Will Najib, Khir Toyo or Samy Vellu resign if Ijok becomes “second Lunas”?
Among the three — Umno Deputy President and Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Umno Selangor chief and Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohd Khir Toyo and the MIC President and Works Minister Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu — will anyone of them resign if Ijok becomes a “second Lunas” on Saturday with Barisan Nasional (BN) losing the seat despite the worst electoral corruption and most undemocratic campaigning in the 50 year history of the nation?
Electoral corruption and money politics in Ijok and the recent Machap by-elections have been the most blatant and fragrant-ever in the nation’s electoral history — even worse than during the previous four Prime Ministers, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein Onn and Tun Dr. Mahathir Moahamad.
This is most ironic and tragic as these two by-elections should be even cleaner if not the cleanest in the nation’s 50-year history as they are held under a Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who had pledged to wipe out corruption and money politics as the top priority of his administration.
The electoral corruption in Machap and Ijok are so blatant and flagrant, flooding the constituencies with tens of millions of ringgit development projects when they had been completely ignored in past decades, that many Malaysians regardless of race, religion or territory are now cynically saying that “A good BN MP/SA is a dead MP/SA”.
However, any BN MP/SA dying will not result in any by-election as the legal bar for by-elections during the two years before the next general election have come into force for all legislatures except for Kelantan (May 5), Kedah (May 20) and Parliament (May 17).
This is undoubtedly one of the reasons which have prompted former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir to make his extraordinary public call to the voters of Ijok to vote wisely on Saturday. Read the rest of this entry »
How can a law-abiding cybercafe operator survive in corruption-rife Malaysia?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Good Governance on Thursday, 26 April 2007, 12:01 pm
I have received a heart-rending appeal for help as to how a law-abiding cafe operator could survive in corruption-rife Malaysia.
The cybercafe operator J is “almost at the end of the road” after being in the business for the past five years and is regretting that he had “picked the wrong country to live and grow by doing business and earn a living”.
He had ventured into the cybercafe business for the last five years after he lost his job as a IT hardware/software salesman. With 2nd class honours degree in Business information System in a UK university, he never got any better job which paid enough commensurate with his qualification.
He had paid for his entire studies right from local college to university in UK, working since in high school till university as a part-time technician in computer shops, selling self-build computers from home, etc.
While in UK, he saw cybercafes as a booming industry and dreamt of owning such a business one day.
But now, he his staring at the stark possibility of having to close down his business with debts of bank loans near to RM1 million – all because a licence is required to run such a business.
Back in 2002, when he started with 30 computers in his hometown, he took him more than a year to get a licence to operate the business. Why the one-year wait? Read the rest of this entry »
Ijok by-election: Are we in Hutu-land?
Posted by Kit in Azly Rahman, Election on Thursday, 26 April 2007, 10:11 am
Are we in Hutu-land?
by Azly Rahman
As we were finishing our lunch, Khalid Ibrahim was approached by a youth in Pemuda BN attire, and intimidating words were used on him soon after. malaysiakini has a good account of the incident, titled: BN group roughs up Khalid, photographers.
… We are not party to their ideological differences in partisan politics, so we steered clear of their ‘conversations’ and prepared to leave. Our casual attire for comfortable photographing also ensured that we are not wrongly mistaken as Parti Keadilan Rakyat’s cadre. We were there merely as men-at-work, photographers on assignment… . We were wrong. We were surrounded by over 20 rowdies, and the long and short of it, my colleague, who wound down his window to inch carefully his way out from the besieging scene, was smashed at close range with the sharp portion of the mineral water bottle… He tried to evade but still broke his glasses, bleeding. Without the glasses, he drove the both of us out of the danger zone until some PKR members escorted us in another vehicle to safe ground in Ijok town centre. (Thanks Cikgu Li.)… We kept our cool and tried hard to avert any eventualities as we didn’t want this incident to be spun as an ugly chapter of over 20 Malay youths attacking two Chinese photographers in Malaysia.
Nevertheless, the unasked question must get answered some days when the fanatical election fever is over – Jeff Ooi narrating on Ijok, Screenshots.
