Courageous Heart: August 2012

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Statutory Rape: Courts sending out mixed signals

Published by The StarOnline on 30 August 2012.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/8/30/nation/11935447&sec=nation

NOW that their trials are over, former national youth squad bowler Noor Afizal Azizan can go on to fulfil the promise of his bright future and electrician Chuah Guan Jiu can focus on his fixed job and many years ahead. Through it all, no one spoke of the 13-year-old girl Noor Afizal took to a hotel to spend the night with, or the 12-year-old schoolgirl who was “coaxed” to go to her 21-year-old electrician boyfriend's flat instead of to school because he said he was too sick to take her.

These were prepubescent girls who were deemed to have consented to sex with the older boys they were dating and Court of Appeal president Justice Raus Sharif wrote in his written judgment that Noor Afizal had not “tricked the girl into submitting to him”.

In the electrician's case, Sessions judge Sitarun Nisa Abdul Aziz also thought the “sexual act was consensual”, even though DPP Lim Cheah Yit recounted how the girl had repeatedly asked Chuah to take her to school. If she did give consent, there was certainly trickery and fraud involved.

The fact remains that the girls were 12 and 13, children barely out of primary school. They are not old enough to be able to legally buy cigarettes, or even obtain medical treatment if they had contracted sexual transmitted diseases.

The law on statutory rape was meant to protect these very girls. Section 375(g) of the Penal Code states unequivocally that a man has committed statutory rape if he has sexual intercourse with a girl under 16 years of age, with or without her consent.

It is rooted in the presumption that girls below 16 have not attained the mental maturity to consent to sex, and this law was enacted to protect children from abuse. It places the onus on those around her to not have sexual intercourse with her, even if she gives consent, because she is not deemed mature enough to give consent.

In other words, the older guys should have known better. Noor Afizal and Chuah were found guilty of raping the underaged girls, but were not jailed. They were bound over for five years and three years respectively on a RM25,000 good behaviour bond.

The public uproar has been over how these young men got away with a slap on the wrist, and how the emphasis has been on not blighting their future.

Our teenagers are growing up inundated with overt sexual messages from the media and the Internet, without the benefit of a full-fledged sex education curriculum, or avenues to get answers. Clearly, our young people are having sex with each other but there is a line drawn by the law. And that is sex with girls below 16 children is off limits, even to their peers.

By letting Noor Afizal and Chuah off lightly, are the courts sending out mixed signals? Are they saying these two girls aged 12 and 13 are capable of giving consent for sex, and are they saying future good behaviour is sufficient punishment for having sex with minors? What is the message that teenage boys and younger men are getting? At the root of it all, this is about protecting our children boys and girls.

A 12-year-old girl was lured by a man twice her age into his flat, and coaxed into having sex with him, and he got away with a promise to behave himself for the next three years. Where does that leave her? What about her worth? What are we doing for these two girls? How do we protect other naive young girls from being sweet-talked by an older teen into a sexual relationship if he knows he could be found guilty of statutory rape but walk away with a promise to behave? If we do not uphold unequivocally our intolerance of sex with underaged girls, what does that say about us?

Adult women especially if they are less educated and financially dependent have problems saying “no” to their boyfriends and husbands sometimes even fathers uncles and brothers. Female employees often have to say “yes” to their bosses or risk losing their jobs. If these women well above the legal age have difficulties in turning away sexual advances what more a 12 or 13-year-old girl? This is why the statutory rape law exists. It presupposes that an underage person cannot have the wherewithal to refuse sex with an older person. Even if the person is only a few years older. And if the younger person is female growing up in a society where men are assumed to always hold more power in any relationship then what choice would she have but to say “yes”?

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2012/08/30/suhakam-alarmed-over-statutory-rape-sentences/

Suhakam has voiced “great concern” over sentences meted out recently on two offenders guilty of statutory rape, saying they may not have protected the interest of the victims. “Whether the rights, protection and best interests, not to mention the future, of our minors have been and will be upheld and safeguarded in cases involving statutory rape is now doubtful in the light of those sentences,” said the human rights commission’s chairman Hasmy Agam.

Hasmy said that Suhakam was alarmed that the consent of the child victims appeared to be one of the mitigating factors in both cases, though he noted that there had been similar sentences in the past in cases of statutory rape committed by young first offenders... He said that the vulnerability of a child was also recognised by the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) “which states, inter alia, that the child by reason of his/her physical and mental immaturity needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection.” “It is also of great concern that the lenient sentences meted out might send the wrong message to would-be offenders, thus would not be an effective deterrence for statutory rape cases,” he argued.

http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/207480

Sebuah NGO yang memperjuangkan hak wanita mempersoalkan kemunasabahan seorang kanak-kanak memberi keizinan untuk melakukan hubungan seks dengan seorang lelaki yang lebih tua. "Di segi perundangan dan moral, bolehkah mereka memberi keizinan itu?" soal Pengarah Eksekutif Pertubuhan Pertolongan. Wanita (WAO), Ivy Josiah, ketika dihubungi untuk mengulas mengenai dua kes penggantungan hukuman yang dijatuhkan ke atas perogol kanak-kanak. Beliau menegaskan bahawa, di segi undang-undang, kanak-kanak di bawah umur tidak boleh memberi keizinan itu dan itulah sebabnya undang-undang seperti Akta Kanak-Kanak 2001 digubal untuk melindungi mereka.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Statutory Rape: One more escapes jail sentence

Published by The Staronline on 29 August 2012.
By Simren Kaur.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/8/29/courts/11931992&sec=courts

Another person has been bound over on a good behaviour bond for statutory rape. This time, it is an electrician found guilty of raping his 12-year-old girlfriend on two occasions last year.

Sessions judge Sitarun Nisa Abdul Aziz ordered Chuah Guan Jiu, now 22, to be bound over for three years on a RM25,000 good behaviour bond. She said the court took into consideration that Chuah was a young, first time offender. “We also considered the fact that the sexual act was consensual and that he is a school dropout,” she said when handing down the sentence.

