Irregularities in MH370 audio recordings indicate possible editing, say experts

The Malaysian Insider

MAY 03, 2014

Audio forensic experts spotted several irregularities in audio recordings from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 which suggested they may have been edited, a United States news network reported.

According to NBC News, the experts said at least two different audio sources recorded the tapes, wherein one of those recordings may have been a digital recorder held up to a speaker.

The Malaysian Transport Ministry on Thursday released a 5-page preliminary report on the missing plane along with the audio recording.

Analysts who listened to the recordings also told NBC that they noticed four clear breaks in the audio that indicated edits, NBC reported.

“It’s very strange,” audio-video forensic expert Ed Primeau of Primeau Forensics was quoted as saying by NBC.

“At approximately 1:14… it sounds like someone is holding a digital recorder up to a speaker, so it’s a microphone-to-speaker transfer of that information. That’s a pretty big deal because it raises the first red flag about there possibly being some editing.”

Primeau and forensic audio examiner Kent Gibson also pointed out other details to NBC on their suspicions.

Gibson said that the tapes indicated that “Malaysian authorities or whoever presented this made edits for whatever reason”.

He added that ”it’s not the way to handle evidence,” but it also did not necessarily imply anything about the investigation.

“Unfortunately, there are no smoking guns, except there are edits. And there are clear edits,” Gibson was quoted telling NBC.

MH370 enroute to Beijing with 239 people from 15 countries on board, disappeared from radar at 1:30am on March 8.

A multinational search was launched to find the missing plane. Investigators think it is somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean, off the west coast of Australia. But so far, all leads and information which have been established through reports and data have yielded nothing. – May 3, 2014.

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Malaysia gets ‘D’, South Korea ‘A-’ in handling of tragedies, says Bloomberg columnist

The Malaysian Insider

MAY 02, 2014

Putrajaya was once again slammed by a Bloomberg columnist who compared Malaysia’s handling of the MH370 saga with South Korea’s response to the recent Sewol ferry tragedy.

In a scathing attack, columnist William Pesek said he would give top marks to South Korea for their handling of the ferry tragedy but found Malaysia sorely lacking in handling the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

He said the incidents could be described as tests for the two governments, if not of Malaysian and South Korean societies.

“The grades so far? I’d give Korea an A-, Malaysia a D,” he said in his Bloomberg column titled “One missing jet, one sunken ferry, two responses”.

Pesek said in the two weeks since the ferry sank, killing about 300 people on board, the South Korean government had reacted with self-questioning, shame and official penitence.

“President Park Geun Hye issued a dramatic and heartfelt apology. Her No. 2, Prime Minister Chung Hong Won, resigned outright. Prosecutors hauled in the ship’s entire crew and raided the offices of its owners and shipping regulators. Citizens and the media are demanding speedy convictions and long-term reforms,” he said.

On the flip side, there was no such reaction on the part of Malaysian authorities 56 days after MH370 vanished, said Pesek.

“No officials have quit. Prime Minister (Datuk Seri) Najib Razak seems more defiant than contrite. The docile local news media has focused more on international criticism of Malaysia’s leaders rather than on any missteps by those leaders themselves,” he said.

Pesek said although both countries are democracies, the key difference is the relative openness of their political systems.

“One party has dominated Malaysia since independence, while Korea, for all its growing pains and occasional tumultuousness, has seen several peaceful transfers of power over the past quarter-century.

“Unused to having to answer critics, Malaysia’s government has responded defensively.

“Korean officials, on the other hand, are reflecting, addressing the anger of citizens, and delving into what went wrong with the shipping industry’s regulatory checks and balances,” he pointed out.

Pesek said South Korea was most likely to emerge from the crisis stronger than ever, unlike Malaysia.

He said this could be seen from the way both countries handled the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

Pesek said Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who was the prime minister then, had blamed the ringgit’s plunge on some shadowy Jewish cabal headed by George Soros instead of internalising what had gone wrong.

“It didn’t admit it had been using capital inflows unproductively and that coddling state champions – including Malaysia Airlines – was killing competitiveness. Never did the ruling United Malays National Organisation consider it might be part of the problem.”

Pesek said South Korea, on the other hand, forced weak companies and banks to fail, accepting tens of thousands of job losses.

South Korean authorities, he said, clamped down on reckless investing and lending and addressed moral hazards head-on.

“Koreans felt such shame that millions lined up to donate gold, jewellery, art and other heirlooms to the national treasury.”

Pesek said while South Korea’s response wasn’t perfect, the country’s economic performance since then speaks for itself.

“Now as then, Korea’s open and accountable system is forcing its leaders to look beyond an immediate crisis. Ordinary Koreans are calling for a national catharsis that will reshape their society and its attitude toward safety. Park’s government has no choice but to respond.

“Malaysia’s government, on the other hand, appears to be lost in its own propaganda.

“To the outside world, acting Transport Minister (Datuk Seri) Hishammuddin Hussein performed dismally as a government spokesman: He was combative, defensive and so opaque that even China complained.

“Yet Hishammuddin is now seen as prime-minister material for standing up to pesky foreign journalists and their rude questions. The government seems intent on ensuring that nothing changes as a result of this tragedy.

“As hard as it seems now, South Korea will move past this tragedy, rejuvenated. Malaysia? I’m not so sure.” – May 2, 2014.

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Malaysia on US watch list for limitations on religious freedom

BY ELIZABETH ZACHARIAH

The Malaysian Insider

May 03, 2014

Malaysia has been placed on a watch list by an advisory body of the United States government over concerns about its limitation on freedom of religion, putting it on a par with countries like Afghanistan, Cuba, Indonesia, Laos, Russia and Turkey.

In its 2014 annual report, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) placed Malaysia on Tier 2, one level down from Tier 1 (countries of particular concern) which lists countries like Myanmar, China, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and Sudan, among others.

“USCIRF found that the intertwining of religion, ethnicity, and politics in Malaysia complicate religious freedom protections for religious minorities and non-Sunni Muslims,” the commission said in the report.

USCIRF is an independent US government advisory body that monitors religious freedom worldwide and makes policy recommendations to the American president, the secretary of state and Congress.

The commission noted that it had not reported on Malaysia since 2007.

“Renewed reporting stems from concerns about inadequate legal protections for religious minorities and ethnic Malays who wish to change their religion, bans on certain publications and groups considered religiously deviant, including Shia, and expanded efforts to arrest and harass members of such groups in the past two years,” the report said.

In the report, USCIRF listed several conditions of freedom of religion that have marred Malaysia’s  image as a “moderate nation” and a “multi-faith model”, including the ban on the use of the word Allah by non-Muslims and official promotion of religious hatred.

In October last year, the Court of Appeal overturned a 2010 High Court decision to allow Christians to use the word Allah in the Catholic weekly, Herald.

The word Allah, the court had ruled, belonged exclusively to Islam and that its usage by other religious groups could confuse Muslims and be used as a tool of conversion.

The Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (Jakim) received mention in the report for issuing official sermons criticising the Jews and Christians.

“In March 2013, it issued an official sermon stating that ‘Muslims must understand Jews are the main enemy to Muslims’. In November 2013, Jakim published a sermon that discussed the ‘despicable nature’ of the Jewish race and stated that ‘Israel is a nation of ruthless criminals’,” the report said.

“After criticism, the sermons were removed and the government of Malaysia apologised. However, in January 2014, Jakim released another approved sermon stating that ‘divisions among Muslims… are caused by Christians and Jews’.”

Jakim officials, it said, seek to influence the content of sermons, use mosques to convey political messages, and prevent certain imams from speaking at mosques.

The commission also said the arrest of members from “banned” sects was also a condition that had earned Malaysia a mention in its report.

“Over the past several years, Malaysia has expanded efforts to monitor and detain followers of banned sects, most prominently Shia and Al-Arqam.

“Since 2010, over 200 Shia followers have been detained, including in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, and Perak,” it added.

The federal and state governments reportedly maintain lists of “deviant religious sects” deemed to threaten national security. Among the groups believed to be included are Shia, Ahmadis, Baha’i, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Church of the Latter Day Saints, and Al-Arqam, USCIRF said.

“Enforcement efforts generally focus on conversions and proselytism, not assembly or worship, but members of such groups are vulnerable to arrests and detentions at any time, particularly if they are ethnic Malays.”

Another condition mentioned in the report is the proposal to expand the powers of Jakim including by creating a religious police force for Islamic affairs departments nationwide.

“This proposal has been widely criticised, but Jakim’s powers to restrict freedoms have expanded in recent years,” the commission said.

A case in point, it said, was the May 2013 arrest of Borders bookstore employee Nik Raina Nik Abdul Aziz for distributing Irshad Manji’s controversial book “Allah, Liberty and Love,” even before it was officially banned.

“In August 2013, on Jakim’s recommendation, police detained Maznah Mohd Yusof after deeming a video of her and her three dogs she posted on YouTube was ‘insulting to Islam’. She was released on bail, pending an investigation.”

The commission recommended that the US government “publicly acknowledge” that the increasingly religion-oriented politics undermine the efforts of those working to make Malaysia a religiously-pluralistic, Muslim-majority democracy.

It also called on the US government to undertake greater efforts to connect religious freedom and tolerance issues to US-Malaysia bilateral relations by:

* Urging the Malaysian government to cease the arrest of individuals involved in peaceful religious activity, such as Shia and Al-Arqam groups, and end government efforts to police religious belief and expression;

* Pressing the Malaysian government to bring all laws and policies into conformity with international commitments, including on freedom of religion or belief and freedom of expression;

* Encouraging Malaysian elected leaders to address the human rights shortcomings of the parallel civil-Shariah justice systems to guarantee that all Malaysians, regardless of ethnicity or religion, can enjoy freedom of religion or belief in line with international standards; and

* In the context of expanding US-Malaysia relations, insist in negotiations concerning Malaysia joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) that religious and ethnic minorities benefit fairly from freer and expanded trade. – May 3, 2014.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 4 May 2014, 9:28 am and is filed under
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On first anniversary of 13GE, Malaysians torn by grave disillusionment with Najib for a year of failed policies and the dire prospect of a break-up of Pakatan Rakyat over hudud law

Tomorrow is the first anniversary of the 13th General Elections where Malaysians had hoped to see a change of federal government in Putrajaya for the first time in the 56-year history of the nation.

