Najib urged to stop Political Violence
February 29, 2012
Najib urged to stop political violence
www.themalaysianinsider.com
BERSIH 2.0 urges Prime Minister Najib Razak to immediately stop the serial political violence inflicted on opposition politicians and civil society activists by thugs reportedly related to UMNO and PERKASA, while the Police often just looked on and no one has been charged so far.
Bersih 2.0 warns that such impunity on political violence, if it continues, leaves no room for clean elections in Malaysia. If political activisms are met with physical assaults even before elections, could the safety of opposition leaders and campaigners be guaranteed come the next election?
BERSIH 2.0 wants Najib to order an immediate investigation and prosecution of those responsible for the two latest incidents of political assault on February 26.
At Speakers’ Corner, Georgetown, Pulau Pinang, a group of thugs identified as UMNO Youth and PERKASA members attacked the anti-Lynas protesters and eventually injured two reporters. Most shockingly, the Police personnel looked on and did nothing. Later, the Chief Police Officer (CPO) of Pulau Pinang Ayub Yaakob blamed it on the organisers for not informing the Police of their event.
At Felda Lepar Hilir 1, Gambang, Pahang, YB Nurul Izzah Anwar, PKR MP for Lembah Pantai,
was assaulted by Asrullah Affendi Abdullah, an assistant of UMNO Lepar state assemblyperson Mohd Shohaimi Jusoh.
These are not isolated cases. Forums by student activists and the Anything But UMNO (ABU) Movement have experienced similar attacks and no one has yet been charged in court.
If PM Najib Razak refuses to take action to end such political violence, to have the assailants prosecuted and to punish those Police personnel who shirked their responsibility, Malaysia may be pushed to the edge of chaos and unrest by electoral violence.
Political Violence in Penang
In this alarming development, BERSIH 2.0 calls upon Malaysians and the international community to establish a Election Observation Mission to mitigate such a threat.
* The Steering Committee of BERSIH 2.0 comprises: Dato’ Ambiga Sreenevasan (Co-Chairperson), Datuk A. Samad Said (Co-Chairperson), Ahmad Shukri Abdul Razab, Andrew Khoo, Arul Prakkash, Arumugam K., Dr Farouk Musa, Liau Kok Fah, Maria Chin Abdullah, Richard Y W Yeoh, Dr Subramaniam Pillay, Dato’ Dr Toh Kin Woon, Dr Wong Chin Huat, Dato’ Yeo Yang Poh and Zaid Kamaruddin.
Political violence must be nipped in the bud. It is disturbing when the Police turn a blind eye to the actions of people who use violence to achieve political ends. Adversarial politics need not be violent. It should be a contest of vision, ideas and policies and programmes for the Malaysian people. Remember we are no longer a Third World country, with the intention of joining the First World World by 2020.
Third rate politics cannot, therefore, be our culture. Jangan main politik zaman tok nadok, noh, Pak Bean and Pak Semper Fi.–Din Merican
dinobeano - February 29, 2012 at 7:25 pm
“Political violence must be nipped in the bud” – Din Merican
Isn’t it too early in the morning to be talking about nipples and butts??
___________
Mr. Pimp…, being funny eh! Maybe our G-Singh can send his buddy Goolbatok Singh to fix whatever that is bothering from the behind.–Din Merican
scarlet.pimpernel - February 29, 2012 at 9:06 pm
…and kudos to ABIM too for calling on our political masters to do the right thing…
Tony - February 29, 2012 at 9:49 pm
As I have before, these are the tips of violences and racial disturbance that is going to happen in malaysia. All these are provoke by malay thugs,sponsered by dirty invisible hands. Patience has its limits, don’t try to push the opporsition to the wall and they will fight back. The police will only acts if somebody is dead. We pay the police for our safety to live in this country. Don’t wait for the 2nd. Mei 13,only to take action.The current sitution is difference from the first. So please Polis Raja Di Malaysia,don’t just look and no action taken. Reports had been made, no action taken. NATO.
jose manuel - February 29, 2012 at 9:51 pm
Wise aphorisms attributable to Malaysian Political Goons:
1. “When you can’t control your own spouse – not to mention your household, how can you control what happens outside the house?”
2. “Wallop tetap wallop!” will win any day over Lawan tetap Lawan!
3. “Intimidation is the mother of all Transformation.”