If what we are seeing and reading about the campaigning process in Ijok these last few days, what is the meaning of “voting” to the voters?
If votes can be bought and sold, for whatever reason of “economic necessity”, and if gangsterism and political violence is going to be the regular feature of elections, where are we heading towards?
If what’s at stake here is power that will create billionaires out of the few, and every means necessary is used to buy power, are we and our generation doomed? Democracy is for sale – wholesale.
T.I.A. – “This is Africa”!?
What have 50 years taught us? What then must we do? Read the rest of this entry »
Ijok by-election – BN “kiasu” despite worst electoral corruption and most undemocratic campaigning in 50 yrs
Last night, together with other DAP MPs including Dr. Tan Seng Giaw (Kepong), Chong Eng (Bukit Mertajam), Fong Po Kuan (Batu Gajah), M. Kulasegeran (Ipoh Barat), Fung Kui Lun (Bukit Bintang), Chow Kon Yeow (Tanjung) and Lim Hock Seng (Bagan) as well as Thomas Su Keong Siong (Perak DAP State Assemblyman for Pasir Pinji), I campaigned in Batang Berjuntai and Pekan Ijok for Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) candidate for the hotly-contested Ijok by-election for the Selangor State Assembly on Saturday, 28th April 2007.
I left Ijok last night with the predominant impression – that the Barisan Nasional (BN) is “kiasu” despite masterminding the worst electoral corruption and the most undemocratic campaigning in 50 years. What a shameful way to commemorate our 50th Merdeka anniversary in 2007!
It is because of this new emergent Barisan Nasional “kiasu” mindset that my speech at the first ceramah last night at Batang Berjuntai was sabotaged — by the Barisan Nasional making use of the Police.
A police party had earlier tried to intervene to stop the ceramah when PKR President Datin Seri Dr. Wan Azizah binti Wan Ismail was ending her speech, leading to arguments between PKR leaders and DAP MPs Fong Kui Lun and Lim Hock Seng on the one hand and the police on the other when the police party approached the make-shift rostrum.
After a short while when the commotion continued without resolution, I went up to the police officer leading the police team to ask what was the problem. When I was told that the ceramah was an illegal assembly, I was most surprised, as it was clearly a most unwarranted interference by the police in PKR by-election campaigning.
Unlike one occasion the previous night at Taman Pancaran, Bestari Selatan where the PKR ceramah featuring Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was deemed by the police as being “too close” for “security comfort” to the BN one featuring Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak being separated by only 50 metres, and had to be cancelled, the PKR ceramah at Batang Berjuntai town last night posed no such problem as there was no other BN ceramah anywhere else in sight. Furthermore, the crowd was very peaceful, controlled and very good-natured. Read the rest of this entry »
Maritmuthu’s habeas corpus application — hearing in Shah Alam High Court on 3rd May
Hearing for the habeas corpus application of rubber tapper Marimuthu Periasamy, 43, for the release of his wife Raimah Bibi a/p Noordin and six children, Yoogneswary 12, Paramila 11, Hariharan 8, Ravindran 5, Shamala 5 and Keberan 4 from detention by the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (JAIS) for the past 22 days has been set by the Shah Alam High Court for May 3, 2007 at 9 am.
DAP National Chairman and counsel for Marimuthu appeared before the Shah Alam High Court Judge, Justice Su Geok Yian at 2.30 pm after filing a certificate of urgency for the hearing of the application.
DPP Shoba Vengopal, who appeared for the Selangor Islamic Religious Department, asked for a month for JAIS to file affidavit but Karpal argued for earliest hearing as family unity and human rights are at stake, with Marimuthu seeking to be reunited with his wife and six children who were forcibly separated from him on 2nd April 2007 on the ground that they were Muslims.
“Pokkiri” film of violence and sex screened to pupils in school
Yesterday, I received a complaint on my blog from Vimaleson Gunaratnam, a parent of a seven-year-old pupil at SK Taman Hi-Tech, Kulim that non-Malay students in the school were separated from Malay students last Wednesday and Thursday for the whole morning session until recess time and shown a Tamil movie, Pokkiri, which is full of violence and sex.
