Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Why didn't Lina Joy turned to the Islamic courts ?

The dust has settled, and we've heard both sides of the argument.
Most neutral yet falsely optimistic argument I've heard so far is :
"it's a mere administrative procedure, she needs to apply to the Shariah Courts"

This is why people don't go to the Shariah Courts.
From MalaysiaToday here

Please allow me to reproduce in full.

Gua Musang (Malaysia), SVM News - Malaysian Government authorities Demolished a Christian Church Building in an Orang Asli settlement in Gua Musang in Ulu Kelantan on June 4.

Just few months ago, the Orang Asli community in Kampung Jias converted into Christianity as a result of the ministries of Pastor Moses Soo. And they were in need of a church to worship. So they consulted the Village Development and Security Committee and the Department of Orang Asli Affairs to erect a church to mark their faith.

It was sanctioned and they proceeded constructing the church with the help of volunteers and certain donations.

But on April 11, the Gua Musang district land office issued a stop work order, stated that the construction was being carried out on state land without permission from the authorities.

The following day, Rev. Wong Kim Kong, the Secretary General of the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship of Malaysia (NECF) sent a letter to the land office, said the land belonged to the Orang Asli villagers under Section 2 6(1) and 7(1) of the Orang Asli Act of 1954. And copied to the Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Kelantan Menteri Besar Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and the Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail.

And construction of the church continued.

Again the Land Office issued another notice on May 24 informing the village headman Pedik Busu that the "illegal" structure would be demolished.

Despite various efforts to block the demolishment, the church was finally torn down by bulldozers on Monday, 4th of June

Pastor Moses Soo said to Rev. Paul Ciniraj, the Director of the Salem Voice Ministries and the SVM News Service that police tortured him several times.

Also Pastor Soo said the district land office do not have any right to reduce the church to rubble, because the land belonged to the headman of Kampung Jias but was donated to the Orang Asli community for the purpose of building the church.

After demolishing the church, a report was made on June 6 at the Gua Musang Police Station by the headman Pg. Pedik bin Busu of Kg. Jias and he was accompanied by the lawyer Mr. Lum C. S.

"We are not sure who was responsible for demolishing the Orang Asli church in Gua Musang, the Federal Islamic authorities (UMNO) or the Kelantan State religious authorities (PAS). I think Malaysiakini carried a report recently that the Kelantan govt is going to compensate them for the demolition of the church," a believer of the church said. "In Malaysia where Muslims destroy churches, temples, etc. the govt keeps quiet and pretends it does not know" he added.






So you think Lina Joy will come out alive as soon as she walks into the Shariah court office ?
Easy for one to talk about "administrative procedures". People are not stupid, though we all have our radars tuned at different frequencies. As for Lina Joy she has her radar tuned on her physical survival, and what do you do when these things are the norm in Bolehland.

Thursday, June 7, 2007

Arabic script hoo hah



This Post on Malaysiakini has generated some unfounded furore.


Excerpt here :

Therefore, I was very, very disappointed to see that even the national language
is not used by the Malaysian Embassy and instead that another language that I
was not taught back in school is being used. I wasn't aware that this language
superceded our national language in importance.


Of course like everything that's in Malaysia every minor chasm has been blown into the likes of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. This is an equally passionate reply on Malaysiakini, from a Malay/Muslim of course

Excerpt here :
If the non-Malays could even take offence with the use of Jawi and call it
Arabic, then it is doomsday for the future of integration as it only exemplifies
the unspoken (or not, as the case may be) aversion they may have towards
anything `Malay' and `Islamic'. Jawi is part of the history of BM. After the
Romanised form was used fully post-1972, we witnessed a decline in the
understanding of BM in its original form ie. with Jawi characters. If one were
to study the language, there are a lot of BM words which could have been better
`pronounced' had the Jawi characters been used.

Please let me highlight the National Language Act 1963. (Akta Bahasa Kebangsaan)
I am pleasantly surprise the AG Chambers actually has a pdf copy of it.
http://www.agc.gov.my/agc/oth/Akta/Vol.%201/Akta%2032.pdf


Section 9 states :


Tulisan bagi bahasa kebangsaan
9. Tulisan bagi bahasa kebangsaan ialah tulisan Rumi: dengan syarat bahawa ini tidak melarang penggunaan tulisan Melayu, yang lebih dikenali dengan nama tulisan Jawi, bagi bahasa kebangsaan.
Nevertheless, please allow logic to prevail, and stop the "Islamic chest-thumping, non-Muslims bashing"
  • The largest Malay newspapers in circulation is Berita Harian and Utusan Malaysia and both are the Rumi script.
  • Public Road signs are all in the Rumi script
  • Government Forms and every single official signage is in the Rumi script
  • Heck, even the AGC Chambers National Language Act 1963 publication is in the Rumi script
  • Parliamentary proceedings, Hansard are recorded in the Rumi script
  • Universities use the Rumi script for all courses

Enough said...

I admit the original writer may have been harsh in his choice of words, but Jawi is not an official script. So the question to the Malaysian embassy, why use an unofficial script ?