thanks for speaking up, dr toh!

the outspoken one of the few BN exco i admired, dr toh kin woon (picture) had spoken out (or as malaysiakini put in ‘broke rank’) regarding mass protests on the street. he wrote a letter to malaysiakini which has the heading boldly proclaim ‘i disagree with the country’s leaders‘.

dr toh is one of the few… or i dare say the only BN exco who has integrity and principles. i salute him for daring to speak up against the country’s leaders. he’s a very nice man. during our bangsa malaysia in penang, we had wanted him to be a speaker but he can’t make it since he had a prior engagement. he was the one who arrange for the booking of the venue (dewan sri pinang) for us. although he was very busy during that day, it was very nice of him to drop in to the forum for i think about 15 mins.

ok before i reproduce dr toh’s letter here, do you remember in early october he had given an interview to malaysiakini? did you missed out the interview? if yes, you can still hop on to jeff’s blog to read about it. (and watch the video too).

oh yeah, i also need to point to you another good article by zainul ariffin of NST. in the article he had articulate that in order to avoid all these problems of protestors accusing police of violence and vice versa, and malaysia making it to international news (in a negative way), the best solution would be to grant permit to those who want to hold street protests.

Not only is it bad publicity not to grant them the permits, public displays of support or dissent are often part of a civil society. We have too many of the former and too few of the latter. I personally believe members of civil society should be allowed room for dissent – organised, civilised and legal, of course.

I believe the authorities should endeavour to look kindly at all applications and be charitable in their assessments. Rules must be set, and followed, to make sure that a gathering does not disintegrate into a farce, or something worse.

Impose strict rules, in terms of duration and location, if need be, but grant them permits unless national security is at stake. But then again, national security should not be an arbitrary umbrage when deciding against all applications.

this is a good idea which the gomen should take up… but will they? it looks like now, they (gomen) are going to be more strict to the extend of using ISA on street protestors instead of taking time to study the application and grant it permit.

ok coming to dr toh’s letter now. i know although anyone can access the letters in malaysiakini (but not the news), i still prefer to CnP the letter here since it is a good one, of which it should be made easily available.

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I disagree with the country’s leaders
Dr Toh Kin Woon
Nov 28, 07 6: 24pm       

Several major marches and pickets, all peaceful, have taken place in our country over the last few  months.

There was the ‘Walk for Justice’ organised by the Bar Council. This peaceful march called for a  complete review of the country’s judiciary system with a view to restoring its independence, and hence  put into effect the separation of powers so important for justice. This was followed by a march to the  palace organised by Bersih, a broad coalition of political parties and NGOs, calling for free and fair  elections.

The most recent, this time to hand over a memorandum to the British High Commission in Kuala Lumpur,  was organised by the Hindu Rights Action Force, or Hindraf, in short. Although the stated objective of this  last demonstration was to demand compensation for the exploitation of Indians from the British  government, it was in effect to highlight the socio-economic and cultural plight of the Indians, especially  their lower strata.

To all these must be added the numerous pickets called by the trade unions for higher salaries just to  meet rises in costs of living so burdensome to the workers.

All these marches and pickets, especially those organised by Bersih and Hindraf, drew tens of  thousands of people. And this, despite the authorities warning the public not to take part as these  assemblies were all so-called “illegal”. Participants were threatened with arrest should they take part in  all these illegal assemblies.

These marches drew flak and condemnation from almost all Barisan Nasional leaders. Their criticisms  centred on their illegality, potential threat to peace, the possible destablisation of the economy including  frightening away foreign investors. I disagree with the views of our country’s leaders.

Instead of condemning, one would have thought and hoped that they should have been more concerned  over the grievances, frustrations and disappointments that have brought so many thousands to the  streets in the first place and to seek fair and just solutions to them.

Is it true that there are lots of defects in our country’s judicial system? If so, what are they? What must we  do to overcome these so that we can restore its independence, and give real substance to the  separation of powers in order to strengthen our country’s democratic institutions?

Likewise, what are the shortcomings in our country’s electoral system, especially pertaining to the  electoral rolls, election campaigning, access to media, etc? And on Hindraf, what are the grievances,  frustrations and unhappiness of the lower strata of the Indian community, and that of all the other  communities, pertaining to housing, education, health, jobs, equity and religious freedom?

Until and unless these and many more issues concerning our country’s judicial and electoral systems as  well as social justice for the poor are looked into seriously and satisfactory solutions found, the  discontent that has brought thousands to the streets over the last several months will remain. To me, it is  this discontent and unhappiness that will be a greater threat to our country’s peace and stability, rather  than the marches, pickets and demonstrations.

To be fair, the government did finally agree to the setting up of a royal commission of inquiry to look into  the Lingam case that triggered the outpouring of dissatisfaction over the state of our judicial system. The  terms of reference of this soon to be set-up royal commission have, however, not yet been announced.  Hopefully, its scope of work will include getting to the bottom of why our judicial system has declined so  precipitously over the years.

A truly democratic society that allows peaceful marches, an independent and just judicial system, free  and fair elections, equal respect by the state for all religious faiths and social justice for the poor are,  among others, the key pillars of democracy, peace and stability. Without these, no amount of coercion,  including the threat to use the obnoxious Internal Security Act (ISA), can bring us the lasting peace and  security that all Malaysians desire.

Finally, I find it extremely disturbing that a backbench Barisan Nasional MP who took a divergent stand  on Hindraf should be so severely rebuked and chastised by a couple of BN leaders. This clearly does  not augur well at all for intra-BN democracy.

The message sent seems to be that all BN elected representatives are expected to be meek and  passive followers of the views of their leaders and that no space is provided for independent views,  including those articulated by the larger civil society. I wonder how such a stance by the leaders can  attract people who want to seek changes from within!

(The writer is a member of Gerakan and Penang state executive councillor for Economic Planning,  Education, and Human Resources Development, Science, Technology and Innovation.)

p/s – you know, i had 2 persons once said to me that i look a little like dr toh (the face). haha! do i? nah, i’m prettier. :]