Get rid of the religious bigots Jeswan Kaur |

It is tough times ahead for the non-Muslims of this country, going by the antics of entities like Perkasa and Jati who are doing all they can to turn the former into non-persona grata.

There is no denying that as long as Perkasa and Jati exist, the affection and trust between Muslim and non-Muslims will always be strained.

Both Perkasa and Jati are notorious for causing a rift between the non-Muslim and Muslims.

In fact, the worst damage to national unity has come from entities like Perkasa and Jati – be it acts of decapitating and desecrating cow heads, ridiculing the Hindu idols, threatening anyone who dared question Article 153 of the Federal Constitution that safeguards Malay rights and privileges, calls to burn the Malay bibles and the latest being demands that the Embassy of the Holy See in Kuala Lumpur get rid of its ambassador Archbishop Joseph Marino because the latter praised a local church’s campaign to include the Arabic word ‘Allah’ to refer to God among Christians.

In Marino’s case, Perkasa and Jati wasted no time in marching to the embassy of the Holy See demanding that the Vatican appoint a new envoy to Malaysia.

When no one from the embassy turned up to entertain the antics of Perkasa and Jati led by their founders Ibrahim Ali and Hasan Ali respectively, Ibrahim was forced to hand over his protest note to the police guard.

If that was not good enough for Ibrahim, he had the gall to paste a copy of the protest note on the embassy’s guard house wall.

Marino has since the uproar tendered an apology but as always ‘sorry’ has never been enough for Perkasa and Jati, infamous for their extremist views and anti-national outlook.

Even the Selangor Islamic Religious Council (Mais) is not satisfied with an apology from the Vatican’s envoy.

Mais claims Marino’s comment over the use of the word “Allah” by Christians in Malaysia was tantamount to contempt of the rule of law assented to by the Malay rulers.

Mais chairperson Mohamad Adzib Mohd Isa said Marino, had incurred the anger of Muslims at a time when they were observing the Ramadan fast.

How has the archbishop raised the ire of the Muslims when it was the truth that he had lent support to?

Is this how democracy best works in Malaysia, with the dominant race always threatening to ‘finish off’ the rest?

No ‘copyright’ over religion

It is befuddling as to why Perkasa, Jati, the state rulers and Malay scholars refuse to accept the fact that the word ‘Allah’ can be used by the other races as well?

Why is there the animosity when it comes to worshiping the Creator, when there is ample evidence that ‘Allah’ is not exclusive to the Malays alone?

Indeed, when the rulers of state bar the non-Muslims from practising what is their fundamental right, it becomes clear that the non-Muslims have become enemies of the state and have been relegated to the status of non-persona grata.

While Mohamad Adzib is urging relevant authorities such as the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais), the police and the Home Ministry to act firmly against any Muslim or non-Muslim individual who intentionally insult the sanctity of Islam, whom do the non-Muslims turn to for help when agencies like Perkim (Pertubuhan Kebajikan Islam Malaysia) unabashedly try to convert them to Islam?

This was what a friend of mine faced just days before the fasting month began. She was at the Sungai Wang Plaza when several men from Perkim approached her armed with a barrage of questions concerning the fasting month of Ramadan.

The Perkim staff was not out to test my friend’s understanding or knowledge of the fasting month. Rather, he was hoping to ‘earn’ a brownie point by getting my friend to renounce her Christian faith.

In the end, before my friend could take off, the Perkim representative still adamant that she give ‘leave Christianity and join Islam’ a thought, placed in her hands a copy of the Quran translated into English, ‘A Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam’ by I.A. Ibrahim, ‘Have You Discovered Its Real Beauty’ by Dr Naji Ibrahim Arfaj and ‘What Allah says in the Quran The Truth about Jesus Christ’.

My friend ended up with unsolicited information and a copy of the Quran and other Islamic paraphernalia – what should a non-Muslim person make out of all this? Or how should she or he react?

