Non-Malays more accepting of child rape, says deputy home minister
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According to Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, despite the decline in numbers, child rape remains a major concern. — Picture by Choo Choy May
KUALA LUMPUR, March 18 — Non-Malays are likely to be more accepting of statutory rape, Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar told Parliament today, in reply to a question on the low incidence of reported cases of sexual violations among Malaysia’s minorities.
The deputy home minister appeared to suggest that the lower level of tolerance among the country’s largest community for sexual predators who prey on minors is a contributing factor to the high number of cases involving Malays.
“This doesn’t mean the cases mostly involve Malays. Because Malays are culturally more sensitive about its youth so there are more police reports about it.
“Non-Malays are maybe more accepting about it so the margin (is lower),” Wan Junaidi said in reply to Setiu Barisan Nasional MP Che Mohamad Zulkifly Jusoh during Question Time.
The Santubong MP said that in 2012, there were 1,550 reported incidents of statutory rape, with Malays taking the top spot at 48 per cent, followed by the Chinese at 5 per cent and Indians at 3 per cent.
The lawmaker observed that the number of reported cases last year had dropped to 1,424.
He added that close to 90 per cent of the cases reported involved those aged between 16 and 19.
Despite the decline in numbers, child rape remains a major concern, Wan Junaidi said .
He added the government has initiated various campaigns to educate the public about the problem as well as crime prevention programmes.
But the deputy minister said public refusal to co-operate has made it hard for the authorities to tackle the problem.
Malaysia was rocked in the past two years by several high-profile cases of men having sex with underage girls, some barely in their teens, which raised questions over the Penal Code.
A 41-year-old Sabahan and father of two was charged with statutory rape of a 12-year-old girl whom he subsequently married last year.
In 2012, a national bowler, who pleaded guilty to having consensual sex with his 13-year-old girlfriend when he was 19, escaped a jail sentence after the Court of Appeal ruled to show leniency, saying the youth had shown remorse.
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In Chinatown, opposition leaders tell Malaysians to unite against racism
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 26 — In a symbolic display of unity, leaders of the multi-racial opposition pact Pakatan Harapan today visited Petaling Street where an anti-Chinese rally was initially scheduled to take place, and called on Malaysians to unite against what it alleged was state-backed racism.
The rally, which an Umno leader warned earlier this week could possibly escalate into a riot, was called off at the eleventh hour but Pakatan Harapan leaders said their presence at the area known as Chinatown was meant to send a clear message that there are Malaysians who will stand up against any effort to divide the country with communal politics.
“I am here not only to support the traders, but I come here to show that this is place that belongs to all Malaysians.
“Whatever form of racism is symptomatic of the jahiliyah (ignorant) people and as a Muslim we must stand up for unity and fight any divisive elements,” PKR vice-president and Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar told a press conference here.
Nurul Izzah was flanked by several other opposition leaders, including the DAP’s Lim Kit Siang and national laureate Datuk A Samad Said.
“This togetherness here is important to send a strong signal that we Malaysians reject any attempt to incite and divide, which received the endorsement and support of this government,” she added.
Earlier this week, #Merah 169 spokesman Datuk Jamal Md Yunos had warned that the authorities’ failure to take action against Petaling Street traders for allegedly selling counterfeit goods will inevitably force “red shirt” protesters to return there today and possibly “riot”.
Last week, some 2,000 participants of the pro-Malay #Merah169 rally had tried break a police barricade around Petaling Street, a tourist hotspot dominated by Chinese traders that the group described as a symbol of alleged Chinese chauvinism.
Samad said today he does not see Petaling Street as a “Chinese place” and recalled how he used to walk by and shop in the area, which had in the past inspired some of his writings.
“This is a place of history, culture and food so any attempt to desecrate it with elements of racism must be opposed,” said the soft-spoken writer and now a member of Chinese-majority DAP.
He also accused Jamal and the “red-shirters” of attempting to score political mileage by stirring racial sentiment to rally support for the Najib administration by targeting Petaling Street.
Lim echoed the view and said the #Merah169 rally was nothing more than a diversion from the many crises plaguing Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s government.
“They are playing the racial card in a bid to strengthen Najib’s rule. That is all”.
