Hall of Dishonour

Once upon a time, long long ago, we had the best police force in Asia. Then the rot started to creep in like an insidious cancer until we have today a terrible malign (note: not 'maligned') police organization. As they say of a rotting fish, the decay began at the head.

Today the police station is deemed the most dangerous place in Malaysia, though I have to argue it may just lose this notorious ranking, which incidentally brings us to the next malign (not 'maligned') organization .....

Once upon a time, we had an anti corruption agency (ACA) which was headed (note: not ‘helmed’ as Malaysiakini journalists and editors would have put it wakakaka) by a judge who I believe was Justice Hashim. Our ACA became a model for many wannabe ACA’s in Asia. How far has the once mighty fallen.

Anti corruption investigation then was based on proper process of legal searches, professional analyses, evidence based proofs, etc but not strong arms tactics like bashing or even dangling someone by his belt from a precarious position very very high up as an intimidation tactic.

Then the rot started until its current reincarnation MACC is now suspected of being corrupt, of heeding the directives of certain politicians to harass and persecute (not just prosecute) people from another political party. Non-BN politicians are pursued on alleged corruption of sums amounting to around RM2,500 while BN personalities dare flaunt their obscene wealth openly, a wealth which cannot be explained by known kosher income means.

In one of those so-called investigations on non-BN politicians, a young man who was supposedly a mere witness was found dead at a MACC building on the eve of his wedding after an overnight interrogation. The MACC now faces ignominy if found guilty of causing the death of a witness - as I alluded above, it may seize the dishonour of being the most dangerous place in Malaysia from the police, the two organizations sadly validating the Malay proverb of Pagar makan padi.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Who will guard the guards themselves?

While the above two organizations were jostling for top notoriety, a third organization has swiftly, surreptitiously and sinisterly overtaken them as the ultimate in opprobrium – the Judiciary.

Some of those who manned this once-hallowed and highly respectable body are so thick skinned that they feel no iota of shame in their inconsistent judgement, with some judges even ruling in a subsequent and virtually similar case against their own earlier ruling in another case.

While the original Adorna ruling was a significant notch in the Halls of Dishonour for the untold misery it wrecked on rightful owners of land and property while wickedly condoning (actually approving) transactions based on criminally manufactured documentations, it was not as threatening as the case of a Perak State constitutional issue, where the Judiciary brazenly saw fit to intrude, interfere and intervene in matters clearly belonging in the domains of the Legislative, just so to benefit a party (call it ‘A’) against another political party (let’s call this one ‘B’)

Then the very same judges in another case just a few months later (yes, only months later, not centuries), on the dismissal of Anwar Ibrahim as the DPM, reverse its ruling as if recanting, and pompously but pukishly pontificated that the Judiciary has no say in matters rightfully belonging to the Legislative.

That the Judiciary was correct in the second incident* is totally besides the point because (yup, your guess is right) the totally 180 degrees belakang pusing ruling this time was made in favour of a member of Party A.

* I think an 'incident' rather than a 'case' would be a more appropriate term to describe its shenanigan

While they were playing F*’s in Perak against the most inviolable basic tenet of the Constitution where the three arms of a democracy, namely the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary, must not interfere in each other's domain of jurisdiction, they were at the same time also playing F*’s with the juridical sacred cow of Stare decisis et non quieta movere ('maintain what has been decided and do not alter that which has been established') or legal precedence.

If we were desperately looking for a Malaysian Boleh pseudo-form of mitigation for them, we could argue they have been consistent in two aspects, namely, their final ruling would always favour Party A, and they must have super Kevlar quality hides for their ‘now is white, then was black’ ruling.

They have now deemed that MACC can interrogate witnesses etc throughout the night as required/desired, introducing a total inconsistency with police procedures which require interrogation to be only during the day and not night. Gawd, what other ‘liberties’ will they next accord MACC?

Now we come to the EC. The only reason why the EC hasn’t quite reached the level of notoriety of the above three is we only have them in mind during general elections (normally once every 5 years) and by-elections (in cases when an incumbent passed away or even more rarely, a resignation). But the little we have heard, like the postal vote counting in the recent Sibu by-election, has confirmed our suspicion of their bias.

I have been one who has particularly and consistently supported postal voting for the reason I don’t want the military, police or overseas Malaysian voters disfranchised from their citizens’ right to vote.

Yes yes, I do know the EC has deliberately disfranchised some Malaysian citizens overseas, coincidentally only those who could be potential Pakatan supporters but not those who are likely to support BN. These potentially overseas pro-Pakatan voters are not permitted to use postal voting unlike a Malaysian student (presumably the majority would be 'gratefully' on government scholarship), and are required (forced lah) to return to Malaysia to vote, yet a soldier or a policeman who is within driving distance from a polling booth is to use postal voting. That's our remarkable EC.

But the EC has now given me cause to doubt the integrity of this form of voting ... unless of course fair and transparent procedures are clearly enunciated, implemented, tightly and rigorously processed and completely accountable. Alas, I won't hold my breath.

These organizations have been described by a Malay mainstream media as ‘Malay institutes’ to be strongly upheld and defended from the criticisms of the unwashed, those hordes of 'nons'.

The description has been a gross insult to Malays as we see these organizations disadvantaging Malays from Pakatan, non-BN linked NGOs and the non-UMNO public. To take the outrageous ethnocentric claim to its ludicrousness, one of these 'Malay institutes' had recently killed a 14-year old boy named Aminulrasyid Amzah.

These bodies would be more correctly described as 'UMNO institutes'.