Kaedah Baru yang Efektif Dalam Pengharaman Arak

NOTA EDITOR: BBC melaporkan kadar pengambilan alkohol di Britian semakin menurun, dan bukannya menaik sebagaimana yang dianggap oleh ramai orang.

Artikel ini cuba memberikan beberapa teori namun mereka masih buntu mengapa trend ini berlaku.

Antara faktor yang dirasakan memberi kesan ini adalah:

1.0 Syarikat2 di Britain sudah tidak bertoleransi dengan kemabukan arak

2.0 Kempen mengurangkan penggunaan alkohol di kalangan remaja yang aktif

3.0 Media diprogram supaya tidak menggalakkan meminum arak

4.0 Peranan ibu bapa mengawal anak-anak mereka

5.0 Keadaan mabuk sudah tidak dipandang sebagai keadaan yang baik, malah dipandang rendah. Maka, ramailah orang mencuba untuk tidak mabuk di hadapan orang ramai.

Tulang Besi membawa artikel ini kerana mahu memberi idea baru kepada aktivis Islam terutama dalam PAS. Bahawasanya, kadang-kadang kaedah mengulang "hukum minum arak" sahaja tidak mencukupi.

Perlu dipergunakan kaedah baru dan cara baru untuk menyakinkan orang ramai untuk meninggalkan arak, terutama kepada orang bukan Islam.

Kalau PAS masih berfikir bahwa mereka hanya bertanggungjawab kepada orang Islam sahaja, maka sampai bilalah mereka tidak boleh memerintah Malaysia.

Belajarlah bagaimana Britain berjaya mengurangkan pengambilan arak di kalangan rakyat mereka tanpa menggunakan mana-mana hukum dari agama.

Selamat membaca

Why is alcohol consumption falling?"15 February 2011
By James Morgan BBC News

Despite new evidence that more people are being treated in hospital for excessive drinking, the overall trend is that we are drinking less as a nation. Why?
It's difficult to open a newspaper without reading about the alcohol problems that exist in the UK.

Recent headlines include "Binge drinking costs NHS billions", "Hospitals reel as drink cases soar" and "Alcohol abuse to cost NHS an extra billion"

And this week, figures from Alcohol Concern suggest the number of people being treated in hospital for alcohol misuse has more than doubled in eight years.
But behind these stories is an unexpected truth - Britons have been drinking less and less every year since 2002.

Men and women of all ages are slowly curbing their excesses and drinking in moderation, according to the annual survey from the Office for National Statistics, which covers England, Scotland and Wales.

It suggests that heavy drinking is falling, abstinence is rising, and young people are leading the drive towards healthier drinking.

The decrease among some groups even pre-dates 2002, with men aged 16-24 drinking 26 units a week on average in 1999 and just 15 units a week in 2009, according to the ONS figures.



"There is a received wisdom that we must be drinking more," says Neil Williams of the British Beer and Pubs Association (BBPA). Its own figures, which are based on sales and not self-reporting, suggest alcohol sales peaked in 2004 and have fallen by 13% since then.

"In reality, we see a fairly deep-rooted decline in alcohol consumption which dates back to 2004. That's not something you see acknowledged in the media."

It's frustrating that the true story is not getting out there, says David Poley, chief executive of the Portman Group, an association of drinks producers in the UK.
"With newspapers, the headline is always the same: 'Shock rise in binge drinking'. But you look at the figures, and you see alcohol sales are decli! ning.

"It's a myth that we need to make alcohol more expensive [to stop people drinking]. These trends are being reversed on their own."

Historically, sales of booze rose and fell with the economy. Recessions in the early 80s and 90s were coupled with a slump in drinking. And the current downturn is having a similar effect. From 2008-2009, alcohol consumption in the UK fell by 6%.
Despite perceptions, young people are drinking less.

But that decline started long before the credit crunch kicked in - 2004 according to the BBPA and 2002 by the ONS figures. So what happened?

"To a certain extent it's a mystery," says Mr Poley. "There may be multiple reasons. But around that time, the UK did see the launch of some major alcohol health warning campaigns."

In 2004 the Drinkaware logo started appearing on beer advertisements. The labelling of drinks bottles improved to make it clear how many units of alcohol they contain. And the health dangers of heavy drinking were increasingly highlighted by the media.
References to "binge drinking" shot up in 2004, according to Dr James Nicholls of Bath Spa University, who researches the social history of alcohol.

"The media picked up on it around the time that the 2003 Licensing Act was being introduced - when all the talk was of '24 hour drinking'. And that's when the whole 'Binge Britain' thing kicked off," he says.

The Daily Mail ran a memorable campaign, featuring images of young women slumped on pavements and park benches. News stories were peppered with health warnings from groups like Alcohol Concern, Drinkaware and the Royal College of Physicians.
"They were very successful at making the health impacts of alcohol a news story," says Mr Nicholls.

These days most employers are anti-drinkGraham Page Alcohol industry expert

In reality, 24-hour drinking never took off. The average pub only opened 24 minutes longer after 11pm last orders was abolished, says Nicholls. But it didn't mat! ter - th e headlines had already been written. A new tone had been set for alcohol reporting. The message was that Britain was out of control.

The negative publicity not only led people to moderate their behaviour, it also created a new kind of social stigma around being drunk. The ONS survey notes that people may now be "less inclined to admit to how much they have been drinking".
Boozing was no longer such a badge of honour. And attitudes in the workplace began to change too, says Graham Page, an alcohol industry analyst.

"These days most employers are anti-drink. The six o'clock swill has gone in most places, apart from London," he says.

Cheap booze
Meanwhile, consumer forces were also at work to change our drinking habits throughout the last decade. Pubs were closing down, duty on beer was rising, and sales of cheap supermarket wine were rocketing.

The caricature of a "drinker" has slowly morphed - from lager louts downing pints to girls on the sofa, sipping Pinot Grigio.

It's hard to quantify how each of these micro-trends in pricing has influenced overall alcohol consumption, says Mr Page, but their net effect is that the price of a drink as a percentage of spending money is cheaper than ever before.




So alcohol is cheaper, but we are drinking less of it - a highly improbable cocktail.
But a look at the longer term picture shows that drinking has been rising steadily since 1947, and levels are still some way above those in the early 1990s.
So is the latest fall a victory for drink awareness campaigning?

Such celebrations would be premature, says Don Shenker, chief executive of Alcohol Concern.

"There are still 10 million people drinking above the g! overnmen t's recommended level. And 1.6 million dependent drinkers. These are the frequent flyers into hospital, and they are not changing their drinking habits," he says.
"It is very likely that alcohol consumption will rise again once the economy picks up. So government alcohol policy should ensure alcohol becomes less affordable permanently, not just in an economic downturn."

The health warnings are here to stay - and rightly so, as hospital admissions from alcohol continue to rise.

It will be a long time before any recent moves towards healthier drinking will be felt in NHS wards.

Tunjukkan Satu Hak Melayu yang Tergadai di bawah Kerajaan Pakatan Rakyat!!!!

NOTA EDITOR: Tulang Besi mengalu-alukan konvensyen yang bakal diadakan oleh PAS bertajuk "Konvensyen Nasional Pengupayaan Bangsa-Jaminan PAS" yang akan diadakan pada 19 Februari ini.

Sudah tiba masanya PAS memerangi segala fitnah yang datang dari UMNO berkaitan hak dan kelebihan Melayu.

Sehingga HARI INI, UMNO dan BN tidak mampu memberi WALAU SATU contoh hak melayu tergadai di bawah Kerajaan Pakatan Rakyat.

Malahan, Pakatan Rakyat telah cuba mengembalikan kekuasaan Raja-Raja Melayu di Selangor, namun UMNO YANG MENOLAK.

Tulang Besi berharap sangat, natijah dari konvensyen ini, segala fitnah dan pembohongan UMNO berkaitan hak Melayu akan musnah seperti musnahnya rejim Mubarak.

Amin!!!

Konvensyen Bangsa bincang masalah Melayu 19 Feb
Hazayani Zakaria
KUALA LUMPUR, 16 Feb: PAS akan mengadakan Konvensyen Nasional Pengupayaan Bangsa-Jaminan PAS pada 19 Februari ini untuk membincangkan masalah Melayu dan Bumiputera di negara ini.

