Month: September 2015

Tak relevan SPRM dikawal selia EAIC, kata pengerusi lembaga penasihat rasuah

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Sumber: The Malaysian Insider

Pengerusi Lembaga Penasihat Pencegahan Rasuah, Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim berkata Jawatankuasa Aduan yang bebas sudah pun wujud untuk menangani aduan orang ramai berkaitan salah laku pegawai SPRM. – Gambar fail The Malaysian Insider, 30 September, 2015.

Cadangan Suruhanjaya Integriti Agensi Penguatkuasaan (EAIC) supaya Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia (SPRM) diletakkan di bawah bidang kuasanya adalah tidak perlu dan tidak relevan.

Pengerusi Lembaga Penasihat Pencegahan Rasuah (LPPR) Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim berkata Jawatankuasa Aduan yang bebas sudah pun wujud untuk menangani aduan orang ramai berkaitan salah laku pegawai SPRM.

“SPRM sudah pun dipantau dengan berkesan oleh panel-panel dan jawatankuasa bebas termasuk, selain daripada LPPR, penasihat utama dasar SPRM, Jawatankuasa Khas mengenai Rasuah, Panel penilaian Operasi serta Panel Perundingan dan Pencegahan Rasuah. Read more →

Ambiga anggap derma RM2.6 bilion pengakuan campur tangan kerajaan asing

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Sumber: The Malaysian Insider

Presiden Persatuan Hak Asasi Manusia (Hakam) Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan bercakap pada forum 1MDB: Will Najib or Malaysia Survive di Petaling Jaya, malam tadi. – Gambar The Malaysian Insider oleh Ahmad Muslim, 30 September, 2015.

Aktivis hak asasi manusia Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan menganggap kenyataan kerajaan berkenaan wang RM2.6 bilion dalam akaun peribadi perdana menteri sebagai satu pembohongan yang menjerumuskan kerajaan ke dalam masalah lebih besar.

Penafian kerajaan yang ia bukan satu rasuah sebaliknya merupakan derma dari Timur Tengah ibarat satu pengakuan ia satu campur tangan dalam sistem pilihan raya Malaysia, kata presiden Persatuan Hak Asasi Manusia (Hakam) itu.

“Adakah mereka tahu apa yang mereka lakukan?

“Mereka sebenarnya menyatakan yang mereka membenarkan kerajaan asing dalam pilihan raya kita.

“Bukankah ini tidak masuk akal? Mereka tidak sedar pembohongan itu tidak mengeluarkan mereka daripada masalah tetapi ia menjerumuskan mereka ke dalam lebih banyak masalah,” katanya pada forum 1MDB: Will Najib or Malaysia Survive di Petaling Jaya, malam tadi. Read more →

When you do something good, you don’t have to get permission from anyone

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Source: Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law

Simon Karunagaram – pic taken from RWI website

29 September, 2015 —  Simon Karunagaram has worked with human rights in Malaysia for over 15 years, and now he will spend three months in Lund doing research on protection of the victims of human trafficking. Simon is one of four fellows from Asia who are at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute this fall.

Simon is a Deputy Secretary at the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia where he started working in 2001, only one year after its inception. Before that, he worked for an NGO, mainly in the area of human rights education. He says he became interested in human rights during the last years of university. Read more →

Ezra Zaid to stand Shariah trial after failing to nullify Selangor law on un-Islamic books charge

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Source: The Malay Mail Online

ZI Publications Sdn Bhd director Ezra Zaid, Datuk Zaid Ibrahim and lawyer Pavendeep Singh are seen at the Federal Court, Putrajaya, September 28, 2015. — Picture by Saw Siow Feng

PUTRAJAYA, Sept 28 — Publisher Mohd Ezra Mohd Zaid will have to face trial in the Shariah Court after failing to persuade the country’s highest court to nullify a Selangor law that makes it an offence for Muslims to publish books the state religious authority deems un-Islamic.

Earlier today, the Federal Court dismissed Ezra and his publishing firm ZI Publications Sdn Bhd’s bid to have Section 16 of the Syariah Criminal Offences (Selangor) Enactment 1995 declared invalid, with the country’s supreme court ruling that the Selangor state assembly had acted within its powers under the Federal Constitution when making the law.