He sent a letter of protest to the school principal and I read out his letter in Parliament a few hours later during the committee stage debate of the 2006 Supplementary Estimates on the Education Ministry, and asked for a full investigation by the Education Ministry.
This is Vimaleson’s protest letter which I read out in Parliament yesterday: Read the rest of this entry »
Ijok – BN transforms into “Bribery Nasional” with cornucopia of corrupt electoral practices
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Election on Tuesday, 24 April 2007, 9:16 am
It speaks volumes that I was invited to the launching of the National Integrity Plan (NIP) by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi three years ago but I was not invited to the third anniversary commemoration of the NIP and the Integrity Institute of Malaysia (ITM) led by Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak yesterday.
I take this as a realization and admission by the government and organizers of the third anniversary commemoration of the NIP that whatever their public posturing and speechifying, corruption has gotten worse in the past three years and the NIP has become quite a joke.
Even former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, who is not famous for leading a government of integrity, could elicit national and international approval when he said corruption under Abdullah in the past three years is worse than during his 22-year administration.
As far back as May 2005, Mahathir had warned that “corruption might be getting to a point of no return”, that it had become a culture in Malaysia with corruption almost at the “above the table” level and more and more people no longer trying to hide the fact that they were corrupt.
Why is Malaysia becoming even more corrupt than before when there was no National Integrity Plan, as testified by Malaysia’s seven-point drop in the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) rankings from No. 37 in 2003 to No. 44 in 2006, and with all signs of heading further south in the 2007 ranking on the occasion of our 50th Merdeka anniversary?
What is the use of having a National Integrity Plan when there is even no integrity to admit that the NIP is a flop with regard to its most outstanding five-year objective to improve Malaysia’s TI CPI ranking to at least 30th position by 2008 — that we are going backward instead of forward in the battle against corruption?
I picked up on a comment on my blog and asked in Parliament yesterday whether BN has not become “Bribery Nasional” from the blatant money politics and electoral corruption in Ijok by-election and most recently the Machap by-election?
The full transformation of BN into “Bribery Nasional” in Machap and Ijok by-elections has made a total mockery of the third anniversary commemoration of the National Integrity Plan and the Integrity Institute of Malaysia — and I can understand why I did not receive any invitation to it. Read the rest of this entry »
Extended C-Band spectrum mess by MCMC
The Ministry of Energy, Water and Communications has recently created havoc among wireless broadband providers with its proposal to violate the National Broadband Plan (NBP) to revoke licences to broadband service providers to operate on the 3.4-3.6-Gigahertz (GHz) frequency — the extended C-Band spectrum.
Ten days ago, the Minister concerned, Datuk Seri Dr. Lim Keng Yaik said use of the extended C-band frequency by the wireless broadband providers was interfering with the operations of the Measat-3 communications satellite.
He blamed the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) which had given out the licences for the predicament.
Seven FWA (Fixed Wireless Access) broadband operators i.e. Airzed, AtlasONE, eB Tech, Nasioncom, TTDotCom, Maxis Broadband and TM who are now operating between spectrum 3.4 — 3.6 GHz – the extended C-band spectrum licensed to them by the Regulator (MCMC) since 2003 – are now seeing their total investment of over RM400 million going down the drain, threatening the ricebowls of some 400 workers, as well as scuttling their investment plans for some RM300 million in the next 24 months!
These companies are operating mainly in Klang Valley. In a presentation with broadband industry players, MEASAT told them on 5th April 2007 that the continued use of the 3.4 –3.6 GHz band by FWA services will have catastrophic impact on the viability of the MEASAT-3 satellite, MEASAT and the wider Malaysian ICT industry.
MEASAT claimed that they had requested MCMC to clearly and promptly reconfirm the priority given to them in the 3.4 –3.6 GHz band, seek alternative frequency bands for FWA services and migrate these services to allow MEASAT to use the entire 3.4 –3.6 GHz band before Q4 2007.
MEASAT also claimed that MCMC had in 2003 assured MEASAT that the 3.4 –3.5 GHz extended C-band frequency band would be cleared of FWA services within 5 years (by Q4 2007) and will be given to MEASAT.
