MALAYSIAN POST

Malaysia family finds 2m long cobra eating lizard in cupboard

2011-12-11T17:09:00.002+08:00

KUALA TERENGGANU - A bad odour led a family in Batu Rakit near here to a shocking find a 2m cobra was in the midst of eating a lizard in a cupboard.

School teacher Karimah Abdul Karim, 31, and her family had caught a strong stench at their home in Kampung Darat at about 3pm on Friday and traced it to a cupboard.

She and her siblings were shocked to see the cobra swallowing the lizard. 'We quickly contacted the Civil Defence Department, which came and took away the reptile,' she said.

Terengganu civil defence director Lieutenant-Colonel Kamal Mokhtar advised the people to be wary of snakes entering their homes, especially when it floods.

Decision on PPSMI final, says DPM

2011-11-03T20:24:00.000+08:00

KUALA LUMPUR: Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said today that the government’s decision to abolish the teaching and learning of Science and Mathematics in English (PPSMI) is final.

“The matter is closed. I can say that as of this year, PPSMI is not here anymore; we have started a new policy. Maybe people have misunderstood, we’re now actually looking at the beginning of the soft-landing of the MBMMBI (Upholding the Malay Language, Strengthening the English Language) policy,” he said.

He was speaking to reporters after attending the English Language training mentor programme where Primary Year 1, 2, 3 English teachers are being trained by foreign native English-speaking teachers.

“It’s final. Period,” Muhyiddin said, adding that he would be explaining this in more detail tomorrow to finally put the matter to rest. “As far as the government is concerned, we want to put this issue to rest.”

Asked if it was still too late to reconsider, Muhyiddin said: “It has already been decided in 2009. Maybe like (former prime minister) Dr Mahathir Mohamad said, ‘Malaysians mudah lupa (easily forget)’. It was tabled and passed two years ago to abolish PPSMI. I don’t know why it is being brought up now again.

“Maybe PAGE (Parents Action Group for Education) doesn’t know; they only know how to demand. They are ketinggalan zaman (left out in time), two years behind time. Why are you talking about reversing it when it has already been decided?”

However, Muhyiddin did not say whether the government was open to giving parents an option to choose between PPSMI or teaching the subjects in Malay as PPSMI lobby group PAGE has requested.

He said tomorrow’s briefing will touch more on the implementation of MBMMBI and the concerns of some parents whose children are now in Form Three.

Going overboard xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

“The people now want to know how we can implement MBMMBI because there are students who were already taught in English, and because of that we don’t’ want to disrupt their studies… we will give some consideration, we will announce how the transition will happen so that parents are not worried.

“I receive SMSes from parents who say that their children will be in Form Four next year, so how? I understand, I also have children; so I will announce some flexible measures,” said Muhyiddin.

“I will address the concerns of the parents one by one tomorrow and how we will deal with it in the future,” he said.

“Now if there are those who still don’t agree, we understand; this nation is democratic (and they can voice out their views). But sometimes they go overboard to threaten us politically (by saying they will not vote for Barisan Nasional).

“We cannot be pushed nor will we bow down to the demands of such small groups, because from what I understand, the majority (of the people) understand our decision,” he said.

However, when it was pointed out that yesterday two major BN component parties – MCA and MIC – had supported PAGE’s view that parents should be given the option to choose PPSMI, Muhyiddin brushed it aside.

“They didn’t say they didn’t agree; they simply gave their opinion and suggestion that English literature should be added, and so on. MCA and MIC are part of the government, and they have agreed (on this policy back in 2009). Maybe they just want to express their opinion now; its okay, we won’t stop them,” said Muhyiddin.

No negative reactions

Yesterday, MIC president G Palanivel urged the Education Ministry to reconsider its decision to scrap PPSMI. He wanted the government not to rush into things but to think over the matter carefully, saying it was still not too late to reconsider.

MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek also believed that parents and students should be given a choice, stressing that the education ministry should not disrupt the studies of those students who have already started PPSMI.

Said Muhyiddin: “We at the ministry do not make hasty decisions; we make decisions not based on politics, but for what is best for the people and the nation. We have enough information on PPSMI. We know how PPSMI was implemented and its outcome. There is firm basis (for our decision).”

He added that in 2009, there were no “negative reactions” to the decision (to scrap PPSMI). “The majority received it well when I brought this motion to Parliament and Cabinet… All the parties agreed, including the opposition…”

“The question now is: is teaching Science and Maths in English the best way to improve our proficiency? Or (is it better) to use ‘master teachers’ to help our own teachers improve their command of the language? I believe the latter is the better option.”

MIC, MCA: Give students a choice

2011-11-01T18:23:00.000+08:00

Malaysian Post l KUALA LUMPUR: MIC president G Palanivel today urged the Education Ministry to reconsider its decision to scrap the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English (PPSMI).

He wanted the government not to rush into things but to think over the matter carefully.

“We have to consider the ongoing public’s reaction on this issue.” he said.

Palanivel, who is also the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, said the education ministry should carefully listen to the reactions and suggestions from the PIBGs, parents and also the concerned NGOs.

“We do not want a backlash from angry parents,” added Palanivel.

He felt that the ministry should take its time and consider various options before deciding to scrap the teaching of Science and Maths in English.

“One of the options is to consider teaching of Science and Maths in both Bahasa Malaysia and English. It is still not too late. We can still reconsider the decision,” he added.

Introduce English Literature

Meanwhile in another statement, MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek revealed that he and other party top leaders met Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin on the issue involving PPSMI.

He said they were informed of the difficulty in implementing the policy if the parents were given the choice.

However he stressed that MCA felt there must be clear guidelines which will help to end any confusion.

“Students who have already been learning these two subjects in English should be allowed to continue. There should not be any disruptions.

“The MCA’s stand on this issue is very clear. We believe the stakeholders must have a choice,” he said.

He added that it was also important that something was done urgently to arrest the declining standard of English.

Chua said he had proposed to Muhyiddin to introduce English Literature as a compulsory subject in schools as an effort in strengthening the students’ command of English.

Najib needs Alastair to scrub out the dirt

2011-10-28T13:31:00.000+08:00

Malaysian Post l Mariam Mokhtar - It takes a liar to know another liar. So good luck to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, if he has secured the services of Alastair Campbell, to help him plot his next moves, in the 13th general election. Campbell is as slippery as an ikan keli, and teeth as sharp as a barracuda. Anything he says should be taken with a pinch of salt.

After the recent furore about Malaya not being colonised, why is Najib taking orders from a “mat-salleh”?

Najib is deluded to think that a non-Malaysian can resolve Malaysia’s problems. It is only the Malaysians who have the power to find the solution to our many problems and we do not need help from outside.

Campbell’s services are not known to be cheap. How could Najib shamelessly use public money in a vain attempt to win votes and improve his international reputation?

Campbell must realise that Apco, CNBC and FBC all failed. In fact, Najib’s image plummeted when it was revealed that Najib had paid them millions of ringgits on futile PR drives to spruce up his image.

Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim tried to reveal the direct connection between Najib and Apco but Parliament suspended him before he could do so. CNBC and FBC only stopped because their illegal broadcasting was made public and they were under investigation.

Najib’s latest move is borne of desperation. He will cheat at the polls with his rigged postal votes and with non-citizens given voting rights. But he wants no loose ends and that is where Campbell enters the scene.

Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev won a crushing election victory in April, and it was alleged that Campbell had provided “consultancy services”. Kazakhstan is also known for its abuse of human rights.

Exchange of tactics

Perhaps, Najib feels more assured after the exchange of tactics during the marriage of his daughter, Nooryana, to the president’s nephew, Daniyar Nazarbayev.

Nazarbayev has ruled for over 20 years but international election observers said that the elections did not meet international democratic standards.

In addition, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) complained about the lack of transparency, competition and media freedom and said that “reforms necessary for holding genuine democratic elections have yet to materialise”.

Meanwhile, the Kazakhstan opposition claimed that they did not have sufficient time to prepare for the election and one human rights leader, who is also a former Senate member, said: “We have not had fair elections in 20 years.”

All of which sounds very familiar and could easily be a description of Malaysia.

With the 13th general election looming, Dr Mahathir Mohamad is plotting behind the scenes and Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin openly maligns Najib’s every move. Najib is a lonely figure and in dire need of someone who can help him secure enough votes for a Barisan Nasional win. But Campbell?

Campbell, who was once former British premier, Tony Blair’s communications chief, has been described as Blair’s right-hand man, the other half of his brain, his trusted friend, ally and protector.

Najib’s obsession with spin and image is his own undoing. He thinks Campbell is the man for the job only because Campbell made sure the message of new Labour was received by the British public.

Dodgy character

Campbell delivered Labour and Blair two landslide victories despite Blair’s administration fabricating so many lies and failing to deliver many of the promised reforms.

But Campbell is as dodgy a character as his “dodgy dossier” in which he was prepared to lie for his master, Blair.

When challenged, he denied that he had sexed up the writing of the September 2002 dossier, to make the case for Britain to go to war with Iraq.

He was also responsible for the February 2003 (“dodgy”) dossier which plagiarised parts of a thesis written by an Iraqi PhD student. He avoided criticism by blaming it on his subordinates.

When the Queen Mother died, there was friction between Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street because Campbell wanted Blair to play a more prominent rolé in her funeral.

Campbell’s critics claim that his methods are questionable, that he is aggressive and uses “strong language”.

His supporters say that Campbell is talented, is loyal and has a slave-like devotion to the Labour cause. They describe his work as being similar to the creative director in advertising, who has been tasked with selling a brand or product.

So will Campbell relish the challenge of selling Najib, whom Malaysians consider a tainted piece of goods, as a marketable brand?

‘Deranged, vindictive’

Naturally, Campbell denied via twitter, that he had anything to do with Najib and that it must have been his double that was spotted in Kuala Lumpur.

But Campbell cannot be trusted and many who exchanged words with him in the past, have alleged that he is both a bully and a liar. Greg Dyke, the sacked BBC director-general, described him as “deranged, vindictive and out-of-control”.

What will the working relationship of Najib and Campbell be like? Campbell did not think twice about contradicting Blair in public and he relished mocking the mannerisms of individual journalists.

More importantly, how will the self-styled “First Lady”, Rosmah Mansor, take to Campbell?

In his book, Adam Boulton described Campbell as the second most powerful man in Britain. Will Campbell be the second most powerful person in Malaysia?

Cherie Blair forsook her friend Carol Caplin who advised her on her hair and clothes. Campbell objected to their friendship and told a tearful Cherie: “Cherie, listen to me, I’m a journalist. I’ve got a nose for these things. That woman is trouble.”

A conman will never allow another person to have any influence over his “mark”.

Would Rosmah take orders from Campbell and be told whom she could befriend?

Perhaps we should look forward to another instalment of Campbell’s diaries, this time detailing the Najib premiership and what happens in Malaysia’s “First household”.

Campbell’s published diaries described the first two years of Blair’s premiership; he wrote about Cherie wearing a pendant to “ward off evil spirits”.

What will Campbell write about Rosmah? Will he mention her alleged visits to bomohs?

Campbell revealed how Blair would consult the Bible before making key decisions and in 1998, prior to ordering the bombing raid on Iraq, read a passage about John the Baptist.

Would Campbell tell us that perhaps, Najib would read chapters from the Quran before ordering the police to attack peaceful demonstrators with water cannons, batons and tear gas?

Malaysians do not need Campbell to tell them what to do. They know what to do if they are displeased with the current administration.

Campbell’s true character and methods of operation have been well documented. Let’s just wait for the exposé of the soiled linen from the Najib household and administration.

Benefits of Drinking Plain Water In the Morning

‘Is Umno tacitly backing Himpun rally?’

