Happy and Safe New Year to everyone

Civil courts clawing back rightful jurisdiction?

TMI - Court ruling affirms religious authorities are limited by law

For too long now, some state religious authorities in Malaysia have issued fatwas (opinions) and treated them as immutable regulations that can be imposed at will and without recourse.

Today, the Court of Appeal affirmed that these state religious authorities have no such power when it upheld a lower court's ruling that the Federal Territory Islamic Religious Department (Jawi) was wrong in raiding and seizing copies of a controversial book from a Borders bookstore in Kuala Lumpur.

The book, "Allah, Liberty and Love" by Irshad Manji, was seized before a fatwa banning it was issued and, as such, Jawi's actions were deemed illegal and unconstitutional.

A three-man bench led by Datuk Mah Weng Kwai held that Jawi's action against the Borders store manager, Nik Raina Nik Abdul Aziz, was unconstitutional and illegal and said her arrest and prosecution must be quashed.

"Jawi had acted beyond their powers against Nik Rainah (third respondent) and the bookstore," Mah said.

The civil Appeals Court has done a damn good job in taking these religious authorities down a peg or two - high time too when some of their officers have become far too arrogant and too aggressive, believing their actions have been supreme, beyond reproach and beyond accountability.

I also have serious concerns about the quality (or lack of) of the officers those religious authorities recruited as their law enforcers. Recall the Zouk club shame in 2005 which prompted the BBC to report:

... allegations have surfaced about misconduct by Malaysia's religious police during a raid on a top Kuala Lumpur nightclub last month.

More than 100 plainclothes officers from the Federal Territories Islamic Department (JAWI) detained young Muslims at the Zouk nightclub.

Female detainees complained of sexual harassment by officers and the incident has led to a heated debate about the department's future.

Eyewitnesses have now told the BBC that officers assaulted and severely beat members of the club's staff.

The sources also said that non-Muslim patrons, including tourists, who were outside the officers' jurisdiction, also reported being threatened with violence.

"Up to 150 of them came in," one witness said. "They didn't identify themselves, they didn't show any ID cards. They just forced their way in and started pushing people around."

In the days after the raid it emerged that dozens of young women were held for up to 10 hours without access to a toilet, long after male detainees had been released.

A number of women said religious officers ordered them to pose in their nightclub outfits while others were asked lewd questions about their genitalia. [...]

Others, including SI Azhar, were angered by the officers' alleged behaviour.

"If the reports were true, the officers [who] committed those acts were no better than hypocrites, trying to uphold good values of Islam but themselves never follow[ing] it. You have ashamed us fellow Malays and Muslims. Just tell me, how can we encourage non-Muslims to embrace Islam with this kind of attitude?!"

Then in 2006, we read in NST about the lustful leery lascivious behaviour of a Jais officer who caught an unfortunate woman for khalwat.

The poor sweetie had gone to Jais office in Gombak the day after her embarrassing encounter with Jais, in a vain hope to 'settle' the case amicably. However, she claimed she got more than she bargained for.

She was molested and forced to perform oral sex on said Jais officer as an inducement to let her off the hook. She also alleged the officer used criminal force to outrage her modesty by caressing her breasts and kissing her on the lips.

So much for these 'warriors' of Islam who had on a number of occasions resorted to violence even on minor infringements such as khalwat - read this. Obviously those officers love to flex their muscles.

And it's not just religious authorities like Jawi, Jais, Jakim, etc that's limited by law. Even the syariah courts are.

Syariah courts have jurisdiction over issues such as Muslim family laws and issues related to Islamic observances, for example, fasting where they can fine Muslims eating especially in public during the fasting hours of Ramadan, the fasting month.

Then there's their most favourite, khalwat (as per above case and this and this) and Muslims caught yamseng-ing.

In Kelantan or Kota Baru I heard the Islamic authorities have taken the laws a step further, like making Muslim women wear tudung at risk of being fined if they fail to.

But the bottom line is the maximum penalty syariah courts can dish out is limited and not to the extent of civil courts which could even hand down life imprisonment and capital punishments.

Syariah courts may only pass sentences of not more than three years imprisonment, a fine of up to RM5,000, and/or up to six strokes of the cane.

In recent times, there has been an outrageously presumptuous bulldozing attempt by some (even in BN) to make the syariah courts equal to the civil courts when they (syariah courts) were and are never (equal), and in fact subordinate to the civil courts.

