Malay unity at its best

Yes, it is not easy to turn the Malays against the Chinese any longer, not like in 1969. It is easier to turn the Chinese against the Malays. By doing so the Malays would merajuk (sulk). They may not take up arms like they did in 1969. That may be too much to expect from present day Malays. But the Malays suffer from an illness called cepat kecik hati (feel hurt too easily).
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin

It was soon after the March 2008 general election. Umno was holding a meeting in Subang Jaya to discuss the election ‘disaster’. All the key Umno ‘activists’ were going to be there, many veterans or children of veterans of May 13.
I invited half a dozen of my Chinese and Indian friends to follow me to the meeting. ‘Why the hell would we want to attend an Umno meeting?” they asked me. “To learn, of course, to learn.”
Speaker after speaker took the rostrum. The crowd was stirred. “What happened in the March general election was exactly like what happened in May 1969,” said one renowned Umno activist, son of one of the architects of May 13. “Therefore, what happened in March 2008 also needs the May 13 solution.”
You do not need to be a standard six student to understand what that meant. However, considering that many of you who post comments in Malaysia Today do not get what is being said even when it is sticking up your arse, maybe I should spell it out lest you start huffing and puffing off tangent.
On 11 May 1969, the opposition almost toppled the ruling party and grabbed or checkmate a few states. Two days later, the ruling party counter-checkmated the opposition by triggering race riots.
On 8 March 2008, it was history being repeated, déjà vu. Hence, the same ‘solution’ will be required to ‘solve’ the 8 March 2008 disaster.
Unknown to most Malaysians, a few attempts were made to arouse the sentiments of the Malays like what they successfully did in 1969. But this time around the Malays were not aroused like in 1969 so the effort failed.
An example would be like what happened in Penang when some Indian-looking Malays held an anti-Chinese demonstration against Lim Guan Eng in front of Komtar in Penang and the white skullcap wearing Malays faced them and dared them to cross the line.
The 500 Indian-looking Malays did not dare take on the 1,000 white skullcap wearing Malays. There were no Chinese in sight. It was Indian-looking Malays versus white skullcap wearing Malays. And the white skullcap wearing Malays were there in defence of Lim Guan Eng, a Chinese.
So it looks like the race card no longer works in this day and age like it did back in 1969. A new strategy would be required. Instead of trying to turn the Malays against the Chinese, which will not work, why not let the Chinese whack the Malays? If we try to tell the Malays that the Chinese are the enemy, the Malays will not buy that. But if the Chinese whack the Malays then in time the Malays will get sick and tired and turn their back on the opposition.
The Chinese are more aggressive than the Malays. Even Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad thinks so when he lamented that the Malays are too passive and should be more aggressive like the Chinese. So, instead of trying to work up the Malays against the Chinese, why not work up the Chinese against the Malays?
When provoked, the Chinese react very strongly with foul language and all. Malays, being more feudalistic (another thing about the Malays which Dr Mahathir is pissed about) have been ‘trained’ since when they were toddlers to kowtow to authority. Even the Friday prayer kutbah (sermons) keep reminding the Malays that they must kowtow to authority. So the Malays are not as militant as the Chinese who kicked out their feudal lords a long time ago.
The Malays are also more forgiving. They can whack you for ten years but once you turun padang and go visit them at home, they become very honoured and immediately become your strong support. You also need to just hold the chief for the rest to follow -- again, the herd mentality, as Dr Mahathir said. Even Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia’s First Prime Minister, agrees with this. ‘Pegang kepala cukup. Yang lain akan ikut,” said the Tunku.
But Malays have two idiosyncrasies. One is ‘Melayu pantang di cabar’ (it is taboo to provoke a Malay). The other is the amuk syndrome. Is not the English word amok taken from the Malay word mengamuk? That’s because Malays appear to be the only race that has a penchant for doing this (the result of the legend of Hang Jebat, a Malay hero).
Malays also have a proverb that goes: biar mati anak, jangan mati adat. Malay culture and traditions must be upheld even if the child needs to be sacrificed.
And what else does the Malay hold dear and will kill or die for? What else? Islam of course! If the Malays can be made to feel that Islam is being compromised, challenged, insulted, etc., then they will rise in anger as they do even if they are not Malays like in Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc. A challenge against Islam is a challenge against God and hence you must die or else I will die trying to kill you. That is my duty as a Muslim.
Take all these ingredients and mix them into a bowl and what do you get? What you get would be a fruitcake. And we need fruitcake Malays if we want to turn the Malays against the Chinese.
Yes, it is not easy to turn the Malays against the Chinese any longer, not like in 1969. It is easier to turn the Chinese against the Malays. By doing so the Malays would merajuk (sulk). They may not take up arms like they did in 1969. That may be too much to expect from present day Malays. But the Malays suffer from an illness called cepat kecik hati (feel hurt too easily).
Hey, I can believe that. I am only part Bugis, part Orang Asli and part Welsh and even I get kecik hati with many readers of Malaysia Today when I read the comments they post. Even I, who can claim to be not pure Malay, have many times considered just closing down Malaysia Today and tell the lot of you to go to hell or go screw yourselves. What more the Malays from the kampongs?
Today, PKR, PAS and Umno are united on the Erykah Badu ban. They are also united on the view that apostasy needs to be combated. So the Malays can, if they want to, set aside their political differences and unite under a common cause. You just need to find that cause. And there are enough causes out there to latch on to. The rest would be clever engineering.
And this is something the Chinese do not understand. The Chinese are prepared to compromise. They can accept a bad government in the interest of cari makan (rice bowl). They can accept ABU even if we replace a bigger devil with a smaller devil and even if both are devils but merely differ in degree. They can accept the lesser of the two evils as long as the lesser evil is to their interest.
The Malays, as Tun Dr Mahathir lamented, are too passionate, sentimental and emotional (which makes them better lovers, of course -- and am I not passionate, sentimental and emotional in the way I write?). The Malays, according to Tun Dr Mahathir, are not pragmatic like the Chinese. And this is why the Malays fail while the Chinese succeed, argued Tun Dr Mahathir.
Sun Tzu said: to win the war you need to know your enemies. Raja Petra Kamarudin wants to add to what Sun Tzu said: to win the war you also need to know your friends.
The question is: which one is your friend and which one is your enemy? Your enemy is not the 51% Malay voters who voted Barisan Nasional in March 2008. Your enemy is certainly not the 49% Malay voters who voted Pakatan Rakyat in March 2008. Your enemy are those who walk in the corridors of power in Putrajaya and the 2,500 Umno delegates who attend the Umno general assembly to elect their party President who then becomes the Prime Minister of Malaysia.
Today, many Malays already feel kecik hati. If Raja Petra can become kecik hati what more the other Malays? And this can only mean one thing: Umno is succeeding. Umno did not succeed in turning the Malays against the Chinese. Umno succeeded in making the Malays become kecik hati because they feel the Chinese have now demonstrated that they are not real friends of the Malays.
That, my friends, is called realpolitik. And would Umno be able to rule Malaysia for 55 years if they did not understand realpolitik? Can those of you who entered the scene only in 2007 be better than those who have been playing this game since 1957? I fear not, my friend.

Indian NGO lodge police report against Anwar over racist remark

Malaysian Digest) - A police report was lodged today against Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in relation to the dissemination of a video on YouTube that showing him insulting the Indians.

The report was lodged a non-governmental organizations (NGO) called Alternative Action Team (AAT).

Its president Kalaivanar (pic) said the opposition leader had insulted the Indians in one of his talk during the Bagan Pinang by-election in 2009.

“Indians in this country are very offended by his remarks. So, today we ask the police to take stern action against him,” said Kalaivanar when met by reporters at the Dang Wangi police station.

“His speech was so racist and could threaten the multiracial harmony in the country. I want the police to record his speech and bring him in court in accordance with existing laws,” he added.

Time to Hartal the mainstream media

By Haris Ibrahim,

Reading Steadyaku47′s ‘The Chinese must stop blaming the Malays’ and RPK’s ‘Malay unity at its best’  day before yesterday left me greatly troubled.

Chinese blaming the Malays for everything that’s gone wrong in the country?

Malays ‘kecik hati’ because they feel the Chinese are not real friends of the Malays?

I do spend time on the ground and I have to say I don’t get this sense.

If anything, most people, and this necessarily includes the Chinese, are now more aware than ever before that it is the elite Malays in UMNO, their cronies and their cohorts in BN who have enriched themselves and in the process singularly left this nation in near ruins.

And that the majority of Malays, like most of the nation, are the victims of, first, 22 years of misrule by Mahathir and now, more plunder under Najib.

This is the sense I get, both from the rural and urban Chinese that I get to speak with.
Chinese blaming the Malays?

No.
Melayu kecik hati with the Chinese?

I read RPK’s piece again yesterday morning to see if I had missed anything.
Umno succeeded in making the Malays become kecik hati because they feel the Chinese have now demonstrated that they are not real friends of the Malays.

RPK’s exact words.
Not that the Chinese are not real friends of the Malays, but that UMNO has succeeded in making the Malays feel that way.

The two, in my view, are not the same.

I tried calling RPK yesterday evening but could not get through.

So I called a senior journalist, asked if he had read RPK’s piece and what he made of it.
He said RPK had hit the nail on the head, but had perhaps stated it rather clumsily.

According to him, the UMNO-controlled media might be sowing concerns amongst its Malay readers and viewers with its spin on how DAP, which is painted as a Chinese party, will be the principle benefactor if Pakatan comes to power.

How PAS, to keep DAP and the Chinese in Selangor happy, sacked the defender of Islam, Hassan Ali.
And on and on and on.
The message in the spin is subtle.
But, it seems, effective.
We need to counter this.
And fast.

Anwar Ibrahim visits Kerala mosque

Anwar Ibrahim

Anwar Ibrahim, former Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia and Opposition leader of that country, paid obeisance at the majestic Malik Dinar Juma Masjid here on Thursday.

Mr. Ibrahim visited the historic shrine at Thalangara locality around 3.30 p.m. and was accorded a warm reception by K. Mahmood Haji, president of the Juma Masjid, along with other prominent personalities from the town.

