(1) Malaysiakini.com（http://www.malaysiakini.com）
Hudud laws: Strong opposition from BN parties, 24 December 2008
Islamic party PAS came under more fire today following its determination to implement the hudud laws, an aspiration which was recently reignited by its vice-president Husam Musa. Chinese-based party Gerakan called on all Malaysians to stand united in opposing PAS' vision of turning Malaysia into a theocratic state.
The party's secretary general Teng Chang Yeow also blamed PAS' allies PKR and DAP for failing to stop the Islamic party from pursuing its agenda.
"They (DAP and PKR) must be held responsible for they have failed to stop PAS from spreading its dogmatic ideas, which are against the spirit and the principle of the federal constitution," Teng said in a statement today.
"The issue was never resolved when they formed Pakatan Rakyat after the March general election.
"When the coalition was formed and announced after the general election, it has effectively made DAP and PKR the accomplice of PAS, in helping PAS achieving its agenda, in making Malaysia a theocratic state," he added.
Likewise, Gerakan's BN ally MCA - the biggest Chinese-based party in the country - too was vocal today in objecting PAS' Islamic agenda. The party's Federal Territories Youth wing departed from the norm by marching over to the PAS headquarters in Kuala Lumpur to hand in a memorandum opposing the hudud stand.
The youth wing also unfurled banners by the roadside to express its displeasure with PAS' stand.
And the party's women's wing also issued a strongly-worded statement to rebuke PAS.
‘This is not a petty issue'
MCA women wing chief Chew Mei Fun said Pakatan leader Anwar Ibrahim should state the opposition alliance's stand on PAS' aspiration to implement Hudud laws if they come into power.
"Husam Musa's statement has resulted in anxiety among non-Muslims in the country.
"PAS is firmly insisting on introducing Hudud laws and has ignored the fact that Malaysia is a multi-racial and multi-religious country... (it) has also ignored the spirit of federal constitution," she said in a statement.
She said that Anwar, as the de facto leader of PKR and the head of Pakatan, has a responsibility to explain to the people on his stand over the hudud laws.
Chew also noted that DAP chairperson Karpal Singh and secretary-general Lim Guan Eng have also urged Anwar to respond to the issue.
"If Anwar decides to keep quiet, there are only two possibilities.
"One, Anwar agrees with the remark made by Husam to implement hudud laws or secondly, DAP has been marginalised in the Pakatan Rakyat with its secretary-general and chairperson's request being ignored," she said.
She also criticised PKR information chief Tian Chua for stating that Anwar "as the future prime minister of the country could not be expected to response to petty issues such as cleanliness on the streets and banning of alcohol".
"His statement is ridiculous," she said, adding that introducing hudud laws was a major issue that will affect the country's constitution and the livelihood of the people
"Tian Chua has treated the problem as a petty issue...even though he wanted to rid Anwar from the responsibility, he should have come out with a more persuasive argument and not using this approach when handling the said issue," she said.
Last Saturday Husam reiterated PAS' aspiration to implement the hudud law if and when Pakatan forms the federal government.
(2) Reuters Blogs（http://blogs.reuters.com）
Strains grow in Malaysia as Muslims reassert majority status, 22 December 2008
by David Chance
Malaysia prides itself on its multicultural heritage, and rightly so. The Southeast Asian nation of around 27 million people is one of the few countries in the world where so many races and religions live together in peace and stability.
Having arrived in July from Hungary, an ex-communist country that has one of the least diverse ethnic makeups in the world, I can attest it is a truly amazing cultural experience and one of which the country should be proud.
After four years of seeing nothing but look-alike Hungarian baroque churches, I now find Hindu and Buddhist temples nestled side-by-side in downtown Kuala Lumpur. A whitewashed Protestant church sits on a square where the country’s independence from Britain was proclaimed. There is a mosque near where I live and the evening call to prayer is still a sound that thrills and intrigues. When you see and hear all that, it is easy to believe the public face of the country.
The nation, however, defines itself by the fissures that run through the whole of society. Difference, both ethnic and religious, is what makes a Malaysian. Religion is bound up with race and race is bound up with politics and the stated political aim of the government is to defend the rights of the majority Malays, who by definition are Muslims.
The country is nearly 60 percent Malay, with two main minorities. The Chinese (whose religion can be Buddhist, Taoist, Christian or other) make up 11 percent of the population and the Indians (mostly Hindus) are seven percent. Smaller groups practice Sikhism, animism or forms of folk religion.
