My Podium

Teknologi Hijau Untuk Masa Depan

2010-02-18T15:36:00.002+08:00

[1]

Majalah Discovery keluaran terbaru menerbitkan satu artikel yang begitu menguja minda saya. Ia menyebut tentang geran penyelidikan yang diberikan oleh Kerajaan Amerika Syarikat kepada sebuah syarikat pembekal panel solar bagi menjana tenaga melalui satu projek “Electrical Highway”. Kajian menunjukkan sekiranya permukaan lebuhraya boleh bertindak sebagai panel solar yang akan memproses cahaya matahari menjadi tenaga elektrik, maka jumlah tenaga yang bakal dihasilkan oleh permukaan jaringan lebuhraya di seluruh negara dalam tempoh setahun dengan kadar hanya 15% efficiency sahaja boleh membekal tenaga elektrik kepada seluruh negara selama tiga tahun. Ini bermakna, selain mempunyai bekalan tenaga yang cukup, negara juga boleh menjual dua pertiga dari tenaga yang dihasilkan kepada negara lain. Memandangkan jaringan lebuhraya dan jalanraya mampu sampai kelesuruh pelusuk negara, maka jaringan elektrik pendawaiaan boleh disekalikan dengan jaringan lebuhraya dan jalanraya tanpa perlu kepada “Electrical Power Grid” konvensional. Ini sekaligus mengurangkan “distribution cost” kepada pengguna.

Bukan itu sahaja, sekiranya projek ini berjaya ia akan merevolusikan dunia pengangkutan jalanraya dunia. Dengan tenaga elektrik yang dihasilkan oleh lebuhraya dan jalanraya ini, maka jalanraya boleh “dicahayakan” pada waktu malam sepenuhnya dengan tenaga elektrik yang dihasilkan oleh jaringan jalanraya itu sendiri. Keselamatan jalanraya boleh dipertingkatkan kepada pengguna selain penguatkuasaan dan pemantauan penggunaan jalanraya boleh dibuat secara “realtime” dengan jaringan pengesan (sensors) dan kamera CCTV yang boleh dipasang di sepanjang lebuhraya. Pengguna jalanraya boleh mengetahui keadaan kesesakan lalulintas secara terus melalui sistem ini tanpa menunggu perlu laporan pihak ketiga. Di negara sejuk, sistem pemanas dan pengering juga boleh dipasang bagi mencair dan menyahkan salji atau air hujan secara lebih berkesan disepanjang lebuhraya.

Lebih mengujakan saya ialah prospek terhadap pemuliharaan alam sekitar. Sekiranya lebuhraya dan jalanraya boleh membekalkan tenaga elektrik secara lebih murah dan konsisten kepada kenderaan, tentunya kita boleh mengucapkan selamat tinggal kepada penggunaan petrol untuk kenderaan kita. Pengurangan penggunaan “carbon-based fuel” dalam sistem pengangkutan ini pastinya akan memberikan impak besar di dalam usaha pemuliharaan alam sekitar. Industri kenderaan elektrik akan berkembang pesat. Inilah yang saya maksudkan sebagai “Revolusi Dunia Pengangkutan”. Bukankah penyumbang terbesar kepada pencemaran udara dan pemanasan global adaah sektor pengangkutan dan sektor penjanaan tenaga.

[2]

Penghasilan solar panel yang boleh menjadi bahan pembinaan lebuhraya yang sekaligus bertindak sebagai penjana tenaga elektrik mempunyai cabaran teknikal yang menarik. Para saintis bahan perlu mencari penyelesaian bagaimana untuk menghasilkan bahan lutsinar yang tahan dan selamat untuk digunakan sebagai permukaan lebuhraya. Dilaporkan bahawa usaha kearah itu sudah hampir berjaya dan teknologi itu akan berada dipasaran dalam beberapa tahun akan datang.

Cabaran seterusnya ialah dari sudut keselamatan penjanaan, penyimpanan, dan pendawaian tenaga elektrik di sepanjang jalanraya yang pastinya terdedah kepada pengguna awam, selain penyalahgunaan dan kecurian oleh pihak-pihak yang tidak bertanggungjawab.

Ini akan juga menyebabkan para pekerja pembinaan “jalanraya elektrik” perlu melalui latihan dan mempunyai kemahiran yang lebih berbanding pembinaan jalanraya sekarang kerana kualiti kerja, disiplin, dan pengesahan kerja perlu dibuat secara lebih ketat dan bersistematik.

Dalam kata lain, sebahagian para kontraktor pembinaan perlu bersedia mengubah budaya kerja mereka ataupun mereka perlu bersedia untuk gulung tikar. Melihat kepada kualiti jalanraya yang dibina oleh kontraktor sekarang, saya fikir mereka perlu banyak membuat peningkatan dalam kaedah pengurusan dan budaya kerja mereka.

Saya fikir Kementerian Sains, Teknologi dan Innovasi, Kementerian Pengangkutan, Kementerian Kerja Raya dan Kementerian Pendidikan Tinggi perlu memikirkan secara serius keperluan teknologi ini memandangkan bekalan minyak mentah negara mungkin hanya akan bertahan sikitar 15 hingga 20 tahun lagi.

[3]

Bekalan tenaga bukanlah satu-satunya masalah besar yang dihadapi oleh negara-negara maju dan membangun. Penduduk dunia juga dijangka akan menghadapi krisis bekalan air bersih. Lebih-lebih lagi apabila banyak kawasan tadahan air tidak dapat lagi dipertahankan bagi memberi laluan kepada keperluan pembangunan, perumahan, dan pertanian yang semakin mendesak.

Secara logiknya, sekiranya jalanraya boleh digunakan untuk menadah cahaya matahari bagi menghasilkan tenaga elektrik, maka jalanraya yang sama juga boleh digunakan untuk menadah air hujan yang kemudiannya di bersihkan, disimpan, dan disalurkan untuk kegunaan awam. Dalam kata lain, jalanraya boleh dijadikan kawasan tadahan hujan “artificial” bagi membekalkan air kepada pengguna. Ini tentunya amat bermanfaat kepada negara seperti Malaysia yang menerima kadar hujan yang agak tinggi.

Memang kita akui bahawa teknologi panel solar dan “water havesting” sudah lama diamalkan. Bagaimananapun ianya belum sampai ke peringkat “mass commercial” yang boleh memberikan tahap skala ekonomi yang munasabah untuk justifikasi kos bagi melaksanakannya secara komprehensif. Setakat ini kegunaannya terhad kerana kosnya agak kurang kompetitif.

Dengan projek “Electric Highway” dan “Water Havesting Highway” ini, secara tidak langsung akan membawa dua teknologi ini ke peringkat “mass commercial” yang memungkinkan ianya diamalkan secara lebih meluas dengan kos yang munasabah.

Dana permulaannya memang amat besar dan ianya mesti dibiayai seahagian besarnya oleh kerajaan. Tetapi, dari sudut jangka panjang, saya percaya ianya lebih banyak memberi manfaat kepada alam sekitar, kualiti hidup rakyat, dan juga kos kehidupan.

Allah Tuhan Yang Satu.

2010-01-23T22:54:00.000+08:00

(1)
Orang Melayu ramai yg beranggapan bahawa Kristian & Yahudi menyembah tuhan yang lain dari tuhan yang disembah orang Islam. Anggapan ini adalah salah. Hakikatnya, sepertimana yang dijelaskan oleh Al-Quran, Kristian dan Yahudi menyembah tuhan yang sama dengan tuhan yang disembah oleh orang Islam. Sebab itu agama mereka disebut sebagai agama samawi atau “Abrahamic”.
Kristian dan Yahudi itu dianggap sesat kerana mereka “MENSYIRIKKAN ALLAH” dan “MENGUBAH HUKUM ALLAH”. Tindakan mereka menolak kerasulan Muhammad SAW juga adalah hasil tindakan mereka mengubah kandungan kitab Allah. Ya! Kitab mereka juga berasal dari Allah, tuhan yang sama yang disembah oleh umat Islam, dan mereka mengubahnya. Tetapi mereka tidak menolak hakikat bahawa kitab asalnya adalah dari Allah jua.
Sekiranya orang Melayu memahami ini, maka mereka akan faham bahawa jika orang Melayu menyembah Allah, tetapi pada masa yang sama MENSYIRIKKAN ALLAH dengan sembahan yang lain (cth: ideologi ciptaan manusia) dan MENGUBAH/MENOLAK sebahagian HUKUM ALLAH, mereka juga adalah sebenarnya sesat seperti sesatnya Kristian dan Yahudi.
Isu kalimah Allah ini seharusnya memberi ksedaran kepada umat Islam bahawa sekadar menyembah Allah sahaja belum cukup untuk menjadi seorang itu Muslim, tetapi yang lebih penting ialah mentauhid dan mengESAkan Allah. Kalimah shahadah yang bermula dengan lafaz “la ilaaha..” jelas memberi penekanan terhadap menolak segala bentuk syirik.
Bagi saya, kalau seluruh agama samawi menggunakan kalimah Allah, ia akan memberi lebih kefahaman kepada umat Islam tentang peri pentingnya menolak SYIRIK dalam segala bentuk yang ada. Orang Melayu akan faham bahawa orang-orang Yahudi dan Kristian menjadi sesat dan kafir bukan kerana mereka mereka tidak percaya kepada kewujudan dan kekuasaan Allah, tetapi kerana mereka mengadakan sekutu-sekutu bagi Allah dalam bentuk pengibadatan dan hukum-hakam kehidupan mereka.
Mengharamkan penggunaan kalimah Allah bagi Kristian atas alasan ia akan mengelirukan umat Islam adalah merupakan satu kekeliruan, seolah-olah konsep Trinity sahaja yang SYIRIK. Padahal SYIRIK itu boleh berlaku dalam pelbagai bentuk. Apa untung umat Islam mengatakan bahawa tuhan mereka tidak sama dengan tuhan agama-agama Samawi yang lain? Bukankah ianya akan lebih mengelirukan umat Islam sendiri tentang ajaran Islam yang sebenar.
Kalau kita mahu mengharamkan kalimah Allah digunakan oleh orang Kristian, maka kita juga seharusnya mengharamkan penggunaan kalimah Allah oleh sesiapa sahaja yang MENSYIRIKKAN ALLAH dan yang menolak HUKUM ALLAH, kerana membenarkan penggunaan kalimah Allah oleh mereka juga mungkin akan mengelirukan umat Islam.
Ada yang berhujjah bahawa penggunaan kalimah Allah oleh orang-orang Kristian akan menyebabkan umat Islam yang kurang ilmu pengetahuan terpengaruh dengan dakyah Kristian dan boleh menjadi murtad. Kalau itulah hujjahnya, maka masalahnya bukanlah soal penggunaan kalimah Allah oleh orang Kristian tetapi sebenarnya ialah kejahilan umat Islam sendiri. Maka, kita mesti mengakui masalah ini secara jujur. “We must call a spade, a spade.”

Kejahilan sebahagian umat Islam tidak boleh diselesaikan dengan mengharamkan penggunaan kalimah Allah oleh penganut Kristian. Ini amat jelas. Tidak pernah berlaku, tidak sekarang,dan tidak juga akan datang. Masalah ini hanya boleh diselesaikan dengan setiap kita mengambil tanggungjawab dakwah dan tarbiyyah secara lebih serius dan bersungguh-sungguh. Tidak mungkin ada jalan pintas lagi.

(2)

Majoriti penganut Kristian tidak menggunakan kalimah Allah. Hanya sebahagian kecil sahaja yang menggunakan kalimah Allah. Orang-orang Kristian Arab dan Nusantara adalah termasuk sebahagian kecil yang menggunakan kalimah Allah.

Saya kira tindakan The Herald membawa isu ini ke mahkamah bukanlah tindakan yang bijak di pihak mereka. Mereka tidak ada alasan yang jelas untuk berbuat begitu. Makanya, amat mudah untuk orang berpersepsi negatif apabila ia melakukan sesuatu yang begitu sensitif tanpa alasan yang jelas.

Allah adalah perkataan yang berasal dari bahasa Arab. Ia bukan perkataan Melayu. Kalau mereka mahu menggunakan kalimah Allah, maka seharusnya teks dalam Bahasa Inggeris juga menggunakan kalimah Allah, maka barulah nampak konsisten kalau ianya mahu dikekalkan begitu apabila diterjemahkan kepada Bahasa Melayu atau bahasa apa pun. Tetapi amat tidak munasabah kalau perkataan “God” dalam Bahasa Inggeris menjadi “Allah” dalam Bahasa Melayu, kerana “Allah” itu bukan Bahasa Melayu pun. Terjemahan perkataan “God” dalam Bahasa Melayu adalah “Tuhan”. Itulah yang difahami dan diterima oleh para penterjemah seluruhnya.

Walaupun secara dasarnya, Islam tidak menghalang penggunaan kalimah Allah oleh pengikut agama Samawi, tetapi tindakan di atas melahirkan “high suspect” kerana ketiadaan konsistensi. Inilah yang menimbulkan masalah. Orang akan bertanya, “kenapa perlu guna nama Allah untuk terbitan berbahasa Melayu sahaja?”. “Apakah mereka ada hasrat yang tersembunyi”. Telahan-telahan manusia boleh menjadi liar diluar dugaan. Dan inilah yang sedang berlaku dalam polemik isu penggunaan kalimah Allah ini.

Pihak The Herald juga mesti menjernihkan telahan-telahan seperti ini. Mereka tidak boleh hanya menagih hak mereka tanpa mengambil tanggunjawab kesan-kesan yang dihasilkan oleh tindakan mereka.

Maka itu, jalan penyelesaian ialah dialog dan dakwah, bukan keganasan dan kebencian.

Divisive “Islamists”?

2009-11-05T09:42:00.001+08:00

Islam was the main factor that unified various factions of Afghan mujahideens in their quest to oust Soviet occupation during more than a decade of Afghan war. Almost immediately after the retreat of Soviet army, the “Islamists” turned their weapons against each other. They became hopelessly divided and lacked coherence in managing their differences. Their government collapsed. The result is clear; Afghanistan is still a failed state to this day. The blood of the Mujahideens, looking from the worldly point of view, has gone in vain, in the hands of their own political leaders.

Islam adalah faktor utama yang menyatukan perbagai aliran dikalangan kumpulan Mujahidin Afghanistan di dalam perjuangan mereka menentang pendudukan Soviet selama lebih sepuluh tahun peperangan di Afghanistan. Sebaik sahaja tentera Soviet berundur, golongan pejuang Islam mula menggunakan senjata mereka untuk menjatuhkan satu sama lain. Mereka berpecah teruk dan tidak mampu menguruskan perbezaan mereka. Kerajaan Mujahidin akhirnya tumbang. Akibatnya sangat jelas dimana Afghanistan masih menjadi sebuah negara yang gagal serba serbi hingga ke hari ini. Dari perspektif duniawi, seolah-olahnya, darah para mujahidin hanya disia-siakan sahaja oleh pemimpin-pemimpin politik mereka sendiri.

In Somalia, the “Islamists” once created a political force to be reckoned under Islamic Court Union. They ruled Somalia, established order and presided over economic development, albeit briefly. Soon after, various factions took different political approaches. The differences quickly turned into hatred and enmity, resulting in “Islamists” firing their guns against each other. The political divides of the main factions are actually all dominated by the “Islamists” who at a time fought together, but they are now bitterly rivaling each other. Worse still, they are happily inflicting damages on each others.

Di Somalia, golongan Islam pernah menjadi kuasa politik yang berpengaruh di bawah kumpulan Islamic Court Union (ICU). Mereka berjaya mengembalikan keamanan dan meningkat aktiviti ekonomi dalam tempuh pemerintahan yang singkat. Selepas, kumpulan-kumpulan yang bernaung di bawah ICU mula mengambil pendekatan politik yang berbeza dan berbalah sesama sendiri. Perbalahan ini kemudiannya menjadi kebencian dan permusuhan, berakhir dengan golongan Islam menghalakan senjata mereka ke arah satu sama lain. Padahal pihak-pihak utama yang bertelagah dalam konflik politik Somalia sekarang didominasikan oleh golongan Islam yang pernah berjuang bersama tetapi sekarang mereka masing-masing berusaha keras menjatuhkan satu sama lain. Lebih menyedihkan mereka dilihat gembira memusnahkan satu sama lain.

In Iraq, the “Islamists” of various factions had blood on their hands. Those gruesome pictures of dilapidated bodies scattered on the ground lately are mostly the handiwork of the so-called “Islamists”.

Di Iraq, perbagai golongan Islam yang bertelagah banyak melakukan pembunuhan. Gambar-gambar ngeri dimana tubuh-tubuh yang berkecai bertaburan di atas tanah sejak kebelakangan ini dilihat sebagai hasil kerja kumpulan-kumpulan yang mengaku memperjuangankan Islam.

Each group considers itself as the true Islamist and any faction opposing - or even disagreeing with - them as the enemy of Islam. In the end of the equation, we will have as many “true Islamist” as the “enemy of Islam”.

Setiap kumpulan melihat diri mereka sebagai golongan yang memperjuangkan Islam yang sebenar dan pihak yang menentang mereka – malah juga yang tidak sependapat dengan mereka – sebagai musuh Islam. Akhirnya, golongan “Islam Sebenar” dan “musuh Islam” sama banyak kerana sebenarnya mereka adalah orang-orang yang sama, tetapi dilihat dari perspektif yang berbeza.

The time has now arrived that an “Islamist” would call another “Islamist” from different factions as the “enemy of Islam”. The game of name calling has become more convenient to all who want to get into play. “They are liars… apostates… infidels… munafiqs… traitors… kaafirs!”, the shouting and the name calling matches continued with added intensity each time they surface in public. All are done in the name of defending Islam and pursuing the course of Islam. Various hadiths and Quranic verses were then quoted by each of them to justify their position.

Sekarang ini, “golongan Islam” akan memanggil “golongan Islam” dari aliran atau kelompok yang bertentangan sebagai “musuh Islam”. Masing-masing dengan mudah akan mencaci orang lain. “Mereka pembohong…murtad…syirik…munafik… pengkhianat… kafir!” apa saja cacian akan terus dihamburkan di hadapan umum. Semunya dibuat kononnya sebagai terpaksa demi mempertahankan Islam. Pelbagai hadith dan ayat Quran juga dipetik sewenangnya bagi mengukuhkann hujjah dan pandangan masing-masing.

Islam which is supposed to be the backbone of unity has been turned as the backbone of divisive elements in society – and even among the various groups of Islamists.

Islam yang seharusnya menjadi tulang belakang kesatuan di kalangan para pendokong telah ditukarkan menjadi elemen yang memecahkan masyarakat – dan malah di kalangan pelbagai kelompok Islam sendiri.

Ideologically Islamists are aspirants grandeur. They must eventually rule the nation with the banner of Islam and accept nothing less than that. The Islamists want to rule the world on the maxim – iqaamatud diin wa siyasatud dunya bih. If they must engage in power sharing with non-Islamist, they must be made dominant and assume leadership. Even when they are in power sharing with other “Islamists”, each of these Islamist group would push for their dominance and supremacy upon others.

Secara ideologinya, golongan Islam adalah golongan beraspirasi agung serba hebat. Mereka mesti akhir menjadi kuasa pemerintah dengan berlandaskan Islam dan mereka tidak seharusnya berpuas hati selagi hasrat ini tidak tercapai. Golongan Islam mahu memerintah dunia di atas prinsip – iqaamatud diin wa siyasatud dunya bih. Sekiranya mereka perlu berkongsi kuasa dengan golongan lain, mereka mestilah menjadi golongan dominan dan memimpin. Malah sekiranya mereka berkongsi kuasa dengan kelompok-kelompok Islam yang pelbagai aliran sekalipun, setiap kelompok akan berkeras bahawa merekalah yang sepatutnya mendominasikan perkongsian tersebut.

There is nothing wrong in being aspirants grandeur as such, as long as we earn the prestige through legitimate and fair play means. In fact, we should strive with our best efforts to realize the dream in putting Islam in its deserved position. The problem is when our efforts, capability and performance don’t match with our aspiration, which sometimes makes us tend to employ coercion and deceitful attitudes to secure dominance over others. This attitude could spell disaster. With this damaging attitudes, people start to wonder what would happen if the Islamists rule the world. Would the whole world become vindictive and bloody battle grounds among Islamist of different factions? If Afghanistan, Somalia, and Iraq experience are to be set as precedence, then Islamists as they are now, don’t bring much hope to the world.

Tidak ada salahnya menjadi golongan yang beraspirasi agung serba hebat sekiranya kita mencapai kehebatan itu melalui keadah yang diperakui sah, benar, dan adil. Malah sebenarnya kita wajib berusaha melakukan yang terbaik bagi meletakkan kedudukan Islam di tempatnya yang penuh kemuliaan. Masalahnya ialah apabila usaha, keupayaan, dan pencapaian kita tidak setanding dengan aspirasi kita, maka kita mula menggunakan kaedah paksaan dan tipu helah untuk mendominasikan kelompok kita ke atas yang lain. Sikap ini bakal mengundang kehancuran. Dengan sikap ini, masyarakat akan merasa curiga apa akan jadi sekiranya golongan Islam benar-benar memerintah dunia. Apakah dunia ini seluruhnya akan menjadi medan perang berdarah dan penuh kesumat di kalangan kelompok-kelompok golongan Islam bagi menguasai yang lain?Sekiranya keadaan di Afghanistan, Somalia, dan Iraq mahu dijadikan contoh, maka golongan Islam yang ada sekarang tidak membawa banyak harapan kepada dunia.

Some of us may have mistakenly interpret our association with Islamic movement. Some of us think, since Islam is great and we work for Islam, then we must be made supreme. I think we need to rotate this perspective. Since we work for Islam and Islam is great, we must match ourselves with the greatness of Islam in all respects. Is Islamists being divisive and vindictive reflecting the greatness of Islam? We have our ownselves to answer such question.

Di kalangan kita, mungkin ada yang tersilap menafsirkan penglibatan mereka dengan Gerakan Islam. Mereka fikir, Oleh kerana Islam itu agung dan mereka pula berjuang untuk Islam, maka mereka juga berhak dianggap tinggi dan mulia. Saya pula berfikir, perspektif ini perlu diubahsuai. Seharus kita melihat bahawa oleh kerana kita berjuang Islam, dan Islam itu hebat dan mulia, maka kita mesti menjadikan diri kita golongan yang hebat dan mulia dari semua sudut sepertimana agung dan mulianya Islam itu sendiri. Apakah perbalahan dan dendam kesumat di kalangan kelompok-kelompok golongan Islam yang pelbagai mencerminkan kehebatan dan kemulian Islam? Kita sendirilah yang perlu menjawab persoalan ini.

