Tunisia becomes breeding ground for Islamic State fighters

By some estimates, there could be more Tunisians fighting for Isis than combatants from any other single country

Eileen Byrne in Douar Hicher

Aymen Arbaoui told his family he would be gone for just a few weeks. He was only 17, but was already a dab hand at interior decorating. The young Tunisian heard there was casual work going in Libya. He’d be back in time for school in January.

Six months later, his family learned the truth from a jihadi website: he had been killed in Syria on 2 June, fighting with Islamic State (Isis).

“He was a quiet boy,” his mother, Mbaraka Arbaoui, says. “He just studied and he got good marks, especially in mathematics.”

The family say they do not believe any organisation was involved in his decision to travel to Syria. He was most probably influenced by a couple of books he had acquired from a Saudi-based religious scholar, they say.

He is also part of a trend. Though Tunisia is in many senses the most advanced and secular of Arab states – and the only country to have come through the revolutions of 2011 relatively unscathed – that is only half the story. According to some estimates, there are more Tunisians among foreign jihadis fighting in Syria and Iraq than from any other single country.

The Tunisian interior ministry itself estimates that at least 2,400 of its citizens have become combatants in Syria since 2011, and that around 400 have returned. Several thousand more have been prevented from travelling, it says, and there has been an attempt to close down the recruitment networks. The well-worn routes led through Tunis airport, especially flights to Istanbul, or across the southern land border, via Libyan training camps.

In Douar Hicher, a poor district at the edge of Tunis, it is common knowledge that 40 or 50 young men have left to fight and perhaps a dozen have been killed.

The same neighbourhood contributed four “martyrs” to the 2011 revolution that ousted long-time dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. Since then, amid a general loosening of the control of the state, radical Islam has moved into the mosques and an overexcited free-for-all has overtaken the internet and social media now that censorship has ended.

In Douar Hicher it was Ansar ash-Sharia (followers of sharia) that began to build up support in the local mosque – and on its local Facebook page. Publicity videos showed members striding into impoverished rural homes carrying boxes of groceries along with copies of the Qur’an.

Its leader, a Tunisian who had spent time fighting in Afghanistan, Seifallah Ben Hassine (also known as Abou Iyadh), was careful not to advocate jihad at home. But some locals maintain it was Ansar ash-Sharia that recruited young men of the neighbourhood for jihad in Syria.

Not all Tunisian participants in the conflict in Syria and Iraq are drawn from poor parts of town. Omar (not his real name) is a graduate and son of a senior civil servant. His father did not manage to help him get a civil service job, but in 2012 he found a role – and camaraderie – with Annasiha, a Gulf-funded group that had moved into Tunisia to carry out “dawa”, or preaching activities, through public rallies, advocating a more literal interpretation of Islam and distributing Saudi-printed literature on the minutiae of religious observance.

The 25-year-old also spent a lot of time on Facebook, viewing video clips showing Muslims suffering worldwide, from the Rohingya in Burma to civilians in Syria. He befriended a Syrian man on Facebook who told him he would be very welcome to join the fight against Bashar al-Assad.

Omar paid his own fare to Istanbul, using cash he had collected as rent from tenants in a couple of flats owned by his father. It was his first trip out of Tunisia. From Istanbul he took a bus south, and forked out for a Kalashnikov, which he would later lose in a hasty retreat from one of Assad’s tanks. He says he received little military training. “We were supposed to retreat from one tree, or bit of cover, to another,” he recalls. “Me, I’d retreat three trees at a time.”

After three months drifting between the al-Nusra Front and another radical group, the Ahrar ash-Shem, Omar gave up. A fragment of tank shell had fractured his leg, and he became disillusioned.

In those days you could still turn up at al-Nusra’s office in Idlib, western Syria, ask for your passport back, and even pick up a bit of cash for the fare home. Questioned by Tunisian police at the airport, he said his trip to Turkey had been to follow a Turkish woman – an affair of the heart that had led nowhere.

He was lucky. Other returnees are not let off so lightly. Some have alleged torture and mistreatment at the interrogation centre operated by the Tunisian police’s anti-terrorism brigade in Gorjani in the capital, says defence lawyer Hafedh Ghadoun.

The Argentinian judge Juan Méndez, a UN special rapporteur on torture, on a mission to Tunisia in June expressed concern that the Gorjani facility was the only one he was refused immediate access to.

As with other countries dealing with returnees from the war in Syria and Iraq, Tunisia faces a legal conundrum in how to deal with crimes suspected to have been committed in a chaotic situation in another country.

With a small but significant block of Tunisian opinion still wavering between Islamist radicalism and the competing attractions of a democratic system, there is also a desire to avoid unnecessarily criminalising young people who may have been radicalised in those heady post-revolutionary days.

Ghadoun believes no former Isis combatants have yet returned to Tunisia. In cases that have so far come to court there have been some acquittals, and prison sentences of six months or a year have been common.

However, judges’ attitudes are going to change, Ghadoun grimly predicts, if Isis combatants suspected of serious crimes and atrocities begin to return.

Signs of support for Islamic State rattle cosmopolitan Istanbul

Istanbul: Istanbul University student Aysegul Korkut is outraged by the images coming out of Syria. But these days the Islamic State group's horrors seem closer to home: She recently faced off against masked supporters of the brutal militants on her own campus.

"I couldn't understand what was happening at first," the 21-year-old said of the moment she first spotted baton-wielding youths striding across the Department of Literature, shouting: "Allahu Akbar!" Within minutes, she and other leftist students had been sucked into a fight, with both sides hurling glass bottles at each other and trashing a science fair set up in the main hall.

"I was shocked," she said.

The September 26 clash, described to The Associated Press by Korkut and a half a dozen other university students, was the first in a series of fights at Istanbul University's Beyazit campus. There has been repeated violence since, and Turkish media have reported scores of arrests. On Monday alone 42 students were detained when police broke up a fight in a courtyard adjoining the department, the state-run Anadolou Agency reported. Several sticks — and a meat cleaver — were recovered from the scene.

