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Patriotism, Mr Mayor, is not in flying a flag

By Thomas Lee

Ipoh Mayor Datuk Roshidi Hashim has issued a ruling to all shops and business premises in the city to fly the Jalur Gemilang on National Day on 31 August and the state flag during the Sultan of Perak’s birthday on 19 April if their want their business licences renewed.

Roshidi said those who failed to comply with the ruling would also be compounded or blacklisted.

According to Roshidi, the new ruling is part of the effort by the Ipoh City Council to inculcate patriotism among city folks, especially the business communities.

This is another of those nincompoop rulings by a smart-aleck Little Napoleon using blackmail arm-twisting tactics to enforce a gimmick found only in countries ruled by authoritarian dictatorial governments such as Nazi Germany or the Japanese Imperial Administration during War World Two.
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Malaysia’s eight-year consecutive omission from World’s Top 500 Universities Ranking 2010

For the eighth year in succession, Malaysia has been left out of the World’s Top 500 Universities ranking in the Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s “Academic Ranking of World Universities ARWU 2010” released yesterday.
 
This is the latest proof that the long-talked about higher education reform based on meritocracy and academic excellence is not making much headway.
 
It underlines the economic and nation-building crisis confronting Malaysia and the warning of the New Economic Model (NEM) that the “human capital situation in Malaysia is reaching a critical stage” because “We are not developing talent and what we have is leaving”.
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For The Love of Allah, And Only for That!

Rabi’a al-’Adawiyya
By M. Bakri Musa

During this Ramadan, like all previous ones, mosques will be full of worshipers and the treasuries of Muslim charities will be flooded with generous donations. This is true of my little Muslim community here in the southern tip of Silicon Valley, California, as well as in the heart of Islam, Mecca.

In my community, praise be to Allah, we have no difficulty finding sponsors for our weekly community iftar (breaking of the fast). We have also conveniently made our annual fundraising event, “Feeding of the Soul,” during Ramadan. As my folks back in the old kampong would say, we are mengambil kesempatan durian runtuh (taking advantage of the durian season).

However, as my young Imam Ilyas observed in his Friday sermon, this heightened spirituality and generosity during Ramadan, while certainly praiseworthy, would be more so if we could extend them throughout the year.
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Is new Medical Act responsible for dumped babies?

Letter
by Rudolf Tiller

IS NEW MEDICAL ACT RESPONSIBLE FOR DUMPED BABIES?

The frequency of babies/ fetuses found dumped at doorsteps, garbage dumps, drains, rivers, some killed blatantly and buried, or flushed down toilets have been on the rise over the last two to three years. Media reports suggest that the incidences reported are just the tip of the iceberg.

Shahrizat has claimed more support be given to single mothers. A lawyer apparently by profession, her latest outrageous outburst has now been to reprehensibly execute the parents. Ali Rustam has this novel idea that special schools be built only for teenaged mothers but soon after decided that an expedient scheme would be to actually reduce the matrimonial age to a minor 15 years. Rosmah on the other hand, appears totally lost and doesn’t seem to know actually what to do. But at least she has not come out with some of the ludicrous propositions suggested by Shahrizat or Ali Rustam.
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