‘Kepuasan seks perlu dinikmati bersama’

SIS bidas OWC kerana menundukkan kaum Hawa

PETALING JAYA: Sisters in Islam (SIS) menolak cadangan berkenaan Kelab Isteri Taat (OWC) yang mahukan isteri melayan suami seperti pelacur kelas pertama.

“Apakah mesej yang cuba diutarakan kepada golongan lelaki? Kepuasan seks seharusnya dinikmati bersama-sama.

“Ia bukan tanggungjawab wanita semata-mata,” kata Rozana Isa, wakil SIS  ketika diwawancara oleh  Daphne Iking dalam rancangan Bella, terbitan saluran televisyen ntv7 pagi tadi.

OWC mula diperkenalkan di Malaysia pada 4 Jun lalu dengan keahlian seramai 800 orang.

Ia diketuai oleh isteri arwah Ashaari  Muhammad pengasas kumpulan Al Arqam, Khatijah Aam selaku presiden serta menantunya, Dr Rohaya Mohamed yang juga naib presiden kelab tersebut.

Kelab pertama dilancarkan adalah di Jordan pada 1 Mei lalu diikuti Malaysia dan Jakarta, Indonesia pada 18 Jun ini.

Rozana turut menengahkan pandangan bahawa para ibu yang berhadapan dengan perceraian menghadapi masalah.

“Selalunya ia adalah isu pemberian nafkah isteri dan anak. Lelaki sepatutnya memainkan peranan sebagai suami dan bapa,” tambah Rozana.

Komunikasi dan kepercayaan

Wakil SIS tersebut turut menyatakan bahawa petua kepada hubungan yang baik antara suami dan isteri bergantung dua faktor:- komunikasi dan kepercayaan.

“Kedua-dua mereka perlu berkongsi baik buruk kehidupan.”

Isu lelaki yang beralih dari isteri kepada wanita lain turut diketengahkan oleh Daphne.

Dalam jawapannya, Rozana menyalahkan kaum Adam. “Lelaki memilih untuk beralih. Sepatutnya lelaki yang dipersalahkan bukannya perempuan.

Idea OWC turut ditolak oleh Ain Hussin, tetamu rancangan itu yang pernah menjadi mangsa penderaan rumah tangga.

“Isu ini langsung tidak berkaitan dengan ketaatan. Ia adalah berkaitan dengan komunikasi,” kata Ain.
Wakil OWC dalam rancangan 30 minit itu ialah  Zaiton Satimon dari Damansara. Kuala Lumpur.

Ain yang telah pun berkahwin buat kali kedua menyatakan bahawa wanita memerlukan kesamarataan dalam hubungan mereka.

(File pix from internet)

Indians and education: A way forward

By Santhosh Gunaseelan,

The issue of Tamil schools often dominates Malaysian Indian political discussion. Both major coalitions have made promises to improve to standard of Tamil schools and both have been criticised for not doing enough for Tamil schools.

However, I believe the poor standard of Tamil schools in Malaysia is not the source of socio-economic backwardness in the Indian community but rather a symptom of a much larger problem.

There is widespread educational dysfunction among young Malaysian Indians in both Tamil schools and national schools and I believe this is why the majority of Indians continue to live in the shackles of generational poverty and all the ill effects it brings.

There are 523 Tamil schools in the country with a total enrolment of over 100,000. It is an open secret that Tamil school pupils perform much poorly than their national school and Chinese school counterparts.

There are some who believe the standard of Tamil schools can be remedied through increasing funding and improving school facilities.

However, I would like to question the very relevance of the Tamil school system in 21st century Malaysia.

Apart from having a standard that is lower than other schools, Tamil schools limit opportunities for Indian students from Tamil-speaking households to be highly proficient in English or BM.

I believe if a child is raised in a household that only speaks Tamil, it is in the best interest of the child to attend a school where the medium of instruction is BM or English, so that they can effectively master all three languages or at least two of them.

