Archive for category nation building
Wo Men Du Shi Yi Jia Ren
Posted by Kit in nation building on Thursday, 7 February 2008
by penarik beca
Gong Xi Fa Chai
Xin Nien Jin Bu (May the New Lunar Year bring us progress).
Wan Shi Ru Yi (Everything is just as what you wish)
Wo Men Du Shi Yi Jia Ren (We are all one family)
Po Jiu Lin Xin (Break the old and establish the new)
Gong Xi Fa Chai, at this blessed moments as “the era of cheap food is over”.
Gong Xi Fa Chai, at this blessed moments as the roti canai gets smaller, Milo and Nescafe gets diluted.
Gong Xi Fa Chai at this blessed moments when our country enjoys a whopping 13 percent spike in violent crimes and the Prime Minister can do no better than asking “Apa yang sedang berlaku? Mengapa tinggi sangat?”
Gong Xi Fa Chai, at this blessed moments as the crime rate shot up by an even more alarming 45 percent in the four years of (Datuk Seri) Abdullah (Ahmad Badawi) premiership.
Gong Xi Fa Chai, at this blessed moments when the IGP proudly told us, “Imej PDRM tidak tercalar” [sic!]
Gong Xi Fa Chai at this blessed moments when the Prime Minister told us, “Don’t use crime rate as poll gimmick”.
Gong Xi Fa Chai at this blessed moments when the police force wages a war on peaceful rallies and not crime.
Gong Xi Fa Chai at this blessed moments when we are nowhere to claim there is no acute corruption problem in this country – thanks to the PM unforgiving effort to curb corruption. And, please dont say he has forgotten what his mother told him, “Kerja baik-baik, jangan selalu berbangga diri dan jangan lupakan orang bawah.” Read the rest of this entry »
A Malay view of ‘Ketuanan Melayu’
Posted by Kit in Azly Rahman, nation building on Thursday, 7 February 2008
‘O people! Your God is one and your forefather (Adam) is one. An Arab is not better than a non-Arab and a non-Arab is not better than an Arab, and a red (i.e. white tinged with red) person is not better than a black person and a black person is not better than a red person, except in piety. Indeed the noblest among you is the one who is deeply conscious of God.’ – a saying of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him)
‘Malaysia – to whom does it belong? To Malaysians. But who are Malaysians? I hope I am, Mr Speaker, Sir. But sometimes, sitting in this chamber, I doubt whether I am allowed to be a Malaysian. This is the doubt that hangs over many minds, and … [once] emotions are set in motion, and men pitted against men along these unspoken lines, you will have the kind of warfare that will split the nation from top to bottom and undo Malaysia.’ – Lee Kuan Yew, now Senior Minister, Republic of Singapore
Instead of defining Ketuanan Melayu as ‘Malay superiority’ which is quite meaningless, philologically inaccurate, and philosophically arrogant, I think the word ‘dictatorship’ is closer in meaning. As you read this piece, please refrain from value judgment and from bring trapped in the prison-house of language pertaining to the word ‘dictatorship’.
To dictate connotes to tell, which connotes to narrate. To narrate means to weave a story based on an ideology. To ideologise means to encapsulate. To encapsulate means to be trap. Dictatorship, here might also mean an entrapment. Instead of acknowledging one’s freedom to rule, one is acknowledging being in an entrapment – and to rule out of that condition. This is a form of false consciousness.
Words, as a literary theorist Raymond Williams might say, must also be contextualised/situated within the economic condition they emerge in. Marx’s famous dictum that human beings’ existence is defined by the economic condition they are in and that this condition is already predetermined. This is a deterministic view of human history.
I first read heard the phrase Ketuanan Melayu in the mid-1980s from a book by one Malik Munip. I was reading his work, at the same time reading Lim Kit Siang’s ‘Malaysia in the dangerous 80s’, to get a sense of the argument. I was an undergraduate reading Literature, Education and International Politics.
I also heard that Malay students were discouraged from reading Kit Siang’s work and encouraged to read ‘Ketuanan Melayu’. I love banned books and books that others tell me not to read. There is a sense of intellectual challenge to be able to read banned books. Read the rest of this entry »
CNY message – “Mother” of all ang pows to nation and future generations
Posted by Kit in Election, nation building on Wednesday, 6 February 2008
This is my 42nd year in politics and the tenth and probably last general election which I will be contesting when Parliament is dissolved some time this month.
