On July 17, 2007, Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak declared that Malaysia is an Islamic state driven by the fundamentals of Islam and not a secular state. He even went out of his way to emphasise that Malaysia had “never been a secular state”.
Next day, Wednesday, July 18, 2007, just before the Cabinet meeting, MCA President and Housing and Local Government Minister, Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting spoke to Najib about the latter’s “717 Declaration”.
What really transpired nobody would know, but the result is there for all to see — the ban on all mainstream media on comments on Najib’s “717 Declaration” that Malaysia is an Islamic State and had never been a secular state.
Did the idea of the ban and blackout of all mainstream media on comments on Najib’s “717 Declaration” emanate from the MCA or did it come from Najib?
Is the ban on all mainstream media from reporting comments on Najib’s “717 Declaration” that Malaysia is an Islamic State designed to salvage MCA from the political fall-outs in being a party to the jettisoning of the Merdeka “social contract”?
This is not only a cowardly and undemocratic act, the gravest blow to press freedom in the 45 months of Abdullah premiership, but a great disservice to the integrity of the Merdeka social contract agreed by the forefathers of the major communities as the cardinal basis of nation building — a secular Malaysia with Islam as the official religion.
The solution is not to ban the press and deny Malaysians the right to speak up to defend the Merdeka social contract which had also been the life-work of the three first Prime Ministers, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein, but for Najib to retract his “717 Declaration” and the Cabinet to reaffirm the Merdeka social contract that Malaysia had never been conceived as an Islamic state but as a secular state with Islam as the official religion.
The question all Malaysians are entitled to a clear and unequivocal answer is whether the upcoming 50th Merdeka Anniversary celebrations is for Malaysians to commemorate 50 years of a secular Malaysia or to mark its official end and the beginning of an Islamic state?
#1 by dawsheng on Saturday, 21 July 2007 - 3:59 am
This young man is talented and got guts! Well, good luck!
#2 by khoyamliang on Saturday, 21 July 2007 - 5:07 am
I was amazed when Universiti Teknologi Mara lecturer Prof Dr Shad Saleem Faruq said : “Malaysia is never secular but at the same time, it is not an Islamic state. We are neither here nor there.
[Chong Zhemin has raised a good question from Shad Faruqi’s comment. I will deal with it tomorrow. But meanwhile, any takers to give your response? - Kit]
My pertinent and objective assessment is: Malaysia is a multi-racial secular nation with Islamic characteristics !
#3 by k1980 on Saturday, 21 July 2007 - 8:09 am
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=am0uXeUgf8tE&refer=asia
Ethnic Malays have blown the opportunities given to them under the country’s 36-year-old affirmative action policy and still need preferential treatment? Who do you think you are kidding, ex-pm?
#4 by k1980 on Saturday, 21 July 2007 - 8:10 am
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=am0uXeUgf8tE&refer=asia
Ethnic Malays have blown the opportunities given to them under the country’s 36-year-old affirmative action policy and still need preferential treatment? So we need another 36 centuries of NEP for them to catch up!
#5 by negarawan on Saturday, 21 July 2007 - 8:17 am
Looks like a cool video but I need a translation to English or Bahasa http://youtube.com/watch?v=aRh5u7c06go I can roughly tell what’s it about from the visuals.
MCA and MIC are political eunuchs of UMNO. A vote for MCA or MIC is a vote for UMNO Islamic country, rampant corruption, racial and religious discrimination, half-past-six policies, mediocrity in government, faltering education standard, rise in cost of living, rise in crime, pollution, environmental damage, and human rights violation. Vote BN out!
#6 by mendela on Saturday, 21 July 2007 - 8:46 am
boh-liau,
What is Tan Chai Ho? What kind of qualifications this running dog has? What has he done for Malaysians?
Most of d MCA so called leaders are there meant to get rich only.
#7 by zioburosky13 on Saturday, 21 July 2007 - 9:29 am
If, what Najib said is true, then why the ban of debate of Islamic topic? Ironically isn’t it…? [/sarcasm]
#8 by Cinapek on Saturday, 21 July 2007 - 10:30 am
It is pathetic. Najib is desperately trying to save his political skin. He is prepared to defile the memories of the founding fathers including his own father just to further his own ends.
Well shifting political goal post is not the sole monopoly of Najib. Most of the UMNO leaders practise this same shameful act when it suits them. This same lack of integrity is disgracefully carried forward to the way they manage this country and that is why we see the massive corruptions, the efficiencies and the constant bunglings at all levels of the administration from the lowest to the top. It is a way of life.
Abetting them are the eunuchs of MCA, MIC, Gerakan and the other BN component parties. These eunuchs are closing their eyes to all these shameful UMNO machinations as long as their(eunuch’s) interest are taken care of. These eunuchs have sold their souls and the future of their descendants to the devil.
The MCA top leaders do not even have the balls to reply to Najib and instead used a lower level leader to respond so that they will have an escape channel in case UMNO retaliates. MIC and Gerakan is worse. They kept quiet.
A DPM, no less, is prepared to renegade on the social contract for his self interest. This speaks volumes for his integrity(or the lack of it) despite overwhelming evidence indicating otherwise. Can such a man be trusted to manage this country in future? He has sold out his father’s memory. What is there to stop him selling out this country then?