Dattu Abdul Aziz, former Cabinet Secretary of Malaysia, and other leading personalities from that country accompanied Mr. Ibrahim.

Mr. Ibrahim, who was on maiden visit to the town, said he had visited Kozhikode and Malappuram during his previous visits to Kerala.

Parti pemerintah guna kekuatan samseng, parti alternatif guna kekuatan pemikiran

By Aspan Alias -The Malaysian Insider

2 MAC — Budaya samseng pula yang mula menular dengan cepat didalam Umno sekarang. Kejadian mengganggu majlis-majlis anjuran Pakatan Rakyat kini selalu diganggu dan dicemari dengan kekacauan yang dilakukan oleh kumpulan samseng upahan untuk menggagalkan majlis anjuran Pakatan Rakyat. Dunia dan negara sekarang sudah masuk ke alaf baru dan manusia kini menuju kemajuan dengan etika dan cara kehidupan yang bertamaddun.

Seorang yang dididik dengan baik dari keluarga yang baik dia akan menjadi lebih berhemah jika bersalah-salahan pendapat dan pandangan dan akan sentiasa menghormati orang lain seperti yang dituntut oleh agama dan budaya, apatah lagi kita orang Melayu yang beragama Islam ini. Seseorang yang beriman dan halus jiwanya akan memujuk hati dan nafsunya sendiri untuk tidak berbuat apa yang tidak baik dan ditegah oleh adat dan agamanya.

Sebaliknya sebahagian dari kita orang-orang Melayu khususnya orang-orang kuat Umno (OKU), bertindak diluar adat dan adab bangsanya serta agama mereka dengan membina budaya samseng dan budaya ini adalah budaya orang-orang zaman batu dahulu. Ini bertambah berluas-luasa akhir-akhir ini dengan mengganggu majlis-majlis yang dianjurkan oleh pihak Pakatan Rakyat.

OKU-OKU tempatan akan menggunakan cara yang amat biadab dengan mengganggu dan memukul orang lain semata-mata kerana tidak bersetuju dengan majlis yang dianjurkan oleh pihak yang kian hari kian mendapat sokongan ramai itu. Ada kalanya kumpulan OKU ini akan menyerbu didalam majlis ceramah anjuran PR dan mereka akan terus beramai-ramai kehadapan pentas untuk mengganggu majlis PR itu.

Apa semuanya ini? Kemana kah perginya adab dan tatasusila Melayu yang berhemah dan bertamaddun yang selama ini menjadi “attribute” asas orang Melayu itu? Kenapa kah bangsa kita sudah sampai ketahap ini untuk mengekalkan kuasa? Kalaulah dari dulu kita tahu yang Melayu dan rakyat yang bersokongkol dengan pihak yang memerintah tidak dapat menerima demokrasi, kenapa dari dulu kita memulakan negara kita dengan sistem demokrasi.

Kenapakah ada pihak hanya menerima demokrasi jika dapat kemenangan dan memperkayakan budaya samseng apabila dirasakan yang kemenangan yang diperolehi selama ini tidak akan berulang lagi? Jika kuasa itu merupakan perjuangan yang “ultimate” kenapa tidak menjaga mandat dan kepercayaan rakyat selama ini dengan jujur? Kenapa melakukan perkara-perkara yang tidak elok didepan mata rakyat tanpa segan silu? Kenapa begitu tamak dan berkehendakkan kepada semua perkara?

Jika benar Umno dan pimpinan tidak mahu terlepas dari kuasa tentunya ia memerlukan pengorbanan. Pimpinan parti pemerintah ini wajib berkorban nafsu dan itu wajib. Pimpinan wajib melawan segala nafsu yang ada didalam diri masing-masing dan itu pun perjuangan yang perlu yang dituntut oleh agama kita. perjuangan menentang hawa nafsu kita itu merupakan perjuangan sepanjang hayat… dari lahir sehingga ke akhir kalam. Elakkan dari segala kemungkaran politik dan ekonomi serta perjuangan untuk diri sendiri yang keterlaluan.

Obsession Umno untuk berkuasa tidak mengenal batas dan sempadan. Setelah tidak berjaya meyakinkan orang ramai untuk terus menyokongnya, Umno sedang menggunakan tektik samseng dan ia sangat menjijikan orang ramai. Segala usaha dilakukan untuk mendapat sokongan tetapi sokongan tidak juga kembali. Maka menggunakan cara samsenglah yang tinggal untuk memaksa rakyat menyokong mereka.

Jika cara samseng ini masih tidak dapat meyakinkan rakyat untuk bersama Umno lagi, cara apa pula yang akan diambil pula selepas itu? Jawabnya saya rasa, tidak ada lagi selain dari menerima kekalahan dan penolakan rakyat secara menyeluruh.

Kepimpinan yang merelakan budaya samseng ini tidak akan dibenarkan berterusan dilakukan. Rakyat tidak mahu melihat kepimpinan ala Robert Mugabe di Zimbabwe atau secara Idi Amin dari Uganda suatu ketika dahulu. — aspanaliasnet.blogspot.com

Palanivel Says Young Indian Voters Support MIC

KUALA LUMPUR, March 2 (Bernama) -- MIC president Datuk Seri G. Palanivel has expressed confidence that young Indian voters will support the party in the next general election.

"There are many types of young voters, a small group of whom we're not certain whether they support us or not, but the majority of them are with us. I've no doubt about it," he told reporters opening the office of Koperasi Suria Malaysia Bhd in Bangsar, here, today.

Palanivel, who is Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, said young Indians must put their trust in the government led by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

"They can't put their trust elsewhere. We've done a lot and everything that we do is in the right direction for them and their future," he said.

Asked where he would stand in the next general election, Palanivel said he had not made any decision on the matter but stressed that efforts to gain support from the people were more important now.

"I'll decide where to contest at the right moment. A lot of people have invited me to contest in their place but the main objective now is bringing back the Indian votes.

"The overall picture is more important, not mine alone. So, it doesn't matter where I'll stand. The main thing is to bring back the support," he said.

On MIC candidates, Palanivel said: "Some people tell me that they're potential candidates, some people declare they're winnable. Ultimately, I'll make the decisive choice. We still have months to go, the main thing (now) is our preparation."

More rowdy behaviour

Another commotion on 1 March, when three Kajang municipal councillors and several others tried to attend the ground-breaking ceremony of SRJK (C) Bandar Sungai Long, Selangor, minutes before PM Najib arrived. 

Read Ms Batik’s commentary in Aliran.
It used to be that some people were paranoid of yellow. Now lime green is capable of making some people uneasy.

'BN supporters roughed us up at Najib function'

Kajang municipal councillor Lee Kee Hiong and several others claimed that they were assaulted outside SRJK (C) Bandar Sungai Long, Selangor, minutes before Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's arrival there for the school's groundbreaking ceremony today.

Lee, a DAP leader, said she went there with an entourage of some 20 former and current municipal councillors and residents, wearing green shirts, but were stopped by a man in a black shirt after security checks were made by police at the scene.
At the time, somebody there shouted to her group, “Boss said you may not enter,” to which a member of Lee's group said she responded that they were only there for the food.
They were then charged at by about 30 to 40 people, who she claimed were BN supporters, who surrounded and roughed up four in her group, pinning them to the ground.

Lee said police at the scene tried to break up the fight, but were "powerless to stop the large group" of attackers.

"Since (entering politics in) 1993, this is the first time I felt protected by the police," Lee told Malaysiakini when contacted after the incident.

She feared that the situation could have been a lot worse had the police not stepped in.
Lee (in green T-shirt) said that when the thugs she described as "BN supporters" started their attack, Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Minister Noh Omar appeared and shouted, "Why are you here to cause trouble?"

One in her group replied, “We received a brochure. It says, 'all are invited.' We just want to eat, why not?"

Five bruised

An individual, who Lee alleged was an aide of Noh's, pushed her, causing her to lose her balance and injuring herself in the process.

Police eventually escorted Lee and her group, some of whom suffered bruises from the attack, out of the venue.
One member of the group, Lee said, lost a pair of spectacles while another lost a shoe in the fracas, but both of these were later recovered.

She said the five only suffered bruises, but the group was in a state of shock.

"They will undergo a medical examination and a press conference on the matter will be held tomorrow," she added.
Lee added they wore green shirts simply to show their support for Himpunan Hijau 2.0.

"However, we didn't plan to do anything at the ceremony. We just wanted to eat and then leave," she said.

Lee further explained that they received a brochure at their house that said all were invited to attended the ground-breaking ceremony.

Malaysiakini tried to contact Noh tonight but failed to reach him.

Speaking at the function later, Najib announced that two toll booths along the Grand Saga Highway would be taken off, effectively halving the charges for commuting in both directions.

Beginning midnight tonight, the Batu 9 toll booth on the Kuala Lumpur-bound route and the Batu 11 toll booth on the Kajang-bound route would cease operations, he said.

Najib also handed over a RM4.5 million cheque to the school for the construction of 36 classrooms, which will accommodate 1,500 pupils.
He also said that the 5.9-acre piece of land that the school would be built on, was worth RM20 million.

Grim fate of Hindu minorities in Pakistan: Hindu Girls Abducted and Forced into Muslim Marriages. Who Cares?

PAKISTAN: Abducted and forced into a Muslim marriage – IRIN Report.

KARACHI, 27 February 2012 (IRIN - Integrated Regional Information Networks) – Sixteen-year-old Ameena Ahmed*, now living in the town of Rahim Yar Khan in Pakistan’s Punjab Province, does not always respond when her mother-in-law calls out to her.

“Even after a year of `marriage’ I am not used to my new name. I was called Radha before,” she told IRIN on a rare occasion when she was allowed to go to the corner shop on her own to buy vegetables.

Ameena, or Radha as she still calls herself, was abducted from Karachi about 13 months ago by a group of young men who offered her ice-cream and a ride in their car. Before she knew what was happening, she was dragged into a larger van, and driven to an area she did not know.

She was then pressured into signing forms which she later found meant she was married to Ahmed Salim,

Hindus marking a ritual occasion feel increasingly threatened in Pakistan. Perhaps performing the last rituals for Hindus in Pakistan. Photo: Tariq Saeed/IRIN.

