When Civil Court and Syariah Court collides

Jimmy Puah

It is a cardinal rule of law, that all laws enacted should be clear and unambiguous in terms. The reasoning for this is that everyone should know their legal rights and when not to step out of the legal boundary.

It is for this reason that especially in criminal law, great effort is made to scrutinise every wording of an Act.

The recent custodial dispute involving S. Deepa and Izwan Abdullah has brought this issue to the forefront.

The significance of this case not only highlights the need for certainty in law but it also examines the legal quandary involving rights of Muslims and non-Muslims when their legal rights cross path.

Parliament must act on overlapping jurisdiction

Tan Keng Liang

I refer to the recent controversy involving the case of S. Deepa who was granted custody of her two children by the Seremban High Court last Tuesday.

The Shariah Court had earlier given custody of the children to her former husband, Izwan Abdullah.

Subsequently, her former husband took one of their children despite the recent custodial order by the High Court.

On the matter, the Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said police were unable to act on the matter because of the conflicting decision by the High Court and the Shariah Court.

Zaid losing the plot

JOSH HONG

Acutely aware that Pakatan Rakyat is full of rotten apples and characters obsessed with ambitions, I have long remained silent despite the series of public spats between the opposition camp and Zaid Ibrahim since they fell out. Sometimes, the tit-for-tits between the two are so trivial and ridiculous that one wonders how Malaysians have been able to put up with childish politicians for so long.

Having said that, the former law minister did win my respect when he resigned from the government in protest at the blatant use of the Internal Security Act back in September 2009. But that was then, and this is now. How sad it is to know that the once feisty leader is fast becoming a national joke himself.

‘Shahidan’s call reinforces gerrymandering claim’

Ram Anand

The proposal by a BN minister for Malaysians to vote according to race only reinforces fears that the Election Commission (EC)’s redelineation exercise is being carried out on the same basis.

Shahidan Kassim, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, had mooted the idea. He also has oversight of the EC.

“(The suggestion) is ridiculous and (it is) very shameful that we have a minister saying this because it perpetuates the race issue,” Bersih chairperson Maria Chin Abdullah  said.

Bible Society criticises Selangor for ‘washing its hands’ off confiscated Al-Kitab

TMI

The Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM) has criticised the Selangor government for asking the society to write to the Attorney-General’s office for the return of 300 Bibles in Bahasa Malaysia (Al-Kitab) and the Iban language (Bup Kudus).

Claiming that the Selangor exco had made many promises to return the Bibles that were seized by the Selangor Islamic Affairs Department (Jais) in January, the BSM considered the latest statement from Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim as the state “washing their hands off the problem”.

“The BSM will not write to the AG,” the society said in a statement released in response to the state government’s request.

Perkasa’s Ibrahim Ali on Sarawak’s blacklist, says chief minister

TMI

Ibrahim Ali (pic) is the latest politician to be put on the list of those barred from entering Sarawak, said Tan Sri Adenan Satem.

“Don’t ever try to enter Sarawak,” the Sarawak chief minister told Ibrahim, after reports that the Perkasa president had slipped through Immigration checks into the state recently.

In a veiled threat to the Malay rights group chief, Adenan said: “He (Ibrahim) will find out what happens next time he comes to Sarawak”.

Adenan was answering questions today why the state barred opposition leaders from the state for the Balingian by-election, but allowed Ibrahim in.

PTPTN education lifeline abused

Pauline Wong

The National Higher Education Fund Corporation (or PTPTN by its Malay acronym) has served as a lifeline for many students seeking tertiary education since it was established in 1997.

The loan is especially helpful for those who are not born with a silver spoon. They rely on the PTPTN loan to take them through university and earn a degree, which is crucial in securing a job and eventually a steady income. In short, the fund is there for them in their hour of need, providing them the opportunity to complete their studies.

However, many treat it as a grant and fail to repay when they graduate, thus depriving others from enjoying the same benefits.

