Sunday, July 31, 2011

YES TO 'NO TO ISA/EO"

Only God has the power to indefinitely detain,” said an expert on the federal constitution today supporting the call to review laws that allow for indefinite detention, arguing that the home minister should be not be given the power of God over other Malaysians.

"I don't think any human being should have this kind of power over another human being... that is a power only for the God," said UiTM constitutional law professor Shad Saleem Faruqi during a forum at Kuala Lumpur today.

READ MORE

I really feel good as I expressed some shade of this sentiment in my November 8 posting 4 months short of three years ago. HERE



Saturday, July 30, 2011

A DATUK T RECORDING.

Although suspended the three MACC investigators, former Selangor MACC deputy director Hishammuddin Hashim (HH) and enforcement officers Arman Alies (AA)and Mohd Ashraf Mohd Yunus (Porno) received temporary relieve by being appointed to question two questionable couples alleged to have amassed prodigious wealth. The couples are DS KayTee (KT) and wife (KTW), and DS Nah (NAH)and wife(NAHW). They could be reprieved if they did well without torture.

HH: Datuk Seri KayTee, how did you become so rich?

KT: Well I……

KTW: Diam lah

Porno: Cannot say diam lah….must answer.

AA: you diam lah

HH: both of you diam lah

KTW: I will tell you how my abang got so rich.

KT: You shut up….diam lah

KTW: You diam lah also

Porno: We have our duty to perform, please answer our questions.

KTW: YOU diam lah….go watch porno.

KT: Good one sayang!

KTW: Diam lah!

AA: Daim lah both of you….my turn to ask auestion…how much…

HH: Diam lah, I am your boss.

Porno: You are suspended, you are no more our boss, so diam lah.

AA: hehehehehe

HH: Diam you!

Porno: Why should we….you taught us the tightening of the belt method to diam the victim!

KTW: hehehehehe

AA: Why you….

KT: Diam lah, she is my wife.

HH: Diam lah

(Since everyone was told to “diam lah” the investigation was postponed to another day.)

HH: Call in the next couple

Porno: No next couple next door.

AA: Maybe they are in the new padded room.

Porno: (returns with a note) “You 3 diam dicks….my facebook people told me to diam lah and I got to respect my fans.”

And the couples lived happily for another day. Not so the three damn diam pricks.

Friday, July 29, 2011

THANK YOU FOR SUFFERING FOR US.

Freedom is walking

It is spoken man is born equal and free
To a degree the world disagrees
Some foresee what others cannot see
Freedom is walking away with glee

We have a right to Christmas with a tree
We have a right to enjoy a shopping spree
We have a right to travel the land and the sea
We have the right to an educational degree

Stop the silly talking
Whilst Freedom is walking
Freedom is not a jubilee
Freedom is not a guarantee
Who says Freedom is free?

It is spoken man is free of thought
Without the need to fear higher courts
Some have spoken and finally resorted
To hide their thoughts from being reported

We have a right to a chosen culture
We have a right not to be tortured
We have a right to nationality and security
We have a right to be part of a minority

Stop the silly talking
Whilst Freedom is walking
Freedom is not part of community
Freedom is never an informality
Who says Freedom is immunity?

We want opinion without distinction
We want a world without discrimination
We want a kingdom of utter freedom
We want it in all shapes and form

Stop the silly talking
Whilst Freedom is walking
Stop the silly talking
Whilst Freedom is mocking

“Sylvia Chidi”

LET'S GET TOGETHER!

DIRECTIONS HERE

Updated:6:10pm

Just received confirmation from two sources that EO6 have all been released.

The power of prayer and people!

Maybe we should continue to have the vigil in thanksgiving?

Thursday, July 28, 2011

TO KAMAL, REEZAL & RIZAL, THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES.


Rooting for my country to whack Singapore.

Maul them boys…..at least try yah?

Monday, July 25, 2011

BN HIRED GUNS TURN “ATTACK DOGS”.

The majority of people in Sarawak are not Muslim. However, few would dream of engaging in such an unpleasant and offensive attack on matters held sacred to fellow citizens. So, it seems doubly ill-judged that Taib, who is indeed Muslim, would engage the services of an outfit that tolerates such sordid language and behaviour.

Najib Razak, the Malaysian PM, who has also hired the same blogging network is surely also guilty of the same terrible misjudgement? He poses as a great protector of his own Muslim religion, yet he continues to be associated with a team of Americans who count this man as one of their own.

Caleb Howe is closely linked to Josh Trevino, the right-wing blogger behind the American ‘Red State’ and ‘New Ledger’ blogs and also a PR company called Rogue Strategic Services, who has been engaged by BN leaders, including Badawi, Najib and now Taib Mahmud to create ‘positive publicity’ on their behalf.

How did the hired “attack dogs” attack Islam HERE

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So they have hired home-grown products HERE.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

RESURRECTING THE SPIRIT OF BAPA MALAYSIA.

I have watched with great alarm the worrying deterioration of inter-racial and inter-religious harmony in recent years and if I add to this the actions of some groups and individuals to unobtrusively, perhaps deliberately destroy the institutions of unity in our country to serve their own interests, I must confess to you that I am deeply troubled.

For too long, those of us who belong to the voices of moderation have stood aside and avoided the specter of confrontation because we wanted to just live our individual lives that are free from problems and unnecessary troubles. Such an attitude is no longer acceptable because standing back now would result in dire and irreversible consequences.

Read the full speech of Tengku Razaleigh at the inauguration of AMANAH, as produced HERE by Dato Mohd.Ariff Sabri, aka Sakmonkol AKA47. In a posting of 1 July HERE, I did ask: Will he make his move soon? Presently, I harbor a wish that my friend Dato Ariff will make himself available to AMANAH.

MAGNITUDE 7.09?

Saturday, July 23, 2011

ARREST THEM BUT DON'T DRIVE THEM TO MASS SUICIDE.

This posting, prepared on Thursday, did not see print as my notebook crashed. Apologise for not posting for two days.

So Beng Hock “was driven to suicide”!

They exploited his “weak character”!

The MACC trained their goons well?

Not really!

They picked their bullies well and let them loose.

You don’t need special skills to be a bully.

Your POSITION “legitimizes” bullying to break a victim.

QUESTION:

When you employ all nefarious means like forcing someone to stand on a window ledge and it ends in a death, are you an accomplice who contributed to that misadventure? Is that 2nd degree murder.

The RCI confirms that they have to relook the methods used by MACC?

Is that all that a ROYAL Commission can pronounce?

Will they just ask MACC to revise their interrogation techniques or

Recommend that court actions be instituted against the guilty officers.

Maybe we are hoping for too much, knowing the pusillanimous stance that is taken when a government agency has fingers pointed at them.

Let’s not waste time and our money on these royal dog and pony show. GET RID OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL and the conniving PDRM and MACC will be powerless. Take away the power of NFA from the AG and you will have a judiciary that will toe the line and not call recesses to await further instructions.

AND, with the pussy-footing going on in our judiciary, it is time to bring back the JURY in Bersih 3.0?

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

BE AFRAID AHMAD AZMAN SAAIYA!

I usually do not go out the night before if I have an early morning. But tonight is a rare exception. The WHISTLER called me and tempted me with this: “Man, I have a few friends who know this dickhead….maybe we can brainstorm about him over some stiff ones.”

So be afraid, SAAI YAH? Tomorrow, your sai (ask your hokkien friends what sai is) will hit the industrial fan! You will be sorry you picked on Sara Petra!

I am off, you guys have a good rest, yah?

THUAN CHYE, FANCY BEING ON THE GOVERNMENT LIST?


Of the 91 (11 Pemuda UMNO, 14 Perkasa)barred from entering the city on 9July the following were bunched under Bersih although many of us do not belong to the Bersih 2.0 Steering Committee. I don’t know why. Maybe, in the eyes of the government, I committed some sin of commission…ooppsss OMISSION…omitting to give due respect to the incumbent government?