25; she was converted to a Muslim after being asked to recite some verses in front of a cleric. She was obliged to wear a veil. Seven months ago, Ameena, who has not seen her parents or three siblings since then and “misses them a lot”, moved with her new family to southern Punjab.

“The abduction and kidnapping of Hindu girls is becoming more and more common,” Amarnath Motumal, a lawyer and leader of Karachi’s Hindu community, told IRIN. “This trend has been growing over the past four or five years, and it is getting worse day by day.”

He said there were at least 15-20 forced abductions and conversions of young girls from Karachi each month, mainly from the multi-ethnic Lyari area. The fact that more and more people were moving to Karachi from the interior of Sindh Province added to the dangers, as there were now more Hindus in Karachi, he said.

“They come to search for better schooling, for work and to escape growing extremism,” said Motumal who believes Muslim religious schools are involved in the conversion business.

“Hindus are non-believers. They believe in many gods, not one, and are heretics. So they should be converted,” said Abdul Mannan, 20, a Muslim student. He said he would be willing to marry a Hindu girl, if asked to by his teachers, “because conversions brought big rewards from Allah [God]. But later I will marry a `real’ Muslim girl as my second wife,” he said.

According to local law, a Muslim man can take more than one wife, but rights activists argue that the law infringes the rights of women and needs to be altered.

Motumal says Hindu organizations are concerned only with the “forced conversion” of girls under 18. “Adult women are of course free to choose,” he said.

“Lured away”

Sunil Sushmt, 40, who lives in a village close to the city of Mirpurkhas in central Sindh Province, said his 14-year-old daughter was “lured away” by an older neighbour and, her parents believe, forcibly converted after marriage to a Muslim. “She was a child. What choice did she have?” her father asked. He said her mother still cries for her “almost daily” a year after the event.

Sushmat is also concerned about how his daughter is being treated. “We know many converts are treated like slaves, not wives,” he said.

According to official figures, Hindus based mainly in Sindh make up 2 percent of Pakistan’s total population of 165 million. “We believe this figure could be higher,” Motumal said.

According to media reports, a growing number of Hindus have been fleeing Pakistan, mainly for neighbouring India. The kidnapping of girls and other forms of persecution is a factor in this, according to those who have decided not to stay in the country any longer.

“My family has lived in Sindh for generations,” Parvati Devi, 70, told IRIN. “But now I worry for the future of my granddaughters and their children. Maybe we too should leave,” she said. “The entire family is seriously considering this.”

*not her real name

Courtesy: IRIN. (updated on 02/03/2012).


How many Hindus are grasping in Pakistan in front our vacant look? SHAME.

Minority MPA says young Hindu girls subjected to gross injustice in Pakistan

Islamabad, Mar 1(ANI): A minority Member of the Sindh Provincial Assembly (MPA) Pitanber Sewani has said that the Hindu girls are subjected to gross injustice in the country, and reminded the government not to force Hindus in Sindh to follow the course of Baloch nationalists who are fighting "a war for their rights".

In a fiery speech Sewani said the Hindu girls are first kidnapped and then converted to Islam after being subjected to forced marriages with Muslim boys.

Sewani moved a resolution against the post-marriage conversion of Hindu girls. He urged the government to take concrete steps to end forced marriages.

Pointing to a recent incident in Mirpur Mathelo, he said a Muslim boy going by the name of Naveed Shah had allegedly kidnapped a 16-year-old Hindu girl Rinki Kumari at gunpoint and forcibly married her.

"These people kidnapped her at gunpoint a few days ago and presented her in a lower court after her marriage with Naveed Shah. We have no objection if a Hindu girl marries a Muslim boy of her free will. But Hindus will not tolerate forced marriages," The Express Tribune quoted Sewani, as saying.

Sewani said that he dreaded a situation where Hindus might decide to leave Sindh.

"Around 20 to 25 forced conversions take place every month in Sindh. If this situation continues, the Hindus will have no choice, but to resist," he said.

"Today, we are fed up with the Baloch resistance movement, tomorrow we may be irritated by Hindus as well," he added.

Sewani also urged the chief justice to take sou motu action on forced marriages, killings and kidnappings of Hindus in Sindh." (ANI)

Court upholds police ban on gay festival in Malaysia

Gay pride parades in Asia becoming more commonplace, except Malaysia.

Kuala Lumpur (dpa) – A Malaysian court on Thursday rejected a petition by gay rights activists to review a police ban on its arts and music festival in Kuala Lumpur.

High Court Judge Rohana Yusuf said the police were entitled to order the ban on the festival called Seksualiti Merdeka, meaning sexuality independence, which was to have been held in November.

The police banned the festival on safety grounds after Muslim groups threatened to disrupt the event which aimed to promote dialogue about gay issues.

The organizers challenged the ban in the court in January.

Pang Kee Teik, one of the organizers of the event, lamented the decision of the court.

“When the police’s arbitrary powers cannot be reviewed in court, we are allowing the police to get away with abuse of power,” he said in a statement.

He said he would continue to fight for the rights of homosexuals, transgenders and bisexuals.

“We want to remind them that they too have family members and friends who can be helped by the work that Seksualiti Merdeka does,” he said.

Exco: Pemimpin PAS akan turun ke Kedah

NIAT all set for bigger battle

After the removal of the controversial Interlok novel, the movement is now focussing on revamping the education system for the betterment of the Indian community.

KUALA LUMPUR: The National Interlok Action Team (NIAT), which played a major role in forcing the government to withdraw the controversial novel from schools, is now planning to take the battle to the next level.

Speaking to FMT, the movement’s chairman Thasleem Mohamed Ibrahim said NIAT would devise a new strategy to revamp the education system for the betterment of the Indian community.

In view of this, he said, the acronym NIAT would now stand for National Indian Advancement Team.

The philantrophist complained that the Malaysian education system was controlled by a single race and this was unfair to the non-Malays.

“The entire educational system has become rotten from head to toe because of a single race’s dominance and politcal stooges in high posts,” he added.

Thasleem, however, stressed that NIAT was not anti-Malay but rather opposed the racial monopoly of the education system.

“The standard of our universities has dropped because of vice-chancellors, deans and senior academic staff who are appointed due to political links and not academic excellence,” he added.

As for Tamil schools, Thasleem said despite the syllabus being the same with national and Chinese schools, Tamil schools fared poorly in the UPSR examination compared to the other two.

He said this was because Chinese schools were well financed while national schools came under the government’s care.

“So Tamil schools are the ones that are always disregarded,” he said. “Much has been said and written about the plight of Tamil schools in Malaysia. Now it’s time to start acting.”

‘NIAT will the national body’

Outlining NIAT’s immediate plans, Thasleem said the movement would collect the details of all 523 Tamil schools nationwide.

From this, NIAT would do a meticulous analysis and submit a recommendation to the Education Ministry to take action.

“NIAT will invite all the NGOs who are willing to cooperate with us on this matter,” he said adding that an official meeting would be held this evening at Wisma Tun Sambanthan here.

“We are going to focus not only on the education system, but also issues like better school buildings, better training for teachers, overcoming the shortage of teachers and increasing the enrolment of students in Tamil schools,” he added.

Thasleem said there were numerous independent organisation working on the development of Tamil schools, but there had been no significant progress.

“To overcome this, NIAT will act as the national body and all the smaller organisations can submit their reports to us, and we will send a proper paper to the ministry,” he added.

Fully-residential school needed

Meanwhile, Thasleem said that NIAT would also focus on the performance of Indian students in secondary schools.

“For the Malays, there is the Maktab Rendah Sains Mara (MRSM) while the Chinese have secondary schools financed by businessmen. But what about the Indian community?” he asked.

Citing socio-economic factors as the main reason behind the poor performance of Indian secondary school students, Thasleem said a fully residential secondary school for the Indian community was the best answer.

“In 1974, MIC forwarded a memorandum to the Education Ministry calling for a special residential school. Now, 38 years have passed but nothing has happened.

“This is a clear example of institutionalised racism implemented by the past leadership of Umno,” he said, adding that he had sent a letter to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak regarding this.

Ibrahim Ali tanding atas tiket Umno?

"JIka Najib pilih Tok Him (Ibrahim) bertanding atas tiket Umno, kita terima," katanya.

PASIR MAS: Umno bahagian sedia memberi laluan kepada Datuk Ibrahim Ali bertanding atas parti itu dalam pilihan raya umum ke 13, kata seorang AJKnya.

“Kalau Datuk Seri Najib (Tun Razak) setuju, kita akan terima. Asal calon boleh menang, kita boleh terima.

“JIka Najib pilih Tok Him (Ibrahim) bertanding atas tiket Umno, kita terima,” katanya.

Perdana Menteri akan mengadakan program bersama rakyat di Pasir Mas, petang esok.

Beliau berkata, ahli parlimen bebas Pasir Mas itu lebih sesuai bertanding di atas tiket Umno kerana presiden NGO Perkasa itu pernah menjadi ahli Parlimen Umno sebelum ini.

Pada tahun 1990, Ibrahim memenangi parlimen Pasir Mas atas tiket parti Semangat 46 pimpinan Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.

Dipecat

Pada tahun 2006, beliau ketika itu ketua Umno Pasir Mas dipecat dari parti ekoran tindakannya bertanding atas tiket pilihan raya kecil negeri Pengkalan Pasir.

Pada pilihan umum lalu, PAS memberi beliau peluang atas tiket parti dan mengalahkan calon BN, Datuk Abdul Rahim Rahman.

Beliau, bagaimanapun mengisytiharkan sebagai ahli parlimen bebas selepas itu atas alasan tidak sesuai dengan dasar PAS.

Kata AJK Umno itu, jika Ibrahim sayang orang Pasir Mas, beliau perlu bertanding atas tiket Umno.

Bagaimanapun, usaha menghubungi Ibrahim gagal kerana panggilan telefonnya tidak berjawab.

Railway land controversy: Dubious land transfers

Lawyer P Uthayakumar revealed that there was 'no record' of a transaction between Keretapi Tanah Melayu (Sentul) Berhad to Sentul Raya Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of YTL Corporation.

