Arrested following distribution of press release

I was arrested on 2 July together with 13 other PKR members as we were just about to hold a press conference following the distribution of this press release.

Press statement by Gooi Hsiao Leung dated 2 July 2011


Kedah PKR’s call on police to reconsider its decision which runs contrary to the freedom to assemble given in the Constitution.

Kedah PKR deplores and condemns the ongoing highhanded actions of the Police to arrest activists nationwide leading up to the 9th July Bersih march demanding for free and fair elections.

There is still time for the Police to reconsider its decision to allow the 9th July Bersih march to proceed. We urge the police to respect and uphold the letter and spirit of the people’s constitutional right to assemble freely and peacefully.

The IGP’s final warning to crackdown on next weekend’s Bersih march based on allegations that there “are foreign elements out to create chaos” and that the police has since received 1830 police reports against the Bersih rally are not valid grounds to disallow the Bersih march.

The appropriate police response to the interference by “foreign elements”, if there is any truth in it, would be to arrest those behind it and not to deprive the freedom of the people to assemble peacefully given in the Constitution.

Furthermore, it is ludicrous for the Police to rely on the 1830 anti-rally police reports to stop the Bersih march especially those made by Perkasa, UMNO youth and BN linked NGOs.

We urge the Police to uphold their independence in carrying out their duties in maintaining order and keeping the peace. It must act fairly and impartially and not as BN’s political tool to suppress legitimate rights of the people to assemble freely and peacefully. It must stop raking up absurd excuses to protect BN’s hold to power.

Kedah PKR therefore urge the Police:

1) To immediately release all those currently still held under detention in connection with the Bersih rally;

2) To reconsider its decision by allowing the people peacefully march on 9th July in support of Bersih’s call for electoral reforms;

3) To accede to the Bersih Chairman’s call to the police to name the route for the Bersih march;

4) To provide security and safety for the participants of the Bersih rally from being harassed and disrupted by anti-Bersih supporters.

Challenge Najib to immediately call for the 13th General Elections

Let the people decide now if Malaysians buy or reject Najib’s call for 1Malaysia as the biggest BN hoax in our nation’s history.

Remember that after the worst electoral BN performance in the last general election, Keng Yaik said component parties in BN were treated like beggars, and Ong Ka Ting complained that UMNO was a bully in BN.

Since then, hundreds of millions have been spent to market and sell Najib’s 1Malaysia grand vision to convince Malaysians that diversity of our peoples is what makes us our country unique and 1Malaysia’s goal is to preserve and enhance this unity in diversity.

Yet Najib has failed to even reprimand UMNO-owned newspaper, Utusan, for spewing racist venom for calling UMNO to change and adopt a 1Malay, 1Bumi policy after the Chinese voters rejected BN in the Sarawak elections, in direct challenge to Najib’s 1Malaysia.

Najib’s unwillingness to take a firm stand against Utusan, has encouraged his Malay 'First' Deputy and his Vice President, who once irresponsibly accused the ethic minority as having a low spirit of patriotism, to brazenly defend Utusan as the voice and champion of the malays in respond to MCA’s call to boycott Utusan.

It is a wonder Choi Soi Lek and his party can endure such racist posturing from UMNO, especially after having recently reminded the Chinese community of losing Chinese representation in government should the Chinese reject MCA in the upcoming general elections.

Lest not forget, Nazri recently compared MCA as a wife who complains endlessly of being abused by her husband but refuses to get a divorce.

Najib needs to educate his boys that the various races, including the malays, who voted for PR in the last general election and in Sarawak, are not anti-malays or traitors in any sense, nor are they any less patriotic as citizens. They rejected BN after 52 years of power because of its arrogance, rampant corruption and abuse of power.

MCA slides further into political obscurity with Chua Soi Lek's anti-PAS rhetoric

According to Chua Soi Lek, MCA has at most, 18 months to prepare for the next General Election. The MCA President has personally kick-started a scaremongering campaign to woo back Chinese voters from Pakatan Rakyat to UMNO-led Barisan Nasional.

