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THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin Yes, while the HINDRAF, PEKIDA and DAMAI MALAYSIA brouhaha kept us distracted, a crime boss is quietly released on the personal instruction of the Attorney-General. And the police officers who detained him are going to be crucified for ‘wrongfully’ detaining this crime boss.
 On 10 November 2007, BERSIH organised its march to the Istana Negara. The New Straits Times reported that 4,000 people turned out that day. That same government-owned propaganda organ masquerading as a mainstream newspaper also reported the IGP as saying that 4,000 police personnel were mobilised that day. This would give us a ratio of one-to-one. But looking at the photographs in both the newspapers and on the internet it could clearly be seen that the yellow shirts swamped the red helmets. It would be impossible for the ratio to be one-to-one if the yellow practically buried the red.
According to the organisers, they estimated the crowd at about 50,000. And they estimated the crowd that was prevented from reaching the Istana Negara as roughly another 30,000. The intelligence agencies, however, have estimated the total crowd -- that which reached the Istana Negara plus that which was prevented from doing so -- at 138,000. So this is how far the estimates vary; from 4,000 by the New Straits Times to 138,000 by the intelligence agencies. Invariably, your guess is as good as mine on what the real figure should be -- but an educated guess of 80,000 would not be far off.
Then, on 25 November 2007, we had the HINDRAF march where, again, the crowd was estimated as between 5,000 to 30,000. From what I saw I would believe the 30,000 figure. And, again, it was estimated that about 20,000 were prevented from getting through. But what was interesting about the HINDRAF affair was not the size of the crowd but the events of the day plus the post-rally events that followed soon after that.
When the organisers realised that the police had cordoned the area surrounding the British High Commission and that there was no way they could get through, they decided to break up into a few groups, just like what BERSIH had done, and meet at various points, just like what BERSIH had done. Around midnight, they started moving into Batu Caves and by 2.00am the crowd began to build up. At 4.00am, the crowd had reached optimum level and the police pushed them back into the temple compound and locked the main gate.
The crowd was now trapped and there was no way it could launch the march to the British High Commission. Also, a march that far would take some time since Batu Caves is not quite near Jalan Ampang. It was apparent that all the crowd could do was to assemble and probably make some noise as a show of strength. The crowd was certainly not going anywhere.
At 4.20am, the police commenced firing tear gas and water cannons into the crowd. But the crowd was within the temple ground and trapped behind closed gates. No one was attempting to crash the gate or to start a march. What was the reason for shooting into the crowd? If the reason for opening fire was because they had assembled illegally, how was it possible for them to disperse when the police would not open the gate to allow them to leave the temple ground and go home? The crowd was assembled only because they had been pushed into the temple ground and the gate locked behind them thereby trapping them inside.
The police said that they did not open fire and shoot into the temple grounds. The photographs tell another story. And eyewitnesses said that the MIC Youth leaders were amongst the police and that it was they who gave the police the order to shoot. Yes, MIC Youth was there but they were mingling with the police, not with the crowd within the temple ground. Would the police have opened fire considering the crowd was already trapped inside and had nowhere to go if the MIC Youth had not given the order to do so?
The HINDRAF organisers had estimated a crowd of 10,000. Even they were surprised when the crowd ballooned to 30,000. Where did this additional 20,000 come from? And was it coincidental that the majority of the people were MIC members? Were these MIC people turncoats who had now abandoned MIC and were wholeheartedly behind HINDRAF? Or were they diehard MIC members who were sent to infiltrate the crowd to make up the numbers and give an impression that matters are more serious than what many imagine?
In short, how much of the HINDRAF rally of 25 November 2007 was for real and how much was staged? And if much of it was staged are the HINDRAF leaders and organisers aware that they had been set up? It appears that HINDRAF was played for a sucker and its leaders set up as fall guys.
This theory would be hard to prove if not for the Internal Security Act detentions of the five key players of HINDRAF. The ‘HINDRAF 5’ were detained under Section 8 of the Internal Security Act instead of the ‘normal’ Section 73. “What’s the difference?” you may ask.
