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Tiada lagi Pakatan

– Izmil Amri
The Malaysian Insider
16 June 2015

Al-Fatihah.

Selesai dimandi, dikapan, diratap kematiannya; jenazah Pakatan Rakyat kini diusung menuju kuburan sebelum ia ditanam dalam kubur cetek separas buku lali. Tragedi ini kita saksikan bersama lebih sepuluh tahun lalu, ketika DAP meninggalkan Barisan Alternatif.

Kubur cetek Barisan Alternatif menyaksikan kebangkitan semula kebangkitan roh muafakat politik baru yang sepanjang dua pilihan raya lalu berjaya menggugat kerusi kerajaan Umno dan Barisan Nasional.

PR juga mati, dan rohnya kini bergentayangan mencari jasad baru untuk dirasuk; bagaikan watak antagonis novel kanak-kanak Harry Potter; Lord Voldermort yang meski tiada berjasad masih “hidup” dalam berbilang juzuk, sebelum tiba masanya ia bangkit semula.

PR, muafakat tiga parti politik pembangkang; tiada lain sekadar jasad, yang sepuluh hari lalu dijangkiti penyakit bawaan Muktamar PAS, kini terpaksa di-euthanasia; ekoran sakitnya yang bersangatan dan tidak terubat lagi. Continue reading “Tiada lagi Pakatan”

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Reclaiming Malayness

Dyana Sofya
The Malay Mail Online
June 17, 2015

JUNE 17 ― Last weekend, Projek Dialog, a non-governmental social discourse project aimed at promoting healthy debate and understanding within multicultural Malaysia, organised a forum entitled Melayu dan makna-maknanya, or “Malay and its meanings.”

I had the honour of being a panellist at that forum, together with Dr Lawrence Ross from Akademi Pengajian Melayu, Universiti Malaya; Syed Muhiyuddin from HAKIM; Syahredzan Johan from Lawyers for Liberty, and Nurhayyu Zainal from Parti Sosialis Malaysia. The forum was moderated by Projek Dialog’s Yana Rizal.

The forum began with Syahredzan enlightening the audience on the Constitutional definition of Malay. According to Article 160 of our country’s highest law, a Malay is defined by three characteristics, viz. a person who professes the religion of Islam, habitually speaks the Malay language, and conforms to Malay customs.

This legalistic definition of Malayness is interesting, because it effectively means that Malay is a political construct rather than an ethnic concept. Technically, this means that a Malay in Malaysia need not necessarily have any Malay genes whatsoever. For example, only in Malaysia would a Javanese identify as a Malay. In Indonesia, for example, no Javanese would ever claim to be a Malay.

Curiously, the Malaysian definition of Malay also prevents other ethnic Malays from qualifiying as Malays. For example, the great Filipino nationalist, José Rizal, an ethnic Malay who is hailed by history as an icon of the Malay race, would actually not qualify as a Malay in Malaysia, by virtue of the fact that he was not a Muslim. Continue reading “Reclaiming Malayness”

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First signs of “threatened with death to born anew” 置之死地而后生 – PR’s “cease to exist” situation elicited neither joy nor celebration from UMNO/BN

PAS MP for Parit Buntar Mujahid Yusuf Rawa gave an interesting description of the present political scenario in his interview with Malaysiakini yesterday when he quipped: “We need to die to be reborn, to live anew.”

Mujahid cannot be more apt when he said in his interview: “Pakatan is just a name. What is more important is the substance.”

Mujahid is referring to a situation which is also described in Sun Tzu’s Art of War and expressed in the Chinese saying, 置之死地而后生zhì zhī sǐ dì ér hòu sheng – “threatened with death to born anew”.

