The Micah Mandate (http://www.themicahmandate.org)
(1) Worse than murtad is political apostasy, 1 September 2011
by Steve Oh
Political apostasy is the reason for the country’s ‘moral crisis’ in governance as reports of electoral roll anomalies and threats of violence take centre stage.
Meanwhile many letter-writers and others have said allegations of religious apostasy are a ploy to detract from the more serious problem of potential electoral fraud.
Political backsliding from the original Merdeka plan began in 1969 when Tunku Abdul Rahman was deposed in a coup, as described in Kua Kia Soong’s enlightening book, ‘May 13’.
Political victimisation is the unmistakable sign of an apostate political culture and Anwar Ibrahim among others is the country’s longest political victim and symbolise the alleged abuse of power through selective persecution and prosecution of politicians and citizens.
Former American ambassador John Mallot explains why: “a senior officer in the Special Branch told an Embassy officer, ‘We are going to keep filing charge after charge after Anwar so he will be in jail for the next hundred years’” as reported in Malaysia Chronicle.
Merdeka ushered in an era of national pride and development. The British had not envisaged Malaysia would desert its legacy of a constitutional democracy. The country promoted the motto ‘unity is strength’ and the Tunku was an icon of racial harmony and religious tolerance having married four wives, at different times, that represented the different races. ‘Bapa Kermedekaan’ was an apt title for a man who proved slogans are not only for show and political window-dressing but carrying and living out.
As the one who facilitated the dakwah movement and established Perkim, he did more than any other Malay leader for his race and his religion and he was never a threat to non-Malays while promoting religion, unlike those who use Islam as a political weapon today. He never stooped to scapegoat any group, be they of a different religion or race, to elevate himself.
The sense of propriety in politics though not perfect was then an honoured tradition. Merdeka saw an era and aura of sincerity and earnestness in politicians and citizens working together to serve the nation, not like today when politics has become the refuge of scoundrels who find it a route to riches.
The Tunku was a gentleman and never expected to be betrayed but lived long enough to die disappointed and disillusioned when he saw his Merdeka dream dashed and the country become a ‘failed politically apostate state’ though unilaterally declared ‘an Islamic state’ by those who actions were anything but Islamic or even decent.
Hail Malaysia’s Caesar
The political apostasy is the result of abandoning the Merdeka principles of democracy, among others, that were meant to develop the fledgling nation. The new Merdeka nation was supposed to function like the British democracy fashioned after the Westminster parliamentary system that was strong on political accountability, as we saw their dishonest politicians exposed, charged and convicted for allowances rorts.
Politics after Merdeka was not flawless—no system is—but took a different direction when the Tunku was politically waylaid. After May 13, 1969 it suffered a heavy blow that has left the Merdeka nation in a political coma and apostates and heretics of sorts continue to lead it astray.
In 1988 the judiciary was assaulted and the Lord President became a victim of political bastardry. A major constitutional check on the executive was hijacked and the moral slide got worse. To his credit the eminent judge stood his moral ground and his reputation was vindicated much later under a more benign country leader.
Political apostasy saw a modern-day Caesar control everything: the various arms of the government that were meant to check one another—the executive, the judiciary, parliament—and anything else that has a voice such as the media and passionate citizens. He even had a centurion who acted like a lap dog to do his bidding when the police were supposed to be professional and impartial law enforcers, not a private security firm at the beck and call of the politicians.
The courts could not be depended to deliver justice when it involved powerful politicians and their cronies because judge-fixing resulted in a skewed justice. The ‘Lingam video’ scandal examined by a royal commission proved the reality of justice tampering.
On the economic front while Dr Mahathir Mohammed defends the system including the NEP and admits “there may be corruption involved in some cases” he blithely dismisses his role in the ‘rotten administration’ that he left for his successor and did nothing about the cases of corruption despite the overwhelming reports made to the police.
While he did stimulate the economy with bold projects the flip side under his leadership was that the country lost billions, 100 billion ringgit according to author Barry Wain in his book Malaysian Maverick, and till today the bailouts continue. Some facts stand insurmountable in the face of unconvincing rhetoric, spin and more lies. When your country owns a petroleum company and there is plenty of money around anyone can perform an economic miracle or even a disappearing act.
But political apostasy can only accelerate during Mahathir’s tenure and the dysfunctional democracy today is the legacy for which he can take full credit. In the end Mahathir short-changed himself and succumbed to the dark side. The country had lost its constitutional checks and balances not in theory but in practice. It is truth when perception is supported by the facts.
It remains the tragedy and huge regret in Malaysian history because those crucial years could have been the golden opportunity to transform the nation according to the Merdeka ideals if there had been ‘clean, efficient and trustworthy’ governance because Mahathir as many Malaysians believe, had the ability to lead but instead his legacy is a nation of lost rainforests, lost freedoms and lost opportunities.
It does seem incredible that anyone can justify the NEP when those it was supposed to help still suffer in poverty and those entrusted to help them have prospered beyond imagination. Whether it is the system or those who implement it, the government is still responsible and accountable. There can be no excuse when there is brazen corruption and natives lose their traditional lands when the British gave us back ours.
The trouble with political apostates is their ruthlessness and hypocrisy. They care not for the plight of the poor, only themselves. They must think Malaysians are daft like the policeman who made a police report because his colleagues cheated him out of his share of the loot.
You help me, I help you era
The political apostasy has become more brazen. “I help you, you help me,” the solicitous mantra was evident when a former chief minister facing corruption charges unashamedly offered to help the government if three ministers got off his back, metaphorically speaking.
But no one helped Mongolian Altantuya Shaaribuu who was shot mercilessly despite her pleas because she was pregnant, and blown apart by tax-payer paid C4 explosives by two policemen.
No Malaysian who read the account of how this innocent woman pleaded for her life and that of her unborn child but was callously shot to death and then blown to bits can face God without asking him to vindicate her because vengeance is God’s but we are the ones who can vote out an evil system.
And the killers instead of being shamed in public were allowed to cover their faces and the unusual act has come to symbolise the government’s way of covering up its mistakes instead of facing up to them. Some day the truth will be uncovered because no nation will prosper that is sown in acts of evil. What dark deed done in secret will be exposed in broad daylight.
The late A Kugan, Teoh Beng Hock, Altantuya and more have become the sad symbols of evil and injustice in the apostate state.
By now the political apostasy has plumbed new depths because never in the history of the Merdeka nation have so many of its leaders been tainted with criminal conduct, either convicted, or facing charges. In contrast the guiding principle of the Merdeka era for politicians was to ‘lead by example.’ It does seem like a joke to send young Malaysians to a national camp to teach them discipline and patriotism today. In our time we only listened to the Tunku talk and watch him walk out the sermon in his life.
Thousands of Tamil youths and illegal immigrants have died in custody of the police or other authorities, their mysterious deaths still remain unexplained, uninvestigated and unjustified. A Malay boy out at night never made it home, shot dead by policemen. A customs officer died at the MACC premises so soon after Teoh Beng Hock’s death. It is not race or religion, but apostate and depraved politics resulting in pervasive dysfunctions in the administration, that see the innocent die in tragic circumstances.
Politicians of the Merdeka era were not all paragons of virtue, but their inappropriate conduct was nothing compared to what goes on today.
The government must awake to the awful truth that the country has lost its way when it seems no one is in control even though two are at the controls.
If American John Mallot and Englishwoman Clare Rewcastle Brown can take the trouble to help Malaysia become a better nation by exposing corruption and political tyranny it is time for every Malaysian to do something for the sake of their lost nation.
Those who sit on fences end up being sat and spat upon like pariahs.
A school friend now retired is busy telling others to do their bit for the country and clean up the electoral system. Claiming political allegiance to no party she wants to save her country so ‘I can go to my grave in peace.’ What altruism, and the Tunku would have been proud of her.
Moral crisis
We saw the former President Hosni Mubarak win a landslide election with more than 90 percent of votes in his favour. His opponents were astounded. But we have seen the truth instead in the Arab Spring. It is easy to rig the votes when you control almost everything and put up the pretence of democracy.
Corrupt leaders who play ‘let’s pretend’ are biding their time everywhere. Their game is up. Colonel Gadaffi pretended to live a simple life but media reports showing his captured luxurious private jet with a jacuzzi and the trappings of a billionaire lifestyle are a warning that the same hypocrisy happens elsewhere, even in Malaysia.
Gadaffi vowed to fight with his bevy of femme fatale bodyguards but they are nowhere to be seen and what is seen are the corpses of his blind and misguided followers. Pied Piper leaders are dangerous and only lead their followers along a way that seems right but leads only to death.
On Merdeka day when Malaysians proudly fly their Jalur Gemilang it may help them to add a moment of sober reflection on what they are flying and if it meets the standard of its proud “stripes of excellence” that the flag symbolizes.
What is excellent about the government today?
I am sure many writers are eager to write something on it. But lamenting over its sorry state has become more common and sounding like a broken record crying out to be fixed. A chameleon may change its appearance but not its nature. 1Malaysia, Bangsa Malaysia – nice ideas but what happened to Merdeka and the nation for all?
