Tabung Haji Perlu Lantik CEO Ulama

Utusan Malaysia pada 26 Oktober 2005 melaporkan bahawa Raja Datuk Ahmad Zainuddin Raja Omar (BN-Larut) menyarankan agar Tabung Haji (TH) melantik CEO dari kalangan ulama untuk menerajui LUTH. "Paling penting CEO yang dilantik itu tidak terkeluar dari objektif penubuhan TH." Beliau berkata demikian ketika membahaskan Bajet 2006 peringkat jawatankuasa di Dewan Rakyat pada 25 Oktober 2005.

Bagaimanapun, kenyataan beliau ini diperbetulkan oleh Datuk Che Min Che Ahmad (BN-Pasir Puteh) dengan menyatakan pelantikan CEO di kalangan ulama itu perlu dilakukan dengan syarat mempunyai sifat-sifat umarak iaitu mempunyai keupayaan mentadbir. Raja Ahmad Zainuddin bagaimanapun menegaskan bahawa tidak kira sama ada ulama itu mempunyai sifat umarak tetapi yang paling penting ia dapat memastikan TH sentiasa melaksanakan objektif penubuhan LUTH.

Saranan ini disokong oleh Datuk Mohd Said Yusoh (BN-Jasin) yang menyatakan pelantikan CEO di kalangan ahli-ahli korporat, tugas utama mereka ialah mengurangkan jumlah pekerja. Katanya, walaupun pekerja-pekerja itu baik, amanah dan menyumbang kepada TH tetapi kerana keputusan perniagaan diberhentikan dari TH. "CEO macam ni memang baguslah kerana dapat kurangkan kos pengurusan dan pada hujung tahun dapat pulangan kerana kos telah berkurangan. Seperkara lagi, CEO dari korporat ini hanya berminat untuk menswastakan syarikat-syarikat TH yang untung, tetapi hendak mencari perniagaan baru tidak dibuat."

Mohd Said juga memberitahu, TH amat penting kepada umat Islam kerana selama ini telah banyak memberikan perkhidmatan cemerlang seperti dapat memberikan keuntungan yang tinggi kepada pendeposit. "TH memberikan pulangan antara lapan hingga sembilan peratus dahulu dan sekarang ini antara empat hingga 4.25 peratus; itu baik dan umat Islam menyimpan di TH kerana ia dapat duit yang dibersihkan iaitu telah dibayar zakat. Malangnya sekarang ini, semuanya teruk. Oleh itu kalau menteri hendak membuat perubahan besar-besaran buatlah, Dewan Rakyat akan menyokong sebarang tindakan yang akan meletakkan TH pada kedudukan seperti dulu."

Pandangan:

Kenyataan-kenyataan umum seperti ini tidak dapat dipertahankan sama ada dengan fakta mahupun angka.

Yang dapat kita fahami dari berita di atas ialah yang dikehendaki ialah pertama, seorang CEO yang dapat memastikan TH tidak tersasar dari dan dapat melaksanakan objektif penubuhannya. Kedua, CEO yang dapat mengembangkan urusniaga baru TH. Ketiga TH dapat memberikan pulangan yang tinggi. Dan keempat, simpanan para pendeposit di TH perlu terjamin bersih.

Soalnya kini, (i) apakah pemilihan CEO itu perlu dilihat dari aspek ulama atau umarak, ataupun dinilai dari aspek kelayakannya memimpin sebuah badan pelaburan? (ii) apakah objektif penubuhan TH sudah tersasar? (iii) apakah TH tidak melaksanakan objektif penubuhannya? (iv) apakah sektor pelaburan baru yang dimaksudkan? (v) apakah bidang urusniaga baru itu ialah hanya melabur di dalam sektor pelaburan konvensional seperti sektor perbankan, unit amanah dan bon Islam sahaja? (vi) apakah pelaburan di dalam syarikat perniagaan dan kaunter-kaunter syari'ah di Bursa Saham termasuk di dalam skop pelaburan yang dimaksudkan? (vii) apakah wajar TH melabur di Bursa Saham? (viii) apakah kelainannya melabur di kaunter-kaunter syari'ah di Bursa Saham dan melabur di dalam anak syarikatnya yang turut disenaraikan di Bursa Saham? (ix) apakah dengan melabur di dalam instrumen kewangan Islam konvensional akan dapat memberi pulangan tinggi? (x) bidang pelaburan manakah yang dapat memberi pulangan tinggi? (xi) apakah penanda aras (benchmark) kepada maksud "pulangan yang tinggi"? dan (xii) apakah yang dikehendaki oleh para "legislators" kita boleh dicapai dengan kaedah lain?

Indonesia: Fuel Price Issues

Eligibility cardholders to be evaluated each quarter

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, 10 Oct 2005

The Jakarta administration plans to periodically evaluate whether the recipients of cash assistance from the central government are still eligible for the facility. The cash assistance was set up to offset the effects of the Oct. 1 fuel price increases.

"After three months, we need to evaluate whether or not the fuel compensation cardholders still meet the set criteria. Otherwise, they are not entitled to the cash payments," Jakarta Deputy Governor Fauzi Bowo said over the weekend. He used as an example poor families who received financial assistance from relatives outside the family unit.

Among 14 criteria used as yardsticks to measure whether a household is deemed poor are the family's daily income and expenditure on health services, food and clothing. If a family meets at least eight of the criteria, then it is entitled to receive Rp 100,000 monthly, distributed every three months.

The first disbursement of the fund was for the October to December period. The second disbursement is expected to be carried out early next year. State mail company PT Posindo will be in charge of the cash payments. Fauzi added the periodical evaluation was also needed in the case of families who had not initially been eligible but whose breadwinner lost their job due to cutbacks resulting from the fuel price increases.

"In principle, we have to make sure that only those poor families will enjoy the cash payments," he emphasized.
The Jakarta Statistics Agency (BPS Jakarta) said it had first registered 101,219 poor households, or 444,527 residents across the city.

However, it had since discovered the wrongful issuance of some cards, which it would withdraw and destroy. "We have to drop some names from the list of recipients -- although they claim they are poor -- since it was found out that they failed to meet the required criteria," BPS Jakarta head Sunari Sarwono said.

He said that as of last week, it had canceled the payments of at least 3,263 residents registered as recipients of the program, or 3.49 percent. It has also withdrawn 276 cards for reasons ranging from incorrect information on the printed cards (23 cards), recipients not found (94 cards), recipients having moved to unknown places (nine cards) and other reasons (150 cards).

"We will destroy the withdrawn cards to prevent any misuse of them," he added. He said his agency was verifying the status of 5,222 poor families who had not been registered as fuel compensation card recipients during the initial registration dragnet held weeks before the fuel price increases.

"They will immediately receive the cash payments as long as they fulfill most of the 14 poverty criteria," he emphasized.

Complaint center called for to help monitor cash aid program

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, 10 Oct 2005

Following numerous reports of errors in the distribution of fuel compensation cards in the capital, the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) is calling for the establishment of a complaint center to help protect poor residents. The central government, through regional administrations, is delivering cash assistance of Rp 100,000 a month to poor families across the country to help offset the effects of the recent fuel price increases. However, there have been numerous reports that thousands of the fuel compensation cards needed to claim the assistance have fallen into the hands of people who do not qualify for the program, including civil servants.

YLKI member Sudaryatmo said on Saturday the Central Statistic Agency (BPS) was not equipped to document every poor resident across the country. "From the beginning we have objected to the way the cash is being dispersed, as it is difficult to determine who is poor and who is not. The way the program is set up is also prone to abuse. They should have realized the quality of government officials at the subdistrict level," he told The Jakarta Post.

Sudaryatmo said the only way to make sure every poor resident received the cash assistance was for the government set up a complaint center that was fully accessible by the poor. "They would also be able to file reports on the misuse of funds in the program. That kind of participation would allow the government to monitor the program," he said.

Sudaryatmo, however, said such a center would be useless unless the government followed up on every complaint and report filed by the public. He said the government could cooperate with credible non-governmental institutions to establish the center.

To help offset the effects of the fuel price increases that took effect on Oct. 1, the government is giving Rp 100,000 (US$10) a month to poor families across the country. The government is using data from the BPS to determine who qualifies for the assistance.

In Jakarta, 101,219 poor families were initially registered to receive money under the program. However, there are growing concerns over the accuracy of the data, with many experts saying most of the recipients of the cash do not qualify for the program.

Last week, the BPS acknowledged it had made mistakes with its data. Subsequently, the agency removed 3,539 families from its list of those entitled to receive the cash assistance. Meanwhile, the head of the statistical analysis division at BPS Jakarta, Tefi Mathias, said his office had been checking over the initial data for the past three weeks.

"We have found that many families and neighborhood unit heads falsified their data. For instance, many neighborhood unit heads who are not poor were included on the lists," he told the Post. Tefi said all 250 officials at BPS Jakarta had gone door-to-door to verify whether families on the list of recipients really qualified for the money.

