PAS reaffirms ties with Pakatan Rakyat despite sex video

They say there is a silver lining in every dark cloud and Pakatan Rakyat and Anwar Ibrahim’s sex video controversies has not dampened PAS partnership with PKR and DAP in Pakatan Rakyat as they see the latest sex video episode as a set up. Article PAS SEES OPPORTUNITY IN SEX VIDEO by Aidila Razak below courtesy of <a href=”http://www.malaysiakini.com”>Malaysiakini</a> below:

PAS sees opportunity in sex video

Aidila Razak
May 7, 11
9:59am

While PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim has been facing a barrage of attacks since the leak of a sex video purportedly involving him, Pakatan Rakyat partner PAS sees an unlikely silver lining as the opposition gears up for a snap general election.
According to PAS leaders, the attack on Anwar has allowed them not only to solidify their image as an Islamic party, but also as a steadfast and loyal partner of Pakatan.
Speaking to Malaysiakini, vice-president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said there has been a spike in turnouts at rallies held by the party, particularly in the rural Malay heartland where information is less forthcoming.
"We believe that this is the target of the sex video allegations, and the rural Malays are affected because they only get information from (BN-linked) media," he said.
Tuan Ibrahim added that having Anwar speaking at these events in the rural areas, including several in Pahang where he is also state PAS commissioner, has helped draw in people who want to hear the other side of the story.
According to PAS information chief Idris Ahmad, PAS's stance on the matter - that the sex video is slander and qazaf (an unsubstantiated allegation of adultery) - was unanimously agreed by party leaders.
"We are solid on this, at all levels, from the leadership to the grassroots... we are using our religious scholars to explain to people, especially the Malays, the Islamic principles on this issue," Idris said when contacted.
Tuan Ibrahim also said the sex tape issue was unlikely to make any waves at its muktamar(general assembly), to be held in June.
Similarly, he said, there were not likely to be much undercurrents over PAS' position in Pakatan following the sex tape circulation, despite claims that the party is undermining its Islamic image by aligning itself with Anwar.
Party initially troubled by sex tape
Fellow vice-president Salahuddin Ayub agreed, adding that it was just as crucial for PAS to prove itself as a steadfast coalition member.
"Even when facing a general election, it will not affect our stand in Pakatan... the people are looking at us to see if we are loyal partners.
"We are together in Pakatan for the good, and we will face adversities together," Salahuddin said when contacted.
PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang has been seen at recent press conferences strongly defending Anwar, while party spiritual leader Nik Aziz Nik Mat too has raised doubts on the sex tape allegations.
However, this consistent voice of support for Anwar had been less obvious soon after the sex video was exposed on March 21, when PAS ulama council head Harun Taib said the party would need to re-evaluate its relationship with Anwar if he was proven to be the man in the video.
And while Salahuddin (left) was more guarded, preferring not to "jump the gun" in commenting on PAS' stance in such an event, fellow vice-president Mahfuz Omar was more forthcoming.
"Anwar was already convicted (of sodomy) before and still we are in the coalition. It's clear that even if he is (found to be the man in the video), we will stand by him because we believe this is a set-up," Mahfuz said.
Issue could backfire on Umno
While the crowds have thus far been receptive to Anwar, Tuan Ibrahim admitted that it was uncertain whether the large turnouts would translate to votes in an election.
"We are hoping that the rural Malays will hold on to Islamic principles on this matter. This kind of 'abnormal expose' involving heavy media play, and seeming police protection (provided to the accusers), just does not sit well with the Malays.
"It's not part of Malay culture to embarrass someone like that, and the people are growing tired of this," Tuan Ibrahim said.
Political scientist Shaharudin Badarudin said sentiments on the ground show that the issue could backfire on Umno, as in 1999 when the Malays protested through the ballot box against the harsh persecution of Anwar.
"The sex video will hardly leave a scratch on Pakatan, but instead it will hurt Umno the most," said the Universiti Teknologi Mara lecturer.
After all, Shaharudin added, PAS and Umno were really fighting to win over just the five to seven percent of fence-sitters, and there was only so much of gutter politics that the electorate could endure.

Training Workshop on “Dealing with Urgent Arrests”

Invitation to a Training Workshop on “Dealing with Urgent Arrests”

(jointly organized and supported by ALIRAN)

Over the years, we have witnessed various situations where members of the public, including civil society activists, have been arrested and detained for taking part in peaceful assemblies – BERSIH, HINDRAF, JERIT, GMI. Those arrested are often vulnerable and do not have access to legal counsel. They may not be fully aware of their rights and their various options. In almost all such incidents, the Malaysian Bar through its volunteer lawyers has consistently played its part by rendering legal advice and assistance to those affected.

In line with this effort, and in the light of increasing protests by the rakyat in the form of peaceful assemblies, candlelight vigils and other actions, the Bar Council Legal Aid Centre (Penang) together with ALIRAN feels it is both necessary and timely to conduct a training workshop for volunteer lawyers, human rights activists and other interested individuals in the northern region (Penang, Perlis, Kedah and Perak) on “Dealing with Urgent Arrest”.

This is an opportunity for lawyers to make a real difference and get involved in an issue that affects all Malaysians, and to build networks with activists in ensuring the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms.

Objectives of training include the following:

● To introduce participants to laws and procedures pertaining to arrest and detention

● To provide participants with a human rights-based perspective and understanding of peaceful assemblies and other protests

● To highlight specific roles of volunteer lawyers and rights of arrested persons in urgent arrest situations

● To increase the pool of lawyers who are able to deal with urgent arrest

Details of the training are as follows:

Date : Saturday, 28th May 2011

Time : 9.00 am – 5.00 pm

Venue : ALIRAN office, No. 103 Medan Penaga, 11600 Jelutong, Penang, Malaysia

Fees : RM 20 per person (inclusive of lunch & refreshments)

To register, please complete the attached reply slip and submit the same to ALIRAN by fax (Fax No. 04- 6585197) or by e-mail at aliran@streamyx.com NOT LATER THAN 21st May 2011.

GPS Coords & Location map

GPS Coords: (5.389283765768421, 100.30844807624817)
6 decimal places: (5.389283, 100.308448)

UMNO/BN Complex gamble with public welfare?

The UMNO/BN complex has somehow help initiate another rare earth project in Kuantan without consulting the public or the stakeholders and after knowing the sorrows reaped by innocent residents near or in the Asian Rare Earth (ARE) factory in Bukit Merah, Perak. Read for yourself the article below Bukit Merah: Our tears have run dry reproduced here with kind permission of Malaysiakini if indeed the UMNO/BN complex is again gambling with the rakyat’s future and welbeing:

Bukit Merah: Our tears have run dry

Joseph Sipalan and Lee Long Hui
May 4, 11
9:02am

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It has been nearly 30 years to the day that Lai Kwan first set foot on the grounds of the Asian Rare Earth (ARE) factory in Bukit Merah, Perak.
She had just found out that she was pregnant with her sixth and youngest child, but poverty left her little choice as she had to take up a job as a labourer with a local contractor, hired to build an additional structure at the facility.
Unbeknownst to her, that decision to earn her family's daily bread would ultimately break her heart.
Several months after her stint at the ARE, her son, whom she asked only to be identified as Kok Leong, was born disabled.
The boy had severe problems with his eyes, eventually losing sight in his left eye when he was five. He also suffers from a hole in his heart.
But what pains Lai Kwan the most is that her precious son is mentally handicapped.
Kok Leong (left) is now a fully-grown adult of 29 years, but his mind is no more developed than a toddler's. He has little or no capacity for speech, and he has never been out of diapers.
To keep him from wandering out of the safety of their home, he stays at the back of their modest home - separated from the rest of the world by a makeshift wire mesh door that stands up to his chest.
And that is where Lai Kwan, now 69, has spent the past three decades, caring for her boy all these years in much the same way that she had from the first day she brought him home.
One of Lai Kwan's daughters had to quit school even before she finished remove class to help support the family, since her husband had abandoned them and she could not leave her son's side.
“When you see me and my son, can you feel how I feel?” she said in Hakka, the only dialect she is fluent in due to her limited education.
No clue on radiation exposure
The ARE, run by Japanese company Mitsubishi Chemicals from the 1980s to the early 1990s, was blamed for allegedly spreading radiation poisoning in Bukit Merah due to what is claimed to be their poor management of radioactive waste generated from processing tin tailings to extract rare earth.
The aftermath of the factory's operations is arguably one of the largest radioactive waste clean-ups in Asia, with a permanent site set up at the foot of nearby Kledang hill.
Ghosts of the alleged health hazards leaking out of the ARE resurfaced recently when plans by Australian mining firm Lynas tobuild another rare earth processing facility, this time in Gebeng, Pahang, were made public.
Recounting her time working on the ARE premises, Lai Kwan said it was a bit odd that every staff member was required to wear a thermometer-like pin over their chests whenever they were on site, which she found out later was used to measure radioactivity exposure.
“Every time at work, I would smell something really awful. It made me thirsty but otherwise I didn't feel anything strange.
“I only found out (about radioactive waste) when the residents of Kg Papan started protesting against the factory, because they were planning to bury their waste at the village. The villagers told me about it,” she said.
Another senior citizen, whose family was also allegedly afflicted by radiation poisoning from the ARE, said it has been hard for her youngest daughter, having been constantly going in and out of the hospital since she was a baby.
Panchavarnam Shanmugam, 55, was working as a labourer clearing forest cover on a plot of land right next to the ARE factory in 1987 when she noticed a lot of water being flushed out from the factory.
“Our work took us about seven months to finish. Many times, there would be a lot of water coming from the factory and it rise up almost as high as our knees. The water was very smelly,” she said at her home.
'My child suffers'
A year later, Panchavarnam's youngest child, Kasturi, was born and almost immediately the complications arose.
She recounted how as a baby, Kasturi suddenly suffered inflammation all over her body to the point that she had to be treated in a sterile environment at the hospital.
Her daughter also had constant splitting headaches, which came with heavy nose bleeds and on some occasions, fainting.
It was only when Kasturi was around 10 or 11 years old that doctors discovered that she was suffering from leukaemia. Neither of her two elder siblings has the disease, nor could Panchavarnam recall anyone in her family having the condition.
“She could not run like her friends, and she just found it hard to concentrate on anything. She can speak English, but it's difficult for her to focus... she could not finish her Form Five,” Panchavarnam (right) said of her daughter.
Kasturi, now 23, is now working at a nearby textiles store, but Panchavarnam noted that her daughter still goes in and out of the hospital regularly.
“It has been hard for her,” said the doting mother.
And as described by Lai Kwan's daughter, who asked not to be named, it is hard not only on those made sick by the radiation but also on their families, who are helpless to change the fortunes of their loved ones.
“I had a hard time in school before I stopped, because my classmates would make fun of my brother because of how he is. My mother couldn't go for wedding dinners, or celebrate Mother's Day because there wouldn't be anyone to take care of my brother.
“We have cried so much that our tears have run dry,” she said.

History will repeat itself, says Bukit Merah activist

Teoh Beng Hock RCI – homicide most likely

Sounds like from the testimony and report of  Universiti Teknologi Malaysia's associate professor in mechanical engineering, Sallehuddin Muhamad, homicide is the most likely conclusion. Read the article below reproduced here with the kind permission of  'Not possible for Teoh to squat on ledge and jump' and decide for yourself whether that should be the most likely conclusion of the RCI:

'Not possible for Teoh to squat on ledge and jump'

S Pathmawathy
May 3, 11
12:16pm

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It would not have been possible for Teoh Beng Hock to squat on the window ledge and jump forward, said an expert witness testifying before the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) investigating his death.
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia's associate professor in mechanical engineering, Sallehuddin Muhamad, concluded this in his report after reconstructing Teoh's fall in nine possible ways.
"Squatting on the window edge and then jumping forward is not possible due to the size of the open window. The head will hit the window panel if he jumps from this position," Sallehuddin says in his report.

In the report, Sallehuddin suggests two possible positions of Teoh's fall:
(a) Without the air resistance effect
- pushed horizontally forward at 1m/s (Case 2)
- pushed downwards at a speed of 3m/s and a 20-degree angle (Case 7)
(b) With the aerodynamic effect
- Sit on the window edge and free-fall to the ground at initial angle of 4.75 degrees.
“Squatting on the window edge and then jumping forward is not possible due to the size of the open window. The head will hit the window panel if he jumps from this position,” he added after the second suggestion.
“Situation (a) is homicide, while situation (b) is suicide. To fall from situation (b), the deceased must be sitting on the window edge for a very short time before free-fall as the sharp edge of the window frame will hurt him,” the report states.
Sallehuddin, who specialises in aircraft accident investigations, was engaged by the RCI's private investigator Michael Leslie Squires after the commission called for a reconstruction of the fall via computer animation in February.
He told the panel today that he visited the scene of the incident in March, accompanied by several officers from the Chemistry Department and police officers.

“It is not possible to open the window to the farthest extent without difficulty. A few of us had to push it all the way,” said Sallehuddin.
He explained that the window from which Teoh had fallen measured slightly more than 96 feet from the fifth floor landing and “if one is to open the window, the person must bend over”.
“I asked my assistant to sit on the window ledge to simulate the fall but we didn't try to jump... it is very uncomfortable to squat on the ledge for long,” he testified.
The inquiry took a 30-minute break after the professor had introduced himself and submitted his report to the panel.

However, the panel after the break decided to reserve Sallehuddin's testimony for later in the day and to first question Teoh's friend, Woo Chuan Sing, and colleague Mandy Ooi.

Teoh was found dead on the fifth floor landing of Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam on July 16, 2009, after being questioned overnight as a witness by the Selangor Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

The MACC was investigating his employer Seri Kembangan assemblyperson Ean Yong Hian Wah over alleged irregularities in disbursement of state funds, but could not find evidence of this.

Below is the full summary of Sallehuddin's findings:
Conclusion
A. Most probable position before the fall:
Based on the fall analysis, the most probable ways the body fell to the ground are:
(a) Without the air resistance effect
(i) pushed horizontally forward at 1m/s (Case 2)
(ii) pushed downwards at a speed of 3m/s and 20 degrees angle (Case 7)
(b) With the aerodynamic effect
Sit on the window edge and free-fall to the ground at initial angle of 4.75 degrees.
(c) Squatting on the window edge and jumping forward is not possible due to the opening size of the window. The deceased's head will hit the window panel if he jumps in this position.
Situation (a)(i) and (ii) are homicide , while (b) is suicide. To fall from situation (b), the deceased must be sitting on the window edge for a very short time before free-fall as the sharp edge of the window frame will hurt him.