Sitarun Nisa said that another consideration was Chuah’s future. Chuah, who was wearing a shirt and blue jeans, showed no emotion when the sentence was passed.

The court had on July 20 found him guilty of raping the girl, then aged 12 years and 10 months, at his flat in Air Itam between 7am and 1pm on July 18 last year, and between 2.25pm and 2.45pm the next day.

The offence under Section 376(1) of the Penal Code carries a maximum jail sentence of 20 years and whipping. On Monday, DPP Lim Cheah Yit said Chuah had coaxed the girl into skipping school and following him back to his flat on the pretext of him being sick.

“They were dating and the accused should have protected her but he took advantage of her instead."

She asked him many times to take her to school but he said he felt unwell and took her to his home,” Lim had said when pressing for a deterrent sentence. In mitigation, counsel Yusuf Idris said his client earned RM30 a day and was staying with his parents and a younger sibling. “This is his first offence. He has a fixed job now and many years ahead of him,” he said. Yusuf said his client had repented and urged the court not to impose a custodial sentence in view of Chuah’s age.

The sentencing came in the wake of the case of former national youth squad bowler Noor Afizal Azizan who was bound over for RM25,000 to be of good behaviour for five years after he pleaded guilty to the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl.

There was public uproar on Aug 8 when the Court of Appeal allowed Noor Afizal’s appeal against a High Court’s decision to sentence him to five years jail for the offence.

In a written judgment released on Monday, the Court of Appeal said Noor Afizal, who was 19 at the time of the offence, had not been “very much older” than the minor he had consensual sex with, had cooperated with the police, shown remorse, and given a guarantee that he would not commit such an offence again.

In a 14-page written judgment http://www.kehakiman.gov.my/directory/judgment/file/M-09-227-10-2011.pdf released yesterday, Court of Appeal president Justice Raus Sharif said Noor Afizal – 19 at the time of the offence and now 21 – had not “tricked the girl into submitting to him”. Sitting with him were Justices K.N. Segara and Azhar Ma’ah...

There was public uproar on Aug 8 when the court allowed Noor Afizal’s appeal against a High Court decision to sentence him to five years’ jail for statutory rape of the 13-year-old girl. In his oral decision, Justice Raus said he agreed with Noor Afizal’s counsel that public interest would not be served if he received a jail sentence when he had “a bright future”.

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/rapists-freed-by-courts-match-medical-definition-of-paedophiles/

Both national bowler Noor Afizal Azizan and Chuah Guan Jiu two young men who escaped jail terms despite raping 13- and 12-year-old girls respectively, may be classed as paedophiles according to international medical standards and psychiatrists here, suggesting the courts may have freed sexual predators who might repeat their crime. The World Health Organisation’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD) categorises paedophilia as “a sexual preference for children boys or girls or both usually of pre-pubertal or early pubertal age ”.

And according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) used by mental health professionals globally, paedophilia is the sexual attraction to pubescent or pre-pubescents aged 13 or younger, and the subject must be 16 or older with the child at least five years younger.

http://news.malaysia.msn.com/regional/bowler-statutory-rape-sex-consensual-court-says

MSN Malaysia readers were vocal in their overwhelming opposition to the verdict. Some of the following comments regarding the case include:

How can a 13 year old girl even know what she is agreeing to? Are judges now sick? How are we to uphold our law if Judges take crime lightly? I think ONE OF THE MAIN REASONS THAT CRIMES ARE FLOURISHING IN this country are because we have judges who are WEAK. -- rightofvictim

Has the girl a bright future too, your honor?? -- ERLISH

Outrageous! Even a world boxing champion was jailed in the US for his trysts with a woman under the age of consent. Oops, but then it was a different court. -- choun young

So what is the message we are getting here? If you show promise in sport, you are above the law? -- Sar3 Ong

Crime index: Misleading reply from PDRM

Extracted from Free Malaysia Today on 28 August 2012. By ACP Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf is a public relations officer of Polis Diraja Malaysia (PDRM).

In response to the article ‘Crime Statistics – Let the truth be told’. The link here:

http://imcourageousheart.blogspot.com/2012/08/crime-statistics-let-truth-be-told.html

We want to put on record the published article is indeed full of factual inaccuracies, misplaced allegations and misleading statements. PDRM is more than happy to engage the public and to offer any clarification they require at any point.

We do this in hope that the public at large will be better equipped to make an informed conclusion as to the veracity and intention of any misrepresentation of the process PDRM are tasked to uphold for the sake of public safety and national security.

In summary,

Definitions of Index and Non-Index Crimes, as well as the Investigation and Prosecution processes have been instituted long before the introduction of the NKRA program.
There is no factual basis or evidence to the allegation that crime statistics is manipulated or “doctored”.
All reported crimes, regardless of which penal code sections or category of crimes they come under, will contribute to the crime statistics. And this will be further enhanced by the Online Report Tracking System under Beta testing at the moment and due for launch late 2012.
The achievements of PDRM and improvements by way of the NKRA are real, as are its initiatives, such as Omnipresence, Safe City Program, Investigation Enhancement, Front-line Servicing.
The writer if indeed a police personnel has not been long in the force, has clearly no understanding on how policing processes and crime investigations are conducted.
To avoid doubts and misunderstanding due to misrepresentation as demonstrated by the writer, PDRM would like to gracefully extend an invitation to any member of the public an opportunity to come forward and share their concerns with us.

Monday, August 27, 2012

Is Malaysia's IPO Boom Overhyped?

Published by CNBC on 27 August 2012.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/malaysias-ipo-boom-overhyped-063104595.html

Malaysia is marking itself out as the IPO destination to beat this year with a string of billion-dollar-plus deals. Impressive, for sure, but don't take the booming IPO market as a sign that Malaysia is poised to become a regional financial hub, experts say.

The reasons for this, they add, are simple: once the slew of big Malaysian companies seeking new listings runs out there is likely to be a dearth of IPOs in Malaysia. Because Malaysia is still developing open and liquid capital markets, foreign firms looking to list in the region are likely to pick Singapore and Hong Kong over Kuala Lumpur.

