Below is a video on PKR’s information chief Tian Chua being arrested near the Parliament House. He had probably resisted the arrest… but does he deserved the punch after he was apprehended? I wonder…

No sympathy from me. I know some people will argue that the police were using tear gases, water cannons and some violent acts as well, but two wrongs don’t make one right… it doesn’t mean that it’s ok to throw bricks and iron pipes at the police when the cops were using force.

Yes, the charges might be biased and discriminative. It’s uncommon for Attorney General Abdul Gani Patail to personally handle the case when he is ignoring some other more pressing cases (Altantuya’s murder for example)… and besides that, I can’t stop wondering what has happened to the officer that fired 4 shots to the crowd at Batu Buruk fracas.

Still, it doesn’t mean that it is wrong to charge the Hindraf supporters. If there is anything to concern about… it’s to make sure that the prosecutors are not framing the accused but have solid proof to press the charges, and that the trial is handle fair and square with proper transparency.

HINDRAF
Hindu Rights Action Force
No. 135-3-A, Jalan Toman 7,
Kemayan Square,
70200 Seremban, Negeri Sembilan
Malaysia. Tel : 06-7672995/6
Fax: 06-7672997 Email waytha@hotmail.com

15.11.2007
The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown
Prime Minister of the United Kindom
10 Downing Street, Fax: +442079250918
London, URGENT
SW1A 2AA

Dear Sirs,

RE: 1. COMMONWEALTH ETHNIC INDIAN PEACE LOVING SUBJECTS IN MALAYSIA PERSECUTED BY GOVERNMENT BACKED ISLAMIC EXTREMIST VIOLENT ARMED TERRORIST WHO LAUNCHED A PRE DAWN VIOLENT ARMED ATTACK AND DESTROYED THE KG JAWA MARIAMAN HINDU TEMPLE AT 4.00 A.M THIS MORNING (15.11.2007).

2. APPEAL FOR U.K TO MOVE EMERGENCY U.N RESOLUTION CONDEMNING “ETHNIC CLEANSING” IN MALAYSIA.

3. APPEAL TO REFER MALAYSIA TO THE WORLD COURT AND INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT FOR CRIMES AGAINST IT’S OWN ETHNIC MINORITY INDIANS.

We refer to the above critical matters in Malaysia but which generally gets the least attention locally even by the Opposition parties, NGO’s, the Malaysian Human Rights Commission and the media for this community is generally regarded as politically insignificant, do not draw local or international funding and are deemed not pressworthy. To the contrary the Malaysian government has successfully projected itself to the world as a modern Islamic thinking country which is not true.

The ethnic minority Indians in Malaysia were brought in to Malaysia by the British some 200 over years ago. Since independence in 1957 the Malaysian Indians have been permanently colonialised by the Islamic fundamentalist and Malay chauvinists UMNO led Malaysian government.

Among the recent atrocities committed by this government are as follows:-

1.100 over Indians were slashed and killed by the UMNO controlled Malaysian government in the Kampung Medan mini genocide. Despite numerous appeals, the Malaysian Human Rights Commission has refused to hold a Public Inquiry. The UMNO controlled Malaysian courts struck off a victim’s public interest civil suit for a Public Inquiry to be held without even the said UMNO controlled government having to file in their defence. The UMNO controlled Attorney General and the Inspector General of Police refused to investigate and / or initiate an inquest into the death of at least six Indians in this tragedy despite.

2. Every week one person at average is killed in a shot to kill policy and in every 2 weeks one person is killed in police custody. About 60% of these victims are Indians though they form only 8% of the Malaysian population.

3. In every three weeks one Hindu temple is demolished in Malaysia.

The latest being the demolishment of the Mariaman temple in Padang Jawa, Shah Alam, Selangor early this morning (15.11.2007) and the next being the (Mutaiya) Hindu temple in Sungai Petani scheduled for the 29.11.2007.

A violent armed pre down attack at 4.00a.m this morning was launched by the UMNO controlled Malaysian government backed by about 600 police, riot police, Islamic extremist and armed terrorists which completely destroyed this temple.

