Posted on

Call on new MCA leaders like Liow Tiong Lai and Wee Ka Siong not to be xioren 小人 but dare to speak truth to power by declaring that Teresa Kok’s video is not anti-Malay, anti-Islam and anti-royalty

I am really intrigued as to how at least five UMNO Ministers could be tricked and fooled by the Chinese leaders in Barisan Nasional in MCA and Gerakan into believing that DAP National Vice Chairman and MP for Seputeh Teresa Kok’s “Onederful Malaysia CNY 2014” video is anti-Malay, anti-Islam and anti-Rulers as to publicly launch a ferocious attack on Teresa Kok and the video – when there is nothing anti-Islam, anti-Malay or anti-Rulers in the video.

For the past two weeks, I have challenged the detractors of Teresa Kok’s video to produce evidence that the video is anti-Malay, anti-Islam and anti-Rulers, promising to get Teresa to retract and apologise for the video if there is any such evidence, but there had been no takers by any Barisan Nasional leader, whether UMNO, MCA or Gerakan.

This is an “expensive” lesson to UMNO Ministers and leaders not to be so gullible as to believe everything the Chinese leaders in Barisan Nasional, whether MCA or Gerakan, tell them about the DAP is true, or it is their credibility which will be the biggest victims. Continue reading “Call on new MCA leaders like Liow Tiong Lai and Wee Ka Siong not to be xioren 小人 but dare to speak truth to power by declaring that Teresa Kok’s video is not anti-Malay, anti-Islam and anti-royalty”

Posted on

What kind of society are we becoming?

– A Malaysian
The Malaysian Insider
February 13, 2014

Some weeks ago, over a glass of wine, my friend told me excitedly that she was pitching for a government-linked project and when I asked how sure she was at getting it, she sounded confident.

A few days ago I bumped into her and asked how the progress was, she sadly told me that she had chosen to withdraw because someone who had the power to make the decision wanted something in return for awarding her the project.

Being a Christian, her conscience wouldn’t let the greed of another person get the better of her. Was I surprised? Like many Malaysians, I was not surprised that people asked for kickbacks.

However, upon further introspection, I was more surprised at the fact that I was not surprised that someone had asked for monetary favours in return for awarding a project. This seems to be the Malaysian way – corrupt, uncaring, unjust, insensitive, lack of transparency and unaccountable.

Today, we are bogged down with so many issues that to me camouflage the real issue at hand… what are we becoming? Almost every day our media is filled with issues of racial division and hatred that seems to be escalating.

From cow head delivery to chicken blood smearing, from effigy burning to reward for slapping, from buttock dancing to Molotov cocktails… where are we heading as a nation? There are so many “real issues” that those in authority do not want to address.

Corruption is so widespread that people don’t even blink an eyelid to offer a bribe. There was a time when people used the term “under the table money” but today it is no longer so. Money and favours are exchanged openly and “over the table”. Do we need evidence? Continue reading “What kind of society are we becoming?”

Posted on

It is not Teresa Kok who should apologise for her “Onederful Malaysia” as nobody could prove the video is anti-Malay, anti-Islam and anti-Royalty but Abdul Rahman Dahlan who must apologise for his racist tweets which showed he is not Minister for all Malaysians

In the Chinese folklore, there is a magic mirror which reveals goblins 照妖镜 [zhào yāo jìng] which now also applies to exposing conspiracies and other nefarious designs.

DAP National Vice Chairman and MP for Seputeh Teresa Kok’s “Onederful Malaysia CNYT 2014” has the effect of a 照妖镜 or a magic mirror exposing the goblins in the Malaysian political landscape.

One of the “goblins” exposed by Teresa Kok’s “magic mirror’ of the “Onederful Malaysia CNYT 2014” is none other than the UMNO Housing and Urban Wellbeing Minister Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan who gave full backing to the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi when the latter embraced the law of the jungle instead of upholding the rule of law when he said there was no need for the police to investigate a group of Muslim NGOs who offered a reward of RM500 later increased to RM1,200 for anyone who slapped Teresa Kok, as well as indulged in a “chicken slaughtering and blood-smearing” demonstration against DAP and Pakatan Rakyat leaders.

