(Jelutong, Monday): The launching of the "Justice For All" campaign at the Perak Road market this morning is the fourth parliamentary constituency in Penang where this campaign is being launched, after Tanjong, Bagan and Bayan Baru parliamentary constituencies.
It is proposed to launch the "Justice For All" campaign in all the eleven Parliamentary constituencies in Penang as well as to take the campaign to each of the 33 state assembly constituencies in the state.
The people of Penang should be in the forefront in the "Justice For All" campaign, which is simply about justice, freedom, democracy and good governance for all Malaysians.
If there is justice in Malaysia, DAP Deputy Secretary-General and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Guan Eng, will not be languishing in jail for defending the honour, human rights and women�s rights of an underaged 15-year-old girl victim of statutory rape.
If there is justice in Malaysia, former Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim would not be assaulted in the very inner sanctum of the police high command in Bukit Aman when he was first arrested by the police and his "black eye" and other injuries would not have remained an "unsolved crime" after more than four months.
Last Wednesday, the "15-year-old girl" whose honour, human rights and
women�s rights Guan Eng had defended and landed him in jail, made her first
public appearance at the DAP forum on "Law and Justice" at the Federal
Hotel, Kuala Lumpur to publicly plead for justice for Guan Eng. She
expressed her prayer that Guan Eng could be pardoned and return to society
to continue his parliamentary role to speak up for the weak, defenceless
and oppressed. She also signed a personal petition to the Yang di Pertuan
Agong and the Yang di Pertua Negeri, Malacca seeking a pardon for Guan
Eng.
Guan Eng is beginning his sixth month in Kajang Prison. He is suffering
from multiple ailments in the Kajang Prison as its conditions do not meet
minimum international standards, whether in terms of food, prison cell,
imprisonment conditions or medical attention.
A very healthy and young Member of Parliament went into Kajang Prison on August 25 and very soon, he suffered severe back aches as a result of having to sleep on the cold and hard cement floor, without any bedsheet whatsoever.
Guan Eng never had migraine but is now having splitting headaches. He is also suffering from inflammation of his nose. All these ailments ensure that Guan Eng cannot have proper sleep.
In his five months in Kajang Prison, Guan Eng has lost 22 pounds - just like Anwar who has lost the same weight, although in a shorter period of time.
Guan Eng should receive specialist care and treatment and should be
hospitalised either at the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital or the Universiti
Hospital, but specialist attention has been denied him by the authorities.
DAP will demand an explanation from the government as to why
a healthy young MP like Guan Eng should be suffering multiple ailments
after five months in Kajang Prison.
A top party delegation headed by DAP National Chairman Dr. Chen
Man Hin is seeking clearance from the Home Ministry to be allowed
to meet with Guan Eng in Kajang Prison over his deteriorating
health.
For more than five months, the three young children of Guan Eng have not been able to touch and embrace their father. This surely is not the mark of a caring society.
There is an urgent need for prison reforms for even prisoners have the right to be treated as human beings.
For a start, all prisoners in the country should be allowed to touch and embrace their young children. This is a mark as to whether the government is really serious about promoting family values.
I call on the new Home Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to introduce wide-ranging prison reforms, starting immediately on the three aspects of firstly, ensuring that Malaysian prison conditions conform with minimum international standards; secondly, promoting family values and a caring society by allowing prisoners to touch and embrace their young children; and thirdly, give priority to rehabilitation programmes to ensure that criminals are reformed to become good and useful citizens on their release, as there is virtually no proper rehabilitation programme worth talking about under the present penal system.
(1/2/99)