Ahad, 6 Mei 2012

Philosophy Politics Economics

Philosophy Politics Economics

Najib Should Not Shift the Blame

Posted: 06 May 2012 05:10 PM PDT

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak has once again tried to shift the blame over the chaos created by the Police during the Bersih rally to the decision by the Bersih committee to reject the use of Stadium Merdeka as the alternative venue. Aside from the fact that the venue was only offered to Bersih at the very last minute, there is absolutely not good reason provided by the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) for the rejection to use Dataran Merdeka. As a result of the unreasonable rejection, the assembly participants were forced onto the streets and the police force had to be deployed to barricade and "secure" Dataran Merdeka perimeters. It became a most ridiculous and ironical situation where the Bersih rally was tacitly allowed on the streets, but they were not allowed to gather on the field! The Prime Minister had made the mistake of denying Bersih the right to assemble in Stadium Merdeka during the Bersih 2.0 rally in July last year which resulted in chaos in the streets where the Police force had trapped the protestors and even attacked the Tung Shin hospital with tear gas and water cannons. He has once again made the same mistake of denying Bersih's request to sit-in Dataran Merdeka which resulted in the unnecessary violence arising from the face-off between the Police, media and Bersih participants. Dato' Seri Najib Razak should look at himself in the mirror when he claimed that Bersih has breached the "principles and spirit of the Peaceful Assembly Act". It was the Prime Minister himself which failed to understand and embrace the principles and spirit of the Act to allow greater democratic space for expression and assembly by Malaysians. His actions and denials have proven that that the "political transformation programme" has been a complete failure and was only a cosmetic public relations exercise aimed to lift the Prime Minister's image and credentials.

SUHAKAM Can Investigate Violence, Why New Panel?

Posted: 05 May 2012 09:02 AM PDT

Dato' Seri Najib Razak has announced the cabinet decision to set up a special "independent" panel to investigate the various reported abuses and violent conduct by the Police force during the Bersih assembly last week.

Bernama also reported that he is looking for the "right people" to become members of this investigation panel.

The decision to set up a brand new panel to investigate the various claims of abuses is curious, to say the least.  The Government has already set up SUHAKAM under the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia Act 1999 which includes among its roles and responsibilities, inquiries into complaints regarding infringements of human rights.

The Commission under section 4(2) also has the power to "advise the Government and/or relevant authorities of complaints against them and to recommend appropriate measures to be taken".

The Commission is headed today by Tan Sri Hasmy Agam. Other commissioners include Professor Dr Khaw Lake Tee, En. Mohd Sha'ani Abdullah, Professor Datuk Dr Mahmud Zuhdi Majid and Mr James Nagayam. These Commissioners have been appointed by Yang Di-Pertuan Agong on the recommendation of the Prime Minister to uphold human rights in the country.

Therefore why is it that SUHAKAM has been marginalised when it comes to the investigation of outright human rights abuses by the police force?  Why is there a need for the Prime Minister to set up a new "independent" committee which will require a fresh set up and selection of new panel members?  Is it because the Cabinet is worried that SUHAKAM findings will be detrimental to both the police force and the Government, and hence Dato' Seri Najib is attempting to set up a new panel which will be more "sympathetic" towards the Government's cause?

We call upon the Prime Minister to stop dragging his feet over the outrageous abuses and violence by police officers against journalists and ordinary Malaysians during the Bersih assembly.

Scores of Malaysians have been beaten up by these officers for no apparent reason, causing many serious injuries.  The Sun reporter Radzi Razak for example, fractured his cheekbone and has had his jaw "wired shut" as a result of police brutality.

The Cabinet should immediately appoint SUHAKAM as the independent investigation panel so that Malaysians can get to the bottom of this controversy as soon as possible.

Will the CID Investigate Police Who Broke The Law Too?

Posted: 05 May 2012 08:49 AM PDT

Bernama has also separately reported that Bukit Aman Crime Investigation Department director Mohd Bakri Zinin said police would release the pictures of those who attacked the police and members of the public, as well as caused damage to property during the rally.

"We have their pictures and we will release them to the media and the public soon to track them down," he told reporters at the Bukit Aman police headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

We would like to state that we support all action by the Police to arrest those who have damaged public property and committed violence against police officers during the Bersih rally.

However, the Police cannot act by just arresting the few unruly Bersih participants but not taken immediate actions against scores of its police officers for committing violence against innocent participants and journalists.