B. Marking on the shoes
Markings on his shoes (labelled A) were due to wear and tear as there are no markings on the outside wall of the 14th floor during my inspection.

However, markings (labelled B) may occur when the shoes made contact with the sharp edges of the window during situation (b).
Unanswered question
The window handle lost from the window lock. According to the maintenance personnel, the handle was installed on the window prior to the incident. Did the handle break due to:
(a) The deceased grabbing the handle to prevent himself from falling, but the handle breaking due to the weight of the body?

(b) The handle catching part of the body/clothing and breaking due to the weight?
Situation (a) is homicide and situation (b) is suicide.

Man in sex video not Anwar, says Uthaya

Man in sex video not Anwar, says Uthaya

Hazlan Zakaria
May 2, 11
12:54pm

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The man in the sex video is not opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, said HRP secretary general P Uthayakumar after watching a copy of the video that he said had arrived in the mail on Apr 29.

The HRP leader is the second to receive a copy of the notorious video, after Kapar MP S Manikavasagam found one in his mail box last week.

Uthayakumar (left, showng envelope) maintains that the video is a political conspiracy led by Umno in collusion with the police Special Branch.

He said he received a CD containing the 22-minute sex video shown to reporters at Carcosa Sri Negara on Mar 21, by airmail from Thailand.
The bubble-foam envelope bore Thai stamps and was postmarked Apr 25, Songkhla, Thailand.
He viewed the video with several HRP activists yesterday, he said.
“We stopped the CD in strategic positions, numerous times, looking at (the perpetrator's) face; we looked at it again and again. We believe it is not him,” the HRP leader said in a press conference at the party headquarters in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur today.

'Enough gutter politics'

Uthayakumar's defence of Anwar is surprising as he and his organisation are vocal critics of the opposition leader.
Quizzed on his thoughts on why the CD was sent to him, the activist suspected the sender wanted him to “lend credence to their cause”.
Uthayakumar said as a matter of principle, he would not fall into their trap, standing firm that despite differences with Anwar he believed the man in the video is not the PKRde-facto leader (left, with wife Wan Azizah).
“I believe that this is a political conspiracy with a view to kill off Anwar, politically,” he alleged.
Uthayakumar accused Umno and the police Special Branch of colluding to get rid of the politician whom he said is the rallying point for the Pakatan Rakyat coalition, that is gaining ground against the BN-led government.

Calling it “gutter politics” he likened the video scandal to what Hindraf leaders faced in 2007 when the government had detained them for alleged links to the LTTE rebel movement in Sri Lanka.
They were the Umno-led BN's tactics to the discredit dissenters, he said.
“(In 2007) the government had used the print and electronic media to influence public opinion against us,” said the lawyer.
Uthayakumar said he plans to hand deliver the CD to Prime Minister Najib Razak's office next week, along with a memorandum from HRP.
“He must stop this level of gutter politics, and apologise for having accused us of having LTTE links,” he said.

1Malaysia email – Malaysians get conned again?

Read what Dean Johns have to say about this 1Malaysia email and I believe you will agree that this is another UMNO/BN scam projects designed to extract maximum profits from a hairbrained project.

1Malaysia.con

Dean Johns
Apr 27, 11
12:49pm

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The 1Malaysia Email project is both a symptom and a symbol of the rotten Umno/BN regime. It's as blatant a con as everything this god-forsaken government says and does, and clearly corrupt into the bargain.
Its pretext of providing “direct and secure communications between the citizens and the government” and a “one-stop centre for government services, providing value-added services such as social networking, checking bills online and payment” sounds as fishy - or, since it is an Internet scam, phishy - as all get-out.
It is clearly intended to provide the government with unchecked power to spam and snoop on Malaysian netizens in the present, and the option of forcing the people to do anything from conducting all their Internet communications and transactions to possibly even voting through this dodgy portal in the future.
This promises to be the final link in the web of deceit that Umno/BN has progressively woven to extend and defend its criminal misrule of the country, and ensnare the populace forever in its net.
And the manner of presenting the thing to the people has been as suspect as the project itself. First it was presented on the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Permandu) website as 'a government initiative in providing a unique and official email account and ID for the citizens of Malaysia'.
Then, a day or two later, the story was changed to read 'a private sector initiative led by Tricubes Bhd'. Premier Najib Abdul Razak supported the second version by tweeting: “Let me clarify that the 1Malaysia Email is a private sector project. No public money is involved, and it's entirely voluntary.”
If no public money is involved, however, many of us are wondering where Tricubes, the lucky recipient of the project, is going to find the RM50 million reportedly required to fund it.
In fact it appears that Tricubes is virtually broke, or was when it was mysteriously awarded the 1Malaysia.con project, as it was under GN3 status under Bursa Malaysia guidelines and thus facing delisting unless it restructures its finances.

So it is terribly difficult to believe the claim by Permandu CEO Idris Jala, that Tricubes was awarded the project in a process of open bidding.

It looks to me, and to many other people whose comments I've seen, far more like one of BN's customary free gifts to cronies. And what a gift, with the government agreeing to pay an astonishing 50 sen per email and Tricubes set to offer “extra security” in return for an additional fee from subscribers!
No wonder that the formerly ailing company has delivered a windfall for its investors, as its formerly lamentable share price has soared since it was given the go-ahead to proceed with the 1Malaysia.con project.
Laughable hypocrisy
Meanwhile, Najib, self-proclaimed author of the 1Malaysia slogan and chief sponsor of 1Malaysia.con, hosted a BN propaganda event in KL billed as the First Malaysia-Asean Regional Bloggers' Conference.
According to a report by BN's lapdog 'news' agency, Bernama, this event with its theme 'Blogging Mindfully and Responsibly' was staged to 'provide a platform to derive defence mechanisms to protect the plethora of bloggers, especially on Malaysia and Malaysia-centric postings', and 'to highlight the obstacles faced by these bloggers as well as the adversity that bloggers might experience in their day-to-day tackling of various issues'.
The timing of this confab, or rather con-fab, revealed its laughable hypocrisy, just a week after the BN regime had mounted a denial-of-service attack on sites includingMalaysiakini andSarawak Report, and following the release of a UN report that ranks Malaysia way down with the likes of Pakistan, Russia, Zimbabwe and Mubarak's Egypt on the Internet freedom index.
Never one to allow facts to get in the way of his falsehoods, however, Najib declared in his keynote speech to the gathering: “I have no doubt that whatsoever that Malaysia has one of the liveliest blogospheres in the world and definitely one of the freest if not the most free.”
Having delivered himself of this outright, barefaced lie, he noted that “the Internet is an engine for economic growth, the portal that opens up to a knowledge society”, before following with the self-revealing remark that “even a government that is not too keen about the democracy part of 'digital democracy' should embrace the digital part, as the economic implications are simply too great to ignore”.
In other words, as I take him to mean, his 1Malaysia.con is all about dollars, not democracy, and that his attempted co-option of Malaysia's blogosphere is driven by his terror of assaults on BN by local versions of what he called “cybertroopers who waged viral warfare with the might of their keyboards, keypads and smartphones” in the Middle East's Twitter and Facebook revolutions.
Hence his fear-driven plea for bloggers to air their views about his government, “even if it is constructive criticism”, and for a relationship between BN and the bloggers “based on mutual respect”.
Thanks to the likes of Najib and his colleagues and cronies, however, the BN government - like similarly corrupt and repressive regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Iran, Syria, Morocco and dozens of other countries - has long lost any right to respect from bloggers or anyone else.
And how much “respect” do Najib and his ilk show their people in constantly feeding them a pack of lies and treating the most gullible of the populace like monkeys by paying them peanuts for their votes?
Typical of the total lack of respect that BN has for truth, honesty or the intelligence of the Malaysian people was the claim by Dr Mahathir Mohamad, patron of Blog House Malaysia, convenor of Najib's blogger-nobbling conference, that, like bloggers, “the mainstream media should allow themselves to be critical of the government now and then”.
Pretending to decry the fact that the mainstream media practise self-censorship in the face of all the laws he himself enacted to crush media freedom, he declared that “this had given the wrong impression that they had been censored by the government”.
All I can say about this superannuated con-man is that, unlike Najib and his relatively youthful con-sorts in 1Malaysia.con, he is unfortunately unlikely to stand trial for his crimes against truth, justice and the Malaysian people, or ever be con-victed.

