Will Anwar Make It Comes 16th September ?

All opinions I have sought from friends and foes seem to be optimistic that Anwar Ibrahim will be the next Prime Minister of Malaysia when some 30 MPs from the ruling National Front (BN) are expected to defect to the People's Front (PR) by 16th September. This would lead to the downfall of Abdullah Badawi as a premier and the collapse of the BN government. Anwar himself re-affirmed the plan was still on track when he was speaking at the Parliament House recently.

Mathematically speaking, I find the target of getting 30 MPs to cross over to PR seems to be quite a tall order. May be he could get 13 from Sabah and possibly 7 from Sarawak. There may be 2 more from Gerakan (BN's component party) from the Peninsula. But that only makes 22, which is short by 8, certainly not enough to unseat the incumbent goverment. Where else possible defections could come from ? It is said that there will MP's from UMNO joing the PR ranks, but will they make the numbers ?

If PR could unseat BN comes 16th September, let's see whether Ustaz Abdul Hadi Awang of PAS would be made the Deputy Prime Minister.

The Notable Jews in History : Past & Present

1. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
2. Winston Churchill
3. Christopher Columbus
4. Benjamin Disraeli
5. Dwight David Eisenhower
6. Albert Einstein
7. Sigmund Freud
8. Alan Greenspan
9. Theodore Hertzl
10. Henry Kissinger
11. Nikolai Lenin
12. Karl Marx
    
13. Nancy Pelosi
14. Joseph Pulitzer
15. Rockefellers
16. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
17. Rothschilds
18. Joseph Stalin
19. Leon Trotsky

Source : James Stenzel : Jew Watch

Kudos to the Election Commission

I have never had respects for the Election Commission for its apparent subservience to the ruling parties. But this time I shall make it an exception for the speed it has taken to advise the Speaker of Parliament on Anwar Ibrahim's victory in a Tuesday by-election to enable Anwar to take oath as a Member of Parliament and become the new Opposition Leader the following Thursday. Job well done, Election Commission !

What is Corruption ?

In the run-up to the Parliamentary By-election in Permatang Pauh on Tuesday, 26th August, 2008, I could see reports in the mainstream media showing political figures involved in repairing dilapidated houses in some villages, financial contributions to the mosque and surau (musalla) committees being distributed and other imaginable acts of concerns and care by politicians. All these happen during the 10-day campaign period in efforts to woo votes in the constituency. Would this happen if there had been no by-election there ? Is this not CORRUPTION ?

It is time that the Election Commission reviews the rules of the Election to ensure clean and healthy practices.

Anwar Ibrahim's SHADOW CABINET LINE-UP

Comes 26th August, Anwar Ibrahim will be declared the winner of a parliamentary by-election in Permatang Pauh constituency. Most political pundits have concurred that Anwar's victory and his imminent return to Parliament is a foregone conclusion. Some acquaintances from Permatang Pauh I have spoken to confidently claim that there is practically no need to campaign for Anwar as he is expected to win the by-election handsomely with his hands down.
We shall soon see whether Anwar's claim of having secured the support of 30 defecting BN (National Front) MPs to form the next Federal Government is really substantive or just trying to catch a rainbow.
In the war of posters in Permatang Pauh, one purportedly distributed by PKR, Anwar's party, shows a new cabinet line-up that includes Nurul Izzah, an MP from the Federal Territory of KL, who is Anwar's daughter. Huh, so much for his anti-cronyism stance !!! But I earnestly hope that the line-up was a fictitious creation. I just could not imagine nor could I accept that Ustaz Hadi Awang, PAS President, is only slotted as a senior minister in charge of Islamic Affairs, and that there is no single Malay or Muslim being designated as a Deputy Prime Minister from among the three DPM-designates. If this is supposed to be a dream team of Anwar Ibrahim's cabinet, then PAS should rethink its affiliation to Pakatan Rakyat (People's Front) coalition government.
Having full control of two State Governments in Kelantan and Kedah respectively and a respectable number of MPs in the current Parliament, PAS should be given the due respects it deserves in the distribution of cabinet posts to the component parties within Pakatan Rakyat.
With the exception of the Prime Minister, the Malays form barely 30% of the cabinet composition [PAS (4), PKR (3)]. Is this a Malay/Muslim political sell-out yet again?
I wish to imagine that the shadow line-up is just a figment of a hallucination of a creative jackass.

