Azmin: Crackdown a return to Mahathirism

The recent crackdown on opposition leaders and pro-democracy activists is a clear sign of the return of ‘Mahathirism’, when high-handed tactics were used to to muzzle dissidents, PKR says.

The slew of arrests yesterday under the Sedition Act are a “return to the days of (former premier Dr) Mahathir (Mohamad)”, when civilians were detained for their “assertion of civil rights”, PKR deputy president Azmin Ali said today.

“With Home Minister (Ahmad Zahid Hamidi) trying to outdo his predecessors in being high and mighty, and (Prime Minister) Najib (Abdul Razak) remaining in ‘elegant silence’, we certainly can expect more arrests and prosecutions of opposition leaders and civil rights activists,” Azmin (left) said in a statement.

He urged the people to remain staunch in their pursuit for democracy and to exercise their constitutional rights to voice their objection to the electoral fraud that occurred during the 13th general election.

Yesterday, PKR vice-president Tian Chua, Anything But Umno (ABU) chief Haris Ibrahim and former Batu Berendam MP and PAS member Tamrin Ghafar were arrested for allegedly uttering seditious statements, while student activist Adam Adli Abdul Halim was charged with committing sedition.

Earlier on PKR’s Seri Setia assemblyperson Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad wascharged with organising an illegal assembly to protest  against electoral irregularities.

Several other opposition leaders have also been investigated over various offences, including DAP founding chairperson Dr Chen Man Hin, Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming, Taiping MP Nga Kor Ming and Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli.

‘Home Ministry is high-handed’

DAP also condemned the Home Ministry for its “high-handed approach” in the police crackdown.

Commenting that the arrests so far could be only the “tip of the iceberg”, Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng said DAP leaders were willing to cooperate with the police in their investigations.

“If the police reveal to us the leaders on their list and what the charges are under the relevant laws, we will be more than willing to go to a designated police station at an appointed time,” Lim said.

In another statement, PAS vice-president Mahfuz Omar lashed out at the BN for manipulating the laws and enforcement bodies at their whim  in oppressing its political foes.

“The confiscation of Harakah Daily and Suara Keadilan and the arrests of the political activists are proof that they (BN) don’t honour their word to reconcile after their humiliating loss in the election,” Mahfuz said.

The crackdown also attracted the attention of international human rights watchdog Amnesty International, which called on the government to release all peaceful protesters arrested under the Sedition Act 1948.

“Rather than abolishing the repressive sedition law as promised, the government is now using it against peaceful protesters,” Amnesty International’s Asia Pacific’s deputy director Isabelle Arradon said.

Najib, in July last year, vowed to replace the act with a new act to be known as the National Harmony Act.

Amnesty International has repeatedly raised concerns about the Sedition Act and the way the authorities have used it to repress political dissent.

The Sedition Act criminalises a wide array of acts, including those “with a tendency to excite disaffection against any Ruler or government” or to “question any matter” protected by the federal constitution, added Arradon.

http://anwaribrahimblog.com/2013/05/24/azmin-crackdown-a-return-to-mahathirism/

BN urged to work with 'majority' on reforms

PKR president Wan Azizah Wan Ismail has urged BN to work with the “majority of the rakyat” who supported the opposition to embark on democratic reforms first before calling for national reconciliation.

“As the voice of the majority of rakyat, we continue to demand that the minority BN government to join us in executing the Democratic Restoration Agenda … through political reforms, electoral reforms and parliamentary reforms before offering reconciliation,” she said in her policy speech to the 9th PKR Congress this morning.

PKR, together with allies PAS and DAP under Pakatan Rakyat, had garnered 51 percent of the popular vote but only secured 40 percent of seats in Parliament as compared to the ruling BN coalition which won 47 percent of the popular vote but bagged 60 percent of seats.

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak had immediately called for national reconciliation after the election results of May 5 but had since moved to arrest several opposition figures following massive rallies to protest against the polls results, alleging fraud.

Newly-minted Home Minister Zahid Hamidi had said that the “silent majority” were against Pakatan’s protests and argued those who did not agree with the country’s electoral system should emigrate.

However, Wan Azizah today reminded that the electoral verdict showed the “majority” of Malaysians was on Pakatan’s side and Zahid’s assertion showed that BN was insincere about national reconciliation.

“Do BN leaders want 51 percent of Malaysians to move to another country?

“Even other countries which use the ‘first past the post’ system, the differences in the number of voters in large and small constituencies are not as great,” she said.

Malaysia’s largest parliamentary constituency of Kapar (144,000 voters) is nine times bigger than the country’s smallest – Putrajaya (16,000 voters).

‘EC leadership must resign’

Wan Azizah also called on the Election Commission’s (EC) leadership to resign for “not ony failing to ensure a clean and fair election but abetting in BN’s criminal cheating”.

She added that even the only one of eight demands of electoral reform group Bersih which the EC implemented, namely the indelible ink, ended up in failure.

She also called for the royal commission of inquiry investigating the illegal granting of citizenship to foreigners which is ongoing in Sabah to also be expanded nationwide.

Wan Azizah said the party remains committed to the Black 505 nationwide rallies to protest the alleged electoral fraud.

She noted the large number of youths present during the rallies, calling them the hope of the future.

“The arrest and prosecution of a youth named Adam Adli recently shows the BN government’s fear towards youths who dared to speak the truthg and oppose electoral fraud,” she said.

The PKR president adds that the 13th general election was a rejection of BN’s politics of race, violence, divide and rule as well as fanatical elements.