The Gelang Patah MP noted that Putrajaya’s diversion tactic was evident with leaders allegedly painting the August pro-reform Bersih 4 rally as a Chinese and DAP initiative, which he called “utter nonsense”.
Najib is facing mounting pressure to quit over his alleged involvement in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd financial fiasco, which is now under investigation by several international agencies, including the US’ Federal Bureau of Investigation.
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No more legal obstacle for Hadi’s hudud motion in Parliament, lawyer says -
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 9 — The High Court here struck out today a suit against Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, which according to PAS president’s lawyer, has opened the way for any other federal lawmaker to restart stalled talks on the controversial enforcement of Islamic criminal laws in Malaysia.
PAS secretary-general Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan, who represented Hadi, said the High Court allowed his client’s application to strike out the lawsuit filed by four Malaysians who wanted to block the Islamist party leader from tabling any Private Member’s Bill related to hudud.
Takiyuddin said the court also decided that Hadi’s past actions - in seeking the amendment of Act 355 or a 1965 law to increase the Shariah courts’ powers to enable the harsher hudud penalties to be enforced — was done in line with rules.
“The court decided that the defendant Haji Abdul Hadi Awang has done something as a member of Parliament according to rules based on the Standing Order and Parliamentary Privilege Act.
“He has done something properly and in accordance with the law. He filed everything required by the law to bring the motion to amend the Act 355,” he told reporters after High Court judge Datuk Asmabi Mohamad delivered her decision in chambers.
Six grounds were given by the judge, who gave no order as to costs, as both Hadi and the other defendants who were sued did not seek for costs to be awarded, Takiyuddin said.
Farez Mohd Ali Jinnah, the lawyer for the four who had sued Hadi, told Malay Mail Online that he is still seeking instructions from his clients on their next course of action.
In June, a group of “concerned citizens” filed for an injunction to prevent federal lawmakers from debating Hadi’s private member’s Bill to remove the legal barriers preventing PAS from enforcing the Islamic penal code in Kelantan.
The group comprises Mansoor Saat, Azira Aziz, Hasbeemaputra Abu Bakar and Hazwany Jamaluddin.
The four named Hadi, Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Mulia Amin, Deputy Speakers Datuk Ronald Kiandee and Datuk Ismail Mohamad Said as well as Dewan Rakyat Secretary Datuk Roosme Hamzah as respondents in their application.
Hadi submitted his private member’s Bill twice earlier this year, but was unable to have it debated in Parliament during the last two meetings ostensibly due to a lack of time. He had not resubmitted it for the last Parliamentary meeting this year.
To implement hudud in Kelantan, PAS is seeking to amend the Shariah Court Act (Criminal Jurisdiction) 1965 or Act 355, which currently only allows the Shariah courts to mete out punishments limited to RM3,000 fine, five years’ jail and six strokes of caning.
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KL mulls over separate trolleys for non-halal foods
KUALA LUMPUR • Malaysia is considering drafting new laws to make supermarkets supply different sets of trolleys for consumers.
Trolleys used for carrying halal foods would be different from those for non-halal foods, a Cabinet minister said, as reported by the Utusan Malaysia newspaper yesterday. The government might also seek to have different checkout counters for halal and non-halal products, said Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Hamzah Zainudin.
He said the proposal was being discussed by the ministry to ensure Muslims did not have to “worry” whether the goods they bought had mixed with non-halal items.
“The ministry plans to make special regulations so that people could differentiate the trolleys for use with non-halal products,” Datuk Hamzah said.
“The segregation can be done with red trolleys for non-halal products and other colours for halal products,” he was quoted as telling reporters after attending an event on Friday.
Halal foods are those that are permissible for Muslims to consume. Non-halal foods in Malaysia are currently sold in separate rooms or at separate counters in most supermarkets, with large signs to show that they are not for consumption by Muslims, who make up about 60 per cent of the 30 million population.
Mr Hamzah said studies would be undertaken first as providing different sets of trolleys would be costly for supermarkets.
The plan, if carried out, would represent yet another uptick in rising Islamic conservatism in Malaysia led by government officials.
Officials were inundated with complaints from non-Muslim women in recent months when they were prevented by security guards from entering some government departments unless they were “appropriately dressed”.
