Joint Letter from Human Rights Watch - Amnesty International - FIDH - OMCT - Forum Asia to Malaysia PM on Bersih crackdown

July 4, 2011

Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Mohammed Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak
Office of the Prime Minister
Main Block, Perdana  Putra Building
Federal Government Administrative Centre
62502 Putrajaya, MALAYSIA

Via facsimile: +60-3-8888-3444

Re: Human Rights Violations against  Bersih 2.0

Dear Prime Minister Najib,

We write to raise our very serious  concerns  about the escalating harassment, intimidation, and crackdown by your government against  the leaders and supporters of the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih).

Najib and gang say the darndest things

The government has two laws for Malaysians – one for itself and those it favours, and one for the rest of the people.

By Kee Thuan Chye

The Bersih 2.0 episode has taught us a few important things. About the officials who are supposed to serve us, the rakyat.

First, it has taught us that our prime minister, Najib Tun Razak, is a coward, a passer-of-the-buck, and a man with a slippery tongue.

The Doctor Who Came Back From the Dead

By Dan Wooding (June 15, 2011)

"I was dead for 1 hour and 25 minutes, but came back to life after my wife prayed a simple prayer." -Dr. Sean Thomas George

( Brisbane , Australia ) - A Christian group of doctors and medical professionals listened in shocked amazement as one of their own told the incredible story of how he came back from the dead.

Good Karma

Taib Mahmud - an enigma wrapped in corruption, shrouded by graft?

KUCHING - Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, Chief Minister of Sarawak, has been attracting media attention for all the wrong reasons. It was bad in the runup to the April 2011 state elections, but at the very personal level, it must have hurt the most in December last year.

At the age of 74, white-haired and pruned face, Taib walked down the aisle with his second wife, the 28-year-old Ragad Waleed Alkurdi. He could not have been unaware of some of the ribald and rather unkind comments levelled at him and Ragad. Spring and Autumn, Summer and Winter, Beauty and the Beast are just some of the more printable remarks made about their marriage.

How criminals use Facebook to commit crime

Think giving out basic personal information on Facebook is harmless? You might need to rethink, as a reformed burglar has given details on how a criminal can use your user account as a tool for committing a crime.

Bishop calls for a day of prayer on July 8

(Malaysiakini) - Catholic Bishop Dr Paul Tan Chee Ing today declared July 8 as a day of prayer in the Melaka-Johor diocese that “a peace based on justice would prevail among Malaysians of all persuasions and beliefs.”

NONE“Like many Malaysians, I view the day of the Bersih march on July 9 with a mixture of trepidation and anticipation,” said the prelate, who is concurrently president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Malaysia.

BN kept alive by defiled electoral roll

For BN the stakes are too high, and the mere thought of Putrajaya going into the hands of the opposition is dreadfully unthinkable. The BN is, therefore, now on a psywar, using every trick in the  book to demonise Bersih, including the ridiculous tactic of planting communist materials to try give the movement a negative image.


By DANIEL JOHN JAMBUN

The BN has a strong reason to fear the coming Bersih rally. Never before has the BN been so frightened of a rally as this one, and for good reasons too.

The first reason is the fact that the electoral roll is actually very dirty, soiled and polluted with a lot of creative handiworks of the BN. And everybody knows this. Even the Election Commission admits it, or else why would it want to open its doors for talks with Bersih?  The proofs of the election system being manipulated are many, and election fraud and irregularities are general knowledge in Malaysia.

Opposition wins Thai election by a landslide - polls

BANGKOK (Reuters) - The opposition won Thailand's general election by a landslide on Sunday, exit polls showed, paving the way for Yingluck Shinawatra to become the country's first female prime minister in a victory for a red-shirted political movement.

Television showed Yingluck, younger sister of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, swarmed by flashing cameras and journalists after exit polls showed her Puea Thai (For Thais) party winning a clear majority of the 500 seats in parliament.

Sabah singer Atama to lead rally

By Luke Rintod of FMT

An outspoken singer has come forward to organise
the Bersih 2.0 rally in Kota Kinabalu.

KOTA KINABALU: An outspoken local singer, Atama, is leading the Bersih campaign in Kota Kinabalu, come July 9.

Atama or Andrew Ambrose Mudi, who had earned the wrath of Barisan Nasional leaders before for his outspokenness, told a press conference here today that he and his friends Michael Liew and Chester Pang, had yesterday applied for a police permit for the peaceful assembly at the city’s Padang Merdeka here.