She also urged the strengthening of the party’s leadership and machinery going forward.

http://anwaribrahimblog.com/2013/05/25/bn-urged-to-work-with-majority-on-reforms/

Malaysia's election system drawn to sustain BN's dominance, don tells forum

23 May 2013    The Malaysian Insider

Barisan Nasional’s (BN) rule will continue as long as Malaysia uses the first-past-the-post voting system despite redelineation, academic Amer Saifude told a forum here last night.

The Universiti Malaya Centre for Democracy and Elections (Umcedel) deputy director said the expected redelineation of constituencies by year-end would benefit Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s coalition and even better its Election 2013 performance.

“As long as we practice this first-past-the-post system, it will be advantageous to BN,” Amer told a forum on the 13th general election outcome.

 “History has shown that every time there is a re-demarcation process, BN would perform better,” he added.

Despite winning only 47 per cent of the popular vote in the May 5 elections, Najib saw his coalition keeping the government with a simple majority, bagging 133 federal seats against Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) 89.

Amer pointed out that Najib was the first BN chief to score a weaker mandate in his maiden bid for power, a reflection of the faulty fundamentals of the first-past-the-post system.

The Umcedel deputy director said the system’s glaring defect could be seen in how BN, bar a few exceptions, had never won the popular vote by more than 60 per cent but yet managed to win a huge number of the seats it contested in.

He also highlighted how several constituencies nationwide had been gerrymandered without reasonable justifications.

“Sometimes you see the re-demarcation is illogical and unfair… the redelineation process is often made to serve the interest of certain parties,” he said.

Amer, however, noted that any move to redraw the constituencies must first have the consent of at least half of the members of the Dewan Rakyat.

PR federal lawmakers have signalled their intention to make full use of their increased parliamentary numbers to ensure constituencies are fairly redrawn when the Election Commission (EC) kicks off the redelineation exercise this year-end.

PKR’s Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli has said that if the exercise involves an increase in seat numbers, a two-thirds majority vote is needed to approve the changes before they are passed by the lower House.

The allegedly unfair dispersal of voters in constituencies has been used as a major argument point by PR lawmakers to back accusations that gerrymandering in favour of BN has helped the ruling pact stay in power.

In a recent article for news portal FZ.com, Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) chief executive Wan Saiful Wan Jan had pointed out that the existing delineation of constituencies defies logic in terms of size and the number of voters.

The issue has also earned the attention of the foreign media, with the Wall Street Journal, in a comment written by its Hong Kong-based journalist Philip Bowring, pointed to how PR had lost the election despite winning 51 per cent of the popular vote ? an outcome that opposition lawmakers and civil society groups have blamed on gerrymandering.

Speaking to The Malaysian Insider, the DAP’s publicity secretary Tony Pua said with the polls now over and efforts under way to challenge some of the results through election petitions, the next step for PR would be to focus on the coming redelineation exercise as well as campaigning for a proportional representation system.

http://anwaribrahimblog.com/2013/05/23/malaysias-election-system-drawn-to-sustain-bns-dominance-don-tells-forum/

angrier Malaysians with continued crackdown

23 May 2013     The Malaysian Insider

“National reconciliation? To me, they only know how to use words that they do not even understand. My own view is that they have no moral standing to claim of efforts for national reconciliation or to be more liberal… not after all these arrests”

Putrajaya will only face more wrath from right-thinking Malaysians if it continues its nationwide crackdown on opposition supporters, Datuk Ambiga Sreenavasan said today.

The civil rights activist and renowned lawyer said the sudden series of arrests and court charges exposes the new government’s true face and intentions, which contradicts its earlier promise for national reconciliation.

“It reflects very badly on the new government. Let them never again try to use the word liberal,” she told The Malaysian Insider over the phone this afternoon.

 

“National reconciliation? To me, they only know how to use words that they do not even understand.

“My own view is that they have no moral standing to claim of efforts for national reconciliation or to be more liberal… not after all these arrests,” she added.

Ambiga was speaking to this news portal during her wait at the Jinjang police station where PKR and PAS MPs Chua Tian Chang and Tamrin Ghafar, as well as Anything But Umno (ABU) chief Haris Ibrahim, were brought to after they were arrested separately this afternoon.

Earlier this morning, Ambiga, who is also the co-chairman of Bersih 2.0, a coalition of NGOs fighting for a free and fair electoral system, accompanied student activist Adam Adli to the Sessions Court where the youth was charged with sedition for allegedly attempting to topple the Barisan Nasional (BN) government through street protests.

Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders, activists and opposition supporters nationwide have been protesting the results of the just-concluded May 5 polls, which saw BN returned to federal power despite earning only a minority of the total number of votes cast.

Due to the uneven dispersal of votes in numerous constituencies across Malaysia, which the opposition have labelled unfair gerrymandering, BN emerged victors with just under 48 per cent of the popular vote to PR’s 51 per cent by snapping up 133 federal seats or 60 per cent of the 222 seats contested.

Adam, who first shot to fame in 2011 after a similar run-in with the authorities, was hauled in when he told a May 13 forum shortly after the polls that the only way to topple the BN government was not through elections but street protests.

Chua, Haris and Tamrin were also speakers at the same forum and their arrests today are believed to be due to their involvement in the event.

Ambiga said, however, that the authorities did not need to resort to arresting the leaders if they had merely wanted to rope them in for questioning on the event.

“I was told they have a list of names… I am sure these leaders would have been happy to come in and give statements.

“But arresting them… it is shocking, oppressive and to me, wholly unacceptable in a democracy. I view this as an abuse of powers,” she said.

She pointed out that leaders like Chua were MPs and were unlikely to evade being hauled up for questioning.

“This is just telling, isn’t it? It just exposes what they (the government) truly are. Their conducts before the elections were so different. What does that tell you?

“It tells you that they were just holding back before this. Fine. Let them do what they feel they have to do.