In the unanimous decision, a five-judge panel in the Federal Court noted that the Federal Constitution allows states to make laws on offences against the precepts of Islam and showed the intention of the Constitution’s framers to allow Muslims here to also be governed by Islamic personal law.

“In conclusion, we would like to highlight that a Muslim in Malaysia is not only subject to laws enacted by Parliament, but also state laws of religious nature enacted by legislature of a state,” the Federal Court panel chaired by Court of Appeal president Tan Sri Md Raus Sharif said in a 16-page judgement. Read more →

Court says not empowered to review Sabah ban on Ambiga

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Source: The Malay Mail Online

Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan was scheduled to attend the event along with the group’s co-patron Tan Sri Simon Sipaun and prominent Sabah politician Datuk Dr Jeffrey Gapari Kitingan. — Picture by Choo Choy May

KOTA KINABALU, Sept 28 — Sabah’s prohibition against entry by Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan will remain after the High Court here ruled that it cannot review the powers of the state’s Immigration Department.

Ambiga’s lawyer, James Tsai said that Judicial Commissioner Gabriel Gumis decided in chambers against hearing her application for a judicial review of the state’s decision to refuse her entry.

“In a brief oral judgment, he said that the matter of immigration was not reviewable based on the Sugumar case, which is the only time the law has been tested in court,” said Tsai, referring to Pihak Berkuasa Negeri Sabah v. Sugumar Balakrishnan case in 2002.

In the particular case, a High Court held that the ouster clause in the Immigration Act 1959/63 ‘s Section 59(a) meant the courts had no grounds for judicial review of the Sabah government’s decision.

Ambiga, in an immediate response to Malay Mail Online, said she will appeal the decision. Read more →

Abuse of a ‘new’ crime? – Gurdial Singh Nijar

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Source: The Sun Daily

BY GURDIAL SINGH NIJAR
(Deputy President, HAKAM)

RECENTLY I wrote of a fresh danger against dissident voices: the newly-minted Section 124B of the Penal Code. It provides for a jail term of up to 20 years on conviction of an offence for “activity detrimental to parliamentary democracy”.

Now it has come to pass.

Datuk Seri Khairuddin Abu Hassan has been detained pending investigation under precisely this provision. His alleged crime as reported? Giving the attorney-general of Switzerland documents on the RM42 billion 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) issue, presumably for investigation. In short, seeking the help of another jurisdiction in respect of a possible crime.

The new crime of “activity detrimental to parliamentary democracy” is for doing anything “designed to overthrow or undermine parliamentary democracy by violent or unconstitutional means.”

What activity will “undermine parliamentary democracy” is not defined. Read more →

KENYATAAN: Berkenaan Penggunaan SOSMA & Penangkapan Kritik 1MDB

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pdfKENYATAAN BERTARIKH 25 SEPTEMBER 2015
PENGUNAAN SOSMA & PENANGKAPAN KRITIK 1MDB

Termasuk ADDENDUM BERTARIKH 26 SEPTEMBER 2016 *

The Rakyat Post file pic

The Rakyat Post file pic

Pada 24 September 2015 bekas pemimpin UMNO Datuk Khairuddin Abu Hassan telah ditangkap dibawah Akta Kesalahan Keselamatan (Langkah-langkah Khas) 2012 (SOSMA). Datuk Khairuddin telah ditangkap dipercayai disebabkan oleh laporan-laporan yang telah dibuat olehnya dengan penyiasat-penyiasat di luar negara terhadap 1MDB. Beliau telah ditangkap dan direman dahulu pada 18 September 2015 di bawah Seksyen 124C Kanun Keseksaan kerana didakwa terlibat dalam aktiviti-aktiviti yang menjejaskan demokrasi berparlimen. Selepas beliau dilepaskan beliau telah ditangkap semula dibawah SOSMA.

Datuk Khairuddin kini ditahan untuk siasatan di bawah Seksyen 124K dan Seksyen 124L Kanun Keseksaan, dipercayai untuk kesalahan-kesalahan “sabotaj” atau “percubaan untuk sabotaj negara”.

