August 2006
Monthly Archive
August 18, 2006
Posted by Pan Mohamad Faiz under
Iran Crisis Leave a Comment
AHMADINEJAD LAMBASTS UNITED STATE ON HIS NEW BLOG
Iran’s President has launched a web log, using his first entry to recount his poor upbringing and ask visitors to the site if they think the US and Israel want to start a new world war. But actually, the blog is an unusual move by the conservative president, whose government has censored Internet sites it deems inappropriate and cracked down on bloggers who posted anti-government messages since he was elected a year ago. Many of clerics who support Ahmadinejad also have shunned the use of advance technology, though other hardliners have sent cell phone campaign messages to public in the past.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose speeches are riddled with anti-US rhetoric, also described how he was angered by American meddling in Iran even when he was at elementary school. Ahmadinejad swept to a surprise victory in last year’s presidential race by promising the country’s poor a fairer share of Iran’s oil wealth and emphasizing his own humble origins that led many to vote for him as an “outsider” to Iran’s ruling elite.
“During the era that … living in a city was perfection. I was born in a poor family in a remote village,” he wrote in a blog dated Friday, after opening with Islamic greetings.
His origin as the son of “a hard-bitten toiler blacksmith” may have been humble, but he says he excelled at school where he said he came 132nd out of 400.000 in exams to enter university. As well as promising a better life to the poor, Ahmadinejad has sought to what he says in Western pressure to stop Iran’s civilian nuclear programme. The West says Iran is building an atomic bomb.
His defiance in the stand-off with the West has often played well in the Muslim world, where many are angered by US foreign policy in the Middle East. Analyst Saeed Laylaz said the site – available in Persian, Arabic, English and French at http://www.ahmadinejad.ir/ – may be seeking to win support from abroad.
“Do you think that the US and Israeli intention and goal by attacking Lebanon is pulling the trigger for another world war?” the president asks visitors to the site, offering them to choice to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
He said the Islamic Revolution patriarch Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini began to appeal to him when ayatollah was in exile in the 1960s and 70s. “The more I became familiar with his though and philosophy, the more affection I had for that divine leader and his separation and absence was intolerable for me,” he wrote, as translated into English.
Ahmadinejad describes how in the first grade at school – for those aged about seven – he read newspapers with help of adults about how the then shah of Iran gave Americans living in Iran immunity from prosecution under Iranian laws. “I realized that Mohammad Reza (Shah) attempted to add another page to the vicious case history which was the humiliation and indignity of the Iranian people versus Americans,” he said.
August 18, 2006
Posted by Pan Mohamad Faiz under
Asylum Law,
Indonesia Leave a Comment
AUSTRALIA REJECTS NEW ASYLUM LAWS
Australia abandoned on Monday plans for tougher new asylum laws after a revolt by government lawmakers ensured Prime Minister John Howard could not pass the legislation.
Three government lawmakers defied Howard and voted against the new laws in the lower house last week, and two abstained. At least two government Senators planned to defy Howard in the Senate, where the government has a one-seat majority. Howard shrugged off any damage to his authority over his party, saying his ruling Liberal Party was proud of having a range of opinions, and that his ultimate authority came from voters at national elections, even though it is the biggest parliamentary defeat in his conservative government’s 10 years in office, and forced him to withdraw the changes ahead of a vote.
Ties between Indonesia and Australia were strained and Indonesia withdrew its ambassador in a temporary protest after Australia granted asylum to the Papuan asylum seekers, who had arrived in the country’s remote north by boat in January. Howard on Sunday said the new laws were not crucial to Australia’s close ties with its larger neighbour, but a day later said he did not know if Indonesia would be upset that the new laws were not passed.
These new laws drawn up to ease Indonesian concerns after Australia granted asylum to 43 Papuans, would have sent all asylum seeker who arrived by boat on mainland Australia to detention camps on the remote Pacific island nation of Nauru. It’s a special goodness from Australian’s PM, isn’t it? But, why his colleagues in Australian Parliament rejected his intention. Another “trick” of Australian foreign policy? I’ll bet!
August 17, 2006
60TH INDIAN INDEPENDENCE DAY
15 August, 2006
“No one can break our will or unity. No one can make India kneel…”
That’s one of Manmohan’s, the Prime Minister of India, stressing points when he delivering the Independence Day addresses the ramparts of the Ref Fort on last Tuesday (15/8). In that time, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also called for a new kind of politics if the country were to achieve its potential for a prosperous and bright future.
“We need a politics that will propel us forward. We need a politics that will guide us to new frontiers, take us to new horizons. I urge all our political leaders to think deeply about the future of our country. We must shun the politics of divisiveness and adopt the politics of change and progress.” he said. These were the concluding words of his address to the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort here on Independence Day.
