Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
- ‘Sodomy II attacks increased after Sept 16 coup bid’
- Government working hard to address cost of living problem
- Cabinet member, Najib’s aides are ‘non-heterosexual’, says leaked US cable
- Jais alleges bid to convert Muslims at dinner
- Islam does not need crutches - Asri
- Zaid: Raid is against Federal Constitution
- Bursa bloodbath gives Najib pause on polls
| ‘Sodomy II attacks increased after Sept 16 coup bid’ Posted: 09 Aug 2011 08:59 PM PDT
The US expects another dirty round of judicial exploitation by the ruling coalition to kill off Anwar Ibrahim. (Free Malaysia Today) - Washington believed the intense attack on Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim while facing his Sodomy II trial escalated out of fear over his Sept 16 attempt to wrest federal power through mass defections. A leak diplomatic cable by whistleblower site WikiLeaks – published in Malaysia Today today – also showed that the US expected another dirty round of judicial exploitation by the ruling coalition to kill off the PKR leader's political career as Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak would want his nemesis wiped out. "Senior Malaysian authorities were very aggressive in handling the present case during the initial period of June-September 2008, but, coinciding with the passing of Anwar's deadline to bring down the government through parliamentary cross-overs, have since taken a more measured 'rule-of-law' approach in public. "The authorities have not taken all the legal and extra-legal measures available to them, for example, to challenge Anwar's bail provisions or resolve an earlier impasse regarding the court venue," political counsellor with the Malaysian US Embassy, Mark D Clark, was quoted as saying. Anwar is currently in the docks for the second time in 10 years for allegedly sodomising his aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan in 2008 just months after the opposition scored significant gains in the March 8 polls the same year. He claimed openly that the charges were trumped up and were engineered by Najib, who was deputy prime minister at the time, and wife Rosmah Mansor – an allegation they denied. Anwar's defence lawyers have asked the court to grant them rights to interview the two but both said they will not do it unless subpoenaed. Clark said in the cable that the court would likely favour Najib and Rosmah and not force them to face Anwar's lawyers. 'Conviction is the desired outcome' The leaked cable further stated that it concurred with the view that conviction would see Anwar, now in his mid-60s, "killed off" while Najib would make it pass as a "normal law enforcement matter". It also said that indications of political interference and manipulation in the present case (Sodomy II) are compelling.
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| Government working hard to address cost of living problem Posted: 09 Aug 2011 08:47 PM PDT
A lesson learned from the UK riots (Bernama) -- The government will work hard to ensure that the problem faced by the people with regard to the cost of living could be tackled in the wake of the challenging global condition, said Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak. The Prime Minister said it was the responsibility of the government to do whatever was best in tackling the rising costs and find ways of reducing its effects on the people.
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| Cabinet member, Najib’s aides are ‘non-heterosexual’, says leaked US cable Posted: 09 Aug 2011 05:32 PM PDT
(The Malaysian Insider) - A recent Cabinet member and some of Datuk Seri Najib Razak's senior aides would have found themselves under investigation for homosexual "behaviour" if the government were on a morals campaign, according to a leaked United States diplomatic cable. The cable to Washington from the US embassy here cited the "non-heterosexual behaviour" of an unnamed Cabinet member and Najib aides in its primer for State Department officials to understand the alleged political act of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's Sodomy II prosecution. "Anwar's prosecution is not part of a morals campaign. The GOM does not aggressively target non-heterosexual behaviour; if it did so, a recent cabinet minister, senior staff associated with PM Najib and other prominent citizens linked to the government also would find themselves under investigation," US Ambassador James R Keith said in the diplomatic note to Washington that was leaked by whistleblower site Wikileaks through the Malaysia Today website. The cable did not name the Cabinet minister or Najib's aides. But Ambassador Keith pointed out that the facts of the case