In fact, it should be so much easier for the Police to track down all the errant police officers caught beating up innocent Malaysians on video and photographs than to track down Bersih participants.  The crime committed by these police officers is no less than those who damaged public property.

Hence if the Police force is only going after Bersih participants, it will show a clear abuse of power and a great injustice to the innocent Malaysians who were assembling peacefully to uphold their rights.

We call upon the CID to arrest all police officers who were caught on video and photographs clearly committing violence, suspend them during investigation and charge the guilty ones in court for violent conduct and failing to uphold their oath to protect the public.  The CID will only lose the confidence of ordinary Malaysians throughout the country if it shows itself to be biased, and fail to bring the guilty police officers to book.

The Most Insincere IGP Apology

Posted: 04 May 2012 08:42 AM PDT

Bernama reported that the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Tan Sri Ismail Omar has apologised to Malay Mail cameraman, Muhammad Arif Kartono for being "roughed up" by the police during the Bersih rally.

Muhammad Arif has testified in the Malay Mail on 30 April that he was hit hard on the head with a baton or a fist causing him to fall to the ground together with his camera.  He had said that "while on the ground, I saw seven to eight police personnel coming towards me. They kicked me in my face and on my legs, and stomped on my back" causing multiple injuries to the head and body.

The IGP reportedly said "The police apologises for the incident. In the chaos of the situation we could not tell the difference between the assembly participants and media"

The above statement is a complete lie and shows that the IGP is still not willing to embrace the truth and take all necessary actions to punish the guilty police officers.

Muhammad Arif has stated very clearly that he has identified himself with his media tag to the policemen who had tried to stop him from taking photos of a Bersih participant being manhandled. Instead, he was attacked ruthlessly and repeatedly despite him crying out "Saya hanya menjalankan tugas. Kenapa saya dibuat macam ini? (I am just doing my job. Why I am being treated like this?)".

Muhammad Arif was not the only journalist who was a victim to police violence.  All other journalists who were either arrested or beaten up had identified themselves to the police with their media tag.  However the police had ignored the identifications and proceeded to hit these media personnel, destroy their photography equipment and in some cases confiscated their media tags.

Hence the IGP's statement that the police officers were not able to differentiate between assembly participants and the media" is a complete lie to protect his guilty officers.  His apology is therefore clearly insincere and insufficient; as he should give an unreserved apology to the entire press corp for intimidation and abuse they have suffered as a result of reckless police action.

More importantly, the IGP is implying that had they not been journalists, then it is perfectly alright for the police officers to beat up the Bersih participants, despite the fact that most of them were not fighting the police or damaging public property.  It is an absolute tragedy for this so-called democratic country that our IGP who is supposed to uphold the law and protect ordinary Malaysians see it as completely acceptable for police officers to randomly hit and injure the very people they are sworn to protect.

Najib Must Apologies for Bersih Brutality

Posted: 03 May 2012 08:37 AM PDT

More and more victims have coming forward to provide rock solid video evidence as well as witness accounts of clear cut police brutality against both innocent journalists as well as ordinary Malaysians standing up for their rights. It has become clear and undeniable that the police force was on a ruthless rampage to beat people up.

The police force has gone well beyond even Malaysian norms of just using tear gas and water cannons to disperse a peaceful assembly.   Members of the public who participated in the Bersih 3.0 rally who have already dispersed and were having a meal in restaurants were beaten up for wearing yellow shirts. Some who were already in an LRT station to return home were chased, arrested and taken to narrow alleys to be beaten up silly.

In fact, anyone caught by the police force taking pictures of others being beaten up, were also beaten up badly.  It did not matter if some of these individuals were media personnel, local or foreign; or ordinary Malaysians.

Mohd Haijan Omar, who was assigned by Lawyers for Liberty to monitor the event was beaten up by the Police.  If even the officers of the Court are not immune to police brutality, then what chance does an ordinary member of the public has against a police force out of control?

These are not isolated cases of police brutality.  The police force was acting like unrestrained mobsters, often with 10 or more police officers beating up an individual or two.  It will not be an understatement to say that the police were creating a riot in the city.  The very people who were entrusted to protect innocent and ordinary Malaysians were turning on them.

While no Malaysian will blame the police for arresting those who damaged police or public property, such as the single incident of half a dozen people badly damaging a police vehicle, there is absolutely no justification for them to threaten and beat up every person they found in yellow, even if they were participating in the rally earlier.