He said his office would finish the verification process on Monday. "We have finished the verification in Central Jakarta, North Jakarta, South Jakarta and West Jakarta. On Sunday, we hope to finish verifying families in East Jakarta. We will announce the results on Monday," Tefi said.

'We have to totally change our lifestyle'

Jakarta Post, 10 Oct 2005

The recent fuel price hikes have led to follow-on increases in the prices of other communities and considerably reduced people's purchasing power. The Jakarta Post interviewed some people here on what we as a nation will have to do to weather the pinch.

Chrisan, 21, is a student at the University of Indonesia in Depok, West Java. She lives with her family in Tanjung Barat, South Jakarta: I can understand why the government raised fuel prices. When I was in Bangkok recently, I noticed that gas prices there were between Rp 6,000 and 7,000 per liter. So, looking at this, it was a must for the government to raise fuel prices. However, the fuel price hike means an increase in other prices, including transportation charges and the cost of food. I have made several changes to my lifestyle to adapt to this new situation. I used to spend a lot of money on food. Now, I bring food from home, instead of buying food at the campus canteen. With this, I can use the money I save for other things, including buying text books and for photocopying expenses. I will try also to cut back on my shopping and will buy only the things that I really need.

Sutopo, 42, is an employee of a private bank in Central Jakarta. He lives with his wife and children in Bekasi: The fuel price hikes have really affected me as the prices of most other things are also skyrocketing. I used to drive my own car to the office. Now, I can't afford to buy fuel and pay the expressway tolls. Now, I'm taking public transportation, but taking the bus is very inconvenient. Besides, I have to change buses several times before arriving at my office. As a result, I often arrive late. That's why I plan to sell my car and buy a motorcycle as I think I can reach my office more quickly that way. Besides, a motorcycle only needs around three liters of premium to last several days. I know that using a motorcycle is more tiresome but I just can't see any other alternative. I hope that by using a motorcycle I can save more to cover other expenses, including food and my children's school expenses.

Apostolic, Zionist Churches' Resolution On Polygamy Hailed?

"Apostolic, Zionist Churches' Resolution On Polygamy Hailed"
("The Herald," September 20, 2005)

Harare, Zimbabwe - THE resolution by Apostolic and Zionist churches to abolish polygamy has been greeted by many Pentecostal pastors as bold stride to- wards thwarting the further spread of HIV and Aids. Polygamy, which has been blamed for fuelling the spread of HIV and Aids, has been prevalent in Apostolic faith sects.

In separate interviews, several Pentecostal pastors yesterday hailed the resolution by the Union for Development of Apostolic Churches in Zimbabwe (UDACIZA) for setting up programmes aimed at transforming the Apostolic sect into an entity that is compatible with the present health situation. Pastor Emmanuel Singano from Pentecostal Assemblies of Zimbabwe (PAOZ) said the Apostolic and Zionist churches had been running away from the truth in the Bible that a man should have only one wife.

"I hailed the new decision by these churches to ban polygamy because the Bible itself says every man should have his own wife.

"This is also going to reduce the spread of the devastating HIV and Aids because you can see that if a man has got five wives and one gets infected, that means all the remaining four also risk being infected," said Pastor Singano.
Another pastor from Apostolic Faith Mission in Zimbabwe (AFM) said if this issue of polygamy has been abolished from these Apostolic sects, it is going to reduce the spread of many diseases.

He said polygamy was not a church doctrine or constitution but it is someone's decision when he found that he needed another wife. He quoted the verse in the Bible in Malachi 2 verse 15, which says: "Didn't God make you one body and spirit with her? What was his purpose in this? It was that you should have children who are truly God's people. So make sure that none of you breaks his promise to his wife."

"The ban of polygamy and early marriages is very good because young girls were forced into marriage at tender ages," said Pastor Mubingi.

UDACIZA was formed in response to the need for independent churches in Zimbabwe to address national development issues, eradication of ignorance, alleviation of poverty and most importantly the prevention of HIV and Aids among members and the nation at large.

England: Singer opens Muslim faith centre

"Singer opens Muslim faith centre"
("BBC News," September 20, 2005)

Cardiff, Wales - Former pop star Yusuf Islam - previously known as Cat Stevens - has opened a faith centre focusing on Islam and Muslims in Britain. The musician, who had a string of hits in the 1960s and 1970s, is chair of the Islamia Schools Trust.

The unit at Cardiff University is the first of its kind in Britain and will lead research on Muslims in the UK. The centre also offers a postgraduate course called Islam in Contemporary Britain. Speaking at launch on Tuesday at Cardiff Business School, he said the centre was a "symbol of opportunity" to bridge the gulf of understanding he thought there was between Muslims and wider society. He said: "Now is a chance, I think, to have a partnership, an academic understanding also, of how Islam impacts on the sociological behaviour of people, Muslims and non-Muslims.

"I think it's important for non-Muslims to walk a little bit closer towards understanding Islam, and for Muslims to come closer to explaining it in a better, more academic and understandable way.

"It's a two-way partnership. And (the centre) is a great symbol of opportunity, in the background that we have today, to go forward and perhaps make Islam a bit more integral to the British society, which it is capable of doing."

Centre director Sophie Gilliat-Ray said Cardiff was an ideal location for the venture because the city was home to one of the oldest Muslim communities in Britain. "Few people know that the first mosque in the UK was established in Cardiff in 1860," she said. "From this early history, there is now a sizeable and well-established Muslim population in the city, making Cardiff one of the best places to fully appreciate the full and dynamic history of Islam and Muslims in Britain."

The research centre will be based in the School of Religious and Theological Studies. Members of the local Muslim community will form part of the advisory committee. The university said its aim was to promote "scholarly and public understanding" of Islam and the life of Muslim communities in Britain.

As well as offering new masters and diploma qualifications, the centre will provide professional development courses for specific groups, such as prison officers, police officers and teachers. The centre will also host a public lecture series and international conferences. Mohammed Evans, from the Ethnic Minority Achievement Service in Cardiff Council, said the centre would be an "accessible, vibrant, and inclusive hub of learning about Islam in Britain, for Muslims and non-Muslims alike".

Yusuf Islam - whose songs included Moon Shadow, Peace Train and Morning Has Broken - became a Muslim in 1977. He did not record another pop song until March 2003, when he contributed to a charity album to raise money for the children of Iraq.

BBC defends Islamic documentary against criticism from Muslim group

"BBC defends Islamic documentary against criticism from Muslim group"
(AP, October 6, 2005)

London, England - The British Broadcasting Corp. has rejected criticism of one of its programs by Britain's largest Islamic organization. The Panorama documentary, broadcast in August, said groups affiliated with the Muslim Council of Britain were promoting intolerant religious views.

Sir Iqbal Sacranie, the council's secretary general, said the program was ''deeply unfair'' and was ''purposefully trying to sabotage'' Muslims' progress entering the British mainstream. Sacranie is viewed as the voice of moderate Islam by the British government. Panorama editor Mike Robinson defended the broadcast, in a letter to the council made public last Friday.

''I have found there to be no truth in your claims that this program was dishonestly presented, maliciously motivated or Islamophobic,'' Robinson wrote. ''The program's purpose was to reflect, inform and generate debate in the Muslim community and the wider population about the nature and direction of the leadership of British Muslims.

''In the light of the London bombing, this is a debate which many Muslims to whom we spoke believe is long overdue,'' he added, referring to the July subway attacks.

The Muslim Council of Britain is an umbrella organization with more than 400 affiliated groups. They include the Ahl-e-Hadith organization, which is based in Birmingham and has 41 branches across the country. According to the Panorama documentary, one part of the Ahl-e-Hadith Web site tells followers to ''be different from Jews and Christians'' whose ''ways are based on sick or deviant views concerning their societies.''

India: State reserves jobs for Muslims

"State reserves jobs for Muslims"
by Omer Farooq ("BBC News," October 6, 2005)

Hyderabad, India - Andhra Pradesh has become the first Indian state to pass a law to reserve jobs across the board for its minority Muslim community. Five percent of government jobs and education places will be reserved for economically deprived Muslims. The move was announced in June but was passed by the state legislature in a vote on Wednesday. Two MPs of the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party walked out in opposition but the bill then passed unanimously.

'Wooing vote'

The minister responsible for the welfare of lower classes, D Srinivas, who had moved the bill in the house, said the reservations for Muslims would not affect the 25% reservations to the lower classes. The reservations to Muslims would be on top of that, he said. Senior BJP leader, G Kishan Reddy, said that the new move was meant to woo the Muslim vote bank.

He said reservations based on religion were against the secular spirit of the constitution. The hardline Vishwa Hindu Parishad, or World Hindu Council, had also opposed the move. The bill was drawn up on the recommendation of a special commission. Muslims make up about 10% of the 78m population in Andhra Pradesh. Under the policy, children of people earning more than 250,000 rupees ($5,700) a year will not be eligible for a reserved job. Neither will be children of top government officials.

