Will Other Communities Also Start Making Similar Demands?

P. Waytha Moorthy

This is the 13th day of my Hunger Viratham. The visitors are streaming in and it is becoming more difficult to stay focused on my writing. It has somewhat slowed down my writing. Still, there is no let up in my resolve to achieve our goals of obtaining binding endorsement and commitment to implement Hindraf’s proposals and I continue with my Hunger Viratham.

More people are beginning to ask just where the BN and the PR political leaders are. Do they not care?

Well, I will let them answer the people.

For today I will discuss the question of the costs of implementation of Hindraf’s five-year blueprint proposals.

The politicians in power go to great length to propose, promote and implement mega project like the MRT, the High Speed Rail Link between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore and the Undersea Tunnel linking Penang to the mainland. These projects can cost when done, from RM10 billion to RM80 billion.

The NEP: The Good and the Bad - Revisited

Anas Zubedy

What is the NEP?

In a simple definition, the New Economic Policy is Malaysia’s socioeconomic affirmative action plan. It was implemented in 1971 in the aftermath of the 1969 racial riots, and the period set for the implementation of NEP was 1971-1990.

The overriding objective of the NEP was stated as national Unity. The goal of the NEP was two pronged – one, eradicate poverty; and two, restructure society to eliminate the identification of race with economic function through rapid expansion of the economy over time. However, it was clearly stated that this restructuring of the racial composition of employment and ownership of wealth was to be done without denying opportunities to others. The strategy was to accelerate economic growth, but at the same time, redirect the benefits more to the disadvantaged.

What is the background of the NEP?

The NEP has historical basis. Even from the colonial days before Merdeka, the Malays had been given certain privileges by the British, especially quotas for public scholarship and civil service employment.

The period of British rule left behind some remnant effects on our society and economy. The economic system and the geographical location of where we lived and worked were divided along racial lines. The Malays were largely concentrated in the traditional agricultural sector where per capita income was the lowest and poverty was the highest. The Chinese were concentrated in mining, manufacturing and construction where per capita income was recorded as much higher. The Indians were largely labourers in estates and mining.
          
The NEP was announced in June 1970 in the aftermath of the racial riots in 1969. Whatever is said about the immediate causes of the riots, the root cause for the unrest was socioeconomical imbalance. It was clear that the problem of poverty and the economic differences along racial lines were detrimental to social stability and national Unity and had to be addressed immediately. The NEP was formulated as a concerted effort to reduce poverty and restructure the economy.

The problem with Malay unity

Jacqueline Ann Surin

ONE of the exhortations to Malay Malaysian voters as the general election looms is to vote the party that will ensure “Malay unity”. Politicians and at least one member of royalty have called on Malay voters to put Malay unity above all else when they go to the polls.

And because Malay Malaysians are also constitutionally meant to be Muslims, there has been unsurprisingly another aspect of this public service announcement. Vote the party that will ensure Muslim unity and the cohesion of the ummah. And to Umno and PAS, the two parties that represent Malays and Muslims respectively: consider a merger so that Malay-Muslim unity can be secured.

But does Malay unity exist to begin with? Does Muslim solidarity? Was either ever present historically or currently in Malaysia? And when politicians, academics and royalty start to promote Malay and Muslim unity, are they peddling an ideal for the nation or a dangerous myth for the masses?

What unity?

The presumption behind Malay and Muslim unity is that either or both groups are monolithic entities. Further, that every member of the group shares the same historical roots, cultural identity, political and economic aspirations, and religious beliefs. After all, if either or both groups didn’t have enough of a cohesive identity and shared sense of ideals, then talking about uniting would be like asking water and oil to combine into one.


To begin with, are the Malays really culturally and historically similar to each other? The series of Found in Malaysia interviews tell us that many of the foremost Malay Malaysian personalities have different lineages. In brief, the Malays we interviewed had the following ancestries: Orang Asli, Javanese, Thai, Chinese,  Japanese,  Australian, Bugis, Arab and European. And because the notion of the “Malay” is a political construct that was initiated by the British, and continues to be a construct perpetuated by the current powers that be, the definition of Malay can shift from state to state.

