MCA’s hudud stand – the mouse that squeaked

By Koon Yew Yin

Malaysiakini

Mar 21, 2015

COMMENT
 Why is it that politicians in Malaysia finally talk some sense when they become ex-politicians? I am referring to Dr Chua Soi Lek, former MCA president, who since his departure from the leadership position, has been talking more sense than before.

 In fact, so much so that some Malaysians may even reconsider their negative opinion on him. His latest public skewering of MCA is well worth disseminating.

 According to Chua, MCA should not be pointing fingers at the DAP but should prevent UMNO from supporting PAS’ parliamentary hudud bill. In his statement, he pointed out that “if Umno MPs support PAS’ private bill in Parliament, MCA cannot continue to ignore the elephant in the room and blame others for supporting PAS hudud in Kelantan.”

Further, he noted that “to continue issuing statements condemning DAP is an exercise of futility. The Malaysian community expects more from MCA and it is time for MCA leadership to rise to the occasion.”

Resistance is not futile

 But is Chua’s statement itself an exercise in futility?

 Firstly it is important to note that Chua’s statement, although carried in the online media, has been kept out of the Star, the MCA-owned newspaper. No trace of it is found in the paper’s online and print versions.

 Not only will the majority Malay and Muslim community not be aware of this important stand taken by the MCA but the MCA grassroots – fed on an anti-DAP diet – will similarly be ignorant of the need to man the barricades against the imposition of hudud law.

 Secondly, everyone including Chua and the present MCA leadership, knows that UMNO is not the most scrupulous party in the country.

 This is a party which has been the major player in squandering the country’s wealth, undermining our racial and religious unity, debasing the institutions of the state and bringing us closer to authoritarian rule – if we are not already there.

 So he can expect that big brother UMNO will pull the present MCA leader, Liow Tong Lai, aside and repeat the same message which was put to Chua during his own tenure as MCA chief.

 At that time, Umno president and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had told him to “tone down” his attack against the Islamic penal code as it could be twisted to portray MCA as being anti-Islam.

Neither moderate nor inclusive

 I would like to go further than Chua in pointing out why MCA and all BN parties should oppose hudud.

 If hudud were ever to see the light of day in Malaysia, we can be sure that there will be a massive outflow of investment, wealth, and people from Malaysia.

 It is not only the locals who will leave. The international community – including foreign investors – has been more loud and vociferous in expressing concern about the growing Islamisation in the country.

 Despite repeated assurances by the Prime Minister that we are and remain a moderate Muslim country, they see actions sanctioned by the state authorities such as on the Allah issue, as evidence of hardline and conservative Muslim political forces gaining dominance in Malaysia.

 Adoption by Parliament – even if a two-thirds majority is not obtained – will be the beginning of the end for moderate and inclusive Islam in the country.

 Is the Middle East model of fundamentalist Islam which has brought destruction and disaster the model that Malaysian Muslims want to follow? I do not think so.

BN component parties have to say ‘no’

 Malaysians are not expecting that the fight against hudud and other forms of Islamic practices that are being sneaked into the public sector should come only from Muslim moderates, civil society organisations or the opposition parties.

 We expect that the ruling government – that is the BN coalition – should be the first to stand up and say “no” to creeping Islamisation and firmly reject any efforts to water down our secular constitution.

 Quite by coincidence, we saw a big public spectacle being made of the BN component parties pledging their support to Prime Minister Najib Razak’s leadership of the country.

 I am sure most Malaysians will feel much better if we had the same gang of BN high-level apple polishers finally summon up enough courage to call a similar press conference and photo opportunity to say “no” to the imposition of hudud law in Malaysia.

 When that happens, I will salute MCA as the mouse that squeaked.

KOON YEW YIN, a retired chartered engineer, is a philanthropist.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 21 March 2015, 2:01 pm and is filed under
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PAS’s folly – awareness and containment

By Bridget Welsh

Malaysiakini

Mar 20, 2015

COMMENT
 In the introduction of the Kelantan hudud bill its architect declared that those who question whether the legislation would bring in equal justice are “liars and immoral”.

This unbecoming language is what one expects of a fanatic dictator, rather than a genuine democratic leader. It speaks to the decay in the political fabric of Malaysia that is coming from leaders, who have lost the plot in having a national consciousness and the broader decline taking place in democratic governance. Given the passage of the Kelantan hudud bill, what are the likely political implications that will evolve from this measure?

 Some political parties will begin the politics of containment, while others will fan division and will continue to use hudud for political gains. As of now, it is important to remember that no hudud measure will take effect. They are all measures on paper.

 With respect to those who favour these measures, on many levels hudud does not holistically reflect the ideas of justice embodied in Islam or any faith for that matter and brings to light serious questions about fairness and administration of the rule of law for all of Malaysia’s citizens.

 The stoning, chopping and whipping urged in the enactments are now threats over the public without adequate protections; they make up the politics of fear that has been deeply engrained in the Malaysian political landscape.

 No implementation does not mean that there measures are not unimportant. Quite the contrary. The people of Kelantan in particular will be hurt economically by the bill, as its leaders across the political divide failed them in thinking holistically about their development.

Real questions can be asked about priorities and timing, namely whether Kelantan in the wake of the floods should be introducing these measures. Questions about fairness also can be asked about who will be potentially affected by these measures, those who engaged in corruption that contributed to the flooding or ordinary citizens.

 These are beyond the issues of minority rights, religious freedom and the rights and protections of the constitution that emotionally divide the country in views.

 There will be other important political tests ahead as well. Unlike in the two previous pieces, this piece looking at the broader political consequences of the passage of the bill yesterday. The fluidity of Malaysian politics will create opportunities ahead. The hudud issue will likely only remain a weapon of division if national leaders continue to wield it as one.

Sharing blame – a missing ‘vote of consciousness’

In opting for a touted ‘vote of conscience’ for Umno members in Kelantan, the Najib Abdul Razak government did not lead. In fact, the Najib administration effectively took the stance of allowing the reintroduction of Kelantan hudud law to move forward without opposition.

 This was driven by Najib’s weakness, not strength. It will feed extremist religious divisions and make the task of governing Malaysia’s multi-ethnic mosaic more difficult. Najib’s inaction speaks to his failing leadership as prime minister and as the leader of Umno.

 It is sadly not the first time when a divisive issue emerged and the PM went missing. Najib may not be able to survive in office until GE14 and his inaction on the hudud law will only make his struggle for survival in office harder.

Najib’s weak leadership over hudud does in fact have damaging consequences beyond himself. By most measures, Malaysia’s position in the region economically and politically has taken a serious beating in the last year, from airline disasters to the recent poor performance in the stock market caused by the shocking 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal.

 The Kelantan hudud bill will add to these negative perceptions, and hurt the country by discouraging investment and reinforcing the view that the country does not effectively offer protections in the rule of law.

 To date, every country or region that introduced hudud – all in political efforts to shore up political legitimacy – has suffered an economic and political backlash. Malaysia does not have the resources of a Saudi Arabia and Brunei to weather yet another storm as effectively.

 For Najib, there will be two tests ahead for the hudud bill. The first will be whether the Umno leadership will move ahead with implementing hudud legislation at the national level. PAS with less than 10 percent of the parliament do not have the numbers to go ahead. Umno will be the national driver.

Umno’s hudud partnership with PAS is driven by the goal of destroying the opposition and PAS in particular. Of late, the actions of the Najib government have repeatedly shown an apparent willingness to carry out actions that damage the country to hold onto power.

 A national constitutional amendment allowing hudud is supposedly currently not on the cards, despite PAS ulama grandstanding, but given the climate of crisis and weakness that surrounds both Malay parties and the apparent void of national statesmanship leadership of Najib’s government, not to be ruled out.

 The second test is whether Najib will direct its members to follow a ‘vote of consciousness’ rather than one of ‘vote of conscience’. This is a vote that at its core gives all Malaysians confidence in their place in the country and faith in their constitution. It is not one that adopts the practice of the ‘politics of tyranny or the majority and punishment’ carried out in the supposed name of democracy by the conservative PAS ulama.

 Whether Najib will be conscious enough to provide wise national leadership in his politically beleaguered state is unclear. One should not underestimate the betrayal, fear and anger that many Malaysians across faiths feel about the passage of this bill that divides the country.

High costs of Umno primacy and insecurity

 The political effects of unanimous support for the Kelantan hudud bill goes beyond Umno. It was not just Pakatan that was betrayed by its coalition partners, the same happened to the parties within the BN. Umno has been adopting a primacy for some time, which has deepened post-GE13.

Gerakan, MIC, MCA and other component parties in East Malaysia will all have to come to terms with this act of Umno and conservative PAS ulama political partnership. They have to come to terms with the fact that they are also allied with a party that supported hudud.

 The Kelantan hudud bill will have ripple effects from the cabinet to the Sarawak elections. The pressures inside the BN component parties is there, and they face the same problem as Pakatan partners do over the hudud issue. The glue that keeps Barisan together is power and money, but there has been a similar sense of betrayal at play.

 As discussion of the bill evolves, expect pressure within the BN to rise, with Najib becoming the target of these frustrations. He failed to protect the component parties within the BN. A key test ahead will be how the component parties manage in the shadow of Umno dominance.

 Where that pressure will be most felt will be is in East Malaysia. Umno will now have to face the music in Sabah, and the vote yesterday will assure that in the short term Umno is not entering Sarawak. But, it is hard for East Malaysians to distance themselves from the action of their fellow party members in Kelantan, as they are of the same party.

 They politics of containment have already begun in East Malaysia and they are coming on less reception ground. Since before 2013 there has been a powerful wave of federalism taking root in East Malaysia and this will likely deepen.

 Another key test ahead will be the how Umno can convince its East Malaysian partners to work with them, when this Umno ‘vote of conscience’ showed a lack of consciousness of genuine national leadership of all of Malaysia’s citizens.

Pakatan separation inevitable, not irrevocable

 The main immediate focus however is understandably the opposition, the coalition and individual parties. It was PAS conservative ulama intention to break up Pakatan, but they and their hudud partnership with Umno is not exclusively responsible for the opposition coalition’s strains.