All the big companies listed in Malaysia this year are local firms. To really develop itself as a centre for IPOs, Malaysia needs to attract new listings from big foreign firms in the way Singapore and Hong Kong have done in the past, analysts add.

"Part of the boom in the Malaysian IPO market can be explained by the well-developed pension system in Malaysia, which has allowed for growth in domestic demand for equities," said Herald Van Der Linde, Head of Equity Strategy, Asia-Pacific at HSBC in Hong Kong.

"However, when it comes to comparing Malaysia with Singapore and Hong Kong, these markets are much larger, more diversified and much better developed. As such, they can compete for global IPOs. This is unlikely to happen in Malaysia yet," Van Der Linde said.

Pay-TV company, Astro Malaysia last week said it would launch an initial public offering (IPO), worth about $1.75 billion. The new listing, expected by the end of September, would be Malaysia's third largest this year and follows a $3.3 billion listing in June by palm oil firm Felda Global Ventures and a $2.1 billion IPO by state-backed IHH Healthcare last month.

The high-profile listings - Felda's IPO is the biggest globally so far this year after the listing of Facebook - have certainly made investors sit up and pay attention to the developments in the Southeast Asian economy.

The hot IPO market in Malaysia also compares with a generally lackluster market globally as the fragile state of the global economy prompts many companies to shelve their IPO plans. Jeweler Graff Diamonds postponed a $1 billion listing in Hong Kong in May, while motor racing company Formula One earlier this year postponed a listing, worth up to $3 billion, in Singapore.

Despite these setbacks, the long-term outlook for IPOs in Asia still favor Hong Kong and Singapore over Malaysia, analysts said.

"To have a large IPO market, you need an international investor community and that isn't there in Malaysia," said Sanjay Mathur, Director of Research Strategy Asia ex-Japan at Royal Bank of Scotland in Singapore.

"You need to have an unfettered flow of capital, a diaspora of fund managers and a strong linkage with other financial centers," Mathur added, referring to the things Malaysia would need to turn its booming local market into a regional one.

Domestic Focus

According to research firm Dealogic, Malaysia has moved to third place after the U.S. and China in rankings of new listings in value terms globally. That's up from twelfth place last year.

Analysts point out that the boom in the Malaysian IPO market must be seen in the context of what is happening in Malaysia locally and not as a sign of what is changing in terms of Malaysia's role regionally.

The Malaysian government, keen to open up the equity market, has encouraged firms to list and the growth of large domestic pension funds has meant there has been strong demand locally for the new listings.

HSBC says that the core of Malaysia's pension system is the Employees Provident Fund, which covers around half of the country's work force. It adds that the equity portion of the fund is estimated to have grown to almost 30 percent of total assets in 2010 from below 5 percent in 1991 and 20 percent in 2000.

Against this backdrop, the momentum in Malaysia's IPO market was expected to continue for a little while longer. Malaysian Power firm Malakoff and Karex, the world's biggest condom maker, are both said to be considering listings in the months ahead.

"The IPOs will continue for a while. Remember there is a herd mentality, so if one company does well that encourages others," Mathur at RBS said.

From the perspective of a foreign investor, what Malaysia lacked was a regional exposure, analysts said. Hong Kong has attracted new listings from global companies keen to tap into the China growth story - examples of this are the listings of commodities trader Glencore and luxury goods firm Prada in 2011.

"We are looking at very different markets here," said Chris Wong, Senior Investment Manager at Aberdeen Asset Management in Singapore. "Hong Kong is the market centre for the greater China story and Singapore is a magnet for the regional story."

While Malaysia's equity market (Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange: .KLSE) has attracted a lot of attention because of the large IPOs, the benchmark stock index is up about 7.8 percent year-to-date, this is a similar performance to Hong Kong's Hang Seng index (Hong Kong Stock Exchange: .HSI)and perhaps not as impressive as the 15 percent rally in Singapore's stock index (FTSE International: .FTSTI).

"As for the outlook on IPOs in 2013, I would think that this is very dependent upon global growth and how Europe will resolve its crisis," said HSBC's Van Der Linde. "If it was up to Asia, it should be a good IPO market - demand for equities is rising and companies need to invest more and can tap equity markets for this." - By CNBC's Dhara Ranasinghe

British paper fires pro-Israel columnist over undisclosed Malaysia news fixing

Published by The Malaysian Insider on 27 August 2012.

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/british-paper-fires-pro-israel-columnist-over-ties-with-malaysia/

British newspaper The Guardian has terminated the services of conservative American columnist Joshua Trevino as its United States correspondent over his alleged relationship with a company implicated in a news-fixing campaign financed by the Malaysian government and for running a website that attacked Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and other opposition interests here.

In a short statement issued over the weekend, the newspaper said it had recent learned that Trevino “was a consultant for an agency that had Malaysian business interests and that he ran a website called Malaysia Matters. In keeping with the Guardian’s editorial code this should have been disclosed.”

Trevino had recently been hired by The Guardian to be its conservative columnist in the United States. His appointment drew a firestorm of protests from liberal activists after it emerged he had urged Israel to shoot at the humanitarian flotilla in 2011 that was seeking to break its naval blockade of Gaza.

When boats carrying unarmed civilian activists attempted in June 2011 to break the blockade of Gaza, Treviño tweeted out a message to the Israeli army: “Dear IDF: If you end up shooting any Americans on the new Gaza flotilla — well most Americans are cool with that Including me.” Trevino also reportedly called the flotilla a “Nazi convoy”.

The Guardian made no mention of the criticisms but instead pointed to Trevino’s previous ties with an “agency” it did not name but is alleged to be FBC Media the now-defunct company at the centre of the Malaysia news-fixing scandal involving broadcasters BBC and CNBC last year.

“Under our guidelines the relationship between Joshua and the agency should have been disclosed before the piece was published in order to give full clarity to our readers,” said Janine Gibson editor-in-chief Guardian US.