Well, under Section 73, they would be detained by Bukit Aman or the Special Branch for at least 60 days where they would be subjected to around-the-clock interrogation, 24-7. The Special Branch ‘owns’ you for 60 days and they would spend the first 30 days interrogating you to find out who are behind you, where you get your funding from, who you are working with, your links inside and outside the country, your game-plan, your endgame, your strategies and objectives, your strengths and weaknesses, and much more. In short, they want to know everything and anything even down to how many strands of pubic hair you have. The second 30 days will then be spent ‘turning you over’. You will be shown how and where you have erred plus they will ‘help’ you ‘see the light’ and assist you in returning to the ‘right path’.
These 60 days will help Bukit Aman and the Special Branch determine if you are really dangerous and a threat to national security or whether you are just misguided and have unwittingly been used by certain people without you being aware of it. They will also determine whether you can be rehabilitated or have in fact already been rehabilitated within those 60 days and therefore can be safely released and allowed to go home. Only if they are confident that you are still a threat to national security or that you cannot be rehabilitated or that they would need more time to rehabilitate you would they further detain you under Section 8 of the Internal Security Act and send you to the Kamunting detention centre for an unspecified period of time. Seldom would they straight away detain you under Section 8 and send you to Kamunting without spending at least 60 days with you to probe what it is that makes you tick and how to make you ‘un-tick’.
Now, the HINDRAF 5 were not subjected to this 60 days interrogation and turning over process. Bukit Aman or the Special Branch did not get their hands on the HINDRAF 5. They were straight away detained under Section 8 -- which means the Special Branch could not touch them as they would now come under the Prisons Department and not Bukit Aman. The police detain you under Section 73. The Minister detains you under Section 8.
This is most puzzling indeed. Why did the police not detain the HINDRAF 5 under Section 73 of the Internal Security Act? Isn’t Bukit Aman or the Special Branch curious about who are behind HINDRAF? Isn’t Bukit Aman or the Special Branch curious about who are funding HINDRAF? Isn’t Bukit Aman or the Special Branch curious about whether the HINDRAF 5 are the real masterminds or merely the pawns of another higher power? Isn’t Bukit Aman or the Special Branch curious about whether HINDRAF has links with foreign terrorist groups like the Tamil Tigers? Isn’t Bukit Aman or the Special Branch curious the game-plan and endgame of HINDRAF? Isn’t Bukit Aman or the Special Branch curious about HINDRAF’s strategies, objectives, strengths and weaknesses? Umno says that Anwar Ibrahim is behind HINDRAF. Would Bukit Aman or the Special Branch not want to know whether this is true so that if it is true then Anwar too can be detained under the Internal Security Act? And how would they find out about all this if the HINDRAF 5 are detained under Section 8 instead of Section 73 of the Internal Security Act whereby the Prisons Department and not Bukit Aman has control over the Hindraf 5?
Yes, it appears like there are certain people who walk in the corridors of power who would like the secrets of HINDRAF to remain a secret. It appears like there are certain people who walk in the corridors of power who do not want Bukit Aman or the Special Branch to find out what HINDRAF is really all about. Bukit Aman and the Special Branch must be dying from curiosity. But they can’t do anything about it because the HINDRAF 5 comes under the Prisons Department and not Bukit Aman. And it was the Minister and not the police who detained the HINDRAF 5.
Umno says that HINDRAF is a threat to national security. Umno says that HINDRAF is anti-Malay and anti-Islam. Umno says that HINDRAF plans to organise an anti-Malay rally in Kampong Baru. Some of the HINDRAF people did in fact march through Kampong Baru on 25 November 2007. And the police opened fire on them and sent them running. Then the Malays in Kampong Baru opened the doors to their homes and invited the HINDRAF people in to take shelter from the police.
There was no Indian-Malay tension that day on 25 November 2007. The Malay police opened fire on the HINDRAF marchers and the Malays in Kampong Baru gave the Indians shelter. The so-called Indian-Malay racial tension is in the minds of the Umno people. And Umno is spreading rumours and circulating SMSess to give the impression that racial tensions are increasing and that there is a danger race riots will break out.