2011-10-21T11:36:00.000+08:00

GEORGE TOWN: A Hindraf Makkal Sakti leader says he sees the hand of Umno behind Saturday’s “Himpunan Sejuta Umat” (Assembly of One Million Believers Defending the Faith) gathering.

Hindraf Makkal Sakti leader P Waythamoorthy claims that Umno is tacitly backing the assembly and he is calling the relevant authorities to stop the gathering.

Waythamoorthy said the assembly was an Umno ruse to stir up the Malay psyche and create a split among Malaysians along religious and racial lines.

He said Hindraf was shocked that the police were so quick to issue a permit for a mammoth gathering that could generate so much anxiety, discontent and disharmony in the country.

He questioned the need to hold a gathering of a million Muslims to defend Islam, which is safeguarded by the Federal Constitution.

“The assembly is not only to woo Malay votes but also to warn the people not to vote for change in the next general election,” said the London-based Waythamoorthy.

PKR , PAS and Umno have officially distanced themselves from the assembly to be held at the Shah Alam stadium.

But all the parties said that they would not be able to prevent their members from attending in their individual capacity.

Umno information chief Ahmad Maslan said the party will not prevent its members from attending the assembly.

United against proselytising
According to the organisers, they plan to gather one million Muslims to gauge the “unity” among themselves, particularly against proselytising.

This assembly comes after the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (JAIS) raided a fundraising dinner at Damansara Utama Methodist Church (DUMC) on Aug 3 over alleged proselytisation taking place.

The matter was taken to Selangor’s Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah who decreed that the JAIS report on the raid indicated that its actions were correct and had not breached any state laws.

The Sultan also ordered JAIS to provide counselling to the Muslims present at the dinner to restore their belief and faith in the religion.

Gerakan politician Baljit Singh also questioned the police on the reasons behind the fast-track approval for the permit to hold such a assembly.

“It will be interesting to know on what basis the police issued the permit when an assembly of one million people is a clear security threat to the nation’s social harmony and peace,” he said.

Umno bloggers used photo of UK chess champion to malign Guan Eng's son

2011-10-20T12:36:00.000+08:00

Despite a heated defense by Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin, who insists there is basis for the Umno bloggers' accusations that Lim Guan Eng's 16-year-old son is a sex maniac, DAP leaders have provided proof to show up the "Umno lies".

DAP MP for Petaling Jaya Utara Tony Pua said the girl appearing besides Marcus Lim in the blogs run by Papagomo and Bukit Gelugor Umno chief Novandri Hasan, was 21-year-old chess Grandmaster Anya Sun Corke.

Anya, who represents England, is currently an undergraduate of Wellesley College in the United States. She has no ties to Penang,

“The chess board has been edited from the picture. This proves beyond doubt that the accusations by these Umno cyber-troopers are nothing but barbaric lies," Tony Pua told a press conference on Wednesday.

What say you now, 'Oxonian'?

Attention has immediately swung to Khairy because of his heated insistence that the gutter politicking waged by the Umno bloggers was fair. He accused Pakatan Rakyat leaders of using similar tactics in the past against BN families.

However, the most sensational scandal involving BN leaders relates to Prime Minister Najib Razak himself and his alleged affair with Mongolian translator Altantuya Shaariibuu. This is hardly a fabrication unlike the Marcus-Anya pix-combo put up by the Umno bloggers. While Najib may deny knowing Altantuya, there are grounds to be suspicious as her murder involved his aide-de-camp and two former bodyguards. The bodyguards were sentenced to hang and if that is not real enough, what is?

Other BN family scandals involve the son of Minister in the Prime Minister's Department - Nazri Aziz - and Najib's own son Norashman. However both these young men were already young adults and not 16-year-olds like Marcus when they were caught in intimate poses with their girlfriends.

Both young men had been photographed in pubs and at parties having a good time. The pictures were also not tampered with and may not have been released by the Pakatan parties, as suggested by Khairy, but could have come from infighting Umno rivals wishing to do Nazri and Najib an ill turn.

Yet, Khairy, who has two sons of pre-school age of his own, found nothing unethical or wrong with the latest scandal stirred up by the Umno bloggers.

“Bro, what BN leaders & their families get from opposition is far worse. Don’t be hypocritical,” Khairy wrote on his Twitter.

Strip his degree

Lim Kit Siang, who is the granddad of Marcus, immediately shot back. "Coming from an Oxonian? Should strip his degree."

Indeed the time may have come for Malaysians to stand up to gutter politics and demand the Najib and his government acknowledges Umno's problem.

So severe is the Umno addiction to sex that even free-and-fair-polls NGO Bersih had listed clean politicking as one of its 8 key demands to the federal government to overhaul the electoral system before the 13th General Election is held.

How to Firm Breasts Naturally

‘Do away with race-based policies’

2011-10-15T23:51:00.000+08:00

KUALA LUMPUR: Race-based affirmative action is a thing of the past, admitted two Barisan Nasional Youth leaders – Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin and Gerakan counterpart Lim Si Pin, today.

Lim, in his speech at the Gerakan Youth conference, said: “If we continue to advocate affirmative action for the majority, who is going to take care of the minorities and the needy?

“It is time to question whether we still (need) affirmative action based on ethnic lines. It will remain a noose around our necks if we do not deal with it (raced-based policy) with decisiveness.

“If we continue to enrich the few who do not need it and ignore the poor, then we will create instability,” said Lim, who reminded the government it would face “dire consequences” if it failed to listen to the masses.

He said he was not calling for such policy to be totally abolished, but a serious review to go back to its original intent to eradicate poverty and equal distribution of wealth.

Khairy, agreeing with Lim, said that even now the government is looking at changing the policies in regard to affirmative action.

“It is changing; now we are making sure that our priority is the lowest 40 percent based on income. These are the groups we must help regardless of whether they are Malay Chinese, Indians or other races. (Prime Minister) Najib (Tun Razak) has expanded this, within Umno too,” said Khairy.

“It is no longer about race. Within Umno we are supporting this, because we know those at the bottom 40 percent deserve assistance.

The change in affirmative action will help some of you understand that economic transformation is happening,” said Khairy.

He added that reforms alone are not enough and merely repealing the Internal Security Act will not do.

“As far as the Printing Presses and Publications Act (is concerned), the current changes are not enough. We have to go further. Why are we scared of a free media? Do we lack confidence that we can’t face the free media? Let the media regulate themselves. There’s no need for the Home Ministry and Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission to regulate,” he said.

‘Young voters returning to BN’

Khairy also called for a Freedom of Information Act that counters the Official Secrets Act. “There are certain things we cannot reveal to the public… but we must show there are no secrets within the government, ” he said, adding that Section 15 of the Universities and University Colleges Act, which prohibits student participation in politics, must also be done away with.

Earlier, Lim called on the setting up of an independent commission to monitor civil service malpractices as well as police abuses.

Citing an example where a Malaysian who applied for a scholarship was rudely rejected because of her race, Lim said that race issues still prevail in the country and the commission should stop any discrimination in the public service.

Lim also said if the government implements the Goods and Services Tax (GST), it must not tax the ordinary people in areas such as food, domestic transport and essential medication.

Khairy, meanwhile, said that if BN wants to be relevant to the young generation, it must stop telling voters to be thankful for what it did in the past but tell them what it can do for them now.

“We have to ask ourselves difficult questions: are we a relic of the past? Do we really feel and understand what young Malaysians want? Or do we want Malaysians to be thankful for what we have done in the past? If the older BN leaders want to keep on using such arguments, they should go home, close shop and just sleep,” said Khairy.

“We need to to show to them we have a proposition, we have policies to address their problems. We don’t want rhetoric but we need to be solution providers. That’s important,” said Khairy, adding that based on by-election results, young voters are coming back to BN.

Nik Aziz adamant hudud will rule Kelantan

2011-10-01T10:38:00.000+08:00

Malaysian Post l Jeswan Kaur : As fas as PAS spiritual guru Nik Abdul Aziz ik Mat is concerned, his plans to implement hudud law in Kelantan is very much alive.

This is despite him not seeing eye to eye on the hudud issue with his Pakatan colleagues. DAP chairman Karpal Singh has made it clear that DAP would spare no efforts to thwart the implementation of hudud law in Malaysia.

“From the very beginning, DAP has also made known its opposition against any attempts by PAS and others to turn the country into an Islamic state.

“Let me make it very clear: hudud is not in line with the Federal Constitution and therefore it is unconstitutional,” Karpal told FMT when commenting on the outcome of the Sept 28 meeting involving the Pakatan Rakyat top brass to discuss the hudud issue.

Hudud as practised in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan is the Islamic penal code that prescribes punishments such as stoning adulterers to death and amputating the hands of thieves.

PAS, which has been ruling Kelantan since 1990, had in fact passed the hudud laws but they were never enforced as the federal government had deemed it unconstitutional and threatened legal action if Kelantan ever enforced it.

Eventhough PAS leaders were adamant (about implementing Islamic laws), DAP said Karpal was equally firm in its opposition.

“You can’t have Islamic laws in a secular state; it’s as simple as that,” said Karpal.

He pointed out that the Supreme Court led by the then Lord President Mohamed Salleh Abas had declared that the country was a secular state in a landmark decision on a case in 1988.

A closed chaper for DAP

DAP is firm that it will not be brow-beaten into changing its stand on the hudud law.

As far as DAP is concerned, the hudud issue is a closed chapter. But not so for Nik Aziz. The spiritual adviser of PAS has concluded that the Sept 28 meeting has made it clear that the opposition coalition of Pakatan Rakyat respects Kelantan’s desire to incorporate the hudud law in its syariah law.

The only obstacle as Nik Aziz sees it is the federal government supported by Umno.

DAP votes a “No” to hudud but Nik Aziz says he is willing to wait until a consent is reached on this matter.

PAS is still tied to the policies it agreed to share with Pakatan in the Orange Book (Buku Jingga) apart from the provisions in the Federal Constitution.

Is there some sort of confusion that is shrouding Nik Aziz’s thinking, because Karpal has set the record straight by saying hudud was unconstitutional and is not welcomed in any part of Malaysia, with Kelantan being no exception?

So, how did Nik Aziz, an 80-year-old seasoned politician, reason that his Pakatan colleagues respect his intention to implement the hudud laws? Was a “politically correct” message relayed to this spiritial guru instead of the blunt reality, which is that DAP is all willing to wage a war against PAS should Kelantan proceed with its hudud law plans?

Nik Aziz is optimistic that the hudud law will someday take shape in Kelantan. Where is this optimism coming from?

When Pakatan adviser Anwar Ibrahim on Sept 22 remarked that he supported the hudud law, that took the issue of the hudud law back to square one.

“For now, in general, in principle, I believe this can be implemented,” Anwar had told reporters.

“It is a specific area that affects Muslims and does not impeach the rights of non-Muslims. The proceeding makes sure that the administration of justice is guaranteed,” he was quoted as saying by a local online media.

Playing the devil’s advocate

In an immediate reaction to Anwar’s initial comment on hudud, Karpal said: “The punishments for these offences are flogging 100 times for intercourse between an unmarried couple, stoning to death for adultery, amputation of hand for theft, death for apostasy, flogging 40 times for alcohol consumption, flogging 80 times for false accusation of adultery and death by sword or crucifixion for highway robbery.”

A day later, Anwar made an about-turn and said his comment on hudud was made in his personal capacity and had no relation to Pakatan.

It does look like Nik Aziz is not about to go to his grave without first putting in place the hudud law. The “call a spade a spade” religious apostle has a very clear vision of the hudud taking shape in Kelantan. His adversaries, as they will always remain, are the federal government of Barisan Nasional and the DAP.

Umno, taking advantage of this messy situation, played the devil’s advocate, belittling PAS by accusing it of neglecting its Islamic agenda and pandering to its non-Muslim Pakatan Rakyat partners.

Making matters worse was former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s recent challenge to Nik Aziz to go ahead and implement the hudud law.

