Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Religious extremists - do they really care?

What do they really care about?

By TAY TIAN YAN
Translated by SOONG PHUI JEE
Sin Chew Daily
I have no doubt of PAS' ruling objective.
Son of PAS spiritual leader Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, rising star Pasir Mas MP Nik Abduh Nik Aziz wrote on his Facebook, "The flood is a reminder to all Muslims to return to Allah’s ways and stay away from His wrath. It necessitates the perseverance of the Kelantan government to implement hudud laws."
The remarks brought us back to the theocracy era before the Middle Age.
In that era, humans were useful. Human lives were as little as ant's lives and to survive, they must rely on God's mercy.
However, how did humans know whether God wanted them to live or die?
Then there was a group of people, who might be kings or priests, said,"My power comes from God and I speak on behalf of God, so you must listen to me."
They said it was God's decree when they wanted others to go to war, or serve as slaves.
In short, humans were not allowed to think or doubt as all were God's arrangement. If you did not follow or dared to oppose, then God would punish you.
I thought that today, a thousand years later, theocracy has become a part of myth. The enlightenment of human history has turned human minds from ignorance into rationality, while human's ability and values have been retrieved.
Subsequently, humans began to study science, to understand the world. Humans also started to learn humanities, to enhance the meaning of life.
This is what we called civilisation.
Today, PAS wishes to erase the process of human civilisation and return to the era of theocracy.
It wants to implement the hudud law and thus, it said that floods are a sign from God that the hudud law agenda must go on.
For them, floods are unrelated to climate change, environmental deterioration, as well as soil and water conservation.
They did not see how floods destroyed homes of many people, how victims are suffering hunger and cold, as well as illness, injuries and death.
They see and care only about hudud law. They can give up everything to implement hudud law. The massive floods became reasonable, tolerable and even necessary.
They have erased human's knowledge, omitted thinking, removed rationality and abandoned humanity.
Did Nik Abdul attend school and learn geography? Does he know anything about the northeast monsoon? Has he ever read newspapers, watched TV and surfed the Internet? Does he has any ideas about El Nino, global warming and climate anomalies?
Doesn't he know that logging activities have been crazily carried out in Lojing Highlands, Kelantan over the past 10 years? The state government has uncontrollably issued logging licences while taking no legal actions against illegal logging?
According to an investigation report by an environmental protection group, Lojing Highlands has suffered a more serious degree of damage compared to Cameron Highlands. If Cameron Highlands' condition is considered serious and must be saved immediately, Lojing Highlands must then be admitted to the ICU.
If Lojing Highlands has not suffered such damages, would the condition in Gua Musang and Kuala Krai be so serious today?
Nik Abdul and his supporters do not seem to care about these. All they care is just hudud law. They never asked what measures have the Kelantan state government taken to prevent floods, stop environmental degradation and improve drainage system.
I do not doubt at all that PAS is determined to implement the hudud law, even if the floods drown Kelantan, or the whole Malaysia.
Because they said that it it God's will.
True and right to say - Religious extremists cannot rule or should not be allowed to rule. Their sick mentality will bring hardship and suffering to the people just like IS is doing in the territories they occupy. If we talk about religion then we can say that Kelantan is worst hit by the floods is because they support terrorism - they gave USD50,000 to Hamas (a terrorist org.) and they supported IS - making a ex PAS member who became an IS fighter who was killed in Syria a martyr. They could even be supporting the Muslim militants who murder innocent people in S. Thailand.


Sunday, December 7, 2014

Let us not play God.

