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Malaysia an Islamic state – Najib repudiating first three PMs on meaning of Merdeka social contract

Is Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak repudiating the Merdeka “social contract” and the stand of the first three Prime Ministers, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein Onn with his statement today that Malaysia is “an Islamic state with its own interpretation”?

Najib’s explanation that “as an Islamic state, it does not mean that we don’t respect the non-Muslims” and that “The Muslims and the non-Muslims have their own rights (in this country)” is no assurance at all, when there is unilateral, arbitrary and unconstitutional revision of the fundamental principles of nation-building agreed by the forefathers of the major communities on the founding of the nation that whilst Islam is the official religion of the Federation, Malaya and later Malaysia is not an Islamic State, whether of the PAS or Umno variety.

This cornerstone of nation-building was best spelt out by Bapa Malaysia and the first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, at the 80th birthday celebrations organized by the Barisan Nasional in his honour on 8th February 1983, where Tunku pointedly said Malaysia should not be turned into an Islamic state, that Malaysia was set up as a secular State with Islam as the official religion which was enshrined in the Constitution.

Tunku said:

“The Constitution must be respected and adhered to. There have been attempts by some people who tried to introduce religious laws and morality laws. This cannot be allowed.

“The country has a multi-racial population with various beliefs. Malaysia must continue as a secular State with Islam as the official religion.”

Tunku’s stand that Malaysia was not and never conceived by the Merdeka Constitution to be an Islamic State was endorsed by Tun Hussein when the third Prime Minister celebrated his 61st birthday five days later.

There can be no doubt that this fundamental position that Malaysia was never conceived to be an Islamic State would also have been endorsed by Tun Razak if he had been alive in 1983 to celebrate Tunku’s 80th birthday and comment on his speech, as there had been no dispute whatsoever in the first three and even four decades of nationhood that Malaysia was a secular and not an Islamic state. Continue reading “Malaysia an Islamic state – Najib repudiating first three PMs on meaning of Merdeka social contract”

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Public forum – No to a Police State in Blogosphere

Nathaniel Tan, a 26 year old dedicated blogger, a Harvard University alumnus and an aide to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was arrested under the Section 8 of the Official Secrets Act (OSA) over allegations that he had documents linked to Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Johari Baharom’s alleged involvement in corruption.

Nathaniel was released after four days’ detention.

To demonstrate our solidarity with Nathaniel who has been dealt with great injustice, to show our steadfast refusal to let the Government curb the democratisation impact of blogs and the Internet, and to voice our displeasure at the OSA, we are organising a forum with invited speakers from across the civil society with details as follows:

Venue: KL & Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall
Date: 19th July 2007 (Thursday)
Time: 7.30 pm
Admission is Free; Bring Friends

The panel of Distinguished Speakers include:

Nathaniel Tan, Blogger & Aide to PKR Advisor

Jeff Ooi, Protem Vice-President, All Blogs Malaysia

Harris Ibrahim, Lawyer & Founder of The People’s Parliament

Nurul Izzah Anwar, Special Assistant to PKR Advisor

Lim Guan Eng, Secretary-General of DAP

Tony Pua, Economic Advisor to DAP Secretary-General

Chairperson: Soon Li Tsin, Journalist & Blogger

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Worsening crime index — 8.2 cases of rape a day in first 6 months this year as compared to 4 cases in 2003 and 6.7 cases in 2006

Last Monday in Parliament, I received an answer from the Prime Minister and Internal Security Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi that the crime index had registered a 8.7 per cent increase in the first five months of this year as compared to the corresponding period last year, i.e 87,582 cases from Jan. to May 2007 as compared to 80,756 cases for the period last year.

Five days later, the Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan updated the crime statistics showing that for the first six months of the year, there had been a 5.11 per cent increase in the crime index as compared to the corresponding period last year. i.e. 106,236 cases from Jan. to June 2007 as compared to 101,073 cases for the period last year.

From Abdullah and Musa’s statements, we can deduce that the average monthly crime incidence for the first five months of this year was 17,516 cases (87,582/5), while the crime incidence for June was 18,654, i.e. the crime incidence in June was 6.5% higher than the monthly average crime index recorded in the first five months of the year.

Malaysians must speak up and make clear that they find it completely unacceptable that the crime index keeps climbing up, reflecting an ever-worsening situation with regard to crime and the fear of crime in the country defeating the very purpose of the establishment of the Royal Police Commission in 2004 to have a world-class police service and reduce crime in the country.

In the first six months of this year, there were 1,507 cases of rape as compared to 1,186 for the corresponding period last year — an increase of 27.1%. This works out to 8.2 cases of rape per day in the first six months of this year as compared to four cases a day in 2003 and 6.7 cases a day in 2006 — another shocking index of the worsening crime and fear-of-crime situation in the country, bearing in mind the high percentage of unreported cases of crime. Continue reading “Worsening crime index — 8.2 cases of rape a day in first 6 months this year as compared to 4 cases in 2003 and 6.7 cases in 2006”