Tamil school alumni struggle in secondary schools partly because of their poor grasp of BM. It is no surprise that 80 percent of Tamil school pupils do not pursue post-secondary education.

Tamil schools cannot be seen as equivalent to Chinese schools. Pupils from Chinese primary schools also generally have trouble with proficiency in BM.

However, most Chinese primary schools pupils who proceed to national secondary schools do well because Chinese primary schools have a rigorous science and mathematics curricula that is highest in standard among all types of schools.

The Chinese students who do struggle in national secondary schools due to low proficiency in BM and English, still manage to be financially successful due to the far-reaching influence of Mandarin in the business world.

In contrast, an Indian in Malaysia with limited knowledge of BM and English will find his or her economic opportunities severely restricted. That is the sad reality faced by hundreds of thousands of Indian youths today.

So does this mean Indian children will be guaranteed of a better future if they enrol in national primary schools? The answer is no. Let me share my own experience of being an Indian kid in a national primary school. I was raised in an English-speaking middle class family.

My parents took my education very seriously and sent me to tuition. 

I was able to do very well in school. Unfortunately, many working-class Indian pupils in my national school struggled with their studies.

They did not have access to the sophisticated education material I had, they did not speak English at home and they did not have the kind of parental support I had.

They could not master BM to a satisfactory level despite being in a national primary school because they did not speak the language at home, they had no connection to the Malay mass media and they could not afford private tuition.

However, their BM was generally better than that of Tamil school pupils.

Many of these underperforming Indian pupils were relegated to the so-called ''last class'' as early as Standard Two and they did not improve over the years as the expectations placed on them were low. Some of them followed me to the same secondary school.

They were still reading and writing at Standard Three level despite being in Form Five. They were functionally illiterate and could not even read the textbooks properly. 

However the proportion of Indian students in this predicament was much lower among national primary school leavers than Tamil school leavers.

Many of these ''last class'' boys were involved with disciplinary problems and had gang connections. They were perfect candidates for recruitment into gangs. 

The gangs provided them with a sense of power and control in a world in which they felt powerless and out of control.

As the country progressed, young working-class Indians felt like they were living under a glass ceiling. They could see wealth and success all around them but could not be part of it.

It is easy to judge these people by saying they had the tools to succeed but did not use it. But I feel they did not really have the right tools in the first place.

While I do not condone their bad choices, I believe they were enrolled in a 'one size fits all' education system that simply could not address their unique needs and weaknesses. 

They were left behind.

Older generations of Indians managed to leave the misery of estate poverty for greener pastures because English-medium education opened doors for them.

They may have had parents who never spoke English but because of the far-reaching influence of the English media (books, magazines etc.), they managed to pick up the language very well. 

It opened opportunities for them in higher education and employment.

With the current education system, the working-class Indian's chances of social mobility have become somewhat foggy.

They have become trapped in a system that does not address the unique challenges they face and they are distracted by a destructive gang culture that evolved out of the insecurity of urban poverty.

Therefore, I believe asking or begging for more funding and land for Tamil schools would not necessarily give Indians a brighter future. 

The politics of Tamil schools is a mere distraction from the larger problem which is the prevalence of functional illiteracy and learning difficulties among working-class Indians.

Children from poor Indian families and all other disadvantaged groups in Malaysia need access to special programmes to enable them to read and write in English and BM at a level appropriate for their age.

We have an education system that favours the strong and ignores the needs of the weak. I would propose the following solutions:

• A programme based on the ''Teach for America'' model where university graduates from various fields spend two years as temporary teachers in an underperforming school. The graduates could receive training while they are still in university through a ''Teach for Malaysia'' club.

• The government should fund an after-school programme that would help students of all races who are left behind in the education system through creative learning methods.

• More Indian men should join the teaching force to serve as role models to Indian boys who are at the highest risk of being involved in crime of all demographic groups in the country.

• More Indian men should be encouraged to join the police force to counter the influence of criminal gangs in the Indian community.

• Empower ignorant Indian families by educating them on how they can help their children perform well in school and stay clear of criminal activities.

