* a re-post*

Dear Pak Lah

Please tell me….

Why?

Four girls who were victims of the molester, were also brought to the building by police to assist in investigations.

(source : The Star)

One girl went missing.

One girl brutally murdered and raped.

And our police are still :

searching
investigating
hunting
looking for
trying to ascertain
*inserts other reasons*

Why?

When the Chua Soi Lek sex DVD leaked out, there are so many police who have so much time to go from door to door to investigate? Catching VCD peddlars?

Why?

When one girl got molested, nothing was done?
When two girls got molested, nothing was done?
When three girls got molested, nothing was done?
When four girls got molested, nothing was done?

Then, adik Nurin died brutally, so brutal I cannot even face the reality of it (because I am a mother and a bereaved mom) and nothing was done?

And now, adik Sharlinie is missing and I also dare not think about it (because my own youngest son is the same age as her and I cannot imagine having a son gone missing in this way) and we are still :

searching
investigating
hunting
looking for
trying to ascertain
*inserts other reasons*

Pak Lah, please tell me.

Is it because our Malaysian criminals are really that darn smart, they can evade the law?

Or is it otherwise?

As what I understand, the crimes took place at around the same place.
Don’t these little girls lives matter to you?
Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Six whys for each of the little girls.

May Allah protect adik Sharlinie from harm. I mean the Muslims’ Allah. Otherwise, Pak Lah, I know you cannot sleep well because these four little girls’ future are badly bruised, the hearts of adik Nurin’s family are forever broken and only God knows what will happen to adik Sharlinie.

You make me very disappointed. You are our Prime Minister of Malaysia. You are in charge of Internal Security. You are supposed to keep us from harm. But people get killed in broad day light. Little girls got molested again and again and again and again and we don’t see justice done. It is the repeated occurrence that saddened me most.

How am I going to explain to my little boy? I showed him adik Sharlinie’s photo and told him that this little girl has been taken by bad guys. I said he must always stay close to me when we go out. I told him that we must pray that she will be ok. And he asked me, “Why the police no catch the bad guys leh?”

How do I answer that, Pak Lah? This is not just one occurence. This has happened to five other girls, in the same area.

Oh yes, Pak Lah, please enjoy your trip. And please tell your Ministers, including the Education Minister that CCTVs will not solve crimes. Not when our country is so hard up for major developments like the NCER, ECER macam-macam pun ER. All the mommies and daddies have to work harder and no amount of CCTVs can replace that kind of security that parents normally provide for their children. Please prove to me a country where they have CCTVs everywhere and their crime rate is the lowest in the world. Otherwise, Pak Lah, I know our hard earned gaji will spent on CCTVs which will probably rosak when it is needed most. I live long enough to know this fact.

Sedih, Pak Lah, sedih.

Please visit Nurin’s blog maintained by her uncle. Please read this post ‘An evening at Taman Sri Medan

many Rela and Policemen there, have they found her? But no, she was still missing. Then shouldn’t the Rela and Policemen and the scores of people be somewhere else looking for Nini? Then I realise the reality check, the scores of people, the swamp of reporters, the “platoons” of Policemen and Rela personnels were actually there because there were some VVIPs at Nini’s grandparents house at that time. So that’s the reason for the cordoning, diversion of traffic and the heavy presence of Rela and Policemen! Aargh! I really felt like a fool thinking something big was happening there.

But something big was happening indeed. Our PM’s wife and the Selangor MB and his wife were there, at Nini’s grandparents house.”

and see how our police have gotten their priorities all wrong. Doesn’t such things make you very, very mad?

(this is a re-post because my original post went missing when I moved server in January)

Popularity: 10% [?]

Why not subscribe to my blog RSS feed so that you can have it delivered to your feeds?

If you remember, I mentioned about the Islamisation of Malaysia forum in my previous post. I closed the comments because I hate to argue with a santan.

So, I attended it and it was a very enlightening forum.

Question - Can we (I mean Catholics) refer to God as Allah?

Yes, individually we can do so. But if an organisation depends on the permit, then, that’s another story. Unless and until, Parliament has made the ruling that we cannot use it, then, only we cannot do so. I shall not go deeper into this. Takut nanti punggung kena asap.

Question - Is Malaysia an Islamic country?

Yes, Malaysia is an Islamic country because we have a majority of Muslims. So, all our adat-adat will follow the Muslims adat where official function is concerned.

