Pakatan’s uphill GE13 battle in the courts
The Malaysian Insider
July 15, 2013
The simple summary of Pakatan Rakyat’s suit in court today is that it did not get a fair election. The question now is, what can and will the courts do?
No matter how you slice or dice it, it is tough for Pakatan to win its suit against the Election Commission (EC) because courts here are loath to disturb anything to do with elections. It is even rare for election courts to overturn polls results.
What more nullifying the whole Election 2013.
Also, Malaysian courts have in recent years not demonstrated a willingness to confront the government of the day on various issues – be it conversions of minors to land matters.
That said, it is remains important for Pakatan to thoroughly detail its cases in which it believed fraud prevented it from winning on May 5, 2013. In dispute are at least 43 seats before the courts.
But what is quite clear is that the EC’s handling of the indelible ink over the past five years would have made the Keystone Kops proud. Never have we seen a commission blunder and make a hash of things the way it has. Read the rest of this entry »
Dzaiddin says IPCMC consistent with the Federal Constitution
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Crime, Police on Tuesday, 16 July 2013, 12:41 am
The Malay Mail Online
July 15, 2013
KUALA LUMPUR, July 15 – The proposed establishment of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) is consistent with the Federal Constitution, according to Tun Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah.
Offering his views on IPCMC’s legitimacy under the Federal Constitution, the former chairman of the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operation and Management of the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) made a reference to Article 140.
“Article 140 thereof provides that Parliament may by law provide for the exercise of Police Force Commission’s disciplinary control over members of the police force in such manner and such authority as may be provided in that law.
“Therefore, there can be no doubt about its consistency with the Federal Constitution,” he said in a statement today.
His remarks followed a recent statement by Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi that the proposed setting up of IPCMC would result in “overlapping jurisdictions and laws among the country’s enforcement agencies”, and was “not in line with the Federal Constitution and was against the concept of justice”. Read the rest of this entry »
The ball is in Najib’s court whether Tajuddin’s racist lies and provocations in Kuala Besut by-election campaign yesterday is in line with his call for “national reconciliation” and his “Global Movement of the Moderates” initiative
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, UMNO on Monday, 15 July 2013, 11:45 am
The ball is in Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s court, whether the Deputy Agriculture Minister Datuk Tajuddin Abdul Rahman’s racist lies and provocations in the Kuala Besut by-election campaign yesterday is in line with his call for “national reconciliation” and his “Global Movement of the Moderates” initiative.
It was only yesterday that it was reported that the Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman had completed a seven-day three-nation European tour to promote Malaysia’s “Global Movement of the Moderates” initiative, covering Poland, Latvia and Russia.
But on the very same day, Tajuddin was doing his worst in spouting the most irresponsible and reckless form of extremism in the Kuala Besut by-election with his racist lies and provocations, making a total mockery of the pledge by the contestants that the by-election will be a model of “Ramadan politics” of restraint and morality to show respect to the holy month.
In fact, it would be difficult to find so many reckless and irresponsible racist lies and provocations packed into one speech as that delivered by Tajuddin in Kuala Besut yesterday where without a shred of evidence, he alleged that the DAP is out to abolish the system of constitutional monarchy and the Sultanate so as to establish a republic, and that the DAP is anti-Malay and anti-Islam.
Read the rest of this entry »
The Arab spring – Has it failed?
Posted by Kit in Middle East/Africa on Sunday, 14 July 2013, 10:56 pm
Despite the chaos, the blood and the democratic setbacks, this is a long process. Do not give up hope
The Economist
Jul 13th 2013
ROUGHLY two-and-a-half years after the revolutions in the Arab world, not a single country is yet plainly on course to become a stable, peaceful democracy. The countries that were more hopeful—Tunisia, Libya and Yemen—have been struggling. A chaotic experiment with democracy in Egypt, the most populous of them, has landed an elected president behind bars. Syria is awash with the blood of civil war.
No wonder some have come to think the Arab spring is doomed. The Middle East, they argue, is not ready to change. One reason is that it does not have democratic institutions, so people power will decay into anarchy or provoke the reimposition of dictatorship. The other is that the region’s one cohesive force is Islam, which — it is argued — cannot accommodate democracy. The Middle East, they conclude, would be better off if the Arab spring had never happened at all.
