What happens when you get arrested at a candlelight vigil?

On the 9th November 2008 at about 11pm, I was awaken from my sleep by a phone call from a fellow lawyer from the Urgent Arrest Team informing me that 24 people were arrested including a lawyer, an opposition MP and 2 state assemblymen. The arrest was for unlawful assembly for the candlelight vigil for the 1st anniversary of the Bersih rally. I , being part of the Team, got ready and went to the Section 8 police station in PJ. I reached there about 1145pm and there was already a crowd outside the police station.

I was told that before I arrived that 2 opposition MP's have already given their press statements and left. Being part of the Urgent Arrest Team for awhile now, you get immune to the antics and the stunts that certain groups do to get publicity. At the end of the day, the dirty work is always left to us. Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining, I just want the public to know who the real people on the scene actually are. It is important to know who are the people that get their hands dirty and are not interested in the media and the publicity. More often than not, the people who get the media attention do the least amount of work.

When the arrests had taken place, the Chairman of the Selangor Bar, Mr. Rajpal Singh, had already contacted the Chief Police Officer (CPO) of Selangor to know the situation of the detainees and what they are going to do with them. In circumstances like these, the police can do one of two things, they can keep you overnight and produce you in court the next day or they can release you on a police bail. We always work to get the latter. Rajpal then told us that the CPO would inform us when we can have access to the detainees. They required time to take down particulars and process the paperwork.

Until we get access to the detainees, we are unable to advise them and the waiting game begins. The wait could depend on many factors. It could be because of the number of detainees, idiotic police officers, nature of the offence or just plainly making the lawyers life difficult. When I am on duty, I don't expect to be home early.

After about an hour, Rajpal gets a call from the CPO and he informs us that we should be able to have access to the detainees in about 20 minutes. The CPO then allows 5 lawyers to enter the station. We negotiated and they allowed 9 lawyers to enter. Among the 9 lawyers was an opposition MP. Before the CPO said anything to us, the said MP started raising his voice at the CPO and starts abusing him. The CPO immediately tells him to behave and if he refuses to do so he would be arrested. At this point, Rajpal stops the MP and tells him that he is in charge and calmed him down. The MP then challenges the CPO to arrest him and we calm the whole situation down. Rajpal then tells the CPO that we want access to the detainees before their police statement is taken down. He agreed and we were allowed to set up a team before we saw the detainees.

We got a team of 14 lawyers and we advised the detainees on their rights. The police allowed us to provide some nasi lemak and KFC to the detainees as they were hungry. The Team stayed at the station until 3am and all but one detainees were released at 7am.

I was disappointed with the way MP behaved. If this is the state of an opposition MP then I would not want him to be part of the ruling government. It was unprofessional conduct by him and he later stated that the lawyers did not know what they were doing and were too polite to the police. Apparently we did not fight with the police enough.

Dealing with the police is a psychological game and you play it. It turns out as a win-win most of the time when you get it right. Not all encounters with the police needs to be a fight. I fear that certain opposition MP's don't have what it takes to be part of the ruling government and I think they lack of intelligence. When you are an elected MP, you have a different recourse. You fight for the people in parliament and you don't go to the streets anymore. You are at a different level. The Pakatan Rakyat exco members should not have been at the vigil in the first place. They are members of the Exco of Selangor State Government. What were they doing at the vigil? Publicity stunt?

The people needs to be given a choice on who should be running the government. But when the people are left with 2 bad choices, who would they pick? So will the people vote for Pakatan Rakyat the next election because they are capable of running the country or because the people are just fed up with the ruling government?

There has to be a third choice.

Sreekant Pillai

RPK Released... Hope wins!

Today Justice Syed Ahmad Helmy Syed Ahmad issued an order of Habeas Corpus in favour of Raja Petra. The court then ordered that Raja Petra be produced in court at 4.00 pm and be released forthwith.

Having hope and faith is all worth it. Throughout the week I kept having hope that a decision like today would happen and it did. I was flooded with negative thoughts by friends and people about how I felt but I kept thinking positive.

There is hope for Malaysia. It is a happy day for Malaysia.

I would like to congratulate all those involved in this case especially the lawyers, Malik Imtiaz, Azhar Azizan Harun, Ashok Kandiah, J. Chandra and Neoh Hor Khee. Well done guys. Am so happy to be part of the team.

Sreekant Pillai

Human Rights: Where do we stand

On 10th December 1948,the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights(UDHR). The Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and "to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories." Malaysia is a member of the United Nations and therefore has full knowledge of this declaration.

Although UDHR is not a treaty and has no enforcement procedures, it has become a very important yardstick for countries to ensure basic human rights are afforded to their citizens.

