Give proof on torture of migrants
The government has rubbished claims by a top United Nations official that more than a million Indonesian migrants in Malaysia were being tortured.
The official, Jorge Bustamante, was reported yester - day as saying that more than a million Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia faced serious abuses ranging from beatings and rape to forced labour. He said most were women and children.
“If there is such a claim the UN must support it with evidence.
Where is the evidence? Where did they get the information from? We would be grateful if the UN official could furnish us with evidence if there is any,” Deputy Home Minister Datuk Tan Chai Ho said.
Tan said the Indonesian Embassy would have got in touch with Malaysian authorities if there was abuse on such a large scale as claimed by the UN official.
He, however, did not deny that there were one or two isolated cases of mistreatment, such as the abuse of housemaid Nirmala Bonat. “Even then we have the laws to act on such abuses,” he said.
Khalwat raids by order only
Kelantan’s enforcement authorities require a Lower Syariah Court order before raiding homes or rooms of couples suspected of khalwat (close proximity).
State Religious Affairs Committee chairman Hassan Mahamood said the state took the tactful approach in handling such cases, bearing in mind the need to observe the teachings of Prophet Muhammad.
“Muslims are prohibited from spying on each other or openly disclosing sins. They also cannot constantly find fault with others,” Hassan told a press conference.
In this context, he said, enforcement officers must first verify a complaint about an alleged khalwat case.
He said raids should not be conducted based on rumours but on guidelines where officers must write down the complaint, investigate and seek a court order before raiding premises, homes and hotel rooms.
He said Perlis mufti Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin was right in determining that it was wrong to embarrass suspected khalwat couples by indiscriminate raids.
Hassan, who is Tawang assemblyman, said the state was increasing its patrols and preventive measures to reduce social ills among Muslims.
“We are more concerned with offences such as consuming alcohol in public and gambling. We want to eradicate them.”
Marina M had something to say about Dr Asri Zainol Abidin, Mufti of Perlis HERE.
Racial And Religious Polemics Still Haunt The Country
By Ahmad Kamil Tahir(Bernama)
After almost 50 years of independence, racial and religious issues should have been water under the bridge for a multi-ethnic nation like Malaysia.
But these sensitive issues remained the polemics of 2006, raised by certain parties under the guise of human and equal rights.
One of their favourites was on the social contract entered into by the major races of the country in founding the nation, which included the special rights of the Malays and the status of Islam as the country's official religion.
The debate was fueled further when the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (Asli) released a report claiming that the equity ownership of the Malays and Bumiputeras had reached 45 percent.
Several Umno leaders disputed the report as its data were conflicting the ones issued by the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) of the Prime Minister's Department, which put it at 18.9 percent.
The Umno leaders claimed that the Asli report was aimed at weakening the struggle for the Malay agenda, alter the social contract and abolish the New Economic Policy (NEP), introduced as an affirmative action to help the Bumiputeras achieve 30 percent equity ownership of the economy.
SENSITIVE ISSUES
Apart from this, the country's political scene in 2006 was also tainted by several religious issues, including the proposal to form the Inter-Faith Commission (IFC), the short-messaging-system (SMS) messages on a group of Muslims denouncing Islam; and cases of non-Muslims fighting for the right to claim the bodies of their dead Muslim relatives.
The proposal to form the IFC offended the Muslims, and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi rejected the idea. He even issued a stern warning against those who intended to play up sensitive racial and religious issues.
The year also saw the Syariah Court's power being questioned when its decision that the late Mount Everest climber Sergeant Mohamad Abdullah, who was formerly a non-Muslim, be given an Islamic burial was challenged by his widow in the Appeals Court.
The apostate issue almost triggered a racial-religious conflict following the spread of SMS messages alleging that national mariner Datuk Azhar Mansor had converted to Christianity and would be baptising scores of "Muslims" at a church in Ipoh.
Police investigations, however, proved that the SMS messages were lies, and Azhar even made a public announcement that he had never renounced Islam.
STERN WARNING
At the Umno General Assembly, held from Nov 13 to Nov 17, Abdullah who is also the party president, stressed that the social contract must be defended and stern action would be taken against those who disrupted the country's harmony by fanning religious and racial sentiments.
Apart from addressing those who disputed the social contract, Abdullah's caution was also directed at some Umno delegates who aroused racial sentiments when debating at the assembly.
The year also saw a "conflict" between Abdullah and his predecessor Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad when the former Prime Minister made public criticisms against the government and Abdullah's leadership.
The verbal attack followed the government's decision to cancel the scenic bridge project which was supposed to replace the Johor Causeway.
It was then followed with the issue of issuing of Approved Permits (APs) to import cars, which Dr Mahathir claimed to be out of controll and beneficial only to a small group of people, besides hurting national carmaker Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional Sdn Bhd's competitiveness.
The socio-economic status of Malays in Penang was also a hot issue in 2006 as several Umno leaders claimed that the state government administration under Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon was marginalising the community.
To the Opposition like DAP, Parti Keadilan Rakyat and PAS, the year 2006 was for preparing themselves for the coming general election.
PAS, for example, could not afford to be complacent as this would lead to a loss of control in Kelantan, where it has only a one-seat majority in the state assembly.
-- BERNAMA
No laughing matter
You can laugh at everything, except at political leaders. Reuters looks at satire in Singapore.( By Geert De Clercq )
CHEWING gum, homosexuality, public protests... the list of things frowned upon is long in Singapore. But satire? Yes, that too. Seriously.
Political humour is playing a bigger role than ever in the city-state, and despite government's insistence that politics is no laughing matter, satirical websites are blossoming.
TalkingCock.com, an irreverent website that relentlessly pokes fun at the Singapore gahmen (government), gets 4 million hits per month in a country of 4.4 million, while popular blog mrbrown.com receives some 20,000 downloads per day for its droll podcasts about life in Singapore, up 10-fold from a year ago.
"These websites touch a popular vein. They deal with issues of everyday life in a language that can be understood in the kopitiam (coffee shop). It's like the parables of Jesus," said researcher Gillian Koh of the Institute of Policy Studies.
Others say government disapproval of these websites has added to their appeal.
Colin Goh is the only public face of the large collective that puts together TalkingCock.com, a website named after the term for "talking nonsense" in "Singlish" - the local patois of English laced with Hokkien Chinese and Malay words.
"The others do not want to reveal their identities, they are too scared," said Goh, a former lawyer with degrees from University College London and New York's Columbia University.
Goh and friends set up TalkingCock in 2000 in New York, where he lives. The project has since grown into a huge, rambling site with dozens of anonymous contributors.
Goh insists the site's focus is on humour, not on politics.
"All humour is about daily life. It just so happens that in Singapore, the government occupies such a large part of our lives," said Goh, who is also an award-winning film director.
"SERIOUSLY"
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is well aware of TalkingCock. In his national day speech on August 20, Lee actually showed a slide of TalkingCock.com.
"If you want humour, you go there. Some of the jokes are not bad. Not all of them," he said.
In another speech on April 1 - April Fool's day - Lee said there was space for political debate in Singapore, but stressed that discussions on politics must be taken seriously.
"Countries can become unstable if political figures are not given basic respect and acceptance," Lee was quoted as saying by state broadcaster Channel NewsAsia.
Goh said he vaguely agrees with the government that jokes are no substitute for real political discourse.
"It is bad for the satirist when people look to the satirist for alternative serious political commentary.
We'd be very happy to go back to our court jester status," he said.
Singapore print and broadcast media are government-owned or controlled, but on the Internet anti-government views abound.
Catherine Lim, Singapore's best-known fiction writer, said the government's allergy to satire is not surprising.
"It's a very Asian, Confucian thing, especially if you take it to the point where you make them lose face.
That is absolutely intolerable, even in a society as modern as Singapore," said Lim, who has angered the government before with her criticisms.
Australian academic Garry Rodan, who has written extensively about Singapore politics, said the Singapore government is not comfortable with political jokes because "humour challenges the notion of a foolproof meritocracy".
Lee has said repeatedly that the government tolerates dissent but would respond to criticism that it disagreed with.
"Because if we don't respond, untruths will be repeated and will be believed, and eventually will be treated as facts and the Government and the leaders will lose the respect of the population and the moral authority to govern," Lee said.
MINCED PORK PODCAST
mrbrown -- the Internet moniker for blogger Lee Kin Mun -- was the first satirist to find out what that response could be.
In July, his weekly column in state-owned newspaper Today was axed after he had poked fun at a series of price hikes that followed soon after the May 6 general election.
"It is not the role of journalists or newspapers in Singapore to champion issues, or campaign for or against the Government," the information ministry wrote in a blistering reply.
In his National Day speech, Lee said the satirical column had "hit out wildly at the Government and in a very mocking and dismissive sort of tone".
One of mrbrown's podcasts had a starring role in the run-up to the elections when it mocked the way the government harped on for days about an opposition candidate's bungled attempt to submit an election form.
mrbrown's podcast parody of the affair as a food stall vendor hounding a customer over an order of a bowl of minced pork noodles was downloaded 200,000 times and spread like wildfire in the blogoshpere.
Like others in Singapore's lively Internet scene, both mrbrown and Goh are worried about an upcoming revision of the penal code, which could take into account "new technological developments" such as the Internet.
"At any time, the government could drop the guillotine on us. So, not very funny times, I'm afraid," Goh said.
Malaysia Ahmad Badawi Malaysia Khalwat Singapore
The official, Jorge Bustamante, was reported yester - day as saying that more than a million Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia faced serious abuses ranging from beatings and rape to forced labour. He said most were women and children.
“If there is such a claim the UN must support it with evidence.
Where is the evidence? Where did they get the information from? We would be grateful if the UN official could furnish us with evidence if there is any,” Deputy Home Minister Datuk Tan Chai Ho said.
Tan said the Indonesian Embassy would have got in touch with Malaysian authorities if there was abuse on such a large scale as claimed by the UN official.
He, however, did not deny that there were one or two isolated cases of mistreatment, such as the abuse of housemaid Nirmala Bonat. “Even then we have the laws to act on such abuses,” he said.
Khalwat raids by order only
Kelantan’s enforcement authorities require a Lower Syariah Court order before raiding homes or rooms of couples suspected of khalwat (close proximity).
State Religious Affairs Committee chairman Hassan Mahamood said the state took the tactful approach in handling such cases, bearing in mind the need to observe the teachings of Prophet Muhammad.
“Muslims are prohibited from spying on each other or openly disclosing sins. They also cannot constantly find fault with others,” Hassan told a press conference.
In this context, he said, enforcement officers must first verify a complaint about an alleged khalwat case.
He said raids should not be conducted based on rumours but on guidelines where officers must write down the complaint, investigate and seek a court order before raiding premises, homes and hotel rooms.
He said Perlis mufti Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin was right in determining that it was wrong to embarrass suspected khalwat couples by indiscriminate raids.
Hassan, who is Tawang assemblyman, said the state was increasing its patrols and preventive measures to reduce social ills among Muslims.
“We are more concerned with offences such as consuming alcohol in public and gambling. We want to eradicate them.”
Marina M had something to say about Dr Asri Zainol Abidin, Mufti of Perlis HERE.
**********
Racial And Religious Polemics Still Haunt The Country
By Ahmad Kamil Tahir(Bernama)
After almost 50 years of independence, racial and religious issues should have been water under the bridge for a multi-ethnic nation like Malaysia.
But these sensitive issues remained the polemics of 2006, raised by certain parties under the guise of human and equal rights.
One of their favourites was on the social contract entered into by the major races of the country in founding the nation, which included the special rights of the Malays and the status of Islam as the country's official religion.
The debate was fueled further when the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (Asli) released a report claiming that the equity ownership of the Malays and Bumiputeras had reached 45 percent.
Several Umno leaders disputed the report as its data were conflicting the ones issued by the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) of the Prime Minister's Department, which put it at 18.9 percent.
The Umno leaders claimed that the Asli report was aimed at weakening the struggle for the Malay agenda, alter the social contract and abolish the New Economic Policy (NEP), introduced as an affirmative action to help the Bumiputeras achieve 30 percent equity ownership of the economy.
SENSITIVE ISSUES
Apart from this, the country's political scene in 2006 was also tainted by several religious issues, including the proposal to form the Inter-Faith Commission (IFC), the short-messaging-system (SMS) messages on a group of Muslims denouncing Islam; and cases of non-Muslims fighting for the right to claim the bodies of their dead Muslim relatives.
The proposal to form the IFC offended the Muslims, and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi rejected the idea. He even issued a stern warning against those who intended to play up sensitive racial and religious issues.
The year also saw the Syariah Court's power being questioned when its decision that the late Mount Everest climber Sergeant Mohamad Abdullah, who was formerly a non-Muslim, be given an Islamic burial was challenged by his widow in the Appeals Court.
The apostate issue almost triggered a racial-religious conflict following the spread of SMS messages alleging that national mariner Datuk Azhar Mansor had converted to Christianity and would be baptising scores of "Muslims" at a church in Ipoh.
Police investigations, however, proved that the SMS messages were lies, and Azhar even made a public announcement that he had never renounced Islam.
STERN WARNING
At the Umno General Assembly, held from Nov 13 to Nov 17, Abdullah who is also the party president, stressed that the social contract must be defended and stern action would be taken against those who disrupted the country's harmony by fanning religious and racial sentiments.
Apart from addressing those who disputed the social contract, Abdullah's caution was also directed at some Umno delegates who aroused racial sentiments when debating at the assembly.
The year also saw a "conflict" between Abdullah and his predecessor Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad when the former Prime Minister made public criticisms against the government and Abdullah's leadership.
The verbal attack followed the government's decision to cancel the scenic bridge project which was supposed to replace the Johor Causeway.
It was then followed with the issue of issuing of Approved Permits (APs) to import cars, which Dr Mahathir claimed to be out of controll and beneficial only to a small group of people, besides hurting national carmaker Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional Sdn Bhd's competitiveness.
The socio-economic status of Malays in Penang was also a hot issue in 2006 as several Umno leaders claimed that the state government administration under Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon was marginalising the community.
To the Opposition like DAP, Parti Keadilan Rakyat and PAS, the year 2006 was for preparing themselves for the coming general election.
PAS, for example, could not afford to be complacent as this would lead to a loss of control in Kelantan, where it has only a one-seat majority in the state assembly.
-- BERNAMA
No laughing matter
You can laugh at everything, except at political leaders. Reuters looks at satire in Singapore.( By Geert De Clercq )
CHEWING gum, homosexuality, public protests... the list of things frowned upon is long in Singapore. But satire? Yes, that too. Seriously.
Political humour is playing a bigger role than ever in the city-state, and despite government's insistence that politics is no laughing matter, satirical websites are blossoming.
TalkingCock.com, an irreverent website that relentlessly pokes fun at the Singapore gahmen (government), gets 4 million hits per month in a country of 4.4 million, while popular blog mrbrown.com receives some 20,000 downloads per day for its droll podcasts about life in Singapore, up 10-fold from a year ago.
"These websites touch a popular vein. They deal with issues of everyday life in a language that can be understood in the kopitiam (coffee shop). It's like the parables of Jesus," said researcher Gillian Koh of the Institute of Policy Studies.
Others say government disapproval of these websites has added to their appeal.
Colin Goh is the only public face of the large collective that puts together TalkingCock.com, a website named after the term for "talking nonsense" in "Singlish" - the local patois of English laced with Hokkien Chinese and Malay words.
"The others do not want to reveal their identities, they are too scared," said Goh, a former lawyer with degrees from University College London and New York's Columbia University.
Goh and friends set up TalkingCock in 2000 in New York, where he lives. The project has since grown into a huge, rambling site with dozens of anonymous contributors.
Goh insists the site's focus is on humour, not on politics.
"All humour is about daily life. It just so happens that in Singapore, the government occupies such a large part of our lives," said Goh, who is also an award-winning film director.
"SERIOUSLY"
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is well aware of TalkingCock. In his national day speech on August 20, Lee actually showed a slide of TalkingCock.com.
"If you want humour, you go there. Some of the jokes are not bad. Not all of them," he said.
In another speech on April 1 - April Fool's day - Lee said there was space for political debate in Singapore, but stressed that discussions on politics must be taken seriously.
"Countries can become unstable if political figures are not given basic respect and acceptance," Lee was quoted as saying by state broadcaster Channel NewsAsia.
Goh said he vaguely agrees with the government that jokes are no substitute for real political discourse.
"It is bad for the satirist when people look to the satirist for alternative serious political commentary.
We'd be very happy to go back to our court jester status," he said.
Singapore print and broadcast media are government-owned or controlled, but on the Internet anti-government views abound.
Catherine Lim, Singapore's best-known fiction writer, said the government's allergy to satire is not surprising.
"It's a very Asian, Confucian thing, especially if you take it to the point where you make them lose face.
That is absolutely intolerable, even in a society as modern as Singapore," said Lim, who has angered the government before with her criticisms.
Australian academic Garry Rodan, who has written extensively about Singapore politics, said the Singapore government is not comfortable with political jokes because "humour challenges the notion of a foolproof meritocracy".
Lee has said repeatedly that the government tolerates dissent but would respond to criticism that it disagreed with.
"Because if we don't respond, untruths will be repeated and will be believed, and eventually will be treated as facts and the Government and the leaders will lose the respect of the population and the moral authority to govern," Lee said.
MINCED PORK PODCAST
mrbrown -- the Internet moniker for blogger Lee Kin Mun -- was the first satirist to find out what that response could be.
In July, his weekly column in state-owned newspaper Today was axed after he had poked fun at a series of price hikes that followed soon after the May 6 general election.
"It is not the role of journalists or newspapers in Singapore to champion issues, or campaign for or against the Government," the information ministry wrote in a blistering reply.
In his National Day speech, Lee said the satirical column had "hit out wildly at the Government and in a very mocking and dismissive sort of tone".
One of mrbrown's podcasts had a starring role in the run-up to the elections when it mocked the way the government harped on for days about an opposition candidate's bungled attempt to submit an election form.
mrbrown's podcast parody of the affair as a food stall vendor hounding a customer over an order of a bowl of minced pork noodles was downloaded 200,000 times and spread like wildfire in the blogoshpere.
Like others in Singapore's lively Internet scene, both mrbrown and Goh are worried about an upcoming revision of the penal code, which could take into account "new technological developments" such as the Internet.
"At any time, the government could drop the guillotine on us. So, not very funny times, I'm afraid," Goh said.
Malaysia Ahmad Badawi Malaysia Khalwat Singapore
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