"We are gathered here today to dedicate a new entity which is pledged to defend and promote the cause of Liberty and to claim upon the Promises that once were made to us. These were grand promises made 54 years ago, when the Federal Constitution of this country came into being. We were promised that this was a nation of laws and not of men; that our right to life and liberty would be sacrosanct; that we would be free to speak our mind and express our thoughts as we see fit; that we would not be hindered from peaceably assembling; that every one of us was equal before the law. These then were the basic and indispensable liberties pledged to us – they gave us our Dignity as free human beings.
But soon we discovered that we had been deceived. The document was flawed from the very beginning and never fully reflected the aspirations of the People. The People wanted to be Independent and free, instead they became Independent and tyrannized. For the Constitution was loaded and hedged with so many qualifications and equivocations, that an illiberal, cynical and dishonest government, took almost immediate advantage of it to silence and suppress the People, for their own selfish and corrupt ends.
Those promised freedoms have been so ‘cribbed, cabined and confined’ as to render them a nullity. What right had they? I do not accept that the Constitution created those freedoms. We were born with those freedoms and the Constitution, but imperfectly, gave expression to them. In giving expression to our innate rights, what business had they to tamper with or qualify them?
The perfidious English went along with it, though they would not have been so cavalier with the cherished freedoms of the people of their own Island nation. Our Rights should have been carved in stone, but perversely it was written in water.
But all was not lost, there was room for these tamperings to be interpreted away. We put our trust in the interpreters of the Constitution and the laws, the Judges, to give effect to the spirit of the People and the Constitution. These Judges were to have been the impartial arbiters of the People’s rights and freedoms.
And for half a century now, these fearful old men, their souls all shrivelled up and impervious to the dictates of our common humanity, have let the people down – at every opportunity they take the side of the oppressor against the people. In their defence, they ingenuously claim that they merely interpret the laws and do not make them – well then, by what strange coincidence is it that they always interpret it in favour of those who wield power against the common people? Why is that their decisions always erode our liberties and strengthen the hand of the authorities?
Never did you see such a combination of pomposity and timidity as displayed by our Judges – they have been tested by the times they lived in and miserably failed to measure up. They fell beneath the level of events and have betrayed the great trust given to them.
All the ingenuity and passion of freedom-loving lawyers throughout the decades since independence have not moved them a jot. These Judges personate men of flesh and blood, but are more akin to stocks and stones! I cannot understand why they are so determined not to be on the side of Good?
The lawyers are not free from blame either. We must first abandon the notion that we are practising law in the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand, in merry England where Liberty is near indestructible and the courts free from interference. The English fought for their liberties long ago and won it, so lawyers stop aping the way the English barrister behaves in his natural habitat.
We must not blind ourselves like the proverbial ostrich to the fact that the system here is hopelessly tainted. Fancy arguments in court alone is not going to restore our liberties to us. Lawyers must stop being in denial! Take the bull by the horns and challenge the system head on. We must confront the judiciary and send a message to them that we will not play the game according to their rules anymore.
March, march again and keep on marching, if necessary. Do not forget Pakistan, where the lawyers led and the people followed. Do not forget Egypt, where freedom has triumphed and the oppressor scuttles away for safety!
If we do not take effective action, then we too are become betrayers of the people, and cogs in the wheel that crushes the people’s liberties. Let us be brutally honest about this, how hard have we lawyers really tried to change things? Its okay to fail, but how hard have we tried? How hard? What do we do? Daily we traipse in and out of the courts as if its business as usual, despite not having the slightest doubt that the System is compromised and the People victimised.
Throughout these years I have had many discussions and arguments with lawyers and the Bar Council on taking a bolder approach, and I have come away with a sense that many are so half-hearted about it because they don’t think we can beat them or that things can ever change. By despairing, they have lost the battle before the battle was ever lost.
Now it is true that today the long shadow of the oppressor is everywhere – and in this shadow palely wither away independent institutions which were to have protected the rights of the people, in this shadow they try to hide their transgressions and trespasses and hope to muddle and mislead the people. But try as they may, they can never deprive us of our inborn Dignity - if we will not let them. They cannot make us frightened slaves in our own country, if we will not BE ENSLAVED!
In some ways we are fortunate, for it is not every generation that is given such a great task to carry out – which is nothing less than to sever the bonds that bind down the People and to forge a new free Nation, dedicated to Liberty and the rights of Man. The harder the fight for Liberty, the more abiding and imperishable will those freedoms be, when achieved.
