A-G interfered with forensic experts

Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim has continued his attacks on Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail, claiming today that the Attorney-General has caused the public to lose faith in government inquests and inquiries due to his alleged interference in testimony made by forensic experts.
The former city criminal investigation chief said today that Dr Abdul Rahman Yusof, the forensic expert in former deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s black-eye probe that Mat Zain had headed, “was willing to prepare three false reports according to orders by Gani Patail.”

“We cannot blame the public if they have lost confidence in government pathology and forensic experts... ridiculing and abusing their opinions in the Teoh Beng Hock inquest and royal commission of inquiry (RCI) and also the inquest of Ahmad Sarbaini Mohamad,” he wrote in an open letter to the Inspector-General of Police.

Doubts have been raised over testimony by experts from government hospitals and the Chemistry Department in the recent cases of Teoh and Ahmad Sarbaini, a former DAP aide and senior Customs officer respectively, who both plunged to their deaths at different Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) offices.

Early this year, a coroner’s inquest into Teoh’s death had returned an open verdict ruling out both suicide and homicide some 18 months after his fatal fall at the Selangor MACC office. The Najib administration was forced to form an RCI, which also found that Teoh had committed suicide.

Mat Zain said today that Dr Abdul Rahman had prepared three “expert reports”, all of which contradicted one other “without making any physical examination on the patient.”

“This means Dr Abdul Rahman prepared those reports using his imagination and based on just photos and reports of other experts, without any discussing with them or the investigating officer of the case,” he wrote.

He claimed the first and second reports had been presented to the RCI on Anwar’s assault, but that the first report later “disappeared” when the final report was presented to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

“Maybe Gani Patail or Dr Abdul Rahman themselves can explain this disappearance given that they both are interested parties in this report,” he said.

Mat Zain also called on police chief Tan Sri Ismail Omar to open investigations into this case since the police force has said it is investigating false reports of police brutality in the July 9 Bersih rally.

He added that “various parties (including himself), the loudest being the Bar Council, are also pressing for authorities to take action against MACC officers who gave false testimony” in the Teoh Beng Hock RCI.

In an earlier letter to the IGP, he had called on police to begin investigating the five MACC officers that the Teoh RCI found to have lied to the commission, three of whom he said should also be charged for abetment of suicide pursuant to the findings of the royal panel.

He has also repeatedly attacked Abdul Gani, most recently calling on Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to sack the A-G for failing to initiate charges in high-profile cases such as the death of Teoh Beng Hock.

He has also called for a royal panel to investigate Abdul Gani’s role in destroying public confidence in the police.

BERSIH dapat sokongan Queen Elizabeth?

Ratu Elizabeth memakai baju kuning
tak cukup dengan baju kuning
perhatikan - bunga mawar pun kuning

Philip Hammond
Menteri Pengangkutan Britain

Perhatikan betul betul
tali leher menteri british ini
Ini sengaja dipilih untuk memalukan Najib

Ini di jamuan Najib dengan pelajar2 Msia do London. Kenapa tak hidangkan air bandung?

Marina Mahathir ~ BERSIH Story ~

So I went.

I have to say that the night before I had many many misgivings, especially after reading about the army doing exercises with the FRU. Could the government seriously be contemplating shooting their own people? Who knows? My stomach was in knots thinking about the many young people I knew who were intent on going, including my daughter. Would I be able to forgive myself if something happened to them?

After seeking advice from various friends, I finally decided that I could not stay safely at home while my daughter, friends and colleagues faced possible danger. I had to walk with them. Besides even if I stayed home, I would have spent all my time worrying. So I had to go.

A friend who lived in the city offered to be my protector and together we devised a plan on what to do. Hubby was supportive and gave some advice on how to stay safe. My neighbours also wanted to come along. So fairly earlyish, my friend drove over to get me with no problem and we headed back into the city. Despite the roadblocks in some areas, we encountered no problems. In fact driving into KL was so pleasant because the roads were so clear. The police directed traffic where they had to and were generally cooperative ( except for one we saw arguing with a man trying to get into his own condo). We got to a roadblock in the KLCC area and my friend explained that he lived in the area and they let us through, four people in a car dressed as if we were going hiking!

