Tuesday, 18 January 2011

The hypocrisy surrounding Interlok | The Nut Graph

"What would these same people who argue for the author’s integrity say about the tendency of the ruling coalition to ban any book that challenges its authority?

1FunnyMalaysia, perhaps?

Cover of Zunar's 1Funny Malaysia

Education system the problem

My greater concern is how a national education system that is fundamentally structured to be racist can attempt to teach a text as problematic as Interlok.

This book, because of its content, is the kind of book that should help further, deepen, and intensify national discourse on race relations. It is a book that should be handled with maturity and critical yet intelligent interrogation. Precisely because it offends some people, it should be deconstructed and taught with sensitivity."

~The hypocrisy surrounding Interlok | The Nut Graph

Readers must support Hata and NUJ — Bob Teoh - The Malaysian Insider

Readers must support Hata and NUJ
Bob Teoh - The Malaysian Insider

January 18, 2011

JAN 18 — Regardless of which newspaper they buy, readers must strongly support the NUJ and Hata Wahari, its besieged president. This is to tell Utusan Malaysia in no uncertain terms the reading public condemns its union bashing and irresponsible journalism. Utusan has been behaving like the bad boy of Malaysian journalism with impunity for far too long. It’s time to stop the monster.

The Industrial Relations Department must immediately step in and take Utusan Malaysia to task for unashamedly intimidating the newly-elected NUJ president Hata Wahari with baseless allegations of misconduct against him which has nothing to do with his employment as a senior journalist of the newspaper.

Utusan’s highly irregular action of resorting to a so-called domestic inquiry, which may result in Hata’s sacking, is bad labour practice. It is a wilful violation of Hata’s human right to reasonable security of his employment and his right to have a professional opinion and to express such an opinion without threats from his employers.

In an unprecedented display of arrogance, Utusan had also decided to be law unto itself by imposing restrictions on the physical movement of Hata during the period of the inquiry as if he was a restricted Internal Security Act detainee.

In another display of unreasonableness, Utusan has also denied Hata representation by his own union at the domestic inquiry. Utusan has also insisted on videotaping the inquiry proceedings but at the same time denying Hata the right to do likewise.

Utusan’s insanity can only lead to one conclusion; it wants to find any excuse to sack Hata at any cost. This Hata himself and the NUJ are well aware of and they are prepared to fight the ugly bully that Utusan has shown itself to be.

Utusan is known for its serial anti-union bashing tendencies, having previously arbitrary sacked a NUJ president, who was also an Utusan journalist, as well as the former chairman of the NUJ Utusan branch committee. It lost the former upon appeal to the courts by NUJ and the latter is under appeal.

The employers’ federation, of which Utusan is associated with, must forcibly persuade Utusan to desist from further provocative actions and to drop its so-called domestic inquiry in the interest of industrial harmony.

Hata was elected NUJ president in September last year and is outspoken about free and responsible journalism. In his first policy statement as president he said: “The union (NUJ) is asking all mainstream journalists, especially of Utusan Malaysia, New Straits Times, Berita Harian and The Star to return to their true function as deliverers of objective information to the public, and not as tools of propaganda for the government of any political party or individual, for their personal gain.”

He had also singled out Utusan for unethical journalism by playing up the race and religion card. This riled Utusan’s editors and Hata was immediately hauled up to face a domestic inquiry for allegedly tarnishing the newspaper’s image. The NUJ exco decided unanimously to fully back its president and said Utusan’s action is ludicrous.

At the core of the controversy is Hata’s action as NUJ president and not as an Utusan employee. Hence, Utusan has no right whatsoever to try to sack Hata for his opinion. If it has the courage, Utusan should sue both Hata and the NUJ for defamation to protect its image.

As NUJ president, Hata was expressing his opinion of the impact of bad journalism on working journalists and their welfare. It is his constitutional and human right as a union leader to form such an opinion and to express it. If Utusan’s internal auditor says that there’s something fishy about its account, we don’t sack him or her, do we? So when Hata said Utusan is bad surely, we don’t expect Utusan to sack him.

