Just wanted to highlight to cases of abuse of police power from Suaram recently.

The first concerns the Emergency Ordinance – a lesser known cousin of the draconian ISA:

Suaram expresses disappointment and concern over the re-arrest of the three men under the Emergency Ordinance (Public Order and Crime Prevention) at Muar yesterday. The trio, M. Nandakumar (43), M. Thirugnanam (33) and K. Jayaraman (56), were charged with the murder of businessman Datuk M. Gunasegaran. They were released by the High Court yesterday after the prosecution dropped the charges. However, the police re-arrested three of them under the Emergency Ordinance (EO) once they stepped out of the court room.

This shows utter disrespect for the process of law and order. If the courts find nothing to charge these men with, how can the police be so sure they are the murderers?

If we are deciding people are guilty without proof that can hold up in court, we might as well go back to the feudal system right, where might is right?

Another case = the ridiculous arrest under the ISA of Cheng Lee Whee (who I think I heard speak at last year’s Suaram dinner) in Johor last year, who remains set to be charged in court :P Her crime?

Making a police report O_O

The case concerned a police siege (complete with anti-bomb squad :P ) on Kampung Baru Pelentong Tengah, a recap is below.

Kes Ahli Secretariat Suaram JB, Cheng Lee Whee yang didakwa dibawah Kanun Keseksaan Seksyen 182 akibat tindakan membuat laporan polis untuk mempertahankan hak-hak penduduk Kampung Baru Plentong Tengah (KBPT), telah ditangguhkan ke 25hb Januari tahun ini (Isnin) sementara Peguam Negara mempertimbangkan tuntutan untuk mengugurkan dakwaan ke atas Cheng Lee Whee.

Penangguhan tersebut adalah hasil tindakan penghantaran petisyen oleh 35 pertubuhan dan parti kepada Peguam Negara di Putrajaya pada 24hb November 2009 (Selasa) untuk menuntut supaya pendakwaan terhadap Cheng digugurkan. Sebanyak 35 pertubuhan dan lebih kurang 500 individu telah mengabsah (endorse) petisyen tersebut.

Timbalan Ketua Bahagian Pendakwaan Mohamad Hanafiah Zakaria (b/p Penguam Negara Malaysia) dalam surat kepada Suaram KL yang bertarikh 11hb Januari 2010 menyatakan bahawa Penguam Negara setuju untuk mengugurkan dakwaan terhadap Cheng Lee Whee. Namun demikian, Cheng dan penguam beliau Encik Hassan Karim masih belum menerima surat rasmi daripada pihak mahkamah yang mengesahkan pengguguran dakwaan ke atas Cheng Lee Whee.

What’s with these unfulfilled promises? >:( Are they going to go ahead with this ridiculous charge?

Background:

Cheng Lee Whee seorang aktivis Suaram Johor telah ditahan untuk siasatan di bawah Seksyen 28 ISA oleh Polis IPD Seri Alam atas arahan Ketua Polis Negeri Johor, Datuk Mohd. Mokhtar bin Hj.Mohd Shariff selama 19 jam pada 18 Oktober 2008. Beliau ditahan kerana membuat aduan di Portal Polis Kontinjen Johor (www.polisjohor.gov.my) tentang pengusiran paksa yang berlaku di Kampung Baru Pelentong Tengah (KBPT) pada 10.00 am 16hb Oktober 2008.

Ketua Polis Johor Baru , Mokhtar Shariff menegaskan perintah reman telah dikeluarkan kerana menyebarkan ‘laporan palsu’ kononnya polis telah menyalah gunakan kuasa dalam operasi perobohan sebuah kampung setinggan di Johor. 27 orang ditangkap kerana menghalang pelaksanaan perintah mahkamah bagi merobohkan rumah-rumah kosong di Kampung Baru Plentong Tengah.

Pada 16 Oktober 2008, jam 10.30 pagi, lebih 200 penduduk termasuk kanak-kanak mempertahankan rumah kediaman mereka di Kampung Baru Pelentong Tengah (KBPT) supaya tidak dirobohkan oleh pihak pemaju. Mereka membina benteng manusia dan duduk dengan aman tanpa sebarang senjata di pintu masuk kampung KBPT. Pihak polis menghantar 553 anggota polis yang terdiri daripada pelbagai unit, termasuk Pasukan Gerakan Am (PGA), Pasukan Simpanan Persekutuan (FRU) yang dilengkapi kereta air cannon, Unit Udara Polis, Unit Marin Polis, Unit Anjing Pengesan, unit Pemusnah Bom, serta helicopter untuk berhadapan dengan penduduk kampung yang hanya seramai 200 orang penduduk yang tiada sebarang senjata untuk “mengawal” keadaan bagi memastikan proses meroboh beberapa rumah kosong berjalan lancar. Ramai penduduk cedera dalam pengusiran paksa tersebut dan seorang ahli JKB pengsan.

Tags: Law Enforcement by Nathaniel Tan
2 Comments »

In honesty, the remark about not having enough cops to patrol places of worship may have escaped my attention if not for this particular gem from our IGP:

He said that every individual, including those writing blogs including updates in the social networking website Facebook, will be investigated for sedition if they flamed sentiments and encouraged people to break the law.

Haiyo. I can just imagine Musa Hassan, sitting at his desk going through thousands of Facebook updates :P You know, those kind of people who type with one finger at a time?

Get with the times man, and go catch some real criminals.

