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Sumber Asal Berita :-

Posted: 30 Jan 2013 11:33 AM PST

Where Malaysia's education goes, it remains a case of "teachers and lecturers speak and students listen passively". And where politics go, the government dictates and the rakyat nods, the latter's views dismissed unceremoniously.

Jeswan Kaur, FMT

By declaring certain events, books and movies as 'harmful' to the country's peace, harmony, law and order only reveals the deep-rooted insecurity haunting the BN-led government.

How does one define a nation's development? Is it based on the impressive infrastructure or by the fact that its coffers are brimming?

What about the intellectual capacity of its people – does it count for anything as far as progress goes?

If the thinking ability of the people is the backbone of a developed nation, then Malaysia for one better re-think its claims of being a "successful" country by the year 2020.

Malaysia is deserving of the "developed nation" status only when it stops insulting the intelligence of the rakyat; in other words, do not underestimate the people's thinking power.

From brainwashing to indoctrination of submissive and unreliable dogmas, the federal government has done it all and that too by making schools and universities its prime targets.

So we have young Malaysians who are unable to think creatively or constructively. The era of "do as I say" continues, a sad reminder to the rakyat of the dictatorial legacy that came about during the premiership of the country's fourth prime minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

The government has decided to do the "thinking" for the rakyat; be it by way of banning books by "out of the box thinking" authors to labelling movies tackling sensitive subjects as damning to the nation's well-being.

The question that begs an honest answer is: just why does the federal government keep insulting the rakyat's intelligence?

By declaring certain events, books and movies as "harmful" to the country's peace, harmony, law and order only reveals the deep-rooted insecurity haunting the Barisan Nasional-led government.

It was not that long ago when all hell broke loose when "I speak my mind" writer-lecturer Irshad Manji flew down from America to launch her book "Allah, Liberty, Love" in Kuala Lumpur.

Prior to that, the federal government decided it was "dangerous" for an event that gave the lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders a platform to converge and exchange information.

The authorities meanwhile started chanting "peace" as the reason for justifying such restrictions.

Not once were the rakyat consulted or their views deemed necessary before such prohibitions were enforced.

When will this madness stop?

Looks like the government of the day has no plans to stop meddling in what the people can see and read, that too without understanding and investigating the issues further.

The recent premature move by the Home Ministry declaring the Tamil movie "Vishwaroopam" as unfit for public viewing, claiming that it hurt the religious sensitivities of Muslims, is the last straw in taking the sound-minded rakyat for granted.

Malaysia has joined Singapore, Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu as countries that have outlawed "Vishwaroopam" on the basis that it gives the message that Muslims are terrorists.

"Vishwaroopam", a spy thriller, is directed and co-produced by South Indian superstar Kamal Haasan, who also portrays three main characters in the film.

The movie, released worldwide on Jan 25, revolves around s international terrorism, a reason fit enough by Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein's standards to impose a ban.

Back in Tamil Nadu where "Vishwaroopam" was barred from the theatres for two weeks, the actor-director took the matter to court.

To dispel the fears of the Muslim organisations back home, Kamal Hassan organised a special screening but this only worsened matters.

In Malaysia, within 48 hours of having received a memorandum from the Malaysian Indian Muslim Youth Movement, the Home Minister decided to outlaw the multi-lingual "Vishwaroopam".

The Film Censorship Board had no say when Hishammuddin ordered that "Vishwaroopam" be declared unsafe for public viewing.

Making a clear stand on Nasha

Posted: 30 Jan 2013 11:23 AM PST

IT is likely that PAS members were stunned to see the photograph of their former deputy president Nasharudin Mat Isa standing next to Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak when the Prime Minister visited Gaza, Palestine.

Joceline Tan, The Star

Former PAS deputy president Nasharudin Mat Isa who joined the Prime Minister's delegation to Palestine has been told by his party that he is free to 'divorce' and 'marry another woman'.

