Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Manikavasagam the people's man. Malaysiakini

Why does a Selangor PKR deputy liaison chief needs to resign to gets things resolved?
Is Keadilan just another UMNO or is it selected few individuals Interest? Does Klang town need to transfer their bus station? Can't it be upgraded?

I spoke to my friends from klang. They agree that bus station does need it's upgrade but not move it totally 7-8km away. Imagine all the businessman's around there and it's convenience being in the heart of town. Already Malaysia has one of the worst integrated transportation system compared to it's other economic peers in Asia. It's sometimes just so hopeless to explain to foreigners how to get to a place that you just advice them to take the cab. But wait we have cab driver who haggle prices, chooses their passenger and destination and worst they are sometimes rude. Lets not go into the conditions of the taxi's. Crime rate is shocking.

Manickavasagam thank you for doing this. You prove that if check and balance in Pakatan Rakyat works or not. If PKR wants to be like UMNO then it will only drown as fast as it surfaced. I support Pakatan Rakyat totally but i want it to be a party that serves the people by the people and not by corruption and racial motivation. If it takes 1year or 10 years to be a Federal Government let it be. Build it with quality and not by quantity.

Manickavasagam is a responsible man. He is brave to make a change. Many in his position would have remained quiet to retain their position and popularity. But he choose do what is right. Why have a position that does not have a purpose? Would you want to be used just as a puppet for others to get political mileage? Like MIC? PKR is one party but it's backbone is their racial integration. If what we see is the fake side of PKR than we should not support them further. Hindraf that gave Pakatan Rakyat it's voice is now illegal and hiding. Shouldn't this people brought back into the mainstream to help produce results. What is Pakatan Rakyat doing? It's going to be 1 year since the came to power. 3 to 4 years from now is the next General Election. That's not very far away. We should shake the earth under Barisan Nasional and Build a stronger Foundation for Pakatan Rakyat. PR needs to field quality candidate for all constituency by the next General Election. So start moulding your man and women to bear the responsibility and vision.

Sometimes you read the junk statements from our federal government it's like hanging yourself in shame. There is no quality there. It's so frustrating you feel like punching some of them but patience is virtue. Except for Internet users. We need a sincere and dedicated government till then we shall be patient. I'm against Hudud law, that's for PAS. The government should never use religion to govern it's people of different believes. It will only cause havoc. MCA are just opportunist playing issues to garner back support. Shameless. Samy vellu please step down. I'm glad Devamany is the new Treasurer but MIC is a lost cause. sadly.

This is my 2009 New Years wish. A brighter Malaysia. A lot of mix opinions on Malaysia economy for 2009-2010. Maybe it's a blessing in disguise. Whatever it may produce, let's hope for the best. God Bless you Malaysia. Happy New Year!!

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Scandal exposes Islam's weakness. malaysiakini

By Spengler

"Did you hear about the German Gnostic?"
"He couldn't keep a secret."

Just such a Teutonic mystic is Professor Muhammad Sven Kalisch, a German convert to Islam who teaches Muslim theology at the University of Munster. Kalisch recently laid a Gnostic egg in the nest of Islam, declaring that the Prophet Mohammed never existed, not at least in the way that the received version of Islamic tradition claims he did. Given that Kalisch holds an academic chair specifically funded to instruct teachers of Islam in Germany's school system, a scandal ensued, first reported in the mainstream English-language press by Andrew Higgins in the November 15 edition of the Wall Street Journal.

On closer reading, Kalisch offers a far greater challenge to Islam than the secular critics who reject its claims. The headline that a Muslim academic has doubts over the existence of the Prophet Mohammed is less interesting than why he has such doubts. Kalisch does not want to harm Islam, but rather to expose what he believes to be its true nature. Islam, he argues, really is a Gnostic spiritual teaching masquerading as myth. Kalisch's heretical variant of Islam may be close enough to the religion's original intent as to provoke a re-evaluation of the original sources.
A labor of love from inside the fortress of Islamic theology may accomplish what all the ballistas of the critics never could from outside the walls. Koranic criticism, I have argued for years (here and elsewhere - You say you want a reformation? Asia Times Online, August 5, 2003) is the Achilles' heel of the religion. That argument has been made about Christianity for years by Elaine Pagels and other promoters of "Gnostic Gospels", and it is dead wrong. In the case of Islam, though, it might be dead accurate.

Kalisch is a Gnostic, a believer in secret spiritual truths that undergird the myths manufactured for the edification of the peasantry. But he is a German Gnostic, and therefore feels it necessary to lay out his secrets in thorough academic papers with extensive footnotes and bibliography. It is a strange and indirect way of validating the dictum of the great German-Jewish theologian Franz Rosenzweig: Islam is a parody of Judaism and Christianity.

It is in weird little byways of academia such as Kalisch wanders that the great battles of religion will be fought out, not at academic conferences and photo opportunities with the pope. For example: the Catholic Islamologists who organized the November 4-7 meeting of Catholic and Muslim scholars in Rome envision incremental reforms inside Islam through a more relaxed Turkish version (see A Pyrrhic propaganda victory in Rome Asia Times Online, November 12, 2008 and Tin-opener theology from Turkey Asia Times Online, June 3, 2008). Despite their best efforts at an orderly encounter with Islam, events have a way of overtaking them. Last March, Pope Benedict personally received into the Catholic faith the Egyptian-born Italian journalist Magdi Allam at the Easter Vigil. In September, Kalisch dropped his own bombshell. In a way, it is longer-acting and more deadly.

A small group of Koran scholars, to be sure, has long doubted Mohammed's existence. Their scholarship is sufficiently interesting, though, to question whether it is worthwhile exposing the alleged misdeeds of the Prophet Mohammed, who may not have existed in the first place (The Koranic quotations trap Asia Times Online, May 15, 2007). Earlier this year, I reported on the progress of the critics, as well as belated emergence of a treasure-trove of photocopies of Koranic manuscripts hidden away by Nazi Islamologists (Indiana Jones meets the Da Vinci Code Asia Times Online, January 18, 2008). The Nazis had a Gnostic interest in Islam (call them "Gnazis"). The manuscripts and copies are now under the control of mainstream scholars at the University of Berlin, with deep ties to Arab countries.

Kalisch is the first Muslim scholar to dispute the Prophet's existence, while continuing to profess Muslim. If the Prophet did not exist, or in any case did not dictate the Koran, "then it might be that the Koran was truly inspired by God, a great narration from God, but it was not dictated word for word from Allah to the Prophet", he told a German newspaper. A German Protestant who converted to Islam as a teenager in search of a religion of reason, Kalisch can live with an alternative of reading of Islam. Very few of the world's billion and a half Muslims can.

Islam cannot abide historical criticism of the sort that Judaism and Christianity have sustained for centuries. "Abie, if you're here, then who is that there in my bed?," responds the Jewish wife in the old joke when her husband catches her in delicto flagrante. No one can offer an alternative explanation for the unique persistence of the Jewish people after 30 documented centuries of Jewish life. "If Moses didn't exist," the Jews respond to skeptics, "then who brought us out of Egypt?" Told that perhaps they didn't come out of Egypt, the Jews will respond, "Then what are we doing here today?"

Christians, by the same token, read the writings of numerous individuals who either met Jesus of Nazareth or took down the accounts of people who did, and who believed that he was the only begotten Son of God. Proof of Jesus' divinity, though, is entirely beside the point. If the Christian God wanted to rule by majesty and power, he would not have come to earth as a mortal to die on the cross. The Christian God asks for love and faith, not submission before majesty. The Christian is not asked to prove the unprovable, but to love and believe. Muslims have a different problem: if Mohammed did not receive the Koran from God, then what are they doing there to begin with? Kalisch has the sort of answer that only a German academic could love.

"We hardly have original Islamic sources from the first two centuries of Islam," Kalisch observes in a German-language paper available on the Muenster University (website). It is fascinating reading, and since it is not yet available in English I take the liberty of translating or summarizing a few salient points. Responsibility for any errors of translation of interpretation is my own.

Kalisch continues, "And even when a source appears to come from this period, caution is required. The mere assertion that a source stems from the first or second century of the Islamic calendar means nothing. And even when a source actually was written in the first or second century, the question always remains of later manipulation. We do not tread on firm ground in the sources until the third Islamic century."

