But let’s bring some perspective into this issue. Let’s remember  how we first heard about this issue.

It was the Auditor General’s report, not Pakatan Rakyat politicians who first highlighted this issue, calling the project a mess. Read more here.

Remember that the PKR folks just followed the dirt trail after that. And you know where it led; to luxury condos and luxury cars and whatnot.

When addressing the Wanita Umno hordes earlier this week, its chief Shahrizat Jalil was vociferous in her anger against those she said were attacking Wanita Umno.

Mistake #1. Who’s attacking Wanita Umno? It is you Shahrizat, whose conduct is in question here. You and your family. You say you are innocent of what is going on in NFC because that is your husband’s business and not yours? You must think we are all cows, with cowdung for brains.

So all the sleeve-pulling, angry rhetorics and this whole wanking exercise that was Shahrizat’s speech did not address the fundamental issue; How come her family got the project in the first place?

Mistake #2. Noh Omar, Muhyiddin Yassin and Khairy Jamaluddin all rushed to her defence, but not one of them addressed the question above.

Mistake #3. The cops, almost immediately after MACC passed the baton to them(saying this was not a graft issue), stated that  preliminary investigations showed there was no element of Criminal Breach of Trust.

But who’s going to answer these fundamental questions?

1) Under what criteria did Shahrizat’s family get the contract?

2) Who approved it and when? Was it when Muhyiddin was Agriculture Minister?

3) Why the purchase of a luxury condo in Bangsar, and the luxury car?

4) The RM83 million soft loan…who signed off on it and what was it meant for?

5) From where did the money come (83 million)?

6) Seeing that it is some kind of government allocation, are they allowed to spend the money on purchases totally unrelated to the cow business?

7) Is it the policy of the BN government to allow Ministers’ families to benefit from national projects?

If the National Feedlot project is a national project, then why is it allegedly supplying meat to fancy restaurants owned by Shahrizat’s family?

Why aren’t they addressing these questions? Even within Umno there is already discord over this matter. That means even to them, this issue is indefensible.

Without addressing these questions, I daresay Shahrizat is a liability come GE13. Already a backdoor Minister, it is unlikely that she will win at any seat she contests in.

Today’s state of mind is…hmm, not sure how to describe it.

Read more on Jeff Rona here.

Atmospheric song.

Enjoy.

- Bersih Rocks.

- The police was taken aback by the sheer numbers that turned up in the streets despite the weeklong scaremongering and arrests. They were caught unprepared. The best part of the rally was in front of Maybank building on Jalan Tun Perak, where the fearless crowd actually forced the FRU trucks to retreat.

-  It was probably thought by the authorities that the age old strategy of arresting the big names would derail the rally or send the minions running. EPIC FAIL. Read this piece by The Malaysian Insider.

-  The IGP is a pure, unadulterated, garden variety moron. He said rather sulkily yesterday on TV of the protesters,  ”Dia bukan jerit Bersih. Dia jerit Refomasi.” His bosses probably didn’t tell him that the whole Bersih rally was about Electoral REFORM.

- You can ban a colour, you can ban a yellow T-shirt, you can even arrest people, demonise a cause, mount a so-call counter rally. But you CAN’T stop the passage of an idea that has taken root. The Star’s front page headline today captures the mood. I can’t bear to link it here though because the rest of the tripe that followed, including the pathetic editorial, was reeking of Stockholm Syndrome.  But yes, the people who stood up to be counted yesterday, was indeed DEFIANT. That was the people’s collective middle finger there.

-  Racism is a bogeyman of the past, that no one but the present government believes, and only it keeps alive though its various vacuous, stale rhetorics. And the people I saw that day paid scant attention to it. Unity was all around. 

 That’s Baru Bian of Ba Kelalan, folks. That’s right, the dude turned up, warrior style.

-  The so called “Patriots” came and went, their scant impact probably apparent to even themselves. Just heard that each of the “patriot” red shirts were paid RM800 each. Sheer waste of money come to think of it. It serves no purpose except to Khairy Jamaludin, who probably thought he got some street credibility by getting arrested.  Yeah man…you and more than a thousand others. Tear gassed? Tough!