Unfortunately, although Pakatan Rakyat secured the support of the  majority of the national electorate, with 52% of the national voters voting for PR, Barisan Nasional continued to occupy the citadels of power in Putrajaya because of unfair electoral practices, gerrymandering and  unfair redelineation of electoral constituencies.

The past one year has brought greater disillusionment to the people who wanted to see political change to bring Malaysia  back to the pursuit of the Malaysian Dream for all Malaysians by bringing the country back to the tracks of justice, the rule of law, democracy, good governance, excellence and prosperity  which Malaysia had strayed  from for more than 40 years.

The latest global survey on the  average broadband speed is another index to highlight the continued regression and retrogression of Malaysia instead of progress way ahead in the forefront in th world in various aspects of national achievements.

According to the new global survey, the average broadband speed in Malaysia is slower than Vietnam and Cambodia in the region, and barely ahead of Myanmar.

Almost three times slower than Vietnam, Malaysia at 5.48 Megabits per second (Mbps) was ranked a low 126 out of 192 countries surveyed from May 2013 to April this year in the recent Net Index conducted by Ookla – a global broadband testing and web-based network diagnostic applications company that compares the download, upload and line quality of broadband connections.

Zooming to the number one spot was Hong Kong with a speed of 78.3 Mbps. Singapore sped to second placing at 66.6 Mbps while South Korea was ranked fourth (53.77Mbps), the United Kingdom 23rd (26.85Mbps) and the United States, 32nd (23.9Mbps).

With 5.48 Mbps, Malaysia’s is slower than Brunei (5.51 Mbps), Cambodia (5.9 Mbps), Vietnam (14.2 Mbps), Thailand (18.9 Mbps), China (19.5 Mbps), Taiwan (39.3 Mbps), Japan (41.5 Mbps), South Korea (53.77 Mbps), Singapore (66.6 Mbps) and Hong Kong (78.3 Mbps).  Myanmar registers 5.0 Mbps, Laos 4.5 Mbps, Indonesia 4.3 Mbps and Philippines 3.5 Mbps.

This is a far cry from the promises made when the former Prime Minister,  Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad launched the Multi-media Super Corridor in the mid-90s for Malaysia to  become an information superpower by becoming one of the premier IT hubs in the world.

The MSC had become a great failure for Malaysia has failed the quantum leap to become an information superpower, when our broadband speed is of snail-speed variety, with Malaysia losing out even to countries like Brunei, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and China which would have been completely unthinkable when MSC was launched some two decades ago.

In broadband speed, education, economic justice, the rule of law, respect for human rights  and good governance, Malaysia is trailing behind more and more countries, which have hastened in the past one year.

Even more worrying, nation-building or the creation of a united Malaysian nation out of the diverse races, religions and regions has never suffered such a serious blow as in the past year, despite the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia policy and international campaign for a Global Movement of Moderates.

However, on the eve of the first anniversary of the 13GE last May, Malaysians are torn on the one hand by grave disillusionment with Najib for a year of failed policies and  on the other hand, the dire prospect of a break-up of Pakatan Rakyat over hudud law.

The latter possibility cannot be taken lightly although it has only descended on the country like a political tornado in a matter of weeks.

The overwhelming majority of the voters who voted for Pakatan Rakyat in the 13GE did so for change of government and political and nation-building policies, and not for hudud. Furthermore, those who do not support hudud law in the country do so not because they are anti-Islam but because the Malaysian Constitution provides for a secular democratic nation.

Pakatan Rakyat would not have continued to deny the Barisan Nasional two-thirds parliamentary majority if hudud was an agenda for Pakatan Rakyat in the 13GE.

There can be no doubt that all the three PR parties of DAP, PKR and PAS would have suffered serious electoral losses if hudud had been an issue in the 13GE.

In Johore for instance, DAP would not have won 4 Parliamentary and 13 State Assembly seats, PAS might have lost all the four State Assembly seats while PKR might have lost the one parliamentary and one state assembly seat in Johore.

Malaysians want Pakatan Rakyat to grow from strength to strength and to achieve the political transition of a change of federal government in Putrajaya in the 14GE, but if hudud becomes a major issue, Pakatan Rakyat may go the way of the previous Barisan Alternative.

Then all the three present component parties of DAP, PKR and PAS will all be the losers.  The only winners will be UMNO and the Barisan Nasional parties.

This will be an unmitigated disaster for all Malaysians.

(Media Conference Statement in Batu Pahat on Sunday, 4th May 2014 at 2 pm)

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Double advice to Ka Siong – don’t tell a bare-faced lie and don’t be caught immediately for such downright dishonesty

Let me give a double advice to the MCA deputy president Wee Ka Siong: Don’t tell a bare-faced lie and don’t be caught immediately with such downright dishonesty.

Ka Siong committed both sins today when he rebutted my media conference statement in Batu Pahat yesterday that the MCA President, Liow Tiong Lai had missed a “golden opportunity” to say “No” to the Prime Minister and UMNO President, Datuk Seri Najib Razak who had attended the launch of the MCA’s “Stronger Together”  programme at Tunku Abdul Rahman University College in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday that MCA cannot accept Najib’s unilateral and arbitrary announcement in Alor Star last Thursday that the Barisan Nasional Federal Government had never rejected hudud.

This was because what Najib said was not the original Barisan Nasional stand, and furthermore, violates an important BN principle that any change of Barisan Nasional policy must be the result of the consensus of all component parties and not unilaterally and arbitrarily by  any one party, even if it is UMNO.

Ka Siong should know better than anyone that the Barisan Nasional Federal Government’s stand, even going back to the UMNO, MCA and MIC founders like Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein, Tun Tan Cheng Lock, Tun Tan Siew Sin and Tun V.T. Sambanthan was that hudud was inconsistent with the secular 1957 constitution.

When did the Barisan Nasional Federal Government change this fundamental position and why did the MCA support such a fundamental policy change?

Ka Siong’s  bare-faced lie is   claiming that Tiong Lai had said “No” to Najib in front of the Prime Minister on Saturday, rejecting Najib’s statement in Alor Star last Thursday that the Barisan Nasional Federal Government had never rejected hudud.

What is unfortunate for Ka Siong is that he is immediately caught telling a bare-faced lie, as this is easily proven  by referring to Tiong Lai’s speech or the MCA newspaper Star’s report of the speech – which showed that Tiong Lai missed the “golden opportunity” to tell Najib in his presence that MCA repudiated the Prime Minister’s Alor Star statement that the Barisan Nasional Federal Government had never rejected hudud.

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A Malaysia where all Malaysians are equal, that’s the perfect tribute to Karpal, says Gobind

by Looi Sue-Chern

The Malaysian Insider

May 06, 2014

The greatest tribute Malaysians could give to the late Karpal Singh would be to build a new Malaysia where everyone will be treated fairly and equally. That was the message at the last leg of a series of tributes for the Bukit Gelugor MP which coincided with the first anniversary of GE13.

Karpal’s son Gobind Singh Deo yesterday urged the people to remember his father’s fighting spirit and see his dreams realised with a new government in Putrajaya in the next general election.

“What is important is to remember how he lived because he was a man who fought for us and this country, believing that this country can change one day… a Malaysia where all Malaysians are equal and treated fairly by our government.

“If there was darkness, Karpal was the light. If there was weakness, it was him who gave us strength.

“But now that he is no longer with us, are we going to back down now because Karpal is no longer with us? Do we stop our fight because he is no longer here with us? Or do we remember the fighting spirit that the Tiger of Jelutong has left behind?” he said at the memorial  held in Penang last night at the Hanchiang High School’s Lim Lean Teng hall.

Though there was a drizzle during the event, it did not hamper the spirits of the people, who made their way to the seventh and last memorial which was held to remember Karpal. The late DAP leader died in a road accident at KM306.1 of the North-South Expressway near Gua Tempurung in Kampar on April 17.

National laureate Datuk A. Samad Said recites a poem to late Karpal Singh at the memorial service yesterday. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Hasnoor Hussain, May 06, 2014.

National laureate Datuk A. Samad Said recites a poem to late Karpal Singh at the memorial service yesterday. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Hasnoor Hussain, May 06, 2014.

Famous faces such as Parit Buntar MP Datuk Mujahid Yusuf Rawa of PAS and national laureate A. Samad Said also attended the event.

Gobind also asked the people never to forget the man and the name Karpal Singh.

He spoke of “Karpalism” – the new word coined to honour Karpal, who fought fearlessly for justice in both his legal and political careers.

He said “Karpalism” means the spirit of courage to speak and fight for the underdogs.

“Is there Karpalism in you? Is there Karpalism in us?

“Will there be Karpalism in the fight to make sure there is a new government in Malaysia in 2018?” he said.

DAP parliamentary opposition leader Lim Kit Siang said the 14th general election should be dedicated to Karpal, whom he called a Malaysian legend.

“The best we can do for him is fulfilling the dream of a Malaysians’ Malaysia where everyone can develop their full potential.

“Let us win the next general election to honour the memory of Karpal, who gave his life for a more just and equal society in Malaysia,” he said.

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said Karpal must be remembered for his fighting spirit, his struggle against what is wrong, and the faith and belief he had in the people of the country.

“He believed that as long as we never give up, we will overcome,” he said.

He said his father Kit Siang wept and mourned for Karpal, who was DAP national chairman and his comrade of 44 years.

“He wanted Karpal to be there when PR finally throws out BN… sometimes fate can be cruel.

“Even if he is not here with us, we must make this happen for Karpal (in the next general election),” said Guan Eng, who is Penang chief minister.

