[MGG] Will there be another 'May 13'?
NATIONAL UNITY IS NOT possible in Malaysia so long as there is the New Economic Policy, which in practice is for one race, the Malays, only. And the NEP is not for 30 years, as when first initiated in 1970, but extended for ever when it was renewed in 2000.
The races are kept apart, as a result, and go their own way. The Chinese, for instance, are intent on seeing that they can do what they like. The recent Extraordinary general meeting of the Lake Club was an exercise in racial superiority by the Chinese to ensure that a vote to expel the club president, who happened to be Chinese, for hiding his past , just as the DAP's was unthinkingly on 12 May 1969 in the Chow Kit area of Kuala Lumpur .
There was RM30 million in the club, the previous president, an Indian, had built up. It was not right or wrong but brute racial strength that kept the president in office after the meeting. The 1969 riots was engineered by several in the government to ensure that the Chinese are kept in their place. It was not a rational decision but political. If the pressure by the Chinese builds up, as it has, another May 13 is inevitable.
But this is not to say the other races are exempt from this mad rush. The Indians, through the MIC, in the National Front, do what they like, and make noises when they shouldn't, so that the MIC President can stay on in the cabinet. He has done so badly that even UMNO decided the Indians needed help, or become the worst of the lthree major races.
The PPP, once in the opposition and whose leaders when it was in the oppposition took the right decision in Perak that the rioting in Kuala Lumpur during May 13 1969 was not replicated there, is largely Indian in its latest incarnation, but it is of no use. The Gerakan Rakyat Malaysa, once in the opposition, today rules Penang as it has for 36 years.
It was brought in to check the excesses of the MCA in the National Front. But like the MCA and MIC, it has no policy except to retain the Chief Ministership of Penang and its president in the Federal cabinet. In Sarawak and Sabah, the parties are, almost each one of them,. beholden to the National Front.
No new thinking is allowed in the National Front. Only the leaders matter, even in UMNO, the leading party in the National Front. They talk of unity of the races but do their best in practice to keep them apart. Some of the more thoughtful in the National Front accept that this. The Malays are widely divided as the other races in the country, as between the peninmular and Sabah and Sarawak.
In Sabah and Sarawak, Kuala Lumpur is seen in the two states as a coloniser, and the superficial unity there ignores the nationalism mostly on religion and race. UMNO one thought it needed to be in Sabah, and deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, took it there.
Today, it is the dominant party in the government but the infighting in the National Front there, and non-Malay parties having accepted the UMNO shilling, it is Partai Keadilan Rakyat, whose eminence grise is the same Dato' Ibrahim, could be the party to drive UMNO into the opposition.
The PKR has taken the precaution of allowing the Sabah unit complete independence from headquaters. People in PKR headquarters do not like this, but not the people in Sabah. PAS tried with UMNO and was rejected.The recent withdrawal of the publishing permits of the three newspapers in Sarawak for publishing cartoons about the Prophet is seen by people in Sabah and Sarawak is seen as unfair, when the UMNO paper, the New Straits Times, and the television stations were excused for publishing the same cartoons. This one rule for us and one rule for the others adds to the reality that it is the National Front Government that takes the lead in dividing races, religions and areas in Malaysia. To this is added the agencies of government.
The police, for instance, is not seen as neutral but its goon squad. The state police are the contingent of the Royal Malaysia Police, and often acts against the state government of other parties than the National Front. Is it any wonder that it helps in these divisions?There is much sloganeering about national unity these days. But can there be national unity if the New Economic Policy remains, when the government only employs Malays into the civil and uniformed services, and the other races only as a token. In practice, they ignore the races other than Malay.
The recent flap over nude ear quatting in the police station became an international issue when it was alleged that Chinese tourists women were forced to ear squat in the nude for no apparent reason. A Malay girl was produced, who admitted the picture of the nude squat on the handphone, and which was widely circulated, was hers. But not after a cabinet minister when to China to apologise. He should have known before he left, and he gave, in the end, an apology that was not necessary. But was the police telling the truth, when newspapers in China had horrendous stories of Chinese tourists being manhandled by the Malaysian police?
Fifty years after independence, the problems facing Malaysia has changed. But the country is governed as if they were not. The recent rally in Batu Pahat, Johore, to honour UMNO's president, Dato Onn bin Jaffar, was not as successful as the party had hoped. They could not draw crowds today that gathered 60 years ago to hear the UMNO founder. The irony of this was that after he left UMNO on principle in 1951 till his death in 1963 he was a non-person to the party. His son, Hussein Onn, became prime minister, and his grandson, Dato' Hussein Onn, is in the present cabinent. But nothing for the man in his liftime, or for 40 years after his death.
Dato' Onn was a dato' because he was menteri besar of Johore, and was not given any Federal awards, which adorn many an irrelevelant figure in modern Malaysia, to add to those from from the various states. The UMNO leaders shed crocodile tears over Dato' Onn in organising the meeting in Batu Pahat. It is organising it for a narrow reason: the Malays do not support UMNO the political party as they did the nationalist organisatin Dato' Onn founded. UMNO today was founded in 1987, because the then President, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, did not want Tengku Razaleigh to challenge him in the future. There is of course a difference between a political party and a nationalist organisation, but UMNO today does not accept that.
The superficial unity in Malaysia, which the National Front government promotes, hides the larger flaws of government policy. It can hide for a while, but the reality will reveal itself. The Lake Council extraordinary general meeting is one. But there are others elsewhere in the country and as serious. Aiding this is the Malay assumption of superiority, and the consequent acceptance of inferiority by the parties in the National Front.
What is worrying UMNO is that the younger Malays are rejecting it as once they did not. Many are well educated, are unemployed, with no hope of a job after government policiy had educated them. On the ground, this alienation strikes all races. There is now attempts to unite them under a common banner of being ignored. This is not going to unseat the National Front yet after 50 years in office, but it is already creating divisions in the country, The May 13 was the Malay response to Chinese aggressiveness. But would the next 'May 13' be a Malaysian response?
M.G.G. Pillai
Sunday, March 12, 2006
Malaysian woman's lonely campaign for religious freedom
Agence France-Presse news agency
28 December 2005
Malaysian woman's lonely campaign for religious freedom
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 28 (AFP) - No one will give Kamariah Ali a job, relatives and one-time friends shun her, and much of her time is spent in the law courts -- all because she no longer wants to be a Muslim."People look down on me because I renounced Islam. But people don't understand.
Actually, religion belongs to God and you can access God in any way, not necessarily through Islam," says the soft-spoken 54- year-old.Seven years ago, Kamariah publicly renounced Islam after being continually prosecuted and jailed by religious authorities in Malaysia's northern Kelantan state who accused her of deviating from the faith. She had become a member of a religious sect famous for quirky structures on its compound, including a giant teapot.
Its leader, Ayah Pin, caused shockwaves by proclaiming that he was God and that his followers were free to practise whatever religion they pleased."He is a good man and he helps people a lot," says Kamariah, a one- time Islamic religious teacher. "He can cure drug addicts, people with psychological problems, he is more a healer."
Kamariah's unshakeable trust in Ayah Pin has sustained her and other followers through increasing isolation, with some family members and friends unable to accept her decision."Previously during festive seasons, for example Hari Raya (the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan), everybody would come, all family and friends would come over and I would go over to their house," says Kamariah. "But ever since I followed Ayah Pin, everybody avoids my house."
Kamariah's life has now shrunk to the confines of a compound which houses remaining sect members in northeastern Terengganu state, where she spends her days helping one of her children, who is a seamstress.
She rarely ventures out into the wider community, and state police and religious authorities have restricted the numbers of people who can see her.But there's hardly a whiff of despair, or any sense that Kamariah considers herself a victim."I dont feel anything," she says of how she has been treated by the local community. "I dont feel sad, I feel pity for them because they dont understand."
Kamariah's renunciation was a rare challenge on an issue which remains completely taboo in Malaysia, where the constitution dictates that the ethnic Malays who dominate the multi-ethnic population are Muslim by definition.Under Islam, renouncing the religion -- the crime of apostasy -- is one of the gravest offences possible. But Malaysia's constitution also guarantees its citizens the right to freedom of religion, and Kamariah is now trying to convince the nation's highest court to rule that this right extends to Muslims in what could be a landmark case.
"Even if I stay in my own home, they come and prosecute me. That's why I have to go to court," she says.Used to being scrutinised, Kamariah is more bemused than worried over the attention to her every move, including her decision to take off the Muslim headscarf or tudung -- which recently earned her a reprimand from a court judge."I have worn the tudung since I was a child because I went to religious schools. But ... Allah says I dont want to look at your clothing, I look at your heart, so I want to try that. So I thats why I have taken it off. And lots of people are angry with me because of that."
Kamariah and others like her are in a bizarre legal bind, because no member of Malaysia's judiciary wants to become involved in helping a person to commit the grave sin of renouncing Islam. Such are the explosive implications of allowing a person to do so that, so far, both civil and religious or sharia courts have refused to rule on the issue.
Civil courts have ruled that only sharia courts can declare a person to be a non-Muslim, while sharia courts that uphold Islamic law are reluctant to declare people as apostates.A small woman standing under five feet, Kamariah's gaze can be stern, and theres a certain wariness about her. But she is quick to laugh when something amuses her, like the apparently circular logic of authorities who refuse to recognise her decision to quit the faith."If they say I am not following Islam, then why are they not allowing me to renounce?" she asks.
Lawyers say there are large numbers of people like Kamariah, including those who converted to Islam in order to marry a Muslim but want to leave the religion after the relationship has broken down. Living in legal limbo between civil and sharia court systems, they are unable to resolve issues such as land ownership, inheritance rights and child custody.
"You've got individuals who are trapped in an identity they don't subscribe to and they want to get on with their lives but can't," says Kamariah's lawyer, Haris Ibrahim.-- 'Islam is a serious religion' --Kamariah's bid to argue her case before Malaysia's Federal Court, a campaign she is fighting alongside fellow Ayah Pin follower Daud Mamat, comes after years of frustration over not being able to worship freely.
Since 1992, when she and other Ayah Pin members were convicted of deviating from Islam, Kamariah has been jailed for two years, ordered to attend repentance classes -- she refused -- and trailed in and out of sharia and federal courts.Kamariah, who earned a degree in Islamic law in Egypt, also lost her right to teach during that time. She also endured the death of her husband, fellow sect member and teacher Mohamed Ya, who was also thrown in prison over the campaign.
While the legal wrangle plays out, many Muslims say the issue comes down to differing opinions over how Islam should be practiced -- divisions which are reflected in Muslim communities all over the world.Orthodox followers of Islam argue that apostasy is an extremely serious offence and point to certain hadiths -- records of the sayings of the prophet Mohammad -- which dictate the death penalty for renouncing the religion.
The deputy director of the government's Institute of Islamic Understanding, Nik Mustapha Nik Hassan, argues that Islam demands adherence to its tenets."We are committed. We are convinced about Islam. Islam is a serious religion. It's the only path to us, to Muslims. So we cannot allow people to come and interfere in our religion, in our religious affairs. So apostasy definitely is a serious offence, it amounts to a mandatory death sentence," he says.
"Islam is a serious religion. It may not be similar to other religions, it's a way of life."Conservative scholars also argue that apostasy provides an easy way for Muslims to avoid prosecution in sharia courts for crimes such as drinking alcohol or gambling.
"We have seen cases of renunciation and these were done to avoid punishment," says Professor Abdul Aziz Bari from Malaysia's International Islamic University. "From this perspective, the ruling on apostasy is a kind of deterrent."
Liberal Muslims in Malaysia agree that apostasy is a serious sin, but say punishment should be meted out in the afterlife, not in earthly courts."We should leave them alone and try to win them over with love and persuasion. But to use the blunt instrument of criminal law leaves me with a sense of shame and embarrassment," says Shad Saleem Faruqi, a constitutional expert at the Mara University of Technology.
Islamic scholars have disagreed for centuries over interpretations of Islam and its practices, as well as issues such as the correct punishment for apostasy. Discussions over the issue have become more impassioned because, like many other Muslim countries, Malaysia is undergoing an increasing "Islamisation" of its population, as well as a perception that Islam needs to be defended since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
This resurgence of Islam has been largely fuelled by an ongoing battle between Malaysia's ruling United Malays National Organisation and its opposition Pan-Malaysia Islamic party to prove their Islamic credentials.
The revival has seen Muslims more fastidious about practices such as fasting during Ramadan, and abstaining from alcohol, gambling and unmarried contact with the opposite sex. Growing numbers of Muslim women are wearing headscarves, and it is rare to see a female Malay public servant without one.In spite of the changes, observers say no one knows how much of the behaviour is due to increased piety and how much is due to a kind of political correctness -- a social expectation that Muslims should conform.
This growing awareness of the religion makes any move to question its tenets or to abandon the faith all the more sensitive.In Malaysia, people like Kamariah face another stumbling block in the constitution -- drafted by British colonial rulers with advice from Malay politicians -- which defines a Malay as a person who "professes the religion of Islam, habitually speaks the Malay language, conforms to Malay customs."
The definition is crucial because the constitution spells out the privileges, including scholarships and land rights, that the country's ethnic Malays, who make up some 60 percent of the population, are entitled to.
Malays have historically lagged behind the minority Chinese in economic terms, and modern Malaysia has seen the rise of numerous positive discrimination schemes for Malays to even out the discrepancy.
Lawyers say if Kamariah's case ever gets to the Federal Court, and it found in her favour, it could unravel the policies fundamental to Malaysia's economic machinery and undo its delicate balance of race relations."I actually shiver at the implications," says constitutional expert Shad. "The issue of conversion out of Islam is not simply a religious issue but is an issue of abandoning the Malay community with all the political implications of the balance of powers between the Malays and non-Malays."
For Kamariah the battle is personal, though the significance of her case is not lost on her."If we go back through history, even those who brought Islam, pioneers of religion all go through difficulties first. So I have to be patient," she says.
28 December 2005
Malaysian woman's lonely campaign for religious freedom
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 28 (AFP) - No one will give Kamariah Ali a job, relatives and one-time friends shun her, and much of her time is spent in the law courts -- all because she no longer wants to be a Muslim."People look down on me because I renounced Islam. But people don't understand.
Actually, religion belongs to God and you can access God in any way, not necessarily through Islam," says the soft-spoken 54- year-old.Seven years ago, Kamariah publicly renounced Islam after being continually prosecuted and jailed by religious authorities in Malaysia's northern Kelantan state who accused her of deviating from the faith. She had become a member of a religious sect famous for quirky structures on its compound, including a giant teapot.
Its leader, Ayah Pin, caused shockwaves by proclaiming that he was God and that his followers were free to practise whatever religion they pleased."He is a good man and he helps people a lot," says Kamariah, a one- time Islamic religious teacher. "He can cure drug addicts, people with psychological problems, he is more a healer."
Kamariah's unshakeable trust in Ayah Pin has sustained her and other followers through increasing isolation, with some family members and friends unable to accept her decision."Previously during festive seasons, for example Hari Raya (the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan), everybody would come, all family and friends would come over and I would go over to their house," says Kamariah. "But ever since I followed Ayah Pin, everybody avoids my house."
Kamariah's life has now shrunk to the confines of a compound which houses remaining sect members in northeastern Terengganu state, where she spends her days helping one of her children, who is a seamstress.
She rarely ventures out into the wider community, and state police and religious authorities have restricted the numbers of people who can see her.But there's hardly a whiff of despair, or any sense that Kamariah considers herself a victim."I dont feel anything," she says of how she has been treated by the local community. "I dont feel sad, I feel pity for them because they dont understand."
Kamariah's renunciation was a rare challenge on an issue which remains completely taboo in Malaysia, where the constitution dictates that the ethnic Malays who dominate the multi-ethnic population are Muslim by definition.Under Islam, renouncing the religion -- the crime of apostasy -- is one of the gravest offences possible. But Malaysia's constitution also guarantees its citizens the right to freedom of religion, and Kamariah is now trying to convince the nation's highest court to rule that this right extends to Muslims in what could be a landmark case.
"Even if I stay in my own home, they come and prosecute me. That's why I have to go to court," she says.Used to being scrutinised, Kamariah is more bemused than worried over the attention to her every move, including her decision to take off the Muslim headscarf or tudung -- which recently earned her a reprimand from a court judge."I have worn the tudung since I was a child because I went to religious schools. But ... Allah says I dont want to look at your clothing, I look at your heart, so I want to try that. So I thats why I have taken it off. And lots of people are angry with me because of that."
Kamariah and others like her are in a bizarre legal bind, because no member of Malaysia's judiciary wants to become involved in helping a person to commit the grave sin of renouncing Islam. Such are the explosive implications of allowing a person to do so that, so far, both civil and religious or sharia courts have refused to rule on the issue.
Civil courts have ruled that only sharia courts can declare a person to be a non-Muslim, while sharia courts that uphold Islamic law are reluctant to declare people as apostates.A small woman standing under five feet, Kamariah's gaze can be stern, and theres a certain wariness about her. But she is quick to laugh when something amuses her, like the apparently circular logic of authorities who refuse to recognise her decision to quit the faith."If they say I am not following Islam, then why are they not allowing me to renounce?" she asks.
Lawyers say there are large numbers of people like Kamariah, including those who converted to Islam in order to marry a Muslim but want to leave the religion after the relationship has broken down. Living in legal limbo between civil and sharia court systems, they are unable to resolve issues such as land ownership, inheritance rights and child custody.
"You've got individuals who are trapped in an identity they don't subscribe to and they want to get on with their lives but can't," says Kamariah's lawyer, Haris Ibrahim.-- 'Islam is a serious religion' --Kamariah's bid to argue her case before Malaysia's Federal Court, a campaign she is fighting alongside fellow Ayah Pin follower Daud Mamat, comes after years of frustration over not being able to worship freely.
Since 1992, when she and other Ayah Pin members were convicted of deviating from Islam, Kamariah has been jailed for two years, ordered to attend repentance classes -- she refused -- and trailed in and out of sharia and federal courts.Kamariah, who earned a degree in Islamic law in Egypt, also lost her right to teach during that time. She also endured the death of her husband, fellow sect member and teacher Mohamed Ya, who was also thrown in prison over the campaign.
While the legal wrangle plays out, many Muslims say the issue comes down to differing opinions over how Islam should be practiced -- divisions which are reflected in Muslim communities all over the world.Orthodox followers of Islam argue that apostasy is an extremely serious offence and point to certain hadiths -- records of the sayings of the prophet Mohammad -- which dictate the death penalty for renouncing the religion.
