Kudos to 7 MCA branches. In the sodomy probe against Anwar, some of the MCA branches have seen the conspiracy drama. They questioned the credibility of the police. The deputy police was taken to task. Now the police have to reveal all the evidence. If nothing could substantiate the allegation, not only the police have to drop the case against Anwar, but have to probe on Saiful instead. The police must nab the mastermind.
Kudos to MCA again. This is the way to gain the confidence of the voters. They should be vocal now. If something is of injustice, please voice it out, even if they have to offend UMNO.
Please refer to http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/86930
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Expose the mastermind behind Saiful's false claim - Malaysiakini
I refer to Malaysiakini "Doctor - No evidence of sodomy" (http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/86834).
According to the report made by a Myanmar Muslim doctor, there was no sign of Saiful being sodomized. Anwar wanted the police to close the case.
But I think the public should not just let go like that. Now since the report was negative in supporting the claim of "the victim", the police has to investigate on Saiful instead. The public wanted to catch the mastermind behind him.
According to the report made by a Myanmar Muslim doctor, there was no sign of Saiful being sodomized. Anwar wanted the police to close the case.
But I think the public should not just let go like that. Now since the report was negative in supporting the claim of "the victim", the police has to investigate on Saiful instead. The public wanted to catch the mastermind behind him.
陈徽崇名留青史
27日二堂兄亚九传来给长弟徽才有关他哥哥徽崇的辞世噩耗，徽才转告后，我头脑顿时一片茫然。心中萌起疑问：“怎么会是他？他还未完成他地上的工作呀！”
这两天，脑海盘旋着与堂兄相处的回忆，他露出两排牙齿的欢容依然那么令我舒服。徽崇对于工作严格，但他卸下工作袍子时，是不难见到他笑颜常开的。
徽崇为马来西亚创造音乐的奇迹，并不是“无心差柳柳成荫”的成果。它却是徽崇如此豁朗的性格，才会栽培到今天多个有贡献的乐团的。
徽崇和再藩共同创立的“廿四节令鼓”，是采用中国的文化创新一门独特音乐艺术的。它不但在大马有名堂，海外的华人也陆续认识它。新山华社申请把陈徽崇列入为国家文化人物，及廿四节令鼓为国家文化，国人只是遗憾国家的批准成为徽崇一份迟来的礼物。
7月25日，团结、文化、艺术及文物部长沙菲益正式宣布陈徽崇为国宝级文化遗产在世人物。在去年12月3日星洲日报举办“祝福陈徽崇－歌乐深情晚会”，为徽崇筹募医药费时，星洲媒体集团总编辑萧依钊女士感叹本地杰出文化艺术家，一直以来没有受到各界应有的关心和爱护。她举出西班牙政府如何积极对待国宝何塞•卡雷拉斯，帮助他战胜血癌。我和萧女士都希望我国政府也能够给予徽崇最好的医疗服务，使他痊愈过来。但8个月来都没见到政府行动，堂兄仍然在马新收费最低的医院接受治疗。其实徽崇若真的获得高水准的医疗服务的话，他或许可以再多活几年的吧？
我想到许冠杰的歌《人生如梦》，一段说“命里有时终须有，命里无时莫强求。”堂兄得到“国宝”这最高荣誉，得到了，却因离世又卸下了。人生就是如此，你得到的东西，你不能长久拥有它们，有一天我们须放下而离开。不管命运如何，承受得住就是胜利。世间最珍贵的不是金钱、物质、名誉和地位，而是现在能把握的幸福。
徽崇61岁离开乃早了一点，但生命不在乎长短，乃是生命的内容。在他患病期间有那么多人关心他，譬如好友陈再藩多方的帮助。还有来自音乐家陈容、卓如燕、鲍以灵等的祝福。徽崇带给宽中、华人社团、社会和国家的血汗功劳，可谓不枉此生矣！兽死留皮，人死留名。陈徽崇将名留青史也！日后国人提到音乐、文化和艺术时，相信不会遗留这位音乐奇才陈徽崇的吧？
对于徽崇欲在新山筹办音乐厅的心愿，我感慨他壮志未酬。现在人不在了，但他的心愿算是他生前撒下的种子，我希望他的得力门徒们会兴起来作浇灌的工作，有朝一日新山人会看到它长起来的！
最后希望堂嫂燕贞和她的儿女光裕与光梅能够节哀顺变，愿上帝保守你们。
这两天，脑海盘旋着与堂兄相处的回忆，他露出两排牙齿的欢容依然那么令我舒服。徽崇对于工作严格，但他卸下工作袍子时，是不难见到他笑颜常开的。
徽崇为马来西亚创造音乐的奇迹，并不是“无心差柳柳成荫”的成果。它却是徽崇如此豁朗的性格，才会栽培到今天多个有贡献的乐团的。
徽崇和再藩共同创立的“廿四节令鼓”，是采用中国的文化创新一门独特音乐艺术的。它不但在大马有名堂，海外的华人也陆续认识它。新山华社申请把陈徽崇列入为国家文化人物，及廿四节令鼓为国家文化，国人只是遗憾国家的批准成为徽崇一份迟来的礼物。
7月25日，团结、文化、艺术及文物部长沙菲益正式宣布陈徽崇为国宝级文化遗产在世人物。在去年12月3日星洲日报举办“祝福陈徽崇－歌乐深情晚会”，为徽崇筹募医药费时，星洲媒体集团总编辑萧依钊女士感叹本地杰出文化艺术家，一直以来没有受到各界应有的关心和爱护。她举出西班牙政府如何积极对待国宝何塞•卡雷拉斯，帮助他战胜血癌。我和萧女士都希望我国政府也能够给予徽崇最好的医疗服务，使他痊愈过来。但8个月来都没见到政府行动，堂兄仍然在马新收费最低的医院接受治疗。其实徽崇若真的获得高水准的医疗服务的话，他或许可以再多活几年的吧？
我想到许冠杰的歌《人生如梦》，一段说“命里有时终须有，命里无时莫强求。”堂兄得到“国宝”这最高荣誉，得到了，却因离世又卸下了。人生就是如此，你得到的东西，你不能长久拥有它们，有一天我们须放下而离开。不管命运如何，承受得住就是胜利。世间最珍贵的不是金钱、物质、名誉和地位，而是现在能把握的幸福。
徽崇61岁离开乃早了一点，但生命不在乎长短，乃是生命的内容。在他患病期间有那么多人关心他，譬如好友陈再藩多方的帮助。还有来自音乐家陈容、卓如燕、鲍以灵等的祝福。徽崇带给宽中、华人社团、社会和国家的血汗功劳，可谓不枉此生矣！兽死留皮，人死留名。陈徽崇将名留青史也！日后国人提到音乐、文化和艺术时，相信不会遗留这位音乐奇才陈徽崇的吧？
对于徽崇欲在新山筹办音乐厅的心愿，我感慨他壮志未酬。现在人不在了，但他的心愿算是他生前撒下的种子，我希望他的得力门徒们会兴起来作浇灌的工作，有朝一日新山人会看到它长起来的！
最后希望堂嫂燕贞和她的儿女光裕与光梅能够节哀顺变，愿上帝保守你们。
Monday, July 28, 2008
My cousin, Hooi Song, dies 我的堂兄徽崇逝世
My cousin, Hooi Song, died of colon cancer yesterday at 4.00pm. Has 61. He was a creative and outstanding musician. He was the founder of the 24 festive-seasons drums.On 20th July, he was named a national figure by the Minister of Culture and Arts.
His passing away was definitely a great loss to the country. I really missed him.
我的堂兄陈徽崇昨天下午4时去世了！我很惦念着他。
以下是取自http://www.sinchew-i.com/node/34606?tid=3
（柔佛‧新山）61歲的國寶級文化遺產在世人物陳徽崇罹患直腸癌，因癌細胞擴散，今日（週日，7月27日）下午4點在家中辭世。
陳徽崇是大馬著名音樂家，一生致力於音樂、文化傳承工作，對本土音樂的發展貢獻良多。他也是現代詩曲作曲家、二十四節令鼓原創人暨柔佛音樂藝術學院院長。
今年6月22日晚上，馬中友好聯誼會聯合新山數個華團組織，在寬中禮堂舉辦《愛的奉獻》音樂會，為中國四川災民籌款。陳徽崇為這場演出作壓軸指揮，這也是他最後一次在台上指揮合唱演出。
今年7月20日，團結、文化、藝術及文物部，將陳徽崇列為國寶級文化遺產在世人物。新山南方學院近日也宣佈將“第2屆南方人文精神獎”頒給陳徽崇。
His passing away was definitely a great loss to the country. I really missed him.
我的堂兄陈徽崇昨天下午4时去世了！我很惦念着他。
以下是取自http://www.sinchew-i.com/node/34606?tid=3
（柔佛‧新山）61歲的國寶級文化遺產在世人物陳徽崇罹患直腸癌，因癌細胞擴散，今日（週日，7月27日）下午4點在家中辭世。
陳徽崇是大馬著名音樂家，一生致力於音樂、文化傳承工作，對本土音樂的發展貢獻良多。他也是現代詩曲作曲家、二十四節令鼓原創人暨柔佛音樂藝術學院院長。
今年6月22日晚上，馬中友好聯誼會聯合新山數個華團組織，在寬中禮堂舉辦《愛的奉獻》音樂會，為中國四川災民籌款。陳徽崇為這場演出作壓軸指揮，這也是他最後一次在台上指揮合唱演出。
今年7月20日，團結、文化、藝術及文物部，將陳徽崇列為國寶級文化遺產在世人物。新山南方學院近日也宣佈將“第2屆南方人文精神獎”頒給陳徽崇。
Sarawak CM Taib Mahmud drives a Rolls Royce (with photo) - Malaysiakini
I refer to Malaysiakini T'ganu gets PM's nod for Mercedes (http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/86728). Not only I disappointed with PM's decision, I am slao disappointed with how all BN states officials swandered the tax payers' money for luxury living.
There have been much talk about Terengganu buying 14 Mercedes for the Excos. In fact the public is not satisfied with PM's so-called solution that they are meant for taking VIPs.
Today a Malaysian Chinese Daily, Sin Chew Jit Poh, gives us a shocking report. The CM of Sarawak, Taib Mahmud, is using a Rolls Royce. His Excos are using all sorts of luxury foreign cars, including BMW, Mercedes and Jaguar.
No wonder people said Taib is the riches man in Sarawak. No one knows his wealth. He could be ranked the top 50 riches people in Malaysia. And why he wants to squander the state treasury by driving luxury cars. A Rolls Royce? Come on! Even PM doesn't ride it. Only the King uses it. Taib wanted to live a life of a king. Many people can't even cope with survival. If not because of the down-turn of BN, who will know all these compulsive spendings by BN puteras?
There have been much talk about Terengganu buying 14 Mercedes for the Excos. In fact the public is not satisfied with PM's so-called solution that they are meant for taking VIPs.
Today a Malaysian Chinese Daily, Sin Chew Jit Poh, gives us a shocking report. The CM of Sarawak, Taib Mahmud, is using a Rolls Royce. His Excos are using all sorts of luxury foreign cars, including BMW, Mercedes and Jaguar.
No wonder people said Taib is the riches man in Sarawak. No one knows his wealth. He could be ranked the top 50 riches people in Malaysia. And why he wants to squander the state treasury by driving luxury cars. A Rolls Royce? Come on! Even PM doesn't ride it. Only the King uses it. Taib wanted to live a life of a king. Many people can't even cope with survival. If not because of the down-turn of BN, who will know all these compulsive spendings by BN puteras?
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Are You Mad At God?
by David Wilkerson
I believe there is nothing more dangerous to a Christian than to carry around resentment against God. Yet I am shocked by the growing number of believers I meet who are peeved at the Lord. They may not admit as much - but deep inside, they hold some kind of grudge against him. Why? They believe he's not interested in their lives or problems! They're convinced he doesn't care - because he hasn't answered a particular prayer or acted on their behalf
I received a letter recently from a young man who's incarcerated in a southern prison. This convict was once a committed Christian - but now he says he's mad at God. He wrote:
"I'm in a hellhole - and I believe God is going to leave me here! At one time I wanted to follow Christ with all my heart. But I had a sin that overwhelmed me - a sexual sin. I tried to repent, but it never helped. I read my Bible, studied and prayed - but it was no use. My sin always took control. And now I'm in prison for a long time because of it.
"I've given up on doing spiritual warfare. Trying doesn't seem worth it. God delivered me from drugs and alcohol when I was a new Christian. But why didn't he take away my sexual lusts?"
Every page of this man's letter was full of bitterness toward God. He has allowed his resentment to turn into an all-out rage!
I see a similar rage among a growing number of ministers in many denominations. They've become disillusioned, burned out, angry with God - and now they're walking away from their calling. When you ask them why, they answer:
"I was diligent, faithful - I gave it my best. But the harder I tried the less result I saw. My congregation was not appreciative. And all my prayers seemed in vain. At one point, everything I preached felt phony, because it wasn't working in my own life. Now I've quit the ministry until I can figure things out."
I have learned over the years that very few such ministers ever return. Why? They hold onto their peeve against God! They say, "I did everything right. But nothing turned out the way I'd hoped. I was faithful to him - but he failed me!"
The Awful Danger and Bitter Consequences of Holding a Grudge Against God Were Brought Home to Me Recently!
Not long ago, I picked up a missionary biography entitled Aggie - and I couldn't put it down. This amazing story gripped my heart, and I ended up reading it in one sitting. I'd like to summarize the story for you here - because it vividly illustrates the destructive power of grudging anger in a Christian's heart:
In 1921, two young couples in Stockholm, Sweden, answered God's call to the African mission field. They were members of Philadelphia Pentecostal Church, which sent out missionaries to locales over the world. During one particular missions service, these two couples received a burden to go to the Belgian Congo, which is now Zaire.
Their names were David and Svea Flood and Joel and Bertha Erickson. Svea Flood was only four-feet-eight-inches tall, and she was a well-known singer in Sweden. But both couples gave up everything to lay down their lives for the gospel.
When they arrived in the Belgian Congo, they reported to the local mission station. Then they took machetes and literally hacked their way into the Congo's insect-infested interior. David and Svea had a two-year-old son, David Jr., and they had to carry him on their backs. Along the way, both families caught malaria. But they kept going forward with great zeal, ready to be martyrs for the Lord.
Finally, they reached a certain village in the interior. Yet, to their surprise, the people wouldn't let them enter. They told the missionaries, "We can't allow any white people here, or our gods will be offended." So the families went to a second village - but they were rejected there also.
At this point, there were no other villages around. The worn-down families had no choice but to settle. So they hacked out a clearing in the middle of a mountain jungle and built mud huts, where they made their homes.
As the months went by, they all suffered from loneliness, sickness and malnutrition. Little David Jr. became sickly. And they had almost no interaction with any of the villagers.
Finally, after about six months, Joel and Bertha Erickson decided to return to the mission station. They urged the Floods to do the same, but Svea couldn't travel because she'd just gotten pregnant. And now her malaria had become worse. Besides all that, David said, "I want my child born in Africa. I've come to give my life here." So the Floods simply waved goodbye as their friends began the one-hundred-mile hike back.
For several months Svea endured a raging fever. Yet all that time, she ministered faithfully to a little boy who came to see them from one of the nearby villages. The boy was the Floods' only convert. He brought the family fruit, and as Svea ministered to him, he simply smiled back at her.
Eventually, Svea's malaria got so bad she became bedridden. When the time came for her to give birth, she delivered a healthy baby girl. But within a week she was at the point of death. In her final moments, she whispered to David, "Call our girl Aina." Then she died.
David Flood was badly shaken by his wife's death. Summoning all his strength, he took a wooden box and made a casket for Svea. Then, in a primitive grave on the mountainside, he buried his beloved wife.
As he stood beside her grave, he looked down at his young son beside him. Then he heard his baby daughter's cries from the mud hut. And suddenly, bitterness filled his heart. Anger rose up in him - and he couldn't control it. He flew into a rage, crying, "Why did you allow this, God? We came here to give our lives! My wife was so beautiful, so talented. And here she lies, dead at twenty-seven.
"Now I have a two-year-old son I can hardly care for, let alone a baby girl. And after more than a year in this jungle, all we have to show for it is one little village boy who probably doesn't understand what we've told him. You've failed me, God. What a waste of life!"
At that point, David Flood hired some local tribesmen as guides and took his children to the mission station. When he saw the Ericksons, he blurted out angrily, "I'm leaving! I can't handle these children alone. I'm taking my son with me back to Sweden - but I'm leaving my daughter here with you." And with that, he left Aina for the Ericksons to raise.
All the way back to Stockholm, David Flood stood on deck and seethed at God. He'd told everyone he was going to Africa to be a martyr - to win people to Christ, no matter what the cost. And now he was returning a defeated and broken man. He believed he'd been faithful - but that God had rewarded him with total neglect.
When he arrived in Stockholm, he decided to go into the import business to seek his fortune. And he warned everyone around him never to mention God in his presence. When they did, he flew into a rage, the veins popping out on his neck. Eventually, he began drinking heavily.
Shortly after he left Africa, his friends the Ericksons died suddenly (possibly poisoned by a local village chief). So, little Aina was handed to an American couple - some dear people I know named Arthur and Anna Berg. The Bergs took Aina with them to a village called Massisi, in the northern Congo. There they began calling her "Aggie." And soon little Aggie learned the Swahili language and played with the Congo children.
Alone much of the time, Aggie learned to play games of imagination. She imagined she had four brothers and a sister, and she gave them all imaginary names. She would set a table for her brothers and talk to them. And she would imagine her sister continually looking for her.
When the Bergs went on furlough to America, they took Aggie with them, to the Minneapolis area. As it turned out, they ended up staying there. Aggie grew up to marry a man named Dewey Hurst, who later became president of Northwest Bible College, the Assemblies of God school in Minneapolis.
For Years as an Adult, Aggie Tried to Contact Her Father
But to No Avail!
Aggie never knew that her father had remarried - this time to Svea's younger sister, who had no heart for God. And now he had five children besides Aggie - four sons and a daughter (just as Aggie had imagined). By this time, David Flood had become a total alcoholic, and his eyesight was failing badly.
For forty years Aggie tried to locate her father - but her letters were never answered. Finally, the Bible school gave her and her husband round-trip tickets to Sweden. This would give her the chance to find her father personally.
After crossing the Atlantic, the couple spent a day's layover in London. They decided to take a walk, so they strolled by the Royal Albert Hall. To their joy, a Pentecostal Assemblies of God missions convention was being held. They went inside, where they heard a black preacher testifying of the great works God was doing in Zaire - the Belgian Congo!
Aggie's heart leaped. After the meeting, she approached the preacher and asked, "Did you ever know the missionaries David and Svea Flood?" He answered, "Yes. Svea Flood led me to the Lord when I was just a boy. They had a baby girl, but I don't know what happened to her." Aggie exclaimed, "I'm the girl! I'm Aggie - Aina!"
