Category: Politics

You heard me

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Politics

Mahadhir is Harapan’s Prime Minister

Less than 8 hours ago, the opposition coalition here in Malaysia just announced that Tun M is their candidate for their prime minister. And that my friend, is the very reason why BN is still in power, and probably will continue so. Its not about Tun M becoming the candidate, no, its the very fact that the opposition for some weird reason came to that conclusion.

Tun M, their old arch enemy is apparently their president. The prime minister who exceeded his maximum term during his time, is now apparently should get another term? At the age of 93.. something? I’m not saying that he can’t do it, I’m saying that the opposition is very, very disappointing for even considering it.

I have no doubt that Tun M have huge influence and follower. I have no doubt that he is capable of doing so too. He leaving BN is a huge blow to BN. Arguably, he is the single most influential political figure in Malaysia right now. My mother cried when Tun M resigned, which he did live on television, probably so that he can’t back out, and its too late for people to object. Yes, people asked him to take back his resignation, on the spot, live. This is with him having roughly 20 year of being a Prime Minister, which is twice of what is allowed. I kid you not, this is the kind of person Tun M is. That is why Tun M is a huge deal. But as a Prime Minister, again? No. Its not right. Its not proper. The new PM for the new term should be a new guy. Its not about what he can do, its about what the opposition can’t do. Don’t they have anyone, anyone at all to be the candidate? Can you entrust the future of the country to such people, who seems to only and ONLY want to win the election, above all else?

And when you think about it, not much. The opposition does not have a candidate that truly stands out. I disliked PAS for breaking their pact with PKR and DAP. But I’m glad they did. Because if they do, they will have to deal with this kind of political BU!!$#!T.

That said, not everyone, probably not most people, will share my opinion. Having Tun M as a candidate will gain support from the rural area, which traditionally is BN’s stronghold, not to mention, he IS BN’s kryptonite. These people are generally of the elderly category which will probably see this as a positive thing. The younger generations however may share my opinion, but may also condone such ridiculousness in exchange for BN’s dismissal. It make some sense.

BN for all its corruption, at least have some professionalism or rather… authenticity.. or rather… I can’t find the term to describe them. They are bad, but at least they are properly clever. They are the ‘stable’ choice. The status quo. That said, I’m trying my best to find someone else to vote against them. And my option is shrinking. Lets just hope PAS will not do anything stupid before the election.

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Article Politics

Review of IIUM

Assalamualaikum everyone,

It has been about 3 month since I left IIUM (International Islamic University Malaysia). Technically, I’m still a student because I have not graduated yet, but my time in IIUM is practically over. So I figure I want to make a review of IIUM as a follow up to a popular article in this blog which is The Past, Present and Future of IIUM .

I’ve tried to make this article a few time actually, starting before Ramadhan. But, I never got to finish it. I went so much into details, I can’t properly put into words what I thought about IIUM. But the more I delay this article, the more the memories become blurry.

To make this article simple, I won’t describe much about IIUM. I’ve describe it quite well on a draft before which I probably would publish on another article. This one is a summary of an introverted KICT (Kuliyyah of Information and Communication Technology) student towards IIUM. I won’t be discussing much on KICT as it deserve its own post. Additionally, it is mostly a criticism rather than a more positive outlook, which I’ve described quite well on the draft.

Feels of IIUM

In summary, the feels of IIUM is quite ‘garden-like’ and very safe. However, I think the safe part is not a very good thing because the world is not safe. Of course, there would still be theft or other crimes in IIUM, but you get the feeling that almost all people here is nice. The ‘safeness’ can be shown by the fact that IIUM provides residential place for all 4 years of study. Even through internship, you can request a room. This is in contrast to other university which sometimes do not provide a hostel for the older student. Because of this, I feel like there is a significant ‘gap’ between before IIUM and after IIUM. I feel like this is not very good towards the growth of the student.

Not only that, but the environment here is quite comfortable for a devoted Muslim. Too comfortable if you ask me. You can find musolla almost everywhere and the time of the course matches prayer time. Additionally, being pious here is not a very strange or contrasting characteristic. In some way, it is the norm. Because of this, it is quite easy to be a devoted Muslim here. However, the outside world is not so forgiving. Of course, that really depends on the place where you work, but if you are unlucky, finding time and place to pray can be a problem. Heck, I could see a situation where even praying five time a day can be seen as bordering extremism. If you have a daughter that you want to keep safe, I could see the point of sending her to IIUM. But if you want her to be independent and can handle the world and all it throws at her, she will need to work more.

It is quite strange that the criticism that I have towards IIUM is that ‘it is too comfortable for a devoted Muslim’. I sound like a ridiculous person. What are the other options? Reduce the number of surau? Make a course during prayer time? Of course not! IIUM did a great job of making it a comfortable university. From the perspective of the university, in this regard IIUM did a great job. But you have to keep in mind that the world can be a dangerous place and I don’t think IIUM did much to prepare the students for it. Of course, you could just find a job in a Muslim company. But in that sense, just being an employee seems to be the limit of an IIUM graduate.

Islamization – Synergy or Compromise

By the looks of it, IIUM aims to integrate Islam with worldly knowledge. I’m sure most, if not all of IIUM student would understand what this means. Basically, we have additional Islamic subjects. All of the student is required to take some Arabic class. And in our non-Islamic subject, additional mark is given if we could relate what we learn with Islam. By the looks of it, ‘general good’ is not considered Islamic enough.