 As I have written elsewhere, the causes of Pakatan’s problems cannot be boiled down exclusively to hudud or to PAS, there must be some shared responsibility. The Kajang move, differences in style and the reality of catering to different constituencies have made for a problematic marriage.

 The Kelantan hudud bill will now force the opposition partners to come to terms with the issues that have divided them. This is never easy. Addressing Kelantan hudud will be the Pakatan’s greatest test.

 On all sides questions are being asked. How do you work with a partner you no longer trust, a partner who you see as selfish, a partner who is unable to fulfill responsibilities and a partner who thinks and claims to represents a core group of views that are so different from your own? Most would say you don’t. Others would say you have to try.

 As with every problematic relationship, there is a need for distance and reflection. Statesman leadership requires that a difficult decision be carefully considered. How Pakatan will solve this problem will reveal how it will govern, and unlike Umno it does not have the same resources and bounty of position to woo support and keep the coalition together.

 The strategic response to the hudud issue divides all the Pakatan parties. The Kelantan PKR representative’s vote and Selangor Menteri Besar Azmin’s Ali’s own alliance with PAS ulama point to some of these ambiguities.

 Pakatan will face even more public pressure than the BN component partners. The decision will have spillovers for governance in Penang and Selangor. While both of these governments can survive without PAS, there will be political implications for exclusion.

 Pakatan partners will likely need to enter a long cooling off period for assessment and review. Urgings for freezes have already begun. This distance will allow the path ahead to emerge.

 After the PAS election this June, it will be clearer whether the PAS members will vote for a leadership that has opted for personal power and undermined the party’s option at national power or will allow for the possibility of collaboration.

 As the opposition moves forward, PAS will need to show that it has something to offer politically besides its focus on hudud and reaffirm its commitment to Pakatan emphatically in its party polls.

 The other Pakatan component parties will also have to find common ground, work toward respecting the choices of others, move away difference, and strive to build a stronger fabric of leadership for Malaysia. Pakatan will now have to engage in its own politics of containment and national consciousness.

 There are limited reasons for optimism, but the possibilities of learning on all sides offers promise and a path ahead.

 Part I: PAS’s hudud folly – a political putsch

 Part II: PAS’s hudud folly – it’s not chosen by all

 BRIDGET WELSH is a Senior Research Associate at the Center for East Asia Democratic Studies of National Taiwan University and can be reached at
[email protected]
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                This entry was posted on Saturday, 21 March 2015, 3:54 am and is filed under
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Take action against those who make threats online

– Syerleena Abdul Rashid

The Malaysian Insider

21 March 2015

“I want to meet her too… I haven’t punched anyone in a long time… Who cares if anyone calls me a cuckold for hitting a woman… she should die.”

Above is one of the many comments targeted at Aisyah Tajuddin. I have one simple question to ask: does this comment enrage you? If it doesn’t, then you are misogynistic, which simply means you hate women. If you don’t understand what misogyny is and find the video anti-Islamic without even viewing the entire video, then that simply means you suffer from a deficit of intellectualism and that, my friend, can lead to destructive consequences.

The BFM video that sparked a mass hysteria of misplaced vitriol showcased the ugliness of the Malay/Muslim siege mentality. The video has since been taken down but the after-effects that continue to linger will forever haunt the rest of us. The numerous hate-filled threats on social media solidify the fact that online misogyny is equally disturbing and must be taken seriously. What makes these comments worse is the anonymity cyberspace provides for these cyber-bigots to troll around ruthlessly.

These comments also confirm the unforgiving attitudes some Malaysians have when it comes to sensitive topics, in particular, religion. Hudud has for quite some time now replaced the May 13 boogeyman and for some (Muslims and non-Muslims alike), the fear of not knowing exactly what hudud is about has created tension and distrust within our society. The hudud debate, or rather the lack of debate, has created an over-simplified argument for Malaysians: you are either for it or against it, end of discussion.

If a Malay Muslim were to raise a few questions such as how hudud would be implemented in a multi-ethnic, multi-religious country like Malaysia, overzealous critics would brand you an apostate and subject you to the worst online threats you can imagine. In this case, Aisyah Tajuddin has been made a scapegoat for these overzealous critics to vent their frustrations and she isn’t the only one. Nik Raina, Dyana Sofya and I – yours truly – have all been targets of online death threats and the subject of multiple grotesque rape fantasies.

The reason is simple: the unholy marriage between religiosity and the patriarchal system has allowed misogyny to manifest itself into a dreadfully real problem in modern society. Everyone knows that in a male-dominated world, women are just easy prey.

It doesn’t help that Malaysians have an increasingly awkward relationship with intellectualism. Most Malaysians are only too happy to have someone declare and dictate what society should believe in. The events that lead to the ridiculousness of shallow interpretations and taking things too literally are a result the system giving too much space for the anti-intellectuals to convey their brand of ideologies.

The threats made towards Aisyah and BFM all point to the dumbing down of our country. The hyper-politicisation (ie. the overzealous banter) and the hypo-politicisation (ie. political apathy of our young) only allow these fanatics to do as they please in this country.

The actual content of the video highlighted the thoughts that echo in the minds of most Malaysians: why are those in power focusing on hudud when pressing issues have not been dealt with properly? A survey conducted by Merdeka Center showed that a majority of people in Kelantan would rather have their elected leaders focus on the economy and recovery efforts.

It is most unfortunate that religion is often manipulated to conceal severe issues and to an extent, used to divert our attention. Most of us understand the situation a little bit better than some, but BFM only dared to highlight the truth and for some of us the truth can be too difficult to swallow.

That being said, the authorities must take stern action against those who instigate harm and violence towards Aisyah. These evil comments can be found publicly on various social media sites and must be considered seditiously harmful in nature. – March 21, 2015.

* Syerleena Abdul Rashid is DAP Wanita Bukit Bendera political education director.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 21 March 2015, 3:14 pm and is filed under
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Why I will never support hudud in Malaysia

Azrul Mohd Khalib

Malay Mail Online

Thursday March 19, 2015

MARCH 19 ― The tabling of the Shariah Criminal Code Enactment II 1993 (Amendment 2015) in the Kelantan State Assembly and any move to amend the Federal Constitution to allow for the implementation of hudud at the State and Federal levels needs to be opposed by all right thinking Malaysians.

Personally, I will never support the imposition of hudud in this country. These are my four reasons:

Hudud is not needed in Malaysia. The law should be and is more than just about punishing others. It is about the deliverance of justice.

The penal laws at the centre of hudud were written during a time when harsh measures were necessary to impose peace, order and stability amidst a period of lawlessness, conflict and turmoil. They were guidelines for civilised behaviour formulated when and where there were few laws and men. Hudud was necessary there and at that time. Today, in our country, hudud law is neither necessary nor required.

We already have civil and criminal laws which provide for separate sets of laws and punishments. One of the primary tenets of Islam is about the deliverance of justice. The discourse surrounding the adoption and implementation of hudud in this country has barely made justice a mention, much less a priority. It has, however been very much about politics, punishing other people and posturing to “out-Islam” each other.

The adoption of hudud into practice, to me, would represent a failure of our existing legal systems to deliver justice. It would also represent a repulsive need to show others how Islamic we are and how holy we can be at the cost of signing away the liberties and freedoms of others.

Instead of delivering justice, hudud would compromise our existing systems and result in situations which cannot be easily explained away by holy verses and theological arguments.

Lack of accountability, transparency and standard of care. Our religious department officials have hardly been paragons of these virtues. Whenever these issues are brought up, they have bristled with outrage, indignation and accused others of undermining or questioning their authority.

Jakim’s Director General Datuk Othman Mustapha recently denounced the questioning of religious authorities as being part of a liberalism movement. As if you needed to be part of an ideology, belief system or movement, to be able to ask questions and demand accountability and transparency from civil servants who are paid with our (Muslim and non-Muslim) tax money.

In 2012, an amendment was made to the Mufti and Fatwa (Kedah Darul Aman) Enactment 2008 by the Kedah state government and passed unanimously by the State Legislative Assembly. The amendment made any fatwa of the state Mufti or Fatwa Committee, whether gazetted or not, unable to be challenged, appealed, reviewed, denied or questioned in any civil or Shariah court. In short, approving a measure which would effectively put a fatwa above the law and above the Federal Constitution.

Consider the case of Nik Raina who has been pursued relentlessly by the Wilayah Persekutuan Religious Department (JAWI) despite a defective charge. JAWI’s actions were determined by three courts of law (civil and Shariah) to be illegal, of bad faith and unconstitutional. Yet they still are pursuing her after three years. This case has been the very definition of injustice and a neglect of the standard of care required of a legal criminal case. Instead they have been dependent on the tactics of bullying, intimidation, fear and oppression in the hope that they can beat Nik Raina into submission and defeat.

Islam requires the utmost prudence, caution and compassion in the enforcement of the law and prosecution of cases. The enforcement of hudud will be dependent on the religious departments to demonstrate a clear understanding of the basic legal principles of justice, fairness and compassion. They must also be open to dialogue, criticism and debate. They must be accountable, transparent and exercise prudence and care in enforcement of the law.

Based on recent examples and their behaviour, the parties involved in the discussion of hudud which include religious authorities, thus far have been anything but transparent and open with their intentions. They feel that they are above criticism. That they can do no wrong and are infallible. They feel themselves accountable to no one and need not explain themselves. That to criticise them is to question Islam.

Peddling away fundamental freedoms. There is a reason for the Shariah system to be where it is under the Federal Constitution of Malaysia. Imposition of the hudud law involves changing the very agreement in which this country was founded on.

Make no mistake, the attempts to rewrite the Constitution are no longer silent.

Those who make the self-righteous claim to the mantle of champions and protectors of Islam seem to not hesitate to peddle away our freedoms and liberties at the altar of politics. Such repulsive behaviour is not the exclusive domain of one particular party but can be seen across the chamber and even in the civil service.

There will be those who will ask, why should you be afraid if you have nothing to fear? We know all too well that we have much to fear when the state becomes engrossed in persecuting its own people, looking for sin, finding fault where there is none, jumping at shadows and imagined threats. We have seen enough evidence of it.

Anyway, why should being a Muslim make it alright to be tyrannised and inflicted with injustice?

Do Muslims not have the right as non-Muslims to equal protection and treatment under the law? Are we as Muslims to be deprived of rights and freedoms guaranteed under the Federal Constitution simply because of our religion? Why do we allow ourselves to be subject to possible bias, discrimination and religious tyranny?

Implementation of hudud will, without any doubt, affect all regardless of religions, ethnicity or creed. Non-Muslims should not and must not be silent just because they are allegedly not affected by the proposed laws. The eroding of our fundamental freedoms and civil liberties in the name of religion, affects everyone.

We must not allow these people to sacrifice our fundamental freedoms and rights for votes which will last only so long as the next election cycle or the setting of the sun. In these circumstances, there is no such thing as kasi chance lah. What is taken away will be very hard to be given back. If implemented, hudud will change our way of life as we know it in Malaysia.

Unjust means do not equate to Islam and justice. The reasons used to justify the imposition of hudud have not evolved far from “It’s God’s law!” and calling those who criticise its imposition as liars, infidels and munafik. This lazy defence of hudud not only amounts to religious blackmail to accept it wholesale but also implies that questioning it makes a person less of a Muslim in the sight of God.

These are some of the arguments which the champions of hudud in this country depend on.

The great Islamic caliphates of old held great stock in intellectual curiosity and debate. Religious leaders back then were often also lawyers, students of jurisprudence, mathematicians, astronomers, medical doctors, philosophers, explorers and teachers. They were wise men and women who drew on the lessons of the world to decide when to use the spoken word, the pen and the sword to arbitrate and administer justice. Compare them to who we have enforcing religious laws in this country today.

The Quran also clearly states that there is no compulsion in religion. Yet, those who fight for hudud in this country tolerate no dissent or contrarian opinions and require unthinking, unblinking and blind obedience. When people tell you that you shouldn’t or are not allowed to use your mind or akal to reason or rationalise these issues, you know, you have a problem. They want unquestioning compliance and obedience.

Yet, the first word revealed to the illiterate Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was Iqra, which means read or recite. It implies the need to learn. That there should neither be blind adherence nor unthinking compliance. Doing so would make us vulnerable to abuse, exploitation, bigotry and injustice which are all too human.

And as those who enforce hudud are human, they are neither infallible nor free from bias or prejudice. Vulnerable to ego and pride. Sins of arrogance, takbur and bongkak. We have seen evidence of this in the Nik Raina case.

How can we also trust these same people to implement and enforce a criminal code when they have barely been able to keep up on matters such as ensuring the rights of women on issues of inheritance, divorce and child custody?

Finally, let us not be naïve in thinking that non-Muslims will not be affected by these measures. The contents of a Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (Jakim) strategic paper which states that hudud should be applicable to all, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, tells me that regardless of whether there is the requisite two-thirds majority support in Parliament, there are people working actively behind the scenes to make this universality a reality. The words of a former Chief Justice bring to mind how far up such sympathies can go. We cannot afford to be complacent. This is not just a political issue. This imposition affects all of us.

Muslims and non-Muslims have a right to speak out as we, as Malaysians, are all stakeholders of this country.

At the end of the day, it is beholden on us as citizens of this country to decide how Malaysia should be. We look to the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong and the Sultans to safeguard the interests of all citizens, Muslims and non-Muslims.

For me, I will not subject myself or those who I care for and love to those who would use God’s name in vain in their overzealous pursuit for godliness and to demonstrate their individual or collective piety.

For all these reasons, I will never support hudud in Malaysia and I will resist any measure which seeks to change the fundamental nature of Malaysia and its people.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 21 March 2015, 1:27 pm and is filed under
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Why is Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar, the  twitter trigger-happy IGP, keeping quiet about the death and rape threats to BFM journalist Aisyah Tajuddin for questioning of hudud?

Why is the twitter trigger-happy Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar, keeping quiet about the death and rape threats to BFM journalist, Aisyah Tajuddin, for questioning of hudud?

Khalid could swing into twitter action against Pakatan Rakyat leaders and NGO activists within seconds, but why he is keeping his silence for over 24 hours over the death and rape threats to Aisyab Tajuddin?

Is the IGP suffering from selective attention in the way the police authorities suffer from the sin of  selective investigation and harassment of PR leaders and NGO activists (the latest victim being the 11th #Kita Lawan rally arrest of PKR Vice President and MP for Batu, Chua Tian Chang) and the Attorney-General suffer from the disease of selective prosecutions?

Surely Khalid is not going to plead ignorance about the spate of death and rape threats against Aisyab which appeared on the social media in the last 36 hours, and he should explain what he has done about it in keeping with the IGP’s self-professed high standards of police professionalism and efficiency?

In view of Khalid’s “fame|  for his twitter-quick monitoring of events concerning PR leaders and NGO activists, Malaysians wonder and have a right to know what the IGP has done with regard to the death and rape threats on the social media against Aisyab Tajuddin.

The spate of death and rape threats against Aisyab has led her father, Professor Dr. Mohamad Tajuddin Mohamad Rasdi, to ask the heart-rending  question which the IGP must take keen interest – whether Malaysia is safe for our children to live in?

Tajuddin posed the following question:

“Is this country safe for our children to live in? If a simple point of view is raised against such issue as hudud or even such issue as democracy and clean elections can produce outburst of murder, rape and burning people alive, what does it say about our country, its citizens and our leadership? Where did this culture come from?”

As the country’s top cop responsible for the security of all Malaysians, Khalid will be the most appropriate person to answer Tajuddin’s question.

The other person who should answer Tajudin’s question is none other than the Prime Minister, but how many Malaysians expect Datuk Seri Najib Razak to break his policy of silence to assure Malaysians that the nation has not degenerated into a stage where the country is no more safe to bring up our children?

When Malaysia is no more safe to bring up our children, then it is no more safe for investors to invest their monies – and Malaysia will well be on the way to slide down the slippery slope to a “failed state”.

Khalid should also be cautioned that he should not arrogate to himself the powers of judge, jury and prosecutor all into one.

This is because when the IGP used his tweet to instruct the police to investigate a person, he is arrogating to himself the three roles of judge, jury and prosecutor, for the IGP could be completely misguided in his tweets like his reaction to DAP MP for PJ Utara Tony Pua whether the tweet “Royal my foot” referred to attacks on Malay Rulers when any preliminary police investigation could only conclude  that Tony Pua was not aiming  an attack or even criticism against the Malay Rulers in his tweet.

Malaysia needs an IGP whose top priority is to keep Malaysians safe from criminals and IS terrorists, and not to continue in his unprofessional war against Pakatan Rakyat leaders and NGO activists.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 21 March 2015, 7:27 am and is filed under
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Will Umno cave in to PAS’ hudud?

By P Ramasamy

Malaysiakini

Mar 21, 2015

ADUN SPEAKS
Whether the BN component parties have reached a consensus or not to support PAS’ private member’s hudud bill later in Parliament remains to be seen.

 Prime Minister Najib Razak might have said that hudud law might contravene the constitution, but then in politics, with shifting alliances and double-deals, anything is possible.

 Just like the way PAS has backstabbed DAP and PKR, even though hudud was not within the framework of Pakatan’s common policy.

 Even if the private member’s bill does not get the support of the BN component parties including Umno, fact remains that PAS has already successfully passed the amendments at the Kelantan state assembly with the support of 12 Umno members and one from PKR. How PKR is going to deal with this “sore thumb” remains to be seen.

 Within the BN, MCA, Gerakan and not so much MIC, are vehemently opposed to hudud. They have taken the matter to court for hudud to be declared ultra vires the constitution. Najib might wait for the matter to be heard in court before he decides whether to support or not to support the bill.

 Of course, Najib is not operating in a safe and friendly atmosphere; politically things are not going well for him. Scandals after scandals are rocking the government. Foreign debts are mounting despite the sweet talk by the Bank Negara governor. I think she wants to please her political bosses.

 Former PM Dr Mahathir Mohammed, the so-called retired and irritating former prime minister, wants his “pound of flesh” from Najib. He thinks that Najib should resign for the 1MDB scandal, for not arresting the political and social developments that have led to a historic polarisation in communal relations and the ostentatious recent marriage ceremony of his daughter’s wedding which some have described as akin to a royal wedding.

How desperate is Najib?

 If Najib is desperate to shore up political support, then there is a possibility he might advise Umno members to the support hudud bill in Parliament, even at the expense of alienating BN component parties like the MCA and Gerakan.

 MIC members, too engrossed in the fratricidal fight between president G Palanivel and his deputy S Subramaniam, are not bothered about hudud. I doubt given the obsequiousness of Gerakan, MCA and for that matter MIC, these parties would have the guts to leave the BN fold even if Umno’s MPs support the private member’s bill.

 The ultimate question for Najib and his close advisors is not so much to weaken the Pakatan coalition before the next general election, but to nail PAS. PAS, and not so much PKR, has been the main competitor for the votes in the Malay heartland for a long time.

 Anyway, so far Umno has succeeded in weaning PAS away from the Pakatan coalition, but the next question is how to weaken and render PAS an ineffective as an impotent party for Malays and Muslims in the country.

 If Umno supports the private member’s bill, then PAS might make some political gains at least for a limited period. If it does not support the bill citing whatever reasons, then it would have succeeded in clipping the political wing of PAS.

 From Umno’s point of view, its ephemeral interest in hudud is merely about drawing in PAS, splitting the opposition and then killing off PAS permanently in the Malaysian political scenario as a political or Islamic alternative to Malays.

Damage in Pakatan beyond repair

 By enticing PAS to go for the amendments to the Syariah law in the Kelantan state assembly, Umno has ruptured the relations between PAS and DAP. While politics is often described as the “art of the possible”, it is not going to be possibly for PAS and DAP to seek some kind of détente in the near future.

