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Empathy and Myopia: How Malaysians No Longer Understand One Another

By Farish A. Noor

Malaysia is once again landed with yet another predictable mini-controversy (as there are too many controversies at the moment, this one has been relegated somewhat) involving a report that was purported written by two Muslims for the magazine al-Islam. The report was written by the two Muslims who claimed that their intention was to investigate the allegations that Muslims were being converted to Christianity in the country, but the cause of the controversy lies in the fact that the two writers chose to pretend to be Christians and took part in Christian rituals of worship in the Church. For many Christians the most offensive aspect of the investigation lay in the claim that the writers took part in the rituals without revealing who they were, and that they consumed the holy wafer/bread of Christ, then spat it out, and photographed the remnants of what they had consumed later.

Now of course this begs the obvious question: How would Muslims had reacted if some non-Muslim journalists had done the equivalent; to enter a mosque, take part in rituals, photographed them, and then published the report in some journal?

In response to the clamour of complaints that have been issued, the authorities now claim that the two writers will be investigated, and if found guilty of carrying out acts detrimental to public order may even be imprisoned. This would not, however, address the key issue which is this: Have levels of emphathy and understanding in Malaysian society dropped to such an extent that someone could even contemplate doing such a thing without considering its wider impact on society and the consequences to others and themselves? Could the writers of the article not even consider the potential offence that they might have caused by assuming a fake identity only to take part in rituals they did not believe in; and did they not realise that this might have been seen as outrageous by others?
Continue reading “Empathy and Myopia: How Malaysians No Longer Understand One Another”

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Crucial to resolve conversion issues without delay: Lim

The Sun | Giam Say Khoon

KUALA LUMPUR (July 1, 2009) : Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timur) wants parliament to convene an emergency sitting to pass amendments to the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976 not relating to Islam.

He said the announcement of Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz on Tuesday that laws on conversion would be indefinitely put on hold pending a decision of the Conference of Rulers was a great disappointment and setback in the resolution of such a “burning issue”.

“I call on the cabinet on Friday to take a bold decision on matters arising from unilateral conversions … these must be resolved without any delay,” Lim said.

“The Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act has nothing to do with Islam, and I call on the cabinet to make a decision so that parliament can convene an emergency sitting in July or August, specially to deal with this problem which has become so polarising and dividing,” he said at the parliament lobby.
Continue reading “Crucial to resolve conversion issues without delay: Lim”

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Help find my one-year-old daughter, pleads mum

Malaysiakini | S Pathmawathy | Apr 27, 09 5:02pm

Five thousand missing persons posters have been printed to help find Muslim convert, K Patmanathan, and his one-year-old daughter Prasana Diksa.

wanted Patmanathan

Last week, the Ipoh High Court granted M Indira Ghandi the custody of all her three children, who were converted by their father without her knowledge on April 12, pending the full custody hearing on May 12.

As the older children – Tevi Darsiny, 12 and Karan Dinesh, 11 – were in the care of their mother from the beginning, the court ordered that the youngest child which is in her father’s care to be returned to the mother.

However, despite the court order to return the toddler, the father, who has since the conversion assumed the name Mohd Ridzuan Abdullah, has gone missing.

Continue reading “Help find my one-year-old daughter, pleads mum”

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Whereabouts of year-old baby girl Prasana Diksa shapes up to be first major test of Najib’s “Performance Now” motto

When Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced “Performance Now” as one of the three mottos of his government’s overarching philosophy, he would have realized that it would be put to a test early in his premiership.

Najib should have been realistic enough to know that he would not enjoy the luxury of a political honeymoon of “The First 100 Days”, but it is unlikely that he expected it to come under a major test immediately after his first three weeks as Prime Minister and in the form of a year-old baby girl Prasana Diksa.

In Ipoh, kindergarten teacher M. Indira Ghandi’s vigil for the return of her daughter, Prasana Diksa, who is still being breastfed, is coming to 48 hours since the Ipoh High Court judgment on Friday granting her interim custody of her three children, Tevi Darsiny, 12, Karan Dinish 11 and Prasana Diksa; a restraining order against her husband K. Pathmanathan, who has assumed the name Mohd Redzuan Abdullah after conversion to Islam, until full custody hearing on May 12; ordered the husband to surrender Prasana to the mother and a mandamus to the police to assist Indira in the matter. Continue reading “Whereabouts of year-old baby girl Prasana Diksa shapes up to be first major test of Najib’s “Performance Now” motto”

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How long has Indira to wait for return of her year-old baby?

