Thinking of you, Burma

I am concerned and excited (not like joyous-excited but nervous-excited) about what's happening in Burma right now. Could this be the beginning of the end for the junta?

In December 2001, Erik, his sister Eva and I spent about 10 days in Burma right after our wedding. We mulled over the "Should We, Shouldn't We?" question and decided to go. It was a really special trip but more about that later, when we've scanned the prints from that trip... digital was not all the rage yet.

For info and news on the protests, read The Irrawaddy and Democratic Voice of Burma.

Save our Judiciary! Join the March!

Join the Bar Council members and Malaysians from all walks of life in a march from Palace of Justice (POJ) to the PM's Office, as they hand over a memorandum calling for a Royal Commission into the VK Lingam video clip issue. The meeting point is the stairs of the POJ, Wednesday, 26 Sept 2007.

* Remember, parking sucks at Putrajaya, so just park your car by the side of the main roads, cos there are simple not enough parking lots in the administrative capital for the country.

** Good luck! I wish I could be there as this will be a historic occasion, but I will be on my way to London. My thoughts will be with all of you.

Barred from travelling freely

From left: Kua KS, Cynthia Gabriel and Meenakshi Raman

When concerned Malaysians become activists (whether they socio-political, environmentally-conscious, animal lovers, etc), they do it for the same reasons: they love their country and they want to make it better.

They don't do it for the reason the BN government likes to accuse them of - that these people are anti-government and therefore traitors to this country. Yeah right, we activists like to be barred from travelling freely and we enjoy being intimidated by SB officers ... all in the name of FUN.

I knew of a handful of people who had been barred from travelling freely on the basis they were activists but I was quite shocked to read that there were Sarawakian acitivists who have been barred from travelling abroad. The government's reason is very likely that these people would not then be able to 'tell more lies about the country' to 'pesky Westerners'...

The following information is from Suaram.

Sarawakians who have had their rights to travel abroad denied:

i. Gara Jalong - an indigenous activist who was stopped at the airport while on his way to Thailand for the Asian Indigenous Peoples' Pact meeting in 1994. His passport has since expired and his application to renew it in 1995 has been refused without any reasons given.

ii. Wong Meng Chuo - an activist who has been working with forest peoples and forest issues, was stopped in 1992 when he was on his way to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Brazil. Although he was eventually allowed to attend the conference, Wong was unable to get his passport renewed when it expired in June 1995. Only after SUHAKAM intervened in 2001, he was finally allowed to get his passport renewed - 6 years after it had expired.

iii. Raymond Abin - an indigenous activist who had his passport taken from him at KLIA on 2 March 1997. Raymond was on his way to attend a conference of the International Alliance of the Indigenous Tribal Peoples of the Tropical Forests in India. He was told by Immigration Department that he was a "threat to national security". Abin's passport was eventually returned to him, but he was told that it was no longer a valid travel document. Abin has since made 3 passport renewal applications but unsuccessful.

iv. Jok Jau Evong - an indigenous activist who had his passport taken from him at the airport in Kuching in 1993, when he was going to attend a conference in Peru. He was told that he could not leave the country due to his involvement in anti-logging campaigns. Evong then sought to annul the state government's decision to revoke his passport to the High Court. However, the case was dismissed by the court. In 2002, 9 years after being barred from leaving the country, the Court of Appeal finally declared that the decision by the Sarawak Immigration Department in 1993 to withdraw Evong's passport should be revoked.

v. Thomas Jalong - an indigenous activist was stopped at the Kuala Lumpur airport when he was on his way to attend the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) meeting in Tokyo in 1992. His passport was also withheld. Jalong filed a case at the High Court in January 1993 challenging that the Director of Immigration did not have the power to withdraw his passport. Jalong lost his case, but appealed to the Court of Appeals and reached an out-of court settlement in 2005. He has since been given the clearance by the Immigration Department to renew his passport.