I have only one wish for the Year of the Rat – let Malaysian Chinese and all Malaysians give the biggest ang pow of all – the “mother” of all ang pows – to the nation and future generations by voting for change in the 12th general election so that Malaysians can stand united and tall to face the challenges of globalization.
Let us make the 2008 Chinese New Year the most significant of all Chinese New Years in the country particularly as it coincides with the nation’s 50th Merdeka anniversary to mark a political coming-of-age with a political will and commitment by Malaysian Chinese together with all Malaysians to usher in real change after 50 years of failure to fulfill the great potentials of Malaysian nationhood.
Let all Malaysian Chinese and Malaysians ponder long and hard what were the factors which had held back Malaysia in the past five decades from being a world-class nation whether in terms of parliamentary democracy, rule of law, educational excellence, international competitiveness, efficient and incorruptible public service, low crime, quality of life – allowing other countries like Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea to overtake us and presently in peril of being left behind by others like Thailand, Vietnam and even Indonesia. Read the rest of this entry »
Bible confiscation – rise of LMNs in Abdullah’s Islam Hadhari
Posted by Kit in nation building, Religion on Wednesday, 6 February 2008
“Fu: seized Bible copies returned to owner” was the headline in yesterday’s Star – on copies of the Bible taken from a woman at the Low Cost Carrier Terminal recently which were promptly returned to her within 24 hours of the matter being highlighted in electronic media like Malaysiakini and foreign agencies and press like the International Herald Tribune and the protest of the Council of Churches Malaysia (CCM).
The question every Malaysian is asking is – why is the government so super-efficient and super-responsive only when the general election is around the corner but such traits are totally forgotten after polling day?
It is just no good enough for Fu to say that the confiscation of 32 Bibles from a woman who had just returned from a visit to Manila was done by a Customs officer and did not involve his Ministry. Read the rest of this entry »
Kedah School- Sports selection on Thaipusam Day
Posted by Kit in Education, Letters, nation building on Wednesday, 6 February 2008
Letters
by A Parent
I hope you can publish this in your blog. The publication can be an effective deterrent for future. Your blog has helped lots of cases in this way.
I am parent of Form 1 student of Sek Men Taman Hi-Tech in Kulim.
I attended the school Sports Day yesterday (Feb. 4) and I am just shocked at what I saw.
The Malaysian government started the National Service Program, with the objective of racial integration, my foot. That 3-month stint is just a show to make money when the situation in schools are totally different.
This is what I saw yesterday. Read the rest of this entry »
Najib apology on demolition of Hindu temple on Deepavali eve – six more apologies by Umno/MIC leaders awaited
Posted by Kit in Indians, nation building on Monday, 4 February 2008
The front-page headline of the night edition of China Press is “Najib apology – demolition of Hindu temple on Deepavali eve”.
This is a manifestation of Makkal Sakti (People’s Power) but it is a grave error for the Barisan Nasional and MIC leadership to think that such an apology is acceptable or satisfactory answer to the Malaysian Indian political awakening and uprising following the seminal 30,000-people Hindraf protest in Kuala Lumpur on Nov. 25 last year.
If Najib and the top Umno leadership are serious in wanting to making amends for the long-standing political, economic, educational, social, cultural religious polarization of the Malaysian Indians resulting in their becoming the new underclass in the country, Najib’s apology must be followed by at least six other apologies and ensuing actions, such as:
• Apology by Selangor Mentri Besar, Datuk Seri Khir Toyo as the No. 1 man in the Selangor state government who must bear full responsibility for the demolition of the Hindu temple in Shah Alam on Deepavali eve;
• Apology by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi for Umno insensitivity in holding the Umno General Assembly last year on the day of Deepavali – when it would be regarded as highly insensitive and offensive if MIC, MCA or Gerakan had held their national delegates meeting on Hari Raya Aidilfitri for instance.
• Apology by the Umno Youth deputy chief, Khairy Jamaluddin, the Prime Minister’s son-in-law in publicly castigating the Indian news vendors for “anti-national” actions in having a press holiday when the Umno general assembly was being held resulting in the policy speech of the Prime Minister and Umno President at the Umno general assembly not given coverage the next day – when it was the fault of Umno in fixing its general assembly on Deepevali, long a press holiday.
