Monday, 14 April 2014
A house divided will not stand
Custody of a six-year-old child is violently disputed between both parents. This is a tragic trauma that is going to leave a lifelong scar on the psyche of the child. This child will grow up either as a fighter of the system or a total misfit in society. The latter is more likely because society has allowed this dual system to put down its roots and fester within the social fabric of our country that flies the flag of 1Malaysia.
The existence of two systems of judicial structure deconstructs all efforts at building a united nation. This tug-of-war between the civil court and the syariah court has handcuffed the police.
When the police stand by and watch the unfolding of injustice being played out and not intervene, they are not only washing their hands of their duty to society but are also blameworthy if any chaos or violence breaks out. It is too late to intervene then.
Religion, particularly in this country is divisive. It preaches good values only to its own flock. I am always holier than thou. History has shown no end to religious wars and genocide and we fail to learn the lesson. In the name of God, by whatever name it is called, the human race tears itself apart. I seriously doubt that religion has done more good than harm?
Religion in this country and for this country, whether one agrees or not, is not a blessing but a curse.
The second curse in this country is the racial divide. We cannot escape from the ethnicity we are born with, but we can rise above it. If we see beyond skin colour, we can value the person in the individual and relate as persons. We can do that and we do do that but these two devils of race and religion come in between. Then they enter the arena of politics where both these devils are pitted one against the other for political profit.
The 1Malaysia slogan is a façade behind which the propagators become the perpetrators of divide and rule. Malaysia will never be one so long as religion and race keeps dividing us and so long as two divergent legal systems exist.
Unity minister wants Izwan to heed civil court ruling
Minister in the Prime Minister's
Department Joseph Kurup says the Muslim convert accused of kidnapping
his son must abide by the Seremban High Court's decision, granting child
custody to his Hindu ex-wife.
Kurup, the de facto unity minister, said if Izwan Abdullah was
upset with the court decision, he should instead seek a remedy in
accordance to the proper procedures.
"The High Court's decision must be obeyed, if the father want custody he
should go back to the High Court according to the procedures set out
the the civil courts," he told journalists in Kuala Lumpur today.
The mother S Deepa alleged her ex-husband had assaulted her and
kidnapped their son two days after the Seremban High Court on April 7
granted her custody of her son and daughter, aged six and nine
respectively.
The tussle was controversial as Izwan, whose original name was N Viran,
had converted to Islam along with his children and obtained custody
through the syariah court.
The incident became the centre of attention after the Inspector-General
of Police Khalid Abu Bakar refused to act against Izwan, citing the
conflicting decisions by the civil and syariah court and urged them to
"talk it out".
Contempt of court
Kurup said if the matter was settled according to legal procedures, then
the conflicting decisions between the civil and syariah court does not
arise as it can be resolved in a proper manner.
He also urged Deepa to take legal action against her ex-husband after he
took away her son despite the Seremban High Court decision.
"I hope the mother can take action for contempt of court (against Izwan)," he said.
Kurup added he hope Deepa will also take action against Izwan for converting their children without her knowledge and consent.
"This is the legal requirement, any question of changing faith (of
underage children) should receive the consent from both parents but in
this case it was not done.
"That is why the High Court took action and it required initiative from the mother," he said.
Seremban High Court Judge Zabariah Mohd Yusof had granted custody of the
children to S Deepa but said any move to dispute the children's
conversion to Islam by the father had to be done in a separate court.
Deepa had said she will challenge the conversion while Izwan had
justified his action of taking away their son as an attempt to protect
the boy's faith.
Missing plane MH370: Abbott says signal 'rapidly fading'
Prime Minister Abbott said officials want to narrow the search area before deploying a submersible drone
Signals in remote seas thought to be from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 are "rapidly fading" and finding the jet will be a "massive, massive task", Australia's PM says.
Tony Abbott said he was confident "pings" detected by search teams were from the aircraft's black boxes.
But no new signals have been confirmed in the search area since Tuesday.
"No one should underestimate the difficulties of the task still ahead of us," Mr Abbott warned.
