When all’s said and done, this dialogue should have come much earlier now, shouldn’t it?

The Malaysia Hindu Sangam public statement read out to the PM was well presented, fair and unbiased. Of course we all know that such an open and frank discussion would never have seen the light of day if not for the big publicity stunt pulled by HINDRAF recently, perhaps precisely the objective of Uthayakumar and his team.

Why does it take a big circus hullabaloo in order for the leaders to wake up and pay attention to the plight and dissatisfaction of its people? They would have otherwise continued on in sleepy slumber, carrying on token internal discussions with equally token responses like “yes, we will look into the situation, thanks for your complaints”…!!

Come on, don’t wait for ruckus before addressing needs of the people. Get into proper policy, people! But am glad lots of initiatives are taking place now, like Haris’ People’s Parliament, Citizen Think Tank’s shadow Government and so on. Watch this space for more constructive dialogue on how feedback can feed into policy.

One of the institutions I was really impressed by during my recent trip to Australia was the Ombudsman. Originating from Sweden, the Ombudsman is defined as follows:

An ombudsman (English plural: ombudsmans or ombudsmen) is an official, usually (but not always) appointed by the government or by parliament, who is charged with representing the interests of the public by investigating and addressing complaints reported by individual citizens.

Although appointed by the Parliament in Australia, this is kept highly independent. Jurisdictions are clear. Processes are explicit. The Ombudsman selected AND all individuals working within the office must be strictly squeaky clean in terms of both moral (private) and public character. They must actually disclose the relationships they have with anyone who might be deemed as affecting their roles as independent officer.

For example, the deputy Ombudsman told us that his wife is a senior official in the trade department so any complaints and investigations relating to that area he HAS to bypass.

Full disclosure of relationships is a good thing, but how feasible is it in a culture where close friendships at the top level are as common as daylight, and the networking that goes on between those are as dubious and shadowy as night? In Asia we cannot separate personal and working relationships, which is why food comes before business as opposed to the other way round in the West.

This inherent culture is in itself a difficulty to contend with.

Nevertheless, Indonesia has an Ombudsman and I fail to see why we cannot too. As a friend recently put it, all it really needs at the end of the day is, “accountability, accountability, accountability”. Checks and balances are tedious processes but heck, they have to be done so that systems are well in place!

Big public gathering no. 2 and my take on it, previously published on Bolehland

BERSIH: Demonstration Malaysian-StyleTricia Yeoh The strangest response given to the recent BERSIH gathering and rally is that “street demonstrations are not within the Malaysian culture”. Now that single line has left me baffled and trying to extract its underlying profound philosophy.  For historical record, the coalition of non-governmental organizations and political parties called BERSIH (Malay for ‘clean’) organized on Saturday afternoon the 10^th November 2007 the largest street demonstration of the decade in Malaysia, where 40,000 members of the public gathered to demand for electoral reforms in the country. There were four specific demands within the memorandum eventually submitted to the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong (King) at the Palace, namely a thorough cleanup of the electoral roll to exclude fraudulent registrations, the use of indelible ink to prevent multiple voting, the abolition of postal votes for the armed forces and fair access to the media.  Despite having applied for a police permit for the said peaceful gathering, this was denied. The demonstration was therefore considered illegal in the eyes of the Government. The following have been some of the responses to date, of the gathering on the streets of KL.   Read the rest of this entry »

The People’s Parliament has launced a petition rakyat to the DYMM Yang Dipertuan Agong for the establishment of a Royal Commission. Haris Ibrahim writes:

The People’s Appeal To His Majesty The Yang DiPertuan Agung

On 19/9/2007, the nation was rocked by another scandal, this time in the form of a video clip which exposed what appears to be a telephone conversation between senior lawyer VK Lingam and another person, allegedly fixing the appointment of ‘friendly’ senior judges.

A careful study of the monologue presented in the video clip leaves a very clear impression that the telephone conversation is indeed between VK Lingam and the present CJ, Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim and relates to the appointment and promotion of judges. Other judges are also named in the course of the conversation.

That Tun Ahmad Fairuz had, subsequent to the release of the video clip, first responded that he would need to first view the video clip before saying anything, then issuing a ‘no comment’ response and only lately and that too through a third party making a bare denial of being a party to the conversation leaves us, the rakyat with a sense that Tun Ahmad Fairuz has not responded with complete candour on this matter.

This scandal now casts serious doubts on the suitability of Tun Ahmad Fairuz to head the judiciary as well as on the propriety of the appointments and promotions, made on the recommendation of Tun Ahmad Fairuz, of several judges of the High Courts, the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court.

We, the rakyat, no longer have any confidence whatsoever in the judiciary.

We, the rakyat have noted for some time that some very senior judges have been constantly overlooked in the numerous promotion exercises that have proceeded during the tenure of Tun Ahmad Fairuz, with junior judges being preferred.

We the rakyat have also noted that it was recently reported that Their Royal Highnesses acting through the Conference of Rulers rejected two nominations by Tun Fairuz for the position of President of the Court of Appeal and the Chief Judge of Malaya although these positions had been vacant for a long time. It is rumoured that those nominated by Tun Fairuz were junior in comparison with many other more senior serving judges.

We, the rakyat, have further noted that there is at least one judge promoted to the Federal Court who, it is reported, has failed to deliver written judgments in up to as many as 35 cases, with the result that appeals by many who have been convicted of offences and are in prison are unable to have their appeals heard.