In an attack two weeks ago, uniformed police, riot police and city Council officers hurled rocks and attacked unarmed Hindu devotees with knives, sticks and iron rods.

At least 20 Hindu devotees were seriously injured and 19 arrested including 4 of their United Kingdom trained lawyers in direct violation of Article 5 (Right to life) Article 8 (Equality) Article 11 (Freedom of Religion) Section 295 (defiling a place of worship), Section 296 (disturbing a religious assembly), 298A(causing racial disharmony) and Section 441(criminal trespass) of the Malaysian Penal Code.

These authorities are plagued by an above the law mindset and in fact liberally take the law into their own hands. These atrocities however does not happen to almost all Islamic places of worship. Please visit www.policewatchmalaysia.com for further and better particulars.

4. State sponsored direct discrimination against the Indians in Public University intakes, Indian (Tamil) Schools, skills training institutes, civil service and private sector job opportunities, business and license opportunities and in almost all other aspects of daily life.

Despite our hundreds of letters, appeals and pleas to the Malaysian King and Sultans, the Prime Minister, Attorney General, Inspector General of Police, Ministers, Chief Ministers and the latest being our letters to the Prime Minister dated 29.10.2007 and 30.10.2007 and to the Attorney General dated 1.11.2007 the Malaysian authorities are only proceeding with greater ferocity and with impunity with very little regard for the Federal Constitution and laws of Malaysia. So please help us.

CONCLUSION

We fear that this peace loving Indian community of Tamil origin having been pushed to the corner and the persecution getting worse by the day may be forced to into terrorism in a matter of time as what has happened to the Sri Lankan Tamils.

APPEAL

On our part we are committed to a peaceful and lawful struggle and pray and appeal that the Government of the United Kingdom:-

1. Moves an emergency United Nations resolution condemning these state sponsored atrocities and persecutions of Malaysian Indians in Malaysia.

2. Refers Malaysia to the World Court and the International Criminal Court for Crimes against it’s own ethnic minority Indians

Thank You,

Yours Faithfully

P.Uthayakumar
Legal Adviser

What has Hindraf achieved in the end?

Don’t get me wrong. As mentioned at my previous post… although I am not a public demo fan, I don’t feel that I have the right to deny others the freedom of expression. However, I am really confused on what Hindraf is fighting for.

In general view… Hindraf has planned the gathering to submit their petition to Queen Elizabeth II seeking support for the Indian community in a US$4 trillion class action suit against the British government for bringing Indians as labourers to the then Malaya and thereafter exploiting them.

The suit is a joke; the Hindraf organizers should know that. Initially I gave them beneficial of doubts thinking that they are using the suit to gain wide attention to the social problem instead of taking the monetary claim seriously… I hope I was right.

I have doubts on what Hindraf is trying to achieve with the protest though. After taking all the effort to bring people to the streets to endure the tear gas and water cannon… Hindraf failed to make a constructive point of what they are fighting for.

Ya, I know… fighting for equal rights for Indian minorities. However, what exactly do Hindraf want? They have to make their demand clear and precise.

More Indian schools?
More public servicing jobs for Indians?
Minimum wage for blue collars?
Stop demolition of Hindu temples?
Permits for Hindu temples?
Samy Vellu to step down from leadership?

So, what is Hindraf actually fighting for? Precisely?

Update Nov 29 – Hindraf’s memorandom to UK Prime Minister

I applaud the protesters’ spirit to convey their thoughts;
I condemn police’s action to use tear gas and water cannons on the protesters;
I hope that the Election Commission (EC) could be more independent;
I wish that the flaws in our electoral system could be minimized.

So why am I still not a supporter of the BERSIH rally?

EC is not our main concern

EC might be favouring our BN government in policies and having double standards when implementing certain things, but I still believe that we have a decent electoral system.

I doubt that there is any election in the world that is 100% clean, and I believe that our election is not that bad.

The main reason for BN’s dominance in the 2004 election is not the unfairness in election or the flaws in EC… it’s because we don’t have a strong enough opposition party (or alliance).

The opposition parties need to buck up their reputation, attract more quality members, and think of a way to form a strong alliance against the current BN government.