7) Barking dog without a bite is Perkasa. After endless fiery rhetoric from that slimeball, all things Perkasa was no show. Apparently Braheng Ali went to attend the Putrajaya Floria. So this self appointed champion of Malay rights turned out to be a Mat Bunga. Good for him. Let him smell the roses while he still can.

The Silat dudes and pendekar types. They are the best of the lot. Threatening to save Malaysia from the “dangerous folks” Omar din’s boys were so effective that nobody saw them. They managed the incredible feat of being invisible. Wow! Ghaib terus!

- Polis Raja Di Malaysia. What can I say. Ismail Omar’s boys outdid themselves. Tying arrestees with rope, gassing people unprovoked,  herding the hordes into closed streets and gassing them. Chasing people down, resulting in the death of a PKR member’s husband Baharuddin Ahmad. Firing tear gas into Tung Shin Hospital. They’ve all but convinced people and journalists who recorded the footage, that they don’t give a damn about the sick.

Bersih went global – Korea

- Unit Amal PAS is a shining example of organisation and discipline. They rushed to the aid of many people and this I saw myself, and I have eyewitness accounts too.  There are many positive things going for PAS, but these boys are surely near the top of the list.

-  1Malaysia. Not Najib’s expensive PR exercise, but the reality on the ground. In the middle of the crowd, i saw the old, the young, the purdah clad women, makcik, uncle, aunties, Malaysians of all colour, singing Negaraku when facing down the full riot geared cops. My tears at that time was not because of the tear gas.

- Ruined business? Hahahaha. In the streets where the hotels were, we were hard pressed to find a room, cos they were mostly fully booked. The tau fu far seller packed up early, not because he was afraid, he just all sold out. The same refrain was heard from friends near Dang Wangi, Pudu, Hang Jebat, Petaling Street, Jalan Tun Perak, Jalan Ampang and Leboh Ampang.

- Tourists? They probably thought this was a nice addition to the holiday package and they too joined, some marched along and others watching the spectacle.

-This dude was my hero. All those who bitched about jams and closed roads, look at this dude,. People in crutches and wheelchairs turned up, but you losers stayed home. Shame on you.

Traffic jams? Solely the fault of the cops. The idea was to stop the vehicles coming in.  But those who slipped in, made their way via public transport, or simply walked.

- I also learnt that the police were raiding hotel rooms on the pretext of looking for “khalwat possibilities”. JAWI must be very displeased that their prerogative of catching people in dishabille was usurped by the men in blue.

TV3 live reports. A reporter on the ground was saying that a parang and other unidentified objects were thrown at the TV3 media team. Tellingly, the parang was not shown on TV, leading to questions in my mind. Oi, mana parang? If you had evidence, you missed the chance to show them on live TV. I guess TV3 is so immersed in fiction that it believes its own stories.

Finally, the Internet and Social Media RULES! This was a rally that was possible because of communications technology. Technology also made it possible to viral out live updates. Twitterjaya was all abuzz, Facebook and the blogs played a key role in dissemination of  information, pictures and raw videos.

This was probably why the strategy of arresting the lead personalities failed to stop the march. The rally dispersed peacefully after 4pm and it was of the participants own accord. Some of them even shook hands with the cops before they left. How cool is that?

In fact, perhaps in testament to the times we live in, Bersih 2.0 went global, with  solidarity gatherings in many cities around the world. I know my friend in Adelaide attended one. Another one turned up at Bersih Melbourne.

Bersih Melbourne. Bravo Malaysians!

Hooligans? Troublemakers? No, just Malaysians with real grievances who were repeatedly lied to, thwarted, and prevented from venting their frustrations. Not a single act of vandalism was carried out, no looting was heard of, no torching of cars or anything.

Just Malaysians wanting to be heard. You didn’t give them a stadium. They took over the city. The People 1 – the Govt 0.

Nuff said.

