Has Dr Mahathir gone mad? The truth about the man and nothing but the truth

It was Euripides in ‘Medea’ who made famous the phrase “ Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad”. Certainly it would be a fitting description of Muammar Gaddafi, whose gory end was telecast for all to see, on Al-Jazeera and CNN. It would be no less appropriate a phrase to describe Mahathir Mohammed; who has been mad for quite a while now.

We will not delve too much into what drove Mahathir mad, but it does not appear to be the usual reasons of genetics, or grief, or some drug overdose. Mahathir appears to have been driven mad by power. And perhaps certifiably insane by his quest for absolute, unquestioned power.

‘Those arrested had nothing to do with Bersih, communism’

PSM said their members were arrested for promoting their "Udahla tu... Bersarala'' campaign but the police are trying to link it to Bersih to prevent its rally.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) members who were detained by police had nothing to do with Bersih.

They were detained while promoting PSM’s “Udahla tu… Bersarala” campaign which was directed at Barisan Nasional, clarified party secretary general S Arutchelvan today

However he added the police are trying to link both activities together to prevent the July 9 Bersih gathering.

“We (PSM) support Bersih fully, however the ‘Udahla’ campaign has nothing to do with the Bersih rally,” Arutchelvan told reporters at party headquarters in Brickfields here.

“The police will find whatever means they can to prevent the Bersih gathering. They are using this issue to prevent the Bersih rally. Everybody knows that,” he said.

He added that the allegations made against PSM were “a planned action” by the police to create a phantom enemy in order to facilitate the call for emergency where the government could carry out mass arrests.

Arutchelvan said that due to the timing of the PSM roadshow which fell close to the July 9 Bersih rally, PSM members did promote the rally.

“We do tell the people about Bersih rally but our campaign has nothing to do with Bersih,” he said.

The ‘Udahla’ campaign isto highlight the pitfalls of the BN government which has ruled for 54 years.

The roadshow for the campaign – which had been planned since February this year- began on Friday with one convoy leaving from Ipoh to campaign in the northern region and the other embarking from Johor to campaign in southern peninsular region.

Barely hours into the campaign, PSM ran into several glitches. A total of 28 people were detained in Johor on Friday and released at 4am on Saturday after having their statements recorded.

They were detained under three charges- illegal assembly, sedition and for publishing pamphlets and leaflets against the Printing and Publications Act.

Thirty one members, including Sungai Siput MP Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj, were detained early Sunday morning in Penang. Thirty of them have been remanded for seven days by the Butterworth Magistrate’s Court while 16-year-old S Ragu has been released unconditionally.

‘Bogey communist threat a cold war script’

In addition to the three charges, the convoy detained in Penang was also slammed with an additional charge – Section 122 of the Penal Code for allegedly launching war against the King.

This was believed to be due to seizure of various items related to the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) as revealed by Penang deputy police chief, Abdul Rahim Jaafar yesterday.

T-shirts of communist leaders like Rashid Maidin were found in the bus of the convoy in Penang.

PSM also lashed out at Abdul Rahim and Home Minister Hishammudin Hussein for “reusing a stale script of the Cold War era” in trying to link PSM’s struggle with the MCP. The MCP have been disbanded for decades now.

“It is hilarious that the government is trying to link PSM with Communists merely based on T-shirts and other mechandise that bare images of communist leaders”, he said .

“These T-shirts that bare images of past communists leaders are sold everywhere. They are available in Chow Kit, Central Market. I myself am wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt now,” he said refering to the popular Argentinian socialist leader.

Malaysian leaders have been seen to be friendly with communist regimes in China and Vietnam, he said.

“Even Mahathir has been photographed with Fidel Castro. So what is the problem here?,” he asked.

He added that PSM’s struggles are widely known and differ from the communists and other left-winged parties.

He said that these desperate technique from the government will not disuade the party from continuing its struggle.

Also at the press conference were PSM president Mohd Nasir Hashim and party treasurer A Sivarajan.

Woman Raped In Denver Airport Concourse – “Employees Witnessed, Did Nothing”

A 26-year-old Oregon man was arrested and accused of sexually assaulting a female passenger inside Concourse A at Denver International Airport early Tuesday morning. Police said the violent sexual assault happened just after midnight Tuesday. Noel Alexander Bertrand, of Portland, Ore., was arrested just after midnight on a DIA concourse after two airline employees saw him attacking a woman and called police, Denver police spokesman Sonny Jackson said. Bertrand was booked on suspicion of felony sexual assault and assault. He was held at the Denver jail Tuesday on $10,000 bond.

The 22-year-old victim, who is also from Oregon, told 7NEWS reporter Russell Haythorn she was flying to Illinois to interview at a convent. “I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t say anything,” the victim told Haythorn. “He grabbed me and held my neck to the ground. I started to stress out, and I couldn’t breathe very well. I started to tense up and I started to get an asthma attack.” She said she missed her connecting flight at DIA and didn’t have money for a hotel. So she decided just to spend the night at the airport. The woman said she went to Chef Jimmy’s Italian Bistro and Spirits on Concourse A and a man at the bar struck up a conversation.

When the bistro closed, the woman said she took an escalator downstairs to find a seat. The man followed and sat next to her. The woman said the man asked if he could kiss her and she refused. “I sit up and he’s leaned in and he asks, ‘Can I kiss you?’ And when I tell him that’s too forward, before I could finish my statement, he had already pulled me in to kiss him. And he forcefully held me there,” the woman said. “And I’m sitting there with my neck kinked down, and I’m already frantic.” Suddenly, she said, the man grabbed the strings of her hooded sweatshirt and pulled, lifting her off the ground. The man then threw her on the floor, grabbing her head and pounding it on the floor, said the woman, who had a large bruise above her left eye.

“I couldn’t reach anywhere. I couldn’t touch anything and I couldn’t breathe,” she said. “He told me to put myself in a position for him. He pulled my pants down and proceeded to assault me from behind.” The victim said the man tore off her clothing and sexually assaulted her for about 10 minutes on the concourse, which was deserted at that hour.  During the attack, she said two airport janitors passed by, and said nothing. “Another employee walked by, a female, and she looked and she walked away and kept walking. I was just so upset that I couldn’t focus on what was going on. I just kept getting my head thrown down,” she said.

Finally, she said, two airport workers outside the terminal saw the attack through a window and called police. “One of the officers approached him from behind and pulled him off of me. As they were shouting when they were coming over, he wasn’t stopping. They had to pull him off of me,” she said. “He was trying to tell them that we were just having sex. It was a lover’s quarrel,” she said. “A woman getting beaten on the ground is not a lover’s quarrel.” Airport spokeswoman Laura Coale said DIA janitors are contract employees. She said the airport is investigating whether any employees failed to report the attack.

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