Egypt may allow first Islamist party

"Egypt may allow first Islamist party"
by Magdi Abdelhadi ("BBC News," October 6, 2005)

Cairo, Egypt - An Islamist party in Egypt - which says a Christian can be head of state in a Muslim society - may become the country's first legal religious party before the end of the year, if a court rules in its favour. Founders of the al-Wasat party have been trying for nearly 10 years to get a permission to operate. The party has already had its application turned down twice.

The Egyptian constitution bans political parties with a religious agenda. It has long been argued that religious parties may sow sectarian conflict. But unlike other Islamist groups, al-Wasat has invited Copts (Egyptian Christians) to join its ranks. The party manifesto also says a Christian can become head of state in a predominantly Muslim society - a radical departure from orthodox Islamist ideology.

Egypt has a sizeable Christian minority, estimated at 5% to 10% of the population. They complain of marginalisation and discrimination. There have been repeated incidents of sectarian violence and the emergence of militant Islam has only exacerbated their fear and sense of alienation.

'True Islam'

But al-Wasat says it is committed to giving Christians full citizenship rights. Abul Ila Madi, one of the founders and chief ideologues of the party, told the BBC that "the majority has no right to impose its beliefs on the minority - or to ignore the rights of the minority". He adds that that it is an uphill struggle to convince both Christians and Muslims of the viability of his party: "I have Christian friends in Egypt. Many of them are convinced by our political ideas - but in the current climate in the country, they are afraid to join us.

"Muslims too - are not able to grasp the idea of an Islamist party with Christian members. So, we have a problem with both sides.

"We need to convince the majority that [our vision] is the true Islam and at the same time convince the minority to become partners."

But Mr Madi has yet to win his legal battle with the state before he can hope to win the hearts and minds of a sceptical Christian minority and the incredulous Muslim majority.

Application delay

Under Egyptian law, the programme of a new party has to be different from that of existing parties to be granted a licence to operate. The last time al-Wasat applied for a licence, the committee in charge of licensing political parties - which is controlled by the ruling National Democratic party - concluded that al-Wasat did not meet this condition and rejected its application.

The founders appealed against the decision, and a panel of legal experts concluded that the party programme was indeed distinctive. A court was due to rule on the matter on 1 October, but the decision has been postponed upon the request of the government.

Mr Madi says the government lawyers claimed they needed more time to read the 10-page report written by the legal experts back in June. Predictably, he suspects foul play. He says the ruling NDP does not want his party to contest the forthcoming parliamentary election due in November.

Appeal to the religious

The party manifesto could become a vote winning formula by appealing to religious sentiments of broad sectors of Egyptian society without disenfranchising the Christian minority. Most Egyptians are religious and that is why al-Wasat believes that both Christians and Muslims in Egypt share fundamentally the same conservative outlook.

Al-Wasat - which means moderate in Arabic - calls for the implementation of Islamic Sharia law - but it adopts a modern interpretation which gives women and Christians full citizenship rights and guarantees freedom of expression and belief. If al-Wasat were leading the government, apostasy - changing one's religion - would not be punishable by death as mainstream Islam requires.

But applying Islamic Sharia law is precisely what worries Egyptian Copts.

Reformed Sharia

Youssef Seidhoum, the editor of the Coptic newspaper Watani, welcomes al-Wasat's offer of full citizenship rights, but has concerns about government under Islamic Sharia. "We may be faced one day with someone who says Islamic Sharia calls for banning Christians from presiding over Muslims. And we are going to give you Christians all the citizenship rights that do not contradict Islamic Sharia," Mr Seidhoum said.

"Now this is Islamic Sharia - and this is the dark side that is not mentioned clearly when they paint the rosy picture of Copts getting equal rights." Nevertheless, al-Wasat offers itself as a moderate alternative to the country's most powerful Islamist group, the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, which has condemned its ideas. But if al-Wasat gets its licence, and if it can win the trust of Egypt's Christian minority, it will be a dramatic breakthrough for political opposition in Egypt.

Islamists could at last have a platform that is legal and which seeks to offer a new balance between traditional Islamic values and secularism.

Pakistani Woman Says Muslims Raped, Tried To Convert Her

"Pakistani Woman Says Muslims Raped, Tried To Convert Her"
("Compass," September 27, 2005)

Faisal Abad, Pakistan - A Pakistani woman has charged three men with raping her earlier this month and threatening to kill her if she did not convert from Christianity to Islam.

Ribqa Masih, 22, testified at last Thursday’s court hearing that Ghulam Abbas and Mohammad Kashif drugged and kidnapped her on September 2.

Masih had made the 10-mile trip from her home town of Chak to the city of Faisal Abad that morning with her Muslim friend Humaira Hussain. Hussain said she wanted help in gaining entrance to a Dominican boarding house in Faisal Abad, where Masih had previously stayed while receiving her teacher’s training.

A Trap

Unbeknownst to Masih, she said, Hussain had arranged to meet Abbas and Kashif at the bus stop in Faisal Abad, where the two men offered Masih a drink of water that made her lose consciousness.

She said the two men took her to a house in the city of Lahore, approximately 100 kilometers (62 miles) away, and raped her repeatedly throughout the night. They threatened to shoot her and to kill the rest of her family, she said, if she did not repeat the Islamic creed, an act which, if done in the presence of two Muslims, is considered a valid form of conversion to Islam.

Masih refused to convert, saying that she would rather die than change her religion. The next morning her kidnappers handed her over to another Muslim man, whom they said would return her home.

The Catholic woman’s new captor, however, repeatedly raped her over the next three days and threatened to kill her if she told anyone, Masih testified.

On September 6, the man finally returned Masih to Faisal Abad and left her at a public bus stop. Unable to walk due to vaginal injury, Masih hired a rickshaw to take her to her uncle’s house, where she telephoned her parents.

Attacker Claims Charges Are Politically Motivated

Police have apprehended only one of Masih’s attackers, Abbas, who denied accusations of rape at Thursday’s hearing. He called the charges “election enmity,” claiming that the case was politically motivated.

“In the last election, he and the Masih family voted for the same candidate,” Masih’s lawyer, Khalil Tahir, objected. “Neither family has anything to do with politics.”

For her part, Masih told Judge Adeela Altaf, “No woman would put her honor at stake for an election.”

In a country where honor is a matter of life and death, Masih’s words highlighted the gravity of her situation.

Physical, Emotional, Social Trauma

Masih’s priest, Father Paschal Paulus, said that when he first saw her after the alleged kidnapping, “she was sitting, and I asked her to get up, but she was just crying, and her father told me that she still had difficulty walking.

“This girl used to always sing and do the readings at daily mass. But the whole time I was there, she was just in fear, tears were coming from her eyes and she was very upset. She still has difficulty walking.”

Tahir, who is also representing Sonia Naz against members of the Pakistani police in a rape case that has received national media attention, said three or four instances of women being raped appear in local newspapers every day.
“Many girls never report [rape] to the police because they feel they will not get justice,” Tahir said. “On the other hand, this is a matter of prestige and family honor in Pakistan. Nobody wants to marry these girls, even though they are innocent.”

The consequences of rape are often even more serious than social stigmatization. During the first four months of this year, 57 women were reported killed on the pretext of “honor” in Pakistan, according to the Society for Human Rights and Prisoners Aid (SHARP) in a May article in Lahore’s Daily Times.

“There are many times where people are raped but they don’t raise their voice,” Fr. Paulus told Compass from the Waris Pura Catholic Church in Faisal Abad. “Money can buy the justice. So if you are poor, you know that anything possible can be done to you. People will just use you. Where there is no justice, people are scared of raising their voices.”

Family Pays Price for Courage

The priest said that the Masih family was unusual in their willingness to take a stand on their daughter’s rape. Despite his vulnerability as a poor Christian living in a Muslim village, Ribqa’s father, Rafique Masih, sought out Fr. Paulus and asked for his help in taking legal action.

“This is a very courageous family,” the priest said. “But in this case, if you are really becoming courageous, then you really have to carry your cross.”

That cross has come in the form of threats from Muslim neighbors.

The Masih family has been told that if they do not retract the court case, they will have one opened against them. Ribqa Masih’s six younger siblings have all withdrawn from school, where they faced constant taunting from classmates who called them “prostitutes.”

The Masih family has also received threatening phone calls from two of the alleged kidnappers, who remain at large. Fr. Paulus and the family suspect that the police’s failure to arrest these men signifies a deliberate attempt to protect them.

Tahir, who agreed to represent Masih pro bono, has appealed for the proceedings to be moved to an Anti-terrorism Act court on the basis that the “incident has created a sense of fear and insecurity in the minds” of the family. The lawyer has taken statements from several of Masih’s neighbors, who witnessed to the fact that the family is living under immense pressure.

XINJIANG: How long will arrested Sufi Muslims be held?