One thing that the BN government managed to do well all these years is to keep their alliances intact… it shows that Malaysians can work together regardless of occasional controversies. That is something that the oppositions are far from emulating.

The BERSIH march is a good lead to show bonding among opposition parties… work on it.

The involvement of political parties

It’s irony that both the success and failure of the rally are caused by the involvement of political parties.

Without them BERSIH would not have attracted such a large crowd; but their participation has made the rally a political driven protest instead of independent voices.

We may argue that BERSIH is formed by just 5 political parties and dozens of other NGOs… but fact is the political parties’ involvement will always grab the attention instead.

Read this, the headlines from Reuters’ reports…

Malaysia police move to foil opposition rally
Malaysia police use water cannon at Anwar rally

And here is an excerpt from AFP…

“Some 30,000 protesters eventually massed outside Malaysia’s royal palace, led by opposition leaders including dissident former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim, as they faced off against hundreds of riot police.”

We don’t need our biased local press to mislead the mass; even the independent news source would perceive that it’s an opposition rally… and I’m afraid that most bystanders would think of the same thing too.

It’s ok if the political parties take part in this kind of rally, but their leaders need to back off from taking the spotlight. Let the NGOs handle the case instead, it shows more credibility ahead of political agenda.

Just a simple challenge to BERSIH supporters… name me 3 non political organizations that took part in the BERSIH rally. I apologize in advance if you managed to name it straight away without references… I doubt that I would need to apologize to most of the protesters though.

Would BERSIH boycott the election?

Would BERSIH move on to boycott the election if their demands are not granted?

If they chose not to boycott the coming election… it shows that BERSIH still have faith with our electoral system ain’t so? If that’s the case, why started the rally at the first place?

The operation was protested by some residents and Hindu devotees, which turned into a police confrontation… people getting injured and some arrested. Shots reportedly fired, and the demolition was later alleged to be without a valid court order.

Above is my simple understanding of what was happening at the Rimba Jaya fracas… prime media is not giving much coverage about this issue except some interviews with Samy Vellu who finally speak up about temple demolition, which came a bit too late and with dubious intention of fearing a slash back by Indian voters in coming election.

News and thoughts from various sources…

The news…

Temple demolition leads to all-out fracas
Temple Demolished Without Warning – A Cruel Act

Bloggers’ thoughts…

Go fly kite
Kg Rimba Jaya
Pictures of latest Hindu temple Demolish in Klang
Blood and Mayhem Against Kg Rimba Settlers
Indian Temple Demolition and Chaos: Mainstream Media Silence
Shah Alam temple demolished and media blackout
Shah Alam temple demolishment details
The Police Must Be Crazy
What lies behind City Hall’s brutalities?
The Demise of the Malaysian Indian Voice
Deepavali and Bulan Syawal Destruction

The article is biased in some sense, but lots of the things mentioned are fact. Their influx of illegal immigrants have caused some social issues for us, but on the other hand Malaysians in general are not treating our foreign labours with dignity.

To make it worse not only the workers that were discriminated recently, but visitors and students were harassed as well.

The author in the end suggested that Indonesian will have to resolve to military might to win Malaysia’s respect… it sounds radical but mind that Malaysia is upgrading our military force as well with the recent purchase of the submarine and fighter jets.

It would be stupid though, if these 2 countries get into war for these matters.

I copied the whole article below; their article link tends to be invalid after a few days…

Indonesian military might will win Malaysia’s respect

Diaz Hendropriyono, Washington, DC.

Despite sharing commonalities, the relationship between Indonesia and Malaysia has turned sour in recent years. A few years ago, the two claimed ownership of the oil-rich Ambalat sea block, situated near Sipadan and Ligitan islands off the coast of Borneo. Tension grew stronger when Malaysian naval vessel KD Rencong rammed into Indonesian vessel Tedung Naga while patrolling in the area.

The continued mistreatment of Indonesian domestic workers by their Malaysian employers poses another problem. These workers, who represent most of the 240,000 domestic workers in Malaysia, are often considered second-class humans. Not only do most earn less than 25 US cents per hour (500 Ringgit per month), if anything at all, many have also been physically, sexually and psychologically assaulted by their employers.