Amnesty International Malaysia (AIM) maintains that the Freedom of Peaceful Assembly, Association, Expression and Opinion are fundamental strands to a democracy. Any nation who claims to be a democratic must guarantee the exercise of these human rights.

As we draw closer to 9 July 2011, the date set by the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (BERSIH) for its public assembly calling for electoral reform, AIM hopes that the Government and the relevant law enforcement authorities will recognise, respect and uphold their duties and obligations to the rakyat. In 2007, 245 people were arrested during the Bersih rally. We hope the nation will not encounter a repetition of such arbitrary mass arrests again.

Article 10 of the Federal Constitution states that all citizens have the right tofreedom of speech and expression, to assemble peaceably and without arms and the right to form associations. Article 19 and 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights further upholds the rights to freedom of opinion and expression, and peaceful assembly and association. These rights should be held paramount by States and laws aiming to regulate these freedoms should not result in the banning and restriction of rights.

Government and enforcement authorities had voiced their disagreements over Perhimpunan Bersih. AIM appeals to the police to create a safe and conducive environment for Malaysians to express their views and to play a leading role in facilitating a peaceful assembly. Force should not be used especially when policing non-violent assemblies such as Bersih. Law enforcement officials should differentiate between peaceful and non-peaceful participants. Bersih and its coalitions have repeatedly affirmed its intention to have a peaceful walk. They have also given the authorities notice of their intention to walk within a reasonable time. This period should then be taken by the authorities to ensure the safety of all participants.

Amnesty International’s “10 Basic Human Rights Standards for Law Enforcement Officials” states that the use of force should be avoided in dispersing a peaceful/non-violent assembly. We reiterate that law enforcement officials owe a duty to protect the participants of a peaceful assembly.  UN’s Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials further states that law enforcers may not inflict any act of torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment nor invoke superior orders or exceptional circumstances such as national security or political instability as justification for torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

As a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council, a body responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights globally, Malaysia needs to recognise and respect the democratic and constitutional right of its citizens to assemble in public. The Malaysian government also needs to acknowledge such assemblies as true indicators of public sentiments. Thus we ask that BERSIH is given fair opportunity to voice its causes

In the struggle for independence which began with the opposition towards the Malayan Union in 1946, Malaysians as one nation participated in peaceful marches to indicate their dissatisfaction of further imposition of colonial rule. Today, Malaysians are calling for indisputable elections, the ultimate validation for a democratic Government. Although not all parties may agree that there is a pressing need for electoral reform within the country, AIM urges the Malaysian government to take a leaf out of Voltaire’s book when he said, “I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”.

Nora Murat
Executive Director

Checked Wikipedia today and found that the global population is 6,926, 500,000.

The global Facebook audience? 688,890,800. That is nearly 10% of the world population.

Malaysia has a population of 27,565,821 (according to Malaysia’s 2010 Census). How many Malaysians are online ? According the data found here , it is 64% of the population.

Pls remember though that the percentage quoted here was against a 2010 population estimate of 26,160,256. Our Statistic Department’s Census says its about 27.5 million. So, put against this stats, I guess the penetration of internet is a bit higher.

According to Checkfacebook.com, Malaysian Facebook audience is 11,159,200. That’s more than 40% of the population and about 70% of the population.

In short, this social media called Facebook has the widest reach. Forget newspapers, forget TV even. It is Facebook.

Marketers have woken up to the impact of social media fairly early. But then social media is not just about consumption. These are the net personas of mostly real people, who live in the real world.

Real people with real life dreams, aspirations, opinions, concerns and desires. What is different is that people could share what they think, faster than you’ve ever known.

Why is that relevant? Who cares if Aishwarya Rai is pregnant?  Millions of people apparently. When Amitabh Bachchan announced his daughter in law’s preggers status yesterday, he did it on Twitter. By nightfall it was global news.That was a welcome news I guess. The Bachchans are indeed social media savvy, I must say.

But that’s not all. The Arab Spring was called the Facebook revolution. And look what it has done. Do not underestimate the power of social networkers in large numbers.

