TEOH BENG HOCK'S INQUEST

It has been awhile since my last post but that's because I have been on holiday and also busy with work that keeps me alive. A lot have happened since then.... deaths in custody, Teoh Beng Hock's (TBH) death, allegations of corruption of Pakatan leaders etc. and TBH's death making the headlines more than any other news for the past week. So many questions asked and a lot unanswered. As a result, an inquest is being held to answer those questions in relation to TBH's death.

The inquest started today (29/7/09) at the Shah Alam Magistrates Court. Gobind Singh Deo is acting for TBH's family, Malik Imtiaz, Ashok Kandiah and I are acting for the Selangor State Government, Hisham Teh Poh Teik, Rajpal Singh and Salim Bashir are acting for the Bar Council and Tan Hock Chuan is acting for the prosecution. The coroner is Tuan Azmil Muntapha.

We received documents from the prosecution today and managed to get an adjournment to peruse the documents. We were given all post mortem reports, Chemists reports, photographs, plans and all reports and documents pursuant to the investigation of TBH's death.

We were also informed that there are 90 more chemists reports to be served and 12 more to be completed.

The coroner allowed the adjournment to 5th August 2009 to enable parties to study the documents forwarded. The prosecution informed the court that 80 witnesses were present in court today to give evidence.

I shall try to post updates of the inquest as and when the matter proceeds in court. Meanwhile if you would like another view on TBH's death, read rights2write.wordpress.com.

Ungrateful=Unappreciative

The new Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, denied using the word "ungrateful" when relating to the Chinese voters but simply used the word "unappreciative" in an interview in an issue of Mingguan Malaysia last Sunday. According to him, ungrateful and unappreciative are two different words that carry two different meanings. He also offered to send those who "twisted" his words back to school for Malay lessons. Well that is really thoughtful of him but I think he is missing the point. Let us just look at the actual text in the malay language before we start jumping to conclusions. Below is the original text from Mingguan Malaysia:

"...Ya, kadang-kadang kita berasa terpedaya juga kerana zahirnya nampak macam 'ok', sambutan dengan tepukan gemuruh tetapi mungkin sudah ada tertanam dalam hati iaitu sesuatu tidak mudah hendak berubah, pokoknya masalah isu Perak terutamanya di kalangan masyarakat Cina yang mungkin telah dipengaruhi dengan sentimen simpati kepada Datuk Seri Ir.Mohamad Nizar Jamaluddin, kononnya dia 'dijatuhkan', lepas itu kononnya dasar memberi pegangan tanah selama 99 tahun dilihat dasar yang menguntungkan.

Ini yang mungkin menyebabkan sukar BN mendapat sokongan walaupun kita fikir bila mereka hendak sekolah Cina dibantu, kita bantu, sepatutnya mereka membalas budi. Pada waktu itu, kita pun tidak berharap sokongan kaum Cina akan meningkat 40 peratus dan sebagainya cuma kita berharap ada peningkatan sedikit tetapi apa yang berlaku ia mencatatkan penurunan, macam tidak ada penghargaan terhadap apa yang kita lakukan"

My malay is not perfect but the last line in red seems to me that he is saying that the Chinese have not appreciated what BN had done for them. To me whether he meant ungrateful or unappreciative the meaning comes out the same. We all speak, write and understand basic malay. Who is he trying to fool? Being the new education minister, he should check his English before making a statement like that.

There is another thing that bothers me about his statement. The Election Commission has always insisted that the elections are free and fair and that our vote is a secret. If that is so, how did they know that the Chinese did not vote for BN at Bukit Gantang? Maybe the Chinese voted for BN and Malays did not. For the DPM to make a bold statement against the Chinese voters could only mean that they know who we are voting for. Well I guess you would say " Of course they do, they always did". True but the Election Commission assures the voters their votes are kept secret.

If this is the post mortem that BN has come up with for the by-elections then it is no better than Kugan's first post mortem report. The only way BN will only start getting some respect and garner some support when UMNO starts respecting Malaysians as people.

Who is running the country?

It is without a doubt that Malaysia is going through a recession whether the government likes it or not. The recent RM 60 billion stimulus package unveiled by the government says it all. We cannot hide from the fact that the financial meltdown is effecting the whole world. But how much of this RM60 billion is actually going to help the middle income and the lower income groups, those who are really affected by the slowdown? I would say, almost none of it.

The whole idea of this stimulus package is to help failing businesses and development companies which are probably linked to the government. There is no transparency of where the money is actually going. All we know is that money has been given out to help businesses and companies in trouble. To be able to help the people who actually need the money, the government has to go to the ground to actually see how bad it is affecting the middle income and the lower income groups. Does the government really care about them? If so, what studies have they done to know that the RM 60 billion would be enough to stimulate the economy?

The bad economy is already affecting the country and it shows with the high crime rate. The magistrate courts are filled with cases of petty crimes which include snatch theft, motorcycle theft, theft, cheating and the list goes on. I was in the magistrate courts this week and the accused persons charged for petty crimes were not hardcore criminals but just people like you and I. Some accused persons while pleading for leniency actually said that they stole because they need to feed their family and did not have money because they lost their jobs. They are people with no criminal records, probably not done a crime in their lives but due to desperation resorted to stealing to put food on the table.

It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that there is a breakdown in the system and the government does not care about it. They are too busy holding on to power and this attitude is causing a breakdown in society. Well I am not just blaming the government but I blame the politics of it all. The politicians are just thinking about how to snooker each other and are not finding a solution to better the economy or a method of running the country effectively. Malaysia seems to be on auto-pilot with BN not running it.

Pakatan Rakyat should start working on the next general elections and stop giving people false hopes. If you can govern show us by governing the states that you are in control of. It has been a year since the general elections and has Pakatan followed through with what they promised in their respective manifestos? I do not expect the government to keep any of their promises but I do expect the opposition to do so. Pakatan Rakyat is still on trial and has an uphill battle to keep the support strong.

While people are busy trying to put food on the table, politicians are busy fighting for power without regard to the consequences to the nation.

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

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.