But some of them were also hopping mad because this was not the first time that Nasharudin had accompanied Najib on an official overseas trip. There is no hard and fast rule about things like this but political convention dictates that a PAS leader would not wish to be part of a programme connected to the rival camp – more so when it involves a programme that would elevate the rival in the eyes of Muslims all over the country.

The party's immediate reaction to the Gaza trip was to sack Nasharudin as a member of the Syura Council of Ulama, the party's most powerful decision-making body.

Nasharudin is once again the centre of media attention. Yesterday, when Nasharudin was spotted at a forum on the "kalimah Allah" issue in Kuala Lumpur, reporters immediately made a beeline for him. They wanted to know his reaction, what he is going to do next and also the specific reasons for his party's action against him.

The odd thing is that the man in the middle of it all has yet to be officially informed by his party even as news of his dilemma is splashed all over the media. He has had a stream of visitors to his house, all wanting to know why this is happening.

Nasharudin's relations with his party had been on a downward spiral even before he lost his deputy president post to Mohamad Sabu in 2011. After the defeat, he was appointed to the party central committee and made head of the international bureau.

There were complaints that he did not attend to his duties nor attend any meetings. As a result, they took away the international bureau post, then they expelled him from the central committee and now he has been sacked from the Syura Council.

Party sources said the Syura Council cracked the whip because he had made statements that were not in line with the body and also because he did not attend meetings.

Many think that the party's next move will be to sack him. Any lesser person in PAS, it is said, would have been sacked long ago.

Some are wondering why Nasharudin's dilemma is such a big deal. Well, he was a two-term deputy president and before that he was the vice-president and the secretary-general of PAS. He used to be a big gun in the party and had been projected as the likely successor to party president Datuk Seri Hadi Awang.

But everything started to go wrong for him after he was associated with a group advocating "unity talks" with Umno and that did not go down well with many people in the party.

Prior to his trip to Gaza with the Prime Minister's delegation, Nasharudin had accompanied the Prime Minister to Mecca where he acted as the translator for Najib during an exclusive meeting with leading ulama figures in the Saudi Arabia kingdom.

Photographs of Nasharudin seated on the carpeted floor next to Najib had riled the PAS rank and file but there was nothing much they could do.

But pictures from the Gaza trip was the final straw for PAS leaders. The photograph showed the group holding up their palms in prayer over a ruin caused by Israeli bombs – Najib was flanked by Nasharudin on the left and Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on the right.

PAS leaders said it showed just how close Nasharudin had become to Umno and Najib and the sarcastic remark from one detractor was that "Nasharudin has arrived".

"It's part of his strategy to show he is someone respected by the president of Umno. He wants to show us he is a big name, he is in their good books and can deliver things to Najib. He already has one foot in Umno and his heart is with Najib," said a top PAS official.

But Nasharudin was not in Gaza just to make up the numbers. He has a fantastic network of contacts with leaders in the Middle East and he is acquainted with the Hamas Prime Minister. His WhatsApp photo ID shows him with the Hamas Prime Minister in the latter's office.

Part of Nasharudin's networking success has to do with his personality – he is gregarious, likeable, has a natural talent for conversation and speaks fluent Arabic. Nasharudin has an obvious talent for languages, be it English, Bahasa Malaysia or Arabic.

PAS had also leveraged on Nasharudin's connections when he was up there. Hadi used to rely on him during international trips because although Hadi speaks good Arabic, he was seriously deficient in social and conversational skills.

Only a handful in PAS have been willing to condemn him though. One of them is Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad, who said that Nasharudin was not indispensable and could be easily replaced in the Syura Council.

The harshest remarks have come from Mursyidul Am Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat who heads the Syura Council. He announced that Nasharudin was no longer welcome as an election candidate in Kelantan which had hosted safe seats for party leaders who cannot win elsewhere.

The elderly leader had said in his usual roundabout and provincial way: "Divorce between men and women is normal. Even though we celebrate our wives, slaughter the cow, sound the gong and pay homage to the Prophet, divorce is still a normal thing."

The message was clear: Nasharudin was free to quit PAS and join another party if he wishes.