Back home in Malaysia. I think the PM should take heed of what is happening online, and seriously listen to the rumblings. Otherwise, he might just lose his job.

Hey, when you really think about it, maybe its already too late. The BN-controlled media was closed to any dissenting views, so the dissenters were forced to find alternatives. Technology opened up and flattened the playing field. In fact, as the mainstream media gets further sidelined by changing public behaviour and preference, the online media gets stronger.

For better or worse, the Opposition’s views get more traction with the Malaysian Netizens. I’m not sure that is all good. But after years of drone-like subservience, Malaysians have taken the proverbial red pill (The Matrix movie reference, sorry).

Now, not even your best intentions can influence a fed up public,  Mr PM. As to this Bersih rally, you’re damned if you crack down on these protesters. They protested cos you didn’t listen to them in the first place. Very embarrassing for you politically and internationally.

If you allow Bersih 2.0 to go on peacefully, hey, you might even get some good PR from the public. But your own Umno warlords will castrate you for being a “dayus”. So I guess you and your cousin Hishammudin will get evil on the Bersih 2.0 participants, cos you gotta save face.

So we are moving inexorably towards transition. All because of your pride.

You think you can kow tim the situation by outsourcing the fiery rhetoric and bloody threats to the fighter cocks like Perkasa’s Brahem Ali and KJ? That’s a mistake.

Ibrahim Ali will cost you dearly. He’s done a fantastic job of alienating people from your government and BN. You’ve done nothing so far to discourage him. But maybe that was part of the plan. If so, thank you for the frog.

Within Umno though, they are out for your blood. I guess you have plan B in place. A nice little hideaway in Kazakhstan perhaps? Where cultural learnings of Malaysia can be put to good use

The Internet and its various subcultures have been repeatedly cited to be a cause of change in the Malaysian political landscape that resulted in the shock results of March 2008.

Yet many in the establishment continue to operate blindly, as if money could buy them yet another general election. (It might yet, but that’s another story)

Case in point this time is Umno VP Zahid Hamidi. Here, he exhorts Umno cybertroopers to step up their efforts to counter the “hate culture propagated by irresponsible groups against Umno.”

Does the dude realise that the term “Umno Cybertrooper” itself is a SLUR? Yeah, to the initiated Malaysian Netizen, it means ill-mannered cyber hacks who are paid serious lucre by Umno to terrorise and spread lies and propaganda.

Ok maybe not propaganda, since the average cybertrooper doesn’t have the brains to spread propaganda. That is left to some rambling canines and angry hacks who when confronted by a backlash, are quick to run with tails tucked between the legs.

Zahid has my sympathies. He doesn’t seem to know that his cybertroopers lack quality. That they would not even do the job if not for promise of money. That they lack the brains and social media savvy to engage the other side in battle.

No fella in his right mind will want to continue to “tegakkan benang basah” for his party anymore.

Kesian. 

The Malaysian PM says Egypt style power grab will not work here. Duh.

Of course not. How can we? I’m told that the FRU folks have become quite proficient with their tear-gassing and water canon exploits. Do we blame them? After all, for the past 4 years or so, those folks have been brought out by the dozens everytime there is the slightest hint of a protest.

The last major one was an irony in itself. Imagine this headline. WATER CANON WELCOME FOR PROTES AIR DEMONSTRATORS. Yeah that really happened, and while I could write various permutations of that headline (after all I do that for a living), it just ain’t very funny when you think about it.

The ex-PKR dude Ezam “Ihaveboxesofevidence” Md Nor also said its absurd to compare Egypt and Malaysia because of the wide income disparity.

FYI dude, there are similarities. Egyptians were  oppressed by the many years of near despotic rule by Mubarak. It’s just that the tipping points were different.

A lot of Malaysians are not hungry enough perhaps. Or perhaps we have collectively been cowed or shall I say “diperlembukan” by years of master-slave conditioning. Or maybe there was an epidemic of TIDAK APA-THY gripping the nation.

Notice that I said WAS. Yeah, past tense.

