Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
- Apostasy, compulsion, and Nurul’s point
- Sabah’s oil curse strikes again
- Will Social Media Sway Malaysia’s Elections?
- Rush for ‘who-wants-to-be-a-candidate’
| Apostasy, compulsion, and Nurul’s point Posted: 11 Nov 2012 04:30 PM PST
The PKR vice-president said last week that religious freedom is for everyone, even Muslims and Malays. Well, here are the facts to prove she has a point. Anisah Shukry, FMT Yet again, Umno as well as the likes of Ibrahim Ali and Nasharudin Mat Isa have resorted to misusing Islam to discredit a member of the opposition bloc. According to a transcript provided by Malaysiakini, Nurul Izzah Anwar said at a forum last weekend that "…there is no compulsion in religion… How can anyone really say, 'sorry, this only applies to non-Malays.' It has to apply equally." Hishammuddin Hussein, the home minister, described Nurul's statements as insensitive and causing public anger. Nasharudin, the former PAS vice-president, said that she must repent and what she said goes against Islam. Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the former prime minister, said her statement was stupid. Now, putting aside the fact that nearly every time good ol' Hisham, Nasha and Mahathir open their mouths, they say something stupid and insensitive that anger the public, Nurul, on the other hand, did not say anything "radical", "liberal", "dangerous to the faith" or even new. On the contrary, what she said has been discussed among Islamic scholars across the globe for years. It's just that no one seems to have clued the Powers That Be on this. And she has a point. Islam is all about an individual's own voluntary submission to Allah; there can be no coercion because faith cannot be forced upon anyone, even on those Malays who are born Muslims. I mean, if I asked you, at gunpoint, to believe in Islam, would you? Unless you're already a believer, then of course not. You'd probably blubber a bit about how being at the brink of death has opened your eyes to Islam, but your convictions would remain the same. So compulsion is not the answer – education is, just as Nurul mentioned in a later statement. In fact, even in the Quran, Surah Al-Nahl, verse 126 states: "Invite [all] to the Way of thy Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious: for thy Lord knoweth best, who have strayed from His Path, and who receive guidance." (16:126 – translated by Yusuf Ali) Now, for those of you who are going to say that I'm no scholar and should just keep my mouth shut and let the experts talk it out, allow me to produce a quote from the former Chief Judge of Pakistan, SA Rahman. "Man is free to choose between truth and falsehood and the Prophet's function is to convey the message, exemplify it in his own life and to leave the rest to God – he is no warder over men to compel them to adopt particular beliefs," he wrote. This is further fortified in several Islamic verses, including Surah Ali Imran, verse 20 and Al-Ma'idah, verse 92, which state if individuals turn away from the message of Islam, then the Prophet Muhammad's duty is only to educate – not force nor coerce. Freedom to choose still exists Unfortunately, we still have the likes of Nasharudin who argue that the "no compulsion in religion" verse (2:256) only applies to non-Muslims in the issue of converting to Islam. In other words, once one becomes Muslim, let the coercion begin! Now, I challenge him and other like-minded individuals to point out any verse in the Quran which states that that sort of double standard exists. Nasharudin did mention Surah al-Ahzab verse 36 as "proof" that there is no freedom in religion for Muslims. "It is not fitting for a Believer, man or woman, when a matter has been decided by Allah and His Messenger, to have any option about their decision: if any one disobeys Allah and His Messenger, he is indeed on a clearly wrong Path." (33:36 – translation by Yusuf Ali) But, as you can see, this verse just states that when Allah has commanded something, it is not fitting for a believer to have any choice in their matter – the freedom to choose still exists, as mentioned several times in the Quran. But while freedom exists, the Quran still states what is right and wrong. And if one chooses what has been forbidden, then one will face the consequences of that decision, whether in this life or the hereafter. Islam and apostasy Now, by virtue of the fact that freedom of religion exists in Islam, does that mean Muslims, and Malays, have the freedom to renounce their religion and should not be coerced or punished into remaining as Muslims? Since I'd rather not have 15 policemen raid FMT's office over this article, I'll refrain from stating my stand, but just share the views of several revered scholars in Islam who are not Malaysians, not Malays, and do not have any vested political interest in the issue. The former chief judge of Pakistan, SA Rahman, wrote in his book "Punishment of apostasy in Islam" that: "There is absolutely no mention in the Quran of mundane punishment for defection from the faith by a believer, except in the shape of deprivation of the spiritual benefits of Islam or of the civil status and advantages that accrue to an individual as a member of the well-knit fraternity of Muslims. "He should, however, be free to profess and propagate the faith of his choice, so long as he keeps within the bounds of law and morality, and to enjoy all other rights as a peaceful citizen of the State, in common with his Muslim co-citizens." He also added that apostasy is an offence in the realm of the rights of God, rather than the rights of mankind, thus there would be no pressing necessity to punish a peaceful change of faith.
