Day: January 9, 2017

Court rules cops liable for driver’s death in lock-up

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Source: FMT News

Judge Nantha Balan said that P Chandran’s death while in police custody is lamentable and regrettable as it could have been avoided. He determined that there was negligence on the failure of the policemen to send the deceased for treatment despite the order of a magistrate, and further negligence by the police inspector who was tasked with investigating Chandran’s death, as he did not do a thorough job. He said the conduct of both policemen was lackadaisical. Furthermore, he added the authorities did not take action against any policemen for Chandran’s death.

p-chandran

This death is lamentable and regrettable as it could have been avoided, says judge Nantha Balan after awarding RM357,000 in damages to the family of P Chandran, who died in police custody after being denied medical attention. Pic taken from FMT News.

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court today found the police liable for the death of a lorry driver in the Dang Wangi lock-up four years ago after his medical needs were not attended to.

Judge S Nantha Balan awarded a total of RM357,000 in damages to P Chandran’s widow, N Selvi, and daughter, C Rita, for negligence and abuse of public office. Another RM50,000 was awarded as costs.

The judge imposed a 5% interest on the award, to be calculated from the day the suit was filed until the judgment sum is settled.

“There was negligence on the failure of the policemen to send the deceased for treatment,” Nantha said.

From the amount, Nantha awarded RM200,000 in exemplary damages as the police had deprived Chandran of life and liberty.

“This death was lamentable and regrettable as it was avoidable,” the judge said.

Furthermore, he added the authorities did not take action against any policemen for Chandran’s death. The death was also reported to the Human Rights Commission.

Nantha said he found the conduct of the police appalling, despite a magistrate giving orders to the officer, Inspector Mahezel Md Noh, to attend to Chandran’s medical needs. Read more →

Communications and Multimedia Act being abused like Sedition Act, says Malaysian Bar

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Source: The Malay Mail Online

Malaysian Bar vice president George Varughese. ― Picture by Choo Choy May

Malaysian Bar vice president George Varughese. ― Picture by Choo Choy May

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 9 – The Malaysian Bar criticised today the abuse of the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) 1998 even as it praised the court verdicts in two sedition cases that endorsed freedom of speech.

Its vice president, George Varughese, urged the government to stop using and to repeal legislations that negate the exercise of the freedoms of speech, expression, opinion and thought.

“In 2016 alone, the number of reported cases totalled at least 39, including persons questioned, arrested, charged or sentenced,” said Varughese in a statement, referring to CMA cases.

“Such resort to the CMA by the authorities has a chilling effect on the freedom of opinion and thought, and creates a climate of fear that suffocates freedom of expression and threatens to silence Malaysians.

“The misuse of sections 233(1)(a) and 263(2) of the CMA gives rise to the perception that the CMA is yet another dressed-up political weapon,” he added. Read more →

Race to the bottom — Aye Thein

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Source: New Mandala

Pic from New Mandala.

Pic from New Mandala.

The plight of the Rohingya highlights growing intolerance towards religious minorities throughout the region, Aye Thein writes.

When Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak spoke up for human rights of the “Rohingyas” in Myanmar, he won applause from his home crowd but drew opprobrium from the Myanmar government. Commentators wasted little time pointing out Najib’s action as a politically calculated move amid corruption scandals and eroding popularity.

While Najib’s talk of human rights reeks of hypocrisy (see Human Rights Watch’s report on Malaysia’s human rights records) and selectivity (Najib’s line that he attended the rally in “the name of the Ummah” suggests he was advocating for only the human rights of Muslims), it also raises the broader question of minority rights in ASEAN. With regard to respect and tolerance for minorities, Buddhist Myanmar has more than a few parallels with Islamic Malaysia and Indonesia. For instance, Muslims have been called fast breeding animals in Myanmar just as the Chinese have been called pigs in Malaysia. For all the excesses of Ma Ba Ta (the Association for Protection of Race and Religion) going after a few inappropriately dressed folks, Myanmar is yet to have Buddhist police to rival Malaysia’s “religious officers”, who enforce Sharia law. The notion and practice of bumiputera – Malaysia’s affirmative action favouring ethnic Malay Muslims – is not without its counterpart among Myanmar’s Buddhist chauvinists insisting that Buddhists are rightful owners of the Burmese nation and non-Buddhists, Muslims in particular, are mere guests. Read more →

Freedom of speech and expression must be resolutely protected — George Varughese

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Source: The Malay Mail Online

Malaysian Bar vice president George Varughese. ― Picture by Choo Choy May

Malaysian Bar vice president George Varughese. ― Picture by Choo Choy May

JANUARY 9 — The Malaysian Bar welcomes the two recent landmark decisions of the Court of Appeal that have dealt a critical blow to the Sedition Act 1948.

In the case of Mat Shuhaimi bin Shafiei v Kerajaan Malaysia, section 3(3) of the Sedition Act 1948 — which provides that the intention of the accused is irrelevant to a sedition charge — was struck down as invalid, as it is a disproportionate restriction on the freedom of speech for the purposes of Article 10(2) of the Federal Constitution, and in breach of the guarantee of equal treatment and equal protection before the law under Article 8 of the Federal Constitution.

