William Leong is the Treasurer of PKR (Parti Keadilan Rakyat) and younger brother of ex minister, Paul Leong. Practising in law for 20 odd years before going into politics...
All Malaysians are duty bound to help each other to achieve a better life in our Country. With the performance of the UMNO/BN for the last 52 years, especially the last 28 years, the country has been raped by politicians and their cronies. You know how arrogant they are? Let us have look:
1. They are extending the APs to 2015. They are giving themselves free money. This is daylight robbery. We are talking big bucks, billions.
2. The taxes and duties on cars continue to be high to protect Proton but we the public pay through our nose. If the PR government comes into power we can expect prices to drop by at least 50% for imported cars. Why are we paying these cronies our hard earned money so that they can drive around in their new and latest Ferraris, BMWs etc.
3. Have you noticed that they appoint themselves to high paying jobs and positions where they can also earn additional side income? Again these side income run into billions.
4. The Accountant General reported that RM 28B was wasted by you know who and for who. These figures probably do not involve the highly secretive arms contracts which run into billions.
5. Look at the way they snatched the Perak State government.
6. Look at the way they treated Teoh Beng Hock.
7. Look at the way they are trying to get Anwar.
8. Look at the Lingam's Royal Commission.
9. Look at the PKFZ delaying tactics, get one report after another, and then another and if necessary another and then only the small fish get caught and hauled to Court.
What a way to fool us? Either they are stupid or we are stupid. The abuse and cheating has been going on for far too long. Only you and I and together with all Malaysians who care can stop them. Between now and the next General Elections we have to campaign now as if the GE is just 6 months from now. Not only do we campaign, we must get our friends to get others and others to do the same. Let us not be fooled again and again.
Please start now, if 10 of us can each get 10 we will have 100 and if each of the hundred gets 10 we will have 1000. If we keep going, we will reach more than 10M active Malaysians to force a change. This is a legacy we must give our children/grandchildren, they deserve better. The alternative is too horrendous to look at.
Look at Indonesia, Japan, S. Korea and Taiwan, all their old and corrupt parties have been replaced, Malaysia is next.
What Independence? On this August 31st, we shall celebrate the 52nd anniversary of the British leaving our country. I did not say we are celebrating the 52nd anniversary of our independence. This is because our people have not enjoyed real liberty, democracy or justice. Without liberty,democracy or justice there is no independence. . In these 52 years the oppressive rule of a foreign colonial master has been replaced by the oppressive rule of a local master. They rule with an iron fist.
They use the same instruments of oppression as the British did. They use the ISA, the Sedition Act, the Printing Press & Publications Act and detention without trial. The freedom of assembly, the freedom of expression and the freedom to live a life of dignity free from fear and oppression are illusions. In these 52 years the yoke of a foreign colonial master has been replaced by the yoke of a local master. They use the same policy of “divide and rule”. They survive by feeding off racialism. They survive by fostering divisiveness. They survive by preaching religious intolerance.
What Teoh Beng Hock died for Malaysians will not know real independence, will not be free and will not enjoy democracy unless this oppressive regime is thrown out. They must be thrown out just like Teoh Beng Hock was thrown out from the 14th floor of the MACC office. We must not forget Teoh Beng Hock. We must not forget what he stood for. More importantly, we must not forget what he died for. He lived to help Malaysians in the struggle against corruption and oppression. He died so that our struggle can live. He died fighting for justice.
What Justice? Without justice we cannot say we have liberty or democracy or equal rights. We cannot say we have liberty or freedom when Tamil schools have no tables and chairs. When in Sabah and Sarawak , schools have no electricity. A child that is illiterate is not free. We cannot say we have democracy or equal rights for women, when a Chinese girl with 9A1s cannot enter a university.. A girl without a job has no rights. We cannot say we have freedom of choice when a man cannot feed his family.
A starving man has no choice. Liberty , democracy and freedom are meaningless words when there is no justice. Justice is political liberty. Justice is economic independence. Justice is equality. There is no political liberty when you vote out of fear. There is no economic independence when you give your support out of fear your son’s scholarship will be withdrawn or your license will be withdrawn.
There is no freedom of choice when you elect a party out of fear for your contract or your business. This is what has been happening in these 52 years and this will continue if we do not act. There will be many more Teoh Beng Hocks and many more Port Klang Free Zones if we do not stop them.
What One Malaysia? Najib says he wants One Malaysia.
Teoh Beng Hock’s death has shocked us back to reality.
We cannot just listen to rhetoric. We must look at the deeds.
When we look, we see what has been done is a far cry from what has been said. The Perak government has been stolen from its people.
Najib has now declared his intention to grab the Selangor government.
The MACC is a tool. It is used to de-stabilize the Pakatan Rakyat government. Teoh Beng Hock was interrogated throughout the night.
He was grilled for buying RM2,400 worth of Malaysian flags.
No one has been grilled when PKFZ loss RM12.6 billion.
The MACC officers are raiding the Pakatan Exco members’office so often they are becoming fixtures. Cars and cows and Malaysian flags have become a fixation of the MACC.
MACC has not shown the same enthusiasm when it comes to BN assemblymen who used up their annual allocation of RM500,000 in 2 months before the general elections.
The MACC has also not shown any interest in the trips by the former chief minister and his family to study the river system in Disney Land.
There is no investigation into how the former chief minister can afford to purchase a multi-million ringgit mansion that is beyond the means of a chief minister’s salary. Barisan Nasional machinery is now on the move.
Books attacking Anwar Ibrahim and Khalid Ibrahim are being distributed.
The authors of these books are sowing the seeds of hatred and contempt.
They desecrate the Hindu’s sacred cow in a protest filled with bigotry.
They protest against a Hindu temple built 150 years ago when the area was a plantation that today, just like its devotees, the estate workers, had been left behind by development.
They have forgotten Muslims were invited to practice their religion amongst the people of Yathrib. They are beating the drums of race and religion and the tone is becoming harsher with each beat.
The people must now decide.
There cannot be any fence sitters.
There is no middle ground.
When Teoh Beng Hock was thrown out, the people of Malaysia was thrown together with him into the sea of political troubles.
Whether Malaysia will sink or swim is now up to the people.
The people must decide once and for all what is right and what is wrong. There cannot be a neutral ground.
Dante said: “The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of moral crisis.”
Today in Malaysia there is no place for neutrality. Malaysians must make their choice now. If we want to know what is evil and what is right, we must use our moral compass. It is only when we know the direction where justice lies can we know where we must stand. Do we want to choose liberty and justice which are always right or do we want to choose corruption, hatred, arrogance and oppression which are always wrong?
The choice is clear.
Every Malaysian must make his stand.
When you stand for liberty we stand with you.
I want to tell you that when you stand for liberty, we will stand with you.
When you defend democracy, we will be your shield.
When you fight for justice, we will be your sword.
We will always be with you.
They assaulted *Anwar Ibrahim.
*They threw him in jail for 6 long years.
They call him a traitor and worse. But Anwar will always be here to fight for you.
They hounded and harassed *Lim Kit Siang. *They detained him in Kamunting.. But Lim Kit Siang will always be here to stand by you.
They attacked *Tok Guru Nik Aziz *and tried to humiliate him. But Tok Guru Nik Aziz will always be here to protect you.
We have been tested. They have thrown everything they have at us but we are still standing and we are still here.
We were here in November 2007 when a sea of yellow marched for a free and fair election. This was *BERSIH*. We were here in December when thousands in orange marched for equality. This was *Makal Sakthi*.This was the ripple that started the tsunami. Barisan Nasional was swept out of 5 states. Since then Barisan Nasional has become more extreme in their policies. They have become more brutal with the people. When we Hope So on 1st August, the lovers of justice and liberty marched again. Again Barisan Nasional responded with violence and brutality. 638 people including women and children were arrested. Despite the police shutting down the city, despite the many road blocks and barricades, despite the arrest of those wearing black, the number who succeeded in gathering far exceeded my expectations.
