tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76872692024-03-07T15:02:36.436+08:00On the Shoulders of Giants<br>
"We are like dwarfs sitting on the shoulders of giants. We see more, and things that are more distant, than they did, not because our sight is superior or because we are taller than they, but because they raise us up, and by their great stature add to ours." <br>
<br>John of Salisbury (1115~1180)
<br>David BC Tanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16102898507435707042noreply@blogger.comBlogger452125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687269.post-26661606488610222242016-05-29T23:39:00.001+08:002016-05-29T23:40:25.228+08:00Is Hadi's bill about hudud punishments?<div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 25px;">
MALAYSIAKINI: </div>
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To save BN's non-Malay components from the embarrassment of letting Hadi's Private Member's Bill on syariah court's criminal justification to complete its first reading, Prime Minister Najib Razak reportedly <a href="https://m.malaysiakini.com/news/343257" style="background: 0px 0px; color: rgb(41, 121, 255) !important; cursor: pointer;"><span style="font-weight: 700;">denied</span></a> that bill was about hudud law.</div>
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"I would like to clarify that the amendment (bill) is not hudud law, it is just to enhance the punishment from six times (of the rotan) to a few times, depending on the offences," he said.</div>
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He also said, "It also involves the syariah courts and only involves Muslims. It has nothing to do with non-Muslims."</div>
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Najib could be right about the second point as this bill now seems to be governing offences involving only Muslims.</div>
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But is this not about hudud?</div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;">No hudud law, only hudud punishments and offences</span></div>
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There is no such thing as hudud law. Hudud refers to punishments and offences.</div>
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Take the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code II (1993) 2015 for example. It metes out three types of punishments:</div>
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i. Hudud (fixed) - applicable on theft, robbery, adultery, false accusation of adultery, sodomy, intoxication, heresy (called "hudud offences")</div>
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ii. Qisas (retaliatory) - applicable on homicide and causing bodily injuries (called "qisas Offences")</div>
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iii. Ta'zir (discretionary) - residual punishment in the forms of imprisonment and diyat (blood money) for hudud and qisas offences when the hudud or qisas punishments cannot be meted out because of evidence or circumstantial reasons.</div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;">Najib-Hadi's gradualist approach</span></div>
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Kelantan's (and also Terengganu's) syariah criminal codes cannot be implemented because of two obstacles.</div>
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The first lies in the ninth schedule of the federal constitution, which places criminal justice in the federal list and syariah court as item 1 in the state list.</div>
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In Item 1, the power of the syariah court includes "creation and punishment of offences by persons professing the religion of Islam against the precepts of that religion, except in regards to matters included in the federal list".</div>
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The second lies in the Syariah Court (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 (Act 355). Section 2 of the Act imposes the so-called 3-5-6 limit on punishments meted out by syariah courts: imprisonment up to three years, fine up to RM 5,000 and whipping up to six lashes.</div>
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Hadi tabled a similar Private Member's Bill last June. Both his bills last year and this year wish to remove the 3-5-6 cap. But Hadi's bill this year is less ambitious.</div>
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First of all, "death penalty" is kept out of syariah court's reach. This immediately takes out stoning for adultery by married offenders.</div>
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Secondly, while both bills make reference to tem 1 in state list of the ninth schedule, reference – presumably "except in regards to matters included in the federal list" – is used to exclude offences already covered by the federal law. That excludes the hudud offences of theft and robbery – which imposes amputation – and also interestingly sodomy, which is outlawed as unnatural sex under the Penal Code.</div>
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Last year, such exclusion was not heard off. Even doctors supportive of hudud punishments offered to perform amputation.</div>
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Caution however must be taken when one looks into the description (<em style="color: rgb(33, 33, 33) !important; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", "Book Antiqua", Palatino, serif !important;">huraian</em>) of the bill.</div>
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Paragraph 3 reads, "… <em style="color: rgb(33, 33, 33) !important; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", "Book Antiqua", Palatino, serif !important;">Pindaan ini bertujuan untuk memperjelas bidang kuasa jenayah Mahkamah Syariah ke atas orang yang menganut agama Islam bukan hanya terhad kepada kesalahan terhadap perintah agama tetapi termasuk apa-apa kesalahan lain yang berhubungan dengan apa-apa perkara yang disebut dalam Butiran 1 Senarai Negeri yang dinyatakan dalam Jadual Kesembilan Perlembagaan Perseketuan</em>".</div>
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If the description (which might have been copied from the 2015 bill) reveals the real intention of the bill drafter, then Hadi actually hopes to change the constitutional provision that confines syariah offences to the violations of "precepts of religion" (<em style="color: rgb(33, 33, 33) !important; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", "Book Antiqua", Palatino, serif !important;">perintah agama</em>) by a normal bill.</div>
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However, the Najib-Hadi pact seems to pursue a gradualist approach in expanding syariah rule.</div>
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Not only the most controversial hudud punishments of amputation and stoning are taken out, the non-Muslims are also now excluded by excluding offences of theft, robbery, homicide and bodily injuries, where non-Muslims might be victims or witnesses to crimes committed by Muslims.</div>
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This makes Najib-Hadi's agenda of syariah expansion look more reasonable and acceptable amongst the Muslims.</div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;">Some but not all hudud punishments enabled</span></div>
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What are the outcomes if Hadi's bill is retabled and passed in the next parliamentary session?</div>
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Based on the restrictive interpretation, three hudud offences in the Kelantan's code - theft, robbery, sodomy - and all qisas offences – homicide and causing bodily injuries – are excluded because they are already covered by the Penal Code.</div>
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Four offences – adultery (zina), false accusation of adultery (qasaf), intoxication (syurb) and heresy (irtidad dan riddah) – will be enabled but one more hudud punishment – stoning for married offenders – is excluded because it means to cause death.</div>
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This means that five more hudud punishments under the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code II (1993) 2015 [KSCC II] would be enabled:</div>
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i. for adultery by unmarried offenders, whipping of 100 lashes</div>
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ii. for false accusation of adultery, whipping of 100 lashes</div>
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iii. for intoxication, whipping of 40-80 lashes</div>
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iv. for heresy, forfeiture of property</div>
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v. for heresy, imprisonment for an unspecified period in the hope of the offender's repentance (the constitutionality of last two may be contested (see table below)</div>
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Hadi's bill is therefore about some hudud punishments – whipping is clearly one – albeit not all. Najib lies. Will his BN allies buy his lie as explanation?</div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;">Opening the floodgate</span></div>
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If Hadi's bill is passed, it will affect not only Kelantan and Terengganu, which have in place virtually suspended syariah law that provides hudud punishments.</div>
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Other states may follow suit. Remember that proposals to expand syariah rule were made by Umno lawmakers in Selangor and Johor?</div>
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Also, the punishments may also be expanded.</div>
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For example, it will not make sense for unmarried offenders to be whipped with 100 lashes while married offenders go unpunished because they cannot be stoned.</div>
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How many lashes will married offenders get if the principle of heavier punishment for married offenders than the unmarried ones is to be followed?</div>
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The passing of Hadi's bill - if it happens in October - it concerns more than the Kelantan's code. It is a question of floodgates.</div>
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Just last December, two university students in Aceh were <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3377187/Screaming-agony-woman-caned-crowd-close-proximity-man-not-married-Indonesian-region-s-sharia-law.html" style="background: 0px 0px; color: rgb(41, 121, 255) !important; cursor: pointer;"><span style="font-weight: 700;">whipped</span></a> in the public for "close proximity" (khalwat). The girl collapsed and was rushed to hospital after receiving five lashes.</div>
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Malaysians need open and respectful dialogues and debates on whether we want to see such scenes - for example 80 lashes for drinking, 100 lashes for adultery - in Kelantan and beyond. We need to hear each other out.</div>
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In these dialogues and debates, we must remember that Malaysia was founded in 1963 and her foundations are the Malaysia Agreement and the Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) Report, which make her a secular federation.</div>
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WONG CHIN HUAT is a Research Fellow with Penang Institute, the state government think-tank on public policy.</div>
David BC Tanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16102898507435707042noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687269.post-58133053900116648782015-10-26T18:59:00.004+08:002015-10-26T18:59:23.470+08:00Tipping the scales - have our courts lost the balance? <div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 15px;">
<b><a href="http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/316991" target="_blank">MALAYSIAKINI:</a></b><br />In PP vs Kok Wah Kuan [2007] 5 MLJ 174, the Federal Court said (Abdul Hamid Mohamad PCA writing for the majority): “Our constitution does have the features of the separation of powers and at the same time, it contains features which do not strictly comply with the doctrine.</div>
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"To what extent the doctrine applies depends on the provisions of the constitution. A provision of the constitution cannot be struck out on the ground that it contravenes the doctrine. Similarly, no provision of the law may be struck out as unconstitutional if it is not inconsistent with the constitution, even though it may be inconsistent with the doctrine.</div>
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"The doctrine is not a provision of the Malaysian constitution even though no doubt, it had influenced the framers of the Malaysian constitution, just like democracy. The constitution provides for elections, which is a democratic process.</div>
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"That does not make democracy a provision of the constitution in that where any law is undemocratic it is inconsistent with the constitution and therefore void.”</div>
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If the doctrine of separation of powers does not exist in the constitution, the decision of the Federal Court in the Kok Wah Kuan case suggests that the judiciary will not act as a strong check and balance against the excesses of either the legislature or the executive, i.e the government and Parliament/state assemblies respectively.</div>
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Five recent decisions of the Malaysian courts, at either Federal Court or Court of Appeal level, appear to confirm this observation.</div>
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The courts in these five cases have shown little inclination to protect the individual and uphold the individual’s fundamental liberties in the face of prohibitions or limitations from the government through the application of provisions of the law enacted by either Parliament or state legislatures.</div>
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What the courts appear to be doing in these five cases is, on the one hand, to give a wide interpretation to any provision that allows the government or Parliament to restrict the scope of fundamental liberties. Whilst, on the other hand, to give a narrow interpretation to the rights of the citizen or individual, and to any challenge to the restriction of that right.</div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px;">
<img alt="" src="http://mk-cdn.mkini.net/845/b395941472d256d60c884d4a524e5ec3.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: right; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 1714.3px;" />In <strong>Azmi Sharom’s case</strong>, the Federal Court in effect held that pre-Merdeka legislation, namely the Sedition Act 1948, which defined and criminalised seditious speech, need not be applied subject to such modifications as would be necessary to take into account of provisions with respect to the right to freedom of expression in the constitution.</div>
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The transitional provisions accorded to Parliament to accept and preserve pro-colonial pre-Merdeka prohibitions against free speech were held to outweigh any obligation on the part of Parliament to apply its mind to ensure that restrictions were only imposed for the purposes permitted by the constitution.</div>
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<span class="subtitle">Can assemble but must pay price</span></div>
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In the <strong>PP vs Yuneswaran case</strong>, the Court of Appeal held that it was lawful for Parliament to criminalise the failure of an individual to give 10 days’ prior notification of the holding of a peaceful assembly as required under the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012.</div>
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The court took the view that the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012 “contains procedural provisions that are regulatory in nature. The non-compliance with those procedures does not stop a citizen from exercising his right to assemble peaceably and without arms. In other words, there is really no restriction on the right to assemble peaceably and without arms...”</div>
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What the court seems to be saying is that a citizen can choose to exercise the right to assemble peaceably and without arms without giving the required prior notice, but then has to pay the price for it.</div>
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The penalty for non-compliance is not a restriction of that right, the courts maintain. The courts have not fully appreciated that allowing a criminal sanction to operate in relation to procedural non-compliance is a <em style="color: rgb(33, 33, 33) !important; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif !important;">de facto</em>restriction of the right to assemble peaceably and without arms.</div>
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A freedom to assemble that causes a commission of a criminal offence cannot be said to be a “freedom”.</div>
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<img alt="" src="http://mk-cdn.mkini.net/480/8e66fa38f58d7c4f11910cbe2712c78b.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 1714.3px;" />In the <strong>ZI Publications case</strong>, the freedom of expression of an individual Muslim, Ezra Zaid, was allowed to be circumscribed by state law which the constitution allows to regulate the personal law of a person professing the religion of Islam.</div>
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Instead of defining a restriction on a fundamental liberty narrowly, the court generously interpreted the provisions of a state religious enactment as being of sufficiently wide scope to restrict an individual’s right to freedom of expression granted by the constitution.</div>
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A wide ambit was given to the scope of “personal law”, which appears to include freedom of expression. In balancing the constitutional freedom of expression with a constitutionally-permitted regulation of the religion of Islam, the Federal Court came down in favour of the state over the individual.</div>
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In this case the offending act was not even committed by the individual himself, but by a company.</div>
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However, all concepts of separate legal personality were cast aside and the acts of the company, and of the company’s employees, were deemed the act of the individual, for whom the company was the alter ego, since the individual was both a director and majority shareholder of the company.</div>
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The fact that at the material time the book published by the company was not listed as a prohibited publication under the relevant legislation, the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984, was not deemed to be of sufficient significance.</div>
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<span class="subtitle">Ground-breaking decision set aside</span></div>
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Similarly, in <strong>State Government of Negri Sembilan & Ors vs Muhammad Juzaili & Others</strong>, a case involving three transgender women charged with the offence of cross-dressing in Negri Sembilan, Islamic “personal law” once again trumped fundamental liberties.</div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px;">
<img alt="" src="http://mk-cdn.mkini.net/946/54650be19067a6134140e214a4968dd1.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 1714.3px;" />In this transgender case, and in the fifth decision, <strong>See Chee How & Anor vs Pengerusi Suruhanjaya Pilihanraya Malaysia</strong>, the courts chose however to arrive at their decision on the basis of legal procedure rather than on the substantive issues.</div>
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The Federal Court used the issue of wrong procedure to set aside the ground-breaking rights-upholding decision of the Court of Appeal in favour of the three transgender women.</div>
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In denying See Chee How and Pauls Baya leave to appeal, the Federal Court held that the arguments in the case failed to meet the threshold for the granting of leave (permission) required by either Section 96(a) or (b) of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964.</div>
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The Federal Court also denied leave on the ground that the application was academic, given that the Election Commission had already completed its constituency re-delineation processes and submitted its report to the prime minister as provided for in the constitution.</div>
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The fact that the report had not yet been placed before Parliament, and was therefore not yet acted upon, was not considered relevant.</div>
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A more detailed analysis of some of these five cases awaits the release of full written judgments and reasoning.</div>
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However, these five cases suggest the reluctance of the courts to play their proper role as guardians of the fundamental liberties of individuals.</div>
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All too easily, the courts appear prepared to subordinate the rights of the individual to that of the state, even to the extent of giving a generous interpretation to what ought to be narrowly-construed restrictions of fundamental liberties.</div>
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An active protection in favour of individual liberties does not, at this point in our journey of nationhood, seem to be the preferred flavour of the Malaysian courts.</div>
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ANDREW KHOO is co-chairperson of the Human Rights Committee of the Bar Council Malaysia. He writes here in his personal capacity.</div>
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><br /><br />Read more: <a href="https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/316991#ixzz3pfdaHqCM" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #003399; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/316991#ixzz3pfdaHqCM</a></span>David BC Tanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16102898507435707042noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687269.post-64332181344188386732015-10-12T18:35:00.002+08:002015-10-12T18:45:05.339+08:00What does a prison for mothers with infants look like?<br />
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Babies and children living behind bars with mothers in Victorian jails alongside murderers</h1>
<div class="story-header_timestamp" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #81929a; font-size: 11px; font-weight: 700; margin-bottom: 2px; padding-right: 5px;" time="2015-09-05T11:00:00.000Z">
September 5, 2015 7:00pm</div>
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<span class="story-header_byline" style="box-sizing: inherit; padding-right: 10px;">Lucie Morris-Marr</span><span class="story-header_byline_title" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"></span><span class="story-header_source" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Sunday Herald Sun</span></div>
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</header><article class="w_story-content" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans Regular', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><article class="story-content" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;"><figure class="story-asset" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;"><img src="http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/11770a38d448252159f65a0a4b80d3c7?width=650" height="366" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; margin-bottom: 7px; max-width: 100%; width: 650px;" width="650" /><figcaption class="description" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #81929a; font-size: 12px; padding: 0px 55px;">A guard watches an inmate mother put her baby into his cot.</figcaption></figure><div class="intro" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px 55px;">
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NEARLY a dozen babies and children are living behind bars with their mothers in Victorian jails alongside infamous murderers.</div>
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The 11 children, all under five years old, are sleeping in cells with their criminal mothers in frequently overcrowded jails.</div>
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Spread between the maximum security Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in Deer Park and minimum security Tarrengower Prison near Bendigo, the children have to leave their mothers when they reach the age of five — either into the care of family or a foster carer.</div>
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The number of incarcerated children reflects the dramatic increase of inmates entering the women’s prisons over the past 10 years.</div>
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The DPFC facility houses 356 inmates including some of Australia’s most notorious criminals, including gangland matriarch Judy Moran, 71, child killer Donna Fitchett, 56, and student attacker Sarah Cheney, 31.</div>
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Critics have been outspoken about inmates raising children in jails, saying it’s not in the best interest of a child to be tied to mothers with deep-rooted criminal problems.</div>
However, Geelong-based psychologist Helen Barnacle, 61, disagrees, saying the Mothers and Children Program should be expanded to accommodate more children to be with their mothers in jail.</article></article>
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She also believes fathers in minimum security jails in Victoria should be allowed to apply for the same right.</div>
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<span class="h3" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #232323; display: block; font-family: 'Guardian Sans Cond', 'Open Sans Regular', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 25px; padding-top: 15px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">SPECIAL REPORT: BABIES BEHIND BARS</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">IT’S a bitter sweet scene in the grassed exercise yards of Victoria’s two women’s prisons when the children come out to play.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They giggle, they run. They demand everyone and anyone join in.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Piggy backs are their favourite.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Again, again,” the toddlers squeal, tugging on the prison-issue green trousers of their assembled “aunties” meandering around chatting during their morning exercise.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Apart from the games and the usual, much-enjoyed attention they are just happy to be racing around outside.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the spring sunlight, gulping in the fresh air.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Freedom, of sorts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For these young children spend each day of their young lives locked up behind the alarmed, barbed wire walls of prison, alongside those being punished for serious crime.</span></div>