In the face of all this, it is best that all differing thoughts on the hudud law where Pakatan and PAS are concerned are buried for good. For should the differences in opinion persist, the price Pakatan would eventually end up paying is going to be great, keeping in mind the coming general election and Pakatan’s vision to call the shots from Putrajaya, the nation’s administrative hub.

In the meantime, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has adopted the “silence is golden” move on the hudud issue. But his deputy Muhyiddin Yassin said Umno supported hudud laws in principle.

“In the context of a multiracial and multi-religious society, we should spread that knowledge (of hudud laws) widely before we can reach a stage where we think it’s time, but I don’t believe we’re there yet,” Muhyiddin was quoted by an online news website as saying.

ISA makeover: Old poison in new bottles

2011-09-30T19:20:00.000+08:00

By Kua Kia Soong

Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s recent announcement to repeal the much-loathed Internal Security Act (ISA) does not give us cause for celebration when he simultaneously says that it will be replaced by two anti-terrorism laws.

There is no doubt that these new anti-terrorism laws will again allow the government-of-the-day to detain people without charge. The entire function of the ISA since 1960 has been for the Alliance and then the Barisan Nasional government to deal with the opposition and other dissidents through detention without charge.

Before we look at the way in which other countries deal with terrorism, it may be worth our while to ask if an emergency situation exists in Malaysia to warrant such legislation. The US, UK and other western countries are the objects of terrorism mainly because of their support for Israel and their aggression against Iraq, Afghanistan and other Muslim countries.

Sept 11, 2001 of course provided US President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair with the perfect excuse to launch their offensive against Iraq, Afghanistan and now Libya and to pass anti-terrorism laws in their own countries.

Articles 149 and 150 which enabled the legislation of the ISA (which is inconsistent with Articles 5, 9 and 10 guaranteeing liberty of the person, freedom of movement and freedom of speech, assembly and association respectively) were included in the 1957 Federal Constitution because the Emergency of 1948-60 was on-going.

The BN government’s pledge to annul the three states of emergency in force since 1964 shows its recognition of the fact that there is no justification for any state of emergency in Malaysia. So why is there a justification for new anti-terrorism laws when our existing laws can cope with any eventuality?

If an emergency situation should arise in the future, the government still has Articles 149 and 150 to fall back on and to legislate appropriate laws to cope with the situation as it had done in the past.

Alas, as with other lapses in its governance, the government has been most tardy in annulling the states of emergency once the emergency had blown over. And its tardiness has been most costly for many victims of its draconian laws.

Based on its record, the government cannot be trusted to use detention-without-trial laws responsibly. Apart from the detention of peace-loving citizens like me under the ISA, it is worth pointing out that out of the more than 10,000 ISA detainees since 1960, few, if any, have been charged in court with terrorist crimes. It is also an indication of the warped priorities of the government and its security forces that the alleged terrorist in the Bali bombing killed by the Indonesian police, Mat Top, had never been detained under the ISA!

Importance of due process

Many people are not aware that throughout the repugnant career of the ISA since 1960 when the Emergency had been declared over, the ISA was more draconian than similar laws in South Africa under apartheid or even Northern Ireland during the IRA campaigns.

In 1962, a black South African was picked up after returning from training in bomb-making and guerrilla warfare in Ethiopia. He then spent 27 years in jail but he was given access to lawyers and his prosecutor had to follow rules of due process. That man later became the president of South Africa.

Terrorism laws must be clearly worded, passed by Parliament, and the powers of the executive must be balanced by wider review, and new checks and balances.

The government will try to justify long period of detention without charge by claiming that the police need time to scrutinise the mountains of documents, computer data, etc. However, this excuse does not carry water because major fraud and pornography trials face similar challenges. The government must bear in mind that suspects are not terrorists.

Britain already has 200 pieces of anti-terrorism legislation, while Malaysia also has terrorism-related offences in the Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code of 2006. There is also an Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing Act 2001. Moreover, the police can detain people on less serious charges and still question them on the more serious ones as they sometimes do.

In the UK, terrorism is defined as “any politically motivated violence against people, property or electronic systems designed to influence the government or intimidate the public for a political, religious or ideological cause…”

This raises the question of whether the people have the right to take up arms against tyranny, injustice or foreign occupation. And what about the assault on civilian targets by states as we have seen in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and elsewhere?

The definition of terrorism is also intended to proscribe organisations whose activities “glorify, exalt or celebrate terrorism”. What happens is that in the process, peaceful organisations can be banned and support for mainstream Muslim causes criminalised. Consequently, this will drive more to go underground.

Extraordinary powers

It is instructive to treat “terrorists” as criminals (as in the UK) based on justice and due process and not as combatants in wars based on fear and suspicion (as is the case in the US).

The US president possesses extraordinary powers compared with the executive in the UK. Even so, it is instructive that in the Special Registration Program soon after Sept 11, 2001, 80,000 men from Arab and Muslim countries were “ethnically profiled” but it resulted in not a single terrorist conviction.

With the US resolution of Sept 18, 2001, the US Congress authorised the president to use force against any person or entity he might determine to be responsible for Sept 11, providing for indefinite detention of suspected terrorists anywhere in the world without any guarantee of charge or trial. Then by a secret order, president Bush authorised the National Security Agency to intercept communications (wire tapping) without judicial warrant.

With the war in Northern Ireland, Britain has had detention without charge although there is judicial review unlike the case of Malaysia’s ISA. In 1997, there was an upper limit of four days’ detention without charge and in 2000, it became seven days. After 2001, it became 14 days. In 2005, the Terrorism Bill was proposed for 90 days of detention without charge but this was defeated in the House of Commons. The new Terrorism Act then allowed 28 days of detention without charge. In 2008, the House of Lords defeated another Bill asking for 42 days’ detention without charge.

In the other European countries, the period of detention without charge is as follows:

France: four days
Greece: five days
Spain: 13 days
Australia: seven days
Canada: one day

In France and Spain, an independent judge decides if there is a case to answer while in Australia, detention is under ordinary remand provisions.

The US Patriot Acr 2001 stands for “Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism.” The first thing about this Act is that it can only be used against foreigners. This begs the question: why is the same act not “terrorist” if committed by US citizens?

Secondly, the US government is required to press charges within seven days. Since the passing of the Act, US has detained more than 80,000 people, nearly 800 of them at Guantanamo Bay. Guantanamo Bay prisoners are not given “prisoner of war” status nor charged nor given lawyers. The US government uses “enemy combatant” designation to detain indefinitely, allowing no access to lawyers.

Constitutional right

There is a repeated pattern of extraordinary powers first used only against non-citizens, but then extended to include citizens.

Bush has got away with a lot since Sept 11, 2001 and detainees have suffered for it. But the US judiciary has also stood up to the US commander-in-chief. Thus in “Rasul vs Bush” (2004), the Supreme Court ruled that a non-citizen had the right to challenge detention.

“Executive imprisonment has been considered oppressive and lawless since King John at Runnymede pledged that no free man should be imprisoned, dispossessed, outlawed or exiled save by the judgment of his peers or by the law of the land,” ruled the court.

After each defeat in the Supreme Court, the US government amended the law but once again in “Hamdan vs Rumsfeld” (2006), Supreme Court ruled:

“The (new) legislation did not prevent federal courts hearing habeas corpus petitions; detainees are entitled to protection of Article 3 of the Geneva Convention (which prohibits cruel treatment and torture) and that detainees were entitled to trial before a regularly constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees recognised as indispensable by civilised peoples.”

After further legislative change, the US Supreme Court ruled in “Boumedienne v Bush” (2008) that detainees had a constitutional right to habeas corpus and legislation was unconstitutional.

“The laws and constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force in extraordinary times. Liberty and security can be reconciled; and in our system they are reconciled within the law,” the court ruled.

In 2006, the federal judge in Michigan ruled that Bush’s secret order authorising the National Security Agency to intercept communications without any judicial warrant was a violation of federal criminal law and added: “There are no hereditary kings in America.”

Supranational views on terrorism laws

The Council of Europe pronounced in 2002: “While the state has the right to employ to the full its arsenal of legal weapons to repress and prevent terrorist activities, it may not use indiscriminate measures which would only undermine the fundamental values they seek to protect.”

In 2004, the International Commission of Jurists in its Berlin Declaration proclaimed:

“In adopting measures aimed at suppressing acts of terrorism, states must adhere strictly to the rule of law, including the core principles of criminal and international law and the specific standards and obligations of international human rights law, refugee law and, where applicable, humanitarian law.”

Finally, Cicero’s old adage is the wisest caution against terrorism laws from the Wild West: “Salus populi suprema est lex” (the safety of the people is the supreme law).

Malaysians would do well to demand that there is no return to detention without charge and that we do not accept the old ISA poison in a new bottle!

The writer is director of Suaram.

Let the people vote on hudud

2011-09-24T15:45:00.000+08:00

KOTA BARU: A PAS associate wants the Kelantan state government to hold an open referendum for the locals on whether the highly debatable hudud law should be adopted.

PAS Supporters Club national chairman Hu Phang Chaw said the proposed adoption of the syariah criminal enactment had once again emerged as a contentious issue, especially in Pakatan Rakyat.

To move forward on the issue, Hu asked the Kelantan government to seek an open referendum on the benefits of adopting hudud by conducting a poll throughout the state on this issue.

Get the people involved whether Muslims or non-Muslims alike, he told journalists here.

He suggested that the PAS government convene a public election for those aged 21 and above, so they could vote on the matter.

Kelantan has an estimated population-base of 1.5 million, of which 96% are Muslims but a sizeable number of them work outside the east coast state due to its subdue economic activities.

Stating that the conditons to participate should be that they are Kelantan-born and present residents here, Hu suggested the poll should involve practically all adults here and be conducted either online or through traditional methods such as public voting under the supervision of the local city councils.

Hu also proposed that the PAS-owned newspaper Harakah be entrusted to help run the poll while independent observers be engaged to ensure that there was no manipulation during the voting process.

“People are confused! Some are anxious over this hudud issue as they fear that their civil rights would be compromised. Let us put out a referendum and settle it conclusively,” he said.

Put an end to the contentious issue

Hu said Kelantanese had been living with the prospects of hudud law being implemented for the last two decades.

“The issue always tends to surface, but with no solution in sight. It is either some are supportive while some are dead against it. In the middle are the people who are now less coherent over what the issue is all about. It is time to obtain their opinions,” he added.

If PAS is of the belief that hudud is good despite of the country’s multi-ethnic background then conduct the referendum to seek a populist mandate on this issue, he said.

If majority of the people in Kelantan support hudud, the federal government should no longer oppose it, he added.

Hu said the referendum was one way to offer clarity to the issue, as even some Muslims had yet to comprehend the significance of the law built on ancient forms of punishment for crimes committed.

It could also bring closure to this contentious issues, and reduce the political gambit surrounding it, he added.

Mentri Besar Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat was reported as saying that Kelantan stood on the verge of adopting the enactment but it was the federal government who stood in the way.

He also told his Pakatan partner DAP to accept that the Islamist party would eventually adopt the legislation, as it was the centre piece of the party’s struggle.

Kita president Zaid Ibrahim made headlines in the 1990s when he filed a civil class suit against the state government in the High Court, stating that Kelantan had no right to impose the hudud law.

Hudud basically addresses the sinful acts listed in the Holy Quran including alcohol consumption, stealing, apostasy, robbery, adultery and betrayal.

The drafters of the two syariah criminal code enactments, which were passed but yet to be adopted in Kelantan and Terengganu, had gone to great pains to clarify that the law was only applicable to Muslims.

Malaya bleeding us dry

2011-09-21T12:23:00.000+08:00

By Zainal Ajamain

Malaysian Post l These words “we demand autonomy or Sabah Negeri, Merdeka” must be on the lips and hearts of all true leaders in Sabah.