In response Trevino said “I vigorously affirm that nothing unethical was done and I have been open with the Guardian in this matter Nevertheless the Guardian’s guidelines are necessarily broad and I agree that they must be respected as such.”

Trevino is a well-known conservative commentator and a former speechwriter in the President George W Bush administration. He has reported extensively in the past few years on Anwar’s Sodomy II trial on his Malaysia Matters website which is now defunct.

Trevino had also frequently criticised Anwar in his other columns in other publications such as the Huffington Post. FBC Media the company alleged to have been referred to by The Guardian made eight programmes for the BBC about Malaysia while failing to declare it was paid £17 million RM85 million by the Malaysian government for “global strategic communications” which included positive coverage of Malaysia’s controversial palm oil industry.

The BBC also used FBC to make a documentary about the spring uprising in Egypt without knowing the firm was paid to do PR work for the regime of former dictator Hosni Mubarak. The BBC was forced to make a public apology over the matter. FBC had also been exposed to have doubled up as a publicity firm for the Najib government and was paid millions of pounds to conduct a “Global Strategic Communications Campaign”.

But Putrajaya last year ended its RM94 million contract with FBC which started in 2007 after it was revealed Malaysian government leaders regularly appeared in paid-for-TV programmes. The Malaysian Insider has reported of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak contracting a series of public relations strategists including APCO Worldwide to polish his personal image and his government’s locally and worldwide.

Late last year the government said image consultants FBC Media helped raise the standing of Malaysia as a tourism and investment destination during the RM94 million three-year deal that began in 2007. Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz told Parliament that the London-based media company which is facing bankruptcy “supported the efforts of government leaders and ministers” to burnish the country’s image overseas.

There was a second complaint on Thursday 23 August received by senior editorial staff in the US and referred to the readers' editor. This concerns another blogpost Treviño had written as a contributor to the Guardian's US site – before he was on contract – on 28 February 2011 about a Republican congressman's inquiry into Islamic radicalisation, which quoted the Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak. Until shortly before this blogpost, the author had been a consultant for an agency retained by Malaysian business interests and ran a website called Malaysia Matters, which should have led to a footnote disclosing the relationship. Failure to declare a potential conflict of interest is a breach of the Guardian's editorial code. This relationship will now be footnoted on the blogpost and, as the article was not in print, a correction included in the Guardian's online corrections and clarifications. A Guardian spokesperson said that following this disclosure, both Treviño and the Guardian agreed to end the contract.

The trouble with freedom

Published by BBC News Magazine on 24 August 2012.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19372177

We've come to believe that freedom is the natural human condition, which only tyrants prevent everyone from enjoying - but when a tyrant is toppled, we can't know what will come next, says John Gray.

In February 1917, a young boy was reading a Russian translation of one of the books of Jules Verne in a street in St Petersburg (at the time called Petrograd) where a bookseller had laid out his stock in the snow. The boy heard a commotion and, looking up from the book, saw a terrified man being frog-marched down the street. The ashen-faced figure was one of the city's policemen, who were among the last functionaries of the Tsarist regime to remain loyal.

Discovered hiding on the roof of a building, he had been brought down to be taken to what he evidently feared would be his end. What happened to the man cannot be known, but his deathly white face as he was marched away made an enduring impression on the boy who witnessed the scene.

Aged seven at the time, the young boy went on to be the philosopher and historian of ideas Isaiah Berlin, who spoke of the episode repeatedly in conversations I had with him towards the end of his life. He often contrasted the mood of optimism that accompanied the February revolution with the darker atmosphere that followed the Bolshevik coup in October of the same year.

Yet the incident occurred during the first of these upheavals, and it was clear that the impact it had on him had nothing to do with any differences between the two revolutions. As noted by his biographer, the episode left Berlin with a dread of violence that stayed with him after he left Russia in 1921 with his mother and father for a life in England and right up to his death in Oxford in November 1997. But I believe there may have been a subtler effect on Berlin's thinking, which has something important to say to us today.

Not long after the start of the 21st Century, we like to tell ourselves an uplifting story in which freedom expands whenever tyranny is overthrown. We believe that freedom and democracy are inseparable, so that when a dictator is toppled the result is not only a more accountable type of government but also greater liberty throughout society.

This belief forms the justification of the repeated attempts by Western governments to export their own political model to countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. In this simple and seemingly compelling story, freedom and democracy are a package that can be delivered anywhere in the world.

An older generation of thinkers recognised that freedom and democracy don't always go hand in hand. The 19th Century liberal John Stuart Mill was a life-long campaigner for greater democracy, but he also worried that personal liberty would shrink once governments could claim to express the will of the majority.

Born in 1872 and dying in 1970 at the age of 98, Mill's godson Bertrand Russell agreed and shocked many people when he observed that while Britain after World War II was a more democratic society than the one he'd grown up in, it was also in some ways less free. For Russell, as for Mill, liberty was one thing, democracy another. It's a deeply unfashionable view, but I think essentially correct.

Where this older generation differed from many today is that they thought of freedom as a lack of restriction on how we can act. Being free meant simply the absence of obstacles to living as we choose. While it's a view that's been criticised because it seems to see individuals as being separate from society, it seems to me to capture better than any other what freedom means and why it's important for every human being.

We need freedom because our goals and values are highly diverse and often quite different from those of the people around us. Having a voice in collective decisions - the basis of democracy - is a fine thing, but it won't protect your freedom if the majority is hostile to the way you choose to live.

Many will tell you that this danger can be dealt with by bills of rights that put some freedoms beyond the range of political interference. But politics has a habit of finding ways around the law, and when the state is weak declarations of rights tend to be unenforceable.

Once you think of freedom as living as you choose, you'll see that it's not just tyrants that stand in its way. The world is full of failed and enfeebled states in which the main threats to freedom come from organised crime, ethnic conflict and militant sectarian groups.