Police and university officials did not return messages seeking comment.

The fights are one of many signs of support for the Islamic State which have popped up across Istanbul, a cosmopolitan metropolis better known to tourists for its vibrant nightlife and Ottoman-era glories.

Pins bearing the militants' black-and-white flag are on sale at a jihad-themed bookstore just a few blocks from the Istanbul University campus. Inside, magazines bear the face of Osama bin Laden and the memoirs of the Chechen jihadist Ibn Khattab. Global Books' owner, Osman Akyildiz, says students and alumni are his biggest customers.

Local media have reported seeing other signs of Islamic State group support across the capital: A black flag hanging from a second story window, for example, or a sticker on the rear windshield of a car. Others still have written about an "IS gift shop" — a now-empty store reported to have sold T-shirts and sportswear emblazoned with the Islamic State group emblem. A recent video showing a youth wearing one such T-shirt on Istanbul's tram sent a shiver of concern across social media.

A few scattered sightings of Islamic State group paraphernalia in a sprawling city of 14 million people do not necessarily indicate significant support. It's not clear, for example, to what degree the youth on the tram or the masked rioters at Istanbul University are committed supporters or just provocatively dressed sympathizers.

But Turkish academic Ahmet Kasim Han says there's still cause for concern.

"Sociologically speaking, it all starts with those signs," he said in a recent interview at his office at Istanbul's Kadir Has University. "Some of those people who are declaring sympathy ... might easily get radicalized."

The fights at Istanbul University suggest Islamic State group sympathizers aren't afraid of making their presence known.

The brazenness is in part down to lack of a robust condemnation at the official level, said Han. Although the Islamic State group was designated a terror organization last year, Turkish officials are still reluctant to use the term publicly. Back at the bookstore, Akyildiz spoke for some religiously conservative Turks when he said jihadists didn't deserve to be called terrorists.

"For everyone the definition of terrorist is different," he said. "According to us they are heroes."

The September 26 clash at the university started after a left-wing group put up a poster in the main hall of the Department of Literature denouncing the killings carried out by "IS gangs," said Korkut and others. In the early afternoon, masked men came to deliver an ultimatum: Take the poster down, or else.

What happened next was filmed by students who recorded the confrontation from the balconies overlooking the hall. Islamic State group supporters, dressed casually and with black masks and baseball caps pulled over their faces, milled around on one side, separated from a group of left-wing students by a barricade of folding tables grabbed from the science fair. The two groups shouted at each other before hurling projectiles across the vast room.

"Security! Why are you just watching?" one student screamed over the sound of shattering glass. "Why aren't you taking them away?"

Irem Meten, whose socialist student group, FKF, shot much of the video, says the men had no trouble getting into campus, even though entry requires university identification.

Media attention has occasionally driven hardliners into hiding. The Islamic State group "gift shop" in Bagcilar, which was in the press earlier this year, is now empty save for a few bare mannequins and a religious inscription above the door. Landlord Koksal Coskun says the occupants left after attracting negative attention from neighbors and police.

The masked attackers at Istanbul University, by contrast, show no sign of going underground, even as Turkey inches closer to joining the U.S.-led military intervention in Syria. In a statement recently published by the religiously conservative Haksoz magazine, the group claiming responsibility for the skirmishes shrugged off the threat of arrest.

"If anyone will be called to account, it will not be those who wage jihad," the statement said. "It will be the collaborators and the so-called imperialists who find refuge behind NATO, the UN, and the US"

The group did not return an email from AP seeking further comment.

When reporters visited the university on September 30, there was an undercurrent of tension. About 20 riot police, a few carrying submachine guns and several wearing body armor, loitered outside the Literature Department. Inside, all appeared calm. Students smoked, drank tea and played ping pong. Students from the university's women's society were busy hand painting an anti-Islamic State group sign.

Many were defiant but some were clearly worried. Left-wing students now go to and from campus in one large group, citing safety in numbers.

"Of course we're stressed," said Ulas Suder, a 20-year-old archaeology major. "What can you feel when an organization that terrorizes the Middle East enters your school?"

AP

Has any Bible been burnt? BN MP scorches critics

It’s final, Umno lawyer Shafee will head sodomy prosecution, Federal Court rules

The Federal Court has dismissed Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's final application to disqualify Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah as deputy public prosecutor in his sodomy case.

Chief Justice Tun Arifin Z‎akaria said Anwar should have filed a judicial review against Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail's discretion to appoint Shafee as DPP.

He said the grounds raised by ‎Anwar's lawyer, Tommy Thomas, was devoid of merit.

"Shafee is a fit and proper person to be appointed as DPP," Arifin said, adding that the lawyer's presence would not affect the integrity of Anwar's appeal before the apex court later this month.

Arifin said the failure to direct the action against the A-G was good enough to dismiss Anwar's appeal.

The top judge also said there was no conflict of interest on Shafee's part just because the lawyer had found Jude Blacious Pereira, the investigating officer in Anwar's sodomy case, an unreliable witness in a separate inquiry.

Shafee was chairman of a three-man Suhakam inquiry panel in 2009 which found Pereira to be an untruthful witness in another case.

"Shafee's position was not compromised and this is not sufficent to disqualify him," said Arifin.

Earlier, Shafee told the court that he cannot be disqualified on grounds of conflict of interest simply because he is now defending Pereira.

He said Pereira's testimony in the sodomy case could not be dismissed because he was an unreliable witness in another case.

"The integrity of the appeal is also not compromised because Pereira was not a party to the case, but a witness," he said.

Thomas said Shaffee must be removed from appearing as DPP because of a special relationship with Pereira as a result of him finding the retired police officer an unreliable witness.

Thomas also told the court Shafee had been found guilty of professional misconduct and was fined RM5,000 by the Advocates and Solicitors Disciplinary Board.