The deputy director of the government's Institute of Islamic Understanding, Nik Mustapha Nik Hassan, argues that Islam demands adherence to its tenets."We are committed. We are convinced about Islam. Islam is a serious religion. It's the only path to us, to Muslims. So we cannot allow people to come and interfere in our religion, in our religious affairs. So apostasy definitely is a serious offence, it amounts to a mandatory death sentence," he says.
"Islam is a serious religion. It may not be similar to other religions, it's a way of life."Conservative scholars also argue that apostasy provides an easy way for Muslims to avoid prosecution in sharia courts for crimes such as drinking alcohol or gambling.
"We have seen cases of renunciation and these were done to avoid punishment," says Professor Abdul Aziz Bari from Malaysia's International Islamic University. "From this perspective, the ruling on apostasy is a kind of deterrent."
Liberal Muslims in Malaysia agree that apostasy is a serious sin, but say punishment should be meted out in the afterlife, not in earthly courts."We should leave them alone and try to win them over with love and persuasion. But to use the blunt instrument of criminal law leaves me with a sense of shame and embarrassment," says Shad Saleem Faruqi, a constitutional expert at the Mara University of Technology.
Islamic scholars have disagreed for centuries over interpretations of Islam and its practices, as well as issues such as the correct punishment for apostasy. Discussions over the issue have become more impassioned because, like many other Muslim countries, Malaysia is undergoing an increasing "Islamisation" of its population, as well as a perception that Islam needs to be defended since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
This resurgence of Islam has been largely fuelled by an ongoing battle between Malaysia's ruling United Malays National Organisation and its opposition Pan-Malaysia Islamic party to prove their Islamic credentials.
The revival has seen Muslims more fastidious about practices such as fasting during Ramadan, and abstaining from alcohol, gambling and unmarried contact with the opposite sex. Growing numbers of Muslim women are wearing headscarves, and it is rare to see a female Malay public servant without one.In spite of the changes, observers say no one knows how much of the behaviour is due to increased piety and how much is due to a kind of political correctness -- a social expectation that Muslims should conform.
This growing awareness of the religion makes any move to question its tenets or to abandon the faith all the more sensitive.In Malaysia, people like Kamariah face another stumbling block in the constitution -- drafted by British colonial rulers with advice from Malay politicians -- which defines a Malay as a person who "professes the religion of Islam, habitually speaks the Malay language, conforms to Malay customs."
The definition is crucial because the constitution spells out the privileges, including scholarships and land rights, that the country's ethnic Malays, who make up some 60 percent of the population, are entitled to.
Malays have historically lagged behind the minority Chinese in economic terms, and modern Malaysia has seen the rise of numerous positive discrimination schemes for Malays to even out the discrepancy.
Lawyers say if Kamariah's case ever gets to the Federal Court, and it found in her favour, it could unravel the policies fundamental to Malaysia's economic machinery and undo its delicate balance of race relations."I actually shiver at the implications," says constitutional expert Shad. "The issue of conversion out of Islam is not simply a religious issue but is an issue of abandoning the Malay community with all the political implications of the balance of powers between the Malays and non-Malays."
For Kamariah the battle is personal, though the significance of her case is not lost on her."If we go back through history, even those who brought Islam, pioneers of religion all go through difficulties first. So I have to be patient," she says.
[MGG] Divide and rule in Malaysia
[MGG] Divide and rule in Malaysia
THE NATIONAL FRONT PASSES laws to affect nearly half the population, and no Malaysian is concerned at the time when their kind is affected by it. The Malaysian Chinese Association, the Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia, the Malaysian Indian Congress and other parties in the Front other that UMNO would rather not talk about it, and look the other way.
Two cases in recent weeks show that it is done. A Malaysian, who was born an Indian Hindu and scaled Mount Everest in his time, was buried a Muslim, after the civil court decided it could not interfere in what should have been other court. But because she is not a Muslim, she could not go to the Sharia court for justice. So the Indian is bured a Muslim, with his family not allowed to take part: the religiious affairs department saw to that.
The second case involved women, albeit Muslim, and they objected to their denigration at the last minute. But the two cases are seen in water tight compartments, and so the official actions against one is not seen as affecting the other. So, the Muslim women are up in arms, and the Hindus are up in arms, but seperately. If it is this way, the National Front government is not worried: they would be elected by these groups in the next election or byelection. But there is a link between the two: it shows the National Front reduces views of Malaysians by attacking individual components, knowing full well that parties in the National Front would not object, as it has not in the two cases, and Malaysians will vote the National Front in the next time around.
Why does this happen? The National Front government uses its powers to keep the opposition diffused and weak. The opposition political parties, even Parti Sa Islam or PAS, feels it is more important to survive than make sure the needs of Malaysians are taken care of. The DAP has asked the Yang Dipertuan Agung not to sign the bill, but it happily allowed the Lower House to pass the same act in September. It now have jumped into the action, but it has done after the National Front women senators had raised their cudgels. The mainstream newspapers now find creative reasons to explain whether the act was necessary. What the women did has changed the political landscape once again.
The National Front has to look over its shoulders – now to see how the women would react to what it has in mind. In the 1950s and 1960s, it had the Labour Front to check it in Parliament, but it destroyed it by banning the Chinese group in the front, and made sure the Parti Rakyat Socialis Malaysia was not elected to Parliament. The PSRM has broken into two, the Parti Rakyat Malaysia has merged with the Keadilan party to form Keadilan Rakyat Malaysia. The other wing, Parti Socialis Malaysia, fights a lonely path, by believing in a better Malaysia and not elected seats, and issues statements on government intentions, and spread their outpourings to Malaysians up and down the country. They are too small to make an impact.
But what they say is taken seriously. It is afraid of the Malaysian Communist Party, and would not allow its long term leader is not allowed into Malaysia, as he can under the peace treaty, and has taken legal action to allow him to. Its views affect the Chinese Malaysian, whatever the Chinese parties in the National Front think or say or do.In the other case, the National Front government has passed a law disallowing half the population from going to one of its court systems. The civil courts told the wife of Lance Corporal Moorthy that it cannot hear her case, said in effect could not go to the Sharia courts, therefore her husband had to be buried a Muslim.
She had no standing in the matter and had to allow the religious affairs department to bury him as a Muslim. The Indians, particularly the Hindus, are up in arms at this 'gross injustice'. The Malaysian Indian Congress, which should have taken the cudgels on behalf of the wife, would rather not. The Peoples' Progressive Party would rather blame National Front politicians for bribery in local councils than get involved in this religious tug-of-war. They know fully well the people would vote the National Front in at the next election or byelection. So why should they get involved. The Chinese and those of Sarawak and Sabah do not want to get involved. So it becomes a women's issue or an Indian issue, and the others stay away.
This is now the National Front would like matters be. When a point of view is argued, the National Front must be told that they would vote against it in an election, and take steps to do so. When more than half the electorate are women, the National Front would sit up and take notice. When the Indian Hindus have a beef, they must make it clear they will vote against the National Front in future if the problem is not solved. Islam is the state religion. One should not deny that. But if that religion is used to denigrate the non-Muslims, and the government agencies are used to enforce that, every Malaysian, including it seems many Malays, must take heed. The Mykad, which replaced the old identity card, has Islam printed on those who practice the Islamic faith, but not of others. Hindus are listed blank, Christians are listed as Buddhists. And the religion is not list in print.
It is an arduous process to find out what is written, and the day I went to get my MyKad, the reader was faulty, and many went home disappointed. It is any wonder that many have bought these readers to know what is written about them in the MyKad. Was Corporal Moorthy's change of religion listed in the front of his Mykad? If it was not, then he was buried in the wrong place!The National Front behaves as it does, keeping its opposition weak and defused. It is up to the opposition to see through this, and act accordingly. But it will and has not. As we have seen in the case of Muslim women and Corporal Moorthy.
The others are not involved. But that is changing. In the past, the only people allowed to register new voters were the Election Commission and the National Front, especially UMNO. Many did not bother to vote because of this political party involvement. Now, however, the National Party has found to its horror that four million Malaysians have not bothered to register. It wants them to. But unless it involves the opposition parties and any group willing to register the voters, those who have not would not register. With the National Front breaking at the seams – the membership stating their opposition to the leadership openly, the groups in the Party at loggerheads, in UMNO, the top not agreeing to the bottom, the self-interest groups within not getting along with the leaders, for instance – they need all the help they can. In the next election, the National Front would be voted in, but most analysts believe it would face intense opposition in 2012 or 2017.
The National Front leadership is in crisis. So it needs all the help it can. But that help cannot be easily got.Unless the various disparate groups get together for a common purpose in challenging the National Front, they would not succeed. These groups would insist, to the National Front's pleasure, that they will only be involved in what they fight for and not in politics. But they will ensure that they will fail in what they fight for. But if the groups used what has happened in recent days for a larger purpose, there is hope. There is not much of that around. The Chinese would not be involved in an Indian matter. The men would not be involved in a women's matter. As long as Malaysians think that way, it is easy for the National Front to divide and rule. The Malaysians are concerned about their narrow interests. They would never get out of their narrow selves until it is too late.
In the Internet, the Indians groups discuss Corporal Moothy's predicament, as if no other issue exists; and the women groups discuss the denigration of women. Some Malaysian political parties have taken the cudgels on behalf of the women, but they slept through when they had a chance. It had to do with the general feeling that on matters Islamic, no political party, including those in the National Front, would take part, or even take an interest. If they had not taken that informal ruling, matters would not have reached this stage now.
M.G.G. Pillai
THE NATIONAL FRONT PASSES laws to affect nearly half the population, and no Malaysian is concerned at the time when their kind is affected by it. The Malaysian Chinese Association, the Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia, the Malaysian Indian Congress and other parties in the Front other that UMNO would rather not talk about it, and look the other way.
Two cases in recent weeks show that it is done. A Malaysian, who was born an Indian Hindu and scaled Mount Everest in his time, was buried a Muslim, after the civil court decided it could not interfere in what should have been other court. But because she is not a Muslim, she could not go to the Sharia court for justice. So the Indian is bured a Muslim, with his family not allowed to take part: the religiious affairs department saw to that.
The second case involved women, albeit Muslim, and they objected to their denigration at the last minute. But the two cases are seen in water tight compartments, and so the official actions against one is not seen as affecting the other. So, the Muslim women are up in arms, and the Hindus are up in arms, but seperately. If it is this way, the National Front government is not worried: they would be elected by these groups in the next election or byelection. But there is a link between the two: it shows the National Front reduces views of Malaysians by attacking individual components, knowing full well that parties in the National Front would not object, as it has not in the two cases, and Malaysians will vote the National Front in the next time around.
Why does this happen? The National Front government uses its powers to keep the opposition diffused and weak. The opposition political parties, even Parti Sa Islam or PAS, feels it is more important to survive than make sure the needs of Malaysians are taken care of. The DAP has asked the Yang Dipertuan Agung not to sign the bill, but it happily allowed the Lower House to pass the same act in September. It now have jumped into the action, but it has done after the National Front women senators had raised their cudgels. The mainstream newspapers now find creative reasons to explain whether the act was necessary. What the women did has changed the political landscape once again.
The National Front has to look over its shoulders – now to see how the women would react to what it has in mind. In the 1950s and 1960s, it had the Labour Front to check it in Parliament, but it destroyed it by banning the Chinese group in the front, and made sure the Parti Rakyat Socialis Malaysia was not elected to Parliament. The PSRM has broken into two, the Parti Rakyat Malaysia has merged with the Keadilan party to form Keadilan Rakyat Malaysia. The other wing, Parti Socialis Malaysia, fights a lonely path, by believing in a better Malaysia and not elected seats, and issues statements on government intentions, and spread their outpourings to Malaysians up and down the country. They are too small to make an impact.
But what they say is taken seriously. It is afraid of the Malaysian Communist Party, and would not allow its long term leader is not allowed into Malaysia, as he can under the peace treaty, and has taken legal action to allow him to. Its views affect the Chinese Malaysian, whatever the Chinese parties in the National Front think or say or do.In the other case, the National Front government has passed a law disallowing half the population from going to one of its court systems. The civil courts told the wife of Lance Corporal Moorthy that it cannot hear her case, said in effect could not go to the Sharia courts, therefore her husband had to be buried a Muslim.
She had no standing in the matter and had to allow the religious affairs department to bury him as a Muslim. The Indians, particularly the Hindus, are up in arms at this 'gross injustice'. The Malaysian Indian Congress, which should have taken the cudgels on behalf of the wife, would rather not. The Peoples' Progressive Party would rather blame National Front politicians for bribery in local councils than get involved in this religious tug-of-war. They know fully well the people would vote the National Front in at the next election or byelection. So why should they get involved. The Chinese and those of Sarawak and Sabah do not want to get involved. So it becomes a women's issue or an Indian issue, and the others stay away.
This is now the National Front would like matters be. When a point of view is argued, the National Front must be told that they would vote against it in an election, and take steps to do so. When more than half the electorate are women, the National Front would sit up and take notice. When the Indian Hindus have a beef, they must make it clear they will vote against the National Front in future if the problem is not solved. Islam is the state religion. One should not deny that. But if that religion is used to denigrate the non-Muslims, and the government agencies are used to enforce that, every Malaysian, including it seems many Malays, must take heed. The Mykad, which replaced the old identity card, has Islam printed on those who practice the Islamic faith, but not of others. Hindus are listed blank, Christians are listed as Buddhists. And the religion is not list in print.
It is an arduous process to find out what is written, and the day I went to get my MyKad, the reader was faulty, and many went home disappointed. It is any wonder that many have bought these readers to know what is written about them in the MyKad. Was Corporal Moorthy's change of religion listed in the front of his Mykad? If it was not, then he was buried in the wrong place!The National Front behaves as it does, keeping its opposition weak and defused. It is up to the opposition to see through this, and act accordingly. But it will and has not. As we have seen in the case of Muslim women and Corporal Moorthy.
The others are not involved. But that is changing. In the past, the only people allowed to register new voters were the Election Commission and the National Front, especially UMNO. Many did not bother to vote because of this political party involvement. Now, however, the National Party has found to its horror that four million Malaysians have not bothered to register. It wants them to. But unless it involves the opposition parties and any group willing to register the voters, those who have not would not register. With the National Front breaking at the seams – the membership stating their opposition to the leadership openly, the groups in the Party at loggerheads, in UMNO, the top not agreeing to the bottom, the self-interest groups within not getting along with the leaders, for instance – they need all the help they can. In the next election, the National Front would be voted in, but most analysts believe it would face intense opposition in 2012 or 2017.
The National Front leadership is in crisis. So it needs all the help it can. But that help cannot be easily got.Unless the various disparate groups get together for a common purpose in challenging the National Front, they would not succeed. These groups would insist, to the National Front's pleasure, that they will only be involved in what they fight for and not in politics. But they will ensure that they will fail in what they fight for. But if the groups used what has happened in recent days for a larger purpose, there is hope. There is not much of that around. The Chinese would not be involved in an Indian matter. The men would not be involved in a women's matter. As long as Malaysians think that way, it is easy for the National Front to divide and rule. The Malaysians are concerned about their narrow interests. They would never get out of their narrow selves until it is too late.
In the Internet, the Indians groups discuss Corporal Moothy's predicament, as if no other issue exists; and the women groups discuss the denigration of women. Some Malaysian political parties have taken the cudgels on behalf of the women, but they slept through when they had a chance. It had to do with the general feeling that on matters Islamic, no political party, including those in the National Front, would take part, or even take an interest. If they had not taken that informal ruling, matters would not have reached this stage now.
M.G.G. Pillai
PAS’ days may be numbered
Malaysia Today
26 December 2005
PAS’ days may be numbered
Raja Petra Kamarudin
The outcome of the Pengkalan Pasir by-election is by no means an indication that Barisan Nasional is poised to recapture Kelantan. In fact, state Umno liaison committee chairman Annuar Musa said on 16 December 2005, it would be tougher for the ruling coalition as PAS was expected to go to great lengths to defend its sole state.
He said, contrary to popular belief, Umno would face a tough battle ahead and strategies to win back Kelantan should be devised now. “They will hit us given half a chance,” Annuar said at a special gathering of the party’s state election directors and deputies.
Barisan’s Hanafi Mamat defeated PAS’ Hanifa Ahmad and independent candidate Ibrahim Ali to win the seat with a 134-vote majority. This resulted in PAS being reduced to a single-seat majority in the 45- seat state legislative assembly.
In a frank three-hour speech, Annuar said it was his toughest by- election yet, and there were lessons learnt which could be used to prepare the coalition for the next general election. Annuar said the state Umno had matched PAS in terms of party discipline and solidarity but further hard work was needed to keep the momentum from the recent victory going. “As the state leader, I am prepared to go through fire to ensure the party can meet its objectives,” he said.
Annuar said Pengkalan Pasir was the first by-election in which voters had been given so much information. “The trick was to differentiate rumour from fact and to remain on course towards meeting the benchmark set by the party leadership despite attempts by others to mislead the people,” Annuar said.That was what a mainstream news agency reported on 17 December 2005.
As much as I hate having to say this, I think PAS’ days in Kelantan may be numbered. And I did say so a couple of weeks ago, a day before the Pengkalan Pasir by-election. I said then that if PAS loses the by- election, then it may be hard-pressed to retain Kelantan come the next general election. The loss of Pengkalan Pasir would, more or less, be the beginning of the end for the Islamic party.
What Annuar Musa said above could be a Red Herring of course. He could be trying to lull PAS into complacency by painting a scenario that PAS is pretty strong and Umno would be hard-pressed to wrest Kelantan from it. This is called the art of misinformation or disinformation, which Umno is quite good at.
PAS ruled Kelantan until 1978 when it lost the state to Umno in the state election that was called ahead of the general election that year. By 1986, PAS was left with only one Parliament seat and was practically wiped out, forcing the resignation of its President who later joined Umno. In 1990, PAS rebounded when it recaptured Kelantan with the help of Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah (and some say the Kelantan palace as well) and has been in control of the state ever since. It is apparent no party can keep Kelantan forever. One party takes it for awhile, and then the other takes it back. Clearly, it is Umno’s turn to take back the state (logically speaking, since PAS in currently in control) and Pengkalan Pasir may be that signal for the PAS boys to start packing their bags.
