Rogue Police chief Tan Sri Khalid acts as the Attorney-General and the judicial executioner

You can never be sure you do not have a cruel, inhuman side, unless tested by circumstances! How can you ensure it never surfaces?
Rogue Police chief Tan Sri Khalid  is modelled,and act as surrogates for thoughtless investigation, providing alibis for the shoddy police work that’s seen across providing immunity to police from legal proceedings for anything done in ‘good faith.His sweeping powers 
When a government agency like the MACC preaches about integrity, honesty and transparency, should not the  Police chief Tan Sri Khalid be of unquestionable character but watch this



How sure are you about your moral scruples? Are you confident you would never commit cruel, inhuman acts? Don’t be too sure till you have been tested! For the human mind has been known to buckle under pressure, and morals have been known to mutate. And the most ordinary people have been known to indulge in extraordinarily cruel and inhuman acts. We are not really talking here about alien people or psychopaths Consider genocide, rioting and looting, or gang rapes. Can you imagine participating? Unthinkable, and yet not impossible! Think of normal young men recruited into the army, killing and committing the worst atrocities as part of their duty. Had you been a soldier during World War II, are you sure you wouldn’t have operated the gas chambers or committed other horrors we shudder to read about? The physiology of the human mind, our needs and motivations remain the same. The only difference is the time and circumstances.

Reiterating this, Laurence Rees in his book ‘Their Darkest Hour – People tested to the extreme in WW II’ after hundreds of interviews with WW II veterans, concludes that those involved in the War had convinced themselves that the enemy was beneath them and did not possess normal capacity for pain. This belief was responsible for the bestiality committed by these soldiers, — the same soldiers who then grew to ripe old ages as ordinary grandfathers of ordinary families, either unrepentant of their past or blocking it out completely.Scary, isn’t it, to imagine that under different circumstances, we may ourselves act in ways we decry now, from our present reality! And almost impossible to believe! Is there a way to pre-empt such a transformation under pressure? The only available answer is a strong base of moral values, an understanding of the self and what we stand for. This by itself will still not be enough, Olav argues, and I agree with him that what we really need is to teach children that our values will be tested and exposed to threats and pressure. And to help them learn how to stand up for themselves and win! This is the gap Olav insists we address!And despite all that, we may still under some circumstances break the mould and act out of character… But then that’s life; you cannot script everything!

The police today said remarks by former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad against Datuk Seri Najib Razak over issues related to the murder of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu and 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) were not seditious.

Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar in the Star Online report today said because Dr Mahathir was not the only person raising and talking about those issues.

"Tun Dr Mahathir isn't the only person to raise this issue. Many have before him."

When asked if the statements could be deemed seditious, Khalid said: “To me, it isn't."

In the same report, Khalid refuted Dr Mahathir's statement published on his blog, alleging that no investigations were carried out on the claims made by former police commando Sirul Azhar Umar over Altantuya's murder.

"Maybe Tun Dr Mahathir does not know about the actions we have taken, and the investigations that we have carried out." he told Star Online.

Khalid added that the police have met Sirul in Australia and concluded that there were no issues that needed further investigations.

Dr Mahathir, in his recent blog article yesterday, had said that Malaysians did not trust Najib and Barisan Nasional would lose the next general election if the prime minister remained in power.

In his blog post, he highlighted various allegations made against Najib and wrote that none of them had been adequately answered.

This included the murder of Altantuya and the claims made by Sirul, who had been one of Najib's bodyguards.

On Sirul's claim that he had been "under orders" to kill Altantuya, Dr Mahathir said such an allegation ought to be investigated because Sirul had worked for Najib.

"This is a human life. It would be cruel if Sirul was subjected to the death penalty for carrying out instructions," he wrote.

Dr Mahathir also delved into the problems surrounding Finance Ministry-owned 1MDB, questioned the source of funds for Najib's stepson Riza Aziz to purchase luxury properties in New York through businessman Low Taek Jho, and called the government's recent purchase of a new private jet for Najib a "waste"

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watch video click this http://suarakeadilanmalaysia.blogspot.com/2012/09/india-jails-cartoonist-for-insult-to.html

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  read this Licence to laugh: Why Rosmah is the most vilified woman of her time in Malaysia.
In 2011 the Cartoonist Rights Network International gave Zunar their ‘Courage in Editorial Cartooning’. Later the same year, Zunar received a much sought after Hellman Hammett grant from Human Rights Watch, given to writers who face persecution because of what they write.
 
These awards go to writers - and the term has evolved over the years to cover new media and modes of expression - who because of their political writings have had their work censored and their ability to earn a living severely curtailed.
 
Ironically, Malaysia is currently sitting on the UN Security Council as a non-permanent member and chairing the regional Association of Southeast Asian Nations, known as Asean. These leadership honours are meaningless without recognition of the basic human rights Malaysia signed on to when it joined the United Nations.
 
