Aliran welcomes the dropping of charges of attempted murder against the 31 Malaysians who were implicated by the police without any incriminating evidence.
It was the only decent thing to do when their case was so flimsy and without merit. Under the circumstance the police were in no position to proceed with the case. When the case did not proceed yesterday, it had nothing to do with compassion or justice. It is as simple as that.
Any claim that that “theprosecution showed its softer side yesterday when it dropped theattempted murder charges against 31 people for hurting a policeman”(NST, 18 December 2007) is nothing but absolute nonsense and has nothing to do with the truth of the matter.
The Attorney-General’s statement that “we cannot pinpoint who exactly did it or rather who was the one who ‘threw the brick’ at the person who was badly injured” is ludicrous. The wisdom shown by the AG comes too late in the day and begs the question, “Wasn’t that pretty obvious from day one?” Why did you then charge them, Mr AG?
How could he have in all good conscience charged 31 Malaysians at random without being specific about their culpability in the crime? How could he have even thought of charging them?
- Sign up for Aliran's free daily email updates or weekly newsletters or both
- Make a one-off donation to Persatuan Aliran Kesedaran Negara, CIMB a/c 8004240948
- Make a pledge or schedule an auto donation to Aliran every month or every quarter
- Become an Aliran member
He sounds hollow when stating, “When we exercise the law, we have to look at it fairly.” What law did he look at and how did he exercise that law in charging them? Malaysians need a clear and concise explanation to justify his action.
Didn’t he – in spite of the defects in the ‘attempted murder charges’ – appear in person to oppose bail so that they could be locked up unjustly? The ‘charges’ were so serious that he had to come before a junior judge to impose his presence to obtain the judgment that he was pushing for. He did all this apparently knowing full well that he was walking on thin ice.
As far as ordinary Malaysians are concerned, he had wilfully discarded the law and frivolously charged them when there was no case to answer. In doing so he had so heartlessly robbed them of their freedom and wantonly denied them their human rights.
It has not even been established in absolute terms whether all of them were there to participate in the Hindraf assembly. We understand that on 25 November, being a festive, religious occasion, there were devotees amongst them in the precincts of the temple who had either come to offer prayers or to spend their night in observance of the religious festival.
Who could forget the hysterical screams of an agonising mother on the day her son was charged and denied bail? She kept screaming that her son was not with Hindraf and that he had only come to pray. But the pleas of a helpless mother were completely ignored by an uncaring state that was adamant in going ahead with the case right or wrong.
We are reminded of the famous line in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure: “O, it is excellent to have a giant’s strength; but it is
tyrannous to use it like a giant.”
That’s what you have done, Mr AG. There was no semblance of justice or fairness in what you did and how you did it.
P Ramakrishnan
President
19 November 2007
AGENDA RAKYAT - Lima perkara utama
- Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
- Galakkan pembangunan saksama, lestari serta tangani krisis alam sekitar
- Raikan kerencaman dan keterangkuman
- Selamatkan demokrasi dan angkatkan keluhuran undang-undang
- Lawan rasuah dan kronisme
