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Harassment by religious officers worrying
Oct 31, 06 1:11pm
(source: Malaysiakini)

The Christian Federation of Malaysia is troubled over a recent incident in which an elderly American couple was harassed by Muslim religious officials in the holiday island of Langkawi.The federation said that it was deeply concerned that non-Muslims were subjected to the harassment from the Kedah religious officers.

“Just recently Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi refuted allegations that Malaysia is a police state.

“An incident such as this, and many more similar actions in the past by over-zealous religious vigilante groups in the country point to the contrary,” said CFM’s executive committee in a statement.

Randall Barnhart, 62, and his wife Carole, 61, were rudely awakened in their rented apartment in the early hours of the morning earlier this month by religious officials conducting a raid on ‘khalwat’ couples.

The couple, who were on a six-week sailing holiday in Malaysia, have been married for 42 years and are Christians.

“The couple did inform the officers that they were Christians and therefore were not subjected to the rude intrusion of Islamic officers into their private premises.

“But that did not stop the intimidating behaviour of the officers,” added the federation.

Tourism minister concerned

Stating that this incident has given Malaysia a bad image, the Christian federation wanted the cabinet to take a special interest in this matter to reassure everyone that the privacy of citizens is always protected against such harassments.

The federation added that the Kedah religious department must offer an official apology to the couple.

It also called upon the Tourism Ministry to do whatever is necessary to assure tourists that they will not be subject to vigilante moral policing by religious officers.

In the wake of this incident, Tourism Minister Tengku Adnan Mansor said that he will meet and placate the American couple.

He was concerned that the incident on Langkawi, an idyllic island off Kedah promoted as a sailing hub, would affect the country’s image.

"I have communicated with Barnhart through emails and plan to meet him soon," Adnan was quoted as saying in the New Straits Times newspaper last week.

The timing of this incident could not have been much worse as the government has chosen next year to promote Malaysia as a prominent tourist destination, delcaring 2007 as the Visit Malaysia Year.

The government hopes to attract some 20.1 million tourists in 2007, up from 15.7 million in 2004.

Tourism is Malaysia's second-largest foreign exchange earner, but it is facing stiff competition from neighbours including Singapore and Thailand.

Yelling and pounding at 2am

Soon after the terrifying incident, Barnhart complained to police and the US embassy over the raid.

The raid saw officials yelling and pounding on the couple’s door at two in the morning.

Barnhart, who answered the door, said the officials demanded to see his ‘woman’ and insisted on being shown their marriage licence and passports.

He said his wife was terrified by the incident and insisted on going back to the United States.

Barnhart is also seeking an apology from Kedah state’s religious department and compensation of RM4,315.

RM100mil for varsities
PENANG: The four local universities designated as research universities will receive at least an additional RM100mil each for research, development and commercialisation activities.
Higher Education Minister Datuk Mustapa Mohamed said the allocation, to be disbursed early next year, would also fund the universities’ research grants and postgraduate scholarships.
The four universities are Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Universiti Malaya, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and Universiti Putra Malaysia.

提升水平争取世界排名 4大学列为研究大学
(槟城讯)高等教育部长拿督斯里慕斯达法宣布，教育部已把4所大学列为研究大学，以提升学术的水平，目标是争取名列世界100之内的最佳大学。
他坦言，大学学术水平尚未臻世界级的标准，迫切需要提升，而把4所大学，即马来西亚理科大学、马来亚大学、国大及博大，列为研究大学地位，有助达到目标。
他说，这所大学必须符合政府所列下8项学术准则，注重学术研究，以迎合世界大学的学术水平。此外，还须设有研究及开发部门，以配合社会发展的需求，参与经济的发展。

Politics is dynamic as is economy; it can be very unpredictable at times. Politicians, being the players in this complex game of mind, have to be extremely careful before making their move. There are several possibilities behind the "sudden awakening" of the Gerakan leaders. It could be that they are trying to make themselves relevant, as suggested by several readers. May be. But isn't that what they are supposed to do? Instead of dwelling on the past and attacking them for what they didn't or possibly couldn't have done, we should try to understand the reasons leading to the current situations, identify the problems at hand, provide more constructive suggestions and work together towards creating a better society.

No doubt the current developments: the sacking and public humiliation of Anwar, the wide-spread of corruptions, and etc., have created an undercurrent of resentment against the present government. This, coupled with the highly-lamented lack of leadership of Pak Lah, has, for good or for bad, opened up space for more debates.

