Unmasking Religious Hypocrisy

The lesson from Quran 2:159:- Those who concealed the truth will be cursed by Allah and by those entitled to curse. Those entitled to curse include the pious and the righteous and the oppressed. 

The oppressed are those that must endure expensive cost of living; some people in Baling Kedah who are forced to buy some rice , measured in milk tins each time to eat lunch or dinner. Or some people in Sik Kedah, who resort to stealing packets of nasi lemak when no one is looking. Why are these things happening in Malaysia? Because many of us have listened to the lies told by leaders like Najib and the so called men of God, people of the book etc.

These people are entitled to swear and curse at those men of God who do not speak of these things but talk non stop about the rewards in the hereafter. Men of God get to enjoy heaven on earth, the poor and the voiceless endure hellish way of life on earth.

Haji hadi and his like minded friends may enjoy their moment of infamy. Sowing discord and divisiveness makes a person infamous. Religious persons are not beneath lying. Some of them said 300,000 people attended. The truer figure is around 30-50,000.

But people are cursing him and his friends. Many know most of them are hypocrites; extolling people to live humbly but they surround themselves with luxury. Urging people to live a life of sexual abstinence but they themselves are sexually voracious.

Many more people did not attend his call to convene on Padang Merbok.Because they know these men of God are doing this gathering to conceal and hide their own shortcomings and failures.

They know he and his friends, are making a political statement. This is not a question of whether we are rejecting God’s divine laws or being anti religion. Haji Hadi thinks the legalistic way is the only way of making Islam great again. We think other ways of making Islam great ought to be given priority. It is a question of adopting a more strategic way or ways of making Islam great. It’s an issue of exercising our right to differ.

People have a right to decide which way is suitable and good for them. Freedom means being able to minimise the coercion of others on ourselves.

This is a question of purposely ignoring the realities engulfing Muslims all over the year. No one wants to give more powers to the Islamic courts which do not deserve empowering and which serves to give form to some people’s lust to implement divine laws using them to submit others to the wishes of a select group of mullahs.

People are not stupid nowadays. They know the message of the Quran in 2:177. Not to be slaves to regimentation, enforced uniformity and to conventional thinking. They know they do not have to follow established practices and refuse to let others define how to conduct themselves. They understand virtue consists of meeting the obligations of faith and God, obligations to society, obligations to oneself. It is they who define themselves how lead a virtuous life.

They know the message in Quran 3:69. They know some ustazs and  religious teachers are out there to confuse people and sow dissension. They know the ustazs are making a fool of themselves and going astray themselves. People know, the ustazs are specifically instructed not to conceal the truth with falsehoods. Yet they are doing just that.

Some of them use obscure sayings of the prophet to justify their personal conduct. When questioned on the usage of luxury cars, some of these ustazs answer the Holy Prophet commanded Muslims to project themselves in style. Ordinary people use ordinary horses, leaders must use black stallions. Ordinary people use protons, they can use Q7, Porsches, Range Rovers and other luxury makes.

People know some of thee ustazs are never to be trusted. People understand the message of 3:75. Some of these ustazs when entrusted with a single silver coin will never return it to us but justify their refusal by saying they are not accountable to stupid people. Only some when entrusted with a hoard of gold, will return them to us.

These modern day preachers think people are stupid and therefore, they don’t have to account themselves to stupid people. It is time for people to reject these charlatans and hypocrites.  

We have to look deeper and closer. What was the hidden agenda behind the H355 Rally? Is it to unite the Malays using religion and race supremacy? I think there are valid grounds to think it is.

Some people seem to think that Malays will unite if it can be shown to them that their religion and their existence as a Malay nation are endangered. By Malay nation, we mean Malays who think in terms of the race, religion and king. Any imagined threats to these must be responded with the threat of force and aggression.  UMNO has gone around the length and breadth of the country, telling Malays, their nation is in danger.

PAS has acted the same by telling Malays, their religion is under siege. Unfortunately, this claim has not been corroborated with facts. The religion of Islam is under the absolute control of Malay rulers and the state governments. These entities must have been compromised to make the claim stands.

If Muslims continue to commit all the crimes that require harsher punishments, then that could mean, the Malays are superficially Muslims. 
If Islam is threatened and endangered, it means, there is  no group that stands in opposition to urge people to do good and reject the bad. It can only mean, the absence of a section of the community that refuses to stand up to the evil carried out by another section of the community. It can only mean that PAS has made promises but produced dismal results.