Utusan is also entitled to its right of reply. But Utusan chose to victimise both the NUJ and Hata instead of entering its defence in the court of public opinion. Utusan is both a lousy newspaper and a bad loser. A bully in short.

Utusan has lost all pretense to be a responsible and professional newspaper. It has litttle reputation to speak of. What Hata and the NUJ have to say about it is already public knowledge. The very fact that Hata and NUJ had said it shows the extent of Utusan’s rot.

The once respectable Malay daily has in recent years been resorting to gutter journalism, religious bigotry, racist, sexist, and seditious speech calculated clearly to incite one segment of society against another to the detriment of peace and harmony in the nation.

Far from trying to shore up its dropping sales by such irresponsible reporting, Utusan’s circulation has plummeted so much that its very commercial feasibility is now in question. It is no secret that it is generously endowed with advertising revenue from the government and government-linked corporations to keep it afloat.

Utusan is directly controlled by Umno, the dominant partner in the ruling coalition. That it enjoys the patronage of Umno is obvious. But patronage must have its limit. Utusan has exceeded this limit and must be taken to task.

* Bob Teoh is a freelance writer and was NUJ general-secretary (1984-86).

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication. The Malaysian Insider does not endorse the view unless specified.

Zul Noordin's "Islamic" perspective/ways ...


"Lastly, thanks to this Yang Berhormat — formerly PKR, once-upon-a-time PAS man — the Malay adage of Bahasa Jiwa Bangsa is brought to shame.
We Malays are a society that treasures budi bahasa as our warisan bangsa. Where to put my face now?"


Zul Noordin: ‘Ronnie Liu is a kafir harbi’ «

“Kafir harbi by definition is ‘belligerent infidels’. They are non-believers of Islam who fight against the religion during wartime. They were seen as enemies of Islam and should be killed without a sense of guilt.” — Ronnie Liu shows his understanding of the term ‘kafir harbi’ in an earlier DAP press statement.

By Sharifuddin A. Latiff

In his blog posting yesterday, ‘independent’ MP Zulkifli Noordin put the blame squarely on DAP exco Ronnie Liu with regard to the controversy. Zulkifli attacked Ronnie for instructing the Subang Jaya Municipal Council to withdraw its ban on establishments that serve alcohol from employing Muslims.

Zulkifli also criticized the Selangor state government for not respecting Hasan Ali (the Selangor PAS commissioner and state exco on Islamic affairs) with regard to the matter of the new prohibition contained in the MPSJ licensing guidelines.

Zulkifli blogged that he is not surprised that Ronnie Liu should be against the move by MPSJ to comply with syariah.

Zulkifli wrote:

Namanya pun kafir harbi.

(Translated: Even his name [Ronnie Liu] is kafir harbi).

Dia kafir harbi kerana secara terang-terang mempertikaikan hukum syara’.

(He is kafir harbi because he openly challenges syariah law).

Inilah juga orangnya yang menghalang MBSA daripada mengharamkan penjualan arak dikedai-kedai serbanika.

(The is the same person who prevented the Shah Alam Municipal Council from imposing a ban on the convenience stores from selling arak.)

“Dan inilah juga orangnya yang menjadikan Karpal Singh yang menentang Islam ‘over my dead body’ sebagai pengerusinya. Inilah orangnya daripada parti cauvinis, rasis lagi bia-DAP!

(And this is also the same person who made Karpal Singh who opposed Islam saying ‘over my dead body’ as its chairman. This is the same person from the chauvinist party, as well as racist bia-DAP!)

