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Does Suing MRT Co Make Us Pinggir Za'aba, TTDI Residents Elite?
Malaysian Loves Corruption & Can’t Live Without It
Report: These 54 Foreign Governments (including Malaysia) Helped the CIA Torture, Detain, and ...
Islam and Christianity:Two Faiths, One God
The Tangled Mess of 68 Ministers and Deputies
Malaysia’s GPS for General Election-13
Meet Abdul Rahman Kasim, the man behind the Muslim-Christian ‘cake’ diplomacy
A Psychotic-Islamic preacher?
Private to sponsor Psy to Penang
BN invited Psy
Malaysia: Stop Forced Returns to China

Does Suing MRT Co Make Us Pinggir Za'aba, TTDI Residents Elite?

Posted: 07 Feb 2013 01:50 PM PST

I'll begin first by thanking my good friend and occassional mentor, Ahiruddin "Rocky" Attan, for highlighting Pinggir Za'aba's suit against MRT Co. This suit is very much a private matter to the plaintiffs, my wife being one of them. I also thank those who have commented for and against the suit in Rocky's blog and hope they continue their interest here, and in the interest of getting some good feedback, I will also relax my typical restrictions to commentaries.

For those who have misunderstood Rocky's definition of Elite, please have a look at the images of the houses of most of the plaintiffs on Pinggir Za'aba that I have attached below. Pinggir Za'aba is a long road, just as TTDI is a large housing area. The part of TTDI directly effected by the MRT has neither bungalows nor semi-D's and whilst we are not the poorest of citizens, we are not among the most affluent either. We are Elite though, in that we are nearly all tertiary educated, most are or were professionals, managers in corporations or civil servants.

Having heard the views of many, allow me to present my reason for supporting my wife's decision to join the civil suit against MRT Co. Metaphorically and in brief, I can say that the reason for my support of the suit is from my reading of Clausewitz's On War, where the great Prussian military philosopher describes War as simply the continuation of Politics or Policy by other means. Hence, this suit, is simply the continuation of Pinggir Za'aba's engagement of MRT Co by more aggressive means.

To elaborate on the why, ever since residents of Pinggir Za'aba were informed our homes would be impacted by the MRT's construction by notices put up on trees along our road by SPAD some 2+ years ago, we have been trying our best to engage various government agencies. Understanding that the MRT is a nation-building project of some importance, we have never asked for it to be scrapped, but rather preferred re-alignment or an underground route for it, and failing that, that were at least hoping to be given due compensation either for damages to or for having to abandon our homes.

The PR and engagement from SPAD and Prasarana was to me actually quite poor, though I would put more blame on SPAD for this - Prasarana seemed in these engagements as being victims of circumstance. SPAD's position was often inconsistent, its approach to engagement shoddy (beginning with notices put up on trees remember!), but at least there were no empty promises. Where they could not deliver on our suggestions of hopes, we received non-commitals and silence, which sounds bad, and may even sound strange for those who went to the PR 'roadshows', but worse was to come.

Malaysian Loves Corruption & Can’t Live Without It

Posted: 07 Feb 2013 12:41 PM PST

If there's one hot topic of discussion during the coming Chinese New Year, it has to be the Mother of General Elections – the 2013 Malaysia General Election. This is perhaps the final time family members would sit together, cracking garlic-flavour groundnuts sipping Anglia Shandy or Carlsberg, and debate over who and which party to elect – either current regime (BN) or opposition (PR). This is also the time family members get to brainwash each other on which party to vote for the next federal government. The swing in support to either BN or PR would be fierce and wilder than Dow Jones during sub-prime crisis.

Of course PM Najib Razak's PR team realizes the significance of this and has spent many hours on the drawing board preparing scripts to attract Chinese voters. That's why PM Najib looks more Chinese than all the past prime ministers combined. To a certain extent, he's even more Chinese than the Chinese themselves (*tongue-in-cheek*). There're thousands hanging buntings by the roadsides depicting him wearing Chinese traditional costume with his Chinese New Year message. Heck, he even tried his Chinese-friendly trick on radio station by having conversation in Mandarin with his son, although the stunt turns out rather funny (*grin*) and weird. If only he has the stamina he may just put on the lion dance costume and jump around your house begging for your votes.

