Malaysia Bar EGM and stranglehold on mainstream media

ARCHIVES 2009

By admin-s On May 16, 2009

It was a very significant event yesterday. More than 1,400 lawyers converged at Petaling Jaya Civic Hall for Malaysia Bar’s emergency general meeting. In the past, the Bar always had difficulty to reach the quorum of any EGM, but not this time.

By Guan Sin (Air Kosong)

Attendance of 500 is required, and it was held at 3pm on a weekday (Friday). But the number simply reflects the seriousness of the business at hand – police abuse of their power and their disregard of law. The EGM was called arising from the arrest of five lawyers who went to help the fourteen people who were arrested earlier at Brickfields police station.

The infamous video (YouTube, jump ahead to 6:00 to see him in action) of one ‘Mr Head Hunters’ (actually Brickfields OCPD Wan Abdul Bahari Wan Khalid) was shown during the EGM, to the outrage of all lawyers present, on the humiliation of their fellow brothers and sisters going for the aid of ‘orang kena tangkap’. (Malaysiakini’s YouTube video, jump ahead to 6:00 to see Mr Head Hunters in action.)

When the Lingam video scandal broke, 2,000 lawyers decided to walk for justice. And that’s one major turning point, which helped lead to other events that culminated to Mar 8, 2008 election outcome. This could be another one, and it could mean Najib is on the verge of becoming the PM with the shortest term.

Already, I have heard a lawyer friend telling me that they are very serious this time. The demand for resignation of the OCPD, IGP and home minister must be met. And the Bar is going to sue the government. Next, they are planning for nationwide walks for justice by the state Bar.

So it is all very significant. And you would imagine the newspapers today at least carry this on page 2 if not on their frontpage. No, far, far from that. You would probably have missed it on the paper you read everyday, for a good reason. Look at the following coverage report: