cookie-cutter comments

luthien and zero are coming over so i’m very excited!

i can’t decide between sushi or just plain sushi. i’ve got a few phonecalls to make and a few things to arrange over my end, first (unfortunately). i’ve had to suffer the delightful ministrations of this manager from kl who’s down for an.. internal audit of sorts. unfortunately, that means each and everyone of us are passed through his grinding-machine of an intellect. but it’s great, though. [more..]

En Zainul Arifin has written some remarks regarding the whole Police abuse scandal in the NST today, and you can find the link to the article here: “Let’s not miss the wood for the trees“. I’m wondering whether any of his points are fair; I’m sure they are, if we read his remarks without qualification. I tend to believe that the truth is stranger than fiction, and that when examined properly, it does appear that generalizations have a basis in some truth (who woulda thought I’d say this…), that is to say, confirming the perception of the people who either make these generalizations or believe these generalizations.

Anyway, I’ve got some spare time, so I thought I’d look at his article properly (or as much as my liquified brains can tahan).

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Blogsome was down and I feared… (cue drama)!

Anyway, a bit of Pengkalan Pasir confusion. At 8.46pm I get a Star/Maxis sms, as follows:

“6/12 BN’s Hanafi Mamat has won the Pengkalan Pasir seat by a 133-vote majority.”

Then, later at about 9.47pm, I get this:

“6/12 BN has unofficial 129-vote majority in Pengkalan Pasir. There will be automatic (sic) recount at 10am tomorrow as margin is less that 2% of voter turnout.”

Should we wait or start waving white flags?

I thought things in Malaysia will tend to lean toward certain responses, mostly due to our government’s tendency to sit on its arse. My post is over here. Have things become depressingly predictable? Maybe not, but we should fear the coterie of geniuses running things here, shouldn’t we?

Maybe it’s time to take stock?

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I could hardly believe what I was reading. I got several links purloined off SingaporeAngle’s blog, here. It appears that Singapore’s hangman, recently ‘forced’ into retirement, is threatening to sue to Singapore government for wrongful dismissal. I.. I don’t know: I’ll allow you a few moments to let that sink in. Oh, and you can find the articles here and here.

Amid the debates and the storm of opinions from both countries, we have a situation where one man is making complaints about losing his job, which just so happens to be at the very heart of the controversy. Nguyen’s been hanged, now, but I’m hard-put to think my way through the absurdity: one man’s life hung (sic) on the balance, and the excutioner was having an argument about not being able to perform the execution. It’s worthy of a Monty Python skit, at the very least. [more..]

Section 12 of the Amnesty International report has a series of recommendations for the reform of the Police in Malaysia, starting right at the top with calls for the reform and/or repeal of restrictive laws that help maintain the oppressive regime perpetrated by the police.

Let’s suppose, for a while, that the general reasons for the continued oppression by the police is a function of a lack of transparency and the overt threat of force against citizens.

This overt threat of force is maintained by, among others, the ISA and the various emergency laws still in effect in Malaysia. There is also no oversight, and/or no avenues provided for legal representatives and/or NGOs, for repressive practices such as torture or ill-treatment. [more..]

I kicked up the dirt with my safety boots, walking through the puffs of sand and dust. It was overcast and the air smelled of rain, and the day was still young. I shuffled through a stack of papers on my clipboard, thinking about the sheer drama some people are willing to put up with - most of all in themselves. Hyperbole I can take: I’m prone to impressing little cousins and grand cousins that way. Melodramatizing the issue I cannot take.

Enter offending article A: Mrs B, let’s call her. Cute in that 40-plus, worn out way with highlighted hair and the usual layer of gunk on her face. She looked like she still had a body to impress, but knowing how elegantly-cut clothes and push-up bras do wonders, I remained skeptical. That doesn’t mean I didn’t pay close attention to her, of course. She had her hair tied up and wisps fell across her eyes as she frowned in the effort to speak BBC english: mangled, accented and completely ah lian. Endearing, ya? [more..]

Cowardice is defined as an ignoble fear in the face of danger or pain. An ignoble fear, a base, mean fear in the face of danger or pain. It surprised me. I don’t know anything enobling about fear; it turns your knees to water; you feel your stomach churn; your mouth goes dry, not an ounce of spittle left. If you have loved ones, your fear turns into fear for them.

I wonder how far outrage really outpaces fear. Outrage is all well and good, but when you’re allowed to think things through, I wonder how fast conclusions are drawn about your own fate. I wonder how long the government will continue to encumber us with outrage, but maybe I’m more concerned about how long the government intends for us to fear them.

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I don’t know why but it feels like a Friday. It’s felt like a Friday ever since my company announced that we’d be forced to clear our leave, with the exception of a few days brought forward. That would set me up for 2 weeks of doing completely nothing. Completely nothing. The thought of that just washed away any other thoughts salaried workers think of come year-end. It’s made me more of a rabbit on hyperdrive digging away at holes in the ground, trying to finish up stuff I’d have left over till next month to do. Unfortunately, that also means I’ve been having less sleep than required. Hazardous, my colleagues say, bah fuck: I’ve got more days of leave to clear than they — all of them — have.

