MIC president Datuk Seri Samy Vellu is calling for the release of the five Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) leaders under ISA detention, saying two of them should be freed sooner because one is ill and the other is now an elected representative. [Bernama]
It’s funny reading how many times Samy Vellu had to stress that it’s not a political stunt; I doubt many would agree with him in this sense. He should have make the call much earlier, but it’s better late than never… political stunt or not, I don’t really mind as long as it makes a change at the end.
This raise the same old issue again… what’s the point of having ISA at the first place? It’s probably the most barbaric act we have in Malaysia. I can understand the need for certain laws to protect the nation against terrorism or racial crash, but locking up people without trial for months and years is just not right.
I would have support an act to detain a suspicious terrorist for prolonged period, say for 14 or 28 days… but if there is no solid proofs to file any charges, the suspect have to be let go. It’s one of the basic fundamentals of our constitution… that we would rather let a criminal off the hook than to put an innocent man into wrong justice.
I am not saying that the Hindraf 5 are innocent; the Hindraf memorandum still rings in my mind occasionally… truth or not it’s seditious nonetheless. However, it’s just not right to detain anyone without giving them a fair trial.
It’s not just about releasing the Hindraf 5… ISA should be abolished.
Quoted from Nuraina A Samad…
“If the government was so sure that the 5 Hindraf leaders had breached any law of the land, then the 5 should have been subjected to the processes of law. Detention under the ISA is not a due process of law. It is unjust.”
The five-year old daughter of Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) chairperson P Waythamoorthy will lead hundreds of rose-bearing children - and their parents - on February 16 to petition at the Parliament building for the release of the group’s detained leaders. [Malaysiakini]
Hindraf supporters gathered at the Prime Minister’s office in Putrajaya on Jan 22
to state their plans on handling over the petition on Feb 16
I don’t feel good about this at all. I am against the use of ISA, but I am also against using children to fight for political or social causes.
I can understand the girl’s pledge to have her father home… but to fight for the rights of Indians? Am I supposed to believe that a 5-year-old girl could have such a mature thinking without being influenced or exploited by the adults?
Believe in what you want… I see this as a shameful exploitation.
Ex-ISA detainee Abdul Malek Hussin won a rare law suit against the government over his arrest and torture in 1998, and was awarded RM2.5 million in damages. [Malaysiakini]
I am not sure how the judge has made his call; is the compensation meant for the violence against Abdul Malek, or that the arrest itself is deemed unlawful?
I wonder if there will be any further action against those police officers that were involved in the case. They have committed a crime; monetary compensation is not enough to pay for what they did.
Besides, it is the tax payers, people like us that are going to pay the money. The police lost nothing beside their dented reputation, and we have to pay for the crime that they committed. Quite ridiculous ain’t so?
The government is making a real mess in Nathaniel’s Tan arrest. I don’t know Nat personally, and I am not sure if he did (or did not) violate any laws, so I am not going to jump on the bandwagon and call for his release just yet.
What concerned me though, is on how he was arrested (I am not going into the arrest details, you can read it from Tian Chua instead) and the reason for his arrest…
Mohd Johari Baharom’s involvement
Nat was arrested on Friday afternoon (July 13) under Official Secret Act (OSA) and is remanded for 4 days under Section 8 of the Official Secret Act (OSA) over allegation of possession of documents pertaining to Johari Baharum’s alleged involvement in corruption. [Jeff Ooi]
PKR information chief Tian Chua is in turmoil for his French Dinner doctored photo that poked fun at Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.
I am not sure what Tian Chua was trying to show… awareness, humour or whatever… he failed miserably regardless.
The picture in question
What Chua did was stupid, but what caught my attention is the amount of criticism he received for his act… I somehow felt that the criticism he received could be more than the condemnations for the Altantuya’s murderer or any other crimes that have been rising recently.
BN leaders in particular have been critical about this photo but rather quiet in voicing about Altantuya’s murder case… it’s a pathetic situation.
Besides, it’s very obvious that the picture is being doctored; it’s so blatantly fake that people need to be really stupid to believe that it is something real… and the sad thing is, some Malaysians are that stupid indeed.
Update - A Muslim friend told me that in Islamic teaching, defamation is more sinful than murder (in his exact Malay words… “Fitnah dosanya lebih besar daripada membunuh”)… and that’s probably why Tian Chua has received those harsh criticisms.
I won’t go against any religious teaching, but the words reminded me of ISA where people are arrested without trail… and some of them might be innocent. Aren’t those wrongful accusations by ISA being counted as “fitnah” as well?