Wan Junaidi trivialising statutory rape

Heng Seai Kie

Rather than retracting his explanation that “non-Malays are more accepting of statutory rape” and despite the outrage by women’s groups and members of the public, I am appalled that Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Wan Jaafar has sought to further justify his remark.

Wan Junaidi has now gone on to assert that “some victims lodge reports to save face or if parents did not agree to their teenage children getting married. Yet, the sex may have been consensual.”

Sexual assault knows no ethnic boundary. To turn the bodily violation and harrowing impact that sex deviants leave on the victims into a racial categorisation as to which ethnicity is more prone to being receptive or vocal against it smacks of obsolete colonial racial theories, bigotry and prejudice.

MAS fails to defend pilots’ reputations

MARIAM MOKHTAR

The failure of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) to defend its own pilots is disgraceful. The reputations of MH370 Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah and co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid are being dragged through the mud, but MAS cannot or will not come to their defence. Why?

MAS pilots are professionals and have gone through rigorous selection, training and regular evaluation. The pilots’ political beliefs have no bearing on their professionalism.

So, when Najib Abdul Razak’s administration made Zaharie (left) a scapegoat, and the MAS CEO failed to support his pilots, the confidence of MAS employees, potential investors and airline customers was severely shaken.

Malaysia rejects indigenous rights at the UN

Sarawak Report

In October 2013, Malaysia underwent its 2nd Cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the United Nations. The UPR is a process which involves a review of the human rights records of all 193 UN Member States. It provides an opportunity for all States to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries.

In an appalling response to the rights of Malaysia’s indigenous communities, the Malaysian Government has rejected the following recommendations made by the Governments of Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.

MH370 exposes to the world Malaysia’s WEAKNESSES after 5 decades of UMNO-BN MISRULE

Sarawak Report

Malaysians are used to suffering under third rate leaders, promoted because of family not merit, and they are used to incompetence (or worse) being ignored or covered up by a compliant media.

However, others are not.

As the days have rolled by since the disappearance of Flight MH370, more and more countries with citizens on board have been left in askance over the apparent ineptness of the people supposedly running Malaysia and their crony civil service.

Stand up against ethnic and religious extremists

Christopher Leong

The Malaysian Bar welcomes the recent urging by the prime minister for all Malaysians not to pay heed to the extremist elements in Malaysia.
 
The prime minister has succinctly identified the dangers, for Malaysia and Malaysians, of pandering to these elements, describing their actions as wrong and tending to destroy the trust between races.  
 
He has warned that we must not let these instigators overpower us.

Pakatan proposal unlikely to incur BN disdain

TERENCE NETTO

The last time opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim called for a national dialogue in which all political parties participate, his proposition contained in a Merdeka Day commemorative speech elicited the disdain of BN leaders.

The latter are not likely to react with similar alacrity and comparable derision to a renewal of that proposal made yesterday by Anwar after a Pakatan Rakyat leadership council meeting in Kuala Lumpur.

Kadir: PM has to change or he could be removed

Mkini

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak needs to change ways and start doing the right things to ease the burden of the people, otherwise BN will risk losing the next general election, former journalist and prominent blogger Abdul Kadir Jasin said in his latest blogpost.

The former New Straits Times (NST) chief listed out three scenarios for the future leadership of Najib, and said that if Najib does not change, he risks being removed from his position, or BN risks losing the elections if Najib continues without changing his ways.

Masing: Dedicated court for NCR land cases excellent idea

Jonathan Chia

• Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Masing

Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Masing is supportive of the idea to establish a dedicated court to handle the increasing number of native customary rights (NCR) land cases.

The land development minister described as ‘excellent’ the idea that was highlighted by Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Tan Sri Richard Malanjum on January 17 as NCR land cases must not be allowed to drag for years.

This country needs you! Let’s kick out Umno from Putrajaya

Sakmongkol AK47

LOLROTF – laughing out loud and rolling on the floor.

That is how I felt like doing when some people think they can advise Najib. To do what? To pronounce the Islamic terms correctly? To turn off the lights in the house so that the bill will not be RM6000 a day? To save water bill? To stop using kangkung as reference?

Sometime ago, a prominent former finance minister told me, Najib is beyond advice. Why should he listen to his underlings? He pays them. His only credit is the fact that he is the son of a former much-loved PM. That was what he resorted to – his last line of defence when Umno delegates attacked his hare-brained 1Malaysia and New Economic Model.

Putrajaya’s appeal hits snag as cop acquitted of Altantuya murder goes missing

V. ANBALAGAN

Putrajaya’s appeal before the Federal Court in the high-profile murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu may have hit a snag as one of the two policemen acquitted of the crime has reportedly gone missing, say sources.

Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar walked out a free man after his appeal against the High Court conviction was set aside last August.

Since then, the policeman has not contacted his lead counsel Kamarul Hisham Kamaruddin, who represented him during trial and in the Court of Appeal, the sources said.

PBB leader criticised for pro-China remark

Dukau Papau 

Sarawak PKR today criticised Assistant Minister of Youth Development Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah for wanting Malaysia to adopt China’s harsh laws on the social media.

State PKR information bureau chief  said it is dangerous for Abdul Karim to suggest adopting the harsh cyber laws of China.

“Is he inferring that Malaysia should be like China, a communist and totalitarian government that implements harsh laws on its people?

Witness: Bekir has up to RM1bil in oil palm estates

Hafiz Yatim

Mahmud Abu Bekir Taib, the son of Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud, holds between RM636 million to RM1.055 billion in palm oil plantations in Sarawak.

This was disclosed by accountant Andrew Heng, who was the second witness brought by his former wife Shahnaz A Majid.

Heng told the Syariah High Court that there are four out of 49 companies in which Mahmud (left) holds a stake that involve oil palm plantations.

Palm Oil Company Fined Millions for Burning Sumatran Forest

Annette Gartland @ http://ens-newswire.com/

An Indonesian court has found the palm oil company PT Kallista Alam guilty of illegally burning large swathes of the Tripa peat forest, which lies within Sumatra’s Leuser Ecosystem, the only place on Earth where tigers, elephants, rhinos, and orangutans can be found living together in the wild.

The court ordered the company to pay 114.3 billion rupiah (US$9.4 million) in compensation and 251.7 billion rupiah (US$20.8 million) to restore the affected areas of forest.

Tripa burning in 2012. (Photo by Paul Hilton/ SOCP/YEL)

The case was brought against PT Kallista Alam by the Indonesian Ministry of Environment.

A special court on native land is needed

Dukau Papau

A special court has to be set up immediately to solve the dilemma Dayak landowners face over the grabbing of their native customary rights (NCR) land by the Sarawak government, Sarawak PKR said today.

NCR land cases have increased alarmingly every year as a result of disputes between native land owners and the state government, PKR Lubok Antu Division chairperson Nicholas Bawin said.

“Up to now, there are more than 400 NCR land cases pending hearing in the High Court and more are coming as the landowners have no way to settle their disputes with the government, other than through the court.

PKR: Agong ill-advised on ‘Allah’ decree

Dukau Papau

Sarawak PKR has expressed regret that Yang di-Pertuan Agong has been ill-advised on the decree he issued that non-Muslims of Sabah and Sarawak are banned from uttering the word ‘Allah’, despite knowing full well that the two states are secular.

“It is most unfortunate that he has been ill-advised,” Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian said in response to the decree by the Agong.

This decree was actually made by Sultan Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah in his capacity as the Sultan of Kedah.

New watchdog C4 aims to tackle explosive corruption issues

JENNIFER GOMEZ

There is a new anti-graft watchdog in town, and its focus is on public institutions such as the judiciary and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

Known by its acronym C4, the Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism is co-founded by human rights activist Cynthia Gabriel, part of the team from seasoned rights group Suaram who raised issues about Malaysia’s submarine purchase from France.