The most recent disgraceful example of this was the IGP ignoring a civil court's order in a child custody case, preferring instead to obey the syariah courts.

While it's understandable Muslims respect the syariah court, the IGP as the chief law enforcer of our nation (and not a layperson) should know which court's directive takes precedence.

I believe part of our societal problems today have been due to the ambiguity over legal jurisdiction caused by far too much politico-religious meddling.  

Time the civil courts claw back their rightful superior jurisdiction and power.

Divine Wrath?

Remember the late Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, former chief rabbi of Israel, and spiritual leader of the ultra-Orthodox Sephardic Jewish party Shas?

Ovadia Yosef was not only a King-Josiah-like fanatical Jewish Taleban but also a terrible racist. He sneeringly called the African Americans Kushim, an ancient Hebraic word for a race south of Egypt but in modern Hebrew, a derogatory term meaning something akin to nigger.

Anyway, after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans he pronounced that as God’s punishment of America for allowing Ariel Sharon to pull out from Gaza.

You may wonder why, for what Ariel Sharon did in Israel, God, Ovadia's God that was, would punish ordinary Americans living in New Orleans (but not Washington DC or Huston or Pittsburgh, etc, or better still, the Israelites in Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jaffa, etc)?

Then that terrible man, the raving saliva-dripping rabbi, said on the eve of an Israeli election (I think sometime in March 2006): 

"Cursed be its inhabitants for not having come to God's aid. Cursed be those who do not uphold and obey the words of this law. I hereby issue a religious ruling that everyone must vote for Shas"...

... and I wonder whether YHWH did strike down those who didn't vote for his party Shas.

He had also promised heaven for those who voted for him and hell to anyone who supported the acting Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert of the Kadima Party.

Hmmm, doesn't he remind us of someone in Malaysia? Wakakaka

Yes, I recall in March 2004, a so-called much revered spiritual leader also made the 'ticket to heaven' promise some years back. If you had voted for his party you would have received a guaranteed 'ticket to heaven'.

Well, the buah langsat didn't fall far from the langsat tree, beneath which incidentally is a telephone directly to God, wakakaka.

Recently, Pasir Mas MP Nik Mohamad Abduh claimed that the worsening floods in Kelantan was a sign of “Allah’s wrath”, to remind Muslims to return to Allah’s path, and of the necessity to implement hudud in the state. He thus argued the state government must continue with its bid to enforce hudud despite strong opposition.

In other words, according Nik Mohd Abuh, his God has wrecked His divine punishment of several deaths in the flood as well as the forced evacuation of hundreds of thousands, many of which (I suspect) have actually been supporters of hudud.

what did I do wrong God?

Don't talk about commonsense or logic or even justice. As one of my visitors 'instructed' me, one must have faith in God and let Him do His Will, even if this results in the deaths of thousands and millions and of untold sufferings as in the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, the Cambodian killing fields, the Holocaust in Europe, Nanjing and Rwanda among many more, etc.

Somehow, faith or not, I feel it's not correct for God, Nik Mohd Abuh's or anyone else's, to allow his 'wrath' to kill pious Muslims or for that matter, anyone in Kelantan, or inflict terrible sufferings on them when ironically some of them actually support the implementation of hudud.

But alas, who am I an atheist to question His Almighty's Decision.

Golgotha, one of my visitors, left a rather erudite observation when he (or she) wrote:

For the powerless and dispossessed, divine retribution is a kind of last hope of justice for believers, especially in cases where the guilty parties are so powerfully entrenched that there is virtually no possibility of obtaining justice, in This world.

For example, the person or persons who ordered Altantuya's death will almost certainly not face justice, in This world.

Likewise, Teoh Beng Hock's murderer or murderers will not face punishment as long as BN/UMNO is in Federal power, which is likely the entire lifetime of anyone around today.

Ah yes, the United States and those make its top decisions will someday face divine retribution for the wrongs it has visited on so many innocent people around the world.

Golgotha has been correct because my uncle related to me stories of another great flood in Peninsula Malaysia, but back in December 1969. Then, for more than a month, the rain kept coming down and coming down and coming down ..., and he reckoned three-quarters of the Peninsula were flooded. The devastation was horrendous. Even Singapore was not spared.

The RMAF worked non-stop to send food and other materials to the  affected and marooned areas while evacuating the disaster refugees and those killed unfortunately in the flooding. Foreign air forces (USAF, RAF, Sing's, etc) came to help.

