IN ORDER TO topple the existing government and to purportedly flourish democracy in a country peaceful and majestic, the US through its liberal and secular proxies within cast doubts in the minds of people to lower their trust and confidence, headline corruption claims, abuse of power by the government officers and enforcement agencies, lack of independence in governmental agencies and institutions and Islamization as the world misunderstand it or even claim of racism complicated by the very historical close nexus between Malay and Muslim here in Malaysia.
Just as how the US wished for its secular proxy in Egypt to position himself in the Presidential post but turned out to be an Islamist, the first ever elected President who was later toppled and so toppled the promising democracy, just as how the US managed to bring up heroine of democracy in Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi, just as how the US is trying to do the same which is deemed ‘undesirable in the territory of Russia’ (1), Malaysia is just another US playing field.
Recently Bersih 4.0 was organized which took after the US model of democratic and liberal nation for clean and fair elections and clean government, with no uncertain facts and terms of admission by leader of Bersih that it is funded by the US agencies for what is supposed to be a genuine and good cause.
But have we ever considered if the US itself is ever clean and deserves the standing to help and fund us for a change that should have been firstly done within the US? Or is it nothing more than rhetoric?
Racial sentiments intertwined with process of law
As much as we Malaysians are struggling in the racial sentiments played and manipulated by the media, the US itself is doing no better than us, or one could say even worst.
There is uprising conflict between polices and the local community especially among African-Americans and it is reported that there is a deep mistrust, for instance in Ferguson. This is understandably due to inconsistent law enforcement and arrests by the police and the inappropriate means of regulating the growing tensions with the use of tear gas, canine units deployed inappropriately and the use of military weapons and snipers which are rendered unsafe and ineffective to the crux of the tension (2).
It is also reported by the Justice Department that there have been discriminatory actions by the police and the small community’s municipal court system. Even the arbitration or the micro judiciary is tainted with discrimination and a range of unlawful and unconstitutional practices in the courts and policing system (2)!
Whilst the Justice Department may seem to have checks and balances on the local policing and court system, the department itself is questionable.
The Obama’s Justice Department reportedly says that ‘there are too many black prisoners illegally sentenced to be released’ if it were to follow the ruling of a US Federal Court of Appeals that ‘prisoners sentenced illegally to longer terms than the law permits must be released once the legal portion of their sentence is served’. Grounding such statement, the department reportedly mentions that the fears of the whites take precedence over justice that is to be served to the black prisoners (3).
There have also been reports of professors destroyed as they were critical of the US government on issues of Israel’s war crimes or used a word or term prohibited by political correctness or were insufficiently appreciative of the ‘privileges of preferred minorities’ (4). Whistleblowers among black government officials are also being subject to unjust sentencing (5).
And we thought that the US is much more ahead of us in embracing democracy and justice in eradicating racial biasness or incrimination.
Inhumane and undue process of law
The detention of the GID sufferers was claimed to be a major intrusion of personal liberties and we are made to think that the situation could not get any worst.
However in the US, Obama permits Justice Department, over which he wields authority, to overturn the ruling on illegally sentenced prisoners. The department says that ‘finality’ of convictions was more important than justice. Responding to such statement, Appeals Court Judge, James Hill, a member of the court making such ruling, has this to say; “A judicial system that values finality over justice is morally bankrupt”. (3)
Furthermore, the laws against torture are flawed. Even though the US is a signatory to the Geneva Convention Against Torture, the legal reality of its adoption do not seem to be happening.
The US government through Military Commissions Act in 2006 severely infringes the protection under the War Crimes Act, in particular the protection against torture, cruel or inhuman treatment and murder. The 2006 Act results in a higher degree of torture, cruel or inhuman treatment and murder being subjected to the law, acts of which must be of an extreme nature inflicting serious physical injury. (6)
As astounding as it could be, it was concluded in an infamous “Torture Memos” that “torture” under the law only referred to “the most egregious conduct,” “equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death. ”It was further thought that “the Convention Against Torture might be unconstitutional because it would infringe the “President’s authority to conduct war”. (6)
Even though Obama repudiated the memo in 2009, there was no indictment or discussion on whether such conduct was actually criminal, leaving the memo to stand to this day. Even worst, ‘decrying illegal conduct but then refusing to prosecute such conduct is a silent pardon at best, and complicity at worst’. (6)
Authorized crimes in detailed Senate Torture Report would, though highly unlikely, see prominent US leaders being prosecuted including George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfield, CIA officials and attorneys who engaged in and authorized such conduct (6).
The US is also reportedly on the rise of the inhumane. Justice Department through a memo gave the legal permission for Obama to murder a US citizen with a missile fired from a drone, an execution which took place without charges presented to a court, right to a fair trial and due process of law, and without conviction. The similar judge giving memo to limit the meaning of torture established the precedent in the US law that, the constitution notwithstanding, American citizens can be executed without a trial (4).