“But this would only serve to anger the people,” she warned.

Earlier today, it was reported that over 1,000 copies of PAS-owned Malay newspaper Harakah were carted off by Home Ministry officials from shops and several distribution centres in a nationwide raid.

“Ya, Harakah was seized at several places this morning,” the paper’s editor, Zulkifli Sulong, told The Malaysian Insider when contacted.

The seized copies were of the paper’s Friday edition dated May 24-26 carrying the front page headline “GST hadiah BN untuk rakyat [GST BN’s gift to the people]”.

Its online edition had earlier reported Harakah’s marketing manager Ahmad Faisal Tawang saying he had received phone calls this morning from several distributors who informed him that the home ministry’s officials were carrying out a sting to seize copies of the newspaper.

Home ministry officials had grabbed the paper from not only from the distribution centres but from shops and even from the back of lorries as they arrived at the distribution centres.

In Malacca, Harakah reported more than 500 copies seized, while in Alor Setar, Kedah, as many as 1,000 copies were taken.

“In Seremban, Negri Sembilan, the distribution centres were also raided by KDN,” Ahmad Faisal was quoted saying, using the Malay initials for the home ministry, adding,”But in Kedah, the KDN did not show their enforcement cards and letter from KDN before acting.

Yesterday, the police arrested 18, including four women, at a candlelight vigil held for Adam outside the the Jinjang police station here. They have since been released.

Media reports say some 1,000 had gathered outside the police station, which was under tight security in anticipation of a continued night vigil since Adam Adli’s detention on Saturday.

Newly-minted Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who took over the post from Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein in the Najib administration’s new Cabinet, was reported by Umno-owned daily Utusan Malaysia last weekend as saying that the government would take stern action against those who intended to foment chaos on the streets.

Both Ahmad Zahid and the new Inspector-General of Police had been chided by opposition politicians “playing politics” instead of working to curb crime in the wake up the May 5 polls.

http://anwaribrahimblog.com/2013/05/23/bn-to-face-angrier-malaysians-with-continued-crackdown-warns-ambiga/

Malaysian authorities crack down on opposition activists

After controversial re-election by National Front coalition, three anti-government figures arrested and activist student charged

Malaysian authorities have detained three anti-government figures, charged a student activist with sedition and seized hundreds of opposition newspapers, raising political tensions after recent national elections triggered claims of fraud.

Opposition activists have staged numerous peaceful demonstrations since the 5 May general election won by the National Front coalition with a weakened parliamentary majority. The activists insist the coalition, which has governed since 1957, retained power through bogus ballots and other irregularities, though the prime minister, Najib Razak, and electoral authorities deny manipulating the results.

The latest arrests involve Tian Chua, a senior official in the opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s People’s Justice party; Haris Ibrahim, a rights activist who leads an anti-government group; and Tamrin Ghafar, an opposition party member. The men have criticised the National Front at recent political gatherings.

Chua wrote on Twitter that police detained him at an airport and told him he was being held for sedition. Ibrahim and Tamrin were held separately, but it was not immediately clear for what they were being investigated. Police officials responsible for their case could not immediately be contacted.

After his arrest, Chua tweeted that Malaysians should not allow themselves to be “overtaken by fear [but should] continue to assemble peacefully and have faith”.

Their arrests occurred hours after prosecutors charged the student Adam Adli, 24, with making seditious statements that included calling for people to “go down to the streets to seize back our power” while addressing a political forum. He pleaded innocent at a Kuala Lumpur district court on Thursday and was released on bail before a hearing set for 2 July.

Sedition as defined by Malaysian law includes promoting hatred against the government.

Rights activists have long criticised Malaysia‘s anti-sedition law as a tool to curb democratic dissent. Najib said last year the government planned to eventually abolish the Sedition Act, which was introduced in 1949 during British colonial rule, and replace it with new laws that would strike a better balance between allowing freedom of speech and ensuring public stability.

Adli, who was arrested last weekend, faces three years in prison and a fine if convicted.

Hundreds of people have demonstrated peacefully in recent days against Adli’s arrest. Adli became publicly known in 2011 when he brought down a flag bearing Najib’s portrait at the ruling party’s headquarters during a demonstration. He was subsequently suspended for three semesters from his teaching course at a Malaysian state-backed university.

The home ministry said it had seized more than 2,500 copies of newspapers published by opposition parties from stores nationwide since Wednesday. The government-issued publication licences for those newspapers specify they should be distributed among party members only and are not for retail sales, the ministry said in a statement.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/23/malaysian-authorities-crack-down-opposition-activists

Kenyataan Oleh Setiausaha Akhbar Rumah Putih Tentang Pilihanraya Di Malaysia

[TERJEMAHAN]

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/05/08/statement-press-secretary-malaysia-s-elections

Bagi pihak Presiden dan rakyat Amerika Syarikat, kami mengucapkan tahniah kepada Perdana Menteri Najib atas kemenangan koalisinya dalam pilihanraya Parlimen pada hari Ahad, 5 Mei. Kami juga ingin mengucapkan tahniah kepada rakyat Malaysia kerana peratusan keluar mengundi yang tinggi, dan juga kepada parti-parti pembangkang untuk kempen mereka, kerana pembangkang yang teguh adalah batu asas kepada demokrasi. Kami juga sedar bahawa berlakunya penipuan dalam proses pilihanraya, dan percaya bahawa ianya sangat penting bagi pihak bertanggungjawab menyelesaikan isu-isu yang berbangkit. Kami menanti hasil siasatan mereka. Amerika Syarikat akan meneruskan hubungan yang rapat antara kerajaan dan rakyat Malaysia demi mengukuhkan demokrasi, keamanan dan kemakmuran di rantau ini.

