Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
| Posted: 28 Sep 2011 03:43 PM PDT
In Malaysia, people often get confused between politics in Islam and politicising Islam. If I were to take a narrow interpretation of the Islamic law, one would need to produce four witnesses when accusing someone of adultery or indecent behaviour and by virtue of that a video, picture or any form of scientific proof deems invalid as it was never mentioned in the Quran. But of course, Islamic laws are not that narrow nor is it that idiotic. There's no such notion that all scientific empirical evidence is excluded for the sake of four witnesses. By Zaidel Baharuddin, Free Malaysia Today If you remember the days of dialling 1515 through a 56kbit dial up modem, chances are you know who Babyrina is. During the days of 'Jaring' being the only Internet Service Provider, Babyrina was somewhat of an urban legend. Some say she's actually a Latino while others say she's an ex-MAS stewardess who resides in United Kingdom. Whoever she may really be, in the days of limited bandwidth and having the patience to wait several minutes for pictures to load, Babyrina filled the exciting imaginations of many pubescent young men in the early nineties. Yes kids, this is before Facebook, heck it's even before Friendster, this was the time where the definition of social network is #kampung at MIRC. Anyway for the sake of some readers I should do some explanation. Babyrina is supposedly the first Malay porn star whose pictures hit the Internet in the early nineties. This were the days when handphones have yet acquired the capability of taking pictures and recording videos ( hence 3GP production was not yet available) thus randy photos of a Malay lass in action was something very rare which in turn propels Babyrina to stardom. She became a household name amongst the few netizens back in those days. I believe she hosted her own site complete with paid membership and all the jazz of an adult entertainment entrepreneur. Of course this was eons ago. Now locally produced videos are abundant around the net in the form of pixelated 3GP formats and some even in high quality high definition infra-red spy camera videos shot from various angles. From the stairs of a low cost flat to hotels and fancy apartments indeed it has been a long journey since the days of Babyrina. The rise of the infidels Ironic it may sound, it seems that today, Babyrina is even more related to the Malay society more than she was during her heydays of cyberspace. The only difference this time around is that unlike before, where her name was being mentioned in discussions amongst amorous netizens who has time to spend on waiting for things to load, this time she is more related in the realm of politics and morality. Now if you follow Malay politics you should notice by now that one of the favourite subjects when it comes to politics amongst the Malays is Islam. Not that there's anything wrong with it for aligning your political ideology with the values of Islam, it is something that every Muslim should do. The only problem is that thanks to politicians, when it comes to a political discourse it usually ends with the conclusion that the other side are infidels. You can't win when face with righteous self-proclaimed honourable teacher who somehow seems to give out 'fatwas' that coincides with political expediencies. After all they say who is he who lacks knowledge to question the honourable teacher? Take for example when politicians began to preach that videos and DNAs shouldn't be used in courts and that a true Islamic way to settle disputes is to bring it to a syariah trial hence the need to produce four witnesses. Some even go as far as bringing in 'Qazaf' as a measure of proving innocence because of the prosecutors' failure to produce four witnesses. I have been accused of many things when posing questions on these 'interpretations' of the Islamic laws, from the usual 'Kafir' (infidel) to 'Yahudi' (Jewish) though I don't really mind being the latter as my usual retort being "Ok lah tu, Nabi Isa pun Yahudi jugak" If I were to take a narrow interpretation of the Islamic law, one would need to produce four witnesses when accusing someone of adultery or indecent behaviour and by virtue of that a video, picture or any form of scientific proof deems invalid as it was never mentioned in the Quran. Quite stupid don't you think? And even more amazing, let's just say authorities wanted to press charges to Babyrina, the infamous Malay pornstar for "indecent morally detrimental activities", they would then need to produce four witnesses who saw her in action right before their eyes (meaning live). Any failure to do so, Babyrina can file for Qazaf in the very same court to sentence authorities for wrongdoing and false accusation. But of course, Islamic laws are not that narrow nor is it that idiotic. There's no such notion that all scientific empirical evidence is excluded for the sake of four witnesses.