That view is at best premature, at worst wrong. Democratic transitions are often violent and lengthy. The worst consequences of the Arab spring — in Libya initially, in Syria now — are dreadful. Yet as our special report argues, most Arabs do not want to turn the clock back. Read the rest of this entry »
Malala delivers defiant riposte to Taliban militants as UN hails ‘our hero’
Posted by Kit in Education, Human Rights on Sunday, 14 July 2013, 10:35 pm
Ed Pilkington in New York
The Guardian, Friday 12 July 2013
‘They thought that the bullet would silence us. But they failed,’ says Malala, 16, at UN to push campaign for girls’ education
When the Taliban sent a gunman to shoot Malala Yousafzai last October as she rode home on a bus after school, they made clear their intention: to silence the teenager and kill off her campaign for girls’ education.
Nine months and countless surgical interventions later, she stood up at the United Nations on her 16th birthday on Friday to deliver a defiant riposte. “They thought that the bullet would silence us. But they failed,” she said.
As 16th birthdays go, it was among the more unusual. Instead of blowing out candles on a cake, Malala sat in one of the United Nation’s main council chambers in the central seat usually reserved for world leaders.
She listened quietly as Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, described her as “our hero, our champion”; and as the former British prime minister and now UN education envoy, Gordon Brown, uttered what he called “the words the Taliban never wanted her to hear: happy 16th birthday, Malala”.
The event, dubbed Malala Day, was the culmination of an extraordinary four years for the girl from Mingora, in the troubled Swat valley of Pakistan. Read the rest of this entry »
Time the Christian politicians protected their flock
Posted by Kit in nation building, Religion on Sunday, 14 July 2013, 9:55 pm
The Malaysian Insider
July 14, 2013
NEWS ANALYSIS – Datuk Seri Idris Jala. Tan Sri Joseph Kurup. Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili. Datuk Joseph Salang Gandum. Datuk Joseph Belaun. Datuk Seri Douglas Unggah. Datuk Dr Ewon Ebin. Datuk Richard Riot. Datuk Mary Yap…
These names have several things in common: they are either ministers or deputy ministers in the Najib administration, represent constituencies in Sabah or Sarawak and are Christians.
Yes, they are Catholics, Protestants, Evangelical, and are members of Sidang Injil Borneo but do not expect any of them to lead the charge and defend the position of their faith in public.
Indeed, there is a better chance of there being four seasons in Malaysia than any Christian representative resigning from government on a matter of principle, say, because the administration going back on its word on the use of the word Allah by East Malaysians. Or even taking the fight to right-wing groups who in the past few years have threatened Christians.
They are ensconced in nice and comfortable positions of power and prefer others to do the heavy lifting.
So it is left to the various church leaders and even some non-Christian elected representatives to protect the constitutional right of freedom of worship and ensure fairness in public policies. Read the rest of this entry »
21st Century Courts, 20th Century Mindset
Posted by Kit in Court, Judiciary, Law & Order on Sunday, 14 July 2013, 3:56 pm
― Fahri Azzat (Loyarburok.com)
The Malay Mail Online
July 14, 2013
JULY 14 ― You lost your case. The judge decided against you because he found the other side’s witnesses more credible compared to yours and so preferred their testimony to your witnesses’. You complain loudly to any who care to listen, ‘How the hell can the judge prefer their witnesses over mine?’ You angrily tell your lawyer to appeal.
But if your lawyer was honest with you, he will tell you not to bother. Don’t waste your time, money and effort, he should tell you. If you ask why, he will tell you that the appellate court almost always trusts the trial judge’s assessment of a witness’ credibility. They will only depart from it in exceptional cases when the trial judge got it so perversely wrong.
The reason for this was alluded to in the recent Federal Court decision of Isidro Leonardo Quito Cruz v PP [2013] 2 CLJ 1025. It arose when Abdull Hamid Embong FCJ explained why appellate courts did not make finding of facts. He referred to the Privy Council decision of Antonio Dias Caldeira v Frederick Augustus Gray [1936] MLJ 137 (decided on 14 February 1934) which held as follows:
“Now, it settled law that it is no part of the function of an appellate court in a criminal case or indeed any case to make its own findings of fact. That is a function exclusively reserved by the law to the trial court. The reason is obvious. An appellate court is necessarily fettered because it lacks the audio-visual advantage enjoyed by the trial court.” So the appellate court’s reason for not reviewing the credibility of the witnesses during the trial and accepting the trial judge’s opinion on them is because it lacks the audio-visual advantage of the trial court.