http://anwaribrahimblog.com/2013/05/21/kenyataan-media-oleh-setiausaha-akhbar-rumah-putih-tentang-pilihanraya-di-malaysia/

Readout of The President's Call with PM Najib of Malaysia

President Obama called Prime Minister Najib on the evening of May 13 to congratulate him on his victory in parliamentary elections and to reaffirm the strong bonds of friendship between the United States and Malaysia.  The President noted that Malaysians had turned out in record numbers to vote and welcomed the Prime Minister’s efforts to address concerns about election irregularities. The two leaders discussed the importance of continuing to deepen our bilateral cooperation, including on expanding cooperation on trade, regional security, and multilateral cooperation.

http://anwaribrahimblog.com/2013/05/21/readout-of-the-presidents-call-with-prime-minister-najib-of-malaysia/

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/05/14/readout-presidents-call-prime-minister-najib-malaysia

Wajarkah Anwar Berundur?

Satu tinjauan di lamat web yang direspon oleh beberapa belas ribu orang bersetuju supaya Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim berundur dari pimpinan utama Pakatan Rakyat dan ketua pembangkang di Parlimen. Itulah kira-kira sebagai reaksi setelah Pakatan tidak dapat kerusi selalyaknya bagi memenangi PRU 5 Mei lalu.

Respon itu sesuai dengan kenyataan yang pernah Anwar buat bahawa dia akan berundur sekiranya Putrajaya tidak dapat ditawan. Maka itulah dituntut oleh responden.

Responden bersetuju dia berundur kira-kira 80 peratus. Ia tinggi tetapi belum sampai 15,000 orang. Jika seluruh anggota Perkasa mengambil bahagian mungkin yang mahu dia berundur naik 100,000.

Sekalipun Pakatan belum berjaya menguasai Putrajaya tetapi yang mengundinya di seluruh negara yang  direkodkan oleh SPR hampir 51 peratus atau 5.5 juta tidak termasuk yang lesap, sedang BN yang diisytihar menang itu diundi oleh 5.2 juta saja.

Perlembagaan tidak mengiktiraf undi popular sebagai pemenang, tetapi Pakatan telah menang dari segi demokrasi. Maka ada justifikasi Anwar tidak perlu berundur. Pakatan mengikut kekeliruan pengiraan undi tidak  dapat kerusi secukupnya, sedang ia menang undi popular.

Pakatan bukan tidak menang, cuma ia tidak dapat berkuasa. Keputusan muktamat sekarang menunggu apa mahkamah kata apabila sekitar 30 petisyen pilihan raya akan dikemukakan selepas ia diwartakan.

Jika Anwar dalam situasi yang ada mengubah fikiran tidak berunsur tidak dikira dia tidak berpegang kepada janji. Janjinya kiranya Pakatan kalah serba serbi. Sekarang Pakatan tidak kalah serba serbi.

Katakan Pakatan kalah serba serbi, Anwar seorang tidak boleh menentukan dia patut berundur atau mesti menerus usaha menawan Putrajaya. Anwar boleh menawarkan diri berundur tetapi pimpinan Pakatan dari segi moral berkuasa untuk bersetuju atau tidak bersetuju.

Kalau Anwar mahu menjadi ketua atau calon Perdana Menteri, dia memerlukan persetujuan konsenses Pakatan. Kalau pimpinan Pakatan tidak setuju, maka dia tidak boleh jadi pemimpin. Dan apabila dia hendak berundur pula, dia tidak juga boleh buat keputusan sendiri. Dia kena dengar apa pimpinan PAS dan DAP kata.

Apa jua keputusan yang Anwar hendak buat, dia mesti berunding dulu dengan pimpinan PAS dan Pakatan.

Setakat ini kedudukan yang ada di tangan Pakatan Rakyat ialah Ketua Pembangkang di Parlimen. Jika mengikut parti mana yang banyak kerusi ia DAP. Anwar sendiri pun tidak boleh berkeras terus menjadi Ketua Pembangkang. Dia pun tahu Lim Kit Siang perlu ditanya dulu. Dia sudah menyatakan kesediaan untuk memberi kepada pihak yang lebih berhak.

Tetapi Lim Kit Siang sudah menyatakan supaya Anwar wajar meneruskan kedudukan itu. Tiada di kalangan keluarga PR membantah Anwar meneruskan kempen menawan Putrajaya.

Dengan Anwar dikehendaki mendengar apa kerabat Pakatan kata, bukan apa tinjauan laman web kata.

Keupayaan Pakatan Selangor mencapai keputusan yang lebih baik  dari PRU 2008 adalah bukti Pakatan dan pimpinan tiga serangkainya — Anwar, Abdul Hadi Awang dan Lim Kit Siang — adalah isyarat Pakatan belum ditolak dan mereka mesti meneruskan kempen yang belum selesai.

http://anwaribrahimblog.com/2013/05/21/wajarkah-anwar-berundur/

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/opinion/article/wajarkah-anwar-berundur/

Nature...Not So Natural Anymore

WALAUPUN BLACKOUT

Kuda Kepang

Kapal Terbang Datang

El Indio: A Tectonic Shift

After the 13th general election in Malaysia recently, Prime Minister Najib Razak grumbled about a “Chinese tsunami” that barged against his Barisan Nasional coalition, leaving it with only 47 percent of the popular vote. Barisan Nasional has a Chinese component, the Malaysian Chinese Association, but the Chinese vote went heavily to the opposition Pakatan Rakyat, a three-party coalition led by former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim.

Still, thanks to the gerrymandering of rural constituencies and to the huge perks of incumbency, Barisan Nasional won 133 of 222 parliamentary seats at stake and retained power. Najib remains prime minister.

