SUHAKAM INQUIRY

Yes, the inquiry is still ongoing. For the past weekend, I had to skip Mentari Project, again, due to this ongoing inquiry.

I have to admit that the proceeding never fails to amuse me.The issue is very much conceptualized as the nature of the proceeding revolves primarily around the issue of human rights ie the breach of right to legal representation. Having to listen to answers like "I don't know" and "maybe it's incorrect" coming from the witnesses makes me wonder. Why? Why these people are so hostile towards the words "human rights".

Given the opportunity to sit throughout the proceeding, I got to observe quite a number of intriguing facts as the witnesses from the police force testified.

Observation 1

1)DSP Jude Pereira, when asked whether he actually communicated with the lawyers before the lawyers were arrested admitted that he actually did. And he went on saying that "they look so young, they don't look like lawyers, they look like school going children, or just graduated from college and they are women"!

Hold it right there, should we feel flattered that we look young? Or should we feel offended that just because we are women, the fact that we went to the police station to discharge our statutory duties appeared to him to be so overwhelmingly out of the norm that no women on earth should be doing what we did that night.

Earlier on when asked by the commission to describe the situation on the night prior to the arrest, he said that the police felt vulnerable by the presence of the lawyers, the armory might be hijacked and the whole police station might be under attack. Wow! young and dangerous eh?

Observation 2

When the DSP revoked our 14 clients' rights to see lawyers that night, he testified that the 14 were very uncooperative, they were raising their voices asking for lawyers, and they were singing negaraku. When asked by our counsel whether the above mentioned conducts constitute an offence under any existing laws, the infamous OCPD of Brickfields who ordered the arrest said no.

And surprise surprise, the ground relied on by the DSP in revoking the right of our 14 clients to see lawyers was the fact that they raised their voices, demanding their rights to see their lawyers.

Behold, by demanding your constitutional right to see your lawyers, your demand can be used against you and your right which has been guaranteed under the Constitution will go down the drain, just like that.

Intriguing is it not? The proceeding continues tonight, 8pm-10pm, SUHAKAM, Level 29,Menara Tun Razak.