who threatened public order, ridiculed other races and those from minority religions to create disharmony and riots.
She said the High Court was the appropriate forum to investigate that the charge against her amounted to selective prosecution.
She also said the matter could only be brought to the Federal Court if her trial started in the High Court.
“There are many delicate legal questions that will be raised because the A-G’s discretionary powers superseded a citizen’s right to equal protection under the law,” said Kok in the affidavit sighted by The Malaysian Insider.
Sessions judge Norsharidah Awang will hear the application to transfer the case on September 18. Read the rest of this entry »
Time for A-G to explain his decisions on charges against opposition leaders, say lawyers
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Court, Judiciary, Law & Order on Thursday, 15 May 2014
BY V. ANBALAGAN, ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
The Malaysian Insider
May 15, 2014
Lawyers today demanded Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail (pic) come out of his cocoon and explain several questionable decisions made by his office relating to charges against opposition leaders which were later thrown out of court.
They are particularly aghast that Gani had decided to go ahead and re-charge opposition leader Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad for his failure to give a 10-day notice to the police under the Peaceful Assembly Act (PAA) to organise a rally.
This was despite the Court of Appeal’s acquittal of Nik Nazmi on April 25 after striking down a punishment provided under the PAA as unconstitutional because it breached the basic rights of citizens to assemble peacefully.
Yesterday, activists Mohd Bukhairy Sofian, Edy Noor Ridzuan and Badrul Hisham Shaharin, or better known as Chegubard, were also granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal by the lower courts as the judges said they were bound by the Court of Appeal ruling.
The lawyers said that Gani must realise that society’s expectations of him have increased, and he now owes them an explanation.
Gani must defend the integrity of the office he had been holding since 2001, they said. Read the rest of this entry »
Najib must take a clear stand – whether he is with the moderates or the extremists, whether he is for 1Malaysia or the very antithesis of 1Malaysia
Posted by Kit in Human Rights, Law & Order, Najib Razak, Sabah on Wednesday, 7 May 2014
On 5th May 2014, the first anniversary of the 13th General Elections, Malaysians were torn by grave disillusionment with the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak for a year of failed policies and the dire prospect of a break-up of Pakatan Rakyat over hudud law.
The next day, the beginning of the second year of Najib’s second administration as Prime Minister could not have started on a more ominous note, heralding that Malaysia is heading for a new dark age where all the grandiloquent pledges and slogans of 1Malaysia, World’s Best Democracy and Government Transformation Programme would be consigned to the dustbins of history and replaced by undemocratic, repressive, unjust and draconian rule.
In the morning, the PR/DAP MP for Seputeh Teresa Kok was charged in Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court with sedition over her Chinese New Year “Onederful Malaysia” video, a 11-minute clip lampooning and criticising various failures of government policies.
It is supreme irony that one of the five criticisms in her video alleged to be seditious was about the security situation in East Sabah especially after the abduction of the Taiwan tourist in an island resort off Semporna in November last year – as on the morning that Teresa was charged, news were received of another abduction of a Chinese national in a nearby island off Lahad Datu at about 2.45 a.m. the same day!
Teresa was telling the truth, but telling the truth has become sedition in Najib’s Malaysia as the Prime Minister has forgotten his promises to repeal the draconian and colonial Sedition Act. Read the rest of this entry »
Stopping those who spew hate in the name of religion
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Law & Order, Religion on Wednesday, 7 May 2014
COMMENTARY BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER
May 07, 2014
If there are any police officials still interested in being honest brokers and if the rule of law means anything anymore in Malaysia, a whole clutch of speakers at yesterday’s seminar on the Allah word and Christianity should be arrested and charged with sedition.
In some other countries, they would be charged with hate crimes because hate is what they were trying to make Malaysians do. Hate Christians and hate Malaysians of the Christian faith. Read the rest of this entry »
Assemble peacefully without fear, Malaysians told
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Human Rights, Law & Order on Saturday, 26 April 2014
BY V. ANBALAGAN AND EILEEN NG
The Malaysian Insider
April 26, 2014
The public can now assemble without fear following a Court of Appeal ruling yesterday that a breach of a provision in the Peaceful Assembly Act (PAA) does not amount to an offence, human rights lawyers and lawmakers said.