Menurut Naib Presiden PAS, Datuk Mahfuz Omar, konvensyen berkenaan akan menjawab segala kekeliruan mengenai kedudukan dan hak istimewa Melayu dan Bumiputera

"Konvensyen ini akan menjawab persoalan-persoalan yang cuba dikelirukan dalam masyarakat Melayu dan Bumiputera negara ini oleh Umno BN yang cuba membentuk sikap rakyat bahawa Pakatan Rakyat yang meminggirkan Melayu," kata beliau pada sidang media di Ibu Pejabat PAS, dekat sini hari ini.

Ianya akan berlangsung di Auditorium Majlis Bandar Raya Shah Alam (MBSA) dari jam 9 pagi hingga 5 petang dengan pembentangan beberapa kertas kerja.

Konvensyen itu akan dirasmikan oleh Mursyidul Am PAS, Tuan Guru Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat.

Presiden PAS, Datuk Seri Tuan Guru Abdul Hadi Awang akan membentangkan kertas kerja "jaminan PAS " pada jam 2.! 30 petan g.

Mengulas lanjut, beliau yakin melalui konvensyen itu dapat memberikan keyakinan kepada rakyat bahawa PAS bersama Pakatan Rakyat akan mempertahankan segala perkara yang berkaitan hak dan keistimewaan orang Melayu.

"Selepas pilihan raya umum 2008 Umno BN cuba menimbulkan perkara-perkara bersifat sentimen perkauman kononnya Melayu terancam dan terpinggir.

"Jadi kita akan memberikan kefahaman kepada masyarakat khususnya Melayu dan Bumiputera di seluruh negara bahawa PAS bersama Pakatan Rakyat akan terus pertahankan segala perkara yang berkaitan keistimewaan Melayu dan Bumiputera yang terkandung dalam Perlembagaan Persekutuan," katanya yang juga ahli Parlimen Pokok Sena.

Pada konvensyen itu juga PAS akan menjelaskan kepada rakyat bahawa situasi Melayu mundur adalah disebabkan kegagalan Umno BN.

"Sejak 53 tahun tahun yang dikatakan Melayu terpinggir dan terancam ini disebabkan tiada political will daripada pemerintah untuk mempertahankan agenda Bumiputera menyebabkan ianya berkecamuk," katanya.

Merujuk kepada penubuhan Unit Peneraju Agenda Bumiputera (Teraju) oleh Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Razak baru-baru ini, beliau berkata ianya satu lagi bukti bahawa agenda Melayu dan Bumiputera sebelum ini menemui kegagalan.

Namun ujarnya konvensyen berkenaan sudah dirangka beberapa bulan lalu bukan sebagai respon kepada penubuhan Teraju.

Selain Abdul Hadi, Ketua Menteri Pulau Pinang, Lim Guan Eng juga akan membentangkan kertas kerja "Melayu Pulau Pinang dalam era Pakatan Rakyat".

Satu lagi kertas kerja '53 tahun merdeka kedudukan Melayu Bumiputera terhakis' akan dibentangkan oleh bekas pengerusi Bernama, Prof Datuk Abu Bakar Hamid yang juga bekas pensyarah Universiti Malaya.

Pesertanya terdiri daripada badan-badan bukan kerajaa (NGO), wakil parti dalam Pakatan Rakyat, tokoh-tokoh teertentu termasuk pensyarah dan mahasiswa daripada Melayu dan bukan Melayu.

Kebebasan Rakyat Lebih Penting dari Syariah - Qardhawi

NOTA EDITOR: Saya tak sabar tunggu respon dari Yusri Mohammad dan ABIM di atas kenyataan Dr Yusuf Qardhawi. Sebelum ini, Yusri telah menunjukkan kepada dunia, bahawa ilmu beliau lebih tinggi dari Sheikh Yusuf Qardhawi dalam isu kalimah Allah. Saya tak sabar nak tunggu Yusri menunjukkan kehandalan ilmu beliau sekali lagi dalam isu ini.

Kebebasan akan membenarkan dakwah Islamiyyah berjalan dengan lebih meluas menyebabkan ramai yang akan kembali pada Islam.

Waktu saya di Mesir, jiran saya adalah pegawai di Kedutaan Indonesia. Pada satu pagi, saya terserempak dengan beliau di lif. Beliau kebetulan sedang pulang dari kantor, manakala saya pula dalam perjalanan ke pejabat.

Saya bertanya beliau dari mana. Beliau kata beliau baru pulang dari kantor. Saya tanya kenapa beliau semalaman di pejabat. Beliau kata pada malam semalam berlaku krisis yang besar di KEdutaan Indonesia di Mesir.

Beliau kata, pelajar-pelajar Indonesia telah menjemput seorang pimpinan Ikhwan untuk berceramah di "Rumah Indonesia". Pihak berkuasa Mesir mengetahui akan ceramah ini, telah menghantar polis Mesir mengepung RUmah Indonesia sedari jam 6 petang. Mereka tidak dapat menyerbu majlis tersebut kerana kawasan Rumah Indonesia ini dianggap sebagai Tanah Indonesia dan bukan Mesir.

Akibatnya, ceramah tersebut terpaksa di batalkan dan semalaman petugas di Kedutaan Indonesia terpaksa melayan protes dari Kementrian Dalam Negeri Mesir.

Begitulah contoh tekanan terhadap gerakan dakwah Islamiyyah di Mesir. Nak buat ceramah pun tidak diizinkan sama sekali.

MAcamana nak "Nahi Mungkar", saya pun tak tau.

Tulang Besi

Kebebasan Rakyat Lebih Penting Dari Tegakkan Syariah.
KL 13 Feb 11: Mempertahankan kebebasan rakyat lebih penting daripada membentuk sistem Syariah (hukum Islam), meskipun kebebasan tetap bahagian dari Syariah. Kata Shaikh Yusuf al-Qardhawi pada Jumaat malam dalam sebuah wa! wancara dengan jaringan tv Al Jazeera.

Al-Qardhawi, yang merupakan pemikir Islam berpengaruh dan presiden Kesatuan Cendekiawan Muslim Antarabangsa yang sangat rapat dengan Ikhwanul Muslimin, kelompok pembangkang terbesar di Mesir.

Baru-baru ini, beberapa anggota Ikhwan telah cuba meringankan kebimbangan orang ramai, bahawa mereka ingin mendirikan negara Islam dengan menegaskan Ikhwan tidak mengejar kekuasaan, atau menetapkan pemerintahan Islam di Mesir.

Al-Qardhawi juga menekankan tentara perlu melindungi bangsa dan hak-hak rakyat, bukan mengatur negara. Dia menekankan hak protes damai demi kehidupan lebih baik diberikan oleh Islam, dan yang diakui oleh setiap konvensyen hak asasi manusia. Beliau mengucapkan selamat kepada rakyat Mesir dan bangsa Arab dengan kepergian Presiden Hosni Mubarak setelah 18 hari perjuangan revolusioner rakyat Mesir.

Beliau menggambarkan kaum revolusioner muda sebagai warga Mesir terhormat yang telah menjalankan panggilan tugas untuk wujudnya keadilan nasional. Al-Qardhawi menyatakan keyakinannya bahawa Allah telah membantu mereka yang melakukan pengorbanan dalam rangka mewujudkan keadilan.


Beliau menambahkan, "Saya yakin Allah akan membantu para revolusioner. Saya di dalam khotbah Jumaat selalu menyatakan bahawa Allah akan segera membantu pemuda ini , dan memang itulah kenyataan yang terjadi. "

Presiden yang digulingkan bertanggung jawab atas pertumpahan darah, beliau mengatakan bahawa "Allah ingin memberikan penghargaan kemenangan ini kepada orang-orang Mesir" dan mencela dakwaan bahawa rakyat Mesir adalah pelayan dan hamba.


Katanya lagi, Tahrir Square telah menjadi universiti untuk mendidik kebajikan dalam pengorbanan diri, dan menyarankan dataran itu ditukar nama menjadi "Dataran Revolusi 25 Januari." Al-Qardhawi memuji media independen yang berani mengungkapkan fakta-fakta dan mengungkap kebohongan media pemerintah, media yang sengaja menyesatkan informasi.