Up to 10 planes and 14 ships were searching the area in the Indian Ocean on Saturday
A woman shows a photo of her father, who was on board. MH370 was carrying 239 people when it vanished
Correspondents say Mr Abbott appeared to be couching his comments from Friday, in which he said he was "very confident" that signals heard by an Australian search ship were from the missing Boeing 777.
Speaking during a visit to China, Australia's leader said teams were hoping to track further signals in a section of the southern Indian Ocean before shifting the search operation to the seabed.
"Trying to locate anything 4,500 metres (15,000 feet) beneath the surface of the ocean, about a 1,000km (620 miles) from land is a massive, massive task," he said.
"Given that the signal from the black box is rapidly fading, what we are now doing is trying to get as many detections as we can so that we can narrow the search area down to as small an area as possible."
Mr Abbott said a submersible drone would be sent to conduct a sonar search of the seabed once search teams were confident with the area identified - but he refused to say when that might be.
After analysing satellite data, officials believe the plane with 239 people aboard flew off course for an unknown reason and went down in the southern Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia.
Those leading the search fear that time is running out because the batteries that power the pings from the black box only last about a month, and that window has already passed.
Chinese planes assisting in the search are operating out of Australian airports
Despite the technology at the search teams' disposal, the naked eye is also crucial in the hunt for wreckage
Two sounds heard a week ago by the Australian ship Ocean Shield, towing the ping locator, were determined to be consistent with the signals emitted from the black boxes. Two more pings were detected in the same general area on Tuesday.
On Thursday an Australian aircraft picked up an audio signal in the same area as the four previous detections but officials now believe it is unlikely to be related to the black boxes
The underwater search zone is currently a 1,300 sq km (500 miles) patch of the seabed, about the size of Los Angeles.
The submersible drone, Bluefin 21, takes six times longer to cover the same area as the ping locator and it would take about six weeks to two months for it to search the current zone.
Complicating matters is the depth of the seabed in that area. The signals are emanating from 4,500m (15,000 ft) below the surface, which is the deepest the Bluefin can dive. The search coordination centre said it was considering options in case a deeper-diving sub was needed.
Faltering search
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on 8 March when it lost contact with air traffic controllers and vanished from radar.
Of the 239 people on board, 153 were Chinese. Many relatives have been angered by what they perceive to be the Malaysian authorities' early misguided response to the flight's disappearance.
The plane disappeared over the South China Sea, between Malaysia and Vietnam, but it was a week before the search was widened based on evidence taken from radar and satellite tracking.
Officials are still no clearer as to why the plane strayed so far off course.
The backgrounds of both passengers and crew have been scrutinised as officials consider hijacking, sabotage, pilot action or mechanical failure as possible causes.
Signals in remote seas thought to be from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 are "rapidly fading" and finding the jet will be a "massive, massive task", Australia's PM says.
Tony Abbott said he was confident "pings" detected by search teams were from the aircraft's black boxes.
But no new signals have been confirmed in the search area since Tuesday.
"No one should underestimate the difficulties of the task still ahead of us," Mr Abbott warned.
Up to 10 planes and 14 ships were searching the area in the Indian Ocean on Saturday
A woman shows a photo of her father, who was on board. MH370 was carrying 239 people when it vanishedSpeaking during a visit to China, Australia's leader said teams were hoping to track further signals in a section of the southern Indian Ocean before shifting the search operation to the seabed.
"Trying to locate anything 4,500 metres (15,000 feet) beneath the surface of the ocean, about a 1,000km (620 miles) from land is a massive, massive task," he said.
"Given that the signal from the black box is rapidly fading, what we are now doing is trying to get as many detections as we can so that we can narrow the search area down to as small an area as possible."
Mr Abbott said a submersible drone would be sent to conduct a sonar search of the seabed once search teams were confident with the area identified - but he refused to say when that might be.
After analysing satellite data, officials believe the plane with 239 people aboard flew off course for an unknown reason and went down in the southern Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia.
Those leading the search fear that time is running out because the batteries that power the pings from the black box only last about a month, and that window has already passed.
