It is disappointing and ironic indeed that the Bar Council have to kowtow to undemocratic and unjust laws on the occasion that is supposed to celebrate and advance human rights in our country. In light of recent events, I believe that there is all the more reason that the Bar Council and Malaysian Bar should be taking the lead to fight for rights and freedoms that every Malaysian is entitled to.

Despite what the Federal Constitution says, and what some laws require, we must first acknowledge that the right to freedom of assembly is an inherent and inalienable right of every single person, irrespective of her race, religion or political beliefs. And this is one of those freedoms that guarantee the dignity of the human person. After all, we must remember that that is what human rights are all about – human dignity. (See the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in particular Article 20; and bear in mind that Malaysia is a proud member of the United Nations.)

In Malaysia, not only are the laws restrictive in terms of peaceful assemblies, it appears that the application of such laws are made in bad faith. The manner in which the police dealt with the recent large but peaceful assemblies as well as the venomous reactions of various government ministers are good starting points.

Right from the start, the police denied permits for the peaceful assemblies by giving the feeble excuse of maintaining public order. I wonder if such concerns only arise when organisations unrelated to the ruling Umno organise events because I note that a particular rally against the U.S. led by the Umno Deputy Youth Chief last year seemed to last three hours without wasting a drop of water from police water-cannons.

Indeed, I know that the Royal Malaysian Police are capable of handling peaceful assemblies and maitaining public order if they want to because I personally witnessed the recent demonstration (that included several marches from embassy to embassy in Kuala Lumpur) by a few thousand Burmese nationals against the cruelty of the Junta in Burma.

There ought to be a presumption that people’s assemblies are peaceful, and instead of giving excuses the police should be making the effort to maintain public order. The role of the police at peaceful assemblies ought to be supervisory, not chaos creation.

Moreover, if I am not mistaken, a government minister has recently made a blanket statement that police permits will not be given for assemblies, indicating that the laws on peaceful assemblies are only for show and there is no intent whatsoever to respect basic human and democratic rights.

Further, the recent absurd charging of Hindraf supporters for attempted murder and denial of bail reeks of malicious and punitive prosecution, and is clearly an abuse of the legal system.

There appears to be a mistaken belief by most Umno and Barisan Nasional politicians that democracy means an absolute absence of dissent and opposition. And they continue to delude themselves that they have the full support of the people because they keep winning heavily rigged elections where voters do not have the benefit of press freedom.

Just as we ought to pray for wisdom and strength to overcome difficulties and not the absence of difficulties in our lives, the government should be working towards policies that addresses people’s issues and concerns, and not the absence of these. If the government has confidence in its own policies, then it ought to have the courage to face public debate and discuss issues openly. In a democracry, differing views and criticisms are normal and ought to be encouraged for the progress of the country, not stifled and hammered down by using brute force.

Thus, the Malaysian Bar ought to take the lead to defend justice and reclaim our rights and freedoms in Malaysia. And if we have to defy some unjust laws in the process, so be it.

When I heard this news yesterday, I was at a Suhakam conference in Kuala Lumpur. The conference was entitled “Human Rights & Election”. The ceramah in Kuala Terengganu was organised by Bersih, a coalition for clean and fair elections, on 8 September – the eve of the Malaysian Human Rights Day.

At the conference, as expected, several speakers spoke about human rights and elections. Notably, in light of the incident in Kuala Terengganu, Dr. Mavis Puthucheary said that the police should not simply use the excuse of “public order” to deny people the freedom of assembly. Indeed, she said that the police should instead be using their resources to ensure that public order is maintained and protect the rakyat’s right to freedom of expression and assembly. (If I am not mistaken, at that time, Dr. Puthucheary was not aware of what happened in Kuala Terengganu the night before.)

Overall, the speakers made it quite clear that Elections Commission and the Barisan Nasional government have undermined the legitimacy of the electoral process in Malaysia. Indeed, Tunku Abdul Aziz Ibrahim even referred to the real social contract and pointed out that it is a contract between the state and the people (as opposed to the one between the different racial groupings supposedly embodied in the Federal Constitution).

This brings me to a point that I have often made: the BN government is an illegitimate government. It has no real authority to govern Malaysia because its electoral success is based on manipulation, corruption and coercion. Most importantly, the BN government’s continued administration of this country does not reflect the will of the people.

According to Wikipedia, “the fundamental features of democracies include government based on majority rule and the consent of the governed, the existence of free and fair elections, the protection of political minorities, respect for basic human rights, equality before the law, due process, and political pluralism.”

Can the BN government honestly say that they fulfill any of these aspects of democracy?

From a political-legal standpoint, I would say that the BN government has fundamentally breached the social contract with the rakyat. If we look at the branches of government, none of them can claim to be independent and effective – the executive serves a few corrupt leaders, the legislature is a mere rubber stamp for the executive and the judiciary is now also well-trained to obey instructions from the executive. Indeed, even the Human Rights Commission is a toothless tiger.

