One country, two Laws.

It was only last week when P.M made a call to the media to tell the truth. So what happened to the Sin Chew reporter who reported what was said by the UMNO politician, Ismail Ahmad?She was first hauled in by the police to explain why she had reported the utterances that the 'chinese were squatters'.Not satisfied with that, on the 12th of Sept. she was arrested under S. 73 of the Internal Security Act (ISA) and whisked to an undisclosed destination .All these arrogant act by the police despite the confirmation by two other journalists confirming the authencity of the statement reported.

What perhaps even boggles the mind was the presence of DPM , Najib ,who attended the function and who made a reluctant attempt to defuse the situation a few days later ( when the situation escalated into a slinging match between leaders of the B.N component parties) by making an apology.Surely if Najib did not hear those racist statements being made would he have made that apology?To question the reporter over the statement is tantamount to undermining the integrity of Najib because it would make the latter complicity to suppress the truth.

What makes the arrest of the Sin Chew Daily journalist even more perplexing was her subsequent released after 16 hours of incarceration.The Home Minister,Syed Hamid Albar statement was totally incomprehensible. It was according to him 'for her own protection'.How could any one be offered protective custody when in the dark of the night that person was taken away without offering the option whether one was prepared to be whisked away to an undisclosed destination without even offering an explanation to the family? No, the true reason was that they did not expect the response from the civil society and the activist who were totally shocked at such a brutal suppression of news as reported by the mainstream media. And it was this unexpected backlash of public dissent that won the freedom of the Sin Chew daily journalist.

The lesson to be learned from this unsavoury episode which has earned us international scorn and notoriety is that there appears to be two sets of law in this country. One law applicable to UMNO members and politicians who are meted punishment for infringing the provisions of the UMNO constitution. This category of offenders need not fear the long arm of the Malaysian Law.Once UMNO disciplining Supreme Council dish out the punishment to the UMNO offender the matter is no longer taken up by the Malaysian Law. Such was the case of the UMNO politician who was given a three years suspension from his party while the Journalist who did her job by reporting the racist utterances was unceremoniously hauled away under the ISA.