Gerakan: Voters regret supporting 'Ini Kalilah'

Mukhriz: I still have a place in Umno

NGO India gesa Najib boikot CHOGM di Sri Lanka

Mereka mendakwa negara itu tidak layak menganjur sidang tersebut kerana telah melanggar hak asasi manusia.

PETALING JAYA: Gabungan NGO-NGO Tamil telah menyerahkan memorandum kepada Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak supaya tidak menghadiri persidangan negara Komanwel (CHOGM) ) di Sri Lanka pada 15 hingga 17 November depan.

Wakil gabungan NGO itu, M.A Kalaimugilan berkata, tujuan memorandum ini adalah untuk menggesa dan menasihati Perdana Menteri supaya tidak menyertai dan menghantar wakil-wakil kerajaan ke sidang tersebut.

Kalaimugilan juga mendakwa , Sri Lanka tidak layak untuk menganjur sidang tersebut kerana telah melanggar hak asasi manusia.

“Untuk menganjurkan chogm dalam sebuah negara mempunyai beberapa kiteria di penuhi oleh penganjur (negara), di mana menghormati hak asasi manusia , hak wanita , kemanusiaan dan kebebasan media tetapi kerajaan Sri Lanka tidak mematuhi kriteria-kriteria di atas,” kata Kalaimugilan yang juga Presiden Tamilar Progressive Team.

Beliau menambah, Fiji masih dikeluarkan daripada menjadi ahli dalam Komanwel kerana didakwa telah membunuh seorang wartawan antarabangsa.

Baru-baru ini , Perdana Menteri Kanada berkata, negaranya memboikot sidang tersebut kerana mendakwa Sri Lanka telah melanggar hak asasi manusia.

“Jadi Datuk Seri Najib juga perlu buat demikian atas menghormati perasaan masyarakat Tamil di Malaysia,” kata Kalaimugilan.
Memorandum telah diterima oleh G.Vikneswaran, Penolong Setiausaha Perdana Menteri.

Project manager’s death: Family demands answers

Cheong Fook Meng died after he was apprehended by the police for attempting to evade a roadblock on July 4, but status of the case is yet unknown

PUCHONG: An opposition MP today urged the police to give an explanation and expedite investigations into the death of project manager Cheong Fook Meng on July 4.

Puchong MP Gobind Singh Deo said the deceased’s family want answers from the police as there has been no update on the case’s status.

“We have contacted the investigating officer (IO), however, until now we have not gotten any information,” he said.

Cheong died on July 4 after he tried to evade police checks at Jalan Barat off Jalan Imbi.

Policemen tried to stop him after seeing him driving in a suspicious manner. A short car chase ensued before they managed to stop the 53-year-old.

Police sources said he refused to cooperate when asked for his identity card and started behaving aggressively when one of the policemen managed to hold his hand.

A scuffle ensued and Cheong was detained after he fell on the ground before one of the officers sat on Cheong’s buttock and handcuffed him.

However, Cheong was then found to be in a weakened state. An ambulance was called and he was pronounced dead an hour later at Kuala Lumpur Hospital (HKL).

Gobind said a letter was sent to the pathologist at HKL to get copies of the post-mortem report.

“However, we were told that the report has not been completed and will take time to be completed,” said Gobind.

‘Are the police serious about this case?’

Gobind said the reason given was due to the delay of obtaining the Chemistry Department’s report.

He questioned whether the police is taking the case seriously.

“Are they not serious in handling the case? Is it because they know that there was something wrong in the way they restrained the deceased?

“I want to ask the police, is that the reason why they are not taking the case seriously?” he asked.

He added that this is not the first time, as many of his constituents have come to complain that after making a police report, there was no communication from the police thereafter.

“So don’t blame the people who question the police’s professionalism,” he said.

Gobind stressed that the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) [Khalid Abu Bakar] must give an explanation.

“The police have to take action on this case before we take action against them.

“The family deserves to get answers, we shouldn’t further their burden,” said Gobind, who also said that the matter will be brought to Parliament.

He hoped the Attorney-General’s (AG) Chambers will order an inquest.

“I hope the AG [Abdul Gani Patail] takes a personal interest to call up the file on this case and order inquest,” he said.

He elaborated that the inquest would be beneficial for both sides as the police, too, will be given a chance to explain.

Religious councils can determine child’s faith

Faith of a child, however, cannot be determined by the National Registration Department, says a lawyer.