This most recent scandal also raises again real concerns about the sudden change of the trial judge in an ongoing murder trial in Shah Alam.

We, the rakyat, are also gravely concerned about the recent decisions in several high-profile cases and whether these were ‘fixed’ by Tun Ahmad Fairuz and, if so, the implications it has in relation to the other judges of our superior courts.

The reaction of the Prime Minister, other members of his cabinet and the Attorney-General to the matter of this video clip give us, the rakyat, no reason at all to believe that this scandal will be honestly investigated so that the truth of the matter will never be known.

We, the rakyat, do not believe that the Prime Minister and his present government are committed to getting to the bottom of this scandal and, if ascertained to be the truth, to take all necessary steps to restore the judiciary as a constitutional institution emplaced to independently defend the constitution, the rights of the rakyat, and to uphold the rule of law.

In this regard, the announcement on 25/6/2007 by the Deputy Prime Minister of a 3-man panel to be headed by one who was implicated in the sacking of Tun Salleh Abas in 1988 to now investigate this scandal fortifies our belief that the present government is determined that the truth in relation to this scandal never becomes known.

We, the rakyat, are gravely concerned that if this scandal is left to be investigated by the administration of the Prime Minister, the police or the Anti-Corruption Agency, the rakyat will only witness another cover-up, leaving us, the rakyat without any recourse to justice, ever suspicious whether the judiciary is to protect the rakyat or the interests of a chosen few.

This most recent scandal raises concerns whether the corruption that has become so prevalent in the management of this country has now also made its way into the judiciary.

For these many reasons, we, the rakyat, now pray that Your Majesty may be so moved and in the exercise of the full powers conferred on Your Majesty … [read more here]

Sign the petition by sending an e-mail with your name to savethejudiciary@gmail.com. Show your commitment to the nation by providing your full name and NRIC number. We must seize this opportunity to begin the process of change.

(pic from Malaysiakini.com)

Today was an historic day. Voices echoed round Putrajaya. Ground shook. Hearts moved. Something has started.

I participated in the Malaysian Bar-organised “Walk to Justice” march in Putrajaya. About 2000 people (mainly lawyers) were gathered at the steps of the Palace of Justice, to march to the Prime Minister’s office to submit a memorandum to Cabinet on the independence of the Judiciary.

Two memorandums were submitted, one to demand a Royal Commission be set up to inquire after the appointment of the current Chief Justice, Tun Fairuz, after the recent controversial video clip was released. The second was to urge the setting up of an independent Judicial Selection Committee. (yes, the current appointment of judges is not done in an open, transparent manner…)

We gathered at 10am (I was there early, and thought that there may be more FRU police members than participants in the gathering, thank goodness I was wrong). The crowds starting trickling in at 11am, mainly dressed in penguin suits, black and white, the lawyer colours. I followed suit.

By 11.30am, we realised that the 7 buses carrying the lawyers from Bar Council were missing - the police had stopped them from entering Putrajaya from the main road itself. They eventually had to walk 5km just to reach us at the Palace of Justice itself. Kudos to them!

The walk was wonderful. There was an energy pulsating throughout the crowd, seeing the blacks and whites walking in cohesion together in throngs, under the cool morning sky. Weather was perfect, not harsh at all, as we walked calmly amidst honking cars (and a bus too!) that gave us support and thumbs up. Only visual intimidation was apparent through FRU trucks and policemen on alert, plus a hovering helicopter above us. (Some imagined that they were the ones doing cloud-seeding to make the rain come!)

Reaching the premises and lawn of the PM’s office, I remarked that we were treading upon the Prime Minister’s garden - the response to which was, “This is being paid for by us, the people.” - in true activist spirit.

Waiting for the Bar Council’s office bearers to return from their sojourn within the royal rooms of the PM, the crowd (in dignity) shouted various responses like, We want justice… and I indignantly said “Malaysians” to the “Who are we?” calls. Because, it is all Malaysians who want justice - not just lawyers. Plus, I am representing the public, the citizen, the people.

Thunder rolled and the rain came tumbling down in large, cool drops. And the people stood firm, many getting soaked in the process. Protest banners were inverted as umbrellas, and many other mini umbrellas popped up that were originally to prevent the sun’s harsh rays from tanning our already brown skin. (Little crowds of black and whites gathered in “kelompok” at the foot of the humongous flag poles on the lawn, which had tiny covering - reminding me of antibodies rushing to attack a virus - hopefully symbolic of justice attacking the corrupt in the nation.)

The rain, we joked, was the washing away of the dirt, the old, the corrupt, of the system. A cleansing ritual necessary for the nation to wake up and wash out. It was refreshing. I lifted my face to the clouds and wondered whether God was testing us, or being humorous. Or whether the bomohs were doing their job to instead wash away the lawyers. Whichever the case, this was a momentous day. People travelled all the way from Penang, Melaka, for this.

The tide has turned. Paradigm shifts I hope. Little steps that will lead the walk to justice.

In Ambiga’s words, I hope our walk to justice will not be like Mandela’s “long walk to freedom”.

We must, we must, carry on the journey. Take the torch and pass it on. This is the message.

Other blogs’ stories, pictures and videos:

http://harismibrahim.wordpress.com/

http://www.malikimtiaz.blogspot.com/

http://rockybru.blogspot.com/

www.malaysiakini.com (of course)