Gobind Singh Deo, son of the late Karpal Singh, shares his experience about his father and said that to truly honour the late politician-lawyer, Malaysians must fight for a country that treats everyone equally. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Hasnoor Hussain, May 06, 2014.

Gobind Singh Deo, son of the late Karpal Singh, shares his experience about his father and said that to truly honour the late politician-lawyer, Malaysians must fight for a country that treats everyone equally. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Hasnoor Hussain, May 06, 2014.

At the memorial, Gobind and brothers Jagdeep Singh Deo and Ramkarpal Singh also spoke of their father, namely the time Karpal was detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) in 1987.

Jagdeep said he was sitting for his Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) exams when his father was taken.

He said Karpal told him to proceed with furthering his studies abroad despite the tense situation of being detained under the act.

“He was hospitalised during his detention… he was handcuffed to the bed then. I asked him how he could tell me to study law when it appears that there were no laws.

“My father said: ‘Son, you must always believe in the law and not lose faith.’ That was the man that he was,” Jagdeep said.

Gobind paid tribute to his mother Gurmit Kaur, who stood steadfast with Karpal through thick and thin, especially when his father was detained under the ISA.

He also paid tribute to his father’s aide Michael Cornelius, 39, who used to fast every Tuesday so that Karpal might one day walk again.

Michael, a trained nurse from India, died with Karpal in the accident.

“Michael was the man who stood behind Karpal. I have seen Michael facing difficult situations. He would take Karpal in and out of Parliament.

“But this was a man who was committed in making sure that his boss always stood high in society,” he said. – May 6, 2014.

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Karpal Singh – Will for Justice

by Liew Chin Tong

fz.com

May 05, 2014

The funeral rites for Karpal Singh ended with family members scattering his ashes in the sea off Green Hall, Penang, but the national soul-searching to understand his legacy and to commemorate it has just begun.

The massive outpouring of grief, especially at the funeral on April 20, 2014, for a statesman who had actually never held executive power was indeed unprecedented. Karpal’s legacies as a human rights lawyer and a staunch defender of constitutional democracy, and his leadership in DAP will be remembered, studied and perhaps critiqued.

The cruel attempt that was ongoing when Karpal died, to disqualify him as MP and even to jail him, will continue to haunt the ruling party with his image as victim and martyr “sealed” with his demise. Karpal’s perseverance against physical disability will also continue to inspire many, and hopefully his tragic accident on the highway will help the push for better transportation.

Shocking death

It was one of those end-of-era deaths the news of which imprints itself so strongly into our memory that we will forever remember how and when we first heard it.

At 2.33am on April 17, 2014, an MP asked a private messaging group of DAP federal elected representatives whether it was true that Karpal had met with an accident, to which Gobind Singh Deo, Karpal’s second son and MP for Puchong, replied at 2.48am: “With regret I inform you that it is true.”

In a separate message minutes later, Gobind wrote: “Just been informed Mr Karpal and Michael (Karpal’s aide) passed away.”

No words can describe the acute pain we all felt on receiving that sad confirmation.

This giant of a man was always expected to fight tirelessly and endlessly, and news of his demise could only come in one way – as an emotional shock. Having just been convicted and fined RM4,000 (which would disqualify him as an MP) for sedition on March 11, 2014, he was expected to battle it out and appeal to the higher courts – and all the while, the government appealed for heftier penalties.

Curiously, of his own volition, he resigned on March 29, 2014 as DAP chairman citing provisions in the Societies Act which disallowed a convicted person from holding public office.

Outpouring of grief

The outpouring of grief by Malaysians at the wake and the funeral was massive and caught many off guard. The funeral organisers had expected a couple of thousand at the funeral but were faced instead with a crowd multiple times bigger. At Karpal’s wake, Kerk Kim Hock, former DAP secretary-general who retired from politics in 2004, told me that it was unimaginable just a decade ago that the passing of a DAP figure could generate such an immense show of public emotions.

There were many dignitaries at the wake, no doubt, but the number of ordinary Malaysians who thronged the family house at Jalan Utama from April 17 to 19 was overwhelming and was testimony to how many hearts Karpal touched.

On April 20, Penang witnessed what was probably its largest funeral ever. True to Karpal’s folk hero image, the send-off was akin to a street parade, complete with placards, big bikes and cyclists. The day was notable also for being exactly a year since nomination day for the 2013 General Election. Tens of thousands of mourners from all over Malaysia lined the streets of Penang to have a last glimpse of Karpal’s casket, shouting “Karpal Singh! Karpal Singh!” as if it was a nomination procession. Many were frustrated at not being able to enter Dewan Sri Pinang to pay their last respects.

After leaving the state hall where the state-honour funeral ceremonies were held, Karpal’s body stopped at places important to his life – Penang State Assembly, Penang High Court and St Xavier’s Institution – before heading to the Batu Gantung crematorium.

The original plan included a stop at Green Hall, where Karpal’s legal office is, but that was not carried out due to the crowd size and lack of time. Most news reports missed the significance of Green Hall. It was not just where his office is located. According to Tim Donoghue’s Karpal Singh – Tiger of Jelutong, after being born at the Penang Maternity Hospital on Jalan Macalister on June 28, 1940, Karpal was first brought up at 23 Green Hall, a house that was soon damaged in the bombings of World War II.

His life story

Karpal’s story is fascinating and dramatic indeed. Born to a Penang City Council guard, he went on to become one of Penang’s and Malaysia’s most famous and respected lawyers and statesmen.

One day in December 2010 at Parliament, Karpal asked me to meet him at his Pudu office. We met at his library, and were joined by the New Zealand journalist, Tim Donoghue. Karpal and Donoghue asked me for publishing advice as my team had published a photo book on Karpal in three languages for his 70th birthday in June 2010 (Karpal Singh: True Malaysian by Malaissa Loovi; Malay: Karpal Singh – Pantang Undur; Chinese:卡巴星－真正的马来西亚人).

I had previously heard of a mysterious unpublished memoir of Karpal and had in fact been given a draft by Karpal in mid-2010. But it was a pleasant surprise to meet the author and be told that the project already started in 1988, that someone then had deemed it worthy to make Karpal’s life story a lifelong pursuit.

Donoghue met Karpal in 1987 when Karpal acted for New Zealanders Loraine Cohen and Aaron Cohen in a drug related death penalty case and saved them from the hangman’s noose. Karpal was already a well-known international name after the failed attempt to save Australians Kevin Barlow and Geoffrey Chambers, who were hanged in 1986.

Donoghue’s book was finally published by Marshall Cavendish and launched in KL in September 2013, 25 years after it was first commissioned. The intervening years saw many ups and downs in Karpal’s life.

He was detained under the Internal Security Act in 1987-1989. In the 1995 General Election, he was re-elected in Jelutong, scrapping through with the slimmest of margins. Then in 1999, both Karpal and Lim Kit Siang were not returned to Parliament for the first time in their political careers.

Karpal took public office for the first time in the Kedah State Assembly in 1974 and in Parliament and the Penang State Assembly in 1978. Kit Siang was first voted into Parliament in 1969. Both Karpal and Kit Siang were re-elected back into Parliament in the March 2004 General Election.

In January 2005, Karpal was involved in a car accident and was paralysed from the waist down. Indeed, his father Ram was killed in 1974 in a road accident in Amritsar, India.

Perhaps it was only after the 2008 General Election that swept DAP and its allies into power in five states, in the process breaking the two-thirds majority stranglehold that BN had had in Parliament, that the memoir of the “Tiger of Jelutong” was befittingly published, as it was only then that Karpal felt he had politically recovered.

Legacies

Karpal’s international reputation comes from his championing of human rights and his struggle against the death penalty and other cruel punishments such as judicial canning. Domestically, it was his steadfast belief in a constitutional democracy that earned him the respect of friends – and of foes.

In November 2013, Rasah MP Teo Kok Seong and I visited Karpal to discuss some political matters. Those matters were concluded within five minutes, and he gave us another hour of his precious time – at least 10 clients were waiting outside his room – to discuss the efforts to save people from the hangman. Many of these stories are recorded in Donoghue’s book. I remember asking Karpal whether he knew how many lives he had saved. He said “a couple of dozens”. I vaguely remember that there was talk of a “Karpal’s list of survivors” listed somewhere.

If there is none, one should be compiled. In an “Ubah” truck ceramah in Perlis in November 2012, while Karpal was speaking, I remember a man walking up to me and asking for an opportunity to thank Karpal for having saved his life.

Indeed, the inherent – and inspiring – humanism of this great man is most clearly seen in how he so willingly used his considerable wits to represent death row inmates – people with no one left to turn to.

In June 2011, with the help of Nazri Aziz, who was the Law Minister then, Gobind and I managed to organise a parliamentary roundtable that resolved to call for a moratorium on executions, pending a thorough review of the death penalty. Our hope is that, in the short term at least, with the removal of the mandatory death sentence, the discretion to pass judgment would be returned to the judges. In the long run, we still hope that the death penalty will be abolished.

I have reason to believe that the parliamentary roundtable we held in June 2011 had some bearing on the Singapore government’s decision to amend its equally tough drug laws to allow for drug mules or couriers to escape the death penalty. Sabahan Yong Vui Kong was spared the death sentence as a result. Unfortunately, the Malaysian government did not move an inch from its original position over the past three years.

Nevertheless, it is for us to continue the human rights legacy of Karpal and to be guided by his deep humanism.

Constitutional democracy

Much had been said about Karpal’s opposition to the hudud laws. But those who highlight his concern should note that he was opposed to hudud from the point of his steadfast belief in Malaysia as a constitutional democracy.

I had several fairly long private discussions with Karpal about hudud and political Islam. I am of the view that the most viable route to defeat BN at the polls is for both DAP and PAS to move to the political middle ground and bring their supporters to vote for each other.