This, Kalisch observes, is extremely suspicious: how can a world religion have erupted in a virtual literary vacuum? A great religion, moreover, inevitably throws off heresies: where are the early Islamic heretics and Gnostics? Later Islamic theologians knew the titles of some of their works, but the content itself was lost. "The only explanation for the disappearance is that it had long since become unusable theologically," he alleges of certain Shi'ite sources.

Kalisch draws on the well-known work of Patricia Crone and Martin Hinds, whose criticism of the received version have a distinctly minority position in Koranic scholarship:
It is a striking fact that such documentary evidence as survives from the Sufnayid period makes no mention of the messenger of god at all. The papyri do not refer to him. The Arabic inscriptions of the Arab-Sasanian coins only invoke Allah, not his rasul [messenger]; and the Arab-Byzantine bronze coins on which Muhammad appears as rasul Allah, previously dated to the Sufyanid period, have not been placed in that of the Marwanids. Even the two surviving pre-Marwanid tombstones fail to mention the rasul.

formulations from coins and monuments dating from the its first two centuries, as well as the presence of material obviously incompatible with Islam. "Coins and inscriptions are incompatible with the Islamic writing of history," Kalisch concludes on the strength of older work, including Yehuda Nevo and Jutith Koren's Crossroads to Islam.

The oldest inscription with the formulation "Mohammed Messenger of Allah" is to found in the 66th year of Islamic reckoning, and after that used continuously. But there also exist coins found in Palestine, probably minted in Amman, on which the word "Muhammed" is found in Arabic script on one side, and a picture of a man holding a cross on the other. Kalisch cites this and a dozen other examples. Citing Nevo/Koren and other sources, Kalisch also accepts the evidence that no Islamic conquest occurred as presented in much later Islamic sources, but rather a peaceful transfer of power from the Byzantine empire to its local Arab allies.

"To be sure," Kalisch continues, "various explanations are possible for the lack of mention of the Prophet in the early period, and it is no proof for the non-existence of an historical Mohammed. But it is most astonishing, and begs the question of the significance of Mohammed for the original Muslim congregation in the case that he did exist."

The numismatic, archeological, source-critical and other evidence against acceptance of the received version of Islamic history was well developed by other scholars. But it was never accepted by mainstream Orientalists. Cynics might point to the fact that most Middle Eastern studies programs in the West today are funded by Islamic governments, or depend on the good will of Middle Eastern governments for access to source material. Academia is not only corrupt, however, but credulous: the question arises: if Mohammed never existed, or did not exist as he is portrayed, why was so much effort devoted in later years to manufacturing thousands of pages of phony documentation in the Hadith and elsewhere?

Why, indeed, was the Mohammed story invented, by whom, and to what end? The story of the Hegira, Mohammed's flight from Mecca to Medina allegedly in 622, provides a clue, according to Kalisch. "No prophet is mentioned in the Koran as often as Moses, and Muslim tradition always emphasized the great similarly between Moses and Mohammed," he writes. "The central event in the life of Moses, though, is the Exodus of the oppressed Children of Israel out of Egypt, and the central event in the life of Mohammed is the Exodus of his oppressed congregation out of Mecca to Medina ... The suspicion is great that the Hegira appears only for this reason in the story of the Prophet, because his image should emulate the image of Moses."
Furthermore, "the image of Jesus is also seen as a new Moses. The connection of Mohammed to the figure of Jesus is presented in Islamic tradition through his daughter Fatima, who is identified with Maria ... The Line Fatima-Maria-Isis is well known to research. With the takeover of Mecca, Mohammed at least returns to his point of origin. Thus we have a circular structure typical of myth, in which beginning and end are identical. This Gnostic circular structure represents the concept that the soul returns to its origin. It is separated from its origin, and must return to it for the sake of its salvation."

Kalisch concludes that Islam itself began as a Gnosis, a secret teaching much like the Gnostic Christian sources rejected by the Church Fathers. "The myth of Mohammed ... could be the product of a Gnosis, which wanted to present its theology in a new and original myth with a new protagonist, but actually is the old protagonist (Moses, Jesus). For the Gnostics it always was clear, that the issue was not historical truth, but rather theology. Moses, Jesus and Mohammed were only different characterizations of a mythic hero or son of god, who would depict an old spiritual teaching in mythical form."

He explains,
In the Islamic Gnosis, Muhammed appears along with [his family members] Ali, Fatima, Hasan and Hussein as cosmic forces ... the Gnostic Abu Mansur al Igli claimed that God first created Jesus, and then Ali. Here apparently we still have the Cosmic Christ. If a Christian Gnosis was there are the origin of Islam, then the Cosmic Christ underwent a name change to Mohammed in the Arab world, and this Cosmic Mohammed was presented as a new edition of the Myth of Moses and Joshua (=Jesus) as an Arab prophet.
Thirst for secret wisdom drew Kalisch to Islam as a teenager, and keeps him within the faith despite his devastating critique. As he writes,
The teachings of Islamic mysticism are not specifically Islamic. They are a new minting of the perennial philosophy, which is found everywhere in the world in various traditions ... For me, this perennial philosophy is what the Koran means when it speaks of a teaching that God brought to humankind in all epochs.
My own views on the subject of Islamic mysticism are contained in a recent essay, (Sufism, sodomy and Satan Asia Times Online, August 12, 2008). Kalisch, it should be noted, adheres to a minority sect within the minority Shi'ite current in Islam, the Zaydi variant. His conclusions will convince few in the Islamic mainstream. But his work points to the great vulnerabilities of Islam. As I wrote some months ago, the German Jesuits who advise the Vatican on Islamic matters invested heavily in the supposedly moderate establishment of Sunni Islam in Turkey, and the theology department of the University of Ankara in particular (Tin-opener theology from Turkey Asia Times Online, June 3, 2008).

Of far greater interest may be the wide assortment of variant and quasi-heretical trends within Islam. Something very ancient and entirely genuine long buried within Islam may be struggling to the surface, a cuckoo's egg, as it were, waiting to hatch. It is noteworthy that Germany's Alevi community (immigrants from Turkey's 5-to-15 million strong Alevi population) expressed solidarity with Kalisch when he came under attack from other Muslim organizations.

Coming from a minority within a minority, Kalisch has offered a new and credible explanation of the motive behind the great reshuffling of Islamic sources during the second and third centuries of the religion. I cannot evaluate Kalisch's handling of the sources, but the principle he advances makes sense. It is another crack in the edifice of Islam, but a most dangerous one, because it came from the inside.

Taken from Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Rais Yatim praises bush shoe thrower? stupid #$%. Malaysiakini

AP - Saturday, December 20KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Malaysia's foreign minister has praised the Iraqi journalist who tossed his shoes at President George W. Bush, saying it was the "best show of retaliation" for the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Rais Yatim praised "the shoe-throwing act by that remarkable reporter who gave President Bush his final farewell last week."

"That shoe-throwing episode, in my view, is truly the best weapon of mass destruction to the leader who coined the phrase 'axis of evil' to denote Iran, Iraq and North Korea," he said in a speech late Friday at a dinner to commemorate the 63rd anniversary of the United Nations.

Television reporter Muntadar al-Zeidi stunned observers when he threw both his shoes at Bush during a press conference in Baghdad with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Dec. 14. Bush deftly ducked out of the way both times.

The reporter also shouted in Arabic, "This is your farewell kiss, you dog!" In Iraqi culture, throwing shoes at someone is a sign of deep contempt.

Al-Zeidi has been handed over to the Iraqi judiciary.

Bush has played down the incident, but the case became a rallying point among opponents of the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq. Thousands of Iraqis demonstrated Friday for al-Zeidi's release.

A Saudi man reportedly offered $10 million for the shoes, and an Iranian cleric suggested they should become museum pieces. However, authorities said the shoes had been destroyed by investigators.

Predominantly Muslim Malaysia opposes the U.S.-led war in Iraq, but supports Washington in its fight against global terrorism.

Monday, December 15, 2008

New Judges’ Ethics Committee bill tabled. Malaysiakini

KUALA LUMPUR: The new Judges' Ethics Committee bill, tabled for first reading at the Dewan Rakyat at 10am, paves the way to set up a committee to deal with any judge who has committed a breach of any provisions of the Judges' Code of Ethics.

