One Missing Jet, One Sunken Ferry, Two Responses

MAY 1, 2014 6:03 PM EDT

By William Pesek

There are no ideologues in a financial crisis, former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke once said. Clearly the same doesn’t hold true for political crises, as a comparison of Malaysia and South Korea very quickly reveals.

Tragedy has struck both nations in recent weeks, their travails played out in horrifying detail on the world’s television screens. Fairly or unfairly, the hunt for a missing Malaysian airliner and the desperate attempt to rescue and now recover victims from the sunken Sewol ferry are being viewed as tests of the governments in Putrajaya and Seoul, if not of Malaysian and South Korean societies. The grades so far? I’d give Korea an A-, Malaysia a D.

In the two weeks since the Sewol tipped over and sank -- almost certainly killing 302 passengers, most of them high school students -- Korea has been gripped by a paroxysm of self-questioning, shame and official penitence. President Park Geun Hye issued a dramatic and heartfelt apology. Her No. 2, Prime Minister Chung Hong Won, resigned outright. Prosecutors hauled in the ship’s entire crew and raided the offices of its owners and shipping regulators. Citizens and the media are demanding speedy convictions and long-term reforms.

And Malaysia, 55 days after Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 vanished? Nothing. No officials have quit. Prime Minister Najib Razak seems more defiant than contrite. The docile local news media has focused more on international criticism of Malaysia's leaders rather than on any missteps by those leaders themselves.

Both countries are democracies -- Malaysia’s even older than South Korea’s. The key difference, though, is the relative openness of their political systems. One party has dominated Malaysia since independence, while Korea, for all its growing pains and occasional tumultuousness, has seen several peaceful transfers of power over the past quarter-century. Unused to having to answer critics, Malaysia’s government has responded defensively. Korean officials, on the other hand, are reflecting, addressing the anger of citizens, and delving into what went wrong with the shipping industry’s regulatory checks and balances.

That’s why Korea is likely to come out of this crisis stronger than ever, unlike Malaysia. The two nations responded similarly after the 1997 Asian financial crisis, too. Malaysia’s then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad sought to prove Bernanke’s axiom wrong, bizarrely blaming some shadowy Jewish cabal headed by George Soros for the ringgit's plunge. Malaysia didn't internalize what had gone wrong or look in the mirror. It didn't admit it had been using capital inflows unproductively and that coddling state champions -- including Malaysia Airlines -- was killing competitiveness. Never did the ruling United Malays National Organization consider it might be part of the problem.

Contrast that with Korea's response to 1997. The government forced weak companies and banks to fail, accepting tens of thousands of job losses. Authorities clamped down on reckless investing and lending and addressed moral hazard head-on. Koreans felt such shame that millions lined up to donate gold, jewelry, art and other heirlooms to the national treasury.

South Korea's response wasn't perfect. I worry, for example, that the family-run conglomerates, or chaebol, that helped precipitate the crisis are still too dominant a decade and a half later. But the country’s economic performance since then speaks for itself.

Now as then, Korea’s open and accountable system is forcing its leaders to look beyond an immediate crisis. Ordinary Koreans are calling for a national catharsis that will reshape their society and its attitude toward safety. Park’s government has no choice but to respond.

Malaysia’s government, on the other hand, appears to be lost in its own propaganda. To the outside world, acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein performed dismally as a government spokesman: He was combative, defensive and so opaque that even China complained. Yet Hishammuddin is now seen as prime-minister material for standing up to pesky foreign journalists and their rude questions. The government seems intent on ensuring that nothing changes as a result of this tragedy.

As hard as it seems now, South Korea will move past this tragedy, rejuvenated. Malaysia? I'm not so sure.

To contact the writer of this article: 
William Pesek at wpesek@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this article: 
Nisid Hajari at nhajari@bloomberg.net.

Source: http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-05-01/one-missing-jet-one-sunken-ferry-two-responses

Amid Search for Plane, Malaysian Leaders Face Rare Scrutiny

By THOMAS FULLERMARCH 12, 2014

 SEPANG, Malaysia — Malaysia’s governing elite has clung to power without interruption since independence from Britain almost six decades ago through a combination of tight control of information, intimidation of the opposition and, until recently, robust economic growth.

But worldwide bafflement at the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has challenged the country’s paternalistic political culture and exposed its coddled leaders to the withering judgments of critics from around the world.

Civilian and military leaders on Wednesday revealed that they had known for the past four days, but did not publicly disclose, that military radar had picked up signals of what may have been the missing aircraft. It appeared to be flying on a westerly course sharply off its intended flight path to Beijing.