But let us have no illusions about one thing – this unjust Government has no compunction in crushing every spark and ember of a new birth of Freedom under their jack-booted heels. Let us not be fooled by the benign painted faces of the Government and its leaders, for we can see well enough what lurks beneath. Ever are these brooding Watchers, watching for signs of resistance or reawakening among the People. Ever vigilant is their massive and corrupt state apparatus. Ever ready are they to concoct criminal charges and put on show trials to imprison political opponents. Some of the political criminal trials going on in this country would make Stalin proud.
But we can take heart, for of this I am certain: These long years of darkness will yet pass, and a new dawn of Freedom will break upon our Nation. In the meantime we must be relentless in a just cause, resolute in the face of every test and and never cease this honourable struggle until the Oppressor capitulates and every Malaysian regains his birthright – his Liberty."
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Saturday, February 5, 2011
The tyranny of BN and the malice of Ummi
In 1998, Dr Mahathir's tyrannous regime infamously tried Anwar Ibrahim on trumped-up sodomy charges. In the great tradition of authoritarian rulers everywhere, Mahathir used a corrupt police force and biased judiciary to put Anwar away.
So outrageous was the conduct of Augustine Paul,the presiding judge in Anwar's trial, that it would be not be extreme to compare him to the notorious Nazi kangaroo court judge, Roland Freisler.
Anwar rallied the people and put up a tremendous fight, but to no avail. Brute force had prevailed over the voices of countless people who took to the streets and to cyberspace resolved to end the unjust rule of the Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) government.
Free Anwar became the rallying call of liberal and progressive Malaysia, and Anwar's fate became tied up with the hopes of a nation. And so the nation was thrilled when the Anwar-led opposition coalition won 5 states and 82 parliamentary seats in the last general election.
Since then the BN government has tried every possible underhand ploy at its disposal in order to undermine the opposition coalition. This included fabricating another sodomy case against Anwar who is rightly regarded by the government as its chiefest foe.
His biggest sin in the eyes of the government is his unprecednted challenge to their divide and rule racial policies. This threatens the very existence of the BN, and consequently the vested interests of its leaders and their chief supporters.
Increasingly desperate, they have now conjured up Ummi Hafilda Ali, a faded and vaguely sinister figure from the first sodomy trial. At her press conference on 13th January, she exuded a great deal of malice, but made very little sense.
She made the astonishing claim that the opposition gains in March 2008 were solely due to her absence from the electoral battlefield.
She threatened to sue Anwar and others for hundreds of millions, although there appears to be no legal cause of action known to our jurisprudence to support her ridiculous claim. Trotting out this foolish woman just as the general election looms closer is surely a new low even for the BN government.
It is significant that Ummi Hafilda has been dusted off the shelf just as Najib desperately seeks ways to avoid debating Anwar Ibrahim on the economy. Instead of engaging in an open and free discussion of national issues with the leader of the opposition, the BN chooses to respond by digging up the mouldering bones of an old and discredited slander.
Oppressive and dishonest, the BN advances its political agenda by engaging in sordid conspiracies against its political opponents. Unable and unwilling to engage in free political discourse, the BN constantly seeks to use State powers to criminalize and destroy its opponents.
This has ever been the way with tyrants. But like so many other tyrannies, this one too shall come to an end, and our nation will shake off the restraints imposed by BN and stride forward to meet its great destiny.
So outrageous was the conduct of Augustine Paul,the presiding judge in Anwar's trial, that it would be not be extreme to compare him to the notorious Nazi kangaroo court judge, Roland Freisler.
Anwar rallied the people and put up a tremendous fight, but to no avail. Brute force had prevailed over the voices of countless people who took to the streets and to cyberspace resolved to end the unjust rule of the Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) government.
Free Anwar became the rallying call of liberal and progressive Malaysia, and Anwar's fate became tied up with the hopes of a nation. And so the nation was thrilled when the Anwar-led opposition coalition won 5 states and 82 parliamentary seats in the last general election.
Since then the BN government has tried every possible underhand ploy at its disposal in order to undermine the opposition coalition. This included fabricating another sodomy case against Anwar who is rightly regarded by the government as its chiefest foe.
His biggest sin in the eyes of the government is his unprecednted challenge to their divide and rule racial policies. This threatens the very existence of the BN, and consequently the vested interests of its leaders and their chief supporters.
Increasingly desperate, they have now conjured up Ummi Hafilda Ali, a faded and vaguely sinister figure from the first sodomy trial. At her press conference on 13th January, she exuded a great deal of malice, but made very little sense.
She made the astonishing claim that the opposition gains in March 2008 were solely due to her absence from the electoral battlefield.