Komen Weblog Ibnu Hasyim: Sebenarnya penegakkan Syariat a! dalah pe rlaksanaan kebebasan rakyat. Itu yang sepatutnya dilakukan oleh kerajaan-kerajaan yang mengaku Islam. (IH)

TAMBAHAN KOMEN:
Dr Hassan PP said...
Dalam Kitab Maqasid As-Syariah Al-Islamiyyah karangan Syaikh Mohd Tahir Ibni Asyur, beliau menjelaskan bahawa suruhan ALlah SWT terhadap Nabi Musa AS supaya "lawan" Firaun, asasnya adalah kerana Firuan melakukan kerosakan atas muka bumi [kezaliman]. Alasan yang dikemukakan oleh beliau adalah, Nabi Musa datang menyelamatkan kaum Bani Israel dari cengkaman Firaun, bukan kerana kekufuran Firaun, sebaliknya kerana menyelamatkan Bani Israel dari kezaliman Firuan. Ini kerana, Bani Israel tidak mengakui bahawa Firuan itu sebagai tuhan. [Maqasid As-Syariah Al-Islamiyyah : 273]

jelas, bahawa fokus utama dalam dakwah Nabi Musa adalah menjatuhkan kezaliman. Selepas itu, melakukan usaha dakwah, iaitu mengajak manusia kepada Islam. dan lagi, jika kita berhadapan dengan orang zalim, maka kita perlu lawan, tetapi jika berhadapan dengan orang yang tidak zalim, tetapi tidak beragama islam, maka tugas kita adalah dakwah.

ulasan Ibni Asyur ini, amat selari dengan kenyataan Dr Yusuf Al-Qaradhawi seperti di atas
February 14, 2011 11:40 AM

Anwar: "Mamak Ghosts F** Saiful, Not Me !"

Confession: "I am actually impotent !"

Sorry, the above is a joke, not true and spoken by Hantu.

Anwar wants charge dropped following latest sodomy report

UPDATED @ 02:40:25 PM 16-02-2011

By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal

February 16, 2011

Anwar’s defence said today’s testimony proved the charge was “groundless”. — Reuters pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 16 — Datuk Seri Ibrahim wants the sodomy charge against him to be dismissed in light of “new evidence” found in an initial proforma report revealed in the trial today.

Dr Khairul Hakim, one of the Hospital Kuala Lumpur doctors who had examined Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan on June 28, 2008, admitted today that Saiful’s testimony — based on the proforma report — had only stated “attempted” sodomy and oral sex.

Anwar’s defence counsel, Karpal Singh, argued today that this proved that the charge was groundless.

He said that under the criminal procedure code, only Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail could withdraw the charge.

“In light of recent evidence it is obvious that the charge is groundless. The proforma report clearly shows that Saiful had complained of attempted sodomy and oral sex, this contradicts his own claims.

“I call on the AG to withdraw the charge to avoid further embarrassment to the country. In the course of the prosecution, we have different versions concerning fundamental issues in this trial,” Karpal told reporters.

Anwar, who was also present, said that the new evidence proved that his prosecution was “trumped up, frivolous and baseless.”

“This is a persecution... why [does] the AG want to pursue and persist in this politically-motivated charge?” said Anwar.

According to the proforma report, Saiful had told the examining doctors that he resisted the alleged sodomy “attempt.”

Dr Khairul, upon cross-examination this morning admitted that many important requirements of the case — such as whether Saiful washed his mouth after the alleged act, or whether he had any muscle tears or staining of buttocks — was not mentioned by the complainant in the report.

The trial will resume at 2pm.

Anwar, the 63-year-old PKR de facto leader, is currently facing sodomy charges for the second time in his life.

The former deputy prime minister is charged with sodomising a former aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan at Unit 11-5-1 of the Desa Damansara Condominium in Jalan Setiakasih, Bukit Damansara here between 3.01pm and 4.30pm on June 26, 2008.

Anwar has denied the charge, describing it as “evil, frivolous lies by those in power” when the charge was read out to him.

He is charged under section 377B of the Penal Code and can be sentenced to a maximum of 20 years’ jail and whipping upon conviction.

The trial is taking place 18 months after Anwar was charged in court in August 2008.

He was charged with sodomy and corruption in 1998 after he was sacked from the Cabinet and was later convicted and jailed for both offences.

He was freed in September 2004 and later resurrected his political career by winning back his Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat in a by-election in 2008, which had been held in the interim by his wife.

He had three years ago led the opposition coalition, Pakatan Rakyat, to a historic sweep of five states and 82 parliamentary seats in Election 2008.

A race with no winners

Opinion

Zairil Khir Johari is a chocolate purveyor, chicken rice enthusiast and noodle lover. When he's not preoccupied with any of the above, he is also a politician.

FEB 16 — I recently read about a family who had returned to Malaysia after many years abroad. Their six-year-old was enrolled into a local kindergarten. One day, during his first week in school, he came back excited about some race everyone was talking about.

Thinking there was a competition, his parents asked the teachers at school the next day. As it turned out, the other students had been pestering their son about his ethnicity, seeing as he had no discernibly stereotypical features, being a child of mixed parentage. The couple did not quite know what to make of it, as up till then, their son had no understanding of an identity other than his nationality — Malaysian.

Reading this story triggered a distant memory. I was around the same age during a brief sojourn in the United States, when one day a boy in the neighbourhood called out to me.

“Hey, Asian boy!”

I did not quite know what to make of it. Like the boy in kindergarten, I too had no grasp of the concept of ethnicity, and so failed to pick up on the racial epithet. I rationalised that he must have been referring to a country. However, having memorised the names of most of the countries in the world, I was quite certain that there was no country called “Asia” (clearly, I was also unaware of the concept of continents).

And so I replied: “I’m not Asian. I’m MALAYSIAN. I’m from MALAYSIA. Asia isn’t even a country!”

Though slightly older, he was probably confused by my retort. He continued with a tinge of doubt in his voice.

“He’s Asian,” he said to the posse around him, some of whom nodded their agreement. He grinned, slightly reassured. “You’re an Asian boy.”

I realised much later that he had been referring to my race. Of course, with time and age, I soon familiarised myself with the racial construct, with particular reference to our unique Malaysian manifestation. There is no doubt that race is an important identity, as is religion.

After all, it is our culture, traditions and mores that render colour into an otherwise sepia existence. However, nothing is without its traps. The ubiquity and convenience of race also opens itself to exploitation as a means of division and control.

When our country was founded, there was neither a common language nor identity. We had inherited a colonial legacy that had stratified our society along racial lines. However, efforts were set in motion to integrate the country — a national language (Bahasa Malaysia), a shared identity (Malaysian), an economic policy designed to socially re-engineer racial inequities (NEP), and of course the 1 Malaysia concept, an amalgamation of the “Bangsa Malaysia” notion.

After half a century, we now have three generations of post-Merdeka Malaysians. Technically, we should have moved on by now. So why then, in this day and age, is our national discourse still dominated by race?

Stripped of its racial façade, the questions of poverty, equality, freedom and justice are merely that. Quantifying problems through racial statistics does not actually assist in solving anything. If being poorer is harder because you are of a particular race, then it is the system that is broken. Let’s fix that.

Thoroughly eradicating poverty would mean that no one of any race would suffer hardship. If deaths in custody and police violence seem to affect one community more than others, I say it shouldn’t even happen in the first place, to any Malaysian. We should thus focus on restoring the independence and credibility of our enforcement agencies.

Wouldn’t it be better for Malaysia, and by extension, all Malaysians, if we focused on solving issues, rather than preoccupying ourselves with its racial contextualisation?

While I am not suggesting that we disregard our racial identities, I am proposing that our national discourse would benefit greatly from a wider and less parochial paradigm. There is a coloured tint in our looking glass, and it is obscuring our vision.

Racialising issues will only lead to greater division and irrational quarrels. In the long run, it will be counter-productive to nation-building. If we continue along the current path of excessive racialism, in which every social, educational and political issue is portrayed as a case of one race against another, the Rubicon will soon be crossed.

This is not a competition that we should partake in, for in a race of races, there will only be losers.

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.

Holy Men, Holy Women 4

Opinion

Dina Zaman writes to find answers. Sometimes she doesn't. If she's not spending too much money on books, it's household items. She would like everyone to be happy.

FEB 16 — It’s December 24, 2010. A pastor friend has kindly invited me to observe a Christmas service at his church, somewhere in Kuala Lumpur.

It has been a long while since I had witnessed a Christmas service. My sister and I grew up being dragged by our history-mad mother to Russian and English churches. Our father, you see, travelled for work.

For a good while when we lived in Russia in the seventies, our mother developed a fascination for Rasputin, and Russian aristocracy. Our tiny apartment would have Boney M blaring out “Ra Ra Rasputin” as she and our father danced in our little living room. In fact, churches loomed a lot in my young life.

You may find this strange, but when I was young, and living in Kuala Terengganu, I remembered attending Christmas parties and birthday parties that had nuns! Back then, it was just another party for children to play and receive presents.

When I was in university, I visited my resident dorm advisor’s home during Thanksgiving. Her father was a pastor, too, of a charismatic church. He was African-American while his wife was white, and there was a lot of singing and prayers in that house.

When they invited me over for Christmas, I declined politely. I couldn’t bear the thought of more singing, especially before meals. Then there were the English churches most international students visited during our monthly tours off campus.

My friend’s church reminds me of small, modern American churches. Cosy, with a congregation that was like a family.

I am quite familiar with the area, and was quite taken aback to know that it was just a few doors down from a close friend’s home.

It’s an old house which has been renovated into a church. As I sit gingerly on a chair, I see people rushing to help and a choir practising. I wonder, how does one behave in a church?

I had a wardrobe crisis this morning: If I attend a ceramah at a mosque, I would be wearing baju kurung and a tudung, but a church? When one is unsure, one becomes conservative. I rustle something up and look like a 60-year-old headmistress.

It is a damp Christmas. The sky is grey and somehow, just like how Aidilfitri felt muted this year, today was the same. The past few years, religious tension has not helped with interfaith engagement.

I fidget. Another moment of crisis. Now if I am to witness such in Europe, I would be fine, but in Malaysia, where everything religious is so sensitive, have I lost my mind? But I’m not converting nor am I converting the Christian congregation to Islam; I’m just a guest. Does this make me less of a Muslim for watching?

An expatriate family arrives. The church becomes more crowded. The music playing is Christian pop. I’ve never witnessed a Christian gathering this warm before. The one my family and I saw at a St Petersburg church was solemn, dark and reminiscent of Omen films.

The congregation becomes more ethnically mixed, and I see a Malay woman wearing a green tudung enter the church with her friends. She barely generates a glance or curiosity. They sit by the right side of the church. I feel relieved. I’m not the only Melayu here then.

I think of how we Muslims pray in a mosque. When my family and I do, it is to either attend weddings, and to perform the terawih prayers. Our father, of course, attends Friday prayers. We greet family and friends warmly, but our task is to pray, and then when all is done, we leave.

And unlike Umrah or the Hajj, it is a homogenous community which prays in our mosques. About 98 per cent are Malay Muslims, and from time to time, the odd Caucasian or African is seen. It is only during Umrah and the Hajj that Muslims meet other Muslims of different stripes and colour.

A friend is surprised to see me in the church.

What are you doing here, she asks.

Just to see how Christians celebrate Christmas.

Oh. She then elaborates on the church, that it attracts people who are disappointed with other churches. The latter tends to focus on servitude to church but not its people. The church is communal, and does refugee work with the Myanmarese.

Non-Christians are welcome to observe and befriend the church’s members. I nod. There is no way such a thing will happen in a Malaysian mosque.

There is a short prayer, and a silent confession, to ask God to forgive us and then we are asked to greet each other, “Peace be with you.”

After Muslim prayers too, we greet fellow Muslims with a salam. I wonder if it’s possible for a balcony to be built in a mosque for non-Muslims to observe Muslims pray.

*****

Much, much later, I wonder whether I had been foolhardy. True, I was there as an observer. There were a few Malays there, who had come to celebrate. I was told much later that a few Muslim NGOs welcome such interactions with non-Muslims (I breathed out loud when I heard the affirmation. Whew.)

I was also curious: How did Malaysian Christians celebrate the occasion sans snow? To be honest, I know of many Muslim Malaysians who enjoy a good tuck-in with roast Christmas turkeys. It’s always about food, we Malaysians.

However, with articles and incidents such as these, Art Harun’s “I Beg to Differ” and Jakim’s guidelines for Muslims attending non-Muslim celebrations, and, of course, the overzealous attempt to have Christian paraphernalia removed at a Christmas celebration prior to the prime minister’s visit, it does instil a certain fear.

I also left my very first Christmas service somewhat discomforted. What on earth was I expecting? Somehow, Christmas in the tropics is so... salah, as we say. People dress up for church in Europe and the States.

Call me shallow, but I would have thought Malaysians would have made an effort. It was Christmas! Perhaps in my mind, attending church and observing Christmas would mean bells clanging, gargoyles guarding the church, and everyone all decked up to welcome the holiday. I blame my superficial impressions on Hollywood horror films and the international students’ church visits as-part-of-their-education-abroad.

And I wanted to see devotion. I am not accusing my friend’s congregation as being lesser Christians. Perhaps I wanted to see too much: a pew with Christians bowed down, praying, and praying very hard to God and Jesus.

But I must also be realistic: this is man at work, and prayers. How pious we are is up to us. Turning up for Christmas service wearing slippers and shorts does not mean a man is not a fervent believer of Christ.

I also had an epiphany: It was time to leave the city.

Somehow, faith and “believing people” in Kuala Lumpur seemed too manufactured, too “constructed”.

As an acquaintance once said over breakfast, “When we focus too much on rituals, we forget the essence of spirituality.”

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.

It’s the Rule of Law, not the Law of Rules — Liam Hanlon (loyarburok.com)

FEB 16 — Recently, I had the pleasure of attending the Asia-Pacific Rule of Law Conference in Kuala Lumpur, a symposium coordinated by the World Justice Project focused on, and you may have guessed it, the Rule of Law.

The WJP, a non-profit based in Washington DC started by the President of the World-Series-Champion San Francisco Giants, flew in almost 150 of the region’s most renowned lawyers, business investors, CEOs, entrepreneurs, members of civil society, UN officers, environmentalists and grassroots activists to partake in a two-day, multidisciplinary examination on the Rule of Law — in both a conceptual and palpable fashion.

The conference, prompted by the WJP’s release of its 2010 Rule of Law Index, was conceptualised based on the WJP’s broad-based notion of the rule of law, which posits that the rule of law can only be effectively advanced through multidisciplinary collaboration. While governments and organizations tend to vary on the definition of the rule of law, WJP uses a working definition grounded in four universal principles:

(1) an accountable government under the law

(2) clear, publicised, stable and fair laws that protect fundamental rights

(3) fair, efficient and accessible administration and implementation of the laws

(4) access to justice provided by competent, independent and ethical adjudicators.

In what is becoming an increasingly more popular and thus no longer novel approach, WJP employed a multidisciplinary task force to address the grandiose idea of the rule of law.

The conference, however, was not quite the spectacle I envisioned. It was simply, for lack of more nuanced parlance, boring. And by the mien of other participants, who I caught dozing in and out of daydreams that surely had brought them to a more arousing place, the weariness was not endemic to me.

I was expecting a rousing collaboration between money-hungry CEOs and environmental zealots on how to reconcile economic development and environmental preservation. But instead, I was delivered perfunctory PowerPoint presentations and humdrum Q & A sessions.

I was expecting fierce debate between haughty International Labour Organisation (ILO) officials and fiery migrant-rights NGO activists. But instead the ILO cadre spoke about lofty and impersonal international guidelines, and the NGO group summoned poignant, yet narrowed personal narratives, neither of the two converging on a discussion that would be both exhaustive and practical.

My disparaging assessment should be taken with a grain of salt, however, as I was unable to sit in on the plenary sessions where more robust conversations ostensibly took place.

This mediocre discussion notwithstanding, I was incredibly moved by the keynote speaker, Michael Kirby, a former Justice in the High Court of Australia. Kirby, also an openly gay man (and knowing a little bit about the demography of the participants, I am sure some heads were turned when he divulged that tiny secret) spoke about the history of the notion of human rights and the international guidelines that have helped shape the rule of law throughout the world. Underpinning his speech was a straightforward yet invaluable theory: It is not the law of rules that determines the legitimacy of a society; it is the rule of law.

This idea has historical foundations, as well as implications for current and future national conflicts and political systems. The logic follows that simply because a society has a clear, administered set of laws and regulations, does not necessarily mean it is a glowing example for rule of law. Let me break the distinction down to you through two events that happened in the last century — Nazi Germany and the Apartheid.

