Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
- SUARAM Condemns JAIS Raid
- Celebrate Freedom, Not Fear
- CNBC and BBC suspend television programmes over Sarawak whistleblower allegations - Bruno ...
- "The Impact of Bersih 2.0 on Political Development in Malaysia"- New York City
- UMNO Will be Saved by the Triple Debt Debacle in Europe, US and Japan
| Posted: 04 Aug 2011 08:33 PM PDT By Suaram Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM) condemns the raid at a church by the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (JAIS) on the 3rd of August 2011. 30 police officers and religious authorities raided a multi-racial dinner and without presenting a warrant entered the Damansara Utama Methodist Church (DUMC) over an unspecified complaint. The multi-racial dinner was organized by the non-profit organization Harapan Komuniti to help women, children, HIV/AIDs sufferers and victims of natural disasters. 12 Muslims were present at the dinner. The dinner was held in the compound of the church but JAIS went inside the church and searched the DUMC's premises. The dinner organizers were subjected to questioning and the function's programme sheets were seized by the authorities. SUARAM condemns the raid by JAIS as the guests and organizers who went to the dinner in good faith were intimidated by the authoritarian manner of the raid. Although no arrests were made, the fact that the event was unceremoniously interrupted by JAIS and that guests were subjected to questioning was intimidating for the guests. We also believe that this is an infringement of the freedom to assemble and associate peacefully as enshrined under Article 10 of the Federal Constitution. While we welcome the expression of regret over the raid by the Menteri Besar of Selangor, Khalid Ibrahim, we demand a full report and justification from JAIS, which is under the purview of the Selangor State Government. We would like to ascertain the legal basis of the raid from JAIS. We believe that since no warrant was presented to the parties, JAIS acted arbitrarily and without due process. As Selangor exco member in charge of Islamic affairs Hassan Ali has claimed that there was evidence of proselytisation, we would like to see evidence from the JAIS report on this claim. We demand that JAIS discloses the complaint made on the multi-racial dinner to demonstrate that JAIS did not conduct the raid on an arbitrary basis. Although Prime Minister Najib Razak's visit to Vatican City tried to placate interreligious tensions, trends have shown that religious tensions are still high in Malaysia. The severed cow head incident in Selangor, the banning of the usage of the word of "Allah" by Christians by the Home Ministry, the controversial demolishing of Hindu temples, the temporary seizure of Malay-language Bibles by the Home Ministry have all served to contribute to interreligious tensions. SUARAM believes that the recent raid by JAIS at DUMC will only serve to destroy harmonious co-existence among our different peoples. We urge the Selangor State Government to respect the freedom of religion and the rights of religious groups to manage their affairs. |
| Posted: 04 Aug 2011 02:49 PM PDT By Lim Chee Wee, President, Malaysian Bar Council The Malaysian Bar deeply deplores the action by the Jabatan Agama Islam Selangor ("JAIS") who, with the assistance of Polis DiRaja Malaysia, rudely interrupted a thanksgiving dinner hosted by a community-based non-governmental organisation and held at Damansara Utama Methodist Church two days ago. We welcome the statement of regret offered by the Menteri Besar of Selangor over the incident, and his call for JAIS to furnish a detailed report on the incident. We trust that appropriate disciplinary action will be taken if JAIS officers are found to have exceeded their authority in this regard. The civil authorities cannot allow the Islamic department to wantonly disrespect the fundamental rights and liberties of all citizens to gather and associate freely with one another. Especially in this month of Ramadhan, one would have hoped that the Islamic religious authorities in Selangor would have focused their attention on more constructive pursuits rather than the disruption of a community thanksgiving dinner that brought together people of various races and faiths in peace, harmony and unity. This is the true spirit of Malaysia which we must value, uphold, protect and defend. We know of no prohibition in law against Muslims entering the premises of a Christian church, nor of being part of the audience in a thanksgiving event held in such a place, even if such an event were to contain certain religious elements such as prayer and singing. By conducting such a raid, video-recording a part of the event, rummaging and removing the contents of garbage bags and then taking down the particulars of Muslims found in attendance, treating them as though they had somehow broken the law, JAIS has besmirched the good name and sullied the hard-earned reputation of Malaysia and her peoples for multi-racial, multi-cultural and multi-faith acceptance. This action on the part of JAIS, coming so closely after the insensitive public service announcements released by television station 8TV, does not bode well for the future of inter-racial and inter-faith harmony in our country. If, after almost 54 years of independence in Peninsular Malaysia, a state Islamic authority and a national television company can still display a form of arrogant authoritarianism and callous condescension in their actions, then we must collectively ask ourselves where we have failed as a nation. Moderation has increasingly given way to mindless orthodoxy, and those in authority have parted company with common sense. Let us all recommit ourselves, in this mutual month of Ramadhan and Merdeka, to a practice of faith or belief that will free our lives from fear, and a pursuit of ideals that will free our thoughts from binding shackles, both of which our forefathers struggled so hard to achieve.
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| CNBC and BBC suspend television programmes over Sarawak whistleblower allegations - Bruno ... Posted: 04 Aug 2011 02:38 PM PDT By Bruno Manser Fund Leading global television networks accused of illegally promoting corrupt Malaysian politicians - Sarawak Chief Minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud, had bought himself airtime to spread blatant lies over Borneo rainforest logging. CNBC, the American satellite and cable television news channel, has withdrawn its international business show, "World Business", following allegations that the show's production company, FBC ("Fact Based Communications"), was doubling as a PR firm for corrupt Malaysian politicians. Meanwhile, the British BBC, another FBC customer, has suspended broadcasting all FBC-produced programmes and launched an internal investigation. Last Monday, Sarawak Report, a news website run by Clare Rewcastle, the sister-in-law of former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, revealed that the UK-based FBC Group had been paid 5 million US dollars by Abdul Taib Mahmud ("Taib"), Chief Minister of the Malaysian state of Sarawak, to promote the politician's battered international reputation. Other payments to FBC have apparently been made by the Malaysian Prime Minister, Najib Razak, and by Sime Darby, a palm oil group responsible for clear-cutting large tracts of tropical rainforest in Malaysian Borneo. On 27 March 2011, the CNBC's "World Business" show broadcast an interview with Taib, in which he claimed that 80 per cent of the state's forests were "almost intact" tropical rainforest. The statement was broadcast uncommented despite being in stark contrast to all independent analysis and to Taib's own earlier statements. In April 2001, Taib publicly admitted that 90 percent of the state's harvestable trees had been felled. By broadcasting sponsored news and current affairs programmes, the CNBC and the BBC appear to have breached British and American media regulations. We demand that CNBC and the BBC apologize to the public over the broadcasting of sponsored FBC shows that are distorting the facts. In particular, we are asking CNBC to send a team of investigative reporters to Sarawak to accurately report on the extent of the Taib regime's corruption and the rapid destruction of Borneo's natural environment.
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| "The Impact of Bersih 2.0 on Political Development in Malaysia"- New York City Posted: 04 Aug 2011 02:26 PM PDT By Generation 709 Date: August 18, 2011 Topic: "The Impact of Bersih 2.0 on Political Development in Malaysia" |
| UMNO Will be Saved by the Triple Debt Debacle in Europe, US and Japan Posted: 04 Aug 2011 02:25 PM PDT By batsman The world is a much more dangerous place these days. For many decades if not centuries, Europe, US and now Japan have lived beyond their means. The people who have paid for this high living by Europeans, Americans and Japanese are the people of the 3rd world in the form of cheap commodities, produce and commoditized human beings. This is done by the west's monopoly of financial and economic power backed up by military power when small tin pot dictators refuse to do their bidding. Huge mining companies do not pay any taxes to 3rd world governments even when they make super profits by fiddling with their accounts. Trade agreements hugely favour the rich and powerful forcing poor countries to settle for whatever small pittance they can get. Even the best brains of the 3rd world countries are stolen by the west with seductive pay and conditions offered. No poor country can match such wealth and power. Not satisfied with this monopoly and theft of brains, white slavery is now rampant and prostitutes are imported by the tens of thousands from poor countries to service the people of the rich countries. Poor women are now forced or tricked into selling their bodies under slave like conditions. But such a situation cannot last forever. The west is now addicted to high living and use all means to maintain it including borrowing huge amounts of money legally. The time has come to pay. Will the west renege on their debts or will they pay up? What do you think? One thing is clear – there is no way to force them to pay up. The regime of western civilization is no longer capable of producing progress in the world. Tons of food worth billions of pounds sterling are wasted in Britain alone while the 3rd world starves. Fish which have been caught and are dead or dying are thrown overboard in huge amounts in the EU because they are not expensive fish and fishermen need to fill their quotas only with expensive fish – not with cheap fish to make profits. Money is thrown at scientists who come up with studies that say milk is good for you one day and not good for you the next. There are hundreds of examples of such wastage all of which are designed to maintain the control and influence of westerners. All this wastage is necessary to extract only the best results to feed the high living of the western world. In the meantime, the 3rd world starves. So how is all this going to save UMNO? For one thing, no western government is going to make any noise when UMNO turns into a openly brutal dictatorship – they will be too busy with their own problems. For another, Malaysians will also be too busy trying to survive the meltdown. It will be too risky to change horses at such a dangerous and critical moment. Of course I don't pretend to be a prophet who can tell the future. Many of you will have other ideas of how UMNO can be voted out of power. Hopefully you will share these with us, but one thing is sure – Malaysians must have the self-confidence, self-awareness and spirit of self-sacrifice to try and forge their future without UMNO in power for at least 2 or 3 GEs. Do you think this can be achieved? |
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