What is left of Malaysian rights?

exams are over. I think i can pass. that's all that matters. I was probably one of the lucky few that received a defective paper without the last 7 questions which are apparently very hard. and our year director just promised us that we will not be disadvantaged in anyway. Good. :D

I'm still sick. Which means when everyone is out enjoying post-exam fun, i'm post-exam hibernating. Yes, sleeping is one of my few hobbies, but there are times when a koala bear wants to explore the world outside sleeping and eating eucalyptus leaves.

And now, my sad commentaries of Sunday's incident as promised.

It's becoming a norm now in malaysia. Peaceful marches to claim rights. Rights that people feel were snatched from them.

This time it's the BAR council organising Walk for Freedom in conjunction with UN's International Human Rights Day. But similar to Walk for Justice, BERSIH and HINDRAF, this walk was not given a police permit.

Ask why it's not given a permit and you'd get the same answers. PM Badawi will say 'it is not our culture'. Heck, on that basis we should all wear traditional clothing. T-shirts are not our culture too. Television should not be our culture. Western art is not our culture too. So let's go back a few hundred years where we are deeply rooted in our cultures.

Yes, i'm against riots and anything that turns violent. But BAR council is a respectable body of lawyers. They are professional, i'm sure they can be as good at ensuring the safety of an event compared to organisers of let's say, Penang bridge marathon? Why can't they have a permit? At this point i can only here ZAM saying, Yes, it is illegal, we are allowing protest (from the now infamous aljazeera interview)

Ok, so being respectable, professional people, they decided to cancel of the walk but carry on with their activities in THEIR OWN BUILDING. After all, all of them are familiar with the law most redundant with our constitution - ie a gathering of more than 3 people outdoors require a police permit. And yes, our constitution does guarantee freedom of assembly.

They took it cool, except for a few that insisted on walking because it's their right to walk wherever they wany on their homeland. Their country. The weird thing was according to lawyers at the scene (i wouldn't judge against the crediblity of 50 lawyers who serve in court and know the penalty of lying) police allowed them to walk for 10 minutes, stopped them, asked one of the lawyers in charged to disperse the crowd and after the lawyers obliged, they arrested the lawyers! talk about absurdity. There would be some rationality behind this if the lawyers were violent, or the police never issued that 'oral permit'.

But all these are not that surprising. I'll tell you what is.

Edmund Bon, BAR council for Human Rights was arrested. On the basis that he tried to stop officers from removing banners saying International Human Rights Day from BAR council's own building.

I would totally understand if the banners said something like F*@# Malaysia, Burn a malaysian flag, malaysia go to *#(! or racist stuff like Cina Bab* or Melayu *@)($@ or India *#($).... no it was something endorsed globally, endorsed by UN which Malaysia claims to be a member of. It just plainly says something supported by our constitution, which we should defend. Human Rights.

Now, i would imagine boring streets of Malaysia in years to come. All ye Malaysians, Listen. YOU DO NOT HAVE ANY RIGHTS TO DECORATE YOUR OWN BUILDING.

Better not put that christmas tree up for christmas. No lights for deepavali. No lanterns for CNY. No ketupats for Hari Raya. Strip of all forms of decorations from your buildings, your offices, your houses. You are not allowed to.

After all, if a respectable lawyer like Edmund Bon can get detained (despite knowing fully well his rights and how things should work) what more a commoner?

Get ready for boring streets. Heck, even christmas lights might have to be removed.