Malaysia and the Myth of `Tanah Melayu' (Part I)
Written by Farish A. Noor Wed, 22 August 2007

We are sustained by myths only as long as they are empowering,
inspiring, instrumental and serve our interests; yet when those very
same myths provide us with little else than the false comfort of an
unreconstructed nostalgia for a past that never existed, then they
turn into cages that imprison us for life. The myth of a unique
European `civilisational genius' has only helped to parochialise
Europe even more; the staid discourse of `Asian values' merely denies
the fact that Asian civilisations would not have developed as they
did without contact with the outside world; and the myth of a pure
and uninterrupted development of Indo-Aryan culture has only opened
the way for the rise of right-wing Hindutva Fascists in the Indian
subcontinent. Notwithstanding their claims to standing proud and
tall, the demagogues who utter such pedestrian nonsense remain
stunted, as their logic, on the stage of global history: testimony to
the claim that those whose confidence is founded in stilts can only
remain handicapped for life...

A nation that is grown up is one that is mature enough to realise
that it can dispense with such myths, particularly when the honeyed
nectar of mythology reveals itself as nothing more than poison. Yet
poison has become our draught, and this nation of ours is ailing to
the core by now.

The symptoms of the malady are all around us these days and we see
them readily enough: As the asinine debate over a rap rendition of
the national anthem turns bilious and takes on an increasingly
racialised mien, forcing all sides to retreat to the hallowed
sanctuary of communal and racial identity, the nation's attention has
been diverted from truly pressing issues concerning the economy and
the spate of potentially explosive legal cases currently being fought
out in the courts of the land.

The vernacular press assumes the role of champions of each respective
community, and racial overtones are clearly seen and felt in the
language of national politics. Yet nobody points to the real issue at
stake, even if we need to discuss the rap video rendered by the young
Wee Meng Chee, which surely should be this: If a young Malaysian has
seen fit to deliver his tirade against all that he sees wrong in the
country in terms that are racially-determined , is this not a
reflection of the racialised and divisive politics that already
reigns in Malaysia, courtesy of the ruling National Front coalition
led by UMNO in the first place? The racialised logic that rests in
Meng Chee's rap is only a mirror reflection of the racialised
politics already at work in Malaysia already. So are we Malaysians so
ashamed of ourselves that we can no longer look at ourselves squarely
in the face and accept the monstrosity that stands before us today?

Yet the editorials in the vernacular press are baying for blood and
Meng Chee, they insist, must be brought to book. Amidst this furore
of chest-thumping theatrics and protestations of communal insult and
outrage, we hear the communitarians among us blare out again and
again: `Jangan tunduk', `Defend our pride', `kurang ajar' and so
forth. No, reason and rational debate are no longer welcomed in
Malaysia that is `truly Asia', and this homeland for some will demand
its pound of flesh from others. Meng Chee is not the first and
certainly will not be the last to suffer from the slighted
sensitivities of those whose comfort zones and essentialised
identities are sacrosanct and inviolable. Previously others have also
been brought to the village tribunal of the mob for allegedly
insulting race and religion as well. (Here I write from bitter
experience myself.)

Yet the irony of ironies behind this tableau of flaring tempers and
heated emotions is the skewered (and now silenced) appeal for us, as
one nation, to remain united and to respect the diversity among us.
The sonorous voice of the state trembles and falters as it mouths
this language of double-speak that fails to convince: On the one hand
we maintain the lie - and it is a lie, let us admit that at least -
that this is a happy land of multiculturalism and diversity where
every shade of colour in the pluralist rainbow is represented and has
its place. On the other hand the very same mouth that utters these
sweet platitudes tells us that not far beneath the diversity and
pluralism that rests on the scratched surface of Malaysia is the
understated understanding that some communities - or rather one in
particular - deserves a better place in the sun; namely, the
Bumiputeras. Why?

Have we become a schitzophrenic nation blissfully unaware of the
contradictions that have become so heartbreakingly apparent to
others? Meng Chee's unpardonable `offence' was to have slighted the
pride and identity of one community which claims to be part of
Malaysia and yet remains strangely aloof from the rest of us. The
great act of treason he is accused of committing - offending the
dignity of a specific community and its creed - rings hollow when we
consider the bile and vitriol that has emanated from the leaders of
that community itself, ranging from the drawing of daggers in public
to the language of blood and belonging that has been repeated, time
and again, by its leaders. The soap box orators of UMNO and its Youth
Wing in particular have demanded that others respect the special
rights and privileges of the Malays, while forgetting the fact that
for the past five decades we - Malaysians - have had to put up with
their own brand of small town politics incessantly.

Yet this discourse of communal pride and identity is sustained by one
crucial myth: that this land of ours is a competed and contested
territory where two nations are in constant competition: The nation-
state called `Malaysia' and the mythical land called `Tanah Melayu'.

Tanah Melayu Revisited

The skin of the demagogue is ever so sensitive, so fragile, in the
face of the sound argument. As soon as the mention of a contrary idea
is made, it bristles and reacts; the hand reaches for the keris; the
foot steps on the soap-box; the mouth opens to utter the word `May'
to be followed by the cryptic number thirteen...

Perhaps the sensitivity we see can be accounted for by the fact that
the corpus of postcolonial ethno-nationalist politics in this country
is sustained by the singular myth that this patch of God's earth was
and is a land that `belongs' to one community in particular. From
that myth issues forth the other related claims to special
privileges, special rights, special allocations and entitlements.

The myth is sustained by the idea put forth that prior to the coming-
into-being of this nation called `Malaysia' there was once this
mythical land called `Tanah Melayu'. Yet the historian would be hard
pressed indeed to find a source to back this claim, for the
embarrassing thing about our epic histories and hikayats of old is
that there is scarcely a mention of the word. For years - if not more
than a decade by now - I have been looking for this mythical land so
loved and cherished by the young bloods and hotspurs of UMNO, yet I
have never discovered it. The Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa (written in
stages between the late 17th to 18th centuries) does not mention it;
nor does the Hikayat Patani, the Taj-us-Salatin (Mahkota Segala Raja-
Raja), the Hikayat Shah Mardan, Hikayat Inderaputera, Silsilah Bugis,
Hikayat Pasai, Hikayat Siak, etc.

And finally one day while trawling through the flea markets and
antique bazaars of Europe I came across a dull and worn-out copper
coin with the word `Tanah Melayu' stamped on it, dating to the late
19th century.

Having taken it home, I looked it up in the reference books I had
only to discover that it was one of those hybrid coins of dubious
worth that were used in the trade between European colonial companies
then stationed in Singapore and Malacca with Malay traders from the
(then weakened) Malay sultanates on the Peninsula. Used as loose
coinage in commercial transactions that were at best unequal and at
worst exploitative to the Malay traders then, the coins had a
decidedly counterfeit feel to them, and while registering the
lightness of its weight in the palm of my hand, the thought came to
me: That this coin, with the word `Tanah Melayu' stamped on it in
Jawi alphabet, sums up the irony of the past and the painful
realities of colonialism then. The Malay kingdoms had been colonised,
sidelined and diminished, and all that was given back to the Malays
was a dull copper coin with the myth of `Tanah Melayu' stamped on it
in so casual a manner.

Colonialism had robbed the natives of Asia of their lands, their
history and culture; introduced the divisive politics of race and
ethnicity as part of the ideology of divide and rule, and had created
a plural economy where the colonial masters reigned supreme. In the
decades and centuries to come the colonised subjects would be doubly
colonised again as they internalised the logic and epistemology of
Empire, thereby completing the work of the colonial masters who had
colonised their lands, stolen their resources, but not altered their
minds.

Today, as race-based ethno-nationalist politics prevails in Malaysia
and while our communities remain divided along sectarian race and
religion-based lines, we lament the loss of the Malaysian ideal that
was perhaps never there in the first place. The hounding of bloggers,
activists and students like Meng Chee is a reminder that the
frontiers of race, religion and ethnicity remain as permanent scars
that have disfigured the landscape of our nation, apparently
permanently.

And as the virulent voices in the vernacular editorials of the local
press call for vengeance against Meng Chee, perhaps they should ask
themselves this simple and honest question: For half a century now
the so-called `non-Malays' of Malaysia have been asked to attest
their loyalty and commitment to the Malaysian idea and ideal; to
relegate their cultural history to the background; to adopt the
national language, culture and even dress in an attempt to assimilate
to the reality of life in Malaysia.

But tell me, dear reader, how many Malays in Malaysia are truly
Malaysian; and how many Malays think of themselves as Malaysian and
are committed to that very same ideal of a Malaysian Malaysia? Are
the Malays Malaysians who live in Malaysia? Or are the Malays still
living in the mythological land of `Tanah Melayu', an idea dreamt of
by Orientalist scholars and administrators during the colonial era,
as a worthless compensation to a people who had been colonised and
whose pride was reduced to the worth of a copper coin?

----------------------------------------------------------------
This e-mail has been sent via JARING webmail at http://www.jaring.my

Pisang penawar penyakit

Buah paling digemari penduduk dunia mempunyai 1,001 khasiat, kaya
pelbagai vitamin

PISANG pada mulanya adalah sejenis tumbuhan liar di Asia Tenggara, kini
berjaya dikomersialkan. Buah-buahan berkenaan bukan saja mengenyangkan
malah boleh mengatasi masalah sembelit. Selain mudah didapati dan murah
di pasaran, pisang juga antara buah-buahan yang berpotensi membekalkan
serat, vitamin A serta menjadi makanan ruji masyarakat Afrika.

Pelbagai jenis masakan boleh dihidangkan melalui pisang dengan cara
merebus, menggoreng atau dibuat pengat, lepat, koleh serta
jemput-jemput. Bunyinya sangat sedap dan sudah pasti enak!. Tetapi awas!
Sungguhpun pisang sedap dimakan dan baik untuk kesihatan serta membantu
merawat penyakit tertentu, ia bagaimanapun tidak elok dimakan oleh
pesakit kencing manis. Ini kerana kandungan gula di dalam pisang adalah
tinggi.

Tahukah anda, ada lebih 20 jenis pisang di dunia. Tetapi pisang nipah,
nangka, abu, mas, tanduk raja, embun biasa didengari. Namun pisang
talang, kapas, awak, susu, berangan, kari, embun, kelat keling, rastali,
talang, khaki, kapas, lidi, lemak manis kurang biasa kita dengar,
terutama bagi mereka yang tinggal di bandar.

Ketua Diatetik dan Pemakanan Khasiat, Universiti Perubatan Antarabangsa
(IMU), Prof. Dr. Fatimah Arshad, berkata seperti yang kita tahu, semua
pisang boleh dimakan, bagaimanapun ada berapa jenis pisang yang tidak
boleh dimakan iaitu pisang pisang hutan kerana banyak biji atau pisang
muda.

"Ada pisang yang dimakan mentah dan ada juga tidak boleh dimakan mentah
antaranya pisang tanduk, nangka, abu, lidi dan kapas," katanya ketika
dihubungi, baru-baru ini.

Beliau berkata, pemakanan pisang memberikan banyak khasiat kepada tubuh
badan kerana secara keseluruhannya ia mengandungi tenaga, vitamin A,
serat, vitamin C dan Kalsium.

"Sebagai contoh, 2 biji pisang emas mengandungi 100 kalori, 73gram (g)
air, 1.4g protein, 23 g karbohidrat, 1.7 g serat, 380 mikro gram (mg)
karoten (pre vitamin A), 63 RE vitamin A, 8.3 mg vitamin C dan 342 mg
kalium," katanya.

Khasiat pisang sudah tentu boleh membekalkan tenaga. Pisang mengandungi
asid, enzim, dan sebatian kimia penting. Ia juga mengandungi tiga jenis
gula semula jadi iaitu sukrosa , fruktosa dan glukosa. Gula semula jadi
ini amat penting untuk kanak-kanak yang sedang membesar.