against Anwar made it clear that the prosecution was foremost a political act against the Opposition Leader. "The Malaysian government does not aggressively prosecute cases of sodomy; we find record of some 55 cases since 1991, or an average of 3 per year. The vast majority of such cases involve adults assaulting minors," Keith wrote. Keith also reiterated a long held view of the US government that Anwar's original Sodomy prosecution 1999 had been grossly manipulated by former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. He also pointed out that "keeping in mind Najib and Anwar remain bitter enemies, it is striking that Najib met personally with the complainant Saiful prior to the police report." The US ambassador also noted the involvement of senior politicians in the case as well as the leakage of information. "From the very early stages, the senior-most officials in the government, including then PM Abdullah, current PM Najib, cabinet ministers, the AGO and national police chief (the latter two having played important roles in Anwar's 1998-1999 flawed trials) and officials of the ruling Umno party have been intimately involved in decisions regarding the case, according to Embassy contacts and publicly available sources. "Senior government leaders provided law enforcement information on the case to leaders of Anwar's coalition partner, the Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS), in an unsuccessful attempt to split PAS from the opposition. A recent internet report claims that the government has provided some government-directed press editors with a 'sneak preview' of evidence against Anwar." The cable appears to have been written in 2009 just before Anwar's trial started. Anwar is currently facing sodomy charges for the second time in his life. He was charged with sodomy and corruption in 1998 after he was sacked from the Cabinet, and was later convicted and jailed for both offences. He was freed in September 2004 and later resurrected his political career by winning back his Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat in a by-election in 2008, which had been held in the interim by his wife Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail. He later led the loose pact of PKR, the DAP and PAS to a historic sweep of five states and 82 parliamentary seats in Election 2008.
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| Jais alleges bid to convert Muslims at dinner Posted: 09 Aug 2011 05:11 PM PDT
(The Malaysian Insider) - Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) is investigating the organisers of a thanksgiving dinner held on church premises last week for attempting to convert Muslims. Lim Heng Seng, lawyer for 10 of the 12 Muslims present at the "1Malaysia Muhibbah Fundraising Dinner" at Damansara Utama Methodist Church (DUMC), said the department confirmed this in a letter sent today. "Jais informed that they are investigating a case involving the offence of persuading, influencing or inciting a Muslim to change his faith under section 4 of the Non-Islamic Religions Enactment 1988," he said in a statement today, clarifying his client's absence from turning up at the Jais office. Section 4 of the enactment makes it an offence for a person to "persuade, influence or incite" a Muslim to be inclined to any non-Islamic religion, become a follower or member of a non-Islamic religion or forsake or disfavour Islam. Those found guilty of the offence face a jail term not more than one year or a fine of RM10,000 or both. Jais had been responding to a letter from Lim enquiring into the legal provision under which his clients were being asked to report to the state religious authority for "pre-counselling sessions". Jais enforcement officers raided the fundraising dinner last Wednesday night without a warrant after receiving an unspecified complaint, bringing with them a team of policemen.
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| Islam does not need crutches - Asri Posted: 09 Aug 2011 05:02 PM PDT
(Harakah Daily) - Muslim scholar Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin said Islam was built upon reason and sound argument, and as such did not need to prove its truth through enforcement agencies. In further remarks following the Selangor Islamic Religious Department's presence at a church dinner function over complaints that there were attempts at propagating Christianity to Muslim guests there, Asri told news portal Malaysiakini that the truth of Islam can be shown using sound arguments and not through preventive enforcement actions to stop Muslims from being influenced by non-Muslims.
On the other hand, Muslims should naturally be able to exert their influence on adherents of other religions, he said.