When the preacher heard this, he clasped Aggie's hands, hugged her and wept with joy. Aggie could hardly believe that this man was the little boy convert her mother had ministered to. He had grown up to be a missionary evangelist to his own country - which now included 110,000 Christians, 32 mission stations, several Bible schools and a 120-bed hospital.
The next day Aggie and Dewey left for Stockholm - and word had already spread there that they were coming. By this time Aggie knew she had four brothers and a sister. And to her surprise, three of her brothers greeted her at the hotel. She asked them, "Where's David, my older brother?" They merely pointed across the lobby to a lone figure sitting in a chair. Her brother, David Jr., was a shriveled-up, gray-haired man. Like his father, he'd grown embittered and had nearly destroyed his life with alcohol.
When Aggie asked about her father, her brothers flushed with anger. They all hated him. None of them had talked to him in years.
Then Aggie asked, "What about my sister?" They gave her a telephone number, and Aggie called it immediately. Her sister answered - but when Aggie told her who she was, the line suddenly went dead. Aggie tried calling back but got no answer.
In a little while, however, her sister arrived at the hotel and threw her arms around Aggie. She told her, "All my life I've dreamed about you. I used to spread out a map of the world, put a toy car on it, and pretend to drive everywhere to find you."
Aggie's sister also despised her father, David Flood. But she promised to help Aggie find him. So they drove to an impoverished area of Stockholm, where they entered a rundown building. When they knocked on the door, a woman let them in.
Inside, liquor bottles lay everywhere. And lying on a cot in the corner was her father - the one-time missionary, David Flood. He was now seventy-three years old and suffering from diabetes. He'd also had a stroke, and cataracts covered both of his eyes.
Aggie fell to his side, crying, "Dad, I'm your little girl - the one you left in Africa." The old man turned and looked at her. Tears formed in his eyes. He answered, "I never meant to give you away. I just couldn't handle you both." Aggie answered, "That's okay, Daddy. God took care of me."
Suddenly, her father's face darkened. "God didn't take care of you!" he raged. "He ruined our whole family! He led us to Africa and then betrayed us. Nothing ever came of our time there. It was a waste of our lives!"
Aggie then told him about the black preacher she'd just met in London - and how the country had been evangelized through him. "It's all true, Daddy," she said. "Everybody knows about that little boy convert. The story has been in all the newspapers."
Suddenly the Holy Spirit fell on David Flood - and he broke. Tears of sorrow and repentance flowed down his face - and God restored him.
Shortly after their meeting, David Flood died. And although he was restored to the Lord, he left only ruin behind. Besides Aggie, his legacy was five children - all unsaved and tragically embittered.
Aggie wrote down the whole story. Yet as she worked on it, she developed cancer. Just after she finished writing it, she went to be with the Lord.
This Message Is for All Who Believe - Like David Flood - They Have a Right to Be Angry With God!
David Flood represents many Christians today. They've been disappointed, cast down - and now they're full of rage toward God!
The Bible gives us an example of this, in the book of Jonah. Like David Flood, Jonah received a missionary call from God. And he went to Nineveh to preach the message of judgment God gave him: The city would be destroyed in forty days.
After delivering the message, Jonah sat on a hillside, waiting for God to begin the destruction. But when forty days passed, nothing happened. Why? Nineveh repented - and God changed his mind about destroying them!
This angered Jonah. He cried out, "Lord, you've betrayed me! You put a burden on my heart to come here and preach judgment. Everyone in Israel knew about it. But now you've changed everything without telling me. I look like a false prophet!"
Jonah sat under the hot sun pouting - peeved at God! Yet, in his mercy, God caused a plant to spring up to shelter Jonah from the heat: "...that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief....." (Jonah 4:6)
Now, the word "grief" here means "displeasure, disappointment." Simply put, Jonah was grieved because things hadn't gone as planned. God had changed his course - and Jonah's pride was wounded!
This is where most rage against God begins - with a disappointment. God may call us, burden us and send us - but he may make changes without including us in his sovereign plan. Then, when things don't go as we'd planned, we may feel misled or betrayed.
At this point, God understands our cries of pain and confusion. After all, our cry is a human one. And it is no different from Jesus' cry on the cross: "Father, why have you forsaken me?"
But if we continue nursing a peeved spirit, it will grow into a rage within us. And God will ask us the same question he asked Jonah: "Doest thou well to be angry...?" (Verse 9). In other words: "Do you think you have a right to be so angry?"
Jonah answered, "I have every right to be angry, to the day I die!" "...And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death" (same verse). Here was a prophet who was so vexed, so irritated, so full of rage at God, he said: "I don't care whether I live or die! My ministry is a failure. And all my suffering has been in vain. I spent three days and nights in the stinking belly of that whale - for what? God has changed everything on me. I have every right to be angry with him!"
Many Christians are like Jonah - they feel they have a right to be mad at God. They think, "I pray, I read my Bible, I obey God's word. So, why has all this trouble fallen on my life? Why don't I see the blessings God promised me? He has failed me!"
The Worst Danger of Harboring Anger and Irritation at God Is That You Might Spin Out Beyond the Point of Consolation!
It is possible to reach a point where you're no longer able to be touched. This is a point where nothing and no one can console you!
Jeremiah writes: "...A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping: Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not" (Jeremiah 31:15).
At the time Jeremiah wrote this, Israel was being led away into captivity by the Assyrians. Their homes had been burned and destroyed and all their vineyards lay to waste. Jerusalem was reduced to a pile of rubble. All around them they saw nothing but ruin and desolation. So Jeremiah used Rachel - Israel's ancestor - as a weeping figure who's so distraught at seeing her children taken from her that nothing could comfort her.
In essence, Jeremiah was saying that these mourning Israelites had settled into their grief - and they were beyond all consolation! Jeremiah couldn't comfort them; there was no use even trying to talk to them. In their minds, God had allowed captivity to overtake them - and they had a right to be bitter toward him!
Yet here is the danger: When we harbor our questions and complaints for too long, they turn into irritation. Then our irritation turns into bitterness. And, finally, our bitterness turns into rage. At that point, we no longer listen to reproof. God's word does not affect us. And no one - no friend, pastor or spouse - can reach us. We shut out all wooing of the Spirit!
For Those Who Admit They Are Near or Even Past the Point of Refusing Consolation, There Is Good News!
God's word says there is hope! "Thus saith the Lord; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy" (Jeremiah 31:16). In other words: "Stop crying - stop complaining. I'm going to reward you for your faithfulness!"
"Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 15:58). Beloved, your cries and prayers have not been in vain! All your pain and tears have been for a purpose.
God is telling you, "You think it's all over. You see only your circumstances - failure, ruin, no results. So you say, 'This is the end.' But I say it is the beginning! I see the reward that I'm about to pour out on you. I have good things in mind for you - wonderful things. So, stop your crying!"
Dear saint, allow God's Spirit to heal you of all bitterness, anger, rage - before it destroys you! You may see only ruin in your life - but he sees restoration! Let him restore you now from the desolation surrounding you. He has only good things in mind for you - because "...he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" (Hebrews 11:6). Hallelujah!
I believe there is nothing more dangerous to a Christian than to carry around resentment against God. Yet I am shocked by the growing number of believers I meet who are peeved at the Lord. They may not admit as much - but deep inside, they hold some kind of grudge against him. Why? They believe he's not interested in their lives or problems! They're convinced he doesn't care - because he hasn't answered a particular prayer or acted on their behalf
I received a letter recently from a young man who's incarcerated in a southern prison. This convict was once a committed Christian - but now he says he's mad at God. He wrote:
"I'm in a hellhole - and I believe God is going to leave me here! At one time I wanted to follow Christ with all my heart. But I had a sin that overwhelmed me - a sexual sin. I tried to repent, but it never helped. I read my Bible, studied and prayed - but it was no use. My sin always took control. And now I'm in prison for a long time because of it.
"I've given up on doing spiritual warfare. Trying doesn't seem worth it. God delivered me from drugs and alcohol when I was a new Christian. But why didn't he take away my sexual lusts?"
Every page of this man's letter was full of bitterness toward God. He has allowed his resentment to turn into an all-out rage!
I see a similar rage among a growing number of ministers in many denominations. They've become disillusioned, burned out, angry with God - and now they're walking away from their calling. When you ask them why, they answer:
"I was diligent, faithful - I gave it my best. But the harder I tried the less result I saw. My congregation was not appreciative. And all my prayers seemed in vain. At one point, everything I preached felt phony, because it wasn't working in my own life. Now I've quit the ministry until I can figure things out."
I have learned over the years that very few such ministers ever return. Why? They hold onto their peeve against God! They say, "I did everything right. But nothing turned out the way I'd hoped. I was faithful to him - but he failed me!"
The Awful Danger and Bitter Consequences of Holding a Grudge Against God Were Brought Home to Me Recently!
Not long ago, I picked up a missionary biography entitled Aggie - and I couldn't put it down. This amazing story gripped my heart, and I ended up reading it in one sitting. I'd like to summarize the story for you here - because it vividly illustrates the destructive power of grudging anger in a Christian's heart:
In 1921, two young couples in Stockholm, Sweden, answered God's call to the African mission field. They were members of Philadelphia Pentecostal Church, which sent out missionaries to locales over the world. During one particular missions service, these two couples received a burden to go to the Belgian Congo, which is now Zaire.
Their names were David and Svea Flood and Joel and Bertha Erickson. Svea Flood was only four-feet-eight-inches tall, and she was a well-known singer in Sweden. But both couples gave up everything to lay down their lives for the gospel.
When they arrived in the Belgian Congo, they reported to the local mission station. Then they took machetes and literally hacked their way into the Congo's insect-infested interior. David and Svea had a two-year-old son, David Jr., and they had to carry him on their backs. Along the way, both families caught malaria. But they kept going forward with great zeal, ready to be martyrs for the Lord.
Finally, they reached a certain village in the interior. Yet, to their surprise, the people wouldn't let them enter. They told the missionaries, "We can't allow any white people here, or our gods will be offended." So the families went to a second village - but they were rejected there also.
At this point, there were no other villages around. The worn-down families had no choice but to settle. So they hacked out a clearing in the middle of a mountain jungle and built mud huts, where they made their homes.
As the months went by, they all suffered from loneliness, sickness and malnutrition. Little David Jr. became sickly. And they had almost no interaction with any of the villagers.
Finally, after about six months, Joel and Bertha Erickson decided to return to the mission station. They urged the Floods to do the same, but Svea couldn't travel because she'd just gotten pregnant. And now her malaria had become worse. Besides all that, David said, "I want my child born in Africa. I've come to give my life here." So the Floods simply waved goodbye as their friends began the one-hundred-mile hike back.
For several months Svea endured a raging fever. Yet all that time, she ministered faithfully to a little boy who came to see them from one of the nearby villages. The boy was the Floods' only convert. He brought the family fruit, and as Svea ministered to him, he simply smiled back at her.
Eventually, Svea's malaria got so bad she became bedridden. When the time came for her to give birth, she delivered a healthy baby girl. But within a week she was at the point of death. In her final moments, she whispered to David, "Call our girl Aina." Then she died.
David Flood was badly shaken by his wife's death. Summoning all his strength, he took a wooden box and made a casket for Svea. Then, in a primitive grave on the mountainside, he buried his beloved wife.
As he stood beside her grave, he looked down at his young son beside him. Then he heard his baby daughter's cries from the mud hut. And suddenly, bitterness filled his heart. Anger rose up in him - and he couldn't control it. He flew into a rage, crying, "Why did you allow this, God? We came here to give our lives! My wife was so beautiful, so talented. And here she lies, dead at twenty-seven.
"Now I have a two-year-old son I can hardly care for, let alone a baby girl. And after more than a year in this jungle, all we have to show for it is one little village boy who probably doesn't understand what we've told him. You've failed me, God. What a waste of life!"
At that point, David Flood hired some local tribesmen as guides and took his children to the mission station. When he saw the Ericksons, he blurted out angrily, "I'm leaving! I can't handle these children alone. I'm taking my son with me back to Sweden - but I'm leaving my daughter here with you." And with that, he left Aina for the Ericksons to raise.
All the way back to Stockholm, David Flood stood on deck and seethed at God. He'd told everyone he was going to Africa to be a martyr - to win people to Christ, no matter what the cost. And now he was returning a defeated and broken man. He believed he'd been faithful - but that God had rewarded him with total neglect.
When he arrived in Stockholm, he decided to go into the import business to seek his fortune. And he warned everyone around him never to mention God in his presence. When they did, he flew into a rage, the veins popping out on his neck. Eventually, he began drinking heavily.
Shortly after he left Africa, his friends the Ericksons died suddenly (possibly poisoned by a local village chief). So, little Aina was handed to an American couple - some dear people I know named Arthur and Anna Berg. The Bergs took Aina with them to a village called Massisi, in the northern Congo. There they began calling her "Aggie." And soon little Aggie learned the Swahili language and played with the Congo children.
Alone much of the time, Aggie learned to play games of imagination. She imagined she had four brothers and a sister, and she gave them all imaginary names. She would set a table for her brothers and talk to them. And she would imagine her sister continually looking for her.
When the Bergs went on furlough to America, they took Aggie with them, to the Minneapolis area. As it turned out, they ended up staying there. Aggie grew up to marry a man named Dewey Hurst, who later became president of Northwest Bible College, the Assemblies of God school in Minneapolis.
For Years as an Adult, Aggie Tried to Contact Her Father
But to No Avail!
Aggie never knew that her father had remarried - this time to Svea's younger sister, who had no heart for God. And now he had five children besides Aggie - four sons and a daughter (just as Aggie had imagined). By this time, David Flood had become a total alcoholic, and his eyesight was failing badly.
For forty years Aggie tried to locate her father - but her letters were never answered. Finally, the Bible school gave her and her husband round-trip tickets to Sweden. This would give her the chance to find her father personally.
After crossing the Atlantic, the couple spent a day's layover in London. They decided to take a walk, so they strolled by the Royal Albert Hall. To their joy, a Pentecostal Assemblies of God missions convention was being held. They went inside, where they heard a black preacher testifying of the great works God was doing in Zaire - the Belgian Congo!
Aggie's heart leaped. After the meeting, she approached the preacher and asked, "Did you ever know the missionaries David and Svea Flood?" He answered, "Yes. Svea Flood led me to the Lord when I was just a boy. They had a baby girl, but I don't know what happened to her." Aggie exclaimed, "I'm the girl! I'm Aggie - Aina!"
When the preacher heard this, he clasped Aggie's hands, hugged her and wept with joy. Aggie could hardly believe that this man was the little boy convert her mother had ministered to. He had grown up to be a missionary evangelist to his own country - which now included 110,000 Christians, 32 mission stations, several Bible schools and a 120-bed hospital.
The next day Aggie and Dewey left for Stockholm - and word had already spread there that they were coming. By this time Aggie knew she had four brothers and a sister. And to her surprise, three of her brothers greeted her at the hotel. She asked them, "Where's David, my older brother?" They merely pointed across the lobby to a lone figure sitting in a chair. Her brother, David Jr., was a shriveled-up, gray-haired man. Like his father, he'd grown embittered and had nearly destroyed his life with alcohol.
When Aggie asked about her father, her brothers flushed with anger. They all hated him. None of them had talked to him in years.
Then Aggie asked, "What about my sister?" They gave her a telephone number, and Aggie called it immediately. Her sister answered - but when Aggie told her who she was, the line suddenly went dead. Aggie tried calling back but got no answer.
In a little while, however, her sister arrived at the hotel and threw her arms around Aggie. She told her, "All my life I've dreamed about you. I used to spread out a map of the world, put a toy car on it, and pretend to drive everywhere to find you."
Aggie's sister also despised her father, David Flood. But she promised to help Aggie find him. So they drove to an impoverished area of Stockholm, where they entered a rundown building. When they knocked on the door, a woman let them in.
Inside, liquor bottles lay everywhere. And lying on a cot in the corner was her father - the one-time missionary, David Flood. He was now seventy-three years old and suffering from diabetes. He'd also had a stroke, and cataracts covered both of his eyes.
Aggie fell to his side, crying, "Dad, I'm your little girl - the one you left in Africa." The old man turned and looked at her. Tears formed in his eyes. He answered, "I never meant to give you away. I just couldn't handle you both." Aggie answered, "That's okay, Daddy. God took care of me."
Suddenly, her father's face darkened. "God didn't take care of you!" he raged. "He ruined our whole family! He led us to Africa and then betrayed us. Nothing ever came of our time there. It was a waste of our lives!"
Aggie then told him about the black preacher she'd just met in London - and how the country had been evangelized through him. "It's all true, Daddy," she said. "Everybody knows about that little boy convert. The story has been in all the newspapers."
Suddenly the Holy Spirit fell on David Flood - and he broke. Tears of sorrow and repentance flowed down his face - and God restored him.
Shortly after their meeting, David Flood died. And although he was restored to the Lord, he left only ruin behind. Besides Aggie, his legacy was five children - all unsaved and tragically embittered.
Aggie wrote down the whole story. Yet as she worked on it, she developed cancer. Just after she finished writing it, she went to be with the Lord.
This Message Is for All Who Believe - Like David Flood - They Have a Right to Be Angry With God!
David Flood represents many Christians today. They've been disappointed, cast down - and now they're full of rage toward God!
The Bible gives us an example of this, in the book of Jonah. Like David Flood, Jonah received a missionary call from God. And he went to Nineveh to preach the message of judgment God gave him: The city would be destroyed in forty days.
After delivering the message, Jonah sat on a hillside, waiting for God to begin the destruction. But when forty days passed, nothing happened. Why? Nineveh repented - and God changed his mind about destroying them!
This angered Jonah. He cried out, "Lord, you've betrayed me! You put a burden on my heart to come here and preach judgment. Everyone in Israel knew about it. But now you've changed everything without telling me. I look like a false prophet!"
Jonah sat under the hot sun pouting - peeved at God! Yet, in his mercy, God caused a plant to spring up to shelter Jonah from the heat: "...that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief....." (Jonah 4:6)
Now, the word "grief" here means "displeasure, disappointment." Simply put, Jonah was grieved because things hadn't gone as planned. God had changed his course - and Jonah's pride was wounded!
This is where most rage against God begins - with a disappointment. God may call us, burden us and send us - but he may make changes without including us in his sovereign plan. Then, when things don't go as we'd planned, we may feel misled or betrayed.
At this point, God understands our cries of pain and confusion. After all, our cry is a human one. And it is no different from Jesus' cry on the cross: "Father, why have you forsaken me?"
But if we continue nursing a peeved spirit, it will grow into a rage within us. And God will ask us the same question he asked Jonah: "Doest thou well to be angry...?" (Verse 9). In other words: "Do you think you have a right to be so angry?"
Jonah answered, "I have every right to be angry, to the day I die!" "...And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death" (same verse). Here was a prophet who was so vexed, so irritated, so full of rage at God, he said: "I don't care whether I live or die! My ministry is a failure. And all my suffering has been in vain. I spent three days and nights in the stinking belly of that whale - for what? God has changed everything on me. I have every right to be angry with him!"
