Malaysiakini reports that the police are cordoning off Dataran Merdeka and have issued warnings to prevent citizens from attending the above silent, peaceful candlelight vigil for the 5 HINDRAF leaders now under ISA detention. The vigil is scheduled for tonight, at 8 pm.
The UMNO-BN government’s response was to be expected, of course.
Well, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, this is what I have to say. Make sure you pass the message to your attack dog Musa Hassan and your lapdog Johari Baharom.
It is our fundamental and inalienable RIGHT as free citizens to peaceably assemble and to voice our concerns without interference from the state. We as citizens have never relinquished the right to public assembly; instead, the state has illegally misappropriated our right by ‘giving’ the police the power to ‘approve’ public assembly.
Listen well, Abdullah.
I do not recognise the authority of the police or the state in this respect. And neither do an increasing number of citizens in Malaysia.
In every single one of the previous civil protests, the violence was instigated and initiated by the police, not the citizens who participated in the protest. In fact, I am glad to see how disciplined the civil protestors have been, whether they be from HINDRAF, BERSIH, the Bar Council or otherwise. It is the PDRM that has proven to be lacking in discipline and professionalism, shirking their professional code to act as the thugs and enforcers of your shoddy regime.
And now you send your attack dogs in uniform to once again bar the people from peacefully assembling in solidarity with the HINDRAF leaders you unjustly detained under the ISA, an obsolete and draconian law that should have been expunged from the Constitution decades ago.
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, I have no respect whatsoever left for you. To address you by your birth name is a courtesy I do not intend to maintain much longer.
You are a failed leader of a failed government, trying desperately to protect a festering mess of failed policies.
I no longer recognise you as the Prime Minister of Malaysia. You are not fit hold the post. Nor do I recognise your Cabinet of fools, imbeciles and bigots.
You forget, Abdullah, that *I* am your boss. I am one of the rakyat, and the rakyat are very angry.
Seen on Elizabeth Wong’s blog: photos and videos of opposition leader Tian Chua being assaulted, dragged out of his car and taken away by PDRM-Gestapo thugs near Parliament this morning. According to (independent) reports, the car he was in was later found torched. Draw your own conclusions from that.
You must have seen the heavy police presence on the streets of KL this morning.
You may even have seen the ‘news’ on Rangkaian Televisen BN (RTBN, a.k.a. ‘RTM’, ‘TV3’, etc) or God forbid, the New Straits Times or The Star.
On the order of The High Hypocrite Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, roadblocks were set up and several top opposition leaders and human rights lawyers and civil society activists were arrested while trying to exercise their democratic rights: attempting to submit a memorandum to Parliament opposing the term extension of the current Election Commission chief, Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman, who doesn’t even try to pretend he isn’t an UMNO lapdog.
Over 20 BERSIH leaders have been detained this morning (some have been released), plus 8 lawyers arrested on Sunday (Human Rights Day), plus several opposition and civil rights lawyers arrested yesterday in a nationwide sweep.
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If, confused by the propaganda mill of the UMNO-BN regime, you still don’t know what BERSIH is, or believe govt propaganda and think that BERSIH is a terrorist organisation linked to Al-Qaeda, the CIA, Mossad, Tamil Tigers, etc, let me tell you:
BERSIH is a coalition of over 70 NGO’s and civil rights organisations campaigning for free and fair elections in Malaysia, for we all know that UMNO-BN is such a good government, even dead people come back to vote for UMNO in this wonderful country.
HINDRAF is a group speaking for the Indian people, who have been sold down the river by Samy Vellu and the MIC for decades.
See the video of the lawyers’ march and subsequent arrest on Human Rights Day last Sunday near the Central Market.
We want our rights back. As citizens, as human beings.
The past month has seen an unprecedented and increasingly desperate assault by the Badawi administration on the civil liberties of the people of Malaysia.
If by now we still cannot see, or worse, refuse to see the ugly truth of what is happening in this country NOW; the fact that Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, UMNO and the PDRM-Gestapo are turning Malaysia into a fascist state, where the slightest dissent is tantamount to ‘treason’, then we may as well go to North Korea and start singing praises for Dear Leader Kim Jong-il, for that is what we will become if we do not make a stand now.