Our nation's political landscape is shifting, both for the better and for the worse.

The fact that more and more people are starting to question the government in general, and UMNO in particular, on various issues is indeed an encouraging development.For Malaysia to become a truly developed nation, she needs to produce more, not only critical, but responsible citizens. A critical citizen does not necessarily make a responsible citizen. But an uncritical or compliant citizen is never a responsible citizen. Hence, having more and more citizens with critical minds is the first step towards creating a responsible society.

The probable bad news is that, with increased demand for transparency and discontent over political, economical and social injustice, even from among the Malay masses, the government might resort to more aggressive means in order to stay in power.

Having said that, I am still optimistic that the younger generation, with more exposure to the outside world, will not be swayed easily but are able to handle issues in a more rational way. The economical and social landscapes have changed vastly over the years, owing in large part to the NEP. But the present government has certainly overstayed their welcome. Hopefully one day when the people decide to vote out this corrupted government, all Malaysians, regardless of race or religion, will remain cool-headed.

BTW, just came accross this article and think it's worth reading.
http://www.aliran.com/oldsite/high9902.html

Posted by: Jin | October 16, 2006 11:21 PM

Q: This is a warning to the groups?
A: To anyone. Don’t twist (the matter). Malays or others, don’t kacau (cause trouble). If you want to ask, ask properly. Don’t buat kacau (cause trouble). Our country is peaceful. God does not make problems by causing typhoons, earthquakes, volcano eruptions, but human beings want to make problems, for what? We are very peaceful. If there is a problem, discuss it properly. That is important.
There is no patience now for problems, and there are those who want to find problems. Instigate, insinuate, want to make innuendos. There are no benefits to such actions.
Full story at here

Car wash worker caned over RM10,000 theft
A car wash operator here allegedly “flogged” his supervisor with a cane, stopping only after the 18-year-old agreed to sign an IOU note for RM10,000. The operator was said to have resorted to the drastic action after he suspected that Lee Yun Chong had stolen the money from the centre since January.

If a politician who living in the house cost 200 million Ringgit Malaysia, spent 20 million Ringgit Malaysia to install the security system. But, he keeps saying that he will defend your interests. I advise you to reconsider. The truth is the money used is your money (taxpayer’s money).

If the politician keep saying you are the world's first-class citizens, the citizens whose have privileges; but the fact is you only can afford to have two mackerel fish on the table, I advise you to reconsider.

If some people in their communities afford to organize the Hollywood-style wedding, or be able to pay 100 million Ringgit Malaysia for compensation divorce, however, you only can live in a small atap house which you are almost hard to stretch out your legs, I advise you to reconsider.

If a politician tells you that Ah Meng, the owner of a small factory or Sami, the owner of the restaurant is a threat to your economic livelihood, but on the other hand some politicians have a lot of money to spend, I advise you to reconsider.

The Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (Asli) should be more careful when publicising future reports that touch on issues of race and other sensitive matters, said Umno Youth deputy head Khairy Jamaluddin.He said this today, when asked to comment on Asli president Mirzan Mahathir’s retraction of a disputed report on bumiputera corporate equity ownership.

“Let’s not draw up a report that triggers anger (among many people) and then simply concede to having made mistakes. The damage is done already,” he said. “I feel that before we make any reports public, we have to be careful with the methodology that we use. More so when we try to question the methodology used by the government in official documents. *
“It was not a good methodology (as cited in the report), it was not fair, perhaps it was inappropriate and ultimately, it has been proven to be baseless.”(source: Malaysiakini)

This was the response of a top official, First secretary (political affairs), who goes by the single name Mudzakir at the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur after receiving a memorandum today from opposition party DAP. He received the two-page document on behalf of the Ambassador KPH Rusdihardjo and his deputy Abdul Rahman Muhamad Fachir. They were not at the embassy. (source: Malaysiakini)

All-round support for DBP to have power to fine**
There was all-round support for Dewan Bahasa and Pustaka (DBP) to have the power to advise and fine those not using the national language correctly on signboards.(source: theStar)

Malaysia to Levy Fines for Poor Speech
Malaysia will levy fines on those incorrectly using the national language, and will set up a specialized division to weed out offenders who mix Malay with English, news reports said Thursday. Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Rais Yatim said fines of up to 1,000 ringgit ($271) can be imposed on displays with any wrong or mutated form of Malay(source:Yahoo! ASIA)

The Cabinet has given the Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka (DBP) the power to advise and fine anyone not using the national language correctly on signboards. “DBP can now enforce the correct usage of the national language on the public and private sectors,” Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Datuk Seri Rais Yatim told reporters at a press conference at his office yesterday. Rais said for a start, DBP would advise anyone found using the language wrongly. Anyone refusing to follow an order by the DBP director-general can be fined up to RM1000. (source: theStar)

Youth leaders in the Barisan Nasional will explain to their members the recent remarks made by Umno Youth deputy chief Khairy Jamaluddin.