But whether it was PAS losing the state to Umno in 1978 or UMNO losing it back to PAS in 1990, one thing is very clear: that particular party in power lost the state not because the other side was strong, but because it (the party in power) was weak. It was not a strong Umno that took Kelantan in 1978 or a strong PAS that took the state back in 1990. It was a weak PAS in 1978 that lost Kelantan to Umno and a weak Umno that lost it back to PAS in 1990. (Actually, it was not PAS on its own but a PAS-Semangat 46 coalition that took Kelantan in 1990. Nevertheless, it was still because of a weak Umno that had been split into two with the creation of Semangat 46).
Umno Kelantan is not strong. It has not been so since 1990. And it will still not be so come 2007 or 2008 when the next general election will be called. But then, neither is PAS. The problem, however, is that while Umno realises it is weak, PAS on the other hand does not think it is weak as well. It thinks it is strong. It thinks it lost Pengkalan Pasir because of fraud. It thinks without the element of fraud it would have won.
Sure, there certainly was an element of fraud. I did not say there was not. What with 200 dead voters who came home to vote and 20 more postal votes than registered postal voters. But if you are strong, then it would be difficult to rig the election -- and even if they did, it would not harm you that much. But when you are a borderline case, then it is so easy to tip the scale through fraud. All it needs is a slight push to change things.
PAS won Pengkalan Pasir with a thin majority in 2004 and then lost it again a year later, also with a thin majority. If you have a strong lead, then how much they cheat you would still win. After all, how much can they cheat? They cannot cheat all the way. They can cheat only to a certain extent. Maybe they can bring in 20 busloads of ‘phantom’ voters or stuff the ballot box with 200 ‘doctored’ postal votes. But would these 1,000 additional votes harm you if you have a clear majority? It is only when it is a 50:50 situation that 100 or 200 votes can tip the scale.
PAS needs to get out of this rut. It needs to break away from this borderline situation and surge far ahead of Umno. Only then will Umno be powerless to rig the elections. But if PAS remains in this 50:50 situation, then Kelantan is as good as lost to Umno.But why, in the first place, is PAS in this dicey situation? Why can’t it get ahead of Umno instead of being just neck-to-neck? Kelantan is 97% Muslim. PAS is an Islamic party. What is it that a predominantly Muslim population finds so revolting about PAS? Why can’t PAS sell to the 97% Kelantanese Muslims? What’s so wrong with the product that PAS is trying to sell to the Kelantanese voters? And we are not yet even touching on Terengganu, Pahang, Kedah and Perlis where the situation at the moment appears totally hopeless for PAS.
Yes, questions and yet more questions. But do we have the answers?PAS needs to do some soul searching. It has to ask itself, if it cannot sell to the 97% Malay-Muslims of Kelantan; those Malay-Muslims who are perceived as more religious compared to the Malay-Muslims of the other states; then how to make any headway in the other states? The Malay-Muslims in white skull caps on their heads and prayer beads in their hands are not buying whatever it is that PAS is trying to sell to them. Do you expect the Malay-Muslims in Selangor or Johore to buy it?PAS, in particular the supporters on the ground, have to understand that just because a large percentage of Malay-Muslims reject whatever it is PAS is trying to sell does not make these people godless.
You cannot go around labelling these Malay-Muslims as Munafik or Murtad just because they do not subscribe to an Islamic State.My wife, a Chinese, has no reservations if two-thirds of Malaysia’s Parliamentarians vote to turn Malaysia into an Islamic State. She does not wear a tudung. She wears jeans and T-shirts. She does not rob banks either, so she is not frightened if the punishment for robbery is your hands get amputated at the wrist. But she believes that PAS should not push for Malaysia to be turned into an Islamic State for the sake of its political future. It is not about religion at all. That is not the issue as far as she is concerned. It is about politics, and PAS is a political party, not a missionary (dakwah) movement, notwithstanding the fact PAS’ political platform is Islam.
Like it or not, Islam cannot sell, at least not yet. Even if it can, it is to only to a small segment of society. But getting that small segment of society to stand behind you will not help put you in power. You need a larger segment of society to subscribe to your ideology. So you need to sell a new product that the majority wants. And we must be able to differentiate between wants and needs. Sometimes, what we want may not necessarily be what we need. You need a car to get to work. But you don’t need a Porsche to get to work. You may want a Porsche though, although you don’t need it. There is a great difference between wants and needs.
True, Muslims need to comply with Islam. And Syariah law is something Muslims need to comply with. But what they want is something else, which may not quite be what they need.Let me put it this way. Let us say PAS is a company manufacturing and marketing a certain product. And it is competing with many other companies also selling similar products, though of different brands. Do you force the consumer to buy your product or do you design your product to suit the consumers’ demands and taste? A successful marketing company surveys the consumers’ wants and designs their products to the taste of the consumer. No company forces the consumer. The consumer is boss. The market decides what it wants. It cannot be forced to buy something against its wishes.
PAS has to be dragged kicking and screaming into the world of real- politics. It must be made to understand that it is trying to sell itself to the voters. And the voters have specific tastes and demands. And there are many other political parties that are prepared to structure its marketing plan to the tastes and demands of the consumers. PAS, however, is very rigid in its marketing plan and is instead trying to force the consumer to change its taste.
It is no point trying to educate the consumer unless you are inventing something new. Sony sold its Walkman because it was something new and there was no similar product on the market. Philips sold its laser disc players because it was something new and there was no similar product on the market. And the same goes for all those other new fangled gadgets as well. However, once Sony jumped on the bandwagon and came out with a better product and a better marketing plan, it displaced Philips and outsold the inventors of the laser disc players.Therefore, it is not who invented the product that succeeds but who comes out with innovation and a better marketing strategy.
In this context, PAS ‘invented’ Islamic politics, just like how Philips invented the laser disc player. But Umno ‘reinvented’ or innovated Islamic politics and came out with a more effective marketing plan called Islam Hadhari, just like how Sony did with laser disc players. So, Umno’s Islam sells, not PAS’ Islam, just like how Sony’s laser disc players sell instead of Philips’.
When we talk about PAS’ Islam, Islamic State, Syariah law, and so on, people think we are talking about Islam. No, we are not talking about Islam. We are talking about politics. And we are talking about politics because PAS is a political party that ‘fights’ in a political arena. Now, if PAS is prepared to get out of the political arena, concentrate instead on just propagating Islam, and forget about trying to win the election, I will be the first in line to support PAS’ Islamic State agenda. But then, how far will they go when Barisan Nasional controls more than 90% of Parliament?
26 December 2005
PAS’ days may be numbered
Raja Petra Kamarudin
The outcome of the Pengkalan Pasir by-election is by no means an indication that Barisan Nasional is poised to recapture Kelantan. In fact, state Umno liaison committee chairman Annuar Musa said on 16 December 2005, it would be tougher for the ruling coalition as PAS was expected to go to great lengths to defend its sole state.
He said, contrary to popular belief, Umno would face a tough battle ahead and strategies to win back Kelantan should be devised now. “They will hit us given half a chance,” Annuar said at a special gathering of the party’s state election directors and deputies.
Barisan’s Hanafi Mamat defeated PAS’ Hanifa Ahmad and independent candidate Ibrahim Ali to win the seat with a 134-vote majority. This resulted in PAS being reduced to a single-seat majority in the 45- seat state legislative assembly.
In a frank three-hour speech, Annuar said it was his toughest by- election yet, and there were lessons learnt which could be used to prepare the coalition for the next general election. Annuar said the state Umno had matched PAS in terms of party discipline and solidarity but further hard work was needed to keep the momentum from the recent victory going. “As the state leader, I am prepared to go through fire to ensure the party can meet its objectives,” he said.
Annuar said Pengkalan Pasir was the first by-election in which voters had been given so much information. “The trick was to differentiate rumour from fact and to remain on course towards meeting the benchmark set by the party leadership despite attempts by others to mislead the people,” Annuar said.That was what a mainstream news agency reported on 17 December 2005.
As much as I hate having to say this, I think PAS’ days in Kelantan may be numbered. And I did say so a couple of weeks ago, a day before the Pengkalan Pasir by-election. I said then that if PAS loses the by- election, then it may be hard-pressed to retain Kelantan come the next general election. The loss of Pengkalan Pasir would, more or less, be the beginning of the end for the Islamic party.
What Annuar Musa said above could be a Red Herring of course. He could be trying to lull PAS into complacency by painting a scenario that PAS is pretty strong and Umno would be hard-pressed to wrest Kelantan from it. This is called the art of misinformation or disinformation, which Umno is quite good at.
PAS ruled Kelantan until 1978 when it lost the state to Umno in the state election that was called ahead of the general election that year. By 1986, PAS was left with only one Parliament seat and was practically wiped out, forcing the resignation of its President who later joined Umno. In 1990, PAS rebounded when it recaptured Kelantan with the help of Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah (and some say the Kelantan palace as well) and has been in control of the state ever since. It is apparent no party can keep Kelantan forever. One party takes it for awhile, and then the other takes it back. Clearly, it is Umno’s turn to take back the state (logically speaking, since PAS in currently in control) and Pengkalan Pasir may be that signal for the PAS boys to start packing their bags.
But whether it was PAS losing the state to Umno in 1978 or UMNO losing it back to PAS in 1990, one thing is very clear: that particular party in power lost the state not because the other side was strong, but because it (the party in power) was weak. It was not a strong Umno that took Kelantan in 1978 or a strong PAS that took the state back in 1990. It was a weak PAS in 1978 that lost Kelantan to Umno and a weak Umno that lost it back to PAS in 1990. (Actually, it was not PAS on its own but a PAS-Semangat 46 coalition that took Kelantan in 1990. Nevertheless, it was still because of a weak Umno that had been split into two with the creation of Semangat 46).
Umno Kelantan is not strong. It has not been so since 1990. And it will still not be so come 2007 or 2008 when the next general election will be called. But then, neither is PAS. The problem, however, is that while Umno realises it is weak, PAS on the other hand does not think it is weak as well. It thinks it is strong. It thinks it lost Pengkalan Pasir because of fraud. It thinks without the element of fraud it would have won.
Sure, there certainly was an element of fraud. I did not say there was not. What with 200 dead voters who came home to vote and 20 more postal votes than registered postal voters. But if you are strong, then it would be difficult to rig the election -- and even if they did, it would not harm you that much. But when you are a borderline case, then it is so easy to tip the scale through fraud. All it needs is a slight push to change things.
PAS won Pengkalan Pasir with a thin majority in 2004 and then lost it again a year later, also with a thin majority. If you have a strong lead, then how much they cheat you would still win. After all, how much can they cheat? They cannot cheat all the way. They can cheat only to a certain extent. Maybe they can bring in 20 busloads of ‘phantom’ voters or stuff the ballot box with 200 ‘doctored’ postal votes. But would these 1,000 additional votes harm you if you have a clear majority? It is only when it is a 50:50 situation that 100 or 200 votes can tip the scale.
PAS needs to get out of this rut. It needs to break away from this borderline situation and surge far ahead of Umno. Only then will Umno be powerless to rig the elections. But if PAS remains in this 50:50 situation, then Kelantan is as good as lost to Umno.But why, in the first place, is PAS in this dicey situation? Why can’t it get ahead of Umno instead of being just neck-to-neck? Kelantan is 97% Muslim. PAS is an Islamic party. What is it that a predominantly Muslim population finds so revolting about PAS? Why can’t PAS sell to the 97% Kelantanese Muslims? What’s so wrong with the product that PAS is trying to sell to the Kelantanese voters? And we are not yet even touching on Terengganu, Pahang, Kedah and Perlis where the situation at the moment appears totally hopeless for PAS.
Yes, questions and yet more questions. But do we have the answers?PAS needs to do some soul searching. It has to ask itself, if it cannot sell to the 97% Malay-Muslims of Kelantan; those Malay-Muslims who are perceived as more religious compared to the Malay-Muslims of the other states; then how to make any headway in the other states? The Malay-Muslims in white skull caps on their heads and prayer beads in their hands are not buying whatever it is that PAS is trying to sell to them. Do you expect the Malay-Muslims in Selangor or Johore to buy it?PAS, in particular the supporters on the ground, have to understand that just because a large percentage of Malay-Muslims reject whatever it is PAS is trying to sell does not make these people godless.
You cannot go around labelling these Malay-Muslims as Munafik or Murtad just because they do not subscribe to an Islamic State.My wife, a Chinese, has no reservations if two-thirds of Malaysia’s Parliamentarians vote to turn Malaysia into an Islamic State. She does not wear a tudung. She wears jeans and T-shirts. She does not rob banks either, so she is not frightened if the punishment for robbery is your hands get amputated at the wrist. But she believes that PAS should not push for Malaysia to be turned into an Islamic State for the sake of its political future. It is not about religion at all. That is not the issue as far as she is concerned. It is about politics, and PAS is a political party, not a missionary (dakwah) movement, notwithstanding the fact PAS’ political platform is Islam.
Like it or not, Islam cannot sell, at least not yet. Even if it can, it is to only to a small segment of society. But getting that small segment of society to stand behind you will not help put you in power. You need a larger segment of society to subscribe to your ideology. So you need to sell a new product that the majority wants. And we must be able to differentiate between wants and needs. Sometimes, what we want may not necessarily be what we need. You need a car to get to work. But you don’t need a Porsche to get to work. You may want a Porsche though, although you don’t need it. There is a great difference between wants and needs.
True, Muslims need to comply with Islam. And Syariah law is something Muslims need to comply with. But what they want is something else, which may not quite be what they need.Let me put it this way. Let us say PAS is a company manufacturing and marketing a certain product. And it is competing with many other companies also selling similar products, though of different brands. Do you force the consumer to buy your product or do you design your product to suit the consumers’ demands and taste? A successful marketing company surveys the consumers’ wants and designs their products to the taste of the consumer. No company forces the consumer. The consumer is boss. The market decides what it wants. It cannot be forced to buy something against its wishes.
PAS has to be dragged kicking and screaming into the world of real- politics. It must be made to understand that it is trying to sell itself to the voters. And the voters have specific tastes and demands. And there are many other political parties that are prepared to structure its marketing plan to the tastes and demands of the consumers. PAS, however, is very rigid in its marketing plan and is instead trying to force the consumer to change its taste.
It is no point trying to educate the consumer unless you are inventing something new. Sony sold its Walkman because it was something new and there was no similar product on the market. Philips sold its laser disc players because it was something new and there was no similar product on the market. And the same goes for all those other new fangled gadgets as well. However, once Sony jumped on the bandwagon and came out with a better product and a better marketing plan, it displaced Philips and outsold the inventors of the laser disc players.Therefore, it is not who invented the product that succeeds but who comes out with innovation and a better marketing strategy.
In this context, PAS ‘invented’ Islamic politics, just like how Philips invented the laser disc player. But Umno ‘reinvented’ or innovated Islamic politics and came out with a more effective marketing plan called Islam Hadhari, just like how Sony did with laser disc players. So, Umno’s Islam sells, not PAS’ Islam, just like how Sony’s laser disc players sell instead of Philips’.
When we talk about PAS’ Islam, Islamic State, Syariah law, and so on, people think we are talking about Islam. No, we are not talking about Islam. We are talking about politics. And we are talking about politics because PAS is a political party that ‘fights’ in a political arena. Now, if PAS is prepared to get out of the political arena, concentrate instead on just propagating Islam, and forget about trying to win the election, I will be the first in line to support PAS’ Islamic State agenda. But then, how far will they go when Barisan Nasional controls more than 90% of Parliament?
Is Anwar really poised for a comeback?
The Straits Times, Singapore
Is Anwar really poised for a comeback?
DATUK Seri Anwar Ibrahim's upscale home in Kuala Lumpur's Damansara Heights is beginning to look a bit worn, having doubled as his political base since he was ousted from the government in 1998. The former deputy prime minister himself, however, has never looked better. Late last month, he hosted a Hari Raya open house. Gone was the gaunt man who had aged tremendously when he was first released from prison last year after the Federal Court set aside his conviction for sodomy.
At the open house, a rejuvenated Datuk Seri Anwar greeted supporters and a sprinkling of politicians, businessmen and diplomats, making it the highlight of one of his few trips back in Malaysia.
Datuk Seri Anwar has spent most of this year abroad, teaching in the United States and Britain. This kept him out of the news and, as the year wore on, the euphoria over his release from prison also died down. Even a number of startling court judgments that bolstered his long-held protest of innocence failed to stir up excitement.
Talk of his rejoining Umno - the only way that he can return to government - also dwindled away.It would be tempting to write off Datuk Seri Anwar as a spent political force, but he has plans to turn things around next year.
To start, he will be spending more time in Malaysia after February, when his stints as a visiting professor at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins universities in the US and Oxford in Britain end.
'He will be in Kuala Lumpur permanently, although there will still be a lot of travel as he has many speaking engagements abroad,' said his aide Azmin Ali.He also said Parti Keadilan Rakyat, led by Datuk Seri Anwar's wife Wan Azizah Ismail, was set to give the former deputy prime minister a platform to build a higher domestic profile.
It had spent the year building up its membership and machinery to enable Datuk Seri Anwar 'to move on in his political career', although the party has not really been able to find a niche for itself.Datuk Seri Anwar plans to hold a series of programmes with the businessmen, professionals, religious groups and civil society organisations to explain his vision.'There is no way for us to reach the people through the media, so we will be holding small workshops rather than large rallies through the year,' said Mr Azmin.
Datuk Seri Anwar is barred from active politics, including running for office, until 2008 as his conviction for corruption remains on the books.He has refused to seek a royal pardon.
Datuk Seri Abdullah's future could depend on whether he is able to light a spark under the current lacklustre efforts to bring the opposition parties into a cohesive pact.
Is Anwar really poised for a comeback?
DATUK Seri Anwar Ibrahim's upscale home in Kuala Lumpur's Damansara Heights is beginning to look a bit worn, having doubled as his political base since he was ousted from the government in 1998. The former deputy prime minister himself, however, has never looked better. Late last month, he hosted a Hari Raya open house. Gone was the gaunt man who had aged tremendously when he was first released from prison last year after the Federal Court set aside his conviction for sodomy.
At the open house, a rejuvenated Datuk Seri Anwar greeted supporters and a sprinkling of politicians, businessmen and diplomats, making it the highlight of one of his few trips back in Malaysia.