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| Sabah’s oil curse strikes again Posted: 11 Nov 2012 04:27 PM PST
Poverty-riddled Sabah is the sixth biggest contributor to the national economy, contributing more than a quarter of the total oil and gas produced in the country. Queville To, FMT Sabah lost control of its oil wealth more than 30 years ago but the fallout of the widely acknowledged cock-eyed contract is continuing to roil business dealings in the state. The state Barisan Nasional government is now facing more questions over how it is managing the Petronas-sponsored Sabah Oil and Gas Terminal (SOGT) project that began more than a year ago. The Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) has accused Chief Minister Musa Aman's Umno-led BN government of failing to safeguard the interest of the local companies in the ongoing multi-billion-ringgit project. Melanie Chia, the party's outspoken women's wing chief said there appeared to be no attempt by the state government to ensure locals get a bigger share of the spin-offs from the SOGT project. She said they had since discovered that the main contract work had been handed over to a Sarawak company which had in turn subcontracted the job valued at RM2.4 billion to a South Korean company to the extent that even the canteen at the site was operated by Koreans. She noted that while 35 companies with Sabah connections had obtained sub-contract works, the value of these contracts totaled a fraction of the value of the main contract. "The total value of these sub contract works is only RM470million, or a mere 19.6 per cent of the total contract value of RM2.4 billion. Even the Kimanis new township will be developed by Miri- based Homelite Development Sdn Bhd. "I don't believe that we do not have enough local companies who can do the jobs. We also have very established and esteemed developers who can develop the new township. "Do we have to be subservient and remain playing second fiddle all the time even in our own state?" she asked. Sabah's oil reserve She said the issue of out-of-state companies not only taking the lion's share of the SOGT work and then sub-contracting it out to foreign companies needed to be studied. "The government owes the people a good explanation as to why Sabah remains the poorest state in Malaysia despite being blessed with abundance of natural resources," she added. The state is the sixth biggest contributor to the national economy, contributing more than a quarter of the total oil and gas produced in the country. Sabah's oil reserve were calculated at 1.5 billion barrels as of last year but new oil fields discovered since then have raised the estimate substantially. Gas reserves stand at 11 trillion cubic feet with four new oil fields found in the Sabah waters in the last two years. The projected production from one area, the Gumusat/Kakap Project, is 135,000 barrels per day will come on stream soon, but Sabah's share is unknown as other oil producing companies are in on the project with Petronas on a contract sharing basis. SAPP and the opposition have been hitting on the wealth extraction from the state and at the same time holding up its high poverty rate and unemployment figures. Sabah has the highest number of unemployed in the country at 5.6% or 76,000 people without jobs. The opposition says that the ruling coalition government has had almost 20 uninterrupted years of power in the state but has yet to come up with a coherent and comprehensive development policy to ensure the state's well-being well into the future. "Obviously something is not right with the present government otherwise Sabah would not end up the poorest despite having abundance of oil and gas," Chia said.
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| Will Social Media Sway Malaysia’s Elections? Posted: 11 Nov 2012 04:11 PM PST
Politicians are becoming media savvy in Malaysia, using Twitter, Facebook and Youtube to appeal to netizens.