The bill seeks to establish the committee for matters related to conduct and disciplinary of all others other than the removal of a judge from office under Clause (3) of Article 125 of the Federal Constitution.

Chief Justice of the Federal Court is the chairman of the committee, unless he is the complainant, in which case the next senior judge shall be the chairman.

The committee, to be comprised with odd number of members, is made up of President of Court of Appeal, Chief Judge of Malaya, Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak, judge of Federal Court, Court of Appeal Judge or a High Court as the Chief Justice of the Federal Court deems fit to appoint.

The bill states that the appointment of the committee is on ad hoc basis and members of the committee shall comprise judges who are senior in the order of precedence to the judge who is the subject of a disciplinary proceeding.

It states that the committee is to abide by principles and procedures set out in this act and the Code of Ethics.

The proceedings of the Committee is to be held in camera.

It shall not be a trial but an enquiry as regards to the breach of any provisions of the Code of Ethics committed by a judge referred to its by the Chief Justice of the Federal Court.

The bill also states that the Evidence Act 1950 does not apply to proceedings of the committee.

If the chairman or any member of the committee has a direct or indirect interest in any disciplinary proceeding, he should disclose to the committee the fact of his interest and the nature of his interest.

For the meetings of the committee, the chairman is to decide on its date, place and time.

The chairman and not less than two members of the committee will form the quorum for every proceedings of the committee.

The chairman will maintain and keep the records and minutes of proceedings of the committee in a proper form.

For decision of the committee, the majority is deemed the committee's decision if it is not unanimous.

The decision of the committee is final and not to be challenged, appealed against, reviewed, quashed or called in question in any court on any ground.

No court is to have jurisdiction to entertain or determine any suit, application, question or proceeding on any ground regarding the validity of such decision.

The committee will also ensure that its decision in any disciplinary proceeding is communicated in writing to the judge who is the subject of the disciplinary proceedings.

Published: Monday December 15, 2008 MYT 12:32:00 PM
By Lee Yuk Peng

Local students are intellectually weak. Malaysiakini

Friday December 12, 2008
Backbencher: Local students are intellectually weak
At the Dewan Rakyat
Reports by LEE YUK PENG, ZULKIFLI ABD RAHMAN AND LOH FOON FONG

LOCAL university students are intellectually weak, not because they get involved in politics but, because they are too lazy to study, says a backbencher.

Datuk Tajuddin Abdul Rahman (BN — Pasir Salak) said the students did not read books but merely relied on notes from lecturers.

“They are lazy to do research and also can’t be bothered to read anything in English,” he said when debating the Universities and University Colleges Bill yesterday.

“This is because it is difficult. A headache for them to do so.”

Meanwhile, amendments to the University and University Colleges Act 1971 were passed after a lengthy debate, despite attempts by Opposition MPs to make their own amendments to the proposed Bill.

Tony Pua (DAP — Petaling Jaya Utara) had earlier submitted 10 proposed amendments to the Speaker.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the amendments would give students a wider form for expression of speech.

He said although they were not allowed to join political parties in universities, the Government was making the first progressive step by allowing students to be exposed to the activities of these organisations.

“The only organisation that they cannot join is the Al-Qaeda,” he said in winding-up the debate on the amendments at the committee stage.

Khaled said students would be exposed to the viewpoints and activities of non-governmental organisations and they would not need approval from education authorities.

Khaled said students would be allowed to organise activities with politicians and political parties on issues related to education.

He refuted the assertion by Pakatan Rakyat MPs that the Act itself was against freedom of expression as provisions in the amendments were in line with limits outlined under Article 10 (iii) of the Constitution.

Student leaders, however, rejected amendments to the Act.

Ridzuan Mohammad, 22, an Undergraduate Movement for Abolishing University and Colleges Act secretariat member said Tajuddin should retract his statement, adding that those who were lazy were only a minority.

Indian activists in Malaysia launch protest fast. Malaysiakini

AP - Sunday, December 14KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - About 20 ethnic Indian Malaysian activists launched a protest fast Sunday to demand the release of their leaders who have been imprisoned without trial for allegedly threatening racial stability.

The protesters began consuming only water outside a Hindu temple in Kuala Lumpur, but there was no consensus about how long they will continue the fast, said S. Jayathas, a member of the Hindu Rights Action Force.

"We want the government to listen to us and look into our legitimate rights," Jayathas said.

The group shot to prominence in November 2007 when it led tens of thousands of Indians in a rare street protest seeking an end to policies benefiting the Malay Muslim majority and to gain better opportunities for Indians, who form the bottom rung of Malaysia's social ladder.

The protest marks the first anniversary of the jailing of five of the group's leaders last December under a tough security law that allows indefinite detention without trial. The government has also since banned the group, accusing it of inciting racial hatred.

Last year's street rally was considered a watershed in the country's politics, emboldening Malaysians unhappy with the government and boosting opposition parties to spectacular gains in general elections in March.

Minority Indians and ethnic Chinese have recently become more vocal in speaking out against the government's decades-old policy that provide privileges in education, jobs and business to Malays, who comprise nearly two-thirds of Malaysia's 27 million people.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Melaka tarik balik larangan lawat Kelantan. Malaysiakini

Melaka tarik balik larangan lawat Kelantan
KOTA BHARU 12 Dis. - Kerajaan Melaka menarik balik arahan yang melarang semua kakitangan agensi kerajaan negeri itu mengadakan lawatan rasmi ke Kelantan.

Ketua Menteri Melaka, Datuk Seri Mohd. Ali Rustam berkata, larangan tersebut ditarik balik selepas lapan tahun kerana Pas tidak lagi menuduh ahli-ahli UMNO sebagai bukan Islam.

Bermula hari ini, katanya, agensi kerajaan negeri tersebut boleh mengadakan lawatan rasmi di Kelantan tanpa sebarang sekatan.

"Larangan untuk mengadakan lawatan rasmi ke Kelantan ditarik balik sebab saya tengok mereka (kerajaan Pas Kelantan) tidak lagi mengatakan kita tidak Islam.

"Bermula hari ini semua rakyat Melaka bebas untuk mengadakan lawatan ke sini dan bukan itu sahaja Ketua Menteri Melaka telah datang ke sini sendiri hari ini.

"Sebelum ini ada kita datang tetapi bukan atas nama kerajaan negeri tetapi parti," katanya ketika berucap pada majlis pelancaran Promosi Pelancongan Negeri Melaka di sini hari ini.

Program tersebut dirasmikan oleh Pengerusi Majlis Tindakan Pelancongan Negeri Kelantan, Datuk Abdul Aziz Derashid.

Turut hadir Pengerusi Jawatankuasa Pelancongan, Kebudayaan dan Warisan Melaka, Datuk Seet Har Cheow.

Ia diadakan bagi mempromosikan produk pelancongan Melaka di negeri ini.

Arahan

Pada April 2000, Mohd. Ali melarang kakitangan agensi kerajaan negeri Melaka mengadakan lawatan rasmi ke Kelantan kerana tuduhan Pas yang menyifatkan ahli-ahli UMNO kafir.

Arahan itu bukan bertujuan menganiaya kerajaan pimpinan Pas tetapi bagi memastikan dasar-dasar tidak baik yang dilaksanakan oleh negeri ini tidak dicontohi oleh agensi kerajaan di Melaka.

Mohd. Ali yang juga Naib Presiden UMNO berkata, seramai 45,023 rakyat negeri ini melawat Melaka bermula Januari sehingga Oktober tahun ini.

"Jumlah penduduk Kelantan yang melawat Melaka meningkat sebanyak 4,685 orang berbanding hanya 40,338 orang dalam tempoh yang sama tahun lepas.

"Kita berharap pada tahun depan ia akan meningkat sehingga 60,000 orang dengan promosi dan tarikan baru yang disediakan khusus untuk para pelancong lawati," katanya.

Tambahnya, ia sejajar dengan hasrat kerajaan negeri itu untuk mencapai sasaran 8.2 juta pelancong pada 2010 dengan hasil pendapatan sebanyak RM4.2 bilion.

This is so dumb. This is like the page in our passport that says we cant visit Israel. Why is it a health safety issue? I cant imagine why a government needs to do that?
So Malaysia Tak Boleh...

