Parliament is not the right place to settle family disputes.
It is an institution to make laws and debate national issues.
Family disputes should be settled in courts.In parliament MPs have no details of the case and only hear PM telling his side of the case.
Wrong platform.
Source: Dr Tan Cheng Bock
Mr Teo Ser Luck has requested to step down from public office to return to the private sector. The Prime Minister has accepted Mr Teo’s request. Mr Teo will relinquish his appointment as Minister of State for Manpower on Jun 30. Mr Teo will also relinquish his appointment as Mayor of North East CDC when his current term ends on May 26, but will continue serving the residents of Sengkang Central division as a Member of Parliament for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC.
The changes are part of leadership renewal, the PMO said.
This is the third round of changes in appointments that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has made to this Cabinet. The first changes on Aug 22 last year saw Mr Lawrence Wong appointed as Second Minister for Finance, and Ms Sim Ann appointed as Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry and relinquishing her appointment in the Ministry of Finance.
Source: www.channelnewsasia.com
The death of Othman Wok being a trusted Malay of LKY’s era will invite some controversy. The State assisted funeral, the ongoing tributes on TV and the press are expected. The Govt must surely remember and celebrate the Malay man that became the face they wanted for the community.
His passing is not planned but may be a timely coincident in light of the upcoming Malay reserved Presidential election scheduled in September. Rumours are going around that the choice is between Halimah or Zainul. Either one will soften the Malay ground which may not in truth be as eagerly embracing the idea of a Malay President, not under the circumstances it did. On paper Halimah may offer additional appeasement value being the first woman President, a Malay and a Tudung wearing one too. These are definite emotional winners on the heart strings of the Malays.
Already the regional Malay crowd are warming up and not so quietly curious about this prospect and some even jumped the gun in excitedly running full page article about the potential new Woman Malay President of Singapore with a tactful jibe to the affirmative action footnote of we are right afterall, since Singapore also do it, rhetoric.
The opening of the Yusuf Ishak Mosque in Woodlands also was a landmark event attended by top Govt officials including the PM for the first President namesake Mosque that clearly is another softening the Malay ground exercise. Other than the untoward controversy over the pulpit design, the event was definitely helpful towards winning mostly hearts and some minds.
Soon Ramadan will come and than its Hari Raya Puasa followed by Hari Raya Haji. These back to back religious and festive moods are blessings for the Govt leading up to the September vote if there is a vote. Most Malays by then would have somewhat come around and accepted the Malay President with our trademark nonchalant just accept it lah tolerant mindset, and move on.
Looks like come September, the Malay President is game set and match. You got to give it to them, another brilliant political masterstroke from the Govt.
Source: Damanhuri Bin Abas
NON-MUSLIMS are against Islamic criminal law amendments as they perceive them as another step towards the Islamisation of Malaysia, Attorney-General Mohamed Apandi Ali candidly told The Malaysian Insight yesterday.
It does not help either that the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 (or better known by its Bahasa Malaysia acronym, RUU 355) Bill was mooted by PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang, the propagator of hudud laws in Kelantan in the 1990s, with Terengganu following suit later.
Wading into the issue after Barisan Nasional decided not to table Hadi’s private member’s bill in line with the principle of consensus, Apandi said this issue was always going to be a problem.
“When Hadi introduced this bill and tried to incorporate the 100 lashes and other severe punishment, the perception of non-Muslims was that hudud is coming, in the guise of the private member’s bill.”
In fact, Apandi said, RUU 355 was simply to amend the existing Syariah Criminal Law Act to enhance punishments.
It was also to give Muslims a sense of “feeling good”, as the shariah court currently is even lower than the powers of the magistrate’s court. RUU 355 was to have increased the power of the shariah court to the position of a Sessions Court.
“They (non-Muslims), however, read it as the beginning of an Islamic state government like the ones in Iran, Iraq and Syria, despite being told it was not applicable to non-Muslims. That is why the strong resistance.”