In his series of tweets, Abdul Rahman said Teresa Kok should not play victim when threatened by Muslim groups. Continue reading “It is not Teresa Kok who should apologise for her “Onederful Malaysia” as nobody could prove the video is anti-Malay, anti-Islam and anti-Royalty but Abdul Rahman Dahlan who must apologise for his racist tweets which showed he is not Minister for all Malaysians”

Posted on

If senior ministers and legislators publicly demonstrate that they cannot differentiate right from wrong, what type of a bad example are they providing not only to citizens but the young generation of Malaysians in schools, colleges and universities?

I welcome the Islamic Consumer Association of Malaysia (PPIM) distancing itself from the offer to “slap” DAP woman MP Teresa Kok at a disgraceful “chicken-slaughtering and blood-smearing” demonstration by self-styled “Council of Islamic NGOs” in Kuala Lumpur last Thursday.

PPIM secretary-general Dr Ma’amor Osman has clarified that PPIM was not directly involved in making the initial offer of RM500 for anyone to slap the Seputeh MP over her controversial Chinese New Year satirical video. The offer was later increased to RM1,200.

I fully agree with the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Joseph Kurup that the bounty to slap Teresa Kok could only be made by people who are of “unsound mind”.

Dr. Ma’amor’s repudiation of the disgraceful “slap offer” and “chicken-slaughtering and blood-smearing” episode shows that sanity is returning to groups who were targeted by dubious but highly irresponsible characters bent on inciting racial and religious hatred, conflict and tension based on lies and falsehoods. Continue reading “If senior ministers and legislators publicly demonstrate that they cannot differentiate right from wrong, what type of a bad example are they providing not only to citizens but the young generation of Malaysians in schools, colleges and universities?”

Posted on

UMNO Vice Presidents and Ministers will be even more irresponsible and reckless if their attack on Teresa Kok’s video as anti-Malay and anti-Islam is based on the video sub-titles which provide no cause whatsoever for such a rampage

I was yesterday reminded of the Chinese saying: 此地无银三百两（cǐdì wú yín sān bǎi liǎng), i.e .“there are no 300 pieces of silver here”, when I read a response to my statement that UMNO Ministers had been misled by Chinese BN leaders to spearhead the demonization campaign against Teresa Kok falsely accusing her video “Onederful Malaysia CNY 2014” as being anti-Malay and anti-Islam.

The Chinese saying came from an interesting story.

There was this man named Zhang San(张三） who fancied himself to be clever, but he really was somewhat dull. He managed to collect 300 taels of silver. He didn’t want this tidy sum of money to be stolen, so he had to figure out what to do with it. After considering various plans, he decided to bury the silver in a corner of a wall behind his house. Of course, he did when it was dark so he could evade detection. After the silver was buried, Zhang San was concerned the silver would be discovered. So, he thought he arrived at what was a brilliant plan! He made a sign that said 此地无银三百两 “No 300 taels of silver buried here” at the precise location where he buried the money.

I thought of this saying when I read of the tweets by the Gerakan national youth chief Tan Keng Liang yesterday: Continue reading “UMNO Vice Presidents and Ministers will be even more irresponsible and reckless if their attack on Teresa Kok’s video as anti-Malay and anti-Islam is based on the video sub-titles which provide no cause whatsoever for such a rampage”

Posted on

Is Najib and Cabinet really seriously about national reconciliation and national consensus rising above partisan differences to end national drift and loss of leadership and direction?

I have addressed three Open Letters to the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and the Cabinet before three Cabinet meetings in January last month urging the end of national drift and loss of leadership and direction in the past nine months since the 13th general elections last May.

I also appealed to the Prime Minister and the Cabinet to accept the olive branch offered by the Pakatan Rakyat leadership “to love and save Malaysia” by preserving and promoting national unity, harmony and tolerance in the country and to ensure that no nefarious and treacherous plot to cause racial chaos and religious conflagration could succeed in Malaysia.

After the January 29 Cabinet meeting, Najib announced a Cabinet green light for a Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat Leaders’ Summit on national reconciliation and national consensus, claiming that he had first mooted the idea of national reconciliation after the last general election but various parties were not responsive to his appeals to come together.

