Letter: What will Ambiga have to say about this?

A peaceful rally in the US: Shot in the face with chemical-laced substance

Short cut to politics and parliament. It was Ambiga who claimed that "when lawyers walk, something is wrong .. that means we would like to see changes". These words she uttered during the so-called Penguin Walk in Putrajaya, Sept 2007. That walk was sparked by a video on a prominent lawyer allegedly brokering a deal with a senior judge. That walk turned the video into a major issue during PRU12. Even the clueless dude who took the video was elected an MP during the general election!

Two months later, another group of lawyers led the Hindraf march against "the Islamic fundamentalist and Malay chauvinists UMNO led Malaysian government', in the words of their leader P. Uthayakumar. Another lawyer. Politically, it was worth the trouble. Anwar hailed himself as champions of the Indians and a Hindraf leader won in the PRU12 on DAP ticket. Recently, Ambiga finally succeeded in being perceived as bigger than Uthayakumar by leading the Bersih march.

Tomorrow, lawyers march yet again, this time against the proposed peaceful assembly act. Ambiga is at the forefront again. Wants the Malaysian government to Look Myanmar, a view shared by no less than DAP strongman Lim Kit Siang (pics shown here are of peaceful assemblies in the US, good reasons why Ambiga would want us to look away from that place right now).

Seems to me like walks and marches, protests and demonstrations have become the short cut to politics and Parliament for some. I'm not saying that the lawyers don't have a point on the peaceful assembly act but given their track record, one has to wonder if that's really their point. Is it?

In any case, I would like to share with you Dear Readers a letter sent to me by a fellow scribe Charles F. Moreira. Thanks Charles, at least we know that even peaceful assemblies in the US don't always end peacefully.


Dear Rocky, 


Now what does Ambiga have to say about this?

       Peaceful protestors being beaten, pepper-sprayed, arrested,
       journalists shoved into a corner, journalists arrested and all in the "land
       of the free & home of the brave"

       Can't criticise the regime which gave her an award?

       Where are the "independent" media on this?

       Charles

American job on peaceful assemblers

The Shocking Truth About the Crackdown on Occupy
 The violent police assaults across the US are no coincidence. Occupy has touched the third rail of our political class's venality

By Naomi Wolf 

November 26, 2011 "The Guardian" - - vUS citizens of all political persuasions are still reeling from images of unparallelled police brutality in a coordinatedcrackdown against peaceful OWS protesters in cities across the nation this pastweek. An elderly woman was pepper-sprayed in the face; the scene of unresisting, supine students at UC Davis being pepper-sprayed by phalanxes of riot police went viral online; images proliferated of young women – targeted seemingly for their gender – screaming, dragged by the hair by police in riot gear; and the pictures of a young man, stunned and bleeding profusely from the head, emerged in the record of the middle-of-the-night clearing of Zuccotti Park.

But just when Americans thought we had the picture – was this crazy police and mayoral overkill, on a municipal level, in many different cities? – the picture darkened. The National Union of Journalists and the Committee to Protect Journalists issued a Freedom of Information Act request to investigate possible federal involvement with law enforcement practices that appeared to target journalists.

The New York Times reported that "New York cops have arrested, punched, whacked, shoved to the ground and tossed a barrier at reporters and photographers" covering protests. Reporters were asked by NYPD to raise their hands to prove they had credentials: when many dutifully did so, they were taken, upon threat of arrest, away from the story they were covering, and penned far from the site in which the news was unfolding. Other reporters wearing press passes were arrested and roughed up by cops, after being – falsely – informed by police that "It is illegal to take pictures on the sidewalk."

In New York, a state supreme court justice and a New York City council member were beaten up; in Berkeley, California, one of our greatest national poets, Robert Hass, was beaten with batons. The picture darkened still further when Wonkette and Washingtonsblog.com reported that the Mayor of Oakland acknowledged that the Department of Homeland Security had participated in an 18-city mayor conference call advising mayors on "how to suppress" Occupy protests.

READ MORE ..