Many Christians are like Jonah - they feel they have a right to be mad at God. They think, "I pray, I read my Bible, I obey God's word. So, why has all this trouble fallen on my life? Why don't I see the blessings God promised me? He has failed me!"
The Worst Danger of Harboring Anger and Irritation at God Is That You Might Spin Out Beyond the Point of Consolation!
It is possible to reach a point where you're no longer able to be touched. This is a point where nothing and no one can console you!
Jeremiah writes: "...A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping: Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not" (Jeremiah 31:15).
At the time Jeremiah wrote this, Israel was being led away into captivity by the Assyrians. Their homes had been burned and destroyed and all their vineyards lay to waste. Jerusalem was reduced to a pile of rubble. All around them they saw nothing but ruin and desolation. So Jeremiah used Rachel - Israel's ancestor - as a weeping figure who's so distraught at seeing her children taken from her that nothing could comfort her.
In essence, Jeremiah was saying that these mourning Israelites had settled into their grief - and they were beyond all consolation! Jeremiah couldn't comfort them; there was no use even trying to talk to them. In their minds, God had allowed captivity to overtake them - and they had a right to be bitter toward him!
Yet here is the danger: When we harbor our questions and complaints for too long, they turn into irritation. Then our irritation turns into bitterness. And, finally, our bitterness turns into rage. At that point, we no longer listen to reproof. God's word does not affect us. And no one - no friend, pastor or spouse - can reach us. We shut out all wooing of the Spirit!
For Those Who Admit They Are Near or Even Past the Point of Refusing Consolation, There Is Good News!
God's word says there is hope! "Thus saith the Lord; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy" (Jeremiah 31:16). In other words: "Stop crying - stop complaining. I'm going to reward you for your faithfulness!"
"Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 15:58). Beloved, your cries and prayers have not been in vain! All your pain and tears have been for a purpose.
God is telling you, "You think it's all over. You see only your circumstances - failure, ruin, no results. So you say, 'This is the end.' But I say it is the beginning! I see the reward that I'm about to pour out on you. I have good things in mind for you - wonderful things. So, stop your crying!"
Dear saint, allow God's Spirit to heal you of all bitterness, anger, rage - before it destroys you! You may see only ruin in your life - but he sees restoration! Let him restore you now from the desolation surrounding you. He has only good things in mind for you - because "...he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" (Hebrews 11:6). Hallelujah!
Friday, July 25, 2008
Bible Institute of Malaya Anggeloi 1983 - 25th Anniversary
Date: 21st July 2008
Time: 12.30p.m to 3.00p.m
Venue: Armada Hotel, Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Ocassion: 25 th Class Anniversary,
Bible Institute of Malaya Anggeloi 1983
Note: More than 20 absentees.
Front (from left): Wai Lin (1982, spouse of Lawrence), Nancy Ong, Lisa Chin, Cecilia Tan, Nelson
Back (from left): Peter Tham, Daniel Goh, Lawrence Yap, Clement Wong, Allen Tan (1982, spouse of Cecilia), Michael Jalleh
Time: 12.30p.m to 3.00p.m
Venue: Armada Hotel, Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Ocassion: 25 th Class Anniversary,
Bible Institute of Malaya Anggeloi 1983
Note: More than 20 absentees.
Front (from left): Wai Lin (1982, spouse of Lawrence), Nancy Ong, Lisa Chin, Cecilia Tan, Nelson
Back (from left): Peter Tham, Daniel Goh, Lawrence Yap, Clement Wong, Allen Tan (1982, spouse of Cecilia), Michael Jalleh
Did the Right hand know what the Left is doing? - Malaysiakini
I always read Malaysiakini for updated news. But this time around I couldn't read a piece of news, i.e, after the UMNO supreme coucil meeting, there was no press conference.
UMNO's main topic of discussion was the UMNO-PAS meet-up that had taken place 3 times since the 308 election. The meetings had drawn much criticism from the people-at-large. Pak Lah had always claimed that he was the PM of all citizens. But now he was being accused of playing the racial card in order to save his declining kingdom. For that cause, at this moment of time it is understood that he would be too embarrassed to face the journalists and public.
Was there a heated deabte in the coucil meeting? Was Pak Lah being rounded up? Or the whole council stood by him for continued talks with PAS in order to split Pakatan?
Pak Lah had fallen into the present dilemma, sometimes I think much of the troubles in fact came from his deputy, Najib. Did Najib consult Pak Lah for his action in order to gain back his scathed reputation? It is likend as "Did the Right hand know what the Left is doing?" I doubted Pak Lah know before-hand. For example his meeting up with Saiful for plotting against Anwar for sodomy claimed by Raja Petra. Pak Lah could be in the dark. And subsequently the Right hand had to pick up the dung which was cast by the Left, and after picking it up he even had to hide it and made himself stink.
The only solution for Pak Lah to free himself is to throw them all out! PM must determine to prove his government free from stains.
UMNO's main topic of discussion was the UMNO-PAS meet-up that had taken place 3 times since the 308 election. The meetings had drawn much criticism from the people-at-large. Pak Lah had always claimed that he was the PM of all citizens. But now he was being accused of playing the racial card in order to save his declining kingdom. For that cause, at this moment of time it is understood that he would be too embarrassed to face the journalists and public.
Was there a heated deabte in the coucil meeting? Was Pak Lah being rounded up? Or the whole council stood by him for continued talks with PAS in order to split Pakatan?
Pak Lah had fallen into the present dilemma, sometimes I think much of the troubles in fact came from his deputy, Najib. Did Najib consult Pak Lah for his action in order to gain back his scathed reputation? It is likend as "Did the Right hand know what the Left is doing?" I doubted Pak Lah know before-hand. For example his meeting up with Saiful for plotting against Anwar for sodomy claimed by Raja Petra. Pak Lah could be in the dark. And subsequently the Right hand had to pick up the dung which was cast by the Left, and after picking it up he even had to hide it and made himself stink.
The only solution for Pak Lah to free himself is to throw them all out! PM must determine to prove his government free from stains.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Najib has 3 Mercedes at home, says Terengganu MB - Malaysiakini
I like what Terengganu MB Ahmad Said had jeered, "Look at Datuk Seri Najib, he has 3 Mercedes at home." Ya, Najib did not agree with the MB for buying 14 Mercs for BN State Excos and brought this up to the Cabinet.
The Cabinet ordered them to buy Proton Perdana instead. But the MB insisted to go ahead for the Mercs. Najib loves Mercs, and was he sincere to live an exemplary life? Was he the right person to advise the MB?
The Cabinet ordered them to buy Proton Perdana instead. But the MB insisted to go ahead for the Mercs. Najib loves Mercs, and was he sincere to live an exemplary life? Was he the right person to advise the MB?
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Anwar should not wait for Kulim court case- Malaysiakini
Malaysiakini reported that Anwar will probably stand for the by-election at Kulim Bandar Baru. UMNO Abdul Aziz has filed a court case against Kulim PKR MP Zulkifli Nordin to pronounce the seat void.
The court was supposed to be heard from 20th to 24th July but was postponed to 19 Aug.
I think that Anwar should not wait for the court case. For "technical" reason, it will be postponed further when the date arrives. So I suggest Zulkifli to resign from the seat immediately and pave way for Anwar. If Anwar were to take over the government on 16th Sept, he should consider seriously about this idea as he has not musch time left.
The court was supposed to be heard from 20th to 24th July but was postponed to 19 Aug.
I think that Anwar should not wait for the court case. For "technical" reason, it will be postponed further when the date arrives. So I suggest Zulkifli to resign from the seat immediately and pave way for Anwar. If Anwar were to take over the government on 16th Sept, he should consider seriously about this idea as he has not musch time left.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
UMNO-PAS talk - PM loses direction - Malaysiakini
UMNO had three talks with PAS in the name of "Malay and Muslim unity". But Pakatan supporters need not worrying. The first two times happened quite some times ago, and why did PM Abdullah only reveal it now? Because the present situation is not favorable to BN. PM's action showed that he has lost direction. It was a desperate move.
If PAS were to agree with UMNO's agenda, PAS would not stand by Pakatan in voting no-confidence against PM.
PM tells it out just to cause split to Pakatan. But let there be no anxiety. PAS will not reunite with UMNO after a divorce. PAS will never trust UMNO anymore. Once bitten twice shy. I think there is no point for PAS to be bitten again, to be shamed by UMNO again.
The action of PM had already hurt the non-Malays. Why did PM want to play the racial game? Even the Malays abhorred PM's action. No matter what race we are, all of us are Malaysians.
If PAS were to agree with UMNO's agenda, PAS would not stand by Pakatan in voting no-confidence against PM.
PM tells it out just to cause split to Pakatan. But let there be no anxiety. PAS will not reunite with UMNO after a divorce. PAS will never trust UMNO anymore. Once bitten twice shy. I think there is no point for PAS to be bitten again, to be shamed by UMNO again.
The action of PM had already hurt the non-Malays. Why did PM want to play the racial game? Even the Malays abhorred PM's action. No matter what race we are, all of us are Malaysians.
Monday, July 21, 2008
我对国中历史教科书的见解
读了卢诚国先生和川明先生发表文章关于中学历史教科书的编写和内容，我也想提出一些见解。
我在1960年代杪读初中，1970年代初读高中，当时的是英中，还未改制为国中。当时的中学历史教科书还延续英殖民政府的教育制度，对于国内外的历史资料不敢有所偏袒。而讲述关于种族和宗教，大致上可说乃属于中庸与平衡的。
以我校的学习经验，我们的问题不出于教科书，而是出于老师。老师对于他们自己有兴趣的题目，往往会用超出课程纲要的时间，他们可以讲到口沫横飞的。然而有些题目则大略带过，甚至只字不提，叫学生自己回家修读。再加上老师对宗教的偏见，某些宗教的题目就因此被跳过。
如卢诚国提到的削减宗教题目的现象（新课本只用大约100个字谈儒家，用大约153个字谈道教，旧课本分別用大约330个字谈儒家，用220个字谈道教。新课本完全不提基督教，不过有提到兴都教和佛教）不该出现以外，教育部也须确保老师不会因着偏见避而不谈的现象出现。并且也须确保由各宗教信徒担任撰写和审核的人员，以便宗教历史无误，因为过去教科书曾经出现“耶稣没被钉死而是逃走”的谬误。
我感到可惜的是当我升上高中后就没有机会读历史科，因为这是文科生的科目，不是理科生的。如此，即使我国的历史教科书编写得多么完整，竟然有一大群的学子因读理科而错过认识国家历史。那么不知教育部对此有何对策呢？
目前高中历史过于政治性，并且都偏袒单一种族的奋斗史和其宗教。我认为学习回教是一科专门科目，无需在国中大篇幅地教导，这应该是有兴趣的学生上大专后自选的科目。几十年前我们的编写平衡，带来种族能够融合相处，甚至能够坐在同一桌吃东西而不感到顾忌。但现在这种情况越来越罕见了，种族隔阂越发严重。
我也认为我国不妨在高中历史科增加国家宪法的内容。西方之所以变得民主，其中一个原因乃宪法是中学必修读的课程。我国已经独立50年了，但多少人对国家宪法认知？向来国人都被动地接受政客违反宪法的言论而被摆布，利益受到剥削。我们不能勇于表达自己的意见来维护自己的权益，因为我们对宪法无知。大马人要在国际有所突破，修读宪法正是此时矣。虽然我们不因此成为宪法专家，但却可以懂得自己的权益而争取公正和公义。
卢诚国‧客观编撰歷史教科书
（http://opinions.sinchew-i.com/node/6249）
2008-07-07 19:44
教育部长希山慕丁在接见马华公会中央教育代表团时说，他不希望5年一度的歷史教科书修订被政治化。他也要求马华公会的代表们从宏观的角度来看待歷史教科书的修订。
我是教育代表团的成员之一，我对於现有的中学歷史教科书在课程纲要及內容上所存在的不平衡及不完整性，虽曾在国会提出时遭受到打压却不气馁，自动自发成立检討小组，较后获得马华领导认同並接纳有关的检討文件。
在提呈有关国民中学歷史教科书的检討文件中，我们建议教育部成立一个多元种族委员会，检討及制订中学歷史教科书的纲要与內容，维护歷史科內容的素质与平衡。
我个人很同意希山慕丁的看法，即国中歷史教科书的修订不应被政治化。然而，真实的情况是，国中歷史教科书的內容本身充满政治性，我们才会要求检討及订正。
例如，教科书中提到“马来人主权”的课题，也解读“外来移民”至今还虎视眈眈国家財富，又用“私会党”来称呼19世纪的华人民间组织，具有提高某个种族的地位，贬低其他种族的效果。由於歷史的教导能够影响和决定学生在未来的岁月中对建国的態度和看法，教科书中的那些敘述，会影响心智尚未成熟、判断力不够的中学生对史实產生偏颇的看法。
其次，教科书提到，各民族团结合作爭取国家实现独立。然而又有段落提到，马来西亚的土地是马来人的，有一天要拿回来，要其他民族尊重马来人主权。这与各民族团结爭取国家独立的说法自相矛盾，也对促进各民族间的团结不利。
再次，教科书提到，只有国民小学才能团结各民族。这等於说，华小和淡小不能促进团结。这与事实不符。华小是政府承认的教育源流之一，它与国小具有共同的课程纲要，强调效忠元首、热爱国家，也强调民族团结。何况有越来越多的非华族小学生在华小就读。
我也同意希山慕丁所说的，以宏观的態度来看待国中歷史教科书的修订问题。我们更要看到，以宏观及可观的角度来撰写和修订教科书的內容，让中学生能真正瞭解国家歷史的发展以及各民族在建国过程中的贡献。
我也认为，有必要对世界各主要文明的学习有更多的延伸。这將给我们的下一代提供一个更平衡的视野，让他们在面向全球化的挑战时，具备更佳的竞爭优势。
然而，必须指出的是， 中四歷史课本总共10章，有5章是从各个角度谈回教歷史。旧的课本只用了1章共35页谈回教歷史，而新课本用了大约97页来谈回教歷史。
新课本只用大约100个字谈儒家，用大约153个字谈道教，旧课本分別用大约330个字谈儒家，用220个字谈道教。新课本完全不提基督教，不过有提到兴都教和佛教。
国中歷史教科书中目前所存在的主观敘述、偏见、偏差、抬高某个民族、贬低其他民族的內容必须全部刪除。