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<figure class="story-asset story-asset-secondary image-full" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img src="http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/fa5670a367ad70dd7a56172c0c868ae6?width=650" height="488" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; margin-bottom: 7px; max-width: 100%; width: 650px;" width="650" /><figcaption class="description" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #81929a; font-size: 12px; padding: 0px 55px; text-align: left;">A prisoner walks her son around the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre grounds.</figcaption></figure><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They are the innocent ones.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Their mothers and other inmates? Not so much.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Drug offences. Fraud. Grievous bodily harm. Manslaughter. Murder.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All of the above.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many of the children have literally been born into Victoria’s corrections system, going straight from a guarded hospital delivery room at Melbourne’s St. Vincent’s Hospital to a basic cot in an austere, slate-grey jail cell with their mother far out of the city.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A world away from our trendy cafes where tribes of glossy carefree mums gather, arriving with their offspring in $1600 Bugaboo strollers and ordering soy lattes without a care for the price tag.</span></div>
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<figure class="story-asset story-asset-secondary image-full" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img src="http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/e502f5094084157cc2290a1f0e2fedcf?width=650" height="488" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; margin-bottom: 7px; max-width: 100%; width: 650px;" width="650" /><figcaption class="description" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #81929a; font-size: 12px; padding: 0px 55px; text-align: left;">A prisoner with her baby son in her cell at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre.</figcaption></figure><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A <i style="box-sizing: inherit;">Sunday Herald Sun </i>investigation has uncovered the daily regimen for the 11 children and babies currently doing time with their inmate mothers across the state.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All are aged between a few months and just under five years old.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The children who live behind bars at Victoria’s two women’s prisons, whose populations have exploded over the past ten years, have little experience of the outside world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At least half spend their lives in the maximum security Dame Phyllis Frost Centre (DPFC) in Deer Park, which currently has 359 inmates and for nearly 20 years has been dogged by self-harming, suicide attempts and frequent scandal.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here, the children are growing up amid some seriously infamous Melbourne lady folk.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These include gangland matriarch Judy Moran, 71; swinging killer Bernadette Denny, 47; and pensioner murderer Rachel Hegerty, 38, to name just a few.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All are serving sentences at DPFC for hideously violent murders which shocked Victoria.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The other children live with their mothers (and far less dangerous comrades) in Tarrengower, a minimum security facility near Bendigo which currently houses 51.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jail life for the children, along with the endless regimen of rules, the noise and the countless locked internal doors, is their home.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And for many, always has been.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They will be granted freedom of course.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But not until they reach school age.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A former prisoner has described in detail to the <i style="box-sizing: inherit;">Sunday Herald Sun </i>the devastating moment when the child finally leaves — a day that justice sources say infact engulfs the entire prison with sadness.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Helen Barnacle, 61, who fought for the rules to be changed to keep her baby daughter, Alice, now 35, in jail, has told how she felt “suicidal” as she handed over her child at the age of four.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I just remember walking, carrying her in my arms and walking down to the gate knowing that I was going to hand her over to my brother,” Helen says.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I didn’t think it was okay to let her see me crying and so upset about being separated from her.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sources are keen to stress however, that the decision to allow a child to live with their criminal mother being punished in jail isn’t taken lightly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All incarcerated mothers — either on remand or serving sentences — in the two women’s prisons are eligible to apply to the Mothers and Children Program to care for their young children.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Unsurprisingly, conditions for approval are extremely strict; the final decision rests with the Correctional Services Commissioner following a number of detailed reports from justice and welfare agencies including Child Protection and the Quality and Compliance Unit.</span></div>
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<figure class="story-asset story-asset-secondary image-full" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img src="http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/c71890727a33c3dfe9f235f43222714e?width=650" height="366" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; margin-bottom: 7px; max-width: 100%; width: 650px;" width="650" /><figcaption class="description" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #81929a; font-size: 12px; padding: 0px 55px; text-align: left;">A guard at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre oversees a prisoner with her baby son in a special unit.</figcaption></figure><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Everything is looked into including any history of harm and the parenting abilities of the mother,” a source says.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“They don’t just let the children in for anyone that asks — what is best for the child is always the priority.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Often, corrections management have to make extremely tough — and often heartbreaking — decisions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Because of frequent overcrowding there are always mothers arriving into the jails wanting their children to be with them,” the source says.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“But if they are considered a danger to their child because of drug addiction or a violent past, or if their partner or a grandparent is considered a more suitable primary carer, the baby or child is not allowed to live in jail with them.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If there is a lack of family support the children are put into foster care.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“There are a lot of very sad mothers without their children in jail,” the source adds.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But where possible, the mothers are always given access to their children in some other form.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They include a residential visits program at Tarrengower which allows eligible mothers to have children stay with them for up to three days.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At the same prison there is also a school holiday program where children under 16 can stay for up to four days.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And both Tarrengower and DPFC allow for weekly visits between a mother and child.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The most highly complicated situations unfold however, when prisoners arrive already pregnant.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A corrections source reveals how officers were assigned to guard the door of a delivery room on a shift rotation in recent years while a DPFC inmate gave birth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While the child was delivered safely, what happened next shocked the normally hardened guards to the core.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“The mother was so addicted to heroin when she came into jail she had been taking high levels of methadone,” the source says.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“So as a result as soon as the baby was born it started to go into withdrawal. The screams from the newborn were nothing like they had ever heard from other babies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“It was horrendous apparently. They were very distressed because they could hear it was in terrible pain.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In distressing scenes, the mother steadfastly refused to give doctors permission to give the baby even a tiny amount of methadone to ease the symptoms.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A dose which would gradually have been reduced to nil over several months.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“She kept screaming that she didn’t want the baby to end up like an addict like her.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“It was understandable, but the baby was going through agonising cold turkey just like any other adult addict would be.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For those mothers that do win the right to keep their children with them, in DPFC there is an allocated mother and baby unit.</span></div>
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<figure class="story-asset story-asset-secondary image-full" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img src="http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/1a790a9fe1e1a620b27546c94e505599?width=650" height="488" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; margin-bottom: 7px; max-width: 100%; width: 650px;" width="650" /><figcaption class="description" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #81929a; font-size: 12px; padding: 0px 55px; text-align: left;">A prisoner with her baby son in the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre mother and baby unit.</figcaption></figure><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are eight cells, where the mothers sleep on a single bed with their child in a cot or mattress alongside them, leading off a communal lounge and kitchen area, complete with laundry and a TV.</span></div>
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<figure class="story-asset story-asset-secondary image-full" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img src="http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/60b31ff7a83cdbd8b39508cd2af6901d?width=650" height="366" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; margin-bottom: 7px; max-width: 100%; width: 650px;" width="650" /><figcaption class="description" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #81929a; font-size: 12px; padding: 0px 55px; text-align: left;">The kitchen area in the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre’s mother and baby unit.</figcaption></figure><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">During the hours of 7.30pm and 7.30am the main door is bolted but the cell doors are not locked, leaving the women to feed and settle their children as a group.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“They each are given a weekly allowance so they prepare their food together in the kitchen,” a source says.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“The kids generally enjoy cereal for breakfast and pasta dinners just like any other Australian kids.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Each baby and child is also given an allowance so that the mother can purchase nappies, creams and baby food from a small hatch which serves as a prison shop during the day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">During part of the day the women are free to leave their unit and push their strollers around to visit friends in other units or into the garden or “town square”, as it is dubbed by inmates and staff.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“The children run around on the grass and get heaps of attention, they lighten the whole mood,” a source says.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“With so many of the female prisoners missing their own children, they are totally spoiled and adored wherever they go.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Prisoners read to them, knit them jumpers and give them chocolate from the shop.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At Tarrengower, the children attend weekly music and art classes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are also weekly programs for the mothers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While the outside play area at DPFC has been closed for two years after a shade sail broke, there is an inside soft play area.</span></div>
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<figure class="story-asset story-asset-secondary image-full" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img src="http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/6d67f9e306a0934b82d6dec4479357b7?width=650" height="366" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; margin-bottom: 7px; max-width: 100%; width: 650px;" width="650" /><figcaption class="description" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #81929a; font-size: 12px; padding: 0px 55px; text-align: left;">Children are able to draw and do other normal activities in prison.</figcaption></figure><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An in-ground outdoor pool in the grounds of DPFC is out of bounds for the young inmates however.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“It isn’t life guarded so they are not allowed,” a source says.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In recent years a female prisoner farcically leapt into the pool after being chased by guards due to bad behaviour.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“She started swimming in circles and causing a scene which was pretty amusing, but it’s probably for the best that the children stay out anyway incase that happens again,” a source said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Most importantly, sources say they have never known an occasion at either prison where a child has been injured or harmed by inmates.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“They are so respected and cared for by both staff and inmates,” the source says.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“If any commotion kicks off they would be withdrawn by staff and their mothers instinctively back off with them anyway.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The only common prison element they can’t be protected from is the noise and frequent verbal arguments among the prisoners.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“But then the fact is they would probably be in a similar situation if they were on the outside living in a big public housing block in the city,” a source says.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The children also have to endure the repetitive regimen of prison life.</span></div>
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<figure class="story-asset story-asset-secondary image-full" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img src="http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/a022061a1d03280d6afe2d1ad5c8d5fb?width=650" height="488" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; margin-bottom: 7px; max-width: 100%; width: 650px;" width="650" /><figcaption class="description" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #81929a; font-size: 12px; padding: 0px 55px; text-align: left;">Prison can be a stark, cold and sterile place at times for the children of inmates.</figcaption></figure><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Most notably the head counts — or musters as they are dubbed inside — which happen four times a day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An announcement comes over the loud speakers at random, unpredictable times saying: “Attention DPFC — the count will be in ten minutes. Please be by your cell door with your ID and your TVs turned off.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are measures in place that if a baby or child is missing at the count there would be a re-count.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And if the infant was still missing all units and prisoners would go into lockdown under the child was found.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But so far a need for that emergency plan to be enacted has, thankfully, never arisen.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“The older toddlers are so institutionalised they run to their mother’s side by the cell and practically stand to attention when they hear the familiar announcement over the loud speakers,” a source says.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“That’s sad to see because you wonder how they will find life on the outside.”</span></div>
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<figure class="story-asset story-asset-secondary image-full" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img src="http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/29f15a584a9601885153593760d81bd5?width=650" height="1000" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; margin-bottom: 7px; max-width: 100%; width: 650px;" width="650" /><figcaption class="description" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #81929a; font-size: 12px; padding: 0px 55px; text-align: left;">Some experts question whether jail life is a healthy environment for babies, toddlers and young children.</figcaption></figure><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Each mother with their child with them in jail is allowed to nominate one “carer” from among the other female criminals inside.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The CVs of the applicants might be a little blemished, to say the least.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But, naturally, there is a screening process and the cherished role of carer in the jail is apparently taken very seriously by the chosen few.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Joyous distractions like this are at a minimum of course.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The carers look after the child when the mother has a medical appointment or a court appearance — or simply when she needs a break.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Like any other mum sometimes they just need time out from the child and a bit of peace,” the source says.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sometimes, a child will be released into the care of their father or relative on the outside for a short time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And when they turn four, authorities take them to outside kindergartens one or two days a week to start their integration with ordinary children.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While the prisoners adore the children there are some inmates at DPFC in particular that the infants will never come into contact with.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And for good reason.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Frequently extremely violent to staff, Sarah Jane Cheney, 31 — the woman jailed for eight years for the stabbing of a La Trobe University student — is thankfully nearly always kept in isolation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And Donna Fitchett, 56, the Melbourne mother twice convicted of murdering her two sons, is also kept in isolation away from any chance of coming into contact with babies or children.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">She’s not exactly the mothering type you’d want close by.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The former nurse drugged and murdered sons Thomas, 11, and Matthew, 9, at their Balwyn North home in September 2005.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After an appeal she was jailed for 27 years in 2010.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“The children living in the prison will never get anywhere near these prisoners, the staff make sure of it,” a source says.</span></div>
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<figure class="story-asset story-asset-secondary image-full" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img src="http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/ff36bdbacc7fadc5924809135ced5ff9?width=650" height="488" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; margin-bottom: 7px; max-width: 100%; width: 650px;" width="650" /><figcaption class="description" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #81929a; font-size: 12px; padding: 0px 55px; text-align: left;">Grey walls and barb-wire fences surround the mums and their children at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre.</figcaption></figure><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But these safety measures aren’t enough for some critics who argue that the fact the mothers have even entered prison in the first place demonstrates they have serious problems.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some have even suggested it is a selfish move akin to child abuse and not in the best interests of the child.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Research suggests that this is just not a good gamble for these children to tie their fate to these women who have such deep personal struggles,” US law professor James Dwyer argues.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However, Helen Barnacle strongly disagrees.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Helen was five months pregnant when she was jailed for drug offences in 1979 and sent to Victoria’s Fairlea Prison, which has since closed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">She credits her strong relationship with daughter Alice due to her being allowed to eventually stay with her in jail.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“From the moment she was born I felt overjoyed,” Helen told the <i style="box-sizing: inherit;">Sunday Herald Sun</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“It was probably the first time perhaps that I felt real love and that I had a proper role in life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“But when she turned one I had to hand her over which was utterly devastating. I was so distraught I literally couldn’t speak, I felt suicidal. I knew if I lost the early years with my child we would never have a proper relationship.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“It wasn’t just about me, it was about Alice’s future. She needed her mother.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The former heroin addict, who is now a well-respected psychologist living near Geelong, appealed and rules were changed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As result children in Victoria could stay with their mothers in prison until the age of four.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Alice herself remembers a happy time, especially the singalongs with her mother and the other inmates.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I had about 50 women all loving me and I was always going off to dinner with someone and trying to get chocolate off someone else and just having fun,” she says.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I just remember fun things.”</span></div>
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<figure class="story-asset story-asset-secondary image-full" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img src="http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/bd7d21bf274a309b6c5b8c4932c4f3ef?width=650" height="488" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; margin-bottom: 7px; max-width: 100%; width: 650px;" width="650" /><figcaption class="description" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #81929a; font-size: 12px; padding: 0px 55px; text-align: left;">Helen Barnacle, 61, and daughter Alice, 35. Helen fought for the right to keep baby Alice in Fairlea Prison until she was four years old.</figcaption></figure><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Helen was left grief-stricken when she had to hand over Alice at the age of four to her brother Ron to care for until she was released.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I got to the gate handed her through and Ron took her, and then turned around and walked off. I’ll never forget her tiny hand waving at me as she was carried away.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Helen was released four years later from prison on the November 24, 1987, just before her 34th birthday.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“The best thing that happened that day was when I went to Ali’s school and I just remember her looking around at all the mums and spotting me and this big smile on her face and we just hugged each other,” Helen says.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I was afraid to let her go but then I realised I would never be forced to let her go again.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today, the age children have to leave is five and staff and fellow prisoners do their best to make it a positive experience.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“They usually put on a farewell party with a BBQ, cake and balloons on the day the child goes, so they feel like it’s a celebration” a source says.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But it’s all a facade.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In truth, everyone is devastated.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“A whole feeling of doom comes over the whole prison in the days leading up to a child leaving,” a source says.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Everyone is attached to them by the end, even the guards.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But for the mother herself of course, the emotional hangover of their child leaving for the world outside ahead of their own release is primal and unrelenting.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“It’s the worst feeling I’ve ever experienced,” Helen says.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I didn’t want her to see me cry, but once she was gone, that’s all I ever did until I saw her again.”</span></div>