Anyway, I have got this gut-feel that your name, KEE THUAN CHYE, will appear alphabetically before mine should there be a next list. I will be proud to WALK TALL beside you.


Bersih

Ambiga Sreenevasan
Mohamad Sabu
Hishamuddin Md Rais
Khairul Anwar Ahmad Zainuddin
Maria Chin Abdullah
Chua Tian Chang
Kamarulzaman Mohamad
Dr Mohd Hatta Md Ramli
Syed Shahir Syed Mohamud
Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh
Teresa Kok
Badrul Hisham Shaharin
Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin
Arutchelvam Subramaniam
Wong Chin Huat
Ong Boon Keong

Elumalai Enalini

Haris Fathillah Sathiasingam Mohd Ibrahim
Khalid Yunus
Zulkifli Noordin
Dr Zubir Harun
Abd Hadi Awang
Anwar Ibrahim
Lim Kit Siang
Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat
Nurul Izzah Anwar
Kohila Yanasekaran
Zaid Kamaruddin
Khoo Teng Swee
Fadiah Nadwa Fikri

Yap Swee Seng
Salahuddin Ayub
Mahfuz Omar
Nasarudin Hasan
Mazlan Aliman
Dr Syed Azman Syed Nawawi
Dr Dzulkifli Ahmad
Dr Mujahid Yusof
Khalid Abd Samad
Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin
Azman Shapawi Abd Rani
Suhaizan Kaiat
Nor Azli Musa
Mohd Firdaus Jaafar
Loke Siew Fook
Lau Wen San
Mohd Azmin Ali
Mat Shuhaimi Shafie
Satipul Bahari Amamt
Wan Hassan Mohd Ramli
Mohamad Izzudin Hilmi Mohd Zaini
Mohd Shazni Munir Mohd Ithnin
Muhammad Hilman Idham
Mohd Shukri Che Ab Razab
Mohd Syukri Kamaruddin
Ahmad Syazwan Muhammad Hasan
Choo Chon Kai
Sarasvathy Muthu
Soh Sook Hwa
Nurul Izham Nurul Anuar
Abd Rahim Osman
Mohd Sibri Ismail
Mohd Lukam Muda
Prof Kamaruddin Kachar
Mohd Noor Nordin Abdullah

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

BE PATRIOTIC! DON’T SNUB OUR SUBS.

ZAID IBRAHIM has been off my blog-radar since he resigned from PKR. I wish him success in what he wants to do although deep inside, yes, quite deep, he cannot lead a political entity when he is surrounded with insipidly bland, superficial, superfluous parasitic wannabe aides/advisors. Zaid cannot be a politician. He is too nice. Many politicians are not! He is honest. Most politicians are not. Most politicians are cunning. He is not….he only shoots his mouth when he overreacts, and that was too often during the PKR elections.

I have kept this chose to my chest. But I’d like to get this off my chest. Zaid could serve well, leading our plethora of credible NGOs which is really our THIRD FORCE per se, despite it being the flavor of the present. Bring all these under an umbrella organization empowered by the rakyat. But before you do this, get rid of your advisors but keep your son EZRA close to you. I have strong, good vibes about this young man.

Anyway, this post is not about Zaid really. It is more about our spendthrift Defence Minister Zahid whom Zaid warned about.

Reported in Malaysiakini, Defence Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has refuted his former fellow minister Zaid Ibrahim's allegation of spiralling costs in off-shore patrol vessels (OPVs).

Ahmad Zahid said the ministry has just signed a letter of intent for the project.

“We (the ministry) have not agreed on a suitable price for the project or the main contractors involved or its sub-contractor to provide the systems for the OPVs,” he said.

“How could Zaid know about this when there is nothing concrete being worked out yet. It seems he knows more than us and there is no deal finalised," said the defence minister.

Then quickly he shifted suddenly into a feared danger facing the world – Bioterrorism!

“The threat of bioterrorism has the potential to grow incrementally in the coming decades," he said.