Ultimately, the question will be – which party to choose and why? If your answer is the opposition because the current regime is corrupt, then get ready for a rude awakening – the so-called corrupt BN (Barisan Nasional) will win the next general election hands down. In case you're still scratching your head peeling kuaci, the voters who voted opposition back in 2008 did not do so primarily because the current regime was corrupted. If that was the main reason, how on earth could former PM Mahathir rule this land for a whopping 22 years, despite the fact that his regime opened the floodgates of corruption and racism? In actual fact, Malaysian Chinese and Malays love corruption, without them realizing it.

Like it or not, corruption has been part and parcel of Malaysian culture, thanks to Father of Corruption – Mahathir Mohamad. That was why a study done some moons ago found that graduates actually thought corruption was not such a big deal after all. Corruption has been ingrained into the mindset of Malaysian citizens so much so that it's almost legal and inseparable entity from daily lifes. Corruption was like lion-dance during Chinese New Year and "meriam-buloh" during Hari Raya festivals. While Malaysian Chinese consider corruption as a main ingredient to get business going, Malaysian Malays consider corruption as "rezeki". That's why the opposition can only go so far by drumming government massive corruptions as the reason why they should be booted from Putrajaya.

Do you really think corruption will disappear into thin air after opposition wins the next general election and form the federal government? Why do you think everybody rush to lick Lim Guan Eng and Anwar Ibrahim boots to be fielded as candidates? And do you really think Sabah's King of Frogs Jeffrey Kitingan, Wilfred Bumburing and Yong Teck Lee really want to take care of the Sabahan? Pleeeeze!!! With the exception of probably Lim Kit Siang and Nik Aziz, you can't really trust the rest of the opposition politicians. If they have no intention of enriching themselves, then President Obama is still a virgin. Ever wonder why Mahathir confidently declared he will not leave the country before the next election results are announced? That's because he was dead sure the current corrupt regime will still form the next federal government.

If the recent AES implementation criticisms by the public was any indicator, it shows that the public can't live without corruption, well, at least majority of them. Malaysian drivers like to speed and drive as if they're Formula-1 drivers and they have no plan of changing their lifestyle (or rather drive-style). And AES was a classic example of how zero corruption will affect their lifes. While they accept the reality that they would be caught breaking the laws, they want the flexibility to negotiate their way out through bribes. And you can't "kautim" (settle) by giving money to the AES camera on the spot, can you? These people would rather pay RM50 as "coffee-money" for each of 10 traffic offences than to pay full RM300 for 2 offence tickets, literally speaking.

From sales executives to company directors, 90% of their business deals involve "under-table" money, one way or another. If the only thing that opposition can promise is eliminate corruption, then a sizeable Chinese and Malays would rather vote for the corrupt regime, if that was how they secured their current businesses or "rezeki" in the first place. So, does that mean the current corrupt regime should be returned to power? Well, perhaps the answer can be found by the recent advise from Mahathir himself - choose between the lesser of two evils. Of course when Mahathir blogged his advise, he was referring to the possibility of violent demonstration should the opposition lose in the coming election, although I can't figure out till today how can one lose something that it does not possess in the first place (*grin*).

Since the opposition has not win the federal government since independence, there's no benchmark of how corrupted they would become. Thus, the perception of the general public – the BN regime is tremendously corrupt while the PR regime will be mildly corrupt, if the latter choose to corrupt after all. The choice is pretty obvious based on Mahathir's "choose between the lesser of two evils" theory. The good news for the opposition fans – the corrupt Chinese businessmen are flexible to switch sides and butter the opposition's bread should there be a change in government. The bad news – the corrupt Chinese businessmen are worry and perceive a lesser corrupt governments to mean lesser business deals for them.

And of course, there's this video:

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Or watch at: https://www.youtube.com/embed/7FTYE3rAu3k

Report: These 54 Foreign Governments (including Malaysia) Helped the CIA Torture, Detain, and ...

Posted: 06 Feb 2013 01:10 PM PST

"Globalizing Torture" also provides an annotated list of the dozens of foreign governments that played roles in the CIA's secret program in the years following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. These governments provided crucial support in facilitating the CIA and Bush administration's war on Al Qaeda by, according to the report:

[H]osting CIA prisons on their territories; detaining, interrogating, torturing, and abusing individuals; assisting in the capture and transport of detainees; permitting the use of domestic airspace and airports for secret flights transporting detainees; providing intelligence leading to the secret detention and extraordinary rendition of individuals; and interrogating individuals who were secretly being held in the custody of other governments. Foreign governments also failed to protect detainees from secret detention and extraordinary rendition on their territories and to conduct effective investigations into agencies and officials who participated in these operations.

Here are the 54 listed, in alphabetical order:

Read at: http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/02/report-54-countries-helped-cia-torture-detain-transport-suspects-after-911

Islam and Christianity:Two Faiths, One God

Posted: 06 Feb 2013 11:55 AM PST

In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
The mission of all God's Prophets and Messengers, peace be upon them, was based on an essential cornerstone and well-grounded pillar, which is their mission to guide human beings to the existence of the Creator of the universe. Therefore, all humans must believe in and worship God in order to be happy in this world and lead a righteous life. God's Messengers emphasized the fraternity of human creatures whom God created (Adam and Eve were their parents), the criterion of excellence being piety, righteousness, and virtuous deeds. The Qur'an says:

"O Humankind! We have created you from a single pair of a male and a female, and have made you into nations and tribes, so that you may know and cherish one another (not that you may despise each other). Verily, the most honored of you in the sight of Allah is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And Allah has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things)." Surah al Hujurat (The Inner Chambers), 49:13.

As a result of belief in God and the fraternity of all human beings, we must necessarily live a life of love, agreement, cooperation, and peace. All God's legislation were revealed to emphasize this. The Prophets of God at various times showed us that God's religion is always the same, that they are intimate brothers with no enmity or conflict, that the aim of their message is one, that He Who raised them is One, and that the fundamentals of their religions are one - void of any contradiction or contrast.
In order to fix this fact in our minds and hearts from one generation to the next, strenuous efforts and close collaboration must take place on the part of the global thinkers of all revealed religions. This is the doctrine that I have been striving to propagate and preach for the last thirty-five years among all sincere believers. I am motivated by this doctrine because it is the key to the welfare of human beings in their efforts to live peacefully without malice or hatred, and also because many verses in the Qur'an and the Gospel testify and prove that no revealed religions disagree in their doctrinal origins and human objectives. The Qur'an says:

"He has ordained for you the same religion that He enjoined on Noah, which we have sent by inspiration to you, and which We enjoined on Abraham and Moses and Jesus, saying, 'Establish the Faith and do not be divided in it.'" Surah al Shura (Consultation), 42:13.

This text is a clear testimony that God's religion is the same at all times and with all Prophets, and that God orders His prophets and their peoples to unite and agree and not be different and separate. In the Qur'an there are many examples of this, such as:

"We have sent you Inspiration to know Our Will, as We sent it to Noah and the Messengers after him. We sent Inspiration to Abraham, and Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob (Yakub) and the Tribes, to Jesus, Job (Ayub), Jonah (Yunus), Aaron (Harun), and Solomon, and to David We gave the Psalms." Surah al Nisaa (The Women), 4:163.

God gave the same Revelation in both substance and quality, so that all Prophets draw from one main spring or source. Moreover, it is evident that the Qur'an orders the Muslims to believe in all God's Prophets and to obey their commandments:

"Say (O Muslims): We believe in Allah and what is revealed to us and in what was revealed to Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob and the Tribes, and hat Moses and Jesus received, and what the other Prophets received from their Lord. We make no distinctions among any of them." Surah al Baqara (The Cow), 2:136.

Anyone who reads the Qur'an will see that its long Surahs or chapters ennoble and dignify Jesus and his mother, the Virgin Mary. The Qur'an also mentions and clarifies Jesus Christ's miracles and it tells of miracles not found in the Gospel itself, such as creating birds of clay into which he breathed and gave life with God's assistance. Another miracle of Jesus is speaking to people from the cradle.
In the Qur'an there are two other long Surahs pertaining to Christ. The first is Mary and the second is The Imran Family, the family of Jesus Christ. In these two Surahs we are told of Mary's giving birth to Jesus after her angelic conception through the Holy Spirit:

"Behold! The angels said, O Mary! Allah has chosen you and made you pure, and has preferred you above (all) the women of creation. O Mary! Allah gives you glad tidings of a Word from Him. His name will be the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary. He will speak to mankind in his cradle and in the prime of manhood, and he is of the righteous." The Family of 'Imran, 3:42 and 45-46.