Malaysia upholds ban on student political activity. Malaysiakini

By JULIA ZAPPEI,Associated Press Writer AP - Friday, December 12KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Malaysia's Parliament has amended a law to allow university students to join social groups but still bans them from political parties, a restriction slammed by critics Friday.

Lawmakers approved the amendments to the Universities and University College Act late Thursday to allow students to become members of social and other groups outside campus.

But they left untouched a clause that bans students from joining political parties, illegal groups or any other organizations that the government specifies. The law also states that students are not allowed to express support for any political party.

The amendments need to be approved by the Senate and king before taking effect, but these steps are usually formalities.

"In many ways there is more freedom now, except that they cannot join political parties or express support for them. But they can express their views," said Rozaid Abdul Rahman, an aide to Higher Education Minister Khaled Nordin.

Ridzuan Mohammad, coordinator of a coalition of eight student groups that campaigned for the act to be repealed, said the ban on political activities leaves students reluctant to speak up for fear of disciplinary action.

"Those changes are cosmetic," said the 22-year-old Universiti Malaya education student. "We want the UUCA to be abolished."

Government officials have argued that the law _ introduced in 1971 to quell student unrest _ is necessary so students concentrate on their studies and don't get influenced by politicians.

Opposition politicians voted against the amendments to the law, which they say restricts freedom of expression and fundamental human rights.

"It's strange to say this is an improvement," said Tian Chua, a lawmaker with the opposition People's Justice Party.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Rais Yatim doubts if Thailand will be able to host ASEAN summit. Malaysiakini


KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - - Malaysia raised doubts Wednesday over whether crisis-hit Thailand will be able to host a Southeast Asian summit, which has already been postponed from December to March.

The venue for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit had also been moved from Bangkok to the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai because anti-government protesters were occupying the capital's two airports.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Rais Yatim expressed "sadness" over the turmoil in Thailand , where the ruling party has been dissolved and Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat barred from politics for five years.

"In terms of the next summit, which we were hoping to be held in Chiang Mai, now it is not to be," Rais told a press conference.

"So we'll have to wait (to see) whether Thailand of the future will be able to furnish for us in ASEAN the commitment for the summit," he said.

"Malaysia only hopes that the next government or the next authority in Thailand would be able to foster and germinate the essentials of ASEAN."

Singapore has urged that the ASEAN talks be held as soon as possible, preferably in January, given the urgent need to discuss the impact of the global financial crisis.

It said that the summit could instead be held at the Jakarta-based secretariat of the 10-member ASEAN.

Rais indicated that bilateral relations with neighbouring Thailand had been affected by the turmoil.

"Of course we would like to see relations with Malaysia in particular develop at a level that is more constructive and lasting," he said.

"We truly hope the system of democracy in Thailand would germinate again and foster the kind of relationships we need within ASEAN."

A Malaysian Christian women suing the Malaysian Government. Malaysiakini

By JULIA ZAPPEI,Associated Press Writer AP - Friday, November 28KUALA LUMPUR,

Malaysia - A Malaysian Christian is suing the government for allegedly violating her religious rights after airport officials seized Christian educational CDs that she brought from Indonesia, the woman's lawyer said.

Customs authorities in this Muslim-majority country confiscated eight CDs from Jill Ireland when she flew back to Kuala Lumpur on May 11 after a trip to Jakarta, her lawyer, Annou Xavier, said late Thursday.

The Home Ministry informed her in a letter that the CDs were seized mainly because their cover titles contained the word "Allah," which is prohibited in non-Muslim religious material, Xavier said.

Ireland wants the Kuala Lumpur High Court to issue a declaration allowing her to transport any religious material for her own personal use, Xavier said.

The court on Thursday scheduled Jan. 30 for a preliminary hearing.

Government lawyer Suzana Atan declined to comment on details of the case, but noted that authorities have barred the use of the word "Allah" except for Muslim publications.

Malaysia's constitution guarantees freedom of worship for non-Muslims, who make up more than one-third of the country's 27 million people.

However, minority Buddhists, Christians and Hindus have increasingly voiced allegations of religious discrimination due to incidents in recent years such as the occasional demolition of Hindu temples by state authorities.

The government last year ruled that non-Muslims cannot use the word "Allah," an Arabic word that is a synonym for "God" in Malaysia's national language.

The ban has sparked criticism by Christians who use it to refer to God in their Malay-language Bible and other publications. A Malaysian church and Christian weekly newspaper have launched court actions to challenge the ban.

Government officials have expressed concerns that using "Allah" in Christian literature could confuse Malaysia's Muslims and draw them to Christianity.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Malaysia Airlines MD Named Orient Aviation Person 2008. Malaysiakini


Tuesday December 2, 12:24 PM
Malaysia Airlines MD Named Orient Aviation Person 2008
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 2 Asia Pulse - Idris Jala, managing director and chief executive officer of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) (KLSE:3786), has been named Orient Aviation Person 2008 for being the driving force behind the national carrier's amazing comeback.

While many wrote off the airline when it made its biggest losses ever of RM1.3 billion (US$0.37 billion) in nine months in 2005, Idris joined the airline and turned MAS' record losses into record profits and rebuilt confidence and morale among its 20,000 employees, all within two years.

"MAS recorded RM851 million (US$243 million) in the financial year 2007, its highest profit in 60 years of operations, and is only one of the six airlines in the world recognised as a "5-star airline" by Skytrax, United Kingdom, an accolade it has won for three consecutive years from 2006 to 2008," MAS said in a statement Monday.


Idris said he was pleased and honoured to accept the award as he and his team worked hard to turnaround MAS. Now, they are embarking on a business transformation journey in pursuit of their vision to become the World's FIve Star Value carrier.
Idris said he is blessed with a great team of people who are passionate about the airline.

Orient Aviation chief executive Barry Grindrod said Idris acted speedily and decisively. In the last three years, he has slashed US$500 million costs at MAS.

Idris is on target for additional cuts of US$280 million in operational costs this year. Significantly, he has also restored morale in the carrier which was rock bottom when he joined the airline, Grindrod said.

He has quickly become one of the most highly respected chief executive officers in the industry worldwide, he said.

Previous winners of the award, which was established in 1999, include Chew Choong Seng from Singapore Airlines; Geoff Dixon, Qantas Airways; Jaime Bautista, Philippine Airlines; Kanok Abhiradee, Thai Airways International and David Turnbull, Cathay Pacific Airways.

Orient Aviation is a magazine published for distribution to members of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines, with the majority of members being airlines in the Asia Pacific region and organisation in the airline and tourism industries.

(BERNAMA-OANA

Najib giving Crime Statistic. Malaysiakini


While the public was increasingly worried by the rise in crime, statistics however showed that the crime rate in Malaysia was far lower than Japan and Hong Kong, said Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak

What the @%!% is Najib talking about. I've been living in Hong Kong for the past 2 months. I've never felt need to worry about pick pocket's or muggers. I never felt the need to worry about snatch thieves or robbers. The cops here walk among the peoples and are not corrupted. The cops here are taller than me and I'm about 6 feet. They look intimidating and having them walk around in crowded places like any other shoppers but in their uniform makes the atmosphere feel really safe.

My Parents came to visit me a few weeks back. They took the public service transport while i was at work. I had no worries at all about their safety. I even see lesser accidents here compared to Singapore. Public transport is efficient. You don't have taxi drivers trying to con you. Same as in Singapore. They are all metered and well maintained. The condition of the taxi's in Malaysia itself is concerning.

Rape and Murder punishment must be taken very seriously in Malaysia. How can one live in a happy environment if we consistently need to worry about our family. Or to come back to a ransacked house. Or to find a mugger just around the corner. Every single person in Malaysia needs to have and Identity card and a finger print record. It's mostly foreign workers who come to Malaysia to earn money but end up loosing their job because of unplanned and un consistent projects in Malaysia. They are not treated properly by their employers. So they flee and join illegal gangs that need men's like this to do all the risky and dangerous jobs. They start small but they quickly catch up. Malaysia is turning into a Hollywood movies like Gangs of New York.

What Najib forgot to include in that statistic were the specific cases. Like Rape, mugging , robbery, corruption and murder is surely much higher in Malaysia compared to Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong. Hong Kong is nothing like how the Chinese Action Gangster movies portray. It is very safe. In Singapore, girls can walk safely to their block at 2am. But in Malaysia it's not safe for a girl after 8pm.