Asked how ready Malaysia was to face such attacks, Ahmad Zahid agreed that the country's preparations had to be stepped up further. He revealed that besides hospitals, the country had little to fall back upon.

For this occasion I will agree with DM Zahid. Let’s go for preventive bioterrosism…..our two submarines can snuff out any maritime invasion and we certainly don’t need any OPVs. Don’t forget we have the third line of defence who could man the subs, yah? So, don’t snub our subs!

Even if our third line fails, we could take the cue from what Paris Hilton is reading:


Upon publication of his principles of war, Sun Tzu was summoned before a leading warrior king and asked to submit his theories to a test; Sun Tzu consented. Two companies of women, untrained in military matters, were formed up and each placed under the command of one of the king’s favorite concubines. They were armed and given cursory instruction in the then-current manual of arms and close order drill. Then, to the sound of drums, Sun Tzu gave the order, “Right turn!” The only response of the “companies” was one of laughter. Sun Tzu remarked: “If the words of command are not clear and distinct, if orders are not thoroughly understood, then the general is to blame.” Again uttering the same command and receiving the same response, Sun Tzu then declared: “If the words of command are not clear and distinct, if orders are not thoroughly understood, the general is to blame. But if his orders are clear, and the soldiers nevertheless disobey, then it is the fault of their officers.” So saying and much to the consternation of the warrior king, Sun Tzu ordered the two company commanders beheaded and replaced by a member of each company. The execution was viewed by all, the drum was again sounded for drill, and the companies thereafter executed all maneuvers with perfect accuracy and precision, never venturing to utter a sound.

Since an embarrassing no-show after so much noise from our fierce 3rd liners we can fall back on our 4th liners.

This would be our fourth line of defence….. our COWs …..
Club of Obedient Wives! Hidup Malaysia!


RAIS MUST BE SEEN TO BE DOING SOMETHING....

CLICK ON IMAGE

STORY HERE


Monday, July 18, 2011

MORE THAN "HAUNTED", THIS HOTEL.

The Cool Point Hotel
Cameron Highlands, Pahang

The Cool Point Hotel provides you a different world where casual simplicity and a perfect getaway point. Enjoy the hospitality that we have to offer whilst you are being pampered by a family of devoted staff who are specially trained.

“provides you a different world”

It sure proved to be a different world to some DAP aides! HERE

Enjoy the hospitality that we have to offer whilst you are being pampered by a family of devoted staff who are specially trained……..

to report you to the police for wearing Bersih tees in the privacy of your room.

24 hour message handling….(FOR THE POLICE?)

They probably have direct link to UMNO or MCA.

THIS WOULD BE YOUR HOTEL OF CHOICE IF YOU PREFER TO SPEND MORE TIME IN THE POLICE STATION THAN IN THAT HOTEL.

Location
The hotel is located right
in the heart of the quiet scene town of Tanah Rata. This is the main administrative town in the Cameron Highlands where the police stationand the only hospital, the school are placed.

THE COPYWRITING SURE SUCKS…..scene town….what’s this?

Big promotional items are police station and hospital!

Dang! This sure is weird!

FOR YOUR SANITY, STAY AWAY FROM

COOL POINT HOTEL.

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UPDATE CONTRIBUTED BY CHARLES DE GOLLE.







CLICK ON IMAGE


ANOTHER DOG & PONY SHOW?

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak said today that Malaysia is committed to safeguarding and ensuring the continued independence of the judiciary. The text of the prime minister's speech was read out by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz. Also present at the conference was Chief Justice Zaki Azmi. A total of 320 participants from 32 countries are taking part in the
four-day conference.


"The erosion of public confidence in the judiciary was recognised and
measures were expressly taken to fortify the safeguards of judicial independence," he said at the opening of the Commonwealth Magistrates' and Judges' Conference 2011 (CMJA) in Kuala Lumpur.

"We have heralded a comprehensive list of reforms that have drastically improved the efficiency of the Malaysian court.

"The future of judicial reform is important to ensure the country's continued economic growth and to protect the civil liberties and freedom of its diverse, multi-ethnic and multi-religious population.