Had my friend adopted the insensitive ‘Perkasa-Jati’ approach, she would have given the Perkim official a piece of her mind for accosting her with unwelcomed details about Islam.

Instead, she thanked him for sharing all that which he did and for the Quran etc.

My friend was not pleased with that experience which left her wondering why the double standard practiced by the government when it comes to proselytisation?

Live and let live

Looks like the day of reckoning for ‘shit-stirrers’ like Perkasa and Jati might just never arrive.

Meanwhile, the non-Muslims of this country suffer, their right to address their Creator denied them by the influential race.

Will there come a day for Malaysia when race and religion will never make news for the wrong reasons?

Or for that matter when will the day be when the Malays will stop eyeing the non-Muslims with mistrust and suspicions?

Who has authorised Perkasa and Jati as keepers of morality and faith, so much so that the non-Muslims have to beg to justify their own existence?

For how long more do Perkasa and Jati intend to go on feeling insecure and threatened each time the non-Muslims try claiming what is rightfully theirs?

Hard to swallow as it may be but the truth is Malaysia can only be at peace with the demise of set-ups like Perkasa and Jati, both which continue to receive the blessings of the country’s largest political party Umno.

Until then, when truth is spoken, there is no telling the severity of the repercussions, as happened to Marino who was summoned to Wisma Putra by Foreign Minister Anifah Aman and ‘lectured’ to be mindful of the religious sensitivities of the country.

When will kindness prevail?(by Datuk Zaid Ibrahim)

Another school fiasco has taken place if the reports about the  schoolchildren in Sekolah Kebangsaan Seri Pristana in Sungai Buloh are correct.

The children  were required to use the changing room next to the  toilet as a makeshift canteen because the canteen itself was closed for the fasting month.

Predictably, the DPM has ordered a probe and probably the other education minister will express some regret over the incident. This is not the first time such ugliness has marred our school halls.

In 2010, the principal of Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra in Johor made it to the news for making racial remarks against her Chinese and Indian students.

Typically, in such incidents after the furor has died down all is forgotten.

Then another incident unfolds because Malay and Muslim administrators do not think non-Malays and non-Muslims are  important enough to be treated with respect and dignity.

What has happened is the result of heightened Malay-Muslim consciousness, promoted by politicians and Islamic bureaucrats who-under the cloak of race and in some cases religion or both-want to be identified as champions of their race and religion.

But by invoking false ideologies of patriotism and Islamisation, they have invaded the public space and filled the minds of the people with so much indoctrinal nonsense that some Malays and Muslims have forgotten basic human decency and moral values in their interpersonal relationship with others.

The process has numbed  the conscience of these administrators, a condition described by our Malay elders as "hilang hati perut".

It means they  have lost their sense of fairness, empathy and understanding and can no longer appreciate the consequence of their actions on others who do not belong to their group.

They simply no longer care enough.

These false champions of their race and religion then blame non-Malays and non-Muslims for being insensitive.

Just this morning a deputy minister blamed the Chinese for organising a beauty contest knowing about the fatwa issue, implying the Chinese must also follow the fatwa.

Some silly bloggers may have given them the ammunition to justify what they say, but by and large, non-Malays and non-Muslims have always been respectful of Malays and Muslims for as long as I can remember.

For many years after independence, the Chinese and Indians have always stayed in the background and known their place under the Malaysian sun.

In fact, their reluctance to be involved was interpreted as apathy and unwillingness to be involved in nation-building.

Now, the younger generation wants to have a say and for that they are accused of being ungrateful.

Suddenly, these young Malaysians are being labelled as unpatriotic.

A special course on nationhood has been invoked by no less a figure than the Regent of Perak, implying that non-Malays and non-Muslims are found wanting in their sense of national loyalty.

On the contrary, I believe that, if at all, the ones who need to undergo a course on nationhood are Malays and Muslims who have forgotten that there are Malaysians who are unlike them.

I am tired of listening to some of our so-called leaders hand out their prescriptions for what ails the country.

The non-Malays and non-Muslims must stand up for their rights; because only then will we have a country of equals.

The Malays will also benefit from this situation where people are treated as they should be treated, with fairness and equanimity.

The real culprits for the present day distortion are the Malays who always blame the Chinese for their shortcomings, and the false Muslim preachers who teach the Muslims to have an all-consuming fear of God but then conveniently forget that Allah commands us to look after our fellow beings more than ourselves.

What ails the country are these false teachings and false ideologies that are bereft of human decency and dignity, making meaningful relationships among the people of this country difficult to achieve.

So on his 60th birthday, can we have our PM (Prime Minister) say and do something that will right the moral compass of good behaviour between Malays and non-Malays?

Remove the distorting prism that guides our present actions purely on the basis of race or beliefs.

Can we agree that Malaysians of whatever group are human beings first, and that they deserve equal and fair treatment?

Advanced countries put a premium on developing a caring and compassionate society and so should we.

Success certainly cannot be measured by GDP (gross domestic product) and per capita income alone. 

Respect all races and faiths

Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad keeps insulting the non-Malays all the time and not a word comes of concern comes out from the mouth of the country’s leading party, the Barisan Nasional alliance.

Likewise, Mahathir’s protege, Ibrahim Ali who founded the Maly  extremist party Perkasa and his deputy Zulkifli Noordin who have little to fear each time they take pot-shots at the non-Muslims.

Then there are others in powerful positions who keep stirring racial tensions by warning the non-Malays to refrain from using the word ‘Allah’.

The word “Allah” has been used by the Sikhs and Christians for a long, long time or for that matter Arab Christians have been using the term “Allah” for over 600 years before the Muslims began doing so?

The word “Allah” is used 12 times in the Sikh holy scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, by Sheikh Farid, Guru Nanak and Guru Arjan Dev while Sant Kabeer has uttered the word 18 times.

Despite that, Umno continues to live by its fallacy that only Muslims have the right to use the word “Allah” despite the fact that the term has been used by the Sikhs and the Arabic-speaking Christians of Syria and the rest of the Middle East.

Now Kedah menteri besar Mukhriz Mahathir has decided to follow in the footsteps of the rest by barring the non-Malays there from using the word ‘Allah’.

National reconciliation not happening
The country’s Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak talks a great deal about unity and national reconciliation but when politicians like Kinabatangan MP Bung Mokhtar Radin accuses the non-Malays of causing trouble and violating the Federal Constitution when they use the word ‘Allah’, why does the premier not feel compelled to do the right thing i.e. defend the non-Malays?

And as long as insensitive and racist politicians like Ibrahim contine to enjoy ‘immunity’ and go unpunished for insulting the non-Malays, there is no hope for any national reconciliation.

Ibrahim had once publicly demand that Malay Bibles be burnt and yet there was nothing seditious about what he had said.

Just as worrying is the warped outlook displayed by Perak mufti Harussani Zakaria who  last year said that non-Muslims who insist on using the word “Allah” to refer to their Gods should convert to Islam if they refused to accept that the word belongs only to Muslims.

The controversial cleric also went on to accuse the Christian community of intentionally provoking Muslims by pressing on with their demand to use “Allah” in their holy book.

Pressuring, threatening and intimidating the non-Malay communities of this country to accept that the word ‘Allah’ is exclusive only to the Muslims is definitely not helping as far as calling it a truce between Malaysians of diverse faith goes.

What is worrying is that there is no stopping the ultra-Malay politicians from  pursuing their agenda of condemning the other faiths and portraying Islam as an antagonistic religion.

When bloggers Alvin Tan and Vivian Lee published a photograph in Facebook, greeting Muslims “Selamat Berbuka Puasa” by eating Bah Kut Teh ( a dish with pork serving), it was a case of ‘do or die’ for Umno, the country’s largest political party.

