These Malaysian adverts miss the point of Ramadan

The Islamic holy month is a time to connect with, not chastise, non-Muslims. This is lost to some in Malaysia's media

• 
• • Nazry Bahrawi
  • guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 9 August 2011 14.06 BST
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Malaysian Muslims buy food for Iftar, the evening meal when Muslims break their fast, at a market in Kuala Lumpur. Photograph: Chong Voon Chung/ Chong Voon Chung/XinHua/Xinhua Press/Corbis

To opt for a dry throat and a crooning gut when a mere phone call can get you a decent feast is nothing short of foolhardy. Yet millions of Muslims around the globe choose to do just that when they fast inRamadan.

Those with purchasing power must surely see this enforced austerity in a world of plenty as something akin to a warped practice: Why live like paupers when you can afford more?

In this very question also lies the spirit of Ramadan: empathy for the "other", or that which is different from one's self if we accept the definition provided by the German philosopher Hegel. By way of divine decree, Ramadan has come to denote a month where Muslims who can must not, an act that accords them a chance to feel for the have-nots.

Writing for the people's panel on fasting just a few days back, Guardian commenter Zarka Anwar describes Ramadan as "a time when beauty moulds in a Muslim's heart to remember the unfortunate".

It is a point that is lost to some in the Malaysian media. With about 60% of the nation's population professing Islam, the local broadcaster 8TV ran a trio of 30-seconds clips in the first week of Ramadan aimed at instructing its non-Muslim ethnic minorities about the etiquette of proper conduct appropriate to this Islamic holy month.

The advertisements feature a young Chinese woman behaving greedily, obnoxiously and wearing tight clothings at a Ramadan bazaar to the chagrin of the Muslim Malays around her. Rightly so, the racist undertone has caused a public uproar as multitudes registered their displeasure on the station's official Facebook page.

While the station retracted the advertisements within 48 hours of first screening them and issued a public apology, this episode is telling of the dominant interpretation among members of the Malay bourgeoisie there about the value of Ramadan.

Ending each advertisement is a condescendingly moralising message that puts the onus of betterment on the culturally "other" when the focus should be an improvement of the self. In one, non-Muslims are explicitly told: "Do not be loud or obnoxious." In another, it was: "Do not be greedy and eat in public."

Such a didactic view of Ramadan ignores the inclusive leanings of this holy month. Indeed, empathy for the other is not just theologically expressed through the act of fasting. It is also invoked in the injunction to pay the zakat al-fitr, or the obligatory Ramadan alms.

As spelled out in verse 9 :60 of the Qur'an, zakat proceeds are to be distributed to eight classes of people, or asnaf, that includes the destitute and poor, as well as travellers in need. This is normally done at the end of Ramadan.

Some Islamic theologians argue that these categories of zakat recipients should include non-Muslims. Embracing this interpretation is the UK-based international aid agency Islamic Relief, which dispenses zakat funds to non-Muslims in Africa.

Back in the 1980s, Indonesian theologian and politician Amien Rais even went as far as to suggest a radical form of tiered zakat, which taxes Muslims according to the salaries they draw. Rais argues that proceeds from this zakat should be invested in ventures that benefit all, specifying education as a priority area.

Such progressive interpretations signal that Muslims are to be charitable not just to the less fortunate, but also to the culturally other – an important nuance that the 8TV advertisements fail to capture.

Sadly though, Malaysian Muslim elites are not alone in their insularity. Even in neighbouring Singapore where Muslims make up about 15% of the cosmopolitan population, the official stance is that non-Muslims could not receive the zakat proceeds, even if they "fit into one of the asnaf".

Even though 8TV's advertisements run counter to the Ramadan spirit of hospitality, it is tenuous to read this episode as further proof of Islam's intolerance. Rather, this is a textbook example of how the humanistic elements of a rich religious tradition have been drowned by the contextual concerns of its practitioners.

More than spell out the exclusive nature of Islam, the advertisements are revelatory of the inability of Malaysia's ultra-Malay elites to overcome ethnic tensions with the minority Chinese. Ramadan or not, the advertisements suggest that their rose-tinted view of Malaysia is one coloured by race-tinted glasses.

Taken from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/aug/09/malaysian-adverts-ramadan

Hudud PAS dan Hudud Umno – Apa Bezanya?

KALAU dulu hanya PAS yang menjadikan hudud dan negara Islam sebagai simbol identiti partinya, sekarang ada pemimpin Umno pun mahu ikut serta dalam permainan itu. Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri Kemelah Datuk Ayub Rahmat dalam sidang dewan undangan negeri Johor baru-baru ini mencadangkan agar Johor menjadi negeri pertama di Malaysia melaksanakan hukum hudud “sebenar” yang berbeza dengan hudud PAS.

