Bilakah tarikh dan masa Ganesan yang berlagak sebagai Speaker DUN Perak mengangkat sumpah dan menerima watikah perlantikan dari Sultan? minggu depan.
Apa yang sedang berlaku di Perak tak ubah seperti plot cerita "Animal Farm" tulisan Goeorge Orwell (1903-1950) , seorang British yang dibesarkan di India.
Polis cabul sidang Dun Perak , Sivakumar masih Speaker
Debra Chong
SEMAKIN banyak pihak menimbangkan kesahihan perlucutan V Sivakumar daripada jawatan Speaker Dewan Undangan Negeri Perak dan pengundian pengganti beliau, R Ganesan, bekas Adun Sungkai, dan juga dua lagi usul.
Peguam dan juga Presiden Persatuan Kebangsaan Hak Asasi Manusia (Hakam) Malik Imtaz Sarwar tidak bersetuju dengan pandangan Dato' Hafarizam Harun dan Dato' Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, yang dilaporkan berkata bahawa usul yang diluluskan 7 Mei adalah sah.
"Saya tidak bersetuju dengan pandangan Hafarizam dan Shafee. Saya tak nampak bagaimana it boleh menjadi sah," jelas Malik Imtaz kepada Malaysian Insider.
Prosidur diragui
Dia mendapati terlalu banyak persoalan berhubung prosidur di dalam ruang dewan, mengakibatkan kesahihannya diragui.
"Pertama, bagaimanakah persidangan itu boleh sampai ke peringkat di mana Hee mengambil alih persidangan?" beliau mempersoalkan, merujuk kepada Hee Yit Foong, Adun Jelapang merangkap Timbalan Speaker.
"Sekiranya Sivakumar berada di situ secara sah, bagaimana dia (Hee) boleh mengambil alih (tugas Speaker)?" tambah beliau, merujuk kepada penjelasan Hafarizam yang membuat rujukan kepada Perkara 36A(1)(b) Peraturan Persidangan yang membenarkan Timbalan Speaker mengambil tempat menggantikan Speaker.
Versi bercanggah
Kata Imtaz, dia mendengar versi yang bercanggah-canggah mengenai peristiwa 7 Mei, termasuk dakwaan kononnya pada satu ketika Sivakumar tidak berada di dalam kamar dewan sewaktu persidangan berlangsung.
Beliau juga mempersoalkan kehadiran pegawai polis berpakaian biasa di dalam kamar dewan.
"Polis tidak sama sekali mempunyai kuasa dalam kamar dewan," kata Imtaz, dan merujuk kepada kenyataan terdahulu oleh Menteri Dalam Negeri ketika itu Syed Hamid Albar dan Ketua Polis Negara pada Mac lalu selepas Ahli Parlimen Pakatan Rakyat Karpal Singh dikasari di Parlimen.
Syed Hamid dan Musa Hassan menegaskan bahawa pihak polis tidak boleh campur tangan dalam kamar dewan walaupun sekiranya terdapat pergaduhan dan hanya petugas dewan (sergeant-at-arms) mempunyai kuasa menangkap.
Polis bukan agen parti politik
"Polis telah bertindak tanpa kuasa. Mereka sebenarnya menjadikan diri mereka sebagai agen kepada sebuah parti politik dan bukan sebagai pelaksana bebas undang-undang," kata Imtaz, sambil menekankan bahawa Sivakumar adalah masih Speaker yang sah ketika itu.
Sementara menekankan pandangannya bahawa tidak bermakna Adun Pakatan Rakyat bebas daripada apa-apa perlakuan salah, Imtaz menolak penjelasan Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir yang mengatakan BN tidak mempunyai pilihan kecuali memanggil polis apabila keadaan menjadi semakin tegang.
"Mereka mengatakan mereka tidak ada pilihan tapi itu tidak benar. Mereka boleh sahaja memfail untuk mendapatkan perintah mahkamah dan menyebut Sivakumar sebagai menghina mahkamah. Mereka tidak melakukan demikian tetapi memilih untuk membantu diri-sendiri tetapi membantu diri-sendiri tidak dibenarkan di bawah sistem perundangan kita," jelas Imtaz lagi dengan nada marah.
"Bahkan, cara paksaan terpaksa digunakan - dengan menggunakan polis untuk memaksa Sivakumar keluar dari kamar dewan tanpa sebarang alasan-� ini adalah merupakan penunjuk yang mencukupi bahawa BN tidak mempunyai penyelesaian politik mahupun perundangan terhadap kesulitan yang mereka sendiri mulakan."