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David BC Tanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16102898507435707042noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687269.post-82965870981936358952015-04-30T16:02:00.000+08:002015-04-30T16:02:22.347+08:00MALAY BIBLES FACE NEW CURBS<h2 class="contentHeadline" style="border: 0px; color: #b20000; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
New curbs for Malay bibles</h2>
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By Bob Teoh<br />(originally published on <a href="http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/296781" target="_blank">Malaysiakini</a>)</div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Putrajaya has unilaterally introduced new curbs on the import of the Alkitab, or the Malay-language Bible, under the Home Ministry’s new SOP or standard operating procedures. It also affects the import and use of other Malay-language Christian publications.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">But Joseph Kurup, the </span><em style="border: 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">de facto</em><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> national unity minister who unveiled the SOP last week is quick to assure church leaders that Barisan Nasional is “sworn” to protect their freedom of religion as guaranteed by the federal constitution.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">This is far from the truth. The new SOP specifically targets Christians and concerns mainly the import and use of the Alkitab. Such imports are now subject to a law that was originally intended only for Muslims - the Printing of Qur’anic Texts Act 1986. Importers must now apply to the Qura’nic Text Division of the Home Ministry which has the final say whether such imports are allowed.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">The sole criterion is that such publications cannot contain the word ‘Allah’. This is clearly in contravention of constitutional provisions for freedom of religion.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><img alt="" src="https://lh5.ggpht.com/CmykgEDNqyEDFyR9MUmRkrskJEiRjLf603Tsqoq249DQ84fuOe0tsFMtuRQWIWh_sF_xfT5GcM8-bygw4A=s0" style="border-color: rgb(228, 228, 228) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(228, 228, 228); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; box-shadow: rgb(208, 208, 208) 1px 1px 2px 0px; float: right; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; height: 224px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Article 11 (3a) of the federal constitution states, among other things, “Every religious group has the right to manage its own religious affairs.” The right for Malay-speaking bumiputra Christians to have their own Scriptures in the Malay language is an inalienable universal human right and Putrajaya should not interfere in ecclesiastical matters of other faiths. Two-thirds of the church in Malaysia comprise Malay-speaking bumiputras in East Malaysia.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">What is alarming is that the new SOP comes at a time when the very constitutionality of the prohibition of the use of the word ‘Allah’ to refer God by Bumiputra Christians is still being litigated in the courts known as the Jill Ireland Sarawak and Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB) Sabah cases. To introduce the new SOP at this stage smacks of not only religious hegemony and arrogance but it also borders on contempt.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Although the new SOP also affect churches and bumiputra Christians in peninsular Malaysia most, neither Kurup nor the Home Ministry has consulted nor briefed them.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">A Christian leader in Petaling Jaya who declined to be named pointed out, “I am of the view this is another shoddy attempt to please the religious bureaucrats on their terms so that the BN government is seen to have done something. In the end the church suffers and the democratic space and fundamental liberties is reduced to our detriment as the various G25 or G47 or G40 groups have said. This has got to stop here.”</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><img alt="" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/dgNJEHXizWXekPeA2vDrkmgGVWOtdMKKJkhSYVIFtK0EirGMjkS7oE3a8-XQI1E-cX72hfdEcKj_0b8ntA=s0" style="border-color: rgb(228, 228, 228) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(228, 228, 228); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; box-shadow: rgb(208, 208, 208) 1px 1px 2px 0px; float: left; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; height: 200px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">But Kurup (</span><em style="border: 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">left</em><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">) was reported as having told church leaders in Kuching: “We are not in the business of prosecuting our own people.” He went on to say, “The Barisan Nasional government is a responsible government. We are sworn to protect the federal constitution and the freedom of Malaysians to practise their respective religious faith.”</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">In Kota Kinabalu he was reported to have said: “I wish to reassure all those present that the BN government is responsible in fully defending the constitution and freedom of religion, something that the prime minister always reminds his cabinet ministers whenever matters such as this arise in cabinet meetings.”</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">It was Kurup who first disclosed that Putrajaya would come out with an SOP following the confiscation last November of 574 Bahasa Christian books and 419 CDs from Medan at the Low-Cost Carrier terminal in Sepang that were en route to Kota Kinabalu. Kurup intervened and the publications were released. He then said church leaders would be consulted in drafting the new SOP.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span class="subtitle" style="border: 0px; color: #b20000; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 25px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Stunned into silence</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">This again is far from the truth. There were no such consultations. Church leaders were stunned into silence when Kurup met them on April 16 in Kuching and one week later in Kota Kinabalu to announce the new SOP.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">The briefing was by Hashimah Nik Jaafar, head of the Home Ministry’s Qur’anic text division. She only presented the new SOP on PowerPoint slides but those present insisted on being given a copy. Although almost similar in content, copies of the SOP given at the two briefings were not the same. For instance, one version states that the point is entry for the publications is at KLIA2 while the other did not specify any particular airport.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><img alt="" src="https://lh6.ggpht.com/wbCeQjp-xPsxkwFwvbA-Fgkp26FtHNT2zWfsUc-DYZxTghN6m2e-_687BKvJXVS5nKGiJX2c08ActVg-VNA=s0" style="border-color: rgb(228, 228, 228) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(228, 228, 228); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; box-shadow: rgb(208, 208, 208) 1px 1px 2px 0px; float: left; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; height: 216px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Those present said neither Hashimah nor Kurup would answer any query other than what was presented on the PowerPoint slides. There are no provisions for such publications coming in through ports or land borders in East Malaysia.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Essentially the nine-point new SOP requires importers of Bahasa Christian publications to apply for an import permit from the Qura’nic texts division of the Home Ministry. This is currently not required. Shipment on transit to Sabah and Sarawak is permitted only with a valid “immediate boarding” ticket.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">However, any publication with the word ‘Allah’ is permitted to enter peninsular Malaysia on the basis “only for personal use.” He did not say how the Home Ministry is going to monitor “personal use”.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">The bone of contention of the new SOP is that the whole procedures regarding import and use of Bahasa Christian publications is solely and arbitrarily under the jurisdiction of the Qur’anic texts division. The law relied on is the Printing of Qur’anic Texts Act 1986. However, there is no provision in this act to implement the new SOP. Clearly the SOP is defective and ultra vires the constitution.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><img alt="" src="https://lh4.ggpht.com/oMXLBvg5YxPEIfZvTdMF05UuFkzyOfYGJzj1kkFe-7iBF0g2dtfNR4eySZpI5dC1Rr0GJwr4VBTpO1X4NmE=s0" style="border-color: rgb(228, 228, 228) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(228, 228, 228); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; box-shadow: rgb(208, 208, 208) 1px 1px 2px 0px; float: right; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; height: 376px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 240px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">The core issue of this controversy is the use of the word ‘Allah’ to refer to God which Putrajaya and the apex court (in the Catholic Herald case) have declared to be the exclusive right of Muslims simply on the basis that Islam is the religion of the federation. This is ludicrous, of course. This makes Malaysia to be about the only country having claim to such exclusivity for an Arabic loan word.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">According to a recent book published by the Kuala Lumpur-based International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies (IAIS) titled Shariah and Legal Pluralism in Malaysia by Constance Chevallier-Govers, a law professor from France, “The Allah’ ban is rather ‘unusual in the Muslim world.”</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">She added, “There are even two verses in the Qur’an which show without ambiguity that the word ‘Allah’ can be used by ‘People of the Book’ (Jews and Christians).”</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span class="subtitle" style="border: 0px; color: #b20000; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 25px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Claimed exclusivity to slew of loan words</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Under the various Islamic state enactments there is a slew of some 35 Arabic loan words which the Putrajaya also claim exclusivity to Islam such as doa (pray) which bumiputra Christians must substitute as memohon while nabi (prophet) should be propet, wahyu (revelation) as revelasi, bersyukur (giving thanks) as berterima kasih and Alkitab (Bible) as Baibel.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Kurup, who himself is a bumiputra Christian from Sabah, should understand the ramifications of the new SOP and its absurdity better. In any case, the SOP is the job of the Home Ministry and not under his. He should stop acting like a mere messenger for the cabinet or Home Ministry at the risk of becoming a false prophet.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">The new SOP, or standard operating procedures, in its present form is both wicked and unreasonable. It should be withdrawn immediately to make way for consultations with all stakeholders.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">This should include not just church leaders but leaders of other faiths even with the respective Islamic authorities to preserve the sanctity of the constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion while recognising Islam is the religion of the federation.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br />
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<br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">BOB TEOH was formerly secretary-general of the Confederation of Asean Journalists.</span>David BC Tanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16102898507435707042noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687269.post-91412245980111230952015-03-20T15:49:00.001+08:002015-03-20T15:57:53.489+08:00PAS and the hudud imbroglio<span style="border: 0px; color: mediumblue; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<h2 class="contentHeadline" style="border: 0px; color: #b20000; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
PAS’s folly - awareness and containment</h2>
<span style="border: 0px; color: mediumblue; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">(From Malaysiakini)</span><br />
<span style="border: 0px; color: mediumblue; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span>
<span style="border: 0px; color: mediumblue; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">COMMENT</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> In the introduction of the Kelantan hudud bill its architect declared that those who question whether the legislation would bring in equal justice are “liars and immoral”.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">This unbecoming language is what one expects of a fanatic dictator, rather than a genuine democratic leader. It speaks to the decay in the political fabric of Malaysia that is coming from leaders, who have lost the plot in having a national consciousness and the broader decline taking place in democratic governance. Given the passage of the Kelantan hudud bill, what are the likely political implications that will evolve from this measure?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Some political parties will begin the politics of containment, while others will fan division and will continue to use hudud for political gains. As of now, it is important to remember that no hudud measure will take effect. They are all measures on paper.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">With respect to those who favour these measures, on many levels hudud does not holistically reflect the ideas of justice embodied in Islam or any faith for that matter and brings to light serious questions about fairness and administration of the rule of law for all of Malaysia’s citizens.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">The stoning, chopping and whipping urged in the enactments are now threats over the public without adequate protections; they make up the politics of fear that has been deeply engrained in the Malaysian political landscape.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">No implementation does not mean that there measures are not unimportant. Quite the contrary. The people of Kelantan in particular will be hurt economically by the bill, as its leaders across the political divide failed them in thinking holistically about their development.</span><br />
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<img alt="" height="193" src="https://lh5.ggpht.com/yStobUMPDtbYX7cCqRjH-KxmqA3FUiPUQ5r3LWmlilZFISjslOh6dXIlEu4HRqqwR5BSr6dxk6LOp-SOIoV5=s0" style="border-color: rgb(228, 228, 228) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(228, 228, 228); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; box-shadow: rgb(208, 208, 208) 1px 1px 2px 0px; float: left; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="314" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Real questions can be asked about priorities and timing, namely whether Kelantan in the wake of the floods should be introducing these measures. Questions about fairness also can be asked about who will be potentially affected by these measures, those who engaged in corruption that contributed to the flooding or ordinary citizens.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">These are beyond the issues of minority rights, religious freedom and the rights and protections of the constitution that emotionally divide the country in views.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">There will be other important political tests ahead as well. Unlike in the two previous pieces, this piece looking at the broader political consequences of the passage of the bill yesterday. The fluidity of Malaysian politics will create opportunities ahead. The hudud issue will likely only remain a weapon of division if national leaders continue to wield it as one.</span><br />
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<span class="subtitle" style="border: 0px; color: #b20000; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 25px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sharing blame - a missing ‘vote of consciousness’</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">In opting for a touted ‘vote of conscience’ for Umno members in Kelantan, the Najib Abdul Razak government did not lead. In fact, the Najib administration effectively took the stance of allowing the reintroduction of Kelantan hudud law to move forward without opposition.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">This was driven by Najib’s weakness, not strength. It will feed extremist religious divisions and make the task of governing Malaysia’s multi-ethnic mosaic more difficult. Najib’s inaction speaks to his failing leadership as prime minister and as the leader of Umno.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">It is sadly not the first time when a divisive issue emerged and the PM went missing. Najib may not be able to survive in office until GE14 and his inaction on the hudud law will only make his struggle for survival in office harder.</span><br />
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<img alt="" height="196" src="https://lh5.ggpht.com/qowrPddIPYAvdte_kuK4qTeu46mRcN_Yxz0xTbLLWbiVhN3gSbvxG5prb9XRrXgYAjt_o6tokDdL5JSJshgs=s0" style="border-color: rgb(228, 228, 228) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(228, 228, 228); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; box-shadow: rgb(208, 208, 208) 1px 1px 2px 0px; float: right; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="316" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Najib’s weak leadership over hudud does in fact have damaging consequences beyond himself. By most measures, Malaysia’s position in the region economically and politically has taken a serious beating in the last year, from airline disasters to the recent poor performance in the stock market caused by the shocking 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"><b>The Kelantan hudud bill will add to these negative perceptions, and hurt the country by discouraging investment and reinforcing the view that the country does not effectively offer protections in the rule of law.</b></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">To date, every country or region that introduced hudud - all in political efforts to shore up political legitimacy - has suffered an economic and political backlash. Malaysia does not have the resources of a Saudi Arabia and Brunei to weather yet another storm as effectively.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">For Najib, there will be two tests ahead for the hudud bill. The first will be whether the Umno leadership will move ahead with implementing hudud legislation at the national level. PAS with less than 10 percent of the parliament do not have the numbers to go ahead. Umno will be the national driver.</span><br />
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<img alt="" src="https://lh6.ggpht.com/A-nxTJNharoTMwOAB3-cQz2GXoU-A8-fyRapUOrEcfhcXbW_adHyxPIOEmooi90DRYGmDsaxLCpptte9NiOM=s0" style="border-color: rgb(228, 228, 228) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(228, 228, 228); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; box-shadow: rgb(208, 208, 208) 1px 1px 2px 0px; float: left; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; height: 180px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Umno’s hudud partnership with PAS is driven by the goal of destroying the opposition and PAS in particular. Of late, the actions of the Najib government have repeatedly shown an apparent willingness to carry out actions that damage the country to hold onto power.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 21px;"><b>A national constitutional amendment allowing hudud is supposedly currently not on the cards, despite PAS ulama grandstanding, but given the climate of crisis and weakness that surrounds both Malay parties and the apparent void of national statesmanship leadership of Najib’s government, not to be ruled out.</b></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">The second test is whether Najib will direct its members to follow a ‘vote of consciousness’ rather than one of ‘vote of conscience’. This is a vote that at its core gives all Malaysians confidence in their place in the country and faith in their constitution. It is not one that adopts the practice of the ‘politics of tyranny or the majority and punishment’ carried out in the supposed name of democracy by the conservative PAS ulama.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Whether Najib will be conscious enough to provide wise national leadership in his politically beleaguered state is unclear. One should not underestimate the betrayal, fear and anger that many Malaysians across faiths feel about the passage of this bill that divides the country.</span><br />
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<span class="subtitle" style="border: 0px; color: #b20000; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 25px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">High costs of Umno primacy and insecurity</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">The political effects of unanimous support for the Kelantan hudud bill goes beyond Umno. It was not just Pakatan that was betrayed by its coalition partners, the same happened to the parties within the BN. Umno has been adopting a primacy for some time, which has deepened post-GE13. </span><br />
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<img alt="" src="https://lh5.ggpht.com/G8gdbkcGdkHbadXjcu8LBtQ48mIWZFDOf695gV4o-987cLCxhMiNYqV6HxfQWp-ISFnWuMjGxmCohhdV1tTT=s0" style="border-color: rgb(228, 228, 228) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(228, 228, 228); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; box-shadow: rgb(208, 208, 208) 1px 1px 2px 0px; float: right; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; height: 200px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Gerakan, MIC, MCA and other component parties in East Malaysia will all have to come to terms with this act of Umno and conservative PAS ulama political partnership. They have to come to terms with the fact that they are also allied with a party that supported hudud.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">The Kelantan hudud bill will have ripple effects from the cabinet to the Sarawak elections. The pressures inside the BN component parties is there, and they face the same problem as Pakatan partners do over the hudud issue. The glue that keeps Barisan together is power and money, but there has been a similar sense of betrayal at play.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">As discussion of the bill evolves, expect pressure within the BN to rise, with Najib becoming the target of these frustrations. He failed to protect the component parties within the BN. A key test ahead will be how the component parties manage in the shadow of Umno dominance.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Where that pressure will be most felt will be is in East Malaysia. Umno will now have to face the music in Sabah, and the vote yesterday will assure that in the short term Umno is not entering Sarawak. But, it is hard for East Malaysians to distance themselves from the action of their fellow party members in Kelantan, as they are of the same party.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">They politics of containment have already begun in East Malaysia and they are coming on less reception ground. Since before 2013 there has been a powerful wave of federalism taking root in East Malaysia and this will likely deepen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Another key test ahead will be the how Umno can convince its East Malaysian partners to work with them, when this Umno ‘vote of conscience’ showed a lack of consciousness of genuine national leadership of all of Malaysia’s citizens.</span><br />