• Apology by MIC President and sole Indian Cabinet Minister for over 28 years in refusing to admit the fact of the marginalization of the Malaysian Indians – a stand which he reiterated during his recent visit to India;
• Apology by Abdullah for the detention of the five Hindraf leaders under the Internal Security Act for fighting the cause to end the marginalization of the Malaysian Indians – and the five should be released immediately and unconditionally.
• Apology by Samy Vellu for the 20-year-long Maika Telekom Shares hijacking scandal in betraying the rights and interests of Malaysian Indians who had put their trust in him by placing their life-savings in Maika shares.
Are these six apologies from the UMNO and MIC leaders forthcoming to demonstrate that there is now a genuine change of heart in the top Umno leadership to meaningfully end the marginalization of the Malaysian Indians in the country?
(Speech at the DAP ceramah in Buntong, (Ipoh Barat) on Sunday, 3rd February 2008 at 10 pm)
Although case lost in Seremban High Court – let 74-yr-old Gan Eng Gor be the last “body-snatching” in Malaysia!
Posted by Kit in nation building, Religion on Tuesday, 29 January 2008
The Cabinet meeting tomorrow must resolve that 74-year-old Gan Eng Gor will be the last “body-snatching” case in Malaysia as it is a standing rebuttal of Malaysia’s boast as a world example of inter-racial co-operation and harmony.
The Cabinet should also decide that the police should not be involved in any “body-snatching” case as public confidence in the police will be adversely affected, on top of the divisive effects of such “body-snatching” incidents on Malaysian nation-building.
The Cabinet decision tomorrow is all the more imperative as the Gor family has lost all avenues of redress in the civil courts, as their application to the Seremban High Court for a declaration that Gor was not a Muslim was dismissed this morning in chambers on the ground that the High Court has no jurisdiction in the matter, as it belonged to the Syariah Court.
This is sad day for Malaysian nation-building and the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s oft-repeated boasts in international conferences of Malaysia as a model of inter-faith co-operation.
I am sure that the founding fathers of this nation, when agreeing to the Merdeka social contract in 1957, would never have imagined that 50 years after nationhood, Malaysia would have regressed to the extent that “body-snatching” has become a nightmare to bedevil inter-racial and inter-religious relations.
I have no doubt that Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Tan Cheng Lock, Tun Tan Siew Sin and Tun Sambanthan would have found it completely unthinkable that the nation could be plagued by a problem like “body-snatching” – with the police aiding and abetting the “body-snatchers”.
Enough is enough, and I call on the Cabinet tomorrow to send out a clear and unmistakable message that “body-snatching” is completely detrimental to the process of nation-building in multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-religious Malaysia and the worst possible advertisement of the nation as “Truly Asia” and a model of inter-faith understanding. The police must be directed that they should never be a party to such disgraceful “body-snatchings” in the country. Read the rest of this entry »
End “body-snatching” – Cabinet cannot continue to shirk its responsibility
Posted by Kit in nation building, Religion on Monday, 28 January 2008
Why are the MCA, Gerakan, MIC and other non-Muslim Ministers silent on another body-snatching case after the divisive Moorthy case two years ago where S. kaliammal, the widow of Everest mountaineer L/Kpl M. Moorthy, found only grief and injustice when she had no remedy in any court in the dispute as to whether her husband was a Hindu or a Muslim?
At the time, Malaysians were given the assurance that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his Barisan Nasional cabinet ministers would ensure that Malaysian inter-racial and inter-religious unity and harmony as well as Malaysia’s international reputation as a model of multi-religious nation would not again be marred by more body-snatching incidents.
However, the body-snatching incidents have not stopped, with the latest case involving the police seizing the body of Gan Eng Gor, who died a week ago aged 74, after his eldest son – himself a Muslim convert – said he had converted to Islam last year. This claim had been challenged by Gan’s wife and his seven other children.