Datuk Seri Anwar has spent most of this year abroad, teaching in the United States and Britain. This kept him out of the news and, as the year wore on, the euphoria over his release from prison also died down. Even a number of startling court judgments that bolstered his long-held protest of innocence failed to stir up excitement.
Talk of his rejoining Umno - the only way that he can return to government - also dwindled away.It would be tempting to write off Datuk Seri Anwar as a spent political force, but he has plans to turn things around next year.
To start, he will be spending more time in Malaysia after February, when his stints as a visiting professor at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins universities in the US and Oxford in Britain end.
'He will be in Kuala Lumpur permanently, although there will still be a lot of travel as he has many speaking engagements abroad,' said his aide Azmin Ali.He also said Parti Keadilan Rakyat, led by Datuk Seri Anwar's wife Wan Azizah Ismail, was set to give the former deputy prime minister a platform to build a higher domestic profile.
It had spent the year building up its membership and machinery to enable Datuk Seri Anwar 'to move on in his political career', although the party has not really been able to find a niche for itself.Datuk Seri Anwar plans to hold a series of programmes with the businessmen, professionals, religious groups and civil society organisations to explain his vision.'There is no way for us to reach the people through the media, so we will be holding small workshops rather than large rallies through the year,' said Mr Azmin.
Datuk Seri Anwar is barred from active politics, including running for office, until 2008 as his conviction for corruption remains on the books.He has refused to seek a royal pardon.
Datuk Seri Abdullah's future could depend on whether he is able to light a spark under the current lacklustre efforts to bring the opposition parties into a cohesive pact.
Rebuttals on Malay College Essay
Rebuttals on Malay College Essay
M. Bakri Musa
My review of Khasnor Johan's book on Malay College drew many responses, including a rebuttal from the author in the form of a Letter to the Editor. I will re-post that letter later, pending permission from Malaysiakini.
My piece was published on many websites and chat groups of Malay College's "old boys." Hence the many responses, including from some very distinguished alumni. These readers were obviously new to my work as they raised the same old trite issues that my earlier readers brought up over a decade ago. That is, they questioned my competence and indeed my right to comment in view of my residing abroad. By their tone, they dismiss me as no longer "one of us."
These readers focused on my personality and other irrelevant personal matters rather than on my ideas.
Then there are those who suggested I am good at only criticizing but cannot offer constructive ideas. When I write that Malay College does not even prepare its students for university, I am also implicitly suggesting that Malay College should have Sixth Form. In my book, An Education System Worthy of Malaysia, I suggested that Malay College and other residential schools eliminate their lower forms and concentrate only on Forms IV to VI.
One responder, a very distinguished old boy, asserted that I have an ego "as big as big school," without once commenting on the substantive issues I raised. On the point that no alum has yet to contribute generously, he pointed to the piddling efforts at restoring Mr. Norton's old residence and the surau.
Yet this "old boy" is on the board of many corporations, statutory bodies, and the college itself. His hobbies include sailing fancy yachts; he no doubt has other equally luxurious toys. To the likes of him, those meager contributions are "substantive." I wonder whose ego is "as big as big school," his or mine?
It will be a long time, if ever, before Malay College will get its Halim Saad Library, Megat Najmuddin Aquatic Center, or a Nawawi Effendi Orchestra.
My essay is a book review. I would have thought that many old boys would be eager to get a copy of the book. Judging from the comments, few if any, had read the book! One admitted to buying it but thus far, he has read only a few pages. Presumably, he gave up after seeing his name was not in the index!
I thank the few who engaged me on the issues. How refreshing! Some agreed with me, others did not. One suggested that it is the responsibility of all old boys to contribute in their own unique ways. I could not agree more. Reviewing the book was my minor effort at doing this. Surprisingly, again reflecting something that I do not know exactly what, the most eloquent and solid responses were on my website rather than on the college's chat groups.
I raised many major issues in that review; sadly, no one bothered to comment on them. Malay College, for example, is still a "glorified middle school."
In typical Malaysian fashion, many blame the college's woes on others, especially those bureaucrats at the Ministry. Conveniently forgotten is that many of these top officials, including former Ministers of Education Anwar Ibrahim and Musa Mohamad, are old boys. Where is the supposed clout of our alumni network?
In her rebuttal, Khasnor Johan agrees with me that the title of her book over promises. She blames the college' old boys for the choice of the title. I have always considered a book to be the author's baby; others may suggest, but the author gets to name it. Her blaming her sponsors is a convenient cop put.
Her excuse for not having references was that it was not an academic book. She confuses the detailed footnoting of an academic treatise to the general referencing found in popular publications. Besides, when you are quoting word for word, you are duty bound to put the necessary attribution or credit regardless whether it is a dissertation or lay essay. We learn this elementary courtesy early in high school.
To my criticism that she offers no prescription as to what ails this national heritage, Khasnor responded that it is not her place to offer any. Hers was merely to chronicle, not to analyze and prescribe. Besides, that was not the mandate given, she claims.
Yes, there is a place for mere chronicling, of simply telling the story and leaving the analyses and interpretations to readers. They call that fiction writing.
"We report, you interpret!" is the canard perpetrated upon novice journalists and writers. The reality is that we implicitly filter though our analysis and judgment what and how we report. You do not compartmentalize your brain. Just because you are commissioned to write a book does not mean you do not bring all your skills and intellect to bear on the project. Anything less and you do not serve your client or readers well. More importantly, you do not produce your best or enhance your reputation.
M. Bakri Musa
My review of Khasnor Johan's book on Malay College drew many responses, including a rebuttal from the author in the form of a Letter to the Editor. I will re-post that letter later, pending permission from Malaysiakini.
My piece was published on many websites and chat groups of Malay College's "old boys." Hence the many responses, including from some very distinguished alumni. These readers were obviously new to my work as they raised the same old trite issues that my earlier readers brought up over a decade ago. That is, they questioned my competence and indeed my right to comment in view of my residing abroad. By their tone, they dismiss me as no longer "one of us."
These readers focused on my personality and other irrelevant personal matters rather than on my ideas.
Then there are those who suggested I am good at only criticizing but cannot offer constructive ideas. When I write that Malay College does not even prepare its students for university, I am also implicitly suggesting that Malay College should have Sixth Form. In my book, An Education System Worthy of Malaysia, I suggested that Malay College and other residential schools eliminate their lower forms and concentrate only on Forms IV to VI.
One responder, a very distinguished old boy, asserted that I have an ego "as big as big school," without once commenting on the substantive issues I raised. On the point that no alum has yet to contribute generously, he pointed to the piddling efforts at restoring Mr. Norton's old residence and the surau.
Yet this "old boy" is on the board of many corporations, statutory bodies, and the college itself. His hobbies include sailing fancy yachts; he no doubt has other equally luxurious toys. To the likes of him, those meager contributions are "substantive." I wonder whose ego is "as big as big school," his or mine?
It will be a long time, if ever, before Malay College will get its Halim Saad Library, Megat Najmuddin Aquatic Center, or a Nawawi Effendi Orchestra.
My essay is a book review. I would have thought that many old boys would be eager to get a copy of the book. Judging from the comments, few if any, had read the book! One admitted to buying it but thus far, he has read only a few pages. Presumably, he gave up after seeing his name was not in the index!
I thank the few who engaged me on the issues. How refreshing! Some agreed with me, others did not. One suggested that it is the responsibility of all old boys to contribute in their own unique ways. I could not agree more. Reviewing the book was my minor effort at doing this. Surprisingly, again reflecting something that I do not know exactly what, the most eloquent and solid responses were on my website rather than on the college's chat groups.
I raised many major issues in that review; sadly, no one bothered to comment on them. Malay College, for example, is still a "glorified middle school."
In typical Malaysian fashion, many blame the college's woes on others, especially those bureaucrats at the Ministry. Conveniently forgotten is that many of these top officials, including former Ministers of Education Anwar Ibrahim and Musa Mohamad, are old boys. Where is the supposed clout of our alumni network?
In her rebuttal, Khasnor Johan agrees with me that the title of her book over promises. She blames the college' old boys for the choice of the title. I have always considered a book to be the author's baby; others may suggest, but the author gets to name it. Her blaming her sponsors is a convenient cop put.
Her excuse for not having references was that it was not an academic book. She confuses the detailed footnoting of an academic treatise to the general referencing found in popular publications. Besides, when you are quoting word for word, you are duty bound to put the necessary attribution or credit regardless whether it is a dissertation or lay essay. We learn this elementary courtesy early in high school.
To my criticism that she offers no prescription as to what ails this national heritage, Khasnor responded that it is not her place to offer any. Hers was merely to chronicle, not to analyze and prescribe. Besides, that was not the mandate given, she claims.
Yes, there is a place for mere chronicling, of simply telling the story and leaving the analyses and interpretations to readers. They call that fiction writing.
"We report, you interpret!" is the canard perpetrated upon novice journalists and writers. The reality is that we implicitly filter though our analysis and judgment what and how we report. You do not compartmentalize your brain. Just because you are commissioned to write a book does not mean you do not bring all your skills and intellect to bear on the project. Anything less and you do not serve your client or readers well. More importantly, you do not produce your best or enhance your reputation.
"I Will Not Rejoin Umno", Vows Anwar
Kuala Lumpur 23 December 2005
"I Will Not Rejoin Umno", Vows Anwar
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 23 (Bernama) -- Former Deputy Prime Minister and former Umno Deputy President Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has declared that he would not rejoin Umno, the main component party of the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) National Congress here this evening, Anwar said the question of him rejoining Umno had been raised many times but his answer was still negative.
"I have many friends in Umno, especially at the divisional level. They meet me to talk and discuss issues. I have never at any time refused to meetthem. In discussions with them, they have always asked me if I could rejoin Umno and my answer has always been a `no'," said Anwar, who is now advisor to PKR whose president is his wife Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.
Anwar was convicted of corruption and sodomy in 1998 and served six years in jail before the Court of Appeal in 2004 reversed the conviction and released him. Asked why he would not rejoin Umno, Anwar claimed that "the corrupt practices in Umno made it not possible for me to join Umno now".
He said that though Umno President and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was fighting corruption, other party leaders had yet to endorse this battle. Asked if he would rejoin the party if Umno underwent a change, he said this was unlikely to happen in the near future.
Anwar was sacked from Umno following the allegations of corruption and sodomy against him in 1998. Following his release, Anwar had been working as a lecturing professor at several universities in the United States and as a consultant for investment companies overseas. He said that from January next year, he said he would try to spend some time at home and that from May he would be based in Malaysia "full time".-- BERNAMA
"I Will Not Rejoin Umno", Vows Anwar
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 23 (Bernama) -- Former Deputy Prime Minister and former Umno Deputy President Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has declared that he would not rejoin Umno, the main component party of the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) National Congress here this evening, Anwar said the question of him rejoining Umno had been raised many times but his answer was still negative.
"I have many friends in Umno, especially at the divisional level. They meet me to talk and discuss issues. I have never at any time refused to meetthem. In discussions with them, they have always asked me if I could rejoin Umno and my answer has always been a `no'," said Anwar, who is now advisor to PKR whose president is his wife Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.
Anwar was convicted of corruption and sodomy in 1998 and served six years in jail before the Court of Appeal in 2004 reversed the conviction and released him. Asked why he would not rejoin Umno, Anwar claimed that "the corrupt practices in Umno made it not possible for me to join Umno now".
He said that though Umno President and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was fighting corruption, other party leaders had yet to endorse this battle. Asked if he would rejoin the party if Umno underwent a change, he said this was unlikely to happen in the near future.
Anwar was sacked from Umno following the allegations of corruption and sodomy against him in 1998. Following his release, Anwar had been working as a lecturing professor at several universities in the United States and as a consultant for investment companies overseas. He said that from January next year, he said he would try to spend some time at home and that from May he would be based in Malaysia "full time".-- BERNAMA
[MGG] The National Front makes another mistake
[MGG] The National Front makes another mistake
THE MINISTER IN CHARGE OF PARLIAMENT, otherwise known as minister in the Prime Minister's Department, has made it clear that the Senate is not for discussion and eventually vote on contentious bills. He has warned the National Front women senators that they must vote against their conscience and for their own degradation. It does not matter what they personally thought.
The chairman of the Senate, in most countries elected but in Malaysia a sinecure for elderly National Front members, did not object. Those who did oppose it, and saw Dato' Seri Naziz Aziz, were told bluntly there would be no discussion or debate. It is final: the women will be second class citizens in their country.
The non-Islamic members of the National Front did not object to this proposal, which UMNO had thought up to become more Islamic than the opposition PAS, and presumably agreed to it. Even the cabinet minister for women's affairs, a woman, had agreed to her downgrading. She values her position in the cabinet more than her sex. Women could be downgraded, in the name of Islam, if the National Front could steal a march over Parti Sa Islam or PAS. But this is only one of several laws passed which makes the non-Muslim and women second class citizens.
A former climber of Mount Evert, an Indian, who was reduced to a cripple in a wheelchair after another accident, has died, and the Selangor Religious Affairs Department has insisted he be buried as a Muslim. His family says he was a Hindu, and should be buried as a Hindu. A former cabinet minister, an Indian, had to be buried urgently so that the Selangor Religious Affairs Department would not get at the body after the state funeral.
Islam in Malaysia will not join the other religious faiths to discuss common issues. They make their views known independently, but the non- Islamic faiths announce a common position separately. The Islamic faith reserves the right to bury non-Muslims on the grounds they have become Muslims.
What happened to the non-Muslims after they died – when the religious affairs department had a unseemly battle with the familes over where the bodies should be buried according to Islamic rights or according to the religion, in a Muslim cemetery or a Non- Muslim place of burial. Even in an Islamic country, non-Muslims practice their faith and are buried according to the rites they followed. It would not be, as in Malaysia, a matter of who would bury the bodies.
Islam is a tolerant religion, but in Malaysia it is seen as an intolerant one. People became Muslims in the past, usually to marry. But the National Front Islamic bodies in this country is not prepared to allow the tribe to rise naturally. Chinese and indian officers who have reached their glass ceiling are told they could breach it if they became Muslim. Those who accepted the offer had gone ahead; those who did not remained at their level for the rest of their career.
Any Indian or Chinese who enter the government services cannot get to the top unless he became a Muslim later on in life. The courts have ruled that civil law cannot discuss what is in the jurisdiction of sharia law. Once a man becomes a Muslim, and marries another, his non-Muslim wife is automatically divorced, and he has no responsibility for their children unless they converted to Islam.
The law which reduces women – Islamic and non-Islamic – into second class citizens is bitterly opposed, particularly by the women. But every avenue they go to be heard is blocked. There is no discussion about it, in Parliament or outside, and the newspapers do not report on the opposition to it.
The National Front leadership was therefore surprised when the bill was protested by the women in their ranks that the Minister for Parliament had to issue the whip, not as a matter of course, as in many countries, but as a warning what could happen to them if they voted against. It is the family law bill, which has made the position of women in such bad straits. This is the only way they could bring non-Malays into the Act. But it reduces the position of women in Malaysia. It passed the lower house of Parliament in September and therefore did not attract the attention it now has. The National Front thought it would be plain sailing in the Senate. But it has had to issue threats to keep the Senators in line.
PAS members of parliament and senators have stayed, by and large, out of the fray. The National Front members, which holds the majority in parliament, the senate and thirteen of the fourteen states. It is used to have its way in all, except in Kelantan where PAS is the state government. It worked in the past, but the National Front is divided against itself. There is the Prime Minister's camp, and there are others. If the women senators and the men senators who are against the bill votes against, it is possible that the bill could go to the House for re-introduction of the bill in parliament.
The National Front government does not want this to happen; hence its strong arm tactics.The National Front government, which has turned Malaysia into an Islamic country, would lose badly vis-a-vis PAS if it floundered on this bill. It does not believe it should be discussed in public before it is introduced in parliament. So it took everyone, especially the women groups, by surprise. They saw their rights whittled down. And those in a position to oppose it did.
Already many Muslim women do not get married, or they marry outside their race, hoping that the men they marry would not behave as Malay men would. They see their working as licence for their husbands to marry again. What got the women's groups on the war parth was that the family law bill had five contentious clauses: the right of a husband to claim his existing wife's property upon his committing polygamy; making polygamy easier for men; forcing a wife to chose either maintenance or division of joint propery upon a husband's polygamous marriage; enhance the husband's right to divorce; allowing a husband to get a court order to stop his wife from disposing of her property. Some of these provisions are against Islamic law.
The National Front government saw this has a hot potato. More than one cabinet minister was roped in to quell the revolt, which got the women senators from government and the opposition PAS together. They drafted a letter to the Prime Minister, whose department had initiated the bill, requesting that it be withdrawn. It would not, if the political position of Dato' Seri Nazri Aziz is any guide. It would also restrict the government's hands in future.
The non-Islamic parties in the National Front does not want to get involved, and will be thrown by the wayside in this. But the National Front has realised that it cannot have its way in parliament even if it controls most of the seats. It has dissensions within it – those who do not support the ruling group; those that support Tun Mahathir Mohamed, the former prime minister; those who support Tengku Razaleigh, the former finance minister; those that support Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, the former deputy prime minister who is in the opposition.
It has already seen Islam Hadhari, which is Pak Lah's version of Islam, to the sidelines when PAS is around. Now it is the women from the National Front who has caused Pak Lah to be careful of his legislative plans. He has ensured that the whip will allow the senate to pass the bill. But it would be like telling the Yang Di Pertuan Agung not to address a function he had agreed to. In this revolt by the National Front women senators, it loses whether it succeds in the bill or not. The government would have to make its plans carefully and with consultation.
M.G.G. Pillai
THE MINISTER IN CHARGE OF PARLIAMENT, otherwise known as minister in the Prime Minister's Department, has made it clear that the Senate is not for discussion and eventually vote on contentious bills. He has warned the National Front women senators that they must vote against their conscience and for their own degradation. It does not matter what they personally thought.
The chairman of the Senate, in most countries elected but in Malaysia a sinecure for elderly National Front members, did not object. Those who did oppose it, and saw Dato' Seri Naziz Aziz, were told bluntly there would be no discussion or debate. It is final: the women will be second class citizens in their country.
The non-Islamic members of the National Front did not object to this proposal, which UMNO had thought up to become more Islamic than the opposition PAS, and presumably agreed to it. Even the cabinet minister for women's affairs, a woman, had agreed to her downgrading. She values her position in the cabinet more than her sex. Women could be downgraded, in the name of Islam, if the National Front could steal a march over Parti Sa Islam or PAS. But this is only one of several laws passed which makes the non-Muslim and women second class citizens.