Restoren Laman Padi, Aloq Staq, Abang Mat Misai dan Saudara Fadzil.

Mai ramai2 kita pakat pi makan restoren Laman Padi, Aloq Staq.

Setelah habis program politik, saya tinggal lebih sehari di Alor Star. Berjumpa kawan2 lama. Pak Tam yang membawa saya melihat kilang padi dan berjumpa dengan pengilang untuk mengkaji industri padi. Saudara Fadzil Baharum, yang pernah bertanding atas tiket PAS suatu ketika dahulu. Sekarang usahawan yang membuka restoren Nasi Pilau. Dia berkongsi dengan Abang Mat Misai. Ustaz Mud lulusan Al Azhar yang membuka minda saya kepada beberapa isu. Saya juga berjumpa dengan YB Nasir, YB Fakurrazi. YB Tan Kok Yew dari DAP ternyata seorang yang kuat berkerja dan sangat dedikasi. Saudara Asmirul anak muda yang banyak potensi.

Saya juga berjumpa dengan seorang kenalan baru- Pak Ali dari kampung Langgar  Limbong. Ia terletak dalam kawasan sawah padi. Ketika bertamu di rumah nya, dia memberi saya minum suatu ramuan herba yang dikatakan dapat mengurangkan gula dalam badan. Oleh kerana saya ada sedikit diabetes, saya mencuba nya. Pak Tam dan Ustaz Mud tahu pengalaman saya setelah minum ramuan herba ini.

Sabjek artikel hari ini ialah restoren Laman Padi yang diusahakan oleh Saudara Fadzil dan Abang Mat Misai. Abang Mat Misai berfungsi sebagai tukang masak. Spesialti nya ialah Nasi Pilau. Saya tidak tahu samaada 'pilau' ini korapsi dari perkataan pilaf atau tidak. Yang penting nya ia sangat lazat. Saya sudah makan nasi Arab, tapi saya rasa nasi pilau ini lebih enak. Ianya bergantung kepada selera peribadi.

Nama restoren ini ialah Laman Padi Alor Star. Ianya terletak di Lebuhraya Sultanah Bahiyah bertentangan dengan Pejabat Pendidikan Daerah Alor Star. Restoren ini sangat selesa dikunjungi kerana ada ruang letak kereta yang luas.

Saya syorkan warga Alor Star dan Kedah, jika ada peluang , kunjungilah restoren Laman Padi ini. Signature dish nya ialah nasi pilau. sekali makan, mahu diulangi. 

Kurma kambing nya amat enak. ketika saya ada disana, ada suatu kumpulan orang Cina makan dalam suatu kumpulan yang agak besar. Bila ditanya, ini kali kedua kata seorang dari mereka. Nasi pilau ini enak dan kurma kambing nya top of the world. Bulan Mac ini, mereka akan datang dalam kumpulan 50 orang mahu makan lagi di Laman Padi.YB mahfuz Omar, MP Pokok Sena menggemari kambing masak merah.

Restoren ini ada menyediakan kambing gulai merah , ayam kampung gulai, dan gulai itik. Semua nya enak dimakan. 

Restoren ini juga menjalankan konsep food court. Disebelah kiri( jika berdepan dengan restoren induk) ada gerai2 yang menjual makanan spesialti gerai. Ada bekas pelajar Jordan membuka gerai menjual sharwarma. Ada bekas tukang masak hotel menjual western food. Ada gerai yang menjual masakan Thai. 

Restoren ini baru beroperasi 2 bulan dan sambutan terhadap nya makin meningkat. Jika warga Aloq Staq ada kelapangan singgahlah ke restoren Laman Padi dan menjamu selera. Jangan lupa cuba Kambing Kurma Abang Mat Misai.  

Mai kita pakat ramai2 tolong usaha anak bangsa kita. Lupakan sengketa politik. 

In the State of Kedah this week. 23-25th February 2017.

Minggu ini, parti2 komponen pakatan harapan mengadakan beberapa acara dalam negeri kedah. Ini termasuklah mengadakan rapat umum, acara gotong royong dan perlancaran jentera pilihanraya. 
Saya sendiri baru kembali dari suatu acara yang disusun oleh DAP dan ahli parlimen Pokok Sena dari PAS. Ia nya berlangsung di DUN Derga dalam parlimen Pokok Sena. 