Sorry to do this, but try and transport yourself back to the time of the Third Reich and Nazi Germany. Governing this increasingly authoritarian and nefarious nation was a well documented and clear set of rules, most notoriously of which purported the Aryan claim to superiority. Supported by the rise of Hitler and his minions, the German state systematically adopted policies that subordinated other ethnicities and set the stage for WWII.

Now, following WJP’s definition of the rule of law, Nazi Germany satisfied the precept of “clear and publicised laws” and “fair, efficient and administration of the laws” with predictable outcomes. People knew what to expect.

But, would anyone in his or her right mind agree that Nazi Germany exhibited even an inkling of the rule of law? No, that would be preposterous, because while it was a land governed by the law of rules, the rules themselves, like the Sterilisation Law, which authorized the German government to sterilize anyone they deemed to possess a “genetic disease” (i.e. anyone outside of the Aryan race) were complete bundles of xenophobic propaganda. It was not the implementation and administration of the laws, or even their publication and clarity, that was debilitating, but rather the laws themselves.

Fast-forward and travel thousands of miles South to the tip of Africa, where the Apartheid regime of South Africa was flourishing. The country was governed on the basis of a legal, racial segregation system that severely curtailed the rights of “non-whites” to preserve the “white” minority rule. In similar fashion to Nazi Germany, this society had a clear and observed set of rules.

Non-whites knew they could not eat at the same restaurants as whites, and were quite aware of the limited and derelict educational options afforded to them. Furthermore, as Justice Kirby notes, there was also relatively strong judicial independence, and the government rarely interfered with judicial processes. However, is Apartheid South Africa an environment we associate with a robust rule of law?

If you do, I don’t even think tiga suku would be the appropriate word for your dementia. Yes, judges were independent, but the law they were asked to follow was, at every level, a racial onslaught against the inalienable rights of the majority of South Africans. So even with clear laws, fair administration and implementation of laws, and independent judicial adjudicators, a society will still lack the rule of law if the laws themselves are not fair and impartial.

And I think this distinction between the law of rules and the rule of law helps to clarify the ongoing revolutionary wildfire that is spreading in North Africa and the Persian Gulf. For many years, autocrats and theocrats have governed these countries, using iron-fisted rules to clamp down on any glimmer of dissent.

So, by some criteria, these nations have been organised through clear law, albeit I am sure many would argue even that standard does not hold up to the test of truth. But regardless of the administration of the law, it is the rules themselves, those blatantly censuring civil and political rights, which have been the real cause of social unrest.

So I pose to you, Orang Malaysia, seeing as I am a newcomer to this country, how do you think Malaysia stacks up in this regard? How does it fare in each of the four principles WJP outlined under the rule of law? How would you compare it regionally to other Asia-Pacific countries?

From my perspective working with the Child Act and juvenile justice in Malaysia, there has to be improvements made to the laws themselves, especially an amendment supporting diversionary options and restorative justice approaches for children that come into conflict with the law.

And I am sure you all will have some choice words about the rule of law in other aspects of Malaysian society. I have a tiny feeling the letters ISA might arise in this conversation? — loyarburok.com

* This article was first published here.

Solidarity with Mr Numpang Suntai

HU Editor

Innocent Numpang Suntai took it upon himself to defend his family heritage and NCR Land. The Government will not help him, instead the Government under Taib Mahmud grabbed his family NCR Land, arrested him together with 6 others and charge him for Criminal Intimidation.

Filed under: corruption, Human rights Tagged: Anak Sarawak Bangsa Malaysia, corruption, Human rights, Sarawak politics, Save Sarawak, Taib Mahmud

Enter a Game Changer for PKR Sarawak?

By Anthony anak Ibong Oh, how a seemingly innocent breakfast between Anwar Ibrahim, the Ketua Umum (of PKR) and Sng Chee Hua, a long-time friend of his, together with a few other respectable men could send some people in our party into a tizzy. The occasion was held in the open, not in secret. Why then did a simple chow ignite the proverbial rashes and hives among some? Politics being what it is, what could be the significance of the event? In case you are wondering why a meeting of men talking amid the soothing flow of background muzak in a hotel restaurant got strong reactions from some people, consider these two words: Sarawak matters. Sarawak is said one of the so called ”fixed deposits” for the governing BN. In a manner of speaking, Sarawak (and Sabah) anchors the Government. In 2008, its MPs managed to keep BN in power in Putrajaya. For now, for better or worse, the loyalty of Sarawak’s many MPs is still a primary factor in keeping the BN government in Putrajaya. In the future, where goes Sarawak, so goes the Government. It was an apparently innocuous enough breakfast. In addition to the national leader, it was said that there were YB Dominique Ng; the newly minted Dato John Tenawie, PKR Vice President; Jimmy Donald, a long-time MP who is currently in between roles, although he is understood to be keenly eying the state seat of Bukit Begunan. Jimmy is known to the many local political aficionados as Sng’s ally and friend. In our PKR hierarchy in Sarawak, he is a party “bigwig”, a member of the state’s leadership. And then there was, if the news reports were to be believed, the man himself, Sng Chee Hua. And by the way where was Baru Bian, the chief of PKR Sarawak? He appeared to have been somewhere else when this breakfast took place. How come? Your guess would be as good as mine in this respect. Sng was having breakfast with Anwar? It was said that eyebrows were raised because of this. To those gnashing their teeth at having just found out about the event, I say this: save your energy. Don’t bother to raise even half an eye brow. Whatever phase of denial mode you are in, get a good dose of reality. Get over it, for by virtue of his present connection, Sng is embedded in PKR whether formally or informally. It appears that Sng has many more friends in PKR than people would like to admit. Therefore, appreciate the situation for what it apparently is. Only then can you begin to appreciate some elements of Sarawak politics. Pushing for the Sarawak vote: a new twist as elections draw near [Sarawak Update photo] In any case, it is Anwar and Sng’s right to have a meal together, even if the issues they discussed never went beyond the level of talking about the curvature of Sarawak River and its alleged e coli contents as it meanders through Kuching. Who among us could be so maniacally suspicious that we become apoplectic when a group of people sit around have a meal and talk? Surely they have the right to do so. Anwar Ibrahim and Sng, like the rest of us, have the right of to assemble – or meet. In my view, they can meet anywhere, any time. Not just over breakfast. And the wise James Masing, who have known Sng for years, is reported to have said the two men met all the time. So there you have it. The relevant thing is that observers do remember well that Sng is a veteran political operator. It has been said that he was active in Sabah in the 1990s and of course Sarawak for many years. The man is known for hard work and is no stranger to success. Perhaps those who have had a string of disaster stories lately, including by-election losses, need to rub shoulders with old friends in the hope that the downward trend could be reversed. It was, after all, a New Year and wishing for loads of luck should not be out of order. Still, why did some people go ballistic when they found out about the event? It is a measure of the (Sarawak) political climate that we are in and the capabilities of some political fixtures we have that when these two and a few others on sat together for some food in Kuching, the event immediately set tongues wagging. The appearance of Sng together with Anwar Ibrahim, no matter how innocently contrived, does elicit intense discussion among some people. Particularly so since Sarawak is in the brink of a state election that could spell the beginning or the end of political careers. As a consequence, questions were asked too. What were they doing? What were they thinking? More importantly, what are they going to do, if anything, in Sarawak politics? Does this represent a new alliance and how will it impact anyone’s roles and political future? Or, to put it more graphically: who will win and who will lose? These are no idle concerns. It is particularly pertinent to those who rather not share the same political bed with Sng. For one thing, they probably have different political dreams from him. For another, politics being what it is, they possibly have had a few brushes with him in the past. And so perhaps, if they could help it, they would rather not revisit those experience or engender new ones lest they be subjected to the stresses that those are likely to entail. To many people, Sng exudes the image of an accomplished gentleman. Many knew him when he was with the Sarawak National Party (SNAP). And then he was with the Parti Bangsa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) and finally with Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS). If you should wander through the major towns in Sarawak, it is likely that you would find someone who knows him or knows of him. If we want to accentuate only the positive here, which is what I want to do, you could say that he was a particularly effective political operator. This was why the breakfast he had with Anwar Ibrahim assumed an importance of enormous local proportion: it was pregnant with possibilities. But that is the man’s alleged past. How about the future. Particularly the immediate future? Here lies the real enchilada: Sng is that he is said to have a stable of candidates ready to face the coming state elections. By some accounts he has fifteen (the number varies) all primed and ready to be launched at the right time and some pundits say that at least five are capable of winning seats. If this is correct, then his domain is even bigger that a couple of BN political parties in Sarawak whose number of designated seat allocation is certainly a lot less than 15. And, to cap it all, there is this little but highly vital factor: he is said to be financially sound and a keen player, if that is the play. By any measure then, Sng is potentially a major political force in Sarawak. You better believe it. Larry Sng…Daddy seeking a place for his partyless minister son? [Photo: Audie61] If he has his strengths, Sng also has his needs and ambitions. What real man does not? His son is the young and hard working Larry who is the Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri member for Pelagus. Larry is said to have no known vices. No cock-fighting for him, no gambling. None whatsoever, sir. And he was ensconced as a senior leader of Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) until it started to unravel, albeit briefly, a few years ago. Larry’s apparent predicament is that he is partyless, a consequence of having been entangled in the internal political struggle that sent PRS to its near death experience in 2008. It is a measure of the man’s crucial positioning, not to mention his extended networkings, that despite being without proper party support, Larry retains his seat of Pelagus and his assistant minister post in the Sarawak government. Not surprisingly, many in the PRS leadership consider his ministerial position as an anomaly and have made it known that they want him replaced as assistant minister and as candidate in the coming election by a person of their choice. But to be a minister, even an assistant one sans a political party, is clearly not a satisfactory arrangement. It is too much an ad hoc, a makeshift and politically rickety effort that probably would not last. Besides, if you have even bigger ambitions you will begin to ask yourself how you could climb the political ladder if you have no organization with a strong foundation. It seem clear then that Sng’s need is to find a political party for son Larry, one that will allow the YB to contest again in the coming election and even attain greater position. Could Sng the elder then be sizing up PKR as a possible party to accommodate his son? Anwar Ibrahim said that they did not discuss politics during breakfast. And who is to disbelieve him? After all, there would be plenty of other occasions when they could meet and discuss various issues. And so, what could critics of the breakfast meeting really want? They should remember, in PKR the byword is inclusiveness. As Anwar Ibrahim himself was reported to have said: people should be more mature in politics and take a view of befriending everyone but exercise the rights to preserve the interest of the party. In other words, if someone is to show up, no matter how unexpectedly, at least one could be decorous to the visitor. Thus, for those who want a different tack to be taken, those who dream that Sng be made some kind of persona non grata in this circle, the message is as obvious as the colour of the waters of the Rejang River (which is dirty brown, by the way): it is not going to happen. Sarawak (and Sabah) are therefore the present Ground Zero when it comes to Malaysian politics. That makes the goings-on in Sarawak important at this time. For those in the state who view themselves with a sense of exceptionalism and some kind of manifest destiny (to have one of them be the next CM, no less?), any slight movement or any new wrinkle of perceived prior advantage at the local scene would be subjected to hard and close scrutiny. After all, a new development or event could spell the beginning of a change. The irony is that those who have been screaming for change could all of sudden become sullen and even abusive should changes happen to disadvantage them. Witness, for instance, the epithets thrown at SNAP recently. Here was a party that is merely trying to regain its footing, to be wholesome again, after years of being involuntarily moribund. How has the response been to SNAP’s initiative? From what I can evaluate, the party is fast gaining strength as veterans and new members realise their potential. There are others, for reasons better known to themselves, who are clearly uncomfortable with SNAP’s recovery. And they have responded with sniffs and brickbats. And now, evidently, what we have is the apparent emergence of a person with a history of executing uncommon things and unprecedented consequences in the person of Sng Chee Hua. Many observers believe that he has the capabilities of a “game changer.” No wonder those who believe that they hold a kind of franchise in the PKR leadership and an exalted position in PR in Sarawak appear to be greatly perturbed at the apparently changing situation. And so, where does that leave those in PKR who simply do not like Sng and the way that he has been carrying on. Assuming that there are those in our party who hold those attitudes, the choices of these critics are basically three. You could, if you like, do nothing. What could happen is that you accept the apparent emerging trend. If you have difficulties accepting this trend yet want to remain in the party, you could always bury your head in the sand like an ostrich and hope, like all ostriches in a similar predicament, that no person or thing would come by and pluck your feathers out. The other choice is to fight it out internally, in which case such questions as resources and manpower become relevant. Presuming that Sng is really interested in PKR, could you hope to match his reach and power base? Even if you think you have the resolve to fight, and you think you have the time and resources, there is no guarantee that people will adhere to your views. The last option is, well, you have to identify it yourself and follow it, if you wish.