The hudud issue does not allow for any middle ground and in fact threatens most seriously to divide the Opposition. From my conversations with Karpal, it was evident that he was fully aware that while his statements on hudud was often misconstrued as anti-Islam, he was seeing it from a constitutional point of view – that hudud was simply not constitutional.

By extension, his comments on the role of monarchs should be read in the same light. The Court of Appeal overturned the judgment of the High Court and fined Karpal RM4,000 on March 11, 2014 for his remarks during the Perak constitutional crisis in February 2009, which saw the removal of the Pakatan state government. Karpal’s various run-ins with royalty throughout the past three decades should not be misconstrued as anti-Malay but as the work of one who attempted to ensure that everyone – royalty included – followed the laws of a constitutional democracy.

In the last decade and a half, Karpal also represented Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim at the latter’s various cases on a pro bono basis, including the Sodomy II trials. Now, Karpal was probably not one of Anwar’s biggest fans especially during Anwar’s 16 years on the government bench. It was based on this same wish to effectuate genuine constitutional democracy that Karpal tirelessly fought for Anwar in court.

Leading the DAP

For Malaysians, Karpal was best known for decades as a top DAP leader. Karpal became national party chairman in September 2004, following Kit Siang’s stint in that position (1999-2004). Lim Guan Eng was elected the secretary-general at the same time. While the chairmanship may not have been the number one position in DAP, Karpal nevertheless brought much stature with him.

In Kit Siang’s tribute to his old brother-in- arms, he said that with Karpal’s passing, a light had gone out in Malaysia. The two of them had been a political pair since the 1980s, and at the three-day wake for Karpal, one could see how the press attempted to capture every expression they could on Kit Siang’s face.

For DAP secretary-general and Chief Minister of Penang Guan Eng, Karpal’s demise left a huge void. In private, Guan Eng considers himself the political son of Karpal. They had been close since the much younger man entered politics in the mid-1980s.

In the period following the 2008 General Election when DAP first got to taste some power, Karpal was keen to ensure that the party lived up to public expectations. He was against serving DAP representatives receiving honorific titles, a view shared by many Malaysians who had been complaining about the proliferation of such titles. He was also against representatives holding both parliamentary and state seats at once. Fielding leaders for seats at both levels before the 2008 election had been done out of necessity as the pool of electable candidates back then was very small.

He was justified in pushing to minimise such arrangements after 2008 because DAP’s talent pool had significantly expanded since then.

Karpal was not shy of controversies within his own party. His “Godfather versus Warlord” spat with Dr P. Ramasamy, Deputy Chief Minister II of Penang, as well as his public call to Jeff Ooi, MP for Jelutong, to withdraw the latter’s alleged derogatory remark of “kucing kurap” against MPPP officials are among the most remembered during his decade-long chairmanship.

I must confess that as a DAP leader, Karpal’s choice of words and sometimes his choice of moments occasionally left me feeling uneasy, especially when it came to party matters as well as issues relating to coalition building. But his mission to uphold the integrity of the party was always crystal clear and well understood.

Karpal was a courageous soul who feared no one and stood up for the downtrodden, the dispossessed and the destitute. This legend lives on beyond his death. In his lifetime, he has inspired and given hope to at least two generations of Malaysians. His story – and his will to see justice done – will continue to inspire many more.

Liew Chin Tong is DAP Political Education Director and MP for Kluang. This article appeared in the latest issue of Penang Monthly (May 2014).

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 6 May 2014, 12:23 pm and is filed under
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Pakatan can’t sustain strong GE13 win in next polls due to internal strife, disagreements, forum told

BY ANISAH SHUKRY

The Malaysian Insider

MAY 06, 2014

Election 2013 could be the last strong win by Pakatan Rakyat (PR) as the issue of hudud, internal party conflicts and a lack of effort to court rural voters will hurt its chances in the next general election, a forum was told last night.

Speaking at the “GE 14: Will there be another political tsunami?” forum, panellists Liew Chin Tong, Wan Hamidi Hamid and Hishamuddin Rais noted that in the past year since the May 5 polls, the opposition pact had gained little ground in their dream to capture Putrajaya despite winning more seats in the 13th general election.

Liew said the hudud issue had worsened PR’s chances of triggering a political tsunami in the next election, and urged its Islamist ally PAS to review its priorities.

“Hudud was a strategy for PAS to affirm its Islamic identity. But does it remain a relevant strategy, or are we just trapping ourselves behind this one single theme? What is our priority? Hudud, or economic justice?” the Kluang MP said at the Kuala Lumpur Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall.

PR won 89 seats in GE13, seven more than in Election 2008 which saw the DAP, PAS and PKR agree to straight fights against Barisan Nasional (BN), causing the ruling coalition to suffer historic losses of five state governments and the federal Parliament’s two-thirds super majority.

Liew noted that hudud only started to become a strategy for PAS in the 1980s, to differentiate itself from Umno after Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s government began to absorb Islamic symbols.

The young DAP leader said PR should refocus its energies on solving people’s issues such as traffic problems, health matters and water woes, rather than be sidetracked by hudud.

He said cooperation between PAS and DAP was vital for PR’s continued survival, quipping: “We know that when DAP does not work together with PAS, the two parties will end up meeting and becoming friends in Kamunting.”

DAP member and Inisiatif Impian Malaysia adviser Wan Hamidi said capturing Putrajaya required the opposition pact to win more rural votes, but it had done nothing to improve its standing among that particular demographic.

“In the 13th general election, we saw an urban tsunami, and this was proven in Sabah where the urban and semi-urban constituencies voted for change.

“But we have failed with the rural voters, and the BN will continue to capitalise on this through its delineation exercise, by breaking up the kampung into small constituencies and ensuring BN wins even if we secure the majority vote.”

Wan Hamidi said most of PR’s campaign strategy, such as its vow to reduce car prices, was targeted towards the middle class and had alienated the rural poor.

“It’s a pity Pakatan has not focused its energies on this after the 13th general election ended.

“Instead, we are arguing about the hudud issue, and this is making the people, whose votes we need, even more disappointed in us,” he said.

He added that the issue was compounded by the lack of alternative media in rural areas, and BN’s ready supply of subsidies for the rural voters and the poor.

But Hishamuddin, a social activist, said that PR would never win a general election as long as the election system remained unchanged.

“It’s not Umno you are up against, but the electorate system and the election commission. There is no way a political tsunami will happen because Umno and the EC will continue its redelineation exercise to guarantee its win,” he said.

The solution, said Hishamuddin, was to force the government to form a new election commission that would not resort to gerrymandering to maintain the political status quo.

“Millions will have to go down to the streets, surround Putrajaya, and have the government set up a new election commission to manage a clean and fair election. The current election is a lie, so why don’t we change it?

“Don’t maintain the illusion that a change in government is possible right now. With the current election system in place, change is impossible,” said Hishamuddin, who was formerly a committee member of electoral reforms group Bersih 2.0.

Bersih 2.0’s People Tribunal concluded in March that the 13th general election was not conducted in a free and fair manner, and the numerous irregularities were the result of deliberate acts of fraud.

The tribunal, made up of local and foreign experts, said the election commission must undergo a comprehensive reform, and laws should be changed to ensure the body was independent from the government.

It also noted that the general election had an excessive number of postal and advance voters, which had allowed BN to win the election last year. – May 6, 2014.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 6 May 2014, 7:34 am and is filed under
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Winning GE13 convincingly, by jailing political foes a year later?

COMMENTARY BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER

MAY 05, 2014

One year after the Barisan Nasional (BN) won the 13th general election (GE13) with fewer votes and fewer seats, more lawmakers from the opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) find themselves at the wrong end of the law and risking jail time.

Tomorrow, Seputeh MP Teresa Kok will be charged with sedition, weeks after the late Karpal Singh was convicted of the same charge.

Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim faces the possibility of jail for a second sodomy conviction while his PKR party colleague Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad is expected to charged again under the Peaceful Assembly Act.

Just two weeks ago, the Court of Appeal had declared Section 9(5) of the Peaceful Assembly Act – which criminalises the failure to give 10-day notice before a gathering – to be unconstitutional.

And in July 2012, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced that the Sedition Act will be repealed and replaced by a National Harmony Act. That has yet to take place and instead, more people have been charged with sedition.

Will Malaysians, or the 51% of the electorate who voted for PR in GE13, stand on the sidelines as disinterested watchers as their elected reps are picked off one by one by an administration that obviously thinks the only way to win is by making the opposition “disappear”?

And this from a PM who was boasting about his reformist credentials during United States President Barack Obama’s visit to Malaysia two weeks ago.

Can the government say that this is an independent decision of the public prosecutor, knowing full that even a standard operational procedure as searching the sea for a lost plane needs Putrajaya’s approval.

Or is the public prosecutor’s push to charge Kok with sedition over her “Onederful Malaysia” Chinese New  Year clip and Nik Nazmi for an offence under a law now deemed unconstitutional shows recalcitrance on his part?

The reality is that the buck stops with the prime minister. Even research and development projects appear to need his approval or endorsement.

What more prosecuting politicians in court.

It might be another four years to the next polls but the systemic move to remove popular PR leaders shows an administration that has abandoned its reformist zeal and stripes in favour of the old playbook of intimidation and incarceration.

How else can BN win an election, if not by physically removing its foes from the political arena using archaic laws such as the Sedition Act?

Where does this leave Malaysians who were asked to believe in the 1Malaysia slogan and a prime minister who had proudly declared “the era of government knows best is over” when he took office in 2009?

It leaves them nowhere except to find ways to remind the government that it is the people who keep them in power, and it is the people who will unseat any government that fails to keep its promises. – May 5, 2014.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 6 May 2014, 7:46 am and is filed under
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Europe draws up tougher black box rules after MH370 mystery

BY TIM HEPHER PARIS

Reuters

May 6, 2014

(Reuters) – European safety officials on Tuesday proposed tougher rules for ‘black box’ flight recorders in the strongest regulatory reaction yet to the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) said it would propose increasing the recording time on cockpit voice recorders to 20 hours from two to make it easier to understand plane accidents and prevent vital evidence being overwritten.