Someday, perhaps soon, the day will arrive. And when it does, the folks in power will find the present too, tense. They are working their way towards it steadily themselves. Here’s how it goes…

You remember the saying “Nine Meals from Anarchy”? Well basically the premise is, you miss three days’ meals and the situation is ripe for anarchy.

You could argue that Malaysia is not some dirt poor third world outpost. We have a much better economy than most of our third world cousins, we don’t go hungry, yada yada yada…

But this is a country where the middle class is beginning to be stifled by a rising cost of living, steadily increasing prices of essential goods and the imminent introduction of the GST.

You add that to a government that doesn’t seem to have words like accountability, responsibility and transparency in its vocabulary, and you have some of the basic ingredients for cauldron mass disenchantment.

I have not even begun to talk about the other incendiary spices like racism, supremacist overtures, bigotry, religious intolerance. These too exist under the bright facade of our 1Malaysia. Let’s not kid ourselves there.

Malaysians have already started to show their displeasure, first on the Net, then in the streets and more eloquently, in the ballot box on March 8, 2008. But a regime that has been in power for too long, thinks that power is its birthright and will have no qualms about making a mockery of the democratic process to hold on to power.

This too the public knows, just as it knows that the police are thugs, the military is just like the civil service, full of corrupt, thieving folks. The judiciary is emasculated, the Dewan Negara a stamping board, the Dewan Rakyat a tragicomedy, the leading media filled with cari makan sycophantic Datuks.

I hope the public will stand up and answer the PM’s insult of their collective intelligence at the ballot box when the time comes.

But then who knows, some folks might have lost heart seeing all the rampant cheating, gerrymandering, corruption and start thinking the only way out of this bleak mire of hopelessness is the French way. They still celebrate Bastille Day over there, I hear.

But I fear that Najib is right. Egypt style standoff will not work here. Simply cos most of you can’t see beyond your noses. Most of you are just willfully dumb, don’t-rock-the-boat, Stockholm-syndrome sufferers who love your oppressors.

Never mind if they rob, rape and beat you until you expire from that unique Malaysian “sudden death” syndrome.

*sigh*

Undilah Dacing…Hidup Malaysia.

Taking Issue with a Non-Issue: The Lembah Pantai Azan Protest

By Nurul Izzah Anwar
18 January 2011

Last Friday, Lembah Pantai witnessed an angry protest by two Malay NGOs in the name of defending Islam against a lifetime MCA member who admitted that he had wrote to the Prime Minister with carbon copies to not less than 5 Cabinet Ministers appealing for their intervention in lowering the loudspeaker volume of the local mosque’s azan (call to prayer).

I immediately issued a statement calling for calm and clarification on the azan issue by all involved. I also invited the protesters to join me first in investigating the truth on the complaint with the aim to resolve it amicably. But it was to no avail.

Fortunately, the protest which ended with an effigy burning ritual had not turned violent and did not incite widespread protest beyond Lembah Pantai into adjoining neighbourhoods. Now if added with sinister rumours and SMSes it could have turned into a major crisis across the nation like what we experienced once many years ago.

There was no preemptive move prior to the demonstration by the Prime Minister, his government, including JAWI. Rather, the matter was allowed to degenerate when Datuk Seri Jamil Khir denied what the Imam of the mosque had clearly admitted to –that the Imam received a JAWI directive to lower the azan volume. As a consequence, the protest was allowed to proceed and encouraged with the complainant’s faxed letter to the Prime Minister being conveniently leaked, photocopied and distributed widely.

There was no attempt by the Prime Minister, who was the primary recipient of the complain letter, to immediately clarify the matter or calm the potentially explosive incident. Instead, a disconcerting silence was maintained bordering on possible deniability of culpability if the protest had turned ugly. This was not only irresponsible but could have been also criminal.

Hoping to use both the race and religious card, this protest could have been the spark that would have engulfed the nation with sectarian flames.