The Indian NGOs need to stop raising up the begging bowl to the government and should instead work to translate their activism into concrete social justice programmes that would improve the socio-economic status of the Indian community.

They should leave the politics to the political parties and focus their efforts into helping Indian students who are left behind in the education system who lack much-needed counsel and guidance.

At the same time, all Malaysians need to empathise with the bleakness faced by Indian youths rather than dismissing it as an ''Indian problem''.

Eli Wiesel said ''the opposite of hate is not love but indifference''. A crime-ridden and marginalised Indian community that is left alone to disintegrate will only be a burden for the entire country.

At least 15 killed in Syrian protests

(CNN) -- At least 15 people were killed Friday across Syria in widespread anti-government demonstrations, according to reports.

Six people were killed in Latakia, five in Idlib and Maaret al-Nouman, two in the Damascus suburb of Qaboun, and two in Basra al-Harir in Daraa province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

In the northern town of Maaret al-Nouman, Syrian security forces and helicopters sprayed automatic weapons fire into a crowd of thousands of protesters demonstrating Friday after prayers, killing at least four men, an activist said.

Another group reported a nationwide death toll of 22.

The Syrian military launched an operation to retake the rebellious border town of Jisr Al-Shugur, located near Turkey, but it was not known how many casualties may have occurred there.

Anti-government marchers have staged nationwide protests on Fridays after Muslim prayers for weeks and have given each one of those days a theme.

Friday's expression of discontent was dubbed "the Friday of the kinship," implying that all Syrians are members of one family. A Facebook page promoting the activism reported demonstrations in Damascus, Qamishli, Tabqa, Deir Ezzor, Abu Kamal, Al-Mayadin, Basira, Qurie, Ras El-Ein and other cities.

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova on Friday described as "alarming" the reports she was receiving from Syria.

"The rights of citizens must be respected, as must the rights and security of journalists. This includes the right to freedom of expression, the need to access information and the ability to communicate. The decision to shut down Internet access and cell phone networks, to block broadcasters and prevent journalists from doing their job is not acceptable."

Citing a promised amnesty and a call for national dialogue by Syrian government officials, Bokova urged "authorities to immediately restore Internet and cell phone services for citizens, to lift restrictions on the media and to prevent acts of aggression against journalists, so that they can report freely on events as is their duty."

A spokesman with the Local Coordination Committees in Syria said there were two demonstrations after noon prayers in Daraa, where 1,000 people gathered in the Al Kousour neighborhood and 3,000 in Tarik Al Sad. Daraa is where anti-government protests began nearly three months ago.

Crowds were chanting for the fall of the regime and in support of the people of Jisr Al-Shugur and Hama, where there have been military assaults on protesters. Security forces fired into the air to disperse the protesters, and casualties were reported.

The activist also received reports of two dead in the village of Basra al-Harir, more than 20 miles northeast of Daraa when the security forces randomly opened fire at protesters.

The LCC cited a death toll of 22 protesters countrywide.

Syrian state TV reported an assault on security forces in Qaboun resulting in injuries. It said gatherings in the cities of Ras El-Ein and Amouda were dispersing.

State TV said "armed gangs" in Maaret al-Nouman and Idlib were shooting at security force headquarters and were trying "to repeat the same scenario of Jisr Al-Shugur by setting various public and security forces and police institutions on fire."

The activist, who has provided CNN with reliable information in the past, said the crowd numbered in the tens of thousands when security forces on the streets and an attack helicopter aloft opened fire.

Some demonstrators used their personal weapons, including hunting rifles and AK-47s, to detain a number of members of the security forces when they ran out of ammunition, said the activist, who did not want to be named due to the sensitivity of the situation. He did not say that demonstrators exchanged fire with the security forces.

CNN cannot independently confirm the activist's report.

As for nearby Jisr Al-Shugur, Syrian refugees and opposition activists who fled the town fearing a government attack said they heard tanks firing cannons as they advanced through villages approaching the town.

A spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was "deeply concerned" about the continuing violence in Jisr Al-Shugur.

