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In the United States, in Ann Arbor, Friday has just passed. In Iraq (tag), it’s been many hours into Saturday and in Malaysia, it’s half way to Sunday. Friday was the deadline for Jill Carroll.
This is dedicated to Jill Carroll. I’m hoping not for the worst. There is too much madness in this world.
Something terribly wrong is going on here in Malaysia (tag). Despite disapproval from Malaysian Cabinet, a government-based religious body is going to go ahead and establish a moral police squad. As if having the Malaysian police force acting as moral police is not enough, now we are going to have an official moral police entity. Meanwhile, amendment to Article 121 (1A) of the Malaysian Constitution – an article which deals with division of power between civil and syariah courts in Malaysia – which aims to make the constitution more just, are receiving popular opposition from the Muslim community; popular support for the amendment is apparently coming from non-Muslims. This collision must be avoided.
If the plan to set up the moral police goes through, this is where Malaysian human rights watchdogs like Suhakam, Hakam, Suaram, etc, could prove their worth. In the name of privacy, a class action suit against the moral police is a must. The suit must demand the entity disbandment while at the same time, prevents of similar future establishment. I don’t know about you but it seems to me these watchdogs, with exception of Suhakam, are dominated by non-Muslims and this might pose a delicate problem by turning it into a Muslims versus non-Muslims episode.
These days, as with the amendment of Article 121 (1A) of the Malaysian Constitution, it’s unfortunate to see that it’s mostly non-Muslims that are trying to defend various civil rights. To make it worse, some civil rights overlaps with Islamic sphere. This makes it easy for Muslim far-rightists to appeal to the Muslim masses that non-Muslims are trying to challenge Islam’s authority. No thanks to this, Muslim rightists could easily gain popular support from Muslim community in Malaysia.
This very reason is why I disagree with the way the Malaysian Consultative Council for Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Sikh (MCCBCHS) is handling the matter. They should have worked with other rights-conscious Muslims instead of presenting themselves as champion of the non-Muslims. The way MCCBCHS acted only encourage a Muslim versus non-Muslim worldview. Memo by the 10 non-Muslim ministers on religious conversion to the Prime Minister is another unwelcoming development. Again, they should find at least a Muslim minister to join in, presenting an united Malaysian front and not an united non-Muslim front. The non-Muslim ministers and MCCBCHS’ recent actions are merely strengthening far-rightists’ base.
Populism could be very hard to counter with logical thinking. PAS, a Malaysian Islamist party, has already expressed support for the moral police and opposition to the amendment. They see this opportunity and they will definitely manipulate the masses to its own gain. I’m sure that the 10 ministers are also working on popular frequency. I hate this because currently, we are in a very volatile situation. All these developments might push everybody, including centrists, to a quagmire. Here, I offer a strategy for Malaysians to prevent themselves from falling into rightists’ hands.
The strategy to counter a rightist populists’ point is to prevent any of them from making populist’s argument in the first place. To put it bluntly, we need to stop a snowball from becoming an avalanche. That is, since the Muslim far-rightists are starting to make this as a Muslims versus non-Muslims dichotomy while the non-Muslims surprisingly are unaware of that they are falling into rightist’s hand, it is very important for the rights groups which unfortunately are apparently but not necessarily (I’m sure that liberal and moderate Muslims are concerned with erosion of civil liberties too; remind yourself of Nixon’s “silent majority”) dominated by non-Muslims to cast a Muslim face on the movement. Or at least a neutral face. Dr. Chandra Muzaffar looks like a possible candidate, though I’m not sure where he stands on the matter. Regardless, it’s very important that the face is not a mere puppet.
The same strategy applies to DAP or any other so-called multiracial political parties too if they plan to expand; though, they need Muslim Malays instead of just Muslims.
Before reading on further, please make explicit mental note that civil rights groups and rightists do not refer to the same group. Civil rights groups are placed in context of rights and privileges while rightists are found in right-left spectrum. Be very clear of that. Having the two groups sharing the same root word is, I suppose, an ugly language accident.
Once the civil rights groups have a Muslim face, the rightists will have trouble making their Muslim/non-Muslim points. Once that’s done, with them deprived of Muslim/non-Muslim dichotomy, these rightists will probably fall back to “secularism is the root of all evil” argument. For instance, this “secular militant“. But “secularism is the root of all evil” is easy to counter since once these rightists do that, they are only blabbering and will start to rely on spurious conspiracy theories that nobody actually cares.
erratum – Bernama says that 10 ministers handed the memo and that’s inaccurate. Only 9 ministers were involved.
I might have heard the news wrongly and I’m neither a Malaysian telcos industry expert nor a not-so-casual observer. Nevertheless, while I was lying on my stomach and effortlessly switching channels, I came across a news report over TV3 about broadband infrastructures owners charging users exorbitant fee (access fee maybe?). These users, I presume, in context anyway, are broadband internet service providers,
The relevant minister, Lim Keng Yaik, through the clip, was almost angry and visibly frustrated at the owners. These owners, judging from excerpt of Keng Yaik’s speech, sound like monopolies. So, it’s safe to assume they act as monopolies too. Monopoly leads to inefficient pricing which in turn leads to inefficient outcome and, in this case, prevents greater broadband penetration in Malaysia. Current Malaysian broadband penetration rate is low and the government wants to change that. As Lim Keng Yaik’s ministry is responsible for telecommunication sectors in Malaysia, I understand his frustration.
