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Witch Hunt: Going after SUARAM (for pursuing the Scorpene Affair?)

The Scorpene Affair or The Scorpion’s Sting

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Malaysiakini

Media reports alleging that civil society groups are receiving foreign funding in a plot to destabilise the government could be a prelude to a crackdown on them, said Bersih co-chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan.

“Such disparaging reports (as the one on Sept 21 by the New Straits Times) lay the groundwork for a crackdown on civil society as can be seen from the on-going state harassment campaign against Suaram and the possible use of even more draconian measures,” she said.

She was speaking at a joint press conference today alongside representatives of Suaram, Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), Lawyers for Liberty, Medeka Centre, and Southeast Asian Centre for E-Media (Seacem), which were also named in the article.

“We are very worried: Could this be a prelude? Could the government be building the context or justification for bigger things to come?” asked Seacem project manager Sean Ang, pointing to pointed to Singapore’s policy of blocking foreign funding for some NGOs as an example.

Ambiga warns of crackdown on civil society groups

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Bersih co-chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan  says they want a retraction of the article, and the apology should be published in “an equally prominent place”.

The demand was also endorsed by human rights NGO Suaram, media watchdog Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), Lawyers for Liberty, Merdeka Centre, and the Southeast Asian Centre for E-Media (Seacem)

Malaysiakini

Six NGOs have issued a 48-hour ultimatum to New Straits Times for an unreserved apology over its front-page report alleging their involvement in a plot to destabilise the government.

They say the report on Sept 21 is unfounded and was written in bad faith.

Apart from wanting a retraction of the article, they said the apology should be published in “an equally prominent place”.

“We are taking this very seriously. The matter is in the hands of our lawyers,” Bersih co-chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan told a press conference today.

“So we expect to see a response from New Straits Times within 48 hours (with effect from 11am today), failing which we will take all the necessary steps and all the steps that are open to us under the law.”

The demand was also endorsed by human rights NGO Suaram, media watchdog Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), Lawyers for Liberty, Merdeka Centre, and the Southeast Asian Centre for E-Media (Seacem), whose representatives were present today.

NST given 48 hours to apologise to NGOs

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Government-owned and pro-Government mainstream media attack NGO’s deemed unfriendly to the BN Government.

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Named in BN related newspapers:
Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM)
Lawyers for Liberty (LFL)
Coalition for Free and Fair Elections (Bersih)
Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ)

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Suaram has no record whatsoever of being a body that promotes terrorism. Neither is Suaram in cahoots with Soros to damage the country. Yet, to some UMNO leaders Soros was alleged to have “damaged” the country’s economy in the past.

Malaysia Chronicle

Saturday, 22 September 2012 21:09

Soros: Blamed for Dr M’s currency gambling, now bogeyman for Najib’s Scorpenes

Written by  Moaz Nair, Malaysia Chronicle

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Suaram is a body that is apolitical and operates on the basis of social justice for all Malaysians. Founded in 1989 the aims and objectives are for the protection and promotion of human rights and the development of public awareness in Malaysia.

As reported, UMNO leaders have insinuated that the American non-governmental organisation (Open Society Institute presently called Open Society Foundation) that funded Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) is linked to currency speculator George Soros.
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Suaram cannot be blamed even if it has received the funding. The network of Open Society Foundations or OSF (named Open Society Institute or OSI until 2011), is a grant making operation started by George Soros, aimed to shape public policy to promote democratic governance, human rights, and economic, legal, and social reform.

OSF works to build alliances across borders and continents on issues such as combating corruption and rights abuses. This is far from any anti-money laundering or pro-terrorism activity that can be classified under the Anti-Terrorism Financing Act 2001.
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Soros was politically perceived by Mahathir as the perpetrator of the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis. Soros was the individual who sabotaged the country’s economy, so was the allegation by UMNO leaders echoing what Mahathir had said about Soros during the financial crisis.
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It was bad governance; an economic bubble and the involvement of local currency speculators who made Malaysian economy vulnerable and the country lose billions when Bank Negara started the FOREX business well before 1997.
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In 1992 the battleground between Mahathir and Soros was the London foreign exchange market. Britain’s FOREX market was the focus of many speculators who wanted to profit from the market instability at the time.