They said the unanimous decision of the three-man bench led by judge Datuk Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof upheld a fundamental right under the Federal Constitution, which is the right to assemble peacefully.
This means the upcoming May Day anti-GST (goods and services tax) rally will no longer be deemed “illegal” and the public need not worry about the any action being taken against them unless they destroyed properties or committed criminal offences.
The lawyers also saluted the judges who were prepared to uphold the supreme law of the land instead of allowing a basic right that should be enjoyed by citizens to be a mere illusion.
The judgment also said those who went against public order could only be charged under the Penal Code, the Road Transport Act or local government by-laws.
In declaring the punishment provided under the PAA as unconstitutional because it violated the right to assemble peacefully, the appellate court also struck out the charge against Selangor legislative assembly deputy speaker Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad for failing to give 10 days notice under the Act before organising the May 5 Blackout Rally last year. Read the rest of this entry »
We ask no favours, and will ‘fight till the end’ to clear Karpal’s name, says Gobind
Posted by Kit in DAP, Law & Order on Friday, 25 April 2014
by Eileen Ng
The Malaysian Insider
April 25, 2014
Karpal Singh’s family does not expect any “favours” from Putrajaya in their appeal against the late lawyer and politician’s conviction and sentence for sedition, his son Gobind Singh Deo told a crowd of more than 3,000 last night.
The Puchong MP said he was aware of growing calls for Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail to drop the cross-appeal to enhance Karpal’s sentence of a RM4,000 fine, but indicated that the family will continue with the appeal to remove the smudge from his illustrious career.
Karpal was fined RM4,000 after the High Court had in February 21 found the former DAP chairman guilty of uttering seditious words against the Sultan of Perak at the height of the constitutional crisis in 2009.
Karpal had filed his notice of appeal against the conviction and sentence and was awaiting the trial judge to provide the grounds of judgment before taking the matter to the Court of Appeal.
The 73-year-old Karpal, known as the Tiger of Jelutong, died in a road accident on the North-South Expressway near Kampar, Perak last week, alongside his aide Michael Cornelius.
“We don’t need any favours from the A-G. We don’t need his sympathies. We won’t back down, we will fight until the end because he would have fought it to the end,” Gobind said to a thunderous applause from thousands present at a memorial service held in honour of Karpal at the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall last night. Read the rest of this entry »
No sedition in heaven: A tribute to the Tiger of Jelutong
Posted by Kit in DAP, Judiciary, Law & Order on Thursday, 24 April 2014
– Jose Mario Dolor De Vega
The Malaysian Insider
April 24, 2014
I refer to Raja Shahrir’s “Thank you for showing us what courage is”, in Free Malaysia Today, April 19, with regard to his moving tribute to the late great Karpal Singh.
I beg the kind indulgence of the reader to allow me to say a few words honouring the intrepid Karpal.
It is my firm belief – and there is no shadow of doubt about it – that besides Anwar Ibrahim and Lim Kit Siang, Karpal belongs to that triumvirate of the opposition leaders in Malaysia which has been consistently maligned and slandered by the powers that be since day one.
However, I would also like to state unhesitatingly that Karpal was the most personally abused among the three, and hounded politically in a persistent and nefarious manner by the establishment.
Yet, Karpal never backed down nor did he ever cease being faithful to the cause. He remained committed until the very end for the reform agenda and for the general movement of the collective struggle of the Malaysian people.
Consider the Tiger’s records of courage: Read the rest of this entry »
Karpal’s dead body still no walkover
Posted by Kit in DAP, Islam, Law & Order on Sunday, 20 April 2014
Abdar Rahman Koya
The Malaysian Insider
April 19, 2014
The Malay adage “Harimau mati tinggalkan belang, manusia mati tinggalkan nama” (A tiger leaves behind its stripes, a man leaves behind his deeds) can’t be more apt in describing the passing away of the Tiger of Jelutong.
Karpal Singh was both a tiger whose stripes patterned the Malaysian political landscape for so long, and a man whose name dominated contemporary Malaysian legal history. The courts and the Parliament will have a hard time shedding away his stripes for a long time.
In court, Karpal’s presence is a signal that a case is to be treated as important, deserving the widest coverage. He can choose to represent a food stall owner, or a former deputy prime minister, and both cases would be keenly observed by the legal fraternity. For when Karpal is the lawyer, it is not how a case would end, it is how it was argued in court.
Karpal proved that a good lawyer is not someone who never loses a case, but someone who takes the most difficult one and stands not a chance to either acquit or get a huge sum rewarded to his client. Read the rest of this entry »
Putrajaya seeks stiffer penalty against Karpal for sedition
Posted by Kit in DAP, Judiciary, Law & Order on Friday, 4 April 2014
by V Anbalagan
The Malaysian Insider
April 04, 2014
Veteran lawyer Karpal Singh, who was fined RM4,000 for sedition last month, could now be jailed after prosecution filed a cross appeal, urging the court to impose a stiffer penalty.
Karpal was found guilty of sedition and fined by the Kuala Lumpur High Court on March 11.
However, he told The Malaysian Insider yesterday that he received a copy of the notice of appeal filed by the prosecution, urging the Court of Appeal to enhance the sentence.
“They want me in jail,” said Karpal, who stepped down as DAP chairman following the conviction and sentence last month.
“Well, they are entitled to file a cross appeal.” Read the rest of this entry »
Call for a high-powered squad comprising MCMC, Police and representatives from BN and PR, to clean up social media of incessant incitement of racial and religious animosities and hatred through lies and falsehoods to set Malaysia aflame
Posted by Kit in IT, Law & Order, nation building on Thursday, 6 March 2014
The latest criminal harassment and intimidation of DAP National Vice Chairperson and MP for Seputeh Teresa Kok for her “Onederful Malaysia CNY 2014” video must be condemned in the strongest possible terms.
The police should act under Section 124A of the Penal Code which provides for up to seven-year jail sentence for the offence by anyone who “attempts to overawe by means of criminal force” a Member of Parliament from exercising her lawful powers.
Last night, Utusan Malaysia had, around midnight, sent an SMS alert stating “Seputeh MP Teresa Kok was slapped by an unknown man after a ceramah at Taman Permatang Pauh at 11.30 pm”.
However, the Umno-owned daily soon issued a correction stating that Kok had not been slapped but was instead “handed” a rotten egg by a man, which later broke when they shook hands. Read the rest of this entry »
IGP should stop talking tough and start acting swiftly against irresponsible and reckless elements who want to cause racial and religious disharmony and strife through incessant incitement of racial and religious animosities and hatred
Posted by Kit in Law & Order, Police, Politics, Religion on Thursday, 20 February 2014
Enough of the Inspector-General, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar talking tough as he should start acting swiftly against irresponsible and reckless elements who want to cause racial and religious disharmony and strife through incessant incitement of racial and religious animosities and hatred.
Why is Khalid talking about the use of any law, including Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma), inciting racial tension when the police has not even sent investigation papers to the Attorney-General’s Chambers to arrest and for charges to be laid against those responsible for the self-styled “Council of Islamic NGOs’ “chicken and slap” demonstration in Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 6 where a slew offences had been committed including criminal intimidation, sedition, incitement of violence against a woman, incitement of violence against a Member of Parliament, incitement of another May 13 riots?
For more than three weeks, not a single person had been able to step forward to point out where DAP National Vice Chairperson and MP for Seputeh Teresa Kok’s “Onederful Malaysia CNY 2014” video is anti-Malay, anti-Islam and anti-Rulers, although I said I would ask Teresa Kok to withdraw and apologise for the video if there is such evidence.
