jelas.info

For Saturday morning, echoing earlier concerns about Malaysia being a slave nation, I just thought I’d share an apalling article from the Irrawady:

Eight Burmese detainees were wounded after a small riot broke out at the Semenyih Immigration camp near Kajang Township, in Malaysia on Wednesday.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Thursday, Aung Lwin Oo, one of the detainees involved in the riot at the camp, said the trouble started at 8pm after camp authorities beat 30 detainees who were refusing to board a truck that was to take them to another camp.

The detainees began breaking up the walls of their rooms and throwing plates at security officers, demanding prison authorities release the 30 people who had been loaded onto the truck.

The police used tear gas to break up the riot.

“We are very angry after we heard they had beaten and forced fellow prisoners to get on a truck and be moved another camp. When they came for them they said it was only to meet officials from the UNHCR [United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees],” he said.

Aung Lwin Oo was in hiding as he talked to The Irrawaddy by phone from the camp. Camp authorities ban the use of mobile phones.

“On Tuesday, two Burmese detainees were also seriously beaten when they went to the clinic to ask for medicine. One detainee was beaten around the eyes,” Lwin Oo reported.

“We don’t know if he will regain his vision because his eyes are filled with blood. At the moment he can’t see,” he said. “The other detainee suffered cigarette burns on his body and is in serious condition now.”

Yante Ismail, a spokesperson for the UNHCR based in Kuala Lumpur told The Irrawaddy, Thursday, that a group from UNHCR left for the camp that morning to investigate the riot.

She said that she was unable to provide any further details on what happened at the camp.

The Malaysian National News Agency announced on their Bernama website that no one was injured during the riot and that the situation was under control.

According to Burmese rights groups in Malaysia, there are about 700 Burmese detainees at the Semenyih Immigration camp. They are accusing camp authorities of keeping people who have already served sentences in detention.

Roi Mon, a member of the Mon Refugees Organization based in Malaysia, said that inmates do not have enough food and water, and the camp is crowded because the authorities have refused to release detainees.

Meanwhile, in its annual Trafficking in Persons Report 2009 released in June, the US State Department put Malaysia back on the Tier 3 blacklist for its record of abuse and exploitation of migrant workers. Malaysia joins 16 other countries including Burma, North Korea, Sudan and Zimbabwe on the blacklist.

The report accused Malaysia authorities of deporting Burmese detainees to the Thai-Malaysia border and selling them to human traffickers, who then demanded ransoms for their release.

If payments were not made, the victims would be forced to work as slave labor on fishing boats in Thailand and Indonesia, and women could be forced to work as prostitutes in brothels.

Malaysian authorities have disputed the report’s conclusions.

According to the Kuala Lumpur-based Burma Workers’ Rights Protection Committee, about 500,000 Burmese migrants work in Malaysia, legally and illegally.

The Star:

IPOH: Police maintain there was no foul play behind the death of drug suspect Choong Soy Soy at the Bercham police station lockup on June 27.

Ipoh OCPD Asst Comm Azisman Alias said his investigation officers have recorded statements from the inmates saying that Choong had indeed slipped and fallen in the toilet between 9am and 10am that day.

ACP Azisman said the inmates heard a loud noise and found Choong on the floor.

“The suspect was still conscious and was able to talk when we found him after the accident,” ACP Azisman said on Wednesday.

“He also declined to go to the hospital and said he was alright,” he said.

Choong was sent to the hospital after policemen noticed that he was bleeding from the nose, said ACP Azisman.

Choong fell into a coma two days after being admitted to the Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital where he died on Tuesday morning, he said.

ACP Azisman said the case was investigated as sudden death and a post-mortem report would be submitted by the hospital to the police soon.

Slipped and fell in the toilet.

Statements taken from other inmates. Who probably witnessed what really happened to Choong.

Slipped and fell………….

>:(

This is getting to be a trend. Let’s see how the government responds.

Kerishamuddin via Lulu:

THE appointment of Fox Com-munications as the Royal Police Force (PDRM) public relations consultant was through ‘open quotation’, said the Home Ministry.

Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein, in his written reply to Wee Choo Keong (PKR – Wangsa Maju), said the appointment was for six months with a monthly fee of RM33,250.

On the rationale of acquiring the consultant service, Hisham-muddin said public relations between the force and public had to be developed in a more comprehensive and synergised manner.

“It is very critical to fix the negative perception from the people and baseless criticism from the media against the force,” he said.

Wow. That’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard in a while. And as you can probably imagine, I hear a lot of stupid things.

So. PRDM.. I’m sorry, PDRM – with all these deaths in detention amongst other things – has an image problem. What do we do?

Hire PR consultants to fix it :| For RM 200,000 :|

The bad image of the police does not arise from PR ignorance or lousy media relations.

It arises from the section of the force that is corrupt, abuse their powers, cause and allow death in custody, fail to provide public safety, make fun of crime victims who show up to report crimes, and so on. Fix that, then – and only then – do you fix the image problem.

To me, this epitomises the BN mindset. When they find shit (please pardon my French) on their hands, they completely ignore the option of cleaning the shit up.

Instead, they throw hundreds of thousands of ringgit at cronies (I think we all know the ex-NSTP connections of Fox Communications) to try and persuade the world that what is on their hands is not in fact shit, but roses.

Shit, my friends, cannot pass for roses.

So, what will we have at the end of this Musa/ng-led PR exercise?

Shit will still be shit, no one will believe it to be roses, the rakyat will be out RM  200,000 and some BN cronies will be RM 200,000  richer.

Ah, business as usual in BN bolehland.

The government should keep that money and get more patrol cars, hire more personnel, and invest in ways to make sure that cops don’t take bribes, or beat up helpless prisoners. *That* will go some way into turning shit into roses, not throwing money at Fox bleeding Communications.

PR consultants indeed. For my money, I think you should get the other PR (Pakatan) to run the show instead :P