Inter-Research And Studies (IRAS)

Non-religious people are being targeted by “hate campaigns” in countries around the world, as a distinct minority group, the latest edition of the Freedom of Thought Report has found. The report claims that the “hate speech” against atheists does not come exclusively from reactionary or radical religious leaders, but increasingly from political leaders, including heads of state. Published today (10 December) by the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), the Freedom of Thought Report states: “In 2014, in addition to laws such as those targeting “apostasy” and “blasphemy”, we have seen a marked increase in specific targeting of “atheists” and “humanism” as such, using these terms in a broadly correct way (the users know what they are saying) but with intent clearly borne of ignorance or intolerance toward these groups.” Cases covered in the report include the Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who this year labelled “humanism and secularism as well as liberalism” as “devi...

Hampir pada setiap tahun, Ketua Audit Negara mengumumkan laporan tahunannya yang melibatkan kerugian berbilion-bilion Ringgit kerajaan akibat daripada penyalahgunaan kuasa dan rasuah yang sering dilakukan oleh para penjawat awam dan pihak-pihak yang bersekongkol dengan mereka yang terdiri daripada kontraktor dan pembekal-pembekal yang dilantik. Dan hampir pada setiap tahun juga, Jawatankuasa Kira-kira Awam (PAC) menunjukkan aksiny yang tidak berpuashati dengan pelbagai karenah-karenah yang telah menyebabkan kerugian berbilion-bilion Ringgit tersebut. Peringatan demi peringatan dikeluarkan oleh PAC, penyiasatan demi penyiasatan yang dilaksanakan oleh PAC, keterangan demi keterangan turut dicatat daripada setiap penjawat-penjawat awam yang terlibat. Namun, tindakan dan langkah-langkah yang diambil oleh PAC tidak diendahkan langsung oleh para pemimpin negara, malah yang lebih buruk lagi perdana menteri itu sendiri juga tidak menyokong langkah-langkah PAC untuk cuba menghapuska...

Oleh WH Cheng bm.theantdaily.com, 14 Nov 2014 Malaysia menduduki tempat tertinggi dalam aspek agama dan etnik, menurut laporan yang dikeluarkan oleh Pew Research Centre. Perdana Menteri dan presiden Umno, Datuk Seri Najib Razak telah memperjuangkan dan menjalankan agenda kesederhanaan di arena global, dan usaha terbaru bagi mempromosi dirinya sebagai seorang pemimpin Muslim sederhana, telah dilakukan pada Perhimpunan Agung Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu ke-69 baru-baru ini. Najib telah menunjukkan pemimpin-pemimpin dunia Islam bahawa beliau merupakan "seorang contoh pemimpin sederhana yang baik", yang patut dicontohi orang-orang lain. Ya, rakyat negara-negara lain yang tidak memiliki banyak pengetahuan politik mengenai Malaysia, pasti mempercayai bahawa ucapannya menampakkan usahanya dalam memerangi segala bentuk ekstremisme, keganasan dan diskriminasi agama dan kaum. Namun di halaman rumahnya sendiri, pelampau-pelampau agama dan perkauman dibenarkan berkembang secara sis...

By WH Cheng TheAntDaily.com, 23/10/2014 In most democratic nations, the initial stage of democratisation at the local level often includes the people’s first experience and exposure with local government elections. Elections at local government level is a good place to start developing electoral participation since local elections are the first element of democratic governance. Local elections touch the daily lives of ordinary citizens. They also embody the people’s right to vote and elect local officials and this is a necessary element of democracy. Ruling parties and political leaders usually attach greater importance and weight to state and national elections rather than local government elections. They have often argued that local government elections would not make much difference in the political life of the nation. But this is far from true. In fact, local government elections have certain distinct elements compare with state and national elections, giving it cons...

By Stefanie Kam, TheDiplomat The Indonesian government recently banned the Islamic State (IS), formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) also released a statement that it was “haram” or forbidden, for Muslims to participate in IS activities. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak also recently issued a strongly worded statement condemning the IS for its actions, which run counter to Islamic faith, culture and to common humanity. These are all positive steps. But they have been inadequate, given the spread of the ideological beliefs of IS via social media tools to preach and recruit others to join the extremist group. Rise in Social Media Support Following IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s message for Muslims worldwide to join the Jihadist cause in Syria and Iraq, new jihadist recruitment videos have surfaced from Southeast Asian terrorists. In July, a picture of firebrand Muslim cleric, Abu Bakar Bashir in his maximum security priso...

By John Warhurst, Sydney Morning Herald There is little evidence that the major political parties really believe deep down that their internal operations and those of their closest supporters are in need of reform. While the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption continues its revelations in Sydney and the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption does likewise in Melbourne, the major parties remain relaxed and comfortable about their internal culture. Both major parties continue to defend their own. They do so for two reasons. The first is that those who benefit from the present system are in charge and want to remain so. The second is that in an adversarial system to admit internal dysfunction gives an electoral advantage to your opposition. It is more rewarding to defend yourself by switching the focus of attention to the opposition's troubles. There are the occasional individuals on both sides who break ranks. Their motives are never clear, but we shou...

