A collective of individuals and organisations (including The Micah Mandate) are coming together to declare Sept 5, 2010, as Say Sorry Day. Everyone – in Malaysia and beyond – is encouraged on this day to seek forgiveness from and grant it to each other.

That this is the holy month of Ramadhan makes Say Sorry Day even more significant, as Hari Raya Aidilfitri, held to celebrate the end of the fasting month, is deeply associated with the spirit of apologising and forgiveness.

However, this spirit is not just embraced by our Muslim brothers and sisters; it is also universally acknowledged and encouraged by all major spiritual traditions.

The inspiration for Say Sorry Day is a young Malaysian, Yong Vui Kong, who was only 18 when he was arrested for drug trafficking in Singapore. He is currently appealing for clemency, but he may still be hanged and not get a chance to redeem his wrongs.

Many Malaysians and Singaporeans have campaigned for him to be granted a second chance because they believe in forgiveness. Vui Kong has apologised and hopes to be given the chance to share his life lessons with others and help Singapore fight the drug barons.

Vui Kong’s life is hanging on the Singaporean Government’s ability to forgive.

Note that the last word of the above is FORGIVE and therefore in five Peter’s Pithy Pointers, we shall be dealing with the important subject of FORGIVENESS.

1. The Meaning and Gift of Forgiveness
2. The Wounds Preceding Forgiveness
3. The Costly Wounds of God’s Forgiveness
4. The Need for Those Inflicting Wounds to be Forgiven
5. The Need for the Wounded to Forgive

1) The Meaning and Gift of Forgiveness

A The Meaning of Forgiveness

Greek word APHEIMI = TO SEND OR LET OFF OR AWAY.

As we shall see later in this study – ONLY GOD CAN SEND AWAY THE GUILT OF OUR SIN. However, forgiveness may send away or heal broken relationships and also send away the deep feeling of guilt in our own lives.

Note that forgiveness does not let us off the earthly punishment, discipline or warning that we must receive as a result of our disobedience and wrongdoing.

Greek word CHARIZOMAI = TO BE GRACIOUS TO.

(See Section B below)

B The Gift of Forgiveness

FORGIVE – The Latin word for pardon is derived from DONUM = A GIFT

Thus, forgiveness by God and the fellow members of our human family should never be taken lightly.

FORGIVENESS IS A PRECIOUS GIFT TO BE BOTH RECEIVED AND GIVEN.

]]> http://www.themicahmandate.org/2010/09/the-meaning-and-gift-of-forgiveness/feed/ 0 http://www.themicahmandate.org/2010/08/mixing-with-muslims/ http://www.themicahmandate.org/2010/08/mixing-with-muslims/#comments Mon, 30 Aug 2010 03:12:32 +0000 TK Tan http://www.themicahmandate.org/?p=3297 I have read around and basically the facts of the Teo Nie Ching Issue are these:

She was asked by the mosque committee for some allocation to upgrade the mosque. She was then invited to the mosque to hand over the allocations. And then she was invited to say a few words to those who were there. There were some allusion to her entering the prayer room which it seems is a no-no. There were other allusions that she was not properly dressed. According to RPK her sin was that she did not wear a scarf. No one alerted her that this was a problem. The event ended without incident or protest. It became an issue many days later.

I understand that much of the furor is political. After all, there is even a fatwa allowing non-muslim visitors to the main prayer room, with conditions.

Muzakarah Jawatankuasa Fatwa Majlis Kebangsaan Bagi Hal Ehwal Ugama Islam Malaysia Kali Ke-90 yang bersidang pada 1 Mac 2010 telah memutuskan bahawa pelancong bukan Islam diharuskan memasuki masjid dan ruang solat dengan syarat-syarat yang telah ditentukan.

Amalan menerima bukan Islam memasuki masjid atas tujuan yang murni juga telah diamalkan di beberapa negara lain. Ia terbukti memberi nilai positif kepada keberkesanan pemahaman mereka kepada agama Islam, mengelakkan salah faham dan menjana interaksi yang harmoni dalam perhubungan di antara umat Islam dan bukan Islam.