If you live in some provinces of Mexico, you're likely to be more afraid of ruthless drug cartels than of corrupt and ineffectual governments. In parts of the Balkans in the 1990s, you'd be afraid of lawless militias, operating on ethnic lines but often intertwined with organised crime. In these cases, it's a condition of near-anarchy rather than tyranny that threatens freedom.

Iraq has a constitution and an elected parliament - but how free are its people? In other cases, it's the power of fundamentalism that can most threaten your freedom.

Think of Iraq. You only have to consider what happened to the Marsh Arabs, whose ancient way of life was destroyed by draining the marshlands and blowing up villages, or the use of chemical weapons against Kurds, to recall how severe Saddam's repression could be. Yet freedom wasn't enhanced for everyone once the dictator had been removed.

Today, if you're an Iraqi woman and opt for a lifestyle that fails to square with a narrow interpretation of religion, you're at risk of violent attack from fundamentalist groups. If you're known to be gay, you risk being hunted down and killed. If you belong to a religious minority such as Christians or Mandeans (a branch of Gnosticism that was practised in the region for about 2,000 years), you face persecution and the risk of extinction.

The country has a type of democratic government, but the state is too weak and fractured and politics too dominated by sectarianism to prevent these assaults on freedom. Syria is different from Iraq in many ways, but it's hard to avoid fearing that a similar pattern may be emerging there.

In the reassuring story we like to repeat to ourselves, the emergence of these new threats is just a phase - in time these countries will achieve the type of freedom-loving democracy that we believe we enjoy. But we can say this only because we've forgotten our own history and neglect the dangers we currently face.

The democratic nation-states that exist in Europe today came into being in a process - extending from the French revolution through the collapse of the Habsburg empire after WWI to the break-up of former Yugoslavia - that included repressing the freedom of minorities, and the process hasn't ended with democracy and freedom co-existing in harmony as we like to think.

The far right is on the march in many European countries, using its rights to attack minorities. The dictatorships of the 1930s are unlikely to return, but toxic democracies based on nationalism and xenophobia could emerge in a number of countries and be in power for long periods.

Coming from Russia, where the despotism of the Tsars was replaced by a far more repressive system of government, Isaiah Berlin didn't need English liberal thinkers to teach him that the overthrow of tyranny doesn't by itself expand liberty. Where he was at one with them was in understanding that liberty is a fragile achievement that can be undermined in many different ways.

We've come to believe a story in which freedom is the natural human condition, which only tyrants prevent everyone from enjoying. The reality is that when a tyrant is toppled we can't know what will come next.

When we tell our tale of freedom spreading across the world, we might pause to think for a moment of the young boy who looked up from his book to see a terrified policeman being dragged off to an unknown fate.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Public appeal for funds: BERSIH 2.0 needs your support

http://www.bersih.org/?p=5389 Press Statement, 23 August 2012.

When BERSIH 2.0 was launched in April 2010 as a fully non-partisan movement asking for urgent electoral reforms, no one anticipated just how strongly the Malaysian public would respond. The swift and courageous support from all walks of life, many of whom also braved the streets of Kuala Lumpur (and in many other places around the world) on 9 July 2011 and again on 28 April have made it clear that the call for free and fair elections is a sentiment which echoes strongly in our nation.

BERSIH 2.0 has seen an outpouring of support from the public in the last two years and it has enabled the push for reforms to be made, to the point where the government has finally begun to respond. However, their response has not always been positive. In fact, the government often appears more interested in “shooting the messenger” rather than focusing on the message of hand: cleaning up the electoral system.

RM1 campaign for clean and fair elections

As the next general elections looms closer, BERSIH 2.0 seeks your support. The work still needs to continue and we need to work together for all of us to carry on. Therefore, BERSIH 2.0 is now launching a fund raising campaign to ask every Malaysians to support us by donating to the BERSIH 2.0 “Make a difference with RM1” campaign for Clean and Fair Elections. We aim to raise RM250,000 to reflect the 250,000 brave Malaysians who turned up for BERSIH 3.0 : Duduk Bantah on 28 April 2012.

Specifically, the funds will go to:

Medical and Legal Expenses of Victims of Police Brutality

Supporting the victims of police brutality during and after 28 April who have courageously come forward to seek justice. BERSIH 2.0 wishes to support them if they choose to file lawsuits against the authorities as well as to cover their medical expenses.
The authorities have decided to launch a civil suit against 10 members of the BERSIH 2.0 steering committee for alleged damages amounting to RM122,000 that were incurred during the Bersih 3.0 “duduk bantah” assembly. The government also wants general damages, interest and a declaration that Bersih breached Section 6(2)(g) of the Peaceful Assembly Act (PAA), despite the fact that the government also declared the PAA as a revolutionary law which would facilitate peaceful assemblies.
Meanwhile, DBKL has also has sent a notice of demand to co-chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan and committee member Maria Chin Abdullah, demanding compensation of RM351,203.45 for “losses” incurred during the same event. This includes damage to “landscaping and trees, the cost of setting up metal barricades, cost of transport and support staff, damage to signboards and barriers, as well as overtime allowances, food, drink and transport costs for law enforcers”.

The two wholly unfair charges by the government are seen as targeted attacks against BERSIH 2.0 aimed at derailing the call for free and fair elections. Thus, BERSIH 2.0 urgently appeals to all Malaysians to maintain its focus on this crucial issue and support the effort in whatever ways that they can.

Many lawyers have come forward to volunteer their legal services to BERSIH 2.0 victims as well as to the Steering Committee members who had been sued by the government. While their services are free, there are still expenses to be paid out especially filing fees, transportation and other administrative costs.

Funds raised will cover bail money (where applicable), legal administrative expenses and medical costs. [RM150,000]

BERSIH Awareness Campaign – Keluar Mengundi Lawan Penipuan

Funds are also required for the continued awareness of the various issues surrounding the 8 demands of BERSIH 2.0 to be spread to greater numbers of Malaysians. The awareness campaign activities will cover Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak. We will be printing leaflets, producing short cartoon video clips for easy dissemination, conduct workshops and ceramahs to highlight the eight demands of BERSIH 2.0, activities to encourage young voters to vote and be involved, and lastly for BERSIH 2.0 to develop our own BERSIH.TV so that we can have our voices heard.