As the global economy stumbles, the government is battling to reassert itself against a strong opposition. Political rhetoric about defending Malay rights and attacking non-Malays appears to be heating up.
In a speech on Friday, Malaysia’s normally reserved Foreign Minister Rais Yatim praised the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush. He also observed that we “have to enforce laws, in fact strict laws, and nourish the various conventions of the general Malaysian society”.
The next victim of the rise in tensions could be a Roman Catholic newspaper, the Herald, that may have less than two weeks left to publish after it used the word “Allah” in Malay for “God.” It did this in the Malay language edition of its newspaper, which is aimed at the indigenous populations of Sabah and Sarawak on Borneo Island.
“Allah” simply means “God” in Arabic, without any religious strings attached. Arab Christians use it in their prayers and it’s the term for the Almighty in Malay translations of the Bible. But Malaysia’s government believes its use here could inflame racial tensions, so it has threatened to suspend the paper’s annual permit to publish.
The government is also struggling against a boisterous Internet culture. While it can easily close down newspapers its pledge to foreign investors to keep the net free has created challenges it did not imagine. It tried to close down a blog written by Raja Petra Kamaruddin after he ignored warnings to abide by the law.
Raja Petra is related to one of Malaysia’s royal families, is a Muslim and supports the opposition. He has been arrested several times under laws that allow detention without trial and was most recently freed in November. He is currently also being tried for sedition. One of his offences was to write an article entitled “I promise to be a good non-hypocritical Muslim” that said those who attack other faiths “foam at the mouth in defence of Islam. They slander and defile other religions. They declare all other religions as false and their holy books as fakes.” That too threatened the social order, according to the government.
At the same time as the government is battling its opponents, attempts to control the lives of ordinary Muslims are on the rise. There is a seemingly endless series of “fatwas” prescribing what is and is not allowed. Most recently, rulings from the government-backed National Fatwa Council on yoga and young women wearing trousers have provoked both amusement and incredulity.
The fatwa on yoga was seen as an attack on the ethnic Indian minority here who are economically disadvantaged and staged large scale riots in November 2007. Even a small demonstration earlier this year was put down by police using teargas.
With a by-election test looming for the government in January in a seat in the rural Malay Muslim heartland and polls in March for top posts in the biggest coalition party, the United Malays National Organisation, there is a risk the rhetoric will get even harsher.
(3) Malaysiakini.com（http://www.malaysiakini.com）
Malaysia's poor human rights record highlighted in report, 13 Decemebr 2008
by S Pathmawathy
Popular politicisation of race and religious intolerance are reportedly the major regressive trends highlighted in Malaysian human rights group Suaram’s Overview Report of 2008, which was released on Tuesday. The overview is an annual report on the state of the country’s civil rights status.
Suaram documentation and monitoring co-ordinator John Liu noted that Barisan Nasional’s loss of its two-thirds majority in Parliament during the 12th general election led it to continually invoking the racial card to consolidate power and to justify control.
"During the year under review, the BN government, predominantly made up of race-based political parties, continued to tolerate and perpetuate racial and religious intolerance," Liu stated in the report.
"Racial discrimination continues to be institutionalised in Malaysia, while the assertion of racial and religious intolerance by non-state actors has been tolerated by the government."
Suaram, in the report also added that there would be pertinent implications on human rights and fundamental freedom in Malaysia when current premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi relinquishes the leadership his deputy Najib Abdul Razak next year.
Intolerance, said the report, was evident in Abdullah’s statements regarding the open forums hosted by the Bar Council to discuss the social contract in August and another one on civil and syariah laws.
The council’s forum on ‘Conversion to Islam’ on Aug 9 was halted halfway through its proceedings when a angry mob gathered outside the building to protest against an open discussion on Islam.
The forum was collectively abhorred by not only government representatives but opposition parties such as PKR and PAS.
ISA a grave concern
Besides that, nine other issues were highlighted as grave concerns that had caused the erosion of human rights in Malaysia despite the unprecedented results of the general election.
The Internal Security Act (ISA) was a grave concern, according to the report, as 2008 saw the first attempt to use the preventive law to restrict critics.
