Poetic Justice

Introduction

The Sedition Act (“the Act“) is a curious piece of legislation which we inherited from when the British administration. Curious because, while the British have come and gone, the citizens of this country have been consistently told that the Act remains current. Most recently in 2006 by no less a personality than Zainuddin Maidin, Malaysia’s one time Information Minister. The question gains particular poignancy given the recent charge proffered against Karpal Singh for allegedly insulting the Perak Sultan. To gain some perspective to the issue, it may help to look back into history and consider how the Act came about.

Looking Back

The Act was passed in 1948 vide Ordinance No. 14 of 1948 and the 1940s, it must be said, were rather turbulent years for the country. In the early ’40s, Malaya was under British rule but by late 1941, this changed rather abruptly, with the landing of the Japanese forces on the beaches in Kelantan or Southern Thailand.

The Japanese occupied Malaysia till mid-1940s but this began to change on 15th. August, 1944 as a consequence of Japan’s surrender in World War II after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. Thereafter, circa September, 1945, the Federated Malay States (Selangor, Perak, Negeri Sembilan and Pahang), the Unfederated Malay States (Johor, Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis and Trengganu) and the Straits Settlement (Malacca, Penang, Singapore and Labuan) were placed under British Military Administration. (“BMA“)

Britain then set about looking for a more suitable constitutional arrangement for their administration. In October, 1945, the British first expressed the idea of the Malayan Union and despite the loss of political power it entailed for the Sultans, the British representative concerned – Sir Harold MacMichael – managed to obtain all their approvals to the Union. Soon thereafter, on 1st. April, 1946, BMA’s administration of Malaya ended and the Malayan Union came into being.

The Malays opposed the notion of the Malayan Union and their objections centred on:

“… the methods Sir Harold MacMichael used to acquire the Sultans’ approval, the reduction of the Sultans’ powers, and the granting of citizenship to non-Malay immigrants and their descendants – especially the ethnic Chinese, not only because of their racial and religious difference but also because their economic dominance was seen as a threat to the Malays.”

Consequently, they orchestrated a number of actions during those years and ultimately forced the British to abandon the idea of the Malayan Union. The entity ceased to exist on January 1948 and was replaced by the Federation of Malaya.

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This Saturday, 14.03.2009, eLawyer will be organizing a conference entitled “Blogging & Law”. More details can be found here. Hope to see some familiar faces at the conference and looking forward to seeing some unfamiliar ones.

UPDATE @ 15.03.2009: For those who couldn’t make it, a PDF copy of the PowerPoint slides I used during the presentation, can be found here.

I was in the midst of finalizing my preparations to judge a moot competition in Multimedia University Malacca. However, I was interrupted in my deliberations when my phone gently beeped twice to notify me that I had received an SMS.

It was shortly before Maghrib and it was from a dear friend informing me that his father, Tan Sri Yusoff Mohamed, had passed away. The news seemed rather surreal as I had just met Tan Sri Yusoff a couple of weeks ago albeit on a more happy and festive occassion held to celebrate the aqiqah of my friend’s newborn son.

As I was about to take my leave from the function, I remember promising him that I would drop by sometime soon and to which he merely gave me a wry smile. In retrospect, perhaps Tan Sri Yusoff knew more than he was letting on. What is certain however is that the legal world will be that much dimmer now that another legal luminary has been elevated to the Highest Court.

Al-Fatihah.

Bernama reports that the Sultan has ordered the Menteri Besar of Perak (and his State Executive Council) to resign. There will be no dissolution of the Perak State Legislative Assembly. In the upshot, Perak now has a BN-led State Government. See here for the official media statement by the Office of DYMM Paduka Seri Sultan Perak Darul Ridzuan.

The two articles referred to in the media statement are as follows:

“16(6) If the Menteri Besar ceases to command the confidence of the majority of the members of the Legislative Assembly, then, unless at his request His Royal Highness dissolves the Legislative Assembly, he shall tender the resignation of the Executive Council.”

and

“18(2) His Royal Highness may act in his discretion in the performance of the following functions (in addition to those in the performance of which he may act in his discretion under the Federal Constitution) that is to say-

(b) the withholder of consent to a request for the dissolution of the Legislative Assembly.”

The Perak Government’s reaction was to file a suit to declare that the Behrang, Changkat Jering and Jelapang state seats vacant. That and something about some massive rally.

The Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Criminalise War held a Forum for Palestine at the Crowne Plaza today. In his special address at the Forum, Tun Mahathir Mohamad gave an excellent primer on the creation of Palestine/Israel and the tragedy that is occassioned upon Palestine and her people. A transcript of the 4th Prime Minister of Malaysia’s speech can be found here. 