(Speech at the DAP Kepayang dinner in Ipoh Barat on Sunday, 27th January 2008 at 10 pm)
Malaysia First Family and new grandson Jibreil Ali Jamaluddin
Posted by Kit in Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, nation building on Saturday, 19 January 2008
by Dr Chen Man Hin
The first family is truly representative of a multiracial Malaysia which has Malay, Chinese, Indian and Indigenous communities.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has ancestors hailing from the MidEast of Arabic origin
His daughter , Nori Abdullah was born of a Japanese mother. His son-in-law Khairy Jamaluddin comes from a Malay ancestry. The new grandson, Jibreil Ali Jamaluddin, can be said to have ancestors hailing from Malaysia, Arabia and Japan. The blood coursing through his veins is a mixture of Malay, Arabic and Han ancestors. He is typical of the young Malaysian, who because of mixed marriages among the different races, is/ multiracial /a rooted Malaysian
From the genetic point of view, the true Malaysian is a Bangsa Malaysia.
Other terms like bumiputras or ketuanan Melayu has no genetic basis, but are the creation of misleading politicians.
Hishammuddin sets worst example for sensitivities in plural Malaysia?
Posted by Kit in Education, nation building on Wednesday, 16 January 2008
I have received and put on my blog another complaint by a parent against a school principal – of SMK Bandar Utama 4 Damansara – about the lack of understanding and respect for the sensitivities and rights of diverse races, religions, languages and cultures in plural Malaysia which are the real assets of the country.
It is most shocking that the never before in the 50-year history of Malaysia have there been more “Little Napoleons” who have become school principals and administrators who lack the most elementary understanding and respect for the rights and sensitivities of diverse races, religions, languages and cultures of plural Malaysia. Read the rest of this entry »
Songkok as compulsory uniform for prefects – JB English College backs down
Posted by Kit in Education, nation building on Tuesday, 15 January 2008
At 20:56,19 hours yesterday, on my thread “Songkok compulsory wear for JB English College prefects”, a blog visitor left the following posting:
However, as far as the “EC prefect wearing songkok issue” is concerned, I am surprised that no one has yet posted that the issue has been resolved amicably as the headmaster himself has announced today during an emergency prefects meeting that it is NOT compulsory for the prefects to wear the songkok for whatever function or duty.
This morning, I phoned and spoke to the principal of Maktab Sultan Abu Bakar (formerly English College) Johor Bahru, Haji Zulkifli bin Mahmood and he confirmed the veracity of the posting on my blog – that he had announced that it is not compulsory for school prefects to wear the songkok for whatever function or duty.
I welcome the return to sanity, as the compulsory imposition of the songkok issue has attracted considerable flak and traffic on my blog with three threads and 359 comments in four days, viz: Read the rest of this entry »
Suspend “Little Napoleon” school principals who trample on rights and sensitivities of plural Malaysia
Posted by Kit in Education, nation building on Saturday, 12 January 2008
The Cabinet next Wednesday should order the immediate suspension of school principals who acted as “Little Napoleons” in unilaterally and arbitrarily imposing rules and regulations which trample on cultural and religious rights and sensitivities in a plural society – demonstrating that they lack the most fundamental qualification to be school principals.
The latest manifestation of such “Little Napoleons” is Maktab Sultan Abu Bakar (formerly English College) in Johor Bahru in making “songkok” part of the compulsory uniform of school prefects in the school.
I put up on my blog the protest letter of a parent of a school prefect in Maktab Sultan Abu Bakar who said his son, who is in Form Five, would resign as a school prefect – appointed since Form II because of his exemplary conduct – if he is forced to wear the songkok. There are over 160 responses in the two threads in my blog on this issue in the past 24 hours, showing the intensity of the sensitivities over the matter.
Recently there have been an unchecked increase of incidents whether in schools, universities or involving the government decision-making process showing growing indifference, disrespect and even contempt for the sensitivities and rights of the diverse races, cultures and religions in the country – which are most detrimental to the goals of nation-building and the Vision 2020 objective of creating a Bangsa Malaysia.
Yesterday, Malaysians learn to their shock another incident of the “Little Napoleons” running wild in Malaysia – the confiscation of English language Christian children’s books said to contain offensive caricatures of prophets from several bookshops in Johore Baru, Senawang (Negri Sembilan) and Ipoh by state enforcement officials of the Publications and Al-Quran Texts Control Department under the Internal Security Ministry. Read the rest of this entry »
Songkok made compulsory – latest in series of insensitivities usurping “middle ground”
Posted by Kit in Education, nation building on Friday, 11 January 2008
I have today received a complaint from a parent of a prefect in Maktab Sultan Abu Bakar (formerly English College) in Johor Bahru expressing the strongest objection to any attempt to make “songkok” part of the compulsory uniform of school prefects and students in the school.
