Saturday, August 9, 2008

Sensitive

I was shocked and unhappy when i read the article yesterday regarding the Bar Council's forum pertaining to conversion to Islam. The Deputy PM was against the idea of the forum to be held openly!!! What was worse was the Umno Youth exco member Datuk Pirdaus Ismail who was quoted saying:-
“Don’t play with fire! Don’t ever touch on religious and racial sentiments. Whatever the excuses given, the forum still provokes Malay sentiments and creates uneasiness and public disorder, particularly among the Malays.”
Read the article here.

My first response to the said politicians was that it was an insult to the Malay people and the people of Islam faith. Surely they are not so sensitive! Surely they are mature enough to handle it. Surely they are not so insecure!

Well, apparently, i was wrong! They are! Well, some of them, anyway. I'm referring to the group of people who gathered purportedly in the name of Islam and resorted to violence and vulgarity to disrupt the forum. Read about it here.

Let's put things into perspective - the forum was regarding conversion to Islam. It is IMHO of benefit to the Islam faith too. The Islam faith had been getting a lot of bad press in recent times when people who did not fully understand the implications of conversion, converted to Islam and then tried to convert out of it. By having a forum like this, people will be able to make an educated choice when converting to Islam and not change their minds easily later - and no more bad press to the Islam faith.

Instead, the Bar Council is accused of threatening and challenging Islam (see pic). What a bunch of morons - those who protested today.



Furthermore, this is another attack on freedom of expression - can't we not have open discussions freely and in a mature manner? Must we always bow to the whims and sensitivities of one race in this land? Unless the exceptions to this human right are fulfilled, then the forum should be allowed to go on.

Of course people are free to demonstrate - that is another form of freedom of expression. But to threaten violence? No, of course not!

Oh, those protesters who were allegedly defending the Islam faith? Well, these people did so with obscenities and vulgar words. Read the above mentioned news report. Now, does Islam teach its followers that?

But they won in the end. The cops - instead of dispersing the protesters with tear gas and water cannons (like they do to the opposition protesters in the past) - told the Bar Council to end the forum early.

Malaysia boleh!

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Transferred!

So a government servant has committed a wrong. A criminal offense, in fact. What will the leaders do?

Depends on which country it happens in. In my beloved land, there seems to be only one solution - transfer them!!!

Remember the pathetic story of the cop who was jealous the other cops were getting more bribe money than he was? (See here) Well, those cops were transferred out! Yup. It was reported that:-
Four policemen from the Gemas police station have been transferred out after a colleague lodged a report alleging that they received “ang pow” running into thousands of ringgit every month from those involved in illegal activities.
Read the entire report here.

And more recently, a teacher spewing out racist allegations and sentiments had the same fate - she was transferred out!!!! Read about it here.

The way to solve problems - to our leaders - is just to send it away. And just hope it won't happen again. Like an ostrich, if it is out of sight, it won't hurt you!!!

Sad.

And the teacher - well, it was reported that she had apologised. Wait a minute, tho. Read carefully:-
Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Senator T. Murugiah, who visited SMK Telok Panglima Garang yesterday, said the teacher regretted the incident and had apologised to the students.

“She also said that she did not expect things to become so serious and has agreed to be transferred to another school,”

It looks to me like what Rihanna described in her latest song - she's not sorry for the act, but just sorry that she got caught.

Malaysia boleh!