Zaid Ibrahim’s resignation letter has apparently been rejected by the PM, the NST reports.
The PM has instead urged Zaid to take two weeks’ leave and then continue with judicial reforms.
Meanwhile, stung by a barrage a criticism, the police have defended the ISA arrests in a media statement here. An excerpt:
In recent weeks, there has been an escalation of racially insensitive, seditious and disparaging acts and remarks by individuals and organisations bringing about a state of unrest and religious tension in the country.
When the police decided to invoke the ISA, the decision was based on intelligence and observation that certain acts by the individuals concerned were detrimental to the calm, peace and harmony of the country.
These acts if not curtailed would cause public disorder and be a threat to national security. An arrest under the ISA is only made when the police strongly believes that certain acts by individual can pose a serious threat to public order and national security.
These are the grounds in which the police based their decision on.
When there are reasonable ground the police will act accordingly under the provisions of Section 73(1) of the ISA. An arrest under the Section provides the police with means to investigate and verify whether the intelligence received can be substantiated.
In the case of the Sin Chew Daily news reporter, she was released as soon as the police had verified the intelligence and found no grounds to detain her further.
In the case of Raja Petra Kamaruddin and Teresa Kok, the police need time to investigate further on their alleged involvement in acts that can be considered as prejudicial to the security of the country.
I am glad that Zaid has the guts & principal to resign, but I hope that this is not another sendiwara or wayang kulit.
Let’s see whether the principal holds water.
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If Zaid is really a man of principles, he will stand by his decision. Otherwise this will be just another wayang……
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If that is so,the police should have haul up Ahmad as well.What about SIL and Hisham?
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PDRM, you have no dignity. You can never be respected based on your current modus operandi. …
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double standard!!! just merely wayang only for their UMNO boss….
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This is politics. In this craft principles are applied only if it furthers one’s political agenda. Power is the essence.
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Pak Lah (PL) is a very lonely man in UMNO and in need of all the support he can get. Zaid is indepted to PL for making him Senator and a ‘Back Door’ Minister. So, how could PL let him go?
PL also knows about Mat’s reputation, but he needs Mat’s (and his grassroots’) support. A tell-tale sign of PL’s desperate situation.
Other than Zaid and a few others, PL chose to surround himself with a bunch of … half-baked comedians.
KJ is a wasted talent due to his impatience … He’ll be out come December. Pity.
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The media statement by the Police smacks of self serving hypocrisy. There was not even a hint of regret or apology. They surely do not need to make discriminate arrests under the ISA to verify their [lack of] intelligence. The obvious culprits who stoked unrest were not arrested. They do not appear to have even been questioned. You and I know who they are. This act of injustice is ‘detrimental to calm, peace and harmony in the country’, to borrow a phrase from their statement. Law enforcement in Malaysia has reached a new low.
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Dear Anil and readers…..
Holding anti-ISA virgils and protest and signature campaigns are now getting boring… and a waste of time….
PLEASE, we have been suffering for 50 years under UMNO rules and the lies of their MSM, especially the UTUSAN Melayu that lied about Teresa Kok being able to stop the Azan prayers… what kind of power does she wield to be able to do that? Even her boss, the CM who is a moslem just cannot do that.. so it is clearly the biggest lie the idiotic govt has ever done…
So to all PKR and Teresa Kok supporters, this is what you should do to show your power. Forget about street protest for thats a total waste of time and energy.
Sassy Team and Anil Team should buy just one copy of this stupid UTUSAN, study the content and boycott all businesses that is taking advertisement in this MSM paper. Tell all other biz to avoid this newspaper, let them print and sell the the hungry ghost. Do this until they close down due near zero sales of the paper, just let UMNO buy their own papers…
I REPEAT, all ordinary people should stop buying the Utusan, and boycott all bizness that are sending commrecial adverts to this paper…
IF MALAYSIANS want a change, then they should be prepared to do a simple, no cost, no danger type affirmative actions….
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Hi Anil
Bad decision by the police. Not much common sense but then common sense is not common.
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When I was a young ‘un, I was constantly fascinated by television series of the police and other law enforcement agencies. I adored them. The term ‘intelligence’ was then synonymous with the work of these agencies. Now, in the wake of the vast number of unsolved crimes in Malaysia – especially crimes against the young – and plainly irrational inconsistencies, such as the arrest of the journalist and not the racist politician, terms like ‘intelligence’ and ‘observation’ (with both eyes closed?) leave me cold, unconvinced and disbelieving. I guess I’m no longer a wide-eyed young ‘un. And I dare say, neither are my fellow Malaysians.
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nice show.
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So, would Zaid a U-turn to stay or would he insists on going?
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Anil high stakes poker game going on here,i think nobody has a pair,straight or flush in their hands.
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Dear Anil,
Pls post this letter in your blog , so it can reach YANG MAHAMULIA TERHORMAT RAJA PETRA KAMARUDDIN.