Adakah Lagi Tempat Melayu Bergantung?

A Kadir Jasin

SEORANG usahawan Melayu yang pada satu ketika dulu amat berjaya dan tersohor dengan mainan pasaran sahamnya yang sangat licik tetapi sudah lebih sedekad terpelanting daripada perniagaan arus perdana di Malaysia kerana politik, bertanya saya kepada siapakah orang Melayu boleh bergantung.

Bukan alang kepalang punya soalan itu. Orang putih kata, a million-dollar question (soalan sejuta dolar). Saya kata, soalan yang tidak ada jawapan. Lagi hebat, dia bertanya soalan itu (melalui sistem pesanan ringkas/SMS) dari di Milan, Itali yang berupa ibu kota fesyen dunia.

Untuk sama-sama memahami dan memikirkan jawapan kepada soalan berkenaan, izinkan saya mengemukakan beberapa fakta, andaian dan keluhan sebagai asas perbahasan:

1. Di saat-saat kedudukan orang Melayu semakin terdesak dan terancam, kepemimpinan Melayu di kedua-dua belah sempadan politik dilemparkan pelbagai dakwaan, tuduhan dan insinuasi yang sangat dahsyat. Ada tuduhan sudah terbukti. Ada tuduhan sekadar sensasi. Ada tuduhan disangkal sepenuh hati. Ada yang pucat kesing, murung berdiam diri. Apabila tuduhan tidak dibalas, tentu ada yang percaya ia berasas.

2. Persepsi yang semakin negatif di kalangan orang Melayu sendiri terhadap jati diri, integriti dan moral pemimpin politik Melayu.

The "ALLAH" Controversy

Tun Mahathir Mohamad

1. Malaysia is a multi-religious country where people can adhere to their own religion even though Islam is the official religion. For most of the time the followers of the different religions have lived in peace with each other. We do not see the kind of violence between the followers of different religions as found in Northern Ireland, Lebanon and the Indian sub-continent.

2. Malaysians respect each others’ religions and the rights of the religious practises of their followers. We avoid commenting on other people’s religion even though we may have furious debate within each religion.

3. Unfortunately now we have this controversy on the use of the name of God, Allah. Many years ago this controversy was settled through the acceptance that the Christians of Sabah and Sarawak could continue to use the word Allah in their Malay language bible and teachings but these should not be used in the rest of the country.

4. Unfortunately because some politicians want to get the support of Malaysian Christians, the demand is made that the Malay language bible be used in the whole country. Predictably the Muslims protest and the controversy is resurrected.

5. Christians and Jews know very well that in all their bibles, the Old Testament and the New Testament, and in the King James and other versions the word Allah had never appeared as the name of God. It is only after Islam and the Quran that the world became acquainted with the word Allah for God.

Aren’t Malaysians Weird?

Raja Petra Kamarudin

I wrote ‘Sanggang - the BA’s wake-up call’ (READ HERE) 13 years ago back in April 2000. In March 2004, I wrote ‘Crowds don’t translate to votes’ (READ HERE). Basically, these articles were about the fallacy that if there is a huge crowd at your function or event then this means these people support you.

I have been trying to tell the opposition this for more than a decade and it appears that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has discovered this over the weekend. The huge crowd at the Chinese New Year gathering cum PSY concert in Penang cannot be translated to a show of support for Barisan Nasional. The crowd was there for a free concert, not to support Barisan Nasional.

This is the nature of Malaysians. If there is a free meal they will be there in hordes even if they hate you. I personally saw thousands of people at Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s Hari Raya open house in 2006 -- many of them, in fact, non-Malays. And some even brought bags and plastic containers to tapau the food, the Chinese equivalent of a doggie bag. 