Shafee replied that he was fined because a newspaper reporter made a laudatory remark that he was a top lawyer.

"I was not found guilty for being dishonest or committing fraud," he said, adding that he was appealing against the decision.

Anwar later told reporters that he was not surprised by the verdict and that his legal team would be fully prepared to take on the prosecution.

"We will put up a good fight," he said.

Anwar had first challenged the legality of Shafee's appointment under the Criminal Procedure Code but this was dismissed by the Federal Court on November 20 last year.

His second application to disqualify Shafee, based on a statutory declaration by former Kuala Lumpur Criminal Investigation Department chief Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim, was also dismissed by the Federal Court on February 11.

On March 7, the Court of Appeal overturned the January 9, 2012, High Court decision in acquitting Anwar on a charge of sodomising his former aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.

He allegedly committed the offence at a unit of the Desa Damansara condominium in Bukit Damansara, between 3.10pm and 4.30pm, on June 26, 2008.

A three-member Court of Appeal bench sentenced Anwar to five years' jail, but granted him a stay on the sentence pending his appeal to the Federal Court.

Anwar was released on a RM10,000 bail in one surety.

The prosecution has also filed a cross-appeal for a higher jail sentence. – October 14, 2014.
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Oktoberfest - Art of the Matter

Umno politicians made anti-royal remarks but faced zero action, says PAS lawmaker

A PAS lawmaker today brought out several newspaper cuttings from 1983 containing statements from Umno politicians who had demanded investigations against royalty, and asked why none was ever charged with sedition.

In Parliament today, Sepang MP Hanipa Maidin showed newspaper clippings from Umno mouthpiece Utusan Malaysia, bearing headlines which called for investigation into the properties owned by royalty back then.

One headline from the daily read "Umno diminta siasat harta raja2".

"However, until today, no one has been charged for these statements," Hanipa said during debate on Budget 2015.

"But Shah Alam MP (PAS's Khalid Samad) just said something minor and he was charged immediately."

Khalid was charged in August over remarks he had made on the Selangor Sultan and the Selangor Islamic Affairs Council (Mais).

Khalid had, on June 26, called for the Enactment on Islamic Laws Administration (Enactment No. 3, 1952) and the Islamic Religion Administration Enactment 2003 to be reviewed.

He made the call after Mais failed to follow the attorney-general’s decision that the Iban and Malay-language Bibles seized by the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) be returned to The Bible Society of Malaysia.

On July 15, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah said Khalid was rude for questioning his position as the head of Islam in the state.

Hanipa said the failure of authorities to act against Umno for its remarks towards royals but its vigour in hauling the current opposition to court was proof that there was discrimination and selective prosecution.

"The government is abusing the Sedition Act and is practising double standard in prosecuting when it comes to the opposition.”

He said this while responding to Bandar Kuching MP Chong Chieng Jen, who was debating Budget 2015, where the latter criticised Putrajaya for defending Perkasa president Datuk Ibrahim Ali, who had threated to burn Bibles containing the word "Allah".

Last week, Nancy Shukri, the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department in charge of law, said no action would be taken against Ibrahim as he was merely defending Islam and that his words were only directed at specific individuals, and not a threat to larger society.

"The issue here is why are many opposition politicians being charged while Ibrahim Ali is not? As a lawyer myself, it is so obvious that this was a crime.

"Not charging him is one thing but saying that his threat was because he wanted to defend Islam is even worse. Where in our constitution does it say that burning Bibles means defending Islam?" he asked.

Earlier, Khalid irked Sabah and Sarawak MPs from BN component parties when he accused them of "keeping quiet" over Putrajaya's defence of Ibrahim.

"This is BN's political game. Although Ibrahim Ali is not from Umno or BN, he is protected by them.

"But I am shocked that the BN component parties in Sabah and Sarawak are keeping quiet about this. How can they keep supporting BN who also abuse and taint the name of Islam?"

At this point, Deputy Rural Development Minister Datuk Alexender Nanta Linggi (BN- Kapit) interjected and denied that the component parties were shying away from the issue.

"We are not keeping quiet. Our Sarawak chief minister has done so many things about this. Christians in Sarawak can use the word ‘Allah’ and the state government has banned Ibrahim Ali from entering the state," he said.

"We are not keeping quiet but we also don't want to politicise the matter. We don't want this to lead to unrest in the country. We are more disciplined because we love the country."

Datuk Dr Marcus Mojigoh (BN-Putatan) then stood up and accused Khalid of trying to stir controversy in the house in order to be a hero.

"During the last election, the opposition went around, showing voters pictures where a vote for BN equalled a Bible being burnt.

"But now I ask, have any Bibles been burnt? Are there any such cases?" – October 14, 2014.

- See more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/umno-politicians-made-anti-royal-remarks-but-faced-zero-action-says-pas-law#sthash.sssqy0dV.dpuf

Ridhuan: How can pigs outnumber cows in M'sia?

 

In his latest article, controversial academic Ridhuan Tee Abdullah talks about the failings of democracy and the swine population in Malaysia.

"I do not insult pigs because pigs are Allah's creatures. But I cannot accept pigs outnumbering cows, chickens, goats and ducks in an Islamic country.

"Our country lacks livestock that it has to be imported.

"But we have a surplus of pigs until a large number is exported. What is the meaning of this?" he asked in his column in Sinar Harian yesterday.

Therefore, Ridhuan is keen to know if the new Selangor menteri besar Mohamed Azmin Ali would be willing to approve the RM100 million integrated pig farming project in the state.

Calling on Muslims to open their eyes, the academic said whatever he writes comes from his heart and that he knows better about the "ultra kiasu", a term he uses to describe those who challenge the position of Malays and Islam.

"That is why I call them ultra kiasu. But not all of them.

"If they are good, adhere to the constitution, acknowledge the right of Islam, the Malay race and language, the bumiputera and Malay rulers, I will keep quiet.