15TH SEPTEMBER 2008,
Hi pete ,i heard you are not eatinglah tak mau minumlah.WHAT IS THIS MAN ? U SUDAH TUA KAH ?or SUDAH TAKUT KAH?
waitlah releks brother,,You have done your part … so now it’s time to just sit & watch … Give a chance to our brother ANWAR for another five year’s and I believe HE WILL HONOUR HIS PROMISES TO ALLAH.
now i tell you just ask for some beer’s get a TV with ASTRO connection ,INTERNET its a must.WATCH ,HOW the (they) fight each other.
REHAT LAH SEKETIKA …
than,,,,,,,,,,
I BELIEVE you will listen to me because I have the THE SAME BEILEVE which you have in YOU with me.
HONURABLE MARINA, Pls send this letter from a unknown friend of RPK.
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If one resigns from a company, one will only agree to stay on if the original reason(s) for resignation is(are) remedied.
Otherwise, it is just another sandiwara which UMNO leaders are so famous for.
So YB Zaid,
Will you still walk out of this job if the 2 are not released by the time you come back from your holidays ?
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Non-related Update – 15 Sept 2008
As I was looking for parking space in the vicinity of Holy Spirit Cathedral – Penang, to attend Holy Mass to pray for justice and peace et al, I saw some 6 policemen or so on motorcycles arriving at the cathedral.
This is not to alarm everyone unnecessarily, but, in hope that people are made aware of the presence of our, sadly, not-so-impeccable or professional enforcement authorities of late, whether rightly or wrongly, at this venue on such time, in case any untoward incident were to happen.
By the way, our Malaysian Internet connection is considerably slow today to the extent that it is quite artificial in effect when compared with the published connection rate.
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Let us hope that Zaid stick to his decision. He should resign if those ISA detainees are still in there.
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Misinformation, full of distortions, wrong sampling and the end result you will get totally wrong input that lead to wrong decision. When? Why? Where? what? Who? How-all these simple ‘Q’ were not satisfactorily answered and they all jump to make people suffer. So this is what they call intelligent and detail observation by the authority. Just admit it, release them or charge in open court or else quit, no more excuses and stop making grandfather story. So ‘apa lagi’ Mr. Home Affairs tell your loyal servant get back to work and don’t play politics, RELEASE ALL ISA DETAINEES NOW.
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Don’t know what is the PM doing, stopping him from the resignation. If you ask me, he’s trying to hold those people to him, afraid that if Zaid goes, more will follow and losing a whole lot of support from the rakyat. Well, just my 2 cents.
Brian
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The police has now issued a statement, citing “intelligence”, to justify the ISA arrests AND non-arrests.
To paraphase the Malaysian Police statement for your benefit:
“We heard something suspicious about RPK, Teresa Kok and Ms Tan, but we heard nothing suspicious about Ahmad Ismail, Tan Tsu Khoon, Khir Toyo and the Utusan Melayu Editor. Based on the imaginary rumours, we had to arrest RPK, Teresa Kok and Ms Tan. Based on the imaginary non-romours or non-imaginary rumours, we have no grounds to arrest Ahmad, Koh, Khir Toyo or the Utusan Editor.
“We urge the public not to create or listen to rumours because we the Police have created our own rumours and also heard them as well. The only difference is that, being a Secret Society ourselves, our imaginary rumours are copyrighted as “Malaysian Police Intelligence (MPI)”.
Malaysia is a Democractic Police State in which we the Police, as legal gangsters and democratic criminals, must exercise democracy by arresting some and not arresting others based on MPI which we cannot tell you, of course. Yours sincerely: Ismail Omar, on behalf of Musa Hassan, Syed Hamid Albar and Abdullah Badawi.”
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A man for all seasons. A Thomas Moore.
A letter offering resignation.
Mahathir resigned in a huff. Zaid Ibrahim offered to resign, with no huff to huff about. Mahathir should have offered to resign. Abdullah Badawi would have told him to take two weeks’ rest. Abdullah would need Mahathir for his judiciary reform programme. How many words in this paragraph (including names) do you believe?
Sandiwara. Who is cleverer? Zaid or Mahathir?
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two week leave and come back for what?
after ISA, come back to continue with judicial reforms?
what a load of rubbish! what a dumb PM.
the police dare not even come out and explain.
they only issued statement and afraid to face Q&A.
…
after 18-20 hours of detaining a reporter, their reasonable ground became unreasonable? really no intelligence there.
hamid botak. if you do not know what you are signing,
you are going to sign away this country to destruction. one day.
you still wouldn’t know it after that.
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The explaination by the police on the reasons of taking the trio under ISA is pure *******. What intelligence they are talking about?
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POlice justified ISA action, better Zaid dont come back after leave , such a shame. cos ISA will be use again,only came back when ISA is thrown out and immediate release of all detainee.
if ZAID comes back he must hold his water. if not its just a sandiwara.
left right centre Badawi is ******, he reject the letter , his enemies were get bolder, he accept ,he get barrage of critism. he change his mind. he will be tag flip flop PM forever,
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