But the size of the gathering cannot be bigger than my hope for Malaysia . My hope is for every one that braved the tear gas and water cannons there will be many thousands more.
We want hundreds of thousands to march with us.
We will march from under the shadow of fear into the light of justice.
My hope is that the flame burning in each who gathered that day will kindle the hearts and minds of many thousands more.
Malaysians will find the courage to standup for principles and convictions.
We must stand up for what is right.
This is my hope and this is the hope of all Malaysians.
Truth, love and justice will prevail over the forces of hate and oppression. This will only happen when the silent majority refuses to remain silent anymore. This will only happen when the voice of the majority is finally heard. We must be confident that oppression and corruption cannot endure. We must take comfort that truth and justice will always prevail. But this can only be achieved if we fight for it.
We must fight today for a better tomorrow. Looking Back in the Future Do not let our children look back and say that these are dark days. Let them say that these are great days. These are the most glorious days that our country ever had. These days will be remembered as the days when we were called, we answered. We stood up. We stood together shoulder to shoulder irrespective of race or religion. We fought and we prevailed. Each of us played our part according to our strengths.
Our children and their children will look back on these days and celebrate it as the days we became *ONE NATION*.
These days will be etched in our Nation’s history as the days we won over injustice and oppression.
These will be the days we celebrate *THE TRUE MERDEKA.*
Thank you, Xie xie , vanakam..
Friday, December 25, 2009
Saturday, December 5, 2009
‘BTN taught me the Chinese are the Jews of Asia’
By Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 27 — I am one of the privileged few to have attended a local public university and learned the meaning of hate, thanks to the ever popular Biro Tata Negara.
All undergraduates were forced to attend this programme or else they would not be eligible for graduation.
The BTN under the Prime Minister’s Department brought in “intellectual” speakers who were supposed to enlighten the students about the meaning of being a Malaysian but instead it felt more like a communist propaganda camp brainwashing those attending about the importance of “Ketuanan Melayu”.
The camp would usually take place during the weekends. Students would have to register early in the morning and the programme would last the whole day.
The organisers were always on their guard, asking participants to show their student identification cards each time they entered the hall, fearing the presence of outsiders.
In the hall, students were asked to turn off their mobile phones.
During the lectures, questions were planted among the audience and the students were advised not ask raise any questions.
One speaker began with the history of Malaysia and how much the country had gone through, always emphasising the May 13 riots.
He stressed the point of how much the Malays had sacrificed and how the community should be united especially from outside threat — the Chinese community.
He said that the Chinese community were “the Jews of Asia” and were just itching to take over when Malays were disunited and broken.
The speaker also revealed a greater Chinese conspiracy where the Chinese Malaysians were working together with Singapore to topple the Malay government.
“Do you want to become like the Malays in Singapore?” he asked.
He also went so far as to criticise Malay girls for dating boys from other races.
He added that they should not be cheap and embarrass their families.
Once, a student told the speaker that as Muslims, we should also respect other races who are also Muslims.
“All Muslims are Malays so it does not matter if they are Chinese or Indians. If they are Muslims then they are Malays,” the speaker replied.
This is why I was relieved when I learned that the Selangor government had moved to ban its civil servants, employees of state subsidiaries and students at state-owned education institutions from attending any BTN courses with immediate effect.
However I believe racism in varsities does not end at BTN because classrooms have also become victims of ignorant scholars.
My friend was verbally abused during his sociology class when he did not agree with the points made by his lecturer.
“You must be DKK,” the lecturer told him.
“What is DKK?” he asked.
“You must be darah keturunan keling (descendents of Indians),” the lecturer said, pointing to his dark skin.
My Saudi friend was also shocked by the comments made by his lecturer in his Islamic civilisation class.
“We should save our Orang Asli from the Chinese people. They are like the Palestinians and the Chinese are Israel. We must fight the Jews,” the lecturer told his students.
The lecturer even failed one of his students in his oral exam when he quoted a Western scholar in his presentation.
“You should be ashamed of yourselves. You are a Muslim and should only use Islamic scholars,” he scolded the student.
I was personally saddened when my Islamic law lecturer compared Christianity to Head & Shoulder’s 3 in 1 shampoo in referring to the religion’s Holy Trinity.
I feel that racism has been institutionalised in our country and that BTN is only the tip of the iceberg.
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin defended BTN yesterday and claimed that it was not racist but is line with the 1 Malaysia concept.
I have to humbly disagree and would like to suggest maybe the ministers should bring their overseas children home and let them have a taste of what BTN is.
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 27 — I am one of the privileged few to have attended a local public university and learned the meaning of hate, thanks to the ever popular Biro Tata Negara.
All undergraduates were forced to attend this programme or else they would not be eligible for graduation.
The BTN under the Prime Minister’s Department brought in “intellectual” speakers who were supposed to enlighten the students about the meaning of being a Malaysian but instead it felt more like a communist propaganda camp brainwashing those attending about the importance of “Ketuanan Melayu”.
The camp would usually take place during the weekends. Students would have to register early in the morning and the programme would last the whole day.
The organisers were always on their guard, asking participants to show their student identification cards each time they entered the hall, fearing the presence of outsiders.
In the hall, students were asked to turn off their mobile phones.
During the lectures, questions were planted among the audience and the students were advised not ask raise any questions.
One speaker began with the history of Malaysia and how much the country had gone through, always emphasising the May 13 riots.
He stressed the point of how much the Malays had sacrificed and how the community should be united especially from outside threat — the Chinese community.
He said that the Chinese community were “the Jews of Asia” and were just itching to take over when Malays were disunited and broken.
The speaker also revealed a greater Chinese conspiracy where the Chinese Malaysians were working together with Singapore to topple the Malay government.
“Do you want to become like the Malays in Singapore?” he asked.
He also went so far as to criticise Malay girls for dating boys from other races.
He added that they should not be cheap and embarrass their families.
Once, a student told the speaker that as Muslims, we should also respect other races who are also Muslims.
“All Muslims are Malays so it does not matter if they are Chinese or Indians. If they are Muslims then they are Malays,” the speaker replied.
This is why I was relieved when I learned that the Selangor government had moved to ban its civil servants, employees of state subsidiaries and students at state-owned education institutions from attending any BTN courses with immediate effect.
However I believe racism in varsities does not end at BTN because classrooms have also become victims of ignorant scholars.
My friend was verbally abused during his sociology class when he did not agree with the points made by his lecturer.
“You must be DKK,” the lecturer told him.
“What is DKK?” he asked.
“You must be darah keturunan keling (descendents of Indians),” the lecturer said, pointing to his dark skin.
My Saudi friend was also shocked by the comments made by his lecturer in his Islamic civilisation class.
“We should save our Orang Asli from the Chinese people. They are like the Palestinians and the Chinese are Israel. We must fight the Jews,” the lecturer told his students.
The lecturer even failed one of his students in his oral exam when he quoted a Western scholar in his presentation.
“You should be ashamed of yourselves. You are a Muslim and should only use Islamic scholars,” he scolded the student.
I was personally saddened when my Islamic law lecturer compared Christianity to Head & Shoulder’s 3 in 1 shampoo in referring to the religion’s Holy Trinity.
I feel that racism has been institutionalised in our country and that BTN is only the tip of the iceberg.
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin defended BTN yesterday and claimed that it was not racist but is line with the 1 Malaysia concept.
I have to humbly disagree and would like to suggest maybe the ministers should bring their overseas children home and let them have a taste of what BTN is.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
THIS IS SHOCKING NEWS!!!
(KUANTAN, Friday) The Syariah Court today has today declared that the
late Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong was a Muslim more than 10 years ago when he
passed away, in 2007. The Syariah Court also ruled that since no
non-Muslim is allowed to inherit any part of a Muslim's assets or
wealth, the inheritance of Lim's property by his non-Muslim children
are invalid and unlawful.