Curtailment of Friday Sermon in Perak

Ustaz Nik Aziz and Ustaz Abdul Hadi, PAS Spiritual Leader and President respectively, were barred recently from giving Friday sermon (khutbah) in the Perak State Mosque in Ipoh purportedly by the Crown Prince of Perak (presumably representing the Sultan of Perak as the Head of Islamic Affairs in the state) on the ground that mosques should not be used for political purposes. Was the restriction decreed purely by the Perak Palace or was it done under political pressures from the local UMNO leaders ? It is a common practice of UMNO to exercise such restriction in states controlled by them, but Perak is now under the People's Front rule headed by a Chief Minister from PAS (Note : PAS also has her chief ministerialship in Kedah and Kelantan states respectively).
To my personal knowledge, these renowned religious scholars and leaders are not known to have abused the Friday sermons as political platforms.
If it is from the Palace, the Crown Prince must have been ill-advised in issuing the restriction which effectively segregates Islam from politics. But Islam is wholesome, it is a complete way of life. How could politics be separated from Islam ? Only the secularists like UMNO would subscribe to this notion of separation.

Muqabalah with DAP

Now that PAS leadership has renounced any possibility of merger talks with UMNO much to the relief of anxious members of PAS at the grassroot levels. Their mission to dislodge UMNO and BN from the seat of power is not accomplished yet. In this light, the political onslaughts against UMNO/BN must be sustained more concertedly in collaboration with PKR (People's Justice Party) and DAP (Democratic Action Party) respectively under the banner of the People's Front (Pakatan Rakyat, PR). They have the resolve to get the job done.
I see this tri-partite scheme of things is an opportune window for PAS to reach out to DAP to clarify the idealisms which PAS upholds in a 'muqabalah' with DAP leadership. The People's Front shall be strengthened further if rough edges between PAS and DAP could be smoothened out cordially and amicably on the principles of the Convenant of Madinah. This 'treaty' was essentially an agreement entered into during the time of Prophet Muhammad S.A.W. between the Muslims and the Jews in Madinah to govern their relationship. The Jews were identified in the Holy Quran as "the people of the Scripture".
Membership of the DAP comprises largely Chinese and, to a lesser proportion, Indians who are Buddhists and Hindus respectively by their religious affiliation, although a small number among the two communities profess Christianity. But unlike the Jews, the Buddhists and Hindus are not categorised as 'the people of the Scripture' though.
According to the Covenant of Madinah, the religion and the properties of the Jews were recognised legally and given protection. The Jews who were allied to the Muslims and entered into peace were entitled to equal treatment and assistance and they should suffer no injustice nor crime (the aggressors and the criminals were excepted). The perpetrators of such acts prejudiced themselves and their immediate relatives. Each party shall advise and counsel the other for the good as opposed to the evil. Assistance belonged to the sufferer of injustice, not its perpetrators.
The Covenant was a protection against treachery, but no protection was here implied for the perpetrator of injustice or crime. It formed the basis of a New Social (world) Order built on peace, a peace built upon reason. Under this New World Order, the non-Muslims may enjoin the Muslims as equal citizens of the State. Their religion, culture, social, economic and political institutions and properties remained intact. But they must however renounce aggressions against the State and isolationism.
It promoted peaceful interchanges on religious, intellectual and cultural levels among the people which formed the substance of freedom, the freedom to convince others of one's views as well as to be convinced of theirs. The non-Muslims were not only free to present their case but were invited to do so.
The Muslims did not give up their duty to call the non-Muslims to Islam, but their call was conducted 'with wisdom and comely presentation'. Under no case whatsoever may any human be coerced or pressured to change his religion.

