The Glasgow-based political scientist and activist, John Hilley, who writes on global justice issues for Aliran Monthly, was among over 170 peaceful protesters arrested in Faslane, 25 miles from Glasgow, on 1 Oct 2007, at the culmination of a year-long protest against the siting of Trident missiles at a naval base there. He tells me it was an “uplifting experience” and you can see why from the video clip above.
While our attention was focused on Burma, a dramatic incident took place in the Middle East: Israel’s air-strike on a reputed Syrian nuclear facility on 6 September. The Israelis appear to have coordinated the raid with the White House, says Jonathan Cook. “The reasoning was simple: before an attack on Iran could be countenanced, Hizbullah in Lebanon had to be destroyed and Syria at the very least cowed. The plan was to isolate Tehran on these two other hostile fronts before going in for the kill.”
Well, we know that Bush and the neo-cons have been itching to take on Iran – and it could happen sooner than we think.
But the Wayne Madsen Report makes a stunning claim:
A major US attack on Iran using nuclear and conventional weapons was scheduled to coincide with Israel’s 6 Sept strike on the reputed Syrian facility in Dayr az-Zwar, near the the Turkish border. Israel’s attack, code named Operation Orchard, was to provide a reason for the US to strike Iran. But it was apparently foiled when the US Air Force and intelligence community allegedly refused to fly cruise missiles with nuclear war heads to the Middle East. But was there even more to this than met the eye?
So thousands of heavily armed soldiers are patrolling the streets of the Burmese capital, Rangoon, forcing the peaceful protesters off the streets.
Have the hopes and prayers for democracy in Burma been totally crushed? Have the pro-democracy protesters been defeated?
Not by a long shot.
When a government resorts to bullets and clubs to suppress peaceful demonstrators, you know they have lost all moral authority and it is just a matter of time before the regime is dumped into the ash heap of history.
So the latest count is 40 towers of more than 10 storeys each, higher than our earlier estimate of 37 towers.
This is the count, based on the permission plan. Download the plan below by clicking on the link and note the 5-storey podiums for car parks in this “zero-carbon” city.
My sources tell me that the PGCC developer’s consultants said yesterday they would avoid cutting down the trees along Scotland Road but admitted that some angsana trees would have to make way for the road widening/flyover work, especially near the Jalan Batu Gantong junction, to cope with the extra traffic anticipated.
These trees are actually heritage trees. Some concerned Penangites pasted posters (see picture above) on the trees likely to be affected. One person who has seen the plan told me that perhaps a few dozen trees would have to be chopped down.
By this morning, the posters had disappeared.
The threat to the trees flies in the face of the assurance given by PGCC master-planner Nasrine Seraji, which was reported in the New Straits Times:
Paris-based architect Nasrine Seraji also gave the assurance that the angsana trees along Jalan Scotland would not have to make way for the project.
“Residents in the neighbouring Jesselton area can also expect a better view, improved air quality and enhanced property values,” she said here yesterday.
(Have I taken her comments out of context?!)
What do the lawyers marching in Putrajaya, the ordinary people struggling for democracy in Burma and those campaigning against the Penang Global City Centre Project have in common?
They are all part of the global justice movement, trying to create a real alternative to the decaying structures and oppressive forces in society. Trying to build a more just and sustainable world – a world where human dignity is respected and no one is oppressed. A world where the environment – God’s gift to humanity – is considered sacred.
So congratulations to the 1,500 courageous Malaysians who marched in Putrajaya despite the obstacles in their path. Even though the police stopped the buses from entering Putrajaya, the lawyers got off and started walking.
As lawyers committed to the cause of justice, you have given all Malaysians a ray of hope. You have lit a candle – nay, a thousand five hundred candles – in the darkness that shrouds our land. Let’s continue to call for a Royal Commission of Inquiry (Read Aliran president P Ramakrishnan’s latest statement rejecting the 3-man “independent” panel, headed by Haidar, who played an appalling role in the 1988 judicial crisis.)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=581tLWRNRwA]
People are on the march in both Malaysia and Burma in their quest for justice and freedom.
The Malaysian Bar Council is organising a march of lawyers from the Palace of Justice in Putrajaya to the Prime Minister’s Office on the morning of Wed, 26 Sept after the explosive revelations in a widely circulated videoclip. They are expected to be joined by activists and other concerned Malaysians.
