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News
Letter from Pulau Tikus |
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Endorsing the
police state THE DAP SAYS THAT by allowing the formation of race-based parties like UMNO, MCA and MIC, the ruling front is actually perpetuating racism and chauvinism. It does not surprise that a political party claiming to be a champion of human rights accepts that the government dictates what organisations should be "allowed" to exist (or registered, as is the procedure). In January this year, in issue 32, we commented on the sad state of affairs when even opposition parties spoke and acted as if they accepted the police state. In this police state, where students are watched as if they were dangerous criminals, where UMNO Bharu is allowed to change its name to that of UMNO, an unlawful body which has been declared illegal by the court, and where the societies department is playing registration and deregistration games in Sarawak, has it occurred to the DAP to ask itself, what do people think of us, we who are approved and registered by the government?. In this nanny state the DAP leaders seem to find comfort in going to the police station to make complaints about other politicians. Running crying to Papa Police is not a habit confined to the DAP. Recently a BN member of the state assembly requested the police to investigate DAP's Phee for accusing her of being corrupt UMNO's traitors Hysterical outbursts from UMNO do not surprise us anymore. This time the shrill screams are the result of the Anwar Ibrahim syndromw: UMNO is sacred!; Anwar is a traitor! - a chilling word connoting head chopping. All this reminds me of that day in 1951 when Dato Onn, leaving to form the Independence of Malaya Party (IMP) had that same terrible word hurled after him by Sardon Jubir. And Tengku Razaleigh - was he a traitor too? That sickness is peculiarly UMNO's, for did not Anwar use the same word when cursing the Malay independent candidate at a by election in Nibong Tebal? All this is as if to signal to use that there is no room for dissenting views. What hope is there for democracy in this country? |
| Distortions When Britain formed "Malaysia" by restructuring their colonies of Malaya, British Borneo and Sarawak, it occurred to someone that the ending of the Colonial Legal Service could lead to a shortage of experienced lawyers who would qualify for judgeships. Thus it came about that a law was made to permit the appointment of judicial commissioners (JC) and also to extend the term of judges. Tun Suffian, loyal to the intent and purpose of these provisions, appointed a handful of senior lawyers as JCs to help cut the court queue. However, the creeping deterioration in the administration of justice has led to the corruption of the original reasoning, if not its betrayal. The appointment of judicial commissioner was distorted to mean the appointment of probationary judges who serve his or her apprenticeship for one year and, if found pleasing to the higher ups, would be "promoted" judge. If he or she turned out to be a person of an independent mind he or she was dropped after a year's trial. This proved to be so in the case of Ranita Hussein. Extension of service, meant as a stop gap measure where no one was immediately found who was qualified, turned out to be an act of rewarding a person for some service rendered. So it is not surprising that the lucky bloke never forgets to tell the press how grateful he was for the gift from high above. Inherited savagery In September 2003 in issue 30 we wrote on the savagery of whipping convicted persons which modern Britain had long ago abandoned as being cruel and inhuman. We continue to take the skin off the backsides of prisoners in our prisons although this is clearly against UN conventionss. Now we read of the lower courts imposing extremely harsh punishments of 46 strokes. Clearly what is needed is for judges from all ranks of the courts to witness such whippings. They will see for themselves how the skin is slashed off, the flesh cut open and the bleeding wound exposed, how the victim loses consciousness after a few strokes depending on the condition of his fitness. They will learn that they will have go back to witness the continuation of the whipping after the victim recovers to his strength and heals his wounds and back again and again to witness the beatings until all the 46 strokes have been completed. It will be an education. Full marks We must congratulate the webmaster of the Penang government website for excellence. A reader emailed the website to find out which was the right place to lodge a complaint about a service. A reply came that Indrawater was the organisation to address the letter to. Almost immediately Indrawater phoned to say that they had attended to the matter and asked if everything was o.k. Another website which deserves a pat on the back is the RIMV's (JPJ) The site is not only well maintained; questions are immediately and helpfully answered.# K L Chai |
Friends of
the Penang Botanic Gardens
Tel 227 9915
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| ______ INDEX Point to the article that you want to read, and CLICK |
| _____________________ The Penang File Issue 37 |