Malaysiakini report ‘Forgotten’ Anwar no longer a factor.

Posted March 2008 by mijoan

Faizul Zainol  Mar 1, 08 5:11pm
I refer to the Malaysiakini report ‘Forgotten’ Anwar no longer a factor.The leaders currently in power have not proven anything concrete to ensure that we are on the right track. Instead, we are moving further down and further apart from each other as Malaysians. No doubt, Anwar Ibrahim may not be the best alternative we have.

But, certainly, he is way better than the current leadership which is full of lies and deception and frequently contributes to ever-increasing racial tension and economic mismanagement due to governance based on race and religion.

We are not interested in history - what Anwar did is not important to voters anymore. The BN has proven that the it is corrupt, incompetent and arrogant. We detest it and we want to get rid of it. With Anwar around, we believe we can do it this time. We have not had a heavyweight Malay opposition force but Anwar is a person who is hard to come by. No doubt, his ability far exceeds that of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi or his deputy Najib Razak

‘Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely’. This is exactly what happened when the BN was given a two-thirds (or greater) majority. With the two-thirds majority in Parliament - where the laws of the land are made and gazetted - the BN (or any coalition that is in power) can change laws to its advantage, at its whim and fancy. Most of the time, this comes at the expense of the general public - the people who voted them in. This is what Malaysians have experienced for the past five decades.

We need to deny the BN a two-thirds majority so that it does not change the constitution every time it wants something that will give its members an advantage. They have done it and will do it again if we give them another five years.

It is interesting to note that 65 percent of the Malaysian population translates into some 90 percent of the state and parliamentary seats. Unless someone or something can enlighten these people, they will continue to vote for the decadent BN because of imaginary and unreasoned fears.

It is difficult to understand why a people who get very, very upset when you say their religion is bad will happily accept and vote for a corrupt and decadent government. Change may not necessarily be better. But without change, it is not possible to become better. If we want to become better, we must want change. It is time BN’s two-thirds majority in parliament is dismantled.

We hold that power

In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place-Mahatma

Posted in: Malaysia GE 2008, Malaysia Politics, Uncategorized | Comments(0)

37 independents - with many gatecrashing high-profile battles

Posted February 2008 by mijoan

Posted in Malaysia-Today by Raja Petra   
Monday, 25 February 2008
Active ImageBy Jeremy Au, THE STRAITS TIMES

SUNGEI SIPUT (PERAK) - BARISAN Nasional candidate Datuk Seri Samy Vellu, 72, and Parti Keadilan Rakyat’s Dr Michael Jeyakumar, 52, were all set for a straight fight in the Sungai Siput constituency, when a man in a brown Malay baju strolled into the nomination centre.

He turned out to be businessman Nor Rizan Oon, 49, who wanted to throw his name into the hat. Prior to yesterday morning, neither of the two other candidates nor any of the media had heard of him.

Across the country yesterday, 37 independent candidates popped up, six more than in 2004, with several gatecrashing high-profile battles.

Mr N. Periasamy joined the battle between former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim’s daughter Nurul Izzah Anwar, 27, and Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, 54, in Lembah Pantai, Kuala Lumpur.

Over in Penang, the Jelutong parliamentary seat became a three-cornered fight after independent Badrul Hisham joined renowned blogger Jeff Ooi, 52, from the Democratic Action Party and Dr Thor Teong Gee of Barisan Nasional.

The rest of the independents are a hodge-podge of characters, including an 89-year-old grandmother. While little is known of candidates such as Mr Badrul Hisham, Mr Nor Rizan and Mr Periasamy, other independents are established names in their respective fields.

Lawyer Asmadi Abu Bakar, who turned up to contest in Kelantan’s Tanah Merah constituency, is known among the Felda community in the state. He recently won a RM7.8 million (S$3.4 million) suit accusing Felda of understating the quality of its palm oil fruit.

The impact of these independents will vary, say analysts, depending on who they are and where they contest.

For example, an unknown in a high-profile seat would have nearly no impact as they attract few votes, says a political analyst, Professor Shamsul Amri Baharuddin.

‘These people are typically running because they feel some frustration in the community or they are really committed to the idea of opposition. I don’t want to call them crazy, but they are perhaps thinking more on the emotional side,’ he says.

Dr Denison Jayasooria, executive director of think- tank Social Strategic Foundation, agrees that most have little hope of winning, and that some are running as spoilers to draw votes from a particular candidate.

‘Depending on the background of the independent, he can split votes either of the opposition or BN. They are there to distract voters.’

Posted in: Malaysia GE 2008, Uncategorized | Comments(0)

Hindu devotees mull legal action over unlawful detention

Posted February 2008 by mijoan

 Posted by beritaman

Hindu devotees from Penang are mulling legal action against the police for allegedly detaining them for almost eight hours at the Kuala Lumpur police training centre (Pulapol) last Saturday.

Their lawyer SN Rayer said the unlawful detention - which took place when the KL police were taking steps to prohibit people from taking part in the Hindraf’s rose protest - was a violation of basic human rights and blatant abuse of power.