If MEASAT has its way, then probably all the seven FWA broadband operators will have to shut down their existing operations which are clearly against the public interest for four reasons: Read the rest of this entry »
Ijok money-politics and electoral corruption – worst in 50 years of by-elections
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Election, UMNO on Monday, 23 April 2007, 9:54 am
In a Mingguan Malaysia interview yesterday, the Election Commission Chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman challenged the general perception that the Election Commission is not fair, independent and transparent in the discharge of its constitutional mandate to conduct elections.
Rashid is defending the indefensible as the Election Commission’s record is a history of unmitigated and abysmal failure to conduct free, fair, transparent and clean elections and the “sins” of the Election Commission are long and ignominous.
How can the Election Commission claim to have conducted fair and transparent elections in the past and the present when such blemishes as the following continue unaddressed:
- Opposition parties not allowed to send polling agents to supervise the casting of postal ballots by members of the police and security forces to ensure free and fair casting of votes.
- The huge presence of “phantom” voters.
- Inability to ensure a comprehensive and inclusive electoral roll with the highest possible percentage of eligible voters on the electoral register as there are at present 4.9 million eligible but unregistered voters.
- Prohibit unfair, dishonest and one-sided media coverage, whether print , radio or television during the election campaigns, such as “below-the-belt” and unethical cartoons, write-ups, broadcasts and telecasts and the “fear and scare” advertisements against the Opposition.
- Prohibit money politics, not only by candidates but also by political parties.
- Prohibit abuse of government resources and funds during election campaigns. Read the rest of this entry »
Abdullah – stop the Mat Rempit culture of lawlessness in Ijok
Posted by Kit in Election, Law & Order on Sunday, 22 April 2007, 2:45 pm
The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, had condemned from Namibia the fracas that occurred during nomination day for the Ijok by-election as “a stupid thing”, saying that “Such a thing should not have happened”.
Abdullah said he was referring to both parties, meaning Barisan Nasional and Parti Keadilan Rakyat, when referring to the incident where BN and PKR supporters hurled stones, sticks and bottles at each other, forcing police to intervene.
I fully agree. To stamp out such unseemly incidents, leaders must set a good example to stop their members and election workers from getting out of control.
Leaders of both parties are blaming the supporters from the other camp of starting the fracas on nomination day.
However, there can be no doubt whatsoever as to who was responsible for the ugly incident at Batu 8, Ijok at 2.40 pm yesterday, where some 20 people, including some in Pemuda BN uniform, roughed up PKR candidate Khalid Ibrahim and two freelance photographers — one of whom is well-known blogger Jeff Ooi, injuring the other photographer. A police report had been lodged.
Abdullah is now back in the country. Is he prepared to condemn the ugly assault yesterday where Pemuda BN youths roughed up the PKR candidate and injured a free-lance photographer, discipline the culprits and issue clear instructions to end the Mat Rempit culture of lawlessness in the BN campaign in Ijok? Read the rest of this entry »
Lobby for a Malaysian to be next Commonwealth Secretary-General
The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has realized the urgency of deciding whether Malaysia is interested in offering a candidate for the Commonwealth secretary-general post.
He said in Windhoek that Malaysia should not repeat an earlier case where it could not decide if it was interested in the chair of the Organisation of Islamic Conference, resulting in the country not getting all the support because other countries had already made up their decision on other candidates.
I do not know whether Abdullah had been misreported and he was referring to the defeat of the Malaysian candidate for the post of Secretary-General of Organisation of Islamic Conference in June 2004, with the Turkish nominee appointed to head the secretariat.
When I first raised the issue in Parliament last week of a Malaysian candidate for the post for Commonwealth Secretary-General to replace the incumbent Donald C. McKinnon, the Foreign Minister, Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar admitted Wismaputra paralysis on the matter as it does not have a suitable name to be put forward as Tun Musa Hitam was not interested.
Is Malaysia so scarce of qualified, competent and calibre material to be put forward for the post of Commonwealth Secretary-General, when Malaysia can chair the OIC and Non-Aligned Movement?
