Sarawak Report
1 Oct 2015
Sabah born Malaysian national Doris Jones has been left stranded in
the UK without a passport and effectively stateless, owing to the latest
abuse of legal rights by her government.
Doris, who has been working for several years in the UK, had applied
for a renewal for her passport, which expires in a few days.
According to normal procedure she was invited up to London yesterday to pick the new one up.
However, she then met an obstacle, as she told Sarawak Report. High
Commission officials simply refused to issue her with the document as
promised.
“In the end they said I could try coming back” Doris told Sarawak Report, “but I am not sure I want to risk going there again under the circumstances”.
These circumstances are that Doris has provoked yet another of the
new Home Minister’s high handed “terrorism” charges by openly voicing
her concerns about the abuse of Sabah’s constitutional rights by the
present government.
In Doris’s view (and she is not alone by a very long way) the
commitments made to the Borneo states at the time of merger and
independence have not been adhered to by the Federal Government.
Doris has therefore dared to openly say (on Facebook) that she thinks
that Sabah has a valid right to declare the agreement voided as a
result of these violations and to consider its case for independence.
Banished and charged!
To even dare to write such a thing to friends on Facebook has caused a
sensational reaction on the part of the Malaysian authorities and their
barking Home Minister, who today announced that
“noisy minorities” will “end up in Hell” (clearly forgetting that it
was his own party which won the minority of votes at the last election
and only took power through gerrymandering seats).
So the full force of Malaysia’s new laws to shut up critics (under
the guise of calling them terrorists) have been marshalled against this
single, middle aged professional lady, who has a circle of Facebook
friends to whom she uttered these remarks.
Doris has had a warrant for her arrest issued in January by the
Malaysian authorities on grounds of so-called ‘sedition’ and the police
have even attempted to get her extradited from the UK on these grounds –
something they have now conceded to be a hopeless case.
Her situation starkly resembles that of several others who have dared
to speak out against a regime that is rapidly evolving into a criminal
entity and ceasing to observe the rule of law.
The writer of this blog has been subjected to identical threats, for example, and the anti-corruption campaigner Khairuddin Abu Hassan was
last week thrown back into jail, after original charges against him
were rejected by the courts, under the new “anti-terrorism” legislation
that allows for indefinite detention without trial.
His offence? – reporting criminal corruption in the state-owned 1MDB
development fund to international regulators, which ministers have
chosen to describe as “state sabotage”.
This government has relieved itself of the burden of having to
provide the slightest evidence or proof for such charges under their new
“terrorism” laws, supposedly introduced to get bombers and mad
extremists off the streets.
Definition of a dictatorship by Najib
Meanwhile, in the US, Malaysia’s Prime Minister, who has presided
over all this outrage, has been causing sniggers all week, by declaring
at staged PR events that his country is “a mature democracy”.
People are readier to believe his other claim that he plans that
nothing will budge him from his position at the head of government.
Najib’s US listeners know only too well that mature democracies allow for opposition, protest and dissent.
Mature democracies allow for and expect to see regular changes of government.
And, crucially, in mature democracies the rule of law cannot be circumvented by the commands of the boss man Najib.
It is no longer any kind of secret that Najib has driven what was a
relatively promising candidate for democracy into the ditch by his
destruction of the rule of law in Malaysia, in order to save his own
political position.
He has removed all checks and balances (and a large chunk his cabinet) assuming dictatorial power.
It was duly noted how on arriving in the UK this ‘democratic leader’
arranged for a 40 limo entourage to accompany him and his wife from
their state funded jumbo jet at Farnborough airport up to London.
It was also noted how, on their departure, the same plane was loaded
to groaning point with boxes of new purchases and acquisitions.
And the growing list of critics being charged and incarcerated on
trumped up pretences without trial back home is yet another signal for
all to see.
The world knows a dictator when they see one.
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