I was at a discussion yesterday afternoon.
Where, with whom, and what about, I am not at liberty to say.
It was a discussion which proceeded on the basis of confidentiality. I shall honour this.
Let me share with you, though, the sense I had when I left the discussion.
Listening to the views of some of those present and looking at all that has been happening around left me with a sense that those who are pushing their ‘Islam-as I say-tion’ agenda are going into overdrive mode.
What does this mean for you and I and every Malaysian who cherishes the right to choose how we live?
You haven’t a clue?
Where have you been?
Look at what has happened to Revathi and her family.
Look at Lina and the family that she does not have.
Look at how a proposal to improve the election process by the introduction of the use of indelible ink must first be approved by the Fatwa Council.
Look at the raid and seizure at the restaurants in Bangsar recently.
Look at Siti Idayu, the singer detained in Ipoh.
Look at the demolished church in Gua Musang.
Look at the temple demolitions that have occurred.
Look at the constant push to set up religious vigilante groups.
Look at the increasing surrender of our civil courts to the Syariah courts.
I am not prepared to accept this hijacking of our nation by a small group who would hoodwink us into believing that they represent the majority in this country.
If you, Muslim or not, are also not ready to put up with these hijackers, you cannot choose to remain silent anymore.
Silence is no longer an option.
You must speak up.
You must make this an election issue.
Did not Pak Lah promise us that he would be a PM for all Malaysians?
Has he?
Has he been a PM to Revathi and Lina?
Did he not promise us a tougher stance on corruption?
Has he delivered?
Did he not promise us an environment conducive for constructive discussion and criticism, creativity and openness, and to create a platform for society’s participation in the debate on national issues?
Has he delivered?
Did he not direct the formation of the IPCMC?
Does he think we have forgotten?
Malaysiakini today reported that Pak Lah has been urged to suspend the IGP pending investigations by the ACA over allegations of corruption.
Do you think he will?
And if you think not, why do you suppose that?
Perhaps Nazri’s oft-repeated stance as follows will tell you why.
Another report in Malaysiakini entitled ‘Minor amendments to election laws’ narrates the frustration voiced by opposition MPs whilst debating proposed amendments to the Election Act, 1958. They were lamenting the lack of independence of the Election Commission.
Let me reproduce here Nazri’s response.
“The EC has to pass through Parliament. This is the reality of the political system in this country. Anything that needs to be done, has to go through Parliament. And amendments will have to go through majority vote in Parliament. And BN has 92 percent of the seats in Parliament. That’s the reality. “It is not what I or what Sri Gading or Mambong wants. It is the will of the people, because the people place BN to take charge of the country. If you are upset, please go and scold them now. In the next election, go to the ground and tell the people not to vote for BN. We make decisions based on the mandate that was given to us by the people.
In a ‘Repeal the ISA’ debate with Lim Kit Siang some years back, Nazri repeated the same.
In the ‘review the Salleh Abas’ sacking’ forum early this year and, more recently, the ‘Nazri-Zaid’ debate on the judiciary organised by the Bar Council, Nazri took the same, arrogant stance.
This is Nazri’s challenge to us.
‘In the next election, go to the ground and tell the people not to vote for BN’.
It is borne of an arrogant notion that no matter what BN does or does not do, we, the voters continue to give them the mandate to rule.
They can make pre-election promises, yet not deliver. And the suckers that we are will continue to vote them in.
If Musa is still IGP and Pak Lah no longer speaks of the IPCMC, you now know why.
If like me, you too are tired of this, the answer stares you in the face.
VOTE FOR CHANGE.
The People's Parliament 
joehancl
July 11, 2007
Show yourself, clear thinking, compassionate muslims. Stand and be counted. Together, lobby(whatever) for a good Govt. Together glorify Islam.
Paul Warren
July 12, 2007
But Haris, are they all not just following what they are supposed to? I am sure for every act of theirs they will be able to point out a supporting or sanctifying chapter or verse from either the Quran or the Hadiths.
Paul,
i am prepared to publicly debate any Muslim who says he can justify all the episodes I have listed in my post by reference to the Holy Qur’an. Any hadith which may justify those actions but are at odds with the Holy Qur’an must, by its very terms, be rejected as false. To hold otherwise would connote disobedience on the part of the Holy Prophet to the scripture. An obedient prophet is foundational to Islam.