Menurut Persatuan Pisang Antarabangsa, pula pisang mengandungi
magnesium, fosforus, iodine, kuprum, vitamin B1, B2, B6 & C, niasin, dan
folat. Penyelidikan yang dijalankan membuktikan dua biji pisang boleh
membekalkan tenaga untuk kita melakukan kerja atau senaman berat selama
90 minit. Seribu satu khasiat pisang kurniaan Allah kepada manusia.
Tidak hairanlah pisang amat popular di kalangan atlet kerana ia
membekalkan tenaga yang cukup ketika mereka beraksi dalam apa saja
pertandingan sukan.

Pisang adalah buah yang paling digemari penduduk seluruh dunia. Ia juga
mampu menawarkan penyakit dan boleh membantu dalam kesihatan manusia.

FAKTA

Daun pisang
* Digunakan sebagai alas makanan kerana menghasilkan bau yang harum
apabila terkena makanan yang panas.
* Digunakan sebagai pelindung hujan
* Pembalut kuih atau masakan seperti ikan bakar atau kuih lepat.
* Batang pisang
* Digunakan untuk membuat rakit.
* Mempunyai gentian yang banyak dan boleh diproses secara perdagangan
untuk membuat tali dan bahan seumpamanya seperti guni.

Buah pisang
* Boleh dimakan masak atau diambil semasa muda untuk dimasak sebagai
lauk, digoreng, dibuat sira, dibuat pengat, dan dijadikan kerepek.

Jantung pisang
* Dibuat sebagai ulam selepas dicelur.

FAKTA
Khasiat pisang dari sudut kesihatan
* Darah tinggi dan strok - pisang membantu menurunkan tekanan darah
tinggi kerana kandungan potasiumnya yang tinggi.
* Kolestrol - pisang rendah dari segi kalori lemak dan sodium yang
membantu merendah kolestrol.
* Cirit-birit - potasium dan magnesium yang terkandung di dalam pisang
amat sesuai merawat orang yang mengalami cirit-birit.
* Anaemia - anaemia ialah penyakit kurang darah. Oleh kerana pisang
kaya dengan zat besi, ia boleh merangsang penghasilan haemoglobin di
dalam darah.
* Kemurungan - orang yang sedang murung lebih cepat ceria apabila makan
pisang. Ini kerana kandungan sejenis protein membantu kita menjadi
tenang.
* Pening-pening - cara paling cepat merawat rasa pening-pening ialah
dengan meminum minuman susu pisang kocak (banana milkshake) yang
dicampur madu. Minuman ini bukan sahaja merawat malah sedap.

INFO
* Pisang yang paling sesuai dimakan untuk menjaga kesihatan ialah
pisang yang masih ada warna hijau di hujungnya.
* Disebabkan permintaan dunia terhadap pisang terlalu tinggi, banyak
hutan rimba telah diteroka dan dibersihkan untuk dibuka ladang penanaman
pisang.
* Jika anda digigit nyamuk, cubalah gosokkan bahagian dalam kulit
pisang pada tempat yang digigit.
* Pisang boleh diberi pada bayi seawal usia tiga bulan sebagai makanan
pejal kerana mudah dihadam.

100 gram pisang menyediakan
* 1.2 gm protein
* 0.3 gm lemak
* 17 mg kalsium
* 78 mg karotin
* 88 mg kalium
* 27.2 gm karbohidrat
* 0.4 gm fiber
* 116 kcal tenaga.

----------------------------------------------------------------
This e-mail has been sent via JARING webmail at http://www.jaring.my

*KUALA LUMPUR, 14 Ogos (Hrkh)* - Sebanyak 40 stesen minyak Petronas di
seluruh negara bakal gulung tikar kerana tidak dapat menanggung kerugian
operasi akibat kenaikan harga minyak.

Sumber memaklumkan kepada Harakah, majoriti pengusaha minyak dalam
kategori
stesen rendah (low station) yang mencatat jualan di bawah 300 ribu liter
sebulan menghadapi kesulitan akibat penambahan kos belian petrol dan kos
operasi.

"Jumlah (low station) ini bukan sedikit kerana membabitkan kira-kira 40
peratus daripada jumlah stesen minyak seluruh Semenanjung," kata sumber.

Antara pengusaha stesen minyak yang terpaksa menyerahkan kembali premis
kepada syarikat minyak adalah Setiausaha Agung Persatuan Pengusaha Stesen
Minyak milik tempatan dan bekas Timbalan Presiden Persatuan Pengusaha
Stesen
Minyak milik sebuah syarikat asing.

Menurut sumber itu, bagi mengelakkan lebih ramai pengusaha minyak gulung
tikar, kerajaan perlu menimbang tuntutan Persatuan Pengusaha Stesen Minyak
Malaysia (PDAM) untuk menaikkan kadar komisen jualan petrol daripada 9.5
sen
seliter kepada 13 sen seliter.

Walaupun kerajaan BN menaikkan harga petrol sebanyak 30 sen tahun lalu,
komisen jualan petrol kekal 9.5 sen seliter mengakibatkan para pengusaha
terpaksa menambah modal pembelian petrol kepada hampir 27 peratus.

Para pengusaha stesen minyak juga perlu menanggung kos caj kad kredit dan
menggaji petugas stesen disamping dipaksa beroperasi 24 jam oleh syarikat
minyak.

Lebih 90 peratus pengusaha stesen minyak di Semenanjung terdiri daripada
golongan Melayu Bumiputera.

----------------------------------------------------------------
This e-mail has been sent via JARING webmail at http://www.jaring.my

*KUALA LUMPUR, 15 Ogos (Hrkh) -* Rumah berbilik satu itu dibina pada tahun
1974. Kos pembinaan RM25,000. Dan bayaran sewa telah mencecah RM45,000.
Namun, rakyat ditawar untuk membelinya dengan harga RM90,000. Adilkah?

<http://www.korbanaqiqah.com.my/v2/>

Sila layari www.englishsection.com untuk Laman Utama English Section atau
www.harakahdaily.net/wap/ untuk melayari HarakahDaily.Net menggunakan
telefon bimbit GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) anda.

Menurut Penasihat Parti KeADILan Rakyat (KeADILan), Dato' Seri Anwar
Ibrahim
kerajaan melalui Dasar Perumahannya telah membelakangi masalah perumahan
rakyat termiskin.

"Ketika lawatan saya ke Rumah Pangsa Taman Keramat pada Sabtu 11 Ogos
lepas,
penduduk flat berjumlah 799 unit tersebut ditawarkan untuk peluang untuk
membeli unit-unit yang kebanyakannya satu bilik tersebut untuk RM90,000.
Rumah Pangsa tersebut dibina pada 1974 pada kos RM25,000 dan jumlah
bayaran
sewanya telah mencapai RM45,000,"jelasnya dalam satu kenyataan kepada
Harakahdaily.

Tambahnya, tindakan mengenakan bayaran tambahan RM90,000 untuk mereka
memiliki flat tersebut membuktikan dakwaan kerajaan memandang serius
kemelut
rakyat termiskin hanyalah janji palsu semata-mata.

Katanya,pada masa yang sama, golongan Bumiputera yang kaya menikmati
diskaun
7-10 peratus yang diberikan terhadap apartmen mewah di dalam projek-projek
perumahan terbaru.

"Ini langsung tidak masuk akal apabila kita mengambil kira harga yang
dikenakan kepada orang-orang Melayu miskin yang tinggal di flat-flat kos
rendah yang sempit.

"Kerajaan bercakap mengenai projek koridor itu dan ini yang berharga
berbilion-bilion ringgit, tetapi di dalam isu menyediakan perumahan yang
mampu dimiliki kumpulan berpendapatan rendah, ternyata wujud perbezaan
kredibiliti yang ketara antara dasar yang diwarwarkan dengan pelaksanaan
di
bawah,"tambahnya lagi.

Pada pandangan Dato' Seri Anwar, kerajaan yang benar-benar prihatin dengan
masalah yang dialami rakyat berpendapatan rendah mestilah menyediakan
perumahan yang mampu dimiliki untuk semua warganegara Malaysia tanpa
mengira
kaum.

"Apakah gunanya melancarkan projek mega koridor pembangunan apabila
golongan
termiskin terus diabaikan dihimpit pembangunan yang mengakibatkan masalah
sosial yang begitu parah? Apa gunanya gemilang di dalam projek-projek
mewah
tetapi mengabaikan perkara-perkara yang lebih asas?,"soalnya. - mks.

----------------------------------------------------------------
This e-mail has been sent via JARING webmail at http://www.jaring.my

*SUBANG JAYA, 17 Ogos (Hrkh)- * Ibu Azlina Jailani (Lina Joy) merayu umat
Islam seluruh negara supaya terus melakukan solat hajat dan berdoa kepada
Allah s.w.t. supaya anaknya itu kembali semula ke pangkuan Islam.

Berucap dalam keadaan sedu sedan dan suara tertahan-tahan ibu Azlina yang
uzur itu dengan menitiskan air mata berharap sangat supaya anaknya itu
kembali kepangkuan Islam.

"Sebagai ibu, saya merasa sangat sedih dengan keadaan yang berlaku kepada
anak saya itu," katanya di Forum Islam dan Cabaran Masa Kini di Malaysia'
anjuran Pertubuhan-Pertubuhan Pembela Islam (Pembela) yang dihadiri oleh
beribu-ribu umat Islam di Majlis Al-Falah USJ 19 Subang Jaya, Selangor,
baru-baru ini.

Kata ibu Azlina, dia sendiri tidak tahu di mana anaknya itu berada
sekarang
kerana beliau hanya berjumpa anaknya lebih setahun lalu.

Forum tersebut disertai oleh Dato' Abu Hasan Din Al-Hafiz, Azmi Abd Hamid
(Teras) sebagai pengerusi, Yusri Mohd (Abim), Zainur Zakaria (Peguam
Pembela
Islam), Prof. Dr. Abd Aziz Bari (pensyarah undang-undang), Dato' Mustafa
Ma
(Presiden Persatuan Cina Muslim Malaysia). Turut berucap peguam Pawanchik
Marican.

Bapa saudara Azalina yang turut berucap di majlis tersebut memberitahu
bahawa sudah banyak usaha dilakukan oleh keluarga dan pelbagai pihak untuk
mengembalikan Azalina kepangkuan Islam, tetapi setakat ini belum berjaya.
Bagaimanapun usaha ini perlulah diteruskan.

Katanya, Azalina, dibaptiskan di ebuah gereja di Kuala Lumpur sejak
beberapa
tahun lalu.

Bagi pihak keluarga Azlina, katanya, beliau mengucapkan terima kasih
terhadap umat Islam yang selama ini berdoa dan menyatakan simpati kepada
keluarganya.

Yusri dalam ucapannya berkata, keputusan mahkamah baru-baru ini yang tidak
membenarkan nama Islam dipotong dalam kad pengenalan Azlina memang
disambut
baik. Namun katanya, cabaran belum berakhir dan kita akan terus menerus
berusaha supaya Azlina akan kembali kepada Islam.

Zainur Zakaria yang berucap dengan suara tegas berkata, kini umat Islam
dicabar sedemikian rupa, justeru itu umat Islam mestilah waspada dan
berusaha keras memelihara akidah dan mempertahankan kemuliaan agama Islam
dari dicabar.

Dato' Mustafa Ma pula mengingatkan umat Islam supaya mengertikan
benar-benar
tanggungjawab mereka sebagai hamba Allah dan mematuhi semua hukum-hakam
Islam.

"Kita semua adalah Abdul Allah, iatu hamba Allah dan mestilah mematuhi
perintah Allah. Memang tidak ada paksaan seseorang memeluk Islam, tetapi
apabila menganut Islam, mereka mestilah mematuhi sepenuhnya hukum Islam
dan
tidak semudah itu boleh keluar masuk Islam," katanya,

Prof Dr Abdul Aziz Bari mengingatkan umat Islam supaya mengkaji
sedalam-dalamnya segala tafsiran mengenai Islam dalam Perlembagaan
Malaysia
supaya mereka benar-benam mengetahui kedudukan agama Islam di tanah air
kita.

"Umat Islam kini sedang menghadapi cabaran berat, dari itu kita mestilah
sentiasa waspada dan berusaha mempertahankan Islam," katanya.