But, Malaysia is not an Islamic STATE. Meaning, we the non-Muslims are not governed by the Syariah law. We follow the constitution which allows us freedom to choose our religion. Of course, in reality, we know that we are sometimes denied that. And that is the reason why the forum is held so that we know our rights and exactly where we stand.

There are lots and lots of notes I took down, including all the Articles in the Constitution. Bla bla bla yadda yadda yadda. I have never read the Constitution before and seriously, I have no idea about a lot of things. And I suppose a lot of us are guilty of being ignorant like me.

Oh yeah, that Dr. Azmi is very ‘yeng’. Tall, outspoken and sungguh bergaya. Dr. Azmi Sharom blog can be found here.

There is nothing political about the forum except that we were given a very long (and sometimes boring) briefing by a lawyer Bernard (or is it Baldev?) on the laws related to conversion to Islam. Even our parish priest avoid any touchy issue but he told us that we must always speak the truth. Listen to that little voice in us and do what we feel is right.

To spice up things, do you know that when you are in Malaysia and you are a Muslim, you have to follow what the Malaysian Islamic authority says? I heard that famous Bollywood actor, Sharukhan who is a Muslim came to Malaysia for a concert or something. He marries a Hindu wife and it was all fine in India. But he got into trouble when he was here, for sharing a room with his wife. Hehehehe…*slaps forehead*

And to my Muslims readers, seriously, we hardly use the term Allah in our daily worship. Most of the time, if we ever sing in Bahasa Malaysia, we use Tuhan. Moreover, I think none of you will feel threaten even if the term is used because I believe your faith is too strong to be shaken by this. I suppose no one will feel confused or afraid that their children will be misled.

That’s about it. No comment needed. I am closing it. Santan not welcome.

Popularity: 4% [?]

I picked this up from Lucia ’s blog who got it from Annil Netto’s blog.

Good news: Herald receives it new publishing permit!

Some good news at long last. Just got a call from The Herald editor, Fr Lawrence Andrew.

The Herald has received its new annual publishing permit - without any condition! Nothing mentioned about the use of the word “Allah”; and no order for it to drop its Malay-language section.

The new permit was hand-delivered to the Herald office today, on a Sunday. Imagine, a government dept working on a Sunday

Praise the Lord!

To those who were not aware of this issue, The Herald is a weekly newsletter which is for private circulation to the Catholic churches in Malaysia. It is printed in four languages, i.e. Bahasa Malaysia, Tamil, Mandarin and English. In the Bahasa Malaysia version of the Bible, God is referred as Allah and Lord is referred as Tuhan. So, in The Herald, there is mention of Allah. Recently, our Deputy Internal Security Minister quoted (or demanded) that the Bahasa Malaysia section be taken away and he went on to claim that only Muslims can use the term Allah so as not to confuse the Muslims. You can read some of my opinions on the use of Allah by Catholics on this matter. I have closed the comment on the other post to avoid further arguments.

One of the thing that I often pray is to ask the Lord to give me the wisdom to know when to shut up and to have the courage when I have to talk. I think it is futile to argue on this issue on who has the rights and who has no rights. Instead, we should all be glad that we actually have the faith to believe in the Almighty.

Popularity: 4% [?]

If you want something less deep, go read my previous post. If you want to read this post, you can only agree. Or shaddap. I won’t tolerate any arguments. My blog, my opinions are always right. Take it or just go play far-far.

I picked up this article and I must comment on it.

Excerpts from the Malaysiakini article, taken from Malaysians Say The Darndest Things!:

The word ‘Allah’ can only be used in the context of Islam and not any other religion, said Deputy Internal Security Minister Johari Baharum.

Asked why a new condition will be imposed on Catholic weekly newspaper Herald when its annual publishing permit is next renewed, the deputy minister said this is to prevent confusion.

“Only Muslims can use ‘Allah’. It’s a Muslim word, you see. It’s from (the Arabic (language). We cannot let other religions use it because it will confuse people,” he said when contacted today.

“We cannot allow this use of ‘Allah’ in non-Muslim publications, nobody except Muslims. The word ‘Allah’ is published by the Catholics. It’s not right.”

The Herald is available to us through our Catholic churches and some Catholic shops. It is a weekly newsletter and if anyone read with an open heart, they will notice how we Catholics are very community minded and we only jaga our own kain and not jaga tepi kain orang. The Herald brings all the Catholic churches in Malaysia together by sharing the events taking place at the churches. Other than that, there are news from around the world and also messages from the Pope.