If the radar readings were from the missing plane, it could mean a radical reinterpretation of where it ended up. And it was only under a barrage of intense questioning on Wednesday from a room packed with reporters who had arrived from many countries that officials acknowledged that the last recorded radar plot point showed the jet flying in the direction of the Indian Ocean — and at a cruising altitude, suggesting it could have flown much farther.

Continue reading the main story

Detecting a Plane

Two kinds of radar are used to keep track of air traffic from the ground.

Primary radar

Sends out radio signals and listens for echoes that bounce back from objects in the sky.

TRANSPONDER

Secondary radar

Sends signals that request information from the plane’s transponder. The plane sends back information including its identification and altitude. The radar repeatedly sweeps the sky and interrogates the transponder. Other planes in flight can also receive the transponder signals.

That raised the question of why the information had not been released earlier.

“The world is finally feeling the frustration that we’ve been experiencing for years,” said Lee Ee May, a management consultant and a former aide to a Malaysian opposition politician.

Ms. Lee said she was embarrassed when the country’s defense minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, the scion of a powerful political family, rejected a reporter’s assertion on Wednesday that the search for the airplane had been disordered.

“It’s only confusion if you want it to be seen to be confusion,” Mr. Hishammuddin said at a news conference that unfolded before an international audience.

Relatively free from natural disasters and other calamities, Malaysia has had little experience with handling a crisis on this scale. It is also an ethnically polarized society where talent often does not rise to the top of government because of patronage politics within the ruling party and a system of ethnic preferences that discourages or blocks the country’s minorities, mainly ethnic Chinese and Indians, from government service.

Ethnic Malays, who make up about half of the population, hold nearly all top government positions and receive a host of government preferences because of their status as “sons of the soil.”

Authoritarian laws have helped keep the governing party, the United Malays National Organization, in power — and an ascendant opposition in check.

The day before Flight 370 disappeared, the leader of the opposition, 

Anwar Ibrahim, was sentenced to five years under a sodomy law that is almost never enforced. Critics called the case an effort to block the opposition’s rise at a time when the governing party’s popularity is waning.

Then on Tuesday, a court convicted Karpal Singh, another opposition politician, of sedition, a law enacted in colonial times.

“We call it persecution, not prosecution,” said Ambiga Sreenevasan, a lawyer and the former head of the Malaysian Bar Council.

The government is accustomed to getting its way, and the crisis surrounding the missing plane is holding officials accountable in ways unfamiliar to them, Ms. Ambiga said.

“Malaysians have come to accept that their leaders don’t answer questions,” she said. “When you are not seriously challenged in any meaningful way, of course you get complacent and comfortable.”

For a relatively prosperous country of 30 million people that is less well known internationally than neighboring countries like Thailand and Singapore, the government’s confused efforts at finding the missing jetliner are an awkward and undesired appearance on the world stage.

The crisis has led to introspection about why the government has 

appeared uncoordinated and unable to pin down seemingly basic facts about the missing flight.

Officials insisted for three days that baggage was removed from the flight before takeoff when five passengers did not board. But the country’s chief of police on Tuesday said that was false: Everyone who checked in 

boarded the plane, he said. No explanation was given for the conflicting accounts.

Ibrahim Suffian, the director of the Merdeka Center, an independent polling company, said the response to the crisis had underlined a lack of precision both in government and in the society over all.

“There’s a tolerance for a lack of attentiveness to detail,” he said. “You 

have a tendency of not asking so much and not expecting so much.”

The crisis also highlighted a lack of competence in government that Mr. Ibrahim said was related to a deference to authority and reluctance to take initiative. “There’s always been a kind of wait-for-instructions-from-the-top attitude,” he said.

Yet amid the criticism of the rescue efforts there was also an acknowledgment that the plane’s disappearance was so unusual that perhaps no government would be fully prepared for it.

“This is almost a unique situation,” said Ramon Navaratnam, a Harvard-trained economist and a former Malaysian senior civil servant. “Anyone would be caught off guard.”

For now, the Malaysian authorities are stuck in the unenviable position of hearing many questions but having few answers.

“They have never faced pressure to perform like this,” said Ms. Lee, the management consultant. “But now international eyes are on them, and they have nowhere to hide.”

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/13/world/asia/missing-jet-exposes-a-dysfunctional-malaysian-elite.html?ref=thomasfuller&_r=0

International confirmation that BN government “authoritarian” and Najib a “false democrat”

53-Day Countdown to 13GE: Xenophon’s 15-hr detention and deportation – international confirmation that BN govt “authoritarian” and Najib a “false democrat”

By Lim Kit Siang

In the run-up to the 13th General Elections, Malaysians are seeing the full flowering of the Greek saying, “Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad”.By Lim Kit Siang

Last month, former and longest-serving Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir flaunted his treasonous deeds in the “citizenship-for-votes” scams in Sabah in Project M and Project IC in the eighties and nineties, resulting in true Sabahans becoming a minority in their own land – and who added insult to injury when he alleged that Bapa Malaysia Tunku Abdul Rahman had given one million citizenship to “unqualified” non-Malays before Merdeka.