"But if they oppose, I will not remain silent because they are the enemy, they want to build a nation within a nation," he added.

Ridhuan also defended Perkasa and Isma, calling them "victims" for being cast in a negative light.

"When these NGOs open their mouths, everything is racist and opposed.

"But when the ultra kiasu defend their culture, language and identity, that is human rights. Including LGBT," he added.

According to Ridhuan, the ultra kiasu dislike those who uphold Islam and prefer those who are secular, liberal and pro-socialist, whom they refer to as heroes.

On the same note, the former National Defence University lecturer is puzzled how those who champion Islam can have so much of faith in the democratic system.

"The democratic system cannot be fully supported because it stresses too much on human rights to the point that it goes against god's right.

"This is what is demanded by the ultra kiasu. They clamour for the term Allah but do not believe in Allah," he added.

Ridhuan’s writings have drawn much flak and become the subject of a police probe under the Sedition Act.

However, in his column yesterday, the academic stressed that he does not fear the Sedition Act as long as he knows that he is right.

'With MyKad, Umno signs up Indians, Pakistanis'

A Sabah opposition leader has claimed that Indonesians, Pakistanis and Indian nationals are being issued with MyKad and recruited as Umno members.

Describing this as a new threat to the state, State Reform Party chief Jeffrey Kitingan said reliable sources have revealed that while there is a drop in the issuance of MyKads to Filipinos, there is an alleged increase with regard to other foreigners.

"Even Bugis (Indonesian) and Indian NGOs are reportedly involved in assisting the newcomers to obtain MyKads and recruiting them as Umno members and voters for hire," he added.

If the track record of the "Filipino Project IC holders" is to be used as a yardstick, Jeffrey said the Indonesians, Pakistanis and Indian nationals are a "time bomb".

"It is only a matter of time before these 'new' Malaysians recruited for political purposes explode with their own brand of problems, including the risk of imported Islamic State (IS) militancy. 

"If the defence minister is to be believed, there is also the threat of IS militancy from these foreigners," he warned in a statement.

He said these threats were not just cross-border kidnappings for ransom, which have been made worse by the authorities paying huge sums for the release of the victims. 

Jeffrey called for concerted efforts and additional measures to safeguard Sabah's security in the long-term.

'Issue special MyKad for Sabahans'

Some of these measures should include the issuance of special MyKad for Sabahans, separate identity cards for non-residents and the setting up of Sabah's own Homeland Security network.

Not to be excluded, Jeffrey said, should be national and regional efforts to involve all groups, not just regional factions like the Bangsa Moro Peace Framework and to develop the local economies of neighbouring countries bordering Sabah.

"With development and improving economies and security, their nationals will stay in their home countries, rather than venture across the Sulu and Sulawesi seas to find work in Sabah. 

"These measures will make Sabah safer and eventually there will be no necessity for the Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom)," added the Bingkor assemblyperson.

On the budget allocation for Esscom, Jeffrey advised Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to stop pulling wool over the eyes of Sabahans on the security of their state by arguing that Esscom is the long-term solution for security.

"Esscom is not a long-term solution to Sabah's security and the RM660 million allocation in the 2015 Budget does not seriously reduce the security threats against Sabah.

"The building of two camps and additional 1,280 personnel are perhaps the only addition to Esscom’s capability. The emoluments and operating costs of the 1,280 personnel would probably only cost less than RM50 million," he said.

"Minus these additional costs and the cost of the two camps, the bulk of the RM660 million would actually be emoluments and operating costs for the existing security personnel. 

"This is essentially paper shuffling of costs from their original bases to their Esscom bases in Sabah. It is nothing new in this portion of the budget allocation for Esscom," he added.

Just putting up camps and additional security personnel, Jeffrey said, are mere policing and not preventive action to reduce security threats.

Similarly, he added, imposing night-to-dawn curfews is a policing measure, which may be advantageous to the authorities, but a hindrance to the fishing and tourism industries.

"Esscom or the overall security strategy for Sabah must incorporate and cover comprehensive and wide measures to protect Sabah. High on the priority list must be a genuine solution to the illegal immigrants and the monster created by Project IC.

"This monster has already spread to the peninsula, as can be seen from the arrests of security guards, taxi drivers and others there for carrying fake Sabah MyKad," he added.

Zaid: M'sian leaders fear Muslims becoming clever

 

Traveling back more than 2,000 years, former minister Zaid Ibrahim has likened the current situation in Malaysia to Athens, where its rulers condemned Socrates to death for promoting dangerous ideas amongst the youth.

Socrates, he said, was only asking the Athenians to pose questions.

Similarly, he argued that Muslims in Malaysia are not allowed to listen to contrarian views because they might learn to ask questions.

"What pathetic and selfish leaders we have," he said in a blog posting today.

Zaid also questioned how the Malays and Muslims were going to fulfill their obligations if their minds are stilted.

"How can they do so without the ability to think critically and ask questions?

"All they know how to do now is accept blindly all the rituals that have been approved by Jakim (Malaysian Islamic Development Department), but this will not trigger the active mind that is needed to make Muslims clever and creative.

"We cannot be importing clever people from overseas all the time. There is a limit to how far we can rely on McKinsey and other expensive consultants," he added.

The former minister was commenting on the government's decision to bar Indonesian scholar Ulil Abshar Abdalla, who was scheduled to speak at a forum on the threat of religious fundamentalism, from entering the country.

The Islamic authorities in Malaysia deemed the scholar's liberal views on the religion as dangerous.

'Shameful and pathetic'

However, Zaid described the decision as "shameful", adding that it revealed the "low and pathetic" quality of the mentality of Malaysian leaders.

"What could this visitor's liberal ideas have done to Muslims in the country? He would have probably spoken in English anyway, which would have ruled out half of the Malays from understanding what he wanted to say.