只有这样，歷史教科书才能真正起到使学生瞭解歷史真相，促进民族团结的作用；而不是相反的，造成各民族学生从小產生偏见与隔阂，不利於民族团结与国家建设。
因此，针对今年教育局將作出5年一度的歷史教科书修订事宜，客观编撰国中歷史教科书，检討及订正其纲要与內容乃事不宜迟。
川明‧还原歷史教科书的真相
（http://opinions.sinchew-i.com/node/6283）
2008-07-10 18:30
拜读了卢诚国7月8日刊登於《言路版》的文章，我想只是要对歷史这一科目热衷或稍感兴趣的人皆有同感，尤其是国中时曾念过的歷史课本，多少有欠缺客观与公平之处，马来西亚史方面更甚。
歷史的误解往往是基於谁掌权的问题上，所谓“胜者撰写歷史”，失败的一方自然就会被淘汰掉或是被略减。多年前引发的吉隆坡创建者到底是华人（甲必丹叶亚来）抑或马来土酋的课题，两族因歷史建树问题而闹得火热，这是我们所不愿意看见的。史实尽然已证明了甲必丹叶亚来是创始人，为何还要以种族来区分挑衅来引起不必要爭议？叶亚来是私会党客家海山帮的领袖是事实，早期来到马来亚的华人祖辈由各种氏人组成，加上对异乡的不熟悉及人身安全，多少会组会社来保护自己人，中国帮会史在华人移民史上佔有一席之地，却万不可籍此来抹黑所有的华人。至於叶亚来在国中歷史上的版面为何只剩下半页，倒是惹人质疑。
还有一敏感的问题既是有关马来亚共產党的歷史功过，1989年马共缴械前在歷史上属“恐怖份子”，投降后亦无任何的改变，在大马歷史上永远处於是反面教材、杀人不眨眼的豺狼野兽来妖魔化马共。是否都忘了二战时期与独立前期的本地歷史了？二战是马共的前身是抗日义勇军，独立前则转身为抗英的游击队，在大马史上多少也存有一些功绩甚至意义吧？为何直到了今日，过去的歷史依然是受到警惕的恶梦？马共同样是怀著共同的理想--独立，武装革命是他们的战斗方式，毋庸置疑。然而庆幸的是，大马是东南亚国家唯一以和平方式独立的国家，但凭这点更要认真去比较二者之间的不同，而非一昧地否决掉他们曾为大马付出的贡献。歷史的责任是还清真相，进一步去教导下一代从教训中学习谅解，而非鼓吹仇视或为他们製造恐慌。
“马来主权”是另一敏感问题，翻看宪法所规定的只有“马来人权益”，没有所谓的主权；何况独立时国父东姑阿都拉曼声称这是“各族共同建立的国家”，之所以有“你的、我的”之说，无非是歷史政治化的一种间接误导。在同一所学校內各族学生共同拥有的歷史课本中，竟出现国家、民族、宗教各主权问题等“种族优越性”文章，怎么样去促进各族间的团结一致精神？马来西亚虽说是属於各族的，都是一家人，但为何有义务去教导人民团结重要性的歷史课却破坏了这一切？513事件在中五歷史教科书里的篇幅只有一小段落，叫人怎么认清当年暴动的事实？
卢先生还谈到了中四歷史课本章节分配上的不均匀，比起旧版本，世界史差点就被误会成回教史了，反看四大文明起源史竟然只有那么一章，这到底该怎么平衡？就算回教史包含了起源、发展、文明、人物、宗教各大课题，难道其他的文明、宗教、文化都不等於一回事了？这问题虽然不大，毕竟国中歷史课本只是导论而並非专科，回教史大可给在中六选修歷史科目的学生去仔细研究（如今据说已併入世界史）。中四歷史课本范围拘限在世界史，那就公平地分配好世界史必须认识的章节与课题，回教可归为世界宗教史的一环，不应该大费周章去独尊它的地位。
教育部长希山慕丁已要求更改，还歷史一个清白、客观与公正面，我们就该献上鼓励与支持；也盼望教育代表团能尽其力去爭取歷史的客观性，还原歷史真相之余並揭开大马近现代史上无数被政治所蒙蔽的灰色地带。
卢诚国‧会党曾作出重大贡献
（http://opinions.sinchew-i.com/node/6378）
2008-07-18 19:20
感谢川明君7月10日发表文章支持本人在〈客观编撰歷史教科书〉一文的论点，特別是他在文中提到，“国中时曾念过的歷史课本，多少有欠客观与公平之处，马来西亚史方面更甚。”他的这项如实敘述，相信会引起读者们的共鸣；因为许多人都对国中歷史课本对史实的阐述与评论不够客观感到不满。
个人希望有更多公眾人士针对国中歷史教科书的內容进行探討，以形成共识，要求教育部纠正国中歷史教科书的偏差。
今天这篇文章的內容，是要纠正一般人对早期的华人会党领袖被误解为私会党的看法。因为这一字之差，影响深远，前者是中性的，如实反映歷史真相；后者就具有贬意，有损早期华人领袖的声誉。因为目前的私会党是为非作歹之辈，而早期的华人会党领袖则是排纷解难，为社会服务；两者有很大的差別。
会党是源自中国，是明末清初反清復明的產物。因为当年满清政府残酷镇压抗清运动，反抗者只好用秘密结社的方式进行，因此组成会党。孙中山领导革命推翻清朝，和中国数千年来的帝制，主要得力於会党。
华人在19世纪末及20世纪初大举移民新马，也把会党的组织带进来；这种华人的结社方式是为了自保兼发展，不同方言群的华人有不同的会党团体。
在当时的歷史条件下，当年这些会党是合法的团结，对內团结各华人方言群，对外代表华社，早期与马来亚各土邦政府打交道，后来则代表华人与英国殖民地政府交涉，维护华人的利益。
根据史料，在1889年以前，诸如海山，义兴等华人会党，其领袖多为当时的华社领导人，都受到英方、马来王室及各族人民的尊重与重视，为各地方的开拓与兴旺发达，作出了卓越贡献。
例如，霹雳海山的郑景贵、义兴的陈亚炎，都受委为华人甲必丹，且是霹雳州首届行政议会议员。
又如吉隆坡的华人甲必丹，海山领袖叶亚来，在雪兰莪內战中打胜战，又是吉隆坡的开埠功臣，贡献良多。另外，新山的黄亚福也是当年华社的重要领导人。
以上提到的4位，在当地都有街道以其名字命名以资纪念，反映出政府承认他们的功绩。
到了19世纪末，隨著时代的变迁，英殖民地政府封闭新马各地的会党组织。华社改由社团领袖代表与英国殖民地政府及马来王室打交道。
到国家独立前后，华人组织了单元种族或多元种族的政党，参与国家政治，参加执政联盟的华基政党参与执政。如参加国阵的有马华、民政党、人民联合党等；参加人民联盟的有行动党。
总的来说，华人会党是歷史的產物，起过民间团体和华人政党的作用，对团结华社和地方建设作出过重大贡献。把它们和为非作歹的私会党相提並论是不正確的，也不符合歷史事实。
我在1960年代杪读初中，1970年代初读高中，当时的是英中，还未改制为国中。当时的中学历史教科书还延续英殖民政府的教育制度，对于国内外的历史资料不敢有所偏袒。而讲述关于种族和宗教，大致上可说乃属于中庸与平衡的。
以我校的学习经验，我们的问题不出于教科书，而是出于老师。老师对于他们自己有兴趣的题目，往往会用超出课程纲要的时间，他们可以讲到口沫横飞的。然而有些题目则大略带过，甚至只字不提，叫学生自己回家修读。再加上老师对宗教的偏见，某些宗教的题目就因此被跳过。
如卢诚国提到的削减宗教题目的现象（新课本只用大约100个字谈儒家，用大约153个字谈道教，旧课本分別用大约330个字谈儒家，用220个字谈道教。新课本完全不提基督教，不过有提到兴都教和佛教）不该出现以外，教育部也须确保老师不会因着偏见避而不谈的现象出现。并且也须确保由各宗教信徒担任撰写和审核的人员，以便宗教历史无误，因为过去教科书曾经出现“耶稣没被钉死而是逃走”的谬误。
我感到可惜的是当我升上高中后就没有机会读历史科，因为这是文科生的科目，不是理科生的。如此，即使我国的历史教科书编写得多么完整，竟然有一大群的学子因读理科而错过认识国家历史。那么不知教育部对此有何对策呢？
目前高中历史过于政治性，并且都偏袒单一种族的奋斗史和其宗教。我认为学习回教是一科专门科目，无需在国中大篇幅地教导，这应该是有兴趣的学生上大专后自选的科目。几十年前我们的编写平衡，带来种族能够融合相处，甚至能够坐在同一桌吃东西而不感到顾忌。但现在这种情况越来越罕见了，种族隔阂越发严重。
我也认为我国不妨在高中历史科增加国家宪法的内容。西方之所以变得民主，其中一个原因乃宪法是中学必修读的课程。我国已经独立50年了，但多少人对国家宪法认知？向来国人都被动地接受政客违反宪法的言论而被摆布，利益受到剥削。我们不能勇于表达自己的意见来维护自己的权益，因为我们对宪法无知。大马人要在国际有所突破，修读宪法正是此时矣。虽然我们不因此成为宪法专家，但却可以懂得自己的权益而争取公正和公义。
卢诚国‧客观编撰歷史教科书
（http://opinions.sinchew-i.com/node/6249）
2008-07-07 19:44
教育部长希山慕丁在接见马华公会中央教育代表团时说，他不希望5年一度的歷史教科书修订被政治化。他也要求马华公会的代表们从宏观的角度来看待歷史教科书的修订。
我是教育代表团的成员之一，我对於现有的中学歷史教科书在课程纲要及內容上所存在的不平衡及不完整性，虽曾在国会提出时遭受到打压却不气馁，自动自发成立检討小组，较后获得马华领导认同並接纳有关的检討文件。
在提呈有关国民中学歷史教科书的检討文件中，我们建议教育部成立一个多元种族委员会，检討及制订中学歷史教科书的纲要与內容，维护歷史科內容的素质与平衡。
我个人很同意希山慕丁的看法，即国中歷史教科书的修订不应被政治化。然而，真实的情况是，国中歷史教科书的內容本身充满政治性，我们才会要求检討及订正。
例如，教科书中提到“马来人主权”的课题，也解读“外来移民”至今还虎视眈眈国家財富，又用“私会党”来称呼19世纪的华人民间组织，具有提高某个种族的地位，贬低其他种族的效果。由於歷史的教导能够影响和决定学生在未来的岁月中对建国的態度和看法，教科书中的那些敘述，会影响心智尚未成熟、判断力不够的中学生对史实產生偏颇的看法。
其次，教科书提到，各民族团结合作爭取国家实现独立。然而又有段落提到，马来西亚的土地是马来人的，有一天要拿回来，要其他民族尊重马来人主权。这与各民族团结爭取国家独立的说法自相矛盾，也对促进各民族间的团结不利。
再次，教科书提到，只有国民小学才能团结各民族。这等於说，华小和淡小不能促进团结。这与事实不符。华小是政府承认的教育源流之一，它与国小具有共同的课程纲要，强调效忠元首、热爱国家，也强调民族团结。何况有越来越多的非华族小学生在华小就读。
我也同意希山慕丁所说的，以宏观的態度来看待国中歷史教科书的修订问题。我们更要看到，以宏观及可观的角度来撰写和修订教科书的內容，让中学生能真正瞭解国家歷史的发展以及各民族在建国过程中的贡献。
我也认为，有必要对世界各主要文明的学习有更多的延伸。这將给我们的下一代提供一个更平衡的视野，让他们在面向全球化的挑战时，具备更佳的竞爭优势。
然而，必须指出的是， 中四歷史课本总共10章，有5章是从各个角度谈回教歷史。旧的课本只用了1章共35页谈回教歷史，而新课本用了大约97页来谈回教歷史。
新课本只用大约100个字谈儒家，用大约153个字谈道教，旧课本分別用大约330个字谈儒家，用220个字谈道教。新课本完全不提基督教，不过有提到兴都教和佛教。
国中歷史教科书中目前所存在的主观敘述、偏见、偏差、抬高某个民族、贬低其他民族的內容必须全部刪除。
只有这样，歷史教科书才能真正起到使学生瞭解歷史真相，促进民族团结的作用；而不是相反的，造成各民族学生从小產生偏见与隔阂，不利於民族团结与国家建设。
因此，针对今年教育局將作出5年一度的歷史教科书修订事宜，客观编撰国中歷史教科书，检討及订正其纲要与內容乃事不宜迟。
川明‧还原歷史教科书的真相
（http://opinions.sinchew-i.com/node/6283）
2008-07-10 18:30
拜读了卢诚国7月8日刊登於《言路版》的文章，我想只是要对歷史这一科目热衷或稍感兴趣的人皆有同感，尤其是国中时曾念过的歷史课本，多少有欠缺客观与公平之处，马来西亚史方面更甚。
歷史的误解往往是基於谁掌权的问题上，所谓“胜者撰写歷史”，失败的一方自然就会被淘汰掉或是被略减。多年前引发的吉隆坡创建者到底是华人（甲必丹叶亚来）抑或马来土酋的课题，两族因歷史建树问题而闹得火热，这是我们所不愿意看见的。史实尽然已证明了甲必丹叶亚来是创始人，为何还要以种族来区分挑衅来引起不必要爭议？叶亚来是私会党客家海山帮的领袖是事实，早期来到马来亚的华人祖辈由各种氏人组成，加上对异乡的不熟悉及人身安全，多少会组会社来保护自己人，中国帮会史在华人移民史上佔有一席之地，却万不可籍此来抹黑所有的华人。至於叶亚来在国中歷史上的版面为何只剩下半页，倒是惹人质疑。
还有一敏感的问题既是有关马来亚共產党的歷史功过，1989年马共缴械前在歷史上属“恐怖份子”，投降后亦无任何的改变，在大马歷史上永远处於是反面教材、杀人不眨眼的豺狼野兽来妖魔化马共。是否都忘了二战时期与独立前期的本地歷史了？二战是马共的前身是抗日义勇军，独立前则转身为抗英的游击队，在大马史上多少也存有一些功绩甚至意义吧？为何直到了今日，过去的歷史依然是受到警惕的恶梦？马共同样是怀著共同的理想--独立，武装革命是他们的战斗方式，毋庸置疑。然而庆幸的是，大马是东南亚国家唯一以和平方式独立的国家，但凭这点更要认真去比较二者之间的不同，而非一昧地否决掉他们曾为大马付出的贡献。歷史的责任是还清真相，进一步去教导下一代从教训中学习谅解，而非鼓吹仇视或为他们製造恐慌。
“马来主权”是另一敏感问题，翻看宪法所规定的只有“马来人权益”，没有所谓的主权；何况独立时国父东姑阿都拉曼声称这是“各族共同建立的国家”，之所以有“你的、我的”之说，无非是歷史政治化的一种间接误导。在同一所学校內各族学生共同拥有的歷史课本中，竟出现国家、民族、宗教各主权问题等“种族优越性”文章，怎么样去促进各族间的团结一致精神？马来西亚虽说是属於各族的，都是一家人，但为何有义务去教导人民团结重要性的歷史课却破坏了这一切？513事件在中五歷史教科书里的篇幅只有一小段落，叫人怎么认清当年暴动的事实？
卢先生还谈到了中四歷史课本章节分配上的不均匀，比起旧版本，世界史差点就被误会成回教史了，反看四大文明起源史竟然只有那么一章，这到底该怎么平衡？就算回教史包含了起源、发展、文明、人物、宗教各大课题，难道其他的文明、宗教、文化都不等於一回事了？这问题虽然不大，毕竟国中歷史课本只是导论而並非专科，回教史大可给在中六选修歷史科目的学生去仔细研究（如今据说已併入世界史）。中四歷史课本范围拘限在世界史，那就公平地分配好世界史必须认识的章节与课题，回教可归为世界宗教史的一环，不应该大费周章去独尊它的地位。
教育部长希山慕丁已要求更改，还歷史一个清白、客观与公正面，我们就该献上鼓励与支持；也盼望教育代表团能尽其力去爭取歷史的客观性，还原歷史真相之余並揭开大马近现代史上无数被政治所蒙蔽的灰色地带。
卢诚国‧会党曾作出重大贡献
（http://opinions.sinchew-i.com/node/6378）
2008-07-18 19:20
感谢川明君7月10日发表文章支持本人在〈客观编撰歷史教科书〉一文的论点，特別是他在文中提到，“国中时曾念过的歷史课本，多少有欠客观与公平之处，马来西亚史方面更甚。”他的这项如实敘述，相信会引起读者们的共鸣；因为许多人都对国中歷史课本对史实的阐述与评论不够客观感到不满。
个人希望有更多公眾人士针对国中歷史教科书的內容进行探討，以形成共识，要求教育部纠正国中歷史教科书的偏差。
今天这篇文章的內容，是要纠正一般人对早期的华人会党领袖被误解为私会党的看法。因为这一字之差，影响深远，前者是中性的，如实反映歷史真相；后者就具有贬意，有损早期华人领袖的声誉。因为目前的私会党是为非作歹之辈，而早期的华人会党领袖则是排纷解难，为社会服务；两者有很大的差別。
会党是源自中国，是明末清初反清復明的產物。因为当年满清政府残酷镇压抗清运动，反抗者只好用秘密结社的方式进行，因此组成会党。孙中山领导革命推翻清朝，和中国数千年来的帝制，主要得力於会党。
华人在19世纪末及20世纪初大举移民新马，也把会党的组织带进来；这种华人的结社方式是为了自保兼发展，不同方言群的华人有不同的会党团体。
在当时的歷史条件下，当年这些会党是合法的团结，对內团结各华人方言群，对外代表华社，早期与马来亚各土邦政府打交道，后来则代表华人与英国殖民地政府交涉，维护华人的利益。
根据史料，在1889年以前，诸如海山，义兴等华人会党，其领袖多为当时的华社领导人，都受到英方、马来王室及各族人民的尊重与重视，为各地方的开拓与兴旺发达，作出了卓越贡献。
例如，霹雳海山的郑景贵、义兴的陈亚炎，都受委为华人甲必丹，且是霹雳州首届行政议会议员。
又如吉隆坡的华人甲必丹，海山领袖叶亚来，在雪兰莪內战中打胜战，又是吉隆坡的开埠功臣，贡献良多。另外，新山的黄亚福也是当年华社的重要领导人。
以上提到的4位，在当地都有街道以其名字命名以资纪念，反映出政府承认他们的功绩。
到了19世纪末，隨著时代的变迁，英殖民地政府封闭新马各地的会党组织。华社改由社团领袖代表与英国殖民地政府及马来王室打交道。
到国家独立前后，华人组织了单元种族或多元种族的政党，参与国家政治，参加执政联盟的华基政党参与执政。如参加国阵的有马华、民政党、人民联合党等；参加人民联盟的有行动党。
总的来说，华人会党是歷史的產物，起过民间团体和华人政党的作用，对团结华社和地方建设作出过重大贡献。把它们和为非作歹的私会党相提並论是不正確的，也不符合歷史事实。
MCA is fast becoming irrelevant - Malaysiakini
Malaysiakini has revealed that Dr Tan Yee Kew is now "very likely" to join Parti Keadilan Rakyat (http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/86491).
Yee Kew has chosen the right move. Ong Ka Ting was short-sighted for not fielding her in the recent Gen Election. But that had, in a way, spared her the agony due to the wind of change in the country. She was very likely to lose under the banner of BN. Now is the right time for her to leave MCA. It does not matter whether she joins PKR or DAP, as long as she could pave her way for the next Gen. Election.
The recent scenarios in the country showed that MCA is no more important to the Chinese as before. I could see that Ong Ka Ting was smart enough by stepping down as the president. Because Pakatan Rakyat will soon take over the government by 16th Sept. If not, it will take place by the next Gen. Election. So MCA is fast becoming irrelevant. It will not be very proud to be an opposition leader after enjoying for power for so long.
As such, to the Chinese, it does not matter who will become the next president of MCA, whether Ong Tee Keat, or Ong Ka Chuan, or Ng Yen Yen, or Dr Chua Soi Lek, or Chua Jui Meng, because the Chinese knew that MCA will always be chicken-hearted over the extreme policies of its Tai Ko UMNO. MCA would always keep silent when the welfares of the Chinese are denied.
Yee Kew has chosen the right move. Ong Ka Ting was short-sighted for not fielding her in the recent Gen Election. But that had, in a way, spared her the agony due to the wind of change in the country. She was very likely to lose under the banner of BN. Now is the right time for her to leave MCA. It does not matter whether she joins PKR or DAP, as long as she could pave her way for the next Gen. Election.
The recent scenarios in the country showed that MCA is no more important to the Chinese as before. I could see that Ong Ka Ting was smart enough by stepping down as the president. Because Pakatan Rakyat will soon take over the government by 16th Sept. If not, it will take place by the next Gen. Election. So MCA is fast becoming irrelevant. It will not be very proud to be an opposition leader after enjoying for power for so long.
As such, to the Chinese, it does not matter who will become the next president of MCA, whether Ong Tee Keat, or Ong Ka Chuan, or Ng Yen Yen, or Dr Chua Soi Lek, or Chua Jui Meng, because the Chinese knew that MCA will always be chicken-hearted over the extreme policies of its Tai Ko UMNO. MCA would always keep silent when the welfares of the Chinese are denied.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Why US senator cautions PM -Malaysiakini
Malaysiakini reported about US senator Biden's caution to PM for not to repeat past mistakes. His caution was just timely in the midst of political uncertainty. To the US, what happened to Anwar in 1998 was a mistake made by the Mahathir govt. Subsequently Mahathir's fame was tarnished. No wonder Mahathir from thence became critical of the US, esp since the latter, together with Israel, had rejected to fund BN's 1999 poll.
I can't imagine the present govt under Abdullah is trying to play the old game again. Malaysia must be wondering why US and Japan were so concerned about the Anwar drama. Well, the reason is as simple as ABC. That is, by seeing the way police was treating Anwar, all people throughout the world knew that it was a consipracy. Hitherto the police was refusing to release the accuser Saiful's report to Anwar's lawyers. They also insisted Anwar's DNA be tested.
One thing I don't understand is that why were the police not swift in taking DPM Najib's statements, since he was the first person who knew about Saiful's trauma? They must investigate how Saiful, who was just an ordinary young chap, was able to meet up with a VIP like the DPM?
The govt should better pull up its socks. Or else the US and Japan will pull out their funds. Don't sacrifice our economy just for the sake of saving BN.
The following was extracted from http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/86387:-
United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee has urged Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi not to repeat the mistakes of the past in wake of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s arrest.
"A decade ago, the spectacle of Anwar's mistreatment and imprisonment on transparently political grounds greatly discredited Malaysia in the eyes of the world community. The action tarnished the reputation of then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad,” said Joseph R Biden, chairman of the powerful committee.
“I certainly hope that the current prime minister, Abdullah Badawi, does not repeat the mistakes of the past.”
“I certainly hope that the current prime minister, Abdullah Badawi, does not repeat the mistakes of the past.”
Biden, a senior senator from Delaware, called on Abdullah to “commit himself to rule of law and good governance in Malaysia”.
His statement came two days after police commandos in balaclava swooped on Anwar’s car as he approached his home, just an hour before he was due to appear voluntarily for interrogation.