Although that may be an acceptable reason in 1936, it is seems incongruous, if not perverse in 2013. After all, audio-visual equipment is now cheap, mobile and ubiquitous. Read the rest of this entry »
Across the causeway, Singapore’s top cop expresses sorrow to murder victim’s family
By Ng Joo Hee
Commissioner of Police
Singapore
July 14, 2013
[Too defensive. Too slow to say sorry. These are the criticisms levelled at the Royal Malaysia Police when the issue of custodial deaths or corruption among the men in blue is discussed. Across the causeway, a Singapore police officer was arrested for the heinous murder of a father and son. The Malaysian Insider reproduces the heartfelt sentiments from Singapore’s top cop who pledges firm action to rebuild trust.(TMI)]
Today is a sad day for the police. Today, we have arrested a murder suspect who is also a policeman. The police have brought into custody Iskandar Rahmat, 34, a Singaporean male, a police officer attached to Bedok Police Division. He will be charged for the brutal murders of Tan Boon Sin and his son Tan Chee Heong at Hillside Drive.
I cannot remember the last time a murder suspect was also a police officer. You may have seen this kind of thing depicted in the movies and on TV, but when it happens for real, it hits you like a freight train.
After the shocking events of Wednesday afternoon, police investigators worked tirelessly around the clock to, first, identify the perpetrator, and then, to hunt him down.
When I was first told that the murder suspect could be one of our own, my initial reaction was disbelief, swiftly followed by anger and anguish. This was the same gamut of emotions police investigators had to deal with in the last few days as they pursued the suspect.
The fact that the suspect is a police officer gave my investigators even greater resolve and determination to solve this case. I commend them for going about their duties in a thoroughly professional manner, and for being ultimately successful in capturing their target. Read the rest of this entry »
The Red Bean Army witch-hunt
Jeswan Kaur | July 14, 2013
Free Malaysia Today
If BN thinks it can mislead the rakyat by tricking them into believing the Red Bean Army is the real threat back home, it is mistaken.
COMMENT
The federal government seems to be in a disarray, going by its classic sense of missing the woods for the trees.
Instead of tackling the hard-pressed issues beleaguring the rakyat, the Barisan Nasional government has decided it has a bigger battle to fight – that too against an entity called the Red Bean Army, whom BN claims is opposition DAP funded and supported.
So much so that BN is accusing DAP of spending RM100 million since 2008 to fund the Red Bean Army – a claim that remains unsubstantiated and has been refuted several times by DAP’s national advisor, Lim Kit Siang.
Still, BN refuses to pay any heed to the fact that DAP has no hand in sponsoring anything called the ‘Red Bean Army’ (RBA).
Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has gone on to say that the government will come down hard on the RBA, including using the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998; the Penal Code; and Facebook to counter it and others who use the Internet to defame the police force. Read the rest of this entry »
You can’t teach an old politician new tricks
Posted by Kit in Law & Order, Najib Razak, Police, UMNO, Zahid on Sunday, 14 July 2013, 7:38 am
Zan Azlee
The Malaysian Insider
Jul 12, 2013
What happens when an elected representative does something in office that is against the wishes of his electorate?
To be more specific, what if he does something without consulting his constituency and is mainly for his own personal benefit?
Well, in most cases around the world, this would be unethical and the elected representative would come under heated pressure and probably lose in the next election.
But in Malaysia, it happens to be quite all right. Because, you see, in this country, elected leaders are one step higher than normal people.
What they say is like gospel for everybody. Don’t believe me? Then check out our newspapers. It is filled with elected leaders saying this and that as advise for the people.
Take for example, the new Home Minister, Datuk Seri Zahid Ahmad Hamidi, who recently said that the Sedition Act should not be abolished.
He says this with full aplomb as if his judgement is the right one and should be the decision best for the country.
In truth, the Sedition Act is as archaic as the ISA and a sack of fosillised mammoth bones that is about to turn into petroleum and then processed by Petronas.