A former climber of Mount Evert, an Indian, who was reduced to a cripple in a wheelchair after another accident, has died, and the Selangor Religious Affairs Department has insisted he be buried as a Muslim. His family says he was a Hindu, and should be buried as a Hindu. A former cabinet minister, an Indian, had to be buried urgently so that the Selangor Religious Affairs Department would not get at the body after the state funeral.
Islam in Malaysia will not join the other religious faiths to discuss common issues. They make their views known independently, but the non- Islamic faiths announce a common position separately. The Islamic faith reserves the right to bury non-Muslims on the grounds they have become Muslims.
What happened to the non-Muslims after they died – when the religious affairs department had a unseemly battle with the familes over where the bodies should be buried according to Islamic rights or according to the religion, in a Muslim cemetery or a Non- Muslim place of burial. Even in an Islamic country, non-Muslims practice their faith and are buried according to the rites they followed. It would not be, as in Malaysia, a matter of who would bury the bodies.
Islam is a tolerant religion, but in Malaysia it is seen as an intolerant one. People became Muslims in the past, usually to marry. But the National Front Islamic bodies in this country is not prepared to allow the tribe to rise naturally. Chinese and indian officers who have reached their glass ceiling are told they could breach it if they became Muslim. Those who accepted the offer had gone ahead; those who did not remained at their level for the rest of their career.
Any Indian or Chinese who enter the government services cannot get to the top unless he became a Muslim later on in life. The courts have ruled that civil law cannot discuss what is in the jurisdiction of sharia law. Once a man becomes a Muslim, and marries another, his non-Muslim wife is automatically divorced, and he has no responsibility for their children unless they converted to Islam.
The law which reduces women – Islamic and non-Islamic – into second class citizens is bitterly opposed, particularly by the women. But every avenue they go to be heard is blocked. There is no discussion about it, in Parliament or outside, and the newspapers do not report on the opposition to it.
The National Front leadership was therefore surprised when the bill was protested by the women in their ranks that the Minister for Parliament had to issue the whip, not as a matter of course, as in many countries, but as a warning what could happen to them if they voted against. It is the family law bill, which has made the position of women in such bad straits. This is the only way they could bring non-Malays into the Act. But it reduces the position of women in Malaysia. It passed the lower house of Parliament in September and therefore did not attract the attention it now has. The National Front thought it would be plain sailing in the Senate. But it has had to issue threats to keep the Senators in line.
PAS members of parliament and senators have stayed, by and large, out of the fray. The National Front members, which holds the majority in parliament, the senate and thirteen of the fourteen states. It is used to have its way in all, except in Kelantan where PAS is the state government. It worked in the past, but the National Front is divided against itself. There is the Prime Minister's camp, and there are others. If the women senators and the men senators who are against the bill votes against, it is possible that the bill could go to the House for re-introduction of the bill in parliament.
The National Front government does not want this to happen; hence its strong arm tactics.The National Front government, which has turned Malaysia into an Islamic country, would lose badly vis-a-vis PAS if it floundered on this bill. It does not believe it should be discussed in public before it is introduced in parliament. So it took everyone, especially the women groups, by surprise. They saw their rights whittled down. And those in a position to oppose it did.
Already many Muslim women do not get married, or they marry outside their race, hoping that the men they marry would not behave as Malay men would. They see their working as licence for their husbands to marry again. What got the women's groups on the war parth was that the family law bill had five contentious clauses: the right of a husband to claim his existing wife's property upon his committing polygamy; making polygamy easier for men; forcing a wife to chose either maintenance or division of joint propery upon a husband's polygamous marriage; enhance the husband's right to divorce; allowing a husband to get a court order to stop his wife from disposing of her property. Some of these provisions are against Islamic law.
The National Front government saw this has a hot potato. More than one cabinet minister was roped in to quell the revolt, which got the women senators from government and the opposition PAS together. They drafted a letter to the Prime Minister, whose department had initiated the bill, requesting that it be withdrawn. It would not, if the political position of Dato' Seri Nazri Aziz is any guide. It would also restrict the government's hands in future.
The non-Islamic parties in the National Front does not want to get involved, and will be thrown by the wayside in this. But the National Front has realised that it cannot have its way in parliament even if it controls most of the seats. It has dissensions within it – those who do not support the ruling group; those that support Tun Mahathir Mohamed, the former prime minister; those who support Tengku Razaleigh, the former finance minister; those that support Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, the former deputy prime minister who is in the opposition.
It has already seen Islam Hadhari, which is Pak Lah's version of Islam, to the sidelines when PAS is around. Now it is the women from the National Front who has caused Pak Lah to be careful of his legislative plans. He has ensured that the whip will allow the senate to pass the bill. But it would be like telling the Yang Di Pertuan Agung not to address a function he had agreed to. In this revolt by the National Front women senators, it loses whether it succeds in the bill or not. The government would have to make its plans carefully and with consultation.
M.G.G. Pillai
Azmi: China trip not for damage control
The Straits Times, Singapore
20 December 2005
Azmi: China trip not for damage control
By Carolyn Hong
The Straits Times
Home Minister Azmi Khalid yesterday denied that his hastily-arranged trip to China was a damage control exercise after a video of a naked woman being made to perform ear-squats in police custody brought protests from the Chinese government.
The woman, initially believed to be an ethnic Chinese, but later revealed to be local Malay, was secretly taped doing the squats after being arrested for a drug offence. Datuk Azmi said his trip to China was arranged before the video became public. It was to refute the perceptions that the Malaysian authorities were negatively profiling Chinese tourists as illegal immigrants or prostitutes, he said.
'My visit to China was on the instructions of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to tackle other issues,' Datuk Azmi said in a statement. He was forced to issue a statement after Malaysians demanded to know why police kept the woman's identity a secret for three weeks.
It was only last Tuesday that it became known that she was a Malay when the 22-year-old woman testified at an independent panel investigating the video clip. Datuk Azmi did not say if he was aware of her identity before his trip to China but PM Abdullah and his deputy Najib Razak had said that they only found out recently.
PM Abdullah, however, defended the police for keeping silent, saying that the anger was so palpable at that time that the people would not have believed the police. 'Who could have revealed the identity earlier? The police? Do you think people would have believed them? People would have accused them of a cover-up,' he told reporters on Sunday. He urged people to allow the independent panel to complete its report next month, and to stop speculating.
The panel wrapped up its hearings last week but the debate flared up again after politicians turned their guns on an opposition MP who had brought the video clip to public attention.
Several senators last week urged action against Ms Teresa Kok for showing 'pornography' in Parliament, and stoking racial tension by suggesting that a Chinese woman was being mistreated by a Malay policewoman. Ms Kok, however, maintained that she had never identified the woman's ethnic background.
The New Straits Times yesterday carried a full page of letters from angry readers who took the senators to task for barking up the wrong tree.'The senators should ask the police why the nationality of the nude squat victim was not provided to MPs and the public immediately,' wrote a reader. A doctor from Penang also wrote to refute the claim that squats could expel objects hidden in the private parts, saying that it was clear that the exercise was to humiliate the detainee.
20 December 2005
Azmi: China trip not for damage control
By Carolyn Hong
The Straits Times
Home Minister Azmi Khalid yesterday denied that his hastily-arranged trip to China was a damage control exercise after a video of a naked woman being made to perform ear-squats in police custody brought protests from the Chinese government.
The woman, initially believed to be an ethnic Chinese, but later revealed to be local Malay, was secretly taped doing the squats after being arrested for a drug offence. Datuk Azmi said his trip to China was arranged before the video became public. It was to refute the perceptions that the Malaysian authorities were negatively profiling Chinese tourists as illegal immigrants or prostitutes, he said.
'My visit to China was on the instructions of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to tackle other issues,' Datuk Azmi said in a statement. He was forced to issue a statement after Malaysians demanded to know why police kept the woman's identity a secret for three weeks.
It was only last Tuesday that it became known that she was a Malay when the 22-year-old woman testified at an independent panel investigating the video clip. Datuk Azmi did not say if he was aware of her identity before his trip to China but PM Abdullah and his deputy Najib Razak had said that they only found out recently.
PM Abdullah, however, defended the police for keeping silent, saying that the anger was so palpable at that time that the people would not have believed the police. 'Who could have revealed the identity earlier? The police? Do you think people would have believed them? People would have accused them of a cover-up,' he told reporters on Sunday. He urged people to allow the independent panel to complete its report next month, and to stop speculating.
The panel wrapped up its hearings last week but the debate flared up again after politicians turned their guns on an opposition MP who had brought the video clip to public attention.
Several senators last week urged action against Ms Teresa Kok for showing 'pornography' in Parliament, and stoking racial tension by suggesting that a Chinese woman was being mistreated by a Malay policewoman. Ms Kok, however, maintained that she had never identified the woman's ethnic background.
The New Straits Times yesterday carried a full page of letters from angry readers who took the senators to task for barking up the wrong tree.'The senators should ask the police why the nationality of the nude squat victim was not provided to MPs and the public immediately,' wrote a reader. A doctor from Penang also wrote to refute the claim that squats could expel objects hidden in the private parts, saying that it was clear that the exercise was to humiliate the detainee.
Give MAS a chance
The New Straits Times, Kuala Lumpur
23 December 2005
EDITORIAL: Give MAS a chance
TO suggest that public opinion zip its lip for a bit to let Malaysia Airlines sort out its problems is somewhat to make a virtue of necessity — but what else is to be done for now?
The problem with the national airline, as with all national corporations, established as statements of national resolve and national pride, is that nationalism can become a monkey on their backs. The airline maintained unprofitable routes, but it was required to do so for national unity.
MAS spent a fortune on its public profile – it was, after all, a "flag-carrier" — and wore the nation’s identity as its own. The company is overstaffed, but that too was included in the hopes invested in it as a national corporation. When it came to operations, MAS couldn’t very well allow itself to lag while its formerly conjoined twin, Singapore Airlines, was soaring to the top of the world rankings on quality of in-flight service and comely flight attendants in designer kebayas.
Raising passenger comfort to world-beating standards should not be criticised as contributing to MAS’ money worries, but given credit for the airline’s survival in the global industry’s most competitive region, East Asia. The success of parvenu AirAsia posed a radical challenge, but now the initial shock of recognition is over, MAS may yet be able to mesh business models with the budget carrier more symbiotically – at least as implied in the progress claimed at a recent meeting between the two companies’ chief executives.
If not for what happened to oil prices this year, indeed, the matterof RM1.55 million-worth of fine art for the chairman’s office might have gone unremarked. But those acquisitions (investments, to be fair) were made a couple of years ago. Today, the airline is trying to climb out of a hole three-billion- ringgit deep. If the debt can be halved in one stroke with the sale of the airline’s towering corporate headquarters in downtown Kuala Lumpur, why not?
The protests in the Dewan Negara this week seemed ill-considered. Arguments of prestige or pride ring hollow, with MAS having become an icon of corporate woe. Considering how much has changed in the quarter-century since that building was commissioned, the company’s Golden Triangle presence hardly seems necessary anymore. MAS has charted two consecutive quarterly losses this year, and is staring glumly at an inevitable third.
The makings of a recovery plan are visible, however. Selling the MAS building would cover half the airline’s debt, and the other half could be serviced by equity instruments. The Government — a 92-per-cent owner of the airline through state agencies and Khazanah Nasional Bhd — has said it could help with loans or liquidating part of its stake.
Then there’s rationalising the workforce, fleet, routes, schedules and operations. A great deal to be done, but it can be done, and MAS should be allowed to do it in disregard of any considerations other than maximising revenue and minimising loss.
23 December 2005
EDITORIAL: Give MAS a chance
TO suggest that public opinion zip its lip for a bit to let Malaysia Airlines sort out its problems is somewhat to make a virtue of necessity — but what else is to be done for now?
The problem with the national airline, as with all national corporations, established as statements of national resolve and national pride, is that nationalism can become a monkey on their backs. The airline maintained unprofitable routes, but it was required to do so for national unity.
MAS spent a fortune on its public profile – it was, after all, a "flag-carrier" — and wore the nation’s identity as its own. The company is overstaffed, but that too was included in the hopes invested in it as a national corporation. When it came to operations, MAS couldn’t very well allow itself to lag while its formerly conjoined twin, Singapore Airlines, was soaring to the top of the world rankings on quality of in-flight service and comely flight attendants in designer kebayas.
Raising passenger comfort to world-beating standards should not be criticised as contributing to MAS’ money worries, but given credit for the airline’s survival in the global industry’s most competitive region, East Asia. The success of parvenu AirAsia posed a radical challenge, but now the initial shock of recognition is over, MAS may yet be able to mesh business models with the budget carrier more symbiotically – at least as implied in the progress claimed at a recent meeting between the two companies’ chief executives.
If not for what happened to oil prices this year, indeed, the matterof RM1.55 million-worth of fine art for the chairman’s office might have gone unremarked. But those acquisitions (investments, to be fair) were made a couple of years ago. Today, the airline is trying to climb out of a hole three-billion- ringgit deep. If the debt can be halved in one stroke with the sale of the airline’s towering corporate headquarters in downtown Kuala Lumpur, why not?
The protests in the Dewan Negara this week seemed ill-considered. Arguments of prestige or pride ring hollow, with MAS having become an icon of corporate woe. Considering how much has changed in the quarter-century since that building was commissioned, the company’s Golden Triangle presence hardly seems necessary anymore. MAS has charted two consecutive quarterly losses this year, and is staring glumly at an inevitable third.
The makings of a recovery plan are visible, however. Selling the MAS building would cover half the airline’s debt, and the other half could be serviced by equity instruments. The Government — a 92-per-cent owner of the airline through state agencies and Khazanah Nasional Bhd — has said it could help with loans or liquidating part of its stake.
Then there’s rationalising the workforce, fleet, routes, schedules and operations. A great deal to be done, but it can be done, and MAS should be allowed to do it in disregard of any considerations other than maximising revenue and minimising loss.
RM1.5mil paintings hot topic
Bernama news agency, Kuala Lumpur
21 December 2005
RM1.5mil paintings hot topic
The purchase of three paintings worth RM1.55mil by Malaysia Airlines (MAS) to decorate the chairman's office was to maintain the stature of the place, the Dewan Negara heard yesterday.
Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Azlan Sultan Abu Bakar said the money came under MAS' current expenditure. The paintings were a hot topic among members of the Dewan Negara yesterday, besides the hiring of expatriates on high salaries.
Tengku Azlan also clarified that the salary received by MAS senior general manager Chris Andrews of RM7,525 a day was normal, no different from the pay received by any individual who had held the post in the airline.
“If there are any unsatisfactory answers, please come for a briefing on MAS tonight (yesterday),” he told the senators during his winding up of the debate on the 2006 Budget. Tengku Azlan also said that the appointment of British Airways senior executive Peter Reads as MAS operations director was announced by managing director Idris Jala.
He said the newly appointed managing director would need time and full authority to revive the airline's operations.“All the problems that have occurred will be studied by the new managing director. That is why he needs time to fix the mistakes that were made in the past,” he said.Tengku Azlan also stated that as an airline that offered international flight services, MAS did not plan to stop serving alcoholic beverages.However, he said, alcohol was only served upon the request of the passengers..
Later, when asked by reporters about MAS' current expenditure to upkeep the “status” of its premises, Tengku Azlan said: “That you would have to ask the MAS management.” – Bernama
21 December 2005
RM1.5mil paintings hot topic
The purchase of three paintings worth RM1.55mil by Malaysia Airlines (MAS) to decorate the chairman's office was to maintain the stature of the place, the Dewan Negara heard yesterday.
Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Azlan Sultan Abu Bakar said the money came under MAS' current expenditure. The paintings were a hot topic among members of the Dewan Negara yesterday, besides the hiring of expatriates on high salaries.
Tengku Azlan also clarified that the salary received by MAS senior general manager Chris Andrews of RM7,525 a day was normal, no different from the pay received by any individual who had held the post in the airline.
“If there are any unsatisfactory answers, please come for a briefing on MAS tonight (yesterday),” he told the senators during his winding up of the debate on the 2006 Budget. Tengku Azlan also said that the appointment of British Airways senior executive Peter Reads as MAS operations director was announced by managing director Idris Jala.
He said the newly appointed managing director would need time and full authority to revive the airline's operations.“All the problems that have occurred will be studied by the new managing director. That is why he needs time to fix the mistakes that were made in the past,” he said.Tengku Azlan also stated that as an airline that offered international flight services, MAS did not plan to stop serving alcoholic beverages.However, he said, alcohol was only served upon the request of the passengers..
Later, when asked by reporters about MAS' current expenditure to upkeep the “status” of its premises, Tengku Azlan said: “That you would have to ask the MAS management.” – Bernama
[MGG] The National Front is confused
[MGG] The National Front is confused
THE PEOPLE IN POWER are confused.
They have not realised the people challenge them at every turn. The post-information age, which is now, is as destructive to the people in power as the Industrial Age was when it began in 1832. That enabled the rulers to ride rough shod over the people, who found their unique ways to confront that. What happens in society now was what happened before the Industrial Age. But the people will not succeed unless by intellectuals.
In Malaysia, the National Front is still in power, since it attained power in 1955, but is worried at this development. The King, who had agreed to officiate a gathering, was told by officials in the Prime Minister's Department not to attend. It got intellectuals at the hall angry. The National Front showed weakness which it could not control.
This meeting was organised by dissident UMNO members, and attended by all Malays, intellectuals, from PAS and Parti Keadilan Rakyat, and who used to be senior figures in the ancien regime. It was better organised to challenge than the reformasi movement of former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim. The reformasi movement failed because though it was a ground revolt most of the intellectuals stayed away. Even then it caused fright in the National Front.
The intellectuals in the National Front realised what could happen if it had succeeded, and fear is the result. The National Front changed its policies, trying to solve some of the issues the reformasi movement reformed. But the reformasi movement has fallen into the doldrums after Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim was released from prison. Now by and large it second guesses what the reformasi movement had in mind and looks over its shoulders at what the reformasi movement is doing. But the reformasi movement lit a light for others to follow.
The National Front is therefore paranoid at any talk of rebellion. The opposition is weak, and the National Front can blow rings around it, in parliament, state assemblies and out. That used to suffice in the past. Not now. The people have got brave and demand answers at unusual times.