Karpal - 'Attempted sodomy' and 'attempted oral sex'....

Lead defence counsel Karpal Singh managed to put a major dent into the prosecution's case in Anwar Ibrahim's sodomy trial in the Kuala Lumpur High Court. The veteran lawyer pointed out this morning that the pro forma form filled by a Hospital Kuala Lumpur doctor has the words 'attempted sodomy' and 'attempted oral sex'.

The form was filled by doctors - mainly forensic pathologist Dr Siew Shueu Feng - who had interviewed and examined complainant Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan on June 28, 2008.

Former HKL Accident and Emergency Unit head Dr Khairul Nizam Hassan told the court that Saiful had told the medical team that he had been sodomised and forced to perform oral sex. "He (Saiful) did not mention 'attempted' but 'sodomy' and 'oral sex'," he said.

When shown the pro forma form, however, Khairul Nizam agreed the form states 'attempted sodomy' and 'attempted oral sex'. Despite this, he maintained that the medical examination was conducted to check for sodomy and oral sex.

Karpal pursued the matter, asking Khairul Nizam many times if the pro forma form was based on interviewing Saiful. The witness agreed, but stressed that the form is just as a guideline.

"How can you say it is sodomy or oral sex when the report states 'attempted'?" asked Karpal. He persisted with this line of questioning until Solicitor-General II Mohd Yusof Zainal Abiden - who is leading the prosecution team - objected to the repetition of the questions.

Karpal also pointed out that vital information which should have been indicated in the pro forma form had not been filled by the doctors. The 'vital information' included the circumstances that led to the alleged incident; ! on the c omplainant's medical history; and on past rectal examination as to whether or not the victim had defecated.- Hafiz Yatim.

source:malaysiakini

cheers.

"Lim Kit Siang insists Mahathir Mohamed LIED" !

Good. That means the "bribery" rumor is busted ... Mahathir must now prove he didn't lie because in all honesty, hardly anyone believes him even just for a second.

That bad ? Unless he can prove otherwise eg. show evidence of the bribery attempt etc., it looks like that is the case ... that "he Met Allah".

Polis Diraja Mamak Boozing San Miguel At Work ?

Mahathir should make a greater effort to remember his astounding meeting before Operation Lalang giving assurance of no ISA arrests

Yesterday, despite denials by DAP National Chairman and MP for Bukit Gelugor Karpal Singh (who was one of the seven DAP MPs detained by Tun Mahathir’s Ministerial order in 1987) and I that there had been such a meeting or assurance before the Operation Lalang crackdown, the former Prime Minister stuck to his version, saying:

“This happened 20 years ago. I remember distinctly having the meeting. I don’t really remember the faces of those who were there, but I am quite certain that Karpal Singh was not there and that Lim Kit Siang was there.”

This is most untypical of Mahathir, who is credited with elephantine memory except when for political reasons he chose to be a victim of amnesia – as during his 90-minute testimony before the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Lingam Videotape Scandal in January 2008 where he said “I cannot remember” or its equivalent 14 times!

Could it be possible that he had “met all of the opposition members and assured them that they would not be arrested” and he could not remember their faces except mine – or when, where or who else from his side who were present or party to the meeting?

Mahathir should make a greater effort to remember this astounding meeting before Operation Lalang mass arrests where he allegedly “met all of the opposition members and assured them that they would not be arrested” – not only the who, but all other details as to the where, when and how the meeting came about, together with eye-witness accounts.

There is no reason why any Opposition leader should hide the truth of such a meeting and assurance of no-ISA detentions if they had actually happened, for it would have been the chief reason for the ISA detainees and the civil society to argue against their detention in national and international campaigns – but which was never used during the entire Operation Lalang period as nobody knew about it.

