Dangling train, ding-dong commitment

Khabarnya (ulang: khabarnya) laporan kemalangan LRT Star tidak lama selepas sambutan Hari Raya Aidilfitri sudah siap.

Dan ... orang ramai, khususnya pengguna perkhidmatan ini, wajar mengetahui bagaimana dan kenapa gerabak LRT itu boleh terjulur keluar dan tergantung di hujung landasannya?

Lee Lam Thye (pengerusi NIOSH) menggesa laporan itu diumumkan kepada orang ramai.

Tetapi sekarang belum lagi ada sebarang susulan tentang isu tersebut di media massa kita.

Apa sudah jadi pada sistem LRT kita?

Dan untuk apa laporan ini (yang sudah disiapkan --- khabarnya) disembunyikan atau "digantung"?

Yang tergantung hanya gerabaknya sahaja --- laporannya tidak perlu "digantung" !!!

[ii]

Tuesday October 31, 2006 The Star
LRT report to go public

RAWANG: The findings on the three light rail transit (LRT) train incidents in the past three months will be made public.

The Railway Department and an independent engineer are investigating the incidents.

Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy said the Government would rely on local experts first before bringing in foreign consultants to investigate the incidents.

He said this was decided at his meeting with the department here yesterday.

On Aug 23, about 5,000 Putra LRT commuters were stranded for one hour at the Masjid Jamek station when water seeped onto the main train.

On Oct 6, the track between Gombak and Ampang was closed for 10 hours when an LRT train stalled between the Datuk Keramat and Damai stations, leaving hundreds of commuters stranded.

In the latest incident on Friday, a Star LRT coach overshot the track at about 7am at the Sentul Timur station stabling area, forcing the track to be closed for more than 20 minutes.

Two heavy-duty cranes were used to pull it back up.

There were no passengers onboard but the incident caused part of a coach to dangle precariously 25m above ground.

Chan said he would make public the findings involving this and the other two incidents.

“We will not hide anything. I am not happy that three train incidents had occurred within three months,” Chan, who is also Selayang MP, told reporters after opening the Desa Kuala Garing housing project for 124 former squatter families here.

“We have to investigate down to the root as to why the incidents occurred over such a short time.

“We view this very seriously and if someone is found to be responsible, action will be taken according to the Railway Act 1991.”

Chan said he had received a preliminary report on Friday's LRT incident but had yet to look at it as he had been inspecting the Rawang-Ipoh double-tracking project.

“A thorough investigation will be conducted on the system, especially on the safety aspect. We will take into account the report’s findings and suggestions when we start the LRT extension plan, which will go on as planned,” he added.

Chan said people should not jump to conclusions or speculate on what caused the latest incident or blame it on the train driver or a technical error.

“The driver has been suspended pending the findings, which is standard procedure. It is not fair to speculate whether or not he was responsible,” he added.

The families were relocated to the Desa Kuala Garing housing project from the Sungai Rawang riverbank to facilitate a river widening and diversion project to prevent occurrence of flash floods.

The housing estate is a project by Lafarge Malayan Cement Bhd. President and chief executive officer Alain Crouy was also present at yesterday's event.

Object on track causes LRT delay [24-Dec-2006] latest incident

Driver of hanging LRT train fully qualified for the job, says CEO [1-Nov-2006]
Foreign expert to help solve LRT service woes [30-Oct-2006]
Lam Thye: Make public LRT mishap report [29-Oct-2006]
Train overshoots LRT terminal and is left dangling [28-Oct-2006]

Presiden

Gara-gara "banjir murtad", kenyataan Presiden PAS Abdul Hadi Awang di Kota Bharu yang disiarkan pada Sabtu lalu ditarik balik oleh Harakahdaily.net selepas disiarkan beberapa jam.

Klik di sini untuk mengetahui berita yang ditarik balik (kill) di Harakahdaily.net.

Penarikan balik berita ini dikesan oleh seorang ahli forum web di Mykmu.net pada Ahad selepas kenyataan ini dijadikan satu isu perbahasan.

Selain itu, isu ini turut berbangkit di laman forum tapak web milik Pemuda PAS Dungun, Tranungkite.net.

Rata-rata ahli forum web yang pro-Umno itu mengecam kenyataan Hadi yang dianggap tidak sensitif. Tetapi tidak dapat dijelaskan sama ada penarikan berita kenyataan Hadi di Harakahdaily.net berpunca daripada kecaman di Mykmu.net.

Yang lebih lucu, setakat pagi ini (Rabu), forum web di Tranungkite turut mengunci (locked) diskusi tajuk ini "Bukti Ulama PAS penuh dengan retorika" selepas mula-mula dibincangkan pada Ahad.

Tidak dapat dipastikan kenapa isu ini dilarang dibincangkan oleh laman web Pemuda PAS Dungun.

Berita kontroversi itu antaranya berbunyi begini:

'Banjir murtad' lebih bahaya – Presiden PAS
Maslan Yusoh
Sat Dec 23, 06 08:26:39 AM

KOTA BHARU, 23 Dis (Hrkh) – Presiden PAS, Dato’ Seri Tuan Guru Abdul Hadi Awang mempersoalkan mengapa media lebih mengutamakan berita puluhan ribu penduduk berpindah kerana banjir, sedangkan ribuan mangsa murtad didiamkan.

Katanya, ratusan ribu menjadi mangsa murtad, dadah dan kemungkaran dibiarkan dibawa arus tanpa didedah kepada rakyat secara meluas.

“Seramai 60,000 orang yang dilaporkan menjadi mangsa banjir hanya bersifat sementara, sedangkan banjir kesesatan seperti gejala murtad dan keruntuhan moral terus berlaku tanpa hak masa,” katanya pada Himpunan 15,000 Pemuda PAS 2006 di sni petang ini.

Berita ini lebih panjang tetapi hanya sebahagian (yang awal) dipetik di forum web Mykmu, yang kemudiannya salinan yang sama dipindahkan ke forum web Tranungkite.net.

Jelas semua media PAS ini tidak sanggup menahan backlash akibat kenyataan Presidennya sendiri!!!

Nota: Hadi,... relaxed lah, walau orang Johor tak sokong PAS pun, janganlah marah-marah. Tak baik marah-marah, nanti cepat tua!

Taun

Ada atau tidak kes taun di kawasan banjir di Johor?

mStar Online (23 Dis) melaporkan terdapat tiga kes taun di Segamat, memetik berita Bernama pada hari itu yang mendapat sumber daripada seorang pegawai kanan kesihatan.

Tetapi isu ini seolah-olah tidak diberikan perhatian berat, malah seolah-olah tidak wujud.

Semalam (24 Dis), Bernama memetik kenyataan wakil rakyat Segamat seperti berikut:

Tiada risiko taun di Segamat

SEGAMAT, 24 Dis (Bernama) -- Anggota Parlimen Segamat Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam hari Ahad menafikan khabar angin terdapat tiga kes taun di Segamat, menyatakan penduduk bandar itu tidak terdedah kepada risiko penyakit itu.

Beliau berkata walaupun bekalan air paip terputus, ia hanya bersifat sementara.

"Bekalan air dan sistem sanitasi di sini adalah baik. Orang ramai tidak perlu panik," katanya.

Hari ini (25 Dis) New Straits Times (muka 6, "Concern over disease outbreak", para 3), memetik kenyataan Menteri Kesihatan, melaporkan seperti berikut:

Although there are no reports of typhoid and cholera at the moment, he said government medical team members would give food handlers a jab of vaccine as a preventive measure.

The Star (muka 4, "Enough vaccines for typhoid and cholera"), juga memetik kenyataan Chua Soi Lek, hanya menyebut dua para paling atas seperti berikut:

There are enough vaccines for typhoid and cholera in Johor, said Health Minister Datuk Seri Chua Soi Lek.

He said typhoid jabs would only be given to food handlers at flood relief centres while cholera vaccinations were not normally given.

Untuk rujukan semua, diterbitkan kembali sepenuhnya di sini berita asal Bernama yang mengambil kenyataan pegawai kanan kesihatan Segamat:

SEGAMAT, 23 Dis (Bernama) -- Jabatan Kesihatan dalam keadaan berjaga-jaga bagi kemungkinan merebaknya wabak penyakit seperti denggi dan taun di Segamat, daerah yang paling teruk dilanda banjir di Johor.

Pegawai Kanan Kesihatan Segamat Dr Zaharah Mohd Salleh berkata sejak lima hari lepas, tiga kes taun dikesan dan jabatan itu bersiap sedia menghadapi merebaknya wabak tersebut.

"Sejak lima hari lepas (sejak banjir mula) jabatan itu telah merawat 156 pesakit yang mengalami pelbagai penyakit. Kita ada 10 klinik kesihatan di daerah ini. Kita juga telah memasukkan 30 orang ke hospital untuk rawatan sebelum bersalin, jaundis dan penyakit berjangkit lain," katanya memberitahu Bernama.

Beliau berkata tiga kes taun dikesan di Sekolah Menengah Tinggi Segamat, yang kini digunakan sebagai pusat pemindahan banjir.

Menurutnya sesetengah mangsa itu terpaksa diterbangkan dengan helikopter ke Hospital Segamat dari Sekolah Menengah Tinggi Segamat, yang jaraknya hanya lima kilometer, kerana air banjir menyebabkan jalan yang menghubungkan sekolah itu dan hospital tersebut tidak dapat dilalui.

Dr Zaharah berkata selepas menemubual mangsa taun itu, jabatan tersebut mendapati bahawa mereka dijangkiti penyakit tersebut selepas minum air yang tidak dirawat.

"Kita juga menguji sampel darah daripada mangsa banjir itu di pusat pemindahan bagi memastikan mereka bebas daripada sebarang penyakit. Kita menasihati bahawa sesiapa yang demam, terus mendapatkan rawatan dari klinik yang berhampiran," tambah beliau.

Jabatan itu juga telah menubuhkan 60 pasukan bagi memastikan tidak ada wabak denggi selepas air banjir surut.

"Semasa banjir, denggi yang dibawa nyamuk mungkin telah menetaskan telurnya selepas air surut, telur ini boleh menetas. Apa yang kita kehendaki ialah menyembur semua kawasan yang dilanda banjir selepas air surut.