Gabriel told The Malaysian Insider recently that scrutinising the judiciary and MACC will form part of C4′s efforts to strengthen public institutions to ensure the corrupt are held accountable.

Too bad, no New Year cheer for Borneo folks

Joe Leong

In keeping with age-old tradition, residents of Kota Kinabalu, the capital city of Sabah, would head for the beach at Tanjung Aru to take a dip in the evening of New Year’s Eve before midnight.

There are many beliefs attached to this die-hard habit. Most say it is to ‘buang sial’ or get rid of bad luck. Others say it is just to wash away the dirt of the old year, hoping for a cleaner and better year ahead.

Others on dry ground would watch the fireworks at city centre that are supposed to bring cheer for the New Year.

One of these days, copyright lawyers will go after God

Nury Vittachi

Good grief! A volcanic island in the exact shape of cartoon character Snoopy has emerged in the sea near Japan. But Snoopy is copyright. God’s going to get into BIG trouble.

He’s done it before. Fly to Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia and you’ll see that the islands of Manukan, Mamutik and Sulug form a perfect smiley face, despite the fact that the round smiley is a logo developed by a US insurance company in 1963. In the Spratly Islands, near the Philippines, God made an island in the exact shape of a boomerang – without asking Australian aboriginals for permission.

Having long experience of copyright problems, I can tell you that such incidents trigger an exchange of letters as follows.

PKR: Umno can learn from Sarawak on tolerance

Dukau Papau

PKR blames the racial and religious problems in Malaysia especially in the peninsula, on Umno’s political dominance for the past 50 years, said its director of strategy director Rafizi Ramli.

“The racial and religious problems we have today are a result of Umno’s doings over the past 50 years,” he said at a media conference.Sarawak, he said, could teach Umno a thing or two on religious tolerance and racial harmony.

His colleague Elizabeth Wong (left), a Selangor executive councilor, added that Umno had lost “everything” in Selangor and thus neededs to resort to racial and religious issues to win the state back.

Allah as ally and alibi

Dean Johns

As Voltaire, the great French scourge of superstitions and sundry other stupidities famously proclaimed: “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him”.And sure enough, God has been invented so many times both before and since Voltaire’s time, and in so many guises, genders, versions and even perversions that you’d have to be superhuman to keep up with them all.

Small wonder, then, that a political regime as sub-normal as Malaysia’s Barisan Nasional is finding the whole concept too complex for words.

‘Wolf of Wall Street’ dogs silent Najib’s heels

Hazlan Zakaria

As lawyers of the “Wolf of Wall Street” bay for corruption allegations from British journalist Clare Rewcastle-Brown to be retracted, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak remains silent about the expensive habits of his step-son who produced the movie.

Lawyers representing Red Granite Pictures headed by Najib’s step-son Riza Aziz sent a letter of demand asking Brown to retract her story posted on whistleblower website Sarawak Report. Riza is the son of his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor from a previous marriage.

Brown had asked if the billions of public funds parked by national investment arm 1MDB in questionable off-shore accounts ended up in Riza’s pocket.

Press freedom protest peaceful, why investigate?

Mkini

The police’s intention to probe the ‘Red Pencil Protest’ by the media fraternity on Jan 4 is unnecessary and based merely on “trivial technicalities”, said the organisers.

Gerakan Media Marah (Geramm) said they were ready to cooperate with the police on any investigations.

“However, after our protest was carried out peacefully and without any untoward incident, we feel that the investigation (if it is initiated) is only based on trivial technical reasons.

“Police are using a procedural excuse that we did not provide the 10-day notification before the Red Pencil Protest as required under the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012 (PAA),” said a Geramm spokesperson Radzi Razak in a statement today.

