Day: March 2, 2014

“Thief shouting thief” is what I immediately thought of when I saw the Awang Selamat column in Mingguan Malaysia today entitled “Pihak berkuasa kita!”, as it not only reeks of hypocrisy but clearly had the ignoble objective of distracting attention from their incessant incitement of racial and religious hatred through lies and falsehoods with “immunity and impunity” to pit race against race and religion against religion in Malaysia.

Awang Selamat, the collective pen name of the Utusan editors, today made the preposterous and outrageous claims that government agencies were “strengthening” extremist cells in the country by letting the opposition DAP and its alleged “Red Bean Army” (RBA) run free.

The authorities were also attacked for practising double standards for failing to haul up and prosecute DAP leaders or members of the RBA the party purportedly runs for allegedly insulting the Malays, Islam, security forces, civil servants, and the country.

Awang claimed: “In Malaysia, if you want to insult and flare up extremism, join DAP. As the most racist party, DAP has a grand licence to do extreme provocation. Continue reading “Utusan Malaysia guilty of “Thief Shouting Thief” reeking of hypocrisy and to distract attention from their incessant incitement of racial and religious hatred through lies and falsehoods with “immunity and impunity””

by Kevin Soo
The Malaysian Insider
March 02, 2014

So goes the narrative: We are an example of how a multiracial country can flourish. We find our strength in diversity. We are all Malaysians (or, at least, those from an older generation tell us stories about how race did not matter when they were children).

I ask myself daily how true this is. Do we simply happen to be citizens of the same state, or is there anything that truly binds us into a collective? Is national unity a reality that we are defending, or are we simply hoping that if we repeat it enough the narrative will turn into reality?

We tell each other and ourselves these stories, as if they are the truth, while extremism and discord are only aberrations caused by a vocal minority. “True Malaysians reject that,” we say. But on what basis do we lay claim to be true Malaysians? We need to at least consider possibility that our stories are becoming increasingly fictional for the real Malaysian. Continue reading “Unity is only a dream”

Ahmad Mustapha Hassan
The Ant Daily
28/02/2014

OUTSPOKEN: As Malaysia marches into the unchartered waters of the future, I have good reason to be less optimistic about the country. Day in and day out, groups with neo-fascist agenda keep creating problems to disunite the people. Even government agencies have jumped on the bandwagon to add more fire to this unholy movement.

Jakim, the department entrusted with Islamic development, blames all quarters about the perceived threat to Islam. The latest rumbling accuses the Christians and the Jews of undermining Islam. This is a fantasy which only the illiterate and the confused can create. But then Jakim has not been very constructive in its actions since its inception in 1991. It only gropes around to justify its existence by creating fear among the Malaysian Muslims.

This story about the Christians and the Jews undermining Islam is an archaic one that has been overused and misused.

Jakim’s strategy is to portray all and sundry as being the enemies of Islam. It never tries to strengthen the religious beliefs of the Muslims. Its actions therefore are very negative in nature.

It has not done anything to strengthen interfaith harmony. Instead, it is destroying the goodwill that had been built up in the past. Never in the history of the country had fingers been pointed that Islam was facing threats from other religious groups. Continue reading “Interfaith harmony in shambles as government agencies stoke the fire”