Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
- Importance of local government elections
- Pluralism: The new bogey
- Theocratic 3 P's - prohibit, persecute & punish
- BN Bosses Fight Over NCR Landgrab! – EXCLUSIVE
| Importance of local government elections Posted: 25 Nov 2012 03:51 PM PST For the Prime Minister to promise the ending of an unpopular project if his party is elected into power beggars belief when it is the local authority which was appointed by his very own party which gave the approval in the first place. Then for the MCA to chip in by saying that the Pakatan state government was at fault for not stopping the project themselves is akin to a thief saying the theft is the fault of the victim because he did nothing to stop it happening. But then, this level of ridiculousness is to be expected. Let's look at something a bit more constructive than the shamelessness of some politicos. For me, this whole fiasco serves as greater proof that there has to be a complete overhaul of our local governments. Firstly we need to bring back local government elections. The current system of appointment of councillors by the state government is simply not democratic. There is also the danger of councillors being beholden to the ones who appointed them. Instead they really should be beholden to the people who live in the area. Furthermore, although I know there are many local authorities and councillors who work very hard and make themselves accessible to their "constituents", what is truly needed is the institutionalising of a system where they are structurally answerable to the people. There are far too many cases of local authorities acting in a high handed manner simply because they know that ultimately there is very little that the ordinary folk can do. The argument that you indirectly select your local government by the state government you vote for does not hold water. This is because the job of the state government is very different from the job of the local government. There are broader political and policy issues that come into play when choosing your state representative. A local representative need not even be affiliated with any party. What people want are councillors who are dedicated and work hard on local issues. State-wide, let alone national issues, does not come into the equation of tree trimming, drain clearing and garbage collection.
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| Posted: 25 Nov 2012 11:26 AM PST THERE is a new threat against Muslims in Malaysia and its name is pluralism. No less than Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak himself has flagged pluralism as an "enemy of Islam" and grouped it together with the other bad words, "LGBT" and "liberalism".  My Name is Khan promotional poster (source: Wiki Commons) Not to be outdone, some Muslims, who have been described as scholars, recently declared the spread of pluralism in Malaysia as "worrying", as if it were some kind of pandemic that needed to be controlled. Even popular Bollywood star, Datuk Shah Rukh Khan, has been accused of promoting pluralism through his rather inspiring and endearing movie, My Name is Khan. But just what kind of threat does pluralism pose to Malaysian Muslims? And if it's such a clear and present danger to the majority of the population, what are other nations, which also experience cultural and religious diversity, doing about pluralism that we may learn from them? Pluralism 101 Just what is pluralism anyway? According to Harvard University's Pluralism Project, there are four components to pluralism. Diana L Eck writes that diversity alone is not pluralism. There needs to be an "energetic engagement with diversity" for pluralism to exist. "Today, religious diversity is a given, but pluralism is not a given; it is an achievement," she writes, adding: "Mere diversity without real encounter and relationship will yield increasing tensions in our societies." Second, it's not about tolerance, which is tenuous, but "the active seeking of understanding across lines of difference". Eck argues that tolerance "does nothing to remove our ignorance of one another" and warns that in today's world, "our ignorance of one another will be increasingly costly". Thirdly, pluralism is not relativism. Rather it is the "encounter of commitments". What does this mean? It means that proponents of pluralism don't need to leave their identities and commitments behind. It's about "holding our deepest differences, even our religious differences, not in isolation, but in relationship to one another." And finally, pluralism's foundation is dialogue. That means both speaking and listening in a way that involves "give and take, criticism and self-criticism" so that the process can reveal both "common understandings and real differences". More sheep than Muslims Seen in this light, it's no wonder that institutions such as Harvard University in the US have embarked on initiatives to promote, rather than reject, pluralism. Indeed, the motivation for undertakings such as the university's Pluralism Project has been the radically changing religious and cultural landscapes that have emerged in the US because of immigration. The project's mission statement is "to help Americans engage with the realities of religious diversity".  