Recapitulating the Events

Malaysiakini reports that the Pakatan Rakyat State Government in Perak has ‘collapsed’. Looking back over the past couple of weeks, the following are events which precipitated the collapse:

Some years ago, well 1991 to be exact, the local papers were busy circulating stories about one Rodney King, an African American, who was the subject of police brutality. Four police officers were subsequently charged for use of excessive force but only one was convicted. News of the acquittals triggered the LA riots of 1992.

Fast forward to late 2008, a similar incident occured albeit this time taking place in Greece. Police shot a 15 year old kid dead and riots started within hours of the incident in the central Athens district of Exarchia.

Superficially, it seemed as if both riots were a direct consequence of the acquittals or the incident itself. However, the truth of the matter is that the riots were caused by various reasons – unemployment, police brutality, racial tensions and even government corruption. Either way it pays not to take matters lightly when allegations of police brutality arise as in the case of the Kugan Anathan issue.

Certainly no one will take issue with the importance of suspending judgment until the appropriate processes are completed. Nevertheless, it beggars belief to allege that a strapping 22 year old alleged luxury car thief would suddenly die from fluid in his lungs after asking for some water during detention in a police station.

This sort of special belief perhaps requires the same treatment meted out to it in the 5 minute or so closing scenes to Cry Freedom – a 1987 movie about South Africa’s black activist Stephen Biko – which recounted all the official reasons given for the deaths in custody by the then South African government. A number of deaths occured when the detainee “slipped in the shower”, “fell down the stairs”, “fell ten floors”, “fell down stairwell”, “fell six floors” and “fell five floors”. The ones that truly took the cake were deaths with “no official explanation” and “self strangulation”. (Please note “self strangulation” is NOT a typo.)

All I am just praying for is that the authorities are not insisting on asking for that special kind of belief … After all, a family has lost their son. A mother has lost her child. Let justice be done and let the coins fall where they may.

P.S. Incidentally, the official explanation for Stephen Biko’s death was “hunger strike”.

UPDATE @ 26.01.2009: As an aside, the AG has classified Kugan’s case as murder. This decision is interesting as the first autopsy report is rather diplomatic, to put it mildly, about the cause of death.

An alternative way of looking at it is that if the cause of death is “fluid in his lungs” (as was stated in the 1st autopsy report), a murder charge may be on the cards.

The Palestinian death toll is up to 500. Yet, the offensive continues. Sadly, the UN Security Council found itself unable to even issue a statement calling for a ceasefire with usual suspect, US, blocking such a move. The reason for the veto by US was because “the U.S. believed that there was no immediate prospect that Hamas militants would cease their rocket attacks against Israel”. (Implicit from that is that US viewed Hamas as being responsible for the present conflict.)

The present “disfunctionality of the Security Council”, to use Miguel D’escoto Brockmann’s diplomatic choice of words, once again begs the question why select members of the UN are permitted to possess veto powers which impairs the UN from functioning in an effective and democratic manner.¹ This may have played some part in stultifying any genuine efforts to resolve the decades old conflict.

Israel/Palestine has had many, many “installments” and each having its own causes. The causes for the present one has been retraced by Adam Sheets and can be read here.²

It may also be helpful to consider other viewpoints to the issue. See:

• Vic Alhadeff’s op-ed on the ABC News website in favour of Israel’s actions. Vic is the CEO of the New South Wales (Australia) Jewish Board of Deputies
• Michael Brull’s response to Vic’s op-ed. Michael is one of the bloggers at Independent Australian Jewish Voices an “association” principally “concerned about the narrow range of opinion and fact that is available in the mainstream media on Israel/Palestine and also with the uncritical stance of the leadership of the organized Jewish community”.

Having said all of the above, it just seems that there is a lot of unnecessary debate about whether Israel or Hamas is the cause of the present conflict. The focus should be less about who to blame and more about stopping the loss of lives – Israeli and Palestinian.

In the interim, as a consequence of the blockade enforced upon it, Palestinians needs aid. If you are not sure where to channel your donations, try this Palestinian NGO.

1. The veto power when originally granted to the “Big Five” – US, UK, China, Soviet and France – during UN’s formative years reflected the realities at the time, where without it, the “Big Five” would not have considered joining the United Nations. ((See more particularly http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_veto_power [↩]
2. There are also some highly recommended books to read on this issue - Noam Chomsky’s Fateful Triangle, Robert Fisk’s Pity the Nation and Zeev Maoz’s Defending the Holyland. [↩]

There was an article published in today’s New Sunday Times with the rather eye-catching headline, “Village hit badly by glue sniffing”. In essence, the article proclaimed that glue sniffing was particularly prevalent in coastal villages particularly those in Kuantan, Pekan and Rompin.

The first thing to note is that glue sniffing is not merely prevalent in “coastal villages”.  This issue is a common one irrespective of whether one is from a kampung or from a city.

