[ UPDATED ] UMNO’s ‘Lingam’ Exposed. Whoa. Watch where you point that thing.

[ UPDATED ] 070926 . 0430

The Bar Council is marching later this morning to demand a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Case of the Dangling Lingam, which has irreversibly damaged the judiciary even while the tainted Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz bawls for help from de facto Law Minister Nazri ‘the Nazi’ Aziz, thus setting the dishonourable precedent of the Chief of the judiciary subjugating itself to the executive.

[ Ghostline ] sincerely regrets that he cannot be there (his physical avatar is currently manifested in SG) to lend his (meagre) strength to help the Bar Council and fellow citizens lift the Great Lingam from where it has fallen on and crushed the Palace of Justice, but will be there in spirit, walking with the Bar Council and fellow citizens.

Details of the Bar Council march at Zorro’s blog.

[ free postcard by GhL. Send it to your (lawyer) friends! ]

[ UPDATED ] 070922 . 0115

It seems that the Case of the Dangling Lingam has finally stirred up enough trouble (it’s HUGE, it’s obscene, it swings around dangerously and – inconveniently – it keeps pointing at people like Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz…) that even the habitually comatose Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has noticed the indiscretion — no small feat.

The Great Slumberous One has finally broken his elegant silence over the huge judicial scandal to bestow upon the rakyat one of his stock non-answers by flippantly rejecting calls for a Royal Commission of Inquiry and to assure the people instead that the government is investigating.

The person(s) charged with conducting the investigations will likely be the Dubious Duo of IGP Musa Hassan and AG Abdul Gani Patail. It is entirely possible that they will be joined by the Dastardly Duet of Johari Baharom and Nazri Aziz, who may be temporarily seconded from their ongoing crusade against the opposition and civil society advocates of transparency, accountability and free speech in order to lend their brute force assistance to stop the enormous swinging lingam from doing any more damage to the ‘establishment’.

Which, if you do the math, would give us lucky Malaysians a Questionable Quartet in charge of investigating the Mystery of the Dangling Lingam. Hurrah, we’re saved!
Pardon me, dear readers, for stretching the lingam analogy as far as I can. Sometimes you just need to pull (or squeeze) something sensitive to get the attention of a particularly insensitive beast.

(With apologies to all the innocent men named Lingam out there)

[ ORIGINAL POST ]

Ok, that was a bit of a naughty pun on my part. Still outstation but couldn’t resist posting this cheeky post title after seeing the explosive VK Lingam tape, which seems to be the ‘hottest’ topic in the Malaysian Internet community right now, and for good reason.

See, ‘Lingam‘ or ‘linga‘ is actually Sanskrit for ‘phallus’ or ‘penis’, and is usually used in a sacred metaphysical sense – usually in association with or as a symbol of the Hindu god Lord Siva — and by extension — as a symbol of masculinity and virility.

Of course, the ‘Lingam’ exposed in this case is anything but sacred. Check out the not-so-sacred Lingam below, if you haven’t seen it already.

The major civil society bloggers have this issue ‘well-covered’, particularly: Jeff Ooi and Elizabeth Wong.

Check it out, and watch once again as our jelly-spined mainstream media refuses to touch this dirty ‘lingam‘ with a ‘ten-foot pole’ (to quote EW). Fortunately or unfortunately, a dangling lingam tends to attract a lot of attention. As it should. And it’s pointing at the CJ.

Here is the transcript of the entire conversation:

Straight from Malaysiakini:

Transcript of Lingam’s conversation with Ahmad Fairuz

Sep 19, 07 5:39pm Adjust font size:

Below is a transcript of the conversation by senior lawyer VK Lingam in his telephone conversation purportedly with Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim, as recorded in an eight-minute video clip. The CJ (Chief Justice – judiciary No 1 post) said he is relative to now Agong, so he wants to stay on to 68, so… Tengku Adnan, I told Tengku Adnan, yesterday I had a meeting with him. He said PM is already very angry with him, he said no problem he is going to make you acting err.. confirm your position as PCA (President of Court of Appeal – judiciary No 2), working very hard, then working very hard to get Tan Sri Mokhtar as CJM (Chief Judge of Malaya – judiciary No 3). Ah, we just keep it confidential. I am working very hard on it. Then there is a letter, according to Tengku – I am going to see him tomorrow – there is a letter sent to CJ, I mean Tan Sri Dzaiddin, that Datuk Heliliah, Datuk Ramli, Datuk Ramli and Datuk Ma’roop be made judges, and he rejected Dr Andrew Chui and apa itu Zainuddin Ismail lah. Because Zainuddin Ismail condemned your appointment and Tan Sri Mokhtar’s appointment. And then you also, you seem to write a letter for the remaining five be confirmed as judges. As per our memo I discuss with Tun Eusoff Chin, and we sent the same memo to PM. I just want to get a copy (of the) letter that that has been done. And then Tan Sri Dzaiddin said he is going to recommend six people for the Court of Appeal, but until today the letter hasn’t come to PM. He never discuss, but neither he has sent the letter to PM. Yes, he has not sent. I know it is under the constitution for judges all that is your job, Datuk, to send, but we don’t want to make it an issue now. Ah. Okay. Actually I told Tengku Adnan to inform PM – PM to call you for a meeting. I organise it so that Tengku Adnan will call you directly. And then I got your number, I will tell him to call you directly for you to meet PM lah. So should be okay, then ar.. correct, correct, it is very important that the key players must be there. Correct, correct, correct, correct, correct. You know that the same problem that Tun Eusoff Chin has. He tried to do all this and yet he has run out of soldiers. He couldn’t do it because many are from the other camp. Last time was unfortunate because Tun Daim was doing everything, sabotaging. Otherwise, how are things with you – everything is okay? No, don’t worry. You know sometimes Tan Sri Vincent that half the time they are talking about judiciary rather than doing the work. But if I don’t do this part, my work will be useless. Ha, ha, ha. Ah, yes. Correct, correct, correct, correct, correct, correct. Right, right, right, correct. Ah, right, susah. You see, he has now up for six Court of Appeal judges, so that he can put his men before he retires. Correct, correct, correct, ah, and then ah, correct. But never mind, I will do this. I will get Tengku Adnan to arrange for PM to call you and Tan Sri Vincent Tan for PM to call you. And you know why? Actually, I am very grateful with Tan Sri Vincent Tan. You know why? I brainwash you so much even I quarrel with him. One day, I went to Vincent Tan’s house, I fired him at night in his house. I said bloody hell if you don’t do this, who will do it? All these people Tun Eusoff Chin, Datuk Ahmad Fairuz, Tan Sri Zainon, all fought for that. Then he called Tengku Adnan. Tengku Adnan, he said saya bukan Perdana Menteri Malaysia lah, you know. If the old man doesn’t want to listen to me, go to hell. He quarreled with me. I said never mind, never mind, you talk to PM again tomorrow morning to put Datuk Ahmad Fairuz to CJM. So next day morning, he went and he called me back 9.30 that he said PM has already agreed. So I said never mind, we hope for the best. So I said no harm trying – the worst that it can happen is that you lose. Being the old man, he is 76 years old, he gets whispers everywhere, and then you don’t whisper, he get taken away by the other side. But, now PM is very alert because every time he gets letters from Tan Sri Dzaiddin, he called Tengku Adnan, he said discuss with Vincent – come and discuss. Yes yes, ya. Correct, correct, ya, but you see although I know PM, I am a lawyer in practice, my views are.. I go through them, I go through them lah. Ah, ah, ah, ah. And then Dzaiddin will call them telling that you went saw PM and you make a big issue out of it. Oh ya, I think so, I think so. Okay, fine, fine, fine, fine. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Ah, ah. Correct, correct. Now I heard Raja Aziz, Raja Aziz two weeks ago spoke to my lawyer Thayalan and another lawyer Ailan in the High Court – they have a case each other. So, Thayalan and Ailan asked Raja Aziz, how is Tan Sri Wan Adnan? He said he is on his way down. But you know what is the shocking thing he said? Datuk Fairuz became CJM. He overruled everybody. In three months time, he is going be made PCA, and six months time, he is going to be CJ. He said he can’t think, he’s shocked. He told us. Ha, it seems that they are going to organise a campaign to run you down. But you just keep quite, don’t say anything. Even the press asked, you said I leave it to God, that’s all. Don’t say. I really like your message. You said you work very hard, what can I do? I leave it to God. That’s the best answer, Datuk, that you can ever be. Ah… I will also get Tan Sri to remind PM to put a Tan Sri-ship this year lah. This will elevate you, you know. Oh yes, yes, yes, yes. Ha. Steve Shim got so fast, Tan Sri Chong waited for whole year to get Tan Sri-ship. Ah.. My God that’s why, ah. Correct, correct, correct, correct. Ya, ya, ya, ya. Right, right, right. Correct, correct. Don’t worry, we organise this. If Tan Sri Vincent and Tengku Adnan want to meet you privately, they will, I will call you. We organise in a private arrangement, in a very neutral place. No, don’t worry, Datuk, I know how much you suffer for Tun Eusoff Chin. And Tun said ‘Datuk Ahmad Fairuz, 110 percent loyalty’. We want to make sure our friends are there for the sake of the PM and the sake of the country. Not for our own interest, not for our own interest. We want to make sure the country come first. Well, you suffered so well, so much you have done. For the election, Wee Choo Keong, everything. How much, nobody would have done all these. Yes, you know. Good lah. Don’t worry. I am constantly working on this. Ya, ya, don’t worry, don’t worry. We work hard on this. And Datuk, and then if Tan Sri Vincent and Tengku Adnan want to see you, I will organise it in such a confidential place. Okay, Datuk, very best. God bless you and your family. Okay. Thank you, thank you. Bye.

