Tonight's the night

T'was the week before Bersih4

We are with Karpal Singh

We are with Karpal Singh on the 20th April 2014 at the Dewan Sri Pinang, Penang. 

It was a beautiful Sunday when we bask in the reflected glory of a great man of honor, a man that had defended his people and country against injustice. A man who had fought for the right to freedom for all that shares the land that he steps on. His unending stories of valor and justice will be told from father to child.

We will miss his person but his presence will lives on in all of us and his stories will become legendary as his spirits and dreams shall very soon be a reality as we takes on his mission and finish the final mile.

Farewell Bernard Khoo aka zorro-unmasked

There are times when we must all part and say our Good byes and cherish the many memories of the times we had shared together. There were many countless treasures of time and energies that had been expended together as compatriots and buddies.

We had shared a dream, a dream that we thought we could see actualize during our time, we fought as we know how with the scarce resources that we had which was hardly ever barely. We traverse the length and breath of the old country with such haste as the battle fronts were many, we slept intermittently whenever and wherever we could find a place to lean our heavy heads on, when we could not we just let it hang dangling on our shoulders catching whatever amount of sleep possible.

Many a times we had Fear staring right down our belly when the might of the tyrannical monsters of power wielded by the evil masters were thrown right into our face. We stood our ground, stared at fear right in the eye and the feelings of overcoming was tremendous, as we grew stronger by the day harboring hopes of seeing our dream come true.

There were many we called comrades and there were goodwill and comfort within the ranks of those that stood together as we fought our ground. We planned, the ideas were flowing, we laughed and partied at the victories we had, the juices and malts were a flowing. there were great camaraderie, trusts and friendship were blossoming.

Years of battle went on and the victories were many..

On the days approaching the final battle of 13th, we paused, looked back and saw that there remained only but a few, what happened? we asked. There were only silence as there were no answers, What of the great unity we so spoke about right from the 12th when there were great jubilation looking forward to the 13th.

Our dreams faltered as those who were left standing were but few, the bigger political parties had dismissed civil societies and other smaller groups of the Rakyat like us, seeking an appointment to meet is like climbing up a mountain, calls to meet the big shot leaders were met with silence and no replies. And if whenever there were responses or replies it came with conditions attached. We were no longer invited as blogs was losing it's appeal as now we have twitters and facebook with the political leaders themselves amassing huge followings on these platforms and some running into the hundreds of thousand.

The times have changed, it is no longer 2008 it's now 2013, almost 5 years had passed and the final hours of what we thought would be the final battle of 13th would not be realised, we knew as we could almost felt the disappointment even before it happened. Many places that we went we saw great arrogance and great obstacles built up on huge big walls of egoes.

Instead of unity we had seen disarray from west to east as there were great quarrels and unhappiness amongst the opposing forces, especially with the smaller groups or parties, with such a mix of negative energies, we knew it is going to be an uphill battle, nevertheless on our own, the small group we had, we call on new recruits and we gave it our all despite the limitations. We were fighting on our own and we were shocked to see candidates being thrown into areas where they had no support other than Ceramahs where the big shots superstars come rushing through with their live concerts and left just as fast before you could even say hello.

We missed the big chance of 13th where we believed we could have made it.. we miss this chance and now we have to wait another 5 years and my buddy would not wait no more.

This is the story that my buddy compatriot had wanted me to write about and today in his honor i have it here so written as i have seen it.

The uncanny thing about his timing had left me wondering as he would not have chosen to go on any other date except for the 4th of April, the birthday of Haris Ibrahim. I guess he wanted Haris to remember the dream that he shared or the vow that he had pledged and that every year on his birthday Haris must be reminded of.

"Change will come as surely as i will downed this glass of malt." ~ zorro-unmasked

May his spirit lives on in all who shall share the dream.

We shall fight on and the dream that we dreamed of shall one day be a reality.

Farewell.. my good friend.

Funeral mass will be at 11am on Monday, 7th April, 
at the St Ignatius Church, No. 2, Jalan SS25/23 Taman Plaza 47301 PJ.

Petition For FREEDOM of Karpal Singh

Rakyat Times is launching an online petition to strongly condemn the conviction of Mr. Karpal Singh under the Sedition Act 1948. He was found guilty for allegedly uttering seditious words against the Sultan of Perak at the height of the Constitutional Crisis in 2009. Under section 4(1) of the 1948 Sedition Act, Karpal now faces a fine of up to RM 3,000 or imprisonment of up to three years. The sentence will be delivered on 11 March 2014.