Considering the state of affairs in Malaysia, I personally believe that it is our duty as citizens to defy unjust laws and exercise our human rights with pride and commitment. It goes without saying that we must act responsibly, but that must not stop us from making the bold and correct decision to fight for justice.

It’s about time we got radical and really give it to the Umnoputeras and their Troopers… The “Decepticons of Malaysia”.

Well, I attended the get-together at Blog House on Saturday, and although I’ve never really considered myself a blogger like Jeff Ooi or Rocky, I was quite happy to see the crowd there…

Anyway, I believe bloggers and blogging is only the beginning of a new tide in Malaysia. Those Umno-idiots keep attacking the bloggers as if they were liars and cowards, but I think we all know who the real liars and cowards are.

That Muhammad Muhammad Taib is like a man with a bazooka calling everyone around him a coward. If he’s such a “hero”, let’s see him take off the Umno shield and face the bloggers like a real man. Coming from a man whose best excuse is “I can’t read English”, his attacks on the bloggers is really laughable!

And if they are so confident of themselves, let’s have them unleash the mainstream media agencies and have some real news for a change. The truth is what we need, not more propaganda!

Just to clarify, I don’t condone anyone insulting Christians and Christianity, or any other religion for that matter. However, I do have a problem with condoning the use of sedition legislation.

I know that it’s a tactic often used by opposition political parties to highlight the double standards of the authorities, especially the police, but I strongly object to the use of such a crude and heinous piece of legislation for political purposes.

If we bother to look at the history of sedition laws around the world, we’ll discover that, from America to India, they have been used to defend the position of the establishment and/or the ruling elite. And this is simply achieved by shutting people up and not allowing them to speak out or even question matters that are deemed to be “sacred” and/or “sensitive”.

In any real democracy (I don’t consider USA to be a democracy), the freedom of expression is one of the most fundamental civil rights that the people have to promote and protect their own freedoms and interests, not only vis-a-vis other groups but especially the state.

Hence, if we were to support the use of such a law, we are essentially shooting ourselves in the foot. We are basically telling the authorities that it is “okay” for them to use the Sedition Act against any of us, regardless of whether we are bloggers, politicians, religious leaders or even entrepreneurs who simply speak up against injustice.

Sometimes, it may be painful to hear some people say some stupid things, and it may even anger us. However, if we truly believe in human rights, and that only with such rights we can preserve our dignity, then we must respect other people’s rights, too (no matter how stupidly they exercise those rights).

In any case, for these people to say such things, it merely shows their malice and/or ignorance. Most of us can see through the words, and know their true intention. Frankly, I find some of their writing and arguments childish, and simply not worth commenting on.

Instead of wasting our energy pointing fingers at others, I reckon we should rally behind people like Namewee (of Negarakuku fame) and defend them if they are actually charged under the Sedition Act. And if Johari Baharum, the Deputy Internal Security Minister, wants to do some real work, please ask him to instruct the police force to protect the people against criminals, instead of wasting time “investigating” bloggers and other netizens.

Basically, I agree that “when we go beyond labels such as ‘secular’ and ‘Islamic’ and connect with the substance of our three principal documents we will discover that there is a degree of congruence between the two positions.” And the three documents that Dr. Chandra is talking about are the Federal Constitution, the Rukunegara and Vision 2020.

Now, my question is, how do we move forward from this apparent impasse? It’s very obvious that the current hooha is created by the Deputy Prime Minister for political reasons. Indeed, it’s so idiotic for him to make such a statement that I won’t even go into the so-called debate.

What I’m interested in is what can we do to solve the real problems that all Malaysians are facing, irrespective of our race, religion or gender. For example, the Wanita MCA chief Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen, who is a Deputy Minister, has raised the issue of social problems. This is a very real problem faced by the community. Is MCA or Barisan Nasional going to do something about it, or are we happy to just get our names and photos published in the newspapers?

The range of problems that Malaysians face are so wide and varied that it’s sometimes even difficult to find a starting point. Politically, we have mono-ethnic parties that divide us to rule. Legally, we have a supreme law of the land with silly notions of race mixed up with religion. Socially, we have escalating crime rates and, worse still, our youth are being led astray by politicians and their lies.

Sadly, our value system was lost in the midst of all this talk about secularism and spirituality. The situation in Malaysia has become absurd. We have a Deputy Prime Minister that is somehow linked to a murder case, proudly going around announcing that Umno is the conscience of the Malays. We have a police force that is implicated in involvement with triad gangs. We had an anti-corruption agency Director who was allegedly corrupt.

And yet, this government pretends to have legitimacy, and the Rakyat plays along so that their convenient lifestyles are not disturbed. If anything, I find all this media control and realpoliticking to be very disturbing, indeed.

No doubt, this country has a unique history, both in terms of its racial composition and the development of Islam. Nevertheless, if we are serious about transcending this superficial debate and want to reconcile ourselves with the notion of Malaysia, we need to do some profound soul-searching… and perhaps ask, what we can do for our country.

Is the Prime Minister using the media to divert our attention?