Some Chinese attributed the terrible flooding and consequential deaths and suffering to the wrath of the 'Heavens' (also a term for the Chinese gods) for the killings of Chinese in KL and PJ in May that same year.

This has been what Golgotha succinctly narrated, that for the powerless and dispossessed, divine retribution is a kind of last hope of justice for believers, especially in cases where the guilty parties are so powerfully entrenched that there is virtually no possibility of obtaining justice, in This world.

But then, what 'justice' would we be talking about in the case of that moron who claim the current flooding in Kelantan has been a result of God's wrath?

Regretfully we must conclude that it has been nothing more than BLASPHEMOUS exploitation of the great name of Compassionate Allah swt for the politician's own political agenda and interests.

Difference between PAS and DAP

Malay Mail Online - Kelantan floods divine impetus for hudud rollout, claims Nik Aziz’s son

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 25 — The son of PAS’s spiritual leader has suggested that the worsening floods in Kelantan was a sign of “Allah’s wrath” and that the state government must continue with its bid to enforce hudud amid strong opposition.

Pasir Mas MP Nik Mohamad Abduh, the son of revered PAS leader Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, wrote on his Facebook page last night that the floods were intended to remind Muslims to return to Allah’s path, and necessity in implementing the Islamic penal code in the state.

A regular Noah-wannabe, he has no compunction, conscience nor care about misusing the name of Allah swt for his party's political agenda.

would Allah swt wantonly punish His Muslims?

On top of which, he has now dragged the holy name of Allah swt into disrepute, implying Allah swt would punish His people wantonly for nothing more than the politicking of an earthly party.

And is the blasphemous idiot implying the people of Kelantan have deviated from the teachings of Allah swt and must now return to Allah’s path?

That's how the name of Islam has been ridiculed and blackened, not by Christians or other religions but by such Muslims.

This proves to us why Kassim Ahmad has been spot on in sneering at the priesthood caste.

TMI - A decade after tsunami, Penang lawmaker urges Malaysians to reflect on lessons

Malaysians reeled in shock 10 years ago when the tsunami hit the country's shores, but out of the tragedy comes lessons for the nation to reflect on, a Penang lawmaker has said.

Bukit Bendera MP Zairil Khir Johari said today that the 2004 tsunami had taught Malaysians that natural disasters did not recognise man-made boundaries and could devastate anyone regardless of their nationality.

"A day before the incident, no one knew that a small town by Sungai Muda would soon gain the attention of the world and the country.

"In Penang, everyone was busy entertaining tourists and relatives who were preparing to celebrate."

But disaster struck and the giant waves crashed into Tanjong Bungah, Batu Feringhi, Teluk Bahang and Pulau Betong. No one could forget how it claimed 52 lives, with five more reported missing, injured 2006 people, and destroyed 615 homes and 1,332 boats, he said.

"Since then, our views on national disasters that occur within our region have changed.

"Now we understand better that a disaster which occurs thousands of kilometres away can also reach our shores.

"We are now more prepared and more respectful of the unpredictable power of mother nature."

He added that while such natural disasters could not be avoided, Malaysians have learned to minimise its impact.

"Now we have more appreciation for the mangrove forests that act as a natural barricade from such devastation, are more careful about developments by the sea."

Zairil urged Malaysians to remember the victims of the tsunami and pray that the country would be more prepared for any future challenges.

"May we not weaken at all the obstacles that befall us, and instead become stronger and unite because of it."

Here is another Muslim who both remembers the victims of the drastic Boxing Day tsunami 10 years ago but also endeavours for us Malaysians to learn from the punishment of history, that terrible terrible experience, so that we may be able to cope with any possible similar calamities.

PAS and DAP? 

Aisehman, just chalk and cheese, nay, shit and gold.

Happy Christmas & a Safe, Healthy and Prosperous 2015

Happy Christmas everyone, ...

... but alas there is no Nativity Scene in Kuala Lumpur, Shah Alam and Putrajaya  this year.

The Federal Court has ruled that there cannot be a Nativity Scene in the above nation's capitals this Christmas season.

This ISN'T for any religious reason. They simply have not been able to find Three Wise Men in FT and Selangor. Wakakaka.

Meanwhile the search for a Virgin continues ..... (ahem but wakakaka anyway).

There was no problem, however, finding enough donkeys to fill the stable, though there was no cow, wakakaka.

And a safe, prosperous, healthy and prosperous (me Chinese mah, wakakaka) new year.

PM's Man indicates Najib succumbing to Dr M?

