Inter-Research And Studies (IRAS)

(This article was earlier published in the Rakyattimes.com on 17/5/2014) By Viktor Wong Recently, Umno president Najib Razak had addressed in a youth function, calling on the younger generations to steer away from "liberalism" and "pluralism" which could destroy our country by adopting instead, moderation. Just what exactly does he really try to mean here? The problem here is, does the crowd of youths there understand what does Najib trying to say? Yes, many of the youths may and may not understand on what Najib is trying to prove by asking them to stay away from liberalism and pluralism. We supposed Najib himself too does not really understand the actual and clear definitions of these two words that he addressed to the young crowd in a function recently. Liberalism is actually a social and political definition which specifically identify one or more subject of being different than the previous or the earlier generations or what has been laid down by t...

The push for hudud by many Muslim-majority countries including Malaysia is to ensure its ruling governments maintain their position in power, a UK-based activist and academic said today. Dr Anas Al-Tikriti, who heads the London-based think-thank Cordoba Foundation, said he believes that the current debates on implementing shariah law stems from a political rather than religious perspective, adding that most countries which have adopted hudud have appalling human rights, economic and social track records. “Was Malaysia not a Muslim country 30 or 40 years ago? Why (the push for hudud) now? “Why is it countries that proclaim to be Islamic are the really failed countries in terms of social, political and economic justice? Why resort to hudud?” Anas said. He was speaking at a forum titled: “The politics of religious liberty. Persecution in the name of religion.” Anas said that while as a Muslim he is not against shariah laws, the surrounding circumstances are important before the laws can...

Socialism is usually defined into many kinds of ideology unnecessarily by many socialist leaders themselves as well as opponent of socialism. Such has indeed confuse many socialists, potential socialists and those who are interested in deepen their understanding on socialism. Why do we need to interpret socialism into so many kinds of ideological segment, such as Leninism, Marxism, Maoism, Trotskyism, Centre-Left, Social Democrats, Socialist Democratic, First International, Third International, Fourth International or whatsoever ? Some even claim they are more socialist then others and vice-versa. Some claim to be reformed socialist and this confuse our socialist community even more. As the result of all these differences, we could see first the Socialist, Labour and Communist Parties around the world disintegrating one by one like a domino, some of these parties are even split into two or three political parties but their names still remain as socialist or communist, with only d...

A PAS lawmaker has slammed a public university over a religiously-charged seminar which attacked Christianity, and challenged a claim that Christian priests were masquerading as football coaches to proselytise to Muslims. Parit Buntar MP Datuk Dr Mujahid Yusuf Rawa said the speakers should make a police report over the accusation, and warned that statements made at the seminar were mala fide and dangerous if they failed to back them with evidence. "The speakers and the organisers of the seminar risk being hauled up for making accusations which could threaten inter-religious harmony in the country which was already fragile," said Mujahid. He urged them to provide evidence to the police, and cited Article 11(4) of the Federal Constitution restricting the propagation of any faith to Muslims. The seminar on the use of the word "Allah" and Christology, held last Tuesday at the Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) , heard one of its speakers, Abdul Karim Omar‎, claiming tha...

Pressure growing for medieval Islamic religious punishment Malaysia appears dangerously close to instituting seventh-century religious law that would require amputation of hands or feet for theft, beheading or stoning for adultery and other crimes, and flogging for drinking or other offenses. The issue of Islamic punishment has been kicking around for years, with little effect. But Hadi Awang, the head of Parti Islam se-Malaysia, or PAS is expected to table a private member’s bill in June when the Dewan Rakyat, or national parliament, reconvenes. The bill would make Islamic law supreme in the eastern Malaysian state of Kelantan. However, the Malay-majority states of Perlis, Terengganu and Kelantan appear ready to go ahead with or without parliamentary approval, political analysts say. Other Malay-majority states along the northern tier next to Thailand could follow. Normally, an opposition bill would have no chance of passage in Malaysia’s parliamentary system. However, according to a...

In our continuing series to mark the anniversary of the most heated general election in recent memory, we examine the state of the main federal opposition Pakatan Rakyat. Malaysia’s multi-racial fabric may be fraying and its institutions rotting due to what some say is the Barisan Nasional (BN) administration’s misrule since May 5 last year. But observers and analysts feel that as things stand now, there is little chance that Pakatan Rakyat (PR) can offer a viable alternative for the public to resolve the problems afflicting Malaysia. This is because there is fear the coalition is collapsing under the weight of its members’ competing ideologies. The hudud issue effectively questions whether PR is up to governing Malaysia in all its pluralistic complexity as long as one partner, PAS, sticks to its guns to impose the Islamic criminal law. This comes just as PR loses more and more of its leading lights, the latest being DAP national chairman Karpal Singh, who died in a road ac...