The Malaysian Chinese Association on Friday called on the Health Ministry to investigate reports that a toddler was denied treatment at two government clinics and a hospital because his mother was deemed to be “inappropriately dressed”, party vice-president Chew Mei Fun said. The government has also faced several legal cases involving Christians being blocked from bringing in Bibles and books in Bahasa Malaysia.
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‘Haram’ to welcome Obama, Hizbut Tahrir tells Putrajaya, Malaysian Muslims -
PUTRAJAYA, Nov 6 — The local chapter of a hardline Islamist group claimed today that it would be “haram” for the Putrajaya and Muslims here to welcome United States President Barack Obama when the latter arrives in Kuala Lumpur later this month for his second visit to Malaysia.
The group, Hizbut Tahrir Malaysia (HTM), labelled Obama an “enemy” of Islam, citing the deaths of Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan, as well as in the ongoing Syrian conflict, which they blamed on the US president’s administration.
“We hope that Muslims, specifically in Malaysia, realise that Obama is Islam’s enemy. Many of our brothers and sisters have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And now, as a result of the cooperation, the permission and the instruction of the US, we see Russia has invaded Syria and have dropped their bombs in Syria, killing many Muslims there,” HTM spokesman Abdul Hakim Othman told reporters outside the prime minister’s office here this afternoon.
“And we hope Muslims in Malaysia realise that they are our enemy and that it is haram to welcome them.”
The group handed over a memorandum to the Prime Minister’s Department today to state its objection to Obama’s scheduled visit this month.
In the memorandum, HTM pointed out that two visits by a US president in two years was out of the ordinary. The pro-caliphate movement also warned of Obama allegedly bringing with him agenda that could endanger Muslims here, and Malaysians in general.
It listed four official reasons for its rejection of the US president’s visit, including a claim that Obama is the leader of an imperialist country that shows hostility towards Muslims in the name of countering terrorism; and another claim accusing the world leader of backing Zionist Jews.
HTM said it has doubts over the true intention of Obama’s visit here, and that it feared the leader was looking to influence Malaysia with Western ideologies like democracy, human rights, liberalism, secularism, as well as strengthening Malaysia’s stand on moderation.
Abdul Hakim said HTM will continue to show its rejection of Obama’s visit and will hand another memorandum to the US embassy next Friday.
“What we are doing is for the good of the country, and the good of Muslims in Malaysia because we know the agenda of the US, that is filled with craftiness and tricks against Muslim countries,” he said.
Over 100 people turned up today as part of the delegation to hand over the memorandum to the prime minister’s department. The supporters held up banners and placards saying “TPPA haram di sisi Islam” (TPPA is haram in Islam), “Undang musuh Allah, undang murka Allah” (inviting Allah’s enemy is inviting Allah’s wrath) and “Kick Obama! World’s no.1 terrorist” among others.
Obama is expected to be in Malaysia from November 20 to 22 to attend the third Asean-US Summit and the 10th East Asia Summit.
He last visited Malaysia in April last year.
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Bumiputera will steal if left unaided, says law minister
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KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 8 — Poor Bumiputera will resort to theft, minister Nancy Shukri said today in her defence of the government’s recent move to reintroduce a race-preferential economic policy that has drawn the ire of Malaysia’s minority Chinese and Indian communities.
The de facto law minister told a public forum on international covenants organised by the Malaysian Bar here that the Bumiputera Economic Empowerment Policy was needed to help fix the unequal wealth distribution among the races that remains prevalent half a century after the country was formed, and which she claimed could lead to a potential spurt in social ills and crime.
“As a politician now, I understand why there is a Bumiputera new economic policy… The Bumiputera, they are very marginalised in terms of economy. They’re very much lower than other groups.
“If there is no such policy to balance the economic distribution within Bumiputera and non-Bumiputera, there could be a difficult situation as well,” Nancy said.
A former civil society activist, the Sarawakian MP for Batang Sadong said the public at large was unable to understand the necessity for such policy to reverse the imbalance in distributing wealth.
“If you don’t help… social ills will be happening. Because they will left very far behind, there will be social problems. That’s the situation, if they don’t have money, what will they do? They will start stealing.”
Even so, the minister admitted that the Bumiputera cannot forever depend on help from Putrajaya, and the New Economic Model (NEM) itself does not just simply gift the ethnic group cash handouts.