Beberapa tokoh dari PAS turut menyertai program2 ini yang akan berterusan sehingga 26 Februari ini. Kita berharap pemimpin2 PAS yang rasional akan menyertai usaha pakatan harapan. 
Kita membawa pertarungan kedalam gelanggang pihak lawan. 

This week, the major opposition parties are having simultaneous events around Kedah. Bersatu, Amanah and PKR are holding ceramahs and launching their election machinery all over Kedah. DAP too is sending its representatives to the state. 
I have just come back from one that was organised by DAP and the MP from Pokok Sena , who is from PAS. Some of the PAS leaders in the state are also participating in these events. We hope the more ratonal of the PAS leaders will join in our efforts.
We are bringing the fight to our opponent.

A Reality Check on H355

Recently, PAS held a huge gathering at Padang Merbok in KL. It called it the H355 gathering. It is named after the Act 355 which gives powers to the Islamic courts to carry out certain punishments. Haji Hadi wants to revise these powers.

PAS supporters came from all over the country. Many were given transportation. They set up camp on Padang Merbok. They spread plastic mats on the grass where they ate from styrofoam boxes and  and drank mineral water. Some huddled at any place they could muster and ate squatting. Later they performed prayers on huge mats spread on the padang. Meanwhile, the leaders ate and drank in special VVIP Tent structures. There they ate on tables complete with table spreads and food warmers and fine dining ware.In PASdom , there is strict hierarchy too.

It was a gathering to show support for Haji Hadi’s private members bill. In May 2016, he presented a motion before parliament to amend Act 355. In late 2016, he placed before parliament a motion to amend his original motion. Both times, the proposed amendment to ACT 355 was not debated. It only reached the state of moving a motion. The motion itself was amended, but the Act is yet to be touched.  

The Act 355 remains as it is. Islamic courts in the states of Malaya are still permitted to jail  an offender for 3 years, fined him for RM5000 and caned him with 6 lashes. Not enough says Haji Hadi- brutalise them more. Can jail up to 30 years, can impose a fine up to RM100,000 and can cane up to 100 lashes. 

This is purely a political move by PAS to restore its sagging credibility. Some people wanted to push for an amended or watered down version of ACT 355.  Some people say that putting limits makes for a better Islam.

People asked Haji Hadi, why didn't he allow debate? He answered to give more time for people to understand the issues. With the passage of time, the understanding about the bill became more muddled. We are always warned not to question the intention of the bill- to further the commandments of God. 
Haji Hadi himself is a cause for the confusion.

So Haji Hadi is doing a strange thing. He has not debated in parliament. He is bringing  his motion before the public who don’t understand what is going on. Then he says to the people, the bill is opposed by some MPs notably from Amanah dan DAP. He says these people are anti Islam. He is preaching hate to the congregation. 

Why has he not debated the bill when he had the opportunity? Instead he is using his motion to preach hatred and divisiveness. Its not confined to non Muslims as his preaching involves Muslims who do not agree with him.

UMNO likes it that way. It appears that there have been extensive negotiations behind closed doors between PAS and UMNO to ensure passage of the emotion to become a bill. So when parliament convenes in March 2017, we can expect the motion to be spoken of by Haji Hadi, put to the vote and then accepted as First Reading. After that, the government will adopt it as second reading, have it debated and then put it to the vote.

But perhaps Haji Hadi forgot that after being accepted as first reading, the DPM has promised to set up a joint committee to examine the technicalities of the proposed amended Bill. What does this mean? 
This means, even before getting on as Second Reading, BN is still delaying accepting the motion as Bill. So, it is really the BN especially the UMNO ministers who are slowing down Hadi’s private ambition bill. Are they not faithful enough?

The party that stands in the way of the amended bill is the government of the day. Now, because the government of the day is working closely with PAS to have the bill become law, why was the gathering held? Surely with the support of the government, PAS will succeed.

UMNO has 86 members in parliament. UMNO can arm twist MCA and MIC members and non Muslim MPs of BN to support the bill. They are so attached to their positions as ministers to stand opposed to the Bill. They do not give two hoots about what their supporters think of them. So despite their bravado and brinkmanship, believe me when I say, all those humpty dumpties in MCA, MIC and Gerakan will capitulate. Then they will give all sorts of monkey reasons.

