ABOLISH INTERNAL SECURITY ACT 1960

We already have too many laws like the Police Act 1967, the Penal Code and Society Act 1966 that control human rights and freedom and the worst of these law is the Internal Security Act 1960 (ISA). It was the legislation that saw on 27 October, 1987 being used to arrest 106 Opposition politicians and Chinese academicians by the Mahathir Regime. Mahathir’s name will be remembered for generations to come and during his regime no judges were daring enough to say that ISA was a draconian law that curtailed human rights and dignity. It will go into history that political parties like SUPP and PBB and those in the BN government during the Mahathir regime will also be remembered for not daring to seek this draconian law, ISA abolished. Their leaders would also be remembered as puppets of Mahathir with blind obedience to the master.

The ISA was in actual fact a vicious weapon where the police could detain under section 73(1) of the Act a person without a reason and without trial for a period of 60 days without any court order. The minister at the end of the period could allow further detention of the detainee and those being detained normally had not the heart to challenge the legality and constitutionality of the law as they knew very well that their challenge in court would be futile.

ISA A DRACONIAN WEAPON
It was a weapon that kept people blind, deaf and dump and the end result was that society became more corrupt and law enforcement officers and politicians in power became more abusive and arrogant in their acts as if the laws were created by them and for them to wield as they like. In the years of abusing the law, the system became more decayed and corruption index increased each year making Malaysia one of the most corrupt countries in this planet! Indonesia and the Philippines after the fall of Suharto and Marcos governments saw some improvement ahead of Malaysia while Malaysia kept on sliding in the corruption transparency index.

Maybe things will be better for Malaysia if BN government falls and a new government take over. A new government will surely turn the carpet around and those who are corrupt will be arrested and brought to justice and be made to pay for their sins.

The treat of arrest under ISA also saw fear among Malaysians to expose the ills of Executive and the Judiciary. This could be seen despite the controversial tape of a senior lawyer talking over a phone to a judge of fixing promotion of judges being exposed, until now no one dared to come forward to claim responsibility for the video tapping of the conversation. The billions of ringgit in the many financial scandals which included the Perwaja Steel, BMf and bailouts of crony companies will remain unsolved and became ghosts that will also haunt generations to come.

HOPE IS COMING!
Times has changed and Malaysia now begins to see some hope after the judgment of Justice Hishamuddin Mohd Yunus on 18th October, 2007 on a suit filed by Abdul Malek Hussin who was detained for 57 days under ISA in which the said Judge said the detention violated human rights and with that the government was slapped with RM2.5 million in damages.

This judgment should send a clear signal to law enforcement officers that they should not abuse their power of arrest and detention. Anwar Ibrahim, the PKR Advisor when detained by the police landed with black eye, like his friend, Abdul Malek, also saw justice when a former Inspector General of Police was convicted and sentenced to jail for causing Anwar’s black eye. The black eye is now a catalyst to many freedom and human rights movements and now Malaysians became more conscious of their rights and the importance of freedom and human dignity. These movements grew stronger and kept swelling and soon come this 10 November, 2007, we will see 100,000 strong people marching to Dataran Merdeka to demand justice, freedom and democracy.

ISA A SHAME TO CIVIL SOCIETY
ISA is a shame to a civil society and we should abolish it. To preserve it, is to preserve dirt in our home and society will not be progressive. With ISA still creating fear over the heads of Malaysians, the controversy surrounding the buying of Sukhoi jets and submarines of which DPM Najib was speculated playing a major role will forever will not be exposed.

Likewise we will forever not know how Ramli Yusuf, the Director of the Commercial Crime Investigation Department of the Police Department in Bukit Aman was said to have undeclared assets of RM27 million. Ramli Yusuf was a known officer in Sarawak having served here for a while some years ago and the people in the State also like to know whether he is a victim of some politicking within the Police Force or investigation into his case was caused by powerful people in the corridors of power. This will forever not be exposed. The Anti-Corruption Act itself ha a provision to seal the lips of those who could expose hanky-panky dealings and I think most of us also want to know whether Ramli Yusuf had such wealth.