And we were amazed of how the US is committed to serving justice within itself and around the world.
Freedom of press and speech for political pursuits
Just recently we have been misinformed by the malicious portal The Malaysian Insider which tries to spark adverse perception towards the Friday sermons and paint a bad name on Islam in aurah matter. Being opportunists as always, DAP’s Syerleena Abdul Rashid makes a statement without studying the text and context of the sermon while accusing it as Taliban or ISIS in nature (7)!
Which is why in a country like ours, freedom of the press and speech should be reasonably regulated to encounter political pursuits of either party at the expense of the public interest. There is no doubt that The Malaysian Insider is an opposition proxy, just as how the opposition claims Utusan and TV3 as pro-government.
Meanwhile, freedom of the press in the US remains only an ideal. While such freedom is guaranteed in legal substance, the press institutions are not themselves free. Following the decision of a landmark 1976 US Supreme Court decision in Buckley, aristocrats have been allowed to buy and control politicians as they already have owned and controlled the major news media. The freedom of press is nothing less than the freedom of aristocrats to control the news as means to manipulate public issues in whatever ways they want (8).
Jimmy Carter, former US President, aptly puts, “subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors” among aristocrats. It is reported that;
“A New York Times analysis of Federal Election Commission reports and Internal Revenue Service records show that the fund-raising arms race has made most of the presidential hopefuls deeply dependent on a small pool of the richest Americans. … Just 130 or so families and their businesses provided more than half the money raised through June by Republican candidates and their super PACs”. (8)
The statement is self-evident that whilst the different conglomerates competes each other for what the country’s wealth has to offer, they are on the same side against the public interest to lower the wages of their workers to increase their own profits.
It is reported that wages of employees in the US have decreased since 2009, with the lowest-paid workers experiencing the sharpest declines, according to a study by a research and advocacy group. The study also found that even as labour productivity has improved steadily since 2000, the benefits from the improved efficiency have nearly all gone to companies, top executives and shareholders, rather than lower-ranking employees. (9)
Norman Solomon, coordinator of whistleblower advocacy organization ExposeFacts.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy said in the matter of unjust sentencing of the black whistleblower;
“The only fair trial would have been no trial at all. The only fair sentence would have been no sentence at all. Whistleblowing is a public service, and the government’s continuing efforts to criminalize that public service is a double-barreled assault on both journalism and the democracy that it vitally seeks to nurture”. (5)
The US is no longer a democracy
Jimmy Carter was interviewed when he answered to the question on two historic court decisions which enable unlimited secret money to pour into US political and judicial campaigns, saying;
“It violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system. Now it’s just an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for President or being elected President. … So, now we’ve just seen a subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors, who want and expect, and sometimes get, favours for themselves after the election is over. … At the present time the incumbents, Democrats and Republicans, look upon this unlimited money as a great benefit to themselves…” (8)
Ironically, the US’s call for democracy spreads throughout the world by the efforts that the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has covertly done for 25 years, inter alia, to support groups within foreign countries to engage in propaganda and political action to carry the wave of color revolution similar to what happened to Milosevic in Serbia. Russia has reacted by declaring NED as ‘undesirable’ and a threat to the foundations of Russia’s constitutional order and defense capability while China has signed into Overseas NGO Management Law to restrict foreign NGOs like NED (1).
Bersih 4.0 was a close-up and real-life evidence of the very revolutionary change sought by the US in Malaysia and with no uncertain facts we are aware of the main players and their link with the US agencies funding. Malaysians would want change for the better, but taking the US as an example or role model for democratic nation, one would be wise to think twice or otherwise trapped in the hypocrisy of the US.
Sources:
- F. William Engdahl, “The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is Now Officially “Undesirable” in Russia”, The Global Research.
- PressTV, “Justice Department blasts brutal police tactics in Ferguson”.
- Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, “America: A Land Where Justice Is Absent”, The Global Research.
- Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, “America: The Rise of The Inhumanes”, The Global Research.
- Lauren McCauley, “Guilty of Embarrassing Government: CIA Whistleblowers Gets 42-Month Sentence”, Common Dreams.
- Inder Comar, “The US War Crimes Act, the Geneva Convention Against Torture and the Infamous ‘Torture Memos'”, The Global Research.
- The Malaysian Insider, “Jawi’s sermon reeks of misogyny and chauvinism”.
- Eriz Zuesse, “Jimmy Carter Is Correct: The US Is No Longer A Democracy”, The Global Research.
- PressTV, “Wages of US workers declined since economic recovery: Study”.
Danial A. Shaari
Bachelor of Laws (LLB)
The University of Adelaide
Australia
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official views of, and should not be attributed to, Isma or Ismaweb.
