Malaysia and the delirium of Faith

The March 2008 Election which changed the political landscape of the nation and challenged the ruling elites domination of the past fifty years, has precipitated the current divisive political paranoia.The Malay votes and support which was the solid base for Alliance and Barisan Nasional was jolted by the mere 36% of votes UMNO received in the 12^th General election. And the entire current debacle besieging the nation can be traced to the historical backlash of Malay voters to that Electoral Tsunami.

The ‘Allah’ issue has been hijacked again, true to the agenda of UMNO  of ‘Tranformasi”. Even though it’s still an unresolved Court case, Fatwas (Religious edicts) has been promulgated that it is an exclusive word only to be used by Muslims, even though its Pre Islamic name for God in the Middle East, JAKIM is spearheading of this divisive enigma without any basis on any anthropological or historical studies. is beyond any doubt it is following orders from their supreme masters of UMNO. Friday sermons last Friday 25^th Jan throughout the country lambasted JAKIM’s battle cry, calling all faithful to ‘defeat’ the attempts of the Kufars (Infidels) and upkeep the sanctity of Islam. JAKIM as the lap dog and lackey of UMNO is playing their part as spokesman and authority of Islam in abusing the Islamic faith for the political expediency of UMNO. And  UMNO which has long lost all semblance of goodwill from the people  and who now stand disgraced and corrupted and rotten to the core; is orchestrating and choreographing the Malay Bible issue to win back its lost Malay support. As saying goes, in love, war and politics the end satisfy the means, UMNO is now clinging to religious hatred and racial supremacy as their mantra to reach the shore of salvation, not knowing that the driftwood they are holding hastily is a crocodile in disguise which can consume them before they can reach the shore, which can rip the nation of its existence and malign the fabric of nationhood.

The Chinese component parties of Barisal Nasional MCA and Gerakan which received their death blow at the last elections, and the lose of Chinese support for the ruling party which is a foregone conclusion, and for the Indians, Barisan National strongly feels it is suffice of them to throw bread crump’s for Temples,Tamil schools and giving hampers with rice and condensed milk is enough to keep them supporting them eternally. As UMNO is now flagging their muscles that they have ‘regained’ the Tamil’s support and they are now only bent to appease and cajole the Malay masses.  And now they are going down with the most heinous, destructive and primitive policies of race and religion in the footstep of the ‘demolisher of the countries unity and goodwill’ Tun Mahathir Mohamad to win back Malay support.

UMNO’s attempt to bring back PAS the theocratic party to their fold, citing Malay and Islamic unity as their catchword, even though is dismal failure, nevertheless it has dented and succeeded to sow seeds of hatred among a section of PAS supporters towards PAKATAN RAKYAT with the grace of the ‘Allah’ issue. PAS which was very consistent in portraying them as level headed Muslims and which is gaining wide spread support from varied spectrum of the population, are now being challenged to fall in the trap of UMNO, which somehow rather is in same league with UMNO in the Allah Issue. So UMNO at last succeeded in breaking the fraternity of the loose coalition of PAKATAN RAKYAT. And some of the diverse and confusing statement from a section of PAS, its quiet clear they are  shooting their own legs, contrary to the agreed fraternity of the Opposition Block.

 

The UMNO’s PERKASA which is calling for the burning of Malay Language Bible is being justified shamelessly by the government controlled Main Stream Media. The Attorney General Chambers and the Police are acting as if they are another component party of Barisan National in their total lack of action against the seditious statement of Ibrahim Ali. The people of Sabah and Sarawak who joined as independent entities in the formation of Malaysia with 20 point and 18 point agreement now stand betrayed, when their fundamental right to practice their faith is being breached by the Federal Government, which is more interested in winning the back Malay votes and now busily embroiled in the racial religious politics of Peninsula Malaysia, rather than safeguarding the interest and rights of the nation with people of divergent nature.

The religious delirium by ruling elite to maintain their status qua with the exploitation of trivial racial and religious issues must be stopped at all cost, to save the nation from falling in the abyss political disgrace and stand tall among nations that we are a civilized coun

Our Malaysia of the 70s

by Azly Rahman
Malaysiakini
Jan 25, 2013

With the state of racial and religious things entire in our beloved Malaysia today – rumours of a festival of Bible-burning, continuing humiliation of the Malaysian Indians especially, the death of critical sensibility in our public universities, the devastating revelations of the ‘Sabah IC-gate’ plot, the issue of ‘stateless Indians’ and the criminalisation of children not able to be schooled because they were born ‘stateless’ and a host of other issues Malaysian-ly unbecoming.

I have decided to travel down the path of nostalgia. I am quite sure many of you reading this column would agree that the late sixties and early seventies presented a good frame of reference of what it means to be Malaysian and what ‘national identity’ could be about. Names upon names came back to me as I conjure fond memories.

There was a certain kind of magic, innocence, and sincerity to foster a Malaysian identity, back then. It didn’t matter what race you were one could love to one’s heart’s content folks like these: P Ramlee, AR Tompel, Aziz Sattar, Saloma, Siput Sarawak, Ayappan, Lim Goh Poh, Andre Goh, Kartina Dahari, Orchid Abdullah, soccer players like V Arumugam the ‘Spider Man’, Soh Chin Aun ‘The Towkay’, Shaharuddin Abdullah the cool guy, Mokhtar Dahari ‘Super Mokh’, Santokh Singh, and many other great names that helped make Malaysian Malaysia proud.

One could laugh at the comedian-ventriloquist Jamali Shadat’s jokes, remember names such a V Sambanthan, Khir Johari, the great statesman Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman, Tan Siew Sin, Temenggung Jugah (the man with a really cool haircut I so wanted one… ), Aishah Ghani, and of course the reluctant but down-to-earth and benevolent multiculturalist-statesman Tunku Abdul Rahman (right) with his famous uncontrollable blurting of Malay curse words and his philosophy of “oil and water can never mix”. A simple, yet profound life was back then…

Those were the days before today… when hell is breaking loose. What happened to the ethos of that genre, I wonder.

Growing up in the early 70s, different words to describe reality, practices, and possibilities were dancing happily around me.

Perhaps those street names tune us to calmness… Jalan/Lorong Aman, Sentosa, Bahagia, Rahmat, Syukur, Ne’mat, and Merdeka…

All these shaped the child’s mind, such as that of mine growing up with a fascination of names, as if living is about being taught names and being able to “read the self and the word” in order to be liberated.

There were also words related to spirituality; words such as ‘sembah-Hyang’, marhaban, berzanji, kenduri, berkhatan, and bersugi gigi…

There were also cool words related to Malay magic such as jampi serapah, tangkal, kemenyan, dukun, pawang, and of course the “mambang laut-mambang darat-mambang udara” trinity/trio”…

Smooth-sailing seventies

Back in the day of the smooth-sailing seventies people were happy wearing what ought to be simple fashion and accessories… kebaya, baju kurong (not a straitjacket mind you), baju Melayu Telok Blangah, terompah, selipar chapal, selipar Jepun… manik koran, and all kinds of Malay, Chinese, and Indian ‘bling bling’ to adorn oneself with cultural niceties

Growing up in the kampong, I was not attuned to hearing totally foreign words, imported from elsewhere to denote and connote the self, spirituality, and salvation, and “saving the soul of others”; words such as solat, dakwah, ushrah, tarbiyyah jihad, muzakarah, jubah, serban, hijab, purdah, burqah, niqab, Arqam, tabligh, Ayatollah, muktamaar, buah tamar, or even Daulah Islamiyah…

Not that I knew or had even heard of… until the beginning of the eighties when these words like Karl Marx would became technologies of the “body, mind, and spirit” that changed the social relations of production and the ideological landscape of the country and the consciousness of a segment of Malay people…

And I never heard anyone wanting to burn the Bible nor shout “Allahu Akbar” (God is great) when scoring goals in a friendly kampong football match.

And the beauty of living back in the day was how the self was constructed out of the early introduction to pluralism/ multiculturalism such that in me, every time the Chinese spirit of Bruce Lee possesses me, I could just go out and beat up my best friend Fook Shiang for example. We could then walk to town and overdose on the Indian food tosei and capati. Along the way we would stop by breezy Lido beach to grab a bite of the Javanesse soul food tauhu (tofu) sumbat.

Next, we could stop by at our teacher’s house and listen to his stories of Malay spiritual powers and magic called ‘Ilmu Budi Suci’ where the energy within possibly called the ‘chi’ can be harnessed so that one could kick like Bruce Lee without even touching your enemy!

Then, back in the day, we could go home after that to watch Joe Bugner got punched out into outer space by the ‘Black Superman’ named Muhammad Ali. I could still remember the words of the announcer … “Annnddd in thissss corneerrr… weighing 220 pounds… from Louisville Kentucky… the undisputed world champion… Moooo hammaaaad… Aaaa Liiii… Aaaa Liiiii… Aaaa Liiii…” to the sounds of the audience gone berserk.