He said his son, who is in Form Five, has been a school prefect in Maktab Sultan Abu Bakar since he was in Form Two and had always been an exemplary student, as well has won praise from many teachers for his exemplary conduct and commitment to his duties and studies. He is also a member of the ExCo of the Prefectorial Board.
The parent wrote:
“Recently, in the beginning of this year, there was an instruction from the school, which I believe came from the teacher advisor to the Prefectorial Board, that Prefects have to start wearing the Songkok as part of the official uniform. At first, the instruction was that it would only be required during ‘official functions’ like school assemblies and during interschool events or major events like sports day and speech day. However, this has now been revised to include daily prefectorial duties.
“There are reasons to believe that the practice of getting Prefects to wear the Songkok, is a prelude to getting ALL the students of the school to eventually follow suit.
“My son, after conferring with me, has decided that he will NOT wear the Songkok. He is willing to resign from the Prefectorial Board if forced to wear the Songkok.”
The parent expresses grave regret at the utter lack of sensitivity of the school authorities on this issue, stating in considerable detail his objections – as “the songkok is an emblem of the Malay identity” and “non-Malays should not be forced to don attire which does not reflect their identity”.
I put up the parent’s letter on my blog and in a matter of less than eight hours there had been over 80 responses – demonstrating the strong feelings evoked by another addition to a catalogue of insensitivities recently shown by those in power or in authority in government to the legitimate rights and sensitivities of diverse races, religions and cultures in a plural society – aggravating racial and religious polarization instead of forging greater unity and understanding among the different races, religions and cultures in the country. Read the rest of this entry »
Students, question authority!
Posted by Kit in Azly Rahman, nation building on Friday, 11 January 2008
(Below is Part 2 of the speech on “student idealism” delivered at the annual gathering of the Malaysian and Indonesian Muslim Students in Washington DC, USA, December 2007.)
Most respected Malaysian and Indonesian students of the Islamic faith, let us continue. I begin with two quotes:
“Everything is good in the hands of the author of Things, everything degenerates in the hands of Man,” said Jean Jacques Rousseau, the spiritual force of the French Revolution.
“Know thyself know thy enemies, one hundred battles one hundred victories,” said the legendary Chinese military leader Sun Tzi.
If there is a thesis statement or a guiding idea or an inquiry theme in my speech today, it is this: question authority, break new frontiers of thinking, but listen to the voice of the inner self in order to serve humanity.
We live in interesting times, as chairman Mao Zedong once said; interesting because the forces of globalisation is at perpetual war with humanity’s inner sense of beingness.
We are a republic onto itself. We are a kingdom we govern ourselves. In each and every one of us lies an inner world bigger than the world outside – a world if known, if and only if we know ourselves – is a world in which freedom reigns and one in which the self refuses to be caged and shackled by structures of oppression built by others.
The essence of being human is that of having the insatiable urge to question and to search for answers, and next, not satisfied with the answers, to continue to question. Some revolutionary [thinkers call this dialectics; the permanent revolution in our world of cognition. Becoming a human being is a process – we are as a French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre would say, beings in the process of becoming and by doing so we define the world and able to “name” it. We have always lived a life in which our world is already pre-determined, our belief system prepackaged, and our knowledge of the political world prepared for us as propaganda produced and disseminated by those who owns the means of producing propaganda. We have live in what a British writer Eric Blair/George Orwell called a world of “doublespeak” wherein what it said has its form and appearance. Read the rest of this entry »
Songkok compulsory wear for JB English College prefects?
Posted by Kit in Education, Letters, nation building on Friday, 11 January 2008
Letters
by a JB EC parent
I have a query for you about the English College, Johor Bahru, which is now also known as Maktab Sultan Abu Bakar.
My son who is in Form Five this year, has been a Prefect in EC
since he was in Form Two. He has always been an exemplary student, as well has won praise from many teachers for his exemplary conduct and commitment to his duties and studies. He is also a member of the ExCo of the Prefectorial Board.