We are embarking on campaigns throughout the country to bring the message to as many people as possible. With your backing, the core message of “Keluar Mengundi Lawan Penipuan” will reach far and wide, thus putting pressure on the authorities to implement the necessary changes and for you as a voter to decide wisely.

Funds raised will cover BERSIH 2.0 awareness campaign and communications [RM100,000]

The funds collected will be regularly updated on our website with audited accounts made available.

SUPPORT “BERSIH RM1 CAMPAIGN” AND SEND YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS TO EMPOWER, BERSIH 2.0 Secretariat at:

Account No: 12380000661-10-0

Account Name: Persatuan Kesedaran Komuniti Selangor

Bank: CIMB Islamic, Section 52, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

Thank you. Salam BERSIH!

Steering Committee

Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections 2.0 (BERSIH 2.0)

The Steering Committee of BERSIH 2.0 comprises:

Dato’ Ambiga Sreenevasan (Co-Chairperson), Datuk A. Samad Said (Co-Chairperson), Ahmad Shukri Abdul Razab, Andrew Ambrose, Andrew Khoo, Anne Lasimbang, Arul Prakkash, Arumugam K., Awang Abdillah, Dr Farouk Musa, Hishamuddin Rais, Liau Kok Fah, Maria Chin Abdullah, Matthew Vincent, Niloh Ason, Richard Y W Yeoh, Dr Subramaniam Pillay, Dato’ Dr Toh Kin Woon, Dr Wong Chin Huat, Dato’ Yeo Yang Poh and Zaid Kamaruddin.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

‘Guilty until proven innocent’ law applies to Umno Youth in Facebook probe #Stop114A

By Ida Lim. Published by The Malaysian Insider on 22 August 2012.

The burden of proof is on Umno Youth to show that it is not the publisher of controversial remarks suggesting that a vote for Pakatan Rakyat (PR) will result in Christianity becoming the country’s official religion, due to recent amendments to the Evidence Act, lawyers have said.

Umno Youth has claimed that the person who put up the poster with the controversial remarks was “unauthorised” to do so and that the page was not its official Facebook page.

The poster, which was uploaded last Saturday and taken down the same day, appeared to suggest that votes for federal opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) will cause Islam to be replaced by Christianity as the country’s official religion.

It had read: “Jika anda setuju untuk jadikan KRISTIAN sebagai agama rasmi persekutuan Malaysia, teruskan sokongan anda kepada Pakatan Rakyat. (If you agree to make CHRISTIANITY the official religion of the federation of Malaysia, continue supporting Pakatan Rakyat.) ‘God bless you my son’.”

If Umno Youth is brought to court over the “unauthorised” Facebook post, it would be the test case for the newly-enforced Section 114A of the Evidence Act that has already seen widespread opposition from the public.

Section 114A makes even coffee shops offering free Wi-Fi services liable for any defamatory or criminal acts of customers using computers at their premises The new law creates a presumption that any registered user of network services is presumed to be the publisher of a publication sent from a computer linked to that network service if he cannot show otherwise The Section also provides that any “person whose name photograph or pseudonym appears on any publication depicting himself as the owner host administrator editor or sub-editor or who in any manner facilitates to publish or re-publish the publication is presumed to have published or re-published the contents of the publication unless the contrary is proved ”.

Section 114A of the Evidence Act cannot be used in the case of Umno Youth's alleged seditious posting because the amendment is based on presumption of fact and not presumption of guilt, said Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz.

“The amendment is only a form of procedure. It can only be invoked if a person is charged under other laws and the court is convinced to use it to shift the burden of proof to the accused,” he told a press conference Thursday.

Nazri said the accused can then prove their innocence through a balance of probabilities, as how Umno Youth has done by making a police report as soon as possible.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/8/23/nation/11898237&sec=nation

City CID chief Senior Asst Comm Datuk Ku Chin Wah said the probe would not be conducted under Section 114A of the Evidence Act, which had been criticised by various quarters.

“Our initial investigation is carried out under Section 233. Once this is completed, we will pass our investigation papers to the Attorney-General who will then decide whether this should continue under the same Act or under Section 114A or other sections,” he told reporters here yesterday.

Ambiga Ignores Threats In Fight For Fairer Malaysian Vote

By Ranjeetha Pakiam and Liau Y-Sing. Published by Bloomberg.com on 22 August 2012.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-21/ambiga-ignores-threats-in-fight-for-fairer-malaysian-vote.html

Ambiga Sreenevasan got anonymous death threats for her work on the rights of women whose husbands convert to Islam in Muslim-majority Malaysia four years ago. After leading a rally calling for electoral reforms in April, she was accused of treason by a ruling party lawmaker.

The 55-year-old former Malaysian Bar Council president, who received the International Women of Courage Award from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2009, hasn’t stopped challenging the government’s human rights policies. “They underestimate right-thinking Malaysians,” she said in an interview. “We don’t like bullying.”

While Prime Minister Najib Razak, who must call elections by early 2013, has agreed to some of the demands of Ambiga’s Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections, or Bersih, for fairer voting procedures such as the use of indelible ink, his government has declared the civil society group illegal and she has become the focus of personal attacks. Opposition leaders have championed Bersih’s campaign and called the attacks racist.

“She is seen as somebody who’s a professional, has the aspirations of the middle class, believes in things like human rights and good governance,” said James Chin, a professor of political science at the Malaysian campus of Australia’s Monash University outside Kuala Lumpur. “She symbolizes that: Somebody who holds the Malaysian authorities accountable for their actions.”

Triple Minority

The mother of two believes her “demonization” has intensified because government supporters want to undermine the credibility of the non-partisan campaign for free and fair elections. As an Indian, Hindu and woman, “I’m a minority in every sense of the word and I think they thought it would be easy to do,” she said.

