Category: Liberty

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Liberty Society

[725] Of Malaysia’s cool, other countries with Muslim majority aren’t

When I first heard that a Danish media published caricatures of Prophet Mohammad last year, to be honest, being a Muslim myself, I was slightly irritated. Though it’s an act of free speech, the Danish media abused its rights. That was that and I didn’t expect it to balloon up unnecessarily. I didn’t expect it because I don’t think it’s rational for such issue to take a center stage in world politics. Apparently, I have overestimated the Muslim world’s sensibility. Muslim Malaysians on the contrary are acting coolly. Comparing Malaysians’ response against Arabs and Indonesians’ reaction on it, I can’t help but feel proud to be a Malaysian.

In my opinion, what’s happening in the Muslim world is a gross overreaction followed by impossible demand. The side at fault is the rightwing newspaper Jyllands-Posten, not the Danish government. Moreover, the Danish government has no right to censor the newspaper. Nobody should but that’s another matter altogether. Hence, the Danish government has no reason to apologize.

I’m not sure whether it’s simply a refusal to understand the concept of free press or a thick skull but a lot of people are choosing to ignore why the Danish government is refusing to take the blame. Libya’s act of closing its embassy in Denmark is one of the overreaction and also an example of failure to appreciate free press concept. Another one is consumer boycotts in the Arab world. These boycotts, instead of hurting the rightwing paper, are hurting real people that have nothing to do with the paper. This is plain wrong. It’s as stupid as Republicans’ action of boycotting French fries during the invasion of Iraq – that boycott would only hurt potatoes farmers in the United States instead of the French economy.

Malaysian Prime Minister has been discrete on the matter, criticizing the paper instead of the Danish government. Apart from 50 PAS supporters that protested in front of the Danish embassy in Kuala Lumpur yesterday – which obviously doesn’t represent the majority – Malaysians are being quite rational on the matter. I haven’t heard Malaysians storming the Danish embassy like what happened in Jakarta or anybody calling a boycott of Danish or any European products here in Malaysia yet.

The ability to discern between the government and a private entity is not lost on Malaysians, unlike Arabic countries and Indonesia. In fact, I think, Malaysia is the only Muslim-majority country that is not blaming the Danish government for a private entity’s doing. I might be wrong but it seems like so.

To all Muslims out there, seriously, be sensible. The first thing to do is to realize that it’s a rightwing paper that started this, not Denmark the country. Differentiate the two and then comprehend that the Danish government can’t censor that paper. Blaming and targeting the Danish government and its people for things that they didn’t do only complicates the matter at hand and bring about a much unneeded clash of culture.

So Denmark, I stand by thee. But definitely not by Jyllands-Posten.

Public domain. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flag_of_Denmark.svg

I will not treat a country that believes in green energy unfairly. So, buy Danish!p/s – stupid, stupid. This is way beyond overreacting.

pp/s – despite all this, it doesn’t change the fact that there is hypocrisy involved. This comic aptly captures the hypocrisy.

Fair use. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Arabcartoon.jpg

Quoting Wikipedia: Cartoon from Jordanian newspaper Al Ghad. Counter-clockwise: “This one is anti-semitic”, “this one is racist”, “those fall under free speech”.

Categories
Liberty Politics & government

[722] Of State of the Union: Hamas and Bush’s hypocrisy

Bush just had his 2006 State of the Union a couple of hours back. One of his points is:

Far from being a hopeless dream, the advance of freedom is the great story of our time. In 1945, there were about two dozen lonely democracies in the world. Today, there are 122. And we’re writing a new chapter in the story of self-government — with women lining up to vote in Afghanistan, and millions of Iraqis marking their liberty with purple ink, and men and women from Lebanon to Egypt debating the rights of individuals and the necessity of freedom. At the start of 2006, more than half the people of our world live in democratic nations. And we do not forget the other half — in places like Syria and Burma, Zimbabwe, North Korea, and Iran — because the demands of justice, and the peace of this world, require their freedom, as well.

Yes. When the Palestinians democratically elect Hamas into office, suddenly, it’s not acceptable, isn’t it?

A reminder for Bush: in real democracy, you can’t always get the result that you yearn for.

Contrary to Bush and several others’ belief, including Israel, I believe that this is a chance to establish greater peace between Israel and Palestine. Take the Hamas’ ceasefire for instance. Hamas is staying true to its words. Hamas has not launched any single attack on Israel for the last few months. Meanwhile, Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza Strip speaks well from Israel.

Both are signals that both sides could assume good faith. Because of that, I have high hope the ceasefire could a stepping stone for a comprehensive and viable peace plan if Israel and Hamas-led government could sort things out on a negotiation table. If Israel and everybody else won’t talk to Hamas, then things won’t go for the better.