"The Syrian authorities have an obligation to protect their people and respect their rights," the spokesperson said in a statement. "The use of military force against civilians is unacceptable."
President Bashar al-Assad was not taking Ban's calls, his spokesman said.

In Washington, the White House press secretary said the United States condemns the Syrian government's "outrageous use of violence across Syria today and particularly in the northwestern region."

He accused Damascus of leading the country "on a dangerous path" and added, "We stand by the Syrian people who have shown their courage in demanding dignity and the transition to democracy that they deserve."

The military advance spread panic throughout the civilian population. Residents said they had evacuated women and children from Jisr Al-Shugur in recent days. More than 3,800 Syrian refugees have fled to Turkey and humanitarian workers feared many more were en route.

The Syrian government announced it would punish Jisr Al-Shugur after it said "armed groups" massacred at least 120 security forces there several days ago.

Refugees have disputed that claim. They say some of the soldiers rebelled after being ordered to fire on unarmed protesters and instead started fighting among themselves.

Suami merungut isteri gagal beri layanan seks

Pasangan suami isteri yang mengikuti program ini adalah di kalangan umur 40 dan 50 an.

RAWANG: Para suami sering merungut kerana isteri gagal memberi layanan seks dengan baik, kata Setiausaha Kelab Isteri Taat Maznah Taufik.

Melalui program yang dijalankan syarikat Global Ikhwan Sdn Bhd, beliau mendapati para isteri gagal memberi reaksi kepada suami.

Pasangan suami isteri yang mengikuti program yang dijalankan adalah kalangan umur 40-50 an.
“Sejak kahwin si suami kata isteri tiada reaksi, jika mengandung dan punya anak itu secara tidak sengaja.

Itu sebab lelaki bila tidak dapat kepuasan mereka cari perempuan atau pelacur di luar kerana mahu lepaskan keperluan mereka. Sebab itu kita akan dengar atuk yang rogol cucu, tapi kita tidak pernah dengar perempuan rogol lelaki,” ujar beliau kepada FMT..

Maka pendekatan yang dibawa kelab itu adalah sebagai jalan keluar kepada permasalahan sosial serta keruntuhan rumah tangga yang kerap kali kedengaran di dada akhbar mahupun televisyen.

Penubuhan Kelab Isteri Taat menimbulkan pelbagai kecaman termasuk NGO Islam dan pemimpin politik.
Bujang dan bukan Islam boleh turut serta

Menurut Maznah, kelab itu itu juga membuka keahlian bukan sahaja kepada pasangan suami isteri namun kepada wanita/lelaki bujang serta orang bukan Islam.

Pendaftaran adalah secara automatik dan hanya perlu mendaftarkan diri dengan menyertai program yang dijalankan oleh syarikat terbabit.

“Setakat ini ahli merupakan staf-staf syarikat Global Ikhwan. Kami akan buat sesi kaunseling dan keutamaan kepada pasangan berkahwin yang bujang dan bukan Islam turut dialu-alukan menyertai Kelab ini. Wanita/lelaki bujang boleh dapatkan pengetahuan bagi yang bukan Islam mereka akan diajar mengenai keyakinan mereka terhadap Tuhan masing-masing,” jelas Maznah.

Maznah berkata khidmat nasihat itu akan dikendalikan oleh kakitangan syarikat yang berpengalaman dan mempunyai ilmu pengetahuan Islam.

Ex-cop claims AG concealed billion-ringgit scandals

Gani was cleared by the MACC of having consorted with an alleged proxy of Tajuddin Ramli.—file pic

KUALA LUMPUR, June 10 — A senior ex-cop has accused Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail of burying evidence of corruption by senior government leaders between 1994 and 1996, involving losses of at least RM12 billion in public funds.
 
Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim said Abdul Gani, then a senior public prosecutor heading the prosecution division in 1994, was involved in covering up the roles of “ministers and chief ministers” in scandals such as the RM8 billion and RM4 billion losses incurred by Malaysia Airlines (MAS) and Perwaja Steel respectively.
“Between 1994 and 1996, Gani Patail was busy playing his role in closing cases or burying information that linked ministers or chief ministers who could be proven to have abused power or were corrupt. This includes the Perwaja case and also the one related to Tan Sri Tajuddin Ramli,” the former Kuala Lumpur criminal investigation chief said in an open letter to the prime minister today.

Mat Zain was referring to MAS’s claim that Tajuddin was responsible for RM8 billion in losses during his tenure as executive chairman of the national carrier from 1994 to 2001.

In the letter, he added that Tajuddin, who he refers to as TRI, used a similar modus operandi of “signing long-term and lopsided contracts” similarly used by Perwaja Steel as well as Tenaga Nasional Berhad in its power deals with independent power producers (IPP) that is said to cost taxpayers RM20 billion a year.
“There are similarities in the MO used by all three companies. A common factor may be found and we cannot ignore the possibility that the persons involved in all the agreements are the same,” said Mat Zain, who headed the 1998 police probe into former deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s black-eye case.

He added that the 1994-6 period seemed rife with scandals, including holidays taken by former Chief Justice Tan Sri Eusuff Chin and former Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohtar Abdullah with lawyer Datuk VK Lingam, who was implicated in fixing judicial appointments.

Mat Zain had sent the letter to Datuk Seri Najib Razak today to state that the Malaysian Anti-Courruption Commission (MACC) operations evaluation panel had no power to clear Abdul Gani from allegations of graft related Tajuddin’s tenure as MAS executive chairman.

He said the MACC corruption prevention advisory panel had concurred that the MACC Act did not allow the evaluation panel to review decisions made by the anti-graft body.

The country’s top lawyer had met the MACC board and panel members for a dialogue in January and was cleared of “consorting with Shahidan Shafie, who is alleged to be a proxy for Tajuddin”.

Mat Zain has repeatedly accused Abdul Gani of having deceived the federal government and recently called for a Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate the Attorney-General’s role in destroying public confidence in the police.

Double-edged anti-corruption pledge

The pledge may embarrass Sime Darby if it fails to explain itself in a (corruption) inquiry, says former MACC Corruption Prevention Panel chairman Ramon Navaratnam.

PETALING JAYA: Sime Darby stands to lose more than it can gain through its corporate integrity pledge with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

Former MACC Corruption Prevention Panel chairman Ramon Navaratnam said that the pledge would force Sime Darby to observe good governance practices.

“The advantage (of the pledge) is that Sime Darby cannot say that they didn’t know about the rules and regulations or standard operating procedures (in business practice), and they’ll have to meet standards.”

“In fact, a pledge may embarrass Sime Darby even more. If it fails to explain itself in a (corruption) inquiry, the pledge can work against them,” Navaratnam told FMT.

He added that if Sime Darby took the pledge seriously, it would have to appoint internal anti-corruption agents of its own.

These agents, he said, would have to work with the MACC and be impartial to no one within their company.

In an effort to strengthen anti-corruption awareness, Sime Darby signed the pledge with the MACC yesterday.

Both parties defended the move as a strike against corruption, and rubbished claims that it was a public relations exercise.

At the time, Sime Darby chief executive officer Bakke Salleh said that the pledge would send a strong message to both employees and the company’s business partners.

Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) president Paul Low said that corporate integrity pledges would put companies’ reputations at stake.


“Foreign investors want to ensure that the companies they are investing in have put in measures of compliance,” he said.

If these measures were broken, Low added, pledged companies would have to pay the price, resulting in a loss of business and investor confidence.

The TI-M president also said that these pledges were actually practised in different parts of the world.
He cited the US Justice Department as one example, adding that it would ask companies to sign good behaviour compliance programmes.

“These companies would have to allocate money to promote good governance (in their workplaces,” he said.

Even so, a recent survey conducted by audit firm KPMG showed that many companies even in the US and the United Kingdom were burdened by anti-corruption shortcomings.