The idea is that, by such integration, the university could create people who can contribute to the Ummah. People who have high education and at the same time, a devout Muslim. But for me, it seems like a compromise. The student are not really an Islamic scholar, and at the same time, the education is not particularly excellent. And sometimes, the course desperately try to integrate Islam up to a point where we have to wonder does this ‘adjustment’ violates Islam itself. Student who took the course IT and Islam would know what I mean. We could see how this forced integration work with the library opening hours. While other university open the library 24 hours a day, IIUM struggles to keep the library open throughout office hours as it will be closed during prayer time.

Of course, to some point, I’m exaggerating. IIUM student are more Islamic than other university student, and the education is kinda up to standard, up to some point. But it does not look like it is going any further. It looks like it struggle to strive for higher standard. For example, I have to take Arabic class, but it is so basic that I can’t speak Arabic. And most student can’t too. With that, I wonder should I even bother taking the Arabic class? Of course, there are one or two student who could fulfill this high standard, but one or two outlier does not represent IIUM as a whole. Of course, it is somewhat unrealistically high expectation to expect most of the student the be such angelic scholars, but right now, I can’t say that we are either angelic nor innovator.

Administration and Finance

The administration of IIUM have a bad reputation among IIUM students. I guess it is mainly for political reason. In case you did not know, IIUM is largely funded by the Malaysian government. It probably used to be different. In short, don’t say bad things to the government, or the administration would figure-out a way to filter out the ‘negative elements’. But in some way, it is due to the ‘alleged’ corruption. Or that is actually mainly because of its inefficiency. Or perhaps, all of it.

Among the most recent questionable decision is the 5 million ringgit fountain. Which is said to be a donation by the President of IIUM. The students are not very supportive of the change of the fountain because there are other things that should be replaced. For example, the notorious chairs of CAC hall. Or they could fund the covered walkway project that cost about 0.653 million ringgit, which is proposed by the SRC(Student Representative Council), which right now, is asking for donations from the student. Or they could replaced faulty air-conditionings throughout the university. Or, they could divide it by 5 and roughly double the budget given to SRC for 10 years. Or, they could divide it by 5 and distribute it to all kuliyyah’s student society which would (significantly?) increase their budget for 10 years. Or, all of them.. except the fountain.

There are other horror stories of course, but I’m not sure about those. The administration have such bad reputation that there are ‘advice’ among the student society saying that if you manage to get sponsorship from external party, do not pass the money to the financial department (that is the official way if I’m not mistaken) because you may never see the money again.

The name

There are some upsides in IIUM. The name of the university attract certain types of people who are passionate in their cause. I know one of the lecturer in KICT used to work in NSU in Singapore, but choose to work here because of Islam. There are other lecturers too that you can see that they care about the future of Islam. And there are various other students and staff that came here for a similar reason. More often that not, these individual forms the backbone of whatever that is amazing here. However, you get the feel that the administration is holding them back through various bureaucratic issues. Throughout my studies I feel like these people in particular is what keeping IIUM alive. Of course, in any University, it is the people who make up what it is. But a University should act as an enabler that helps the students and staff. But for some reason, I see it as the other way around. Regardless of the ‘penalty’, the asset is here. The name continues to attract such individuals and among the limited reasons to choose IIUM over other Malaysian university, this should be on the top list. But then again.. there is also USIM…

Summary

In some way, I think half of the criticism I have for IIUM (aside from the administration) is simply because it is just different. There are sayings in Islam that “They (the non-muslim) will never be pleased with you until you follow their way” (It is probably from the Quran, but I don’t remember exactly where and the translation is probably wrong). I guess this is probably the biggest argument towards my criticism. “Ignore the non-muslim and just follow our way”. But for some reason, people don’t think about inviting the non-muslim to follow our way. We are always looking for new enemies instead of new friends. This is especially critical in our times because working with non-muslim is inevitable. Instead of finding new ways to differentiate us from them, we should let them in to our worlds and see from our perspective. I believe that is the direction that IIUM should go. But then again, I could be wrong.

Another thing I want to point out is to not be afraid of something which is not Islamic. I’m not talking about things which are clearly haraam such as alcohol, I’m talking about things like Computers. Like I said before, sometimes the university desperately wants to integrate Islam with something that simply cannot be directly connected. It is as if, if you can’t Islamicize it, it is haraam. This is again, in a similar theme that we seems to look for things to be branded as illegal, as our enemy. If they are not us, they are our enemy. Personally, I think this is among the things that is holding IIUM back. We are too restricted, too terrified by such mindset.

For me, right now, IIUM is not the great education center that Muslim is looking for. It is simply playing catch up to other universities. Although I have to give it some credits for making an appealing environment for Muslim… to catch up.

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Article Politics

Paris Attack, november 2015

Assalamualaikum everyone. How are you.

Just now, my Facebook friends shared news about what happen in Paris. Another attack happened.

Ah great (sarcastically)… Another attack…

That is among my first sigh. Of course, I googled to make sure that the news is true. Unfortunately it is. Here comes the headache. Some may not realize this, but every time such attack happen, Muslim will be a victim. Hundreds of non-muslim died in Paris. But because of this, when thousands of Muslim dies, deep inside non-muslim will say “serve them right”.

Its not their fault of course. After all, people did die. I would agree that the media do tend to downplay non-terrorist attack, and emphasize on terrorist attack, but the reality is, such attack did happen. Focusing on the media won’t change it. In a few days, there will be anti-Islam rallies all over the world. And I’m going to receive some post in Facebook saying “Such-such country is so anti-islam as they are hosting anti-islam rally”. I don’t think these people understand the issue.

When a terrorist attack, anti-islam sentiment will increase.

Of course it will. What do you expect? Are you going to blame the families of the dead for participating or organizing the rally?