Newly published proposals would also bring into force recommendations made by French crash investigators after the loss of an Air France jet in the Atlantic in 2009, but which remain bogged down in talks among regulators.

These include the addition of a new pinger frequency making it easier to locate the recording devices under water, where lower frequencies travel further.

The proposals appeared in an opinion published by EASA on Tuesday and confirmed details reported by Reuters.

They have been submitted to the European Union’s executive Commission which will use them as the basis for a change in law.

No trace of flight MH370 has been found since it vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, despite the most intensive search in commercial aviation history.

Experts have narrowed the area where the plane is presumed to have crashed to a large arc of the Indian Ocean about 1,600 km (1,000 miles) northwest of the city of Perth in western Australia.

The aircraft could have flown for up to seven hours after it went missing, meaning that even if the cockpit recorder is found, its standard two-hour recording loop would not cover conversations during the crucial early stages of the flight.

“The proposed changes are expected to increase safety by facilitating the recovery of information by safety investigation authorities,” EASA Executive Director Patrick Ky said in a statement.

EASA also brought forward to 2018 a deadline for extending the battery life on black box emergency locator beacons to 90 days from 30.

All passenger aircraft have two flight recorders – one for voice and one for data. Each is equipped with a beacon designed to start emitting signals as soon as it enters water.

The extended battery life is so far the only recommendation from the three year-investigation into the Air France disaster to have won full support at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a U.N. agency that coordinates safety standards.

ICAO agreed to back the battery life change from 2018 but EASA originally gave European operators another year until 2019.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 7 May 2014, 6:49 am and is filed under
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In open letter, MH370 passenger’s husband asks Malaysia for transparency, apology

The Malaysian Insider

May 07, 2014

Putrajaya must be transparent about the circumstances that led to flight MH70 vanishing two months ago, and should apologise for shortcomings in the search for the missing plane, the husband of one of the passengers wrote in an open letter to the prime minister.

K. S. Narendran, whose wife Chandrika Sharma was on the Malaysia Airlines plane with 238 other people, said the families have lost their loved ones but Malaysia had lost its credibility in the search for the Boeing 777-200ER.

“Perhaps the most serious casualty second only to the loss of the plane is the severely impaired credibility of your Government and the airline’s handling of the crisis.

“The skimpy Preliminary Report released to the public this week, supposedly based on your guidelines does little to enhance your government’s commitment to transparency, and therefore only adds fuel to doubts, suspicion and speculations,” he wrote in an email to Datuk Seri Najib Razak dated May 4, 2014.

Narendran, an Indian citizen, also asked Najib to act like a statesman in the hunt for the plane, which has yet to be found after going missing on March 8, 2014, while en route to Beijing.

“I have heard you speak thrice now, the first time on 15th March when you referred among other things to the MH370’s ‘turn back’ as ‘deliberate action’ by someone on the plane, then on 24th March when you delivered an unpalatable, cryptic message that MH 370 had ended in the Indian ocean, and a third time a little over a week ago – you in conversation with Richard Quest wherein you spoke of mistakes made.

“Each time, I experienced you as measured, sombre in a way that could be easily taken as sincere, and as a man with good intentions. You and perhaps your managers have ensured that you are statesman-like. The time has come now for you to actually be the part,” he wrote in the email.

Narendran asked the prime minister “to go deeper into what was unprecedented and when did the event enter unprecedented territory or proportions.”

“This will help separate the misjudgements and negligence of your civil aviation and military establishments from very early in the MH 370 saga: these we know from history have precedents and were avoidable.

“The rest that followed has confounded the best among experts. Therefore to invoke the lack of precedent and disclaim any direct responsibility all the way is being somewhat disingenuous,” he added.

He said that the findings could help avoid a repeat of the incident, adding that “for Malaysia’s sake and for the sake of the affected families is a sincere, heartfelt apology that things have come to such a pass.

“I would imagine that for wounded Malaysian pride, it will serve as a point from which to refashion a new set of commitments unto itself and people at large.

“For the families of passengers, it might begin a healing process and a fresh start free of rancour, accusation and suspicion,” Narendran said in the email.

He also urged Putrajaya to be transparent about the investigations into the lost plane.

“My hypothesis is that the lack of transparency that has come to define your government’s engagement with the rest of the world is because your government wants to hold onto a pretence of competence, mask the guilt and shame of initial lapses and a fear of the scorn and contempt that may be heaped on it from round the world.

“The burden of this only grows. The burden of a heavy conscience will weigh on your people for a long time if you fail to not own up,” he added.

Narendran also asked for an apology to the families of passengers and crew aboard the plane.

His wife, Chandrika, was the executive secretary of the International Collective in Support of Fish Workers and was heading to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, to attend a regional conference for Asia and the Pacific hosted by Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.

The couple have one daughter.

“A heartfelt apology to my mind is an admission of direct responsibility for a set of lapses that were entirely within the control of the government and the airline, taking responsibility for consequences of such responsibility, holding oneself publicly accountable for the conduct of the search and rescue/recovery, invoking humility to include or hand over to others who are competent some or all parts of the investigation, and being facilitative of the families access to detailed information at every stage.

“No doubt there is a price to pay. It must be paid. However, an apology and an appeal for forgiveness would enhance Malaysia’s standing amongst nations and peoples in a way that no amount of protestations or grandstanding will,” he added.

Narendran said for the families, “a lot rides on how diligently and persistently your government pursues the truth through investigation, how compassionate it is towards all the affected, and how humble and receptive it is in taking the waves of criticism from interested parties.

“It needs to measure up to the international benchmarks of transparency, public scrutiny and challenge, and assure the sceptical world that there is indeed no cover-up, no attempt to be creative or economical with the truth. After all, the world is watching, waiting…,” he said.

Narendran said that while the truth sometimes hurt, it would also be liberating.

“The loss of trust I alluded to earlier threatens this for me personally and I suspect for many others. It is disturbing to consider that self-centred deceit and duplicity to get ahead, move on, or self-preservation could be at work in the present instance.

“We do need a fresh start here, Mr Prime Minister. You have a part to play in shaping what we believe in, and what world we create. For us to trust you and your government, we need you too to take a leap of faith and do what is right and not just what is safe.

“So cast aside the cravings and compulsions of office and try being the statesman. Malaysia will emerge stronger, and others would be willing to give it another chance in due course,” he said in ending the letter to the prime minister. – May 7, 2014.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 7 May 2014, 3:59 pm and is filed under
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It’s so hard to say good-bye, Karpal

— P Ramakrishnan

The Malay Mail Online

MAY 6, 2014

MAY 6 — The passing of Karpal had a shattering effect on me. It was, as it were, we had lost our hope. Such was the immense loss that we suffered.

On the day of Karpal’s funeral, I wanted to bid him farewell in my own personal and special way.

This is the outpouring of a grieving heart.

This was my good-bye to him:

My dear Karpal,

It is difficult to accept that you are no longer with us. For more than four decades you were part of the landscape of this nation and very much a part of our lives.

Today you are no more!

It is well-known that you were highly respected and greatly admired, but we did not know that you were also loved so deeply. It took everyone by surprise. There was no way to know this; there was no indication; there was no expression of this affection in the past.

While you were alive, there was no means or reason to measure the people’s affection for you. In your death, we discovered that there was so much undeclared love for you. The out-pouring of affection for you was simply incredible and astonishing. Their affinity for you was totally overwhelming, dear Karpal.

How well you were regarded by so many did not hit home until the crowd started coming in to pay their homage. They came even in the rain while you were in your coffin at home in an unending stream of humanity.

For three days they came, all day long, without any let-up. They continued to come at night as well. Many parked their cars far away and walked all the way to seek your resting place.

They came from all over, dear Karpal. They came from all over the country. They came from overseas as well. Those known to you and those who hardly knew you in person; those who have only heard of you and your caring nature — they all came.

The titled personages as well as the humble, common person, they all came. From all walks of life they came in reverence and with a sense of great personal loss.

They walked past your coffin, lingered a while to say a silent prayer, looked at your still, lifeless body and then they left the room teary-eyed and in an emotional state of shock and turmoil.

Many thousands came to your home, dear Karpal. The number was simply amazing and also so much comforting that your struggle on their behalf was not taken for granted. Your struggle was truly and greatly appreciated.

It was a gesture of genuine appreciation for your life-long contribution for the welfare of this nation. It was a show of gratitude for your unwavering stand in the defence of truth and justice. It was a mark of their esteem for you because you provided a voice for the voiceless and the powerless.

Dear Karpal, as they continuously came and went, perhaps it is too difficult to put a figure on the number of people who came on those three days. But we all got the feeling that it was an impressive, huge crowd running into thousands that came to get a glimpse of you and convey their condolences to your family.

For those wondering why so many people came to your house, the banner outside your house said it all:

Karpal, you were always there for us,

Now we are here for you.

But, Karpal, impressive as the crowd was at your residence, it was nothing compared to the sea of people who turned up on the day of your funeral. It was a massive, emotionally-charged crowd that turned up on Sunday, April 20, 2014 at the Dewan Sri Pulau Pinang to bid their last farewell to you. For nearly two hours they streamed past your coffin, grief-stricken and utterly devastated.

They came in grief to share their sorrow with your family. They wanted your family to know that it wasn’t only their loss, but theirs as well.  They all wanted to be part of this great tragedy that has befallen this nation. They had to be there to bid farewell to you, on your final journey, dear Karpal.

These were common people from all walks of life who came, young and old, a multi-ethnic crowd, to be there for you. They stood in the sun and they stood with a heavy heart over their loss of a friend who gave hope and inspired them by standing up for the rule of law.

They remembered that you fought tyranny and oppression both in parliament and in the courts without fear or favour.

They remembered that you stood up for the downtrodden; they remembered that you spoke up for the oppressed; they remembered that you fought their battles all the time, not caring for the consequence. They remembered this, dear Karpal. So they came to say their last farewell to their hero.