Let’s not play God in preserving our religion

December 8, 2014
Allowing for warnings on Bibles against propagating one’s faith to
Muslims is one of gross hostility.
COMMENT
J D Lovrenciear
Azmin bible 300The Menteri Besar of Selangor
is reported as calling for calm
and appealing to the media
not to politicise the stamping
episode on the Bibles by JAIS
despite the Christians feeling
deeply hurt by this atrocious
‘red’ stamping on their Holy
Books.What do Christians do?
Bury theirgrievances and grave
concerns andkeep smiling?
Why do our vanguards and authorities keep taking certain actions that do not
even satisfy common sense?
In the first place, if Christians are to be told not to use the Holy Bibles to
propagate their faith to Muslims, is there no other affirmative and assured
means to do so?
Why not issue an official letter together with the return of the Bibles, reminding
Christian leaders of the legal consequences should they propagate their faith to
 Muslims? Why take the holy book of another’s faith and brandish a warning
stamp on it?
Does JAIS not know nor recognise the sacredness of the holy books of every
faith? And it is the same too for Islam, is it not?
Pray tell us, is there any other government or government-sanctioned religious
authority in the world today that does the same – deface and desecrate Holy
Books or even stamp warnings on it?
Or are we adamantly going to argue that stamping the holy books of another
faith is not desecration nor defacement but a necessary act to protect another’s
religion? And if that is what it is all about, then it is an insult to all the devout
and inspired followers of Islam.
Would it not be more responsible, self-regulating and honourable to get the
Christians to print their Holy Books with a caption “NOT FOR MUSLMS”?
Are these questions now deemed “political”? Or should we not utter these as
it may be conveniently be deemed seditious?
Honourable and virtuous Muslims must stand up and come forward in defence
of their faith. By allowing the defacement of the Holy Bibles, the message sent
out deliberately or inadvertently, is one of gross hostility.
Islam would never have grown if not for a sense of freedom of religion unique
to the human species. Likewise, none of the other religions would be around past
these centuries if not for that same deeply rooted human sense of freedom to worship,
adore and submit to the Almighty Creator.
Ultimately man-made laws cannot guarantee, nurture and protect the Word of God or
His message for humanity.
Do we Malaysians think that all of man’s laws can fight against and provide security
for one’s religion on its own merits? If we do, we are indeed most blinded by extremism.
Let us not play God. A moderate nation in the making does not behave in such a manner,
unless of course we have already pledged to be an extremist nation.
Hopefully, the very man who spoke as the prime minister of the nation on the
retention of the Sedition Act will now speak up for all Malaysians as the world is
watching.
J D Lovrenciear is an FMT reader
Let us not play God. A moderate nation in the making does not behave in such a 
manner, unless of course we have already pledged to be an extremist nation. -  
WELL SAID - those who play God have put themselves in the seat of God, 
May GOD judge such people as their folly and evil deserves!!!

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Promises to ex-communists still not kept