It's well past time for Zunar's cartoons, no matter how much the Malaysian government dislikes them, to be recognised and seen not just as art - but as protected free expression that the government needs to allow for all its citizens.

 drawings, sparking debate on freedom of expression.

An Indian cartoonist has been jailed for his drawings highlighting government corruption.

Aseem Trivedi has been charged with sedition for his cartoons that “insulted” the Indian government.

His supporters say the decision is evidence of political leaders’ growing intolerance of criticism and freedom of expression.

A few years ago MF Husain painted Bharat Mata in a way, it was objected by a section of society. He apologised, yet numerous cases were filed against him in different cities by several groups.

Though a celebrity painter, Husain didn’t say much about creative freedom or tradition of nude drawings in India. He was fiercely opposed by Muslims also, who opposed him in newspapers, on the streets and elsewhere too.

Intolerance plays at many levels in India.

We now have the case of a cartoonist, Aseem Trivedi, who was arrested on charges of sedition. Later, he was freed on bail.

Trivedi, who has been part of the anti-corruption movement in India led by the self-styled Gandhian, Anna Hazare, drew a cartoon where he replaced the customary lions in the country’s national emblem with wolves, their teeth dripping with blood. The caption read, Long live corruption.

Another of Trivedi’s cartoons shows the Indian parliament (non-functioning in recent months) as a giant toilet bowl.

Browbeaten into submission
India’s best regarded political cartoonist, EP Unny, wrote in The Indian Express, a paper where he draws:

“We got both our cartoon art and the sedition law from Britain. The two carried on all these decades, including those 21 months of national emergency and censorship in the mid- (nineteen) seventies, without coming to televised blows. Now Aseem Trivedi, a 25-year old cartoonist has been sent to Mumbai jail for the seditious act of insulting the national symbol.”

“The Indian state seems to be more loyal and lawful than the queen. If you Google Steve Bell, The Guardian’s editorial cartoonist, you would think he is cooling his heels in Her Majesty’s prison.  Through some 30 years of merciless cartooning, he gleefully tore into most things British, symbolic and otherwise. Often reduced to bottom wear in Steve’s work, the Union Jack still flies high over Westminster Palace.

“Do four Asiatic lions standing back to back and tall need protection from a doodler, however activist or agitated?  There is bound to be inherent tension between any national symbol and the cartoon. One is meant to be revered and the other is nothing if not irreverent. The two should naturally clash as they do in mature democracies. Between spats they manage to live together – the symbol on its pedestal and the cartoonist at the drawing board.

“Back in 1976 in a Playboy interview when Jimmy Carter confessed to having looked on a lot of women with lust, a cartoonist put a denuded Statue of Liberty into the Presidential thought balloon.  Carter didn’t wage a war on the cartoonist; he worked his way to the Nobel Peace Prize”.

Sedition laws can be meaningless in a democracy, a governance based on the principle of free speech.

A democracy asks its citizens to speak their mind. Provided it does not cause riots or public harm.

But when citizens do that in India, they are warned and browbeaten into submission – even sent to jail.  India’s sedition law was written in 1860 to empower the British masters ruling India to punish “natives”.

Yes, when a writer or cartoonist says what pleases the ears of the powers that be, he is encouraged to write or draw more. However, when he comments in words or pictures something critical, heavens fall.

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the ugh-est of them all? That’s the question Aseem Trivedi seems to ask in his latest cartoon. Errr, Aseem? Yup. The same. This is what happens when an utterly nonsensical sedition case is filed against a cartoonist (high on anger, low on talent) — it’s called a oneday phenomenon. But here’s the upside to the controversy. The recent furor has drawn public attention to the growing antipathy against the ‘ugly politician’. It sure looks likes this is going to be the winter of our discontent.

First came the brutal attack on traffic cop Mohan Lal by a minister’s security personnel. Lal’s crime? He had dared to stop the minister’s convoy for jumping a red light. Then came news of some obscure cartoonist’s arrest in Mumbai. In both these seemingly unrelated cases, the strident howls of protest from the aam junta were similar in nature — they were more against the abuse of power by the high and mighty than in support of two wronged individuals . The big question in both cases — how long before we move on?

Mohan Lal may end up nursing a bloodied and bulbous eye all by himself, once the media pounces on an even grislier story. After all, Mohan Lal has not announced his intentions of joining a citizens’ movement or turning into an activist . There is nothing ‘sensational’ about Mohan Lal’s predicament. This beastly incident is just another tragic case of an earnest government servant paying a huge price for doing what he’s paid to — his duty. Congress minister Taj Moiuddin will carry on, unapologetic, unscathed and unmoved. His repeated chant that he doesn’t have eyes at the back of his head, will also be filed away indifferently and soon forgotten.

