Category: Liberty

[1742] Of thoughts on mob rule, the police and MP Zulkifli Noordin

Post author By Hafiz Noor Shams
Post date Sunday, August 10 2008
3 Comments on [1742] Of thoughts on mob rule, the police and MP Zulkifli Noordin

PKR is a confused party. I have refrained from visiting the subject for the longest time because I thought I have proven my points and the other side have proven theirs especially with the coalition PKR brought together as the result of the March 8 Malaysian general election. Today, MP Zulkifli Noordin from PKR just proved my point again and I just have to say I told you so.

I was not surprised when I found out that a mob forced a forum held behind closed doors to an abrupt end.^[1] It is clearly a transgression of liberty in form a tyranny of the majority. For this reason, I am long not a fan of unconditional democracy. Majoritarianism is the purest form of democracy and it does not guarantee liberty. And this was demonstrated on Saturday.

After all, this is not the first time a mob overcame a group of individuals’ liberty. There is a trend here to be seen here.

I am also not surprised at how the police handled the situation. In an illiberal democracy that we live, I have lost trust in the police. I view them with embedded prejudice and I am incapable of holding a neutral view of the police anymore. The reason is simply because the police are uninterested in protecting liberty.

I am holding this view because I have experienced how disinterested the police force was in protecting my liberty against transgression by foreign citizens. When the Olympic Torch passed through Kuala Lumpur back in April, I went out to protest how the PRC handled protesting Tibetans. In the process, citizens of People’s Republic of China used mob power to silent me, pushing me around and the police did nothing despite see what was happening. When a person tried to help me, the person was assaulted by the mob.

The police came in later only to force the assaulted to leave the area while the mob was left off the hook.

The same scenario happened earlier in the morning of the relay day. Several individuals whom protested peacefully against atrocity committed by the PRC government were assaulted by the mob from PRC and police arrested the assault victims, not the mob.

The police was never interested in protecting liberty. The police was never interested in protecting minority rights. The fact that the police could side with foreigners raised in a mostly unfree culture against our own citizens demonstrates how disinterested the police is in protecting individual liberty.

The same case recurred at the Bar Council.

In libertarianism of minarchist strain, one of the primary roles of the government is the protection of individual liberty. Absolution of this responsibility by the state necessarily breaks the link of the state from the individuals of the state, making the state irrelevant and the state has proven to be downright hostile to individual liberty. As such, I have trouble trusting my state.

Moreover, while I do not believe in the law that stifles liberty, it is clear that the weight of the law was not evenly applied on Saturday. The demonstration by the mob was clearly illegal under our illiberal law but yet, the police did nothing to disperse the mob. What the police did was advised the organizer of the forum at the Bar Council to unceremoniously end it instead of providing the organizers with protection. This questions the credibility of the state.

It must be added that the protest against the forum itself is perfectly fine from liberty point of view, regardless of laws set in place. As Thomas Jefferson said long ago, law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual. What is wrong was how a number of protesters prevented others from exercising liberty.

While the transgression of rights by the mob and the failure or refusal of the police to protect liberty are indeed disgusting, all that however does not disappoint me considering how jaded the history of individual liberty is in Malaysia. Might is right in Malaysian culture, contrary to the concept of a liberal democracy in which individual rights are embedded and protected from crass majoritarianism.

What is disappointing is Parti Keadilan Rakyat’s indirect association with the mob. One of its MPs, Zulkifli Noordin actually led the protest. It is comforting that the party has come out and condemned the use of mob rule as well as the MP almost immediately.^[2]

But then again, this demonstrates what is wrong with PKR. So engrossed with big tent politics, PKR is all happy to invite anybody into their tent, regardless of philosophies. The party has been successful in practicing big tent politics and the past general election has proven its advocates right. And lately, terms such as “competition of ideas” and “diversity of thoughts” have been adopted within the party to further rationalize the idea of big tent politics.