From my friend’s apartment block, we walked to Times Square and parked ourselves at the Starbucks for a coffee while we waited. A cursory look around the outlet and mall revealed that many people were doing the same thing. Meanwhile a whole van of police was stationed outside the mall but after a while they all went off.

We kept in touch with various friends around the city to find out where they were and what the situation was. At about 12.30 we started to walk up Jalan Hang Tuah towards the stadium area. We were not in big groups, just people out on a weekend stroll. We thought we would encounter police in front of the big police headquarters in front of Pudu Jail but there was nothing. When we got to the corner of Jalan Hang Jebat, we saw some police motorcycles and only a couple of cops. Lots of people were just sitting on the curbside under the eye of the cops. It was pretty clear what all these people were there for.

We walked along Jalan Hang Jebat in front of Stadium Negara towards the OCM and found many other friends waiting there. Apparently at one point the cops had given chase even though there was no reason to and caught some people and hauled them off. But from then on we could sit and wait by the curb without anyone disturbing us.

Jalan Hang Jebat and the small road that led up to Stadium Merdeka stayed pretty quiet. Members of the Bar Council (who had to suffer wearing their suits in the heat just so that we could spot them easily) walked around observing what was happening. At one point one woman in a suit sat herself at the intersection to take notes.

One lone woman lawyer at her station, Jln Hang Jebat

We all debated whether to stay there or move down to Petaling Street but we were afraid that we wouldn’t be let back up again. Then it started to rain. My friend and I sought shelter under some hoarding along with young people. Just then I got a message that we were to go to KL Sentral. After confirming this with a friend at Sentral, my friends and I started to walk down Hang Jebat just as a large group of people started walking up. The rain was pouring at that point and I didn’t know quite what to do, whether to tell people they should turn round or not.

Seeking shelter for a while under a shop five-foot way, I talked to various other friends and eventually decided to head back to the stadium area where I found my daughter and lots of other friends there. The main group earlier had gone up to Stadium Merdeka, did some chanting in front of the FRU and then headed down again. But many people hung about just to observe everything and soak in the atmosphere. One group of young people had yellow ribbons on sticks and started a little dance. Others were buying ice cream from a bicycle vendor who came by. There was a real carnival atmosphere.

Here's a video of the rally yesterday taken by my daughter. As you can see, it was peaceful. And every time some people started chanting 'reformasi', someone else would start a louder chant of 'Bersih'.

I have to say that I never felt safer than when I was in the crowd. People recognized me and said hello. Some wanted to take photos. It didn’t feel any different from any other Saturday out. And to be perfectly fair, the cops and FRU in my area showed admirable restraint. They saw that people were not doing anything more than chanting and nobody was harming anyone so they just stood there and left everyone to do their thing. We came across a whole FRU unit blocking a lane next to the Chinese temple at the roundabout at the bottom of Jalan Maharajalela, waved at them and they waved. Cool cops!

Of course not everyone had the same experience. Here’s an account from a colleague who was in a different street:

Unfortunately my experience wasn't so benign. I was part of the marchers (along with A and others) who were effectively kettled by the police in Jalan Pudu. FRU units to the front and back of us prevented us from leaving, and we were trapped by the walls of a construction site opposite Tung Shin Hospital after the FRUs pushed us back. It was probably the worst of the hotspots because of that: when the police started firing round after round of tear gas at us, we had nowhere to run to. I think they were determined to make an example out of us, because they bloody well tear-gassed and sprayed us with water cannons when they had no reason to do so.

