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Pupuk perpaduan sesama Islam

– SM Mohamed Idris
The Malaysian Insider
December 07, 2013

Kami dukacita di atas cadangan oleh Timbalan Presiden Umno Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin yang mahu meminda Perlembagaan Persekutuan untuk menjamin ajaran Ahli Sunnah Wal Jamaah sebagai kepercayaan umat Islam di Malaysia dan merayu supaya mempertimbangkan semula perkara itu kerana ia mempunyai implikasi serius ke atas perpaduan umat Islam dan komitmen antarabangsa Malaysia.

Kami percaya cadangan yang dibuat itu adalah respons kepada kempen anti Syiah pada masa ini yang sedang dijalankan oleh kumpulan tertentu yang dipengaruhi dan disokong oleh ulama Salafi yang bersikap melampau.

Islam itu satu dan tiada Islam Sunni atau Islam Syiah. Terdapat perbezaan mazhab dan orang Islam bebas untuk mengikuti mana-mana mazhab. Sebarang cubaan untuk menafikan hak sesuatu mazhab akan hanya membawa kepada perpecahan dan konflik dalam kalangan umat Islam dan melemahkan usaha yang sedang diusahakan untuk menyatupadukan umat Islam bagi menghadapi cabaran dari kuasa hegemoni, diktator dan pemerintah autokratik.

Pada Julai 2005, berdasarkan fatwa yang dikeluarkan oleh 24 ulama paling kanan dalam agama Islam termasuk Ulama Sunni, Sheikh Al Azhar Dr Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, Sheikh Dr. Yusuf Abdullah Al-Qaradawi, Mufti Pakistan Muhammad Taqi Uthmani dan Ulama Syiah Ayatollah Al-Sayyid Ali Khameni dan Ayatollah Al-Sayyid Ali Al-Sistani, Raja Abdullah II dari Jordan telah menganjurkan satu persidangan Islam antarabangsa yang dihadiri oleh 200 sarjana Islam terkemuka dunia dari 50 negara yang telah menerima fatwa tersebut, iaitu: Continue reading “Pupuk perpaduan sesama Islam”

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Berselindung di sebalik isu perkauman

– Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud
The Malaysian Insider
December 07, 2013

Pada November lalu, bekas Naib Canselor Universiti Malaya, Tan Sri Dr Ghauth Jasmon telah berkata di Persidangan Asia Barat dan Afrika di Kuala Lumpur bahawa isu perkauman digunakan oleh sesetengah ahli politik di Malaysia bagi melindungi kegiatan rasuah yang dilakukan pemimpin terbabit.

Beliau juga berkata isu perkauman dimainkan bagi melindungi salah laku selain mengelak mereka yang terlibat daripada dituduh atas aktiviti tidak bermoral itu.

Saya tertarik dengan kata-kata beliau memandangkan di Malaysia terdapat satu gabungan parti politik yang masih mengamalkan politk perkauman dan gabungan ini berada di posisi di mana rasuah boleh berlaku secara berleluasa.

Apabila seorang cendiakawan memberi komen sedemikian, kita pasti tertanya-tanya apakah yang beliau tahu, dan ingin mengetahui secara lanjut apa yang dimaksudkan oleh Tan Sri Ghauth Jasmon? Sejauh manakah dan apakah contoh-contoh sifat perkauman dan kegiatan rasuah berkait di negara ini. Continue reading “Berselindung di sebalik isu perkauman”

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Same old, same old when Umno talks about “ekonomi Melayu”

by Sheridan Mahavera
The Malaysian Insider
December 07, 2013

The preamble to the resolution on economics at this year’s Umno general assembly stated that it would be different from the previous years.

Yet after former second finance minister Datuk Seri Awang Adek Hussein finished his speech, the journalists who’ve covered past assemblies rolled their eyes, as they tried to dig out what was new.

Much of Awang Adek’s seven-point speech was about demands for quotas, loans and openings in the government machinery and government-linked companies (GLCs) for Bumiputeras. That is, Malay entrepreneurs’ demands that are always expressed whenever the Umno grassroots meet to talk about the future of the Malay economy.

The main difference this time was that all of them seized on the new statistic provided by their president – Bumiputeras made up 67% of the population – to press their case for even more aid to reach that ideal target of 30% Bumiputera ownership of wealth in the country.

It’s a familiar ritual: Umno tells the government that more loans need to be given and more contracts are needed to develop Malay small and medium enterprises.

Failure to do so would make the Malays “slaves in their own lands” to “foreign races” which is a code word for non-Bumiputera Chinese (and sometimes Indians). Continue reading “Same old, same old when Umno talks about “ekonomi Melayu””

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Plundering in the guise of protecting the Malays

NEWS ANALYSIS BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER
December 07, 2013

When Umno started out in 1946, it united many Malay groups and organisations in the pursuit of Merdeka, an independent Malaya which later formed Malaysia with Sabah and Sarawak.

It fought for the race, religion and rulers. And it ruled Malaysia with its allies, MCA and MIC, and later expanded that to Barisan Nasional in the aftermath of the May 1969 race riots.

Its mission never changed and every annual gathering was focused on race and religion. But now, that is being used to profit the few rather than the many.

This year’s assembly is no different, especially at a time of rising costs and shrinking surplus in the country. Malaysians are told to tighten their belts as assessment rates and electricity tariffs go up. Soon, toll rates will be raised while a consumption tax comes into effect in April 2015.

But over at the Putra World Trade Centre where Umno has its annual general assembly, it appears to be more like a gathering of Ali Baba and the 40 thieves as delegate after delegate speak about the economy and the need to reward only those who supported BN and Umno in the 13th General Election. Continue reading “Plundering in the guise of protecting the Malays”

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Muhyiddin cannot continue to be dumbstruck by 2012 PISA results five days ago but must speak up on responses by Education Ministry

The Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin cannot continue to be dumbstruck by the 2012 PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) results five days ago but must speak up on the responses by the Education Ministry.

Malaysia should at least learn from England which has swung into immediate action, announcing the creation of 30 elite maths centres across the country after the 2012 PISA results which find that UK schoolchildren are up to three years behind their peers in the top-performing countries in Asia.

Under the new UK plan, secondary school teachers will provide expert tuition to primary pupils as part of government reforms designed to address serious failing in maths. Continue reading “Muhyiddin cannot continue to be dumbstruck by 2012 PISA results five days ago but must speak up on responses by Education Ministry”