As if not enough damage had been done, Mahathir has compounded it by advocating a two-thirds parliamentary majority for Barisan Nasional so as to be able to revoke the citizenship of Bersih co-chairperson S. Ambiga for her patriotic campaign for free, fair and clean elections.

Last week, as if the three resounding “Yes for Psy, Noes for BN” at Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s Penang Chinese New Year bash featuring Korean K-Pop superstar and the indignity of the Prime Minister, former Prime Minister and Cabinet Ministers waiting on stage forlornly and in vain for Psy to join them for a “yee san toss” were not embarrassments enough, four days after the event and without an iota of evidence, Penang Barisan Nasional leaders spun the tale that there had been attempts on the lives of Psy and the Prime Minister. At least, Najib had the sense so far to keep mum on the tall tale.

The latest evidence of the workings of the Greek saying, “Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad” is the 15-hour detention and deportation of Australian Senator, furnishing a national and international confirmation that the Barisan Nasional government of Malaysia is “authoritarian” and Najib a “false democrat”.

The claim by the Immigration director-general Datuk Alias Ahmad that Xenophon is on the Immigration “blacklist” because he had tarnished the country’s image, such as calling the Malaysian government “authoritarian” in handling the Bersih 3.0 rally for free and fair elections last April, is most puerile and infantile, as on this basis, Malaysians would be persona non grata to many countries that they had criticized with former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir as the Top Malaysian who could not travel to the most number of Western countries!

But what takes the cake is the deplorable and most questionable endorsement of Xenophon’s detention and deportation by the Election Commission, whose deputy chairman Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar said it was unjust to judge the fairness of the 13GE based on Xenophon’s expulsion.

Apart from highlighting its utter lack of independence and impartiality, the Election Commission cannot be more wrong.

The “authoritarian” and undemocratic expulsion of Xenophon has now put the whole question of the integrity of the electoral process, whether the 13GE will be free, fair and clean, on the international radar.

The whole world are now asking – what has the Election Commission and the UMNO/BN government got to hide that they are so afraid of independent foreign observers to the 13GE as having to strain foreign relations and brave international condemnation and opprobrium as to detain and deport Xenophon?

The world is also waiting and watching whether Najib is indeed the “false democrat” as depicted by Mark Mackinnon, the award-winning journalist of the Canadian The Globe and Mail in his article of June 8, 2012, in particular with reference to his definition of a “false democrat” who is one who “hold elections but have no intention of giving up power” and whose “serious political rivals are jailed and their parties are outlawed on legal technicalities”.

The Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said yesterday that DAP had not submitted its party election returns within 60 days as required by law and the Registrar of Societies will start investigations into the DAP.

Yesterday, I had in my tweet asked: “What will Hishammuddin do as Home Minister if DAP can prove that DAP has submitted elections returns to 2ROS b4 CNY?”

May be Hishammuddin and Najib are seriously thinking of declaring DAP illegal and unlawful because they are desperate about the UMNO/BN prospects in the 13GE, despite all the boasts that they can win big in a free and fair elections, even regaining two-thirds parliamentary majority and retake the present Pakatan Rakyat states of Penang, Selangor, Kedah and Kelantan.

Let them ponder the Greek saying: “Those whom the Gods wish to destroy they first make mad”.

Source: http://blog.limkitsiang.com/2013/02/17/53-day-countdown-to-13ge-xenophons-15-hr-detention-and-deportation-international-confirmation-that-bn-govt-authoritarian-and-najib-a-false-democrat/#more-22290

林冠英抨击国阵：不要设法欺侮小孩，却对贪腐领袖闭眼

2012年9月7日

民主行动党兼峇眼区国会议员林冠英那个于2012年9月7日在吉隆坡发表声明：

内政部长必须为警方用手铐对付一个19岁青少年的刻薄和严厉做法作出道歉，只因为她仅踩踏首相拿督斯里纳吉的肖像，然而即使被控告贪污的国阵领袖都没被拷上手铐。

首相纳吉应该展示他的宽容，不只是接受踩踏他肖像青少年的道歉，也必须停止他高高上在，以权威来惩罚他们，他们不是犯了令人发指的罪行，如谋杀、武装抢劫和强奸。内政部长拿督斯里希山慕丁必须为警方的苛刻和严厉手法道歉，包括以手铐铐住一名19岁女生，只因为她踩踏了首相的肖像，然而即使贪污的国阵领袖都没被拷上手铐。