In several days, there will be posts about “Muslim are not terrorist”. I personally believe such thing is merely a ‘damage control’. Several month later, a suicide bomber screaming “AllahuAkbar” will detonate himself, killing more non-muslim. And then what are you going to say? Serve them right for having anti-islam rally? Or Muslim are not terrorist… again?

Various conspiracy theory will emerge, “It’s all hoax! Those terrorist are actually CIA Agent!”, “9/11 was an inner job”, “Its the US who instill extremism to these people!”. Who cares? It happened. As as far as majority of the people on the planet concern, terrorist did it, and terrorist as Muslim. “Terrorist are not Muslim. They are deviant”. Again, who cares? They scream “AllahuAkbar”. They claim they are Muslim.

For me, Muslim should stop focusing on non-muslim, and start focusing on the Terrorist. Non-muslim post an anti-islam post? Ignore it. It is not their fault. The environment make them like this. Instead, we should figure out how do these terrorist emerge? I’ve read somewhere that some ‘Mufti’ permitted ISIS fighter to have sex with their sister. Muslim would recognize this as a clear violation of Sharia law. I mean, clear as black and white. This is not something which is said by one of the Khalifa Arrashidin (like lashing those who drink alcohol). This is something clearly specified in Al-Quran. Why do these people claim the serve Allah when they clearly violate the rules of Allah. Do they even know? That is one. Why do people says that those who migrated to ISIS were former criminals? Drug dealers and such. If so, why do ISIS even take them? Do they even pray five times a day? Are these information even correct? Does it even matter if it is correct or not?

Personally I can only see one solution for this problem.

A country whose sovereignty is not doubt, and whose Islam is not doubt, to eliminate terrorist.

No other situation will fully work. If the sovereignty of the country is in doubt, then the country itself could be labelled as terrorist. If the Islam of the country is in doubt, then a new terrorist group will form, saying that ‘Islam’ is being attacked. If other, non-muslim country attack, then more terrorist will emerge. So which country fulfill this condition? I don’t know. None perhaps. Impossible perhaps. For a country to be considered fully sovereign, the world may demand that it adopt democracy. But if it is a democracy, then most hard-line Muslim would doubt it’s Islam.

Most hard-line Muslim would say, a truly Muslim country must be a caliphate. Well, ISIS is caliphate. Is it a Muslim country? Hisbut Tahrir, an organization who advocate caliphate rule said no, because they do not follow the sharia law. Is that so? Not according to ISIS. But it does have a leader with the title ‘caliph’. What they should be looking for is not caliphate, but sharia law. But what is considered sharia law? I guess, I’m not the guy to define that. But consider this, if you say that scholars are the one who define what is sharia law, ISIS have their own ‘scholar’. Regardless, what matter is that people do not doubt that the law is indeed sharia law.

People would argue, its impossible to have sharia law without a caliphate, let alone in a democracy. But I don’t see why not. If the country parliament voted to cut the hands of thief, would the thief’s hand suddenly be immune to cutting? No, the hand would still be cut. But again, people would argue, that it is impossible that the majority of the parliament would vote for it. My answer is that, that is not the kind of country we are looking for. We want a country in which, not a king nor a caliph, but the people themselves fully, enact sharia law upon themselves. That is the country whose sovereign is not doubt, and Islam is not doubt.

And that, brothers and sisters is what we are looking for.

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Politics

Post PRU 13

Assalamualaikum semua, apa khabar?

So, yeah PRU13 just happen several days ago and PR lose. At first, I though that I would be surprise if PR lose this time, but then I got home. When I got home, I watch the television. The news was full of pro-BN stuff as always. But then after that, there is “Mandat PRU13”. A program that talk about PRU13 in a pro-BN way. When I ask my family when do this program aired, they said, every day on every channel starting after the naming date. Which for me is simply too ridiculous. Even before in 2008, we could see PR’s advertisement once in a while. But this? This is just too much. Among other things that I see when I travel from IIUM to my home in Meru is that, the flags. There are much more BN flag. And you can see that the banner were actually just the same from Gombak to Meru. I do however meet some PR campaign team. They are quite harsh in my opinion. On my way to Klang using the komuter train, I could see another campaign team, this one from DAP. They are shouting and blowing horn, etc-etc.

Okay, the election date. Right before election date, mandat PRU13 aired, showing the SPR’s commision and chief of police briefing. They say, do not do demonstration on the election day, etc-etc. Which for me is quite useless. People will still do demonstration regardless win or lose. He should emphasize on demonstrating peacefully. Another thing that spread among the social network is the the incident of bloody flashmob. That really snap my mind. Some group of PAS member (around 50) were having flashmob somewhere in Ipoh. Then a group of 300 BN bikers who are marching meet them. Basically the PAS’s flashmob is in an intersection of some road. So coincidentally BN bikers went through that route. 3 PAS member were badly wounded and was sent to the hospital. A video quickly spread through Facebook showing some BN member hitting PAS member with helmet and stick. Later on, another video aired, showing that initially PAS member were the one who provoke them. Even so, I do not think that they should exceed the limit until PAS member were injured that bad. I though the impolite one where BN and the extreme one is PAS. But it seems the reality is the other way around. Another thing that can be said is the media coverage on that activity. This one was spread through facebook. Utusan Malaysia, a very pro-BN newspaper said that a BN convoy of 300 rider where attacked by PAS member. They did not even talk about the 3 people who was badly injured. Sinar Harian, a relatively neutral newspaper said the other way around. Here is among the image that was spreaded through facebook.

flash mob utusan dan fb

In my opinion, both are to be blamed. PAS should be more polite. Their leader should told their member to back of. Thing like this are bound to happen. BN member on the other hand, should not exceed on their action. What’s with the stick and helmet? Not to mention that you already over number them. No need for such drastic measure.