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/breakingviews/article/isu-bukan-islam-masuk-masjid-dr-muhd-nur-manuty/

Common sense tells me that if there was a problem, the responsibility lies with the people who have invited Teo. But it is Teo who has been accused by Ibrahim Ali of desecrating the mosque. According to Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin the majority of Muslims in the country were upset by Teo’s conduct. Wanita Umno chief Senator Datuk Seri Shahrizat Jalil says that Teo’s conduct was “totally unnecessary, insulting and unbecoming”. MAIS has decided to send Teo a warning letter. What concerned me was “MAIS chairman Datuk Mohamad Adzib Mohd Isa reportedly said Teo’s action had angered the Sultan of Selangor, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah who ordered immediate action against the management of the surau.”

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/khairy-calls-dap-insensitive-teo-naive-over-surau-visit
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/pas-veep-says-bn-attack-on-teo-a-cheap-issue/

So, a non-muslim, entering a mosque at the invitation of the management of the mosque, in doing so has desecrated the mosque, insulted and upset muslims and angered the Sultan.

My friends may tell me that it is all politics, nothing to do with me, an ordinary man on the street. But the Sultan is not political. A non-muslim, entering a mosque at the invitation of the management of the mosque, in doing so has angered him.

It makes me want to have nothing to do with muslims. Nothing against them, really. I do have friends who are muslims. And I am on friendly terms with my muslim neighbours. But for muslims who are strangers to me, it is a different matter. I have less and less an idea what is acceptable and not acceptable. I enjoy malay food and eat at malay food stalls regularly. There are friendly stallholders and I will talk and joke with them. There are not so outgoing ones, and I will say the barest minimum to them. I have to let muslims take the lead in letting me know whether it is acceptable for me to interact with them.

Reading RPK’s article I saw that using certain muslim phrases like “amar makruf, nahi munka” is a no-no. I didn’t know that. “Insya’allah, Alhamdulillah” – forbidden. In another article I read, even “salam” it seems is an issue. It may seem like a joke but I wonder how I should react if I see a fully covered muslim woman slip and fall into a drain. Do I look for a stick to help her up so she does not have to touch my hand? Or will I be insulting her by offering my bare hand? (This was a real experience BTW, except that I was extending a hand to help her cross some muddy ground and she hesitated to accept my offer of help) Teo came with allocations requested to upgrade the mosque. She is now villified by the muslim community for entering the mosque at the invitation of those in charge of the mosque.

Maybe the government should publish a list of dos and don’ts on how a non-muslim can interact with muslims rather than broadcasting to all and sundry how a non-muslim politician has insulted the muslim community. It seems I cannot learn how I can mix with muslims from RPK and Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat. Or even Former Perlis mufti Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin. I used to think common sense will do but that might end up with me insulting the muslim community as well. I’m not sure such a list will help bring all of us, muslims and non-muslims together and united as a country, but I’m pretty sure it cannot hurt the situation much more than what I have been reading.

Hence while you are at this conference, let me argue, that as an absolute minimum, we should call for the repeal of unjust and much abused Acts of Parliament which are reversals of freedoms that we won at Merdeka.

I ask you in joining me in calling for the repeal of the ISA and the OSA. These draconian laws have been used, more often than not, as political tools rather than instruments of national security. They create a climate of fear.

I ask you to join me in calling for the repeal of the Printing and Publications Act, and above all, the Universities and Colleges Act. I don’t see how you can pursue your student activism with such freedom and support in the UK and Eire while forgetting that your brethren at home are deprived of their basic rights of association and expression by the UCA. The UCA has done immense harm in dumbing down our universities.

We must have freedom as guaranteed under our Constitution. Freedom to assemble, associate, speak, write, move. This is basic. Even on matters of race and even on religious matters we should be able to speak freely, and we shall educate each other.

It is time to realize the dream of Dato’ Onn and the spirit of the Alliance and of Tunku Abdul Rahman. That dream was one of unity and a single Malaysian people. They went as far as they could with it in their time. Instead of taking on the torch we have reversed course. The next step for us as a country is to move beyond the infancy of race-based parties to a non-racial party system. Our race-based party system is the key political reason why we are a sick country, declining before our own eyes, with money fleeing and people telling their children not to come home after their studies.

So let us try to take 1Malaysia seriously… Let us see the Government of the day lead by example. 1Malaysia is empty because it is propagated by a Government supported by a racially-based party system that is the chief cause of our inability to grow up in our race relations. Our inability to grow up in our race relations is the chief reason why investors, and we ourselves, no longer have confidence in our economy. The reasons why we are behind Maldives in football, and behind the Philippines in FDI, are linked.