This is a piece I wrote for Asia Times Online:
Malaysia’s judiciary on Candid Camera
By Anil NettoPENANG, Malaysia – On May 27, 1988, then-prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, his party faced with a legal challenge from rivals that threatened his leadership, summoned Malaysia’s top judge, Salleh Abas, and gave him an ultimatum: resign or face a judicial tribunal. That secret private meeting led to suspension of Salleh and five other top judges (three of whom were later reinstated). It precipitated a crisis from which the judiciary has never recovered.
Today, the once-powerful Mahathir, 82, is under sedation in intensive care after surgery to treat a infection following a heart-bypass operation on September 4.
And today, the credibility of the judiciary itself is also on life support after explosive revelations in a widely circulated (including on YouTube) eight-minute video clip featuring what appears to be a well-connected senior lawyer, V K Lingam, purportedly discussing promotions and factionalism among senior judges over the phone with Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim, the No 3 judge in the country at the time the clip was recorded on a mobile phone in 2002. Full article
Well, you all know what PGCC is by now – the massive RM25 billion Penang Greenwash… err, I mean Global… City Centre project.
And CGCC? That’s Catastrophic Global Climate Change.
If we go ahead with PGCC, it would only add to CGCC.
If you are not convinced that building 37 “tombstones” (high-rise towers) on the Penang Turf Club green space is a terrible idea, then consider this dire warning published in the Independent:
‘Too late to avoid global warming,’ say scientists
By Cahal Milmo
Published: 19 September 2007
A rise of two degrees centigrade in global temperatures – the point considered to be the threshold for catastrophic climate change which will expose millions to drought, hunger and flooding – is now “very unlikely” to be avoided, the world’s leading climate scientists said yesterday….
In its latest assessment of the progress of climate change, the body said: “If warming is not kept below two degrees centigrade, which will require the strongest mitigation efforts, and currently looks very unlikely to be achieved, the substantial global impacts will occur, such as species extinctions, and millions of people at risk from drought, hunger, flooding.”
Under the scale of risk used by IPCC, the words “very unlikely” mean there is just a one to 10 per cent chance of limiting the global temperature rise to two degrees centigrade or less.
Professor Martin Parry, a senior Met Office scientist and co-chairman of the IPCC committee which produced the report, said he believed it would now be “very difficult” to achieve the target and that governments need to combine efforts to “mitigate” climate change by reducing CO2 emissions with “adaptation” to tackle active consequences such as crop failure and flooding.
Speaking at the Royal Geographical Society, he said: “Ten years ago we were talking about these impacts affecting our children and our grandchildren. Now it is happening to us.”
“Even if we achieve a cap at two degrees, there is a stock of major impacts out there already and that means adaptation. You cannot mitigate your way out of this problem… The choice is between a damaged world or a future with a severely damaged world.”
The IPCC assessment states that up to two billion people worldwide will face water shortages and up to 30 per cent of plant and animal species would be put at risk of extinction if the average rise in temperature stabilises at 1.5C to 2.5C.
This warning should have been splashed on the front-pages of newspapers around the world with large bold headlines. Instead, the reports were largely tucked in the inside pages of our newspapers so that hardly anyone noticed them.
Today, I dropped by to check out the Migrants Sunday celebrations organised by the Migrant Workers Support Centre on mainland Penang.
As I looked around at the gathering of workers from Burma, India, Indonesia and the Philippines, I couldn’t help thinking about the double standards we practise when we think of foreign workers.
Why should there be double standards when both categories comprise human beings, workers, who have come to our land to make an honest living?
Let’s look at some of the glaring differences:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BwWZIkeG-A]
Remember the name – Fahmi Reza, the worthy winner of the Freedom Film Festival 2007. Last night I headed for the opening day’s screenings at the Actors’ Studio in Penang, mainly to see Fahmi’s “Sepuluh tahun sebelum Merdeka” – and I was not disappointed. It was the best local political documentary I had seen. The film focused on the first multi-ethnic political coalition in the country and depicted the events leading to the 1947 nationwide hartal or total national strike.
The visionary women and men behind the hartal were nine years ahead of their time in coming up with constitutional proposals for a “Melayu” citizenship covering all the major races. In fact, the term “Melayu” to describe citizenship for all was surprisingly well received even by the non-Malays.
The hartal had the backing of left-wing Malay nationalist groups, middle-class English-speaking non-Malays, even the Chinese Chambers of Commerce, women’s groups, and yes, the MIC too! It was a broad-ranging movement that was determined to seek Independence.
Of course, the British preferred to deal with Umno, which did not threaten colonial economic interests at that time, and completely ignored the Putera-AMCJA coalition’s constitutional proposals.