The survey found that two in five US and UK organisations with written anti-bribery and corruption policies did not distribute them to their agents, distributors, vendors, brokers, joint-venture partners or suppliers.

Ignore mischievous Mahathir, Karpal tells PAS

DAP chairman urges Pakatan ally not to be distracted by ex-premier's attacks on it for its recent decision to strive for a welfare state.

PETALING JAYA: DAP chairman Karpal Singh dismissed former prime minister Dr Mahathir
Mohamad as being “mischievous” for saying that the former was the winner of the recent PAS elections as the party has discarded its Islamic state agenda.

The veteran lawyer urged his PAS allies not to be influenced by Mahathir’s view, saying: “PAS should not be distracted from its plans to strive for a welfare state despite attacks from Mahathir and others of his ilk in Umno.”

Karpal said Umno had obviously panicked and gone on a vicious campaign to attack PAS and the party should show its mettle in fending off such unwarranted criticism.

Crediting PAS for its bold and pragmatic move, Karpal said that DAP and PKR hailed PAS’ move to pursue a welfare state instead of an Islamic state.

“To PAS’ credit, its decision gives spirit and expression to provisions in the Quran which advocates a welfare state. After all, provisions in the Quran are commands to Muslims.

“This development will, no doubt, draw the support of both Muslims and non-Muslims for the Pakatan Rakyat in the coming general election,” he said.

On Tuesday, Mahathir accused PAS of forsaking its struggle for an Islamic state just to appease DAP, saying that Karpal had “won big” in his fight against an Islamic state.

“PAS no longer has to cross over Karpal’s dead body, nor does Karpal have to die… he is not even dead and PAS has made its struggle for an Islamic state a matter of secondary importance,” Mahathir wrote in a blog posting.

However, Karpal today reminded Mahathir of his own speeches in the past.

“In 2001, Mahathir had, in utter contempt of the Federal Constitution, publicly announced that Malaysia was an Islamic state and several days later followed up by saying Malaysia was an extremist Islamic state,” said Karpal.

He added that a five-men panel of the Federal Court, led by the then Lord President Tun Salleh Abbas, had declared the country was ruled by secular law, meaning Malaysia was not an Islamic state.

‘I apologised to Muslims’

Karpal admitted that he uttered “Islamic state over my dead body” during the 1990 general election campaign, but had withdrawn the statement and apologised for it in 1999, when DAP was together with PAS and Semangat 46 in Barisan Alternatif.

“The Barisan Nasional propaganda machinery had taken my statement completely out of context. I made it in the context of the constitutional provisions. Muslims in the country were hurt by my statement.

“I had withdrawn the statement and apologised if I had hurt the feelings of Muslims. However, my stand and that of DAP against the setting up of an Islamic state persisted,” he said.

Karpal said he had all along maintained it was wrong to pursue an Islamic state on the grounds that the Federal Constitution provided for a secular state and the Reid Commission, which included Islamic jurists, had carefully provided for this position when presenting the Federal Constitution to the country on Merdeka day.

During the recent PAS general assembly, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang declared the party will not work with Umno in a unity government as the ruling party was ruled by self-interest, saying that PAS would work towards a welfare state that is fair to all if it took power.

Hadi had also said the welfare state that the Islamist party plans to create is, in principle, similar to an Islamic state, turning away from the mainstream view that such a label meant heavy punishment including cutting limbs for theft and stoning for adultery.

Kelantan Menteri Besar Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat refuted claims that the party had discarded its Islamic state agenda to suit the opposition coalition partners PKR and DAP, which subscribe to secularism.
Nik Aziz had also claimed to have proof that Mahathir himself had previously threatened to impose Mageran (National Operation Council) on Kelantan if the state went ahead and implemented hudud on Muslims convicted of penal crimes.

Scholarships: PSD yet to respond to MIC

High achieving Hemanthaa is among the students anxiously waiting for the result of their appeal.

KUALA LUMPUR: High achiever P Hemanthaa of Seremban and many other students are still waiting for the Public Service Department (PSD) to respond to their appeal against its rejection of their scholarship applications.