An eye for an eye could make the whole world blind! Islam being a compassionate religion should bring enough compassion to the hearts of the Islamists. How not to turn our differences into enmity and how not to mould suspicions into solid hatred are among the skill sets to be ingrained among Islamists, world over.

Pepatah Inggeris menyebut sekiranya setiap kekejaman dibalas dengan kekejaman, maka seluruh dunia akan musnah. Islam sebagai satu ajaran yang menganjurkan sikap kasihan belas seharusnya menyemai rasa kasih dan belas sesama golongan Islam. Bagaimana untuk tidak menjadikan perbezaan kita sebagai permusuhan dan bagaimana untuk tidak mengacu prasangka menjadi kebencian mengkal adalah diantara kemahiran yang perlu dipupuk di kalangan golongan Islam.

When a companion, Khatib ibn Abi Baltaah (RA), was found guilty in trying to leak secret information to his family in Makkah, some companions suggested that he should be killed for treason. Surely, there were enough facts, witnesses and hard evidence for this serious wrongdoing. In fact, there is Quranic verse that condemns this action. But, the Prophet (SAW) did not take a single or a few acts of guilt to be the sole basis for the Prophet’s judgment. There were times when compassion and understanding of circumstantial issues got the better of his judgment. He gave the benefits of doubt fully to the advantage of Khatib (RA) since he was among the committed and respected companions who fought all the battles with the Prophet (SAW) including the Battle of Badr.

Apabila seorang sahabat Nabi, Khatib ibn Abi Baltaah, didapati melakukan kesalahan kerana membocorkan rahsia misi penaklukan Makkah kepada keluarganya di Makkah, terdapat para sahabat yang mahu membunuhnya atas kesalahan pengkhianatan. Sememangnya ada bukti dan saksi yang jelas terhadap kesalahanyang dilakukan. Malah terdapat ayat Quran yang mengutuk perlakuan tersebut. Tetapi, Ar-Rasul (SAW) tidak menjadikan perlakuan terpencil ini sebagai satu-satunya asas untuk menjatuhkan hukuman. Adakalanya, perasaan belas dan kefahaman terhadap isu persekitaran yang berkaitan dijadikan pedoman di dalam membuat keputusan. Ar-Rasul(SAW) memberikan peluang yang berpihak kepada Khatib (RA) memandangkan beliau merupakan diantara para sahabat yang banyak pengorbanan dan turut serta berperang di dalam semua peperangan bersama Ar-Rasul (SAW) termasuk perang Badar.

It is too common that we Islamists draw conclusions and pass judgments on others without giving deep thought and understanding on the circumstantial issues. It is too common also that this callous attitude breeds division, hatred, and even enmity among us. Even when we are presented with facts and evidence, we must apply a more stringent control in drawing judgment and conclusion that could incriminate or tarnish the good name of others.

Seringkali golongan Islam membuat kesimpulan dan membuat penghukuman ke atas orang lain tanpa memikirkan secara mendalam terhadap kefahaman dalam isu-isu persekitaran yang berkaitan. Seringkali juga sikap cuai ini akhirnya membibitkan perpecahan, kebencian, dan malah permusuhan sesama kita. Walaupun mungkin kita dipersembahkan dengan beberapa fakta dan bukti, kita perlu juga membuat pertimbangan yang betul-betul teliti sebelum membuat keputusan atau kesimpulan yang boleh menjejaskan nama baik orang lain.

I remember Ustaz Hassan Shukri once told his experience in mediating disputes within PAS ranks. He said, “If a PAS man is in serious quarrel with another PAS man, the problem could only be resolved naturally, i.e.; when death comes to either or both.”

Saya teringat Ustaz Hassan Shukri pernah bercerita pengalamannya mendamaikan beberapa pertikaian di kalangan orang-orang PAS. Beliau berkata, “Kalau orang PAS gaduh dengan orang PAS, biasanya hanya boleh betul-betul selesai bila ajal menjemput salah sorang atau keduanya sekali.”

Of course, what Ustaz Hassan told us may not be representing all cases, but at least that was the prevalent perception through his long and arduous involvement in PAS organization. If this is true, then we must ask ourselves whether or not we actually live up to Islamic values in the way we interact with each others in our organization. Have we had not enough compassions, goodwill, forgiveness, grace, husnuz dzan, and loves among us? What has made us to be so unforgiving?

Apa yang disebutkan oleh Ustaz Hassan pastinya tidak mewakili semua kes dalaman PAS, tetapi sekurang-kurangnya itulah gambaran yang jelas yang diperolehinya dari pengalaman yang lama dan berliku sepanjang penglibatannya di dalam organisasi PAS. Kalau gambaran ini benar, kita perlu bertanya diri samada kita telah benar-benar menghayati nilai-nilai Islam di dalam menjalinkan hubungan kemanusiaan sesama kita di dalam organisasi. Apakah kita masih belum cukup rasa belas, ihsan, kemaafan, syukur, sangka baik, dan kecintaan di kalangan kita. Apa sebenarnya yang menyebabkan kita begitu keras hati?

PAS is reaching a stage it had never experienced before. It is now a component party of a larger coalition that governs several states. The political spectrum and equilibrium is becoming more sophisticated than ever before. Political decisions by top leadership are being bitterly contested, disputed and argued within and outside organization like never before. PAS is set to brace for a turbulence period in its political struggle. The stakes are of much bigger consequences. Thus, opinions would be presented in a much stronger and more determined tone and resentment to such opinions would also be done in a similar manner because of its perceived big consequences.

PAS sedang melalui satu tahap yang belum pernah dilalui sebelumnya. Ia sekarang merupakan satu komponen dari sabuah pakatan politik yang mentadbir beberapa negeri. Ruang dan pertimbang-taraan politik menjadi semakin rencam berbanding sebelumnya. Keputusan-keputusan politik yang dibuat oleh kepimpinan akan menjadikan semakin diperhatikan, diperdebatkan, dinilai dan juga dipertikaikan oleh bukan sahaja ahli-ahli, malah masyarakat umum juga. PAS akan berhadapan dengan suasana politik yang sentiasa tegang dan berkocak di dalam usaha melangsungkan perjuangannya. Kepentingan dan kesan sesuatu tindakan oleh PAS bakal memberi kesan yang lebih besar terhadap individu mahupun kelompok. Maka itu, individu dan kelompok terbabit akan memastikan pandangannya dan kepentingannya diberi perhatian sewajarnya oleh PAS melalui cara yang lebih kuat dan bersungguh-sungguh. Percanggahan terhadap sesuatu pandangan dan kepentingan juga akan dibuat dengan intensiti yang sama. Semuanya ini ialah kerana masing-masing merasakan keputusan PAS secara keseluruhannya akan menimbulkan kesan yang besar terhadap kepentingan dan aspirasi mereka.

Emotion could run high in between these arguments and disputes. It takes big hearts to concede loss peacefully when things finally being decided not to their favor. The less intelligent factions would turn their frustration into more violent protest within the organization and start to create factions and frictions. This small fire will eventually burst full blown before even the person who started it realizes. This was the similar kind of small fire that is now burning Afghanistan, Somalia, and Iraq.

Emosi mungkin tidak mampu dikawal ketika pertembungan dan percanggahan pandangan serta kepentingan ini dibincang dan diputuskan. Ia memerlukan jiwa yang besar untuk menerima kekalahan secara damai apabila keputusan akhirnya tidak menyebelahi mereka. Kelompok yang kurang bijak mungkin akan menterjemahkan kekecewaan mereka dengan cara yang tidak sepatutnya yang mana akhirnya wujud bibit perbalahan dan kelompok dalaman yang saling bertentangan. Api kecil ini sebenarnya amat bahaya jika tidak dikawal kerana ia akan boleh terus memusnahkan organisasi tanpa disedari dari awal oleh mereka yang memulakannya. Api jenis ini jugalah yang sedang membakar Afghanistan, Somalia, dan Iraq.

If PAS were to break apart, the rivaling factions from the party could turn political enmity to a new ugly shameful chapter. It will surely be much uglier than anything we ever saw. And all, unfortunately, would be done in the name of Islam.

Sekiranya PAS berpecah, kelompok-kelompok yang bertelagah boleh menjadikan pertelingkahan politik menjadi semakin buruk dan memalukan. Malah, ia mungkin jauh lebih buruk dari apa yang pernah kita lihat sebelum ini. Malangnya, sekiranya ini berlaku semuanya mendakwa ianya terpaksa dibuat atas nama perjuangan Islam.

Could it be that Ustaz Hassan is right that when this happens (may Allah forbid), the only way to resolve the issue would be when “death” comes to either or both factions.

Mungkinkah telahan Ustaz Hassan akan terbukti benar bahawa sekiranya perbalahan antara dua kelompok PAS ini berlaku (mohon Allah lindungi), hanya kedatangan “ajal” yang boleh menghentikannya.

Calling disputing and rivaling Islamists to return to Islamic teachings is certainly a bizarre thing to do. It is like offering a professional soccer player, who keeps missing his shoots, a lesson on basic ball-kicking skill. It just won’t do.

Mengajak golongan Islam yang bertelagah untuk kembali kepada Islam amat sukar dan pelik untuk dilakukan. Ianya semacam mahu mengajar pemain bola professional kemahiran asas menendang bola. Ia seperti mustahil untuk dilaksanakan.

What will do is for us to do what would keep us together and stronger, now. That will do!

Apa yang boleh dilaksanakan ialah dengan mengekalkan kebersamaan dan kekuatan kita sekarang. Ia boleh dijayakan!

The treason of corrupt minds

2009-10-09T09:49:00.001+08:00

[1]

If I were a Palestinian, I will be as mad as mad could be. We have a very credible report called the Goldstone report incriminating Israel for a war crime and a crime against huminity during the Gaza offensive early this year in which more than a thousand died, majority of whom were civilians. The report was prepared by a committee assigned by the UN and led by a respected judge from South Africa which is of Jewish origin.

Last Friday, the UN Human Right Council was supposed to vote endorsing the report for further UN action after it was proposed by Qatar, representing all the Arab countries. The vote was eventually delayed by the request of none other than the Palestinian Authority (PA) itself. This request coming from PA stunned everyone.

It was later revealed that the PA requested the delay because Israel had threatened PA to reveal the content of recorded tapes which proved that the PA was in full complicity in the Israel’s Gaza offensive. A recorded teleconversation tells that a high ranking officer from Mahmoud Abbas’ office had encouraged Israelis to punish Gazans. The Secretary General of the PA President, Tayyib Abdul Rahim told Dov Weissglas, the Israeli Director of Chief of Staff Bureau, to start conquering Jabaliyya and Al-Shatea refugee camps which in his opinion “could finish off Hamas”. Even Weissglass initially hesitated with such recommendation citing the possible high casualties on the part of civilians. Tayyib Abdul Rahim was quoted as saying, "They have all elected Hamas, so they are the ones who have chosen their fate, not us."

Also, there was a video tape showing Mahmoud Abbas meeting Ehud Barak trying to persuade the Israeli to continue offensive in Gaza to “finish off Hamas”.

Hamas in an immediate response has called Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian citizenship be stripped off. This is in fact a very moderate response from Hamas. In many other countries, Mahmoud Abbas could have faced high treason charge which may end up putting him in gallows.

[2]

Earth quakes seldom kill. Buildings do most of the killings during earth quakes. Thousands people died in Padang, Indonesia after an earth quake last week. Last year, 80,000 perished when earth quake stroke in Sichuan, China.

We can’t stopped earth quakes. We can’t even predict when they would strike. But, certainly we could limit the damages to certain level.

The casualties could have been much lower had the buildings been constructed robust enough to stand an earth quake of that scale. I think, it should be made legally binding for building constructed in areas affected by earth quake to be able to stand earth quake of more than 8.5 in Richter scale.

Technology to replace and construct the existing buildings should be made viable and affordable enough for countries to take up extensive efforts to replace old buildings and construct new ones which can stand earth quake. If it necessitates us, for example, to statutorily limit the height of the bulding in certain areas, then do so.

Time is high for this kind of measures be taken by the UN to save more lives in the future. It is already predicted that if Istanbul is shaken by another big quake, hundreds of thousands could perished. Why should we just wait for such calamities to happen?

[3]

I believe, every citizen has the responsibility to uplift the standard of national politics from all political divides. Politics has failed us in many aspects of our lives. And yet, it is a sin to abandon politics in its filthy state. We must be determined enough to chart a permanent change of our nation’s political course.

Malaysian politics has suffered from insufficient integrity and honesty for already long time.

Voting for corrupt politicians is an act of treason against a nation. Any political party who dares to insult the nation by fielding corrupt candidates to run for offices must be punished mercilessly.

The great Ottoman Empire was brought down from prestigious power by her very own corrupt officers. Corrupt people take offices and appoint corruptible cohorts. It won’t be long before these cohorts take control of everything and spoil the state’s apparatus too. There is no more a need to talk the eventuality when this happens. The writing is on the wall.

To all voters in Bagan Pinang. Please don’t give corruption a chance!

A Commotion and Contemp

2009-09-03T11:53:00.001+08:00

[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.

Syariah, Integrity & Ramadhan.

2009-08-26T13:06:00.000+08:00

[1]

It is high time for us to revisit the practice of syariah law in this country. It was like we are standing with our pants down when we’re told that after decades of introduction, albeit with all its narrowness and limitations, there has actually no proper facility to carry out sentences passed out by Syariah Courts. The laws in which certain offenses are punishable by canning were enacted long ago, and we are now facing the hard realities that, in actual, there has not even a proper canning tools and place provided by any institution to carry out the syariah court judgment.

Apparently, the judge did not pass the sentences on Kartika alone for consuming alcohol in public. The whole Muslim community, deservedly though, were like being canned in public with this debacle. We are, in fact, being passed a sentence for a bigger sin, ignoring syariah and turning the syariah system into a mere joke.

I did not know for sure why Kartika is keen enough to be canned in public. But the way I see it, it was like the judge passing a sentence against Kartika for her offense, and then, Kartika subsequently passed us, all Muslims in Malaysia, with a more embarrassing sentence for ignoring the syariah justice system.

One might think that all these while, our syariah courts were passing sentences all in the hopes that the guilty parties would pay monies for their offenses. If the person does not have moneys, then the religious authorities need to ask prison authorities to take the offender on their behalf. It may come a time when the prison authorities would scoff the religious officers for sending too many offenders for “free-ride” at our prisons. Prison departments belong to Federal Governments and Syariah Courts belongs to the respective States Governments. Would the federal authorities tolerate this arrangement had the syariah offenders occupy big portion of the prison spaces and budget, as compared to their civil offenders? Could this also be the reason why one couldn’t see enthusiasm in enforcing syariah laws by the religious authorities – as they worry for having more offenders than they could handle.

If that is truly the case, then we were the ones who put syariah practice into a bad joke. And, no one is laughing.

[2]

Politics without integrity has a name – it is called “rogue”. When BN fielded a candidate which carried serious integrity baggage for Permatang Pasir by-election, one wonders what kind of politics is at place in the ruling party.

BN source defended that Rohaizat had ensured things were all in order about his background before nomination day, but he failed to be clearly up front with his own party leaders. Rohaizat was a convict, albeit not legally, for misappropriating client’s money during his legal practices, and subsequently being disbarred.

If BN leaders are paying enough attention to the issue of integrity, they should have given the by-election a walkover and apologize to the voters of Permatang Pasir. That would be the only right thing to do if they hadn’t had any opportunity to switch for a better candidate.

Firstly, Rohaizat knew he had dark past which he thought could be easily side-stepped by putting the blame squarely on his former partner. This line of thinking is only logical if his former partner is already dead and no one else could come for his defense. With the guy still living proudly on this earth, no living man would voluntarily take such unnecessary assault on his good name. This showed Rohaizat’s severe inability to make sound judgment.

“Thank God, he did not make it to be a legislature” – this remark should come from the BN leaders, and not from the ordinary people on the street. Sadly, the reality was starkly opposite. BN leaders defended the candidate which had lied to them about his past. Then, we see clearly how BN leaders throwing “integrity” into a waste bin.

Secondly, the failure of BN leaders to act rightly wouldn’t help them improve in the future. Many BN aspirants who dream to be a candidate would think they need not be clearly up front with their own party leaders. The party would still be behind them at all cost if they are declared a candidate, no matter what. Be honest, party leaders can’t be good enough to make background check if the person is trying his best to conceal his past. Only public scrutiny will do better when it is already too late.

Had BN leaders disowned Rohaizat, announced walkover, and apologized to the voters - that would certainly save the little remaining good name of the party. And, more importantly, it would send clear signal to own party members that they should never put their dark baggage for a free ride on the party.

[3]

It is Ramadhan again. This blessed month is a bounty in itself. The true meaning of Ramadhan doesn’t come in that month, but it will appear through one’s change for the better after Ramadhan. It is just like an education. The value of education is not when we are at university, but when we truly apply the knowledge in the real world for the betterment of humanity. Let’s graduate from Ramadhan with flying colors, only to be tested upon proving our taqwa. Ramadhan Kareem!

Let democracy resolve our disputes

2009-08-11T17:12:00.000+08:00

We must understand that democracy is more that just exercising one's right as a citizen at the general election.

It is also about being an informed society so that the people can express their opinions and make decisions for themselves in a collective manner.

It is about self determination.

When the ISA is disputed to the level that tens of thousands people took to the streets to express their anger, then the right to thing to do is to hold a national referendum on the issue.

Let the people vote on the single issue of whether or not the ISA should be continued or abolished.

It is not correct to conclude that since Barisan Nasional won the General Election, then the people in general agree with the ISA, or vice versa.

When the alcohol ban is being disputed, then the right way to handle the issue is by going to the people. Give the people the right to decide for their community.

Since a blanket ban on alcohol would be a clear infringement to the rights of certain groups of people in society, then a 'local referendum' could be introduce to decide on this matter.

The state government may introduce a system of 'local referendum' to deal with contentious issues. We may shortlist what the issues are and then resolve it through 'local referendums'.

The restriction of beer sales and its consumption in public could well be one of these 'disputes" that could be put to a 'local referendum'.

In fact, other issues like 'smoking' or 'noise pollution' could also be dealt with in such manner.

The gazzetted election constituents boundary system as produced by Election Commission can be used as a basis for this 'local referendum' since the boundary is well defined and the electoral list for each contituency is also easily identified.

Using the local constituency electoral roll, the residents may apply to resolve high contentious disputes to be decided through 'local referendum' by registerred voters in the constituency.

The guidelines and procedures could be easily sorted out by the relevant authorities since the mechanism is readily in place.

In fact, it could also be proposed that the cost for holding a 'local referendum' be absorbed by the disputing parties.

The Prescribed Obstacles

2009-07-10T12:10:00.000+08:00

When Alexander The Great military campaign against the Persian Empire seemed unstoppable by the latter, the Persian Emperor made an offer that he would partition his empire and gave up all lands west of Euphrates to Alexander, plus ransom payment of 10,000 talents for the release each of his family members previously taken as prisoners of war by the Greeks soldiers. It was an offer that gave Alexendar about a half of the Persian empire and a lot of wealth too.

The offer was made when Alexander was in the midst to take the Persian naval base of Tyre. Tyre was, during the time, an island a mile and half off presently Lebanon coast, heavily fortified by high walls and military installations. No one at that time could expect that a military base of such strength could be taken by any enemy’s army. The long siege to take Tyre had actually left the Greeks on the verge of growing frustation and morale collapse.

Imagine, it was during this time Darius made the tempting offer. In the eyes of many Alexander’s troops, it would be an utter stupidity to turn down such offer. They estimated that it would take another few long difficult years to conquer such wide regions by military means, not to mention the loss of lives that would be incurred along the way.

Parmenio, the top military advisor for Alexander was famously quoted advising Alexander, “I would accept, were I Alexander!” .
Alexander smiled and replied, “I would too, were I Parmenio!”.

Not even his top and most trusted advisor could alter his own calculation when it came to such an important decision to make.

Alexander, being a great leader with strong ambition and confidence, turned down the emperor’s offer. He knew it too well that an emperor who made such an offer was not worth negotiating. The emperor of such quality had actually lost all the courages and legitimacy to remain as an emperor. He ordered his troops to make huge land bridge crossing the straits separating the Tyre island, and eventually, after long, hard and bloody battle, took the the famous castle. Tens of thousands of Tyrian men perished, while the children and women were sold as slaves. Up to present day, Tyre is no longer an island. The connecting huge land bridge Alexander made to defeat Tyrians became permanent land to this day.

Not long afterward, Alexander’s troops practically ran down the might of all the Persian Empire, took significant portion of North Africa and marched further to the eastern parts of Asia. For the record, Alexander did not turn down all negotiation offers. He simply knew when to negotiate and when not to negotiate.

The above narration of the great leadership should make its way into our party’s high achelons.

After all, we claim to struggle for Islam. In fact, we are indeed struggling for Islam. We have been indoctrinated all these while that there is no cutting corner in this struggle. We should never be afraid of all kinds of difficulties and should also never be tempted to short cuts. All the difficulties, complexities and complications that we would be facing are nothing but “the prescribed obstacles” we have been repeatedly told since long ago.

One of the major concerns facing our party now is, quite a significant numbers among our activists do think, after series of unpleasent incidents and bitter experiences, that the Pakatan coalition is ideologically untenable in the long run. Perhaps, it was the same opinion and feeling the Greeks soldiers had when they were putting Tyre on long difficult siege. They thought, why not just stop the war and took half of Persian Empire without loosing any more comrades. That sounded logical, though, especially when the offer was unmistakably at hand. It probably takes an “Alexander-like” courage and determination to defy this line of reasoning. Unfortunately, this quality is either an absolute absence or a clear rarity in our organization.

I had a talk with one of our activist the other day who is also a councilor for a Local Council in Pakatan-controlled state. He was obviously furious, and I could easily see that even if he didn’t tell me. He was telling the goings of the many councilors meeting he attended. As he put it, the Pakatan councilors seemed to share less and less common things day by day. It became so difficult to reach consensus on many issues, and many decisions had to be put on vote. Disturbingly enough, the voting pattern almost always went along the religious line – “Islamic” councilors versus “non-Islamic” councilors – regardless of their political or organizational affiliations. It is even more hurting to note that some Muslim councilors are not necessarily belonging to “Islamic” bloc when it comes to voting in the Local Council meeting.

According to him, he had to bag home bitter lost most of the time in the voting sessions, including on issues he held dearly to his own principles.

“How long can this continue?” he asked me. I was lost for answer myself.

But, someone must at least shed some lights to this question. We expect our leaders to give firm direction, the same way Alexander made firm and well calculated decision to his people who gave their lives and fortunes for him. We certainly don’t expect our top leaders to quarrel in public and demonize each others at this difficult time. This only adds salts to injury.