So let us take 1Malaysia seriously, and convert Barisan Nasional into a party open to all citizens. Let it be a multiracial party open to direct membership. Pakatan Rakyat will be forced to do the same or be left behind the times. Then we shall have the vehicles for a two party, non-race-based system…

… we drop all communalism when we compete for the ballot. When our candidates stand for Elections, let them ever after stand only as Malaysians, better or worse.

Two interesting points to notice about this speech. Firstly, although both important and relevant, it was not covered by any of our English dailies. Secondly, Tengku Razaleigh is a life member of UMNO and we have not heard that he has been disciplined or expelled for his radical views.

As for my own comment, I have but one word: “Amen!” (so be it, I agree).

]]> http://www.themicahmandate.org/2010/08/words-of-wisdom-for-malaysian-university-and-college-students/feed/ 0 http://www.themicahmandate.org/2010/08/what-we-mourn-over-is-the-benchmark-of-our-maturity/ http://www.themicahmandate.org/2010/08/what-we-mourn-over-is-the-benchmark-of-our-maturity/#comments Mon, 30 Aug 2010 02:39:04 +0000 Rama Ramanathan http://www.themicahmandate.org/?p=3285 In his book Authentic Faith, the Christian teacher Gary Thomas says: “Mourning is a curious thing. A spiritually deadened person mourns over things that should bring celebration – and often celebrates things that should be mourned. In many ways, what we mourn over is a benchmark of our maturity – or at least, of what we hold dear.”

Mourning is not about chanting or banging on drums or paying people to chant on behalf of the dead. Mourning is the deep sorrow or sadness we feel when something hurts us. Christians believe the Kingdom of God is here. Christians believe God, the King, desires justice and good neighbourliness. Anything contrary to justice and good neighbourliness offends God, and causes Christians to mourn – in prayer and in everyday interactions.

As 31st August and the 53rd Anniversary of the Independence of Malaya (Merdeka day) approaches, I’ve listed some things in Malaysia which I believe offend God.

The case of YB Teo Nie Ching, Member of Parliament for Serdang. Ms Teo has been castigated by UMNO politicians including Khairy and Shahrizat for accepting the invitation of Muslim men to enter their own surau, in her own constituency, without wearing a head covering. I am not aware of a single report of any protest by any Muslims then present nor any reports of her being offered a head-covering by anyone then present. The Islamic authorities in the state have “taken over” from the surau committee.

The newspaper which reported this “outrageous act” was the Malay daily, Utusan. It’s sister newspaper, the English daily, the New Straits Times, refused to name Utusan in it’s report on Saturday 28 August. Even quotes attributed to YB Teo are reported as “I think the allegations hurled against me by a local daily is baseless;” and “It is obvious that it (daily) has no better issue to write (about) than to look for ways to run down DAP.” Would she really have said “local daily?” and not Utusan? Why not name Utusan?

Is the story about (a) YB Teo or (b) the surau committee members or (c) a certain brand of journalism or (d) UMNO/BN? Why choose to focus on the guest?

What positions did all these people take when, in 2009, the Catholic Church’s sacrament of Holy Communion was desecrated by two Muslim journalists?

The case of 20 year old Grace Church and it’s pastor Joseph Marcose for planning to stage a play in the Shah Alam Convention Centre. The police accepted a report against the church, seemingly for applying to rent the premises. The report was lodged by the Petaling Perkasa chairman, Zainal Abidin Ahmad. The pastor cancelled the event and is reported to have said “we will co-operate if there are any police investigations.”

Is the story about (a) an insensitive church/pastor or (b) some insecure Muslims or (c) civil rights or (d) UMNO/BN? What rights did the church/pastor trample upon?

The case of Johor school Principal Siti Inshah Mansor, against whom at least 17 police reports have been lodged. She is alleged to have said that “Chinese students … can return to China” and compared the prayer strings worn by Indians to the collars around the necks of dogs/cows. She is alleged to have made these remarks while launching the school’s Merdeka celebrations. No action is to be taken against her.

Is the story about (a) an isolated case not representative of other school heads and teachers, (b) a more “obvious” example of beliefs deeply embedded in heads and teachers, (c) Malay insecurity or (d) the result of BN policies over the last 53 years?

