1. The Star Online (http://thestar.com.my)
Strive for moderation, Muslims urged, 30 October 2009
PETALING JAYA: Muslims are duty-bound to prevent a clash of civilisations and strive for moderation instead, said former prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
He said Islam’s history was drifting dangerously along sectarian lines and many parts of the Muslim world suffered bloodshed from warring factions.
“It is unfortunate that in some Muslim societies, Islam has become identified with narrow nationalist and cultural boundaries,” he said in his keynote address yesterday at the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies (IAIS) Malaysia.
Abdullah, the IAIS patron, said contemporary Islamic discourse did not emphasise the universal Islamic values of human wellbeing, uprightness and equity enough.
“The simplistic way of thinking, focusing on external social mannerisms and what Muslims should wear or eat is no longer adequate for the work facing us today.
“We need to encourage Muslims to think global and overcome the challenges posed by ethnic and religious diversity,” said Abdullah.
According to Abdullah, the IAIS provided a platform for Muslims and non-Muslims to exchange critical views on sensitive issues in a mutually respectful manner.
“This institute has embarked on the demanding task of ensuring that faith and moral integrity take their rightful place in the public sphere,” he said.
© 1995-2009 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd (Co No 10894-D)
2. Malaysiakini.com (http://www.malaysiakini.com)
Minorities surreptitiously being denied equal rights, 30 October 2009
by Naragan N
Which other country in the world does the majority community surreptitiously and systematically deny equal rights and opportunities to its disadvantaged minorities other than Malaysia?
Can you name one?
Let me clarify how this works in reality with three reports from Utusan Malaysia (Oct 3, 2009). These three reports are from the IPTA/IPTS special supplement of the paper. It is only from reports in the Malay media that a glimpse of such total usurpation by the majority is obtained. The other parts of the media do not feature any of this. This is the design. This is part of the scheme.
The first report is about the Umno government's plan to produce 100,000 PhDs by 2024. Mara has a post-graduate school called IPS-is (Institut Pengajian Siswazah) which has been in operation since 1997. They are targeting to have 20,000 students in their various post-graduate programmes by 2024.
Given an average stay of four years for each graduate student, that will be an output of some 5,000 per year. Whether it is realised or not is really a different question. My purpose is really to show the embedded injustice in all these government programmes.
The institute's dean says one of the factors contributing to low participation in their graduate programmes is the fees. So they are considering an assistance scheme for the better students and they are to be paid RM1,300 (Masters) and RM1,800 (PhD) per month.
That is really good. But here is the catch. This is a 100 percent bumiputra participation programme with zero non-bumi participation. Not only are the places provided but they also facilitated. This is something one never hears in any of the programmes involving non-bumis.
The second article is about Kolej Teknologi Timur in Sepang, which has just seen the graduation of its fourth batch of students on what is called the Kursus Intensif Timur Tengah (Middle East Intensive Course).
This is a three-month programme to prepare selected Mara-sponsored students to pursue medicine in the Alexandria University in Cairo. They are all SPM-level candidates.
The point about this programme is that it is a 100 percent bumiputra participation programme. This is only for one course, for one Middle Eastern University. This is a preparatory programme.
Not only do the participants get to do medicine on scholarship, the students also are put through preparatory programmes to reduce the fallout rate.
This is a good approach. But the point I want to make about this report is this. Not only does this programme systematically exclude the minorities of the country, it also shows in contrast, the attention to detail that is generally not shown if this were a programme for the non-bumis.
If the non-bumi programme were to fail, it would just be allowed to fail and no remedial measures would be planned or done. 'A failure is a failure, sorry, just try harder the next time please. No remedial or facilitating programmes for you,' they would say.
The third report is about Kolej Risda in Alor Gajah in Melaka – a Risda-run private college developing middle-level management and technical and operative level manpower for the agro industry.
It runs various diploma-level programmes. Some of the key ones are Diploma in Agriculture with UPM, Diploma in Plantation management with Mara, a pre-diploma in science programme as a feeder programme to the diploma programmes and a Diploma in Landscape Management.
There are several other diploma programmes offered with UPM. All of this are for the middle- management and middle-level technical personnel. Then there are programmes such as Certificate as a Plantation Conductor and a Certificate as a Palm Oil Mill Operator.
All the students of the college will be assisted to get funding from the National Higher Education Fund and scholarships are provided to second-generation small holders .
Needless to say, the majority if not all of the participants will be bumiputera. The point is that there are so many skills training programmes in the country like this one but which are systematically and surreptitiously denied to the non-bumiputera.
So many non-bumiputera youth could be kept away from the clutches of crime if they had opportunities like these available to them; opportunities for self-employment, for hope and maybe for upward mobility.
But no, this is systematically denied to them.
Malaysia is the only country in the world where the majority community grabs all the resources of the country for itself to the detriment and neglect of significant minority groups in the country. What I have shown above is from news reports in one day and from a couple of educational programmes pertaining to a couple of institutions in the country.
Multiply that several thousand times over the various fields of life beyond education and the scale of this usurpation will become clearer.
The many problems we see in the minority communities which are often attributed to some self- induced causes (meaning it is intrinsic and endemic to them) can really be shown to be only secondary if opportunities such as these are opened up to the youth from these minority communities.
They will have hope return to their lives and along with it opportunities for upward mobility in the system. The many issues and problems we see today will be pre-empted. We are not asking for more than what should be our share - we are only asking for our rightful share and nobody really, should have a problem with that.
The federal constitution which is the supreme document governing the country of Malaysia never said to totally exclude non-Malays from all the education programmes of the government like what is happening in our country right now.
