Breaking news - new newspaper birthed: Umnosan

Dean Johns is gifted at coining new terms and in his latest opinion piece in Malaysiakini he has named the racial and religious hatred spewing wastepaper (that is what all the Malaysian main stream media newspaper had been reduced to) Utusan Malaysia which earned its latest nickname by continuing to be a tool and mouthpiece of the double dealing UMNO which head scream 1 Malaysia while his party wastepaper continue to promote religious and racial strife.

Dean Johns also trained his gun at an unnamed currently serving Minister (some blogs has named that Minister as Rais Yatim of the @yorias fame who so far has not confirm nor denied the claims leading people to suspect guilt.

His opinion piece below courtesy of Malaysiakini: Rapining Reality

Raping reality

Dean Johns

Poetic justice, if not the real thing, appears to have caught up with one of the members of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's cabinet.

While the country's mainstream media fails to inform the Malaysian people about BN's culture of criminality in favour of communicating its litany of lies, this minister has become the latest casualty of the world's free media.

Not that I'm suggesting he's guilty of the rape of which he was allegedly accused back in 2007. Like every other citizen, he's entitled to the presumption of innocence and his day in court.

Both of which he's been denied so far, as the case was reportedly hushed up by the Abdullah Ahmad Badawi administration, when he was also a minister.

But I'm good and sure of one thing: he's as guilty of figuratively raping reality and robbing the rakyat of their rights and ringgit as the rest of the BN gang and their accomplices and accessories are.

And the revelation of his alleged rape could well bring the BN regime a step nearer to the end of their rope.

Not that you'd know it by listening to the Malaysia's chief ravisher of reality, Najib. Not a word from him so far on the serious allegations about one of his senior ministers.

Just a New Year message crammed with all his customary claptrap, as faithfully reported by his pathetically compliant 'news' agency, Bernama.

Urging all Malaysians "to fulfil their responsibility in building a better future for the coming generations and place the country in its rightful position," Najib apparently omitted to specify what this rightful position might be.
What mistakes did Najib learn from?

But he was certain of the apparently contradictory facts that "the power to build lies in the hands of the people" and that "the government always adopts full responsibility in the management of the country, particularly the economy."

"Learning from mistakes," he went on, "throughout 2010, we built a strong foundation to ensure that the nation's potentials and resources can be stimulated and mobilised towards achieving the national vision."

At this point I confess my attention wandered a little, what with wondering what mistakes Najib was claiming to have learned from.

The still-unresolved PKFZ scandal? The Bakun Dam fiasco? The mysterious disappearance of Felda's cash reserves? The obscene wealth of BN members and cronies like billionaire Sarawk Chief Minister Taib Mahmud? Or what?

Not daunted by such trifles, however, he then proceeded to declare that "this is not the time to experiment, but a time to renew and strengthen the trust in what has been proven to be effective", before proceeding to attack the opposition and finally urging the people "regardless of race and religion to heed the call to strive for the pinnacle of success".

This was a veritable pinnacle of excess in light of all the financial and political scandals over which Najib has presided, let alone other suspicions surrounding him and his underlings, from the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder to the current allegations of rape against his cabinet colleague.

And as his phrase "regardless of race or religion" only served to remind the reader of the scandalous demand for the removal of Christian symbols before his Christmas visit to the Catholic archbishop's residence, and the latest religio-racial atrocity by Umno 'newspaper' Utusan Malaysia.

A rabble-rousing rag

While this rabble-rousing rag has no more seen fit to mention the rape allegations than the other so-called mainstream media or Najib himself have, it has had the temerity to attack Serdang MP Teo Nie Ching for "causing problems again" by wearing "tight clothes" during an aerobic exercise event outside a Selangor mosque.

Citing information provided by an anonymous blogger, Utusan ignored the fact that Teo was, like the rest of those visible in photographs of the aerobics group, dressed modestly in a t-shirt and long, loose sweat pants.

This was Utusan's second attempted rape of Teo Nie Ching's reputation, following criticism of her attendance at a Maal Hijrah breaking-of-fast celebration at a mosque in Kajang.

Highlighting the hypocrisy of the Utusan campaigns against her, Teo reminded Najib Razak of a recent speech in which he called for news organisations to be the "promoter of moderation".

And as if that wasn't enough hypocrisy to be going on with, former Prime Minister Abdullah, the man running the country at the time of rape allegations against the minister, commented on the Utusan report by urging people to "please be mindful of sensitive matters and not create problems. Be mindful of your actions".

But Utusan Malaysia, or, as it should rightly be called, Umnosan Malaysia, was unrepentant. Indeed it proved as rabid as ever in the face of criticism by National Union of Journalists (NUJ) president Hata Wahari, who is also a senior journalist with Utusan.

Claiming that circulation falls prove that people are "disgusted" with the mainstream media, Hata called, on behalf of the NUJ, for "true media freedom" in the new year.

"The union is asking all mainstream journalists, especially of Utusan Malaysia, New Straits Times, Berita Harian and the Star to return to their true function as deliverers of objective information to the public, and not as tools of propaganda for the government of any political party or individual, for their personal gain," he continued.