I felt a sort of empathy for him until I heard – think I heard, rather – he said, if the owners refuse to cooperate with the government in lowering the fee, the government will stop issuing more broadband licenses. Now, I’m not sure what kind of license he was talking about. But it seems, through context again, he was referring to the permits for laying down broadband infrastuctures like fiber optics and stuff. If what I heard is true, then this is bad economics (tag).
The problem is monopoly and a monopoly charges higher price for its good compared to a competitive firm. If the government stop issuing the licenses, wouldn’t that would actually reward the monopolies instead of punishing them?
I mean, halting the license issuance would effectively guarantee the existing infrastructures owners of market power.
If license doesn’t refer to the owners but instead refers to ISPs however, then maybe the punishing plan might work. Stoppage of the license issuance to ISPs would deprive owners of broadband infrastructure of revenue. But then, that wouldn’t help broadband penetration in Malaysia at all.
And if what he said actually meant stopping issuing licenses to existing owners, then that might make better sense. In fact, I think, this is the case.
Right now, I hope I heard it all wrong. I can’t find anything off the internet yet. So, I can’t confirm what Lim Keng Yaik said or meant but I’m sure a report will pop up somewhere within the next 24 hours. I’ll do a postscript entry here once the report is out. Stay tuned.
p/s – wow. 3,000 tonnes at all three sites. Sounds like Malaysia needs to bring down the cost of safely dumping waste legally fast.
Two more illegal toxic waste dump sites have been discovered (tag). Well, not discovered per se but was announched instance by a person that helped moved the waste around. Found it out through TV3 and good old Bernama carries an article about it. While Bernama doesn’t name the location of the other two sites, TV3 reveals that the two others are located in Yong Peng, Segamat which is also in Johor.
Earlier this month – still an ongoing controversy – drums of illegally dumped aluminum dross were discovered in Labis. And while the article states that a total of 300 tonnes of aluminum dross were dumped, TV3 insists a couple days ago that the quantity is far greater. The Department of Environment will have a lot of answering to do for the next few days. This revelation proves that Department of Environment is ineffective.
So, Johor – a state with crooks running around freely on one big land designated as a huge toxic waste dump site. What’s next?
Ah, Selangor. The states where nature reserves are gazetted for anything but nature conservation.
p/s – Article 153 of the Malaysian Constitution is Wikipedia’s current Today’s Featured Article. It’s mostly fellow Malaysian Wikipedian Johnleemk‘s work. As with any featured article, this article is suffering above average act of vandalism. One vandal wrote “Article 153 of the Constitution of Malaysia grants the peoples of this world to declare that Wikipedia is Communism.”
Heh.
Another vandal is a little bit too naughty. Do not click on the naughty link if you are easily disturbed. How disturbing the link is? Well, let’s say that Parents For The Online Safety of Children would be extremely worked up if they saw that.
pp/s – one thing for sure, there won’t be too much fun for far-leftists in Singapore this September.
p3/s – almost bullshit. Why don’t they sue Jeremy Clarkson too…
Yahoo! has AP’s version of the report. It’s on the front page too.
I’ve been following news on Hulu Langat logging with great interest for the past few days. Locals there allege that logging activity is occuring within the boundary of a nature reserve. State government however insists otherwise and goes as far as saying that the trees fell there are on private property.
One reason for my interest is Selangor’s ugly reputation in environmental care (tag). I still remember what happened to a nature reserve in near Shah Alam with the state government’s consent. This case in Hulu Langat might strike an awful resemblance with that of the reserve near Shah Alam.
The question that needs an answering right now is obviously the status of the area. Who is right – the locals or the state government?
If it is the locals, the state government would be hard pressed to find a scapegoat or two all over again. In the case of the reserve near Shah Alam, if I recall correctly, the developers were charged of several offences but the government officials that approved the development essentially got away. If the logging in Hulu Langat occured within the boundary of another reserve, like what had occured at the reserve near Shah Alam, then, who approved it?
If it is the state government is right, then there is no case at all and the loggers should be allowed to continue their work.
But if the logging activity is done within the reserve, when the approval was given out?
A Google search reveals that an approval for logging activity in Hulu Langat was given on April 2001 to a firm named Fungsi Mewah Sdn Bhd. I however am not sure if the 2001 approval is related to the area in question currently but according to Bernama, the reserve itself was declared as a “Heritage Park” on August 27, 2005.
Through TV3, we know that the loggers are Fungsi Mewah Sdn Bhd – the same company that received the logging permit in 2001. This connection might suggest that the alleged logging within the reserve was approved in 2001. If all assumptions stand, it’s odd how nobody within the government remember about the concession when they declared the area as a reserve. A sign of incompetency perhaps?
Of interest, Google seach reveals that Fungsi Mewah has several interesting connections with Selangor Chief Minister Khir Toyo.
Whatever the answer is, the state government has ordered a stop to the loggers. But according to TV3, the loggers are ignoring the order. Bernama confirms this. Fungsi Mewah alleged connections with Khir Toyo might have contributed to the firm’s audacity to ignore the Chief Minister’s order.
But then, if the logging is done on private property as the Chief Minister has mentioned, why issue stop order in the first place? Odd, isn’t it?