I had mentioned that after my Operation Lalang release from Kamunting Detention Centre in May 1989, I had met Mahathir in the Prime Minister’s Office where I had asked him point-blank why the Umno Youth leader, Datuk Seri Najib Razak had not been detained for escalating the racial tensions in the country in Oct. 1987 while innocent ones were made victims of Operation Lalang.

The first question I would have popped to Mahathir at that meeting would be to ask him why he had broken his word why he had failed to honour his assurance to opposition leaders that there would be no ISA detentions, if Mahathir had indeed met with opposition leaders and given such an assurance before the launch of Operation Lalang.

This speaks volumes and the more interesting question is why Mahathir is now trying to rewrite history to clear himself of the infamy of the Operation Lalang mass crackdown.

So how much are the shirts?

Too Little Too Late, PKR

Tuesday, February 15 @ 21:51:19 PST By Govan Naliah I understand that Anwar Ibrahim last week had a meeting with PKR’s Indian leaders, several Indian NGOs and individuals to hatch a plan to bring back the support of Indian voters to Pakatan Rakyat (PR). I would like to say that I am very unexcited and unimpressed by the news and I believe I am not alone among Indian voters to feel that way. My message to Anwar and his Indian cohorts in the party is very simple and straightforward: whatever plan they might come up with, it is way too little, too late, too patronising and pathetic. Only after more than 1,060 days since the tsunami of 2008 that PKR has finally realised that Indian support for it and PR has waned. If the party is wondering why that happened, let me explain. Indians have now woken up to the fact that they have been made use of. Many of us voted for the opposition in 2008 because of the Hindraf factor and our bitterness towards MIC and Samy Vellu. Anwar and gang had very cleverly made use of that anti-government sentiment. All kinds of promises were made to help poor and marginalised Indians. And so we placed our trust on the opposition parties. Don’t anyone underestimate the impact of the swing of Indian votes. Our numbers may be small but the modest margin of victory for many opposition candidates tells you that our votes have been invaluable. But now, more than 1,000 days later, what has PR done to alleviate the plight of many poor Indians? Ilek, nothing, zero. That’s why I say Indians feel that we have been made use of. It is understandable why people like Gobalakrishnan, Kottapan and Jenapala have left the party. The latter, legitimately nominated to contest for the PKR deputy president post, even had one sacking letter very suddenly and suspiciously appearing out of the blue to put an end to his nomination. Was it because PKR didn’t want an Indian to contest such an important post? I leave that to everyone to decide. Jenapala might not have won but he could have carried the votes of a majority of PKR’s Indian members and made use of that to cut a deal with the other two candidates to make assistance to Indians a higher and more urgent priority in the party’s plans. Whether you are an MIC supporter or not, you cannot deny that in the Interlok issue it has been quite effective in conveying the concerns and worries of the Indian community. If it becomes even more effective in serving its Indian constituency, I will have no hesitation to give it my support. To PKR, I say it again: it’s too little too late.

Syabas sues Khalid, Pua for defamation

The Selangor MB and the PJ Utara MP have called the water company's suit against their public statements an act of 'intimidation'. Selangor water distributor Syabas has filed defamation suits against Selangor Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim and Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua over their statements against the company. syabas logoA writ of summons was served on the duo last Friday and the matter was heard yesterday at the Kuala Lumpur High Court, where they were given a month to prepare their defence. It is understood that Khalid is being sued for criticisms against Syabas' establishment of a special fund dubbed Tabung Budi to collect money from Selangor residents who want to waive state subsidies for 20 cubic metres of water, that amounts to RM11.40. The money collected was purportedly meant to help Selangor households that have no access to clean water. Syabas claims that more than RM350,000 have been collected thus far. NONEKhalid had accused Syabas of double dipping through this scheme and that anyone who wants to waive their subsidies should rightfully return the money to the state, and not to the company. Speaking at a press conference at Shah Alam today, Khalid said that his administration will not waver from its position on Tabung Budi. “Syabas does not have the right to ask consumers to hand the funds to them because the subsidies were given by the state government through its free water programme,” said Khalid. Intimidation tactic Pua meanwhile is being sued for comments that appeared in Nanyang Siang Pau, where he purportedly suggested that the water concessionaires should be taken over by the state if they could not settle their debts. NONE“This is just an act to intimidate us. Only the both of us, Khalid and myself were given the letter,” said Pua, who was also at the press conference. Pua is a member of the Selangor water panel, that is tasked with negotiations with water industry players and the federal government over the latter's water restructuring exercise. Khalid added that the state water regulatory officer has written to Syabas to demand that the water company does not foot the legal fees for this suit, as it does not involve the company's function. Instead, the legal costs should be personally borne by Syabas directors for initiating the suit, said Khalid.

PKR finalises Sabah presidential council

The latest attempt to salvage Sabah PKR is finally unveiled with a committee list comprising various factional leaders. The lineup of the interim Sabah PKR presidential council has been finalised, and it convened its first meeting at the state party headquarters in Kota Kinabalu today. According to a statement by PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who is also the interim state party chairperson, the council comprises 11 committee members headed by key state party leaders. “It is a first step towards building a stronger leadership foundation for the party in Sabah with greater emphasis on reaching consensus on key issues,” said Wan Azizah. The presidential council comprises: 1. Finance, Security and Immigration – Ahmad Thamrin Jaini 2. Rural Development – James Ghani 3. Infrastructure Development – Christina Liew 4. Housing and Local Government - Saidil Simoi 5. Industrial Development and Forestry - Awang Tengah Awang Amin 6. Land Development and Management - Kong Hong Ming 7. Health, Family Development and Consumer Affairs - Stephen Sandor 8. Sports and Youth - Jafery Jomion 9. Tourism, Culture and Environment - Lukiah Indan 10. Education, Human Capital Development and IT – Hallik Zaman 11. Agriculture and Food Security – Mustapha Tambuyong NONETwo party supreme council members of Sabah origin - Roland Chia and Darell Leiking - and vice-chief of the national women's wing Hajjah Sakinah Yusuf are tasked as ex-officio members of the council. They will act as liaisons between the party's central and state leadership. Wan Azizah said that she will head the state leadership on a state-wide roadshow to meet party members and kick start the party's election campaign. “I believe the interim restructuring of Sabah PKR will provide a new focus that will benefit the Sabahans at large, in anticipation of the next general election,” she said. Slew of programmes lined up Wan Azizah said that over the next few months, each committee head will produce a blueprint for Sabah PKR policies and programmes. “The rakyat of Sabah can expect our party leaders to play more active roles in local and national public discourses to highlight the pleas and woes of Sabahans,” she said. The council today also touched on Sabah PKR's launching of the Pakatan Rakyat elections manifesto, dubbed Buku Jingga or the Orange Book, in Kota Kinabalu on February 26. Also discussed was the organising of a seminar scheduled for March 5 on Sabah PKR's policies on land, forestry and economic development. “The series of public engagements will culminate in the Sabah PKR Convention scheduled on April 2, 2011,” said Wan Azizah. The state presidential council was established following a string of power struggles for the party leadership and the recent defection of state party chairperson Pajudin Nordin on Feb 5.

Malaysian Police Is Empowered To Execute People ?

Cops probe mentally ill man ‘executed’ claim

from Free Malaysia Today » Nation by G Vinod

PETALING JAYA: An investigation has been launched into the allegation that a mentally ill man was “executed” after being provoked by several policemen in Bahau last week.

Speaking to FMT, Negri Sembilan police chief Osman Salleh said they were recording statements from witnesses.

“We will investigate all complaints no matter what,” he said. “Once we collect the information, we will proceed with the next course of action.”

Previously, the police said Ahmad Harfidz Abu Bakar was shot dead after he had attacked a police sergeant with a parang.

The police had apparently gone to the house after Harfidz’s mother complained that he was running amok.

However, the deceased’s brother Ahmad Hairail Adzuan filed a police report the next day, claiming that his brother was shot at point blank range after being provoked.

The police’s version stated that he was shot from a distance of three metres.

According to Hairail, his mother had called the police to coax Harfidz to go for his medical treatment.

However, Harfidz, whom he described as docile, panicked and locked himself in the room after seeing two patrol cars arrive at the house.

Hairail said when his brother came out of the room after the police had used a taser gun on him, the sergeant had allegedly said, ‘Awak ada parang, saya ada pistol, siapa lagi power’ (you have a parang and I have a gun. Who is more powerful?) and shot him, which led Harfidz to swing his parang at the officer.