Because of abuse, lack of freedom and other dissatisfactions, thousands of Indonesian maids have run away from their workplace. In June, trying to escape her violent employer, a worker tried to escape from a 15th floor apartment with a rope made of towels and bedsheets. In August, another maid made a similar attempt before being rescued from a seventeenth floor ledge, while a bruised body of an Indonesian servant was found dead at her employer’s home in Kuala Lumpur.

The relationship between the two countries was further exacerbated when Malaysia decided to install harsher punishments for illegal immigrants in Malaysia five years ago, including longer jail time, heavier fines and caning. Such a practice was deemed “inhumane” and hurt Indonesia’s dignity, especially following the forced return of some 400,000 Indonesian workers.

More recently, there have been other cases that have worsened bilateral ties. An Indonesian referee visiting Malaysia for the Asian Karate Championship was confronted by four plainclothes Malaysian police officers over a minor misunderstanding, and was handcuffed, arrested and beaten.

A sophisticated phone-tapping device worth Rp 3 billion and destined for the Malaysian Embassy’s defense attache was confiscated at Soekarno-Hatta airport, where it was brought into the country by a Malaysian national. During an operation to weed out illegal immigrants, the wife of the Indonesian Embassy’s cultural attache in Malaysia was detained by a volunteer security force known as RELA, which treated her like an undocumented guest.

The robbing of seven Indonesian students on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur and the raid on the house of the chairman of the Indonesian Students Association in Malaysia by RELA members put these Indonesians in a state of fear and further strained bilateral relations.

Indonesia also accuses Malaysia of stealing the folk song Rasa Sayange, believed to have originated from the eastern islands of Maluku. Malaysia is also accused of having claimed ownership of other traditional Indonesian heritage, including batik and wayang shadow puppets.

Indonesia has made several attempts to respond to these various problems. For example, Indonesia believed that the Ambalat dispute must be resolved through negotiation.

Responding to the Malaysian government’s failure to act against errant employers, Indonesia’s House of Representatives has considered reporting the cases to the UN Human Rights Commission. The House has also asked the government to request clarification from the Malaysian government about the discovery of the phone-tapping device.

After the RELA incidents and the beating of the Indonesian karate referee, Indonesia demanded an apology from Malaysia. And many Indonesians now see the need to copyright all Indonesian folk songs, especially those with anonymous writers, to avoid further claim by Malaysia.

Unfortunately, however, these efforts are short lived. An article in The Jakarta Post by Rizal Sukma on Sept. 3 noted that “many Indonesians feel there has been a growing tendency in Malaysia to look down on Indonesia … [and] feel that Malaysia has become arrogant …. We are often hurt by the way our neighbor looks at us and perceives us”.

If this were true, as long as Malaysia still looks down on Indonesia, the aforementioned policies could not guarantee that any similar future problems would not emerge.

It is no doubt that these solutions are wise and necessary, and it is not my intention to argue against these courses of action. Yet, a long-term alternative must be found and employed to supplement, rather than replace, these ad hoc strategies. Such a solution rests in the power of Indonesia’s military.

Writing in the 18th century during the U.S. constitutional ratification debate, American founding fathers John Jay in Federalist No. 4 and Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 8 (essays supporting the Constitution over the Articles of Confederation), argued that a country’s healthy defense represses, discourages and thus prevents war rather than invites it.

Following this reasoning, it is vital to rebuild Indonesia’s defense system, improve the military’s professionalism and push other internal reforms. Indonesia is currently on the right track in its attempt to modernize its military. For example, it recently signed a US$1 billion arms deal with Russia to buy submarines, tanks and military helicopters.

Despite a legal problem which has stalled the administrative process since 2002, Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono recently stated that Indonesia will continue with the procurement of Mi-17 choppers.

In an effort to increase the military’s professionalism, the House passed Law No. 34/2004 mandating that the government take over all the military’s enterprises within five years. Next, the military’s Rp 33 trillion current budget must be increased to its ideal level, around Rp 100 trillion. The bigger allocation would enable the military to increase the welfare of personnel and to provide better training. Finally, to contribute further to the military’s professionalism, the government of Indonesia should resolve the conflict between the military and the police, which according to the RIDEP Institute has seen at least 10 violent incidents this year alone.

