Since when a T-shirt is a publication?

YOURSAY ‘So clothing companies will need to apply for printing licenses?’

Gov't bans wearing of Bersih 4 T-shirts

Lim Chong Leong: The order only prohibits printing, importation, production, reproduction, etc, of the publication described in the schedule.

1. The wearing of a T-shirt does not qualify as printing, importation, etc, even possession.

2. A T-shirt hardly qualifies as a publication.

3. The publication has to be prejudicial to public order, security or contrary to law, which is impossible for a T-shirt, even with the words ‘Bersih 4' on it.

GE14NOW!: This is the very reason why this lot needs to go. Since when is the word ‘bersih’ an undesirable word? Does that mean that a government that is ‘bersih’ is undesirable?

Patriot1: How come the ban was uploaded through the Attorney-General Chamber's website?

Well, I think the Malaysian government just scored a ‘world first’ - banning a T-shirt that is not even governed by the legislation used to banned it.

Justice Pao: Former federal court judge Gopal Sri Ram, says that printing the word "Bersih" on shirts is not covered under the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 as they do not come under ‘publications’.

Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi does not understand that any print on shirts or what we wear are not publications, otherwise all those companies making clothes would have to apply for printing licenses.

Headhunter: This latest ridiculous gazette only goes to show how fearful the Najib regime is. Now they don't even dare to look behind themselves in case they see their own shadow following them.

The whole world is laughing at them. This is so much like the final days of the Marcos regime in the Philippines, when people power was confronting them. They took desperate measures which in the end came to naught.

Oh Ya?: Can't blame the ruling elite for being ultra-sensitive and going berserk with "bersih" which is not in their DNA.

Haven't they literally rewritten the Prevention of Crime Act, removed law enforcement officers from investigating their sins and even took offence with Penang's Bersih theme for the Merdeka celebrations?

May be they will soon ban this word from the school textbooks and change the laws to make it an offence to be ‘bersih’?

Oxymoronictendencies: Oh dear. And today I bought four Bersih T-shirts and three Bersih scarfs. If it is now illegal to have such things, what should I do? Perhaps a ceremonial burning in front of Parliament?

Quigonbond: It's instructive to read what transpired during Bersih 3, after the coming into force of the Peaceful Assembly Act (PAA).

The police at that time deemed the Dataran Merdeka sit-in to be illegal, but the court has since declared that the police have no such power.

Therefore, when Malaysians march, we are marching in support of His Majesty's Parliament and judiciary.

The yellow T-shirt banning gazette itself is also telling - there is only unlawfulness if there is an element of public disorder.

PAA ensures that protestors’ actions are supported in law, thereby negating the element of public disorder. If police confiscate the T-shirts, that will be robbery, theft, assault and battery.

The police can look to thousands of civil actions against them. There is no draconian law and cynical law enforcement that can stop a natural tour de force which time has come.

HiddenHand: Our authorities are afraid that this rally will go out of control. That's why they forbid this rally to be held on the streets.

The place is not suitable plus it is full of people who want to go shopping and traders who want to run their business there.

If they really concerned about Malaysia, they will not organise this rally at the first place, especially in crowded places like Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman and Dataran Merdeka where right now, they are having rehearsals for our National Day. It is unacceptable.

Anonymous 2301431436259502: That maybe a good idea to wear your T-shirt inside out, so there is no publication of the words ‘Bersih’. You may still be guilty of possession but is it reasonable for the police to strip you to check?

Dr Patricia A Martinez: I do wonder if the police are tearing their hair out (metaphorically) wondering if the home minister thought this through.

The police will have to arrest thousands of people and process - paperwork, etc - thousands of people. And if it is a very serious threat to national security, remand thousands of people. Where?

Anonymous 2301431436259502: Firstly, a law that is impossible to enforce or unlikely to be observed, would fall into disrepute; and secondly, such an executive order is subject to challenge in the court of law. Such order seems mala fide, and may or may not be ultra vires.

Anonymous_1408265047: Try to explain to visitors the reason that Bersih 4 T-shirts are banned...

