Dec 4, 2009

BN or PR: Seats to watch in 13th General Election

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE:
THE POSSIBLE SWINGS OF PAKATAN RAKYAT SEATS

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE:
THE POSSIBLE SWINGS OF BARISAN NASIONAL SEATS

Statistics shows that Barisan Nasional owns comfortable rural parts mostly in Sabah, Sarawak and Pahang. Pakatan Rakyat definitely needs to work hard if they dream to grab Putrajaya from Barisan Nasional. In these crucial moments of nation's politics, its still too early to predict any political possiblity.

Don't forget that political awakening has come to Sabah, Sarawak, and rural areas in Peninsula Malaysia. The situations can't be predicted by a marginal swing in seats. In fact, there is much time to change voters mind. Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat both are pushing hard in order to impress the voters.

Barisan Nasional has to represent and emphasis on the interests of the rakyat, and not their own selfish agendas that destroying the nation.
Although holding the Putrajaya in the meantime, they are shamelessly more functioning like opposite which always criticise the opposition's action instead of bring the changes of policies and systems to the rakyat.


While Pakatan Rakyat is more functioning like federal government, admit their mistakes and keen to change their attitude. Pakatan Rakyat never denies the wrongdoings that they have done. They believe that the critics by Barisan Nasional assist it to be more matured in governing 4 states. People are witnessing the opposite attitude in Barisan Nasional for more than half century, they are tired of the constant reject of their voices and wishes.


Lastly, the politics of Malaysia are changing towards a more liberal era. However Barisan Nasional refuses to admit that, they still moving backward with their racial politics. Barisan Nasional’s hope to stay in power will only happen if they change themselves to be more relevant. The same thing to Pakatan Rakyat if wish to come to power they need to work hard in delivering the ‘changes’ that rakyat hoping for.

Dec 3, 2009

Kursus Biro Tatanegara: Medan untuk meluaskan fahaman berunsur perkauman


Segelintir peserta yang pernah menghadiri kursus Biro Tatanegara (BTN) dengan beraninya menyifatkan bahawa kursus ini hanya membawa kepada perpecahan kaum di negara ini. Malah kursus ini juga bermotifkan politik pihak tertentu untuk kekal berkuasa dengan menanamkan sifat racist/perkauman di kalangan peserta.

Kerajaan tetap dengan pendirian mereka untuk meneruskan program ini, meskipun ramai daripada bekas peserta kursus ini telah tampil menyuarakan keadaan kursus tersebut. Timbul laporan-laporan daripada peserta kursus terutamanya daripada bukan Melayu bahawa kursus Biro Tatanegara menyebarkan ideologi yang bersifat perkauman, sehinggakan mengundang kebencian ke tahap yang kritikal terhadap kaum-kaum minoriti di negara ini.

Kerajaan bersetuju untuk merombak sukatan program kursus in selepas desakon oleh pihak pembangkang. Ini secara tidak langsungnya bermakna kerajaan telah menyalahgunakan kursus ini untuk kepentingan politik mereka, dan mereka sendiri mengakuinya apabila bercadang untuk merombak sukatan kursus Biro Tatanegara tersebut.

Dec 2, 2009

Hollow freedom of religion in Malaysia

Malaysia is not only for Muslims

Malaysia has a population of just over 27 million. According to the Population and Housing Census figures, approximately 60.4% of the population practiced Islam, 19.2% Buddhism, 9.1% Christianity, 6.3% Hinduism, and 2.6% traditional Chinese religions. The remaining was accounted for by other faiths, including Animism, Folk religion, Sikhism and other faiths while 1.1% either reported as having no religion or did not provide any information. However, these figures may be misleading as professing the religion of Islam is a requirement for being a Malay in the sense of the Malaysian Constitution.

MALAYSIA'S RELIGIOSITY

Freedom of religion in Malaysia is a controversial issue. Islam is the official state religion and the Constitution of Malaysia provides for limited freedom of religion, notably placing control upon the 'propagation' of religion other than Islam to Muslims, a fundamental part of a number of other religions. However, questions including whether Malaysia is an Islamic state or secular state remain unresolved. It’s easy to convert to Islam but it is so difficult to return to non-Islam religions. Is this the freedom of religion means in Malaysia?