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| Zaid: Raid is against Federal Constitution Posted: 09 Aug 2011 04:43 PM PDT
The Kita president defends the right of Muslims to religious freedom which he says is enshrined under Article 11. (Free Malaysia Today) - Kita president Zaid Ibrahim said the controversial church raid by the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (JAIS) would not have taken place had Article 11 of the Federal Constitution been upheld. More than 30 police and JAIS officers stormed a thanksgiving dinner at the Damansara Utama Methodist Church (DUMC) premises last Wednesday. The authorities claimed they had received a complaint that Christians were attempting to convert the 12 Muslims present at the dinner that night. Until today, no evidence or details of the complaint had been made public. Zaid however pointed out that the true essence of Article 11 forbade proselytising to Muslims but acknowledged a Muslim's right to religious freedom. "Kita believes that this freedom belongs to everyone – Muslims and non-Muslims – and is a fundamental right of every human being," he said in a statement today. "We believe it is cruel for anyone to be forced to accept a religious belief or faith that he or she in all good conscience has renounced or refuses to believe in." The lawyer-turned-politician warned of similar raids in other parts of the country and of more Muslims being punished for exercising their freedom to believe. "There will be more confusion and an escalating war of attrition among religious communities," he predicted. "State laws will continue empowering officers to make arrests and raid premises so that they can make sure Muslims are not in the company of evangelical Christians." Zaid rapped JAIS of being too duty-bound in preventing Muslims from exercising their right to convert instead of understanding what "lies inside the heart of Muslims". "JAIS is simply happy to punish and imprison someone like Kamariah Ali (a follower of Ayah Pin) and regard her as a deviant Muslim," he said. "It does not matter what her true beliefs are, just as it does not matter if she is happy with the faith." Silence from the Pakatan camp The former PKR supreme council member also said that the Pakatan Rakyat component parties would not support the true meaning of Article 11 for different reasons. PAS, he said, would not step up because of its belief that freedom of choice would give a "lesser" Muslim the opportunity to deviate from the faith. He added that PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim would not risk his chances of becoming prime minister while DAP would be concerned about losing votes and Penang. "That explains why the great defenders of freedom in Pakatan had to issue a gag order. Don't address sensitive issues, is what they seem to be saying… get to Putrajaya first," he said.
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| Bursa bloodbath gives Najib pause on polls Posted: 09 Aug 2011 08:59 AM PDT By Shannon Teoh, The Malaysian Insider With some RM91 billion slashed from the stock market in two days, Datuk Seri Najib Razak faces yet another global financial meltdown ahead of general elections — due in less than two years. Although the prime minister was said to be mulling snap polls as early as the end of the year, politicians and analysts say that economic factors are now firmly out of his hands, with him hanging on to his Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) projects only for a rebound next year. "These projects are his only defence against the storm clouds on the horizon," said Jupiter Securities research head Pong Teng Siew, stating that Najib will only go to the ballot boxes after the ETP bites. Among the projects that will kick off this year is the country's most expensive infrastructure project, the Klang Valley Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) while Bandar Malaysia, the massive development at the Sungei Besi air base will start once the Royal Malaysian Air Force move out after November 30. Pong also said the forecast this year will remain at 4 per cent or lower unless these projects kick in, despite the economy rebounding with a 7.2 per cent growth last year after skidding to a recession when the economy dipped 1.1 per cent in 2009. But DAP's Tony Pua, one of the opposition's top economic spokespersons, said that Najib is "hamstrung" as he heads into the pre-election period. "In the last two years, he has been able to rely on high oil prices to bankroll public spending but that is not going to happen this time as the global slowdown will hit oil prices and our exports. "This is Najib's worst nightmare. The perfect storm is brewing and he can only hope to wait it out," the Petaling Jaya Utara MP said. Bursa Malaysia began bleeding on Friday after the United States debt rating was downgraded, causing stock exchanges to tumble globally as confidence faltered ahead of a potential double-dip recession. Putrajaya is also tightening its belt after the country's deficit hit a two-decade record of 7 per cent in 2009, forcing it to take a razor to fuel, electricity and sugar subsidies to prevent the subsidy bill from doubling to RM21 billion this year. But inflation has continued to rise after hitting a two-year high of 3 per cent in March with the consumer price index sitting at 3.5 per cent in June.
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'Rethink Islamic education'
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