Archive for June, 2014
Malaysia Mais chief shows up an effete Putrajaya in Bible issue
Posted by Kit in Islam, Najib Razak, Religion, Selangor on Wednesday, 25 June 2014
COMMENTARY BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER
25 June 2014
Thank you, Datuk Mohamed Adzib Mohd Isa. Thank you for confirming what commentators and lawyers have been saying since the Federal Court decided not to give leave to the Catholic Church to appeal to the apex court to overturn an order stopping it from using the word Allah in its weekly newspaper.
A few hours after the court decision, the Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement saying that the court decision would only impact the Catholic Herald.
At the same time, Putrajaya assured Christians that they could use Allah in their worship services and proudly proclaimed that the infamous 10-point solution put together in April 2011, just before the last Sarawak elections, was still in place.
Among other things, the 10-pointer allows the import of Malay-language bibles. Read the rest of this entry »
The difference between compromise and cowardice
Posted by Kit in nation building, Religion on Wednesday, 25 June 2014
Erna Mahyuni
The Malay Mail Online
June 25, 2014
JUNE 25 — Let the Allah issue rest, someone said to me. “In the end, when we stand before Him, none of this will matter.”
This is a very Malaysian way of looking at things. Don’t talk about this — too sensitive. Don’t stage a play or make a film about that — too incendiary.
We step on eggshells all the time, trying not to anger that person or this person.
But let us be frank here; there only seems to be one race we seem to be very afraid of offending while there seems to be no problem kicking around cow heads or throwing Molotov cocktails at churches.
We cannot keep sweeping things under the carpet in fear of civil unrest. We cannot keep banning books and films and telling minority religions to stop “threatening” the majority faith. Read the rest of this entry »
Isis, Isil or Da’ish? What to call militants in Iraq
By Faisal Irshaid
BBC
24 June 2014
The crisis in Iraq has highlighted the fact that English-speaking governments and media organisations cannot settle on what to call the al-Qaeda breakaway that has led the offensive by Sunni militants and tribesmen in the north and east of the country.
When referring to the jihadist group, UN and US officials have been using the acronym “Isil” or “I-S-I-L”, which they say stands for “Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant”.
The BBC News website uses the same translation, but a different acronym. It has instead opted for a more common one – “Isis” – based on the other widely used translations “Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham” or “Islamic State in Iraq and Syria”.
Some have also started referring to the group as “Da’ish” or “Daesh” a seemingly pejorative term that is based on an acronym formed from the letters of the name in Arabic, “al-Dawla al-Islamiya fi Iraq wa al-Sham”. Read the rest of this entry »
MH370 hunt may take ‘decades’, says MAS commercial chief
The Malay Mail Online
June 25, 2014
KUALA LUMPUR, June 25 — The search for flight MH370 which has been missing for more than three months could take “decades”, Malaysia Airlines (MAS) commercial chief Hugh Dunleavy has said.
In an interview with the London Evening Standard daily, Dunleavy said the wreckage from the Boeing 777 could be spread over a large area upon crashing into the southern Indian Ocean, a challenging seabed with mountains and valleys.
“I think it could take a really long time to find. We’re talking decades,” Dunleavy was quoted as saying in the interview published last Monday.
The British director of commercial operations in MAS also hit out at Putrajaya for taking a week to release information that the jetliner had been spotted on military radar when it veered off course and flew across the Malaysian peninsula.
“It made people look incompetent, but the truth is, it’s early in the morning, you’re not at war with anyone, why would you jump to the conclusion that something really bad is now transpiring?” said Dunleavy.
The 61-year-old, who became MAS’ commercial operations director in 2012, also said he only heard about the plane turning around on the news.