A chaotic year

Lim Sue Goan

Instead of a new start, the new year is chaotic, indicating that 2014 is going to be a chaotic, difficult and depressing year.

It is chaotic because political leaders lack the ability to act decisively and they seem to have forgotten their commitments to the people. For instance, the seventh National Key Results Areas (NKRA) is a commitment to solve rising cost of living but the government has so far failed to curb price hikes. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak also proposed the “national reconciliation” moderation advocacy but more disputes have been derived instead.

One does not simply stop the ‘Allah’ train-wreck

Odin Tajue 

The proposal made by Karpal Singh for a full bench to hear the appeal made by The Herald-Catholic church to the Federal Court bears reference.

It is unlikely that a full bench will ensure an outcome acceptable to all and put the issue to rest, and everyone live happily ever after.

Let us first assume that all the judges sitting will be free of any influence and adjudicate fairly. The word ‘influence’ is, of course, loaded with meanings.

Why different standards in investigating Catholic priest and Perak mufti

LEE SHI-IAN

The nation’s top cop must explain the double standards of the police in investigating Catholic priest Father Lawrence Andrew and Perak mufti Tan Sri Harussani Zakaria, DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang (pic) said today.

The Gelang Patah MP said Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar was clearly practising double standards in both cases.

On January 3, Harussani had issued a fatwa (edict) declaring it halal (permissible) to spill the blood of the participants of an anti-price hike rally held on New Year’s Eve.

Shahnaz: I didn’t know Hiley was wed to Bekir and Bekir owns 9 luxury cars, RM1.34bil shares

Hafiz Yatim

Shahnaz A Majid told the Kuala Lumpur Syariah High Court today that she did not know that her former husband, who is the Sarawak chief minister’s son, was married to an Australian woman in 1999.

Shahnaz, 50, during cross-examination by lawyer Saadiah Din representing Mahmud Abu Bekir Taib, was quizzed on whether she knew the woman called Louise Aida Hiley was her former husband’s wife.

Abu Bekir was said to have brought Hiley to his sister’s wedding in that year.

“I did not know it then, whether my husband was married before they attended the wedding.

Murum Penan Stranded Without Supplies As Norwegian Boss Calls It A Day

Sarawak Report

The indigenous language radio station Radio Free Sarawak broke the news today that the community of Murum Penan, resettled by Sarawak Energy, are making emergency calls to say they are now cut off by the dam’s rising waters and running out of food supplies.It was the same day that it emerged that the Norwegian CEO, who has made much of his role in allegedly transforming and improving the lives of the natives of Sarawak, will leave at the end of his current contract later this year.

The Environment and native rights group, the Bruno Manser Fund, revealed the news of Mr Torstein Dale Sjotveit’s departure in a press release late afternoon:

Confirmed – decision on ‘Allah’ goes beyond Herald

Dukau Papau

Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian. says Thursday’s high-handed aggressive raid on the Bible Society of Malaysia’s premises is a confirmation of what he has been warning about all along – that the religious authorities would use The Herald judgment to extend their insidious and strangling tentacles on other aspects of Christian and non-Muslim practices.

“So much for the PM’s and other BN politicians’ assurances that the Court of Appeal’s flawed judgment would only apply to the contents of The Herald,” he said when commenting on the Selangor Islamic authorities’ the raid.

Bishop tells Christians: No triumph without tribulation

Terence Netto

Catholic Bishop Dr Paul Tan Chee Ing urged Christians intending to carry out their Sunday worship obligations this weekend to “prayerfully use this fraught moment to make themselves true channels of peace.”

Alluding to assurances of safety provided by the police in Selangor where assorted Muslim groups have threatened to stage protests against Christians for using the word ‘Allah’ in their Bahasa Malaysia rituals, the head of the Catholic Church in the Melaka-Johor diocese advised Christians to go about their obligations of worship “persevering in prayer and patient in tribulation.”

For a better Malaysia

Sharon Ling 

With New Year messages calling for unity still fresh in our minds, let us translate them into action.

