https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiH-uRSPTSg
Monday, 26 December 2016
We are not fine if we do not define
Brave New World (The Star)
21 December 2016
________________________________________
I WAS an appalling student in university. I never came close to scoring a first for any of my exams ... except once.
It was in my second year and the paper was Crime. Before the exams, somehow I got the name of the external examiner for Crime. I am not clever, but I had my moments of cunning. So I searched high and low to find articles written by this particular professor. He wrote a lot about theft and I studied those articles very closely.
Come exam time I made sure to answer the question on theft and I made doubly sure to put in lots of quotes by the “brilliant professor so and so”.
As an unintended side effect of my attempts to be cunning I actually read more than I would normally have and I did pretty well in my Crime exam. In fact my paper was a borderline first. That’s like an A. I never got an A for anything in university.
Aha! This is where my scheming was to pay off. Borderline cases are sent to the external examiner and surely he would not be immune to the thick layers of praise I had spread around in my paper. All that talk about his intellect and acumen was surely worth the two extra marks to push my paper up from a 2.1. to a first.
You know what? The damned fool pushed me down.
Is there a moral to this story? I have no idea; I suppose there must be. But I didn’t tell this story so that it can be some sort of ethical Christmas tale.
The reason I raised it is because of all that reading I did (albeit with rather less-than-pure motives), I remember the definition of theft better than anything else from my undergraduate years. From memory, I think theft is “the appropriation of property with the intention to permanently deprive the rightful owner of said property”.
Definitions are important in law. We need to be clear as to what a crime is in order to avoid injustice. If there is no clarity and the law is overly vague, then a person may be found guilty of committing an offence that they had no idea was an offence.
Let me give you a couple of examples. The Penal Code has offences of crimes that threaten parliamentary democracy.
Yet there is no definition of what “parliamentary democracy” is. This means the police have been charging people for an offence that no one knows exactly what it is.
This has led to a situation where things that are actually part and parcel of a parliamentary democracy (at least in my view) have been deemed a threat by the cops.
Such state of affairs also exists in public universities up and down the country. In the students’ disciplinary rules of all public universities, you will probably find the offence of “tarnishing the image of the university” or something similar to that.
What exactly does “tarnishing the image of the university” mean? Well, it would appear to me that it means whatever the university and its disciplinary board want it to mean.
Therefore protesting against corruption has been deemed a “tarnishing” act. How can exercising one’s right to expression, on an issue of national importance, be seen as “tarnishing”?
I don’t know. It is a mystery to me. And in any law or rules, mysteries are not a good thing.
There has to be clarity and certainty as far as possible. This is to ensure that there can be no such thing as an overly broad discretion in the hands of those enforcing these laws and rules. Because when such a broad discretion exists, so does despotism.
And despots come in all shapes and sizes; some carry guns and some wear mortar boards.
21 December 2016
________________________________________
I WAS an appalling student in university. I never came close to scoring a first for any of my exams ... except once.
It was in my second year and the paper was Crime. Before the exams, somehow I got the name of the external examiner for Crime. I am not clever, but I had my moments of cunning. So I searched high and low to find articles written by this particular professor. He wrote a lot about theft and I studied those articles very closely.
Come exam time I made sure to answer the question on theft and I made doubly sure to put in lots of quotes by the “brilliant professor so and so”.
As an unintended side effect of my attempts to be cunning I actually read more than I would normally have and I did pretty well in my Crime exam. In fact my paper was a borderline first. That’s like an A. I never got an A for anything in university.
You know what? The damned fool pushed me down.
Is there a moral to this story? I have no idea; I suppose there must be. But I didn’t tell this story so that it can be some sort of ethical Christmas tale.
The reason I raised it is because of all that reading I did (albeit with rather less-than-pure motives), I remember the definition of theft better than anything else from my undergraduate years. From memory, I think theft is “the appropriation of property with the intention to permanently deprive the rightful owner of said property”.
Definitions are important in law. We need to be clear as to what a crime is in order to avoid injustice. If there is no clarity and the law is overly vague, then a person may be found guilty of committing an offence that they had no idea was an offence.
Let me give you a couple of examples. The Penal Code has offences of crimes that threaten parliamentary democracy.
Yet there is no definition of what “parliamentary democracy” is. This means the police have been charging people for an offence that no one knows exactly what it is.
This has led to a situation where things that are actually part and parcel of a parliamentary democracy (at least in my view) have been deemed a threat by the cops.
Such state of affairs also exists in public universities up and down the country. In the students’ disciplinary rules of all public universities, you will probably find the offence of “tarnishing the image of the university” or something similar to that.
What exactly does “tarnishing the image of the university” mean? Well, it would appear to me that it means whatever the university and its disciplinary board want it to mean.
Therefore protesting against corruption has been deemed a “tarnishing” act. How can exercising one’s right to expression, on an issue of national importance, be seen as “tarnishing”?
I don’t know. It is a mystery to me. And in any law or rules, mysteries are not a good thing.
There has to be clarity and certainty as far as possible. This is to ensure that there can be no such thing as an overly broad discretion in the hands of those enforcing these laws and rules. Because when such a broad discretion exists, so does despotism.
And despots come in all shapes and sizes; some carry guns and some wear mortar boards.
Monday, 19 December 2016
Let’s go further than just demos
Brave New World (The Star)
7 December 2016
The plight of the Rohingya is the first big test for the Asean Charter and the Asean Human Rights Declaration.