“We demand immediate investigation and action by the police. Otherwise, we would file a legal suit for criminal damages,” he told Malaysiakini after accompanying his clients to lodge police report on the unlawful detention in Jalan Patani police station in Georgetown on Tuesday.

A complainant, SK Jothi, 33, from Bayan Baru said she and 35 other passengers, all Hindu devotes, were travelling in a tour bus during an overnight trip from Penang to visit a temple in Kuala Lumpur when the police stopped the coach in Selayang, just outside the Kuala Lumpur city centre.

The police then seized their identity cards and re-directed them to Pulapol in Kuala Lumpur.

“We were detained together with about 300 people between 8.30am and 4.30pm at Pulapol for questioning and our luggage was searched.

“We were disallowed to have legal representation and were forced to undergo urine test.

“Men and women were forced to share the same unhygienic toilet facilities at the place,” she told Malaysiakini.

Another complainant, K Palanitharan, 32, said several elderly women fainted while being forced to wait under the hot sun during their eight-hour ordeal.

Policemen even refused to supply drinking water to the detainees when requested, he added.

”We were not told the reasons for our unlawful detention and were told to go back to Penang immediately after eight hours,” he said.

It is learnt the police have detained these devotees together with hundred others passengers and questioned on their participation in the “Rose Campaign” organized by the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) last Saturday morning.

Rayer said the police owe a public explanation on the reasons behind the unlawful detention of his clients and others as well.

“No drugs or weapons were found, they were disallowed to have their lawyers present.

“They were forced to share unhygienic toilets and undergo urine tests.

“Surely the police need to probe and reveal its findings,” he said.

When contacted, Georgetown deputy OCPD Supt Mohd Soaihami Rahim said the city police would refer the case to relevant police departments to probe.

“It happened in Selayang and Pulapol, therefore the case would be referred to police departments there,” he said.

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12 People Who Are Changing Your Retirement

Posted February 2008 by mijoan

By KELLY GREENE

Joseph Coughlin describes his work as “trying to get people to ‘age cool.’ ” More specifically, as director of AgeLab, a research program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he is pushing advances in transportation, health care and housing off drawing boards and into older adults’ lives.

And he can’t do it quickly enough.

“If we don’t hurry,” he says, “the products being designed now aren’t going to be there when the [baby] boomers need them.”

Prof. Coughlin is one of hundreds of people across the country whose work, in effect, is shaping the future of retirement. The motives may vary — educators, entrepreneurs, philanthropists and policy makers are all involved in the effort — but the goals are much the same: to learn about, and improve the quality of, later life.

Demographics, of course, explain the sense of urgency. Each day, on average, almost 8,000 people in the U.S. turn 60. Just last month, the first of 78 million baby boomers reached age 62 and became eligible for Social Security.

Which “change agents” are having the biggest impact on retirement? We put that question to experts in aging nationwide. From dozens of candidates, we selected the following 12 people. If you want to know what your future might look like — how Americans will live, work and play in later life — these individuals are designing some of the answers.

William Bengen
The Numbers Guy

It’s the most frequent question, and biggest concern, for many people approaching retirement: How big a nest egg will I need, and how do I make it last?

William Bengen is working on that.

[William Bengen]

Mr. Bengen, a certified financial planner in El Cajon, Calif., has already achieved what amounts to rock-star status in the retirement-planning business. His pioneering research in the 1990s gave rise to the “4% rule”: Withdraw no more than about 4% a year from your nest egg, and it’s highly likely that your savings will last 30 years. That finding has already helped to establish budgets and spending patterns for numerous retirees.

Today, Mr. Bengen, age 60, continues to refine his research. In 2006, he introduced a method of withdrawing funds from nest eggs that tailors the 4% rule to individual circumstances. (It’s online at www.fpanet.org/journal. Click on “Past Issues & Articles,” then on “Past Issues,” and go to August 2006.) And now, he is researching, he says, “the possibility that dividend-paying stocks, particularly those that increase dividends over time, might provide a better retirement resource than the S&P 500.” As Mr. Bengen explains: “The thesis is that those have at least as high a total return as S&P 500 stocks, and they have lower volatility…. If you have stocks that don’t go down as much in the bear markets, you’re better off.”

Mr. Bengen doesn’t see himself as shaping baby boomers’ financial future. He says he simply wants to help his 60 or so clients.

“I was starting to get some clients who were planning for retirement,” he recalls, “and they were asking me, ‘How much can I take out, and how should I set up my investments?’ And I couldn’t find a thing substantiated by any research.”

Joseph Coughlin
Harnessing Technology

In the mid-1990s, before joining MIT, Prof. Coughlin was working for a federal contractor, studying the aging population’s potential impact on transportation.

[Joseph Coughlin]

“It was like unwrapping an onion,” he remembers. “We hadn’t thought about housing, [or] the future of work. And we certainly hadn’t thought about transportation.”

That epiphany led to the creation, in 2000, of AgeLab, where Prof. Coughlin and his colleagues are designing — and pushing companies to embrace — technology that will enhance older adults’ daily lives.