 Unless of course, there is radical transformation in the forthcoming PAS’s general assembly where the so-called professional or moderate faction overthrows the conservative faction currently headed by party chief Abdul Hadi Awang.

 However, PAS’ by its sheer greed and political opportunism has caused irreparable damage to the coalition of Pakatan; an alternative coalition that has endeared itself to both Malays and non-Malays.

 PAS by displaying its sheer opportunism has shown to Malaysians it is party that cannot be trusted to deliver the country from corruption, scandals and mismanagement. As a matter of fact, it is not even an alternative to the racist Umno!

 It is obscurantist and medieval party that is intellectually incapable of paving a good future for Malaysia.

 P RAMASAMY is Deputy Chief Minister II of Penang and the assemblyperson for Perai.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 21 March 2015, 5:02 pm and is filed under
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Formulating the 11MP: Challenges for Multiracial Malaysia & the Indian Community

1.	First of all, I would like to congratulate the organizers for having this forum at a very opportune juncture in our history. Our country faces new challenges as we approach the year 2020 and we will pay close attention to the upcoming 11th Malaysia Plan that is supposed to take us to the status of a developed country in 5 years’ time. But at the same time, we need to remind ourselves that the problems of poverty and inequality are still very much present in our midst despite the many self-congratulatory statistics that are being used by the government to highlight our many so called ‘achievements’.

2.	The gap between not just the ‘haves’ but the ‘have-a-lot’ and the ‘have-nots’ could not have been in starker display in our country in the past three months. While low income families have been struggling to cope with the increase in the price of petrol, electricity and other basic necessities, billions have been squandered by politically connected individuals on expensive champagne in Las Vegas, penthouses and mansions in New York and Beverly Hills, round the world shopping trips and partying with Hollywood celebrities. While some shopkeepers, especially from the older generation, have been forced to close their business because they cannot cope with the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), our First Lady of Malaysia hopes that the GST won’t increase the price of her RM1200 hair-dye house call. While the average Malaysian is worried about the increase in the toll charges, taxi and bus fares, the Prime Minister’s Office goes out to spend almost half a billion ringgit on a new plane!

3.	According to the Economic Planning Unity (EPU), Malaysia has almost ‘solved’ its poverty problem. The poverty rate in the country was a mere 1.7% in 2012. And according to the preliminary results from the 2014 Household Income Survey, the average household income has reached RM5900, up 18% from RM5000 in 2012.

4.	And yet, these gaudy statistics do not reflect the reality on the ground. How many people in this room, for example, have seen their salaries increase by 18% in the last 2 years? As elected representatives, many of us still meet a large number of individuals and families who cannot make ends meet and who require our assistance. These include single parent households, the disabled and those with family members with a serious illness. The urban poor, especially among the Indian communities which have been displaced from the rubber plantations and estates are especially vulnerable when it comes to family illnesses and accidents significantly affecting their income earnings.

5.	In Sarawak, where the official poverty rate has fallen to a mere 2.4% in 2012, we still observe many longhouses in the interior areas with no electricity or water supply. Many Dayaks and other native Bumiputeras barely eke a subsistence living from selling agricultural produce in their family farms or ‘kebuns’. In Sabah, the incidence of poverty fell by a remarkable 11.1% in 3 years, from 19.2% in 2009 to 8.1% in 2012. And yet, anyone who has driven through the urban slums and travelled through the remote highlands of Sabah would find it hard to believe that only 92% of households in the state earns more than the Poverty Line income of RM1090 a month.

6.	Among the Orang Asli, it is estimated that their poverty rates was as high as 50% in 2009. Less than 10% of the Orang Asli population graduated from secondary school, according to 2009 estimates.

7.	The disconnect between government statistics and the hardships felt by the people on the ground was in stark display in the Bantuan Rakyat 1 Malaysia (BR1M) handouts. For example, 5.2 million households or 80% of total households received BR1M 1.0 when it was first given out in 2012. While some of this may have been overpayment to ineligible households, nevertheless, it should be tremendously worrying when 80% of households were given financial assistance in a country where the average household income was RM5000 in 2012.

8.	While the middle class and the poor are being squeezed as a result of stagnating wages and increases in the cost of living, the rich continue to enjoy the lion’s share of the country’s economic wealth. The total wealth of the top 40 richest Malaysians to the total GDP increased from 15.7% in 2006 to 22.4% in 2012. The comparable figure in the United States was only 4.8% in 2012. In other words, in a RM1 trillion economy, which was achieved in 2014, the total wealth of the top 40 Malaysians would add up to RM400 billion. On the other end of the spectrum, 26% of Malaysians have zero property assets in their name.

9.	The reality on the ground clearly shows that we still have to focus on poverty, especially relative poverty, which still affects a significant number of Malaysians. At the same time, we cannot forget that inequality, not just in terms of income, but also in terms of wealth, is still a very significant challenge in present day Malaysia. The issue of inequality is even more prominent today due to the widespread availability of information and increased urbanization which shows the stark differences between how the ‘have-a-lot’ live compared to the ‘have-nots’.

10.	Many people still think of inequality in racial terms where some communities are perceived to be more affluent than others, across the board. But according to the UNDP’s inaugural Malaysia Human Development Report 2013, inter-ethnic i.e. between races inequality has been steadily decreasing since 1970. In fact, by 2009, inter-ethnic inequality only contributed 4% to the overall level of inequality. This means that present day inequality is almost entirely explained by intra-ethnic inequality. In layman’s terms, this means that if a Malay or Chinese or Indian with a university degree will have a higher salary compared to a Malay or Chinese or Indian with only an SPM qualification. In other words, factors such as family background, level of education, where one is staying, matter more to one’s earning ability compared with one’s race.

11.	What this means is that we need to focus on these factors in order to raise the incomes of those at the bottom of the economic ladder and decrease inequality. We need not only to examine the inequality in outcomes in terms of wages and wealth but also the inequality in opportunities which causes the inequality in outcomes.

12.	One has to begin with inequality in educational opportunities in order to address inequality in outcomes. Without access to quality education, one’s access to stable and well-paying jobs with a good career progression are immediately limited. It was estimated that in the United States, the difference in lifetime earnings between someone with a university degree and someone with a high school qualification was US$830,000.

13.	In Malaysia, as the overall workforce gets more educated, those who fail to obtain a post-secondary education often get left behind. Concrete steps need to be identified and implemented in order to decrease the drop-out rate post-Form 3 and post-Form 5. The number and accessibility of post-secondary education opportunities need to be increased especially for marginalized groups. Options for retraining and up-skilling have to be made available for those without post-secondary qualifications who are already in the workforce. Adequate resources need to be increased in order to achieve these goals.

14.	But it is not only the education system which is important in determining educational outcomes. The living environment for marginalized groups need to be made more conducive to encourage positive learning outcomes. This means that existing low cost public housing needs to be upgraded and new lost cost public housing must be designed with adequate public spaces and facilities including libraries and learning spaces.

15.	The existing BR1M cash transfers should also be redesigned into conditional cash transfers (CCT) in order to provide incentives for children of poor families to remain in school. Special scholarships for children from low income families to pursue post-secondary education opportunities should also be provided. Other welfare and employment schemes such as Singapore’s ComCare Transition Scheme to reward low income wage earners to continue to work should also be considered.

16.	Thus far, I have not made any mention of the specific problems faced by the Indian community or the “Indian Question”, which is one of the main topics of discussion in this forum. This is not because I have forgotten the promises made in the 2013 Gelang Patah declaration to the Indian community in Malaysia. But rather, I choose to focus on the problem of poverty and inequality which affects all communities in Malaysia, including the Indian community.

17.	That being said, it cannot be denied that the marginalized groups in each community faces their own set of challenges and unique circumstances in their fight against poverty and inequality. Therefore, specific policies must be outlined in order to identify the most effective way of eradicating poverty and reducing inequality for each of these marginalized groups. This is where this forum can make its unique contribution.

18.	The problems and challenges faced by the Indian community are not new. Problems of statelessness, lack of documentation, poorly funded Tamil schools, lack of proper housing for ex-estate workers and their families, over representation in gang related activities, the lack of good job opportunities, are but some of the challenges.

19.	Some of the solutions have been identified in the Gelang Patah Declaration such as the assurance that all National School Type Tamil schools become fully funded and the infrastructure of every single Tamil school is up to par with Sekolah Kebangsaan and to invest in technical and vocational training coupled with apprenticeship programs to provide an alternative education and career path for school drop outs from low income Indian families. But more solutions and ideas can and must be identified.

20.	The creative ideas and specific policy proposals on the challenges of inequality in Malaysia, and in particular,  the unique problems faced by the Indian community in Malaysia which have been thrown up  at this Conference, with the expertise of Tan Sri Datuk Dr. Kamal Salih, Datuk Dr.Denison Jayasooria and Dr. Lim Teck Ghee as resource persons, will be useful and timely inputs in the current debate on the 11th Malaysia Plan  which is presented to Parliament in May.

21.	I will like to end by calling on the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak to depart from past parliamentary practices of tabling the 11th Malaysia Plan in Parliament a few days before the actual debate. Let there be a full national debate to precede the parliamentary debate, which will  be able to benefit from a national discussion on the 11th Malaysia Plan. Parliament will meet for 16 sittings from Mayt 18 to June 18.  I call on the Prime Minister to make public the 11th Malaysia plan by middle of April to allow for a full month of national dissection, discussion and debate of the 11th Malaysia Plan before Parliament debates the next five-year plan which will end with the 30-year Vision 2020.

[Speech when closing the Conference on ‘11th Malaysia Plan (11MP)—Inequality in Malaysia and Challenges for the Indian Community’ at the Shah Alam Convention Centre on Sunday, 22nd March 2015 at 4 pm]

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 22 March 2015, 7:01 am and is filed under
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Make a stand now on hudud, Musa Hitam tells Umno

The Malaysian Insider

21 March 2015

Umno should make a stand now on PAS’s hudud and not pretend to be surprised with the Islamist party’s push for the implementation of the Islamic criminal law in Kelantan, says Tun Musa Hitam.