It was actually most embarrassing and I saw that Dr Mahathir pretended he did not notice this was happening (my wife, Marina, shook her head in disgust). But how can you not notice your guests emptying the tables and pouring the food into bags and plastic containers? Were they there because they loved Dr Mahathir or were they there because they wanted to plunder the table and bring enough food home for a whole week? 

Perkasa Belia Langkah Tepat Perkukuh Negara

Amidi Abdul Manan

Kepemimpinan belia adalah kepemimpinan negara pada masa depan. Citra negara pada masa akan datang, terpapar pada generasi belia hari ini. Mempersiapkan kepemimpinan belia bermakna mempersiapkan kepemimpinan negara.

Pemimpin, aktivis dan penggerak pertubuhan belia akan berkumpul di Hotel Summit, Subang USJ pada Jumaat hingga Ahad ini bagi menghadiri Mesyuarat Perhimpunan Agung Tahunan, Majlis Belia Malaysia ke-61. Mesyuarat kali ini akan menyaksikan perwakilan memilih barisan kepemimpinan belia bagi tempoh dua tahun akan datang.

Tempoh itu amat rencam apabila kita semakin menghampiri garisan penamat bagi menghambat status negara maju pada 2020. Ditambah dengan suasana politik yang tidak menentu menjelang Pilihan Raya Umum Ke-13.

Bersedia hadapi cabaran

Berdasarkan suasana yang sedemikian, maka 2013 ini adalah tahun pemilihan kepemimpinan pada pelbagai peringkat. Dimulakan pada peringkat belia yang mengisyaratkan kepemimpinan belia harus bersedia berhadapan dengan segala cabaran, yang perlu diredah bersama kekuatan hikmah, bagi memastikan fokus dan pacuan ke arah gerbang negara maju tidak terganggu.

Najib: I Hate People Who Break Promises

FZ.com

The prime minister said he was confident that BN will administer Selangor better than the current state government if voted back in the next general election.

“Our objective is to recapture Selangor but it not for sake of power only. It is because I am confident and believe that we can provide better service and administer better than the current government led by the federal opposition,” he said in a 15-minute radio interview during the launch of Selangor Radio BN at Umno headquarters here.

Najib added the the state government has also cheated the people of Selangor through its lies and deception.

Alleged Wanita Umno Member Apologizes Over Bawani Remark

Malaysian Digest

A woman, who is believed to be a Wanita Umno member, has issued an apology to Indian Malaysians following her rant, which contained racial slurs, against internet sensation K S Bawani.

In her FaceBook post, Norhayati Saiddin apologized unreservedly to her Indian friends for her comments, saying she had no intention to insult and become racist as she "grew up with Indians" and that some Malay individuals, who had different political ideologies, made a mountain out of a molehill.

"If you all want me to apolologise, ok, I, Norhayati Saiddin, am sorry to all my Indian friends," she wrote. 

She also clarified that she did not ask Bawani to go home to India, but instead to go to India to study, if she (Bawani) wanted free education.

All In The Name of God

Art Harun, Articulations

Many people do many things all in the name of God. The irony is the very things which they do in the name of God are abhorred by God. Or even prohibited by Him.

History will show us that human beings have tortured, maimed and killed each other, all in the name of God. Untold misery and cruelty have been inflicted all in the name of God. Yet, when they speak of God and their religion, they insist that God is most merciful, most compassionate and most forgiving. And their religion is a religion of peace, justice and fairness.

In Islam for example, history would show us all that right after the passing of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w., Muslims started arguing on who would be the right candidate to be the Caliph. Then they started killing each other. Until now that is.

The Traditionalist was a loose grouping of mainstream conservative schools who called themselves ahli-sunnah-wal-jamaah (the proponents of the Prophet’s traditions and consensus). They posit that the Caliph should be elected by the influential members of the community. This was also generally accepted by another group, the Khawarij. The only difference between these two groups was that while the former narrowed the qualification to be a Caliph to just the Quraysh tribe (Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. was from the Quraysh tribe), the Khawarij did not have such qualification. The Khawarij in fact believed that a Caliph may even be removed if he breached his mandate.