Of course, the very fact that we refuse to subscribe to UMNO-BN’s ‘reality’ and Rangkaian Televisyen BN’s ‘truth’ makes us ‘criminals and terrorists’ in the feeble mind of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, a gentle monster who is well on his way to becoming the next Nikolai Ceausescu and Kim Jong-il.
Contrary to the propaganda mill, in every instance of the past few street protests, the violence was instigated and initiated by the Polis diRaja Malaysia and the FRU, firing tear gas and chemical sprays without provocation into a gathering of peaceful protestors who wanted nothing more than to demonstrate their discontent at the inequalities and discrimination they have suffered for decades.
You don’t need to to take my word for it; If you haven’t already seen it, just go and see the evidence on YouTube and search for ‘BERSIH rally 10 Nov’, ‘HINDRAF rally 25 Nov’, ‘Al-Jazeera HINDRAF report’, ‘Human Rights March Malaysia’ etc.
The judiciary is such a joke that Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail (another unapologetic UMNO lapdog) was mockingly laughed down at a press conference packed with lawyers. The fact is that the government has declared war on the Bar Council, along with all of us who refuse to submit.
How much more abuse must we suffer before we say that “Enough is enough!”?
The government serves us — the people — not the other way around. When the government of the day fails, it is our right to throw it out and replace it. When the government manipulates elections and suppresses the media, it tramples on the rights of the people.
Exercise your democratic right. Reclaim those rights that the govt has taken away from you. Throw out this rotten government.
There comes a time when silence is betrayal.
I’ve made my choice.
Make your choice. Now.
Take back the streets, take back the government and take back the country from the criminals that run it. Or, submit quietly and live as slaves of a fascist regime.
Dear readers,In support of the Burmese people’s struggle for freedom in the face of a violent crackdown by the Burmese junta:
This blogger and fellow SG-based Malaysian blogger Satya will be staging a two-man satyagraha (peaceful demonstration) outside the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China on Tanglin Road, Singapore later this morning (Friday 5th Oct) from 11am -2pm.
[ Mahatma Gandhi – pioneer of the satyagraha (‘Gandhigiri’) philosophy; photo from Wikipedia ]
Due to the great difficulty in obtaining official approval for public protests in Singapore (the SG government is equally as uptight about public protests as Malaysia is, they’re just less triggerhappy) and the extreme urgency over the ongoing violence in Burma, we have decided to circumvent the problem of the permit by staging a very small but (hopefully) high-impact two-man protest instead.
We have prepared a short memorandum to be submitted to the Chinese Ambassador and local media, if they show up. Download the memorandum here: save-burma.pdf
Why target the Chinese Embassy and not the Burmese?
Simple: the Burmese military junta is very similar to North Korea right now: isolated, paranoid, delusional and violent. International expressions of revulsion… are unlikely to have any effect on the Burmese government.
However, the Burmese military junta is still heavily dependent on China for political, military, economic and ideological support; Burma is virtually a client state of China (as is North Korea). Chinese support (in conjunction with petrodollars) is propping up the junta as part of a new ‘Great Game’ between China and India to assert strategic influence on Indochina. Despite attempts in recent years at hedging the country’s dependence on China, the Burmese government would probably collapse if the Chinese abruptly withdrew their support.
In other words, China has a great deal of leverage over Burma if it wishes to exercise it.
Obviously, China is highly reluctant to do so, but this is where international attention and pressure can be strategically brought to bear with the greatest effect. China is vulnerable to negative publicity right now because it MUST maintain a squeaky-clean public image for the upcoming 2008 Beijing Olympics. Therein lies our leverage.
By linking the violence in Burma to China’s own human rights record and the upcoming Beijing Olympics, we can gain some leverage over China. Bluntly speaking, I believe that we – the people of the world – can conceivably press the Chinese government to take meaningful action against the Burmese junta. I do not think they can afford to have the glamour of the Beijing Olympics ‘tainted’ by association with the blood of the Burmese protestors.
It is not desirable to politicise the Olympic Games; that statement notwithstanding, the Games have always been politicised to some degree, and I believe that this is the only way to force China to take real action.