One of his favorite breakthroughs is a “personal adviser” that Procter & Gamble Co. has licensed, based on AgeLab research, to help food shoppers identify products that are healthy for them. The device, to be attached by supermarkets to their grocery carts, is like a minicomputer with a scanner. Shoppers insert smart cards that contain their dietary particulars. Then, as they shop, they swipe products past the scanner to get the device’s opinion. Let’s say you’re prehypertensive and scan a box of crackers; after reading the bar code, Prof. Coughlin says, the adviser may suggest trying a different product with a lot less salt.

Eric Dishman
Helping People Stay Home

For no small number of people, aging means losing their independence — and, eventually, leaving their homes.

[Eric Dishman]

Someday, technology being developed by Eric Dishman and his staff at Intel Corp. may help people stay in their homes longer.

Mr. Dishman has focused on ways to assist the elderly since he was a teenager helping care for a grandparent with Alzheimer’s disease. Years later, he was working for Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen on a “nursing home of the future,” he says, when someone made an observation that helped alter his approach to the matter completely.

“Someone said, ‘I think we asked the wrong question,’ ” he recalls. “ ’It’s not how can we make the nursing home better through technology, but how can technology keep people independent?’ ”

Mr. Dishman, 39, is general manager in charge of product research and innovation for Intel’s Digital Health Group. Prototypes emerging from his group’s offices and labs have a Jetsons-like feel: a carpet with sensors that may reduce the risk of a fall; a “caller ID on steroids,” which shows and tells you who is at the front door and when you last spoke; a system that helps people with memory problems cook for themselves.

John Erickson
Helping People Leave Home

In contrast to Mr. Dishman, John Erickson sees a future where millions of Americans leave their homes in later life. And he’s preparing your accommodations.

[John Erickson]

Mr. Erickson, 63, is chairman and chief executive of closely held Erickson Retirement Communities, one of the country’s largest developers of continuing-care retirement communities. In a CCRC, residents are guaranteed access to different levels of long-term care as they age.

Starting in Maryland in 1983 with a single facility (a renovated seminary), Mr. Erickson began developing retirement “campuses,” where residents, among other activities, can produce their own TV shows. Today, the company has 20 CCRCs with 21,000 residents in 11 states. Mr. Erickson hopes to nearly double that number in five years.

Why should we leave our homes in later life? “Accidents, falls, depression, isolation,” Mr. Erickson answers. “That’s not what was meant for the last half of retirement.”

Beyond housing, Mr. Erickson also may have a hand in shaping what older adults watch on television. In the past two years, he has spent an estimated $100 million building Retirement Living TV, a cable network focused on later life. He also donated $5 million in 2004 to start a professional program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, that combines management, policy and aging issues.

Charles Feeney
A Life of Purpose

If you find yourself, in your 60s and 70s, immersed in a new career and a new passion — teaching children to read, for instance, or helping an environmental organization — you may have Charles Feeney to thank.

[Charles Feeney]

Mr. Feeney, 76, is the founding chairman of Atlantic Philanthropies, an international foundation that is committed to disbursing its entire $4 billion endowment by 2020. A large chunk will go to help older adults “live healthier, independent lives with dignity, purpose and meaning,” says Brian Hofland, director of Atlantic’s international aging program.

The foundation, for instance, has helped fund the Purpose Prize, awards of $100,000 given each year to five “social entrepreneurs” age 60 or older who are tackling some of society’s biggest challenges. Civic Ventures, the San Francisco nonprofit that created the Purpose Prize, last year received $10 million from Atlantic Philanthropies in part to stimulate development of “encore careers” for people 50 and older.

Mr. Feeney himself is a bit of a recluse. (He declined to be interviewed for this article.) He doesn’t own a house or a car, and when flying, he typically travels coach, says Conor O’Clery, an Irish journalist and biographer of Mr. Feeney. It wasn’t until 1997, after Mr. Feeney sold the company he founded (DFS Group, a chain of airport stores), that his sizable charitable efforts became public.

“A lot of what Chuck likes doing is building buildings at universities and hospitals,” Mr. O’Clery says. “But more and more, he became concerned with health issues, and I think his interest in aging grew out of that.”

Katherine Freund
Staying Mobile

For millions of people, driving at some point will become impractical. How, then, to get to the supermarket, or to friends’ homes?

[Katherine Freund]

A near-tragedy 20 years ago in the life of Katherine Freund is yielding some answers.

In 1988, Ms. Freund’s 3-year-old son was hit by a car and nearly killed. The driver was 84 years old. That event sparked an interest in transportation issues that led, in the mid-1990s, to the development of the Independent Transportation Network.

The program offers rides — round the clock, seven days a week — to older adults in the Portland, Maine, area. Fees average $8 a trip. Riders can trade in their cars and get credit for travel; volunteer drivers can bank their hours on the road to use later for themselves or family.

Ms. Freund, 57, serves as president and executive director of ITNAmerica, which has grown into a national organization. While in Portland the program provides nearly 17,000 rides a year to about 1,000 members age 65 and older, ITNAmerica now has nine affiliates, which provided almost 26,000 rides last year, and expects to have 40 affiliates by 2010.