"Kita juga telah memberitahu majlis tempatan utnuk memulakan langkah pengasapan selepas air surut. Kita tidak mengambil ringan bagi sebarang perkara. Kita mahu mengambil semua langkah tindakan berjaga-jaga bagi memastikan tidak ada wabak penyakit itu semasa dan selepas banjir," tambah beliau.

(huruf tebal atau bold oleh saya)

Sekarang, isunya: Siapa bercakap benar? Siapa yang mendapat maklumat terkini? Dan ... laporan media manakah yang lebih tepat?

Bah

Kepada yang suka melihat foto (maklumlah, sekeping foto boleh menyampaikan mesej lebih baik daripada 1,000 kata) banjir di Johor dan beberapa negeri sejak awal minggu ini, klik di sini:

Koleksi 4 mStar Online terbaru
Koleksi 3 mStar Online
Koleksi 2 mStar Online
Koleksi 1 mStar Online
Koleksi The Star Online

Soros

Hampir 10 tahun, Dr Mahathir menyedari dan mengakui secara terbuka serangannya pada jutawan dan dermawan George Soros tidak benar.

Soros tidak terlibat, kata Dr Mahathir (baca: Soros tidak terlibat, kata Dr Mahathir, mStar Online, 15 Dec)

Tidak cukup dengan mengganyang spekulator mata wang ini, Dr Mahathir mengganyang pula Malaysiakini.com selama beberapa minggu pada awal 2001, dengan menyifatkan kumpulan wartawan bersama media dalam talian (online) ini sebagai "pengkhianat negara"!

Ia berpunca daripada sumbangan (lebih tepat, pinjaman) Tabung Pinjaman Pembangunan Media (MDLF) yang dikaitkan dengan Soros.

Dengan kenyataan bekas perdana menteri itu, semua tuduhan terhadap Malaysiakini.com dan wartawannya (termasuk bekas wartawannya) menjadi basi dan tidak relevan.

Ada orang mungkin marah pada pengakuan Dr Mahathir ini, tetapi setidak-tidaknya dia berani berterus-terang walau terlalu lambat!

>>> Berita lama pertemuan kami dengan Zainuddin Maidin berhubung isu Malaysiakini-Soros.

Kota Bharu

Pada mulanya Kuantan*, kemudian Kota Bharu.

Latest update: Please go to mStar Online, Pengguna Internet Pantai Timur gemar cari bahan seks (8 Dec).

Dua bandar ini, atau sebut sahaja pekan, paling suka memilih dan mencari perkataan-perkataan berikut: bogel, Melayu bogel, gambar bogel dan seks Melayu.

Empat perkataan atau ungkapan ini popular dicari di enjin pengesan Google.com.my Dan begitulah disabdakan oleh Google Trends.

Dua bandar ini mengatasi bandar-bandar lain di Malaysia! Hebat juga orang Pantai Timur, saya boleh berbangga! Hehehe

Dalam senarai 10 teratas yang dikesan enjin pencari ini, bandar-bandar lain bersilih ganti menduduki tangga masing-masing.

Bagi perkataan "bogel", tempat ketiga jatuhnya kepada Alor Star, dan diikuti (menurut yang teratas dulu): Kota Kinabalu, Batu Pahat, Johor Bahru dan Petaling Jaya.

Untuk perkataan "Melayu bogel", tempat ketiga dikuasai oleh Batu Pahat, dan urutan selanjutnya: Johor Bahru, Petaling Jaya, Klang dan Shah Alam.

"Gambar bogel" diminati (mengikut urutan teratas) di Alor Star, Kota Kinabalu, Batu Pahat, Johor Bahru dan Petaling Jaya.

Sementara "seks Melayu" digemari (paling atas dulu) di Klang, Batu Pahat, Johor Bahru, Petaling Jaya dan Ipoh.

>>> klik atas gambar untuk melihat statistik ini dengan lebih jelas.

Dan perkataan "rempit" dan "mat rempit" mula menguasai pencarian kita sejak isu ini mendapat perhatian meluas media, beberapa bulan kebelakangan. Kota-kota yang suka mencari perkataan ini: Batu Pahat, Kuala Lumpur dan Petaling Jaya.

Sementara istilah-istilah yang membawa konotasi seksual seperti "jilat" dan "tetek" dikuasai oleh empat bandar sahaja (tidak mengikut urutan teratas): Batu Pahat, Klang, Petaling Jaya dan Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysiakini.com dan Jeff Ooi? Carilah di Google Trends.

NOTA: Jangan cari "fathi aris" atau "patah balek", confirm tidak ada!

*meminjam frasa yang selalu disebut oleh Goenawan Mohamad, "pada mulanya kata", satu ekspresi yang dipercayai diambil daripada kitab Bible.

Benjolan

Dan celakalah mereka yang beragama -- mereka yang beriman pada pada makna yang membenjolkan. Makna yang menjerut khayalan dan kesedaran sehingga semua yang cair ini membeku seperti pejalnya air apabila singgah di kutub.

Semua orang yang pejal selalu bermain di wilayah kutub -- bayangkan air yang boleh menelan kita hidup-hidup menjadi dataran keras yang membina kehidupan. Di sini kebebasan dan kejamakan menjadi sempit atau semput.

Pegangan, akidah dan kepercayaan -- yang asalnya bagian dunia khayalan dan simbolisme; dunia yang cair tanpa bentuk dan meruap-ruap -- tercampak ke dunia pejal. Ia menjadi iconoclasm -- ada waktu-waktunya semua ikon, sementara ada masa-masanya ikon-ikon terpilih sahaja dikekalkan, khususnya ikon yang menyenangkan.

>>> teks lengkap di sini 'Salib di biskut: Faith, plurality and freedom'

Maaf

Sebuah laman web memohon maaf kepada JAIS kerana mengaitkan klip video khalwat dengan jabatan agama tersebut.

Lihat berita ini di mStar Online.com (dan baca juga beberapa berita di hujungnya)

Tetapi laman web itu hanya memuatkan beberapa klip sahaja ... sedangkan ada kurang lebih 20 klip seumpamanya (mengikut satu semakan kawan saya). Persoalan ini tidak selesai dengan penafian JAIS dan pemohonan maaf.

Jawapannya: Laporan polis! Apakah JAIS akan sanggup melaporkannya kepada polis? Dan laporan polis itu terhadap siapa? Kita lihat nanti ...

Siapa yang bertanggungjawab merakamkannya (di taman awam), menyebarkannya (kepada pihak lain) dan memuat-naikkan di Internet?

Siapa yang akan mendedahkan hal ini kepada orang ramai dan pihak berwajib? Saya fikir individu (atau individu-individu?) ini berhak dihukum ...

Anda fikir bagaimana pula?

Video

kemas kini JAIS hari ini menjelaskan isu panas ini di sini JAIS kenal pasti pihak rakam video khalwat (27 Nov)

Siapa yang tidak bertanggungjawab, memalukan budak-budak yang disoal siasat selepas didapati berkhalwat?

Kenapa kita (yang memasukkan klip video di Internet) tidak ada asas moral dan etikanya? Atas nama Islamkah kita lakukan ini semua?

Lapor mStar Online hari ini, Video khalwat milik JAIS terbocor di Internet?

Hairannya, untuk apalah kita berbuat begitu?

Ya-lah, kalau foto punggung-punggung perempuan pun boleh dirakam dan diedarkan bersama-sama dengan klip video yang didakwa milik JAIS ini, alamat sakit juga mamat yang menyebarkannya di Internet ...

NOTA: Penulis blog terkenal Jeff Ooi menyiarkan foto-foto yang lebih menggoda ... baca di sini JAIS video clips... licked and leaked? (25 Nov)

>> foto di atas diambil daripada blog Jeff Ooi.

Diari

Dugaan saya, tidak ramai anak muda sekarang yang mengetahui, apatah lagi membaca, Secret Diary of Adrian Mole yang dikarang oleh Sue Townsend.

Konon ceritanya cerita rahsia seorang budak lelaki dalam sebuah diari tetapi rupa-rupanya dikarang oleh seorang novelis wanita. Sebuah novel yang lucu, pintar dan nakal -- sekurang-kurangnya kenakalan seorang budak lelaki.

Townsend kini sedang menempuh era seorang buta. Simpati saya untuknya, Hear my voice.

Lagi tentang dunia buku dan pengarangnya. Jane Austen, pengarang Sense and Sensibility yang telah difilemkan kira-kira sedekad lalu, dipercayai mengadakan hubungan sejenis dengan kakaknya sendiri, Cassandra!

Berita ini mengingatkan saya pada hubungan sejenis seorang pengarang kreatif Melayu yang kini outwardly sudah insaf dan berkhutbah panjang tentang moral, agama dan budaya, kononnya .... Siapakah pengarang lelaki yang melakukan "gangguan" kepada teman lelakinya sendiri? Opsss, tersasul pula....

Kita kembali kepada Jane Austen, cerita disebarkan di sini Just their type (Times Online, 19 Nov)

Tetapi ada lagi yang lebih menarik, yang mungkin orang seperti Amin, Amy, Amir, Amrul & Amar minat membacanya. Bagaimana siswa menjadi "the young authoritarian"?

Atau cuba baca dulu dua perenggan ini:

As Frank Furedi has argued on spiked, such illiberal policies are not ‘simply the handiwork of a few philistine zealots. [They are] the inexorable consequence of an academic culture that is increasingly prepared to censor itself and others.’

Then there are students. Once seen as being among the most progressive, or certainly the most open-minded members of society, today more and more of them are increasingly ban-happy, responding to controversy not by having the argument out – by ‘questioning things vigorously’, as Kaminer puts it – but by demanding censorship, silence, an end to words or images that might potentially upset fragile members of the student body.

Untuk lebih panjang, sila selak artikel ‘The left has been infected by the disease of intolerance’ oleh Brendan O’Neill.

Dating

Keluar temu janji dengan pasangan baru, atau istilah mudah dating, mempunyai nilai kerohanian, kata seorang profesor agama, kerohanian dan gender Donna Freitas.

Jadi, jika anda belum lagi mempunyai upacara dating, silalah baca artikel berikut:

Dating has spiritual value

Our culture's obsession with marriage only furthers the idea that dating should be for the sake of marriage. This view of dating can easily make us forget that dating has spiritual value in and of itself. We need to stop focusing on its potential for marriage and accept its temporary nature. Dating can help us to grow spiritually -- if we allow it to.