They were heart-broken, dear Karpal: Their hopes were shattered in your untimely death. They mourned that their champion was no more with them to fight their battles.

Dear Karpal, they hugged your portrait and held it close to their hearts as to give meaning to the proclamation on a banner, “You will always be in our hearts”.

Your comrades in arms were there — all of them, looking solemn and sober, with a forlorn look on their troubled faces. Your death had suddenly and forever severed the many decades of friendship — that was difficult for them to accept. How they suffered this loss!

In this greedy and unfair world where money was all that important, you acted pro bono for many without any consideration for their colour or creed because justice was blind. And you gave your all when you fought their battles. They remembered that as well, dear Karpal.

Anwar also revealed for the first time that you refused payment for taking up his marathon case. When Anwar’s family tried several times to pay you, you told Anwar to tell his family not to disturb you!

Three hotels recorded a full occupancy, dear Karpal. The Waterfall Hotel, the nearest to your house, with 48 rooms, they were all taken up. The Grand Continental Hotel, the nearest to the Sikh temple, with 231 rooms were fully occupied. The Cititel Hotel had many friends and family members of yours checking into it. The hotel has 451 rooms which were fully booked since Friday.

The florists on the island were all busy with activity as they received hundreds of orders for wreaths and flowers to be delivered at your residence. There was also an order for a bouquet which cost RM1,000! They all wanted to give you a floral tribute — it was another form of affection for you.

Dear Karpal, it is said, “Death ends a life, not a relationship.”  That’s why they came to perpetuate that relationship. That relationship will live on, no doubt about that!

And dear Karpal, it is also said, “The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.”  How true it is! They remembered you as a crusader, a warrior and a champion for truth and justice. You will live on in our collective memory.

With all this fond memories of your gallant fight to preserve our constitutional guarantees and defend the rule of law, it is so difficult to say farewell, dear Karpal.

It is so hard to say good-bye, dear Karpal.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 7 May 2014, 7:02 am and is filed under
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Karpal was anti-hudud, but never anti-Islam, says PAS lawmaker

by Looi Sue-Chern

The Malaysian Insider

MAY 06, 2014

A PAS leader yesterday sought to heal the tension between DAP and the Islamist party over the hudud issue when he said that the late Karpal Singh, although strongly opposed to hudud, was never anti-Islam.

Speaking at a memorial service for the late Karpal at the Han Chiang High School in Penang last night, PAS lawmaker Datuk Dr Mujahid Yusuf Rawa said the former DAP chairman always stood by his principles in objecting to the implementation of hudud and the setting up of an Islamic state.

“But he (Karpal) was never a man who was anti-Islam,” Mujahid said.

He said Karpal had declared that he had always respected the position of Islam as the official religion of the federation in front of all PAS and Pakatan Rakyat leaders, despite his controversial “over my dead body” statement against the setting up of an Islamic state.

“In an interview, Karpal had said he was never against Islam, and was a God-fearing man,” he said, adding that as a man of the legal fraternity, Karpal’s position and interest were more towards preserving and defending the Constitution when he objected to an Islamic state.

“Understanding Karpal is to understand him as a legal man, not as someone who was anti-religion.”

Mujahid said a person who was anti-religion would be driven by hatred towards everything religious, including the position of Islam as the official religion of the federation.

He said Karpal also respected PAS, relating a meeting between Karpal and PAS spiritual leader Datuk Seri Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat in January last year.

The meeting was at Karpal’s Jalan Utama home in Penang where Karpal presented Nik Aziz with a cake to mark his 82nd birthday.

Mujahid said there was “cordial warmth” between the two leaders, despite their completely opposing views on hudud and an Islamic state.

He said PAS respected the right to disagree while Karpal always had a positive stand on PAS.

“His own words proved his sentiments. When once asked about PAS, Karpal said: ‘We may have our differences but PAS is a solid-principled party and it remains an important ally to DAP.”

Mujahid said Karpal lived up to the Malay idiom “harimau mati tinggalkan belang, manusia mati tinggalkan nama” (a tiger dies leaving its stripes, a man dies leaving his name). – May 6, 2014.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 7 May 2014, 7:31 am and is filed under
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Liow should act on Chua’s advice, requisition a BN Supreme Council meeting where UMNO will be outvoted by 1 – 12 on implementation of hudud

Two days ago, I gave the MCA Deputy President Datuk Dr. Wee Kee Siong a free double advice: Don’t tell a bare-faced lie and don’t be caught immediately with such downright dishonesty.

This was when Ka Siong tried to rebut my statement in Batu Pahat on Sunday that the MCA President, Liow Tiong Lai had missed a “golden opportunity” to say “No” in front of the Prime Minister and UMNO President, Datuk Seri Najib Razak in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday that MCA cannot accept Najib’s earlier  unilateral and arbitrary announcement in Alor Star that the Barisan Nasional Federal Government had never rejected hudud.

This was because what Najib said was not the original Barisan Nasional stand, and furthermore, violates an important BN principle that any change of Barisan Nasional policy must be the result of the consensus of all component parties and not unilaterally and arbitrarily by  any one party, even if it is UMNO.

As I told Ka Siong, what Najib said was never the  Barisan Nasional Federal Government’s stand, even going back to the UMNO, MCA and MIC founders like Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein, Tun Tan Cheng Lock, Tun Tan Siew Sin and Tun V.T. Sambanthan as they were very clear that  hudud was inconsistent with the secular 1957 constitution and would never say like Najib that the Barisan Nasional Federal Government had never rejected hudud.

Now I am offering the MCA President, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai two additional free advice – don’t distort other people’s statement and to be “caught” immediately.

Yesterday, Liow said I was only worried about the split in Pakatan Rakyat and not the Malaysian constitution  while addressing the hudud issue.

Liow is trying to split hairs or he does not have the IQ to understand that there is no contradiction at all in saying that if PAS insists on implementation of hudud, which is not part of the Pakatan Rakyat common policy framework, the Pakatan Rakyat might break apart as this is both against the PR common policy framework and  the fundamental principles of the Malaysian Constitution.

According to the MCA paper Star today, Liow said that he had personally seen the Prime Minister to tell him that MCA oppose the implementation of PAS’ hudud.

This is precisely the point. Liow is very brave to tell Najib that MCA opposes PAS’ hudud but he dare not tell Najib that MCA also opposes the Prime Minister’s statement in Alor Star that the Barisan Nasional Federal Government never rejected hudud issue as this was never the Barisan Nasional stand.

In fact, I never agree more with the former MCA President, Datuk Seri Dr. Chua Soi Lek who suggested that Liow, as the president of the second biggest component party in the ruling coalition, must “spearhead the charge” by leading a delegation of representatives from Chinese-based parties in the BN to meet the Prime Minister.

Chua said the delegation must impress upon the Prime Minister that these parties oppose the implementation of hudud and that such a move would run foul of the 1Malaysia concept.

Chua also suggested that Liow should push for this to be raised at the BN supreme council.

Most of the parties in BN are non-Muslim in terms of composition and they will disagree as well.

Would Liow act on Chua’s advice?

Barisan Nasional comprise of 13 component parties, and if it comes to a vote on the implementation of hudud, whether PAS or UMNO, the vote is likely to be 1 vs 12, with UMNO the only political party solely in favour with 12 other component parties against.

Why is Liow afraid, to use Chua’s words, to “spearhead the charge” and requisition a Barisan Nasional Supreme Council meeting to vote against Najib and UMNO’s stand that the  Barisan Nasional Federal Government had never rejected hudud?

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 7 May 2014, 3:13 pm and is filed under
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MH370: Hope transcends frustration in quest to bring families closure

By David Molko, CNN

May 6, 2014

“I’m an engineer, so we don’t talk emotions too much.” Those were the words of Capt. Mark Matthews of the U.S. Navy shortly after the Australian Defense vessel Ocean Shield had discovered a series of pings in the southern Indian Ocean.Perhaps he didn’t want to discuss his feelings. But he had a twinkle in his eye, a bit of what he called “cautious optimism.” I’ve seen that same glimmer shining through on the faces of dozens of others involved in the arduous search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. It’s been there through each new lead, and even through some of the setbacks.

The search for the missing Boeing 777 has gone on for eight weeks now. We’ve all had to learn a new technical language: from Inmarsat satellite data and the “Doppler Effect,” to the TPL-25 and Bluefin-21. We’ve heard countless theories about where the plane might have gone and who might have been flying it.

Both the science and the science fiction have, at times, almost drowned out what this search is about at its core: solving the mystery of what happened to the 239 men, women, and children who were on board MH370.

It takes people to find clues and to follow the trail of where they lead. People who are working tirelessly across borders and time zones, putting their lives on hold with the aim of bringing even the smallest bit of closure to the families of those who have been lost, and to prevent their nightmare from ever happening again.

Some, like Capt. Matthews, might humbly say that they’re just doing their jobs. Others remain anonymous, like the international team in Kuala Lumpur, who did much to give the search a tangible focus, even if that focus has shifted several times.

I’ve been covering the missing flight for CNN for more than 50 days in Malaysia and Australia. I can’t pretend that what I do compares with the dedication of the hundreds of service members from China to New Zealand, who have flown tirelessly day after day over millions of square kilometers of the Indian Ocean. I can’t pretend that I understand the pain of Selamat Omar, who lost his 29-year-old son, or Danica Weeks, whose husband, Paul, disappeared on the way to start a new job in Mongolia.

But as a journalist, I’ve felt at least a small part of their confusion and frustration. I recall the difficulty in getting a candid response from Malaysian authorities in the early days of the search — the way they sidestepped almost all tough questions during that first week after the plane vanished.

I remember the Chinese family members who were brave enough to try to take their quest for answers public and were dragged out of the press room in Kuala Lumpur, screaming and crying. Thinking about their grief, the expressions on their faces that afternoon, still hits me hard.