On both sides of Sabah’s political divide, our leaders have long been incapacitated by their fear of their perceived Malaya masters.

They will not speak out against the daily injustices towards fellow Sabahans. And even when they do speak up it is just passive shouting – a token resistance, just to show they are saying something.

It is like a dog that is supposed to guard a house against a thief – while it barks it retreats to the back, easily allowing the thief into the house and all its belongings.

But now, for many of us, an awakening has come. We have been stirred from our slumber and now find ourselves thrust into a new political era .
We now must accept the challenge that we each have to safeguard our Sabah.

Lightning pace of greed

For too long our political play has been about, rampantly and blatantly, using money to buy votes.

The traditional concept of ideals and the meaningful struggle to live and respect those ideals are being replaced by self-interest and greed. These values are being replaced at a lightning speed.

Sabah cannot keep pace with the speed of this greed and that is why we now find our beautiful state dangerously set on the path to self-destruction.

Therefore, we insist that this most indecent form of politics be arrested and changed not only for our own respectability now, but so that our children and their successors will forever be known as honourable people.

As the last general election indicated, both the incumbent government and opposition need to win the hearts and minds of the people of Sabah in order to have the right to govern the state.

Political parties must stop the practice of buying the people’s hearts and minds with handouts and minor projects while continuing to keep promises unfulfilled and leaving a string of broken dreams.

The hopelessness all true Sabahans feel because their votes are invalidated by “imported” voters must end and we believe there are among us persons who can bring back hope and integrity.

Clean and just elections

We ask, now with a louder and stronger voice, that elections in Malaysia be clean and just.

This way the losers can accept, without question, the true will of the people and may the winner be humble in victory and rise immediately to the challenge of fulfilling your election manifesto.

If Malaya (Peninsular Malaysia) cannot give in to this fair and reasonable demand, then we should have autonomy, independence within Malaysia. We are not asking for a permanent separation – yet.

However, if these demands continuously fall on deaf ears and are met with disdain from the present leadership, it gives Sabahans no other alternative but to initiate efforts to gain its own sovereignty according to the terms agreed in 1963.

The leaders in Malaya must make their choice now, before the 13th general election.

After the election, the choice is no more in the hands of the leaders but in the hands of the people.

The ultimate losers at the end of this protracted battle will not be the Sabahans but Malaya, because Malaya has too little resource to sustain its growing population – ironically, a population growth engineered to sustain its own political survival.

Malaya took away our birth right

We cannot see any reason why Sabah needs to concede her rights to Putrajaya any longer.

How much more does Malaya need to bleed from us? They have taken our petroleum and gas. They have taken our land – our birthright.

They have imposed upon us a higher cost of living by choking our commerce, trade and industries with their carbotage policy.

Malaya is bleeding us dry!

Now, most recently splashed in headlines all over our local and national newspapers, they also twist and distort our history.

All these years, history has been written for their own glorification and to reinforce their supremacy over the people in Sabah and Sarawak. They have contaminated the minds of our children.

The indoctrination must stop now! We want history written as it happened and not how Putrajaya wants it to be.

We want Sabah back

We want a balanced economy. We want an equitable and an honest distribution of wealth.

If they do not change their current lopsided policies, then we want self-determination.

Malaya can keep their history, they can keep on mismanaging the economy and piling public debts and they can keep their societies polarised to serve their political ends. We want Sabah back.

We Sabahans are educated, better suited to and more than capable of looking after our own affairs and we shall not be belittled.

Kuala Lumpur has been saying that Sabahans cannot govern the state effectively. That statement truly borders on insult.

Worst still is the present state government’s implicit agreement that we really cannot do anything for ourselves as it refers and defers to Putrajaya.

No compromise on education
But in all honesty, this is more about control than ability. The minister in Sabah responsible for education freely admits that he has no power over education. The director of education is but a rubber stamp.

Everything must be referred to Putrajaya.

The federal-state relationship that we see today is against all that is agreed upon and promised in the Malaysia Agreement 1963.

Is it wrong then that we demand our education system back?

Since 1975, for the sake of nation-building, we have put up with the national curriculum and in the process we have sacrificed 36 years of real progress.

Our tolerance over the last 36 years for “The Malaysia Education System” has cost Sabah three generations of global competitiveness.

No more shall we in Sabah make sacrifices in the name of nation-building at the expense of our children.

There is no bright and illustrious future for us with the present Malaysian education system. Where education is concerned, we must be free to chart our own destiny.

We cannot compromise on this issue.

Sabah’s dignity

As a democracy, we accept anyone who comes to Sabah to set up and expand their political party.

However, there is an important criterion – the state anthem “Sabah Tanah Airku” must be respected by all political parties in Sabah.

For every political party, this is a measure of your sincerity towards the people of Sabah; that you are here not just for your own political gain but that you are here to work with the people to make Sabah the best she can be in every way.

Yes, this is our demand and this is only one of the many criteria for being in Sabah.

“Sabah Tanah Airku” encapsulates what it means to be a Sabahan.

Our founding fathers chose the state anthem because it carried a message and they had every intention for that message to be the doctrine by which we live.

“Merdeka Sepanjang Masa” and “Sabah, Negeri Merdeka” – this is what we are.

We are independent and we shall always be.

Zainal Ajamain is an economist and co-founder of Sabah-based United Borneo Front.

‘We’re not fighting together anymore’

2011-08-31T14:48:00.000+08:00

KUALA LUMPUR: On the rainy morning of Aug 31, 1957 a troop of Victoria Institution cadets walked from their alma mater to the neighouring Merdeka Stadium where they assembled in proud straight lines.

In a few hours they would march in their newborn country’s first Independence Day parade with the freedom cries of their first prime minister reverberating overhead. And they would march with heads held high as the new sons and citizens of Malaysia.

Among them was 14-year-old Ng Kim Boon who would later rise to the ranks of Lieutenant Colonel in the country’s armed forces.

And like the rest of his teenage comrades on the field that day, he hadn’t the faintest idea of what it all meant.

“If you want me to say I felt sense of nationalism or freedom then I’m very sorry because it was just a parade to me,” Ng, 68, said bluntly.

“The whole concept of independence was too abstract and irrelevant to an adolescent who had his mind on more important things like exams.”

It wasn’t until a full decade later that he had his first brush with liberty.

He was a Captain in the army, the British were finally packing their bags and the Malaysians were stepping into their shoes.

Ng was dispatched to East Malaysia as part of the ‘handover-takeover’ team of the British camps.

As both sides went over the inventory list, he was struck by the realisation that they were now on their own and they had better make good of it.

“You must understand that when I graduated from military college the British were still lording over us.

“Nothing had changed, there was no dramatic revolution like in other countries.

“The transition towards independence was so gradual that you hardly felt it,” he explained.

Renunciation of traditions

But once the feeling sank in, the Malaysian army was seized by a fierce determination to preserve and shield the new nation from the threats of the communist insurgency war and the Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation.

During that time, ‘liberty’ meant ‘the pride of being able to protect one’s own country by oneself’.

Then came the racial riots of 1969; followed by the New Economic Policy (NEP) and gradually the face of ‘liberty’ took on a different expression.

Said Ng: “Politics, race and religion slowly permeated the army. The new batch of soldiers were being brought up to place on racial identification being above esprit de corps.

“Racial barriers didn’t exist in my days so much so that I could eat pork beside a Muslim soldier without any trouble.”

“We were Malaysian soldiers raised in a culture that drew no lines between us.

“But the traditions that made the army what it was have been broken and cast aside because they are (thought of as) foreign traditions.”

The most painful stab in this renunciation of traditions was on Warrior’s Day celebrations last month.

The army replaced the tradition of laying wreaths at the foot of the bronze sculpture in the National Monument with a commemoration in a field instead.

Liberty lost
For Ng this rewriting of tradition was sacriligeous.

“(The 12th Yang di-Pertuan Agong) Syed Sirajuddin (Jamalullail) deemed it unIslamic to pay respects to figurines.

“And with that we lost the army value of honouring our fallen comrades.

“The army has lost more than it gained since the British left.

“We lost traditions to religious beliefs which seemed to have suddenly sprung up.

“There is no pride in being a soldier any longer. So I opted for early retirement in 1990,” said Ng who is a fourth-generation Kelantanese Peranakan.

In his culture a patriach is called Pok Long. But Ng doesn’t see himself as the Pok Long of Malaysia.

To him the all-encompassing ‘liberty’ of before has shrunk to an insular definition.

“It (liberty) now just means the freedom to go about my daily life…

“The country is unable to bring back the liberty we once felt because we’re not fighting together for anything any more.

“Instead we fight each other over whose religion and whose politics are better,” he said simply.

The first Englishwoman who performed the Hajj

2011-08-19T11:43:00.000+08:00

Malaysian Post

PILGRIMAGE TO MECCA
by Lady Evelyn Cobbold and Introduction by William Facey & Miranda Taylor,
Hardbound, 351 pages
Published by Arabian Publishing Ltd.
(Available from major online bookstores)

During the 19th century, many women, particularly Englishwomen, were fascinated by the Arab world. Most of these female travelers, like Lucie Duff Gordon, Lady Ann Blunt, Gertrude Bell, Isabelle Eberhardt and Freya Stark, to name but a few, are known to us through their impassioned travelogues.

However, one name, Lady Evelyn Cobbold (1867 - 1963) failed inexplicably to achieve a proper recognition. William Facey finally does justice to this remarkable woman, the first British Muslim woman on record to have visited the Holy Cities of Madinah and Makkah and to have written about her pilgrimage.

In the excellent introduction, co-written with Miranda Taylor, Facey highlights for the first time the family link between Lady Evelyn and her great-aunt, the formidable Jane Digby (1807-1881) who was successively Lady Ellenborough, Baroness Venningen, and Countess Theotoky before she married her fourth and last husband, a Syrian Bedouin, Sheikh Abdul Medjuel El Mezrab. With him, she lived happily for 30 years until she died at the age of 74.

Both women shared a love of the Arab world. Jane Digby swiftly adopted the Arab way of life, smoking the narghile, wearing traditional clothes and outlining her blue eyes with kohl. Unlike Lady Evelyn, the highly unconventional Jane Digby, who was equally at ease speaking nine languages and milking camels, never wrote a book and never intended to convert to Islam. Lesley Blanch, who wrote her biography in “The Wilder Shores of Love,” tells us that her husband’s “deep inbred piety awoke her own dormant religious principles” and “she came to redouble her now active participation in church affairs.”

For Lady Evelyn, things were completely different. In fact, she didn’t even remember the exact time when she decided to become a Muslim. “It seems that I have always been a Muslim. This is not so strange when one remembers that Islam is the natural religion that a child left to itself would develop,” she said.

Lady Evelyn (pic) spent most of her childhood in a Moorish villa perched on a hill outside Algiers. She learned to speak Arabic, and her favorite pastime was to escape her governess and visit the mosques with her Algerian friends.

A few years later, while staying in Rome, she had the opportunity to visit the Pope. She recounts in the introduction of “Pilgrimage to Mecca” that “when His Holiness suddenly addressed me, asking if I was a Catholic, I was taken aback for a moment and then replied that I was a Muslim… A match was lit and I then and there determined to read up and study the faith. The more I read and the more I studied, the more convinced I became that Islam was the most practical religion… Since then I have never wavered in my belief that there is but one God.”

Indeed, this belief in the Oneness of God never left her. And like many Westerners, Lady Evelyn was deeply touched by Islamic spirituality, the inner side of faith. Two years before her marriage to John Cobbold in Cairo, she wrote a poem in which she evoked the fundamental principle of Tawhid (belief in one God) in a prayer, “To Him, the One. The Essence of all” and “His Presence within and around.”
I was particularly moved by the passage about her funeral. Lady Evelyn spent the last twenty years of her life quasi-secluded on her estate at Glencarron, and then in a nursing home in Inverness. Yet it is obvious that, despite the fact she had lost touch with other Muslims, she must have insisted on many occasions that her written instructions for her Muslim funeral be followed.

