Monday, May 05, 2014

Malaysian Babel

Today the favourite political subject in Malaysia is not so much GST though it's important, perhaps far more important than any other issue, perhaps even the water problem for Selangoreans. But instead, Hudud has claimed everyone's attention.



Constitutional lawyers, professors, NGOs, self proclaimed experts, politicians, senior 'states persons' and of course bloggers have all provided their two sens worth of opinions, advices, pleas and threats, wakakaka, depending on who each has been delivering his or her message to.

I don't know who, but given the disparity of opinions, someone out there is lying through his or her teeth, wakakaka.

But it's a great issue for testing whether PAS or UMNO will blink first, and whether MCA or DAP will lose grounds on their alleged support for their respective political ally's aspiration for hudud, ...

... while PKR stands astride two sampans ... perhaps waiting for the light to black out before its leaders dare commit themselves, wakakaka.



It's also great as a subject for every party to blame one another, wakakaka.

Aeons ago, when men become arrogant in attempting to reach heaven by building the Tower of Babel, God punished them by making them speak in different languages so that they would fight against each other instead of combining together in an blasphemic attempt to become divine by walking up the Tower to heaven.



Today God is again punishing arrogant Malaysians by making us speak in different 'languages' on the subject of not only the 'Allah' word but also of hudud, for never will we be able to speak a common 'language' on both issues and understand each other, thus divided we will remain.

Hudud is either a great political advantage for Muslim parties like PAS and UMNO and also the predominantly Muslim party PKR (and KIMMA can get f**ked) or instead, a hot potato that will burn their hands and political prospects.

This is because Malaysian Muslims claim hudud is divine law though in RPK's Malaysia-Today there is a post titled Does hudud really exist? which tells us:

Most Muslims believe that Hudud, in particular the law on stoning adulteress women to death, was a law that was introduced by Prophet Muhammad. Actually it was not. This law was introduced by Umar ibn Al-Khattāb, the Second Caliph who took over after the death of Abu Bakar As-Ṣiddīq. Hence it was Umar and not Prophet Muhammad who made this into law.

Umar was actually a very strict disciplinarian and was most feared for his temper and harsh treatment of women and ‘deviants’. He even punished those he caught writing what today we refer to as Hadith or sayings of the Prophet. Hence during Umar’s time no Hadith were allowed unless you want to get whipped and kicked. It is therefore no wonder that the Hadith were written more than 150-250 years after the time of Umar.

Before the time of Umar, women could pray side-by-side with the men and even joined the men to go to war. Islamic history reports that Prophet Muhammad’s first wife, Khatijah, was a successful and prosperous businesswoman. And it was she who proposed marriage to Prophet Muhammad and not the other way around. Hence women were more liberated in that society more than 1,000 years before western women understood the meaning of women’s liberation.


Caliph Umar ibn Al-Khattāb sounded like a misogynist and no doubt must be misogynistic PAS' poster boy.


The Chinese on the other hand don't want to know about hudud at all, but try to engage them in their children's education, especially vernacular education, and they'll turn verbally diarrhoeic, adding new meaning to the word 'babel', wakakaka.

Indeed the people of the Far East, these being the Chinese, Koreans, Japanese and Vietnamese, those steeped in Confucian doctrines, take their children’s education seriously.



It's taken so seriously that, for example, a TV documentary informed us that in Korea, during high school or college examination days, government and commercial offices reschedule and stagger their business hours so that morning traffic would be decently light in order not to delay the aspiring scholars when they travel in their cars or taxis to the examination halls.

Meanwhile in China, the authority has taken the precautions one step further, by considering the feng shui aspects of the very important examination days.

During the day prior to school and college examination days, taxi companies in Shanghai would recall all taxis with the number ‘4’ on their licence plates so that the budding scholars won’t be hexed with the ‘shi’ (or in Cantonese ‘sei’) word. That's because the word sounds like ‘death’ in Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien and Japanese, and ‘loser’ in the Shanghai language.


Nothing must be left to chance to affect the examinees’ prospects, not even a word pun which could invoke bad feng shui.

We Malaysians don't worry about such silly stuff because tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of our school students could easily attain 17 A's in their final school examinations (I'm ashamed to say I attempted only 9 subjects). We (excluding kaytee) are smart lah!

So here in Malaysia, we have the Muslim Malays placing great store on religious issue (not unlike the load of the world on the shoulders of the Titanic Atlas) as in the implementation of hudud into our legal system or use of the 'Allah' word by the Christian churches, while the Chinese would become skittish on education issues for their children, even paying heed to aspects of feng shui.

I wonder what the Indians major sensitive issue is?
 

30 comments:

  1. Why support hudud ?
    Have you ever seen a one armed thief or robber ?

    ReplyDelete
  2. ini miny miny moo10:50 pm, May 05, 2014

    Kaytee,hudud is a real hot political potato for PR.If it is not settle soon,when finally the dust have settled,Umno/BN will be laughing all the way to the bank.PR will self implode before GE14 if this hudud thingy is not settled soon.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kepala Lembu, Mamakutty included. Denying his roots and transform to another race.