Ipoh kindergarten teacher M. Indira Ghandi has kept an overnight vigil at the Ipoh Police Headquarters waiting for her year-old baby Prasana Diksa to be returned to her.

Yesterday, the Ipoh High Court granted her interim custody of her three children, Tevi Darsiny, 12, Karan Dinish 11 and Prasana Diksa; a restraining order against her husband K. Pathmanathan, who has assumed the name Mohd Redzuan Abdullah after conversion to Islam, until full custody hearing on May 12; ordered the husband to surrender Prasana to the mother and a mandamus to the police to assist Indira in the matter.

How long more will Indira have to wait and keep up the vigil at the Ipoh Police Headquarters until her baby daughter who is still being breastfed is returned to her?

Prasana was forcibly taken away from her by her father, who forcibly converted the three children to Islam without her knowledge or consent.

Although the Cabinet has taken a decision that children of divorced parents be brought up in the common religion at the time of marriage when one parent converts to another religion, Indira is still waiting for the return of Prasana Diksa.

Thursday’s Sun carried a report entitled “IAIS chief says conversion of children to Islam ‘un-Islamic’”, viz: Continue reading “How long has Indira to wait for return of her year-old baby?”

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Parliamentary Roundtable on Indira Ghandi and forced conversion of her 3 children – if Tsu Koon cannot deliver “Performance Now”

The exasperation of the President of the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism, Datuk A. Vaithilingam at the lack of action of the “Performance Now” Cabinet, and in particular the KPI Monitor Minister In the Prime Minister’s Department, Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon over the injustices in the latest case of controversial and oppressive conversion is understandable.

As Vaithilingam lamented: :”Everyone is very sympathetic. There is no use being sympathetic if it is mere sympathy without action.”

We are giving Tsu Koon another week to deliver the “Performance Now” motto of the Najib government to end the injustices suffered by kindergarten teacher from Ipoh, M. Indira Ghandi, 35, and her three children, Tevi Darsiny, 12, Karan Dinish 11 and year-old baby Prasana Diksa or a Parliamentary Roundtable will be convened to demand justice for such victims of controversial and oppressive conversions.

In the past week, the three-man “Performance Now” Cabinet Committee, headed by Koh, to resolve the Indira Ghandi issue, has expanded to five Ministers – with the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department for Law and Parliament, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz and the Minister for Women, Family and Community Development, Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil joining the original three Ministers – Koh, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department on Islamic Affairs, Datuk Jamil Khir Baharom and the Human Resources Minister, Datuk Dr. S. Subramaniam. Continue reading “Parliamentary Roundtable on Indira Ghandi and forced conversion of her 3 children – if Tsu Koon cannot deliver “Performance Now””

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An Eid in Jogjakarta

By Farish A. Noor
Oct.1, 2008

It has been many years, more than two decades in fact, since I last enjoyed celebrating Eidul Fitri anywhere in the world. Over the past decade Eid has always been a poignant moment for me, as I reflect on how badly things have deteriorated for Muslims the world over. It is sad, to say the least, that despite all the efforts of legions of progressive Muslim academics, activists and leaders the world over the image of Islam and Muslims worldwide has taken such a battering in the wake of 11 September 2001. During my long stay in Europe Ramadhan was often a testing time when academic-activists like myself would be drawn into public debates about how Islam constituted a ‘threat’ to European identity (while of course the fact that the capitals of Western Europe have been colonised by scores of McDonalds and KFC outlets is seen as something perfectly normal, as if Chicken fried ala’ Kentucky state was as European as croissants, bratwurst or fish and chips…)