We were all tear-gassed at least three, four times. An NGO staffer was hit by a canister. V told me that she saw people jumping off the second floor of the Puduraya bus terminal because the police had released tear gas too close to the terminal and the wind carried the fumes into the enclosed building. When the marchers ran for shelter in Tung Shin Hospital, the police fired tear gas and water cannons INTO the hospital grounds. Later the police lured us into re-assembling on the road on the pretext of negotiating a peaceful dispersal. They arrested the MP (Sivarasa) who was doing the negotiating, then -- after ordering us to sit down so (as we realised later) we would be sitting ducks -- they fired more tear gas and water cannons at us. A, myself and our companions eventually managed to find a way out from the trap via the Santo Antonius church and (irony of ironies) the car park of the Hang Tuah police station (near the monorail station). There were so many very brave people yesterday.

I now know that smearing toothpaste under the eyes to reduce irritation caused by tear gas actually works (thanks, A)! I'm still itchy and short of breath from all that tear gas, which is a bit annoying. But really, mostly what I remember of the rally was how moving it was: the solidarity among the protesters, how people looked out for one another. Whenever I was tear-gassed there was a stranger running along at my side and offering me and my friends salt to counteract the effects. When the police sprayed chemical-laced water cannons into the crowd and the people affected cried out for water to wash the stuff away, others turned and ran back toward the cannons with bottles of water to help. People helped others climb up a hill towards the hospital to escape (some guy helped me up the steep slope). Someone always stepped up to make sure that a panicked run doesn't turn into a stampede, including an elderly woman who took it upon herself to guide the marchers to safety. She's a first-time marcher to boot! Actually there were lots of first-time marchers, and more young middle-class urbanites than I've ever seen at any other rallies including the 2007 Bersih rally. At one point people started picking up the tear gas canisters and throwing them back at the police, or kicking the canisters safely away from the marchers and bystanders. I heard via the #bersihstories Twitter hashtag when the police fired tear gas into Tung Shin, there were people who grabbed the canisters and wrapped them in their own towels, then threw the canisters into the drain so there wouldn't be so much fumes.

And another one, about people’s goodness:

My group has a lovely little story to tell as well, of how we escaped from the Tung Shin hospital area after one of the tear gas attacks. We took a little alley uphill between the shophouses, and there was a block of flats there. One of the residents told us to go through the building to get out through the back! We climbed upstairs and then along the opposite corridor a woman shouted and pointed, "That way, go that way, there is an exit out the back!" and we scuttled along our corridor, down the back stairs and found ourselves safe outside on Changkat Tung Shin or something like that.

Rakyat all contributing in their own ways!

There are many stories and photos, both good and bad, of the whole event. But to me what was most important was that Malaysians proved two things: one, they can assemble together on a common cause peacefully and two, therefore showed that they are a mature people. The fact is that there were all kinds of people there, young and old, all races and religions and all classes and creeds. I bumped into many young people, the children of my friends, who had come to see what it was all about and decide for themselves what to think about the issue.

Do these people look like hooligans to you?

Whatever one thinks about the issue that Bersih is espousing, we should all be proud of our fellow Malaysians who did not, despite dire predictions by some, behave like hooligans and destroy property and hurt one another. There were people hurt and one death but people who had participated in the rally did not cause them. The restaurants and shops around the area were doing roaring business as people got thirsty and hungry.

There are also some people claiming that the world now has a bad impression of Malaysia because the foreign media (and the local media for that matter) reported only about the teargassing and water-cannoning. I think people are confusing the government with the people. Yes, the world now has a bad impression of the Malaysiangovernment because it has handled this whole issue so badly. They don’t have the same impression of the Malaysians who stood up for their rights and their cause.

This is what gives a good impression: protestors and police shaking hands before dispersing at 4pm.

And by the way, I can’t believe some of the mean things being said about the man who died after being teargassed! My goodness, every time I read totally uncompassionate things like that, I know that I’m on the right side.

Matthias Chang, the former political secretary of Dr Mahathir

Matthias Chang, the former political secretary of Dr Mahathir Mohamad, has spoken out against the government's political crackdown in the run-up to the July 9 rally for electoral reforms by Bersih.