Only with an open heart, can a person outside of the Catholic churches value what this newsletter shares. I can personally attest that there was never a situation where the newsletter produce any biased views. Even when Lina Joy’s case was going on, we were only told to pray over the issue. We were not told to ‘Pray to win’. When the group of PAS members demonstrated outside the Silibin church, we were only informed that it was a misunderstanding that they thought Datuk Azahar is going to get baptised. You get the drift? There is no such thing as batu api in the newsletter and I can safely say that wise people will know the truth. Of course, there are always morons out there who will pick up a sentence or two and then, tear the real situation apart. Nay….like that some what what blogger who accused Pope Benedict is as cruel as Osama Bin Laden?

In our private circle, we do know that Bukit Aman does have their people watching the homilies. Homily is what the priest shares with us every week. As a regular church goer, I dare to say that we have nothing that promotes hate or disrespect. So, do I sense a great fear and insecurity from our Government over something as innocent as this?

Yes, we have called God, Allah or Yahweh. We have hymns in Bahasa Malaysia that worship Allah. In The Herald, there are sections in Bahasa Malaysia, Tamil and Mandarin. The Bahasa Malaysia section is meant for those orang asli who don’t read English. Yes, I do read the Bahasa Malaysia section too. These are usually written by the priests from the East Malaysia.

Now, I personally think this is a very petty action from the Government. Sure, if you want to insist we stop using Allah in The Herald, you can do it. But ask yourself, what do you achieve from this? That you have helped God Almighty to glorify Islam? Or have you caused God to grief that you are denying others to know God?

Why do you want to do it? Why not promote Islam in other languages more? Oh yes, we have them, on TV too.

It takes a person with very strong faith to acknowledge that we Catholics believe in the Holy Trinity. We believe in God the Father, Jesus, the Son of God and the Holy Spirit which is Roh Suci (?) to us. A 3-in-1 entity. I know many Muslims are very against us because they cannot tell the differences. They hate the idea that we insist Jesus is God Himself. I know I would too if I have that much devotion to the last prophet. I have no problem with that and that’s why I never refute what craps Menj dished out. I see him as another God loving person who demanded full ownership of his God. Not only Muslims, other Christians denomination too sometimes have problem with how we Catholics worship God. That is fine too. If you don’t want to acknowledge Mother Mary the way we do, that’s not a problem.

I hate to say this openly but I wish to tell these people, “Eh, jangan jaga tepi kain orang. Tengok belia-belia kamu sendiri. Bau tahi ayam untuk shiok? WTF?” Does the action to stop us from calling God Allah makes your religion much more purer? Will that help you in arresting the problems of your own youths? Will it solves all the maksiat-maksiat like fathers raping daughter, incest, drugs, unwanted babies thrown into longkangs etc etc?

I live very near the state mosque and I know what kind of sermon goes on. I know how much your people are taught to hate all the infidels, manusia-manusia yang sesat, orang-orang barat yang tidak beragama, mereka-mereka yang tidak diberkati Allah…yadda yadda yadda. We have always been referred as the bad ones, those who do not know the Muslims’ Allah. Ever thought that maybe if you have less of these fears and insecurities injected to your people, maybe, just maybe more of us will want to know your Allah?

I grew up in an all Malay school and I attended kelas agama for several years in my primary school. The Allah I know is the one that is Maha pengampun, Maha penyayang. But the image of Allah that you are showing to us is one that is sooooo scared of everything. Scared of us building places of worship. Scare of us promoting Christianity to your people. Scared of us doing anything that shows our love for God. Mana boleh? Kita semua tak semestinya menyembah Tuhan dengan satu cara sahaja. Yang penting, biarlah kita berusaha menolong mereka-mereka yang kurang upaya, miskin dan kurang bernasib baik. The only way to worship God is to promote peace, harmony and love amongst one another.

So, Pak Lah, your administration has failed badly.

Signed :

A Catholic, an individual who believes in speaking her mind.

REMINDER : Either you agree with me, or you go elsewhere and say what you want. If you got no place to say your piece, you can put your head into the toilet bowl, flush and scream as you flush. This is my blog and there is no such thing as democracy. I am not interested to hear any arguments about religion. I am talking about how our Malaysia Government deals with issues related to other religions, other than Islam.

Added :
An explanation on the origin of the name Allah by Dan-yel.

Popularity: 5% [?]