"XINJIANG: How long will arrested Sufi Muslims be held?"
by Igor Rotar ("Forum 18 News Service," September 26, 2005)

Xinjiang, China - Local Muslim Abdu Raheman has confirmed to Forum 18 News Service that the government of the Ili-Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture of China's north-western Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region banned the Sala movement – a local Sufi Muslim order - in August and that an unknown number of its followers have been arrested. "It wasn't the police who arrested them, but the security services," he told Forum 18 on 21 September in Ghulja (Yining in Chinese), the capital of the prefecture which lies close to the border with Kazakhstan. "There was no court case against them, so no-one knows how long they will spend behind bars." He said that virtually all of those arrested were Huis, ethnic Chinese Muslims who make up about eight per cent of the prefecture's population.

The local paper, the Yili Daily, reported last month that high-ranking prefectural officials held a special work conference on the Sala "threat" on 17 August. Zhang Yun, who is in charge of supervising the prefecture's religious affairs, warned government and communist party officials of the "dangerous" nature of Sala and said it had be to banned along with other illegal religions. Sala leaders were accused of "cheating and deceiving the masses, and inciting them to worship their religious leaders", and of pressuring followers to make donations to the organisation. Officials also accused its leaders of encouraging "trans-provincial worship" and "threatening social stability". However, official publications made no mention of any arrests. The German-based World Uyghur Congress later reported that 179 practitioners had been arrested.

Forum 18 was unable to find out why state officials had banned the Sala order. "Sala is a Sufi order that came to China from Central Asia," Ding Hong, a professor at the Beijing Institute of Nationalities, told Forum 18 from the capital on 23 September. "I'm not prepared to voice an opinion on whether or not this order is harmful. But I am sure that if some member of the order has been arrested, it was not for their religious beliefs."

"I'm sorry, but I am too busy to answer your questions," Dimu La Ti, rector at the Humanities College in the regional capital Urumqi [Ürümqi], told Forum 18 on 24 September. Forum 18 also telephoned the Beijing Institute of Social Issues the same day, but was told to send a formal written query and to give a detailed description of Forum 18 News Service's activities.

According to Chinese official sources, Sala was founded in the early 20th century in Qinghai province south-east of Xinjiang and has thousands of adherents, primarily from the Muslim ethnic Hui and Salar communities in Qinghai province, as well as in neighbouring Gansu province.

"Sala is a Sufi brotherhood which has similar rituals to those of the Sufi Qadiriyya brotherhood," Abdu Raheman, the owner of Ghulja's largest honey-producing company, told Forum 18. He stressed that virtually all the followers of Sala in the Ili-Kazakh autonomous prefecture are, like him, ethnic Huis.

Raheman believes the authorities are restricting the rights of Muslims of all ethnic background but are particularly harsh with the Huis. "The authorities want to suggest that Islam is the national religion of Turkish-speaking people who live in China – the Uyghurs, Kazakhs and Kyrgyz," he claimed. "The only thing distinguishing the Huis from other Chinese is their faith. The religious practices of the Huis bring out the international nature of Islam, and that aggravates the authorities."

He also confirmed that the authorities have launched a campaign to track down unauthorised religious literature. "The security services are searching for unauthorised religious books in Islamic bookshops and in private homes," he reported. "I personally know four Huis who have been arrested because they were found to have ancient religious books in Uyghur."

Abdu Raheman reports that the authorities have closed at least two Hui mosques in the past three months – one in the village of Tekes 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Ghulja and another in the village of Huocheng 100 kilometres (62 miles) north-west of Ghulja. The first mosque was closed because three Chinese had converted to Islam, he said, while the second was closed because the authorities felt the mosque building was too large.

Abdu Raheman claims that there is far less provision for Muslims' rights in Xinjiang than in the central parts of the country, which are more economically and socially developed. "In Henan province, children can attend Arabic-language schools which operate quite legally, but the Xinjiang authorities have ordered that pupils from the autonomous region be taken out of the school."

Raheman believes the authorities are unhappy with his critical comments and are trying to put indirect pressure on him. "Just recently, the authorities ended a rental contract for a cottage, for which I had a 50-year agreement. As a result, my family has had to move elsewhere."

The government tightly controls the practice of religion in Xinjiang, particularly among ethnic Uyghurs, who now make up some 42 per cent of the regional population.

In addition to the most recent arrests among the Sala practitioners, elsewhere in Xinjiang the authorities arrested a Uyghur religious instructor, Aminan Momixi, and 37 of her students aged between 7 and 20 after bursting into her home on 1 August, the World Uyghur Congress reported. Police accused her of "illegally possessing religious materials and subversive historical information". The Uyghur Human Rights Project reported that police in central Xinjiang detained three Uyghurs on 20 July for possession of the Mishkat-ul Misabih, a religious text describing the life and work of the Muslim prophet Muhammed.

[Malaysia] Persoalan Di Sebalik Cadangan Penyenaraian TH Plantation

Persoalan Di Sebalik Cadangan Penyenaraian TH Plantation

Malaysiakini pada 10 Oktober 2005 melaporkan bahawa Tabung Haji (TH) digesa menimbang dengan teliti langkah menyenaraikan anak syarikatnya, TH Plantation Sdn Bhd di pasaran saham bagi menjaga kepentingan pendeposit dan kewibawaannya sebagai sebuah institusi Islam.

Gesaan itu dibuat oleh Teras Pengupayaan Melayu, sebuah badan bukan kerajaan (NGO) yang berpusat di Kedah. Presidennya, Mohd Azmi Abdul Hamid berkata, penyenaraian syarikat itu di bursa saham tidak menjamin modal terkumpul akan berkembang dan mendapat keuntungan. Dalam satu kenyataannya, beliau berkata, pembesaran modal melalui pasaran terbuka adalah berisiko tinggi dan ini terbukti dengan banyaknya syarikat awam yang mengalami kerugian.

Azmi menambah, penyenaraian di pasaran saham juga akan mendedahkan syarikat itu kepada punca-punca kewangan yang datang dari pelabur atau sumber-sumber yang tidak mengikut syarak. TH juga katanya perlu mengutamakan kepentingan penyimpan kerana kerugian dalam mana-mana pelaburan, akan memberi kesan kepada dividen yang dibayar kepada penyimpan. Sebagai contoh, katanya banyak tabung amanah saham negeri yang telah gagal mencapai keuntungan dan telah mendatangkan kerugian kepada pendeposit. “Teras mengambil perhatian serius terhadap isu ini kerana tujuan asal penubuhan Tabung Haji adalah untuk memastikan wang terkumpul tidak digunakan dalam pelaburan yang lari dari matlamat asal. Bantahan terhadap TH Plantation Sdn Bhd yang dibangkitkan dalam Parlimen perlu diberi perhatian serius,” katanya .

Bantahan ahli Parlimen

Pengumuman penyenaraian TH Plantation di Bursa Malaysia pada penghujung tahun ini dibuat oleh Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif dan Pengarah Urusan TH Datuk Mohd. Bakke Salleh pada 25 September 2005 lalu. Bagaimanapun, ia telah mendapat bantahan ahli-ahli Parlimen kerana mereka menganggapnya bercanggah dengan kehendak majoriti pendeposit TH.

Bagaimanapun, Menteri Jabatan Perdana Menteri, Datuk Dr Abdullah Md Zin bertegas untuk meneruskannya kerana berpendapat penyenaraian itu tidak menyalahi syarak. Sementara itu, bekas Pengerusi TH, Tan Sri Hanafiah Ahmad pula dilaporkan hari ini, turut melahirkan kebimbangannya terhadap cadangan menyenaraikan TH Plantation itu. Beliau khuatir penyenaraian anak syarikat TH itu akan menjejaskan peluang agensi itu mendapat tanah ladang dari kerajaan negeri dengan harga yang rendah.

Utusan Malaysia pada 7 Oktober 2005 melaporkan bahawa ahli-ahli Parlimen membantah cadangan penyenaraian TH Plantations dan mahukan langkah itu dikaji semula. Sambil menyifatkan TH merupakan "benteng terakhir" kepada pelaburan umat Islam di Malaysia, mereka berkata langkah itu merupakan pelanggaran kepada Akta Lembaga Tabung Haji.

Antara alasan bantahan ialah (i) tujuan akta jelas TH ditubuhkan bukan untuk dikongsi haknya dengan bukan Islam, (ii) tidak mahu TH terlibat dalam pelaburan berisiko tinggi dan tidak Islamik, (iii) bimbang TH menyimpang jauh dari tujuan asal penubuhan terutama untuk membantu jemaah haji.

Dr Junaidy Abdul Wahab (BN - Batu Pahat) berkata, ia juga merupakan pelanggaran kepada hak pendeposit umat Islam. "Penyenaraian adalah sebagai satu usaha mengasingkan TH Plantations daripada pemantauan, penyeliaan dan tanggungjawab secara terus Tabung Haji. Kegiatan ini merupakan satu pelanggaran hak pendeposit," katanya ketika membahaskan Rang Undang-Undang Perbekalan 2006 di Dewan Rakyat. Katanya lagi, cadangan penyenaraian itu adalah untuk mendapatkan sumber kewangan melalui "initial public offering" (IPO) bagi rancangan pembesaran. Biasanya syarikat yang berhasrat menyenaraikan syarikat-syarikat mereka adalah untuk mendapatkan modal bagi membiayai rancangan pembesaran dengan menjual syer-syer dalam IPO. Tetapi Tabung Haji akan menjual atau menawarkan 75.5 juta syer yang sedia ada atau 38% daripada syer TH Plantations. Pada dasarnya, Tabung Haji mampu membiayai rancangan pembesaran memandangkan ia telah mempunyai kekuatan serta mengaut untung hasil kegiatan perladangan.