At the moment, the Sedition Act cover is just too wide and vague that it allows the authorities a lot of leeway for manipulation. So, it deserves at least an update.
Even the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, announced much earlier (many times, even) that the act would be abolished. Read the rest of this entry »
Launch on “Water Ubah” in Penang in keeping with Malaysian Dream to have a united nation where Malaysians regard themselves as one people despite diversity of race, religion, culture and region
Posted by Kit in DAP, Elections, nation building, Politics on Saturday, 13 July 2013, 2:38 pm
The launch of “Water Ubah” in Penang this morning is in keeping with the Malaysian Dream to have a united nation where Malaysians regard themselves as one people despite the diversity of race, religion, culture and region in the country.
In fact, some 50 years ago, on July 9, 1963, the Malaysian nation was conceived when the Federated Malaya, North Borneo (Sabah), Sarawak and Singapore signed the Malaysia Agreement which gave birth to the new Malaysian federation two months later, and this is why the presence of the DAP Iban Central Executive Committee member Dr. John Brian at the ceremony today is particularly pertinent apart from the fact that the Ubah mascot is inspired by the hornbill in Sarawak.
Credit must be given to Ooi Leng Hang, the “father of Ubah” and his team of creative artists and publicists in conceiving the Ubah mascot for “Change” and capturing the imagination of all generations of Malaysians, regardless of time, place, age or gender.
As signified by the launch of the “Water Ubah” today, we must have the conviction and courage to continue to dream of a better Malaysia for ourselves, our children and children’s children, and to do our part to create a Malaysia:
• which is the model of democratic freedoms and human rights, good governance and public integrity with low levels of corruption in public life;
• where there is the best education for all children, from primary, secondary to university level; and
• which is greener, cleaner and safer, where the people are not haunted by high crime rate and live in fear of crime, so that Malaysia and Malaysians can be internationally competitive with the focus on our competitiveness with the rest of the world instead of Malaysians versus Malaysians. Read the rest of this entry »
Say no to police state
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Crime, Police on Saturday, 13 July 2013, 12:49 am
P Gunasegaram
Malaysiakini
Jul 12, 2013
QUESTION TIME Who decides policy in this country? Is it the police? Are we as a nation supposed to be subservient to the police and ask their permission first before we implement anything? Are they, a government department, allowed to lobby actively for what they want and even against things that Parliament has passed?
The way the police have launched a campaign for the return of the notorious Emergency Ordinance (EO), one would think that their crime-fighting abilities have been crippled as a result of the repeal of that oppressive piece of legislation. That’s far from the truth.
The Emergency Ordinance and the infamous Internal Security Act, were repealed in 2011 and replaced with the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 and changes to other laws. Together with this, the state of emergency that prevailed in this country since independence under three different proclamations was lifted.
A cursory look at the Emergency Ordinance of 1969 and some of its orders made in the aftermath of the May 13, 1969 racial riots gave considerable power to the police and government of the day to override any and all provisions with regard to personal rights. It was terribly draconian – a police state in other words where anyone could be arrested and detained. Read the rest of this entry »
A silent Prime Minister confounds the nation
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, nation building, UMNO, Zahid on Friday, 12 July 2013, 8:50 pm
The Malaysian Insider
Jul 12, 2013
NEWS ANALYSIS – Eventually it will happen. Not today, not next week, not even next month. But there will come a time when Malaysians will ask this question: for how long more is Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak going to stay silent during roiling debates on the most important issues facing the country?
And then there will come a time when Malaysians will just stop expecting any intervention from the man who occupies Putrajaya; when the mandate he won on May 5 will not matter and Barisan Nasional’s intellectual heft or the last word on government policy will be what the likes of Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim and Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam throw at us daily.
Sad but true, isn’t it? Read the rest of this entry »
The Red Bean Army
by Allan CF Goh
The Red Bean Army is coming,
So claim the top security.
They are so very well hidden,
Full of devils’ ability.
But they cannot be found at all,
Even by closest scrutiny.
Do these dangerous beans exist?
Perhaps in one’s mad agony? Read the rest of this entry »
“Red Bean Army” – UMNO/BN’s RM350 million fatal obsession!