So why is he grousing about a Chinese tsunami? I think it’s because he has felt a tectonic shift — in this case a tectonic shift in the political mood of Malaysia. It well may be that Malaysian politics will never be the same again. That doesn’t bode well for the Barisan Nasional, or for Najib himself.

Perhaps it’s a comeuppance. There were numerous reports of shenanigans attributed to the ruling coalition. Of flying voters. Of immigrants in Sabah who were given identity cards on condition they would vote for the ruling coalition. Of padded voters’ lists. Of people long dead who were able to vote. Of the Barisan Nasional campaign doling out a total of $2.5 billion to poor voters, and resorting to other forms of subsidy schemes.

If these reports are true, and the evidence is piling up that they’re accurate, then there’s nothing that the local politicians of the Philippines, past masters of election fraud, can teach their Malaysian counterparts. However, to the credit of the Malaysian politicos, although there were some accounts of violence, there wasn’t a single shooting throughout the campaign.

As for the tsunami, it wasn’t Chinese. True, most Chinese Malaysians are sick and tired of the discrimination they’ve suffered over four decades. It rankles that they don’t have equal rights in business, in the civil service and in education. They clamor for a Malaysia that is a meritocracy like next-door Singapore. But there aren’t enough Chinese voters to raise a tsunami.

The tsunami was Malaysian — Muslim Malay and Chinese and Indian Malaysian. Urban, young and idealistic Malaysian. It had nothing to do with ethnicity. It had everything to do with a thirst for change. They’re through with divisive racial politics. They want an end to corruption and cronyism. They want to unleash the potential of a richly diverse Malaysian nation.

Once again, Anwar Ibrahim has failed to win the prime ministership, but he has led Malaysian politics out of the wilderness — and that should be enough for now. He won’t rest, however. Insisting the elections had been stolen from Pakatan Rakyat, he is leading public protests reminiscent of Cory Aquino’s civil disobedience campaign in the Philippines after she thought Ferdinand Marcos had robbed her of the presidential election in 1986.

Aquino’s protest movement led to regime change only because it merged with a military coup. For a people power revolution to succeed it must be supported by a sizeable part of the military, or else the entire military must stay neutral. That won’t happen in Malaysia. But national politics will continue to change. Meanwhile, the Najib government will try to rule with a weak and questioned mandate. It will have to cope with the divisions it has largely created, economic problems from exorbitant election spending, and extravagant promises impossible to keep.

Najib himself is politically wounded. His rivals in the ruling party, the United Malays National Organization, smell blood. That’s a pity because among party eminences, he is the one who has a streak of the reformist in him. To survive, UMNO must undergo sweeping and painful reform to match the shifting mood of Malaysian politics. Otherwise, the election this month was its last hurrah.

http://anwaribrahimblog.com/2013/05/20/el-indio-a-tectonic-shift/

GE13 and the emergence of the enlightened Malays

GE 13 and the emergence of the enlightened Malays

― Ahmad Mustapha Hassan
The Malaysian Insider
May 20, 2013

MAY 20 ― The general election has come but not gone. I wrote on March 15 that the 13th GE would be the most undemocratic and the dirtiest elections Malaysia would ever experience. I was not wrong at all.

UMNO/BN used underhanded tactics to gain power and it was never the tsunami as uttered by the PM, who not only could not regain Selangor but also failed to obtain the two-thirds majority in Parliament that he had promised. It is a disgrace and the choice for any honourable leader is to resign. But he willingly got himself reappointed as the prime minister.

The number of seats won also dwindled and the worst part was to lose the popular vote. This is a shame beyond redemption.

And then he also had the audacity to blame the Chinese for the loss. This was most unpardonable. The shift away from UMNO/BN was multi-ethnic in nature and furthermore, the young voters had lost confidence in this party that has held power for more than 50 years. The UMNO/BN rule was mired in corruption, cronyism and maladministration.

To win in fair and democratic elections would have been most honourable. But to win using unfair means was most deplorable.

UMNO/BN had known that their heavy dependence on the rural electorate would not be as it used to be. PAS had posed as a critical threat to their rural hegemony. But there was one factor that they knew they can exploit and that was FEAR.

The Malay psyche had been based on fear. This factor had been the underlying foundation since the feudal days. It was more so when the Malays embraced Islam. They had been moulded socially, politically and economically on fear. This fear syndrome had made the Malays so much dependent on some kind of protection.

It was the aristocracy during the feudal days and since the fight against the colonial power UMNO had posed itself as being the new protector. All UMNO had to do was to nourish this element further. Thus the Malays are made to fear the dominance of other communities and also being Muslims are made to fear the ascendency of other religions, especially Christianity.

The liberated Malays in the urban areas were no longer tied to this syndrome and therefore Umno could not depend on this group of Malays for any support or sympathy. They had opened up their minds and were no longer shackled with outmoded beliefs and had become a class that could not be duped at all.

But the rural Malays unfortunately were still vulnerable to this element and all UMNO had to do was to make full use of this fear factor to fight PAS. They had used the deception that a vote for PAS would mean a vote for the DAP. To the rural Malays, the DAP is still a Chinese political party and possibly the Islamic religion too would face a threatening danger. And this gimmick works. PAS lost a number of rural seats that they commanded before in 2008.

But it did not work with the Chinese. The Chinese have an open mind. MCA tried to con the Chinese by portraying that any vote for DAP would mean a vote for PAS and, thus, hudud. MCA had completely lost touch with the Chinese mentality.

Umno had championed the Malay rulers against the onslaught of the British colonial power and, thus, was accepted by the Malays as having championed the Malay cause for defending the integrity and sanctity of the Sultans. As from that date, UMNO had imbued the Malay psyche with the notion that they were protecting the Malay interests, whatever that means.

