It was another busy day as usual. I went to the “Shaping Public Opinion in a Changing Media Environment” seminar organised by AIPOD and Asia Foundation.
I spoke on “Politicians who (are not) shy to blog”.
When I came back to Parliament after lunch, it was about 2.45pm.My colleague, Chow Kon Yeow, the MP for Tanjong, was still waiting for his chance to speak. I had emailed him all the materials that I wanted to raise in the Ministry of Internal Security, because I thought I won’t have time to speak today as I was booked for the seminar. Internal Security Ministry always has most controversial issues.
When Chow saw me, he said he has to go back to Penang to attend an evening function and he passed all his notes to me and told me I’ll have to play goalie myself. I then waited for about an hour inside the chamber and I was given only three minutes to speak.
It is not easy to raise in details many issues in three lousy minutes and being interrupted by the Speaker Lim Si Cheng at the same time.
I did my best and managed to touch on issues like:
1) the police should use Money Lenders Act to track down illegal money lenders (Ah Long),
2) the case where the couple who were terrorised by Ah Long, leading then to kill their three children,
3) thousand of teenage offenders being remanded in prison while awaiting trial,
4) women prisoners and their problems, particularly those who have young kids or babies,
5) the need for anti-human trafficking laws,
6) why the malaysiakini’s application for a publication license has still not been approved,
7) whether it is improper for the police to assign an ASP and a constable to Malaysian Crime Prevention Foundation, and;
8) my opposition to internet censorship and I urged the ministry not to do it.
I still have a number of issues to raise but I was forced to stop by speaker, so that other MPs can make their speeches too.
I left the Dewan Rakyat after I made my short speech. I then returned calls from Malay Mail and Sin Chew reporters who wanted my reaction on criticism thrown by Michael Chong over my article that was published in Nanyang Siang Pao today.
In my article about the couple who killed their three sons, I criticised the police and authorities that did not take the Money Lenders Act seriously. The Money Lenders Act requires all money lenders to register with the authority and to display their licence etc. The police is given the power to arrest illegal money lenders too. I expressed my disagreement with “a complaint bureau chief from the ruling party” who helped victims who are under the persecution of Ah Long to negotiate with Ah Long on payment.
I was informed by the press that Michael Chong criticised my article although I did not name him . He defended his way of handling these issues by saying that some complainants came to ask him to negotiate with Ah Long and they didn’t want to publicise the matter and make the issue big, that’s why he did not pass the info of Ah Long to the police but helped complainants to negotiate with Ah Long.
My answer to him is this: when these victims of Ah Long come to seek help from us, most of them are already under tremendous pressure and have received threats from Ah Long. Some even dare not go back to stay in their own home. That’s why we need to seek help from the police.
As lending money by charging high interests without lisence is against the law, we should get the police to use this law to catch the culprits. Why should we negotiate with this kind of blood suckers?
Don’t you think so?