THIS has not been the best of starts to the new year.

Apart from anything else, it has been an exceptionally rainy beginning.

The sun has made only fleeting appearances over the past week or so and the wet weather shows little sign of letting up.

Sarawak PKR wants Perkasa outlawed

Ng Ai Fern

The state PKR has called on Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to outlaw Perkasa, terming it a racist NGO that is threatening national unity.

Condemning Barisan Nasional’s obvious support for Perkasa, state PKR chief Baru Bian said the ‘14th member of BN’ would only further undermine the country’s unity in a bleak year ahead due to economic instability.

“We are deeply concerned especially by the support of the government. Everyone is aware of Perkasa’s stand, it is very disappointing that it is now clear that BN government is supporting such as extreme group,” Baru Bian told a press conference today.

Malaysia Muslim authority raids Bible Society, detain officers & seize copies of AL-KITAB

Maria Begum

In a move that is bound create another major split in the country, the Selangor Islamic Religious department (JAIS) raided the Bible Society of Malaysia on Thursday, seizing 300-over copies of the Alkitab or Malay-language Bible and even detaining its chairman and office manager.

“This is outrageous and a highly provocative act. As a Christian and a Malaysian guaranteed rights to religious freedom under the Federal Constitution, I demand an immediate explanation from Prime Minister Najib Razak,” MP for Wangsa Maju Tan Kee Kwong told writer.

Sarawak Minister says Putrajaya’s tip-toeing around the Allah issue is just bull

DESMOND DAVIDSON

Sarawak’s Land Development Minister Tan Sri Dr James Masing (pic) today lambasted gutless federal leaders whom he said are tip-toeing around the Allah issue with an unsound policy apparently aiming “to appease everyone”.

“Leaders (in the federal cabinet) must be brave enough to take the bull by the horns and decide once and for all which set of religious laws Malaysians must abide by.

“We must take the bull by the horn and tell the bull who is boss,” Masing, an outspoken and fierce critic of the federal government’s stand on the Allah issue, said when reacting to the Selangor Islamic Religious department (Jais) raid on the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM) where 300 copies of the Bible in Bahasa Malaysia and Iban were carted away.

Jais has no right to raid Bible Society of Malaysia premises, says council of churches

TMI

The Bible Society of Malaysia president Lee Min Choon appealed for calm.

The Selangor Islamic authorities do not have the authority to raid the premises of the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM), said the Council of Churches of Malaysia (CCM).

Saying they were alarmed by the Selangor Islamic Religious Department’s (Jais) raid today on BSM where they confiscated over 300 Bibles in Malay and Iban, CCM general-secretary Rev Dr Hermen Shastri said that the Federal Constitution guaranteed the right of religious communities in the country to freely profess and administer their affairs.

When even RM12,000 a month isn’t enough to get by in Malaysia

TMI

A hawker stall in Lebuh Chulia, George Town. Penang is known as a foodies’ heaven but the state is one of the most expensive places to live in for an average wage-earner.

How much does it take to have a decent life in Malaysia? That has been the top question in the country in the past few years and a greater concern in 2014 as electricity rates and transport costs go up and subsidies go down.

While Putrajaya talks up proposals to help the people mitigate rising prices with cost of living labs and possibly even more targeted subsidies, most Malaysians are looking at the prospect of expenditure exceeding their monthly salaries.

Is the EC fair and independent in serving Malaysians?

Ng Kee Seng

In trying to mend its tattered image and show that it is independent, the Election Commission (EC) now proposes to cap the maximum number of voters in a parliamentary seat at 100,000.

EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof cited the Thirteenth Schedule of the Federal Constitution to justify its upcoming redelineation exercise, where the number of voters in a constituency should not be too high and hamper elected representatives in carrying out their duties.

However, for the EC to carry out a redelineation to increase the number of seats, it must get a two-thirds majority approval in Parliament. But the super BN-friendly EC does not have that luxury after the 12th and 13th general elections.

