Tag: religious conservatism

Categories
Economics Politics & government Society

[1324] Of a grim signal for the opposition and possibly a bad survey

In both Turkey and Japan, voters’ main concern is the same: the health of the economy.

The Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research conducted a survey earlier in June and this is the result:

A survey by the Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research in June found that 76 per cent of Malays thought the economy was favourable, but only 45 per cent of Chinese and 58 per cent of Indians shared their view. [News Focus: Economy, crime main concerns of Malaysians. Darshni, Shamini. NST. August 7 2007]

That does not sound good for any opposition party that depends on Malay votes.

Regardless, this might be a result of a very confusing question:

Asked whether they thought Malaysia was lagging other economies but if programmes and other government efforts would help the country catch up, 24 per cent of Malays, 44 per cent of Chinese and 45 per cent of Indians disagreed. [News Focus: Economy, crime main concerns of Malaysians. Darshni, Shamini. NST. August 7 2007]

Do the participants disagree to the statement “the economy is lagging” or “government effort helps to catch up”?

And these results do not make sense, or at least something is missing.

On Islamisation, 91 per cent of Malays said they supported the idea while 82 per cent of Chinese and 58 per cent of Indians did not. [News Focus: Economy, crime main concerns of Malaysians. Darshni, Shamini. NST. August 7 2007]

Do read that together with:

Among those who felt the Islamisation process had a positive effect, 29 per cent said it instilled noble values and eight per cent said the religion helped reduce social ills and indecency. [News Focus: Economy, crime main concerns of Malaysians. Darshni, Shamini. NST. August 7 2007]

Only 29% of the sample agrees that Islamization instill noble values and only 8% agrees that religion reduces social ills but 91% of Malays support Islamization. Odd.

I believe a more meaningful way of presenting the results is to either divide the result regarding instillation of noble values into ethnic groups, or to have the percentage out of the total sample related to the question of support for Islamization instead of having it in its current form. Only through either one method does one could compare an apple to an apple. By reading this article from the New Straits Times, it is either the reporter has bad critical writing skill or the Merdeka Centre conducts unreliable survey.

I tried to clarify some of my confusion by looking for the actual survey. The Merdeka Centre’s site however is disappointing: nothing relevant could be found there.

But putting technical questions aside, could it be that the reason behind support for Islamization is neither about promoting noble values nor reducing social ills but mostly caused by something else?

And finally:

On Islamisation, 91 per cent of Malays said they supported the idea while 82 per cent of Chinese and 58 per cent of Indians did not. [News Focus: Economy, crime main concerns of Malaysians. Darshni, Shamini. NST. August 7 2007]

A concrete fact to support my earlier post.

Categories
Politics & government Society

[1323] Of unelected representatives have no mandate to represent everybody

There is strength in numbers… with all things equal, of course. Those active in politics realize this and they work hard to build up their bases. Some however pretend that they have similar support, claiming to represent a body while no member of the body could recall appointing any representative to speak for the members as one. Though this might seem odd to those with the right of mind, self-proclaimed but unelected representatives are as common as rats in the monsoon drain.

It is not hard to find an example or two.

One that comes to mind is the component parties of the Barisan Nasional. It is customary for those in UMNO to claim to speak for all Malays, claiming to represent all Malays. The same is true to MCA and MIC. This however is untrue because not all Malays agree to be represented by UMNO, or any other community for that matter. When presented with proof that these race-based parties do not represent every Malay, Chinese, Indian, etc as they claim to be, their way out is to accuse those that refused to be represented by them as traitors.

What these unelected representatives really mean by traitors really not traitors to the community but rather, traitors to the unelected leaders, which none has pledged loyalty to in the first place.

Another similar example relates to the religious conservative Muslims who claimed to speak for the whole Muslim community, as if the Muslim community is a monolith society with a single mind. When those that disagree raised their voice against these unelected representatives, the self-proclaimed leaders began calling those that have different minds as heretics. But the religious conservatives are strange animals. While they may play with exclusive politics game, when one genuine wishes to opt out of the community, these religious conservatives actively hinder one’s liberty to do so. A true catch-22 — they will shove you out of the door but they do not let you go out of the door. The minds of the religious conservatives are truly mindless.

In both cases, the trend is observable, as clear as daylight. The unelected representatives masquerade as the authorities of a community despite knowing full well that they have no organic mandate to speak for everybody in the community. When dissenting voice fills the air to remind the pretenders of that fact, these unelected representatives would accuse the reminders as traitors to the community. The accusation continues on and on until only those that agree with the unelected leaders, as well as those that are too afraid of being labeled as traitors, are the only ones left in the community.