Let me start by saying "If writing the truth, asking questions, taking a minister to task or making a powerful figure accountable is seditious, then lets all be seditious!" I say this as one who has been detained under the Sedition Act 1948, the first in my profession to be threatened with this archaic law left by our British colonial masters. And what an irony because it happened only days after the country celebrated 57 years of independence from Britain. It was also the time when the police crackdown on at least 20 individuals, from opposition politicians, academicians, activists, students, preachers and lawyers under the same Act. I know I am not alone. Journalists all over the world are being prosecuted for the work they do, some are killed, or maimed, thrown in jail, tortured, harassed, abused and threatened with death. On Sept 4, I became an ' orang kena tangkap ', code-named OKT or loosely translated 'A detainee'. I was interrogated for nine...

Masyarakat yang ada saat ini sepenuhnya didasarkan atas eksploitasi yang dilakukan oleh sebuah minoritas kecil penduduk, yaitu kelas tuan tanah dan kaum kapitalis, terhadap masyarakat luas yang terdiri atas kelas pekerja. Ini adalah sebuah masyarakat perbudakan, karena para pekerja yang "bebas", yang sepanjang hidupnya bekerja untuk kaum kapitalis, hanya "diberi hak" sebatas sarana subsistensinya. Hal ini dilakukan kaum kapitalis guna keamanan dan keberlangsungan perbudakan kapitalis. Tanpa dapat dielakkan, penindasan ekonomi terhadap para pekerja membangkitkan dan mendorong setiap bentuk penindasan politik dan penistaan terhadap masyarakat, menggelapkan dan mempersuram kehidupan spiritual dan moral massa. Para pekerja bisa mengamankan lebih banyak atau lebih sedikit kemerdekaan politik untuk memperjuangkan emansipasi ekonomi mereka, namun tak secuil pun kemerdekaan yang akan bisa membebaskan mereka dari kemiskinan, pengangguran, dan penindasan sampai kekuasaan dar...

After Putrajaya’s use of the Sedition Act against a University of Malaya (UM) law lecturer turned members of the academia here skittish, the country’s oldest tertiary institution’s academics urged their fellow scholars not to bow to their fears and to continue airing their opinions boldly in order to keep the space for public discourse open. Prof Dr Edmund Terence Gomez said that academics “should not be fearful” and “self-censor” themselves in Malaysia, which he described earlier as a “quasi-democracy” or an “electoral authoritarian society”. “The Sedition Act is creating a climate of fear, we cannot succumb to this fear. We cannot let it affect us to the point we self-censor,” the political economist from UM’s faculty of economics and administration told a forum here last night. He expressed his concern that the “stifling of academic freedom” in UM and other universities would impair the academics’ scholarships as they would begin self-censoring and carefully guard their words when ...

Poor conflict resolution and religious policing are two key factors hampering Malaysia’s progress towards becoming a model nation for race relations, a human rights activist has asserted. Society for the Promotion of Human Rights (Proham) secretary-general Datuk Dr Denison Jayasooria stressed that left unaddressed the two factors may cause greater enmity and disharmony among Malaysia’s races, ripping society apart. He said this is especially in the wake of several raids on houses of worship, the seizure of bibles and bitter custody battles pitting Muslim against non-Muslim spouse. “The issues that are emerging need some clear resolution, as these matters are not being handled adequately,” he told reporters after a late evening forum yesterday. Denison said that the amendment to Article 121(1) of the Federal Constitution has also led to complications pertaining to the jurisdiction of the civil and Syariah courts as there was a ‘particular’ problem in the way the Syariah courts decis...

By Remi Piet, AJE Earlier this month, Jean-Claude Juncker, the newly elected president of the European Union, unveiled the composition of his team of commissioners. His 27 "players in a winning team", as Juncker introduced them, will have the responsibility to develop European policies for the next five years. They will face a daunting task as the EU faces colossal economic challenges and its citizens regularly express their growing discontent during local and national ballots. On the economic level, the priority of the new commission will be to improve employment conditions in Europe by triggering investment and ensuring that banks resume lending to households and small companies. Juncker reaffirmed his commitment to the establishment of a connected digital market and a common energy strategy that should help create new jobs for Europeans. To ensure results, he established a specific task force within the commission on "Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness...

By YS Liau and Elffie Chew Malaysia ’s ringgit FELL the most in a week on speculation a U.S. recovery will back the case for the  Federal Reserve to increase interest rates next year. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index climbed to a 14-month high before the Fed’s Sept. 16-17 policy review and after data yesterday showed U.S. consumer-credit growth beat forecasts in July. Malaysia’s factory output slowed to the least in four months in July, according to a Bloomberg survey before a Sept. 11 report. “The dollar is stronger due to the upcoming Federal Open Market Committee meeting,” said Saktiandi Supaat, Singapore-based head of foreign-exchange research at Malayan Banking Bhd. “There seem to be expectations for some form of hawkish signals at next week’s meeting.” The ringgit depreciated 0.6 percent, the biggest drop since Sept. 2, to 3.1933 per dollar in Kuala Lumpur, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. One-month implied volatility, a measure of expected moves in the ex...

