Twenty one people were arrested during a peaceful Workers’ Day gathering in KL. Not the best way for the government to observe this day in honour of ordinary workers. Among those arrested are Sungai Siput MP Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj and several other top PSM leaders, including its secretary general S Arutchelvan.
About 500 police personnel in many trucks and cars were deployed to block a peaceful anti-nuclear energy gathering in Port Klang this morning.
Police moved in to stop Anwar from addressing a ceramah outside Azmin Ali’s service centre in Gombak last night. This ceramah, which aimed to highlight the latest developments in his case among othere recent events, began at 9.00pm. A crowd of a few thousand turned up to listen to the various speakers. When it was Anwar’s turn at around 11.30pm, the cops moved in after a few minutes to prevent him from speaking.
The spirit of the protesters at Tahrir Square is just amazing. The latest is that striking doctors and 3,000 staff from a key Cairo hospital along with 3,000 lawyers have joined the protests. A newly appointed Cabinet Minister for Culture has also resigned. According to Aljazeera, “the NDP Secretary General Hossam Badrawi says he expects Mubarak to respond to the demands of the people before Friday. An official statement from the military is imminent”. Is this the end of the road for Mubarak and his regime? “The great tragedy is Obama chose not to hold out his hand”: Robert Fisk on the gap between US rhetoric and action in the Egyptian uprising
After what’s been happening in Egypt, I thought I would draft a memo to dictators and authoritarian leaders around the world to give them some free and unsolicited advice. Dear Mr Dictator/Authoritarian Leader Recent events in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen and elsewhere must be giving you sleepless nights or making you feel terribly uneasy. May I offer a few tips so that you don’t see similar eruptions in your own countries: Do not suppress dissent Allow your people sufficient avenues and outlets to express their frustrations, anger, complaints and criticism. You don’t want their anger and frustration to be pent up. Think of these avenues as built-in safety valves. In this respect, free media and a functioning Parliament have a big role to play. Don’t forget to free up the state-run media as well. Get rid of all repressive laws, especially detention without trial, and bring back democracy quickly before it’s [Read more]
Update: Zunar arrested. But his book launch tonight will proceed as planned, according to Malaysiakini editor Steven Gan. See CartoonKafe. A couple of days ago, I thought that would make a strange and ‘arresting’ headline. Sad to say, reality can be real strange. Malaysiakini reports that half a dozen police personnel raided Zunar’s business premises and confiscated 66 copies of his latest cartoon book ‘Cartoon-o-phobia’, due to be launched tonight.
The New York Times carries a feature on Thai forensics pathologist Pornthip Rojanasunand. BANGKOK— THE mild-mannered bank manager poked his head into the doorway, then quickly pulled it back. His wife was at work, and he did not want to look. He has never looked. He is afraid of corpses. If the body on the stainless steel table inside had somehow awakened for a moment, it might have jumped, too, with shock.
Here’s some footage of what happened at the Sultan Sulaiman Club in Kampung Baru on 7 March.
Three people were reportedly injured in the police action at a Pakatan ceramah yesterday. Naguib Mahfuz Ismail (left), Abdul Khalid Hassar and Tahir Said were reportedly injured during the incident last night – Photo courtesy of Shamsul Iskandar’s blog The three, who were members of a Keadilan youth squad, were reportedly hurt when police disrupted the Pakatan ceramah and forced it to move indoors.