On a personal note, Apandi is relieved that the ruling federal coalition had made a U-turn on RUU 355, as that meant he would not have to draft the amendments to Hadi’s bill, which he felt would have been opposed anyway.
“When we draft, we have to show that it is a government bill, so in the first place, my office will have to make sure that it is different from Hadi’s draft.
“So maybe, just maybe, we may exclude Sabah (and Sarawak), to make it different, and even reduce the sentences.
“On the number of strokes, and even the sentences, I would have probably reduced them.
“The difference from the current laws which the Syariah Court Criminal Jurisdiction covers, imprisonment is only up to three years. They want to change it to 30 years, such a big disparity.
“As for fines, currently it is RM1,000, they want to increase it to RM100,000. The disparity is so big. People are going to start questioning the logic behind this.
“So that is why the perception by the people outside will be ‘Oh, this is definitely going to be hudud’.”
Apandi also said he had mentioned the matter to BN politicians and they have indicated their concerns to him.
Many had said it would be difficult for them to explain to their supporters if the government had adopted Hadi’s bill.
They had also warned that BN could lose seats, especially in Sarawak and Sabah, if the government did not make that RUU 355 U-turn.
Apandi also feels RUU 355 was more political than legal.
“The purpose and intention of this is to reap political mileage. Have you heard anybody from the public clamouring for increase of powers of the shariah court? No, nobody asking is asking for it, isn’t it?
“To my reading, it is mainly political. He (Hadi) has to satisfy the states that have already established hudud laws.
“People in those states are beginning to question him: ‘Hey, we have the law, why can’t we enforce them? What’s happened?’ He needs to say something to these states. And that is why he is trying to get federal support.
“So, yes… it’s political!”
Source: www.themalaysianinsight.com
Muslims in Southeast Asia should embrace their unique cultural traditions instead of adopting Arabic customs, according to Libya’s Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Dr Aref Ali Nayed.
“I think that it’s high time that Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei actually appreciated the traditions that have been taught in small schools and villages for several centuries now,” said Dr Nayed, who is also the founder and director of think-tank Kalam Research and Media.
“Why should a Malay give up his way of dressing, or his way of talking or his language in order to somehow prove that he’s more Islamic by borrowing some Arabic words?” he said during an interview with Channel NewsAsia’s Conversation With that aired on Mar 28.
Dr Nayed was in Singapore to deliver a seminar at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute on defeating Islamic State.
Dr Nayed, who has been ranked as one of the top 50 most influential Muslims in the world by Jordanian think-tank The Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, made his remarks as the “Arabisation” of Islam and cultural practices in Southeast Asia stir controversy.
In similar comments made recently in an interview with Malaysia’s The Star, the Sultan of Johor last week warned Malays to stick to their own culture instead of imitating Arab trends. The ruler was responding to the tendency for some Malaysian Malays to lean towards Arab culture amid growing conservatism.
NO NEED TO BE ARAB TO BE A GOOD MUSLIM
Dr Nayed – an Islamic studies scholar who has lectured on Islamic theology, logic, and spirituality at universities around the world – also warned against mindlessly accepting religious teachings from Arabic theologians.
He encouraged religious scholars in Southeast Asia to “not only appreciate what they have but to actually foster it and grow it with their own future generations”.
“There is no need to send off kids to some Arab countries. (They) actually teach a flattened version of Islam that is quite foreign to what Islam is actually about,” Dr Nayed added.
While Islamic studies scholars like Shaykh Abdallah bin Bayyah are doing good work in the UAE, according to Dr Nayed, the ambassador added: “Much of the literature coming off Arabic presses unfortunately has been highly politicised and the theologies have been reduced to a number of principles that are actually quite dangerous.”
When asked if local cultures are standing in the way of achieving the belief of a universality of Islam, Dr Nayed dismissed the idea.
To be a good Muslim, he said: “One has to first be a good Singaporean Muslim or a Malay Muslim or a good Indonesian Muslim.
“Only then can you be a representative of the universal Islam. So respecting your locality does not mean giving up on the universality.”
Source: www.channelnewsasia.com