Beliau berkata, tujuan penubuhan Tabung Haji adalah untuk menjaga serta membina kekuatan umat Islam di negara ini dan merupakan "benteng terakhir" kepada pelaburan umat Islam di Malaysia. Sebarang hasrat, niat, percubaan dan perbuatan untuk berkongsi hak atau sumber atau kekayaan milik Tabung Haji hendaklah dirujuk kepada Parlimen atau Peguam Negara bagi mendapat mandat untuk membuat perubahan atau penambahan kepada klausa atau seksyen pada akta itu. Kita tidak mahu Tabung Haji terlibat dalam pelaburan yang berisiko dan tidak Islamik.

Pada 25 September 2005 lalu, Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif dan Pengarah Urusan TH, Datuk Mohd Bakke Salleh memberitahu bahawa Tabung Haji yang akan menyenaraikan TH Plantations menjelang akhir tahun ini tidak menolak kemungkinan menyenaraikan juga anak syarikat hartanahnya, TH Properties Sdn Bhd.

TH Plantations dan TH Properties adalah dua daripada empat anak syarikat Tabung Haji yang diwujudkan selepas penyusunan semula yang dilakukan pada tahun 2002. Dua anak syarikat lain ialah TH Technologies Sdn Bhd yang terlibat dalam pembinaan dan TH Travel & Services Sdn Bhd, pengendali pakej haji dan umrah.

TH Plantations kini adalah pemegang pelaburan, penanaman kelapa sawit, pemprosesan dan pemasaran minyak sawit mentah (CPO), isirong (PK) dan buah tandan segar (FFB). Syarikat itu memiliki tanah ladang seluas lebih 16,227 hektar dengan 15,521 hektar ditanam sepenuhnya dengan 95% berada di peringkat matang selain memiliki tiga buah kilang minyak sawit. TH Plantations mampu mencatatkan hasil kewangan lebih baik tahun ini berbanding keseluruhan tahun 2004 iaitu sebanyak RM 145.7 juta.

Analisa Awal:

[1] Dari segi faktanya ialah Tabung Haji ingin menyenaraikan anak syarikatnya, TH Plantations, di Bursa Malaysia di penghujung 2005. Setelah disenaraikan, Tabung Haji akan terus menguasai 62% syer TH Plantations. Hanya 38% sahaja yang akan diapungkan (floated).

[2] Walaupun TH Plantations adalah anak syarikat Tabung Haji, tetapi kedua-dua syarikat tersebut adalah dua entiti yang berbeza. Tabung Haji diwujudkan di bawah Akta Lembaga Tabung Haji (1967) dan sebarang perubahan kepada mana-mana klausa di dalam Akta tersebut perlu dirujuk semula ke Parlimen. Tetapi sekiranya perubahan perlu dibuat kepada mana-mana anak syarikatnya (termasuk TH Plantations), hal ini tidak perlu dirujuk ke Parlimen kerana ia tidak melibatkan sebarang perubahan Akta.

[3] Tujuan penubuhan Tabung Haji dan TH Plantations adalah berbeza dan penyenaraian awam tidak akan merubah tujuan mana-mana syarikat. Tabung Haji akan dan perlu terus setia dengan objektif penubuhannya di bawah Akta Lembaga Tabung Haji. Sekiranya tujuan ini ingin dirubah, ia mesti dirujuk semula ke Parlimen. Manakala TH Plantations pula mempunyai tujuan penubuhannya yang tersendiri. Penyenaraian hanya merujuk kepada mekanisme mendapatkan modal untuk terus berurusniaga, bukannya untuk menceburi perkara-perkara lain yang tidak termaktub di dalam "M&A" (Memorandum and Articles of Company).

[4] Selama ini, semua pendeposit Tabung Haji akan menerima dividen tahunan yang berubah-ubah. Malah ada yang merungut apabila paras dividen yang diberikan Tabung Haji dirasakan sangat rendah. Rungutan ini sememangnya wajar kerana terdapat beberapa pelaburan yang tidak berkualiti. Tetapi penyusunan semula telah dibuat sejak 2002 dan urusniaga Tabung Haji kini bertumpu kepada 4 anak syarikat. Pada masa yang sama, Tabung Haji juga mempunyai pelaburan di dalam pelbagai instrumen sama ada menerusi pembelian bon, syer di Bursa Saham atau sebagainya. Falsafah pelaburan sebegini juga adalah wajar kerana ia mempelbagaikan risiko pelaburan. Difahamkan juga kesemua pelaburan Tabung Haji dikawalselia oleh sebuah jawatankuasa khusus.

[5] Hubungan antara TH Plantations dengan Tabung Haji tidak akan berubah setelah penyenaraian. Ketika ini, sebagai pemegang saham, Tabung Haji akan diberi dividen terhadap pelaburannya di dalam TH Plantations. Setelah disenaraikan dividen-dividen ini akan turut dikongsi bersama kesemua pemegang saham TH Plantations. Sebarang risiko urusniaga yang ditanggung oleh TH Plantations tetap tidak berubah sepertimana sekarang. Kalau tinggi risikonya, maka jika dan ketika tidak disenaraikan pun, risikonya tetap tinggi. Dan begitulah sebaliknya. Penyenaraian tidak mengubah risiko urusniaga dan pelaburan TH Plantations.

[6] Alasan yang mengatakan bahawa "penyenaraian syarikat itu di bursa saham tidak menjamin modal terkumpul akan berkembang dan mendapat keuntungan, serta pembesaran modal melalui pasaran terbuka adalah berisiko tinggi yang terbukti dengan banyaknya syarikat awam yang mengalami kerugian" tidak timbul kerana tanpa penyenaraian pun, mana-mana syarikat tidak dapat menjamin modal terkumpul akan berkembang dan mendapat keuntungan. Keuntungan mana-mana syarikat tidak bergantung kepada penyenaraian awam, tetapi bergantung kepada senario sektor tersebut. Dan dalam hal ini, keuntungan TH Plantations di masa-masa hadapan bergantung kepada keadaan sektor minyak kelapa sawit (palm oil industry).

[7] Penyenaraian awam mana-mana syarikat hanyalah untuk mendapatkan sumber kewangan bagi program-program pembesaran syarikat seperti peningkatan urusniaga, projek-projek baru, pengambilalihan syarikat dan sebagainya. Sumber kewangan dan pembiayaan bagi mana-mana syarikat lazimnya ialah pinjaman bank (bank loans) dan pembiayaan dari pemegang saham (cash calls). Penyenaraian awam akan memberi akses kepada syarikat tersebut untuk mendapatkan pembiayaan dari para pelabur awam (public investors). Perlu diingatkan juga bagi pinjaman bank, si peminjam perlu menjelaskan kos pinjaman (cost of debt) iaitu "profit rate" atau kadar faedah (interest rate). Bagi pembiayaan dari pemegang saham, si peminjam perlu menjelaskan pulangannya dalam bentuk dividen (atau "cost of equity"). Bagi pembiayaan menerusi penyenaraian awam, ia dijelaskan menerusi peningkatan modal (capital appreciation) atau dividen biasa di dalam Mesyuarat Tahunan (Annual General Meeting, AGM). Tetapi yang lebih penting, bagi kaca mata TH Plantations atau mana-mana syarikat yang disenaraikan ialah kemudahan mendapatkan sumber kewangan dan modal dari masyarakat awam.

[8] Dengan menyenaraikan TH Plantations ini, ketelusan (transparency) dan urus-tadbir (governance) syarikat ini akan dapat dipertingkatkan. Untuk memantapkan lagi sistem "check and balance", pertubuhan-pertubuhan masyarakat atau para "legislators" sendiri boleh turut memegang saham TH Plantations dan menasihati atau mengkritik pengurusan TH Plantations secara langsung, di samping menikmati dividen hasil pelaburan mereka di dalam TH Plantations. Setidak-tidaknya mereka akan dapat memastikan perjalanan urus-tadbir TH Plantations akan lebih baik.

[9] Kerugian yang dialami oleh tabung-tabung amanah negeri sepertimana yang ditimbulkan oleh sdr Haji Mohd Azmi Abdul Hamid, Presiden Teras Pengupayaan Melayu (TERAS) adalah satu isu yang wajar. Tetapi isu ini tidak berkaitan dengan penyenaraian TH Plantations. Kajian terperinci perlu dilakukan untuk mengenalpasti punca-punca kerugian yang dialami oleh tabung-tabung amanah ini. Tetapi secara kasarnya, barangkali punca-punca kerugian tabung-tabung amanah negeri ini tidak sama dari satu negeri ke negeri yang lain.