AB Sulaiman, in his book “Sensitive Truths in Malaysia”, made this very relevant observation:

“The Malay mindset harbours the traditional thinking norm; its rational norm is suppressed. It is monistic, accepts indefinite knowledge as truth, and has tendency for value judgement and syllogism. Its acceptance of wisdom is instinctive and involuntary even blind.

“It is ethnocentric, has a penchant for myth and mystery, miracle and magic.

“It is easily swayed by doctrine and dogma, and falls prey to the punishments that dogma dictates.” (The Malay mindset is bound by mysticism and fear”, p.35/36)

The delineation of the constituencies had been very much biased towards the rural areas and combined with the posture as being protector of Malay rights, UMNO could easily triumph in the rural areas. But this situation is slowly becoming a myth as the old generation is being replaced by the youths who are restless and are no longer taken in by empty rhetoric.

The idea behind having this rural bias was to assist UMNO in maintaining power indefinitely. Thus numbers do not count at all. What is important is to create Malay majority constituencies to enable UMNO to win.

GE13 witnessed the new shift in the voting power of the enlightened Malays who no longer believe in racism. UMNO has become panicky and has lost all ideas on how to continually hold on to power.

The days of UMNO’s unrivalled and indefinite political hegemony are clearly numbered!

Ashgar Ali Engineer: A life for peace

Ashgar Ali Engineer: A life for peace

— Sumanto Al Qurtuby
The Malaysian Insider
May 20, 2013

MAY 20 — I paused my work upon hearing the gloomy news of the death of Asghar Ali Engineer, one of the world’s greatest scholars of Islam, last Tuesday, after a prolonged illness.

Born in 1939 in the town of Salumbar in the western Indian state of Rajasthan, Engineer was a prolific writer who authored more than 50 books, many of which have been translated into many languages — including Indonesian — and he wrote innumerable book chapters, journal articles and columns.

But there is more. Engineer was also a daring peace activist who had been at the vanguard of civil society movements against religious tyranny and radicalism. Also, he was a truly passionate liberal Muslim thinker whose ideas on Islamic theology of liberation, secular democracy, Islamic ethics of social justice, women’s rights, religious tolerance and pluralism, non-violence, peace building, communalism and secularism have shaped many scholars and activists around the globe.

Since Engineer’s writings cover broad issues and themes, it’s difficult to decide which aspects of his work are the most important. As the scientist Ram Puniyani has aptly pointed out, “there is a deeper integration in deferent facets of the work [Engineer’s].”

However, it seems that Engineer’s fame, which goes far beyond his homeland, was primarily for his work on or, more precisely, against violent conflicts, particularly those committed in the name of religion, including Islam.

The first dreadful event that shook Engineer very deeply was the bloody Hindu-Muslim violence that broke out in Jabalpur, in Madhya Pradesh state, in 1961. This was the first major communal riot between the two religious groups after the mayhem of 1948, which followed the partition of the Subcontinent into India and Pakistan.

Born in a Bohra orthodox priestly family of Shiite Ismaili Muslims, Engineer was a student when he witnessed the tragedy. For him, violence in the name of religion was anathema in part because he had been soaked in spiritual and peaceful dimensions of Islam from his childhood. Engineer was taught by his father, Shaikh Qurban Hussain, who was a scholar of Islam and a Shiite-Ismaili leader, that Islam is a religion of peace and that no religion preaches violence.

But following the Jabalpur riots, Engineer began to wonder: if Islam — or any other religion — doesn’t teach violence and hate, why, then, were Muslims and Hindus in India fighting each other in the name of religion?

Indeed, India has witnessed a prolonged series of bloody communal violence from the Mumbai riots of 1893 to the more recent carnage in Gujarat and other areas resulting in countless deaths. Most incidents took place between Hindus and Muslims. But riots also occurred between Sunnis and Shiites or between factions within Sunni and Shiite Islam, or between Hindus and Sikhs or Christians, etcetera.

Engineer devoted his life to the study of these seemingly religiously-inspired conflicts and his research findings formed a crucial contribution to conflict and peace studies and to our understanding of the underlying factors of communal turmoil. Engineer, it should be noted, not only conducted fieldwork, analysed data and wrote up research findings from his desk, but he also mentored and trained peace practitioners and human rights activists, and marched down in the streets to fight against violence and promote communal harmony.

He thought that there was a something wrong with the beliefs and practices of some his fellow Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, etc. who espoused extremism and intolerance. In his autobiography, “A Living Faith: My Quest for Peace, Harmony and Social Change,” Engineer stated that his father taught him to be peaceful and open-minded and show great respect for other religions. In his childhood, he wrote, Hindu Brahmin priests used to come and talk with his father to exchange views on each other’s beliefs with deep esteem.

Inspired by his father’s tolerant teachings and peaceful actions as well as by the spirit of philosophical and spiritual Islam and the universal ethics of the Quran, Engineer worked hard to create a “new India” (or a “new world” generally) which would be free from brutality and bigotry. To do this, he thought it necessary to create research centers, reinterpret Islamic/Quranic foundations for inter-religious peace and develop movements dedicated to non-violence. For his tremendous efforts in promoting inter- and intra-religious understandings, he was given numerous awards including the Right Livelihood Award (also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize) and the National Communal Harmony Award by the government of India.

Another of Engineer’s great legacies is that, from 1972 until his death, he had been a strong voice for Islamic reformation. He led the Progressive Dawoodi Bohra movement and although he was devoted to Shiism, Engineer strongly criticised its clergy system and Shiite leaders who manipulated lay believers by injecting “blind religious dogmas of the past” for their own political and economic interests. Islam, for Engineer, was primarily a “liberating force” and a means to achieve social justice.