Local: These T-shirts are banned.

Visitor: Why?

Local: Because they have ‘Bersih’ on them.

Visitor: Is it a dirty word? What does it mean?

Local: It means clean.

Visitor: What is wrong with being clean?

Local: Well, there is nothing wrong with being clean, but the government does not like it because it really means clean elections and uncorrupted government.

Visitor: Is the government against clean elections and clean government?

Local: No, not really. It just does not like the people wearing the T-shirts asking for clean government.

Visitor: Why is the government against these people asking for clean government?

Local: Because it gives the impression that the government is not clean.

Visitor: So the government bans T-shirts that demand cleanliness? There is a problem here with logic and reason. Why don't the Bersih people talk to government about this matter?

Local: That is how it all started. -Mkini

Zahid – One-trick pony set to lead Najib nowhere

If there is a one-trick pony in Malaysian politics, it's Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

He's got only one trick up his sleeve and it's a sledgehammer which he is pleased to deploy, especially when he's got his back to the wall.

That a politician of his dearth of skills can rise to the No. 2 position in the country is a sad commentary on the state of affairs in an Umno that has dominated Malaysia's politics to its detriment since independence.

That this dominance has brought the country to decay can be seen from the contagion of controversies that presently beset it.

The distresses have reached a point where the only way out is for the No. 1 man to exit office, but this is not to say that the No. 2 should then take over.

The sober-minded know that often in politics, the choice is not between good and better; more commonly, it is between the undesirable and the intolerable.

But in the case of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and his deputy, the selection is between the intolerable and the execrable.

No, this isn't saying that that's the choice we are faced with. It's that both leaders in combination have succeeded in dividing the country between those who want to be freed of stupidity and those in whose material interest it is to support a benighted tyranny.

Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Zahid certified this division through the banning notice he issued yesterday against the wearing of the yellow Bersih T-shirts whose sales have been brisk the past week.

Yellow a color of resonant significance

The yellow of Bersih has been a color of resonant significance since Queen Elizabeth (photo) used a yellow dress with a yellow floral arrangement in the backdrop of a reception hall in Buckingham Palace when the English monarch received Najib and wife Rosmah Mansor who were on state visit when Bersih were planning a their second march a few years back.

Yellow, contrary to its nominal signficance as an emblem of cowardice, has become in the protest march parlance in Malaysia the color of defiance and even subtlety.

The rapid turnover in T-short sales and the reported RM2 million in collections by Bersih for this their fourth protest march planned for today and tomorrow must have caused panic in government ranks.

Panic is not something that is calculated to bring out the best in the government.

Accustomed to bringing out the mailed fist when under duress, the government has relied on the home minister for its final thrust to foil today's gathering by Bersih when all other devices for heading off the protest had failed.

The government had tried subterfuge, offers of alternative venues, and there was the threat of anti-Bersih action by vigilante groups which was quickly retracted, and, lastly, the resort to a warning by the Armed Forces chief that the military will intervene if an emergency is declared in the event of disturbances.

Liable to compensatory action by victims

Even an attack imputing disloyalty by Bersih in wanting to stage their protest on the eve of the annual Merdeka Day commemoration failed to make a dent on their determination to go ahead.

When all these variations on a general theme of dissuasion proved of no avail, in stepped the Home Minister with the only prohibitive weapon he has in his arsenal – a banning of the yellow Bersih T-shirts.

How efficacious this ban is going to be can be inferred somewhat from what retired judge Gopal Sri Ram (photo) has said about the extent of the ambit of the Printing and Publications Act under which the banning order was issued.

The former jurist who has returned to legal practice has been vocal in recent years in pointing out legal niceties which in the case of yesterday's banning order, does not include T-shirts in its ambit.

In an opinion that may well stay the hand of the banning authority, the learned lawyer contends that arrests of yellow Bersih T-shirt wearers would be liable to compensatory action by the victims.

If this is true, Zahid may have bitten off more than he can chew. He's had plenty of practice for this overreach.