Hemanthaa’s name is on the list that MIC submitted to PSD about two weeks ago in an attempt to get it to review its decision on top SPM scorers who either failed to get scholarship awards or got them for courses they were not interested in. There are 219 names on the list.

A MIC source said many of the affected parents were worried because universities would begin their academic sessions soon.

Hemanthaa, who studied at SMK Tuanku Jaafar in Seremban, scored 10 A+ and one A in her SPM. She also excelled in sports and was among the 13 women who participated in the Malaysia-America Soccer Exchange last year. She also played hockey at state level and was the school champion in chess and badminton.

She applied for a scholarship to do medicine, but PSD instead offered to sponsor her for a Diploma in English at Universiti Perguruan Sultan Idris, Tanjong Malim.

Her father, Padmanathan, told FMT he was confident MIC would make things right but admitted that he was anxious for a reply from PSD.

“Almost every day I call the local MIC leader, but until today there has been no positive answer,” he said.
Padmanathan sells health products for a living and his wife teaches in primary school. Hemanthaa is their eldest child.

MIC vice-president SK Devamany told FMT that the party had set up a committee to fight for Hemanthaa and others like her.

“We’ve had six meetings with PSD officers and the related ministry,” he said.

Devamany said MIC was also trying to help 170 students who scored seven A+ and less by recommending them for 1Malaysia Development Board (1MDB) scholarships.

“We hope that at least 100 students will get 1MDB scholarships,” he said.

‘Forget inquest, just book them for murder’

LFL and PKR officials note inconsistencies between the police version of the Glenmarie shooting and the post mortem report.

PETALING JAYA: Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) and two PKR officials have rejected the Selangor police chief’s call for an inquest into the last year’s fatal shooting of three young men in Glenmarie, saying the authorities should go ahead and charge the policemen involved.

The Selangor top cop, Tun Hisan Tun Hamzah, in suggesting an inquest into the death of Mohd Shamil Hafiz, Hairul Nizam Tuah and Mohd Hanafi Omar last Nov 13, also dismissed allegations that they died in an execution-style killing by police.

“There is absolutely no necessity for an inquest as there is clear and incontrovertible evidence that the three young victims were deliberately shot to death by the police,” Fadiah Nadwa Fikri of LFL said in a press statement, which was also signed by PKR vice-presidents Nurul Izzah Anwar and N Surendran.

The statement said there were inconsistencies between the police version of the incident and the post-mortem report of the deaths.

“The police had claimed that the victims had been shot dead when they rushed at police with machetes. This is inconsistent with the post-mortem finding of 45 degree angle bullet trajectory, indicating the victims were taken into custody and were kneeling before being shot,” it said.

“Also inconsistent with the police version, two of the victims had bullet wounds at the side of the head.”
The three activists said the inquest call was “another delaying tactic” intended to deflect public anger.
They said the policemen involved in the shooting should be charged with premeditated murder under Section 302 of the Penal Code.

“The Attorney-General must ensure this is done without further delay,” their statement said. “The victims’ families are entitled to swift justice and closure. We also call for charges to be brought under Section 203 Penal Code against all police officers, no matter how high-ranking, who gave false versions of this incident to the public.”

Anak Malaysia — Kalimullah Hassan

Funny, isn’t it?

It’s not easy to be categorised as anak Malaysia in Malaysia. Fact is, it’s impossible to have your official documents state that you are a Malaysian.

I admire Hannah Yeoh and her husband Ramachandran Muniandy’s attempt to list their child as anak Malaysia. Perhaps they have started the national debate that may one day see the change in policy that many of us anak Malaysia have wanted all these years.

When my eldest child was born in 1984 in Muar, Johore, I faced that dilemma. My birth certificate says I am a Pathan as are both my parents. But my wife is Malay, although she comes from a mixed background, tracing her roots to Sri Lanka and China as well. She is Singhalese, Chinese and Malay.