To further impress Malaysians that race riots are imminent they got this chap called Mohd Saiful Adil Daud to form DAMAI MALAYSIA, supposedly an amalgamation of 395 Malay NGOs with a combined membership of 1.5 million Malays. That is the biggest crap I have ever heard. You would be hard-pressed to find 39 Malay NGOs, let alone 395. And even then some of these so-called NGOs have less than a dozen members. Why did they not list down the names of these 395 Malay NGOs? They couldn’t because these NGOs do not exist. And certainly these 1.5 million members do not exist either.
Saiful is actually the runner of a well-known Malay gangster called Drs Suleiman a.k.a. Man Brandy. Man Brandy used to sell ganja around the Kampong Baru mosque area in the days before May 13. He then escaped to Indonesia when the police hunted him down for murder and that was where be bought his very impressive ‘Drs’ title. Later he came back to Malaysia and was made the Deputy Minister of Health after he won the Titiwangsa Parliament seat. It is a shame he did not legalise ganja and recommend it as a health weed when he was the Deputy Minister of Health. Now it is too late.
The mastermind behind DAMAI MALAYSIA is Mamak Rezal Merican Naina Merican of GPMS. Their job is to stir the Malays into a feeding frenzy like what Datuk Harun Idris did on 13 May 1969. Unfortunately the effort failed. The Malays today are not like the Malays of 1969 and it is not so easy to incite them into an anti-non-Malay frenzy like how they did on 13 May 1969. Even the rumours they spread and the SMSess they circulated did not work. And the so-called PEKIDA rally in Kampong Baru on Sunday, 16 December 2007, the supposedly prelude to May 13 II, did not happen as planned. Nobody turned up except for the truckloads of riot police and Special Branch officers who patrolled a deserted street. It reminds me of how they cordoned an empty Dataran Merdeka on 10 November 2007.
But there is something else that happened during this same period and which went unnoticed and unreported. On 10 December 2007, the Attorney-General wrote the Deputy Minister of Internal Security a letter asking him to release Goh Cheng Poh a.k.a ‘Tengku’ Goh from Restricted Residence. As reported earlier, Tengku Goh is number two to BK Tan, the head honcho of the organised crime syndicate that controls the drugs, prostitution, loan-sharking and illegal gambling network all over Malaysia. He also controls the police computerised information system.
The next day, Johari Baharum released Tengku Goh in spite of the fact he has in his possession half a dozen signed Affidavits and other damaging evidence which implicates top police personnel with having links with the underworld. Two of these Affidavits are in fact signed by the underworld figures themselves.
Johari’s action of releasing Tengku Goh has just hung the many police officers plus the Director of the Commercial Crime Division who were instrumental in detaining Tengku Goh. What Johari is ‘saying’ is that he agrees Tengku Goh is a victim of a mala fide detention and that all the allegations against the latter are false. This can only mean that the police are crooked while the so-called ‘crime boss’ is an innocent victim of trumped-up charges.
Yes, while the HINDRAF, PEKIDA and DAMAI MALAYSIA brouhaha kept us distracted, a crime boss is quietly released on the personal instruction of the Attorney-General. And the police officers who detained him are going to be crucified for ‘wrongfully’ detaining this crime boss. And the agency that has been tasked with fixing up the police officers is the Anti-Corruption Agency which is taking action against the police officers, not for the crime of corruption but for the ‘technical’ offence of wrongly filling in the forms. And the HINDRAF 5 are detained under Ministerial order under Section 8 and not Section 73 of the Internal Security Act so that the Special Branch and Bukit Aman can’t get their hands on them and interrogate them to get to the bottom of the whole thing.
Anyway, we have previously reported in great detail this whole affair of the links between the Royal Malaysian Police and the organised crime syndicate. The 11 earlier episodes can be read below -- so we really do not need to recap the events thus far. Suffice to say we conclude this Twelfth Episode the way we had forecasted -- and that is the boss of bosses of the underworld syndicate walks free. You can’t say that Malaysia Today lies or is wrong in its forecast, though this time around I wish we had been wrong.
All that crap we Malaysians are being fed with. I suppose Malaysians are so stupid they deserve this.
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The Corridors of Power 
You haven't been writing very much about the Pedra Branca case. I was just wondering if you have heard of Elihu Lauterpacht, who is Malaysia's QC. I find his name quite interesting, and will be glad if you could shed some light on this person's background.