I am a big fan competition of ideas but my affection for it stops when coercion is used and clearly, threats were issued by the mob. And because of that, I will not miss MP Zulkipli Noordin leading the mob to storm the forum hall at all if he loses the ongoing election petition.^[3]

As for advocates of big tent politics however, it has come to a point where big tent politics is threatening to tarnish the party’s relatively liberal outlook.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

^[1] At 9.50am, a handful of protesters, led by Kulim Bandar Baharu parliamentarian Zulkifli Noordin from Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), muscled their way to the front of the first-floor auditorium at the Bar Council headquarters in Leboh Pasar Besar here amid an ongoing and lively discussion on the 2006 court case of R. Subashini, whose ethnic Indian husband T. Saravanan had embraced Islam and converted their five-year-old son without her knowledge or consent. [The day the loudest won… or did they? The Malaysian Insider. Debra Chong. August 9 2008]

^[2] The People’s Justice Party (keADILan) regrets that the police force present failed to control the situation but instead appeared to collaborate with some of the demonstrators who wanted to force their way into the hall to stop the seminar. This incident reminds us of what happened during the APCET conference on East Timor that was held a few years ago, when members of Umno-Bn forced their way in to sabotage the seminar.

We take serious view of the rough action taken by a small band of the demonstrators who shouted rude and uncivilized language against some of the organizers and participants of the Seminar. We regret that unfortunately the “fiercest” among them was someone known to be a lawyer and member of parliament who pretentiously claimed himself to be “representing all the Muslims”. [Condemning action against Bar Council seminar. Parti Keadilan Rakyat. August 9 2008]

^[3] It was a direct reference to PKR’s own Kulim Bandar Baharu MP Zulkifli Noordin who led the protest and the storming of the forum hall here which prompted the police to ask the organiser, the Bar Council, to call off the session only an hour after it started. [PKR condemns protest against Bar Council forum. The Malaysian Insider. August 10 2008]

Tags PKR

Liberty Sports

[1741] Of is that the first gold medal for Michigan?

Post author By Hafiz Noor Shams
Post date Saturday, August 9 2008
No Comments on [1741] Of is that the first gold medal for Michigan?

Michael Phelps won a gold.

BEIJING — The Michael Phelps gold medal count commenced early Sunday morning here with the 400-meter individual medley final, and his pursuit of a record eight golds began with a victory and a world record. [Phelps Smashes World Record to Win Gold. Greg Bishop. New York Times. August 9 2008]

And yup, Phelps is a Wolverine.

There are 22 Wolverine athletes in this edition of the Olympics.^[1]

And, not to forget, another Wolverine, Hao Wu, was jailed in 2006 by the PRC government.^[2]

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

^[1] University of Michigan Roster for 2008 Beijing Olympics. MGoBlue.com. August 6 2008.

^[2] Wu was detained by the Chinese government on February 22, 2006 for almost five months. According to the Global Voices initiative at the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Hao had been producing a documentary on “underground” Christian Chinese house churches in China when he was detained by authorities in the People’s Republic of China.[Hao Wu. Wikipedia. Accessed August 10 2008]

Tags Olympics, University of Michigan

Environment Liberty Politics & government

[1739] Of Beijingoist myths

Post author By Hafiz Noor Shams
Post date Wednesday, August 6 2008
3 Comments on [1739] Of Beijingoist myths

The Beijing Olympics is coming up and it is time to break some myths.

Those who have argued for the beneficial effect of the Olympics on China have made three specific claims, none of which holds water. First, Chinese officials themselves said the games would bring human-rights improvements. The opposite is true. China’s people are far freer now than they were 30, 20 or even 10 years ago. The party has extricated itself from big parts of their lives, and relative wealth has broadened horizons. But that is not thanks to the Olympics, which have brought more repression. To build state-of-the-art facilities for the games, untold numbers of people were forced to move. Anxious to prevent protests that might steal headlines from the glories of Chinese modernist architecture or athletic prowess, the authorities have hounded dissidents with more than usual vigour. And there are anyway clear limits to the march of freedom in China; although personal and economic freedoms have multiplied, political freedoms have been disappointingly constrained since Hu Jintao became president in 2003.

Second, these would be the first ”green” Olympics, spurring a badly needed effort to clean up Beijing and other Olympic venues. This was always a ludicrous claim. Heroic efforts to remove toxic algae blooms from the rowing course do not amount to a new environmentalism. The jury is still out on whether Beijing will manage to produce air sufficiently breathable for runners safely to complete a marathon. If it does, it will not have been because of any Olympic-related change of course. Rather it will be the result of desperate measures introduced in recent weeks: production cuts by polluting industries, or simply closing them down; and the banning from the road of half of Beijing’s cars.

