Day: January 6, 2014

Sememangnya wajar pihak polis meminta maaf kerana tersilap mendakwa gambar seorang lelaki yang dimuat naik dalam laman Facebook rasmi polis adalah gambar seorang anggota polis yang cedera semasa bertugas ketika protes anti kenaikan harga pada Sambutan Tahun Baru di Dataran Merdeka.

Laman Facebook rasmi polis telah memuat naik gambar seorang lelaki tidak berbaju dan cedera di kepala yang disangka sebagai seorang pegawai polis yang bertugas ketika perhimpunan anti-kenaikan harga pada malam Selasa yang lalu.

Gambar itu disangkal oleh banyak pengguna internet yang mengatakan bahawa ia tidak konsisten dengan kenyataan polis sendiri bahawa tiga pegawai polis yang bertugas telah cedera di bahagian tangan.

Pihak polis telah mengakui kesilapan tersebut dan meminta maaf atas ketidakpekaan memuat naik sekeping gambar yang disangka sebagai anggota polis yang cedera semasa menjalankan tugas di malam ambang tahun baru.”
Continue reading “Polis sepatutnya menunjukkan rasa kesal secara bersungguh-sungguh kerana mendakwa gambar seorang lelaki yang dimuat naik dalam laman Facebook rasmi polis adalah gambar seorang anggota polis yang cedera ketika protes pada Sambutan Tahun Baru di Dataran Merdeka dengan menerapkan prinsip demokratik dalam menjalankan tugas memelihara kesejahteraan orang ramai dan bukan hanya kerajaan”

Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Najib Razak perlu bertindak segera untuk menghentikan sebarang serbuan haram dan bertentangan dengan perlembagaan oleh pihak berkuasa Islam ke atas agama lain kerana kegagalan berbuat demikian akan menjadikan mesej yang beliau sampaikan bersempena perayaan Krismas dan Tahun Baru hilang makna dan hilang kredibiliti.

Dalam tempoh kurang daripada sepuluh hari selepas Najib menyampaikan dua ucapan Krismas – satu dalam majlis Hi-Tea Krismas rasmi di Kuala Lumpur dan satu lagi dalam majlis Rumah Terbuka Krismas peringkat kebangsaan di Pulau Pinang – mesej kesederhanaan, keharmonian dan kerukunan hidup antara kaum telah dinafikan menerusi serbuan haram oleh Jabatan Agama Islam Selangor (Jais) dan polis ke atas premis Persatuan Alkitab Malaysia dan rampasan sebanyak 350 naskhah Alkitab berbahasa Melayu dan Iban.

Dalam ucapannya, Najib menyebut bahawa lebih baik untuk Muslim dan Kristian tidak berbalah tentang perbezaan di antara mereka, sebaliknya mencari titik persamaan “untuk memelihara keamanan, keharmonian dan kestabilan negara,” sambil menggesa kedua-dua kelompok itu untuk memahami sensitiviti kedua-dua agama supaya masing-masing tidak tersentuh.
Continue reading “Najib perlu bertindak segera untuk menghentikan sebarang serbuan haram dan bertentangan dengan perlembagaan oleh pihak berkuasa Islam ke atas agama lain kerana kegagalan berbuat demikian akan menjejaskan mesej yang beliau sampaikan bersempena perayaan Krismas dan Tahun Baru”

Tahun ini kita akan menyambut ulangtahun ke-50 pembentukan Malaysia yang telah berlangsung pada 16 September 1963.

Amat malang, menyedihkan, dan mengejutkan apabila ancaman terbesar terhadap perpaduan dan solidariti Malaysia sepanjang tempoh 50 tahun pembentukannya timbul pada tahun ini – serbuan haram dan bertentangan dengan perlembagaan oleh Jabatan Agama Islam Selangor (Jais) ke atas Persatuan Alkitab Malaysia (BSM) serta rampasan ke atas Alkitab berbahasa Melayu dan Iban kelmarin.

Tidak keterlaluan kalau disebut bahawa serbuan haram dan bertentangan dengan perlembagaan oleh Jais serta rampasan ke atas Alkitab berbahasa Melayu dan Iban itu sebagai tamparan terhebat terhadap perpaduan dan proses pembentukan negara Malaysia yang telah berlangsung selama 50 tahun serta mampu menimbulkan perpecahan, pertelagahan dan malah menggoyangkan negara.

Saya setuju sepenuhnya dengan Persekutuan Kristian Malaysia (CFM) bahawa serbuan dan rampasan ke atas Alkitab berbahasa Melayu dan Iban itu mencabul kebebasan beragama para penganut Kristian yang dijamin oleh perlembahaan dan merupakan “serangan agresif” terhadap hubungan antara agama di Malaysia.
Continue reading “Cadangan pertemuan antara para pemimpin tertinggi Barisan Nasional dan Pakatan Rakyat untuk membincangkan agenda dan pelan induk Perpaduan Nasional bagi membina semula perpaduan”

Peristiwa-peristiwa yang berlaku pada beberapa hari pertama tahun baru 2014 membuatkan rakyat Malaysia berfikir tentang masa depan negara ini.

Salah satu persoalan meresahkan rakyat Malaysia ialah sama ada Umno telah berubah daripada sebuah parti pembina negara menjadi parti pemusnah negara dengan sokongan Muhyiddin terhadap protes di luar gereja dan Noh Omar mempertahankan protes Umno Selangor terhadap Kristian.

