Tag: malay

Singapore Muslims Must Embrace Change

For those interested in political science:

I have discussed the concept of path dependence in government institutions several times. Basically, in historical institutionalism, a policy, structure or rules tend to be retained from its founding or initial development. Because stable institutions have defined their characteristics, decisions today are based on the choices made before it.

B. Guy Peters argues that path dependence develop into local optima. In relating economics to policy, he stated:

“These inefficiencies produce numerous local optima and firms, once they find such a local optimum, seize it and that local optimum becomes the dominant solution to the problem. Phrased more in terms of the operations of government programs, a particular program addressing a policy problem may not be the best in the abstract but once it has been shown to produce some positive results it will dominate other solutions that may in principle, be superior but which will require movement from that existing and seemingly functional program”.

Path dependence and the adoption of local optima is not confined to government policies. In Singapore, we see a similar behavior with Muslim organizations.

These organizations have taken an approach in political engagement and regardless of its inefficiencies, have remained within the engagement model. While there are better models to adopt, they are unable or unwilling to change from the way they have always engaged because it appeared to have worked before.

Thus, the inability for the Muslim community to solve their problems cannot be viewed simply from the government’s refusal to respond or change. Our organizations have been caught in an engagement inertia. Until we acknowledge that the model we have utilised all these years are not the best or most appropriate, we will always remain in this situation.

We have taken a specific model that has not worked for decades and expect a different result. Either we change our goals, change those we engage with or change how we engage.

Authored by Zulfikar Shariff

October 8, 2014
Hilangnya Khazanah Melayu Tulisan Jawi

Atan Flybaits

Kita telah kehilangan satu khazanah sastera Melayu yang di bena dengan penat lelah oleh ahli sastera sebelum kita, ia itu’ Tulisan Jawi’ dan tiada seorang sasterawan kita yang merasa kecewa tentang kehilangan itu melainkan Presiden Yusuf, kerana beliau lah yang membena akhbar Utusan Melayu yang di tutup oleh pemerintah PAP – di waktu yang akan datang kita akan kehilangan bahasa melayu jika kita tidak berusaha dari sekarang, kebanyakan anak anak melayu sudah tidak selesa menggunakan bahasa surat , mereka hanya menggunakan bahasa melayu pasar yang mana nahu nya tidak di penting kan

Tulisan jawi ini terkubur bersama sekolah sekolah melayu sewaktu pemerintah PAP menutup semua sekolah ehtnic termasuk sekolah Melayu, Tamil dan Cina, tapi sebahgian dari sekolah Cina di jadi kan sekolah sekolah SAP dengan tujuan menghasil kan orang orang elit Cina sekali gus memurni kan bahasa dan buday Cina, manakala dengan penutupan sekolah melayu kita telah kehilangan Tulisan Jawi dan dalam proses kehilangan Bahasa Melayu.

Sewaktu PAP baru menjadi pemerintah dulu, mereka kata negeri ini akan di tadbir berdasarkan empat ethnic group, ia itu Melayu, Cina, Indian dan Tamil, tapi kelihatan nya sekarang dari polisi immigresen dan permit kerja, kita nampak polisi mereka meminggirkan orang orang berketurunan melayu, lalu kalau di zaman 60an dulu peratus penduduk melayu beranggaran 16% sekarang sudah kurang dari 14% tapi masih tak ada suara dari ketua ketua kita

Apa kah polisi negara ini sudah berubah dari meritokrasi dan transparen kepada sweeping everything under the carpet.

Atan Flybaits

October 2, 2014
Aliff Aziz Nafi Curi Telefon Bimbit

KUALA LUMPUR, 30 SEPT 2014: Penyanyi kelahiran Singapura, Aliff Aziz menafikan yang dia telah mencuri telefon bimbit seperti mana laporan daripada keratan akhbar di sana.