By Al-Jafree Md Yusop “This is awesome!” Those were the exact words that came out of my wife’s mouth when we reached Jalan Tun Perak upon seeing the massive crowd getting ready to push the government for electoral reforms during Bersih 3.0 in April 2012. At one corner I can swear I saw a pink Power Ranger walking proudly, waving at the enthusiastic crowd, at another corner a group of youth reciting poetry, banging on homemade percussions while the people surrounding them were dancing to their tunes. It’s like a carnival, no speeches, no sermons, every single Malaysian that took to the street on that day was clear about one thing – a clean and fair election. A street rally or demonstration is really about expressing yourself in a collective manner. It is supposed to be a cathartic experience for each individual. That was not the case with last week’s Bantah GST May Day rally. As opposed to the Bersih 3.0 in which more than 200,000 Malaysian took to the streets of Kuala Lumpur, the Bant...

DAP vice chairperson Teresa Kok was today charged with sedition over her Chinese New Year video satire titled 'Onederful Malaysia'. The Seputeh MP claimed trial. The Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court then set bail at RM4,000 with one surety. Kok was charged under Section 4(1) (C) of the Sedition Act 1948 for uploading a video titled "Teresa Kok: Onederful Malaysia CNY 2014" on YouTube at 9am on Feb 1, this year. The court interpreter also read out parts of the video which contained Malay subtitles that were allegedly seditious. In the 11-minute Mandarin clip, Kok plays a talk show host who interviews a panel of experts on what to expect in the Year of the Horse. She has been accused of insulting Malays, Islam, the monarchy, the security forces, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and his wife, Rosmah Mansor. As the video went viral, Kok received a barrage of insults and hundreds of police reports were lodged against her. In the 10-page charge sheet, a full versio...

English-language daily The Star’s experiment to inject some balance in its reporting and win back readers after the 13th general election is over with the promotion of group chief editor June H L Wong to a more corporate role. Wong, an arts graduate from Universiti Malaya, has been appointed chief operating officer of content development and will assist group managing director and chief executive officer Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai. In recent months June's editorship was sharply questioned by pro-Barisan bloggers, including Wee Choo Keong, the independent, pro-Barisan Nasional former MP for Wangsa Maju.  Writing in his blog in January and February this year, Wee had questioned the abilities of June (and one or two other unnamed editors) for the Star's editorial coverage, picking on "weird headlines" as examples and pro-opposition slant in coverage. However, pro-Umno blogger Jailani Harun, a former journalist, also defended The Star for covering matters on the D...

If there are any police officials still interested in being honest brokers and if the rule of law means anything anymore in Malaysia, a whole clutch of speakers at yesterday's seminar on the Allah word and Christianity should be arrested and charged with sedition. In some other countries, they would be charged with hate crimes because hate is what they were trying to make Malaysians do. Hate Christians and hate Malaysians of the Christian faith. One of the speakers talked about the number of Christians overtaking Muslims in this country – a scenario as remote as Datuk Ibrahim Ali or Datuk Zulkifli Noordin becoming pastors. But hey, why let the absence of facts get in the way of a nice yarn? Forget about the much higher birth rate among Muslims compared with non-Muslims and forget about the empirical evidence which shows that more Christians have been forced or duped into converting to Islam in Sabah and rural communities. This speaker used the same discredited figures onc...

Prominent activist Hishamuddin Rais yesterday said that he would be "happy" if opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim goes to jail over the latter's sodomy conviction. Speaking at a forum on the anniversary of the May 5 general election last year, Hishamuddin said that this is because he believed Anwar's imprisonment will bring forth a new uprising from the people. "I am happy if Anwar goes to jail, it is a good thing, then we can instigate people to go back to the streets," Hishamuddin ( left ) said. Anwar's first imprisonment in 1998 sparked the Reformasi movement when many Malays took to the streets  and even caused a setback in the 1999 general election for BN, which lost the administration of Terengganu state as well as Kelantan. Hishamuddin also said that he would be glad to see PAS split over the hudud controversy. "This purification is a normal process in a political party. This will split up the group in PAS who are obsessed with the i...

We are in opinion that any religious issues or discussion should remain a household or private matter and it should not be debated publicly. Asides, any religions also should not be put onto the political stage, put into part of political administration, setting up religious laws, religious courts or whatsoever. Just look at today's situation in Malaysia, how a religion has been deliberately used or being misused by many parties, leaders or individuals in the elite circle to serve their own interests, to serve their own political interests, and to ensure they remain power for a longer period. When a religion is misused, it became extreme, thus its leaders and groups become extremists. This religion which was originally a way of life has deviated from its original teachings, deviated from its original objectives, worst of all, even the religious scholars themselves had deviated from their way of life, misused their positions of power to influence our people, creating their ...