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Heroic former judge Azmi Kamaruddin passes away…

Anil Netto
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Former Supreme Court Judge Azmi Kamaruddin passed away last night at the age of 75.

He will forever be remembered for standing up, along with his colleagues, in defence of the Judiciary when its independence was under severe assault in 1988 during the Mahathir administration.

Azmi was one of five Supreme Court Judges – the others were George Seah, Wan Hamzah Mohd Salleh, the late Eusoffe Abdolcadeer and the late Wan Suleiman Pawanteh – who tried to stop the removal of Tun Salleh Abas, who had been suspended as Lord President.

These five shone like a beacon of justice at a time when the judiciary was shrouded in darkness.

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Just change it?: Before and after GE12

Anil Netto
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Blog reader LTH shares with us his thoughts about the Pakatan’s apparent lack of enthusiasm regarding local democracy. As recent events have shown, it isn’t impossible to restore local democracy – with or without the Election Commission’s or federal assistance or legal reforms. All that is needed to get the ball rolling is the political will and sincerety to fulfil campaign promises:

During GE12,

  • “We will return to the people local council elections!” was part of the PR manifesto;
  • And this is how they promised: “Just change it!”

After GE12,

  • “There are legal problems to untangle, you know; we can’t just change it!”
  • “We’ll need to move the whole SPR machinery over, will cost many millions, I tell you!”
  • “We tried in Parliament, you saw us, didn’t you?” (note: knowing full well it was an exercise in futility)

Haha, after 1 January 2009, the Gunung Rapat people have become such an embarrassment to PR:

Three USM students detained for distributing leaflets

Anil Netto
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2330: Freed! The students have now been released. “The campus authorities probably realised that they would have as much difficulty in trying to justify the action against students for distributing leaflets as the cops did when they tried to detain under-age cyclists,” says one political observer.

2300: Three USM students were detained at 9.15pm while they were distributing leaflets in the campus. The three were bundled into a van apparently without any explanation and taken to the campus’ security department.

The leaflets provided an introduction to the “Pro-Mahasiswa” group and a bit of publicity about the group’s appointment to meet the USM Deputy Vice-Chancellor tomorrow.  The students are believed to be preparing for campus elections expected to be held soon and are seeking free and fair campus elections.

Bundling students into a van? Is this the way an “apex university” handles students’ affairs? Do they think they can rise up the THES global rankings this way?

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Perak village head election a step in the right direction

Anil Netto
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Democracy is here to stay, whether our politicians are ready for it or not.

It was interesting to see the reaction of the Pakatan government in Perak to the election of a village head.  They did not seem to be too happy with it.

Congrats to PKR’s Gopeng MP Lee Boon Chye for pushing this through.

And now Selangor might reportedly follow suit with a pilot election for a village head later this year.

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Gaza’s hospitals stretched beyond breaking point

Anil Netto
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Hospitals in Gaza, already facing a crippling shortage of medical supplies and equipment, are struggling to cope with the rising number of casualities, many of them civilians. Television footage shows every inch of space – even the floors – in certain hospitals being used for the treatment emergency cases. In one scene, medics are seen pumping the chest of a man lying on the floor in between two beds.

It doesn’t help that the earlier siege had blocked essential medical supplies into Gaza.  National Public Radio asked United Nations Relief  and Works Agency rep Chris Gunness how Gaza’s hospitals were coping:

Very, very badly. Because, don’t forget, in the months that preceded this military operation, the hospitals in Gaza and actually at many aid organizations were starved of essential life-saving drugs. So, even without this offensive, they were stretched to breaking point. Now, with the number of people coming into these hospitals, they are stretched frankly to breaking point. And reports in the hospitals say that basically, if you are in a life threatening condition you may be seen, but if your foot has been blown off, or you’ve lost a limb and you’re not going to die, then it’s most unlikely that you will actually be seen…

Well, the onslaught continues. I don’t know if you will have heard or seen the pictures overnight from Gaza, but we’ve got very large scale bombardments of areas, you know, the most densely populated – one of the most densely populated parts of this planet. And you know, it’s fine for politicians in Israel and elsewhere to say well, we’re doing what we can to limit civilian casualties, but imagine if someone decided there would be an aerial bombardment of say, Manhattan, or any inner city in America. And someone said, oh and by the way we’re trying very hard to limit civilian casualties. Most Americans I know would simply laugh and say that’s absurd. Well, that’s the situation we’re facing in Gaza. There is this bombardment and we get this rhetorical promise to try and keep civilians safe, but frankly it’s very difficult to make any sense of that, given the scale of the bombardment in this very densely populated part of the world.

Canadian human rights activist Eva Bartlett reports live from Gaza:

In the haze of dust and smoke from the latest F-16 strike, a family self-evacuates. The dispatcher at the Jabaliya Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) receives call after call from terrified residents fleeing their homes. It’s a new year, a new Nakba, and an old scene; Israel is bombarding Gaza once again and the world is standing idly by, sitting on a fence very different from the electrified border fence encaging Gaza, or the separation wall dividing and ghettoizing the West Bank. The world sits on the fence, justifying Israel’s massacre of a civilian population already dying from the siege.

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Huge anti-war protest in Tel Aviv as Israel invades Gaza

Anil Netto
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An anti-war protester carries the Israeli flag Photo by Rachel Avnery, Gush Shalom

Some 10,000 Israelis took part in a huge anti-war march, a one-mile procession from Rabin Square to Cinematheque Square in the heart of Tel Aviv last night at the same time that the Israeli military began a bloody ground offensive in Gaza. Organisers were surprised at the turnout as only a thousand had taken part in a similar rally the last time the Israeli military launched a ground offensive against Lebanon.