Two weeks ago, at the Kelantan MCA AGM, Chua Soi Lek warned that a PAS leader would become the next Prime Minister should Pakatan Rakyat win the next general election. In Kedah last week, Chua Soi Lek again warned the Chinese community not to be optimistic that once PAS rules the government, the country will be free from corruption and other problems. He went on to say that some of the most corrupt countries in the world are Muslim-majority countries – but fails to acknowledge that Malaysia, under the UMNO led administration, is already a corrupt nation.

Two days ago, Fong Chan Onn, Chairman of the MCA think tank of Strategic Analysis and Policy Research (INSAP), made the ludicrous statement that MCA had a duty to explain to Chinese voters the ‘Hidden Picture’ of Pakatan Rakyat should it come into power at the federal level. According to Fong, MCA will be able to win back Chinese support by explaining two notable points, firstly, that a leader from PAS would be appointed to become Prime Minister because PAS was the best organised political party compared to its partners, DAP and PKR, and secondly, that a PAS led government would most likely adopt an Iran like model where the ulamas would be running the country.

As a seasoned politician, one would expect Fong to be the last person making such laughable statements. As I’m sure Fong is fully aware, following democratic conventions, the Prime Minister of our country would be chosen from the party which commanded the most seats in parliament and not by means of which party had the best political structure. Equally, it would be ridiculous to assert that either PAS nor any of its partners, the DAP or PKR, has the slightest intention to abandon the existing system of parliamentary democracy practiced in our country in favour of Iran’s model of government.

MCA is desperately scraping the bottom of the barrel for ideas to revive itself and appear relevant, after being rejected by its Chinese base in the last General Election. Chua Soi Lek’s baseless scaremongering tactics using PAS to intimidate Chinese voters into voting for UMNO is nothing new. It has been used incessantly by his predecessors over the past 50 years, and was clearly shown in 2008 to be no longer effective with the electorate, as voters have matured and overcome BN’s scare tactics using religion and race, including the May 13 episode.

Chua Soi Lek needs to be reminded that in 2008, Chinese voters across the country overwhelmingly voted for PAS, PKR and DAP as the alternative front, rejecting UMNO’s BN-led corrupt and racist politics. Chua Soi Lek should instead take heed of Ong Tee Keat’s internet poll last year where a majority of its members clearly wanted MCA to pull out of BN.

I urge Chua Soi Lek to instead concentrate on using all of his efforts and influence on UMNO leaders in BN to disassociate and condemn – openly – racially inflammatory statements, such as Dr Mahathir’s comments that the Chinese cannot gain more political power in this country until the Malays have gained a fair share of the economy, or DPM Muhyiddin Yassin’s statement that Malays must unite for fear of losing political power in the country. The real issues that concern Malaysians today are not whether PAS will lead the country, rather, the public demands that Malaysia be sanitised of UMNO led Barisan Nasional’s racial politics and corruption once and for all.

Najib's hollow victory

Barisan Nasional has very little to celebrate tonight, with a narrow win of 1,725 votes in Hulu Selangor. The meagre 3.5 % per cent majority is far from the major change of tide that BN had hoped for. It is definitely nowhere near the 6,000 vote KPI Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin set for BN earlier today. It is also clear from the results that BN only managed to garner a portion of the 6,000 majority votes that had supported BN in all the three state constituencies of Hulu Selangor in the 2008 general election.

The small majority of 1,725 votes is a far cry from the 14,483 majority BN won in 2004. It is clear that with Pakatan Rakyat taking 23,272 votes, BN have not managed to reduce the support for Pakatan Rakyat at all.

In the last eight days, BN spared nothing and used its entire arsenal of funds, manpower and dirty tactics to campaign in Hulu Selangor. This has been one of the dirtiest by-elections in recent history and we have never seen so many frogs (PKR defections) raining down in Malaysia during a by-election.

Prime Minister Najib himself spent the last three days going from house to house, shop to shop and through the markets of Hulu Selangor to personally fish for votes – traditionally, a highly unusual practice for a PM. Millions have been spent and hundreds of millions more promised in the event of a BN win. All the BN big guns were camped out in Hulu Selangor and a systematic smear campaign to character-assassinate PKR candidate, Zaid Ibrahim, as a drinker and a gambler was carried out.