For the past six months, Pakatan Rakyat leaders have been urging for Barisan Nastional/Pakatan Rakyat talks on national reconciliation and national consensus in view of the unprecedented slew of major national crises faced by the country, including the quintuplet of national crisis covering nation building and national unity, economic, educational, security and anti-corruption. The PR leadership never proposed the idea of “national unity” government. Continue reading “Is Najib and Cabinet really seriously about national reconciliation and national consensus rising above partisan differences to end national drift and loss of leadership and direction?”

Posted on

Call on all moderates in Malaysia, whether BN or PR, to unite and isolate extremists and traitors of the country who want to foment racial chaos and religious conflagration through incessant incitement of racial and religious hatred, conflict and tension

We are gathered here tonight on the 111th birth anniversary of Bapa Malaysia Tunku Abdul Rahman, to discuss the legacy of the founder Prime Minister of the country.

Tunku had always wanted to be remembered as the “happiest Prime Minister” of a multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-cultural Malaysia, but if he is alive today, he would probably be the saddest person in the country.

For the past nine months since the 13th general elections in May last year, the country has been afflicted by a quintuplet of national crisis the magnitude of which had never been experienced by the country in over half a decade of nationhood – nation building and national unity; economic as reflected in the unchecked rise in prices and the increasing hardships of the low-income groups; educational with the unchecked decline in educational standards; security in terms of the safety of Malaysian citizens, investors and visitors; and good governance particularly in the losing war against corruption.

Never before has the country been more polarised both racial and religious as in the past nine months – because of a combination of two factors, a rudderless and directionless administration of Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and a systematic and relentless campaign by an irresponsible and reckless group who are prepared to destabilise the country by ceaseless incitement of racial and religious hatred, conflict and tension to create the conditions for another May 13 racial riots.

I believe that the overwhelming majority of Malaysians, whether in DAP, PKR or PAS in Pakatan Rakyat, or in Umno, MCA, Gerakan, MIC and the other component parties in Barisan Nasional, do not want another May 13 riots in the country as they want, like Tunku Abdul Rahman, love, peace, harmony and prosperity to prevail in Malaysia. Continue reading “Call on all moderates in Malaysia, whether BN or PR, to unite and isolate extremists and traitors of the country who want to foment racial chaos and religious conflagration through incessant incitement of racial and religious hatred, conflict and tension”

Posted on

What would Tunku Abdul Rahman do in light of raging racial tensions?

by Eileen Ng
The Malaysian Insider
February 11, 2014

Had Tunku Abdul Rahman been still around, he would have been disappointed with the elements that are trying to divide Malaysia and its people.

The nation’s first prime minister had considered himself to be the happiest premier in the world, but had he been alive today, he would be Malaysia’s saddest man due to the raging racial religious tensions.

With his legacy of unity being threatened, speakers at a forum held to commemorate Tunku’s 111th birthday last night in Kajang said there is a need to secure his legacy to ensure the nation remains united.

DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang said Tunku wanted peace, love and harmony, which he lamented seemed to be in short supply in recent months.

“Never before has Malaysia been so divided and polarised, with the last eight to nine months being the worst. Today’s forum is for us to think of what we have lost in our 56 years of nation building.

“Tunku would want to see a united country. Is Malaysia more united or divided now? Has the issue of race and religion become more polarising?” he said at the forum in last night.

The veteran politician noted that during Tunku’s time, there was certain civic and gentle chivalry that seemed to have gone down the gutters today. Continue reading “What would Tunku Abdul Rahman do in light of raging racial tensions?”

Posted on

Malaysians must form ‘peaceful resistance’ against racial and religious strife, says Ambiga

by Eileen Ng
The Malaysian Insider
February 11, 2014

Malaysians must band together for a “peaceful resistance” against ongoing racial and religious strife facing the country, Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan (pic) said last night when recalling founding prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman’s legacy for Malaysia.

The former co-chair of electoral reform group Bersih 2.0 said those who want to fight racism and bigotry must unite and stand together with the oppressed. Malaysia’s political mercury spiked in the past few months with a church attacked with a firebomb over the Allah issue and threats against an opposition lawmaker over a satirical video clip.

“How do we stop groups who are bent on dividing us? When they speak the language of racism and bigotry, we must respond with the language of unity and togetherness.

“When they speak the language of ignorance, we must speak the language of knowledge. When they attack our brothers and sisters, we must defend them.

“We must respond from a position of knowledge if we see such ignorance. When they create fear, we must respond with courage, when they divide, we must unite.