Malay Mail Online - Nazri Aziz backs Dr M, says in-fighting turning Malays into beggars

I've been watching this bloke for quite a while. Sometimes he had been plain nasty, eg. when he called Dr Pornthirp a liar; other times he came across as an okay sort of guy as when he consoled Eli Wong during her moments of greatest stress (and when those vacillating PKR party bosses, her own party leaders Khalid Ibrahim and Anwar, showed reluctance and in my opinion, the lack of loyalty and guts, to come out promptly to firmly support her).

And to my happiness, Nazri is against capital punishment. Really, I can never fathom the mentality of educated people who support state murder ... yup, because that’s what capital punishment is, murder sanctified by man-made laws and man-made decisions which usurp the prerogative of, for you religious people, God.

This is where Asians (e.g. China, Singapore, Malaysia, and even Buddhist Thailand) and some states in the USA are barbarically zillions of civilized miles behind Western Europe, Australia and Kiwi-land.

Indeed, its a remarkably conscionable and decent side of Nazri in being against capital punishment when most in his party support the death sentence. Now, hadn't he been a regular (UMNO) heretic, not unlike Pharaoh Akhenaten? Wakakaka.

As I wrote in early 2006:

Nazri Aziz has always been surprisingly vocal in a secular sense, particularly in the M Moorthy saga where he agreed with non-Muslims that, until the late Moorthy’s religious status was confirmed, the civil courts should hear the appeal by Moorthy’s widow. See my posting Tottering Tower of the Moorthy Saga.

Now, as the to-be Law Minister, in his first interview, Nazri said he firmly believed that the civil court has jurisdiction in cases of conversion to Islam. He clarified what Article 121 (1A) means and why the PM had declared the Article shall remain unaltered. Nazri stated that the civil court has no jurisdiction to review decisions of the Syariah Court, except in cases of conversion from non-Muslim to Muslim, like the late Moorthy.

He confirmed what I posted in Article 121(1A) - What terrified the Civil Courts!, where I commented that the Article was meant to deal with Muslims who wanted to leave Islam, like teacher Abdul Rahim in in the mid-1980’s, and not cases like M. Moorthy's where the religion of the deceased was still 'iffy'.

Nazri Aziz has also condemned the attempted formation of a volunteer force of religious snoopers, as posted in Malaysian Taliban-ish Peeping Toms.

Now, Nazri Aziz has done it again. He admitted what virtually everyone in Malaysia knows already, but it’s refreshing to hear it out straight from an UMNO minister. In fact I find it rather astonishing and unexpected!

Nazri Aziz conceded that over the years UMNO had been under political pressure to out-Islam PAS in their battle for the Muslim constituency. Basically, UMNO has been politically stampeded into demonstrating its Islamic credentials that extra vigorously, and do things which UMNO had felt would be at the expense of the nation. He was replying to lawyers on whether the country had been pandering to the agenda of Islamic hardliners.

Nazri called on secular-minded Muslims to speak up even at the risk of being labelled as infidels or apostates. He said:

“The problem among Muslims is that we rely on people who are knowledgeable (Islamic scholars) but people like you and me are secular. So speak up, even if you may not be the majority.”

He revealed that he disagrees with those conservative Muslims who felt that only those who are well-versed in religion may comment on Islam. He said if the majority speaks up, the government would find it damn difficult to ignore them.

But one thing is for certain, that he is the PM's man, whether the PM be AAB or Najib.

So, whenever something was or is against the PM's interests he would show his nastiness or unreasonableness, eg. in the Medical Council's derecognition of the Crimea State Medical University degrees (he called a MIC Aneh 'racist' 28 times, wakakaka), railed against Lim KS, called Bersih 'pondan' (contextually 'coward'), and as mentioned earlier, accused Dr Ponthirp Rojanasunand of lying during the inquest into TBH's still-unexplained death and on her allegations of political pressure on her not to continue participating in said inquest.

On the flip side, Nazri had blasted Dr Mahathir as a 'bloody racist' for the latter's support of the Biro Tata Negara's (BTN) racist indoctrination of civil servants and university students.

Then, when Najib initiated his 1Malaysia policy, very much to Dr M's unhappiness and also to Muhyiddin's out-of-sync declaration that he was a 'Malay first' rather than a 'Malaysian first', Nazri wrote a letter to Utusan's Awang Selamat stating his famous "And yes, I am a Malaysian first and Malay next. Does any bigot have a problem with that?”

At that point in time, Dr Mahathir was unhappy with Najib's 1Malaysia, because as I had suspected, he couldn't bear the thought that under Najib's 1Malaysia administration, O Horror of Horrors, the Malays might no longer be the masters, the tuan of their ancestral land.

For Dr Mahathir, 0.35Malaysia was acceptable provided 0.65Malaysia was flourishing and well ahead.

On 02 August this year the Star Online reported Nazri agrees with Penang proposal to bar foreign cooks in hawker stalls.

Then two weeks later, on 15 August 2014, FMT reported Nazri takes friendly fire which reads (extracts):

Nazri Aziz’s support for Lim Guan Eng’s proposal to ban foreign labour from cooking Penang street fare is one such case to highlight. More recently, there was an attempt by a pro-Umno blogger to link Nazri to a video of a group of people frolicking in their birthday suits on the beach in Teluk Bahang, Penang. Wakakaka

The blogger zeroed in on Nazri and attacked him for his cordial relations with the DAP Chief Minister of Penang, seeing some connection in Nazri’s presence in Penang at the time the video was purportedly taken. Nazri, in his usual frankness, called the blogger “stupid” and “sub-standard”.

This episode with Nazri in his role as the Tourism Minister supporting the government of Penang isn't particularly controversial by any yardstick. But in the eyes of pro-Umno bloggers, Nazri had crossed the line because he was depicted in photos as having far too much fun with Lim at the Penang Arts Festival. [...]

But our fractured society and education system have engendered the belief that politics and government should both be the sole, exclusive domain of Umno or its proxies, and that everything or everyone else is an interloper.

A fanatic’s mindset will never admit fresh air and sunshine into its recesses. He will not acknowledge that any genuine act of good or kindness from the enemy is even possible.

Thus when Nazri strays into the crosshairs of the blogger’s “target acquisition system”, already pre-set to select Pakatan targets, the operator of the missile fails to discern friend from foe. He recognises Nazri, but fires anyway. “That smiling man must be an ally of the enemy; why else would he be in a war zone?” he thinks to himself.

3 days later, on 18 August 2014, TMI reported Dr Mahathir withdraws support for Najib government.

As Nazri is known as a PM's man and thus also as a Harbinger of the PM's inclination, and Nazri was seen to be chummy with Lim GE, was Dr M alarmed by Nazri's friendliness with Lim as a harbinger of Najib's wooing of Lim (and the DAP)?

I had then speculated the following:

Najib wants to progress Malaysia onward and out of a likely coming slump - obviously he  doesn't want to be known or seen as the PM of Malaysia who had allowed his country to become a failed state.

Unlike UMNO's hardliners, he has assessed he needs the nons to support him in his development plans.

The MCA, MIC and Gerakan have been monumental failures in their inability to gather support from the nons, so to Najib they're f**king useless. Sorry for my blunt words but I am bluntly truthful.

PKR is automatically persona non grata because of Manmanlai, wakakaka, and PAS is in general, thanks to the ulama (wakakaka) and their desperate need for UMNO to make up the necessary 2/3 to support the Hudud push, already in the Malay Muslim Unity bag.

By simple elimination, there remains only the DAP which coincidentally has enormous Chinese and to a lesser extent Indian support. Najib wants to harness those support (remember Hindraf, not so much for its failure but for the fact that Najib wanted its claimed Indian support, wakakaka).

Hence Nazri would be seen as Najib's Head-kicking Heretic Harbinger (in his pally-buddy chummy relationship with DAP's Lim GE) because for UMNO to cooperate with the DAP would be considered by its hardliners as an act of political heresy. But that's precisely why Nazri had that vanguard role, to test the DAP water with his toes and to also take the flak (friendly fire) from the anti-DAP UMNO-ites.

Najib of course doesn't necessarily require the DAP to join the BN, but to cooperate in bipartisanship on a number of development fronts.

But Dr Mahathir's withdrawal of support for the Najib government, as reported by TMI on 18 August, sure as hell put a stop to the suspected coziness with DAP.

not happy

So yesterday when the Malay Mail Online reported that Nazri Aziz said today he concurred with retired prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s view that division within the Malays have made political beggars of the country’s largest ethnic group, I knew that a bloke like Nazri who detests Dr Mahathir, having called the former PM a racist, must have been acting on behalf of his boss, the PM.