Kuuki ga Yomenai; Knowing When It’s Time To Step Down

[ notice ] Dear readers, am travelling for work the next few days and will be updating less frequently while away, but would like to leave some food for thought in the form of this article featured in today’s editorial page of the (Singapore) Straits Times, which addresses the resignation of embattled Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

kuuki ga yomenai: “cannot read the air”, or completely out of touch.

sonnano kankeinei: “So what? I don’t care!”

There are many parallels with our own situation (except of course the willingness of failed leaders to accept responsibility and resign — or be forced out dishonourably). Click to enlarge:

Here’s the disgusting fact: the real and perceived shortcomings of the Shinzo Abe administration pale by far in comparison to that of Badawi’s UMNO-BN administration.

Fortunately for the Japanese, their level of awareness and the honour code is so deeply ingrained in their social psyche that when an individual, group or government’s misdeeds come to light, the position of those implicated soon becomes untenable. Even if an individual’s own honour code fails him and he tries to cling desperately to power, the Japanese people will vociferously demand that he be held accountable and to take responsibility for his or his subordinates’ misdeeds. Resignation or (political or actual) suicide usually follows such a dishonourable public backlash.

Despite the fact that the Japanese have also had the same (Liberal Democratic Party) party in government for most of their post-war history, no tainted leader/minister has ever been able to survive for long (politically) after their (or their subordinates’) misdeeds or mistakes were brought into the light. The maturity and independence of Japanese (civil) society and media has generally been able to act as an effective moderating factor to check government abuses.

I don’t need to explain how far our own miserable political situation differs from that of the Japanese.

The Japanese political system is far from perfect, but it is also far ahead of our own. Can we do the same? Vociferously demand accountability of our corrupt, inept and malignant leaders – and since we know it shall not be forthcoming – throw them out at the next general election.

So, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, have you learned to read the air yet? Or are you — as always — both kuuki ga yomenai AND sonnano kankeinei?

[ UPDATED ] Hyperallergic Reactions to BBC’s HardTalk With Syed Hamid Albar

[ UPDATED ]

It seems that my satirical suggestion that we should adopt Sarah Montague of BBC HardTalk as Malaysia’s PM has triggered grave fears of an impending invasion and recolonisation of Malaysia by a grand military alliance composed of the UK, US, Israel, Russia, Iran, Syria, Jordan, Dubai, Singapore, China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, East Timor, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga, Burkina Faso and Luxembourg neo-colonialists, led by none other than the terrifyingly implacable and gimlet-eyed Supreme Leader Sarah Montague… I sincerely apologise for causing widespread panic and terror in the Malaysian online community.