They question government agencies for the ills they do. The government tells lies, and the truth comes out in commissions on inquiries, and under oath. Malaysians are now told that the Home minister, Dato' Azmi Khalid, when to Being this month to apologise to the Chinese government for the police illtreating a Malay. Predictably, he said two weeks later he did not go to apologise and that the visit was planned much earlier! But the Malaysian media had reports, several from Beijing, he did just that. He has been telling untruths ever since. In the past he might have succeeded. Those in power believed, rightly, that people have short memories, and only what is said now is believed. But the people are being energised.
The more perceptive among National Front, and UMNO, leaders realise this. But the political decision is to ramrod its way so that the people are frightened. But the people are less frightened now. Telling the King not to attend the forum was a sign of weakness. It does not know that after 50 years in power more people, including the intellectuals in the National Front, are against it. Ironically, the rulers are now with the people.
The people will not rebel unless they have to. The people of England did not like what they had to pay and do in the 13th century until a lord, Simon de Montfort, rallied them to his side and made King John sign the Magna Carta. Napolean had he not the people on his side when he became Emperor of France. King Louis XVI and Queen Antoinette would not have been executed in France if not the nobles and others got the people on their side.
The US independence would not have been possible if the people, already suffering from the exactions of the British, rallied to the side of the intellectuals and lanlords. The poor has not succeeded, if they are not led by intellectuals. Castro remains in power since 1959 because he kept the people on his side. India would have not got its independence had not the people joined the intellectuals and the rich. Pandit Jawarharlah Nehru, Mohandas Karam Chand Gandhi, Subhas Chandra Bose were intellectuals and landlords. Mangal Pandey fired the first shot, as the new film shows, but Indian independence did not come until a century later, and after the people had been led these intellectuals and landlords.
The rebels against British rule in Malaya came from the titled: Dato' Bahaman, Mat Kilau, Maharaja Lela, Dato' Sagor were on the royal court. They failed because they could not get the people on their side in fighting the British, who hanged most of them. Our officials did not bother until Mat Kilau was found to be alive. There were intense discussions in the 20th century whether he ought to be given a dato'ship. I knew his son-in-law and daughter, and have stayed with them when I was in the capital he was Malaysian ambassador. He later became an official at the Organisation of Islamic Conference when Tengku Abul Rahman, Malaysia's first prime minister, was secretary- general. But until Mat Kilau was found alive, the Malaysian people, if ever, did not know the connection. Both are dead now, his widow died in a car crash. The people will not move unless led.
UMNO was founded in the Istana in Johore Bahru, Dato' Sir Onn bin Jaffar its founding president, was a cousin of the sultan, and mentri besar of Johore. (His mother's sister, both Circassions from Turkey, was the wife of Sultan Abubakar, grandfather of the present Sultan.) Many of the earlier leaders of UMNO were from the palace.
It is only the last two presidents, Tun Mahathir Mohamed and Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, were not from the aristocratic class, although Tun Mahathir's mother was from the Kedah royal court.
UMNO today rewrites history, by insisting it was formed by the people, that the rulers were not involved. This is pure spin. There would not have been UMNO, which was formed in 1946 to protest against the Malayan Union proposals reducing the sultans to mere digits, and later on were given independence by the British.
Its first prime was Tengku Abdul Rahman, a scion of the Royal House of Kedah. It is a sign of the times that Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, who held the hereditary title of Dato' Shahbandar Pahang after his father died in 1976, clings to "Dato' Seri", latter day invention given or bought by people who think they are noble.
They were cabinet ministers in the past who were holders of the hereditary titles of the Sultans they were loyal to. Without the rulers, there would be no UMNO, which insists they are an irrelevant appendage. But the Sultan of Johore, when Yang di Pertuan Agung, went to the pulpit at the National Mosque unannounced, told a brief history of how UMNO was founded in his palace, and ordered the then Prime Minister, Dato' Seri (now Tun) Mahathir Mohamed, to shake hands and 'minta maaf' and let bygones be bygones with his then deputy, Dato' (now Tan Sri) Musa Hitam. They were not on speaking terms then, but they did.
The present day UMNO, with its self-proclaimed peoples' roots, finds its policies affecting the people to its disadvantage. It is fearful that some of their intellectuals or leaders will desert it and join them. Tun Mahathir Mohamed is against the UMNO leadership. But he might now. He represents the old turks in UMNO. Pak Lah represents the young turks mainly because he relies on his son-in-law, Khairy Jamaluddin, and others in their 30s who had graduated from Oxford and Cambridge. Pak Lah is afraid that that opposed to his advisers might join the old turks, even those who were in England at the same time.
The opposition in UMNO now have both leaders and a platform, and would get the support of the people if the young turks in Pak Lah's camp insist on browbeating those who disagree, rather than talk to them. What is happening now was spelt out in "The Animal Farm" nearly 60 years ago!
M.G.G. Pillai
THE PEOPLE IN POWER are confused.
They have not realised the people challenge them at every turn. The post-information age, which is now, is as destructive to the people in power as the Industrial Age was when it began in 1832. That enabled the rulers to ride rough shod over the people, who found their unique ways to confront that. What happens in society now was what happened before the Industrial Age. But the people will not succeed unless by intellectuals.
In Malaysia, the National Front is still in power, since it attained power in 1955, but is worried at this development. The King, who had agreed to officiate a gathering, was told by officials in the Prime Minister's Department not to attend. It got intellectuals at the hall angry. The National Front showed weakness which it could not control.
This meeting was organised by dissident UMNO members, and attended by all Malays, intellectuals, from PAS and Parti Keadilan Rakyat, and who used to be senior figures in the ancien regime. It was better organised to challenge than the reformasi movement of former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim. The reformasi movement failed because though it was a ground revolt most of the intellectuals stayed away. Even then it caused fright in the National Front.
The intellectuals in the National Front realised what could happen if it had succeeded, and fear is the result. The National Front changed its policies, trying to solve some of the issues the reformasi movement reformed. But the reformasi movement has fallen into the doldrums after Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim was released from prison. Now by and large it second guesses what the reformasi movement had in mind and looks over its shoulders at what the reformasi movement is doing. But the reformasi movement lit a light for others to follow.
The National Front is therefore paranoid at any talk of rebellion. The opposition is weak, and the National Front can blow rings around it, in parliament, state assemblies and out. That used to suffice in the past. Not now. The people have got brave and demand answers at unusual times.
They question government agencies for the ills they do. The government tells lies, and the truth comes out in commissions on inquiries, and under oath. Malaysians are now told that the Home minister, Dato' Azmi Khalid, when to Being this month to apologise to the Chinese government for the police illtreating a Malay. Predictably, he said two weeks later he did not go to apologise and that the visit was planned much earlier! But the Malaysian media had reports, several from Beijing, he did just that. He has been telling untruths ever since. In the past he might have succeeded. Those in power believed, rightly, that people have short memories, and only what is said now is believed. But the people are being energised.
The more perceptive among National Front, and UMNO, leaders realise this. But the political decision is to ramrod its way so that the people are frightened. But the people are less frightened now. Telling the King not to attend the forum was a sign of weakness. It does not know that after 50 years in power more people, including the intellectuals in the National Front, are against it. Ironically, the rulers are now with the people.
The people will not rebel unless they have to. The people of England did not like what they had to pay and do in the 13th century until a lord, Simon de Montfort, rallied them to his side and made King John sign the Magna Carta. Napolean had he not the people on his side when he became Emperor of France. King Louis XVI and Queen Antoinette would not have been executed in France if not the nobles and others got the people on their side.
The US independence would not have been possible if the people, already suffering from the exactions of the British, rallied to the side of the intellectuals and lanlords. The poor has not succeeded, if they are not led by intellectuals. Castro remains in power since 1959 because he kept the people on his side. India would have not got its independence had not the people joined the intellectuals and the rich. Pandit Jawarharlah Nehru, Mohandas Karam Chand Gandhi, Subhas Chandra Bose were intellectuals and landlords. Mangal Pandey fired the first shot, as the new film shows, but Indian independence did not come until a century later, and after the people had been led these intellectuals and landlords.
The rebels against British rule in Malaya came from the titled: Dato' Bahaman, Mat Kilau, Maharaja Lela, Dato' Sagor were on the royal court. They failed because they could not get the people on their side in fighting the British, who hanged most of them. Our officials did not bother until Mat Kilau was found to be alive. There were intense discussions in the 20th century whether he ought to be given a dato'ship. I knew his son-in-law and daughter, and have stayed with them when I was in the capital he was Malaysian ambassador. He later became an official at the Organisation of Islamic Conference when Tengku Abul Rahman, Malaysia's first prime minister, was secretary- general. But until Mat Kilau was found alive, the Malaysian people, if ever, did not know the connection. Both are dead now, his widow died in a car crash. The people will not move unless led.
UMNO was founded in the Istana in Johore Bahru, Dato' Sir Onn bin Jaffar its founding president, was a cousin of the sultan, and mentri besar of Johore. (His mother's sister, both Circassions from Turkey, was the wife of Sultan Abubakar, grandfather of the present Sultan.) Many of the earlier leaders of UMNO were from the palace.
It is only the last two presidents, Tun Mahathir Mohamed and Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, were not from the aristocratic class, although Tun Mahathir's mother was from the Kedah royal court.
UMNO today rewrites history, by insisting it was formed by the people, that the rulers were not involved. This is pure spin. There would not have been UMNO, which was formed in 1946 to protest against the Malayan Union proposals reducing the sultans to mere digits, and later on were given independence by the British.
Its first prime was Tengku Abdul Rahman, a scion of the Royal House of Kedah. It is a sign of the times that Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, who held the hereditary title of Dato' Shahbandar Pahang after his father died in 1976, clings to "Dato' Seri", latter day invention given or bought by people who think they are noble.
They were cabinet ministers in the past who were holders of the hereditary titles of the Sultans they were loyal to. Without the rulers, there would be no UMNO, which insists they are an irrelevant appendage. But the Sultan of Johore, when Yang di Pertuan Agung, went to the pulpit at the National Mosque unannounced, told a brief history of how UMNO was founded in his palace, and ordered the then Prime Minister, Dato' Seri (now Tun) Mahathir Mohamed, to shake hands and 'minta maaf' and let bygones be bygones with his then deputy, Dato' (now Tan Sri) Musa Hitam. They were not on speaking terms then, but they did.
The present day UMNO, with its self-proclaimed peoples' roots, finds its policies affecting the people to its disadvantage. It is fearful that some of their intellectuals or leaders will desert it and join them. Tun Mahathir Mohamed is against the UMNO leadership. But he might now. He represents the old turks in UMNO. Pak Lah represents the young turks mainly because he relies on his son-in-law, Khairy Jamaluddin, and others in their 30s who had graduated from Oxford and Cambridge. Pak Lah is afraid that that opposed to his advisers might join the old turks, even those who were in England at the same time.
The opposition in UMNO now have both leaders and a platform, and would get the support of the people if the young turks in Pak Lah's camp insist on browbeating those who disagree, rather than talk to them. What is happening now was spelt out in "The Animal Farm" nearly 60 years ago!
M.G.G. Pillai
Islamic converts ‘threaten Manila curbs on terror’
The Financial Times, London
20 December 2005
Islamic converts ‘threaten Manila curbs on terror’
By Roel Landingin in Manila
Published: December 20 2005 17:40
A small but well connected group of militant Islamic converts could spoil the Philippine government’s efforts to curb terrorism and to conclude a peace deal with Muslim separatists in the southern Philippines, an influential think-tank has warned.
The International Crisis Group also urged Manila to improve its tactics and avoid sacrificing human rights to what it called “careless counter-terror measures” that generated more sympathy and recruits forthe extremists’ cause.
In a report released on Tuesday, the ICG pointed the finger at theRajah Solaiman Movement, a group of Muslim converts suspected of jihadist tendencies and named after a 16th-century sultan who resisted Spanish incursions in Manila. ICG expected the group to play an increasingly important role in relationships among terror groups in the Philippines.
The biggest Muslim rebel group, the 12,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front (Milf), is preparing for a political settlement with Manila in the southern island of Mindanao, and is distancing itself from the south-east Asian terrorist network, Jemaah Islamiah. This is pushing Islamic extremists closer to the more violent Abu Sayyaf groupand increasing the risk of a split within Milf itself.
The ICG said: “The Abu Sayyaf group and Jemaah Islamiah are working increasingly with the Rajah Solaiman Movement of militant converts toIslam based in Manila and northern Luzon, who are a vehicle for more experienced terrorist groups to move into the country’s urban heartland.”Militant Islamic converts are suspected of staging two of the recent terrorist attacks in the Philippines – the Valentine’s Day bombing of a bus in the financial district of Makati that killed four people and the February 2004 explosion that burned and sank a 10,000-tonne ferry, killing 116.
Islamic converts, who were estimated to number about 95,000 in 1995 by Philippine scholars, now numbered 200,000, said the ICG, helping make Islam the fastest growing religion in the Philippines, the only predominantly Christian nation in Asia.
ICG said many of the converts were Filipino workers returning from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. Philippine security officials rejected the report’s characterisation of the government’s counter-terror measures as “careless”, saying Manila adhered to human rights and due process in the fight against terrorists.
Ricardo Blancaflor, executive director of the anti-terrorism taskforce, said the government had secured convictions against 27 terror suspects in the past year.
20 December 2005
Islamic converts ‘threaten Manila curbs on terror’
By Roel Landingin in Manila
Published: December 20 2005 17:40
A small but well connected group of militant Islamic converts could spoil the Philippine government’s efforts to curb terrorism and to conclude a peace deal with Muslim separatists in the southern Philippines, an influential think-tank has warned.
The International Crisis Group also urged Manila to improve its tactics and avoid sacrificing human rights to what it called “careless counter-terror measures” that generated more sympathy and recruits forthe extremists’ cause.
In a report released on Tuesday, the ICG pointed the finger at theRajah Solaiman Movement, a group of Muslim converts suspected of jihadist tendencies and named after a 16th-century sultan who resisted Spanish incursions in Manila. ICG expected the group to play an increasingly important role in relationships among terror groups in the Philippines.
The biggest Muslim rebel group, the 12,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front (Milf), is preparing for a political settlement with Manila in the southern island of Mindanao, and is distancing itself from the south-east Asian terrorist network, Jemaah Islamiah. This is pushing Islamic extremists closer to the more violent Abu Sayyaf groupand increasing the risk of a split within Milf itself.
The ICG said: “The Abu Sayyaf group and Jemaah Islamiah are working increasingly with the Rajah Solaiman Movement of militant converts toIslam based in Manila and northern Luzon, who are a vehicle for more experienced terrorist groups to move into the country’s urban heartland.”Militant Islamic converts are suspected of staging two of the recent terrorist attacks in the Philippines – the Valentine’s Day bombing of a bus in the financial district of Makati that killed four people and the February 2004 explosion that burned and sank a 10,000-tonne ferry, killing 116.
Islamic converts, who were estimated to number about 95,000 in 1995 by Philippine scholars, now numbered 200,000, said the ICG, helping make Islam the fastest growing religion in the Philippines, the only predominantly Christian nation in Asia.
ICG said many of the converts were Filipino workers returning from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. Philippine security officials rejected the report’s characterisation of the government’s counter-terror measures as “careless”, saying Manila adhered to human rights and due process in the fight against terrorists.
Ricardo Blancaflor, executive director of the anti-terrorism taskforce, said the government had secured convictions against 27 terror suspects in the past year.
Noh rapped for claiming ignorance
The Malay Mail, Kuala Lumpur
20 December 2005
Noh rapped for claiming ignorance
RIZALMAN HAMMIM
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 20 Seputeh MP Teresa Kok voiced doubts over Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Noh Omar's statement that he did not know the identity of the woman inthe video clip being forced to strip and squat.
"Since the police arranged for the woman in the clip to give her testimonyto the independent inquiry, they must have known her identity. So, why wasn't the identity of the woman included in the report to Parliament and why didn't Noh know about it?" asked Kok at a Press conference yesterday.
On Sunday, Noh said he never knew the identity or nationality of the woman in the clip, even when the matter was debated in Parliament.
He also said that nothing was said about the identity of the women in the report that he was to table in Parliament as the police were still investigating the case. Kok also took to task the police for delaying the investigation of the matter.
"The police said they knew about the clip since the end of June. Why didn'tthe police act on the matter until I showed the clip in Parliament? What would have happened if the clip was not exposed?" asked Kok.
A group of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and political parties have called on the police to halt the practice of 'strip-and-squat' on detainees."The practice is in violation of human rights and should be stopped."
The police should protect the dignity of the detainees irrespective oftheir race or nationality," said Kok. Among the NGOs and political parties that made the call are the DAP, PartiKeadilan Nasional, Parti Islam SeMalaysia, Jamaah Islah Malaysia, the Women's Development Collective (WDC), All Women's Action Society (Awam) and the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall. Their representatives were present at the Press conference yesterday.
Awam also called on the authorities to come up with a guideline on bodysearch by the police."We understand that body search needs to be done in certain cases but aslong as there is no guideline on the matter, abuses will continue," said Awam's media co-ordinator Yasmin Masidi.
20 December 2005
Noh rapped for claiming ignorance
RIZALMAN HAMMIM
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 20 Seputeh MP Teresa Kok voiced doubts over Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Noh Omar's statement that he did not know the identity of the woman inthe video clip being forced to strip and squat.
"Since the police arranged for the woman in the clip to give her testimonyto the independent inquiry, they must have known her identity. So, why wasn't the identity of the woman included in the report to Parliament and why didn't Noh know about it?" asked Kok at a Press conference yesterday.
On Sunday, Noh said he never knew the identity or nationality of the woman in the clip, even when the matter was debated in Parliament.
He also said that nothing was said about the identity of the women in the report that he was to table in Parliament as the police were still investigating the case. Kok also took to task the police for delaying the investigation of the matter.
"The police said they knew about the clip since the end of June. Why didn'tthe police act on the matter until I showed the clip in Parliament? What would have happened if the clip was not exposed?" asked Kok.
A group of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and political parties have called on the police to halt the practice of 'strip-and-squat' on detainees."The practice is in violation of human rights and should be stopped."
The police should protect the dignity of the detainees irrespective oftheir race or nationality," said Kok. Among the NGOs and political parties that made the call are the DAP, PartiKeadilan Nasional, Parti Islam SeMalaysia, Jamaah Islah Malaysia, the Women's Development Collective (WDC), All Women's Action Society (Awam) and the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall. Their representatives were present at the Press conference yesterday.