In other words, I believe Najib has succumbed to Dr Mahathir's continuous criticism of him and his government, especially on the 1MDB issue, and made worse by the non-stop buzzing on the local grapevine (some no doubt spread by hopeful Pakatan supporters, wakakaka) that Najib's term as PM is nearing its end.

So, will we soon see Muhkriz coopt-ed by the PM via the Senate backdoor into being a full minister in Najib's cabinet, in some significant ministerial post? Wakakaka.

"Always willing to help the PM. Maybe I can look after Finance and sort out the 1MDB mess?"

wakakaka

Ride the Islamic tiger, risk becoming cat food

On this blue Monday (malas nak kerja lah what with the approaching long Xmas-New Year holidays, wakakaka, the mood is not quite there) I reproduce below what I wrote four years ago for the Centre for Policy Initiatives, then with the encouragement and support of a dear dear but sob erstwhile matey.

Even my other dear friend HY wakakaka left a comment there.

I had then left a friendly message for the DAP which is still very relevant today, especially today, wakakaka:

[note that my phrase below of 'God proposes, man disposes' is a role reversal of the original idiom 'Man proposes, God disposes', indicating the dangerous powers of some clerics ... indeed, of all religions ... where those 'Men' could claim to speak with the voice of, and mandate from, God]

Ride the Islamic tiger, risk becoming cat food

 

 Category: Contributors

 Published: Saturday, 02 October 2010 00:06

 Written by KTemoc

A modern Asian myth has it that Lee Kuan Yew is the only man to ever ride a communist tiger without being eaten by the 'beast'.

In the mid-50s he teamed up with the incorruptible, dedicated and charismatic Lim Chin Siong (left), a left wing trade unionist, to form the People's Action Party (PAP). But Chin Siong was wrongly accused of being a communist, where some suspect he was set up by then anti-communist Lim Yew Hock, British Singapore's Chief Minister, and the British authorities.

Even Kuan Yew acknowledged Chin Siong was a selfless man with a Spartan lifestyle, and a mesmerizing orator who was totally dedicated to his cause, and in fact the man who set the gold standard for Singapore's renowned integrity in public governance. But it was said too that Kuan Yew so feared Chin Siong's immense popularity with Singaporeans that he got rid of him when the latter formed the Barisan Socialis, detaining him under the ISA as a 'communist'. 

Though declassified British documents prove that Chin Siong was never a communist, Singaporeans continue to believe that he was one, as a result of years of the authorities' black propaganda against him. Thus the myth of Lee Kuan Yew surviving the ride on the communist tiger remains.

As the Italian say, Se non è vero, è ben trovato meaning "Even if it's not true, it's a good story."

In Malaysia today, we fear another such attempt in the making -- that of Lim Guan Eng riding the Islamic tiger. We do know not yet whether he will survive though my guess is, alas, he won't, for the reason majority-Muslim Malaysia today isn't the same as majority-Chinese Singapore in the 1950s.

Wooing the Malay electorate 

Since March 2008, some DAP leaders have been courting Malay voters in order to dispel the Barisan Nasional stigmatization of the DAP as a Chinese-based political party. Obviously this is necessary as more than 60% of Malaysian voters are Malays, and the DAP realizes that it can never aspire to be a significant political force without their support.

Ironically, like Lim Chin Siong, Lim Guan Eng is an incorruptible dedicated leader who too lives a personal austere Spartan lifestyle, and has shown his care for the poor and elders of Penang. These and his going to jail some years ago in seeking justice for an underage Malay girl are already redoubtable models to showcase the DAP as a worthy multi-racial party to the Malay voters.

Yet DAP has gone one step further, choosing to project itself as a pro-Islamic organization.

Guan Eng has often referred to the Caliphate of Umar Ibn Abdul Aziz as his model for a scrupulously clean and thrifty government which cares for the ordinary people, while another DAP leader Nga Kor Ming is known for spouting quotations from the Quran. 

Apart from the obvious need to expand its Malay-Muslim base, there have been other compelling reasons for DAP to expedite its wooing of the Malays via the Islamic avenue. The party has been concerned about the future of Anwar Ibrahim as well as the politics of PKR.

Anwar has served a vital role as the bridge and glue for the new coalition, Pakatan Rakyat which has PAS and DAP with antipodal ideologies. If Anwar is forcefully removed from the Malaysian political landscape, it is unlikely that PKR will be able to provide a substitute of equal stature and charisma. Thus DAP has decided on the worst case scenario where it will be required to work directly with PAS. What better time than to start now, and perhaps sneak a ride on the Islamic tiger.