Sheikh Muhammad Tufail, the imam of the Woking Mosque, was dispatched to Glencarron, in Scotland, to perform the funeral prayer on Monday Jan. 28, 1963. When he arrived, he discovered Lady Evelyn’s wishes. She had clearly instructed that a specific verse from the Surah Al Nur (light), “Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth,” be inscribed on a flat slab and placed on her grave.

This verse reminds me of a beautiful passage she wrote, about the same surah, in “Pilgrimage to Mecca:” “I read entranced, it is impossible to give a translation that can convey the poetry, the subtle meaning that floods the soul when read in the original. To me the simple grandeur of the diction, the variety of the imageries, the splendor of the word painting differentiates the Qur’an from all other scriptures…”

Lady Evelyn was able to see and describe the way women lived in Madinah and Makkah, something no writer had ever done before her. Facey also remarks that, “as an eminent and distinguished personage in her own right, she had equal access to the male side of life, being regarded like Gertrude Bell or Freya Stark (or indeed Margaret Thatcher in our own day), as a kind of honorary man.”

Lady Evelyn Cobbold was also known as Sayyidah Zainab, her Muslim name, and wrote an honest and sincere account of her pilgrimage to Makkah. She was excited to be the first British woman on record to have made her pilgrimage, but that gave way to a deeper emotion as she prayed in the Haram (the Holy Mosque) in Makkah.

One cannot fail to be touched by the way she expresses her feelings in those sublime moments: “It would require a master pen to describe that scene, poignant in its intensity of that great concourse of humanity of which I was one small unit, completely lost to their surroundings in a fervor of religious enthusiasm. Many of the pilgrims had tears streaming down their cheeks; others raised their faces to the starlit sky that had witnessed this drama so often in the past centuries. The shining eyes, the passionate appeals, the pitiful hands outstretched in prayer moved me in a way that nothing had ever done before, and I felt caught up in a strong wave of spiritual exaltation. I was one with the rest of the pilgrims in a sublime act of complete surrender to the Supreme Will, which is Islam.”

Very little has been written about the history of Islam and British Muslims in the United Kingdom, and this book makes a valuable contribution to a little known subject. One often overlooks the fact that becoming a Muslim in Europe is still not easy. Islam dictates a way of life whose social norms and legislations are resented by secular regimes. A citizen has the right to choose his faith, but is not given the means to follow it. Converting to Islam is also socially alienating, especially for practicing Muslims whose refusal to drink alcohol is too often seen as a rejection of the most basic expression of Christianity and, by extension, Western conviviality.

Even if Lady Evelyn was not a practicing Muslim in Britain, her conversion to Islam did not go well with her in-laws and worsened after the death of her husband. However, she hung onto her faith until the very end. “When I look into my journal I shall live it all again. Time cannot rob me of the memories that I treasure in my heart… the countless pilgrims who passed me with shining eyes of faith, the wonder and glory of the Haram of Makkah, the great pilgrimage through the desert and the hills to Arafaat, and above all the abiding sense of joy and fulfillment that possesses the soul.”

I cannot but imagine Lady Evelyn reliving the exalted beauty of her Haj toward the end of her life. And she carried those memories with her on the majestic slopes of Glencarron, where a humble headstone is inscribed with the verse from Surah Al Nur that moved her so much, “Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth.”

Adapted from Arab News.

Not enough money to make babies

2011-08-13T13:31:00.000+08:00

PETALING JAYA: There are more people living in Malaysia today than ever before. At least 28 million people reside within its shores. Selangor and Kuala Lumpur combined take the lion’s share with a total population of 7,136,762.

But these staggering numbers – made public through the Population and Census Report 2010- also highlight a disturbing trend.

We may have more Malaysians today, but we are making less babies. And the economy may have something to do with it.

International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM) professor and urban planner Alias Abdullah said that the country’s growth rate was on a steady decline since the 1990s.

“The current growth rate is considered low,” he said, commenting on Selangor’s average annual population growth rate.

The government-prepared Prelimary Count Report 2010 revealed that from 1991 to 2000, Selangor had an average growth rate of 6.03%.

This was halved to 3.17% in the next decade, before coming down to 2.7% in 2010.

“This is due to the fact that we have more young people who are getting married at later stages, maybe at about 25 or 27 years old.”

“They will also have low household family (meaning) less kids, due to the increase in the cost of living and that the salary rate is not that high,” Alias told FMT.

He said that parents in new Malaysian families -with a combined salary of between RM3,000 and RM5,000 – may probably limit their themselves to one or two children per household.

Bleak future

Alias’s analysis does not come as a surprise. Malaysians, despite government-hyped announcements, have not had much to shout about.

Salaries have barely changed in the last decade. FMT previously reported that the average salary increase was only 2.6% from 1994 to 2007.

Counting from the 1997 economic crisis paints an even bleaker picture: a 1.9% wage increase.

On top of that, Malaysians also appeared to lose their buying power, with inflation on a steady climb.

In June, the inflation rate was recorded at 2.9% from January to April 2001. This was further exacerbated by the petroleum subsidy rationalisation and the 7.12% increase in electricity tariffs.

Property and automobile prices are also at an all-time high, with some having to take decade-long loans just to pay off their debts.

These revelations have hardly come as good news for cash-strapped urban families.

According to the Federal Territories and Urban Well-Being Ministry, a combined household income of less than RM3,000 is regarded as urban poverty.

It does not help either that thousands of Malaysians are already earning less than RM720 a month – below the poverty line.

More old people

The reluctance to make babies, Alias pointed out also brought about another interesting trend: Malaysia had a larger aging population.

According to the census report, the proportion of Malaysians below the age of 15 years decreased to 27.6% from 33.3% in 2000.

Those between 15 to 64 years on the other hand, increased to 67.3% from 62.8% in 2000. The number of senior citizens aged 65 and above also went up to 5.1% from 3.9% a decade ago.

“If this is the case, let’s say you have this number of 10 to 30-year-olds in 2010, then in 2020, you’ll be seeing this bar moving upwards,” he told FMT, pointing to the age groups that had the largest proportion in the census report.

“The number of new children born has decreased … (Soon) you’re going to have more older people than youngsters.”

A higher aging population, the IIUM professor said, meant that the government needed to look into building more hospitals.

“They’re going to need more hospitals, medical facilities, better insurance coverage and care homes. The government is going to have to look into sports areas for an aging society as some developed countries (might have),” he said.

However, looking at currently available facilities, Alias doubted that the government was ready in providing such services.

According to the US Global Health Policy website, Malaysia has a mere 18 hospital beds per a population of 10,000. Thailand and Singapore in comparison, were recorded at 22 and 32 respectively.

Overcrowding?

Malaysia’s increasing population however, was not so much a matter of concern for the IIUM professor, despite 28 million people residing in the country.

Alias said that the best population numbers for the country hovered between the 30 to 35-million mark.

“According to the size of Malaysia, the growth (we have) is okay. With 30 to 35 million, we can sustain our own economy by buying our own products,” he said, using Japan as an example of a self-sustaining economy.

An urban planner by trade, Alias said that a population below 20 million was inadequate. However, he said that numbers surpassing the 60-million mark were “dangerous”.

“It’s quite dangerous in terms of many things. To what extent are we able to supply our population?” he asked, and cited water, food and energy as factors.

“If we are too big, we will need to change the way we get our electricity. Maybe we will need a nuclear plant, and maybe we will need to buy our water from somewhere, or (resort to) desalination.”

Though agreeing with Alias, Monash University professor and sociologist Phua Kai Lit argued that overpopulation was more a matter of managing resources than anything else.

“Unless you have a very big population like China or India, I don’t think 50 million is a problem. It depends on the size of the economy, and how well you manage resources, consumption patterns and so on,” he said.

Using Singapore and The Netherlands as examples, Phua said that these small countries were able to manage high population densities, generate jobs and handle economies very well.

Overcrowded megacities like Tokyo, he added, were another instance of well-run administrations. “You have millions and millions of people there, but they don’t have a problem there.”

“Public facilities, public transport, sanitation and water supply are good,” he said.

Phua then added that overcrowding only became a problem when governments tended to be badly run, and pointed out Mexico City as a textbook case of poor administration.

“Besides, if things get really bad in terms of overcrowding, people will be rational and they’ll move elsewhere,” he said.

In 1982, then Prime Minister of Malaysia Tun Mahathir Mohammad unveiled the National Population Policy, and boasted of Malaysia achieving a population of 70 million by 2100.

Dr M and Murdoch: Twins separated at birth?

2011-08-05T17:51:00.000+08:00

Malaysia Post - by Mariam Mokhtar : Dr Mahathir Mohamad. You either love him or hate him. In his latest blog, he taunted the western media for their self-righteousness and gloated over the telephone hacking scandal caused by the News of the World, one of Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers, which rocked the UK.

In his latest posting on Aug 2 entitled ‘The telephone hacking scandal II’, Mahathir described how western journalists freely condemned our failure to respect the rule of law, our injustices, our poor human rights record and our corruption.

He then said that the western media was equally contemptible and that they (the western press) would just as easily cheat, abuse the trust placed on them and would ignore human rights. They were guilty of the dirty things they allege we had committed.

Mahathir then relished relating how UK members of parliament were found to have used taxpayers’ money to fund their private lifestyles and that their governments would also “sell titles”.

As expected, Mahathir used the recent telephone hacking scandal to illustrate his contempt for the western media and all that they represented.

Mahathir seemed to enjoy detailing the bribes given to journalists so that they would downplay the indiscretions committed by powerful people.

Interestingly, Mahathir said that “their politicians are just as afraid of the press as we are.”

Unsurprisingly, Mahathir slammed the western press for misreporting about Malaysia, in essence, telling lies about the country. He further condemned the continual denigration of the Malaysian government, without the west checking the veracity of the facts.

He poured scorn on western reports about his cronyism, his manipulation of the judiciary and his treatment of Anwar Ibrahim, his one-time deputy.

Mahathir ended by saying that except for a few notables, the western journalists are “not the impartial purveyors of truth that people assume them to be.”

The press baron

Before Mahathir can ridicule the western press even further, perhaps he should look at the man at the centre of the telephone hacking scandal – the press baron, Rupert Murdoch.

In a special report commissioned by Reuters, it was reported that Murdoch micro-managed his media empire and would “dispose of any editor who regularly takes a different stance from his own”.

Murdoch would put pressure on his editors “until their newspapers reflected his own political leanings”.

How different is this from Mahathir’s rule? We hear allegations that no one would dare oppose Mahathir and that he had a little red book which detailed people’s faults, which could be used against them, if they dared challenge him in the future.

Mahathir might also like to compare the different relationships between the press and the politicians, in Malaysia and the west.

Murdoch cosied up to several MPs in UK, and with his indirect influence and patronage, would control the politicians. Contrast this with the Malaysian press and politicians. Over here, politicians, principally leaders of Umno, control the press.

In the west, it was the ‘dirty’ politicians who were desperate to win elections and who got into bed with Murdoch.

It was a sort of quid pro quo whereby they would get immediate, extended and positive coverage in the papers, and support in an election year, provided they gave Murdoch unhindered access to Downing Street. If they did not, they would be annihilated in the press.

Over in Malaysia, there is no question that Umno’s leaders hold sway over what our mainstream media publishes.

So what is there to be proud of Mahathir? In the west, Murdoch controlled the politicians. Over here, Mahathir (when he was PM) and his successors dictate what should and should not be published in our media.

Links with FBC Media

How does Mahathir explain the scandalous exposes on Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and the Sarawak Chief Minister, Taib Mahmud, who manipulated the foreign press into giving glossy impressions about their personalities and governance?