Should Indians Even Trust Najib?

Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak recently lined up the present and past MIC top brass to convince the Indians that the condominium project in sacred Batu Caves would be halted “if” Barisan Nasional wrested Selangor.

The same BN government, which approved the condominium project with the full knowledge of its MIC members who sat at the various meetings, is pointing the finger at Pakatan Rakyat (current Selangor government).

Frankly, there is no real motivation for the MIC to ask Najib to put a stop to the destruction of this temple, first, on the grounds that it is sacred to the Hindus, and secondly and more importantly, on the grounds that it is a national monument.

But all that is not important to the MIC and the BN now. What is important to them are their seats in the Selangor State Legislative Assembly. And that is the sole reason MIC supports Najib’s “if”.

As prime minister Najib has the power to intervene and protect a “national monument”, there is no need for the “if.”

“If” is found only in the dictionary of fools; are all Indians to be made fools of?

Is Najib really sincere? Why wait till the election is over and set it as a condition on a minority community to win the state for him? Where is the sincerity if it is conditional?

Holiday Musings and Propositions on The Genelogy of Religion

Dr Azly Rahman

As we close the year 2012 and  enter a new age of the Mayan calendar, I invite my learned readers to discuss the propositions below as a way to cleanse our minds of the flux and cloudiness of matters concerning the belief system we are all in. I suppose Malaysians especially are now ready to engage in dialogue sessions that require an open mind and  rationality in order for us to evolve more into an Athenian rather than a Spartan society still trapped in the glory of Oriental Despotism.

1 - all religious celebrations are more cultural than religious; for the roots of religion and spirituality lie in human anthropology framed by the agricultural society, and the need to engage in rites and rituals to structure the inner and outer patterns in understanding the unknown and that elusive concept called "divinity";

2 - all ideas of "god" are rooted in language and concepts in materialism and the dialecticness of it; different names of different gods signify the attempt by Man to name the Unknown and the Infinite and the Non-Being via words framed culturally, so that Man can worship the name and appease the construction of personal and social reality;

Non-muslims nabbed for 'khalwat' in Kelantan

(The Star) - Four non-Muslims two men on a plane spotting outing and a couple in a park have been issued with summonses for khalwat, a first in the country.

The summonses were for “indecent behaviour” but the four have denied any wrongdoing, claiming instead that the municipal council's enforcement officers “were merely abusing their position”.

State MCA Youth chief Gan Han Chuan said the officers “have gone crazy”, trying to enforce hudud laws on non-Muslims.

“This is a first in history where non-Muslims have been issued summonses for khalwat,” he said.

“It is unbelievable! What they do with their by-laws is now affecting the lives of even the non-Muslims,” Gan said of the two cases which occurred recently.

The incidents came in the wake of a nationwide uproar over the fines imposed on salon operators who allowed their stylists to cut the hair of a customer of a different gender regardless of whether they were Muslims or not.

Most, if not all, of the salons affected were owned by non-Muslims.

Once a Muslim, Always a Muslim

Dr. Marzuki Mohamed, ANU alumnus, and advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia recently argued that Malaysia is NOT a secular state.

The timing of Dr. Marzuki’s assertions of course fits a larger strategy undertaken by the ruling party: to use religion as a wedge between Muslims and non-Muslims in general, but also between the parties in the opposition coalition, especially the Islamist PAS, and the social democrats, DAP. Islam is also of course used to ensure compliance, and to stifle dissent.

Having next to nothing to rely on: suffering from massive deficits on the leadership and policy front, and with an increasingly debilitating track record in the economic, social and political front, this is indeed a sound strategy as there are sufficient number of Malaysians, and especially Malaysian Muslims to fall for this – that UMNO is the protector and the guarantor of the sanctity of Islam. To  paraphrase and slightly modify Samuel Johnson, “religion is indeed the last refuge of a scoundrel.”