I found a unique speech from Manmohan Singh’s script. Because till now, in India, Jawahar Lal Nehru was the only Prime Minister who scripted his own Independence Day speech, but Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has decided to follow in his footsteps and present a “visionary statement” on Tuesday – a la Pandit Nehru. I remember with one of the greatest Indonesian leaders, Soekarno, who get a nickname as “pulpit tiger”. But, how is about the Indonesian Leader at present?
We’ll wait the stressing speech of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President of the Republic of Indonesia, at 61st Indonesian Independence Day Ceremony on next Thursday (17/8). Whether he’ll speech with his own Independence Day script or not? We’ll see.
August 10, 2006
Posted by Pan Mohamad Faiz under
Iraq War,
Women's Rights 1 Comment
IRAQI GIRL WAS GANGRAPED BY US SOLDIERS: DEATH PENALTY!
A US military court in Baghdad heard graphic testimony on Monday (8/8) of how three US soldiers took turns raping a 14-year-old- Iraqi girl before murdering her and the family.
At the hearing into whether the four marines should be court martialled for rape, a special agent described what took place in Mahmudiyah in March, based on an interview he had with one of the men, Specialist James Barker. The case, the fifth involving serious being investigated by the US military in Iraq, has outraged Iraqis and led Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to call for a review of foreign troops’ immunity from prosecution under Iraqi war.
Special Agent Benjamin Bierce recalled that Barker described to him how they put a couple and their six year-old daughter into a bedroom of their home, but kept the teenage girl in the living room, where Barker held her hands while Sergeant Paul Cortez raped her or tried to rape her. Barker then switched positions with Cortez and attempted to rape the girl but said he was not sure if he had done so, Bierce told the hearing.
Barker also told the special agent he heard shots from the bedroom and shortly afterwards Private Steven Green emerged from the room, put down an AK-47 assault rifle and raped the girl while Cortez held her down. Barker told Bierce that Green then picked up the weapon and shot her once, paused, and shot her several more times. Military prosecutors are expected to set out their case against Private First Class, Jesse Spielman (21), Barker (23), Cortex (23) and Private First Class, Bryan Howard (19) who face charges of rape and murder among others.
If court martialled after the Article 32 hearing – the military’s equivalent of a US grand jury – and found guilty, they could face the death penalty. The hearing began on Sunday and is expected to last several days.
We hope the verdict won’t be like what the Court decided for Green (21), their rapist partner that faces the same charges in a US federal court in Kentucky, who has pleaded not guilty and only get discharged punishment from the army for a “personality disorder”.
The big question that rose in my mind is a soldier who raped an innocent girl before killed her only get a “personality disorder” predicate, so what kind of conduct should be a soldier done to give him a predicate as an “evil personality”? On the whole, I think the death penalty is the only and the best verdict to hold the social and humanity justice in that case. Are you brave enough to do that, Uncle “human rights” Sam?
- Pan Mohamad Faiz -
August 9, 2006
LADY JUDGES FOR RAPE VICTIMS: A FAIR DEAL?
Indian Government is all set to make it mandatory that only women judges will hear rape cases. However, the legal fraternity is divided on whether it will help the victims.
There is another move for the empowerment of women in Judicial System. This time it is the law doing its bit for the rape victims, in the form of the recent move to make it mandatory for rape cases to be tried only by women judges. The idea supposedly being to do away with the “tough questioning” that defence lawyers resort to in courts, normally presided over by male judges. But will this actually help women or is it just another cosmetic change? If we assuming that our systems, India and Indonesia, are biased and that rape victims do not get justice, then it will very help the victims to get the truly justice of them.
The law’s motive is clear – it wants to safeguards women from feelings of awkwardness and shame. A rape victim is already emotionally scarred, but with women judge around, they will feel more comfortable. The comfort level between two women is certainly more and a woman judge will definitely be able to empathise with the victim.
Some disagree opinions stated that it is not about who is sitting on trial, but what we should hope for is justice. However, it might give the victim a sense of ease, but a male judge can achieve that too. Whatever it’s a woman or a man the law remains the same.
We all have known that male judges who lead the rape cases, especially in Indonesia, often embarrass the victims with ridiculous questions. Therefore, lady judges might be a little sympathetic towards the victim, even which is not what the law demands.
In brief, I think this is more of a psychological strategy that will help women. And although men may be kinder, victims will feel more secure in the presence of women judges. Though a judge may deliver perceptional justice, a woman’s verdict will be more acceptable.
If this system will has been set up, the final question is why single out only rape victims – what about victims of dowry harassment and sexual assault? They should be judged only by women, shouldn’t they?
- Pan Mohamad Faiz -
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