PETALING JAYA: The National Registration Department had no jurisdiction in determining whether a child should be registered as a Muslim or otherwise.
However, it is up to the respective state religious council to determine a child’s faith, if there is an dispute, and the matter must be decided through the Syariah court.

“I agree that the NRD has no jurisdiction. It is for the state Islamic council to decide, if one of the parent is a Muslim. Just because the parent is not practicing the faith does not make her less Muslim,” prominent lawyer Haniff Khatri Abdullah said.

He was commenting on a case in Kota Kinabalu where the High Court allowed a non Muslim father, Phuong Hiung Woei to state his son’s faith as Buddhist without documentation.

Judge Chew Soo Ho, who presided the case, ruled that the faith of a child under the age of 18 should to be determined by the parent.

Phuong is married to one Zeliha Bt Abd Karim and they have a son Phuong Jian Cheng.

The NRD had issued a birth certificate for Jian Cheng stating the child’s faith as Buddhist. The Department subsequently issued another birth certificate that states Jian Cheng as Muslim.

Commenting on this matter, Haniff said Muslims had a communal responsibility that they cannot shy away from.

“This is why the Syariah courts should open up and resolve disputes,” he said, adding that both parents have rights under Islam, even if one is Muslim and the other is not.

“The Syariah officers should go out and explain to Muslims and non-Muslims alike that Islam also gives equal rights to non-Muslims,” he said.

This, he said was important in settling overlapping claims involving one Muslim and a non-Muslim parent.

Meanwhile when asked on the recent spate of cow slaughtering cases in schools, in conjunction with Hari Raya Haji, Haniff said it would be best to limit the practice to Islamic religious schools.

“Offering an animal to be slaughtered is an integral part of the religion. However it does not need to be limited to beef.

“In the spirit of mutual respect for our Hindu brothers, the slaughtering should be confined to Islamic religious schools,” he said.

He said this in relations to two cases of schools slaughtering cows in conjunction with the Aidiladha celebrations on Tuesday.

One case was reported in Puchong and another in Bangi. The incidents caused unease among Hindu parents and school children.

Cows are considered sacred in the Hindu faith.

It’s the same team for another term, as VP incumbents make the cut in Umno polls

A triumphant Ahmad Zahid enters the Putra World Trade Centre with his wife Hamidah Khamis to join party bigwigs as the party elections comes to a close tonight. The Malaysian Insider pic by Najjua Zulkefli, October 19, 2013.
Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal and Datuk Seri Hishamudidn Hussein have retained their Umno vice-president posts for a second term, according to unofficial reports.

Ahmad Zahid has picked up 166 votes, Shafie’s current vote count stands at 152 while Hishamuddin is at 92, four votes short of the simple majority needed to secure a spot in the supreme council as a vice-president.

As at 11.45pm, 167 out of 191 divisions have informally announced their results.

Although they had never said they were running as a pact, they were for long spells campaigning as a team, constantly complimenting each other on how they had worked well together as a team in assisting the Umno leadership.

Hishamuddin’s closest challenger, Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir has received 77 votes so far.

The first among the three to claim victory was Ahmad Zahid, who proclaimed himself the winner while speaking at the close of the Bagan Datoh division meeting.

He had told the New Straits Times in an SMS reply: ”I am grateful to the grassroots leaders and members for putting their trust in me to continue the work I have been doing for the past five years. I will do my best to aid the party president and deputy president in taking Umno to greater heights.”

The other two challengers, former Malacca chief minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam and Felda chairman Tan Sri Mohd Isa Samad, received seven and eight votes, respectively.

More than 146,000 members are voting for Umno’s top and division office bearers today.

Party president Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Razak and his deputy Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin retained their posts without a contest.

In the supreme council race, International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed is leading the pack with 22 votes, followed by Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, Datuk Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim, Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom and Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek. - October 19, 2013.

Make syariah Malaysia’s only law, urges ISMA

(MM) - Islamist group Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (ISMA) suggested today for syariah to be the law of the land replacing the country’s existing dual-track legal system.

This comes as ISMA lamented the lack of political will to champion a concept it called “ketuanan syarak” (syariah supremacy), which places Islam above all other considerations.

“Actually, there is no need for civil laws, there should be Islamic laws ... History has shown that our country has practised Islamic laws even since the times of the Malacca empire,” ISMA deputy president Aminuddin Yahya said here.

Aminuddin claimed that it was only during the British rule that Islamic laws were pushed aside to be replaced by secular laws instead.