[Note: 'Imran is the name of the father of Moses and of the maternal grandfather of Mary, both of the same line.] The Qur'an addresses the Muslims clearly indicating Jesus Christ's high rank with God:

"The Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, was a Messenger of Allah, and His Word which He bestowed on Mary, and a spirit proceeding from Him." Surah al Nisaa (The Women), 4:171.

These ideas, or more precisely, this belief that Muslims are ordered to embrace about Jesus Christ and Christianity, made their hearts open to receive all of the Christ's teachings and facilitated convergence and cooperation between Muslims and Christians, under the good care of the Qur'an and the Messenger of Islam and all the believers. The Qur'an shows very clearly that Christians are the closest to Muslims on account of the good morals and virtues that they share with them. It says:

"You will find that the nearest among men in affection for the believers are those who say, Verily! We are Christians, because there are among them men devoted; to learning and men who have renounced the world and because they are not given to arrogance. When they listen to what has been revealed to the messenger; you see their eyes overflow with tears for they recognize the truth. They pray, Our Lord, we believe. Inscribe us as among the witnesses. Allah has rewarded them for their prayer with Gardens underneath which rivers flow, wherein they abide forever. This is the reward of the good." Surah al Ma'ida (The Banquet Table), 5:82-83 & 85.

As a result of this positive attitude of Islam toward Christianity and the Gospel, many ancient Christians were stimulated to express their belief and recognition of Muhammad and his religion. Some of them even granted the Muslims moral and financial aid to solidify and propagate Islam, such as the Emperor of Ethiopia (Abyssinia) in the 7th century A.C., who asked the oppressed Muslims who migrated to his country to recite some verses from the Qur'an concerning Christ and his faith. He, as well as his monks, wept and declared their recognition that Muhammad was a Prophet. He said, "The teachings of Christ and Muhammad flow out from one source." That emperor did not give up Christianity when he said this, for Islam does not require Christians to ignore the commandments and teachings of Jesus Christ. The Qur'an addresses Christians as follows:

"Let the people of the Gospel judge by what Allah has revealed therein." Surah al Mai'da (The Banquet Table), 5:47.
"And: We bestowed on him (Jesus) the Gospel wherein is guidance and light." Surah al Ma'ida (The Banquet Table), 5:46.

Prophet Muhammad has said,

"I am the closest of all people to Jesus, son of Mary." He also said, "Prophets are brethren from one father, from different mothers, but with one religion." He further said,"You Muslims shall conquer Egypt. When this happens, be kind to its Christian people."

The fourth Caliph, 'Ali, and the great leaders of Islam used to say to their contemporary Christians,

"We do not prevent you from believing in Christianity; indeed we beseech you to obey it."

Such examples are countless. Is it not the utmost degree of solidarity, love, affection, and collaboration when Muhammad made his private mosque a place for worship for his Christian guests in Medina?
One should not be surprised to learn that, when Damascus was the capital of their great Islamic nation, the Muslims made of their great Omayyad Mosque a joint temple of worship for Muslims and Christians who entered it through one gate. They divided the mosque into two parts and used to say their prayers in each others' presence.
All this was the inevitable outcome of understanding the great closeness and respect between these two great revealed religions in ancient times. They agreed in purpose and goals and had no conflict in their essence and origin. It is well-known, in this respect, that 'Umar, the second caliph, when in Jerusalem, refused to say his prayers in the Holy Sepulcher out of concern that the Muslims might turn that church, or part of it, into an Islamic mosque. Thus, he observed its sanctity. Muhammad commanded Muslims to be kind to Jews and Christians, the followers of the two other revealed religions. He said,

"Whoever causes mischief to a Christian or a Jew shall be my enemy on doomsday and he shall pay for it." He also said: "Be good to Coptic Christians."