Dato' Abu Hasan Din Al-Hafiz pula mengingatkan umat Islam, khususnya para
ibu bapa supaya mengawasi benar-benar anak-anak remaja mereka, mengawasi
kawan-kawan mereka, pergaulan mereka, kenalan mereka dan memberikan
didikan
agama yang sempurna kepada mereka supaya remaja mereka tidak terjebak
dengan
perangkap musuh Islam.

Ibu Azlina yang datang bersama keluarganya sentiasa dikerumuni para
jamaah,
menyatakan sipmati terhadap apa yang dialaminya dan keluarganya.

Selepas majlis forum tersebut, para hadirin menunaikan solat hajat
berimamkan Dato' Abu Hasan Din Al-Hafiz.

----------------------------------------------------------------
This e-mail has been sent via JARING webmail at http://www.jaring.my

Malam pertama ..........

Malam itu ialah MALAM PERTAMA DI ALAM KUBUR!
Pernahkah engkau melihat kuburan?
Pernahkah engkau melihat gelapnya kuburan?
Pernahkah engkau melihat sempit dan dalamnya liang lahat?
Pernahkah engkau membayangkan kengerian dan kedahsyatan alam kubur?
Sedarkah engkau bahawa kuburan itu dipersiapkan untukmu dan untuk
orang-orang selain darimu?
Bukankah telah silih berganti engkau melihat teman-teman, orang-orang
tercinta dan keluarga terdekatmu diusung dari dunia fana ini ke kuburan?

Apakah Malam Pertama Kita di Alam Kubur Nanti Asyik dan Nikmat atau
Penuh Derita dan Sengsara?"

Wahai anak Adam, apa yang telah engkau persiapkan saat malam pertamamu
nanti di alam kubur? Tidakkah engkau tahu, bahawa ia adalah malam yang
sangat mengerikan. Malam yang kerananya para ulama' serta orang-orang
yang soleh menangis dan orang-orang bijak mengeluh. Apa tidaknya, kala
itu kita sedang berada di dua persimpangan dan di dunia yang amat
berbeza.

"Suatu hari pasti engkau akan tinggalkan tempat tidurmu (di dunia), dan
ketenangan pun menghilang darimu. Bila engkau berada di kuburmu pada
malam pertama, demi Allah, fikirkanlah untung nasibmu dan apa yang akan
terjadi padamu di sana?"

Hari ini kita berada di dunia yang penuh keriangan dengan anak-anak,
keluarga dan sahabat handai, dunia yang diterangi dengan lampu-lampu
yang pelbagai warna dan sinaran, dunia yang dihidangkan dengan pelbagai
makanan yang lazat-lazat serta minuman yang pelbagai, tetapi pada
keesokannya kita berada di malam pertama di dalam dunia yang kelam
gelap-gelita, lilin-lilin yang menerangi dunia adalah amalan-amalan yang
kita lakukan, dunia sempit yang dikelilingi tanah dan bantalnya juga
tanah.

Pada saat kita mula membuka mata di malam pertama kita di alam kubur,
segala-galanya amat menyedihkan, tempik raung memenuhi ruang yang sempit
tapi apakan daya semuanya telah berakhir. Itukah yang kita mahukan?
Pastinya tidak bukan? Oleh itu beramallah dan ingatlah sentiasa betapa
kita semua akan menempuhi MALAM PERTAMA DI ALAM KUBUR!

Di dalam usahanya mempersiapkan diri menghadapi malam pertama tersebut,
adalah diceritakan bahawa Rabi' bin Khutsaim menggali liang kubur di
rumahnya. Bila ia mendapati hatinya keras, maka ia masuk ke liang kubur
tersebut. Ia menganggap dirinya telah mati, lalu menyesal dan ingin
kembali ke dunia, seraya membaca ayat:

"Ya Rabbku, kembalikanlah aku semula (ke dunia), agar aku dapat berbuat
amal soleh terhadap apa yang telah kutinggalkan (dahulu)." (Surah
Al-Mu'minun, ayat 99-100)

Kemudian ia menjawab sendiri; "Kini engkau telah dikembalikan ke dunia
wahai Rabi'.." Dan disebabkan hal tersebut, Rabi' bin Khutsaim didapati
pada hari-hari sesudahnya sentiasa dalam keadaan beribadah dan bertaqwa
kepada Allah!

Wahai saudaraku, tidakkah engkau menangis atas kematian dan sakaratul
maut yang bakal menjemputmu? Wahai saudaraku, tidakkah engkau menangis
atas kuburan dan kengerian yang ada di dalamnya? Wahai saudaraku,
tidakkah engkau menangis kerana takut akan hausnya di hari penyesalan?
Wahai saudaraku, tidakkah engkau menangis kerana takut kepada api Neraka
di Hari Kiamat nanti?

Sesungguhnya kematian pasti menghancurkan kenikmatan para penikmatnya.
Oleh itu, carilah (kenikmatan) hidup yang tidak ada kematian di
dalamnya. "Ya Allah, tolonglah kami ketika sakaratul maut!"

----------------------------------------------------------------
This e-mail has been sent via JARING webmail at http://www.jaring.my

Indescribable Nazri Abdul Aziz
Martin Jalleh
Aug 10, 07 1:02pm

The Minister in the Prime Minister's (PM's) Department, Mohamed Nazri
Abdul Aziz, is living proof that it does not require much
intelligence to be a minister in Bolehland. Before one can be a
cabinet minister one has to be a member of Parliament (MP) of a
component party of the Barisan Nasional (BN) - and this too is
peanuts (nothing to do with monkeys, surely).

Nazri has also very successfully shown by his trademark threats and
theatrics, why he deserves the role of the Minister overseeing
parliamentary affairs. When intelligent debate and delivery is
demanded of him, he would choose to dish out a diatribe of great
distinction.

Following the detention of blogger and PKR webmaster Nathaniel Tan on
July 13 for an investigation under the Official Secrets Act, and a
high-level police report lodged by Umno against the web portal
'Malaysia Today', Nazri warned:

'The government will not hesitate to use the Internal Security Act
(ISA), the Sedition Act 1948 and Section 121b of the Penal Code
against bloggers (who make 'disparaging statements'). The government
has exercised restraint in the matter for a long time and the time
has come for it to act according to those laws.'

The government (read as 'Umno') is desperate. For so long it has
succeeded in dominating and dictating the thinking of the citizens of
Bolehland. The age of information technology has changed this, but
the nation's political dinosaurs still living in an Ice Age refuse to
budge but prefer to bark and bull with the same old tone, tune and
threats.

Nazri accuses bloggers of making 'disparaging statements' - yet he
comes from a party tainted with a culture of political
assassinations, poison pen letters and provocative religious
statements and racial slurs and stunts. He threatens bloggers with a
slew of repressive laws - whilst inferring there is greater freedom
now in comparison to the previous regime's 'lack of freedom and some
dictatorial tendencies'.

Nazri should give ear to the wisdom of woman activist Zainah Anwar:
'I wish our political leaders and government servants would wake up
to living in the Information Age. There has been a seismic
transformation in how people receive information and form opinions.
Those with formal authority are no longer the authorities in the age
of information technology. The government can no longer maintain
control over what people read, hear, watch, let alone think.

'Mainstream journalists are no longer the gatekeepers over what the
public knows. The ability of technology to cause change is much
faster than the ability of government to control change ... The big
losers in this age are those who hold traditional power.'

'Bodoh'

On June 21, in parliament, Nazri was responding to PKR's Wan Azizah
Wan Ismail's question on whether the PM was focused on fighting
corruption. She had also asked about the measures taken by the
government to curb corruption. This was of great concern considering
Bolehland's slide in ranking in Transparency International's (TI's)
Corruption Perception Index (CPI), as compared to neighbours such as
Indonesia , Vietnam and Singapore .

Nauseated by Nazri's nonsensical justifications, Opposition Leader
Lim Kit Siang leapt to his feet and accused the government of
inertia. He used the investigation of Deputy Internal Security
Minister Johari Baharum by the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) as a case
in point.

Johari was alleged to have received RM5.5 million in bribes to free
several suspects held under the Emergency Ordinance. He denied this.
An investigation was launched, ACA findings made, but no decision was
taken by the Attorney-General (AG). (The latter cleared Johari of the
allegations recently.)

Lim asked: 'How can he (Johari) come clean when the ACA has not
released its findings, and when the AG also keeps mum?'

Nazri turned nasty: ' Malaysia will never develop as long as we have
people like Lim. All these (corruption allegations) are lies. Why are
you so stupid? Where are the allegations? You have no brains. Stupid,
stupid, stupid!'

Shouts of 'bodoh' were hurled across the floor with the Speaker Tan
Sri Ramli Ngah Talib making a significant contribution to the
'stupid' scenario with his statement that he cannot cite Nazri for
using unparliamentary language because 'such language was used all
the time'.

Grinning like a school bully having his last say, Nazri added to his
string of 'stupid' salvoes: 'OK, tidak cerdik (not smart) then. It's
like stupid too.'

Buffoon

Two years ago, Nazri, had, with admirable honesty declared: 'Compared
to other parliaments in countries of equal development as Malaysia,
our quality of debate is still relatively low.' Judging from his
intellectual outburst, the citizens of Bolehland now know how
instrumental the minister is in lowering the quality of parliamentary
debates to new depths as never seen before.

The man who called Lim Kit Siang 'stupid' countless times recently is
the very same man who had in 2005 also insisted that: 'We want our
MPs to get their facts right and debate in an objective, civil
manner. Only then can we start talking about having a First World
Parliament.' Alas, only Nazri can make calling a MP 'stupid'
synonymous with civility!

Two years ago, also a minister had also advised MPs to be ready to
take a lot of stick. He said all MPs 'should not be too thin-skinned
and should accept criticism made against them ... MPs, who cannot take
criticism are old-fashioned ...'

'Society is becoming smarter and critical, thus putting an MP under
public scrutiny all the time ... If they cannot stand such a situation,
they should stay away from politics.'

That minister was none other than Nazri himself. Of course, we would
be stupid if we were to believe that Nazri practices what he preaches
- which explains why he is still in politics and why he gets into a
caustic delirium when he is criticised.

Coming back to the Johari issue, it was quite apparent that Nazri
could not take the heat even though he had taken upon himself a few
more hats - that of the director of the ACA and the AG. He absolved
Johari without a final ACA finding and an AG decision.

In his response to Wan Azizah, Nazri had also said that Malaysia must
not be compared to countries like Indonesia , Singapore and Vietnam .
Then, with a touch of intellectual brilliance he added: 'Singapore is
not a real country, it is a small island. Singapore's population is
just three to four million and there are no opportunities for
corruption, unlike in our country.'

Nazri's inference of larger countries being more prone to corruption
and smaller countries being less corrupt was wrong. The TI CPI
reveals that several countries with a much larger population than
Malaysia fared better than Malaysia in the ranking and several
smaller countries were found to be more corrupt.

Nazri's ignorance became even more 'prominent' when he said that
although the perception on corruption in Bolehland is considered to
be unfavourable, 'Malaysia is still included in the premier league
comprising 50 countries with the least corruption'. The 'premier
league' is reserved only for the Top Ten countries regarded as least
corrupt.

Still on the issue of corruption, parliament would hear Nazri say
that we should not question the PM's commitment in combating
corruption. The minister would even declare that a lot has been done
to fight corruption but what is needed is a public relations blitz ...
like in (not-a-real- country) Singapore!

Nazri once told parliament that the government was satisfied with the
ACA's performance. But as Param Cumaraswamy, a former TI Malaysia
president, once pointed out succinctly: 'It is not the satisfaction
of the government that the ACA is handling its responsibilities
effectively that matters. It is the satisfaction of the public that
matters most.'

Nazri has also said that the ACA is free to act on its own without
orders from the government. Nazri should know that as long as the ACA
is under the PM's Department such 'non- interference' is hard to come
by.

In 2003, during his war-of-words - over the monopoly of some 6,000
taxi licences - with the then ACA Investigations Director Nordin
Ismail, Nazri (who was then Entrepreneur Development Minister) had
said that he would advise the cabinet to replace Nordin with someone
'neutral and of high calibre'. Non-interference?