With so many more pressing issues at hand, I would much prefer not to feud with commenters and other bloggers, but the appearance of several particularly venomous and fascist dangerous blog responses to my latest post/subject (the BBC Hardtalk interview with FM Syed Hamid Albar) requires a comprehensive reply.

It seems that several individuals and bloggers (not UMNO, to my considerable surprise) have taken grave offence to my satirical suggestion that we should adopt Sarah Montague of BBC’s HardTalk programme as Malaysia’s Prime Minister. At least one (fairly established and outwardly pious) blogger has uttered explicit threats of ‘hunting down and decapitating’ ‘traitors’… presumably independent-minded individuals who might dare to ridicule the esteemable Foreign Minister’s desperate comments and make satirical comments that Sarah Montague would make a better Prime Minister than Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

(Note: If you have not seen the video yet, please refer to the end of this post for the link to the BBC video; I leave you to judge for yourself whether Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar’s performance at the interview qualifies as that of a gallant hero defending the flawless reputation of Utopian Malaysia from hordes of evil enemies (as some think), or a squirming stooge forced to defend an indefensible political position from uncompromisingly blunt questions from a hard-nosed BBC journalist who cannot be intimidated or suppressed by UMNO-BN, unlike the supine Malaysian mainstream media)

It would seem that my satirical one-liner (last line of this post) about importing Sarah Montague as our PM has proven to be far more useful than I intended. For one, it appears to have (inadvertently) exposed the racist-religious supremacist tendencies of some individuals by triggering an over-reaction on their part.

The immediate and adverse allergy to satire is clear proof that the self-serving paranoia and supremacist rhetoric sown by UMNO-BN for so many years has fully taken root in some individuals, who may outwardly profess to be opposed to UMNO totalitarianism but spew the same poisonous, racist-religious supremacist rhetoric that we have come to expect from the fascists in UMNO Youth. This is a trend that is as insidious and dangerous as the overt racist rhetoric spewing from within the ranks of UMNO.

I say again: if we succumb to communal and sectarian hatred, UMNO has won. They will have successfully divided the multiracial people of Malaysia along racial lines, thus ensuring their continued hegemony.

To emphasise the point, I reproduce below one of the comments (unedited) here, as posted by ‘Mahaguru58’ on Achmed Rauff’s blog (Bullets of Quills and Ink) “Do I want Sarah Montagne as PM of Malaysia?”:

“mahaguru58 said…

Well said Brother!Read my latest article about these anonymous cowards who seem hellbent in selling out our nation to foreign devils!They are traitors who must be hunted down and decapitated for their treacherous ideas!It is as the saying goes, ” A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”.They’d never know the value of the independence that we have till we are colonized again!These upstarts usually have never experienced the hardship that our forefathers went through living under the foreign occupiers!I am with you in this stand.

7:20 AM”

Expressions of frustration and contempt for corrupt, inept and racist government (leaders) are not the same as ‘selling out the nation’ to ‘foreign devils’.

To ‘Mahaguru58’ and Achmed Rauff, you may wish to turn around and look in the direction of the BN (UMNO-MCA-MIC etc) headquarters. There are your ‘traitors’ who are ‘selling out the nation’, not those of us citizens who declare our refusal to submit to corruption, racism and creeping totalitarianism — unless of course you share the same insidious fascist objectives as UMNO. I will remind you that the threat of ‘decapitation’ would fit seamlessly into an Al-Qaeda/Jemaah Islamiah/Abu Sayyaf video.

And just in case you once again try to denigrate the credentials of other races in claiming equal rights as citizens of Malaysia:

My grandfather (and many Malayans of all races) operated with the Force 136 guerrillas and fought against the occupying Japanese Army for three years during WWII. Malayans of all races fought and died for a proto-country where many were at the time only 2nd or 1st-generation Malayans or were even born overseas. I can tell you that they did not fight to replace one set of oppressors with another, home-grown one.

There is no room for supremacism. We will not accept it. Stop this racist and religious intolerance NOW.
__________________

The record will show that:

(1) this blog is implacably opposed to the corrupt and racist policies and (mis)conduct of the BN government of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi led by UMNO and its component parties, and expresses opposition by helping to record and expose misconduct and hypocrisy.