ASEAN, as we have seen, is about as useful as having an extra toe growing out of your forehead. And, short of a military action, even the United Nations has very little influence over the Burmese junta.
Which leaves China.
Avaaz, the NGO that is organising the worldwide petition and newspaper ad campaign for the Burmese people, has also identified the same strategic issue, i.e.: to move Burma, we must press China.
Press hard. Burmese lives depend on it.
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Just received the followup email from Avaaz, organiser of the worldwide petition to China and the UN Supreme Council to take action against Burma over the violent crackdown. The email is reproduced below, (red highlights added by me):
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Dear friends,
Today, our petition to China and the UN Security Council to stop the brutal crackdown on peaceful Burmese protesters is being delivered to the world in a full page ad in the Financial Times worldwide — but the ad was rejected by other newspapers like the South China Morning Post and the Singapore Straits Times. Our message is an invitation to China to do the right thing in Burma, not an attack — yet even that seemed too much for media that fear Chinese reprisals.
We won’t let our voice be silenced like this. We’re taking our message to the streets, in an international day of action on Saturday — details are on our petition page, and below. And we’re redoubling our efforts to make our voice louder: our petition is approaching 600,000 signatures, closing fast on our 1 million goal.The petition link is below – send this email to all your friends and family and help us reach 1 million voices by Saturday!
To organize an event for the global day of action, just follow the steps below. To attend an event, scroll down our petition page at the link above for a list of events around the world. Here’s some simple steps for organizers:
Choose a public place or landmark in your town, and organize friends to go there all wearing the same maroon red clothing as the Burmese monks. Tell local media about your plans, and email the details and contact information to dayofaction@avaaz.org — we will try to advertise your event on our petition page.
Ask people attending your event to share their feelings on this crisis and the need for action, and then tie a red ribbon or piece of cloth around fences or trees to leave a more lasting sign of your support for the Burmese.
The worldwide outcry to save Burma’s peaceful monks and protesters is one more sign of how the world is getting closer, feeling increasingly responsible to each other, and for each other as human beings. We’re bringing a voice of humanity to this desperate situation, and we must not be silenced.
With hope and determination,
Ricken, Paul, Graziela, Ben, Sarah, Iain, Galit, Pascal, Milena and the whole Avaaz Team.
PS – Here are some great links for local reporting on the current situation in Burma:
Avaaz.org is staffed by a global team of campaigners operating on 3 continents. We have administrative offices in London, New York, and Rio de Janeiro. Please direct mail to our NY office at 260 Fifth Avenue, 9th floor, New York, NY 10001 U.S.A.
Posted by elizabethwong in Current Affairs, Democracy, Event, Human Rights, International, Malaysia, Politics, Southeast Asia. A Solidarity vigil will be held this Friday night, in support of Burma’s people, who are unable to exercise their fundamental rights in their country, and to express our opposition towards the Burma military junta’s bloody crackdown on protestors.
There are now reports filing in, that hundreds have been killed and some 6,000 people are being held at various detention facilities. Thousands of monks have been forcibly defrocked and are believed to be on their way to the military junta’s deadly labour camps.
The vigil is an initiative of civil society organisations, including Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM), Civil Rights Committee of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (KLSCAH-CRC), Youth For Change (Y4C) and Amnesty International (AI) Malaysia.
Date: Friday, 5 October 2007
Time:8 p.m.
Venue:KLCC (entrance nearest to Menara Maxis, opposite Avenue K)
Please come to show your solidarity. Please bring candles, candle-holders, tang-lungs, pelitas and banners. Wear your red top too.
“Please use your liberty to promote ours”
– Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, detained Nobel Peace Laureate.
For further information, please contact SUARAM (MoonHui) at 03-77843525 or Amnesty International (K.Shan) at 03-79552680.