Why else do you think the vast majority of Muslims remain silent to this assault?
For the same reason that the greater majority of non-Muslims remain silent. Fear, apathy, self-interest, lack of knowledge as to what is truly Islam.
9/11 required a condemnation without reservation. Yet I have not come across a sigle Malaysian Muslim who is able to do it. What is worse, there seems to be a celebratory attitude about some kind of success in the fall of the two towers.
Not true and not fair. For what it was worth, Dr. M, as I recall, roundly condemned 9/11. There were others.
Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto attempted to define cummunism for all time. Yet communism as the world experienced it and as we have come to know today is as defined by the actions of Lenin, Stalin and Mao Tse Tung and the like.
Islam Hadhari had a vague definition put forward by its author Abdullah Badawi. Since then however, all those monumental events and occassions you have set out above have transpired. Indeed in comparison to all that happened since Mahathir’s claim that Malaysia was already an Islamic State, it would seem that it is Badawi’s Islam Hadhari that seems to have tipped the powers into the hands of the Islamic Authorities. It would seem to me that Islam Hadhari has been introduced by Badawi to blind side all of us so that while we remain appeased and comforted by the what might seem to be a “moderate” form of Islam, the real Islam is thrust upon us. Badawi is after all a graduate of Islamic Studies whose leanings would be towards anything supported by his faith. And we will never know what it is.
Honestly, as much as I have hope in the likes of people like yourself and Imtiaz and so on, the fact that the silent majority remains stunted and silent while the minority get on with active impelentation of their ideas and ideals worries me. It would seem to me that I cannot be comforted by the silence of the majority who by their silence enable the minority to ransack their faith. Indeed the majority have by their silence submitted to the authority of the minority and so it shall be.
Let it not be forgotten that as the silent majority of Muslims must surely be held accountable for the hijacking of their faith by a minority, there is a silent majority of Malaysians generally ( Muslims and non-Muslims alike. This probably includes you and I and a great many who have commented in this blog ) who must be responsible for allowing this same minority to hijack the administration of this country.
That being so, I am actually quite afraid that what you suggest, about getting more of the opposition into parliament and denying BN the two third majority might just speed up the next stage of the Islamic agenda. This may just culminate in violence as a means to achieving their goals. We don’t need to define it, but we all know what those goals are.
Forget PKR and PAS. PAS has never disavowed its quest for an Islamic state. Even if it announced so, I would not trust them to keep their word. As for PKR, nothing that I have seen over the last few months has done anything to allay my distrust for their ambitions.
As I see it, for me at least, what I am left with is DAP and civil society. Tall order, yes, but my late father always urged me to try. So I will.
yh
July 12, 2007
its not just about islam. its for the future of this country. stand up and be united against the freedom robbers disguised in religious robes, we must, if we want to retain our dignity and freedom of choice.
BobSam
July 12, 2007
The person in the mirror has to wake up.
The person in the mirror has to take the initiative.
The person in the mirror has to find out their ADUN & MP’s mobile number and service center fax number.
Send an SMS, and fax a note to ur ADUN & ur MP.
Inform him/her that as a voter, you are very concerned. You need reassurance that:
i) the constitution will be upheld at all times;
ii) the rukun negara is not something for excercise book covers only;
iii) add other issues here.
Then tell the ADUN/MP, that you will also be forwarding this SMS to 10 other voters in his/her district. You will request that the receipients will also SMS the Adun/MP and 10 others. This way, a chain mail will be created.
The telco companies will also be very happy. (For the record, I dont work for a telco).
Lets get the fear of God (or rather the action of the voters) into our ADUN’s & MP’s.
Farida
July 12, 2007
Truly, in the light of all the revelations, I want to wear a black armband this year for the country’s 50th ‘celebration’.
I see death in so many things – the death of integrity and justice in high places, the death of accountability and honour in government, the death of love and compassion for one’s fellowmen, the death of the sanctity of Parliament, the death of statesmanship….
Blood in many cultures is shed as an act of repentance, to cleanse oneself of one’s sins, to say sorry to the Almighty If that had been so in Parliament, I would have accepted the butchering. But not so. They just took their callousness one step further!
I mourn what this country has become.