Tags: Law Enforcement by Nathaniel Tan
13 Comments »

I always get so incredibly irritated when cops arrest people for stupid reasons.

The two PKR Youth leaders detained by police here yesterday for circulating leaflets alleged to be seditious have been placed on remand for three days beginning today.

They were arrested after Friday prayers at a mosque here while circulating leaflets calling on the Kuala Lumpur Syariah Court to expedite hearing of the sodomy case involving PKR advisor Anwar Ibrahim.

I mean, what for goodness sake is seditious about flyers asking for a trial to be expedited?? What exactly is the need to hold them for 3 days again??

Such trigger happy tendencies display an over-sensitivity that I can only attribute to ridiculous levels of government insecurity over the way it is running the country, and levelling unbelievable criminal charges against political opponents.

Next thing I know, I’ll be hauled up because my book has a picture of Altantuya on it :P

Tags: Law Enforcement by Nathaniel Tan
2 Comments »

ps- on this subject, do see Haris Ibrahim’s latest update on a recent death in detention.

After much work, we finally have our latest book out – this blog post will constitute its ’soft launch’ :)

The book, published by Kinibooks, is entitled “Where is Justice? Death and Brutality in Custody” and features 4 major case studies (Teoh Beng Hock, Kugan, Altantuya and Anwar’s black eye), as well as Suaram reports detailing as many known deaths in custody as possible.

John Lee and I (well, largely John) put in a lot of work trying to give an accurate a picture as possible, and compile as much data as we could in trying to give a systematic, detailed picture of this horrific trend in Malaysia.

I think I’ll leave it at that for now – I think our distributor, Gerakbudaya, will be selling them tonight at the following talk. Swing by and pick up a copy, while listening to a profound Malaysian intellectual!

Speaker: Prof Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Title: When will we ever learn? Has Malaysia learnt the correct lessons from past crises?
Date: Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Time: 7.30pm
Venue: Hotel Singgahsana, Persiaran Barat, off Jalan Sultan, 46760 Petaling Jaya (next to Taman Jaya LRT Station)
Admission: FREE

Tags: Impunity, Law Enforcement, Rule of Law by Nathaniel Tan
5 Comments »

Haiyo. Small thing like this still want to arrest.

A short prayer ceremony to mark the Internal Security Act (ISA) detention of five Hindraf leaders two years ago was marred by the arrest of one of the movement’s key leaders S Jayathas.

His alleged crime – wearing an anti-ISA button badge.

Shortly after leaving a Hindu temple in Bangsar Utama where the prayers were held, a uniformed police officer grabbed Jayathas and said the arrest was because the latter had sported the button badge.

The police had been a little quiet since the days of the wanton Perak vigil arrests, but it seems they are back to their old nonsense now.

Thankfully, Jayathas has been released, but seriously – what on earth was all the fuss about? One little badge threatening national security?

And fifty cops needed for this whole operation? A dozen in riot gear?

Need we any clearer indicators that our police are hopelessly mismanaged? Out hunting badges when they could be stopping crime?

Sigh.

Tags: Law Enforcement by Nathaniel Tan
5 Comments »

LKS:

Denying that the mysterious death of DAP political aide Teoh Beng Hock at the MACC headquarters at Plaza Masalam, Shah Alam on July 16, 2009 had attributed to his early retirement, Ahmad said:

“Teoh Beng Hock’s case is nothing. It is a very small case. We have handled much bigger cases.’’

Really?

That’s strange, I don’t seem to recall any other case where the MACC was so strongly suspected of murder, do you?

Ahmad Said thinks that money is bigger that human life?

>:(

Tags: Crime, Impunity, Law Enforcement by Nathaniel Tan
14 Comments »

Updated: see Malik Imtiaz’s insightful comment re: motive and prosecution oddities. Thanks bro!

I agree with the majority who still raise the two most burning questions:

1. What was their motive?
2. Could they possibly have acted without instructions?

That two relatively low ranking policemen could decide not only to murder but to blow up a woman of their own accord, with absolutely nothing to gain (no money, no vengeance, no nothing; isn’t establishing a motive vital to proving a murder? I stand corrected by Jinn), still remains beyond the realm of belief to me.

The highly suspicious circumstances surrounding the process of this trial continue to stick out like a sore thumb. Having never seen their faces, and not knowing how the appeal process will go, we will also cannot know for sure if these two men will actually hang.

If they are going to, it really would be a good time for them to sing – to tell the truth in some hope of finding ablution before the real judgment day, and let the world know what really happened that night.

In all honesty, I’m not sure what kind of penalty befits these two men, who in all likelihood pulled the trigger (and administered that hard-to-procure C4). But I do feel that somebody, somewhere, is escaping unpunished.

Sadly, I do believe that without evidence, we cannot prosecute whoever these people may be. But God help whoever might be hiding or withholding any such evidence, should it exist.

A few decent things have happened in the first week of Najib’s premiership. This is not one of them.

Justice did not prevail today. Let us never cease to pursue it.

Altantuya and family – we’re sorry Malaysia has failed you thus far :(

*

We also seem to be failing Kugan. While we were again distracted by the by-elections, some ridiculous findings by the Ministry of Health were made, and the police have raided the office of the doctor who did the second post-mortem.

The Empire strikes back.

More on this to come soon, I hope.

Updated: See a great, diplomatic article by David Quek on this matter, current president of the Malaysian Medical Association.

Tags: Government Negligence, Judiciary, Law Enforcement by Nathaniel Tan
17 Comments »