Defection May Lead To Divorce

Change of loyalty to the party may require lawmakers belonging to the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) to divorce their wives. The move has caused outcry in political and legal circles.

Confirmation and justification by some PAS lawmakers that they have indeed made the pledge has divided the clergy in Muslim majority Malaysia. PAS is also called Parti Islam Se-Malaysia.

PAS MP from Shah Alam Khalid Samad confirmed what has been widely circulating in blogsphere.

He contended that the oath was not against Islamic teachings as Prophet Muhammad and companions had done the same and were willing to sacrifice their families and belongings.

But Perak state’s Mufti Harussani Zakaria argued that the Prophet did not do so because of politics.

“The oath or bai’ah made by companions was to show their loyalty and to defend the Prophet. If we want to take an oath for the sake of the party, then divorcing wives should not come into the picture,” Zakaria was quoted as saying by The Star newspaper.

Zakaria said PAS lawmakers had turned “their marriage into a game and put their wives as a bet in politics”.

He said divorce was hated by god as marriage solemnisation was a big promise made by a couple towards Him and to the witnesses.

“In Islam, even though divorce is halal, it is makruh (disliked or undesirable) because god detests the action. “Marriage solemnisation is not something playful,” Zakaria said.

Founded in 1956 on the eve of Malaysia’s independence, PAS is part of the opposition alliance Pakatan Rakyat (PR). It has strong support in some of the northern states and its chief, Nik Aziz Nik Mat, is the chief minister of Kelantan state.

A survey quoted Saturday by The Star said the party’s image has ‘plunged’ despite its electoral successes last year, particularly among younger Muslims.

Criticism has come from political and legal circles.

Karpal Singh, an ethnic Indian who is chief of the Democratic Action Party (DAP) that is a PAS ally, said he was taken aback when he heard the news. He asked: “Why must the wives become victims?”

However, he said if the oath was allowed in Islam, then he would reserve his comments.

DAP’s organising secretary, an ethnic Chinese woman, Teresa Kok, said the news was “not something new” as she had heard about it a few months ago from PAS leaders.

Asked whether the oath was the right thing to do, the newspaper said, she replied in jest: “Why not?”

She added that the oath portrayed PAS elected representatives’ loyalty to the party and that they took their “relationship with PAS as seriously as their relationship with their wives.”

“It means they will not simply leave the party or their wives. It shows their commitment to the party.”

Malaysian Muslim Lawyers’ Association assistant secretary Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar described the oath as “morally wrong” if it really had taken place.

The ruling alliance Barisan Nasional (BN) condemned the move.

Women, Family and Community Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil condemned the party, describing it as “sheer evil” for belittling women.

She said putting wives at stake must not be tolerated as it was not only an act of betrayal to the institution of marriage, but an emotional abuse of their life partners.

“I cannot fathom how they could resort to something so degrading and mean. What happens when their wives are apolitical? It’s just so sad,” she said, demanding that PAS leaders retract that condition.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Jamil Khir Baharom called it “absurd and cruel”.

“Divorce is not a trivial matter that can be put at stake just to prove one’s loyalty to a political party. This is an abuse and cruelty towards innocent parties. Islam abhors cruelty and abuse,” he said.

Soi Lek reinstated, Tee Keat sacks four in pre-emptive strike

Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek has been reinstated as MCA deputy president by the Registrar of Societies on a day when embattled party president Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat sacked four central committee members pushing for fresh party elections.
These developments came just hours before the central committee met to discuss the greater unity plan for the divided party.
The four, Deputy Home Minister Chor Chee Hueng, Chai Kim Sen, national organising secretary Yoo Wei How and Gan Hon Su, were, ironically, appointed by Ong when he won the presidency in October 2008.
The four sacked central committee members had signed a requisition for an EGM to propose fresh polls.
A crucial central committee meeting to be held this afternoon could decide whether the EGM will be held or whether the entire central committee will resign to pave way for elections or simply fall in line behind the president’s greater unity plan.
Dr Chua was seen entering the central committee meeting this afternoon with his son and Labis MP Chua Tee Yong.
It is speculated that the junior Tee has been appointed a central committee member to replace one of the new vacancies along with two others. However, no official announcement has been made.
In a press conference at the MCA headquarters, the four ex-central committee members said that they were not given a reason for the sacking when told this morning but suspected that is was “revenge” for pushing for fresh polls.
A disdainful Chor criticisised Ong as “ungentlemanly” for allegedly going back on his word that he would resign and that he could not “stomach” it.
“He has to resort to all kinds of methods to safeguard his position, by hook or by crook,” said Chor.
Asked about whether his cabinet post would be affected, Chor said that it was up to the prime minister.
“You have to separate party from cabinet,” he said.
Asked whether they would support the so-called “greater unity plan”, all four protested that they had no idea what it was.
“It was never communicated to the central committee,” said Chor.
Sorry lah Chor , this is politics ...if you cannot understand how politics functions or what is politics then all I can say is you are not fit to be a CC . You see the President appointed you into CC , he has every right to remove you as CC as your conduct is outrages and on the verge of treason , as one of the EGM 2 signatories . For the other three , they fully deserved it , as they are not fit to be appointed . I am glad they are OUT .