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<span class="subtitle" style="border: 0px; color: #b20000; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 25px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Pakatan separation inevitable, not irrevocable</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">The main immediate focus however is understandably the opposition, the coalition and individual parties. It was PAS conservative ulama intention to break up Pakatan, but they and their hudud partnership with Umno is not exclusively responsible for the opposition coalition’s strains.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">As I have written elsewhere, the causes of Pakatan’s problems cannot be boiled down exclusively to hudud or to PAS, there must be some shared responsibility. The Kajang move, differences in style and the reality of catering to different constituencies have made for a problematic marriage.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"><b>The Kelantan hudud bill will now force the opposition partners to come to terms with the issues that have divided them. This is never easy. Addressing Kelantan hudud will be the Pakatan’s greatest test.</b></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">On all sides questions are being asked. How do you work with a partner you no longer trust, a partner who you see as selfish, a partner who is unable to fulfill responsibilities and a partner who thinks and claims to represents a core group of views that are so different from your own? Most would say you don’t. Others would say you have to try.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">As with every problematic relationship, there is a need for distance and reflection. Statesman leadership requires that a difficult decision be carefully considered. How Pakatan will solve this problem will reveal how it will govern, and unlike Umno it does not have the same resources and bounty of position to woo support and keep the coalition together.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">The strategic response to the hudud issue divides all the Pakatan parties. The Kelantan PKR representative’s vote and Selangor Menteri Besar Azmin’s Ali’s own alliance with PAS ulama point to some of these ambiguities.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Pakatan will face even more public pressure than the BN component partners. The decision will have spillovers for governance in Penang and Selangor. While both of these governments can survive without PAS, there will be political implications for exclusion.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Pakatan partners will likely need to enter a long cooling off period for assessment and review. Urgings for freezes have already begun. This distance will allow the path ahead to emerge.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">After the PAS election this June, it will be clearer whether the PAS members will vote for a leadership that has opted for personal power and undermined the party’s option at national power or will allow for the possibility of collaboration. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">As the opposition moves forward, PAS will need to show that it has something to offer politically besides its focus on hudud and reaffirm its commitment to Pakatan emphatically in its party polls.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">The other Pakatan component parties will also have to find common ground, work toward respecting the choices of others, move away difference, and strive to build a stronger fabric of leadership for Malaysia. Pakatan will now have to engage in its own politics of containment and national consciousness.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">There are limited reasons for optimism, but the possibilities of learning on all sides offers promise and a path ahead.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Part I: </span><a href="http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/292325" style="border: 0px; color: #0059b2; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">PAS’s hudud folly - a political putsch</a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Part II: </span><a href="http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/292404" style="border: 0px; color: #0059b2; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">PAS’s hudud folly - it’s not chosen by all</a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">BRIDGET WELSH is a Senior Research Associate at the Center for East Asia Democratic Studies of National Taiwan University and can be reached at </span><em style="border: 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">bridgetwelsh1@gmail.com</em><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">.</span>David BC Tanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16102898507435707042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687269.post-28129854689896286292015-01-14T16:56:00.001+08:002015-01-14T16:56:32.551+08:00Why S'wak redelineation is unconstitutional<div class="full_text" style="border: 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 21px; margin: 20px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
This is important. (Originally published in Malaysiakini, by Wong Chin Huat)</div>
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Why Sarawak redelineation is unconstitutional</h2>
<br />Contrary to the understanding of the Election Commission (EC) and many politicians on both sides of the divide, the electoral constituency redelineation process is not to be dictated by the EC and parties it involves with in behind-the-scene negotiations.<br /><br />The EC is just the proponent of the redelineation plan (termed “recommendation” in thefederal constitution), which is to be ultimately approved by the Parliament (Dewan Rakyat), after members of the public scrutinise and provide feedback or objections (termed “representation”) on the EC’s plans.<br /><br /><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">1 What does the federal constitution’s 13th Schedule say?</strong><br /><br />All these are stipulated in the 13th Schedule of the federal constitution.<br /><br /><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">1.1 What is to be on display?</strong><br /><br />Section 4 of the 13th Schedule stipulates that<br />“Where the Election Commission have provisionally determined to make recommendations under Clause (2) of Article 113 affecting any constituency, they shall inform the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Prime Minister accordingly, and shall publish in the Gazette and in at least on newspaper circulating in the constituency a notice stating -<br /><br /><img alt="" src="https://lh5.ggpht.com/9qYP4dbaXu-4CIcPRbxmJj4vyFrzhMpXTrUAySvyuPWZ8bv5wZxREF3RN5iGVJSgsQHzosM9-fDFoMsLneFy=s0" style="border-color: rgb(228, 228, 228) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(228, 228, 228); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; box-shadow: rgb(208, 208, 208) 1px 1px 2px 0px; float: right; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 188px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 250px;" />(a) the effect of their proposed recommendations, and (except in a case where they propose to recommend that no alteration be made in respect of the constituency) that a copy of their recommendations is open to inspection at a specified place within the constituency; and<br /><br />(b) that representations with respect to the proposed recommendations may be made to the Commission within one month after the publication of such notice,<br />and the Commission shall take into consideration any representation duly made in accordance with any such notice.”<br /><br /><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">1.2 Who can object?</strong><br /><br />Who are the stakeholders qualified to make “representations” in this short one-month period? Section 5 defines them to be:<br /><br />“(a) the state government or any local authority whose area is wholly or partly comprised in the constituencies affected by the recommendation; or<br /><br />(b) a body of one hundred or more persons whose names are shown on the current electoral rolls of the constituencies in question”<br /><br />What happens after submission of representations? The EC is supposed to organise “local enquiries”, in which “the Election Commission shall have all the powers conferred on Commissioners by the Commissions of Enquiry Act 1950”, as stipulated by Section 6.<br /><br />In other words, these inquiries are meant to be of the same rigour with those called by royal commissions of inquiries (RCIs). They are not meant to be public relations shows.<br /><br /><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">1.3 What are the grounds for objections?</strong><br /><br />Now, on what grounds can state governments, local governments and groups of 100 or more affected voters raise objections?<br /><br />This is clearly stipulated in Section 2:<br /><br />“The following principles shall as far as possible be taken into account in dividing any unit of review into constituencies pursuant to the provisions of Articles 116 and 117 -<br /><br />(a) while having regard to the desirability of giving all electors reasonably convenient opportunities of going to the polls, constituencies ought to be delimited so that they do not cross State boundaries and regard ought to be had to the inconvenience of State constituencies crossing the boundaries of federal constituencies;<br /><br />(b) regard ought to be to the administrative facilities available within the constituencies for the establishment of the necessary registration and polling machines;<br /><br /><img alt="" src="https://lh6.ggpht.com/JNsI9VQ27OMVrLRURGzFszhfHXkbmeA1BXDf3WnCw9hAx4WWbTqtrR-3RnJQuaE3cj50WKVPlRSrqBYdpxg=s0" style="border-color: rgb(228, 228, 228) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(228, 228, 228); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; box-shadow: rgb(208, 208, 208) 1px 1px 2px 0px; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 290px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px;" />(c) the number of electors within each constituency in a state ought to be approximately equal except that, having regard to the greater difficulty of reaching electors in the country districts and the other disadvantages facing rural constituencies, a measure of weightage for area ought to be given to such constituencies;<br /><br />(d) regard ought to be had to the inconveniences attendant on alterations of constituencies, and to the maintenance of local ties.”<br /><br />Conditions in 2(a) and 2(b) have never been violated because that serves no parties’ interests. The key contentions are always with the compliance of sub-sections 2(c) and 2(d).<br /><br />The phrase “approximately equal” in Section 2(c) invalidates malapportionment except for the ground of “greater difficulty of reaching electors… and other disadvantages facing rural constituencies”, which basically means transportational and communicational challenges.<br /><br />The phrase “maintenance of local ties” then invalidates gerrymandering. The EC cannot simply break up local communities and put people with little commonalities into a constituency.<br /><br /><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">2 What information is constitutionally needed in the redelineation display?</strong><br /><br />To allow for public feedback – by state and local governments and affected voters – as per Sections 2, 4 and 5, clearly the EC’s redelineation proposal must contain sufficient information for the following tasks to be possible.<br /><br /><img alt="" src="https://lh6.ggpht.com/ZYmHY_XOEKMZmB4cAKNfbUzs_UwOcRZounK7XvSgLpeNnDVWfsb-qUm76raSGyRPtW0pUxBQAxPUZ2rdXw=s0" style="border-color: rgb(228, 228, 228) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(228, 228, 228); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; box-shadow: rgb(208, 208, 208) 1px 1px 2px 0px; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 277px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 480px;" /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />By definition, redelineation is simply re-organising voters into new geographical divisions, corresponding to new arrangements in electoral roll.<br /><br />Technically, electoral maps show three layers of division: parliamentary constituency, state constituency and polling district (housing estates, villages, etc). This corresponds to the organisation of voters in electoral rolls, with one more layer, namely, locality (streets, apartments, etc).<br /><br />The parliamentary constituency, state constituency and polling district have their code numbers.<br /><br />For example, polling district Rajang Park where Najib made his infamous “you help me, I help you” offer is currently coded as 2124801, which stands for P212 Sibu (parliamentary constituency), N48 Pelawan (state constituency) and 01 Rajang Park (polling district).<br /><br /><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">2.1 “The effect”</strong><br /><br />“The effect of (the EC’s) proposed recommendations” as stipulated in Section 5(a) is therefore not just a state-wide map of Sarawak divided into 31 parliamentary constituencies and 82 state constituencies, and a list of voter numbers in each of the parliamentary and state constituencies and polling districts. That is “recommendations”, not the “effects”.<br /><br /><img alt="" src="https://lh3.ggpht.com/1dyeqOGna0a740NqGKHPHt2KX7zg44FhwZHUAJfnZJKQYisskHyZPRmnINWxA6bb0ZJ_60-VpFIf7wVjAoqi=s0" style="border-color: rgb(228, 228, 228) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(228, 228, 228); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; box-shadow: rgb(208, 208, 208) 1px 1px 2px 0px; float: right; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 225px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px;" />The “effects” mean “changes” or “differences” between the proposal and the status quo. The “effects” can be known from:<br /><br />(a) An exhaustive list of changes to the geographical boundaries and areas (in square kilometres) of polling districts, state constituencies and parliamentary constituencies;<br /><br />(b) Constituency maps – in the same format as those used in elections – with the proposed boundaries overlaid on polling district, administrative, physical and infrastructural boundaries: and<br /><br />(c) “Proposed” electoral rolls to be used should the redelineation proposal be accepted.<br /><br /><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">2.2 Affected Voters</strong><br /><br />The voter can only know if he or she is affected by first knowing which constituency he/she is in and with whom he/she will share the constituency. Without the “proposed electoral roll” and the detailed maps, he/she cannot ascertain this.<br /><br /><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">2.3 Malapportionment</strong><br /><br /><img alt="" src="https://lh3.ggpht.com/y9ZpwQ24OZdbHGH8PDYWCc4dge9TYgdlI-fdPnCyeYPSqRjE46hTF83OMWbWuhcKPTZm0y_Dfk7DbJP0hg0=s0" style="border-color: rgb(228, 228, 228) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(228, 228, 228); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; box-shadow: rgb(208, 208, 208) 1px 1px 2px 0px; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 225px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px;" />Assessing if all constituencies in the state are “approximately equal”, one needs only the electorate size of parliamentary and state constituencies. To assess if the malapportionment is constitutionally compliant, namely if there is no alternative to avoid excessively small constituencies, one would need on-map information. Information on landmass of constituencies also helps to ascertain the need for under-sized constituencies.<br /><br /><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">2.4 Gerrymandering</strong><br /><br />To mount a reasonable challenge to suspected cases of gerrymandering which violates the “maintenance of local ties” condition under Section 2(d), one must have the detailed maps and electorate size up to the polling district level.<br /><br />Without sufficient information listed as in Table 1 above, the voters will not be able to effectively participate in the redelienation process. One day they are not supplied with the necessary data and map, one day in the precious one-month period is wasted.<br /><br /><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Tomorrow:</strong> Part II - Information the EC is holding back<br /><br /><img alt="" src="https://lh6.ggpht.com/3o3Lk6vosAAtEQPLeXdRTwtkIR4QiVifxricaEMhQ60K_7fRX7UEC-M6C3dkQ-n0mA_ZTxnS4C7oG94bsveI=s0" style="border-color: rgb(228, 228, 228) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(228, 228, 228); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; box-shadow: rgb(208, 208, 208) 1px 1px 2px 0px; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 415px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 480px;" /><br /><br /><br /><hr />
<br /><br />WONG CHIN HUAT earned his PhD on the electoral system and party system in West Malaysia from the University of Essex. He is a fellow at the Penang Institute, and a resource person for electoral reform lobby, Bersih 2.0.</div>
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David BC Tanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16102898507435707042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687269.post-41523761570130979802014-12-30T14:38:00.001+08:002014-12-30T14:38:39.375+08:00Triple whammy for Sarawak's old guard <div style="border: 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b>AN UNHAPPY NEW YEAR FOR SARAWAK'S OLD GUARD</b></div>
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[<i>An important development and a huge step forward for indigenous rights In Sarawak. Congratulations to NCR lawyers - especially Baru Bian - and their hardworking team</i>].</div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Original story from<a href="http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/151893" target="_blank"> MALAYSIAKINI</a></span></span></div>
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Sarawak's political elite have accumulated power and startling wealth by taking over land from native communities, but now face the prospect of setbacks in the new year.<br /><br />The entrenched ‘old guard’, accustomed to holding undisputed control over public life, may be struck by a triple whammy.<br /><br />Firstly, the courts have overturned several ministerial decisions to award land to crony companies. Land minister James Masing has branded critics of Sarawak's land policies as "arrogant and ignorant", but judges have disagreed in several prominent cases, granting local villagers’ Native Customary Rights (NCR) claims to land taken over by the government.<br /><br />Secondly, the new media has exposed ‘get-rich-quick’ land schemes to the world – and crucially, to many Sarawakians previously force-fed a steady diet of propaganda by state-owned television RTM and local newspapers.<br /><br /><img align="right" alt="what is the ming court affair 090506" height="389" src="http://mk-cdn.mkini.net/41/42dbf2f08c7c3a7f04587c5f0aeb8d92.gif" style="border-color: rgb(228, 228, 228) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(228, 228, 228); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; box-shadow: rgb(208, 208, 208) 1px 1px 2px 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 10px 10px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="250" />Thirdly, the ruling political class is now confronted with the prospect of losing the majority of the urban Chinese-dominated seats in Kuching, Sibu, Miri, Sarikei and Bintulu, and even a sizeable number of rural Dayak seats in the upcoming state election to the Pakatan Rakyat.<br /><br />Political observers are predicting a BN loss of a dozen urban seats, and a similar number of suburban and rural seats. This would be the largest swing since the BN consolidated its power in the 1991 state election, after nearly being replaced by the now-defunct Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) and Permas in the 1986 ‘Ming Court Affair'.<br /><span style="color: #993300;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />'Parade of federal leaders'</strong></span><br /><br />Commentators have even speculated that Chief Minister Taib Mahmud may step down immediately before the state election, and allow his deputy Alfred Jabu to lead a caretaker government.<br /><br />This is seen as a potential last-ditch attempt to defuse criticism of Taib's financial and land deals, both within and outside the BN, a bold gambit that would remove Taib as the prime target for a Pakatan campaign.<br /><br />However, other observers point out this ‘shock' scenario would lead to vicious and potentially insoluble infighting within the state BN since Taib has traditionally imposed his control over the factions in his PBB by playing off political rivals in the party against one another.<br /><br /><img align="left" alt="azlan" height="353" src="http://mk-cdn.mkini.net/310/57dae8f6f50920a480096936220c06ae.gif" style="border-color: rgb(228, 228, 228) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(228, 228, 228); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; box-shadow: rgb(208, 208, 208) 1px 1px 2px 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 10px 10px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="250" />Until now, BN leaders have forged a united front, backing Taib to lead them into the election, saying he is the ‘glue' that keeps the BN together.<br /><br />"There has been a groundswell in recent months in northern Sarawak: (Sarawak PKR chief) Baru Bian is expected to win in Ba'kelalan," an influential Sarawak politician told <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Malaysiakini</em>, "so there's been a parade of federal BN leaders visiting Lawas and Limbang, including (information minister) Rais Yatim and (deputy premier) Muhyiddin Yassin this month, and (premier) Najib Razak next month.<br /><br />"These visits have produced headlines like ‘Lawas may get a new airport' or ‘Plans afoot for a new hospital' or ‘Malaysia ready to build bridge at Pandaruan in Limbang' – they must be terrified of Baru Bian winning," he said.<br /><br /><img align="right" alt="NONE" height="233" src="http://mk-cdn.mkini.net/307/998a3647a0d5725b737eddeef18be49f.jpg" style="border-color: rgb(228, 228, 228) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(228, 228, 228); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; box-shadow: rgb(208, 208, 208) 1px 1px 2px 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 10px 10px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="163" />Baru Bian (<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">right</em>) is from the minority Lun Bawang ethnic group in a state made up entirely of ethnic minorities. He was raised in Ba'kelalan, a hilly, poor region upriver from Lawas.<br /><br />Baru Bian, then an independent candidate, lost in Ba'kelalan to Nelson Balang Rining of the BN by 475 votes in the last state polls in 2006. He then mounted an unsuccessful election petition seeking to nullify the result; in his petition, he alleged Nelson Balang and his agents had resorted to vote-buying by giving cash to voters.<br /><span style="color: #993300;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />'Game changing’ rulings</strong></span><br /><br />Baru Bian and a handful of other land rights lawyers have been responsible for a string of recent landmark rulings in NCR cases against the state government. The judgments have returned forests to native Iban, Malay and other landowners throughout Sarawak, following intrusion by logging or plantation business interests with powerful backers in the government.<br /><br /><img align="right" alt="NONE" height="218" src="http://mk-cdn.mkini.net/309/586d5e7d0a274fea41350ed1497e4dcd.jpg" style="border-color: rgb(228, 228, 228) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(228, 228, 228); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; box-shadow: rgb(208, 208, 208) 1px 1px 2px 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 10px 10px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="300" />"These cases are changing the game," says Muhin Urip, a native land rights advocate. "These rural people are showing real courage, standing up to the state government, and to the big bullies in the logging sector. They've shown no fear, even after they were harassed by gangsters, by police and by the authorities."<br /><br />The NCR judgments hinged on the native plaintiffs demonstrating that they had cleared or used land, for dwellings, fruit trees, burial sites or shrines, or usual rights of way to their farms or cemeteries, before the beginning of 1958.<br /><br />The state government has insisted that the onus of proof lies squarely on the native communities themselves. Aerial photographs dating from colonial times have been invaluable in helping native villagers win their NCR lawsuits.<br /><br />The Federal Court, the highest legal authority in Malaysia, has recognised that forests reserved for hunting and collecting produce, or ‘pulau’, and the territorial area in which the forest is located, or ‘pemakai menoa’, fall under the realm of NCR.<br /><br />But the state government has not, to date, altered its land policies.<br /><br /><span style="color: #993300;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">High-profile Penan lawsuits</strong></span><br /><br />Over the past decade, Baru Bian has taken on several high-profile Penan NCR battles, including a <a href="http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/151433" style="border: 0px; color: #0059b2; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">new Ba Jawi lawsuit</strong></a> announced last week.<br /><br /><img align="right" alt="azlan" height="393" src="http://mk-cdn.mkini.net/310/964ecbb585645b9a00ae43184a4a462e.gif" style="border-color: rgb(228, 228, 228) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(228, 228, 228); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; box-shadow: rgb(208, 208, 208) 1px 1px 2px 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 10px 10px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="300" />However, the Penan have yet to win a pivotal legal decision, similar to those obtained by the Malays and Ibans in Sarawak, and the Orang Asli in the peninsula.<br /><br />This is because Penan NCR claims are complicated by the fact that most of the 12,000 to 15,000 Penan have only settled in the last few decades. The Penan were mainly nomadic, with precious few permanent crops or dwellings, before 1958.<br /><br />But lawyers for the Penan argue their NCR claims are no different from other communities', since the Penan also rely on the forests for their food and survival. They say the traditional Penan practice of ‘molong’, putting aside forest resources for shared use, is almost identical to the Iban custom of preserving ‘pulau’ for communal use.<br /><br />"By and through their customary practice, mostly characterised as ‘molong’, tribal groups of the nomadic Penan lived in and within distinct territories. Traditional dwelling huts called ‘<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">lamin toro</em>’ were left behind as distinct marks of earlier settlements," the Ba Jawi plaintiffs said, in their statement of claim to the High Court.<br /><br />"Ba Jawi Penans, like the 200-plus communities who have taken companies and the Sarawak government to court for NCR land rights, are being forced to seek the judgments for justice and for the people's rights to be defended," said See Chee How, a lawyer for the Ba Jawi villagers.<br /><br />"Beyond the court case, the untold sufferings of the Ba Jawi people and others in similar cases mustn't be hidden. Land to the native people isn't just property, it's a crucial aspect of the living history of the community, and very much the lifeline of the people."<br /><br />Land rights and elections will certainly contribute to an intriguing new year in Sarawak.</div>
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KERUAH USIT is a human rights activist - ‘anak Sarawak, bangsa Malaysia’. This weekly column is an effort to provide a voice for marginalised Malaysians. Keruah Usit can be contacted at<a href="mailto:keruah_usit@yahoo.com" style="border: 0px; color: #0059b2; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">keruah_usit@yahoo.com</strong></a>.</div>
David BC Tanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16102898507435707042noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687269.post-7999588460487724592014-12-10T15:15:00.001+08:002014-12-10T15:16:14.209+08:00Slow action made Malaysia complicit in murders?<h2 class="contentHeadline" style="border: 0px; color: #b20000; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