Engineer compared today’s India to Mecca in the time of the Prophet Muhammad, during which oligarchy thrived due to greed as well as ignorant tribal rule, and, as a result, nobody took care of orphans, widows, the old and the poor.

Engineer used the socio-political settings of Arabia and the tribal leaders’ ill-treatment of Muslims during the time of Muhammad to analyse Indian contexts, and then developed an Islamic theology of liberation, rooted in the concept of tawhid (Oneness of God), as a religious foundation to resist the Shiite clergy in his country. Just like Latin American Catholic leaders who used Biblical traditions to advance a liberation theology to oppose violence and oppression (like Gustavo Gutierrez), Engineer used Quranic texts and Islamic teachings and values, combined with the prophetic practices of Muhammad, as a means of mobilisation, reformation and protest against what he considered the politics of injustice of the Shiite religious establishment.

Engineer declared that a religious person must continue to wage jihad against all forms of exploitation, discrimination, and injustices.

Due to his strong criticism of Shiite clerics, however, he put his life (and his family’s) at risk and became the routine subject of insults and fatwas accusing him of sacrilege. Despite the threats, however, he continued to spread and advocate a form of liberating, tolerant, just and peaceful Islam.

Just like India, Indonesia currently faces many problems: from terrorism, intolerance and radicalism to corruption and other social illnesses. It is high time for this nation to educate more “Engineers” and boost progressive understandings of Islam that oppose theocracy (including the Islamic state) and at the same time support secular democracy, the rights of women, homosexuals and non-Muslims, freedom of thought and expression, and the general notion of progress.

Only by implementing such ideas can the pluralistic character of Indonesia be maintained in the future — and protected from the false propaganda of some radical Muslim groups.

Rest in peace, Dr Engineer. — thejakartaglobe.com

* Sumanto Al Qurtuby is a research fellow at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame, Indiana.

Doa

JANGANLAH KERANA KELAMBATAN MASA PEMBERIAN TUHAN KEPADA KAMU, PADAHAL KAMU TELAH BERSUNGGUH-SUNGGUH BERDOA, MEMBUAT KAMU BERPUTUS ASA, SEBAB ALLAH  MENJAMIN UNTUK MENERIMA SEMUA DOA, MENURUT APA YANG DIPILIH-NYA  UNTUK KAMU, TIDAK MENURUT  KEHENDAK KAMU, DAN PADA WAKTU YANG DITENTUKAN-NYA, TIDAK PADA WAKTU YANG KAMU TENTUKAN.

Apabila kita berkehendak mendapatkan sesuatu sama ada duniawi mahupun ukhrawi maka kita akan berusaha bersungguh-sungguh untuk mendapatkannya. Jika usaha kita tidak mampu memperolehinya kita akan meminta pertolongan daripada orang yang mempunyai kuasa. Jika mereka juga tidak mampu membantu kita untuk mencapai hajat kita maka kita akan memohon pertolongan daripada Allah s.w.t,  menadah tangan ke langit sambil air mata bercucuran dan suara yang merayu-rayu menyatakan hajat kepada-Nya. Selagi hajat kita belum tercapai selagi itulah kita bermohon dengan sepenuh hati. Tidak ada kesukaran bagi Allah s.w.t untuk memenuhi hajat kita. Sekiranya Dia mengurniakan kepada kita semua khazanah yang ada di dalam bumi dan langit maka pemberian-Nya itu tidak sedikit pun mengurangi kekayaan-Nya. Andainya Allah s.w.t menahan dari memberi maka tindakan demikian tidak sedikit pun menambahkan kekayaan dan kemuliaan-Nya. Jadi, dalam soal memberi atau menahan tidak sedikit pun memberi kesan kepada ketuhanan Allah s.w.t. Ketuhanan-Nya adalah mutlak tidak sedikit pun terikat dengan kehendak, doa dan amalan hamba-hamba-Nya.

Dan Allah berkuasa melakukan apa yang di kehendaki-Nya. ( Ayat 27 : Surah Ibrahim )

Semuanya itu tunduk di bawah kekuasaan-Nya. ( Ayat 116 : Surah al-Baqarah )
Ia tidak boleh ditanya tentang apa yang Ia lakukan, sedang merekalah yang akan ditanya kelak. ( Ayat 23 : Surah al-Anbiyaa’ )

Sebahagian besar daripada kita tidak sedar bahawa kita mensyirikkan Allah s.w.t dengan doa dan amalan kita. Kita jadikan doa dan amalan sebagai kuasa penentu atau setidak-tidaknya kita menganggapnya sebagai mempunyai kuasa tawar menawar dengan Tuhan, seolah-olah kita berkata, “Wahai Tuhan! Aku sudah membuat tuntutan maka Engkau wajib memenuhinya. Aku  sudah beramal maka Engkau wajib membayar upahnya!” Siapakah yang berkedudukan sebagai Tuhan, kita atau Allah s.w.t? Sekiranya kita tahu bahawa diri kita ini adalah hamba maka berlagaklah sebagai hamba dan jagalah sopan santun terhadap Tuan kepada sekalian hamba-hamba. Hak hamba ialah rela dengan apa juga keputusan dan pemberian Tuannya.