Activists from Semenanjung Malaysia who are barred from entering Sarawak:

i. Kua Kia Soong - a director of SUARAM who has been an active campaigner against the Bakun Dam project and was a member of the fact finding mission to enquire into the conditions faced by indigenous peoples displaced in 1998. On 23 August 2007 Kua, who was to officiate a function in Sarawak organised by the New Era College, of which he is the principal, was refused entry after having his MyKad (identification card) screened. The Immigration Department officer at Kuching airport informed that he had been refused entry into Sarawak because he is on the "blacklist for involvement in anti-logging activities".

ii. Cynthia Gabriel - the then Executive Director of SUARAM was denied entry into Sarawak at Miri Airport in August 2003. She was to attend a workshop on globalisation and its impact on indigenous people in Malaysia. Immigration Department officers at the airport told Gabriel that she was denied entry as her name was blacklisted since 1998. Gabriel has still not been officially informed the reasons of the ban from entering Sarawak imposed on her.

iii. Meenakshi Raman - the former legal advisor to the Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) was a lawyer to the indigenous people affected by the Bakun Dam project in Sarawak. Meenakshi was refused entry into the Sarawak in April 1995 when she was on her way to consult with her clients, but has not been told why she has been barred from entering Sarawak.

iv. Tan Jo Hann - an activist with the Persatuan Masyarakat Selangor dan Wilayah Persekutuan (PERMAS) who has worked on development issues, was first refused entry into Sarawak around 1999. The Immigration Department officers claimed that his name was in the blacklist but did not provide further explanations. After being pressed further, the Immigration Department Chief of the state of Sarawak said to Tan that it might be due to his "anti-logging activities" and asked him to clarify this matter in the Immigration Department headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. He was subsequently given an official letter declaring Tan persona non grata in Sarawak. In 2001, he was again deported when he tried to travel to Sarawak.

v. Jerald Joseph - an activist who has been working with Pusat Komas and also an active campaigner for indigenous peoples' rights, found out that he was in the Sarawak state's blacklist when Tan Jo Hann was denied entry into the state. When Tan was refused entry into Sarawak around the year 1999, the Immigration Department officer told Tan that Jerald Joseph was also in the blacklist.

vi. Carol Yong - then a research student who had previously worked with the Institute for Community Education, an NGO working on indigenous peoples' rights, was stopped at Miri Airport in 1997. She was traveling to Sarawak for her Master's fieldwork with an official research permit issued by the State Planning Unit (SPU) of the Sarawak government. Yong was given a letter from the Immigration Department at the Miri Airport, declaring Yong persona non grata in the state. In the letter, it was also stated that she had to leave the state within 24 hours. Despite the order to leave Sarawak within 24 hours, Yong went to Kuching to see the SPU officer the next day and was informed that the order to leave came from the state Immigration Department.

vii. Colin Nicholas - the Centre for Orang Asli Concerns (COAC) director was denied entry to Sarawak in September 2003. Nicholas was told by the Immigration Department director of Sarawak that the state had "very good reasons" for denying entry of those people on the blacklist, and that the department did not normally divulge or make public the reasons for the deportations. On 10 September 2007, as Nicholas was leaving the country for a conference, he was stopped at the Kuala Lumpur airport. The Immigration Department officer asked him whether he was a Sarawakian and confirmed that he has been blacklisted since 1998 for "anti-logging and environmental activities". The Immigration Department computer screen which displayed Nicholas' personal information had the word "RAHSIA" (secret) written in large font diagonally. After a delay of 5 hours, he was finally allowed to proceed. To date, he has not received any official documents informing him of the reasons of the restrictions imposed on him.

Dramatic Skyscape

This made me gasp and I slowed down to capture it on camera while driving around the Tuanku Jaafar Golf Club area in Senawang, N.S. on 11 September 2007.

Protest at Selayang Council (2)

Thank goodness the Council's stupid half-baked idea of a dog-catching competition has been scrapped... but not before the animal lovers were intimidated by Kg. Laksamana village head Rasheed Sultan Afshur, who was there at the protest AND at the meeting between the Council and the animal lovers. Who IS this guy and why is he so powerful that no one else at Selayang Council dared to restrain him for making rude and offensive remarks?

Protest at Selayang Council (1)

Malaysian Animal Rights and Welfare Association president N. Surendran explaining to an MPS officer why we were there. The guy was polite enough but what irked us was that the Health Director was around but refused to come down and see us. Damn sombong...