Tidak mahu ketinggalan, ketua wanita Umno Kepala Batas, ketua Puteri Umno dan ketua Perkasa juga menyokong pelaksanaan hudud, kononnya kerana memikirkan kepentingan dan kebaikannya umat Islam di Malaysia. Selain PAS dan Umno, penasihat PKR Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim pun menyokong PAS untuk melaksanakan hudud.

“Hudud dan negara Islam” seperti menjadi alat dagangan politik yang dikibar-kibar terutamanya setiap kali mahu pilihanraya. Soalannya, apakah perbezaan hudud PAS dan hudud Umno? Dan apakah isu-isu penting yang mesti dijawab oleh semua ahli politik sebelum hudud boleh dilaksanakan seperti yang mereka inginkan?

Apa kelebihan hudud Umno?

Mashitah Ibrahim (sumber: islam.gov.my)

Pada waktu ini, belum diketahui apakah perbezaan antara hudud PAS dan Umno kerana walaupun Ayub Rahmat mahu melaksanakan “hudud sebenar”, beliau sendiri pun belum ada membuat sebarang draf cadangan. Cuma yang diketahui ialah Ayub Rahmat mahu hudud itu meliputi semua rakyat Malaysia, termasuk orang bukan Islam. Dan walaupun menyokong, namun Timbalan Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri Datuk Dr Mashitah Ibrahim mengakui bahawa kerajaan masih kekurangan prasarana terdiri daripada mahkamah, hakim dan pegawai pendakwa bagi melaksanakan hudud di Malaysia.

Pengerusi Jawatankuasa Kerja Sekretariat Ulama Muda Umno yang turut ghairah menyokong, juga sekadar mencadangkan untuk “menghimpunkan pakar-pakar terlebih dahulu bagi memberikan pandangan supaya hukum ini benar-benar dapat dilaksanakan.”

Soalan yang belum dijawab 

Selain daripada persoalan di atas, isu yang lebih penting ialah apakah hudud sesuai dilaksanakan di Malaysia? Saya kira, penyokong-penyokong pelaksanaan hudud tak kira mereka itu daripada Umno, PAS atau PKR masih belum menjawab persoalan penting iaitu:

• Bukankah pelaksaan hukum hudud bertentangan dengan perlembagaan Malaysia?

• Apakah ia sesuai dengan konteks masyarakat Malaysia yang moden dan berbilang kaum?

• Bukankah ia melanggar hak asasi manusia?

• Walaupun hudud hanya dilaksanakan pada orang Islam, apakah benar kehidupan dan hak orang bukan Islam tidak akan terjejas langsung?

Pengkempen hudud seperti tidak begitu selesa menjawab persoalan yang dikemukakan ini.

Realiti lawan utopia

Penyokong-penyokong hudud sering cuba menyedapkan hati orang ramai dengan mengatakan, “Jangan risau, walau ada hukum sebatan, namun sebatan itu tidak menyakitkan.” Atau, “Orang-orang miskin tidak akan dipotong tangannya.” Mereka akan beri jaminan bahawa hukum hudud akan dijalankan dengan penuh keadilan.

Orang-orang yang mendengarnya pun mengimpikan sebuah negara utopia, yang mana tiada lagi jenayah serta diskriminasi dan rakyat akan hidup aman bahagia. Tetapi bolehkan hidup aman bahagia itu dicapai tanpa hudud? Realitinya, beberapa negara bukan Islam di Eropah mempunyai kadar jenayah yang lebih rendah berbanding sesetengah negara Islam yang telah melaksanakan hukum hudud.

Orang Islam juga suka berbangga menceritakan bahawa setiap kali ke masjid, pedagang di Mekah akan meninggalkan barang dagangannya begitu saja kerana tiada siapa yang akan mencurinya. Namun hakikatnya, sering sekali kita dengar cerita tentang dompet yang dicuri semasa menunaikan ibadat di tanah Arab.  Jemaah wanita juga sentiasa diingatkan betapa bahayanya untuk berjalan atau naik teksi bersendirian atau walau bersama saudara atau teman perempuan saja semasa di sana.

Realiti lain yang lebih membimbangkan ialah pendekatan yang diambil oleh penyokong hudud. Mengikut logik dan respons pemimpin politik yang menyokong hudud, lebih keras sesuatu hukuman hudud, maka lebih Islamlah ia.

