Bersih 2.0 Rally 9th July 2011 -Videos

Unnecessary provocation, there were no violence but peaceful march WHY the need to fire tear gas and water cannon.

Just got enough time to reproduce some videos from YouTube but will write the on site experience at a later date.

Stay silence for 6 days to pray for peace not war

This blog will stay silence for six days to pray that God will open the eyes of the sinners and forgive them for their sins, 2 release the innocents and search for peace not war

Malaysia: End mass repression of pro-reform activists

Amnesty International

Malaysian authorities are arbitrarily arresting and detaining scores of peaceful electoral reform protesters in the worse repression of free speech and freedom of assembly in recent years, Amnesty International said today.

Among those currently detained are 30 peaceful activists from the Socialist Party who were denied review of their detention today under accusations of “waging war against the king”.

Since 24 June, more than 100 activists have been arrested or questioned by police over their support of an electoral reform rally. The demonstration is being planned for 9 July by the Coalition for Fair and Free Elections, also known as Bersih 2.0, meaning ‘Clean’.

“The Malaysian authorities are muzzling calls for electoral reform by throwing peaceful protestors in jail,” said Donna Guest, Deputy Asia-Pacific Director at Amnesty International. “We have not seen such a crackdown on political activists across Malaysia in many years.”

People have been arrested for as little as wearing yellow (the colour of Bersih 2.0), are being held without charge, and face investigation for sedition and unlawful assembly. The government has also threatened to invoke the draconian Internal Security Act over the rally, allowing for indefinite detention without trial.

“Malaysia is undermining its claim to be a moderate democracy through this campaign of repression,” said Donna Guest.

Amnesty International is calling for Malaysia to immediately release all activists or charge them with a recognizable criminal offence, drop unfounded charges, and respect the right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.

Today, the Penang High Court dismissed a review of the arbitrary detention of 30 Socialist Party activists, remanding them without charge for “waging war against the king,” which is punishable by life imprisonment. The activists, including two children, were arrested en route to a Bersih 2.0 event in Penang on 25 June.

Among these detainees is Socialist Party member of parliament Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj, who was denied access to essential heart medication for 15 hours while in detention, before being sent to a hospital for treatment.

Four more people were arrested and released today, including a Perak state assemblymen and a member of parliament, for wearing yellow.

On 29 June, police raided the office of the Bersih 2.0 Secretariat without a warrant, briefly detaining seven people and confiscating laptops, cameras, and rally materials.

The chair of the Bersih 2.0 Organising committee, prominent lawyer Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, and Malaysian Poet Laureate A. Samad Said are both being investigated by police under the Sedition Act and Police Act for organising an “unlawful assembly”.

Malaysia’s home minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, threatened on 26 June to invoke the Internal Security Act against rally organisers, on the grounds of national security.

“This repression is clearly politically motivated to intimidate people from marching for electoral reform,” said Donna Guest. “The use of repressive laws to criminalise peaceful political activism is appalling.”

Bersih 2.0 plans to hold the 9 July rally to demand a set of electoral reforms. These include fair access of all political parties to the media, reform of postal ballots and revisions of the electoral roll to address irregularities.

9 Panduan Ringkas Bagi Peserta-Peserta BERSIH 2.0 [d/VIDEO]

by Zulqarnain Bin Lukman | LoyarBurok

Adakah saudara-saudari akan menghadiri BERSIH 2.0 pada 9 Julai 2011?

Terutamanya bagi peserta-peserta yang belum pernah menghadiri perhimpunan-perhimpunan dan perarakan-perarakan di Malaysia sebelum 9 Julai, ‘Panduan Ringkas’ ini telah disediakan untuk makluman rakyat oleh Unit Tindakan Undang-Undang Jenayah, Jabatan Undang-Undang & Hak Asasi Manusia (JUHAM), Dewan Pemuda PAS Malaysia dengan kerjasama Lajnah Undang-Undang PAS Pusat.