[10] Ada juga yang mengandaikan bahawa penyenaraian TH Plantations ini akan menyebabkan syarikat tersebut tetakluk kepada fenomena naik-turun bursa saham. Hakikat yang perlu difahami ialah fenomena ini adalah lumrah pasaran saham. Bagi pelabur jangka pendek, fenomena ini membimbangkan. Tetapi bagi pelabur jangka panjang, fenomena ini kurang penting kerana yang lebih penting ialah aspek-aspek fundamental seperti keuntungan syarikat tersebut atau prestasi sektor perladangan, umpamanya. Selama inipun, aspek-aspek fundamental ini tidak pernah dibincangkan di khalayak awam. Penyenaraian TH Plantations pastinya akan tertakluk kepada perubahan pasaran jangka pendek, sepertimana ratusan syarikat-syarikat lain yang tersenarai di bursa saham. Tetapi bagi TH Plantations, risiko ini hanya dibataskan kepada 38% pegangan syarikat tersebut. 62% lagi tidak tertakluk kepada perubahan pasaran saham.

[11] Moga-moga bantahan yang diberikan ini bukanlah hanya sekadar bantahan tanpa penelitian yang wajar setelah mendapat kefahaman yang menyeluruh. Perlu diingatkan juga urusniaga korporat secara terperinci tidak perlu dibahaskan di Parlimen. Parlimen bertanggungjawab mencartakan hala tuju sesuatu industri, tetapi bukan untuk campur tangan dalam urusniaga mana-mana syarikat di mana-mana negara. Ini bertujuan untuk mengelakkan berlakunya "conflict of interests" di antara para "legislators" dengan pengurusan syarikat tersebut. Mekanisme "check and balance" bagi pengurusan mana-mana syarikat sudah sedia ada. Dan menjadi tanggungjawab para "legislators" di Parlimen untuk memastikan sistem "check and balance" ini benar-benar mantap berfungsi. Adapun pengurusan syarikat-syarikat tersebut adalah tanggungjawab pengurusannya yang tertakluk kepada para pemegang sahamnya.

[12] Tidak timbul soal sama ada Tabung Haji ini merupakan "benteng terakhir" pelaburan umat Islam di Malaysia. Ini adalah kerana masyarakat Malaysia termasuklah umat Islam boleh melabur di dalam pelbagai instrumen kewangan Islam yang semakin mendapat berkembang subur di Malaysia. Bank Negara sendiri telah meluluskan lesen kewangan Islam kepada beberapa bank Islam antarabangsa. Sewajarnya penyenaraian sebegini perlu dilakukan sejak lama dahulu lagi!

Berdasarkan maklumat yang mampu dicari dari pelbagai media, inilah pendirian kita. Sekiranya ada maklumat-maklumat lain yang penting (significant and material), maka tidak mustahil sekiranya pendirian ini akan disemak semula.

WaLlahu A'lam.

This generation of giants

The Times

October 10, 2005

This generation of giants

William Rees-Mogg

As Margaret Thatcher celebrates her 80th birthday, remember the leaders who changed our world

IN 1946 Henry Kissinger, then 23 years old, was serving with the United States Army in Germany; his brother was serving with the Army in Korea. Their father had to go into a hospital in New York for an operation he did not expect to survive. Fortunately, he lived for another 36 years. He wrote a personal letter to his sons, perhaps following the Jewish custom of making ethical wills.

The letter was written in English and included this passage: “Your grandfather Falk, this fine and honest man, used to say ‘Der Mensch muss seine Schuldigkeit tun’.” Dr Kissinger translates that as “a human being must always fulfil his moral obligations”. It comes rather close to John Wayne’s epic line: “A man has to do what a man has to do.” In more highbrow terms, it sounds like Kant’s “categorical imperative” .

On Thursday there will be a great celebration for Baroness Thatcher’s 80th birthday. Like Kissinger, she is an example of the power of the moral will in human affairs. She is 80, Henry Kissinger is 82, and a third leader of the postwar world, Lee Kuan Yew, is also an 82-year- old. As Lady Thatcher has written: “Mr Lee almost single-handedly built up Singapore into one of the most astonishing economic success stories of our times, and he did so in the face of constant threats to his tiny state’s security and, indeed, existence.”

These three, born into different cultures, seem to me to have shared the basic qualities that allow great statesmen to influence the world for the good; qualities that I most admire. They have shown great courage, unending determination and a clearly defined set of beliefs. They are wholly committed to the security and advancement of the countries they have led. All three also have an attractive intellectual gift; they always look far into the possible consequences in the future. They have imagination as well as intellectual force.

I have had the good fortune to be writing about world affairs in the period in which these three have had their greatest influence. I have known Lee Kuan Yew since he lunched at The Times, as Louis Heren’s guest, nearly 30 years ago. I was first introduced to Henry Kissinger when he was President Nixon’s Secretary of State in the early 1970s. I first met Margaret Thatcher at Oxford in the spring of 1946, nearly 60 years ago.

They have been three of the great world leaders of the past half century; for any journalist, it has been good fortune to have been their contemporary. There is, of course, a fourth figure who shared, to an even higher degree, their characteristics of strong belief and strong willpower. That was Pope John Paul II, who would be 85 if he were still alive.

In the week of Margaret Thatcher’s 80th birthday it is interesting to ask this question. How was it that this particular generation produced so strong a group of world leaders? The reasons must be global; the Pope grew up in Poland, Kissinger was a refugee from Germany, studying in America, Lee Kuan Yew was a student at Singapore, and subsequently at the LSE then in Cambridge. Margaret Thatcher (Roberts) was a high school girl in Grantham and a student at Oxford.

To an observer who lived through the same period, the answer is obvious enough, but the implications may not be. The obvious answer to the question is the influence of the Second World War, the German and Soviet invasion of Poland, the Japanese conquest of Singapore, the Holocaust of the Jews, the Blitz on England and the threat of invasion in 1940. The world war broke out in 1939, when the oldest of the group, Pope John Paul II, was 19 and the youngest, Margaret Thatcher, was 13. The war did not end in 1945. The Cold War went on until 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell, and the threat of the Soviet Union was removed.

Other figures played a vital part in winning the Cold War without falling into the Third World War. All the presidents of the United States deserve their credit, particularly Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Ford and Reagan. But the four contemporaries sustained the great struggle in its crucial period, after the American withdrawal from Vietnam, and during the precarious years of the decline and fall of the Soviet Union. Lee Kuan Yew, in particular, gave the West an understanding that China was different from Russia, and that the political development in China under Deng Xiaoping would not be the same as in Russia. The Pope broke Soviet power in Eastern Europe.

This was also the period when it became apparent that state socialism was an inefficient system that could not compete effectively with liberal capitalism in world markets. Compare China in the 1960s with Japan. If one includes John Paul II’s great encyclical Centesimus annus, one can say that all four came to share Margaret Thatcher’s belief in capitalism under the law, “within a strong judicial framework”, to use the Pope’s words. All four had seen the blighting effects of socialism under the Soviet system, and the waste involved even in benign, democratic socialism.

Of the four, at least two had started as men of the Left. I am not sure exactly what kind of intellectual theorist one would have met if one had come across Henry Kissinger at Harvard in the late 1940s. They all became leaders of the Right, hooted at by the Left. The reason they developed their views was that they were willing to face reality. Socialism did not work — and does not. The world is a dangerous place. Nations need to be strong, with strong allies. Leaders are elected to defend national interests.

Margaret Thatcher’s core belief is in liberty under the law; that, for her, is the basis of freedom and of the good society. But she has always believed that liberty had to be defended. That is the lesson that Hitler, Stalin and Mao taught our generation. We have not forgotten it. I hope Margaret Thatcher will have a very happy birthday.

Copyright 2005 Times Newspapers Ltd.

[Malaysia] Anwar’s political limbo

The Star, Kuala Lumpur
09 October 2005

Anwar’s political limbo

It has been a year since his release from prison and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim looks fit and rested but the hype over his political role in the opposition landscape has fizzled out and he seems unsure about his own political future. JOCELINE TAN interviews him.

THE creamy lace curtains were drawn against the brittle afternoon glare and the living room was cool, dim and restful. Only the soft whir of the air-conditioning could be heard in the background. Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim seemed to be trying to get some down time in his Damansara Heights house after a hectic week of ceramah and meetings in Keadilan strongholds. The Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) advisor was somewhat formally dressed for an afternoon at home – grey trousers and a rather gaudy, long-sleeved batik shirt.

Anwar: ‘It would be arrogant to say one is no longer prepared to discuss. I am always discussing.’ — STARpic by AZHAR MAHFOF

He had just finished a meeting with lawyer Christopher Fernando who is handling his RM100mil libel suit against his former mentor Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

His voice was a little hoarse from the near non-stop speaking he had been doing for the past few days but the winning smile was still therea nd it could still transform his face when he chooses. There was more grey in his neatly groomed hair but there was also a discernible sense of well-being about him one year after the courts acquitted him of charges of sodomy.