Writing in his blog, Chang, a staunch loyalist of the former prime minister and no friend of Pakatan Rakyat, described the spate of arrests of Bersih sympathisers and the threats by UMNO ringleaders to thwart the rally as indicating "the administration’s one track mentality in solving problems, not that the Bersih Rally is a problem."

Saying Bersih's organisers had already given assurance of the rally's peaceful nature, Chang called on authorities not to deploy the Federal Reserve Unit but instead assist them in controlling traffic during the gathering.

"Bersih has assured the nation that the rally would be peaceful and its intention is to deliver a memorandum for a fair and clean election to the King.

"How long would the Bersih Rally be, in the absence of any police action? At the most, one and half hours, and thereafter, they would have to disperse, again peacefully. End of the story," he wrote, adding that those behind Bersih was aware that allowing the rally to turn violent could only undermine the group's credibility.

'Sheer stupidity to ban t-shirts'

Chang also said prime minister Najib Razak should join hands with the Bersih protesters and accompany them in handing over the memorandum to the Agong.

"Be at the gate of the Agong’s palace to stand in solidarity with the participants and show support for their civic-mindedness and assure all those peaceful participants that every effort will be made to ensure a fair and clean election as was the case in 2008 and all previous elections," he added.

Reserving some of his harshest words for UMNO Youth leader Khairy Jamaluddin and Perkasa leaders, Chang also rubbished as "sheer stupididy" the announcement by Home minister Hishamuddin Hussein banning the yellow Bersih t-shirts.

"To declare that it is a crime and or illegal to wear any clothing in yellow bearing the logo 'Bersih' is sheer stupidity. And the Home Minister is a lawyer by training!

"If such clampdown is to demonstrate the power of UMNO and nothing else, then the year long campaign that we are '1Malaysia' rings hollow and that the Barisan Nasional government has no faith in its policies especially its Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), the political crown jewel of Najib’s administration," he said.

BERSIH 2.0 - 9 July 2011

semangat mereka

meredah halangan lalulintas polis

Anak muda pewaris generasi akan datang

Tabikk

Berbilang bangsa

Semua lapisan masyarakat

Perhimpunan AMAN

Mereka takut????

Peludah Warna - Sasterawan Negara A Samad Said

Peludah Warna

Malaysiakini

Kuasa gusar kini menggelegak murka;

warna kuning diisytihar racun terbisa.

Diragutnya baju-T segeram tenaga

dan diumum itulah busana bahaya.

Tapi, kita jahit semula perca kain,

menjadikannya panji terindah dan tulen.

Warna kuning yang teramat tenang dan syahdu

kita kembalikan damai ke dalam qalbu.

Kini cahaya mentari mungkin diramas

dan sinar kuningnya juga mungkin dicantas.

Memanglah mereka kini peludah warna

sedang menghimpun lendir kahak sebanyaknya.

Kerana nikmat amat lama berkuasa,

kuasa pun seolah menjadi hartanya.

A Samad Said

http://samadsaid.wordpress.com/

Najib: I didn't say I will meet Bersih - Kalau Pak Menteri pun cakapnya berputar-putar, apa lagilah pegawai-pegawai bawahan

Prime Miniser Najib Abdul Razak may not be the one meeting the leaders of the Bersih 2.0 coalition to discuss their rally in a stadium, as there are others who can serve as representative of the government.

“I didn't say I will meet Bersih. Yesterday I said the government will meet (them). The government doesn't mean me, personally,” he told a press conference in Klang this afternoon.

He was asked whether the leaders of the coalition for clean and fair elections would meet with him.

Najib also said he had yet to recieve a request from Bersih leaders to meet him.

The prime minister said yesterday that he understood that “Bersih wants to have a meeting with the government on having the rally in a stadium (and) we are ready to meet them."

Asked about the Bersih 2.0 coalition's decision to hold its rally in Stadium Merdeka, Najib said the authorities, particularly the police, would act according to the requirements of security and safety.

While those responsible would look into the security requirements to be fulfilled before such events are held, Najib said permission would only be given to organisations that are registered.

