Discontinue the Teoh Beng Hock inquest - no one believes it

P Ramakrishnan

Teoh Beng Hock’s death has outraged the conscience of this nation. It is difficult to understand how his death could have taken place in a secure area without the knowledge of MACC officials who had complete control over the premises.

His death has distressed us and has raised many questions of propriety in the manner he was treated by the investigating personnel. He was on his feet working the whole of Wednesday, 15 July 2009, when he was taken in at 5.00pm for questioning.

His cruel grilling continued into the wee hours of the next morning until 3.45am the next day — nearly 11 hours after he had gone into the MACC building.

Why should he be subjected to this inhuman torture when he was taken in as a witness to help the MACC?

Foreward by N. Ganesan on “NOV 25 Hindraf Rally 2007” book by P. Uthayakumar

As political landscapes move they are always preceded by a change in the political discourse driving them. Old ways of looking at society and how it gets summed up into its politics have great inertia. These are entrenched into society by the power elite, who are the beneficiaries of the old system. Even as the old politics loses it moral basis, these forces of conservatism work to maintain status quo. These conservative forces keep trying harder and harder to maintain the status quo as the situation gets increasingly pregnant with the need for the new. New participants armed with ubiquity of information, new devices of communication, a new sense of the past and a new morality unleash great forces for change.

The new morality is sensed at the fringes, and against great resistance, work their way in to the centre. The story of that Great March to the centre is told here in first person narrative by Uthayakumar in the events leading up to the Grand Hindraf Rally of the 25th of November 2007. Even as this story is being told another unfolds within it. This story within the story is of how, issues that were considered taboos and sensitive for public discourse were breached, and how new ground was broken in the national discourse since.

Sabah now has the highest number of UMNO members, surpassing Johore, claims Musa

By Razlan Danial
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah now has surpassed Johore in term of UMNO membership !

State UMNO liaison chief, Musa Aman, claimed Sabah now has 455,828 UMNO members, with about 30,000 new members enrolled this year alone.

"This we achieved through our endless effort via various programmes including the "Program Juara Rakyat" to further consolidate UMNO strength in Sabah," he disclosed after he chaired UMNO state liaison meeting at its headquarter here last night.

According to Musa, who is also Sabah Chief Minister, Sabah now has the highest UMNO members taking over from Johore which has about 438,000 members.

Jokes for the day

A 60 year old woman came home one day and heard strange noises in her bedroom. She opened the door and discovered her 40 year old daughter playing with a vibrator.

‘What are you doing?’ asked the mother.

‘Mom, I'm 40 years old and look at me. I'm ugly. I'll never get married, so this is pretty much my husband.’ The mother walked out of the room, shaking her head.

The next day, the father came home and heard noises in the bedroom and upon entering the room, found his daughter using the vibrator.

‘What the hell are you doing?’ he asked.

His daughter replied, ‘I already told Mom. I'm 40 years old now and ugly. I will never get married, so this is as close as I'll ever get to a husband.’ The father walked out of the room shaking his head.

The next day, the mother came home to find her husband with a beer in one hand and the vibrator in the other, watching a football game on TV.

‘What on earth are you doing?’ she cried.

The husband replied, ‘What does it look like I'm going? I'm having a beer and watching football with my son-in-law!’

A letter forwarded by Conrad Mojuntin to us...

Dear Mr. Conrad Mojuntin, 60 Catholics were brutally murdered while attending Mass in a Catholic Church in Bagdad, Iraq. They are glorious martyrs. But 400,000 Catholics remain and are being persecuted for the faith. And we’re being asked to pray the Rosary to help them. See this impassioned email I received from an Iraqi Catholic: "I need help. I am Chaldean. We are Catholics from IRAQ who are persecuted for our faith". As you may have heard, the Muslim extremists bombed a Church in Baghdad, killing 2 priests and 58 believers. "Is there anyway we can set up a rosary rally for Chaldeans? So all can join in? We need help. Please, I am begging you. I am begging you." So please pray the Rosary on November 23rd for persecuted Catholics in Iraq. And tell everyone you know to please join in. Spread this Rosary to your friends On November 23rd, there will be a special Rosary Rally at the Mother of God Church in Southfield, Michigan. Please spread the word about this special Rosary to everyone you know.

	Robert E. Ritchie America Needs Fatima www.ANF.org

P.S. -- Please remember: the Rosary saved Austria from Russian Communists. It can save Catholics in Iraq too. There used to be 1.5 million Catholics in Iraq, but only 400,000 remain. They urgently need our prayers!