Siapalah yang nak dating dengan aku nih! hehehe

Otak biskut

Alahaiiii, nasib kaulah biskut!

Hari ini saya terkejut apabila membaca berita, terbitan Bernama, yang menyebut sebuah NGO pengguna Islam membuat laporan polis berhubung (kononnya) ada biskut mempunyai lambang salib.

Tidak lama dulu, saya terserempak di sebuah forum web, foto biskut berwarna gelap (perang) yang kononnya mempunyai lambang "salib" tersebut.

Saya fikir foto di forum web itu cuma/cuba melawak dan bermain-main ... sehinggalah saya sendiri membaca berita ini!

Fuh .... mujurlah kita semua tidak dilahirkan sebagai biskut!

Ajaib

Teman-teman saya obsesif dengan Altantuya Shariibuu tetapi, berkat petunjuk sepanjang jalan, saya ditemukan dengan buku besar dari seorang tokoh isteri yang paling setia pada suaminya daripada Bani Tamim.

Dengan segala hormatnya, saya perkenalkan buku ini, Abuya Ashaari Muhammad: Pemimpin paling ajaib di zamannya karya Khadijah Aam (aka Ummi Jah).

Kepada teman saya itu, ribuan terima kasih kerana mengingatkan saya yang sudah lupa!

>> Sebarang ulasan yang negatif atau memperkecil-kecilkan buku ini, atau posting ini, saya akan padamkan!

SIS vs ABIM

Ada dua artikel panjang di sini. Di atas artikel Zainah Anwar tentang "ideologi kebencian" dan kedua jawapan seorang pemimpin ABIM Marzuki Mohamad terhadap artikel awal.

Sayang sekali, kedua-duanya dalam bahasa Inggeris.

Sesiapa yang berminat berhujah, sila tulis di ruangan komentar di bawah.

Hate ideology a threat to unity
Zainah Anwar [New Straits Times, 20 Oct 2006]

THE uproar of protest generated by Fauzi Mustaffa’s directive to the staff of Takaful Malaysia forbidding them, in the name of Islam, from extending festive greetings to their Hindu clients provided us some assurance that public opinion in Malaysia will not accept this hostile and aggressive propagation of such understanding of one’s faith.

As a Malaysian, the bigger question remains: What made Fauzi Mustaffa, as head of the Syariah division of Takaful Malaysia, issue such a directive? How could an educated person, working in a global industry such as insurance, hold such a view?

I assume he must be a graduate of Islamic law to head such a department and be the secretary of the company’s Syariah Supervisory Council. He must have learnt the many verses in the Quran that talk about pluralism and differences: How God made us into nations and tribes, so that we may know one another; that if Allah had so willed, He could surely have made us all one single community…. We Muslims repeat such verses again and again, and with pride, to show the world what a tolerant and peaceful religion Islam is.

Perhaps Fauzi’s position and his action are symptomatic of where we have gone with our understanding of Islam, our education system, our socialisation process, our politicisation, and our sense of citizenship within a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society, that he today not only shows no love nor respect for fellow citizens of a different race and religion, but also feels he has the right to turn his dogmatic personal piety into an office directive for all to obey.

Would he have issued such a directive a year ago? What has changed that emboldened Fauzi to take his hostile ideological viewpoint towards the other from the narrow confines of only those who share his religious fervour to a public space, and then to demand obedience or repentance from those who transgress his orders?

Could it be the company policy that its staff must all mengamalkan Syariah sebagai budaya korporat Takaful Malaysia (put Islamic law into practice as the corporate culture) that provided the opportunity for him to transform his personal belief into a company policy for all staff to follow in Malaysia?

Could it have been the legitimacy provided by the public pronouncement by the conference of ulama that met in Ipoh in June to pronounce liberalism, pluralism, kongsi raya and open house as dangerous to the faith of Muslims?

Or could it have been that Wahhabi fatwa circulating worldwide for years which declared that celebrating the religious festivities of others is tantamount to approving their religious faith, thus constituting syirik (associating partners to God)?

I remember the former Mingguan Malaysia columnist Astora Jabat, now editor of Al-Islam, drawing our attention to this many years ago. But we never paid much attention to it in Malaysia, dismissing it as ridiculous, and feeling sorry for our Saudi Arabian friends. Given our history and our context, we never thought that any Malaysian would abide by such a fatwa.

But we have been mistaken, of course.

Or is it that Fauzi senses a certain shift in the mood on the ground and the demonising in neighbourhood mosques and surau of Malaysians who do not share the Islamist ideological viewpoint, that gave him the impetus to turn from private to public his prejudices and throw it into the boiling pot of the don’ts, the forbidden, the haram, the kafir, the anti-Islam, the anti-God, the syirik, the murtad?

In today’s climate where the ideology of hate and intolerance trump the spirituality and compassion of Islam, is it any wonder that death threats have been issued?

The mood out there is very clear. It is this hate ideology that poses a "clear and present danger" to the Malaysia that we know and love. It comes not from those who believe in upholding the Federal Constitution and the rule of law, but those bent on forcing a rewriting of the Constitution and shifting the consensus for civil and political order in Malaysia.

The tactical sprouting of new Islamist NGOs with names like BADAI (Badan Anti-IFC), ACCIN (Allied Coordinating Committee of Islamic NGOs), Muslim Professional Association, Mothers Against Apostasy, Pembela Islam (Defenders of Islam), Peguam Pembela Islam (Lawyers Defending Islam), FORKAD (Front Bertindak Anti-Murtad — Action Front Against Apostasy) etc, and their alliance with the more established Islamist group, are intended to mobilise Muslim public opinion to halt any further democratisation and liberalising of this country.

In a prescient analysis of the current political climate in Malaysia, the long-time commentator on Malaysian politics and Islam, Professor Clive Kessler, wrote in Asian Analysis on the long march towards "desecularisation" of Malaysian life and state-driven by the pious new Malay Muslim middle-class activists, that is now culminating in moving Malaysia into a post-liberal or post-progressivist political era.

Given the progressive education, lifestyle and values of the current Malaysian political elite, the political will, courage and confidence needed to face off this assault from the Islamist front that claims to speak in God’s name seems frighteningly scarce. The one person with the knowledge and confidence to do this is the Prime Minister himself.

But the clampdown on the public education programme to promote respect for the Federal Constitution by the Article 11 coalition sent the wrong signal. The Islamist supremacists saw it as evidence that their use of mob intimidation and threat of violence worked in coercing the government to silence those committed to upholding the Malaysian Constitution as the supreme law of the land. Now their attention is focused on the judiciary as it deliberates on a number of freedom of religion cases.

Ironically, those who succeeded in their intimidation are the very people who want to throw out the Barisan Nasional Government and draw up a new Constitution and a new social contract — this time unequivocally with Syariah as the supreme law of the land.

The politics of ethnic identity remains the dominant discourse in Malaysia and the lens through which many of us react to public policy. This is further complicated by the merging of Islam with Malay identity. The current provocation finds Umno and its partners in the Barisan Nasional walking a political tightrope.

The government can choose to retreat in the face of this dogmatic ideological fervour and counter-mobilisation, as many failed reformists have done in other countries. Or place its faith and confidence in the millions of citizens who voted for a new Prime Minister who promised to be the leader of all Malaysians.

In the spirit of DeepaRaya, can we please stop shaking our fists at our fellow citizens?

Let’s make a conscious decision to deepen our friendship and understanding and realise that we owe our prosperity and stability to the richness of our diversity.

Zainah Anwar's Hate Ideology: Desecularization or Deislamization, or Both?
Marzuki Mohamad [Harakahdaily.net, 2 Nov 2006]

Assuming that such intolerant attitudes were absent in the past, she blames a host of Islamist organizations for their role in overly asserting Muslim's religious identity, and in that process, disseminate what she calls a hate ideology.

This, which she aptly argues, is a serious threat to national unity. She singles out these organizations as Badan Anti-IFC (Anti-IFC Organization, BADAI), Pertubuhan-Pertubuhan Pembela Islam (Organizations of Defenders of Islam, PEMBELA), Peguam Pembela Islam (Lawyers Defending Islam, PPI), Muslim Professionals Forum (MPF), Allied Coordination Council of Islamic NGOs (ACCIN), Front Bertindak Anti-Murtad (Action Front Against Apostasy, FORKAD) and Mothers Against Apostasy.

These Islamist organizations, Zainah believes, are out to create a new Shari'ah-based social contract, replacing the existing secular one, upon which the distinct cultural and religious groups within Malaysia's plural society lay the basis for national unity.

The crux of her argument is that the existing social, legal and political order is essentially secular; national unity is based on continued existence of such secular order; and the Islamist's crusade against such an order is a serious threat to national unity.

Clive Kessler's recent posting in Asian Analysis, an online newsletter jointly published by the Faculty of Asian Studies, Australian National University and the Asean Focus Group (http://www.aseanfocus.com/asiananalysis/latest.cfm?#a989), seems to lend credence to Zainah's argument.

Professor Kessler argues in his short article, The Long March Towards Desecularisation, that Malaysia's progressivist political phase has now come to an end. In its place now is a new Islamist political force, which "has not merely come of age but moves towards and is now capturing the centre of Malaysian political life".

Like Zainah, Kessler also argues that the existing social, political and legal order is essentially secular, and the new Islamist force is out to desecularize it. He traces the seeds of such movement for desecularization up to the days of contentious Malay politics in the post-independence era, during which "Islamist policy auction" between the Islamist party PAS and the ruling Malay nationalist party Umno had driven the state to instituting an overarching Islamization policy.

Ever since, there has been escalating contest for Islamic legitimacy between the two parties and, in that process, reversed "the implicit secularisation of Malaysian life and the state that the 1957 constitution set in train and intended implicitly to promote".

While Kessler finally predicts "the return, at the head of the 'new generation Islamist forces', of former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to the centre of Malaysian politics", however incongruent it might be, Zainah on the other hand offers a stereotype understanding of Islam and Islamist organization as heavily orthodox in orientation and totally anti-modern and anti-secular in practice.

'Unfortunately, by lumping Islamist organizations of all persuasions together, Zainah misses the finer points of Islamist engagement in civil society and acceptance of modern constitutionalism in her picture of the Islamists.