After that, the Islamic courts will get more powers. Salaries of those people who have not been industrious enough will be raised. Perhaps the senior judges get to use Mercedes cars and other facilities to make them of similar stature like civil court judges.
The Islamic courts can then impose a fine of RM100, 000, jail people for 30 years and whipped the buttocks of offenders with 100 lashes. Then I suppose Islam will be more revered. Muslims are brutalised and traumatised.
That is OK, because that promotes the exaltation of Islam. Never mind that Muslims in Malaysia are the poorest segment of society, never mind the reality they lacked skills, training and even social skills.

So on that Saturday, a large number of people turned up. They are the faithful, supporters of the Islamic cause. They believed PAS is the party that best represents them. Although this belief is not universally shared, the supporters are entitled to believe it.

Because of the crowd and the vehement speeches that followed, someone writes that PAS is a force to be reckoned with. I do not agree with this assessment. PAS has more than 1 million members. Only 20,000 who turned up were probably pas members and included children from some madrasahs. The rest around 5,000 to 10,000 were people who belonged to various NGOs. For a party that boasts of a membership of more than 1 million, they must accept the gathering as a dismal failure.

So contrary to the view that PAS is a force to be reckoned with; UMNO now knows PAS is a paper tiger. The party does not have the resources to mobilise as many people as the organisers of Bersih did. 
But more importantly, it also means, people attach more importance to the objectives of Bersih than the objectives of PAS. Many more Muslims believe that the way to make Islam great is not trough the PAS method. You cannot force your views and version on a reluctant public.

The gathering organised by PAS with a little help from friend UMNO was really a gathering of two groups of supremacists. The Malay supremacists in the form of UMNO and the Islamic supremacists represented by PAS.

A Malay supremacist is a Malay who thinks he has a birthright over everything before everyone else. The Muslim supremacist is the Muslim who believes that his version of Islam is the only one.

Those who refuse to accept UMNO’s narrative of things are not Malay enough, traitor to the Malay race, running dog to the Malay enemies. Those who do not accept PAS’s version on how to make Islam great,  are not true believers and are condemned roundly.

UMNO and present day PAS, stand on the same foundation; a form a supremacist ideology. UMNO has chosen its version of racial purity and PAS chose its version of religious purity. A long time ago, in the history of mankind, there was a mad man who wanted to establish an empire based on racial and religious purity. His name was Adolph Hitler.

The gathering was a show of strength and a warning to others not to challenge the ‘idea’ of Islam retailed by PAS all these years.

But the gathering revealed another aspect of  the reality in Malaysia:-UMNO does not have a monopoly on Malay-ness and PAS   does not have a monopoly on Islamic-ness.

Dont Let racial and religious bigots blackmail us and divert our attention from their crimes and failures.

http://mpraub.blogspot.my/2017/02/ya-kenapa-tidak-umno-yang-bertanding.html

Yesterday morning, a few colleagues and I were with YB Rafizi Ramli at a press conference. It was held at his office at Invoke Space. It was to announce an upcoming event about a Congress on Felda. It is planned to take place in March 2017. I hope members of the general public and public spirited individuals will come.

As we are aware, Felda has come into much of the news lately. Unfortunately for the wrong reasons. Papers will be presented at that Congress.Then, people will know what is going on in Felda.

For a few months already, the opposition parties have been going around to felda settlements to make the felda people aware of the social, political and economic issues around the country. We want the felda people to realise that their problems were the result of an even bigger calamity faced by our country. We are living under the kleptocratic government of a man known as Najib Tun Razak. His government is a government of thieves, by thieves and for thieves. They are stealing money at every corner and making the country suffer.

Worse, they are hiding behind the protection of the law. 7 countries have found many things wrong with 1MDB. Yet our country’s AG said, there is no crime or illegal conduct with 1MDB. Is our legal system protecting bad people?

Other than public rallies, we will distribute handbills and leaflets. Felda people can read about the issues in their spare time. Maybe they can discuss among themselves at the warungs and pekan sehari. The issues are not only about felda but national issues.