Received from AVAAZ, the organisers of the international petition to the UN Security Council and especially China to stop the killing of civilians and monks in Burma:
Dear friends,Our emergency petition to stop the crackdown on peaceful protesters in Burma is exploding, with nearly 500,000 signers from every nation of the world. But the situation in Burma remains desperate, with reports of hundreds of monks being massacred and tortured. Burma’s rulers have also killed and expelled international journalists, cutting off global media coverage of their cruelty.China is still the key – the country with the most power to halt the Burmese generals’ reign of terror. We’re delivering our message this week with a massive ad campaign in major newspapers, beginning with a full page ad in the Financial Times worldwide tomorrow, and in the South China Morning Post on Thursday. The strength of the ad comes from the number of petition signers listed – can we reach our goal of 1 million signatures this week? The link to sign the petition and view the ad is below, forward this email to all your friends and family!http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_burma/u.php
China continues to provide key economic and military support to Burma’s dictatorship, but it has been openly critical of the crackdown. Now we need the government to match words with actions. Our ad paints a powerful moment of choice for China in its relationship with the world – will it be a responsible and respected member of the global community, or will it be associated with tyranny and oppression?
People power, on the streets of Burma, and around the world, can triumph over tyranny. Our strength is in our numbers, spread the word!
With hope and determination,
Ricken, Paul, Ben, Graziela, Pascal, Galit and the whole Avaaz team.
For the best local reporting on the situation in Burma, try these links:
Avaaz.org is staffed by a global team of campaigners operating on 3 continents. We have administrative offices in London, New York, and Rio de Janeiro. Please direct mail to our NY office at 260 Fifth Avenue, 9th floor, New York, NY 10001 U.S.A.
3,200 bloggers are supporting the Free Burma campaign as of this time.
[ URGENT ] 071002 . 1800
Thursday 4th Oct 2007 has been designated Free Burma International Bloggers Day in support of the Burmese people who have courageously risen in peaceful protest against their violent and oppressive military government.
In addition to the ongoing demonstrations against the violent crackdown, international bloggers will be posting in unity and solidarity with the Burmese people against the violent and oppressive Burmese junta. Approximately 1,800 bloggers from all over the world have signed on to this initiative at the time of this post.
Petition has 235,000 signatures at the time of this update. Please support the petition HERE.
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[ UPDATED ] 070929 . 1400
In support of the peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators in Burma, who even now are suffering as the Burmese military junta executes a violent crackdown on the unarmed civilians and monks: an NGO has organised a worldwide petition in solidarity with the Burmese people.
The petition is targeted at and will be submitted to the UN Security Council and especially Chinese President Hu Jin Tao (as China is the Burmese junta’s main ally and source of support) and will be circulated to international media networks.
The petition has garnered 211,000 signatures as of the time of this post and will be sent out as soon as it reaches 250,000 signatures.
Please support the Burmese people’s struggle for democracy and sign the petition here.
above : unarmed protestors flee as police and troops open fire and baton-charge them.
above : Burmese troops firing tear gas at the demonstrators.
above : Japanese photojournalist Kenji Nagai, 50, of APF News Tokyo continues filming even as he lies wounded after being shot by troops. Nagai died shortly after.
2 photos above : 2,000 Burmese protestors demonstrated outside the Burmese Embassy in Jalan Ampang, KL this morning.
[ All photos above from Reuters News Agency, article here ]
9 confirmed dead, hundreds injured, hundreds arrested and missing in the ongoing violent crackdown by the Burmese military junta. But the Burmese people are resisting.
Photos and latest reports at the Democratic Voice of Burma website: http://english.dvb.no/
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[ ORIGINAL POST ]
Latest reports from Burma/Myanmar indicate that at least 9 persons have been killed, dozens injured and hundreds summarily arrested in the ongoing bloody crackdown by the Burmese military junta on unarmed pro-democracy demonstrators and Buddhist monks. Latest coverage from the BBC.
ASEAN has predictably remained (elegantly) silent over the bloody crackdown on peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators and monks in Burma/Myanmar… and Malaysia has been even friendlier than most, with Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar going so far as to reassure the Burmese military junta that it was “business as usual”.
Well surprise, surprise.
But of course the UMNO-BN government sees nothing wrong with the Burmese junta shooting and beating unarmed pro-democracy protestors; we just shot two of our own a couple of weeks ago in Batu Burok! Biasalah. The people are so troublesome, always demanding their rights and marching and protesting and making us leaders look bad. Let’s shoot a few and scare them all. Show them who is boss. Tembak satu dua, yang lain tu kita tembak gas pemedih mata, belasah sikit, ha, barulah mereka faham keadaan.