We had certainly endured many difficulties before, and we sailed through them rather proudly. This time, I opine, is a different kind of difficulty we are not used to. Perhaps, our understanding of the “prescribed obstacles” we have been repeatedly told before are not yet complete. We don’t seem prepared enough to handle this kind of difficulties.

It is the difficulties to work with our Pakatan partners to run state government machineries and the difficulties to stomach things we detested in the past, in the spirit of political partnership and in the name of tahaluf siyasi, which are now being endured by many our comrades. Maybe, not many among us are placed to be in this difficult position, but those who are, truly feel strongly about it. I don’t know how to call and categorize this kind of difficulties. It certainly drains your spiritual energy to a new low. I could see, even those “battle-hardened lieutenants” among us a badly battered by this. They are not merely bloggers who write fancy things on the web, but dedicated and experienced party activists. May Allah be with them and strengten them.

As the old saying puts it, man has got to do what man has got to do. Our party has no option but to complete the mission, and the mission ought to be carried out while we are on the same ship with our partners. Even if the ship we’re all in is destined to sink, we should never be the one blamed for causing the demise. And even if the ship must sink, we shall do the most we can before it goes down. We are taught to plant seeds even when we already know the earth has reached its very last day, were not we?

Let’s not forget and be reminded again that we should not expect soft sailing in our struggle to uphold Islam. These difficulties, no matter how alien it was to us in the past, are part and parcel with our journey towards mardhatillah, Allah permits. But, our party leaders should never take this for granted. After all, we are all humans with limitations. “How long can this continue?” – I may borrow my friend’s question.

May Allah guide us all.

Ulasan PRK Bukit Gantang

2009-04-07T23:41:00.001+08:00

Pada pukul 9.20 malam, 7 April’09 keputusan angka yang dinantikan pun terpapar di laman web Malaysiakini:

9.20pm Bukit Gantang OFFICIAL RESULTS
Mohd Jamaluddin Nizar (PAS) 21,860Ismail Saffian (BN-Umno) 19,071Kamarul Ramizu Idris (Ind) 62
Majority - 2,789 (In 2008, the majority was 1,566)
Secara umum dapat disebutkan bahawa:

Majoriti kemenangan PR menokok dengan lonjakan yang amat memberangsangkan dengan peningkatan hampir sekali ganda.
PR dan BN kedua-duanya berjaya menambah undi masing-masing. Bagaimanapun Nizar mendapat lonjakan undi yang jauh lebih tinggi dengan peningkatan sokongan undi Melayu dan bukan Melayu.

Di DUN Kuala Sepetang yang ramai pengundi bukan Melayu, Nizar mendapat lonjakan undi majoriti menghampiri 2,000 undi, manakala di DUN Changkat Jering, majoriti undi PR kekal di paras tahun 2008, iaitu sekitar 1,700 undi. Apapun, angka yang paling manis untuk PAS ialah apabila berjaya mengurangkan undi majoriti BN di DUN Trong yang merupakan kubu kuat UMNO kepada hanya sekitar 600 undi sahaja. Di DUN Trong, PAS dapat meraih peningkatan sokongan pengundi Melayu kepada PR walaupun isu teras yang dijaja oleh petugas BN ialah kononnya Nizar adalah “boneka DAP” dan “penderhaka”.

Di Changkat Ibol, kawasan pengundi Melayu melebihi 90%, undi yang diperolehi PAS adalah lebih sekali ganda berbanding BN. Di Bukit Gantang Selatan, satu lagi kawasan padat Melayu yang menjadi kubu kuat UMNO, jentera PAS berjaya mengurang majoriti undi BN kepada cuma 15 undi, berbanding melebihi 100 undi pada tahun 2008.

Bagaimanapun, pengaruh UMNO di beberapa kawasan majoriti Melayu masih utuh, seperti di sekitar kawasan Sungai Tinggi, walaupun Markas Operasi Jentera Pilihanraya PAS untuk DUN Trong berpusat di Sungai Tinggi. Hasil tinjauan saya mendapati banyak persepsi negatif masyarakat tempatan terhadap PAS di sini adalah hasil sikap “keras” dan “kombatif” beberapa aktivis PAS tempatan di Sungai Tinggi yang dilihat kurang mesra rakyat. Perkara ini wajar diperbetulkan oleh kepimpinan PAS Bukit Gantang.

Apapun isu yang masih signifikan untuk dibincangkan pasca PRK Bukit Gantang ialah berkenaan tindakan orang bukan Islam membaca ayat Al-Quran. Saya menghormati SS Dato’ Mufti Perak, tetapi dalam isu ini saya memilih untuk “sembah derhaka” dengan pandangan SS Dato’ Mufti Perak. Bagi saya, tindakan orang bukan Islam membaca ayat Quran, walaupun pelat, bukanlah suatu penghinaan terhadap Islam. Malah ia menunjukkan bahawa dakwah Islam sudah mula melangkah ke era baru. Adalah lebih menghina Islam sebenarnya bagi orang Islam yang tidak tahu membaca Quran, atau tida mahu menjadikan Quran sebagai hujah dalam mengupas isu-isu yang berkait dengan kehidupan manusia.

Maaf SS Dato Mufti, saya mohon derhaka!

The world's bad news

2009-03-20T22:48:00.002+08:00

ZAID IBRAHIM: NAJIB CAN'T BE PM

"If truth be told, Najib can't be PM"Zaid Ibrahim March 18, 09 1:51pm

@ Magickriver Blog

Full text of former law minister Zaid Ibrahim's hard-hitting speech at the Royal Rotary Club of Kuala Lumpur on 18 March 2009.

This is the second time I have been invited to address a Rotary Club. Thank you for the honour. Given the times we live in, perhaps it might be appropriate for me to speak about the leadership transition that has been foisted upon us Malaysians.

I say ‘foisted’ because neither me nor anyone in this room had any role or say in the choice of the person who will lead Malaysia next. We were mere bystanders in a political chess game. And yet the transition is a subject of great consequence to the nation, one I would say is of great national interest.

Leadership is definitive; the individual who assumes the mantle of leadership of this nation, whomever that may be, is one who for better or worse will leave his mark on us. His will be the hand who guides us to greater success, or possibly gut-wrenching disaster.

Save for the dawn of Merdeka, never in the history of this country has the choice of prime minister been so crucial: Malaysia is in crisis. We are facing tremendous economic challenges with unavoidably harsh socio-political consequences.

Our much undermined democracy is once again being assailed by those who would prefer a more autocratic form of governance.Our public institutions are hollowed out caricatures, unable to distinguish vested party interests from national ones, unable to offer the man in the street refuge from the powerful and connected.

Our social fabric that took us from colony to an independent nation and on through the obstacles of nation building has reached a point where it sometimes feel like we are hanging on by a thread. This is the Malaysia we live in.

PM’s resignation ill-fated

This is the Malaysia which Abdullah Ahmad Badawi leaves behind. Our prime minister will resign later this month - an ill-fated decision. I say ill-fated not because he has been a great prime minister and we would lose irreplaceable leadership, that is regrettably not the case as all things said and done Abdullah could have done much more for Malaysia.

Rather, I say that his resignation is ill-fated because his departure will expose the country to forces which may take us down the road of perdition faster than ever. Much has been said of Pak Lah being a weak leader. However, what his critics have not adequately addressed are the consequences of replacing him as prime minister with the anticipated incoming president of Umno, Najib (Abdul) Razak.

It is an undeniable truth that the average Malaysian is anxious about the anticipated transition. Many would prefer it did not happen.

There are two reasons why this is so. The first has to do with the reasoning underlying Umno's demand for the transition itself. The second has to do with Najib personally.We must recall that after the 2008 general election - a great success for the nation but a fiasco for Umno – one of the chief complaints by the powers-that-be within Umno was that Abdullah’s feeble leadership led to the concept of Ketuanan Melayu being challenged and ultimately undermined.

His critics also lashed out at him for the latitude given to civil society, a move which they believed weakened a key aspect of Umno's political leverage. It followed in Umno's mind that in order to regain lost ground, it was necessary to reassert its ideology with greater strength.

There was nostalgia for Mahathir's heavy-handed style of leadership and a return to the times when the party cowed many into subservience and submission. The conservatives in Umno yearned for a return to Mahathirism, hoping that it would become a cornerstone of the leadership transition plan. There has been much speculation and punditry on whether a return to the Mahathir era would be good for Malaysia.

Difference between then and now

Let me offer some of my own insight to this debate. The major difference between then and now is this: in most instances, Mahathir was harsh and dictatorial if he believed it was good for the country. But an authoritarian style of government under anyone else would be dictated by the need for self preservation and very little about the country’s interest.

The evidence is all around us. After March 8, (2008) when the prime minister ceased being the home minister, the threats of reprisal have escalated and a climate of fear re-cultivated. The detention of Raja Petra Kamarudin, Teresa Kok and Tan Hoong Cheng exemplify this turn for the worse, this appetite to use the sledgehammer.

The shameful power grab in Perak and wanton disregard for public opinion over how BN wrested control of the silver state make many people shudder at the prospect of a return to the dark days. If that was not depressing enough, we have had to bear witness to the police and the newly-minted Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) displaying their allegiance and support to the BN when all we needed and craved for were honest brokers.

It stands to reason that in the mind of the average Malaysian, having suffered a significant loss last March, Umno is on a rampage to regain what it lost by any method available and the man who is expected to lead it to victory is the man who succeeds Abdullah: Najib (Abdul) Razak.

A prime minister must have the confidence of the majority of the rakyat. In order for this to be the case, his integrity must be beyond question; not only must he be such a person character, he must be seen to be such a person. The office of prime minister is one of great trust, he who holds that office cradles the nation in his palms.

For this to be the case, there cannot be anything in the mind of the greater public that, correctly or otherwise, associates him with matters of criminality, wrongful action, improper conduct or abuses of power. In short, he must be beyond reproach in his dealings both official and private.

Without intending any accusation, it is regrettable that in the collective mind of the rakyat, Najib is not such a person. If a referendum were to be conducted on the subject or if the prime minister was to be elected directly by the rakyat, I do not think Najib would succeed.

The reason for this is obvious: the rakyat has doubts, fuelled by the unanswered allegations against him and his unwillingness to confront these allegations.

It is not a mere trifle in the minds of the rakyat that despite a direct challenge from a member of parliament in the august House recently, the deputy prime minister remained silent, not even denying the implicit accusation made against him and demanding that it be repeated outside the chamber in the tried and tested method of refutation employed by parliamentarians throughout the world.

It has not assisted the cause of the incoming prime minister that the MP concerned was suspended for a year on a motion tabled by a fellow minister without the member having been afforded an opportunity to defend his position.

Evidence of SMS text-messages

Consider this. Commissions were paid to an agent for the procurement of submarines through the Defence Ministry, Najib (then) being the defence minister. It is unthinkable that he had no knowledge that the agent was his adviser and aide, Abdul Razak Baginda. The commission paid out was exceedingly large, in excess of RM500 million.

The defence minister was dutybound to direct enquiries to see if there had been any impropriety in the way the contracts were awarded when news of the commission surfaced; after all the price of the submarines would be considerably lower without the need for such commissions.

Taxpayers, you and I, have paid for those submarines at a price that in all probability factored in the commission. Taxpayers are yet to be told of an inquiry let alone the result of such an inquiry.

Consider the Altantuya Shaariibuu affair. A young woman was brutally murdered, her corpse destroyed by explosives.These explosives are not the usual type of explosives, yet no inquiry was held to determine how they were available to these killers.

Those accused of her murder are police officers serving in the Unit Tindakan Khas, a highly specialised unit who amongst other things serve as bodyguards to the prime minister and the deputy prime minister.

Amidst evidence that the accused were employed to protect the PM and the DPM, they were directed to (Abdul) Razak Baginda through the aide of the deputy prime minister. Amongst other things, we have heard of the senior investigating officer admitting that the deputy prime minister was an important witness and yet no statement was taken.

It is not unreasonable to think that this is irregular, more so when evidence of SMS text-messages from the deputy prime minister concerning material matters have surfaced. The text-messages cannot be ignored, proverbially swept under the carpet.

Even if they do not establish - or are not capable of establishing - any culpability on the part of Najib, these issues must be addressed.

The air must be cleared, it is thick with accusations and doubts which can only undermine the office of the prime minister if he were to assume it. The deputy prime minister's cause has not been aided by the fact that charges were preferred against (Abdul) Razak Baginda only after public outcry, the manner in which the prosecution was conducted and the decision of the High Court acquitting (Abdul) Razak Baginda not having been appealed.

Power grab an unmitigated disaster

The Perak affair was an unmitigated disaster for the nation. It is no secret that Najib led the charge there and is still overseeing matters.

In the minds of Malaysians, Perak is synonymous with the deputy prime minister. They now equate him with the high-handed tactics that were employed to seize power, tactics that included the disappearances of the three crucial assemblypersons and the blockading of the legislative assembly by the police.

In doing so, they equate the DPM with the hijacking of democracy, the only persons saying otherwise being those persons who have associations with Umno. In their minds, no responsible leader would allow for the undermining of the institutions of state and the constitution of this nation.

They ask, rightly so, whether this is the kind of leadership that Malaysians can expect from Najib when he becomes the prime minister.

With all of this, and more, how are we not to feel anxious? How are we to sleep peacefully at night? I know that I cannot. The situation is desperate and the air is pregnant with tension. We need the state of affairs to be resolved in a way that is in the best interests of the nation and the rakyat.

To an extent, this is a matter for the Barisan Nasional. I urge its members to put politics aside and think things through. We all want a better future, a safer and more prosperous life for our children, all of them, a Malaysia where our children can reach for the stars with the certainty that there is nothing to stop them from being the Malaysians they want to be.

Let the king be kingmaker

I do not believe that the Barisan Nasional will do what is necessary. Politics has a tendency of making those who embrace it cynical. The answer lies elsewhere, with His Majesty the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

In this case, His Majesty plays the role of ‘kingmaker.’ The discretion to appoint the prime minister who succeeds Abdullah lies with His Majesty. Though His Majesty is required under the constitution to appoint the person who commands the confidence of the majority of the members of parliament, it is a matter for His Majesty's judgment.

Never before has such a heavy burden being laid on His Majesty to make a brave and correct choice.

For King and country, I urge His Majesty to take into consideration the prerequisites to appointment and the concerns of the rakyat. There is no constitutional obligation on His Majesty to appoint the president of Umno as the prime minister. There are still well qualified members of parliament from Umno who can be appointed PM to bring us back from the brink.

Malaysia needs someone whom the rakyat can throw their weight behind without reservation. Someone they can trust and respect. Someone who has no scandal to distract him and thereby gain respect from the international community.

These are difficult times and be prepared for worst times to visit us. Malaysia needs a leader who will unite the country in the face of the adversity. Divided, we are weak. I am loath to say it, but for the reasons I have set out am compelled to say that Najib will most certainly divide us and in doing so, will nudge us closer to the edge

.Some of you may say that all efforts to promote the national interest are at this stage an exercise in futility. If truth be told, I am tempted to slip into cynical hopelessness too. I am fighting the temptation to give up for one simple reason: Malaysia and all that it represents. This is a blessed country, a country too valuable for us to turn our backs on.

Posted by Malaysia Blogger at 16:45

Rally against PPSMI

2009-03-07T20:23:00.005+08:00

After quite a hiatus, I would like to post some photos I took during my participation in a rally today from the National Mosque to Istana Negara.

It was quite an event with rounds of tear gas being shot a the crowd and into the National Mosque.

The rally will surely not be the last one.

A man Perakian shouldn't waste

2009-02-09T22:33:00.002+08:00

Perakian could not afford to waste a man of his calibre.

Perak jadi Republik Katak

2009-02-05T22:22:00.002+08:00

Tindakan melompat parti bagi menjatuhkan kerajaan sememangnya tidak bermoral. Apa bezanya, projek 16-Sep yang gagal dijayakan oleh Anwar dengan tindakan Najib mengokestrakan kejatuhan kerajaan negeri Perak, ada orang bertanya.

Kedua-duanya tidak bermoral. Pun begitu, Anwar telah berjanji bahawa sekiranya beliau berjaya membentuk kerajaan di peringkat pusat beliau akan membubarkan parlimen sebaik sahaja beberapa akta dapat diluluskan bagi menjamin hak rakyat terpelihara. Diantara akta yang disebut-sebut akan dipinda atau dihapuskan ialah seperti ISA, AUKU, Akta Pilihanraya, Akta Penerbitan & Percetakan, OSA, dan seumpamanya.

Beliau berjanji akan mengembalikan semula kepada rakyat setelah reformasi asas ini berjaya dilaksanakan tanpa perlu menunggu tamat penggal pemerintahan.

Di Perak, Najib tidak ada apa-apa agenda untuk rakyat dan tidak pula nampak sebarang kesediaan untuk mengembalikan kepada rakyat. Yang jelas kelihatan adalah keserakahan, dan keperbudakan politik melampau. Ini politik murahan paling meloyakan di abad ini.

Saya masih boleh terima sekiranya pertukaran parti di kalangan ADUN berlaku secara jujur. Tapi, dalam drama di Perak, tidak ada langsung nampak unsur-unsur "honest defection". Yang kelihatan jelas ialah unsur-unsur "foul play" yang mungkin melibatkan rasuah mahupun ugutan. Kalau inilah yang menjadi asas kepada pembentukan kerajaan BN di Perak, maka kesahan kerajaan ini akan terus dipertikaikan.

Apakah daya...ini adalah pilihan Duli Yang Teramat Mulia Tuanku Sultan. Daulat Tuanku!!!! Sedihnya Aku!!!!

Why did they fire rockets?

2009-02-02T12:54:00.001+08:00

In Davos, before PM Erdogan stormed out from the debate, Shimon Perez uttered in a rising emotion these words;

"Why did they fire rockets? There was no siege against Gaza. Why did they fight us? What did they want? There was never a day of starvation in Gaza.” - Shimon Perez in Davos.

By saying the above words, is Perez dumb, deaf or blind?

1) Why did they fire rockets?
- Which one Perez would prefer; erratic Qassam rockets fired into Israeli towns bordering Gaza or highly precision guided long range missiles hitting only millitary installations all over Israel? Had Hamas been allowed to own the latter, Israel could take all the Qassam rockets for free from Hamas and cease to worry about their civilians in the south. But, Israelis want everything for them to gain, and everything for Palestinians to loose. They keep illegal settlements growing in the West Bank, fast encroaching into Palestinian lands, yet they expect no resistance from Palestinians. They expect a quiet and calm occupation. Those who resist would be imprisoned without charge and Israelis expect their families to stay quiet and calm. Israelis procure all the best weapons available on this planet and yet make huge noise when Palestinians smuggle even the most primitif weapons they can afford. Israelis cry for their right for self defense, but deny the same right for the Palestinians. And, Perez, unashamedly ask this question in front of all world dignitaries, “Why did they fire rockets?”. Even a child in Gaza could answer this question in the most articulate manner. How could the word leaders seem so lost?

2) Was there no siege against Gaza?
- Clearly, a murderer cum liar is made a President in Israel. The siege against Gaza is a clear fact which only the insane would dare to argue.

3) Why do Palestinians fight?
- What would Perez do if his home is occupied by force and he is not allowed to return home, and his family imprisoned and killed, and his property destroyed? Would he go to the beach and eat pizza?

4) What do Palestinian want?
- Quite clearly written on the wall – end the occupation, end the seige, release political prisoners, allow the rights of return for refugees.

5) “There was never a day of starvation in Gaza”…really?
- What makes Perez think Gazans deserve to be starved? Do Gazans not suffer enough in the hands of Israelis? Doesn’t it come to Perez mind that these sufferings and anguishes – mainly rooted by Israeli policies - had actually triggered the conflicts in the region.

Gaza – A war that never was.

2009-01-25T10:28:00.004+08:00

In Gaza, there was never a war recently. When you shoot fishes in a barrel, you don’t call it a war. When you bombed and sprayed bullets to caged population that was simply a massacre or a slaughter, and not a war. A holocaust would perhaps best describe what had happened in Gaza in the last few weeks.

Gazans, living in a largest prison on this planet, could never wage war against anyone. The best they can afford is a mere resistance. By continuing resistance, they have actually delivered the best for their people. Hamas know they could not match the might of the Zionist army, but they also know very well that neither could the Israelis break their wills and steadfastness to continue resistance. Their objective is simply not to allow a quiet and calm occupation, at all cost.

The fundamental issue facing the conflict in the region is actually justice. It has been a mistake that “peace” is made a central attention in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, while sidelining the question of justice. Peace could not be imposed as justice should. An imposed peace which is not just, is not peace but a mere intimidation. It is a forgone conclusion that everyone involved in the conflict wants peace. Not even Hamas is to be spared. The question is not just any peace, but a "just peace"- a peace solution laid on justice.

No doubt Israel also wants peace – but only on its cockeyed terms.

Every time Israelis go to a negotiating table, the first thing they demand is a crackdown on resistance. When they talked to Fatah, topping the list is a crackdown on Hamas. They knew it very well that Fatah could never be able to subdue resistance movements, Hamas in particular, even if it really wished to. Since Fatah is not able to put up a crackdown on resistance as demanded, the Zionist regime called it non-partner and ceased negotiations unilaterally.

Thus, it is rather obvious that Israelis are not interested in any solution in the Middle East. For them, peace means a clear absence of resistance against the occupying power which is unrealistic in every sense.

In Palestine, neither politics nor resistance could survive independently. It would work to the best interest of the Zionist regime if the political cover could be entirely removed from resistance movements so that Israel could easily dictate its terms on the negotiating table. They almost succeeded in doing this by corrupting Fatah political leaders, only to be spoilt by Hamas sweeping victory in the Palestinians political domain.

Hamas political ascendance has effectively repaired and bonded all ties between Palestine politics and their resistance counterparts, sending Israeli strategists back to their drawing boards. The only immediate lifeline available for the Zionist regime in these new unprecedented realities is to create divisions among Palestinians and impose chocking blockage against Hamas, hoping that Palestinians would turn their backs against Hamas.

Surely it seems the Zionist regime grossly underestimated the patience and the steadfastness of the Palestinians, and Gazans in particular. The Palestinians truly have their determinations firmly in their hands which they will never let loose. Even when their homes were leveled to the ground, their hopes keep rising higher than ever. Even when their family vanished, their dignity remains intact. The Palestinians have only their own selves to salute.

The Israel army did not commit war crime in Gaza. It is because there never was a war in the first place. They only committed genocide and crimes against humanity.

While the legal battles start to take place on this issue, make no mistake that Gazans will rebuild and continue to resist, as they always do.

For all Palestinians, to resist is to exist.

Congratulations Wahid, PAS & Pakatan

2009-01-17T22:28:00.002+08:00

Tahniah. Alhamdulillah. Takbir.

Pas menang di K.Terengganu dengan majotiti 2,631 undi.