"Therefore, the assets should be immediately returned to Tan Sri
Lim's name, and then redistributed to his Muslim heirs (if any)
according to Syariah law. If he has no Muslim heir, then the assets
shall be given to the Islamic authorities and they can do whatever
they wish. The non-Muslim children are disinherited." The Syariah
Court ruled.
Dato' Zakaria Lim Abdullah, 35, the late Tan Sri Lim's only Muslim
child and the 20th of his 20 offsprings, is now poised to become the
Chairman of Genting Group, 1 of Southeast Asia's richest companies
worth RM2 trillion as at press time. (He would have inherited only
1/20 of Tan Sri Lim's assets if Tan Sri Lim was not declared a
Muslim.) However, he refused to confirm whether he would stop the
gambling business of Genting even though it is haram under Islamic
law.
"Are you saying that our Hadhari government should refuse to collect
taxes from gambling, alcohol, pork and other haram businesses?" Dato'
Zakaria replied, perhaps rhetorically.
Dato' Zakaria has also said that his shall honor his pledge to donate
1/10 of his newly inherited fortune to Jabatan Agama Islam Pahang and
UMNO in equal share if he won the case, made 3 days before the
Syariah Court decision.
"Business Reasons"
"My late father wanted to keep his conversion secret because he was a
gambling tycoon, and he did not want to jeopardize his gambling
empire or make his shareholders lose confidence in Genting," said
Dato' Zakaria during the hearing in Syariah Court. The Syariah Court
felt that "this is most likely true because of the huge business
implications. It is very normal for Chinese to do this. We can accept
that."
As to the testimonies of Tan Sri Lim's 19 other offsprings in the
Syariah Court, who unanimously disputed the alleged conversion, the
Syariah Court said, "Even though it is 19 to 1, but because the
non-Muslim witnesses refused to swear on the Qur'an before they
testified in court, we could not consider their testimonies. In any
event, even if they did swear on the Qur'an, the non-Muslims would
still carry less weight when compared to the testimony of 2 Muslim
men. It is not about the number, it is about quality of the
witnesses."
The other witness supporting Dato' Zakaria's claim to have witnessed
Tan Sri Lim's conversion is Ustaz Abdul Rahman Ganinah Abdullah, 23
year old. The Ustaz would have been only 13 year old at that time of
the conversion, but the Syariah Court said that,"Being a righteous,
God-fearing Muslim, we have no reason to suspect that the Ustaz told
any lie. In any event, he has reached the age of puberty at the time
(of the conversion) so he was qualified to witness the conversion."
"Answer To God" It Depends
The Syariah Court has also ruled that the overwhelming evidence of
Tan Sri Lim drinking alcohol, praying to pagan idols, celebrating
pagan religious festivals, eating pork and gambling in his own
Genting Casino and generally behaving like a non-Muslim all his life
until his death was irrelevant. "Once you have converted, you are a
Muslim till you die, no matter what you did before your death. You
will answer to God for all your sins."
However, on the same kind of "answer to God" argument made by the
non-Muslim children that:"By the same logic, the Deceased himself
should answer to God for concealing his alleged 'conversion' from his
family and resulting in him not being buried as a Muslim and his
assets distributed among his non-Muslim children; it's not up to the
Islamic Authority to insist on his assets being inherited under
Islamic law if he, KNOWING THAT HIS ASSETS WOULD BE DISTRIBUTED LIKE
AN INFIDEL (AND HE MIGHT BURN IN HELL), still didn't want to tell his
family to bury him as a Muslim and distribute his assets like a
Muslim."
The Syariah Court said "you cannot say he must answer to God for
everything. Sometimes he also has to answer to us, the Islamic
Authority and Syariah Court. If we say he has to answer to us, then
he has to. When it comes to God's law, logic has nothing to do with
it. Why is it so difficult to understand?"
"New Conversion Policy" vs New Economic Policy
The case to declare one of the richest Chinese in the world (at his
death) as a Muslim was started 2 years ago (8 years after his death),
1 month after another non-Muslim Malaysian tycoon's Muslim son was
able to exclusively inherit his father's global business empire worth
RM80 billion at that time by proving in Syariah Court that his father
had "converted in secret," resulting in his mother and all 9 other
siblings losing the right to inherit any part of the tycoon's wealth,
leaving him the sole heir to the huge fortune.
There are currently at least 200 more cases of the same nature
pending before the Syariah Courts nationwide involving deceased
non-Muslims who were wealthy during their lifetime and left behind a
huge personal fortune. Rough estimate suggests that 50% of them were
started by 1 of the Muslim children of the deceased (99% of them
newly converted as Muslims), and the rest by the Islamic Authorities
seeking to disinherit all non-Muslim children.
If all of the cases succeed, it is estimated that the ratio of equity
held by Muslims in Malaysia would jump from the meagre 19% as at 1
January 2018 to 76%, a whopping 3-fold increase.
The Perak Mufti, who applauded the Syariah Court's ruling, said that
this wave of after-death declarations of conversions is the new
approach taken by the Islamic Authority to speed up the
Islamicization of Malaysia, butis also designed to achieve the
government's goal to redistribute wealth among the races which the
government could no longer do (and failed repeatedly to do) under the
now abolished National Economic Policy
"By creating real economic incentives for the dhimmis to become a
real citizen of the Islamic state, we expect more of them to embrace
the true path, and this will mean that we no longer have to rely on
the NEP to achieve such noble socio-economic goals of the government.
Besides, this is more effective because to take money away from
living people will create a lot of noise, but a dead person will not
make any noise, right?" He said.
However, it is not clear whether the non-Muslim children would still
be able to keep their inheritance if they convert to Islam
immediately. The Mufti of Perak, when consulted on this issue, said,
"If that could bring them to Islam, then it would be good, so the
Syariah Court should allow that. But then it might be unfair to those
children who converted into Islam earlier perhaps we can still allow
them to inherit only 30% of what an "early bird" Muslim heir would
have been able to get, to provide some "early bird bonus incentives"
for them to convert earlier. When we are dealing with Chinese, such
bonus incentives are very important, if you know what I mean. Anyway,
we'll think about this in the next National Fatwa Council meeting.
But rest assured that we shall continue to our struggle until the
Kingdom comes (literally)."
Chinese Beginning to Be Concerned
The Chinese community has now taken this matter very seriously and
are brainstorming on the options to overcome this problem. They have
also called for an end to the practice of declaring a person's status
as a Muslim after his or her death, a radical change from their usual
attitude to shy away from controversial political and religious
issues. Analysts believe that this is because this is threatening
their economic interests.
Supporters of the now semi-defunct Malaysian Chinese Association,
Gerakan and Malaysian Indian Congress, still part of the ruling
Barisan Nasional coalition, have called on the top BN leadership to
put forward a plan to resolve such controversial and provocative
religious issues once and for all and in a manner which is fair to
the non-Muslims. An MCA leader who declined to be named told our
reporter:
"We fear a backlash. Most NGO and opposition leaders have called on
the non-Muslims to boycott BN if no fair solution is put forward
before the upcoming general election. These issues have been around
since at least the Moorthy controversy in 2005 but still remained
unresolved. The are now affecting the basic security and fundamental
well-being of the non-Muslims."
This is a very serious issue for all non-muslim Malaysians to think
over since several recent cases have been unjust and unfair, and the
basic constitutional RIGHTS been taken away from them. It's no longer
a safe country to live.
late Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong was a Muslim more than 10 years ago when he
passed away, in 2007. The Syariah Court also ruled that since no
non-Muslim is allowed to inherit any part of a Muslim's assets or
wealth, the inheritance of Lim's property by his non-Muslim children
are invalid and unlawful.
"Therefore, the assets should be immediately returned to Tan Sri
Lim's name, and then redistributed to his Muslim heirs (if any)
according to Syariah law. If he has no Muslim heir, then the assets
shall be given to the Islamic authorities and they can do whatever
they wish. The non-Muslim children are disinherited." The Syariah
Court ruled.