25 years on, peace treaty’s promises to ex-communists still not kept

Former CPM member Yaacob Ibrahim, 53, or ‘Bulat’ says the Communist Party of Malaya continues to be demonised by the Malaysian government despite a peace treaty. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Hasnoor Hussain, December 2, 2014.Former CPM member Yaacob Ibrahim, 53, or ‘Bulat’ says the Communist Party of Malaya continues to be demonised by the Malaysian government despite a peace treaty. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Hasnoor Hussain, December 2, 2014. A peace treaty had been signed and an insurgency long ended, but a quarter of a century later, hurt remains for former members of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) who still feel the sting of broken promises and continued demonisation over their past.
Today marks the 25th anniversary of the Hatyai Peace Accord, when the CPM laid down arms against the Malaysian and Thai governments, ending an insurgency that began in 1948.
But despite having signed the agreement with Malaysia, the government has not been sincere in honouring the pact, former CPM members living in Narathiwat province in southern Thailand told The Malaysian Insider during a visit there ahead of the anniversary of the signing of the treaty.
Still demonised
Former CPM member Yaacob Ibrahim, 53, better known as Bulat among his comrades, was angry that the CPM continued to be demonised despite there being a peace agreement and the fact that the party was no longer a threat.
"In my view, the last 25 years had been a test and we have to accept reality, which is sometimes bitter. The years have shown that the government has been insincere.
"Until now, there is propaganda on television stating the communists are a threat. When the war ended, it was finished. What threats? We have no guns. They were all destroyed in a fire," said the small-sized man, who did not hide his disdain when speaking.
Bulat was originally from Pasir Puteh, Kelantan. At 11, he joined the 10th CPM Regiment called the Malayan People's Army. He later was in charge of graphics and layout for the regiment's newspaper, Suluh Rakyat (People's Torch).
He feels the Malaysian government has "twisted" history about the CPM, citing how the Barisan Nasional administration had prevented the publication of history books on the party and its former leaders, Abdullah Che Dat (Abdullah CD), Rashid Maidin, Ibrahim Chik, Shamsiah Fakeh and CPM secretary-general Chin Peng, more than 10 years ago.
He said the books were an initiative by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and after all the work had been completed, including royalty being paid to Rashid, former information minister Tan Sri Zainuddin Maidin then voiced objections in the media.
"There was talk about attempts to revive communism and so on. UKM did not go through with the publications. Everything could not move for nearly a year. In the end, the material was retrieved from UKM so that we could find our own way to publish the books," said Bulat, who now works as a rubber tapper.
'We were against British colonisation'
Another ex-CPM man Indrajaya Abdullah, 57, known as Anas among his comrades, also hit out at former inspector-general of police Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Noor, who had earlier this year disputed the communist party's struggle for Malaya's independence.
Rahim had reportedly said in an Utusan Malaysia article in February that the CPM's only agenda was to form a communist state in Malaya and that there was nothing in the party's constitution about freeing Malaya from the British.
"A democratic revolution is a fight against imperialism and feudalism. It is against colonisation. We just didn't use the term 'independence'.
"A democratic revolution has a bigger meaning than independence. What happens after that? The shape of the country," Anas said when met at Chulabhorn Pattana 12 village in Sukhirin, Narathiwat province in southern Thailand.
The village, where its original residents were former 10th CPM Regiment members, is only 3km from the Thai-Malaysia border near Kelantan. The village was initially known as 'Ban Rattana Kitti 4 (Peace Village 4), until it was placed under the governance of the Chulabhorn Research Institute.
Pact signed but promises not kept
Bulat also told The Malaysian Insider that the Thai government had treated the former Malayan communists better than Malaysia.
The Peace Village, for instance, was given by the Thai government to ex-CPM members to live in.
Under the peace accord, the Malaysian government was to have allowed former CPM members born in Malaysia the right of return. The government was obliged under the pact to process their citizenship according to the law.
But Bulat said some of them have never received their identification documents even after 25 years.
"There was this man named Majid. He was unhappy he never got his IC (identity card) so he came back and died in this village.
“Pak Chu Mahsin, a follower of Mat Indera, also didn't get his. He had to use another person's bank account to keep his money. That was how he got cheated.
"It was so clear that they were all Malaysians but the government claims they didn't have the papers (to prove they were)," Bulat said.
Anas said it was the same with the late Chin Peng, CPM's secretary-general, who was never allowed to return to live and die in Malaysia.
"His siblings and his father were all citizens. But even the court denied he was a Malaysian. They would not give a Malay his citizenship, so what more Chin Peng, a Chinese?"
Chin Peng, whose real name was Ong Boon Hua, died on Malaysia Day last year in a Bangkok hospital. He was one of the three CPM leaders who signed the Hatyai Peace Accord with Malaysia and Thailand on December 2, 1989, in Hatyai. The other two were Rashid and Abdullah CD.
Chin Peng tried for many years to apply for his return to Malaysia. In April 2009, his hopes were dashed when the Federal Court dismissed his motion for leave to appeal against the Court of Appeal’s decision in June 2008, that Chin Peng must produce his birth certificate or citizenship as proof before he could pursue legal action against the Malaysian government.
It was reported that the National Registration Department could not find any record of his birth. The Federal Court also ruled that Chin Peng's memoirs "Alias Chin Peng: My Side of History" in which he told of how his papers were destroyed in a raid by the British on June 16, 1948, could not be accepted as the truth.
Chin Peng had maintained that he could not produce the documents as they were seized by police during a raid in Kampar, which he escaped.
'What is Malaysia afraid of?'
Bulat joked that that they could have smuggled Chin Peng into Malaysia while he was alive, if they had wanted. What more his ashes.
But Anas disagreed, saying that they had wanted Chin Peng to return home honourably and could not understand why the government "feared" his influence.