The former deputy prime minister said hudud is not suitable for a country like Malaysia, expressing his disappointment over Umno’s slow response on the issue.

“I am disappointed that Umno appeared to be shocked (by PAS’s move) and until now have yet to decide on its stance. I have been worried about this for some time,” he said in a statement from Cordoba, Spain.

“Umno must take a firm stance. This national issue has a very long implication to the country, both domestically and internationally,”

He said as Umno could not afford to be seen as trying to outdo PAS on this issue.

“Don’t try to be more PAS than PAS themselves. Umno should not be trying to out-PAS PAS!”, he said.

With PAS’s partners, DAP and PKR deciding not to support PAS’s hudud bill should it be tabled in Parliament, the onus is now on Umno and Barisan Nasional to clarify whether it supported the bill.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak is expected to make an announcement on BN’s stand on PAS’s hudud soon.

Several BN component parties had given their views during the recent meeting and it was up to the prime minister to disclose it.

Musa, who is also the former Umno deputy president, said when it comes to hudud, the people should not be surprised with PAS’s hudud bill as the party has been championing the issue consistently for a long time.

“And to the opposition parties in Pakatan Rakyat, do not pretend you are not aware of it too,” he said.

At the same time, Musa reiterated his stance that hudud is not suitable for a country like Malaysia.

“As a former Umno leader, I strongly believe in my heart that since its establishment until today, Umno’s stance too has been that hudud is not suitable for a multi-religious, multi-racial country like Malaysia,”

Musa said that if he was wrong about it, Umno should make a decision on its stance immediately and not brush off the matter.

“The nation will not the only one that is going to pay for the consequences, Umno too will feel its bad effect, more so that it has served the country for so long,

“Do not let this destroys Umno from within… don’t self destruct.” he said.

PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang is seeking to table a private members’ bill in Parliament during the current sitting ending April 9 to enable Kelantan to implement amendments to the state’s hudud laws which have drawn outrage from his own PR allies.

The conservative Islamist leader sent a notice to Parliament on March 18, after the Kelantan state assembly unanimously approved the Shariah Criminal Code 11 1993 (Amendment 2015), or hudud bill.

Hadi’s notice, which was confirmed by a senior party leader who said it was to amend Act 355 (Shariah Courts) which limits the powers of the court and is an impediment to implementing the hudud law.

Act 355 or the Shariah Courts Act (Criminal Jurisdiction) 1965 limits the shariah courts to a maximum penalty of RM3,000 in fine, five years’ jail and six strokes of the rotan.

An amendment is required in this law to enable the Kelantan hudud amendments to take effect. However, PAS allies PKR and DAP say hudud laws are not part of Pakatan’s common stand. – March 21, 2015.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 22 March 2015, 8:54 am and is filed under
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Malaysian politics in no man’s land – may be time for a new “Save Malaysia” coalition federal government comprising MPs from both sides of the political divide who defend constitutionalism and rule of law

Suddenly, Malaysian politics on both sides of the political divide seems to be in no man’s land.

The Barisan Nasional coalition Federal Government, which is in Putrajaya on a minority 47% of the popular vote in the 13th General Elections in May 2013, continues to be rudderless.

The government has lost its sense of direction, with the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s  major initiatives, whether 1Malaysia Policy, the New Economic Model, National Transformation Programme or the  Global Movement of Moderates, discredited and all in tatters.

But  Najib had personified a paradox of a Malaysian Prime Minister – one of the weakest Prime Ministers in Malaysia but a strong UMNO President.

As a result, the host of problems dogging and haunting Najib, whether the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal; the nine-year-old Altantunya Shaariibuu murder which has returned to haunt Malaysian politics with Sirul at large in Australia ; the fourth-incarceration and five -year jailing of Anwar Ibrahim which has made Malaysia again an international “bad boy”; the embarrssing controversy over Tun Razak’s “inheritance” which has seen public differences between the Prime Minister and his four brothers, as well as former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir joining the ranks of those who want Najib to step down as Prime Minister, have seemed like water over a duck’s back.

But Najib’s woes have worsened in recent weeks, with the escalation of the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal, new financial scandals like the RM29 billion Pembinaan PFI Sdn Bhd scandal, the new jet for the Prime Minister, the lavish spending on the wedding of Najib’s daughter and the latest, the warning by former Deputy Prime Minister Tun Musa Hitam that UMNO could “self-destruct” if Najib continued with his political games with PAS as to support the private member’s bill moved by the PAS President, Datuk Seri Hadi Awang on hudud implementation.

The situation for Najib was getting so dire that for the first time in Barisan Nasional history, the other 13 component parties have to stage a “We’re with you all the way” although the effect of  support from President of political parties like MCA, Gerakan, MIC and PPP is no different from “zero plus zero equals zero”.

But this shows the growing desperation of Najib even inside UMNO with growing undercurrents for his replacement.

On the opposite side of the political divide, Pakatan Rakyat is in the deepest trouble in the seven year  PR history, and nobody can say whether there will be a Pakatan Rakyat in the next few days.

This came about because of the success of the latest plot of the UMNO “UG” (Unity Government between UMNO and PAS) conspiracy in the past year and the decision of the PAS President, Datuk Seri Hadi Awang, to give priority to his “Afterlife Vision”, using it as a justification to commit multiple violations of the Pakatan Rakyat Common Policy Framework and the decisions of the Pakatan Rakyat Leadership Council.

I just cannot understand how Hadi could use the Joint Statement of Pakatan Rakyat Leadership Council of Sept. 28, 2011 on hudud (which was crafted after three hours of meeting at the PAS Headquarters and the DAP delegation included the then DAP National Chairman Karpal Singh) to justify PAS violations of the Pakatan Rakyat Common Policy Framework, as the PR Leadership Joint Statement of 28th Sept. 2011 “agreed to disagree” on hudud law as we acknowledged that the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Enactment 1993 and the Terengganu Syariah Criminal Enactment 2003 were passed before the formation of Pakatan Rakyat.

However, we also took the clear position that while it was unreasonable to require PAS to abandon the agenda, the three PR component parties would give priority to the PR Common Policy Framework and that all policies involving PR and their implementation must have the agreement of all three parties.

The PR Leadership Joint Statement of Sept. 28 did not empower Hadi to unilaterally violate the PR Common Policy Framework, especially as the PR Leadership Council at its meeting of Feb. 8, 2015 (which Hadi attended), agreed that any private member’s bill on hudud implementation in Parliament would first be presented to the PR Leadership Council, which Hadid never did.

Hadi knew the import of the PR Leadership Council Joint Statement on hudud on Sept. 28, 2011 which explained his speech in Hulu Terengganu in May 2012 as well as in various parts of the country before the 13th General Elections where he said that hudud was not a PAS and PR priority as it could only be implemented if adequate conditions were met.

By unilaterally presenting the private member’s bill on hudud implementation in utter disregard of the PR Leadership Council decision of Feb. 8 that any private member’s bill on the matter should first be presented to the PR Leadership Council, and as an immediate follow-up to another violation of PR Common Policy Framework when the new Kelantan Syariah Criminal Enactment was moved by Kelantan PAS and passed by the Kelantan State Assembly, PR does not seems to exist anymore in the eyes of the PAS President.

What then of the future, not only of Pakatan Rakyat, but also of the country with the latest developments?

Will UMNO’s 88 MPs support Hadi’s private member’s bill on implementation of PAS hudud enactment in Kelantan?

MCA and Gerakan Presidents had been saying that the Cabinet at its meeting last Friday had expressed its opposition to Hadi’s private member’s bill – in fact there were claims that the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak would be making an announcement of UMNO and Barisan Nasional’s opposition of PAS hudud enactment on Friday itself.

Friday and Saturday have come and  gone by without any announcement by Najib. There is also nothing by Najib today.

In contrast, we have the Bernama report yesterday quoting the UMNO National Vice President  and Rural and Regional Development Minister, Datuk Mohd Shafie Apdal as saying that at the Cabinet meeting on Friday,  the UMNO Ministers have agreed with the support given by UMNO State Assemblymen in Kelantan.

This is what Musa Hitam had warned against, that UMNO could “self-destruct” as he said:  “As a former Umno leader, I strongly believe in my heart that since its establishment until today, Umno’s stance too has been that hudud is not suitable for a multi-religious, multi-racial country like Malaysia.”

Students of constitutional law know that even if the Kelantan PAS state government’s hudud enactment gets pass with  two private member’s bills in Parliament with a simple majority, its implementation will be unconstitutional and it could be challenged in the courts of law as contravening Article 8 of the Federal Constitution on “Equality before the law”.

But in such a new political scenario where  Najib announces UMNO support for the PAS’s hudud enactment, may be the time has come for a new “Save Malaysia” coalition comprising MPs from both insides of the political divide as well as both sides of the South China Sea, Sabah, Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia,  to defend constitutionalism and rule of law with a new Prime Minister and a new Malaysian Government.

The new Prime Minister can come from either side of the political divide who wants to Save Malaysia and  defend the Federal Constitution and the rule of law.

Let me stress that this is not a DAP stand and solely my personal views.

(Speech  at the Bukit Bintang DAP Anniversary dinner in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, 22nd March 2015 at 9 pm)

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 22 March 2015, 8:40 pm and is filed under
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Musa Hitam is both right and wrong when he said that opposition parties in PR should not pretend they are surprised with PAS’ hudud bill

I welcome the open and forthright position taken by former Deputy Prime Minister Tun Musa Hitam that UMNO should make a stand  that hudud is not suitable for a country  like Malaysia, that it should not try to out-PAS PAS.

He said: “As a former Umno leader, I strongly believe in my heart that since its establishment until today, Umno’s stance too has been that hudud is not suitable for a multi-religious, multi-racial country like Malaysia.”