Bidding farewell to a year of absurdities

Lim Sue Goan

2013 is tapering to an end soon. Over the past one year, we have seen minor improvements, stagnation or even regression in many important areas in this country while getting ourselves amused by a good deal of ridiculous things.

Sin Chew Daily recently unveiled a list of ten most ridiculous things in Malaysia for 2013, including school principal marketing “clever pills,” oil leakage from factory resulting in major water supply disruption in Klang Valley, the delible indelible ink used in GE13, etc.

Such absurdities could have been arising from administrative irregularities or could also be from power abuse. For example, a national school principal has forced the students to buy “clever pills” out of power abuse.

It’s about time we free the press

Bob Teoh

The increasing clampdown on newspapers calls for a rethink on how we run newspapers. Our role is to inform readers on matters that matter to them. How else can we hope to have a nation of thinking citizens who make decisions on an informed basis? I say it’s time to free the press; not by piecemeal efforts but by a bold initiative.

The naysayers say it can’t be done. Why not? Our neighbours, the Philippines and Indonesia, did it with the stroke of the pen following the fall of Marcos and Suharto. Some say this is because freedom is in their blood. Please don’t tell me we don’t have this rare blood type.

If Allah is Islam-exclusive, can Bahasa Melayu be national?

Wong Chin-Huat

Malaysia is more powerful than any other country on earth. Elsewhere, governments seek the protection of Allah. Here, the government seeks to protect Allah.

And the Christmas season is the time we see this protectionism and pattern warfare again. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak “the Moderate” has called for a truce on this matter.

Since the Court of Appeal has ruled in favour of Najib’s government, Najib’s truce call is practically to ask the Catholic Church – and the Christian community at large – to give up their right to use the word Allah.

Where is Bruno Manser: Dead or alive?

Ng Ai Fern

Ritchie poses with a list of his books at the launch of the exhibition today.

Sarawak veteran journalist James Alexander Ritchie is finding it difficult to publish his second book on controversial Swiss environmentalist Bruno Manser.

Titled “Where is Bruno Manser: Dead or Alive?” the book has reached a deadlock as nobody is willing to publish it.

“They said it is a bit too sensitive,” said Ritchie, who tried to come out with theories to solve the mystery disappearance of Manser that shocked international community more than 10 years ago.

Allah banner for Iban Christian gathering removed by Kuching authorities

Desmond Davidson

A banner with the word ‘Allah’ on it, was reportedly ordered by the police to be taken down at the Gempuru Besai Raban Kristian Jaku Iban Malaysia gathering at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) on Friday.

Organisers of the four-day gathering, that began on Thursday and attracted about 7,000 people, were baffled when the security chief of the convention centre relayed the police order to remove the banner. The organisers said that no one from the police met with them personally.

Double whammy for Sarawak rural schools

Anna Chidambar

Of late, the Sarawak state education system has been under constant fire with issues ranging from lack of basic facilities, insufficient teachers due to high rate of transfers, accessibility, and connectivity.

In terms of social and economic implications, the state’s inadequate education system has become a major concern especially when education authorities have gone on record acknowledging that dilapidated schools in rural Sarawak are very common.

Now to add to rural school woes is that only two rural schools in Sarawak have been categorised as excellent while 110 are average and 12 have been categorised as below average.

Bleeding the rakyat dry

Selena Tay

The rise in living costs is the result of the government’s economic mismanagement, including perhaps BN’s overspending for GE13

Christmas is less than two weeks away, but for this columnist it is a time for juggling bills instead of singing Jingle Bells. What with the Chinese New Year coming about a month after Christmas, expenses are heavy and there is the usual flurry of end-of-the-year bills to be paid.

And then there is word going round that the price of RON95 petrol will soon be increased again, perhaps at the end of this month or next month or February the latest.  The increase will be between 10 sen and 30 sen.