Two years ago, almost to the month, the home minister made headlines, when in the face of rising instances of gangland shootings, he said police would shoot first and leave the ask questions for later.

It was a stance of breathtaking insolence. For if he has stubbed his legal toe in the dark of trying to thwart the Bersih 4 march, he will have asked for it.

---

TERENCE NETTO has been a journalist for more than four decades. A sobering discovery has been that those who protest the loudest tend to replicate the faults they revile in others. -- Mkini

PM Najib: Bersih participants 'poor' in patriotism

Najib Tun Razak has described the organisers and participants of the illegal Bersih 4 rally as "shallow and poor" in their patriotism.

According to Bernama, the Prime Minister said, despite having different political ideologies, they should mark the National Day by flying the jalur gemilang as an appreciation of the country's freedom fighters, who freed the motherland from the clutches of colonialism.

"We want to celebrate, independence, there are some people who want to show their feelings at the historic place in Merdeka Square.

"Don't they understand, are they that shallow and poor in their patriotism and love for their motherland. Don't they understand the country was built on the blood and sweat of our freedom fighters.

"From the era of Mat Kilau, Tok Janggut and UMNO freedom fighters to our soldiers and police, who died as martyrs, because we want to ensure the independence of our country," he said when officiating the Jerantut UMNO delegates' meeting 2015 at Jerantut District Council Hall today.

The event was also attended by Pahang Menteri Besar Pahang, who is also state UMNO Liaison Committee chairman and Jerantut UMNO division head Ahmad Nazlan Idris.

Earlier upon his arrival, Najib, who is also UMNO president, was received by over 5,000 UMNO leaders and members as well as accorded a traditonal welcome of gendang and silat performance by Jerantut Pemuda.

Najib said their action was seen as deliberately trying to discredit Malaysia's image at the international level.

"Those who wear this yellow attire, who are they, they want to discredit our good name, scribble black coal on Malaysia's face to the outside world, when in reality, this is their country because of UMNO's struggle they are successful," he said.

At the same time, he said under the current circumstances facing the party, UMNO leaders and members must adhere to discipline and have a love and compassion for the party to strengthen it.

"If we love and cherish our party very much, then we will not do anything to jeopardise the interests of the party.

"If there are differences of opinion, there are limits, decorum, channel to chide because in the party there is discipline and we need to safeguard this process.

"It is not that UMNO does not allow differences of opinion, in fact I am also open minded but it must adhere to discipline, only then the party can become a successful organisation," he said.

Najib said any news that are being read, including social media must be checked for its authencity to avoid it becoming slanderous and destroy the party.

"The paradigm has now been reversed, what is reported in the social media is more credible than mainstream media. Don't allow the tricks of perception over reality," he added.

- Bernama

As the clock ticks, is Najib’s government running scared? – J. D. Lovrenciear

Indeed Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his coterie are being helmed from all sides. That explains the eleventh-hour desperate attempts to cocoon the sitting prime minister’s power base and with that, the gravy-train robbers’ extended time to bleed this nation more.

But let truth be told for the love of this nation, its people and Rulers all in the name of justice, dignity and honour for Malaysia.

Banning everything yellow and the word "Bersih" is the last straw for Najib’s team. It will be, given this sudden banning, in all probability be the fourth stone to finally break the camel's back.

Malaysians are fully aware that Interpol has shot down the Malaysian police right in their tracks over their ill-advised (or forced?) effort to nab The Sarawak Report’s head.

The Sultan of Johor is garnering tremendous support and salutations from Malaysians not only in Johor but in all states. He has has literally told Putrajaya that they have failed to lead with justice, and to protect and cherish Malaysians.

US opinion leaders have already cautioned President Barack Obama to distance himself from being further misled by Najib and team. Former ambassador to Malaysia John Mallot has succinctly summarised what will eventually become the US's official stance towards Malaysia’s current administration.

An Umno member has filed a legal suit against Najib and in retaliation, paid stooges are hinting that she will be sacked from Umno.

Sack or no sack, be sure that the justice system is under duress given this new twist. And if there are any compromises from the Palace of Justice, Najib better be forewarned that the true Umno will rebel against him and all his supporters.