Semoga kemenangan ini akan terus memberi kekuatan kepada rakyat untuk terus berjuang menolak kezaliman, keangkuhan, dan penipuan yang begitu lama membelenggu rakyat.

Murder or collateral damage?

2009-01-12T18:38:00.002+08:00

See the picture...

And judge for youselves...

The scornful wedding

2009-01-06T11:29:00.003+08:00

You're cordially invited to the wedding party between Israel Foreign Minister and Egypt Foreign Minister. The wedding party takes place in Gaza.

The programme:

Morning:

- Bombings

Afternoon

- Ground troop invasion

Night

- Slaughtering festival.

Datuk Rashid SPR fumbled to his last day of service.

2009-01-01T22:23:00.005+08:00

Datuk Abd Rashid retired as SPR Chairman on the 31 Dec 2008. On his last day of service, he made a statement that negated all the good services rendered all these years when he was in SPR.

He said he wanted to sue opposition leaders for libels commited against him and hinted that there will MP who would loose seat by this action.

As a SPR Chairman, he ought to know that by law, an MP would not be strip out from his parliament seat out of civil libel suit. Was he ignorant enough on this basic subject matter which should be within his immediate understanding? If he does not know this law, what actually qualified him to be the SPR Chairman in the first place?

Datuk Rashid....sue anyone by any means , but I now inquire you to justify your qualification as SPR Chairman when you were ignorant enough to utter the words you uttered on your last day of service.

Datuk Rashid.... I put it to you that you're part of the evils embedded in our cockeyed election system which you refused to take responsibility to rectify accordingly.

Datuk Rashid... your mediocrity in discharging your responsibility as SPR Chairman had caused so much damages in our beloved nation's political system.

Enough for you Datuk Rashid....may you have happy retirement days ahead. You mouth has done great disservice to your own good name that you better keep it shut as much as you could afford.

Anti Israel Demo - US Embassy K. Lumpur

2008-12-30T20:23:00.003+08:00

I joined the demo and took a clip to share with you. Taken from nearby pedestrian bridge at Jalan Tun Razak.

A group of Palestians were also seen chanting among the crowd.

My heart bleeds for Gazans. May Allah show mercy on them.

Gaza bleeds - in pictures

2008-12-29T08:15:00.002+08:00

"I will play music and celebrate what the Israeli air force is doing." -Ofer Shmerling, an Israeli civil defense official in the Sderot

2008-12-29T07:21:00.000+08:00

The massacre in Gaza

2008-12-28T09:51:00.003+08:00

The worst airstrike by Israeli towards Gaza since 1967 killed hundreds, including civilians happened yesterday.

I curse myself for sleeping well and eating well yesterday.

Gaza is bleeding, crying, dying, and mourning.

Israeli has proved it again that it has never has right to exist in the first place.

Tomorrow, we will have demonstration in front of US Embassy.

My brothers and sisters....pls join us tomorrow at 10.30am.

**Update: Sorry..the demo would be on Tuesday 30 Dec at 11am, instead of today.

Referendum Hudud

2008-12-24T16:28:00.000+08:00

Kenyataan Husam Musa berkenaan hasrat PAS untuk melaksanakan hukim hudud menjadi isu yang dimainkan semula oleh pihak media.

Jelasnya, isu ini adalah peluang terbaik untuk menimbulkan keretakan di dalam Pakatan Rakyat dan jentera media BN pasti tidak akan melepaskan peluang mempergunakan isu ini semahunya. Apatah lagi, pilihanraya kecil Kuala Terengganu sudah berada diambang pertembungan sengit antara UMNO dan PAS, antara BN dan Pakatan.

Soalnya, bagaimana boleh dilaksanakan hukum hudud di negara kita? Apakah perlaksanaan hukum hudud oleh PAS merupakan suatu tindakan mungkir janji PAS terhadap rakan-rakan gabungan dalam Pakatan?

Benar, perlaksanaan Hudud tidak ada dalam agenda Pakatan Rakyat. Pun begitu, tidak ada sesuatu yang jelas menghalang hasrat PAS untuk melaksanakan Hudud dalam konteks kerjasama di dala Pakatan.

Pakatan Rakyat bergerak di atas platform menegakkan keadilan, menyuburkan amalan demokrasi, menentang rasuah dan penyelewangan, serta mengukuhkan hak dan kedaulatan rakyat.

Apakah perlaksanaan hudud menyanggahi mana-mana prinsip di atas? Saya yakin perkara ini boleh dibincang secara tuntas dan bersama bagi mencapai kesimpulan yang “workable” untuk semua pihak.

Sefaham saya, perlaksanaan hudud boleh dilaksanakan tanpa tidak sedikitpun menyanggahi mana-mana prinsip yang menjadi tunjang kerjasama Pakatan Rakyat.

Sebagai contoh, bagi memperkukuhkan amalan demokrasi dan mengukuhkan hak rakyat, mana-mana negeri di Malaysia seharusnya dibenarkan membuat referendum bagi mendapatkan suara rakyat samada mereka memilih untuk diadili mengikut Hukum Jenayah Syariah ataupun mengekalkan sistem perundangan sivil sedia ada. Bagi rakyat bukan Islam juga mereka seharusnya diberi hak untuk memilih dan tidak ada paksaan ke atas mereka.

Jika rakyat negeri Kelantan, contohnya, secara bersama mahu hukum hudud dilaksaksanakan di negeri tersebut maka hasrat dan suara mereka perlu diraikan oleh kerajaan pusat. Menghalang perlaksanaan hukum jenayah syariah di dalam keadaan rakyat mahukan ianya dilaksanakan tentunya bercanggah dengan amalan demokrasi.

Model ini pernah dibuat di Nigeria. Pada mulanya, hanya dua negeri yang berjaya dalam referendum untuk melaksanakan hukum Hudud. Setelah dua tahun berlalu, dua belas negeri akhirnya juga berjaya mendaulatkan hukum jenayah syariah setelah rakyat di negeri-negeri tersebut mula yakin bahawa ianya jauh lebih baik berbanding undang-undang sivil. Adapun, di negeri-negeri yang majoriti penduduknya beragama Kristian hukum Hudud tidak dipaksakan. Semua ini berlaku ketika Presiden Nigeria waktu adalah seorang yang beragama Kristian.

Di Malaysia, isu perlaksanaan hukum jenayah syariah perlu diselesaikan secara bersama. Ia tidak boleh selamanya di sembunyikan di bawah karpet. Jalan penyelesaian terbaik ialah dengan mengembalikannya kepada rakyat, terutama di negeri yang majoritinya beragama Islam, melalui suatu referendum yang spesifik berkenaan dengan pelaksanaan Hukum Jenayah Syariah.

Bukankah Pakatan Rakyat mahu memperkasakan hak dan suara rakyat? Maka referendum ini adalah salah satu perkara yang boleh dilakukan.

Malah selain Hudud, kita juga boleh buat referendum berkenaan beberapa isu lain seperti ISA, AUKU, dan Akta Penerbitan dan Percetakan.

When IGP talks politics

2008-12-22T10:25:00.002+08:00

Does law and order discuss hypocrisy?

The IGP, Tan Sri Musa Hassan, said the groups behind several demonstration and protest activities of lates are hypocrites. Such a strong word he uttered depicts even stronger on his misconducts.

On hearing him, I delivered my verdict. The IGP is a civil servant and the above statement is not welcome and expected from a civil servant - let alone from the IGP. Who is the IGP to comment on matters of political ideologies? Who is the IGP not to limit his words within the scope of his work and jurisdiction? Who is the IGP to bring his political battles against civil societies on the media?

My verdict is also clear. I don’t dispute his intellectual capacity to talk politics, but as long as he wears the IGP uniform, he is not authorized to talk politics. The issue he was commenting resides boldly at the heart of current debates among political circles. I far as I’m convinced, the IGP should remain outside of this raging circles. Surely he has more things to do besides politics.

I’m not interested to comment on the content of his statement. He is not even a player in this match, so why bother returning his ball. I am merely commenting on his conduct for making political statements behind the IGP’s rostrum. And this is detestable.

Kadok naik junjung

2008-12-21T09:21:00.004+08:00

Berita dibawah dipetik dari Utusan Online.
Sejak bila pula Ketua Polis Selangor dilantik jadi jurucakap Sultan? Atas kapasiti apa dia bertindak mengeluarkan kenyataan untuk pihak Istana?

Dato' Khalid sudah macam "Kadok naik junjung". Padahal tugasnya dalam isu ini hanyalah menyediakan kertas siasatan sekiranya ada unsur jenayah atau pelanggaran undang-undang dan menyerahkan kepada pejabat Peguam Negara. Bagi saya mudah saja, kalau tidak ada pendakwaan yang berwibawa yang dibawa kemuka pengadilan dalam isu ini, Dato' Khalid hanya pandai bersendiwara dan main politik...makan GAJI BUTA.

Sultan Selangor dukacita kanak-kanak dieksploitasi

PETALING JAYA 20 Dis. - Sultan Selangor, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah melahirkan rasa dukacita terhadap pihak yang sanggup mengeksploitasi kanak-kanak dalam menjalankan kempen dan aktiviti mereka.

Ketua Polis Selangor, Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar berkata, titah Sultan Selangor itu disampaikan kepadanya sebelum baginda berangkat ke luar negara kelmarin.

Beliau berkata, baginda amat mengambil berat berhubung perkara itu dan mengarahkan polis mengambil tindakan tegas terhadap pihak yang melakukan perbuatan tersebut.

"Baginda berasa dukacita di atas perkembangan yang berlaku, Tuanku ingin perkara ini dihebahkan kepada semua khususnya kepada rakyat Selangor," katanya pada sidang akhbar di sini hari ini.

Kelmarin, sebuah kumpulan tidak berdaftar yang menggelarkan diri mereka Jaringan Rakyat Tertindas (Jerit) menggunakan remaja dan kanak-kanak untuk menyertai kempen berbasikal ke bangunan Parlimen.

Menurut Khalid, sehubungan itu, polis akan mengambil tindakan tegas terhadap pihak yang mengeksploitasi kanak-kanak dalam sebarang aktiviti yang menyalahi undang-undang.

Tegasnya, tindakan demi keamanan dan keselamatan negara akan diambil mengikut Seksyen 27 Akta Polis dan Seksyen 32 (b) Akta Kanak-kanak 2001.

"Sepatutnya mereka (penganjur) mendidik kanak-kanak supaya cintakan negara dan melakukan kebaikan bukan untuk melahirkan perasaan menentang," katanya.

Ditanya tindakan Majlis Peguam yang menyebelahi pihak yang melakukan kesalahan, beliau berkata, tindakan tersebut adalah tidak adil.

"Seharusnya Majlis Peguam yang merupakan sebuah pertubuhan dihormati, memelihara keluhuran undang-undang," katanya.

"Sebaliknya, apabila pihak berkuasa melaksanakan undang-undang, mereka salahkan kita pula. Apakah ini betul?" soalnya.

Khalid turut menafikan dakwaan bahawa pihak polis menekan dan mengasari remaja serta kanak-kanak yang menyertai Jerit semasa mengendalikan siasatan terhadap mereka.

"Penganjur yang sebenarnya menekan kerana menyuruh kanak-kanak bawah umur mengayuh basikal dari utara ke Lembah Kelang," ujarnya.

The Rafah Crossing

2008-12-17T17:03:00.003+08:00

The suffering of Gazans practically lies in two words – Rafah Crossing. If it opens, the Gazans smile. If it closes, lives are frozen. At least, this is very true at this very moment.

Camp David Treaty (CDT) decides the manner Gaza crossing has been managed (or rather missmanaged). CDT has not only been dead, it has rotten. But, its legacy has crippled the lives of one and a half million people. We can’t be blaming CDT forever. In fact, I now put the blame on Egypt, and all the Arab Countries, and the OIC, and ourselves.

As long as Rafah Crossing are closed, we are, morally and spiritually, reduced to being Zionist servants ourselves. There is nothing else to brag about.

We must play our part to break the siege on Gaza. The siege is as evil as all evil could be. We can’t, and shouldn’t, stand watching.

We must pressure Egypt to open the Rafah Crossing by all means. We must pressure all Arab countries to facilitate the opening of the crossing by all means.

But how to go about it?

- How about continous protest in front the all Egypt embassies around the world? Set a permanent camp for protesters – only to be dismantled upon opening the crossing.
- How about boycotting Egypt products, Egypt universities…boycott anything Egypt until the crossing is open and goods can flow from Egypt to Gaza freely?
- How about sponsoring advertisement on local newspapers and international magazine condemning the Egyptian government complicity in ruining Gazans’ lives?
- Launch Mega Campaign internationally to Open Rafah Crossing (ORC)?

Are we so HELPLESS???

The carnage in Mumbai, my condolence

2008-12-01T17:27:00.000+08:00

(1)

The Mumbai carnage last weekend had some interesting points to be pointed out. People ask why would those young radicals do what they did in Mumbai. What is the intention? This question is indeed an obvious and legitimate question.

I would say the main intention of this group is just to strike world headlines. I think we should understand the background of the issue. There are many young people around the globe enraged by what they perceived as “victimization and humiliation of the Muslim world”. Whether or not their perception is valid does not seem to matter much because people would draw own conclusion anyway. The fact is, this perception exists among thousands of people around the globe and this perception is only strengthened by images that come times after times from Gaza, Iraq, Lebanon, Kashmir, Afghanistan and Chechnya.

There are thousands among our youths who admire and look up for bold actions such as the ones in London’s subway and Mumbai city. Militant groups that are seen as more able to conduct bold actions would draw more admiration from these militant minded youths and eventually facilitate their recruitment process into these groups. If a group of ten militants is enough to create havoc in Mumbai, imagine what these thousands are capable of doing if full recruitment is fully accomplished. Now you can see the purpose behind attacks such as the one in Mumbai…you strike headlines, you get new recruits.

Thus, the images that come from Gaza and other conflict areas must first be soften. The more gruesome the images, the more deadly the implications. Certainly it wouldn’t help our cause to create peaceful world if we could still see, for instance, Gazans suffering from slow and painful deaths.

(2)

India is a country that owns nuclear weapon. But, when ten militants attacked their city, the Indian security agencies were caught with their pants down. Their commando elites were not even equipped with night visions and thermal sensors to locate humans trapped in a building during their operation to rescue hostages.

It took sixty odd hours for security men to end the siege in Mumbai, a less than mediocre by any standard considering the attackers numbered only ten and lightly armed. And, one hundred ninety five lives perished.

Surfing through Indian bloggers sites, I could roughly conclude that the Indian public is directing their anger and grievances more towards their government than towards the attackers.

(3)

Today, the Young Malay Graduates Alliance (Gabungan Graduan Melayu Muda) sent a memorandum to Dr. Chua Soi Lek demanding apology for remarks Dr. Cua made with regards to the Malay Supremacy.

How could these young graduates think so shallowly? Can Malay Supremacy be accomplished through forcing others?

The wise old saying correctly put it that “respect is earned, not demanded”.

Would Malays be supreme had Dr. Chua apologized? Think and think again… you young graduates!

Perihal kandang babi dan kandang manusia

2008-11-24T18:22:00.000+08:00

(1)

“Pelan peralihan kuasa” menjadi fenomena besar dalam UMNO selepas keputusan PRU-12 Mac lepas. Soalnya, kenapa perlu kepada pelan peralihan kuasa? Hakikatnya, pelan peralihan kuasa adalah usaha terdesak pimpinan tertinggi untuk menggunakan kuasa yang ada untuk kekal berkuasa untuk beberapa ketika lagi ataupun untuk menentukan orang yang bakal menggantinya.

Pelan peralihan kuasa yang dirancang oleh Pak Lah terpaksa dipercepatkan kerana ianya tidak memenuhi hasrat ahli-ahli diperingkat akar umbi. Manakala pelan peralihan Rafidah Aziz langsung gagal, juga kerana arus bantahan yang kuat dari akar umbi. Jelas, pelan peralihan kuasa tidak boleh popular di zaman manusia semakin demokratik dan assertif dengan hak dan hasrat mereka untuk terlibat dalam proses menentukan kepimpinan organisasi. Tampaknya, pelan peralihan kuasa merupakan singgungan tajam terhadap keupayaan intelektual ahli-ahli di peringkat akar umbi.

Saya bukan ahli UMNO. Tetapi saya juga pastinya akan menentang sebarang pelan peralihan kuasa sekiranya ia diusahakan oleh pimpinan parti yang saya dokong. Apa perlunya pelan peralihan kuasa sekiranya parti sudah ada mekanisma pemilihan pimpinan secara yang demokratik?

(2)

Semalam, sekitar 100 orang anggota pertubuhan PEWARIS menghantar memorandum menyokong akta ISA dikekalkan. Mereka berarak dengan memakai T-Shirt bertulis “Yes to ISA” dan kain pengikat dahi bertulis “Hidup Melayu, Hidup Islam”. Selain dari itu mereka juga mambawa kain rentang bertulis “Tidak Perlu Kandang Babi di Tanah Melayu”.

Apa kaitan ISA dengan “Hidup Melayu, Hidup Islam”? Apa pula kaitan ISA dengan kandang babi? Apa kaitan Islam dengan kandang babi? Apakah ajaran Islam tidak membenarkan babi dikurung dalam kandang? Kenapa kumpulan ini boleh menyokong manusia dikurung di kandang ISA, tetapi menentang apabila babi dikurung dalam kandang. Apakah babi itu lebih mulia dari manusia? Kalau tak boleh buat kandang babi, maka di mana pula babi-babi mahu dikurung. Kalau babi tidak boleh dikandang, maka apakah Islam mahu babi dibiarkan berkeliaran begitu saja. Aneh pemikiran seperti ini.

Kalau begitu, saya mencadangkan agar kesemua tahanan ISA dibebaskan, dan kem tahanan Kemunting itu ditukar saja statusnya sebagai kandang babi. Maka seluruh babi-babi yang ada dikurung di Kemunting. Tak payah buat kandang babi baru.

Dan, apakah juga Islam memerlukan ISA? Apakah dakwah Islam akan tergugat tanpa ISA? Apakah Melayu dan Islam tidak boleh hidup tanpa ISA? Kalau ISA itu perlu untuk memastikan Islam terus hidup, maka kenapa pula penjajah British memperkenalkan akta ISA ini dulu. Apakah ketika penjajah British memperkenalkan ISA, mereka mahu Melayu dan Islam terus hidup di Tanah Melayu.

Ada banyak cara manusia boleh menunjukkan kebodohan masing-masing. Tetapi cara yang dilakukan oleh anggota-angota pertubuhan PEWARIS ini adalah yang paling memualkan.

(3)

Khaled Mishaal, pemimpin Hamas yang berpengkalan di Syria menyatakan bahawa apa yang berlaku di Gaza adalah sesuatu yang amat memalukan dunia Arab dan Islam. Hospital tiada ekalan ubat dan elektrik. Gaza menjadi kandang manusia terbesar di dunia. Umat Palestin di Gaza mati secara perlahan dalam penderitaan dan seluruh umat Arab dan Islam memandang saja dengan putih mata. Di mana maruah kita?

Minggu lepas, sekumpulan NGO Islam menghantar memorandum meminta Perdana Menteri menerima pelarian Palestin untuk tinggal di Malaysia. Mereka berikrar akan berusaha membiayai kehidupan pelarian ini asal saja kerajaan sanggup menerima mereka tinggal di negara kita.

Wahai Perdana Menteri…kuasa di tangan anda sudah berada dipenghujung. Gunakan sebaiknya sekarang untuk melakukan usaha yang mulia dan murni ini.

Win like Obama, behave like Bush.

2008-11-20T12:28:00.003+08:00

(1)

Change had indeed come to the US on the 4th November Presidential Election. It was historic and among the most decisive outcome in electing the US President. If I were an American voter, I would also endorse President Barrack Hussein Obama as the 44th US Presidents.

“Arrogance” is the most striking legacy of President George William Bush, and the Republican party eventually succumbed to the injuries it had brought to the party. George Bush to the US Republican was Khir Toyo to Selangor BN.

Will change come the world with the election of Obama as the President of the most powerful nation on this planet? Many are crossing their fingers as the clock ticks. As the old saying wisely put it, “everything, just like a coin, comes with double-side faces. Very seldom that you gonna like both.” Surely, in any coin tossing deal, we could bet to win only on either side, not both.

The first official offer for political appointee goes to Chicago based politician, Rahn Emmanual, a Democrat from Illinois for the position of the Chief of Staff in the White House. Mr. Emmanuel was a senior advisor to President Bill Clinton, is a Jewish very close to Israel, and is known for his bluntness and single minded determination. His father is a right wing Israeli and was an Argun (a Jewish terrorist organization) activist. A Chief of Staff would have strong access to the President. He manages the President’s schedules, decides appointments, and filters what kind of information reach the Presidents.

John Kerry is also rumored to take up the Secretary of The State, the third person in command after the President and the Vice President. The State Secretary would handle most of the US foreign affairs. The office of John Kerry has so far denied this. I opine, John Kerry would be a nice choice for the position though. Foreign affairs are the biggest liability in the current US administration. I have only one advice to the US administration that “this world would be much happier place to live without Israel.”

OK… I know…I know …Obama is NOT listening to me!

(2)

I detest those politicians still playing the racial cards. Racism is sharing the fate of dinosaurs, the once big and powerful creatures that failed to live up with times. Indeed, racism is big and powerful in our political landscape. It has been over half a century that our national politics been cooked on racial recipe. All major policies have been drawn along racial lines.

Unfortunately, racism in Malaysia has largely be associated to the Malays. Are Malays more racist than other races in Malaysia? I certainly doubt. But, we are the ones who take most of the blames whenever the ugly face of racism surfaces.

One way out to this racial polarity, I believe, is by creating Malaysia as a truly multilingual society. One significant thing that I notice during my encounter with multilingual persons is – a multilingual person is normally very well conversant with his or her own mother tongue language. Also, a multilingual is largely more tolerant and understanding towards the needs of others. Thus, by promoting the creation multilingual society, we are actually upgrading our appreciation towards mastering languages, indirectly strengthening our mother tongues as well.

Malaysia is the only nation on Earth that is well positioned for being truly multilingual countries. Imagine if Malaysians can all speak Bahasa Malaysia, English, Mandarin, Arabic and Tamil, interchangeably and fluently, regardless of their races, religions, and origins. What a great nation could we be?

(3)

Reading through Turkish internet media during these last couple weeks, I find interesting turns have occurred in Turkey’s politics. First, Tayyip Erdogan and his AK Party has been portrayed quite negatively even by dailies known to be closed to him such as Today’s Zaman and Yeni Safak. Fehmi Koru, a columnist known for his close relationship with Erdogan blasted Erdogan rather harshly. He wrote in his column, “Erdogan won like Obama, but is now behaving like Bush”. Some other columnists even suggested that the beginning of the end of AK Party has just begun.

Many political observers notice that Erdogan and AK Party have been increasingly “hawkish” in their handling of domestic issues. Erdogan has also faced harsh criticism from his own supporters for being rather submissive towards Turkish Military Elites, while distancing himself even more from the southeastern Kurds population who had delivered his party huge votes in the crucial Parliament Election in July last year. These are viewed as major reversal from the reforms he pledged in 2002 when he took power.

There are many theories coined by friends and foes for this new development in AK Party and Turkey in general. Many believe, with Abdullah Gul safely stuck in the Presidential Palace, Erdogan has been rather single minded in the way he runs the government and party affairs. With the absence of Abdullah Gul from the ruling party’s high echelon, there has been lack of credible second opinion within the party. Even worse, AK Party has been deemed as loosing its dynamism to produce effective policies to counter increasing attacks directed towards the ruling party and government.

Others opined that Erdogan is simply burnt out. He has exhausted all his energy and ideas to bring AK Party and Turkey to this current level and there is nobody from his line-ups capable enough to received the baton from him and make a new run with renewed stamina.

There is also opinion suggesting that the Constitutional Court’s ruling to cancel legislation passed by parliament to allow headscarves in Turkey’s universities had effectively put Erdogan and AK Party reform agenda to the dead end. The precedence set by this ruling is truly damaging for the government because the parliament is no longer able to pass new legislation or amend constitution without the approval of the Turkey’s Constitutional Court. By right, the Constitutional Courts can on cancel legislation passed by parliament on procedural ground only, but not on the content. In the above case, the courts cancelled the legislation based on the content and sparked serious constitutional crisis in Turkey.

Thus, some believe that Erdogan is actually buying more time until the President Gul has ample opportunity to change the compositions of the Constitutional Court’s judges and finally reverse this damaging ruling before embarking on the new course of reform agenda. In the mean time, he makes efforts to pacify the secular elites and creates calm among them until time is right to make his next moves. Will the right time ever come for him? Allah knows best.

Malaysian Unity Government?

2008-11-02T06:56:00.000+08:00

(1)

Saya berpandangan cadangan Ku Li agar diwujudkan “unity government” yang merangkumkan dua blok politik iaitu BN dan Pakatan bagi sama-sama membentuk kerajaan Malaysia adalah suatu yang amat menarik. Ku Li berhujah bahawa cabaran yang dihadapi oleh negara pada masa ini dan akan datang adalah amat besar dan sukar. Seluruh rakyat perlu digembelengkan secara bersama bagi menghadapi cabaran ini dan tidak ada satu parti pun yang mampu memikul tanggungjawab ini secara bersendirian, baik BN mahupun Pakatan. Lebih menarik, beliau menyebut bahawa “unity government” ini mestilah diasaskan di atas integriti.

Secara prinsipnya saya bersetuju dengan Ku Li. Kerajaan Perpaduan ini sekiranya dapat dijayakan pastinya lebih baik berbanding kerajaan yang diterajui secara eksklusif oleh BN mahupun Pakatan. Tetapi, laluan ke arah itu pastinya amat sukar. Isu pembahagian potfolio kabinet diperingkat pusat dan negeri-negeri, penghapusan beberapa akta drakonian, dasar liberalisasi ekonomi dan media, dan beberapa isu-isu yang bersifat “thorny” tentunya amat sukar untuk diputuskan secara bersama dalam kabinet Kerajaan Perpaduan yang dicadangkan.

Komponen Pakatan pastinya tidak mahu berada dalam kerajaan yang masih meneruskan ISA. BN pula pastinya tidak rela penguasaan mutlak mereka ke atas media dijadikan korban bagi mewujudkan Kerajaan Perpaduan ini.

Dari sudut mekanisma politik yang sedia ada, cadangan Ku Li ini dilihat terlalu amat sukar untuk direalisasikan. Pun begitu, sekiranya rakyat menunjukkan hasrat yang besar ke arah itu, parti-parti politik tidak ada pilihan. Mereka perlu akur dengan kehendak rakyat, atau gulung tikar. Lihat saja PAS dan DAP. Kedua-duanya lebih selesa untuk tidak bersama membentuk kerajaan.Tetapi, oleh kerana isyarat rakyat begitu jelas bahawa kedua-duanya perlu duduk bersama membentuk kerajaan di beberapa negeri, maka kedua-duanya tidak ada pilihan. Mereka perlu belajar untuk duduk bersama, berbincang bersama, dan mengambil tanggungjawab bersama, biar betapa sukar sekalipun laluan yang terpaksa ditempuh. Kalau mereka ingkar kehendak rakyat, maka lebih baik mereka gulung tikar sahaja.

Begitu jugalah halnya dengan kewujudan Kerajaan Perpaduan yang dicadangkan oleh Ku Li. Kalau rakyat mahukan ianya berlaku, insyaAllah ia akan berlaku. Dan, itulah yang saya harapkan.

(2)

Perlantikan Low Siew Moi sebagai Pemangku Pengurus Besar PKNS oleh MB Selangor mendapat bantahan beberapa pihak yang mewakili kakitangan PKNS sendiri. Malangnya, asas yang dinyatakan terhadap bantahan itu amat memalukan iaitu – “tidak pernah berlaku dalam sejarah PKNS orang bukan Melayu dilantik memimpin badan yang objektifnya adalah untuk membantu bumiputera.”

Apakah kakitangan PKNS juga lupa bahawa tidak pernah dalam sejarah negeri Selangor bahawa pentadbiran kerajaan negeri diterajui oleh Pakatan Rakyat? Apakah salah untuk negeri Selangor mencipta sejarah baru.

Apa yang lebih mengecewakan saya ialah, ramai di kalangan rakan-rakan PAS sendiri yang membantah perlantikan ini dengan hujah yang sama. Mereka juga bertanya, “tiada lagikah orang Melayu yang layak?”.

Hakikatnya, tentu ramai orang Melayu yang layak dan mustahil tidak ada orang Melayu yang layak untuk menerajui PKNS. Tetapi, layak sahaja belum tentu mencukupi, kerana rakyat hanya mahu yang terbaik. Kalau betul perlantikan Low Siew Moi adalah berdasarkan merit dan pemilihan beliau merupakan pilihan terbaik untuk PKNS, maka PAS wajar memberi sokongan terhadap perlantikan ini. Kalau tidak, maka penilaian juga mestilah dibuat secara objektif dan adil. Bukankah ini prinsip yang diajar oleh Islam yang menjadi dasar PAS?

Kalau nak bantah pun, biarlah cerdik sikit. Bantahlah atas faktor merit, dan bukannya atas faktor keturunan. Tentunya sukar untuk kita percaya bahawa Low Siew Moi ini tidak ada kelemahan langsung dari sudut prestasi kerja. Sekiranya bantahan hanya tertumpu atas faktor keturunan beliau sahaja, ianya seolah-olah hanya membuktikan bahawa dari sudut merit dan keupayaan, perlantikan beliau tidak ada langsung cacat celanya. Dalam kata lain, bantahan tersebut sebenarnya hanya akan memperkukuhkan kesahan (legitimacy) perlantikan beliau ke jawatan tersebut. Bukan kerana bantahan tersebut tidak betul, tetapi kerana ianya dibuat atas premis yang mungkar (perkauman) dan dangkal.

Kalaupun pilihan MB Selangor mungkin yang terbaik, cara keputusan itu dibuat tentunya boleh banyak diperbaiki. Saya difahamkan MB Selangor tidak berbincang dengan rakan-rakan pimpinan dalam Pakatan di Selangor di dalam membuat keputusan yang berkaitan dengan GLC di Selangor. Bukan sahaja yang berkaitan dengan PKNS, malah juga yang melibatkan lain-lain GLC. Semunya dibuat oleh MB tanpa berbincang terlebih dahulu dengan rakan pimpinan dalam Pakatan. Saya bimbang keberanian rakyat Selangor membuat perubahan dalam pilihanraya lepas dirosakkan hanya oleh tindakan dan keputusan seorang MB yang kurang kelayakan dan amat tidak meyakinkan.

Apa sudah jadi dengan Majlis Pakatan Rakyat di peringkat negeri?

Islam against theocracy

2008-06-28T07:33:00.001+08:00

Below is my letter as it appeared in M’siakini (http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/85102) on 26th June. The original title that I sent to the editor was “PAS against theocracy”. Unfortunately, the editor changed the title to something not to my liking. Anyway, just sharing…!

Islam, secularism do share common grounds
Abu Mubarak Jun 26, 08 4:26pm

I refer to the letter The future of PAS.
The writer’s argument lacks certain fundamental insights about the party he was writing about.
Establishing a theocratic state has never been on PAS agenda. In fact, PAS categorically rejects theocracy. This is rather evident had the writer made more efforts to get clarification from PAS leaders directly, instead of relying on third party’s assertions.
PAS commitment towards democracy and its acceptance of the multi-cultural reality of our society can never be questioned. It is PAS belief that Islam is not, in any way, contradictory to the general idea of democracy and multi-culturalism. Islam is merely a ‘product’ that PAS intends to sell within our democratic space and multi-cultural society.
PAS does not believe that democracy belongs exclusively to secularism, as secularism too, in reality, is an ‘ideological product’ that competes within the same democratic space and multi- cultural society.
In fact, the multi-cultural reality in our country has only bolstered PAS’ determination to position itself in mainstream politics to promote Islam as its ‘product’ within our democratic and plural society. Unarguably, at the end of the day, it is the people who will make the ultimate choice on this ‘product’ that better befits their values, beliefs and aspirations.
Saying that Islam and secularism are competing ‘products’ does not mean that both are mutually exclusive and perfectly dichotomised. There are still many areas in which Islam and secularism share common grounds, and PAS believes that there is nothing in Islam that prohibits it in collaborating to enhance these shared interests. Simply put it, competition does not mean enmity.
The future of PAS, I believe, lies in its ability to convince the general public that Islam as a democratic political product is able to enhance the people’s ability to attain happiness in relation to the state’s conduct.
Happiness could be attained when people are able to live up to their values, beliefs and aspirations. At least, people’s values, beliefs and aspirations must not be grossly undermined by the state’s conduct.
In reality, I agree that PAS has still a long way to go before it can claim that it has attained this objective. However, one cannot deny that the party has gone through a series of reforms and alignments to position itself towards achieving this goal, both in terms of its value judgment as well as its empirical judgment.
The March 8 general election results would place PAS in more pressing position to articulate its message more effectively.
However, I don’t forecast that PAS would face serious conflict between its values and empirical judgments as noted in the above letter.

The Gaza Truce

2008-06-24T12:37:00.001+08:00

The truce (hudna) between the Israelis and Hamas, mediated by the Egyptian authority, finally came into effect on 19 June. A few hours before the truce officially started, both sides launched series of deadly attacked against the other causing death and injuries on both sides.

The truce is a political win for Hamas as it provides much awaited relief for the besieged Gazans. The Egyptians have the responsibility to take the initiatives in creating calm in the region. Not many people in this world would stand seeing other humans slowly dying out of hunger and diseases, in front of their eyes. Neither would the majority of the Egyptians close their hearts to their suffering Gazans neighbors.

The Egyptian government has only two choices with regards to the situation in Gaza; help to lighten the Gaza siege or face domestic political fallout. The latter would seem more grave for both the Israelis and Egyptian government. Thus, when the Egyptian went to talk to Israelis, only a simple message would do – accept truce or we have to open Rafah crossing.

Both sides do not believe the truce would hold long. But the side the first breach the truce would pay high price, politically. It is the Israelis that are really looking forward to see the collapse of the truce. As for Hamas, the calm would provide more room for them to win the ground. Not many elected governments in the world could manage hungry population to behave accordingly, and Hamas could be counted as one. Any other elected government could face popular revolt and subsequently fall apart.

Now, Hamas is opening new front to its political progress by initiating national dialogue with its rival Fatah. Fatah is trying to capitalize this talk with Hamas to position itself in a peace talk with the Israelis. The message Fatah is trying to deliver to Israel is – if the Israelis refuse to listen to them, they would talk to Hamas. If Fatah talks to Hamas, it could bring legitimacy to Hamas as a new player in middle east politics. This would also be the last thing Israel would want to happen.

Israel is a very strong country, economically and militarily. But the strength it has built over past decades could only be matched with Palestinians steadfastness.
One needs not to be strong to be steadfast. Let’s pray one day our Palestinian brothers would have both, the strength and steadfastness.

Cursing the fuel & fuelling the curse

2008-06-13T10:02:00.002+08:00

(1)

It has been a week since the fuel price hike last Wednesday. On the day the price hike was announced, I spent five hours in my car, not to refill, but simply to reach home from work, and lost half tank of my fuel. The day was undoubtedly a cursing fest for many motorists.

From government’s point of view, the hike is about reducing exhorbitant subsidies on fuel. It costs a whopping RM 56 billion to cover the fuel subsidies, an amount the government can ill afford to continue paying.

If we are evaluating this issue from the government subsidies issue per se, Pak Lah and Shahrir Samad would have won the battle. It could be the correct thing to do. In general, fuel subsidies are bad for national economy in a long run and it could not be sustained in a prolonged way. Moreover, lives that run based on carbon fuel economy would destroy our planet much faster.

But, when we look from the fact that our people’s dependency on fuel is a direct accumulated results of our government policies over the past decades, the decision to remove the fuel subsidies is nothing else but injustice. It is more like putting our people on drug until they got heavily addicted to it before raising the price of that drug.

Owning and driving private vehicles has never been optional for most of our citizens, be they working class, businessmen, students or even homemakers. As a car producing nation, we have been encouraged to support the very industry that has become national project under direct supervision from none other than the PM himself.

Also, the investment on tolled highways had been equally mammoth. Who would have financed all these highways if not from private vehicle owners. Had public transportation been successful, I wonder whether or not the highway concessioners would remain in business. One may ask, could the failure of our public transports be deliberated and purposeful on the part of our government?

Even banks and financial institutions were ask to provide incentives to spur the growth of our auto industries. Not to mention the high number of APs issued by our government in the name of supporting certain segments of auto industries.

So we say no thanks to poorly planned and unreliable public transportation system. Also, no thanks to our skewed urban planning. People simply have to drive to accomplish almost everything related to their lives. Recent survey found less than 20% of our population use public transportation. With this figure, I think it is a sin even to think about raising fuel price.

I would support removing fuel subsidies had our government freed our people from this addiction on fuel consumption beforehand. Subsidy is more like a panadol to provide temporarily relief in difficult time. It must be timely, but not prolonged.

(2)

Petronas is the richest single entity owned by our nation. But, does it really belong to the people of our nation?

It has been asked…again and again…where does the Petronas money being spent? And has it been spent prudently? There has been no satisfactory answer to this yet so far.

Some of us are arguing, instead of putting Petronas money on wasteful mega projects, it would be better off being used to subsidize fuel price. Thus, the founding issue is not really about subsidy, but more on transparency and accountability.

Transparency and accountability are the two critical areas Petronas has failed us, Malaysians. The Petroleum Development Act 1974 gives Petronas exclusive rights to manage our rich oil resources. We certainly could not afford to allow Petronas to fail us on these two critical aspects in managing our nation’s wealth. It would only be proper had our government declared opening Petronas coffers to public scrutiny prior to announcing any reduction in fuel subsidy.

If Petronas refuses to take responsibility to protect our citizens from soaring world’s fuel price, it must then be disbanded for failing to deliver its basic objective of its very own formation.

(3)

I did not watch Salahuddin Ayub vs Sharir Samad on TV1 last Tuesday night. I heard from friends, Salahuddin fared poorly in the discussion mainly because he gave too much attention to Petronas profit and the need for fuel subsidy.

I think it was a mistake on his part. He should have focused more on social justice, transparency and accountability even when discussing fuel price hike. The fact is, not one of our citizens needs subsidy had our nation’s wealth be spent prudently, fairly, transparently and with full of accountability. Our richness is so abundance, enough for everyone to live decently.

No minister in our cabinet line up could stand tall when faced with questions of social justice, transparency, and accountability.

Salahuddin should have played his cards within this nutshell.

A nation of inaction.

2008-06-02T22:37:00.002+08:00

Our nation certainly is not in action. It is inaction.

First, we are faced with the crisis of rice shortage and price up. The low income groups are pinched worst. Rice is not only our main daily nutrient, it is also our lives. I could not imagine Malaysians living without Nasi Lemak, Nasi Kandar, Nasi Dagang, and various other “nasi” which make up our cultures and identities.

We have close to two millions acres of abandoned padi fields across our country. These lands are left useless for decades. These lands are still useless even today, when we, Malaysians, are craving for rice. What an inaction. We are made to know also that Myanmar, Vietnam, and few other countries would stop exporting their rice to us due to low yields of the crops. Fortunately, Thailand does not follow suit.

If I were the PM, I would form an urgent task force committee to work on reviving these lands as immediate as possible. Within weeks, these lands which are already lying on irrigated areas should start to grow rice by all means. In the next four months, the crops would start to be supplied to the market and ease up demands for rice.

Then the PM should start to draw up certain policies for food security, which is already in place in many European countries. Our country has lot less problems on land fertility and irrigation as compared to those other nations, to ensure we could produce enough food for ourselves, without depending too much on our neighbours.

Why can’t the PM think that way? I just wonder.

Secondly, we as a net oil exporter, join the band wagon of panicking countries due to soaring oil price. With the crude oil price is selling at more than USD120 per barrel, more people in the world would be pained with inflation and rising cost of living. Businesses would also find it hard to keep afloat, sending probably millions into unemployment.

On the other side, oil producing countries are enjoying better revenues and OPEC has so far refused to increase production of oil.

Where does Malaysia stand in this world divide? Why are jumping onto the wrong wagon?

It seems our government is more worried with the amount of subsidy for domestic fuel consumption. Thus, they mull about increasing the fuel price for domestic consumptions in tandem with world’s crude oil price.

This is wrong approach, both in short and long term, I opine. Simply passing the price increase to people on the streets is a no-brainer solution on government part.

Government should be focusing on reducing domestic fuel consumption to enjoy better income from our oil wealth rather than passing the burden to the people. There are a lot more things yet to be done to reduce our domestic fuel consumptions.

Improving public transportations, revamping the whole transportation industries to make it more efficient, developing alternative energy sources such as solar and nuclear, and reduce energy wastages are the things that have become more urgent to be solved.

Again, I don’t see we are doing enough on these things, sadly to say. In many cases, failure to act is more costly than acting incorrectly.

Will our PM wake up?

Politik feudal

2008-05-25T09:38:00.001+08:00

(1)
Pentas politik negara ibarat dilanda taufan Nargis apabila Dr. Mmengumumkan keluar UMNO. Dia bukan sekadar keluar UMNO, tetapi jugamenyeru ahli-ahli UMNO lain mengikut jejaknya.Keesokannya Pak Lah panggil persidangan tergempar ahli-ahli parlimenUMNO semasa sidang parlimen berehat pada pukul 2pm. Khabarnya, seluruhahli-ahli parlimen UMNO setia dengan parti. Cuma ahli parlimen Jerlunsahaja yang mahu Pak Lah meletakkan jawatan. Tetapi beliau juga mahukekal setia dalam UMNO.Saya sedih dengan politik orang-orang Melayu. Pertamanya, orang-orangMelayu kurang ada kemahiran bermuafakat. Budaya politik orang-orangMelayu masih bersifat feudal. Kalau kamu bukan penyokong, maka kamuadalah musuh. Kalau kamu adalah musuh, kamu mesti dihukum.Satu-satunya cara untuk kamu keluar dari hukuman itu ialah dengan mengaku kalah, mengaku bersalah, dan menyerah diri. Itupun kalau mujur.Maka itu, sekian lama kita melihat episod penghukuman politik berlakudi kalangan aktor-aktor politik Melayu. Pemimpin pembangkangdipenjara. Kontraktor disenaraihitamkan. Bantuan kepada negeri tertentu disekat. Penjawat awam ditukar dan diberhentikan. Para imamdipecat.Ini semua adalah episod-episod duka politik orang Melayu. Kita mengaku hidup dalam sebuah negara demokrasi, tetapi budaya dan pemikiranpolitik kita masih amat feudal dan primitif.Politik feudal menjadikan penguasa ditakuti. Kuasa ditumpukan kepadabeberapa individu pemimpin. Hegemoni kuasa mengongkong segalanya.Bantahan dianggap penderhakaan. Perbezaan dianggap permusuhan.Kekuatan melahirkan keangkuhan dan salahguna kuasa. Mereka yang lemah jadi terus takut, putus harap dan tertindas.Yang paling penting ialah orang-orang Melayu perlu keluar dari budaya politik feudal ini terlebih dahulu.

(2)
Kerajaan Negeri Selangor di bawah pentadbiran Pakatan Rakyat tidak adapilihan selain menunaikan segala janjinya. Kalau janji tidak ditunai,bagaimana mahu menghadap rakyat dalam pilihanraya akan datang.Pun begitu, ini tidak bermakna pimpinan kerajaan negeri mesti langsung hilang pertimbangan dan kebijaksanaan di dalam menentukan keutamaanperbelanjaan negeri. Rakyat tentunya maklum bahawa pentadbiran sekarang bergerak dengan belanjawan yang telah dibentangkan pada bulan November tahun lepas oleh pemimpin BN. Maka, tentulah tidak munasabahuntuk melaksanakan manifesto sepenuhnya pada tahun ini memandangkan bukan sahaja belanjawan lepas tidak mengambil kira keperluan perbelanjaan manifesto tersebut, malahan peruntukan perbelanjaan yangsedia ada juga sudah banyak yang dihabiskan dalam tempoh 3 bulanpertama tahun ini oleh pentadbiran kerajaan negeri yang lepas.Dalam kata lain, rakyat perlu menunggu sehingga belanjawan baru dibentangkan pada hujung tahun ini untuk menikmati lebih banyak tawaran manifesto ditunaikan oleh pentadbiran Pakatan Rakyat di Selangor. Itupun, perlaksanaannya sudah pasti akan dibuat secara berperingkat juga memandangkan tempoh pentadbiran biasanya adalahempat atau lima tahun.Bagaimanapun, kerajaan negeri sudahpun mengumumkan untuk melaksanakansebahagian tawaran manifesto tersebut tahun ini. Selain air percuma untuk 20 meter padu pertama, bantuan RM1,000 juga akan diberi kepadapelajar dari keluarga berpendapatan rendah yang mendapat tawaran keIPT. Saya difahamkan bantuan ini akan diperluaskan kepada keluarga yang berpendapatan sederhana dan mungkin juga secara keseluruhan padatahun-tahun yang akan datang. Penurunan cukai pintu sebanyak 20%bagaimanapun terpaksa ditangguhkan. Anehnya, kerajaan persekutuan, melalui kenyataan seorang menterinya diParlimen, khabarnya mahu menyekat kerajaan negeri Selangor dari memberikan air percuma kepada rakyat dengan alasan kerajaan negeri tidak ada kuasa mengubah kadar tarif air tanpa kebenaran dari KerajaanPersekutuan. Padahal, Menteri Besar Selangor telahpun menjelaskan bahawa Syabas mengaut keuntungan yang terlalu besar dalam perjanjian konsesi air dan keuntungan tersebut wajar untuk dikongsi dengan rakyatnegeri ini.