His appointment with the police was over the sodomy allegations levelled by Mohamad Saiful Bukhari Azlan, a 23-year-old who was an aide in his office.
Anwar was taken to police headquarters and underwent a six-hour questioning session before being taken to hospital for a medical examination where he was stripped naked and his private parts measured.
He was released on bail yesterday and is required to report back to the police next month.
Anwar has dismissed the accusations as a conspiracy to prevent him from seizing power, and said it was a re-run of events a decade ago when he was slapped with charges widely seen as politically motivated.
Shocked and disheartened
Biden said he was “shocked and disheartened” by the arrest of Anwar, who is former deputy prime minister.
“This action appears to be motivated by political considerations: it comes less than a day after Anwar's announcement of his intention to stand for election to Parliament, and three months after Anwar's party made the strongest electoral showing by an opposition party in Malaysian history.
"The charges against Anwar closely mirror those levied against him in 1998: then, too, politically-motivated allegations were made against Anwar at the precise moment when he seemed poised to challenge a sitting prime minister.”
Malaysia earlier this month issued a formal protest to the United States over its comments on the investigation into the sodomy allegations, accusing it of meddling in its internal affairs.
Government leaders have also attacked Anwar as a "snitch" for the Americans.
I can't imagine the present govt under Abdullah is trying to play the old game again. Malaysia must be wondering why US and Japan were so concerned about the Anwar drama. Well, the reason is as simple as ABC. That is, by seeing the way police was treating Anwar, all people throughout the world knew that it was a consipracy. Hitherto the police was refusing to release the accuser Saiful's report to Anwar's lawyers. They also insisted Anwar's DNA be tested.
One thing I don't understand is that why were the police not swift in taking DPM Najib's statements, since he was the first person who knew about Saiful's trauma? They must investigate how Saiful, who was just an ordinary young chap, was able to meet up with a VIP like the DPM?
The govt should better pull up its socks. Or else the US and Japan will pull out their funds. Don't sacrifice our economy just for the sake of saving BN.
The following was extracted from http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/86387:-
United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee has urged Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi not to repeat the mistakes of the past in wake of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s arrest.
"A decade ago, the spectacle of Anwar's mistreatment and imprisonment on transparently political grounds greatly discredited Malaysia in the eyes of the world community. The action tarnished the reputation of then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad,” said Joseph R Biden, chairman of the powerful committee.
“I certainly hope that the current prime minister, Abdullah Badawi, does not repeat the mistakes of the past.”
“I certainly hope that the current prime minister, Abdullah Badawi, does not repeat the mistakes of the past.”
Biden, a senior senator from Delaware, called on Abdullah to “commit himself to rule of law and good governance in Malaysia”.
His statement came two days after police commandos in balaclava swooped on Anwar’s car as he approached his home, just an hour before he was due to appear voluntarily for interrogation.
His appointment with the police was over the sodomy allegations levelled by Mohamad Saiful Bukhari Azlan, a 23-year-old who was an aide in his office.
Anwar was taken to police headquarters and underwent a six-hour questioning session before being taken to hospital for a medical examination where he was stripped naked and his private parts measured.
He was released on bail yesterday and is required to report back to the police next month.
Anwar has dismissed the accusations as a conspiracy to prevent him from seizing power, and said it was a re-run of events a decade ago when he was slapped with charges widely seen as politically motivated.
Shocked and disheartened
Biden said he was “shocked and disheartened” by the arrest of Anwar, who is former deputy prime minister.
“This action appears to be motivated by political considerations: it comes less than a day after Anwar's announcement of his intention to stand for election to Parliament, and three months after Anwar's party made the strongest electoral showing by an opposition party in Malaysian history.
"The charges against Anwar closely mirror those levied against him in 1998: then, too, politically-motivated allegations were made against Anwar at the precise moment when he seemed poised to challenge a sitting prime minister.”
Malaysia earlier this month issued a formal protest to the United States over its comments on the investigation into the sodomy allegations, accusing it of meddling in its internal affairs.
Government leaders have also attacked Anwar as a "snitch" for the Americans.
Friday, July 18, 2008
The True Heroes of 21st Century Christianity
I draw deep inspiration from brave Christians I've met in the developing world. Let me introduce you to a few of these amazing people.
Which do you want to be —a hero or a celebrity?
Our narcissistic culture tempts us to sell our souls for five minutes of fame on a reality show. It’s not much different in some churches today, where we’ve developed a celebrity culture that morphs pastors into motivational gurus and worship leaders into pop stars.
But when I visit places like India, Nigeria or China, I don’t typically find Christian celebrities. I find humble heroes. And these simple people have rocked my world. They have become my role models.
“But when I visit places like India, Nigeria or China, I don’t typically find Christian celebrities. I find humble heroes. And these simple people have rocked my world.”
Kelechi is my bravest African friend. Still single, he started a ministry in Nigeria a few years ago that focuses on evangelizing dangerous militant gangs. Some of these para-military groups have kidnapped oil company workers in Nigeria’s petroleum-rich delta region during the past year. But Kelechi is not afraid of their guns or machetes. In fact, he has allowed himself to be kidnapped in order to get a face-to-face conversation with a gang leader.
Kelechi also trains college students to reach the leaders of Nigeria’s campus “cults.” These mysterious fraternal organizations are involved in occult rituals, and sometimes the members engage in human sacrifice. Yet Kelechi and his friends risk their lives every day to share Christ with these people.
I met 29-year-old Jeet during a trip to northern India in February. His Hindu father disowned him when he became a Christian at age 17. “My father said that if I deny Jesus I can come back,” Jeet said with a resolute tone. He has not returned to his parents’ home in 14 years.
Jeet has a slight frame, but his heart is ablaze with courage. He has been planting churches in two of India’s most resistant states—Bihar and Orissa. Just last Christmas, a group of Hindu fanatics attacked him and ordered him to stop his meetings. They also threatened to kill one of his colleagues. “They told me there is no need to preach the gospel here,” Jeet said, “but I tell them it is a commandment from Jesus to preach to all people.”
I met Otoniel, a Guatemalan pastor, seven years ago during my first mission trip to that country. He lives in an area that was deeply scarred by Guatemala’s 36-year civil war. After he was baptized in the Holy Spirit, he planted a church in 1980 in the town of El Rosario. The growing congregation has become a beacon of hope to a needy region.
Today, from his modest, three-bedroom house, he feeds lunch to most of the poor children in his town, runs an orphanage and a vocational training center, and preaches the gospel on the radio daily. “One day we will go to other nations and spread the gospel,” Otoniel told me.
Jeyasingh is a brave Indian lady who refuses to fit in anyone’s box. In a nation where women still suffer unimaginable discrimination and abuse, she has worked tirelessly as a leader among India’s growing Pentecostal churches. Now 54, Jeyasingh trains young pastors from her isolated school in the state of Bihar, in northern India, where Hindu tradition is strong. She is particularly burdened to train more women; those who convert to Christianity struggle to learn the Bible because they have been denied education.
I saw a fire in Jeyasingh’s eyes that I don’t see often in my own country. It was a mix of holy courage and relentless love. “This whole nation will be set ablaze,” she said of India’s future.
Xuan is a church planter in rural China. I met him at a secret training conference held near Hong Kong seven years ago. He told me how militant Buddhists used medieval swords to attack him when he tried to evangelize an area of northern China a few years earlier. During the conference he saved soaps and shampoos from his hotel room to take on his missionary journeys. He had no money, but his faith was big.
These people are my heroes. They have denied themselves to take up the cross. They endure persecution from government officials, angry villagers and family members—yet they live, eat and breathe one passion: to make Christ known to a broken world.
In his book A Time for Heroes, Dutch evangelist Brother Andrew issued a call to all of us to become heroes rather than celebrities. He wrote: “Brothers and sisters, the time is now. Christ goes before you, accompanied by many heroes of the faith who have gone before. Learn from their example let us heed God’s call to be heroes of the faith, so that we can say with the apostle Paul, ‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.’”
http://us.mg2.mail.yahoo.com/dc/launch?.rand=ei0p1b1lifibm
J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma.
Which do you want to be —a hero or a celebrity?
Our narcissistic culture tempts us to sell our souls for five minutes of fame on a reality show. It’s not much different in some churches today, where we’ve developed a celebrity culture that morphs pastors into motivational gurus and worship leaders into pop stars.
But when I visit places like India, Nigeria or China, I don’t typically find Christian celebrities. I find humble heroes. And these simple people have rocked my world. They have become my role models.
“But when I visit places like India, Nigeria or China, I don’t typically find Christian celebrities. I find humble heroes. And these simple people have rocked my world.”
Kelechi is my bravest African friend. Still single, he started a ministry in Nigeria a few years ago that focuses on evangelizing dangerous militant gangs. Some of these para-military groups have kidnapped oil company workers in Nigeria’s petroleum-rich delta region during the past year. But Kelechi is not afraid of their guns or machetes. In fact, he has allowed himself to be kidnapped in order to get a face-to-face conversation with a gang leader.
Kelechi also trains college students to reach the leaders of Nigeria’s campus “cults.” These mysterious fraternal organizations are involved in occult rituals, and sometimes the members engage in human sacrifice. Yet Kelechi and his friends risk their lives every day to share Christ with these people.
I met 29-year-old Jeet during a trip to northern India in February. His Hindu father disowned him when he became a Christian at age 17. “My father said that if I deny Jesus I can come back,” Jeet said with a resolute tone. He has not returned to his parents’ home in 14 years.
Jeet has a slight frame, but his heart is ablaze with courage. He has been planting churches in two of India’s most resistant states—Bihar and Orissa. Just last Christmas, a group of Hindu fanatics attacked him and ordered him to stop his meetings. They also threatened to kill one of his colleagues. “They told me there is no need to preach the gospel here,” Jeet said, “but I tell them it is a commandment from Jesus to preach to all people.”
I met Otoniel, a Guatemalan pastor, seven years ago during my first mission trip to that country. He lives in an area that was deeply scarred by Guatemala’s 36-year civil war. After he was baptized in the Holy Spirit, he planted a church in 1980 in the town of El Rosario. The growing congregation has become a beacon of hope to a needy region.
Today, from his modest, three-bedroom house, he feeds lunch to most of the poor children in his town, runs an orphanage and a vocational training center, and preaches the gospel on the radio daily. “One day we will go to other nations and spread the gospel,” Otoniel told me.
Jeyasingh is a brave Indian lady who refuses to fit in anyone’s box. In a nation where women still suffer unimaginable discrimination and abuse, she has worked tirelessly as a leader among India’s growing Pentecostal churches. Now 54, Jeyasingh trains young pastors from her isolated school in the state of Bihar, in northern India, where Hindu tradition is strong. She is particularly burdened to train more women; those who convert to Christianity struggle to learn the Bible because they have been denied education.
I saw a fire in Jeyasingh’s eyes that I don’t see often in my own country. It was a mix of holy courage and relentless love. “This whole nation will be set ablaze,” she said of India’s future.
Xuan is a church planter in rural China. I met him at a secret training conference held near Hong Kong seven years ago. He told me how militant Buddhists used medieval swords to attack him when he tried to evangelize an area of northern China a few years earlier. During the conference he saved soaps and shampoos from his hotel room to take on his missionary journeys. He had no money, but his faith was big.
These people are my heroes. They have denied themselves to take up the cross. They endure persecution from government officials, angry villagers and family members—yet they live, eat and breathe one passion: to make Christ known to a broken world.
In his book A Time for Heroes, Dutch evangelist Brother Andrew issued a call to all of us to become heroes rather than celebrities. He wrote: “Brothers and sisters, the time is now. Christ goes before you, accompanied by many heroes of the faith who have gone before. Learn from their example let us heed God’s call to be heroes of the faith, so that we can say with the apostle Paul, ‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.’”
http://us.mg2.mail.yahoo.com/dc/launch?.rand=ei0p1b1lifibm
J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
安华当首相之路坎坷
《当今大马》报道“安华说一旦执政降油价50仙，检讨国能国油发电厂省50亿”（http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/86171）。
我也看完整个节目，想作一个评论。
公正党顾问安华和新闻部长阿末沙伯里通过电视现场辩论，这是除了现场播放国会问答半小时的事项，再出席另外的新闻自由突破。相信国人希望在未来日子，政府能够更开明，允许不同课题让朝野通过电视辩论。
在这次的辩论中，令我感到纳闷的是关于安华承诺执政后降油价的幅度。安华说，一旦民联执政，隔天就降油价50仙。就这样，安华被沙伯里抓到把柄攻击他，讥讽安华前言不对后语。
国人不会忘记安华的承诺是在大选之前作的，当时1公升汽油是1.92令吉。即使大选后，在首相还未在6月4日涨油价78仙的之前期间，安华仍然经常作出“执政后隔天降油价”的承诺。这意味着现在国人对他的承诺有点信心摇动了！
民联不断批评政府涨油价，在多处办大集会演讲，肯定使不满政府涨油价措施的人士支持民联的。现在为什么安华却说降50仙呢？降50仙仍然算是比先前的1.92令吉涨了28仙的呀！这不是降价，而是涨价呀！
我们还记得安华曾经夸下海口，如果执政后不降油价他将辞职。从安华的出尔反尔，可见他对掌控国家的资源和经济还不能信心满满的。安华原本在指定916执政的目标一波三折的了，现在还自己打自己嘴巴，使到他往布城之路变得渺茫。
不是吗？首先他被人指控鸡奸，只要警方拖延他的案件，他就没办法补选。其次，本来巴拉的第一份蒙古女的宣誓书打击正副首相的威信对安华有利，却又被巴拉收回，以第二份宣誓书取代，导致安华是输家。
其三，那30个之前与他协议跳槽过去民联的国会议员，迟迟不敢轻举妄动，只秉持看风把舵泰然处之，使安华如热锅蚂蚁。就以沙巴进步党为最好的证明。他们要反首相，但却又不敢行动，拉拉扯扯的，这些准备跳槽的议员对民联还欠缺信心。其四，民联提呈不信任首相的紧急动议被议长拒绝。
民联应组织影子内阁
其五，民联在结盟上非常脆弱，人民看到的乃以公正党为激进冲刺。安华一直想改朝换代，而行动党却满足于现状，并表明不鼓励议员跳槽执政。而回教党呢？该主席哈迪在党报《哈拉卡》网站的访谈内容承认曾与巫统会面，抒发回教党不满被民联其他政党边缘化的牢骚。除了强调回教党是民联胜利的功臣之外，也呼吁民联成员党别过桥抽板，把回教党党员当作“傻瓜”。虽然日前回教党否认会退出民联，而首相也欢迎回教党与巫统探讨回教和马来人课题。虽然回教党现在宣称不会退出民联，但国人不可否定以后回教党与国阵结盟的可能性！
安华知道916大限将至，时间已经迅速不在自己那边了。由公正党主导提呈不信任首相动议是一项明证，当时行动党被动地无奈支持，而回教党则投诉公正党没有事先与它们商量，但最终还是勉强支持公正党行动。可见民联做事没有中央的行政系统，看来更像各自为政的。目前国人以为是安华作头，所以执政后自然由他出任首相一职。不过回教党曾经质疑为什么首相必定是公正党的人选，而回教党不能够出任吗？其实若民联要说服国人它们能够执政的话，就应该先组织一个影子内阁。行动党和回教党必须跟公正党摊牌，以便争取大家都能够接受的职分，为下一届大选铺路。
杨德利先提到把握机会之窗的道理，他认为沙巴人若不趁着机会之窗仍然开着时须行动，一旦错过了的话，沙巴人的权利争取可能要再等50年了。安华也懂得趁着机会之窗行动的道理，若916当不成首相的话，他要等到下一届甚至下两届大选，到时安华的年纪大了，他还有魄力吗？政局如棋局局新，安华能够在916执政当首相吗？大家就拭目以待吧！
我也看完整个节目，想作一个评论。
公正党顾问安华和新闻部长阿末沙伯里通过电视现场辩论，这是除了现场播放国会问答半小时的事项，再出席另外的新闻自由突破。相信国人希望在未来日子，政府能够更开明，允许不同课题让朝野通过电视辩论。
在这次的辩论中，令我感到纳闷的是关于安华承诺执政后降油价的幅度。安华说，一旦民联执政，隔天就降油价50仙。就这样，安华被沙伯里抓到把柄攻击他，讥讽安华前言不对后语。
国人不会忘记安华的承诺是在大选之前作的，当时1公升汽油是1.92令吉。即使大选后，在首相还未在6月4日涨油价78仙的之前期间，安华仍然经常作出“执政后隔天降油价”的承诺。这意味着现在国人对他的承诺有点信心摇动了！
民联不断批评政府涨油价，在多处办大集会演讲，肯定使不满政府涨油价措施的人士支持民联的。现在为什么安华却说降50仙呢？降50仙仍然算是比先前的1.92令吉涨了28仙的呀！这不是降价，而是涨价呀！
我们还记得安华曾经夸下海口，如果执政后不降油价他将辞职。从安华的出尔反尔，可见他对掌控国家的资源和经济还不能信心满满的。安华原本在指定916执政的目标一波三折的了，现在还自己打自己嘴巴，使到他往布城之路变得渺茫。
不是吗？首先他被人指控鸡奸，只要警方拖延他的案件，他就没办法补选。其次，本来巴拉的第一份蒙古女的宣誓书打击正副首相的威信对安华有利，却又被巴拉收回，以第二份宣誓书取代，导致安华是输家。
其三，那30个之前与他协议跳槽过去民联的国会议员，迟迟不敢轻举妄动，只秉持看风把舵泰然处之，使安华如热锅蚂蚁。就以沙巴进步党为最好的证明。他们要反首相，但却又不敢行动，拉拉扯扯的，这些准备跳槽的议员对民联还欠缺信心。其四，民联提呈不信任首相的紧急动议被议长拒绝。
民联应组织影子内阁
其五，民联在结盟上非常脆弱，人民看到的乃以公正党为激进冲刺。安华一直想改朝换代，而行动党却满足于现状，并表明不鼓励议员跳槽执政。而回教党呢？该主席哈迪在党报《哈拉卡》网站的访谈内容承认曾与巫统会面，抒发回教党不满被民联其他政党边缘化的牢骚。除了强调回教党是民联胜利的功臣之外，也呼吁民联成员党别过桥抽板，把回教党党员当作“傻瓜”。虽然日前回教党否认会退出民联，而首相也欢迎回教党与巫统探讨回教和马来人课题。虽然回教党现在宣称不会退出民联，但国人不可否定以后回教党与国阵结盟的可能性！
安华知道916大限将至，时间已经迅速不在自己那边了。由公正党主导提呈不信任首相动议是一项明证，当时行动党被动地无奈支持，而回教党则投诉公正党没有事先与它们商量，但最终还是勉强支持公正党行动。可见民联做事没有中央的行政系统，看来更像各自为政的。目前国人以为是安华作头，所以执政后自然由他出任首相一职。不过回教党曾经质疑为什么首相必定是公正党的人选，而回教党不能够出任吗？其实若民联要说服国人它们能够执政的话，就应该先组织一个影子内阁。行动党和回教党必须跟公正党摊牌，以便争取大家都能够接受的职分，为下一届大选铺路。
杨德利先提到把握机会之窗的道理，他认为沙巴人若不趁着机会之窗仍然开着时须行动，一旦错过了的话，沙巴人的权利争取可能要再等50年了。安华也懂得趁着机会之窗行动的道理，若916当不成首相的话，他要等到下一届甚至下两届大选，到时安华的年纪大了，他还有魄力吗？政局如棋局局新，安华能够在916执政当首相吗？大家就拭目以待吧！
Monday, July 14, 2008
The day democracy is dead in Parliament - Malaysiakini
Today is 14th July. A dark cloud had over-shadowed the Malaysian Parliament House. First of all, no public was allowed to enter the House, not even the journalists. The journalists were hovering around outside the House anxiously. People were expecting a debate on no-confidence in PM to take place. Regretably the authorities tried to stop people from reporting the news.