Anyway, I am not old enough to vote. But there are many things that can still be said. Among those are the indelible ink issue. Which sadly is not indelible. This has already been reported before the election, on early vote. And yet no action was taken? Even more sad, everyone who vote knows this. I ask my mother if the ink is indelible. He show me her finger (the one with the ink) and the ink was almost completely gone. This is at afternoon. She may have washed his finger when she eat or something. The indelible issue matter because there has been proven that some individual actually have several identification card. Several week before the election, some picture has been spread showing the voting registration of some individual with the same name, same address, same date of birth, same parent name that has different IC and vote in different areas. At first, I did not buy it just like that. But for confirmation, my friend check the IC at SPR’s own website and confirm that there are such registration. So some people can vote several time if the ink can be wash away just like that. This is a proven act of inconsistency and potential fraud. It is a nationwide lie when the PM say that they already implement the ink based on what PR/Bersih suggested.

Another major fraud that allegedly happened is the foreign worker issue. I frankly did not see this. But there has been a report of many Bangladeshi were given an IC so that they could vote. Now you may say that they might even vote for PR, but some of them were given another paper showing the number for the person to vote for. I have seen a video of a bus carrying foreign worker. Ironically, when one of them saw the angry people, he show them the paper and IC. Unfortunately I cannot find the video in youtube. The video was widespread in facebook. The place seems to be a Chinese majority place. They were quite violent. Which I guess is among the reason why Chinese win so much this time, they do not tolerate suspicious character.

By the way, the result of PRU13 this time bring a whole new issue in Malaysia political stability. Racial issue. Basically PR won extra 7 parliament seat this time, but DAP gain 10 seat. This means that PAS and PKR drop 3 seat. This also means that almost no Chinese vote for BN. Another interesting statistic is that PR won popular vote. I’m not sure exactly what that means, but that means more people vote for PR than BN. But BN won more seat, 133 to be exact, vs PR’s 88 seat. This also means that the reason PR lose is because they are losing support from Malay. Or because of the mainstream media monopoly. And frankly PR does a lot of stupid stuff recently. Their manifesto is quite stupid in my opinion. Anwar Ibrahim is among characters who say without much thinking. On the election day, he said “PR has won, please SPR do not change the result”. There has also been many other strange thing that we heard Nik Aziz said for example yusof alqadrawi support Anwar Ibrahim, and BN’s supporter prayer will not be accepted. Of course the latter sounds too suspicious not to mention it was the mainstream media who said that he said that.

Three days after the election Anwar Ibrahim call for a demonstration. He said that everyone should wear black shirt in response the blackout incident. Which is ironic because the blackout incident never happened. I have not seen anyone who say that there is a blackout incident. Even more ironic, people in facebook change their profile picture to just black in retaliation for that. And believe me, there is a lot of them.

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Anyway, racial tension. Basically after the PRU, the media has been playing with this issue for a lot of time. Its as if they are trying to chase Chinese away even further. But actually they are trying to gain the Malay support from this. And It is working. Some even say that PAS and UMNO should combine so that Malay will be back strong again. I though it was BN who said that PAS has lost its Aqidah. If PAS really did lost their ideology, then it is practical that the combine with UMNO. That would make the two of them. In fact there has been many new post in facebook about hatred towards the Chinese. Some even say that we should kill them, up to that extreme. And again, I thought PR was extreme. Because of the demonstration, some even say that they should re implement ISA. It’s as if they did not see the main media situation. The Star was originally a pro DAP newspaper, but then Ops Lalang happen. Why The Star is now a pro BN newspaper? Because of ISA in the time of Mahathir. The government replace the leader of The Star and threaten the rest with ISA. With ISA, BN can corrupt without anyone questioning them. An interesting point of view is that, by many Chinese supporting DAP, this means that they are not afraid with PAS. Nullifying the BN campaign of a vote for DAP is a vote for PAS. By BN keep talking about racial issue, this also prove that BN is even more racist than PAS. So in someway, this backfire. What are these guys thinking? Their money?

Although many would agree that the main cause of PKR and PAS loss in this election is main media. I would say that it is their own fault. PAS namely has the Syiah issue. Or at least they respond it horribly. PKR and PAS has many conflicting seat. Anwar like to say stupid stuff and so do Nik Aziz. It does not matter whether it is the truth or not, the fact that they will say it in a way that will make people despise them is not really a good decision. But I would say that their biggest problem is their manifesto, which is just ridiculous. Even if they can do it, don’t say it in the manifesto, put a more realistic target. “We will lower the oil price the next day after we win”. That is just ridiculous. And then there is an issue where Anwar fail to swear that he did not do his crime. Why won’t you just swear? It does not matter ethical or not, if you did not swear it, people will think that you really did sodomize people. Another thing that can be criticized is that they focus too much on the urban area, which probably explain why they won the popular vote, and strengthen their position at Selangor while at the same time losing Kedah.

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Politics

Status Update 2 May

Assalamualaikum everyone! How are you.

So, yea I’m board and thinking about status update. What to tell other than about the coming election… I did not update any of my project. The parser project is progressing well… bla… bla…

Allright, election. This year election is the most intense election Malaysia had ever been. That is because the Opposition is really strong this time, and in my point of view, I would be surprised of the government did not change this time. Of course, in this coming election there is a lot of political talks and news. Most of them pretty much is negative about the other party. Now, I’m going to assume that you guys are not from Malaysia, allthough most likely there arent any “you guys” accept for a few which I just knew one… a very scary stalker-like-different-gender one. So anyway, lets meet out contestant.