The Inspector General of Police who was once investigated for allegation of corruption before Ramli Yusuf’s case has said there is no rift between officers within the Police Force. Now nobody dare to speak and asked what had happened to corruption in the Police Force, otherwise, ISA will come and knock at our door.

So if we want to know hanky panky dealings and that human rights be better protected, Malaysians must stand to seek this draconian law, ISA to be abolished.


POSTED by Voon Lee Shan

SHOULD WE STILL TRUST SUPP IN PROTECTING OUR RIGHTS?

SUPP concept of multiracialism has changed greatly after the Party joined the state government on the morning of Tuesday July 7, 1970. The Party did not hold true to their struggle of multiracialism since early 1960s which saw strong Dayak leaders like Jonathan Banggu and Charles Linang leaving the Party. Now, SUPP claims to protect the rights of the Chinese community, but, the question is can we still trust them after many of the chinese rights had been systematically eroded by the BN government? I am not here a racist and in politics I had fought for a fair Malaysia for all races irrespective of creed and colour. I posed that question because of the stand taken by SUPP leaders in things they did in the past seems only to the direction of protecting chinese rights and chinese community. They even claimed that only through SUPP chinese rights could be better protected where development and prosperity could be better guaranteed. However, my humble observation over the years is that the Chinese Ministers in SUPP, their YBs and those close to them became richer and richer, while the common people were crying for milk and found life difficult at ends.

The Chinese community should realise that SUPP is no more a progressive party in protecting the rights of the community. For example, during British colonial time, Kuching had five chinese schools, that is, CHPS No.1-5, but we only got one more in 1996 and until now no more. This is disgraceful and with the growing chinese population in the city, SUPP being in the government should be able to fight more for the community, but, what had they done? People in Tabuan Jaya/Stutong/BDC area had been looking forward for a chinese school to be built, but, until now we still could not see one.

We also need roads in the mandarin languange and the use of the language in the public announcement system of the Kuching International Airport to attact more chinese tourists from China and from other chinese speaking countries to boost local business and tourism. but, It seems that SUPP was not playing a proactive role in promoting the language for the good of the economy of the State. How can we expect people from China, Taiwan, HongKong and Singapore visit Malaysia, especially, Sarawak, when they could not understand the language use upon arrival to plan their travel and stay here?

In the field of economy, there should no more such thing as Never Ending Policy of NEP which also did not benefit the majority poor bumiputera. It benefited those bumputera politicians and their cronies in the corridors of powers. The poor malays and dayaks did not properly benefitted from the NEP. What we could hear is Mahathir's son became millionaire and Taib's son enjoys much better life while many in the kampungs still have to work from dawn to dust.

Posted by VOON LEE SHAN

SABAH & SARAWAK SHOULD RENEGOTIATE ROYALTIES ON OIL AND GAS

44 years in Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak still got a paltry 5% royalty for oil and gas produced. 95% of this revenue went to the Federal Government to develop roads, airports, government complexes, the Twin Towers and other infrastructrues in West Malaysia and the result is that West Malaysia became very much developed at the expense of these two states. In terms of development Sabah and Sarawak can easily be 44 years behind West Malaysia. Enough is enough! The State governments of Sabah and Sarawak should by now in the interest of Sabahans and Sarawakians form a Task Force to renegotiate these oil and gas royalties with the Federal Government and take back all of our oil and gas rights. We should demand 100% of the oil and gas back, not 10% or 20% etc as suggested by many quarters. These are our properties and should be manged by us. Sabah and Saraawak should even demand profits derived from businesses of KLIA, Highway Tolls etc. where oil and gas money from these two States were used as investments for these facilities. There would not be any point at all to give us our oil and gas money back, even 100% back, when our oil wells and gas reservoirs dried up. Its just a matter of time, maybe within the next 20 years Sabah and Sarawak will no more have oil and gas.

We should by now also be able to enjoy cheap petrol and gas besides enough money be given to all families in both Sabah and Sarawak to make them happy each year for Hari Raya, Chinese New Year, Gawai Dayak, Deepavali and for other festive celebrations. Old folks should by now be able to enjoy some sort of money allowances so that they could lead a more meaningful and happy life in their twilight years.