Posts Tagged ‘Protest’

Abdul Ghapur stands up for Kugan in parliament

February 24th, 2009
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One month has passed by as pointed out by Abdul Ghapur Salleh (BN-Kalabakan) since Kugan died in custody. He is the rare voice from BN side to express some sort of disappointment over the pace of investigation. He also was disatisfied that police were investigating Murugiah and Devamany, citing that he would have been at the scene if was informed earlier.

One month has passed since the controversial death of 23-year-old car theft suspect A Kugan in police custody, but his spirit still lingers on in Parliament today as a BN MP stood up in protest over the issue.

MCPX

Abdul Ghapur Salleh (BN-Kalabakan) has expressed his disappointment over the investigation into Kugan’s death as no one from the police force has been charged so far.

He stressed that an independent inquiry should be set up to investigate the police officers who are alleged to be involved in the case.

The independent inquiry, he explained, could be set up by anybody as long as it runs impartially and is not bias in favour of the police.

“We cannot defend the police who are criminals. Even if the Indian boy (Kugan) was a criminal, it was not up to the police to punish him,” the outspoken MP told the House during his Royal Address speech.

Abdul Ghapur also expressed his dissatisfaction over the police investigations into two deputy ministers – SK Devamany and T Murugiah. The two were investigated over the “barge-in” at the mortuary last month.

“They were there to help the family and also to express their sympathies, but why were they investigated? Police are the ones who should be investigated here!

“If I knew about it (Kugan’s custodial death) in the first place, I would have joined them!” exclaimed Abdul Ghapur.

… Met later in the lobby, Abdul Ghapur said the government would have to pay a big price if it does not do something to solve the matter.

“Otherwise, the next (political) tsunami will sweep us all,” he said, adding that people would start losing confidence in the police force and the BN government would lose the federal government in the next general election.

When asked as to why Kugan’s custodial death has got his attention rather than previous similar cases, Abdul Ghapur said Kugan’s case was such a “high-profile” one that it was constantly highlighted in the media.

“We also want the police to behave. So, we must have an independent investigation and the investigator must report the outcome to the public,” he said.

Abdul Ghapur further agreed that the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC), as recommended by the Royal Commission “would be the perfect body” in investigating such cases in the future.

While its heartening to see an MP focusing on the lack of investigation (even though its for political reasons), one wonders if anything will change.

Khir Toyo picked up by police!

February 13th, 2009
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Hmmm..i thought I’d never read this news in papers. But surprise, surprise, police “picked up” Khir Toyo and another fella for questioning (one may suspect that could be for their “own protection” or even some sort of publicity gimmick in view of impending party elections):

Former Selangor menteri besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo and a local Umno Youth leader were picked up by the police for questioning in an aborted protest march against veteran parliamentarian Karpal Singh in George Town today.
Mohd Khir’s car was stopped at a junction near Waterfall Hotel as he was leaving with his aides and Permatang Pauh Umno Youth chief Mohd Zaidi Said. They were then escorted by a patrol car to the city police headquarters in Jalan Patani for questioning.

Mohd Khir, an Umno Youth national leadership aspirant, and Mohd Zaidi were later released after police recorded their statements.

Sporting a songkok, and wearing a white shirt and black pants, Mohd Khir was earlier about to lead a protest march from Youth Park in Waterfall to Karpal’s house, located about a kilometer away.

umno youth demo against karpal singh penang 130209 04Umno Youth had planned to demonstrate outside Karpal’s house at 3pm over the DAP leader’s intention to file a lawsuit against Perak ruler Sultan Azlan Shah.

However, Mohd Khir and the protesters aborted their plan about 10 minutes before the protest was scheduled to start when the police warned them of stern action.

umno youth demo against karpal singh penang 130209 03The police, including members of the Federal Reserve Unit (FRU), appeared to outnumber the protesters.

Police also stayed guard outside Karpal’s bungalow to thwart any untoward incidents and seized banners with anti-Karpal, anti-Pakatan, pro-Malay and pro-Umno slogans.

Addressing those present with a loud hailer, Mohd Zaidi said: “Even though the police may have stopped us today, our Malay spirit will never die.”

umno youth demo against karpal singh penang 130209 02He also took the police to task for stopping their peaceful demonstration.

The protesters started chanting ‘Hidup Melayu‘ (Long Live Malays) and ‘Daulat Tuanku‘ (Hail The King) when the police moved in to arrest Mohd Zaidi.

At this juncture, the protestors, some of them sporting red headbands with the words ‘Daulat Tuanku‘, managed to rescue Mohd Zaidi and whisked him away to a nearby car.

However, Mohd Zaidi was later picked up together with Mohd Khir.