Malaysia is gearing up for a general election in six months and as the campaigns enter the crucial voter-courting phase many observers are wondering if the political 'tsunami', which severely weakened the ruling National Front coalition (BN) at the 2008 polls, might be repeated. That political tidal wave – which stripped the BN of its two-thirds majority in parliament for the first time since independence and handed five state governments over to the opposition – was precipitated by the spread of Internet-based social media as a campaigning tool, harnessed primarily by the opposition. "In 2008 neither the government nor opposition expected the result they got," Ramanathan Sankaran, author of 'Media, Democracy and Civil Society', told IPS. The proliferation of independent websites and blogs such as Malaysia Today and Malaysiakini rendered the ruling coalition's propaganda machinery less effective during the electoral race, as formidable opponents appeared in the crucial arena of cyberspace. "Six or seven bloggers, who had been unknown (to most of the ruling coalition) got into parliament. It shocked the BN," Sankaran added. Three of these bloggers have now become well-known opposition figures in Malaysia. Former human rights activist and environmental campaigner Elizabeth Wong is now the minister for Tourism, Consumer Affairs and the Environment in the opposition-ruled Selangor state government that covers the capital Kuala Lumpur. Tony Pua, who defeated a BN parliamentary secretary candidate to win the Petaling Jaya federal constituency, is now the "shadow minister" for Higher Education in the federal parliament. Meanwhile Jeff Ooi, who won a state assembly seat in Penang, clinching another crucial win for the opposition in 2008, has taken the reigns as senior aide to the Chief Minister. "One of the first things (then Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad) Badawi said when the results came out was 'we lost the Internet war. We didn't realise that was important. We relied too much on mainstream media'," recalled Steven Gan, editor of the leading alternative news website Malaysiakini. "When (current Prime Minister) Najib Tun Razak came to power in 2009 there was substantial focus on the Internet. He set up his own Facebook (account), along with other politicians, and he is tweeting as well." The Prime Minister also has a website called '1 Malaysia' which is updated daily. According to Sankaran, Razak has instructed other ministers and senior government officials to make good use of the Internet and respond to emails within 48 hours. Even the former Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, has set up his own blog, 'Blogging to Unblock', whose comments are regularly picked up by the mainstream and alternative media. And long-term opposition member in federal parliament, Lim Kit Siang, who first entered parliament in 1969 and is currently the Chinese-dominated Democratic Action Party's parliamentary leader, has his own blog through which he has been relentlessly attacking the government on corruption issues for several months. Nudged by the outcome of the 2008 election, "BN made a concerted move to (mobilise) its own cyber-troopers," Gan told IPS. According to Sankaran, BN's determination to learn from past mistakes is reflected in their decision to field Kamalananthan Panchanathen, a young Internet-savvy candidate, for the seat of Hulu Selangor, an electorate with a large Indian population. The 40-year-old blogger won back the seat in the by-election of 2010 "partly because of his appeal to young (netizens), and he now has his own website," Sankaran added. "The government has opened up the Internet (to encourage better governance)," he added. Prominent Malaysian political commentator Chandra Muzzafar, a former political ally of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, agrees that the Internet will play an important role in coming elections. "It will be a major actor in some constituencies and controlling it is difficult," he told IPS. Censorship rears its head But along with the government's attempt to become more media savvy ahead of the elections has come a desire to curtail the freedoms allowed to other social media practitioners and rights groups who utilise these channels to spread their message to civil society. On Sep. 13, the independent Star newspaper reported that the prominent human rights group SUARAM was being investigated by the Home Ministry and five government agencies, including the Registrar of Societies, on allegations that they received funds from the Open Society Foundation (OSF), whose chairman is international financial speculator George Soros. SUARAM's membership includes a number of opposition MPs linked to Anwar Ibrahim's People's Justice Party (PKR). The rights group has waged a long anti-corruption crusade against the government. Government-controlled media reported that investigations by the Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry found three letters addressed to SUARAM dated 2007, 2008 and 2010, detailing grants amounting to nearly 189,000 dollars from the OSF. "Civil society is now continuously portrayed in the media as the enemy who is seeking to overthrow the government at the behest of foreign powers. These accusations have also been hurled at BERSIH (the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections), more so since July last year when we had a successful rally of more