 Doa adalah penyerahan bukan tuntutan. Kita telah berusaha tetapi gagal. Kita telah meminta pertolongan makhluk tetapi itu juga gagal. Apa lagi pilihan yang masih ada kecuali menyerahkan segala urusan kepada Tuhan yang di Tangan-Nya terletak segala perkara. Serahkan kepada Allah s.w.t dan tanyalah kepada diri sendiri mengapa Tuhan menahan kita dari memperolehi apa yang kita hajatkan? Apakah tidak mungkin apa yang kita inginkan itu boleh mendatangkan mudarat kepada diri kita sendiri, hingga lantaran itu Allah s.w.t Yang Maha Penyayang menahannya daripada sampai kepada kita? Bukankah Dia Tuhan Yang Maha Pemurah, Maha Penyayang lagi Maha Mengetahui.

Tidakkah Allah yang menciptakan sekalian makhluk itu mengetahui (segala-galanya)? Sedang Ia Maha Halus urusan Tadbiran-Nya, lagi Maha Mendalam Pengetahuan-Nya. ( Ayat 14 : Surah al-Mulk ) Dialah yang mengetahui segala yang ghaib dan yang nyata, (dan Dialah jua) yang Maha Kuasa, lagi Maha Bijaksana. ( Ayat 18 : Surah at-Taghaabun ) Apa sahaja ayat keterangan yang Kami mansuhkan (batalkan), atau yang Kami tinggalkan (atau tangguhkan), Kami datangkan ganti yang lebih baik daripadanya, atau yang sebanding dengannya. Tidakkah engkau mengetahui bahawasanya Allah Maha Kuasa atas tiap-tiap sesuatu? ( Ayat 106 : Surah al-Baqarah )

Allah s.w.t Maha Halus (Maha Terperinci/Detail), Maha Mengerti dan Maha Mengetahui yang ghaib dan yang nyata. Allah s.w.t yang bersifat demikian menentukan buat diri-Nya yang apa sahaja yang Dia mansuhkan digantikannya dengan yang lebih baik atau yang sama baik. Dia boleh berbuat demikian kerana Dia tidak bersekutu dengan sesiapa pun dan Dia Maha Berkuasa.
 Seseorang hamba sentiasa berhajat kepada pertolongan Tuhan. Apa yang dihajatinya disampaikannya kepada Tuhan. Semakin banyak hajatnya semakin banyak pula doa yang disampaikannya kepada Tuhan. Kadang-kadang berlaku satu permintaan  berlawanan dengan permintaan yang lain atau satu permintaan itu menghalang permintaan yang lain. Manusia hanya melihat kepada satu doa tetapi Allah s.w.t menerima kedatangan semua doa dari satu orang manusia itu. Manusia yang dikuasai oleh kalbu jiwanya berbalik-balik dan keinginan serta hajatnya tidak menetap. Tuhan yang menguasai segala perkara tidak berubah-ubah. Manusia yang telah meminta satu kebaikan boleh meminta pula sesuatu yang tidak baik atau kurang baik. Tuhan yang menentukan yang terbaik untuk hamba-Nya tidak berubah kehendak-Nya. Dia telah menetapkan buat Diri-Nya:

Bertanyalah (wahai Muhammad): “Hak milik siapakah segala yang ada di langit dan di bumi?” Katakanlah: “(Semuanya itu) adalah milik Allah! Ia telah menetapkan atas diri-Nya memberi rahmat.” (Ayat 12 : Surah al-An’aam )

Orang yang beriman selalu mendoakan:
“Wahai Tuhan kami, berilah kami kebaikan di dunia dan kebaikan di akhirat, dan peliharalah kami dari azab  neraka”. ( Ayat 201 : Surah al-Baqarah )

Hamba yang mendapat rahmat dari Allah s.w.t diterima doa di atas dan doa tersebut menjadi induk kepada segala doa-doanya. Doa yang telah diterima oleh Allah s.w.t menapis doa-doa yang lain. Jika kemudiannya si hamba meminta sesuatu yang mendatangkan kebaikan hanya kepada penghidupan dunia sahaja, tidak untuk akhirat dan tidak menyelamatkannya dari api neraka, maka doa induk itu menahan doa yang datang kemudian. Hamba itu dipelihara daripada didatangi oleh sesuatu yang menggerakkannya ke arah yang ditunjukkan oleh doa induk itu. Jika permintaannya sesuai dengan doa induk itu dia dipermudahkan mendapat apa yang dimintanya itu.

Oleh sebab itu doa adalah penyerahan kepada Yang Maha Penyayang dan Maha Mengetahui. Menghadaplah kepada-Nya dan berserah diri kepada-Nya serta ucapkan, “Wahai Tuhanku Yang Maha Lemah-lembut, Maha Mengasihani, Maha Mengetahui, Maha Bijaksana! Daku adalah hamba yang bersifat tergopoh gapah, lemah dan jahil. Daku mempunyai hajat  tetapi daku tidak mengetahui kesannya bagiku, sedangkan Engkau Maha Mengetahui. Sekiranya hajatku ini baik kesannya bagi dunia dan akhiratku dan melindungiku dari api neraka maka kurniakan ia kepadaku pada saat yang baik bagiku menerimanya. Jika kesudahannya buruk bagi dunia dan akhiratku dan mendorongku ke neraka, maka jauhkan ia daripadaku dan cabutkanlah keinginanku terhadapnya. Sesungguhnya Engkaulah Tuhanku Yang Maha Mengerti dan Maha Berdiri Dengan Sendiri”.

Dan Tuhanmu menciptakan apa yang dirancangkan berlakunya, dan Dialah juga yang memilih (satu-satu dari makhluk-Nya untuk sesuatu tugas atau keutamaan dan kemuliaan); tidaklah layak dan tidaklah berhak bagi sesiapapun memilih (selain dari pilihan Allah). Maha Suci Allah dan Maha Tinggilah keadaan-Nya dari apa yang mereka sekutukan dengan-Nya. { Ayat 68 : Surah al-Qasas }