Malaysia Worse Ever Riots

[Merlin]

Rarely have riots been as bad as this in Malaysia.

Anti-ISA riots hits Malaysia as 15k people pour out on roads

1 Aug [IndianExpress] Malaysia was stuck by its worst ever riots, as thousands of protestors took to the streets demanding abolishing of the draconian internal security law, forcing police to fire tear gas and lobbed water cannons to disperse them.

Defying government warnings, around 15,000 protestors were on streets in response to the call by the opposition, and later a police spokesman said 175 people had been arrested amidst chaotic scenes in downtown area of the city.

It all began in small gatherings in street corners which later swelled into a huge protest march with people intending to march to the Royal Palace to register their protest. ....

The new Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak denounced the protest saying it was unnecessary as he had already announced to review the Internal Security Act (ISA), a hangover from colonial times.

The gathering is being considered the largest since the 2007 ethnic Indian protests organised by the outlawed Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf). Some online sites put the number of demonstrators as high as 20,000. ....

[Merlin]

The Internal Securities Act was first enacted by the British colonial master. The US, Malaysia, Singapore after their independence re-enacted or retained it in modified form.

Massive demonstration, serious jam in Malaysia capital

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 1 (Xinhua) -- Massive demonstration against the Internal Security Act (ISA) took place here on Saturday, resulting in terrible jams heading towards the city.

More than 30,000 people took part in the procession starting at various locations in the city towards the National Palace to hand over a memorandum to the King on the abolishment of the ISA. ....

The ISA was enacted to deal with certain threats the country faced. It allowed the police to detain suspected people for 60 days without trial. The detention period may be extended to two years at the consent of Malaysian Home Minister.

However, those who object to the ISA are of the view that the government has been misusing the act as a tool against the members of the opposition parties.

They have also claimed that there are detainees who have been detained for eight years at the Kamunting Detention Center in Perak State. ....

[Bigfella]

Rarely have riots been as bad as this in Malaysia.

Anti-ISA riots hits Malaysia as 15k people pour out on roads

Merlin,

Surely the '69 riots were a great deal worse then this. They took place over a 2 month period & cost between 200 & 2000 lives (depending on whose estimates you believe). The current riots hardly compare.

On another note, this is further evidence of a) the complete lack of historical knowledge of people who run modern media outlets; and b) the sort of sensationalist & even hysterical reporting that seems to be the stock in trade of the Indian media.

[LongshotSNN]

*yawn* The Malaysian Opposition seriously needs to get their act together. No mean feat trying to pull seriously disparate ideologies into a coherent national plan, but time's running out for them and they will continue to be sidelined by Najib's men from all angles.

in an aside, I'm glad my friend (who's working part-time with the DAP side again) managed to get out of the mass arrests quite safely.

[Merlin]

This below is what the Malaysia opposition Pakatan thinks.

The ISA may be useful in some genuine terrorism cases, it does help to weaken and make life difficult for the opposition.

Pakatan claims anti-ISA success despite police action

1 Aug [SinChew] KUALA LUMPUR: Pakatan Rakyat believes it has succeeded in holding a mass rally to call for the abolition of the Internal Security Act (ISA) despite what they described as “excessive force” used by the police to crush an event which turn the country’s capital into a warzone.

The opposition pact’s leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said today police reaction to the peaceful protest was “unwarranted” as hundreds have been arrested while demonstrators, including him, were teargassed and fired with chemical-laced water but maintained that they prevailed in “proving the point.” ....

He said PR and rally organisers, the Abolish ISA Movement (GMI) then resorted to holding a rally at various points in the capital and planned to march towards the National Palace to hand over a resolution to the King but failed after police and riot squads blocked off all major routes leading to the palace.

Salahuddin Ayub, vice-president of PAS, said even though they did not manage to send the resolution to the King, he still considered today’s event a success as it had managed to mobilise some 20,000 participants. ....

GMI chairman and rally chief coordinator Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh said although Najib had promised to review the law, the group have longed believe that the ISA, which allows detention without trial, should be abolished altogether. ....

