Open Letter to the King

Reporters Without Borders sent an open letter to the King after the RPK's case at the Federal Court. We are being watched internationally and the judiciary is under scrutiny. One wonders if the judiciary cares. This letter can also be accessed at the Reporters Without Borders website. http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=30330

“Your Majesty, do everything in your power to prevent any judicial error”
Open letter to the king of Malaysia about blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin

Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Jean-François Julliard wrote today to Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin Ibni Almarhum Sultan Mahmud Al Mukhtafi Billah Shah, the king of Malaysia, asking him to intercede in the case of "RPK".

“Your Majesty,

Reporters Without Borders, an organisation that defends press freedom worldwide, would like to draw your attention to the case of Raja Petra Kamaruddin, a journalist also known as “RPK,” who is charged under the Internal Security Act (ISA) in connection with articles posted on his Malaysia Today blog (http://mt.m2day.org/2008/) and who now faces the possibility of being imprisoned again.

In the speech you gave today, you described the younger generation as Malaysia’s hope and future. RPK is a model of the free speech this generation should enjoy.

The way the federal court in Putrajaya is conducting RPK’s case is travesty of justice. The court’s impartiality is jeopardised by the fact that Augustine Paul, one of the three judges on the panel handling the case, issued a ruling against RPK in 2001 as a “threat to internal security.” RPK had posted comments online that lambasted the judge for his role in Anwar Ibrahim’s corruption trial - comments that were widely circulated on the Internet.

The decision by judges Nik Hashim Nik Ab Rahman and Zulkefli Ahmad Makinuddin to reject a request by RPK’s lawyers to recuse Judge Paul seems to be unconstitutional. Paul chose not to remain in court to hear the application for his recusal, leaving the other two judges. However, the law requires that such an application by heard by three federal judges.

Since the start of this case, the police and government officials have acted outside the law as established by the constitution. RPK was jailed under the only section of the ISA that allows the authorities to imprison a person without giving their reasons. And the charges brought against him violated some of his basic rights, including individual freedom (article 5.1), freedom of expression (article 10.1) and freedom of religion (article 11).

Malaysia has ratified the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, so such violations of freedom cannot continue. This situation threatens the rule of law in Malaysia and offers an extremely negative image of your country internationally. In the current context, it seems clear that this is a political manoeuvre to silence RPK and put pressure on Malaysia’s civil society leaders.

We believe that it is your role, as your country’s monarch, to defend your people and ensure respect for their basic rights, while remaining completely neutral and independent of any political party, as required by the constitution. This is why we are seeking your help and why we ask you to ensure the withdrawal of the appeal against RPK’s release and to prevent any other attempt to detain him under the ISA.

These proceedings are a challenge which Malaysia should take care to meet. A new hearing has been set for 23 February. We urge you, Your Majesty, to do everything in your power to prevent any further judicial errors.

We trust you will give our request your careful consideration.

Respectfully.”

MORE INFORMATION : http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=30330

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

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.