'Bloody racist'

Perhaps there is no better example of Nazri's intelligence deserting
him than when he shouted (in Bahasa Malaysia and English) 'racist' at
opposition parliamentarian M Kulasegaran 41 times in a space of a few
minutes. His theatrics took place at the end of the opposition's
emergency motion to debate the government's decision to withdraw
recognition of the Ukraine-based Crimean State Medical University
(CSMU) - which affected about 1,400 Malaysian students, the majority
of whom were Indian Malaysians.

Kulasegaran had contributed to the situation by quoting then
education minister Musa Mohamed as allegedly saying on a visit to
CSMU: 'How (can) this be? Why are there so many Indians in this
university?'

At one point, the minister yelled 'bloody racist, racist, racist ...
you are racist, you have got no place in this country' as he pointed
at Kulasegaran. There was chaos in the House as a shouting match ensued.

Later Nazri confirmed that his blistering attack was also aimed at
fellow front-bencher and Deputy Minister for Natural Resources and
Environment S Sothinathan who was subsequently suspended for arguing
with Deputy Health Minister Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad over the de-
recognisation.

'We don't work on (the basis of) racism and I really object to that
(such claims). I don't like racism ... we are all Malaysians, so
never ever say that we make certain decision because we hate certain
ethnic groups. That's unbecoming.'

Kulasegaran believed that Nazri's repeated use of the word 'racist'
was intended to divert attention from the dispute involving the two
front-benchers - even though Nazri had later hugged him (Kula)
outside the MPs lounge, saying that each of them had a job to do.

The heroic anti-racist image painted by Nazri of himself soon faded.
He was rather subdued when he revealed recently that no Umno member
has yet to be brought to court as a result of making racist speeches
at the Umno general assembly last November.

Neither was he as vociferous against the racist remarks of Umno Youth
deputy chief Khairy Jamaluddin or those of Minister for Science,
Technology and Innovation Jamaludin Jarjis, nor of Hishamuddin
Hussein's racist keris-wielding antics at Umno general assemblies.

Brain dead?

In April this year, Lim Kit Siang had highlighted the alarming trend
in the exodus of the bright and brilliant from Bolehland - which he
estimated to be as high as one to two million over the past four
decades. Lim added that Malaysia used to be better than Japan and
Singapore in terms of economic development, but now the country is
lagging behind because of brain drain that is 'due to discriminatory
policies in the country'.

He called on MPs to take heed of a speech by Perak Regent Raja Nazrin
Shah wherein the latter had urged the government to instill 'a sense
of belonging' in all Malaysians to lower the rate of brain drain.

Nazri agreed with Nazrin but felt that the brain drain was not the
result of a lack in a sense of belonging but of 'money sense'. He
likened the brain drain to 'ants attracted to sugar' and added that
Malaysians 'leave to make money but they will return. You don't have
to press the panic button yet.'

Lim said Nazri's response was 'not only offensive to Malaysians
forced to migrate due to unfair policies, but is proof of the
stubborn continuance of the denial syndrome for an urgent reappraisal
of the 50 years of BN nation-building policies.'

Was Pak Lah pressing the panic button when he had declared in 2004
that '... Malaysia is offering a host of incentives, including better
financial perks, favourable retirement age and terms of contract, to
lure an estimated 30,000 of its graduates working overseas to return
home'?

Was the PM 'stupid' in adding: 'We must also show them that we have
equal and quality opportunities for them to continue what they are
doing."

Nazri should follow his own advice which he had once given to MPs:
'It is better that you keep quiet and let others assume you are
stupid rather than talk nonsense and confirm that you are really
stupid.'

Brain-drained

That Nazri's brain seemed strained and drained could also be seen in
his profound ignorance in the 'bocor' scandal - in spite of his
insistence that the government acted correctly in handling it.

Nazri came to the defence of the two MPs who had made the sexist
remarks following Fong Po Kuan's (DAP - Batu Gajah) observations of
leaks in the Parliament building. He said that they 'should not
apologise to Fong or the DAP for their remarks.'

'To apologise to Fong is not on. I don't agree ... This is part of
parliamentary debates. Both MPs uttered the words during the heat of
their debate, and you cannot control people's emotions'. Whatever
happened to Nazri's 'civility'?

He made excuses for them: 'It is unfortunate that the press has
played up the incident. It is part and parcel of parliamentary
debates, and parliamentarians should not be easily offended by the
heckling between one another ... Such unguarded outbursts always happen
during debates.'

The Joint Action Group for Gender Equality (JAG) (a coalition of
women groups) accused the two MPs and Nazri of showing that they
clearly 'have not fully understood what being gender sensitive is all
about'. By excusing the behaviour of the two MPs, Nazri 'has
effectively condoned the use of low level coffee-shop talk, including
foul language and sexual innuendoes, in the august Dewan Rakyat.'

Contrary to what Nazri had claimed, they saw in the defence of the
sexist remarks a reflection of 'an underlying, deeply entrenched
patriarchal culture that thrives on gender discrimination. Such a
culture, which upholds male domination in society, is systemic and
ingrained in our social structures and institutions.

'In this context, the sexist remarks that were made recently are not
an isolated case. Such remarks have been tolerated with no
disciplinary actions taken by the Parliament since 1995. In 2002, we
met up with the Parliamentary Speaker to work towards ending sexism
and discrimination in Parliament. As we can see, all these efforts
have come to naught'.

In a letter to this newspaper, European Commission Ambassador to
Malaysia, Thierry Rommel said that the sexist remarks '... had an
effect on Malaysia 's international reputation ... they have a far
greater and adverse impact than some people in position of power care
to admit. Witnessing moreover the impunity that has accompanied such
remarks, astonishment and disbelief prevail.'
Banal excuses

The independence and future of the judiciary in Bolehland depends
very much on one man - the 'de facto' (also read as 'defective') Law
Minister Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz. He has even made it very clear
that we have to 'convince' him first if things are to improve in the
judiciary.

In June last year, Nazri told parliament that there was no basis for
the allegations of corruption in the judiciary as contained in a
letter written by former High Court judge Syed Ahmad Idid. He added
that the case had been investigated by the government, the ACA and
the AG.

In a press interview Syed Idid revealed that the allegations were
'never really investigated'. This was confirmed by a former AG Abu
Talib Othman who added that 'on the other hand, the poor judge who
wrote it was investigated'.

In August 2006, the Bar Council renewed its call for a review of the
1988 judicial crisis, which led to the sacking of Salleh Abas as Lord
President. Nazri dismissed such a call and said he would agree to a
review of the crisis only 'if there are new and important facts in
the case'.

Nazri placed great reliance on the fact that acceptance of the
recommendations by both tribunals was also accepted by the Yang di
Pertuan Agong. Yet according to the Federal Constitution, the Yang di
Pertuan Agong is not allowed to refuse advice tendered by the cabinet
or the prime minister.

Nazri justified the refusal by Hamid Omar (who was second in line
after Salleh) to disqualify himself from being in the tribunal by
saying that '... as Lord President, there could not have been someone
more senior than him (Salleh) to sit in the tribunal'.

Nazri was wrong again. There were two living and very renowned
retired Lord Presidents (then) and several retired Supreme Court
judges who would have been suitable to sit in the tribunal.

Nazri's assertion that a review of the 1988 judicial crisis would
open the floodgates of similar requests for other cases, thwarting
efforts to put a finality to past cases was pooh-poohed by retired
Federal Court judge Azmi Kamaruddin:
'I think this finality principle is only applicable to ordinary court
cases, where you have the right to appeal. But in this case, we are
not dealing with a court as such, but a tribunal formed under the
Constitution.'

Nazri's aura of openness came to a close with him declaring that the
cabinet had endorsed his statement and the case was closed. He had
turned a deaf ear to Salleh's five new points for a review. There
would be no finality to the minister's ignorance and arrogance.

His next 'sandiwara' took place in the Bar Council Auditorium in
Kuala Lumpur in a debate with MP for Kota Bharu, lawyer Zaid Ibrahim.
Here again he would portray himself as a minister who is sincere and
so very open to change. 'I can be convinced' - he proudly declared.

Nazri managed to convince himself that he alone was right and
everyone else (lawyers and several retired judges) in the hall were
wrong - '... there is no need for an independent judicial commission
relating to the appointment and promotion of judges unless the
judiciary makes a request for it'.

Lawyer Malik Imtiaz who attended the debate wrote in his blog: 'Nazri
was a surprise, not so much for speaking like a politician but rather
for assuming that members of the audience, comprising largely members
of the Bar, were stupid enough to believe the line he was taking ...'

Will the chief justice ask Nazri for an independent judicial
commission? The obvious answer came from Bar Council president Ambiga
Sreenevasan: 'It is highly unlikely that the judiciary will agree to
the independent judicial commission as one with power will not give
it up so willingly ...'

Bungling Nazri

Alas, there is no 'finality' in Nazri's naivety. Below are further
examples.

In May 2004 Nazri told parliament that 'Suhakam's report was never
meant to be debated in Parliament'. Yet, Suhakam is a creation of
Parliament and it is a legislative requirement for Suhakam to submit
annual reports to Parliament

In April 2005, Nazri explained in parliament that the Cabinet's plan
to form a select committee was dropped because 'the King wanted water
privatisation to be in place by the end of the year'. Lim Kit Siang
rebuked Nazri for dragging the King's name into the outcry over the
decision not to set up a select committee on water privatisation -
'as the Royal address is the policy pronouncement of the government
of the day'.

In the same month Nazri told Parliament that Bibles in Bahasa
Malaysia or Bahasa Indonesia could not be circulated in the country
as this could be seen as an effort to spread Christianity among the
Malays. He added that the prohibition had been in force since
independence and was in line with the constitution. About a week
later, the PM clarified that there was no such ban.

In July 2006 Nazri said that 'the presence of foreigners, including
those with IMM12 documents, did not cause social, security and
economic problems in Sabah'. Sabah Progressive Party (Sapp) (part of
the state ruling coalition) leader Tham Nyip Shen, replied that the
problem was genuine and serious, and 'if Nazri was genuinely ignorant
of the issue, it would be better for him to keep his mouth shut, or
to let someone else who has a better understanding of the issue do
the talking.'

In November 2006, Nazri declared that the ACA 'has no powers to
initiative investigations on reports and charges of money politics
and bribery within Umno ... because these offences are confined to
political parties and not public transgressions'. This of course
contradicted the stand of his boss who when he was the deputy PM in
2001, had publicly invited the ACA to clean up money politics in
Umno. Nazri later denied ever making such a statement.

Pak Lah started his premiership with promises of change. In January
this year, Election Commission (EC) chairman Abdul Rashid Abdul
Rahman declared that the EC's current rules and regulations are
outdated and have many loopholes. An independent commission should be
set up to oversee changes in the election laws and regulations. Nazri
told parliament: 'As I've said, there is no need to revamp the EC. In
the past 50 years we have not revamped any ministry. So why must the
EC be singled out (to be revamped)?'

In March this year, Nazri dismissed calls by rights groups for an
independent inquiry into the graft and sexual assault allegations
against ACA director-general Zulkipli Mat Noor: 'There is only one
process in this country and the process is that you make a report to
the police and the police investigate ... I think these NGOs are
stupid ...We don't need another system, independent inquiry and all
that.' And so we have the police investigating the (then) chief of
the ACA and at the same time the ACA investigating the current top
police officer of the nation .... and the AG deciding (recently) that
both are clean!

In May this year, Bernard Dompok resigned as the chairman of the
Parliamentary Select Committee on Integrity. He had disagreed with
Nazri that the committee's scope of duties was only to get feedback
from the people for the government to formulate unity programmes.
Nazri claimed that Dompok might have been influenced by Lim Kit
Siang, who is a member of the committee. Dompok's reply to his
colleague --'It's a cheap shot.'

Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz represents the high calibre MP that BN has
succeeded in producing after 49 years of Independence. As the country
celebrates her 50th birthday surely the Minister in the PM's
Department who is also the overseer of parliamentary affairs and the
de facto Law Minister, will take us to greater heights in hype,
hypocrisy and of course, hysterics and histrionics in Parliament!

With the Cabinet contributing its fair share of soiled reputations,
spent characters and senior ministers calling others stupid, surely
Parliament will continue to be perceived as a solid rubberstamp, a
symbol shorn of substance, stripped of essence, sidelined and side-
stepped by the executive. Malaysia Boleh!