Chinese planes assisting in the search are operating out of Australian airports
Despite the technology at the search teams' disposal, the naked eye is also crucial in the hunt for wreckageOn Thursday an Australian aircraft picked up an audio signal in the same area as the four previous detections but officials now believe it is unlikely to be related to the black boxes
The underwater search zone is currently a 1,300 sq km (500 miles) patch of the seabed, about the size of Los Angeles.
The submersible drone, Bluefin 21, takes six times longer to cover the same area as the ping locator and it would take about six weeks to two months for it to search the current zone.
Complicating matters is the depth of the seabed in that area. The signals are emanating from 4,500m (15,000 ft) below the surface, which is the deepest the Bluefin can dive. The search coordination centre said it was considering options in case a deeper-diving sub was needed.
Faltering search
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on 8 March when it lost contact with air traffic controllers and vanished from radar.
Of the 239 people on board, 153 were Chinese. Many relatives have been angered by what they perceive to be the Malaysian authorities' early misguided response to the flight's disappearance.
The plane disappeared over the South China Sea, between Malaysia and Vietnam, but it was a week before the search was widened based on evidence taken from radar and satellite tracking.
Officials are still no clearer as to why the plane strayed so far off course.
The backgrounds of both passengers and crew have been scrutinised as officials consider hijacking, sabotage, pilot action or mechanical failure as possible causes.
MH370 Tragedy Shows Strong Bilateralism, Regionalism At Work - Hishammuddin
KUALA LUMPUR, April 13 (Bernama) -- The MH370 tragedy has tested the mechanisms of bilateralism and regionalism, and they have not been found wanting, said Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein.
Opening the Defence Services Asia Exhibition and Conference (DSA) 2014 here tonight, he said incidents like the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines aircraft served as a reminder about the fragility of life and the need to value the ties between nations.
"Through our anguish, one thing is clear: the world is a community, and we are its citizens," Hishammuddin, who is acting transport minister, said.
In this connection, he said Malaysia felt that the need for increased strategic inter-government collaboration has never been more pressing in today's global, hyperconnected security landscape.
The minister noted that although it was too early to be talking about lessons learnt from the MH370 episode, two things were clear.
"We should always be prepared to face any threat which may come anytime in any shape or size," Hishammuddin said.
Leadership in the defence industry needed to be steered into a mindset to never be again caught off guard against any eventuality or circumstance.
Pointing out that no nation coud do this alone, he said: "As much as governments all around the world would like to devote resources to building up defence capabilities, there is a need to balance this agenda with other domestic priorities."
Hishammuddin said this was where it was important to cultivate good ties on both the defence and diplomatic tracks with other nations.
Flight MH370 with 239 people aboard vanished from civilian radar screens about an hour into its Kuala Lumpur-Beijing flight on March 8, prompting a multinational search that is now focused on the southern Indian Ocean, in waters off the Australian city of Perth.
Coming back to DSA 2014, Hishammuddin described it as a premier platform designed to enhance bilateral relations and promote a higher level of commitment towards global defence.
Noting that Malaysia's chairmanship of Asean in 2015 would coincide with the advent of the Asean Economic Community, he said this was something not to be taken lightly.
Malaysia, he said, believed strongly in a people-centric Asean whose initiatives - whether social, cultural, economic or defence and security - would be inclusive.
"We want an Asean that places Southeast Asia's inherent diversity of cultures and people at its core."
Hishammuddin highlighted the setting up, for the first time, of the Asean Hall within DSA.
Saying that this was a Malaysian initiative, he expressed hope that "this small gesture" would mark the continuing and strengthening of cooperation between Asean countries.
Billed as Asia's largest defence exhibition, DSA 2014 runs from tomorrow until Thursday at the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC).
Opening the Defence Services Asia Exhibition and Conference (DSA) 2014 here tonight, he said incidents like the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines aircraft served as a reminder about the fragility of life and the need to value the ties between nations.
"Through our anguish, one thing is clear: the world is a community, and we are its citizens," Hishammuddin, who is acting transport minister, said.
