My Podium

Thursday, September 03, 2009

A Commotion and Contemp

[1]

The “cow’s head” commotion in Shah Alam made it to World news, all for the wrong reasons. Some 50 people marched from the State Mosque after Friday prayer to protest the relocation of an old Hindu temple to their neighborhood in Section 23, Shah Alam. One could argue endlessly whether or not the relocation is proper, but the way the commotion took place was plain wrong. I could be very sure with that. It was not that the protest or the commotion itself that troubled me, but they way it was done, the writings on the banner, and the words uttered by the speakers.

Cows are animals considered “holy” by Hindus. Displaying a blood soaked cow’s head during the Hindu temple protest, regardless of any “after thought” stated reason, shows an utter contempt not only to Hindus, but also to Muslims. Islamic teachings require us to treat animal with respect. A good muslim doesn’t step and spit on cow’s head. The “cow’s head” commotion offends everyone who believes in good manner, regardless of faiths.

To err is human. Everyone makes mistakes, especially when emotion is running high, and so did the people who marched on that fateful day. So, I thought. Nonetheless, the obvious absence of apology from the people involved alarmed me further. There has been no admission of mistake, no apology, no remorse, and no repentance. They simply stand their ground for doing the wrong thing. Is this the new character of 1Malaysia?

When the Home Minister paid visit to the protesters and defended their actions, I felt deceived. The minister was the one who talk about “rules of law” when directed his barrage of insults to the anti-ISA protestors. Has he tossed the same “rules of law” into the drain? This is quite a high level hypocrisy.

We have gone to a new low in our moral standing as a nation. The people of our nation have, deliberately and unnecessarily, insulted others, and take pride for the wrong things done. Unless we quickly recalibrate our moral meter, the future of nation does not seem rosy enough.

There are times in our life when being silent means betrayal. This time is one, I believe. Let’s us vocally disown this contempt, categorically.
 
[2]

The EC decision to declare the Kedah’s Kota Seputeh State Assembly seat as not vacant is not unexpected. But, the reasons given for the decision raised many eyebrows. 

The State Constitution states that an assemblyman who failed to attend the sitting for two consecutives times without speaker’s acknowledgment would be disqualified. The Kota Seputeh assemblyman failed to attend the sittings consecutively on 19 April and 9 August, prompting the Speaker to send letter informing the vacancy of the seat to the EC.

The first reason given by the EC is that even though the assemblyman was absent in two sittings consecutively, the absence was not considered consecutive because the sittings belonged to different terms of the State Assembly session. Whatever that means. Evidently, the EC has stretched the interpretation of the Kedah State Constitution to a new limit, without consulting the Kedah State Legal Advisor.

The second reason given by the EC is that the assemblyman had obtain a sick certificate for the 9 April absentism, and the fact the sick certificate was not submitted to Speaker doesn’t make it invalid. This one is funny.

If the EC truly believes the first reason is a valid reason, would there be a need for EC to determine the validity of the MC? Similarly, if it has been clearly established that a robbery didn’t take place, would it be necessary to dwell on scrutinizing other issues and evidences with regards to the robbery. This is evidently fishy. The fact that the EC worked extra hard to justify the absence of the BN assemblyman only hurts its own credibility and impartiality.

Clearly, the EC has never been tasked to determine the validity of a sick certificate. No one expects EC to do that in the first place eventhough it was reported in the media that the said assemblyman was actually attending another function on the date he was absent from the sitting. He might have ordered the sick certificate via phone call.

The validity of the MC has never been an issue. His failure to inform the Speaker for not attending two state sittings consecutively spells clearly what kind of wakil rakyat he is.

I think we should honor the right and the might of our legislative body. The Speaker should be given the right to attend to the conduct of The House, and not the EC. There should be a clear line between the power of executive body and the legislative body. This “rojak” will create many more messes in the future.

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