Contohnya, semasa Kartika Dewi Shukarno dijatuhkan hukuman enam kali sebatan kerana minum alkohol, lebih kurang 70% orang Islam di Malaysia menyokong hukuman tersebut. Walaupun berkali-kali Kartika menyatakan kekesalannya dan memohon maaf di media, namun tetap saja orang-orang dan pertubuhan-pertubuhan Islam mendesak kerajaan untuk segera menyebat beliau. Sikap sadis sedemikian amat menyedih dan mengerikan sekali.

Nik Aziz

Pemimpin PAS Tok Guru Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat tidak puas hati dengan hukuman enam sebatan kerana menurut beliau, sepatutnya Kartika harus disebat 80 kali. Apakah sebagai seorang ulama, Nik Aziz tidak tahu bahawa Al-Qur’an tidak ada memberi sebarang hukuman apa pun terhadap orang yang meminum arak?

Adanya perbalahan di kalangan ulama klasik sama ada hukuman sebatan terhadap orang yang minum arak itu 40 kali atau 80 kali malah menunjukkan ia adalah hukuman takzir (budi bicara kerajaan) dan bukan hukum hudud. Malah, Nik Aziz dan para penyokong hudud memberi alasan bahawa hukuman sebat itu kononnya tidak menyakitkan. Mereka juga mengatakan hukuman hudud itu hanya bertujuan untuk memalukan. Aduhai, saya kira hukuman hudud rejam dan juga potong tangan itu bukan sekadar untuk memalukan, tetapi tersangat menyakitkan dan malah membuatkan si pesalah hilang anggota badan atau hilang nyawanya.

Penyokong hudud gagal mengangkat sikap Islam yang mengutamakan keadilan dan kasih sayang, tetapi sebaliknya sukakan hukuman keras, seperti lebih keras hukumannya, maka lebih Islamlah ia.

Mengapa perlu bimbang?

Kita punya sebab untuk bimbang terhadap pelaksanaan hudud kerana:

i) Draf undang-undung hudud yang telah diusulkan oleh PAS dan disokong oleh Anwar walaupun secara peribadi lebih merupakan “cut and paste” dari undang-undang Pakistan atau kitab fikah klasik. Ia tidak menunjukkkan ada usaha menawarkan ijtihad atau pemikiran baru yang lebih sesuai untuk konteks masa kini.

ii) Agamawan dan penguasa agama masih menunjukkan sikap autokratik dalam membuat sesuatu keputusan, seperti amalan mengharamkan apa saja acara, filem atau buku yang mereka tidak suka atau tidak fahami.

iii) Masih banyak kedengaran wanita-wanita yang tidak berpuas hati terhadap layanan buruk dan diskriminasi yang mereka alami di mahkamah syariah. Maka, sikap dan kemampuan hakim dan pegawai-pegawai mahkamah syariah masih boleh dipersoalkan.

iv) Ramainya agamawan yang masih kurang faham dan peka tentang isu-isu sosial kemasyarakatan dan kesukaran hidup yang dihadapi sesetengah anggota masyarakat.  Kefahaman mereka tentang isu gender juga masih tipis sekali. Seperti yang ditunjukkan dalam kes Kartika, sikap mahu menghukum seberat mungkin masih menebal.

Undang-undang hudud PAS tidak menerima perempuan dan orang bukan Islam sebagai saksi

v) Dalam hal kelayakan menjadi saksi, undang-undang hudud PAS hanya mengiktiraf “lelaki Islam yang akil baligh dan tidak pernah melakukan dosa-dosa besar serta tidak mengekalkan dosa kecil” sahaja sebagai yang layak menjadi saksi.  Perempuan dan orang bukan Islam tidak diterima sebagai layak menjadi saksi.

Hukum siapa?

Saya ingat lagi sewaktu kerajaan PAS Terengganu mengemukakan draf hudud mereka untuk pertama kali, mereka telah meletakkan kesalahan rogol dalam kategori zina. Ia tentu saja ditentang oleh para aktivis wanita kerana zina adalah perbuatan suka sama suka. Rogol pula adalah jenayah di mana ada unsur pemaksaan terhadap wanita. Jadi, di manakah keadilan sekiranya mangsa rogol juga dikenakan hukuman sebat?

Setelah diprotes hebat, draf hudud PAS pun dipinda. Seorang ahli Sisters in Islam, Dr Nik Noriani Nik Badlishah, berkata kepada pemimpin PAS pada waktu itu: “PAS kata undang-undung hudud PAS ini adalah hukum Tuhan. Tapi nampaknya setelah diprotes, hukum hudud PAS ini boleh pula dipinda-pinda. Maka, akui sajalah bahawa hukum hudud PAS ini hanyalah ciptaan manusia semata-mata”.