Also read:

‘Cops executed my mentally ill brother’

Taib: I'd stay forever (I don't want to become Mahathir II) ?

CM: Sarawak assembly won’t be dissolved

from Free Malaysia Today » Nation by fmt

KOTA SAMARAHAN: Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud said today the State Legislative Assembly will not be dissolved by this week to pave the way for the state election.

Taib, who is also Sarawak Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman, said it was not true that he would call on Yang di-Pertua Negeri Abang Muhammad Salahuddin Abang Barieng on Friday to seek his consent to dissolve the 71-seat assembly, the term of which expires in July.

“I don’t know. These people can create news as they like but I cannot confirm that,” he told reporters after attending the state-level Prophet Muhammad’s birthday parade and gathering, here.

He was responding to a portal news report yesterday quoting a source at Astana Sarawak as saying that the chief minister’s office had called last week to fix a Feb 18 appointment with the head of state for that purpose.

“A story is a story. True or not true, let’s see lah,” said Taib, who also denied that he had called on Abang Muhammad Salahuddin yesterday as he was away the whole day attending the planning committee meeting.

Meanwhile, Taib, who will mark his 30th year as chief minister on March 26, is scheduled to deliver a keynote address at the Sarawak BN convention here on March 5 to be attended by 5,000 delegates from all the state BN component parties.

The BN now holds 63 seats in the state assembly, with Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), led by Taib, having 35 seats, followed by the Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) 12 and Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) and Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) eight each.

Six of the remaining seats are held by the DAP while PKR and Parti Cinta Malaysia (PCM), through an independent, have one each.

The Election Commission is required to hold elections within 60 days of the dissolution of the state assembly.

- Bernama

Message from the Middle East

Neil Khor

After three decades, the government of Hosni Mubarak of Egypt has come to an ignominious end.

Despite the many warning signs in the shape of high unemployment, rampant police brutality, the indignity of rigged elections, a restless youthful population (two-thirds of Egyptians are under 30) and spiralling food prices, the government did not seek to stay ahead of the game by reforming its political system. In fact Mubarak did not make plans to hand over power except perhaps to his son and key allies.

As a result, a spark in the form of police brutality against Khaled Saad in Alexandria and the successful uprising in Tunisia, started a revolution that swept away Mubarak.

Interestingly, support and strategy for the street protests were galvanized through the social networking tool Facebook, which allowed me to stay in touch with developments on the ground.

The well-planned street protests stretched the security apparatus of the Egyptian police and removed fear from the hearts of ordinary Egyptians. Eighteen days later, Mubarak finally resigned bringing an end to years of corruption, repression and autocratic rule.

The US, which has long propped up the Mubarak government and which has created a debacle for itself in Iraq, is now facing the same dilemma that the UK and France did some 50 years ago.

Like those two older European powers, the US will now have to adjust to a multi-polar world where it can no longer dictate but must instead win hearts and minds. With Tunisia and now Egypt having gotten rid of their respective strongmen, the entire Middle East can finally emerge from under the shadow of the West.

Wh at lessons can we draw from the Tunisian and Egyptian examples? How can Malaysia keep one step ahead of the kind of regime change that happened in the Middle East in the last two months?

We must first begin by identifying the problem and it is a word that begins with the letter g. Government, which is supposed to solve problems, is the biggest problem. Although the premier Najib Abdul Razak has announced a slew of reforms and is himself quite committed to those reforms, like his predecessors, it is the implementation of those reforms that will decide his fate.

Former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad recently admitted that the poor implementation of the New Economic Policy was to blame for the socio-economic situation of the Malaystoday. If he could do it again, he said, he would put devote more attention to making sure ethnic relations were better managed.

His handpicked successor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi introduced a slew of reforms that shone the light on corruption and the need to invest in people instead of only on building new cities. Najib promises a future where Malaysians earn high incomes and development will be equitable. But can the government deliver on all these promises and good intentions?

Direct communication

There are three chief lessons we can learn from Egypt and the voices calling for reforms in the Middle East. Firstly, despite what Rais Yatim thinks, we are all of us globalised individuals.

In the 1930s, when mass entertainment came to Malaya in the form of moving pictures, it was reported in the Straits Echo that our European masters felt the movies were degrading. Seeing Asian men leering at white starlets on the silver screen was too much for them.

In the 1950s, when Southeast Asia began to break free of the chains of colonial rule, organisations like RTM began to define our own national culture. Malaysians will remember fondly the patriotic songs that the late Mohammad Rahmat made us all sing in schools.

But television, which became a tool of mass popular culture in the 1970s, meant that Malaysians who could afford it, had access to different types of cultures whilst Tok Mat was cutting the hair of Malaysian pop stars. Those of us in our thirties grew up watching Little House on the Praire, Dallas and Remington Steel. But what is truly fascinating is that so did all our peers all over the world.

By the 1990s, shoulder pads were out but the Internet allowed us to connect directly with people all over the world and the connections were easy to make because we all shared very similar opinions and tastes. Popular culture was truly global. This means that the aspirations of most young people are the same the world over. The so-called fight against yellow culture(budaya kuning) was lost decades ago.

With Internet penetration on the rise and very rapidly, the government must begin to heed this first crucial lesson from the Middle East: most of your citizens can no longer accept the fact that there are one set of standards of equality, justice and what constitutes good governance for them because they are in a developing country. They want developed world standards of service, infrastructure and social justice; and they want it now!

The second point is a lesson in economics. In both Tunisia and Egypt, young men and women are relatively well educated but have little social and economic mobility. This was also a major concern during the colonial period. What are we to do with all the people we educate?

That was why our parents generation had to pa! ss exams at the end of every school year; if they failed, they had to re-sit the whole year. If they failed twice, they were out. Eventually, even this strategy was a mere stop-gap measure and the only way was to allow self-government.

Today, in Malaysia, tertiary education is seen as a natural right. Can the economy grow in a fashion that graduates will be gainfully employed? What about the not-so-clever ones? If we are to beef up our manufacturing sector, which is one of our biggest source of employment, can we attract the talent we require to do innovative work that will lead to higher levels of production?

How long more can the civil service be the repository for the unemployable? The more such people are recruited the more inefficient the government becomes. It is a vicious cycle, the result is that government policies cannot get implemented and/or are resisted.

In most developed countries, the best brains are in government, the universities and the civil service. If the government does not resolve the employment issue seriously and with single-minded political will, Malaysia will face the problems that plague the Arab countries today.

Party politics ineffective

The third and final lesson has to do with hubris. Politicians and the inner circle tend to become ossified without any real political challenge over a long time. They begin to think they can get away with everything. Some do not even bother to cover their tracks.

In Malaysia, both sides of the political divide tend to think that party politics is everything and they operate in the framework of party politics.

What happened in Egypt and Tunisia has shown that party politics is not everything if the situation is! so bad that citizens begin to take things into their own hands. And with the technology to enable them to channel their frustrations into organised protests, governments can fall.

The Mubarak government was many times more repressive than the Malaysian one, but all governments have the potential to be brutal and oppressive. But in a globalised world, it is hard for them to send in the tanks to kill and crush their own citizens with impunity. More importantly, an Internet-driven revolution has little need for opposition parties.

In Malaysia, the government is still putting a lot of attention on monitoring and controlling the activities of its political rivals. But the power grab in Perak; Selangors protests over the appointment of its state secretary; and a slew of by-electioncampaigns have shown how ineffective party politics are in recognising and solving both day-to-day as well as systemic problems.

These three lessons should not make the government nervous about citizens but should instead inspire it to work harder to stay in the game. For the opposition, the writing is also on the wall. Come up with the goods or face irrelevance.

Postscript: The author would like to acknowledge and thank his two friends in Egypt Ms Rasha Arous in Cairo and Professor Wessam Elmeligi in Alexandria for their brave and courageous efforts in recent days. Through Facebook, we kept in touch with the news as it was happening on the ground. May Egypt now find the will to make the best of the change it has achieved.

NEIL KHOR completed his PhD at Cambridge University and now writes occasionally on matters that he thinks requires better historical treatment. He is quietly optimistic about Malaysias future.

Filed under: corruption, Human rights, Politics Tagged: Anak Sarawak Bangsa Malaysia, corruption, Human rights, Save Sarawak