In the end, with pressure coming down hard on the couple, they were  charged under Section 4 (1) (C) of the Sedition Act 1948 for allegedly insulting Islam and the holy month of Ramadan. Their bail was rejected and the two went sent off to jail, with Tan to the Sungai Buloh Prison and Lee to the Kajang Prision.

If found guilty, Tan and Lee could face a three year imprisonment or a fine, or both.

Maybe Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail found it “easier” to prosecute the young couple but not the nation’s real trouble makers, i.e. Ibrahim, Zulkifli etc for sowing racial discord?

Respect all races and faiths
The fact that Abdul Gani continues to overlook the racist and seditious remarks made by the likes of Ibrahim and Zulkifli recently prompted several Indian based non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to lodge a police report against the AG.

The People’s Welfare and Rights Organisation (Power) president S Gobi Krishnan has accused Abdul Gani of practising selective prosecution by charging sex bloggers Tan and Lee in court but not Ibrahim and Zulkifli.

Looks like Abdul Gani is more worried about displeasing the ‘powers that be’, hence the quick action to drag Tan and Lee to court and then to jail.

If Tan and Lee have been accused of being insensitive, so too are Ibrahim and Zulkifli and also the Education Ministry when it rejected the application of a student who had secured a 3.8 CGPA in her foundation year in Universiti Malaya simply because the ministry found her name sounding “foreign and Christian”.

Because some Education Ministry official holds a grudge against the non-Malays, this student lost the chance to pursue medicine not only in UM but also other public universities.

So it looks like the problem is not all about Malays and Islam. But why then do leaders of this country not treat the other races with respect?

In September 2010, deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin was quoted as saying that no one would be spared prosecution for insulting any religion practised in the country.

He said the government viewed the matter seriously as it could incite anger in the people and disrupt racial harmony and security.

“We cannot allow anyone, whether the individual is a Muslim or non-Muslim, to belittle any religion,” he said then when asked to comment on an insult to Islam in an account of the Facebook social website.

Three years later, Mahathir, Ibrahim, Zulkifli, Harussani, Bung Mokhtar and many others continue to deride the non-Malays.  Can Muhyiddin tell the rakyat why BN refuses to prosecute these people and continues to indulge in selective persecution?

Until then, with all the racial tension and unhappiness taking place, it is a wonder how Najib intends to pull off the national reconciliation agenda.

The truth however is that the rakyat knows the national reconciliation is yet another ‘all talk no action” gimmick coming from the BN government.

‘Wayang kulit’ elections

The game plan was simple. Malaysia is supposed to be a democratic country. That was the foundation on which it was born. The Federal Constitution is there to prove it.

On the other hand, after the time of Tunku Abdul Rahman, the Umno-dominated Alliance (changed to Barisan Nasional later) felt that it should remain in power all the time, for reasons best known to it.

However, this had to be done in a “democratic” way to show the world that democracy was alive. A simple way to do this was to move the goalposts from election to election. A game plan was mooted to do this constitutionally. Using its two-thirds majority in Parliament, which is needed to amend the very same constitution, the plan was put into action. First, the 15 per cent difference allowed in the number of voters in the different constituencies was changed to 50 per cent.

A further amendment was made some years later which removed the 50 per cent figure and left only the words “approximately equal” for the Election Commission to interpret as it chose fit. This resulted in some constituencies becoming umpteen times bigger than others. It was no co-incidence that these huge constituencies were pro-opposition voters.

This game of changing the goalposts had to be further refined to make it easier to accurately identify the sentiments of small pockets of voters. This was done by changing the vote-counting system. Instead of taking all the marked ballots to a central counting station, where a different group of election workers would do the counting, the counting was now to be done in the very room that the ballots were cast, by the same election workers.

This ballot counting in the balloting rooms was a very well disguised operation for spying on the voters. People were fooled into accepting this method of vote counting by telling them that this way the results would be known several hours earlier than before. People being anxious to know the results as soon as possible, did not raise an eyebrow and see the mischief behind the move.