Keperluan untuk melaksanakan hudud juga bukanlah sesuatu yang dimestikan di dalam Islam. Dengan kebangkitan Arab Spring sekarang, kelihatannya parti-parti Islam yang kini menerajui pemerintahan di Tunisia, Turki dan Mesir masih mengekalkan undang-undangnya yang agak sekular dan tidak melaksanakan hudud. Presiden PAS Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang pun kini mengatakan yang pelaksanaan hudud bukanlah keutamaan PAS dan sebenarnya dalam Al-Qur’an tidak ada pun menyebut Negara Islam, tetapi konsep negara kebajikan.

Jelas bahawa mengamalkan hudud bukanlah sesuatu yang akan menyempurnakan Islam di negara kita. Yang akan mengharumkan nama Islam dan menjaga kepentingan rakyat sama ada yang Islam ataupun yang bukan Islam adalah keadilan, kesetaraan dan kesejahteraan masyarakat. Hudud yang dicadangkan oleh PAS dan disokong oleh Anwar langsung tidak memberi jaminan bahawa unsur-unsur inilah yang akan diutamakan. Hudud Umno pula kekurangan apa-apa bentuk dan nilai yang boleh meyakinkan rakyat Malaysia bahawa ianya berbeza daripada hudud PAS.

Jadi apa tujuan sebenar ahli-ahli politik daripada Umno, PAS dan PKR mencadangkan dan memajukan pelaksanaan hudud jika bukan hanya kerana mahu main politik sesama sendiri? 

---

Norhayati Kaprawi is a Muslim woman activist, a filmmaker and an Asian Public Intellectualsfellow.

Taken from http://www.thenutgraph.com/hudud-pas-dan-hudud-umno-ae/

No good time for Najib

No good time for Najib
By Anil Netto 

PENANG - Malaysia's ruling coalition is having second thoughts about holding an early snap general election. The problem for Prime Minister Najib Razak and his United Malays Nasional Organization (UMNO)-led administration, however, is that time is running short to win a pre-emptive electoral advantage before the current five-year parliamentary term expires in April 2013. 

Speculation about snap elections has intensified as parties led by opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's Parti Keadilan Rakyat (People's Justice Party) begin to fancy their chances of wresting power from UMNO and the Barisan Nasional coalition for the first time since independence. 

A steady stream of corruption allegations against Najib's government has dented its public image and, amid economic weakness, has raised popular concern that the country cannot sustain the endemic official hemorrhage. Earlier vows by Najib to repeal, reform or replace some of the country's more anti-democratic laws, meanwhile, have failed to give UMNO any popular momentum as officials have maintained heavy-handed tactics against political dissent. 

Anwar and his opposition allies in the Democratic Action Party and Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) have campaigned previously on issues related to clean and more-democratic governance. Already at a considerable disadvantage due to election rules and regulations that favor the incumbent including an official campaign period of only 10 days before the polls, they have vowed not to be caught off guard by snap polls. 

The belief is that Najib, like previous premiers, is waiting for an opportune moment when public opinion is perceived to be in his favor to call the polls. But as his UMNO predecessor Abdullah Badawi discovered at the 2008 general election, where the opposition scored historic gains including control over five of 13 federal states, there may not be a favorable time on the near-term horizon. 

Some analysts believe he missed an opportunity earlier this year when his personal approval ratings were high. The premier had just announced a string of grassroots handouts, including one-off cash payments of 300 ringgits (US$94.70) to each household with a monthly income of less than 3,000 ringgits, a populist program known as One Malaysia People's Assistance. His Government Transformation Program (GTP) and Economic Transformation Program (ETP), meanwhile, had given his administration a reformist sheen. 

Najib had also announced a 15,000 ringgit windfall for settlers, many of whom are UMNO supporters, who are part of a decades-old nationwide rural cash crop resettlement scheme, the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda). The announcement came ahead of the listing of Felda Global Ventures (FGV), an investment vehicle created to unlock the value of Felda's commercial assets and holdings. 

Prices rose quickly when FGV was first listed, but analysts have since questioned the future commercial returns of the listed concern given that many of the plantations in its fold consist of palm oil trees that are reaching maturity. A protest rally by those worried about how the policy will impact on Felda's future will be held on July 14. 