HAKAM mengambil pendirian yang sama dengan Majlis Peguam dan banyak lagi badan-badan bukan kerajaan lain dan juga semua warga Malaysia yang berfikiran munasabah dalam mengkritik dan mengecam tindakan-tindakan ini sebagai tindakan yang menindas dan bertentangan dengan kedaulatan undang-undang. SOSMA merupakan satu akta yang bersifat autoritarian dan menindas dan ia kini digunakan pula untuk melindungi Perdana Menteri (yang sepatutnya bertanggungjawab kepada rakyat) daripada penelitian. Dalam perbandingan yang begitu ketara, individu yang mengugut untuk mengadakan rusuhan di Petaling Street pula dipandang ringan dan tidak berdepan dengan tidakan polis. Ini menyerlahkan lagi penyalahgunaan kuasa dan tindakan-tindakan penguatkuasaan ini yang mempunyai agenda politik. Read more →

STATEMENT: On Use of SOSMA & Arrest of 1MDB Critic

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pdfSTATEMENT DATED 25 SEPTEMBER 2015
ON THE USE OF SOSMA & ARREST OF 1MDB CRITIC

Incorporating ADDENDUM DATED 26 SEPTEMBER 2015 *

On 24 September 2015 former Umno leader Datuk Khairuddin Abu Hassan was arrested under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (SOSMA). Datuk Khairuddin was arrested allegedly over reports which were lodged with investigators abroad against 1MDB. He was first arrested and remanded on 18 September 2015 under section 124C of the Penal Code, on alleged activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy. Upon his release, he was rearrested under SOSMA.

Datuk Khairuddin is now detained for investigations under Sections 124K and 124L of the Penal Code, allegedly for offences of “sabotage” or “attempting to sabotage the State“.

HAKAM stands with the Bar Council and many other civil society organisations and all right thinking Malaysians in condemning these actions as being oppressive and contrary to the rule of law. SOSMA is in itself an authoritarian and oppressive piece of legislation that is now being abused to protect a Prime Minister (who ought to be accountable to the people) from scrutiny. In stark contrast a member of the public who threatens a riot in Petaling Street is treated with kid gloves and faces no police action. This underscores the gross abuse of power and the political nature of these enforcement actions. Read more →

Tiada garis panduan khusus untuk media atas talian, kata menteri

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Sumber: The Malaysian Insider

25 SEPT — Kementerian komunikasi dan multimedia tidak akan mewujudkan garis panduan khusus bagi media atas talian, dalam langkah yang dilihat lebih lembut berbanding cadangan asal untuk mengetatkan undang-undang Internet.

Menteri Komunikasi dan Multimedia Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak berkata, ini kerana pengamal media atas talian sudah sedia maklum undang-undang tertentu melibatkan mereka.

“Tidak ada garis panduan yang khusus bagi media portal.

“Ini kerana saya rasa semua media baik media cetak ataupun portal-portal berita memahami terdapat undang-undang tertentu yang mengawal selia operasi mereka,” katanya kepada The Malaysian Insider dalam satu wawancara emel baru-baru ini.

Tambahnya, apa yang penting bagi kementerian, pengamal media sentiasa telus dalam membuat pemberitaan dengan penuh etika kewartawanan.

“Apa yang penting, media portal yang lebih berani dari segi pendekatan kewartawanan mereka tidak menyalahgunakan kebebasan akhbar yang sedia ada. Read more →

No special rules for online media, says new minister

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Source: The Malaysian Insider

Putrajaya accuses Sarawak Report of malice in its reporting on the 1MDB scandal and has blocked the UK-based site. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, September 25, 2015.

The Communications and Multimedia Ministry will no longer draw up guidelines specifically for online news websites, in what seems to be a softening of tone on earlier proposals to have more Internet regulations.

Its minister, Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak, said this was because media practitioners were aware of the laws regulating their industry.

“There will be no specific guidelines for media portals.

“I feel all media, be it print or news portals, understand that there are laws governing their operations,” he told The Malaysian Insider in an email interview recently.

What was more important to the ministry, he said, was for media practitioners to be transparent in their reporting and to practise the highest standards of journalism ethics. Read more →