He cited the landmark High Court case of M. Indira Gandhi in July ruling it unconstitutional to convert a child to Islam without the mother’s consent, as proof of civil law’s weakness.

Aminuddin was speaking to a crowd of about 50 attendees at a seminar held by ISMA titled “Ancaman Liberalisme” (The Threat of Liberalism) here, which criticises an alleged “human rights agenda” by the Coalition of Malaysian NGOs (COMANGO).

COMANGO had recently issued its list of recommendations ahead of the October 24 Universal Periodic Review (UPR) by United Nations’ (UN) Human Rights Council.

One of the resolutions adopted by the seminar today included a rejection of a “West-interpreted democracy”, to be replaced with “syariah supremacy”, in order to solve “political liberalism”.

“Fairness in Islam does not mean equality. If we say everybody is equal, that is communism. Fairness means Islam must be number one,” Aminuddin said later, explaining the “syariah supremacy” concept.

He also stressed the need for Malay-Muslim lawmakers to adopt and champion the concept, gifting the Muslim community political power which can influence federal policies and amend the Constitution.

As a result of political liberalism, the Malay Muslim community has been “overly tolerant” and “submissive” to the point of jeopardising Islamic fundamentals, by giving in to the whims and fancies of non-Muslims, he said.

Malaysia is expected to face a beating for its human rights record when the government faces its second UPR this October 24.

The Malaysian Islamic Development Department (JAKIM) had said in its weekly sermon yesterday that there is a global liberal conspiracy to challenged the position of Islam in Malaysia and local rights groups were acting as its agents, pointing particularly towards COMANGO.

COMANGO is made of NGOs such as Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM), Sisters in Islam (SIS), the Pusat Kesedaran Komuniti Selangor (Empower), Christian Federation Malaysia, Amnesty International Malaysia, KLSCAH Civil Rights Committee, Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) and others.

Malaysia was first came under the UPR review on February 11, 2009, and consequently accepted 62 of the 103 recommendations issued by the UPR working group.

The UPR, according to media reports, is a United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council mechanism that was established in 2007 to improve the treatment of human rights in all 193 UN member states.

All the president's men keep Mahathir at bay

ANALYSIS For the second time in a row, Mukhriz Mahathir’s bid for a key position in Umno’s hierarchy has been thwarted and none is likely to feel it more than his father - Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

In the weeks that followed Mukhriz’s announcement of his candidacy for Umno’s vice-presidency, he has been the centre of attention and rightly so.

For one, he is the scion of one of the most famous and influential Malaysians ever. He is also the menteri besar of Kedah.

His campaign platform was a call for change, a rare virtue in Umno, on which he boldly claimed that status quo meant certain defeat for BN in next general election.

It all sounded good on paper, but there was one problem - as admitted by his father, Mukhriz was not the "chosen one". In less ambiguous terms, Mahathir likely meant that his son was not among the president’s men.

Endorsement culture

Immediately after the last week’s election of Khairy Jamaluddin and Shahrizat Abdul Jalil as head of Umno’s Youth and Wanita wings respectively, it did appear as though Umno members with voting rights were out to maintain status quo.

These voters were also aware of the fact that Khairy, and in particular Shahrizat, were deemed to be Umno president Najib Abdul Razak’s endorsees who were given powerful government portfolios before the Umno polls.

But when it came to the six-man vice-presidency race, there were no overt signals from Najib and his deputy Muhyiddin Yassin, who in public advocates an open contest.

However, the outcome of the vote in the Umno divisions that they headed - Pekan and Pagoh - made it clear that retaining the three incumbent vice-presidents - Hishammuddin Hussein, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Mohd Shafie Apdal - was definitely on the agenda.

Afterall, it was this combination which helped Umno improve its performance during the last general election. Why should Umno rock the boat, especially with an untested Mukhriz along with an aging Isa Samad and Mohd Ali Rustam?

Working in teams

To Mukhriz’s credit, he did come close to winning a seat, but not without some damage to his reputation, particularly in how his parents had to come out in public to defend him.

Mahathir was forced to defend allegations by international magazine The Economist which alleged that Mukhriz was gunning for Najib’s position as Umno president.

He even penned a long essay on his blog condemning the magazine.

On the other hand, Mukhriz’s mother, the normally media shy Dr Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali, gave a rare interview to Malay daily Sinar Harian where she made it clear that her son’s political career was independent of his father.

