ARRESTS AND CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT, DESPERATE MOVES BY EMBATTLED PRIME MINISTER

ARRESTS AND CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT, DESPERATE MOVES BY EMBATTLED PRIME MINISTER(Kuala Lumpur) The arrests of 23 persons this morning, including leaders of the People's Justice Party (KeADILan) as well as the BERSIH delegation, which had handed in a memorandum to protest against the constitutional amendment that allows the current Elections Commission chief to extend his service for one more year, were desperate moves by an embattled Prime Minister. In an statement released this afternoon, the de facto leader of KeADILan, Anwar Ibrahim said the end of Abdullah Badawi's leadership is near. Anwar, who was held up for questioning at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport this morning upon his return from an international conference in Turkey, said "In response the government has resurrected the spectre of the ISA (Internal Security Act) to intimidate and instill fear among civil rights leaders." "These repressive tactics are a sign that Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi's leadership of Malaysia has run its course," he concluded.Elizabeth Wong from the Information Bureau of KeADILan said today's cordoning off of the Parliament was an abuse of power by the Prime Minister, to disguise the public's discontent with the hasty passing of today's constitutional amendment. "The Parliament belongs to citizens and this avenue to express our concerns and grievances should not have been closed off as it will augment the people's anger," she added.Wong said that in the past, numerous protests were allowed outside the Parliament and delegations handing over memorandums were not arrested. "The threats and repression in past days are cowardly acts by a most cowardly regime, grasping at straws to stay in power," said Wong.In another development, the car in which Tian Chua was traveling in, was burnt on the road leading to Parliament. The owner of the car, Abdul Razak Ismail, the information coordinator of NGO, Labour Resource Centre, and Tian Chua were arrested in the morning while on the road."This is the work of the police and smacks of vengeance," fumed Tian Chua, when contacted at the police headquarters. "It was not enough for them to arrest us in the middle of the road so they had to torch our car," he added.Wong said remaining fifteen persons (see list below) are expected to spend the night in police lockups and be brought to the Duta Kuala Lumpur courts to be charged on Wednesday morning. (END) (For more information, contact KeADILan Information Bureau, Elizabeth Wong 012 205 3277)------------------------------------------------------------PERSONS DETAINED AT THE KUALA LUMPUR POLICE HEADQUARTERS (AS OF 6:00 PM) 1. Tian Chua (Information Chief, KeADILan)2. 
Ang Hiok Gai (former KeADILan Supreme Council Member)3. 
Mohd Hatta Ramli (Treasurer, PAS)4. 
Dr. Lo Lo Ghazali
5. Nuridah Mohd Salleh
6. Azira Ariffin7. Hashim Awang8. Nasruddin Hassan Tantawi9. Mohd Sabri Shafie
10. Mohd Badilah Muda
11. Dr. Nasir Hashim (Chairman, protem Socialis Party Malaysia)
12. S. Arutchelvan (Secretary-General, protem Socialis Party Malaysia)
 13. S. Sivarajan (Central Committee, protem Socialis Party Malaysia)14. . Abdul Razak Ismail (Information Coordinator, Labour Resource Centre15. Noorashimah-- Please visit KeADILan (PKR) trilingual website: Malay: http://www.keadilanrakyat.org/, English: http://en.keadilanrakyat.org/ , & Chinese: http://cn.keadilanrakyat.org/; Advisor Anwar Ibrahim's blog: http://www.anwaribrahimblog.com/ ; Info Chief, Tian Chua's blog: http://www.tianchua.net/; Cikgu Lee’s Blog: http://www.cikgulee-kajang.blogspot.com/ ; if you find them worth reading, do help us promote them to your friends.

THE BROGA EXPERIENCE

The Broga New Villagers

The villagers are the real fighters. They had no high education, no access to resources like the urban professionals, but their will and determination to fight for their rights, to protect their homeland had finally convinced and brought in people from near and far to work out an enduring struggle against all odds. The village head and the committee prefered standing on the Government side favoring the Incinerator. They formed a special committe including the local assemblymen, village heads, local councillors and the ruling parties' chiefs. Despite all shorts and pressure the villagers moved on. They went to the Prime Minister, DoE, Ministry of Housing and Local Government, State Chief Minister and finally went to court seeking for the last hope even though with not much confidence. With the help from NGOs, NGIs, political parties like KeADILan, PAS and DAP, the people went on non-stop campaigning, lobbying and protesting thru leafleting, signature campaign, talks and holding donation dinner. Among those leading the struggle are Alice, Gan, Jason, Zulkifli, Ronnie Liu etc. My role is more of mobilisation and coordinating NGOs besides doing research into legal process and government document review.

The Media

The media especially the Chinese media and the electronic media such as Malaysiakini and Merdeka Review had played a vital role in keeping the issue hot and getting the public well informed. Hence, the struggle gained support locally and overseas. The media indirectly was helping in lobbying and campaigning. Eventually, these helped pressured the government to rethink the feasibility of constructing the Mega-Incinerator, especially at a location which was declared by the state government as forest reserves,watershed and highly sensitive area.

Besides the media, there is a group of sweet ladies led by Julin,Yin San,Mei Chern etc who produced a documentary named " Alice Lives Here". The short film narrated the struggle of the Broga folks against the arrogant authority and the monsterous Mega-Project. The documentary won the Human Rights Award and caught attention of a wider public. This effort is worth a thousand praise because at the latter stage, the main stream media had black-out whatever news considered 'negative ' by the authority.

Finale

After a long march(5 years) by the Broga people and other concerned groups, the government finally cancelled the Incinerator project. A victorous win by the People! A great thanks to everybody and lets march on in protecting the victimised and marginalised.