JANE D'CRUZ: VIC & I CAN SEE YOU GUYS FROM UP HERE.

so take care of us down here, please!

ABDUCTED!

BRUNO MANSER FUND, BASEL / SWITZERLAND

31st May 2012

Radio Free Sarawak anchorman, Peter John Jaban, abducted by Malaysian security forces – Police deny knowledge on the whereabouts of the popular indigenous radio presenter

(MIRI, MALAYSIA) Peter John Jaban, a presenter of Radio Free Sarawak, an independent radio station broadasting news for Sarawak’s indigenous communities, has today been abducted by unidentified Malaysian security forces who are believed to be members of the Special Branch, Malaysia’s secret political police.

According to a statement by Radio Free Sarawak, the radio presenter was on his way home to spend the Gawai harvest festival with his family when he was detained and photographed prior to boarding a flight from Kota Kinabalu to Miri in Sarawak, Malaysia. Malaysian police officers told him that he would be arrested upon arrival in Sarawak. But when he reached Miri, despite heavy police presence, a lawyer and a local politician awaiting Peter John Jaban managed to bring him out of the airport as the police did not have immediate arrest orders.

Several minutes after leaving the airport, Peter John Jaban’s car was stopped and the radio presenter was forced out of the car by plainclothes security forces who refused to identify themselves.

"To say we are worried is an understatement" Clare Rewcastle Brown, Founder of Radio Free Sarawak, has said today. We are desperately trying to find where Peter is and why he was pulled from a car without any proper reason by unidentified people."

London-based Radio Free Sarawak broadcasts a daily two-hour-show on local news in Malay and Iban, a native language spoken by longhouse communities in Sarawak’s interior. The radio station aims at breaking the information monopoly held by the authoritarian Sarawak government under Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud. Recently, politicians from Malaysia’s ruling Barisan Nasional coalition had called on the government to clamp down on the rebel radio.

The Bruno Manser strongly condemns the Malaysian authorities' attack on press freedom and calls on Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak to immediately order Peter John Jaban’s release.

For updated information on this case, please check the Radio Free Sarawak website under: www.radiofreesarawak.org

Please call the police in Sarawak to protest against Peter John Jaban's abduction and ask about his whereabouts:

Sarawak Police Commissioner: +60 82 247204

Sarawak Police Headquarters Hotline: +60 82 240 800

Miri Police Station: +60 85 432 222

For more information, please contact us:

Bruno Manser Fund

Socinstrasse 37

4051 Basel, Switzerland

Tel. +41 61 261 94 74

www.bmf.ch

www.twitter.com/bmfonds

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bruno-Manser-Fonds/171047506268040

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ALSO READ MALAYSIAKINI STORY

FAREWELL DEAR VIC.

THIS BLOG WILL REMAIN SILENT UNTIL I CAN COMPOSE MYSELF AFTER THIS GREAT PERSONAL LOSS.

AL FATIHAH TENGKU VIC.

UPDATE: 10:33pm 30 May

2,864 pageviews. VIC will be happy for their visits.

MY FRIDAY GUEST: FRANKIE D’CRUZ

A planned meeting with Malaysiakini’s Content Editor Lynn D’Cruz took place mid afternoon whereas an unplanned meet with Malay Mail’s Editor at Large Frankie D’Cruz and Errold D’Cruz took place an hour before the close of the day. Earlier I had posted on my Facebook, Frankie’s piece on Poor, Rich Petty Trader. Blogger Penny Chan (Gobloking….who used to blog from Madagascar) sent in a terse, telling comment: Editor will be canned tomorrow. It's incredible to read msm being objective.

That’s why MM is my preferred read and more reason why I am putting Frankie’s piece as my Guest:

Read POOR, RICH PETTY TRADER

Multiple award-winning journalist Frankie D’Cruz is Editor-At-Large of The Malay Mail. He can be reached at frankie@mmail.com.my

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ON BEING PETTY

The world perishes not from bandits and fires, but from hatred, hostility, and all these petty squabbles.-Anton Chekhov

Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things. - George Carlin

The petty man is eager to make boasts, yet desires that others should believe in him. He enthusiastically engages in deception, yet wants others to have affection for him. He conducts himself like an animal, yet wants others to think well of him. - Xun Zi

REASON ENOUGH TO VISIT AMBIGA TODAY 2:30PM!

DID YOU LOSE YOUR MARBLES?

They charged the PKR trio and now they aim their pee shooter at Ambiga.

The GOM cannot be suffering from insanity…..they are enjoying every minute of it….they are seriously dysfunctional.

At the mention of Bersih 3.0 they are freaking out.

It is mind over matter…... if you ain't got no mind - it don't matter!

Paranoid Schizophrenic : Are you staring at us the Bersih rakyat?

My imaginary friend thinks you the Government have serious problems up there.

People like you in the Government are the reason people like me need medication. However, looks like you are dangerously under-medicated, the BN rambutans, that is.

The PM tried being normal once, but he didn't seem to like it!

Insanity runs in the BN family……. it practically gallops.

We the Rakyat can be crazy like walking in the streets, but that has kept us from going insane.

Let’s all be ready when the government of the day will sue our shadow next.

428 has taught us that it's all your fault. We wanted to sit on the padang but you gave us the streets. We wanted the green patch but you forced us to go yellow.

Whatever, 250,000 of us can kow tim the damages! We have the ghost of Altantuya, Kugan and Beng Hock on our side of the barrier.

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Above are insightful nuggets compiled at the brainstorming session of the shadow committee of BERSIH 4.0

BE COMFY ROGER....