Having a strong defense would change Malaysia’s foreign policy toward its “big brother”. It would remind the Malaysian government to be more committed to stopping the abuse of Indonesian workers. It would remind Malaysia not to encroach on Indonesia’s territory. Most importantly, Indonesia’s stronger defense would make the government of Malaysia and its citizens be more careful in their action toward Indonesia.

The writer is a PhD student at the Center for Public Administration and Policy, Virginia Tech University. He can be reached at dhendrop@vt.edu.

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 clash was sparked when police ordered the crowd of 500 people (some reported 750) gathering at Jalan Sultan Mahmud, close to Batu Buruk, to disperse peacefully at 10pm. The crowd was there to attend a talk organized by the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (BERSIH), which was held without police’s permit.

Police officer fired live bullets

Terengganu police chief Senior Asst Comm Datuk Ayub Yaakob said that the policeman has fired one shot as act of self defence, while some PAS and PKR spokesmen claim that a few shots have been fired.

According to Malaysiakini, the alleged officer (a constable) had fired 4 shots.

This must be the first time I’ve heard that a live bullet is fired at a riot of this scale around the world. Anti-riot forces don’t use live bullets in general, for fear that it could injured (or killed) innocents during the crowd, for fear that the weapons might be seized by the rioters and cause other violence, and for other reasons.

To be fair… if I am the policeman that was under attack by group of people with sticks and stones during the riot, I would have pulled the trigger if I think my life was threatened. It could be an act of self defence, but under those chaoses… how sure was the police officer that he was firing at the right people? He could miss-fire and ended up wounding those bystanders around instead of those who attacked him.

That’s why… policemen should try their best to stay out of the crowd (especially when they are alone), and they shouldn’t carry guns into the crowd.

Why BERSIH didn’t cancel the gathering?

BERSIH has never given a permit to hold this particular gathering. There are accusations that the police was siding the BN government and offered unreasonable excuse to not issue the permits, which could be true… but that didn’t warrant BERSIH to hold the gathering as planned.

BERSIH organizers should know that police will interfere if the gathering carried on, and that there could be a clash between the crowd and the police. A (Chinese) report from Merdekareview said that the organizers had decided to cancel the gathering before the clash, but did they cancelled it soon enough, or just hours before the show?

If a law is stupid, you try to change it… if you can’t, you don’t break it. The gathering should be cancelled when permits were not granted, or alternatives should be sought.

Conspiracy Theories

PAS came out with a conspiracy theory that the riot was pre-planned by the police and UMNO…

Insiden berdarah di Pantai Batu Buruk 8 September lalu adalah hasil konspirasi jahat dan provokasi pihak polis yang dipergunakan oleh Umno-BN.

Maklumat tersebut disampaikan oleh Pesuruhjaya PAS Terengganu, Dato’ Mustapa Ali dalam satu sidang media yang diadakan di Pejabat Agung PAS Jalan Raja Laut tengahari ini.

Jelasnya, beliau mendapat maklumat daripada Adun Wakaf Mempelam, Abdul Wahid Endut yang menyatakan bahawa terdapat saksi yang telah menyatakan bahawa ia adalah ‘pre-plan’ yang melibatkan antara Setiausaha Politik Perdana Menteri, Senator Dato’ Wan Farid.

“Maklumat tersebut menyebutkan bahawa kira-kira jam 3 hingga 4 petang pada 8 September lalu, sewaktu satu kursus diadakan, seorang polis yang mengendalikan kursus tersebut telah menerima satu panggilan yang memaklumkan bahawa satu ‘huru-hara’ akan berlaku menjelang malam nanti di pantai Batu Buruk dan pegawai polis bertugas yang tidak beruniform dikehendaki memastikan identiti dengan memakai riben,” jelasnya.

Talk is easy Mr Mustapa Ali… prove it.

Update Sep 12 – BERSIH released their own media statement