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DAP, PAS send mixed messages on ‘Allah’ issue
Nallakaruppan and Utusan retain most of their defence in Anwar’s defamation suit
Reveal the figures, MIC told
PKR cries foul over mock voting for BN
Stop PR stunts, get real with Christians
Church leaders happy with Najib’s pledge, but wary it won’t trickle down
‘Can we trust Sabah BN leaders, anymore?’
Sarawak Rela ordered to give ‘undivided support’ to BN

DAP, PAS send mixed messages on ‘Allah’ issue

Posted: 26 Dec 2012 12:57 AM PST

Ida Lim, The Malaysian Insider

In a fresh debate over the word "Allah", PAS says that Christians should not use it to describe their god in the Bible, while its political ally DAP insists that Christians in East Malaysia should be allowed to use the Arabic word.

PAS information chief Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said today the use of the word "Allah" in the Alkitab, the Malay-language translation of the Bible, would not reflect the original text's meaning.

"PAS' stand is that the Bahasa Melayu Bible should replace the 'God' term with 'Tuhan' and not 'Allah' to mirror the actual meaning of the original text," he said in a press statement.

Tuan Ibrahim said both Christians and Muslims could be confused when the word "Allah" is used in the Alkitab.

"Since the Bahasa Melayu Bible is a translation from the original English text, the term 'God' does not mean 'Allah', because the accurate translation is 'Tuhan'. It should be translated according to original meaning. Translating 'God' to 'Allah' will confuse Christians and create unease among the Muslims and can confuse Muslims," he said.

He said "Allah" was a sacred name for the Muslims and should be used appropriately.

"In relation to that, (the) request to use Allah's name in the Bahasa Melayu translation of the Bible is not wajar (suitable), even the society in the West, they don't use Allah's name to refer to God whether in speech, writing of films. The word that is often used is 'Lord'," said Tuan Ibrahim, who is also Pahang PAS commissioner.

On Monday, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng had raised the controversial "Allah" issue in his Christmas message.

"For this reason, DAP urges the BN Federal government to allow the use of the word 'Allah' on the Bahasa Malaysia version of the Bible as has been allowed in Sabah and Sarawak for the last 50 years and practised in the Middle East for more than a thousand years," Lim wrote in a statement on December 24 in English and Mandarin.

Zairil Khir Johari, DAP's assistant publicity secretary, said today that Lim's words have been "twisted", saying that the Penang chief minister had only asked Putrajaya not to deny the rights of Christians in East Malaysia to use the word "Allah".

According to Zairil, several news reports had falsely accused Lim of urging the federal government to allow Christians in Peninsula Malaysia to use the word "Allah" in the Alkitab.

"He (Lim) only asked that it be allowed in the Bahasa Malaysia version of the Bible that is used by Christians in Sabah and Sarawak."

"Furthermore, the Bahasa Malaysia version of the Bible can only be found in Sabah and Sarawak and not in Peninsula Malaysia.

"Therefore, the issue of usage of the word "Allah" in Peninsula Malaysia does not arise at all," Zairil said.

Zairil pointed out that the word "Allah" was commonly used by Christians in neighbouring Indonesia and has been used for decades by the Bumiputera Christians in East Malaysia that converse in the Malay language.

Christians form 9.2 per cent of Malaysia's 28.3 million-strong population, with many of them in east Malaysia using the Malay language and the word "Allah" to refer to their God.

In recent years, the Christian and Muslim religious communities have been engaged in a tug-of-war over the word "Allah", with the latter group arguing that its use should be exclusive to them on the grounds that Islam is monotheistic and the word "Allah" denotes the Muslim god.

A legal tussle over the use of the word "Allah" remains unresolved, with the Catholic Church still barred from publishing the word in its weekly newspaper, despite winning a High Court decision on December 31, 2009.

This is due to the Home Ministry filing an appeal in 2010 against the High Court's decision, which have since stagnated in the courts as no date has been set for its hearing.

Last year, shipments of the Alkitab, the Malay-language Bible catering to the Bahasa Malaysia-speaking Bumiputera Christians, were blocked or confiscated at ports, before the government finally bowed to pressure and released them.

Nallakaruppan and Utusan retain most of their defence in Anwar’s defamation suit

Posted: 26 Dec 2012 12:53 AM PST

(The Star) - Malaysian United Indian Party president Senator Datuk S. Nallakaruppan and two others were allowed to retain most of their statements of defence in a RM100mil suit filed by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim against them.

Nallakaruppan, Utusan Melayu (Malaysia) Bhd and its Editor-in-Chief Datuk Abdul Aziz Ishak had pleaded the defence of justification, qualified privilege and fair comment which were part of the opinion in the majority judgment of Anwar's 1998 sodomy case in the Federal Court.

High Court Judicial Commissioner Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera Wednesday granted only a part of Anwar's application to strike out a portion of the defence statements by Nallakarupan, Utusan Melayu and Abdul Aziz.

The only part, which was allowed to be struck out by the Judicial Commissioner, was the plea of justification.

However, Vazeer allowed the defences of qualified privilege, fair comment and mitigation of damages to be retained.

On March 26, the Opposition leader had filed the suit alleging Nallakaruppan had uttered defamatory words against him which were then published on the front page of the Utusan Malaysia daily on March 20.

In his statement of claim, Anwar said the defamatory words included in the article were false, baseless, was published with ill intention and had tarnished his good name.

Anwar is seeking RM100mil in general, aggravated and exemplary damages, cost and other relief deemed fit by the court.

The High Court has set January 18, 2013 for case management.

Reveal the figures, MIC told

Posted: 26 Dec 2012 12:44 AM PST

Miba wants MIC to disclose the figures and documents pertaining to the funds allocated for Indian entrepreneurs.

G Lavendran, FMT

An Indian business group leader has urged MIC to reveal the proper figures with regard to the funds allocated by the government for Indian entrepreneurs.

Speaking to FMT, Malaysian Indian Business Association (Miba) president P Sivakumar said this was the only way for confidence in MIC to grow.

"Out of the RM180 million that was allocated, only RM30 million is justifiable through Tekun. Perhaps another RM20 million can be justified through the Small and Medium Enterprise Corporation Malaysia (SME). But what about the other RM130 million?" he asked.

Furthermore, he said the RM130 million was dispersed to financial institutions to be given out as business related loans via the Islamic concept.

"It is not easy for Indians to apply for loans via this concept, the document requirements are not flexible. So how is the Indian community going to benefit from this?

"This shows how little the system has opened up for equality and fairplay," he added.

Sivakumar commended the MIC secretary-general S Murugesan on his comments pertaining to the same issue but stressed that it should be supported with proper documentation.

"Every Malaysian deserves to know the truth. We need more people from MIC to clear the haze by giving statements, this time around with figures and proper supporting documents to get the message across clearly to the people," he said.

Sivakumar said he welcomed the idea of new policies and programmes being implemented by MIC but felt that the government must participate in this together.

"Stand up and be accounted for, MIC," he said.

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PKR cries foul over mock voting for BN

Posted: 26 Dec 2012 12:41 AM PST

But EC says the exercise among Orang Asli in Tapah, even if true, would be legitimate.

Anisah Shukry, FMT

Barisan Nasional rewarded indigenous people in Tapah with 5kg of rice each in return for casting mock ballots in favour of its candidates, PKR claimed today.

"Several weeks ago, the Department of Orang Asli Development (Jakoa) and Chenderiang assemblyman Mah Hang Soon ran a series of programmes in Orang Asli villages in Tapah," Perak PKR treasurer Yap Yit Thong told FMT today.

"In the programme, the Orang Asli were given two homemade ballot papers similar to the ballot paper used in elections, and were forced to tick Barisan Nasional in full view of the Jakoa officers and Dr Mah.

"Those who ticked BN in both ballot papers were then given 5kg of rice as a reward."

Yap said the Orang Asli had to return the marked ballot papers immediately to the officials, apparently so that no evidence of the exercise remained.

But some of the marked ballot papers wound up in Yap's hands when several Orang Asli approached him to complain about the issue.

"We don't know what BN's purpose is," Yap told FMT. "Maybe when it's time for general election, BN will tell the Orang Asli, 'You already voted for us' or 'We gave you the rice and you promised you would vote for us; so you must do so.'"

Yap said the mock election, if it did take place, was in violation of the Election Offenses Act and could be investigated as a crime.

The act states that any person who "without due authority prints any ballot paper or what purports to be or is capable of being used as a ballot paper at an election" could be imprisoned for up to two years or fined up to RM5,000 or suffer both penalties.

A person who "prints any advertisement, handbill, placard or poster which refers to an election and contains a reproduction of a ballot paper, or of what purports to be a ballot paper, to be used or likely to be used at such election" may face similar punishment.

Yap said he had yet to approach Jakoa or Mah over the issue, but was demanding that they give an explanation.

He also called on the Election Commission to question Jakoa and Mah.

"Dr Mah must resign as Chenderiang state assemblyman and executive council member of Perak for abusing his power," he said.

'Completely fine'

However, EC deputy director Wan Ahmad Wan Omar told FMT the alleged incident appeared to be a voter education programme rather than an attempt at vote buying or blackmail.

"This is the first time this issue has been raised with me, but from what you explained, it sounds perfectly acceptable and normal," he said.

"A lot of political parties are doing mock elections. This is a form of voter education, by which they are educating people on how to vote.

"That is completely fine. The EC is in fact encouraging political parties, NGOs and concerned citizens to educate one another on how to vote."

He said that the EC had been promoting voter education programmes for a while now, especially in light of the high percentage of spoilt votes in the 2008 general election.

As for allegations that the Orang Asli participants had to vote for BN's candidates in the mock ballot, Wan Ahmad said that that was perfectly natural and to be expected.

"That is campaigning," he said. "Any political party, whether from the government or the opposition, would do the same if they were teaching the public to vote. It doesn't matter at all.

"To me, it just sounds like BN is conducting a voter education programme while campaigning at the same time."

Posted: 25 Dec 2012 02:58 PM PST

An NGO says this Christmas is the time for Najib to ponder and really hear the Christians on the issue of fairness and justice.

Luke Rintod, FMT

Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has been asked to stop his "public relations stunts" and instead deal with the biased treatment his federal administration has meted out to Christians in Sabah and Sarawak.

Demanding that Najib "walk his talk", a local NGO, Borneo's Plight in Malaysia Foundation (BoPiMaFo), said the PM's "nice words" in his Christmas message yesterday, rang "hollow as far as sincerity and truth is concerned" when compared to the "real situation" in Malaysia affecting Christians.

The foundation's president Daniel John Jambun said that in Sabah especially, the "Christian community continued to be increasingly marginalised and victimised by loads of actions from Najib's ruling party Umno."

"This Christmas time is for Najib to ponder and really hear the Christians on the issue of fairness and justice.

"In Sabah especially, we are constantly being marginalised. Christians face difficulty in building their own churches, mission schools are in a sorry state, there's marginalisation in scholarships and government jobs and promotions.

"What justice does he speak of if mosques, suraus and even madrasahs and all their officials like imam, bilal, missionaries are being salaried from taxes the government collected from us the rakyat while our churches and officials are being left out only for the faithfuls to support?

"And on top of that, there seem to be various open concerted efforts from the government agencies to frustrate the development of Christianity in worship, education, literature, arts, even cultures. We cannot even put up crosses," said Jambun.

Christians marginalised

Jambun, who is also a deputy chairman of the Sabah chapter of opposition State Reform Party (STAR), also raised the issue of the Alkitab and Bibles which are subjected to unnecessary scrutiny.

Posted: 25 Dec 2012 02:55 PM PST

Najib had reassured the Christian community in Malaysia on Christmas Day yesterday that the government recognised them the as an essential part of the nation. – Picture by Saw Siow Feng

Zurairi AR, The Malaysian Insider

Church leaders are happy with Datuk Seri Najib Razak's pledge to the Christian community, but expressed concern that the prime minister's message will not filter down to conservatives and extremist elements in his party and government.

Najib had reassured the Christian community in Malaysia on Christmas Day yesterday that the government recognised them the as an essential part of the nation. Christians form about nine per cent of the country's 28 million population.

"I hope that was not only from him alone, but it (also) has to be from the other part of the government," Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM) chairman Datuk Ng Moon Hing told The Malaysian Insider yesterday.

CFM, the umbrella body of all Christian denominations in the country, organised its annual Christmas Day party attended by all political leaders.

Ng's view was mirrored by the Tan Sri Murphy Pakiam, Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur, who said the prime minister needs courage, determination and consistent effort to accomplish his promises.

"Hopefully he can get his whole team to (work at it)," Pakiam said.

The church leaders agreed that Najib's attendance in the Christmas event was a nice gesture towards the Christian community, but would be for naught if he failed to confront extremists elements in his party and the government.

"What's troubling to Christians is that the government has not spoken up to the extremists what its views are," said Hermen Shastri, the general secretary from the Council of Churches of Malaysia (CCM).

The CCM is an ecumenical fellowship of churches and Christian organisations that are part of the larger Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM) representing 90 per cent of the country's 2.8 million Christians.

Last year, Umno-owned daily Utusan Malaysia published a report entitled Kristian Agama Rasmi? ("Christianity the official religion?"), where it was alleged that DAP leaders and Christian clergymen were conspiring to take over Putrajaya, abolish Islam as the religion of the federation and install a Christian prime minister.

In the aftermath of the report, Malay supremacist group Perkasa and its president Datuk Ibrahim Ali threatened Christians nationwide with a holy war against any move to usurp Islam with a Christian state.

Najib then meet church leaders to clear the air but the Home Ministry had only slapped the daily with a warning letter for publishing the unsubstantiated report.

Shastri warned that by not taking any action on extremists, it will undo and make difficult the plans that the PM wants to accomplish.

"(This will happen) as long as some groups keep on saying that Christians are a threat," Shastri said.

The church leaders have listed several issues affecting the Christian community that has yet to be addressed by the government, with the issue of insufficient land for religious sites chief among them.

"What we felt previously is that there are certain issues that the government could be more upfront (with) when dealing with them," confessed Philip Kok, a bishop with the Lutheran Church of Malaysia.

"I think a lot of time, (we are facing) a struggle against bureaucracy. Some difficulties looked like it was (a problem with policy), but then the policy is interpreted in a different light," Ng explained.

Posted: 25 Dec 2012 02:30 PM PST

The only reason Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is desperately wooing Sabah is because Umno can no longer rule Peninsular Malaysia without Sabah and Sarawak.

Luke Rintod, FMT

PENAMPANG: A veteran political activist who was once with Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) said many among the Barisan Nasional leaders in Sabah had at many times told crowds that BN stands for "Barisan Nah Sial".

Fredoline Edwin Lojingki, 71, who is now with opposition State Reform Party (STAR) said he could name these hypocrite leaders who are now heaping praises after praises on BN and its corrupt leaders.

"These leaders once referred to BN as Barisan Nah Sial but they are singing a different tune now because they are now ministers, they got projects and all the trappings of power," he said in a statement here today in response to PBS Johnny Mositun's statement yesterday.

Lojingki said the PBS information chief has forgotten what had Umno done with its two-thirds majority.

"He forgot that it is because of BN losing its two thirds majority in parliament that it is now wooing Sabah and Sarawak votes," he opined.

"Has Mositun forgotten that at one time Dr Mahathir Mohamad proudly announced on television that without Sabah and Sarawak, Umno could still rule the federal government?

"Is Mositun aware of the importance of a check and balance in parliament?" he asked.

Lojinki further reminded Sabahans and leaders to think before they speak. He said the questions they must first ask of themselves is: "Is a two-third majority, or worse, a complete control of parliament by BN good or bad for Sabah."

"We leaders have a duty to explain what we believe is good for the country. Let us not mislead the people just because we curry powder with the power that be.

"Lets not forget how difficult it is for lagging Sabah and Sarawak to be heard by a powerful central power," he said, adding that it is only the people who could decide if they want BN, or any other party, to have a two-thirds majority in the 222-seat parliament.

Posted: 25 Dec 2012 01:41 PM PST

(Free Malaysia Today) - Sarawak PKR has described calls to Rela members to help Barisan Nasional win in the state as 'immoral'.

The neutrality of paramilitary volunteer corp, Rela, in Sarawak has come under question following a recent "immoral" order by a top ranking officer urging its members to support Barisan Nasional.

Sarawak has 300,000 Rela members stationed in 32 districts.Nationwide, there are 3.2 million members.

At a function in Julau district, Rela officer Lieutenant Colonel (Rela) Moses Sipan reportedly told Rela members that the government had allocated some RM400 million in the 2013 budget for the corp.

"This huge sum shows the government's confidence in Rela.

"Therefore as a show of our appreciation we must give our undivided support to BN in the coming general election," he said.

Julau has about 8,000 Rela members. The constituency is currently held by Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) vice-president Joseph Salang, who is also a deputy minister in the federal cabinet.

Sipan's call to Rela members in Julau is also seen as an 'order' to all Rela members in Sarawak. The directive has irked the opposition in Julau constituency and the state.

Slamming Sipan, state PKR chief Baru Bian said: "This is wrong. It is immoral and politically wrong for them to do that.

"Rela is not a political party. It is a voluntary organisation and funded by the rakyat's money.

"You don't use this kind of voluntary organisation to strengthen your political influence."

Kredit: www.malaysia-today.net

Rabu, 26 Disember 2012

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

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