“I’m thinking, really? You couldn’t have told us that directly? Malaysia’s air traffic control and military radar are in the same freakin’ building. The military saw an aircraft turn and did nothing,” Dunleavy was quoted as saying Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysians, ASEAN and international community digesting the implications of Najib’s dubious distinction of being the first advocate of Wasatiyyah and the first ASEAN leader to glorify terrorism of ISIS which is regarded as too extremist even by al-Qaida
Posted by Kit in Islam, Najib Razak, Police on Wednesday, 25 June 2014
Not only Malaysians, but our ASEAN neighbours and the international community are still digesting the implications of the Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s dubious distinction of being the first advocate of Wasatiyyah and the first ASEAN leader to glorify the terrorism of ISIS which is regarded as too extremist even by al-Qaida.
When speaking at the 20th anniversary of the Cheras UMNO Branch on Monday night, Najib surprised not only Malaysians but our ASEAN neighbours and the international community when he said UMNO members could emulate the exploits of the Middle Eastern terrorist group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) which defeated an Iraqi force outnumbering it.
It is a measure of the success and charisma of the leader of ISIS, known by his nom de guerre Abu-Bakar Al-Baghdadi, that the Sunni jihadist group which started as an al-Qaida affiliate, has become the group of choice of thousands of foreign would-be fighters who have flocked to his banner which disavowed notions of statehood and national boundaries.
ISIS, which is so hardline that it has been disavowed by al-Qaida, now present itself as an ideologically superior alternative to al-Qaida within the jihadi community and has increasingly become a transnational movement to set up an Islamic caliphate with immediate objectives far beyond Iraq and Syria.
Najib’s glorification of the exploits of the ISIS terrorists is not only a matter of great concern for local Malaysian politics but for ASEAN relations and international affairs. Read the rest of this entry »
Wong Ho Leng was a brave fighter
Posted by Kit in DAP, nation building, Sarawak on Wednesday, 25 June 2014
Bridget Welsh
Malaysiakini
Jun 24, 2014
COMMENT For those who knew Bukit Assek assemblyperson Wong Ho Leng, the words ‘brave fighter’ come to mind. When he entered politics over 30 years ago, he joined at a time when being part of the opposition was unpopular.
It was the economic boom years in Sibu, derived primarily from timber, and he chose to stand up to power and urge greater transparency and fairer governance.
Although he contested from 1986 onwards, he first won office in 1996, beating the Sarawak United People’s Party’s (SUPP) then-deputy chief minister Wong Soon Kai in Bukit Assek.
His razor-thin majority of 226 votes in his first victory symbolised a political career where he would not only redefine politics in Sarawak but would leave a national legacy. Read the rest of this entry »
Is anyone running Malaysia?
Posted by Kit in 1Malaysia, Judiciary, Najib Razak, Police on Tuesday, 24 June 2014
COMMENTARY BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER
24 June 2014
Who is in charge? What is happening in Malaysia? What’s going on? How can this happen?
Any of these questions or all of the above occupies the minds of many Malaysians these days, coming to the fore with vengeance every time there is a misstep by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his comrades or when the rule of law and provisions of the Federal Constitution are supplanted by racial and religious supremacists.
Increasingly, the sense is that the inmates are running the asylum.
The PM and elected representatives are too afraid to put the extremist elements in their place because their cupboards are full of skeletons or they are unsure if their religious credentials can stand up to scrutiny.
So they go with the flow directed and dictated by fringe groups and Islamic religious authorities.
The result: a heap of a mess and more questions than answers.
Questions that keep Malaysians awake deep into the night such as: Read the rest of this entry »
Eulogy for Wong Ho Leng
– Lim Guan Eng
The Malaysian Insider
23 June 2014
When I received a message on 21 June 2014 from Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua of Sdr Wong Ho Leng’s passing, whilst attending a thanksgiving ceramah for DAP’s victory in the Bukit Gelugor parliamentary by-election, I felt sadness over the loss of a dear comrade-in-arms, yet I marvelled at Ho Leng’s fighting spirit.
I was inspired at how long and hard Ho Leng fought in this impossible final battle before he succumbed to cancer. Many had already given up, including doctors who had given him a maximum of three months, when he was first diagnosed in December 2012.
