An Open Letter to Australia

I received this letter from an avid reader of my blog,and felt the importance of sharing with all my readers.The Australian Government should take heed and act positively,in pursuant to this letter.Will the Malaysian Government keep silent as usual as in most cases?

H.E. Miles Kupa
Australian High Commissioner
Australian High Commission
6 Jalan Yap Kwan Seng
50450 KUALA LUMPUR
Telephone: 2146 5555
Fax: 2141 5773

Your Excellency,

We, concerned citizens of Malaysia, are of the understanding that Lynas Corporation has made one or more payments to the Malaysian Government.

We suspect and fear that this has somewhat helped to fast track the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) approval process - without public knowledge and through a very loose Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) despite a complex and hazardous project.

Under Malaysia's Official Secrets Act, we will have little, if any, hope of getting any truth out of our Government, even though this matter is of utmost national interest.

In the interests of both Malaysia and Australia, both Lynas and our Government should be transparent about the approval process.

As Australia has been a strong advocate of good governance and is committed to stamping out corruption, we call upon your good Government to compel Lynas Corporation to adhere to its stated value of honesty and transparency to reveal the deal it has struck with the Malaysian Government and also to make all payment records public. This is of interest not only to all Malaysians but also to the Australian shareholders of Lynas Corporation.

We trust that the Australian Government is committed to protecting the good name of Australia and will not risk one corporation's headlong quest for profit , at the expense of the health of Malaysians and the local environment, to tarnish the good reputation of Australia.

We therefore urge the Australian Government to investigate Lynas Corporation for any possible wrongdoings in its dealings with the Malaysian Government. We were appalled and disgusted to learn that Lynas Corporation had offered a job to the soon-to-be-retired Director-General of the Malaysian Atomic Agency Licensing Board (AELB), Yang Berbahagia Datuk Raja Abdul Aziz Raja Adnan, by his own admission. I am sure you will agree with me that such an offer is tantamount to fair dinkum conflict of interest, collusion and corruption.

Thank you,

Azlan Adnan
Founder, Green Party of Malaysia

Of Racist Ranters and Religious Bigots

A Ketuanan and Religious Chauvinist has ignited a torch proclaiming a Jihad against Non-Muslims in Malaysia, particularly the Christians, who number about 3 million. The peed-piper sounding the siren is none other then Malaysia's very own "Osama bin Laden", UMNO's mouthpiece and mongrel, the incorrigible Ibrahim Ali.

Let us not be deceived that the UMNO/BN government, Utusuan Malaysia, Perkasa, Pembela and many other of its crony ‘jihad’ agencies are not working hand in glove to achieve their objectives.

It would be interesting to see if Ibrahim Ali or any other of UMNO’s ketuanan melayu stooges would dare to make such statements in Sabah or Sarawak which are predominately Christians or call for 1Melayu 1Bumi or a Jihad against the Christians.

Not too long ago, Church officials were instructed to remove crucifixes and avoid singing hymns when PM Najib attended the Archbishop's Christmas party.
 

  This was the beginning of a war against the Christians and all right-thinking Malaysians, who believe in peace and harmony. UMNO had signalled to the masses that it would resort to anything to stay in power, even declaring marshall law to continue staying in Putrajaya. Shivers seem to be running through their spineless "partners in crime", the BN component parties.

Will there be another May 13 in the event Pakatan Rakyat wins the 13th General Election?

  

As months went by, an earthquake rocked the country, the issue of the Alkitab  surfaced. The bible was translated into the only language known to the natives of Sabah and Sarawak since 1888, in their daily worships - Bahasa Malaysia. But UMNO unleashed its "gangsters" to wage an open war against the Christians in Malaysia.

The Holy Bible in Bahasa Malaysia, which were confiscated by the Home Ministry, were later released conditionally, stamp-marked with the words"For Christians Only, By Order Of The Home Ministry”.

The Christians came out roaring with displeasure, and rightly so, that the holy bible had been defaced.

Faced with the possibility of loosing the Sarawak state elections, UMNO/BN came out with a "10 point solution" to the Alkitab issue to pacify the Christians, thus resulting in BN winning the elections, although with a lesser number of seats in the state legislative assembly. 

What was meant to be a "win-win solution" for the Christians in UMNO/BN's terminology, was short-lived when another of it's mouthpiece Pembela came out "waving their kris" calling for war against the Christians, that they will not have a Malay version of the Holy Bible, as this would confuse the "Ketuanan Melayu". Now the 10 point solution appears to be something of the past, as if it was never issued at all.

Sarawakians were once again hoodwinked. Hopefully it's not too late for Sarawakians to make amends in the 13th General Elections.