After twenty-one years of living in Europe and watching the slide to the extreme right in the politics of countries like Holland, Austria and Germany, it makes a huge difference to be back in Asia and in Java in particular, the home of my ancestors. The past two months however have been laborious as I was trekking across all of Java as part of my research project. Finally, after eight weeks of non-stop travel and fieldwork, I found myself tired, smelly, dirty but contented as I nestled back in my adopted hometown of Jogjakarta, just in time to catch the takbir that announced the end of Ramadhan and the coming of Eid. Continue reading “An Eid in Jogjakarta”

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Plot to make Teresa anti-Malay & anti-Islam bogey

Teresa Kok Is Still On Their Target, But For a Different Reason Now

From Malaysia Wave

The powers that be has failed. They attempt to use Teresa Kok as the bogeyman for Malays has failed. Their attempt to create feeling of anger and dissatisfaction among the Malays against DAP has failed.

What’s more important, the Malay dissatisfaction they fail to create has also resulted in their failure to convince PAS members that Barisan Nasional is the answer to the security and the future of Islam in Malaysia. THIS IS THEIR BIGGEST FAILURE.

Teresa Kok has successfully fend off all attempts to paint her as Anti Islam and Anti Malay. She issued a statement denying her involvement in the “azan” controversy long before she was arrested under ISA. Her Press Secretary writes very good Bahasa Malaysia too, so her statement was well understood and accurate.

After Teresa’s release, she attended a Buka Puasa while wearing a skirt on the compound of the Masjid. Suddenly all hell broke loose. Her skirt was suddenly painted as an abomination and Teresa was painted as someone with complete disrespect to Islam for entering a mosque compound wearing a skirt. Continue reading “Plot to make Teresa anti-Malay & anti-Islam bogey”

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Home Minister very at home with his ignorance

by Martin Jalleh

Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar believes it is his prerogative and position to preach to the Catholic community in Bolehland on what they should and should not believe in.

“Religion and politics should not mix”– he pontificates. This is ludicrous especially coming from a Minister whose political party’s interpretation of its own religion has politicised almost everything in Bolehland.

The Home Minister hops on the bandwagon of the horde of “little mullah napoleons” (LMNs) in the country to dominate, dictate, decide and even define what non-Muslims can and cannot discuss, deliberate on, and display in print.

He joins the LMNs in his ministry in hounding The Herald. He says he was not aware of the instructions by his Ministry to decide whether to suspend or revoke The Herald’s publication permit, yet he decides to threaten the publication. Continue reading “Home Minister very at home with his ignorance”

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2nd Abdullah premiership – is it to be even worse than 22-year Mahathir administraiton?

To many concerned Malaysians, the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, has shown his true colours yesterday – he is not that open, liberal and tolerant after all.

He laid down two edicts for his second administration:

• No open forums or dialogues on religious or racial issues as they can undermine peace and stability – no more discussion on matters of religion or race that had already been enshrined in the Federal Constitution; and

• No objection to the use of Internal Security Act and Sedition Act against those who organize such forums like the Bar Council – up to the Home Ministry to act against the Bar Council.

Is it any wonder that Malaysians react to such edicts with the premonition that the second Abdullah premiership could be even worse than the previous 22-year Mahathir administration? Continue reading “2nd Abdullah premiership – is it to be even worse than 22-year Mahathir administraiton?”

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The future of our interfaith dialogue

by Azly Rahman

Must engaging in dialogue on religion be painful? Must it be greeted with hostility? Or is it a moot question—that the answer lies in what we failed to have done through our education system, decades ago?

I have faith that we will one day be ready to appreciate interfaith dialogue. On this note, I too believe that we will one day appreciate philosophical discussions and scientific debates. My experience conducting interfaith dialogue every semester in the American classroom setting gives me the assurance that we will be ready. It would be good to one day know that our corridors of academia are filled with passionate discussions on the self, the universe, God, and fate of humanity.

The core of each religious foundation is there for us to explore and to learn from. We need to escape from being trapped in the particular and liberate ourselves into explorers of the universal. Of course this will take time given the nature of class and caste system we are in; developments that have impacted upon our consciousness. But evolve we must, if we are to see a progressive country emerging out of these ruins of communal politics, immorality of modern capitalism, and persistent religious misunderstandings. Ignorance is the greatest enemy of knowledge, as the sage Socrates once said. Continue reading “The future of our interfaith dialogue”

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Storming of Bar Council forum – Had Umno plotted for the extreme reaction?

Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak said yesterday that the Bar Council’s persistence in going ahead with a forum on conversion to Islam has triggered extreme reaction from certain quarters, which in turn would threaten the country’s harmony.

He added that he had expected the extreme reaction to occur as the council ignored advice to call off the forum.

Is this an admission that UMNO had plotted for the extreme reaction to the Bar Council forum on religious conversions in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday – including the deplorable and disgraceful police conduct in submitting to the ultimatum by demonstrators threatening to storm into the Bar Council auditorium to disrupt the forum if the half-day forum was not ended by 10 am?

This must be the first time in the history of the Malaysian police force where it had openly and publicly submitted to the threats of demonstrators to commit an offence, i.e. to storm into a private property to disrupt a lawful meeting!

Can the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Musa Hassan and the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar defend and justify the shocking failure of the police to uphold law and order on Saturday? Continue reading “Storming of Bar Council forum – Had Umno plotted for the extreme reaction?”

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No, this ‘Babi’ will Not ‘Balik Cina’

By Farish A. Noor

I have just read the reports on the internet about the goings-on that led to the disruption and early closure of the public forum organised by the Bar Council on Conversion in Malaysia over the weekend. Apart from the other rather offensive remarks that were featured in the various reports that I read, I also chanced upon a rather curious revelation: Apparently during the commotion caused when some of the so-called ‘defenders of the faith’ had entered the room where the forum was being held, there were calls for a certain ‘Babi’ to ‘Balik Cina’.

Now I have checked and double-checked all the photos that are available on the internet and have seen no image that corresponds to the ‘Babi’ in question. Therefore for the sake of academic consistency and objectivity, I am compelled to ask the Bar Council this: Was there a pig in the auditorium where the forum was held? And if so, how could the Bar Council invite a pig to attend a forum that was open primarily for Malaysian citizens (who are overwhelmingly human, as identity papers and passports have not been issued to pigs or any other non-human species as far as I know)

Furthermore I need to ask how the demonstrators knew that the pig (if one was present) was of Chinese origin? Did it carry a Chinese passport, and if so, why was it in KL when the Olympic games were being held in Beijing and the world’s attention was focused there?

(*ed. I can only assume that this was a rather anti-social pig from China who had come to Malaysia to avoid the throngs of tourists who have overtaken Beijing, which would be a sensible thing that I would have done myself, so I confess to having sympathy with this mysterious invisible pig.) Continue reading “No, this ‘Babi’ will Not ‘Balik Cina’”

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Disruption of Bar Council forum on conversion – adverse reflection on law and order/religious harmony

The police yielding to pressure to disrupt the half-day Bar Council forum on conversion to Islam at 10 am in Kuala Lumpur today is a most adverse reflection on law and order as well as religious harmony in Malaysia on the eve of the 51st Merdeka anniversary.

Malaysia has failed a major test in nation-building to demonstrate that we are shaping up to be a more civil society where sensitive issues of inter-faith problems can be discussed in a mature and responsible manner to promote national unity and religious harmony in the country.

As the Bar Council has made it clear that the forum on religious conversion is not to question the provisions of Article 121(1A) of the Constitution which conferred syariah jurisdiction over Muslims but to address the conflicts of laws facing families caught between the separate jurisdictions of civil and syariah laws, greater understanding, tolerance and sensitivity should have been shown by all Malaysians concerned.

Such understanding, tolerance and sensitivity would undoubtedly have been present in the first four decades of Malaysian nationhood and I have no doubt that if such a forum had been organised ten years ago, there would not have been the insensitive, intolerant and deplorable reaction evident today. Continue reading “Disruption of Bar Council forum on conversion – adverse reflection on law and order/religious harmony”

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Police wants half-day Bar Council forum on conversion to end by 10 am because of protests

[News Flash 2 at 10.02 am: A few minutes ago, a woman participant went up to the floor mike defending the forum, but was met by shouts by protestors demanding the immediate end of the forum – forcing Bar Council President Ambiga Sreenevasan to announce its closure.]

[Flash – Just informed that police accompanied a few of the protestors into the forum to observe proceedings, five minutes before the forum is to have abrupt end at 10 am.]