World opinions on Malaysia are getting less sympathetic to the Najib bandwagon. It will mean the further plunging of the ringgit and even a forced evacuation of foreign investments as well as pulling back of all loans made to 1MDB.

Whether another RM2.6 billion will go into Najib or Rosmah’s personal account to parachute him and his team mates is left to be seen.

Najib, please do not demean your late great father who built a hope for Malaysia and his hope that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad ploughed on to make a reality.

Remember too that Dr Mahathir publicly regrets that one big mistake he made, allowing you to be voted in as the Umno president.

You cannot at the eleventh hour ban "yellow". The people are angrier now. They will come out in tens of thousands because they know they are not alone.

Their Ruler has said so. The Interpol has said so. The world opinion leaders have said so – unless of course if you want to be removed by a global outcry.

Your consecrated home minister must remember this is 2015, not 1948. The world press will hound him till he is made a person-non-grata.

Remember too that this nation is built on that foundation of a constitutional monarchy with democracy as its mortar. Malaysia will not let regimes to lord over without any regard to the voice of concern and patriotic care from millions of Malaysians.

Bersih is not a communist rebellion; it is not an Isis agentry at work; of course it cannot be a Mossad trap.

It is citizens crying out for a clean government that respects, honours and cherishes the fundamental principles of good governance as observed by all democratic nations the workd over.

By banning yellow and Bersih, you are saying that Malaysia is no democracy champion. This Malaysians together with their rulers will not support, let alone let it slip through they hands.

Are you then not running scared of this expose by tens of thousands of citizens of the very land that you too call home?

* J. D. Lovrenciear reads The Malaysian Insider.

Donategate: where everyone has a price – Gopal Sreenevasan

There was a programme on the history channel recently, on Nazi Germany.  It showed Adolf Hitler launching the battleship, Bismarck. The camera turned on the crowd witnessing this and captured them delivering the Nazi salute. What stuck in the memory was the look of utter and passionate devotion in the crowd as they did so. These looks surely could not have been for Nazi policy: no policy evokes passion. It was their devotion to Hitler the man and they were his cult.

The Malaysian prime minister cannot of course be compared to that. He has neither the vim nor vigour and certainly not the character to arouse such emotions in his subjects. It seems however that he is able to do so in his new Cabinet, parliamentary and divisional colleagues. They now speak of and gaze at him with ever increasing adoration.

In any circumstance, this would be both nauseating and dangerous. The adoration or adulation of persons in power, has dire consequences even in the most robust of democracies, so inimical is it to the principle that those in power need to hear the unvarnished truth, from those closest to them. 

In Malaysia, which is now closer to a kleptocracy than a democracy, this notion has had little carriage.  Even in better times we have been subject to “We love PM” banners at political gatherings. Whoever had that bright idea clearly thought he was campaigning for Yogi Bear. One can love Yogi Bear, but not one’s prime minister. He may be respected, feared or even despised, but not loved. No one wants a cuddly prime minister.

However Malaysia is past those better times. Our economic outlook is not so much bearish as it is bombed, and democracy and governance have accepted Darth Vader’s invitation and gone from grey to firmly in the dark side. When Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad tells you that democracy in Malaysia is dead, you had better be scared, very scared indeed.

Yet that is where we are. Events over the last month or so have left such a pall over right-thinking Malaysians that immigration counters for citizens returning home should carry a sign saying “Abandon hope all ye who enter here”.  

More than a month ago, reports from credible publications emerged, pointing to the fact that the prime minister had had RM2.6 billion paid into his personal account in Malaysia. Just think of that – RM2.6 billion – it is a figure ordinary people cannot fathom, perhaps enough to buy an island in the Caribbean with change left over for a couple of drinks with straw umbrellas in them.

Then his wife was reported to have had cold hard cash deposited into one of her accounts amounting to RM2 million. This latter story has of course been forgotten in all that has come to pass. As it was no doubt meant to.