4. “Cina babi, India Ular, Melayu Pernghianat! Anyone else?”
C.L. Familiaris - February 29, 2012 at 9:53 pm
In the US the leading Republican nominee has been accorded Secret Service protection. Yesterday Secret Service protection was also extended to Rick Santorum. This is to ensure nothing unwanted befalls them while campaigning to be the Republican candidate to run against President Obama.
semper fi - February 29, 2012 at 10:05 pm
To stem the tsunami of 2008, UMNO-BN first use racial issues and closely followed by religious issues. Then the royalty was brought in. Although tensions were raised but none were really effective in countering the continuing increase in public acceptance of PR.
Now UMNO-BN has moved to intimidation and physical violence. It started with the bomb explosions in front of the High Court during judgement day of Anwar’s trial. It has since spread to any events that are deemed to be opposing the government or ruling parties. These include PR ceramahs, ABU, Solidariti Mahasiswa Malaysia, BERSIH and even anti-Lynas events.
The Police has long lost its independence. With the recent substantial pay rise for the Super JUSA group, the top civil servants are now more beholden to the present ruling parties. The pay increase is not to attract talent to the civil service but to ensure blind loyalty to the politicians.
Some people are indifferent to all these happenings, deluding themselves that as long as they remain apolitical; it will not affect them. But there are enough stories even in MSM of innocent ordinary Malaysians being abused by the authorities who seem to have special immunity from the law.
UMNO-BN has long lost the moral and ethical rights to govern the country. But is the majority of rakyat ready to throw them out in the next GE?
Jamal Majid - February 29, 2012 at 10:08 pm
The ‘Ketuanan’ heroes are looking for a riot supported by you know who. Remember folks do not do what the enemy wants you to do. Retaliate at the polls.
Vincent Ang - February 29, 2012 at 10:10 pm
Semper
My daughter-in-law who is Catholic asks me why this Santorium guy is, in my opinion, too far to the right to be acceptable to his own party as the presidential candidate who would be able to defeat Democrat U.S. President Barack Obama.
My answer is, for one reason, he sees a human rights issue as a religious issue which is convenient for him as he is campaigning on the platform of a ‘true’ social conservative. Whereas Obama is only trying to be fair to the womenfolk who happen to be working for Catholic charities, and Catholic hospitals etc. who choose to go into planned parenthood or single folks who need to buy oral contraceptives so they do not need to resort to abortion.
Republicans are pro-life, meaning they rather see mothers run the risk of dying. Ignoring the fact that it is the availability of oral contraceptives that has helped bring down the rate of abortions in this country.
It is understandable why Republicans would seize on the opportunity afforded by President Obama (who could do with some right advice from his advisors) to make the issue into one between religion and the U.S. Constitution. They are already opposed to big government conveniently ignoring that it is the absence or lack of government which has led to the Wall Street meltdown.
The objective of ObamaCare is to afford health care at rates affordable to all working Americans, giving Americans the right to choose and not mandating it to those who those who are quiet happy where they are with their doctors. Apparently the slip Obama made (with the benefit of hindsight) is not to cast the issue in the right terms so it could not be used by his political adversaries. When he found his major he shifted the responsibility to the insurance companies i.e. if employers are unwilling to provide cover on account of their religious beliefs then it is the duty of insurance companies to do so at their cost.
The Republicans are making it into an issue over ideology and so the presidential elections will be a fight between two different ideologies putting Obama on the spot with Catholic priests and bishops who had thrown their support behind him in 2008. None of the Republicans has any solutions to the economic depression that is threatening America more than to claim that they have the ability and the experience. There is no end to Mitt Romney’s endless pontifications on the issue.
Santorium has apparently lost the support of women in Michigan and Arizona. Mitt Romney has the edge over Santorium because of his electability. But Republicans have doubts over both candidates. Because of that Obama has more than a 50:50 chance of winning the presidential elections despite the poor track record with the economy.
You can’t put the blame on him. No one has any solution more than to say that the government is the problem (and “not the solution” echoing the thoughts of Republican President Ronald Reagan) conveniently overlooking that it was a Republican government that got us into this mess.
At home, UMNO-BN cannot make religion the issue because the base of UMNO and that of PAS are united on the issue. Competition is limited in the past as it is now to upping the ante on the issue of Islamization.