"The other half would have been Umno-linked groups and bloggers who would have rebutted his arguments with the help of abusive words in every other sentence. So what was there to fear?" he asked.

He said while Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was just trying to display his power, in a primitive sort of way, for there was no real good reason to ban this Indonesian speaker, the prime minister was too busy giving away golf prizes to take notice of this travesty.

According to Zaid, the signs of an autocratic fundamentalist country bent on extremism of the worst kind are clearly on display in Malaysia.

"Books are banned, liberal and democratic forces are seen as the enemy of the state and criminal actions are taken with regularity on those who dissent and disagree," he added.

Therefore, Zaid called on Commonwealth leaders to cease being too polite on Malaysia.

"Platitudes and false praises are harmful at this stage. Please start seeking answers from the Malaysian leaders about the state of freedom and democracy in the country.

"It will be too late when the country becomes a full-fledged member of the Islamic state .

"Then these western leaders have to use bombs and tanks to fight the fundamentalists like they are doing in Iraq and Syria. It will be too late," he added.

Hindraf disgusted at former judge’s racism

P Waythamoorthy says judiciary selection must be overhauled.

Athi Shankar, Free Malaysia Today

Hindraf national chairman P Waythamoorthy said he was disgusted with a statement made by former Court of Appeal judge, Mohd Noor Abdullah, over the weekend.

He said Mohd Noor’s remarks on the so-called non-existent “social contract” clearly showed the ex-judge’s racist and biased views against non-Malays and non-Muslims in the country.

Waythamoorthy was adamant that the term “social contract” was created by ultra Malays to divide communities and perpetuate contemptuous feelings among the ethnic groups.

“Hindraf is disgusted that these kinds of lies and perpetuation of racial ill feelings come from a former top judge of the country.

“The ex-judge promotes the Malay supremacist agenda. He has clearly been a racist in the closet whilst serving on the bench,” Waythamoorthy said.

“The government should overhaul the selection process to ensure that judges are not racist and not bias, have untainted integrity and are fully committed to protect the rule of law and parliamentary democracy,” he told FMT here today.

Waythamoorthy, who had perused thousands of documents on Malaya independence, insisted that a social contract was never mentioned in the pre-independence talks.

“Nothing was ever stated on a social contract in the pre-independence talks between then Malayan leaders and the British colonial government.

“When the independence talks took place, all three communities were given equal representation and footing.

He said it was a total lie that Indians and Chinese were given citizenship in return to agreeing to Malay privileges, adding, “A social contract does not exist at all.”

“It’s just their imagination to justify racist policies,” said Waythamoorthy.

He said it was unimaginable how Mohd Noor had meted out justice to non-Muslims and non-Malays when his knowledge of the constitution and its principles was so shallow and the result of a racist mindset.

He rubbished Mohd Noor’s claim of the “reasonable rights” of non-Malays and said that the ex-judge was misleading the people on the historical development of the Constitution.

“There is only one right and that is the absolute right of every citizen without racial or religious discrimination as clearly stipulated in Article 8 of the Constitution,” Waythamoorthy said.

He said many Malaysians now questioned where and how Mohd Noor obtained his law degree and whether there was indeed a grave mistake committed by the selection committee in appointing him as a judge.

“It clearly shows there is an urgent need to overhaul the selection process of judges to avoid and weed out individuals with racist mindsets and tendencies,” he said.

“It’s time for more non-Malays, non-Muslims and Borneo natives to be appointed as judges,” he said.

Many thanks for the goodies, Mr PM

Budget 2015 is certainly people-friendly, but it falls short in responding to economic and financial imperatives.

By Ramon Navaratnam

Now that our PM has delivered a truly people-friendly budget, let’s give him a big thank you for all the goodies. But let’s also ask ourselves how Budget 2015 could have been better. After all, it’s always good to review, revise and improve. This applies to ourselves as individuals and should apply to us as a nation.

Firstly the relationship between the People’s Budget and the Capital Budget could have been more balanced. The budget tended to be more populist in its stance and less concerned with responding strenuously to the economic and financial imperatives that the PM himself mentioned in his speech.

There was little treatment of how to deal with the long term structural issues—how to reduce capital outflows, how to counter the brain drain, and what to do to promote meritocracy and raise international competitiveness to higher levels. Neither did we hear much about how the government proposes to address some of the obvious causes of rising inflation, which are corruption, wastage in expenditure, protectionism, negotiated tenders and sheer inefficiencies in many parts of our economy.

The budget addressed the short term problems quite well, but the structural and harder challenges received less attention.

Secondly, although we understand that the short-term people’s budget and the longer term capital budget have some “symbiotic relationship”, we would like the government to give higher priority to efforts that would ensure good governance and the socio-economic sustainability of our system of government.

This critical issue of continued sustainability for the future well-being of our country and our people was recently admirably highlighted by the Sultan of Perak. We could certainly do much better by taking heed of his sound advice.

Thirdly, the seven main strategies mentioned in the budget speech are positive, useful and welcome. But it would be better at this advanced stage of our national development to focus much more on a Malaysian agenda that has no racial basis.

Let’s formulate our socio-economic planning and budgets on the basis of needs and not race or religion. Please unite and don’t divide Malaysians. After all, we are all God’s children and living in One Malaysia.

Let’s increasingly concentrate on just universal human values rather than narrow race and religious parochialism in our policies and implementation of them.

What we need in our budgets is inclusiveness, not exclusiveness. We need to promote greater national unity instead of creating any sense of disunity or even perceived feelings of alienation.

Finally, I believe that Budget 2015 was generally well received by the rakyat because it contains a lot of perks for them. However, let’s keep our socio-economic and political policies focused more on long term sustainability and continuing and greater peace and progress for all Malaysians, please.

Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam, a former deputy secretary-general of the Finance Ministry, now heads the ASLI Center of Public Policy Studies.

Sedition threat curbing quality of education

The charging of academicians have sent a chilling effect on academic freedom in an already underachieving education system.