In any community where there is an expectation of honesty, only two responses can surely have been expected and both within minutes of that disclosure. The first is an outright denial that either of the accounts belonged to the prime minister or his wife or that those sums of monies never entered those accounts. Failing that, resignation would surely have to follow before the hour was out.

We are clearly not a community with an expectation of honesty. Some, at least to a degree, are.

When news emerged that the Speaker of the House of Representatives in Australia, Miss Bronwyn Bishop had ridden a helicopter to Geelong and charged taxpayers A$5,000 for the pleasure, she had to resign, not because what she had done was outside the rules but because it was unthinkable that a public servant could presume to be so privileged.

Similarly, the premier of New South Wales Barry O’ Farell had to resign in 2014 for having accepted a bottle of wine worth A$500. He failed to make a declaration, as he was obliged to by the rules. Both sums are trifles compared to the Columbian cartel-like deposits in our prime minister’s accounts.

But that is perhaps an unfair comparison. What strikes closer to home for sordid likeness, is the recent resignation of the deputy leader of the House of Lords in the UK, Lord Sewell who was also in charge of the ethics of its members.  

In an amusing counterpoint he was filmed snorting cocaine through GBP20 notes, which notes are now worth more than the drug in Malaysia, given today’s exchange rate. He snorted it off the breasts of two sex workers while drinking whisky and complaining that his companions were not Asian. Because, it seems Asians are the best in that business.  He too resigned.

Against this sort of backdrop (and many other examples worldwide), the fact of billions sloshing around our prime minister’s accounts must surely have called for at the very least a full and detailed explanation as to why and how these funds ended up with him. Absent that, and it is absent, the public cannot be faulted for putting two and two together and making 2.6 billion. 

The sums work in this way. First, 1MDB is indebted in the billions of ringgit and there are reports from credible publications that some of these billions were taken from 1MDB and found their way into accounts controlled by individuals connected to the prime minister. Second, the prime minister has billions in his personal account. These are the facts. Ergo, the money in his account came from 1MDB. 

Without a precise and clear explanation from the prime minister himself, he cannot fault anyone from coming to this conclusion. John Adams, the second president of the United States said famously that facts are stubborn things, though he might well have also added that the absence of facts lead to even more stubborn conclusions.

Instead of a precise, clear and importantly immediate explanation from the prime minister, we were treated weeks later to a tale, not from him but from the minster in charge of propaganda that the money came from donors. A Middle-Eastern donor to be precise, the very region where 1MDB had, reportedly entered into its most questionable dealings. 

To date we have been given not a single detail more, other than that the monies were to fight the Jews and DAP and in thanks for a battle against a then barely existent Isis. The reason that no further details would be forthcoming is apparently because there is no legal requirement to do so. That the public have the expectation of honesty and transparency has no bearing of course.

The purge of Cabinet colleagues, civil servants and the attorney-general that followed had all the hallmarks of Dr Mahathir himself: ruthless and driven by self preservation. For what many underestimated in the prime minister was that he was not fighting for his political life, rather he was fighting for his physical liberty. 

Heads may have rolled and the prime minister may feel the blanket of security with his new appointees, but the message that has been put across to the country is that when he was under investigation, he used the power of his office to emasculate and then eviscerate the process of law. By doing so, he has told all Malaysians that he and his wife are it.

But that is not the most tragic aspect of this drama, for it has always been so written. He who has all the power will use all of it to survive.  No, the most morally bankrupt upshot of this sordid affair, with billions sloshing about across international boundaries, is the response of the adulating crowd around the prime minister and their daily defence of him and his receipt of this money.

Not one among the leaders of Umno or Barisan Nasional has called for what every rational person expects: public accountability, not because it is legally required but because it is a result of the expectation of honesty that all Malaysians are entitled to.

Instead, as details leak that members of parliament have received payments from the prime minister personally, the prime minister announced that the “allocation” (a vague word for a dubious payment) for all Barisan National MPs, which increased from RM1 million to the current RM5 million under him, would be increased even further. 