In recent years, the Sedition Act and other restrictive legislation have been allegedly employed to silence critics of the executive. Mr. Singh was last tried for sedition in 2002 with charges being withdrawn during trial widely believed to be due to numerous representations from the international legal community. Mr. Singh has however suffered imprisonment under Malaysia’s internal security laws in 1987 and again in 1989 widely perceived to be linked to his opposition to then Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir Mohamad.

Amnesty International issued a statement in 2001 affirming Mr. Singh, a prisoner of conscience. The statement also strongly criticized the use of the Sedition Act, and other restrictive legislation, to stifle fundamental rights of freedom of expression, association and assembly in Malaysia.

This is a very important trial, not only for Mr. Singh, but also for the people of Malaysia who have elected him to office. As chairman of the largest opposition party, the Democratic Action Party (“DAP”), Mr. Singh is a core pillar of Malaysian opposition politics. The Malaysian constitution disqualifies anyone imprisoned for more than a year to sit in Parliament for a period of five years beginning with the date on which the convicted person is released. The alleged orchestrated removal of Mr. Singh will therefore be tantamount to putting an end to opposition politics in Malaysia.

As a representative of the freedom loving people of Malaysia, we would like to humbly request that you consider issuing a statement in support of Mr. Singh who is not only a distinguished lawyer and politician but also a father-like figure to all freedom loving Malaysians.
Please find attached names of fellow Malaysians who are strongly supporting this effort.
Rakyat Times.

PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION HERE

Crime has reached an unprecedented level in Malaysia.

Crime has reached an unprecedented level in Malaysia.

The types of crime being reported ranges from murders, killings, rapes, molest, robberies and street crimes like snatch thieves, mugging, pick pockets, shop-lifting and etc.

These crimes are our diet of daily news, they are reported on a daily basis and have become so common that we take the news for granted. It is so common today to hear and see of crime that we have taken it as a normal everyday event.

Not only are these crimes committed just an attempt to get at your wallet or money be it a few ringgit or whatever you might have on your body that has a monetary value but the crimes reported are horrendous and frightening as these criminals has no qualms at stabbing or killing just to get at your smart phone or handbag.

We are seeing a rise in violent and extremely brutal crime where the victims risk death or violent injuries to be scared for the rest of their life. The victims and families of the victims will have to go through high trauma with extended period of pain and anguish.

We are at the same time witnessing a period where we are seeing crime committed by people in authority by the very people who are to provide security and safeties are instead part of the totality of the problem. We see leaders and people in uniform committing crimes with many reported over this present period.

Corruption is also a crime committed by people in authority and they seem to be able to get away scot free. Corruption is also rising in tandem with violent crimes and funny how history has shown that these two are always in harmony, that is where you find a high level of corruption you will see a high rate of crime and violent crime in that particular country.

As many as there are crimes that are reported there are many much more lesser crimes that goes unreported, most victims loathe having to go to the police station to make a police report as the hassle one has to go through is another form of frustration as a crime victim, one have to spend many annoying and frustrating hours in the police station just waiting and having the statements written or recorded and with such mentality lesser crimes are not being unreported and not reflected in the statistics.

Crime statistics are again kept classified and not easily available to the community, they (statistics) are announced to the public only after being filtered and classified in a complex process that distort the actual facts.

At the local level of the neighbourhood groups, communities and residents associations are deprived of basic information of crime records in the local area, local community groups are not able to obtain local statistics from the local police stations, which should be made freely available so that the residents can make preparations to secure their own community.

No one chooses a life of crime if they have a choice.

We should ask very fundamental questions as to why is there such a high increase in crime being committed by first of all local Malaysians?

Fundamental and established theories are that crime are committed generally in desperation in the attempt for basic living necessities or a desperate need for want of a slightly normal lifestyle like being able to extend a basic smart phone to your growing teenage child or a computer which in this present age has become a necessity rather than just a want and so are the need of many other items which is today a necessity.

The definition for livelihood is not only measured in terms of necessity but in social acceptance, the need to be socially accepted with a life of dignity.

Crime is today a social economic problem, as the failure of policies and a breakdown of social structures with many years of degrading education systems that have been unable to generate a skill sufficient youth population.

Not every youth is a university graduate, for every graduate we will have many more non graduates who reaches the age of employment every year. We have more than 550,000 youths who completes high school every year and we generate about 180,000 graduates from public universities, this number will show you that we have more than 300,000 youths who are non-graduate.