FBC Media Ltd, a UK-based PR company, has now been taken off air by both CNN and the BBC.

Perhaps, Mahathir has conveniently ignored the recent revelations by the Sarawak Report (SR) website?

SR reported that Najib and Taib spent scores of millions of taxpayer’s money on self-publicity based on lies – the same lies that Mahathir accused the western press of not attempting to ‘verify the truth first’? The FBC has tarnished CNN and the BBC with their biased reporting.

Mahathir mentioned that in the west, the Metropolitan Police Chief was not immune to being questioned by the Parliamentary Select Committee over his handling of the hacking and over his acceptance of a stay at a health spa paid for by a former News of the World editor. The police chief has since resigned to prevent his force from further bad publicity.

Contrast this with Malaysia. Last December, our Parliamentary Select Committee denied Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim the opportunity to present his case on the APCO allegations and its links with Najib.

Malaysia’s parliamentary committee decided to rely solely on a letter from public relation consultancy APCO and barred witnesses from being called. In the end, Anwar was suspended from parliament.

Perhaps the critical difference Mahathir should consider is that in the west, those who are guilty of crimes are brought to trial, and given a fair hearing before justice is meted out.

Over in Malaysia, it makes no difference if the judiciary, the police, the politicians and all those who are guilty of any crimes have been caught red-handed.

They will be let off or be subjected to a sham trial. At worst, especially if public opinion is bound to go against the government, there will be a cursory sentence.

Malaysians, especially politicians and civil servants, do not know the meaning of accountability.

Iron grip

Finally, those who are critical of Murdoch claim that his personality, managerial style and the pressure he exerted on journalists, created a culture that encouraged the type of behaviour which accepts phone hacking to get sensational news stories. The end justifies the means.

Isn’t this what we have seen with Mahathir? During his rule, many of our institutions were corrupted by his style of governance and leadership.

Corruption, nepotism, lack of accountability, abuse of power, money politics and race and religion being used to divide us, are some of the things we have inherited from Mahathir.

Bruce Guthrie, a former editor at Murdoch’s Herald Sun in Melbourne, described Murdoch to Reuters: “He is not necessarily a bloke who wants to discuss ethics in journalism.”

Perhaps we can say of Mahathir, “He is not necessarily a bloke who wants to discuss ethics in politics.”

The unfortunate ones of Ladang Bukit Jalil

2011-07-29T07:14:00.000+08:00

PETALING JAYA: There is something whimsical about Ladang Bukit Jalil. The houses still have chimneys, and the roads that lead to these homes look like something out of an Enid Blyton book. The houses are simple, but spacious and sitting inside one of them will make you oblivious to the scorching heat. It seems an idyllic, placid place; nothing about it says that the 41 families residing there are in danger of losing their homes.

But today, however, they have chosen fun over fret, forgetting the bulldozers, local authorities and the police, just to mention a few of their daily concerns. Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) is invoking the Emergency Ordinance (1969) to evict the 41 families who still reside there, which their lawyer claims is illegal as they are licensed former estate workers.

The foot-high grass has been cut, the tents are up and sound-system plays the latest Tamil hit songs. A row of chairs have been arranged on the still dewy ground for guests and behind this is a table where simple prizes await the children who will win the sporting games a little later. Some are seen already picking out what they think might be theirs for the taking. One child is overheard saying this to a her friend, “Don’t worry. If I win the colour pencils, I will share them with you.”

There is an indelible sense of camaraderie and companionship, not to mention an enviable feeling of security for anyone who chooses to either live there or just stop by for a visit because that’s the kind of people who live in the Bukit Jalil Estate.

For the moment, several students from various local universities are enjoying the hospitality of the entire village. Organised by the Persatuan Pelajar India Malaysia (MISA), the young people are here as part of the Projek 3C (Community Care Circle). This is an effort to encourage better understanding and appreciation of these students for the hardship endured primarily by estate dwellers and other sidelined communities.

“About a month before the project began, MISA visited with the residents and told them about the programme. We want them to know that it’s not about making speeches but doing what needs to be done. The students who will be staying with the residents for two weeks will assist the residents with daily duties while carrying out their own findings on personal experiences of living in the estate,” said Gobi Krishnan, MISA vice-president-cum-organising committee chairman.

And there will be plenty for the students to discover, more so now with the land tussle that is taking place.

A fraction of what’s left

Ladang Bukit Jalil was previously all of 1,800 acres when the government first acquired the estate. “Was” because now it’s down to a paltry 26 acres, with much of the land sold off to private developers such as Berjaya group, Island and Peninsular and Ho Hup.

The Bukit Jalil National Stadium stands on part of this land as does a detention centre for undocumented migrant workers, luxury houses, tolled highways and golf courses, among others. And while all this development was taking place, no concessions were made for these people who had stayed at the estate for the longest time – some for up to 80 years.

Now, only 26 acres of land remain, and there is talk of even this being needed for a burial park. There is a private developer by the name of Bukit Jalil Development Sdn Bhd, waiting to acquire the final bit of land. This private company is allegedly linked to a former Datuk Bandar of Kuala Lumpur, during whose tenure the Ladang Bukit Jalil workers were branded squatters and received notices under the Emergency Ordinance (Clearance of Squatters Regulation) 1969.

In spite of all this, the residents are just asking for four acres of land to house the 41 families which comprise about 160 people. This request has of course been ignored and there are plans to move the families into the tight quarters of high-rise flats.

The residents have been refused the four acres.

About a week into the 3C project, about 30 DBKL and 10 Special Branch officers paid Ladang Bukit Jalil a visit and so did the tractors.

Sivashangari Veloo, a 23-year-old accountancy student from Universiti Tun Abdul Razak, admits that seeing this frightened her initially. “It also made me sad to realise that there are many of us who take our homes for granted when here, they are defending theirs.” Her friend, K Durgashini, was just surprised to find a rubber estate in the Klang Valley. “And it’s not like what I imagined it to be either,” she says.

Gobi says that the difference between Ladang Bukit Jalil and most other similar dwellings is that this one is more of an urban estate. There are rubber trees, but the residents have stopped tapping rubber for a livelihood and only do it to preserve something that is an inherent part of their culture.

You will find a Hindu temple, a Tamil school, a self-contained grocery store, and a community centre ensconced among the quaint wooden houses.

“Some quarters have accused the residents of rejecting modernisation. They aren’t doing any such thing. All they want to do is retain their heritage and culture and live on a land that they have called home for over 80 years. Many of the residents hold good jobs in the city, but prefer to live in the estate,” he says.

A tale of two plantations

Ladang Bukit Jalil is also a tale of two plantations owned by the same company: the Bukit Jalil Estate Agencies (Kinrara Group Estates Sdn Bhd). One estate was acquired by the government, while the other was not, and stayed in private ownership.

The one which was not acquired by the government – Kinrara Estate – gave land and built low-cost terrace houses for its workers. Each worker only needed to fork out about RM5,000 to purchase a house. Other facilities, such as temples and schools, were retained.

What has been given to the workers in the estate acquired by the government, Ladang Bukit Jalil, is in stark contrast.

The workers were not offered low-cost terraced houses and were told to move to high-rise, low-cost flats. Worse still, the government had milked the workers of their remaining labour for another 15 years without paying them EPF, Socso and retirement benefits.

“And after this, the government tells them to get out because the residents are now deemed squatters?” Gobi asks incredulously

Recently, Human Resources Minister Dr S Subramaniam worked out two compensation packages for the now ex-workers, amounting to RM11,000 for some and RM23,000 for others, based on the 15 years they were denied these statutory benefits.

It seems that if the government had not acquired Ladang Bukit Jalil, the ex-workers would have received the same or better benefits like their more fortunate counterparts in Ladang Kinrara, and would now be living on their own landed property.

Up to the 1980s, income from rubber and oil palm played a major role in financing the development of our country. The country prospered and plantation companies reaped huge profits, while plantation workers lived in abject poverty and deprivation generated by below-poverty-line wages and the most backward of wage structures.

Seeing this for what it truly is, four-acres of land as a social wage to compensate for their contribution towards the nation is surely not too much to ask for.

PSM 6: An unlawful detention

2011-07-20T13:27:00.000+08:00

Dr D Michael Jeyakumar

Malaysian Post l Mariam Mokhtar : Most people would not have known him personally but they would have read of him and know that he comes from Sungei Siput. Few, especially those he has helped, will disagree that he is a champion of the poor and the forgotten.

To those whose lives he improved, he is a king among ordinary men. To the government, he stands accused of plotting to overthrow the King.

Today, as his health deteriorates, he is kept in isolation, under the draconian 1969 Emergency Ordinance (EO) of Malaysia.

If you thought it couldn’t happen to you, then you might wish to think again.

Photos and & Videos Bersih 2.0

The man in question is Dr D Michael Jeyakumar, the Sungei Siput MP. On June 25, he and 29 other people from the Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) were arrested for allegedly possessing communist propaganda material and so were considered a threat to national security.

The authorities claim that the PSM was a danger to the public as it was planning to revive the communist party and then topple the government by starting a revolution.

According to some reports, PSM members had been forced to sign confessions in which they admitted that there was a plot to overthrow the government and that some members had undergone suicide bombing training.

Some serious allegations have surfaced regarding the treatment of the 30 people. Women were physically abused, forced into an overcrowded cell and had to drink from a toilet bowl, to quench their thirst.

The conditions in the cell were deplorable with many unable to relieve themselves and had to beg to go to use the toilet which apparently was not working. Other ill-treatment involved the inhumane and life-threatening treatment of a diabetic.

Among the activists who were detained without trial with Jeyakumar are PSM deputy president M Saraswathy, central committee members Choo Chon Kai and M Sugumaran, Youth chief R Sarathbabu and Sungai Siput branch secretary A Letchumanan. They are collectively known as “The PSM 6”.

Last month, they were arrested and charged. After being released, they were re-arrested on July 2. There were also allegations that the Special Branch had tricked some members of PSM who were illiterate, into signing statements alleging their involvement in a violent revolution. It was also alleged that their responses for being members of PSM and their relationship with Bersih 2.0, had been written for them.

Unflinching service

The authorities may wish to tarnish Jeyakumar’s reputation but his colleague, another doctor, writes of the young Jeyakumar who was at that time, performing a stint in the Sarawak General Hospital (SGH), in the 1980s. The following is his description of the young medical officer:

Even then he was most outstanding as a government officer of uncommon social responsibility, providing patient service unflinchingly regardless of heavy workloads. Indeed he showed his concern for patients well beyond his immediate patient care responsibilities at SGH.

I recall that as a junior medical officer at SGH, he actively canvassed for:

The safety and comfort of patients on long boat journeys, while on referral from Kapit district hospital to Sibu Hospital;

Injured workers’ timely entitlements under the Workers Compensation Scheme; especially timely and more just awards by medical boards to injured workers;
The legislatively prescribed responsibilities of Socso in the rehabilitation of permanently disabled workers, and weakness of Socso thereof; and
The occupational safety of mostly Dayak logging workers in Sarawak, or rather, lack thereof.
This is all the more remarkable as he comes from a comfortable upper middle class family in Penang.
I was disappointed in myself for having failed in my effort to recommend him for Perkhidmatan Cemerlang award.

Nonetheless, he was a personal inspiration to me, and he will always be such.

I have no doubt that it is a highest level of humanity which made him not just a physician, but an uncommon one. He has dedicated the last three-four decades of his life as much to his Dayak patients in Sarawak as to the Indian plantation workers, both groups being the marginalised of the marginalised in Malaysian society.

His humanity finds expression in his leadership of Malaysian Socialists.

We might not agree with the principles of PSM but if we are to have free, fair and clean elections, we have to allow everyone to express their views.

Today, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak will pay a visit to the Pope in the Vatican City.

