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Impose Reformative Training With Caution

Although reformative training is aimed as a rehabilitative sentencing option for youth offenders, it should be imposed “cautiously”, given the nature and duration of the punishment, said a district judge.

Reformative training involves an offender between 14 and 21 years old who is institutionalised for at least 18 months and up to 30 months. It results in a criminal record, while a community sentence is rendered spent after it is completed. Probation is deemed not to be a conviction.

While reformative training aims to be rehabilitative, the courts have recognised that it is incarcerative in nature, said District Judge Lim Keng Yeow, in his grounds of decision for rejecting prosecutors’ call for the penalty to be imposed on a teenager who had beaten up foreign workers to practise his martial-arts skills.

“Given the nature and duration of reformative training as it now stands, it should be imposed cautiously, perhaps with as much care as when a physician prescribes very strong medication carrying notable potential side effects,” he wrote. “The courts have absolutely no reason to flinch from imposing reformative training, where it is appropriate. But care ought to be taken not to impose it gratuitously.”

The judge had sentenced Daryl Lim Jun Liang to 10 days of detention and other conditions, ruling that reformative training for the 18-year-old would amount to a “sledgehammer approach”, given the offender’s high capacity for community rehabilitation. Even adults who commit the exact same offence of voluntarily causing hurt would not have been sentenced to a substantial prison term lasting several months, he added.

In his written decision issued last month after the prosecution indicated that it would appeal — which it did yesterday (June 16) — the judge felt community sentencing for Lim was the most fitting option, as probation was insufficiently retributive or deterrent.

A short detention order would mean Lim would still undergo the grim and harsh experience of being locked up, he said. In addition, he was ordered to do 150 hours of community service, report daily to a supervision officer for a year and remain indoors from 10pm to 6am.

The judge said Lim’s probation and community-sentencing suitability reports were positive — he had a supportive family, was able to talk to his mother about past involvement with a gang, and the restaurant he had interned at re-employed him even after knowing about his offence. He demonstrated a capacity for rehabilitation “high enough to outweigh other retributive or deterrent considerations calling for tough sanctions”, DJ Lim said.

Together with three friends, the teen looked for foreign workers who were smaller in build to beat up last September and October, and mocked the victims by dancing in front of them.

The prosecution contended that a deterrent sentence was needed as Lim had targeted a specific class of people, but the judge felt the teen’s offence was not targeted at any particular nationality, race or cultural group, as foreign workers are a large and varied class of individuals.

In his judgment, DJ Lim also made observations about the prosecution’s “unfortunate and undesirable” about-turn in submissions on sentence. It had made no submissions on this at the start, yet objected to probation and pushed for reformative training after the favourable presentencing reports despite having “not more but less reason to press for tougher sanctions”, he said.

The prosecution is allowed to change its mind, but DJ Lim said it could have discharged its duty to the court better in this case, given its “remarkable and yet quite inexplicable” about-turn on sentencing submissions.

Source: www.todayonline.com

June 18, 2015
International Yoga Day Gets India In A Twist

Across the country, lines of yoga enthusiasts are taking to open spaces, laying out their mats and practising their postures.

Sports stadiums, public parks, playgrounds have all been appropriated.

Thousands are training up for this Sunday’s International Yoga Day – when India will bid to write its name into the Guinness Book of Records and attempt the largest yoga gathering in history.

While the aim of yoga is to relax the body and unify the spirit, for some of India’s religious minorities, this Sunday’s event is neither relaxing nor unifying.

Last week, Catholic leaders from the southern state of Kerala criticised the decision to hold the event on a Sunday. This week, Muslim leaders have charged the government with promoting yoga to marginalise the country’s 175 million Muslims.

Abdul Rahim Qureshi from the All India Muslim Personal Law Board told Reuters: “It is a campaign to enforce Hindu rituals on all non-Hindus.”

The inclusion in Sunday’s programme of a series of yoga postures, “surya namaskar” (sun salutation) has drawn most fire from Muslim groups, as Islam forbids believers from worshipping anything but Allah.