Dato' Zakaria Lim Abdullah, 35, the late Tan Sri Lim's only Muslim
child and the 20th of his 20 offsprings, is now poised to become the
Chairman of Genting Group, 1 of Southeast Asia's richest companies
worth RM2 trillion as at press time. (He would have inherited only
1/20 of Tan Sri Lim's assets if Tan Sri Lim was not declared a
Muslim.) However, he refused to confirm whether he would stop the
gambling business of Genting even though it is haram under Islamic
law.
"Are you saying that our Hadhari government should refuse to collect
taxes from gambling, alcohol, pork and other haram businesses?" Dato'
Zakaria replied, perhaps rhetorically.
Dato' Zakaria has also said that his shall honor his pledge to donate
1/10 of his newly inherited fortune to Jabatan Agama Islam Pahang and
UMNO in equal share if he won the case, made 3 days before the
Syariah Court decision.
"Business Reasons"
"My late father wanted to keep his conversion secret because he was a
gambling tycoon, and he did not want to jeopardize his gambling
empire or make his shareholders lose confidence in Genting," said
Dato' Zakaria during the hearing in Syariah Court. The Syariah Court
felt that "this is most likely true because of the huge business
implications. It is very normal for Chinese to do this. We can accept
that."
As to the testimonies of Tan Sri Lim's 19 other offsprings in the
Syariah Court, who unanimously disputed the alleged conversion, the
Syariah Court said, "Even though it is 19 to 1, but because the
non-Muslim witnesses refused to swear on the Qur'an before they
testified in court, we could not consider their testimonies. In any
event, even if they did swear on the Qur'an, the non-Muslims would
still carry less weight when compared to the testimony of 2 Muslim
men. It is not about the number, it is about quality of the
witnesses."
The other witness supporting Dato' Zakaria's claim to have witnessed
Tan Sri Lim's conversion is Ustaz Abdul Rahman Ganinah Abdullah, 23
year old. The Ustaz would have been only 13 year old at that time of
the conversion, but the Syariah Court said that,"Being a righteous,
God-fearing Muslim, we have no reason to suspect that the Ustaz told
any lie. In any event, he has reached the age of puberty at the time
(of the conversion) so he was qualified to witness the conversion."
"Answer To God" It Depends
The Syariah Court has also ruled that the overwhelming evidence of
Tan Sri Lim drinking alcohol, praying to pagan idols, celebrating
pagan religious festivals, eating pork and gambling in his own
Genting Casino and generally behaving like a non-Muslim all his life
until his death was irrelevant. "Once you have converted, you are a
Muslim till you die, no matter what you did before your death. You
will answer to God for all your sins."
However, on the same kind of "answer to God" argument made by the
non-Muslim children that:"By the same logic, the Deceased himself
should answer to God for concealing his alleged 'conversion' from his
family and resulting in him not being buried as a Muslim and his
assets distributed among his non-Muslim children; it's not up to the
Islamic Authority to insist on his assets being inherited under
Islamic law if he, KNOWING THAT HIS ASSETS WOULD BE DISTRIBUTED LIKE
AN INFIDEL (AND HE MIGHT BURN IN HELL), still didn't want to tell his
family to bury him as a Muslim and distribute his assets like a
Muslim."
The Syariah Court said "you cannot say he must answer to God for
everything. Sometimes he also has to answer to us, the Islamic
Authority and Syariah Court. If we say he has to answer to us, then
he has to. When it comes to God's law, logic has nothing to do with
it. Why is it so difficult to understand?"
"New Conversion Policy" vs New Economic Policy
The case to declare one of the richest Chinese in the world (at his
death) as a Muslim was started 2 years ago (8 years after his death),
1 month after another non-Muslim Malaysian tycoon's Muslim son was
able to exclusively inherit his father's global business empire worth
RM80 billion at that time by proving in Syariah Court that his father
had "converted in secret," resulting in his mother and all 9 other
siblings losing the right to inherit any part of the tycoon's wealth,
leaving him the sole heir to the huge fortune.
There are currently at least 200 more cases of the same nature
pending before the Syariah Courts nationwide involving deceased
non-Muslims who were wealthy during their lifetime and left behind a
huge personal fortune. Rough estimate suggests that 50% of them were
started by 1 of the Muslim children of the deceased (99% of them
newly converted as Muslims), and the rest by the Islamic Authorities
seeking to disinherit all non-Muslim children.
If all of the cases succeed, it is estimated that the ratio of equity
held by Muslims in Malaysia would jump from the meagre 19% as at 1
January 2018 to 76%, a whopping 3-fold increase.
The Perak Mufti, who applauded the Syariah Court's ruling, said that
this wave of after-death declarations of conversions is the new
approach taken by the Islamic Authority to speed up the
Islamicization of Malaysia, butis also designed to achieve the
government's goal to redistribute wealth among the races which the
government could no longer do (and failed repeatedly to do) under the
now abolished National Economic Policy
"By creating real economic incentives for the dhimmis to become a
real citizen of the Islamic state, we expect more of them to embrace
the true path, and this will mean that we no longer have to rely on
the NEP to achieve such noble socio-economic goals of the government.
Besides, this is more effective because to take money away from
living people will create a lot of noise, but a dead person will not
make any noise, right?" He said.
However, it is not clear whether the non-Muslim children would still
be able to keep their inheritance if they convert to Islam
immediately. The Mufti of Perak, when consulted on this issue, said,
"If that could bring them to Islam, then it would be good, so the
Syariah Court should allow that. But then it might be unfair to those
children who converted into Islam earlier perhaps we can still allow
them to inherit only 30% of what an "early bird" Muslim heir would
have been able to get, to provide some "early bird bonus incentives"
for them to convert earlier. When we are dealing with Chinese, such
bonus incentives are very important, if you know what I mean. Anyway,
we'll think about this in the next National Fatwa Council meeting.
But rest assured that we shall continue to our struggle until the
Kingdom comes (literally)."
Chinese Beginning to Be Concerned
The Chinese community has now taken this matter very seriously and
are brainstorming on the options to overcome this problem. They have
also called for an end to the practice of declaring a person's status
as a Muslim after his or her death, a radical change from their usual
attitude to shy away from controversial political and religious
issues. Analysts believe that this is because this is threatening
their economic interests.
Supporters of the now semi-defunct Malaysian Chinese Association,
Gerakan and Malaysian Indian Congress, still part of the ruling
Barisan Nasional coalition, have called on the top BN leadership to
put forward a plan to resolve such controversial and provocative
religious issues once and for all and in a manner which is fair to
the non-Muslims. An MCA leader who declined to be named told our
reporter:
"We fear a backlash. Most NGO and opposition leaders have called on
the non-Muslims to boycott BN if no fair solution is put forward
before the upcoming general election. These issues have been around
since at least the Moorthy controversy in 2005 but still remained
unresolved. The are now affecting the basic security and fundamental
well-being of the non-Muslims."
This is a very serious issue for all non-muslim Malaysians to think
over since several recent cases have been unjust and unfair, and the
basic constitutional RIGHTS been taken away from them. It's no longer
a safe country to live.
Friday, November 27, 2009
The Malays & UMNO should read this!
By Hussein Hamid
With the Chinese it usually take about three generations for whatever money that has been made to be gone – wasted away. The Malays – just one generation!
Many Malays have allowed avarice and a liking of the good things in life to cloud their judgment in doing what is right.