MARTIN JALLEH is 'just an ordinary citizen' in Bolehland who loves
his country enough to stand up and speak out for what he believes is
just and true. The above article is an edited and expanded version of
an original article written for the latest issue of Aliran Monthly.

----------------------------------------------------------------
This e-mail has been sent via JARING webmail at http://www.jaring.my

The schizophrenic Chinese soul
Sim Kwang Yang
Aug 11, 07 1:02pm

The legitimacy of the MCA - in the eyes of the Malay ruling elite
from independence until now at least - resides in their role as a
crucial partner in representing the voice and the interests of the
Chinese in Peninsular Malaysia, within the framework of the mythical
"social contract".

In that context, Umno needs MCA, no matter how badly the party does
at the poll at any one time, to prop up the façade of multiracial
coalition politics based on power sharing between the races.
Subscribers to this narrative would point out the importance of the
survival of MCA, by observing that in 1969, after MCA had suffered
horrendous losses at the hands of the opposition coalition and
withdrawn from the Alliance, there was May 13 shortly afterwards.

Against successive onslaught from the DAP in consecutive elections,
the MCA has always survived reasonably well by calling for Chinese
unity under their banner. The more seats they have, the stronger they
are in negotiating for the rights and interests of the Chinese
voters. So they say.

It is not a position that appeals to me, but it does appeal to a
great swathe of the Chinese electorate. An old college mate from my
university days in Canada once told me back in Malaysia that as long
as there is Umno, there must be a strong MCA. (It did not jeopardise
our friendship for him to hold this view.)

Different Chinese groups

To talk about the Chinese community as if it is a single homogeneous
entity is to be guilty of stereotyping perhaps.

After all, there are many different groups of Chinese. There are the
Chinese-educated, English-educated, and multi-lingual-educated
Chinese. There are many dialect groups within the same Chinese
dominated cities and towns, each belonging to their numerous guilds
and associations nationwide.

They are also divided into many socio-economic alliances and classes,
and the intra-ethnic chasm in wealth distribution can also be quite
amazing. They also embrace many different religious beliefs that
migrated with them from China, as well as Christianity, the Baha'i
faith, and even Islam.

Then there are the Chinese in the northern, central, and southern
regions of Peninsular Malaysia, as well as those from Sarawak and
Sabah. Sometimes, they feel like aliens to one-another beneath the
façade of common self identification of "we-Chinese".

But every action always has an equal and opposite reaction. The
emergence of Umno as the main vehicle for Malay ethnic/racial
nationalism since independence has condemned our national discourse
to one mainly based on race. With very few exceptions, Chinese ethnic
identity is paramount within the multiple parameters of the Chinese
political consciousness.

(The crucial question is: can multi-racialism in politics ever work
with the Chinese in Malaysia? But that will have to await another
moment for a fair treatment.)

As a rule, the Chinese are also very pragmatic and moderate people.
Confucian teaching of living a good life in this-worldly concern, as
well as the pre-eminence of the value of always following the "middle
path" has shaped the Chinese soul for centuries. One of the highest
social virtues for a Chinese is to maintain social harmony and avoid
direct confrontation at all costs.

Naturally, many Chinese in Malaysia have also inherited the cultural
genes of a typically migrant community. They are painfully aware that
they are a minority, in a country where the majority indigenous
ethnic movement claims dominance over the "homeland"

The older generations of Chinese can tell you all about their fear
and trepidation when they observed from afar the bloody anti-Chinese
repression and massacres that happened in Indonesia and other
neighbouring countries in the 60s.

Everywhere in the world, when the great Chinese migration first sent
their waves and waves of cheap coolies to far-sway lands a couple of
hundred years ago, they were subject to exploitative hostile
suspicion, as well as blatant racial discrimination. Then in
Malaysia, we have our own home-made May 13 incident.

This cultural chromosome of fear is embedded very deep among the
older traditional Chinese families, transmitted from generation to
generation through many a family and dinner conversation.

That is why the BN has invoked the terrifying images of the May 13
incident to such great effect in past elections. The first task of
any Chinese-based opposition party must be to educate Chinese voters
to neutralise this natural fear of the unknown, and hence this
resistance to change.

Respect and suspicion

If you examine the history of the Chinese people in China and
Malaysia, you can also unravel the uneasy relationship between the
people and governments in general. Many candidates for a PhD
programme in disciplines like political science, sociology, and
social anthropology can find a fertile field of research to explain
why the Chinese people everywhere are generally so apathetic in
participatory politics, by and large.

By and large, the Malaysian Chinese tend to have a mixed feeling of
respect and suspicion against government ministers and public
officials at all levels. As any learned Chinese scholar will tell
you, the long and turbulent 5000 year history of the Chinese people
is packed with perennial tales of massive corruption at all levels of
government. That is why the magistrate Pao Kung, the fearless judge
who went after corrupt officials, has been elevated to the iconic
position of a demigod in Chinese culture.

At the same time, being very pragmatic survivors under all kinds of
adverse circumstances, many Chinese people will always respect the
authoritative figure. In the family, there is the father. Within any
Chinese community, there are the big towkays heading the 7000 or so
Chinese guilds and associations. In the new nation-state of Malaysia,
there are also the MCA and other ministers and public officials.

To play it safe, the great majority of Chinese people will bend over
backwards to get on the good side of any government anywhere. They
may have tons of grouses against political authorities, but they know
persevering through their unhappiness is a price to pay for personal
and family success in life. Often the victim is the spirit of
participatory democracy.

In times past in China, whenever nepotism, tyranny, repression, and
famine gripped the land, all the suffering Chinese could do was to
pray for the emergence of a great warrior-hero to descend from heaven
and deliver them from evil. Folklore as well as novels and poetry of
Chinese high culture wax lyrical about the noble deeds of these heroes.

In modern pop culture, the kung fu genre in books and films have
entrenched this belief that you really have to depend on a hero with
superhuman kung fu prowess to knock off the local tyrant and deliver
justice to the rakyat.

But ask any Chinese man on the street in Malaysia whether they would
allow their children to be such a hero, and they will run like the
devil. There is too much risk and too little worldly advantage to be
gained from being a tragic hero. All that your Chinese man-on-the-
street wants is for their children to become successful businessmen
and professionals, to prosper and have many more prosperous children.

When heroes are in short supply, the Chinese person making his
livelihood in the world of trade and commerce would prefer the
prudence of the umbrella supplied by a patron, the towkay, the
protector, the Kapitan, the pivotal intermediary, who would put in a
good word on his behalf to the biggest boss.

In pre-independence Malaya, the biggest boss was the British colonial
government. After Independence, the biggest boss had to be Umno. For
Chinese voters who have inherited the cultural genes described above,
MCA indeed must remain as that pivotal intermediary for them to seek
protection under an Umno dominated government. As the MCA publicity
is so fond of projecting, "Things can be done only if we have
connection with the Emperor's Court."

Birth, growth of DAP

While the pragmatic side of the Chinese soul has given MCA their
reason to be, the romantic hankering after tragic warriors and heroes
has nurtured the birth and growth of the opposition DAP.

The birth of the DAP in 1967 might have been cradled in the
withdrawal of the PAP in Singapore from Malaysian politics in 1965.
They might have burst on the political scene to fill the vacuum left
by the boycott of the general election in 1969 by the Socialist Front.

Whatever the historical twists and turns that charted their earlier
fortune, the arrest of Lim Kit Siang in 1969 under the ISA, and his
subsequent domination of the party for nearly four decades, have
determined the party as a movement led by tragic heroes after the
fashion of Prometheus. Today, Lim Guan Eng has inherited and embodied
this very spirit of the Greek hero figure so prominent in the
tragedies of Sophocles.

The claim to fame and influence of DAP leaders has been cemented upon
the personal price paid by their fearless leaders in the face of
repressive persecution. With that moral authority, thy can attack the
political integrity of the MCA leaders, and portray the latter as a
bunch of corrupt hypocritical self-enriching opportunists, to the
applause and admiration of the Chinese electorate.

In short, as long as the pragmatic realism and the romantic impulse
of the Chinese soul are in a constant war with each other, the MCA
and the DAP will always be engaged in a primordial battle to the death.

They will gain advantage in alternate elections, swinging back and
forth according to such contingent variables as the state of the
economy, the corresponding swing of nationalist posturing within
Umno, as well as the dramatic changes going on in neighbouring
countries and the world at large. It is what Lim Kit Siang coined as
"the pendulum".

For some younger, more radical Chinese youths, the choice between the
MCA and the DAP seems like a Hobson's choice. You are damned if you
do, and you are damned if you don't. At the end of half a century of
independence, the greatest beneficiary of this perennial rivalry
between the MCA and the DAP has been Umno.

----------------------------------------------------------------
This e-mail has been sent via JARING webmail at http://www.jaring.my

WPI Dan Pulau Batu Putih Bakal Tergadai?
oleh Husam Musa

Kes Pulau Batu Putih akan diputuskan oleh ICJ November depan.
Desas desus sudah bertiup, kita mungkin kecundang dan Pulau Batu Putih
yang strategik akan menjadi milik Singapura selama-lamanya.
Jika itu berlaku, Singapura sentiasa mengasak kita dan mereka lebih
bersedia dari segala sudut untuk menjadikan kita sentiasa terundur.
Dalam keadaan Singapura sentiasa bersedia dengan pelbagai agenda
'Singapore Win', kita pula mudah lalai dan alpa.
Untuk membangunkan WPI, kita terpaksa menjemput Singapura duduk dalam
Jawatankuasa Bersama Peringkat Menteri dua negara berdaulat untuk
memajukan wilayah kita. 2,217 sq km tanah Johor akan 'diurus' bersama
dengan Singapura, melalui Jawatankuasa Bersama.
Hikayat Munshi Abdullah mencatitkan, format seakan Jawatankuasa Bersama
ini pernah ditubuhkan oleh Raffles. Rakyat Melayu diurus oleh Temenggong
Husin, rakyat bukan Melayu diurus oleh Orang Putih.
Pelbagai konsekuen politik akan muncul kemudian. Pada waktu itu, kita
sudah terlambat. Sama seperti isu penguasaan Singapura ke atas bekalan
air yang membelit kita sekarang.
Mengapa tidak Pak Lah belajar dari Tun M yang telah melaksanakan program
strategik Pelabuhan Tanjung Pelepas?
Pelabuhan Tanjung Pelepas adalah ancaman kepada Singapura. Ia bertujuan
mengecilkan peranan Singapura dan negara kita mengambilalih sebahagian
peranan dan kekuatan yang selama ini menjadi monopoli SIngapura selama
beberapa abad.
Ia berjaya. Tanpa kerjasama Singapura.
PTP telah menerima kapal pertama pada 10 Oktober 1999 untuk operasi
percubaan selama tiga bulan, ia telah memecah rekod menjadi pelabuhan
yang paling pantas berkembang. Ia menguruskan 1 juta TEUs (Twenty-Foot
Equivalent Units) kontena selama 571 hari operasi.
Dari hanya 20,696 TEUs pada akhir 1999, telah berkembang kepada 2.05 juta
TEUs pada 2001, 2.66 juta tahun 2002, 3.87 juta TEUs pada 2003 untuk
mengatasi kedudukan Pelabuhan Kelang. Port Tanjung Pelepas dengan itu
menjadi pelabuhan terbesar negara kita.
Pada tahun 2004, ia meningkat 15.2 % lagi, menjadikannya pelabuhan yang
ke 16 tersibuk di dunia. Pada 2006, ia menguruskan 4.7 juta TEUs.
Ia meletakkan dirinya sebagai pilihan kepada Pelabuhan Singapura.
Maersk Sealand, operator kapal kontena terbesar dunia, memindahkan semua
operasi perkapalannya di Singapura ke Pelabuhan Tanjung Pelepas pada
tahun 2000. Singapura menyaksikan kejatuhan 10% perniagaan pelabuhannya
kerana tindakan itu.
Pada 2002, Evergreen Marine Corporation, pada waktu itu, syarikat
perkapalan kedua besar dunia pula, memindahkan operasinya dari Singapura.
Sekilas fakta ini, membuktikan bahawa, pembangunan sehebat Tanjung
Pelepas boleh dilakukan tanpa Jawatankuasa Bersama Peringkat Menteri
dengan mana-mana negara asing yang memungkin pengaruh dan penentuan
terma-terma yang boleh merugikan kita boleh berlaku.
Apa perlunya Jawatankuasa Bersama Peringkat Menteri dengan Singapura
untuk WPI?
Apakah kita tidak mempunyai keupayaan merancang sendiri, seperti telah
kita buktikan dalam kes Tanjung Pelepas?
Apa lagi jika bentuknya hanya untuk menjual tanah kepada Singapura?