"I trust that this forum will provide an amenable environment for inter-judicial dialogue with an eye to exchanging views, experiences and ideas on how pluralism can subsist and operate within our jurisdictions without giving rise to considerable conflict.

The aim of this conference is to promote a better understanding among judicial officers of all ranks and from all parts of the Commonwealth on diverse issues, to explore various approaches to those issues in different parts of the Commonwealth, to maintain the rule of law throughout the Commonwealth and to serve the people of the Commonwealth.

The subjects for deliberation include current trends in the areas of
Alternate Dispute Resolution, Corporate and Commercial Law,
Human Rights, Legal and Judicial Ethics, Family Law, Judicial Independence & Accountability and other contemporary legal topics, which will be addressed by some of the finest judicial minds in the world.

Very impressive, the list for deliberations. I hope those finest judicial minds will be honest and say it as it is. I have my doubts. This is more real and riveting:

CLICK IMAGE FOR READABILITY

INTERCEDE FOR US FROM WHERE YOU ARE NOW.

VIVA PAPA!

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI

Apostolic Palace

00120 Vatican City

Via

His Grace Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli

Apostolic Delegate to Malaysia

55 Waterloo Street #06

Singapore 1877954

Your Holiness

Re: Recent Political and Social Developments in Malaysia: Towards a More Comprehensive Understanding of the Realities in Malaysia

We are a group of Catholics and some from other Christian denominations in Malaysia. Malaysia, a Muslim-dominant country has a population of 28 million people with 2.2 million registered as Christians, of whom an estimated 850,000 are Catholics.

We write to you with regards to our prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s official visit to the Vatican on July 19, 2011. We are anxious about recent developments concerning questions of democratic rights and religious freedom in Malaysia. In our letter we highlight these issues in order to help Your Holiness understand more critically and comprehensively the political and social realities in our country lest you are presented with a one-sided view of developments in Malaysia.

A watershed

The Malaysian media has reported that the visit of our prime minister to the Vatican is a ‘watershed’ that foreshadows the establishment of diplomatic relations between Malaysia and the Holy See.

We believe that the establishment of diplomatic ties between the Vatican and Malaysia is a good step forward; after all, Malaysia is one of only 17 countries in the world that does not yet have diplomatic ties with the Holy See. Our concern is that of the timing in establishing these ties, on which we elaborate below.

Christian-Muslim dialogue

Church sources in Malaysia inform us that the visit also has to do with the Holy Father’s desire to promote Christian-Muslim dialogue, an initiative that you wisely began to undertake beginning from 2005, shortly after you assumed the papacy. It might be that you find this sixth prime minister of Malaysia an attractive dialogue partner given that he goes around the globe promoting himself as the leader of a moderate Muslim country made up of various ethnic groups. As well, he has called for the formation of a ‘Global Movement of the Moderates’ and that it ought to take centre stage in the international arena.

We believe that there are lessons that one can draw from the Malaysian experience. For ordinary Malaysians of different races and faith are respectful of one another’s beliefs and customs, and have learnt to co-operate and live peacefully side-by-side. However, this is so in spite of the shameful conduct of some of our political leaders who have unabashedly manipulated ethno-religious sentiments all these years, and mobilized on ethno-religious grounds in order to stay in power.

Cakap tak serupa bikin

Indeed, the conduct of prime minister Najib and his Barisan Nasional (BN) government at home, at least recently, has been anything but moderate! In our Malaysian colloquialism, we might say of the prime minister that dia cakap tak serupa bikin, meaning that ‘he does not do what he preaches’, or that ‘he does not walk the talk’!

In this regard, we are very concerned about the timing of this official visit which follows immediately after recent repression of civil society groups which are fighting for clean and fair elections. We are also deeply concerned that some top leaders of this democratic initiative have been painted unjustly as ‘anti-Islam’ by the authorities without any basis whatsoever. Below we highlight a few recent events and episodes.

