‘The police have removed by force the right of citizens to voice out their grievances. It was a very uncivilised and high-handed behaviour. A shameful act.'
On Police disperse crowd, 24 arrested
Dhammika: The very uncivilised and high-handed police behaviour on the group of peaceful protestors at Petaling Jaya was a shameful act.
The police have removed by force the right of citizens to voice out their grievances against the draconian and arrogant law, the ISA.
It is a very disloyal action of the police to break up this Malaysian group comprising all races and during the national anthem recitation.
They have no respect for the Negara Ku, the King and country. This is tantamount to victimisation.
The police chief must apologise to all loyal Malaysians. The home minister must apologise for this police behaviour.
When will the PM implement the IPCMC for the police force? All NGOs and Amnesty International must come forward and condemn this monstrous behaviour of the Malaysian police on Malaysians.
Dr MM: It is with great trepidation that we are witnessing the abuse of tax payers money by the Royal Malaysian Police Force which was created to protect the innocent and weak against violence.
The crude manner of dispersing a peaceful gathering in Petaling Jaya reflects a culture of intimidation and apple polishing.
The home affairs minister must be reprimanded for poor management skills and the Selangor police chief must be held accountable for the abrupt forceful dispersal of a peaceful gathering without proper warning .
There must be an immediate investigation by Suhakam and the federal government into this shameful excessive use of police power to intimidate peaceful civil society.
It is imperative that a universal human rights protocol be discussed and implemented immediately for all police personnel to protect the good name of the Royal Malaysian Police Force from further erosion of its support from civil society.
I was also very disturbed that the IGP had stated that demonstrations had diverted police personnel utilisation to fight crime.
However, the police must be seen to tackle the increased incidence of petty thefts, snatch thefts, violent robberies rather then intimidate civil society which is paying their salaries. They should be more transparent in issuing permits for peaceful gatherings.
The home affairs minister must resign because he had insulted the police force by stating in parliament that the police beat base in Jalan Chow Kit, Kuala Lumpur had to be relocated due to fear by the police of criminals and HIV infection from substance abuse patients in that locality.
Please take cognisance of the infectious ‘Obama Effect' which would make all these abusive actions to be accountable in the near future.
Lau Sue Chau: I am most disgusted over this event. The disrespect these policemen showed towards the national anthem. Are we not suppose to stand still whenever we hear or sing the Negara Ku?
How then can these law enforcers disregard this age old instruction?
The blatant lies told by Selangor police chief Khalid Abu Bakar really dumps his credibility in the deepest drain. What sort of mentality does he possesses to challenge a video recording?
He is unfit for the position he currently holds. He should be grateful that the public did not demand anything more from him except a sincere apology.
Even so, he had insisted in detaining the Malaysiakini.tv cameraman and his camera out of vengeance.
The silence of the ruling government and the IGP Musa Hassan clearly indicates that the Umno-led government actually condones such a high-handed manner in dealing with the peaceful rakyat of Malaysia without respecting their views.
We have entered into the era of the police state where ISA and brutality is the only means to keep the peaceful citizens quiet.
The rakyat of Malaysia of all races must be united from now on until the next election.
CK Chim: Datuk Khalid, your reasoning for police brutality in the interest of security and order is pathetic. Were the participants shouting slogans and inciting hatred?
Were they acting aggressively and throwing stones and objects? Were they armed with sticks and truncheons? Did you notice that all they were holding was a candle and singing?
You claim that you did not hear the national anthem being sung, nor could you see the peaceful gathering. Nor could you speak the truth in the face of blinding evidence ( ie a video recording).
Not only were your people not safeguarding the well-being of the common folk who were appealing for judicial fairness and repeal of draconian laws, your men were out to intimidate and transgress.
Sunday was a day which the PDRM has lost the respect of the rakyat . Shame on you.
On Judiciary shows signs of independence
Adha: Just hang on! One landmark decision or maybe two will not change the judiciary over night.
I'm still sceptical with the entire system. As long as the BN is the government of the day, I shall reserve my praises.