----------------------------------------------------------------
This e-mail has been sent via JARING webmail at http://www.jaring.my

Majlis pelancaran Koridor Utara hanguskan RM20 juta
August 12 2007

ALOR STAR: Belum pun sebarang projek Wilayah Ekonomi Koridor Utara (NCER)
berjalan, majlis pelancarannya yang gah selama tiga jam sudah menelan kos
lebih RM4 juta.

Untuk keempat-empat negeri - Perlis, Kedah, Pulau Pinang dan Perak -
majlis pelancaran tersebut menelan kos lebih RM20 juta.

Untuk peringkat awal ini, terbukti kerajaan mengamalkan dasar biarlah gah
di majlis pelancaran, kalau tidak berhasil nanti, mereka akan mencari
alasan lain.

Amalan ini boleh diambil contoh melalui beberapa projek gah kerajaan
seperti kempen 'Cintai Sungai Kita' atau 'Kempen Tak Nak! (Merokok).

Menteri bertanggungjawab tidak rasa sedikit pun bersalah mengumumkan
bahawa kedua-dua kempen itu gagal walaupun berjuta-juta ringgit wang
rakyat telah dibelanjakan untuk tujuan itu.

Satu contoh mungkin dapat melihat sejauh mana berkesannya projek Koridor
Utara ini, Langkawi digariskan sebagai salah satu tempat yang akan
menjadi pemangkin pendapatan melalui usaha pelancongan, tetapi bagaimana
ia mungkin berjaya apabila Lembaga Kemajuan Langkawi (LADA) langsung
tidak dipanggil untuk duduk semeja membincangkan gagasan Koridor Utara.

Segala yang ditekankan adalah semua projek yang telah sedia ada, mungkin
diberi nafas baru, tetapi jika projek sekecil Satu Kawasan Satu Produk
(1K1P) di Kedah sedikit masa lalu pun gagal dipantau dengan baik, inikan
pula projek mega dalam sasaran kali ini.

Lebih daripada itu, tapak pelancaran Koridor Utara di Kedah, Pejabat MADA
Ampang Jajar sekarang sakit mata memandang.

Padang bola yang dibina begitu indah dengan kos akhir difahamkan sebanyak
RM300,000, rosak teruk.

Padang bola sepak tersebut hanya digunakan seminggu sekali sahaja untuk
golongan dewasa, dijaga rapi dengan rumput dan sistem saliran air bawah
padang yang canggih, kini bertukar wajah sama sekali.

Orang ramai yang lalu di situ sememangnya dapat melihat sendiri kesannya
dan menurut sumber padang itu akan dibaiki semula tetapi belum ada
tarikhnya.

Jika kerajaan tidak mempunyai sensitiviti, maka mereka akan gunakan apa
saja tempat mengikut selera mereka, asalkan program nampak gah, kata
salah seorang bekas pegawai MADA yang lama berkhidmat di Ampang Jajar.

----------------------------------------------------------------
This e-mail has been sent via JARING webmail at http://www.jaring.my

*KUALA LUMPUR, 15 Ogos (Hrkh)* - Pendirian Naib Canselor Universiti Malaya
(UM), Dato' Dr Rafiah Salim bahawa melahirkan kepimpinan bukanlah bermula
di
kampus disangkal oleh Setiausaha Agung PAS, Dato' Kamarudin Jaffar.

Menurut Kamarudin, kenyataan Rafiah itu kurang tepat kerana kebanyakan
kepimpinan negara yang ada hari ini adalah lahir dari suasana kampus yang
benar-benar terbuka dan bebas satu masa dahulu.

Meskipun melahirkan kepimpinan tidak semestinya dari kalangan mereka yang
berdemonstrasi dan berpidato tetapi suasana penyuburan demokrasi di kampus
adalah faktor penting menuju ke arah pembinaan insan bernama pemimpin,
katanya.

Beliau berkata demikian semalam ketika mengulas pandangan Dr Rafiah
berhubung isu kebebasan kampus setelah NC UM itu dalam satu wawancara
dengan
sebuah akhbar berbahasa Inggeris berpendirian melahirkan pemimpin bukanlah
bermula di kampus sahaja.

Rafiah dilaporkan sebagai berkata, ada kepimpinan hari ini adalah di
kalangan mereka yang bukan warga kampus.

Sambil tidak menafikan bahawa ada kempimpinan yang bukan lahir di kampus
tetapi beliau meletakkan bahawa ramai di kalangan kepimpinan negara hari
ini
termasuk Perdana Menteri, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi adalah mereka
yang pernah mengalami proses kepemimpinan di kampus.

Untuk menyatakan bahawa keterbukaan kampus bukan faktor kepada penyuburan
demokrasi yang melahirkan kepimpinan ianya adalah salah, katanya.

Jika dahulu ruang demokrasi di kampus dibuka seluasnya kepada mahasiswa
dan
ahli akademik untuk berforum, berpidato dan mengkritik kerajaan
semata-mata
untuk melihat proses melahirkan kepimpinan terus berjalan, katanya.

Malangnya kini demokrasi kampus ditutup oleh pentadbirnya dengan campur
tangan oleh parti kerajaan yang memerintah sekaligus melahirkan mahasiswa
yang tidak berpengetahuan luas termasuk soal politik, ekonomi dan keadaan
semasa, katanya.

Justeru itu sebagai Naib Canselor yang baik, Dr Rafiah perlu mengamalkan
urus tadbir universiti dengan baik seperti mana saranan Raja Muda Perak,
Raja Dr Nazrin Shah Ibni Sultan Azlan Muhibuddin Shah dalam satu program
di
UM baru-baru ini.

Dalam ucapannya, Raja Dr Nazrin bertitah, semua pihak perlu menetapkan
minda
dan pandangan mengenai tadbir urus baik sekiranya mahu sistem itu
direalisasikan di Malaysia.

Baginda bertitah, dengan pemahaman umum bahawa tadbir urus baik merupakan
proses yang cekap, berkesan dan beretika, maka proses perubahan ke arah
sistem itu yang telah pun bermula boleh dipercepatkan.

Untuk berbuat demikian, titah baginda, ketelusan dan keterbukaan perlu
wujud
dengan menggalakkan aliran maklumat yang bebas serta mudah diperolehi agar
masyarakat boleh membuat keputusan yang bijak dan mengurangkan kejadian
salah guna kuasa.

Oleh itu, titah baginda lagi, negara ini perlu terus bergerak ke arah
sistem
tadbir urus yang semakin terbuka.

Menurutnya, pembasmian kerenah dan prosedur birokrasi boleh membantu
mengurangkan kos ekonomi yang tinggi dan menghalang sebarang peluang bagi
bayaran haram.

"Bilangan perundangan, permit dan lesen mesti dikurangkan. Proses tender
perlu dijadikan lebih berdaya saing dan telus. Pembekal maklumat perlu
dilindungi daripada tindak balas mereka yang diadu.

"Langkah-langkah ini boleh membantu mengurangkan peluang bagi rasuah,"
titah
baginda ketika menyampaikan ucaptama pada Persidangan Antarabangsa
'Cabaran-Cabaran Pendemokrasian dan Tadbir Urus Baik dalam Sektor Awam
Malaysia' di Universiti Malaya 13 Ogos lalu.

Persidangan dua hari anjuran Universiti Malaya (UM) dan Institut
Antarabangsa Polisi Awam dan Pengurusan (Inpuma) itu turut dihadiri Naib
Canselor UM, Rafiah Salim dan Pengerusi Lembaga Pengarah UM, Tan Sri
Arshad
Ayub.

Raja Nazrin Shah bertitah, tadbir urus baik turut memerlukan sifat
bertanggungjawab oleh mereka yang memegang kuasa.

Titahnya, walaupun pegawai awam perlu diberikan kuasa yang secukupnya
untuk
menyalurkan tadbir urus yang baik, namun perlu ada halangan yang berkesan
ke
atas kuasa itu agar kepentingan awam dipenuhi, bukan 'kepentingan khas'.

"Kepentingan kebebasan kehakiman dan pengasingan kuasa yang rasmi antara
cabang kerajaan yang berlainan tidak boleh diketepikan," titahnya.

Baginda bertitah, tadbir urus baik turut melibatkan penyertaan awam yang
aktif dan berleluasa kerana masyarakat kini semakin berpendidikan, canggih
dan lengkap.

Titah Raja Nazrin Shah, masyarakat kini mengalu-alukan dan menghargai
kerajaan yang mudah didekati serta boleh dirunding, kerajaan yang memberi
petunjuk dan bukannya mengarah.

"Oleh itu, adalah logik bagi gesaan ke arah tadbir urus baik diiringi
gesaan
bagi pendemokrasian yang lebih hebat kerana mereka berhubung kait walaupun
berbeza dari segi konsep," titahnya.

Demokrasi, titah baginda, memberikan saluran kepada pelbagai pihak memberi
suara mengenai cara mereka mahu ditadbir, iaitu kerajaan dengan keizinan.

"Proses pendemokrasian juga perlu mengiktiraf peranan penting yang
dimainkan
oleh pertubuhan bukan kerajaan (NGO).

"Penyertaan mereka perlu digalakkan ke tahap mereka membantu institusi
kuasa
untuk berfungsi dengan lebih baik," titah Raja Nazrin Shah. - mks.

----------------------------------------------------------------
This e-mail has been sent via JARING webmail at http://www.jaring.my

DIAM ITU EMAS - DIAM AKTIF

Dalam usaha mendewasakan diri kita, salah satu langkah awal yang harus
kita pelajari adalah bagaimana menjadi seorang yang berkemampuan di
dalam menjaga dan memelihara lisan dengan baik dan benar. Sebagaimana
yang disabdakan Rasulullah saw, "Barang siapa yang beriman kepada Allah
dan hari akhir hendaklah berkata benar atau diam.", hadis yang
diriwayatkan oleh Bukhari.

1. Jenis-jenis Diam
Sesungguhnya diam itu terdapat bermacam-macam penyebab dan kesannya. Ada
yang dengan diam jadi emas, tetapi ada pula dengan diam akan menjadi
masalah. Semuanya bergantung kepada niat, cara, situasi dan juga kondisi
pada diri & persekitarannya. Berikut ini adalah jenis-jenis diam:

a. Diam Bodoh
Iaitu diam kerana memang tidak tahu apa yang harus diperkatakan. Hal ini
disebabkan kekurangan ilmu pengetahuan dan ketidakmengertiannya, atau
kelemahan pemahaman dan alasan ketidakmampuan lainnya. Namun diam ini
jauh lebih baik dan bebas daripada memaksakan diri dari berpura-pura
tahu.

b. Diam Malas
Diam jenis ini merupakan satu keburukan, kerana diam pada saat atau
ketika orang memerlukan perkataannya, dia enggan berbicara kerana merasa
diri sedang tiada mood, tidak berselera atau malas.

c. Diam Sombong
Diam jenis ini juga termasuk diam negatif kerana dia bersikap diam
berdasarkan anggapan bahawa orang yang diajak berbicara tidak sama taraf
dengannya.

d. Diam Khianat
Ini merupakan diam orang jahat kerana dia diam untuk mencelakakan atau
mrnyusahkan orang lain. Diam pada saat diperlukan kesaksian yang
menyelamatkan adalah diam yang keji.

e. Diam Marah
Diam seperti ini ada kebaikkan dan keburukannya, kebaikkannya adalah
lebih terpelihara dari perkataan keji yang akan lebih mengeruhkan lagi
suasana. Keburukkannya adalah dia berniat bukan untuk mencari
penyelesaian tetapi untuk memperlihatkan kemarahannya, sehingga boleh
jadi diamnya ini juga menambah masalah.

f. Diam Utama (Diam Aktif)
Yang dimaksud diam utama adalah bersikap diam hasil dari pemikiran dan
penelitian yang membuahkan keyakinan bahawa enggan bersikap menahan diri
(diam) maka akan menjadi masalah lebih besar jika dibanding dengan
berbicara.