[sunnyamy]

RIP Teoh Beng Hock, R.Gunasegaran, and may your killers be brought to justice.

Posted on July 28, 2009 by Susan Loone -A special memorial will be held tomorrow night at KLSCAH tomorrow night, the 14th day of Beng Hock’s death.

But this is not one for him alone, but for all others who perished in custody – police lock-up, prison, detention camp.

We do not have the figure since the inception of Malaya or Malaysia.

From 2003 to date, the number is 1,804 excluding Beng Hock.

That is 23 deaths every month, or 3 deaths every four days.

One life lost is too much. Is it not? When Beng Hock died, many of us would like him to be the last.

He did not make it. R.Gunasegaran, 31, died in custody in Sentul a few hours after Beng Hock’s death.

Can we still feel indifferent?

Come tomorrow night to KLSCAH, in black. (Please avoid bright colour even if you dont have anything black.)

Light a candle for the dead who should be living.

There will be no political speech.

There will be no religious ceremony.

There will be only tribute to the dead and reflections of the living.

[sunnyamy]

Merlin,

Surely the '69 riots were a great deal worse then this. They took place over a 2 month period & cost between 200 & 2000 lives (depending on whose estimates you believe). The current riots hardly compare.

On another note, this is further evidence of a) the complete lack of historical knowledge of people who run modern media outlets; and b) the sort of sensationalist & even hysterical reporting that seems to be the stock in trade of the Indian media.

Yes - not enough have died in custody this time round.

[Bigfella]

Yes - not enough have died in custody this time round.

I'm sure that you know what you are talking about, but I don't have a clue. If this relates to the information in the above post it still makes no sense. I guess I could descend into hysterics & demand that you not comment on my posts, but a simple explanation with the relevant facts will do just fine.

[sunnyamy]

I'm sure that you know what you are talking about, but I don't have a clue. If this relates to the information in the above post it still makes no sense. I guess I could descend into hysterics & demand that you not comment on my posts, but a simple explanation with the relevant facts will do just fine.

So 1,806 deaths in custody is not enough? Don't pretend to be stupid, Mr I've been to Malaysia.

[Merlin]

We'll see how these dissents unfold for the new Malaysian PM. Time magazine here says his honeymoon is over.

Why the Honeymoon is Over for Malaysia's New PM

6 Aug [Time] Since coming into power in April, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has announced a slew of people-friendly policies. He made moves to liberalize the economy and improve simmering ethnic tensions by easing up on wealth ownership rules that had long-favored native Malays over the nation's significant Chinese and Indian minorities.

The citizens those policies were aimed to please rewarded Najib with good numbers: In mid-July, public opinion polls showed the new PM with high approval ratings of 70%, compared to low ratings of 35% as deputy PM before taking office.

But on August 1, all those cozy feelings came under a cloud after Najib's government sent out over 3,700 police personnel to employ their batons, tear gas and chemical-laced water cannons to disperse an estimated 20,000 people who had marched in the capital to demand the repeal of the longstanding Internal Security Act (ISA) security law that is often used against political opponents. Over 500 people were arrested — the biggest mass arrest since the city's race riots in 1969 — and over 50 people have been charged with taking part in an illegal assembly, a crime punishable with two-years in prison if found guilty.

Among those arrested were about 40 minors under the age of 18 years who were held overnight in police lock ups, whose parents National Police Chief Mr Musa Hassan has also vowed to charge under the Child Act for allowing them to take part in the protest. .....

There has been signs that the nation's honeymoon with its new leader was coming to an end. In July, a former government minister who defected to the opposition had told local media that Mr Najib is an "iron fist in a velvet glove." The mayhem on Saturday, his critics are now saying, are a harbinger of worse things to come.

The brutal display of force unfolded in the middle of a Saturday afternoon in central Kuala Lumpur as protesters marched to Istana Negara palace to ask King Mizan Zainal Abidin — whose role in Malaysia today is largely ceremonial — to repeal the ISA law.