____________
You are for Barack Obama, but then so am I, a non-American. The Republicans are wasting everybody’s time. I feel Americans have had enough of Republicanism and neo-conservatism after George W. Bush for the time being.–Din Merican
Mr Bean - February 29, 2012 at 11:33 pm
“BERSIH 2.0 wants Najib to order an immediate investigation and prosecution of those responsible for the two latest incidents of political assault on February 26.”
Political assault?? Is that a new offence under Malaysia’s Penal Code? An assault is an assault however motivated.
Mr Bean - February 29, 2012 at 11:45 pm
Assad, Gaddafi and Mubarak use/used the same tactics. such tactics by umno-bn shows that they will by hook or crook win the election. if the thuggery does’nt help, the next line of defence will move in – intimidation by rela, police and the army. enough to scare the shit out of the older generations of chinese and indians who have experienced the May 13th.
we are’nt a third world country, we’ve got to show it, but HOW?
reeperbahn - February 29, 2012 at 11:48 pm
“UMNO-BN has long lost the moral and ethical rights to govern the country.” Jamal Majid
It is not about morals and ethics. It is about political legitimacy. UMNO-BN is losing political legitimacy to govern. To maintain an appearance of legitimacy it has no option but to rig the elections. I expect a BN victory.
Mr Bean - February 29, 2012 at 11:55 pm
Hang Mongkut Bean,
I concur with you that BN will win the 13th General Election, but by how many seats? Najib wants a 2/3rd majority in Parliament. This is not likely. His best hope is that he will do better than what Badawi did in 2008.–Din Merican
dinobeano - March 1, 2012 at 12:10 am
My bet is he will get his two-thirds majority back for his party through foul and fair means.
Mr Bean - March 1, 2012 at 12:26 am
I’ll bet my same 3 bucks, that PR wins with bare majority of less than 10 seats. All hell breaks loose, but only for a while, until the the ‘shiok’ becomes reality. Have i been wrong?
C.L. Familiaris - March 1, 2012 at 12:34 am
I feel Americans have had enough of Republicanism and neo-conservatism after George W. Bush for the time being.–Din Merican
The Grand Old Party has been losing its mojo among moderates and independents for years now. Obama won on the votes of independents in 2008. Today three years after his inauguration as U.S. President, independents are seen to be making for the exit doors. So I won’t be too sure.
Mr Bean - March 1, 2012 at 12:40 am
Basically, i have more faith in the ‘provincials’ and degenerates than you guys have. Keep going on with the irresolute power of the Malay vote is disingenious, when you have to factor in the Ibans-Dayaks and Kadazan=Muruts, besides the other races and you sort of paint yourself into a corner. The GE-13 may arrive sooner than anyone can exhale.
C.L. Familiaris - March 1, 2012 at 12:43 am
Elections in Malaysia, CLF, is not about the popular will. If it is about ‘popular will’ my 2-cents on the issue is that UMNO-BN should have lost the last elections. Five years later they are better prepared to rig the elections. 1969? No déjà vu either.
Mr Bean - March 1, 2012 at 12:47 am
How can Najib even stop this “violence” when he goes around saying things like “taking back Selangor at all cost” or “we will defend Putrajaya with bodies and sould or whatever” he probably sent the signals out to do what these people are doing….
Greenbug - March 1, 2012 at 1:24 am
the fact is, the winner of GE13 has become less predictable than in 2008. this time east malaysia will play a positive role for PR, as said above by CLF, maybe the provincial voters would be the saviours.
the election is not lost yet. lets pray umno-bn will stumble and shoot itself in the foot in their mad frenzy – divine intervention for malaysians?
reeperbahn - March 1, 2012 at 3:08 am
I think the estate Indians could play a key role in the outcome of the next GE.
BN will win if MIC (with UMNO’s help) can persude the estate Indians with the usual incentives, which appears to be happening.
PR needs a charismatic young Indian personality to come out of the woodwork to counter the above. The PR Chinese have Guan Eng and the PR Malays have Nurul. The estate Indians need an iconic figure desperately.
Or, an iconic symbol, like Hindraf.
Ai Tze - March 1, 2012 at 8:58 am
With sincere apologies to the estate Indians if I sound offensive. It was not meant to be so.
Sorry.
