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All In The Name of God
Lesson of 'listen, listen, listen'
Surat dr PM
Just When You Think That Karpal Singh Is The Most Principled DAP Leader...

Posted: 17 Jan 2013 12:36 PM PST

Many people do many things all in the name of God. The irony is the very things which they do in the name of God are abhorred by God. Or even prohibited by Him.

History will show us that human beings have tortured, maimed and killed each other, all in the name of God. Untold misery and cruelty have been inflicted all in the name of God. Yet, when they speak of God and their religion, they insist that God is most merciful, most compassionate and most forgiving. And their religion is a religion of peace, justice and fairness.

In Islam for example, history would show us all that right after the passing of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w., Muslims started arguing on who would be the right candidate to be the Caliph. Then they started killing each other. Until now that is.

The Traditionalist was a loose grouping of mainstream conservative schools who called themselves ahli-sunnah-wal-jamaah (the proponents of the Prophet's traditions and consensus). They posit that the Caliph should be elected by the influential members of the community. This was also generally accepted by another group, the Khawarij. The only difference between these two groups was that while the former narrowed the qualification to be a Caliph to just the Quraysh tribe (Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. was from the Quraysh tribe), the Khawarij did not have such qualification. The Khawarij in fact believed that a Caliph may even be removed if he breached his mandate.

This general agreement between the two groups however ended at the end of the reign of the 3rd Caliph, Uthman. His successor, Caliph Ali was met with opposition from the Khawarij as they did not agree with Caliph Ali's compromise with the Shi'a.

The Shi'a further narrowed the qualification for the Caliphate to the family members of the Prophet in particular, the Prophet's son-in-law, Ali and his descendants. The Shi'a argued that the head of Islam, politically and religiously, being the most important position, must not be left to human consensus and determination and thus must be so restricted.

The irony of all these is that God has never ordained that only the Quraysh or the members of the Prophet's family could be a leader in Islam.

Soon, of course, they started killing each other. After the 4th Caliphs, namely, Caliph Ali (the first 4 Caliphs in Islam are known as the "Rightly Guided Caliphs"), what originated as a deep political schism, imbued by misplaced tribal ego, resulted in vicious hatred when theological justification was used as political validation.

Soon after Caliph Ali, the so-called Islamic leadership or state was reduced into a dynasty, starting with the Ummayad. Caliph Mu'awiya started the Ummayad dynasty which lasted nearly a hundred years. The Abbasid dynasty replaced the Ummayad in Damascus. The slaughter of the Ummayad family in their palace during the "dinner of reconciliation" is well documented.

An Ummayad prince was saved from the slaughter when he was smuggled out from the palace. He ended in the Andalus and became Caliph in present-day Spain. Islam thus had two ruling dynasty, namely, the Abbasid ruling from Damascus and later, Baghdad and the Ummayad, ruling from Spain.

At this time, Islamic theology flourished, seemingly because of the Caliph's thirst for knowledge and enlightenment. It was during this period – the so-called "Golden Age of Islam" that we saw the rise of "Ilm-al-kalam" (the science of debate).

What started as a political schism between the Khawarij, the traditionalist and the Shi'a groups over the right to become Caliph and to rule soon degenerated into a theological teasers that later further degenerated into an inquisition. It was at about this time that a the Mu'tazila or the Rationalists appeared.

Lesson of 'listen, listen, listen'

Posted: 16 Jan 2013 03:05 PM PST

We are in an 'amuck-latah' mood. The nation, at least in cyberspace, is furious (amuck) of what happened, and the protagonist of the propaganda machine fumbled big-time (latah) assuming that the teaching techniques of the "top-down, humiliate-first, no-apologies later" of many a Biro Tata Negara speaker can still be deployed unreservedly onto university students at the time when amateur videos can go viral, when tweets can flow like a tsunami, and when Facebook pages can be created in a fraction of seconds.

That's the mistaken assumption - that the Frankenstein called "social media technology" will also not run amuck helping those silenced to have their poetic justice, and those humiliated to become an honourable being raised to the level of stardom, overnight.

It is said that at times, you do not need to find the revolution - for the revolution will find you. The revolution found both Bawani and Zohra in such an 'absurd' way, such as in many of the plots of French surrealist dramas like Eugene Ionesco's rhinoceros running wild on the city streets, and Kafka's character moving from desolation to awareness in "Metamorphosis".