But Hindu Nationalist groups, such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’sBharatiya Janata Party, BJP, have said they see yoga as part of India’s past glory that they wish to resurrect.

Yogi Adityanath, a member of parliament from the ruling-BJP, said those opposing sun postures should “leave Hindustan” or “drown themselves in the ocean or live in a darkened room for the rest of their lives.”

The central focus of Yoga Day and the world record attempt will be New Delhi’s grand thoroughfare, Rajpath, where the government anticipates 35,000 people will take part in a mass yoga event.

Prime Minister Modi – himself a yoga enthusiast – will give a speech at the event, but he is not expected to take part in the yoga.

The government is not taking any chances on mass participation. The armed forces, the police, bureaucrats have either been obliged or strongly urged to take part.

In addition to mass-participation events in 650 districts throughout India, 192 countries will also take part. New York’s Times Square is preparing for a Yoga Day celebration.

In London an International Yoga Day event is being organised in front of the OXO building on the South Bank and at Alexandra Palace Gardens.

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

June 18, 2015
Uighur Community: China Again Bans Fasting In Ramadan

China has, once again, banned Ramadan in parts of the far western Xinjiang district for Muslim party members, civil servants, students and teachers.

Muslims throughout the district – which is known to have a minority population of Uighurs – have been told not to fast during the Holy Month.

The Uighur leader, Dilxat Raxit, sees the move as China’s attempt to control their Islamic faith and warned that the restrictions would force the Uighur people to resist the rule of the Chinese government even more.

He added: “The faith of the Uighurs has been highly politicised and the increase in controls could cause sharp resistance.”

In recent years, Chinese authorities have blamed separatist Uighurs for a string of terrorist attacks on civilian crowds and government institutions, but the group has consistently denied involvement.

Activists have long-accused Beijing of exaggerating the threat as an excuse to impose restrictions.

Mr Raxit told Radio Free Asia: “They [the Chinese government] are extracting guarantees from parents, promising that their children won’t fast on Ramadan.”

According to the government’s website, halal restaurants near the Kazakh border are being encouraged by food safety officials to stay open during daylight hours in Ramadan.

Shops and restaurants owned by Muslins have also been ordered to continue selling cigarettes and alcohol over the course of the month – or be shut down altogether.

Beijing is continuing to crack-down against ‘religious extremism’ although human rights groups call it ‘religious repression’, adding that authorities want to prevent Muslims from ‘instilling religion’ into public bodies.

The ruling party says religion and education should be kept separate and students should not be subject to ‘religious influences’, although this rule is rarely enforced for children of Han Chinese, who – if they have a religion – are mostly Buddhist, Daoist or Christian.

Source: www.independent.co.uk

June 18, 2015
Tunku Idris Reminds Malaysia Of Agreement

As his brother, Johor Crown Prince Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim, came under fire from a federal minister, younger brother Tunku Idris posted an eyebrow-raising image on Instagram.

The image was purportedly that of Johor’s agreement to becoming part of the Federation of Tanah Melayu.

The Sunday posting – which was removed today without explanation – came after Tourism and Culture Minister Nazri Abdul Aziz warned Tunku Ismail not to meddle in politics or risk being “whacked”.

The image posted by Tunku Idris stated that the late Sultan Abu Bakar inked the ‘Perjanjian Setia’ in 1885 between the Johor government and British government.

“At the time Johor was known as the independent and sovereign state of Johor.

”

In 1946, the Johor government agreed to sign the Perjanjian Persekutuan with the Persekutuan Tanah Melayu, by imposing several conditions, including Islam as the official religion of the state, the land in Johor being the absolute right of the Johor government and cannot be disturbed without the agreement of the Johor government, the Askar Timbalan Setia Negeri cannot be disbanded, as well as the power of the Johor government being in the hands of the sultan.

“If any of the conditions are violated, Johor will be out of Malaysia [sic].”