Pix above: Hasan Ali

Excerpts from Zulkifli’s Jan 16 posting:

Kafir harbi macam ini, kalau mengikut hukum syara’, hendaklah dibawa ke Mahkamah Syariah yang berbidang kuasa dan jika sabit kesalahan dan tidak mahu mengakui kesalahan dan menyesal, dan enggan tunduk kepada peruntukkan syariah hendaklah dihukum dengan hukuman yang berat, termasuk hukuman pancung sampai mati! Itu kalau di negara Islam yang melaksanakan undang-undang Islam sepenuhnya lah!!

(Kafir harbi like this guy, if we follow syariah, should be hauled to Syariah Court and if found guilty, and still he does not want to admit the error of his ways and repent, and if he refuses to bow to the syariah requirements, then he should be punished with the heaviest penalties, including death by beheading! That is if we’re an Islamic state that fully implements Islamic law.)


Haram: Amar makruf nahi mungkar

Zulkifli’s posting also said:

Ada pak jangoat yang membuat kenyataan bahawa “prosedur tindakan MPSJ mengharamkan umat Islam bekerja di kedai arak adalah salah dan tidak Islamik!!”. Kot ya pun nak jilat teloq Kitsiang janganlah sampai agama pun boleh di putar-pooSingh yop!!!!!

Hukumnya jelas. Budak Tadika PASTI yang masih beringus pun tahu. Umat Islam diharamkan bekerja menjual, membuat, menyediakan, membawa, menghidang arak! Hukumnya sama saperti peminum arak juga! Termasuk golongan yang dilaknat ALLAH.

Rezeki yang mereka perolehi adalah haram. Mereka memberi anak bini mereka makan rezeki yang jelas haram. Kalau itu pun nak putar-pooSingh lagi tak tahu lah teman nak kata apa lagi dah!

Padanlah para pak jangoat ni boleh menyokong dan tidur sebantal dengan para peliwat & homoseks!

Soal da’wah itu soal lain. Da’wah jalan juga, pencegahan jalan juga. Ianya mesti seiring. Sebab itu ALLAH sebut “ta’muruu nabil ma’ruf, wayan hau na ‘anil mungkar – serulah kepada ma’ruf (berda’wahlah), dan cegahlah kemungkaran (berhukumlah mengikut syara’), dan berimanlah (yakin dan percayalah dengan syariat & undang-undang ALLAH)”.

[Guan Eng should pay attention to Zulkifli -- his kindred spirit -- on proper context to Islamic sayings the next time our Caliph Umar Lim wants to quote ‘amar makruf nahi mungkar’.]
.

Azan: The MCA ‘kafir’ lawyer

On the volume-of-azan issue, Zulkifli rails against the politicking of Islam:

Teman sedih melihat keadaan umat Islam hari ini yang sikap dan perangai politiking yang melampau-lampau. … Tengok kontroversi azan di Masjid Ikhlasiah. Kesnya mudah, seorang kafir (yang mungkin jahil), dikatakan menuntut supaya azan diperlahankan. Pihak Masjid akur dan memperlahankan tetapi dalam keadaan protes. Tup tup ditaburkan cerita peguam kafir itu ahli MCA, maka dipersalahkan UMNO dan BN. Malah PM didesak beri penjelasan! Apalah punya kayu!

Kalau ya pun kebetulan yang mengadu itu ahli MCA (kalau betul pun), apa kena mengena dengan UMNO/BN, apatah lagi Perdana Menteri. Kalau ikut logik hujah itu, maka semua ahli PKR boleh disyaki kaki homoseks & peliwat, sebab kepalanya dikenakan pertuduhan meliwat stafnya sendiri? Adakah wajar fitnah saperti itu dibuat? Takkan kerana kepala parti mereka bapak pembohong, semua ahli PKR juga kaki pembohong? Takkan begitu mudah sifir politiknya.

Jangan pula kita menjadi saperti para agamawan Yahudi & Nasara, yang memootar-pooSinghkan agamanya sehingga akhirnya seluruh umatnya menjadi sesat lagi menyesatkan.

More Here- Zul Noordin: ‘Ronnie Liu is a kafir harbi’ «