“We must make this message loud and clear – the more you divide us, the more we will unite,” Ambiga said to applause from the audience at the Tunku Abdul Rahman legacy forum in Kajang. Continue reading “Malaysians must form ‘peaceful resistance’ against racial and religious strife, says Ambiga”

Posted on

Cat out of the bag – MCA clearly behind the plot to mislead UMNO Ministers to spearhead the vicious demonization campagn against Teresa Kok falsely accusing her video as being anti-Malay and anti-Islam

Now the cat is out of the bag.

MCA is clearly behind the plot to mislead UMNO Ministers to spearhead the vicious demonization campaign against DAP National Vice Chairman and MP for Seputeh Teresa Kok falsely accusing her video, “Onederful Malaysia CNY 2014” as being anti-Malay and anti-Islam, and therefore deserving not only downright condemnation by all right-thinking Malaysians but also the fullest punishment whether under the laws of the land or the law of the jungle.

I have come to this conclusion after reading the Bernama report of the statement by the MCA deputy president, Datuk Dr. Wee Ka Siong, at the Sabah MCA CNY dinner in Kota Kinabalu last night, where he advised Teresa to apologise for her video clip “for the good of Malaysians”.

Present at the Sabah MCA CNY dinner in Kota Kinabalu were the Sabah Yang diPertua Negeri, Tun Juhar Mahiruddin, Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman and Urban and Regional Development Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal.

What interested me was the presence of Apdal, the first UMNO/BN leader to open up the attack on Teresa on the video on the completely baseless grounds that the video “Onederful Malaysia” lampooned the Malaysian security forces and the Lahad Datu incursion tragedy. Continue reading “Cat out of the bag – MCA clearly behind the plot to mislead UMNO Ministers to spearhead the vicious demonization campagn against Teresa Kok falsely accusing her video as being anti-Malay and anti-Islam”

Posted on

Has Malaysia a Home Minister of “unsound mind” who could condone and absolve the criminal actions of people stoking racial tensions by declaring payment of RM1,200 to anyone who slaps woman MP Teresa Kok?

This morning the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of national unity, Tan Sri Joseph Kurup said those stoking racial tensions by offering a reward for slapping DAP National Vice Chairperson and MP for Seputeh Teresa Kok are people of “unsound mind”.

The more relevant and pertinent question is whether Malaysia has got a Home Minister of “unsound mind” who could condone and absolve the criminal actions of the self-styled “Council of Islamic NGOs” in stoking racial tensions by declaring payment of RM1,200 to anyone who slaps woman MP Teresa Kok.

The 30-odd people from six Muslim groups involved in the “slap Teresa” demonstration and the chicken slaughter and smearing of chicken blood on a banner featuring DAP and Pakatan Rakyat leaders are “sick” but what is shocking is whether we have a Home Minister who is equally “sick” as to be capable of defending and championing the “sick” actions of the ‘Council of Islamic NGOs’.

Thanks to the publicity given by the extremist NGOs and their sponsors in UMNO, Teresa’s video “Onederful Malaysia CNY 2014” has now exceeded over 450,000 hits on YouTube. Continue reading “Has Malaysia a Home Minister of “unsound mind” who could condone and absolve the criminal actions of people stoking racial tensions by declaring payment of RM1,200 to anyone who slaps woman MP Teresa Kok?”

Posted on

I will ask Teresa to withdraw and apologise for the “Onderful Malaysia” video if anyone can show that there is any part which is anti-Malay or anti-Islam

I am most surprised by the furore over DAP National Vice Chairman and MP for Seputeh Teresa Kok’s “Onederful Malaysia CNY 2014” video which has highlighted the political desperation of some quarters and the rank political opportunism of others.

We can agree or disagree as to whether Teresa’s video was good, bad or even atrocious; most appropriate in giving vent to the people’s heart-felt grievances about the price hikes, low educational standards, worries about security because of rising crime and rampant corruption in the country or whether it is in poor taste and not befitting the work of a Member of Parliament; but what is completely unacceptable is resort to lies and falsehoods to accuse Teresa’s video as anti-Malay and anti-Islam.

I have seen Teresa’s video a few times because of the allegations that it is anti-Malay and anti-Islam, and although I have gone through the video with great care and attention, I cannot find any part of the video – a stinging critique on the failures of the Najib government to resolve the many pressing problems in the country – which could be regarded as anti-Malay or anti-Islam.

