Sunday, December 6, 2009

No more Swiss minarets

Switzerland are more well-known for its Rolex watches, Swiss knives and the Alps, not counting stories of corrupt political leaders and dishonest industry captains stashing their ill-gotten wealth in Swiss banks. The Swiss people are very much involved in the decision making process on many matters which affects their daily lives. Referendum are conducted before any decision is made concerning any public issues. The recent issue that went to the ballot box was on the iniative to ban the building of Islamic minarets on mosques.

The referendum was passed with a clear majority of 57.5 percent of the voters and in 22 of Switzerland’s 26 cantons. The vote against was 42.5 percent. Because the ban gained a majority of votes and passed in a majority of the cantons, it will be added to the Constitution.

The Swiss Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, but the rightist Swiss People’s Party and a small religious party had proposed inserting a single sentence banning the construction of minarets, leading to the referendum.

The Nov 29 decision by majority of the Swiss people shocked many in the world including political leaders, religious figures and non-governmental organisations.

Closer to home, the Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman expressed "dismay" over the recent referendum to ban the construction of minarets in Switzerland. Anifah said Malaysia believes the Swiss move is a serious blow to religious freedom and will infringe on the rights of a minority to practise its religion in Switzerland.

In light of the Malaysian government's stand on the Swiss minarets issue, hopefully the powers-that-be will take cognizance of policies which affects the building and location of places of worship and placement and usage of religious symbols of the minority religions in the country. For the defender of the law, surely this can be easily honoured and followed as Malaysia also guarantees religious freedom as per Article 11 of the country's constitution. But then there will always be some square pegs who will insists on behaving otherwise with the justification that they represents the majority.

One should not only uphold the principle of majority rules but respect the minority rights, that is majority rules should not lead to the tyranny of the minority.. - Loka



Extract from the U.S. Department of State publication, Principles of Democracy.


On the surface, the principles of majority rule and the protection of individual and minority rights would seem contradictory. In fact, however, these principles are twin pillars holding up the very foundation of what we mean by democratic government.

• Majority rule is a means for organizing government and deciding public issues; it is not another road to oppression. Just as no self-appointed group has the right to oppress others, so no majority, even in a democracy, should take away the basic rights and freedoms of a minority group or individual.

• Minorities – whether as a result of ethnic background, religious belief, geographic location, income level, or simply as the losers in elections or political debate – enjoy guaranteed basic human rights that no government, and no majority, elected or not, should remove.

• Minorities need to trust that the government will protect their rights and self-identity. Once this is accomplished, such groups can participate in, and contribute to their country's democratic institutions.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

National Service, another BTN?

So much has been said and commented on the nature of the Biro Tatanegara (BTN) courses which said to promote hate among the races in this country. Some are demanding BTN courses to be scrapped while the Cabinet agreed to revamp it. On the other side there are also those who supported and defended these courses.

While the heat is still on the BTN, another type of course run by the government risks moving towards the direction of the BTN.  The National Service Training Program (NS) was started in 2003 when current Prime Minister Najib Razak was the minister in charge as the Defence Minister then. The NS is attended dutifully by hundreds of thousands of 17 and 18 year olds annually since 2004. The trainees for NS are selected through a computer generated system based on racial breakdown and geographical distribution.

One of the modules of the NS, Nation Building module ( Kenegaraan ) was managed by the people from BTN. The director-general of BTN then, Dr. Nordin Kardi was the chairman of the Sub-committee for the drafting of the module. The training program for NS trainers for the nation-building was facilitated by BTN officers.

Even if the contents of the nation building module for the NS trainees might be the usual stuff that can be found in local history books and civic courses, the intepretation and comments during the lectures can be subjected to the discretion of the trainers. If a trainer is an individual with bigoted and racial leaning, it will not be surprising if those stories about the BTN will also be heard soon regarding the NS.

If the government do not monitor closely the teaching methods and contents intepretation of the thousands of NS trainers, the furore over the BTN related courses will be repeated itself in the NS. - Loka