Islamic Party Gains Clout in Malaysia

On Nov. 23, after months of delays, a High Court in Kuala Lumpur is expected to hear yet another appeal from Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim against trial on charges that he had sex with a 24-year-old male aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.
Partly because of Anwar's troubles, not the least of them the charges, which have been hanging over his head since June of 2008, and for several other reasons, it is beginning to appear as if Malaysia is undergoing a historic political realignment.
Political observers in Kuala Lumpur say the sodomy charges, viewed by many as manufactured to destroy Anwar's political career, are leaving Anwar's own Parti Keadilan Rakyat distracted and rudderless. The heady days of March 2008, when the three-party coalition wrested five states from the Barisan Nasional and broke its 50-year hold on a two-thirds majority in Parliament, are in the past.
The opposition coalition is being harried on all sides by the Barisan and suffering from internal conflicts that have weakened it considerably. In addition, possibly because he is distracted by the trial, the sources say, Anwar, a charismatic speaker, has not been a particularly effective leader.
As a result, the leadership of the opposition is passing from Anwar's Parti Keadilan to Parti Islam se-Malaysia, the fundamentalist Islamic party with its roots in the rural, poor northeast of the country. It is PAS, as the party is known, that has the political infrastructure, manpower and stamina for the long haul.
Many Keadilan members, one analyst says, came from the dominant United Malays National Organisation, the biggest ethnic party in the ruling national coalition, and they are susceptible to returning to it if they don't see the opportunity for Keadilan to take over to rule the country. And that hope appears to have gone glimmering after Anwar had promised to take over more than a year ago and failed.
In the meantime PAS has moved shrewdly to consolidate its growing power in urban areas, particularly the Selangor area surrounding the capital of Kuala Lumpur. Many ethnic Malays, turned off by the continuing money politics and corruption in Umno, are turning to the fundamentalist party, and a surprising number of other ethnic minorities as well.
"PAS will continue to gain momentum. Malays who have switched over moral issues will not return to Umno," said a lawyer with close ties to Umno. But while PAS is seeking to project a more moderate image in the urban areas, the party is quite proud of the conservative changes it has made in the nearly two decades since it took over Kelantan state in 1990. Gambling outlets and pawnshops have been closed, unisex barbershops are closely monitored and Muslim women are required to wear headscarves.
So-called khalwat (close proximity) police roam the streets seeking to make sure boys and girls don't do what comes naturally to most boys and girls. Those restrictions are starting to be felt in Selangor as well. Religious police have raided nightclubs where ethnic Malay men and women have been found to be drinking, there have been attempts to stop beer sales in ethnic Malay areas and imams and bilals (muezzins) have been given the power to police dress and behavior.
Despite earlier flirtation by PAS president Hadi Awang and his supporters to consider joining Umno in an ethnic Malay-dominant PAS will choose to remain in the Pakatan Rakyat coalition, given that it gives the Islamic party the best chance to take power at a federal level despite the earlier flirtation by PAS president Hadi Awang and his supporters to possibly join Umno in an ethnic Malay-dominant coalition. With no business interests, in contrast to UMNO, PAS isn't interested in prolonging the country's New Economic Policy, an affirmative action program for the country's dominant ethnic Malays, who make up 60 percent of the population, according to an analyst for a Kuala Lumpur think tank
"Pas doesn't mind conceding to the Chinese community the entrenchment and growth of Chinese schools, since this doesn't conflict with PAS' goal of imposing shariah (Islamic religious) law," the analyst said. "PAS has continually said shariah law won't apply to non-Muslims, pointing to their governance in Kelantan. But what a lot of Chinese forget is that because PAS doesn't have power at the federal level, it cannot impose shariah law. Who knows what PAS will do if it gets the opportunity to impose shariah law throughout the country. Will they exempt non-Muslims from Shariah law? I doubt it."
Pakatan can't be counted out, despite the disarray manifested in the East Malaysia state of Sabah, where Keadilan leaders recently resigned their party positions in a huff over what they regarded as mismanagement and drift, and the mess in Perak state, where Umno leaders induced several opposition members to change sides, taking the state back into the Barisan camp.
Neither PAS nor the Democratic Action Party, the ethnic Chinese leg of the opposition coalition, intends to let the coalition fail. The DAP, a cadre-based party with considerably more discipline than Parti Keadilan, has continued to gain membership at the expense of the Malaysian Chinese Association, the second biggest ethnic party in the Barisan, which is mired in one of the biggest scandals in the country's history over a plan to build a multimodal port system in Port Klang west of Kuala Lumpur. Party infighting has rendered the party nearly moribund.
"PAS as the leader of Pakatan will pose a far more formidable challenge to Umno than Anwar's party ever did," the think-tank analyst said. "For one thing, there are no corruption charges against PAS; their members can't be persuaded to defect to Umno and PAS credibility with Chinese community is far better than that of Umno." In fact, the analyst added, PAS now has more non-Muslims in its support group than the DAP has members.
In the meantime, the Barisan Nasional, revitalized to some extent by a newly recovering economy and more dynamic leadership on the part of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak despite his own scandal-plagued background, is making dramatic changes of its own – basically deciding to go its own way without the support of its flailing and scandal-plagued minority parties. Najib is said to be under intense pressure from the rank and file to consider allotting fewer cabinet posts to the leaders of the component parties. In the event that some non-Malays are in fact appointed to the cabinet, some Umno members argue, they may in effect have very little clout in their own respective communities.
Najib is also said to be under pressure to not give up seats to representatives of the other parties in by-elections where ethnic Malays dominate because of the parties' weakness. In elections in Perak and Selangor, the sources say, Umno allocated seats to minority parties only to have them lose the seats to the opposition.
There is a growing feeling that because of the wreckage of the minority parties, there is little hope that minority voters will return to the Barisan, and that it would be wiser to concentrate on trying to pull in the Malay vote by itself. If that happens – and Najib is said to be ambivalent at this point, continuing to push his 1Malaysia ethnic harmony mantra – it would be a breakdown of the historic tripartite ethnic compact that has ruled the country from its inception.