(3)
Hanipa Maidin, Ahli Jawatankuasa PAS Pusat, dilapurkan sebagai mengkritik tindakan kerajaan negeri-negeri di bawah Pakatan keranabertindak memboikot akhbar Utusan Malaysia. Menurutnya, tindakan tersebut menggambarkan bahawa pimpinan kerajaan Pakatan tidak bersediamendengar dan menerima akhbar yang tidak sehaluan dengan polisi danpendirian politik mereka. Hanipa mahu pimpinan kerajaan Pakatan menerima media seadanya, tanpa ada gangguan dan tekanan politikterhadap apa juga bentuk pendekatan dan lapuran media.Dari satu segi ada juga meritnya pandangan tersebut. Tetapi, dariperspektif yang lebih besar saya bersetuju dengan tindakan memboikot akhbar Utusan Malaysia atas faktor bahawa suatu tindakan bagi memecahkan hegemoni media perlu dilakukan demi kebaikan keseluruhan rakyat.
Kalau selama ini boikot hanya dilakukan oleh pihak awam, makakali ini penyertaan lima buah kerajaan negeri bersama seluruh agensidan anak-anak syarikatnya mungkin lebih berkesan.Isunya bukan soal keengganan pimpinan kerajaan negeri menerima kritikan akhbar, tetapi lebih kepada usaha memecahkan hegemoni media.Kejayaan Pakatan Rakyat menafikan dua pertiga majoriti di Parlimen dan memerintah lima negeri sedikit sebanyak telah memecahkan hegemoni politik dan ekonomi yang sebelum ini dikuasai sepenuhnya oleh satu pihak sahaja. Bagaimanapun, usaha ini perlu diperluaskan bagi memecahkan hegemoni media yang menjadi punca kongkongan minda terhadap sebahagian besar rakyat terutama orang-orang Melayu di luar bandaryang mempunyai capaian terhad terhadap media alternatif.Saya percaya langkah ini perlu dan mesti dipertingkatkan dari masa kesemasa. Kita mengharapkan hasil daripada kempen ini ialah wujudnya kelonggaran terhadap kekangan Akta Penerbitan dan Percetakan terhadap industri media negara yang hanya menguntungkan syarikat media kroni seperti Utusan Malaysia, Berita Harian, NST dan seumpamanya.

Saya sendiri tidak membeli akhbar Utusan Malaysia sejak lebih dua puluh tahun yang lepas.

Abbas facing the moment of truth

2008-05-05T17:28:00.001+08:00

Excerpt form Khalid Amayreh (Palestinian Information center)

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas feels quite depressed these days, having been unceremoniously told by President Bush that the US administration won’t pressure Israel to halt Jewish settlement expansion nor commit itself to a total Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967.
Some of Abbas’s aides have described his recent visit to Washington as the “straw that broke the camel’s back.” Abbas himself described the visit as “a clear failure.”
One Palestinian commentator from Ramallah labeled the visit “ a gigantic and monumental fiasco,” arguing that it amounted to a virtual breakdown of Abbas’s entire strategy of counting on the Bush administration to create a viable and contiguous Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
According to sources in Amman, Abbas informed Bush that he wouldn’t run for a second term as Chairman of the PA.
One source quoted an aide to Abbas as saying that the chairman concluded his meeting with Bush by telling him “you can look for another donkey to preside over the Palestinian Authority.”
The PA chairman reportedly asked Bush to declare his support for the creation of a Palestinian state on the entirety of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem and also to pressure Israel to put an end to Jewish settlement expansion in the occupied territories, especially East Jerusalem.
Abbas, according to aides, was stunned when Bush told him that he couldn’t meet Palestinian demands since that would violate the letter of guarantees he gave former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on 14 April, 2004. Bush further argued that any departure from the infamous letter would lead to the downfall of the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s government.
“President Abbas felt as if he was talking to the wall,” one Palestinian official was quoted as saying. “Both Bush and (US Secretary of State Condoleezza) Rice refused to discuss details related to the current peace talks with Israel. We are very depressed.”
Rice arrived in Israel-Palestine Saturday evening, 3 May, apparently to save “the peace process” from an imminent danger of collapse.
Rice told the Israeli media that the purpose of her visit was to press Defense Minister Ehud Barak to remove some of the roadblocks the Israeli occupation army maintains throughout the West Bank in order to punish, torment and control the estimated 2.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank.
The US has asked Israel for the umpteenth time to remove the roadblocks in order to ease up Palestinian daily life and boost Abbas’s popularity in the eyes of his people.
For its part, Israel made numerous promises to remove the barriers, but to no avail. Last month the Israeli government said it was removing some of the key roadblocks in the West Bank in order to facilitate the flow of goods and services throughout the West Bank.
However, Palestinians, peace activists and human rights organizations operating in the occupied territories have accused the Israeli army of practicing deception and of creating fictitious barriers in the morning and removing them in the evening in order to give Washington a false impression that Israel was honoring the pledges it had made to Rice.
This protracted, lingering procrastination, along with the absence of any substantive progress in Israeli-Palestinian talks, especially over the so-called core issues, such as Jerusalem, the refugees and the settlements, is obviously exasperating the Palestinian leadership, desperate and eager to “clutch an achievement” which it would use to convince the increasingly desperate and skeptical Palestinian masses that Abbas’s way, not Hamas’s, was the right and only way to wrest Palestinian rights from Israel’s parsimonious hands.
Now, however, the manifestly deleterious effect of Abbas’s policy of over-trusting and over-relying on the Bush Administration, are becoming obvious.
Abbas is now realizing, belatedly if not too late, that Bush has never been truly serious about pushing for a dignified and even-handed resolution of the Palestinian plight.
I am saying “belatedly or too late” because Abbas nearly wrecked his relations with his own people, especially since the Gaza events of last year, all for the purpose of appeasing Bush and Rice and receiving from them a certificate of good conduct.
He thought, out of naivety, ignorance, and weakness of character, that the neocons in Washington would award him for his subservience and obsequiousness by pressuring Israel to end the occupation and halt unrelenting theft of Palestinian land.
However, Abbas’s most scandalous blunder has been his uneducated conviction that the big liar of Washington, the man who invaded, occupied and destroyed two sovereign Muslim countries based on lies, would behave honestly and straightly with the Palestinians.
Now it would be very hard for Abbas to salvage his legacy by trying to undo or at least rectify some of the blunders he and his regime committed against the Palestinian masses and their enduring just cause, all in order to please Washington.
As Chairman of the PA, Abbas and his hangers-on abducted, detained, tortured and even killed political opponents in order to demonstrate Palestinian commitment to peace to the malicious duo of the US and Israel. This happened at a time when Israel continued to murder Palestinians in droves and grab more Palestinian land for Jewish settlement expansion.
Abbas also readily accepted, even welcomed, naked American interference in Palestinian internal affairs to the point of allowing Washington to conspire in coordination with certain Palestinian security officials to corrode and overthrow the democratically elected government led by the Hamas movement.
More to the point, Abbas went as far as tacitly collaborating with Israel and the US in maintaining the Nazi-like blockade of 1.5 million Gazans, all in order to weaken Hamas.
I don’t really know if Abbas has the moral courage and intellectual honesty to say to Washington “enough is enough.”
If he does, he should do it now, because tomorrow might be too late.

Al-Kisah waibi Karpal.

2008-05-01T18:56:00.002+08:00

Al-Kisah sidang para waibi di Dewan Pacal semalam dikonon-khabarkan amat sekali kecohnya.

Hatta, memanda Penerangan bertitah, "adapun tingkah sekalian waibi di Dewan Pacal amat jelek. Firasat hamba, amat tidak wajar siaraya tonton 30 minit diteruskan". Padahal para jelata tidak sanggup hak siaraya tonton itu dihentikan. Itu hak mereka untuk melihat segala tingkah waibi mereka di Dewan Pacal....mulia atau hina!

Waibi Karpal berangkara tingkah dengan waibi Bung Kinabatangan. Beruk-beruk dipanggil, para waibi menjerit, terpekik. Pacal-pacal tersirna...

Waibi Brahim Pasir Mas berangkara tingkah pula ke atas waibi Karpal.

Gerangan apa waibi Karpal punya begitu ramai nemesis.

Sememangnya waibi Karpal sudah tidak lagi pantas berpencak di Dewan Pacal. Buah fikirnya terlalu amat lampau lagi remeh. Masakan soal angkat tangan waibi bersumpah jadi gaduh besar. Padahal para jelata tidak kisah waibi angkat tangan bersumpah.

Para jelata bimbang soal harga dan bekal barang. Soal bandit berleluasa. Soal pengagihan laba negara. Soal amal saksama. Bukan soal angkat tangan.

Sikap waibi Karpal juga agak makin chauvinis. Mahu gaduh dengan semua orang. Padahal ramai bentara-bentara muda dari Laskar Roketnya sudah makin matang dan terbuka. Baik juga kiranya waibi Karpal berundur saja dari Pencak Politi.

Tingkah Karpal boleh jadi punca pakatan Laskar Roket, Laskar Mata Biru, dan Laskar Purnama berduel. Mulutnya tajam celupar. Padahal inilah yang amat digemari oleh para bentara Laskar Dacing, seteru mereka di Dewan Pacal.

Al-Kisah gerangan waibi Karpal. Baik diam dan berundur. Masa tuan hamba berpencak sudah berlalu!

A quest for conflict

2008-04-14T22:34:00.000+08:00

(1)

Yesterday the Information Ministry announced the decision to move Selangor FM out to Angkasapuri. Selangor MB had given one week ultimatum to Selangor FM to either allocate weekly air time a slot for new State Government leaders to address issues related to people of Selangor, or pack out from its current premise in the state owned building. The latter looks set to confront the state government directive, and opts to move out.

Then, what is Selangor FM for? If it chooses to parrot Nasional FM, it would be a clear redundant. If it wants to establish a Selangor identity, it should not place itself in such an awkward position against the state government.

When a radio station like Selangor FM moves out to new premise, big amount of public fund would also be spent, unnecessarily. The staffs would have to endure worse traffic condition because Angkasapuri is a lot worse for driving than Shah Alam is.

It was also informed yesterday that Selangor FM would operate temporarily in Angkasapuri as the station radio would eventually move to its own premise in Shah Alam when its building on an 8-acre-land in Shah Alam is completed. But, what if the state government decides to turn the table against Selangor FM by making approval for the building difficult for them, as in principle, no building could be erected without state’s local authority approval.

I am amazed and puzzled. What on earth has triggered Selangor FM to take all these troubles in place of just airing one-hour-a-week programme for its new states leaders? It defies logic at its worst, to say the least.

(2)

Idiocy, practically means doing things exactly in the same old ways while expecting different results. Ong Ka Chuan, the new Housing and Local Authority Minister, stated that the Federal Government has decided to appoint its people from state levels “federal officers” down to village affairs committee (JKKK) to manage federal funds in the states ruled by Pakatan.

The creation of parallel administrations to deal with people in these states would actually complicate matters, and generate a lot of waste. This is exactly the same old practices applied in Kelantan since 1990 when Angkatan wrested control of the state. It has worked for no one. Neither the federal government, nor the state has benefited from such policy for the past 18 years. BN had hoped this policy would help them capture Kelantan, but the reality on the ground showed otherwise. The money BN dumped in Kelantan had only widened the rift among its leaders.

Kelantan, for most of the period, was all alone in tolerating this assault from the federal government for the past 18 years. But now, with Pakatan take control of 4 other states, they could work collectively to make things equally painful for the federal government officers to operate in these states. State governments have full authority over lands and many aspects of construction works approval. Without state governments cooperation, federal officers could be reduced to merely handing out minor goodies without real development activities. State governments could even introduced high taxes on all premises owned by federal GLCs in the states.

It is not that I like to see conflicts being aggravated between the states and the federal government, but it seems some people need to learn simple lessons the hard ways. Let them taste their own medicines. This may make them much wiser in the future.

(3)

“Secularism cannot be made a new religion…You cannot impose secularism by force!” said Joseé Manuel Barroso, the President of the EU in his speech last Friday.

He made this speech in Turkey where the AK Party, the ruling party, is facing a looming legal proceeding for its closure due to allegation that the party has become hot bed for anti-secularism activities.

Ong Ka Ting should have been listening to the speech too, I hope. He was cited to say that PAS has ulterior motives for hoping that hudud laws could one day be implemented in this country. The fact is, not one thing could be imposed on people by force against people’s wills. As Mr. Barroso clearly stated, not even secularism could be imposed by force.

If Hudud is to be implemented, it must have become clear choice for the majority of the people. PAS simply holds dearly a belief that Islam, and all its components including Hudud, is erected firmly on the foundation of justice and truth, in tandem with universal natures of humanity. If it ever seems to produce injustice, then it must have been due to misunderstandings or abuses. Thus, reforms must then be carried out to correct these misunderstandings and abuses. But villifying Islam dan hudud, the way Ong Ka Ting does, would not hold water in improving intellectual discourses within our democratic spheres.

Let's ponder

2008-04-14T22:32:00.000+08:00

(1)
Last week, Selangor MB office issued a communique defending the RM100 million Kuala Langat integrated and modernized pig farm project, near Sepang. It clarifies the project had been approved on Jan 2008 by the previous state administration. The new government agreed in the last EXCO meeting that the project is appropriate to be continued. The project, flamed by media reports, has irked many for being insensitive to Malays and Muslims in the state.

Now may we ask ourselves, what are we so sensitive about? The pigs have been here and there in Selangor all these while. In fact, the location of the said project is on the already one of the biggest pig farm in the state. This project is not created on a new virgin land. Nor does it close village to give way for pigs. The RM100 million money does not come from state coffer as it would be fully funded by private sectors.

plain languages, the project is merely moving all the pigs from all parts of Selangor to join their ‘bigger neighborhood’ in an existing farm in Sepang, which would be moderately enlarged, modernized and integrated, so it could be better managed, monitored, and enforced.

The best part of it is, there will be no more new pig farms to be approved in any part of Selangor in the future. Now ask ourselves again, are we being sensitive or being stupid for asking this project to be scrapped?

(2)
Our local government by-law stipulates that the local councils are to be appointed by means of contract, normally done through political appointments. When Selangor State Government changes hand, the local councils would also see new appointees. But, until today not a single local authority in Selangor has officiated the appointment of new local councils.

In the previous administration of local authorities, among the lucrative income generations decided by the local councils are the fee collections of various pasar malam. Often, the collections are monopolized by certain political sectors in the name of various local institutions and associations, though, the permits are issued by local authorities. This collections could reach tens of thousands ringgit a day throughout the state.

Where does this money go? This money should belong to local authorities because they bear the cost of cleaning up and providing facilities for pasar malam. May be, a small portion could be allocated to local institutions or associations for administering the pasar malam.
Ronnie Liu, the state exco incharged of local authorities, must quickly start to get his hands dirty in cleaning up this mess. He must set up a mechanism to ensure the money collected from pasar malam vendors are transparently managed. As for now, until Ronnie gets to his work, these money flow to political sectors, mostly affiliated with the previous state and local councils administration. They are laughing all the way to the banks!

(3)

The Merdeka Center recent survey finds that 70% of respondents do not mind voting candidates from other races in the election. This figure is higher among younger respondents. Apart from that, more than 80% of the respondents said they are satisfied with the recently concluded election result. In recent general election, the votes cut across racial lines.
The above figures are more than interesting. Are Malaysian less racially sensitive? At a personal level, what I have been observing around me does not really come to an agreement with the survey. If the survey truly reflects general Malaysians attitude towards racial politics, then our politicians would have tough time adjusting themselves to the new realities. This could be so because, what they see isn’t truly what it is.

There is also another dimension to this finding. If Malaysians are now racially less sensitive, are they also less sensitive towards religious issues. The survey did not explicitly suggest as such, but we all know the coherence of perception between race and religion is rather high especially among the Malays.

Would the next political battle be fought on religious platforms, instead of racial ones? I would rather leave this question for us all to ponder!

One Month After 12thGE

2008-04-08T20:34:00.000+08:00

(1)
Tourism Minister, Azalina Othman, scrapped all MOUs signed by her ministry with contractors in the five states ruled by People Alliance (Pakatan). All these while, I wrongly assumed Azalina would belong to a more progressive minded camp within UMNO. She was social activist prior to her appointment as Puteri’s chief. She was also vocal about justice and human rights, but power has corrupted her so much that she too had joined other wicked pranks within BN.

She was cited to have said that this decision was taken because her ministry would not be able to work with the oppositions. How could I believe this coming from her? Firstly, she is supposed to work with the state governments, not opposition. Secondly, any government of the day should work with all the people, regardless of their political affiliation. Thirdly, reducing signed business MOUs to merely political toys is a slap in face of government’s integrity she is representing.

With this kind of shallow thinking, I seriously doubt her qualification to be a federal government minister!

(2)
Information Minister, Ahmad Shabery Chik, announced that his ministry would embrace bloggers and alternative media activists. I must applaud this move. He has learned fast enough. But, his main jobs is to also reform our mainstream media. The Pakatan MPs would push for reform in Information Act in the parliament to guarantee fair access to information for all citizens, both in mainstream and alternative media. Frankly, I hope Ahmad Shabery would not antagonize this move if he truly intends to have the people embracing ministry.

Ahmas Shabery was a staunch Islamist when he led Islamic students movement in the UM. He studied in Institut Berakan in Terengganu, a private educational institution owned by PAS, which had steadily suplied PAS cadres into local universities. He was one of those cadres.

When there was a Kijal by-election in the early 90’s, Angkatan Perpaduan Ummah, consisting of PAS and S46, agreed to field a candidate from PAS to stand on S46 platform. Ahmad Shabery was the candidate. Since then, he was affiliated with S46 and very closed to Ku Li. He joined UMNO when S46 was disbanded and its members returned to UMNO’s fold en bloc.

Deep in my heart, I am hopeful he could bring reform to our pathetic media.

(3)
Of all the MBs and CM in the Pakatan ruled states, I personally opine that Selangor MB, Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, is the least impressive thus far. He received more media coverage as compared to his counterparts within Pakatan, but he fumbled in many occasions. Perhaps, this clumsiness has actually landed him to more media coverage. His corporate experience surely is an asset for him, but banking too much on his corporate image to run a state administration could run him into trouble.

Surprisingly, Perak MB, who is politically much weaker due to seats composition in Perak DUN as compared to Abdul Khalid in Selangor, seems to be moving forward more steadily and convincingly.

Mohammad Nizar, is far from being any heavyweight in politics. But, he has the right attitude and clear mindset. He approaches issues diligently and selects his words very carefully. His humbleness, modesty, and yet sophistication steal people’s hearts. In Perak, people have started to liken him with Kelantan’s Tok Guru. It won’t surprise me if one day, Nizar could fit into a bigger shoe than what Tok Guru had ever placed.

Penang’s DAP knew days before March 8 that they would be voted into power. Had they known this much earlier, they could have avoided current problem in which many of their key state leaders are also parliamentarians. No one expects key state administrators to be as effective in the parliament as well. This would be huge potential waste because bigger reform could only be fought in parliament. Inability to perform in parliament would also pose political liabilities to these leaders.

I’m not doubtful that determination would provide Guan Eng ample opportunities to prove his worth to all Penangites. My only reservation is his tendency to be too idealistic in his pursuing political ideology. He should be listening more to younger and dynamics DAP leaders who are closer to the people at the grassroots. Karpal Singh is someone he could do without.

Kelantan must solve the issue of leadership succesion within this term and it must solve this issue with utmost care. Tok Guru would not stand there forever. He is surely not indispensible. PAS Kelantan does not seem to be able to resolve this issue on its own without active and proactive guidance from PAS national leadership. This is a bitter reality PAS supporters must swallow. PAS must also be courageous enough to admit mistake that allowing a person to take helm for too long would pose problems in the long term. If it were UMNO, the problem would be corruption. In the case of PAS, the problem is leadership succession.

I was told by one Kedah PAS youth leader, weeks before nomination day, that Kedah was most likely fall into BA and they had make preparation for that eventuality. They had expected to win 19 seats, based on reports they compiled from their election machineries. Quite close, PAS won 16 and PKR won 4. Together they formed new Kedah state government, with an additional seat from an independent ADUN who later joined PKR.

Thus, it was not surprising that Azizan Razak could meet Sultan a day after election and took just few days to appoint his lineups to swear in before the Sultan, among the earliest state governments formed after the 12th General Election.

Kedah is home for many political heavyweights, from both sides. Azizan has many loyal, highly capable and experienced men around him to help him steer the state administration. But he must also bear in mind, his political opponents in Kedah BN are equally masterful, able to bring unpleasant surprise to him.

Hegemoni BN di Malaysia

2007-12-15T07:05:00.000+08:00

Hegemoni di Malaysia.

Hegemoni (hegemony) berasal dari perkataan Greek yang diambil dari perkataan “hegemon” yang bermaksud “pemimpin” atau “penguasa” dalam bahasa Greek.

Definisi perkataan hegemony dalam bahasa Inggeris adalah bermaksud “dominasi dan penguasaan satu kelompok di dalam masyarakat atau negara ke atas kelompok-kelompok yang lain”.

Dalam konteks Malaysia, kewujudan hegemoni BN di negara kita adalah dalam bentuk yang total dan mutlak. BN bukan sahaja sebagai sebuah parti politik pemerintah, tetapi juga sebagai satu kelompok masyarakat yang mendominasi dan menguasai kehidupan rakyat dalam hampir semua aspek kehidupan. Suasana hegemoni yang dibentuk oleh BN dan seluruh institusi-institusi yang berada di bawah penguasaan komponen BN, samada secara langsung atau tidak langsung, telah menyebabkan hak dan kebebasan rakyat dalam sebuah negara demokratik semakin terancam. BN, sebagai sebuah parti politik pemerintah bukan sahaja berkuasa, tetapi mereka mahu agar kuasa mereka tidak langsung boleh dicabar dalam apa bentuk sekalipun.