The irony is that the protest now is deemed a non-event and a non-issue based on a non-directive as announced yesterday by the Minister Datuk Raja Nong Chik where we witnessed the complainant apologising for his ‘misunderstanding’ for failing to differentiate between an azan and a ceramah (lecture) in the presence of the protest organisers. This is only adding insult to injury.

As the elected Member of Parliament for Lembah Pantai, I believe that we must learn from this incident so we can better manage contentious issues in a multiracial country. Indeed, peaceful protests is a right enshrined in our Federal Constitution. But when it is caused by a ‘non-issue’ based on a ‘non-directive’ it becomes a non-democratic means to subversion.
Now, I take issue that the issue is conveniently declared a non-issue.
I take issue that the complaint was never immediately resolved through civil discussion between the parties involved.

I take issue that no attempt was made to pre-empt the widely announced protest especially by a statement from the Prime Minister and the cabinet ministers involved.

I take issue that the name of Islam was tarnished with threats of death, ISA and violence against the complainant by what would now appear to be a resolvable ‘misunderstanding’.

I take issue that if the intention to protest was to ‘defend’ Islam then the NGOs involved should show the same determination and tenacity to protest on other major sins in Islam such as corruption, lack of democracy, abuse of power, detention without trial, elections cheating, a muzzled media, murder, rape, racism, profiteering, hoarding, price gouging, economic plundering, shares manipulation, overpriced mega-projects and undeserving commissions that clearly tarnishes Islam and impoverishes the rakyat.

Like selective persecution there is now selective protestation to benefit the powerful few.

I have written officially to the Prime Minister requesting that an investigation be made on why the protest was allowed to take place when the identity of the organisers were known in advance. I have also alluded to the fact that JAWI and his cabinet ministers were not willing to take responsibility by keeping completely silent on the issue under their jurisdiction, and as a followup asked for clear guidelines, in particular regarding the use of loudspeakers by mosques to be made available to the public.

Finally, I had also invited the Prime Minister to make a joint-statement with me, calling for calm and maintaining of harmony not only in Lembah Pantai but in the entire nation.

Now, isn’t that the real and right issue to take?

*Note. The emphasis in bold is my own.

———————————————————————————————–

On 18th December, 2010 I was appointed as a Vice President of KEADILAN. I welcome this appointment and thank KEADILAN for placing their trust in me by appointing me to this position.

I hope to bring to the important task facing me, the experience I have gained from more than a decade’s work as a human rights lawyer, an activist, and an NGO Leader.

That experience taught me that many of the problems facing the people
can only be resolved by engaging in the political process, in order to
reform and change the way this country is administered. And I have no
doubt that KEADILAN and the wider Pakatan Rakyat have the resolve and
capability to carry out this process of reform and change, and to create a fairer, juster, and more prosperous Malaysia.

Pakatan Rakyat’s  Common Policy Framework is humanist, compassionate, practical and achievable.  It is a sign-post to a better future for all Malaysians.

Unlike the Barisan Nasional component parties, KEADILAN is a multi-racial party which acts in the interest of all the races of this country. I
recognise that different types of problems are faced by the various
communities in this country.

These problems have to be looked into according to the needs of each community. I am fully aware of the serious problems faced by the Indian community in this country, and resolve to attend to it, hand in hand with the issues facing all the other communities. No community or segment of this country can be said to be enriched, if their brethren in another community remain impoverished.

As a human rights lawyer and activist I have represented victims of all races such as Kugan, ex-airman Tharmendran, Aminulrasyid Amzah and Norizan Salleh. As Vice President of KEADILAN I will continue to assist my fellow Malaysians of every race and creed.

I do not believe in a politics of cliques, factions and coteries. I
believe the aim of politics is not self-aggrandisement or to profit
oneself, but to benefit the people and uplift the nation. Whosoever
has the good of the people at heart, he is my ally in this struggle.

I call upon all Malaysians who love freedom and justice to rally
around us, and help us save this country from the grip of oppression
and misrule.

I take this opportunity to wish all Malaysian Christians, a Merry Christmas!

Issued by,

N SURENDRAN
VICE-PRESIDENT,
PARTI KEADILAN RAKYAT