I have met many Malays who, within less then one generation, came into richness way beyond their wildest dream. How do you adjust from driving a beat up old Mercedes to being able to get (not afford but able to get!) a Range Rover and the latest Mini Cooper –complete with a driver and machai riding shotgun with you everywhere you go? Then he have to take a crash course on how to play Golf - when before a game of Sepak Takraw would be his means of relaxation over the weekend! Five Star Hotels are now his play ground. Cigars, High Tea a bit of the hard stuff every night. …All par for the course for these so-called shakers and movers from UMNO. Their families are left at the starting point. No way can the wife or children adjust. Soon he starts with his late nights, outstation trips and even goes off to Perth for Golf – always with a sweet young thing in tow or stash away at some condominium in Bagsar or Damansara.
All this looks good on the surface. A Malay enjoying the good life because he is a loyal servant of UMNO. But his strength is because he is a ‘sahabat’ of Pak Lah. What happens when Najib took over? This Malays goes back to his beat up old Mercedes because his Range Rover and Mini Cooper were repossessed (they cost over $6000 per month on the never never – five years hire purchase arrangements!) Then he is again reduced to begging for scraps and running errands now for Najib’s sahabats. And this vicious circle continues to trap many Malays into a never-ending search for easy money and the good life - but without the ability to hang on to it.
What of UMNO’s leaders now ruling our country? What of them? I see spoilt brats brought up in luxury and the good life becoming spoilt Ministers lacking compassion and depth. Without the ability to emphasize or sympathize with those that they are lord over. And they take the role of being Lord literally. Look at Din – a classic nerd or geek in his young days. Now by a freak of birth and happy circumstance – he is a Minister. A Minister without ability and compassion – unable to understand that he is in Public Service – and his duty is to serve – not wave a Keris in the air or throw his weight around bullying people who cannot fight back. A sad excuse for a human being.
Najib and Rosmah have money. They now want power and more money – and they go about getting both unashamedly without reservations or respect for morals or decency. The public see these leaders as thieves and liars and this self fulfilling prophecy is further enhanced by their actions. We know what they do. Time cannot keep secrets. Time will tell us all what was done during the era of Mahathir, Abdullah and Najib.
How long will UMNO continue to curse the Malays with their way of doing things? Malays unable to cope with the massive influx of wealth, families’ wreck asunder, husbands taking mistresses and girlfriends? In the end this will spell the end of UMNO and also the end of many Malays unable to understand any other way of life then what they have been taught to do under UMNO.
The very rich in UMNO will have enough to last for two or three generations of their family. For 90% of UMNO the fall of UMNO will create much pain and sufferings. So wait for an orgy of money politics as UMNO rides into the sunset at the next General Elections. They will all try for that one big Negotiated Tender or Project that will hopefully keep them and their family going until UMNO makes a comeback. If UMNO does not then they go back to their beat up old Mercedes Benz and dream of their glory days when UMNO’s President was King. Let us hope that Anwar has seen enough of this while he was in UMNO to not repeat the same mistakes with Pakatan Rakyat. Or is that too much to hope for from Politicians?
With the Chinese it usually take about three generations for whatever money that has been made to be gone – wasted away. The Malays – just one generation!
Many Malays have allowed avarice and a liking of the good things in life to cloud their judgment in doing what is right.
I have met many Malays who, within less then one generation, came into richness way beyond their wildest dream. How do you adjust from driving a beat up old Mercedes to being able to get (not afford but able to get!) a Range Rover and the latest Mini Cooper –complete with a driver and machai riding shotgun with you everywhere you go? Then he have to take a crash course on how to play Golf - when before a game of Sepak Takraw would be his means of relaxation over the weekend! Five Star Hotels are now his play ground. Cigars, High Tea a bit of the hard stuff every night. …All par for the course for these so-called shakers and movers from UMNO. Their families are left at the starting point. No way can the wife or children adjust. Soon he starts with his late nights, outstation trips and even goes off to Perth for Golf – always with a sweet young thing in tow or stash away at some condominium in Bagsar or Damansara.
All this looks good on the surface. A Malay enjoying the good life because he is a loyal servant of UMNO. But his strength is because he is a ‘sahabat’ of Pak Lah. What happens when Najib took over? This Malays goes back to his beat up old Mercedes because his Range Rover and Mini Cooper were repossessed (they cost over $6000 per month on the never never – five years hire purchase arrangements!) Then he is again reduced to begging for scraps and running errands now for Najib’s sahabats. And this vicious circle continues to trap many Malays into a never-ending search for easy money and the good life - but without the ability to hang on to it.
What of UMNO’s leaders now ruling our country? What of them? I see spoilt brats brought up in luxury and the good life becoming spoilt Ministers lacking compassion and depth. Without the ability to emphasize or sympathize with those that they are lord over. And they take the role of being Lord literally. Look at Din – a classic nerd or geek in his young days. Now by a freak of birth and happy circumstance – he is a Minister. A Minister without ability and compassion – unable to understand that he is in Public Service – and his duty is to serve – not wave a Keris in the air or throw his weight around bullying people who cannot fight back. A sad excuse for a human being.
Najib and Rosmah have money. They now want power and more money – and they go about getting both unashamedly without reservations or respect for morals or decency. The public see these leaders as thieves and liars and this self fulfilling prophecy is further enhanced by their actions. We know what they do. Time cannot keep secrets. Time will tell us all what was done during the era of Mahathir, Abdullah and Najib.
How long will UMNO continue to curse the Malays with their way of doing things? Malays unable to cope with the massive influx of wealth, families’ wreck asunder, husbands taking mistresses and girlfriends? In the end this will spell the end of UMNO and also the end of many Malays unable to understand any other way of life then what they have been taught to do under UMNO.
The very rich in UMNO will have enough to last for two or three generations of their family. For 90% of UMNO the fall of UMNO will create much pain and sufferings. So wait for an orgy of money politics as UMNO rides into the sunset at the next General Elections. They will all try for that one big Negotiated Tender or Project that will hopefully keep them and their family going until UMNO makes a comeback. If UMNO does not then they go back to their beat up old Mercedes Benz and dream of their glory days when UMNO’s President was King. Let us hope that Anwar has seen enough of this while he was in UMNO to not repeat the same mistakes with Pakatan Rakyat. Or is that too much to hope for from Politicians?
Cry My Beloved Malay Soul
A B Sulaiman |
When Alan Paton wrote 'Cry The Beloved Country' he was lamenting over the inhumanity of man over man, of how the whites can devise, construct and implement race- and colour-based social and economic injustices over the blacks in apartheid-era South Africa.
The whole world had condemned this practice; we were among the loudest screaming against it.
South Africa has moved on since then, and today it is one shining example of an emancipated, open and progressive country, enjoying a respectable place in the community of nations. It has thrown apartheid into the bins of its history.
Here in Malaysia, yes we condemned apartheid, and quite rightly so. But in the same breath we were and are still its major proponent of our version of apartheid.
We do not call it apartheid; of course not. We call it instead 'Ketuanan Melayu' under the guise of 'championing Malay rights,' and implementing it under the New Economic Policy.. It's smart, right? In none of them does the word 'apartheid' appear!
Yes, we are smart. We do not blatantly call it apartheid, we merely perfected the process of social separation. First of all, we ensure the great majority of civil servants, the police, and the military are manned by Malays (the target benefactors). We give them good salaries, good perks and assured employment. We then devise rules and regulations, and even laws, to ensure the NEP's easy implementation.
We then brainwash our Malay brethren with the notion 'untuk agama, bangsa dan negara' that there is a higher ideal beyond performing a duty with professionalism and dedication, and that is doing things in the name of religion and race.
We devise rules and regulations, and even laws, to ensure the NEP's easy implementation.
Then we design and implement social and economic policies like channeling lucrative government contracts, separate education streams, housing rebates, banking and financial support, in favour of, you guessed it, the Elite Malays.
It does not stop there. We devise measures to prevent the people from raising too much objections to all these by introducing or continuing legislation and religiously implementing them.
The Sedition Act for example stops people from talking too much about language and religion. The Official Secrets Act prevents people from gaining access to government files.
Students and lecturers are not allowed to discuss and make public any subject that would appear to be critical to government (yes, government, not political) policies and philosophies.