So will PAS sack their former deputy president? Very likely, yes. And probably after the general election to avoid more political fallout.

Stop prejudice and stereotyping

Posted: 30 Jan 2013 11:13 AM PST

Just because a few people are intemperate in their language, all of us are labelled thugs and louts. Worse still, those who strut around with an air of unwarranted superiority claim to represent all of us.

Marina Mahathir, The Star

HAVING been brought up always to be polite, I can be quite shocked when people are rude and direct.

Once many years ago, an American woman asked me how it felt to be an oppressed Muslim woman.

After getting over my shock, I put it down to sheer ignorance.

Not long after, a Russian man, ostensibly well educated, asked me why Muslims liked to cut off their enemies' heads.

I'm not sure how I managed to contain myself but it did give me an insight into how some people have no idea how their words can sound to others.

Since those days, I have managed to develop much better shock-absorbers and few things manage to rattle me as before.

I have heard people blithely ask me why we don't simply kill all people with HIV as a way of containing the epidemic, as if they were giving me a bright idea to solve a simple problem.

In all seriousness someone also told me that the reason why black people don't excel at swimming is because their skin pigments are so heavy it is difficult for them to float.

All these people genuinely believed that they were imparting wisdom.

It never occurred to them that they might sound totally out of sync with the times, where racist and genocidal ideas no longer hold currency.

Still, it is rare for me to hear anything so shocking any more.

Most people I know would never stereotype or judge others by the colour of their skin, their race or their religion.

We take everyone as equals and value them for their talents, skills and ethics.

It thus becomes a major shock to me to find that outside that circle, the world is different.

Reading headlines in some local newspapers I find myself disturbed by the blatantly racist stories that pass for news.

While such outright racism towards fellow Malaysians is not yet considered de rigeur, foreigners are easy targets, especially if they don't come from countries more developed than us.

Whole continents of people are deemed criminal with impunity and racist epithets trip off tongues and pages as easily as praise for politicians.

When I remark on this, people defend the racism. The media, they say, are just stating "facts" about some people whom "we all know" tend to commit crime.

It never seems to occur to anyone to question these "facts", any more than it occurs to right-wing Americans to question the "fact" that Muslims are all terrorists and spend all our time stoning people.

To say that the media is only reflecting what people think is to hide behind a disingenuous bush.

The media both reflects and creates stereotypes.

Indeed, it reinforces them, and then refuses to take responsibility for any violence that may result.

An Indiana man who was charged with setting fire to an Islamic centre said the only Muslims he knew was what he saw on Fox News, a channel that doesn't bother to hide its prejudice against Muslims.

Similarly highly distorted news on the LGBT community in Malaysia has resulted in some of them suffering violence at the hands of thugs.

Let's not even mention the things that some Malaysians get away with saying on social media.

There are those who claim to belong to a religion of peace, yet happily spew the most vicious anonymous diatribes against those of other faiths.

Worse, this is done in the name of their own faith.

The result is a lot of counter-prejudice and stereotypes.

My people, the people I knew growing up as infinitely polite, gentle and considerate, are these days labelled uncouth, intolerant, aggressive and hypocritical.

Just because a few people are intemperate in their language, all of us are labelled thugs and louts.

Worse still, those who strut around with an air of unwarranted superiority claim to represent all of us.

If my fellow citizens feel hurt by the actions of these few, I feel hurt too.

My people are being labelled haters and bridge-burners when throughout history we have been the most accommodating and hospitable of people.

Because of a few bad examples, all of us have to suffer from sometimes barely-concealed condescension.

And racism breeds racism; some people only know to respond to hate with even more hate.

Since our leaders fail dismally to delineate between what is right and what is so patently wrong, it is left to civil society, especially young people, to find ways of making a peaceful point.

Last Sunday, we sat under shady trees and read books to enlighten our friends and ourselves.

And with that, we rose above the muck and saw one another clearly for the human beings that we are.

Kredit: www.malaysia-today.net

Khamis, 31 Januari 2013

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

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