FMT

PETALING JAYA: All the hype about improving the quality of education is mere rhetoric because the Education Ministry does not allow academics to express their views freely, deputy chairman of Johor DAP S.Ramakrishnan said today.

Ramakrishnan added that the recent charging of academician Azmi Sharom and the probe on Aziz Bari had a chilling effect on academic freedom in the country’s already underachieving education system.

In a statement he said that silencing academics showed that the ministry was not bothered about providing space for innovative and creative thinking despite none of Malaysia’s universities being ranked in the top 400 in the world.

“It is baffling to note that on the one hand the ministry talks about improving the quality of education by promoting creative and critical thinking but on the other restricts, regulates and censors the role of academics by preventing them from expressing their views.

“Can our higher education centres become world-class universities when the dagger of the Sedition Act hangs over the heads of academics and students?” he asked.

Ramakrishnan said the ministry had only achieved the job of flooding the market with graduates who were neither employable nor able to express themselves to their colleagues and audiences.

“If nobody employs our graduates, the government is ever ready to absorb and convert them into their loyal vote bank.

“That’s how we now have 1.4 million civil servants in a bloated government service and they absorb about 40% of the operating budget every year,” he said.

Loyalty oath is a preemptive move

Ramakrishnan also said university heads and others holding key posts were political appointees.

He said Malaysia was one country where academics could not get a transfer from one university to another to gain new experience or undertake research without the approval of the Education Ministry.

He added that academics had to sign a loyalty oath, the ‘Aku Janji’ contract which further restricted their conduct and activities inside and outside their workplaces.

“The loyalty oath is a preemptive move to restrict the freedom of academics. Besides, the Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA) has reduced higher education centres to being passive and submissive ones,” he said.

Quality of education is sliding downwards

“The loyalty oath implies that without subscribing to the oath, academics will commit or encourage an act of subversion or treason. This is a preposterous assumption that has to be condemned by all academics.

“Both the Universities and University Colleges Act and the Statutory Bodies (Discipline and Surcharge) Act 2000 (Act 605) are documents that show a blatant curb on academic freedom and university autonomy.”

Saying universities were slowly but surely becoming government departments taking orders from higher up, he added, “Unless academic freedom is given its due place and respect, significant contributions to the quality of the institution as a whole cannot be promoted to a level of excellence.”

Ramakrishnan said despite the ministry receiving a bigger budget every year, the quality of education kept sliding.

Why wasn’t Utusan probed for sedition?

PAS MP slams government's double standards by comparing Utusan Malaysia and Harakah.

FMT

KUALA LUMPUR: Rantau Panjang MP Siti Zailah Mohd Yusoff today accused the government of being selective when applying restrictions on media freedom.

Claiming that Utusan Malaysia as the government’s mouthpiece, was subjected to far less restrictions compared to other media, she asked why the paper was allowed to “continually publish seditious and provocative material”.

Driving home her point, she questioned, “Were there ever any sedition charges against Utusan? No.

“But it’s allowed for circulation daily here in Malaysia, but Harakah is only allowed to be published twice a week?”

Furthering her argument she said, “This is proof that there’s no media freedom in Malaysia, as claimed by the Minister of Communication and Multimedia.”

Siti Zailah also claimed that media freedom was crucial in moving towards developed nation status.

Minister of Communication and Multimedia, Ahmad Shabery Cheek responded by clarifying that the Printing Presses and Publications Act was under the home ministry and entailed a whole different set of rules and laws altogether.

The heated debate ensued after MP for Tanjong Karang, Noh Haji Omar brought up the issue of media freedom to Ahmad Shabery in Parliament this morning.

Noh was concerned that media freedom in Malaysia was being violated with the spread of information that went beyond acceptable limits.

Keep Sedition Act to ensure peace

Calling for its abolition is part of the opposition's cheap theatrics

FMT

KUALA LUMPUR: A Barisan Nasional member of Parliament today urged for the Sedition Act 1948 to stay as it is seen as a way to ensure peace in the country.

Datuk Seri Noh Omar (BN-Tanjung Karang) said after the Internal Security Act (ISA) 1960 and Emergency Ordinance (EO) 1969 were abolished, security and peace in the country could be threatened if the Sedition Act was also repealed.

“If it is amended or the name changed, the act needs to be tightened by amending several provisions.

“This act, however, definitely needs to be maintained as it is one that can guarantee peace in the country,” he said when debating the Supply Bill 2015.

Noh, who is also Selangor Umno Liaison chief, said the opposition wanted the act to be abolished just like how they had been vocal for the government to repeal the ISA and EO.

“Calling for abolition of the Sedition Act is part of their (opposition) cheap theatrics, and I am sure that if they are in power, they would bring back the ISA for their own benefit,” he added. – Bernama

ISIS AND THE ASSAD REGIME

By İbrahim Kalın

While the world's attention has been focused on Kobani over the last two weeks, the Assad regime continues its bloody war. Most recently, the regime killed scores of people in Damascus and dropped barrel bombs in several cities. More people are fleeing Syria, adding to the number of millions of refugees and internally displaced people. With the rise of ISIS, the Assad regime has not become a lesser security threat for the Syrian people and neighboring countries. To the contrary, the carnage and chaos it causes continues to be one of the most fertile and disastrous breeding grounds of extremism in the Middle East.

In the meantime, ISIS continues to advance to new territories in Iraq and Syria. After ISIS was stopped at the borders of Iraqi Kurdistan, it began to move toward Baghdad again. It made significant advances toward the Iraqi capital over the last few weeks. It remains in control of Mosul and other swaths of territory. It will not be a big surprise if ISIS makes a surprise attack on Baghdad when the world's attention is turned to Kobani.