Awam also called on the authorities to come up with a guideline on bodysearch by the police."We understand that body search needs to be done in certain cases but aslong as there is no guideline on the matter, abuses will continue," said Awam's media co-ordinator Yasmin Masidi.
Oxford: the fatal choice
The Times, LondonOpinion - William Rees-Mogg
December 19, 2005
Oxford: the fatal choice
The best undergraduate teaching in the world is in peril if colleges cannot select their students
SIR TIM LANKESTER has had a distinguished career. He has been President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, since 2001. In the late 1960s he was an economist at the World Bank in Washington; he joined the Civil Service and became Private Secretary to two successive Prime Ministers, Jim Callaghan in 1978-79 and Margaret Thatcher from 1979-81. He rose to be the Permanent Secretary in the Department for Education from 1994-95.
There are positives and negatives in such a career. No one is given these promotions who does not possess high ability. His experience in public administration is wide. His years in Downing Street will have given him a view from the top down as well as from the base up. His work at the World Bank and as a Treasury official means that he must be highly numerate.
The negatives can be summed up in the anxiety that he may well have acquired the professional deformations both of the civil servant and the economist; it is usually the case that long-term civil servants absorb the ethos of their service, just as politicians become politicians, lawyers become lawyers, and journalists become journalists. Professional administrators have a preference for convenient administrative solutions. They tend also to have undue respect for central authority. They are seldom the last-ditch warriors for liberty.
Oxford University has been under pressure from the Government on the subject of admissions. This began five years ago when Gordon Brown, who is more than a bit of a bully, took up the case of Laura Spence, a gifted student from a Northern comprehensive who failed to get a place in her subject at Magdalen College.
In fact, Magdalen’s procedures turned out to be completely fair. Without pausing to establish the facts, Mr Brown let rip with his prejudices and demanded reform of Oxford’s admission system. He is accustomed to exercising power and accustomed to being obeyed.
This was backed up last September by a White Paper on university admissions that demanded “fair access”. There is no evidence that comprehensive school pupils have been given anything less than fair access by the Oxford colleges when deciding on admissions. Indeed, there have been many complaints of discrimination against candidates from independent schools because of the educational advantages they have enjoyed. Admissions tutors are more than sympathetic to candidates from those state schools that send few pupils to Oxford.
A real difficulty arises from the poor standards of many comprehensive schools, which do not give an academic education remotely comparable with that of today’s independent schools or the old grammar schools. Public school pupils enjoy a greater advantage than they did 60 years ago, when I went up to Oxford. That is because Labour chose to destroy the grammar schools.
Tony Blair, against the will of his party, is now trying to put that right by establishing independent, non-fee paying, trust schools that John Prescott regards as grammar schools under another name. I only hope he is right.
As educational administrators tend to do, Oxford University decided to deal with this problem by setting up a working party. It asked Sir Tim Lankester to take the chair. I suppose that was a reasonable idea. He has the experience. There is always a chance that Sir Humphrey will be the best choice to outwit another Sir Humphrey.
The result was exactly what a pessimist might have feared. The working party produced a staff college solution. It decided to centralise admissions. If these recommendations go through — and there will need to be a university vote — the colleges will lose the right to select their own undergraduates. Every candidate would be considered by members of the faculty in which he or she wished to study, and would be selected by the university, not by the colleges. The colleges would get the students that they were given, perhaps with some allowance for student choice.
There are serious disadvantages in this. Educational institutions maintain their standards by control of admissions. At the secondary level, the 58 Labour MPs who have sponsored the anti-Blair alternative White Paper are determined that trust schools should not choose their own students. They want the organs of the State to do that. They do not want these schools to become centres of excellence.
At the university level, Gordon Brown and the White Paper on admissions want the State to be the ultimate authority. They do not think that the colleges can be trusted to do what they are told; they believe that the university can be bullied.
Oxford is a collegiate university, with individual undergraduate teaching by the tutorial method. This has been a great international success in the postwar period. Few people would place Oxford in the top ten of world universities in postgraduate teaching and research. Even in the United Kingdom, Imperial College is probably better and so is Cambridge. Yet postgraduate work is largely the business of the university. Oxford probably is the best university in the world at teaching undergraduates and that is done by the colleges. Go to Oxford from 18 to 22 and then go on to Harvard for a doctorate is probably the best advice one could give a really ambitious student.
Small is beautiful; in terms of personal decisions, it is often wisest. When I was given a place at Balliol I was interviewed by the Master, by a young don who became the next Master but two, and by another young don, who became the president of Tony Blair’s college, St John’s. That was due care and attention. If Sir Tim gets his way thousands of candidates will be processed in an efficient mass production scheme by dons who will not teach them and may never see them again. The college tutorial system, and the independence of Oxford, would be fatally undermined.
Copyright 2005 Times Newspapers Ltd.
December 19, 2005
Oxford: the fatal choice
The best undergraduate teaching in the world is in peril if colleges cannot select their students
SIR TIM LANKESTER has had a distinguished career. He has been President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, since 2001. In the late 1960s he was an economist at the World Bank in Washington; he joined the Civil Service and became Private Secretary to two successive Prime Ministers, Jim Callaghan in 1978-79 and Margaret Thatcher from 1979-81. He rose to be the Permanent Secretary in the Department for Education from 1994-95.
There are positives and negatives in such a career. No one is given these promotions who does not possess high ability. His experience in public administration is wide. His years in Downing Street will have given him a view from the top down as well as from the base up. His work at the World Bank and as a Treasury official means that he must be highly numerate.
The negatives can be summed up in the anxiety that he may well have acquired the professional deformations both of the civil servant and the economist; it is usually the case that long-term civil servants absorb the ethos of their service, just as politicians become politicians, lawyers become lawyers, and journalists become journalists. Professional administrators have a preference for convenient administrative solutions. They tend also to have undue respect for central authority. They are seldom the last-ditch warriors for liberty.
Oxford University has been under pressure from the Government on the subject of admissions. This began five years ago when Gordon Brown, who is more than a bit of a bully, took up the case of Laura Spence, a gifted student from a Northern comprehensive who failed to get a place in her subject at Magdalen College.
In fact, Magdalen’s procedures turned out to be completely fair. Without pausing to establish the facts, Mr Brown let rip with his prejudices and demanded reform of Oxford’s admission system. He is accustomed to exercising power and accustomed to being obeyed.
This was backed up last September by a White Paper on university admissions that demanded “fair access”. There is no evidence that comprehensive school pupils have been given anything less than fair access by the Oxford colleges when deciding on admissions. Indeed, there have been many complaints of discrimination against candidates from independent schools because of the educational advantages they have enjoyed. Admissions tutors are more than sympathetic to candidates from those state schools that send few pupils to Oxford.
A real difficulty arises from the poor standards of many comprehensive schools, which do not give an academic education remotely comparable with that of today’s independent schools or the old grammar schools. Public school pupils enjoy a greater advantage than they did 60 years ago, when I went up to Oxford. That is because Labour chose to destroy the grammar schools.
Tony Blair, against the will of his party, is now trying to put that right by establishing independent, non-fee paying, trust schools that John Prescott regards as grammar schools under another name. I only hope he is right.
As educational administrators tend to do, Oxford University decided to deal with this problem by setting up a working party. It asked Sir Tim Lankester to take the chair. I suppose that was a reasonable idea. He has the experience. There is always a chance that Sir Humphrey will be the best choice to outwit another Sir Humphrey.
The result was exactly what a pessimist might have feared. The working party produced a staff college solution. It decided to centralise admissions. If these recommendations go through — and there will need to be a university vote — the colleges will lose the right to select their own undergraduates. Every candidate would be considered by members of the faculty in which he or she wished to study, and would be selected by the university, not by the colleges. The colleges would get the students that they were given, perhaps with some allowance for student choice.
There are serious disadvantages in this. Educational institutions maintain their standards by control of admissions. At the secondary level, the 58 Labour MPs who have sponsored the anti-Blair alternative White Paper are determined that trust schools should not choose their own students. They want the organs of the State to do that. They do not want these schools to become centres of excellence.
At the university level, Gordon Brown and the White Paper on admissions want the State to be the ultimate authority. They do not think that the colleges can be trusted to do what they are told; they believe that the university can be bullied.
Oxford is a collegiate university, with individual undergraduate teaching by the tutorial method. This has been a great international success in the postwar period. Few people would place Oxford in the top ten of world universities in postgraduate teaching and research. Even in the United Kingdom, Imperial College is probably better and so is Cambridge. Yet postgraduate work is largely the business of the university. Oxford probably is the best university in the world at teaching undergraduates and that is done by the colleges. Go to Oxford from 18 to 22 and then go on to Harvard for a doctorate is probably the best advice one could give a really ambitious student.
Small is beautiful; in terms of personal decisions, it is often wisest. When I was given a place at Balliol I was interviewed by the Master, by a young don who became the next Master but two, and by another young don, who became the president of Tony Blair’s college, St John’s. That was due care and attention. If Sir Tim gets his way thousands of candidates will be processed in an efficient mass production scheme by dons who will not teach them and may never see them again. The college tutorial system, and the independence of Oxford, would be fatally undermined.
Copyright 2005 Times Newspapers Ltd.
Abdul Rauf Singkel
Akhbar Mingguan Malaysia pada hari Ahad, 16 Januari 2004 ada menyiarkan tentang berita makam ulamak besar Aceh, Syeikh Abdul Rauf Singkel yang rosak teruk dilanda tsunami.
Menurut ceritanya, suatu pesta hiburan telah diadakan di persisiran pantai berhampiran makam tersebut pada 25 Disember lalu, walaupun telah ditegur oleh seorang kiyai. Sama ada ianya satu kebetulan atau tidak, keesokan harinya tsunami melanda dan memusnahkan dua kampung yang ada di situ iaitu Kampung *Syiah Kuala dan Kampung Alun Naga.
Siapakah Abdul Rauf Singkel dan apakah signifikannya kehadiran beliau di dalam sejarah Acheh?
KELAHIRAN
Beliau adalah tokoh ulamak tersohor Nusantara pada kurun ke-17. Syeikh Abdul Rauf dilahirkan di Kabupaten Singkel, sebuah daerah kecil di Aceh Selatan pada tahun 1620, iaitu lebih 100 tahun selepas kejatuhan Melaka di tangan Portugis.
PENDIDIKAN
Pendidikan pertamanya adalah dari ayahnya, Syeikh Ali, seorang alim yang juga mempunyai pesantren. Beliau kemudian berguru di Fansur, Acheh. Beberapa tahun kemudian, beliau berguru dengan seorang tokoh ulamak Acheh iaitu Syeikh Shamsuddin Al Sumatrani di Banda Aceh.
Beliau merantau ke Tanah Arab pada tahun 1642 dan belajar dari 19 guru dan 27 ulamak di dalam berbagai disiplin Ilmu Islam. Tempat belajarnya adalah di sepanjang perjalanan untuk mengerjakan haji, mulai dari Doha, Yaman, Jeddah, Makkah serta Madinah. Tahap intelektualisme beliau adalah sangat tinggi berkat didikan para ulama terkemuka saat itu.
Pengetahuannya sangat lengkap mencakupi pelbagai bidang; syariat, fiqh, hadis, ilmu kalam dan tasawuf.
MENGAJAR
Kemudian beliau mengajar di Mekah & Madinah. Selepas 19 tahun berada di Tanah Arab, beliau memutuskan kembali ke Aceh sekitar tahun 1662 dan mengajar di madrasahnya di Kuala Sg Aceh. Ramai murid datang berguru dengannya dari seluruh Nusantara. Antara murid-muridnya yang menjadi ulama terkenal ialah Syeikh Burhanuddin Wafan dari Minangkabau, Abd Al Muhnyi dari Jawa Barat, Dawud Al Jawi Al Fansuri dan Ismail Agha Mushthafa Agha 'Ali Al Rumi dari Turki.
BIDANG PENTADBIRAN
Kerana pengetahuannya yang luas, Sultanah Safiyatuddin Tajul Alam (1645 hingga 1675) telah melantik beliau menjadi Perdana Menteri yg bertanggung jawab memberi nasihat di dalam bidang agama, sosial, kebudayaan dan pentadbiran. Beliau bertanggung jawab di dalam penyusunan semula pentadbiran Acheh yang hancur akibat perang dengan Portugis di Melaka (1629). Hasilnya Acheh pulih semula sebagai pusat Islam & kebudayaan Melayu di Nusantara.
BIDANG KEAGAMAAN
Beliau merupakan tokoh kesufian, ahli hukum Islam & pendakwah ulung di Nusantara.
· Hukum Islam - jasa beliau yang paling besar ialah meletakkan Syari'at Islam sebagai perundangan negara. Fatwa & karangan beliau diterima ramai kerana ianya jelas & mudah difahami.
· Tafsir Al Qur'an - orang pertama menterjemahkan Al-Qur'an ke dalam Bahasa Melayu di Nusantara. Buku tafsirnya Al Baidhawi masih diterbitkan di Mesir hingga ke hari ini.
· Dakwah - menyebarkan Islam dengan mendirikan madrasah, mengajar & menulis tentang Islam.
MENINGGAL DUNIA
Beliau meninggal dunia ketika berusia 73 tahun. Beliau juga digelar "Tengku *Syiah Kuala". Sebagai mengenang jasa & menghormati peribadi beliau, sebuah universiti di Banda Aceh telah dinamakan sempena nama beliau iaitu Universiti *Syiah Kuala www.unsyiah.ac.id/.
Nota - "Syiah" (disebut "Syah") adalah "Syeikh" di dalam loghat Acheh. Ia tiada kaitan langsung dengan fahaman Syi'ah.
Menurut ceritanya, suatu pesta hiburan telah diadakan di persisiran pantai berhampiran makam tersebut pada 25 Disember lalu, walaupun telah ditegur oleh seorang kiyai. Sama ada ianya satu kebetulan atau tidak, keesokan harinya tsunami melanda dan memusnahkan dua kampung yang ada di situ iaitu Kampung *Syiah Kuala dan Kampung Alun Naga.
Siapakah Abdul Rauf Singkel dan apakah signifikannya kehadiran beliau di dalam sejarah Acheh?
KELAHIRAN
Beliau adalah tokoh ulamak tersohor Nusantara pada kurun ke-17. Syeikh Abdul Rauf dilahirkan di Kabupaten Singkel, sebuah daerah kecil di Aceh Selatan pada tahun 1620, iaitu lebih 100 tahun selepas kejatuhan Melaka di tangan Portugis.
PENDIDIKAN
Pendidikan pertamanya adalah dari ayahnya, Syeikh Ali, seorang alim yang juga mempunyai pesantren. Beliau kemudian berguru di Fansur, Acheh. Beberapa tahun kemudian, beliau berguru dengan seorang tokoh ulamak Acheh iaitu Syeikh Shamsuddin Al Sumatrani di Banda Aceh.
Beliau merantau ke Tanah Arab pada tahun 1642 dan belajar dari 19 guru dan 27 ulamak di dalam berbagai disiplin Ilmu Islam. Tempat belajarnya adalah di sepanjang perjalanan untuk mengerjakan haji, mulai dari Doha, Yaman, Jeddah, Makkah serta Madinah. Tahap intelektualisme beliau adalah sangat tinggi berkat didikan para ulama terkemuka saat itu.
Pengetahuannya sangat lengkap mencakupi pelbagai bidang; syariat, fiqh, hadis, ilmu kalam dan tasawuf.
MENGAJAR
Kemudian beliau mengajar di Mekah & Madinah. Selepas 19 tahun berada di Tanah Arab, beliau memutuskan kembali ke Aceh sekitar tahun 1662 dan mengajar di madrasahnya di Kuala Sg Aceh. Ramai murid datang berguru dengannya dari seluruh Nusantara. Antara murid-muridnya yang menjadi ulama terkenal ialah Syeikh Burhanuddin Wafan dari Minangkabau, Abd Al Muhnyi dari Jawa Barat, Dawud Al Jawi Al Fansuri dan Ismail Agha Mushthafa Agha 'Ali Al Rumi dari Turki.
BIDANG PENTADBIRAN
Kerana pengetahuannya yang luas, Sultanah Safiyatuddin Tajul Alam (1645 hingga 1675) telah melantik beliau menjadi Perdana Menteri yg bertanggung jawab memberi nasihat di dalam bidang agama, sosial, kebudayaan dan pentadbiran. Beliau bertanggung jawab di dalam penyusunan semula pentadbiran Acheh yang hancur akibat perang dengan Portugis di Melaka (1629). Hasilnya Acheh pulih semula sebagai pusat Islam & kebudayaan Melayu di Nusantara.
BIDANG KEAGAMAAN
Beliau merupakan tokoh kesufian, ahli hukum Islam & pendakwah ulung di Nusantara.
· Hukum Islam - jasa beliau yang paling besar ialah meletakkan Syari'at Islam sebagai perundangan negara. Fatwa & karangan beliau diterima ramai kerana ianya jelas & mudah difahami.
· Tafsir Al Qur'an - orang pertama menterjemahkan Al-Qur'an ke dalam Bahasa Melayu di Nusantara. Buku tafsirnya Al Baidhawi masih diterbitkan di Mesir hingga ke hari ini.
· Dakwah - menyebarkan Islam dengan mendirikan madrasah, mengajar & menulis tentang Islam.
MENINGGAL DUNIA
Beliau meninggal dunia ketika berusia 73 tahun. Beliau juga digelar "Tengku *Syiah Kuala". Sebagai mengenang jasa & menghormati peribadi beliau, sebuah universiti di Banda Aceh telah dinamakan sempena nama beliau iaitu Universiti *Syiah Kuala www.unsyiah.ac.id/.
Nota - "Syiah" (disebut "Syah") adalah "Syeikh" di dalam loghat Acheh. Ia tiada kaitan langsung dengan fahaman Syi'ah.
Petronas profits create friction
Asia Times Online
10 March 2006
Southeast Asia
Petronas profits create friction
By Anil Netto
PENANG, Malaysia - Petronas, Malaysia's national petroleum
corporation, like many other multinational energy companies, is
riding the crest of soaring global fuel prices and raking in record
revenues and profits. However, those globally pumped-up profits are
causing a stir on the Malaysian street, with protesters calling the
company's historically opaque finances into question.