Felda settlers need to free themselves from reading Utusan Malaysia and other media controlled by UMNO. According to a research done, the Media leads the category of people, the public distrusts most. I would urge felda people not to take seriously the propaganda material carried by UMNO controlled media. They are self-serving. They support thievery and cover these misdeeds.

Perhaps the 1.5% of the Felda children who made it to universities and who went on to be doctors, lawyers and other graduates, read this English article and can start narrating to their felda cousins. Tell them, you have been duped and made use of by the Najib government. It may come to a surprise to many of us, but the reality is, only 1.5 of the felda children made it to colleges and universities. We have been led into believing that many felda children have succeeded.

The Felda settlers most of whom are Malays may not realise this. The cost of living is going up . In part, and the people believed this- the higher cost of living is caused by the imposition of GST. The government is squeezing blood from stone.

Banks are closing many of their branches. Businesses are closing down. Big retailers like Giant, Tesco and Aeon are also feeling the pain and they are closing businesses and laying off workers. Many of these workers are Malay. Maybe they are also felda children. In short, the economy is not doing well. We are talking about the real economy.

But the government is going around the country, telling lies that the economy is good.

The government is doing a lot of red herring strategies. UMNO is helping PAS to hold a mammoth rally in Kuala Lumpur in support of a bill submitted by Haji Hadi. But the proposed bill has not even been debated.

In the past, the government of Najib was the opponent to any attempts to islamise the country. So when people demonstrate in Padang Merbok – against whom are they vehemently protesting?I am puzzled as many of you are too. The DAP is not the government.

The UMNO wolf is running with the PAS rabbits and hunting them at the same time.

The gathering is nothing more than a union of Malay supremacy and Islamic supremacy. It is a union of Malay and Islamic fascism. It has nothing to do with the elevation of Islamic ideals.

Clearly it is an attempt by the Islamic groups and Malay thieves to hide their criminal conduct and failures. UMNO will say the Malays who oppose them are not Malay enough. PAS will say those who oppose them are not Muslim enough. One party is doing ethnic blackmail, the other does spiritual blackmail. Race and religious bigots do that.

Closer to home Felda has not been forthcoming to settlers. For years they have not been transparent to settlers. Settlers demand to know how much their land earned and how much was deducted. Felda has not provided clear statement of accounts. The settler seems to be weighed down by ever increasing debts.

Felda has no money to pay for the Fresh Fruit Bunches settlers send to mills. Felda postpones payment to the following month. It always owes the settlers a backdated payment of half a month. That could be RM1500-Rm2000 per month.

After 3 years , replanted trees produced fruits and they produced income. How much of this income go to reducing the advances and loans taken by a settler? Generally speaking, a settler on average owes felda, RM120,000. How will the settler pay? Can they ever settle their debts?

In June 2012, Felda listed its subsidiary, FGV. The retail price was RM4.55. At that price, the earnings on the 2.1889billion shares sold, were almost RM10 billion. Where did the money go? Shahrir Samad, the new Felda chairman tells us, the money went to so and so. But he also revealed that he did not know where some RM4 billion of the money raised went to?

Was Shahrir Samad appointed to do the janitorial work of cleaning up the mess Najib committed with Felda? Now that the business has been shelved off to FGV, along with that, also went the operating costs of running the business. FGV a listed company now spends money on running the business. Felda saves money.

In return, Felda( the main body) which is owned by the government, receives passive income as an investor. FGV pays rent of around RM500 million plus 15% of the operating profits from plantations business. Probably they get around RM 700-800 million a year depending on the profits made by FGV. FGV has been making losses and this can mean the earnings or returns to Felda are decreasing. Felda still needs around RM1 to RM1.2 billion to manage the social obligations on the 317 felda settlement. They need to pay administrative costs, make loans to settlers, and increase the quality of life of settlers. If they take in RM700-800 million a year and needs to spend Rm1.2 billion a year, they are still short of RM400 million at least. Where will they get money?

They can get injections from the government. But that would be unfair. Why should tax payers money be spent of felda settlements when Felda fails to get enough money because of their incompetence and stupidity? We cannot go on subsidising incompetence and stupidity.

One of the main purposes of the upcoming Felda Congress is to increase public awareness of the massive corruption and embezzlement that is taking place in Felda. Because of the sheer size of Felda and its numerous business deals, the structure of the business allows unscrupulous people to bleed money from its business operations.