PAS moral crossroad

PAS is standing on a Pakatan Rakyat's crossroad on the issue of morality and whatever stand it makes regarding the Elizabeth Wong issue it will influence it's level of relationship with her comrades in PR, namely PKR and DAP. It's decision will also be followed closely with much interest by it's long time nemesis Umno.

If PAS takes the high moral ground stance on Elizabeth Wong's scandal, it will most probably moving towards a collision course with PKR and DAP but will gain brownie points in the eyes of its Malay-Muslims supporters. It will also elevates its credential as a religious based party compared to Umno which has been trying for years to challenge PAS for the Muslim leadership in the country.

That will be the consideration for PAS whether to push for Elizabeth's departure from the Selangor state exco lineup. Political considerations survival will take precedence over any other reasons. That's the reality for every political party. PAS will not sacrifice the party's interest for sake of only one single woman politician from PKR. For them, Elizabeth is dispensable and of no interest to them.

If PAS backs PKR leadership to retain Elizabeth as state exco, the decision will for sure be use to the hilt by it's political oppponents especially Umno to attack its Islamic credentials. Even though those in Umno are no angels themselves, the power of media spinning will be a force to be reckoned with that no one in PAS wants to dabble into. The Umno controlled media will go to towns and kampungs to play up this issue. PAS would not want to risk its influence in the Malay heartland for the sake of just one outsider.

On the other hand, it will be good news to Chua Soi Lek if Elizabeth is retained as Exco. There is no connection between both of them and I think neither of them knows each other but a political decision will affects other too.

As I mentioned previously, even if MCA agreed for Chua Soi Lek to be appointed a Senator and then a Minister, Umno may not be agreeable to that due to the concern it might brings disrepute to it's Malay-Muslims based and ridicule to PAS for endorsing adultery.

Once PAS accepts Elizabeth warts and all, Umno will be in an easier position to accept Chua Soi Lek or whoever tainted with sex scandal into the cabinet. It seems that of all people, the person to benefit most from the Elizabeth Wong's nude photo scandal is not someone from Umno or PKR but MCA's Chua. But of course assuming Soi Lek is not sacked or have his membership suspended from MCA before the next cabinet's re-shuffle by Najib due to his sexual DVD re-vival than brought shame to the party.

One woman's fall is another man's glory. - Loka

Game for politicians

Who has the most sustainable stamina to endure the pressure in performing their task? Can it be a marathon runner, a long distance swimmer or a politician?

No prize for guessing who's the runaway winner. It's the politician of course!

If there is an open field medal for the most sustainable stamina in the Olympics, the most likely winner will be a politician!

While the marathon runner and the swimmer will be following a set of universal rules and able to gauge and expect the challenges in their struggle for success and glory, it can't be said the same about politicians.

The playing field for the game called politics can be anywhere and anytime. There is no specific time limit and rounds of play. The rule of the game changes without any consideration of the opponents objections or claims of foul play. They won't be bother about fair play since for sure there won't be a Fair Play Trophy in this game.

The rules are very pretty "simple".

To win the game, a politician need to outwit their opponents and supporter and do everything by the book and also those not in the book. Trust is an vulgar word for some of the players. Sometimes one can't even trust your own team mates. If caught off-guard, a politician can be stabbed on the back by one of their own. They must be prepared to be politically stripped naked and be publicly shamed. They will also strive they do it on others too.

A politician must be able to sustain all types of verbal and non-verbal abuse and does it against his or her opponents without any feeling of remorse or shame. They must be able to make use and be used by others. They must win at all cost. By hook or by crook. And they will keep on doing it on and on as long as there is sunrise and sunsets.

It is part of the "skills" in their game. If anyone doesn't know how and don't want to utilize these "skills", it's time for them to throw in the towel and kiss the game goodbye.

For the spectators of these games, just like any other games, once the game takes too long to decide an outright winner of the game, it will be too tired for the spectators to watch on. Or if too much tricks and cheating that broke all levels of decency has been used by the players to win the game, the spectators will just walk off and cursed the players for wasting their precious time and money watching the game.