Force in religious believes by the authorities, is it the way to spread Islam?

Muslims who wish to convert from Islam face severe obstacles. For Muslims, particularly ethnic Malays, the right to leave the Islamic faith and adhere to another religion is a controversial question. The legal process of conversion is also unclear, in practice it is very difficult for Muslims to change their religion legally. It’s understood many Malays change their religion secretly.

The issue of Muslim apostasy is very sensitive. In 1998 after a controversial incident of attempted conversion, the Government stated that apostates would not face government punishment so long as they did not defame Islam after their conversion. However, whether the very act of conversion was an "insult to Islam" was not clarified at the time.

But I’m very sure that religious freedom is guaranteed by law, but the Muslim Malay government trying to increase the role of Islam in the country by increasing their population at the same time.


The conversion cases:


T Saravanan/R Subashini


In 2006, T. Saravanan, a Muslim convert, sought to dissolve his marriage with his non-Muslim wife via the Syariah Court. His wife, R. Subashini, applied to Kuala Lumpur High Court for an injunction against her husband seeking divorce in the Syariah Court. The High Court dismissed her application. This was affirmed in the Court of Appeal, where the court also ordered Subashini to take her case to the Syariah Court. As of September, 2007, their case is pending in the Federal Court after an appeal by Subashini. Subashini is also seeking to stop or declare void the conversion of their children.


Revathi Masoosai

Revathi, an ethnic Indian woman, has been held in a rehabilitation center run by Islamic authorities since January 2007 because she wants the State to acknowledge she is a Hindu and not a Muslim. Revathi was born to Indian parents who had converted to Islam before her birth. She claims she was raised by her grandmother as a Hindu. She and Suresh were married according to Hindu rites in March 2004. Revathi was advised by the Malacca Islamic Religious Department to make an application at the Malacca Syariah High Court to confirm her status as a Hindu. She did as she was told.

However, the Syariah Court ordered her detained in a rehabilitation centre in Ulu Yam, Selangor under Melaka’s Syariah criminal laws for 100 days. This detention was extended in Revathi’s absence for a further 80 days supposedly because she had not “repented”. In the meanwhile, Revathi’s Muslim mother obtained a Syariah Court order granting her custody of Revathi and Suresh’s 15 month old baby. That order was enforced on Suresh’s Hindu family with the assistance of the police. The family is now torn apart - with the mother in detention, the child with the grandparents and the father in limbo without his family.


Lina Joy


In fact, Many Muslims who have converted to Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and other religions lead "double lives", hiding their new faith from friends and family. The Lina Joy case challenged this view of the situation by taking the problem of apostasy to the Federal Court in 2007. Lina Joy lost the case and was denied conversion to Christianity. This cleared the situation about the overlapping areas of jurisdiction between the Islamic and the secular courts in Malaysia. Also it is now clear that renouncing Islam is very difficult although not impossible in Malaysia.


Wong Ah Kiu


Legally known as Nyonya binti Tahir, was a Malaysian convert from Islam to Buddhism.Of mixed Chinese and ethnic Malay descent, she was taken in by her grandmother, a Malay Muslim married to a Chinese of Hainan origin who had converted to Islam; however, she was later adopted by a Chinese family and raised as a Buddhist. Her husband died in 1989 at the age of 87; knowing that she would be unable to be buried next to him as a Muslim, she filed two further applications for recognition of her change of religion in 1991 and 1998; these too were rejected. She left behind a written declaration that she was a Buddhist and wanted to be given a Buddhist rather than an Islamic funeral.


Maniam Moorthy (A member of the first group of Malaysians to successfully climb Mount Everest)


A Malaysian Indian born and raised Hindu, a controversy about his religion arose after his death; he was buried as a Muslim against the wishes of his wife in accordance with a Syariah Court ruling that he had converted to Islam without the knowledge of his family. Despite his conversion to Islam, Moorthy remained uncircumcised, still took part in Hindu festivals, ate pork, and drank alcohol; he appeared on television on 31 October 2005, being interviewed about his celebration of Deepavali. On 11 November 2005, he fell from his wheelchair, injuring his head and entering into a coma from which he would never recover.