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'.

Now police acts in cahoots with BN over sex video

For a long time already Malaysians suspect (strongly suspect) police to be another branch of UMNO/BN and now its latest antics shows that suspicions were well founded. Read rest of the article below reproduced with kind permission of Malaysiakini

 

Sex video: Cops in cahoots with BN, decries PKR

Also see Video response by Nurul Anwar & Tian Chua

Regina Lee
Apr 29, 11
2:52pm

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PKR has flayed the police, charging the enforcement agency with working in cahoots with the BN ruling coalition over the sex video, allegedly featuring party de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim having sex with a sex worker.
In a press conference at PKR headquarters in Petaling Jaya, party leaders claimed that the police are already going around town claiming that Anwar is man in the video.
Vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar (left in picture) said that she has received complaints that one SAC1 Isa Abdul Rahman from Bukit Aman has been giving talks to teachers in several schools in Kelantan for the past month, mainly to discredit the opposition leader.
“I was told that this officer from Bukit Aman has actually been telling teachers in Kelantan that Anwar is a threat to national security and the person in the video really is Anwar.
“I fully condemn this if it really is a Bukit Aman officer doing that. Whatever efforts used to discredit Anwar Ibrahim appear to have the encouragement of the police, BN, Umno and the mainstream media owned by BN,” she said.
Fellow vice-president Tian Chua also accused the police of “dancing to the tune of the ruling parties”, saying that he personally has also received complaints that Malay party workers have been pulled aside for “friendly advice” from the police.
“My election workers have been pulled aside and given a lecture by the police, saying that 'it's true that Anwar is the man in the video' and that they have 'inside information'.
“It's not isolated but widespread. Many of our Malay party members have been targeted to be given this sort of 'advice' that Anwar truly is the actor. Such talk has been experienced by many PKR members,” he said.
'The burden was left to Anwar to prove innocence'
PKR also accused the police of double standards, especially when it comes to the treatment of Anwar.
They claimed that though the principle of 'innocent until proven guilty' has been the guiding legal basis of criminal cases, the police seemed to have made up their minds about Anwar's guilt.
“When it comes to Anwar, the treatment is not normal... Anwar Ibrahim has already provided an alibi but now the police want accuse him as if the burden of proof is upon him. The same way, people should go to (Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor) and ask what they were doing on the night of (Mongolian translator) Altantuya Shariibuu's murder.
“With BN, the approach is always different. Why is it so different then when it comes to Anwar?” asked communications chief Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad (right), who was also at the press conference.
Chua also said that the police have been deliberately ignoring the glaring inconsistencies and criminal acts that have been allegedly committed with the distribution of the sex video.
“Apart from the fact that the police are not investigating the aspects of criminal intimidation and under the Film and Censorship Act, there is no issue of whether it is Anwar in the film or not.
“The police then said that they want to identify the watch until someone said it was not relevant. Then again the issue of the watch was brought up by the investigating officer. What's the watch about? The whole issue is to create the impression that Anwar is the actor as far as criminal justice is concerned...
“The issue here is about someone using the video material to intimidate and harass Anwar,” said Chua, before accusing the police of dragging their feet on the matter.

Chua proceeded to pull out a poster showing two screen grabs - one from the sex video said be recorded on Feb 21 and the other from a media organisation taken on Feb 22, the day after.
Chua pointed out that in the Feb 22 video taken by TV Selangor outside the courtroom where Anwar appeared for his ongoing sodomy trial, Anwar had longer hair, whereas the sex video showed a man with close-cropped hair.
"I don't know what Anwar can eat to make his hair grow so fast," quipped Nik Nazmi.
The sex video caper started on March 21 when businessman Shazryl Eskay Abdullah invited several journalists and editors for a screening of the footage at the Carcosa Seri Negara hotel in Kuala Lumpur, claiming that it was recorded at a KL spa.
He earlier said that he stumbled across the CCTV camera and its recording when he was allegedly summoned by Anwar to retrieve his Omega watch. Eskay later handed the watch over to the police, when he gave his statement together with his DNA in Bukit Aman.
While the full-length video has been released on popular video sharing website YouTube, Anwar has firmly denied that he was the man in the video, lodging a police report in the process.

Video response by Nurul Anwar & Tian Chua

Teoh Bee Lan says RCI with MACC in cahoots

Jacob Sinnathamby at We must obey God rather than man is despondent over the lack of integrity of many of the nation’s institutions and its staff and here is an example.

A Royal Commission of Inquiry is commanded by the Royalty to dig out the truth, not to cover it. But is the current RCI and those officers from MACC doing that? Teoh Beng Hock’s sister Teoh Bee Lan doesn’t not think so. In fact she accuses the RCI to be acting in cahoots with MACC when it suddenly without any warning postponed the hearing. She thinks it is to enable the MACC officers to huddle together to ensure their testimonies are consistent with each other, not necessarily consistent with the truth. That 1 officer had been caught lying in the RCI reinforces her suspicion:

Article below reproduced below with kind permission of Malaysiakini.