Juga, terdapat tanda-tanda yang cukup jelas bahawa pemimpin politik BN sudah sampai ke tahap “ketagih” dengan suasana hegemoni yang mereka nikmati sehingga sebarang usaha untuk dianggap mencabar hegemoni ini akan berhadapan dengan tindakan yang keras dan drakonian sifatnya dari pemerintah. Contohnya, slogan “pembangkang sifar” yang dilancarkan di negeri-negeri yang dikuasai BN adalah petanda jelas bahawa ketagihan terhadap hegemoni ini semakin menjadi-jadi di kalangan pemimpin BN. Sekiranya suasana hegemoni ini tidak dirungkai sekarang, hak demokratik dan kebebasan rakyat akan semakin terancam dan terpinggir.

Hegemoni melalui penguasaan badan eksekutif ke atas badan kehakiman dan perundangan.

Walaupun pemisahan antara Badan Eksekutif dan Badan Kehakiman adalah perkara asas sistem tadbir kerajaan yang demokratik, hakikatnya Perdana Menteri yang memilih dan mencadangkan nama Ketua Hakim Negara untuk diluluskan oleh YDP Agong. Perlembagaan Malaysia pula, selepas pindaan perlembagaan yang menghadkan kuasa Raja-raja Melayu, memperuntukkan bahawa YDP Agong hanya boleh bertindak mengikut nasihat Perdana Menteri.

Secara mudahnya, Perdana Menteri selaku ketua Badan Eksekutif pentadbiran negara mempunyai kuasa yang besar menentukan perjalan Badan Kehakiman dengan melantik Ketua Hakim Negara tanpa ada suatu sistem saringan atau timbalbalas yang efektif. Dalam masa yang sama, Perdana Menteri jugalah yang menguasai lebih dua pertiga ahli-ahli parlimen yang merupakan Badan Perundangan (Legislatif) negara. Maka itu, seluruh perjalanan pentabiran kerajaan, iaitu Badan Eksekutif, Badan Legislatif, dan Badan Kehakiman diletakkan di bawah penguasaan Perdana Menteri secara mutlak. Tidak wujud suatu sistem pemisahan kuasa di antara ketiga-tiga badan pentadbiran negara ini.

Pengendalian bicara kes melibat Anwar Ibrahim pula memperkukuhkan rasa sangsi pihak awam terhadap kebebasan Badan Kehakiman serta campurtangan Badan Eksekutif di dalam sistem kehakiman negara. Manakala pendedahan klip video perbualan telefon Dato’ VK Lingam dengan seorang Bekas Ketua Hakim Negara berkenaan perlantikan para hakim pula seolah-olah menyimpulkan tanpa sebarang keraguan bahawa pencemaran ke atas Badan Kehakiman negara sudah berada di peringkat yang cukup parah.

Selain itu, di dalam pentadbiran Badan Eksekutif itu sendiri, Perdana Menteri juga meletakkan institusi penguatkuasaan undang-undang utama negara, iaitu Polis DiRaja Malaysia (PDRM) dan Badan Pencegah Rasuah (BPR), secara terus di bawah pengawasannya. Walaupun ada pandangan dan cadangan agar kedua-dua institusi penguatkuasaan ini diletakkan terus di bawah Parlimen (Badan Legislatif) bagi menjamin ketelusan dan keseimbangan terhadap pertanggungjawaban mereka kepada seluruh rakyat, ianya masih jauh dari realiti.

Presiden Pervez Musharraf mungkin tidak perlu menghisytiharkan pemerintahan darurat di Pakistan seandainya beliau mempunyai penguasaan mutlak sepertimana Perdana Menteri Malaysia. Kuasa yang sebegitu besar yang ada pada seorang Perdana Menteri Malaysia menyamai kuasa yang ada pada seorang diktator yang memerintah negara secara pemerintahan darurat.

Hegemoni melalui undang-undang drakonian.

Penguasaan mutlak BN di dalam Parlimen digunakan sepenuhnya untuk mengukuhkan hegemoni mereka dengan penggubalan undang-undang yang menyekat hak dan kebebasan rakyat. Beberapa peruntukan undang-undang di dalam Akta Penerbitan dan Mesin Cetak, Akta Keselamatan Dalam Negeri (ISA), Akta Rahsia Rasmi (OSA), Akta Polis dan Akta Universiti dan Kolej Universiti (AUKU) telah secara mudah dan cuai digunakan oleh BN untuk memastikan hegemoni mereka tidak tercabar. Seringkali alasan keselamatan negara dan ketenteraman awam dijadikan justifikasi bagi menggunakan peruntukan undang-undang di atas bagi mengekalkan hegemoni BN.

Institusi polis yang menjadi elemen penting dalam kerajaan bagi menguatkuasakan undang-undang dengan secara mudah boleh diperalatkan oleh parti pemerintah dengan menggunakan peruntukan-peruntukan akta di atas bagi mengekalkan hegemoni BN. Undang-undang di atas dikuatkuasakan secara terpilih mengikut selera pemimpin BN. Jika ada penentangan dari mana-mana pihak terhadap perlaksanaan peruntukan tersebut, maka pemerintah dengan mudah bersembunyi di sebalik alasan penguatkuasaan undang-undang sebagai justifikasi mereka. Mereka lantas mewarwarkan tentang “Rules of Law”, padahal hakikatnya, yang diamalkan ialah “Rules by Law”.

Sebagai contoh, hak berhimpun secara aman adalah dijamin oleh perlembagaan. Bagaimanapun Akta Polis sering digunakan secara terpilih untuk menafikan golongan yang menjadi seteru politik BN dari membuat gerakan mobilasi rakyat atau penentangan popular secara aman (peacefull uprising) yang merupakan kaedah gerakerja politik yang sah dalam sebuah negara demokrasi. Dalam keadaan suasana politik negara berada suasana sejuk, maka ceramah dan himpunan kecil akan dibenarkan, dan kerajaan menjadikan ini sebagai hujah bahawa mereka masih membenarkan parti-parti politik bergerak. Namun, apabila suasana politik berada dalam suasana panas dan pihak pemerintah bimbang sesuatu isu boleh menggugat hegemoni mereka, maka Akta Polis akan digunakan seenaknya bagi mengekang sebarang usaha mengerakkan bantahan dan penentangan awam secara aman.

Ibaratnya, dalam permainan bola, anda hanya dibenarkan menendang bola ketika mana bola berada di tengah padang. Apabila bola telah berjaya dibawa menghampir gawang gol lawan, maka anda tidak lagi dibenarkan menendang bole tersebut. Akibatnya, anda hanya kelihatan seperti bermain bola, tetapi anda tidakdibenarkan menjaringkan gol.

Penguatkuasaan undang-undang secara terpilih dan tidak konsisten adalah senjata penting BN bagi mengekalkan hegemoni mereka ke atas rakyat. Pelajar universiti akan diambil tindakan di bawah AUKU hanya sekiranya mereka didapati terbabit dengan aktiviti yang bertentangan dengan kepentingan parti pemerintah. Pegawai tinggi kerajaan akan diambil tindakan di bawah Arahan Am Kerajaan hanya sekiranya mereka terbabit dengan parti-parti politik pembangkang. Perhimpunan aman akan diambil tindakan oleh Polis hanya sekiranya ia tidak mendapat restu pemimpin parti pemerintah. Malah, para perwakilan UMNO telah membuat ucapan perkauman yang melampau dalam Perhimpunan Agung parti itu dalam tahun 2006 tanpa sebarang tindakan undang-undang diambil. Ucapan yang sama, sekiranya dilakukan oleh pemimpin pembangkang pastinya akan menempatkan beliau dalam senarai tahanan ISA.

Hakikatnya, sesiapapun boleh dan telahpun melanggar kesemua peruntukan undang-undang di atas tanpa sebarang tindakan undang-undang diambil ke atas mereka sekiranya pelanggaran tersebut menepati kehendak dan citarasa parti pemerintah.

Adakah keluhuran perlembagaan dan kedaulatan undang-undang adalah kurang penting berbanding penerusan hegemoni BN?

Hegemoni melalui penguasaan mutlak ke atas media.

Hegemoni media oleh BN adalah kesan langsung dari Akta Penerbitan dan Mesin Cetak. Kalau penguatkuasaan undang-undang drakonian secara terpilih merupakan “hardpower” bagi mengekalkan hegemoni, media merupakan pasangan komplimentarinya, iaitu “softpower”, bagi BN mendominasikan segala kehendak dan agenda mereka ke atas semua golongan rakyat.

Kesemua media arus media di negara kita dikawal samada secara langsung atau tidak langsung oleh parti pemerintah. Walaupun, Media Prima, sebagai contoh, adalah syarikat yang tersenarai di Bursa Saham awam, pegangan majoriti saham syarikat tersebut akan sentiasa dipastikan berada dalam kawalan mereka yang berkepentingan dengan parti pemerintah.

Tanpa sokongan media yang dikawal secara mutlak, BN tidak mungkin dapat mengekalkan hegemoni mereka begitu lama. Pemimpin BN selalu mendakwa bahawa mereka mewakili majoriti rakyat kerana mereka mendapat mandat pemerintahan melalui sistem pilihanraya dengan undi majoriti rakyat. Hakikatnya, pilihanraya yang diamalkan tanpa capaian media yang bebas dan adil kepada semua pihak yang terlibat, adalah suatu bentuk lakonan demokrasi yang tempang. Mana mungkin para pengundi dapat membuat keputusan yang adil dan bijak tanpa dibekalkan dengan maklumat yang cukup dan seimbang.

Alangkan para hakim yang arif lagi bijaksana perlu mendengar penghujahan dan fakta dari semua pihak yang terlibat di dalam sesuatu kes mahkamah sebelum dapat membuat keputusan yang adil dan berwibawa, inikan pula para pengundi yang mahu membuat penghakiman politik melalui undi mereka di dalam pilihanraya.

Peranan media seharusnya seimbang, ibarat wujudnya pihak pendakwaan dan pembelaan dalam sebuah mahkamah. Hakikatnya, pengundi adalah ibarat hakim yang perlu membuat keputusan berdasarkan maklumat yang lengkap dan seimbang semasa hari pengundian.

Dakwaan pemerintah bahawa para pengamal media di negara kita menggunakan kaedah “responsible self-scensorship” bagi memastikan keamanan dan kesejahteraan negara adalah amat tidak meyakinkan. Hakikatnya, banyak penerbitan yang dipaksa menghentikan operasinya atas tekanan pihak berkuasa tanpa sebarang alasan keselamatan dan keamanan yang kukuh. Permohonan untuk mendapat permit penerbitan juga disaring secara ketat dan kepentingan politik parti pemerintah akan sentiasa diberi keutamaan di dalam meluluskan sebarang permit penerbitan.

Walaupun parti-parti politik dibenarkan untuk mengeluarkan buletin parti masing-masing tetapi syarat yang dikenakan amat ketat dan tidak munasabah. Kekerapan pengeluaran sebanyak dua kali sebulan dan syarat kandungan yang hanya membenarkan liputan program dalaman parti sahaja amat tidak adil dan sukar dipatuhi. Penguatkuasaan ke atas syarat-syarat ini juga dibuat secara terpilih dan tidak konsisten. Biasanya pihak berkuasa akan bertindak lebih tegas ke atas pembangkang sekiranya terdapat isu-isu panas yang dianggap boleh menggugat parti pemerintah.

Kewujudan internet juga tidak mampu menyediakan maklumat yang cukup dan seimbang secara menyeluruh kerana capaian internet yang rendah di kalangan rakyat.

Dengan kekangan terhadap program ceramah, himpunan aman, dan bahan-bahan penerbitan, apakah kita yakin bahawa rakyat keluar semasa mengundi dengan berbekalkan maklumat yang cukup dan seimbang bagi membuat keputusan secara adil dan bijaksana?

Hegemoni melalui penguasaan rangkaian perniagaan strategik.

BN sebagai parti pemerintah bukan sahaja menguasai seluruh kuasa dalam sistem pemerintahan politik negara, tetapi juga menguasai sebahagian besar aktiviti ekonomi yang secara terus membabitkan kehidupan harian rakyat melalui perolehan rangkaian perniagaan yang menjadi “proksi” parti dan juga penguasaan ke atas syarikat-syarikat GLC.

Syarikat media, pengangkutan, telekomunikasi, tenaga, gas & petroleum, infrastruktur, dan bahan keperluan asas, hampir kesemuanya dikuasai oleh rangkaian syarikat perniagaan yang berhubung kait rapat dengan parti-parti pemerintah ataupun GLC yang juga dikuasai oleh pemimpin politik BN.

Semua parti-parti komponen BN mempunyai sayap perniagaan yang digabungjalin sesama mereka bersama syarikat GLC. Contohnya, UMNO, melalui Renong Berhad, menguasai rangkaian ratusan syarikat-syarikat yang strategik yang mendapat kontrak kerajaan serta GLC, dan mendapat keuntungan dengan sistem perniagaan monopoli. Begitu juga dengan MCA, MIC, Gerakan dan parti-parti komponen BN lain.

Dengan penguasaan ekonomi yang begitu besar, pemimpin BN dengan secara mudah boleh menekan para penentangnya samada dari dalam mahupun luar parti. Para penyokong akan digula-gulakan dengan ganjaran kewangan yang besar, manakala para penentang perlu bersedia dengan akibat kewangan yang besar juga. Tidak hairanlah kalau ramai tokoh-tokoh yang pada mulanya berani menyuarakan penentangan terhadap pucuk pimpinan BN akhirnya terpaksa menjilat ludah mereka semula akibat tekanan kesengsaraan ekonomi yang dikenakan ke atas mereka.

Hegemoni melalui manipulasi isu perkauman

Isu perkauman dan agama adalah amat sensitif dan amat berkesan mempengaruhi hati dan pemikiran rakyat. Parti pemerintah sentiasa berjaya memanipulasikan isu ini untuk memastikan penerusan hegemoni ke atas rakyat menerusi sistem “pecah dan perintah”. Kepada kaum Melayu, UMNO sering menakutkan mereka bahawa sekiranya UMNO kalah atau lemah, maka kuasa politik negara akan diambil oleh bangsa lain. Perasan takut sekiranya orang Melayu kehilangan kuasa politik menjadi menjadi modal dan umpan bagi UMNO meraih sokongan kaum Melayu.

Bagi kaum Cina dan India pula, momokan bahawa kejatuhan BN akan membawa kepada keruntuhan kontrak sosial antara kaum yang sedia ada serta andaian akan meningkatnya polarisasi kaum dan agama menakutkan pengundi untuk menukar kerajaan walaupun mereka mungkin amat tidak berpuas hati dengan prestasi pemerintah yang sedia ada.

Dalam kata lain, rakyat mengundi atas dasar takut terhadap kemungkinan yang lebih buruk, dan bukannya atas dasar harapan membina kehidupan yang lebih baik.

Sindrom “vote out of fear, and not for hope” akan memastikan pengekalan status quo dan hegemoni BN yang berpanjangan.

Tiada remedi mudah menghadapi hegemoni BN.

Satu-satunya harapan keluar dari kemelut ini adalah melalui kesedaran rakyat serta kebangkitan popular. Benar, dengan kekangan media yang sedia ada, kemungkinan berlakunya kesedaran yang meluas yang bakal mendorong kebangkitan popular agak sukar dijana. Tetapi itulah satunya-satu jalan keluar yang ada, dan jalan sukar ini mesti dirintih dengan penuh sabar dan hikmah.

Rakyat mesti terus didampingi dan disantuni. Setiap kata-kata dan tindakan kita mestilah mengambil kira hati dan perasaan rakyat. Jangan memusuhi rakyat, biar sebesar mana kebencian sebahagian mereka terhadap kita. Jangan kita hukum mereka dengan kata-kata yang kasar. Pelbagai pendekatan dan kaedah perlu dilaksanakan. Belanjanya besar, dan masanya juga tidak singkat.

Kita juga mesti mampu menyediakan jalan keluar terhadap kemelut yang ada. Mereka mesti diyakinkan dengan komitmen dan keupayaan kita. Tiada jalan pintas dan tiada formula ajaib.

Horward, Annapolis, & Turkish Commonwealth

2007-11-30T18:55:00.000+08:00

Three world news or events caught my attentions this week.

Firstly, John Howard lost election in Australia last Saturday. John Howard’ coalition lost to Kevin Rudd’s Labor Party, after ruling Australia and steering impressive economic growth for over 12 years period. John Howard, claimed to be a social conservative and economic liberal, has been the second longest serving PM in Australia’s history.It was, indeed, a crushing defeat for John Horward, a key US ally and strong supporter of Bush’s War in Iraq and Afghanistan, as not only his coalition lost the government, he himself was thrown out of parliament when he lost his seat in the Sydney suburb constituency. Kevin Rudd, whose main pledge during the campaign is to focus on global warming, also promised to end Australia’s 550-strong-troop service in Iraq, to retify Kyoto Protocol, and to stop supplying uranium to India because the later is not a signatory for the NPT.

The Australian voters had clearly gone beyond the presence and looked for future when they went to plling booths last Saturday. How could Australian voters prefer global warming issues as opposed to economic growth is not something we, Asians, could easily comprehend. It would take another millineum of Asian voters to reach that level of political conviction, I supposed.

Then, Annapolis Summit kicked on 27 Nov 2007. Last Friday, the Arab League had held their own mini Summit, deemed as Arab pre-council meeting to reach concensus among Arab states whether or not to attend the summit. The good news was, the reached concensus - a rather rare happening among Arab states. The bad one was, they decided to send ministers to Annapolis. Saudi and Syria were reluctant to attend, citing “lack of substance” as the reason, but the consensus reached by Arab League last Friday has somehow obliged them to participate. It was reported that the Arab League decided to attend for fear that Mahmud Abbas, without strong Arabs backing, would be pressured to concede too much at the expense of Palestinians and the Arabs world.

Already the negotiators on both sides, Palestinians and Israelis, had failed to draft common statements for the summit. This summit, Israel says, would not discuss the final status of the two-state-solution. If the final status would not be discussed, it simply means that Palestinians would come home empty handed. How could they concede something that they don’t even have at their hands. Mahmud Abbas is only in control of half a Palestine. The other half firmly belongs to Hamas. Even the “half of Palestine” that Mahmud Abbas is in control would be easily wrested by Hamas the moment Israeli troops withdraw from the West Bank. Logically, would Mahmud Abbas want Israelis to withdraw from West Bank?

On the Israeli side, Ehud Olmert’s coalition government is hanging on a single thread. The conservative parties within the coalition have categorically signalled they would break the coalition government should Olmert concede what they termed as “red lines”, among them are the right of returns, undivided Jerusalem as their state capital, and preserving Jewish settlements in West Bank. These “red lines” are, in fact, pillars of this conflict, in which the only way to get out of this conflict is to paint different color on these so called “red lines”.

Thus, the two leaders are really weak politically that they are in the position only to demand and not to concede anything. Both leaders don’t have anything on their hands to offer each others. Both come empty handed, and would surely return empty handed as well.

I personally believe that this summit has really none to be discussed and the Arab League should only send delegations representing Arab League, and not each member states, to the summit. The fact that Israeli delegations would sit in the same rooms with leaders of all Arabs nations, including Saudi Arabia, signify normalized relations Israel desperately seek with Arab neighbors all these while.

The Annapolis Summit is hastily arranged. The 50 invitees received only one week notice. This simply means to me that peace is not being sought seriously enough. Good luck Annapolis!

Finally, Turkish Commonwealth is in the making bringing six Turkic-speaking nation, consisting of Turkey, Azerbaijan, and large part of central Asian countries, to close cooperation. This part of the world is populated closed to 150 million people with USD500 trillion worth of natural resources such as oil, gas and uranium.

With Turkey’s entry to EU is imminent and the fact that Turkey is taking leadership to bring its “brother nations” to a new height in international arena, this country would have a lot to offer to the world. Already Turkey, after successfully embarked economic reforms since 2002, becomes the sixth and twelveth largest economy in Europe and the world, respectively.

The era of national politics is fast approaching its end. Good leader needs to start embracing regional politics, and this is exactly Erdogan now aggresively pursuing in bringing not only Turkey, but the whole region to its new height. If only Erdogan could be cloned and become one of Arab leaders, the long list of existing problems in the region would have been resolved.

Erdogan never graduated from any prestigious western school, as many Turkish elites do. In fact, he graduated from the more inferior and less respected type of education in Turkey. It is called Imam-Khatib religious school. His wife wears Islamic headscarve, as many other conservative Turkish women do. He is known as a pious and practising muslim in a predominantly secular Turkish society.

Yet, he is the man who pulled Turkey away from the brink of bankruptcy in 2002. He is the man who put up a brace face in front of the powerfull Turkey’s military high achelons and convinced them that the nation belongs to all Turkish, and not only to a group of pathetic secular elites.

The lesson from Turkey is simple. The more people are empowered, the more prosper the nation would become. The more people are surpressed, the loss to the nation is eventual.

In Malaysian context, empowerment must start with our media. Full subordination of our media to the ruling party would only bring more loss to our beloved nation in the long run.

In 15 years time, we would have exhausted our petroleum. Without better transparency and good governance watchdog, our nation is imminently heading towards economics chaos. Our media must deliver this responsibility by being more independent, investigative and fair in their coverage.

Parti AK Turki menang besar.

2007-07-26T17:24:00.000+08:00

Parti AK Turki menang besar meraih 46.7% undi dalam pilihanraya parlimen Turki pada 22 Julai lepas. Inilah kali pertama dalam tempoh lebih setengah abad, parti pemerintah dapat menambah undi yang didapatinya berbanding pilihanraya sebelumnya.

Saya tertarik kenyataan Recep Tayyib Erdogan di Istanbul selepas kemenangan partinya.

"Saya lebih mengenali Turki setelah melawat penduduk Turki dari satu bandar ke satu bandar di seluruh negara. Tidak ada sesiapa yang boleh mengaku mengetahui negara Turki dan orang Turki dengan hanya berada di Ankara sahaja" kata Erdogan.

Part AK juga adalah satu-satu parti yang menerima sokongan besar dari semua kalangan rakyat Turki samada dari sudut kedudukan sosial, geografi, mahupun etnik.

Rahsia parti AK ialah mudah. Mereka bertemu rakyat, mendengar keluhan rakyat, serta menyediakan penyelesaian kepada masalah rakyat tanpa mengira siapa mereka. Parti AK adalah parti yang benar-benar percaya bahawa kuasa sebenar datangnya dari rakyat. Maka,parti yang berjaya pastinya parti yang paling dekat dengan hati rakyat.

Abbas who ruins Palestine

2007-07-21T22:38:00.000+08:00

I almost cried with joy when Hamas-Fatah accord was finally signed in Mecca. I still remember watching jubilant Palestinians on the streets shown on TV after the announcement of the Mecca Accord.

“Palestinians have never been this happy…”, remarked a journalist reporting from Gaza streets.

The accord gave birth to the Unity Government, which was the best achievement ever produced by the long occupied Palestinians.

Imagine this, a Palestinian Unity Government formed after an agreement signed in the holiest Islamic city collapsed after three months of its inception. Could there be any other accords among Palestinians more honored in the future? Logically no. Practically it has to be one, though.