Anyway, at the end of the day the players will still be at the arena fighting with each other because they had the most durable stamina to sustain the challenges of the game, even without any spectator bother to watch them whacking and striping each other naked.

By the way, moral shame and moral fear is not part of the ground rules. - Loka

Silence integrity

When one mentions integrity, it is often related to the financial aspect of it -- for example leading to actions such as corruption and bribery. And when integrity is linked to political activities, one cannot refrain from thoughts of money politics.

IWG would like to highlight other aspects of integrity. At our launch we mentioned the two dimensions of integrity that we will focus on viz. integrity in action and integrity in stature. While the first focuses on what a person or organisation does, the latter zeros in to what he or it represents or stands for. They are portrayals for the outside world , or the faces that others look at the person or organization. These are the aspects of MCA that IWG watches and focuses on.

....IWG thus calls upon the party to place greater importance on Responsibility To Prevent rather than to be involved in posterior tussles of defence. It is often said that giving reasons and excuse are signs of inferior qualities.

- Dr Daphne Loke, Chairman, MCA Integrity Watch Group, Jan 17, 2009

The statement above was extracted from the MCA Integrity Watch Group website.

The group was form on Dec 15, 2008 to check on the integrity level of MCA's leaders and members in the party. Since then this group has been issuing statements on matters related to some issues that can be related to the party leaders in their website or media here and here. As this comment was written, a check on their website shows the last message posted was a Chinese New Year greetings on Jan 21, 2009.

All has been silence since then. There was not a single comment on the integrity and morality related to the Perak state government debacle or the proposed low cost airport in Labu, Negri Sembilan.

Has the group been told to toe the line? Or they had wisely realised their expectation for a level of integrity had exceeded far more than MCA leaders can chew? So they decided to be silent without giving any reasons and excuse which are considered signs of inferior qualities.

If one knows some practices are unhealthy but elected to keep quiet about it, isn't one's integrity is at stake too especially if one is a watchdog on integrity? - Loka

What's in a divine name

I received a sms last night from a former MP suggesting to me to watch the 9.30pm live discussion forum "Isu" on TV 1. The topic was "Wajarkah nama Allah digunakan semua agama?" ( Is it proper for all religions to use the Allah name?)

The panelists includes a Muslim activist who was formerly a Christian preacher now based in Sarawak, a Chinese convert who is vice president of Malaysian Chinese Muslims Association and a lecturer from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. The talk show was moderated by Sayed Munawar, a regular hand in TV 1's live forum.

The topic of the show was clearly conceived to address the controversy arising from the insistence of the Herald - the Catholic Weekly for their right to use the term "Allah" to describe their religion's God in their Malay version publication.

The right to use the term "Allah" has been brought to court by the publisher of the "Herald - The Catholic Weekly". The government via the Home Ministry has disallowed the Herald from using the word "Allah" in its publication. The government said the usage of the term by the publication will arouse sensitivity and create confusion amongst the Muslims in the country.

After watching the whole program I thought it will be more apt for the topic be changed. Firstly, the panelists are representing only one religion i.e Islam. Secondly all arguments emphasised the term "Allah" can only be use by Muslims. Thirdly, those pre-recorded and pre-arranged telephone call-in views are from Islamic scholars.

What will be the perspective of the Catholic church or the Sikh Gurdwara as recorded in their holy books? That's the missing link on the program. Even though at least two of the Islamic speakers tries to explain the reason why the Christian God is not "Allah", wouldn't it be more convincing for the viewers, especially for people other than the Islam or Christian faith if a bishop or priest are invited for their point of view?

As a viewer who is neither Muslim, Christianity or even Sikh, I would be more appreciative of the TV forum if the panellists invited to the program includes representatives from other stakeholders who are claiming the right of usage of the term. A pre-arranged telephone caller from a Islamic organisation had suggested a scholarly discussion amongst the various religions with an interest on the issue which I think will be more enlightening for everybody.