RCI in cahoots with MACC, accuses Teoh's sister

Apr 28, 11 1:04pm

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The sudden postponement of the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) hearing into the death of Teoh Beng Hock could be to 'plot' to ensure that witness statements are “consistent”.
Beng Hock's younger sister Teoh Lee Lan, who was present at the Kuala Lumpur Court Complex on Jalan Duta this morning, said she suspects the RCI's decision to postpone the proceedings to next week was an attempt to cover-up for the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC).
Yesterday, MACC's assistant superintendent Azeem Hafeez Jamaluddin admitted that there wereinstructions to cover up the role of his superior, Hishamuddin Hashim, in the investigation into the irregular disbursement of state funds.
Azeem had said that their orders were “to be consistent in statements to the police and also while testifying” during the inquest and at the RCI.
“I see that nobody in the MACC speaks the truth, (it's) very obvious. If no one (had committed) murder, there would be no need for a cover-up. It was obvious during the inquest as well,” Lee Lan told reporters today.
Lee Lan accompanied Mandy Ooi, secretary to Seputeh MP Teresa Kok, who was supposed to testify before the royal panel today, along with lawyer M Manoharan.
Even reporters following the RCI proceedings since it began on Feb 14 were not informed of the sudden change in plans until this morning.
'Witnesses done for the week'
The inquiry's secretariat explained that today's hearing was put off because the inquiry has heard the testimonies of all the witnesses lined up for the week.
“We will wait and see if the government wants to find the culprit,” said Lee Lan.
Teoh, political secretary to Seri Kembangan assemblyperson Ean Yong Hian Wah, was found dead on July 16, 2009 sprawled on the fifth floor corridor of Plaza Masalam, Shah Alam.
He was questioned overnight by MACC officers at its (then) Selangor headquarters on the 14th floor of the building, over claims of state funds misuse by his employer, Ean Yong.
Lee Lan also informed reporters that her older brother, Meng Kee, and her father, Leong Hwee, have been subpoenaed to testify before the inquiry next week.
She complained about her father having to travel from their home town in Malacca to testify.
It is understood that representatives from mobile service providers - DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd and Maxis Communications Bhd - are in a closed-door meeting with the panel of commissioners.
According to a source, the RCI is expected to wrap up its investigation by the second week of May and is expected to submit its report to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong by June 25.
The commission is investigating both the cause of Teoh's death and if there were any improprieties in his interrogation by the MACC.

Lee Lan and her family had opted not to take part in the RCI proceedings after the rejection of their application to postpone the inquiry until after the review of the coroner's inquest decision by the High Court in Shah Alam was disposed of.
An 18-month-long inquest into Teoh's death came out with an open verdict, ruling out suicide or homicide as the cause of his death.
The review of the inquest decision is expected to be heard on May 23.

Mariam Mokhtar and the Ugly Chinaman

I often enjoyed Mariam Moktar's writings as I consider she one of the more enlighted Malays who can see an issue from other's point of views. However this latest article of hers, The Ugly Chinaman I have to confess, irritated me to some extent, but not because I disagree with some of the points she raised. While I agree with Mariam about Chinaman's habit of spitting, more Chinaman don't spit in public than those who does plus some of other races spit in public too. Mariam also painted a picture of dishonest Chinaman businessmen, but don't she knows that there are many ethical Chinaman businessmen who consider their words as their bonds?

More. She wrote like all Chinaman are inconsiderate only acting when it is in their interest. She thus implied others like Malays, for example, often perform acts without thinking about gains for self. On this in general I would agree with her as from my experience during the period of riding a motorcycle, I have noticed usually the other motorcyclist who stop to help stranded motorcyclist are Malays.

However I would like to point Mariam to this recent article by Tay Tian Yan of the Malaysian Insider - What race are you?. In that article Tay wrote about a Chinaman Ong Kim Koon who stopped to help a Malay couple in an accident and in doing so sustained horrific injuries and died. So I would like to ask Mariam, would Kim Koon only act when it benefits him? So Mariam, are all Chinaman the same?

In short, I was irritated because she painted all Chinese with the same paintbrush without pointing out that there are exceptions. Had she done that, I would agree fully with Mariam's The Ugly Chinaman (article published here with kind permission of Malaysiakini, your source of real news:

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The Ugly Chinaman

The Ugly Chinaman

Mariam Mokhtar
Apr 25, 11
2:27pm

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It is heartbreaking for Malaysians to see that the country is more fractured and divided than at any time in its history - Malays against Chinese, east Malaysians against peninsular Malaysians, Muslims against non-Muslims, and so on.
In the aftermath of the Sarawak election, the swing of votes to the opposition alarmed BN, but instead of looking in the mirror at itself, BN has again sought to blame others for its faults.
As is the norm after any election, it is the Chinese which BN conveniently picks on to 'explain' its poor showing in the voting pattern.
Why should we question the loyalty of the Chinese when BN should examine its own leadership, its policies and the way its conducts itself before, during and after an election?
No one is saying that the opposition is perfect or blameless, but BN has had 54 years of governance and many of the problems that we now face, like the poverty of the indigenous population of Sarawak and Sabah, the gap between the rich and the poor, the endemic corruption, the manner in which politicians see politics as a short-cut to riches, the polarisation of the various ethnic groups, are all because of BN's own policies.
Dictators and communists like North Korea, China or the former USSR are obsessed with controlling the press or shutting down newspapers because they do not want the truth to come out. Malaysia is the same.
Former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad does not believe that the Chinese have abandoned BN. Even the DAP and MCA are drawn into the bitter wrangle, with its leaders pitting Chinese against Chinese.
The reason for all this Chinese carping and animosity of some Malays towards the Chinese was an article by Zaini Hassan, an editorial executive at Utusan Malaysia. He penned an article after the Sarawak state election and called for a “1Melayu, 1Bumi” movement to counter what he said was Chinese political unity.
It was almost a year ago when the same author blamed the Chinese for the BN receiving less than the expected number of votes from the Chinese community after the Hulu Selangor by-election. His article was “Orang Cina Malaysia, apa lagi yang anda mahu?(Chinese of Malaysia, what more do you want?)
Utusan, the Umno mouthpiece, reasoned that it was the Chinese which caused BN's share of the popular votes in Sarawak to slip from 63% to 55%, completely ignoring the fact that it wasn't only the Chinese that had rejected BN, but more indigenous voters including Malays, had also crossed over from BN to the opposition camp.
Questioning Chinese 'gratitude'
Perhaps we can examine why Utusan and Zaini feels it necessary to question Chinese 'gratitude' and loyalties.
Many have heard of the Ugly American or the Ugly Japanese. Whenever Zaini writes articles which are critical of the Chinese, he may be referring to the Ugly Chinaman which Bo Yang, a Chinese writer refers to in his book, 'The Ugly Chinaman and the Crisis of Chinese Culture'.
Not everyone is an angel and Malaysia is not short of the Ugly Malay either.
Nevertheless there are many facets of Ugly Chinese culture that Malaysians of all races say are typical of the Chinese. They say that spitting, talking loudly in public, bragging, their corrupting or corruptible influence, being secretive or tight-lipped especially with information, are all cultural traits which hail from the distant feudal past.
Another feature that is commonly mentioned is “dishonesty” and this is mostly to do with business dealings. The Ugly Chinaman does not do anything if he does not gain from the transaction. This means that the “trust” factor is questionable, for without trust, neither can there be honesty and truth. Utimately, these factors all have long-term implications in business.
There is also the obsession with money and so we have “No money, no talk”, or the other scourge associated with gambling.
All cultures, be it Malay, Chinese, Indian or western, have some good and some evil in them. Perhaps, Zaini is just concentrating on all that is bad about the Chinese. Of course, that would not be a fair synopsis of the Chinese character. But who said politics is a fair undertaking?
In addition to the spitting and being loud in public, the bad manners in the shops, and the rude, pushy behaviour, most (but not all) Chinese are apt to confuse patriotism and nationalism - most Chinese (especially the older Chinese) do not agree with other Chinese speaking ill of other Chinese. This clannish behaviour is very strong in the culture and is considered part of their “roots”.
Ethics inside the house, selfishness out of it
The Chinese kinship equates to being concerned with ethics inside the house, but reverting to selfishness, once out of it. This in stark contrast to the western culture where people care about people outside the house but are very cold towards their family.
No one is trying to defend the racist rants of Zaini or Utusan, but like the Ugly Malay, the Ugly Chinese could, with better education from schools and the outside world, try to be more considerate about people around them and be aware of their surroundings.
If the Chinese abandoned the Ugly Chinaman image, the ordinary Malaysian, especially the Malay, will find it difficult to accept what racists likes Zaini, or other extremists, have to say about the Chinese.
We want future generations to view Malaysia as a united country - no racism, discrimination, and selfishness. Only then will we be more objective, more open-minded, more advanced, more willing to accept criticisms and different points of views.