With the 2.6 billion dollar man conducting a campaign of such fiscal charm, not one man or woman in that coalition has had the nerve or fibre to stand up and ask for what is right. That is the ultimate tragedy: that our country is for sale. Dr Mahathir was wrong when he said of the prime minister that “he has stolen the government”. He hasn’t. He has bought and paid for it. 

After all it was the prime minister was said to Dr Mahathir that “cash is king”. He is now putting that to the proof, while the man who destroyed every institution capable of standing up to such governmental skullduggery complains of the death of democracy from the sidelines.  The irony couldn’t be more pungent, but most Malaysians do not care.  They care that this country has been brought to its knees by such men.  And they would wish a plague upon both their houses and the readiest opportunity to be shot of them both.

* Gopal Sreenevasan reads The Malaysian Insider.

All about the issues, not yellow, words or numbers

Yellow, the number four and the word ‘Bersih’ have been outlawed but this weekend’s rally continues nonetheless. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, August 29, 2015.

Before 6pm yesterday, one of the best jokes in Malaysia was in the form of a riddle. It went like this: why did the chicken cross the road?

Because Tun was on this side.

But after 6pm yesterday, the better joke was that wearing anything yellow with “Bersih 4” was now illegal.

One specific colour, one specific word and one specific number.

Of course, this isn't the first time such a ban has been gazetted. It happened for Bersih 2 way back in 2011. People ignored it then, people will ignore it now.

Because it isn't a colour, a word or a number that is uppermost on the minds of those gathering in Kuala Lumpur, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu, or the other cities across the world today.

There are five issues or demands on the table, and those issues are the ones that the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) government must address, rather than decreeing that any yellow clothing with the word Bersih and number 4 is outlawed.

But they appear rather like ostriches and are burying their heads in the sand, hoping the ban and roadblocks will throttle the turnout in Kuala Lumpur today.

Perhaps it will, but the past three Bersih rallies have shown that people from all walks of life, from pensioners to teenagers, politicians to panhandlers, poor to rich, will be trying to converge around Dataran Merdeka – where Malaya's flag was first raised in August 1957.

Particularly this weekend, as Malaysia celebrates National Day, the name that has come back as a concession to our fellow Malaysians in Sabah and Sarawak.

National Day, however, is also appropriate because Merdeka means freedom and independence.

That, Malaysians are not – neither free nor independent nor trusted by the government to gather at Dataran Merdeka in any combination of yellow, Bersih and 4, to press for five demands.

Instead, the square has been locked down, ahead of the National Day parade to protect the chairs, stage and flags all set up for the August 31 celebrations.

Yet the Malaysian spirit is strong. It triumphed against the British way back in 1957 to gain independence for Malaya. It triumphed against regional powers to form Malaysia in 1963.

So what can a ban on the combination of one colour, one word and one number do? At worst, evoke a snort of derision, and at best, get more people to turn up and thumb their noses at the powers-that-be.

And celebrate Merdeka as they should, together as Malaysians.

- TMI

KTM Komuter service extended extended

KTM has announced that it will be running extended services from Klang Valley stations for the Merdeka Day weekend celebrations in Kuala Lumpur. – Pic from Wikipedia, August 29, 2015.The Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) commuter service will be extended until 1am tomorrow (Sunday) for the Merdeka Eve celebration.

The additional train service is only for the KL Sentral to Rawang, Putra to Sg Gadut, and Putra to Port Klang routes, according to a KTM statement in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

“The six stations that have their operation hours extended are: Putra Station, Bank Negara, Kuala Lumpur, KL Sentral, Mid Valley and Bandar Tasik Selatan, specifically to provide transport to members of the public celebrating Merdeka Eve in Kuala Lumpur,” the statement said.

For those wishing to go to Dataran Merdeka for the Merdeka Day parade on Monday, trains for all routes will begin as usual at 5.30am.

“Commuters are advised to buy the two-way ticket or use their Touch ‘n’ Go card to avoid congestion at the counter and ticketing machines when returning home,” the statement said.

Further information can be obtained by contacting the KTM Berhad call centre on 1300-88-5862 or twitter @ktmkomuter. – Bernama