Both expected that they were going to make money from the British.
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Soros earned a billion dollar profit from speculating against the British currency in 1992. Malaysia got her fingers burnt.
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UMNO is always good at finding scapegoats. Instead of opening up the case relating to the Scorpene Scandal the leaders are trying to strike Suaram with the “Soros factor” – exploiting on the fund Suaram received from OSI.

However, the rakyat are not that irrational to buy UMNO’s political ploy. They are just fervently waiting for the French court to reveal the truth about the Scorpene Scandal that involves UMNO, the country’s top leadership and his cronies.

Malaysia Chronicle

Soros: Blamed for Dr M’s currency gambling, now bogeyman for Najib’s Scorpenes

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Indeed in every subsequent protest, the greatest anxiety caused was by the presence of the police, who everyone – Malay, Indian and Chinese – viewed as an impediment to free assembly and not facilitators of it.

Malaysiakini

“Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.” – HL Mencken

COMMENT Apparently by writing for Malaysiakini, I am part of a plot to destabilise the government. Truth be told, Umno has been doing a good of job of destabilising the institution(s) of government for the past 55 years. To Umno, anyone who disagrees with them are traitors.

Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim is a traitor to his race. The DAP are communist traitors to the country. PAS are traitors to Islam. People who march demanding free and fair elections or march against state-sponsored racism are traitors to the constitution. There are only patriots and traitors in 1Malaysia and if you do not support Umno, you are the latter. Also, you are most probably gay.
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Perkasa information chief Ruslan Kassim may blame the Jews for pitting Muslims against Christians, but it has always been Umno who has stirred the racial and religious pot.
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The horrifying fact for Umno is that there are Christians, Hindus and Buddhists in the opposition and all, if not most, of them are very firmly entrenched in their beliefs but yet they make it work. They demonstrate that no matter how difficult and contentious it gets, there is another way besides the Umno way of doing business here in Malaysia.
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And as I have said before, every country in the world has elements that would want to violently overthrow their governments. What Umno has done is ruin the credibility of those institutions entrusted to weed out and destroy those elements. What Umno is doing is crying wolf against the very citizens who are doing what would benefit the country most, exercising their democratic rights.
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This is perhaps difficult to do when your own propaganda organs have admitted to spinning stories and engaging in outright falsehoods just to “support the government”. These fabrications and spinning, which if the laws of the land were applied fairly, would be considered seditious and created to sow distrust and hate amongst the citizens of Malaysia.

But in the end, we were traitors. For 55 years, we were traitors to the principles of democracy. We were traitors to ideas that would have moved this country beyond what Umno had envisioned for us. But not anymore. Not anymore.

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S THAYAPARAN is Commander (rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy.

Umno’s nation of traitors

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Free Malaysia Today

Amnesty International: Stop ‘harassing’ activists

Amnesty International says the recent probe against Suaram appeared “to be a concerted, multi-departmental government campaign”.

KUALA LUMPUR:  Amnesty International has called on Malaysia to stop the “harassment” of a human rights organisation that has accused the government of corruption.
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Earlier this year, a French court started hearing a complaint launched by Suaram, accusing Prime Minister Najib Razak and others over a 2002 deal to buy two submarines from France.

Amnesty International urged Malaysia in a statement Friday to “end all forms of harassment and intimidation”, saying the recent probe against Suaram appeared “to be a concerted, multi-departmental government campaign”.

“Amnesty International is concerned that the recent government actions against Suaram appear to be linked to the organisation’s legitimate work, in particular a corruption case which it has brought before the French courts,” the London-based group said.

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Amnesty International: Stop ‘harassing’ activists

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Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian, “I would like to remind (Prime Minister) Najib Abdul Razak that rigged elections that go unchecked, a judiciary that is manipulated, monopoly of ownership of the media to the point that there is no freedom of the press, repressive laws that instill fear in the populace, smear campaigns, unjustified police brutality, royal commissions that are prejudiced and now blatant scare-mongering, do not equate to a legitimate government.”