1. Apa yang perlu anda buat apabila DIBERHENTIKAN polis?

Minta beliau tunjukkan Kad Kuasa Polis (Jika Polis berpakaian awam)

CATIT NAMA DAN NOMBOR ANGGOTA yang tercatat dalam Kad Kuasa Polis

Jika beliau berpakaian seragam, catit nombor anggota pada pakaian seragam

Jika beliau berkenderaan, catit nombor pendaftaran kenderaan

2. Apa perlu anda buat jika diminta PENGENALAN DIRI?

Berikan nama, nombor kad pengenalan dan alamat sahaja

JANGAN SEKALI-KALI MENYERAHKAN KAD PENGENALAN anda kepada polis hanya TUNJUK SAHAJA

Jika polis paksa anda serahkan kad pengenalan, minta dikeluarkan Borang Pemeriksaan sebagai bukti kad pengenalan dirampas

3. BILAkah anda diTAHAN?

Apabila anda dihalang beredar dari tempat tersebut

Apabila anda digari

4. Apa harus anda buat APABILA DITAHAN?

Jangan melawan dan jangan beri alasan kepada polis untuk gunakan kekerasan

Tanya apakah alasan anda ditahan

Tanya ke balai mana anda akan dibawa

5. Apakah hak anda SETELAH DITAHAN?

Anda BERHAK MEMBUAT PANGGILAN TELEFON kepada KELUARGA dan/atau PEGUAM dan maklumkan balai tempat anda dibawa, sebab tangkapan dan nama polis yang membuat tangkapan

6. BERAPA LAMA Polis BOLEH MENAHAN anda?

Polis boleh menahan anda TIDAK MELEBIHI 24 JAM di balai atau lokap polis

Anda boleh ditahan melebihi 24 jam jika anda diberikan Perintah Reman oleh Mahkamah Majistret tertakluk kepada tempoh maksimum 7 (4+3) hari bagi kesalahan menghadiri perhimpunan ‘Bersih 2.0’

7. Apakah yang perlu dibuat apabila anda dibawa ke hadapan MAJISTRET untuk mendapatkan PERINTAH REMAN?

BERITAHU POLIS/MAJISTRET bahawa anda INGIN DIWAKILI PEGUAM

Jika anda diwakili peguam, anda tidak perlu bercakap kerana peguam yang akan bercakap bagi pihak anda di hadapan Majistret

Anda hanya perlu beritahu peguam yang mewakili anda sekiranya anda sakit, didera, diugut atau tidak diberikan makanan/air/pakaian secukupnya semasa dalam tahanan. Buat laporan polis dengan segera jika berlaku keadaan sedemikian

Beritahu juga kepada peguam sama ada polis telah menjalankan penyiasatan semasa anda dalam tahanan

8. Apakah yang perlu dibuat apabila polis ingin MERAKAM KENYATAAN BERTULIS semasa dalam tahanan?

Kenalpasti NAMA DAN PANGKAT PEGAWAI YANG MENYOAL SIASAT anda

Berikan nama penuh, umur, alamat dan pekerjaan (butir-butir peribadi) jika diminta

Selain memberikan butir-butir peribadi, anda dinasihatkan UNTUK BERDIAM DIRI dari menjawab soalan dari pegawai polis

Jika anda memilih untuk berdiam diri, katakan “SAYA AKAN JAWAB DI MAHKAMAH” terhadap sebarang soalan yang dikemukakan kepada anda dan POLIS TIDAK BOLEH MEMAKSA, MENGUGUT ATAU MEMUKUL anda jika anda enggan menjawab soalan

9. Bilakah anda DIDAKWA di mahkamah?

Anda boleh didakwa di mahkamah pada atau sebelum tempoh reman yang diberikan terhadap anda tamat

Anda didakwa jika pertuduhan dibacakan terhadap anda di hadapan seorang Majistret/Hakim dan anda ditanya sama ada mengaku bersalah atau minta dibicarakan

Pastikan anda MENGAKU TIDAK BERSALAH dan Peguam ‘Bersih 2.0’ akan mewakili anda sehingga perbicaraan selesai

______________

No. Telefon Hotline Bilik Gerakan JUHAM, Dewan Pemuda PAS Malaysia:

016 – 3126463
016 – 3126473
014 – 6451753
012 – 3928379

Why July 9 must go on

by June Rubis | TMI

I’ve noticed something interesting of late.