Paul Warren
July 12, 2007
Haris, Thank you for the responses.
Not only Mahathir, but there were other poiticians, who probably needed to be politically correct, operating in a worldly playground. But those who did not need to care for the international playground..well, I can only recall 9/11 and the days thereafter, the CNN and BBC moving from one country to another, from New York, to London, to Hong Kong to Japan and then to Palestine to Pakistan, to Indonesia nd to Malaysia too. One old time Anwar stooge who headed one of those GLCs tried telling me how the Jews did it and how the CIA had prior to the planes crashing had weakened the foundation or the base of the building and that is why they fell straight down instead of toppling over and spreading themselves across New York. No wonder we had the kind of financial crisis we saw earlier. But anyway, that is not so much an issue now.
I whole heartedly agree with you on the last point about the opposition parties. I tried telling one Keadilan insider that the best thing they can all do is to fold up the party and they can either choose PAS or DAP. After all I cannot see PAS going away as much as I want to see them go. But if only Malays and to some extent Indians can join DAP in large numbers, it does not have to be branded a chinese based party anymore. They can even have a name change if DAP sounded too much like PAP or too Chinese for people to swallow. Indeed, I dare say that if Anwar is really dead serious about giving to the country or as John F Kennedy asked, ask what you can do for your country, I would tell him to go close down Keadilan and save us all the confusion and go join DAP!!! Let there just be DAP and PAS!!! I think I can live with that. (See, I am not a Malay/Muslim and I can still have a place for PAS….and you can’t!! :-)) The only reason I can see Anwar will want Keadilan to exist would be to sabotage the opposition to enable once again for a big BN victory because Keadilan only serves that purpose and nothing else. That was its purpose in the last GE as well.
As for the silent non-Muslims, really beyond packing our bags and leaving, what else can we do short of getting violent? Violence is a non-starter simply because of the overwhelming Malay/Muslim numbers in and out of uniforms. They have more mat rempits and they have the pemuda Umno…Ofcourse we have the MCA and UMNO Youth. But they are just too busy licking UMNO ass which leaves the rest of us. Just remember, beyond the NGOs and peolple like yourselves, MIC stayed well away from Revathi? MIC is supposed to be Indian. She is bloody Indian! Or did they stay away because MIC has nothing to do with religion? Then what ever happened to the Hindu Sangam or whatever? Too cowed to front up for her! Revathi has to make the journey out of Islam all by herself. Not the easiest journey and indeed the most difficult journey any Malaysian can claim to have attempted. She is still on that journey. Suddenly climbing Mt Everest seems to be a walk in the park!
JJ
July 13, 2007
It’s not that the non-muslims are not prepared to make their presence felt in the election. When the alternative is PAS, BN is the lesser evil. And so long as PKR sleeps with PAS, they will be viewed in the same light.
Dear JJ,
The sentiment you have expressed is increasingly felt amongst voters. The error, I think, is in confining your choice to the existing mainstream parties. Allow me to illustrate.
I am registered to vote in PJ Selatan. My present MP is Donald Lim. I voted for him the last time, giving in to the sentiment of choosing from the two of lesser evils. His opponent, Sivarasa, stood on a Keadilan ticket. Whilst I like and respect Siva, I do not trust his party. And I distrust Keadilan more than I do BN. So I gave Donald my vote.
This time round, if I find that Donald has not been up to the mark and if the opposition candidate is similarly not acceptable, I will strive to find and persuade a respected member of the community to offer himself, failing which I will offer myself.
However, a little bird has whispered in my ear that this time round, the opposition candidate will be worthy of our vote.
Our PM has not dared to make the unpopular move. I read in the papers that he had brushed aside claims of ill-treatment by Revathi as wild allegations. It appears to be he is like a “katak di bawah tempurung”, or like an ostrich. He needs to rein in the “moral police”. I like the views expressed by the Perlis Mufti. But with the elections near, I am not holding my breath that anything will change in the near future.
Cheers.
oA
July 13, 2007
.
Dear Sir,
Do you suppose that there is a clandestine “master plan” in play to change the social construct of the nation to cater to the vision 2020?
It seems that the govt. is pretty much useless in a “normal constitutional” sense though and a theocracy
system is gaining momentum and more brazen with each passing years.