All publications must, first of all, get operating licences. Newspapers must not only get a licence before publishing but it must be renewed every year.
Sacrifices conveniently forgotten
The king of all of the suppressive and oppressive laws is the Internal Security Act, when a citizen can be put under detention without the benefit of any charge!
All said and done, we sacrificed the rule of law in favour of rule by private individuals. To show that we are really smart, we pooh pooh the loyalty and patriotism of the non-Malay segment of the population.
We call them pendatang or immigrants bearing the stigma that they are social discards from their forefathers' country of origin, similar to rogues, rascals, refugees, mercenaries and scoundrels. We just ignore their proven talent and ability in wealth creation and economic productivity, as well as to their demonstrated loyalty and patriotism.
Many of such pendatangs have made ultimate sacrifices, as military personnel defending the country and its security, risking and losing their lives, during the Emergency, the Indonesian Confrontation, and as policemen while policing the social environment.
They have contributed and are continuing to, in sports and the arts. Their record as loyal and patriotic Malaysians is quite impeccable. But we do not really care.
The perplexing thing is that despite these attributes and positive records of the non-Malays, we are still going about championing and implement apartheid principles - aggressively pursuing the Malay agenda. Is this fair especially to the East Malaysians who joined us to become the single nation of Malaysia?
In this new year, perhaps we can do with a little reflection: why are we doing all this?
We do this apparently to recover our lost soul. We perceived that we have been victims of colonization when the Portuguese, Dutch and British colonizers all but butchered the Malay entity, psychology and culture. In the process we perceived that we have lost our Malay identity.
With independence, we thought we could recapture the lost glory of Malay suzerainty by becoming masters of all facets of a nation, especially its commerce, and economy. We found out that the Chinese community had beaten us to it, in every way.
We felt the Chinese had capitalised on our weakness and captured the economic initiatives (and wealth) as well as the social characteristics of the country. We lost 'face'.
Now we want to regain the mertabat or dignity and pride of the Malay race!
Yes, we feel that we have to recover our soul and it is here that we are reminded of Paton's book title, but in this case suitably paraphrased to – "Cry My Beloved Malay soul."
Our Malay soul needs to cry for doing the right thing for the wrong reason, or the wrong thing for the right reason; even for the wrong thing for the wrong reason, but not for the right thing for the right reason.
To start with, colonization is really not an excuse for our psychological malaise and ineptitude.
Colonization has been a feature of human history and felt all over the world. There are very few countries that have not been colonized in the world, where western powers took advantage of the situations then.
It is thus a neutral concept in human social and economic development. It is certainly not an impediment to social or economic progress as we want to portray it. We should dump this notion that we hold so dear into the bins of history.
Rethinking our way of thinking
Just look at the records. The Koreans were once colonised by the Japanese, but today Korea is an industrial power house. Singapore was once colonized by the British and was indeed a part of us, and today we see this tiny country being a solid financial, trading and industrial entity.
Most pointedly of all, the US was once a British colony and today it is the mightiest nation in the world.
Our second grouse - that the Chinese have cornered every of the economic sector of the country also needs re-looking into, on two counts.
First, the Chinese did not become successful based on any conscious and concerted economic programme to economically marginalise us Malays.
We did this self-inflicted wound ourselves. As proof, we have to note that most of the Chinese came to our shores with only their feet, hands, guts and brains and perhaps a bundle of clothes, nothing more.
They become successful for their hard work, both physically and mentally and for the sacrifices they were prepared to make and had undertaken. They were successful for having the mental fortitude to seek opportunities, grab those that come along and worked extra hard to realize the potentials of these opportunities.
Secondly, we have been given a chance to be equal with them, both under numerous 'special privileges' enshrined in the Constitution, as well as under its NEP implementation programe.
The special privileges have always been in the constitution while the latter began in 1970. In short, we have been given the chance - the opportunity - many times over, to better our Malay polity.
Whereas the Chinese had to struggle just to find and identify the opportunities, in our case they were handed to us on a silver platter!
Thus far we have failed to capitalize adequately on them. It is rather shameful that we are missing out on these chances specially created for us in the first place.
Either way, the root cause of our weaknesses and the strength of the Chinese lies in two words - positive thinking. Our thinking is mired with so many dos and don'ts, so many musts and musn'ts, so many cans and cannots, may and may nots, plenty enough to created and internalize doubts and fears in our minds.
So much so that we have doubts over what we can and what we can't do, what is allowed and what is not. We spend a lifetime looking for these highly complex cans and cannots, musts and must nots, that we have hardly any mental energy left to develop and garner our self-confidence to get on and face the realities of life.
Let's refer to this case as the 'can't don't and won't syndrome'. The Chinese by the way are not encumbered by such syndromes. What appears to have happened is that this syndrome has affected our mental ability to conceptualise. We see things on the straight and narrow. We accept wisdoms handed down to us by our elders as the gospel truth.
Blinded by sentiment
We do not see that things can be seen and interpreted in many alternative ways. We feel we have the monopoly on truth; we therefore think that we are right all the time and other people are wrong all the time. Witness the way we see religion for example.
We think that we as Muslims are right and other people who profess other religions are wrong, all the time.
We need to cry for thinking that we can and have doctored the way the people think and do things. We have been intimidating the people with what they can read or write or think and do.
We seem to be saying "you can think anything, do anything, write anything so long as it does not criticise or condemn the government".
Soul-searching and resuscitating is not or should not be about pointing accusing fingers at some bogeys. That would be a most negative thing to do. It would be better for us to be open-minded and be able to identify our own strengths and weaknesses.
We improve upon our strengths and dump our weaknesses. Mainly we must be able to develop the awareness that we have both the strengths and weaknesses in the first place.
To illustrate, the NEP has proved many times over as a failed strategy for our socio-economic advancement. Let us be aware of this in the first place and move on seeking other ways with better chances of success.
How about secularizing the Malay mind? It might make for a good start for we can see many of the don'ts, can'ts, musn'ts dissipating into the wind.
In the meantime, here we are in the early days of a new year. We should begin by realising that whatever 'smart' moves we had undertaken all this while have not really been that smart after all..
The joke is on us. Everybody says so – the liberated Malays, the non-Malays, our neighbors and the rest of the international community. Only those of us basking in our closed mind and benefiting from the profits of the status quo say it's alright.
Happy New Year all the same and here's hoping this year we can get a good perspective as to what propagating a good mertabat really means. It's long overdue.
In the meantime, cry my beloved Malay soul.
When Alan Paton wrote 'Cry The Beloved Country' he was lamenting over the inhumanity of man over man, of how the whites can devise, construct and implement race- and colour-based social and economic injustices over the blacks in apartheid-era South Africa.
The whole world had condemned this practice; we were among the loudest screaming against it.
South Africa has moved on since then, and today it is one shining example of an emancipated, open and progressive country, enjoying a respectable place in the community of nations. It has thrown apartheid into the bins of its history.
Here in Malaysia, yes we condemned apartheid, and quite rightly so. But in the same breath we were and are still its major proponent of our version of apartheid.
We do not call it apartheid; of course not. We call it instead 'Ketuanan Melayu' under the guise of 'championing Malay rights,' and implementing it under the New Economic Policy.. It's smart, right? In none of them does the word 'apartheid' appear!
Yes, we are smart. We do not blatantly call it apartheid, we merely perfected the process of social separation. First of all, we ensure the great majority of civil servants, the police, and the military are manned by Malays (the target benefactors). We give them good salaries, good perks and assured employment. We then devise rules and regulations, and even laws, to ensure the NEP's easy implementation.
We then brainwash our Malay brethren with the notion 'untuk agama, bangsa dan negara' that there is a higher ideal beyond performing a duty with professionalism and dedication, and that is doing things in the name of religion and race.
We devise rules and regulations, and even laws, to ensure the NEP's easy implementation.