A few middle-class intellectuals back-pedalling on their initial support for Bersih 2.0. They say, yes I support this (in theory) but do we really need to march now? Haven’t we done enough to highlight the issues? Haven’t we won the PR (public relations, not Pakatan Rakyat) war?

I’m sorry, but I’m a bit confused.

The point of Bersih 2.0 isn’t about who gets best publicity, but rather for electoral reform.

These same intellectuals will admit, like you and me, that the current electoral process is unfair and biased. They are just feeling really uneasy about July 9. They want to know, isn’t there a better way to do this?

But yet, they cannot provide any credible solutions that could work.

How many more dialogues can civil society have with the Election Commission? Do we think that another dialogue out-of-the-blue just before July 9 would magically solve our valid concerns of the current electoral process? Are we that naive?

Fair enough, the pressure is on but I believe the person who feels it most is Ambiga Sreenevasan herself. The fact that she has been holding on so strong gives all of us the continued strength to carry on.

Along with the waffling from some moderates comes the more intense criticism of Bersih 2.0. Critics say that if the electoral process is unfair, how did Pakatan Rakyat win five states?

Indeed despite a grossly unfair electoral process, Pakatan Rakyat managed to win five states. And now maybe, just maybe, they could take over Putrajaya come the next general election.

Bear with me for a minute.

Imagine this.

Say, they did. They win the next general election.

Some of us are ecstatic; some of us are very upset. All in all, we have just received a new government. A change for the better, something different from Barisan Nasional, we will say.

Yet how do we know that after taking Putrajaya, they would be able to reform the electoral process? Perhaps some of Pakatan Rakyat leaders would have very good intentions to do so, perhaps some wouldn’t.

And we would be back where we are today.

This time, with Umno on the civil society front, urging for electoral reform.

We will then wonder why did we let this important opportunity slip away on July 9, 2011?

Regardless of which political parties are supporting Bersih 2.0, its aim is purer and clearer than any political party of the day.

To not support Bersih 2.0 because it currently receives massive Pakatan Rakyat support, in my humble opinion, is short sighted and very childish.

In 2007, we did not really have a problem with Pakatan Rakyat being involved in the Bersih march. In fact, we were more than happy that the PAS Amal Unit was there to keep us safe (I know I was).

Suddenly, in 2011, we are morally outraged that Pakatan Rakyat has yet again completely embraced Bersih 2.0.

Let’s not be hypocrites.

No matter how we feel about Pakatan Rakyat, we have to admit that they are playing the role that they need to play. And it would be no different if the roles were reversed.

Let’s imagine an alternate universe.

A corrupt Pakatan Rakyat government is terrorising our citizens. They say it is for our own good, to keep the peace. We all know that the only way they can keep in power is to manipulate the electoral process. We are outraged.

Despite our fears, our concerns, the countless dialogues we have had with the Election Commission appealing for good sense, we have not made any headway in bettering the electoral process.

And so, we take our concerns to the streets, for only two hours, and with hope that the police would not side with Pakatan Rakyat just once, and instead, do their job with fairness and decency.

The maligned Barisan Nasional, which has been struggling to fight against all odds to gain political representation, has embraced the civil society’s call to change the electoral process. They say we will support you and protect you against the Pakatan Rakyat-led police, with our Umno Youth unit.

So you see, no matter how we flip it, no matter how we intellectually dissect it to pieces, in the end it does not matter which political parties of the day support us.

And I have so much faith in our average good Malaysian that come July 9 there will be no riots similar to those in the Middle-East, as some of us fear. We proved that in 1998 when our deputy prime minister was arrested and beaten in jail, and while there was intense public outrage, more so than today, we did not burn cars or smash store windows.

Instead we took our outrage, as much as we can, through our votes, despite the grossly unfair electoral process. But now we realise, it is time to revamp the electoral system for five more years for a fairer political representation.

The Bersih 2.0 march will bring about change, whatever that brings, but we cannot fear that. The alternative is to stay unhappy, complaining, morally outraged but not doing anything significant about it until the next generation has enough of our staid complacency.

We need courage, and we need faith. We need you — the average good Malaysian — in large numbers to come down on July 9 to stand together, and say, we need a better electoral process for our country. We need a better democracy that works.

This is why we need to march.