If i remember correctly, the infamy “in law” once said that the nation in heading towards a theocracy state which was surprisingly said in a very resolute tone as if he knew that nothing can be done to change it.
There is something out there which I am pretty sure that
is veering the nation to the wrong direction and hopefully you or maybe some one out there who knows can share this information.
Dear oA,
Have written about this agenda to ‘Islam-as I say-ise this country. You may wish to read it at http://www.accin-badailies.org
.
JJ
July 14, 2007
Dear Haris,
Thanks for your response and well said. My vote has gone to the opposition more times than BN. However, in the light of significant inroad made by PAS in 1999 and where the other opposition parties did not have any increase in representation, I hope you will agree that BN would have to be the choice. I cannot remember who the opposition candidate was for my constituency but if there is a viable one, and if that party is dissociated from PAS, I will certainly seriously consider the option.
I want to thank you for writing about these issues. These things affect us and certainly keeps us informed since the govt has decided that we will not get these from the newspapers.
Cheers.
Paul Warren
July 14, 2007
The one time PAS was given the leading opposition role, like the crocodiles that they are they tried so hard to push through their loudly launched Islamic State document where they were going to surrender ultimate authority to an unelected council of Ulamas. Just like in Iran. They are the worst possible liers with Nik Aziz with the most poisonous venom. Ofcourse they now don’t even mention that document, because to deny it or its goals would be, to them at least, to deny Islam. That would be as good as apostasising or blaspheming.
And Keadilan wants to go to bed with them. And they want to go to bed with DAP too. Slime balls DAP should just take that intention of Keadilan’s and shove it into their posteriors, instead they are having secret talks with them! We certainly have a bunch of idiots within the ranks of the opposition unfortunately. The point is Keadilan breathes today, not becaue it has mass support. It is still limping around only because DAP bothers to talk to them. And PAS bothers to talk to them. If both PAS and DAP abandon and dismiss Keadilan as nothing but spoilers at the party, Keadilan will just disintegrate and vanish. And that is what needs to happen and fast!
BobSam
July 17, 2007
The silent majority of the non-Malays have always viewed PAS with concern. They have some great leaders & orators, but at the end of the day, they are cut from the same cloth as Umno Youth, as proven when the Gerakan WP called for the censure of the “Gentleman” from Perak, PAS threatened the non-moslems with May 13th.
I am not a fan of DSAI or PKR, although I did my share for Nat, whom I do not know. Nevertheless if DAP, PKR, even Gerakan, PPP, IPF, PBS, and a few other East M’sian parties come together under an alternate alliance, there might be some hope. Work with PAS, where some locales where PAS has majority support is left to PAS to fight, whilst this new alliance challenges BN in straight fights.
Do what BN does best. Their component parties, MCA & Gerakan go out to the non-Moslems and tell them about the “realities”. These non’s accept it, and in turn vote for BN.
Anyway, its so heartwarming to know that after 50 years of Independence, our Heroes of Independence is a lady who stood up for Batik outfits against the relentless onslaught of “western” clothes which is a Jewish conspiracy. Tunku, Tun Ismail, Tun Onn Jaafar, etc were not as important.
By the way, have a read of this: http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v3/news.php?id=273699
I m sure both Haris & MIS should have some interesting views on the above statement.
bamboo
July 22, 2007
is there any chance that enlightened people like you,malik imtiaz et al will form a non racial based political party in malaysia?
Hi bamboo,
I canot speak for Imtiaz. for myself, I do not see the formation of a new non-racial based party in the short term, certainly not before the anticipated elections.
Although they have a serious perception that the leadership needs to look into, I truly believe that DAP is non race-based.
Rather than think of forming a new party at this stage, I would rather look into how civil society ( that means you and I ) can work together with those parties that have shown themselves to share the same aspirations as we do : justice and equality for all in a democratic society that upholds the constitution.
Is it not possible to envisage that civil society might offer its own independent candidates in the forthcoming elections?
Think about it.
bamboo
July 23, 2007
yes. i think there is not enough time to form a new political party before the coming elections.
I sincerely hope to see some of you who are fair minded to run as independent candidates, at least to dent the arrogance of the BN parliamentarians like nazri aziz. also as the first step to repair the damage done to our judiciary,police force,education etc over the past 25 years.