Menurutnya ketika kejadian, dia dan rakannya lain mengunjungi rumah kenalan yang lain sekadar lepak biasa dan berbual kosong.

Bagaimanapun, rakan Aliff Aziz yang sebenarnya telah mencuri telefon itu tanpa dia sedari.

Tindakan rakannya itu menyebabkan Aliff berasa sangat kecewa dengan sikap rakannya itu sehingga dia diheret sekali dalam kes ini.

“Saya bayar SGD2000 adalah untuk “clearkan” kes ini agar memudahkan saya membuat urusan kerja saya di Malaysia. Undang undang di sini, sama ada saya mencuri atau pun tidak, saya juga dikenakan denda kerana disyaki subahat. Namun hakikatnya, saya tidak mencuri,” katanya yang dihubungi Murai bagi menjelaskan isu ini.

Aliff juga memberitahu rakannya itu telah disumbatkan ke dalam penjara dan telah dijatuhkan hukuman.

Tiada sebab Aliff untuk mencuri kerana dia mampu membelinya sendiri dengan hasil kerjayanya sebagai penyanyi dan pelakon.

“Saya harap penjelasan saya dapat memulihkan semula imej saya yang tercalar. Saya teraniaya dengan sikap biadap rakan saya itu. Saya harap dia akan berubah,” ujarnya.

Aliff Aziz akan adakan sidang media dalam masa terdekat selewat-lewatnya minggu hadapan.

Sumber: http://www.murai.com.my/berita/tempatan/article/articleid/615868/aliff-aziz-bukan-saya-yang-curi-telefon-itu/ms/1#.VCpjK3J3b5I.facebook

October 1, 2014
Boon Lay Murder Case, Siblings Convicted For Murder

Muhammad Kadar, who has been on death row for five years for knifing an elderly housewife more than 110 times in 2005, did not get to escape the gallows on Sept 29.

The decision by the Court of Appeal to affirm the sentence cast the spotlight once again on the long-running trial, which lasted three years and saw many twists and turns.

Muhammad, 39, and his older brother Ismil, first went on trial in 2006, charged with murdering their neighbour, Madam Tham Weng Kuen, 69, at her Boon Lay flat while robbing her. The case took a dramatic turn when Muhammad made a stunning confession in court that he was the sole assailant. He had told police earlier that Mr Ismil was the main culprit.

The High Court did not conclude who the assailant was but ruled that the pair were guilty of murder under the law on common intention.

They appealed against their convictions, and Mr Ismil was freed in 2011 after the Court of Appeal cleared him of murder. But he went back to jail 15 months later for consuming drugs.

We recap the landmark case with stories from The Straits Times archives:

1. What is the case about

The brothers were sentenced to hang in 2009 for murdering Madam Tham. The elderly housewife’s husband, who was a stroke patient and bedridden, was in another room in the house when it happened and could do nothing to help. The husband died in 2006 without seeing the culprit brought to justice.

Read about it here:

Brothers to hang for robbery killing of elderly woman

2. Brothers appealed against their convictions

The brothers appealed against their convictions. Justice V. K. Rajah, one of three judges sitting in the Court of Appeal, pointed out that many parts of the crime scene had not been checked for fingerprints – the bedroom of Madam Tham’s bedridden husband, kitchen toilet, toilet walls, kitchen window and the tap of a sink that appeared to have been used.

Read about it here:

Boon Lay murder: ‘Lapse’ in checks leaves unanswered questions

3. Ismil escapes gallows

More than two years after the pair were given the mandatory death penalty, Ismil escaped the gallows in April 2011, with the prosecution’s acceptance that he was not guilty of murder.

The story here:

Older brother escapes gallows

4. Ismil cleared of murder

Ismil – who spent six years in prison including two years on death row – was released from prison in July 2011 after he was cleared of murder by the Court of Appeal.