Ai Tze - March 1, 2012 at 9:36 am
Malaysia is on auto-pilot. The Prime Minister has bunkered down with Perkasa strategists to revive his political future or he is on holidays so that the fat lady can buy more handbags. Meanwhike the PERKASA and UMNO thugs roam around to instigate civil chaos.
Bukit Aman? What “AMAN”? These are the silent provocateurs . They should remove the word “Aman”.
Frank - March 1, 2012 at 10:56 am
Bukit sungguh tidak Aman?
Kathy - March 1, 2012 at 10:58 am
Bukit Aman should go back to the old name Bluff Road as they are always bluffing.
orang malaya - March 1, 2012 at 11:03 am
My take is that the longer UMNO waits, more odious revelations will come to fore. The Felda controversy, SBPA, the illegal immigrants in Sabah, the religious angst in Sarawak, the persistent racist baiting in the Peninsula, besides a whole slew of ’1Transformative’ crony-nespotic-corruption scandals/SNAFUs threaten the very fabric of this administration.
They have not woken up to the reality of how information is instantaneously transmitted nowadays. It is no longer of word of mouth. Compared to this, the odium and accusations leveled at the Opposition are rather lame. While PR aren’t able to counter the physicality of such actions, they can certainly play up the role of being hapless victims and the injustice thereof.
With the persistent rough-house techniques that the Goons are using, the silent majority are truly and thoroughly disgusted. The refrain is that we don’t want to be ruled by Mat and Minah Rempits or brainless Jessie Oois. The typical urbanite may look at it with wry amusement, but it certainly goes against the grain of the rural folk who are aghast at the hooliganism and name-calling. You can be sure that the Opposition Cermahs will air the clips which will augment their growing armory against desperate ill conceived ‘pranks’.
Their desperation is real, but the intimidatory tactics used no longer works as the Ghost of May 13 has been put to rest, by the engagement of PAS and PKR dukuns. Some of the Senior government are no longer willing to cast their vote. What does that tell you?
However i agree with Bean that they will try their darndest to steal the elections by hook or by crook; and therein is the danger that Bersih 2.0 and other NGOs are agitating against. There will be much greater scrutiny of the conduct of the elections, with recruitment of the young, if inexperienced civil interest groups.
It would be also valid to say, that the Establishment are scrapping the bottom of the barrel for funds. It ill be the costliest GE yet, even though buying votes is no longer a ‘safe’ option.
C.L. Familiaris - March 1, 2012 at 11:25 am
Ai Tze, with the head of MIC being a rather uncharismatic, unfocused and lame mandor, the Indians only have to look at the likes YB Dr D.Jeyakumar. Sivarasa and some of the more erudite professionals to take their cue.
All this temple desecration and Tamil school collapsing hocus pocus, are temporary diversions and the ‘Nambikai’ of Jibs is falling into the longkang. Sewing machines(manual, not electric) may still save the day, but the production capacity is severely constrained at the moment. It’s just like 1Clinics and KR1M, where Panadol and tainted substandard goods are peddled. Coupons are readily available.
The Ah Bengs and Ah Lians are totally anti-establishment and MCA, Gerakan are filthy acronyms. That is because the stale pork they consume now comes from Thailand, while our limited production heads to the Tiny Dot South, just like the formaldehyde tainted seafood for steam-boat.
C.L. Familiaris - March 1, 2012 at 11:45 am
With too many loses, ran into billions by Kutty, the sleeping beauty Bedouin, PKFZ, Protons , the latest MAS lost in the closing year by 2 billions plus and the leakages through the contracts, do we still need this BN govt. to run the country?
Why can’t my stupid Malays see these !
timor - March 1, 2012 at 11:59 am
“Why can’t my stupid Malays see these” – timor
‘cos they can only see ringgit and gifts thrown in their path…
Tok Cik - March 1, 2012 at 12:25 pm
Besides ‘buy-elections’, divisive politics and intimidation politics, it is believed that BN has been rigging elections with the help of EC. Usually it is the marginal seats or seats with greater importance like Pekan.
Mubarak’s rigging method was crude resulting in ridiculous wins of over 95% for the ruling party. BN’s method is definitely done with much more ‘finesse’. For the identified seats, calculations were done to estimate the probable vote majority for the opposition and the estimated margins were countered by postal votes or phantom voters. Of course sometimes the margins were found to be under-estimated when more voters decided to vote for the opposition resulting in an opposition win in-spite of the rigging. This ‘under-estimation’ was obvious during the last GE when the votes for the opposition were very much more than expected, resulting in BN losing its 2/3 majority.