If the Alkitab issue was an earthquake, think again. UMNO's very own mouthpiece, Utusan Malaysia, ignited a C-4, with their lead story 'Christians would make Christianity the country's official religion and to have a Christian as Prime Minister". If shock waves were felt by you by the headlines, the UMNO/BN Government, catastrophically but not to the surprise of the majority of Malaysians, only issued a warning to the paper.

Christian leaders were subsequently "invited" for a luncheon meet with Najib, in what was supposed to be a "peace treaty", "showering of gifts" or even perhaps a warning, "keep your Christians at bay or we will unleash our kris for your blood"?

What actually did transpire at that lunch pow-wow is anyone's guess, but many were not too happy with the outcome.

But what we can conclude is, UMNO/BN will not respect or give way to any one. Interestingly, UMNO was extremely silent when his Majesty the Yang Dipertuan Agong attended the Royal wedding of Prince William and Princess Kate.

Ironically, no-one from either the PM's Department or the Agong's protocol dared to tell the English Royal Household to remove all Christian paraphernalia like crosses or to sing any hymns as it might be deemed offensive to the Malaysian Muslims.

Perhaps Ibrahim Ali should have been there and insisted Westminster Abbey remove all their crosses beforehand and also not allow the singing of hymns!!! Would he have dared? He knows that any such request would have been met firmly with a "Bugger off!" from the Brits, couched in diplomatic language, of course!!

Did his Majesty the King and Queen as well as the Sultan of Brunei and his consort feel uncomfortable whilst attending the Royal wedding? All right-thinking Malaysians will concur that they were comfortable and enjoyed every minute while they were there.

So we can say with conviction, that if our beloved King had no qualms being in a Church with hymns being sung, what gives the right to mongrels like Ibrahim Ali or Pembela or any other fanatical Muslims in Malaysia to ridicule and insult the Christians?

The Christians have always been a peace-loving people and will always remain so.

Can there be peace or religious harmony if retards like Ibrahim Ali are allowed to provoke and ignite racist ideologies?

The government must decide whether they want a truly 1Malaysia or a 1Melayusia! 

 For the sake of a safer and more peaceful Malaysia, I suggest they provide and place Ibrahim Ali, together with his puppeteers, in a rightful abode - an asylum for lunatics or a security enclosure both for their own 'protection' and the protection of peace-loving Malaysians from their venom. 

Assala-malaikom; Peace be unto all my brothers.

Greetings my fellow friends and readers,

Malaysia has now become a joke,in the eyes of the global community.Malaysia will never be the same for as long as the current regime continues to harp on racial issues,through their mouthpiece,Perkasa, Pembela and Utusan Malaysia.The time has come and it's NOW,that Change is inevitable.I read this article and found it relevant,and want the share it with you.

Race, religion not issues for Sabah, Sarawak

Joe Fernandez

The people in the two states had long ago decided that religion had to remain a private and personal affair, separate from politics.

Several Christian pastors in Peninsular Malaysia have reportedly discussed the idea of Christianity being the official religion of Malaysia. If any part of Malaysia has a case for making Christianity the official religion, it’s Sabah and Sarawak where the majority of the people, the natives or Orang Asal included, are overwhelmingly Christian.

Instead, the people in Malaysian Borneo decided from the very beginning that they would not have an official religion. The thought of making Christianity the official religion in Sabah and Sarawak never for one minute crossed the minds of the people in these two states. Religion had to remain a private and personal affair, separate from politics and the state.

This decision was reflected in the Cobbold Commission Report, the Inter-Governmental Committee Report and the 1963 Malaysia Agreement.

The Batu Sumpah – Oath Stone – in Keningau, Sabah, is also a reminder of the promises of Malaysia: no official religion; freedom of religion; respect for adat (customary law); and the state government holds authority over land. The people of the interior, in return, pledged loyalty to Malaysia.

The Oath Stone was meant to overcome the resistance of the people in the interior to Malaysia. They did not understand all the various documents on Malaysia and needed something simple to dramatically translate all their concerns into an enduring form that they could grasp.

The reality is that this provision on Sabah and Sarawak having no official religion has been observed more often than not in the breach. The goodwill of the people of Sabah and Sarawak has been taken for granted by the federal government.

Former Sabah state secretary Simon Sipaun, now under probe for sedition, best summed up the scenario when he told participants at an inter-party dialogue in Kota Kinabalu in early March that “life in Sabah was better before Malaysia”.

Sipaun pointed out that based on his personal experience in the civil service, that there was no Muslim-Christian conflict in Sabah before Malaysia.