In September, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had detailed the far-reaching NEM that is set to offer the dominant Malay community access to tens of billions in aid and contracts.
In a high-profile announcement, Najib trotted off a list of over RM31 billion in various loans, contracts and programmes that will be made available to the group, with the stated aim of strengthening Bumiputera economic participation and boost their ownership of commercial property.
The commitment towards uplifting the lot of the Malay community — which Najib described as integral in charting the country’s fortunes — follows recent criticism against the Umno president for failing to fully acknowledge the support the group had extended to the ruling Barisan Nasional during the recent general election.
The move had received heavy criticism from opposition Pakatan Rakyat, with DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang claiming that the NEM will only result in greater benefits for Umno’s upper echelon.
PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang had also said that Bumiputera special privileges cannot justify Putrajaya’s decision to lavish billions on the community without care for the rest of Malaysia.
Najib however received support from Malay rights group Perkasa which urged the prime minister to not be apologetic over the NEM as it is the government’s obligation to repay the Bumiputera for their support in the recent general election.
The group also thanked Putrajaya for listening to its recommendations while forming the NEM, claiming now that empowering the Bumiputera is a “national agenda” instead of a racial one.
The Malays and Bumiputera make up the majority of Malaysia’s population at an estimated 67.4 per cent of the 28.3 million population, followed by the Chinese at 24.6 per cent, according to the most recent census at 2010.
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Penang removes playground structures with pig-like designs
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GEORGE TOWN • Several playthings that resembled a pig were removed from the Esplanade hours after photos of the structures went viral in cyberspace.
Penang Island City Council (MBPP) immediately replaced the spring-operated ride with a pig design with those of birds at the outdoor playground last Saturday.
Penang Muslim non-governmental organisations coalition secretary Ahmad Yakqub Nazri said he was shocked when he saw the structures that resembled a pig.
“Those who installed such items are clearly insensitive to the Muslims in the state,” he said.
MBPP secretary Ang Aing Thye said that the officer-in-charge of the project had been told to submit a report.
“We are investigating the matter. Action will be taken against those at fault,” he said.
Tun Dr Ismail’s son wants Jakim abolished
here was a time in the country’s history when the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) did not exist, Putrajaya did not tell Malaysians how to practise their faith, and no one batted an eye when Muslims owned dogs.
And the former deputy prime minister Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman’s eldest son, Tawfik Ismail, wants those days back.
The main step is to dissolve Jakim, Tawfik said during an interview in conjunction with the release of “Drifting into Politics”, a collection of his late father’s writings during the nation’s formative years, edited by Tawfik and academic Ooi Kee Beng.
Jakim was created during Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s time and seems to serve no other purpose than to intervene in the personal lives of Malaysians, Tawfik told The Malaysian Insider when met at his house in Taman Tun Dr Ismail.
“I think Jakim should be abolished. I don’t think Jakim should exist. What is the government afraid of? You have 13 muftis with 13 different fatwas and 13 different ways of approaching it (religion).
“What is the purpose of Jakim? Halal certificates? That can go to the health ministries, trade ministry. What else does Jakim do? Print the Quran? We have a communications minister,” said the softspoken, yet candid, 64-year-old former MP.
Naysayers may argue that Jakim is needed to “protect” the sanctity of Islam, but Tawfik was quick to point out that the Agong, sultans, imams (Muslim scholars) and muftis already filled that void.
“Jakim is an advisory body to the government, but constitutionally it really has no role. Islam is the province of the sultan of the state, it has nothing to do with the government.”
So which areas of Muslim life should the government intervene in? Tawfik flat-out said nothing at all.
“National integration in this country is the biggest challenge. How do you integrate the nation if you are going around this route of looking for faults among Muslims?” he asked.
Tawfik Ismail questions the need for the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim), saying over the years the department has only been intruding into the private lives of Malaysian Muslims. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Kamal Ariffin, November 9, 2015.Tawfik Ismail questions the need for the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim), saying over the years the department has only been intruding into the private lives of Malaysian Muslims. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Kamal Ariffin, November 9, 2015.But, Tawfik clarified that his views on dismantling Jakim were his own, and that G25, the group of retired Malay top civil servants of which he is a member, did not share them.
