Poet Samad Said to boycott gov’t functions
By Nigel Aw
Jul 15, 11 | MalaysiaKini
Protesting the government’s crackdown on peaceful protesters in Kuala Lumpur last Saturday, distinguished poet and novelist A Samad Said said he will from now on not attend government functions.
“I don’t know how my friends in government will react, but I will not accept any invitation from the government. For the moment, I will not entertain them,” he said. Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia in the Era of Globalization #73
Posted by Kit in Bakri Musa, globalisation on Friday, 15 July 2011, 6:05 pm
Chapter 9: Islam in Malay Life
Shari’a in a Plural Society
The issue of the Islamic state is needlessly consuming the energy of many Malaysians, Muslims and non-Muslims alike. It is also the platform of the Islamic Party (PAS), its reason for being. Yet when challenged on the specifics, PAS is sorely unprepared. Surely after championing the issue for the past half a century, its leaders should have a pretty clear idea of their goals. If by Islamic state they mean one based on the ideals of justice and morality of the Quran, then all Muslims and many non-Muslims would agree. But if they want a state based on the Shari’a (Islamic law) in its current form, many Muslims and certainly all non-Muslims would demur.
The Shari’a took three centuries to formulate and consumed the best intellectual talent of the Muslim world at the time. Although based on the Qur’an and sunnah (ways of the prophet), the Shari’a remains the creation of mortals and as such, carries all the imperfections implicit in such endeavors. For Muslims to ascribe to it the reverence and perfection reserved only for the Quran means that we ascribe those very same qualities to the mortals who crafted the Shari’a.
Read the rest of this entry »
A Faltering Premier
By Karim Raslan
July 14, 2011 | Jakarta Globe
When a political party such as Malaysia’s United Malays National Organization has ruled a nation for more than half a century, its missteps can shake an entire society.
As Malaysia recovers from last weekend’s Bersih 2.0 demonstrations in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, the normally placid 28 million population has to come to terms with its continuing immaturity in terms of politics, civil society and governance.
But in order to understand why, we have to go back in history — first to the 2008 polls and the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition’s surprise drubbing at the hands of the opposition People’s Alliance, and on to the 2009 rise of Najib Razak, who replaced the well-intentioned, if accident-prone, Abdullah Badawi as prime minister. Read the rest of this entry »
Sizzling yellow reception for Najib in UK
MalaysiaKini
Jul 15, 11
Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s visit to the United Kingdom was greeted by protesters in yellow condemning the high-handed crackdown on Bersih 2.0 rally last Saturday and demanded electoral reform.
Dozens of protesters, comprising both Malaysians and foreigners, gathered outside Mansion House at London an hour before Najib’s arrivalfor a meeting with the London business community.
Yellow posters and banners, condemning the clampdown on Bersih 2.0 were unfurled, urging the Malaysian government to release six Parti Sosialis (PSM) activists dubbed “EO6” being held under the Emergency Ordinance which allows indefinite detention without trial. Read the rest of this entry »
Kit Siang says EO detainee Jeyakumar is all right
Posted by Kit in Bersih, Human Rights on Friday, 15 July 2011, 4:31 pm
By Joseph Sipalan
Jul 15, 11 | MalaysiaKini
Sungai Siput MP Dr D Jeyakumar is holding up well despite having been detained for nearly three weeks now, DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang said today after meeting up with the Parti Sosialis Malaysia activist.
Lim, who with PAS vice-president Salahuddin Ayub and PKR’s Subang Jaya MP R Sivarasa met with Jeyakumar for 20 minutes at the Bukit Aman federal police headquarters earlier today, said he PSM was doing “okay” so far.
“By and large he is okay, despite the wear and tear. Read the rest of this entry »
Detention of PSM MP mockery of the law
Posted by Kit in Bersih, Human Rights on Friday, 15 July 2011, 4:20 pm
By K Pragalath
July 15, 201 | Free Malaysia Today
KUALA LUMPUR: Whoever framed the charges under the Emergency Ordinance to detain six Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) activists must be exposed, said DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang.
“Whoever is responsible for concocting the charges must be exposed and the government must also provide a full explanation for the detention,” he said.
“The detention is a mockery of the law,” said Lim after meeting with Sungai Siput MP, Dr D Michael Jeyakumar in Bukit Aman today. Read the rest of this entry »
Men in blue pounce on MP in yellow
By G Vinod
July 15, 2011 | Free Malaysia Today
PETALING JAYA: DAP MP Er Teck Hwa landed in trouble when he wore the banned Bersih 2.0 yellow T-shirt on his way to a memorial service for the late Teoh Beng Hock yesterday.
