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 As much as I like to start my mornings with pomp and happiness, these past weeks, it has been rather difficult. Day after day, blow by blow, I get even more saddened. But, do not mistake this sadness for inaction. These dark days have been to me, a light that is growing brighter as the days go by.

Today, the full VK Lingam video clip was released. I will leave you to watch it, and read the transcript. If the Royal Commission of Inquiry With The Really Long Ass Name doesn’t do something about this, and the people in it are not brought to justice. There will be consequences. This is not a threat, this is a promise from civil society. Mark my words.

http://www.suarakeadilan.com/isi/

Watch it, and weep. Then, arise.

* Update*

Wee Choo Keong, the lawyer mentioned in the VK Lingam tapes, knows all too well how it feels when the scourge that is the ISA is used. History thus repeats itself.  Read his press release.

Media statement by Wee Choo Keong, Secretary-General of the Malaysian Democratic Party (MDP) on 14-12-2007 in Kuala Lumpur.

ABDULLAH BADAWI ABUSED THE ISA TO DETAIN THE 5 HINDRAF LEADERS

Abdullah Badawi won a landslide victory in the 2004 General Election and he promises more freedoms, greater transparency and open government and he also pledged to fight graft as one of his priorities.  Almost 4 years have elapsed; none of the pledges have been carried out.  In fact, Abdullah Badawi was only paying lip service to his pledges.

Detention of 5 Hindraf Leaders Under ISA

Whilst we may not agree with certain aspect of Hindraf’s campaign but we must defend the Hindraf and its supporters’ rights to freedom of assembly and expression.  Such rights have been enshrined in the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 (UDHR), of which the Malaysian government is one of the signatories.

It is meaningless for the government to sign the UDHR and at the same time ignore its spirits altogether by detaining the 5 Hindraf’s leaders without trial. If the Hindraf leaders have committed offences under Malaysian laws then they should be charged in court and not detained without trial under the most draconian law, the Internal Security Act (ISA), which was originally enacted to combat communists.

Several years ago the government and the Communist Party of Malaysia (CPM) had signed the peace treaty in Thailand which meant that there were no more threats from the communists.  Therefore, to be consistent with the said peace treaty, the ISA should not be abused to detain Malaysians for exercising their freedoms to expression and assembly as enshrined under the UDHR.  In fact, the ISA have been abolished the minutes the said peace treaty was signed by the government and the CPM.

As a former ISA detainee under Operation Lalang, I strongly feel that it was very cruel of the government to deny its citizen of their civil liberty by detaining them without trial and it was a gross violation of human rights.

The MDP calls upon the government to immediately charge the 5 Hindraf leaders in court for whatever offences otherwise to immediately release them unconditionally.

Wee Choo Keong

/end  press release.

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