国人对用手铐对付一个自首而且年仅19岁的女孩感到愤怒，手铐多只是用来对付暴力、涉及暴力罪案行，或可能企图逃跑的人，对一个自首年轻女孩扣上手铐，只不过是滥用权力和羞辱的行为。

吉隆坡总警长末玛沙列辩称为少女上手铐“温柔符合程序”，因为她的手被拷在前面而不是背后，这样的说法不仅证明警方不敏感、不负责任，也没有意义。为什么国阵领袖获得特殊的待遇，他们被控告贪污和欺骗公众时，双手没被拷在背后？

希山慕丁说，必须严厉对付那些参与极端和传播憎恨国家领袖的分子，这是明显的滥权，一个没有涉及任何严重刑事罪行，如谋杀、强奸或武装抢劫的青少年，在刑事法典第290条文（公共骚扰之处罚））和第504条文下（蓄意侮辱）下被调查。在第290条文下被定罪者可能被罚款高达400令吉，而第504条被判有罪，可能监禁长达两年或罚款，或两者兼施。

希山慕丁允许警方严厉的行为，证明他双重标准，因为那些以类似方式对净选盟联合主席拿督安美嘉的人，如在其家门前摆汉堡摊及跳臀舞羞辱她的人士，却没有被采取任何行动。安美嘉的照片也被焚烧，她也以素食及兴都徒自居，这些人公然在其私邸烧烤汉堡。

同样的，当我的肖像被土权踩踏、焚烧，甚至进行葬礼仪式时，也不见当局展开了任何行动。为什么土权以此方式攻击民联反对党的非马来人领袖时，却没有遭到提控？那些在去年由巫统及土权在槟城大桥展开的暴力示威行动中，殴打打记者的人士，怎么又没有被对付？

难道希山慕丁及警方要试图告诉国人：踩踏一张照片的罪行比贪污更严重？让年轻及手无寸铁的孩子受害，他们只是在揭示自己是恶霸和懦夫。让年轻的女孩子及青少年面对这等的对待，证明了希山慕丁滥用权力、双重标准、善于欺负人的懦弱战术，也考验他是否适合出任内政部长这个职位。

來源：http://www.malaysia-chronicle.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=39561:dont-try-to-bully-the-kids-but-close-an-eye-to-corrupt-bn-leaders-guan-eng&Itemid=2

DON'T TRY TO BULLY the kids but close an eye to corrupt leaders - Guan Eng slams BN

Written by  Lim Guan Eng

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak should show he has got a big heart by not just forgiving the teenagers who have apologised for stamping on his picture but also stop the high-handed and severe punishment of them as if they had committed some heinous crime of murder, armed robbery and rape.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hussein Onn must apologise for the police’s harsh and heavy-handed treatment including a 19-year old girl with handcuffs merely for stamping on the pictures of the Prime Minster Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak when even BN leaders charged for corruption were not handcuffed.

All out to humiliate the youths

Malaysians are outraged by the handcuffs placed on the kids which included 19 year-old girl who voluntarily surrendered. Handcuffs are not usually required unless the accused is violent, or has committed a crime of violence, or may attempt to escape. In this case, handcuffing a young girl who had voluntarily surrendered is nothing but an abuse of power and an act of humiliation.

Kuala Lumpur police chief Mohmad Salleh has defended his men for handcuffing a 19-year-old girl who surrendered herself yesterday saying that the matter was very "light" and mild as she was handcuffed in front and not behind her back as proper procedures required.

Such statements not only show that the police is insensitive, irresponsible and not making any sense as why BN leaders were given special treatment and not handcuffed in the back when they were charged for corruption or cheating the public?

Hishammuddin had said stern action against those involved had to be taken as the incident is extreme and aimed at sowing hatred for the country leaders.

This is a clear abuse of power when the teenagers are investigated not for any serious criminal offences like murder or rape or armed robbery but under sections 290 and 504 of the Penal Code for being public nuisances and intentionally causing insult with an intent to provoke break the public peace, respectively. Those convicted under Section 290 may be fined up to RM400 while those found guilty under Section 504 are liable to be jailed up to two years or fined, or both.

Double standards, deliberate hypocrisy

By allowing such stern action, Hishamuddin practices double standards as no action was taken against those who behaved in a similar manner against Bersih co-Chair Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan when her picture was burnt and her dignity assaulted by a “butt-dance” performance as well as a “burger protest” in which beef burgers were grilled outside her private residence despite the fact that she is known to be a Hindu and a vegetarian.