The third boast was not one you would ever hear from the lips of Chinese diplomats. A belief in the inviolability of Chinese sovereignty is often not just their cardinal principle, but their only one. Yet some foreigners claimed that the Olympics would make Chinese foreign policy more biddable. Western officials have been quick to talk up China’s alleged helpfulness: in persuading North Korea at least to talk about disarming; in cajoling the generals running Myanmar into letting in the odd envoy from the United Nations; in trying to coax the government of Sudan away from a policy of genocide. But last month China still vetoed United Nations sanctions against Zimbabwe; it wants a UN vote to stop action in the International Criminal Court against Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir.

China’s leaders remain irrevocably wedded to the principle of ”non-interference” in a country’s internal affairs. In so far as China itself is concerned, they seem to have the backing of large numbers of their own people. The Olympics are taking place against the backdrop of the rise of a virulently assertive strain of Chinese nationalism—seen most vividly in the fury at foreign coverage of the riots in Tibet, and at the protests that greeted the Olympic-torch relay in some Western cities.

And all that was before the games themselves begin. Orwell described international sport as ”mimic warfare”. That is of course infinitely preferable to the real thing, and there is nothing wrong in China’s people taking pride in either a diplomatic triumph, if that is how the games turn out, or a sporting one (a better bet). But there is a danger. Having dumped its ideology, the Communist Party now stakes its survival and legitimacy on tight political control, economic advance and nationalist pride. The problem with nationalism is that it thrives on competition—and all too often needs an enemy. [China’s dash for freedom. The Economist. July 31 2008]

Tags Olympics, PRC

Events Liberty Politics & government

[1737] Of while PM Abdullah sealed his reputation, Hishammuddin made his

Post author By Hafiz Noor Shams
Post date Sunday, August 3 2008
6 Comments on [1737] Of while PM Abdullah sealed his reputation, Hishammuddin made his

I was there at the MSLS yesterday, I was there when the Prime Minister gave his speech and I was there to witness how badly Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi performed on the stage. It was a dreadful experience and I do not think I would not want to listen to the PM’s speeches in person anymore.

What makes it even worse was that he was delivering a prepared speech. If it were impromptu, it might be okay because not everybody is an orator but his prepared speech took a 180° turn and then to somewhere uncharted and irrelevant. It was uninspiring and more importantly, the speech lacked critical content. There is no real content worth mentioning at all and so, I shall not even try to paraphrase anything from his speech.

While struggling to stay awake, a friend sitting several tables in front texted me, replying to my earlier text about how I was falling asleep. The reply: “done that.”

A student later walked up to the microphone and requested the PM to address his topic, which he failed. The floor came alive, disapprovingly of the PM’s performance.

The consolation is that the Education Minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, performed marvelously. He got me when he said schools are free to do whatever they like as long as they deliver results. He answered questions and did not shy from it even once. Though the speech lacked fire, it contained ideas and policies. He knew his stuff. I truly hate a politician that palliates and my respect for a politician goes down to the drain each time a politician does not answer a question.

Hishammuddin Hussein earnestly engaged questions asked instead of palliating. And each time he directly answered a question, my respect for him grew little by little.

I thought he carefully explained the rationale for vernacular school. And I thought, he appealed to liberty when he said the government cannot force people to go “national schools and national schools only.” I have established this for myself and I found myself nodding at the speech.

The same friend in a conversation said to me in a three-party libertarian circle later after the speech, ” I wouldn’t mind having Hishammuddin Hussein as the Prime Minister”.

I think, I would not mind either.

The question who should be the next Prime Minister is a question that has never been answered ever since PM Mahathir Mohammed stepped down. PM Abdullah is ineffective though his style allows organic reforms somewhat reign over top-down approaches. I am somewhat suspicious of Anwar Ibrahim but previously, he remained the sole choice thanks to his charisma and intellect.

Now, after attending Hishammuddin Hussein’s speech, I now think there is a choice. I am still reserving some dose of skepticism however. Politicians, Anwar Ibrahim included, or especially, tend to play to the gallery. I am sure Hishammuddin Hussein does that too but how much, that I will have to find out.

In any case, the Education Minister, yesterday, did not play to the gallery and appeal to rationalism. That, alone, deserve an applause. Apart from the PM for which I stood up and clapped just for the sake of respecting the Office, the Education Minister got my applause because I approved of his speech and the policy explained in his speech.