KUALA LUMPUR: Three land transactions involving Kampung Railway in Sentul were conducted within a span of an hour on Sept 24, 2002.

Describing the transactions as dubious, lawyer P Uthayakumar said: “The Land Office records indicated that three transactions happened within an hour on Sept 24, 2002.”

In the first transaction, Federal Land Commissioner transferred the land to Syarikat Tanah dan Harta Sdn Bhd at 10.08 am.

At 10.31 am, Syarikat Tanah dan Harta Sdn Bhd transferred the land to Keretapi Tanah Melayu (Sentul) Berhad.

The third transaction was a fund mortgage from Sentul Raya Sdn Bhd to Aseam Bankers at 10.52am.

Speaking after a case management hearing involving Sentul Raya Sdn Bhd (subsidiary of YTL Corporation) and 100 over residents of Kampung Railway today, Uthayakumar said there was however “no record that shows the transfer from Keretapi Tanah Melayu (Sentul) Berhad to Sentul Raya.”

Uthayakumar is representing 101 residents of Kampung Railway. Sentul Raya is represented by their counsel, B Thangaraj.

Another group of 23 people are intervenors represented by Rashid Zulkifli.

Earlier during the hearing in the chambers, senior assistant registrar Norhatim Abdul Hamid said the next hearing would be on April 4 under presiding High Court judge Justice Zabariah Yusof.

On Tuesday, a group of Kampung Railway residents sent a protest memorandum to Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL). They said the case in court was detrimental to their ongoing negotiations with YTL Corporation and DBKL.

Malay unity at its best

Yes, it is not easy to turn the Malays against the Chinese any longer, not like in 1969. It is easier to turn the Chinese against the Malays. By doing so the Malays would merajuk (sulk). They may not take up arms like they did in 1969. That may be too much to expect from present day Malays. But the Malays suffer from an illness called cepat kecik hati (feel hurt too easily).
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin

It was soon after the March 2008 general election. Umno was holding a meeting in Subang Jaya to discuss the election ‘disaster’. All the key Umno ‘activists’ were going to be there, many veterans or children of veterans of May 13.
I invited half a dozen of my Chinese and Indian friends to follow me to the meeting. ‘Why the hell would we want to attend an Umno meeting?” they asked me. “To learn, of course, to learn.”
Speaker after speaker took the rostrum. The crowd was stirred. “What happened in the March general election was exactly like what happened in May 1969,” said one renowned Umno activist, son of one of the architects of May 13. “Therefore, what happened in March 2008 also needs the May 13 solution.”
You do not need to be a standard six student to understand what that meant. However, considering that many of you who post comments in Malaysia Today do not get what is being said even when it is sticking up your arse, maybe I should spell it out lest you start huffing and puffing off tangent.
On 11 May 1969, the opposition almost toppled the ruling party and grabbed or checkmate a few states. Two days later, the ruling party counter-checkmated the opposition by triggering race riots.
On 8 March 2008, it was history being repeated, déjà vu. Hence, the same ‘solution’ will be required to ‘solve’ the 8 March 2008 disaster.
Unknown to most Malaysians, a few attempts were made to arouse the sentiments of the Malays like what they successfully did in 1969. But this time around the Malays were not aroused like in 1969 so the effort failed.
An example would be like what happened in Penang when some Indian-looking Malays held an anti-Chinese demonstration against Lim Guan Eng in front of Komtar in Penang and the white skullcap wearing Malays faced them and dared them to cross the line.
The 500 Indian-looking Malays did not dare take on the 1,000 white skullcap wearing Malays. There were no Chinese in sight. It was Indian-looking Malays versus white skullcap wearing Malays. And the white skullcap wearing Malays were there in defence of Lim Guan Eng, a Chinese.
So it looks like the race card no longer works in this day and age like it did back in 1969. A new strategy would be required. Instead of trying to turn the Malays against the Chinese, which will not work, why not let the Chinese whack the Malays? If we try to tell the Malays that the Chinese are the enemy, the Malays will not buy that. But if the Chinese whack the Malays then in time the Malays will get sick and tired and turn their back on the opposition.
The Chinese are more aggressive than the Malays. Even Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad thinks so when he lamented that the Malays are too passive and should be more aggressive like the Chinese. So, instead of trying to work up the Malays against the Chinese, why not work up the Chinese against the Malays?
When provoked, the Chinese react very strongly with foul language and all. Malays, being more feudalistic (another thing about the Malays which Dr Mahathir is pissed about) have been ‘trained’ since when they were toddlers to kowtow to authority. Even the Friday prayer kutbah (sermons) keep reminding the Malays that they must kowtow to authority. So the Malays are not as militant as the Chinese who kicked out their feudal lords a long time ago.
The Malays are also more forgiving. They can whack you for ten years but once you turun padang and go visit them at home, they become very honoured and immediately become your strong support. You also need to just hold the chief for the rest to follow -- again, the herd mentality, as Dr Mahathir said. Even Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia’s First Prime Minister, agrees with this. ‘Pegang kepala cukup. Yang lain akan ikut,” said the Tunku.
But Malays have two idiosyncrasies. One is ‘Melayu pantang di cabar’ (it is taboo to provoke a Malay). The other is the amuk syndrome. Is not the English word amok taken from the Malay word mengamuk? That’s because Malays appear to be the only race that has a penchant for doing this (the result of the legend of Hang Jebat, a Malay hero).
Malays also have a proverb that goes: biar mati anak, jangan mati adat. Malay culture and traditions must be upheld even if the child needs to be sacrificed.
And what else does the Malay hold dear and will kill or die for? What else? Islam of course! If the Malays can be made to feel that Islam is being compromised, challenged, insulted, etc., then they will rise in anger as they do even if they are not Malays like in Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc. A challenge against Islam is a challenge against God and hence you must die or else I will die trying to kill you. That is my duty as a Muslim.
Take all these ingredients and mix them into a bowl and what do you get? What you get would be a fruitcake. And we need fruitcake Malays if we want to turn the Malays against the Chinese.
Yes, it is not easy to turn the Malays against the Chinese any longer, not like in 1969. It is easier to turn the Chinese against the Malays. By doing so the Malays would merajuk (sulk). They may not take up arms like they did in 1969. That may be too much to expect from present day Malays. But the Malays suffer from an illness called cepat kecik hati (feel hurt too easily).
Hey, I can believe that. I am only part Bugis, part Orang Asli and part Welsh and even I get kecik hati with many readers of Malaysia Today when I read the comments they post. Even I, who can claim to be not pure Malay, have many times considered just closing down Malaysia Today and tell the lot of you to go to hell or go screw yourselves. What more the Malays from the kampongs?
Today, PKR, PAS and Umno are united on the Erykah Badu ban. They are also united on the view that apostasy needs to be combated. So the Malays can, if they want to, set aside their political differences and unite under a common cause. You just need to find that cause. And there are enough causes out there to latch on to. The rest would be clever engineering.
And this is something the Chinese do not understand. The Chinese are prepared to compromise. They can accept a bad government in the interest of cari makan (rice bowl). They can accept ABU even if we replace a bigger devil with a smaller devil and even if both are devils but merely differ in degree. They can accept the lesser of the two evils as long as the lesser evil is to their interest.
The Malays, as Tun Dr Mahathir lamented, are too passionate, sentimental and emotional (which makes them better lovers, of course -- and am I not passionate, sentimental and emotional in the way I write?). The Malays, according to Tun Dr Mahathir, are not pragmatic like the Chinese. And this is why the Malays fail while the Chinese succeed, argued Tun Dr Mahathir.
Sun Tzu said: to win the war you need to know your enemies. Raja Petra Kamarudin wants to add to what Sun Tzu said: to win the war you also need to know your friends.
The question is: which one is your friend and which one is your enemy? Your enemy is not the 51% Malay voters who voted Barisan Nasional in March 2008. Your enemy is certainly not the 49% Malay voters who voted Pakatan Rakyat in March 2008. Your enemy are those who walk in the corridors of power in Putrajaya and the 2,500 Umno delegates who attend the Umno general assembly to elect their party President who then becomes the Prime Minister of Malaysia.
Today, many Malays already feel kecik hati. If Raja Petra can become kecik hati what more the other Malays? And this can only mean one thing: Umno is succeeding. Umno did not succeed in turning the Malays against the Chinese. Umno succeeded in making the Malays become kecik hati because they feel the Chinese have now demonstrated that they are not real friends of the Malays.
That, my friends, is called realpolitik. And would Umno be able to rule Malaysia for 55 years if they did not understand realpolitik? Can those of you who entered the scene only in 2007 be better than those who have been playing this game since 1957? I fear not, my friend.

Bumi / non-Bumi? Or one people, one nation, all equal? You decide

by Haris Ibrahim,

I started this blog on 14th April, 2007.

And this blog bears testimony that my politics has, during this time, been about striving to end the inequalities and consequent injustice inflicted on almost 40% of our people by reason of UMNO / BN’s race-based, ethnocentric divide and rule of the country.

This includes the bumi / non-bumi classification.

UMNO / BN will not give up on these divides.

And I’m not just talking about the leaders in UMNO.

In late 2010, I attended a talk by Bernard Dompok in Assumption Church, PJ.

In the course of his presentation, he mentioned the word ‘bumiputra’ twice.

During Q&A, I asked him whether, given Najib’s 1Malaysia, he would not lead the way in dsimantling the bumi / non-bumi divide by pronouncing his refusal to be categorised as a bumi?

I do not remember his exact words, but he responded to the effect that Malaysians by far and large may not as yet be ready to abandon the benefits that go with being classified as bumi.

In reality, it is the BN leaders, their cronies, and bumis who have benefited from this classification that wish to see this divide continue.

The majority of those classified as bumi have only had crumbs tossed from the BN banquet table, for which they are expected to be eternally grateful.

What of the non-BN political party leaders?

Through all of 2007 and the better part of 2008, I blogged that I wished Anwar would give me a reason to trust him enough to run this country.

Then, in August 2008, in my ‘Dear Anwar’ post, I had written that whilst I still did not trust Anwar, 3 things had moved me to ‘take a chance’ with him.