Neither was any action taken when my own picture was stepped on, burnt and funeral rites performed with my image by Perkasa. Why is it Perkasa members are not charged for such offensive action against non-Malay leaders from the opposition PR? Why is it no action was taken against those who beat up reporters during a violent demonstration on Penang Bridge?

Is Hishamuddin and the police trying to tell Malaysians that stepping on a picture is a more serious crime compared to corruption?

By victimising young, powerless and defenceless kids, they are merely revealing themselves to be bullies and cowards. The treatment suffered by the young girl and teenagers shows the abuse of power, double-standards, bullying and cowardly tactics of Hishamuddin that question his fitness as Home Minister.

LIM GUAN ENG IS PENANG CHIEF MINISTER & DAP SEC-GEN

Source: http://www.malaysia-chronicle.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=39561:dont-try-to-bully-the-kids-but-close-an-eye-to-corrupt-bn-leaders-guan-eng&Itemid=2

High Court: Hisham’s order to declare Bersih illegal ‘tainted with irrationality’

September 06, 2012

File photo of the July 9, 2011 Bersih rally in Kuala Lumpur. — Picture by Choo Choy May

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 6 — Inconsistencies in the behaviour of the authorities led to a High Court decision here to quash Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein’s order declaring Bersih 2.0 an unlawful society on the grounds that his decision was “tainted with irrationality.”

“It cannot be a case that a society is a threat to public security on 1.7.2011, and then no longer so soon after that... I hold the view that the decision in finding Bersih unlawful is tainted with irrationality,” High Court judge Rohana Yusuf said in her grounds of judgment made available to The Malaysian Insider today.

On July 24 she had ruled Bersih 2.0 a legal society and quashed the minister’s order made last year just a week before last year’s July rally for free and fair elections.

The loose coalition of 62 registered civil societies led tens of thousands to demand for free and fair elections in the capital city on July 9 last year, which resulted in some 1,600 arrests but ultimately resulted in the government agreeing to set up a bipartisan parliamentary polls panel.

Prominent lawyer and former Malaysian Bar president Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan and 13 of her colleagues in Bersih’s steering committee had in July last year filed a judicial review seeking to get the Barisan Nasional (BN) government to lift its July 1, 2011 ban of the movement.

In her judgment, Rohana pointed out that after Bersih had been declared unlawful, the minister’s representatives subsequently negotiated with the movement’s leaders on how and where the planned rally should be held.

Ambiga, she said, had also been granted an audience by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

Instead of being subjected to the various provisions in law in tandem with its pronouncement as an illegal society, the judge noted that the events after the ban showed the opposite happened.

“In the upshot the conduct of the respondents in dealing and handling Bersih soon after it being outlawed in fact does not reflect Bersih as an unlawful society, but it connotes something else.

“It does not at all reflect the conduct of persons who found the society to be used for the purposes prejudicial to the interest of the security of Malaysia and public order,” Rohana said.

She noted that the reason of public security for declaring Bersih illegal could not have changed in a matter of days.

“The respondent (home minister) cannot be blowing hot and cold at the same time.

“However, if the reason of public security had since ceased then the declaration should be lifted accordingly.”

Apart from Ambiga, the 13 other leaders named in the court filing are Maria Chin Abdullah, Datuk Toh Kin Woon, Zaid Kamaruddin, Dr Ahmad Farouk Musa, Arul Prakkash Sinnappan, Haris Fathillah Mohamed Ibrahim, Andrew Khoo Chin Hock, Liau Kok Fah, Wong Chin Huat, Datuk Yeoh Yong Poh and Yeo Yong Woi.

The group has since held another rally on April 28 this year to push for electoral reforms to be enforced before the 13th general election is due.

Source: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/high-court-hishams-order-to-declare-bersih-illegal-tainted-with-irrationality/

安美嘉：包括希山总警长等‧应传召发命令者

2012-08-17 10:35

• 
  安美嘉（右2）在其他非政府组织代表陪同下，针对人权委员会428大集会听证会提呈净选盟备忘录。左起为艾薇、巴拉迪达山；右为佘贵生。（图：星洲日报）

（吉隆坡16日讯）净选盟2.0主席拿督安美嘉促请人权委员会传召428大集会当日发號施令者，包括內政部长拿督斯里希山慕丁、全国总警长丹斯里依斯迈奥马、全国副总警长丹斯里卡立阿布巴卡等，以便找出集会当天出现暴力、违反人权等事件的真相。