For his perseverance and stamina, he had to thank his wife Irene who was his mainstay and pillar of strength. She gave him the belief that he could overcome and prevail. Holding out for so long, was as much his achievement as hers.
And Ho Leng had many achievements to his credit that both Irene and him can take pride in. He overcame great poverty and adversity to excel academically and realised his ambition as a lawyer. Achieving professional success, he joined the DAP on 19 April 1986, motivated by his desire to serve the community and his state to build a better future for all.
Ho Leng was a likeable politician even amongst his detractors in BN. I remembered speaking to the new Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem at the sidelines of the recent Conference of Rulers’ meeting in Kuala Lumpur, thanking him for the state’s RM1 million contribution for Ho Leng’s medical fees. Tan Sri Adenan said he liked Ho Leng’s personally and was saddened at Ho Leng’s medical condition, as he himself had gone through something similar a few years ago when he almost died of his heart ailments. Read the rest of this entry »
Recent revival of hudud controversy another deep UMNO plot to cause dissension and break-up of Pakatan Rakyat
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Islam, Pakatan Rakyat, UMNO on Sunday, 22 June 2014
PAS Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad has accused UMNO behind the controversial raid and seizure of Malay and Iban Bibles by the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) and the disruption of the Hindu wedding of Zarinah Abdul Majid to regain power through the backdoor after losing the Selangor state government in two successive general elections.
This was in fact not the only mischief UMNO was up to, as the recent revival of the hudud controversy was another deep UMNO plot to cause dissension and break-up of Pakatan Rakyat.
A study of the recent revival of the hudud controversy will show that it was all initiated by UMNO when the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom made the surprise announcement in Parliament during the winding up of the Royal Debate on March 27 declaring that the Barisan Nasional Federal Government was prepared to help the Kelantan State Government to implement hudud law, even suggesting that PAS move a private member’s bill in Parliament on the matter.
That started off what is to become a three-month-long revival of the hudud controversy, plunging the three Pakatan Rakyat component parties of DAP, PAS and PKR to the second crisis to engulf Pakatan Rakyat in the six-year history of the alternative coalition.
The first crisis faced by Pakatan Rakyat was in September 2011 which nearly led to its break-up and was also over the hudud controversy. It was only when Pakatan Rakyat leaders from PAS, PKR and DAP finally reaffirmed the common policy programme proclaimed earlier by PKR, PAS and DAP leaders in the formation of PR as PR’s common priority agenda that PR was saved from an early demise.
If PR had broken up over the hudud controversy in September 2011, then the historic result of the 13th General Elections last May which saw PR winning 52 per cent of electoral vote and reducing the Najib federal administration into a minority government, with PR winning 89 Parliamentary seats and 229 state assembly seats (excluding Sarawak) would not have been achieved. Read the rest of this entry »
MCA and Gerakan cannot dismiss Jamil Khir’s “Malaysia is not secular state” statement in Parliament as a personal view but must demand a retraction and a clear Cabinet and BN Supreme Council pronouncement that Malaysia is a secular state with Islam as official religion
After more than a week, both the MCA and Gerakan Presidents have finally come out with a position today on the parliamentary statement by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom that Malaysia is not a secular state, but both have tried to evade the issue by dismissing it as merely Jamil’s “personal view”.
The excuse that a Minister is giving his “personal opinion” might be used if the Minister is speaking outside Parliament, but it is completely unacceptable when a Minister makes a speech or a statement in Parliament.
There is no such thing as a “personal view” when a Minister speaks in Parliament, whether in speeches or in replies to parliamentary questions, as whatever the Minister speaks in Parliament is in an official capacity on behalf of the Barisan Nasional Cabinet which binds all Ministers under the doctrine of collective Ministerial responsibility. Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia’s returning expert programme driving out more talent, economist says
Posted by Kit in Brain drain on Sunday, 22 June 2014
By Opalyn Mok
The Malay Mail Online
June 22, 2014
GEORGE TOWN, June 22 — Malaysia’s returning expert programme (REP) is not only ineffective but also indirectly encourages more high-skilled emigration, the head of a Penang think tank said, as the government seeks to woo talent home.