Anyway, Pandikar, the Parliamentarian, had rejected the motion filed by Pakatan. That had resulted in a walk-out by Pakatan MPs. The move by the authorities was a proof that the Parliamentarians are the puppets of BN.
It was the people who had voted the MPs into Parliament. Why can't we expect the MPs to be people-friendly? Shouldn't BN MPs have an open-mind to explore ways in upholding democracy in the country through fair-play among both coalitions?
(Pls refer to http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/86051)
Anyway, Pandikar, the Parliamentarian, had rejected the motion filed by Pakatan. That had resulted in a walk-out by Pakatan MPs. The move by the authorities was a proof that the Parliamentarians are the puppets of BN.
It was the people who had voted the MPs into Parliament. Why can't we expect the MPs to be people-friendly? Shouldn't BN MPs have an open-mind to explore ways in upholding democracy in the country through fair-play among both coalitions?
(Pls refer to http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/86051)
Sunday, July 13, 2008
No confidence in Proton cars - Malaysiakini
It is disgusting that Proton cars are more than 20 years old, and yet they are still dependent on the govt's help. For any car production plants, by right their productions are ever getting better each year. But unfortunately, Proton is just the reverse - ever getting worse! I bought aN Iswara sedan 1.5 11 years ago. As it was a Japanese engine and most parts were Japanese ones, it is still functioning well except the body got rusty.
They can't give competative prices if they use good parts. Therefore they engaged all the suppliers who could supply them with cheap stuff. So it makes the cars cheaper. But please wait. They are not cheap but instead are one of the most expensive ones in the world. Malaysians suffered as they buy a car. Both Protons and foreign cars are expensive. They need to serve loans between 3 to 10 years.
Why Proton can't offer as cheap as other countries? Because they hired people who have insufficient knowledge on the industry, and yet getting super-pays! And the top guns are getting profits in purchases by marking up suppliers' prices. Mind you, these are tax payers' money as the govt had bailed them out with billions of dollars in the past 20 years.
(Pls refer to http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/86025)
They can't give competative prices if they use good parts. Therefore they engaged all the suppliers who could supply them with cheap stuff. So it makes the cars cheaper. But please wait. They are not cheap but instead are one of the most expensive ones in the world. Malaysians suffered as they buy a car. Both Protons and foreign cars are expensive. They need to serve loans between 3 to 10 years.
Why Proton can't offer as cheap as other countries? Because they hired people who have insufficient knowledge on the industry, and yet getting super-pays! And the top guns are getting profits in purchases by marking up suppliers' prices. Mind you, these are tax payers' money as the govt had bailed them out with billions of dollars in the past 20 years.
(Pls refer to http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/86025)
谁会是大马下任首相？
谁会是大马的下任首相？这是百姓在茶余饭后谈得津津有味的话题。首相阿都拉宣布两年后卸任，并指定接班人为目前的副手纳吉，纳吉也表明全力支持首相这项决定。
但前首相马哈迪就认为纳吉将当不成首相，因为两年时间里纳吉将受到许多对他不利的课题攻击。如果人民的思潮延续下去的话，国阵将在下届大选败北。到时阿都拉把主席位子让给纳吉，后者就没有首相好做了！
马哈迪认为阿都拉没有意思放弃位子，若纳吉被不利课题拖垮，首相可以名正言顺地换副手。到时首相将以副手缺乏经验为由而自己继续当首相，马哈迪所言听起来有点逻辑性。
若下任首相不是纳吉的话，大马政局会在916换民联执政而由安华当首相吗？以目前的局势，安华正处于一个不利的状况。一来他被鸡奸案系绑，只要政府拖延调查他，他就不能为自己制造补选。二来，那些30个之前与他协议跳槽过去民联的国会议员，迟迟不敢轻举妄动，只秉持看风把舵泰然处之，使安华如热锅蚂蚁。
就以沙巴进步党为最好的证明。他们要反首相，但又却不敢行动，拉拉扯扯的。这些准备跳槽的议员对民联还欠缺信心。所以民联才会忽然搞出提呈不信任首相的紧急动议，因为安华知道916大限将至，时间已经迅速不在自己这边了。他和杨德利懂得把握机会之窗的道理，一旦失去，可能要再等下一届甚至再下两届大选，到时安华的年纪大，还有魄力吗？
民联在结盟上非常脆弱，人民看到的乃以公正党为激进冲刺。安华一直想改朝换代，而行动党却满足于目前状况，并表明不鼓励议员跳槽执政。而回教党呢？该主席哈迪在党报《哈拉卡》网站的访谈内容承认曾与巫统会面，抒发回教党不满被民联其他政党边缘化的牢骚。除了强调回教党是民联胜利的功臣之外，也呼吁民联成员党别过桥抽板，把回教党党员当作“傻瓜”。所以民联的地位，或许成也是回教党，败也是回教党矣！
如果马哈迪关于纳吉当不成首相之预言真的应验的话，那么谁将是副首相呢？大马人不妨把眼光放在一个年轻人身上吧！他就是驸马爷凯里也！以过去凯里的机警迅速爬到巫青团副团长和国会议员身分，并且阿都拉的许多策略都由他作军师的，比比证明他是一个野心家。加上目前许多国会议员和内阁成员都是他安排的人选，简直是如虎添翼的！
不知大家是否记得两年前的巫统大会，一本写凯里的书籍免费被人分发吗？书名是 “凯里传奇－牛津太子往布城之路”。该书揭露凯里要当首相的证据事迹，并预言他就是未来的首相。但凯里否认书中内容，声称都是谎言，但心中在暗喜！无论如何，凯里对于12月的党选不动声色，他可能不是竞选巫青团团长，而是竞选副主席，为着准备当副首相而铺路。政坛多变化，到底谁会是下任首相，大家就拭目以待吧！
但前首相马哈迪就认为纳吉将当不成首相，因为两年时间里纳吉将受到许多对他不利的课题攻击。如果人民的思潮延续下去的话，国阵将在下届大选败北。到时阿都拉把主席位子让给纳吉，后者就没有首相好做了！
马哈迪认为阿都拉没有意思放弃位子，若纳吉被不利课题拖垮，首相可以名正言顺地换副手。到时首相将以副手缺乏经验为由而自己继续当首相，马哈迪所言听起来有点逻辑性。
若下任首相不是纳吉的话，大马政局会在916换民联执政而由安华当首相吗？以目前的局势，安华正处于一个不利的状况。一来他被鸡奸案系绑，只要政府拖延调查他，他就不能为自己制造补选。二来，那些30个之前与他协议跳槽过去民联的国会议员，迟迟不敢轻举妄动，只秉持看风把舵泰然处之，使安华如热锅蚂蚁。
就以沙巴进步党为最好的证明。他们要反首相，但又却不敢行动，拉拉扯扯的。这些准备跳槽的议员对民联还欠缺信心。所以民联才会忽然搞出提呈不信任首相的紧急动议，因为安华知道916大限将至，时间已经迅速不在自己这边了。他和杨德利懂得把握机会之窗的道理，一旦失去，可能要再等下一届甚至再下两届大选，到时安华的年纪大，还有魄力吗？
民联在结盟上非常脆弱，人民看到的乃以公正党为激进冲刺。安华一直想改朝换代，而行动党却满足于目前状况，并表明不鼓励议员跳槽执政。而回教党呢？该主席哈迪在党报《哈拉卡》网站的访谈内容承认曾与巫统会面，抒发回教党不满被民联其他政党边缘化的牢骚。除了强调回教党是民联胜利的功臣之外，也呼吁民联成员党别过桥抽板，把回教党党员当作“傻瓜”。所以民联的地位，或许成也是回教党，败也是回教党矣！
如果马哈迪关于纳吉当不成首相之预言真的应验的话，那么谁将是副首相呢？大马人不妨把眼光放在一个年轻人身上吧！他就是驸马爷凯里也！以过去凯里的机警迅速爬到巫青团副团长和国会议员身分，并且阿都拉的许多策略都由他作军师的，比比证明他是一个野心家。加上目前许多国会议员和内阁成员都是他安排的人选，简直是如虎添翼的！
不知大家是否记得两年前的巫统大会，一本写凯里的书籍免费被人分发吗？书名是 “凯里传奇－牛津太子往布城之路”。该书揭露凯里要当首相的证据事迹，并预言他就是未来的首相。但凯里否认书中内容，声称都是谎言，但心中在暗喜！无论如何，凯里对于12月的党选不动声色，他可能不是竞选巫青团团长，而是竞选副主席，为着准备当副首相而铺路。政坛多变化，到底谁会是下任首相，大家就拭目以待吧！
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Parliament should be a place of Justice - Malaysiakini
Parliament House out of bound to public on Monday (14th July)? Undemocratic!
Pakatan has filed a no-confidence motion against PM Abdullah, whether to endorse it or not is a question mark. But the public is prepared to flock in the House.
To embrace democracy, the govt should allow the people to get in for hearing. Make it into first come first serve. Parliament should be a place of justice. People must see that a fair debate to be granted to MPs from both coalitions.
(http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/86017)
Pakatan has filed a no-confidence motion against PM Abdullah, whether to endorse it or not is a question mark. But the public is prepared to flock in the House.
To embrace democracy, the govt should allow the people to get in for hearing. Make it into first come first serve. Parliament should be a place of justice. People must see that a fair debate to be granted to MPs from both coalitions.
(http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/86017)
Friday, July 11, 2008
Rudd not meeting Anwar - Malaysiakini
I agreed with Steve Oh (http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/85905) that Australian PM Rudd's excuses were flimsy and absurd.
He had been a fighter for democracy while he was the Oppositions. But now he is in power. He forgot his agenda for pushing democracy at home and abroad.
While meeting PM Abdullah, Rudd praised that democracy in Malaysia is flourishing. Yes I agreed. But our leaders must have an open mind even if Rudd were to meet up with the Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim while he is in KL. Unfortunately Rudd was timid for fear of diplomatic misunderstanding. He missed a golden opportunity for building a good name for his own country.
He had been a fighter for democracy while he was the Oppositions. But now he is in power. He forgot his agenda for pushing democracy at home and abroad.
While meeting PM Abdullah, Rudd praised that democracy in Malaysia is flourishing. Yes I agreed. But our leaders must have an open mind even if Rudd were to meet up with the Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim while he is in KL. Unfortunately Rudd was timid for fear of diplomatic misunderstanding. He missed a golden opportunity for building a good name for his own country.
Pray for gospel artist Timothy Wright
Thousands Pray for Recovery of Gospel Artist Timothy Wright
The Grammy-nominated musician was critically injured in a car accident that killed his wife and grandson.
[07.10.08] The news of a car crash that left the Rev. Timothy Wright critically injured and claimed the lives of his wife and grandson has sparked a nationwide prayer vigil for the famed gospel singer and Pentecostal pastor.
On Sunday, hundreds of people flocked to Wright’s Grace Tabernacle Christian Center Church of God in Christ in Brooklyn, N.Y., to pray for the 61-year-old, who is in critical but stable condition at a hospital in Danville, Penn. Calls for prayer have also circulated via e-mail from supporters of the Grammy-nominated gospel artist.
"I'm here to pray for pastor Timothy Wright and his family,” said Brooklyn resident Barbara Upsur, who does not attend Wright's church but said she has been inspired by his music. “I'm so saddened by the loss of his wife and grandson, but I believe that through prayer God will restore him."
Wright was returning from his denomination’s annual summer convention in Detroit late July 4 when a driver traveling the wrong way on Interstate 80 struck his car head-on near Greene Township, Penn. Wright’s wife, Betty, died at the scene. His grandson, 14-year-old Danny “D.J.” Wright, died the next day at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville.
During a press conference held Monday outside Wright’s home in Roosevelt, N.Y., family members said Wright’s leg was broken in three places and that he had a broken jaw and other serious injuries. “Dad is opening his eyes and moving his head from side to side,” said David Wright, one of the couple’s five sons.
He said Wright knows his grandson was killed in the accident but is unaware that his wife also died. “We did not tell him about Mom because we want to wait until he gets stronger,” David Wright told Charisma. “We don’t want to cause a setback in his recovery.”
New York pastors Donnie McClurkin and Hezekiah Walker were among the thousands who packed Grace Tabernacle Sunday for the prayer vigil, which Wright’s longtime friend, pastor and gospel artist Bishop Albert Jamison, organized.
Attendees prayed for Wright and remembered Betty Wright, 58, who was co-pastor of the church. “It’s a tragedy losing our first lady Betty Wright,” said Elder Anthony Williams, who drove three hours to visit Wright in Danville after learning of the accident. “Our pastor is incapacitated, but the church family is in constant prayer for his recovery.”
A popular preacher in her own right, Betty Wright is remembered as a beautiful wife, mother and grandmother. “I referred to her as always being rapture-ready,” David Wright said. “We know she’s in a better place.”
D.J. Wright had just completed the eighth grade and was traveling with his grandparents to Detroit as a graduation gift. “D.J. was a good kid,” David Wright said of his nephew. “He would never hurt anyone.”
Bishop James Gaylord, a leader in Wright’s denomination, spoke during a Sunday morning worship service at Grace Tabernacle and told the congregation he was “standing on the Scriptures” for Wright’s recovery.
Considered by many to be the “godfather of gospel music,” Wright has released more than a dozen gospel recordings, including 2007’s Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Along with The N.Y. Fellowship Mass Choir, Wright was nominated for a Grammy award for best traditional soul gospel album for 1994's Come Thou Almighty King. In late June, he released a book, Who’s Really on the Lord’s Side, based on his award-winning 1995 CD, Who’s on the Lord’s Side. —Vanessa L. Robinson in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Article from http://www.charismamag.com/cms/news/archives/071008.php
Parkinson's breakthrough
By Medical reporter Sophie Scott (http://www.abc.net.au/profiles/content/s1889080.htm?site=news) Mon Jun 16, 2008 4:45pm AEST
Australian scientists have discovered that stem cells found in the back of a patient's nose can produce the chemical which is missing in people with Parkinson's disease.
Parkinson's disease occurs when the brain cells that produce the chemical dopamine stop working.
Without dopamine, nerve cells cannot function, leading to muscle problems.
Researchers from Griffith University and the University of Queensland harvested adult stem cells from the noses of Parkinson's disease patients.
They found that once the nose cells were cultured and infused into animals with Parkinson's disease, the cells began to produce dopamine.
Professor Peter Silburn from the University of Queensland said it was an important breakthrough, as the cells could be easily harvested from patients.
He said the next step was to test the cells in primates, then move to human trials in the next three years.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/16/2276297.htm
Australian scientists have discovered that stem cells found in the back of a patient's nose can produce the chemical which is missing in people with Parkinson's disease.
Parkinson's disease occurs when the brain cells that produce the chemical dopamine stop working.
Without dopamine, nerve cells cannot function, leading to muscle problems.
Researchers from Griffith University and the University of Queensland harvested adult stem cells from the noses of Parkinson's disease patients.
They found that once the nose cells were cultured and infused into animals with Parkinson's disease, the cells began to produce dopamine.
Professor Peter Silburn from the University of Queensland said it was an important breakthrough, as the cells could be easily harvested from patients.
He said the next step was to test the cells in primates, then move to human trials in the next three years.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/16/2276297.htm
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Pakatan files no-confidence motion - Malaysiakini
Malaysiakini reports 3 important news which I could comment together:
1. PM Abdullah hands over job to Najib in 2 years.
2. Pakatan files no-confidence motion against PM.
3. Mahathir sees PM to hand over job as a temporary tactic, and Najib will have no chance to become PM.
Abdullah still thinks he is a capable PM. That is why he is reluctant to let go despite a terrible defeat on 308. But the economy is on the decline. The petrol hike has caused high inflation and the drop in Share Market. As a matter of fact, he knows nothing about macro-economies. And he could not revert the falling trend.
No wonder Pakatan filed a motion against him, expressing no confidence on him. This is the desire of the general majority. It is time for a capable govt to replace BN. Hope that the Parliamentarian is neutral and does not side with BN. He must endorse it.
Then what Mahathir saw was right. Even if the motion be dropped, and Abdullah continues his office, Najib will have no chance to rise up. The Altantuya case will continue to haunt him. Najib must make a decision now. He must plan to challenge Abdullah in UMNO election in December.
1. PM Abdullah hands over job to Najib in 2 years.
2. Pakatan files no-confidence motion against PM.
3. Mahathir sees PM to hand over job as a temporary tactic, and Najib will have no chance to become PM.
Abdullah still thinks he is a capable PM. That is why he is reluctant to let go despite a terrible defeat on 308. But the economy is on the decline. The petrol hike has caused high inflation and the drop in Share Market. As a matter of fact, he knows nothing about macro-economies. And he could not revert the falling trend.
No wonder Pakatan filed a motion against him, expressing no confidence on him. This is the desire of the general majority. It is time for a capable govt to replace BN. Hope that the Parliamentarian is neutral and does not side with BN. He must endorse it.
Then what Mahathir saw was right. Even if the motion be dropped, and Abdullah continues his office, Najib will have no chance to rise up. The Altantuya case will continue to haunt him. Najib must make a decision now. He must plan to challenge Abdullah in UMNO election in December.
Swimming with sharks - Malaysiakini
Malaysiakini reported about SAPP Yong Teck Lee's concern (http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/85855; http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/85849). He cautioned his MP Dr. Chua Soon Bui, saying that to negotiate with the leaders of BN is likened to "swimming with sharks". He reminded her to beware of BN leaders' plot to split SAPP.
What happen if you swim with sharks?
1. If they are baby sharks, do enjoy their presence.
2. If they are big sharks with Big jaws, be careful that they will swallow you up - no bones to spit out. （骨都无得剩）。
3. Sharks are sensitive to blood. If you are wounded, don't swim. But unfortunately most of the Rakyats (people) were already wounded by the recent political fiasco. Many ignorant people will still insist to swim. They are finished!
4. Remember when PM Abdullah first took over the office, he promised to catch 18 sharks. But unfortunately he had only managed to catch some small fries. The 18 sharks are still there lurking and the small sharks by now have become big ones! No wonder our political seas are dangerous waters. They have been "infested" with sharks!