Did Hamas stage a coup in Gaza against legitimacy last two weeks?

“How could we stage a coup against our ownselves?,” Ismail Haniyyah asked back in his landmark speech last weekend. Ismail Haniyyah is still functioning as the PM for “caretaker government” in Gaza despite Abbas’s decree to sack his government.

Abbas has since form an emergency government in West Bank, where Fatah still largely in control. Palestine Basic Law (Constitution) gives power to the President to sack government, but he could not form a government without consent from the Palestine Legislative Council (PLC) in which Hamas won control in the last election.

Thus, to win credibility for his newly formed emergency government, Abbas has also decreed to suspend the Palestine Basic Law. In other words, Abbas’s decree created two “governments” for Palestine, an emergency government in West Bank and a caretaker government in Gaza. Since, the Palestine Authorities is now run by the President’s decrees, and not by the Basic Law, the Palestinians end up having two governments, both with disputed legitimacy.

Now, where do both “governments” go from here? Without a national dialogue, both could only go to the unknown. While Hamas insists on having dialogue to resolve the issue, Fatah announced it had severed all contacts with Hamas. Abbas even banned Fatah officials from having any contact with Hamas.

“We don’t talk to murderers,” said Abbas. Ironically he talks to Israelis who imprisoned and murdered tens of thousands of Palestinians.

When Hosni Mubarak called for inter-Palestine dialogue during recent summit in Egypt, both Ehud Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas were caught off-guard. The summit was supposed to drum up international support for Abbas and to further isolate Hamas. What has changed Hosni Mubarak, the very host of the summit?

Officials closed to the event pointing out at Ehud Olmert refusal to put Mid-East Peace Talk, stalled since the year 2000, back to its track. The best Ehud Olmert could offer to Abbas was to releasing the frozen tax money amounting to USD600 million, withheld by Israeli regime since Hamas won election in 2005, and freeing 260 Fatah prisoners out of 11,000 overall Palestinian prisoners, including 600 women and children, currently in Israel prisons. Olmert refusal to revive Peace Talk angered Arab leaders, which prompted Hosni Mubarak to make such remark.

Olmert’s refusal gave credit to Ismail Haniyyah, who said in a speech made two days earlier that Abbas was wrong in working with Israel, at the expense of inter Palestine dialogue.

“The Israelis will not give you anything! You will get nothing from the Israelis!,” Haniyyah scorned at Abbas in his speech before the summit. In the summit, Olmert, unfortunately, proved that Haniyyah was correct. Even Haniyyah could have hoped that he was wrong.

Fatah has lost Gaza. Today, Gazans enjoy internal security against crimes and gangs. Internal fightings had become past things in Gaza. Hamas proved it by freeing Alan Johnston, a BBC journalist abducted by a known criminal gang in Gaza.

But, thousands other Gazans are deprived from enjoying this rare tranquility in Gaza as they are stranded in Egypt when Rafah Crossing, the only gateaway for Gazans to the outside world, was closed since Hamas took control of Gaza. The crossing was previously operated by joined Egypt and PA security office under EU observations. But, the crossing is strictly under Israel control. It could operate without Israel permission or without EU observers presence.

While waiting the rafah crossing opened, some had died under such harsh condition at the border.

Abbas whose popularity comes to its lowest after the unpopular decree relies heavily on Israel and American support for its political survival. Instead of working to open the Rafah crossing, Abbas told the stranded Gazans to reroute their entrance through Karm Abu Salim, a crossing fully under Israeli Force control. There, Gazans who cross at Karm Abu Salim would be subjected to harsh interrogation by the Israeli forces and possibly abducted under arbitrary suspicions. One could be abducted and sent to jail simply because his or her relatives are known to be affiliating with any armed resistance factions.

Forcing Gazans to enter through Karm Abu Salim, Haniyyah charged, would harm Palestinians and strengten the symbol of Israeli occupation. Hamas rejected the arrangement.

One event after another brought Palestinians deeper into crisis. Abbas, after the end of emergency government period, was granted support from PLO Central Committe to call for early election. This time, not only would Hamas be barred from running in the election, the election laws would also be amended to suit Fatah’s need.

I could write a book on Palestine. But, one things is quite clear. Without internal national dialogue among Palestinians, all political works from any faction could be of no use at all. Elections, peace talks, reforms, cabinets, all would go nowhere without national consensus. By refusing dialogue, Abbas is going all the way to the wrong direction.

Penduduk kampung Hulu Semenyih tersiksa bau busuk.

2007-05-14T10:00:00.000+08:00

Para penduduk Kampung Pasir di Hulu Semenyih yang terpaksa menghadapi masalah mencemaran bau busuk yang keterlaluan akibat dari operasi kilang RDF (Refuse Derived Fuel) yang didirikan di kampung tersebut sejak setahun lalu telah mengadakan tunjuk perasaan di hadapan kilang tersebut bagi menyatakan rasa tidak puas hati mereka dengan sikap pengurusan kilang dan pihak berkuasa yang tidak mengambil apa-apa tindakan bagi mengatasi masalah yang dihadapi penduduk.

Tinjauan penulis ke tempat tersebut pada waktu petang mendapati pencemaran bau busuk yang teruk di sekitar kilang tersebut yang beroperasi hampir dengan penempatan penduduk kampung. Menurut penduduk kampung tersebut, bau yang amat busuk biasanya dihadapi penduduk kampung pada waktu malam di mana mereka melihat kepulan asap tebal biasanya akan dilepaskan pada waktu tersebut. Pencemaran bau busuk ini amat mengganggu kehidupan ratusan penduduk kampung sehingga menghilangkan selera makan serta keselesaan beristirehat di rumah bersama keluarga.

Ketua Dewan Pemuda PAS Hulu Langat, Saudara Saney Hamzan yang berucap dalam tunjuk perasaan tersebut melahirkan rasa kesal di atas sikap pihak berkuasa dan wakil rakyat yang langsung tidak prihatin dengan penderitaan penduduk kampung terbabit. Beliau berjanji akan terus memperjuangkan hak rakyat di situ dan menyeru seluruh penduduk kampung bersatu-padu menyatakan bantahan mereka supaya suara mereka akan lebih diberi perhatian.

Saudara Zulkifli Mohamed Omar, Pengerusi Jawatankuasa Anti-Insinerator, yang turut hadir juga menawarkan diri untuk berkongsi pengalaman dengan penduduk kampung tersebut bagi mengulangi kejayaan jawatankuasa tersebut menggerakkan usaha membantah pembinaan insinerator Broga. Beliau menyarankan penduduk kampung menyeret pihak terbabit kemuka pengadilan memandang beliau yakin banyak peruntukan undang-undang telah dilanggar dan unsur-unsur salahguna kuasa berlaku di dalam memberikan kelulusan operasi kilang RDF terbabit.

Kilang RDF di Hulu Semenyih ini merupakan projek yang diluluskan oleh mesyuarat Majlis Mesyuarat Kerajaan Negeri Selangor dan mula beroperasi sekitar bulan Jun 2006. Kemudahan kilang tersebut yang menelan belanja RM130 juta berkeupayaan memproses 1000 tan sampah pepejal. Bagaimanapun setakat ini kilang tersebut yang belum beroperasi dengan kapasiti penuh hanya memproses 300 tan dari keseluruhan 700 tan sehari yang dikutip oleh Majlis Perbandaran Kajang (MPKj) untuk menghasilkan tenaga elektrik sebanyak 8.9 megawatt. Sebanyak 5.5 megawatt daripada jumlah tersebut dijual kepada pihak Tenaga Nasional. Kilang RDF ini diurus oleh syarikat Recycle Energy Sdn Bhd yang merupakan sebuah syarikat persendirian yang mendapat kontrak melupus dan memproses sampah pepejal dari Majlis Perbandaran Kajang (MPKj).

Apa yang menjadi persoalan penduduk ialah samada kilang tersebut telah mendapatkan kelulusan Jabatan Alam Sekitar (JAS) untuk menjalankan operasinya. Adalah mustahil untuk kelulusan JAS diberikan memandangkan pencemaran baunya begitu teruk sekali dan amat menjejaskan kualiti kehidupan penduduk setempat. Tanpa kelulusan JAS, bagaimana pula sijil layak menduduki (CF) boleh diperolehi dari Majlis Perbandaran Kajang. Persoalan-persoalan ini terus menghantui penduduk tanpa kesudahan kerana pihak berwajib dan wakil rakyat langsung tidak memperdulikan rintihan penduduk kampung terbabit.

Kajian yang dibuat penulis menunjukkan bahawa kilang RDF yang dibina dan beroperasi di negara-negara maju mestilah mempunyai sistem kawalan pencemaran bau dan habuk (Odor and Particulate Control System) yang merupakan suatu kemestian dibawah undang-undang sebelum permit operasi RDF diluluskan. Operasi kilang RDF yang melibatkan pembakaran (combustion) bagi menghasilkan tenaga elektrik boleh menyebabkan pencemaran udara dan bau busuk yang lebih teruk berbanding proses gasifikasi (gassification) insenator yang biasanya lebih dikaitkan dengan pencemaran sumber air bawah tanah di samping pelepasan gas toksid merbahaya seperti dioxin.

The abused siren

2007-03-19T21:32:00.000+08:00

I joined the "anti toll" protest yesterday. What really pissed me off this time is the fact that the police was trying to prevent people from listening to the speech by the leaders of the protestors. The police was using their siren alarm and blasted full volume to prevent people from listening to the voices of the speakers. This was weird and deplorable because, it was clear that the police was taking side in this issue.

It is not in the interest of public order for police to prevent people from listening to dissenting voices. It is even beyond their duty to do so. If our police force is truely professionals, then they should focus their limited resources in maintaining public order, instead of getting too much involved and taking side in the tussle of divided public opinion.

But the Malaysian police force has been assumed to be the guardian of the ruling party, more than being the guarding of the public order. If this doesn't change, it won't take too long before the public would consider our police force as "untrustworhty" element in our society. Without public trust, police would be reduced to mere thugs....and in civil society, that spells disaster!

Again, I've no grudge against our policemen. In fact, I acknowledge their sacrifices all these while. But then, what has gone wrong should be pointed out and corrected. After all, not only that it is our rights, but alsoour duties.

Palestine Unity Government

2007-03-16T15:06:00.000+08:00

When the unity deal was signed in Mecca between Hamas and Fatah, I was happy. But, I was still doubtful. No, I didn't doubt the sincerity of Khaleed, Mahmood, or Ismail. I was in particular very doubtful with Fatah's ability to streamline their ranks to come up with an agreed platform for the new unity government.

Unlike Hamas which is very well organized and discipline, Fatah is merely like an affiliation made-up of various clans which place the interest of their own clans above national interest.

Fatah's various units of arm forces are clan-affiliated, decentralized, and tough to control.With security issues become the sticking point in the unity deal, the ability to streamline this arm forces is crucial.

Today the cabinet of the Unity Government is finally formed and announced. I am more than happy. The fact that Israel refuses to recognize this government is not significant. If all Palestinians could unite and work together, they would achieve their goal, regardless of the obstacles facing them.

Palestinians' courage and endurance in resisting brutal occupation win our sympathy and admiration.

Go...Go..Palestine. World without zionism is surely a better world.

Nothing is free...and fairness too

2007-02-16T11:46:00.000+08:00

A friend working in Dubai sent me an email telling me that even in an oil rich country like UAE, motorists would still have to pay tolls.

“Nothing is free!”, he wrote.

Very true...nothing is free, indeed!

No one, in fact, is expecting to get things for free. But, everyone is expecting fairness. And fairness is nothing else but a must. When I protested the toll rate hike in Malaysia recently, it was not that I believed that toll shouldn't be charged at all.

My main contention is due to the fact that the deal for highway concession is far from fairness. The agreement signed by our government and the highways operating companies are clearly lopesided. That is the very reason the agreements were all put under Official Secret Act (OSA). It has nothing to do with national security, but it is more on concealing these cockeyed agreements from public scruntiny.

The tolls were increased not because the highway companies were making less profit. In fact the companies are making hell lots of profits. But then, why toll hikes? Simply put it, it was in the agreement that ensures the companies would not only make profit, but it is their right to make big profit, and only big profit. Should they loose money, government would bail them out. Just like many other politically-linked companies, such as MAS, Putra, Perwaja, Bank Bumiputra, and the list goes on...and on.

When I protested the toll hikes, it is not because I could not afford to pay. It is also not because I believe it should be free of charge. I protested because I felt being cheated. I protested because I felt being betrayed by those in power.

Very true indeed that other countries have tolls as well. Very true also that other countries may charge higher toll rates as compared to ours. But then, those other countries don't put concession agreements under OSA. Those other countries are charging based on transparent and fair deals. And we don't. That makes the whole difference...!!!

Has fairness been sold too???

Kabinet pasang siap..mudah pasang & cabut semula

2007-02-15T11:46:00.000+08:00

Aneh! Itulah reaksi yang dapat saya nyatakan terhadap beberapa isu yang melibatkan badan eksekutif tertinggi di negara kita.

Sebagai seorang bapa kepada lima anak yang sedang bersekolah, pengumuman memanda Menteri Pendidikan dua tahun lepas bahawa kerajaan akan menyediakan pinjaman buku teks kepada semua murid sekolah bermula sessi persekolahan tahun 2008 amat melegakan saya. Ia melibatkan penjimatan wang yang agak besar ketika musim sessi sekolah bermula. Awal tahun ini sahaja, sejumlah wang yang saya mampu kumpul dan asingkankan khusus untuk biaya awal persekolahan tidak cukup. Terpaksa pula saya meminjam wang simpanan isteri saya. Entah bila pula nak bayar semula, saya sendiri kurang pasti. Untung juga tidak pinjam dengan “Ah Long”, kalau tidak bunganya (riba’) saja boleh mencapai puluhan ribu ringgit. Walhal, saya pasti ramai juga di luar sana yang terpaksa mengadu nasib pada “Ah Long” kerana tiada alternatif lain.

Tetapi, bila minggu lepas memanda Perdana Menteri pula mengumumkan bahawa kerajaan menarik balik hasratnya untuk memberikan pinjaman buku teks kepada seluruh warga pelajar, saya kecewa dan mengandaikan sesuatu yang amat tidak kena berlaku kepada sistem dan pengendalian kabinet Malaysia. Dinyatakan oleh memanda PM bahawa dengan sesungguhnya negara kita tidak mempunyai peruntukan untuk menyediakan buku teks kepada seluruh warga pelajar yang meilbatkan ongkos ratusan juta ringgit. Mungkinkah memanda PM lupa, kira-kira beberapa purnama lalu beliau mengumumkan peruntukan khas RMK-9 sebanyak RM600 juta untuk diagihkan melalui ketua-ketua bahagian “Parti Cap Keris” seluruh negara. Wang sebanyak itu pastinya lebih dari cukup kalau sekadar untuk membeli buku teks anak-anak sekolah.

Ada pihak menyebut bahawa memanda Menteri Pendidikan tidak merujuk kepada kabinet ketika mengumumkan keputusannya untuk memberikan pinjaman buku teks dua tahun lalu. Kalau itu yang sebenarnya terjadi, kenapa perlu mengambil masa dua tahun untuk membuat pembetulan? Apakah mungkin kabinet Malaysia selembab itu?

Apakah juga mungkin seorang menteri kabinet boleh mengumumkan sesuatu program yang melibatkan ratusan juta ringgit duit negara tanpa merujuk kepada persidangan kabinet? Apakah mungkin menteri kita sampai begitu tahap tidak cerdiknya? Bagaimana pula dengan tahap kecerdikan memanda menteri lainnya? Apakah tidak mungkin mereka semua itu sebenarnya dua kali lima?

Dua hari lepas, kabinet membuat keputusan pula untuk membatalkan tawaran hadiah cabutan bertuah kereta nasional kepada warga Malaysia yang menukar kad pengenalan mereka kepada Mykad sebelum tarikh akhir yang ditetapkan. Sekonyong-konyongnya, tindakan itu karut! Begitulah kata memanda menteri yang menjaga urusan dalam negeri.

Hakikatnya, tiada siapa yang meminta diadakan hadiah dan tiada siapa memohon diadakan cabutan bertuah. Angin tidak, ribut pun tidak, tiba-tiba sahaja memanda menteri terdahulu menawarkan hadiah. Mungkin kerana teramat gembiranya beliau mendapat isteri baru yang digelar “wanita Melayu tercantik” waktu itu. Tetapi janji adalah janji….oh yaa, mungkin…kecuali janji menteri! Saya teringat seorang bekas ilmuan negara sekonyong-konyong berpantun, “siakap senohong gelama ikan duri, bercakap bohong lama-lama jadi menteri”.

Angin tidak, ribut pun tidak, tiba-tiba sahaja memanda menteri baru membatalkan tawaran hadiah yang dijanjikan oleh menteri lama. Kalau arwah P. Ramlee masih hidup, mungkin beliau boleh buat filem lawak yang hebat dengan cerita ini. Kalau dulu ada filam “Musang Berjanggut”, musang jenis apa pula agaknya yang layak diberi nama untuk menggambarkan situasi kabinet negara kita sekarang.

Begitu juga halnya dengan keputusan kabinet untuk menawarkan hadiah kepada warga yang mendapat bukti bergambar pemandu yang melanggar peraturan jalanraya. Keputusan tersebut dibatalkan semula selepas 3 hari diumumkan. Apa dah jadi dengan kabinet Malaysia dan seluruh memanda yang berada di dalamnya? Anda berada dalam badan tertinggi membuat keputusan berkenaan dengan polisi negara yang melibatkan kehidupan dua puluh juta manusia.

Takkan pak menteri kita bermesyuarat dan buat keputusan macam para JKKK bermesyuarat dan buat keputusan. Mestilah dibincang secara tuntas, baik buruk ditimbang sebaik mungkin, dan segala pandangan diambil kira, barulah boleh buat keputusan. Tapi, kalau itu semua telah dilakukan, bagaimana mungkin sesuatu keputusan yang dibuat di dalam mesyuarat kabinet boleh dibatalkan selepas 3 hari sahaja. Apakah mereka menggunakan kaedah melontar duit syiling di dalam membuat keputusan sepertimana para pelajar sekolah yang kurang cerdik meneka jawapan dalam soalan objektif? Tentunya itu tidak logik dilakukan oleh para memanda yang gajinya berbelas ribu tak termasuk pelbagai elaun dan kemudahan lainnya.

Save Al-Aqsa

2007-02-11T07:55:00.000+08:00

I condemn categorically excavation works by the Israeli on the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Jerusalem should, at the present time, be administered by the UN until the Palestine -Israel conflict reachs permanent solution.

Currently, Israel allows only muslims aged 50 years and above to pray inside the Aqsa Mosque and this is despicable.

Al-Aqsa is acknowledged by the UN as a World Heritage, which is protected. The Zionists extremist are on their way to demolish Al-Aqsa. The only thing that worries them is the demolition may spark next intifadhah, not only by Palestinians, but muslims worldwide.

But looking at current muslims attitude, that would be very unlikely. Al-Aqsa would be demolished and that is eventual unless Palestine is freed from this brutal Israeli occupation.

Allah Save Al-Aqsa. Amiin..!!!

That's BN in Batu Talam

2007-01-31T16:52:00.000+08:00

Imagine Manchester United plays against a Beranang’s soccer team. That’s a joke!

But then, imagine the MU deploys all its star players against the unknown soccer team. That’s idiot…to say the least!

Imagine also that the MU team even celebrate their win in a big way, perhaps almost in the same way the Beranang team could have celebrated had they won the match.

So, that’s BN in Batu Talam!

Malaysian election has become jokes fot idiots. In Batu Talam by election recently, BN deployed all its might including government machineries against the three-member team of independent candidate. The BN top brasses were all there, camping and campaigning for its candidate as though the fight is worth anything at their disposal.

As usual, the abuses and the corrupt practices were also all there in Batu Talam. My friend’s relative, a headmistress in a public school, informed that the local Education Department Office in Raub had given instruction to all teachers and school staffs to attend all functions in which ministers were scheduled to deliver their speeches through out the campaign period. In BN’s view, the fact that the school session had just started for the new year, and there are many job related outstandings these teachers and school staffs had to complete, was of no greater importance than ensuring that the 22-year old independent candidate would not only be defeated but also loose his deposit in Batu Talam. As winning the election is for them for sure, humiliating is what actually makes them proud. And that’s BN in Batu Talam!

The word “disgrace” may not sufficiently depict the above conduct by our ruling politicians. Yet, it is actually still a whit in describing political abuses and corruption by our ruling party in all elections that we have gone through in the last few decades. Public buildings, trucks and other vehicles, publics servants, chairs and tables, canopies, and money… hell lots of money, which belong to both the State and Federal Government, are all at BN disposal to be utilized in the election. When we also count in the media and the various law apparatus, which are, too at BN disposal, in the equation, then our election has become a complete fool. As foolish as what foolish could be.

One still wonders, though, would there be a need at all for BN to pay additional money up to RM 200 for voters to cast their votes in Batu Talam by-election. Certainly not if we wouldn’t think the election was no more than bad jokes at all. Idiocy is what describes our election. And thus, idiocy is what describes BN’s win in Batu Talam.

Election should be a damn serious matter. It defines who we are and what have we become. But then, see what we have become!

Have we not become fool enough for not demanding a truly clean, free and fair election? Have we not become fool enough for not asking electoral reform? Have we not become fool enough for not taking EC to task for not doing enough for what they have been paid for? Have we not become fool enough for tolerating such abuses and corrupt practices? Have we not become fool enough for ignoring the biased and unethical media practices? Have we not become fool enough for not telling the naked emperor that he is wearing nothing on himself? Have we not become fool enough that we have allowed ourselves to become foolish all these while?

Should Manchester United play, win and celebrate against Beranang soccer team, I bet, even that wouldn’t make its way to the headline. But, BN’s win in Batu Talam was on the frontpage the next morning. That’s Malaysian media!

Thomas Jefferson once said, “a person who reads nothing at all is better educated that a person who reads nothing but newspapers”. How true he was…especially in Malaysia Darul Boleh!

Salam Siber

2005-11-12T22:56:00.000+08:00

Assalamualaikum,

Firman Allah SWT bermaksud, "Wahai orang-orang yang beriman, berkatalah kamu dengan perkataan yang benar."

Blog ini adalah untuk saya mencurahkan hasil pemikiran, pandangan, bacaan, pemerhatian, penelitian, dan harapan saya. Apa-apa yang tertera di laman ini adalah pandangan peribadi yang tidak ada kena-mengena dengan mana-mana organisasi samada secara langsung mahupun tidak langsung.

Semoga blog ini sedikit sebayak dapat menyumbang ke arah kebaikan bersama.