But PAS, unlike the Singapore trade unionists, is no ordinary tiger. It is endowed with divine Teflon stripes. In a religious state, when power hungry men can overturn the tables into 'God proposes, man disposes', the potential for gross injustice cannot be understated or overestimated.

Take for example what PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang said in a press conference on Nov 12, 2003, after the launching of the blueprint on the introduction of Islamic laws in Malaysia. When asked what would happen to the existing [BN] policies which give focus to bumiputeras such as quotas under PAS's claimed meritocracy in an Islamic state, Hadi answered:

"The reality today is that the majority of the poor are bumiputeras. Hence, for the initial period, focus will be on the bumiputera. There may be a situation in the future that the bumiputeras will overcome their problems, and the Indians become the majority of the poor. Then, it will be the responsibility of the country to look after the Indian community. It will depend on the situation. [...] We are not disposing or dispensing with the term bumiputera." 

Not unlike Umno, PAS' Islam would be an Islam with a strong Malay flavour. Under the Islamist party, even the already proven-to-be-marginalized Indians have to wait until the Malays have been 'rescued'.

The matter of hudud 

Then there's PAS Youth chief, Nasrudin Hassan (left), who was looking for an excuse to insert hudud into Malaysia's justice system. He saw the horrendous murder of businesswoman Sosilawati Lawiya and three others as an opportunity to propose that hudud replaces the current system. How hudud would have prevented the murders when the current justice system hasn't was not explained. 

Mind you, this is the same PAS leader who blamed Valentine's Day and New Year's eve celebrations for the social ill of baby dumping. Of course he didn't explain why Valentine's Day is celebrated all over the world without incurring Feb 14 pregnancies (and our kind of baby dumping) in those countries. 

We've also read of how in Saudi Arabia, three supposedly learned Islamic judges victimize the minorities, i.e. a Shiite, or one of the female gender (rape victim). The usual apologists in Malaysia offer the predictable excuses that the Saudi clerics' outrageous injustice was not influenced by Islamic jurisprudence but rather Arab tribal custom -- despite the obvious fact that the verdict had been delivered by Muslim judges in an Islamic nation that is the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad.

'Tribal custom' was the same pathetic excuse offered when Pakistan, a nation which subscribes fully to Islamic laws, saw the horror of the oxymoronic 'honour rape' perpetrated against Mukhtaran Bibi.

Even the already ridiculous claims of tribal revenge against the woman and her teenage brother were subsequently discovered to be the sheer fabrications of lustful men. But the criminals were not apprehended while their victim was harassed and ostracized. 

Where was the syariah and hudud laws in all of this? It had to be secular international pressure which forced the Pakistani president to order the arrest of the criminals. 

But syariah laws or not, those 'honour rapes' continue in Pakistan even after that shameful case. Three years after the victimization of Mukhtaran, another sensational case occurred where seven men kidnapped and gang-raped a woman over two days in retaliation for some perceived wrong.

Were these the examples that the PAS Youth Leader wants us to believe his hudud laws can prevent? 

But what worries me most was when PAS spiritual leader Nik Aziz Nik Mat recently claimed only DAP chairman Karpal Singh in his party was against the implementation of hudud laws, whose implementation, in their mind, would solve all of the world's problems, the Pakistani and Saudi shameful examples notwithstanding. 

In asserting the DAP (all of party cadres and leaders) only minus Karpal is for hudud, Nik Aziz might have harboured high expectations from Guan Eng and Kor Ming's frequent references to Islamic governance and the Quran.

Let me advice those DAP leaders who want to ride the Islamic tiger that you are unlikely to succeed! 

Its consequence would not only be the riders becoming meals for a big cat but in a reiteration of my earlier remark, in a religious state, when power hungry men can overturn the tables into 'God proposes, man disposes', the potential for gross injustice cannot be understated or overestimated.

Our only protection is the current constitution and the secular civil courts, warts and all.

Dilemma of Muslim Pollies

TMI - PKR Muslim MPs undecided on PAS’s hudud bill

Melayu mudah lupa?

PKR's Muslim MPs have refused to say whether they will vote against a private member's bill to be tabled in Parliament by PAS which would pave the way for hudud to be enforced in Kelantan.

PKR secretary-general Rafizi Ramli said the party would only make a stand on the issue once it sees a draft of the bill.

“It is premature for me to comment on this. If there is a draft of the bill, we want to see it first. Then we will bring the matter up for discussion at the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) presidential council.”