The Teoh Beng Hock inquiry. Over a year after the death of TBH, the Attorney General’s Chambers claims TBH left a suicide note; TBH’s family learns of this note in open court. The Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) claims TBH may have strangled himself to death. The inquiry continues.

I note also the permission given to Lingam and Co. to challenge the findings of a Royal Commission of Inquiry; Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s unchecked vote-buying in Hulu Langat and in Sibu; the continuing Sodomy II trial of Anwar, one of whose prosecutors was/is in a relationship with Anwar’s accuser (who is engaged to another woman); and UMNO/BN’s use of the police to attack those who light candles in public.

Do we mourn over these things? How mature are we?

Rama Ramanathan maintains the blog “Rest Stop Thoughts”.

Here are some news items that we can be praying over:

Ibrahim Ali follows Tee, tells those who disagree to get out

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/ibrahim-ali-follows-tee-tells-those-who-disagree-to-get-out/

The truth: Racism is rife in Malaysia

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/fmt-english/news/general/9498-the-truth-racism-is-rife-in-malaysia

Pakatan wants to ‘destroy’ constitutional monarchy, claim Malay groups

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/pakatan-wants-to-destroy-constitutional-monarchy-claim-malay-groups/

And here is an interesting reflection on racial politics in Malaysia by a Malaysian Insider reader.

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/breakingviews/article/racial-politics-still-a-game-today-delimma/

For those who wish to participate in the 40-day fast, here are some resources in PDF format provided by NECF Malaysia:

For adults: English   BM   Mandarin   Tamil

For children: English   BM   Mandarin

Or visit the NECF website.

1. China
Alimjan Yimit, a Uyghur Christian, has lost his appeal at the Xinjiang Court. He has been held in detention in the Xinjiang autonomous region of China since January 2008, carrying a 15-year sentence for allegedly “divulging state secrets.” One of his lawyers remarked, “It is all about religion.” His wife Gulnur, their two sons and his mother are suffering greatly from this forced separation. Gulnur has been greatly moved by brothers and sisters who, after hearing of her husband’s arrest, have not stopped praying for them.

2. India
An Indian evangelist called Ravi Murmu was murdered on the night of 2 May, while returning home after showing the Jesus film in Laxmanpur, Bihar state. His body was found with deep cuts on the neck and elsewhere. None of his belongings had been taken. Pray for his widow, Rinku, and their eight-year-old daughter, Celesty, and all who knew and loved him. When asked how the family was coping with the murder, Ravi’s brother (also an evangelist) replied, “The peace of God still reigns in this house and in this family.”

3. Nigeria
On 15 April the bodies of Christian pastor Ishaya Kadah and his wife Selina were discovered two days after they were kidnapped in Boto village, Bauchi State, Nigeria. Police have arrested two suspects, and security has been stepped up in the city of Bauchi. Four days later, the mutilated bodies of two elderly Christian farmers were also found, in the village of Rim, south of Jos. Continue to uphold our Nigerian Christian brothers and sisters in prayer. Pray that they will display the Lord’s grace and reflect His love by forgiving their enemies.

JESUS OF THE SCARS

Edward Shillito was an English minister who survived the horrors of artillery, machine guns, and trench warfare during World War I, 1914-1918.

This poem needs to be read and re-read many times so that its profound message may enter into the very depths of our soul. This is especially true of the last verse which gives an amazing reason for the uniqueness of our God.

The poem is applicable for every Christian although for the majority of us in Malaysia (myself included), our wounds are very superficial compared with those who are undergoing such great suffering for the sake of Jesus of the Scars.

The Chief Justice identified the main problem as being that of the backlog of cases in the High Court. He highlighted a 52.8% reduction in pending civil cases in the High Courts between 31 December 2008 and the present; a 25.6% reduction over the same period for criminal cases. He said that this reduction had been achieved through a combination of 15 measures: stocktaking and rearranging of files; increasing the number of judges; a tracking system/case management; e-court, namely case management system (CMS), queue management system (QMS) and court recording and transcribing system (CRT); appointment of managing judges; strict granting of postponements; spot checks/surprise visits to courts; mediation; judicial training and seminars/workshops; better utilisation of judicial time; close monitoring from the top management; establishment of specialised courts; regular meetings with, and support of, the Bar and the Attorney General; electronic filing and disposal of cases; and amendments to relevant legislation.