When the son of the Muslim governor of Egypt beat a Christian on his head after a quarrel, the latter went over to 'Umar in Medina asking for justice. 'Umar summoned the governor and his son and after hearing their cases, he gave the Christian a whip to beat his opponent in the presence of the great men of state. After the Christian took revenge for himself from the son of the governor of Egypt, 'Umar asked the Christian to beat the Governor himself, 'Amr. "I have received justice," the Christians said. 'Amr then asked: Why beat me oh Prince of the Faithful? 'Umar replied: It was because of your position as a governor what caused your son to commit the wrong." 'Umar then said his famous words: "Why do you enslave people, yet their mothers delivered them free?"
Islam has gone further than this in protecting other revealed religions. It has implanted emotional love. We recall that the Muslims grieved when the Persian idolaters defeated the Byzantine Christians. Gabriel descended, consoled the Muslims, and brought good tidings that the Christians would be victorious in less than nine years. This was forecast with divine certainty in the Qur'anic Surah, Rum.

"Alif. Lam. Mim. Defeated has been the Roman Empire in the lands close-by; yet it is they who, notwithstanding their defeat, shall be victorious within a few years. With Allah rests all power of decision in the past and in the future. And on that day the believers shall rejoice in Allah's help. He helps whomever He wills, since He alone is almighty, a dispenser of grace." Surah al Rum (The Roman-Byzantine Empire), 30:1-5.

The prophecy came true and the Muslims were delighted. Islam, by its teachings and principles, has been able to turn millions of non-believers into believers in God, in Jesus Christ, and in all prophets and revealed testaments. The Qur'an has made of Muslims and Christians affectionate members of one family who live in happiness and cooperation. Why don't we see this again in our time among ourselves, especially when atheism has shrouded most parts of the world with its dark shadows and injustice and is seeking to swallow the remainder.
It is high time we called aloud for a meeting between Muslim and Christian religious leaders and thinkers to promote affinity between the souls of all followers of revealed religions, and spiritual familiarity, and the familial unity of all humankind by adopting this maxim: Cooperation in common points and tolerance concerning trifles of difference.
In this world of trouble and disorder there is no need for separation or discord. Why don't we meet and come to a mutual understanding since both of our religions require kindness, charity, piety, and virtue. Christianity says, "Love God your Lord with all your heart and mind and love your fellow man as you love yourself!" Muhammad says, "None of you will be a true believer unless he loves for his fellow humans what he loves for himself." Jesus says, "The merciful will be in Paradise by virtue of their mercy."

Muhammad says, "The Merciful Allah will be compassionate to those who show mercy. Be merciful to those on earth in order to receive mercy from Him in heaven." Jesus says,"Give to whoever begs from you and do not turn away whoever wants to borrow from you." Muhammad says, "All creatures are Allah's dependents. The most favored to Him is he who is most beneficial to them."

The Tangled Mess of 68 Ministers and Deputies

Posted: 05 Feb 2013 12:04 PM PST

The more the messier. Researchers have found that performance of national governments declines as Cabinets grow larger. Parkinson of Parkinson's Law fame noted that it is critical for Cabinets to have less than 21 ministers if decision-making is to be efficient.

Our government shamelessly defies the 'law' with a whopping 30 ministers and 38 deputies. We ordinary citizens pay the price for its 'disobedience'. A recent example is the AES (Automated Enforcement System) fiasco. The Transport Ministry installed cameras to catch speedsters on the road. Quite incredibly, though, it had obviously not consulted the Home Ministry, because the traffic cops said they would continue to run their own speed-trap operations, including at locations near the AES cameras. An even bigger farce broke out when the Attorney-General ended up freezing AES summons trials due to questions on its legality. When government ministers and agencies collide, more taxpayers' funds would have to be wasted to sort out the disarray.

How can our government not turn into a circus of chaos when the Prime Minister alone juggles "more than 28 Cabinet committees"? There are so many Cabinet committees that even Deputy Education Minister Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong had to admit that he can't count them all. And the Cabinet mess is such that even a simple matter like traffic enforcement gets jammed.

There is hope for us if the government slims down. Read Cabinet and Parliamentary Rebalancing (Part 2): The tangled mass of 68 Ministers and Deputies on how our bloated Cabinet can be trimmed to a svelte 16 ministries and 18 ministers, in order to facilitate communication and cross-disciplinary cooperation for the benefit of Malaysians.

Malaysia’s GPS for General Election-13

Posted: 05 Feb 2013 11:07 AM PST

Come Malaysia's general election No 13, how lucky will we be to have the entire nation bold enough to experiment with radical changes, a mega-trend, a paradigm shift, and the will to even replace the blue ocean in which sharks and piranhas battle against each other in a seemingly calm sea of change?

So – are Malaysians ready with a global positioning system that will leave behind that ancient regime calloused with the will to use religion, ethnicity, and race to cling on to power fast waning? As the Malaysian election approaches, people are talking about 'the new politics', 'sustainable capitalism', 'new economic model', 'radical multiculturalism', 'politics of moderation'.

What are these? Are they merely another set of rhetoric, or are they signifiers to a new world of Malaysian political-economic realism? After fifty years of a Rostowian and Friedmanian developmentalist agenda – that we adopt and have a difficult time understanding, and yet we imitate – we are faced with a brand new old question: where do we go from here?

The most enduring model of national development is one that returns power to the people; development of the people, by the people, for the people, that is participatory, transformative, inclusive of the alienated, marginalised, powerless, and peoples of diverse cultures, prioritises needs over greed and wants; one that will help develop the citizens into thinking, feeling, and visioning beings – as happy citizens of a just republic.
Maybe we need a radically new architecture of the Malaysian mind, of deconstructionism of politics entirely, of de-schooling society, demilitarisation of youth, diversification of public administration, redefinition of needs versus wants, destruction of the old order, rewriting of history, re-imagining of economics, reconstructing social philosophy, reinterpreting religion, etc.

What we have been seeing is a top-down developmental agenda sugar-coated with rhetoric of progress that is meaningless essentially, as development projects are created to satisfy the insatiable greed of robber barons who come in different colors and from different ethnic groups. That's what we have as a gift of Independence. We are given bread and circuses to make us happy.

Damaged on the inside

The problem with Malaysia is that the regime has been obsessed with the one-dimensionality of the ideology of development, out of the lack of critical sensibility and other perspectives in development, who profit from the developmental agenda, who has adopted the model of unsustainable capitalism throughout the decades.
A regime that designs an educational system based on a narrow understanding of the philosophies of education and the idea of schooling as social reproduction, that lets culture-industry dominate and decimate the cultures of the indigenous people, that allows hypocrisy to reign the implementation of the rule of law, that silences dissenting views that speak for the poor and the marginalised, that pay lip service to the issue of 'brain drain', and many more. We have a system damaged on the inside.

While in many advanced countries politics is public service and the rich get into politics to help the poor, in Malaysia the poor get into politics to get rich and make the poor poorer, becoming a public disservice. This is the culture of pathetic politics.

Meet Abdul Rahman Kasim, the man behind the Muslim-Christian ‘cake’ diplomacy

Posted: 04 Feb 2013 12:23 PM PST

You may have read about Tok Guru Nik Aziz handing over a cake to Bishop Sebastian Francis during their recent Penang meeting, which was held at 6.30pm. Nik Aziz was only told by his aides at 4.00pm that day that the meeting had been confirmed. So where did they find a mouth-watering cake at such short notice with words inscribed at such short notice.

Enter Abdul Rahman Kasim, the Mr Fix-it with a booming voice and an equally hearty laugh, who has been instrumental in setting up appointments for talks and dialogues between Pas and churches in the northern region.

After all, what do you give a Bishop as a momento during such a meeting to help sweeten ties? It was Abdul Rahman who had ordered the cakes even before the meeting – and an earlier one for a previous meeting between Mujahid Yusof Rawa with the bishop – well before the meetings at taken place. Indeed, it was Abdul Rahman who sent out the initial feelers to set up the meeting between Tok Guru and Bishop Sebastian.

Tok Guru presents Bishop Sebastian with a mouth-watering cake: Where did the cake come from?

The Langkawi-born Rahman is the Tasik Gelugor Pas information chief and the point-man in sending out feelers to Catholic churches in the northern region. He is a familiar face whenever the Pas head of inter-religious dialogue, Mujahid Yusof Rawa or Dzulkefly Ahmad, conducts these dialogue sessions with parishioners of churches.

Rahman, 56, worked for a decade at the Royal Malaysian Air Force base in Butterworth before turning to business as a chicken seller in a local market – an honest living if there was one – for the past two decades.

Today, he is trying to sell the idea of Muslims and Christians talking to one another. "I feel compelled to do so, because during my parents' generation we had much better ties. I am experienced that growing up. But today, we are more polarised and I am doing my part to promote closer ties among people of different faiths."

Abdul Rahman (far left) at the recent Tok Guru-Bishop Sebastian meeting

But why is he focusing on the churches? Abdul Rahman is clear about the reason: "We have so much in common especially a shared Abrahamic tradition; so it is a good place to start."

A Psychotic-Islamic preacher?

Posted: 04 Feb 2013 03:06 AM PST

-----------------------------------------------------------------

EXCERPT:

Public anger has gripped Saudi Arabia after a prominent preacher who raped and beat to death his 5-year-old daughter was sentenced to a few months in jail and a $50,000 fine – known as 'blood money' – to compensate the victim's relatives.

According to Islamic law, the 'blood money' can be paid in lieu of the death penalty. The preacher's fine was reportedly half the usual amount because the victim was a girl.

Saudi preacher Fayhan Ghamdi, a frequent guest on Muslim TV networks, confessed to using cables and a cane to inflict the injuries, AFP reported, quoting activists from the group 'Women to Drive.'
Ghamdi reportedly doubted that his daughter, Lama Ghamdi, was a virgin, and forced her to undergo a medical inspection.

In December 2011, Lama was admitted to hospital with multiple injuries, including a crushed skull, broken ribs and left arm, and extensive bruising and burns, according to the activist group. Hospital worker Randa Kaleeb said that the girl's back was broken, and that she had been raped "everywhere."

READ MORE HERE

Private to sponsor Psy to Penang

Posted: 03 Feb 2013 01:05 PM PST

"Even the preparations and food for the celebration are sponsored by several local companies," Oh told The Malaysian Insider.

"We have prepared food for 50,000 people but we expect more will turn up to watch Psy's performance," he said.

The K-pop star whose real name is Park Jae-Sang, is set to perform on February 11 at the Han Chiang school grounds, significant for being the grounds that launched the DAP to overwhelming victory in Election 2008.

Psy was reported by local entertainment news portal Redcarpet to have asked a Malaysian concert promoter for US$750,000 (RM2.3 million) for a possible appearance in Kuala Lumpur last year.

"DAP and Pakatan Rakyat want to say and spin that BN spent government's money worth RM2.3 million to RM3 million on Psy," a Penang BN official told The Malaysian Insider.

"This is factually incorrect as Psy's visit as a guest of the Penang CNY Open House event was arranged and sponsored by Mega Ultimate, an event organising firm. No government or taxpayers funds are involved."

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Psy's presence could only raise the profile of Penang and Malaysia, which would help boost tourism.

But look here:

BN invited Psy

Posted: 03 Feb 2013 11:30 AM PST

How many homes in Sabah & Sarawak could be lighted with this amount of money? How many Malaysians could get free education if these money were put to good use? Is the priority of our current government right?

Malaysia: Stop Forced Returns to China

Posted: 03 Feb 2013 11:23 AM PST

Malaysia's secret forced return to China of six Uighurs with pending asylum claims on December 31, 2012, was a grave violation of international law, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to the Malaysian government today.

An upcoming February 5 visit to Malaysia by Jia Qinglin, a senior member of the Chinese Communist Party Politburo Standing Committee, will provide Malaysian authorities with an opportunity to publicly state that they will uphold legal protections for refugees.

"While Malaysians were celebrating the New Year, their government was forcibly returning Uighur asylum seekers to a dangerously uncertain fate in China." said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director. "The government has an obligation to explain how this happened, China's role, and the steps being taken to ensure it doesn't happen again."

Credible sources told Human Rights Watch that the six Uighur men returned to China on December 31 had been detained earlier in 2012 allegedly for attempting to leave Malaysia on false passports. While in detention, they were registered with the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and were permitted to proceed with refugee status determination (RSD) interviews. Although all six had asylum claims being reviewed, Malaysian police clandestinely transferred the men in late December into the custody of Chinese authorities, who escorted them from Malaysia to China on a chartered flight.

Read the letter to the Malaysian government at: http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/02/01/letter-malaysian-prime-minister-concerning-forced-return-uighurs

Kredit: www.malaysia-today.net

Jumaat, 8 Februari 2013

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

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