(2) this blog has been pushing (in its limited capacity) for social equality and racial/religious tolerance, and is a (very) small part of the Bangsa Malaysia initiative, which adopts a ‘colour-blind’ position to overcome the deep communal suspicions created by years of UMNO communalist rhetoric and institutionalised discrimination. This blog does not tolerate supremacism of any kind. Fortunately, there are many enlightened individuals and citizens of all races and creeds who can see and act on the urgent need to eradicate supremacism.

(3) this blog has been trying (in its limited capacity) to help raise awareness of the people’s civil rights to freedom of speech and information; to demand accountability from the government; and the right to vote independently for a clean and just government.

(4) this blog has been seeking (in its limited capacity) to collaborate with other civil-minded individuals and/or groups in order to discuss and suggest improvements to governance, policy and the Constitution.

For some comic relief after the heavy material above, may I suggest you go to YouTube and search for “The Militant Black Guy” series of comedy skits from the “Balls of Steel” comedy series, which features a ridiculously belligerent black man whose paranoia and oversensitivity leads him to misconstrue completely innocuous comments as racial insults (i.e., like my satirical comment being misconstrued as ‘an invitation to ‘foreigners’ to ‘recolonise’ Malaysia). The brilliance of these amusing but meaningful short skits is that they manage to simultaneously satirise both real and reverse racism: casual discrimination against people of African descent and the reactionary paranoia of the ‘militant black power’ activists. Two of the videos are embedded below:

[ PARENTAL ADVISORY: VIDEOS CONTAIN HIGHLY GRAPHIC SATIRICAL CONTENT ]

Plenty more at YouTube.

The most salient point made by the videos (besides the prevalence of casual racism and reactionary racism) is that the inability to criticise and laugh at oneself is the core impediment to achieving maturity.

Thank you ‘Stu’, ‘dink’ and other readers who alerted me to the blogs in question, and to a few readers who recognised the satire and defended this blog and other readers. At the same time, I would like to request that readers refrain from attacking the blogs in question; by outing themselves as supremacists they have already done enough damage to themselves.

We have more important battles to fight.

_________________

[ ORIGINAL POST ]

There Is Something Terribly Wrong With This Country, Isn’t There?

As a Malaysiakini columnist wrote some weeks ago prior to the 50th anniversary of Malayan Independence, we have merely traded one set of colonisers and oppressors for another, home-grown one. One which in some respects is even more insidious than the colonials they eventually replaced. In the past several years especially we have seen increasingly fascist tendencies manifest in the UMNO-BN government, from the active suppression and persecution of dissenting voices and civil society (including the recent Batu Burok clashes and Paya Mengkuang standoff) to the constant race supremacist rhetoric spewing forth from the ranks of UMNO, rampant corruption and almost total hijacking of the mainstream media, to name just a few examples.

The bloody suppression of civil society and dissenting voices has come far sooner than even I expected, and in the aftermath of Batu Burok, I feel compelled to post — for the third time in one month — the text of the speech by ‘V‘ from the film ‘V for Vendetta‘, as a reminder of what we the people of Malaysia face if we do not make a stand now in the face of impending fascism, and also as a reminder of what we should be fighting for: freedom, equality and justice. But this time, there is a YouTube video clip of the speech from the film. The last few lines are unfortunately missing from the clip, but there is enough there to carry the meaning and passion of this singularly eloquent speech.

I reproduce the text of the speech below:

Batu Burok Aftermath: STOP Racist/Religious Insinuations!

Blogger KTemoc noticed and posted here about a disturbing trend in the aftermath of the Batu Burok riots. It is something that I’ve noticed too and I consider it dangerous enough that this post is a follow up on KTemoc’s post.

Over the past 2 days, some of us have noticed an insidious undercurrent of racism and religious intolerance appearing in the seething public anger over the political violence in Batu Burok where police opened fire on a civilian crowd, seriously injuring two men.