And so there was this weird conversation I had with the clerk at the district office in Muar. He asked what a Pathan was. I said it was an ethnic group dominant in the North West frontier, in Afghanistan mainly, but also well spread over the sub-continent in Pakistan and India.

“Agama Islam ke, Encik?” he asked. Yes, I said, it’s so stated in my birth certificate.
Then he says my daughter’s race should follow the father, so, she was listed as Pakistani. Hang on a minute, I argued. A Pakistani is someone who is a national of Pakistan. My daughter is a citizen of Malaysia and should be Malaysian. Or, if he insisted on following the father’s ethnicity, she should be a Pathan.

But the clerk, who held the power of determining what ethnic group or nationality my daughter belonged to, insisted there was no category for Pathans in the official list. So, after a while, I gave up arguing. What’s in a name? A rose, by any other……

My wife was not happy. She insisted that the children should grow up with one identity and it was not going to be Pakistani, a country we had till then never been to and where we had no roots at all. But despite her arguments and tantrums at the district office when she was out of confinement, the only compromise she achieved was that instead of putting ------ daughter of (d/o) Kalimullah, they removed the daughter of (d/o) and left just the name we gave her.

My second and youngest daughters were registered as Malays. That, I suppose, was because both my wife and I are Muslims. But my son, the third in the family, who was also born in Muar and was probably registered by the same clerk in the district office, was listed as Indian.

When the children started going to school, we had to explain to them why all these happened; why, although they were of the same mother and father, they were categorised as Pakistani, Malays and Indian. But it had not ended.

A few years ago, I was cautioned by the Road Transport Department (RTD) that if I did not change my identity card from the old plastic version to the new MyKad, they would not renew my road tax for my car the following year. So, I proceeded to the National Registration Department (NRD) in Damansara and asked for a change.

Déjà vu.

The clerk looked at my birth certificate and asked what a Pathan was. I smiled and explained and then – this guy was a bit meeker and not assertive — he asked what race he should put me down in my IC. “Bangsa saya Malaysia,” I said.

He asked whether he could put me down as “India”.

Now, having been through this all my life, I decided to have a little fun with him. “No, you can’t,” I said. “I am Malaysian. I am not from India. I was born in Malaysia. I am a Malaysian citizen.”

I asked him a theoretical question. What if you were born in England? And what if they put down your bangsa as “British” or “English” in your IC? Would you accept?

“Of course not,” he replied. “Saya Melayu; saya rakyat Malaysia.”

Therefore, I said, I should be Malaysian in my IC, or if that was not possible, I was certainly a Pathan.
The problem was, he said, there is no category for Pathan in the NRD. I had to be either a Malay, Chinese, Indian or dan lain-lain (others). The clerk was perplexed and confused and I felt sorry for him. I had had enough fun but it was the policy makers who had to decide, not the employees who were only following instructions. Therefore, I told him that perhaps he should talk to his boss and decide.

The next week, when I came to collect the MyKad, I was happy to sign off and go away until he asked me whether I wanted a print out of the information on the imbedded chip. He gave me a copy and my bangsa was listed as “India.”

So there you are Hannah. My wife is Singhalese, Chinese, Malay and perhaps along the centuries of history, an Arab, Indian, Anglo-Saxon as well; I am Pathan and maybe something else. Our flesh and blood — our children — are Pakistani, Malays and Indian. And, according to Government records, I am now an Indian.

By the way, my brother is married to a Chinese, another to a South Indian Muslim, three of them to Malays (including a Bugis), and one to a Hindustani (probably a Pathan), and I have relatives who are Kadazan, Dusun and Iban; I have cousins who are married to Canadians, British and Americans. I guess they have the same issues as I do. Most of our relatives are Muslims but we also have Christians and Buddhists among them, and if we were to look carefully, probably a couple of animists and Hindus as well.

I don’t really care now what the records say though it often rankles my family and I. They can record what they want — we are Malaysians, first and last.

* Datuk Seri Kalimullah Hassan reads The Malaysian Insider.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer. The Malaysian Insider does not endorse the view unless specified.