Pada hakikatnya, sokongan yang diberikan oleh Muhyiddin dan Noh Omar terhadap tindakan haram dan bertentangan dengan perlembagaan oleh Jabatan Agama Islam Selangor (Jais) yang menyerbu Persatuan Alkitab Malaysia (BSM) dengan bantuan penuh Polis membangkitkan persoalan serius tentang keikhlasan, keseriusan, dan komitmen para pemimpin Umno terhadap jaminan asas kebebasan beragama yang diberikan oleh perlembagaan untuk semua rakyat Malaysia, selain Penyelesaian 10 Perkara yang disahkan oleh Jemaah Menteri pada April 2011 untuk mengakhiri kontroversi Alkitab.
Continue reading “Apakah Umno telah berubah daripada sebuah parti pembina negara menjadi parti pemusnah negara dengan sokongan Muhyiddin terhadap protes di luar gereja dan Noh Omar mempertahankan protes Umno Selangor terhadap Kristian?”

DR BRIDGET WELSH | 3:22PM Dec 31, 2013
Malaysiakini

COMMENT As 2013 draws to a close, it has not been a good year for democracy in South-East Asia. Recent news has riveted on the protests in Thailand, where those dissatisfied with the current leadership of Yingluck Shinawatra and her amnesty provisions have taken to the streets rather than opt for a solution through elections.

Throughout the year, however, there have been worrying signs that the increase of authoritarian practices, intolerance, failings in governance and discontent from the public at large have been on the rise in the region.

While the Philippines celebrated one of the fairest and non-violence legislative elections in its history in May, two of the countries in the region experienced among the worst elections in their history.
Continue reading “Dark clouds hovering over SEA democracy”

For ten days between the Christmas National Open House 2013 in Penang on December 25 and the 2014 New Year monthly morning assembly of civil servants in the Prime Minister’s Department this morning, the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak disappeared from the public view.

Apart from the 2014 New Year Message on New Year’s Eve, which would have been drafted by his coterie of highly-paid consultants well in advance, there was not a word from the country’s Prime Minister although the country had never swirled and whirled with more disturbing developments and events which included:

• The deepening economic crisis caused by a series of price hikes and looming avalanche of more price hikes in the coming weeks and months culminating in the introduction of the GST at six per cent in April 2015;

• Crisis of deteriorating national educational standards for the past decade, with the country heading further south with the results of TIMSS 2011 and PISA 2012, and the Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin making himself “scarce” from public to avoid having to “square the circle” of how Malaysian students can perform several educational miracles under the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013-2025 to catapult to top-third of TIMSS and PISA international educational assessments when Malaysian students have continued to plunge in international educational standards;

• Crisis on the corruption front, despite the biggest budgets in past few years for the anti-corruption agency, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission. In the last 19 years when Transparency International maintained its Corruption Perception Index, Malaysia achieved the dubious distinction as one of the countries which had been downgraded both in TI CPI ranking and score, as well as losing out to several countries which had lower CPI ranking and score in 1995.
Now, we are at the risk in the near future of being overtaken by countries including China and Indonesia which had been behind Malaysia and at the bottom of TI CPI in 1995. Continue reading “Five national crisis scorching the country should top the agenda of a National Reconciliation Summit of BN and PR leaders”

The first few days of the 2014 New Year have provided much food for thought for Malaysians concerned about the future of the nation.

One of the question vexing Malaysians is whether UMNO has been transformed from a nation-building to a nation-destroying party with the Deputy Prime Minister and UMNO Deputy President Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin supporting protests outside Churches and the Selangor Umno Chief Datuk Noh Omar defending Selangor UMNO protesting against Christians.

In fact, the support given by Muhyiddin and Noh Omar to the illegal and unconstitutional Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) raid on the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM) fully aided and abetted by the Police raises the serious question about sincerity, seriousness and commitment of UMNO leaders’ to fundamental and constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion for all Malaysians as well as 10-Point Solution to end the Bible controversy endorsed by the Cabinet in April 2011.

As there is no dispute that the Jais raid on the BSM and the confiscation of the 300 copies of the Bible in Bahasa Malaysia and another 10 in Iban is a clear transgression of the 10-Point Solution arrived at between the Federal Government and the Christian community on April 2, 2011, which was reiterated in an official letter from the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to Bishop Ng Moon Hing, chairman of the Christian Federation of Malaysia on April 11, 2011, Muhyiddin and Noh Omar (who was a Cabinet Minister in 2011) must now declare whether they still support the 10-Point Solution or whether they want to dissociate themselves from the accord! Continue reading “Has UMNO transformed from a nation-building to a nation-destroying party with Muhyiddin supporting protests outside Churches and Noh Omar defending Selangor UMNO protesting against Christians?”

Mohamed Hanipa Maidin
Malaysiakini
Jan 5, 2014

MP SPEAKS

At present we are witnessing religious bigotry rearing its ugly head. As a Muslim, I am asking myself what kind of Islam is my fellow Muslims are trying to portray.

Many religious issues are unfortunately being mishandled by the BN government. The muted prime minister lacks political courage to find any effective solution to heal the wounds.

The issue of shia, the ongoing fiasco over the use of ‘Allah’, the attempt to amend Article 3 (1) of the Federal Constitution declaring the sect of ahlul sunnah as an official version of Islam, the statement by Perak Mufti Harussani Zakaria linking the participants of peaceful assembly in Dataran Merdeka as traitors, thus it would be lawful to execute them, the raid by Jais leading to the seizure of Malay Bibles and the arrest of two Christian adherents, are but few examples depicting the fragility of religious issues.

Islam has nothing to do with all this. Neither has Christianity, I sincerely believe. Unfortunately, Islam has been always misjudged through the prism of irresponsible acts of its adherents.

It has been said that Islam is being hidden by Muslims themselves through their conduct and behaviour.

To quote Alexender Pope, “a little knowledge is dangerous thing”.

Knowledge of Islam or rather the lack of it, has contributed to this state of affairs. Continue reading “Religious bigotry rearing its ugly head”