The Bar Council half-day forum on conversion to Islam is going on now at its auditorium in Kuala Lumpur – in the face of a crowd of protestors outside bearing slogans and chanting Arabic verses and demanding the immediate cancellation of the forum.

It is a test whether Malaysia is shaping up to be a more civil society where sensitive issues of inter-faith problems can be discussed in a mature and responsible manner to promote national unity and religious harmony in the country.

The Police wants the forum to end by 10 am because of the protests.

As stated by the Bar Council Vice President Ragunath Kesavan, the Bar Council forum on religious conversion is to address the conflicts of laws facing families caught between the separate jurisdictions of civil and syariah laws.

It is not to question the provisions of Article 121(1a) of the Constitution, which conferred syariah jurisdiction over Muslims. Continue reading “Police wants half-day Bar Council forum on conversion to end by 10 am because of protests”

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Religion and the Social Contract: Can Religion be reconciled with Civil Society?

By Farish A. Noor

Modern nation-states are, for all intents and purposes, artificial entities that are the product of consensus and rational agency. Practically every modern nation-state in the world today traces its history to some founding moment and a founding document that lays down the terms of the social contract that brought together a disparate community of individuals to form a pact, which in turn sustains the nation as a whole and lends it sense of identity and cohesiveness over time.

Now of course the foundational moment of many a nation-state today is lost in the mist of history and some might ask the question of how and why should an agreement made by a handful of men (and it is nearly always men, not women, mind you) who lived centuries ago be relevant to the citizens of today? America’s founding moment, for instance, lay in the midst of battle and the struggle of the American colonies to break free from the yoke of British imperialism then. However even a cursory glance at the documents of the past will show that America’s founding fathers were a small band of landed white American capitalists, land-owners and slave-traders who cared little for the fate of the thousands of African-Americans who were the descendants of slaves brought there from Africa. Equally scant attention was paid to the plight of the native Americans who in time would be marginalised and corralled into their reserves and left out of the mainstream of society, relegated to the status of ‘savage natives’ unfit for modernisation. Likewise women who made up half of the colonies’ population are hardly mentioned in the founding documents of what later became the United States of America.

Be that as it may, there remained enough scope for expansion and development in the American Constitution to allow the country to adapt to the changing realities of the time, and crucial articles of the Constitution – which guarantee equality and freedom of speech, for instance – paved the way for the American Civil Rights movement and the American Feminist movement that came into being by the mid-20th century.

As in the case of the United States, so was it the case in many other secular democracies in the developed part of the world where social upheavals and transformation were facilitated by the looseness of their respective Constitutions, that in turn allowed for the continuous revision and re-reading of its meaning and intent. What is crucial to note in all these cases is the fact that the advances in terms of civil and political rights in these countries occurred via recourse to the Constitution and the rule of law. At no point was the Constitution rejected outright simply because the founding fathers of the nation all came from the same elite strata of white, middle-classed men. Continue reading “Religion and the Social Contract: Can Religion be reconciled with Civil Society?”

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Indonesia’s Battle for Religious Pluralism Continues

By Farish A. Noor

Over the past months Indonesia has witnessed, once again, mass demonstrations and mobilisation on its streets. Throughout the month of May, the campuses of the country spilled open and large demonstrations were organised in almost every major city across the Indonesian archipelago to raise awareness about the rising costs of living and in particular the rising cost of oil and gas; in a country that was once a major oil producer but which – over the past five years – has been reduced to being a net oil and gas importer.

While the students of Indonesia’s universities and colleges have taken to the streets to protest on matters that are related to the political economy of the country, other groups have also taken to the streets in protest over issues that have less to do with the material well being of the nation. Since April, Indonesia has also witnessed a string of demonstrations led and organised by right-wing communitarian religious parties and organisations such as the Fron Pembela Islam (Islamic Defenders’ Front, FPI) on matters that have little to do with the economic welfare and future of the country.