The report referenced a series of arrests, starting with popular blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin on Sept 12, followed by journalist Tan Hoon Cheng from Chinese language newspaper Sin Chew Daily and Seputeh parliamentarian Teresa Kok all on the same day.
Abuse of police powers was also a key trend in the report, marked by a higher number of deaths under police custody, which according to the home ministry, stood at 1,535 between 2003 and 2007.
The numbers make up deaths in prisons and rehabilitation and immigration centres.
Meanwhile, the government's failure to implement the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) and other human rights related suggestions in the Royal Police Commission's report were part of the highlights in Suaram’s report.
It said the government’s hesitation was a result of abuse of powers, for example, in the case of the Bandar Mahkota Cheras fracas.
Pitfalls of freedom
Other highlights included the restricted freedom of speech and expression, as well as the freedom of assembly and association.
French-based watchdog group Reporters Sans Frontieres put Malaysia's place on its press freedom index at number 132 of 195, the country’s lowest ranking ever.
Suaram's report said the major cause of the decline in rank was the government’s action against Tamil daily Makkal Osai, which was stripped of its printing license for violating provisions under the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA).
The newspaper was allegedly banned for its critical take on MIC leadership and also for providing lengthy coverage to the mass rally organised by Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf).
Other prominent occasions were government-issued instructions to English daily The Sun, Chinese language newspaper Sin Chew Daily and opposition-owned Suara Keadilan, to submit show-cause letters to the home ministry on their news coverage of a number of political issues. The show-cause letters were issued the same week Raja Petra, Tan and Kok were arrested under the ISA.
"The timing of the show-cause letters demonstrated the BN government's tough repression when faced with serious political crisis and a challenge to power," said the report.
Controversial website Malaysia Today’s block, followed by the arrest of the website editor Raja Petra and the arrest of blogger Syed Azidi Syed Aziz, were also noted as pitfalls in the report.
The end of 2007 was marked with a number of never-before-seen street rallies, demonstrations, protests and peaceful assemblies which continued into this year.
Some of the most significant ones were organised by Hindraf and Coalition for Free and Fair Election (Bersih).
Hindraf faced more obstacles in October when the home ministry declared the group unlawful. However, protests by government related groups like MIC youth, against the military offence of the Sri Lankan government against Tamil minorities, was tolerated.
"There was selective prosecution and double standards in recognising the right to freedom of assembly, with those opposing government policies targeted for arrest and harsh crackdowns," said the report.
Nevertheless, the government, according to Suaram, had finally taken a step forward by recognising the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) as a legitimate political party after 10 years of struggle.
Eroding integrity of the judiciary
The Lingam tape scandal on judicial appointments was also a concern in the report, which questioned the integrity of the country’s judiciary.
"Although the government has announced measures which would be taken to improve the independence of the judiciary, serious questions relating to the judiciary in Malaysia continued to be raised throughout the year."
Besides the judicial appointments controversy, the report highlighted the appointment of Chief Justice Zaki Azmi, the involvement of attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail in the high-profile murder case of Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu, and the sodomy allegations against Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim.
The suspicions surrounding the involvement of Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak in the Shaariibuu murder case and the sudden disappearance of private investigator P Balasubramaniam were also highlighted in the report.
Bad place for refugees
According to Suaram, cases of exploitation of documented and undocumented migrant workers, and harassment of refugees and asylum seekers continue to be reported on a regular basis.
The survey reported that Malaysia is "another country that picks and chooses the groups to which if offers protection. Malaysia gave it to some groups of Muslim refugees, but detained, caned and deported others.
"In some cases, Malaysian officials turned deportees directly over to human smugglers who extorted fees for smuggling the refugees back into Malaysia or sold them into slavery in Thai fishing boats and brothels if they could not pay," said the report.
The survey added that a reflection of the unbearable and and inhuman conditions of the detention centres was seen in the incident at the Lenggeng Immigration Detention Centre where an administration building was set on fire by detainees.
The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam)’s lack of independence from the government and its ineffectiveness in promoting and protecting human rights was another disappointment listed in the report.
"One of the main problems pertaining to Suhakam's independence is the fact that it is placed under the direct jurisdiction of the prime minister's department, thus heavily compromising its independence from the government," said Suaram.
The report concluded that Malaysia’s loss of credibility at the international level for its lack of commitment in promoting and protecting human rights, was best illustrated in the possible downgrading of the Suhakam.
（End）