Read the rest of this entry »
Is Zahid seriously suggesting that it is perfectly lawful and permissible to organise public demonstrations to offer RM1,200 to anyone to slap the PM, DPM or Home Minister?
Posted by Kit in Law & Order, Muhyiddin Yassin, Najib Razak, nation building, Police, Zahid on Saturday, 8 February 2014
Overnight, Malaysians are asking whether the law of the jungle have replaced the rule of law in the country on our way to a fully developed nation status in six years’ time in 2020.
This follows the shocking statement by the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Ahmad Zahid Hamidi who dismissed calls to investigate the organisers of Thursday’s chicken slaughter protest against DAP MP Teresa Kok, and who dismissed the RM1,200 reward offered by the self-styled “Council of Islamic NGOs” who slaps Teresa saying “there is nothing to investigate as it is not a threat”.
He said: “Why do we need to investigate that?
“Slapping is not a threat. If they say murder, then it is a threat.”
Is Zahid seriously suggesting that it is perfectly lawful and permissible to organise public demonstrations to offer RM1,200 to anyone to slap the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister or the Home Minister?
Is the Home Minister advocating the law of the jungle instead of the rule of law? Then we are not heading towards a fully developed nation in 2020 but down the abyss to a failed state by the end of the decade!
Read the rest of this entry »
Needed – Kajang Declaration on Sanity
Posted by Kit in Azly Rahman, Education, Law & Order, nation building on Saturday, 8 February 2014
Azly Rahman
Malaysiakini
Feb 7, 2014
Blatant racism, religious bigotry, school culture degenerating, public display of hatred, urging this or that kind of jihad at times for reasons unknown, the vigilantes taking over when law and order seem to be at a critical breaking point, mass feeding of the public with stories that hath no educational value and even devoid of moral sensitivity, frequent public protests plagued with character assassinations rather that the focusing on issues to be collectively addressed as a nation, parang-wielding robberies in broad daylight on an almost weekly basis, rising number of cases of children missing, political moves crafted and executed in desperation that weaken due process in democratic culture sorely in need of sane progression, politicians producing statements in arrogance on pressing devoid of intellectual depths, the intensification of effort by fascist groups to incite violence progressively in hope that the bloody riots of May 13, 1969 is to be re-enacted on a larger scale perhaps.
The media as a technology of consciousness shaper both at the level of Grand and Subaltern Narratives have been successful in playing the role of creator of peace and destroyer of it, as if there is no difference between good and evil in the way we use the materials to build this nation. Read the rest of this entry »
All pain, no gain
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Law & Order, Najib Razak, Police on Tuesday, 7 January 2014
Dean Johns
Malaysiakini
Jan 3, 2014
Far from the analgesic or even anaesthetic effect he intended, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s claim in his New-Year message that he “feels the rakyat’s pain” served only to reinforce for most of us the fact that he is the rakyat’s pain.
In other words, Najib is the present-day prime example, principal promoter and very personification of the chronically painful BN regime.
And since the moment BN demonstrated the true depth of its contempt for the Malaysian people by presenting this pompous hypocrite with the nation’s premiership, he’s proven nothing but a pain and produced not a grain of gain.
Except, of course, to himself, his relatives, accomplices, cronies and others that his reign has kept aboard the BN gravy-train, while the rest of the country has been going steadily down the drain.
‘Drain’ being the operative word when it comes to Najib’s ‘management’ of Malaysia’s finances, of which untold billions have been stolen and illegally smuggled overseas, and further countless billions squandered on bribery, vote-buying and sundry other forms of corruption.
And ‘brain-drain’ being the most appropriate term for how Najib and his operatives have otherwise continued to prove the bane of ‘ordinary’ Malaysians, considering the steady decline in public education over which they have so preposterously presided, and their continued efforts to keep the people ignorant by denying them their constitutional right to a free and informative press.