Among other things, the Chief Justice proudly displayed his circular on “Last Minute Postponements” for all to see. He stated that it was unfair to have the blame for postponement imposed solely on the courts. In order to transform this inaccurate perception, he urged judges and judicial officers to be strict in granting last-minute postponements without reasonable notice. Granting postponements was a judicial discretion, and he advised them to exercise that judicial discretion wisely. As for close monitoring by top management, he spoke of receiving daily reports, of setting key performance indicators, and of publishing figures on the disposal of cases amongst judges and judicial officers. He also spoke about administrative improvements that had been made, especially with regard to extracting and executing orders, hearing of joint petitions for divorces and the quick attending to complaints.

Despite repeated dialogues with the CJ and the senior judiciary, there are still cases where postponements are denied even when there are good reasons. Indeed a directive from the CJ to judges and judicial officers to grant adjournments in view of the recently-held 15th Malaysian Law Conference was totally ignored by one judge and the lawyer in that case, who was moderating one of the sessions, had to complete his hearing before attending. Lawyers also face the fixing of hearing dates that do not correspond with their available dates, despite these being made known in advance to the judge. The CJ has been somewhat unsympathetic in these instances, saying that lawyers will just have to find another lawyer to attend. He has stated in the past his view that lawyers spread themselves too thinly and take up more cases than they can practically manage. These multiple cases then end up being fixed for hearing on the same days, hence the need for adjournments. Apparently having another case fixed for hearing in another court is not an acceptable reason for applying for an adjournment, and judges and judicial officers have been taken to task for exercising their discretion for this reason. His solution: sole proprietorships and small law firms should merge, so that a firm would have more lawyers at its disposal to attend to the various cases. With Malaysian legal fees being comparatively very low, the issue of lawyers needing to earn a decent wage is conveniently ignored.

The recently-approved amendments to the Subordinate Courts Act 1964, which the CJ also mentioned in his briefing, will see cases with a monetary value of RM1 million or less being transferred to the subordinate courts. This is a pre-emptive move not to clog the superior courts with relatively minor cases in the future, and reduce the chances of a backlog building up once again. The problem is that the threshold of RM1 million is fairly high, and will include a considerable number of complex cases. Allowing officers of the Judicial and Legal Service, to which Sessions Court judges and magistrates belong, to decide these cases rather than High Court judges may impose an undue burden on the former. They will now also have the power and responsibility of deciding on interim issues connected with such cases, for example on injunctions. There is some concern amongst members of the legal profession that non-High Court judges would not have sufficient experience and expertise to decide on such matters. So while on the one hand access to the courts may be improved, the question of access to a just outcome remains wide open.

This is also true of the case of night courts. While this has been available for some time, the uptake has not been good. The initial driving idea behind these was that parties could opt to have their cases heard after hours, thus reducing the burden on litigants to make their days available. However we seem to have misunderstood the rationale for night courts. Night courts are more suited to the hearing of preliminary issues in a criminal matter especially those which arise immediately upon arrest, such as remand hearings and bail applications. This is especially true of those arrested after regular court hours, the intent being that accused persons are brought before a magistrate soon after they are arrested and their cases dealt with quickly. The Government Transformation Programme (GTP) has now stated that the night courts will be used to address the problem of street crime. That will be good. Yet the predisposition of our police force is to have alleged offenders kept in detention for as long as legally permissible, “pending investigations”. Night courts would only serve to frustrate such predispositions and hinder the way in which police investigations are carried out in this country. Further, night courts would work best when there is a public defender system or legal aid available at all night courts, to protect the rights of accused persons.

The latest pro-efficiency scheme by the GTP is to attempt to reduce street crime by marking street crime cases with a “J” prefix and fast-tracking them through the court process; speedy justice for snatch thieves and “Mat Rempit” and their ilk. But will this be achieved at the cost of compromising the civil liberties of an accused person? And what message does this approach send to the public at large, that some crimes are more deserving of a quick hearing than others? Will it be right to delay trials for some in order to expedite trials for others?

While the government’s aim of reducing street crime is laudable, the use of the courts to achieve the government’s policy goal of reducing crime and thus looking successful on law and order issues in time for the next election risks blurring the constitutionally separate roles of the judiciary and the executive.

