ISA arrests

I feel sad to read that Raja Petra, Sin Chew Daily reporter Tan Hoon Cheng and Seputeh MP Teresa Kok had been detained under the ISA.

Raja Petra is being detained for allegedly being a threat to security, peace and public order.  But wasn’t the mob that stormed the BAR Council’s office also a threat to security, peace and public order?  We all know why Raja Petra is being detained. 

Teresa Kok is detained for her alleged involvement in ‘instructing’ mosques to stop making the azan through their loudspeakers.  This was claimed by former Selangor menteri besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo but the real reason for the silence was a faulty PA system.  So Khir Toyo had wrongly assumed that the mosque was pressured by Kok.  Khir Toyo’s act is irresponsible and could have caused some serious public unrest among the Muslim community.  Shouldn’t he be detained under the ISA?

Tan is detained for reporting Datuk Ahmad Ismail’s racist remarks while campaigning in Permatang Pauh last month.  This one really makes my stomach churn and my blood boil.  If Tan should be detained under the ISA then more so should Ahmad Ismail.  The arrogant bastard must be laughing now.  The three year suspension he received is actually a let off compared to being detained under the ISA.

But no one should be detained under the ISA today.  The ISA was created primarily to combat the armed insurgency of communist within then Malaya.  What is it used for today?  The arrest of Tan and not Ahmad, the perpetrator, says it all.

What’s the point of an apology?

Why is everyone apologizing except Datuk Ahmad Ismail.  Why?  Because he knows that is the mainstream view within UMNO?  Because he feels he doesn’t have to and he believes that the Chinese in this country doesn’t deserve equal rights as the Malays?  I don’t know if I’m right to say this but if that is his belief, shouldn’t we respect that and let him exercise his right?

I’m not supporting his belief and I’m disappointed at what was said but I hold the view that if he doesn’t want to apologize for what he said, so be it.  I don’t want an apology that is made just for the sake of it.  What’s the point of apologizing but he still believes in what he said.

And why must leaders apologized on his behalf.  Are their apologies sincere or is it made for the sake of making it?  Doesn’t the Deputy Prime Minister feel the same about equal rights for the non-Malays?  He was there when Ahmad said those words.  Why didn’t he speak up then?  Why didn’t he reprimand Ahmad then that it was inappropriate to say those things, "Jangan, Ahmad jangan. Tak baik cakap macam tu tau? Mana semangat Barisan Nasional kamu?"

But seriously, didn’t the DPM once say that he was going to soak his keris in Chinese blood?  Didn’t he once just sit there and did nothing when I was asked to leave a meeting room because I was a Chinese.  It was sometime around 1997-98 when I was working for a bumi company that had tendered an IT system to UMNO.  I was the only Chinese employed and I was the only Project Manager.  My company was invited to present our solution and as the Project Manager who oversaw the project, I was in attendance.

That is until someone made a big deal that my company had a Chinese employee among their ranks.  I was asked to leave the room.  As the most senior ranked member in the room, he didn’t say that it was ok for me to be there.  Feeling a little disappointed, I left the room.  I was young and didn’t understand what had happened.  I was young and didn’t really care about politics and equal rights.  I left because I didn’t want the project to be jeopardized because of me.

After that incident, my company asked me to work on the project behind the scenes.  Apparently there are people within UMNO who feels that it is a big issue that my company had hired a Chinese to head such a big project.  But that was then, perhaps the DPM is a different man now.  He did openly apologize for Ahmad’s remarks, stressing that it was an individual’s view and not the party’s view.  Strange isn’t it that the individual has not apologize but the party’s leaders have.

If I were PM, I would stop all these talk about it being an individual’s view and not the view of the party.  What about all those things said at UMNO’s General Assemblies all those years?  About fighting and upholding the special rights of the Malays.  Not letting any other races undermine the rights of the Malays.  Ketuanan Melayu.  Isn’t the message clear that the Malays should always have special rights over the other races?  That’s been on UMNO’s agenda all these years and Ahmad is not the only one who has similar views.  I know because I have attended quite a number of UMNO Assemblies in my time.  UMNO Youth has uttered similar words if not worst.

One things for sure, Ahmad must be a very confused man right now.  Because I’m sure like me, that’s what he thought was going on all this years in UMNO.  He must also be disappointed at how UMNO’s leaders are not supporting his views now.  But really why are UMNO’s leaders taking a different stand right now?  Is UMNO reforming their agenda?  I doubt it.  Or is it a ploy to allow MCA to garner back some support from the Chinese community?

Personally, I don’t really care if Ahmad apologizes or not because before long there will be another Ahmad who will raise the same Anti-Chinese sentiments again as it always has been. 