Human spirit

There have also been moments that have made me proud to be telling this story — moments that have to do with the human spirit. The card from a 7-year-old on the Wall of Hope inside Kuala Lumpur International Airport, which said she was ready to greet the MH370 passengers as soon as they landed safely.

The moment I saw the pinger locator and Bluefin-21 robotic submarine on the dock at Garden Island in Western Australia, I felt a sense of awe and honor standing just steps away from keys that still have the potential to unlock this puzzle.

And the moment search chief Angus Houston told the world “I’m now optimistic that we will find the aircraft … in the not too distant future. But we haven’t found it yet because this is a very challenging business.” A voice of reassurance and reason, even if the challenge soon outweighed the optimism.

Over the past eight weeks, I’ve witnessed something. It’s called hope. It was in the words of the housekeeper who answered the front door at Captain Zaharie’s house in the Kuala Lumpur suburbs. It was in in the wake of the Ocean Shield as it pulled away from the dock at Stirling Naval Base and made speed for the search area. It was there when I sat a few feet away from the Malaysia Airlines CEO on Day 4, and it was there when I spoke to Captain Matthews around Day 44.

Just a few days ago, I felt it again, when I returned to Pearce Air Force Base outside Perth. As I stepped onto the tarmac, I recalled the first time I’d done so, more than a month earlier, to welcome back one of our reporters after she’d taken part in an 11-hour search flight.

Solving the mystery

Almost 350 flights later, the massive air search was over with no trace of MH370. Planes from seven countries were lined up in formation at Pearce. Flight crews from Australia to Malaysia to South Korea traded stories, reflecting on the moments behind them, before pausing to recognize the task that still lies ahead.

I remember what a young American pilot who flew on the P8 Poseidon search plane told me: that his greatest disappointment after weeks of looking out over the vast open ocean was not being able to give the families what they needed the most. And that if he could continue the search, he would, until the day he found something.

After all these weeks, it’s a feeling that remains strong as ever — the hope and the belief that we may eventually be able to solve this mystery, and that the families of 239 passengers and crew will one day have the answer to a crucial question: Why?

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 7 May 2014, 6:23 am and is filed under
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Missing MH370: Only ‘Handful’ of Subs Capable of Hunting Jet

by Henry Austin

NBC News

6th May 2014

Only “a handful” of commercial vehicles can search the depths of the southern Indian Ocean in the area that is believed to be the final resting place of missing Flight MH370, an expert said Tuesday.

Officials announced Monday that all of the data compiled in the hunt for the Boeing 777 will be re-examined to make sure the right area is being scoured as part of a new $55-million phase of the operation.

Capt. John Noble, the former general manager of the International Salvage Union, told NBC News that it made sense to narrow down the search area as much as possible.

“You’d be lucky if there was a handful of vehicles that can to go to the sort depths of the ocean that we are talking about here because they simply don’t make them,” Noble said.

A U.S. Navy deep-tow search system called the Orion might be an option, Noble said. It can search to a maximum depth of 20,000 feet of seawater, according the U.S. Navy Supervisor of Salvage and Diving. The Orion would operate in tandem with a remotely operated vehicle called Curv 21 which could salvage any wreckage.

Most commercially owned remotely operated vehicles (ROV’s) aren’t designed to go to those depths because there simply isn’t the call for them, according to Dr. Simon Boxall at Britain’s University of Southampton. As a result they were built and used for government research projects.

They have a distinct advantage over autonomous underwater vehicles like the Bluefin 21 sub which has been leading the search because their cameras allow a live view of the seabed he said. The Bluefin’s data can only be downloaded and analyzed by researchers after it has resurfaced, he added.

“An ROV will also have manipulators like claws built onto it,” he added. “So if you found a black box they would be capable of picking it up or they can attach cables to a wing so it can be brought to the surface.”

At around $17,000 day to run, an ROV costs considerably more to run than the Bluefin, Boxall said.

A substantial support vessel like the Australian Defense Vessel, Ocean Shield would also be required as a sea base for the team because of the rough seas, Capt. Noble said. Ocean Shield has been used to launch the unmanned Bluefin 21 submarine that has been scouring the ocean floor for the jet.

“A similar vessel would cost the searchers almost $68,000 a day,” he said. “So you’re looking at a huge amount after just a few months.”

For Boxall however it was a question of priorities as well as the time and money it would cost to use one of these vessels.

“It’s a hard thing to say but this is a search operation rather than a search and rescue operation so do you pull a research team off their project for a year to look for something that may never be found or do you let them continue with their important scientific research,” he said.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 7 May 2014, 6:35 am and is filed under
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Najib must take a clear stand –  whether he is with the moderates or the extremists, whether he is for 1Malaysia or  the very antithesis of 1Malaysia

On  5th May 2014, the first anniversary of the 13th General Elections, Malaysians were torn by grave disillusionment with the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak for a year of failed policies and the dire prospect of a break-up of Pakatan Rakyat over hudud law.

The next day, the beginning of the  second year of Najib’s second administration as Prime Minister could not have started on a more ominous note, heralding that Malaysia is heading for a new dark age where all the grandiloquent pledges and slogans of 1Malaysia, World’s Best Democracy and Government Transformation Programme would be consigned to the dustbins of history and replaced by undemocratic, repressive, unjust and draconian rule.

In the morning, the PR/DAP MP for Seputeh Teresa Kok was charged in Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court with sedition over her Chinese New Year “Onederful Malaysia” video, a 11-minute clip lampooning and criticising various failures of government policies.

It is supreme irony  that one of the five criticisms in her video alleged to be seditious was about the security situation in East Sabah especially after the abduction of the Taiwan tourist in an island resort off Semporna in November last year – as on the morning that Teresa was charged, news were received of another abduction of a Chinese national in a nearby island off Lahad Datu at about 2.45 a.m. the same day!

Teresa was telling the truth, but telling the truth has become sedition in Najib’s Malaysia as the Prime Minister has forgotten his promises to repeal the draconian and colonial Sedition Act.

Teresa’s prosecution for sedition is meant to serve as a warning by the Najib administration to all critics, whether the Pakatan Rakyat, civil society or common citizenry that they face the possibility of being charged under sedition not for telling lies and falsehoods or inciting hatred and conflict  but for legitimate ciriticism of the Barisan Nasional  government for its failures and weaknesses.

But irony of ironies, yesterday saw the fulmination of the most and worst seditious statements in recent memory – as testified by the following media headlines:

1.	Isma: Chinese migration into Tanah Melayu ‘a mistake” which must be rectified (MMO)

2.	Chinese are intruders who bully Malays, says Isma (Malaysiakini)

3.	Chinese brought to Tanah Melayu are ‘trepassers’, says Muslim group (TMI)

4.	If Christians continue to grow, they will outnumber us by 2100, says Muslim group (TMI)

5.	Undercover Christian priests here as football coaches, Muslim NGOs tell foum (TMI)

6.	Books warning Muslims about ‘Christian agenda’ distributed at Allah forum in university(TMI)

7.	Gospels are ‘fake’ as Jesus was ‘human slave to Allah’, don claims (MMO)

8.	NGO warns of Christian Malays posting as Muslims (Mkini)

Never before in recent times for over four decades, have the fabric and integrity of the multi-racial and multi-religious character of the Malaysian nation been undermined by such irresponsible spewing of racial and religious hatred and conflict, threatening to plunge Malaysia into a new dark age.

The impunity and immunity of the perpetrators of these merchants of hate in our multi-racial and multi-religious is all the more incredible, as it goes against the very grain of  Najib’s 1Malaysia signature policy and the Global Movement of Moderates which he had launched as Prime Minister.

Why has Najib given  full and free play to the merchants of hate, lies and falsehoods to perpetrate their worst to tear the Malaysian nation asunder?

It would appear that there are  two movements under Najib as  Prime Minister, the Global Movement of Moderates which is good for national and international image, but which  has little traction and progress to boast about, and  the Movement of Racist and Religious Extremists which is allowed full liberty to vent their racist and  religious venom, fully seditious and  subversive of the  very fabric and integrity of Malaysian unity and society.

Najib must take a clear stand –  is he with the moderates or the extremists, as is he for 1Malaysia or for the very antithesis of 1Malaysia!

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 7 May 2014, 1:06 pm and is filed under
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Projected Flight Path of MH370 Mistaken? Authorities Not Sure if Data Analysis was Correct

By Gopi Chandra Kharel

International Business Times

May 6, 2014

The projected flight trajectory of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, shown by an arc, could have been a mistake. (Photo: Australian Maritime Safety Authority)

It appears that the authorities are not sure if the data gathered in the nearly two-month hunt for the missing Malaysia jet, which projected the likely flight trajectory of MH370 shown by an arc, was a correct analysis after all.

An international panel of experts is in the process of re-examining all data gathered so far, in order to be sure if the international team has been looking for the missing plane in the right place, officials said on Tuesday.

Senior officials from Malaysia, Australia and China met in the Australian capital to discuss the next move in search for MH370, after two months of intense efforts in the southern Indian Ocean yielded no tangible results. The meeting hashed out details of plans for another search operation that could take up to a year to complete and will cost about A$60million – an amount that has raised quite a few eyebrows.

Now that the authorities are not even sure if the search operation thus far for the missing MH370 plane was taking place in the right place, it is likely to raise further questions from the family members of the passengers aboard, as well as the public.

Starting Wednesday, the data, which forced the massive international team to scour through more than 4.6 million square kilometers of the ocean in about 60 days from the day the MH370 flight went missing, will be re-examined, officials said.

“We’ve got to this stage of the process where it’s very sensible to go back and have a look at all of the data that has been gathered, all of the analysis that has been done and make sure there’s no flaws in it, the assumptions are right, the analysis is right and the deductions and conclusion are right,” Angus Houston, head of the search operation, told reports in Canberra.

