The Malaysian Insider

17  MAC — Di dalam rencana saya, Visiting the Malay “Rights”, (versi Bahasa Malaysianya) saya telah mengupas peruntukan-peruntukan yang terdapat di dalam artikel 153, Perlembagaan Persekutuan. Saya telah nyatakan bahawa mengikut peruntukan artikel 153, orang-orang Melayu sebenarnya tidak mempunyai apa-apa “hak” istimewa.

Apa yang wujud hanyalah “kedudukan” istimewa orang-orang Melayu dan juga kaum pribumi Sabah dan Sarawak. Secara amnya, kedudukan istimewa itu tidak memberikan apa-apa hak yang diiktiraf undang-undang kepada orang-orang Melayu.

Khususnya, apa yang terdapat di dalam artikel 153 tersebut ialah kuasa yang diberikan kepada Baginda Yang di Pertuan Agong untuk memastikan tempat-tempat di pusat pengajian tinggi dan perkhidmatan awam direzabkan untuk orang-orang Melayu dan juga kaum pribumi Sabah dan Sarawak seperti mana ataupun setakat mana yang Baginda dapati munasabah.

MARCH 9 — Umberto Eco, in his article, The Wolf and the Lamb — The Rhetoric of Oppression (from which the title to this article is borrowed), posits that often enough, an oppressor — such as a dictator — would try to legitimise his oppression. He or she will even try “to obtain the consensus of those he is oppressing, or to find someone who will justify it” by using “rhetorical arguments to justify his abuse of power.”

(At this juncture, I would like to add to Eco’s example of an oppressor. In addition to a dictator, I would add a “totalitarian democrat” who is a so-called leader elected through a controlled democratic process. I would also add to the list what Rawls terms as the “benevolent absolutist.”)

The need for legitimisation of an act or acts of oppression, to my mind, stems from the desire to justify such acts,  which in turn is driven by  purely egoistical motivation, or perhaps is due to a deep feeling of guilt. Added to that must be the desire to gain acceptance of the people and to pander to the middle class intellectual probing.

FEB 24 — The General Election of 1999 saw Umno being whitewashed in Kelantan and Trengganu, losing the 2 states to PAS. In Kelantan, Umno had a dismal run where it only managed to secure just 1 parliamentary seat out of 14 and 2 state seats out of a total of 43. In Trengganu, Umno led Barisan Nasional to only 4 state seats out of a total 32. All 8 parliamentary seats in Trengganu went to the opposition. The full result is here.

Held just after the calamitous Anwar Ibrahim’s unceremonious sacking from his Deputy Premiership, his subsequent ISA detention, black eye incident and the infamous mattress-and-sodomy-at-a-condominium-which-did-not-exist trial, the 10th general election saw the Malay electoral citizenry being split in a fashion not seen before.

NOV 30 — It’s really tough being a judge. Really, I think it’s a thankless job. A judge can never do any right.

I think it was in 1996 that a soon-to-be-really-famous High Court judge politely asked me and my opponent whether we would mind remaining in his chambers for some small talk after we had finished our hearing before him. As I had no other case to do, I obliged the judge. So did my opponent.

He asked both of us how long we had been practising. I told him I had practised for about 10 years. He smiled and said that I could be a judge soon (as the Federal Constitution states that a person who has been a lawyer for 10 years or more can be a judge).

NOV 24 — I must say I was surprised at how much attention my article Enemies of the State (I owe this title to The Malaysian Insider as my original title was lame in comparison) attracted.

There were many comments at my blog as well as The Malaysian Insider, where my article appeared. Zaidel Baharuddin, a fellow writer with the Malaysian Insider posted a comment and also ran a reply on his blog, Catatan Seekor Lipas. The famous Rocky of Rocky’s Bru also ran a post on the topic which basically pitted my stand against that of Zaidel’s aka the “Lipas Man”.

I must say I am impressed with the passion shown by most of the commentators on either side of the fence. However the debate at Rocky’s Bru had somewhat degenerated into a lawyer bashing event and the issue at hand transformed into: a question of whether lawyers are of any use to the society. And whether a doctor makes a better Prime Minister than a lawyer.