Sunday, February 17, 2008

Political snippets (1)

Based on news reports from Star Online and Malaysiakini:

Case I

DPM Najib Tun Razak said: "Some Felda settlers are still ungrateful to the Government despite all that it has done to improve their lot" when he discovered (probably to his horror) that some settlers oppose the government.

My dear Najib, please get off your high horse and stop acting as if you and your cronies are absolute rulers like Sultan Mansur Shah or the Maharaja of Jaipur.

We the rakyat don’t have to be ‘grateful’ to you or any of your ministers, the people’s representative. We elect you (well, ‘collectively’ that is) to serve us, to manage our national resources for our benefits. If you want us to vote again for you, bloody well pull up your socks!


Case II

So there was a Rapid Penang bus drivers strike recently. They wanted better pay. And what’s wrong with that?

When 13 of those drivers turned up to give their statements to the Police at the Tanjong Tokong police station on Friday, presumably at the behest of the Police, they were arrested!

Their crime?

Sedition and extortion! … which are chargeable under the Sedition Act 1948 and the Penal Code.

You work it out what the sedition was, though I presume that workers striking for better pay would be classified as ‘extortionists’ in Malaysia Boleh, whilst bosses exhorting their workers to work for sweatshop pennies would only be known as 'exhortionists'.

And why did George Town OCPD Asst Comm Azam Abd Hamid act so?

The Police Chief said he acted because the company’s chief executive officer Azhar Ahmad lodged a police report against the employees on Monday.

Thus it was said (by the company), thus it was done (by the Police) – and f* any due process or investigation …..


Case III

News media reported
160 held after illegal ‘rose rally’ where one went on to say:

"Police detained 160 Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) supporters who took part in its “rose” campaign near the Dataran Merdeka area here yesterday morning. From the total, 151 were later released, including rally coordinator S. Manickavasagam and Hindraf adviser R. Raguram. Also released was an 11-year-old girl."

AAB has been badly advised to overreact to a peaceful protest. How sweet he would have smelled (no pun intended) to the voters had he received or at least tolerated the rose rally. Alas, he has surrounded himself with a bunch of low brow Kempetai apes!

While there was no doubt that the 11-year old girl was swept up in the police sweepup, a consequence of the (irresponsible) parents taking her along on a rally where heavy handed police action could be expected, a blogger had abused the incident for sensationalism.

She wrote that a
"…11-year old girl was arrested. We’ve all been 11 at some point of our lives. How would you like to have been arrested at that age?”

“What could she possibly have done to warrant being arrested? To be lumped in with grown men and women… possibly handcuffed and shoved? Can you imagine? The whole melee, and this little 11-year old girl, who, unless is extremely tall, is probably at least 1 foot shorter than everyone else being pushed around, confused?”

“Seriously. Did they slap handcuffs on her? That would be a traumatic experience okay. Were the policemen rude to her? Did they shout vulgarities at her?”

I believe that in criticising the AAB regime, we needn’t and shouldn’t embellish the actual event at the risk of being seen as bullsh*tter and sh*tstirrer.

Lets’ maintain some credibility, OK?

14 comments:

  1. KteMoc,
    Hindraff for what ever cause they have to advance our Hindu friends is correct to do so.... let me tell you of an actual LIFE STORY my wife told me ..... this happened TWO WEEKS AGO...

    Sometimes two weeks ago, a little indian boy aged maybe 14-15 came at our house gate... the boy pleaded with a sad tone asking whether my he can do odd job around the house... like clearing rubbish or plucking the weeds.... my wife says no not really because the garden is well tended.... the poor indian boys broke down and cried and mentioned that his dad was just fired a couple of months ago and they have nothing to eat for a long time.... and ask where he can find odd jobs around our housing estate... wifey told that the shops may need helper... he thanked my wife, but ask for some food to eat. With his teary eyes, my wife gave him a large portion of rice (3 platefuls of rice and last night ayamas leftover).... he ate its while crying all within less than 5 minutes.....

    you see.... poor indians are being marginalised... and its REAL!!!!

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  2. not arguing with that - am one of the few non Indians who have been supporting Indians (see my blog's previosu posts) including Hindraf.

    But nonetheless it's irresponsible for parents to take their yong ones to rallies when we can expect the FRU to act like brutes.

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  3. What is so wrong about bringing children for a flower parade. Hindraf had applied for police permit and announced in advance that the ceremony is purely a parade of children escorted by parents and responsible adults to deliver flowers to the PM at Parliament House. The whole episode turn ugly due to the unruly behavior of our Police and instructions from the ruling govt, PM and Home Minister to shut down dissenters and silence them fearing loosing support this coming election. So children walking the streets with flowers is not an offense but the police behavior and brutality against all citizens in this country is evident that we are far away from democracy and heading to hell like in Pakistan, Afganistan, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Palestine.....Our PM have no respect for the rakyat, a fanatic who knows how to rob the country behind screens. This election will show some good result no matter how much the govt shut down dissenting voice.

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  4. "... due to the unruly behavior of our Police and instructions from the ruling govt, PM and Home Minister to shut down dissenters and silence them ..."

    Exactly point - why take children along to such a likely encounter? That's irresponsibility.

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  5. "But nonetheless it's irresponsible for parents to take their yong ones to rallies when we can expect the FRU to act like brutes."

    Agreed.

    By all means, let's take a stand against such brutish governance. But to deliberately put an 11 year old in the thick of it is, IMHO, using a (very young) human shield. It's indefensible behavior.

    And please let's not try to defend it, or even worse, play it up in the hopes of garnering sympathy votes because I think most parents would respond "WTF WAS THE KID DOING THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE"

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  6. "Exactly point - why take children along to such a likely encounter?
    That's irresponsibility."

    Crossing the roads are more dangerous that a flower parade assisted by adults. Knowing accidents can occur parents sent their children to schoolsome crossing dangerous roads. So risk is everywhere. We maintain it is responsibility turned ugly by irresposible people. The cause is PDRM and BN. You can't cross the bridge before reaching it. Therefore, Hindraf assume that the BN and PDRM will take a softer approach on children parading with flowers. Now the whole world knows that our PM have no respect for children and the rakyat, the PDRM behave like barbarians.....the whole world knows...

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  7. "Crossing the roads are more dangerous that a flower parade assisted by adults."

    This was a politically charged event, for which a police permit was not granted. It wasn't a "walk in the park", so to speak.

    Of course a police permit *should* have been granted, and failing that people *should* have turned up anyway, and they did... but as a matter of priority and principle, the precious little ones should have been kept at home, out of the line of fire.

    Since they were in the line of fire anyway, the police *should* have exercised additional restraint, but we're talking about a police force that every year turns up about 10 dead Indians in police lockup on "mysterious circumstances". Shocked at police brutality? Really ah?

    For that child to be there... I feel it was too great a risk to take. What if something had really happened to her? Never mind the arrest, I'm not sure if acid water and tear gas is that healthy for a pre-pubescent.

    We need to express disapproval for such conduct to BOTH sides of the line of police shields, so that people stop bringing kids to these things. I feel pretty strongly about that.

    Personal safety aside, it's in the interest of the movement to avoid such impeachable strategies anyway.

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  8. You see, it's quite a catch-22 situation.

    No doubt, police were expected and violence perpetrated by the police could be expected as well.

    It would have been wise not to bring the kids along.

    But if there really weren't any kids, I can see the PM and RTM and newspapers saying that the 'rose gathering' was just a ploy by Hindraf to destabilize the nation.

    I can almost imagine the PM saying this:
    "See, there weren't any kids there. Hindraf lied to you all."

    So how? I guess different parents would act differently lo (I can't speak for parents cuz I'm not one).

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  9. Almost 99.99 of parents are a responsible lot. They know what they are doing with their kids. It is their right and preregotive to decide on the safety of their children. Sometime good strategies fail and the worst strategy works. Any way we leave it to the parents to decide on their children.

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  10. Anda dijemput menjadi calon PUNDAK untuk pilihanraya 2008. Sila mohon kawasan wakilan anda di pundak.wordpress.com
    Sekian

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  11. I got a shock when I read the Rapid Penang strikers had been charged under the Sedition Act and Penal Code !
    Its a labour relations issue, the the should have been handled under labour laws. There are provisions under labour laws to deal with unjustified Industrial Actions.

    The attempt to criminalise a labour relations issue is a step back into the Dark Ages. That's the kind of environment which bred Karl Marx and "Workers of the World - Unite !"

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  12. We are in BOLEH LAND, anything is possible......

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  13. of the 3 "incidents", the most incredible is to charge the bus drivers for sedition and penal code. goodness gracious, drivers are even not allowed to down tools to demand for something better. is this a GESTAPO STATE now?
    Musa Hitam, there goes your freer society and more democratic space! you can even demnad for more food on the table. enough of the excuse of little napoleons not following directives. silence from the powers-that-be is signalled as greenlight for such demonic acts.

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  14. What's new in charging the bus drivers for sedition. The government always blame someone else for their folly . Look at the cooking oil shortage. The governments's inabilty/reluctance to stem the smuggling of cooking oil is blame is the real cause for the shortage. However, it is the local retailers and wholesalers the majority of whom are honest traders who get harrased by Shafie Apdal's stormtroopers.

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