In conclusion, no one is against efficiencies in the system of administration of justice. To do so would be like taking exception to motherhood and apple pie (or its suitable Malaysian equivalent). But when the courts are turned into an extension of the executive and become like any other government department forced to adhere to the drive towards achieving pre-determined performance targets, then there is great risk that justice and fairness are being compromised.

(Andrew Khoo is a lawyer in private practice. The views expressed are entirely his own. A version of this article, under the title “Delivering justice speedily”, first appeared in The Sun on 18 August 2010.)

The chief enigma for the historian is how one of the most advanced representatives of western civilization could suffer a total collapse. It is more than passing strange that a culture that birthed a Beethoven and Goethe could be subjugated to a Goebbels and Himmler. In the opening chapters, there is an excellent synthesis of scholarship on totalitarianism and what is characterized as political religion. The political ideologies share a kinship with religious rhetoric. The crucial difference is the misappropriating of its language and rituals to serve in its decadent form a programme of social political transformation that negates in its fundamentals any plurality and acceptance of multiculturalism.

The desacralised space is resacralised with caricatures and wild aberrations of redemptive solutions. Aliens, which do not fit into the xenophobic schema of national ideology, are regarded as pathogens that have to be purged as contaminants. Virtues are despised as expressions of the effete. The Biblical evocations laced with decades of uncritical humanistic theology became a tool of propaganda to lull the established church into supine sycophancy.

Established religion was co-opted and some of its leading spokesmen seduced into lyrical praise of the apotheosis of the Exalted Leader. For example, Karl Adams, a church historian said, ”Now he stands before us he whom the voices of our poets and sages have summoned, the liberator of the German Genius he has removed the blindfold from our eyes, and through all political, economic, social and confessional covers has enabled us to see and love again the one essential thing—our unity of blood, our German self…”

The silence of Heidegger has been much written about. The erosion of the centrality of the rule of law accompanies the rise of the totalitarian state. This led to the slide into “a murderous limbo where everything was possible.” In Burleigh’s biting commentary, “One aspect of dictatorship seems in need of more emphasis than it nowadays tends to receive the super cession of the Rule of law by arbitrary police terror. This was not a prosaic B-movie, before the lurid A-movie of the regime’s wartime rampage, but the crucial breach with the most fundamental characteristic of free societies.”

“It was not a side issue which one unaccountably preoccupied an older generation of historians and is now best left to legal historians, but the most important departure from civilized values engineered by the Nazi government.”

The judiciary and legal functionaries were brought in line with the goals of a totalitarian state. One striking example reported by Joachim Fest was that of Herr Bumcke, president of the Supreme Court of Justice of Leipzig. Shortly after the seizure of power, when a guest at a reception in breach of etiquette at the Supreme Court wore a SS uniform, Frau Bumcke acidly commented,” I see that you, too, are wearing the murderer’s uniform.”

But when Bumcke had his audience with Hitler, and the Fuhrer gripped his hand, gazed deeply into his eyes and said intensely, “Bumcke, you must help me.” this gesture made such an impression on Bumcke that he became a convert. The administration of justice became a bureaucratized affair with a continuous increase in the scope of the prosecutor’s powers.

The chapters dealing with the war fronts of Europe and Russia will be of interest to military historians. In the chapter entitled “Eugenics and Euthanasia,” Burleigh’s scholarship unearthed chilling and disturbing evidence of the abdication of the professions, from bureaucrats who rationalized their work as a compilation of statistics to the medical personnel that authorized and signed off the executions of the deformed, the certified psychiatrics and the mass sterilization of women.

Burleigh’s work is a grand synthesis of 20th century historiography combining acumen from varied disciplines of military, political, diplomatic, and social economic history. Undoubtedly, the final result may not please the experts in each of the fields but for a lay reader the synthesis is well worth the effort.

The details which Burleigh marshaled and the driving narrative style make it a compelling read, drawing readers into a cauldron of human extremes. We learn both of the damning ease by which officials of a regime slid into bestiality and collaborationist business which traded and manufactured supplies to the military industrial complex.