Recently, in the beginning of this year, there was an instruction from the school, which I believe came from the teacher advisor to the Prefectorial Board, that Prefects have to start wearing the Songkok as part of the official uniform. At first, the instruction was that it would only be required during “official functions” like school assemblies and during interschool events or major events like sports day and speech day. Hoever, this has now been revised to include daily prefectorial duties.
There are reasons to believe that the practice of getting Prefects to wear the Songkok, is a prelude to getting ALL the students of the school to eventually follow suit. Read the rest of this entry »
Mazu statue – Lim questions Yong’s stand
Posted by Kit in nation building, Religion, Sabah on Sunday, 6 January 2008
Daily News Express
Lim questions Yong’s stand
Sunday 06 January 2008
Kota Kinabalu: Parliamentary Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang has accused Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) President Datuk Yong Teck Lee of leading the attack on former Chief Minister Tan Sri Chong Kah Kiat to oppose the Mazu project in Kudat.
He said Yong – also a former Chief Minister – and Chong should be standing united to hold the middle ground to uphold the constitutional right of Sabahans and Malaysians on the freedom of religion by continuing with the construction of the 32.9 metres (108-feet Mazu) statue.
“It is disgraceful and tragic that instead of the two former Sabah Chief Ministers standing on an united platform working for the completion of the world’s tallest Mazu statue, Yong is leading an attack on Chong to oppose the project,” Lim said in a Press statement released in Parliament Saturday.
Lim, who is DAP Member of Parliament for Ipoh Timur, quoted several reports pertaining to the Mazu project by the two former Chief Ministers in the Daily Express. Read the rest of this entry »
Herald & “Allah” – “Wonderful Christmas present” which is not so “wonderful” after all
Posted by Kit in nation building, Religion on Friday, 4 January 2008
The euphoria that good sense and sanity have finally prevailed among those in government whose decisions could adversely impact on inter-religious and inter-racial relations as to aggravate religious polarization in a plural society like Malaysia lasted just four days.
On New Year’s eve on Monday, 31st December 2007, Malaysians thought they saw a silver lining after a whole year of gloomy “annus horribilis” when they learnt that Herald, the Catholic weekly, had been allowed to continue printing its Bahasa Malaysia section with no restrictions on the use of the word Allah for God.
A happy editor of the 13-year-old Herald, Father Lawrence Andrew, said that a representative from the Internal Security Ministry delivered a letter containing the permit to print the paper, dated Dec. 28, by hand at 10 am on a Sunday (Dec. 30) – which was a great and commendable gesture of goodwill.
The letter placed no restrictions whatsoever and included the permit for all the languages, including the Bahasa Malaysia segment, causing Father Lawrence to give effusive thanks to the government and the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Tan Sri Bernard Dompok for his assistance.
Bernard described the Herald permit as “good news” and “a wonderful Christmas present” by the government to the Christian community.
This morning, the euphoria that good sense and sanity have finally prevailed among the decision-makers in government on why it is imperative to promote inter-religious goodwill and harmony evaporated after just four days when Malaysians woke up to read headlines like “Herald can’t use ‘Allah’ in its publications” (Star) and “Cabinet: ‘Allah’ for Muslims only” (The Sun). Read the rest of this entry »
Mazu statue in Kudat – allow resumption of construction and official opening before next polls
Posted by Kit in nation building, Religion on Tuesday, 1 January 2008
Former Sabah Chief Minister Tan Sri Chong Kah Kiat has said that he is prepared to drop his suit if the Sabah state government allows the construction of the world’s tallest Mazu (Goddess of the Sea) statue at its original location in Kudat.
Responding to Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s statement in Tuaran on Sunday on the government’s hope that the Kudat Mazu statue dispute could be settled amicably without going to court, Chong said he was left with no option except to institute legal proceedings as he had only 28 days to appeal against the decision of the Kudat Town Board (KTB) to withdraw its earlier approval for the Mazu statue on Nov. 15 last year.
He said he had been “patient because I have been writing, pleading and begging with everyone to resolve this matter for one-and-a-half years”.
Najib had said Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman was open to negotiation to resolve the controversy over the halted construction of the Mazu statue in Kudat. The Deputy Prime Minister said Musa had given him the assurance that as Chief Minister he is open to solving problems, including sensitive ones.