In delivering the unanimous decision of the Court of Appeal, Justice Varghese George accepted the submission that “… section 3 (3) of [the Sedition Act 1948] was an overkill, akin to using ‘a hammer to confront the menace of a mosquito’”. Read more →

Zaid to appeal court ruling on RM2.6 billion ‘donation’

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Source: FMT News

Pic taken from FMT News

Pic taken from FMT News

PETALING JAYA: Former de facto law minister Zaid Ibrahim has joined two others to appeal against the refusal of the High Court to grant him leave to initiate judicial review on a RM2.6 billion “donation” case.

His counsel Americk Sidhu said his client had changed his mind and filed the notice of appeal before the 30-day deadline expired last month.

“The Court of Appeal has fixed the case management for sometime this week,” Americk said.

On Nov 11, Justice Hanipah Farikullah denied leave to Zaid, the Bar Council and former Batu Kawan Umno deputy chief Khairuddin Abu Hassan.

A disappointed Zaid told reporters then that he would not appeal.

“There are things we don’t want to do,” he had said at the time. Read more →

Ex-Tekun CEO charged with corruption

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Source: The Malay Mail Online

Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia (SPRM) – Gambar fail The Malaysian Insider

Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia (SPRM) – Gambar fail The Malaysian Insider

SHAH ALAM, Jan 9 — Former Tekun Nasional head Datuk Abdul Rahim Hassan was charged with corruption today over an RM36,000 bribe.

The former chief executive and managing director of the government agency in charge of providing the Bumiputera funding to start businesses was charged with two counts of corruption at the Shah Alam Sessions Court here after allegedly accepting RM36,000 in 2015.

The sum, 10 per cent out of Tekun’s delinquent debt collection for November 2014, was alleged to be an inducement to conduct a transaction to help speed up payment to a debt collection company, Pasadana Sdn Bhd, amounting to RM360,000.

Abdul Rahim was accused of receiving the sum at the Shah Alam Club here from a Abdul Muhsin Abdul Rahman.

He was also charged with soliciting the RM36,000 via SMS to induce the said transaction between 8.30pm and 9pm on January 13, 2015. Read more →

The imprisonment of non-citizens — Gurdial Singh Nijar

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Source: The Sun Daily

BY GURDIAL SINGH NIJAR
(Deputy President, HAKAM)

MALAYSIA’S several immigration detention centres are full of non-citizens. They have been detained for a variety of reasons: some allegedly for entering the country without proper documents; others for remaining in the country using false documents.

Many of those detained have been rounded up in raids. When they were unable to produce the correct documentation they were arrested. Some were arrested in their homes, others at the airport while trying to leave. Still others were arrested at their workplace, on the street or when they were trying to report mistreatment by employers and agents to the authorities.

Yet others are detained if there is some report by unidentified informers that the person is suspected of seeking to overthrow some other government in some other land.

Read more →

Fahmi Reza gets to fly to Taiwan despite travel ban (VIDEO)

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Source: The Malay Mail Online

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 9 — Activist Fahmi Reza said he managed to fly to Taiwan this morning after speaking to the police about being blacklisted by immigration authorities that prohibited him from travelling abroad.

The graphic artist wrote on his Facebook page Saturday that the police had put him on their “wanted” list and on the immigration blacklist on March 31 last year when he was in Thailand, during which Bukit Aman’s Commercial Crime Investigation Department opened investigations under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 over his clown caricature of the prime minister.

“I fought the law, and I won! I’m going to Taiwan! Ending yang tidak dijangka [An unexpected ending],” Fahmi posted on Facebook this morning.

Fahmi said the police inspector who had put him on the “wanted” list was unaware that he was already questioned in February last year by another police officer and by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). Read more →

Muslims, converts need not include ‘bin’, ‘binti’ in their names, evangelical group says

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Source: The Malay Mail Online

In Malaysia, the words 'bin' and 'binti' are commonly used for a child of Malay ethnicity, with these patronyms denoting whether someone is respectively a man’s son or daughter. — Picture by Choo Choy May

In Malaysia, the words ‘bin’ and ‘binti’ are commonly used for a child of Malay ethnicity, with these patronyms denoting whether someone is respectively a man’s son or daughter. — Picture by Choo Choy May

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 9 — Muslims and those who convert to Islam have the freedom to choose their own names and they need not include the words “bin” or “binti”, a Muslim evangelical group has said.

Weighing in on the controversy surrounding the National Registration Department’s (NRD) unilateral decision to include the word “bin” to a Chinese Muslim boy’s name, the Multiracial Reverted Muslims (MRM) said that there is no such compulsory requirement in Islam.

“Before I answer the question, let’s understand the meaning of bin or binti. Bin means ‘the son of’ meanwhile binti means ‘the daughter of’.

“There is no clear evidence that one must put bin or binti when someone becomes a Muslim, in the Quran or Hadith,” MRM president Firdaus Wong Wai Hung, a Muslim convert and Islamic preacher told Malay Mail Online. Read more →