Wayang Kulit of the BN?

BN's Wayang-kulit (puppet show in English)?
Live bullet fired at angry ceramah crowd


Terengganu police chief Ayub Yaakob, had confirmed that one live bullet was fired by one of his officers as opposition parties PAS and PKR are claiming that the police used unprecedented violence - including firing live bullets - to disperse a ceramah in Pantai Batu Buruk, Terengganu, late last night. Two were injured in that incident and 23 arrested.

The above shows how far we have come after we have gained our Merdeka. The Malaysian government had always ruled with the iron-fist and had passed many inhumane and undemocratic Acts since Merdeka, especially after the May 13 incident in 1969. We gained our independence from the Briton but lost our freedom to our owned elected government?

Ceramah is the Malay word for the assembly of people normally associated with political events like campaign speeches, and Malaysian law made it illegal for the assembly without the police permit. Under the Malaysian law, any group of 4 people or more could be charged for illegal gathering without a valid police permit!

The human rights group and other NGOs and the opposition accused the BN of playing the “kulit Wayang” in the incident as the Police should have rejected the application for public gathering immediately so as to give the organizing committee sufficient time to respond. Under the normal circumstances, the organizing committee would presume that the police have no objection if it did not receive any news 24 hours prior to the public gathering.In any case,the police authority in a democratic country would normally not unreasonably refuse the rights of the freedom of assembly. Furthermore, water cannon and rubber bullet and crowd-dispersing tear gas would be utilized and certainly NO LIVE BULLET is to be used in a case like that.

There is something sinister in the whole episode of police brutality seen in PantaiBatuBuruk,Terengganu. There seems to be a dark hand and the opposition has every reason to suspect that the BN is the mastermind behind it.With the approaching election, the BN's propogandas would be all out to discredit the oppostion and at the same time instill fear into the hearts of peace-loving Malaysian. The SUPP had in 2001 Sarawak state election used the same tactic by putting pictures of the Indonesian riots and the terrorist attack of the 9/11 in the mainstream print media to their advantage.

Malaysian should do some hard thinking and soul-searching as to why we lost the basic human rights in our own country, more so when the government of the day was elected by our own rakyat. Like I had earlier said “ Independence means more than shouting slogans or playing lips services and patriotism is more than flag waving on the street tonight or joins the parades at the Merdeka stadium. It means liberty to search for equal opportunity and happiness, freedom to speak out for our rights, daring to take the political reform necessary and equality for every Malaysian.”