Dr Lim Kim Hwa, Penang Institute’s chief executive officer and head of economics said the REP is simply not attractive enough to entice highly-skilled Malaysian workers based overseas back to the country.
“Our research shows that the REP can only lessen the income loss that the emigrant has to sacrifice by coming back to Malaysia so it is not strong enough to lure them back,” he told a forum here titled “Brain drain: Who gains? Who sacrifices?”
Lim was presenting the results of his research on the causes, effects and fiscal impacts on brain drain. Read the rest of this entry »
Apakah Malaysia sebuah negara Islam?
Dr Maza
The Malaysian Insider
20 June 2014
Pada 2011, bulan Disember, semasa menyampaikan ucapan di Oxford, sempena 400 Bible King James, Perdana Menteri UK David Cameron menyebut: “UK is a Christian country and we should not be afraid to say so”.
Sekalipun dalam penghayatan politik UK, elemen agama Kristian kelihatan amat lemah sehingga David Cameron itu sendiri turut menyokong hak berkahwin golongan gay yang ternyata bercanggah dengan pegangan agama Kristian, namun beliau tetap mengakui nilai agama bagi negara UK.
Polemik
Semasa masih kecil, saya masih ingat bagaimana kami di sekolah agama sering dibawa berbincang apakah Malaysia sebuah negara Islam ataupun negara kafir sekular? Pada umumnya kami semua difahamkan bahawa negara Malaysia ini sebuah negara sekular. Itulah sifat Malaysia berdasarkan ceramah-ceramah politik yang kami dengar.
Kepercayaan seperti itu masih dianuti oleh ramai golongan yang dikatakan ‘beragama’ dalam negara ini. Mereka melebelkan negara ini sebagai negara kafir ataupun sekular. Dulu ia berlegar dalam kalangan mereka yang minat agama Islam.
Hari ini keadaan berubah apabila non-Muslim juga mendakwa hal yang sama, cuma dengan tujuan yang berbeza. Jika dahulu dakwaan itu bertujuan membangkit semangat agar Islam itu lebih ditekankan pelaksanaannya di Malaysia, kini tujuannya agar elemen Islam itu tidak patut ditekankan dalam pentadbiran Malaysia kerana itu bercanggah dengan sifat negara ini. Read the rest of this entry »
Another fatal defect in Speaker Pandikar’s ruling that Malaysia is not a secular state was his sole reliance on Jamil Khir’s explanation and failure to canvass all views in Parliament on the controversial subject, including those from non-UMNO Ministers/MPs from BN
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Islam, Parliament, Sabah, Sarawak on Friday, 20 June 2014
Yesterday I said that Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia had exceeded his powers and functions as Speaker of Parliament when he passed judgment on the Malaysian Constitution ruling that Malaysia is not a secular state.
This is because it is not the role or function of the Speaker of Parliament to interpret the Constitution and make a Constitutional ruling which becomes an authority quoted by all and sundry as the law of the land.
Although Pandikar has limited his interpretation to “merely for the purposes of this House” and not an opinion to be “an authority” in the country, there is no doubt that it would be quoted by various quarters as an “authority” both inside and outside Parliament to justify the arbitrary, dubious and controversial stand that Malaysia is not a secular state.
Another fatal defect in Pandikar’s ruling that Malaysia is not a secular state was his sole reliance on the explanation by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Jamil Khir Baharom and his failure to canvass all views in Parliament on the controversial subject, including those from non-UMNO Ministers and MPs from Barisan Nasional.