Anwar Ibrahim also received the brunt of BN's malicious personal attacks in their nightly ceramahs, with Najib and other UMNO leaders demonising him as a sexual deviant, a power-crazed madman and a traitor to the Malays.

Notwithstanding the relentless personal attacks, Zaid Ibrahim polled 23,272 votes (46% of the total votes), which is in fact slightly higher than the 23,177 votes won by PKR in the 2008 general election. The BN smear campaign to character assassinate Zaid Ibrahim and Anwar Ibrahim clearly backfired.

Under the circumstances, Pakatan Rakyat and their supporters should be inspired by the high number of votes it received as a clear message of the rakyat's aspirations to establish a viable two coalition (party) system in Malaysia brought on by the spirit of the 2008 general elections.

Nazri's statement on 'Allah' issue fans the flames

In an interview with the Borneo Post yesterday, Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz said that “The government has a duty to stop acts of disrespect and provocation that inflame religious and racial feelings in the nation even if there was no law that stated that these acts were wrong”.

It is shocking for a Minister in Najib’s post 308 1Malaysia cabinet to point the finger at the Christian community and accuse them of having acted disrespectfully and provoking religious and racial tensions.

Nazri should immediately clarify how Malaysian Christians’ use of the word ‘Allah’ for the last 300 years can amount to acts of disrespect and provocation that inflame religious and racial feelings.

Instead of providing genuine leadership to unite all Malaysians at this time of crisis, by holding sincere and open inter-faith dialogues to address and resolve the differences, for example, Nazri is fueling the ‘Allah’ controversy by saying that Christians should recognise that using 'Allah' in their worship and publications is sensitive to Muslims and that this issue was not going to be solved by going to court.

Nazri should have been aware that his statement will only fan and incite more anger and hatred amongst Muslims against the Christians in the aftermath of the recent attacks on churches in Malaysia.

Nazri, who is a senior Minister, should also have realised the full extent and consequences of his sensationalised statement when he said “if the usage of 'Allah' by Christians was – it certainly is, he said – sensitive to Muslims, the government has to act even if the courts deem it legal”.

It is a perversion and an obstruction in the administration of justice for a Minister of the executive branch of government to even insinuate that it will defy and go against the courts when the courts have ruled a government action illegal.

The leaders of the BN component parties of MCA, MIC and Gerakan must immediately call for Nazri to retract his inexcusable and irresponsible outbursts or to resign.

Government policy to convert children in welfare homes? Shahrizat must answer.

In a report in the Sun on 23 November 2009, Datuk Dr Mashitah Ibrahim is quoted as saying it was commendable for the orphanage to take the initiative to preach about Islam and convert Banggarma Subaramaniam to Islam, and that it was also its responsibility to teach her about the religion.

It is shocking that a Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department has condoned the conversion of young children who are in the care of government run welfare homes. It is totally scandalous and reckless for the same Minister to praise the welfare home for converting Banggarma - a then seven-year old child - to Islam.

The primary responsibility of government welfare homes is surely to provide care and protection to helpless children, who have either been abandoned or whose parents are no longer able to care for them. It would be entirely outside the scope of their duties, and a blatant abuse of their powers, to convert the faith of young children - whether to Islam or to any other religion.

Datuk Dr Mashitah Ibrahim’s statement is also inconsistent with the remarks made by the Tan Sri Dr Abdul Hamid Othman, Secretary General of the Muslim Welfare Organisation Malaysia. As reported earlier, Abdul Hamid said that it was inappropriate to convert a child before he or she reaches the age of 18, although welfare homes can educate children about the Islamic religion.

The PKR Youth call upon the Minister of Women, Family and Community Affairs, Datuk Sri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, who is in charge of the Welfare Department to publicly answer whether:

1. It is government policy to convert young children’s religions whilst under the care of government welfare homes; and
2. To state whether Datuk Dr Mashitah Ibrahim’s remarks are her own personal views or the government's official position.

It is of the upmost public importance for Datuk Sri Shahrizat to immediately clarify the government’s position on the issue of converting the religion of young children who are in government care.