Obviously, the bulk of the anger has been directed at the UMNO-BN government and the police over the heavy-handed police action and subsequent media manipulation of the Batu Burok incident, but a significant number of the many angry blog posts from Malay-Muslim bloggers about the riots have been saying things like “…the (Chinese-owned) pigs in Paya Mengkuang are luckier than the (Malay) protestors in Batu Burok…”; “…the (UMNO-BN) government is afraid to offend the (Chinese) pig farmers because they need the Chinese community’s support in the upcoming election…” etc etc.

This is irresponsible and dangerous. I don’t know if they consciously mean it but there is a distinct undercurrent of RACISM and RELIGIOUS SUPREMACISM in these comments, and it clearly shows a failure to see and understand the reality of the situation: that the clashes at Batu Burok and the near-riots at Paya Mengkuang had very similar causes and conditions, except that one erupted into a full riot while the other one was eventually defused.

Both situations came out of UMNO-BN trying to bully the people using the corrupt, politicised and ill-disciplined police force.

[ photo from Malaysiakini ]

Badawi The Happy Hypocrite

Spotted in today’s Straits Times newspaper (The Singapore Straits Times, not NSTP): Abdullah Ahmad Badawi smiling and laughing and showing the world his public (international) face at the Forbes Global CEO Conference in Singapore, and then going back home and doing something else altogether. A choice selection of quotes from the article:

“…Datuk Seri Abdullah also sounded a word of warning to the private sector: If you fail in your projects, don’t expect the government to come running to your rescue…”If you have built this, and it doesn’t work… I am not bailing you out. You may need the money, but we are not bailing you out.“”

Uh-huh. Oh that’s right… I forgot, the RM4.6bil of public money poured into Port Klang Free Zone is a ‘soft loan’, not a ‘bailout’;

and

“…When Mr. (Steve) Forbes asked Datuk Seri Abdullah about apparently prevalent cronyism in Malaysia, he replied: “I don’t understand this word cronyism now. Everyone has a chance…”

In other words: saya tak tahu. Again. What DO you know, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi?

Hot steaming crap.

Click to enlarge the article below:

See also Jeff Ooi’s post here on how Singapore’s Business Times found some glaring discrepancies in the 2008 Budget. Tsk Tsk.

Obviously the Budget calculations must have been done by the illustrious Economic Planning Unit (EPU) of the Prime Minister’s Dept, the same unit that notoriously plucked equity figures out of thin air late last year to contest the ASLI report that the 30% NEP equity target had already been exceeded and used par value instead of market value to value equity.

You, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, are a hypocrite.

Batu Burok Clashes; PM Spins Like a Top on LSD

[ UPDATE ] 0253 . 12 Sept

BERSIH has posted a media statement on the Batu Burok incident here.

[ ORIGINAL POST ]

After 2 days of claiming that only one shot had been fired during the violence at Batu Burok, Terengganu police chief SAC I Ayub Yaakob has finally admitted that the police officer who discharged his firearm fired not one but FOUR shots, seriously injuring two men.

Meanwhile, Dewan Rakyat Speaker Ramli Ngah Talib has once again abused his office and blocked all Parliamentary debate on the riots, saying “It is just a riot and the police are investigating. Therefore I find the matter is of no urgency and I reject your appeal to discuss the matter now in this proceeding” and thus allowing the police to investigate the police over Batu Burok. Uh-huh. We all know where that ‘investigation’ is headed.

Of course, the Speaker’s political master the reliably irresponsible, irrelevant and delusional Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (who is also the Minister for Internal Security) has no such constraints, allowing him to flippantly blame the violence on opposition party PAS, saying — I quote: “…the opposition…prompted the riot after not being able to bring development to the state for the five years it was in power…”

Ah… media spin. Black turns to white, the dead are resurrected and hot steaming crap becomes a gourmet spread once seen through the lens of the Malaysian mainstream media. Or coming out of the so-called PM’s mouth.

Hot steaming crap.

You have to read it to believe it.

Excerpt from Malaysiakini:

Click on the link below for the full article:

msk-070912-pm-blames-pas-for-kuala-terengganu-riot.pdf

In the meantime, any cyberthugs who might find themselves out of work can apply for a lucrative and illustrious position as agents provocateur with the PDRM. With the General Election just around the corner, UMNO-BN and the PDRM are hiring frantically to cope with the expected increase in demand for agents provocateur once the election campaigns take off. All unemployed cyberthugs, please find job application details at myAsylum. Intelligence not required.