Indrani Gandhi’s case:


Indra gandhi’s three young children were forcefully converted to Islam by her estranged husband. Indira's marriage is now is a limbo after her husband, K Patmanathan, 40, converted without her knowledge on March 11. She claimed that her husband, who has since assumed the name Mohd Ridzuan Abdullah, had also converted their three children - aged one to 12 - on April 12 without their presence and using only their birth certificates. Now Indra Gandhi fearing that she could not reconvert her children to Hindu. Read here- Anguished mom knocks on PM's door and here- Conversion row: Hindu Sangam turns to new cabinet.


And the latest case:


S Banggarma fighting to establish that she is a Hindu has denied a claim by the Social Welfare Department that she was converted to Islam by her father when she was one year old in 1983. Read here- 'Welfare home conversion': Lawyer wants proof

Nov 29, 2009

UMNO is too weak to face 85 years old Chin Peng...

CHIN PENG WAS AWARDED FOR HIS COURAGE AND EFFORT AGAINST THE JAPANESE


UMNO IS WEAK AND ARROGANT

UMNO is too weak to face 85 years old Chin Peng, it fears the true history of Malaya will be revealed! Since 2000, Chin Peng applied to be permitted back into Malaysia, and a complex legal issue has arisen out of this. Why 85 years old Chin Peng not allowed to return to Malaysia and the government refuse to accept Chin Peng's apology? The fact is his return is not oppose by victims of attacks committed by Communist Malays Party but only by UMNO itself. Its nothing wrong to regard Chin Peng one of the Malayan Nationalist who fought against Japanese and British although there were damages done by the Communist.

His return said to be opposed by victims of attacks committed by the Communist Party of Malaya, those who served in the armed forces during the Emergency, and members of the public by the Malaysian government. There has been a resurgence of accounts of the alleged atrocities the Communist Party of Malaya committed in newspapers by those who are against his return to Malaysia (such as the Ex-Serviceman's Association of Malaysia). Chin Peng has lived in exile in southern Thailand and has also giving lectures in the National University of Singapore. The current Malaysian Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak might reconsider Chin Peng's position if he is not fearing of Chin Peng's return.

CHIN PENG LED COMMUNIST PARTY OF MALAYA TO FIGHT AGAINST JAPANESE


CHIN PENG IS A MALAYSIAN

In June 2008, Chin Peng again lost his bid to return to Malaysia when the Court of Appeal upheld an earlier ruling that compel him to show identification papers to prove his citizenship. Chin Peng maintained that his birth certificate was seized by the police during a raid in 1948. His counsel, Raja Aziz Addruse, had submitted before the Court of Appeal that it was wrong for the Malaysia government to compel him to produce the documents because he was entitled to enter and live in Malaysia by virtue of the agreement.

When Chin Peng's parents are already obviously dead, old as they must have been, this is the time for the other relatives of Chin Peng, mainly, his own brothers and sisters who are still alive, and also, his own children, to assist him now, and probably have some DNA testings done so as to ascertain the reality of the birth and existence of such a person named Tan Boon Hua, also, known as Chin Peng, to have been born in Sitiawan, Perak some 85 years ago.

It is not impossible for the records of Chin Peng's birth to have been lost by the authorities concerned - in this relevant time. However, since the keeping of such records is not within the control of Chin Peng, he ought not to be blamed when the authorities cannot trace their records of his birth which might have been kept some 85 years ago. What about the records of his parents, and also, those of their deaths (certificates)? If it had been recorded that his parents had been citizens, then "BY OPERATION OF LAW", Chin Peng ought to be a citizen as well.


DO FULFILL CHIN PENG'S LAST REQUEST TO RETURN


I think he is not a threat to UMNO, and I'm really sure that his age not allow him to re-emerge as a fighter. Perhaps UMNO is making his as a hero by stopping his return! It is indeed a great honor to our country that Chin Peng, after all his sojourns, have decided to come back home to Malaysia to breathe his last at 85. It hurts him a lot when denied to return to his homeland. Just think of our feelings if we are in his situation. Definitely, it will be good for us to fulfill his last request.

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