The crowd dispersed immediately when George Town police district chief ACP Azam Abdul Hamid raised his voice and gave them a five-minute deadline to disperse.

umno youth demo against karpal singh penang 130209 01Azam later told reporters that the gathering was illegal and the police would have arrested the protesters if they had started to march to Karpal’s house.

Earlier, the police stopped and turned back several buses and vans ferrying protesters at several check points from reaching Youth Park.

Knowing our makkal, this drama will be dismissed as another ploy or publicity stunt. Or worse, to justify arrest of some politicians from the other side.

MIC memorandum on Sri Lanka war

February 11th, 2009
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The memorandum by MIC was finally submitted yesterday by Dr S Subramaniam to Minister Rais Yatim. Earlier, MIC Youth advisor said the memorandum was to ask for resolution in parliament, while this one says to intervene on humanitarian grounds. Rais Yatim said the Government would send a note to the Sri Lankan government next week to express concerns over the war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and hoped to extend humanitarian relief to the war victims in response to the call of the Tamil community here.

resort to whatever means necessary says Khairy

February 9th, 2009
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resort to whatever means necessary – what does that mean?

Umno Youth deputy chief Khairy Jamaluddin has called on party members to “resort to whatever means necessary” to prevent former menteri besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin and his group of executive councillors from entering the Perak state secretariat.

“I urge Umno Youth members to gather outside the gates and do what is necessary to stop the illegitimate menteri besar from entering the building,” he told some 1,000 BN supporters who gathered at a football field near the Ipoh City Council here yesterday to express their support for Sultan Perak Sultan Azlan Shah.

Speaking to reporters later, he denied Perak was experiencing a constitutional crisis, saying that the matter was a “crisis of power”.

“Why can’t Pakatan Rakyat accept the due process of law and admit defeat? When we lost five states in the March 8 polls, we backed out with maturity and magnanimity… It is evident from PR’s denial that they were never a coalition for the people but an alliance based on greed. They fell for Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s defection theory and it all backfired,” he said.

Protest against Hee increases

February 9th, 2009
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The Jelapang residents (most likely DAP supporters) are upping the tempo. From 200 people earlier, it has increased to 720 within hours in terms of signatures. There’s signature campaign going on, and  I think if the organisers go to the ground, they’ll get thousands of signatures. She won with majority of 6.7k, so if there’s 20k over signatures submitted to her and the Sultan, this will look bad on both of them. How can the Sultan consider the words of a person not accepted by her own constituency? Unless its for the “greater good” and the wishes of a constituency is to be sacrificed for that purpose.

Hundreds of people have turned up at the Jelapang market here Sunday to sign a petition demanding their assemblyman Hee Yit Foong quit her seat.

Within 90 minutes of the campaign starting at 9.30am Sunday, about 720 signatures were collected.

Perak DAP organising secretary Thomas Su Keong Siong said the petition would be handed over to the DAP-turned-independent assemblyman after this.

“If she does not want to accept the petition then we will hand it over to her parents at their home in Kanthan, Chemor,” he said.

Earlier when addressing the crowd, Su said the campaign was to force Hee to resign to pave way for a by-election.

“She has said that not everyone was against her, only those with ‘interests.’ If that is so, come back and face the people,” he added.

Sabri Abdul Rahman, 52, said he felt cheated by Hee, whom he had given his trust and vote to.

“We had voted for her and this is how she repays the people,” he said.

“I want her to quit. I want the Pakatan Rakyat state government back,” he added.

Hitting out at Hee, M. Vigneswary, 26, said, “We do not accept Barisan Nasional as the government; our Mentri Besar is Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin.”

Also present amongst the crowd were some who claimed to be childhood friends of Hee from her hometown in Kanthan.

One of them, Wong Fook, 56, said they had treated Hee like a sister and even sacrificed their own time and money to campaign for her during the 2004 general election.

“She has no loyalty. She has betrayed everyone by bringing down a whole government … and a good one for that matter,” he said.

Hee, previously from DAP, announced she was quitting the party earlier this week. She said she would remain an independent assemblyman, but pledged her loyalty to Barisan.

The weak link is Hee. If she resigns, big problem for BN.  The other two fellows will not resign and their corruption case charges will take a long time. A by-election must be called if Hee resigns and if BN losses, it wil reflect that the Sultan has erred or probably been deceived.

However, there’s rumours that Hee may be offered an EXCO position or asked to maintain the deputy speaker post. If UMNO doesn’t allow it, then it will serve to reinforce that they don’t respect nor acknowledge the non-Malays. This will give more pressure to Hee – abhored by own voters and neglected by new state government.

She may join MCA, but according to MCA they won’t “force” her to do so.