But apart from his parents, there were few other cheerleaders for Mukhriz who had chosen to work alone, unlike the three incumbent vice-presidents which packaged themselves as a team.

In Umno, where feudal practices still permeates the party, endorsements from the right people and strategic alliances are a powerful tool which Mukhriz, Isa and Mohd Ali had ignored.

Not long after retaining her position, Shahrizat had openly endorsed the three incumbents and had urged her fellow Wanita Umno members to vote for them. The Wanita vote is estimated to comprise 20 percent of the 146,000 Umno members with voting rights.

Is Hisham the Achilles' heel?

For now, all is not lost for Mukhriz as he finished with a respectable fourth place, trailing Hishammuddin by a narrow margin, but far ahead of Mohd Ali and Isa.

The pressure is now on the more senior and experienced Hishammuddin, as the younger Mukhriz knows he still has another shot in the future and this election result shows that he is still within striking distance.

The fact that Hishammuddin had to run an intense cross-country campaign to lobby for support at the eleventh hour, even though he is among the president’s men, is testament to the fact that his popularity within Umno is on the decline.

This is a serious blow to Hishammuddin, who once helmed the education, home and defence ministries - senior cabinet positions that traditionally form the pathway to premiership.

Zahid’s performance as home minister - flamboyantly bringing back preventive detention and having a seemingly tough stance on organised crime - had won him praise within Umno and by being the vice-president with the most votes, makes him the de facto number three in Umno.

This is in comparison with Hishammuddin’s relatively lacklustre tenure as home minister between April 2009 and May 2013, a period that also saw several police personnel killed during the Lahad Datu incursion.

'Transformation' vs 'Mahathirism'

As the Umno election draw to a close, the power and culture of incumbency within the party is becoming increasingly clear and it will make it more difficult to attract new younger talent.

Moreover, the dynastic nature of Umno politics - as seen in the political success of Hishamuddin, Khairy and Mukhriz who are all either descendents or in-laws of previous prime ministers - still hold sway and does not auger well for BN which will have to face four million new young voters in the next general election.

Mahathir doesn’t seem to have a problem with this and had made it clear a month ago that “smart” and “new” people should be allowed to rise in politics, which many saw as yet another endorsement for Mukhriz.

To Mahathir’s opponents in Umno, this comes too little too late, since he has been blamed for fueling cronyism and nepotism during his 22-year reign as party president.

To his supporters, the man is a nostalgic symbol of an invincible and decisive Umno which the country needs now. Is that the change being sought? To reverse Najib’s “transformation” agenda?

For now, it seems, Umno’s grassroots wants the transformation agenda to continue and remain BN’s main thrust in the next general election.

However, judging from the significant number of popular votes obtained by Mukhriz, a yearning for ‘Mahathirism’ still exist.

'Allah' verdict continues to draw ridicule abroad

Five days after the Court of Appeal ruled on the 'Allah' issue the controversial decision is still drawing ridicule from some Muslims worldwide as, among others, "bizarre" and "grossly wrong".

"Now, as a fellow Muslim, I will be honest to the Malaysians who have given this verdict or those who support it: This is one of the most illogical, insensible and childish decisions I have heard in my life. It is sheer nonsense," wrote a columnist for Turkish daily Hurriyet Daily News today.

Mustafa Akyol, who appears to write for several Turkish and international publications, called the verdict - that The Herald cannot use the word 'Allah' as it leads to confusion amongst Muslims and brings the threat of propagation - "grossly wrong", "un-Islamic" and "irrational".

"Why? Well, first of all, the word 'Allah' simply means 'the God' in Arabic, and it certainly is not exclusive to Islam," he wrote, mirroring the much repeated explanation that seems to fall on deaf ears amongst the local Muslims in authority.

He added in his commentary that Islam itself in fact encourages others of the Abrahamic religions to embrace the term.

"...If Malaysian Muslims should have done anything about the word 'Allah', it should have been to call on Christians to use the term freely," he argued quoting from Quranic verses.

Commenting on Muslim "confusion" over the Christians' use of 'Allah, Akyol said, "Well, nobody’s 'confusion', or lack of comprehension, can justify the destruction of other people’s freedom.

"Otherwise, should Christian countries ban the usage of terms such as 'Jesus' or 'Mary', which are prominent in the Quran, by their Muslim minorities?"

The columnist did not mince his words that those who advance such ideas of a "Muslim copyright for 'Allah'" does nothing but "reveal the burning lack of intellectual self-confidence among Muslims".