Malaysian Politicians Say The Darndest Things

"Only women who are not pretty should be employed by the State government, as these women would not be able to get rich husbands who can support them financially."

"The best way to improve your golf is to chop down the rainforest."

"All local institutions of higher learning must give serious attention to the problem of effeminate men on campus."

You are cordially invited to the launch of the book, Malaysian Politicians Say the Darndest Things - Compiled by Amir Muhammad with illustrations by Shahril Nizam.

Find out more about the book here.

Get your copy on Sunday, 16 September, 3-5 pm at The Annexe Gallery, Central Market Annexe, KL!

Yippee! Selayang Council backs down

I was at the handover of the memo to Selayang Council two days ago, so you can imagine how happy I was to receive an alert from theSun about half hour ago that the Dog-Catching Competition HAS BEEN SCRAPPED. Now it's time to make them listen and engage with people like SPCA and the animal rights groups so that they can come up with policies that make sense. I will post some photos from the event later.

Coverage of the event can be found here, here, and here,

* Picture downloaded from the Net.

HardTalk: Found it!

Please spread this far and wide, folks.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsa/n5ctrl/progs/07/hardtalk/albar13sep.ram

In a HardTalk programme first broadcast on Thursday 13 September 2007, Sarah Montague talks to Malaysian Foreign Minister Dato Seri Syed Hamid Albar.

Malaysia has just marked fifty years of independence, and there's much to celebrate.

Living standards have improved immeasurably over the past five decades, illiteracy has been virtually eradicated and the economy is doing well.

But do Indian and Chinese Malaysians have as much to celebrate as the Malay population?

Sarah Montague talks to Dato Seri Syed Hamid Albar about whether the law giving preferential treatment to Malay and other indigenous groups is now outdated.

&#%*)$@$!*>&#

This photo was downloaded from the Net.

Just caught HardTalk on BBC with Syed Hamid Albar, our dear Foreign Minister. Cringe Fest is all I can say.

Hanging Garden

I was really taken by the pretty hanging orchids at Bala's Chalet.

Feels like England... almost

On our quick overnighter in Cameron's, we stayed at Bala's Chalet, one of the oldest colonial structures from the pre-war period which started out as a boarding school for European expatriate children in 1934. Gorgeous and charming place.

Nessun Dorma

Here's a link to Nessun Dorma as performed by the Three Tenors.

Pavarotti has left us

Wow. I wonder if theSun got it wrong. I received a Sun alert at 1:00pm that the Big Guy had passed away, but a quick Google search turned up nothing. This is a screenshot at the time I got the alert. theSun was 15 minutes of any breaking news on Google. Wow. OK, the news is out. Goodbye, Pavarotti.

Crunch Time

This ain't one of my usual posts... but I think DAP's Budget 2008 is worth looking at. Feel free to comment and/or criticise.

Are you arachnophobic?

Went for a super-quick overnighter to Cameron Highlands this week with Erik and visiting sis-in-law, Eva. On a hike, we came across this cool spider web. It's the biggest and most intricate one I've ever seen. Kinda reminded me of the monster web they found in a Texas park around the same time. OK, so it was nowhere near as big but it still was pretty cool.

Speaking of spiders, there are lots in Cameron's so if you're paranoid about them, be warned. My sis-in-law came out of the bathroom that same morning and told me she had trapped a big spider with really long legs underneath the water scoop, and would I kindly release it into the outdoors! So I went in there and slid the laminated room-service menu card between the floor and the scoop, picked everything up and went into the garden and released it. I actually am very used to catching spiders in the house and releasing them, having had to do it a lot as my housemate at university was a bit of an arachnophobe. She would get hysterical if a spider was anywhere near her.

Munching on raisins

This wasn't a very sharp photo to begin with but I liked the subjects. This was at Birethanti, at the foothills of the Annapurna region, where we started our trek to Ghandruk. The little girl's happy cos I had just given her a box of Ligo's raisins. Anyway, I turned to the magic of Photoshop and the photo took on an 'oil painting' effect. Well, sort of...