The mischief was that the EC now had very detailed information about how the voters in each and every stream, numbering from 200 to 600 or so, had voted. Now, knowing the addresses of these voters and how a majority in each stream had voted, the pencils were out drawing lines around these addresses, either grouping them on the pro-government side or the pro-opposition side. Thus electoral boundaries began zigzagging in ways defying logic and unseen before.

When the question of gerrymandering was raised, and the EC asked to explain the huge disparity in electoral constituencies despite the Constitution clearly saying that the number of voters in them must be “approximately equal”, the EC had the gall to say that the Constitution had been followed in drawing up the boundaries.

It must also be noted that the EC is actually a department in the Prime Minister’s Department and not an Election Commission that is independent. It is under the direction of the PM. All re-delineation reports must first be handed to the PM for his approval. If the EC were independent, these reports should go straight to Parliament without the PM seeing them, let alone approving them first.

To hoodwink the world that the elections department was an independent body, it had to be officially called a Commission. Maybe by a slip of the tongue, one of the commissioners recently confirmed that the Commission was not independent when he said that the commission’s proposal to draw up rules for a caretaker government after dissolution of Parliament was shot down by a government ministry. The chairman of the Commission has not denied this.

With calls for the Commission to use indelible ink growing louder, it chose to placate the people by getting some coloured liquid, which a Minister confirmed was food colouring, for which over RM7 million was paid.

If any members of the Commission have any conscience, they should resign. Would the member who publicly stated that the Commission was stopped from making rules for a caretaker government please lead the way. Have you got anything to lose by resigning?

Your chairman and his deputy never stop claiming that the EC is truly and honestly an independent body. If so, why did the Commission even have to inform the government of its intention to make rules for a caretaker government? Can you honestly continue serving the Commission which loudly claims to be independent but which is NOT independent of government control as you have publicly acknowledged? Your integrity is at stake.

Times have changed. Dr M’s philosophy of governance that if you tell a lie and repeat it often enough people will believe it is the truth, no longer works.

Malay-ness this, Malay-ness that - Dina Zaman

When asked the following questions in a closed group on Facebook, “In a 1921 census, the Malays were a minority in their own country because of the British open door migration policy, which served their economic interest. (Hussin Mutalib, Islam and Ethnicity in Malay Politics). Zainah Anwar in a Star 2010 op-ed piece said, political power will always remain in Malay hands. Is this relevant still post-GE13?” the responses were mixed, though a majority disagreed with the sentiment in the question(s).

A number expressed that such sentiments were legitimate during that era, but today, this fear that the Malay race would be extinguished economically, psychologically and physically is irrelevant.

Gregore Lopez, academic, political analyst, activist and visiting fellow at The Australian National University, found the whole idea “… a little rich”, and many debunked the notion.

Yet communal politics is alive and well here. Every year, every month leading up to a by-election, general election, Malaysians are subjected to rumours and hatred is fuelled. Malay supremacy is at stake. The non-Malay bogeymen are out to sap the country dry. Is the 1921 census coming true?

Ahmad Fuad Rahmat, academic and Director of Project Dialog (a non-profit organisation dedicated to inter-faith dialogue) wrote in The New Mandala, a website, on the pathologies of Malay nationalism. Rahmat argued that the nationalist agenda of the country is at odds with the realities of Malaysian life.

“The problem begins with the nation-state ideal; for its coherence depends on there being a people deemed as the rightful owners of a land. It is rooted to the belief that territory is property — a thing to own — and that loyalty to the people means, among other things, the readiness to uphold the integrity of territory to ensure it belongs to the nation,” Rahmat wrote.

Islam, Rahmat as well as other political observers have noted, has repeatedly become a legal tool of uniting the Malays, and as well as control. For Muslims, Islam is already a way of life but for Malay Muslims, Islam has become an identity crutch. In another essay, we will discuss what Islamisation is about. But we must think: is the Islam practised in governance today holistic and healthy?