____________________________________________
LAST Sunday there was a big demonstration in Kuala Lumpur. Nothing too weird about that, since nowadays demos are becoming more common in Malaysia.
What was odd was it saw the leader of Umno and PAS sharing the stage and for all the world looking like new BFFs. They were united in expressing their displeasure to the Myanmar government for the horrible treatment of the Rohingya in their country.
Now a lot has been said about this event, on how it is ironic that the leader of a Government, which has on numerous times said that demonstrating is not part of Malaysian culture, would be involved in such a thing.
But I suppose it is perhaps in our culture to protest foreign governments and not our own. Who knows?
Another thing which has been said is how it is a politically motivated event. What can one say? It is organised by Muslim non-governmental organisations backed by politicians, so of course it is politically motivated.
However, all said and done, whatever the motivation of the organisers, however ironic the event may be, the fact remains that Rohingya people are suffering on a terrible scale. What can be done?
In the context of Asean we can see how the presence of a government head at a demo has got the Myanmar government apoplectic. This is because it is simply not done. In Asean, the Asean way of non-interference holds sway.
I think the challenging of the Asean way is not necessarily a bad thing. But it is not enough just to make a big show of opposition to a neighbour’s domestic practices. For real effect, there has to be action both at the regional level as well as the national level.
At the national level, if we are serious about helping the Rohingya, then it is time we sign and ratify the United Nations Convention on Refugees.
We have to include into our legal system the mechanisms necessary to recognise and give legal status to those who are running away from dire and dangerous situations. They must be allowed to work and their children be allowed to go to school.
The Government has the power to take action to recognise Rohingya refugees, even without signing and ratifying the Refugee convention, which may take a long time.
The situation is urgent and, by their action on Sunday, they want to project a sincere concern. That’s nice, but what would be nicer would be some solid action.
At the regional level, Asean has a lot to answer for. This situation did not rise overnight. It has been brewing for years, if not decades. Yet there has been no significant action taken that could have stopped this disaster before it happened.
Well, now it may be deemed too late, but that does not mean nothing needs to be done. At the very least, Asean has to demand free access for a fact-finding mission to determine the scale of the issue and then, following that, serious and concerted effort must be taken to stop any continuation of this humanitarian disaster.
The Asean Charter and the Asean Declaration of Human Rights both state that human rights and peace are aspirations of Asean. This shall be their first big test. Is the organisation willing to stand by their word or will they just act in their usual manner, which will mean such lofty declarations are merely empty promises?
Malaysia, now that our leader has shown such public passion, appears to be serious about doing something to alleviate the Rohingya situation. The proof is in the pudding: what will they do now at the Asean level and would they be willing to act alone, for example by recognising Myanmar refugees and taking firmer diplomatic action? Only time will tell.
7 December 2016
The plight of the Rohingya is the first big test for the Asean Charter and the Asean Human Rights Declaration.
____________________________________________
LAST Sunday there was a big demonstration in Kuala Lumpur. Nothing too weird about that, since nowadays demos are becoming more common in Malaysia.
What was odd was it saw the leader of Umno and PAS sharing the stage and for all the world looking like new BFFs. They were united in expressing their displeasure to the Myanmar government for the horrible treatment of the Rohingya in their country.
Now a lot has been said about this event, on how it is ironic that the leader of a Government, which has on numerous times said that demonstrating is not part of Malaysian culture, would be involved in such a thing.
Another thing which has been said is how it is a politically motivated event. What can one say? It is organised by Muslim non-governmental organisations backed by politicians, so of course it is politically motivated.
However, all said and done, whatever the motivation of the organisers, however ironic the event may be, the fact remains that Rohingya people are suffering on a terrible scale. What can be done?
In the context of Asean we can see how the presence of a government head at a demo has got the Myanmar government apoplectic. This is because it is simply not done. In Asean, the Asean way of non-interference holds sway.
I think the challenging of the Asean way is not necessarily a bad thing. But it is not enough just to make a big show of opposition to a neighbour’s domestic practices. For real effect, there has to be action both at the regional level as well as the national level.
At the national level, if we are serious about helping the Rohingya, then it is time we sign and ratify the United Nations Convention on Refugees.
We have to include into our legal system the mechanisms necessary to recognise and give legal status to those who are running away from dire and dangerous situations. They must be allowed to work and their children be allowed to go to school.
The Government has the power to take action to recognise Rohingya refugees, even without signing and ratifying the Refugee convention, which may take a long time.
The situation is urgent and, by their action on Sunday, they want to project a sincere concern. That’s nice, but what would be nicer would be some solid action.
At the regional level, Asean has a lot to answer for. This situation did not rise overnight. It has been brewing for years, if not decades. Yet there has been no significant action taken that could have stopped this disaster before it happened.
Well, now it may be deemed too late, but that does not mean nothing needs to be done. At the very least, Asean has to demand free access for a fact-finding mission to determine the scale of the issue and then, following that, serious and concerted effort must be taken to stop any continuation of this humanitarian disaster.
The Asean Charter and the Asean Declaration of Human Rights both state that human rights and peace are aspirations of Asean. This shall be their first big test. Is the organisation willing to stand by their word or will they just act in their usual manner, which will mean such lofty declarations are merely empty promises?
Malaysia, now that our leader has shown such public passion, appears to be serious about doing something to alleviate the Rohingya situation. The proof is in the pudding: what will they do now at the Asean level and would they be willing to act alone, for example by recognising Myanmar refugees and taking firmer diplomatic action? Only time will tell.
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