Investigators have been almost blindfolded by the lack of clear picture of what exactly had happened to MH370, ever since it went missing in the early hours of March 8, just an hour into its journey from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, carrying 239 people onboard. The massive search has been conducted based on an arc drawn after the UK satellite firm Inmarsat claimed missing aircraft had followed a particular flight trajectory, based on the ‘pings’ it received from the aircraft.

Following the initial data, the search location was shifted further upwards in the curve, after it was revealed that the Boeing 777 was travelling faster than previously thought, and had possibly consumed more fuel.

“Unfortunately, all of that effort has found nothing,” Australian transport minister Warren Truss was quoted by the New Straits Times. “We’ve been confident on the basis of the information provided that the search area was the right one, but in practice, that confidence has not been converted into us discovering any trace of the aircraft.”

Houston and Truss met with Malaysia’s acting defense minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and Chinese transport minister Yang Chuantang in Canberra on Tuesday and mapped out the next steps of the underwater search for MH370, which will now focus on a 60,000 square kilometer patch of seafloor.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 7 May 2014, 6:59 am and is filed under
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‘She dedicated and sacrificed life to Karpal’

Susan Loone

Malaysiakin

May 6, 2014

Being the loyal and devoted wife, she stood in his shadows all these years without public recognition and appreciation.

But last night’s memorial for the late Karpal Singh at the Han Chiang College Hall, Penang, saw tribute paid to his widow, Gurmit Kaur, who sat amid the 1,000 odd crowd at the event.

“This woman dedicated and sacrificed her whole life to Karpal for years in silence, standing steadfastly behind her husband as he went about his work, contributing to the nation,” said her second son, Puchong MP Gobind Singh Deo.

“This woman is my mother, let’s give her a big round of applause, it is not easy, not easy at all to do what she had done,” he added, as the crowd clapped loudly in her honour.

Gobind said he was only 14 when Karpal got arrested under the draconian Internal Security Act, and he remembered the sufferings the family had to endure when he was detained at the Kamunting detention centre, in Perak.

His little brother, Mankarpal, was a mere babe at the time and Gurmit carried him in her arms as the family tried to find out where Karpal was held early on, in which lock-up in the city.

“We eventually found out and demanded the right to see him. I remember sitting in the Jalan Bandar police station with my mum and Mankarpal in her arms, longing for the moment to see my dad,” said Gobind, a lawyer by profession.

“This is what they do to people’s families. This cruel law is being used by the government against us,” he stressed.

Gobind added when the family finally got to see Karpal, he was half his size and did not say much as the whole family was monitored by the authorities.

Gobind recalled that he saw pain in his father’s eyes then as he could not speak much to the family. This went on for 60 days until he finally received his two-year detention order.

“During that time, mum made many trips to see my dad, she stood by him until he was released from detention and was able to fight for justice for everyone because he had suffered himself,” Gobind said.

Confined to wheelchair

In 2005, Gobind said the family again faced another very dark moment when Karpal met with a serious car accident in Penang which resulted in him being confined to a wheelchair.

The family again felt the “shivers” as Karpal was bedridden, but his mother bravely stood by him and nursed him, being with him in hospital as she “brought him back, piece by piece” so that he was able to fight again.

“We must assure her that we will all carry on Karpal’s work, we must carry on so that all this is not in vain, we will carry on with what he left behind and make it a success,” he said firmly to the crowd’s resounding applause.

Karpal died in a tragic car crash along the North-South highway near Gua Tempurung on Apr 17 with his personal helper Michael Cornelius.

Michael, too, was not forgotten during the memorial as Gobind recalled how, even in the most difficult of times, made sure his master was at his best.

Other than Gobind, Karpal’s two other sons – Jagdeep and Ramkarpal – also spoke at the three-hour event.

Other speakers included former Penang Bar Committee chairman K Kumarendran, current chairman Abdul Fareed Abdul Gafoor, former Aliran President P Ramakrishnan, national laureate A Samad Said, Penang Chief Minister and DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng and DAP senior leader Lim Kit Siang and PAS central committee member and Parit Buntar MP Mujahid Yusof Rawa.

The memorial also heard the song ‘You Raised Me Up’ by Josh Groban being sung for Karpal.

In paying their last respects, the public also placed yellow chrysanthemum flowers by his wheelchair on stage.

Karpal a ‘boxer’

Jagdeep said he thought his dad was a “boxer” when he was a kid as he was often approached by people thanking him and praising him for always winning a fight.

He described his father as a “mentor, comrade and friend”, saying Karpal prompted him on, even as he was losing faith in the legal system.

He revealed he was the last to know about Karpal’s detention under the ISA as he was sitting for his SPM examinations at the time.

“My mom did not let me know about it and said dad was busy working in KL. It was only six weeks later that she broke the news to me,” Jagdeep, who is a Penang executive councillor, said.

“When we went to visit him, I was shocked, because after 53 days, his face was swollen, and he wouldn’t talk much as we were being watched,” added the Dato Keramat assemblyman.

Jagdeep said he was supposed to further his law studies in Australia at the time but had then lost faith in the legal system and had no mood to pursue his studies.

But Karpal encouraged him to go ahead, while handcuffed to the hospital bed, and he recalled being very angry when told to leave for further studies in law.

“I said, “Pa! How can you tell me to leave to study law when there is no law in this country?”

“But he replied, son, do not lose faith. This is a man who believed in justice even as he was being incarcerated and detained without trial,” Jagdeep added.

Jagdeep said it was sad that Karpal died as a “convict” as the Court of Appeal had upheld his conviction and fined him RM4,000, pending appeal at the Federal Court.

“He died as a convict in a system that he believed in. Do you think he is a convict?” Jagdeep asked and the crowd shouted a resounding “No!”.

Disillusionment with judiciary

Jagdeep said his two brothers Gobind and Ramkarpal will continue to press Karpal’s appeal at the Federal Court to free him from the sedition charges brought against him for remarks against the Perak ruler in 2009, as he would not desire a pardon.

Ramkarpal also shared that he had expressed his disillusionment with the judiciary as he was travelling with his father back to Penang on that fateful night.

He recalled laughing and joking with Karpal on the night they left KL at about 11pm, and asking Karpal if there was any hope left for the legal system.

“Before he fell asleep in the car that night, he assured me despite all my disillusionment, there is still hope,” the son, who is a lawyer and one of the proposed candidates for Bukit Gelugor, said.

“That is what Karpal is about. Detention never ever deterred his spirit. He came from nothing, merely rearing cows as a child. He had a humble beginning and he left us with the same humble spirit,” he added.

Ramkarpal said that he had asked himself over the past 18 days why Karpal was taken away without notice, or warning and in such a shocking manner.

Despite his despair and anger at the sudden turn of events, Ramkarpal said he now understood that his father had never left them.

“He might not be with us physically, his spirit lives on and I want you to remember how Karpal lived. We are deeply sad about the way he went but I could not ask for a better father,” he said.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 7 May 2014, 5:55 am and is filed under
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Stopping those who spew hate in the name of religion

COMMENTARY BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER

May 07, 2014

If there are any police officials still interested in being honest brokers and if the rule of law means anything anymore in Malaysia, a whole clutch of speakers at yesterday’s seminar on the Allah word and Christianity should be arrested and charged with sedition.

In some other countries, they would be charged with hate crimes because hate is what they were trying to make Malaysians do. Hate Christians and hate Malaysians of the Christian faith.

One of the speakers talked about the number of Christians overtaking Muslims in this country – a scenario as remote as Datuk Ibrahim Ali or Datuk Zulkifli Noordin becoming pastors.

But hey, why let the absence of facts get in the way of a nice yarn? Forget about the much higher birth rate among Muslims compared with non-Muslims and forget about the empirical evidence which shows that more Christians have been forced or duped into converting to Islam in Sabah and rural communities.

This speaker used the same discredited figures once used by Perak Mufti Tan Sri Harussani Zakaria, who cited an anonymous study that up to 250,000 Muslims in Malaysia had become apostates, including 100,000 who converted to Christianity.

The speaker conveniently forgot that Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom said last month that 4,520 individuals embraced Islam in just four years between 2008 and 2012, according to the Federal Territories Religious Department’s (Jawi) records.

The despicable thing is the fact that the intention yesterday was to stoke hatred towards Christians and introduce religious strife where it did not exist.

Students and ordinary Muslims are being taught to hate their fellow Malaysians, despite a peaceful co-existence from the day Malaya and later Malaysia was formed.

The book titled ‘Obligation to preserve the sanctity of the name Allah’ seeks to explain why non-Muslims cannot use the word Allah. It was distributed at yesterday’s forum at UiTM – The Malaysian Insider pic, May 7, 2014.The book titled ‘Obligation to preserve the sanctity of the name Allah’ seeks to explain why non-Muslims cannot use the word Allah. It was distributed at yesterday’s forum at UiTM – The Malaysian Insider pic, May 7, 2014.Surely that is more dangerous than the late Karpal Singh stating a legal position or Batu MP Chua Tian Chang stating his intention to bring down Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak. Or that Seputeh MP Teresa Kok had produced a parody video.

So why isn’t the police taking action? What is it waiting for?

Is Malaysia a country where the authorities see nothing wrong about a group of people maligning another faith in the name of their own religion? Or should we even be surprised at the lack of action?

After all, a group of men were allowed to parade with a cowhead to protest the construction of a Hindu temple in Shah Alam in 2009, knowing full well that the animal is considered sacred to Hindus.

They were fined paltry sums and only one served a week’s jail.

Can we hope for stronger action this time around against those who spew hate and speak ill of other faiths? Or is moderation just a convenient buzzword to impress visiting dignitaries and counterparts in other countries?

Putrajaya must draw a line of what is acceptable and not unacceptable. No one should insult a religion just to show how superior their own faith is. Religion is supposed to unite people, not divide them.

And those who use it to divide people should be arrested, charged and convicted for bringing their own faith into disrepute and Malaysia into chaos. The police can start with those at the forum in UiTM yesterday. – May 7, 2014.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 7 May 2014, 9:06 am and is filed under
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