As the DAP MP for Bandar Kuching, Chong Chieng Jen had tried to point out in Parliament after Pandikar’s ruling yesterday, as far as Sarawak and Sabah were concerned with regard to the formation of Malaysia in 1963, Jamil was very wrong to say that Malaysia is not a secular state “berdasarkan kepada fakta sejarah yang menunjukkan bahawa Malaysia telah ditubuhkan berasaskan Kerajaan Islam Kesultanan Melayu dan Raja Raja Melayu merupakan Ketua Agama bagi negeri masing masing” – as both Sarawak and Sabah (and Singapore, which was a party to the Malaysia Agreement 1963) did not have a history of Malay Rulers. Read the rest of this entry »
Putrajaya being ‘deliberately divisive’ to hold on to power, says report
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Islam, Najib Razak on Friday, 20 June 2014
The Malaysian Insider
20 June 2014
Malaysians are wondering whether Putrajaya’s unspoken political strategy is to divide the predominantly Muslim-Malay country along racial lines in a bid to hold on to power following sharpening racial and religious tensions, the Edge Review reported today.
This follows incidents that have rocked Malaysia’s delicate racial and religious relations – acts by Muslim authorities, who snatched a body at a funeral and disrupted a Hindu wedding ceremony on suspicion that the deceased and the bride respectively might be Muslims.
The weekly said there were also signs of a campaign by the country’s civil service to push a religious-inspired agenda.
The report cited other similar incidents, such as the threat by the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) to destroy the 301 Bibles it seized from the Bible Society of Malaysia and the refusal of Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar to follow a court ruling in a highly publicised custody battle that ordered a Muslim convert father to return the children to the mother, who was a Hindu.
The weekly took Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to task for “not helping the deepening discord”. Read the rest of this entry »
Three things we learned about: the Islamisation of Malaysia
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Islam on Friday, 20 June 2014
By Justin Ong
The Malay Mail Online
June 20, 2014
KUALA LUMPUR, June 20 — Malaysia professes to be a multi-racial and multi-cultural federation with Islam as its religion, but there is a mounting movement to turn it simply into an Islamic state.
While defenders of the status quo insist that it is a secular state and Islam’s position is largely decorative, it appears they are fighting a losing battle against the tide of growing Islamisation in the country.
Slowly, but surely, Malaysia is headed down the path where religion permeates not just houses of worship, but all aspects of life.
Here are the three things we learned about the growing Islamisation of Malaysia.
1. The minister of Islamic affairs is more powerful than any other
Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom’s official portfolio is minister in charge of Islamic affairs, but it appears that his purview extends far beyond religion. Read the rest of this entry »
Do Malays need more crutches in business?
– Koon Yew Yin
The Malaysian Insider
19 June 2014
Do Malays need more crutches or “tongkat” to succeed in business? During the past week we have had three different explanations provided by Malay leaders that have made the news.
Tun Daim Zainuddin’s explanation
The first is by Tun Daim Zainuddin, the former finance minister and close ally of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who argued that the lack of talented Malay entrepreneurs is due to the policies of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim when the latter was the finance minister. Read the rest of this entry »
Pandikar exceeded his powers and functions when he passed judgment on the Malaysian Constitution ruling that Malaysia is not a secular state
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Islam, Parliament on Thursday, 19 June 2014
Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia exceeded his powers and functions as Speaker of Parliament when he passed judgment on the Malaysian Constitution ruling that Malaysia is not a secular state.
Can the Speaker of Parliament interpret the Constitution and make a Constitutional ruling which becomes an authority quoted by all and sundry as the law of the land?
Of course not, and to be fair to Pandikar, he is fully aware of this, which is why he qualified what he said in Parliament as only his interpretation “merely for the purposes of this House” and not an opinion to be “an authority” in the country.
However, such caveat by Pandikar will not prevent his “ruling” from being quoted by various quarters as an “authority” or even used by Ministers in future parliamentary meetings to justify their arbitrary, dubious and controversial stand that Malaysia is not a secular state.
Furthermore, it is not within the province of the powers and functions for a Speaker to give his interpretation or ruling on a “hot potato” issue as to whether Malaysia is (i) secular; (ii) not secular; or (iii) Islamic state.