The Islamist's struggle for political, social and economic reform; incessant call for repeal of repressive laws and restoration of judicial independence; involvement in charity and humanitarian relief work; respect for the rights of the non-Muslims to practice their religion in peace and harmony; and acceptance of the Federal Constitution, which is neither completely secular nor fully Islamic, as the supreme law of the land are all missing in Zainah's depiction of the Islamists.

Zainah also disregards the fact that the more moderate and progressive elements among the Islamists she demonizes have been working very closely with secular civil society actors in a number of significant civil society initiatives such as the anti-ISA movement, campaign for electoral reform, crusade against the University and University Colleges Act, and more recently, protest against the unfair terms of the proposed Free Trade Agreement with the United States.

By accusing those opposing Article 11 coalition of rejecting the supremacy of the Federal Constitution, she obviously fails to direct her mind to PEMBELA's latest memorandum to the Council of Rulers and the Prime Minister on the special position of Islam, which states very clearly the Islamists' commitment to the supremacy of the constitution and the rule of law, while reaffirming the cultural terms of the 1957 constitutional contract which guarantees special constitutional position for Islam.

Failure to consider these salient facts about Islamist's engagement in civil society and respect for modern constitutionalism cast serious doubt to the validity of the whole of Zainah's argument.

What Zainah's "hate ideology" seems to be suggesting is, by highlighting the most extreme elements within the Muslim society, as well as some fringe perspectives which do not in any way reflect the mainstream views, that Malaysian Muslims are growing intolerant and extreme in their approach to religious pluralism and modern liberalism.

If numbers do not fail us, recent survey by the Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research shows that this assumption erred. 97 percent of Muslims surveyed say that living alongside people of other religions is acceptable, though 70 percent identify themselves as Muslim first rather than Malay or Malaysian first.

While 98 percent believe that apostasy is wrong, 64 percent want the Shari'ah laws to remain as it is under the modern Constitution. 73 percent think that Malaysia is an Islamic state, but 74 percent reject the Iranian model of theocracy.

This shows that although majority of Malaysian Muslims are assertive about their religious identity, they are at the same time tolerant to multiculturalism and modern constitutionalism.

Yet there is another mind boggling conjecture that Zainah believes is the root cause of religious extremism among Malaysian Muslims. Obviously, according to Zainah, it is Islamist organizations' recent campaign against the so-called Liberal Islam that contributes to alarming religious extremism among Muslims as indicated by the Deepavali greetings saga.

But Zainah misses one salient point that the Islamist's campaign itself is a response to a larger socio political transformation that Zainah herself knows very well. This socio-political transformation relates to the development in the economic and political spheres.

After decades of rapid economic development, massive urbanization, upward social mobility across ethnic groups, and expanding multiracial middle classes, there has been greater valorization of the virtues of democracy and human rights among the multiracial and multi-religious Malaysian public.

Up to the 1990s, it is not uncommon to find conventional secular human rights groups to form alliances with Islamic groups in their struggle for greater democratic space, repeal of repressive laws, independence of judiciary, sustainable development, etc. Both Islamic and secular human rights groups find commonality in their goal to dismantle state authoritarianism and promote social justice.

But of late, a new variant of human rights struggle has emerged. Rather than targeting state authoritarianism, this new struggle debunks a particular social construct which its proponents view as unliberating. This includes social practices and mores that lay emphasis on patriarchal traditional values, moral vigilantanism and religious strictures.

It seems that this new variant of human rights struggle, perhaps, find affinity with the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual (LGBT) libertarian struggle in the West, rather than the anti-apartheid movement for liberation in South Africa. Not surprisingly, the main targets of the new variant of human rights activists have been Islamic religious strictures and its moral code.

Campaigns against Islamic and municipal moral laws, Muslim polygamous marriage, state clampdown on deviant teachings, and until recently, prohibition against Muslims to convert are manifestations of this new variant of human rights struggle.

At the heart of this new struggle is a particular notion that the Muslim society needs to be transformed into a fully secular society along the same trajectory that the Christian West had experienced in the past. They need to be able to divorce their religious and moral worldviews from public life.

They must also accept the primacy of individuals over the family, the community and the state when it comes to matters of personal faith. What should be the (dis)order of the day is a complete freedom of, in and from religion.

In other words, the Muslims must undergo a thorough de-Islamization process before a complete secular life can be set in motion. What appears to be a conventional human rights struggle for individual freedom is indeed a larger cause for complete "Secularization of Islamic Society".

So far, there have been alignment and realignment of positions and alliances between and among the new human rights groups, state sections, international foundations and broader civil society actors in this larger pursuit of secularization.

Looking from this angle, Kessler's "The Long March Towards Desecularization", on which Zainah heavily relies in advancing her "hate ideology" thesis, does not tell the complete story of the contest for moral, legal and political authority in Malaysia.

It is a story half told. Alongside the long march toward desecularization, there has also been a similar march toward de-Islamization, to which various sections within the Islamist forces are now responding, some are quite moderate and some others are even more extreme in their reactions.

The more extreme the de-Islamization forces attempt to bulldoze its secular worldview into the religious fabric of the assertive Muslim society, the more extreme the reaction is from within the Islamist forces.

In short, the de-Islamization forces have also had an equal share in triggering religious extremism within the Muslim society. Given the contest between the two forces has become more acute lately, and the significant impact it bears on Muslim's as well as non-Muslim's perspective about politics and society, the government has so far been juggling between the two poles of Islamic conservatism and modern liberalism in making policy pronouncements.

While it shot down the liberals' proposal to form an interfaith commission, the government also reprimanded the conservative Federal Territory Islamic Religious Department for setting up a group of moral vigilantes which was tasked to hunt down moral criminals. It seems that the UMNO and PAS's contest for Malay votes is no longer the sole determinant of the depth and breadth of government's Islamization policies.

The need to respond to the new de-Islamization forces, the attendant non-Muslim's sentiments and the international exposes compels the government to be more cautious in dealing with its official policy on Islam. So far, the pattern of government's responses to the contest has been like a pendulum swing - sometimes to the right (Islamic conservatism) and sometimes to the left (modern liberalism) and then back again, rather than a constant movement in any one direction.

While the divisive tendency of the current Islamic debate continues to gaining steam, it is worth the while of the actors of the debate to sit back and do some sort of soul searching. It is true that both sides of the political spectrum have moved to the far end of each side, widening the gap between the two, and leaving the middle ground seemingly out of everyone's reach.

But as we live in a deeply multi-religious society, where the divisive tendency, once unleashed, can be highly uncontrolled and potentially devastating, it is not too late for everyone to move back to the middle and try to reach out to each other again. It is high time for everyone to once again champion the middle ground.

Marzuki Mohamad is a Research Scholar of Political Science at the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, Canberra. He is also a member of Central Executive Committee of ABIM.

Amanat

Berikut satu kutipan menarik daripada seorang pemimpin politik Umno:

Percayalah apabila pemimpin tidak boleh ditegur maka dia akan salah guna kuasa. Dia akan utamakan kepentingan diri, keluarga dan kroni. Kepentingan negara, kepentingan rakyat akan diabaikan. Akhirnya negara akan rosak dan rakyat akan menderita.

Pak Lah dan keluarganya takut membenarkan saya bercakap kerana kebenaran apa yang saya akan perkatakan. Jika apa yang saya perkatakan tidak benar, tentu mudah untuk membuktikan apa yang saya kata adalah tidak benar.

Berani kerana benar.

Takut kerana salah.

Dan tokoh ini tidak lain dan tidak bukan Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. Sesekali dengar macam 'Amanat Hadi'! ;)

Hate

Apa yang disampaikan oleh penulis Zainah Anwar memang mengganggu fikiran -- mengenangkan seorang teman saya, di Johor, turut mengalami apa yang digambarkan dalam artikel ini.

Isunya: Bagaimana ideologi agama telah melimpahkan wabak-wabak kebencian dengan meninggalkan sama sekali proses dakwah, dialog dan adab dalam masyarakat Islam.

Islam Hadhari champions needed
Zainah Anwar [New Straits Times, 3 Nov 2006]

MANY Malaysians I meet at open house in this festive month of DeepaRaya celebrations are feeling anxious.

It is not the slug fest between the former and the current prime ministers that is the main topic of conversation among friends, acquaintances and other guests, but rather the continuing deterioration in race relations and the growing Islamic extremism and intolerant behaviour in this country.

The latest report of abuse by the moral police against an elderly American couple on holiday in Langkawi just serves to fuel these concerns.

Two months ago, two incidents occurred within a few days of each other that made me realise how serious the undercurrents of fear and anxiety are.

A friend sent out an SMS inviting his friends for a Merdeka eve barbeque. One reply came from an unknown person: "If this party is about IFC, we are going to burn it N kill them all. Beware."

The young man was shocked how an invitation to celebrate independence day could elicit such a violent response from an unknown person about an Inter-Faith Commission that does not even exist.

Then a few days after, a colleague at Sisters in Islam said her friend’s brother was beaten up by three neighbourhood boys in Ampang because they were angry that he believed in freedom of religion and Lina Joy’s right to convert. The boy received several stitches for his wounds and made a police report.

Another colleague came back from her Raya holidays in Johor, recounting heated debates between family members and two nephews, one a 17-year-old studying in a religious secondary school and the other a 30-year-old running his own business in Kuala Lumpur, who unequivocally pronounced that Muslims who leave Islam should be killed.

These heightened tensions and bouts of inflammatory SMSes over the past few months are the result of over a year’s concerted and deliberate campaign to create alarm and anxiety among Muslims in Malaysia under the banner "Islam under siege".

The intent is to build support for the Islamist political project of turning Malaysia into an Islamic state with Syariah as the supreme law of the land.

The Islamic state ideologues know they cannot win power through the ballot box as most Malaysians, including Muslims, will not support the kind of intolerant, punitive, bigoted, misogynistic and joyless Islam they stand for.

The strategy then has been to penetrate the academic institutions, the bureaucracy, the Islamic institutions and take over the instruments of governance through the backdoor. Cloak yourself in the mantle of God, intimidate your opponents by declaring them kafir or anti-Islam, eliminate anyone with a differing view by declaring war on pluralism and liberalism, take over the drafting of laws, create further institutions to expand your influence and jurisdiction, pronounce one fatwa after another to further limit the scope of differences and diversity, so that in the end only the Islamist ideological conception of Islam prevails. And you could do all this from within the government apparatus. We do not even have to wait for Pas to come into power.