Yes, it was a landmark victory, especially in the case of RPK. But I have a funny feeling that BN is up to something else.
But I hope, I'm proved wrong.
On AirAsia scraps fuel surcharge
Sam:
I have been checking some facts on the AirAsia website and comparing the prices for a flight that I booked for December but before the fuel surcharge was supposedly removed.It would seem quite clear that whilst the fuel surcharge has been removed, what has actually happened is that Air Asia have compensated for this by just increasing all their fares in like amount.
I think that this is just in fact a purely 'cosmetic gimmick' by AirAsia and in fact it will not result in customers getting cheaper flights at all.
Minghock: I am not too sure. I was monitoring the ticket price for KCH-KUL sector for Jan 27 for the past two weeks.
After reading the above report this morning, I checked the price again.
There were consistent increases for the ticket prices on Jan 27th across all flights for that day. I cannot comment for other sectors within AirAsia network.
Did they scrap the fuel surcharge, or they just add it to the base ticket price?
Stephen Hedges: Aren't you forgetting to tell us something Tony?
Yesterday I just happened to be checking the cost of a flight at the end of November to Phnom Penh which was RM 220 in each direction plus the fuel surcharge.
Now I am confronted with the image of a smiling Tony Fernandes (well you might be, eh?) announcing his act of ‘charity' in doing away with the fuel surcharge.
Indeed the fuel surcharge has been removed from the price now...
The only problem is that the flight price (now RM312) has miraculously increased by a similar amount!
I sincerely doubt I am the first person to notice this strange phenomenon.
Ionna: I'm just a normal consumer but I find the people who are complaining about AirAsia's prices now being more expensive puzzling.
It has always been my understanding that AirAsia works by starting to sell all their seats at a low price but as the seats gets taken up, the prices increase - less supply = higher price.
The basic premise of Air Asia is ‘ siapa cepat, dia dapat ' meaning the one's who is the quickest to book will get the ticket. Their seat prices are also not a ‘one-size fits all'.
The pattern is transparent across the board - dates with less people are still quite cheap while the prices of seats for those booking during peak seasons have been increasing quite tremendously.
On Anwar can make a good PM: Ramon
K Sanmugam Reading the above brought back memories of my time on the Malaysian Business Council. That was a platform where many key figures made decision regarding the future of the nation.
Ramon Navaratnam was one of these key figures. As much as I would agree with Ramon's statement, I seem to be intrigued to note that he had stated that there were 22 years of ‘suppression and oppression'.
Well, being on the same committee with the then prime minister, Mahathir is one person who you can ask anything right to his face and he will give an answer without any malice.
Ramon was on the same committee with Mahathir. He was appointed by Mahathir to many portfolios. And he had direct access to Mahathir. Why didn't he bring up those issues with the prime minister?
I had brought up many issues directly with the prime minister, but I cannot say the same for Ramon, for to my knowledge, he had not asked any question which had the touched on the ‘suppression and oppression' which he has purported that Mahathir had been doing.
If there were any ‘suppression or oppression', Ramon would not have had the luxury of being appointed to any of the many portfolios that he enjoyed.
On Forget Obama, why don't you all start speaking BM?
My View: The writer wrote about assimilation of Obama into the white American community. Personally, I hope this can of assimilation could occur among Malaysians as well but I am skeptical.
The reason being that Malaysians are so used to the English language what with being colonised by the British and all. And even after 50 years of use of the Malay language, there are still certain segments of the rakyat who still do not have a good command of it.
Why there is no 'sense of belonging' that the Malay Language is 'our' language, unlike English which is the language of the American of all colours including Obama?
The answers to these questions are anybody's guesses. To me, assimilation of minority races into the majority has to be nurtured naturally on an equitable basis and not by force.
In the first place, there must be a level playing field and the majority race should not feel intimidated by the country being run on an equitable basis and on meritocracy.
Just look at Thailand and we can learn a lot from them on assimilation. Last but not least, freedom of religion must be in place instead of compulsory conversion as what is happening in Malaysia.