" (There is) no coercion in religion. Truth and error are manifest. Whoever wishes to accept the Faith may do so at his own accord and will to his own personal credit. Whoever does not may do so to his own personal discredit (with God)" [Quran 2 : 256]

In PAS' single-minded pursuit to establish Islamic Law in the country, the concerns, fears and anxiety of the Buddhists, the Hindus and the Christians in Malaysia should not be sidelined or ignored. They should be encouraged to establish their own religious courts to hear cases of their adherents according to their own laws respectively.
Under the Covenant of Madina, the Jews were required to set up their own court of law to judge themselves by the precepts of Jewish Laws according to the Torah.


Reference : Ismail Rajhi al-Faruqi : Islam and the Problem of Israel
The Other Press, Kuala Lumpur (2003)

Malaysia's WARRIORS' DAY

Last week on 31st July, 2008, Malaysia celebrated this annual event to commemorate the struggles and sacrifices of our soldiers and policemen in defending against external aggressions and maintaining peace and harmony in the country. But who were these warriors ?

As a nation we seem to be unwittingly glorifying those mortals, Malays just like ourselves, who had fought under and for the British colonial power against Japanese occupation and the communist insurgency respectively. For all intent and purposes they were truly British soldiers fighting to preserve British sovereignty in Malaya and certainly they did not deserve the annual commemoration.
I would only want to celebrate the occasion to remember the sacrifices of those who had fought valiantly to liberate our country of British colonisation.

The Bastions of Turkish Secularism : Part 3

The donmeh (doenmeh, donme) refers to a group of Sabbatean Crypto-Jews of the Near East who are the followers of the Ottoman Jewish false messiah Sabbatai Zevi who in 1666 converted superficially to Islam but still covertly retained and practised Jewish beliefs and rituals. They are pseudo-Muslims for political purposes and reasons but consider themselves as some kind of Jews although not officially recognised by the Jewish authorities. Reportedly one such known living person is Ismail Cem, who was recently the Foreign Minister of Turkey before the AK Party came into power.
The donmeh, the secret Jews (Jews posing as Muslims), are also variously known as selanikli (people of Salonika), avdeti (converts), momzarim (bastards), minim (heretics), or ma'aminim (believers) depending on which side you are. Though they were socially accepted by the Muslim society unknowingly, they only married within their own community which ended in several recessive genetical traits being typical of donmeh. However at the end of 19th century they started to assimilate with the Turkish people by practising mixed-marriages, and by the end of 20th century the donmeh were fully integrated with the Turkish society. They have largely ignored the restrictions on intermarriage with Muslims since the 1960's.
The donmeh played an enormous role in the establishment of the Young Turks movement, a band of modernist revolutionaries led by young Mustafa Kemal, who brought down the Ottoman Empire under Sultan Abdul Hamid.
After the foundation of the Republic of Turkey, the donmeh strongly supported the Republican Party (CHP) in introducing pro-West reforms of Mustafa Kemal that brought restrictions of power of the religious (Islamic) establishment and modernisation of the Turkish society.

Passing the Baton

Wan Azizah Ismail, the Parliamentary Opposition Leader, has resigned as an MP to pave the way for Anwar Ibrahim, her husband, to stand for a by-election in Permatang Pauh constituency much to the chagrin of UMNO leaders. This is the first step taken by Anwar in his quest to become the next Prime Minister of Malaysia comes 16th September 2008. Mahathir Mohamed, a former premier, has lauded the move as a symbol of love of a wife for a husband, barely displaying any overtone of sarcasm against Wan Azizah nor Anwar.
But Syed Hamid Albar, the Minister of Home Affairs, and Noraini Ahmad, the Deputy Minister of Human Resources, both of the ruling UMNO, have slammed the resignation as a betrayal of voters' trust and a waste of public money (in running a fresh election). They must be talking through their ar*** !! Are they oblivious of the fact that the People's Front is now working hard to topple the present government of Abdullah Badawi by garnering supports from the National Front's MPs through defections ? They must be very, very naive if they are.
Any layman in the street could easily read Wan Azizah's manoeuvre as a strategic move to facilitate the path for Anwar to take over the premiership. What's wrong with that ?