Roger Tan writes for Sunday Star and has a blog called Voice of Reason! Anyway if you were comfortable at home on 428, and missed all the action,

do continue to feel comfy and enjoy these reasonable scenes, and possible plot for you next posting in your Voice of Reason…..although I noticed very few readers comment on your postings. Perhaps a change to Voice of TReason might help….just a mild suggestion. Enjoy the vids….Dang, I have been called to the bar….roger Bala I am on my way and I do deserve a stiff one!

His learned colleagues reply HERE

SOMEBODY IS CONSPICUOUSLY INCONSPICUOUS IN THIS LIST.

Statement by Concerned Scholars on Coming Elections

The 13th Malaysian general elections will be held sometime between now and April 2013.

These elections have the potential to be the most free and fair elections held in the country for several decades.

For the coming elections to live up to this potential, we call on the government and other major players and stakeholders to scrupulously observe the following priority concerns which we see as key to ensuring an outcome that can have greater legitimacy among Malaysians and outside observers:

1. Implementation of recommendations of the Parliamentary select committee to clean up the electoral process

2. Free and fair access to mass media for all parties

3. Public service staff at local, state and federal levels to observe strict neutrality

4. Prohibition on misuse of Government and associated public facilities and apparatus for electioneering purposes

5 All parties to be transparent and accountable in the use of money during the elections. Both coalitions need to disclose their sources of funding and provide a detailed account of their campaign expenditure

To enable a more level playing field for the coming elections, it is necessary that these concerns be addressed immediately and not just before the elections.

We are especially concerned that urgent measures be undertaken to ensure that the civil service and media strictly observe strict neutrality in the run up to the coming elections. Necessary measures could be proposed by civil society organizations engaged in monitoring the elections.

Further, to forestall any attempt at disruption of the election outcome, we propose that all political leaders and political parties agree to a short statement promising that they will respect the will of the people exercised at the polling booth as well as honour a peaceful transition of power.

This declaration – to be jointly crafted by the ruling and opposition parties - should be widely disseminated as a public service to discourage any individuals or groups that may be intent on creating mischief aimed at overturning the outcome of the elections.

Signatories:

Dr. Abdul Rahman Embong

Dr. Azmi Sharom

Azmil Tayeb (Ph. D. candidate)

Dr. James Chin

Dr Faisal S. Hazis

Dr. Farish A. Noor

Dr. Terence Gomez

Dr. Khoo Gaik Cheng

Dr. K. J. John

Lim Chee Han (Ph. D candidate)

Dr. Lim Teck Ghee

Dr. Francis K. W. Loh

Gregore Pio Lopez (PhD candidate}

Dr Mavis Puthucheary

Dr. Mustafa. K. Anuar

Dr. Ruslan bin Zainuddin

Dr. Subramaniam Pillay

Tan Beng Hui (Ph. D candidate)

Dr. Wong Chin Huat

Assoc Prof. Zaharom Nain

YES, CHANDRA MUZAFFAR IS NOT ON THIS LIST AND PROBABLY BECAUSE HE MAY BE INDUSTRIOUS IN THE CAUSE OF HIS MASTERS BUT NOT ILLUSTRIOUS TO BE INCLUDED AMONGST THIS AUGUST BAND OF SCHOLARS.

This fact has become so obvious in his recent pronouncements on Bersih 3.0:

Just in case some of us are unaware, Chandra started Aliran, left it and took some Chair in UM courtesy of Anwar, then Deputy Prime Minister, joined PKR when Anwar was imprisoned, failed in an election bid in Bandar Tun Razak, left PKR in a huff and installed himself as president of the International Movement for a Just World, which seeks to raise public consciousness on the moral and intellectual basis of global justice.

In the internet and mainstream media, the issue of police brutality has become the main focus and memory of demonstrators and the Malaysian public. That could have been a topic that Dr Chandra – in defending the status quo – could have brought fresh insights from a human rights perspective.

However, he chose not to do so. Instead he churned out a propagandistic piece praising the political reforms undertaken as well as aimed at demonizing the Bersih leaders and its supporters from the opposition.

His reminder about the “degree of integrity in the electoral process” and the fact that there is no electoral process in the world that is totally free of blemish is quite a turn-around. Somebody wrote: The Chandra of old that I remember was lucid, scathing and critical of the lopsided electoral playing field in favour of the Barisan Nasional and the formidable array of dirty tricks, including mal-apportionment and gerrymandering, it used to win elections.

Chandra, you sure need to change to a new mouth wash.

A friend opined: My final problem with Dr Chandra’s article is its unprecedented attack on some of the Bersih and opposition activists as “frauds and hypocrites without any sincere commitment to freedom and democracy.” According to him, “through their politics of deceit and duplicity, they continue to manipulate mass sentiments for their own diabolical agenda.” These are strong accusations, going beyond even what the BN leaders have said.

He even said: It is also important to find out if foreigners were involved in the rally which degenerated into a riot.

Was there a riot….if there was who manufactured the riot? JUST what are you chamnpion of?

Columnist Muaz Omar asked:

Who are you to call others ‘frauds’ and ‘hypocrites’

Who are these people that he describes as frauds and hypocrites? It is unethical to hide under the cover of generalization in making these allegations.

Besides the requirement of naming them, Dr Chandra should realize that as a JUST social scientist he must provide evidence to prove his argument that they are frauds and hypocrites. What actions have they engaged in to deserve such demonizing from a senior social scientist holding the esteemed position of the Noordin Sopiee Professor of Global Studies?

Has he conducted any interviews with the Bersih leaders to get them to explain their positions? Or has he found them guilty without bothering to speak to them?

Chandra, in God we trust….the others show facts! Surely not another mutant ninja in the UMNO stable? Or you have mutated, invariably and inevitably….it is really the company you keep Chandy. But if you are comfortable, carry on for whatever time is left freewheeling with them!