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9.00pm - Five of the activists are released. But Suaram’s Teh Chun Hong and Lau Shu Shi, who is also Penang coordinator of the Abolish ISA Movement (GMI), are still being held. Shu Shi in particular has been actively involved in organising a number of well-attended forums after the 8 March general election. Both are expected to be produced in court in Penang tomorrow morning for possible extension of remand. This reflects badly on the BN federal government’s stance on basic rights and is not likely to win it new friends. Malaysians are not going to be impressed.

7.00pm - Blog reader Kah Seng reports:

MP Liew Chin Tong (Tg Bungah, Bukit Bendera, DAP) was reported there in the afternoon. You reported PKR DUN Ravi was also there.

I was a busy body there from 5pm to 7pm. The police handling was very slow. Went in afternoon, and still taking statements around 7pm. Efficiency? Cepat, cekap, whatever that motto that keeps changing?

Police seemed to be consciously aiming at photo and video takers. Ong was reported to be taking photo when arrested. Satish also said to be following the police with a camera around Gurney Plaza when arrested. Others taking phone video at the police HQ were hassled.

Is the police afraid of multi-racial sympathy toward the ISA detainees?

5.30pm - Three more Hindraf activists or supporters are also said to be held by police: Vimal, Hindraf activist Selvam and press freedom activist Stanley, who had earlier campaigned for a boycott of The Star. This brings the total to seven detained.

3.15pm - About 10-15 people are at the police station. B K Ong, Satish, Suaram Penang coordinator Lau Shu Shi and Suaram secretariat member Teh Chun Ong are being detained. Lawyer Darshan Singh is said to be around.

Teh was taken away in handcuffs after he had used his camera at the station while Shu Shi is now being held in the hall of the police station, guarded by policewomen. When Shu Shi tried to resist upon seeing the police handcuffing her colleague Teh, the policewoman told her not to struggle as she (the policewoman) was pregnant. Shu Shi is not sure if she is under arrest but her IC has been taken away and she is being confined to the hall. B K Ong is believed to be somewhere upstairs in the station.

2.00pm - Penang-based Ong Boon Keong, better known as B K Ong, and blogger Satish were detained around noon today after participating in an hour-long demonstration said to be organised by Hindraf to raise awareness of ISA detainee Uthayakumar’s medical condition. They were rallying in support of his attempts to seek further medical attention at the National Heart Institute (IJN) in KL.

The two were among 30-50 demonstrators who gathered along Gurney Drive outside Gurney Plaza for about an hour, while some of them were said to have attempted to enter the mall.

Police and FRU personnel were at the scene. It is not immediately known what circumstances led to the two being held.

A similar demonstration was held at the Prai Megamall on the mainland.

Ong, who runs the Penang Watch website, and Satish are now being held at the Patani Road police station. Supporters are waiting in the hall downstairs while Penang State Assembly member Ravi from PKR is now at the scene. I had only met B K Ong at a forum in Penang last night when we were both on the same panel at a Suaram forum discussing the role of Public Service Media and how it can be strengthened.

We also critiqued the Pakatan Rakyat’s plans to set up its own newspaper for five states and discussed whether this was a good move.

Ong felt that steps should be taken to make it more independent than what was being planned.

For my part, I felt that any attempt to set up a state government-backed newspaper would run into problems as it would suffer from credibility issues as a result of public perception of it being backed by the state - especially if editors and key staff are appointed by the party. Such journalism would serve the interests of political masters rather than the public.

Good journalism should challenge and critique oppressive power structures. And it would be difficult to do that if a newspaper is funded or owned by the state or if its editors and key staff were appointed by political parties. Surely, that would compromise its editorial independence and journalistic integrity.

Now this is why the Penang state government should not go ahead with its plan to install CCTV cameras in crime-prone areas. The only people to benefit will be the camera and equipment suppliers.

The UK has the most CCTV cameras - but it has been an utter fiasco as this report from This is London: reveals:

Billions spent on CCTV have failed to cut crime and led to an ‘utter fiasco’, says Scotland Yard surveillance chief

Last updated at 11:22am on 07.05.08

The billions of pounds spent covering Britain with CCTV cameras has been an “utter fiasco” and failed to slash crime, Scotland Yard’s surveillance chief has said.

Detective Chief Inspector Mick Neville said a Metropolitan Police pilot project found just three per cent of street robberies in London were solved using CCTV images.

He claimed the vast swathes of money spent on cameras had been wasted because criminals don’t fear the cameras.

But Mr Neville also castigated the police and claimed officers can’t be bothered to seek out CCTV images because it’s “hard work”.

The comments from Mr Neville, who is the head of the Visual Images, Identifications and Detections Office (Viido) at Scotland Yard, will further cast doubt on the spread of surveillance in Britain.

Britain has one per cent of the world’s population but, incredibly, 20 per cent of its CCTV cameras - the equivalent of one for every 14 people.

Last year it emerged the £200m spent on 10,000 crime-fighting cameras in London had had little effect on reducing offending.

A comparison of the number of cameras in each London borough with the proportion of crimes solved there found that police were no more likely to catch offenders in areas with hundreds of cameras than in those with hardly any.