Sheryl Garrett
Spreading Financial Literacy

Sheryl Garrett is on a mission to bring financial planning to the masses.

[Sheryl Garrett]

In the late 1990s, Ms. Garrett, a certified financial planner in Shawnee Mission, Kan., says she came to realize that many middle-class families knew little about managing money and retirement finances — and couldn’t afford to pay for help. Accordingly, instead of tying her fees to commissions or the size of a client’s assets (common practices among financial advisers), she decided to charge by the hour.

“It’s sort of like going to the dentist,” says Ms. Garrett, who is 45. “You don’t pay your dentist a retainer — you pay him for time and expertise.”

She soon found herself profiled in financial publications and fielding requests from consumers as far away as Massachusetts and California who wanted to hire her. In response, in July 2000, she launched Garrett Planning Network Inc., which now has almost 300 advisers across the U.S. The certified financial planners pay $7,500 to license the business model. They are required to offer their services exclusively as fiduciaries (meaning they are legally obligated to put their clients’ interests first) and on a fee-only basis. Hourly rates are about $175.

Ms. Garrett is also seeking ways to raise financial literacy among the wider public, including possibly through electronic games, a nighttime soap opera or a personal-finance makeover TV show.

Michael Merzenich
Keeping Minds in Shape

Michael Merzenich is working to make “brain exercise” as much a part of your routine in retirement as walking or jogging.

[Michael Merzenich]

As chief scientific officer at Posit Science Corp., a San Francisco software maker, Dr. Merzenich, age 65, is at the forefront of efforts to improve mental health in later life. His interest in the field dates to the mid-1980s, when he was involved in experiments training animals at the University of California, San Francisco.

“We were watching [the animals’] brains change as they acquired skills and abilities,” he remembers. Consequently, he began investigating tools that could promote and measure mental fitness in humans.

His first company, Scientific Learning Corp., started in 1996, created software for children struggling with language problems. Posit Science, which Dr. Merzenich founded in 2003, is focused on older adults. Its first product was designed to improve memory and cognition (thinking and processing speed), mainly through listening exercises; this spring, the company plans to release a new brain-training program focused on vision.

Dr. Merzenich, still a neuroscience professor at UCSF and an inventor with more than 50 patents, is working on exercises that support decision making, fine motor control (playing musical instruments, for example), and gross motor control (to help restore balance).

Bernard Osher
Senior School Master

Returning to school, in some fashion, is high on many people’s to-do lists in retirement. Bernard Osher is helping to build the classrooms and programs you might enter.

Mr. Osher helped his family start Golden West Financial Corp. in the 1960s and created a personal foundation in the 1970s. Today, he is pouring nearly $200 million into what has become known as lifelong learning, or college-based education for older adults.

A native of Biddeford, Maine, Mr. Osher had his first significant exposure to the practice in 2000 during a visit to the Fromm Institute for Lifelong Learning at the University of San Francisco. “I came away very impressed,” he says, particularly with “the joy of learning” that he witnessed.

Several months later, a trip to the Senior College at the University of Southern Maine in Portland sealed his interest. The Bernard Osher Foundation made a $2.2 million gift to the Maine program in 2001, allowing the university to expand its peer-taught courses and workshops to more than 1,000 students ages 50 and older. Since then, the foundation has donated $73 million to nearly 120 lifelong-learning institutes on university campuses from Maine to Hawaii. Future grants will be used primarily to augment those programs.

John Rother
Advocate for the Aging

John Rother, AARP’s policy director, is ultimately responsible for everything that the largest membership group for older Americans advocates at the state and national levels. He is constantly in motion, making about 80 speeches a year around the world and lobbying lawmakers nationwide.

“I’ve got the best job in Washington,” says Mr. Rother, 60, who joined AARP in 1984 after serving as staff director and chief counsel to the Senate Special Committee on Aging.

Health care is his primary focus today. “It’s too expensive, and we aren’t getting our money’s worth,” he says. Fixing it “is going to take everything we know how to do — prevention, better management of chronic care, improving quality, being smarter purchasers as the government and individuals.”

In recent years, Mr. Rother has played a role in helping to pass — or block — some of the most significant legislation in Congress: the Medicare prescription-drug benefit (not “everything we had hoped it would be, but…certainly better than nothing”); Social Security privatization; and the national do-not-call registry.

John P. Stewart
Urban Planner

John P. Stewart is working on a blueprint for making city services receptive to all of the needs of older Americans — whether in health care, transportation, safety, employment or continuing education. To date, 16 cities have joined in the effort, including Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Atlanta.

[John P. Stewart]

“I was really struck by the fact that we needed to change the way we look at aging services,” says Mr. Stewart, who for 32 years worked as a Maryland state health and education administrator, and is now executive director of the Commission on Aging and Retirement Education for the city of Baltimore.

More than 25% of the U.S. work force is over 60 and living healthier lives, Mr. Stewart says. “A lot of people are going to have to work longer.”

To focus on the question of what a senior-friendly city should look like, Mr. Stewart helped create a nonprofit think tank, the Baltimore City Center for Urban Aging Services and Policy Development. Issues under study include how to help grandparents who are raising their grandchildren; upgrading community senior centers with fitness equipment and personal trainers; and providing counseling to help cope with poverty and social isolation.

“This ‘declinist’ theory that people get old and should be put away is insane,” says Mr. Stewart, 63. “We can be an asset.”

William Thomas
Reinventing the Nursing Home

The spark for William Thomas’s work came in 1991 while treating a patient in an upstate New York nursing home. “She grabbed my arm, pulled me down over the bed, looked in my eyes and said, ‘I’m so lonely,’ ” he recalls.

[William Thomas]

To revitalize the place, he opened the doors to children, brought in parakeets, cats and dogs, and plowed up the grounds for a garden. The effort grew into the Eden Alternative, a nonprofit that has helped more than 500 nursing homes across the country shift their focus to their residents’ emotional well-being and away from institutional scheduling.

Today, Dr. Thomas is widely regarded as a leader in efforts nationwide to bring humanity to the end of life. In 1999, while touring the country to promote the Eden Alternative’s work and a novel about aging, “I realized that America’s nursing homes are getting older faster than we are,” he says.

Accordingly, he developed the idea of replacing traditional nursing homes with “Green Houses,” cozier facilities centered on big kitchens with technology-laden bedrooms and nursing aides who also serve as housekeepers and companions. To date, there are 35 Green House projects; the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is helping fund an expansion of the program.

For his next act, Dr. Thomas, 48, wants to become “the Dr. Spock of aging.”

“The boomers are creeping toward elderhood, and I aim to help explain [the] terrain,” he says. “The ‘new’ old age [is] a time of strength and growth and development and engagement.”

–Ms. Greene is a staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal in Atlanta. She can be reached at encore@wsj.com.

Posted in: Aging?, Those Blogs, Uncategorized, World News | Comments(0)

A Christian ‘anointed’ Muhammad as Prophet

Posted February 2008 by mijoan

 
NO HOLDS BARRED Raja Petra Kamarudin

The hypocrisy of Muslims is so mind-boggling that sometimes I am ashamed to admit I am a Muslim. Stupid Muslims do and say stupid things while those who know better keep quiet and pretend what is being said and done by these stupid people is correct. Their silence and inaction in opposing and correcting transgressions and violations to Islam make these people guilty of complicity. Those who remain quiet are as guilty as those who commit these crimes against Islam.

According to Islamic history, Muhammad was a ‘restless soul’ who used to withdraw from society to contemplate all alone in a deserted cave for days on end.
In this isolation or ’solitary confinement’, Muhammad would ponder in search of the Creator. One day, the Angel Gabriel descended to earth to command Muhammad to read. Muhammad replied that he was unlearned and could not read whereby Gabriel repeated the command to Muhammad who continued protesting that he was not capable of reading. Gabriel finally grabbed Muhammad and shook him with such great force that he was compelled to obey the command lest his very life get shaken out of him.

Muhammad was greatly disturbed and in utter shock. He ran back to his wife, Khatijah, and jumped under the blanket while relating to her what he had just experienced. Khatijah, who was older than him and probably quite intelligent considering she already owned a successful business enterprise before she married Muhammad, decided to go see her cousin. Some accounts say she brought Muhammad to meet her cousin. Suffice to say, whether Muhammad did or did not go along, Khatijah did go see her cousin and there appears to be no dispute on this point.

Khatijah’s cousin had much earlier converted to Christianity and was an ulama or learned person. When he heard what Khatijah had to relate he said that Muhammad was destined to become a Prophet and he prayed he would still be alive to see this happen. He also predicted that Muhammad would face much trials and tribulations in his God-given mission to spread the word and to bring the Arabs out of the darkness of paganism in the period that Muslims call the era of ignorance or jahil.

Yes, it was a Christian who in a way ‘anointed’ Muhammad as the Prophet of Islam when Muhammad himself thought he was going mad and told his wife so. But Khatijah’s cousin, the learned Christian, convinced Khatijah that Muhammad was not going mad but had been chosen by God as the next Prophet and that she should go home and inform Muhammad of this. Muhammad would probably never have returned to that cave and would instead have asked Khatijah to commit him into a mental asylum if not for her learned Christian cousin.

That, in a nutshell, was the relationship between Muhammad and Christianity in the days when Muhammad had not yet ’seen the light’. And it took a Christian to convince Muhammad that he was not going mad but was in fact a Prophet. And, yes, the Christian cousin of Muhammad’s wife was an Arab, as was Muhammad, and the Arab Bible was in Arabic, the language of Islam, and the Arab Christian God was called Allah, as was the God of the pagan Arabs who also had 360 other Gods alongside Allah — which about 21 years later were all ’sacked’ in favour of just the one God, Allah, the same God of the Jews and Christians of the Arabian Peninsular of that era.

This controversy about banning the Bahasa Malaysia version of the Bible and banning the use of the word Allah in the Bible is not new. Of course, more than 1,500 years ago in Arabia, the Arabic version of the Bible was not banned, nor was the use of the word Allah in the Bible. In fact, there was already an Arabic Bible long before there was an Arabic Quran and the Arab Christians already called God Allah long before Gabriel commanded Muhammad to read.

Malaysian Ministers are expected to be learned in matters of religion and Islamic history. And if they are not then it is expected that those from Pusat Islam and the Religious Department who are would be able to guide the Ministers on what is right and what is not. But ignorant Ministers make stupid statements and come out with stupid policies while learned Muslims from Pusat Islam and the Religious Department, who are there only for the salary and not because of Islam, shut their mouths and do not dare make a squeak.

The hypocrisy of Muslims is so mind-boggling that sometimes I am ashamed to admit I am a Muslim. Stupid Muslims do and say stupid things while those who know better keep quiet and pretend what is being said and done by these stupid people is correct. Their silence and inaction in opposing and correcting transgressions and violations to Islam make these people guilty of complicity. Those who remain quiet are as guilty as those who commit these crimes against Islam.

I give up on Muslims who are all bloody hypocrites. These people are more concerned about young people who hold hands in a park or about whether the clothes they wear are too ’sexy’. These people do not care whether there are injustices to Islam perpetuated in the name of Islam. Islam is being put to ridicule. And our government and Prime Minister say one thing but do the opposite.

Badawi asks Malaysians to adopt moderate path

Kuala Lumpur, Dec 26, 2007 : Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has again criticised the narrow-mindedness and intolerance propounded by a small group of people and has urged his countrymen to adopt a moderate path.

“Over the last few months, narrow-mindedness and intolerance, propounded by a small group, have served to test our faith in each other,” he said in his Christmas message.

Malaysians should move forward and put the country’s interest before any narrowly defined demands,” he was quoted as saying by the Star newspaper Wednesday.

Malaysia has been in the news following a protest rally staged by Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), which claims to speak for the Indian ethnic community, who form eight percent of the country’s 27 million people.

Hindraf organised a rally Nov 25 that attracted an estimated 10,000 people. Although it was peaceful, police dispersed it using water cannons and tear gas.

Thirty-one protestors were prosecuted, while five of the Hindraf leaders are in jail for two years under the stringent Internal Security Act (ISA).

Malaysia rejected concerns raised by India and the US, terming it ‘interference in its domestic affairs’.

Noting that there was a lot in common between Islam and Christianity, he said: “Despite all the rhetoric, the great religions of the world practised across Malaysia share many universal beliefs.

“If moderation does not take centre stage, extremism will take the place and we will all be dragged into it, whether it comes from the basis of religion, race or groups,” he warned.

“This is what we should watch out for, this is what it give us problems,” said Badawi in his speech at a Christmas tea party organised by the Christian Federation of Malaysia and hosted by Kuala Lumpur’s Archbishop Murphy Pakiam.

He also called on the people to uphold the spirit of tolerance and mutual respect that they had been practising in a multi-racial community. — IANS

Sabah church sues PM over book ban

Soon Li Tsin, Malaysiakini | Dec 24, 07 4:46pm

A Sabah church has sued the government and Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in his capacity as internal security minister for not allowing the import of Christian literature from Indonesia containing the word ‘Allah’.

Sabah Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB) Church president Pastor Jerry Dusing filed the suit on behalf of the church at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Dec 10 after six titles for their Sunday school education for children were banned from being imported.

The church is also asking the court to compel the minister to return the consignment of materials that were ‘unlawfully detained’ by customs officers at the Low-Cost Carrier Terminal on Aug 15.

According to letters from the ministry, the books were banned because the Bahasa Indonesia publications contained various words that are exclusive only to Islam.

The words in contention are ‘Allah’ (God), ‘Baitullah’ (House of God), ‘Solat’ (prayer) and ‘Kaabah’ (The Sacred House).

The letters state that the ministry is allowed to stop any propagation of religious doctrine or belief to Muslims in accordance with Article 11(4) of the Federal Constitution allowing certain words to be restricted and prohibited from use.

The ministry explained that the prohibition was due to the uneasiness felt in the community during the late 1970s and early 1980s, the issue has become sensitive and been classified as a security issue.

It also stated further that the publications can raise confusion and controversy in the Malaysian society.

Dursing’s affidavit rebuts several of these points including the use of Alkitab - the Bahasa Indonesia translation of the Holy Bible - where the word ‘Allah’ appears.

“The Christian usage of ‘Allah’ predates Islam. ‘Allah’ is the name of God in the old and the modern Arabic Bible.

“The Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia translations of the Holy Bible have been used by Christian native peoples in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak for generations,” it stated.

Educational purpose

He also noted that the publications was for educational purposes within the church and was not for sale or distribution outside the church.

“The publications will not be made available to members of the public and in particular to a person professing the religion of Islam.

“The publications contain nothing which is likely to cause public alarm or which touches on the sensitivities of Islam,” the affidavit read.

A range of constitutional provision were also raised by the applicants. The hearing for the application for leave in the Kuala Lumpur High Court is scheduled to take place on Dec 27.

The controversy over the use of ‘Allah’ in non-Islam publications recently surfaced when Herald - the largest Catholic newspaper - was facing problems when renewing its annual publishing permit because of the word ‘Allah’ was used in referring to ‘God’ in its Bahasa Malaysia section.

The ministry has told the publisher to remove the entire Bahasa Malaysia section or the permit will not be renewed when it expires next week.

Asked for an explanation on the matter, Deputy Internal Security Minister Johari Baharum said the word ‘Allah’ can only be used in the context of Islam and not any other religion.

The Herald, which is published in four languages - English, Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil - has a circulation of 12,000.

Bible Ban Shock in Southeast Asian Democracy

By Patrick Goodenough

CNSNews.com Pacific Rim Bureau Chief

April 17, 2003

As Christians around the world prepare to mark their most important holiday, hundreds of thousands of believers in southeast Asia face the prospect of celebrating Easter without free access to the Bible.

In a decision indigenous Christians in eastern Malaysia have found incomprehensible, their government in Kuala Lumpur - which considers itself one of Asia’s more successful democracies - has banned the Bible in their native tongue.

The Iban, the largest of 27 indigenous ethnic groups in Sarawak province on Borneo island, have since 1988 had access to the entire Bible in their own language, published by the Bible Society of Malaysia.

But now the mainly Muslim government’s Home Ministry has named the Iban-language Bible as one of 35 publications it is banning because they are considered “detrimental to public peace.”

Among the other books listed are Christian books in Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia, the national languages of those two countries.

They include translations of books in English by well-known Western evangelical authors J.I. Packer and John Stott. Others are books on Islamic subjects.

The books were listed in a ministry statement that cited various publication laws and said the “printing, import, production, reproduction, sale, circulation, distribution and possession of books listed under the schedule are banned in the country.”

Anyone found guilty of breaching the ban faces up to three years in jail, fines of up to $5,200 or both.

About 9 percent of Malaysia’s 23 million people are Christians, and most live in the east of the country. Iban is spoken by more than 400,000 people, members of a Borneo tribe that was once feared for its head-hunting.

Many have converted to Christianity, while some still practice traditional religious rituals.

Islam is Malaysia’s official religion, although the federal constitution guarantees the right of all citizens to profess, practice and propagate their religion.

That freedom is subject to another clause saying that laws “may control or restrict the propagation of any religious doctrine or belief among persons professing the religion of Islam.”

Critics say this provision provides the authorities with a loophole, for example by identifying publications they can claim cause confusion among Muslims.

With the approach of Easter, an umbrella group called the Association of Churches in Sarawak issued a statement saying Christians in the province could not understand why their Bible has been banned.

“To find Bup Kudus [the Iban-language Bible] banned now has caused confusion, fear, anxiety and alarm among the Christian community in Sarawak,” said the group, which comprises Catholic, Anglican, Methodist and others churches.

“Without the Iban Bible, we cannot conduct the church services,” said the association’s chairman, Pastor Lawrence Banyie.

‘Muslims may be confused’

A local paper quoted a senior official in the ministry’s “publications control” division, Elias Mat Rabi, as saying the banned books breached guidelines for religious books.

They used several terms that were also used in Islam, which could confuse people, he said.

Reached by phone in the Sarawak capital, Kuching, on Thursday, Elias declined to comment, or to explain how the Bible and other books were considered dangerous.

The secretary-general of the Malaysia National Evangelical Christian Fellowship, the Rev. Wong Kim Kong, said from Kuala Lumpur there had for some time been difficulties over the fact that some words used in Islam were also used in Christian publications.

Some Muslim leaders thought this could perplex Muslims who picked up such books.

Among the words that cause concern is “Allah.” It’s the word Muslims use for the deity they worship, but the Arabic word pre-dated Islam and is also used by Christian Arabs when referring to God - despite the considerable differences in the Judeo-Christian and Islamic conceptions of God.

The Iban translation of the Bible uses the term “Allah Taala” for God, while the other banned Christian books, in Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia, also use “Allah” for God.

This is thought likely to be one of the problem areas for the Home Ministry.

Kong said it was wrong for a specific religion to claim monopoly over certain words. “Terminology or language doesn’t belong to any particular religion. It is universal property.”

If the government was worried some Muslims may be confused, it was the government’s responsibility to tackle the problem through educational programs aimed at Muslims - not by banning Christian books, he said.

“In a multi-cultural, multi-religious society like ours, it is important for the government to go through a process of what we call ‘natural justice’ - it should consult or discuss with the organizations concerned before making a decision affecting them.”

Kong and other Christian leaders have scheduled a meeting with a government deputy minister later this month to discuss the ban, he said.

A representative of the Bible Society of Malaysia, Dr. Victor Wong, said Thursday the publishers were flabbergasted at why the government had chosen to ban the Iban translation 15 years after the first edition came out.

The Iban version was now in its eighth edition, and a run of around 5,000 were printed about every five years, he said.

Wong declined to comment further, saying the Society was “watching to see what happens” before taking further action. He noted that a number of Christian bodies had protested the government action.