MARIAM MOKHTAR is a non-conformist traditionalist from Perak, a bucket chemist and an armchair eco-warrior. In 'real-speak', this translates into that she comes from Ipoh, values change but respects culture, is a petroleum chemist and also an environmental pollution-control scientist.

Selangor Exco Elizabeth Wong's personal assistant arrested by Miri Police

Sarawak shame featured on ABC Australia

ABC Australia from Sarawak Report on Vimeo.

Bakun dam unsafe? Temporary Sarawak Report mirror site

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear friends,

the cyberwar against Malaysia's independent online media has continued today for the fourth day. According to Sarawak Report editor Clare Brown, these are unprecedented, very professional and expensive denial of service attacks causing massive problems to the providers of Sarawak Report, Malaysiakini and other websites.

The Bruno Manser Fund condemns this obvious attempt by the ruling Malaysian Barisan Nasional coalition to silence critical voices ahead of Saturday's state election in Sarawak.

Please find attached the latest explosive story on the infamous Bakun dam, Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud's favourite project that has caused suffering to thousands of displaced natives and is likely to never become profitable. While Transparency International has labelled the Bakun dam a "monument of corruption", Sarawak Report is now disclosing worrying news on the safety of the dam construction. You will find the story attached. To view the embedded video, please access Sarawak Report's temporary website:
http://sarawakreport.wordpress.com

With kind regards,
Your BMF team

Calling Penan, Kayan, Kelabit, Kenyah, Iban

From an email forward:

I am Lake' Jaro' calling to all my anak-anak, cucu-cucu from the Penan, Kayan, Kelabit, Kenyah, Iban and all orang Ulu community in Sarawak especially in Telang Usan.

Starting tomorrow we have 2 more whole days and 1 and half night to campaign before we vote on 16/4/2011. PR parties are poor because their only source of funds are from their own pockets. On the other hand BN parties have access to unlimited funds.. taxes from us, royalty from our timber, oil gas, the big corporations given large tract of our NCR lands etc...etc..etc. Every where they are giving angpows of up to RM2000.00 per voter. They are handing out MEE SEGERA and getting our nation deeper and deeper into national debt. Right after this election if BN wins I can bet my one month salary that everything from sugar, tea, mee, petrol, diesel etc...etc will go up. They need our money to pay for what they borrowed for all the MEE SEGERA.

Brothers and sisters IF BN win which I doubt very much you will not get a cent from BN/TAIB/UMNO for the next 5 years. So now is the time to receive your RM2000.00. Go and demand the money from them. Approach the person holding their money because after all the person holding the money will try his very best to keep the money for himself. Election money is SAFE money so no one will charge the person holding the money even if he did not distribute a single cent to the voters.

Go and tell the BN that you are their supporter and will vote for them...COME ELECTION DAY VOTE FOR PKR (MATA) Harrison Ngau for Telang Usan, Baru Bian for Bakelalan and Dr. Lau for Batu Danau. So do not miss this apportunity.

JANGAN SEPERTI SESETENGAH PENGUNDI " MALI ENDA NGUNDI BN LABAN IA UDAH MERI KITAI 5 RINGGIT !" This is typical IBAN thinking. Telang Usan people are more matured, I hope !.

TUHAN MEMBERKATI KITA SEMUA

Josh Hong: Voting crooks out of power is not betrayal

Josh Hong said voting crooks out of power is not betrayal. Read his analysis of the political situation in Sarawak in particular and Malaysia in general in his opinion piece reproduced below with kind permission of Malaysiakini. May I also add this comment which is in response to those that feel that their better fortune is due to the largesse of the UMNO/BN and they are grateful. I have this to say - yes be grateful to leaders like Tengku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein Onn etc but not to Dr Mahathir, Abdullah Badawi, Najib because it was the wise leadership of the earlier leaders which brought us to where we was and it was the later that destroyed what they had built. No I don't think we should be grateful to Dr Mahathir for what he did to our country crucial institutions especially to the once respected Judiciary, for the decay of the country started with him.

Saving grace for Sarawak? by Josh Hong:

In trying to understand how it lost seven state assembly seats in the 2006 state election and the Sibu parliamentary seat last year, all that the Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP) could come up with was that the electorate had been hoodwinked by the opposition.

The party is already in strange waters. Once steeped in a leftist tradition buttressed by an ostensibly multiracial platform, SUPP is nowadays nothing more than a Sarawakian answer to the MCA.

Dominant are the Chinese tycoons high up in the party's echelon, who became filthy rich at the expense of the state's natural bounties and resources, not to mention the indigenous communities forced off their native land.

NONEThree decades of uninterrupted rule by Abdul Taib Mahmud - the white-haired Rajah - have ensured his regime prospered, along with the Chinese cronies, with unbridled corruption now paining the general population.

Increasingly under pressure to account for the loss of SUPP influence over Taib Mahmud's uninhibited greed and power, SUPP organising secretary Peter Chin Fah Kui was compelled to declare recently that SUPP had never betrayed Chinese interests in Sarawak.

The protestation of innocence, of course, failed to strike a chord with his Chinese audience. More accurate would be an admission that the SUPP had always safeguarded the interests of the Chinese tycoons, but not those of the ordinary folk.

What is going on now in the Land of the Hornbills is in fact a contagion of the political malaise in the peninsula. For many, the BN has become too corrupt and arrogant. Umno, the lynchpin party, successfully consolidated its power across the state apparatus, while allowing other component parties certain concessions in business and trade.

The same model was readily adopted by Taib Mahmud in the 1980s. By the time the so-called coalition partners realised they existed at the mercy of both Umno and Taib Mahmud, it was already too late to reverse their fortunes.

Despite the political tsunami of March 2008, Umno will not take it lying down. Bereft of ideology and acutely aware of its own economic mismanagement, the longest-ruling party in Southeast Asia knows full well it cannot compete with the opposition alliance on an equal footing.

For the sake of survival, Umno, Taib Mahmud and all those whose political futures are on the line can only resort to racial sentiments and lewd politics.

The argument of racial betrayal comes in handy. For all his pretension on 'transformation', Najib's Umno never refrains from portraying non-Malays and non-Muslims as power-crazy demons.

In Sarawak, Taib Mahmud is going from one place to another warning his Melanau constituents that they must not risk voting in a Christian chief minister - Baru Bian that is.

The reasoning behind is crass and simple: corrupt we may be, we remain your trusted bastards.

The latest 'exposè' of a sex video to implicate Anwar Ibrahim was clearly done with the connivance of some powerful individuals within the government. Or else, how would one explain the seamless arrangement for the 'premiere' to be held at the state-owned Carcosa Seri Negara?

Legal consequences that can't be taken lightly

Any respectable international hotel chain - from Hilton, Mandarin Oriental to JW Marriot - will not permit this to happen, for such an act will tarnish its good name, perhaps beyond rescue. It also entails legal consequences that cannot be taken lightly.