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| Posted: 28 Sep 2011 10:39 AM PDT
By Kapil Sethi (TMI) Has PAS decided it is better to continue ruling a state or two than take a shot at running the country and maybe lose a state or two? It certainly looks like it when Nik Aziz Nik Mat reiterates his insistence on turning Kelantan into a medieval caliphate, complete with gibbets, stoning and amputations. But why is the issue of implementation of hudud, which is after all a part of wider sharia, such an emotive issue that it has the potential to dramatically affect electoral fortunes? Why are the likes of Mahathir Mohamad, Chua Soi Lek, Nik Aziz, Lim Guan Eng and Karpal Singh so invested in this issue to issue rapid fire statements in this regard? There are significant differences of opinion not only between PR and BN, but internally too between Umno and the MCA, and between the DAP and PAS. Clearly while the image of Malaysian Islam is at stake, the issue goes beyond being an internal Muslim community debate. At its core it is actually a debate between liberals and conservatives, tradition and modernity, regression and progress, and the state versus the individual. While the concept and principles of hudud may be relatively benign, it is the eye-catching nature of the punishments that distort perception. Logically, is there a big difference in hanging people or beheading them, or between flogging people behind bars or in public? The conflict arises because in the Western paradigm of progress, justice must shift broadly from a retributive to a rehabilitative paradigm. Therefore, the increasing anger in the developed world over the execution of convicts. In a broad sense the liberal worldview sees itself as focused on individual liberty and as such humane, reformist and modern, and conservatives as barbaric, retributive and medieval. The conservative worldview equally believes in the primacy of social good and that the modern condition of an absence of shared values is leading to a soulless world plagued by rising crime, greed and anarchy, the solution to which is in a return to original guiding principles that fostered social cohesion in an earlier time. Therefore, the perception of the nature and impact of hudud depends on how well these differing worldviews mirror our own. Conservatives, whether Muslim or otherwise, feel much more comfortable with the status quo than with change. In an era of rapid technological driven change and rising economic uncertainty, they look for reassurance in that which is perceived as timeless such as traditional occupations, traditional social and familial bonds, and traditional spirituality and religion. For this group the answers to the problems of modernity are all around in a past based on a set of unchanging values, whether it is caning our children if they break the rules or in chopping off the hands of those who steal. Liberals on the other hand want to deal with the uncertainties of modernity by advocating even more change. Broadly in Malaysia, this seems to boil down to the advocacy of reform in every sphere. Reform the police to reduce crime, reform the government to save the people and reform children through love. While we are at it why not just a general slogan of Reformasi? But for a lot of everyday people the boundaries are not so clear cut. Especially in urban areas, people are forced to juggle the tightrope of both tradition and modernity. The reaction to the very cosmopolitan demands of urban public life is often a retreat into tradition in our private lives. English at work and the vernacular at home, foreign holidays and balik kampung, respect for other races and faiths in public and looking down on them at home — these contradictions are real and present in what is termed Middle Malaysia. This is why every politician recognises the power of this issue. Are rural voters who are comfortable with tradition more important the urban voters who have given up on the past in the quest for a brighter future? Or is it the large mass of people in between who handle these apparently contradictory philosophies quite easily in their daily lives the most important? Read more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/opinion/article/the-hudud-hubbub/
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| Posted: 27 Sep 2011 11:39 AM PDT Instead of fighting a single opposition, BN perpetuated a structure which has two flanks — PAS for the Muslims and DAP for the non-Malays — and styled itself as the indispensable pseudo "centrist" coalition that caters for the interests across racial, religious and regional boundaries. By Liew Chin Tong (TMI) Middle Malaysia is elusive but it is clear that whichever coalition that is able to win across the traditional fault lines of race, religion and regions takes Federal power. Barisan Nasional is now the world's oldest elected government still in office. Its predecessor, the Alliance party, first won the Federal election for self-government in 1955. BN's longevity in government can be attributed to successful manipulation of the carrot and stick. Carrots range from contracts for big tycoons to rural patronage for the Umno base while the sticks are really big – dissenters can be put behind bars without trial for years while the mass media are muzzled. But there is something deeper: there is no alternative. Or more precisely, the ultimate use of the carrot and stick is to ensure that no BN-clone is allowed to exist. Instead of fighting a single opposition, BN perpetuated a structure which has two flanks — PAS for the Muslims and DAP for the non-Malays — and styled itself as the indispensable pseudo "centrist" coalition that caters for the interests across racial, religious and regional boundaries. Without a clean and fair electoral system and an unbiased mass media, the moment a moderate centrist coalition emerges it is destroyed without mercy. Elections in 1964, 1974, 1982, 1995, and 2004 saw a general swing of all ethnic groups in favour of Barisan Nasional for various reasons. Elections in 1978 and 1986 witnessed Barisan Nasional winning across the races but losing heavily among ethnic Chinese voters. A general anti-establishment swing across races in various degrees towards the Opposition occurred in elections in 1959, 1969, 1990, 2008 while the 1999 election was an oddity with Malays swinging massively towards the Opposition while more than 50 per cent of the supposedly more anti-establishment voted for the ruling coalition out of fear of the Islamic state claim and copycat violence a la Indonesia's anti-Suharto days. The de facto centre plus two flanks structure was almost broken in the 1990 general election until the final days of campaign when BN depicted Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah as a traitor to the Malays for wearing a Kadazan headgear with a symbol that looks like a cross. At the time, the majority of the ethnic Chinese and nearly half of the Malays were psychologically ready for a change of government. Since the 2008 general election, BN's formula to win the next election is not to recognise the two-party reality that it received only 51 per cent of popular votes. In fact, only 49 per cent in peninsular Malaysia voted for BN. Instead, apart from starving the Opposition of material resources and fair mass media coverage, the strategy is three-pronged – to destroy Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's credibility as the alternative prime minister at all costs, to lure PAS' leaders into the Malay/Muslim exclusivist discourse and to paint DAP as an extremist villain. Read more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/opinion/article/middle-malaysia/ |
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