Jun 042009
The scene outside the Ipoh police station this morning – Photos by Jong
1021: The police have told those arrested that they will have to wait longer to find out their fate.
“They told us that investigations have not yet been completed,” says blogger Zorro, one of those arrested who had gone to the police station in Ipoh. “Why didn’t they tell us that last night?”
1000: The 69 people arrested outside the Perak government complex on 7 May 2009 and later released on bail will know their fate today. They have turned up at the Ipoh central police station to find out their fate. Also present are Nizar and Kula.
To any member of the Polis who may accidentally read this comment:
DON’T SHAME YOUR ANCESTORS AND DESCENDANTS BY CARRYING OUT STUPID ORDERS FROM WICKED PEOPLE THAT WILL ONLY STAIN YOUR SOUL!
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This is plain harassment by the police. They do this deliberately. It is an unspoken policy of the police. Just like their unspoken policy of deriving confessions from detainees instead of doing proper, systematic investigations….
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Ah, so efficient when they arrested the vigillers and lawyers, the Appeal court also very efficient when they overturn the High Court decision. But this one, investigation not completed??? Seriously, we need to retire a lot of police officers and judges. Time to advertise for new recruitment!
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The police have anticipated that those arrested will not pay the fines. Therefore, the police have told those arrested that they will have to wait a bit longer until there are vacancies in the lock-ups.
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Wah..its easy to arrest CIVILIANS but on what charged? Cops waiting for orders & instruction from thier master?
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UGLY BN GOVT AT THEIR BULLYING BEST AS USUAL
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el Zor & others, pls make a claim for ‘ food & traveling ‘ !
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They were arrested without a reason .
You cant book a person for wearing black colour shirts and when did the law says drinking coffee is an offence?
As most of those ‘arrested” was in a coffee shop and about to sip their cuppa.
The entire event was captured on cameras.
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Ok, so the boys in blue were none too efficient with their investigations. But at least the pics didn’t show any hero in blue using a loud hailer to shout at the lawyers and the 64 Pakatan supporters, hehehe!
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This lack of respect for the People and their resources is simply not acceptable from any State police force.
Suggest the sixty-nine members of the rakyat, who were not only undemocratically persecuted and arrested for no real good reason in the first place but who were also faffed about today, again for no good reason it seems other than the usual PRDM trademarked unprofessionalism, incompetence, inconsideration and high-handedness, send in their personal expense claims to the Ipoh police station (and copied to the IGP and the Home Minister) for reimbursement of their wasted resources (of time and money and energy expended from the hassle/inconvenience) today by the PRDM, and all merely because they were being good, honest, civic-minded citizens and following today what they were “ordered” to do by the PRDM.
The next time they want you to turn up at the Ipoh police station, suggest you ask them to send round a police car to your home to pick you up and return you home!
“Imagine Power To The People” John Lennon.
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Almost a month later and yet investigations are not concluded yet ? Charge them for the offence that happened on that day or let them go.
If there are other charges that the police want to bring up, they will know where to find these folks. Its not like they didn’t show up in Ipoh !!!
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Published on Thursday, June 4, 2009 by CommonDreams.org
Echoes of Solidarity 20 Years after Tiananmen
by Stephen Zunes
Twenty years ago today, I was at Camp Thoreau in New York’s Catskill Mountains. Though I had already become a full-time academic, I was still involved in the topical folk music circles in which I had hung out for much of the previous decade and had come down from Ithaca to join this annual gathering of politically-conscious folk musicians for a weekend of workshops, jam sessions and performances.
As we were clearing our dishes from dinner, I came upon the kitchen volunteers huddled around the radio listening to incoming reports of the massacre then unfolding in and around Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
Serving as the emcee for the concert that evening, I broke the news to the 300 or so singers, songwriters, and musicians assembled. I looked out upon an audience composed of amazing performing artists – Fred Small, Betsy Rose, Charlie King, Matt Jones, Pat Humphries, and many others – who had spent their lives singing songs about such struggles for freedom and justice. The shock, anger and despair was overwhelming. .