The law, under which detained persons can be held without trial for years under the act, was first enacted in 1948 to use against communist insurgents, but has always been abused. In September 2008, the ISA was resurrected to temporarily arrest a young journalist, a popular lawmaker and a blogger, sparking national outrage and prompting the opposition to annouce Saturday's protest a month ahead of the one year anniversary of the event.

Najib immediately defended this stringent call to order, saying the massive protest was orchestrated by his political rival, Anwar Ibrahim. Many have observed that Ibrahim, currently an MP who has weathered his own political storms in recent years, has been styling himself as the prime-minister-in waiting. ....

[Bigfella]

So 1,806 deaths in custody is not enough? Don't pretend to be stupid.

If you want to start throwing around abuse then you will lose - trust me, I'm better at it.

Personally I'm disinclined to get into an ongoing debate with you again after the hysterics & sulking the last few times. The moment this round gets tedious I'll be pulling the plug.

You appear to have confused the concept of deaths resulting from riots with deaths in police/government custody. You have also chosen to compare figures from a 6 year period with those from a 3 month period.

In order for you to mount any meaningful challenge to my original statement (as opposed to just sniping) you need to establish a few actual facts:

*Of the figures generally given for the 1969 riots, how many include deaths in custody?

*What is a comparable figure for deaths in custody in the 6 years before the 1969 riots?

*In both cases how many people died in anything that might remotely be described as a riot? (I'll take lower level communal violence too).

*How did the people who died in custody die?

*How many of those who died in custody were arrested for rioting?

*How many were arrested for THESE riots?

There are other questions, but this is a good start.

People die in police custody & jail all the time. In Australia we have actually had a number of high level investigations into the phenomenon. If you want to make some sort of point out of it you will need more than just the figures.

I was making a simple commentary on the nature of the media coverage & what appeared to me to be an obvious innacuracy. Quite what this has to do with deaths in custody old or new is still mystery to me. Seems a pretty poor excuse to take a swipe at me.

Oh, and why no RIP for poor R.Gunasegaran?

[sunnyamy]

You appear to have confused the concept of deaths resulting from riots with deaths in police/government custody. You have also chosen to compare figures from a 6 year period with those from a 3 month period.

How many Australians died in police custody over a 6 year period?

[Bigfella]

How many Australians died in police custody over a 6 year period?

non-responsive. Try again.

[Bigfella]

Anwar Ibrahim

A piece from the Economist on the would-be PM. I would love to see hin succeed, but he has to keep a lot of balls in the air & he has yet to prove he can back up the smooth words. I also can't shake the feeling that he is more Mahatir than Mandela. Still, a fascinating man.

Banyan

Malaysia's chameleon

Jul 30th 2009

From The Economist print edition

The rise, fall and rise of Anwar Ibrahim, South-East Asia’s most extraordinary politician


ONE evening in mid-July Anwar Ibrahim was deep in the rubber-tapping state of Kelantan in northern Malaysia, urging a crowd of rural folk to vote for a devout fishmonger. The candidate was from the conservative Islamic Party (PAS). A tiny by-election for the state assembly PAS already dominates is ordinarily small beer (or would be, if PAS allowed such a beverage, which it does not). But Mr Anwar needs PAS. For the paradox is that without the Islamists, the alliance he leads of Malay modernisers, Indians and secular Chinese has little chance of driving the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) from power. The coalition that UMNO dominates has ruled Malaysia since independence in 1957. Mr Anwar longs for UMNO’s destruction. The feeling is mutual.

That morning, Mr Anwar had been in Perth where he had met Australia’s foreign minister. What had he been doing with Stephen Smith? “Plotting,” replies Mr Anwar, with a conspiratorial wink. Mr Anwar spends a lot of time abroad with national and religious leaders whose names he drops slightly too easily into an engaging conversational style. He moves like quicksilver from one intriguing subject to the next, but you get the uncanny sense that he is speaking to what interests you.