The Red Bean Army is again in the news in Parliament.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi told Parliament during question time yesterday that “the Red Bean Army and its ilk” will face criminal and civil action for spreading lies through the Internet.
Many questions come to mind.
Firstly, does the Home Minister with his intelligence and background really believe that a “DAP-funded Red Bean Army” of 3,000 cybertroopers really exist, and is this belief backed up by the Police? Will the Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar speak up?
Secondly, why the government has not taken any action for the principal lie that the DAP funded the so-called Red Bean Army of 3,000 cybertroopers with a budget of RM100 million to RM1 billion in the past six years, as it should not require much professionalism for the cyber-cops to expose the quackery and buffoonery of this tall tale of fiction, especially as Concorde Hotel, which is the haunt of top UMNO/BN leaders, had been pinpointed as one of the major centres of operation of this mythical cyber-army?
This was why last week I led a team of DAP MPs to visit Concorde Hotel, and all we found was the place crawling with UMNO leaders and operatives and the only discovery was that there was not only no sign of Red Bean Army, but the exorbitant ice-kacang in Concorde Hotel had no red beans at all! Read the rest of this entry »
PM Says One Thing, Ministers Say Another!
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Najib Razak, UMNO, Zahid on Thursday, 11 July 2013, 8:22 am
By Kee Thuan Chye
Yahoo
10th July 2013
How ridiculous it is that the prime minister says one thing and his home minister says the opposite. Last year, Najib Razak announced that the Government would repeal the Sedition Act and replace it with the National Harmony Act, but now Zahid Hamidi says the Cabinet has decided to only “amend and review some aspects of the Act, not to abolish it”!
Another minister, S. Subramaniam, is neither here nor there about it when asked about the matter. He takes the typical noncommittal MIC approach by saying that the idea of repealing the Act was a “suggestion” by Najib. “He has to bring it back to the Cabinet and state his suggestions,” Subramaniam says.
Only a suggestion? Subramaniam was a member of the Cabinet when Najib announced the repeal in July 2012 and yet he says it was only Najib’s suggestion? Is it because he dare not tell the truth?
Meanwhile, Tourism Minister Nazri Aziz contradicts Zahid and confirms that the Cabinet did indeed agree to repeal the Sedition Act last year. He even says the Attorney-General’s Chambers is looking into framing the replacement law. Unlike Subramaniam, he is unequivocal about it.
“It’s a public commitment made by the prime minister. I don’t see why any minister would go against it,” he adds. Read the rest of this entry »
Red Bean Barmy
Posted by Kit in Elections, Najib Razak on Wednesday, 10 July 2013, 11:28 pm
Dean Johns
Malaysiakini
Jul 10, 2013
Lying by the BN regime seems to get more radically ridiculous every day, and nothing better illustrates this than persistent allegations that the opposition has been funding a 3,000-strong ‘Red Bean Army’ to spread its message in cyberspace.
As many have commented before me, there is no way that the DAP or any other Pakatan Rakyat party would have hundreds of millions of ringgit to spend on such a ludicrous exercise even if they wanted or needed to.
And of course there is no need whatever for them to pay their cyber-supporters so much as a single sen, as there are countless Malaysians who are more than happy to take the time and trouble to cyber-criticise BN and cyber-support Pakatan at their own expense, and out of their sheer love of truth and loathing for lies.
In other words, while there is no such thing as an organised and opposition-funded ‘Red Bean Army’, there is certainly a massive, volunteer force that could justly be dubbed the Rid-BN Army. And with the 51 percent popular vote for the opposition in the May 5 general election, it won a momentous moral victory.
If ever there as a telling demonstration of the proverbial wisdom that ‘the truth will set you free’, it was this triumph of countless unpaid, individual voices over the might of the publicly-funded regime propaganda machine. Read the rest of this entry »
Perak’s Stolen Election: The Second Time Round
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Elections, Perak on Wednesday, 10 July 2013, 5:40 pm
Koon Yew Yin
10th July 2013
Many Malaysians are aware of the first time when the people of Perak had their state election results in which they had chosen the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalition to govern the state overturned by trickery and deceit. At that time in 2009, three state legislators elected on PR tickets defected to the Barisan Nasional (BN) in a move which was masterminded by the Prime Minister, Najib Razak, as head of Perak’s BN.