NGO: Malaysia 'guilty' of Myanmar killings</h2>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">An international Myanmar activist finds it quite shocking that the Penang police have not immediately responded to the killings of Myanmar nationals, which has been taking place since January.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">"Is it because they are inefficient, slow to act because it involves migrants and asylum-seekers?" Altsean-Burma coordinator Debbie Stothard asked in an interview with </span><em style="border: 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Malaysiakini</em><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">"These murders and the murderers deserve to be condemned and prosecuted," said Stothard, who is also International Federation for Human Rights secretary-general.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">So far 18 Myanmar nationals have been killed, with their body parts dismembered, while police have arrested 17 people in connection with the murders.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Last Friday, police raided a house on Jalan Kampung Pisang, Bukit Mertajam, believed to be where the slaughtering of the Myanmarese took place.</span><br />
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Malaysiakini</em><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><a href="http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/282916" style="border: 0px; color: #0059b2; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">visited</strong></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> the crime scene on Monday, and found many of the villagers living in fear of the gruesome incidents in their neighbourhood.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">While the authorities did not rule out revenge, they have denied that the killings were due to religious conflicts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">It is learnt that the killings have been taking place since January this year but police responded publicly only after English daily </span><em style="border: 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Malay Mail</em><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> reported on the spate of killings on Sept 18.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Stothard said migrants and asylum seekers in Malaysia were hardly convinced of the importance of the rule of law due to the way they were treated.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">"When people feel they cannot rely on local authorities to protect them from violence and discrimination, it becomes easy to create a vigilante response," she said.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Malaysia is also guilty of allowing Myanmar to perpetuate "an extreme system of impunity and violence" on its own people, Stothard said.</span><br />
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<span class="subtitle" style="border: 0px; color: #b20000; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 25px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Revenge murders an acceptable response?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">This system encourages its people to think that revenge murders are an acceptable response to the genocidal situation faced by the Rohingya community, she added.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">The Rohingya, a Muslim minority persecuted for decades in Myanmar, have been fleeing the country, seeking asylum in Malaysia and elsewhere.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Stothard called on Malaysia to be courageous enough to take a firm stand on combatting the violence in Burma and insisting on the protection of civilians from all backgrounds.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Most ethnic and religious minorities, such as the Rohingya, Kachin, Chin and Muslims from other ethnic groups, have no hope of protection against violence in Myanmar, she added.</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Thousands of them have been killed, kidnapped, raped or have disappeared without any trace, she noted.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">She said the Rakhine Action Plan, promoted as a solution to the problems in Arakan state, did not help either.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">It will see up to a million Rohingya locked up in camps indefinitely, while another 100,000 of them will be given third class citizenship and forced to live in segregated "freedom", she added.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Malaysia and the rest of the Aseam countries will bear the consequences of their decades-long reluctance to deal honestly with conflict and systematic and widespread violations in Burma, she said.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">"If migrants and asylum seekers feel safe and respected, it becomes easier for them to prevent and constrain violence in the community," she said.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">"These murders are deeply shocking, but not surprising. In some ways, the behaviour of our regional governments made them inevitable.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">"Persecuting more asylum-seekers will not make things any better. It will only increase the conviction that the system cannot be relied on for protection," Stothard added.</span>David BC Tanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16102898507435707042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687269.post-90294339017832353072014-11-20T15:13:00.000+08:002014-11-20T15:13:11.309+08:00AG: Social contract basis for nation-building<h2 class="contentHeadline" style="border: 0px; color: #b20000; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 21px;"><i>The 900-pound gorilla in the room. </i></span></h2>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 21px;">AG quoting former LP and Sultan of Perak Azlan: ".</span><span style="font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 21px;">...</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">a unique document without any parallel anywhere."</span></span></i></h2>
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<i><span style="font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 21px;">The question is, even if it were historically true that the Malaysian Constitution was realised with a bias for Malay Society and the sultanate, does this constitute 'special rights' that relegate minorities into a shrinking public space? </span></i></h2>
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<span style="font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 21px;"><i>Which civillised country modern economy separates and classifies its citizens in this way and then tell them to be happy they are 2nd class? I mean, if we are all equal taxpayers, does it not make sense that we should enjoy equal benefits and equal constitutional protection? </i></span></h2>
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AG: Social contract basis for nation-building</h2>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">[From <a href="http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/281020" target="_blank">Malaysiakini</a>]</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail reminded Malaysians the need to abide by the “social contract” developed by the country’s forefathers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">“Open any history book on Malaysia and it will recount that Malaysia’s communal approach to politics and social and economic structure today is the legacy of the British system of governance in Malaya,” said Gani in his keynote address at a national law conference last week.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Quoting Edmund Burke who said, “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it”, Gani emphasises the need to learn from the past.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">The Chinese and Indians were brought in because the Malays did not want to engage in modern economy in 19th century Malaya, he explained.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">“It has its genesis in the segregation of ethnic migrant workers according to sectors of work,” Gani said in his paper titled ‘Current challenges in preserving social order and national harmony - a critical note’ delivered at the Judicial and Legal Training Institute conference.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><img alt="" src="https://lh5.ggpht.com/oQVDlbXvvQ5CWhW07J2Bjt7ltTjbt3PI0LO_4Vp92Zn-T6vAWyKVjxTJB9GiEYn-q2iuYS3VEP297mHaMSJ0=s0" style="border-color: rgb(228, 228, 228) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(228, 228, 228); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; box-shadow: rgb(208, 208, 208) 1px 1px 2px 0px; float: left; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; height: 204px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 280px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">The Chinese and Indians were brought in because the Malays did not want to engage in modern economy in 19th century Malaya, he explained.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">“It has its genesis in the segregation of ethnic migrant workers according to sectors of work,” Gani said in his paper titled ‘Current challenges in preserving social order and national harmony - a critical note’ delivered at the Judicial and Legal Training Institute conference.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">“When the general Malay population refused to work with the British in the tin mines and rubber plantations - the two most important and profitable exports of the country in the late 19th century - the British encouraged the immigration of labourers from China and India to work in these sectors, as well as in public infrastructure works, rails and roads.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><img alt="" src="https://lh3.ggpht.com/_aYbAmPRpxf6giYXJH5NbOKhKLGiYIDiAXUXL-3joP8L-90s5RsQoX2yf479gKcXy5MW2sNu3AekpGrAu7k=s0" style="border-color: rgb(228, 228, 228) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(228, 228, 228); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; box-shadow: rgb(208, 208, 208) 1px 1px 2px 0px; float: right; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; height: 169px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 251px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">This, he said, resulted in the concentration of Chinese population in the towns and Indians in the rubber estates. Malays, mainly in the rural areas, were involved in the agricultural and fishing sectors.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">The top-most legal officer in the country said the British were not interested in integration then and instead, encouraged the Chinese and Indian immigrants to pledge their loyalty to their homeland.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">“As a collorary to the foreign workers Malaysia depends on today, Malaya was only to be considered “tanah tumpahnya peluhku” - the land where I toil for wealth without more.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">“But when China fell to the communists and India was wrecked with poverty, the Chinese and Indian immigrant workers decided they should stay permanently for a better future,” he said.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="border: 0px; color: brown; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Seeds of polarisation</strong></span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Referring to World War Two as a great equaliser, Gani said when Japan attacked Malaya, the population under British rule took up guerilla warfare.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">However, he said polarisation resurfaced after the war, following the state of emergency which was called then to address communist insurgency.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><img alt="" src="https://lh4.ggpht.com/YO5T-pqnIIN-EtOevMm34uY1QNERqzGmx-coODBla4E5R6ZRaILgQ8--hRY1bS4SWQlvdYXBv0j5VCrM1OI=s0" style="border-color: rgb(228, 228, 228) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(228, 228, 228); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; box-shadow: rgb(208, 208, 208) 1px 1px 2px 0px; float: left; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; height: 169px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 251px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Preventive action was taken where Chinese are placed in new villages, with Malays and Indians forming the security forces.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">With the coming of independence in 1957, Gani said there was marked disparity among the races economically and in education and other sectors.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Malays, he said, had no capital wealth and their participation in the modern economy was almost non-existent, even among the aristocratic class.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">“The Chinese had become the main participant in the economic and commercial sectors while the majority of Malays remained in the rural areas.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">“The lucrative modern industries and services sectors remained Euro-centric. Poverty, especially among the Malays, was widespread and the income inequalities between the races a matter of serious concern for the new, young government.”</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Following the disparity, he said the “social contract” was mooted to achieve balance that underpins the relevant provisions in the Federal Constitution drafted by the Reid Commission.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><img alt="" src="https://lh5.ggpht.com/VBw2ogs8fwyURk-vXUYXWMlJaqwBuaERDo2xldFebpOCJv5x2uGn1MMYuFkKmZxUqJTo1OUccDsz65Pr3JE=s0" style="border-color: rgb(228, 228, 228) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(228, 228, 228); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; box-shadow: rgb(208, 208, 208) 1px 1px 2px 0px; float: right; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; height: 220px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 200px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Gani recalled what the late Perak sultan and former lord president Sultan Azlan Shah (</span><em style="border: 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">right</em><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">) had said of the “social contract” at the Malaysian Law Conference in 2003.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Azlan had said inherent differences had to be accommodated into a constitutional framework which recognised the traditional features of Malay society with the sultanate system at the apex of the Malaysian Constitution.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">“Thus, there was produced in August 1957 a unique document without any parallel anywhere. It adopted the essential features of the Westminster model and built it into the traditional features of Malay society,” Azlan had said.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="border: 0px; color: brown; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Respect 'social contract'</strong></span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">“This constitution reflected a social contract between the multiracial peoples of our country. Thus, matters of citizenship for the non-Malays, the Malay language, and special privileges for the Malays and the indigenous peoples of Malaysia were safeguarded and given the added protection of requiring the consent of the Conference of Rulers before change could be effected to them,” the Perak ruler said.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Azlan had added that it is fundamental in this regard that the Federal Constitution is the supreme law of the land and constitutes the </span><em style="border: 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">grundnorm</em><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> (basic norm) to which all the other laws are subject.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><img alt="" src="https://lh3.ggpht.com/d1qOgorhgggYQjw8uHK-FSpjfYuTDmfYbtGll3Sccn5WmjKHFtHdmHE3S_uOOXV5XIqB0mza8fuOs4Y4WWU=s0" style="border-color: rgb(228, 228, 228) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(228, 228, 228); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; box-shadow: rgb(208, 208, 208) 1px 1px 2px 0px; float: left; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; height: 220px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 330px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">“This essential feature of the constitution ensures that the social contract between the various races of our country embodied in the independence Constitution of 1957 is safeguarded and forever ensures to the Malaysian people, as a whole, for their benefit.”</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Gani said the value of the “social contract” elements that we have inherited should never be underestimated or undermined.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">“It must be appreciated that these elements in the Federal Constitution were engineered by the Alliance in consultation with the Malay Rulers as the best solution to protect the interest of the groups concerned.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">“This in particular includes the trade-off between the granting of citizenship for the Chinese and Indian migrants for recognition of the special Malay rights.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">“Similarly the protections for the customary aboriginal rights of the indigenous peoples are consciously entrenched in the constitution,” he said.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><img alt="" src="https://lh5.ggpht.com/kMy2-G6fCSp-BFYxzRkzgmmVLONxg0v2gZCabfyLgiz8MiyWn6OIHPXnYs3HFM5L5zPDqHShYk70Uc4XzeY=s0" style="border-color: rgb(228, 228, 228) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(186, 186, 186) rgb(228, 228, 228); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; box-shadow: rgb(208, 208, 208) 1px 1px 2px 0px; float: right; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; height: 249px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">The top government lawyer said measures should be taken to observe the ideals established in the constitution - in letter and in spirit, whether it is concerning religion, citizenship of non-Malays, the special rights of Malay/bumiputera and the Orang Asal or the special position and privileges of the rulers or the rights conferred on Sabah and Sarawak.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">He adds all these rights must be respected and implemented unless and until the Federal Constitution is amended by a vote or referendum of the people.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">"This is because all these are elements of the ‘social contract’ and constitute the basic pillars of the Federal Constitution and Malaysia."</span><br style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span>David BC Tanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16102898507435707042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687269.post-63049213506163296162014-10-30T12:50:00.000+08:002014-10-30T12:51:47.781+08:00No harm comes to woman walking 10 hrs in NYC?I am wondering how the harm principle applies here.
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<br /></div>David BC Tanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16102898507435707042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687269.post-55494065789123210562014-10-24T18:41:00.000+08:002014-10-24T19:10:03.757+08:00Yes, there are limits.<div style="background: white; line-height: 11.1pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: 11pt;">I haven’t been on Facebook
for a week and that’s a record! And here’s my response to Ethan. First part of
another long reply. And quoting him, <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">If anyone
is wondering why I’ve spent so much (or too much) time on this: I cannot
separate Mill’s tolerance from my faith.</span></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7NmBiY9FzMOa4WHlytM2W0aFBdVHgNo9paZccEMzPKQMINDxa8Unem7S3dC6vmfCPwpWBhcN6euqflivwseUHx-trTy9sTjjIYVYRRlkYva_Msp7ynDMn-jpde54irq5EY5mF/s1600/J._F._Stephen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7NmBiY9FzMOa4WHlytM2W0aFBdVHgNo9paZccEMzPKQMINDxa8Unem7S3dC6vmfCPwpWBhcN6euqflivwseUHx-trTy9sTjjIYVYRRlkYva_Msp7ynDMn-jpde54irq5EY5mF/s1600/J._F._Stephen.jpg" height="400" width="232" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: 11pt;">The reason I pointed to Mill’s
detractors is because there are a several (those I am familiar with and have
read) whose views are scathing, and do say something important about Mill’s
inconsistencies and other utilitarian/classical liberal philosophers of his
ilk. Maybe I only read authors I agree with. Like Mill’s contemporary JF
Stephen (who has sadly disappeared from popular discourse on liberalism), or the
late Australian philosopher David Stove who wrote this snarky line</span><span style="color: #444444; font-size: 11pt;">: <i>“</i></span><i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">Liberalism demands that people without guns be
able to tell people with guns what to do.</span><span style="color: #444444; font-size: 11pt;">”</span></i><span style="color: #444444; font-size: 11pt;"> Ok, quotes are not
arguments, yet how these 2 skewer Mill with nothing but common sense. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 11.1pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 11pt;">There are those who do not
necessarily say Mill is an idiot, but who admit to the philosophical conundrum of
applying his ideas to justice, education, politics, economics, what’s good,
what’s right, etc in the real world. As you say, it has to be worked out, the
negotiations of which make for a whole lot of profit for publishers. But who’s
to be the referee? Harvard’s Michael Sandel whose books argue for virtue and
common good (and he’s not a Christian), because not doing so would be fatal to
a society that wants to preserve liberty and freedom. So you need laws – and like
it or not, the application of laws presupposes morality and restraint. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 11pt;">You know Rawles broadened
Mill’s ideas into a theory of social justice: <i>“<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Society
is rightly ordered, and therefore just, when its major institutions are
arranged so as to achieve the greatest net balance of satisfactions</span>.”</i> I may
disagree with some conclusions but fact is, philosophers don’t like to say they
are drawing a line, but a line is what they are talking about. Rawls talks about fairness and social contract;
Mill argues for the harm principle and happiness. Whose line is it anyway? Why should your lines be <i>prettier</i> than mine? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 11pt;">Perhaps Mill is Malthusian
because he is a child of his time (like Luther’s anti-semitism?), </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 11.1pt;">but his</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJTgM26ph-BWX1dWJOrM8pdqapn5l2w4lNJX94QHhMHrG0mmxrmnBgLU8AXuZibKxZjlh-kuSkr5YZwIBT404pwJXWw2nvKjFVXykyP5qnjf1DS5UX0HOxWlzexsoWQhybc9u0/s1600/stove+quote.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJTgM26ph-BWX1dWJOrM8pdqapn5l2w4lNJX94QHhMHrG0mmxrmnBgLU8AXuZibKxZjlh-kuSkr5YZwIBT404pwJXWw2nvKjFVXykyP5qnjf1DS5UX0HOxWlzexsoWQhybc9u0/s1600/stove+quote.png" height="320" width="203" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 11pt;">inconsistency is carried through his belief that liberty as he espouses works
best in civilized societies and won’t apply to barbarians. So backward
societies (like Singapore and Malaysia?) need an education in virtue, even
coercion, while enlightened ones don’t because they can reason values for
themselves and are unlikely to rape women. It merely means that every idea is
conditional or contingent, and depends on the position you define. That’s my
beef – contingent. You always have to
smuggle in some boundaries, or maybe a bearded man or two from ancient Greece. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: 11pt;">Which is what JF Stephen referred
to all things being equal, that there's no such thing to begin with: </span></span><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: 11pt;"><i>“<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Mr. Mill’s
principle throughout assumes<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span>existence
of an ideal state of things in which everyone has precisely the position which,
with a view to the general happiness of the world, he ought to hold. If such a
state of things existed there would be some plausibility in saying that no one
ought to interfere with anyone else except for the sake of protecting himself
against attack, by maintaining the existing state of things. But as no such
state of things exists or ever yet existed in any age or country, the principle
has at present no locus standi.</i></span><i>” </i></span></blockquote>
</div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 11pt;">Spidey’s Uncle Ben’s right on
the responsibility bit. JF Stephen also wrote, </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 11pt;"><i>“<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">There
is hardly a habit which men in general regard as good which is not acquired by
a series of more or less painful and laborious acts. The condition of human
life is such that we must of necessity be restrained and compelled by
circumstances in nearly every action of our lives.</span>”</i> </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 11pt;">It was he who also said government is a mild form of coercion. That's how we are. People do not in general seek public or common good but personal interest first. Perhaps 'coercion' isn't nice, but it just means we need regulations. Unless you are a libertarian
with an anarchic bent, you wouldn’t argue that’s a bad thing. Slavery was
abolished in the US not because reasonable men and women agreed it was
unacceptable. In fact they argued that abolishment would harm the economy. A
government went to war to end it, unhappily for the South. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 11.1pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #444444; font-size: 11pt;">One of my
questions was, if something is wrong and offensive, do we have the right to
call it out?</span> Gurmit’s daughter Gabrielle surely believes it was within
her right to say raping women isn’t cool. More than that, she and I believe
that raping or abusing women (or man or child) is evil whatever colour or creed
you profess. I do not know any government on earth that will say raping women
is one of 5 acceptable ways to treat women and let’s teach our children the freedom
of choice. No, you want to be able to say, raping women is not on the table. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 11pt;">Lewd music may not turn
everyone into a rapist, but it will surely diminish the value of women in time,
demean sexual relations and thus increase the toxicity of society, and escalate
sexual abuse. Society becomes poisonous, weakens social well-being, and that’s
where the harm lies. <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">We are after all connected
selves aren’t we? </span>A simple
illustration: political and advertising messages presume that frequent airing
and persuasion of a cause do alter perception and sway public opinion.