Relating the incident, the Bakri MP’s aide Liew Choan Chee said some 50 people gathered at Wisma DAP in Muar, Johor, for the service at 8pm.
There was a FRU truck and several policemen stationed nearby.
“We were supposed to march to Er’s service centre which is about 300 yards from the DAP building. When we started walking, several police officers stopped our procession,” said Liew. Read the rest of this entry »
Najib suffers from a “mild stroke” in UK
Posted by Kit in Bersih, Foreign, Martin Jalleh, Najib Razak, Police on Friday, 15 July 2011, 2:28 pm
He calls police action “quite mild”
By Martin Jalleh
It appears that the Prime Minister has suffered a mild “brain attack” whilst on an official visit to UK.
He experienced sudden trouble speaking or understanding speech, dizziness, lightheadedness loss of “balance or coordination”, “spinning” sensations, and “brain seizures”.
It happened when Najib was telling CNN in an interview conducted in London that police action on those who took part in the Bersih 2.0 march on July 9, was “quite mild”.
There was no “undue use of force”. It was of course not as mild as his initial response when he even initially claimed there was “no physical contact between police and protesters”!
Read the rest of this entry »
Free EO detainees as Bersih rally over, says Pakatan
Posted by Kit in Bersih, Human Rights on Friday, 15 July 2011, 2:07 pm
By Boo Su-Lyn
July 15, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, July 15 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) demanded today for the immediate release of the six Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) members held under the Emergency Ordinance 1969 as the Bersih rally was over.
“709 is over. There is no case or justification to hold (Sungai Siput MP Dr Michael) Jeyakumar (Devaraj) or the PSM six,” DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang told reporters today, referring to the July 9 Bersih rally that drew tens of thousands.
Lim’s joint press conference with PAS’s Kubang Kerian MP Salahuddin Ayub and PKR’s Subang MP R. Sivarasa was held after they visited Dr Jeyakumar at the Bukit Aman police headquarters here. Read the rest of this entry »
“Malaysia Worked For Peaceful Protest”
By Ahmad Rozian
15 Jul 2011 | Wall Street Journal
Your editorial (“Crackdown 2.0 in Malaysia,” July 12) states that protesters in Kuala Lumpur have suffered “intimidation” and “repression” at the hands of the government in recent weeks. The truth is somewhat different.
Malaysians have a constitutional right to peaceful assembly and throughout the build-up to last weekend’s protest Prime Minister Najib Razak worked to find a solution that would allow Bersih to exercise that right. This included offering the use of a large-capacity stadium where the event could be held safely and without disrupting the lives and businesses of ordinary Malaysians. Read the rest of this entry »
Untameable Bersih Part 2, understanding it
By Sakmongkol AK47
July 15, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider
JULY 15 — Some spell it as “tamable”. Others as “tameable”. The fact remains, the marchers cannot be tamed and though battered and aspersed, remained unbowed and honourable.
How do we make sense and explain the actions that took place after Bersih?
Let’s have our own debriefing session lest we agonise over how the media characterised our fellow citizens who marched on July 9. On the whole, I think, those people who marched towards Stadium Merdeka on July 9 before being horribly set upon by the police with tear gas and chemically-laced water are good, honourable and public-spirited people. Read the rest of this entry »
Why did the police do what they did?
By Zan Azlee
July 15, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider
JULY 15 — The tough policeman with the huge muscles grabbed me by my shoulders and flung me towards the sidewalk not caring that I had a press tag around my neck.
I struggled to keep my balance and not drop my camera. I barely managed to not trip over the curb.
“Halau cameraman itu! (Get rid of that cameraman!)” screamed the policeman’s other colleagues.
My crime? I was shooting a bunch of arrested demonstrators being led out of Tung Shin Hospital and through a police line. Read the rest of this entry »
The elephant in the (news)room
By Dr Mustafa K Anuar
July 15, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider
JULY 15 — The morning after. The pro-government mainstream press splashed headlines, news reports, so-called “analyses” and photos that essentially and predictably mocked, discredited and demonised the leaders, supporters and participants of the Bersih 2.0 rally in Kuala Lumpur last Saturday.
For instance, the Sunday Star carried a front-page headline that said: “Defiant”. The bold headline accompanied a huge picture of a face-off between the Federal Reserve Unit and other police personnel on the one hand and the protesters on the other at the temporarily closed Puduraya bus terminal. Read the rest of this entry »
Cartoons, yellow tees, now ties – what’s next?
Malaysiakini Your Say | Jul 15, 11
‘When are they going to learn that Bersih, when it’s in the rakyat’s hearts, cannot be removed from the rakyat by banning yellow ties and T-shirts?’