Besides, there’s all that business to worry about. Industry experts estimated that in 2005, just two foreign oil-and-gas firms (France’s Total and PETRONAS) alone generated about USD 1 bil in revenues (link) for the Burmese military junta. Petronas is a major presence in the Burmese oil industry and works closely with the state run Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise for exploration and extraction of oil and gas resources, providing a major source of foreign currency revenue for the cash-strapped military junta which presides over a failed state and economy. In short, Petronas is among a number of companies whose revenues are helping to prop up the regime.
I am sorely tempted to break decorum to spit on ASEAN, possibly one of the most useless and irrelevant regional groups in history. ASEAN’s ‘Non-interventionist policy’ is just a euphemism for “I’ll cover your ass, and you cover mine.” As I mentioned in an earlier reply to a comment, the problem with ASEAN is that almost every single member nation has skeletons in its own closet, and to criticise Myanmar would be to invite unwelcome scrutiny of its own questionable policies and actions.
Dare Malaysia condemn the violence in Myanmar, having just fired on our own unarmed citizens? Dare the Thai military regime — still fresh from their latest coup d’etat and now busily slapping ‘lese majeste’ charges on every dissident in sight — speak harsh words to Myanmar? Even squeaky-clean Singapore has just avoided the problem by simply regulating civil society space virtually out of existence.
The blood of the Burmese people is on ASEAN hands… and Malaysia’s.
In solidarity with the people of Burma, who even now are braving bullets, tear gas and police batons to peacefully demand democratic change in one of the most oppressive countries in Asia.Latest reports indicate that several unarmed monks and citizens have been killed by gunfire from government troops as the Burmese military junta moves to crack down on the peaceful but growing civil protests led by the Buddhist monks in Yangon and Sittwe.
Except for the degree of violence, does any of this sound familiar?
Up to 10,000 Burmese Buddhist monks and civilians have defied police tear gas and live bullets on the ninth day of protests against the military rulers. At least one monk was killed, hospital sources in the main city of Rangoon said. The government has confirmed one death, without giving details.
Witnesses described monks with blood on their shaved heads as police charged at the Shwedagon pagoda in Rangoon.
Meanwhile, the UN said it was sending a special adviser on Burma to the region.
The BBC’s James Robbins says Ibrahim Gambari’s mission – if he is allowed into Burma – will be to urge the regime to stop using force and to start moving towards full democracy. Read the rest of this entry »
In a parallel effort, Haris Ibrahim of The People’s Parliament — a prominent lawyer and one of the leading lights of the civil society and human rights movement in Malaysia — has drafted a petition to the Agong to call for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the judicial corruption that has been rudely brought to light by the ‘Lingam tape’.
If, like me, you think that the government’s half-cooked ‘independent’ inquiry panel is just another whitewash rubberstamp panel and have absolutely no confidence that the Badawi administration intends to take any meaningful action to properly investigate and prosecute the wrongdoers behind the ‘Lingamgate’ judicial scandal and the unbroken string of scandals before this, then:
Please go to The People’s Parliament for details and support the petition by signing it. Haris will be submitting the royal petition, but we must demonstrate meaningful support for that to happen.
Do we want change for the better? Then let’s keep the pressure on, people.
Bravo to the Bar Council, for proposing and leading this march; and
Bravo, also, to the brave civil society activists, opposition members and concerned citizens who showed up in force today at Putrajaya, and despite the inclement weather, a heavy police/FRU presence and early police interference (preventing the marchers’ buses from approaching), they cheerfully and peacefully marched on Putrajaya to submit the memorandum to the Prime Minister’s Office. Read the rest of this entry »
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Unlike the Malaysian mainstream media, this blogger sees and thinks for himself, and tells it as he sees it. If it's ugly it's ugly. As long as you are prepared to debate in a civil and intelligent manner, all comments and opinions are welcome. As angry as you may be, profanity is discouraged on this site, with certain exceptions.
The ISA and OSA are not recognised in cyberspace, and you can stick them up the Law Minister's boorish arse with my regards.
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