"Why, otherwise, does the slightest chance of 'the propagation of other religions' provoke so much fear - and so much compulsion?" he concluded.
'Sad behaviour on holy day'
Earlier on Wednesday, an editorial in Pakistan's English paper Daily Times lamented the sad state of Islamic practice while reflecting on the week's holy day Eid Al Adha, citing the 'Allah' ruling as one of the examples.

"The problem with practising Muslims today is that they treat Islam like an insecure entity that needs care, due attention and a special shelter lest it gets smeared and nullified...

"Who has given Muslims the liberty to copyright the name of Allah? It is His name, and He is the God of the universe, as He has said in the scriptures," wrote mufti Abdul Aziz al Sheikh in his commentary that included incidents of violence in Syria and Pakistan.

"There is no religion that does not believe in the existence of god. Why are we trying to deny people owning god in all his attributes? Is this how piety in Islam is preserved or managed?" wrote the mufti.

Calling the move to limit the use of the name "retrogressive", Abdul Aziz asked how Muslims were to attain their spiritual goal.

The highly anticipated ruling on Monday to bar the Catholic publication The Herald from using 'Allah' to refer to god, and the aftermath of consternation as well as confusion both among the public and the government alike, has reverberated across the world in a chorus of criticism.

In the UK a Sudanese Muslim writer said the verdict was merely an attempt by the majority in "subordinating" the minorities and had no basis in theology.

United Arab Emirates's (UAE) newspaper The National was one of the first to react, arguing in an editorial on the same day as the verdict that the word 'Allah' was "not exclusive to Islam".

Meanwhile a senior editor at Indonesian daily Jakarta Post commented, "Can Muslims, who profess belief in one almighty god, seriously claim exclusivity in God?
"Those who claim exclusivity to God undermine their own faith," wrote Endy M Bayuni on Thursday.
Ibrahim Ali: Who cares what you think?
In the face of the onslaught abroad, firebrand and pro-government lobbyist Ibrahim Ali in The Malay Mail Online yesterday slammed critics of the ruling, saying there were also ignorant Muslims in the Arab countries, and that some in Indonesia even "eat pork".

“Why should we be bothered ... Don’t think that every Arab knows or understands Islam. That there is no one ignorant there.

“Those (from the Arab world) that support the US are socialists and Christians...

“The same can be said about Indonesia...it is far worse. Those who don the ‘songkok’ are not necessarily Muslim ...there are those who consume pork. It’s all possible in Indonesia,” the Perkasa chief told the English daily.

Ibrahim, who last year courted controversy for calling on Malay language bibles containing the word 'Allah' to be burned, repeated his stunt on Thursday now calling for such bibles to be banned.

Uthayakumar complains of torture in letter to PM

Hindraf leader P Uthayakumar, who is in Kajang Prison, has complained in a letter to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak that he continues to be tortured under detention.

"I have been and am being tortured with mala fide (ill intentions) at the most feared and dreaded isolation lockup of Kajang Prison for 27 days, and it is to continue indefinitely," he said in the letter.

The letter was faxed to Najib's office as well as Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi yesterday.

"I am locked up under solitary confinement alone, 24 hours a day, not seeing sunlight or fresh air (in a) dimly lit cell," he said.

The incarcerated Hindraf leader added that he is only given one set of prison clothes.

Uthayakumar is serving time for sedition over his allegations of genocide against the Indian community in Malaysia. He is appealing the case.

The social activist was placed in solitary confinement following his earlier complaints of mistreatment when appearing in court on Sept 24.

Uthayakumar said he is now denied basic necessities such as a toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, towel, blanket, pillow or even his old half-inch foam mattress.

‘Put me in hospital wing’

Uthayakumar who suffers from arthritis, diabetes and a prolapsed disc asked Najib that he be placed back in the medical wing of the prison.

"I hereby appeal that I, an ex-Internal Security Act detainee, is forthwith transferred to the hospital wing in view of my illnesses.

"Why the racial injustice when previous Malay and Chinese political leaders like Lim Guan Eng, Mahfuz Omar, Mohamad Sabu, Mathias Chang and ANwar Ibrahim were detained at the safer hospital wing?" he said.

Uthayakumar said his "punishment" for complaining to the courts also include being denied his weekly 15-minute calls to his family.

When contacted, Uthayakumar's wife said she had not heard from her husband for three weeks.

"I don't know what is happening to him," she lamented.