Warning that UMNO could set on a course of “self-destruct”, Musa said that if he was wrong about UMNO’s stand on hudud, Umno should make a decision on its stance immediately and not brush off the matter.

Musa said opposition parties in Pakatan Rakyat should not pretend that that they are not aware and surprised with PAS’ hudud bill as the party had been championing the issue consistently for a long time.

Musa is both right and wrong when he said that DAP and PKR should not pretend that we are surprised with PAS’ hudud bill.

The Joint Statement of the Pakatan Rakyat Leadership Council of 28th September 2011 acknowledged that the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Enactment 1993 and the Terengganu Syariah Criminal Enactment 2003 were passed before the formation of Pakatan Rakyat, but took the clear position that while it was unreasonable to require PAS to abandon the agenda, the three PR component parties would give priority to the PR Common Policy Framework and that all policies involving PR and their implementation must have the agreement of all three parties.

Until the recent controversy, the stand of top PAS leaders, whether the late Mursyidul Am, Datuk Seri Nik Aziz Nik Mat or the PAS President, Datuk Seri Hadi Awang were consistent with the Joint Statement of the PR Leadership Council of 28th September 2011 that hudud is not in the list of PR priorities to restore freedom and justice, establish good governance and forge national unity among Malaysians.

For instance, in  May 2012 in Hulu Terengganu, PAS President Datuk Seri Hadi Awang said hudud could only be implemented if there are adequate conditions, giving as examples that if there is no minimum wage provision or resolution of the unemployment problem, the conditions for implementation for hudud do not exist.

Was Hadi being dishonest when he made such a statement up and down the country in the run-up to the 2013 General Elections?

Musa was right that we  in DAP and PKR knew of PAS stand on hudud, but wrong when he implied we should have expected PAS’ push for hudud as we had expected the top PAS leadership to be sincere and truthful when they committed themselves to the PR Common Policy Framework as the basis of the political struggle and objectives of all PR component parties, putting aside all their political differences on other issues.

The top PAS leadership push for the hudud enactment in Kelantan and Hadi’s private member’s bill on hudud implementation which he unilaterally submitted to Parliament on March 18 were not only against the PR Common Policy Framework and the Joint Statement of the PR Leadership Council on 28th September 2011 on hudud, but also violate the PR Leadership Council decisions of Feb. 8, 2015 that “amendments” to the Kelantan hudud enactment and any private member’s bill on hudud implementation should first be presented to the PR Leadership Council for discussion.

Yesterday, I listed five PAS violations of the PR policy and leadership decisions on the hudud question.

This is what we had not expected, for we had expected all PR parties and leaders to be honourable and honest about their commitments and undertakings in Pakatan Rakyat.

In defending PAS violation of the PR Common Policy Framework and PR Leadership Council decisions, Hadi has said that PAS vision is not just 2020 but “the afterlife”.

I fully respect Hadi’s “Vision Afterlife” but it would appear to be not only unIslamic, but violate all religious canons of honesty, truth and justice if such a “Vision Afterlife” should be built on broken undertakings and violated agreements.

If Hadi’s “Vision Afterlife” takes a higher priority than all other visions, then he should be frank, truthful and sincere and should not have taken PAS into Pakatan Rakyat and commit PAS to the PR Common Policy Framework or allowed PAS candidates to contest in the 13th general elections under the PR banner.

The new Mursyidul am PAS, Harun Din said that hudud is far more important that PR co-operation.

Harun Din is entitled to his views, but this was clearly not the view of Nik Aziz when he was the Mursyidul am.

In any event, if what Harun Din said was the view of the top PAS leadership, then they should not have joined DAP and PKR to form the Pakatan Rakyat in 2008,  swear allegiance to the PR Common Policy Framework, and misled Malaysian voters regardless of race and religion in the 13th General Elections into believing that hudud was not in the PAS and PR list of priorities.

It is a fallacy to accuse anyone who disagrees with the PAS hudud enactment as anti-Islam.

Yusuf Qaradawi, the Chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, had said that the  problem is not with the application of hudud, but  with their misapplication; that is, applying them without meeting their conditions.

Internationally noted Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan had called for a moratorium on hudud punishments, as (1) Muslim scholars are not in agreement on the interpretations given to the texts upon which these practices are based, nor do they agree on the required conditions in which they would be applicable; and (2) the application of the hudud laws today is used by repressive powers to abuse women, the poor and political opponents within a quasi-legal vacuum and with a total disrespect for human dignity.

The Kelantan hudud issue must not be turned into a Muslim vs non-Muslim debate when it is about Islam’s message of justice and equality as well as the Malaysian constitutional compact with all Malaysians, raising even the question whether the 1963 Malaysia Agreement is being violated in the process.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 22 March 2015, 12:43 pm and is filed under
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The caliphate cracks

Economist

Mar 21st 2015

The war against Islamic State

Though Islamic State is still spreading terror, its weaknesses are becoming apparent

WHEN the jihadists of Islamic State (IS) seized Mosul and the Iraqi army fled last June, they became the world’s most dangerous terrorist organisation. Sweeping out of Syria and north-western Iraq, they stormed southward, and came close to taking Baghdad. They murdered male prisoners in gory videos and enslaved female ones. Groups from Nigeria to Libya and Afghanistan pledged allegiance to them. Devotees attacked innocent civilians in Western cities; this week at least 19 people were killed in an assault on tourists in Tunisia (though the culprits are unknown). The IS threat has pushed together unlikely allies: in Iraq America provides the air power while Iran musters the ground forces.

As our briefing explains (see article), IS differs from jihadist groups that have gone before, including its parent, al-Qaeda. It is uniquely brutal in its treatment of foes and uniquely competent as a propagandist. But what most sets it apart is its claim to have restored the Islamic caliphate. The revival of a single state to rule over all Muslims, dating to Islam’s earliest days and abolished in 1924 by modern Turkey after the fall of the Ottoman empire, was meant to eradicate decades of supposed humiliation by outsiders and Arab rulers who presided over the decline of flourishing Arab societies.

To Western ears, the pretence that IS is a government in office is absurd, a bit of jihadist braggadocio; to many Muslim clerics (and even al-Qaeda) it is heresy. Yet it has stirred a form of messianism. “Rush, O Muslims, to your state,” declared Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, IS’s leader. And thousands have indeed rushed to fight for and build the Islamic Utopia: even schoolgirls have abandoned families and friends in Europe.

The call of the caliphate has galvanised zealots. Yet, even as IS launches terrorist attacks, the good news is that cracks in the caliphate are becoming increasingly apparent. IS is losing ground, money and the consent of the people it rules.

The state of Islamic State

The caliphate has been pushed out of the Syrian town of Kobane by Kurdish fighters, backed by American air power. It is being squeezed in Tikrit (the tribal base of the former dictator, Saddam Hussein) by the Iraqi army and Shia militias co-ordinated by Iran. Compared with the peak, when it was at the gates of Baghdad, its territory has shrunk by about 25%.

IS’s funds are dwindling, too. America and its allies have bombed lucrative oil facilities. Most of the hostages have been sold or murdered in video-recorded beheadings. Now that IS’s forces are retreating, the loot of conquest has dried up. Some analysts reckon it may have lost up to 75% of its revenues. That makes it harder for IS to keep fighting and to provide services to the roughly 8m people living under its rule.

That may help explain signs of internal tension. The movement has started to kill its own followers, sometimes for fleeing before the enemy and on at least one occasion supposedly for zealously beheading too many people. Residents complain of extortion, violent repression and declining public services. There are reports of tensions between local and foreign members over disparities in pay.

Judged by its own standard, then, the caliphate is failing as an all-conquering state and model for society. That matters because a proto-state with a large territory and population to defend is also more vulnerable to setbacks than terrorist groups that are not rooted to a patch of land. Precisely because IS claims to be running a model Islamic state, its visible failure exposes the bankruptcy of its ideology and the hollowness of its claims to would-be recruits. If, as some say, the secret of IS’s success is success itself; then failure will gain momentum, too.

Even so, the hardest part of defeating IS still lies ahead, starting with the military campaign in Iraq. In recent days the operation to oust it from Tikrit has been hampered by hidden bombs and snipers. And after Tikrit falls, there is Mosul—bigger and more important, with a population closely associated with IS. The recapture of Mosul is vital to puncturing IS’s claim to be a caliphate. The nature of the campaign matters, too. The Iranian-sponsored Shia militias at the forefront of the fighting in Tikrit are known for having victimised Sunni civilians in earlier fighting nearer Baghdad. The fear is growing that, by depending so heavily on Iran, Iraq is being turned into an Iranian satrapy. If so, Iraq’s disenchanted Sunni population will cleave even more tightly to the IS jihadists as their best and only protectors. It is important, therefore, that the attack on Mosul is led by a professional, non-sectarian Iraqi army. The trouble is that the Iraqi army is demoralised and far from ready.

Hardest of all is the insoluble problem of Syria. Even if Mosul can be retaken, IS or something like it will survive, certainly for as long as it enjoys an unchallenged haven in Syria. For the time being, nobody is even thinking of trying to eject IS from the Syrian city of Raqqa: not the regime in Damascus, which wants to prove that the only alternative to IS is Bashar Assad; not the Kurds, who will not fight far beyond their enclaves; not Jabhat al-Nusra, the most effective rebel force, which remains a franchise of al-Qaeda; and not the rebels being trained by America, who are too few to make a difference.

Syria will not be pacified soon—possibly not for many years. Until that moment, IS can lurk there, controlling swathes in the east, destabilising Sunni areas of Iraq and biding its time until it has another chance to rise up. Defeat in Mosul could reduce the caliphate to a rump entity, or could lead it to disintegrate into a patchwork of warring fiefs, like much of the rest of the country. It would still pose a grave threat to the outside world and would need constant watching. But degradation would make it easier to contain than it is today.