I will ask Teresa to withdraw and apologise for the “Onederful Malaysia” video if anyone can can show there is any part which is anti-Malay and anti-Islam.

This is because the DAP is a Malaysian-centred party serving the interests of all Malaysians, regardless of race or religion, and we will not condone any action which is anti-Malay, anti-Chinese, anti-Indian, anti-Kadazan or anti-Iban or anti any religion because to be anti-Malay, anti-Chinese, anti-Indian, anti-Kadazan or anti-Iban is to do the greatest disservice to the cause of Malaysia and the fulfilment of the Malaysian Dream. Continue reading “I will ask Teresa to withdraw and apologise for the “Onderful Malaysia” video if anyone can show that there is any part which is anti-Malay or anti-Islam”

Posted on

Is Zahid seriously suggesting that it is perfectly lawful and permissible to organise public demonstrations to offer RM1,200 to anyone to slap the PM, DPM or Home Minister?

Overnight, Malaysians are asking whether the law of the jungle have replaced the rule of law in the country on our way to a fully developed nation status in six years’ time in 2020.

This follows the shocking statement by the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Ahmad Zahid Hamidi who dismissed calls to investigate the organisers of Thursday’s chicken slaughter protest against DAP MP Teresa Kok, and who dismissed the RM1,200 reward offered by the self-styled “Council of Islamic NGOs” who slaps Teresa saying “there is nothing to investigate as it is not a threat”.

He said: “Why do we need to investigate that?

“Slapping is not a threat. If they say murder, then it is a threat.”

Is Zahid seriously suggesting that it is perfectly lawful and permissible to organise public demonstrations to offer RM1,200 to anyone to slap the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister or the Home Minister?

Is the Home Minister advocating the law of the jungle instead of the rule of law? Then we are not heading towards a fully developed nation in 2020 but down the abyss to a failed state by the end of the decade!
Continue reading “Is Zahid seriously suggesting that it is perfectly lawful and permissible to organise public demonstrations to offer RM1,200 to anyone to slap the PM, DPM or Home Minister?”

Posted on

Needed – Kajang Declaration on Sanity

Azly Rahman
Malaysiakini
Feb 7, 2014

Blatant racism, religious bigotry, school culture degenerating, public display of hatred, urging this or that kind of jihad at times for reasons unknown, the vigilantes taking over when law and order seem to be at a critical breaking point, mass feeding of the public with stories that hath no educational value and even devoid of moral sensitivity, frequent public protests plagued with character assassinations rather that the focusing on issues to be collectively addressed as a nation, parang-wielding robberies in broad daylight on an almost weekly basis, rising number of cases of children missing, political moves crafted and executed in desperation that weaken due process in democratic culture sorely in need of sane progression, politicians producing statements in arrogance on pressing devoid of intellectual depths, the intensification of effort by fascist groups to incite violence progressively in hope that the bloody riots of May 13, 1969 is to be re-enacted on a larger scale perhaps.

The media as a technology of consciousness shaper both at the level of Grand and Subaltern Narratives have been successful in playing the role of creator of peace and destroyer of it, as if there is no difference between good and evil in the way we use the materials to build this nation. Continue reading “Needed – Kajang Declaration on Sanity”

Posted on

Three things we learned from: The Teresa Kok video

The Malay Mail Online
February 7, 2014

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 7 — Scorching temperatures of the current lunar new year are no match for the heated tempers surrounding a seemingly innocuous Chinese New Year by DAP’s Seputeh MP, Teresa Kok.

But while the video itself was veiled in sly innuendo for the sake of plausible deniability, the responses that it triggered have laid bare three things:

1. Malaysians have lost their humour

The video is satire, that much is undeniable. Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin, for one, noted that the real crime was that it was not humorous at all.

While the jury may be out on the quality of the comedy, even non-native speakers of the Mandarin and Cantonese used within will see that all it does is caricaturise personalities and events it claims not to.

Of course there is the sting to the ego if you were to find yourself the subject of ridicule, but that is life. Sometimes the world laughs with you; other times, it laughs at you. Continue reading “Three things we learned from: The Teresa Kok video”

Posted on

Are we Turning into a State of Lawlessness?