I could go on and one with this nostalgic; a trip down memory lane of the seventies especially, just by recalling words and words that were synonymous with a world that was about to enter globalisation but was dealing with a strange brew of modernisation and uneven development – a Malaysia before Mahathirism.

That was true multiculturalism without any strand of today’s idiocy. That was our Malaysia with a lot of sense and sensibility.

DR AZLY RAHMAN, who was born in Singapore and grew up in Johor Baru, holds a Columbia University (New York) doctorate in International Education Development and Master’s degrees in the fields of Education, International Affairs, Peace Studies and Communication. He has taught more than 40 courses in six different departments and has written more than 300 analyses on Malaysia. His teaching experience spans Malaysia and the United States, over a wide range of subjects from elementary to graduate education. He currently resides in the United States.

‘Perkasa’s call enough reason for Sabah to pull out’

Raymond Tombung

 

KOTA KINABALU: Perkasa’s call for Muslims to burn the Malay version of the Bible is the final straw for Christians in Sabah and could prove fatal for Barisan Nasional.
And the government’s implicit support for the firebrand, radical and racist NGO is opening up good reasons for Sabah and Sarawak to leave the federation, said State Reform Party (STAR) deputy chairman Daniel Jambun.
Jambun, in a statement today, said he was appalled by the weakness of the prime minister who is not even willing to flex his muscle to arrest, charge and punish Perkasa president Ibrahim Ali for for fanning racial and religious hatred in the country.
“The prime minister’s silence is opening good reasons for Sabah to secede from the federation because past assurance for us have been reneged and violated, and that we have long felt that we are no longer defended by our own laws, by our own leaders, even by some of our kings?,” he said.
Jambun said it’s not just the PM who needs to speak up against Perkasa but also several ministers who are responsible for national unity and harmony and national security, as well as the federal cabinet members from Sabah.
“But they are surprisingly very quiet about the anti-national offences that Perkasa has been committing.
“So what is the point of staying on in a federation that not only neglects you but also has an implicit policy to eliminate your rights?” Jambun asked.
He also pointed out that what Ibrahim had said “very clearly” contravened the Penal Code and Sedition Act.
“I agree with the lawyer Syahredzan Johan that Ibrahim needs to be stopped effectively with the laws immediately for possibly having committed several offences under sections 298 and 505 of the Penal Code.
“The lawyer is right that Section 298 states that it is an offence to utter words that deliberately wound religious feelings.
“If found guilty, an offender can be imprisoned for a year, or fined or both. Section 505 meanwhile states that it is an offence to make statements that are conducing public mischief. Those found guilty under this section can be imprisoned for a span of two years, fined or both.”
Umno leaders protected
He said that Ibrahim should have been arrested and charged a long time ago for having uttered many other highly offensive and inflammatory words against Christians before this.
“As such it makes us wonder why he is still scot-free. Why are the authorities giving him such special privileges of being a blatant violator of the laws and be subject to arrest?” he demanded.
He said the current situation with Ibrahim and Perkasa can only be interpreted as Malaysia practicing selective prosecution with many pro-Umno leaders being protected by the powers that be.
“This amounts to moral corruption, a glaring act of weaknesses and cowardice on the part of the prime minister which cannot be tolerated or forgiven,” Jambun said.
Jambun stressed that the Christians in Malaysia are now being harassed, insulted and attacked incessantly, and the frequency and intensity of these attacks are increasing to the point where it is difficult to practice Jesus’ commandment to “Love thy enemy” and forgive your brother “seven times seventy seven times”.
“Christians are now wondering how long more they can take it (this harassment) with dignity.
“Christians in Sabah are seething in anger, and reminding themselves that this is not what they asked for before joining Malaysia.
“In fact we have been assured of religious freedom and this was literally cast in stone, on the Keningau Oath Stone, which still stands as a lasting testimony to the sincerity of the nation’s earlier leaders, including Najib’s father, Tun Abdul Razak.

Thanks Free Malaysia Today

The sound of the soor or trumpet for UMNO

Why did the Malays in 1946, go to the streets in protest? They were opposed to the Malayan Union proposal. One of the objectionable agenda in Malayan Union was the proposal to award citizenship based on the principal of jus soli. That’s the opposition against the idea of granting citizenship because the applicant was born here. The principal is the opposite of jus sanguinis- i.e. you are granted citizenship because you have ancestors living in this country. You have parents and grandparents born in this country. The bakso seller, the gemstone seller, and the drug hustler from Africa or Iran and the Chinaman hawking fake watches- do they have parents born here?