On the defensive side, we have Barisan National (BN). This is the current ruling party back from Malaysia’s independence. Allegedly corrupt, had been known by everyone who actually looked outside of the television to highly abuse their power on every mainstream media, except for a few like en.harakahdaily.my . The link to harakah daily may be unavailable as they may be under DDOS attack by ‘unknown’ forces. I have confirmed that the website is down yesterday, or yesterday’s yesterday. Anyway, basically if you watch news on television, I can assure you, most of it is their propaganda. They are the ruling party so basically they kinda ‘own’ the country. Even here in IIUM, there have been some report on vehicle with opposition flag is not allowed to enter but there are vehicle with BN’s flag parking in front of the rectory. Another thing in IIUM is, the pro Opposition club, ‘WUFI’ (tell me if I’m wrong) is officially unofficial, and banned. While there is a pro BN club, ‘Aspirasi’. I could say more, but that would just be unfair. BN has a lot of history in Malaysia. They are the party that ask for independence from British. And one of the prime minister is Mahathir Mohamad (yes, he is in the party and still is). There are three main organization in BN, UMNO (united malay national organization), MCA (Malaysian Chinese Agency (I’m not sure about the ‘A’ letter) ) and also MIC (Malaysian Indian Congress) . So yea, they are basically racial based. BN is lead by UMNO which is lead by Najib bin Tun Razak, the current prime minister and the son of the second prime minister.

On the opposition side, we have Pakatan Rakyat (PR). Pakatan Rakyat gain strong momentum when Anwar Ibrahim, a very controversial icon had been allowed to enter politics again. Anwar Ibrahim is the leader of  PR. PR main media is social network and organizing talks. PR is composed of three main organization Democratic Alliance Party (DAP), Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and also Parti Islam Semalaya (PAS). Allthough their name does not show any racial bias, in practice DAP is a non-malay majority party and PKR and PAS are malay majority party. So yea, malay has been split into two. PAS is basically the main Islamic party and PKR is the less islamic Malay party. PR in short is very controversial.  UMNO we already know to be corrupt and abuse their power. The question is, what about PR. Lets have a look one by one.

DAP is a chinese majority party. They are the one who is involved in the 1969 racial riot in Malaysia in which about 168 reported killed, foreign media say the number reach 2000. So you can say the current perception is that DAP does not like Malay, especially PAS. PAS aims to implement hudud (Islamic Sharia Law) in Malaysia, but DAP does not like that. Karpal Singh (DAP leader) even once said “over my dead body”, although he does have history of having an uncensored mouth on various event. Anyway, DAP is actually the biggest party in PR. The malay have majority by combining PKR and PAS. DAP stronghold has been in Pulau Pinang. BN had always attack DAP by saying that DAP only focus on the chinese majority part of urban Pulau Pinang and neglecting Seberang Perai, the rural part. As a side note, Kedah which basically surround Pulau Pinang is currently own by PAS. BN also attack DAP by saying then when people vote for DAP, they vote for PAS which who want to implement hudud, at the same time BN say that a vote for PAS is a vote for DAP who is a christian saint.

PAS is Parti Islam Semalaya, basically the Islamic party in Malaysia. They aim to provide complete Islamic Sharia Law in Malaysia. Their stronghold is in Kelantan. PAS is the first party to ever defeat BN at state level in peninsular Malaysia. Their spiritual (as in the actual) leader is Nik Aziz, while the party’s president (as in the official leader) is Hadi Awang. PAS is another controversional party. The party basically break into two when Nik Aziz say it is OK for the christian to use the term ‘Allah’ in Malay version of the bible after been urged by DAP. PKR also allow it which basically means PR allow that. Ironically, UMNO had always been against it since the beginning. PAS has a lot of negative sentiment. Some of PAS members are member of Shia ( which is officially deviated in Malaysia) and Al-Arqam (another deviated teaching). PAS member tend to be… extreme. Or is that PKR? I’m not sure exactly. Kelantan is ‘officially’ the poorest state in Malaysia, with the ‘highest’ rate of HIV. Of course, these are reported by mainstream media which is controlled by you-know-who.

PKR on the other hand is formed by Anwar Ibrahim’s wife. Have I told you before that Anwar Ibrahim is a very controversial character? Back when I was a child, I remember that he is a big criminal. Probably because I watch TV. So, lets put this in perspective, Anwar Ibrahim was a member of UMNO. Yes he was. He used to be the Deputy Prime Minister. Yes he was. He worked under Mahathir Mohamed and was said to be the step son of Mahathir Mohamed. Yes, up to that extends. Then 1998 Mahathir sack him from his post, and he was arrested under allegation of sodomy and corruption. Yep, he was there. Of course, he said that he was framed, because he did not agree with Mahathir to use public fund to save Mahathir’s children business. Anyway, his wife formed PKR to gain support, he was release after six year because the sodomize case was dropped. Be he have to wait for several year before he can legally go back to politics. Anyway, now that he is back, things are getting really intense.

So my point of view, BN is corrupt. Everyone who did not watch TV news knows that. I remember back at IIUM’s orientation week, some minister came to officially give 1 Malaysia Book Voucher to us, but in reality he is just talking about how great the government is. And then at the end of the orientation week, there is another briefing supposedly about a program where every Malaysian graduate should enter, in which the briefer again, basically talk about how nice the government is, but the big thing is, he showed a video linking PR’s party with the riot on Arab Spring. He actually show PR’s party logo, which clearly show that he is preaching for political agenda. I don’t really care if they want to praise the government, but don’t think of us like stupid student. There are various things that the government gave right before the election, for example the voucher for smart phone (which just pathetically show that they are desperate) and BR1M in which they basically give money to those who are living on below average salary. There are also many other stuff that is questionable, for example the MRT’s budget and also Scorpion submarine price.