This time around, expect a much more widespread rigging to take place. Only an over-whelming voters shift to the opposition can counter-act it.
Jamal Majid - March 1, 2012 at 12:55 pm
“Why can’t my stupid Malays see these” – timor
Actually the voting trends of the Malays has been relatively ‘stable’ since the reformasi days; they are almost split in the middle in voting for BN or opposition. The majority of Chinese and Indians have almost always been with BN until the last GE, where they turned up in big numbers to support the PR.
Now with PR’s objective of capturing Putrajaya, definitely we will need more than the usual 50% of Malays voting for the opposition and the Chinese and Indians to remain and vote like they did during the 12GE. Of course East Malaysians who have been the ‘fixed deposits’ for BN and constitute about 25% of parliamentary seats will play the deciding role.
Jamal Majid - March 1, 2012 at 1:17 pm
Very True, Jamal.
The problem was best manifested in the Sibu buy-elections, where the postal votes almost swamped the already rigged votes. The rigging will definitely be more intense, with a margin of error expected at an extra 10%. Even the Intelligence services are worried. A lot of ‘safe-seats’ do not appear as ‘solid’ as they should be. At the moment the intense wrangling amongst the war-lords are starting to show strain, as the incumbent already has a working list of ‘winnable’ candidates. No self respecting entitled flur is comfortable with this. That is why Octo has been making a lot of noise these past few weeks.
I was talking with an Opposition ‘bureaucrat’ yesterday morning and he was bemoaning the difficulty getting committed election agents for their side, because of the perceived ‘danger’. Without going into details, this Malay gentlemen says that it seems that the only enthusiasts were kids from colleges and higher institutes of learning who were barely within the voting age. The old ducks just want to hand over the responsibilities to the youngsters, ill equipped as they may be.
I think the NGOs and ABU have a major role to play this time round as Opposition electoral agents instead of trying forcibly to insert themselves into the system. It’s time to walk the talk instead of dildoing themselves.
C.L. Familiaris - March 1, 2012 at 1:35 pm
sorry guys…from my discreet observation BN will definitely win the GE13…it could be a two-third or surpass the number of seats won in 2008…whichever it’s depending on the positive ‘mood’ of the rakyat… and with the recent PKR Selangor State Adviser “khalwat’ case…a disgrace to the muslims and the religion for an Islamic preacher (pendakwah) committing adultery with someone’s wife…only shows PKR leaders are more interested indulging to satisfy their ‘sexual lust’ instead looking after the rakyat…
james - March 1, 2012 at 3:52 pm
Be end will do anything, as mentioned by pink lip during the uno assembly months back to defend p’jaya. We have heard much about all the schemes that the ruling are using to deter and oppress the nation. These bunch of thugs are really desperate to hold on to what they have gorek. Please also check how much illegal money siphoning out these few years. Our country is really going thro’ a testing time, with poverty on the rise, inflation on the rise, everything, except salary and economy, on the rise, how will the nation cope???
Concerned citizen - March 1, 2012 at 4:32 pm
correction…PKR Supreme Council Member and not PKR Selangor State Adviser.
james - March 1, 2012 at 4:41 pm
Yeah James, I guess “khalwat” is more important to you than issues like NFC. That “khalwat” case hasn’t even been proven to be true. Why don’t you go back and continue brown-nosing KJ? I could be mistaken but chances are I might be right that you are a cyber trooper.
dodo - March 1, 2012 at 5:59 pm
James, give us some of the lurid details to work on la !?
scarlet.pimpernel - March 1, 2012 at 6:38 pm
May I add Tok Cik n timor: the malays were blinded by their own undefined definition of ketuanan that had even overruled the call of syariat as moslems- otherwise they wouldn’t overlooked who was kutty in the first place -let him hauled the sopan santun or demeaned the prophet-while inside Islam itself malay not moslem had crowned the constitution but put together people like hassan, omar din, ibrahim and the rempits will tell the story.The great tolerance we seen all these years simply hide behind that amuck of the so-called silent provocateurs. what lies ahead should bn lost is bloody denial……jika buta boleh letak dekat brickfield atau pasar tani! so what is so visionary about taking them to the table?.
hans - March 1, 2012 at 8:49 pm