Always with us

Destruction is much further off. As much as Islamic State is a cause of chaos in the Middle East, it is also a symptom. Its ideology feeds off Sunnis’ sense of victimhood. The group has taken root across the region, and especially where the state has collapsed. Defeating it is ultimately a matter of rebuilding governments in the Arab world—a task that will take decades. Cutting back the caliphate is just the vital first step.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 22 March 2015, 8:44 am and is filed under
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Govt must respond to Musa’s call on hudud

Ramon Navaratnam

Free Malaysia Today

March 23, 2015

Umno’s near silence on whether it supports hudud or not is causing grave uncertainty as to the future of Malaysia.

COMMENT

Former deputy prime minister Musa Hitam probably reflected the deep concerns of Malaysians when he said he was “disappointed with Umno for not making its stand on hudud clear”.

A significant number – perhaps even a majority – of thinking Malaysians have long been expecting the Umno-led government to come out unequivocally on this vital issue. Its near silence is causing national anxiety and grave uncertainty as to the future of our country.

As Musa correctly pointed out, this is a national issue “with far reaching implications to the country, both domestically and internationally”.

Confidence at home and abroad can dramatically decline as Malaysians see themselves at the crossroads of their destiny. We all ask whether we will continue to adopt secular ways to go forward or take the hudud highway and perhaps go backwards?

These uncertainties will also probably cause a further weakening of the ringgit, an increase in capital outflows, a worsening of the brain drain and even a rise in inflation.

Musa’s considered opinion is that “hudud is not appropriate for multi-ethnic and multi religious Malaysia.” This is a reality which has to be appreciated. Hudud cannot be applied only to Muslims in a multi-religious society. How can anyone honestly claim that in Malaysia, where Muslims and non Muslims interact so closely, hudud will apply only to Muslims, when other parties may be jointly and severally involved in crime or camaraderie?

We all hope that the government will respond to Musa’s urgent call for it to declare clearly whether it supports hudud or not. We await with bated breath for the government to finally and firmly make its stand. Indeed, the whole world is waiting with us Malaysians.

We wish the Prime Minister, the Cabinet and whole government all the very best in exercising the courage of its conviction and leading our country to greater success.

Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam is the Chairman of the ASLI Centre for Public Policy Studies.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 23 March 2015, 9:39 am and is filed under
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Mengapa saya menolak ‘hudud PAS’

– Zairil Khir Johari

The Malaysian Insider

23 March 2015

Apabila saya diajukan soalan sama ada saya akan menyokong atau tidak rang undang-undang persendirian yang bakal dibawa PAS ke Parlimen bagi membenarkan pelaksanaan Enakmen Kanun Jenayah Syariah II 1993 di Kelantan, saya memberikan jawapan yang tegas dan jelas – tidak.

Keputusan saya itu berdasarkan ketetapan parti dan lebih penting lagi adalah pendirian saya sebagai seorang ahli Parlimen yang mewakili rakyat Malaysia.

Namun, saya dikecam dengan pelbagai tomahan dan celaan kononnya saya menafikan hukum Allah, bersekongkol dengan kafir, mengkhianati Islam dan sebagainya.

Sama ada mereka yang mencaci saya itu benar-benar Muslim yang mencari keredhaan Allah itu saya kurang pasti, tetapi dari segi akhlak dan kesopanan mereka saya agak ragu.

Bagaimanapun, izinkan saya menerangkan mengapa saya menolak rang undang-undang hudud yang mahu dilaksanakan oleh PAS ini.

Hudud PAS bukan hudud Allah

Pertamanya, saya ingin menegaskan enakmen yang dirangkakan PAS ini bukan hukum Allah yang kudus, tetapi undang-undang yang sudah terbancuh dengan pentafsiran manusia.

Hukum yang diturunkan dalam al-Quran cukup lengkap dan tidak boleh dipinda, sedangkan hudud yang dibentangkan dalam Dewan Undangan Negeri (DUN) Kelantan ini jelas jauh daripada sempurna.

Sebagai contoh, rang undang-undang yang diluluskan oleh DUN Kelantan pada 19 Mac lalu merupakan pindaan kepada enakmen yang sama pada tahun 1993.

Antara kandungan pindaan adalah pada Seksyen 15(2) kanun tersebut dengan penambahan peruntukan hukuman takzir bagi kesalahan liwat ke atas isteri.

Pindaan ini jelas menunjukkan bahawa apabila sesuatu ajaran agama yang suci itu diimplementasikan sebagai undang-undang dalam kerangka kenegaraan moden, maka ia akan terbuka kepada pentafsiran yang menghilangkan sisi kudusnya.

Persoalannya, seanjal manakah pentafsiran ini boleh berlaku? Umpamanya, atas name agama, wanita diharamkan memandu kereta di Arab Saudi sementara di Sudan mereka diharamkan memakai seluar.

Di manakah garis sempadan pentafsiran ini dan siapakah yang berhak untuk menentukan batasannya jika segala yang dibuat kononnya atas nama kitab suci Al-Quran?

Malah, jika diteliti, Enakmen Kesalahan Jenayah Syariah (Hudud dan Qisas) 2002 yang diluluskan kerajaan Terengganu semasa pemerintahan PAS mempunyai perbezaan dengan enakmen Kelantan.

Pada mulanya, enakmen hudud di Terengganu memiliki tujuh perkara, yakni zina, qazaf, mencuri, minum arak, murtad, merompak dan bughah (derhaka).

Enakmen di Kelantan pula hanya mempunyai enam perkara dan tidak merangkumi hukum bughah.

Akhirnya, perkara ini digugurkan daripada enakmen Terengganu. Apakah demikian mudah hukum “Tuhan” boleh dipinda-pinda dengan begitu sahaja?

Selain itu, terdapat banyak lagi kritikan terhadap kedua-dua enakmen ini, khususnya berkenaan kedudukan orang bukan Islam, penindasan terhadap wanita dan ketidakselarian antara kedua-dua enakmen ini, sepertimana yang diulas secara mendalam oleh tokoh sarjana Islam Profesor Hassan Kamali dalam bukunya – Hukuman dalam undang-undang Islam: Suatu penelitian terhadap hukum hudud Kelantan dan Terengganu.

Pada masa yang sama, terdapat juga tokoh-tokoh agama yang berpandangan hukuman rejam sehingga mati, seperti yang diperuntukkan dalam hudud Kelantan, tidak termaktub dalam Al-Quran dan sebenarnya merupakan nas hadis yang sepatutnya disifatkan sebagai takzir kerana berasal daripada syariat Yahudi.

Dalam erti kata lain, ini menunjukkan hudud PAS mengandungi pelbagai sisi yang menjadi pertikaian ulamak dan tidak wajar diterima bulat-bulat.

Hudud percaturan politik Umno

Dalam membincangkan isu hudud PAS ini juga, perlu diingati kemunculan usaha terburu-buru PAS untuk melaksanakan hukum yang jelas masih tidak sempurna dan penuh pertikaian ini sebenarnya tercetus ekoran gesaan Umno dan sesetengah pemimpin PAS yang cenderung Umno.

Bagi Umno, hudud dilihat sebagai tukul yang dapat meretakkan hubungan Pakatan Rakyat, khususnya antara PAS dan DAP.

Manakala bagi pemimpin PAS yang giat menggerakkan usaha ini pula, mereka beranggapan kejayaan untuk melaksanakan hudud akan memperkuatkan kedudukan politik mereka.

Namun demikian, saya amat kesal kerana PAS sudah termakan umpan Umno dan sanggup bersekongkol dengan parti tersebut, sedangkan kegagalan pelaksanaan enakmen hudud di Kelantan dan Terengganu dahulu adalah akibat halangan kerajaan pusat yang dikuasai Umno.

Jika Umno kelihatan berjinak dengan hudud pada masa kini, ia hanya kerana mereka sudah terdesak akibat kekalahan paling teruk dalam sejarah pada pilihan raya umum yang lalu.

Sekiranya Umno benar-benar ikhlas menyokong hudud, sudah pasti Umno tidak teragak-agak untuk melaksanakannya di Terengganu di mana mereka kini memerintah. Namun tidak pula kelihatan komitmen Umno untuk melakukannya.

Oleh itu, hudud kepada Umno sekadar percaturan untuk memecah-belahkan saingan politik mereka serta mengalih perhatian rakyat daripada masalah-masalah pentadbiran semasa seperti cukai GST yang bakal dilaksanakan dan skandal besar 1MDB yang melibatkan berbilion ringgit wang negara.

Saya harap PAS sebagai parti paling dewasa dalam Pakatan Rakyat dapat sedar akan muslihat licik ini.

Fiqh al-Awlawiyat dan maqasid al-Syariah

Akhir sekali, saya ingin menegaskan kritikan terhadap pelaksanaan hudud ini bukan hanya daripada orang awam dan bukan Muslim, bahkan daripada sarjana Islam sendiri.

Sebagai contoh, cendekiawan Islam terkemuka Profesor Tariq Ramadan menyeru agar hudud ditangguhkan atas sebab keadaan dunia yang berubah dan tidak kondusif kepada pelaksanaan hudud.

Pada masa yang sama, ramai ulamak lain juga menggariskan keperluan untuk berlandaskan kepada Fiqh al-Awlawiyat, ataupun keutamaan sesuatu perkara, dalam usaha menegakkan syariat Islam.

Sebagai contoh, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, yang merupakan antara sarjana Islam tersohor dunia, pernah menyebut bahawa al-Quran mengandungi 10 ayat sahaja yang menyentuh berkenaan dengan hudud, namun mengapa kita memberi penekanan kepada ayat-ayat tersebut dan meninggalkan atau melupakan lebih 6,000 ayat yang lain?

Tambahan pula, sebarang pelaksanaan undang-undang Islam juga perlu memenuhi Maqasid al-Syariah. Dalam aspek ini, hukuman dilihat hanya sebagai jalan dan bukannya matlamat besar, yakni untuk menegakkan keadilan.

Semoga dengan penjelasan ini, para demagog hudud PAS akan merenungkan semula permasalahan hudud ini secara rasional.