Majikan Swasta Utamakan Cina

Baru-baru ini Kunta Kinte makan tengah hari dengan seorang usahawan Cina yang sangat berjaya. Dia mula berniaga pada zaman penjajah dan jadi kawan baik Perdana Menteri pertama, Almarhum Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra.

Mula-mula dia berniaga beras dan gula. Lepas itu dapat kontrak bina rumah murah untuk kerajaan yang masa itu orang ramai panggil rumah Khaw Kai Boh. Khaw adalah Menteri Perumahan zaman itu.
Masa itulah kerajaan mula bina rumah murah secara besar-besaran untuk dijual kepada rakyat miskin. Kemudian, macam-macamlah nama dibagi – ada yang kata rumah murah, ada yang kata rumah mampu milik dan paling baru projek perumahan rakyat.

Kalau betullah kita komited kepada 1Malaysia, satu negara dan satu hala, Kunta Kinte rasa kita wajib dedah dan pecahkan hipokrasi politik dan ekonomi ini. Kalau kita tak dedah dan pecahkan hipokrasi yang berkaitan bangsa, bahasa, politik dan ekonomi, selama itulah kita akan hidup dalam khayalan dan tertipu oleh hujah-hujah yang memesongkan"

Usahawan Cina itu kata, sekarang orang Melayu sudah berjaya dan sudah ada dalam semua bidang ekonomi. Jadi dia hairan pasal apa ada orang Melayu terus cakap berkenaan Dasar Ekonomi Baru.

Warga Setia Kuasai Bahasa Kebangsaan

Rejal Arbee

Menghairankan kerana selepas merdeka selama lebih 55 tahun dengan persetujuan menjadikan bahasa Melayu bahasa kebangsaan, penggunaannya masih menjadi persoalan. Terbaru ialah usaha untuk meningkatkan penguasaan dan penggunaan bahasa Inggeris dalam negara.

Diakui bahasa Inggeris sudah pun menjadi bahasa antarabangsa yang sepatutnya boleh dikuasai rakyat. Usaha juga perlu dilaksanakan supaya semua lepasan sekolah dan universiti kita dapat menguasai bahasa Inggeris dengan baik.

Tetapi apakah penguasaannya hanya boleh dilakukan dengan mengabai atau memperlekehkan bahasa Melayu hingga ada pula beberapa kerat rakyat yang mahu sekolah Inggeris, iaitu sekolah dengan bahasa Inggeris sebagai bahasa pengantar, dikembalikan?

Apakah ini saja jalannya untuk memastikan seseorang pelajar fasih bertutur dan menulis dalam bahasa Inggeris? Mestikah penguasaan baik bahasa Inggeris hanya boleh dicapai dengan mengabaikan bahasa Malaysia?

Tak serius guna bahasa Malaysia
Sehingga sekarang masih terdapat sebilangan rakyat negara ini yang berterusan tidak serius berhubung penggunaan bahasa Malaysia hingga ada lepasan sekolah, khususnya dari sekolah jenis kebangsaan Cina (SJKC) yang tidak boleh bertutur atau memahami bahasa Melayu dengan baik.

Persoalan mengenai penggunaan bahasa Malaysia sebagai bahasa pengantar di sekolah tidak seharusnya timbul lagi, begitu juga pandangan bahawa hanya dengan wujudnya sekolah bahasa Inggeris barulah rakyat negara ini boleh menguasai bahasa itu.

Speech at The Rafik Hariri UN-Habitat Memorial Award

Tun Mahathir Mohamad

1. I would like to thank the Rafik Hariri Foundation and the UN Habitat for conferring on me this prestigious Rafik Hariri UN-Habitat Memorial Award.

2. I deem it a great honour especially as this award is named after a remarkable man whose leadership qualities and contribution toward the rehabilitation of the war-ravaged city of Beirut and Lebanon is incomparable.

3. I knew Rafik Hariri when he first visited Malaysia. We immediately became close friends and I visited Lebanon at his invitation to see the damage wrought by the fratricidal war. Rafik promised he would rebuild Beirut as it was before the war. And he delivered on his promise. I visited Beirut after the restoration and I felt sure that a great future awaits Lebanon under his leadership.