Otherwise why bother to advertise and communicate so feverishly? Why then
assume that a negative message will have no effect? If something is bad or
wrong, why is public restrain and curtailment not good?</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjALWG4slkLFsiCxbCVkeSX6GvBngWPhbUdPfczPH5AYYBgOhg9sKfwlJAVa3vYZ2e5Ug62XcsXCZ-YuXSb985g_q0S4qaovnGWiYziHkBY0I2gl5xTCVrAbtfNiR-DsacvsFTg/s1600/sandels+books.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjALWG4slkLFsiCxbCVkeSX6GvBngWPhbUdPfczPH5AYYBgOhg9sKfwlJAVa3vYZ2e5Ug62XcsXCZ-YuXSb985g_q0S4qaovnGWiYziHkBY0I2gl5xTCVrAbtfNiR-DsacvsFTg/s1600/sandels+books.png" height="291" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 11pt;">Society
already shows us what happens when liberty is unrestrained: a culture of
indifference takes over. Harvard philosopher Robert Nozick admits that all that
libertarians really want is to be left alone.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 11pt;">This is why Michael Sandel wrote that, <i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">“The public philosophy by which we live
cannot secure the liberty it promises because it cannot inspire the sense of
community and civic engagement that liberty requires.”</span> </i>Hmm, I wonder if
he is referring to voter turnout too. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 11.1pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 11pt;">Okay, Sandel
also confesses he hasn’t figured it all out (same as all of us here who are
arguing in a closed universe). But Obama’s credited in Sandel’s 2010 book,
Justice, when he referred to moral transformation via religion: <i>“Our fear of getting ‘preachy’ may… lead us to
discount the role that values and culture play in some of our most urgent
social problems,”</i> and that would be a serious mistake. That so-called act of tolerance needs a subject, something to direct at; and surely somethings are intolerable - because it makes society less tolerable for human flourishing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 11.1pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 11pt;">Let’s put
religion aside for now. We would agree that it’s more preferable to live in a
society where laws respect personal rights and where personal rights uphold
laws, for the common good. And common good means ‘good’ values, morality, that
which contributes to human flourishing. We may disagree on the fine print, but
we must be able to say that some rights do diminish our right to a just,
decent, and fair society, and that’s plain wrong. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 11.1pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
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David BC Tanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16102898507435707042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687269.post-70544692794543826952014-05-22T01:48:00.000+08:002014-06-25T14:17:13.244+08:00Predators on the prowl in SetapakI have just met up with a few Myanmar refugees who are residents at the Danau Kota flats off Jalan Genting Klang, Setapak. They have been living there on the upper floors of these low cost flats between 4 and 10 years, earning a simple livelihood teaching in a refugee school while minding their own business, waiting to be resettled in a third country.<br />
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As Joan tells it, “The crime is getting worse. It was a safer place last time, but not now.” The situation has become so bad, many refugee families are afraid to leave their home or take the lift up to their floor, she added. Others have decided to move away from Setapak.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi71a27JnmZ0pZrXntt1SjM6-6FNXRlMQuAbN5lM7zhXMv4wnE8hR_p8l2QwwzaUN164S9ZeKhsvCqP195EY1GzjHNxGml2Nv-KT_jk5gJHm00Mou8AoelOmclEYsmzoxM3swIC/s1600/danau+kota+flats.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi71a27JnmZ0pZrXntt1SjM6-6FNXRlMQuAbN5lM7zhXMv4wnE8hR_p8l2QwwzaUN164S9ZeKhsvCqP195EY1GzjHNxGml2Nv-KT_jk5gJHm00Mou8AoelOmclEYsmzoxM3swIC/s1600/danau+kota+flats.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
The robbers, they are Malaysians, I interjected?<br />
<br />
“Yes. Many live here also and we know where they live. They wait for us. Nowadays there is a robbery nearly everyday. More than 10 gangsters usually wait around the lift, and some of their friends wait on the 1st or 2nd or 3rd floor. When they see a Myanmar coming, they whistle like this (she makes a bird sound) or make some signal. Then they surround you.”<br />
<br />
Family man and fellow teacher George nodded. “My wife works in the restaurant and comes home at midnight. It’s very frightening for my wife, so we moved to another flat with security nearby. A bit more expensive, but safer.”<br />
<br />
You have been robbed? “Sure, a couple of times,” George said. “They surround us, take our wallets, our handphones. If you are slow, they hit you or show you a knife. That's why I walk with my wife back from work at night.”<br />
<br />
George explained that Myanmar refugees working the night shift are most at risk. “The robbers know we come home at 3 or 4 am, so they wait. These gangsters always wait in groups. So we wait until they go away before we go home, sometimes using the fire escape stairs.”<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ3XHwYmX5EnQgeXi54SR66N3OcPgiGNEvlqNtrkSrlmS9NVrCKCXJ0ZRDO-QhvZwDnTVql3rCgrtB9i88ii8RDxKXYA92tqwymYDq-HNzhHoNzIy7vC3GuqPLFj8MJkRZhrwg/s1600/danau_kota_setapak.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ3XHwYmX5EnQgeXi54SR66N3OcPgiGNEvlqNtrkSrlmS9NVrCKCXJ0ZRDO-QhvZwDnTVql3rCgrtB9i88ii8RDxKXYA92tqwymYDq-HNzhHoNzIy7vC3GuqPLFj8MJkRZhrwg/s1600/danau_kota_setapak.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>
The Danau Kota flats in Setapak are a low cost maximum density housing development comprising five 18-floor blocks. Most of the units are about 700 square foot each on average. Small, compact, with 3 rooms and a bathroom. Community facilities are limited and dilapidated, hygiene is lacking, and basic amenities such as lifts are constantly broken.<br />
<br />
The problem is exacerbated in this aging development (nearly 20 years old) by poor essential maintenance and complete indifference of residents and housing authorities alike. No wonder it has become a breeding ground for crime. Gangs operate openly while residents have learned to look the other way.<br />
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Like low-cost housing everywhere in the city, the Danau Kota flats attract a large number of undocumented migrant workers and refugees. As condominiums and shopping malls sprouted overnight on tracts of ex-mining land, the promise of employment lured newly arrived foreigners here, many of whom are Myanmars, away from familiar but crowded refugee enclaves in the city.<br />
<br />
“My wife is so scared we moved to another area. She said at work, already scared of boss. Walking home, scared of police. Reach the flat, scared of gangsters,” George smiled warily.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxFJZxkecp2ovJbhxW6teLEpv3OwRnRBZyw7GWF_AaacKeS0ovvl8OoB6iRa60BDRD3lzBo0PyQ_qIKujUTB2tokrrcCvnotp7wCe4ksf10EI0d6-lp-1RWgydUTMBNhjZbpkl/s1600/unhcr+refugees.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxFJZxkecp2ovJbhxW6teLEpv3OwRnRBZyw7GWF_AaacKeS0ovvl8OoB6iRa60BDRD3lzBo0PyQ_qIKujUTB2tokrrcCvnotp7wCe4ksf10EI0d6-lp-1RWgydUTMBNhjZbpkl/s1600/unhcr+refugees.jpg" height="132" width="200" /></a></div>
What makes matters worse is that the authorities are no help either. Having accompanied Myanmars to the Police Station to lodge reports, I have witnessed first-hand how our men in blue treat these unwelcomed foreigners. They are easy pickings too. And more trouble for you if you do not have an UNHCR Refugee card.<br />
<br />
Peter who has been here for ten years told of an incident that happened last month. A young Myanmar man was accosted after work near the lift by 6 local youths, one armed with a knife. In the tussle, the Myanmar grabbed the knife and ran for his life.
Speaking in Bahasa, Peter said, “Itu geng, dia orang jerit, <i>‘Tolong! Ada Myanmar perompak bawa pisau.’</i> Lepas itu, orang lain pun kejar sambil orang Myanmar kena tangkap. Dia kena hentam juga. Kami punya komuniti bayar Polis RM5000 bagi dia bebas.”<br />
<br />
Malaysians have become brazen predators preying on helpless refugees. And it appears no one is surprised.<br />
<br />
On another occasion I was summoned to help out a Myanmar refugee who did not have an UNHCR card. There he was looking like a trapped animal, his eyes fixed on the floor, while 4 other unsmiling policemen sat with him in a sidewalk mamak store, pulling on their cigarettes. A spokesman took me to a side and told me that RM300 would help the Myanmar. “Kalau kita hantar ke Immigresen, lagi teruk. Kena bayar RM3000.”<br />
<br />
It’s hard not to be cynical about law enforcement, human rights and justice in our blighted nation. But by sitting on our hands we lose the right to complain.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitLf5BUPT2V5GnCsCONyHJkV9JDhjxT7F0lBTzmZDRbzICn7N8WAclJOZBbK6hve_mnw_1AgduHWNzDCfc8vPj742I7EFOggWDz0S7-UUPh97tREx79QXNWJxxKi0rpDm0o5Rk/s1600/Jalan-Duta-Court-Complex.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitLf5BUPT2V5GnCsCONyHJkV9JDhjxT7F0lBTzmZDRbzICn7N8WAclJOZBbK6hve_mnw_1AgduHWNzDCfc8vPj742I7EFOggWDz0S7-UUPh97tREx79QXNWJxxKi0rpDm0o5Rk/s1600/Jalan-Duta-Court-Complex.jpg" height="140" width="200" /></a></div>
Tomorrow, my friend and church community liaison Ravee and I are accompanying 3 Myanmar victims to the court. All three – they are unrelated - were robbed during a particularly violent weekend blitz in November last year.<br />
<br />
According toThanga, two men broke into his home in broad daylight, held a knife to his young daughter and robbed his family. Thankfully these robbers were apprehended - now that's something you don't see everyday! Well done!<br />
<br />
So these saksi-saksi who were subpoenaed to testify will have their first taste of Malaysia’s legal system. What stories will they tell when this episode is finally over? The case has been postponed twice already. I hope for their sake the wheels of justice will turn in their favour. For once.<br />
<br />
(All names have been changed to protect their identity)David BC Tanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16102898507435707042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687269.post-10317024825791509602013-07-19T02:48:00.000+08:002013-07-19T02:50:21.826+08:00DIALOGUE: Homeschooling in the Christian Family<div style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0FJcKNZvr-l4OmSuOdElTIS_5rdzoF4Ner_iVj-XCcf1H2raalLHgNZDeDBNuiLsQ99ylnlQ64_q6AkLpBsz2T8IEACtZJUkhEsaNlh5vZ6lHOKbivmWzUTHp8TYFN90Nlal7/s1600/HS-DIALOG-FULL-SIZE.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0FJcKNZvr-l4OmSuOdElTIS_5rdzoF4Ner_iVj-XCcf1H2raalLHgNZDeDBNuiLsQ99ylnlQ64_q6AkLpBsz2T8IEACtZJUkhEsaNlh5vZ6lHOKbivmWzUTHp8TYFN90Nlal7/s400/HS-DIALOG-FULL-SIZE.png" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>What is homeschooling all about?</b> </span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Why do families choose to educate
their own kids at home? </b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Has the Bible anything to say about
educating your children at home?
</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>How do you begin to homeschool
your own children?</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>If you are among the many
who are asking these questions,</i></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>this Homeschool Dialogue is for you.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Click to enlarge image for details to register your attendance)</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i> </i></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Date:</b> Saturday 3 August 2013
<b>Time:</b> 3.000pm ~ 5.00pm </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Venue:</b> Hope Evangelical Free Church,
Wangsa Link, Kuala Lumpur</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?q=hope+evangelical+free+church+wangsa+link&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&sa=N&tab=wl" target="_blank">(Click here for Hope EFC location on Google map)</a></b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>PRESENTERS</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>David and Sook Ching</b> are parents of 2 adult sons who were homeschooled all through their years. Ethan will complete his degree in Political Science in Texas end of this year. Elliot has left for Perth to complete his twinning programme in Mass Communications. David and Sook Ching are founders of the homeschooling network, HOMEFRONTIER.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Joseph and Debra</b> have been homeschooling for the past 6 years and their primary motivation is in building a Biblical worldview into the raising of their two daughters - aged 10 and 14. As a family, they have started Answers Academy - an apologetics ministry focusing on equipping believers with real answers for skeptical questions in today's world. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Weng Hou and Gaik Suan</b> are active members of Full Gospel Tabernacle. They have 3 children who were homeschooled after their early years in government schools. Natalie 22, is doing an online degree course while helping with the family business. Nicholas 19, is in Pre-U, MCKL, while Stephanie 17, has just completed her SAT and preparing for her O Level exams. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>This Homeschool Dialogue is the 2nd in a series of occasional sessions hosted by Hope EFC as part of its ministry towards families and the homeschooling community. As a family-friendly church, we are advocates of strong families and support homeschooling as a viable option for Christian parents.
</i></span>David BC Tanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16102898507435707042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687269.post-66054183890296977792012-04-23T12:53:00.001+08:002012-04-23T12:53:08.171+08:00Why Bersih 3.0<div style="text-align: center;">
No, We're Malaysians and we won't take it anymore!
</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheBfhJpef7uBH64s0QpOpLT8whk6Oc8CjLzos_fWGl1XQHGPD0QHiDgJNBU9tHIluk0acBvMyLbGGv2TkInk_PeLhFAFZFOMqLN2M-CQptLSfEO31CNm4WcHDnVQgME9A40q7k/s1600/elctoral+fraud+bersih.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheBfhJpef7uBH64s0QpOpLT8whk6Oc8CjLzos_fWGl1XQHGPD0QHiDgJNBU9tHIluk0acBvMyLbGGv2TkInk_PeLhFAFZFOMqLN2M-CQptLSfEO31CNm4WcHDnVQgME9A40q7k/s320/elctoral+fraud+bersih.JPG" width="226" /></a></div>
</center>David BC Tanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16102898507435707042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687269.post-21044833531029696352012-04-17T18:15:00.000+08:002012-04-17T18:15:33.138+08:00CFM comments on offensive security act<br />
The Christian Federation of Malaysia issues a press release in view of the impending repeal of the 1960 Internal Security Act<br />
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APRIL 17 – The Christian Federation of Malaysia welcomes the Honourable Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Najib bin Tun Razak’s tabling of the Security Offences (Special Measures) Bill 2012 for second reading in the Dewan Rakyat on Monday, 16 April 2012.<br />
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Once the Bill comes into operation, at a date yet to be fixed, the Internal Security Act 1960 will be repealed.<br />
<br />
We acknowledge the Prime Minister’s attempt to remain true to the announcement he made on 15 September 2011 that he would abolish the Internal Security Act 1960.<br />
<br />
Nonetheless, the CFM is concerned that as part of Clause 32 of the Bill dealing with the saving provisions, “The repeal of the Internal Security Act 1960 shall not affect – (a) any order issued or made under the repealed Act prior to the date of coming into operation of this Act, unless earlier revoked by the Minister.”<br />
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There are 3 orders issued under the Internal Security Act 1960 which are particularly offensive to the Christian community.<br />
<br />
These are:<br />
<br />
<b>Internal Security (Prohibition of Publications) (No. 4) Order 1982.</b><br />
<br />
This is a prohibition order on the Alkitab published by the Lembaga Alkitab Indonesia and printed in Korea. This order deems the Alkitab (The Bible in the Malay language) to be prejudicial to the national interest and security of the Federation and prohibits the printing, publication, sale, issue, circulation or possession of the publication with the condition that the prohibition “shall not apply to the possession or use in churches of such publication by persons professing the Christian religion, throughout Malaysia”. The order was signed on 22nd March 1982.<br />
<br />
<b>Internal Security (Prohibition of Publications) (No.2) Order 1983.</b><br />
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The publication “Kalam Hidup” published by the Kalam Hidup (Kemah Injil Gereja Masehi Indonesia) was prohibited throughout Malaysia and was stated as “prejudicial to the national interest of the Federation”. The order was signed on 4th May 1983.<br />
<br />
<b>Internal Security (Prohibition of Publications) (No.3) Order 1983.</b><br />
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The “Perjanjian Baru” published and printed by the Lembaga Alkitab Indonesia was prohibited because it was “prejudicial to the national interest of the Federation” but was allowed “subject to the possession or use in churches of such publication by persons professing the Christian religion, throughout Malaysia.” The order was signed on 4th May 1983.<br />
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Pursuant to Clause 32 of the Bill, such orders will remain in force notwithstanding the repeal of the Internal Security Act 1960. This is wholly unacceptable.<br />
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We call on the Prime Minister, in the spirit of the Global Movement of Moderates which he himself has launched and championed, to take immediate steps to revoke these orders.<br />
<br />
As long as they remain part of the corpus of legislation in Malaysia, they represent an odious and obnoxious derogation from the freedom of religion in Malaysia.<br />
<br />
Article 149 of the Federal Constitution, under which provisions the Internal Security Act 1960 was passed, clearly prohibits any inconsistency with Article 11 of the Federal Constitution that guarantees freedom of religion.<br />
<br />
As such, these orders violate the Federal Constitution and should NEVER have been made in the first place.<br />
<br />
These orders represent an unwarranted and illegitimate restriction of the right to profess, practice and propagate one’s religion.<br />
<br />
It adds insult to injury if they are allowed to remain on our statute books.<br />
<br />
We urge the Malaysian Government to take this golden opportunity to remove once and for all this stubborn stain on the rule of law in Malaysia.<br />
<br />
<i>Bishop Datuk Ng Moon Hing, Chairman and the Executive Committee, The Christian Federation of Malaysia.</i><br />David BC Tanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16102898507435707042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687269.post-80934170220242154802011-09-14T13:40:00.000+08:002011-09-14T13:40:36.522+08:00College isn't for everyone<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><i>I came across this interesting piece but I have not been able to link it to the source. It's a long article, but if you want to know what it says in less than 10 words, here it is - not everyone has to go to college</i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">.............................................................................................................................................................</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><b>AMERICA'S MOST OVER-RATED PRODUCT: THE BACHELOR'S DEGREE</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">By Marty Nemko</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">AMONG MY SADDEST MOMENTS as a career
counselor is when I hear a story like this: "I wasn't a good student in
high school, but I wanted to prove that I can get a college diploma. I'd be the
first one in my family to do it. But it's been five years and $80,000, and I
still have 45 credits to go."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">I have a hard time telling such people the
killer statistic: Among high-school students who graduated in the bottom 40
percent of their classes, and whose first institutions were four-year colleges,
two-thirds had not earned diplomas eight and a half years later. That figure is
from a study cited by Clifford Adelman, a former research analyst at the U.S.
Department of Education and now a senior research associate at the Institute
for Higher Education Policy. Yet four-year colleges admit and take money from
hundreds of thousands of such students each year!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Even worse, most of those college dropouts
leave the campus having learned little of value, and with a mountain of debt
and devastated self-esteem from their unsuccessful struggles. Perhaps worst of
all, even those who do manage to graduate too rarely end up in careers that
require a college education. So it's not surprising that when you hop into a
cab or walk into a restaurant, you're likely to meet workers who spent years
and their family's life savings on college, only to end up with a job they
could have done as a high-school dropout.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Such students are not aberrations. Today,
amazingly, a majority of the students whom colleges admit are grossly
underprepared. Only 23 percent of the 1.3 million high-school graduates of 2007
who took the ACT examination were ready for college-level work in the core
subjects of English, math, reading, and science.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Perhaps more surprising, even those
high-school students who are fully qualified to attend college are increasingly
unlikely to derive enough benefit to justify the often six-figure cost and four
to six years (or more) it takes to graduate. Research suggests that more than
40 percent of freshmen at four-year institutions do not graduate in six years.
