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Dyana Sofya hits back at critics over photo in women’s magazine

by Melati A Jalil
The Malaysian Insider
18 March 2015

DAP’s Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud hit back at her critics today, saying that a change in mindset is needed if people still associate bed with sex.

The former Teluk Intan by-election candidate recently received heavy criticism for taking part in a magazine photoshoot to raise awareness on violence against women.

She had posed on a bed for the campaign, called “Wake Up To A Good Cause” which aims to collect donations for Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO).

Her critics, which included the likes of Puteri Umno and social media users were quick to attack her, saying that it was a shameful act and young women should not pose “like that” to attract attention.

Dyana said it is this type of mindset that needed to be changed if people can misinterpret a message she was trying to sent through the photoshoot.

“If you see a bed, and you don’t think of sleep but of sex, then there is something wrong with you.

“There is nothing wrong with the photo, (but) there’s definitely something wrong with your mindset. It is this kind of mindset that we are combating against,” Dyana said. Continue reading “Dyana Sofya hits back at critics over photo in women’s magazine”

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Impossible to trust PAS again, says Ambiga

by Looi Sue-Chern
The Malaysian Insider
18 March 2015

Civil society leader and former Bar Council president Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan said PAS has betrayed the trust of the people who had voted for them on Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) platform, after the Islamist party went ahead to table a bill in the Kelantan state legislative assembly to reintroduce hudud in the state.

She said she was shocked and disappointed at PAS for what bringing back the Islamic penal code – a move which she said was in breach of PR’s common policy and a betrayal of voters who had supported PAS based on a shared platform with allies DAP and PKR.

“After this, it will be near impossible for them to regain that trust,” she told The Malaysian Insider today.

Ambiga said the PAS-led Kelantan administration should seriously look at its priorities, considering that the state was only recently hit by its worst floods in decades.

“The state and its wonderful people have not even begun to recover from the devastating floods and yet that does not seem to be at the top of the agenda for the state government,” she said. Continue reading “Impossible to trust PAS again, says Ambiga”

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Jawi, is this what you call Islamic justice?

P Ramakrishnan, Aliran
Free Malaysia Today
March 18, 2015

Why is Jawi hounding an innocent woman who has committed no crime or violated the tenets of Islam?

By persistently pursuing Borders bookshop manager Nik Raina Nik Abdul Aziz who had been discharged by the Syariah High Court, Jawi, the Federal Territory Islamic Affairs Department, is doing a great disservice to Islam.

Islam, as understood by many, is just and fair. It does not judge others unfairly and does not deny the just dues of others.

Jawi’s action in this case is contrary to Islamic justice and virtues. Its action is un-Islamic and goes against the common perception of what justice is all about.

It is hell-bent on criminalising an action that is not criminal. It is determined to punish someone who has not committed any wrong.

Its tenacious legal pursuit to punish Nik Raina, borders on an obsession to hound her for no justifiable reason at all. Continue reading “Jawi, is this what you call Islamic justice?”

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Hammering the hudud wedge into Pakatan

By Liew Chin Tong
Malaysiakini
Mar 17, 2015

MP SPEAKS To drive a wedge is to cause hostility or disagreement between two parties. In Malaysia, the implementation of the Islamic criminal code or hudud is one such wedge that is designed to break Pakatan Rakyat, and to bolster the position of the pro-Umno elements in PAS vis-à-vis the pro-Pakatan leaders.

I may be a DAP leader but I write this piece as a former academician who has devoted four years of my younger life, a decade and half ago, to understand the internal dynamics of PAS, with several academic publications on the subject.

I see myself as a long-time friend of the PAS that strives to defeat Umno at the ballot boxes, together with all Malaysians. For me, the PAS faction that is working secretly with Umno on the basis of asabiyyah (racial allegiance) should be regarded as a common enemy by all those who wish to see a Malaysia with a new clean, trustworthy, democratic and fair government.

The hudud debate did not figure much in the national discourse, even among the circle of top leaders in PAS, since 1950s. Phrases such as “Negara Islam” and “hudud” only became popular from the 1980s onward, especially after Anwar Ibrahim joined Umno.

This was just before the April 1982 general election, which gave the then new government of Dr Mahathir Mohamad an “Islamic” credential, and during the young ulama revolt against Asri Muda’s leadership of PAS, which was seen as more Malay nationalist in orientation, at the party’s muktamar (general assembly) in October 1982. Continue reading “Hammering the hudud wedge into Pakatan”

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Unable to handle GST, 68-year-old shuts up shop

by Looi Sue-Chern
The Malaysian Insider
18 March 2015

Moey Kok Meng and his family are clearing out his sundry shop in Air Itam. His final day of operation is next Wednesday.

“I am shutting down because of the GST (goods and services tax). I don’t think I can do business with the tax implemented,” he said.

Moey, 68, said he made the decision to close his shop, which has been in operation for 48 years, before Chinese New Year last month.

He said one of his three daughters had asked him if he was able to deal with the GST, and the question made him realise that he could not.

“I don’t know (how to operate) a computer. I don’t understand the system… how it works. Even after reading it and getting others explain to me, I am still unsure of how to do my business with it.

“I am just running a small, simple business. It is all giving me a headache, so I surrender,” he said. Continue reading “Unable to handle GST, 68-year-old shuts up shop”

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Call on Pairin, Harris as well as Najib to confirm that 30 years ago, the Berjaya Sabah State government was on the verge of surrendering the state’s autonomy powers on immigration to the Federal Government

The report in today’s Free Malaysia Today must be a shock to Sabahans and Malaysians, for it was revealed for the first time that some 30 years ago, the Sabah state government was on the verge of surrendering the state’s autonomy powers on immigration to the Federal Government.

This came about in the ongoing polemics betwee two former Sabah Chief Ministers, Datuk Harris Salleh and his nemesis, Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan.

The Free Malaysia Today report “Pairin tells Harris not to harp on ‘lost’ Sabah rights” quoted Joseph Pairin as reminding Harris that it was under Harris’ Berjaya Sabah State government that Sabah’s state rights were “slowly eroded until very little was lieft”.

Joseph Pairin said that if it had not be him as Chief Minister from 1985 to 1994, even the special immigration powers vested in the state would have been taken away.

Pairin alleged: “The Berjaya Government was on the verge of surrendering Sabah’s immigration powers before it was ousted from power.
“Some of us in Berjaya stopped it and asked for three years to think it over.”

Pairin said that “luckily”, his 45-day-old Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) wrested the reins of power from Berjaya and that “put paid to the Federal Government’s plan to abolish the state’s immigration powers”. Continue reading “Call on Pairin, Harris as well as Najib to confirm that 30 years ago, the Berjaya Sabah State government was on the verge of surrendering the state’s autonomy powers on immigration to the Federal Government”

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Najib should come to Parliament himself to answer personally criticisms by Mahathir and others and not through a proxy or underling

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim told Malaysiakini that he would answer former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir’s criticisms about the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, especially with regard to the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal and Najib’s family wealth in Parliament tomorrow.

Najib should come to Parliament himself to answer personally criticisms by Tun Mahathir and others and not through a proxy or underling, even though a Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department.

I do not believe previous Prime Ministers in Malaysia, or Prime Ministers and heads of government in other countries, need to depend on their underlings to answer criticisms directed at them.

Why is the Prime Minister not prepared to face Members of Parliament to answer the mountain of criticisms against him, from both inside UMNO and outside? Continue reading “Najib should come to Parliament himself to answer personally criticisms by Mahathir and others and not through a proxy or underling”