So you better don't swim in BN Sea. There are plenty of jaws waiting to devour you there.
What happen if you swim with sharks?
1. If they are baby sharks, do enjoy their presence.
2. If they are big sharks with Big jaws, be careful that they will swallow you up - no bones to spit out. （骨都无得剩）。
3. Sharks are sensitive to blood. If you are wounded, don't swim. But unfortunately most of the Rakyats (people) were already wounded by the recent political fiasco. Many ignorant people will still insist to swim. They are finished!
4. Remember when PM Abdullah first took over the office, he promised to catch 18 sharks. But unfortunately he had only managed to catch some small fries. The 18 sharks are still there lurking and the small sharks by now have become big ones! No wonder our political seas are dangerous waters. They have been "infested" with sharks!
So you better don't swim in BN Sea. There are plenty of jaws waiting to devour you there.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
North-South Expressway's new tracks dangerous
I am a frequent user of our North-South Expressway and I have this IMPORTANT experience to highlight and share:-
I was driving back to Penang yesterday afternoon (24 June 08) when I saw the unfortunate accident in the opposite direction involving the passenger bus that skidded and overturned at Tanjung Malim. I didn't know that the skidded bus was from hometown Penang untill I watched TV3 news later in the evening and was shocked to learn that the accident took two lives.
Now, this is what I need to share:-
I am a building contractor with over twenty years of experience and I have been driving my 5 series BMW (latest generation and a dammed solid road holding car) each time I travelled to KL. Lately, the new extended 3 lanes highway had been opened up for use and since then, I have also been using it quite oftenly.
HOWEVER, when I used it each time it is WET, I can really 'feel' that the new road surface is extremely SLIPPERY! To share with some of you, my car comes with a built-in traction control mechanism (skidding prevention mechanism) and you can feel it each time it is activated. Previously, I don't come across this kind of slippery feel except when I drive over a paddle of water at certain speed.
From my observation as a building contractor, the 'wearing course' of the new road surface could be TOO FINE OR TOO SMOOTH and TOTALLY UNSUITABLE for highway use! The wearing course (top premix layer) mix design for highways should be of minimum 20mm coarse aggregate mix that will give us the required bond between the surface and our tyres. Fine wearing course (14mm coarse aggregate size and below) is only suitable for normal road. (A proper test need to be carried out to determine the mix design of the wearing course).
Since the opening of the three lanes highway, I had seen cars skidding in front me or in the opposite direction and approximately 2 weeks ago, one of my friends who is also a frequent user of our NSE, came to share with me about his slippery feeling as well as the many skidded cars he had seen lately.
I am highlighting this to TV3 and The Star with the hope that a thourough investigation could be carried out immediately to find out how or what causes the bus to skid. A proper and independent test need to be carried out urgently to determine the design mix of the wearing course. THIS CAN SAVE LIVES.
FOR THOSE BCC RECIPIENTS, PLEASE SHARE THIS WITH ALL YOUR FRIENDS. IF YOU ARE USING THE NEW LANES AND IF IT IS WET, MAKE SURE YOU DRIVE SLOWLY!!!!
Regards,
Jensen Yeoh
012-4826163
Penang .
I was driving back to Penang yesterday afternoon (24 June 08) when I saw the unfortunate accident in the opposite direction involving the passenger bus that skidded and overturned at Tanjung Malim. I didn't know that the skidded bus was from hometown Penang untill I watched TV3 news later in the evening and was shocked to learn that the accident took two lives.
Now, this is what I need to share:-
I am a building contractor with over twenty years of experience and I have been driving my 5 series BMW (latest generation and a dammed solid road holding car) each time I travelled to KL. Lately, the new extended 3 lanes highway had been opened up for use and since then, I have also been using it quite oftenly.
HOWEVER, when I used it each time it is WET, I can really 'feel' that the new road surface is extremely SLIPPERY! To share with some of you, my car comes with a built-in traction control mechanism (skidding prevention mechanism) and you can feel it each time it is activated. Previously, I don't come across this kind of slippery feel except when I drive over a paddle of water at certain speed.
From my observation as a building contractor, the 'wearing course' of the new road surface could be TOO FINE OR TOO SMOOTH and TOTALLY UNSUITABLE for highway use! The wearing course (top premix layer) mix design for highways should be of minimum 20mm coarse aggregate mix that will give us the required bond between the surface and our tyres. Fine wearing course (14mm coarse aggregate size and below) is only suitable for normal road. (A proper test need to be carried out to determine the mix design of the wearing course).
Since the opening of the three lanes highway, I had seen cars skidding in front me or in the opposite direction and approximately 2 weeks ago, one of my friends who is also a frequent user of our NSE, came to share with me about his slippery feeling as well as the many skidded cars he had seen lately.
I am highlighting this to TV3 and The Star with the hope that a thourough investigation could be carried out immediately to find out how or what causes the bus to skid. A proper and independent test need to be carried out urgently to determine the design mix of the wearing course. THIS CAN SAVE LIVES.
FOR THOSE BCC RECIPIENTS, PLEASE SHARE THIS WITH ALL YOUR FRIENDS. IF YOU ARE USING THE NEW LANES AND IF IT IS WET, MAKE SURE YOU DRIVE SLOWLY!!!!
Regards,
Jensen Yeoh
012-4826163
Penang .
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
PM said inflation crisis could spark political unrest - Malaysiakini
PM Abdullah is true on that. Inflation resulted in the people protesting in rallies, the largest one being at Kelana Jaya Stadium with more than 30,000 people all-day-long. Could that be the reason why the army-police joint exercise took place? (Inflation article found at http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/85742).
Yesterday PM has denied that the drill was meant for Emergency Rule. But earlier on 6th July SAPP president Yong Teck Lee claimed that PM's words could not be trusted. He posted an article in SAPP's official website: "KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) President Datuk Yong Teck Lee has expressed concern over the rife talks of the possibility of 'emergency rule' taking place.
"SAPP will have to tread carefully in this era of political turbulence," he told the reporters during a special interview with television channel NTV7, on issues relating to illegal immigrants and refugees in Sabah, at the bustling Sunday Gaya Street fair here yesterday.
He was especially responding to the talks over the possibility of the Government invoking the Emergency Act and the Internal Security Act if necessary, to curb any public unrest.
"This (emergency rule) could happen as those who raised the matter are not any ordinary people but government leaders, including the Inspector General of Police," he said.
"And especially if the Prime Minister said it (emergency rule) won't take place, we will have to be even more careful then," he quipped, obviously referring to the Prime Minister's flip-flop announcements in the past. (http://www.sapp.org.my/default.asp?page=ytl080707).
Yong Teck Lee in his statement on 7th July refuted the denials (of impending emergency rule) from the PM carry no weight among the people because of his previous ‘no dissolution of Parliament’, ‘no fuel price hikes’, ‘no fuel to foreign cars’, ‘paying salaries twice a month’, etc. (http://www.sapp.org.my/default.asp?page=hq080706).
Malaysia could not afford to go through an Emergency Rule. It will bring us 20 years backward. I hope that leaders of BN be very careful in making decisions. And all citizens please pray that God will intervene in the affairs of our country. Let God derail all wicked and selfish decisions.
Yesterday PM has denied that the drill was meant for Emergency Rule. But earlier on 6th July SAPP president Yong Teck Lee claimed that PM's words could not be trusted. He posted an article in SAPP's official website: "KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) President Datuk Yong Teck Lee has expressed concern over the rife talks of the possibility of 'emergency rule' taking place.
"SAPP will have to tread carefully in this era of political turbulence," he told the reporters during a special interview with television channel NTV7, on issues relating to illegal immigrants and refugees in Sabah, at the bustling Sunday Gaya Street fair here yesterday.
He was especially responding to the talks over the possibility of the Government invoking the Emergency Act and the Internal Security Act if necessary, to curb any public unrest.
"This (emergency rule) could happen as those who raised the matter are not any ordinary people but government leaders, including the Inspector General of Police," he said.
"And especially if the Prime Minister said it (emergency rule) won't take place, we will have to be even more careful then," he quipped, obviously referring to the Prime Minister's flip-flop announcements in the past. (http://www.sapp.org.my/default.asp?page=ytl080707).
Yong Teck Lee in his statement on 7th July refuted the denials (of impending emergency rule) from the PM carry no weight among the people because of his previous ‘no dissolution of Parliament’, ‘no fuel price hikes’, ‘no fuel to foreign cars’, ‘paying salaries twice a month’, etc. (http://www.sapp.org.my/default.asp?page=hq080706).
Malaysia could not afford to go through an Emergency Rule. It will bring us 20 years backward. I hope that leaders of BN be very careful in making decisions. And all citizens please pray that God will intervene in the affairs of our country. Let God derail all wicked and selfish decisions.
Monday, July 7, 2008
The Marks of Genuine Revival, Part 2
Last week I shared the first part of an interview with Ruth Ruibal, the widow of Bolivian evangelist Julio Ruibal—who was known as the “apostle of the Andes.” Ruth described for us how the gospel transformed Bolivia in the 1970s. In this second segment she tells about the sweeping conversions that happened during that revival and how this sparked church growth. She also offers some words of warning to the American church.
Charisma: You lived through an amazing season of revival in Bolivia. What led up to it? Was there a lot of prayer and fasting?
Ruth Ruibal: Before the revival the largest evangelical church in La Paz, Bolivia had about 90 members. Missionaries from many denominations had labored for decades with little results. I know that the Lord honored those decades of labor, perseverance and prayer.
“We desperately need a revival today in the United States. However, historical revivals start with repentance.”
Julio’s conversion experience in California was one of deep repentance, deliverance and inner healing. When he returned to Bolivia the year after his conversion he found some missionaries, but they thought he was false because he shared a promise he got from the Lord that “even the stadiums would be too small to hold the crowds.” After all, the missionaries had been there for decades and the results were few.
Julio was a man of prayer, fasting and obedience even at the age of 19 when the revival started. When we started the church in 1974 we would teach the young people and then in the evenings they would go to home groups to teach what they had learned. We would then reunite after the meetings and pray for the people in the meetings. This meant we prayed from 10 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. or 3 a.m. every night. There was a lot of prayer.
Charisma: Obviously when revival broke out there were many conversions. Tell us about the numbers that came to the Lord.
Ruibal: It started in the stadium in La Paz, with thousands attending. After the meetings, the police would take Julio out of the stadium in an ambulance for his safety and he would go home to listen to the radio for three or more hours. He would hear about all the miracles still taking place in the stadium! Behind the scenes he would spend days in fasting and prayer.
One day the meeting was to start at 10 a.m., but the police called Julio to ask for his advice. The crowds had come around 5 a.m. to get seats in the stadium, but when they arrived they found the stadium was already filled. People had spent the night there, and the overflow crowd was now at 40,000. The police feared a riot. That day Julio preached to the crowd within the stadium and then from the wall of the stadium to the overflow. Miracles took place as people repented and came to Jesus.
From then on the stadiums were too small to hold the crowds. The meetings were held on mountainsides and in plazas. There was no PA system at that time large enough to reach the tens of thousands of people, so the people were encouraged to bring their transistor radios and turn them up as loud as possible.
Since the meetings were being broadcast, everyone could hear the preaching. The Assemblies of God sold 33,000 Bibles and New Testaments in only two weeks. In fact, the Bible Society of Argentina and other outlets had to send them their stock of Bibles as well.
Charisma: What would you say was the most astounding miracle that occurred during those years?
Ruibal: Julio used to come home and say [to me and my daughters], “Girls, you won’t believe what Jesus did today!” And he would tell us how the Lord had touched some need in someone’s life. However, the greatest, most outstanding miracle for Julio was always how the Lord can come into our lives and transform us.
Conversion is really the greatest miracle. And isn’t that what Jesus said? He told us: “Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven” (Luke 10:20, NASB). That was truly Julio’s greatest joy—the miracle of a changed life, not only the physical miracles.
Charisma: Church planting is also a byproduct of revival. Do you have any idea how many new churches were started as a result of what happened in Bolivia?
Ruibal: Ekklesía, the church we started in La Paz, has more than 23,000 members today. Ekklesía now has daughter churches in every state in the country of Bolivia. There are also churches in the United States, Colombia and I think Argentina that spread from that church. They may not be organizationally connected to the church in La Paz, but they came out of that church. There were about 15 churches started in the city of La Paz alone as a result of that revival.
Charisma: You and your husband moved to Colombia, and then he was martyred in 1995. Persecution and martyrdom is also a byproduct of revival that we don't talk about much. How did your husband's death spark revival in Colombia?
Ruibal: After Julio was killed, the church in the city of Cali, Colombia, united in prayer, first in the coliseum with 20,000 people in March 1995 and then in the stadium with 40,000 in August and 45,000 in November. After we started praying together, several things took place:
• The churches started to grow and the gospel reached to another strata of society—businessmen, lawyers, teachers, politicians, news anchors, and others came to know the Lord. The general atmosphere of the city changed and there was a new hunger for the Lord in the general population.
• In those first nine months (March to November) six of the seven major drug lords in Cali fell and the last one turned himself in nine months later. The crime rate began to drop and we had a different city.
• One of the most historic events took place at Julio’s funeral. The president of the ministerial association asked that since Julio was so strong about unity, we should make a covenant of unity right then. All the pastors came forward, we embraced one another and made a simple covenant that is written profoundly in our hearts even today: “We are one and we will let nothing divide us.”
• Cali in general has experienced a new day. We have seen crime reduced, we have seen people come to the Lord in large numbers and we have a fine Christian councilman in office. However, we know the Lord has much more for us.
Charisma: What would you say to the American church today as we seek to pursue genuine revival?
Ruibal: We desperately need a revival today in the United States. I think most of us are in agreement with that. However, historical revivals start with repentance. We need to move beyond the generic needs of the church and become more personally involved in seeking His face. Once we see His holiness, we can truly repent.
We live in a day where much of the world has filtered into the church. Paul tells us that the last days are dangerous days, but it is not the same kind of danger as terrorism. The danger of the last days is man’s own heart, which is selfish, self-loving, self-gratifying, independent and disobedient. Man’s heart loves the Lord yet loves pleasure more. The last day people are a religious people (you can find them in church and Christian meetings!), but they deny the power to live the true Christian life.
The Word tells us that holiness is not an option. I am not referring to a list of dos and don’ts, but of the heart. When we come into His presence and see more of His holiness, we realize how unworthy and sinful we are and yet how great His love is. When we experience deep repentance, we can know His healing power—first to the inner man, then to the outer man.
We need to learn to seek Him for Himself and not what He can give us. Once we have our priorities right, once we really come to our knees in repentance, I do believe a revival will come and with signs and wonders that will follow. And the revival will affect all of society and heal our land as well.
True revival would change the direction of our nation. If we don’t have such a revival, I am afraid we are on our way to destruction. May God bless America and have mercy on her.
Taken from Charisma. July 2 2008. J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma.
Charisma: You lived through an amazing season of revival in Bolivia. What led up to it? Was there a lot of prayer and fasting?
Ruth Ruibal: Before the revival the largest evangelical church in La Paz, Bolivia had about 90 members. Missionaries from many denominations had labored for decades with little results. I know that the Lord honored those decades of labor, perseverance and prayer.
“We desperately need a revival today in the United States. However, historical revivals start with repentance.”
Julio’s conversion experience in California was one of deep repentance, deliverance and inner healing. When he returned to Bolivia the year after his conversion he found some missionaries, but they thought he was false because he shared a promise he got from the Lord that “even the stadiums would be too small to hold the crowds.” After all, the missionaries had been there for decades and the results were few.
Julio was a man of prayer, fasting and obedience even at the age of 19 when the revival started. When we started the church in 1974 we would teach the young people and then in the evenings they would go to home groups to teach what they had learned. We would then reunite after the meetings and pray for the people in the meetings. This meant we prayed from 10 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. or 3 a.m. every night. There was a lot of prayer.
Charisma: Obviously when revival broke out there were many conversions. Tell us about the numbers that came to the Lord.
Ruibal: It started in the stadium in La Paz, with thousands attending. After the meetings, the police would take Julio out of the stadium in an ambulance for his safety and he would go home to listen to the radio for three or more hours. He would hear about all the miracles still taking place in the stadium! Behind the scenes he would spend days in fasting and prayer.
One day the meeting was to start at 10 a.m., but the police called Julio to ask for his advice. The crowds had come around 5 a.m. to get seats in the stadium, but when they arrived they found the stadium was already filled. People had spent the night there, and the overflow crowd was now at 40,000. The police feared a riot. That day Julio preached to the crowd within the stadium and then from the wall of the stadium to the overflow. Miracles took place as people repented and came to Jesus.
From then on the stadiums were too small to hold the crowds. The meetings were held on mountainsides and in plazas. There was no PA system at that time large enough to reach the tens of thousands of people, so the people were encouraged to bring their transistor radios and turn them up as loud as possible.
Since the meetings were being broadcast, everyone could hear the preaching. The Assemblies of God sold 33,000 Bibles and New Testaments in only two weeks. In fact, the Bible Society of Argentina and other outlets had to send them their stock of Bibles as well.
Charisma: What would you say was the most astounding miracle that occurred during those years?
Ruibal: Julio used to come home and say [to me and my daughters], “Girls, you won’t believe what Jesus did today!” And he would tell us how the Lord had touched some need in someone’s life. However, the greatest, most outstanding miracle for Julio was always how the Lord can come into our lives and transform us.
Conversion is really the greatest miracle. And isn’t that what Jesus said? He told us: “Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven” (Luke 10:20, NASB). That was truly Julio’s greatest joy—the miracle of a changed life, not only the physical miracles.
Charisma: Church planting is also a byproduct of revival. Do you have any idea how many new churches were started as a result of what happened in Bolivia?
Ruibal: Ekklesía, the church we started in La Paz, has more than 23,000 members today. Ekklesía now has daughter churches in every state in the country of Bolivia. There are also churches in the United States, Colombia and I think Argentina that spread from that church. They may not be organizationally connected to the church in La Paz, but they came out of that church. There were about 15 churches started in the city of La Paz alone as a result of that revival.
Charisma: You and your husband moved to Colombia, and then he was martyred in 1995. Persecution and martyrdom is also a byproduct of revival that we don't talk about much. How did your husband's death spark revival in Colombia?
Ruibal: After Julio was killed, the church in the city of Cali, Colombia, united in prayer, first in the coliseum with 20,000 people in March 1995 and then in the stadium with 40,000 in August and 45,000 in November. After we started praying together, several things took place:
• The churches started to grow and the gospel reached to another strata of society—businessmen, lawyers, teachers, politicians, news anchors, and others came to know the Lord. The general atmosphere of the city changed and there was a new hunger for the Lord in the general population.
• In those first nine months (March to November) six of the seven major drug lords in Cali fell and the last one turned himself in nine months later. The crime rate began to drop and we had a different city.