警方似出现两套命令

她指出，428当日警方之中似乎出现“两套命令＂，一套命令要求警员友善对待集会者，另一套命令是在催泪弹发射后，警方以暴力对待集会者。

“集会当天下午2时之前，警方对集会者非常友善，但是在2时之后，当有人衝破禁区时，警方开始暴力对待集会者。＂“警方到底收到甚么指示？

我们要知道到底是谁发出这些指示。＂她指出，净选盟也要知道当天是否有警员身穿净选盟黄衣，有甚么目的。

“我相信內政部长、全国总警长与副总警长卡立等会给予人权委员会配合。＂

吁传召Rapid KL负责人

同时，安美嘉也呼吁人权委员会传召Rapid KL负责人供证，以瞭解当天到底是谁指示关闭轻快铁服务，理由与动机是甚么？

安美嘉今午在净选盟属下的非政府组织代表陪同下，针对人权委员会428集会听证会，提呈该联盟集结有关大集会出现警方施暴、侵犯人权问题等资料与证据的备忘录后，向媒体发表谈话。

她强调人权委员会不应只传召警方或净选盟提供的证人，而是主动传召涉及者出席听证会供证，以追查到底。

吁关注多项课题

她表示，净选盟在备忘录中，提出多项课题，希望人权委员会能关注並展开调查，其中包括：
●警方滥权与暴力对待集会者与新闻从业员
●部份警员没佩戴名牌识別证
●出现身穿净选盟黄衣的警员
●干扰人权观察员
●催泪弹与水砲发射前欠缺足够的警戒
●滥发催泪弹、催泪弹发射的角度与不当
●现场出现警员死亡的谣言
●独立广场禁区栏杆被衝破的確实情况
●质疑禁区栏杆设立的地点，是否有依据庭令，当局有没有擅自扩大独立广场禁区？以及警方在警戒线被衝破后採取的行动。

陪同安美嘉提呈备忘录的非政府组织代表包括砂拉越改革运动组织主席佘贵生、大马和平公民联盟（Warga AMAN）总秘书巴拉迪达山、妇女援助中心（WAO）主席莫壮莲及执行董事艾薇。

促查散播“警员死”谣言黑手

安美嘉指出，428大集会当天现场传出有警员死亡的谣言后，相信间接导致部份警察的行为趋向暴力，净选盟希望人权委员会能查出製造与散播不负责任谣言的“幕后真凶＂和动机。

她也指责当天警方发射催泪弹的方式与角度，包括针对集会者发射催泪弹、甚至分別在街道两端向集会者发射催泪弹，而轻快铁站暂时关闭，让集会者无路可逃。

在净选盟提呈的备忘录中，除了集结许多集会者、目击者的证词、照片与录影片段截存等作为举证。

安美嘉今日也接受人权委员会录取口供与提呈证据，她在结束1小时30分钟的录供后向媒体指出，人权委员会已订在9月24日传召她在听证会供证。

另外，针对428净选盟大集会独立諮询小组主席敦韩聂夫邀请净选盟代表包括安美嘉会面，商討大集会课题，安美嘉强调净选盟已拒绝邀请。

来源：http://www.sinchew.com.my/node/258020?tid=1

高庭撤销內长指令；净选盟合法

2012-07-24 18:41

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  律师公会代表邱进福（前排右起）、净选盟2.0督导委员会成员玛丽亚陈和净选盟联合主席拿督沙末赛益，以及成员拿督杜乾焕（前排左3）对高庭宣判净选盟2.0为合法组织感到欣慰。（图：星洲日报）

（吉隆坡24日讯）净选盟2.0挑战大马政府成功！

高庭今日撤销內政部长拿督斯里希山慕丁把净选盟2.0列为非法组织的指令。

数十名出庭聆审的民眾，包括以净选盟联合主席拿督沙末赛益为首的净选盟指导委员会成员在闻判后，开心得互相拥抱祝贺，並在休庭后高喊“Bersih”庆祝；净选盟另一名联合主席拿督安美嘉则因身在国外，无法与大家分享这份喜悦。

代表內长及大马政府等3造的高级联邦律师阿兹占透露，他们將会在諮询总检察长丹斯里阿都干尼的意见后，才决定是否向上诉庭提出上诉。

指內长决定受“不合理”污染

承审本案的法官拿督罗哈娜尤索夫今日发表书面判词时说，內长把净选盟2.0列为非法组织的决定已遭到“不合理”的污染。

她说，內长在去年7月1日以净选盟2.0“危害国家安全”而宣佈把净选盟2.0列为非法组织，但过后却继续与净选盟2.0进行谈判，其中安美嘉更得以在7月5日覲见国家元首，並於7月9日如期进行大集会后没有受到任何法律对付，这样的做法根本显示不出净选盟2.0將会危害国家安全的严重性。