Pandikar should have decided on the issue before him, whether to refer the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Jamil Khir Baharom to the Committee of Privileges without wading into this political minefield. Read the rest of this entry »
Search for Missing Jet Will Move Southwest, Officials Say
By KEITH BRADSHER
New York Times
JUNE 17, 2014
CANBERRA, Australia — Australia plans to resume searching for Malaysia Airlines’ missing Flight 370 to the southwest of the area in the Indian Ocean where the seafloor was scanned in detail last month, Australian officials say.
The shift to the southwest reflects analyses of a series of electronic “handshakes” between the Boeing 777-200 and a satellite operated by the London-based company Inmarsat in the hours after the plane vanished before dawn on March 8 during a flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing with 239 people aboard.
The satellite data, suggesting that the aircraft turned south across the Indian Ocean after skirting the northern tip of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, remains the best lead that investigators have in trying to find the plane, said Angus Houston, the retired chief of the Australian military who is overseeing the search.
“We’re going to have to go deep and do a comprehensive look at the ocean floor,” he said, later adding, “The handshakes are the most robust information we have at the moment.” Read the rest of this entry »
UMNO Selangor motion on hudud implementation withdrawn as Selangor PR State Assembly members from DAP, PKR and PAS fully united and had decided to vote against UMNO motion in keeping with the PR Common Policy Framework that justice, freedom and good governance and not hudud are the common PR agenda priorities
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Islam, Pakatan Rakyat, Selangor on Wednesday, 18 June 2014
With 74 days to go to celebrate the 57th Merdeka Day Anniversary and 90 days to celebrate the 51st Malaysia Day Anniversary, the nation’s greatest strengths – our ethnic, religious and cultural diversities – seemed to have become our greatest weaknesses.
Voices of intolerance, hatred, conflict and extremism filled the public spaces and are trying to drown out the voices of tolerance, peace, harmony and moderation, finding surprise ally in the authorities who have abdicated their responsibilities to uphold the law and keep the peace in the country.
Suddenly, Malaysia has become an even more abnormal country – symbolized by the continuing mystery of the 102-day missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH 370 tragedy/disaster with 239 passengers/crew on board and the 13-month disappearance of the Malaysian Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak from major national issues after the 13th General Elections in May last year.
There are so many laws in the country, but Malaysia has never been more lawless in recent weeks.
The Inspector-General of Police should be the Chief Custodian of Law in the country but he has become the No. 1 Law-breaker in refusing to enforce the supreme law of land – the Malaysian Constitution.
There is even a quiet coup d’etat in the Cabinet, with the hitherto third-tier Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of Islamic affairs usurping the powers of second-tier and even first-tier Ministers in the Cabinet when the Minister concerned, Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom shunted aside both the Prime Minister and the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of law and the constitution, Nancy Shukri to give the unilateral, arbitrary and unconstitutional statement in Parliament that Malaysia is not a secular state.
This is the first time in the nation’s 57-year history that a Minister said in Parliament that Malaysia is not a secular state – in total contradiction to the statement by Bapa Malaysia and the first Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman who said in Parliament more than half a century ago on May 1. 1958: “I will like to make it clear that this country is not an Islamic state as it is generally understood; we merely provided that Islam shall be the official religion of the state”. Read the rest of this entry »
MH370: Time for accountability, heads must roll, forum told
BY JENNIFER GOMEZ
Published: 18 June 2014 | Updated: 18 June 2014 10:39 AM
The Malaysian Insider
After more than 100 days since the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, it is time for Putrajaya to be held accountable for the tragedy, a forum was told last night.
Veteran DAP leader Lim Kit Siang accused Putrajaya of dragging its feet in launching an inquiry to find out what actually caused the plane’s disappearance, adding that “heads should roll”.
“It’s been 101 days and time to demand accountability, heads should roll.
“And we must make it very clear that we cannot accept there will be no investigation until the plane is found,” he said at a forum to commemorate the plane’s disappearance after 100 days.
Read the rest of this entry »
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