"Based on the statistics given by the police, it indicates that the crime rate in Malaysia is lower than Japan and Hong Kong.

"It is also just slightly higher than Singapore to the basis of per hundred thousand of population... but the perception of the public is not the case," said Najib at a press conference in Parliament after the economic council meeting.

Was May 13 Naturally Orchestrated? Malaysiakini

Was May 13 naturally orchestrated?
Azly Rahman
May 17, 07 12:24pm

Perhaps it was. That would be the answer to the event that has become embalmed as a semiotic of racial conflict. Perhaps it wasn't planned. We need more interpretations of this event. If we ban more books on this, we are afraid of holding a mirror to our history and ourselves.

If we encourage our youth to explore the roots of the bloody conflict, we will have a better generation of thinkers. No more "Ketuanan Melayu, China, India," or whatsoever notions of self-aggrandisement. Just the simple act of opening the dialogues of peace.

But was May 13 planned? I have some thoughts.

It has to happen when and because the lid of authoritarianism was lifted. It was the British lid that brought some kind of stability to the lowest of the lower class of Chinese, Indians and Malays.

Root of the conflict

May 13 was naturally orchestrated as a rude conclusion to the violence brought about by the system of capitalist exploitation; a system that operated successfully at various levels. At the top of the pyramid is the British ruling class, next came the Malay aristocrats and feudal lords or the sultans who collaborated unwillingly with the British robber-barons, The Sultans played the role of obedient tax collectors and managers of the industrial age capitalist system of production, run on the ideology of Oriental Despotism. At the lowest rung, true to the feudal production system, are the indentured serfs and the local padi cultivators.

The traditional/hereditary rulers were successful in making sure the rakyat in each state produces cheaply and sell their labour at dirt-cheap price in order for the feudal production system to continue to survive - so that the system could continue to fill the coffers of the British Empire and at the same time help enrich the local chieftains.

May 13 was a symbolic breakdown of this system of oppression – a radical protest against a feudalist-turned-aristocrat-prime minister who served the British well, after being educated in the ways and mannerism of the colonialists. British ideology of imperialism and race superiority/white supremacy couched in "scientific language of Oxford and Cambridge and royal academies this and that" were taught to the natives who would be rulers, so that the panopticon-synopticon matrix of colonialism may prevail.

May 13 was not merely a natural occurrence in the matrix of international capitalist production but a phenomena that occurred in many a society that undergo the stages of economic growth on the one hand and the stages of political conflict on the other. Combining these two, the race riots is a semiotic – political economic phenomena of deconstruction of socio-economic illusioned-stability – a contradiction in the capitalist mode of production. It was a coup d'etat of society against its own internal notion of progress.

It has a similar fundamental character of the pre-Roosevelt Socialist revolt of the 1930s, Paris Uprising of the 1960s, Iranian Bloodless Revolt and Revolution of the late 1970s, the Los Angeles Riots of the 1990s, the Jakarta burn-down of 1998, and the Paris Riots of 2005. In all these, the roots lie in the growth of the underclass and the problem of economic injustices and criminalisation brought about by neo-colonialist strategies of the ruling elite. Dehumanization is a fertie ground for inner repression.

May 13 may have the manifestation of a race conflict, but essentially it is one whose underlying force of mass anger lies in the clash of suppressed classes of varied ethnic origin.

Interpretation of the incident has merely been few. Tunku Abdul Rahman wrote about it to explain why it occurred and how he was part of the problem and solution in one. That was an official historical narrative – a government's view of what transpired. Dr Mahathir Mohamad's Malay Dilemma offered another interpretation from his point of view, explaining why it happened and what transpired between the Tunku and him. That was another official explanation.

But again, I reiterate, the more interpretations of the incident the better – so that we may have many explanations and find patterns in the meaning of these explanations. One must however be equipped in the understanding of the complex interplay between technologies of control, the economics of oppression, the sociology of mass anger, and cybernetics of conflicts, the archaeology of mass cultural repression, the genealogy of the feudal-oppressive-matrix, and the ideology and power/knowledge dimension of communicative and propagandistic systems – all these – in order to understand the "Butterfly Effect" of May 13 1969.

May 13, 2009?

Maybe it is too early to predict or too dangerous to be Nostradamus-ising or soothsaying or be playing the numerology game of anticipatory politics. Or maybe there will not be a race riots as we are now glued to our television sets and sucked into the abyss and black hole of the Internet, unable to plan for a revolution nor be ready for any natural occurrence ala May 13, 1969.

Maybe our brain cells have died a natural death out of decades of being fed with the "feel-good" ideology broadcast through radio and television. Or maybe we have been systematically programmed to amuse ourselves to death through a system of mass consciousness and euphoria that has been telling us to be happy with what we have, while the super rich and powerful amongst us continue to rob the nation in broad daylight through a conspiracy with outside forces in the form of investment arms and tentacles.

I still think that the bloody riots of May 13 was an orchestrated natural disaster – something our forefathers of Merdeka/Independence crafted as part of the cultural logic of late capitalism.

We can only know the answers through books we do not ban. Let us stop this pathetic policy of book banning.



Posted by DR. AZLY RAHMAN

Monday, December 1, 2008

PKR has the wrong mind set. Malaysiakini

PKR please look beyond the horizon


Highly disappointing to hear that PKR wants to replace Mathematics and Science back into Malay. I for one have experienced the difficulty of studying Maths and Science in Malay at Kebangsaan School and then immediately continue my further studies in the UK. I did Engineering so you can imagine the terms and words used were completely different. Even tough i went for tuition's which were taught in English during my secondary schooling life. I still found it hard. Imagine those who were hard core Malays, Indians or Chinese.

I wont say it's impossible to catch up. I did eventually. But i did see my college mates who were Malays struggle because of this. The extent of books which are available in English is far greater and better for studying. To tell you the truth i studied my Accounts, Add Mathematics and Physics syllabus in English to pass those Papers.
Malaysia in a position where the security guard outside the building can converse in English but the Receptionist in The Lobby cant speak anything else except Malay. I'm not criticising the Malays but what I'm emphasising is that our Malaysian Education system doesn't give enough important to English.


Mahathir lately criticised the Chinese and Indians for being stubborn for refusing to let their children mix with the other races and study in a Kebangsaan School. He gave examples of France and Germany for upholding their language. True and i wont deny this. But this countries have a much more older history for their language. Yet they are able to speak English for business and enterprising. I believe all Malaysians can speak and understand Malay. Why even when i meet Malaysians abroad i warmly great and have a pleasant conversation in Malay. Every Malaysian I have meet overseas were always happy and proud to meet another fellow Malaysian and exchange a few words in Malay.

But regrettably my own mother tongue which is Tamil is in a disappointing state. Even tough i still can converse in Tamil. I would badly hurt the ears of a proper Tamil speaking person. Because Tamil was never given importance's in primary or secondary kebangsaan school so i never gave importance to it. I had to go for extra Tamil Classes when my friends were playing outside. So imagine the extent of my concentration in class.

I would highly recommend that Moral class should be scrapped and replaced with mother tongue classes. Why study moral for? All we did to for exams were remember all the moral values before the exam and immediately write down all the moral values onto the back of the question paper, if I'm not mistaken it was like 16 and 36 sub values. Then you read the question and see which were the closest in values required and answered the question. It wasn't a subject that gave me revelation or inspired me to be a better man. That's the truth for me. I cant speak for the others. This purely my experience and many of my friends. So maybe they can structure Mother Tongue subjects that gives importance to moral values.

The Malays can go for their Agama class while the Chinese and Indians can go for their Mother Tongue classes. If the government doesn't provide this then how can they condemn the Chinese and Indians who want to protect their language by sending their children to Chinese and Tamil Schools.

My friends who were educated in Tamil and Chinese School are in par with the kebangsaan students after leaving school. So why should they send their children for Kebangsaan Schools then? Example my cousins who are Eurasian that studied in Tamil Schools. The are part french yet speak beautiful Tamil because they studied in Tamil School. Kebangsaan Schools are good for racial bonding. My best friends till today are my buddies from Kebangsaan School. Who are Chinese, Indians and Malays. But if my culture and heritage is lost in my generation then what will become of my kids. Mother Tongue classes should be integrated into our education system and given importance. Because i believe Kebangsaan School provide a great deal of cultural and racial bonding between students.

I do not agree with Singapore education system at all. Except for their successful implementation of the Mother Tongue Syllabus. We can learn from others success and failures. Malaysian Education system is not up to standard with international education standards. A few good implementation are done to improve this so don't spoil it.


I really disappointed to hear Selangor MB Khalid Ibrahim interest in Building a Muslim Polytechnic college. Why can't it be for all. Why should the non Muslim tax payers pay the bill for such an institution? If it should be done then it should be fully privatised.





Pathmanck

Mukhriz typical like the old man. malaysiakini

Well now we know how things are going to be if Mukhriz becomes Malaysia's PM. Like father like son. A typical dictator. Mukhriz's call for Vernacular schools to be shut down is not surprising at all. His father Dr. Mahathir has been using that as an excuse for the reasons of disunity in Malaysia.

He blames the vernacular school system for the polarised society which caused the poor understanding of the Malay supremacy concept among the non-Malays.

"I still hear statements are being made about the Ketuanan Melayu concept by BN component party leaders and this have hurt Malay hearts, especially Umno," he told a press conference in Parliament.

He added that the Ketuanan Melayu concept has been widely practiced and accepted as exemplified by the special Malay position enshrined in the federal constitution and other government policies.

When The Party UMNO and it's integrity is being question. I think a potential President of Pemuda UMNO and Member of Parliament should be more careful of his statement. Even tough i did not study in a Vernacular school yet i felt betrayed by his statement. Imagine what will appear in the papers tomorrow.


Unless they can include the Mother Tongue as a compulsory subject in our Malaysian Education System then there isn't the slighest possibility of any race to accept it.
It is not Ketuanan Melayu in the federal constitution which is being questioned but UMNO's version of it. If UMNO didn't behave like some bunch of jackass then i think it wouldn't have reach to a point like this. You have MCA, Gerakan and PPP and senior component party members condemning it. So i think the facts speak for itself.

He also blasted the president of another BN component party, PPP's M Kayveas for issuing a threat to leave the coalition should the Internal Security Act not amended before the next general election.

"What he said is disrespectful towards the spirit of BN and I am very disappointed with his behaviour," said Mukhriz.


Maybe PPP is just using ISA as an issue to come out of BN like heroes. Even MCA is backing this call. But we the malaysian people think it should be amended that is more important. "Makkal Sakthi". The people of Thailand should be saluted for showing the strenght of the peoples power againts their government.

When suggested by reporters that his proposal would most likely invite resistance even from leaders and members of BN, the Umno youth chief aspirant said that he was only proposing in the name of unity.

"My suggestion has no other ulterior motives apart from to unite all races," he said.


Such a liar.

Time for a moratorium on the NEP perhaps? Malaysiakini

Time for a moratorium on the NEP perhaps?
post info
By Anwar Ibrahim
Categories: Analisis, Anwar, Isu Semasa and Sidenotes From The Malaysian Insider

By Dr Hsu Dar Ren

DEC 1 - Some time back, I wrote an article “From greenback to our economy” where I predicted that the US dollar would appreciate against the Malaysian ringgit. In a little more than two months, It has climbed from around 3.20 to 3.60 now.

Our foreign reserves have gone done a few billions, and now stands at about RM109 billion, still very healthy and able to sustain nine months of imports. But the fact that we need to sell a few billion dollars to prop up our ringgit is really a cause for concern.

Budget 2009 tabled in August this year has a total budget allocation of RM208 billion. The operating expenditure is RM154 billion, leaving only about RM54 billion for development.

The Budget runs a deficit of 4.8%. That was in August when oil and commodity prices were high. Now that the oil price as well as prices of commodities have come down so much, our revenue would decrease substantially, and there would really be little money to spend for development, when we need to spend to stimulate the economy.

Although I have suggested, in one of my earlier blog articles, that operating expenses be cut by RM20 billion in order to have funds for spending as a stimulus package and cushion the loss of revenue from a possible tax cuts, it may not be feasible in the short term, when everyone in the government is so used to their way of doing things.

The priority now should be three-fold: create more jobs, stimulate the economy so as to put money in people’s pockets as well as to provide a safety net for poor people and retrenched workers.

How can we hope to do this when our revenue is coming down due to falling commodity and oil prices, when cutting operating expenses may not be feasible, when borrowing more money may not be workable as we are already running a fairly high deficit, when wastage and corruption are still so rampant and cannot be corrected overnight?

There has been a lot of debate of late whether this crisis is about governments triumphing over the markets or the markets triumphing over governments?

I believe that in Malaysia, if the government is unable to provide a stimulus package without going into deeper debt, then the logical thing is to give incentives to the private sector and hope that it can provide the engine to stimulate the economy.

There are still many cash-rich Malaysian companies and individuals. If these people can invest and be the engine of growth, we can create more jobs as well as stimulate growth to counter the global economic recession.

For the private sector to invest, there must be a few pre-requisites:

1) Cheaper access to funds. Bank interests and interest spread must be lowered.

2) There must be less regulatory interference in order for the companies to invest and grow. In this respect, we may have to do away with the NEP. If that is not immediately acceptable, then perhaps we should have a moratorium to suspend the NEP for a few years to see how our economy can benefit.

If this trial can prove that NEP is in fact a hindrance to the growth of the people, including our Malay brothers, then we can, at the end of the moratorium period, do away with the NEP completely and replace it with a needs-based economy.

3) Tax cut and incentives for investments in certain priority sectors, such as education, healthcare as well as transportation, biotechnology, nanotechnology and so on.

I ask our Malay brothers to accept my suggestion for a moratorium rationally. It is better for everyone to have an expanding cake than to have a cake that is rapidly shrinking. In the latter case, having a fixed proportion of the cake may be meaningless if the cake shrinks to half its former size.

On the part of the non-Malays, they should try to have a real economic partnership with the Malays, genuinely imparting skills and business know-how, and not just form an Ali Baba relationship to beat the loopholes in the NEP.

We need to think out of the box and adopt fast action to counter this economic tsunami. Already we have felt the first wave; subsequent waves will be more devastating and if nothing is done now, we are going to face a really bleak future.

NO to ISA Forum Tonight. Malaysiakini

HAPUSKAN ISA/NO TO ISA

DI DEWAN MAJLIS PEGUAM
Jalan Lebuh Pasar Kuala Lumpur

JAM : 8.00 malam

PANEL:

TERESA KOK
MUMAHAD SABU
RAJA PETRA
FARIDZUL NASARUDDIN
T.S THENINTARAN
TUKAR TIUB

Sila datang awal kerana tempat duduk amat-amat terhad.

PKR please look beyond the horizon. Malaysiakini


Highly disappointing to hear that PKR wants to replace Mathematics and Science back into Malay. I for one have experienced the difficulty of studying Maths and Science in Malay at Kebangsaan School and then immediately continue my further studies in the UK. I did Engineering so you can imagine the terms and words used were completely different. Even tough i went for tuition's which were taught in English during my secondary schooling life. I still found it hard. Imagine those who were hard core Malays, Indians or Chinese.

I wont say it's impossible to catch up. I did eventually. But i did see my college mates who were Malays struggle because of this. The extent of books which are available in English is far greater and better for studying. To tell you the truth i studied my Accounts, Add Mathematics and Physics syllabus in English to pass those Papers.
Malaysia in a position where the security guard outside the building can converse in English but the Receptionist in The Lobby cant speak anything else except Malay. I'm not criticising the Malays but what I'm emphasising is that our Malaysian Education system doesn't give enough important to English.


Mahathir lately criticised the Chinese and Indians for being stubborn for refusing to let their children mix with the other races and study in a Kebangsaan School. He gave examples of France and Germany for upholding their language. True and i wont deny this. But this countries have a much more older history for their language. Yet they are able to speak English for business and enterprising. I believe all Malaysians can speak and understand Malay. Why even when i meet Malaysians abroad i warmly great and have a pleasant conversation in Malay. Every Malaysian I have meet overseas were always happy and proud to meet another fellow Malaysian and exchange a few words in Malay.