Then we design and implement social and economic policies like channeling lucrative government contracts, separate education streams, housing rebates, banking and financial support, in favour of, you guessed it, the Elite Malays.
It does not stop there. We devise measures to prevent the people from raising too much objections to all these by introducing or continuing legislation and religiously implementing them.
The Sedition Act for example stops people from talking too much about language and religion. The Official Secrets Act prevents people from gaining access to government files.
Students and lecturers are not allowed to discuss and make public any subject that would appear to be critical to government (yes, government, not political) policies and philosophies.
All publications must, first of all, get operating licences. Newspapers must not only get a licence before publishing but it must be renewed every year.
Sacrifices conveniently forgotten
The king of all of the suppressive and oppressive laws is the Internal Security Act, when a citizen can be put under detention without the benefit of any charge!
All said and done, we sacrificed the rule of law in favour of rule by private individuals. To show that we are really smart, we pooh pooh the loyalty and patriotism of the non-Malay segment of the population.
We call them pendatang or immigrants bearing the stigma that they are social discards from their forefathers' country of origin, similar to rogues, rascals, refugees, mercenaries and scoundrels. We just ignore their proven talent and ability in wealth creation and economic productivity, as well as to their demonstrated loyalty and patriotism.
Many of such pendatangs have made ultimate sacrifices, as military personnel defending the country and its security, risking and losing their lives, during the Emergency, the Indonesian Confrontation, and as policemen while policing the social environment.
They have contributed and are continuing to, in sports and the arts. Their record as loyal and patriotic Malaysians is quite impeccable. But we do not really care.
The perplexing thing is that despite these attributes and positive records of the non-Malays, we are still going about championing and implement apartheid principles - aggressively pursuing the Malay agenda. Is this fair especially to the East Malaysians who joined us to become the single nation of Malaysia?
In this new year, perhaps we can do with a little reflection: why are we doing all this?
We do this apparently to recover our lost soul. We perceived that we have been victims of colonization when the Portuguese, Dutch and British colonizers all but butchered the Malay entity, psychology and culture. In the process we perceived that we have lost our Malay identity.
With independence, we thought we could recapture the lost glory of Malay suzerainty by becoming masters of all facets of a nation, especially its commerce, and economy. We found out that the Chinese community had beaten us to it, in every way.
We felt the Chinese had capitalised on our weakness and captured the economic initiatives (and wealth) as well as the social characteristics of the country. We lost 'face'.
Now we want to regain the mertabat or dignity and pride of the Malay race!
Yes, we feel that we have to recover our soul and it is here that we are reminded of Paton's book title, but in this case suitably paraphrased to – "Cry My Beloved Malay soul."
Our Malay soul needs to cry for doing the right thing for the wrong reason, or the wrong thing for the right reason; even for the wrong thing for the wrong reason, but not for the right thing for the right reason.
To start with, colonization is really not an excuse for our psychological malaise and ineptitude.
Colonization has been a feature of human history and felt all over the world. There are very few countries that have not been colonized in the world, where western powers took advantage of the situations then.
It is thus a neutral concept in human social and economic development. It is certainly not an impediment to social or economic progress as we want to portray it. We should dump this notion that we hold so dear into the bins of history.
Rethinking our way of thinking
Just look at the records. The Koreans were once colonised by the Japanese, but today Korea is an industrial power house. Singapore was once colonized by the British and was indeed a part of us, and today we see this tiny country being a solid financial, trading and industrial entity.
Most pointedly of all, the US was once a British colony and today it is the mightiest nation in the world.
Our second grouse - that the Chinese have cornered every of the economic sector of the country also needs re-looking into, on two counts.
First, the Chinese did not become successful based on any conscious and concerted economic programme to economically marginalise us Malays.
We did this self-inflicted wound ourselves. As proof, we have to note that most of the Chinese came to our shores with only their feet, hands, guts and brains and perhaps a bundle of clothes, nothing more.
They become successful for their hard work, both physically and mentally and for the sacrifices they were prepared to make and had undertaken. They were successful for having the mental fortitude to seek opportunities, grab those that come along and worked extra hard to realize the potentials of these opportunities.
Secondly, we have been given a chance to be equal with them, both under numerous 'special privileges' enshrined in the Constitution, as well as under its NEP implementation programe.
The special privileges have always been in the constitution while the latter began in 1970. In short, we have been given the chance - the opportunity - many times over, to better our Malay polity.
Whereas the Chinese had to struggle just to find and identify the opportunities, in our case they were handed to us on a silver platter!
Thus far we have failed to capitalize adequately on them. It is rather shameful that we are missing out on these chances specially created for us in the first place.
Either way, the root cause of our weaknesses and the strength of the Chinese lies in two words - positive thinking. Our thinking is mired with so many dos and don'ts, so many musts and musn'ts, so many cans and cannots, may and may nots, plenty enough to created and internalize doubts and fears in our minds.
So much so that we have doubts over what we can and what we can't do, what is allowed and what is not. We spend a lifetime looking for these highly complex cans and cannots, musts and must nots, that we have hardly any mental energy left to develop and garner our self-confidence to get on and face the realities of life.
Let's refer to this case as the 'can't don't and won't syndrome'. The Chinese by the way are not encumbered by such syndromes. What appears to have happened is that this syndrome has affected our mental ability to conceptualise. We see things on the straight and narrow. We accept wisdoms handed down to us by our elders as the gospel truth.
Blinded by sentiment
We do not see that things can be seen and interpreted in many alternative ways. We feel we have the monopoly on truth; we therefore think that we are right all the time and other people are wrong all the time. Witness the way we see religion for example.
We think that we as Muslims are right and other people who profess other religions are wrong, all the time.
We need to cry for thinking that we can and have doctored the way the people think and do things. We have been intimidating the people with what they can read or write or think and do.
We seem to be saying "you can think anything, do anything, write anything so long as it does not criticise or condemn the government".
Soul-searching and resuscitating is not or should not be about pointing accusing fingers at some bogeys. That would be a most negative thing to do. It would be better for us to be open-minded and be able to identify our own strengths and weaknesses.
We improve upon our strengths and dump our weaknesses. Mainly we must be able to develop the awareness that we have both the strengths and weaknesses in the first place.
To illustrate, the NEP has proved many times over as a failed strategy for our socio-economic advancement. Let us be aware of this in the first place and move on seeking other ways with better chances of success.
How about secularizing the Malay mind? It might make for a good start for we can see many of the don'ts, can'ts, musn'ts dissipating into the wind.
In the meantime, here we are in the early days of a new year. We should begin by realising that whatever 'smart' moves we had undertaken all this while have not really been that smart after all..
The joke is on us. Everybody says so – the liberated Malays, the non-Malays, our neighbors and the rest of the international community. Only those of us basking in our closed mind and benefiting from the profits of the status quo say it's alright.
Happy New Year all the same and here's hoping this year we can get a good perspective as to what propagating a good mertabat really means. It's long overdue.
In the meantime, cry my beloved Malay soul.
Made in Malaysia
The following are true stories:
A Malaysian politician had heart surgery in Singapore.
The operation was successful. During his recuperation, the politician wanted
to thank his three skilful doctors, including an anaesthesiologist.
He said: "Thanks to Singaporean doctors..."
"I'm sorry, sir. I'm from Malaysia," interrupted one doctor.
"Me too."
"Me as well."
When a Malaysian company wanted to develop a new township abroad, it
entrusted the project to a Singapore multinational company.
The first time when they met, the Singapore company sent a team of seven
people, including the chief executive officer, chief architect and chief financial officer.
The meeting went smoothly. They relaxed and chatted.
The Malaysian company's director said: "Durians from my hometown Kuala
Pilah, Seremban taste the best. I'll treat you all next time when you come."
"Really? What area in Kuala Pilah? I'm from Kuala Pilah, too!" said the
Singapore company's chief executive officer.
Next, one by one, the other six from the Singapore team revealed their
identities.