While all this happens and ISIS kills Sunni opposition groups, Shiites, Western journalists, Yazidis, Christians and so on, it is yet to carry out any attacks on the Syrian regime. Is this not strange? ISIS is using the weapons it captured in Iraq and Syria in its current barbarism. In Syria, it uses the Russian-made weapons it seized from the Syrian army. In Iraq, it uses the American-made heavy weaponry it seized from the Iraqi army. With other opposition groups weakened or destroyed, it has no shortage of fighters joining from around the world.

It is no secret that ISIS received substantial support from the Assad regime since the spring of 2014 when the Free Syrian Army (FSA) took major hits in the battle. This was also when the international community failed to provide help. ISIS moved into territories cleared by the Assad regime's aerial strikes whose main targets were the FSA and other opposition groups. As ISIS took control of much of the north of Syria, Assad felt secure because ISIS territories created some sort of a buffer-zone between Damascus and the opposition-held areas in the north.

The PYD was already doing that for Assad in the Kurdish-populated areas: instead of joining the Syrian opposition, the PYD and its military wing, the HPG, formed multiple alliances with the Assad regime on the one hand and the PKK on the other. Turkey sought to engage the PYD and its leader Salih Muslim but on the condition that it severe its relations with the regime in Damascus. Instead of taking a clear position, the PYD continued to play double games, jeopardizing its own position in a tricky and brutal war. It was not just Turkey but also the leaders of the Iraqi Kurdistan as well the Americans that warned the PYD leadership of avoiding shady deals with the regime.

Let's ask again: why has ISIS not carried out a single serious attack on the Assad regime? If, as some claim rather preposterously, Turkey supports ISIS because it opposes the Assad regime, why have we not seen any serious battles between ISIS and Assad forces? Why is ISIS moving away from Damascus and other regime-held major cities and instead moving to the north, i.e., Turkish-Syrian border and east, i.e., north-western Iraq?

The Assad regime and its allies find ISIS a helpful tool; it is their useful idiot that they can use against the moderate Syrian opposition to divide and weaken it. ISIS is also an effective instrument in the propaganda war where ISIS's scenes of beheadings, barbaric and horrible as they are, are fully used to shadow the killing of more than 200,000 people by the Assad regime. It also provides a cover, though a temporary one, for the war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by Assad and his commanders.

In Iraq, ISIS is a coalition of impossible allies. Moderate Arab Sunni tribes, ex-Baathists and Saddam commanders, Islamic opposition groups and even some Naqshbandi groups have all joined ranks with ISIS against what they see as an oppressive, dysfunctional and sectarian Baghdad. What binds them is not an ideology of Wahhabism, though this is what appears on the surface, but rather a politics of solidarity against a common enemy. What will convince these groups to part ways with ISIS is a new security and political architecture in Iraq where all will feel equal and empowered.

It looks like the only party not afraid of ISIS is the Assad regime. ISIS is yet to make any advances against the regime. It is as though the territories of the so-called Islamic State do not include the territories held by the Baath regime in Damascus. It even looks like the Assad regime is happy with the ISIS threat as it provides a comfort zone for it. ISIS must be fought against and defeated. But this should be done with a proper strategy that addresses the root causes of the problem.

Nancy Shukri has become the template for MCA and Gerakan Ministers seeking to deny the truth instead of facing up to harsh realities

By Lim Kit Siang Blog

The Minister in the Prime Ministers’ Department, Nancy Shukri, who was in the eye of a national storm for a whole week for her parliamentary answer to the Penang Chief Minister and Bagan MP, Lim Guan Eng, why Perkasa President, Ibrahim Ali was not charged over his threat to burn the Malay-language Bible seems to have become the template and model for MCA and Gerakan Ministers and leaders seeking to deny the truth instead of facing up to harsh realities.

The storm over Nancy’s outrageous reply why Ibrahim Ali was not charged will not end unless and until Nancy faces up to the harsh reality that neither common sense nor the law of the land can accept the defence of Islam or Federal Constitution Article 11(4) as valid reasons to justify threats to burn the Malay-language Bible or any sacred religious scripture enjoying immunity and impunity from lawful prosecutions or sanctions.

Have Malaysian lawlessness reach a stage where the threat to commit crime, subversion or even terrorism can be justified on the ground of defending the sanctity of any religion or the Constitution?

Nancy still owes Parliament and the nation a full apology for her shocking reply and subsequent explanation over why Ibrahim was not charged for his threat to burn the Malay-language Bible.

Yesterday, Ibrahim Ali defended his threat to burn the Malay-language Bible in January 2013 saying it was only meant for Muslim parents of students who were allegedly given the holy book outside their school last year.

Ibrahim’s latest explanation is not borne out by the media reports at the time, i.e. in January and February 2013; and in any event, it is for Ibrahim to put up his questionable defence in a court of law and not for the police or the Attorney-General to second-guess what would be the court’s decision.

Ibrahim made the threat to burn the Malay-language Bible in Permatang Pauh in Penang on January 19, 2013, which was followed by a series of police reports lodged against him.

By the end of the month, the Penang Police Chief Datuk Abdul Rahim Hanafi announced that the police had completed its investigations and was ready to hand its papers to the Attorney-General’s Chambers.

It is noteworthy that at the time, the Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail had said that action will only be taken against Ibrahim if bibles were burnt and that the latter’s statement was not of grave concern which caused the former Attorney-General Tan Sri Abu Talib who served as AG for 13 years from 1980 to 1993 to join the chorus of voices expressing concern about selective prosecution.

It is surprising that Nancy Shukri seems to have provided the template for MCA and Gerakan Ministers to deny the truth instead of facing up to the harsh realities as illustrated in the controversy over the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s speech at the MCA annual general meeting on Sunday.

MCA and Gerakan Ministers are united in their claim that online news portals had “twisted” Najib’s speech, and I am even accused by a former MCA Deputy Finance Minister of having “twisted” Najib’s speech.

This is what this former Deputy Finance Minister said:

“I have spent years in Parliament and I know Kit Siang well. He is very good at twisting facts. He brings up good ideas on democracy and freedom.”