Controversy also arose over a proposed new remuneration scheme for civil servants when it was pointed out that top officials would receive especially hefty pay hikes, widening the already yawning income gap with those at the bureaucracy's lower tiers. Amid the criticism, the scheme was hastily revised. 

Pundits earlier predicted snap polls would be held in March, coinciding with Najib's hand-outs, pay raises and privatization policy. But faced with uncertainties about those policies' popular appeal, including among UMNO stalwarts, Najib was forced to recalculate. 

Reform ruse
In the interim, the civil society coalition for clean and fair elections, known locally as Bersih, stepped up its campaign demanding wide-ranging reforms to the country's electoral process, which is widely viewed as giving the UMNO-led ruling coalition unfair advantages. 

The turning point came during a huge rally held on April 28 attended by, according to some estimates, more than 200,000 people demanding electoral reforms. The government's heavy-handed treatment of peaceful street demonstrators, including mass arrests and the use of tear gas and water cannons, dispelled any notions that Najib's government was serious about democratic reforms. 

Najib's legal reforms also came under fire in June when detainees under the Internal Security Act (ISA), which allows detention without charge, launched a high profile hunger strike. Najib had announced last year that the ISA would be repealed and replaced with a new Security Offenses Act (which notably still allows for detention without charge), but 45 ISA detainees remained incarcerated, some for years without formal charges being pressed. Najib met the criticism with silence. 

Official transparency also took a hit when whistle-blowers were investigated, questioned or visited by authorities in at least three high profile cases: the inquiry into official corruption in a submarine deal with France (the subject of an ongoing judicial inquiry in Paris) initiated by human-rights group Suaram; a 250 million ringgit grant for breeding cows to a feedlot company managed by the husband of a cabinet minister; and the questionable selection of a company during a tender process for the extension of a light rail transit system in the capital, Kuala Lumpur. 

Meanwhile, prominent Bersih activists, including an analyst who is due to speak at Bersih events over the next few days, have faced intimidation and even assault by unknown individuals or little-known groups. In the aftermath of the April Bersih rally, Ambiga Sreenevasan, the Bersih steering committee co-chair, was harassed outside her private residence by groups believed to be supportive of UMNO. 

Bersih steering committee member Wong Chin Huat was assaulted by unknown assailants while on a recent neighborhood jog. Analyst Ong Kian Ming, who has regularly highlighted discrepancies in voters' rolls, including apparent phantom voters, saw intruders trying to break into his house this week while he was in his living room. 

The government-controlled Election Commission has bowed to a couple of protester demands. For the first time it will allow the use of indelible ink to prevent multiple voting and permit the registration of overseas Malaysians as postal voters provided they have returned to Malaysia at least once in the previous five years. 

Concerns remain, however, over significant increases in voter registration in peninsular Malaysia's most developed state, Selangor, one of the four states currently under opposition rule. (The opposition lost control of one of the five states it won at the 2008 polls.) In some seats in Selangor, the number of registered voters has inexplicably swelled by more than 20% since 2008. 

Najib must now also factor into his political calculations the extent to which the economic crisis in Europe and the slowdowns in China and the United States will affect Malaysia's export-reliant economy. The potential economic hit from abroad comes at a time the government's fiscal management has come into question.

The Edge, a local business weekly, recently expressed concern about the long-term sustainability of the government's heavy reliance on national oil corporation Petronas to finance its spending programs. Petronas finances an estimated 45% of the national budget and payments have doubled over the past five years. A huge chunk of the budget goes to the heavily centralized and somewhat opaque prime minister's department. 

"Oil majors plough back close to 55% of their profits into the business, while national oil corporations reinvest as much as 65%," The Edge noted in a comment piece. "[But] Reinvestment at Petronas stands at just over 20% of profits." The editorial suggested that at current usage and export rates Malaysia could soon become a net importer of oil. 

The longer Najib waits to call elections, the more global uncertainty will cloud the country's economic prospects and raise new questions about the government's performance. Although a fiscal boost when the annual budget is passed later this year will no doubt aim to dole out more populist sweeteners to grassroots voters, a longer wait could also allow more damaging corruption allegations to rise to the political surface. 

Anil Netto is a Penang-based writer. 



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*News taken from http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/NG14Ae01.html

Lebuh Carnarvon, Penang

Photo taken at 1.06am, 16/7/2012. 

This street is known as Lam Chan Nah to the locals (Hokkien). You'll find alot of funeral shops, stationeries, bicycle shops, hardwares and kopitiams along this stretch of road. 

Queen Street, Penang

Pekan Cina, Alor Setar, Kedah.