I for one would not believe Musa and I believe that this would be the sentiment of Chong and Sabahans who supported the construction of the world’s tallest Mazu statue both on the grounds of the constitutionally-entrenched guarantee of freedom of religion as well as to enhance the international tourism competitiveness of Sabah and Malaysia. Read the rest of this entry »
No Glitter to Merdeka’s Golden Anniversary Year
Posted by Kit in Bakri Musa, Merdeka 50th anniversary, nation building on Tuesday, 1 January 2008
by M. Bakri Musa
By right Malaysians should still be relishing the afterglow of their 50th Merdeka anniversary celebrations. Alas, the much-anticipated euphoria was short lived; the grim realities of Malaysian life quickly intruded.
Even the mainstream media carry daily headlines of gory crimes. If those were not scary enough, residents now live in fear that their basic freedom is being threatened, not by some external enemy rather by their very own government. Malaysian leaders mistook their electoral mandate for a license to trample on citizens’ basic rights, as in the rights to free assembly and the freedom of conscience.
Those breaches of course did not grab the headlines in the mainstream media; you have to read the alternative media or international publications to get the real news. The mainstream media instead highlighted Prime Minister Abdullah’s “small” wedding to his “downstairs lady.”
The images of Malaysia projected onto the world stage towards the end of the year were not of a modern nation poised for Vision 2020, rather the typical backward Third World state with a stubbornly bumbling warden as its leader.
The scenes on Al Jazeera and CNN were of the police wildly tear-gassing and firing water cannons upon thousands of peaceful citizens who dared exercise their basic rights to a free assembly. If those images were not ugly enough, there was Minister of Information Zam in a fit of latah in front of the television cameras for the whole world to see.
Zam is a poor imitation of Saddam Hussein’s Information Minister “Comical Ali.” At least Ali entertained us with his outlandish bravadoes; Zam nauseated us with his blabber.
Just as we thought it could not get worse seeing that it was already November when Zam was blabbering in front of an international audience, there was Deputy Internal Security Minister Johari Baharum declaring that only Muslims are entitled to use the word “Allah” (God). He threatened banning the Malay version of the Catholic Church publication that dared use the word “Allah.”
The startling observation was that this moron of a minister could get way with such idiocies. By his silence, Abdullah reveals that he is equally moronic.
How did a nation that was so full of bubbly confidence as encapsulated in its “Malaysia boleh!” spirit only a few years ago descended so fast and so far, and with so few of the elite class protesting?
To be sure, Malaysia is still far ahead of Pakistan or Zimbabwe. Unfortunately, far too many, especially the leaders, take comfort in this. Read the rest of this entry »
World’s tallest Mazu statue in Kudat – call for RCI on misgovernance by all 3 tiers of government
Posted by Kit in nation building, Religion on Monday, 31 December 2007
I welcome the statement by the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak yesterday expressing the government’s hope that former Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Chong Kah Kiat will settle the Mazu status issue amicably without going to court.
He said the government is hoping to bring the Mazu statue issue back to the negotiation table instead of going through the court.
I support Najib’s proposal for an amicable settlement of the proposal to build the world’s tallest Mazu statue in Kudat.
It is important however for Najib to understand that the principles and issues involved in the Mazu statue controversy do not just concern Chong as one person, but have become a major public issue of national and even international importance involving not just three million Sabahans but also 26 million Malaysians
I am glad that immediately after my visit to Kudat to visit the site of the Mazu statue, there is now the possibility of a new development.
The Mazu statue controversy should not only be resolved at the negotiation table, I will go even one step further and call for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the mishandling and lack of good governance in all three tiers of local, state and federal government resulting in the Kudat Mazu statue controversy undermining nation-building and inter-religiousl understanding as well as turning Malaysia into an international laughing-stock.
I have just returned from a three-day visit to Kota Kinabalu, Kudat and Sandakan including a 500-km land journey from Kota Kinabalu through Kota Belud to Kudat and onwards to Sandakan through Marudu, with the Kudat-Sandakan journey taking eight hours through some very treacherous stretches (with 25 km of unsealed portion of the Paitan highway after the Nango junction). Read the rest of this entry »
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