One such protest came in late April when the FPI, along with several other allied right-wing conservative Islamist groups, protested over the ruling that the Ahmadiya Muslim minority community was allowed to exist in the country as long as they did not openly declare themselves to be Muslims. For more than a century the Ahmadis have been living in Indonesia and historians will point to the fact that the founding fathers of Indonesia’s nationalist and anti-colonial movement were educated and drawn from the Ahmadi community as well. Continue reading “Indonesia’s Battle for Religious Pluralism Continues”

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Bible confiscation – rise of LMNs in Abdullah’s Islam Hadhari

“Fu: seized Bible copies returned to owner” was the headline in yesterday’s Star – on copies of the Bible taken from a woman at the Low Cost Carrier Terminal recently which were promptly returned to her within 24 hours of the matter being highlighted in electronic media like Malaysiakini and foreign agencies and press like the International Herald Tribune and the protest of the Council of Churches Malaysia (CCM).

The question every Malaysian is asking is – why is the government so super-efficient and super-responsive only when the general election is around the corner but such traits are totally forgotten after polling day?

It is just no good enough for Fu to say that the confiscation of 32 Bibles from a woman who had just returned from a visit to Manila was done by a Customs officer and did not involve his Ministry. Continue reading “Bible confiscation – rise of LMNs in Abdullah’s Islam Hadhari”

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Although case lost in Seremban High Court – let 74-yr-old Gan Eng Gor be the last “body-snatching” in Malaysia!

The Cabinet meeting tomorrow must resolve that 74-year-old Gan Eng Gor will be the last “body-snatching” case in Malaysia as it is a standing rebuttal of Malaysia’s boast as a world example of inter-racial co-operation and harmony.

The Cabinet should also decide that the police should not be involved in any “body-snatching” case as public confidence in the police will be adversely affected, on top of the divisive effects of such “body-snatching” incidents on Malaysian nation-building.

The Cabinet decision tomorrow is all the more imperative as the Gor family has lost all avenues of redress in the civil courts, as their application to the Seremban High Court for a declaration that Gor was not a Muslim was dismissed this morning in chambers on the ground that the High Court has no jurisdiction in the matter, as it belonged to the Syariah Court.

This is sad day for Malaysian nation-building and the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s oft-repeated boasts in international conferences of Malaysia as a model of inter-faith co-operation.

I am sure that the founding fathers of this nation, when agreeing to the Merdeka social contract in 1957, would never have imagined that 50 years after nationhood, Malaysia would have regressed to the extent that “body-snatching” has become a nightmare to bedevil inter-racial and inter-religious relations.

I have no doubt that Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Tan Cheng Lock, Tun Tan Siew Sin and Tun Sambanthan would have found it completely unthinkable that the nation could be plagued by a problem like “body-snatching” – with the police aiding and abetting the “body-snatchers”.

Enough is enough, and I call on the Cabinet tomorrow to send out a clear and unmistakable message that “body-snatching” is completely detrimental to the process of nation-building in multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-religious Malaysia and the worst possible advertisement of the nation as “Truly Asia” and a model of inter-faith understanding. The police must be directed that they should never be a party to such disgraceful “body-snatchings” in the country. Continue reading “Although case lost in Seremban High Court – let 74-yr-old Gan Eng Gor be the last “body-snatching” in Malaysia!”

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End “body-snatching” – Cabinet cannot continue to shirk its responsibility

Why are the MCA, Gerakan, MIC and other non-Muslim Ministers silent on another body-snatching case after the divisive Moorthy case two years ago where S. kaliammal, the widow of Everest mountaineer L/Kpl M. Moorthy, found only grief and injustice when she had no remedy in any court in the dispute as to whether her husband was a Hindu or a Muslim?

At the time, Malaysians were given the assurance that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his Barisan Nasional cabinet ministers would ensure that Malaysian inter-racial and inter-religious unity and harmony as well as Malaysia’s international reputation as a model of multi-religious nation would not again be marred by more body-snatching incidents.

However, the body-snatching incidents have not stopped, with the latest case involving the police seizing the body of Gan Eng Gor, who died a week ago aged 74, after his eldest son – himself a Muslim convert – said he had converted to Islam last year. This claim had been challenged by Gan’s wife and his seven other children.

(Speech at the DAP Kepayang dinner in Ipoh Barat on Sunday, 27th January 2008 at 10 pm)