How can Najib hold his head high up and talk to the Pope with a clear conscience when at home, six people and possibly several thousand others, are held without trial, their future destroyed, their lives in jeopardy, just because they want to uphold their rights to free speech and freedom to hold peaceful assemblies?

Is the Vatican going to remove all its crucifixes for Najib’s visit?

Must read - PM Najib's tyranny draws focus on bribes, murder

Shame on you, Najib

2011-07-16T21:22:00.000+08:00

Malaysian Post l Maclean Patrick : In AD 64, 10 of the 14 districts of Rome went up in flames in a fire that raged for five and a half days.

Contrary to popular belief, Nero did not light the “Great Fire of Rome”. This was a rumour at the time and in order to deflect blame, Nero blamed the Christians. Thus, began the persecution of the Christians under Nero’s reign. During this period, Christians were tortured, fed to the animals and burnt at the stakes (illuminating Nero’s palaces during his parties to which we get the term “human candle”).

After the Great Fire of Rome, Nero organised relief efforts for all those affected. He opened his palaces to shelter the victims of the fire and provided food for the starving citizens. Nero played the saviour of Rome, winning over the hearts of the Romans with his charitable works. And when it came time to find fault, Nero placed the blame on the Christians without providing any proof whatsoever on their alleged involvement.

The Best Video of the year

Now fast-forward to May 2011, and Christians were again falsely blamed for a fire started by a rumour. Only this time, the accuser and the ruler are in cahoots. While the nation simmers as religious and racial tensions rise – created largely by Utusan Malaysia and Umno – Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak steps in in an attempt at playing the good “cop”.

Shame on Najib, for like Nero, all your deeds are just for personal gains. All your deeds are to secure your position as head of this corrupt government. Shame on you that you would burn, at the stake, innocents just so that you may gain more support from the Malay grassroots.

There is internal bickering within Umno itself as to who will helm the party after Najib. And seemingly anxious to show his strength, Najib is working over-time to garner the support of the Malays as the nation heads towards the 13th general election.

Huge mis-step

This fear of losing the reins of government is further compounded by gains the opposition front made in the recent Sarawak state election. People are waking up and making a stand.

A huge mis-step was made by Umno and its various mouthpieces stepped out to attack the Chinese for their support towards the DAP, especially after the Sarawak state election. The poor mindset of the Barisan Nasional (BN) at that time was that all Chinese support had been thrown behind the DAP and therefore the Chinese had to be punished.

Thus, various accusations were levelled at the Chinese, prompting even the Chinese component parties within BN to state their stand. In all this bickering, did Najib step forward to stamp his authority as the prime minister of Malaysia? No, instead he allowed it to fester. And when the Chinese have been painted as enemies of the BN and the government, the same charge was hurled at the Christians.

It comes as no surprise that the DAP and the Christian community were jointly charged when Utusan Malaysia lied about a plot to Christianise Malaysia. And did Najib step forward to defend the minority group being targeted by this deluge of lies and unfounded accusations? No. Instead, he opted to keep quiet and being the opportunist, he would play the role of good cop.

Let’s not be hood-winked by the play being scripted here. Najib played it out as if the Christians were the one causing all the ruckus. Why then did Najib not meet DAP, too, since it was also labelled by Utusan Malaysia for being in cahoots with the Christians?

No, Najib was not out to calm matters. Instead, the matter has been turned on its head and the Christian leaders were made out as apologetic leaders apologising to the prime minister for even thinking about the matter. Did Najib in any way tell the leaders that they were not to blame but that it was Utusan’s fault for reporting lies? No.

Reckless minions

Najib assured the Muslim leaders that Islam will remain the religion of the federation, and the Christian leaders assured the Muslims that Islam’s place will be respected.

Umno, Najib and Utusan Malaysia washed off their hands for an obvious misdeed. And for formality’s sake, Utusan Malaysia was only issued a warning letter and bloggers like Big Dog were allowed to continue yelping in their kernel.

Shame on you, Najib. You are the prime minister for all Malaysians and especially responsible for the minority voices in the country. Yet, you safeguard your own position first at the expense of the minorities.

You allow the nation to burn under the weight of mismanagement and turn on the minority communities, branding them as the culprits for your inability to control your reckless minions.

The problem in Malaysia is not so much racial or religious tension but rather it is a leader who is so out of touch with the principles of governing people of diverse backgrounds.

Maclean Patrick is a Kuching-based blogger

Read also: The Party day in London for Najib and Rosmah in video

Bersih rally has called BN’s bluff

2011-07-12T12:35:00.000+08:00

Malaysian Post l Joe Fernandez : If Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak had been a good strategist, or surrounded by people not given to anything more than fawning, he would have donned a yellow T-shirt on July 9 and hijacked the movement for free and fair elections from Bersih 2.0. It’s not the done thing to be seen as opposing free and fair elections.

Alas, it was not to be. The government couldn’t see beyond its nose.

Instead, Najib was persuaded by the red shirts of Umno Youth’s ultra right-wing Patriots to virtually commit political suicide. He has thundered defiance at those calling for change and reform and, like Umno Youth, pledged to defend the present electoral system.

Umno leaders, unlike those in the opposition, don’t seem to need police permits to stage huge instant gatherings of specially-mustered sleepy-eyed and bored civil servants to witness their ranting at the opposition and issuing all manner of dire threats. It has been conservatively estimated that half the civil service are for the opposition.

To add insult to injury, Najib has resurrected a long discredited theory, and obviously intends to keep on harping, that all political problems in the country stem from one man – Anwar Ibrahim.

Bersih 2.0 Reports More Photos l Bersih 2.0 Reports

The perception is that Anwar wants to be prime minister at all costs, meaning “selling out the Malays, the religion and the country” to set up a puppet government of American boot-lickers led by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

No doubt this would come as interesting news to Kelantan prince and Umno veteran, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, who is tipped to head an opposition government as one-term prime minister, with Anwar as his deputy if the latter manages to stay out of jail.

It was Najib himself who thundered in public not so long ago that he intends to defend Putrajaya “at all costs”, come what may, implying that there was a hook-or-crook strategy at work. One has to only look at Sabah to understand in what direction Umno and the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) intends to move to keep Putrajaya away from the opposition alliance, the Pakatan Rakyat.

The BN can only get away with anything to the extent that it is allowed. Unlike in the years past, there are enough activists and cadres in the opposition to ensure that the BN doesn’t get a free ride at their expense, or the people and the country.

The BN’s game plan, come the next general election, is to reduce the opposition to the states of Kelantan and Penang – to give a semblance of free and fair elections in the country – and pull out all the stops to wrest back Selangor and Kedah, while denying the return of Perak to the opposition.

The BN also intends to win back its two-thirds majority in Parliament.

Intense propaganda

The consensus on the ground is that the BN will achieve the targets it has set for itself given that the electoral rolls would be even more tainted than usual by the time of the next general election, expected as early as November this year and no later than the middle of next year.

Hence, the Bersih 2.0 rally which did not degenerate, as predicted, into nothing more than clutching at straws in the face of the barrage of intense propaganda from the government.

It’s anyone’s guess what will happen after the next general election. But one thing is clear and that is that the opposition has no intention whatsoever of letting the BN install itself in power without a fair and free election.

This would appear to indicate that the opposition, if not Malaysians at large, would take to the streets in their thousands after the next general election to cry foul and force the BN out of office.

It would be an exercise in futility to suggest how the BN can avoid the karmic fate that is in store for it unless the government is willing to eat humble pie and admit that the electoral rolls for the next national polls is more than tainted.

But an about-turn by the powers-that-be goes against the grain, and if Sabah is any indication, it will never happen.

That brings us right back to where we started: the karmic fate that is in store for the BN after the next general election.

If Najib thinks that his precious police would protect him from the collective wrath of the opposition, as they have done in the past, he should think again. The police are part of the problem, not part of the solution. The department has been functioning as if it has become a component of the BN along with the Election Commission, the National Registration Department, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, the mainstream media and significant sections of the Judiciary.

Besides, as Tahrir Square in Cairo has proven in the recent past, the police are more than likely to flee with their tails between their legs when the game is up.

Paper tigers

In Egypt, the police were nowhere in evidence as anything up to two million people crowded into Tahrir Square for 18 days to bring the government down. Had the police appeared, they would have been pummelled by the ordinary Egyptians out on the streets. The Egyptian crowd camped out in the streets day and night came down to as few as 200,000 at certain points during the 18-day vigil before going back and forth between that figure and the initial two million.

In Malaysia, all it takes is anything between 20,000 and 200,000 people permanently camped out in the streets of Kuala Lumpur for less than 18 days to drive the final nail into the coffin of Umno and BN.

At 200,000, the crowd in the street would outnumber the police two to one and equal the police and the army combined. The Malaysian authorities are paper tigers when compared with the Mubarak regime which ran Egypt with an iron fist for more than 30 years and won every election with nothing less than 90% of the votes cast.

Kuala Lumpur, like Cairo, is where the scene of all the action would be in any planned protest movement to bring about change and reform.

The Egyptians who ousted Mubarak did not take to the streets anywhere outside Cairo in any significant number. Some crowds were mentioned as gathering in Alexandria and in the resort town of Sharm El Sheikh, where Mubarak had a seaside palace, but they weren’t a significant factor in the people’s revolution that ushered in a new dawn for Egypt.

Change comes but seldom and when it comes, it’s sudden. This is the moment for the opposition as a historical window of opportunity has opened up for them, one never to be repeated for another 50 years.

Umno and the BN talk about change and reform as well all the time – read the Economic Transformation Programme, among others – but the more things appear to change in the country, the more they remain the same. Bersih 2.0 has called their bluff.

Watch Out China, 25% Of U.S. Hackers Are FBI Informer

2011-07-10T13:41:00.000+08:00

Malaysian Post

Sony has just announced its Next Generation Portable (NGP) at E3, Los Angeles, and it’s called PlayStation Vita. One of the reasons was to divert attention from the hacking attack that left millions of PSN users’ data at risk in order to win back some trust.Obviously E3 was the platform to convince the Sony’s fans that PlayStation was still the gaming platform of preference. Sony also took the opportunity to apologise for the breach of security. Sure, blame it on the hackers.

Somehow hackers hijacked the front page news quite often recently. Google’s Security Team claimed that unidentified hacker attacks likely originated from the eastern Chinese city of Jinan, tried to collect user passwords of the Gmail accounts of hundreds of users, including senior U.S. government officials, Chinese “human rights activists” and journalists. Of course China officials denied the accusations as evil-intentioned.

On Google’s accusation, I believe it carries weight because my Gmail recently reported my last login was from a city in China, which of course prompted me to change my password immediately. The Pentagon was damn serious about hackers that it concluded that computer sabotage coming from another country (referring to China?) can count as an act of war and the United States may respond by using traditional military force.

Apparently U.S. security experts said the recent cyber-attacks against U.S. particularly defence contractors were due to cyber-espionage campaigns sponsored by China. Defence contractors such as L-3 Communications, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin were targeted by these hackers. Lockheed had been attacked by intruders who had created duplicates of the stolen SecurID keys, forcing SecurID maker RSA to replace the tokens for most of its 40 million users.

It’s true that hackers who participated in the massive scale of cyber-attacks targeting U.S. defence contractors do not act alone. They are normally sponsored by government. The simple reason why they can’t act alone is because they would have been taken prisoners, tracked by another group of hackers. No hacker is invincible because those genius hackers are, well, under the government’s payroll – money talks dude.

The fact is the underground world of computer hackers has been so thoroughly infiltrated in the US by the FBI and secret service. The same can be said about Chinese hackers. It was estimated that 25% of hackers in the U.S. may have been recruited by the federal authorities to be their eyes and ears. It was quite easy to recruit hackers – besides money, the threat of long prison sentences would normally do the trick.