Gaik Cheng Khoo from the University of Nottingham Malaysia, is of the same opinion as Rahmat. “Constitutional patriotism is in fact growing, partly as a response to the concatenation of Islamisation and the discourse of Malay ethnic hegemony (ketuanan Melayu) which perpetuates identity boundaries between Malays and non-Malays and between Muslims and non-Muslims.” (2013 Constitutional Patriotism in Malaysian Civil Society)

For non-Muslim Malaysians, and non-Malay Muslim Malaysians, this divide is creating a chasm in their relations with their Malay counterparts. Khoo’s paper is a shrewd and objective analysis of Malaysians’ shared identities.

What is apparent is that the recent general elections was really not about racial votes, but rather about the discontentment of the middle class. “Today the BN is discredited, particularly among the urban-based educated middle classes and those who have not benefited from its policies, for its abuse of power and its corruption — especially its sponsorship of corrupt networks of patronage and its engagement in money politics.”

This sentiment is echoed by a sizeable number of even BN stalwarts who are of a different generation. Their patriotism cannot be denied, but they too want change from old politics. The current style of leadership is not in keeping with this social media savvy, articulate generation.

The latter is part of a global phenomenon, an effect from the failure of governments to meet the rising expectations of the newly prosperous and educated (‘The Middle Class Revolution’, Francis Fukuyama , The Wall Street Journal, June 29, 2013.)

The middle class, whatever race, creed they are, will be the most powerful impact on politics. The numbers are burgeoning, and this is not a silent group. They are critical, articulate and financially savvy: they will support only the causes they feel passionately about.

Fukuyama quoted a 2012 report by the European Union Institute for Security Studies which predicted that the number of people in that category would grow from 1.8 billion in 2009 to 3.2 billion in 2020 and 4.9 billion in 2030 (out of a projected global population of 8.3 billion).

“The bulk of this growth will occur in Asia, particularly China and India. But every region of the world will participate in the trend, including Africa, which the African Development Bank estimates already has a middle class of more than 300 million people.”

“(The) middle-class status is better defined by education, occupation and the ownership of assets, which are far more consequential in predicting political behaviour. Any number of cross-national studies, including recent Pew surveys and data from the World Values Survey at the University of Michigan, show that higher education levels correlate with people’s assigning a higher value to democracy, individual freedom and tolerance for alternative lifestyles. Middle-class people want not just security for their families but choices and opportunities for themselves.”

Still, the issue of the Malay standing in our country’s politics is widely debated. For professionals like JVC (names have been changed to protect their identities) the question of whether Malays will impact the country’s governance is relevant. JVC is in his thirties, loves travelling and is widely read. He is proud to be Malay.

“My being biased is simply because throughout history, the Malays have always been a wonderful host. And this has always been taken advantage of. Our ‘guests’ over the years have become our compatriots, of which in itself a difficult issue to explain. I have no qualms about migration as I think this a basic human right. But being a traveller myself, I will always have that special respect for my host and the country I am in.”

The thing was, he observed, that it seemed that “Our ‘guests’ are unhappy with almost everything with the Malays. From administration to daily living.” He accepted the very fact that Malays were to blame for some of the quandary, but this did not mean that the Malays would have to forego their “rights.” And this is made complicated knowing that once we were a minority.

“Political hegemony is needed anywhere, much less by the majority. But more often than not, when you have the majority scraping for power, the nation would naturally be in turmoil. And to make it even more difficult, racial polarisation and the mixture that we have now in Malaysia. But to say that political power will always be in Malay hands is a bit childish. This country has gone through a period where non-Malays are controlling the economy and continued to doing so. “

The gist of the issue is trust. A country with mistrust among her citizens will never be short of issues, he concluded.