All in all, Malaysia should begin with being fair and equal. If not, we can only dream of having a common race, language and culture.
Scott South: Many of your readers and writers decry the lack of opportunity for a non-Malay to become prime minister any time soon.
Plenty of reasons are offered, but there is one point I have not seen covered.
Simply put, the Malay government is an Islamic government. It is obvious that whenever Muslims run a government, there is always compulsion in religion and there is never separation between state and religion.
In the case of Malaysia this means a religious police to enforce edicts such as Muslim women dressing according to government code.
And it means there will never be a non-Malay or at least non-Muslim prime minister as long as the majority of Malaysians keep parroting the old line; ‘You must respect Malay rule and not hurt our feelings.'
Thank goodness the US' Founding Fathers were the first in the world, in the late 18th century, to codify in the constitution the separation of church and state, stating that, essentially, government - whether local or national - cannot support or advance any particular religion.
Our Christian evangelicals can squawk and moan all they want about how ‘this is a Christian nation' but they are wrong.
Listening to their yammering is the price we pay, for the constitution protects free speech no matter how distasteful, as the government is not in the business of adjudicating taste or intelligence. These people are fringe wack-jobs, in any case.
It took us some time to extend all the Bill of Rights to blacks, but African-Americans have held political office since the 1960s in ever-higher positions - from mayor of Washington DC and Atlanta to senator and now, to president.
In parting I would only suggest (a) ignore Mahathir's muddled rambling and (b) give Obama a few years to dismantle Bush's egregious acts.
Bmuraly: It took 15 years for me to understand the meaning behind the book titled Roots . The famous Kunta Kinte was one of the earliest blacks from Africa to be brought to US as a slave and was forced to work on the farm together with others.
Roots actually tell us that the blacks are the first ‘roots' of the black human tree planted in US soil.
The first victory of the blacks when Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery laws. As we know, Obama is the black rose that has bloomed from the black human tree.
One should understand that the stronger and healthier a tree is is because of the roots that grow stronger below underneath.
The determination and the courage of the blacks are the result of these ‘roots'.
Daffodils: I love Obama's speeches. His acceptance victory speech was simply exquisite and inspiring. America see President-elect Obama as not ‘the black' president, but as the person most qualified to represent America.
America has justified her name - the United States of America. The election of Obama is a great moment for ending racial divisions; and a beacon of hope for the oppressed around the world. This is a world victory!
And what about Malaysia? Will we ever achieve and have a Obama in our midst? Can we not send a message to the world that we have never been a collection of bumiputera and non- bumiputera? We are, and always will be, Malaysians.
All Malaysians have a rightful place to be here. This is our birthplace. Please do not call us squatters. We are not. We pay our dues as law abiding citizens.
In God's eyes everybody is equal. How is it that in this modern society in the 21 st century we can have different classes of people? No race is a Tuan to another. Collectively we are all Malaysians.
Now we are jolted with the awesome reminder that we need to change, can we have the change Obama's been talking about?
Obama has taken on the most powerful demography in history, for the most powerful office of the most powerful country in the world - and he won!
In doing so he gave every other group which has ever been oppressed, ignored or marginalised the possibility of achieving what seems impossible - equality.
Can we Malaysians get it right?
Fathima Idris: Would Americans take to such a person the way they have done with Obama? This would be the real test to see whether Americans accept racial diversity.
Obama's victory cannot be seen as an indicator for this. To me Obama is racially no different from a white American.
He is only of different colour as his language and his culture would essentially be no different from that of an American Christian of Italian, Scottish, English or Irish descent.
I am of the view that racial classification cannot be based on facial features and skin colour - the way it was done in apartheid South Africa. The more appropriate criteria would be culture, language and to an extent, religion.
In fact, it would appear the black Americans of today are culturally no different from the whites, unlike their victimised ancestors who would have spoken differently and have had their own culture.
Therefore, Americans have still a long way to go. They have only just gone past the colour divide - not the racial one.
So before we go on bleating about how miserably divided we are, I think we should reflect upon how racially diverse our government is with members speaking even in different accents.
Could this happen in America?