Last night’s anti-war protest was organised by about 20 Israeli groups including the Women’s Coalition for Peace, Anarchists Against the Wall, Gush Shalom, Hadash, the Alternative Information Centre and New Profile. About a thousand Arab Israelis joined in. Protesters carried a giant banner, which read in Hebrew, Arabic and English: “Stop Killing! Stop the Siege! Stop the occupation!”

The peace marchers were later harassed by reactionary right wing forces, according to a report by Gush Shalom:

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A letter to all concerned Malaysians

Anil Netto
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exco1Here’s a message from the folks in Aliran to all of you:

Dear fellow Malaysians

For over 30 years, Aliran has been a beacon for Malaysian society in many important ways. Aliran provides a rallying point for citizens and civic organisations concerned with freedom, justice and democracy. Aliran defends civil liberties and human rights, and promotes inter-ethnic and inter-religious respect. More than that, Aliran advances the causes of marginalised communities, disadvantaged groups and persecuted individuals who are too often bereft of any opportunity to speak for themselves.

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Heritage lost: “Welcome tourists, bye-bye tenants”

Anil Netto
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The world heritage listing of George Town and Malacca appears to be a double-edged sword.

On the one hand, it has highlighted the importance of preserving our historical inner cities; but on the other, it has led to an overemphasis on the built environment while traditional communities are squeezed out through gentrification. Old shop-houses are sold and converted to boutique hotels, trendy restaurants and galleries. In the process, traditional trades and small businesses, long-time communities and low-income tenants are forced to shut down or make way.

Check out this article: City without a soul? which appeared in Aliran Monthly recently.

Israelis protest against attacks on Gaza

Anil Netto
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“The war belongs to (Israeli PM Ehud) Olmert, the victims belong to us”: Israelis protest against the attacks on Gaza in Tel Aviv

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Israelis protest: “End the massacre in Gaza!” Photos by the Israeli peace group Gush Shalom

It is not just Arabs and many anti-war folks outside Israel who are protesting against the attacks on Gaza, which have now killed over 400 people, many of them civilians and police officers. Jewish Israelis too have protested in the heart of Tel Aviv against the attacks on Gaza. Another demonstration is scheduled this Saturday evening in Tel Aviv.

This report from the Israeli peace group Gush Shalom. “Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies! Our demand: A full truce and the lifting of the siege on Gaza NOW!” said Gush Shalom, in publicising the protest:

No organisation called for the demonstration – but more than a thousand men and women gathered spontaneously in order to protest in front of the Ministry of Defense in Tel-Aviv, only a few hours after the murderous Air Force attack on the Gaza strip started.

They were members of the diverse peace organizations, from “Gush Shalom” and the “Women’s Coalition for Peace” to the “Anarchists Against the Wall” and Hadash. The police, apparently afraid that the protesters would storm the building in which the Minister and the Army High Command were conducting the war, took special precautions: the elite police commando unit was backed by mounted police. Reserves were hidden in side streets. At the beginning of the demonstration, some of the police confronted the crowd with loaded and pointed guns.

“Barak, Barak, Minister of Defence – How many children have you murdered today?” shouted the protesters, whose slogans were backed up by drums. They were especially incensed by the Meretz Party statement the day before, which justified an attack on Gaza, and shouted: “Meretz, Meretz Party – Again for a War?”

Another group, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, has written a letter to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, pointing out breaches in the previous ceasefire:

Claiming that this is an action to stop rocket fire is a wholly unpersuasive argument…. The Israeli government steadily sought to break down the ceasefire, not just in Gaza since early November, but also in the West Bank. Israeli forces have carried out an average of 33 incursions, 42 arrests or detentions, 12 woundings and 0.84 killings a week in the West Bank during the ceasefire.  The tactic has been to continue attacking Hamas and other militants in the West Bank, provoking responses in Gaza, and to use the responses as the pretext for the massive attacks of the last 24 hours.

On 23rd December Hamas offered to renew the ceasefire if Israel would undertake to open border crossings for supplies of aid and fuel, and halt incursions. For those of us appalled at the collective punishment involved in the ongoing siege, and concerned that Israelis should not fear death or injury from Qassam rockets, that seems a truly reasonable response.

For Israel to reject it bespeaks a bankrupt body politic especially since the army and the politicians are acting against the wishes of the Israeli public.  It is after all the civilians on both sides who will bear the brunt of this dangerous folly.

Meanwhile, The UK Guardian’s award-winning journalist Seumas Milne reports on the context leading up to the attacks on Gaza. “The issue is of course not just the vast disparity in weapons and power, but that one side is the occupier, the other the occupied”:

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Home Ministry bans Herald’s Malay supplement

Anil Netto
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The good news is that the Home Ministry has approved the Herald’s permit a couple of days before it expired – just in the nick of time.

The other bit of good news, according to the NST,  is that the paper apparently has been allowed to expand its scope beyond coverage of “religion” in the narrowest sense. The new permit allows it to also cover “current affairs” and “international affairs”.  Previously, the Home Ministry had issued warning letters for articles that allegedly went beyond the scope of “religion” (according to the government’s narrow definition).

The bad news on New Year’s Day is that the approval comes with strings attached:

  • the Herald has to stop its Malay-language supplement. A typical edition of the weekly paper has 32 pages, including an eight-page Malay-language pull-out, three pages in Chinese and two pages in Tamil, with the rest in English.
  • the paper can only be sold in churches (I don’t think it’s being sold anywhere else at present);
  • The Herald must print clearly on the cover that the paper is only meant for Christians.

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