The timing was perfect, like that storm brewing right after the almost-a-million Malaysian march to take over Putrajaya; after the Deepak drama which was over-played, overdosing even the older folks; after the successes of all those Bersih rallies, and many other watersheds upon watersheds of consciousness-raising events, and ultimately, after the last hurrah circa GE13 - all these ripened the relevance of the fateful "Bawani-Zohra" rendezvous.

Hence, Malaysians saw not only an explosion of anger, but one that fuelled tremendous amounts of creative products, mainly in the realm of multimedia (music videos, Facebook and Internet posters, audio and video materials, and the production of other forms of creative artifacts inspired by the mantra "listen-listen-listen...").

That is my observation, albeit too, as a 'participant-observer' who managed to contribute to the dialogue through my public writings here on Facebook, and in my other column in Malaysia-Today.

I have always found examples of the chaos and complexity theory at work in these kinds of phenomena; the "butterfly effect" of Malaysian public discourse, which must be framed in its most kaleidoscopic and multidimensional way.

Mind-controlling machinery?

In this case, a simple few minutes of verbal exchange in a dialogue on a campus situated way up in the "boonies" as the Appalachians in Ohio would say, can have far-reaching impacts up till now, leading to even the fall of the Barisan Nasional regime that has, for the last 30 years, been using the universities as a place wherein the human mind - of student, staff, and even faculty - would essentially need to "shut up and listen-listen-listen".

READ MORE HERE

Surat dr PM

Posted: 16 Jan 2013 09:55 AM PST

Tetapi kami yang tinggal di Selangor tahu berita yg disensasikan di akhbar-akhbar dan media massa arus perdana tentang keburukan pentadbiran Kerajaan PR Selangor lebih banyak tohmahan daripada kebenaran. Penduduk luar Selangor mungkin boleh ditipu kerana mereka tak tinggal di Selangor. Bagi kami rakyat Selangor kami tahu MB kami tak ambil jam tangan bernilai lebih RM100,000 sebagai cenderahati daripada PKNS seperti amalan yang lepas, MB kami prihatinkan kebajikan rakyat, kami tak perlu bayar bil air sejak tahun 2008 jika isi rumah kami cuma 3 org dan bermacam2 lagi keindahan yang tak dpt Kerajaan Negeri Selangor di bawah BN berikan sepanjang lebih 50 tahun pemerintahan. Dulu kami nampak ramai pemimpin-pemimpin BN Selangor yang mewah-mewah, yang kaya makin kaya, yang miskin semakin miskin.

Just When You Think That Karpal Singh Is The Most Principled DAP Leader...

Posted: 15 Jan 2013 05:26 AM PST

In a short statement today, the Bukit Gelugor MP said the repeated calls for DAP to call a fresh election "should, and must, take into account section 18(c) of the Societies Act 1966 relating to the finality of the decision on such matters by a political party".

He quoted the section which stipulates "the decision of (any) political party to be final and conclusive".
"The decision of a political party or any authorised persons by the party or by its constitution, rules or regulations made thereunder on the interpretation of its constitution, rules or regulations or on any matter relating to the affairs of the party shall be final and conclusive and such a decision shall not be challenged, appealed against, reviewed, quashed or called in question in any court on any ground, and no court shall have jurisdiction to entertain or determine any suit, application, question or proceeding on any ground regarding the validity of such a decision".

Ironically, it was a provision planted by Dr Mahathir Mohamad after his near defeat in the UMNO's party elections by subjugating the judiciary. The DAP has been quite vocal of Dr Mahathir's interference of the judiciary and the draconian amendment which has given leaders of political parties near autocratic powers.

I have more problem with Karpal's recital of Section 18(c) of the Societies Act 1966 to quash and quell any possible opposition against the party's decision not to hold fresh elections than the blunder itself. It shows that Karpal and his party leadership have no qualm to use any draconian legal provision created by an authoritarian leader such as Dr Mahathir Mohamad as long as it fits and fulfills the needs of his party.

READ MORE HERE

Kredit: www.malaysia-today.net

Jumaat, 18 Januari 2013

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

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