I think Zainah Anwar's lashing out in defence of Abu Talib Othman is certainly her right of speech. However, I think her reference that it is ridiculous not to give a fair chance to Abu Talib to prove his worth, so to speak, is ridiculous in itself.

Why are we using taxpayers' money to give a fair chance to those whose public service record before the people is tainted?

One does wonder why Abu Talib is hiding behind the proverbial skirt/sarong of Zainah and behind Hamdan and Ramon. Is he a dalang (literally, puppeteer)?

Ramon's speech

that the public is the final arbiter of the government's human rights record is of course true. But Suhakam is there for a purpose as well. This is where the public grouses that the new commissioners may not be up to the task are not far-fetched.

If Suhakam is a mere lamb bleating advice, then it is an advisory body in addition to other and numerous advisory bodies and government think tanks. Tutup kedai saja-lah (It's better to just close shop).

There must be an 'aggressive' (to borrow the term used by students in their memo

on Akujanji good conduct pledge) approach in exploiting the 1999 Act to the cause of human rights.

I feel that the presence of Suhakam has in some way created a buffer against direct challenges to the government. The discredited number one propagandist Zainuddin Maidin or Zam ( yang sudah kena gam by reformasi sites this week) said in an interview with the Singapore Straits Times in AgendaDaily , that he was to divert attacks on Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad. We must monitor and learn our lessons from these.

I think the May Day peace walkers did a good thing. They went about their recent challenges as usual. They lodged complaints, protested the arrests outside the Dang Wangi station, then they went to Bukit Aman to demand that an independent investigation be made on district police chief Bakri Zinin who was alleged to have attacked some of the May Day peace walkers.

If we think Suhakam has some role, by all means go to Suhakam, but we must also take direct action and not fall too easily into thinking that Suhakam can sort things out. Not in a jiffy, it doesn't.