crosses need to be destroyed and church influences in these schools need to be stopped ..

The funny thing about missionary schools nowadays is that your children does not get even Christian education from it anymore. I cannot recall any of my friends who are now christians just by studying in one. Oh, and we sing Christians songs? I remember leading the Johor state song during perhimpunan that starts with "Allah perliharakan Sultan". Today, I can't sing that anymore because it is now exclusived. This La Salle school have 3 suraus and we are unable to have our own Christian Fellowship (CFs) as it was not recognised by the education department. So, it was ironic that I finally saw the transcipt of this debate of 'hearsays'. ( I heards someone say). Wei, give some evidence loh. What i know is that whatever cross that is left 'undestroyed', it will be taken out in the next years of Islamisation process in schools. The missionary schools with its examplerary educations success will be a passe.

Btw, have anybody ask why nobody wants to send their child to government schools? It seemed that after chinese schools, missionary schools are next sought after.

Tuan Syed Hood bin Syed Edros [Parit Sulong]:

[Some unrelated stuff first] Yang Di-Pertua, I would like to touch on a matter regarding the Ministry of Education, which are Christian missionary schools like Convent, La Salle, Methodist, and so forth. I was made to understand that the Board of Directors at these schools are partially administered by churches in foreign countries, for example in the Vatican City. I was also made to understand that the application to build a ’surau’ in some of these schools had to go through the approval of these Board of Directors whereby they are partially administered by the church. Therefore, it shames me that the school administrations are still controlled by the church. I was also made to understand that many Muslim parents send their kids to these schools, and that they have complained that sometimes, the school is started with church songs. I do not know if this is true, but what I discovered from these parents are the display of religious symbols. I feel disappointed that in an Islamic country, Malaysia, if I go to a convent school, the statue of St. Mary is displayed in the front of the school.

Read here for the writeup.

Integrity and Corruption

I am surprised this morning to get a cheeky call from my ex colleague to check my inbox. It was a link to a Singaporean news-site regarding a FORMER lecturer who cheated Singapore Polytechnic by submitting by false claims was jailed for four weeks and fined a total of $10,000 on Thursday. Then i realised that I know this chap. He used to come over at least 3-4 times a year to teach hard disk drive related technologies.

Not an ardent fan of Singapore but they are indeed strict. A police report was made and this person was made to pay many times over his meager false claim. Wonder if any of our politicians and leaders who made billions and millions will ever be subjected to such strict punishments?

Here is one current example.

“I don’t know what he was saying. I believe it’s not true,” said Tengku Adnan, who was a Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department assisting the minister in charge of law in 2001 when the clip was filmed.

“When I saw the (clip on) YouTube, I thought he (Lingam) was mad or drunk. I don’t know what he said. I believe it’s not true,” he said.

Whateverlah.

He is the same minister that 'abatted' the misuse ( corruption) of RM850,000 to 2 of his senior officers. Instead of reporting them to the police or Anti Corruption Agency, he decided to do a hush hush internal probe as cover up. And when one of the men got promoted, am sure that the other people have enough of this and leaked it out to the press and relevant departments.

I have noted before that there is too much money going to this ministry and many suspicions on where the money going to. A billion ringgit a year means that the ministry have to spend close to RM80 million per month or RM4 million per day. And this is just for activities to promote Malaysia.

Whateverlah

What is a Malay?

Contesting Malayness absolutely brings better clarity on the definition of "Malay". I am now reevaluating what Malaysians ( me included !) are taught in our schools. For once, the article did not get the usual rethorics from opposing fanatics as it was dealing with facts and quotations. Do take a look.

Why can't we be like Indonesia? Why can't we be like Sabah and Sarawak ( before annexed by Malaysia)

We must understand and understand this well: Indonesia is not Pakistan, which was born out of religious sentiments. Indonesia is also not Malaysia, where the Hindus are of Tamil descent and most of the Buddhists are of Chinese origin, so the state could label one group as indigenous, therefore deserving special treatment; and the other groups as non-indigenous, therefore able to do without such treatment.

Here, in Indonesia, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and Christians all are indigenous Indonesians, pribumi or bumiputera. They must be treated equally in all manners. Ananda Krishna

When Little is also a Plus

How would you vote if your constituency have a BN representative and a PAS representative?

In university days, the non Malays were saught by both the pro-government and Islamists. I suggested lately to an email that I would not vote for PAS due their Islamic nation tendency and a close friend wrote back for me to find out more. " Just ask around and you will be surprised". I guess he is right. Chinese in urban Malaysia are also rethinking this issue. Which is the lesser of 2 evils. Would PAS behave the same when they have more power? Many will risk that potential for realities that is happening from our BN management - manipulation, racism, religious intolerance, flip flop etc.

I will not vote for MCA ditto. Gerakan was a promise of multicultural party that has gone downhill since the appointment of 'spineless' Koh Tsu Koon. MIC is ... Sam Same. UMNO is racist. Heck, lets see how things goes..