At the same time, Barisan Youth leader Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein advised those who want to speak on issues touching on Malaysia’s plural society to be careful so that their statements will not be misinterpreted. Khairy was criticised by several Barisan parties for his remarks in August that non-Malay parties would take advantage of a weak Umno.

Hishammuddin said parties like the MCA and Gerakan had criticised Khairy and demanded an apology from him because no in-depth explanation was made at that time to give a clearer picture of the situation.(source: theStar)

No apologies but only explanation that was given by Umno deputy youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin today to his fellow Barisan Nasional youth leaders over his racial remarks in August.

His remarks had then sparked off intense reaction from the Chinese community, including from the members of the Chinese-based MCA and Gerakan - two of the leading coalition partners in BN. Since then, it was widely expected that Khairy will apologise over his remarks at the BN youth council meeting today.

However after a three-hour meeting involving youth leaders from all 12 coalition partners, BN youth chairperson Hishammuddin Hussein reported that the youth council have resolved to “work together” and to put the incident behind them, and had described the meeting as a success.

“It’s about sincerity, and the spirit of co-cooperation. The relationship between the youth members need to be built on so there is no misunderstanding while we carry out our duties,” he told reporters after chairing the meeting.(source: Malaysiakini)

Why the sudden change of heart?

In the early years of my career, I was among the people who initiated the implementation of the NEP and also created the institutions that act as bumiputera distributing arms in the corporate sector. Some people have been surprised as a former promoter of the NEP, I am now ignoring the vehicle to advance the Malays.

The concept of the NEP is really just affirmative action. Of course affirmative is trying to correct certain perceived imbalances in the economy. In fact, the definition for affirmative action is very clear - it’s called positive discrimination. It’s when you discriminate against people to resolve the disparity between communities to reach a level of an even playing field. So I think it was quite clear back then.

But now, the NEP has been vulgarised by a small section of the bumiputera community in terms of corporate enhancement. The NEP now is becoming a scheme to enhance the income and also the wealth of certain selected members of the community through references to secure all the contract give-outs and so forth.

It becomes so embarrassingly clear that this vehicle of NEP has been catered specifically to certain sections and groups of people. For example, we see that in the contract to supply computers to schools; the people who got the contracts have no experience in handling computers. And yet they become the front runners and it is sub contracted out.

So there is abuse in terms of not getting the right products delivered, resources that have been thrown out due to inefficiency, distribution to these schools have not been fully utilised and as a result, it is an enormous waste. Now the selected people have become so-called world players in terms of cyber cities and so forth.

Sin Chew Daily reported that the police have the right to inspect the mobile phones of those who behave suspiciously – and, if need be, confiscate their SIM cards, but several groups are against such action.
The debate stemmed from a complaint by a motorist who said he had to hand over his SIM card to the police during a roadblock.
The paper quoted Federal CID deputy director II (Administration) Datuk Syed Ismail Syed Azizan as saying that the police could charge those who refuse to give up their SIM cards.
“The police will check if a person’s mobile phone contains pornographic materials and malicious rumours,” he said. However, he declined to comment if such a move was against a person’s rights.(source: theStar)

The UMNO supreme council sacked Abd Zarin Mohd Yassin for criticising the party and its leadership, especially the president, through his blog Sang Kelembai.

Umno secretary-general Radzi Sheikh Ahmad said the disciplinary committee proposed that Abd Zarin be suspended but the "leadership wanted to send a clear signal to all". (source: Malaysiakini 29th September 2006)

Umno secretary-general Datuk Seri Radzi Sheikh Ahmad said the sacking had nothing to do with the Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad issue.

“He came out with comments in his Sang Kelembai blog which ran down the party and the leadership, including the president, on countless occasions.” Asked if this was a warning to other bloggers who are Umno members, he said: “Possibly”. “It sends a clear message,” he said. (source: theStar 29th September 2006)