Adrian Lamo, a convicted hacker earned himself the “world’s most hated hacker” for turning informant 23-year-old intelligence specialist Bradley Manning, who is suspected of passing secret documents to WikiLeaks, to the U.S. military authorities. In support of Wikileaks, another hackers group, Anonymous, has launched attacks against Visa and MasterCard as a protest against their decision to block donations to WikiLeaks.

It’s a matter of time before the Anonymous group is neutralised because the resourceful FBI are always watching in the chatrooms. And the fact that you can’t tell whether the person you’re chatting with is actually an informant or otherwise makes you very vulnerable. So, if the U.S. government believes the Chinese government was sponsoring the recent massive cyber-attacks, it could just deploy its pools of hackers to retaliate against the Chinese government, unless of course the accusation was false. Furthermore, one in four hackers is an FBI informer.

Utusan dangerous and silly, says PSM

2011-06-29T16:06:00.000+08:00

Malaysia Post - TAIPING: Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM), currently a favourite target of Utusan Malaysia’s stridently pro-Umno reporting, has hit back with a denunciation of the daily as both dangerous and silly.

“It is the real threat to national security and its reporting is bullshit,” said PSM secretary-general S Arutchelvan.

Referring to an article that appeared in Utusan yesterday, he said the paper made the “illogical and comical” inference that a communist and an agent for the American right wing would work together to topple the Malaysian government.

The Utusan report, which carried the headline “National security threatened”, mentioned the arrest of Filipino Romeo Castillo, 56, and South Korean Min Young Song, 24, and quoted an unnamed source as saying that the two were out to “create chaos in the country.

The two were arrested in Ledang, Johor, together with PSM members who were distributing leaflets as part of a national campaign that the party says is aimed at creating voter awareness.

They were at the event only as observers, Arutchelvan said.

Castillo is deputy secretary of the Party of the Labour Masses and PSM had invited him to participate in its national congress early this month and for a month-long working visit. Song is an intern with the May 18 Foundation, a South Korean human rights organisation. She is in Malaysia for a stint with the National Institute for Democracy and Electoral Integrity.

Arutchelvan lodged a police report against Utusan in Kepala Batas yesterday, alleging that the paper had threatened national security through false claims.

Silly and absurd to object Bersih rally

2011-06-26T14:53:00.000+08:00

By R Kengadharan
In July 2005, Bersih started out as the Joint Action Committee for Electoral Reforms. The primary objective of the coalition was to push for a thorough reform of the electoral process in Malaysia.

Bersih is of the view that “only when elections are clean and fair, can citzens be real masters of their own destiny and expect holders of public office to act accountably and effectively”.

Tell me what’s wrong with this objective? Is this objective laced with a sinister motive or could it undermine our peculiar cradle of democracy in any way?

On April 29, Bersih highlighted the following key issues affecting the recently concluded Sarawak state elections:

that there were abuses of power and some of this offences may have violated the Election Offences Act 1954 and the Anti-Corruption Act 1997;

complaints of vote buying, promises of development and threats to withdraw projects;

polling irregularities and violations;

restricted campaign and asymmetric media access;

and, disenfranchisement.

Bersih advised the Election Commission to immediately investigate the violations and urged them to take appropriate actions against those who have committed election offences. But there has been a complete inaction on the part of the Election Commision to date. Why?

Falling on deaf ears

While the Election Commision announced some changes, Bersih was of the view that those changes (if any) were insufficient to guarantee a free and fair election.

Bersih was of the view that they their many calls for reform has fallen into deaf ears, consequently challenging the credibility of the Election Commision which has now become a mere political tool.

The core objective of the rally on July 9, 2011 is nothing but a tireless effort to promote a vibrant and transparent democracy and an effort to establish and restore an electoral system of integrity, strong and independent public institution and a corrupt free society.

In this context, will the non-issuance of a permit really hinder and down play the importance of the voice of the people in jointly asking for electoral reform?

While the rally is intended to be peaceful, the government must respect and learn to respect the people’s constitutional and natural right to peaceful assembly without disturbance.

This is no opposition agenda as portrayed by many and neither a desperate attempt to create a hate campaign against the government.

Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has been quoted in the media as saying “ they are trying to use street demonstrations to create a hate momentum against the government to achieve their road to Putrajaya’s agenda”.

There is no doubt that this remark is completely preposterous and outrageous.

Those in position and authority failed to undertsand that Bersih is championing the critical and elementary interest of democracy and not the interest of any political parties or a desperate attempt to gain cheap political mileage as alleged by the Election Commission Deputy Chairman Wira Wan Ahmad Wan Omar.

Let’s all walk
I think it is prudent to re-assess and re-evaluate the stand of the government in this matter.

Government must encourage and implement decisive policies and not make rhetoric statements so as to pacify the majoritarian gallery.

The rally is designed to create awareness and not an attempt to undermine the democratic process or the security of the nation, provided if all parties engage in the march acted rationally and prudently.

On that score I invite the Malaysian public of all walks of life regardless of race, religion and your political believe to look at the core matter of clean and fair elections.

The constant launch of vicious attacks only displays a lack of maturity and understanding of the democratic process.

I urge Malaysians not to boycott the rally. It will not be chaotic when those for and against the street demonstrations meet.

We must instead embrace them and invite them to march along with us and urge them to change the way they see rallies and a responsible government must ultimately accede to people’s demands for fair election practices.

The Malaysian Indian Voice fully support this course and will urge their nationwide members to participate in this mammoth rally.

R Kengadharan is a lawyer and a former ISA detainee. He is also a leader of the Malaysian Indian Voice NGO

Evil stalks the brave and threatens the peace

2011-06-24T14:11:00.000+08:00

From P Ramakrishnan, via e-mail

I received an sms from +601119732179. The message conveyed to me was in Bahasa Malaysia and read: Members of the Bersih steering committee at the launch of Bersih 2.0

Korg ni buta hati ke?? buat apa sokong ambiga keling paria haramjadah tu? dia ni kapir laknat. korang tau tak dia ni jadi alat anjing2 politik untuk musnahkan keutuhan melayu. dia kata je nak BERSIH kan SPR. bersih kepala bapak dia.

Puak2 PAS n PKR pun buta tuli n pekak badak.. kalau SPR tak bersih, boleh ke diorang menang kat Sgor, Kedah, Penang, Kelantan n perak dulu? DAP cina sial tu pulak lagi haram jahanam. dia tengok je melayu bertekak. hujung2 dia perintah negara ni dan kristiankan kita semua. aku nak kasi amaran kat korang semua.

Kalau perhimpunan ni jadi, aku dan org2 aku akan bunuh ambiga dan korang2 keliling dia satu persatu, termasuklah orang2 politik bangang yg bersekongkol ngan kafir laknat tu.. ini amaran aku. Korang tengokla nanti.

Translated into English, the message meant:

Don’t you have any sense? Why should you support that pariah keling haramjadah Ambiga? She is a scorned infidel. Don’t you know that she is a tool of those political dogs who are out to destroy the Malays. She claims she wants to clean up the Election Commission. Clean up her father’s head.

These PAS and PKR lots are deaf, dumb, blind and illiterate. If the EC is not clean then how did they win Selangor, Kedah, Penang, Kelantan and Perak? The damned Chinese DAP are even more despicable. They just watch the Malays go at each other’s throats. In the end, they will rule the country and Christianise all of us.

I am warning you. If this rally takes place, my people and I will kill Ambiga and those around her one by one, including these stupid politicians who are hand-in-hand with this scorned infidel… this is my warning. You watch.” (Malaysiakini translation)

What I received is apparently the same as those received by the steering committee members of Bersih 2.0. Aliran is part of Bersih 2.0 and is represented on its steering committee, and we are committed to free and fair elections, which are crucial to the democratic process.

The message in the sms is full of venom, threatening death to Ambiga and warning to kill all those around her one by one. It reeks with racial hatred and blatantly concocts lies that have no basis. It seeks to communalise an issue that concerns free and fair elections, which is supported by a wide spectrum of our civil society.

It is intended to arouse passions and disrupt our improving communal harmony, which is seen as an impediment to communal parties that are striving to hold on to their political power through evil means.

The perpetrator of this heinous crime must be brought to book urgently. We cannot brook this criminality and we cannot condone any inefficiency in getting to the bottom of this threat. It should not be difficult as there is a telephone number which can be traced to the culprit.

This is a challenge to the police and they should rise to the occasion to convince Malaysians that they are capable of looking after our national interests and safeguarding our peace and harmony.

Anything short of this expectation is totally unacceptable.

The writer is president of Aliran

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Release TBH RCI report immediately

2011-06-23T21:58:00.000+08:00

Malaysian Post l By Lim Kit Siang : The Royal Commission of Inquiry report into the death of Teoh Beng Hock submitted its report to the Yang di Pertuan Agong yesterday, three days ahead of its deadline of June 25.

The RCI Chairman Tan Sri James Foong told a press conference yesterday that a copy of the 124-page report had also been submitted to the Prime Minister.

However, the contents of the report will remain secret, pending a decision from the Yang di Pertuan Agong if the report should be made public.

This means, under Article 39 on “Executive Authority of Federation” and Article 40 on “Yang di Pertuan Agong to act on advice” of the Federal Constitution, the Yang di Pertuan Agong shall act in accordance with the advice of the Cabinet on the question of making public the RCI report on the death of Teoh Beng Hock.

As in another 23 days it will be the second anniversary of Teoh Beng Hock’s mysterious and unusual death at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) headquarters in Shah Alam on July 16, 2011, the Cabinet should not sit on the Teoh Beng Hock RCI report but must act responsibly by releasing it immediately to the public tomorrow itself in line with the principles of accountability, transparency and good governance.

I also call on the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak to agree to a full debate in Parliament on the RCI report on Teoh Beng Hock before Parliament adjourns its June meeting next Thursday on 30th June 2011.

If there are logistic problems in making the Teoh Beng Hock RCI report public tomorrow, I would ask the Prime Minister to agree to make a copy available to me tomorrow so that I can prepare a motion for debate on the RCI report to be submitted to the Speaker, Tan Sri Pandikar Amin tomorrow or latest by Monday.

Bank Negara’s increase in interest rate ill-timed

2011-06-21T21:45:00.000+08:00

KUALA LUMPUR: Central bank Bank Negara’s move to raise the Overnight Policy Rate is ill-timed as people are continuously facing a rise in living cost.

“Since last year, the government through Bank Negara has increased the OPR four times and each time there has been a 25 basis-point increase,” PAS MP Dzulkefly Ahmad said in a statement today.

The OPR is the benchmark interest rate commercial banks use to calculate their base lending rates for loans.

“The increase in OPR is being disputed by many parties. The OPR is a measurement of bank loan interest rates and it effects the Base Lending Rate (BLR),” he said.

The Kuala Selangor MP said with the increase of OPR and subsequent increase of Base Lending Rate, the government should realise that this will increase the cost of taking loans and business costs.

“When the OPR is increased, this in turn increases the BLR. In other words, if one was paying 5% interest rate on a housing loan last year, (after the increase in OPR) there has been a 20% increase in that interest rate,” he said.

He also questioned the timing of the OPR increase, arguing that this was not the right policy to pursue as Malaysia’s inflation was driven by ‘cost-factors’ (inflation caused by increasing costs) instead of the ‘push factors’ (inflation caused by increase in demand) as revealed by the government itself.

“The government’s policy to increase the OPR only encourages people to save more instead of spending and increasing consumption in order to encourage economic growth,” he said.

Bank Negara also announced that Statutory Reserve Requirement (SRR ) will rise to three per cent from two per cent, effective May 16.

Dzulkefly said that SRR increase was acceptable as it was to deal with or to “mop-up” the excessive liquidity caused by the influx of foreign funds.

The SRR is the minimum amount of cash that banks are required keep in hand and which may not be used for lending or investing