Day: July 3, 2013

The whole rigmarole about DAP funding a “Red Bean Army” of 3,000 cybertroopers with a budget ranging from RM100 million to RM1 billion in the past six years to demonise and character-assassinate has completely gone bersek with Barisan Nasional Ministers and Members of Parliament quoting lies as gospel truths in Parliament and outside.

Yesterday, at least two Barisan Nasional MPs spoke about the “Red Bean Army” in Parliament, but their credibility is no higher than that of the Gerakan MP for Simpang Renggam, Liang Teck Meng who made history by turning himself into an instant parliamentary disgrace yesterday.

Teck Meng purportedly quoted from WiliLeaks to allege that Parliamentary Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim “owns 30 foreign bank accounts” worth RM332 million in four countries, including Israel, when such information is not available on WikiLeaks but only concocted on blogs by UMNO cybertroopers.

Like the “Red Bean Army” canard, this is another example of UMNO/BN cybertroopers finally succeeding in misleading their own leaders!

Is Teck Meng prepared to admit that he had told lies in Parliament yesterday and to surrender himself to the Parliamentary Privileges Committee for the proper punishment that should be meted out to an MP who could tell such reckless lies in Parliament? Continue reading “Will Shahidan propose in Cabinet the establishment of RCI on Utusan Malaysia’s racist, inflammatory and seditious provocations in the past four years if 1,000 or 2,000 Malaysians sign a memorandum for this purpose?”

The statement by Minister for Tourism, Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz, that the Administration of the Religion of Islam (Federal Territories) Bill 2013 on unilateral conversion of minors to Islam is unfair is welcome, especially as the 1993 Administration of Islamic Law (Federal Territories) Act provided for both parental consent when the bill was debated in Dewan Rakyat in May 1993.

What was passed by Parliament in May 1993 on Section 95 in “Part IX – Conversion to Islam” states (English and Bahasa Malaysia):

“ 95. For the purpose of this Part, a person who is not a Muslim may convert to Islam if he is of sound mind and –

(a) has attained the age of eighteen years; or
(b) if he has not attained the age of eighteen years, his parent or guardian consents to his conversion.”

“95. Bagi maksud Bahagian ini, seseorang yang tidak beragama Islam boleh masuk Islam jika ia sempurna akal dan –

(a) Mencapai umur lapan belas tahun; atau
(b) Jika ia belum mencapai lapan belas tahun, ibu bapa atau penjaga mengizinkan kemasukannya.”

However, when it was gazetted, there was a minor but far-reaching variation in its Bahasa Malaysia version for Section 95(b) permitting unilateral conversion of minors to Islam when Parliament had always intended dual parental consent, as the gazetted Bahasa Malaysia version reads:

“(b) jika dia belum mencapai umur lapan belas tahun, ibu atau bapa atau penjaganya mengizinkan kemasukannya.” Continue reading “Nazri’s statement that new bill on unilateral conversion of minors to Islam unfair welcome especially as the 1993 Administration of Islamic Law (Federal Territorities) Act provided for both parental consent when bill was debated in Parliament”

Rom Nain
Malaysiakini
Jun 27, 2013

I recently received a call – and, soon after, an email – from a persistent Malaysian newspaper journalist out to get responses to PM Najib Abdul Razak’s latest attempt at coming across as a rights-motivated liberal.

His announcement, that is, that there would be no (further) censorship of the Internet by his regime, but that we need to be more “responsible” instead in using the new media.

I informed her that I no longer gave interviews to her newspaper because the last time I did, my views were deliberately distorted. And that the pathetic reporter at that time didn’t have the decency to apologise afterwards.

She countered by saying that she’d do an email interview, so that my words would be ‘written’ and hence could not be distorted.

I know, of course, that it is never as simple as that and that devious reporters, subs and editors could easily paraphrase quotations to give quite different meanings. And, of course, they’ve done so.

But since she was polite and persistent, and only posed one general question, namely: “What steps would you suggest to encourage people to be more responsible when posting their comments on social media?”, I thought, let’s give it a go, and crafted out the following response. Continue reading “Comments to a journalist”

Mohamad Tajuddin Mohamad Rasdi
Malaysiakini
Jul 2, 2013

COMMENT Perhaps now that a minister’s house and the house of several ministers’ relatives have been broken into, the leaders should now know how ineffective our police force has become in relation to crime and public welfare.

I would not like to mince words but speak directly on what the police should do … if they are interested in public welfare at all. Even if they are not, they, police personnel are also subject to these crimes when they live outside quarters – such as those where I myself grew up.

So, if I were the chief of police, these are the things I would do.

Firstly, I would recognise that the first line of defence against crime is not to increase the number of police personnel, CCTVs or gated communities, or to deport all migrant workers.

The most tried of defences is the knowledge of crime patterns. If the people know how many crimes were committed and these are analysed, then it is extremely easy to protect against such incidents. I will elaborate in due course.

Secondly, I would tell my personnel to get ‘down and dirty’ with the communities they serve. They should not just drive or ride around and then stop for roti canai or nasi lemak, but should interact more with the communities they are supposed to serve. How? Well …patience dear readers and read on. Continue reading “If I were the police chief…”