Sometimes if information are coming only from one side, people will be more curious to enquire what the others are saying. - Loka

Non-Muslims officers sacked

The Star reported today on the sacking of officers in the "Unit Hal-Ehwal Bukan Islam Negeri Perak' ( Non-Muslims Affairs Unit) by the Umno-led Perak state government. This news was also verified with a reliable source this morning. It seems the termination letter dated Feb 12, 2009 informed the four staff of their termination effective Feb 6, 2009.

What is shocking is that the affected staff just reported for work at the Unit only in early Jan 2009. That's slightly more than one month on the job! Is that part of a political witch hunt since these officers were appointed by the PR government and the Umno government may not want any part of that. It must be an octane high job hazard if you are employed by the Perak state government. You can be sacked anytime without any reasons thereof, or maybe one - your appointment was endorsed by political rivals! Just curious who else was or will be sacked by the state government since Zambry's assumption of the MB post? The true colours will be sharper soon.

The Unit for non-Muslims Affairs in Perak established by the Pakatan Rakyat state government was one of it's kind in Malaysia which employs full-time paid staff to handle issues related to non-Muslims like the construction of places of worship for non-Muslims. The Unit was based at a state government office outside the State Secretariat in Ipoh. The staff has been reporting for work until last Friday.

Even states with large non-Muslims citizens like in Penang, Selangor and Johore do not have similar set up. Although states like Selangor and Penang have some sort non-Muslims affairs committee, it is just a special committee which do not have similar authority and financial support like the one in Perak.

Earlier report on Umno-led Perak state government retaining the non-Muslims Affairs Committee in charge by MCA's Exco Dr Mah Hang Soon confirmed suspicion that this arrangement may just to placate the increasing concerns of the non-Muslims on the unbalanced exco line-up in Perak.

The next question is whether the Unit will be disbanded totally or new officers will be appointed by the Umno-led government? If the Unit is disbanded, will that send a message to the people that MCA's Dr Mah Hang Soon role in the state government is just to fill his party's political quota. Nothing else. Period.

If that's the scenario, the recent appointments of Gerakan's deputy president Chang Ko Youn and MIC's vice president S Veerasingam as the Menteri Besar's Adviser for Chinese Affairs and Indian Affairs respectively can be assumed just to fulfill Gerakan's and MIC's quota.

If new officers (maybe deemed friendly to Umno) are appointed to the Unit, will they too be sacked if Umno lose the state government to PR in the next two or three months? Maybe the four sacked staff can bring the Umno government to court? The more the merrier since everybody is either making police reports or bringing their grouses to courts in relation to the political crisis in Perak. - Loka

Sunday February 15, 2009
State stand on sackings, Mah told
IPOH: The Perak Pakatan Rakyat has challenged state executive council member Dr Mah Hang Soon to declare his stand on the sacking of four civil servants from the non-Islamic affairs unit on Feb 6.
“As the chairman holding the portfolio of non-Islamic affairs, Dr Mah should resign in protest over their dismissals.
“Unless it was Dr Mah’s decision to terminate their contracts,” former senior exco member Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham told a press conference yesterday.
Ngeh, who is also state DAP chairman, claimed the four civil servants were relieved of their jobs without reason on Feb 6 after Barisan Nasional took over the state government.
“They should be given back their jobs as they have experience in running the unit,” said Ngeh, adding that politicians would come and go but civil servants should stay on.
He added that the unit was formed when Pakatan Rakyat came into power last year after the general election.
“I also challenge Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir’s advisers, Datuk Chang Ko Youn (Chinese affairs) and Datuk S. Veerasingam (Indian affairs), to show their displeasure by stepping down from their posts over this,” said Ngeh.
On the suit filed against Dr Zambry, he said Pakatan would drop the suit if the latter agreed to seek consent from the Perak Sultan to dissolve the state assembly.