No body-snatching cases

There were no issues like the term Allah – an attribute of God – being reserved only for Muslim use; the Bible not being allowed to be in Malay print; no cases of body snatching at the morgue; non-Muslims not being allowed freedom of worship and being forced to convert to Islam upon marriage to a Muslim; Muslims not being allowed freedom of worship including the right to leave the religion; and no case of Christians with “Muslim-sounding” names being listed by the authorities as Muslim.

Sipaun stressed that recruitment into the state civil service and promotions before Malaysia were based on merit and not race or religion. Likewise, scholarships were handed out on the basis of merit and not race and religion.

Before Malaysia, the last non-Muslim governor of Sabah was a British.

Since 1963, all governors in Sabah as in Sarawak have been Muslim and the Christians and others have been effectively denied the opportunity to occupy the post. The only time a Christian was appointed governor after 1963 was when Donald Stephens, the Huguansiou (paramount chief) of the Dusuns (including the Kadazan or urban Dusun) and Muruts, converted to Islam after a stint in “virtual exile” in the mid-1970s as High Commissioner to Australia.

Stephens had a brief first stint as chief minister but was ousted by Kuala Lumpur after he wanted Sabah’s participation in Malaysia “reviewed” upon Singapore’s exit in 1965. Stephens held that the partnership – Sabah, Sarawak, Singapore, and Malaya – that governed the Federation of Malaysia ceased to exist after the city state’s exit. Stephens wanted out.

Stephens made an even briefer second stint as chief minister in 1976 but this time as a Muslim by the name of Mohd Fuad. He came to an untimely end in a plane crash after he held out for a higher oil royalty for Sabah and not a measly five per cent. His predecessor, Mustapha Harun, was ousted on the same issue but lived to a ripe old age after looking on helplessly when Umno entered Sabah to displace and deregister his United Sabah National Organisation (Usno).

Between Stephens and Joseph Pairin Kitingan, another chief minister (1985-1994) and currently the Huguansiou, there was Peter Lo as an interim chief minister.

Another exception was during the rotation of the Sabah chief minister’s post after 1994 when three non-Muslims held the post for brief two-year stints – Yong Teck Lee, Bernard Giluk Dompok and Chong Kah Kiat – to be replaced thereafter by only Muslim chief ministers.

Again, the issue of race and religion seems to predominate in Sabah in line with the “ketuanan Melayu” – Malay supremacy – dictates of the Umno federal government.

Instant natives

Sabahans in general – and the same in Sarawak – are uncomfortable that the politics of race and religion in Peninsular Malaysia has invaded the body politic in their state and resulted in polarisation. This has pitted the Muslims, not so much the locals but the illegal immigrants, against the non-Muslims in every sphere of life in Sabah and Sarawak.

One of the most polarising issues has been the influx of 1.7 mostly Muslim immigrants from the Philippines and Indonesia to overwhelm the 1.5 million Sabahans. Most of the immigrants are illegals while a minority has employment passes.

To add insult to injury, many illegal immigrants appear to have been issued with Malaysian personal documents and this has facilitated their placement in the electoral rolls. This lies at the heart of the continuing marginalisation and disenfranchisement of Sabahans, the natives or Orang Asal in particular including local Muslims.

It’s not known how many thousand illegal immigrants have since become “instant natives” by the simple backdoor method of securing Malaysian personal documents, which place their birth officially as somewhere in Sabah. Officially, they are listed as “Malays”, a classification which did not exist in Sabah before 1963.

Muslims in Sabah are generally listed as Bajau, Suluk, Barunai (Brunei Malay), Irranun or Dusun. The last category may be Ranau, Bisaya or Orang Sungei, among others. Most Dusun in Sabah are Christian if they are not animists or pagans. The Dusun are also one of the two original native groups in neighbouring Brunei, the other being Dayak.

Sabahans and Sarawakians would not agree with any proposal that Christianity be recognised as the official religion of Malaysia or at least in their half of the country on the other side of the South China Sea. If Christians in Peninsular Malaysia want their religion to be the official one for the state, it’s their cause which they have to pursue on their own.

However, Sabahans and Sarawakians would very much want the race and religion factors to be removed from the politics and administration of their states. They would very much want life to be as it was before Malaysia when there was also no fear of the police, as Sipaun observed, no draconian laws like the Internal Security Act (ISA) and no emergency ordinances governing the populace.

Putrajaya should stop pursuing Umno’s “ketuanan Melayu” agenda in Sabah and Sarawak and ruling the state through local proxies. The politics in these states militates against such a mindset. The local populace does not have a fixation, as in Peninsular Malaysia, with the Chinese being in business or being wealthy.