Rafizi said he respected Kelantan PAS’s right to proceed with their state assembly sitting, adding that PR will discuss how to respond to the proposed bill.

“I do not want to jump the gun on this. We want to methodically deal with this at the national level, just like how we did so in the past,” said Rafizi, who is also Pandan MP.

Poor bastards (and I mean 'bastards' in the Ozzie way which is the same as 'blokes', wakakaka), I don't blame them at all, much as I love to blame PKR pollies (politicians), wakakaka.

And this is what I mean by my post title, that for a Muslim, hudud or any Islamic issue is a sensitive subject, and even if he/she wants to, is not something he/she can speak his/her mind freely, as Nurul Izzah found out to her horror, fright and subsequent panic - for more on Nurul's fright, read my March 2014 post titled 3 sweeties, only 1 real Princess Reformasi.

I wonder whether she has thrown her guitar away by now? wakakaka.

Canto says "Hoe t'ai mm hoe sek"

DAP's two Malay MPs (Zairil Khir and Ariff Sabri), I suspect, will toe the party's line against PAS' desire to implement hudud. Zairil has said so openly while I have read a much earlier post on hudud by Sakmongkol (Ariff Sabri) who, if my recollection is correct (and I take responsibility for any faulty recall, apologies in advance), had said it's not quite time yet to bring in hudud.

Unless a Muslim is like Siti Kassim, the delectable SIS sweeties or Marina Mahathir, all of whom wear the pants with real male-type gonads (my apologies to the sweeties for my pseudo-idiomatic expression, wakakaka), it's dangerous to say anything against the clerical-official stand in any controversial Islamic issue - poor Nurul Izzah.

Read also Malaysiakini's I hope dad backs Eminent 25, says Dr M's daughter.

This has been how those (Kassim Ahmad's) priesthood caste (of many many religions) has gotten away with their nasty religious doctrines, pronouncements and teachings for several thousand years - also read RPK's God does not believe in human rights.

was that really God's law?

or of those misogynistic priesthood caste? 

what about No 3?
Satan's work?

But it also spells the end of Pakatan as we had known it between 2008 to 2013 and prior to the lamentable Rancid Satay episode.

Hudud - now elastic, now not so?

Hudud is known as a 'claim of God' or His divine laws, and therefore are immutable.

Immutable means 'unchanging over time or unable to be changed'.

Under hudud, sodomy between man and man, and man and a woman who is not his wife is punishable.

However, the Islamic law is silent on a husband shagging his wife in her behind.

I wonder whether this has to do with the clerics staying clear of a married man's affairs (in other words, what the husband does to the wife is his own business) or it has to do with the value system of the Middle East in those ancient times, where a wife was considered as chattel or a mere property of her husband.

So, amidst such legal silence, a Muslim husband could sodomize his wife with impunity, consensual or otherwise.

In fact, I dare say the word 'consensual' didn't even enter into the equation as, recall, she was a mere chattel and therefore possessed no opinion or free will.

All that will changed soon in Kelantan as its PAS government has avowed that such an act, that of a husband sodomizing his wife, will be considered an offence under hudud - for more, read the Malay Mail Online's No anal sex in marriages, Kelantan clarifies in hudud amendments.

Praise be, praise be, what wonderful news. I am so impressed by the PAS government which has announced this important news about an amendment to the hudud. We can straightaway see they have their priority right - indeed, right where the anus may be affected.

But wait, I do have a slight niggling concern, not that I should as I am only a non-Muslim.

Isn't hudud immutable?

So how could PAS amend the the current Kelantan Shariah Criminal Code Enactment II, or hudud law, which was passed in 1993 and which, as we discussed above, only prohibits anal sex between men or between a man and a woman out of wedlock, but not between a hubby and wifey?

But look, if they can amend the hudud on an aspect of anal sex, and mind you we have to acknowledge this is quite quite quite important (at least for PAS), does this mean that they can further amend said Criminal Code to do away with, say, amputation of limbs and various body parts, and also lashing and whipping?

Obviously they can as what's good for the safety and security of the goose (or wives' anuses) should be also good for the gander (or limbs, body parts and skin, flesh and bones).

Yessiree, if Kelantan's PAS government can amend one law then logic tells us they can other laws as well.

But I doubt they will as clerics who are so concerned about punishing people would be unlikely to support removing the scary part of hudud, because if they can't scare people how will they be able to control them.