Fish-head Curry and Duress.

LATEST:
KUALA LUMPUR, July 5 ─ P. Balasubramaniam
─ the man behind the now infamous statutory declaration
─ and his family have gone missing.

======================
"Don't we do something that can
destroy what we have done?!?!?!?"
===============================

After spending hours with Bala taking notes of his testimony previously and being familiar with his character, Americk said, ” I am very sceptical that he has signed the second statutory declaration of his own free will and I am convinced he has been intimidated to do so by either threats or promises, as I can think of no other reason.”

Bala then spoke to the ASP and left at around 4.45pm. Americk assumed he was going to meet the ASP at about 6.30pm as they had been talking about having
fishhead curry at Brickfields, said the lawyer.

He said Bala had signed the first declaration in front of a commissioner of oaths - someone whom Bala recognised as having grown up in the same Slim River neighbourhood as himself - on his own free will.

“I am therefore extremely surprised that Mr. Bala, in the space of 24 hours, has engaged the services of another lawyer and affirmed another statutory declaration swearing the first one was untrue and that he was forced to sign it,” said Americk.

======================
"I mention this as a principle,
meaning if we love our country we must realise that
to build a country like Malaysia is not something easy.
Don't we do something that can destroy
what we have done."
- The Malaysian Insider
============================
LATEST:
KUALA LUMPUR, July 5 ─ P. Balasubramaniam
─ the man behind the now infamous statutory declaration
─ and his family have gone missing.

"After retracting the declaration, Balasubramaniam snuck out without answering any questions from the press. His nephew, Kumaresan, said that the private investigator and his family have not been seen since yesterday.

This latest twist is going to make an already messy situation worse and give credence to claims by the Opposition that Balasubramaniam felt compelled to revise his statutory declaration because he and his family had been threatened."

- The Malaysian Insider

===========================

In another development, I thought the Quran Reading Competition was going on .....

Primetime News and "information" has taken a Religious twist with

Quran recitals and the Melaka History,

condemning "Fitnah" that can destroy Islam & civilization itself!

Somebody must be really shaken up and "under duress" with all the "fish head curry" and SDs in town......

Reminds me of what Russell Peter's dad used to tell him-

"Somebody's gonna get hurt real BAAAAD!

THE SOCIAL CONTRACT - Intro from Che Det.Com

Posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at June 30, 2008 3:59 PM
===========================

Note: Firstly, allow me to thank Dr. Mahathir for allowing his material to be published elsewhere with accreditation.
Pardon the "lazy cut-n-paste blogging" - I just thought that it may be relevant to some past & future posts .....
Not being a regular reader of CheDet.com, I was not aware of this post when I had written The Notion & the "Social Contract". (July 2,2008) with reference to Dr. Shad Faruqi's press statements.
Dr. Mahathir's revelation of his take on the "Malaysian 'social contract'", will be quite interesting - of that you can be quite certain ....
===========================

1. There has been a lot of talk about a Social Contract in Malaysia.

2. Perhaps it would be useful if we understand this concept a little bit more before we argue about it.

3. If we care to look into the origins of the social contract we will find that it is a European concept enunciated by European philosophers. The most famous is Socrates, the Greek philosopher who was jailed and sentenced to death.

4. He refused to escape and migrate to another Greek city-state because he believed he was bound by a social contract to live by the laws of his state of Athens as he was born and brought up there, benefiting from the aforesaid laws.

5. Before this social contract, men were said to live in a State of Nature, where there was no law to govern the relation between individuals in a small primitive society. The law of the jungle prevailed where might was right.

6. As society grew it became necessary to have laws which govern the behaviour of members of the society. All citizens were committed to respect and submit to the laws. This understanding is in fact a social contract although there was no oral or written undertaking to respect and submit to the laws. This was the view of Socrates. Later philosophers enlarged on this concept but there was never a requirement for a formal contract.

7. The Greeks are said to practise a democratic form of Government. However the citizen who had the right to participate in Government were limited to male adults of sound mind. Women, children, slaves, captives, criminals and foreigners were not accorded the rights of citizens and could not play a part in Government.

8. Much of European civilisation is based on the Greek civilisation. But as society grew bigger, direct participation in Government by the people became impossible.

9. At one stage democracy was abandoned in favour of feudalism in which a monarch ruled by Divine Right. In Asia this had always been the form of Government. Nevertheless the submission of the subjects to the Monarch was also a form of social contract.

10. Later feudalism was replaced by republicanism i.e. a return to the public of the power of Government.

11. Numerous forms of republics have emerged, each with its own set of laws and rules regarding the government of the country. But whatever may be the form, the laws and the rules, the citizens are bound by them. There would be no written contract but for foreigners to accept the rights of citizenship, there would usually be a formal undertaking to submit to the laws and system of the Government of the country.

12. After becoming citizens their offspring would automatically be regarded as citizens and as citizens they need not swear a formal oath of allegiance to the country. This right is through jus sanguinis i.e. through blood relation.

13. But there can also be citizenship by being born in the country or jus soli. This can be provided for by the laws of the country.

14. But whether citizenship is gained through jus sanguinis or jus soli, the social contract still applies even though there is no formal oath taking.

15. What is clear is that a social contract is a general understanding on the part of a citizen to submit to and obey the laws and the institutions of the country. The social contract governs not just his relation with the country, its Government and its institutions but also his relationship with his fellow citizens.

16. After receiving comments on this I will talk about the Malaysian social contract and its effect on Malaysia.

Dr. Mahathir, CheDet.com

(Highlights/font work of item no. 15 are mine)