Hata then turned his attention specifically to the paper for which he works, saying that "the chief editor and journalists of Utusan Malaysia have no principles, pride or dignity.

"They just want to retain their lucrative positions earning tens of thousands of ringgit. That's why they bow to their political masters, who cling onto power by using Utusan Malaysia as their propaganda tool."

Of course the management of Utusan isn't taking such a shafting lying down, and has summoned Hata to a hearing for "insulting the company's management and tarnishing the company's image".

The fact that the company's management well deserves insulting, and that the company's image could hardly be more tarnished than it already is, will almost certainly not save Hata from being well and truly screwed. But it's great to see a rare mainstream journalist stand up to the rapists of the rakyat's reality.

And the more colleagues who find the courage to join him, the sooner the senior members of the BN regime will find themselves on trial as suspects or accessories on professionally-investigated rape, robbery and murder raps.

DEAN JOHNS, after many years in Asia, currently lives with his Malaysian-born wife and daughter in Sydney, where he mentors creative writing groups. Already published in Kuala Lumpur is a third book of his columns for Malaysiakini, following earlier collections 'Mad about Malaysia' and 'Even Madder about Malaysia'

One more reason to vote UMNO/BN out

Listen to the anquished cry of rape victims as revealed by Irene Fernandez who not only did not get justice for the crime committed against them but also suffered being ostracized by their home community for something which is not their fault. Witness the claim that a Malaysian Minister (some had mentioned the name Rais Yatim who till now had not confirm nor denied it) and the authorities non-action over the claims:

Change system of governance to arrest rape
Irene Fernandez

COMMENT Fifteen years ago when I was arrested and charged with publishing false news for a memorandum send to the government on the abuse, torture and dehumanised treatment of migrant workers in immigration detention centres, one of the charges I faced was the issue of rape of women in the detention centres.

In Indonesia, one of our partners investigated and documented five testimonies of women migrants raped at the camps. They were willing to testify.
Unfortunately and suspiciously, the office of our partner was raided and the files went missing. It was difficult to track the women and I lost my witnesses.

I did not lose hope. Together with one of my very committed lawyers, we went to Bangladesh to interview witnesses.

My partner there worked very hard to identify witnesses and even employed a full-time person to manage, counsel and sustain the witnesses as the court took a very long time to move the wheels of judicial process. Women who were raped were also identified.

The interviews conducted with the women were very painful and a stressful experience in my life. All five women whom we interviewed intensively were thrown out of their homes by their husbands and the community demanded they leave the village. The marriage future of their daughters was gone as they were seen as daughters of soiled women.

The trauma, impact and living on abject poverty by the women was for me most unbearable. It hurt too much. The look of hopelessness, fear and anxiety just pierced me over and over. In fact I fell ill on the second day of meeting with the survivors of rape and torture.

I then decided that I would rather go to jail than get the women to relive the trauma again. I will not make them witnesses for my trial. Reliving the trauma again with added publicity would be impactful and the consequences uncertain on the women and their children.

I faced an intense conflict on how do we make the rapists, the detention centre officers, the commandant, the home minister and the government of the day accountable for this form of torture on innocent women and womanhood and yet protect their dignity.

All I could do was open a window of opportunity for them to begin a new life with an income generation project and strengthen their livelihood skills combined with counselling. Today the women are able to live their lives but the stigma remains.

System fails to protect the victim

Today as news emerge of another women domestic worker raped by a senior minister, we seem to be faced with a similar conflict. How do we make this minister and all those in power and in authority accountable?

It was easy for the datin to cancel her work permit and send her home to Indonesia with a stern warning and threat that the victim remains silent about the rape. The victim, helpless and filled with fear remained silent and just move on with life.

Have there been more victims and all silenced in the same way? Since the senior minister lives in a huge mansion, there must be a number of domestic workers in the household.

And the system fails to protect the victim and all potential women. What can a foreign domestic worker do when she does not have any off-day, when she is cut off from the rest of the world as she works in an isolated, individualised workplace which is a private domain? How can she communicate with family or others if she is denied that right?

The support for her withers from Malaysians whose perception of domestic workers is negative influenced by the mainstream media. It has been reflected in the number of comments that appeared in published articles about the rape.

These perceptions and attitude do not help the victim nor our efforts to fight the heinous crime of rape against women and children.
We support a regime that has destroyed every pillar of democracy and justice where the victim cannot access due process nor even reach out for help.

The outcry over making the minister accountable cannot remain at the individual level. It demands a serious change in our rotten corrupt system of governance. Rape will continue on our women as it is being done on the Penan and other indigenous women.

Statistics reveal that every 1.7 hours someone is raped. The figure will increase when we include the thousands of women forced into prostitution and sexual exploitation in our country. Rapists will flourish in our country because we have a government that facilitates it.

The only way out is to get rid of such senior ministers together with the Umno-BN-led government as they have failed to protect, recognise and ensure women's rights to body security.

If we want to save our daughters and granddaughters, our sisters and wives, then the system must change. And we as Malaysians, as voters must ensure this change takes place for justice and security to be the norm in our society.

IRENE FERNANDEZ is executive director of migrant workers rights group Tenaganita and a human rights activist.

Article courtesy of Malaysiakini: Change system of governance to arrest rape