The Christian community has also won support from the Democratic Action Party (DAP), a secular opposition party, which said the ban should be lifted.

DAP lawmaker Teresa Kok called the ban arbitrary and unjustifiable, and asked the government to “explain why it considers the books to be detrimental to public health.”

Stung By Outcry, Malaysia Gov’t Reverses Bible Ban

By Patrick Goodenough

CNSNews.com Pacific Rim Bureau Chief

May 01, 2003

An outcry from Malaysian Christians has prompted the government of the predominantly Muslim country to reverse its ban on Bibles published in the language of an indigenous ethnic group.

The decision was announced by acting Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who said banning the Iban-language Bible would spark anger in the Christian community.

The edition was banned last month, 15 years after it was first published to serve the needs of a community of erstwhile headhunters on Borneo island, many of whom have converted from animism to Christianity.

The decision to ban the Iban Bible, plus 34 other religious books considered “detrimental to public peace,” was attributed to officials at the Home Ministry, acting on the advice of the Department of Islamic Development.

The department’s main gripe was that the Iban translation of the Bible uses the term “Allah” for God.

The contention was that this could confuse any Muslim picking up the Iban Bible.

Among the other banned books were several Christian books by well-known Western evangelical authors, translated into the Malaysian and Indonesian national languages, and also using the word “Allah” for God.

Other books were on Islamic subjects, but not deemed orthodox.

Announcing the reversal of the ban, Abdullah said the Department of Islamic Development had felt use of the word “Allah” was inappropriate and that the Iban Bible therefore breached official guidelines for non-Islamic religious books.

He said his subsequent consultation with church leaders revealed that “the word had been used by the community as a reference to God for a very long time.”

It was therefore not necessary to ban the Bible, Abdullah said, but added that it was important to ensure that religious books available in Malaysia did “not touch on the sensitivity of other religions, especially Islam.”

About 60 percent of Malaysia’s 23 million people are Muslims, and less than 10 percent are Christians.

About half of the 400,000 Iban, who live in Malaysia’s Sarawak province on Borneo island, are Christians.

The Bible Society of Malaysia has since 1988 published the entire Bible in the Iban tongue. It also prints Bibles in Bahasa Malaysia, English, Chinese, and two other minor languages.

The decision to ban the Iban edition drew widespread condemnation, lead to heated debate on Malaysian online news portals, and prompted the launch of a petition that was signed by 1,400 people within a week.

Judging from comments on online forums, some Malaysians clearly felt the issue had less to do with semantics than with politicians pandering to their ethnic constituents ahead of elections later this year.

Church leaders, both Iban and others, appealed for it to be lifted.

‘Violated constitution’

Ong Kian Ming, the Malaysian who organized the petition and conveyed it to the authorities via “informal channels,” is a Christian and senior policy analyst with an independent think tank called the Socio-Economic Development and Research (Sedar) Institute.

He said Thursday he had taken the action because the Bible ban clearly violated the article in the federal constitution guaranteeing religious freedom for all Malaysians.

Ong attributed the ban to overzealous bureaucrats who wanted to monopolize the word “Allah” for Malaysian Muslims, “without realizing that Arab speaking Christians use the word Allah to address their God.”

Theologians say Christians in the Arab world used the word “Allah” for God before the founding of Islam in the seventh century, and still do today, even though Muslims and Christians have substantially different conceptions of “God.”

Ong welcomed the announcement that the ban was to be lifted, saying it was a positive sign that religious freedom would be upheld when Abdullah becomes premier. Veteran Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is retiring in October.

“It assuages some of the fears many Christians here in Malaysia here have in regards to the increase of religious intolerance,” Ong said.

To prevent a recurrence, Ong said the Sedar Institute recommended the establishment of an inter-religious council under the prime minister’s department, comprising representatives of all religions and designed to discuss government decisions affecting all religions.

He also questioned the decision to leave the ban on the other books in place.

‘Exact science’

According to Dr. Victor Wong of the Bible Society, there are no plans at present to change any words in future editions of the Iban Bible.

The matter may be discussed in some future forum, he said from Kuala Lumpur Thursday, but there could be “theological implications” to changing words.

“Bible translation is quite an exact science,” he said.

Asked whether the Iban language had another word that could be used for “God,” Wong explained that as a formerly animist tribe, the Iban had “all sorts of gods” and care had to be taken not to cause confusion through bad translation.

Wong said there had been an upside to the controversy, as it focused attention on the Iban Christians and an edition of the Bible that many Malaysians had not known existed before now.

It had also resulted in “a very good show of solidarity” among Christians in Malaysia.

“The important thing, though, is that the Iban come to know God, through having the Bible in their own language.”

Wong described the Iban as a tribe renowned in the past for fierceness in battle, but which at the same time was also fearful because of the many gods it acknowledged.

He knew of cases where an Iban would refuse to leave the house after hearing the cry of a bird, which was interpreted as a bad omen.

Christianity had helped the Iban to leave behind this fearful existence, Wong said.

“Their lives were changed because of the word of God.”

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