Pro-Russian rebels in east Ukraine said on Tuesday they did not have the capability to shoot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, after Dutch investigators said it was hit by numerous "high-energy objects". "I can say only one thing: we simply do not have the military hardware capable of shooting down a Boeing passenger jet such as the Malaysian plane," Alexander Zakharchenko, prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, told Russia's Interfax news agency. Kiev and Washington accuse the rebels of blowing the Kuala Lumpur-bound flight out of the sky on July 17 with a sophisticated missile system sent from Russia, killing all 298 people on board. The separatist insurgents and Moscow have consistently denied any links to the downing of the jet as it flew over rebel territory at an altitude of some 10,000 metres, instead pointing the finger at the Ukrainian military. "It is obvious that it was an act of provocation carried out th...

An international human rights watchdog said the government's use of the Sedition Act is "fostering a climate of repression in Malaysia". "The use of the law - increasingly against individuals simply expressing political, religious and other views - is creating a chilling effect on freedom of expression in the country. "Amnesty International (AI) believes the increasing use of the Sedition Act to suppress the views and opinions of opposition politicians and other critical voices, as well as ordinary individuals who are simply expressing their opinions on a range of issues, is fostering a climate of repression in Malaysia," said the international human rights group. In a statement issued today from its Southeast Asia Desk in its head office in London, AI reminded Malaysia that the Act was a legacy of the colonial British rulers "to stifle dissent and criminalise peaceful activists and opposition in the past". Listing the victims of the dra...

By Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid The grim reality of elusive unity, plagued by ethnocentric and ethno-religious divisions, is underlined by the continual existence of fault lines that anthropologist Shamsul A. B. calls ‘axes of contradictions’ . The stubborn presence of such social cleavages, after half a century of nationhood, raises the issue of the efficacy of integrative policies pursued by successive Barisan Nasional (BN: National Front) governments. Momentarily eclipsed by the modernisation ethos of Mahathir’s Vision 2020 and Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s Islam Hadhari (civilisational Islam), the ‘national unity’ agenda has made a comeback during Najib Razak’s era since 2009 in the form of his ‘One Malaysia’ (1Malaysia) scheme. It has not been smooth sailing for Najib. It is understandably difficult for him to admit that the multiple polarisation of Malaysian society was effected at the hands of none other than his colleagues and former bosses in the ruling United Malays National Organisati...

By Daniel Gordis It would have been hard to imagine that Islamic State’s brutal execution of American freelance photojournalist James Foley would worsen the Israeli public's assessment of the U.S.'s role in the Gaza conflict. But listen to the chatter in cafes and on the checkout line in the market, and it seems that it may have done just that. When the war died down and the cease-fires began, the reservists started to return home. One of them, a student of ours at Shalem College in Jerusalem, had been in the thick of it. When he finally got out for good and came back to campus, I found him in the student lounge, shook his hand and asked, “How are you?” He looked at me for a moment, exhausted, and replied, “Tell me, what happened to America?” The question of “What happened to America?” is very much on the minds of Israelis these days. Taxi drivers, commonly cited barometers of public opinion in these parts, have a simple explanation: “Obama hates Bibi.” It’s not only the driv...

From the Bloombergviews In Iraq, the U.S. is fighting in a de facto alliance with one group on its list of terrorist organizations -- the Kurdistan Workers Party, also known as the PKK -- against another, Islamic State. This odd situation reveals an emerging truth about the Kurdish group: Its terrorist status is falling out of date. At this point it has to be recognized for the constructive role it can play in Iraq and the wider region. On the front lines in northern Iraq, even before U.S. airstrikes began, the PKK proved itself to be the most effective fighting force against Islamic State (formerly Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant). Some of its battle units came from Iraq's Qandil mountains, long a base for PKK attacks into Turkey. Still more came from the Democratic Union Party, the group's affiliate organization in Syria, where they have fought Islamic State to a standstill in Kurdish areas. Of course, sharing a common foe with our side doesn't suddenly turn a ter...

From the Bloombergviews (1:15 pm.: Updated second paragraph to include reference to NATO reports of Russian military involvement.) The convoy of about 300 whitewashed Russian military trucks on the Ukrainian border, the first of which entered eastern Ukraine today, is an apt metaphor for this depressing conflict. Russia says they're carrying humanitarian aid. Ukraine says Russia has invaded. It may not be an invasion, but Ukrainian officials have the better of this argument. Many of these trucks are almost empty , and they are traveling without the Red Cross escort Russia agreed to. Now NATO  reports that Russia has brought artillery across the border. Still, Ukrainian officials must be careful in how they respond, because there remains plenty of room for escalation. Their campaign against pro-Russian rebels in their city strongholds has been making gains. But the closer victory comes, the higher the risk that Russian President Vladimir Putin -- cornered by the nationalist fervo...