Beliau juga mempersoalkan: "Pada saat manakan persidangan sebenarnya bermula?"
Bila sidang bermula?
"Sekiranya perasmian persidangan bermula selepas titah Raja Nazrin, bagaimanapula mereka menjalankan sebarang urusan sebelum itu?" tanya Imtaz.
Beliau menekankan, Raja Muda Perak yang sepatutnya membuka persidangan, memasuki kamar dewan hanya pada kira-kira jam 3.00 petang, setelah berlaku perebutan kerusi Speaker dan setelah tiga lagi usul - pemilihan Ganesan sebagai Speaker, anggota baru untuk jawatankuasa sampingan dan kelulusan pengisytiharan pembatalan sidang Pakatan Rakyat terdahulu yang diadakan di bawah sebatang pohon.
Imtaz juga menegaskan persidangan tersebut juga melanggar beberapa lagi konvensyen, termasuk tidak mengadakan upacara mengangkat sumpah untuk Ganesan selaku Speaker. Ini, tegasnya, biasanya diadakan dalam satu upacara di masa lain di hadapan raja.
Terus buntu
"Inilah antara perkara yang menyebabkan saya merasa ragu tentang kesahan usul yang diluluskan," kata peguam yang baru-baru ini menjadi penerima anugerah hak asasi manusia antarabangsa.
"Akhirnya, terdapat kebuntuan di sini," katanya, dan menambah sekiranya Perdana Menteri Najib Razak "ikhlas tentang Satu Malaysia, dia tidak boleh membenarkan BN melakukan tindakan tersebut."
Bagi pensyarah undang-undang Perlembagaan Universiti Islam Antarabangsa, Profesor Abdul Aziz Bari, "semuanya begitu jelas dan terpampang."
Katanya, dia bersetuju dengan Ir Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin bahawa persidangan 7 Mei adalah "haram dan tidak berperlembagaan".
Cara salah pilih Speaker
"Bagi saya, cara mereka memilih Speaker adalah salah. Speaker masih Sivakumar," jelas ahli akademik itu.
Beliau memerhatikan bahawa urutan peristiwa dari 5 Februari sehingga semalam - dari perbuatan melompat parti yang dilakukan wakil rakyat yang dipilih sehinggalah kepada keputusan mahkamah membatalkan keputusan Sivakumar untuk menggantung kehadiran Adun BN - membuatkan kesahihan usul cukup meragukan menurut pandangannya.
Seperti juga Malik Imtiaz, Presiden Majlis Peguam Malaysia Ragunath Kesavan bersetuju situasi di Perak sudah tiba pada titik di mana tidak ada jalan lain kecuali Sultan Perakmembubarkan dewan undangan dan membuka jalan untuk pilihan raya umum baru bagi membersihkan kemelut yang berlaku.
Undang-undang tak boleh selesai masalah
"Bagi kita, cara perundangan tidak akan dapat menyelesaikannya kerana setiap peguam mempunyai pendapat berbeza," katanya.
"Secara peribadi, saya rasa terdapat hujah yang memihak kepada kedua-dua pihak. Satu daripadanya bilakah persidangan itu sebenarnya bermula? Satu lagi apakah Speaker mempunyai kuasa untuk menolak usul yang hendak dibentangkan?"
"Tapi kini Pakatan Rakyat adalah pihak minoriti dan BN mempunyai majoriti stabil dengan 28 campur tiga bebas," jelasnya.
Ragunath menekankan cara terbaik untuk keluar dari permasalahan tersebut ialah membenarkan pengundi membuat keputusan.
"Saya tak fakir dalam demokrasi, untuk kembali semula kepada rakyat setelah baru sahaja mengadakan pilihan raya umum merupakan satu masalah," katanya.
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Tulisan dari The Malaysian Insider ini diterjemah oleh Shirzad Lifeboat/ harakahdaily
PLOT "ANIMAL FARM" SERUPA DENGAN KRISIS DI PERAK
POPE STUDYING ISLAM - CONCEPT OF GOD - FROM MUSLIMS NOW
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi was asked after papal visit to Jordan's al-Hussein Ben-Talal mosque, whether the Pope's view on Islam has changed since Regensburg. "It's a journey, there's progress," he said. "We have to learn from what the Muslims tell us about Islam."