Dato’ Mohd.Ariff Sabri bin Hj. Abdul Aziz
DAP MP for Raub
Friday, 7 February 2014

Is this country descending into a state of lawlessness? The chief executive is acting irresponsibly by allowing mobs to place posters making offers to people at large to collect reward money if they can assault Teresa Kok, a member of parliament. What if there were posters offering reward money to people if they can spit upon Najib or Rosmah? I am sure the police will come down swooping to arrest and jail whomsoever is responsible.

The police must act responsibly by going after the authors of the various reward posters offering money to assault Tersesa Kok. Surely these are invitations to the public at large to commit physical harm on someone else.

Causing physical harm or the threat of making one isn’t the same as making a parody of the country’s leadership and its management of the country. What if RM1200 is not enough and posters are put up to invite people to do more than slap?

The people of Kajang should take note of this. The unrestrained behaviour of the mobs acting under the cloak of Muslim NGO should be condemned vehemently. They should take this as indicator of the moral health of the BN government led by an incapacitate leader. Mob action and lawlessness appear to be popular medium of expression for UMNO supporters. This can only be taken as indicative of UMNO’s depraved religious, nationalist and racial sentiments. Continue reading “Are we Turning into a State of Lawlessness?”

Posted on

What Police would have done if a clutch of six NGOs had a demonstration which offered RM1,200 reward to anyone who dared to slap the Prime Minister and smeared the blood of slaughtered chicken on a banner featuring photographs of UMNO Ministers including the DPM?

Imagine what the Police would have done if there is a clutch of six NGOs which held a demonstration yesterday afternoon which offered RM1,200 reward to anyone who dared to slap the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and provide photographic evidence of their action, followed by the slaughter of two chicken and the smearing of their blood on a banner featuring photographs of UMNO Ministers including the Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin?

If there had been such a demonstration, the entire force of the Royal Malaysian Police led by the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar himself would have landed on the 30 odd demonstrators from the six NGOs like a ton of bricks and all the demonstrators would instantly be held under lock and key, subject to rigorous investigation and swift prosecution not only for violating the Peaceful Assembly Act in not giving police the minimum of 10-day notification of an assembly, but the more heinous crimes of causing ‘hurt’ to parliamentary democracy under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 [Sosma] and a battery of other charges under the Sedition Act, Penal Code, etc. which would probably keep them behind bars for the best part of their lives.

In actual fact, the clutch of six NGOs of some 30 people would not even be able to start slaughtering any innocent chicken, for they would have been packed into the “Black Marias” before they could gather, as the police would have got wind of their intentions well in advance.

The Malaysian Special Branch is undoubtedly one of the best of its kind in the world, thanks to the British colonial legacy and the primacy it has always enjoyed in the police hierarchy with collection of intelligence to protect the present regime as the top police priority when in a truly democratic society, the top police priority should be to promote and protect parliamentary democracy and human rights.

It would be completely inconceivable that media representatives from both printed and electronic media could be informed to give full coverage to the chicken-slaughtering and blood-smearing demonstration yesterday without the police having any inkling of the event before-hand – which could call for a complete shake-up of the Special Branch and even sacking of the Special Branch director. Continue reading “What Police would have done if a clutch of six NGOs had a demonstration which offered RM1,200 reward to anyone who dared to slap the Prime Minister and smeared the blood of slaughtered chicken on a banner featuring photographs of UMNO Ministers including the DPM?”

Posted on

Interfaith forum blames education system, national schools for racial polarisation

by Jennifer Gomez and Shahirah Rashid
The Malaysian Insider
February 06, 2014

National schools are the breeding ground for racial polarisation and the education system is the root cause of the problem plaguing the country now, an interfaith forum was told yesterday.

Parents Action Group for Education (PAGE) chairman Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim told an audience of about 65 at the interfaith forum titled “A dialogue for harmony”, that it was all about Malay supremacy in schools now.

PAGE was among 40 civil groups and non-governmental organisations at the forum in conjunction with World Interfaith Harmony Week, jointly organised by the Global Movement of Moderates and Promotion of Human Rights (Proham).

“The only solution is for the glory of national schools to be returned, which means we need more subjects in English in national schools, because right now, national schools are Malay schools and nothing more,” said Noor Azimah.

She said certain Muslim groups funded by Putrajaya were also the source of the problem.