Are we so lacking in confidence in the capabilities and qualifications of Malaysians to helm international organizations like the Commonwealth?
Having lost out once in putting forth a candidate for OIC, are we now afraid of another international rebuff in lobbying for a Malaysian to be the next Commonwealth Secretary-General? Read the rest of this entry »
Corruption investigations into Johari and Zulkipli – Nazri should make Ministerial statement
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Police on Sunday, 22 April 2007, 12:13 pm
I fully support the call by Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Johari Baharum for public announcement of outcome of Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) investigations on RM5.5 million graft allegations against him in connection with the Emergency Ordinance (EO) “freedom for sale” scandal.
The ACA acting director-general Datuk Ahmad Said Hamdan had said that ACA had completed its investigations on the graft allegations against Johari shortly after the deputy minister was questioned by ACA officials on March 19 and that the investigation papers are now in the hands of the prosecution division.
Johari said he hoped that the Attorney-General’s Chambers would announce its decision quickly to clear his name.
If what Ahmad Said is true, then the Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail should explain why the Attorney-General’s Chambers is taking more than a month to decide on the ACA investigations papers into Johari in connection with the RM5.5 million “EO freedom for sale” allegations.
The outcome of police investigations into the serious corruption allegations made against the then ACA director-general Datuk Seri Zulkipli Mat Noor by former Sabah ACA director and whistleblower Mohamad Ramli Abdul Manan in June last year should also be made public. Read the rest of this entry »
Altantuya – Najib should tell all instead of bits and pieces
Posted by Kit in Good Governance on Sunday, 22 April 2007, 11:26 am
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak should give a full statement of what he knew about the Mongolian woman Altantuya Shaariibuu who was murdered and blown to bits with powerful high-security C4 explosive last October instead of letting out information in bits and pieces.
On the eve of Ijok nomination on Wednesday (18th April), Najib made his first comment when he said he was not afraid of allegations linking him to the case of the murdered Mongolian woman, that they were “merely lies to discredit him” and that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail and the police “knew the truth”.
On Ijok nomination the next day, Najib said that he “would not take lying down” accusations hurled against him by the opposition in the Ijok by-election campaign and would “respond to the personal attacks to the fullest extent possible… in the context of the law”.
Last night, Najib released another bit of information when he said in Ijok that he had never met Altantuya.
He said: “I have only seen pictures of her in the media.” Read the rest of this entry »
The Machiavellis in Malaysian politics
Posted by Kit in Azly Rahman, Politics on Saturday, 21 April 2007, 5:31 am
The Machiavellis in Malaysian politics
Azly Rahman
Against my will, my fate,
A throne unsettled, and an infant state,
Bid me defend my realms with all my pow’rs,
And guard with these severities my shores .
– from Machiavelli’s The Prince, Chapter XVII
Another quote:
‘But it is necessary to know well how to disguise this characteristic, and to be a great pretender and dissembler; and men are so simple, and so subject to present necessities, that he who seeks to deceive will always find someone who will allow himself to be deceived. One recent example I cannot pass over in silence. Alexander VI did nothing else but deceive men, nor ever thought of doing otherwise, and he always found victims; for there never was a man who had greater power in asserting, or who with greater oaths would affirm a thing, yet would observe it less; nevertheless his deceits always succeeded according to his wishes, because he well understood this side of mankind.
‘Therefore it is unnecessary for a prince to have all the good qualities I have enumerated, but it is very necessary to appear to have them. And I shall dare to say this also, that to have them and always to observe them is injurious, and that to appear to have them is useful; to appear merciful, faithful, humane, religious, upright, and to be so, but with a mind so framed that should you require not to be so, you may be able and know how to change to the opposite. – from, Machiavelli’s The Prince, Chapter XVIII
One of the best strategies to keep a political party in power is to keep the voters ‘educated’ only to a certain level of intelligence, and to give them enough goodies for them to want more at every cycle of election. Give them money, ‘kain pelika’t, ‘kain batik’, rice, cigarettes, Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonalds, RM200 and instant ‘development packages’ — new roads, new playgrounds, new schools, new promises, etc, so that they will be happier voters. Let them corrode their own moral character and let the children of these voters learn that this are what democracy, politics, and elections is all about. Read the rest of this entry »
Subashini, Revathi, Marimuthu cases – Tunku will be most distressed if he is still alive
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Parliament, Religion on Friday, 20 April 2007, 1:38 pm
I have today sent an urgent fax to the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi asking for a meeting with DAP MPs and leaders on pressing sensitive issues of national unity, religion, family and human rights highlighted by recent heart-rending controversies like the Subashini, Revathi and Marimuthu cases.
There are great and increasing concerns in our plural society about inter-religious tolerance and harmony as illustrated by the recent week-long prayers by Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and Taoists to seek divine intervention to spread awareness of the importance of upholding the fundamental provisions of the Malaysian Constitution with regard to Article 11 on freedom of religion and Article 4 on the Constitution as the supreme law of Malaysia.
In a written reply to the DAP MP for Ipoh Barat, M. Kulasegaran on Wednesday, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Nazri Aziz said that the Prime Minister had an open attitude and discussed matters of religion with religious-based non-governmental bodies. It is in this spirit that we are asking for this meeting with the Prime Minister.
Ever since the founding of the nation, Bapa Malaysia and the first Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman, set the example of an open, tolerant and accommodative attitude on religious rights and sensitivities which had spared the multi-religious country from religious conflict, discord and even misunderstanding in the best part of half-a-century of nationhood.
If Tunku Abdul Rahman is still alive, I am sure he will be the first to be very distressed by the spate of heart-rending cases affecting religion which split up families — in the Marimutu case, the couple had been married for 21 years with seven children – apart from causing inter-religious strain and national disunity as well as giving Malaysia a bad name internationally. Read the rest of this entry »
Abdullah must work trebly hard in next few months to have credibility to talk about Mission 2057
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Good Governance on Friday, 20 April 2007, 11:22 am
Yesterday’s New Straits Times front-page was completely taken up by two quotes of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s speech on the National Mission for the next 50 years, viz:
“I have not forgotten about Vision 2020. It is a target for us to achieve. But why can’t we think beyond that? We are well placed to envision a century of success… ”
“All those rumours that I’m resigning in July, who is saying this? Some have said I am a one-term prime minister. We will see about that… “
I had three immediate questions when I saw the NST front-page yesterday.
Question 1: This was a speech which Abdullah had delivered as Umno President in a meeting with the “Umno political machinery and Umno psychological warfare unit” (Bernama 19.4.06) at the Putra World Trade Centre last Friday.
Why was such a speech and message delivered to the Umno propaganda and psychological warfare unit aired on RTM1? Is this an open and blatant admission that RTM is nothing more than the propaganda and psychological warfare unit of Umno?
Is this further proof of Malaysia going further down the slippery slope where important distinctions among the three separate entities of government, political party and personal interests have been completely blurred and eradicated among those vested with public trust, whether government power or charge of public funds — when the strict maintenance of such distinctions are the fundamental prerequsities to foster a culture of national integrity and to carry out a successful campaign against corruption?
The Machap by-election and the current Ijok by-election have seen such blurring and eradication of distinctions among the three entities of government, political party and personal interests reaching an unprecedented level in the past 50 years. Read the rest of this entry »
Democratisation in Burma – sanctions mechanism in new ASEAN Charter
At the end of March, a delegation of Members of Parliament from Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore including MP for Seputeh Teresa Kok and MP for Permatang Pauh Datin Seri Dr. Wan Azizah went to the Thai-Burma border to visit Mae La refugee camp and meet with some of those who have been forced to flee the abuses and the ravages of civil war in Burma.
For more than fifty years, civil war has cast its dark shadow on this beautiful country. In the course of the past ten years, about 3,000 villages have been destroyed in eastern parts of the country and hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee. Burma is now the third largest producer of refugees in the world, after Iraq and Afghanistan.
Thailand has received the largest number of refugees and migrants from Burma. But an increasing number of Burmese are also coming to Malaysia. At the end of March, a seven year old girl, Dally, went missing in Cheras on the eve of the day she and her family were to leave for resettlement in the U.S.
