Prime Minister Najib Razak will be tabling the ‘Peaceful Assembly Act’ this week, according to both the mainstream and web media. Translated, this means that Najib will be tabling an Act that will try to stop the people from demonstrating against the BN’s excesses and corruption.
There is no need for any such Act to be tabled by that master of hypocrisy, Najib Razak. Article 10 of the constitution already gives the people the right to freedom of assembly.
In the past, BN governments have been able to stop the people from demonstrating by the use of intimidation, by instilling fear in the people and by brute police force. But the BN, and Najib, know that those methods no longer work.
Bersih, a defining moment
The tens of thousands who came out for the Bersih demo proved that the people will no longer be cowed by such tactics. The people will no longer allow themselves to be terrorized by a despotic BN administration. The people are now willing to risk their safety to stand up for their rights.
This despite the most draconian measures being taken by the police to stop Bersih 2.0, including shutting down KL Central, the capital’s transportation hub and wanton brute force unleashed on peaceful protestors. It was a defining moment in Malaysian history and a proud moment for its citizens.
Recent history in the Middle-East has shown us that batons, tear gas, propaganda and guns are futile against a determined people. Mubarak’s entire security apparatus, his secret police, his gangs of thugs crumbled in the face of the unarmed, fragile ordinary Egyptians, men and women, gathered in Tahir Square.
Gaddafi reacted with barbaric brutality, launching a merciless war against his own countrymen. We know his fate, we watched it on TV. His son, Saif, for all his bluster and threats to fight to the last bullet, looked at the cameras with frightened eyes, after his capture. Tyrants are no different from their citizens; in the end we are all fragile sacks of meat and bone; though few seem to remember that when they are in power.
Assad clings on in Syria, but the writing is already on the wall for him. In a recent interview, he promised that elections would be held next year, and those who are unhappy with him could vote for someone else. He did not mention that the election would be rigged and the people’s will be thwarted. This is the usual refuge of dictators everywhere; offer an election, then rig it. Syrians did not believe him, of course, the protests go on, and young Syrians continue to bleed and die on the streets of Damascus, the sidewalks of Homs and in Syria’s other ancient cities.
Demonstrations are a pressure valve and part of Democracy
Demonstrations are a necessary part of Democracy and for that they should be allowed, whether it is in Damascus, in London, or in Kuala Lumpur. Elections are limited means for citizens to show dissatisfaction, and they come only every four or five years. Even governments that are freely and fairly elected should not be allowed to win an election and then do whatever they like for half a decade.
There must be ways for citizens to show their discontent. Demonstrations also function as a pressure valve and allow people to have their say while allowing the government to listen.
The duty of the police force should be to the nation, and not to any individual party. Their job is to facilitate peaceful demonstrations by directing traffic and protecting the participants. In Malaysia, regrettably, the BN government is neither freely nor fairly elected, and the police force is wont to act like the BN’s hired goons.
Trying to fool the people again
In this environment, it becomes even more critical that the people’s rights under the constitution is not stripped away by such misnamed legislation as the ‘Peaceful Assembly Act’ that Najib is planning to spring on Parliament. Nor should Najib, if he has at all any sense of decency, continue to try to fool the people with the pretense that he is giving them back their freedoms.
He is not, he is actually further depriving Malaysians of their freedom with this despicable Act he is proposing. If Najib wants to amend the constitution to take away the rights of Malaysians, he will first have to gain a two-thirds majority in Parliament.
The BN, and the authorities, should read the constitution, in particular Article 10, and then abide by it. That is all that is required, not misleading legislation from the duplicitous Najib.
As expected, Prime Minister Najib Razak turns out to be a blatant liar who has reneged on his barely 2 month old promise to abolish the ISA. The most objectionable part of the ISA was that Malaysians could be held without trial by the Government, or specifically the Home Minister. The ‘new’ ISA will still allow them to continue to do this. It is the same old thing.
Booze and ladies, all you need in life.
It would seem hypocrisy is an official state policy in Malaysia. Here is Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein enjoying a few cold Anchor beer with a few ladies in his younger playboy days. These pictures have been around for some time now but it is an appropriate time to share them again in light of his recent decision to have a woman suffer from six stroke from a cane. Hishammuddin Hussein was never caned for drinking beer because certain people in Malaysia can getaway with murder while people like Kartika are treated like dogs for the most minor infractions. Yup, she is going to be punished for the same crime the Home Minister himself is no stranger to. The woman officer should have demonstrated the caning on him for his past infractions of the laws he is enforcing now. Hopefully the western media with pick up on this bit of hypocrisy.
Najib's cousin and Home Minister Hishamuddin Hussein, unwisely, chose to compare this new ISA with acts in the US, UK and Australia. Either Hishamuddin is a blithering idiot, or he thinks we are.
Here's why he's the clown but the rakyat are not laughing
Firstly, no such comparison with these countries can be made. The US, UK and Australia have a free press, Malaysia does not, unless he counts castrated publications like ‘The Star’ run by sycophantic worms. ‘The Star’ is owned by the MCA, a powerless, near defunct, component party of the ruling BN, run by Chua Soi Lek, Malaysia’s shameless icon of immorality. The Star is a shameless propaganda sheet. Incredibly, the other publications in Malaysia, like the NST and Utusan, are worse!