Helen Clark (source: Wiki Commons) The US isn't the only place in the world where a predominantly white, Christian population views diversity as a gift that can be channelled for greater good by promoting pluralism. In a country where there are likely more sheep than Muslims, Helen Clark's administration lent support to a project by the New Zealand Diversity Action Programme that resulted in the Statement on Religious Diversity. Among others, the statement "encourages education about diverse religious and spiritual traditions, respectful dialogue, and positive relationships between government and faith communities". And just like in the US, New Zealand was spurred by the increasing religious and cultural diversity arising from migration from Asia, Africa and the Middle East. More Muslims than sheep In Malaysia meanwhile, there are clearly more Muslims than sheep. In fact, the Malay Muslim population in Malaysia is what the white Christian population is in countries like the US and New Zealand. More importantly, unlike the US and New Zealand, we've always lived with religious and cultural diversity. Our society didn't suddenly see a dramatic shift in demographics that led to citizens feeling befuddled about the appearance of mosques, temples, gurdwaras and churches.  Sheep (Todd Huffman | Flickr) And yet, what do we do about our plurality? From prime minister to so-called religious scholars to Muslim youth groups, we hear a clear and resounding rejection of pluralism. Here's what they're saying when they cast pluralism as the new bogey in town: "No" to engagement. "No" to dialogue. "No" to active understanding. "No" to equal and respectful relationships with others. In other words, "No" to what we've been historically and culturally since, at the very least, Malacca became a trading port in the 15th century. And "No" also to what we have already achieved which developed countries are only now trying to acquire. In fact, let's just demolish one of the bedrock of Malaysian life. Seen in this light, we shouldn't be at all surprised that there were attempts to denigrate Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim through the distribution of leaflets in Slim River this month that condemned the Opposition Leader as a believer of religious pluralism. He's not the only one. Two years ago, PAS spiritual leader Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat was attacked at an Islamic seminar for attending a function at a Buddhist temple. Read more at: http://www.thenutgraph.com/pluralism-the-new-bogey/
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| Theocratic 3 P's - prohibit, persecute & punish Posted: 23 Nov 2012 10:48 PM PST  Two factors have influenced the unusual non-Muslims' change of political preference for an Islamic party, one which they had previously feared (prior to the last general election). These factors have been: (a) Their revulsion, particularly by Chinese Malaysians, for UMNO's utter corruption and unabated greed, vile, frightening and hurtful racism and, most of all, the sheer unabashed feral and teflon-ized arrogance, combined with total disgust for the sycophantic effeminate ineffectual political voice/influence of MCA, MIC and Gerakan, and  (b) PAS presentation of itself with a softer face, a party more concerned with combating corruption than religious proselytization, one that will promote social welfare and justice, and an antagonist, antithesis and antidote to the monstrous UMNO, as exemplified by the attractive personalities of Nik Aziz, Mat Sabu, Khalid Samad and most of all, Nizar Jamaluddin. Recently, even anti-Valentine Day's Nasrudin Hasan, the Chief of PAS Youth, has moderated his right-wing stance to assume a more affable persona.
But from time to time there have been slips by PAS where we caught glimpses of their true face, even of/from the leaders we had deemed very tolerant, those whom we could trust, respect and even love. In August 2010, the frail grandfatherly-looking Pak Haji Nik Aziz showed his hard face when he called for the death sentence for those who dumped their babies born out of wedlock, but without mentioning or considering the social, cultural and yes, religious circumstances which left those young and probably teenage mums no or very little other choice.  The treatment by a secular state would have been diametrically opposite to Nik Aziz's cruel crushing capital punishment for those very much frightened 'mums', already suffering from desertion, desperation, and deprivation of love, support and compassion. We should be placing emphasis on education, guidance and counselling rather than stoning people to death. And if society has been more understanding, and parents or families of the unfortunate young women provide support in accepting and caring for the unwanted babies, we would have less of 'baby dumping'. As if that was not cruel enough, he shocked us further by demanding that illicit (unmarried) lovers be stoned to death.  It's bad enough to have capital punishment without that barbarous Middle-Eastern atrocity, which is best left to the Arabs and Israelis (recall in which country was this first said "He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her"?). In Malaysiakini's Karpal locks horns with Nik Aziz over baby dumping, Karpal Singh commented that Nik Aziz's proposal was far too harsh, when more should instead be done to study the root cause of the baby dumping.  Bhai stated: "I am somewhat disturbed by the statement of Nik Aziz, who not only supports the use of capital punishment for those found guilty of dumping babies but has also asked for those committing illicit sex to be stoned to death. "Nik Aziz should realise we do not live in primitive times. In the present time and age, the punishment of stoning to death, which is a cruel and unjust punishment, does not, and cannot have a place." Mind you, UMNO couldn't claim any high grounds on the baby dumping tragedy, because Malaysiakini also told us that: Women, Family and Community Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil had previously called for cases of baby dumping to be filed as attempted murder or murder cases. According to the Penal Code, anyone convicted of murder carries a mandatory death sentence.  Datuk Paduka Marina Mahathir had once lamented in her Star column (as best as I can recall, in my own words) that one of Malaysia's deficiencies in its Islamic programs and implementations has been the poor educating of the government's Islamic clerics. Now, if PAS' learned Mursyidul Am (spiritual advisor) could be so ferociously cruel in his outlook towards some Islamic 'crimes' (instead of being compassionate), what hope then is there for balanced and compassionate considerations from those less educated and less learned than him, plebes like those intrusive Kota Bharu municipal officers.  Then to add chillies to the sad tragedies, as reported by Malaysiakini's Valentine's Day blamed for baby dumping PAS Youth Chief Nasrudin Hassan bizarrely blamed celebrations on Valentine's Day and New Year's Day as the root cause, where these celebrations encourage free sex that has led to ... yadda yadda yadda ... culminating in baby dumping.  Nasrudin claimed: "It's an indication that the 'mating season' occurred during the New Year's Day celebrations." My dear Nasrudin, New Year's Days and Valentine's Days have been celebrated all over the world, yet other countries haven't had our kind of baby dumping. Why?  'Coz their societies are far more humane, compassionate, caring, supportive and less misogynistic. And we could certainly do with less of such nonsensical PAS self-interests-driven pronouncements. Quite frankly, I have never heard of any theocratic state which was tolerant, balanced or compassionate, not even in medieval theocratic (Buddhist) Tibet. Invariably, lowly educated or/and young clerics or religious enforcement officers, given almost unrestrained powers, would sense an uncontrollable compulsion to prohibit, persecute (not prosecute, though that'd come subsequently), and punish - if anything, just to show their powers, and to invoke fears (which they possibly mistake for respect).
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| BN Bosses Fight Over NCR Landgrab! – EXCLUSIVE Posted: 23 Nov 2012 07:30 PM PST In July a group of 12 villagers from Kampung Gerunggang had decided to sell some of their NCR (Native Customary Rights) land to a keen buyer. That purchaser, no surprise to learn, was none other than a BN politician. Aaron Dagang is the PRS MP for Kanowit, who will be standing again for office in the up-coming federal elections. Dagang seems to think that his salary for serving his constituents is not enough for his needs and had set about parting this poor community from their birthright lands for what is doubtless a good price that will give him a good profit. The agreement shows he planned to buy the 77 acres, not far from Kuching, for RM231,000, which is then to be converted to yet more oil palm. Given that Chief Minister Taib Mahmud's brother Onn Mahmud has been touting his own oil palm plantation at RM31,000 per acre, this land should eventually be worth ten times the price that the villagers have agreed to sell it for.  From the agreement drawn up between the PRS MP Aaron Dagagang to buy 77 acres of Native Customary Rights Land from villagers in Sampadi So, Dagang must have been pleased at the way he was 'looking after the interests' of the trusting people, who had voted for BN and were then selling him their heritage for what to a poor person might seem a life-saving amount. Encouraged by the prospect of the sale and following the advice of the Land & Survey Department, the villagers spent a considerable sum of money to get their land properly mapped and surveyed and they were informed by the Land & Survey Department that their plot was 155 Block 8 Sampadi District.  'Block 154′ – expensive mapping that was to prove a waste of money! Raziah got there first! However, as the parties set out to finalise their transaction concerning the purchase of Lot 155 Block 8 Samapadi Land District, they made a discovery that was shocking to both sides.  'Replaced' by Lot 154 – the Lot 155 which used to belong to the villagers has been absorbed without notification or of course payment! It seemed that Lot 155 had suddenly disappeared from the records! After much research and many weeks it emerged that the lot had somehow become "replaced". According to a note in the Land Registry, this meant it was now part of the neighbouring Lot 154. And it turned out that this very much larger Lot 154 had already been granted by the Land & Survey Department to another company in 2010. This meant that the villagers are no longer the officially registered owners of their NCR land. Yet they had never been told a thing about it and had even been encouraged to go ahead spending money on useless plans! So, who was the influential person that was able to achieve such an alteration to the Land Registry without even a notification being made to the rightful owners?  "Replaced" – the scribbled alteration in the Land Registry that removed these people's land and gave it to Raziah Mahmud! A search of the Land Registry shows that in 2010 Lot 154 (now including the old Lot 155) was sold by the Department in the guise of 'state owned land' to the company Saradu Plantation, which grows bananas. The company used to be named Emerald Discovery:
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