I reminded them that, despite efforts by the corporate media to portray the student movement in China as some kind of campaign against socialism, it was in fact a campaign against the tyranny and injustice of Communist Party rule and for a more just and democratic society, a society where workers and peasants had power in reality, not only in name. Indeed, I informed them, the song most frequently sung by the student protesters during the seven weeks they had occupied the heart of China’s capital was none other than “The Internationale.”
I then asked Pete Seeger and Sis Cunningham to join me on stage. Unlike these two veteran radicals – who had sung with Woody Guthrie in the Almanac Singers back in the 1940s – few of my generation knew the words to this international socialist anthem, so I had written them up on butcher paper which I held up for the audience to see. With Pete (accompanying himself on his banjo), Sis, and I leading the chorus of mostly professional singers, nearly 300 voices came together in harmony singing
Arise, you prisoners of starvation!
Arise, you wretched of the earth!
For justice thunders condemnation:
A better world’s in birth!
No more tradition’s chains shall bind us,
Arise you slaves, no more in thrall!
The earth shall rise on new foundations:
We have been nought, we shall be all!
As this diverse group of left-wing musicians sang out together, many of us through our tears, we were making a powerful witness in song, not just in protest of the tragedy then unfolding in Beijing, but at the betrayal of 20th century socialism by all those who, in its name, had become a new class of oppressors and exploiters.
Despite the calamity which took place in China that day, the student martyrs had given the world a glimmer of hope. While the nonviolent movement that had emerged that spring in Beijing and in towns and cities throughout China was brutally crushed, other largely nonviolent movements would emerge elsewhere in the coming years that would bring down scores autocratic regimes, ranging from monarchies to Communist dictatorships to right-wing military juntas. By the end of that year, such unarmed insurrections would usher in democratic governance in Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Chile, and Kenya. During the 1990s, nonviolent movements brought down dictatorships in Mongolia, Mali, Thailand, Madagascar, Indonesia, Nigeria, and elsewhere. This decade has seen strategic nonviolent action play the pivotal role in overcoming corrupt and autocratic rule in such countries as Serbia, Nepal, Georgia, Ukraine and the Maldives.
Liberal democracy does not automatically bring social justice, but it is a necessary first step. Dictatorial rule, even in the name of “socialism,” cannot. The form democracy takes will vary based upon a given society’s history, culture and social conditions, but those in leadership must be accountable to their actions, individual freedom must be respected, and sovereignty must ultimately rest in the people.
Indeed, it is up to those in China and elsewhere still suffering under oppressive rule to lead their own struggles for liberation from tyranny. We cannot trust that the U.S. government or any other government can legitimately engage in “democracy promotion.” However, global civil society can offer the kind of international solidarity — in opposing arms transfers to human rights abusers, in providing workshops on strategic nonviolent conflict, and in raising global awareness of these struggles — that is so important for those struggling for freedom and justice.
It is a solidarity that is based not upon whether the oppressive regime being challenged is an ally or an adversary of the United States or what kind of economic system it claims to adhere to. It is a solidarity based upon nothing less than a universal respect for fundamental civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.
Stephen Zunes is a professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco and chairs the committee of academic advisors for the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict.
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Our country is truly in a sorry state. I have totally lost faith in the government and do not wish to give the government any more chances .It used to be a very beautiful country until Mahathir took over . Why am I still living in this country? It must be because I still care and love this country.Sigh …. lets pray so that God will intervene and save this country.
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REALLY..
Police, please tell me what is there to be investigated?
People are charged for just gathering around a building, what other question is there to ask?
How long did you stand outside the building?
who was with you at that ? …
what are you protesting about?
well whatever it is, all make this country stupid in this world due to UMNO regime
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You want to know why? The police just want to make your life miserable. They wan to intimidate you….
You know what to do in the next election.
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NO result yet coz the boss still in china…
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