Colleges trumpet the statistic that, over their lifetimes, college graduates
earn more than nongraduates, but that's terribly misleading. You could lock the
collegebound in a closet for four years, and they'd still go on to earn more
than the pool of non-collegebound — they're brighter, more motivated, and have
better family connections.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Also, the past advantage of college
graduates in the job market is eroding. Ever more students attend college at
the same time as ever more employers are automating and sending offshore ever
more professional jobs, and hiring part-time workers. Many college graduates
are forced to take some very nonprofessional positions, such as driving a truck
or tending bar.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><b>How much do students at four-year
institutions actually learn?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Colleges are quick to argue that a college
education is more about enlightenment than employment. That may be the biggest
deception of all. Often there is a Grand Canyon of difference between the
reality and what higher-education institutions, especially research ones, tout
in their viewbooks and on their Web sites. Colleges and universities are
businesses, and students are a cost item, while research is a profit center. As
a result, many institutions tend to educate students in the cheapest way
possible: large lecture classes, with necessary small classes staffed by
rock-bottom-cost graduate students. At many colleges, only a small percentage
of the typical student's classroom hours will have been spent with fewer than
30 students taught by a professor, according to student-questionnaire data I
used for my book How to Get an Ivy League Education at a State University. When
students at 115 institutions were asked what percentage of their class time had
been spent in classes of fewer than 30 students, the average response was 28
percent.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">That's not to say that professor-taught
classes are so worthwhile. The more prestigious the institution, the more
likely that faculty members are hired and promoted much more for their research
than for their teaching. Professors who bring in big research dollars are
almost always rewarded more highly than a fine teacher who doesn't bring in the
research bucks. Ernest L. Boyer, the late president of the Carnegie Foundation
for the Advancement of Teaching, used to say that winning the campus teaching
award was the kiss of death when it came to tenure. So, no surprise, in the
latest annual national survey of freshmen conducted by the Higher Education
Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles, 44.6 percent
said they were not satisfied with the quality of instruction they received.
Imagine if that many people were dissatisfied with a brand of car: It would
quickly go off the market. Colleges should be held to a much higher standard,
as a higher education costs so much more, requires years of time, and has so
much potential impact on your life. Meanwhile, 43.5 percent of freshmen also
reported "frequently" feeling bored in class, the survey found.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">College students may be dissatisfied with
instruction, but, despite that, do they learn? A 2006 study supported by the
Pew Charitable Trusts found that 50 percent of college seniors scored below
"proficient" levels on a test that required them to do such basic
tasks as understand the arguments of newspaper editorials or compare
credit-card offers. Almost 20 percent of seniors had only basic quantitative
skills. The students could not estimate if their car had enough gas to get to
the gas station.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Unbelievably, according to the Spellings Report,
which was released in 2006 by a federal commission that examined the future of
American higher education, things are getting even worse: "Over the past
decade, literacy among college graduates has actually declined. … According to
the most recent National Assessment of Adult Literacy, for instance, the
percentage of college graduates deemed proficient in prose literacy has
actually declined from 40 to 31 percent in the past decade. … Employers report
repeatedly that many new graduates they hire are not prepared to work, lacking
the critical thinking, writing and problem-solving skills needed in today's
workplaces."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><b>What must be done to improve undergraduate
education?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Colleges should be held at least as
accountable as tire companies are. When some Firestone tires were believed to
be defective, government investigations, combined with news-media scrutiny, led
to higher tire-safety standards. Yet year after year, colleges and universities
turn out millions of defective products: students who drop out or graduate with
far too little benefit for the time and money spent. Not only do colleges
escape punishment, but they are rewarded with taxpayer-financed student grants
and loans, which allow them to raise their tuitions even more.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">I ask colleges to do no more than tire
manufacturers are required to do. To be government-approved, all tires must
have — prominently molded into the sidewall — some crucial information,
including ratings of tread life, temperature resistance, and traction compared
with national benchmarks.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Going significantly beyond the
recommendations in the Spellings report, I believe that colleges should be
required to prominently report the following data on their Web sites and in
recruitment materials:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Value added. A national test, which could be developed by the
major testing companies, should measure skills important for responsible
citizenship and career success. Some of the test should be in career
contexts: the ability to draft a persuasive memo, analyze an employer's
financial report, or use online research tools to develop content for a
report.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Just as the No Child Left Behind Act mandates strict
accountability of elementary and secondary schools, all colleges should be
required to administer the value-added test I propose to all entering
freshmen and to students about to graduate, and to report the mean value
added, broken out by precollege SAT scores, race, and gender. That would
strongly encourage institutions to improve their undergraduate education
and to admit only students likely to derive enough benefit to justify the
time, tuition, and opportunity costs. Societal bonus: Employers could
request that job applicants submit the test results, leading to more-valid
hiring decisions.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The average cash, loan, and work-study financial aid for
varying levels of family income and assets, broken out by race and gender.
And because some colleges use the drug-dealer scam — give the first dose
cheap and then jack up the price — they should be required to provide the
average not just for the first year, but for each year.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Retention data: the percentage of students returning for a
second year, broken out by SAT score, race, and gender.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Safety data: the percentage of an institution's students who
have been robbed or assaulted on or near the campus.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The four-, five-, and six-year graduation rates, broken out by
SAT score, race, and gender. That would allow institutions to better
document such trends as the plummeting percentage of male graduates in
recent years.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Employment data for graduates: the percentage of graduates who,
within six months of graduation, are in graduate school, unemployed, or
employed in a job requiring college-level skills, along with salary data.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Results of the most recent student-satisfaction survey, to be
conducted by the institutions themselves.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The most recent accreditation report. The college could include
the executive summary only in its printed recruitment material, but it
would have to post the full report on its Web site.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Being required to conspicuously provide
this information to prospective students and parents would exert long-overdue
pressure on colleges to improve the quality of undergraduate education. What
should parents and guardians of prospective students do?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">If your child's high-school grades and test scores are in the
bottom half for his class, resist the attempts of four-year colleges to
woo him. Colleges make money whether or not a student learns, whether or
not she graduates, and whether or not he finds good employment. Let the
buyer beware. Consider an associate-degree program at a community college,
or such nondegree options as apprenticeship programs (see
http://www.khake.com), shorter career-preparation programs at community
colleges, the military, and on-the-job training, especially at the elbow
of a successful small-business owner.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">If your student is in the top half of her high-school class and
is motivated to attend college for reasons other than going to parties and
being able to say she went to college, have her apply to perhaps a dozen
colleges. Colleges vary less than you might think (at least on factors you
can readily discern in the absence of the accountability requirements I
advocate above), yet financial-aid awards can vary wildly. It's often wise
to choose the college that requires you to pay the least cash and take out
the smallest loan. College is among the few products that don't
necessarily give you what you pay for — price does not indicate quality.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">If your child is one of the rare breed who knows what he wants
to do and isn't unduly attracted to academics or to the Animal House
environment that characterizes many college-living arrangements, then take
solace in the fact that countless other people have successfully taken the
noncollege road less traveled. Some examples: Maya Angelou, David
Ben-Gurion, Richard Branson, Coco Chanel, Walter Cronkite, Michael Dell,
Walt Disney, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Bill Gates, Alex Haley, Ernest
Hemingway, Wolfgang Puck, John D. Rockefeller Sr., Ted Turner, Frank Lloyd
Wright, and nine U.S. presidents, from Washington to Truman.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">College is a wise choice for far fewer
people than are currently encouraged to consider it. It's crucial that they
evenhandedly weigh the pros and cons of college versus the aforementioned
alternatives. The quality of their lives may depend on that choice.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
<span lang="EN-GB"><i><b>Marty Nemko</b> is a career counselor based
in Oakland, Calif., and has been an education consultant to 15 college
presidents. He is author of four books, including The All-in-One College Guide:
A Consumer Activist's Guide to Choosing a College (Barron's, 2004).</i></span></div>
David BC Tanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16102898507435707042noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687269.post-15612997754780239182011-09-07T12:28:00.000+08:002011-09-07T12:28:07.654+08:00School system gets messier<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqY1gMYAxckD3HUKOosLdfe2YSaiteK9j-_h8UuSBPmQad3FkvFM-m-Qlx1ddJ10RW0unADEF0x2E0I7K982hpryuVtxGHYvOLyi1zQVWMir_hieKElbjiOQlUnvUo0x7OLw84/s1600/fail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqY1gMYAxckD3HUKOosLdfe2YSaiteK9j-_h8UuSBPmQad3FkvFM-m-Qlx1ddJ10RW0unADEF0x2E0I7K982hpryuVtxGHYvOLyi1zQVWMir_hieKElbjiOQlUnvUo0x7OLw84/s320/fail.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
All the talk about revamps and revitalising our education system is, yes, all talk. It looks like the ministry is run by incompetent persons with grand titles and greater delusions of grandeur. Meanwhile, taxpayer's funds and a lot of time are wasted. I am sorry for the teachers and the ridiculous load they have to shoulder. And our children? They deserve better, certainly. If you can, get your kids out of the system.<br />
<br />
Here's the painful Malaysiakini <a href="http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/174934">letter</a> that's enough to make anyone weep:<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 8.95pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-line-height-alt: 8.95pt;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Last year it was called Sistem Pentaksiran Pendidikan Kebangsaan
(SPPK). My school was one of the pioneers of the project. The Ministry of
Education thought that exam oriented approach to teaching was not fair to all
the students. The argument was that six years of primary education should not
be concluded in 50 minutes of multiple choice questions. The intention was
good. It still is.<span style="background: white;"><br />
<br />
</span>Now with Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Rendah (KSSR) comes Pentaksiran
Berasaskan Sekolah. You may have heard of it. The Minister of Education refers
to this as PBS and it was meant to ensure that no pupil will be left behind due
to unfortunate circumstances. It being school based means that the teacher
knows best when to assess the pupil. <span style="background: white;"><br />
<br />
</span>This school based assessment is a yearly assessment and it contributes
40 percent towards the UPSR final grade. At the beginning of the year we were
told that only five subjects were involved namely Bahasa, English, Mathematics,
Science and Physical, Sports, Cocurriculum Activity Education.<span style="background: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The school was to prepare files
aplenty. The most notable one would be the 'Showcase' file in which we store
the pupil's best piece of work throughout 6 years as evidence. It sounded O.K.
But that was the beginning of the year.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <span style="background: white;"><br />
<br />
And so we opened all the necessary files. The bigger the school population, the
more files needed. Each of the teacher in charge of assessment was provided
with a Performance Standard Document as a guideline. It was published by the
Malaysian Examination Syndicate. Bear in mind that this was last year's edition
- the one used by the pioneer schools.</span> <span style="background: white;"><br />
<br />
One thing that was wrong with it was that the documents for mathematics and
science were still written in English. This raised questions but the teachers
being jacks of all trade did not complain at this point. Where there is a will
there is a way. School based assessment was up and running by late January.</span> <span style="background: white;"><br />
<br />
In April, we were told to halt the school based assessment pending for the
arrival of new Performance Standard Documents by the Malaysian Examination
Syndicate. All assessments done up until this point was deemed invalid. School
based assessment was put to a halt at this point.</span> <span style="background: white;"><br />
<br />
In May, we were informed that the school based assessment now involves every
subject in KSSR including Information and Communication Technology Element
which is not even a subject taught by any specific teacher. Even the newly
minted Bahasa Arab for KSSR was not spared.</span> <span style="background: white;"><br />
<br />
Each subject has its own Performance Standard Document. So we bought thicker
files and put dividers for each subject. It got a little frustrating at this
point. We needed to redo the in-house training for the additional subjects. By
the way, even until now nobody mentioned that UPSR 2016 will involve every KSSR
subject.</span> <span style="background: white;"><br />
<br />
The sample worksheets (instrument for assessment) per se is ridiculous. For
example Band 1 assessment for Bahasa is fairly fundamental knowledge such as
mimicking sounds, naming them, reading word segments, and tracing alphabets.</span></span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But when you look at the Bands
1 and 2 assessment for Moral Education it's like a mini literature. It assumed
Year 1 pupils read fluently and write smoothly. Even Year 4 pupils could not do
Year 1's Band 2 Moral Education worksheet.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <span style="background: white;"><br />
<br />
In June, the Examination Syndicate uploaded an online application called Sistem
Pengurusan Pentaksiran Berasaskan Sekolah (SPPBS) to do what it was supposed to
do hence the name.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The school secretary of
examinations was given the task to create user accounts for every local
assessor. We attended the in-house training which was done by our secretary
himself. School based assessment was up and running again by end of June.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <span style="background: white;"><br />
<br />
Surprise, surprise. The Examination Syndicate's circular regarding the
compulsory implementation of school based assessment only came out on July 5.
Every school has a copy but for unknown reasons you will not find this circular
online.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I've searched the official
website and I've Googled for traces of it elsewhere. I suspect it is due to the
delay of the letter (supposed to have been distributed in January) and that
certain quarters might dispute the validity of assessments done prior to its
release.<br />
<br />
The most ridiculous part was this. I was about the record the qualifiers for
Bands 2 and 3 for the subjects that I assessed on Friday, September 3. What I saw
was truly horrifying. The entire database was erased by the system
administrator! We were prompted to get our new passwords from the State
Education Department.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <span style="background: white;"><br />
<br />
And upon navigation no news of passwords whatsoever can be found. This is
September for crying out loud - less than two months before the end of the
school calendar. Do you mean that we need to go back to square one? We have
many other errands to run in school, you know.</span> <span style="background: white;"><br />
<br />
The director of the Malaysian Examination Syndicate, Sufaat bin Tumin has a lot
of explaining to do. Perhaps it is wise to stick with the original plan and put
on hold any improvisations.<br />
<br />
Murphy's Law states that if something can go wrong, it will. This whole episode
will repeat itself next year, don't you agree, Mr Director?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</span><br />
David BC Tanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16102898507435707042noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687269.post-7044281886854760932011-08-04T16:10:00.003+08:002011-08-04T16:17:33.475+08:00I think therefore IPad<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs8QUooeztKYLE_kFECMuO98MTsMTvK9RUgILqIXVkbFoLLCJLdjuXFKFEpx8tEbXNugtie8ObIVdIobbFNjqfWYTxaYbg_WsPpGAehFrX6LCmWRlwjNYgGkcxojvohyphenhyphenBiMC51/s1600/ipad2-3g.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs8QUooeztKYLE_kFECMuO98MTsMTvK9RUgILqIXVkbFoLLCJLdjuXFKFEpx8tEbXNugtie8ObIVdIobbFNjqfWYTxaYbg_WsPpGAehFrX6LCmWRlwjNYgGkcxojvohyphenhyphenBiMC51/s320/ipad2-3g.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5636910371996544834" /></a><b>IPad2 64GB Wifi/3G</b>. Undoubtedly the COOLEST thing I've purchased this year. I'm looking forward to a lighter load in my backpack and a lot easier way to get work done on the run.<br /><br />Desktop PC and Windows, the writing is on the wall, er, IPad.David BC Tanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16102898507435707042noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687269.post-14010841403171286852011-07-28T14:54:00.002+08:002011-07-28T15:04:13.378+08:00John Stott: Called home<center><span style="font-weight:bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >John Robert Walmsley Stott</span><br />27 April 1921 – 27 July 2011</span><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPG8sbWsiWdGrtt4BIixrW4LzNyoSGisBW0xTjQyfhPulyuraoy8KAW7EfNuJNn3fZ1t5XAmxXL6Qf4f1v5Ud22XlDZLKx5x4fn8G-OFG2j1gZ8RJuv_BqDWOYMQT4Z6OUQaxQ/s1600/stott.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 250px; height: 255px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPG8sbWsiWdGrtt4BIixrW4LzNyoSGisBW0xTjQyfhPulyuraoy8KAW7EfNuJNn3fZ1t5XAmxXL6Qf4f1v5Ud22XlDZLKx5x4fn8G-OFG2j1gZ8RJuv_BqDWOYMQT4Z6OUQaxQ/s320/stott.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5634293227222989298" /></a></center><br /><br />Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:<br /><br />For all of us who were together in Cape Town for the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization, we will remember the moving tributes given to the two giants of The Lausanne Movement, Billy Graham and John Stott. They were personal friends who loved and admired one another, and they were the defining figures of global evangelicalism for the last sixty years.<br /><br />Today (27 July 2011) “Uncle John” went home to be with the Lord. (<a href="http://www.lausanne.org/news-releases/john-stott-dies-aged-90.html">Read more</a>) He is now with the One who he served all his life and in whom he had total confidence.<br /><br />John Stott impacted the church around the world in many ways. Perhaps his greatest contribution was to articulate clearly and to defend robustly the evangelical faith which he always understood to be biblical faith, grounded in the New Testament. Evangelicalism was to Stott an expression of historic, orthodox Christianity.<br /><br />The Cross of Christ was central to the message. Stott preached the Cross as the sole means by which men and women could be made right with God.<br /><br />The resurrection of Christ was the great hope of his life, as it is for all mankind, and the hope for life beyond death. This is the great reality he is now experiencing as the reward and vindication for all he preached and for which he lived during the many years of his ministry in London and around the world.<br /><br />Perhaps more than any other person in the last century, John Stott restored confidence in the authority of God’s Word and in the centrality of biblical preaching and teaching. He inspired many evangelicals around the world to make a robust and clear affirmation of biblical truth while at the same time emphasizing that this must be backed up with a distinctive, godly Christian life.<br /><br />He was able to hold together, in constructive biblical tension, a passionate commitment to evangelism along with a profound commitment to ministering to the needs of people in the context of suffering and brokenness. This is best expressed in <a href="http://www.lausanne.org/covenant">The Lausanne Covenant</a>, of which he is the chief author, and which is seen as the defining evangelical document of the 20th Century.<br /><br />Everywhere John Stott traveled to teach, he encouraged “double listening.” This was a listening to the voice of the Spirit of God through his Word, and listening to the voice and the needs of our broken world.