What’s happening today? Today UMNO has abandoned the basis on which they went to war against the colonial government. Today UMNO is granting overnight citizenship to aliens in order to make sure UMNO stays in power. We give warning to these aliens- if you know you are not actual Malaysian citizen by due process, if you interfere in our elections by voting the corrupt UMNO government, we will go after you. Then we will deport you to the country of your origins at your own cost. If you have earned income here, you will be made to pay the required taxes.

We will catch you out. We will of course go after those who allowed you in illegally in the first place. Those who sell our citizenship to aliens are treasonable. Treason is punishable by death.

UMNO has betrayed the foundation of its cause. Today, UMNO has prostituted itself by selling Malaysian citizenship to aliens. In other countries, immigration is desirable in order to augment the talent pool. The talented immigrant expands the boundaries of possibilities. They enrich the country with their expertise, their industriousness, diligence and so forth. But they acquire citizenship through due process. If you encourage laggards, the fruit pickers to augment our talent pool, then we become slightly better than Myanmar and Zimbabwe.

I am asking my Malay brethren to realize that UMNO has betrayed this country. It’s selling our citizenship to aliens on its agenda to remain in power. UMNO wants to remain in power so that it can continue to rape and plunder and divide the loot between them. All the projects under the 2013 Budget are already spoken for. Before we can even say ahh…..the contracts for the installation of the AES, were awarded to 2 companies. I hear talks in the market, Azeez Raheem, the Bumiputera’s Bumiputera has something to do with this proposal.

But I can already hear UMNO Malays saying- why are we envious? At least he’s Malay. When we excuse this kind of wrong, we will arrive at the day, when this kind of people comes into our house, sleeps with our wife or daughter, we will excuse that trespass by saying, never mind, he’s a Malay and UMNO to boot.

Today UMNO has illegally allowed 3 million aliens to come into our midst. UMNO gives them overnight citizenship in exchange for their promise to vote in UMNO in the next GE13. SPR is impotent when it comes to dealing with this. We have compromised our integrity when whoring this country allowing aliens to impregnate our society. We have compromised our safety, we have compromised the welfare of the people. UMNO is doing all these to stay in power so that they can loot this country dry.

UMNO hasn’t got any message to the Malays. We are just digits. After 55 years of ruling this country 12% of the Malay population lives under poverty line. Malays earn RM100, to the Chinese RM1500 and to the Malaysian Indian RM1200. And this happens under the watch of the party which shouts loudly and menacingly and sometimes brandishing the kris, its agenda of Agama Bangsa Dan Negara?

When the UMNO candidate contests against the PAS candidate and loses, another Malay takes his place. When the PKR Malay wins over his UMNO opposite, another Malay takes over. So it’s not true, that if UMNO loses, Malays will lose. Even when the Malay DAP candidate wins, another Malay goes into parliament. The Malays don’t lose out. Out of 6 Malays, 1 is an UMNO Malay. The UMNO person loses, 5 other Malays still win. It’s never true that if UMNO dies, the Malays will die. The one who dies off is the UMNO Malay. Let’s not cry over them. They have pillaged and plundered and divided the loot among them.

When we all know what UMNO has done for the last 50 years, we find it laughable Mahathir’s feigned indignation at knowing the younger Malay generation does not feel obliged to him or UMNO.

Malays and Malaysians do not have any problems if UMNO loses. Malays don’t have problems if Najib isn’t the PM come March next tear. It is we, the people who shall determine and structure our future. We are NOT at all amused at the leaders whose only claim to legitimacy is grounded on their bloodline. we, the people are bigger than them.

Only the Devil lords over his origins refusing to bow down to Adam on account of the latter’s lowly origins. But then Mahathir is the one who says, better to be friends to the devil we know, then to the angel we don’t.

Sakmongkol AK47 is the nom de guerre of this blogger. His name is Dato’ Mohd.Ariff Sabri bin Hj. Abdul Aziz. He was ADUN of Pulau Manis, Pekan.( 2004-2008) From 2000-2004, he was Ketua Penerangan UMNO Bahagian Pekan, under Dato Sri Najib. Studied Economics at University Malaya and University of Manchester(Owens). Sakmongkol was a legendary Muay Thai fighter. AK 47 is the Russian made firearm. He can be reached at the following e mail: ariff.sabri@gmail.com