And since Bersih has never been registered, it is an illegal organisation, he added.

"Bersih is illegal. It has never been registered."

Aduhai Malaysiaku....

It is illegal to wear clothes related to illegal activities, Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein says.

As such, the detention of those wearing Bersih 2.0 T-shirts is justified, Hishammuddin (left) told reporters today.

"If the Bersih T-shirt is related to an illegal activity, then whatever they are wearing is illegal," he said.

To date, about 100 people have been hauled up for wearing the yellow Bersih 2.0 T-shirts, while those selling it have also been taken in for questioning.

Fourteen DAP and PKR members who were detained in Sungei Siput, Perak, this morning for wearing the T-shirt, were told that it “instigates people to attend the Bersih rally” planned for July 9 in Kuala Lumpur.

Noncommittal on crackdown

Hishammuddin, who was reluctant to answer questions on the rally, was noncommittal when asked about the police crackdown on activities relating to Bersih 2.0.

"We will wait until things develop. Like I said, the point person is the inspector-general of police... when it comes to enforcement. I have made this clear yesterday," he said.

Asked if the crackdown was politically motivated, Hishammuddin said: "On their part or our part?”

Laughing, he added: “I can ask (the opposition parties and activists) the same question."

The Bersih 2.0 rally involves a march to the Istana Negara to submit an eight-point memorandum on electoral reform to the King. The reforms demanded include the use of indelible ink and a 21-day campaign period.

Malay rights NGO Perkasa and Umno Youth have declared their intention to hold separate rallies on July 9.

None of the groups has been given a police permit.

Something rotten at the Duta Courts

Shakespeare wrote in the play 'Hamlet' that "something is rotten in the state of Denmark". Court of Appeal judge NH Chan had also made similar remarks when he wrote the Ayer Molek Rubber Co Bhd vs Insas Bhd judgment in 1995, where he described the case he was presiding over as being about an injustice perpetrated by a court of law.

Can yesterday's conviction of the infamous 'Datuk T' trio be said a travesty of justice deserving the local version that goes "something is rotten in Duta courts" resulting in possibly another charge looming over Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim?

Anwar had yesterday maintained the government's conspiracyin the matter, asking how can one respect a government when its instruments are so blatantly used politically.

Let's back-track a bit before returning to the conviction. The video was screened on March 21 at the posh and historical Carcosa Seri Negara Hotel by the Datuk T for several invited editors and journalists in a room booked under the name of former Malacca chief minister Abdul Rahim Thamby Chik, who is also Risda chairperson.

Rahim is part of theDatuk T trio that also comprised businessperson Shazryl Eskay Abdullah and former MP Shuib Lazim - all three later claimed responsibility for the event. The three protagonists had called on Anwar to resign.

This led to Anwar issuing a statement on the same day, March 21,denying that he was the man in the video and lodged a police report the next day.

As a result, the trio was called in and it was during this time Eskay said he had handed the only copy of the sex tape to the police.

However, parts of the clip made their way online just before the Sarawak state elections, only to resurface last month, this time in full. It also made its way to the homes of village headmen and politicians via post.

After a period of silence, Eskay took a religious oath at a Sentul mosque - complete with bullet-proof vest - to swear that Anwar was the man in the video.

He repeatedhimself yesterday when the facts of the case were being read out in court, telling the court that the man in the video who resembles Anwar, was indeed the politician.

Subsequently the trio pleaded guilty to be fined a total of RM5,500.

Discrepancy before yesterday

When Eskay told reporters on Wednesday that he would be charged on Friday, several parliament reporters claimed that they spotted Rahim apparently meeting Prime Minister Najib Razak in the august House.

While Najib denied the meeting took place, Anwar maintains it did indeed happen, suggesting that it would probably lead to the charge being reduced, thus adding muscle to his assertion of a political conspiracy.

The trio - Eskay, Rahim and Shuib - were the main actors along with DPPs Kamaludin Md Said and Mohd Hanafiah Zakaria and respected lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah as well as two other defence lawyers.