“我认为，净选盟2.0被指危害国家安全的理由，不可能在短短一星期后就变得无效了。”

內长对待净选盟不一致

法官在其长达30页的书面判词中指出，若內长或有关当局果真认为净选盟2.0的行为將危害国家安全，当局就应表现出与其决定一致或相符的做法，不过，內长对待净选盟2.0的方式却恰恰与其决定相反。

法官认为，內长表现出与其决定不一致的举止，只有两种可能性，即净选盟2.0可能因危害国家安全而被列为非法组织，但在一星期后却又不再是一种威胁，或內长在宣佈净选盟2.0为非法组织前，並没有充份考虑到相关的实据或考虑了一些不相关的实据。

“单凭这项理由，我认为有关决定是受到不合理的污染，且理应被撤销。”

法官：草率列非法组织
內长侵犯净选盟权利

儘管高庭已撤除了净选盟2.0被列为非法组织的罪名，惟法官认为，在1965年社团法令下第2条文下，净选盟2.0可被定义为一个“社团”，而內长更有权力把净选盟2.0列为非法组织。

她说，有关条文把公司、政党、俱乐部、伙伴公司、多於7人的暂时或永久团体等定义为社团，换言之，净选盟2.0是在1965年社团法令的管辖范围內，因此，內长的决定並没有任何越权的成份。

內长希山慕丁是於去年7月9日前，基於调查发现净选盟2.0並非正式註册的组织，以及將在社群中製造不安，而援引1966年社团法令第5条文宣佈把净选盟2.0列为非法组织。

法官认为，在净选盟2.0被列为非法组织后，从处理、接洽到和净选盟谈判，內长皆表现出不一致的態度。

內长不应草率作决定

“民眾安全是一项非常严重的课题，而净选盟2.0被列为非法组织后，不可能受到如此‘轻’的待遇。”

法官指出，內长把净选盟2.0列为非法组织的决定，侵犯了净选盟2.0在联邦宪法下所赋予的权利，更不应草率作这个决定。

法官说，內长的决定是一项根据社团法令所作出的“法律决定”，这项决定对申请人的权益有直接的影响，因为有关决定可导致他们在社团法令下被控。

沙末赛益：內长破坏声誉
高庭为净选盟平反

骯脏（Kotor）变乾净（Bersih），净选盟2.0终在高庭获平反！

沙末赛益指出，他对高庭今日的裁决感到很欣慰，因为高庭已为净选盟2.0平反。

他补充，內长根本不应把净选盟2.0列为非法组织，因为这白白浪费了很多的政府人力资源、时间与金钱。

他在休庭后召开新闻发佈会时说，內长的决定不仅破坏了净选盟2.0的声誉，让净选盟2.0看起来“骯脏”，更製造许多不必要的恐惧，让许多人对净选盟2.0却步，並害怕给予支持。

他说，首相拿督斯里纳吉及有关当局抨击在麦加和麦地那举行“净选盟3.0集会”

的大马人民欠理智，並指责那些人几乎导致沙地阿拉伯政府禁止大马穆斯林前往麦加朝圣，是试图要把净选盟“骯脏化”。

他强调，从高庭的裁决来看，民眾可清楚看见政府当局在一些决策上的矛盾之处，如允许净选盟举行428静坐大集会。

净选盟2.0是否成合法组织
阿兹占净选盟各置一词

阿兹占强调，高庭的裁决並不意味著净选盟2.0迄今已被视为一个合法的组织。

他说，高庭的裁决只是让净选盟2.0返回其“原状”，並强调，若净选盟2.0想要“合法化”本身的地位，就必须向社团註册局正式申请註册。

不过，净选盟2.0指导委员会的代表律师之一山姆甘在休庭后却表示，高庭的裁决，已意味净选盟2.0是合法的。

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新闻背景 凈选盟要求撤销非法组织指令 以安美嘉为首的14名凈选盟指导委员会成员是於去年7月8日入稟高庭，他们在申请书中要求撤销內政部长援引1966年社团法令第5条文把凈选盟列为非法组织的指令，或要求高庭宣判內政部长的决定是非法和理应被撤销的。 除了安美嘉外，另13名申请人分別为阿末法鲁慕沙、阿鲁峇拉卡斯、阿鲁慕甘、哈里斯、邱进福、廖国华、玛丽亚陈阿都拉、苏巴马廉、拿督杜乾焕、黄进发、拿督杨映波、杨永威和再益卡马鲁丁；內政部长、全国总警长和大马政府在申请书中，被列为第一至第三答辩人。 高庭於去年9月28日基於14名申请人所提出的申请並非无聊、琐碎的，所以同意发出准令给凈选盟2.0指导委员会的14名成员，以让他们上庭挑战和检討內政部长把凈选盟列为非法组织的指令。

来源：http://www.sinchew.com.my/node/255371?tid=1

Bersih leaders say vindicated by court ruling it legal

By Debra Chong and Mohd Farhan Darwis

July 24, 2012

(From left) A file photo of the Bersih 2.0 steering committee including Dr. Subramaniam Pillay, Arul Prakkash, Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, Datuk Dr Toh Kin Woon, Maria Chin Abdullah and Dr Wong Chin Huat.

