Is this the end of SUARAM? Tommy Thomas



we magnify magnetism as well as best wishes from all right-thinking Malaysians to a dauntless people during a back of SUARAM for standing organisation opposite a harassment, intimidation, threats as well as bullying by a strong energy of a strong State.
So because has SUARAM been singled out since this July for this terrible treatment?
Because of SUARAM's courageous office of law upon a commissions as well as alternative monies paid out by counterclaim contractors to certain Malaysians in a submarine deals.
The reason since by a politicians for investigating SUARAM is that it receives appropriation from unfamiliar sources!
Let me state during a outset: To my knowledge, there is no law upheld by a Parliament that prohibits any organisation or organisation from reception monies from any source to account a activities or use them for any alternative purpose.
But what is really shocking is for Malaysian politicians, whose principal source of income, is regulating alternative people's money, to have this claim. It is a height of hypocrisy.
It is an iron law of story as well as politics, that all politicians in all countries throughout story have been dependent upon appropriation from various sources, together with companies, traffic unions, bankers as well as individuals. That is how politicians live, as well as when they have been sufficiently seduced by alternative people's money, compromises have been made!
In a decade between 1998 as well as 2008, Wall Street spent US$ 5 billion in campaign contributions to both a domestic parties, as well as deployed 3,000 lobbyists across Capitol Hill to get a way. "Wall Street has a lot of income as well as Congress c! an be pa id for upon a cheap."
That was a vital reason for Wall Street to be a most absolute economic, domestic as well as social force in a US, both before as well as after a 2007 crisis.
A couple of years ago, a US Supreme Court removed all boundary upon domestic contributions in sequence to promote "free debate as well as expression". This has resulted in a growth of a "Super-Pacs" that have played as well as will fool around poignant roles in a outcome of this November's presidential elections between Obama as well as Romney. Billions of dollars have been spent not usually upon a media, though literally "to buy votes".
In England, Big Business supports a Tory celebration while traffic unions almost account a Labour Party. Perhaps a worst incidents of crime of politicians begin in India, that in a final decade has charged scores of sitting Members of Parliament for monetary irregularities.
Malaysian politicians, quite from Umno, have been no better. The term "money politics" entered a wording decades ago. When Joseph Pairin Kitingan's supervision fell in a late 1990s, by large defections before long after it was duly elected during a Sabah state elections, celebration hopping (that happened) did not take place for reasons of fundamental principles!
Instead, it was money, pure as well as simple. Likewise, ideological reasons did not prompt 3 Pakatan assembly members to cranky a floor in 2009 that resulted in a fall of a state supervision that had enjoyed renouned await in Perak.
Therefore domestic parties should be a final to protest about NGOs reception funding!
How else have been SUARAM as well as alternative like-minded organisations to account their laudable activities? Their officers already scapegoat their time as well as energy for what they understand as a noble cause during a really minimum, they would be most more comfortable financially if they had "proper" in isolation zone positions.
In! sequenc e for these associations to carry out their tasks, they need estimable monetary resources. In a brand new public statement in await of SUARAM, Amnesty International reminded a supervision of Article 13 of a 1998 UN Declaration upon Human Rights Defenders that apparently provides that "organisations have a right to solicit, embrace as well as utilise resources for a demonstrate role of compelling as well as safeguarding tellurian rights".
The "de facto" law minister, Nazri Aziz, rught away responded to contend that it is "alright for NGOs to embrace unfamiliar funding, though they should not be used by outsiders as mercenaries to conflict a government". He went so distant as to contend that there have been "good" NGOs like a Malaysian AIDS Council because that is "for a great cause".
So Nazri Aziz as well as a Cabinet have been a arbiters: if an NGO does not criticise a government, it exists for "a great cause", though if it condemns a government, that is not acceptable.
Part II of a Constitution, that is a supreme law of a land, contains countless fundamental liberties or freedoms that cannot be removed by Parliament or by Courts.
Article 10(1) (c) guarantees "all adults a right to form associations". This right contingency be read with a right to leisure of debate as well as countenance as well as a right to assemble peacefully.
Other vicious rights have been a autocracy of a chairman underneath Article 5(1), a right to next to protection of a law underneath Article 8(1), a right not to be discriminated underneath Article 8(2) as well as leisure of sacrament underneath Article 11.
The most important inherent box ever motionless by a Courts of Malaysia concerns "freedom of association" underneath Article 10(1)(c). The Supreme Court preference in a Nordin Salleh box in 1992 recognized for a really initial time a principle that in deciding upon a outcome of state action, a Court contingency demeanour during a outcome or con! sequence upon a practice of any fundamental liberty: if a outcome of state movement was to describe any fundamental autocracy meaningless or illusory, a Court would set upon down such state action.
In my opinion, a assemblage of a relentless state movement opposite SUARAM over a past 3 months is unconstitutional underneath a Nordin Salleh test, as well as contingency stop immediately.
Although "freedom of association" is guaranteed underneath Article 10(1)(c) of a Federal Constitution, Parliament has upheld countless Acts that regulate as well as govern opposite sorts of associations, for instance:-
companies;
societies;
traffic unions;
associated societies; and
partnerships.
Each kind of organisation comes underneath a regulation of a civil servant, whether known as a ROC, ROS or Registrar of Trade Unions. Each is a bureaucrat, who takes directions as well as orders from Ministers, a Attorney General or alternative bureaucratic official. All these departments have been partial of a supervision in a wider clarity of a word a establishment, if we will.
Perhaps a best illustration of a approach in that a supervision controlled a decisions of a Registrar was in a arise of a Umno Team A v. Team B dispute in 1987.
After a High Court had ruled that Umno was illegal, Dr Mahathir Mohamad fast practical to a ROS to form "Umno Baru". His duplicate was approved immediately. When former prime ministers Tunku Abdul Rahman as well as Hussein Onn attempted to form Umno 1946, a ROS refused to routine their application.
Subsequently, all a resources of a original Umno were seamlessly eliminated to "Umno Baru" as well as after a decent interval, even a word "Baru" was dropped. Throughout these episodes, a ROS behaved in a biased manner, regularly favouring a statute party. Examples can be multiplied: we get a point!
The Companies Commission of Malaysia, a bra! nd new n ame for a ROC, has not behaved any improved in a SUARAM affair. There is positively no snippet of autonomy as well as integrity in their conduct.
SUARAM should stand steadfast in their struggle. They should begin a account to that all Malaysians (and in truth foreigners) should be invited to contribute, say, one ringgit.
And most importantly, this is not a end of SUARAM: it is usually a commencement of a struggle. There have been most battles to conquer.
For Malaysians, if we indispensable an additional reason to punish a overbearing supervision that has ruled your nation for an unbroken continuous period of 55 years, a wholly unjustified danger of SUARAM provides we with one.
Please practice your right to opinion a "correct way" upon list day, that will have to take place in a entrance nine months! aliran.com
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