The blocking of Malaysia Today

We all know by now that Raja Petra’s blog, Malaysia Today has been blocked by the government.  I don’t know how many people are supportive of this other than the few top fellas in the government.  The rest of Malaysia is very much against any form of censorship on the Internet.  Heck, even the PM’s son in-law is not supportive of the government’s action.

I do occasionally read Malaysia Today and I’ll be honest and say that I do not believe everything that I read on MT.  It’s hard for me to believe that the DPM’s wife was at the scene of the crime.  Why should she?  The DPM is a powerful man.  If he gave the word and I must stress that it is a very strong if here, is there a need for his wife to be present at the scene of the crime?  Makes no sense at all.

I do feel at times perhaps Raja Petra should have been a little more responsible for some of his postings as they are indeed serious allegations and as far as I know he has not provided any proof or evidence to back up his claim.  But there are bloggers who are strongly blogging this as though it is nothing but the truth simply because Raja Petra said so.

However, I do not feel that Raja Petra is making all this up.  Someone had provided him with the ‘classified’ information.  And I guess he strongly believes in his informants whoever they are.  I just feel in this world, everyone can be bought.  Saiful can be bought to claim that he was sodomized by a 60+ year old man with a bad back.  RPK’s informant can be bought to claim that the DPM is involved in the murder of a Mongolian model.  The goal here is to cause as much damage as possible to try to remove the two most likely candidates who could be the next Prime Minister.  With the two gone, who’s next in line?

Having said that I’m very much against the blocking of MT.  One of the reasons why my Swedish boss decided to pull out of Malaysia was because he lost faith in the MSC.  He felt that policies put in place were to easily ignored and changed as and when required.  The blocking of MT further proves this as it goes against the MSC’s bill of guarantees that there will be no Internet censorship.

I do still have access to Malaysia Today.  From another website, I found that if you changed your preferred DNS server addresses to 208.67.222.222 and your alternate DNS server to 208.67.220.220, you could gain access to Malaysia Today.  Both settings are found under your Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties under Networking.  Give it a try and see if it works for you.

In the event that it doesn’t work, I have copied the ‘offending’ article from Malaysia Today that got it blocked in the first place.  For your reading pleasure.

 

This is the article, published on 16 January 2008, that resulted in Malaysia Today getting blocked. However, it seems it is not the article but the 172 comments from readers below that article that was the brunt of the government action. Maybe now you readers will be careful with what you post lest, again, we suffer the same fate. You readers will have to be more responsible with what you post to avoid future action by the government.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Malays, the enemy of Islam

If you really, really have nothing to do with your time, then you should attend the noonday Friday prayers at the mosque and listen to the imam lament about the enemies of Islam who all have an agenda to destroy Islam. If not, then don’t waste your time. Do something else instead.

Yes, non-Muslims are the enemies of Islam, according to these imams, and they are all united in their effort to ‘kill’ Islam.

Actually this is not true at all. The enemies of Islam, at least in Malaysia, are the Malays themselves. The only thing is the Malays are just too bodoh (stupid) to realise this. Malays say that there are two types of bodoh. One is bodoh sepat — you pretend to be stupid but are actually very devious. Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi would probably fit this bill. He pretends to be bodoh but is actually very crafty. The second is bodoh sombong — you are actually very stupid but are too stupid to realise that you are stupid and think you are very clever.

Most Malays fall into this category of bodoh sombong.

On 17th and 18th January 2008, a case is going to be heard in the Kuala Lumpur High Court. I was told this is the new courthouse near the Wilayah Persekutuan Mosque along Jalan Duta in Kuala Lumpur. A woman is suing the Malaysian government, the Federal Territory Religious Department (JAWI) and RELA (a volunteer paramilitary force that is infamous for extorting immigrant workers of their hard-earned money), plus one or two other Malaysian government agencies. Karpal Singh is the solicitor for the plaintiff, which promises to be a very exciting case indeed considering Karpal is known to take no prisoners.

It seems this woman, a Muslim, was arrested during a ‘vice raid’ on a certain disco in Kuala Lumpur. She was an employee of that disco and, according to the ‘rules’, Muslims are not supposed to work in any establishment that sells liquor. So, for that ‘crime’, she was arrested together with about 16 or so other Muslim men and women.

Now, when the authorities issued the disco its licence, it was not stipulated anywhere in that licence that any establishment selling liquor is prohibited from employing Muslim staff. If this is the law then certainly our national airline, MAS, would have to retrench all the Malay staff and employ only non-Muslim Chinese, Indians, Portuguese, Dayaks, Kadazans, etc., because MAS serves liquor. Not only the cabin crew would have to be sacked but the entire staff including the ticketing staff, administration staff, accountants, managers, board of directors, and so on, would have to go.