[ UPDATE 3 ] Batu Buruk Clashes; Int’l Media Takes Notice

[ UPDATE 3 ] 1800 . 11 Sept

Spotted on Rocky’s Bru: The Associated Press news network has picked up the story on the political violence at Batu Buruk. Good.

The IHT article below was sourced from here:

[ UPDATE 2 ] 1600 . 11 Sept

Contrary to reports received early this morning, both gunshot victims have survived and are in stable condition. Thanks EW for the update.

Separately, our gutter-quality Dewan Rakyat Speaker Ramli ‘The Stooge’ Ngah Talib has once again proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is signally unfit for the office of House Speaker. His blatant partisanship, spinelessness and clear incompetence was on full display today when he blocked an urgent Opposition motion to debate the issue of the Batu Buruk riots in Parliament. Since when was police brutality, partiality and political interference in elections ‘not an urgent matter to discuss?’

[ UPDATED ] Violence at T’gganu Civil Society Forum; 2 Hurt by Police Gunfire

[ UPDATE ]

Latest updates on the Batu Buruk incident:

It appears that both the victims, Suwandi Abd Ghani (37) and Muhammad Azman bin Aziz (20) suffered gunshot wounds (GSW) although the number of live rounds fired has yet to be ascertained. The police are claiming that no more than one live round was fired, but numerous bystander reports of multiple gunshots appear to contradict the police statement. What is known is that Suwandi Abd Ghani was shot in the chest while Muhammad Azman suffered a GSW to the neck.

Elizabeth Wong has more updates here.

Police also reportedly confiscated photographers’ cameras and prevented reporters from entering the area during the violent incident. So far only amateur photos and videos of the incident are available. The police had no good reason and no right to prevent the media from reporting on the incident, and it immediately raises the question of why they did so. It looks suspiciously like the police are deathly afraid that the photos and videos will contradict the ‘official’ version of events.

Jeff Ooi has posted pictures of the ‘unified’, ‘official’ and ‘approved’ mainstream media version of the incident here.

In a press conference in KL earlier this afternoon, PAS vice-president Mustafa Ali has alleged that the plainsclothes officer responsible for firing the live bullets was a police ‘agent provocateur’ infiltrated into the crowd in order to provoke police action. I am repeating the allegation here because the police have a known history of using infiltrated agents to instigate unrest in public gatherings deemed not to be in the ruling party’s interest, thus ‘justifying’ a police crackdown on civil society and opposition activists. This is similar to the ‘planted evidence’ tactics currently being attempted against civil society bloggers.

Excerpt from Malaysiakini today:

While no one condones mob violence, it appears (as I noted below) that it was largely the police presence and heavy-handed police actions that escalated tensions and triggered off the riot.

______________________________

[ ORIGINAL POST ]

[ photo courtesy of Present Point Power ]

I am extremely busy with work and work-travel, but I could not NOT respond to this latest outrage. You must have heard about it by now, the heavy-handed police response to a civil society forum in Terengganu:

Not all the facts are available yet, but those that are don’t look good. Here’s what has been reliably reported so far, as cross-referenced between Malaysiakini’s article, Harakah and BERSIH‘s own account:

The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (BERSIH) organised a forum to raise public awareness of the need for clean and fair elections and the problems with election fraud in Malaysia. The forum was to be held on Saturday night, 8 Sept, in Pantai Batu Buruk, Terengganu. BERSIH applied for a police permit and proceeded with the event, assuming that there would be no difficulties with this application as previous BERSIH events had been approved and proceeded without incident. At virtually the last minute, the police denied permission for the forum to proceed, and events escalated to the violence of Saturday night.

The following is a chronology of events as known at the time of this post. This will be updated as new information becomes available. It is based mainly on the one posted on the BERSIH website, translated into English and cross-referenced with the Malaysiakini report. I have inserted elements reported in Malaysiakini into the timeline; these insertions are highlighted in blue. Times given are approximate:

[ hiatus ]

temporary hiatus : work travel for a few days.

will resume shortly.