Isolation just won’t work. It didn’t work with North Korea, neither did it work for Iran nor Myanmar. It didn’t even work with Arafat when he was alived. Isolation will only bring more trouble. The European Union, United States and Israel cannot pretend that Hamas doesn’t represent the people of Palestine.

While saying this, Hamas must realize that the state of Israel is not going anywhere. Israel has a right to exist regardless of history. The most viable solution is a two-state solution. The time for war has come and gone.

p/s – this is starting to become very ridiculous. Protesting Muslims don’t seem to comprehend free speech while German and French media can’t seem to appreciate diversity.

pp/s – well, somebody disagrees with me. It seems he prefers war to peace.

Categories
Conflict & disaster Liberty

[713] Of passing deadline and Jill Carroll

In the United States, in Ann Arbor, Friday has just passed. In Iraq , it’s been many hours into Saturday and in Malaysia, it’s half way to Sunday. Friday was the deadline for Jill Carroll.

Fair Use. Christian Science Monitor. http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0110/p01s04-woiq.html?s=rss

This is dedicated to Jill Carroll. I’m hoping not for the worst. There is too much madness in this world.

Categories
ASEAN Economics Liberty

[706] Of Cambodian dictatorship and ASEAN

Malaysia and several other ASEAN members have been criticizing Myanmar for the latter’s lack of meaningful democratic progress. To the southeast beyond Thailand, lies Cambodia with a dictator is in the making. Despite Cambodia’s alarming progress towards dictatorship, ASEAN leaders are yet to say a word about it.

For the past few days, Cambodian government have been arresting Cambodians critical of the government on the ground of defamation. The arrest has sparked condemnation from several organization, including Amnesty International. AI in its press release accuses the Cambodian government of manipulating Cambodian courts. The New York Times in one of its articles says that this is not an isolated incident. Opposition leaders and others have been arrested by the government. This makes these arrests as a part of a larger erosion of freedom in Cambodia:

Cambodian Leader Cracks Down in Bid to Solidify Power
By SETH MYDANS
Published: January 9, 2006

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, Jan. 8 – The harshest political crackdown in years is under way here in what some analysts are calling the final stage in Prime Minister Hun Sen’s drive to consolidate unchallenged power.

Over the past year, he has choked off the last effective political opposition while continuing to marginalize the monarchy, manipulate the courts and intimidate labor unions and other civic groups. In December, the leader of the only significant opposition party, Sam Rainsy, who had already fled the country, was sentenced in absentia to 18 months in prison for criminal defamation.

Now, with a series of arrests and lawsuits on defamation and related charges, Mr. Hun Sen is for the first time directly attacking the human rights groups that, by default, serve as a de facto democratic opposition…

ASEAN has a unique role to apply pressure against Cambodia. The 10-member confederation could admonish the Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and perhaps, put a check on current Cambodian political atmosphere. But it is not doing so and I think I know why they are silent on the matter.

ASEAN takes pride of its non-interference policy but it makes an exception for Myanmar thanks to US and EU initiative. Unlike Myanmar, the European Union and United States are not pushing ASEAN to deal with Cambodia accordingly. With no outside push, ASEAN seems happy to stay away from making a comment on its members. Well, I think it’s just wrong and ASEAN needs to make a statement on Cambodia.

The reason for such need is simple – it’s the ASEAN Charter which guarantees human rights. Though the Charter has yet to be drafted, this is a chance for ASEAN to prove to the world and more importantly, to its own citizens that the charter will not be just another piece of paper. If ASEAN fails to speak up against Cambodia, it will be harder to deal with such case in the future even when the Charter is in place.

Then, of course, besides the lack of outside pressure, another reason why ASEAN is not doing anything about the issue is because its more prosperous members, particularly Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, are not quite saints when it comes to human rights.

p/s – Volkswagen ends partnership with Proton. So, Proton is going to keep Lotus after all.

Categories
Liberty Society Sports

[703] Of real Devils worshippers are not black metal fans!

So yeah, some narrow minded and paranoia people in local authority arrested hundreds of people for attending a black metal show near Kuala Lumpur about last week. Moral police that have nothing else to do but masturbate on their supposedly moral superiority, instead of using it on real crime, used up precious police resources to harrass black metal fans. These moral police insist that those fans are worshipping the devils. Well, moral police are wrong. They are attacking the wrong group.

How do I know? In The Star today:

scanned by Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Fair use.

Moral police should act against the real Devils worshippers. This cult must be stopped immediately!Our hope in stopping these misguided souls that also pray to manure now lies in the hand of our heroes the moral police! Moral police! We need you!

Praise Burton Albion for doing God’s work in holding the Devils down. This might give time for Malaysian moral police to get their act together!

Manchester United fans, watchout. Believe it or not, you might be next.

p/s – alert, alert! Stupid moral police on the loose. Kosmo! editors and the article’s author need to resign on ground of stupidity.