than 50,000 people on the streets of Kuala Lumpur, clamouring for clean and fair elections," Ambiga Sreenevasan, co-chair of BERSIH, said in a commentary published by 'Malaysian Insider' last week. Another alternative media outfit that has been consistently accused of receiving funds from Soros is Malaysiakini. "While we are non-partisan that doesn't mean we are apolitical. We are very political. We cover issues we feel strongly about such as corruption, press freedom and human rights," Gan said in an interview with IPS. "We will speak for people who do not have access to mainstream media. We speak for the voiceless, those who suffer human rights abuses that are not covered properly by mainstream media. That has always been our position. People see us as pro-opposition because we cover those issues," he added. Internet – or economy? But though active netizens are breaking the government's "monopoly on truth", and the powerful Reformasi movement – comprised of a Malay core and based on exposing corruption and abuse of power within the government – is on the rise, experts like Muzzafar believe BN will have an easy victory at the polls. He believes the economy will be the key factor in determining the outcome of the election. The Malaysian economy is currently strong and stable. Unemployment is at a low 2.7 percent as of August 2012, gross domestic product (GDP) growth was 5.6 percent in the second quarter of 2012 and industrial production was up by 4.9 percent in September 2012, according to the Department of Statistics. Though Malaysia enjoys a strong alternative media network, a vibrant NGO sector and a robust opposition – the three ingredients necessary to topple a ruling government – Gan believes that BN will win on account of their huge state machinery and state funds – the government's television and radio networks, along with the government-controlled mainstream newspapers, have a huge influence on Malay rural voters who form the backbone of the electorate. And though the opposition has been targeting young voters, the recent nationwide university elections don't augur well. According to Star, Pro-Aspirasi, a group widely seen to be pro-establishment and pro-government, "won big" in elections at 8 out of 15 public universities on Sep. 25.
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| Rush for ‘who-wants-to-be-a-candidate’ Posted: 11 Nov 2012 03:03 PM PST
The highly popular 'who wants to be a millionaire' television concept has taken a political twist in Sabah. Thomas PI, FMT Foreign Minister Anifah Aman, the younger brother of Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman, once said something about "lucrative positions" in the Cabinet. He was naively confirming what many surmised. So it is hardly surprising that scores of Sabahans want to be contestants in the upcoming 13th general election and some may even be forgiven for considering a new group as organisers of Sabah's version of "who wants to be a millionaire" with an election slant. Days after announcing its formation, the "Sabah Independent Candidates Sponsorship Body" has received 30 applications by wannabe electoral candidates in the upcoming 13th general election. Co-founder and chairman of the body, Abdul Kadir Tahir who launched the organisation to act like a party to help provide voters not satisfied with the usual field of candidates, a third choice, said he was happy with the surge of interest. He told reporters here that the applicants were from Pensiangan, Keningau, Pitas, Beaufort and Kuala Penyu as well as one who wants to contest both state and parliamentary constituency seats in an interior district. He described the response from the interior and west coast areas of the state as "very encouraging" and said a second meeting would be held here soon to decide on the organisation's committee line-up as well as to screen all the independent applicants seeking their help. Part of the mechanishm to measure applicants' suitability for being candidates is their views on eradicating hardcore poverty, reducing crime, corruption and malpractices within the government. "We want well educated, credible and trustworthy persons to be our independent candidates… we need to know their motives behind offering themselves to be candidates first before we can proceed to the final decision on who will become our candidates," he said. Abdul Kadir, an ex-liaison officer to former Silam MP Samsu Baharom Abdul Rahman, said the organisation's intention is to place its independent candidates in all 60 state and 25 parliamentary constituencies in Sabah, but a final decision would be made after the parliament is dissolved. According to him, the body was formed to strike a balance between the mighty Barisan National and opposition Pakatan Rakyat coalitions. It will help its candidates by providing "advice to them in upholding the interest of the people". "After one-and-a-half years of watching the political situation in our country we feel there is a need to provide a third force in the elections. "With the emphasis on clean and healthy politics, this body can play its role in assisting the new government rule after the elections," he said. Abdul Kadir, who declined to name the people backing his organisation, said the backers believe almost half of the voters in Sabah are still uncertain who they will support, thus giving independent candidates' a chance.
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