<br /><br />Stott was known for his love for the Majority World and for students. He gave himself tirelessly to assisting and encouraging pastors and students in Africa, Latin America, Asia, the South Pacific and the Middle East. He leaves friends everywhere.<br /><br />Of course, his friends and his hosts knew that he would also always want to take advantage of bird watching whenever the opportunity presented itself!<br /><br />The church in the UK and around the world is richer for his great life. His simple lifestyle, his powerful preaching with its precision of thought and expression, his books written with such depth and clarity, have touched thousands and thousands of people around the world.<br /><br />We are saddened by his departure, but strengthened with the knowledge that his great confidence and his lifelong hope in Christ has now been made real to him, and his life’s work has been vindicated.<br /><br />Daniel 12:3: “And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above, and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.”<br /><br />We were blessed to be impacted by a man we loved so much.<br /><br />Let us seek to honor Christ, and also to honor John Stott, through a life that is lived for the glory of God and for the good of the church and the world.<br /><br /><br />Sincerely in Christ,<br /><br />S. Douglas Birdsall<br />Executive Chair, The Lausanne Movement<br /><br />Lindsay Brown<br />International Director, The Lausanne Movement<br /><br /><br /><br />PS from Doug: In my last conversation with John Stott a few weeks ago, we were talking about <a href="http://www.lausanne.org/ctcommitment">The Cape Town Commitment.</a> When I called Uncle John, one of his long time friends, Philip, was there reading the Commitment to him, line by line so that he could take it all in. During the course of our conversation, he said to me in a weak but clear voice, "Chris (Wright) did a masterful job in writing this with his team. And, you seem to have achieved an astonishing degree of unity with this new Lausanne document."<br /><br />That was a joy to him. His desire was that The Cape Town Commitment would be made available together with The Lausanne Covenant and The Manila Manifesto. We can also honor his life by redoubling our commitment to the unity and integrity of the church and to the evangelization of the world, as expressed by these three great documents.David BC Tanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16102898507435707042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687269.post-28497743267034072232011-07-01T01:46:00.001+08:002011-07-01T01:48:34.130+08:00Let the people marchI like what Steve Oh <a href="http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/168115">wrote</a> in Malaysiakini:<div><br /></div><br /><blockquote>The July 9 Bersih march is an event worthy of support.<br /><br />It is a march of the people, for the people and by the people.<br /><br />Everyone who believes in the integrity of the democracy in the country should take part in such an event because it strikes at the heart of their nation and its integrity.<br /><br />What is there to fear from an event that seeks to uphold the integrity of the electoral process?<br /><br />It is not a political ceramah. It is not a political event.<br /><br />It is a civic happening for the benefit of the nation.<br /><br />What bad can come from it except from those who are bent on causing trouble, those who have much to fear and lose from seeing open, fair and trustworthy elections?<br /><br />The police, among the best in the world, for controlling large crowds, should be able to control a peaceful march and take it in their stride.<br /><br />In fact, the police are also voters and citizens and should have a stake in the integrity of their nation's electoral process.<br /><br />Malaysia is fortunate to have citizens who will get out of their comfort zone to participate in the process of ensuring their country has an electoral system that will be second to none anywhere else in the world.<br /><br />In fact rather than putting a wet blanket over the march, the government should be encouraging it as strong proof that it appreciates the rakyat's contribution to the country's public life and in trying to make the country better and it has nothing to fear from an improved electoral process.<br /><br />Every political party should be sending representatives and ensuring that open, fair and trustworthy elections are guaranteed.<br />No electoral system is foolproof or without flaws and every attempt at ensuring there are improvements should be welcomed not opposed.<br /><br />What has anyone to fear from the people asking that the voting process is open, fair and trustworthy?<br /><br />It does strike every integrity-loving citizen and even any outside observer as odd that anyone who believes in a 'clean, efficient and trustworthy' administration should be opposing the people's contribution in enhancing it.<br /><br />Why are those people opposing what is fundamentally good, and what will be good for the people and the country?<br /><br />The stark incongruity in what is promoted and what is practised does create a problem of credibility for the government which may not want to open itself to the criticisms of hypocrisy, or worse, duplicity, if it is seen as afraid of calls for fair elections.<br /><br />But it has much to gain in walking alongside the people on July 9.<br /><br />Ultimately the electoral commission still has to ensure the system meets high standards of integrity because a march itself does not achieve that and no government can claim to have a mandate when gerrymandering and other voting irregularities exist to make a mockery of democracy.<br /><br />No one who upholds the highest standards of public accountability, transparency and integrity ought to fear such an event except those who may have something to hide or will fear that if elections are open, fair and trustworthy, they may have to suffer the consequences.<br /><br />It is pointless to paint the event as anything but the passion of the rakyat to elevate their country to a higher level of public accountability and integrity of the system that decides who gets the mandate to govern.<br /><br />This is year 2010 not 1969.<br /><br />There is no way and nowhere to hide the truth without it surfacing in the most uncanny manner sooner or later.<br />Many Malaysians are already marching in their hearts behind the integrity that is necessary for their survival. Nothing will not stop them from believing that open, fair, and trustworthy elections are in their and their country's national interest.<br /><br />Malaysians march on their national day, they march in religious processions, there are long processions during the funerals of the famous and wealthy, and every day there are hundreds of marches and processions occuring throughout the world involving millions of people without any untoward incident.<br /><br />A peaceful procession is a legitimate form of expression, a freedom and lawful activity guaranteed by the Constitution and we have seen the most vociferous crowds hold opposing rallies in countries<br />where the rule of law is properly upheld, the people's freedoms upheld and the police do their job of upholding law and order without fear or favour.<br /><br />Let the people march and let them do good for their country - it is their country.<br /></blockquote>David BC Tanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16102898507435707042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687269.post-3478526881098390702011-04-15T02:38:00.001+08:002011-04-15T02:41:14.791+08:00Sarawak, destiny beckons!<center><iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/22387800" width="400" height="233" frameborder="0"></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/22387800">ABC Australia</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/farnhamfilm">Sarawak Report</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</p></center>David BC Tanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16102898507435707042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687269.post-64872767235089033002011-03-28T12:44:00.004+08:002011-04-08T17:56:07.218+08:00The paradox of Sarawak<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ4-qZyEIExLh2euZWJJUvbZXWpS18dguGyh8a-M9hgZlKO-32rlsCYYGrVxKHBJaxH-vKo-q2d_2DOa_G54SrrIFlnBfBdCMp4wFQyz2vez0Df2G5fno3p9i1NLPTloDQA6Uv/s1600/cleared_rainforest_pg24.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 154px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ4-qZyEIExLh2euZWJJUvbZXWpS18dguGyh8a-M9hgZlKO-32rlsCYYGrVxKHBJaxH-vKo-q2d_2DOa_G54SrrIFlnBfBdCMp4wFQyz2vez0Df2G5fno3p9i1NLPTloDQA6Uv/s320/cleared_rainforest_pg24.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588991863496859826" /></a><br />This story first appeared in <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aBC4ld4jmdV4">Bloomberg</a> in 2009. On the cusp of its 10th state elections, Sarawak remains as poor while its rulers talk glibly of<a href="http://sarawakmonitor.blogspot.com/2010/12/state-enters-very-challenging-phase-of.html"> "transforming the State economy towards a high-income and advanced economy by 2020."</a> Sarawak is the 4th poorest state in Malaysia and here's the reason.<br /><blockquote>[D]evelopment projects, including plantations and dams, haven’t helped poverty among the local people, many of whom live without adequate electricity or schools, says Richard Leete, who served as the resident representative of the United Nations Development Program for Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei from 2003 to 2008.<br /><br />“This is the paradox of Sarawak -- the great wealth it has, the natural resources in such abundance, and yet such an impoverishment and the real hardship these communities are suffering,” says Richard Leete, who chronicled Malaysia’s progress since its independence from Britain in his book “Malaysia: From Kampung to Twin Towers” (Oxford Fajar, 2007). “There has no doubt been a lot of money politics,” he says.</blockquote><br />Read the whole Bloomberg article, <span style="font-weight:bold;">Getting Rich in Malaysia Cronyism Capital Means Dayak Lose Home</span>, <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aBC4ld4jmdV4">here.</a>David BC Tanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16102898507435707042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687269.post-55691027929499879632011-03-21T00:39:00.005+08:002011-03-21T00:54:56.969+08:00No prize for Al-Gaddafi<div style="text-align: center;"><b>Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights</b></div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilo3r3248nKkqcl7w3s-_TKLYV6eTJCZsD_6Th_3VLPXDp2RVMwEYJ4I__SnOfNAd2Kbx8DA4RoZbTWejakcH_TV-8ODZUpMCFNimtspQPAVye6ptzK0FPrW6DwWgwsCljeyhy/s1600/al+gaddafi+prize.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 282px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilo3r3248nKkqcl7w3s-_TKLYV6eTJCZsD_6Th_3VLPXDp2RVMwEYJ4I__SnOfNAd2Kbx8DA4RoZbTWejakcH_TV-8ODZUpMCFNimtspQPAVye6ptzK0FPrW6DwWgwsCljeyhy/s320/al+gaddafi+prize.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5586202823390339650" /></a><br /></div>Yes, you read right. Established by Libyan strongman Muammar al-Gaddafi, it awards an annual prize to personalities or organisations for services rendered towards human rights. According to the <a href="http://www.gaddafiprize.org/WhoEn.htm">website</a>,<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" >The Prize categorically believes that freedom is an indivisible natural right for Man; it is not a gift or grace from anybody, and that safeguarding it is a general human responsibility.</span></blockquote></div> I'm not sure the Libyans are amused. Certainly not the rebels who are being shelled and shot at by Gaddafi's forces.David BC Tanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16102898507435707042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687269.post-54944215909247834032011-03-18T00:43:00.008+08:002011-03-18T01:33:19.816+08:00Bible is security threat?<span style="font-weight:bold;">Malay Bibles Desecrated by Malaysian Authorities</span><br />By Ng Kam Weng<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-style:italic;"><div style="text-align: center;">“Oh No! They killed our loved ones even though we paid the ransom.”</div></span><br />This is the worst nightmare experienced by people who paid ransom to kidnappers only to find their loved ones returned to them executed.<br /><br />“Oh No! They desecrated our beloved Holy Bibles.”<br /><br />This is the heart wrenching experience of <a href="javascript:void(0)">Publish Post</a>Malaysian Christians who found their Holy Bibles returned to them defaced and desecrated. Malaysian Christians have earlier out of courtesy and grace agreed with the government to print the Alkitab (Malay Bible) with the symbol of the cross on the front cover along with the caption “A Christian Publication” [ The claim by the Minister of Home Affairs that Christians have earlier agreed to have the phrase, "For Christins only" stamped on the Alkitab is a lie. There was no such agreement. His statement, "We stamped the Bible based on amalan (practice) before… during Abdullah Badawi and even Tun Dr Mahathir’s time,” is also a lie].<br /><br />Nevertheless, the authorities proceeded to detain 5000 copies of the Alkitab for the last two years.<br /><br />Malaysian Christians waited with guarded optimism when the government recently announced that it will release the Alkitab that have been confiscated but to their horror they were suddenly informed that the authorities have hurriedly and unilaterally stamped all the Alkitab with an ugly notification from the Ministry of Home Affairs. See picture below.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1OossTfIn2epEWgJjhgW3nhqjEhPtbK3Owzw4Wts61bNlm93Iyb0SVlK3r_ZNqxe0o9YRsr4kmUhICEmX764sKHmy-lWzqtMkoghVZ_0Mh8B7VFre-bIysESXgKzJLv7VBalp/s1600/ministry-chop-alkitab.gif"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 161px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1OossTfIn2epEWgJjhgW3nhqjEhPtbK3Owzw4Wts61bNlm93Iyb0SVlK3r_ZNqxe0o9YRsr4kmUhICEmX764sKHmy-lWzqtMkoghVZ_0Mh8B7VFre-bIysESXgKzJLv7VBalp/s320/ministry-chop-alkitab.gif" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5585091400976885394" /></a>The English translation reads: Reminder: This ‘Al Kitab Berita Baik’ is for the use of Christians only. By order of the Home Minister.”<br /><br />Notice the official chop/stamp (Bottom Left) and the serial number that is to be imprinted onto the Bible (Upper Right).<br /><br />The defaced Bible is now imprinted with a serial number, obviously to facilitate the authorities threatening to track every copy of the Alkitab used by the community.<br /><br />Christians are horrified by the arrogance of the officials. The contemptuous act of defacing the Alkitab is nothing less than sacrilege.<br /><br />The Christian Federation of Malaysia rightly expressed that they felt “deeply hurt”. I think it is being polite. “Outrage” would have been a more appropriate word.<br /><br />I think the only proper thing for the government to do is to make immediate amends: Apologize for its callous act. Return the Alkitab back to the publisher and replace them with new Alkitab. Under no circumstances should these defaced Alkitab be destroyed – that would be another act of desecration. The government should bear all costs and give written assurance that such desecration will never happen again.<br /><br />O God, your Holy Scripture has been desecrated, your name and reputation defiled! When will you rise up and judge all these arrogant offenders for their blatant act of sacrilege?<div><br /></div><div>(The artical first appeared on <b><a href="http://libertysentinel.wordpress.com/2011/03/17/malay-bibles-desecrated-by-malaysian-authorities/">Religious Liberty Watch</a></b>)</div><br /><br /><b>RELATED STORIES</b><div><br /><a href="http://www.themicahmandate.org/2011/03/holy-scriptures-desecrated/">Holy Scriptures desecrated</a><br /><a href="http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/alkitab-row-sparking-sarawak-tensions-claims-anglican-cleric/">Alkitab row sparking Sarawak tensions, claims Anglican cleric</a><br /><a href="http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/2011/03/16/bishop-slams-communist-like-conditions/">Bishop slams ‘Communist-like’ conditions</a><br /><a href="http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/christians-say-will-not-collect-malay-bibles/">Christians say will not collect Malay Bibles</a><br /><a href="http://libertysentinel.wordpress.com/2011/03/15/shhh-dont-let-neigbors-know-we-abuse-children-we-are-a-respectble-and-religious-family/">Shh -Don't let neighbours know we abuse children</a><br /><a href="http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/breakingviews/article/an-open-letter-to-the-rt-hon-prime-minister-bob-teoh/">Bob Teoh's open letter to the Rt Hon Prime Minister</a><br /><a href="http://uppercaise.wordpress.com/2011/03/17/holy-book-as-political-propaganda/">A holy book treated like political propaganda</a><div><a href="http://www.heraldmalaysia.com/news/Ulama-chief-Alkitab-yes,-%E2%80%98Allah%E2%80%99-no-8354-2-1.html">Ulama chief: Alkitab yes, ‘Allah’ no</a><br /></div><a href="http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/2011/03/17/bible-fiasco-zaid-slams-lack-of-zeal/">Bible fiasco: Zaid slams lack of zeal</a><br /><a href="http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/2011/03/17/mca-jumps-into-bible-row/">MCA jumps into bible row</a><br /><a href="http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/christians-still-fear-bm-bible-ban-say-sarawak-mps/">Christians still fear BM bible ban, say Sarawak MPs</a><br /><a href="http://www.malaysianmirror.com/media-buzz-detail/4-letters/52458-baru-bian-order-to-release-bm-bibles-is-no-release-at-all">Baru Bian: Order To Release BM Bibles Is No Release At All</a><br /><a href="http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/2011/03/17/dap-condemns-unholy-treatment-of-bibles/">DAP condemns ‘unholy’ treatment of bibles</a><br /><a href="http://www.malaysia-chronicle.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=9126:bibles-fiaso-najib-left-looking-foolish-while-muhyiddin-bides-his-time&Itemid=2">Bible fiasco: Najib left looking foolish, while Muhyiddin bides his time</a><br /><a href="http://www.malaysia-chronicle.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=9151:today-control-of-the-holy-books-tomorrow-your-minds&Itemid=2">Today, control of the holy books: Tomorrow, your minds</a><br /><a href="http://www.heraldmalaysia.com/news/Abim-demands-Najib-clarify-stand-on-Bibles-8311-2-1.html">Abim demands Najib clarify stand on Bibles</a></div>David BC Tanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16102898507435707042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687269.post-53486557167381983262011-03-11T15:44:00.004+08:002011-03-11T15:48:57.531+08:00Bahasa Bibles detained - again, and again<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkHTUefGwX0Z_MwuBM6ILgIeLiLL_YwwUQQWnZ2ErQJxvopsxx5gQaLgfIF_VJtlnSg97Cvoq3JeDlRbbv5b5TK00_8FxNJbisVQdTWRfr1u1QvRQZnNn5j6huOiKDnK_XkRKW/s1600/alkitab.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 271px; height: 201px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkHTUefGwX0Z_MwuBM6ILgIeLiLL_YwwUQQWnZ2ErQJxvopsxx5gQaLgfIF_VJtlnSg97Cvoq3JeDlRbbv5b5TK00_8FxNJbisVQdTWRfr1u1QvRQZnNn5j6huOiKDnK_XkRKW/s320/alkitab.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5582725167441086482" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Media statement by<br />the Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM)<br />on the Detention of Bahasa Malaysia Bibles</span><br /><br />The Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM) is greatly disillusioned, fed up and angered by the repeated detention of Bibles written in our national language, Bahasa Malaysia. This time yet again at the Port of Kuching in Sarawak.<br /><br />A total fo 30,000 copies of the Perjanjian Baru, Mazmur dan Amsal” i.e. the “New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs” are currently being withheld.<br /><br />This is notwithstanding that the government in its attempt to to justify its position against the use of the Allah" in the Alkitab, the government had given the assurance that the Bible in Bahasa Malaysia, will be freely available, at least in Sabah and Sarawak.<br /><br />Since March 2009, all attempts to import the Bible in Bahasa Malaysia, i.e. the Alkitab, whether through Port Klang or the Port of Kuching, have been thwarted.<br /><br />The previous consignment of 5,000 copies of the Alkitab imported in March 2009 is still being held by the Ministry of Home Affairs in Port Klang. This is despite repeated appeals which resulted in the Prime Minister making a decision to release the Alkitab held in Port Klang in December 2009 which was reported to CFM leaders by several cabinet ministers and their aides.<br /><br />In absolute disregard of this decision, the 5,000 copies of the Alkitab remain detained. The Prime Minister when told about the continued detention of these 5,000 Bibles at a hi-tea event last Christmas expressed surprise that the order to release the same held in Port Klang had not been implemented. However, nothing has been done by the authorities to ensure their release.<br /><br />Prior to March 2009, there were several incidents where shipments of the Bible in Bahasa Malaysia were detained. Each time tedious steps had to be taken to secure their release. It would appear as if the authorities are waging a continuous, surreptitious and systematic programme against Christians in Malaysia to deny them access to the Bible in Bahasa Malaysia.<br /><br />Malaysian Christians, many of whom have grown up with Bahasa Malaysia as their principal medium of communication as a result of the government education policies, must have access to Bibles in Bahasa Malaysia in order to read, comprehend and practise their faith.<br /><br />The freedom of religion guaranteed as part of the fundamental liberties under our Federal Constitution is rendered meaningless if adherents to a religion are denied access to their religious texts in a language that they can understand.<br /><br />It is an affront to them that they are being deprived of their sacred Scriptures. Many are wondering why their Scriptures are considered a threat to national security. All these actions in relation to the detention of the Bibles continue to hurt the Malaysian Christian community.<br /><br />We would ask how the government transformation programme can be successfully implemented if civil servants can blatantly refuse to obey the Prime Minister’s order? Is the government powerless to act against these “little Napoleons” who substitute their own interests and agenda in place of the Prime Minister’s directives?<br /><br />We call upon the government to act now and prove their sincerity and integrity in dealing with the Malaysian Christian community on this and all other issues which we have been raising with them since the formation of the Christian Federation of Malaysia in 1985.<br /><br />As an immediate step, we insist upon the immediate release of all Bibles which have been detained.<br /><br />Bishop Ng Moon Hing<br />Chairman and the Executive Committee,<br />Christian Federation of Malaysia<div>10 March 2011</div>David BC Tanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16102898507435707042noreply@blogger.com0