He had spent the first few months focusing on his health. The surgery in Munich took care of his slipped disc complaint but his upper back still aches if he sits or stands for too long. “But I'm no longer dependent on painkillers,” he said as he shifted several times in his seat to relieve the ache. He is selling off the Damansara Heights house and moving to Segambut.

“I got a good value for the house here and it's cheaper in Segambut. It will still be comfortable there, we are not moving to the squatters. I just want a house where there is a public area and where the family can have our private quarters,” he said. He has also been doing a great deal of travelling since the beginning of the year – speaking engagements, conferences and consultation work.

Since the middle of this year, he has been based in Washington DC, where he is a full-tenure professor in Georgetown University. This trip home revolved largely around a programme of grassroots events. It is possible that those around him are aware of the rumblings on the ground about the former deputy premier spending more time abroad than at home since his release.

Many PKR supporters are puzzled why Anwar has not devoted his time and energy to putting his political house in order. Anwar was a cause celebre among circles abroad and was lionised byt hese groups in his early months of freedom. When he visited Indonesia, he was accorded VVIP treatment. He is a big name in the Middle East and a consultant of sorts to the Turkish Prime Minister.

Said PKR information chief Tian Chua: “I can give you hundreds of reasons why he's spending time overseas but the basic one is that he needs a rest. After a major operation, if he hangs around, he won’t be able to put his life in order. He needs to keep the distance.”

His Georgetown University tenure also provides a comfortable salary. “Just enough to take care of the family,” he said with a cheeky grin. Still it is quite clear that the high expectations surrounding a freed Anwar have fizzled away into disappointment among many PKR supporters.

Party leaders blame the media for not giving their man the space. But Anwar’s problem also has to do with the state of the opposition itself. His supporters thought he would be the natural leader of the opposition. He was seen as a possible unifying factor between the secular DAP and theocratic PAS. In their view, he would be the prime minister material that the opposition needed.

But the reality has been far different. “Let me say very frankly that I know people have misgivings about PKR.There are people from groupings and NGOs who treated PKR like a beggar, who are very dogmatic in their views. But I have also seen the comradeship and views articulated. But I’ve always subscribed to the idea that change can only come through continuous struggle,” he said.

Still, his friends in the opposition remain wary about him. They have welcomed his release, but they are still not sure whether he will be steadfast to their cause and are suspicious of his political ambitions. Some PAS leaders are convinced he will go back to Umno given half the chance. His other problem lies within his own party.

PKR is somewhat like the DAP in the sense that it has a dynamic and visible national leadership but no real grassroots organisation on the ground.

In that sense, PAS still calls the shots because it is the only opposition party with claims of being a genuine grassroots organisation with divisions and branches on the ground and a faithful corps of members. Many of Anwar’s functions during his recent visit were hosted at PAS premises, and it was in Kelantan where he drew some of the biggest gatherings.

“The crowd will always be there because people are curious. But whether they will also support him is another thing,” said a Terengganu supporter. His American sojourn ends early next year. What sort of political role does he envisage for himself on the opposition landscape after that? “I'm more an academic than a politician now,” he claimed. It is possible that Anwar and his supporters have no clear-cut answera s yet. His future depends on factors and conditions very much beyond their control.

“Politics is in his blood. He's working hard to make his presence felt but for the time being, he just wants to propagate his political vision and platform,” said Chua.

Does Anwar still harbour hopes of becoming prime minister?

First, he is not sure that he will be eligible to contest the next general election because his corruption conviction bars him from contesting till 2008. Second, he admitted that the political environment is not in his favour.

“But let the people decide. If they decide in my favour, I would certainly consider. It would be an honour although I have enough options internationally, especially in the Middle East,” he said. But, as one analyst pointed out, charismatic individuals can only go so far in Malaysia's parliamentary system.

“Political parties are critical in a parliamentary system. Anwar has to come to terms with the fact that Malaysia is not a presidential system and that a strong political party is essential as a vehicle to power,” said the analyst. Anwar also seems less than clear on where he stands politically and where he can find the constituency to support his political journey.

“If he is really serious, he should not be sitting in Washington. It will be used against him. He’s in danger of missing the mood of the time if he panders to the West,” the analyst added. But most intriguing of all is the incessant talk that Anwar will rejoin Umno.

Umno leaders insist that desperado PKR members are the ones propagating this.

PKR leaders claim the talk is coming from Umno.

The man himself said: “I’m not going to be arrogant about it ? to say one is no longer prepared to discuss. I am always discussing. I would not be honest if I said I have refrained from discussing with my friends in Umno. This is what politics is about. You continue to listen, to consider.”

But as one of his own supporters pointed out: “It not whether he wants or does not want it. It’s whether or not Umno wants him.”

JK Galbraith remains a giant of economics

Happy birthday, JK
As he turns 97, the 6ft 8ins JK Galbraith remains a giant of economics

William Keegan
Sunday October 9, 2005The Observer

If ever there was a legend in his own lifetime, it is John Kenneth Galbraith, professor emeritus of Harvard University, adviser to Presidents from Roosevelt to Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, author of more than 40 books, and a man due to celebrate his 97th birthday next Saturday.

Known as JK Galbraith to most and Ken to his close friends, he is the tallest (at 6ft 8in) and oldest economist in America. He is also the most famous living economist in the world - and indeed the best-selling.

In common with many of my generation, I first came across Galbraith's work in The Affluent Society (1958), a hugely successful book - so brilliant and so unmathematical that it incurred the envy and wrath of a certain cohort of his fellow economists.It was a book that challenged many assumptions about economics and politics (which, for Galbraith, have always been closely linked) and which gave the world some great insights and lasting sayings, including 'the conventional wisdom' and 'private affluence and public squalor'.

The phrases were good summaries of Galbraith's argument that the goals of economic policy had been distorted and more attention should be paid to the quality of economic growth and the distribution of its fruits.

I first met Galbraith in 1980, after we at The Observer asked him - a redoubtable Keynesian - to comment on Mrs Thatcher's adoption of Milton Friedman's monetarist policies, under which unemployment rose to 3.5 million.He famously wrote: 'Britain has, in effect, volunteered to be the Friedmanite guinea pig. There could be no better choice. Britain's political and social institutions are solid and neither Englishmen, Scots nor even the Welsh take readily to the streets.'

Galbraith has certainly lived to see Nemesis descend on Friedman. In the Financial Times of 7 June 2003, Friedman conceded: 'The use of quantity of money as a target has not been a success ... I'm not sure I would as of today push it as hard as I once did.'Galbraith was introduced to Keynesian ideas for curing unemployment in the 1930s and never forgot them. As a wonderful new biography, John Kenneth Galbraith, His Life, His Politics, His Economics by Richard Parker, makes clear, despite some minor differences he adhered to the essential teachings of Keynes.

In advising Kennedy, Galbraith warned of the inflationary consequences of tax cuts and was more interested in channelling any 'Keynesian' budgetary measures towards public spending. By that he did not mean military spending, of which there was quite enough already under what was known as 'the military-industrial complex'.

Galbraith was so close to Kennedy he could have been in White House chief economist Walter Heller's job, but preferred to be ambassador to India, a position from which he was still able to advise his young protégé in a series of letters, of which he once told The Observer: 'First he would call me up to ask what to do. Then to tell me what he was doing. Then he would not call me at all.' Perhaps Kennedy's biggest mistake was in not taking Galbraith's advice over Vietnam ('Don't do it'), although the evidence from the new biography is that the young President certainly took that advice seriously.

Before The Affluent Society, Galbraith had already written a best- seller in The Great Crash, 1929, published in the 1950s and never out of print. But many regard his greatest work as The New Industrial State (1967), a study of the power of big business and large corporations.

And it is a subject that still fascinates him. For some years now I have had the privilege of calling on him at his home in Massachusetts on my way back from annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington.This year he was showing his age and clearly did not want a full- scale interview. But he certainly wanted to talk about corporations. 'The modern corporation operates under the mystique of the market, which is extensively under its control. This is a matter which modern economics recognises but does not pursue.'

And the man who warned Kennedy about the championing of war in Vietnam added: 'Our military operations, including notably Iraq, are under corporate direction through Rumsfeld and a compliant military staff. In the absence of corporate initiative and power we would not be in Iraq. And, a more poignant matter, we would not have George Bush.'

The great man is still in fighting form.

[Malaysia] Criticisms on Local Authorities

The New Straits Times, Kuala Lumpur

08 October 2005

THE latest barrage of criticism against the local authorities once a gain underlines the discontent over their services. What can be done about them, asks CHOW KUM HOR.

LOCAL authorities can be mystifying. While one agency can spend RM30,000 as consultancy fees for planting flowers, another can send its staff on a "study tour" overseas without meeting a single official there. And then there is the oft-quoted road resurfacing project that was carried out in five phases over a year when it could have been completed in two months — at slightly more than half the cost.

Earlier this year, Kuala Kangsar MP Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz wondered how her municipal council could have requested RM51.5 million for landscaping but only RM1.5 million for poverty eradication.