For the fiscal year ending in March 2005, the state-run corporation
recorded a pre-tax profit of US$15 billion, up 55% from the previous
year, contributing 30% of the Malaysian government's total revenues.
This year's profits are tipped to climb even higher on the back of
spiraling global oil prices, potentially representing the best
financial results in Petronas' 32-year corporate history.
But those gains are not coming without controversy. Last week the
Malaysian government reduced fuel subsidies and allowed the local
price of gasoline, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas to float,
leading to a rise of 18% to 23% depending on the fuel source. The
policy move was the latest in a series of incremental and unpopular
price hikes over the past two years. More recently, rising domestic
prices have renewed national arguments for more interventionist and
less neo-liberal economic policy prescriptions.
Malaysia famously bucked conventional economic wisdom when it applied
capital controls in the wake of the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis -
a move that in effect insulated the Malaysian economy from the
ravages sharp currency depreciations wrought on Thailand and
Indonesia. Now, in the era of spiraling global fuel prices, many in
Malaysia believe that, as a net fuel exporter, fuel subsidies could
provide the country's export-dependent economy a competitive boost
and insulate the domestic economy from inflationary pressures.
That argument is finding popular expression through a string of
street demonstrations and protests that have put Prime Minister
Abdullah Badawi's government on the defensive. The government says
the price hikes are necessary to curb over-consumption, to discourage
smuggling and to remove subsidy-generated market distortions. The
government also argues that Malaysia's fuel prices are still among
the lowest in Southeast Asia, apart from oil-rich Brunei.
Public anger has perhaps predictably focused on Petronas' big bottom
line and, perhaps more important, on how those massive profits are
used and potentially abused. The company's critics have long
complained that elected politicians, rather than pumping petro-
profits back into sustainable economic activities, often dipped into
Petronas' reserves to finance economically unsustainable ventures or
to bail out politically connected firms with funds that could have
been better used for national development. No Malaysian minister or
senior politician has ever been held to account for misallocating or
squandering Petronas-generated revenues.
Shrouded disclosure has often stoked suspicions, though. For
instance, controversy erupted in 1998 when Petronas, through its
shipping carrier Malaysian International Shipping Corp Berhad (MISC),
inexplicably acquired a debt-laden shipping concern, Konsortium
Perkapalan Bhd (KPB). Some analysts felt the suspect deal amounted to
a bailout of then-prime minister Mahathir Mohamad's son, Mirzan
Mahathir, whose KPB was then floundering under debts estimated at
about RM1.7 billion (US$457,000).
The 'dark holes' of the future
When Malaysia's oil wells finally run dry, which could come sooner
than many of Malaysia's 24 million population anticipate, concerns
are growing that the resource-rich country may have little to show
for decades of bumper petroleum profits, apart from a few fading
trophy projects and deep, dark holes in the ocean floor.
To be sure, Petronas' record profits have to be tempered against
Malaysia's limited oil reserves and the steadily increasing cost of
exploration. Total domestic crude and oil-condensate reserves are
officially estimated at about 4.8 billion barrels, equivalent to a
reserve life of about 19 years. For natural gas, which makes up some
75% of Malaysia's total reserves, the reserve life is estimated at a
longer 33 years. At current rates of production, however, some energy
analysts predict that Malaysia could swing from being a net exporter
to net importer by the end of the decade.
Petronas has recently aggressively expanded its exploration and
international business operations, leveraging its technical expertise
into joint ventures in resource-rich and often politically unstable
countries such as Sudan, Myanmar, Turkmenistan, Niger, Chad and, to a
lesser degree, Egypt and the Malaysia-Thailand Joint Development
Area. The company has also ramped up exploration activities at home.
Petronas, Malaysia's only bona fide multinational company, currently
manages 59 energy ventures in 26 different countries around the
world. Last year, it spent RM7.5 billion on new international
explorations, mainly in Sudan's war-ravaged oilfields, as well as
liquefied-natural-gas work in Egypt. These ventures have allowed the
company to build up international reserves of 5.92 billion barrels of
oil equivalent (boe), of which crude accounts for 2.15 billion boe,
with the remainder in gas.
Apart from boosting profits, those ventures have exposed Petronas to
periodic criticism that its overseas activities help to prop up
financially some of the world's more loathsome, human-rights-abusing
regimes. Still, most energy-industry analysts believe that Petronas,
the only Malaysian company in the Fortune 500, has managerially done
well for itself considering the heightened global competition for new
finds from China, India and the United States.
"It is easily the best, that is, the most professionally run,
corporation in Malaysia, with a proven track record of competing not
only locally but internationally," said political scientist Andrew
Aeria, a Malaysia-based academic who closely monitors political and
economic developments. "[It's just a] pity its coffers have always
been raided by the BN [Barisan Nasional, Malaysia's ruling coalition]
government to bail out crony project failures."
At the same time, some company insiders contend that Petronas' recent
rash of profits have also bred a measurable degree of complacency.
"Petronas can afford to take risks now as it is sitting on a pile of
reserves and making huge profits," said a management staffer for a
joint venture between Petronas and a foreign firm. "When a firm is in
such an enviable situation, wastage, slow transfer of technology and
a lack of top management oversight in certain areas are not usually
apparent, but these can happen."
Fading trophies
During the tenure of Mahathir Mohamad, Petronas profits were often
used to fund massive, one-off prestige projects. The list of Petronas-
funded trophy projects is as long as it is extravagant, including the
posh new administrative capital at Putrajaya, sponsorship of a
Formula One motor-racing team, and the company's own twin-tower
office buildings in downtown Kuala Lumpur, which fleetingly stood as
the tallest skyscraper in the world.
Under Abdullah, there appear to be fewer big-ticket projects, though
ailing public and private firms, such as Malaysia Airlines, have
asked for and received financial assistance in times of need. Because
30% of the government's revenues come from Petronas, the company at
least indirectly helps to bail out government-favored businesses.
"Petronas has been very responsible. They have made a huge
contribution towards the development of the country," Abdullah
recently said.
Petronas profits, critics contend, could have been more prudently
invested in smaller, self-sustaining ventures that would act to
enhance the country's future competitiveness. There is a growing
sense that, with the limited life of the oilfields, a golden national
opportunity was squandered. Other oil-rich countries with diminishing
oil and gas resources, most notably Norway, have set aside funds for
economic development once the national wells run dry.
"The fact is that all those years of financial profligacy under Dr
Mahathir are now coming home to roost,'' said political scientist Aeria.
Petronas, for its part, argues that its involvement in Formula One
racing has allowed it to develop its automotive engineering
technology, enhance its lubricants and heighten its brand recognition
globally. In January, Petronas signed a memorandum of intent with
national car maker Proton, whose market share has been steadily
declining in Malaysia and has not been notably successful in the
export market, to explore the possibility of using the new-fangled
"Petronas E01" commercial engine technology, engineered through its
involvement in Formula One, to develop environment-friendly fuel
systems for Proton.
During Mahathir's tenure, Petronas was also roped in to provide
generous subsidies for new independent power producers (IPPs), which
built a string of gas-fueled electricity generating plants in the
1990s. Since the 1997 crisis, Petronas has supplied heavily
subsidized processed gas to Tenaga Nasional Bhd, the national power
corporation, as well as the IPPs. So far those subsidies have totaled
RM25 billion, according to Petronas. These subsidies helped ensure
that the IPPs' venture into the power industry has been largely
profitable.
Critics complain that the special arrangement enriches a handful of
well-connected, wealthy tycoons. Last year, business news group The
Edge identified the IPP beneficiaries as Genting Sanyen Power, YTL
Power, Malakoff Bhd and Tanjong Plc/Powertek Bhd, saying that "these
companies are controlled by the families of Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong, Tan
Sri Yeoh Tiong Lay, Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary and Ananda
Krishnan, four of the richest families and individuals in the
country", according to its website.
It is still unclear whether the subsidies on processed gas supplied
by Petronas to the IPPs will also be affected by recent price hikes.
If so, it could mean higher electricity prices just around the
corner. Many Malaysians are unaware of the subsidies to IPPs and the
local media have been largely silent on the issue. But the issue
threatens to become a political hot potato.
"Petronas' subsidies to the IPPs of RM14 billion since 1997 must be
abolished," said Lim Guan Eng, secretary general of the opposition
Democratic Action Party. "As the IPPs are private companies enjoying
special rates for generating electrical power that Tenaga is forced
to purchase, there is no reason for IPPs to enjoy such huge
subsidies ... at Tenaga's and Malaysian consumers' expense."
True or false, Petronas now stands at a somewhat uncomfortable
crossroads. Many Malaysians are unclear about how the savings on
subsidies will be used, although the government says the money will
be used to improve public transport and other undisclosed development
projects.
Despite decades earning massive profits for state coffers, as the
government rolls back subsidies on domestic fuel prices, the
company's opaque finances are finally being called into question.
Hopes are rising that the unexpected upshot in the national oil
firm's record profits, ironically, could also generate a clearer
account of exactly how Petronas distributes and spends its massive
profits.
Anil Netto is a freelance writer based in Penang, Malaysia.
(Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact us about sales, syndication and republishing .)
10 March 2006
Southeast Asia
Petronas profits create friction
By Anil Netto
PENANG, Malaysia - Petronas, Malaysia's national petroleum
corporation, like many other multinational energy companies, is
riding the crest of soaring global fuel prices and raking in record
revenues and profits. However, those globally pumped-up profits are
causing a stir on the Malaysian street, with protesters calling the
company's historically opaque finances into question.
For the fiscal year ending in March 2005, the state-run corporation
recorded a pre-tax profit of US$15 billion, up 55% from the previous
year, contributing 30% of the Malaysian government's total revenues.
This year's profits are tipped to climb even higher on the back of
spiraling global oil prices, potentially representing the best
financial results in Petronas' 32-year corporate history.
But those gains are not coming without controversy. Last week the
Malaysian government reduced fuel subsidies and allowed the local
price of gasoline, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas to float,
leading to a rise of 18% to 23% depending on the fuel source. The
policy move was the latest in a series of incremental and unpopular
price hikes over the past two years. More recently, rising domestic
prices have renewed national arguments for more interventionist and
less neo-liberal economic policy prescriptions.
Malaysia famously bucked conventional economic wisdom when it applied
capital controls in the wake of the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis -
a move that in effect insulated the Malaysian economy from the
ravages sharp currency depreciations wrought on Thailand and
Indonesia. Now, in the era of spiraling global fuel prices, many in
Malaysia believe that, as a net fuel exporter, fuel subsidies could
provide the country's export-dependent economy a competitive boost
and insulate the domestic economy from inflationary pressures.
That argument is finding popular expression through a string of
street demonstrations and protests that have put Prime Minister
Abdullah Badawi's government on the defensive. The government says
the price hikes are necessary to curb over-consumption, to discourage
smuggling and to remove subsidy-generated market distortions. The
government also argues that Malaysia's fuel prices are still among
the lowest in Southeast Asia, apart from oil-rich Brunei.
Public anger has perhaps predictably focused on Petronas' big bottom
line and, perhaps more important, on how those massive profits are
used and potentially abused. The company's critics have long
complained that elected politicians, rather than pumping petro-
profits back into sustainable economic activities, often dipped into
Petronas' reserves to finance economically unsustainable ventures or
to bail out politically connected firms with funds that could have
been better used for national development. No Malaysian minister or
senior politician has ever been held to account for misallocating or
squandering Petronas-generated revenues.
Shrouded disclosure has often stoked suspicions, though. For
instance, controversy erupted in 1998 when Petronas, through its
shipping carrier Malaysian International Shipping Corp Berhad (MISC),
inexplicably acquired a debt-laden shipping concern, Konsortium
Perkapalan Bhd (KPB). Some analysts felt the suspect deal amounted to
a bailout of then-prime minister Mahathir Mohamad's son, Mirzan
Mahathir, whose KPB was then floundering under debts estimated at
about RM1.7 billion (US$457,000).
The 'dark holes' of the future
When Malaysia's oil wells finally run dry, which could come sooner
than many of Malaysia's 24 million population anticipate, concerns
are growing that the resource-rich country may have little to show
for decades of bumper petroleum profits, apart from a few fading
trophy projects and deep, dark holes in the ocean floor.
To be sure, Petronas' record profits have to be tempered against
Malaysia's limited oil reserves and the steadily increasing cost of
exploration. Total domestic crude and oil-condensate reserves are
officially estimated at about 4.8 billion barrels, equivalent to a
reserve life of about 19 years. For natural gas, which makes up some
75% of Malaysia's total reserves, the reserve life is estimated at a
longer 33 years. At current rates of production, however, some energy
analysts predict that Malaysia could swing from being a net exporter
to net importer by the end of the decade.
Petronas has recently aggressively expanded its exploration and
international business operations, leveraging its technical expertise
into joint ventures in resource-rich and often politically unstable
countries such as Sudan, Myanmar, Turkmenistan, Niger, Chad and, to a
lesser degree, Egypt and the Malaysia-Thailand Joint Development
Area. The company has also ramped up exploration activities at home.
Petronas, Malaysia's only bona fide multinational company, currently
manages 59 energy ventures in 26 different countries around the
world. Last year, it spent RM7.5 billion on new international
explorations, mainly in Sudan's war-ravaged oilfields, as well as
liquefied-natural-gas work in Egypt. These ventures have allowed the
company to build up international reserves of 5.92 billion barrels of
oil equivalent (boe), of which crude accounts for 2.15 billion boe,
with the remainder in gas.
Apart from boosting profits, those ventures have exposed Petronas to
periodic criticism that its overseas activities help to prop up
financially some of the world's more loathsome, human-rights-abusing
regimes. Still, most energy-industry analysts believe that Petronas,
the only Malaysian company in the Fortune 500, has managerially done
well for itself considering the heightened global competition for new
finds from China, India and the United States.
"It is easily the best, that is, the most professionally run,
corporation in Malaysia, with a proven track record of competing not
only locally but internationally," said political scientist Andrew
Aeria, a Malaysia-based academic who closely monitors political and
economic developments. "[It's just a] pity its coffers have always
been raided by the BN [Barisan Nasional, Malaysia's ruling coalition]
government to bail out crony project failures."
At the same time, some company insiders contend that Petronas' recent
rash of profits have also bred a measurable degree of complacency.
"Petronas can afford to take risks now as it is sitting on a pile of
reserves and making huge profits," said a management staffer for a
joint venture between Petronas and a foreign firm. "When a firm is in
such an enviable situation, wastage, slow transfer of technology and
a lack of top management oversight in certain areas are not usually
apparent, but these can happen."
Fading trophies
During the tenure of Mahathir Mohamad, Petronas profits were often
used to fund massive, one-off prestige projects. The list of Petronas-
funded trophy projects is as long as it is extravagant, including the
posh new administrative capital at Putrajaya, sponsorship of a
Formula One motor-racing team, and the company's own twin-tower
office buildings in downtown Kuala Lumpur, which fleetingly stood as
the tallest skyscraper in the world.
Under Abdullah, there appear to be fewer big-ticket projects, though
ailing public and private firms, such as Malaysia Airlines, have
asked for and received financial assistance in times of need. Because
30% of the government's revenues come from Petronas, the company at
least indirectly helps to bail out government-favored businesses.
"Petronas has been very responsible. They have made a huge
contribution towards the development of the country," Abdullah
recently said.
Petronas profits, critics contend, could have been more prudently
invested in smaller, self-sustaining ventures that would act to
enhance the country's future competitiveness. There is a growing
sense that, with the limited life of the oilfields, a golden national
opportunity was squandered. Other oil-rich countries with diminishing
oil and gas resources, most notably Norway, have set aside funds for
economic development once the national wells run dry.
"The fact is that all those years of financial profligacy under Dr
Mahathir are now coming home to roost,'' said political scientist Aeria.
Petronas, for its part, argues that its involvement in Formula One
racing has allowed it to develop its automotive engineering
technology, enhance its lubricants and heighten its brand recognition
globally. In January, Petronas signed a memorandum of intent with
national car maker Proton, whose market share has been steadily
declining in Malaysia and has not been notably successful in the
export market, to explore the possibility of using the new-fangled
"Petronas E01" commercial engine technology, engineered through its
involvement in Formula One, to develop environment-friendly fuel
systems for Proton.
During Mahathir's tenure, Petronas was also roped in to provide
generous subsidies for new independent power producers (IPPs), which
built a string of gas-fueled electricity generating plants in the
1990s. Since the 1997 crisis, Petronas has supplied heavily
subsidized processed gas to Tenaga Nasional Bhd, the national power
corporation, as well as the IPPs. So far those subsidies have totaled
RM25 billion, according to Petronas. These subsidies helped ensure
that the IPPs' venture into the power industry has been largely
profitable.
Critics complain that the special arrangement enriches a handful of
well-connected, wealthy tycoons. Last year, business news group The
Edge identified the IPP beneficiaries as Genting Sanyen Power, YTL
Power, Malakoff Bhd and Tanjong Plc/Powertek Bhd, saying that "these
companies are controlled by the families of Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong, Tan
Sri Yeoh Tiong Lay, Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary and Ananda
Krishnan, four of the richest families and individuals in the
country", according to its website.
It is still unclear whether the subsidies on processed gas supplied
by Petronas to the IPPs will also be affected by recent price hikes.
If so, it could mean higher electricity prices just around the
corner. Many Malaysians are unaware of the subsidies to IPPs and the
local media have been largely silent on the issue. But the issue
threatens to become a political hot potato.
"Petronas' subsidies to the IPPs of RM14 billion since 1997 must be
abolished," said Lim Guan Eng, secretary general of the opposition
Democratic Action Party. "As the IPPs are private companies enjoying
special rates for generating electrical power that Tenaga is forced
to purchase, there is no reason for IPPs to enjoy such huge
subsidies ... at Tenaga's and Malaysian consumers' expense."
True or false, Petronas now stands at a somewhat uncomfortable
crossroads. Many Malaysians are unclear about how the savings on
subsidies will be used, although the government says the money will
be used to improve public transport and other undisclosed development
projects.
Despite decades earning massive profits for state coffers, as the
government rolls back subsidies on domestic fuel prices, the
company's opaque finances are finally being called into question.
Hopes are rising that the unexpected upshot in the national oil
firm's record profits, ironically, could also generate a clearer
account of exactly how Petronas distributes and spends its massive
profits.
Anil Netto is a freelance writer based in Penang, Malaysia.
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