I want to reproduce here what I had said in that post of the third thing that had moved me to take a chance with Anwar leading this nation.

“…on 5th August, I heard you deliver your ceramah in Bentong, Pahang.


I have attended many of your ceramah but, quite frankly, this was the first time that I heard you speak with humility, particularly your appeal to any who might feel inclined to go to Permatang Pauh to help in your election campaign.


What particularly touched me and my family who were present, something that has also got the mention of G. Krishnan in his blog today, was when you said :


‘Anak Melayu, anak kita, anak Cina anak kita, anak India, pun anak kita. Mengapa harus kita bezakan?”


Succinctly, you had articulated that which I have felt for such a long, long time and which, without more, sums up the spirit of anak Bangsa Malaysia that I hope one day will be definitive of us as a people of this nation.


It is this last matter that I have mentioned, irrational as it may seem to many, that has most moved me to ‘take a chance”.

I will hold Anwar to this.

In the last few weeks, speaking at several ABU ceramah, I have time and again denounced UMNO’s claim to defend the special rights of the Malays.

There is no such thing as special rights of the Malays.

There is no such creature called bumiputra known to our constitution.

These are concepts and statures contrived by UMNO to divide us, rule us, and then bleed us to death.

Again and again, I have asked at these ceramah, how it is that, without this privilege that UMNO calls ‘hak keistimewaan Melayu’, the Malays in Singapore and Brunei fare better than the Malays here?

The answer : the Malays in Singapore and Brunei have not had to suffer 50 years of UMNO rule, rape and plunder.

I expect the non-BN political parties who look to us to send them to Putrajaya even as we work to bury UMNO / BN come the 13th GE, or through our own Tahrir Square, as the case may be, to have the moral courage to go to ground and tell the rakyat that we were intended to be and are a nation of equals.

Without mentioning names, I want to say that I am quite tired of non-BN politicians telling me, as did Bernard Dompok, that whilst they agree that we are all equal, the general populace are not ready to hear this.

Again, without mentioning names, I am quite fed up of listening to non-BN politicians assuring the Malays that their special rights will not be affected if there is a regime change in Putrajaya.

The reality is that politicians, on both sides of the divide, would rather leave this thorny issue to be dealt with on another day.

Another day, about 50 years from now, if they had their way.

And if you let them have their way, get ready to live with this bumi / non-bumi divide for a long time yet.

Home Biodata Publication « Ex-CCID chief blasts Gani for ‘fixing’ him Not all of us are still blind, are we?

May Chee Chook Ying - The Malaysian Insider


MARCH 1 — Not too long ago in a land not so far-away, in the kingdom of the blind, a one-eyed led. The kingdom didn’t start out as having only blind citizens. The truth was; those seeing ones were incarcerated for precisely, having seen the light. As soon as anyone with a well-formed conscience saw it his duty to illuminate others, this one-eyed jack would throw him behind bars, using draconian laws and spineless institutions as his side-kicks.

Along the way, he promised the blind he would lead them to the Promised Land. That he would liberate them. That they would be blind, no more. That they would neither thirst nor hunger anymore. Today, he has seemingly succeeded in making only a handful free, see and who neither have to thirst or hunger anymore. Today, he stands, guilty of nepotism, cronyism and worst of all; he has made more gone not only blind, but totally dependent on “crutches”. All these were by design. His design, so that till the day he died, and maybe even beyond the grave, others would be beholden to him and all that he holds dear.

Is there no God that a mortal could play with our lives so wantonly? So irresponsibly? So cruelly? Our beloved country has been plundered to feed his ego and greed. Our people have been maimed to allow him control. And we can’t stop him?

We, live, purportedly, in the best democratic country on earth and all the above can happen here, so easily? Who are we fooling?

“No man loses his freedom, unless, it is through his own weakness,” said Gandhi. Some of us here in Malaysia, have been “incarcerated” through our own making. That, I believe, is only a minority. He can’t be having a dossier on each and every one of us, can he? So, why let him continue to mess up our lives and our beloved country, Malaysia?

Every day, the headlines, of course not the mainstream media, scream out one scandal or another. There are days I wish I wasn’t a Malaysian. There are days I wish I had left long ago. I’m really paying a lot more to remain a Malaysian, forgoing a lot more to remain in these shores. Some days, I really cry when I pray for my country, Malaysia. Dear God, is there no stop to all these heinous “crimes” (for want of a better word), past and present? And someone got sent back to stare death in the face over a tweet? And some to have their liberty denied for a good many months, for having shoplifted milk for their young? And billions of dollars to be written off just like that, to erase an old lion’s wrongdoing? (That, too, came with shameless taunting!) Is there no sense of balance anymore in my beloved country, Malaysia? Didn’t we all have to slog for those billions?

Friends have asked, “Why didn’t you leave?” I used to say, “How can I leave my mum behind?” My mum died three months back. Do I still have any excuse? I do. I, really do. How can I leave the country I love so much behind?

I’m appealing to all Malaysians; I know the majority of you are right-minded. Please, you can put a stop to this “prevalent doom”. We are Malaysians, we can do this. We love our country, Malaysia and because of this, we shouldn’t allow her to be annihilated like this. She doesn’t deserve this. The majority of us, work night and day, to build up Malaysia. Our forefathers did, too, with their blood, sweat and tears! How can we let her go to the dogs like this? We are all Malaysians. Please, unite behind the truth. Please, do not be divided by the cowards who still take us for fools. Please, do not let those one-eyed ones lead us astray anymore. We are “seeing” people. We can take them on. We don’t need crutches. There is enough for everyone. For that, the plundering has got to stop! Period.

I would not say that I’m deeply religious but I believe that there’s a God. All these wonderful creations of God are meant to be shared by all mankind. One is not to plunder and deny his neighbour of his rightful stake. We are put on earth temporarily to care for God’s beautiful creations. In denying our neighbour, we do not do justice to the God we love. In denying Malaysia her rightful place in history, we, all but deny our very own existence and God’s wonderful creation. (What can I say; I’m a coward for I live my life in fear of God!)

I do not want to be responsible for a Malaysia with a blighted history. Do you?

Malay Vote Split Can't Be A Good Thing: Puteri Umno

KUALA LUMPUR, March 1 (Bernama) -- Puteri Umno today rejected the statement made by PAS central committee member Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad who reportedly said that Malay vote split could be good for the people in the country.

Puteri Umno chief Datuk Rosnah Abdul Rashid Shirlin said the statement showed that Dr Dzulkefly favoured disunity among Muslims in Malaysia.

"Puteri Umno is appalled at the actions of PAS leaders who prefer disunity and hostility; in fact in many cases, they are more willing to cooperate with non-Muslims to the extent of disregarding the need to unite Malays who are Muslims in the country," she said in a statement.

Maintenance challege for low-income housing

The biggest challenge for low-cost housing in the country – apart from actually building enough low-cost homes – is the maintenance of these blocks.
The effectiveness of the maintenance depends on:

• the level of community solidarity (including an accountable residents committee),
• income levels (the pressure of contributing to maintenance when wages can barely keep up with the cost of living) and
• household debt (which has been rising).

This article from theSun:

HDB flair for our public housing
Posted on 1 March 2012 – 04:57am
Himanshu Bhatt
IN October 2009, I had penned in this column my impressions about the state of public housing, citing the foul and decrepit conditions of most residential estates meant for low-income earners.
I had pointed to the Pekeliling flats whose shabby high-rise blocks had stood in ugly contradiction to the modern Kuala Lumpur skyline. There were others like the Kampung Melayu and Rifle Range flats in Ayer Itam, and the Bagan Dalam flats in Butterworth. Most were in such deplorable condition that they required immense physical overhauls – from paint jobs, to pipe and tile replacements, to complete wiring changes.
In particular, maintenance was wanting. Garbage chutes were filthy, lifts commonly in disrepair, clogged drains, rotten pipes and strewn litter. The designs of the buildings seem to have catered more for volume than for healthy living conditions. Natural lighting and air circulation within public passageways were usually poor, and there were far too little recreational facilities and sites.
Is it any wonder that there has been a stigma associated with low-cost housing in Malaysia? And I had wondered aloud how our public housing could have fallen to such shameful levels when, in contrast, Singapore’s mass housing system has been made to work so well.
Indeed, with public housing under the purview of the Housing and Development Board (HDB), low-cost houses in Singapore are characterised by a high degree of cleanliness, community programmes, regular planting and pruning of trees, and meticulous infrastructure.
Well, the Penang government raised some eyebrows last month when it announced that a former division of the HDB had been enlisted to design and help maintain the state’s most ambitious public housing programme yet – the RM2.7 billion Bandar Cassia Affordable Housing Scheme.
Targeted to house a population of 250,000 on what is now sprawling virgin land in Batu Kawan, the project will use the services of Surbana Corporation Pte Ltd, the former building and development division of the HDB.
It would adopt the same eco-friendly and sustainable living features used for acclaimed HDB projects in Singapore. Boasting an impressive man-made river, it would have recreational facilities and amenities never before included in low-cost and low-medium-cost projects in Malaysia.
Indeed, the HDB is said to have the best record for affordable housing in the world. “Why imitate the best when we can bring in the very best?” Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said during the ground-breaking ceremony and unveiling of the designs.
The Batu Kawan project is centred around a 2km “Community Green Spine” with some 40 acres of land with parks and lakes. Bus stops and amenities would be within three minutes walking distance from any residential block.
There will also be sports facilities like badminton courts, swimming pools, football fields and tennis courts. And each phase will be gated and guarded with smart card access systems and secured lift lobbies.
It may sound like a luxury condominium project, and deservedly so. Why should our citizens be deprived of essential facilities, cleanliness and services, just because they are from a lower strata of society?
There was of course expected criticism that the state had entrusted a foreign neighbour. But why should this be a problem when Singaporean companies are being welcomed to invest in the Iskandar region in Johor?
In fact the state government has drawn up a five-year master plan to repair and revitalise its existing 42 public housing estates. But as it was doing this, it hit a rut when it was unable to implement the newly gazetted State Housing Board which would be crucial for its plans to promote and spawn affordable housing.
The board was set up through an enactment passed by the state assembly in 2010. But a special committee to study higher level posts in the federal government decided to postpone appointing any civil service positions in the board, effectively putting it in limbo.
So the advent of a Singaporean HDB-style system and vision must serve as a bold, fresh shake-up of our public housing sector. For in Lim’s own words, “we don’t want to give our people boxes, we want to give them homes.”
Himanshu is theSun’s Penang bureau chief. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com

Apart from the problem of mainteance, we should think twice about introducing gated communities for public housing on what is former public or state-owned land.