The threat is real and the trend must not be allowed to prevail.

The 2004 election results were a shock to them, especially after their unprecedented performance of 1999 when Pas emerged as leader of the Opposition in Parliament.

The Islamists know the biggest threat against the success of its project comes from human rights and women’s rights groups and ordinary citizens who have been vocal in protesting the injustices that occur in the name of Islam.

Thus, Pas and its Islamist allies in government and in civil society launched a nationwide campaign last year against two perceived threats: An external one called the "Danger of Islam Liberal", an Indonesian ideology that they claim is penetrating Malaysia; and the other internal, the threat of murtad in Malaysia, precipitated by court cases on freedom of religion and rights of non-Muslims in cases such as Shamala, Kaliamal, Lina Joy — all women who went to court because they feel their rights guaranteed under the Federal Constitution have been violated.

The aim is to discredit progressive Muslims and women and human rights groups in Malaysia who believe in upholding the Constitution and rule of law, and in an Islam that upholds the principles of justice, equality, freedom and dignity. They are portrayed as "liberals" intent on "making Islam subservient to prevailing secular notions of rights, freedoms and gender equality".

The construction of an anti-Islam ideology against those who do not support the transformation of Malaysia into a theocratic state is a deliberate and effective strategy to conflate this dispute and criticism of abuses and injustice done in the name of Islam with Islam itself.

The Bahaya Islam Liberal roadshow sees a Pas Youth leader in Penang calling on the audience to menanam perasaan benci (inculcate hatred) against groups like Sisters in Islam which he accused of using women’s issues to denigrate Islam; a government minister using inflammatory language about "enemies wearing the mask of Islam" who threaten national stability and security at a conference on Konspirasi Luar dalam Penyelewengan Agama, in a reference to the dangers of liberal scholarship among the mainstream Islamic scholars and activists in Indonesia spreading to Malaysia.

In Indonesia, it is these scholars and activists from the madrassahs and Islamic universities, trained in Islamic theology, philosophy and law, who spearhead a progressive Islamic movement opposed to the creation of an Islamic state and imposition of Syariah.

My concern for Malaysia is how fast this Islamist supremacist thinking has seeped into the body politic. Human rights and women’s rights groups that campaign against moral policing, discriminatory amendments to the Islamic Family Law, and citizens who go to court to exercise their constitutional rights, the lawyers who represent them and civil society groups that support them are all labelled as anti-Islam, and their actions deemed an insult to Islam, Syariah, the authority of the sultans, the ulama and religious institutions.

When the exercise of rights by citizens under the law is construed as insults to Islam, to Muslims and the religious authorities, then Malaysia is in danger of sliding down the slippery slope of de facto theocratic rule.

As a journalist in the early 1980s, I witnessed first hand the impact of the kafir-mengkafir conflict between Pas and Umno in the Malay heartland of Terengganu, Kelantan and Kedah.

In the deep rural villages, Pas supporters pronounced this government as a government of infidels for co-operating with non-Muslims, the Constitution as un-Islamic as it was formulated by non-Muslims, and this Umno-led government as un-Islamic and illegitimate for not creating an Islamic state with Syariah rule.

I spoke with scores of men and women in the kampungs riven by this extremist ideology of hate.

It ultimately led to separate mosques, separate suraus and separate burial grounds for Pas and Umno supporters. It led to family break-ups, incidents of Pas supporters refusing to eat meat slaughtered by the "infidel" Umno man, of marriages that needed to be solemnised twice, first by the government imam for the official marriage certificate and second by the Pas imam "to be accepted in the eyes of God".

But instead of fear, Umno wakil rakyat then were confident and energised in dealing with the extremism of Pas. They listened to cassette recordings of Pas ceramah in their cars as they criss-crossed their constituencies, absorbing the rhetoric against Umno and the Barisan Nasional government to enable them to go back to the drawing board to redraw their strategy to counter the Pas denunciations of this "un-Islamic" government led by an "infidel" party.

The party battle lines were clear in 1982. How things have changed 24 years on!

The government’s decision to embark on an Islamisation policy has blurred the lines between Pas and Umno and their Islamic agenda. The eventual outcome is a civic and political order in Malaysia that is decidedly more Islamist in orientation.

Concerned over the potential for extremism and violence, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi introduced Islam Hadhari "to enable Muslims in Malaysia to become the vanguard of a new civilisation that can bring about progressive and comprehensive change".

But without champions within the system to deliver on his vision, and a civil society facing the threat of silence, I fear that Islam Hadhari, like Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s Islamisation project, will yet again be hijacked and redefined in implementation by the Maududi and Syed Qutb ideologues and the traditionalist ulama that still dominate the Islamic political landscape in Malaysia.

Indeks

Menurut kumpulan pendukung kebebasan media yang berpangkalan di Paris, Wartawan Tanpa Sempadan (RSF), indeks kebebasan media Malaysia naik sedikit kepada 92 anak tangga tahun ini daripada 113 tahun lepas.

Satu peningkatan yang boleh dibanggakan?

The Sun mengulas begini: We note with optimism that by and large Malaysians have been able to handle the new openness with maturity and balance, even though some quarters have felt threatened by the discussion of the so-called "sensitive" issues.

Sememangnya The Sun satu-satunya akhbar yang semakin berani mengambil peluang era keterbukaan yang wujud bawah perdana menteri baru yang memerintah ala "negara polis", kata bekas perdana menteri yang empat kali berturut-turut diisytiharkan "musuh utama kebebasan akhbar", enemy of the press, oleh Jawatankuasa Melindungi Wartawan (CPJ) dan RSF. Untuk lebih lanjut, sila ke laman web IFeX.

Akhbar dalam talian berbahasa Cina Merdeka Review juga telah mengulasnya, termasuk mengutip pandangan saya ... Anda pula bagaimana? Setuju dengan indeks RSF ini... ?

Polis

Barangkali dalam banyak-banyak kenyataan Dr Mahathir Mohamad yang mudah saya (dan mungkin juga teman-teman lain) bersetuju, yang ini paling menarik dan mudah pula mengundang perdebatan:

"... my allegation that we have a police state. I said each time I am invited, the police will question and intimidate the people. He said this was not true. He disagreed that we have a police state."

Sekarang Dr Mahathir sedang menikmati tekanan tersebut, banyak aktivis dan pemimpin pembangkang terjerat dalam ugutan ini sudah sekian lama.

Seseorang yang tidak melalui saat-saat ini berasa sukar untuk menerima ungkapan dan realiti "negara polis".

Rejimen

Walau sudah agak lama saya mewawancara (rasmi) Amir Muhammad, tetapi hanya hari ini artikel saya tentang filem terbarunya Apa Khabar Orang Kampung? berjaya ditulis dan diterbitkan di mStar Online.

Filem ini sequel Lelaki Komunis Terakhir, telah diluluskan LPF tetapi tiba-tiba menjadi isu yang cukup menggelegak pertengahan tahun ini.

Sequel ini, tentunya, masih lagi tentang komunis tetapi kali ini tentang gerakan komunis Melayu -- Rejimen ke-10 PKM.

Selalunya imej gerakan gerila ini sebagai gerakan orang Cina untuk kepentingan China atau/dan kaum Cina di sini.

>> Untuk melihat foto, sila ke laman ini, di sini dan juga laman ini.

>> Artikel lama saya tentang Rejimen ke-10 PKM, selepas lawatan ke perkampungan mereka pada 2002, khususnya bersandarkan catatan Abu Samah, baca di sini.

Kampus

Kampus -- kita ghairah membincangkan pilihan raya kampus, adil atau tidak ia dikendalikan. Kenapa calon-calon kelompok siswa yang pro-pembangkang atau pro-NGO tidak dibiarkan bergerak bebas.

Bagi menggantikan label pro-pembangkang, kita cipta istilah pro-mahasiswa atau calon bebas (independen) bagi mengalih perhatian daripada label "pro-Aspirasi."

Kita kehilangan perspektif besar, tenggelam dalam isu 'kecil'. Perspektif luasnya, dan lebih fundamental, bukan pilihan raya MPP, bodoh!

Isunya "kebebasan akademik" dan kualiti pengajaran. Faham!?

Kurus

Metabolic syndrome, in other words, could be the great disease of our age. Or it could be a sign of how diseased our age is, a demonstration of how certain we are that there is always a scientific explanation, a diagnosis, and perhaps a pill for what ails us. Either way, metabolic syndrome is a disease whose time has come. ('The Thin Pill', Wired, October 2006)

Mark Twain once said, “It took a brave man before the Civil War to confess he had read The Age of Reason. ” But that didn’t mean it wasn’t read. In 1797 alone, a single Philadelphia printer sold a hundred thousand copies. In Britain, sales of “The Age of Reason” outpaced even those of “Rights of Man,” though, since it was banned as blasphemous, it’s impossible to know how many copies were sold. ('The Sharpened Quill', The New Yorker, 16 Oktober 2006)

Lecturers and university staff across Britain are to be asked to spy on "Asian-looking" and Muslim students they suspect of involvement in Islamic extremism and supporting terrorist violence, the Guardian has learned. They will be told to inform on students to special branch because the government believes campuses have become "fertile recruiting grounds" for extremists. ('Universities urged to spy on Muslims', The Guardian, 16 Oktober 2006)

Ideologi abad ke-20

Beberapa idea asas yang menyokong pandangan awal saya kenapa agama (semua agama, bukan hanya Islam) itu 'ideologi' dan kenapa pula beberapa mazhab berfikir dalam bidang filsafat, sains tulen dan sains sosial, serta teori-teori seni, budaya dan sastera boleh dianggap bersifat 'ideologi'.

Jadi, tidaklah tepat/benar untuk melihat persoalan ideologi ini sebagai persoalan idea-idea atau cabang berfikir tentang politik, kekuasaan, kenegaraan dan ekonomi semata-mata.

Beberapa takrifan:

(1) the unifying system of beliefs, attitudes, and values expressed in the superstructure of a culture. The body of thought and ideas that guides a society and perpetuates the status quo of the bourgeoisie.

