Pages

▼

Friday, July 1, 2011

Last Straw, Absolute Lunacy Or Both

Malaysia Chronicle called it the last straw, I call it absolute lunacy, the Home Minister's warning that wearing Bershih2 yellow t-shirt is illegal. His logic is that since Bersih2 rally is illegal, anything to do with the rally including wearing Bersih2 t-shirt is illegal. By the same logic shouting Bersih2 is also illegal. Very nice logic. So from one offence, you have given birth to a hydra-headed monster. Very neat. No need for cumbersome legislations!

The Malaysian Penal Code
But I digress. The question that needs be asked is why is the government so afraid of yellow coloured t-shirts that police have gone around and arrested people who wore them, even if the t-shirts had the Bersih2 logo since Bersih2 Rally is all about a march for free and fair elections.

Any democratic government would support such a rally or at least not put obstacles in the path of the organisers. Unless of course the ruling Barisan coalition government is not in favour of free and fair elections or they have something to hide they are not telling us.

And now it seems the authorities are going to ask the courts for an order making taking part in Bersih2 rally on 9th July an offence. This is another Bolehland stroke of genius. Let me explain.

Murder is a capital offence under Malaysian law. To be specific, under section 302 of the Malaysian Penal Code murder is an offence punishable with death upon conviction.  Now, to prevent you from committing murder, some smart aleck  applies to the courts for a preventive order. How smart is that!

Either you have a law and respect it or you don't mock it.

So, is there a law against holding a rally, especially one calling for free and fair elections? No. But because we have a law requiring a police permit for a public rally and the authorities are not granting one for the Bersih2 rally, the Bersih2 rally when it happens then it becomes an illegal rally.

This practice of the Malaysian authorities asking the courts for preventive orders mocks the law if not actually an abuse of court process and the courts.

at

2 comments:

  1. Duncan D. Horne - the Kuantan bloggerFriday, July 01, 2011

    Wow, you're pretty upset with the BN government, as I'm gathering that a lot of people are. I would never have suspected this sort of thing when I first visited this beautiful land of Malaysia. But as a tourist you only see the good. When living here permanently, I now see what you see, and I don't like it too!

    Duncan In Kuantan

    ReplyDelete
  2. ordinary malaysianSaturday, July 02, 2011

    Duncan, it is so sad but true. The situation here is getting from bad to worse. It seems that nobody cares a nick about what is morally right or wrong. It is all about oneself and desperate people doing desperate things and saying all kinds of desperate nonsense just to cling on to power and larceny while this country goes to the dogs. Institutions compromised so much so that the average Malaysian knows that if you are not on the side of the strong and connected you can't expect justice. The government is not the servant of the people anymore. It is the people who are expected to be the servants of the government to do as it bids. It is a sad indictment of a government that has been run too long by the same old coalition -the Barisan - that it thinks that government and itself are the one and the same thing and behaves exactly as such.

    ReplyDelete