(View Comments)
by ALIEN
1Malaysia is an Apartheid country, period.
by Simon
"Which other country in the world does the majority community surreptitiously and systematically deny equal rights and opportunities to its disadvantaged minorities other than Malaysia? Can you name one?" I can - Sri Lanka Simon
by Ravindranath
Of the 212.295 million shares offered to the retail investors, or 2.83% it is offering 21.175 million shares (0.28%) to eligible customers, 35 million shares (0.47%) to the eligible employees, directors while 75 million shares (1%) will be offered to Bumiputera members of the public and another 75 million shares (1%) to non-Bumiputeras. Of the 2.037 billion shares or 27.17% offered to institutions, 862.5 million shares (11.5%) are offered to approved Bumiputera investors and 1.175 billion shares (15.67%) to other investors. --Maxis IPO. Every step of the way it's "us versus Bumiputera" so what is this 1Malaysia BS?
by Black Mamba
Najib, what have you to say ? 1 Malaysia ? Only for you to rule us unfairly ? Abolish this and show us you meant it otherwise it is just a slogan for you without substance and action. Tok Guru has shown he is wise and can see through the dirty tricks of UMNO. Why can't MCA and MIC wake up to this ? Whither your voice in the cabinet meetings ?
by Mr M
"Which other country in the world does the majority community surreptitiously and systematically deny equal rights and opportunities to its disadvantaged minorities other than Malaysia? Can you name one?" I can - Israel
by Ng Leong Tek
Indeed, the news was an eye-opener; however, it is not surprising. I wonder what MIC and MCA and other BN component parties have to say to this?????
by Chandrasekar Krishnasamy
Thanks Naragan for the news. It was an eye opener. You did a great job. Frankly speaking, I dont know how I could have missed it. Patronage by the Govt. of the day for the Malays is never short of. Najibs i Malaysia is only a veiled attempt to win elections. It is always Like father Like son.It is deep inthe flesh. The father was responsible for repatriating 100s of Thousands of Indians in the 60s, never forget it. Today we are never different than those Indians of yesteryears. We need a change in political strategy and thoughts. What is our next agenda. Let all those prize fighters of BN stay with them. In my opnion PKR n PAS are no different. The only man different from all the Malay politicians in TOK GURU of Kelantan. Hadi wants unity in the name of Malay n Islam with UMNO. We need a different strategy.....
by kgan
Dear Naragan, What do you mean by "surreptitiously"? The BN govt practice racism openly and shamelessly, not surreptitiously. Education is one of the fields where racial policies dominate. We must be the only country in the world to have universities and colleges reserved for a particular race. It's as bad as apartheid. The way to get rid of this racism is to vote out the BN govt, so help PR mate. Don't attack PR just because Hindraf wants to push their political agenda. Or do you want another 50 years of BN racism?
3. Jihad Watch (http://www.jihadwatch.org)
Malaysia confiscates more than 20,000 Bibles over their use of the word "Allah", 1 November 2009
Posted by Marisol
But, didn't the smiling apologist quote Qur'an 29:46? That's the verse that says: "And argue not with the People of the Scripture unless it be in (a way) that is better, save with such of them as do wrong; and say: We believe in that which hath been revealed unto us and revealed unto you; our Allah and your Allah is One, and unto Him we surrender."
However, that line of discourse is intended for use in Islamic proselytizing, or dawah. Just as seeking new believers is a one-way street under Islamic law, it would be forbidden for a non-Muslim to employ this argument under Sharia, since the underlying message of the verse is: "We worship your deity, too, but you're doing it wrong."
An update on CNN, October 29 (thanks to all who sent this in):
(CNN) -- Authorities in Malaysia have seized more than 20,000 Bibles in recent months because they refer to God as "Allah," Christian leaders said Thursday.
The seizures have fed fears among minority groups, which see signs of encroaching Islamic fundamentalism in the predominantly Muslim but multi-racial country.
"There is a growing sense of Islamic assertion, yes," said the Rev. Hermen Shastri, general-secretary of the Council of Churches of Malaysia. "There is some concern."
The Bibles were written in the country's official language, Malay -- in which the word for God is "Allah," as it is in Arabic.
However, Malaysia's government says the word is exclusive to Islam.
Its use in Christian publications is likely to confuse Muslims and draw them to Christianity, the government says. So it has banned use of the word in Christian literature.
"Malay has borrowed from Arabic, just as it has from Sanskrit and Portuguese," Shastri said. "We have maintained the community has the right to use the word.
"But I think this has ignited a cause in the Muslim communities, who are interpreting it as a siege on Islamic beliefs."
A Home Ministry official directed requests for comment to the ministry's Publications and Quran Text Control Department, which enforces the ban. An employee there redirected calls to a spokeswoman, who in turn asked CNN to call the Home Ministry back. Calls to other departments were similarly redirected.
A Roman Catholic weekly newspaper, The Herald, is challenging the ban in court after the government threatened to revoke its license for using the word in its Malay edition. Hearings on the case have gone on for two years.
"We quote it as it is. We cannot change the text of the Scripture," Herald editor Father Lawrence Andrew told CNN last year. "I cannot be the editor of the Bible."...
4. Bernama.com (http://www.bernama.com)
Former Perlis Mufti Detained, 2 November 2009
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 2 (Bernama) -- Former Perlis Mufti Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin was arrested while giving a religious talk at a house in Taman Sri Ukay, Hulu Klang, early Monday.
According to witnesses, Asri was arrested at 12.10am by police and the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (JAIS) officers and was then taken to the Hulu Klang police station.
The talk was attended by about 100 people, including Ampang member of parliament Zuraida Kamaruddin and Hulu Klang assemblyman Saari Sungib.
Ampang district police chief ACP Abdul Jalil Hassan when contacted said police were only assisting JAIS in the operation and that he did not have details on the matter.
(BERNAMA)
(End)