While one can scarcely imagine the Blair House in Washington being used by Democrats to denounce Republicans, Najib Abdul Razak sees no wrong in the once prestigious Carcosa Seri Negara having served as a venue for a despicable screening.

The prime minister may have played no part in the jiggery-pokery, but his failure to condemn the masterminds speaks volumes of his mendacious pledge for reform.

Even the paranoid Chinese government would not toy with having a 'steamy session' at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in order to discredit prominent dissidents. It may try other means, but not by stooping so low. Authoritarianism need not be so tasteless like ours.

Some argue the Malaysian public should ignore the episode and focus on real issues. I agree, but only to a certain extent.

Gutter politics had begun to flourish ever since Dr Mahathir Mohamad framed up all the charges against Anwar in 1998 and subjected the judiciary to executive tutelage.

As Umno goes for the jugular in killing off Anwar's chances of making a final comeback, implications of the incessant character assassinations are far-reaching.

Its message to the Malaysian populace is loud and clear: dare challenge my hegemony and off to jail you go. Just look at what is happening to Anwar.

Scaring citizens on 'divine right' to rule

Yes, it is the psychological impact that Umno is working at. By scaring the citizens into accepting their 'divine right' to rule, Najib, Hishammuddin Hussein, Muhyiddin Yassin, Taib Mahmud and Mukhriz Mahathir can easily carry their 'state monopoly' into posterity.

So can freeloaders like the MCA, Gerakan and the MIC, as well as the SUPP. Oh, not to forget Ibrahim Ali and Bung Moktar Bung Radin, who are not only downright male chauvinists but also epitomes of gutter politics.

For this reason alone, one must continue to speak about the sex video, but with a view to exposing the seeds of deceit sown by Umno and to expunging political fears that remain pervasive in our society.

But we must also not neglect other abuses and excesses of institutional power, the latest being the tragic death of Ahmad Sarbani Mohamed at the Kuala Lumpur MACC office two days ago. As powers are becoming more colluded across the South Chine Sea, Sarawakians and Sabahans are no longer shielded from political catastrophes.

Umno and Taib Mahmud will still deter Malaysians from talking about these issues by all means, while their allies are not in a position to effect real changes, both because the latter are not only politically emasculated, but also because their personal interests are too entrenched.

Hence, voting these crooks out cannot be seen as betrayal, but an act that may turn out to be a saving grace in the years to come.

JOSH HONG studied politics at London Metropolitan University and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. A keen watcher of domestic and international politics, he longs for a day when Malaysians will learn and master the art of self-mockery, and enjoy life to the full in spite of politicians.

Alert: Check your voter registered

During a voter registration exercise, a voter who totally have no connection with Johore somehow was found to be registered to vote in Johore. Fortunately this had been discovered before an election had been declare and we assume she would have time to go to the post office to get her polling center changed to the address in her IC (Identity Card).

I am sure you would not want to be surprised on election day to discover that unknown to you, you polling center has been changed to a faraway unreachable place which means you would not be able to vote.

Please go to
daftarj.spr.gov.my/
or direct to
Semak pendaftaran pengundi (Bahasa Malaysia)
or
Check voter registration (English)

and ensure your polling center is same as your address in your IC and/or is what you want it to be. If you have relocated to a new address, first change the address in your IC, then go to the nearest Post Office to request to change your polling center to that address in your IC.

Sarawak State Election 2011: email forward from RPK

Below is from an email forward from RPK (Raja Petra Kamarudin) this time appealing for both actions as well as donation (second reading reveals RPK said that while he and his gang had been at the forefront, but he now is only appealing for donations in lieu of actions), not for his own fund but for DAP Malaysia/Sarawak for Change:

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My Dear Fellow Malaysians

We are writing to you to appeal for donations for Sarawak State Election on 16th April 2011. Please help the deprived people of Sarawak especially the Penans,Dayaks,Ibans who are living in deplorable and abject poverty for over 35 years under the dictatorial land grabbing regime of Chief Minister Taib Mahmud, who and his family/cronies stole BILLIONS.

We are not asking you to be in the forefront of any anti - bad goverment demostrations, facing off with the police/FRU with their water cannons/ tear gas/ batons/ brute force etc etc which we did.

We are appealing you to donate generously for A BETTER Malaysia for ALL Malaysians. Whatever the amount is most welcome and appreciated and hopefully a BIG fat cheque would do nicely. However we truly understand if you cannot afford to donate,we would appreciate if you could forward this emails to all your friends and relatives who might want to help with this donation drive.

Most of all we greatly appreciate if you could get more friends and relatives or even strangers/new acquitances to go and vote for PR and also get more voters for PR for A BETTER Malaysia for ALL Malaysians. CHANGE NOW.

Payee Name: DAP MALAYSIA
Account Number: 306 382 8309
Tel:
Bank: Any Public Bank branches.

Cash contributions can also be made at any DAP branches nationwide

Cheques payable to "DAP MALAYSIA" can be sent to:
DAP MALAYSIA
Ibu Pejabat Kebangsaan
Jalan Yew ( off Jalan Pudu
55100. K.Lumpur

Thank you.

Friends of RPK & PR

“The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of moral crisis.”

Albert Einstein ……" the world is a dangerous place NOT because of what the evil people does but because of the other good people who just LOOK ON and does NOTHING"

http://www.sarawakreport.org/2011/03/we-release-the-land-grab-data/
www.malaysia-today.net
Vote for a BETTER Malaysia for ALL Malaysians.

Sarawak BN jittery over NCR lawyers becoming ADUN

In the recent Sarawak State General Election, Pakatan Rakyat has fielded a few lawyers who had represented natives in their fight for their NCR (Native Customary Rights) lawyers in their fight for land rights for their NCR lands. And if they win, they will then become state represntatives with the right to attend State Assemblies and become even sharper thorns in the side of Sarawak BN (Barisan Nasional but better nicknamed Barisan Neraka for the serious damages they have done to Malaysia).

In the article S'wak BN jumpy over NCR lawyers becoming reps reproduced below with kind permission of Malaysiakini, Keruah Usit explain why and document the various ways the Sarawak Barisan Neraka used their sheer majority in the State Assembly to bulldoze many amendments to facilitate the robbing of the NCR lands from the natives and illustrate how important that the oppositions win sufficient seats to frustrate any further inroads, and prayerfully, despite the odds, they may form the next Sarawak State Government and at the very least, reverse or repair some of the damages:

S'wak BN jumpy over NCR lawyers becoming reps

Keruah Usit
Apr 6, 11
11:43am

Sarawak's Barisan Nasional (BN) appears jittery over the prospect of prominent native customary rights (NCR) lawyers Baru Bian, See Chee How, Harrison Ngau Laing and Abun Sui being elected as state assembly representatives on April 16.

The ruling BN is funnelling enormous resources and taking extraordinary measures to try to stop Baru, state PKR leader, from entering the state assembly. Baru Bian reported recently that his constituents had said armed forces personnel working on roads in Ba'kelalan had threatened to tear down local schools if the villagers voted for Baru Bian in the upcoming polls.

Baru was denied victory in mountainous Ba'kelalan in the last state elections in 2006 by only 475 votes. He filed a court action alleging widespread vote-buying in that election, but his election petition was unsuccessful.

Local observers say there is now a surge in the groundswell of support for Baru in Ba'kelalan. BN's alarm is indicated by its unusual step of holding back the name of its candidate to take on the highly respected Lun Bawang PKR lawyer and church leader.