2. Keutamaan Diam Aktif

a. Bebas dari Masaalah
Dengan memilih diam aktif, kita akan bebas dari mengeluarkan kata-kata
yang berpeluang menimbulkan masaalah.

b. Bebas dari Dosa
Dengan diam aktif maka peluang tergelincir kata atau terlepas cakap yang
menyebabkan dosa akan menipis, maka terhindarlah dari kesalahan kata
yang menimbulkan kemurkaan Allah.

c. Hati Sentiasa Terjaga dan Tenang
Dengan diam aktif bererti hati akan sentiasa terjaga dari sifat riak,
ujub, takabbur atau pelbagai penyakit hati lain yang akan mengeraskan
dan mematikan hati kita.

d. Lebih Bijak
Dengan diam aktif bererti kita menjadi pendengar & pemerhati yang baik
dan boleh diharapkan dalam menghadapi sesuatu persoalan atau
permasalahan. Kefahamannya jauh lebih mendalam dan teliti sehingga
keputusan yang dibuat jauh lebih bijak dan tepat.

e. Hikmah Akan Muncul
Yang tak tidak kurang pentingnya, orang yang mampu menahan diri dengan
diam aktif adalah bercahaya qalbunya, mampu memberikan buah fikiran dan
gagasan yang cemerlang, hikmah dari Allah swt akan menyelimuti hati,
lisan, serta sikap dan perilakunya.

f. Lebih Berwibawa
Tanpa disedari, sikap dan penampilan orang yang diam aktif akan
menimbulkan wibawa tersendiri. Orang akan menjadi lebih segan untuk
mempermainkan atau meremehkan.

Selain itu, diam aktif merupakan kemampuan menahan diri dari beberapa
perkara seperti:

Diam dari perkataan dusta
Diam dari perkataan sia-sia
Diam dari komentar spontan dan kasar
Diam dari kata yang berlebihan
Diam dari keluh kesah
Diam dari niat riak dan ujub
Diam dari kata yang menyakiti
Diam dari berpura-pura tahu dan pintar

Mudah-mudahan kita menjadi terbiasa dengan berkata benar atau diam.
Semoga juga Allah reda hingga keakhir hayat nanti, saat ajal menjemput,
lisan ini diperkenankan untuk menghantar pemergian roh kita dengan
sebaik-baik perkataan iaitu kalimat tauhid "laa ilaha illallah" puncak
perkataan yang menghantarkan ke syurga.

----------------------------------------------------------------
This e-mail has been sent via JARING webmail at http://www.jaring.my

KENYATAAN MEDIA BERSAMA

PERTUBUHAN-PERTUBUHAN PEMBELA ISLAM (PEMBELA)
Pertubuhan-Pertubuhan Pembela Islam (PEMBELA) iaitu gabungan wakil-wakil
NGO-NGO Islam yang prihatin dalam menangani pelbagai isu-isu berkaitan
dengan kedudukan Islam di Malaysia. Mesyuarat pada 16 Julai 2006 telah
memutuskan untuk menubuhkan gabungan tersebut sebagai rangkaian gerak
kerja bersama organisasi Islam di Malaysia. Hingga kini 80 NGO gabungan.
Laman web rasmi: www.myislamnetwork.net

ALLIED COORDINATION COMMITTEE OF ISLAMIC N.G.O.s (ACCIN)
Al-Hidayah, Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM), Belia PERKIM, GEPIMA,
Islamic Information and Services (IIS), Jamiyah, Jemaah Islah Malaysia
(JIM), Malaysian Chinese Muslim Association (MACMA), Persatuan
Al-Hunafa, Persatuan Darul Fitrah Malaysia, Persatuan Ulamak Malaysia
(PUM), Pertubuhan Muafakat Sejahtera Masyarakat Malaysia (MUAFAKAT),
Research & Information Center of Islam (RICOI), World Assembly of Muslim
Youth (WAMY)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kenyataan Bersama Pertubuhan-Pertubuhan Islam Menolak Merdeka Statement
CPPS, ASLI .

Kami, Pertubuhan-pertubuhan Pembela Islam (PEMBELA) dan Allied
Coordinating Committee for Islamic NGOs (ACCIN), dua gabungan terbesar
pertubuhan-pertubuhan Islam di Malaysia yang dianggotai oleh lebih 100
buah pertubuhan, menolak Merdeka Statement in Commemoration of
Malaysia's 50th Anniversary of Independence yang disediakan oleh Centre
for Public Policy Studies, Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute
(ASLI) dan disokong oleh beberapa pertubuhan bukan kerajaan di negara
ini, yang turut cenderung untuk merombak terma-terma penting Kontrak
Sosial yang telah dipersetujui oleh kaum-kaum di Malaysia. Dokumen ini
didakwa bertujuan untuk melaksanakan Agenda Malaysia Baru (A New
Malaysian Agenda) dengan mengemukakan lapan strategi teras.

Antara lain, Merdeka Statement menganjurkan hak kebebasan beragama secara
mutlak tanpa mengambilkira Peruntukan Perlembagaan serta undang-undang
negeri dan persekutuan yang bertujuan mengawal penyebaran agama bukan
Islam di kalangan masyarakat Islam serta menggariskan
peraturan-peraturan tertentu mengenai pentadbiran undang-undang Islam di
Malaysia.

Saranan Merdeka Statement agar Majlis Raja-Raja Melayu mempertahankan hak
rakyat Malaysia untuk memilih agama yang mereka sukai serta menghapuskan
hukuman undang-undang terhadap individu yang melanggar undang-undang
Islam mempunyai maksud tersembunyi untuk menghalalkan amalan murtad di
Malaysia. Adalah aneh untuk menyarankan Raja-Raja Melayu, yang mempunyai
tanggungjawab di bawah Perlembagaan untuk memelihara kesucian agama
Islam, supaya mempertahankan amalan yang melanggar syariat Islam.

Dalam hubungan ini, saranan Merdeka Statement mengenai hak kebebasan
beragama secara mutlak, bukan sahaja bertentangan dengan semangat Kontrak
Sosial yang mempertahankan kedudukan istimewa Islam yang berada di bawah
naungan Raja-Raja Melayu sejak zaman sebelum merdeka lagi, malah tidak
mewakili pandangan majoriti masyarakat Islam di negara ini.

Beberapa saranan dalam Merdeka Statement mengenai usaha-usaha yang perlu
dilaksanakan oleh kerajaan untuk mengatasi masalah ketidakseimbangan
antara kaum (inter-ethnic) dan dalaman kaum (intra-ethnic) adalah
munasabah. Namun demikian strategi tertentu seperti pelaksanaan dasar
diskriminasi positif yang memberikan layanan istimewa kepada
pegawai-pegawai bukan Bumiputera dalam perkhidmatan awam adalah tidak
wajar.

Ini kerana dasar diskriminasi positif yang dilaksanakan untuk kaum
Bumiputera hanyalah di peringkat pengambilan ke jawatan-jawatan dalam
perkhidmatan awam, dan bukannya ketika mereka sudah berada dalam
perkhidmatan untuk tujuan kenaikan pangkat dan sebagainya. Pelaksanaan
dasar diskriminasi positif kepada pegawai-pegawai bukan Bumiputera
sepertimana yang disarankan dalam Merdeka Statement tentunya akan
menafikan hak munasabah pegawai-pegawai Bumiputera yang sudah berada
dalam perkhidmatan awam.

Adalah tidak munasabah untuk menuntut pemberian "hak" yang baru kepada
kaum bukan Bumiputera, sedangkan pada masa yang sama kaum Bumiputera
diharapkan agar bersedia untuk melepaskan hak-hak istimewa mereka
sepertimana yang telah termeterai dalam Kontrak Sosial yang dipersetujui
oleh pemimpin-pemimpin kaum sebelum merdeka dan termaktub dalam
Perlembagaan.

Hal ini menunjukkan bahawa apa yang sedang dilakukan oleh CPPS-ASLI dan
organisasi-organisasi yang menyokong Merdeka Statement ialah perundingan
semula Kontrak Sosial, bukannya penegasan semula Kontrak Sosial
sebagaimana yang dicanang. Tanpa persetujuan semua kaum, Merdeka
Statement tidak wajar diangkat sebagai pernyataan yang mewakili hasrat
seluruh warganegara Malaysia. Ia hanyalah pernyataan satu pihak.

Di samping itu, "Agenda Malaysia Baru" yang terkandung dalam Merdeka
Statement juga gagal mempertegaskan kedudukan Bahasa Melayu sebagai
Bahasa Rasmi negara, kedudukan agama Islam sebagai sebahagian daripada
sistem perundangan dan pentadbiran negara, dan hak-hak masyarakat Islam
untuk mendapatkan pengadilan menerusi sistem kehakiman Islam sepertimana
yang termaktub dalam Perlembagaan Persekutuan.

Walaupun pada prinsipnya kami mendokong usaha-usaha pengukuhan perpaduan
nasional, memperkasa dayasaing negara di peringkat antarabangsa,
mewujudkan ekonomi yang berinovatif, mengurangkan ketidakseimbangan
pengagihan ekonomi, memperkasakan institusi-institusi demokrasi negara,
melaksanakan reformasi pendidikan, menjamin kehidupan berkualiti dan
menyokong usaha memerangi rasuah, yang turut disentuh oleh Merdeka
Statement, kami, Pertubuhan-Pertubuhan Islam di Malaysia tetap memandang
dokumen tersebut, jika dilihat intipatinya, adalah satu percubaan untuk
merombak Kontrak Sosial yang telah dipersetujui oleh kaum-kaum di
Malaysia, atas nama Agenda Malaysia Baru dan dengan mengambil kesempatan
sentimen sambutan 50 tahun kemerdekaan negara.

Kami mewakili Pertubuhan-Pertubuhan Islam dengan sebulat suara mengulangi
penegasan mengenai peri pentingnya seluruh warganegara Malaysia
menghormati Kontrak Sosial yang telah dipersetujui oleh kaum-kaum di
negara ini, dan menolak saranan-saranan dalam Merdeka Statement yang
bertujuan untuk merombak terma-terma penting Kontrak Sosial tersebut.
Walaupun dokumen tersebut turut mengandungi beberapa saranan yang
positif tetapi percampuran dengan pelbagai bacaan dan saranan yang
meragukan menjadikan keseluruhan dokumen tersebut bermasalah, negatif
dan wajar ditolak. Kami turut menyeru agar lebih banyak
pertubuhan-pertubuhan Islam tampil menyokong kenyataan kami ini.

Tn. Hj. Yusri Mohamad Tn. Hj. Mohamed Said Hj. Mohamed
Razi
Pengerusi Penyelaras PEMBELA Pengerusi ACCIN / Pengerusi Jamiah
& Presiden ABIM

----------------------------------------------------------------
This e-mail has been sent via JARING webmail at http://www.jaring.my

1. Niatkan untuk menghiburkan dia semasa shopping. Jika dia
terhibur, barang yang dia akan beli lebih "masak" proses dia membuat
keputusan. Jika niat ini benar-benar dari hati kita, ia terpancar ke
muka kita walau pun ada seketika timbul perasan menyampah.. tetapi
kuasa niat tadi mampu untuk melenyapkan muka bosan itu nanti.
Teruskan niat ini disepanjang sesi shopping ini bahawa "sebagai
suami, aku ingin menghiburkannya kerana Allah Taala".

2.Kosongkan aktiviti kita pada hari itu melainkan semata-mata untuk
bersamanya. Jangan ada sekali-kali temujanji dengan sesiapa selepas
shopping. Kerana, waktu "kecederaan" yang diambil oleh isteri ini,
biasanya, melebihi 20-50% dari yang dijanjikan. Yang dibimbangkan
nanti ialah orang yang dijanji telah menunggu tetapi isteri masih
beratur berbaris di kaunter bayaran.. Akhirnya kemanisan yang
dikecapi selama 4 jam tadi tercemar dengan kelewatan isteri 4 minit.

