As dawn breaks
And the day breathes anew,
We are silenced.
When injustice is poured
Over the peoples of this land
We are adamant.
And those who have chosen to speak
And write the right,
We must remember.
God’s spirit hovers
Sad and grieved at deception,
We must respond.
Stand for truth,
Speak boldly and calmly,
We will do.
No hatred, no animosity,
No violence, no fighting,
We pray, o we pray.
Wisdom is needed
Whilst despair comes upon us,
We will prevail.
We know that Raja Petra’s two articles have been cited for insulting Islam and Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), resulting in his ISA arrest.
We know that Tan Hoon Cheng, the Sin Chew Jit Poh reporter, was cited as threatening national security because of her reporting of Ahmad Ismail’s statements against the Chinese. It is ironic that only she is being singled out, since there were other newspapers/journalists who reported the same thing.
The story behind Teresa Kok, which many are still befuddled about, is this. A mosque in Bandar Kinrara area had its morning azan (the morning call to prayer for the Muslims) cut. The truth is that the speakers were simply not working. They were spoilt.
On the other hand, Khir Toyo was quoted as warning the Pakatan-led government against issuing directives against loudspeakers by mosques and suraus for the azan. He accused Teresa Kok of issuing a petition to Dato Satim Diman, the State Assemblyman for Serdang. Teresa Kok has denied organising any such petition. The website Pembela Melayu also quoted Khir Toyo’s statement.
Dr. Siti Mariah from PAS did her investigations. She spoke to Teresa Kok. She also spoke to Dato’ Satim Diman, and both confirmed that the allegations about the azan were not true. She then lodged a police report against Khir Toyo for spreading “malicious slander” and “lies”. She said that Khir’s statements were:
lies, slander, and maliciously intended at raising the anger and anxiety of Malay-Muslims in the country and to incite their hatred against party leaders in Pakatan Rakyat, particularly DAP.
It is important to note the developments of this case. More importantly, that PAS has stood up firmly for DAP’s Teresa Kok, and against Umno. This is what Dr. Siti Mariah has also repeated strongly:
“Pakatan will ensure that the position of Islam as the official religion of the Federation is not affected while maintaining unity between the various communities.
“Never once will we allow any party to raise feelings of discontent among Malaysians. The position of Islam as the official religion of the Federation is enshrined in the Constitution.
“If any issues arise that makes any racial or religious community uncomfortable, that issue can be discussed between leaders of Pakatan Rakyat and the leaders of the five states that we hold,” she said.
Siti Mariah said only Umno has exploited racial and religious issues in its attempts to regain its lost support. During its rule in Selangor, it was behind the “locking up” of mosques and the ban against some religious speakers.
“DAP leaders have never stepped into or meddled in Islamic affairs. All this while, it has been Umno that has oppressed Islam,” she said.
In these tense times, it is imperative that we citizens take several steps back and determine which are the politically maneouvred strategies. We must weed out the lies from the truth. We must not allow such tactics to cause any confusion amongst us. PAS is standing up for DAP, which obviously means that Teresa’s intentions were never to insult Islam at all. It was a spoilt speaker in the mosque, plain and simple. Do not allow the facts to be twisted, lest this plays into the perfect political ploy to polarise Malaysian races one from the other.
In these moments, we must again look beyond race and religion and focus on the injustice and arrogance being demonstrated by the powers that be. Do not get waylaid by the petty issues. Do not get yourselves tangled up with the different theories. Just focus on staying calm and pushing for justice. Speak the truth boldly and surely. Do not play to the political “race” and “religion” wild cards being waved around, waiting to be picked up.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJJ8b1g0J5Y]
Latest news is that Teresa Kok has been arrested under the ISA.
My suspicion is that it is due to the Azan case that has emerged recently.
Read here for more info, in Malaysiakini.
Who else is going to get picked up?
Note again: the Chinese must remain calm. Do not be easily provoked.
Now the Sin Chew Daily reporter has been arrested from her home in Penang. This is from Malaysiakini:
Sin Chew journalist arrested Sep 12, 08 9:38pm Sin Chew Daily journalist Tan Hoon Cheng has been arrested today at 8.30pm at her home in Bukit Mertajam, Penang. It is unclear whether she has been arrested under the Internal Security Act, which allows for detention without trial.
It is learnt that she has been taken by the police to the Penang police headquarters.
Tan had reported that local Umno chieftain Ahmad Ismail had allegedly said that Chinese Malaysians are “squatters” in the country.
Her report sparked a nationwide outcry, resulting in Ahmad being suspended by Umno for three years.
Sin Chew had three days ago came out strongly to defend Tan, who was accused by Ahmad for misreporting his comments.
What is becoming of our country?
Raja Petra Kamaruddin has been arrested under the Internal Security Act (ISA).
This is the latest from Malaysiakini.
What next?
Speculations are rife that the “big leap” is going to take place, perhaps not precisely on September 16th, but at some point near it.
My take on it is published in The Nut Graph, accessible here:
By Tricia Yeoh
AS 16 Sept 2008 looms ever nearer, this seems to be the main question on all minds: will the current government be toppled?
Investors, business managers, civil society, politicians, and Malaysians at large are understandably concerned over the increasingly tense political situation unfolding, each for his or her respective reasons.
Opposition leader and former deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who leads the Pakatan Rakyat, has set himself a deadline of 16 Sept (also Malaysia Day) to take over the federal government. To do this, he will need a minimum of 31 Members of Parliament (MPs) to cross over from the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, forming a simple majority.
However, even Anwar has indicated that his plans for 16 Sept probably need to be postponed, “due to anticipated problems delaying the transition of power” (The Star, Wednesday, 10 Sept).
Over and above the question of “will it happen”, the more important question Malaysians are asking themselves is whether or not this is a desirable act in itself. There have been numerous arguments for and against the “jump”, and the consequent effects of taking over government in this manner. It is worth exploring each of these arguments on either side. Read more here.
I am appalled. See the latest from Malaysiakini:
Three dailies issued show cause letters Sep 12, 08 11:55am The Home Ministry has asked three newspapers to show cause on why action should not be taken against them over their news coverage on a number of political issues.
Confirming this, the ministry’s Publications Control and Al-Quran Texts Unit secretary Che Din Yusof told Malaysiakini today that the three papers were English daily The Sun, Chinese newspaper Sin Chew Daily and opposition PKR’s party organ Suara Keadilan.
He said the ministry has issued the show-cause letters yesterday and the three papers had been given a week to reply.
According to him, The Sun was asked to show cause for allegedly “manipulating and playing up numerous sensitive issues”.
Meanwhile, Sin Chew has been targeted for its recent reports on the racial slur controversy involving Umno division leader Ahmad Ismail.
Whereas for Suara Keadilan, it was over its report in its latest issue which quoted sources alleging that inspector general of police Musa Hassan was paralysed after a heart surgery.
The Sun is targeted as well now. For manipulating and playing up numerous sensitive issues. I suppose the other papers will be let off scot-free. Great.
All us political junkies talk about is well.. politics, in Malaysia. The following sums up the bulk of our conversation these days:
This is the mania that is Malaysia. Many of us are either sickened by the cathartic period we are going through, although it is necessary when any wound implodes – the crap comes out first before healing – or extremely excited at the prospects of changes about to take place. Whichever the case, everything is at an extremely politically pumped pace this week.
This is the mania that is Malaysia, one that I have grown frighteningly fond of. Perhaps this is where some thrive – in an environment of chaos, liquid, fluid mess, a mass of twistedness – from which emerge a sliver of beauty, balance and hope. This fragile slice of peace we need seek ourselves, and many a time elusive. But I choose to continue because I am here. Nothing can take away my choice, my firm decision to claim Malaysia wholly as mine.
I will fight for the nation because I am its citizen and it is mine – mania and mess included.
This has to be one of the coolest experiments ever conducted. After close to 20 years of research, a huge team of scientists has put together equipment that will replicate conditions of the Big Bang – or at least, it will attempt to do so.
It’s called the “Large Hadron Collider“, where the experimenters are trying to shoot protons into each other, hoping that their collision will show results similar to what happened when the universe started.
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world’s largest and highest-energy particle accelerator complex, intended to collide opposing beams of protons charged with very high energy. Its main purpose is to explore the validity and limitations of the Standard Model, the current theoretical picture for particle physics. It is theorized that the collider will confirm the existence of the Higgs boson, the observation of which could confirm the predictions and missing links in the Standard Model, and could explain how other elementary particles acquire properties such as mass.
It’s really interesting to watch documentaries of this thing, because it’s actually built UNDER the surface, in a circular-like makeup. It lies under the French-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland, and is 27 kilometres long.
This is pretty historical, phenomenal (yes, more historical than September 16th 2008, even). The only thing is that it will take several years before any real answers will emerge. The team of physicists will be poring over the numerical data, running analyses and such.
Initially there was some fear that particle collisions might lead to negative effects, but that’s been pretty much cleared up.
In a couple of years, when the conditions and actual replication of the Big Bang can be thoroughly analysed, this may lead to some tearing apart of preconceived notions – about life, death, beginnings and endings of the world.. not to mention faith… and potentially, God. Maybe it’s time religious groups had better start getting prepared for questions and answers! (Mine included)
But I am generally excited about this awesome venture into science and discovery 🙂
My most recent activities are found on my LinkedIn page here.