So it came as no surprise when Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk M. Kayveas last Sunday lambasted the local authorities for their lack of transparency. Mincing no words in front of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the People’s Progressive Party president likened some of the 144 local authorities nationwide to secret societies.

The so-called "third government", he added, had been reduced to being tax-collection agencies.

While equating local government with triads may be a bit far-fetched,the truth is, many of these agencies have a poor track record. Running battles between rate-payers and the municipalities have been going on for years.

Residents are not the only ones who have to put up with the local authorities’ foot- dragging and mind-numbing bureaucracy. The councils have also been slow to respond to the Housing and Local Government Ministry’s various directives on installing closed-circuit television in crime-prone areas, for instance, and on dengue monitoring and control.

Why has the country’s most basic level of government — and one that affects the lives of the public most directly — lagged so far in its delivery of quality services?

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s Dr Katiman Rostam, a professor of Human Geography, says it all boils down to accountability.

All councillors are appointed by the State Government, many of them by virtue of their positions in the ruling parties. "It makes a world of difference whether you are elected by the people or appointed. Whom do councillors serve? The people or the councillors’ political masters?"

Financial constraints and manpower shortages also hamper the authorities. In some cases, the local authority has only one landscape engineer or a handful of health officers to monitor an area slightly smaller than Perlis. The Opposition has wasted no time mining the public’s discontent over the councils’ poor performance. The DAP, for example, has long lobbied for a revival of local elections, suspended in 1965 following the Confrontation with Indonesia.

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng says only by making councillors accountable to the people will significant progress be made in local government. When councillors are made to face the electorate every three or five years, they have to be on their toes to ensure that garbage gets collected on time and drains are not clogged.

The idea has found support among the public, many of whom are unhappy with their local authority. One of them is Pandan Perdana Residents Association president Desmond Lok, who receives over 200 complaints amonth against the Ampang Jaya Municipal Council.

Realistically, however, democratising the local authorities is not likely to happen soon.

Katiman says that policy-makers know from experience worldwide that the Opposition tends to dominate such councils as part of the electorate’s desire for checks-and-balances. Local elections would also involve constitutional changes that are unlikely to pass muster in Parliament.

The Government is now looking at options other than the ballot box to shape up the local authorities.

Top of the agenda are legislative amendments freeing the councils to act on underperforming staff, such as by transferring them out. "Right now, it does not matter if you perform or don’t in the council because you know you will stay there," says Kayveas, himself a former Deputy Housing and Local Government Minister.

A ministry source says another option is to attach stricter conditions to federal grants, on which many local authorities depend. "Holding elections are an expensive affair. Since we are giving these councils money, we want to make sure that it is well spent. No buying of unsightly flowerpots that cost a bomb and no more lavish batik gifts for the councillors," he says.

The ministry is also mulling a proposal to set aside a quota for non-governmental representation in the councils. This will allow public interest groups to play a watchdog role. But if these councils are to rid themselves of their baggage, drastic structural changes are needed. Dr N.A. Shanmuganathan, former Subang Jaya councillor and currently a PPP supreme council member, proposes that councillors be appointed to the councils’ technical committees, from which they are excluded.

These committees decide on everything from the approval of licences tor oad upgrading projects to the awarding of landscaping contracts.

At present, the technical committees are usually chaired by the heads of departments. They wield enormous power in deciding how to spend the council’s money and which application to approve. The full board meetings often act as rubber-stamps for decisions by these committees.

Kayveas also wants the local authorities to set up their own independent audit body, similar to Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, to ensure that their finances are not abused. The auditors, he adds, should first target officers living beyond their salaries.

Another suggestion is to appoint mayors or presidents of the local authorities from among serving politicians, especially State Assemblymen.

"This will make them accountable to the constituents. If they don’t perform well as chairman, they get the boot in the general election,"says Subang Assemblyman and Subang Jaya councillor Datuk Lee Hwa Beng. He cites Batu Tiga Assemblyman Datuk Salamon Selamat’s sterling performance as Shah Alam mayor as an example. Salamon has since June last year been replaced by Ramli Mahmud following the State Government’s decision to revert to its earlier policy of having non-politicians heading the council.

So far, the local authorities are showing little sign of bucking up. With the option of local council elections a distant possibility, overhauling the running of the local authorities is the next best solution to making them more accountable to rate-payers.

[Malaysia] Decision a likely political death knell for Isa

The Star, Kuala Lumpur

08 October 2005

Decision a likely political death knell for Isa

BY JOCELINE TAN

YESTERDAY was not the best of days for Tan Sri Mohamed Isa Abdul Samad.

He had driven up to Kuala Lumpur to fetch his cancer-stricken wife from a private hospital, where she had been warded for the past three days.The doctors did not have the best of news for him. They told the Umno politician that it would be better if Puan Sri Hazizah Tumin returned home to rest.

Isa was aware that the Umno supreme council would be meeting that afternoon and his political fate was hanging in the balance but he had little time to worry about it. Besides, the suspended Umno vice-president had grown quite exhausted, even immune, about the entire affair.

It had been more than four months since the Umno disciplinary board found him guilty of money politics in the Umno elections last year and suspended him for six years with eight others, including his political secretary Mohd Salim Sharif. Isa and his wife returned to their Nilai Springs home and shortly before the supreme council meeting began at 4pm, he received a call from the Prime Minister’s office, asking him to keep his phone line free from 5pm onwards for a call from the Umno president.

The call came in shortly before Maghrib prayer.

It was Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who personally conveyed to him the news that his suspension had been reduced from six to three years. It was small consolation for the pint-sized politician. Isa will be 56 next month but the three-year suspension, equivalent to one term of political office in the party, effectively eliminates him from the next Umno polls.

But it is the high-profile nature of his case that has been like the political death knell for him after 22 years in politics. The cost of the suspension – the posts of vice-president and Teluk Kemang division chief. He would also have to resign from his Federal Territories Minister's post. “His political career is as good as dead,” said a supreme council member.

It is the first time that someone so highly ranked in Umno had been punished for money politics. The former Negri Sembilan strongman had won the vice-president's post with the highest number of votes, over Malacca Mentri Besar Datuk Mohd Ali Rustam and Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

“I have no feelings,” Isa said in a brief telephone interview just before he left his house for terawih prayers yesterday evening. He also puzzled many people when he said he felt like laughing after learning of his fate. “It’s just his way of talking. I think he is upset, although he had been expecting it,” said Paroi assemblywoman and Puteri Umno secretary Bibi Sharliza Mohd Khalid.

Other Puteri politicians like Suraya Yaakob, who were at Umno's headquarters at the Putra World Trade Centre for a breaking of fast gathering, had flocked around deputy president Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak for more details. “I feel really sad because I thought there was some hope for him,” said Suraya, who is Puteri treasurer. Apparently, the appeals board had upheld the six-year suspension of Isa.

But the Umno management committee, which comprised top party figures, had recommended the reduction in penalty after studying the case and taking into account the way Isa had carried himself. Isa had kept a low profile throughout his suspension.

It is learnt that the supreme council agreed with the recommendation. The Isa case is the strongest signal from the Umno leadership against money politics. It couldn't have been an easy decision for the Umno leadership but Abdullah is determined to fight the scourge of money politics.

Isa told some people several days ago that “I feel this will be the end of my career.” He had added: “My only regret is that the end is so unpleasant.”

New intolerance in Britain

The Times, London

October 08, 2005

Starkey fears a new intolerance

By Lewis Smith

BRITAIN is in danger of sleepwalking into a new era of religious intolerance after the July 7 bombings, The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival was told last night. Dr David Starkey said that the religious intolerance of previous centuries could be repeated unless society reconsiders its attitute to Church and State. Direct parallels could be drawn between the present and the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when a common enemy was defined by religious belief, culminating in civil war.The historian voiced alarm at the trend towards “thought crimes” encapsulated in anti-terrorism legislation and what he saw as new Labour’s political correctness. The same trends could be seen, he said, when Henry VIII fused Church and State by declaring himself head of the Church of England.

What today might be described as thought crimes, such as expressing any sympathy for suicide bombers, would in previous eras have been termed heresy.

Speaking to The Times about his second in a trilogy of books about the British monarchy he said: “The period I’ve been looking at is hugely topical. What we learnt in the summer this year is how deadly a combination the fusing of religion and politics is.”

Then as now, he argued, thought crimes were heresy. “Unbelievers are enemies, those who believe differently. There are very, very uncomfortable parallels. We have a politico-religious enemy. Then it was Roman Catholicism. Now it is Islam making precisely the same type of claims. Islam takes it for granted that politics and religion are coterminous, just as we did once. That’s a huge danger.

“There’s the justification of terrorism and assassination. There’s a native fifth column. Then it was English people paid by Spain, now we see suicide bombers who are born in Britain.” While arguing that there is a danger that historic mistakes may be repeated, he is equally confident that answers to current problems can be found by studying the past.

The key to present-day threats, he said, was tolerance. In the same way that a multitude of religious sects were allowed to continue without threat of being burnt at the stake after the Restoration, Britain today should tolerate Islam.

Copyright 2005 Times Newspapers Ltd