The ‘haram’ ruling would not only affect those directly involved in serving the liquor on-board the flights but anyone whomsoever even remotely linked to the organisation. I mean, the ‘criminal’ is not only the stewards and stewardesses who serve the liquor but anyone who may be ‘collaborating’ with the stewards and stewardesses to make it possible for the stewards and stewardesses to serve liquor on-board the flights. So, those who sell the tickets and those who check you in and those who handle your baggage and those who usher you to the plane and those who sit in the office to count the money and those who sit in the boardroom to conduct meetings, and many more, are ‘partners-in-crime’ and would also have to leave the organisation.

If you drive the car that the bank robbers used to rob the bank you too would be arrested for bank robbery although you just sat in the car and did not walk into the bank to rob it. If you lent the bank robbers the car that they used to rob the bank then you too would be arrested for bank robbery although you did not follow them to the bank but just stayed home. If you lent the bank robbers the guns they used in the bank robbery you too would be arrested for bank robbery although you did not follow them to the bank but just stayed home. If you gave the information to the bank robbers on when and how they should rob the bank so that they can maximise their takings and make a successful getaway you too would be arrested for bank robbery even though all you did was just offer them information and did not actually take part in the robbery.

Yes, all of them would be regarded as being part of the bank robbery ring even though their only role was to assist the bank robbers in pulling off a successful bank robbery and did not actually take an active part in the robbery and were not even there.

So, are Muslim waiters and waitresses who work in discos committing a crime? Yes, according to the Federal Territory Religious Department who arrested 17 or so Muslim staff who were working in a disco in Kuala Lumpur. And all except one pleaded guilty and paid the RM400 fine. One, however, decided to sue the Malaysian government, the Religious Department, RELA and two other government agencies for RM5 million. And Karpal Singh is handling the case.

According to the police report that this Muslim woman made, which is the basis of the suit, she plus all the others were handcuffed and placed in the police truck. After some time she needed to answer the call of nature and requested permission to go to the toilet. However, they refused to allow her to go to the toilet and asked her instead to just pee in the truck.

This woman could not hold her bladder and had no choice but to pee there and then. Her colleagues helped guard her modesty by placing a scarf in front of her so that she could at least have some privacy. But the RELA officers pulled away the scarf and started taking photographs of her peeing, of course with her private parts fully exposed.

In the police station, the men were separated from the women. The women were then taken to a secluded part of the police station and photographed. But they were not photographed in the normal ‘criminal’ way with their numbers on their chest and so on. Instead, they were told to assume sexy positions — bend forwards, backwards, sideways, etc. Basically, they were asked to pose in erotic and sensuous positions for the benefit of the cameras, sort of like the centrefold of Playboy or Penthouse, if you know what I mean.

Then the women were told they could avoid getting charged by settling the case ‘outside court’ in exchange for sexual favours. All they had to do was drop their panties and after a quickie they would be allowed to go home without any further action taken against them.

Actually, this sort of thing is not new. This has been going on for more than 30 years. Why do you think these perverts fall over each other and rush to sign up as RELA guards? And they would drop everything and volunteer their time free-of-charge to participate in a ‘vice raid’. Of course, they will tell their wives and children they only have the interest of Islam at heart in arresting ‘immoral’ Malay men and women who work in discos that serve liquor. Their interest is only to protect the dignity of Islam. Yeah, sure, and I with five children and four grandchildren am still a virgin.

No, if you have free time on your hands don’t waste it by going to the noonday Friday prayers to listen to the imam scream, rant and rave about the enemies of Islam plotting against Islam in their secret agenda to destroy Islam. Instead, go to the Kuala Lumpur High Court at Jalan Duta on 17th and 18th January 2008 and hear the case that Karpal Singh is going to argue. Hear how the ‘moral police’ — officers of the Federal Territory Religious Department and RELA — round up women and photograph them nude and demand sex as out of court settlement.

Yes, these are the upholders of the dignity of Islam. These are the defenders of Islam. These are the officers of Islam Hadhari, the new Islam, the invention of Abdullah Badawi. Now do you know why the non-Muslims fear the prospects of Malaysia being turned into an Islamic State? Hey, I don’t blame them. If this is the Islam they are talking about then I too fear Malaysia being turned into an Islamic State. I fear my wife and daughter getting picked up by these perverts because they are perceived as dressing too sexily and then being asked to grant these ‘officers of Islam’ sexual favours as out of court settlement.

Hmm, this reminds me of another RELA officer from Terengganu whom I personally knew who raped and murdered a Malay schoolgirl. They eventually hanged him of course but this did not bring the unfortunate schoolgirl back to life. I suppose after getting horny from photographing waitresses in the nude they need to let off some steam by raping schoolgirls and then murdering them after that to prevent them from talking.

Yes, let us all go to the Kuala Lumpur High Court at Jalan Duta on 17th and 18th January 2008 and take a good look at the defenders of the dignity of Islam, those ‘moral police’ who arrest Malay girls and boys who work in discos and then photograph them in the nude and then demand sex as out of court settlement.