“Malay-ness” crops up every so often in discussions, and many times, shows the divide between class and education. “The Malays of Yore” that the writer Kam Raslan depicts in his stories are liberal, accepting of others, humorous and remind contemporary Malaysians of a past they would have only read or heard about, a past of a Perfect Malaysia.

And yet on the other hand, there are also many men and women of the same generation who share a deep mistrust of non-Malays. They are not lesser educated, but their political beliefs veer to the right. These prejudices are still apparent among younger, educated Malaysians, whose views have more than raised eyebrows during heated debates on Malaysian politics. This will be discussed later.

Respect begets respect.

Khutbah Jumaat hari ini power. Isu semasa.Nama ‪#‎Alvivi‬ naik. "Tindakan ke atas pasangan Tiong Hua ini perlu diambil tetapi kita juga perlu ambil tindakan ke atas orang Islam yang menghina agama lain. Orang yang suruh bakar Bible. Orang yang hina tuhan agama Hindu, kata tuhan mereka tidak ada kuasa. Ayat Quran 6:108 "Dan janganlah kamu cerca benda-benda yang mereka sembah yang lain dari Allah, kerana mereka kelak, akan mencerca Allah secara melampaui batas dengan ketiadaan pengetahuan." Apabila kita menghina agama mereka, kita buka pintu kepada penganut agama lain untuk menghina agama Islam. Kalau kita tidak menghukum orang Islam yang menghina agama lain, kita sudah jatuh kepada orang yang memperjuangkan asabiah. Apa dia asabiah? Maka jawab Nabi (saw), “Yaitu kamu membela golonganmu pada kezaliman (perbuatan dosa). Orang yang memperjuangkan asabiah ini, Nabi (saw) tidak mengaku umat.

Titillating TITAS

By Tunku Abidin Muhriz | JULY 19, 2013

It’s not just me: students who I meet at innumerable forums tell me that their history textbooks (and the inane methods of learning) are more likely to induce catatonia than an appreciation of our past; retired soldiers who I meet at war memorials and regimental dinners forlornly remark that important battles of a generation ago are completely forgotten; and retired bureaucrats, senior judges and politicians of the “old school” I have the pleasure to know are resigned to the fact that their heroes — King Ghaz, Tun Suffian, Dr Mohamed Said — will never be household names again.

As for those names which every Malaysian does know, it can be argued that they are simply put on pedestals without sufficient appreciation of their life stories. Ironically, there are many excellent biographies, autobiographies and collections of the writings of our early patriots (the books of Tunku Abdul Rahman could constitute a whole course!), but they don’t seem to be used as teaching materials.

It is only in particular places that a strong institutional memory survives: our fiercely proud historic schools, or families and clans organised enough to hold events to connect young members with their old.

I’ve observed the traditions of a Cantonese kongsi and witnessed a reunion of Jaffna Tamils apart from joining hundreds of my own blood relatives, and a curiosity about ancestors triggers the viewing of the same periods of history through different but equally fascinating viewpoints.

So when I read that Islamic Civilisation and Asian Civilisation Studies (TITAS) is to be made compulsory at private universities, I had mixed feelings. Of course, it is important for people everywhere to have an understanding of these profoundly important civilisations, but it is not as simple as that.

First, we have to consider the course content. I spoke to some students and had a look at some of the materials: lots of dates and names and some introductions into the theories of major thinkers — but there could be more.

There were no case studies drawn from the enormous time period and geographical space available that would engender critical thinking — there could easily be an introduction to the story of Muslim philosophy from Ibn Sina to Al-Ghazali to Ibn Rushd, for example.

On a happier note though, I saw nothing that promoted a political party or any assertion that one civilisation was superior to another.

Of course, this is a vast subject area and major omissions are inevitable, which begs the question as to why this is all being crammed into a single course. A more holistic approach would be to spread the material throughout and earlier in the student experience.

Indeed, asking university students who are intent on specialising in particular fields to do an additional, unrelated course may be academically detrimental to their core subject. Except they would not be asked, they would be forced — which leads to the point on academic autonomy. Regardless of the merits of the course, it should surely be up to universities and their students to determine the make-up of their degrees.