Malaysiakini

Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian has described the ruling coalition’s media blitz accusing international pro-democracy organisations were out to destabilise the government through local NGOs as a case of “overt paranoia”.

“This feeble and desperate attempt by the BN to pooh-pooh legitimate businesses, civil societies and organisations by insinuating that Malaysia is being secretly undermined by foreign countries is not only ridiculous but it shows how the BN is resorting to scare-mongering on an international scale.

“Such scare tactics in fact expose the BN for its fear of real democracy and even more importantly that it is seeing demons where none exist,” he said in a statement yesterday.

‘Spooked by democracy, BN tries scare tactics’

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Malaysian Insider

Hisham: Foreign funds for NGOs pose security risk

PUTRAJAYA, Sept 21 — Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein today voiced concern about foreign funding received by some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the country.

He said anything that involved foreign funding would obviously have repercussions on the country’s independence and safety.

Commenting on a report alleging some RM20 million foreign funding paid to several Malaysian NGOs since 2005, Hishammuddin said although he was surprised that the matter had taken quite a while to come into light, his ministry would monitor the situation.

“This matter is in the hand of the Attorney-General and the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) is providing the information.

Hisham: Foreign funds for NGOs pose security risk

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Malaysian Insider

The RM20m country, what a laugh! ― Jaleel Hameed

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Free Malaysia Today

NST report: ‘Ridiculous and rubbish’

The NGOs mentioned in an alleged plot to destabilise the government lash out at New Straits Times for its alleged smear campaign.

PETALING JAYA: Suaram denied today that it is a tool for foreign hands to destabilise the Malaysian government as alleged by New Straits Times (NST) daily today, adding that the US-based National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has no say in its direction or projects.

Blogger’s Summary of the article

1 Suaram
When asked to comment on the report, Suaram chairperson K Arumugam said that it was no secret that NED provided funds to Suaram, but added that that was the full extent of NED’s role in the human rights group….But NED doesn’t decide what we do in Malaysia. We decide what we plan to do, then we apply for funding for those projects. They don’t dictate nor direct anything.”

2 Lawyers for Liberty
LFL co-founder and advisor Eric Paulsen found the article to be “quite ridiculous” and an obvious attack against NGOs that challenge the government’s credibility….LFL has been vocal, without fear of favour, on issues such as abuse of power, detention without trial, police shootings.”

Lawyers for Liberty is against detention without trial, police shootings and it champions freedom of speech

3 Malaysiakini and the Centre of Independent Journalism use their funds for independent news.

NST report: ‘Ridiculous and rubbish’

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Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 21 ― Activists said today they are now the target of a smear campaign after a number of newspapers aligned with Barisan Nasional (BN) published stories alleging organisations like SUARAM and Bersih took foreign funds as part of a plot to destabilise the country.

The activists acknowledged to The Malaysian Insider that many of their organisations had received funds from foreign and local sources, but said the money was meant to help finance their respective causes such as to promote democratic practices and campaign for human rights.

They said the funds and their sources were not part of any plot, as suggested by a headline today on the front page of the Umno-controlled New Straits Times.

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Smear campaign’, NGOs say of foreign plot claim

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Malaysiakini

Independent news website Malaysiakini raised funds from international donors to support its Southeast Asia Centre for E-Media (Seacem) and a number of other projects, its chief executive officer Premesh Chandran said today.

Seacem was initiated by Malaysiakini in 2004, Premesh (right) said, to help civil society and fledgling online media organisations in Asia use new technologies to promote press freedom, human rights and democracy.

Funds raised to support Seacem, says M’siakini CEO

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NST

Plot to destabilise govt

Read more: Plot to destabilise govt – Top News – New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/top-news/plot-to-destabilise-govt-1.146549?cache=03D163D03edding-pred-1.1176%252F%253FpFpentwa%253Fkey%253DKuala+Lumpur%3Fpage%3D0#ixzz27ByJ6zhg

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