But what happens from this moment on to young Aseem Trivedi will be far more interesting to monitor. Here’s a likely scenario: as of now, Aseem is the newest darling of the media. He has been completely co-opted by those crying hoarse against an archaic law. So far, it reads like a meaty story. Aseem, with disheveled hair and wearing the mandatory black kurta, lends himself perfectly to the darkness of the moment , as he plays to the gallery, spewing contempt and talking of freedom of expression. He is also producing cartoons on command as apt photo-ops . That is, when he isn’t posing for shutter bugs, hugging well-known people like Dr Binayak Sen. Aseem’s minders may have taken over his image building, going by how swiftly he undertook an expeditious damage control exercise when the Dalit heat was about to get to him.

Once out of jail, what did our cartoonist friend do — he rushed to Buddh Vihar to pay his respects to Babasaheb Ambedkar, adding he had the ‘greatest respect” for the Dalit leader and the Constitution . He also grabbed a quick lunch at Mayank (India Against Corruption) Gandhi’s office, before addressing a packed press conference.

What does the future hold for disgruntled young people like Aseem when they are suddenly propelled into the limelight and converted into overnight martyrs? What happens when an Aseem becomes a pivot, a symbol, even a hero? Does collective anger find the outlet it seeks? Or does the initial emotional outpouring get dissipated , leading to absolutely nothing but a few dramatic media clips? Political parties are quick to swoop down on people like Aseem.

Any person who can grab headlines is worth courting . In such a cynical scenario, someone like him is a catch.

So far, he has presented himself as a somewhat naïve but reasonably sensitized young man, using crude cartoons to express his disillusionment . His life has undergone a 360-degrees change after the misplaced sedition charge. He is now owned by the media. He is hot property. He will make it to international publications and global channels. For a short while at least, Aseem will gobble up publicity and share front page space with movie stars and sports heroes. Someone smart will ask him to walk the ramp— for a cause, of course. He will be wooed to play showstopper during the unending Fashion Weeks. Reality shows will chase him. He may enter the Big Boss house. Get a publishing deal. His career as a budding cartoonist may end abruptly. But so what? For another 15 minutes, or perhaps 15 days, Aseem will be hailed as a bona fide celebrity , a star. The ravenous media monster isn’t done with him yet. And yes,he also drawscartoons for aliving.

Was that caricature really denigrating or obscene? Anyway.

You can see photos about Muslims objecting to his caricature on my earlier post. Husain couldn’t come back to India, settled outside the country and died. He must have been bitter but didn’t say anything critical of the country or the government.

Now, we have a cartoonist, Aseem Trivedi. In one of his cartoon, he shows ‘Gang rape of Mother India‘. These are the exact words which he mentioned in his cartoon. Mother India is shown wearing a tricolour Sari.

Politician is telling her, ‘Hurry up’, while bureaucrat [spelt wrongly by him] is also holding her hand while another creature [corruption] stands ready.He drew Parliament in such a way that it resembles a big toilet [commode] and as far as our national symbol ‘Ashoka pillar’ is concerned, he turned the lions into wolves.

Contrary to Husain’s case. Aseem Trivedi is not apologetic. He won’t say sorry. The cartoonist who was not too well known, feels that he has every right to draw it. He is quite clear about it. He has conviction, no doubt. Perhaps, good that he has taken a stand.

But the difference in this case is that political parties that right-wing Hindutva groups hounded Husain, but support him for these cartoons. They are not too engaging. But from Shiv Sena to MNS and even BJP, none of these parties feel that such cartoons, particularly, about Bharat Mata, and those tampering our national symbols are distasteful.

The law is clear about it. Yet, he has support from a wide spectrum. Is freedom of expression absolute. No! It comes with responsibility. You can’t abuse your neighbour, leave alone tampering with national emblem.

However, Aseem is right in the sense that slapping a case of sedition was unjust. Yes, these colonial laws are used selectively, often misused, and they must be reviewed. He is courageous in a sense. The fact is that he did what he thought was his right.

Sorry, I don’t like these cartoons & its my personal thought. They are not seditious but they do hurt my sensibilities. I won’t post them on this site. If you intend to see them, search elsewhere. But this is a watershed case.

The strong support the activist-cartoonist has got, political parties standing for his right to expression and state government forced to review its decision–all these are things that would be unthinkable in the past.

I won’t say double standards in the case of Maqbool Fida Housain vis-a-vis Aseem Trivedi. Press Council supports him for his right to draw the cartoon. He gets award for courageous cartoons.

No case registered against him under cyber laws or IT Act, which any other ordinary person may be booked for, if he/she simply forwards objectionable material.

So there is no question of patriotism test conducted on Trivedi. I am a fool yaar, I shouldn’t even think of it. What a silly comparison. Why would someone ever question his ‘deshbhakti’!

Or perhaps, there is a new dawn in India. Boundaries of creative freedom are getting stretched and people are imbibing the Western values as far as seeing and understanding art is concerned. Let’s hope, the standards remain the same in future as well.

It was just for the record