Perak PR convention passes 10 resolutions

The Perak Pakatan Rakyat convention saw the passing of 10 resolutions which, among others, called for the three component parties of DAP, PAS and PKR to set aside their differences and make decisions based on consensus.

The resolutions were read out by PAS’ Titi Serong assemblyman Dr Khalil Idham Lim Abdullah after some 600 delegates presented their views during the day-long convention held at the Syuen Hotel here yesterday.

The resolutions are:

1. Cooperation and unity in Pakatan Rakyat must continue to be strengthened in order to topple Umno/Barisan Nasional. Any form of prejudices or negative perceptions between the PR partners must be avoided.

2. Improve on the principle of collective decision by using the negotiation table as a method to solve problems.

3. Strengthen and mobilise party organisations by giving serious emphasis to the setting up of PR collaborative councils at all party levels.

4. Destroy the doctrine of racism right up to the grassroots and improve relationships with the people, government servants, politicians, non-governmental organisations and the Royal Institution.

5. Fielding candidates of good calibre and integrity as the basis and focus of any victory in state or parliamentary seats contested by the PR. To focus on self-improvement programmes for all party members.

6. Continue with using the 5K principles as the foundation to work and rule – justice, honesty, integrity, welfare and transparency.

7. Continue and increase media and information series throughout the state in order to ensure the people receive accurate information and do not have their mindsets ruled by Umno/BN.

8. Programmes to create togetherness amongst the PR parties must be held as soon as possible to ensure all PR members understand each others’ struggles.

9. To continue seeking for the help and blessings of Allah whether faced by a crisis or not.

10. The resolutions committee to push for the PR alliance to be registered as a coalition and be represented by a single logo.

Former Perak mentri besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin said the resolutions would formulate the basis of PR in Perak, which needed to stay strong to face the coming challenges.