Gated communities manifest a number of tensions: between exclusionary tensions rooted in fear and protection of privilege and the values of civic responsibility; between the trend toward the privatisation of public services and the ideals of the public good and general welfare; and between the need for personal and community control of the environment and the dangers of making outsiders of fellow citizens. (Snyder and Blakely, 1999:3″

City, Society, and Planning: City
By Ashok K. Dutt, Baleshwar Thakur, University of Akron. Dept. of Geography & Planning, Association of American Geographers. Regional Development and Planning Specialty Group
Gated communities promote the idea of separation and insecurity. In an egalitarian and just world, which we must work towards, there would be little need for such segregation.
We need to identify the root causes fuelling a sense of alienation, deprivation and marginalisation (income inequality being one of them).

India sees slowdown in economic growth

The silver lining was the services sector, which grew at 8.9 per cent, compared to 7.7 per cent a year ago

Growth slows to 6.1 per cent as rising interest rates and global downturn take toll on Asia's third largest economy.
India's economic growth has slowed to 6.1 per cent in the last quarter of 2011, its slowest pace in over two years, in the wake of high interest rates and a struggling global economy.

The data released on Wednesday for the December quarter marks a slowdown from the July-September quarter, when the economy grew 6.9 per cent.

The latest data comes as more bad news for the Congress-led federal government, already marred by a string of corruption scandals and accusations of economic policy indecision.

India's benchmark stock index was down fractionally amid gains in other Asian markets.

Manufacturing managed just a 0.4 per cent rise against 7.8 per cent in the same period a year ago, while agriculture grew 2.7 per cent, down from 11 per cent in the corresponding period a year ago.

Mining fell by almost half, from 6.1 per cent to 3.1 per cent, due to lower supply of raw materials but also fuelled by lower demand as higher interest rates have put off companies from investing in expansion.

The silver lining was the services sector, which grew at 8.9 per cent, compared to 7.7 per cent a year ago.

Fiscal firepower

The central bank increased interest rates 13 times before pausing in October last year, and has urged the federal government to unblock supply constraints to help fight inflation and better balance the budget, which will be presented in March.

With growth slowing sharply and inflation at two-year lows, analysts forecast the central bank would cut rates at its next meeting on March 15.

The government now says it expects the economy to grow by about seven per cent for the year ending in March, down from earlier expectations of nine per cent.

The government, hamstrung by debt, also lacks the fiscal firepower to stimulate the economy, making it less able to weather another downturn after the financial crisis of 2008-09.

Pranab Mukherjee, the finance minister, who is to present the national budget in March, asserted this week that the "worst state" of the slowdown was over.

Even though 6.1 per cent growth would be the envy of much of the world, it is a disappointing result for India, which is aiming for double-digit expansion.

The Indian slowdown comes as growth in China, its regional economic rival, decelerated to 8.9 per cent in the same time period.

Trapped in a Legal Limbo, Indonesia's Ahmadis Look for a Home

Mataram. More than a hundred displaced followers of the Islamic Ahmadiyah sect who for years have had to live in shelters in Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara, have still not been registered to receive electronic identity cards, despite a March deadline.

In 2006, the members of the Ahmadiyah community in Gegerung village, West Lombok, were violently driven out by other residents who deemed them deviant and destroyed their homes.

Since then, West Nusa Tenggara authorities have refused to let the 183 Ahmadis return to Gegerung or relocate elsewhere, instead forcing them to remain in temporary shelters.

The head of the sect’s Mataram branch, Basyir Ahmad, said on Tuesday that they had appealed to the local administration to receive electronic identity cards, or e-KTPs, but had been turned down.

“Everywhere we turn, we are told the same thing: we are internally displaced residents of West Lombok district, not of Mataram,” he said. “The officials keep saying they are waiting for a decision from the West Lombok administration.”

Basyir said that for six years they had been forced to live in legal limbo and felt cheated by an uncaring government.

“I heard that the West Lombok district head, Zaini Arony, said he would help Ahmadis obtain e-KTPs, but only on the condition that we would not be allowed to live together,” he said.

H. Zulkarnain, head of the West Lombok Education and Civil Registry Office, told the Jakarta Globe the Ahmadis could not receive e-KTPs because they had left West Lombok and relocated to Mataram.

“They should ask the Mataram government because they are no longer registered as West Lombok residents,” he said.

The Ahmadis have been denied compensation for their old homes even as the government has barred them from returning to inhabit them.

Even so, some have tried to return and farm their land while keeping a low profile. But they have been routinely chased out by other villagers, who have branded them “a stain on this village” that “must be cleaned out.”

Electricity to the shelter they now live in was cut off three years ago. Food aid from the government — which has perpetuated their limbo by refusing them the right to return home or register as residents of Mataram — was halted last year. Sanitation facilities are nonexistent.

A stipend from the state was stopped in 2007.

Not being registered residents, they have been denied the free gas stoves distributed by the government to all citizens and they now resort to gathering scrap to burn as fuel.

Sharia Alert: BBC Director Mark Thompson Admits That Network Treats Islam with More Sensitivity Than Christianity

Say what you want about Islam, but one remarkable feature of its adherents is their ability to get us Westerners to submit to aspects of Sharia without knowing we are submitting to Sharia.

For instance, under Sharia, Islam has a special status and must not be criticized, while Muslims are free to criticize other religions.

In the West, we believe that all positions are open to criticism. You might expect, then, that Western news agencies would insist on fair and unbiased reporting.

Not so, says BBC Director-General Mark Thompson. Islam is different from Christianity, because Muslims take it so seriously, are extremely sensitive about Muhammad, are a minority, and may become violent if provoked. Hence, the BBC gives Islam special treatment over Christianity, and they justify their position with careful explanations, not realizing that the result happens to line up perfectly with Sharia.

Brilliant!

DAILY MAIL--BBC director-general Mark Thompson has claimed Christianity is treated with far less sensitivity than other religions because it is ‘pretty broad shouldered’.

He suggested other faiths have a ‘very close identity with ethnic minorities’, and were therefore covered in a far more careful way by broadcasters.

But he also revealed that producers had to consider the possibilities of ‘violent threats’ instead of polite complaints if they pushed ahead with certain types of satire.

Mr Thompson said: ‘Without question, “I complain in the strongest possible terms”, is different from, “I complain in the strongest possible terms and I am loading my AK47 as I write”. This definitely raises the stakes.’

But he added that religion as a whole should never receive the same ‘protection and sensitivity’ in the law as race.

Mr Thompson was making his comments during a wide ranging interview about faith and broadcasting, which included the furore provoked by the Corporation’s decision to screen the controversial show Jerry Springer: The Opera on BBC2 in 2005.

Hundreds of Christians rallied outside BBC buildings before and during the broadcast to protest about what they saw as blasphemous scenes such as Jesus Christ wearing a nappy.

At least 45,000 people contacted the BBC to complain about swearing and its irreverent treatment of Christian themes.

Many said that no one would have dreamed of making such a show about the Prophet Mohammed and Islam.

Mr Thompson has now appeared belatedly to accept their argument. In an interview, he said Islam was ‘almost entirely’ practised by people who already may feel in other ways ‘isolated’, ‘prejudiced against’ and who may regard an attack on their religion as ‘racism by other means’.

But he said that Christianity was ‘an established part of our cultural-built landscape’ which meant it was ‘a pretty broad- shouldered religion’.

He conceded that the broadcaster would never have aired a similar show about Mohammed because it could have had the same impact as a piece of ‘grotesque child pornography’.

In the interview posted online for the Free Speech Debate – a research project at Oxford University – Mr Thompson said: ‘The kind of constraints that most people accept around racial hatred, the fact that it may be in certain forms of expression or certain forms of depiction, may be outlawed because of the way in which they go to racial hatred and potentially the promotion and incitement of racial hatred.

‘I think religion should never receive that level of protection or sensitivity.

But I think it is wrong to imagine that it therefore goes into the general swim and that a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed is no more challenging than a debate about what two plus two equals.’

He added: ‘The point is that for a Muslim, a depiction, particularly a comic or demeaning depiction, of the Prophet Mohammed might have the emotional force of a piece of grotesque child pornography.

‘One of the mistakes secularists make is not to understand the character of what blasphemy feels like to someone who is a realist in their religious belief.’ (Read more.)

‘What about losses under Dr M?’

DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang wants a RCI probe on the financial scandals during Dr Mahathir Mohamad's time.

PETALING JAYA: A Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) should be established to get to the bottom of the financial scandals during the administration of former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, said DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang.

On Saturday, Lim asked for a full audit of all financial scandals during Mahathir’s 22-year tenure. He said that this was important because the current government does not seem to have learnt any lesson from those scandals.

This comes amid the controversial decision by the government to drop legal action against former Malaysian Airline System Bhd (MAS) chief Tajudin Ramli who owed the government RM589 million. The sum of the settlement was undisclosed.

In 2001, the government spent about RM1.8 billion to buy back MAS shares from Tajudin, at RM8 per share instead of the market value of RM3.68. Mahathir had defended this bailout, saying that it was necessary to turn around the troubled airline.

Today, Mahathir welcomed Lim’s suggestion that he be audited, but added that it should not only be limited to him.

“All Tuns must be audited. The sons and grandsons of Tuns as well,” he said.

In an immediate reaction, Lim welcomed Mahathir’s “positive response”, saying that former finance minister Daim Zainuddin should be the first one to be audited.

“I will endorse Mahathir’s further defining the scope and extent of the investigation into the RM100 billion losses caused by the financial scandals when he was prime minister.