(2) Literally the study of ideas, the collective knowledge, understandings, opinions, values, preconceptions, experiences and/or memories that informs a culture and its individual people. Ideology is often aligned with political beliefs, but is much broader than that, relating to any social or cultural beliefs, and these beliefs are revealed in literary or other texts.

(3) "Ideology" means to favor one point of view above all others and to adhere to this point of view. The ideologue sees the world from a single point of view, can thus "explain" it and attempt to "change" it.

(4) A comprehensive world view pertaining to formal and informal thought, philosophy, and cultural presuppositions usually understood as associated with specific positions within political, social, and economic hierarchies. Many schools of modern literary criticism contend that the ideological context of both reader and author always affects the meanings assigned to or encoded in the work.

Sejarah asas kata 'ideology':

Destutt de Tracy was born in Paris on July 20, 1754 and died in Paris on March 10, 1836. He was a philosophe, one of the founders in the 1790s of the classical liberal republican group known as the Idéologues (which included Cabanis, Condorcet, Constant, Daunou, Say, Madame de Staël), a politician under several regimes spanning the Revolution and the Restoration, and an influential author.

When the Estates General were called to meet in 1789 he, although a member of an aristocratic family which had been ennobled twice (hence his name), joined the Third Estate and renounced his title. He was later elected to the Constituent Assembly and served in the army in 1792 under the Marquis de Lafayette.

During the Terror he was imprisoned and only escaped execution because Robespierre beat him to the scaffold. It was during his period of imprisonment that he read the works of Condillac and Locke and began working on his theory of idéologie.

He was made a member of the Institut National in 1796 (he was part of the Section of the Analysis of Sensations and Ideas in the Class of Moral and Political Sciences, which was later suppressed by Napoleon in 1803) and later appointed to the French Academy (1808). During the Directory Tracy was active in educational reform, especially in creating a national system of education. His membership of the Senate during the Consulate and Empire gave him many opportunities to express his "ideological" opposition to Napoleon's illiberal regime, which culminated in 1814 with Tracy's call for the removal of the Emperor.

Tracy coined the term "ideology" shortly after his appointment to the Institute National in 1796 to refer to his "science of ideas" which attempted to create a secure foundation for all the moral and political sciences by closely examining the sensations and the ideas about those sensations which arose in human beings as they interacted with their physical environment. His deductive methodology for the social sciences has much in common with the Austrian school of economics which emerged after 1870.

For Tracy, "Ideology" was a liberal social and economic philosophy which provided the basis for a strong defense of private property, individual liberty, the free market, and constitutional limits to the power of the state (preferably in a republican form modeled on that of the USA).

For Napoleon, "ideology" was a term of abuse which he directed against his liberal opponents in the Institut National and it was this negative sense of the term which Marx had in mind in his writings on Ideology (he called Tracy a "fischblütige Bourgeoisdoktrinär"—a fish-blooded bourgeois doctrinaire).

Perdebatan: Apakah ideologi itu idea-idea kumpulan dominan sahaja?

‘To study ideology,’ writes John B. Thompson, ‘… is to study the ways in which meaning (or signification) serves to sustain relations of domination.’

This is probably the single most widely accepted definition of ideology; and the process of legitimation would seem to involve at least six different strategies.

A dominant power may legitimate itself by [1] promoting beliefs and values congenial to it; [2] naturalizing and [3] universalizing such beliefs so as to render them self-evident and apparently inevitable; [4] denigrating ideas which might challenge it; [5] excluding rival forms of thought, perhaps by some unspoken but systematic logic; and [6] obscuring social reality in ways convenient to itself.

Such ‘mystification,’ as it is commonly known, frequently takes the form of masking or suppressing social conflicts, from which arises the conception of ideology as an imaginary resolution of real contradictions.

In any actual ideological formation, all six of these strategies are likely to interact in complex ways.

There are, however, at least two major difficulties with this otherwise persuasive definition of ideology. For one thing, not every body of belief which people commonly term ideological is associated with a dominant political power.

The political left, in particular, tends almost instinctively to think of such dominant modes when it considers the topic of ideology; but what then do we call the beliefs of the Levellers, Diggers, Narodniks and Suffragettes, which were certainly not the governing value systems of their day?

Are socialism and feminism ideologies, and if not why not? Are they non-ideological when in political opposition but ideological when they come to power?

If what the Diggers and Suffragettes believed is “ideological,’ as a good deal of common usage would suggest, then by no means all ideologies are oppressive and spuriously legitimating.

Indeed the right-wing political theorist Kenneth Minogue holds, astoundingly, that all ideologies are politically oppositional, sterile totalizing schemes as opposed to the ruling practical wisdom: ‘Ideologies can be specified in terms of a shared hostility to modernity: to liberalism in politics, individualism in moral practice, and the market in economics.’

On this view, supporters of socialism are ideological whereas defenders of capitalism are not. The extent to which one is prepared to use the term ideology of one’s own political views is a reliable index of the nature of one’s political ideology.

Generally speaking, conservatives like Minogue are nervous of the concept in their own case, since to dub their own beliefs ideological would be to risk turning them into objects of contestation.

Takrif umum yang lebih bebas dan longgar daripada persoalan kuasa dominan (yang juga makna kuasa baru muncul yang melawan dominasi puak kuat).

The political philosopher Martin Seliger argues for just such a formulation, defining ideology as ‘sets of ideas by which men [sic] posit, explain and justify ends and means of organised social action, and specifically political action, irrespective of whether such action aims to preserve, amend, uproot or rebuild a given social order.’

Ideology today is generally taken to mean not a science of ideas, but the ideas themselves, and moreover ideas of a particular kind. Ideologies are ideas whose purpose is not epistemic, but political. Thus an ideology exists to confirm a certain political viewpoint, serve the interests of certain people, or to perform a functional role in relation to social, economic, political and legal institutions. (Christine Sypnowich, 2001, 'Law and Ideology', Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Daniel Bell dubbed ideology ‘an action-oriented system of beliefs,’ and the fact that ideology is action-oriented indicates its role is not to render reality transparent, but to motivate people to do or not do certain things. Such a role may involve a process of justification that requires the obfuscation of reality.

Nonetheless, Bell and other liberal sociologists do not assume any particular relation between ideology and the status quo; some ideologies serve the status quo, others call for its reform or overthrow.

Beberapa pengkelasan 'ideologi' (menurut saya):

1. Politik/ekonomi
2. Falsafah/sains/pengetahuan
3. Seni/sastera
4. Agama

Kritik ideologi

Ideologi, seperti juga agama, atau sebaliknya -- agama, seperti juga ideologi -- harus dikritik.

Ia mencipta pembiusan pada fikiran, cuba mensemulajadikan (naturalize) kewujudannya, dan mencipta kesedaran palsu pada penganut dan, kadang-kadang, penentangnya.

Ia memberikan legitimasi pada hegemoninya -- menghalalkan manipulasi kuasa dan sumber ekonomi; menghalalkan kewujudannya sebagai sesuatu yang "wajar" atau "baik", malah sesuatu yang "bermoral".

Tetapi apakh itu ideologi? Terry Eagleton, pengarang buku tentang teori dan analisa ideologi, menulis, dengan meminjam pandangan seorang pemikir politik Martin Seliger: "sets of ideas by which men [and women] posit, explain and justify ends and means of organised social action, and specifically political action, irrespective of whether such action aims to preserve, amend, uproot or rebuild a given social order."

Lihat huraian ringkas Eagleton di sini atau beli bukunya yang ini.

Atau setidak-tidaknya melihat takrif asasnya di sini. Dan kalaulah Wikipedia boleh diharapkan sebagai satu sumber rujukan, boleh juga lihat di sini.

Di negara jiran, sebuah buku berjudul Kritik Ideologi dihasilkan oleh Francisco Budi Hardiman tetapi sayangnya tidaklah komprehensif, asyik-asyik dengan pemikiran Jurgen Habermas.

Kritik agama

Ada dua topik diskusi yang saya berminat untuk lanjutkan. Dan dimasukkan di web Ummahonline.com, satu daripadanya sudah agak lama tetapi akhir-akhir ini semacam ada minat baru untuk membicarakannya.

Satu, Agama wajib dikritik habis-habisan (31 Januari). Asalnya artikel lengkap saya tahun lalu di akhbar web Malaysiakini.com.

Jadi, tanpa mengupas banyak, saya kira saya telah membentangkan sebahagian besar premis, tujuan dan ruang lingkup yang dimaksudkan 'kritik agama'.

Antaranya: Kritik bertujuan mendorong pemahaman kritis (mempertikai) dan reflektif (renungan) terhadap asas-asas anutan agama tersedia ada (kukuh) yang bergerak dalam masyarakat, yang seolah-olah muncul secara semula jadi, dan akibatnya tidak dipermasalahkan atau dipertikaikan lagi. Atas sifatnya yang berinteraksi atau terjaring dengan kepentingan modal, kuasa dan tradisi, kritik agama bertujuan membongkar selimut ideologi atau selubung wacana dalam hubungan kepentingan itu (juga, konteks dan sejarahnya) yang tidak selalu telus, dan malah sering mengendong dakwaan kekudusan agama.

Topik kedua, tidak jauh daripada topik pertama Analisa 'Islam sebagai ad-din' (3 Oktober).

Jadi, kepada teman-teman yang berminat mendiskusikan dua topik ini, bolehlah ke sana.

Atau, kalau malas mendaftar sebagai peserta forum web Ummahonline, bolehlah idea-idea itu dilontarkan di kaki (ruangan komentar pembaca) artikel ini. Saya akan salin semula dan tampal sepenuhnya ke forum tersebut.

Kepada yang berminat, berikut beberapa sumber bacaan menarik:
1. The political economy of of women's support for fundamentalist Islam
2. The political economy of Middle East terrorism
3. Arab and Muslim political attitudes: Stereotypes and evidence from survey research
4. The basis of Islamic fundamentalism (bab 5, teks lengkap di sini)
5. Mirror reflections: Fundamentalism and the market economy
6. Understanding Islamic fundamentalism: A politico-legal analysis
7. Islam, Islamists, and democracy

Islamisme

Berikut kata-kata, analisa, yang dibuat oleh Chris Harman, seorang pemikir sosialis tentang gerakan Islam dalam analisa kelasnya:

But no set of ideas can have such an appeal to different classes, especially when society is shaken by social convulsions, unless it is full of ambiguities.