Mr Anwar thinks he will soon need international support. Two days after stumping in Kelantan, pre-trial hearings began in a case in which Mr Anwar stands accused of sodomising a political aide “against the order of nature”. Mr Anwar vigorously denies the charges. He says he is the victim of a political stitch-up. International outrage might help him. Much is fishy about the case. Photographs of the former aide who brought the accusations show him with UMNO members, including people close to the current prime minister, Najib Razak. The charge has been changed from sexual assault to “consensual sex”, yet his accuser has not been charged. (All homosexuality is illegal in Malaysia.)

Mr Anwar has been here before. In 1998 he was charged with corruption and homosexual acts. In custody, he was beaten up by the chief of police. He spent six years in jail, mostly in solitary confinement, until his conviction was overturned. Upon release, his political career seemed over.

It is easy to forget now but for many years Mr Anwar led a charmed life. He made his name as an Islamist student leader in the 1970s and was even jailed under the draconian Internal Security Act. Then he shocked his former colleagues by joining UMNO, where his rise was spectacular. By 1993 he was deputy prime minister and heir to Mahathir Mohamad, the country’s long-serving leader. Malaysia seemed about to fall into his lap. “Ah,” says Mr Anwar, “the good old days.”

But during the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98, Mr Anwar moved too soon against his mentor, who after 16 years in power was not ready to bow out. Mr Anwar railed against the UMNO cronyism from which he had benefited. Livid, Dr Mahathir threw him out of the cabinet and launched Mr Anwar’s persecution. Mr Anwar’s reformasi movement sputtered out with his jailing.

Yet the hopes which that movement represented surged again after the general election of March 2008, and especially after August 2008 when Mr Anwar won a seat in Penang. In the election the ruling coalition lost its precious two-thirds majority which gave it power to change the constitution. It has since lost five out of six by-elections to Mr Anwar’s forces, which also control four of 13 states. In getting out its message, the opposition has been helped by an explosion of internet opinion that has undermined the influence of the UMNO-controlled mainstream media.

UMNO’s back is against the wall. Even its own officials admit to its arrogance, with corruption bound into the fabric of its power. The New Economic Policy (NEP, introduced in 1971) instituted racial preferences for majority Malays, when ethnic Chinese and Indians owned much of business. But instead of helping the poor, the NEP has enriched rent-seekers around the ruling party, while dragging down economic growth. Resentment has spread from Chinese and Indians to poor or pious Malays.

This has made possible Mr Anwar’s strange alliance. In calling for the end to the NEP, he says poor Chinese and Indians need help as much as Malays—but because there are more poor Malays than other races, they will still get the lion’s share of government help. It is a possible way out from the baneful influence of race on Malaysian politics. But the real strength of this alliance is that Mr Anwar’s charisma and political nous holds it together. Alas, that it is potential weakness, too.

Trials and tribulations

The challenges for Mr Anwar and his alliance will now multiply. For a start, Mr Najib, prime minister since April, has said the NEP must adapt, stealing some of his opponent’s thunder.

Then there is the time-consuming trial. Mr Anwar says he will win whatever the verdict. If he is acquitted, the government which brought the case will be discredited. If found guilty, tens of thousands of supporters will take to the streets. Mr Anwar hints tantalisingly at new information in a murder case that has gripped the country partly because of its links to Mr Najib. This, he suggests, gives him ammunition to fight back.

Intriguing, but it is unlikely to be enough. If Mr Anwar does go to jail, the alliance may not survive the loss of its leader. If he calls out his supporters—for something of the martyr lurks in him—he may be blamed for the ensuing chaos. And if he appeals to international opinion, his local supporters may question that.

This points to a trap waiting to catch the silver-tongued Mr Anwar, who deftly tells different audiences—religious or secular—what they like to hear. The same blogosphere that helped his meteoric rise may one day pay more attention to his chameleon qualities. Malaysians would then come to ask more closely: who and what exactly does Anwar stand for?

Banyan: Malaysia's chameleon | The Economist