In the 2008 elections, Najib’s multiparty, multiethnic National Front coalition had its worst showing in five decades of unbroken rule as urban Malays as well as Chinese and Indian minorities supported opposition parties pledging policies that don’t discriminate in favor of the Malay-Muslim majority.

Harassment of Ambiga since the April demonstration has included traders setting up outside her home and serving free beef burgers and Malay army veterans stretching and shaking their buttocks near her house. Ruling party lawmaker Mohamad Aziz withdrew his June 26 comment about Ambiga’s possible treason - a crime which carries the death penalty - two days later following complaints from the ruling coalition’s ethnic Indian party leaders.

Electoral Impact

“Her rather calm and methodical responses to many of the different challenges and the personal attacks,” have given a sense of pride to the Indian Malaysian community, according to Bridget Welsh, Associate Professor of Political Science at the Singapore Management University. “By allowing the people who attacked her to go without prosecution or condemnation -- this has actually had an electoral impact.”

Indians account for about 7 percent of Malaysia’s population of 29 million. Najib’s approval ratings dropped to 69 percent in June from 72 percent in May among the ethnic Indian community, possibly due to dissatisfaction over statements toward Ambiga, according to a Merdeka Center for Opinion Research survey released July 26.

Mohamad Aziz’s comments were personal and didn’t reflect the National Front’s stand, the coalition said June 27. Najib said two days later that statements that hurt the feelings of other races shouldn’t be made.

Overseas Voting

Besides the use of indelible ink, the next election will allow Malaysians living overseas to vote as part of “unprecedented measures” to strengthen the electoral process, a government spokesman said. Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said in an interview that Ambiga led “unreasonable” attacks against the government when she was heading the Bar Council. “She seems to have some grudge against the government,” said Mahathir, who resigned in 2003 after 22 years in power. “I think this country has done much better than any other developing country and yet to her it’s wrong, it’s all wrong.”

Ambiga insists she is non-partisan and will not enter politics “so when you say something, it’s not because of politics and not because of which party I belong to, but because it is right, because it’s the law.” Bersih, which last month won a court order overturning the government’s declaration it is an illegal organization, will continue to push for greater transparency in the voting system, saying the changes announced by the government aren’t substantial enough or haven’t yet been implemented.

Positive Change

After receiving death threats including a detailed one by e-mail on June 30, Ambiga now travels with bodyguards, but she doesn’t believe that Malaysia, which saw racial clashes and the suspension of parliament when the ruling party lost support in 1969 elections, will experience political violence.

“If enough people want change, there’s very little anyone can do to stop it,” she said. “Malaysians are generally peace- loving -- we are nowhere near what was happening in the Middle East, Tunisia and Egypt. We are at the right point in time for positive change, and if we are going to bring change, we only want to do it by clean and fair elections.”

The lawyer intends to step down from Bersih after Malaysia’s next election to focus on her work at her firm specializing in commercial, intellectual property and industrial law. Personal interests like cricket and the arts have also been set aside, she said.

Stage, Courts

“My claim to fame was sharing the stage with Jit Murad about 37 years ago,” she said, referring to the comedian and actor who co-founded Malaysia’s Instant Cafe Theatre Company. Ambiga also has some unfinished work from her previous campaign which first brought her death threats: Women’s rights.

Malaysia has a civil court system inherited from its former British colonial rulers as well as separate Islamic courts governing marriage, inheritance and other family matters for Muslims. “The courts have abdicated their responsibility over a lot of family law issues in these situations involving both the Shariah courts and civil courts,” she said, citing cases where husbands have converted to Islam and unilaterally converted their children too, leaving wives in limbo.

While the government in 2008 proposed legislation requiring individuals wishing to convert to first inform family members and address custody issues, the process stalled at Malaysia’s council of Malay rulers, who have constitutional responsibility for Islamic affairs.

“This should be first in line for resolution,” Ambiga said. “The ordinary Malaysian is beginning to realize that it is not acceptable to play up religion and race in politics. There is a real maturing.”

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Crime Statistics – Let the truth be told!

Published by Free Malaysia Today on 22 August 2012. FMT LETTER: From Veteran Cop, via e-mail.

...There are several types of crime where the classification can be manipulated from index to non-index. The maneuvering begins at the police district level which receives the report and subsequently transmitted to the State Police Headquarters and Federal Police Headquarters. The crimes which were manipulated are:

Robbery cases under the Penal Code are classified as index crime. This offence will be classified as non-index under section 382 of the Penal Code. Since, section 382 of the Penal Code is a non-index crime, therefore will not be reflected in the crime statistics.
Burglary under section 457 of the Penal Code is an index crime. This offence will be classified as non-index under sections 452 or 453 of the Penal Code. Since, sections 452 and 453 of the Penal Code are non-index crime therefore will not be reflected in the crime statistics.
Causing hurt under sections 324 and 326 are index crimes. These offences will be classified under section 148 of the Penal Code. Since, section 148 of the Penal Code is a non-index crime therefore will not be reflected in the crime statistics.

The under classification of the index crime to non-index crime runs into several thousand cases. Of course, by removing these cases from the crime statistics will reflect that the crime has gone down.

A simple way of ascertaining the extent of cases taken off from the index crime category for the purpose of reducing the crime statistics is by asking the police to provide the statistics of cases classified under sections 148, 382, 452 and 453 of the Penal Code since the implementation of the NKRA to date. Then a comparison should be made with the statistics of cases under the said sections in the last three years preceding the NKRA.

You will discover a sudden hike in the number of cases under those sections after the introduction of the KPI. This figure should then be compared with the figure of the same sections for the three years preceding the NKRA. The result will confirm that for the period of three years prior to NKRA, cases classified under sections 382, 452 and 453 are almost nil and under section 148 may have only few reported cases. The number of cases recorded under the four sections for the 3 years after the NKRA minus the number of cases recorded for the 3 years before the NKRA will be the figure that has been manipulated.

