{"id":10101,"date":"2014-09-01T11:39:39","date_gmt":"2014-09-01T03:39:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/?p=10101"},"modified":"2014-09-02T11:43:39","modified_gmt":"2014-09-02T03:43:39","slug":"the-calamity-of-31st-august-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/the-calamity-of-31st-august-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"The calamity of 31st August 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Syerleena Abdul Rashid\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"pps\"<\/a>Just a little over 24 hours ago, this year\u2019s Merdeka celebration has\u00a0<\/span>proven to be one where Malaysians will forever remember as the day\u00a0<\/span>Malaysians mourn the loss of common sense, justice and freedom.<\/span>

Yesterday, the powers that be decided to flex their malicious muscles\u00a0<\/span>in the eyes of democracy by warranting the unlawful arrests of 156\u00a0<\/span>Penang Voluntary Patrol Squad (PPS) members – who are still being\u00a0<\/span>remanded today. This action begs the immediate question \u2013 why now and\u00a0<\/span>why not years ago when the organization was in its infancy, if the\u00a0<\/span>argument of \u201cillegal societies\u201d is truly justified?<\/span>

The message of unity, confidence and prosperity is nothing but lip\u00a0<\/span>service as the incidences of the past 24 hours greatly contradict the\u00a0<\/span>positive message our nation\u2019s Prime Minister implored to all\u00a0<\/span>Malaysians. The message of upholding harmonious ties with fellow\u00a0<\/span>Malaysians obviously does not extend to Malaysians who may differ in\u00a0<\/span>ideology or those who choose to scrutinize the official doctrines of a\u00a0<\/span>regime that has been in power for too long. As a result, many innocent\u00a0<\/span>Malaysians, and in this case, various members of the PPS, are seen as\u00a0<\/span>\u201ccollateral damage\u201d, in the eyes of the Federal Government.<\/span>

On the eve of Merdeka, Penang\u2019s Chief Minister, Lim Guan Eng, was\u00a0<\/span>subjected to one of these deplorable acts when a Molotov cocktail was\u00a0<\/span>thrown into his residential compound. So far, the perpetrator has yet\u00a0<\/span>to be apprehended and the case is still under investigation. Surely,\u00a0<\/span>this case should be given the utmost priority and Malaysians demand\u00a0<\/span>swift action to be taken upon those responsible.<\/span>

Furthermore, the puzzling arrest of 156members of the PPS soon after\u00a0<\/span>completing their Merdeka Day Parade march and the subsequent arrest of\u00a0<\/span>Penang State EXCO, Phee Boon Poh raises more questions as many of us\u00a0<\/span>are still unable to understand why or how the Federal Government could\u00a0<\/span>authorize such an unpardonable act on such an auspicious day for all\u00a0<\/span>Malaysians.<\/span>

Charging these members as well as a State EXCO under illegal gang\u00a0<\/span>activities is absolutely appalling as it only perpetuates the notion\u00a0<\/span>that there is something truly amiss in the whole system. These\u00a0<\/span>regretful chain of events exhibit the abuse of power and the misuse of\u00a0<\/span>the criminal law system, which can be bent and molded by factions who\u00a0<\/span>are clearly insincere in their calls towards nation-building. What is\u00a0<\/span>apparent is that their main concern is simply to remain in power by\u00a0<\/span>all means necessary, even if it means destroying democracy in this\u00a0<\/span>country.<\/span>

Malaysians are now faced with a great tragedy. This tragedy is about\u00a0<\/span>the deteriorating quality of human existence and the waning value of\u00a0<\/span>the Malaysian life. Our tragedy exists because certain people in power\u00a0<\/span>have chosen to ignore the apparent wave of change a majority of\u00a0<\/span>Malaysians demand for and will continue to distort the truth in order\u00a0<\/span>to bleed this country dry. However, unlike tragedies with no happy\u00a0<\/span>ending, our destiny lies in the fact that the power of change is\u00a0<\/span>deeply etched in every one of us. Let us bear that in mind as we march\u00a0<\/span>forward towards truth and justice. -The Rocket\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Syerleena Abdul Rashid\u00a0 Just a little over 24 hours ago, this year\u2019s Merdeka celebration has\u00a0proven to be one …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[283],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10101"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10103,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10101\/revisions\/10103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}