G25 does, however, want Jakim to justify its existence as well as the hundreds of millions of ringgit it receives from the federal budget each year, which he said could have been funnelled to the Health or Education Ministry instead.
“I think there’s a subversion of the constitution by religious authorities at the state level where they are actually testing the limits that they can go in intruding on a person’s personal life,” he added.
Putrajaya had not always acted as the defender of the people’s faith, revealed Tawfik, who served as MP from 1986 to 1990.
He said that during the time of Malaysia’s first prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, only a small religious department existed in the Prime Minister’s Department.
There was no minister of religious affairs, and no national outcry over the fact that his father, Tun Dr Ismail, owned a dog.
“My dad had a Boxer, and, before that, an Alsatian,” recalled Tawfik.
He said all this changed after Dr Mahathir took over and his then deputy, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, tried to infuse their definition of “Islamic values” into every aspect of Malaysian life.
This was done to counter the growing influence of PAS, which had never been an issue during the early years of Independence, said Tawfik.
As a result, Malaysia today is now facing “Arabisation”, with society eschewing its Nusantara roots in favour of appropriating the culture of the Middle East, he said.
“We seem to be delighting in coming up with creative ways of ‘speaking’ Arabic in this country.”
Tawfik said it was for this reason that Drifting Into Politics may not sit very well with Putrajaya.
“Certain things my father says here are quite interesting.
“For example, he said whenever Tunku had a meeting at his house with a group of people… occasionally one or two of them would go into the kitchen and have a drink of brandy and whisky, then come back and join in. He admits this.
“Yes, it’s an open secret, but it’s never been in writing by a leader,” chuckled Tawfik.
His father died in 1973 at the age of 57, after just three years of serving as deputy prime minister. November 4 was his 100th birth anniversary.
With such records in existence, no matter how it tried to Islamise Malaysia, Tawfik said, the government would never be able to rewrite history nor erase its roots. – November 9, 2015.
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EXCLUSIVE: Perverted Saudi prince ordered his entire staff to strip naked at his Beverly Hills mansion’s pool and said: ‘I want to see some naked p****,’ court papers claim
Prince Majed Al-Saud, 29, is being sued by three female staff members over allegations of sexual assault at his rented $37m home in Los Angeles
The son of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah - who died this year - has been cleared of felony sexual assault but faces misdemeanor charges
Fresh court documents seen by Daily Mail Online claim he ordered his entire household to strip naked so he could see ’naked p***y’
Alleged that he had male aide break wind in his face to order and that he was also pleasured by the man - gay sex is punishable by death in Saudi
Putrajaya defends Islamic charity foundation involved in graft claims
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utrajaya has defended an Islamic charity foundation under the Prime Minister’s Department accused of misappropriation, saying it was an independent body that did not directly involve any minister.
Deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki said ministers also do not interfere in the management of the foundation, which has come under the spotlight of an anti-graft whistleblower group for various alleged offenses.
“It is true that it is under (our) supervision but remember, the foundation is independent. It has its own board. The minister has no power over the board. So we need to get information from the organisation itself,” he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur today.
The foundation is under the oversight of the minister in charge of Islamic affairs, Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom, who is also a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department.
Earlier this week, anti-graft watchdog group National Oversight and Whistleblowers (NOW) revealed the foundation’s involvement in channelling RM223,000 supposedly for community programmes in the Rompin by-election in May this year, that instead went to a Kelantan Wanita Umno leader.
The Wanita Umno leader has also been under investigation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) for misappropriating flood relief funds held in trust by the same foundation for flood victims in Kelantan.
Yesterday, NOW alleged that the same foundation gave its top office bearers multiple positions, enabling them to earn huge amounts in allowances.
A family of three, where the wife held seven posts; the son six directorships and the husband a fellowship, took home RM81,700 a month, it revealed.
Asyraf said today the relevant parties would issue a statement soon and as such, it was unfair for him to respond to questions raised by NOW.
“The thing is now under MACC. Let the statement come from the institution first. I think maybe this evening or tomorrow morning they will issue a statement.
“This has gone viral today, so they should issue a statement as they are bound by their own trust deeds, and as such, it is inappropriate for others, including me, to make a statement.
“It’s not fair if I don’t know the matter and I have to make a statement. We need to get accurate information,” he said. – November 12, 2015.
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