Other factors that suppress the crime statistics during the NKRA period are:

There are many cases under the index crime category that are not opened for investigation and were closed with no further action (NFA). These cases involve robberies, snatch thefts and burglaries. Police take no further action for the reason there is no sufficient ground for proceeding with the matter if the suspect cannot be identified, the loss is minimal or there is no lead to proceed further. There are thousands of cases of this nature and since these cases are not opened for investigation, therefore, will not be reflected in the crime statistics. No profiling is done on these cases, but merely swept under the carpet. Without profiling then the trend, pattern, target areas and possible suspects could not be studied to address the recurrence of these incidents.
There are also cases short-changed in order to achieve the KPI. Say, for example, in a particular day there are 10 cases of burglaries reported in a certain housing area. Only one case will be opened for investigation and the other nine cases will be cross-referred to the one case that was opened. For the 10 cases of burglaries, the statistics should be 10 cases of index crime. Since, there is only one case that was opened for investigation therefore the other nine cases will not be reflected in the index crime statistics.
Dark figures (crimes not reported) are not factored into the crime statistics. There is a theory that for every 10 cases reported there will be one case not reported. People do not report crime when they have lost faith in the police. Lack of faith may arise when the people have the impression that the police will not treat the report seriously; ineffective investigation due to incompetence; practicing double standards; no confidence the police can solve the case or bring justice to the victim or can recover the lost items; discriminative investigation based on the person’s background, influence, or status in society; minor trauma or losses treated with scorn; cases can be compromised by suspects getting away through bribery, influence be it political or social standing; exhaustive in going to the police station and lodging report; and last but not least is distrust and suspicion about the police.

Overall, the crime has indeed gone up. There are many flaws in the statistics dished out to the public. The statistics was tailored to justify the KPI and appease the powers that be. It is better for the police to tell the truth and shame the devil. In response to Dr. Lim Teck Ghee, the police said, “Crime statistics released by the PDRM are the actual figures of criminal cases reported to and investigated by the police department. These figures are auto-generated by the department’s computer system i.e. the Police Reporting System (PRS). In this way, no alteration or adjustment to the figures can be done, in order to portray a rosy picture of the crime situation as claimed by certain quarters.”

The rationalization of the computer system (PRS) to validate the crime figures is a flawed excuse. The system picks up only what has been fed into it. PRS system does not control classification of cases. To demonstrate that the GTP, NKRA and KPI are a success, classification of cases was doctored and entered into the system which will surely produce the result that was desired.

The police made another assertion, “All crime data and statistics generated within the PDRM system have been audited and verified by Pricewaterhouse Coopers Malaysia.” Do you expect accountants to audit and verify classification of cases? Are they going through all the police reports to ensure the nature of crime committed, categorizing the correct section of the offence under the law, and classification of the case as index or non-index? Be truthful on their role that is only limited to calculating the figures given by the police. In fact, it is a waste of public funds hiring accountants to just vet the figures if only the police are honest in the first place.

End the charade on public relations (PR) exercises to erase the fear of crime. Stop fooling the public with PR programs, like ‘high profile policing’, ‘high visibility patrol’ ‘walkabout’ ‘stop and talk, ‘meet and greet’, and ‘singing in shopping malls’, that won’t work when criminals are still milling around. Spending huge money hiring consultants with no background or expertise in criminal field to advise the police was the biggest blunder. It is a shame on the police organization of 205 years, having police officers of more than 30 years in service and experience with educational background from degree to PHD, unable to tackle the crime situation...

There must be a climate of fear and respect towards the police. The fear must come from the wrongdoers and those who intend to contravene the law. Respect is from those who feel secured when seeing the men in blue. Are the police doing the right thing to earn that respect? People are feeling unsecured with the crime situation and the fear of being a victim keep increasing. Ironically, even the policemen are having the same sentiment. Camouflaging crime figures will only aggravate the situation further. Be honest and tell the truth.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

CRIME WATCH: Who has FAILED - Home Minister or Malaysians?

Published by Malaysia Chronicle on 19 August 2012. Written by Crime Buster.

http://www.malaysia-chronicle.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=38392:crime-watch-who-has-failed-malaysians-or-hisham?&Itemid=2

Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein in his pre-Raya mood celebration message lambasted Malaysians for not cooperating to fight crime.

Malaysians, what is your take on that? Why are you not cooperating? So if you get robbed or get stoned to near death under some dingy car park, or get raped – don’t blame the police lah.

Blame yourself. Understand? The unfortunate happened to you because Malaysians are not cooperating to fight crime, understand!

Umno logic

Holy cow! Any public relations novice studying Mass Communication will tell you that the Home Minister has just made the worst public relations act.

Let us now ask the honorable minister the following questions:

How many houses do not have pad-locked fences, gates, doors, frills?

How many houses do not have five-feet high fencing and walls around their property?

What about the alarms we install in our homes and cars?

How about the thriving CCTV business in Malaysia?

What do you want us to do?

And now you tell us that walking to the car alone is tantamount to non-cooperation? That carrying a handbag in public is non-cooperation? That if a robber breaks into my padlocked house it is because I am not cooperating?

What do you want Malaysians to do? Jump and strangle the daylight out of a would-be robber in a car park? Club a potential robber even before he breaks into a house?

Or do you want the public out on their daily routines to also double-up as security personnel out in the streets, in their Tamans, and at car parks?

So you want us to hide our little hard earned wealth displays of gold and even resort to keeping our little shopping money inside our under garments so that we are seen to be cooperating in not tempting robbers?

So every time a festive holiday comes, a family must run to the police station to inform that they are not going to be in the house?

Try for some common sense, please

Please Mr. Honorable Home Minister, can we have some common sense and responsible leadership around us when it comes to fighting crime?

Malaysians are spending far too much of their hard earned money to ensure that they have grills, padlocks, chains, alarms, CCTVs, dogs and even guards to ensure they can be safe at home.

Malaysians have installed alarms in their vehicles and added on pad-locks and steering locks too.

Today Malaysians do not wear gold and diamonds to work or when driving around. The only pearls, diamonds and gold decking we see being flashed are on the ministers’ spouses.

Please let us have some level headed accountability and honor.