Another bombshell dropped before the Datuk T trio were charged was when Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia published a story yesterday quoting Eskay as saying he was ready for any outcome with the article aptly titled 'Kami sedia apa saja hukuman' (We are prepared to face any punishment).

So Utusan had a scoop, probably because they knew the high possibility of all three preparing to plead guilty.

The same report stated that the trio would be charged under Section 5 of the Film Censorship Act, for circulating, exhibiting, distributing and displaying an obscene film, which is punishable by a fine of not less than RM10,000 and not more than RM50,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both.

Utusan however got that charge wrong when prosecution filed a lesser charge against Datuk T. Anwar pounced on this to back his political conspiracy accusation.

Proceedings in court

Before the arrival of the accused, reporters somehow knew in advance that the case would be heard at magistrate's court three and rushed up there.

Normally, a case would have to be registered first, only then will the courtroom be known. That is the normal procedure any lawyer will tell you to ensure that there is no fixing of judge or magistrate.

It could not be determined if the case had been registered first when the counter opened at 8am and that Eskay and co were told to arrive at that time, but they instead presented themselves sometime around 9.15am in court.

According to reporters covering the trial, two widescreen televisions were already placed in court as a possible prelude to the video being screened.

Some lawyers who were not watching the case but were in the massive court complex were heard murmuring that the protests outside the court in support of Datuk T and the charging were merely a sideshow - a show which has entranced and held the whole nation captive as the three-and-a-half hour proceedings rolled on.

Another point of oddity was when the charge was read out under section 292 of the Penal Code, all three had asked for a break to consult their counsel, as this was "a new charge".

When the case was recalled, they pleaded guilty and suprisingly, the facts of case had already been conveniently prepared.

The normal proceedings in such cases in a magistrate's court is that when a person pleads guilty, the prosecutors would seek more time - usually a few hours or in the afternoon and sometimes the next day to prepare the statement.

However, in this case, after a 45-minute interval, the charge was read again and all three entered their plea with the statement of facts ready to be read out in court.

The five-page fact sheet appeared to have been carefully crafted to implicate Anwar in the video as his name was mentioned at least five times right from the first paragraph.

Then came the real jolt when Shafee and not the prosecution told the magistrate that according to case laws, many such cases had been thrown out on appeal because the obscene material had not been screened.

He then applied for the 20-minute sex-clip to be shown in court. The prosecution and other defence counsel raised no objections.

The tape then appeared on the two big screens, which had been been placed there earlier.

Then Shafee began his lengthy submission in mitigation, representing the third defendant, Rahim.

He stated that the revelation of video was made in the defence of the public good and his client's role was merely booking the hotel room. The other two counsel then delivered their submissions.

Merely coincidences or conspiracy

Putting together all the incidents, what is a sane person to assume - that they were merely coincidences or a meticulously crafted consipiracy as claimed by Anwar?

This despite the foreign expert findings that the person performing the sex act resembled the opposition leader.

The tape was shot before the crucial Sarawak election and the other point is that Anwar, who is facing an ongoing sodomy trial at that time, had successful block the admission of three crucial evidence retrieved in the police lock-up - the toothbrush, the mineral water bottle and white towel.

The other point not mentioned earlier is that Eskay himself was embroiled in a legal battle involving a RM20 million suit he filed against Merong Mahawangsa Sdn Bhd and one of its directors, over the construction of the Johor Baru crooked bridge. The High Court ruled against him.

It is strange that the sex tape investigations took three months as according to a retired senior police officer, in such cases the person caught would be charged within a week. The clip was also widely distributed after Eskay had handed what he claimed as the only copy to the police.

Were hidden hands at work when what was reportedly a charge under the Film Censorship Act as was highlighted in Utusan was reduced to a lesser offence under the Penal Code?

Is it a coincidence that big screen televisions were placed in court before the start of proceedings and the facts of case conveniently prepared.

As the facts present themselves, the readers can decide whether something rotten really happened at the Duta Court yesterday.