“We are stressing on the strengthening of the PR and, as you can see, we have clearly stated that there will be no racial elements in any of our struggles.

“We do not want racism in PR, whether in DAP or PAS or PKR. Unlike us, it is Umno that is racist,” he said in a press conference after the convention.

Malaysia Newspapers - The Evolution Continues

In Malaysia with many local newspapers. Some new, some because at least 50 years. To all the world's newspaper publishers to start most of them political. Malaysia is one of them. New Straits Times, because such a reconciliation in. pre-Independence Day national population. In other words to use as a propaganda tool to attract flocks.

Today, Malaysia's newspapers have political orientation, such as financial news, business, entertainment and other newspapers, and for a variety of child-bearing. To meet the multi-ethnic Malaysia newspaper in Malay language or English, Chinese, Malay, Tamil, Kadazan, Iban and several other local dialects in Malaysia, especially in East Malaysia, the majority language. Because of this difference is not one of the most unique of Malaysia.

When politics comes three newspapers in Malaysia: Pro-Pro is considered opposition, neutral or government type. Like stars and New Straits Times, "is considered by the government, but most of the major newspapers, a democratic country, Malaysia has been pro opposition newspapers in circulation. But sometimes, in some cases, publishers can allow others to use the new - sound "public" to show opposition to the government's view.

Pro-opposition newspapers will instead usually represented in support of his party. Resources and money. However, no complete freedom in Malaysia, when a document proving the opposite, such as those. We can be sure will continue to hope that the best prospects in Malaysia. A.

Nik Aziz coup sends chills through Umno

What New?
Prime Minister Najib Razak is right: The Party Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) is divided on cooperation with the United Malays National Organization (Umno). And that is nothing new.

What is new is that the anti-Umno component of the PAS is taking brave steps that is giving the chill to the Umno.

Najib said there are quarters that give more importance to politics than the interest of the ummah, which indicates the difficulty that the Umno is actually having in bringing the PAS to join it in a coalition in the Barisan National (BN).

Nik Aziz, the PAS spiritual leader launched a daunting challenge to the pro-Umno leaders - who includes the President and the Vice-President of the PAS - to hold a party's Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) in order to decide the future of the party. The EGM would also have decided on the role played by Party President Ustad Hadi Awang and Vice-President Nasaruddin Mat Esa in dividing the party over the cooperation with the Umno.

While the party was taken by surprise by Nik Aziz's move who made his wish known through his blog, the fact remains that the PAS cannot continue being misled over which group it will be loyal to. Will it be the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) or will it be the BN? WIth Nik Aziz's call for the EGM, it was clear that news was out about the party leadership still courting the Umno for a possible jump to the BN.
Now thrown in the open, the PAS leadership has to prove it is not working in the shadows with the BN component party the Umno against the Pakatan Rakyat partners with which it is in a coalition that forms the opposition in Malaysia.

Politics Malaysia in Perak

What A Joke!

I really can’t just let the events of the past few days go by without reacting to it. So there.
It was strange actually because I had totally disassociate myself from news back home while I was on holiday in Perth – in fact, I only checked my mobile phone (with Malaysian SIM card in place) as I was packing on the last night only to find 28 SMS messages. About half of them were about the events in Perak!
Clearly I had no idea, but from what I gathered, there was an attempt of dissolving Parliament, and Barisan Nasional wresting power from a Pakatan Rakyat government.
It was only when I got back that I read up on it, and still not sure what happened – how a political party would re-accept a member who left them barely a week prior, how politicians could leave their own party a few days after that happened and how both parties are claiming rightful possession of the state government … oh my god, my head is spinning.
I think this whole thing is a farce, in my opinion. There has been reports of possible corruption but I am not judging. I don’t really care what has happened. All I know is that the headlines in The West Australian as I left Perth was “Liberals reject Rudd’s $42b stimulus package” and every other country is dealing with economy.
Back in Malaysia? We are wondering if we need laws to out-law party hopping.
I have always been against the idea of people giving up their seats and forcing a by-election. I always thought that it was a waste of money, a waste of effort and a mockery of democracy.
But right now, I think the people – who voted these clowns in, in the first place – should get a chance to vote again for who they want in Government.
Then again, when you think about it – both (former and current) Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat reps have made such fools of themselves that the good people have no one left to vote for.
This is not even a circus, folks, it’s a bloody freak show.