Subsequently, the Sultan of Perak refused Menteri Besar Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin’s request to dissolve the state assembly and call for new elections. Instead, Barisan Nasional (BN), with support from the three defecting assemblymen, formed the new – and in the minds of Perakians – illegitimate state government.
Close State Election Results Favoured BN
In the recent 2013 elections, history has repeated itself. This time the election appears to have been stolen with more conventional methods. According to the official tally, BN won 31 seats to the PR’s 28 in a closely contested race. But on close analysis of the results, we find that BN won 8 of the state seats (and 2 parliamentary ones) with wafer thin majorities. State seats that BN candidates won with very small margins can be seen from the table below Read the rest of this entry »
Is Zahid now confirming that the Prime Minister, Police and previous Home Minister had been wrong and the public right in past four years about worsening crime situation and the fear of crime?
Posted by Kit in Crime, Najib Razak, Police, Zahid on Wednesday, 10 July 2013, 11:25 am
Beginning this month, the Home Minister Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi and the police have taken a new tack on the crime situation in the country, as illustrated by his speech on Sunday proposing a restoration of a special preventive law to replace the abolished Emergency Ordinance (EO), viz:
“We were pressured to abolish the Internal Security Act (ISA) and EO. Look at what happened after that, the crime rate increased and organised and petty criminals came out of the woodwork.”
Although this new official tack on increasing crime in the country is in tandem with the public perception about the runaway crime situation in the country in the past four years, it is in direct conflict with the four-year stand by the Prime Minister, the police and the former Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, that the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) against crime had been a great success since it was launched in 2009 resulting in drastic fall in the crime rate.
Just before Parliament was dissolved for the 13th general election, Malaysians were told that the country’s crime index had decreased by 26.8% since the first phase of the GTP began in 2009 and that Malaysia had been ranked the safest and most peaceful country in South-east Asia according to the Global Peace Index.
Malaysians were told that the country recorded around 550.1 criminal incidents per 100,000 population, placing Malaysia lower than Singapore, Hong Kong, Britain and the United States.
What then is Malaysia’s problem? The official answer is: “The crime rate is down but Malaysians still do not feel so, hence the focus of the second phase of the GTP against crime will be on improving public confidence on safety” – which was why RM272.5 million was allocated in the 2013 Budget to ensure that the rakyat feel safe! Read the rest of this entry »
Winning at all costs
Posted by Kit in Mariam Mokhtar, Police, Sports on Wednesday, 10 July 2013, 8:11 am
Mariam Mokhtar
Malaysiakini
Jul 8, 2013
The alleged rape of a 19-year old handball official at the Malaysia Games (Sukma) last week will revive unpleasant memories for the victim and family of another teenager in Malacca. Two years ago, the victim and her family were denied justice when as a 13 year old, she was raped by a Sukma champion.
Her rapist was set free so that he could represent Malaysia in future tournaments. He was allowed to bask in the glory of representing his nation, whilst the victim would spend her life in shame and regret. Court of Appeal President Raus Md Shariff had said that “public interest would not be served” if the rapist was sent to jail as “he had a bright future.”
When will the authorities do the right thing, rather than do things so that the right Malaysian image is presented for public and international consumption? Does the judiciary realise the irony of having a rapist representing the country in sport?
If the government of the country is seen to condone rape and other crimes, what does it say about Umno Baru, the major party in BN? Does winning at all costs for Umno-Baru mean compromising principles, morals and ethics? Are rape victims convenient pawns in Umno Baru’s constant lust for victory?
Last Wednesday’s alleged rape of the Sukma participant took place at the sports village at Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). Our trust in the police has been eroded by its failure to serve the rakyat. For decades, Umno Baru politicians have stripped the independence of the police force and made the police serve them, as baruas, thus betraying the rakyat.
How convinced are we, when told that the police will thoroughly investigate this latest alleged rape? It was a foreign NGO which first exposed the rape of the Penan girls in Sarawak. Despite pledges by the police and politicians to bring the rapists of the Penan girls to justice, nothing has happened.
Instead, the Penan women have been branded liars and story-tellers. If the rakyat are cynical about police efforts to stem crime, Umno Baru and the police have only themselves to blame. Read the rest of this entry »