I thank him for admitting that I had brought up “good ideas on democracy and freedom” in Parliament, but I welcome him or the current MCA and Gerakan Ministers to pinpoint how I had twisted Najib’s speech at the MCA general assembly on Sunday.

In my statement yesterday, I said Najib had come up with a new variation of his “You help me, I help you” line, which he made infamous in the Sibu parliamentary by-election in May 2010, when addressing the MCA general assembly where he said:

“You can’t demand and then support DAP. You can’t demand and then support PR. You demand, you support BN, we will be fair to the Chinese community.”

Isn’t Najib’s implicit message very obvious – that the Chinese community cannot expect the government to be fair if they do not support the BN?

I am prepared to stand corrected and to apologise if MCA, Gerakan and UMNO Ministers and leaders can point out where I had “twisted” Najib’s speech.

It is indeed pathetic that MCA and Gerakan Ministers and leaders dare not even tell Najib that his speech at the 61st MCA general assembly was offensive and obnoxious as it ran counter to Najib’s four fundamental objectives: to be Prime Minister of all Malaysians; his 1Malaysia Policy where everyone is a Malaysian first and race, religion, region or socio-economic status second; his Global Movement of Moderates initiative and his pledge to make Malaysia the world’s best democracy?

LAWASIA Support for Malaysian Bar’s Walk for Peace and Freedom

LAWASIA, the Law Association for Asia and the Pacific, notes the resolution of the Malaysian Bar at its Extraordinary General Meeting of 19 September to arrange a peaceful public protest by its members against the continued use of the Sedition Act 1948. 

It is strongly supportive of this and other ongoing efforts of Malaysian Bar members to advocate for the repeal of this Act, and to call for the immediate withdrawal of criminal charges against all persons currently facing prosecutions. 

LAWASIA expresses its deep concern that the use of the Sedition Act by the authorities in Malaysia has become a tool to suppress legitimate dissent and to curtail universal human rights, especially that of freedom of speech. It is further concerned at allegations that the Act is being used in a discriminatory way, so that only those who are viewed as critical of the government are subject to investigation and prosecution under its powers.

In expressing its support of the forthcoming Walk for Peace and Freedom by Malaysian Bar members, LAWASIA observes that Malaysian Bar action is in complete synergy with requirements of lawyers under the Legal Profession Act 1976 :

to uphold the cause of justice without regard to its own interests or that of its members, uninfluenced by fear or favour;

where requested to do so, to express its view on matters affecting legislation and the administration and practice of law in Malaysia;

to protect and assist the public in all matters ancilliary or incidental to the law

It notes further that Article 23 of the Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, as settled by the United Nations, provides:

Freedom of expression and association

23. Lawyers like other citizens are entitled to freedom of expression, belief, association and assembly. In particular, they shall have the right to take part in public discussion of matters concerning the law, the administration of justice and the promotion and protection of human rights and to join or form local, national or international organizations and attend their meetings, without suffering professional restrictions by reason of their lawful action or their membership in a lawful organization. In exercising these rights, lawyers shall always conduct themselves in accordance with the law and the recognized standards and ethics of the legal profession.

In view of the fact that a number of those who have been prosecuted under the Sedition Act are members of the Malaysian legal community, it calls on the Malaysian government to respect this principle and not to proceed with unwarranted charges against them. 

It further calls on Malaysian authorities to ensure that Malaysian lawyers are able to carry out their mandated duty through actions including the forthcoming "Walk for Peace and Freedom 2014", without fear of reprisals from those elements of Malaysian society who oppose their views.

Isomi Suzuki

PRESIDENT

10 October 2014

Three Maran Umno Members Sacked

Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and Datuk Seri Najib Tun RazakKUALA LUMPUR, Oct 14 (Bernama) -- Umno's Disciplinary Committee has sacked three members from its Maran division in Pahang with immediate effect for two offences including sabotaging the party.

Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, in making the announcement on the sackings, said Mohd Zamri Mohd Sham from the Kampong Sekara branch was sacked for speaking at a Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) platform during the formation of PKR's Maran division, and attacking Umno after being dissatisfied with the divisional leadership in Maran Umno.

The two others were Mohd Khairi Dahalan from the Taman Sri Keramat branch and Ahmad Shukor Awang from the Kampong Senggora branch, for being members of Maran Umno and Maran PKR at the same time.

"Now we are very strict. We will not tolerate dual membership and will sack any member committing this offence once we have the proof," Najib told a press conference after chairing an Umno Supreme Council (MT) meeting at the Putra World Trade Centre here Tuesday.

Najib, who is also Prime Minister and Finance Minister, also disclosed that the MT wanted special attention to be given to rural development as had been tabled in Budget 2015 in the Dewan Rakyat on Friday.

In Budget 2015, the government among others is allocating RM4.5 billion to provide and upgrade rural infrastructure facilities, especially in Sabah and Sarawak.

Najib said the MT members also stressed on the importance of implementation and distribution of allocations in Budget 2015, so that all programmes and projects earmarked could proceed smoothly.

"Overall, the MT members are very satisfied with Budget 2015," he said, adding that they were also informed the Bumiputera Economic Empowernment Agenda was expressed openly as a national agenda when the budget was tabled.

The Budget themed "People Economy" provides for RM223.4 billion in operating expenditure and RM50.5 billion in development expenditure.

In other matters, Najib said the MT was also informed that the Pengkalan Kubor by-election on Sept 25 would serve as a template to continue the Barisan Nasional's good performance in future by-elections.

Najib also thanked Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin who led the BN machinery in the by-election with the support of Kelantan Umno chief Datuk Mustapa Mohamed.

The Pengkalan Kubor by-election was won by BN candidate Mat Razi Mat Ail who secured 9,961 votes, His opponents, Wan Rosdi Wan Ibrahim of PAS garnered 7,326 votes while and independent candidate, Izat Bukhary Ismail Bukhary, managed only 38 votes.