It has to be open to differing interpretations, even if these set its adherents at each other’s throats.

This has been true of Islam virtually from its inception.

Apakah anda boleh bersetuju dengannya dalam makalahnya 'The prophet and the proletariat' (1994)?

Harman kemudiannya dalam bab 'The class base of Islamism' membahagikan gerakan Islam dan penggeraknya kepada empat kelompok manusia:

The Islamic revival gets sustenance from four different social groupings – each of which interprets Islam in its own way:

i. The Islamism of the old exploiters: First there are those members of the traditional privileged classes who fear losing out in the capitalist modernisation of society – particularly landowners (including clergy dependent on incomes from land belonging to religious foundations), traditional merchant capitalists, the owners of the mass of small shops and workshops.

Such groups have often been the traditional sources of finance for the mosques and see Islam as a way of defending their established way of life and of making those who oversee change listen to their voices. Thus in Iran and Algeria it was this group which provided the resources to the clergy to oppose the state’s land reform programme in the 1960s and 1970s.

ii. The Islamism of the new exploiters: Second, often emerging from among this first group, are some of the capitalists who have enjoyed success despite hostility from those groups linked to the state. In Egypt, for instance, the present day Muslim Brotherhood “wormed their way into the economic fabric of Sadat’s Egypt at a time when whole sections of it had been turned over to unregulated capitalism. Uthman Ahmad Uthman, the Egyptian Rockefeller, made no secret of this sympathy for the Brethren”.

In Turkey the Welfare Party, which is led by a former member of the main conservative party, enjoys the support of much of middle sized capital. In Iran among the bazaaris who gave support to Khomeini against the Shah were substantial capitalists resentful at the way economic policies favoured those close to the crown.

iii. The Islamism of the poor: The third group are the rural poor who have suffered under the advance of capitalist farming and who have been forced into the cities as they desperately look for work. Thus in Algeria out of a total rural population of 8.2 million only 2 million gained anything from the land reform. The other 6 million were faced with the choice between increased poverty in the countryside and going to the cities to seek work.

But in the cities: “The lowest group are the hard core jobless made up of displaced former peasants who have flooded the cities in search of work and social opportunity ... detached from rural society without being truly integrated into urban society”.

They lost the certainties associated with an old way of life – certainties which they identify with traditional Muslim culture – without gaining a secure material existence or a stable way of life: "Clear guidelines for behaviour and belief no longer exist for millions of Algerians caught between a tradition that no longer commands their total loyalty and a modernism that cannot satisfy the psychological and spiritual needs of young people in particular”.

[....]

iv. The Islamism of the new middle class: However, neither the “traditional” exploiting classes nor the impoverished masses provide the vital element which sustains revivalist, political Islam – the cadre of activists who propagate its doctrines and risk injury, imprisonment and death in confrontation with their enemies.

The traditional exploiting classes are by their very nature conservative. They are prepared to donate money so that others can fight – especially in defence of their material interests. They did so when faced with the land reform in Algeria in the early 1970s; when the Baathist regime in Syria encroached upon the interests of the urban merchants and traders in the spring of 1980s; and when the merchants and small businessmen of the Iranian bazaars felt themselves under attack from the Shah in 1976-78 and threatened by the left in 1979-81.

But they are wary of putting their own businesses, let alone their own lives, at risk. And so they can hardly be the force that has torn societies like Algeria and Egypt apart, caused a whole town, Hama, to rise in revolt in Syria, used suicide bombs against the Americans and Israelis in Lebanon – and which caused the Iranian Revolution to take a turn much more radical than any section of the Iranian bourgeoisie expected.

This force, in fact, comes from a fourth, very different stratum – from a section of the new middle class that has arisen as a result of capitalist modernisation right across the Third World.

Saya sedar aktivis gerakan Islam, ustaz (kalaupun bukan ulama) atau pendakwah berasa kekok atau marah dengan analisa (dan jenis perkataan) yang disampaikan oleh Harman, atau penulis-penulis lain seumpamanya.

Tetapi bolehkah kita nafikan manusia Islam itu tanpa apa-apa kepentingan sekali pun?

Berlin

Berlin was the residence of Karl Marx, the son and grandson of Jewish rabbis, the man who introduced Communism to the world when he published his Communist Manifesto in 1848.

This prompted a revolution in Germany, which failed, and resulted in the emigration of a number of German liberals to America where they became known as the "Forty-Eighters."

Berlin also became the center of the social democratic movement, the worker's movement and the trade union movement in Germany.

It was the headquarters of the Social Democratic Workers Party, founded by Karl Liebknecht and August Bebel.

During World War I, a new militant leftist group formed by Jewish leaders, Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, agitated for the overthrow of the Kaiser and the end of the war.

The war effort was hampered when 300,000 workers went on strike in January 1918.

In November 1918 there was a naval mutiny and a strike of the dock workers.

Finally, on November 9, 1918, Philipp Scheidemann, the Jewish leader of the Social Democrats, proclaimed the first German Republic from a window of the Reichstag building in Berlin.

Twenty years later, the Nazis, who always blamed the Jews for Germany's defeat in World War I, got their revenge by starting the pogrom which became known as Kristallnacht on November 9, 1938.

30,000 Jewish men, many of them from Berlin, were rounded up and sent to the concentration camps at Dachau, Sachsenhausen and Buchenwald where they were held until their families could arrange for them to leave Germany.

foto hak cipta (c) Kean Wong. Tugu ini dikenali 'Marx-Engels Forum', di depan sebuah hotel baru Radisson SAS Berlin dan di kanannya, seberang terusan, gereja 'Berliner Dom'

Pope

Ucapan pope Benedict XVI di Universiti Regensburg, Jerman pada 12 September menarik sekali dan wajar diterjemahkan sepenuhnya (teks lengkap) dalam bahasa Melayu.

Walau isu hubungan antara akal dan agama tidak baru tetapi kontroversi yang hadir bersama satu kutipan dalam ucapan ini -- bersama sejumlah lagi perbahasan panjang dalam tradisi Islam dan Kristian berhubung akal dan agama -- menjadikan teks ini menarik.

Saya kutip sebahagian isinya di sini (seperti disiarkan dalam The Guardian, 15 September):

I was reminded of all this recently, when I read the edition by Professor Theodore Khoury (Münster) of part of the dialogue carried on - perhaps in 1391 in the winter barracks near Ankara - by the erudite Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an educated Persian on the subject of Christianity and Islam, and the truth of both.

It was presumably the emperor himself who set down this dialogue, during the siege of Constantinople between 1394 and 1402; and this would explain why his arguments are given in greater detail than those of his Persian interlocutor.

The dialogue ranges widely over the structures of faith contained in the Bible and in the Qur'an, and deals especially with the image of God and of man, while necessarily returning repeatedly to the relationship between - as they were called - three "Laws" or "rules of life": the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Qur'an.

It is not my intention to discuss this question in the present lecture; here I would like to discuss only one point - itself rather marginal to the dialogue as a whole - which, in the context of the issue of "faith and reason", I found interesting and which can serve as the starting-point for my reflections on this issue.

In the seventh conversation [text unclear] edited by Professor Khoury, the emperor touches on the theme of the holy war. The emperor must have known that surah 2, 256 reads: "There is no compulsion in religion".

According to the experts, this is one of the suras of the early period, when Mohammed was still powerless and under threat. But naturally the emperor also knew the instructions, developed later and recorded in the Qur'an, concerning holy war.

Without descending to details, such as the difference in treatment accorded to those who have the "Book" and the "infidels", he addresses his interlocutor with a startling brusqueness on the central question about the relationship between religion and violence in general, saying: "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached".**

The emperor, after having expressed himself so forcefully, goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable. Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. "God", he says, "is not pleased by blood - and not acting reasonably ... is contrary to God's nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats... To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death...".

The decisive statement in this argument against violent conversion is this: not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God's nature. The editor, Theodore Khoury, observes: For the emperor, as a Byzantine shaped by Greek philosophy, this statement is self-evident.

But for Muslim teaching, God is absolutely transcendent. His will is not bound up with any of our categories, even that of rationality. Here Khoury quotes a work of the noted French Islamist R Arnaldez, who points out that Ibn Hazn went so far as to state that God is not bound even by his own word, and that nothing would oblige him to reveal the truth to us. Were it God's will, we would even have to practise idolatry.

At this point, as far as understanding of God and thus the concrete practice of religion is concerned, we are faced with an unavoidable dilemma. Is the conviction that acting unreasonably contradicts God's nature merely a Greek idea, or is it always and intrinsically true?

** perenggan yang dilaporkan kontroversi dan memberangkan umat Islam***

Only thus do we become capable of that genuine dialogue of cultures and religions so urgently needed today. In the Western world it is widely held that only positivistic reason and the forms of philosophy based on it are universally valid. Yet the world's profoundly religious cultures see this exclusion of the divine from the universality of reason as an attack on their most profound convictions.

A reason which is deaf to the divine and which relegates religion into the realm of subcultures is incapable of entering into the dialogue of cultures. At the same time, as I have attempted to show, modern scientific reason with its intrinsically Platonic element bears within itself a question which points beyond itself and beyond the possibilities of its methodology.

Modern scientific reason quite simply has to accept the rational structure of matter and the correspondence between our spirit and the prevailing rational structures of nature as a given, on which its methodology has to be based. Yet the question why this has to be so is a real question, and one which has to be remanded by the natural sciences to other modes and planes of thought - to philosophy and theology.

For philosophy and, albeit in a different way, for theology, listening to the great experiences and insights of the religious traditions of humanity, and those of the Christian faith in particular, is a source of knowledge, and to ignore it would be an unacceptable restriction of our listening and responding. Here I am reminded of something Socrates said to Phaedo.

In their earlier conversations, many false philosophical opinions had been raised, and so Socrates says: "It would be easily understandable if someone became so annoyed at all these false notions that for the rest of his life he despised and mocked all talk about being - but in this way he would be deprived of the truth of existence and would suffer a great loss".

The West has long been endangered by this aversion to the questions which underlie its rationality, and can only suffer great harm thereby. The courage to engage the whole breadth of reason, and not the denial of its grandeur - this is the programme with which a theology grounded in Biblical faith enters into the debates of our time. "Not to act reasonably, not to act with logos, is contrary to the nature of God", said Manuel II, according to his Christian understanding of God, in response to his Persian interlocutor.