Malaysia and other governments in ASEAN must take responsibility for the protection of refugees from Burma. They share in the blame for having allowed the situation to drag on for so many decades.
The Malaysian Parliamentary Caucus on Myanmar calls on the Malaysian government to ensure that the authorities act promptly in the murder of Dally and to adopt policies and practices that will ensure that future crimes, not only of this nature, towards unprotected refugee children do not recur.
However, we all know that the root causes of the refugee and migration problems from Burma lies with the Burmese regime. If the junta does not stop its abuses, end the civil war and solves the country’s political and economic problems, refugees will continue to flee the country.
If we are to provide lasting protection to the people of Burma, this tragedy cannot be allowed to continue. We call on the Malaysian government to plan an active role in order for ASEAN to take strong steps at a regional and international level to stop the abuses that are forcing people to flee their homes and that are splitting up families. Read the rest of this entry »
Marimuthu Periasamy files habeas corpus writ for release of wife and six children
Rubber tapper Marimuthu Periasamy, 43, has today filed habeas corpus writ for the release of his wife Raimah Bibi a/p Noordin and six children, Yoogneswary 12, Paramila 11, Hariharan 8, Ravindran 5, Shamala 5 and Keberan 4 from detention by the Selangor Islamic Religious Department for the past 17 days.
Periasamy, who filed the action through DAP National Chairman Karpal Singh as counsel, is seeking to be reunited with his wife and six children who were forcibly separated from him on 2nd April 2007 on the ground that they were Muslims.
Periasamy has filed a supporting affidavit stating that he and his wife were at all material times of the Indian race and they practiced and professed the Hindu religion. They brought up their chileren in the Hindu religion and beliefs.
Their children were given Indian names and they had lived in peace without interruption even though they earn a modest living.
Things changed in the morning of 2nd April 2007 when seven officers acting on behalf of the Jabatan Agama Islam Selangor (JAIS) raided their residence in Kampung Baru Tambahan, Ulu Yang, Selangor, detaining his wife and six children and forcibly took them away from their house. Marimuthu was threatened with “khalwat” if he attempted to stop them. Read the rest of this entry »
Ijok by-election: Khir Toyo arrested and charged for corruption if ACA independent
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Election on Wednesday, 18 April 2007, 7:07 pm
Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohd Khir Toyo would have been arrested by the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) and charged for corruption in connection with the Ijok by-election in Selangor if the ACA is an independent and professional body.
This is because even before the Ijok by-election nomination tomorrow, money politics to buy votes have started with the announcement by Khir Toyo of RM36 million for various development projects in the Ijok constituency.
Instead, the ACA had acted “blind, deaf and mute” to such money politics and corrupt practices to buy votes in the by-election.
This is what I said in Parliament this evening during the winding-up of the Prime Minister’s Department in the committee stage debate of the 2007 Supplementary Estimates.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Nazri Aziz disputed my charges as being unfair to the ACA and openly asked the ACA officers on duty in Parliament to take note of my strictures. I stood my ground. Read the rest of this entry »
Continuing family tragedy of trio forcibly separated in three different locations
LATEST –
Revathi Masoosai/Siti Fatimah’s 100-day detention for Islamic rehabilitation which ends today has been extended by the Malacca Syariah Court for another 80 days.
Revathi’s husband, Suresh Veerapan was informed by Malacca Syariah Court officials that her detention at the Faith Rehabilitation Centre in Ulu Yam has been extended by 80 days.
When Suresh Veerapan asked for the reasons, an official told him “she did not cooperate during the 100-day stay” which ended today.
His demand for a copy of the court order on the extension was denied. Revathi was not brought to the Malacca court from Ulu Yam in Selangor. Dozens of relatives were waiting to see her.
Revathi, who suffers from asthma, had told her husband last week that she was not taken to a doctor although she was sick.
It is sad and tragic that this heart-rending tale of the father, mother and baby girl being forcibly separated into three different locations by law and religion had not been resolved today, despite a memorandum by DAP MPs to the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi last week.
The following Associated Press report furnishes a backgrounder to this continuing tragedy: Read the rest of this entry »