Najib’s heavy handed response to the Walk for Democracy

Just last week on July 9, 2011, there occurred the controversy-ridden ‘Walk for Democracy’ that was initiated by the coalition of 62 NGOs calling themselves Berish 2.0 (bersih meaning ‘clean’ in Malay, our national language). The coalition had wanted to hold a peaceful street walk in support of an 8-point program to institutionalize clean and fair elections. Numerous glaring incidences that have occurred in past elections as reported in the media, and recounted and confirmed in studies by major researchers, have indicated that Malaysia’s electoral system and the conduct of these elections have not been free and fair. Significantly, Malaysia has been ruled by a single party - the BN coalition dominated by Najib’s United Malays National Organization (UMNO) - since independence in 1957, more than 54 years ago!

It was on account of frustrations arising from these inadequacies in the electoral system that Bersih was formed. Among others, the respected Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism, of which the Catholic church of Malaysia is a part, affirmed Bersih’s right to conduct this peaceful walk for what it considered ‘just demands’.

In deference to the king, who intervened to head off a potential confrontation between Bersih supporters and its extremist detractors including from UMNO Youths, Bersih opted to hold a rally in the Stadium Merdeka. Yet Najib’s BN government declared that Bersih was ‘an illegal organization’ and its proposal to hold the gathering in the Stadium was rejected by the authorities. On the eve of the gathering, a court order was obtained to ban 91 leaders of Bersih and the Opposition (and also those from anti-Bersih groups) from entering those parts of Kuala Lumpur around Stadium Merdeka under threat of ‘arrest on sight’.

Earlier, Najib’s government had even banned the wearing of yellow Bersih T-shirts. The Bersih office was raided and six of their office workers were arrested. Bersih supporters who participated in ‘roadshows’ to publicise the upcoming event were also arrested. Six of them, also members of the Parti Sosialis Malaysia, were subsequently detained under the Emergency Ordinance (a Detention without Trial law) and are now held under solitary confinement. A leading lawyer has described these developments as signifying Malaysia’s descent into ‘a police state’.

In the event, the police came down hard on Bersih supporters who turned up for the gathering in Kuala Lumpur on July 9. The police set up road blocks and barb-wire fences manned by hundreds of policemen thus creating huge traffic jams throughout the city. To disperse the Bersih supporters, the police resorted to use of water cannons and fired tear gas into the crowd, as though the people were the enemy. A total of 1,667 people including 151 women and 16 children were arrested. What was singularly laudable was that there was no incidence of violence on the part of the tens of thousands of Bersih supporters who came from all ethnoreligious backgrounds.

Yet, prime minister Najib has claimed that the police had acted professionally, and condemned Bersih and the Opposition for tarnishing the image of the country. We urge you Holy Father and your Vatican officials to view the video clips that were taken of the goings-on. Significantly, the Bar Council of Malaysia has commented that the police had ‘used force excessively’.

Manipulating ethnoreligious sentiments

Tellingly, two days before the July 9 event, Najib had addressed a gathering of Malay silat (martial arts) exponents whence, reportedly, he suggested that the silat groups could be mobilized as a third line of defence against enemies from within and outside the country.

More than this, on July 2 in a gathering of about 20,000 people in the town of Kota Baru, Najib, in a live broadcast over Radio Malaysia, described Ambiga Sreenevasan, the chairperson of Bersih, as ‘a threat to Islam’ for the watching brief she held as the then president of the Bar Council in the Lina Joy case a few years earlier.

Freedom of religion

Lina Joy was a Muslim woman who converted to Catholicism before marrying a member of the faith. She filed against the Registration Department for registering her religion as ‘Islam’ in her MyKad (identity card) although she had converted out of the religion.

In spite of the dismissal of her case, it was popularly understood by many Malaysians, especially non-Muslims, that this was a violation of the freedom of religion guaranteed in the Federal Constitution. Najib’s labeling Ambiga as a threat toIslam is a deliberate distortion of her professional role as legal counsel in the Lina Joy case.