It is to this great logos, to this breadth of reason, that we invite our partners in the dialogue of cultures. To rediscover it constantly is the great task of the university.

*** reaksi melenting sejumlah umat Islam, termasuk pemimpin politik di dunia Islam, menunjukkan orang Islam sarat emosi, tidak tenang dan tidak rasional.

Persoalan ini debat falsafah yang panjang, setidak-tidaknya lebih 100 tahun, walau abad ke-20 menyaksikan simpang-siur kritik dan kritik balas yang menarik. Maksud saya, sejak munculnya faham positivisme sains dan bagaimana sains menjadi saintisme.

Jualan

Bahaya pada agama dan agamawan bermula pada keghairahan, emosi dan kebutaan iman.

[Kira-kira maksud saya macam ungkapan Abdolkarim Soroush tentang orang Islam yang melihat agamanya semacam "pasangan kekasih" -- cinta itu membutakan. Dia tidak boleh "objektif" atau "mencipta jarak" atau "rasional". Agama itu ideologi, atau dalam bahasa Arab disebut 'aqidah. Akidah di sini dieja dengan 'ain huruf kecil, bukan 'ain huruf besar, OK!]

Ia tidak bermula dengan akal, buku dan kajian tetapi menampal sejumlah kata agama -- jika perlu, menempel kalimat-kalimat al-Qur'an -- sewaktu cuba merumuskan persoalan duniawi dan masyarakat yang cuba digelutinya.

Sekalipun dia bermula dengan akal, buku dan kajian -- semuanya ini akan jadi tumpul dek keghairahan dan kecintaan yang menebal, mengasyikkan dan membutakan. Tetapi kita namakan pula ia "iman"!

Sama ada seseorang agamawan itu jujur atau tidak, perkara ini sahaja boleh mencacatkan pergelutan akliahnya itu (kalaulah itu hajatnya yang asal).

Menulis memang boleh dan ia memang kerja 'mudah', apatah lagi jika ia memang seorang penulis atau sasterawan. 'Mudahnya' kegiatan ini seperti menyangkut/melilit serban (atau: kain yang selalunya diserbankan) di bahu ke hulu ke hilir dan menyimpan sejemput janggut.

[Jika perlu lagi, membawa biji-biji tasbih atau menyebut insya allah sebanyak 50 kali dalam tempoh seminit!]

Samalah mudahnya dengan memplagiat (ulang: memplagiat) patah-patah al-Qur'an dalam artikel untuk meyakinkan nilai agama pada artikel, macam juga mengutip petikan, nama pengarang dan buku rujukan.

Kononnya nanti dapat memberi sense of authenticity atau authority pada artikel dan penulisnya.

Lagipun, penulis kreatif atau manusia sastera ini memanglah dikenali sarat dengan kata-kata tetapi kontang kejujuran ilmiahnya atau tidak tekal disiplin ilmiahnya. Sarat propaganda tetapi tidak ada kedalaman akal.

Pada dasarnya, ia bergelut seperti meronta-ronta di permukaan air, dia tidak menyelam dengan lincah di perut lautan. Dia hanya mendebur-deburkan permukaan air dan mengocak untuk mencipta riak-riak.**

Ramai pembaca dan pengikutnya tidak akan sedar dia sekadar bermain air (bukan penyelam mutiara) seperti mudahnya mengutip pengikut di tepi longkang artikel kita.

Entah mengapa dan di mana celakanya, semua penulis mesti ada pengikut dan pemujanya sendiri!!! Walau bagaimana bodohnya penulis itu atau walau bagaimana buruknya wacana dalam artikelnya, pastilah ada pengikut dan peminatnya sendiri.

Jika dia tidak berfikir, dia lama-kelamaan akan menjadi penjual agama dalam industri agama. Malah itulah hakikatnya, dia sedang mencipta pasaran dan menjual diri, marketing himself in religious markets -- di hujung nanti keuntungan benda, material gain, macam ustaz-ustaz bebas di masjid dan surau kita.

Meletakkan harga, seolah-olah analisa Marxisme dalam hal ini sentiasa benar dan perennial sifatnya!

Bagaimana dia tidak dianggap menjual diri jika biodata, sumbangan, hasil kerja, lulusan akademik dan anugerah yang diraihnya terpaksa ditulis panjang lebar untuk memperkenalkan dirinya kepada dunia! Fuhhhh... parah 'tu!

Daripada seorang profesional menjadi semacam ustaz; daripada seorang seorang (bekas) penyanyi rock menjadi seorang ustaz; daripada seorang penulis cereka menjadi seorang ustaz -- apatah lagi kalau dia seorang lulusan agama!

Saya memerhatikannya dengan penuh minat. Ke mana jajaannya selepas ini. Sudah ramai orang yang menjualnya dan mudah banyak pula yang tidak laku....

** tugas ini tugasan berat; tugas cendekiawan yang tulen (yang terbukti melalui beratnya hasil pemikirannya daripada tebal bukunya dan dalam pula rentas waktu persoalan yang digelutinya) walau kata 'intelektual', 'cendekiawan', 'terpelajar', 'lulusan universiti' atau seumpamanya di negara kita boleh merangkumi semua jenis manusia yang ke kampus. Tetapi orang yang mendebur-deburkan air sekadar berminat menulis kolum, artikel pendek atau memiliki blog. Oleh kerana dia menjerit, maka tentu ada orang mendengarnya, sama ada mahu atau tidak, terpaksa atau rela. Seperti lolongan anjing di waktu malam, jeritan ini pastilah menarik perhatian.

Tinjauan

Kepada mereka yang belum membacanya tetapi berminat mengetahui isu ini ... ada sesuatu yang tersembunyi, tersirat dalam berita tentang tinjauan pendapat ini.

Poll shows 73% think we are Islamic state
by Jacqueline Ann Surin (The Sun, 6 Sept 2006)

PETALING JAYA: Nearly three-quarters of Malay Muslims in Peninsular Malaysia believe that Malaysia is an Islamic state, according to a poll.

Seventy-three percent of 1,029 Muslims surveyed in the Muslim Identities Public Opinion Survey, Peninsular Malaysia answered "Yes" to the question "Is Malaysia an Islamic state?", while 25% answered "No" to the question and 2% said they did not know.

However, 77% said they did not want an Islamic state in Malaysia, like Iran.

Of those polled, 57% wanted hudud laws implemented. However, 60% said non-Muslims should not be subjected to hudud laws while 28% said they should.

The public opinion survey conceptualised and coordinated by Assoc Prof Dr Patricia Martinez of Universiti Malaya's AsiaEurope Institute, polled 1,029 randomly-selected Malaysian Muslims across the peninsula between Dec 15 and 18 last year.

It was administered by the Merdeka Centre and supported by funding from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

It also found that a majority of Malay Muslims in the peninsula say it is acceptable for Malaysian Muslims to live alongside people of other religions.

The majority also believe that Malaysian Muslims should learn about other religions in Malaysia, and that Muslims in Malaysia can participate in interfaith dialogue (see graphic -- as reproduced here below).

77% say Malaysians should be allowed to choose their religion
98% say Malaysian Muslims should NOT be allowed to change their religion
73% agree that Malaysia is an Islamic state
77% don't want an Islamic state modelled after Iran's
64% say syariah should remain as it is under the Constitution
79% say Malaysian Muslims should learn about other religions
83% believe Malaysian Muslims can participate in inter-faith dialogue.

Poll size: 1,029 respondents
Source: Muslim Identities Public Opinion Survey, Peninsular Malaysia, December 2005

Asked if Islam should be part of an Interfaith Council in Malaysia, if there were one, the majority also said "Yes".

Martinez noted that the survey has mixed findings, some of which dismantle the generalisations and assumptions that are made about Malaysian Muslims.

Ninety-seven percent of those polled said it was acceptable for Malaysian Muslims to live alongside those of other religions, while 76% said that if there were an interfaith council in Malaysia, Islam should be part of that council.

However, even though 77% said Malaysians should be allowed to choose their religion as stipulated in the Constitution's Article 11 which guarantees freedom of religion, 98% said Malaysian Muslims should not be allowed to change their religion.

Of those polled, 64% want the syariah to remain as it is under the Constitution.
At the same time, 77% said current syariah laws in Malaysia were not strict enough, 18% said they were sufficiently strict, and 2% thought they were too strict.

Forty-four percent also believed that the authority to monitor and punish Muslims for immoral behaviour should be state religious authorities, 33% chose family, and 21% chose others.

Martinez said the survey's objective was to get Muslims themselves, instead of those who speak on their behalf, to define their identity, issues and concerns, noting that this was the first such largescale poll that had been conducted in Malaysia.

"Some of the findings really repudiate some of the claims being made about Muslims, or even what many of us have assumed. For example, the growing orthodoxy, which came through in the survey, does not mean that Peninsular Malaysian Muslims are growing less open to diversity in the country.

"However, one needs to point out that some of those with the power to shape Islam or who make pronouncements in the media or who claim to speak on behalf of, or for Islam, seem to function from the opposite dynamics: making Muslims more exclusive, less able to accept and participate in cultural and religious pluralism," she told theSun.

The poll also asked Muslims which identity they would choose if they could only choose one, and 73% chose Muslim, 14% chose Malaysian, and 13% chose Malay. However, 99% felt they were all three.

Martinez said that if over 70% of more than half of Malaysians identify themselves primarily as Muslims, then national unity policies and programmes, which largely focus on bridging the racial and ethnic gap, do not sufficiently address the fundamental element of religiosity.

"Obviously, we need to build interfaith dialogue in all these policies and programmes, and by that, I mean the ability to know about the religion, and not just the cultural practice, of the other," she said, noting however, that unlike cultural practice, in interfaith dialogue, not everything is up for scrutiny or discussion.

"This is the sort of `sensitivity' that should be addressed. Not silence and silencing, but knowing boundaries. And here the golden rule, `do unto others as you would others do to you' suffices.

"If you don't want people discussing Jesus in disrespectful terms, then don't talk about the Prophet Muhammad disrespectfully, for example."

Martinez said the government should consider building interfaith dialogue along these lines into national unity programmes and projects so that people could learn to disagree with civility and live with disagreement or difference from fellow citizens.