Posted on

Hishammuddin is too truculent and controversial an Umno leader to be a good and professional Home Minister to inspire confidence of all Malaysians that he will not use his ministerial powers for party political ends

“KDN akan ambil tindakan ke atas Anwar – Jika sengaja guna isu agama perkauman berhubung insiden serangan gereja” is the Utusan Malaysia headline today, whose real casualty is public confidence in Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein as a good and effective Home Minister who could resolve the crisis caused by attacks on places of worship and church arson tarnishing Malaysia’s international reputation as an international example of inter-religious harmony, peace and goodwill.

Hishammuddin is too truculent and controversial an Umno leader to be a good and professional Home Minister to inspire confidence of all Malaysians that he will not use his ministerial powers for party political ends.

Why is Hishammuddin talking about action against Anwar when he has not been able to take any action in the past five days against anyone for the spate of attacks on places of worship, whether church, surau or Sikh temple which have placed at risk billions of ringgit which might otherwise benefit Malaysia in the form of foreign investment, tourism and educational opportunities?
Continue reading “Hishammuddin is too truculent and controversial an Umno leader to be a good and professional Home Minister to inspire confidence of all Malaysians that he will not use his ministerial powers for party political ends”

Posted on

Is Lagu Johor Illegal and Promoting Racial Hatred?

Letter by Karamchan Naidu

I am a Johor boy. Studied there all my life. Every week for the past 12 years of my primary and secondary schooling I used to sing the Lagu Johor at the school assembly.

The song is as follows;

Allah peliharakan Sultan
‘Nugrahkan dia segala kehormatan
Sihat dan ria, kekal dan makmur
Luaskan kuasa, menaungkan kami
Rakyat dipimpini berzaman lagi
Dengan Merdeka bersatu hati
Allah berkati Johor
Allah selamatkan Sultan.

Continue reading “Is Lagu Johor Illegal and Promoting Racial Hatred?”

Posted on

Praying for peace is not enough!

By Azly Rahman

There is a Buddhist lesson in how we ought to perceive Malaysia’s emerging style of terrorism.

When one is bleeding after being shot by an arrow, the first step is not to look for the culprit that shot the arrow and pondering why was it shot but to pull out the arrow from the victim’s body and to quickly put a stop to the bleeding. This is what Siddharta Gautama would teach as crisis intervention.

Malaysians might never know who carried out the series of church bombings, nor what organisations are behind them, and if there is a higher order involved in the long-term planning of terror.

Postmodern debates will be a tedious exercise on whether this or that name of a Universal God can be copyrighted or whether a pastor or an archbishop can be pushed to the ground or physically attacked for using the forbidden name of the Universal God during their sermons.
Continue reading “Praying for peace is not enough!”

Posted on

“Allah” issue: Who started it?

By Jacqueline Ann Surin
12 Jan 10 | The Nut Graph

LEST we forget, the source of the Allah controversy that resulted in churches, and a Catholic school, being torched and threatened did not begin on the streets. It did not begin with narrow-minded and ignorant Muslim pressure groups threatening to spill blood to assert their sole right to use “Allah”.

Lest we forget, it began with the 1986 government ban on the use by non-Muslims of the word “Allah”, and three others — “solat”, “Kaabah” and “Baitullah”. That’s the Barisan Nasional (BN) government we are talking about, the one that Umno leads.

Hence, lest we forget, the issue of non-Muslims using the word “Allah” would not be an issue at all in Malaysia if the Umno-led government had, to begin with, respected the legitimate rights of other faith communities. The “Allah” issue would not have spiraled into, to quote a friend, suburban terrorism — and it is terrorism when violence and intimidation are used towards achieving one’s goals — if the Home Ministry had not acted to deny the rights of non-Muslim citizens in the first place.
Continue reading ““Allah” issue: Who started it?”

Posted on

Use of ‘Allah’ could cause confusion among Malay Muslims and encourage religious conversion, which is illegal in Malaysia is a political gimmick by UMNO

By Dr Chen Man Hin, DAP life adviser

THE CLAIM BY THE HOME MINISTRY SECRETARY GENERAL MAHMOOD ADAM TO FOREIGN DIGNITARIES THAT THE USE OF ALLAH BY CHRISTIANS COULD CAUSE CONFUSION AMONG MUSLIMS IN MALAYSIA AND ENCOURAGE RELIGIOUS CONVERSIONS, WHICH IS ILLEGAL IN MALAYSIA, HAS DAMAGED THE REPUTATION, INTEGRITY AND SINCERITY OF MALAYSIAN MUSLIMS.

Most Malaysian muslims, including Anwar Ibrahim and Hadi Awang will not share the sentiments of the Home Ministry official. Malaysian muslims and christians have been living together for several centuries, in relative peace and harmony, and have progressed and prospered.

In a plural religious society, minor frictions may exist, but these were kept to a minimum by inter-faith dialogues. However,there exist underlying fears that the muslims might want to islamise the country and suspicion that christians might want to convert muslims to their faith.
Continue reading “Use of ‘Allah’ could cause confusion among Malay Muslims and encourage religious conversion, which is illegal in Malaysia is a political gimmick by UMNO”