Ha. Haha. Ha.

Pathetic isn’t it?
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Some comments and thoughts on what I’ve read so far of the Amnesty International report “Malaysia: Towards Human Rights Policing” which I think we should all give a look through. Among the things mentioned is something I’ve tried putting into words in my previous post here and elsewhere. The same sentiment is worded more clearly in the above report:

“It is widely acknowledged in studies of police that they cannot be effective unless they have the consent of the people being policed. This is achieved when society believes that policing is impartial and carried out on behalf of all the community, rather than favouring certain groups within it. Further, a police service will be most effective, and will maintain the confidence, trust and respect of the public, when it is representative of the community.”

And,

“The [UN General Assembly] Resolution [34/169] and the [UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials 1979], by setting out that ‘every law enforcement agency should be representative of and responsive and accountable to the community as a whole‘, establishes a fundamental standard on the nature of human rights-based policing, and the relationship police should have with the communities they serve and the political system within which they function”

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For those interested, Amnesty International had posted a rather long document on their recommendations for police reform in Malaysia. Isn’t it sad? We’ve had a Royal Commission to examine our police force, and outsiders making benign recommendations and still nothing seems to change. You can find a link over here:

Malaysia: Towards Human Rights-based Policing

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It’s been a crazy past few days, but it’s gratifying to see the nation up in arms over the police abuse scandal - even more so than the AP abuse scandal. Everyone seems to be talking about it. My colleagues are a bit more blaise about it all, mostly because we all seem up close and personal how the police deal with matters.

I’ll have to look out for the news tomorrow in the papers: the incumbent either reacts in the way the public expects it to, or there will be more murmurs in the dark about abuse. To have all of this come at the heels of the Royal Commission on the Police is even more telling: that all of this goes on unchecked, despite the spotlight being on the police at the time.

The police have always had an image problem. As one commenter on another site concluded, it appeared as if the police and the incumbent works hand-in-glove with each other. I wonder how much of this is true, and I wouldn’t want to speculate without getting some facts. But the questions now are more insistent than ever.

It almost makes me forget I’m still doing office work at home.

A quick update to my previous post:

• Anwar Ibrahim speaks out about the abuse scandal in the Taipei Times over here. Having been a victim himself, this statement could potentially blow the lid off the whole inner workings of the police if used carefully.
• Carboncopy’s found a BBC news article on the Deputy IGP Musa’s statement contradicting PM Abdullah. Now that it’s out in the open that his statement’s contradictory, you can be dead certain of his resignation. PM Abdullah can’t back out and claim the IGP misunderstood (his statement is very clear) without looking weak and ineffectual, and the IGP is in a corner. Either he resigns or retracts his statement, launches a very public investigation into the actions of the policewoman.
• Unfortunately, this Telegraph newsbit captures the situation succintly. As much as we need focus on the abuse, it will be inevitable that the race card gets tossed in. Hopefully we can stay the course and not let this be another reason for nationalists to wave the kris and gloss over everything with threats about ‘May 13th’.
• Girl of May’s posted an interesting link to a whole list of police abuses reported in our local dailies; note, of the cases reported, I have no clear idea which of these reports have been found in Malaysian courts to withstand due process.
• Most infuriating of all is a post from Teresa Kok over here. That she needs to be mindful of repercussions in our country is just very, very telling. Accidents do happen, don’t they? Let’s not be naive: something may happen. Bloody police state.

Some comments: Has anyone wondered how anyone would have the balls to contradict the DPM’s statement about the nature of the abuse? I mean, Deputy IGP Musa very well knows what the politicians from BN are saying about this. So where does he get the gumption to speak as he did?

Arrogance? Or, really, something else?

Ah.. no, no this isn’t a cover up, this is about attacking targets of their choosing. Instead of prosecuting the policewoman in that infamous video clip, the Police are going after the person who took the video clip. It’s all over the Star.

Who shot the scenes? This is the crux of police investigations into the controversial video clip showing a naked Chinese woman doing ear squats while in police custody.

Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Musa Hassan said whoever took the video clip - whether from the force or a civilian – would be charged under the Penal Code with insulting the modesty of a person or intruding into the privacy of a woman.

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Just considering some things, more speculation and nothing concrete. I’ve been thinking about the current police abuse situation and trying to piece together some events that have occurred. I make some general statements, true, but more in the vein of speculation, so forgive me if I offend.

1. Playing Kingmaker
The by-election in Pengkalan Pasir. According to this post and a Malaysiakini report, Anwar Ibrahim is out playing Kingmaker for a PAS candidate. It sounds strange, or does it? Maybe it doesn’t. It allows En Anwar a way out of his own political desert, it makes dead certain he won’t be wandering about for 40 years. The problem with Kingmakers, I gather, is the fact that if they themselves do not have solid footing, their dependence on their favoured’s largesse tends to be precarious. Imagine campaigning for everybody and discovering all of them to be sharks in disguise, unless, that is, he’s sure about his ability to appeal to the masses: harried ex-PM-designate and now demagogue. This will be very interesting to watch.

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