3. Alangkah romantisnya kalau suami tidak membawa handsetnya
bersama. Terhindar dari gangguan.

4. Semasa berkereta atas dalam perjalanan ke komplek membeli
belah..eloklah tanyakan kepada isteri ...apa barang yang ingin beli,
apa kriteria, apa jenis, apa alternatif yang boleh dia terima jika
kehendak pertama tidak ditemui.. julat harga yang dijangkakan..
(jangan terkejut dia akan keluar berjela senarai perbandingan harga
bagi satu jenis barang.. termasuk jenis barang yang sama yang
terdapat di England sekali).. Ini akan menyebabkan isteri itu lebih
bersedia dan lebih melonjak keseronokannya.

5. Tiba di kedai tu..buat-buatlah sibuk tunduk bongkok mencari
barang yang dia cari. Jangan berdiri tercegat di pintu kedai atau
tinggalkan dia sendirian sambil kita pula merayau kedai lain.

6. Kalau dia meminta "second opinion" dengan kata-katanya, "Pelek
tak abang kain ni untuk saya"...?berilah pandangan dengan kata-
kata, "Pada pandangan abang ....." Jangan terus kata, "OK" .. Lawa..
kemudian senyap.

7. Kalau dia minta pandangan mengenai sesuatu barang yang dia nak
beli, jangan terus membelek tanda harga. Ini mengecewakannya.
Berilah dulu pandangan kita dari sudut nilai astetiknya. Sebab
faktor harga adalah penilaian terakhir bari mereka. Mereka sanggup
berbelanja lebih jika barangan itu memenuhi keperluan dan kehendak
mereka.

8. Mata tu jangan terlampau sangat menjeling wanita-wanita lain yang
sedang shopping. Dia nampak tau. Tapi kita dibolehkan mengusik
jurujual wanita-wanita tu dengan alasan untuk membantunya
mendapatkan barangan kehendaknya.

9. Bila tiba dirumah, tolonglah dia sekejap membuka barangan yang
telah dibeli tadi. pasti dia akan mencuba sekali lagi. Pujilah dia
kerana bijak memilih barangan itu.

10 PERHATIAN: sebelum isteri kita mencuba pakaian luar atau dalam di
tempat mencuba pakaian yang terdapat di kedai-kedai itu, kita
hendaklah masuk dahulu dan periksa semua bahagian di bilik kecik itu
agar bebas dari WIRELESS CAMERA. Kita bimbang ada orang merakam dan
menyebar ke dalam internet. Malu dia dan kita.[/color]

Selamat mencuba dan semoga anda menjadi suami yang romantisi lorong-
lorong komplek membeli belah...

----------------------------------------------------------------
This e-mail has been sent via JARING webmail at http://www.jaring.my

Nation descending into sectarian politics
Malaysiakini, Aug 10, 07 6:16pm

Malaysians are drifting apart from one another and are increasingly
identifying themselves by race, religion or ideology.

Due to communal politics, Malaysians are also losing a national
identity that supersedes race or religion, said an academic at a
affirmation of the Merdeka social contract today.

Dr Farish A Noor, a political scientist and historian at the Centre
for Modern Orient Studies, Berlin, said that Malaysia runs a risk of
turning into a "Pakistan" should political leaders continue to
reinterpret the Federal Constitution by calling Malaysia an Islamic
state.

He said Malaysia politics "is increasingly becoming right wing" and
is following the paths of many former British colonial states, where
societies "regressed" into communal and sectarian politics.

Using Islamisation as an example, Farish said leaders "fall back on
core religious" rhetoric when there is "deterioration in the
management" of a country.

"I cannot find any justification or pretend to understand some of the
statements by Malaysian leaders over the past decade," he said during
a Parliamentary Roundtable to reaffirm the Merdeka social contract
that Malaysia is a secular state.

The sectarian politician

Present at the launch in Parliament were Opposition Leader Lim Kit
Siang, DAP national chairperson Karpal Singh, All Women's Action
Society (Awam) representative Honey Tan, National Human Rights
Society (Hakam) president Malik Imtiaz and Parti Sosialis Malaysia
pro-tem chairperson Dr Mohd Nasir.

Also present were Bar Council Malaysia Human Rights Committee
representative Andrew Khoo and Malaysian Consultative Council of
Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST)
president Dr Harcharan Singh.

"Any scholar of Islam will tell you that there is no basis in
traditional orthodox Islamic jurisprudence that could possibly
support or justify something like the Internal Security Act."

"Centuries of Muslim legal scholarship have argued against detention
without trial, and yet we have politicians summarily applied Islamic
ethics to which we cannot, beyond any stretch of the imagination,
reach the even minimum basic ethical requirement of any Muslim
theology," said Farish.

"So what is really underlying this process of Islamisation in
Malaysia, I can only point to the sectarian politician and argue that
what we are seeing today is the communal political interest of one
specific ethnic community in the country at the detriment of the
other communities," he added.

Farish said the dangers of Malaysian politics is to "the extent that
communitarian politics have become normalised."

"We are becoming like Americans now, white American, black American,
Asian American and all that. And we have enough divisions in our
society. This whole attempt to present Malaysia as a multi-cultural
Malaysia somehow emphasises not our diversity but our differences.

"That's why when there's a national day parade, we're all suddenly
wearing our traditional dress which of course we don't wear when we
go to KLCC. You don't dress up like this in real life. But once a
year, we all have to wear all this to be very ethnic to express how
different we are from everyone else. Everyone reverts back to his
suku-suku mentality and even among the Malays it's broken down to the
Kelantanese and Minangs and we just continue to divide ourselves."

Communal demands, reactions

Referring to a recent decision by the Fatwa council to allow the use
of indelible ink in elections, Farish said: "It says two things.
First this particular religious community is making a community
demand, ie 'We don't care what the rest of you do, you can dip your
finger or your foot in the ink, we don't care. We are special, we
have to consult our experts. Our experts can tell us we can dip our
fingers in the ink or not.'"

"Second is that, by recognising the authority of religious scholars
of that community, you are basically saying, this religious authority
supercede the states, ie 'I'm Muslim first and a Malaysian second.'
If this pattern is repeated across the board (with people practising
other faiths)... what happens to Malaysia?"

Farish also said reactions to such decisions were also communal:
"When faced with problems like these, that cut across the board, the
Malaysian reaction is to (create organisations) that represents
everyone.

And these organisations have very long names because everyone single
suku has to have to be represented in it. And when you do that, in
political sociology terms, you have bonding capital, not bridging
capital.

Farish said there is a lack of space or occasion "where our personal
private sectarian differences become secondary."

"What this country needs is not more organisations with ten different
alphabets but rather organisations that bring us together on a shared
common interest.

"I would be much happier to see more football clubs in Malaysia where
everyone can come not because you are Malay, Indian or Chinese, but
because you like Chelsea or Manchester United or whatever. Then your
personal racial biography becomes secondary, rather than being pushed
to the front," he said.

"If you notice in the urban geography of Malaysia, you may notice
that there is a competition for turf. One community wants a mosque,
the other wants a church ... a temple. But nobody says let's have a
playground for all kids to play. That's what we are losing in
Malaysia today. The bridging capital. The neutral spaces that there
can be interaction where, frankly, people don't care about race or
religion."

"That is something we are missing out in this rush to make sure we
are all represented and to produce more and more organisations where
there are 20 alphabets in the name that we can't even pronounce," he
said.

----------------------------------------------------------------
This e-mail has been sent via JARING webmail at http://www.jaring.my

Constitution guarantees Malaysians' freedom to celebrate Merdeka by
Various, 10 August 2007
Source : CIJ

Joint Statement by
10 August 2007

Writers Alliance for Media Independence (WAMI), Centre for Independent
Journalism (CIJ) and Institut Kajian Dasar (IKD) stress that the Federal
Constitution guarantees Malaysians' freedom to celebrate Merdeka in any
peaceful way they prefer. In fact, freedom as enshrined in the
Constitution is central to the celebration of Merdeka. If we are not
free, what independence is there to celebrate?

We express our gravest concern on the latest assault on artistic and
cultural expression launched by some McCarthy wannabes in politics and
media. Wee Meng Chee, a Malaysian student in Taiwan has attracted
demonization in media and threat of legal action by politicians for
writing a rap-song "I love my country, Negarakuku" with the national
anthem Negaraku as its chorus, and sharing it on youtube.

We hold that Malaysians are mature enough to discuss and judge for
themselves the content and form of arts. Political intervention into the
world of arts hurts both arts and democracy. Unfortunately, before Wee,
musicians performing genres like heavy metal and rock, movie directors
like Mohamad Amir, Yasmin Ahmad and Tsai Ming-Liang, actress in Vagina
Monologue, have all suffered harassment, vilification, censorship or ban
for "offending" or "challenging" national culture, sensitivity, history,
etc. in one way or another.

Malaysia, whose initial celebration 50 years ago and formation 44 years
ago we are now supposed to celebrate, has become the greatest measure of
political correctness upon which every artistic and cultural expression
needs to be examined. Albeit without explicitly evoking Senator
McCarthy's language, some Malaysians have set out to eliminate the crime
of "unMalaysianness", a fact other Malaysians must now stand up and speak
up.

We stress these three positions of principle:

1. The Federal Constitution of Malaysia explicitly guarantees every
citizen "the right to freedom of speech and expression" (Article 10.1.a).
While it also allows the Parliament to impose restrictions "by law",
parodying the national anthem is not one of the eight permissible
grounds. (Article 10.1.b) We remind all quarters that the suggestion of
evoking a charge against Wee under the National Anthem Act has therefore
risked defying the Federal Constitution itself, a more serious offence
than any parodying of the National Anthem.

2. No one should be prosecuted or persecuted for their artistic
expressions so long they are not propagating violence. Those who disagree
with certain artistic expressions should reply with artistic critiques or
counter-expressions, rather than banning or them or persecuting the
artists with the state's power. The same principle applies on academic,
social, political, religious, cultural views, where an opponent to a
particular view should strive to defeat and debunk the view s/he opposes
in free debates, rather than silencing whomever s/he considers heretic
with the state's power. If we cannot hold on to this principle, we are
making a mockery of the Article 10 of our Federal Constitution.

3. Inter-ethnic and inter-religious harmony cannot be promoted by
suppressing freedom of expression. Suppression will only drive
misunderstanding and animosity into frustrations and anger which will
sweep everyone when suppression is no longer possible. Bigotry and
hostility can only be addressed and eliminated under open and rational
debates, where everyone respect each other's freedom of expression
insofar no violence is used or advocated. If some are intolerant to views
they consider insulting or offensive, the society must promote tolerance
and respect, rather than conceding to emotional responses of the
intolerant lot. Otherwise, if everyone protests against everything s/he
considers offensive, perhaps no issue can be discussed publicly. This
will only kill democracy as the state can dictate on matters of
importance without public scrutiny and participation.

Thomas Paine said it aptly, "Government, even in its best state, is but a
necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one." The white-terror
Senator McCarthy brought to the US in 1950s - investigating and
persecuting left-leaning artists under the charges of un-American
activities - testified the danger when the government's power goes beyond
the necessary.

The monopoly of Merdeka outdoor celebration by the Culture, Arts and
Heritage Ministry has signaled earlier a dangerous trend that our
nation's Independence or its celebration is now seen as the Government's
prerogative or private property. The zest to persecute Wee is but the
second manifestation of such mentality. Malaysians, regardless whether
they agree with Wee's views, must stand up to defend the right to
celebrate Merdeka in any peaceful way they like, against the assaults of
the Little McCarthys in politics and the media.

This statement is initiated by WAMI,
Jointly issued by,

Wong Chin Huat, Chairperson, WAMI
Gayathry V., Executive Director, CIJ
Khalid Jaafar, Executive Director, IKD

----------------------------------------------------------------
This e-mail has been sent via JARING webmail at http://www.jaring.my