She threatened to sue Anwar and others for hundreds of millions, although there appears to be no legal cause of action known to our jurisprudence to support her ridiculous claim. Trotting out this foolish woman just as the general election looms closer is surely a new low even for the BN government.
It is significant that Ummi Hafilda has been dusted off the shelf just as Najib desperately seeks ways to avoid debating Anwar Ibrahim on the economy. Instead of engaging in an open and free discussion of national issues with the leader of the opposition, the BN chooses to respond by digging up the mouldering bones of an old and discredited slander.
Oppressive and dishonest, the BN advances its political agenda by engaging in sordid conspiracies against its political opponents. Unable and unwilling to engage in free political discourse, the BN constantly seeks to use State powers to criminalize and destroy its opponents.
This has ever been the way with tyrants. But like so many other tyrannies, this one too shall come to an end, and our nation will shake off the restraints imposed by BN and stride forward to meet its great destiny.
PKR Vice-President N.Surendran’s statement
On 18th December, 2010 I was appointed as a Vice President of KEADILAN. I welcome this appointment and thank KEADILAN for placing their trust in me by appointing me to this position. I hope to bring to the important task
facing me, the experience I have gained from more than a decade’s work
as a human rights lawyer, an activist, and an NGO Leader.
That experience taught me that many of the problems facing the people
can only be resolved by engaging in the political process, in order to
reform and change the way this country is administered. And I have no
doubt that KEADILAN and the wider Pakatan Rakyat have the resolve and
capability to carry out this process of reform and change, and to create a fairer, juster, and more prosperous Malaysia. Pakatan Rakyat’s Common Policy Framework is humanist, compassionate, practical and achievable. It is a sign-post to a better future for all Malaysians.
Unlike the Barisan Nasional component parties, KEADILAN is a multi-racial
party which acts in the interest of all the races of this country. I
recognise that different types of problems are faced by the various
communities in this country. These problems have to be looked into
according to the needs of each community. I am fully aware of the
serious problems faced by the Indian community in this country, and
resolve to attend to it, hand in hand with the issues facing all the
other communities. No community or segment of this country can be said
to be enriched, if their brethren in another community remain
impoverished. As a human rights lawyer and activist I have represented
victims of all races such as Kugan, ex-airman Tharmendran,
Aminulrasyid Amzah and Norizan Salleh. As Vice President of KEADILAN I will continue to assist my fellow Malaysians of every race and creed.
I do not believe in a politics of cliques, factions and coteries. I
believe the aim of politics is not self-aggrandisement or to profit
oneself, but to benefit the people and uplift the nation. Whosoever
has the good of the people at heart, he is my ally in this struggle.
I call upon all Malaysians who love freedom and justice to rally
around us, and help us save this country from the grip of oppression
and misrule.
I take this opportunity to wish all Malaysian Christians, a Merry Christmas!
facing me, the experience I have gained from more than a decade’s work
as a human rights lawyer, an activist, and an NGO Leader.
That experience taught me that many of the problems facing the people
can only be resolved by engaging in the political process, in order to
reform and change the way this country is administered. And I have no
doubt that KEADILAN and the wider Pakatan Rakyat have the resolve and
capability to carry out this process of reform and change, and to create a fairer, juster, and more prosperous Malaysia. Pakatan Rakyat’s Common Policy Framework is humanist, compassionate, practical and achievable. It is a sign-post to a better future for all Malaysians.
Unlike the Barisan Nasional component parties, KEADILAN is a multi-racial
party which acts in the interest of all the races of this country. I
recognise that different types of problems are faced by the various
communities in this country. These problems have to be looked into
according to the needs of each community. I am fully aware of the
serious problems faced by the Indian community in this country, and
resolve to attend to it, hand in hand with the issues facing all the
other communities. No community or segment of this country can be said
to be enriched, if their brethren in another community remain
impoverished. As a human rights lawyer and activist I have represented
victims of all races such as Kugan, ex-airman Tharmendran,
Aminulrasyid Amzah and Norizan Salleh. As Vice President of KEADILAN I will continue to assist my fellow Malaysians of every race and creed.
I do not believe in a politics of cliques, factions and coteries. I
believe the aim of politics is not self-aggrandisement or to profit
oneself, but to benefit the people and uplift the nation. Whosoever
has the good of the people at heart, he is my ally in this struggle.
I call upon all Malaysians who love freedom and justice to rally
around us, and help us save this country from the grip of oppression
and misrule.
I take this opportunity to wish all Malaysian Christians, a Merry Christmas!
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