Nor, for Hishamuddin’s information is there going to be a power struggle in the US in which Joe Biden will be arrested by a SWAT team, given a black eye by the FBI chief Robert S. Mueller and then convicted in a kangaroo court and jailed. That only happens in Malaysia.
Nor would ex-Presidents of the United States like George Bush be allowed to go around preaching racial hatred and constantly claiming that the white population is under threat from Blacks, Latinos, and Asians. No, only in Malaysia can Mahathir freely go about doing that!
Nor, Hishamuddin, would the Klu Klux Klan, led by an idiot party-hopper, be allowed to go raging about the nation saying whatever they liked, secure in the knowledge that they enjoyed the support of the ruling party. Only in Malaysia can Perkasa led by Ibrahim Ali do whatever they like with the tacit support of Umno.
The diff is that Malaysians have no institutions to protect them
Elections in the UK, in case it has escaped your notice Hishamuddin, are free and fair, unlike the shameful spectacles that they make in Malaysia. The Election Authority in those countries is not under the thumb of the ruling party, unlike Malaysia’s pathetic Elections Commission.
There is also a clear separation between the Executive and the Judiciary in those countries, unlike the cosy nexus that is the rule in Malaysia.
So whatever is Hishamuddin comparing? Malaysians have no institutions to protect them from the likes of idiot, self-serving, discriminatory, unfit-for-office Home Ministers like Hishamuddin Hussein. They cannot be allowed to hold such power, for surely, they will abuse their powers as they did so blatantly in the all-too-near past.
Let me set aside the distressing irony that protesters in, say, Tahrir Square in Cairo last spring were, in the main, better treated by repressive authorities than protesters on a California campus.Let me just talk politics.
Dear Mr. President,
Dear Mr. President,
Repealing the Internal Security Act (ISA) would be pointless if its replacement law will still include detention without trial, Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders have argued.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said yesterday the ISA substitute will continue to provide for such arbitrary detention.
He cited countries such as the United States, United Kingdom and Australia as examples of governments that exercised detention without trial in the fight against terrorism, naming the US’s Patriot Act as well as the UK and Australia’s Anti-Terrorism Acts.
“This is a shameful attempt at inserting ‘old wine into new bottle’,” Nurul Izzah Anwar told The Malaysian Insider.
“This announcement confirms many fears we have had regarding the prime minister’s political will in implementing his reform pledges to the Malaysian public on September 15, 2011, changes are merely rebranding exercises.”
The PKR vice-president charged that Barisan Nasional would only accord Malaysians limited civil, political and human rights, with disregard to the Federal Constitution.
Another PKR leader, Datuk Kamarul Baharin, said Hishammuddin’s announcement proved the government was not earnest in reforming the archaic laws.
“Like old wine in a new bottle. What’s the point then? Najib is not sincere in abolishing the laws.
“There should be no such thing as detention without trial. Every person should be accorded to a fair hearing, innocent until proven guilty,” he told The Malaysian Insider.
The Teluk Kemang MP said if PR were in power, they would make sure the replacement laws were actual reforms and not “half-baked” attempts at rebranding the current legislation.
I know you're halfway around the world, doing very important things, but we've having some trouble here at home that your staff may not have told you about.
It's the police -- especially the police at the University of California, Davis.
In this video -- it's long, but you only need to watch the first minute or two -- a policeman walks up to seated protesters and, at close range, covers them in a cloud of pepper spray. (Read a more complete account here.)
Let me set aside the distressing irony that protesters in, say, Tahrir Square in Cairo last spring were, in the main, better treated by repressive authorities than protesters on a California campus.
Let me just talk politics.
Specifically, this: What would I do if I were president and running for re-election?
Let me go a bit further...
What would I do if I were running for re-election and I knew the Republicans were mounting a nationwide campaign to disenfranchise as many minority voters as possible?
What would I do if I were running for re-election and knew that many of my core supporters in 2008 felt disrespected and ignored by my Administration?
And, finally, what would I do if I were running for re-election and I had even the vaguest idea how many kids go to college and how many families back home were worrying about them -- and how many of those kids and parents considered themselves Democrats?
In that situation, I think -- again, I'm just making a political calculation here --- I'd take the opportunity to speak out about what happened at UC Davis.
I'd say something like this:
My fellow Americans:
I'm out of the country, dealing with some thorny issues in Asia, but I have seen the video of students demonstrating peacefully at the Davis campus of the University of California and police blanketing them in pepper spray.
I don't want to get into the particulars of this incident.
I do want to affirm some principles that may be getting lost in our national conversation.
1) Americans have an absolute right to assemble and present their grievances.
2) The authorities have an obligation to guarantee public safety.
3) That obligation may include arresting demonstrators who are violating the law.
4) The authorities must respect the rights of non-violent demonstrators.
This isn't rocket science. It's not even politics. It's Democracy 101, and I hope we'll see more of it -- and fewer videos like this.
Thank you.
Mr. President, making a short speech like this should not be a tough call.
Consider: Forbes magazine -- Forbes! -- has condemned the police.
Do you really want to be the last to speak up?
Or is it your intent to say nothing?
There comes a time, sir, when we must stand up and be counted --- or have our silence counted as its own kind of speech.
I'm sure there are many Americans --- not just college kids, their parents and their professors --- who would be grateful if you would remind us all of the right to assemble peacefully.
Some, perhaps, might even see that as a reason to vote for you.
Sincerely,
Jesse Kornbluth
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