    The demise of the Sri Vijaya and Majapahit kingdom in Tanah Melayu.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Kaytee,GST will sink Umno/BN.Will hudud sink PR? If so then we are back to square one.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The Hudud debate is just a symptom of the deep and wide divisions in Malaysian society.
    Islam discourse in Malaysia is increasingly an exercise in Groupthink.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abilene_paradox

    Muslims who think Hudud is a bad idea dare not speak up, because it would be thought of as unIslamic, like drinking alcohol.
    Non-Muslims who oppose Hudud are told to zip up, because it amounts to interfering with the practice of Islam.
    Instead of a country where everyone has an equal voice, the "negara Islam" pronouncement is taken as a society where Islamic mores are supreme, and non-Muslims just have the right to practice their religion in some quiet corner. A lot like Pakistan.

    We could all be headed to Abilene.

    ReplyDelete
  6. For Indians, the key sensitivity relates to temples and other shrines.

    BN lost their support in GE12 due to Khir Toyo's temple-cleansing policies.
    To would-be Jihadis, the idols in these temples is an affront to their faith, and those among the wrecking team carry out their destructive task with relish.

    Actually, Chinese Taoist and Buddhist temples similarly have idols, but Chinese temples tend to be on private property and seldom subject to such controversial demolitions. If the land owner is Chinese, they would consider it very bad luck to their business and their family to forcibly demolish such a temple sitting on their land. Normally some arrangement would be made to move the deities elsewhere.

    BN/UMNO has learnt its lesson since then, and the Indians have been slowly but surely returning to support BN.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Vinod,
      Yup, Harimum aka Monkey God is well revered among the chinese including Atheist Kaytee. Hahahaha! It's a joke, Kaytee. As for chinese temples, most of them reside in the caves or nearby vicinity. Guess why? Because the land is FOC. Hahahaha!
      As for Indians returning to BN, hahahaha! what to do.........Watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail.......Hahahaha! Or the Village Idiots

      Delete
  7. Hudud severely punishes the poverty stricken thief who steals in desperation.
    The big sharks who use their power and position siphon off RM millions and billions of funds which is not theirs get away scot free.
    Add to that, according to the Pahang mufti, it is against Islam to throw out an existing government - apparently even through voting.

    So....BN will rule forever and anon..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The questions would be the accountability of Muslim judges. Who are they accountable to? Allah? Sultan? PAS or UMNO?

      Now this is a problem to people including atheist Kaytee who can't seem to understand this passage of scripture

      "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away."

      Isaiah 64 : 6

      Delete
    2. Kaytee,
      Don't you think that it's nauseating seeing cibais such as Tan Keng Liang , that Gerakan Kedah lang say 3 say 4

      http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/261978

      It's all your fault that UMNO under Mukeris has regained power in Kedah. Hahahaha! I do hope that Zairil can stand in Merbok, Kedah even though I subscribe to the view that Zairil should serve another term in Bukit Bendera. It's also time for LGE to leave air putih to pave way to Chow Kon Yeow to be the next CM. LGE can still keep Bagan

      Delete
    3. looes, Isaiah 64:6 is repugnant to people with a sense of logic, commonsense and love of secular justice, and for us, a greater motivation to reject the bullshit of fundamentalistic blind devotion to a so-called god

      but I agree with you that Lim GE must now give way to Chow Yon Koon to be the next CM Penang

      Delete
    4. So is the Pahang mufti saying that Kelantan state govt, Penang and Selangor state govts should NEVER be voted out too ? Let's see how how these ularmak twist and turn from both sides of their forked tongues.

      Delete
  8. http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/261956

    Off topic from Hudud, but Teresa Kok really deserves our support.
    Its mind boggling how the video can be considered seditious by the authorities.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. this has been Najib's principal weakness

      Delete
  9. http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2014/05/06/ban-provokes-cry-against-intellectual-persecution/

    The Bahasa Malaysia translation of Darwin's classic "Origin of Species" has been banned to "prevent confusion among Muslims".

    I suppose Muslims are easily confused and have to be protected from Science.

    The entire science of Evolution, Heredity and Genetics has its original roots in that book.

    Mind you, its not "Hudud" PAS which has done the banning.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fundamentalist Christians hate that book as well, and an indication that fundamentalistic religions have a common denominator, that of being scared of science which seeks (frightfully) the Truth

      Delete
    2. If PAS has the power to ban such books, it will, bet your life on it ! Just becoz Umno is one step ahead, does not mean PAS will not ban this book if those ullamas got wind of it. But why are we even surprised or aghast at all this stuff ? Ban Valentine, ban Ala, ban concert, ban books, ban everything and anything that would confuse the Malays are the norm of these all-knowing great Malay leaders. And not a beep of protest from the sheeps that are being 'protected'.

      Delete
    3. I wanted to remind people not to fall into a UMNO-MCA spun trap and get thoroughly obsessed with "Hudud PAS".

      The wider problem is the deepening conservative Islamisation in Malaysia. Its institutionalisation has really occured and is still continuing under the auspices of BN/UMNO.
      PAS is, of course, somewhere a factor in there, but they are not in power, except Kelantan.