Speaking at a security conference in London, Mr Neville claimed the use of CCTV images for court evidence had been very poor so far.

He said: “CCTV was originally seen as a preventative measure.

“Billions of pounds have been spent on kit, but no thought has gone into how the police are going to use the images and how they will be used in court.

“It’s been an utter fiasco: only three per cent of crimes were solved by CCTV.

“Why don’t people fear it? They think the cameras are not working.”…

So please don’t waste public money on CCTV cameras. Rather, get to the root causes of the rising crime rate and tackle them.

Meanwhile, hot off the oven:

Question #47 - Mei 2008

Liew Chin Tong (Bukit Bendera) asks the Minister of Housing and Local Government to state the direction and time frame to establish local council elections to start a new chapter of democracy in Malaysia.

Minister’s Response:
The Government does not plan to conduct any local council elections.

Well, we can’t wait for the BN-led Federal Government, which is so out of touch with the people’s aspirations. The Pakatan state governments must come up with a quick road map to push through local government elections.

Well, well, well, what do we have here?

Pas is fielding a non-Muslim Indian Malaysian woman as a candidate for the Tiram state seat in Johor: 29-year-old law graduate Kumutha Rahman.

Okay, it might be a gimmick to attract non-Muslim votes. After all, even Hishamuddin “the keris man” Hussein has agreed to re-open the original Damansara Chinese school in Petaling Jaya, which was closed in 2001. Amazing what elections can do!

It remains to be seen if this Pas move is just tokenism or the start of a journey to reach out to “The Other”.

But all said and done, it is a breakthrough. This is exactly the sort of “out-of-the-box” thinking that we need to shape a new political landscape in our land, breaking down ethnic, religious and mental barriers.

Check out this NST report:

ELECTION 2008: Pas breaks own taboo to field first non-Muslim candidate
By : Syed Umar Ariff

JOHOR BARU, Thurs:

Kumutha Rahman looked nervous as pressmen, armed with notebooks and recorders, jostled through the crowd for an interview with her. The 29-year-old law graduate, who had just been named as the first non-Muslim candidate to be fielded by Pas, listened attentively to the questions hurled at her when Johor Pas announced their candidates at their headquarters in Batu Pahat.

KUMUTHA Rahman looked nervous as pressmen, armed with notebooks and recorders, jostled through the crowd for an interview with her.
The 29-year-old law graduate, who had just been named as the first non-Muslim candidate to be fielded by Pas, listened attentively to the questions hurled at her when Johor Pas announced their candidates at their headquarters in Batu Pahat.
She is contesting the Tiram state seat. But knowing the realities perhaps, Pas is fielding her under the Parti Keadilan Rakyat symbol based on the electoral pact the two parties have entered into.

Still, is she in for a culture shock? Will she be able to speak the language of Pas where Arabic phrases and Quranic verses matter most? Will she have to physically cover herself more than ever?

“I know I won’t feel alienated because I believe voters nowadays are open-minded,” she said. “I also know that Muslims and non-Muslims will be able to accept me.”
A member of the one-month old Unity Bureau under the Johor non-Muslim Pas Supporters Club, Kumutha may be oblivious to the fact that she had broken the conservative Islamic party’s 61-year-old tradition of only fielding Muslims as candidates.

“I joined the club because I see that Pas is not bent on racialism. To me all races be they Malays, Chinese or Indians are all the same.”

Making the announcement was Johor Pas commissioner Datuk Mahfodz Mohamed, returning to contest for the Bukit Serampang state seat, said the move signified Pas’ tolerance towards other races.

The move to field a non-Muslim candidate comes hot on the heels of another shock announcement reported in the AP agency yesterday but hardly given a mention anywhere else in the local press: the party has dropped from its electoral platform its pledge to create an Islamic state. Instead, its slogan will be “a nation of care and opportunity”.

“We offer equal justice to all, justice in economy opportunities and freedom of religion,” Abdul Hadi said. “We promise a government that is trustworthy, just and clean which will be able to give the people a better life.”

Can’t argue with that!

What is even more interesting to me is that Pas has borrowed a key idea from civil society groups. The party has unveiled a plan to use the country’s oil profits to pay for health care and retain oil subsidies.

Now, the health care financing bit comes straight out of the Coalition Against Health Care Privatisation’s People’s Proposal - and it is certainly do-able, instead of wasting our oil profits on mega projects that do not benefit the ordinary people. Think of how much our general hospitals could be improved if we used our oil profits to benefit the people. Why, our general hospitals could be on par with - or even better than - any private hospital in the land! At present, the government is spending only 2 per cent of GDP on public health care when it should be spending 5 per cent or more.

It’s about time political parties took this proposal seriously. Like you, I know of too many people who have suffered tremendously because of long waiting lists and a critical shortage of specialists and doctors in our general hospitals.

This is what the Coalition had proposed two years ago (bear in mind that Petronas’ profit is now two or three times higher than what it was in 2004):

“National Health Fund

We therefore propose a new funding formula to safeguard the health of all Malaysians. It could be called the National Health Fund, but it should not be financed from the pockets of individual Malaysians. There are plenty of viable and present alternatives. They include: