Politik, Legislatif, Dasar dan Tadbir Urus

PAS MP Khalid Samad was charged with sedition today at the Sessions Court here, over his alleged remarks on reducing the Selangor Islamic religious council’s (Mais) powers. The Shah Alam federal lawmaker pleaded not guilty to the charge. “What I said in a press conference in the Parliament lobby didn’t have elements of sedition because I was proposing a way of protecting the institution of Malay rulers from being criticised for slip-ups and mistakes made by Mais,” Khalid told Malay Mail Online over the phone this morning. According to the charge sheet, Khalid was accused of saying on June 17 that Selangor should consider amending the enactment that gives Mais the executive powers to directly control the state’s religious authorities. Khalid’s remarks were made following the Islamic council’s refusal to return hundreds of bibles seized from the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM), which had sparked outrage among Christian groups. The MP from the Islamist opposition party, howev...

My article was earlier published in TheAntDaily.com on 7/8/2014 While the Umno-dominated ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) is busy playing the divisive racial and religious card, its rivals in Pakatan Rakyat are doing no better with their endless politicking. The hopes of the people for effective checks and balances are fast evaporating. PKR, DAP and PAS are now tussling with one another almost every day on who among them should take precedence, threatening to tear the coalition apart. Have Pakatan leaders forgotten how should they run their state governments and show the people that they can be refreshingly different from BN? Just exactly where are their policymakers and what they had promised to fight for in the last general election? There are still many outstanding issues and where matters have been attended to there were no regular follow-ups to ensure closure. Following the 2008 general election, a reasonable quota of local council appointments was given to civil societies and frater...

The Court of Appeal today said there should be zero tolerance of custodial deaths and is recommending that independent public inquiries be held on all similar cases. The appellate court today said this in allowing the reduction in the quantum of damages, including waiving of a false imprisonment claim in relation to A Kugan's death five years ago. With this, Kugan's family is awarded RM701,700 in exemplary damages including tort of public misfeasance (abuse of power). The summary judgment of the decision was read out by Court of Appeal judge justice David Wong Dak Wah. The other judges who were favourable to maintaining most of the damages were Justice Mohd Arif Mohd Yusof and Justice Mah Weng Kwai. Justice Mohd Arif led the three-member bench. Justice Wong, in describing this as a difficult case as the law had yet to be developed especially in cases of public misfeasance, said custodial death cannot and should not happen in this country. "There should be zero tolerance t...

JAIS dan MAIS sendiri pun tidak begitu yakin dengan ajaran Islam... Kebimbangan Jabatan Agama Islam Selangor (Jais) berhubung Bible yang diterbitkan dalam bahasa Melayu jelas menunjukkan lemahnya keyakinan mereka terhadap Islam, kata Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri (Adun) Ijok, Dr Idris Ahmad. Dr Idris berkata, jika Jais dan Majlis Agama Islam Selangor (Mais) memainkan peranan mereka secara berkesan, tiada apa yang perlu dibimbangkan dengan penerbitan Bible dalam bahasa Melayu. “Jais tidak yakin dengan Islam? Kalau umat Islam yakin, apa hendak kisah Al-Kitab bahasa Melayu atau bahasa lain. "Siapa yang salah? Mereka tidak beri keyakinan kepada orang Melayu. Kenapa mereka tidak cermin diri sendiri mengapa orang Melayu tidak yakin dengan Islam?" katanya ketika ditemui The Malaysian Insider. Mais pada Jun lalu tidak bersetuju dengan keputusan peguam negara untuk tidak mendakwa Pertubuhan Bible Malaysia (PBM) dalam isu rampasan 320 bible bahasa Melayu dan Iban di Petaling Ja...

My article was earlier published in TheAntDaily.com on 30/7/2014 When Barisan Nasional (BN) lost its traditional two-thirds majority in Parliament in the last two general elections, the dominant Umno in the ruling coalition began to expound its agenda of race, religion and Malay rulers in a bid to regain lost ground among the Malay Muslim majority as well as to maintain stranglehold in the rural areas. On certain occasions, Umno managed its race, religion and ruler agenda quite successfully but it still failed to make progress in mostly urban areas. However, it did make a breakthrough in semi-urban areas by prioritising racial and religious issues to confuse voters and split their support. After some protests from BN coalition partners, mainly MCA, MIC, Gerakan and PPP, on Umno’s increasing dependency on racial and religious extremism, these radical agendas were later subcontracted to a number of far-right radical non-governmental organisations (NGOs), including Perkasa, Isma, Muafaka...

By Zaid Ibrahim The Economist posted a leader article recently entitled “The Tragedy of the Arabs” in the midst of the latest round of intense Israeli bombings and the killing and maiming of hundreds of Palestinian women and children. The blame for the tragedy was, as always, placed on the Arabs, particularly extremists and militant Muslims. Given that, they had the gall to suggest that it’s the Arabs themselves who are responsible for finding the solution to this violence. Israel’s criminal actions and America’s complicity were not mentioned, and neither were the brutality and mistakes of Western powers in the Middle East in the last 100 years. Meanwhile, Malaysia and the rest of the world are watching in silence, making only the most facile condemnations just as they have done in the past. The UN Security Council took a week just to come out with the usual line that “Israel has a right to defend itself”, as if the Palestinians were not human. The rest of us can only watch in hor...

By Cherish Leow “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?” - Albert Einstein I was decluttering my desk at home. In the process, I waded through the books set aside in piles on top of the desk. Once every few months, the titles shuffles as I proceed from one book to another. To keep myself inspired (and for my brain to stay active) on a daily basis, I have a habit of picking up just about any book from my desk, leaf through the pages and read whichever chapter that I happen to lay my eyes on. Whenever I come across a line worth sharing, my hands will automatically reach out for my smartphone to either tweet or publish as a post on Tumblr. With that I hope what I read will inspire others too. To me, a little reading a day proves to benefit not just the mind but the soul. We will never know when the new knowledge gained from daily light reading might come in handy. More importantly, I noticed that reading does help to organise my tho...