Suddenly, only those that stay loyal to the unelected representative are the true members of the community. The others which were part of the original and more inclusive community are now the outsiders.

The unelected representatives have no mandate to represent us; they have no mandate to represent a community which has never appointed them as the speakers. These unelected representatives are merely pretenders, impostors, liars. Or at the very least, these unelected representatives assume that they have the support of the community; they simply assume too much.

Categories
Conflict & disaster

[1313] Of Taliban celebrating murder

There is no moral in the killing of civilians.

The Taliban however has no issue with that:

KABUL, Afghanistan, Tuesday, July 31 — The Taliban have shot and killed a second South Korean hostage, the governor of Ghazni Province confirmed Tuesday morning.

[…]

The Taliban seized 23 South Koreans from a bus as they travelled through the province on the Kabul-Kandahar highway on July 19. [Afghan Police Find Body of 2nd Korean. NYT. July 31 2007]

Taliban supporters must be jumping up and down, celebrating murder in the name of Islam. Little do the Taliban realizes that by murdering those South Koreans, they make new enemies instead of garnering sympathy. Worse, the inhumane act only tarnishes the image of Islam, forcing the innocent others that rather not to be associated with neo-kharijism (I personally more inclined to use the term Islamofascist because that is what they are, an Islamist and a fascist) to face hostile generalization in an already difficult world.

In a times of conflict, misery is expected but killing civilians on purpose is more than immoral. But what do the Taliban and its supporters care?

Categories
Liberty Society

[1284] Of utter outrage

I repeat, utter outrage:

A Malaysian woman held for months in an Islamic rehabilitation centre says she was subjected to mental torture for insisting her religion is Hinduism.

Revathi Massosai, the name by which she wants to be known, says she was forced to eat beef despite being a Hindu. [Malaysia ‘convert’ claims cruelty. BBC. July 6 2007]

I am lost for words.

Categories
Humor Society

[1269] Of the Malaysian government’s war on crime

So, after failed war on drugs, war on tobacco, war on Mat Rempit, war on inflation, etc, now we are on the verge of another war: war on crime.

Here is a few tips on how to reduce our horrible crime rate.

  1. The Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin has a brilliant idea: the press should stop reporting on crime and violence that occur in our society. Indeed that there is a positive correlation between the number of crime committed and news reporting on crime. Surely because of the positive correlation, the reduction of one factor would reduce the other. Never mind that correlation is not causation. Besides, fighting real crime is tough. We need to be smart and fight the easier battle. If the easier path leads to the same result, why not take the easier path? Biggest bang for the buck!
  2. It is all about mind over matter. If nobody is aware of any crime committed anywhere, then there is no crime at all. Seriously, who would hear a falling timber in the middle of a jungle, in the middle of nowhere? And here is the beauty of this rationale: if the press stops reporting on crime, the public would be unaware of any crime and then, voila, no crime! Seriously, there is no fork and there is no crime.
  3. People always forget that the crime rate we all hear or read about everyday in the news is actually reported crime rate. This is an important realization because if the police force records less reports, that would mean lower crime rate! Hence, the police force should just refuse recording reports from the public. The refusal would lead to lower crime rate!
  4. Oh, oh, do not forget this. More compulsory religious classes! Religion is the panacea to all of worldly miseries. Of course, crime committed in the name of religion, like kidnapping, is not crime but rather, justice as demanded god. Kill all infidels!
  5. We all know how nice we all are. We do not commit rate. In fact, the immigrants are the cause of all our woes! Do not trust statistics that says we as locals commit more crime that the immigrants. You know that statistics is untrue. But enough of statistics and here is a solution: send all of those immigrants back to hell! We do not need them (but please let me keep my maid).
  6. Ban content from the West! Western culture is corrupting the purer and better eastern values and moral. We need to censor those no good western values.
  7. Eight, redefine crime! Crime is no more crime and protesting against crime is a crime! It is imperative to arrest those that protest against crime because such protest raises awareness about crime. If awareness increases, it creates crime and that is unacceptable! Refer to number 2.
  8. Recruit criminals as crime fighters. If all criminals are now crime fighters, all criminals are basically the cops now. Hence, no more criminal to commit crime. It might have failed with the Mat Rempit but trust me, it will work now!

If implemented properly, we all would be living in a safe society. Definitely safer than living in Baghdad. Fret not Malaysians, the government will win this war for us!