Pakatan Rakyat sudah begitu hampir untuk mencapai cita-cita bersama untuk menumbangkan kerajaan Barisan Nasional dan menghapuskan kezaliman yang selama ini membelenggui rakyat Malaysia. Mengapakah harus kita berhenti di sini? – 23 Mac, 2015.

* Zairil Khir Johari seorang ahli Parlimen Bukit Bendera dan penolong setiausaha publisiti kebangsaan DAP.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 23 March 2015, 6:33 pm and is filed under
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PAS is in danger of losing nearly all of its parliament and state seats outside the northern states as a result of the tabling of the hudud private members bill

I am amazed at the gullibility and naivete of the Deputy Kelantan PAS Menteri Besar Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah who could say that he does not believe non-Muslims in the country are against hudud and that it was only the DAP which has been making noise.

Let me state that PAS is in danger of losing nearly all of its parliament and state assembly seats outside the northern states as a result of the enactment of the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code 2015 and the tabling of the private member’s bill by the PAS President, Datuk Seri Hadi Awang on hudud implementation in Kelantan.

PAS won 21 parliament seats in GE2013, 7 of which were outside its northern strongholds of Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu. In the same election, PAS won 85 state seats, 29 of which were outside Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu.

Many non-Muslim voters were willing to give their support for PAS candidates in GE2013 because of their desire to kick BN out of office, their trust in the promises of Pakatan Raykat in the Common Policy Framework and the PR Manifesto, and the spirit of comradeship which existed among PR leaders.

With the tabling of the hudud amendment bill in Kelantan and most shockingly, the tabling of a private member’s bill by PAS President in the ongoing parliamentary session, it is fair to say that the non-Muslims’ trust in PAS has all but evaporated.

What will be the likely effect of this on PAS in the next general election assuming this trajectory does not change?

It is likely that PAS will lose somewhere between 30% to 40% of the non-Muslim support in the next general election assuming the continuation of the current trajectory.

What will be the likely political impact?

According to Table 1 below, PAS will lose 7 parliament and 29 state seats if it loses 30% of the non-Muslim vote (Scenario 1).

PAS will be almost wiped out in Selangor. It will lose all of its parliamentary seats in Selangor (Hulu Langat, Shah Alam, Kota Raja, Sepang) and 14 out of the 15 state seats in Selangor.

It will lose all 4 state seats in Johor. It will lose all 5 state seats in Perak. It will lose 2 out of 3 state seats in Pahang. It will lose 4 out of 9 state seats in Kedah.

Under Scenario 1, PAS will be left mostly with parliament and state seats in its northern strongholds. It will retain 14 parliament seats (9 in Kelantan, 4 in Terengganu and 1 in Perak). It will retain 54 state seats, 51 of which are in Kedah (5), Kelantan (32) and Terengganu (14) with only 3 state seats outside these states – 1 in Pahang, 1 in Pulau Pinang and 1 in Selangor.

Under Scenario 2 where PAS will lose 40% of the non-Muslim vote, it will lose 8 parliament seats (including Parit Buntar in Perak) and a further 5 state seats (1 in Kedah, 1 in Kelantan, 1 in Terengganu, 1 Pahang and 1 in Selangor). PAS would be left with 13 parliament seats (9 in Kelantan, 4 in Terenganu).

Does PAS want to go back to the situation in 2004 when it was left with only a handful of parliament and state seats in Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu and lose the hard fought ground it has gained in Pulau Pinang, Perak, Selangor and Johor?

The damage has already been done by PAS President Hadi Awang and the Deputy Menteri Besar of Kelantan, Nik Amar.

The only question that remains is whether Hadi Awang wants to restore PAS’ reputation especially among the non-Muslims within the Pakatan Rakyat coalition or whether he wants PAS to contest the next general election on its own.

Table 1: Parliament and State Seats which PAS will lose if it loses 30% and 40% of non-Muslim support based on the GE2013 results

Scenario 1

-30% of non-Muslim support

Scenario 2

-40% of non-Muslim support

PAS Parliament Seats

21 to 14

21 to 13

Parliament Seats which PAS will lose

-7

Pokok Sena (Kedah), Bukit Gantang (Perak), Temerloh (Pahang), Hulu Langat, Shah Alam, Kota Raja, Sepang (Selangor)

-8

All of the previously stated seats plus Parit Buntar (Perak)

PAS State Seats

85 to 54

85 to 49

State Seats which PAS will lose

-31

N15 Sanglang (Perlis), Alor Mengkudu, Kubang Rotan, Kuala Ketil, Merbau Pulas (Kedah), Titi Serong, Gunong Semanggol, Selinsing, Changkat Jering, Sungai Rapat (Perak), Beserah, Tanjung Lumpur (Pahang), Sabak, Taman Templer, Gombak Setia, Hulu Kelang, Lembah Jaya, Chempaka, Dusun Tua, Seri Serdang, Paya Jaras, Meru, Selat Klang, Sijangkang, Morib, Tanjong Sepat (Selangor), Bukit Baru (Melaka), Sungai Abong, Maharani, Parit Yaani, Puteri Wangsa (Johor)

-36

All of the previously stated seats plus N17 Pengkalan Kundor (Kedah), Wakaf Bharu (Kelantan), Ladang (Terengganu), Kuala Semantan (Pahang), Bangi (Selangor)

                This entry was posted on Monday, 23 March 2015, 12:32 pm and is filed under
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Attack on Aisyah proves stupidity

By Mariam Mokhtar

Malaysiakini

Mar 23, 2015

It takes a brave Malay woman to say what the whole nation is thinking, and it is amazing how many Malay men cannot wait to show the world the ugly face of the Malay psyche.

The threats of physical violence and rape on BFM host Aisyah Tajudin, for her satirical take on the Kelantan hudud law, have proven that despite receiving the ‘best education in the world’, many Malays remain shallow, servile and seriously stupid. Only insecure, egotistical Malay men would feel threatened, not just by the truth, but by a woman, and worse still, a Malay woman.

The rakyat’s problem is that Malaysia’s religious men aspire to become politicians, and its politicians pretend to be religious men.

The latest hudud debacle has very little to do with religion. It is about power. Power over the Malays in Malaysia. Power to overcome any non-Malay resistance. And power to crush any opposition, especially from progressive Malays, who represent the biggest threat.

Aisyah wanted to liberate Malay minds, not conquer their bodies.

Her video was for people to reflect and to ponder. She did not force her message on others, if they did not wish to accept them.

Aisyah discussed important issues, so we may understand some of our country’s problems. If she didn’t care for her country, she would have chosen to remain quiet, like 97 percent of the population.

The Malays are creative and in the olden days, songs, sajak (poems) or bangsawan (opera/plays) would relay any messages, from rulers to their subjects. Aisyah is merely continuing a rich Malay tradition. The Malays who reacted badly to her satire, are an uncultured lot.

Aisyah appealed to the Muslims’ faith and their compassion. The Malays who threatened her, revealed everything that Islam does not represent.

The BFM host used ingenuity to drive home a message about hudud, in Kelantan. The bigots revealed their stupidity and inability to use their intellect, to counter her point of view. Their threats, to rape and kill, will force more moderate, but silent Muslims, to speak out. These bigots have also stained the moderate face of Malay Muslims.

BFM should not have apologised for making and airing the satirical video. The company probably had no choice. The government issues permits, and can shut down companies. In the past, companies had their computers seized, their editors harassed, their Muslim writers accused of being lesbian, gay, apostate or atheist, and issued with death threats, violence or legal action.

In the Charlie Hebdo massacre of Jan 7, terrorists used Islam as their excuse, to mow down several people, including a Muslim policeman. Disagreeing with the cartoonists, does not give the men a licence to kill. The terrorists’ actions further tarnished the image of Islam and gave the impression that Muslims lacked the ability to enter into intelligent discussion.

Silencing freedom of expression

The day after the Paris carnage, inspector-general of police (IGP) Khalid Abu Bakar said that Malaysia needed the Sedition Law to prevent such attacks on Malaysian soil. The terrorists used bullets, in Paris, to silence freedom of expression, but Khalid uses the Sedition Law, to curb freedom of speech.

The IGP claimed that his role of policing Twitter, was to act like the referee of social media, and stop troublemakers. So, why are tweets from extremist and racist Umno Baru politicians not censured? Khalid should leave Aisyah alone, and arrest the men who threatened her.

Using a slew of laws like sedition and blasphemy to condemn Aisyah, just shows his desperation. The IGP is mimicking the Federal Territories Islamic Affairs Department’s (Jawi) relentless pursuit of the Borders manager, Nik Raina Abdul Aziz.

Malays brought up on Umno Baru’s diet of race, religion and royalty, have had their brains sucked dry. They have long forgotten how to think, to rationalise and to analyse.

By all means, blame Umno Baru, but do not forget their new partners in crime, PAS. Both parties are desperate to take control of the Malay mind, but more importantly, their votes. It is all about power. Sadly, the late Nik Aziz Nik Mat’s experience of both him and PAS being betrayed by Umno/Umno Baru, have already been forgotten by the PAS ulama.

PAS president Hadi Awang is desperate to force hudud through Parliament. This is about power. When it comes to absolute power, religion becomes a pawn, and a means to an end.

Hadi has fallen into Umno Baru’s trap, and we are now being distracted by hudud, instead of tackling major issues like 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), corruption, the goods and services tax (GST) and the flood victims.

Malays can still be pious without having to become wannabe Arabs. Malays are in danger of losing their history and their culture, which go back several centuries, long before Parameswara was born.

If Malays do not reclaim their true identity, the only reference to Malay culture will appear at cultural shows, for the benefit of tourists, and at Tourism Malaysia performances worldwide. The religious indoctrination by power-hungry Malay men, has reduced Malays to a poor imitation of Arabs, and turned multi-cultural Malaysia to a ghetto-nation.

Hudud does not belong in multicultural Malaysia. Aisyah’s video made us think, and that is what the bigots fear most.

MARIAM MOKHTAR is a defender of the truth, the admiral-general of the Green Bean Army and president of the Perak Liberation Organisation (PLO).

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 24 March 2015, 10:19 pm and is filed under
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