We are told how the Michelin family lost their sons when they were involved in the resistance. Indeed, a hallmark of Burleigh’s work is its scrupulous fairness in also retrieving for its readers the Germans who resisted the onslaught of the Nazi’s madness. The story of the Lutheran Pastor and one of the 20th century’s great theologians, Bonhoeffer, is retold deftly. We are made aware that for every Albert Speer, there is a counterpoint that reminds us of the presence of courage, righteousness and resistance amid great evil and wickedness. Shortly before Bonhoeffer’s death, he said, “As a pastor he counted it a duty not only to bind and minister to the wounded and victims of exalted men who drove madly a motor car in a crowded street, but also to try to stop them.”

Burleigh concludes his work with an administration that the story he told is not an edifying one. Regimes produced by armed bohemians produced nothing of enduring moment.

“Their leaders embodied the negation of everything that is worthwhile about being a human being; their followers shamed and demeaned themselves … Our lives may be more boring than those who lived in apocalyptic times, but being prematurely dead because of some ideological fantasy.”

May we in our 21st century heed these lessons and resist the incipient efforts of ideologues that seek to impose their totalitarian views on any nation state.

The editorial suggested however that Liu should be treated the same as Tee and that this DC decision was a cop-out.

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/breakingviews/article/the-daps-cop-out-the-malaysian-insider/

I disagree. If you cannot make a distinction between what Tee was alleged to have done and Liu’s part in giving Tee the opportunity to do such a deed by his lack of supervision, you will end up sacking everybody from your party. In fact I thought they should have waited until investigations are completed before they sacked Tee but since this is an internal party response they are certainly entitled to do what they feel is best for their party. The strong response by the DAP to this stain on their reputation is to me commendable. Contrast this to the arches fiasco in Penang. No one was made responsible, no one was reprimanded while public money is completely wasted.

There was another man who stood before the DC that day and the next morning I saw headlined in theSun “OMG! It’s a show” implying that the DC conclusions were farcical. It was a clever play on the tweet Selangor DAP committee member Teng Chang Khim sent out (OMG! The real culprit is freed!) on the day former Klang councillor Tee Boon Hock was expelled. Everyone thought he was referring to the Tee saga but he explained that he was actually tweeting about a movie he was watching. From theSun’s headline and the Malaysian Insider editorial, it looks like nobody in the press believed him. The Malaysian Insider also called it farcical, but the DC decided to drop the matter and merely advised Teng to be careful.

Obviously this is a small matter but the “clever” explanation turned what could have been dealt with with some humility into a perception of arrogance. And to add salt to injury Teng chided the press for speculating and blowing up the matter. Truly a bad error of judgement. And no, I don’t believe the explanation either.

But while Teng’s arrogance injured his own reputation (and perhaps to some extent his party), the arrogance of Tan Sri Liew Kee Sin of SP Setia has injured race relations in Malaysia, and injured the needs of the poor in the country. Claiming that Chinese individuals control 73 per cent of the wealth owned by the top 40 richest Malaysians and make up eight of the top 10 richest Malaysians he concludes that “the wealth came in the last 30 years of so-called NEP (New Economic Policy) policies.”

http://themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/sp-setia-chief-claims-chinese-thrived-under-nep

Dubious use of statistics aside, in doing so, Liew has fueled notions that the Chinese has grabbed the lion’s share of the economic pie to the detriment of other races. He has implied that those who implement the NEP has continued to favour the Chinese. And in focusing on the achievements of the billionaires who make up the top 10 richest Malaysians he ignores the millions of Malaysians who are poor and will continue to be overlooked by race-based efforts to balance the distribution of wealth in the country. Whatever his motivation for saying this, I feel he has stabbed Malaysians in the back and defined again the issue with the NEP in racial terms.

Zaid Ibrahim has written a good response to Liew. I reproduce here his conclusion but you should read the full article. It makes interesting reading.

http://www.zaiduntukrakyat.com/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=103&cntnt01origid=15&cntnt01returnid=56

As for me, I want to remind us all, and Liew in particular, of a parable Jesus told:

It is encouraging to note that the Malacca government plans to open a special school for pregnant girls, irrespective of their marital status.

However, it is with the allowing of Muslim girls under the age of 16 to marry that I am most deeply concerned.

Over now to a Malaysian mother, who has a daughter aged 23, to express her views on this situation:

“To task children with the responsibilities of marriage when they are not ready to be adults, is going backwards into the dark ages”