"I'm from Malacca."
"I'm from Kuala Kangsar, Perak."
"I grew up in Segamat."
"My hometown is..."
And all of them were actually "made in Malaysia".
There are countless similar stories around us.
And there is always another story behind each story.
Some were rejected by domestic universities while some were rejected by the
government scholarship.
They couldn't get it even with 10 As while others got only 10 Bs. As leaving
might be better than staying, they just went to a different world after crossing the Causeway.
There is a deep feeling for every story.
According to Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) statistics, about 785,000
Malaysians are currently working abroad and 44 per cent of them are working in Singapore while the rest are
working in other countries, including Hong Kong, China, Australia, Britain and the United States.
And two-thirds of them are professionals.
At the same time, most of the two million guest workers in Malaysia are from
Indonesia, Bangladesh, Myanmar, India and Vietnam.
They are engaged in work which does not require a high educational
background but just a little bit of brains. Low skill, low knowledge and, of course, low wages.
Malaysia has become a country that exports brains while importing labourers,
resulting in a serious deficit in the knowledge trade.
The government started to lure our talent abroad in 2000 by offering a
variety of incentives, including tax concessions and other conditions.
It has been nearly 10 years but only 770 people responded, with an average
of 80 talents returning a year.
The 770 are just a small number of the total number of people working
abroad.
However, many of this small group of people still choose to leave again.
While many young people are not able to realise their dreams here and thus,
they are packing and preparing to pursue their dreams in unfamiliar countries.
And they said that Malaysia wants to become a high-income country.
A Malaysian politician had heart surgery in Singapore.
The operation was successful. During his recuperation, the politician wanted
to thank his three skilful doctors, including an anaesthesiologist.
He said: "Thanks to Singaporean doctors..."
"I'm sorry, sir. I'm from Malaysia," interrupted one doctor.
"Me too."
"Me as well."
When a Malaysian company wanted to develop a new township abroad, it
entrusted the project to a Singapore multinational company.
The first time when they met, the Singapore company sent a team of seven
people, including the chief executive officer, chief architect and chief financial officer.
The meeting went smoothly. They relaxed and chatted.
The Malaysian company's director said: "Durians from my hometown Kuala
Pilah, Seremban taste the best. I'll treat you all next time when you come."
"Really? What area in Kuala Pilah? I'm from Kuala Pilah, too!" said the
Singapore company's chief executive officer.
Next, one by one, the other six from the Singapore team revealed their
identities.
"I'm from Malacca."
"I'm from Kuala Kangsar, Perak."
"I grew up in Segamat."
"My hometown is..."
And all of them were actually "made in Malaysia".
There are countless similar stories around us.
And there is always another story behind each story.
Some were rejected by domestic universities while some were rejected by the
government scholarship.
They couldn't get it even with 10 As while others got only 10 Bs. As leaving
might be better than staying, they just went to a different world after crossing the Causeway.
There is a deep feeling for every story.
According to Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) statistics, about 785,000
Malaysians are currently working abroad and 44 per cent of them are working in Singapore while the rest are
working in other countries, including Hong Kong, China, Australia, Britain and the United States.
And two-thirds of them are professionals.
At the same time, most of the two million guest workers in Malaysia are from
Indonesia, Bangladesh, Myanmar, India and Vietnam.
They are engaged in work which does not require a high educational
background but just a little bit of brains. Low skill, low knowledge and, of course, low wages.
Malaysia has become a country that exports brains while importing labourers,
resulting in a serious deficit in the knowledge trade.
The government started to lure our talent abroad in 2000 by offering a
variety of incentives, including tax concessions and other conditions.
It has been nearly 10 years but only 770 people responded, with an average
of 80 talents returning a year.
The 770 are just a small number of the total number of people working
abroad.
However, many of this small group of people still choose to leave again.
While many young people are not able to realise their dreams here and thus,
they are packing and preparing to pursue their dreams in unfamiliar countries.
And they said that Malaysia wants to become a high-income country.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
The Failure of Nur Who Scored 17 A's!
The Failure of Nur Amalina (who scored 17A's)
I was really shocked and speechless to be informed about Nur Amalina Che Bakri.
Nur Amalina had held briefly the record of the most A's scored in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia. Upon the announcement of results of SPM 2004 on 26 March 2005, she received 17 1As - a record for number of A's received by a student in the history of Malaysian education back then. She was sponsored by Bank Negara Malaysia to study medicine in the United Kingdom, and did her A-levels at the Cheltenham Ladies College in the UK.
Now I am informed that she had failed her second year medical study at the University of Edinburgh. What went wrong?
Could English language be the problem? We are going back to Malay medium again and that means trouble.
Another article by Dr. Hsu
I was told that one of the girls with the most number of A's, 17 A1's, in SPM and who is currently on a scholarship in UK to study medicine failed in her second year examination.
While passing and failing examination is part and parcel of a student’s life, this case is particularly alarming, as this is supposed to be our cream of the cream. There may be other reasons why she failed , but this case typifies the trend of many of our so-called ‘top scholars’ failing in overseas universities.
I have mentioned before that among my daughter ’s year doing medicine in University of Auckland, there were many JPA's scholars (more than 10). Only one graduated with the class. The rest have failed along the way and have to repeat the year which they have failed. Some have failed one year, passed on second attempt and then failed again in another year. It is not uncommon to have someone who failed a few times along the way.
These scholars are supposed to represent the cream of our students, and yet they struggled to get through the course.
We must find out the reasons why so many of these scholars fail when they are supposed to be the our top students.
Granted that in an examination, even a good student can do badly sometimes, but to have a disproportional high failure rate among the so called top students is alarming and cannot be attributed to ‘luck’ or the lack of it. Compare this with those on their fathers’ scholarship, very few of the latter group failed.
Is it because our marking system is at fault? Is there any differential markings of papers? Is our education system at fault?
I think the time has come to have a thorough re-examination of the whole education as well as the examination system.
It really reflects badly on our country when scholarship holders fail in their examinations at an alarming rate.
P.S. When a scholarship holder fails and has to repeat a year, it would cost the Country a lot of money which can actually be used to finance more students for study. Scholarship holders also live a life of relative luxury, compared to self-fnanced students, and they normally stay in the best hostels and many of them have cars and so on… SO the whole system of awarding scholarship should be reviewed too…
If the students scores an exemplary number of distinctions (A's in Malaysia) in a public exam, they are considered the pinnacle of what the Country's education system is capable of producing. They are expected to go through tertiary education anywhere in the world with flushing success. So what could possibly have happened if they fail abroad?
Malaysia's education system has always been a laughing stock. Based purely on numeric superiority and mindless rote learning methods that even the British has long abandoned decades earlier, Malaysia continues to believe that the more A's the students attain, the better equipped they are. It doesn't matter how they get the A's so long as the aim is to get them and get as many in the process. So if the students were to labour over numerous past year exam papers in the library, memorise the answers and focus only on what the teacher 'suggests' are likely to come out for the exam, that's all right by everyone. The education system doesn't teach the students to UNDERSTAND the material. It doesn't encourage proactive teaching methods that encourage students to discover knowledge but to merely be taught.
When a student with 17 Distinctions fail in the real world, it is not a surprise. Perhaps it is to many Malaysians, but it's a system that is waiting to reward its students with spectacular failure when they leave the shores and compete overseas or when they enter the workforce. Many organisations in the private sector have continued to be horrified at the performance of such students during interviews. Communication skills are absent. Standard ethics are absent. Common courtesy codes are absent. Presentation skills as well as personal grooming are absent. What has the education system taught them?
If Malaysia continue to embark on the road of plain numeric superiority instead of to challenge the students to think, provoke them to create their own opinions and to communicate expressively, to eloquently define their standing in the world, there can never be an international leader in any field or industry emanating from Malaysia. It never produced one in the last 20 years. It never will for the next 100 years.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