A Chinese In Kelantan Speaks Out
January 8, 2008

Most non-Muslims, when you ask them about PAS, probably fear them more than they fear the evil BN. That fear is not entirely misplaced, because of PAS’ previously stated ambitions to make this country into an Islamic state. But I would say, non-Muslims should fear the BN more, especially since BN is no longer an equal coalition, but one that is led by UMNO and UMNO Youth, followed by “dan lain lain”. In a bid to out-Islam the PAS, we have got UMNO politicians releasing statements to try to show the Kelantanese voters that they are also very strong in Islam. In the near term, non-Muslims should certainly fear BN more since BN has all the power, and PAS has limited power.
First, UMNO politicians claim that this country is an Islamic country, just to win some votes.Then, Badawi introduces Islam Hadhari, which honestly, could probably have just come out from a Pendidikan Moral textbook.Recently, Najib promises Kelantan that the government will build many many mosques, and will turn Kelantan into an Islamic civilization hub (Malaysiakini, subscription needed). How that will help Kelantan, he didn’t say. And whatever an Islamic civilization hub really means, I don’t know either.
Right now, it seems like in UMNO’s zealousness to prove their Islamic credentials and win back control of Kelantan, the interests of non-Muslims in this country has been ignored or sidelined. So if it came down to it during the elections, if it’s BN vs. PAS for the parliamentary seat, how would you vote?
Perhaps this letter from Richard Teo, taken from Lim Kit Siang’s blog can open up some eyes.
Yes the tide is turning in Kelantan but certainly not in favour of BN but for PAS. As a kelantanese I can safely tell Najib the true current political situation in Kelantan. How could Zubaidah Abu Bakar speculate in the 6th Jan.2008 NST that “there are many in Kelantan who want to see a change of government”?
This is farthest from the truth. The Malay psyche in Kelantan is vastly different from the psyche of Malays from the other states. The Malays in Kelantan are astute when it comes to politics. That explains why it is the only Malay state where the opposition party other than UMNO has ruled for a substantial period since Merdeka.
During BN’s tenure, pork sellers in the Chinese market were harrassed daily. They were confined to a small inconspicous space where pork could be sold hidden from public view. There was conditional and restricted time when pork could be sold. When PAS took over the government in 1990, they improved the Chinese market and pork was sold without any restrictions. Inshort they were not harrassed.
Again, during BN’s tenure, Chinese could not buy houses built on Malay reservation land. Since most of the land come under the purview of Malay reservation, most Kelantanese Chinese could not own a home. But all these changed when PAS came to power.
Under the able DUN of Kota Bharu, Dato Annuar Tan, 30% of houses built on Malay reservation land were allocated for sale to the Kelantan Chinese.
Any doubts where the Chinese loyalty lies can easily be dispelled by visiting the Chinese enclave in Jalan Kebun Sultan. Ask any Chinese business community there and they will brazenly tell you that they will vote for PAS. Yes the Chinese votes in Kelantan are solidly behind PAS.
It is also a fact that the Chinese miniority’s vote in Kelantan are insignificant and confined to only few seats where their votes are crucial for victory or loss. But in a state where a lot of seats are won and lost by a handful of votes this becomes immensely important where in the final analysis the fate of the government could merely depend on the margin of one or two seats.
The Malays in Kelantan were generous in giving Pak Lah a resounding victory in 2004. But this was partly due to PAS over-zealous Islamic reforms which persuaded the Malays to vote for Pak Lah’s Islam Hadhari. Further they were captivated by Pak Lah’s assurance of tackling corruption which was beginning to be rampant in all branches of the government. But alas, Pak Lah was a disappointment. Instead he took it as an opportunity for his relatives and family to plunder the nation’s wealth by giving contracts to his son and son-in law.
There is a saying among the Malays in Kelantan that UMNO can fool the Malays in the other states with their rhetoric of ‘Ketuanan Melayu’ but they cannot fool the Malays in Kelantan. They are aware that BN has introduced many programmes and development projects.
According to Datuk Annuar Musa “RM2 billion worth of projects are flowing into the state”. But the local malays will ask you who are the beneficiaries of these projects? Yes, its the UMNO cronies and the UMNO connected politicians who will secure all the major contracts.
Of late, the sprinkling of Indians are also behind PAS not due to Hindraf’s effort but because of the awareness that it was under PAS rule that a prominent land in Jalan Hamzah was approved for the Hindus to build a temple when the same approval was rejected by BN four times before.
Because of centuries of close proximity of Kelantan to Thailand and the close rapport between the Chinese and the Kelantanese Malays, the local Malays are not only intelligent and well-versed in commerce but they are very conversant with local and federal politics. This perhaps explain why UMNO with their brand of politics can never fool the Kelantan Malays.
In the coming general election BN will not only lose in Kelantan it will lose as badly as in 1990. This is not only a fact, it is a promise.