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.