4. In many ways I was like him. I wanted to develop Malaysia just as he wished to develop Lebanon. But he was less fortunate because he did not have the stability of Malaysia. Nor was he given the time.

5. Here I would like to pay tribute to my predecessors who devised a formula for Malaysia’s multi-ethnic, multi-religious people to work together. My predecessors also set the stage for Malaysia’s conversion from an agricultural country to an industrial country.

Religion is Something Personal

Jeswan Kaur

Doubt is part of all religion. All the religious thinkers were doubters. – Issac Bashevis Singer, author and Nobel Prize laureate

The antipathy being shown to Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar for her candid and forthright view that everyone is deserving of religious freedom, including the Malays, reveals the feared truth that religion is a personal choice and coercion simply does not work.

The truth is Nurul Izzah has done the Malays especially a favour through her remark that religious freedom should be accorded to everyone.

It is a different matter that her comments made in a forum entitled “Islamic state? Which vision? Whose responsibility” on Nov 3 came down with a ‘Richter Scale’-like backlash.

The statements coming from the Prime Minister’s Department were typical. Minister Jamil Khir Baharom said Nurul Izzah’s remark was “misleading” and “dangerous”. His deputy, Mashitah Ibrahim, went further, calling for the young politician’s prosecution on the charge of insulting Islam.

SIS: Recognise Freedom to Change Faith

Leven Woon, FMT

Freedom of religion as a right enshrined under the Federal Constitution must also recognise the freedom to change faith, said Sisters In Islam (SIS).

Rallying behind PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar’s call for freedom of religion for all, the NGO said faith in any religion was based on free will.

“How can Muslims demand this notion of religious freedom for those wishing to convert to Islam and at the same time argue the denial of this freedom to leave Islam?

“Faith by compulsion may lead to hypocrisy,” SIS said in a statement.

The Muslim women rights advocate maintained a strong position against legislation of faith, saying that such practice was meaningless.

Malaysia’s Commodified Islam

Alicia Izharuddin

At the World Halal Week held annually in Kuala Lumpur, you can purchase halal bone china, an exemplar of luxury and piety rolled into one. Malaysia is the leader in halal certification and a major promoter of the global halal industry. With markets saturated with a mind-boggling array of sharia-compliant goods that cater to a more discerning Muslim middle class, Islam can be seen as having entered more deeply into the lives of Malaysian Muslims in more commodified ways than ever before. The line between the sacred and the consumable profane have blurred, and true to the dictum that Islam is ‘a way of life’,  anything which supports the notion of good Muslim personhood can now be made halal. The explosion of consumer goods imbued with spiritual meaning is a new phenomenon spurred on by the broadening middle classes disenchanted with meaningless consumerism. Now consumer goods can have real intrinsic, spiritual meaning. But how did everything beyond consumables (and indeed items beyond meat) become halal.

Commodification of culture started as a phenomenon that emerged from the early capitalist period of Fordist mass production which then intensified during late capitalism. Flexible and geographically mobile post-Fordist market approaches shifted from mass production to a more fragmented, niche market to suit every possible types of lifestyle. The ‘religious’ lifestyle or public piety characterised by halal crockery, toothpaste, make-up, and even beer can be regarded an outcome of post-Fordist modes of production. Marx’s concept of ‘commodity fetish’ may be the most relevant point of entry into understanding the commodification of objects and practices that were previously not considered commercial.

In Marx’s analysis, commodity fetish requires the concealment of the origins and processes involved in the production of a consumer product from the consumer in order to maintain the ‘religious fog’ that justifies the mystery of its self-evident value. Religious symbols and meaning as commodity fetish may behave in the same manner, in that the deeper engagement of the purpose and context of a particular symbol are sidestepped and usurped by other distracting elements that vie for the attention of the consumer. The self-evident value of a religious commodity is intrinsically located within itself rather than the processes that lead to its points of ‘origin’.