But regrettably my own mother tongue which is Tamil is in a disappointing state. Even tough i still can converse in Tamil. I would badly hurt the ears of a proper Tamil speaking person. Because Tamil was never given importance's in primary or secondary kebangsaan school so i never gave importance to it. I had to go for extra Tamil Classes when my friends were playing outside. So imagine the extent of my concentration in class.

I would highly recommend that Moral class should be scrapped and replaced with mother tongue classes. Why study moral for? All we did to for exams were remember all the moral values before the exam and immediately write down all the moral values onto the back of the question paper, if I'm not mistaken it was like 16 and 36 sub values. Then you read the question and see which were the closest in values required and answered the question. It wasn't a subject that gave me revelation or inspired me to be a better man. That's the truth for me. I cant speak for the others. This purely my experience and many of my friends. So maybe they can structure Mother Tongue subjects that gives importance to moral values.

The Malays can go for their Agama class while the Chinese and Indians can go for their Mother Tongue classes. If the government doesn't provide this then how can they condemn the Chinese and Indians who want to protect their language by sending their children to Chinese and Tamil Schools.

My friends who were educated in Tamil and Chinese School are in par with the kebangsaan students after leaving school. So why should they send their children for Kebangsaan Schools then? Example my cousins who are Eurasian that studied in Tamil Schools. The are part french yet speak beautiful Tamil because they studied in Tamil School. Kebangsaan Schools are good for racial bonding. My best friends till today are my buddies from Kebangsaan School. Who are Chinese, Indians and Malays. But if my culture and heritage is lost in my generation then what will become of my kids. Mother Tongue classes should be integrated into our education system and given importance. Because i believe Kebangsaan School provide a great deal of cultural and racial bonding between students.

I do not agree with Singapore education system at all. Except for their successful implementation of the Mother Tongue Syllabus. We can learn from others success and failures. Malaysian Education system is not up to standard with international education standards. A few good implementation are done to improve this so don't spoil it.


I really disappointed to hear Selangor MB Khalid Ibrahim interest in Building a Muslim Polytechnic college. Why can't it be for all. Why should the non Muslim tax payers pay the bill for such an institution? If it should be done then it should be fully privatised.





Pathmanck

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Men's Single Finals won by China's Chen Jin .Malaysiakini.

Hong Kong Super series Men's Single Finals just came to an end. One of the best and exciting finals i've seen. Great play between Lin Dan and Chen Jin. Chen Jin won the Men's Finals. So the next would be at YONEX-SUNRISE BWF World Super Series Masters Finals will be held in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, East Malaysia for 18 – 21 December 2008. At Stadium Tertutup Likas, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Malaysian womens double lost to China. Malaysiakini

Malaysian Womens double Chin and Wong lost at semi final just moments ago in Hong Kong Badminton Open. Sadly they were no competition to the China.

Friday, November 28, 2008

Political Cartoons. Malaysiakini







Pic Source: kertoon and mowadoha

Melaka Tourism wants to attract neighbouring countries. Malaysiakini


Friday November 28, 9:59 AM
Melaka Plans to Build Tourism Gallery in Singapore
AAP MEDIANET

MELAKA (Malaysia), Nov 28 Asia Pulse - The government of Malaysia's southern state of Melaka plans to build a gallery in Singapore to showcase its tourism products aimed at attracting tourists to the state.
ADVERTISEMENT
Chief Minister Mohd Ali Rustam said the state government was looking for a suitable site and expect construction of the gallery to start in January or February.
"With the uncertain economic situation, I believe Singaporeans will choose to visit nearby destinations. Melaka wants to seize this opportunity," he told reporters at the Istana Kampung Gelam Malay Heritage Centre in Singapore Tuesday.
Mohd Ali, who was leading a tourism promotion delegation to Singapore, said Melaka chose the republic to start the promotion as it was a major contributor of tourists to the state.

Similar tourism promotions would be made in Thailand and Indonesia.
He was confident that Melaka's new tourism product "Duck Tours" which had received a hot reception in Singapore would be a hit among tourists to the state.

"Duck Tours is a mode of transportation that functions in the air, on land and on the water. It will be the first of its kind in Malaysia when operational next month.
Melaka's other new tourism products are Eye On Malaysia at Sungai Melaka and Menara Taming Sari (tower) at Bandar Hilir.

(BERNAMA-OANA)

1,300-year-old Islamic note may solve mystery. Malaysiakini


Inscription could answer Qur'an question vexing historians for centuries
By Jennifer Viegas
Discovery
updated 1:11 p.m. ET Nov. 18, 2008
An Arabic traveler who engraved his name on a block of red sandstone over 1,300 years ago may help solve a question about the Qur'an that has vexed historians for hundreds of years: Why was the text seemingly written without diacritical marks?

Diacritical marks, which include accent marks, tildes, umlauts and other notations, help to distinguish one letter from another and aid in pronunciation. When added or removed, they can completely change the meaning of a word or sentence.

Analysis of the recently found sandstone inscription, which predates the earliest known copies of the Qur'an, determined that it reads: "In the name of Allah/ I, Zuhayr, wrote (this) at the time 'Umar died/year four/And twenty."


According to researcher Ali ibn Ibrahim Ghabban, who, with his wife, discovered the 644 A.D. inscription northwest of Saudi Arabia, "It is an immensely important find, since it is our earliest dated Arabic inscription."

Ghabban, a member of the Supreme Commission for Tourism, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, added that it also "shows evidence of a fully-fledged system of diacritical marks."

A paper describing the find appears in the latest issue of the journal Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy.

Robert Hoyland, a professor of Arabic and Middle East Studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, explained the significance of Ghabban's determination to Discovery News.

"Whether the Qur'an was originally written in a script that contained diacritical marks is very important because Western Qur'an scholars generally say that it wasn't and therefore feel free to make some amendments to the Qur'anic text by changing the diacritical marks to give it a different meaning, which is, of course, very unpopular with modern Muslim scholars and Muslims in general, who mostly feel that the Qur'anic text they use is the original text revealed to Muhammad by God," he said.


Ali ibn Ibrahim Ghabban and Robert Hoyland
A tracing of the inscription, which reads, "In the name of Allah/ I, Zuhayr, wrote (this) at the time 'Umar died/year four/And twenty."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Although the earliest Islamic inscription, which is also the world's second oldest evidence for written Arabic, does not include punctuation or vowel marks, it does contain markings to distinguish consonants that are identical in shape. This proves such a marking system was already in place before the earliest known copies of the Qur'an, which date to sometime between 652 and 680 A.D., Hoyland indicated.

Ghabban now believes Muhammad's close associates and early followers "stripped Qur'ans of diacritical marks" in order to permit "Muslims to read the Qur'an as it was revealed to Muhammad in the various dialects of the Arabs, and allowing the skeleton of the word to bear all the meanings which appear in it."

Hoyland added that, "this would mean that Western scholars would have less excuse to change the text as we have it now."

Without diacritical marks, for example, a sentence such as, "I took with my whole hands," can also be interpreted as, "I took with my fingertips."

The first known Islamic inscription, whose carver might have made his own mark while walking down a Syrian pilgrimage road, may solve yet another Arabic history mystery: When did noted Islamic leader Umar ibn al-Khattab die?

According to tradition and other historical accounts, a Persian soldier assassin stabbed Umar in public as the caliph was leading prayers in a mosque. Zuhayr, who may have witnessed the violent crime, recorded that Umar died in "four and twenty," which means 644 A.D.