On the other hand, PR’s manifesto is… unrealistic. They want to give free high education, with student allowance while at the same time eliminate tolls tax, eliminate vehicle tax and increase subsidy  So how are they going to get the money to afford such stuff? Management? Better management without corruption? That is their only way of making things affordable. Which is not very assuring. I’m quite sure that when PR gain power, there will still be corruption from every party. The thing is, how much? And what are the parties action toward corruption. Then there again, there is the racial sentiment that had always been provoked by BN. Just look at their poster, I do not need to explain. Basically, there is PAS and there is DAP. About corruption, BN mostly say that DAP is corrupt, some abuse that property and that. PKR also abuse that and that, and also PAS has lost their ideologies by siding with DAP. Oh yeah, have I told you about DAP’s flag issue before? Its a great story, that can be viewed in may ways.

Basically two days before the naming day (very convenient right?), the Society Registrar said that they did not acknowledge DAP’s previous internal election, which elect their top leaders, because there have been many report of unsatisfactory in the election process. This is important because for a particular candidate to use the party’s flag, they need a signed letter from their top leader. If the Society Registrar did not acknowledge the internal election, basically the top leader’s is not authorized to give permission for the candidate to use the party’s flag, forcing DAP candidate to compete as independent candidate. So PKR and PAS said that they will be more than happy to sign the letter for DAP to use their flag. The amazing thing is the conclusion, if the issue cannot be resolved, DAP will use PAS flag in peninsular malaysia and PKR flag in sabah and sarawak. The thing is, why PAS flag? Not PKR? The less-islamic malay party? The PAS leaders, spiritual and official, basically said that they would be more than happy to sign the letters, there is no problem.

This basically nullify the perception that PAS hate DAP and vice versa. Or is it? I’m not sure myself. The thing that really surprise me is that PAS leader said that there would be no problem. Anyway, if we look it at PAS perspective, DAP voter will have to “cross” on PAS logo, which basically acknowledge PAS. In another sense, uninformed malay voter will vote for DAP although they thought that they are voting for PAS. In DAP point of view, this will raise their reputation significantly among Muslim. Or in other way around, Muslim will vote for them although they do not really like them. On the BN side, this is overall, a mess for them. Their biggest weapon is the separation between DAP and PAS, Christian and Muslim, Chinese and Malay. On another way, this also means that they can say that “If you vote for DAP you are voting for PAS, and allowing Shariah law in Malaysia”. Well, in a way they are choosing PAS logo. I would understand DAP’s decision for this. Chinese are not stupid and they need Malay support. And it seems that MCA is really weak compared to DAP. Chinese probably had already choose PR, probably due to racial separation in Malaysia in various way, notably in education. Anyway, the logo issue has been resolved. SPR(Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya-the election committee) said that there is no problem. Society Registrar will not affect the logo, so DAP will use their own logo. No conflict over here other than what just happened.

There are many other BN propaganda that shows how bad PR is. Some of those are so stupid that in a sense its as if trying to tell people to not vote BN. So, there is a sentiment that all those evil stuff that BN says are actually said by PR’s people. Which frankly is not really surprising. Given that PR supporter tend to be more extreme, because they only see the unjust that happen to them. There are may things in what PR’s people say that I do not agree. For example, they tend to say that for 50 years BN has been oppressing the people. I totally do not agree with this. BN is the party who ask for independence and every development so far is under them. Not to say that it cannot get better, but it really is better than neighboring country like Indonesia (Maybe) and Myanmar. So to say that they do everything wrong is not correct. Have I told you before that 40 year ago, Malay muslim girls go to school wearing skirt? Yes that is after independence where the system is still largely derived from British. Nowaday, girls wear baju kurang and Hijab. Also notice that 40 years ago, Malay own about 2.5%-6% of the economy. Due to various policy that BN made (the racial discrimination/separation policy) now malay have about 19% to 30% percent of the economy. Still low compared to Chinese, but much better than before. I do agree with PR’s policy that basically want to exterminate this racial separation and change it into wealth-teared approach, which basically means, the poor get more help instead of Malay get more help. If you think that PAS would say no to this, you would be wrong. Islam does not encourage racial sentiment. Its just that in Malaysia, generally Malay are Muslim. In fact, its not really far from the truth when I say that Chinese Muslim are idolized here. Basically every malay respect non-Malay muslim. Here non malay muslim is more common for Indian than for Chinese. That is why Indian muslim are not really respected as Chinese muslim. I myself have encounter many trouble differentiating between an Indian muslim and a Malay because they both look alike. So Indian muslim here are like… most Malay. That is not really surprising at all, as India hold the largest population of Muslim minority. Muslim in India are like Indian in Malaysia. So Indian tend to convert to Islam. By the way, Indian are officially a minority group here in Malaysia, although you can basically see them everywhere.