In short, so far from feeling the people’s pain as he so piously feigns, Najib appears positively sadistic in his intent to inflict more of the same. Read the rest of this entry »
Zahid Hamidi, stop making Malaysia a laughing stock
Posted by Kit in Islam, Law & Order, PAS on Wednesday, 18 December 2013
– Dyana Sofya
The Malaysian Insider
December 18, 2013
Dear Zahid Hamidi, what happened to innocent until proven guilty?
The controversy surrounding Zahid Hamidi and Mat Sabu where the minister claimed that Mat Sabu is a Shiite, followed by the Ministry of Home Affairs’s 10 pieces of evidence to back the claim, has become the laughing stock throughout the nation.
Soon after, the ministry covered up by saying that the 10 pieces of evidence are only Grade B evidence, and that it would soon provide Grade A evidence to prove the Minister’s claim.
Not just that, Mat Sabu was asked to prove his innocence or rather his non involvement with Shiite movement.
Dear Minister of Home Affairs, what happened to rule of law where one is innocent until proven guilty? Read the rest of this entry »
So, who killed Altantuya? And why?
Posted by Kit in Court, Crime, Law & Order on Friday, 23 August 2013
NEWS ANALYSIS BY JAHABAR SADIQ, EDITOR
The Malaysian Insider
August 23, 2013
Seven years on, no one has paid the price for the death of Altantuya Shaariibuuu. And no one knows why the pretty Mongolian was killed one night in October 2006.
But today’s Court of Appeal decision does not close the file on her mysterious murder.
Instead, the ruling to acquit former chief inspector Azilah Hadri and former corporal Sirul Azhar Umar raises more questions than ever.
Who killed her? Why? Read the rest of this entry »
Demanding that the accused prove innocence is utter rubbish!
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim, Judiciary, Law & Order on Wednesday, 14 August 2013
— P Ramakrishnan
The Malay Mail Online
August 13, 2013
AUG 13 — The accepted legal norm is that the accused is innocent until proven guilty. That is the basic law. That is the golden thread of the law. That is the basis of justice.
It appears that Ranjit Singh Dhillon, the Penang Bar Committee’s criminal law chairman, has totally ignored this time-honoured principle by demanding that Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Karpal Singh declare their assets to prove their innocence. This is ridiculous!
If this was Ranjit Singh’s personal view, that would be of no consequence. But this view was stated in his capacity as an official of the Penang Bar – that makes it preposterous!
Malaysians would like to know if the Penang Bar shares Ranjit’s absurd view or does it disassociate itself from this view? This must be stated immediately and clearly. Malaysians should not be left wondering what has happened to the Penang Bar. Isn’t justice and fairness the paramount concern of the Bar? This must rightly be so.
Ranjit’s sober position should have been to ask the accuser to make a police report and provide the MACC with the so-called evidence in his possession that suggests that there was corruption in the conduct of these two Pakatan leaders. In this manner, he would have facilitated the commencement of criminal investigation by both the police and the MACC. Unfortunately, Ranjit did not do this. He did not promote the cause of justice.
What are the facts? Read the rest of this entry »
Joseph Kurup: Minister of unity or disunity?
Posted by Kit in Crime, Law & Order, nation building, Religion on Monday, 12 August 2013
— Ravinder Singh
The Malay Mail Online
August 11, 2013
AUG 11 — Speaking at the 30th anniversary dinner of the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST) Joseph Kurup, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of National Unity, said “We can’t allow issues that might just be a storm in a teacup take a turn for the worse, abruptly turning it into a perfect storm, destroying what took us years and years to build.” Beautiful words!
He also said the government has “taken a zero-tolerance approach and sometimes contentious position on religious bigotry”. Empty words, at least until now!
Racial and religious provocations by the likes of Ibrahim Ali (burn the Bibles), Ridhuan Tee (about Thaipusam), Zulkifli Nordin (Hindu deities), and some other Muslims have been going on not for days, but for years. Yet, not a murmur from the minister of national unity until the chest beating at the dinner.
The minister should state openly his stand on racial / religious bigotry — what does it mean to him? Read the rest of this entry »
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