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from blog.limkitsiang.com

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi returned from the Kampala Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) and threatened to use the nefarious law, the Internal Security Act (ISA), against peaceful demonstrators -- marking a new nadir of the four-year broken pledges by the Abdullah premiership on democracy, human rights, accountability, incorruptibility and preparedness to hear the truth from the people.

Yesterday, Aljazeera reported the controversy in Japan over the Education Ministry's latest effort to revise school history textbooks on one of the most notorious wartime incidents in Japan, where the Japanese military ordered and sometimes forced the islanders to commit suicide during the US invasion of Okinawa in the closing days of the second world war. There was a peaceful demonstration of more than 100,000 people in Okinawa to protest against the Japanese Education Ministry's instruction to textbook publishers to edit out all references to the military's role in the mass suicides.

Abdullah wants Malaysians to have "First-World Infrastructure, First-World Mentality" and not "First-World Infrastructure, Third-World Mentality" and it is time for the government to set the example of such "First-World Mentality" and mindset by accepting the important role of peaceful demonstrations in a first-world developed nation like Japan, United Kingdom, Australia and United States for their citizenry to exercise their democratic rights on freedom of expression and assembly.

What chance and hope of Malaysia becoming a nation with "First-World Mentality" when the government is the worst culprit of having "Third-World" and even "Fourth-World" mindsets, as in threatening to invoke the notorious Internal Security Act?

Many have asked whether mass ISA arrests like the infamous Operation Lalang in 1987, which led to major assaults on the independence and integrity of the judiciary, the emasculation of press freedom and the suppression of a vibrant civil society, is possible under Abdullah's premiership.

With Abdullah's threat to use the ISA yesterday, such a scenario now appears more and more likely - and I call on Abdullah to make clear his real stand on democracy, human rights, accountability, incorruptibility and preparedness to hear the truth from the people.

DAP Deputy Secretary-General and MP for Bukit Mertajam, Chong Eng and I were at the Selayang magistrate's court this morning where some 50 people who had been detained at the Batu Caves Temple on Sunday's Hindraf demonstration and had been released on bail were waiting to be charged for an illegal assembly.

I met many of them and found that they are mostly respectable and law-abiding Malaysian citizens, business people, technicians, contractors, clerks and even executive and management officers, a group of people who cannot be further from the term "penyangak" used by the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz yesterday.

Referring to the Hindraf demonstration, Nazri said:

"Some 20,000 penyangak (crooks) who participated in the rally would not jeopardise our viewpoint of the entire community."

I am shocked and saddened by Nazri's language, condemning the 30,000 decent and respectable people who came from all over the country to peacefully and collectively express their cry of desperation for justice at the long-standing neglect and discrimination of their rights as Malaysian citizens.

Who is a penyangak? Kamus Dewan defines "penyangak" as "pencuri, penjahat".

Does the MIC President, Datuk Seri Samy Vellu and all MIC members of the administration, whether Deputy Minister, Parliamentary Secretary, MP or Senator, agree with Nazri that the 30,000 people who turned up for the Hindraf demonstration on Sunday are crooks and rogues, and that the Hindraf rally was a "gathering of crooks"?

Nazri should apologise unconditionally for this insult, not only to the 30,000 people at the Hindraf demonstration but also to the entire Indian community and Malaysian nation. Samy Vellu and the entire MIC team in the administration should insist that Nazri withdraw the term and apologise for it without any qualification whatsoever.

The issue of new SJKC in Puchong, SJKC Ladang Harcroft, which was transfered from Ayer Tawar, Perak to Puchong, Selangor was one of the heated topic of debate yesterday.

Lim Kit Siang stood up during the winding up session for Ministry of Education to ask why there has not been any policy from the government to build new SKs, SJKCs and SJKTs wherever there is a need in a community.

Deputy Minister in-charge to winding for his own Ministry, YB Noh Omar did not directly answer the question.

Gerakan MP for Puchong, Lau Yan Peng jumped into the gun to undermine the Opposition.

Kit Siang also question the need to use back the same name and asked why the school could not be named after a famous Chinese Educationist Lim Lian Geok, who is a local rather than a foreign name which nobody can recognise.

YB Lim Kit Siang touched on negligence of public hospital which has been highlighted recently by various media report, i.e. Baby Yok Shan left arm amputation.

This is his speech during the committee stage of the debate for Ministry of Health.

50 years of independence and yet during this celebration which the government has poured in RM100 million, the country seems to be more rotten, divided and government seems to be more oppressing. The country has witnessed 2,000 lawyers, 40,000 Bersih demonstrators and 30,000 Hindraf supporters went to the street to demand a clean-up for the judiciary, to demand a free and fair election and to demand a new and fair deal for the marginalized Indians in Malaysia.

This what Lim Kit Siang started with his speech organized by the DAP in NUBE building, Brickfields on 12th December 2007 when he said that although Pak Lah claimed that he has 'Big Ears', his 'Big Ears' do not hear the people.

"Pak Lah had promised four years ago that he will be PM for all that he will listen to truth. He hear nothing, he is not a PM for Chinese, he is not a PM for Indians, he is not a PM for Kadazans, he is not a PM for Ibans and he is not a PM for poor and marginalized Malays. He is only a PM for Abdullah Ahmad Badawi & Company."

Kit Siang also urged Nazri, Devamany to apologise.

He also mentioned what the Indians can do in the general election, that is to shake BN up with the Indians vote for Opposition especially in about 60 constituencies in the peninsula which Indians voters constitute more than 10 percents of the voters. He even named the parliament constituencies in Selangor and Federal Territory.

He also criticized the Attorney-General, Abdul Gani Patail for his claim that Hindraf has terrorist link with LTTE based on a police report.

Kit Siang also questioned, "If that can be justified, then other people can lodge report that UMNO and BN has terrorist links. Can we use this police report to say that UMNO and BN are terrorist or have terrorist links?"