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There are two sports which I really enjoy – football and badminton. One, i.e. football, has been described as a game of gentlemen played by hooligans. The other, well, like rugby may aptly be described a game of hooligans played by gentlemen. After all, smashes are part and parcel of the game and you can’t play the game without there being a racket racquet. There is also the small matter of an airborne object being furiously exchanged between the ‘players’.

If the gunfight at the OK Corral comes to mind, you wouldn’t be too far off save that the protagonists would not be carrying Smith & Wessons. Rather, they would be armed with a Yonex or a Gosen.

Admittedly, comparing Datuk Lee Chong Wei (“Lee“) to Wyatt Earp may seem like a tall order given his uninspired performances in the international arena after the heights of the 2008 Olympics. Still, Lee is ending 2008 with a record breaking 7th National Badminton Grand Prix Final win in Kedah and for added measure, won the recently concluded Super Series Masters Finals further cementing his position as world numero uno. Let’s not take that away from him.

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I just received this plea via email today:

Assalamualaikum. ..

 

Saya memohon jasa baik anda semua, sekiranya terjumpa atau terserempak dengan kanak-kanak ini yang bernama Nur Khairunnisa Syahida, sila hubungi En. Rosli di talian 013-606 5757 atau e-mailkan ke nurshah_shanur@ yahoo.com. sg / norliza_cni@ yahoo.com secepat yang mungkin. Anda juga boleh menghubungi balai polis yang berdekatan dengan tempat anda.

Kanak-kanak ini telah hilang selama 13 hari iaitu dari 14hb November 2008 yang lalu. Beliau dilihat kali terakhir memakai t-shirt berwarna hitam dan berseluar jeans berwarna biru. Pelbagai usaha telah dijalankan namun belum berhasil.

Tolong panjangkan e-mail ini kepada semua kenalan atau group2 yahoo anda.

Sekian, terima kasih.

Feel free to forward this and/or link to this post. Just hope the poor child is found.

A couple of months back, I wrote about my concerns about melamine and the Ministry of Health’s equivocal stand about the issue.

In one of the posts, I pointed out that if MOH is responsible in ensuring compliance with the Food Act and its regulations, then the MOH should NOT rely on warranties from importers, manufacturers etc to confirm that the product in question is melamine free.

After all, MOH is the nation’s watchdog when it comes to compliance with the relevant regulations and it cannot perform that role merely by choosing to rely on some so called warranty. It must perform its own analysis before being able to say with any degree of certainty that such and such a product or item is safe for consumption.

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I have only been to the Oberoi Hotel and Taj Hotel in New Delhi and Chennai. They were an oasis of tranquility that I gladly sought when I needed refuge from the hustle and bustle of the two metropolitan cities.¹

After hearing about the recent attacks on its sister establishments in Mumbai, I questioned the veracity of my recollection. Was it ever tranquil, as I thought it was, or did it merely offer an illusion of tranquility?

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1. New Delhi has a population of about 11 million people and Mumbai of about 13.6 million people. [↩]

As promised in my last post, I would flesh out a little bit more some of my thoughts on Race and Religion. That said, I hope I can be permitted to approach the issue of “Race” within the narrower confines of Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s recent statement that 30% Bumi equity is still a national policy bearing in mind that the Yang Berhormat (“His Excellency“) is widely expected to be the next Prime Minister of Malaysia. I just think it makes for easier reading and comprehension.

So, without further ado, here is my open letter to the present Finance Minister in relation to his recent press statement …

Dear Yang Berhormat,

Introduction : The Change in Policy

Approximately 2 weeks or so ago, you mentioned that companies seeking to be listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange may be allowed to offer their shares to non-Bumiputras IF the shares remain undersubscribed by Bumiputra institutions and the Bumiputra public. (“the New Policy“)

Many, it seemed, welcomed your statement. After all, the present policy appeared to be more liberal especially when contrasted to previous one.

However, I take a different view and I hope you will allow me to be somewhat candid about my views. To put it bluntly, I think you should fire the gentleman who proposed the New Policy. Of course, if you came up with it yourself, rest assured that you have my absolute sympathies about your predicament.

A Recipe for Abuse and Disaster

Still, I think I owe you an explanation as to why I have objections about the New Policy bearing in mind that whatever candour I have is naturally (or unnaturally) constrained by the provisions of the Sedition Act 1948.

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Introduction

On 10th. November, 2008, the rather colourfully nomenclatured Centre for Media and Information Warfare Studies organized a roundtable conference – incidentally not a faculty connected with the military. The theme of the conference was Future of Malaysia.

There were approximately 40 participants. There were academicians [Prof. Shad Faruqi (UiTM), Datuk Dr. Denison Jayasooria (UKM) and Assoc. Prof. Azmi Shahrom (UM)], lawyers [former Bar Council President, Mr. Yeo Yang Poh, present Bar Council Vice-President, Mr. Ragunath Kesavan and Mr. Philip Koh] and even members from the local media [Dina Zaman and Michelle Gunaseelan].

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