© 2008 Discovery Channel

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Obama's Interactive government. Malaysiakini


Obama steps into Democracy 2.0 future
US President-elect Barack Obama has taken his boldest step yet to usher in a new era of interactive government, opening a public forum for suggestions on the website of his transition team.
Change.gov, Obama's official website until he takes office on January 20, invited users late Tuesday to submit their views on health care, drawing an immediate barrage of hundreds of comments and triggering a lively debate.
The new feature, called "Join the Discussion," asked users to answer the question "What worries you most about the healthcare system in our country?"
To jumpstart the debate, the website displayed a video from two members of Obama's Health Policy Transition Team soliciting suggestions about an issue the Democratic candidate identified as a priority during his presidential campaign.
Users were asked to conduct a "respectful dialogue" and refrain from personal attacks, profanity and aggressive behavior. Unlike on government websites, comments were appearing on the site unfiltered.
Twenty-four hours after the launch, there had been more than 2,000 comments on the forum, which also allows registered users to give a thumb's up or thumb's down to each post, voting it up or down according to popularity.
One of the top-rated comments, with a score of plus 58, is from a user identified as "kllmt" who calls for a shift to more preventative care.
"We're trying out a new feature on our website that will allow us to get instant feedback from you about our top priorities," said a posting on the Change.gov blog announcing the creation of the forum.
"We also hope it will allow you to form communities around these issues -- with the best ideas and most interesting discussions floating to the top."
"Join the Discussion" is the first foray by the transition team into hosting a public forum and an attempt to follow through on a pledge made by Obama to increase the involvement of the public in the political process.
When Change.gov was launched on November 6 following Obama's election victory it included an appeal to users to share their ideas by email.
But the site did not provide a public forum to display the submissions, a move which prompted some criticism among supporters of more transparency.
More grumbling ensued when Obama posted his weekly addresses to the nation on YouTube -- drawing one million and half-a-million views respectively -- but with the comments thread disabled. Comments were enabled on Wednesday.
The "Join the Discussion" forum got a thumb's up on Wednesday from Micah Sifry, co-founder of TechPresident, a blog about politics and the Web.
"This is a terrific start on fulfilling Obama's promise to make government more open and participatory," Sifry wrote on techpresident.com. "This is a big deal.
"When you consider that for the last eight years, the occupant of the White House has essentially told the public 'you get input once every four years, after that I'm the decider,' this is huge.
"Before our eyes, we are witnessing the beginning of a rebooting of the American political system," Sifry said.
In an interview with ABC News to be broadcast Wednesday, Obama spoke about staying in touch with the public.
"One of the things that I'm going to have to work through is how to break through the isolation -- the bubble that exists around the president," he said.
"I'm in the process of negotiating with the Secret Service, with lawyers, with White House staff... to figure out how can I get information from outside of the 10 or 12 people who surround my office in the White House.
"One of the worst things I think that could happen to a president is losing touch with what people are going through day to day," he said.
"I want to make sure that I keep my finger on the pulse of the struggles that people are going through every day."

Pic source:tsevis'
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Maybe Pakatan Rakyat should try this while we wait for you to come into power. Atleast we can be part of the developing our nations future. I'm sure this can create alot of interesting ideas and possibilities.
We should stop talking about Multimedia Super Corridor and start working towards a more modern government. Since Malaysia has plenty of bloggers. It's time to use all this brains to your advantage.
My personal experiance, when my younger was in intensive care at Selayang Hospital 2 years ago. It's known as the paper-less hospital. The nurses were to busy to attend the patients because their were busy typing the report. The doctors couldn't update us on his condition because they haven't read the report or waiting for it. Basicly it was a mess. They might have all the equipment in that hospital but it was more for furnishing than anything else.
Pathmanck

Hindraf pictures that started a Revolution. Malaysiakini

It all started here, 25th Nov 2007. I'm sure every single Indian in this country will never forget how the Government treated the Indians that day. That day left a scar on every Indians soul. If BN thinks the March 8 GE was the worst we could do to them. Then god bless their souls. Hindraf is still very much alive. Nobody has forgotten that day. Nobody can forgive this government for it's atrocities for the past 51 years. For generations to come this story will be told.
Hindraf are Indians. You cannot separate this two anymore. Maybe who knows one day Malaysia will have an Indian PM. Since Mahathir is considered a Malay so he doesn't count.

Pathmanck









pic source:alfred89, horngyih, gilarider and abinesh.com

Kerajaan Pakatan Rakyat needs to be elected. Malaysiakini


It looks like we wont be seeing a Pakatan Rakyat Federal Government any time soon. Disappointing as it sounds it might be the best for now. We don't really need PR to be in power to destroy BN. Umno is killing itself. Mahathir, Najib and Badawi with Khairy and Mukhriz and Taib lost in the middle. It's all totally messed up.
Najib cant get rid of the money politics in UMNO. How can he when then is so many complaints about himself? None of the members of UMNO are going to buy his story. If Najib doesn't listen to Mahathir then his head is going to roll next. There is no real successor for UMNO. If UMNO and BN are alive today it's only going to be short lived till the next general election. I'm not Anwar but i think he is letting the fire burn deeper. MCA and MIC has lost it's direction totally. This is 50 years of typical mentality. You cant change it overnight.

With Anwar constantly talking about take over of the government has actually had a very bad impact on our economy. For instance with my company. A very big British company that has a stake in everything in Hong Kong have pulled out of a nearly done major joint venture deal with a Malaysian company based in sepang because of our countries uncertain future direction. As well as all the black holes they found in the companies accounts audit. Typical Malaysians unfortunately. This are one of the reasons the BN government has to go. After all it's all a Chain Reaction.

Teagarajan who is vying for the post of deputy president in MIC said that a weak management was to be blamed for the financial woes of Maika. He also proposed that the government pumped in RM150 million to bail out Maika??? Is he Crazy???Put more money into this corrupted organisations hands?
Maika Holdings chief executive officer S Vell Paari today said that Maika board had proposed resolutions to sell off all assets of Maika and distribute the surplus to the shareholders.
They sure do know how to choose the best time to sell their assets. When the economy is at it's lowest. They are so lucky not to be arrested for this MAIKA scandal. So many Indians in Malaysia trusted and invested their life savings in this and never saw a sen after that. I read sometime ago they got something like a RM1,000 after 15 or 20 years.
The Deputy and the President of MCA are having "cold war". PPP wants to leave BN and Sabah and Sarawak wants their share of the pie or they are threatening to walk out.
Anwar doesn't have to do anything. BN is destroying itself. They are in Cruise Control to destruction. Once things get out of hand the King would step in and announce a new General Election. By that time Pakatan Rakyat will already have enough candidate's to stand everywhere. Pakatan Rakyat is slowly growing and opening up branches everywhere.
But the guys who really started the domino effect are still in jail. The 5 Hindraf guys. They were the first guys to brace them self for the first crackdown that started the volcanic eruption that swallowed Malaysia during the 12th General Election.
Some criticised Hindraf for not accomplishing anything for the past one year. I say all this people are wrong. If it wasn't for Hindraf you wont be having Pakatan Rakyat at all. They say you need a tragedy to get the family together. And that is what the indians did. I proud that Hindraf still champions their cause even after so many barriers were put on their path and Their biggest achievement is not that they still put a brave face and challenge the government but to keep to their words and never resorted to violence. I honour your struggle HINDRAF.

I just hope our friends in Pakatan Rakyat hasn't forgotten their pledge to the Indians.

Pathmanck

The Bomb Anwar dropped on Malaysians.

By Shannon Teoh

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 26 – Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim appeared to stop short today of saying his Pakatan Rakyat (PR) alliance will have to wait until the next general election to make a serious bid for power.
He told reporters that he would not explain why the PR alliance has not yet taken power at this weekend’s PKR party congress.
“There is nothing to explain. It will happen,” Anwar said in Parliament. He did not set another deadline.
His self-imposed deadline of Sept 16 for PR to topple the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) government passed without incident and his credibility has taken a knock, while the opposition’s momentum has stalled, since then.
Increasingly, Malaysians are focused on economic worries and many are turning away from an almost obsessive fixation with politics since the March 8 elections.
Anwar had been widely expected to address this point at this weekend’s PKR congress, but he looks to be trying to put Sept 16 behind him.
He said today that it did not matter when the PR alliance takes over the government.
The widely held view that Datuk Seri Najib Razak will take power as prime minister next March under an Umno transition plan hammered out with Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi was also premature, Anwar said.
“What makes you so sure?” he asked reporters.
According to Anwar, his message to party delegates this weekend will include a call for them to continue to be committed and to concentrate on ruling well the five states under PR control.
He said PKR had also recently started a nationwide campaign to hold ceramahs to communicate with the Malay ground across the country in an attempt to make headway into the hearts and minds of the community.
The opposition ranks continue to enjoy good support among non-Malays but rural Malays continue to harbour distrust of the PR coalition.
He said this move was necessary as the mainstream media, especially the Malay media, continues to sideline the coalition to propogate the Barisan Nasional agenda.


Hindraf Pic by malaysiakini and adilphoto