Why victimise Muslims who get practical help from Christians because they were let down by their own and then falsely get accused for religious apostasy? And those who help them get blamed for proselytising? Why attack Malaysians who are proving that action speaks louder than words by being good neighbours to one another and living in the spirit of Merdeka?
Henry Ward Beecher, the American clergyman, social reformer, abolitionist and speaker, said, “A thoughtful mind, when it sees the nation’s flag, sees not the flag only, but the Nation itself: and whatever may be its symbols, its insignia, he reads chiefly in the flag the Government, the principles, the truths, the history which belongs to the Nation that sets it forth.”
Whatever Malaysians think about their country they can’t deny that it is not what it should be and could be because it has strayed from the altruistic agenda of genuine national development—being a nation of the people, by the people and for the people—and the ideas and values enshrined in the Merdeka nation.
The country has become a haven for foreign and local criminals, racketeers, corrupt polticians and looters and like the British nation, it now faces its ‘moral crisis’ except that the British Prime Minister David Cameron has owned up to theirs but his Malaysian counterparts are still relying on spin and have been exposed by the recent ‘pay for publicity’ scandals that have embarrassed them and the BBC and CNN.
The real problem is political apostasy underpinned by a moral crisis.
More critical is, what is the solution?
First published in Malaysiakini.com
(2) Apostasy and the Good Samaritan , 2 September 2011
by Bob Teoh
In helping disadvantaged and marginalised Muslims, Christians are sometimes accused of attempting to proselytise them. But these Christians may be meeting a neglected need. This much was acknowledged recently by a group of twenty three Muslim NGOs when they asked for apostasy to be outlawed.
The NGOs met behind closed doors to discuss the raid by the Selangor Islamic Affairs Department (Jais) on 4 August of a fundraising dinner for welfare work held at the Damansara Utama Methodist Church. Twelve Muslims were present at the dinner and were questioned by Jais. The NGOs called on Jais to charge those found proselytising to Muslims, if evidence is found.
But it was reported they also acknowledged that apostasy occurs because Muslim agencies and NGOs are not doing enough to help those in need to the extent that they are forced to seek help from other religious bodies.
“We cannot be angry at others preaching to Muslims – lawful or not, for they are doing their job. We must (also) do ours,” said Ikatan Ilmuan Malaysia president Mohd Fuad Mohd Salleh, who chaired the meeting.
Some suspect an ulterior motive while others see Christian charity as fundamental to their faith perhaps best illustrated by a story told by Jesus Christ himself known as the Good Samaritan. This is recorded in chapter 10 of Luke’s Gospel.
Jesus was using this story-telling device to challenge the religious orthodoxy of his day. So these ecclesiastical experts or teachers of the law as they were known looked for every opportunity to test Jesus’ competence on things religious.
Challenged by one of these bearded ones, Jesus narrowed down Jewish orthodoxy into just one commandment– the Shema, which is the Jewish central prayer: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. Then for good measure Jesus added one more: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” To Jesus, everything about one’s faith hangs on just these two commandments.
With his hypocrisy exposed by Jesus, the teacher of the law could only say he would love his neighbour if he knew who that might be. It was then Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan.
“A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road.
By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by.A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side.
Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’
“Now which of these three would you say was a neighbour to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked.
The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.”
Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”
The parable highlights some of our blind spots. Like the priest and the temple assistant in the story, we may be more concerned about looking religious than loving our neighbour. The reason why both the religious guys did not want to help the victim even though he comes from the same religion is that he may have already been dead. Under Jewish tradition, touching a dead man would be to defile oneself which would require ritual cleansing. That’s too much bother. To them the form was more important than the substance of their religion. Good neighbourliness counts for nothing.
More than that, both of them quickly crossed over to the other side of the road to make sure they are not contaminated by any odour from the man presumed to be dead that the wind may blow in their direction and defile them.
It took a Samaritan, a man from another religion and from a despised race to show compassion for the victim. He went to extraordinary lengths and expense to render help to the victim.
Notice Jesus ended the story without telling us whether the victim became a Christian. Or an apostate.
The story Jesus told is now 2,000 years old but context remains the same. Many of our neighbours have fallen victim to rape, incest, abuse, addiction, HIV/AIDS, dysfunctional relationships, mental illness and much more. Are we going to be like the two religious guys in the story and walk away from them and continue to look religious in appearance?
The point Jesus wants to make is just this: “Yes, now go and do the same.” Just love your neighbour as yourself.
It doesn’t matter which side of the religious divide we are on. We all need Good Samaritans; a second chance to make life worth living again. Surely this is not proselytisation or apostasy.
(End)