Anyway, BN did do something right. The problem of this… oppression probably started at the time of Mahathir Mohamed. Many people know him as a very prominent individual in the world probably because of the economic crisis where he play a crucial role. He is also among the most vocal person against Israel, and also had contributed quite a lot in Malaysia’s economy and also in Islamic world. In fact IIUM is suggested by him and funded by OIC. So basically the Malaysia’s most rapid economic growth was under his government. The Opposition said that Anwar Ibrahim was the Finance Minister at that time. Well, that is in some way true. On half of Mahathir’s rule (which is relatively long), Anwar Ibrahim was the finance minister. But the rapid growth start about 5 year before him, at Mahathir’s second term which at that time, Anwar was the education minister. In some way, Anwar did a good job as the economic performance during his time is consistently good. In fact, right the on the year Anwar was sacked, Malaysia’s GDP dropped for a while. Maybe Mahathir do something wrong or Anwar really did do some heavy corruption or simply because of global economic crisis. The thing is about Mahathir is, well , he is a tirant. Well, in some way he is. Not many people dare to fight him because at that time as there is ISA (Internal Security Act) which basically mean he could put anyone he deemed dangerous to jail without proper trial. ISA is no longer active now at the time of Najib. It has been replaced by two other act. Anyway, after Operasi Lalang in which basically there is a demonstration from the Chinese community regarding vernacular Chinese school, and in response, Mahathir used ISA to capture about 106 individual including both Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh who was and still very important DAP leader. If you think that only Chinese were arrested, you would be wrong. Even some UMNO member were arrested. PAS members too. Anwar Ibrahim (who is the education minister at that time) are among the demonstrator who is not arrested. So if you think that only Chinese were demonstrating, you would be wrong. Anyway, the operation also cause a prominent english newspaper, The Star to be closed for a few month. After that, the top leadership of The Star has been replaced by UMNO and you can see the result until now. From that on also, most of the mainstream media is under the government control. So the Chinese and anyone who oppose the government were silenced. So you can say that Mahathir is Malaysia’s Ghadafi. Both has their own strong supporter, but there are report that they both abuse their power to silence people and both say they they are against Israel in a very vocal way which in some way make us think that they only say that to gain support. In fact if I’m not mistaken, Mahathir was on Ghadafi’s side when Ghadafi was opposed.

Anyway, now that Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh is back, BN is in deep trouble. Even so, I would say that it is still possible that BN will win. They still have television. So basically most housewives are on BN side. Among the most used propaganda other than the one I said before is that Anwar Ibrahim’s sexual habit of sodomizing people. Notably Saiful Bukhari. Poor guy, true of false, people curse him and he is being used. After Anwar Ibrahim had been released out of the prison, he has another case of sodomy. This time with Saiful Bukhari. At the end, the court said that there is not enough evidence to say that Anwar Ibrahim is guilty. Anyway, several month after the court decision, he is back with his sumpah laknat. And now he show people a video that he swear in front of the kaabah. Of course, PR people will not believe that, but it does effect the public. The thing about Anwar ibrahim is, he has been accused of so many thing that people just don’t trust when the news said that he do this and that. This article demonstrate it quite nicely. There have been many sexual videos of Anwar Ibrahim coming out these day. And even recently a sex video of a PAS leader. My question is, why do they capture the video in the first place? My second question is, why is PKR member Saifuddin Nasution Ismail is the first person who said that the video exist by saying that he has been approached by an UMNO-BN agent who show him the video? So basically the opponent just come to your house and tell you what they will do soon? Very strange. I have to agree with some people who say that these videos benefit PR more than they benefit BN. In some way, it is likely that PR themselves make this video. Although the one who keeps on saying these stuff is the main media who is controlled by you-know-who.

So basically these are the situation in Malaysia. BN is corrupt, we all know that. The question is, is PR corrupt too? If so we are in deep trouble. The people basically has no choice but to choose PR. But if they do choose PR, what will happen? Their manifesto is somewhat unrealistic, they are fighting with each other, although I’m sure there is a lot more fighting in BN. And also the racial tension that is fueling BN right now. Lets face the fact, DAP will not win without the Malay support, PKR need PAS to be strong and need DAP to be win. PAS on the other hand will not likely to implement hudud anytime soon, given that DAP is there and PKR do not want to do so. The most worrying thing for me is PAS has some extreme candidate, notably of Syiah teaching. The son of Mahathir said that some PAS candidate in kedah is a Syiah. PAS said that what does it have to do with politics, which basically means that PAS do not denies it. I’m not so surprise to know this. PAS although they say that they are Islamic party, they do not really study or focus on Islam. They mostly have the nationalism spirit of Islam, or anything that say they are Muslim. So these people who has very high nationalism are more likely to join teaching such as Syiah and al-Arqam. The thing about Syiah is, they have 12 imam. Syiah think that Sunni are kafir because we have no 12 imam, while Sunni think that Syiah is syirik because they have 12 imam and focus on them too much. The clash between Sunni and Syiah will be very devastating and are much more dangerous that a clash with Christian. That is why, it is not wise for Syiah to be here in Malaysia, we will be like Iraq if Syiah spread here.

Anyway, before I end this, let me quote a quran verse,

 You will surely find the most intense of the people in animosity toward the believers [to be] the Jews and those who associate others with Allah ; and you will find the nearest of them in affection to the believers those who say, “We are Christians.” That is because among them are priests and monks and because they are not arrogant.

Surah Al-Ma’idah verse 82.

For Muslim, don’t think of the Christian as your enemy, as they do not fight you. And remember that among the responsibility of a Muslim is to preach Islam to non believer. How can you say that the Christian hate the Muslim when at the same time, the Muslim that they see do not even pray five time a day?

For Non-Muslim, first of all, I would like to clear this up, there is no way for a Muslim to be guaranteed heaven when he kill someone. Not even if he kill the biggest tyrant in the world. The guaranteed heaven is when he get killed while fighting for a just cause or protecting his right. If anyway you encountered a quranic verse saying that Muslim should kill the unbeliever whenever we see them, I dare you to find and read the whole verse. Please don’t just judge people before you do your research. Not all Muslim practice Islam like not all Christian practice Christianity. And so I cannot say that everyone who claim they are Muslim to be a good guy. A good indicator is that a real Muslim must pray at least five time a day. That is basically the basic of a muslim.

