PSM has received a letter this morning from the ministry requesting the party to submit a fresh application, in which according to PSM’s secretary general S Arutchelvan, is just a matter of formality.

The court hearing which was scheduled this morning has been postponed following this latest development.

Jeyakumar Devaraj is the only Member of Parliament from PSM with his famous victory against MIC president Samy Vellu; PSM chairman Nasir Hashim is their only state assemblyman (Selangor). Both of them competed under PKR’s flagship during the March election.

It’s still uncertain if PSM would join the Pakatan Rakyat pact; S Arutchelvan has mentioned in an April interview that PSM will not join PR until they have seen their full program… which probably means that PSM will not be joining the pact yet in near future.

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 Hindraf rally (and post mortem events) is a clear indication that there are serious discontent among the Indians about Samy’s leadership. There are also bloggers’ reports that Samy was being booed and insulted in various events that he attended in the past few months.

Thing is… can Hindraf and some others represent the majority voices of the Hindus or Indians? There are still large group of Indians (and non Indians) that have been silence about Hindraf and recent development about the Indian community… and we can never assume anything about what they are thinking.

Besides, those people who constantly claimed that Samy Vellu is unwanted probably have not been to Sungai Siput before… as far as I know, Sungai Siput is one of the best maintained areas in Perak, and Samy (and his representatives) has been very responsive to the community issues in the zone.

Samy is unwanted only if he can’t win at his stronghold at the end of the election day… else, it probably shows that he still has his influence after all, and that the silent majority still has some fate or hope for the MIC leader.

Let the voters decide.

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

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

“Rain is really heavy nowadays, not only here, but throughout the world.

“Like in England, streets are filled with five feet (deep) of water, in (the United States of) America there’s also flood.”

Thing is, if my 30-year-old house in Ipoh can survive the ‘global changes in weather pattern’… what makes the Parliament building so vulnerable to heavy rains? Luckily we don’t have a typhoon or something, or else the members of parliaments will have to hold their meetings in some mamak stalls.

Besides, what does the flood in the West have to do with the leaks in our Parliament?

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]

It’s quite apparent that Nat’s arrest is a result of the order from Deputy Internal Security Minister Mohd Johari Baharom, who has just been cleared of his corruption investigation a few days ago.

Johari actually has a decent point to fight against slandering, but the timing of the order make it extremely fishy, as if it’s a personal rage rather than act of wisdom. Besides, there are much more serious cases (rising crimes etc.) to be focused by the Internal Security Ministry and the police force.

Why is Nat arrested?

OSA is a joke, it is as rubbish as the Internal Security Act (ISA). The originally idea of OSA is to prevent leakage of confidential government documents (official secrets) that could harm the country. However the huge problem with OSA is that there are no clear definitions on ‘official secrets’…

Basically if an authorized person (cabinet, minister and some others) decided to name something official secrets, they are official secrets. It could be some really important documents or a love letter from the mistress… it will be protected under the act regardless; even the judiciary have no rights to question the decisions.

Samy Vellu has previously revoked the act when asked to present the documents regarding highway deals to the public. You can see how convenient the act is to protect the government VIPs from any corruption allegations, and how foolish the act is.

[Learn more about OSA from lawyer-blogger Malik Imtiaz Sarwar]

Back to Nat… there are no clear indications on what ‘official secrets’ he possessed, but since that the case is investigated by the Cyber Crime Unit, we can assumed that it has to be something related to his blog.

According to Susan, Nat was arrested because of a blog comment that linked to Johari’s alleged corruption. If this is true, it’s a real joke indeed.

Should we report on suspected corruption?

This raises another concern… should we report on suspected corruption if we somehow have some leads to some issues. It could come from an email, a blog comment, or some documents that were slipped through the door or mailbox, who knows… it might happen. So what are we going to do with those data? Should we report to Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) or what?

If we do report to the ACA and the alleged politician was found not guilty, we could end up like Nat thanks to the wonderful Official Secret Act… and if the proofs are solid enough, we could end up being blown off by C4 explosive before the case is actually opened. Wonderful.

All the best to Nat

I don’t know him, but I hope he is innocent of any charges, and my best wishes to his family and friends.

Update July 18 – Nat is released, but lots of questions remain unanswered.