KUALA LUMPUR, July 24 — Bersih 2.0 leaders whooped with joy after a High Court ruled the electoral reform lobby group is a legal society today, overturning Putrajaya’s order to outlaw it last year in a move likely to raise further its public profile in the run-up to key national polls due soon.

Prominent lawyer-activist Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, who co-heads the 82-member group, told The Malaysian Insider she was “delighted” by the court ruling today to quash the federal government’s declaration outlawing Bersih in July last year.

“I have just heard the good news that the learned judge of the High Court has quashed the order of the minister that had declared Bersih illegal. Naturally, I am delighted by this outcome,” she said in a text message immediately after the court decision.

“In my view, the decision accords with my understanding of the law in relation to the making of such decisions by those in power,” she added.

Instead of wasting public funds on suits against Bersih, [the government] should spend more effort and give recognition to…what the citizens who have come out to demonstrate for clean and fair elections have been calling for. — Maria Chin Abdullah

Ambiga, who is currently abroad, thanked her legal team and supporters for standing by the group, which has been persistently branded an outlawed group by the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition ahead of the 13th general elections that could see a regime change in Malaysia for the first time since independence in 1957.

Ambiga has also been singled out by pro-establishment personalities and repeatedly attacked over her vocal calls for the electoral roll to be cleaned of dubious entries before polls are called, now widely speculated to take place in September after the Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebration.

An Umno federal lawmaker had last month suggested in Parliament that the award-winning civil rights fighter be hanged for treason, capital punishment reserved for the most serious crimes. Sri Gading MP Datuk Mohamad Aziz’s remarks drew strong support from fellow BN MPs but was widely criticised by opposition legislators and civil society groups, sparking a national furore.

Bersih co-chairman, Datuk A. Samad Said, told reporters he was relieved the group had been cleared of its “illegal” tag.

“It’s a waste of time, energy and resources and the order saying we are illegal should not be made again,” said the national laureate who attended today’s court hearing at the Duta Court Complex here, in an immediate reaction.

In her ruling today, High Court judge Datuk Rohana Yusof said the coalition of civil societies known as Bersih 2.0, though not officially registered, can be considered a society under the Societies Act.

“The minister’s order is quashed because Bersih is a lawful society,” Rohana said.

Maria Chin Abdullah, who is among Bersih 2.0’s 14-member steering committee, told The Malaysian Insider the court decision vindicated the group’s push for electoral reforms.

Bersih co-chairman, Datuk A. Samad Said, told reporters he was relieved the group had been cleared of its “illegal” tag. — file pic

“Instead of wasting public funds on suits against Bersih, they should spend more effort and give recognition to freedom of assembly and what the citizens who have come out to demonstrate for clean and fair elections have been calling for.

“That would be a democratic way of responding to the court ruling and to prove their commitment to electoral reforms,” she said, referring to the federal government that has initiated a civil suit against members of Bersih’s steering committee to claim RM122,000 in compensation for damage caused to public property in the national capital during the group’s latest rally on April 28 this year.

The government’s unprecedented suit has been fixed for case management on August 10 at the High Court.

Chin Abdullah said Bersih was still getting many reports highlighting various discrepancies in the electoral roll and cited as examples voters who say their voting stations have been switched without their approval while migrant workers have been listed as voters in the roll, creating doubt over its validity.

“These issues have to be resolved before the 13th general elections,” she said.

“The SPR does not seem to be moving on these issues,” she added, referring to the Election Commission by its more popular Malay initials.

The Najib administration had agreed to set up a bi-partisan parliamentary polls panel on electoral reforms last year but is seen to be dragging its feet in enforcing the measures.

The loose coalition of civil societies has led tens of thousands in public demonstrations for clean elections, drawing the world’s attention to Malaysia’s electoral process at a crucial chapter when Southeast Asia’s fourth largest economy is attempting to break through the middle-income trap and graduate into the ranks of first-world nations amid a global economic slowdown.

Source: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/bersih-leaders-say-vindicated-by-court-ruling-it-legal/