Pope Benedict's Latest Take on Islam
Under Pope Benedict XVI's reign, the Vatican dossier on Islam could be entitled: "Regensburg, and Everything After." Regensburg was the professor Pope's landmark 2006 discourse at his former university that included a nasty historical citation about the prophet Mohammed and provocatively asked if Islam lacks reason, making it inherently prone to violence.
The worldwide protests among Muslims, including a handful of church burnings and the killing of a nun, forced the Pope to quickly change his approach, and soften his tone.
But while he has spent the past two-plus years reaching out to Islamic leaders, Benedict has subtly tried to keep alive the hard questions he posed at the German university. Benedict has expanded on this formula since landing Friday in the moderate Muslim kingdom of Jordan, the first stop on his eight-day Holy Land pilgrimage.
He told King Abdullah II upon his arrival in Amman that he has "deep respect" for Islam, and on Saturday he was welcomed in the country's largest mosque and gave another fascinating — if less radioactive — philosophical treatise.
Indeed, it is in dissecting this Pope's ideas — often now cloaked in more diplomatic language that was absent in Regensburg — that we can see that he is still preoccupied with the contemporary interplay (or lack thereof) of faith and reason, and the risk of rising inter-religious conflict. Speaking after a visit inside the al-Hussein Ben-Talal mosque, the Pope acknowledged that "tensions and divisions between the followers of different religious traditions, sadly, cannot be denied."
But Benedict said that Muslims and Christians have a shared obligation to counter the contemporary idea that "religion is necessarily a cause of division in our world."
Instead, he said, faith is in fact necessary in a world in which reason alone can become a form of extremism. "When human reason humbly allows itself to be purified by faith... it is strengthened to resist presumption and reach beyond its own limitations."
This idea of a faithless allegiance to reason as the cause of rising secularism is a concern of both Muslim and Christian leaders, and was a much less cited theme of his Regensburg lecture.
But the source of tension two years ago was the flipside: Benedict's contention that Islam has an absolutist conception of God that doesn't leave room for reason. On Saturday, however lightly, he seemed to return to this point.
"Christians describe God, among other ways, as creative Reason, which orders and guides the world," the Pope said. "Muslims worship God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, who has spoken to humanity."
The Pope seems to still believe that this distinction — between Christian faith that is "purified" by human reason, and Muslim faith that is simply received from God — is worth deeper exploration with his Islamic counterparts.
"Religion," he said at an earlier discourse Saturday, "can be corrupted .... when pressed into the service of ignorance or prejudice, contempt, violence and abuse." He called for a "mature belief in God." The speech at the mosque intertwined theology and a more nuanced view of current events than the purely philosophical discourse in 2006. "Often it is the ideological manipulation of religion, sometimes for political ends, that is the real catalyst for tension and division and at times even violence in society."
Jordan is the ideal setting to return to these sensitive themes, home to the royal Hashemite lineage that traces back to Mohammed, and a modern tradition of religious tolerance. This was also where a group of Islamic scholars from around the world first launched a response to Regensburg, which led to the creation of an official Muslim-Catholic dialogue that kicked off with a summit at the Vatican in November on the religions' shared principles of love of God and love of neighbor.
Speaking before the Pope on Saturday, Prince Ghaszi Bin Muhammad Bin Talal, the top religious advisor to the Jordanian King, thanked Benedict for having expressed regret for "the hurt caused by the [Regensburg] lecture to Muslims" and for other words and gestures since. Still, Ghaszi pointedly condemned "distorted depictions" in the West of the roots of Islam as "responsible for much historical and cultural tension between Christians and Muslims."
He said it was now clear that the Pope's comments about the prophet in 2006 was just "a citation in an academic lecture," but added that it is incumbent on Muslims to explain the Prophets' example above all with deeds of virtue, charity, piety and goodwill."
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi was asked afterwards whether the Pope's view on Islam has changed since Regensburg. "It's a journey, there's progress," he said. "We have to learn from what the Muslims tell us about Islam." This Pope has sought to infuse "frankness" in the inter-faith dialogue that was a cornerstone of John Paul II's papacy. But talking about both what unites and divides different religious traditions, requires not only talking frankly but listening carefully.
By Jeff Israely / Amman Saturday, May. 09, 2009
WHY THE POPE CAN'T HELP THE MIDLLE EASTERN CHRISTIANS
The Jesuit Who Inspired the Pope's Ideas on Islam
The First Casualty of the Pope's Islam Speech
Vatican Launches Catholic-Islamic Dialogue
YEN & JAPANESE CARRY TRADE IF YOU CARE TO GET INVOLVED
“The One Investment that ALWAYS Flies
When Almost Everything Else Falls!” - Extract of Sovereign Society's Letter
The world’s biggest credit and asset bubbles ever created in the history of humanity are all starting to burst at the same time. So where do you go for safety and profits?