This is especially since all who were beaten up were assembling peacefully and did not commit any acts of violence or vandalism.  Do the police have a license to beat up any person in the street as they like regardless of whether a crime has been committed?  Has our police force degenerated to become worse than the Gestapo?

The newly gazetted Peaceful Assembly Bill was meant to guarantee our constitutional right to assemble peacefully.  Those who breach public order destroy public property must be dealt with the full force of the law.  However, those who have assembled peacefully have committed no crime, were victimised with shocking ruthlessness and many were wrongfully arrested.

The unprecedented brutality by the police force requires the Prime Minister as well as the Home Minister to give an immediate and public apology to all ordinary Malaysians, especially the innocent journalists and Bersih participants who were wounded and traumatised by a police force gone beserk.

Nothing short of such an apology will be acceptable especially since it was the Prime Minister himself who has denied the Malaysian public to gather peacefully in Dataran Merdeka, which will have prevent any need for the unnecessary face-off with the police force.  The decision by the BN Government is an unmitigated disaster, and Dato' Seri Najib Razak who portrays himself as a reformist premier must take full responsibility for the Police fiasco.

Muhyiddin and Dodgy Education Surveys

Posted: 28 Apr 2012 08:27 AM PDT

On 30 March 2012, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin pronounced Malaysia as having better quality of education than United States (US), Britain and Germany.  He based his statement on one partial study in the World Competitiveness Report by World Economic Forum (WEF) on quality of education. In that specific study, Malaysia was ranked 14th as opposed to Germany (17th), Britain (20th) and United States (26th).

However the above "rankings" were arrived by surveying 87 local businessmen with the question: "How well does the educational system in your country meet the needs of a competitive economy?" by rating it between a scale of 1 to 7.

This particular survey question was never intended by the WEF, nor is it in any way adequate to provide conclusive ratings on the quality of the Malaysian education system.  However, the Education Minister, who is also our Deputy Prime Minister clutched at the straw to declare proudly that we have indeed performed better than Germany, Britain and the United States.

Tan Sri Muhyiddin has repeated the stunt 3 days ago when he cited a recent survey by Introspek Asia, which revealed yesterday that 55 per cent of Malaysian adults believe that our education system is comparable to other countries, while 35 per cent said it is "better than that of developed countries".

Once again, when we peel through the "surface" conclusions of the survey, it became crystal clear that the survey is again fundamentally deficient in measuring the quality of our education.

After studying the survey in detail, which can be downloaded at http://www.introspekasia.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Introspek_Education_Survey_Summaryv1.3.pdf, we can arrive at the conclusion that the results are pretty much meaningless because of the sample used for the survey.

The survey had 1,800 respondents, of which only 4.8% had qualifications of a university degree or more.  On the other hand, 85.3% of these respondents had either SPM qualifications or less.  Without prejudice to those who were unable to secure tertiary education due to circumstances beyond their control, this is perhaps the most inappropriate sample structure to ask about our Malaysian education system, if the intent was to have a measure of its quality.

Perhaps what is worse is, less than 5% of the sample has had no experience or even in-depth knowledge of education systems in developed countries.  Hence the outcome of the survey as to whether "Malaysian adults agree that our education standard are comparable, better or much better than developed countries" is at best a trivia to analyse how Malaysians are shut off from the real world out there.

Ironically, the income status of the respondents – with 73.2% earning less than RM3,000 per month in itself proved the inadequacy of our education system to enable them to earn a higher income.

In essence, Tan Sri Muhyiddin is relying on the opinions of those who didn't get very far with their education to measure the standard of Malaysian education against those of developed countries.  And the Education Minister used the result to boast about the achievements of his Ministry.

Tan Sri Muhyiddin has chosen to ignore the latest Performance for International Students Assessments (PISA) study conducted in 2010 showed that we are ranked in the bottom third in the world, as well as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) data over 1999, 2003 and 2007 which proved that the standards in education has been declining drastically over the past decade.
Tan Sri Muhyiddin's complete lack of ability to understand simple surveys, the context of their conclusions and implications proves how unfit he is to become our Education Minister.  By choosing to ignore reality or failing to grasp the significance of survey results, we fear that our education system will be led into a cycle of perpetual decline that will cause irreparable damage to the future quality, productivity and earnings ability of our Malaysian students.
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