The court issued a strongly worded judgment highlighting “serious lapses” by police and prosecutors. The police had been given three statements by the victim’s husband in which he said he saw only one intruder in their flat. These were not made available to the defence until very late in the trial.

More here:

Man accused of murder freed after 6 years in jail

5. From death row to new life

Adapting to life outside prison was a challenge for Ismil, who found work as a dispatch assistant with help from his lawyer.

Asked about how he felt, Ismil said then: “I feel like a new person, but very out of place. I think I will need some time to get used to the sudden freedom.”

Read the stories here:

The unfamiliar taste of freedom

From death row to new life

6. Back in jail

After making headlines for how he was on the road to a more normal life, Ismil was sent back to prison 15 months after he was freed. He was jailed seven years and given six strokes of the cane for consuming drugs. Ismil told the judge: “I have tried to do… my very best. I have planned for the best, but it did not work out.”

The story here:

He’s back in jail after wasting chance for starting a new life

Ismil’s mother, Madam Asnah Ismail, said she was neither sad nor disappointed at the turn of events. “When he wasn’t taking these things, he was a good person,” she said in Malay.

More here:

Mum says son was a good person when he wasn’t taking drugs

Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/courts-crime/story/boon-lay-murder-landmark-case-many-twists-and-turns-20140930#xtor=CS1-10

September 30, 2014
Malay Race Being Discriminated When Apply for SG Citizenship

As promised this is the real-life story which I feel all true blue Singaporeans should know. Compare it with the ease with which PR and citizenship are dished out to foreigners, especially from the PRC, the PAP’s favourite hunting ground for immigrants to make Singapore more Chinese than it already is. And naturally Yang Yin’s case comes to mind.

This insulting tale which I’m about to tell I believe is not an isolated one. Many others may have been suffering – and still suffering – in silence.

Yaacob (not his real name) is the youngest in a family of 6 children – 5 boys and a girl. He is in his thirties and was born, bred and schooled in Singapore. He works and contributes to the economy as a forklift operator.His elderly parents and all his elder siblings are full citizens with pink ICs. Through some unexplained circumstances Yaacob is the only one holding a blue IC.

The fault could have been caused by an inadvertent mistake of his father, a simple folk, or that of the officer at the NRO.

Having faced all the inconveniences of a blue IC holder and missing out on all the rights and privileges of a citizen through no fault of his, Yaacob finally decided seek help. He did not say whether he had gone to see any MP because he might have thought that as a blue IC holder he would not be entertained. Incidentally he lives in Ang Mo Kio and the principal MP there is none other than the PM himself.

He went straight to the Immigration/National Registration Office at Kallang, armed with copies of his parents’ and siblings’ birth certificates and ICs.
After a lengthy wait he was interviewed by an officer. But instead of assisting him the officer, a Chinese, threw insults at him by telling him:

1. Though he might be born in Singapore it does not necessarily mean that he can become a citizen.
2. The issuing of pink ICs to his parents and siblings was a mistake, and this killer statement …..
3. His parents could have got married after he was born!

He was then asked to bring his school records and told to leave and wait for a letter from the authorities. He is still waiting.

Yang Yin forged a degree, joined the RC, allegedly cheated and stole from an elderly Singaporean, lied about his association with local organisations, took photographs with the MP and the PM and rumoured to have donated large sums of money to the PAP grassroots, etc and he got his PR. No question need to be asked nor a background check necessary.

Yaacob on the other hand is only making his contributions as a forklift operator but born, bred and schooled in Singapore. What is he getting? INSULTS! CAN YOU TAKE THIS?

To the PAP skin colour and money talk! Others don’t matter.

Authored by Mohamed Jufrie Bin Mahmood*

*Mohamed Jufrie Bin Mahmood is a politician from Singapore. He was a prominent opposition political figure in the country in the 1980s and 1990s, when he stood in elections as a candidate for both the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) and the Workers’ Party. He served as the Chairman of the SDP from 2011 to 2013.

September 29, 2014