Police to tighten noose against Bersih neckties, too
DannyLoHH: Is there a way to file a class suit against the police and the home minister for their unconstitutional and unlawful outlawing of all things Bersih?
Wearing a Bersih shirt or shirt with the word ‘Bersih’, or even just the Bersih logo should not be illegal as we are a democratic country. Wearing a Bersih shirt does not mean we are a member of the ‘outlaw organisation’ nor does it necessarily mean we’re providing (material) support the organisation.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tung Shin should put people before gov’t
Malaysiakini Your Say | Jul 15, 11
‘Tung Shin missed the point: as a social entity with a mission, who should Tung Shin entertain first – the police or those who need help?’
Doctors: We’ll produce more evidence if challenged
Cala: Honorary secretary of Tung Shin Hospital board Chong Teck Hong has turned Tung Shin into a state apparatus.
From Chong’s perspective, the assumption is that the hospital is both a private property as well as a common-pool resource. The property is privately-owned by a certain entity or corporation. It is also common-pool resource, similar to commercial shopping centres like Subang Parade, since it cannot reject anybody from entering.
Read the rest of this entry »
Bersih: My final thoughts
By Art Harun
July 14, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider
JULY 14 — “Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise.” — Cato the Elder (234 BC – 149 BC) from Plutarch, Lives.
In my opinion, the biggest mistake that the government had made in the Bersih issue was to isolate a large section of the society from itself, anger them and convert them into a Bersih sympathiser and/or supporter.
At some point of time before the Bersih rally — in my opinion it was about the time Pak Samad said was hauled to the police station — the Bersih movement had transcended its electoral reform objective into a full-scale platform for the people to vent their frustrations, disappointments, angst and anger to the government. Read the rest of this entry »
How democratic elections still failed Sabah
By Erna Mahyuni
July 14, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider
JULY 14 — “How can you say our elections are unfair when BN lost five states in 2008?” I hear that refrain over and over again to the point I want to scream. And stage my own private rally in front of Putrajaya.
Let me tell you a story, of a 16-year-old girl witnessing the 1994 Sabah state elections. I was that girl. Imagine turning on the television to watch a video showing derelict shacks, illegal immigrants (who Sabah natives recognise on sight) living in squalor while in the background a refrain plays, calling on viewers to “Binalah Sabah baru (Build a new Sabah)!”
Nearly two decades later and I still want to punch whoever made that video in the mouth. Read the rest of this entry »
BERSIH 2.0: Pengalaman Saya
By Khalid Samad
14 July 2011
Pengalaman saya bersama Perhimpunan BERSIH 2.0 bermula pada jam 11 pagi apabila saya dengan seorang teman dari PAS Shah Alam menuju ke Kuala Lumpur. Pada mulanya kami mencuba Lebuh Raya Persekutuan. Ianya sesak dari sebelum Tol Batu 3. Kami cuba pintas melalui Glenmarie. Trafik sesak di hadapan kilang pengedar kereta BMW. Kami memutuskan untuk berpusing balik dan mencuba pula melalui ELITE/PLUS menuju ke KLIA. Masuk di Batu 3, keluar di Tol USJ. Seterusnya menuju ke arah Puchong. Seterusnya kami menyusuri Jalan Gasing dan melalui kawasan Universiti Malaya sehingga keluar di Jalan Pantai. Dari situ terus menuju ke KL Sentral.
Sekatan jalan oleh polis di merata tempat. BN menyusahkan rakyat semata-mata kerana hendak menghalang program yang menegur mereka. Turut bersimpati dengan pihak polis, berpanas dan mendapat sumpahan rakyat berbakul-bakul semata-mata kerana UMNO/BN. Hanya pencuri dan BN yang bergembira dengan penggunaan polis secara sebegini. Tetapi, kalau difikirkan, memang terdapat persamaan di situ. Pencuri mencuri secara ‘illegal’, BN mencuri harta rakyat melalui cara ‘legal’. Read the rest of this entry »
BN losing the cyberwar again
By Oon Yeoh
Jul 14, 11 | MalaysiaKini
What a difference a year makes. Around this time last year, I wrote an article entitled The Cyberwar of 2012 for my weekly Oon Time column in theSun newspaper.
In it, I wrote about how Barisan Nasional seemed to be getting the upper hand in the online space largely because many of the popular pro-Pakatan Rakyat bloggers had become MPs and had become too busy to blog.
Post-March 8, 2008, we saw the rise of pro-Umno bloggers who quickly went on to dominate the political blogging scene. Read the rest of this entry »