By just reading the UDHR for the first time, you will see that Malaysia has violated the preamble and certain Articles in the UDHR. Of course if you ask our politicians about it, they would say " its not a law lah, it only a declaration.... not important la".

The recent act of the Government utilizing the ISA is a clear contravention of Article 3, 5, 9, and 10 of the UDHR. Article 3 stated that everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person, Article 5 states that no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Article 9 states that no one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile and Article 10 states that everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

The government had clearly disregarded an international declaration of Human Rights for their own political agendas. This, in the eyes of foreign investors, would not look good and it is not surprising that for the first time there has been an outflow of Foreign Direct Investment rather than inflow. I believe that there is a link between foreign investment and our human rights record.

We also have a huge human trafficking problem mainly children trafficking that the government has failed to address. The recent enactment of the Anti Trafficking in Persons Act 2007 is a step forward but sadly the enforcement on it has been disappointing. We have no laws against child pornography specifically and no laws against child sex tourism. The street children issues in Chow Kit are not being addressed and syndicates go on selling children for money and child labour. There are no steps to eradicate child prostitution and child trafficking.

They is much pressure on the government now as we have to report on a National Action Plan to the Eradication of Child Prostitution And Trafficking (ECPAT) congress on the 24th November 2008 in Brazil. Malaysia has to inform the congress on steps we have taken to eradicate child prostitution and trafficking and word has it that we are not even ready with the report. Not even the first draft! We are also due to report to the United Nations Human Rights Council in February 2009.

We don't realize how questionable our human rights record is when we are busy with our daily lives. We have a problem and the government is taking it too lightly and I don't think we can get a bail out on this issue. Where do we stand in terms of Human Rights? You decide.

My Visit to Kamunting

In my 10 years of legal practice, I never had to make a trip to the Detention Centre at Kamunting to visit a client until last Friday. What would it be like? Is it a prison like any other prison? What is so special about that place? Do they have other prisoners there? Are all detainees there detained without trial? These questions popped up in my head when I was told that I needed to go there with two other lawyers. Visiting clients in prison is a normal occurrence for me as a criminal litigator and these visits do not affect me emotionally or mentally. However, the thought of going to Kamunting did.

We left at about 6.00 am and reached the Kamunting Detention Centre at about 9.30am. The guards requested for our identity cards and registered all our details including our addresses and gave us a pass for the car. I then noticed that the centre comes under the Prison Board which has a motto "Mesra, Ikhlas dan Berbakti" which means " Friendly, Sincere and Dedicated". I was not sure to whom or what the motto was referring to.

We drove in and passed 2 grazing fields and finally reached the main entrance to the prison. We walked in and were told to register our names again and to fill up a form for their records. After which they requested that all mobile phones and wallets be kept in a locker provided by them and all bags and files must be searched before we could bring them in. They did not allow us to bring in some fruits that we bought along the way for Raja Petra. We were only allowed to buy food items from the prison cafeteria for him.

We were escorted into the area where the ISA detainees are kept. It is like any other prison I have visited except that here they also detain people without trial. Malaysia has two other laws other than the ISA where people can be detained without trial they are the Emergency Ordinance and the Special Preventive Measures under the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. Convicted criminals , who have undergone the due process of a trial, are also kept here. The ISA detainees, detainees under the Emergency Ordinance and the convicted criminals are housed separately in the prison. There are 29 foreigners detained under the ISA and 34 of the detainees are Malaysians bringing a total of 63 ISA detainees.

We were brought to an office and were told to register our names again and waited for Raja Petra. We were told that we had only 1 hour with him and all documents given to us by him has to be recorded by them. He arrived at the office and a guard escorted us to a room with glass windows on each side with a long table in the middle of the room.

During our meeting with him, the prison guards walk past the room every now and then and I am not sure why they do that. Raja Petra was not going anywhere and neither were we. We also got to meet 3 of the 5 Hindraf detainees while on their way for mandarin classes. Probably preparing to also fight for the Chinese when they are released.

After the hour long meeting with him, it was safe to say that Raja Petra is still in high spirits. Always cracking jokes in between conversations with us and can still afford to smile. We said good bye to him and told him to keep his spirits up and there is still support for him outside the prison walls.

This is the first time I have visited a prison where people who believe in themselves are incarcerated. It is difficult to believe that my country has such laws that can do this. These laws apply to every citizen in Malaysia no matter what your status, race or religion is. The development of a nation should not be judged by the size of the buildings it has or the amount of money it has but by its evolution of laws on human rights. With laws like these still being utilised, Malaysia has a long way to go before even getting close to being a developed nation.

I condemn the draconian laws that allow detention without trial and it should all be abolished if the government is even interested human rights.