There was no title or caption with regard to the 28-year-old prince’s posting, but other Instagram users touched on the issue of secession.

Some of the comments ranged from agreeing to Johor quitting the Federation, while others urged the young prince to keep calm.

Yesterday, some 2,000 Johoreans staged a rally outside the Istana Bukit Serene in support of the royal family and called for Nazri’s resignation.

The minister, however, has refused to back down.

Source: www.malaysiakini.com

June 18, 2015
Obama Trade Will Export Sexual Deviancy

There are many sound reasons to oppose the ObamaTrade bill that the president is seeking to ram through Congress, aided and abetted by Republicans who are in hock to Big Business.

But a little discussed reason to flatly oppose this bill is that it will become a major tool to export sexual deviancy to the world. In other words, it’s as much about Big Gay as it is Big Pharma.

President Obama has appointed no less than seven openly homosexual and intersexed – whatever that is – ambassadors to push his agenda around the world.

They are salivating over the prospect of Republicans giving the president another weapon to use in promoting and advancing the worldwide normalization of the infamous crime against nature.

In a letter posted on the White House website and dated June 9 (which you can read here), these gay ambassadors are unambiguous about their intentions to ram homosexuality down the throats of every nation which becomes a member of the Trans Pacific Partnership.

Here are some excerpts from their manifesto, with explanatory commentary in parentheses:

“As Ambassadors, we are on the front lines representing the United States. We know firsthand that U.S. interests are best served when we pursue policies that also advance our values. (I.e., the value of granting special protections for sexual behavior that is unnatural, immoral, and unhealthy)

“That’s why trade policy is among our most promising tools. (I.e, we can’t wait to get started with the global agenda of forcing homosexuality on everybody, so please, please, please, Republicans, help our president pass this into law.)

“Done right, trade policy is a strong complement to our broader bilateral efforts to urge partner countries to defend and protect the human rights of all individuals. (I.e., including the “right” to engage in sexually deviant behavior with governmental approval.) In many ways, the two issues go together: open markets promote development, raise wages, and increase living standards, which in turn goes hand-in-hand with more open and engaged societies that demand a higher standard of protection for civil rights. (I.e., once the TPP is passed, we are going to force nations to celebrate homosexuality, bisexuality, transgenderism, and intersexuality whether they want to or not.)

“We are proud to be part of an Administration that remains deeply committed (i.e., this is not incidental but central to our mission as ambassadors) to the advancement of human rights for all, including LGBTI persons. President Obama recently said that “all people deserve (i.e., if you disagree with us, you’re a homophobic bigot) to live free from fear, violence, and discrimination, regardless of who they are or whom they love.” The Administration has backed up those words with actions, including through the issuance of a Presidential Memorandum to advance the human rights of LGBTI persons worldwide. This commitment is also clear in trade priorities like TPP, which would represent a significant expansion of enforceable labor rights (i.e., other nations will be made to toe the line regardless of their own cultural and moral values), and would support the elimination of discrimination with respect to employment. (I.e, we will punish, silence and marginalize anyone who gets in our way.)

“We are committed to working closely with the White House to ensure that any trade arrangement approved by Congress is a force for progress on human rights for everyone, including for LGBTI persons. (I.e, we are not going to ask, we’re going to give orders.) By moving forward with President Obama’s trade agenda, we can create a more prosperous, more innovative, and more secure global market and global workplace for the 21st century. With America’s interests and values on the line, we hope Congress passes trade promotion authority without delay.”(I.e., we need this tool in our toolkit immediately so we can force this agenda on as much of the world as possible before the president leaves office.)

In other words, this bill is not just about fast tracking trade. It’s about fast tracking sin.

Bottom line: if you support sexual deviancy, you’ll love ObamaTrade. If you oppose sexual deviancy, you will call your congressman immediately and urge him in the strongest possible term to stop this morally dangerous bill dead in its tracks.

(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)

Source:www.afa.net

June 18, 2015