In the event, this Lina Joy case arises from a conflict between two legal jurisdictions – the civil law versus shariah - law that has emerged in Malaysia. In recent years, a number of cases involving the conversion of minors to Islam without the knowledge of the other spouse; the custody of children and/or the question of maintenance following the conversion to Islam of one spouse; the question of inheritance and even funeral arrangements following the death of a spouse who had purportedly converted to Islam without his family’s knowledge, have been highly controversial. In these cases, the non-Muslim litigants often found themselves helplessly trapped between or confined to only one of concurrent jurisdictions since they do not have locus standi in the shariah court.

Mention should also be made of the Court case between the Catholic church and the Malaysian government regarding the church’s use of the word Allah in the Catholic weekly The Herald. The government had ruled that the word Allah should be confined to use among Muslims only. At this point, a final decision has yet to be made by the Court.

Related to the above was the controversy over the importation and distribution of the Malay bibles which contained the word Allah. One shipment of these Bibles was held back by the Home Ministry authorities for several years and the matter was taken to Court. Although the Bibles were released in early 2011, unnecessary conditions have been imposed on their importation into peninsula Malaysia, to the dissatisfaction of Christians.

We highlight these episodes to you Holy Father because you have made the defense of the freedom of religion an important plank of your papacy.

Visiting the Vatican to stay in power?

Finally, there is concern among us that Najib is also reaching out to the Holy See at this juncture in order to secure popular support in the forthcoming general election due early 2013. In the previous 2008 election, the multiracial, multireligious Opposition coalition in Malaysia performed very well and succeeded in denying the BN government a two-thirds’ majority in parliament (which had previously allowed the BN government to freely amend the Federal Constitution at will). The Opposition coalition also won an unprecedented 5 out of the 13 state governments. In fact, the BN government lost the popular vote to the Opposition in peninsula Malaysia.

The reason why the BN was returned to power in the 2008 election was because it had secured virtually all the parliamentary seats in the states of Sabah and Sarawak located on the island of Borneo. In other words, the victory of the BN (as well as for the Opposition) in the upcoming election will depend on how well it performs in those two states.

In this regard, it is significant to note that Christians constituted 43% of the population in Sarawak in 2000, and 28% of the population in Sabah as recorded in the 2000 Census. We are suspicious that this official visit by Najib and his BN colleagues to the Holy See will be used by the BN leaders politically i.e. to secure votes for the BN from the Christians in Sabah and Sarawak. It is not inconceivable that photographs of Najib standing alongside the Holy Father will be widely distributed throughout the two states, particularly in the rural areas where the Christian indigenous people predominate, in the run-up to the next election.

It is with the concerns described above that we submit this letter to you Holy Father.

· While we welcome the establishment of diplomatic relations between our country Malaysia and the Holy See, and we do believe that Malaysia’s experience in inter-religious living and cooperation has lessons to offer to other multireligious multiethnic societies, nonetheless, we are wary about the timing of this visit by prime minister Najib to the Vatican.

· We are concerned that foreign governments and leaders who host him in his travels might be influenced by his pronouncements which extol the spirit of moderation, whereas in fact his government has used unnecessarily excessive force time and time again, the latest being its undemocratic treatment of civil society groups in Bersih’s Walk for Democracy episode.

· We wish to highlight, too, how prime minister Najib and other BN leaders, in trying to stem the popular support for Bersih’s call for clean and fair elections, have manipulated ethnoreligious sentiments irresponsibly and attempted to demonise Bersih leaders as anti-Islam.

· We also highlight how there have been curbs to freedom of religion in fact, although this fundamental human right is guaranteed in the Federal Constitution of Malaysia.

· We are also suspicious that there is a hidden political agenda to win electoral support among the Christians of Sabah and Sarawak in this visit to the Vatican.

· We pray therefore that the Holy See will consider these concerns seriously and be guided by the Holy Spirit in its dealings with the Malaysian government.

This letter has been endorsed by 330 Catholics and other Christians from throughout Malaysia.

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His Holiness can get verification on the above by asking the Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur who is in the Prime Minister’s entourage if all the above is true or pure fabrication by the 330 signatories. We await the outcome of this Papal visit.

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MORE HERE