We can already see the first signs of this “置之死地而后生zhì zhī sǐ dì ér hòu sheng” effect, as it has elicited neither joy nor celebration from UMNO/BN quarters, apart from half-hearted “I told you so” reactions. Continue reading “First signs of “threatened with death to born anew” 置之死地而后生 – PR’s “cease to exist” situation elicited neither joy nor celebration from UMNO/BN”

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Bekas pemimpin PAS dirai, Malaysia bakal saksikan muafakat politik baharu

Zulkifli Sulong
The Malaysian Insider
17 June 2015

Malaysia akan menyaksikan muafakat politik baharu tidak lama lagi selepas 18 pemimpin PAS yang disingkirkan dalam muktamar baru-baru ini melancarkan perhimpunan pertama mereka di Muar, Johor malam tadi.

Kumpulan dikenali G-18 itu bermesyuarat sesama mereka kira-kira jam 6 petang di sebuah hotel dan pada jam 9 hingga 12 malam, mereka berucap di hadapan kira-kira 3,000 penyokong, jumlah dianggap besar untuk satu ceramah politik di Johor.

Hampir semua mereka hadir kecuali Datuk Husam Musa yang tidak berapa sihat dan Dr Syed Azman Ahmad Nawawi yang berada di luar negara.

Antaranya, bekas timbalan presiden Mohamad Sabu, juga dikenali sebagai Mat Sabu, bekas naib presiden Salahudin Ayub, bekas ketua penerangan Datuk Mahfuz Omar, bekas bendahari Asmuni Awi, bekas pengarah pilihan raya Dr Mohd Hatta Ramli, bekas ahli Jawatankuasa Pusat Datuk Dr Mujahid Yusof, Datuk Seri Mohamad Nizar Jamaludin, Mohamed Hanipa Maidin, Khalid Samad, Datuk Kamarudin Jaffar, Zulkifli Mohamad Omar, serta ramai lagi.

Pengarah perhimpunan, Mazlan Aliman, merupakan satu-satunya anggota kumpulan progresif yang menang dalam pemilihan AJK PAS Pusat baru-baru ini. Mazlan melepaskan jawatan itu Isnin lepas. Continue reading “Bekas pemimpin PAS dirai, Malaysia bakal saksikan muafakat politik baharu”

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The demonisation of secularism

Zairil Khir Johari
The Malaysian Insider
17 June 2015

Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-incurred immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one’s own understanding without the guidance of another. This immaturity is self-incurred if its cause is not lack of understanding, but lack of resolution and courage to use it without the guidance of another. The motto of enlightenment is therefore: Sapere aude (dare to know)! Have courage to use your own understanding! (Immanuel Kant)

The discussion on secularism in this country is a problematic one, chiefly because the term has become trapped in the narrow framework of identity politics dominated by the hegemony of ethno-religious nationalist discourse. As a result, secularism is now an emotive expression invoked as a label to paint its targets as anti-religion. In the Malaysian context, that always means anti-Islam.

Malaysia’s Department of Islamic Development (Jakim), the foremost religious authority in our country, for example, has issued warnings against conspiracies by “enemies of Islam” to manipulate them through ideas like secularism, pluralism, socialism, feminism and positivism. In May last year, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, added “human rightism” to the list of offending ideologies that threaten the faith of Muslims.

Why has secularism come to be so demonised? Continue reading “The demonisation of secularism”

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Academic freedom, critical thinking tools to fighting extremism, forum told

by Jennifer Gomez
The Malaysian Insider
17 June 2015

Universities have a role to play in preventing fanaticism and extremism from festering in society, academic Professor Dr Ibrahim Ahmad Bajunid said, warning that Malaysia was at a turning point.

Ibrahim, the deputy vice-chancellor of INTI-Laureate International University said extremism was taking hold and urged intellectuals to reclaim their fundamental rights.

He also said the Malays were “cultural prisoners” in Malaysia and that in many ways, the non-Malays were freer than the Malays in this country.

“When university people surrender and are not courageous and allow lesser thinkers take over because of their articulation and their loudness and their mechanism of power, they can actually oppress the masses.

“It is tragic when they oppress the intellectuals and the intellectuals accept the oppression,” he said.
Continue reading “Academic freedom, critical thinking tools to fighting extremism, forum told”