      So, BN/UMNO is not the solution to stop this religious extremism. They are part of the problem.

      Ah yes, I also recognise that Anwar Ibrahim was part of the problem when he was in the government - his drive to "inculcate" Islamic values in government and especially the Education system.

      But he has really done quite a lot promoting inter-faith dialogue and understanding in the years after his release from prison in 2004.
      Pro-UMNO bloggers made a big splash publishing photos of Anwar speaking in a church hall with a huge cross in the background. But it doesn't seem to damage Anwar the way the alleged Kadazan headgear cross damaged Tengku Razaleigh. He has been called "the Teflon man" both by his admirers and those who loath him.

      Delete
    4. "The wider problem is the deepening conservative Islamisation in Malaysia. Its institutionalisation has really occured and is still continuing under the auspices of BN/UMNO."....written by Subang

      This hits the nail on the head ! Although we are heartened by some broad-minded and liberal views of some very enlightened Muslims who did speak up now, we all should be able to see the writing on the wall as the population of the Muslims keeps on increasing at such an exponential rate.....it is almost a certainty that in maybe 15 to 20 years' time, if not earlier, this country will be fully islamised....maybe even to the level of Brunei. This is the last call to the non Malays, especially the Chinese.

      Delete
  10. "Fundamentalist Christians hate that book as well, and an indication that fundamentalistic religions have a common denominator, that of being scared of science which seeks (frightfully) the Truth"

    Emmmmh... perhaps, I can agree with your statement.

    Not many Christians were/are heartened and touched by the Darwin’s atheist view of mankind; as we can see not many of them became Atheist? So we can’t blame the Muslims, can we?

    BTW, Darwin did not by the force of his ideas secularize the Christians/West: It was the materialist who popularized and propagandized Darwin's ideas. No?

    - hasan


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Charles Darwin did not promote atheism. He wasn't promoting materialism.
      The "Origin of Species" makes no comment whatsoever on the believes of any Religion.

      Charles Darwin went on a long voyage of exploration on board the HMS Beagle. He observed many different species, he saw species which are different but are related to each other, he saw fossils of extinct animals.

      From his observations , he wrote a theory of how animals differentiate genetically over many , many generations via "Natural Selection". Differences in environment, predators, disease, food supply give animals with certain characteristics a better chance of survival and breeding. Over thousands and millions of yers, these characteristics get amplified, so we end up with all kinds of different species.

      In fact, farmers do that all the time with the way we breed domestic animals and plants to improve desired characteristics. Race horse breeders make tons of money breeding ever faster and stronger horses.

      Thats "Natural Selection".
      It DOES NOT go against the laws of Allah, Yahweh, Buddha or Brahma.

      If you read it with an open mind, not trying to continuously conflict with your religious believes, "Origin of Species" is a brilliant book.

      My religion is listed as "Hindu".

      Reading the "Origin of Species" and many other books since then on Heredity, Genetics, Evolution etc. has never caused any confusion on my religious believes.

      I still don't understand why a Bahasa Malaysia translation of one of the world's outstanding scientific writings should be banned in Malaysia.

      By the way, if you watch Astro, Discovery Channel and National Geographic have many excellent documentaries, some of them on the history of life on earth. They all have Bahasa sub-titles, and some have Bahasa language alternate audio.

      I'm waiting for Malaysia to ban "National Geographic" - and make itself the laughing stock of the world. Katak Bawah Tempurung.

      Delete
    2. @ Subang 10.44am

      To put in a nutshell, is it not because of the 'Origin of Species' that the questions of the origin and purpose of human being had to be answered anew? But don’t bother lah... for very few people have read Darwin works, and even fewer people had understood Darwin. I just happened to be one of them lah... and perhaps on the frogs under the coconut shell. I guess I am relying upon my ignorance rather and substance. Thank you for elucidating and enlightening me. Cheers… :D

      - hasan

      Delete
  11. Kindly explain the many goodness of atheism.

    ReplyDelete
  12. http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/262039

    ISMA says the Chinese are Intruders who bully the Malays, and must be stopped.

    ReplyDelete
  13. If the majority Muslims want Hudud, they will have it.
    Fuck the Chinese.

    ReplyDelete
  14. http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/undercover-christian-priests-here-as-football-coaches-muslim-ngo-tells-foru

    Undercover Christian evangelist priests are in Malaysia posing as football coaches..

    Betul ke ?

    ReplyDelete
  15. Just want to say something on Kt's original post.

    I don't have much against GST in itself, as such.
    However, the context is Malaysia, with its crony capitalist-controlled economy, a government which uses its budget expenditure and contract-award power to reward closely connected cronies, and UMNO warlords, often at massively inflated prices. The massive level of institutionalised corruption and abuse of power.

    No serious attempt has been made to dismantle this corrupt system, and if GST is just a way to raise more government revenue to continue feeding this debased monster, then I say GST is an Evil.

    In the Malaysian context.
    It is irrelevant to compare with whatever GST levels exist in UK, Australia, Singapore etc.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. GST....a new cash cow for further plundering by Umno-led government. And it won't stop at 6%...bet on it !

      Delete
  16. GST = Grab Steal & Take

    ReplyDelete