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Article Personal Politics

Does it matter?

Assalamualaikum everybody. How are you guys? Today, I’m going to write about Sabah. As we all know, three week ago about 200 hundred Philippine who are members of Sultan Sulu’s army has landed on lahad datu in claiming that Sabah is theirs. Following that, 6 local policemen has died, said to be ambushed by the intruder, while more than 10 from the Sultan’s army also died. Then, Malaysian government has decided to end this by attacking the village where the sultan’s army reside. No known number of casualty has been reported until now. In another news, about 10000 militant supporter has been said to attempt to enter Sabah to aide the Sultan Sulu’s Army who is right now being attacked by the Malaysian force.

If you are a supporter for sultan sulu, you will probably say that the one who are intruding is not the Sultan, but Malaysian. As the sultan indeed has a legal binding saying that the Sabah is theirs although the document is almost 200 hundred years ago. My question is, does it matter?

If you say that it does not matter, that there is no point of me explaining this to you. But if you insist on saying that Sabah is the Sultan’s and the one who is living in Sabah is foreigner, let me at least, try to consult you on this. First of all, by foreigner do you mean they do not originate from Sabah? Unlike the Chinese and Indian who obviously migrate here by the British, the Sabah people are still Sabah people. They are the indigenous people of Sabah. In fact, if you say that their ancestor are the people of Sultan Sulu, I won’t denies that. They probably are. But again, does it matter?

After World War 2, communist has been a threat in Southeast Asia, so the British has decided that to make it easier to eradicate them and also to make it easier to give independence to Sarawak and Sabah, if they would merge with Malaya. As you already know, Singapore exclude itself from Malaya, Brunei said they do not want to do so and the merging of the remaining Malaya, Sarawak and Sabah is now called Malaysia. This is roughly 50 years ago. Now of course at that time, Philippine said that Sabah is theirs because it was owned by Sultan Sulu, similar to the Sultan’s claim today. Indonesia also claim Sarawak as their. The situation become even more intense when Indonesia decided to enter Malaysia forcefully. So to resolve the dispute, UN send some commissioner to do a vote among the people of Sabah and Sarawak to see whether they want to merge with Malaya or with Indonesia or Philippine. A very large majority of the people voted that they agree to merge with Malaysia with the condition that they can control their border ( or something like that, I don’t exactly remember ).

So as you can see, Sabah and Sarawak choose to merge with Malaya and form Malaysia. The malayan people do not, just…. migrate to Sabah and repopulate quickly in order to gain dominance. I would guess that malayan simply… do not have the time or simply do not want to do so. I mean, what will they gain? Logs? What? The Chinese seems monopolized the economy there? Even in peninsular Malaysia the Malay do not gain control of the economy. The Chinese does. And if I’m not mistaken, the situation is much better in Sabah and Sarawak then in the peninsular. Is it the Chinese fault? They were here on the British age to operate shops. So its not something strange to see that they dominate the economic sector. And it is obviously not something that we will sacrifice peace in order to overcome. The Chinese and Indian are obviously not originated from the peninsular but still, they are here for more than 50 years. They are people too. What do you aspect us to do? Kill them like the Myanmar did at Rohinga? We are Muslim, we don’t do that.

What does the Sultan Sulu aspect to gain from this? Sabah? Even if they gain authority at Sabah, will the people cooperate? It is no longer the Sultan Sulu’s land. It is the land of Sabah people and they had already said that they want to stay. They do not migrate to sabah. They were born there and raised there. In Malaysia the land are not governed by the central government, It is governed by the State Government. In this case, the sabah people govern their own land. Sultan Sulu may say that the land is his, but what other claim can he give other that with the fact that his father or his grandfather owned the land but then lend it to the British. The people of Sabah has work their way to raise the state up to it current state. They have their own life. Do Sultan Sulu help? Just recently, a militant from the sultan sulu’s army was killed by 20 villager. If the villager support the sultan, why was the militant killed?

While I do agree that the Sultan’s Army should not enter Malaysia just like that, I also do not agree in the way Malaysian Force handle the manner. Just go bomb it? Now 10 000 more are coming. Are you going to bomb them to? People are still people. Regardless Philippine or Malaysian, we both do not want people to die. The current government will most probably not going to win an the election coming in a month of two because of this. The people need to think, where is their allegiance, at Sultan Sulu, Malaysian Goverment or God. If you are a member of the 10 000 people coming to Sabah, I beg you, do not use the name of Islam for your cause. You are not fighting for Islam, you are fighting for Sultan Sulu. And if you value Islam more than the Sultan, you will know in this case Islam loss the most. We loss people Muslim who were said to syahid, but in reality try to kill another Muslim who defend himself and his land regardless which side you are it does not matter, It happen because you came here. Because of this, the name of Islam had once again become associated with extremism, terrorism and irrational behavior. If the 10 000 people win, then the world will say they found another country build from tyranny associated with Islam, because obviously its a monarch and conquered forcefully. And if the 10 000 people died, the world will see again, the Muslim kill each other claiming “in the name of Islam”.

This whole thing will not solve a thing and will create more problem. Please open your mind. Sabah people has their own life. They were born there after sultan sulu’s reign, after the world war 2. If the sultan is indead a righteous and peace loving person, he would not came here with armed force in the first place. Regardless of his claim, It doesn’t matter anymore.