“The other Tun I can think of is Daim, who was Mahathir’s finance minister twice and played key role in many of the financial scandals in the Mahathir era,” said Lim.

Mahathir recently said that the media was only focusing on the losses the government suffered during his administration, implying that some responsibility should be shouldered by his successor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

For example, he pointed out the RM8 billion loss incurred after the double-tracking and electrification project between Johor and Padang Besar was cancelled during Abdullah’s tenure.

Lim today said that it was up to Mahathir to say if such losses under his successor should also be audited.

Anda memilih kami atau darah anda halal bagi kami!

Hamza Kashgari adalah saudara kita. Dia bukan ayam untuk makanan dan sembelihan kalian.

Oleh Afiq M Noor

Sewaktu artikel ini ditulis, saya tidak pasti apakah nasib Hamza Kashgari. Sudah lebih dua minggu beliau dihantar pulang (dideportasi) secara tidak sah ke Arab Saudi oleh kerajaan Malaysia.

Penghantaran pulang secara tergesa-gesa dan tidak menurut lunas-lunas perundangan ini sudah pasti menimbulkan banyak tanda tanya, tambahan apabila ia melibatkan dua negara yang menjadi anggota Majlis Hak Asasi Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu.

Sungguh memalukan. Namun tidak ada yang mustahil bagi Malaysia dan Arab Saudi yang sememangnya terkenal sebagai negara yang paling tidak menghormati hak asasi manusia.

Mereka senang sekali memberi alasan kononnya untuk menjaga hubungan diplomatik antara negara dan isu agama maka Hamza Kashgari harus dikorbankan.

Lewat isu penghantaran pulang Hamza Kashgari, ramai rakan-rakan Muslim saya (samada di dalam status Facebook dan Twitter) mengucapkan tahniah dan menyokong tindakan Malaysia mendeportasi beliau.

Sudah bertaubat

Kononnya kerana beliau telah melakukan satu jenayah yang maha besar, iaitu menghina Rasulullah S.A.W. Hamza Kashgari juga dituduh dan difatwakan sebagai murtad dan hanya hukuman bunuh yang layak untuk beliau meskipun beliau telah bertaubat dan memadamkan tweet tersebut.

Hamza Kashgari bukanlah orang pertama yang dituduh sebagai murtad. Dr Nasr Hamid Abu Zaid, seorang Profesor Bahasa Arab dari Universiti Kaherah juga pernah dituduh sebagai murtad kerana pandangan dan kecenderungan beliau terhadap falsafah hermeneutika dalam memahami Al Quran.

Beliau hidup dalam buangan, dipaksa untuk berpisah dengan isterinya kerana para Islamis menganggap beliau sesat, murtad dan perlu dihukum mati kerana kononnya telah mempersendakan Al Quran.

Tokoh-tokoh ilmuan Islam lain yang dituduh murtad termasuk Abu Hayyan Al Tauhidi, Muhammad Bin Abdulkarim Bin Ahmad, pengarang kitab tafsir Nuzhum Al Dhurur Fi Tanasub Al Ayat Wa Suwar, Ibrahim Bin Umar Bin Hasan Rabath, Shadaqah Bin Al Husin dan Lisanuddin Bin Khattib.

Sekadar menyebut beberapa nama yang masyhur dari kalangan ilmuan Islam yang turut dituduh sebagai murtad bahkan ada di antara mereka yang mati dibunuh. Ternyata virus memurtadkan dan menghalalkan darah sesama Muslim bukanlah sesuatu yang aneh dan jarang-jarang berlaku. Tidak keterlaluan untuk saya sifatkan ia sebagai trend para ulama dan Muslim yang ekstrim apabila berhadapan dengan pemikiran yang asing dan janggal bagi mereka.

Ternyata kita senang sekali menggambarkan wajah Islam sebagai agama yang bengis, tidak toleran dan tidak berperikemanusiaan.

Seolah-olah pilihan kita hanya dua; anda memilih kami; atau darah anda halal bagi kami. Dan inilah yang terjadi kepada Hamza Kashgari.

Siapa kita untuk menghukum Hamza?

Sepanjang pengetahuan saya, tidak ada satu pertuduhan rasmi atau keputusan dari mana-mana mahkamah di Arab Saudi yang menghukum Hamza Kashgari bersalah kerana menghina Rasulullah S.A.W. dan telah terkeluar dari agama Islam (murtad). Lalu atas
sangkaan jahat apa kita berani menjatuhkan hukum dan memfatwakan beliau sebagai murtad?

Prinsip umum ‘common law’ bahawa seseorang itu bebas dari kesalahan sehingga dibuktikan sebaliknya ternyata tidak lari dari kaedah

Fiqh : Al Asl Baraah Al Zimmah yang bermaksud, asal seseorang itu adalah tidak bersalah sehingga dibuktikan sebaliknya.

Sekiranya diaplikasikan di dalam kes Hamza Kashgari – beliau tidak bersalah atas apa-apa pertuduhan melainkan dibuktikan sebaliknya oleh mahkamah.

Justeru, saya hairan dengan sikap ekstrim ulama-ulama di Arab Saudi dan Malaysia yang dengan senang hati dan terburu-buru menghukum murtad anak muda yang berusia 23 tahun ini tanpa bukti.

Saya juga yakin mereka tidak pernah berjumpa dengan Hamza Kashgari atau menelefon beliau bagi mendapatkan kepastian dan mendengar sendiri penjelasan beliau. Mujur Allah S.W.T. tidak ‘outsource’ kuasa kepada mereka untuk menentukan nasib kita di akhirat.

Phew!

Kebebasan untuk berpendapat

Saya sentiasa percaya kepada kebebasan untuk berpendapat, termasuk di dalam isu-isu agama sebagaimana yang telah dijamin oleh Al Quran. Kita boleh mempunyai pandangan yang berbeza dalam sesuatu isu, tapi hidup dalam suasana harmoni dan hormat menghormati.

Setiap pendapat yang kita percaya perlulah mempunyai basis atau asas yang benar.

Seringkali kita mendengar rakan-rakan kita yang menyokong hukuman bunuh kerana murtad menyandarkan pendapat mereka kepada hadith: ‘Sesiapa yang menukar agamanya hendaklah dibunuh’. Dan mereka berpendapat bahawa ayat 256 Surah Al Baqarah: “Tidak ada paksaan dalam beragama” merupakan ayat umum yang ditujukan kepada orang bukan Islam dan tidak terpakai kepada seorang Muslim.

Ada juga di kalangan para ulama yang berpendapat ayat tersebut telah dimansukhkan atau dihapuskan (Rujuk; Majmo’ Fatawa Wa Maqalat, Bin Baaz 6/219). Memandangkan ruang yang terhad, saya tidak berniat untuk memanjangkan perbincangan tentang pendapat yang menyokong hukuman bunuh ini.

Secara peribadi saya lebih cenderung kepada pendapat yang mengatakan tidak ada hukuman hadd bagi mereka yang murtad atau menukar agamanya. Rasulullah S.A.W. semasa hayat baginda, tidak pernah membunuh orang yang menukar agamanya. Sekiranya benar

Rasulullah S.A.W. diperintahkan untuk membunuh orang yang murtad dan itu merupakan satu perintah daripada Allah S.W.T. sudah pasti baginda akan menerapkan hukuman itu berkali-kali.

Di dalam Al Quran, terdapat lebih dari 200 ayat yang memberikan manusia kebebasan untuk memilih dan berpendapat. Maka adalah mustahil, Islam menghukum manusia dengan keras apabila mereka melaksanakan hak mereka untuk memilih dan berpendapat sebagaimana yang telah dijamin di dalam Al Quran.

Apabila membaca komen rakan-rakan di forum-forum internet ternyata ramai dari kalangan mereka (terutamanya yang menggelar diri “Islamis”) menyokong tindakan para ulama Saudi menghalalkan darah Hamza Kashgari walaupun beliau telah meminta maaf dan menarik semula tweet tersebut.

Mereka berpendapat bahawa sesiapa yang menghina Allah S.W.T. dan Rasulullah S.A.W. wajib dihukum bunuh walaupun telah bertaubat.

Pendapat mereka ini disokong oleh Ibnu Taymiyah di dalam kitabnya Al Sorimul Maslul ‘Ala Syatimul Rasul dan Ibnu Hizmin di dalam A
Muhalla Bi Al Atsar.

Dr. Taha Jabir Al Alwani mempunyai pandangan yang menarik dalam masalah ini. Sewaktu mengupas persoalan hukuman bunuh kepada orang Munafiq, Dr Taha menyinggung kekeliruan dan pendapat aneh Ibnu Hizmin Al Andalus.

Orang munafik tidak dibunuh di zaman Nabi

Menurut beliau Rasulullah S.A.W. tidak pernah membunuh orang-orang Munafiq pada zaman baginda walaupun baginda mengetahui bahawa mereka mempunyai perancangan jahat terhadap baginda.

Juga jelas dalam sejarah ketika mana orang-orang yang datang berjumpa Rasulullah S.A.W. mengaku bahawa mereka telah keluar dari agama Islam tidak diperintahkan hukuman bunuh ke atas mereka.

Lihat sahaja Abdullah Bin Ubay Bin Salul. Beliau terkenal dalam sejarah kerana telah membuat tohmah dan menuduh Aishah dengan tuduhan dusta sehingga Allah S.W.T. menurunkan ayat untuk membersihkan Aishah dari tuduhan jahat tersebut.

Di dalam Sahih Al Bukhari, diriwayatkan bahawa Abdullah Bin Ubay mengatakan: ‘Sekiranya kita kembali ke Madinah (dari medan perang), sudah tentu orang-orang yang mulia lagi kuat akan mengusir orang-orang yang hina dan lemah’.

Allah S.W.T. merakamkan perkataan Abdullah Bin Ubay ini di dalam Surah Al Munafiqun ayat 8. Dia bukan sahaja menghina Rasululla
S.A.W. bahkan bercita-cita menghalau Rasulullah S.A.W. dari Madinah.