The statistics show that we have about 100,000 high school drop-outs every year that did not get through the basic SPM examinations.

Where are these youths who could not get through SPM or the youths who are non- graduates, are they able to find employment? There are reports that show that 70% of our local graduates from public universities are unemployed or could not find employment.

We are a country with great disparity in wealth distribution as reflected in the GINI index which is a measure of statistical dispersion intended to represent the income distribution of a nation's residents. Malaysia is amongst one of the worst performing nation in Asia with the most unequal wealth distribution between the rich and the poor. We are worse off than Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines.

Our analysis shows that Malaysia has 40% of it’s household of about 5 person per household earning less than RM 3,000.00 per month and in our classification these are the poor. We have poverty to 40% of household in this country. Isn’t this amazing? Forget about high income nation when the gap is widening ever so quickly, the rich are getting richer and the poor getting poorer by the day.

And next we have crimes committed by foreigners in the country, we are seeing a huge number of crimes by these foreign nationals today. We have reports of crimes by whole host of foreign nationals from even South Americans like Argentinian, Columbian, Mexican and the like as reported. How did these foreigners get in to this country of ours and why is this a country of choice for their criminal pursuit?

Violent and Brutal Crimes

We are seeing rampant violent and brutal crimes even for petty street crimes, these perpetrators will not hesitate to stab you with a knife or shoot you with a gun.

The criminals behaviour are a reflection of the behaviour of our police force, long have there been a call to set up the IPCMC (Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission) as recommended by the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) in the year 2006.

The IPCMC will see a total revamp in the conduct and processes of the Police force in Malaysia which will hopefully result in a much more civil approach with due process and integration of the law accorded to every single human being.

Any suspected criminals must be accorded due process of the law and the abuse of the force in exercising brutality to many as reflected in the many unexplained death in custody must stop.

Criminals reflect the brutality of the authorities as in the contemplation of the suspect that it will be sure death or a torture more painful than death if they are to be caught or arrested and such reflection will cause the criminals to be much more brutal to avoid arrest at all cost.

And as such we see petty street crimes getting so much more violent in just trying to steal a few bucks, they will kill to avoid being caught as the mere thought of being in police custody will drive them crazy. For the criminals, the thought of being in police custody means certain torture and death.

"The more brutal the police, the more brutal the crime."

Solution?

We feel that we might be just too late, maybe there is still a chance if enough Malaysians wake up to this fact.

Our solution to this problem is the Social Inclusion Agenda (SIA) of which we have spent endless hours in its design and mechanics and is today already in draft as in the Social Inclusion Act which we have invited all political parties to participate.

We will soon be going around again presenting the SIA and we hope to receive your support and hopefully see that it could be implemented in the near future.

This might just be the solution that can Save Malaysia.

Read More Here: Social Inclusion Act

Dialogue with political parties on the SIA 

More on the Video of the SIA

Crime Watch Malaysia on Facebook

Running Out Of Money To Fund a Corrupt Economy

Financial analyst Jesse Colombo, credited by the London Times for predicting the global financial crisis, noted that Malaysia's high government and household debt will lead to a financial crisis.

>Malaysia now has the second highest public debt-to-GDP ratio among 13 emerging Asian countries according to a Bloomberg study. Malaysia’s high public debt burden led to a sovereign credit rating outlook downgrade by Fitch in July.

>Malaysian corporate leverage, which includes corporate bonds and bank loans, is also rising at an alarming rate, reaching 95.8 percent of GDP in 2013 from 79.9 percent in 2007.

>Datuk Paul Selva Raj, CEO of the Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (FOMCA), said 47 percent of young Malaysians are currently in “serious debt” (debt payments amount to 30 percent or more of their gross income), something that could catch up with them very quickly.
“Car purchases and credit card debts are among the main reasons for bankruptcy in Malaysia,” said Paul.

>Malaysia’s government has been running a budget deficit since 1999
Like their government, Malaysian households are also binging on debt, which has caused the county’s ratio of household debt to GDP to hit a record 83 percent – Southeast Asia’s highest household debt load – which is up from 70 percent in 2009, and up greatly from the 39 percent ratio at the start of the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997. Malaysian household debt has grown at around 12 percent annually each year since 2008.

Read More Here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jessecolombo/2013/10/15/malaise-is-ahead-for-malaysias-bubble-economy/