Sisters in Islam executive director Ratna Osman also touched on the education system, saying her sons were told in school that they could not mix with non-Muslims.

“I was shocked when an ustazah told them they cannot be with non-Muslims because they are not like us, because we are supreme human beings.

“I am disgusted because that is not the kind of education which I received 30 years ago,” Ratna said. Continue reading “Interfaith forum blames education system, national schools for racial polarisation”

Posted on

‘Reject Violence, Advocate Peaceful Dialogue’

By Advocates for Peaceful Dialogue

Last week a draft statement calling on leaders and rakyat of Malaysia to condemn violence and engage in peaceful dialogue to resolve current ethno-religious issues was circulated.

It is indicative of the dangerous times that Malaysians are presently living in that the draft quickly drew a strong response. More than 200 academics, thought leaders and civil society organizations from Malaysia and abroad, all of whom want to see the country thrive and fulfil its full potential, wrote in support of the statement.

The campaign reminding the country’s leaders – and in fact all citizenry – to stand firm against intimidatory acts and violence needs to be sustained.

To ensure that the campaign reaches far and wide as well as serves as a wake up call to the Government of the day to live up to its political and moral responsibility to ensure the safety and well-being of all Malaysians, the petition has been made available for access and endorsement through the following links:

Advocates for Peaceful Dialogue (APD)

  • Lim Teck Ghee, Director, Center for Policy Initiatives

  • Gregore Pio Lopez, Visiting Fellow, Department of Political and Social Change, Australian National University

  • Azmi Sharom, University of Malaya

  • Tessa Houghton, Centre for the Study of Communications & Culture, University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus

The contents of the petition are also reproduced below, as are the names of key academic signatories and civil society organizations from home and other countries of the world concerned about the future of Malaysia
Continue reading “‘Reject Violence, Advocate Peaceful Dialogue’”

Posted on

Best way for Cabinet to commemorate 111th birth anniversary of Bapa Malaysia is to revive the Inter-Religious Council which Tunku Abdul Rahman set up in early decades to nationhood to resolve inter-religious differences and promote inter-religious harmony

This is the third day of a week-long world-wide celebration of “World Interfaith Harmony Week 2014” (Feb. 3 – 9) and Malaysia, as a microcosm of global multi-racial and multi-religious society, should be in the forefront to promote interfaith engagement where people of diverse faiths can undergo a process by which ‘tolerance’ develops into ‘understanding’ and eventually lead to unity of heart and meaningful relationships.

I want to remind the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak that on the first day of the World Interfaith Harmony Week last year on Feb. 2, 2013, he set the pace of the observance of the global interfaith harmony week and visited the places of worship of the nation’s five main religions in Brickfields in Kuala Lumpur, i.e. Sri Sakhti Karpaga Vinayagar temple, the Buddhist Maha Vihara temple, the Tamil Methodist Church, the Toaist Sam Kow Tong temple and the Madrasathul Gouthiyyah Surau.

On this day last year, he spoke about the need to hold on to the three principles of moderation, respecting those of other faiths, and fairness and being considerate.

But this year, not only the Prime Minister but the Department of National Unity and Integration in the Prime Minister’s Department, which is tasked with organising this year’s World Interfaith Harmony Week celebrations in Malaysia, lacks conviction and enthusiasm – which explains why the official portal of the Department of National Unity and Integration (http://www.jpnin.gov.my/home) is a blank about national-level celebration events of the World Interfaith Harmony Week 2014 featuring the Prime Minister when I just visited it on the third day of the world-wide week-long commemoration.

In actual fact, the government should have gone out of its way to ensure that the events to celebrate the World Interfaith Harmony Week this year should be on a grander scale and more meaningful than last year bearing in mind that inter-faith relations, goodwill and harmony had never been so sorely tested in the nation’s history as in the past eight months – resulting in the worst racial and religious polarisation in the country as a result of the incessant incitement of racial and religious hatred, conflict and tension by a small group of reckless and irresponsible people who seemed to enjoy immunity and impunity for their nefarious and treacherous ends to provoke racial and religious strife in the country. Continue reading “Best way for Cabinet to commemorate 111th birth anniversary of Bapa Malaysia is to revive the Inter-Religious Council which Tunku Abdul Rahman set up in early decades to nationhood to resolve inter-religious differences and promote inter-religious harmony”