I’ll tell you where: The one investment on Earth that didn’t get pumped up on cheap credit and phantom finance…the one investment that didn’t boom when almost everything else did…the one investment that went nowhere in the last 18 years, only enjoying brief booms when the rest of the world started falling apart – like in 1998 after the collapse of LTCM, 9/11, etc.
This investment thrives on chaos…flies when everything else falls…dances when everything else dies…
I’m talking about the Japanese yen. Ironically it was the yen (and the Bank of Japan) that was also the single biggest source of cheap money, which helped fuel the recent and unprecedented bull markets in stocks, real estate and commodities. But it didn’t do it to inflate global asset bubbles. It did it in hopes of jump-starting its own depressed economy. So it offered investors the globe over the cheapest source of financing on the planet…loans at near 0% interest. It was basically FREE money. And so irresistible was it, that investors came from everywhere to dip their toes into the deep waters of this enchanted money pool. Everyone from Private Equity firms to hedge funds…from money market funds to Japanese housewives dived in.
These firms and investors borrowed up every cent they could – some estimates say the sums reached as high as $2 trillion.
U R UNDER ARREST IF AND ONLY IF U R NOT COP
Who makes a mockery of the system? Who turns this nation into a laughing stock?
Lawyers: Police abused CPC provisions
The Edge
by Melody Song
KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Bar Council criticised the police for disallowing the five lawyers who were arrested Thursday night to legal counsel, saying that they violated specific provisions in the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) which guarantees those detained access to lawyers.
The lawyers had gone to the Brickfields police station on Jalan Tun Sambathan to assist 14 people who had been arrested for holding a candlelight vigil for political analyst Wong Chin Huat.
Bar Council President Ragunath Kesavan said that although under Section 28A (8) of the CPC there is an exception which allows police to refuse lawyers access to their clients, it is invoked only in extraordinary circumstances.
Bar Council’s Human Rights Committee Co-chairman Andrew Khoo added that the context of invoking the exception is when it is believed that the client may pass harmful information to an outsider via the lawyer, or hide evidence, such as in kidnap cases.
"The exception has been turned into a right to arrest lawyers for the sole reason that they asked to see their clients," said Ragunath. "If applying to see your clients in a police station can be deemed as obstructing justice, how low can you go?"
Ragunath added that the Bar Council intends to hold an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) by next Friday to discuss concerns of law practitioners over threats of arrest should they request to see their clients.
The Bar Council could challenge the provision for access by lawyers to accused persons under the CPC to obtain a clear indication from the courts what the provision is about. Ragunath told reporters that the Bar Council is considering a judicial review of the police's decision on May 7 to bar lawyers from meeting their clients.
A civil suit option is also a possibility, although they are leaving it to the five lawyers to decide whether they want to seek redress. Ragunath said the Bar Council would support any decision made by the lawyers, who are all members of the Kuala Lumpur Legal Aid Centre.
The lawyers have called on Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hussein and Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Musa Hassan to take steps to assure the public that the police will respect the rule of law, and for the IGP to issue a statement detailing what took place Thursday night at the Brickfields police station.
"We want the police to respect the rule of law, respect the criminal justice system and respect the stakeholders of justice namely the lawyers and public," Ragunath said, adding that the police's decision to arrest the lawyers has undermined the progress of dialogues with the police to increase cooperation between them.
The five lawyers, Fadiah Nadwa Binti Fikri, Murnie Hidayah Binti Anuar, Puspawati Binti Rosman, Ravinder Singh Dhalliwal and Syuhaini Binti Safwan were all released at about 2.50pm Friday.
Wong Chin Huat was also released Friday after his arrest on May 5 for alleged sedition. Padungan assemblyman Dominique Ng, his wife and nine Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) members were released after their arrest Thursday night for holding an illegal gathering at the Kuching waterfront.
Video Arrested over 'teh tarik'?
Video Vigil: Police detain 14, all freed hours later
SEEING IS BELIEVING, PARTICIPATING IS REALLY SOMETHING
video Arrests galore at SUK
VIDEO 507 PERAK STATE ASSEMBLY
Video The Great DUN Perak fiasco