Sewaktu mendengar perkataan Abdullah Bin Ubai tersebut, Umar Al Khattab menghampiri Rasulullah dan berkata: ‘Benarkan aku membunuh orang Munafiq ini’. Rasulullah S.A.W. menjawab: ‘Biarkanlah dia, agar orang-orang tidak mengatakan Muhammad S.A.W. membunuh sahabatnya..’

Sepertimana yang kita sedia maklum, Rasulullah S.A.W. adalah manusia yang paling taat kepada Allah. Sekiranya terdapat hukuman bunuh terhadap orang yang murtad dan munafiq, maka sudah pasti Rasulullah S.A.W. mengarahkan para sahabat membunuh Abdullah Bin Ubai Bin Salul.

Saya tertanya-tanya, apakah para pembenci Hamza Kashgari merasakan bahawa beliau lebih teruk dari Abdullah Bin Ubai Bin Salul yang Allah S.W.T. telah rakamkan kisahnya di dalam Al Quran? Ataupun sebenarnya mereka merasakan diri mereka lebih baik dari Rasulullah S.A.W.?

Memalukan Islam

Apa yang pasti tindakan mengeluarkan fatwa yang menghalalkan darah Hamza Kashgari merupakan satu lagi perkara yang memalukan dan memberikan imej yang negatif terhadap Islam.

Tidak cukup dengan pendapat-pendapat pelik seperti wanita diharamkan memandu, umat Islam perlu menjauhi media sosial seperti twitter, mentaati pemerintah yang zalim dan haram memeranginya, ternyata umat ini senang sekali dikhayalkan dengan candu agama.

Mereka menerima tanpa caveat apa sahaja yang keluar dari mulut ulama mereka seolah-olah ianya firman dari Tuhan.

Hamza Kashgari adalah saudara kita. Dia bukan ayam untuk makanan dan sembelihan kalian.

* Penulis ialah seorang peguam dari Lawyers For Liberty

MAS losses soar to RM2.5b

By Lee Wei Lian - The Malaysian Insider


PETALING JAYA, Feb 29 — Malaysia Airlines recorded a stunning net loss of RM2.52 billion for 2011 and the company is now in “crisis”, the national flag carrier said today.

The carrier also confirmed that the losses for the 2011 financial year were the largest in its history.

The airline reported a massive net loss of RM1.28 billion in the fourth quarter, which was about as much as the first three quarters combined.

“The company is in crisis,” said Malaysia Airlines (MAS) CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya in a statement.

Ahmad said that the losses were due to higher expenses including a 25 per cent increase in fuel expenses and a 50 per cent increase in non-fuel expenses.

The company’s cash reserves more than halved to RM1 billion at the end of last year from RM2.1 billion at the end of 2010 and net assets plunged from RM3.5 billion to RM1.1 billion.

Jauhari said that the company would now focus on executing the business turnaround plan that was announced in December.

The business turnaround plan projects the airline to improve its performance in 2012 to somewhere between breakeven and a net loss of RM165 million.

The current high cost of oil, however, could throw a spanner in the works as the turnaround plan had assumed fuel costs of US$130 per barrel and MAS said that prices for fuel had already hit US$138.

The airline said that fuels costs had increased by 25 per cent last year to RM305 million.

Other major expenditure that MAS said contributed to the loss included provisions for the redelivery of aircraft (RM602 million), impairment of freighters (RM314 million) and stock obsolescence (RM179 million).

Revenue, meanwhile, was up marginally from RM13.5 billion in 2010 to RM13.9 billion in 2011.

MAS reported a net profit of RM234 million in 2010.

It noted today that it paid US$95 per barrel of oil (ex-hedging) in 2010 as compared with US$133 per barrel in 2011.

“Obviously, this was a large loss,” said Ahmad referring to the 2011 results.

He said that the outlook for 2012 was challenging with passenger and cargo segments expected to remain weak.

Ahmad said that immediate action plans include strengthening the airline’s balance sheet, winning back customers by introducing branded customer experiences and more aggressive marketing, relentless cost focus and launching its new regional airline by the middle of the year.

MAS has had a turbulent past decade after the government bought back the airline from former corporate high-flyer Tan Sri Tajudin Ramli at RM8 per share or about double the market price at the time.

The airline was at the time saddled with a debt that was reported to be as high as RM9.5 billion.

It then had its books cleaned up in 2002 under the wide asset unbundling (WAU) exercise that was engineered by the BinaFikir consultancy, then led by Khazanah managing director Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar.

The state-owned airline had two rights issues since the WAU, raking in RM1.6 billion in 2007 and RM2.67 billion in 2010 to fund its operations and fleet purchases.

It was also lacklustre financially, shocking the market with huge losses last year even while rivals such as Singapore Airlines reported profits, albeit reduced.

The national carrier also suffered the indignity of having its market capitalisation surpassed by younger upstart AirAsia after its share price fell to record lows.

Under the share swap unveiled on August 9, AirAsia’s main shareholder Tune Air Sdn Bhd swapped a 10 per cent stake in the budget carrier for a 20.5 per cent share of MAS in a move that appeared to be aimed at helping turnaround the national carrier.

Fatwa larang anak luar nikah dibinkan bapa tak perlu dikaji

Utusan Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR 28 Feb. - Mufti Perak, Tan Sri Harussani Zakaria menegaskan fatwa yang melarang anak yang lahir kurang enam bulan selepas perkahwinan dinasabkan (dibinkan) kepada bapanya, tidak perlu dikaji semula.

Jelas beliau, fatwa tersebut telah ditentukan oleh ulama-ulama terdahulu setelah menimbangkan keadaan dan hukumannya.

"Walaupun telah berkahwin empat bulan dan lelaki itu mengaku bahawa itu anaknya, ia tetap tidak boleh dinasabkan kerana hubungan itu berlaku sebelum nikah yang sah dan bayi itu tetap hasil daripada zina.

"Kalau tetap dinasabkan akan mengundang banyak masalah kepada keturunan, pusaka dan kewalian, kita tidak boleh hanya fikirkan kepentingan. Kita kena fikirkan perkara yang sebenar," katanya pada sidang akhbar di sini, hari ini.

Baru-baru ini, Mufti Perlis, Dr. Juanda Jaya menyarankan Majlis Fatwa Kebangsaan mengkaji semula fatwa melarang anak yang lahir kurang enam bulan selepas perkahwinan dinasabkan (dibinkan) kepada bapanya.

Jelas Juanda, kajian semula itu perlu dilakukan kerana keputusan tersebut hanya disandarkan kepada dalil bersifat tafsiran (mafhum) dan bukannya ditetapkan (mantuq).

Pada 1971, persidangan Jawatankuasa Fatwa Majlis Fatwa Kebangsaan memutuskan bahawa perempuan yang sedang mengandung anak luar nikah harus dinikahkan, tetapi anaknya tidak boleh dinasabkan kepada lelaki itu, tidak dapat pusaka daripadanya, tidak menjadi mahram kepadanya dan lelaki itu tidak boleh menjadi walinya.

Jelas Harussani, tiada satu syariah yang turun itu menyusahkan umat kerana Allah mengangkat manusia untuk menjadi contoh kepada seluruh makhluk daripada malaikat, jin dan haiwan.

Kata beliau lagi, masalah anak luar nikah sememangnya membimbangkan kerana statistik pada tahun 2008 menunjukkan terdapat 17,000 golongan itu di negara ini.

Government Releases Dr Mahathir's Letters To Israeli PMs

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 29 (Bernama)-- The Government today made public three letters sent by former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to prime ministers of Israel which clearly show Malaysia's firm stand against Israel's illegal actions and atrocities against the Palestinians.

Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman said the three letters were being made public in order to dispel allegations made by certain parties that the Malaysian Government has not been consistent on its stance with regard to Palestine and the struggle of the Palestinian people.

In a statement here Wednesday, he said the three letters were;

a) Letter from Dr Mahathir Mohamad to Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli Prime Minister dated 21 December 1993.

b) Letter from Dr Mahathir Mohamad to Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister dated 14 March 1997.

c) Letter from Dr Mahathir Mohamad to Ehud Barak, Israeli Prime Minister dated 8 June 1999.

During Prime Minister Najib Razak s visit to Melaka state on Feb 24, 2012 and Sekinchan, Selangor state on Feb 26, 2012, the Prime Minister had stated that the Government of Malaysia was ready to publish several letters from Dr Mahathir Mohamad to prime ministers of Israel.

"I wish to state that as a matter of policy, Malaysia has consistently over the years publicly supported the struggle of the Palestinian people for a just and lasting comprehensive solution to the Palestine-Israel conflict and for the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state.

"The contents of these letters reflect Malaysia s strong and principled stance against Israel s illegal actions and atrocities that had undermined the peace process by urging Israel to fulfil its obligations by implementing and respecting all agreements signed between the Palestine and Israel," said Anifah.

He said this included the Oslo Accords signed by the late Yasser Arafat on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Shimon Peres of Israel on Sept 13, 1993 on the Principles and Mutual Recognition between Israel and the PLO.

Anifah said as the prime minister then, Dr Mahathir had never expressed support for Israel, including its security in any of these letters, nor did they reflect implicitly or explicitly that Malaysia had diplomatic relations with Israel.

"Malaysia s readiness to consider establishing relations with Israel is also contingent upon Israel s implementation of all the requirements as stated in the relevant United Nations Security Council Resolutions, including Palestine s submission to become a full member of the UN on the basis of the 4 June 1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif (East Jerusalem) as its capital. This has been the Malaysian Government s position all these years," he said.

Anifah said the letters also reflected the role of former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, and Malaysia, as a responsible and respected leader of the international community in trying to facilitate in finding a just and lasting solution to the conflict and to restore the dignity of the long suffering Palestinian people.

Teluk Gadong Kecil MIC Branch Chairman, M.karunanithi Sacked

SHAH ALAM, Feb 29 (Bernama) -- The MIC Wednesday expelled the MIC branch chairman for Teluk Gadong Kecil, Klang division, M.Karunanithi for violating party regulations and jeopardising the image of the MIC.

The MIC headquarters said in a brief statement that the letter of expulsion dated today (Feb 29) had been sent to Karunanithi and he had been given 14 days to appeal to the party's Central Working Committee.