#9 by k1980 on Saturday, 21 July 2007 - 11:11 am
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1645461,00.html
When I asked he said he’d read the Quran. I asked it him if he understood it. He shook his head. It was then it became apparent his education went no farther than the madrassaâ€â€he was taught to recite the Quran in Arabic but did not understand a word. Other than what he was told….he was taught that suicide bombers go directly to heaven, where they’re met by virgins and lush gardens…
#10 by madmix on Saturday, 21 July 2007 - 11:22 am
Hishammudin says kafirs also have rights in an islamic state. What he didn’t say is they have LESS rights being dhimmis. They must practice their religions with the approval of the muslim state and this approval can change according to the mood of the ummah.
This is the new NEP. Now non malays who have reduced rights under NEP will have even less rights under a muslim state.
You build temples, churches, must ask permission not just from planning authorities but Islamic authorities. One day you restaurants will have to be certified, then you will have to close shop during prayer times like saudi. What people will do in future, we cannot predict.
#11 by Jeffrey on Saturday, 21 July 2007 - 11:38 am
“…//…Other than what he was told….he was taught that suicide bombers go directly to heaven, where they’re met by virgins and lush gardens //…â€Â…- k1980
I wish I had a talk with that suicide bomber on the possible errors of what he had been taught before he went about bombing innocent lives.
What is the point of denying the pleasures of the flesh in this life on grounds that it is sin and yet as a suicide bomber bent on martyrdom covet for virgins in lush gardens in the hereafter?
(Seems like virgins are more highly prized than non virgins as an incentive for martyrs).
Surely what is sin (fornification with virgins) in this life should be also sin in the hereafter just like murder is sin in this life ought equally be sin in the afterlife especially, if I may add, in Heaven, though not so sure about the other side, Hell.
How can one be sure of what happens in the Hereafter ? Even if there are virgins, they may be lesbians and even if it were not the case, one may not have any sex drive to be bothered about virgins in that ethereal state!
#12 by dawsheng on Saturday, 21 July 2007 - 2:05 pm
There are enough virgins to serve the whole mankind.
#13 by whateverla on Saturday, 21 July 2007 - 2:47 pm
What we learned in sejarah and Moral…
all are bullshit???
#14 by sheriff singh on Saturday, 21 July 2007 - 3:15 pm
Virgins? Once and its no more!!
Is there a factory somewhere? Is that why we have a population explosion everywhere?
If the suicide bomber is a women, will she have alot of virgin men studs waiting for her in heaven?
What if the bomber is gay?
What does the good book say?
#15 by bennylohstocks on Saturday, 21 July 2007 - 9:36 pm
Pudding’s warning:
http://malaysiancartoons.blogspot.com/2007/07/sec-gen.html
#16 by pwcheng on Sunday, 22 July 2007 - 12:32 am
# Jong Says:
July 20th, 2007 at 18: 04.20
“When you are not happy with the government of the day, you can express your displeasure in many ways but to use the National Anthem to rap and rock is insane. He has shown total disrespect to the country. Such acts must not be tolerated”!
Some people are difficult to control their emotion. But to be honest the situation is really becoming intolerable, more so if you have first hand experiences of all the injustices and the difficulties or sufferings dealing with the government. The chain of events that are happening can make a sane person insane.
#17 by Bigjoe on Sunday, 22 July 2007 - 10:12 am
I have said it before and I will say it again. Najib is an intellectual pretender, in reality a boob. He gives further proove that he does not have the fiber necessary for the highest office and in fact not for his current one either. He is there by virtual weakness of the current PM, an accident of mediocrity.
While the constitution have element regarding religion and Islam, so does every country in the world including the US. This does not mean that the principle of separation of religion and state is not ultimately the highest principle and Najib makes light of this. Its really scary how little he understand the importance of this when Tunku and even his father understood it. The prodigal son really is so far more dissapointing.
He is really dumb and maybe we should constitutionally ban this from the DPM post..
#18 by John F. Kennedy on Sunday, 22 July 2007 - 1:28 pm
For far too long now, there has bee an explosion of top-level management jobs but not enough capable Malays to fill them.
What you see now is just the beginning.
With the drop in standards of our local university graduates, do brace yourselves to expect more.
What Najib said is dumb, but it is not that dumb to the religious nationalists. And they are growing in power.
I say that the MCA has lost the plot. MCA leaders have lost the ability, if ever they had any, to interact and counteract with Umno for the good of this country.
#19 by shaolin on Monday, 23 July 2007 - 9:36 am
Watch out of Islamic Terrorism in Malaysia!
Why they acclaim Islamic state is definitely with Ulterior Motives!!
To harbour Talipans and Afghanistaneses into the Country,
To fight US and All other countries who are against them!!
We must unite All the WORLD globally,
To bury ALL the Islamic Terrorists ALIVE!!
#20 by simon041155 on Sunday, 15 June 2008 - 3:10 am
Actually Najis has no stand. He follows the wind. Wind blow east, he talk east, wind blow west, he talk west.