Baru and See are partners in a land rights law firm that has won a string of high profile court victories for NCR landowners over Taib's government in recent years. The firm has some 150 land rights cases pending in the courts.

Harrison was detained without trial under the infamous Internal Security Act (ISA) in 1997, while Abun was recently arrested, but not charged, while he was carrying CDs and leaflets to rural communities describing allegations of corruption against chief minister Abdul Taib Mahmud.

New land and forestry laws

Sarawak BN's stranglehold over the legislature has given Taib ample opportunity to bulldoze amendments to the Land Code and forestry laws through the state legislature, over the three long decades of Taibocracy.

A flurry of amended laws allowed Taib's administration to take over NCR land with casual contempt for indigenous people's rights to land under adat or customary law, as recognised by the 1958 Land Code and the federal constitution.

For example, a Land Code amendment in 1994 allowed the minister in charge of land matters to extinguish native rights to land by simply posting his decision in a local newspaper and on an official notice board. Another land amendment in 1996 shifted the onus for proving NCR claims from the government to the native communities themselves.

A forestry law passed in 1987 declared it a crime even to stand anywhere near a logging blockade, after dozens of barricades sprang up around Baram, fuelling international criticism of deforestation. The natives standing peacefully at the blockades were reported to have been beaten by police and loggers, and attacked with tear-gas, but the BN-dominated state assembly remained silent on the human rights issue.

When native communities succeeded in mapping their own land, winning NCR recognition from the courts, Taib's government responded by passing a law prohibiting natives from making such maps for use in lawsuits.

“Such amendment(s) can be seen as an effort to give easier way for the top down approach of centralisation in the implementation of (a) leader's single-minded vision of development, rather than decentralised, diverse and dynamic systems. This will inevitably led to monoculture or (a) homogenous way of living.

“Consequently, the blessed cultural diversity of the nation would eventually be lost as a result of the denial of indigenous people's rights,” argued seven Sarawakian land rights organisations in a joint communique in Sarawak news site Rengah in May 2000, after yet another Land Code amendment further restricted the means of identifying NCR land.

This amendment in 2000, like many before it, had been rushed into the statute books with scant time for debate. There were only three DAP state assembly representatives in this sitting. The legislature was little more than a gilded rubberstamp for Taib's declarations.

'Might makes right' in legislature

The surprising opposition victories in 2006 increased the bloc of DAP and PKR state assembly representatives to seven out of 71. But the DAP and PKR still had their protests drowned out by the overwhelming majority of BN voices. The BN majority imposed their version of 'might makes right'.

The much-derided state assembly speaker, Asfia Awang Nassar, a loyal servant of Taib, suspended several opposition representatives for speaking out against Taib during recent assembly sessions, for up to a year. The retiring speaker, recently dropped from BN's latest line-up of candidates, even made history by deleting Pakatan speeches from the Hansard.

But Baru appears to relishthe prospects of confronting BN in the state assembly, promising to “bring the change that Sarawak desperately needs. We will return the trees, the lands and the rivers to the people. Corruption will stop.”

If he and See are elected, they may be debating land and forestry legislation with Len Talif Salleh, who resigned from his position as Sarawak Forestry director to contest in Belawai. Len would certainly be an unlikely champion of the rural poor. He is a seasoned apologist for wealthy logging companies throughout the state.

Len gained international notoriety by publicly expressing doubt that Penan girls had been raped by loggers (despite a women's ministry task force conclusion that the sex crimes had taken place).

He attacked the national auditor-general for calling Sarawak's forestry unsustainable in its report in 2008, saying the auditor-general's office lacked technical expertise. He also denied, famously, that last October's disastrous Rejang logjam had been caused by uncontrolled logging, claiming instead that it had been caused by rain.

“Democracy must be more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner,” wrote American political author James Bovard.

On election night on April 16, we will know whether predators dominate the Sarawak state assembly, or whether a two-party system will gain a foothold.

KERUAH USIT is a human rights activist - 'anak Sarawak, bangsa Malaysia'. This weekly column is an effort to provide a voice for marginalised Malaysians.

Save Sarawak Malaysia Appeal for Funds

Hi Folks,

As you know, free and fair election in Malaysia and in particular, in Sarawak is a pipe dream. First partly because of gerrymandering, the weightage to rural votes especially in Sarawak is hugely higher than those in the urban. Also, while easy for BN (Barisan Neraka) is easy because huge resources are available, and many suspect that includes Government resources, for campaigning in the interior. And many suspect too that vote buying is rampant there.

I like many others really hope that Malaysia will have meaningful reforms and changes for Malaysia and that can only come about if BN (Barisan Nasional or better nicknamed Barisan Neraka) is voted out of power whether for only 1 term or many terms or forever we know not. As such, I have no hesitation in donating to Sarawak4change.com/.

A friend and former collegue is now helping in the campaigning in Sarawak using his own funds. He has however appealed for donations which he can use to distribute to those others in Sarawak who/which need funds urgently and since I know him I myself have donated to him and trust him to distribute it wisely via internal transfer to his Maybank account

I have his permission to reproduce his appeal email below:

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Hi friends

I shall be making my third trip into Sarawak politics on 8th Apl. My first trip was to Batang Ai (where we lost the state assembly seat), and the second was to Sibu (where we won the Parliament seat). I am reattaching some of the photos taken at those 2 places just to share.

This third trip to participate in the campaign is, to me, the mother of all Sarawak elections. Lets not talk about taking over the state government as all calculations and statistics indicate that its a 89o uphill task, though indeed we remain hopeful. What is going to be more pivotal and far reaching is causing a dent in the juggernaut government of the BN. This election is the people’s best chance to cause a dent in Taib Mahmud’s ironclad grip.

Some analysts have forecast that winning 33 seats is possible; however I regard this as overly optimistic. Andy Williams in singing the Impossible Dream, casts his doubts. Ideally a target of 24 seats would see BN losing its 2/3 majority, but even this is not in the crystal ball of those who are more familiar with the Sarawakian psyche. To me, winning any number of additional seats (the opposition now holds only 8 seats) – but must be substantial – would send alarm bells to BN vis-a-vis the forthcoming pan Malaysian general election, ie PRU13.

The argument is that grabbing the DUN seats will have a crumbling effect on the Parliamentary constituencies (held by BN) in which these DUN seats are situated. Sarawak has 31 MPs of which only 2 are from the opposition. The game plan is to destroy BN’s fixed-deposit Parliamentary seats in that state, plus also, Sabah.

Both Sarawakians and non-Sarawakians share a common vision and desire – to bring down the corrupt and unjust BN government.

On my trip to Sarawak I would like to raise some money to help the opposition fight BN’s 3M – money, media and machinery. I appeal to you, on behalf of the people of Malaysia, and in particular the rakyat of Sarawak, to donate generously. Any amount will be appreciated. Respond to this email and I shall make arrangements with you on how to collect your donation. (NOTE: This money is to be handed to the opposition candidates in Sarawak directly. The expenses incurred by my trip will be borne solely by me.

Voter Registration: If you or your family members, neighbours or friends, and their children, have not registered to vote in the next GE, you may do so with me. I am an assistant registrar with the Election Commision and I shall make arrangements with you to get them to sign up.

THANK YOU

Robert Choo
016-278 9850

My account details:
CHOO TECK KEONG
Maybank: 012110111359