In this connection, he said Malaysia felt that the need for increased strategic inter-government collaboration has never been more pressing in today's global, hyperconnected security landscape.
The minister noted that although it was too early to be talking about lessons learnt from the MH370 episode, two things were clear.
"We should always be prepared to face any threat which may come anytime in any shape or size," Hishammuddin said.
Leadership in the defence industry needed to be steered into a mindset to never be again caught off guard against any eventuality or circumstance.
Pointing out that no nation coud do this alone, he said: "As much as governments all around the world would like to devote resources to building up defence capabilities, there is a need to balance this agenda with other domestic priorities."
Hishammuddin said this was where it was important to cultivate good ties on both the defence and diplomatic tracks with other nations.
Flight MH370 with 239 people aboard vanished from civilian radar screens about an hour into its Kuala Lumpur-Beijing flight on March 8, prompting a multinational search that is now focused on the southern Indian Ocean, in waters off the Australian city of Perth.
Coming back to DSA 2014, Hishammuddin described it as a premier platform designed to enhance bilateral relations and promote a higher level of commitment towards global defence.
Noting that Malaysia's chairmanship of Asean in 2015 would coincide with the advent of the Asean Economic Community, he said this was something not to be taken lightly.
Malaysia, he said, believed strongly in a people-centric Asean whose initiatives - whether social, cultural, economic or defence and security - would be inclusive.
"We want an Asean that places Southeast Asia's inherent diversity of cultures and people at its core."
Hishammuddin highlighted the setting up, for the first time, of the Asean Hall within DSA.
Saying that this was a Malaysian initiative, he expressed hope that "this small gesture" would mark the continuing and strengthening of cooperation between Asean countries.
Billed as Asia's largest defence exhibition, DSA 2014 runs from tomorrow until Thursday at the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC).
Family wants answers over death in prison
The family of N Harirajan's want answers after the 34-year-old was found dead in Kajang Prison.
PKR legal bureau deputy chief S Jayathas who took up the matter for the family said they were informed on Thursday by prison authorities that Harirajan had died of AIDS.
However, Jayathas said the condition of Harirajan's body raised suspicion for his family when they saw his body at Kajang Hospital.
When
the family saw the body, they were shocked to see bruises at the chest,
head, stitches above the right eye and both ears (were) bleeding," he
told Malaysiakini when contacted.
Jayathas (left) said the family were asked to sign the release forms to claim the body.
Harirajan's brother, N Harikrishnan, 31, refused to sign the documents, insisting on a post-mortem to determine the cause of death, said Jayathas.
Harikrishnan had since also lodged a police report at the Kajang district police headquarters.
Jayathas said a post-mortem was subsequently conducted the following day but the report had yet to be available.
"The deceased family requested the pathologist for the post-mortem report which he refused to give and the family refused to take the body until they get the post-mortem report.
However, Jayathas said the family was promised that the post-mortem report will be presented to them tomorrow, which they hope will provide them closure.
PKR legal bureau deputy chief S Jayathas who took up the matter for the family said they were informed on Thursday by prison authorities that Harirajan had died of AIDS.
However, Jayathas said the condition of Harirajan's body raised suspicion for his family when they saw his body at Kajang Hospital.
When
the family saw the body, they were shocked to see bruises at the chest,
head, stitches above the right eye and both ears (were) bleeding," he
told Malaysiakini when contacted.Jayathas (left) said the family were asked to sign the release forms to claim the body.
Harirajan's brother, N Harikrishnan, 31, refused to sign the documents, insisting on a post-mortem to determine the cause of death, said Jayathas.
Harikrishnan had since also lodged a police report at the Kajang district police headquarters.
Jayathas said a post-mortem was subsequently conducted the following day but the report had yet to be available.
"The deceased family requested the pathologist for the post-mortem report which he refused to give and the family refused to take the body until they get the post-mortem report.
However, Jayathas said the family was promised that the post-mortem report will be presented to them tomorrow, which they hope will provide them closure.
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