Finally there are the cost and logistical implications of universities having to allocate hitherto unbudgeted time, space and teachers for this imposition.

This point about autonomy came up quite frequently at the inaugural meeting last week of the University of Malaya Research Advisory Council, of which, I agreed to be a member alongside academics, sector specialists from government agencies and corporate figures.

The council is a commendable initiative of the Deputy Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation, who explained that the Vice Chancellor is very keen for UM to (once again) become one of the world’s top 100 universities.

Strengthening research capacity is central to this, and so the discussion centred upon how to link the university’s research to the demands of industry.

The theory is that this will make UM’s research more relevant and responsive to the nation’s economic interests.

Sitting next to Professor Terence Gomez, I interjected, saying that while I had nothing against applied research, the university should prioritise pure research and seek academic freedom for itself and its competitor universities, without which all talk of strengthening research capacity is hollow.

That might attract some of our best historians and social scientists, currently based in the UK, Europe, the USA and Singapore to return and set off a beautiful chain reaction in the rest of our academic environment.

__
Tunku ‘Abidin Muhriz is founding president of the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas).

Conversion law easily exploited in custody cases, warns Muslim women group - See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/conversion-law-easily-exploited-in-custody-cases-warns-muslim-women-group.

The proposed law on unilateral conversions of children to Islam can be exploited to secure child custody in divorce cases, a Muslim women’s group said today.

Sisters in Islam (SIS) programme manager Suri Kempe also said that parents should not convert their children to Islam on their behalf, stressing that religious conversions should be initiated by children on their own free will when they understand the significance of such conversions.

“It creates a loophole that people can exploit,” Suri told The Malay Mail Online today, referring to the Administration of Islam (Federal Territories) Bill 2013 which permits unilateral conversion for children below 18 years.

“Why are we encouraging people to convert in silence? Sometimes parents do it out of spite because they want to get custody. It’s inherently unfair and unjust,” she added.

Suri highlighted the case of R. Subashini, where the Federal Court ruled in 2007 that her husband – who had embraced Islam – had the right to convert their children to his faith without her consent, leading to the Hindu mother’s fears of losing child custody.

Non-Muslim groups, the Malaysian Bar and politicians on both sides of the divide have denounced the Bill – which allows children below 18 years to be converted to Islam with the consent of just one parent – as unconstitutional.

Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz also voiced his opposition towards the Bill today, maintaining his stand back in 2009 when he was a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department that both parents must consent before a child can convert to Islam.

The former de facto law minister pointed out today that unilateral conversions of minors to Islam violated the Federal Constitution.

Four years ago, Nazri said the government would ban the unilateral conversion of those aged below 18 to Islam. But Section 107(b) of the Bill was introduced in Parliament last Wednesday.

Suri also noted today that conversions to Islam are especially significant as it is “very hard” for a Muslim to leave the faith in Malaysia.

“In theory, the constitution provides for it,” said Suri. “But in reality, it’s very hard.”

Selangor PAS commissioner Dr Abd Rani Osman said yesterday that the conversion of children to Islam should require the consent of both parents as religious conversions are a “big issue”.

Custodial tussles in cases of unilateral child conversions have been a growing concern over the years and provide a high-profile glimpse of the concerns of Malaysia’s religious minorities over the perceived dominance of Islam in the country.

It also highlights the complications of Malaysia’s dual legal systems where Muslims are bound by both civil and syariah laws, the latter of which does not apply to or recognise non-Muslims.

The latest case is that of a Hindu mother in Negri Sembilan, who discovered in April that her estranged husband had converted their two underage children to Islam after he had done so a year earlier without her knowledge.

- See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/conversion-law-easily-exploited-in-custody-cases-warns-muslim-women-group#sthash.aKEyvugf.nAX9XgjJ.dpuf