"Chin Peng has turned toAbdullah Che Dat better known as Abdullah CD is 91 and had wished to die in Malaysia but there are fears he will be arrested if he sets foot in his birth country. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Hasnoor Hussain, December 2, 2014. Abdullah Che Dat better known as Abdullah CD is 91 and had wished to die in Malaysia but there are fears he will be arrested if he sets foot in his birth country. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Hasnoor Hussain, December 2, 2014. ashes. What are they so worried about?"
Anas said Malaysia's stance against Chin Peng made the government look as if it would "flip over with a push of a finger".
"That is what it would look like to others outside the country. Will bringing back Chin Peng's ashes affect the people?
"Why the fuss over Chin Peng. It is a matter of humanitarian grounds," he said.
Anas, Abdullah CD’s son-in-law, also said in Thailand, the government had given the ex-communists "special case" citizenships.
"To be a Thai citizen, you need to know the language. But how could senior citizens like my father-in-law, who were well in their 70s and 80s, pick up the new language? But the Thai government granted them, even though it took some time.
"The Thai government also did not discriminate against our village," he said, citing how the government had given land to the former CPM members, with each family getting one house along with 15 “rai” (about 3ha) of land to use for farming as promised, after the peace agreement was signed.
Anas, who once worked for the Suara Revolusi Malaya radio station in 1969 in China, and then the Suara Demokrasi Malaya radio station in Thailand before serving as a translator and trainer in the party's 10th Regiment, said the villagers enjoyed welfare perks.
"We also got amenities as a poor village. Medical treatment at the local hospital is also free because we hold cards issued to the poor.”
The village has 147 houses with a population of about 500 people, up to the third generation of the former communists' families.
The village also has a mosque, primary school, kindergarten, nursery, a clinic, a small museum and an inn. It has no telephone coverage but at some spots in the village, there is free WiFi. The Thai government is now building the Sukhirin Garden that costs five million baht (RM522,607) for the village.
Opting not to return
Life in the village is peaceful. The community, which largely makes its living out of the agriculture sector, is close-knit. Many of the villagers are in their 20s, children of the former Communist Party members.
Daily life is simple for the senior citizens like Abdullah CD, 91, who has lived in the village since it was established after the peace agreement.
His daily habits include strolling around his double-storey brick house after waking up, reading and watching television, especially the news.
Abdullah seemed alert and also physically strong for his age. He uses a walking stick but would set it aside if he was walking while reading something that interests him.
Unfortunately, Abdullah suffers speech difficulties after being poisoned in September 1975. He wrote in his memoir "Perjuangan di Sempadan dan Penamatan Terhormat" (Fighting at the Border and the Honourable End), an intelligence agent had poisoned his drink.
The old man was mostly quiet when he sat down with Anas and Bulat during the interview. He spoke only occasionally to add comments to what the two younger men had said.
Abdullah, who was born in Perak, said he had wanted to go home permanently but took issue with one development after the peace accord was signed.
"The Malaysian government suddenly wanted us to go through an orientation of sorts for a period to supposedly help us adapt. We saw it as an attempt to brainwash us.
"They were saying that because we lived in the jungle, we could not adapt to living in society, that we would need time. We understood it as an attempt to change us. That was why I decided not to return," he said.
Anas said there was also a concern that Abdullah CD might be detained under the Internal Security Act if he went back to Malaysia.
But Abdullah did return to Malaysia once, in 1998, and had an audience with the late Sultan Azlan Shah in Kuala Lumpur.
Observing Malaysia
Despite living outside Malaysia for decades, the former communists are up-to-date with affairs in the country of their birth, including the recent episode in Parliament when PAS lawmaker Mohamed Hanipa Maidin spoke about Chin Peng and other CPM leaders' contributions.
Bulat cited how Umno's Datuk Seri Azalina Othman had called Hanipa a communist supporter.
"They still do not see communism as an ideology. They see it as something bad and demonic," he said.
Bulat said communism was an economic system, like capitalism, and he failed to understand why communism was linked to anti-religion sentiments and atheism. Malays who joined the CPM still practised Islam.
He related how an ustaz (a religious teacher) had visited the Chulabhorn village with a friend some time ago.
"It was zohor (around noon) when he arrived. He heard the azan from the entrance of the village.
"He came into the village, went to see the headman and he was angry. He said for more than 40 years, he had been duped."
Bulat also said Malaysia was far from becoming a nation state.
"We are only free from the colonisation of foreign powers. Now we have switched to the local authorities.
"From the aspect of oppression, issues of justice and others, there is no significant change. Minds are also not free, still tied to what the colonial powers left behind like the Sedition Act.”
Bulat said the country could not be a nation state when its people were still identified by their respective races.
Anas did not miss a beat and said: "How do you achieve a nation state when it takes so little to tell the Chinese to go back to China?"
Bulat said Malaysians have become more mature in thinking as shown by the way people remained clam over religious and racial incidents, like attacks on churches and cow heads and pigs' heads thrown at places of worship.
But Anas said Malaysia has a long way to go with conservatism among the Malays, in Umno and the government on the rise.
"That is a sign the country is going backwards, like what that Australian writer said... that Indonesia has taken a step forward while Malaysia takes two steps back," he said, referring to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald criticising Malaysia's growing authoritarianism. – December 2, 2014.

It is sad that Malaysia cannot keep its promises. Best not to make them in the first place.
 What is the Umno/BN govt so afraid of!


Nigeria: Christian lawyer receiving death threats for defending victims of Fulani attacks - Where are the Christian state leaders of the World to voice out for the BLOOD of their brethren!

  Nigeria: Christian lawyer in hiding after receiving death threats for defending victims of Fulani attacks Nigeria: Christian lawyer in hid...