• One of the most historic events took place at Julio’s funeral. The president of the ministerial association asked that since Julio was so strong about unity, we should make a covenant of unity right then. All the pastors came forward, we embraced one another and made a simple covenant that is written profoundly in our hearts even today: “We are one and we will let nothing divide us.”
• Cali in general has experienced a new day. We have seen crime reduced, we have seen people come to the Lord in large numbers and we have a fine Christian councilman in office. However, we know the Lord has much more for us.
Charisma: What would you say to the American church today as we seek to pursue genuine revival?
Ruibal: We desperately need a revival today in the United States. I think most of us are in agreement with that. However, historical revivals start with repentance. We need to move beyond the generic needs of the church and become more personally involved in seeking His face. Once we see His holiness, we can truly repent.
We live in a day where much of the world has filtered into the church. Paul tells us that the last days are dangerous days, but it is not the same kind of danger as terrorism. The danger of the last days is man’s own heart, which is selfish, self-loving, self-gratifying, independent and disobedient. Man’s heart loves the Lord yet loves pleasure more. The last day people are a religious people (you can find them in church and Christian meetings!), but they deny the power to live the true Christian life.
The Word tells us that holiness is not an option. I am not referring to a list of dos and don’ts, but of the heart. When we come into His presence and see more of His holiness, we realize how unworthy and sinful we are and yet how great His love is. When we experience deep repentance, we can know His healing power—first to the inner man, then to the outer man.
We need to learn to seek Him for Himself and not what He can give us. Once we have our priorities right, once we really come to our knees in repentance, I do believe a revival will come and with signs and wonders that will follow. And the revival will affect all of society and heal our land as well.
True revival would change the direction of our nation. If we don’t have such a revival, I am afraid we are on our way to destruction. May God bless America and have mercy on her.
Taken from Charisma. July 2 2008. J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma.
The Marks of Genuine Revival, Part 1
Julio Ruibal, who was martyred for his faith in 1995, left us a legacy of revival. His widow, Ruth, shares in this interview how the gospel transformed Bolivia in the 1970s—and then Colombia in the 1990s.
Most American Christians today are unfamiliar with Julio Ruibal, the humble Bolivian preacher who was known in South America as “the apostle of the Andes.” He was martyred in 1995 in Cali, Colombia, where he and his wife, Ruth, planted a church and were mobilizing unity among churches in order to stop the violent drug cartels that controlled that city.
Years before criminals shot Julio in the streets of Cali, he was used by God to ignite a spiritual awakening that shook his native Bolivia to its foundations. In the early 1970s, after his conversion in Los Angeles, Julio returned to the city of La Paz, Bolivia and began to share Christ. After a core group of young people came to the Lord, conversions began to multiply exponentially until there were more than 5,000 new Christians.
After word of this spiritual outbreak spread in the predominantly Catholic country, Ruibal found himself in a meeting with Bolivia’s president, Hugo Bánzer Suárez. The president and his wife prayed with Julio and then gave him an open door to evangelize the entire country—giving him the use of stadiums and asking mayors to declare a holiday when the young evangelist arrived in their cities to preach.
“Churches sprang up everywhere and poverty was diminished, especially among Christian families when they learned to tithe.”
During the next several years, hundreds of thousands of people were converted to Christ. Those who study the history of missions there draw a clear line between the days “before Ruibal” and “after Ruibal.” Today the evangelical population of Bolivia has grown to more than 11 percent.
Ruth Ruibal carries her husband’s torch today. Besides leading their ministry in Colombia, she speaks all over the world about the need for genuine revival and its transforming power. In this two-part interview, she shares with Charisma about what she believes we should expect when we pray for revival to sweep our own country.
Charisma: Repentance seems to be a hallmark of true revival. What level of repentance did you see in the Bolivian revival?
Ruibal: Julio’s conversion was dramatic and his repentance was deep. He would lie on the living room floor saying, “Jesus I have found You; I have found everything.” Up until then, Julio was supporting himself by running a yoga academy. He told all his students about his conversion—and half the students were saved while half left. He closed down the academy and from that day, for the rest of his life, he lived by faith.
Most people would have tried to save the academy or wait until they had something else to do. But Julio was drastic in obeying. I saw the fruit of repentance in Bolivia. People were getting right with others, making restoration for prior wrongs and dramatically stepping out from sin. Since repentance was part of Julio’s life, the people saved under his ministry saw that as well. Repentance was his lifestyle.
Charisma: How did the Bolivian revival affect the nation and the culture?
Ruibal: This was a sovereign move of God over a nation, not just one church being revived. Up until that time, Bolivia had had more presidents than years of independence. There had been so many coups. At one point there were four presidents in one day.
However, when President Bánzer opened the country to the gospel, he stayed in power for eight years. That was a first for Bolivia. Bolivia experienced its first economic boom. Churches sprang up everywhere and poverty was diminished, especially among Christian families when they learned to tithe.
Charisma: Many believe that supernatural signs and wonders must accompany a true revival. What kind of miracles took place in the Bolivian revival?
Ruibal: The miracles were so remarkable and abundant that it is hard to adequately describe. One of the outstanding miracles involved a woman who was dying of bone cancer. She was bedridden and her upper leg could not be moved for lack of bone. Her sons asked Julio to pray for her.
He led her to the Lord and then prayed for healing. Then Julio felt the Lord telling him to lift the lady to her feet. He helped pull her up and she stood. God had replaced the bone eaten away by cancer!
Another type of miracle took place in Santa Cruz, a city with a warm climate. On this particular day the multitudes were waiting for the meeting to begin, but it was a very hot day and some began to faint and ambulances would carry them away. Seeing this, Julio was moved with compassion for the people and prayed that the Lord would change the weather.
The Lord sent clouds from the north to confirm that it was the Lord bringing relief. (Normally that area would get cool winds from Antarctica in the south, but not from the north.) Also the Lord sent a light mist that proved to be a type of air conditioning. This was so outstanding that the secular newspapers showed pictures of the clouds and reported the miracle.
We saw clubbed feet made straight. The lame walked, a hunchbacked man’s back was straightened, people who were brought in blankets or sheets got up and walked out healthy, the blind were given sight, the deaf were able to hear, diseases were healed with medical certification, the mute spoke, legs grew out and people were delivered from demons. At one point people were healed even when Julio’s shadow passed over them.
There were other types of miracles, too. Food was multiplied supernaturally. At a dinner, fish appeared on a plate in front of several elders. Once, money multiplied so that we could feed some leaders who had come to minister.
Charisma: There is much emphasis among charismatics today on seeing angels and communicating with them. Was this a factor in the Bolivian revival?
Ruibal: I believe we all experience angelic ministry more than we are aware of. How many times have we been saved from an almost certain car accident—and then we realize it was a miracle. Probably angels were sent to help us.
Julio told me of someone who offered him some free wood for a building project that he was working on. When he and his friends went to the establishment to pick up the wood, they found it at the very bottom of a pile that reached almost to the ceiling of the shop. Julio and the young men discussed what they should do and prayed. It seemed impossible to get to the wood without days of moving all the wood on top of the pieces they needed.
When they went back to re-evaluate the situation, they found their wood was now on top of all the other wood! They could only assume an angel had moved it there. However, they never saw angels, never talked to them and never acknowledged their presence—other than to comment, as in this case, that it would have had to be an angel that moved the wood. All the praise and thanks went to Jesus. He was the One they loved and acknowledged.
Charisma: There is also an emphasis today on exotic manifestations such as gold dust, feathers, oil appearing on Bibles, or gem stones appearing on church floors. Did this happen in Bolivia?
Ruibal: There were all sorts of miracles from the beginning and that continued throughout Julio’s ministry to the very end. They were mainly signs, wonders and different kinds of healings. Sometimes people fell when we prayed for them, but this was not something we looked for or particularly wanted. We did not have gold dust, feathers, gems, orbs, oil oozing from hands or any other such thing, nor did we seek it. We sought Jesus and His will.
Taken from Charisma. June 25 2008. J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma.
Most American Christians today are unfamiliar with Julio Ruibal, the humble Bolivian preacher who was known in South America as “the apostle of the Andes.” He was martyred in 1995 in Cali, Colombia, where he and his wife, Ruth, planted a church and were mobilizing unity among churches in order to stop the violent drug cartels that controlled that city.
Years before criminals shot Julio in the streets of Cali, he was used by God to ignite a spiritual awakening that shook his native Bolivia to its foundations. In the early 1970s, after his conversion in Los Angeles, Julio returned to the city of La Paz, Bolivia and began to share Christ. After a core group of young people came to the Lord, conversions began to multiply exponentially until there were more than 5,000 new Christians.
After word of this spiritual outbreak spread in the predominantly Catholic country, Ruibal found himself in a meeting with Bolivia’s president, Hugo Bánzer Suárez. The president and his wife prayed with Julio and then gave him an open door to evangelize the entire country—giving him the use of stadiums and asking mayors to declare a holiday when the young evangelist arrived in their cities to preach.
“Churches sprang up everywhere and poverty was diminished, especially among Christian families when they learned to tithe.”
During the next several years, hundreds of thousands of people were converted to Christ. Those who study the history of missions there draw a clear line between the days “before Ruibal” and “after Ruibal.” Today the evangelical population of Bolivia has grown to more than 11 percent.
Ruth Ruibal carries her husband’s torch today. Besides leading their ministry in Colombia, she speaks all over the world about the need for genuine revival and its transforming power. In this two-part interview, she shares with Charisma about what she believes we should expect when we pray for revival to sweep our own country.
Charisma: Repentance seems to be a hallmark of true revival. What level of repentance did you see in the Bolivian revival?
Ruibal: Julio’s conversion was dramatic and his repentance was deep. He would lie on the living room floor saying, “Jesus I have found You; I have found everything.” Up until then, Julio was supporting himself by running a yoga academy. He told all his students about his conversion—and half the students were saved while half left. He closed down the academy and from that day, for the rest of his life, he lived by faith.
Most people would have tried to save the academy or wait until they had something else to do. But Julio was drastic in obeying. I saw the fruit of repentance in Bolivia. People were getting right with others, making restoration for prior wrongs and dramatically stepping out from sin. Since repentance was part of Julio’s life, the people saved under his ministry saw that as well. Repentance was his lifestyle.
Charisma: How did the Bolivian revival affect the nation and the culture?
Ruibal: This was a sovereign move of God over a nation, not just one church being revived. Up until that time, Bolivia had had more presidents than years of independence. There had been so many coups. At one point there were four presidents in one day.
However, when President Bánzer opened the country to the gospel, he stayed in power for eight years. That was a first for Bolivia. Bolivia experienced its first economic boom. Churches sprang up everywhere and poverty was diminished, especially among Christian families when they learned to tithe.
Charisma: Many believe that supernatural signs and wonders must accompany a true revival. What kind of miracles took place in the Bolivian revival?
Ruibal: The miracles were so remarkable and abundant that it is hard to adequately describe. One of the outstanding miracles involved a woman who was dying of bone cancer. She was bedridden and her upper leg could not be moved for lack of bone. Her sons asked Julio to pray for her.
He led her to the Lord and then prayed for healing. Then Julio felt the Lord telling him to lift the lady to her feet. He helped pull her up and she stood. God had replaced the bone eaten away by cancer!
Another type of miracle took place in Santa Cruz, a city with a warm climate. On this particular day the multitudes were waiting for the meeting to begin, but it was a very hot day and some began to faint and ambulances would carry them away. Seeing this, Julio was moved with compassion for the people and prayed that the Lord would change the weather.
The Lord sent clouds from the north to confirm that it was the Lord bringing relief. (Normally that area would get cool winds from Antarctica in the south, but not from the north.) Also the Lord sent a light mist that proved to be a type of air conditioning. This was so outstanding that the secular newspapers showed pictures of the clouds and reported the miracle.
We saw clubbed feet made straight. The lame walked, a hunchbacked man’s back was straightened, people who were brought in blankets or sheets got up and walked out healthy, the blind were given sight, the deaf were able to hear, diseases were healed with medical certification, the mute spoke, legs grew out and people were delivered from demons. At one point people were healed even when Julio’s shadow passed over them.
There were other types of miracles, too. Food was multiplied supernaturally. At a dinner, fish appeared on a plate in front of several elders. Once, money multiplied so that we could feed some leaders who had come to minister.
Charisma: There is much emphasis among charismatics today on seeing angels and communicating with them. Was this a factor in the Bolivian revival?
Ruibal: I believe we all experience angelic ministry more than we are aware of. How many times have we been saved from an almost certain car accident—and then we realize it was a miracle. Probably angels were sent to help us.
Julio told me of someone who offered him some free wood for a building project that he was working on. When he and his friends went to the establishment to pick up the wood, they found it at the very bottom of a pile that reached almost to the ceiling of the shop. Julio and the young men discussed what they should do and prayed. It seemed impossible to get to the wood without days of moving all the wood on top of the pieces they needed.
When they went back to re-evaluate the situation, they found their wood was now on top of all the other wood! They could only assume an angel had moved it there. However, they never saw angels, never talked to them and never acknowledged their presence—other than to comment, as in this case, that it would have had to be an angel that moved the wood. All the praise and thanks went to Jesus. He was the One they loved and acknowledged.
Charisma: There is also an emphasis today on exotic manifestations such as gold dust, feathers, oil appearing on Bibles, or gem stones appearing on church floors. Did this happen in Bolivia?
Ruibal: There were all sorts of miracles from the beginning and that continued throughout Julio’s ministry to the very end. They were mainly signs, wonders and different kinds of healings. Sometimes people fell when we prayed for them, but this was not something we looked for or particularly wanted. We did not have gold dust, feathers, gems, orbs, oil oozing from hands or any other such thing, nor did we seek it. We sought Jesus and His will.
Taken from Charisma. June 25 2008. J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma.
发誓能解决事情吗？
最近公正党实权领袖安华受到他的助理赛夫指控被鸡奸，警方目前调查此案。除了国人对真伪臆测纷纷之外，竟然也出现巫青团等人士挑战安华按手在古兰经上发誓；而公青团则挑战副首相纳吉，总检察长阿都干尼和总警长慕沙哈山针对蒙古女郎案件发誓。
安华所说他听一些宗教司的劝免不必发誓，因为即使他在1998年曾经发誓，但政府还是判他坐牢。现在安华表明愿意按手在古兰经发誓，条件是把这宗案件全然由回教法庭审讯。
用发誓证实清白行得通吗？马来西亚是一个法治的国家，民事法庭乃以法律为权威，用发誓来解决一件事情显得幼稚并无济于事。我国华裔有时也出现使用“斩鸡头发誓”来解决纠纷的荒唐事情，难道我们必须借助鬼神的力量来定对错不可？不错，倘若发誓可证实人清白的话，法庭就无需再审案子了！
对于基督教怎样呢？耶稣的教导是这样：“总不可发誓，不可指着天发誓，因为天是上帝的宝座；不可指着地发誓，因为地是上帝的脚凳。”不知为何所谓信仰基督教的西方国家法庭最初带头实行按手在圣经发誓的条例，控辩双方的证人都一手按着圣经一面讲“我某某人讲的都是真话”。这先例导致世界各国也跟风按手在各自宗教的经书发誓。
虽然判决结果许多人因此获得正义的伸张，但也有不少人因此蒙冤呢，那又怎样解释？因为如果在法庭作证者不畏鬼神的话，发誓岂不是当作吃生菜？现在西方越来越多法庭正探讨摒弃这项发誓的条例，那是好消息，希望早日落实摒弃。
人类诚信已经不值分文
一个人在警方或法官面前是否讲真话，是他们自己跟上帝或神明之间的关系，而不是藉着发誓的威慑。发誓其实是利用心理战术，除了不畏鬼神的发誓者，其他或许是被宗教牵绑而担心遭天谴的！就因人类自亚当和夏娃堕落以来，已经渐渐良心麻木了！我们的诚信已经不值分文了，所以我们才会彼此怀疑对方的言谈。人有诚信，“是”就说“是”，“不是”就说“不是”，再多就是出于恶念，但人类已经不能明确坦诚说“是”或“不是”了！这大概就是为什么人想借助鬼神的力量给予吓唬，如果人类来到利用鬼神而不使用理智的法律来解决问题的话，我们的状况是可悲的。
国人倒更应关注我国司法，警方和反贪局的操作。过去许多负面的例证，让我们对它们感到欠缺信心。国人看到它们的操作明显成为当权者的工具，这样，弱势者在寻求正义时恐怕都成为输家。我们希望首相阿都拉对他先前提出在这三大领域的改革提议，能够决心迅速付诸于行，以便早日还人民正义以致国内外人士对有公信力的国家体制有信心。
安华所说他听一些宗教司的劝免不必发誓，因为即使他在1998年曾经发誓，但政府还是判他坐牢。现在安华表明愿意按手在古兰经发誓，条件是把这宗案件全然由回教法庭审讯。
用发誓证实清白行得通吗？马来西亚是一个法治的国家，民事法庭乃以法律为权威，用发誓来解决一件事情显得幼稚并无济于事。我国华裔有时也出现使用“斩鸡头发誓”来解决纠纷的荒唐事情，难道我们必须借助鬼神的力量来定对错不可？不错，倘若发誓可证实人清白的话，法庭就无需再审案子了！
对于基督教怎样呢？耶稣的教导是这样：“总不可发誓，不可指着天发誓，因为天是上帝的宝座；不可指着地发誓，因为地是上帝的脚凳。”不知为何所谓信仰基督教的西方国家法庭最初带头实行按手在圣经发誓的条例，控辩双方的证人都一手按着圣经一面讲“我某某人讲的都是真话”。这先例导致世界各国也跟风按手在各自宗教的经书发誓。
虽然判决结果许多人因此获得正义的伸张，但也有不少人因此蒙冤呢，那又怎样解释？因为如果在法庭作证者不畏鬼神的话，发誓岂不是当作吃生菜？现在西方越来越多法庭正探讨摒弃这项发誓的条例，那是好消息，希望早日落实摒弃。
人类诚信已经不值分文
一个人在警方或法官面前是否讲真话，是他们自己跟上帝或神明之间的关系，而不是藉着发誓的威慑。发誓其实是利用心理战术，除了不畏鬼神的发誓者，其他或许是被宗教牵绑而担心遭天谴的！就因人类自亚当和夏娃堕落以来，已经渐渐良心麻木了！我们的诚信已经不值分文了，所以我们才会彼此怀疑对方的言谈。人有诚信，“是”就说“是”，“不是”就说“不是”，再多就是出于恶念，但人类已经不能明确坦诚说“是”或“不是”了！这大概就是为什么人想借助鬼神的力量给予吓唬，如果人类来到利用鬼神而不使用理智的法律来解决问题的话，我们的状况是可悲的。
国人倒更应关注我国司法，警方和反贪局的操作。过去许多负面的例证，让我们对它们感到欠缺信心。国人看到它们的操作明显成为当权者的工具，这样，弱势者在寻求正义时恐怕都成为输家。我们希望首相阿都拉对他先前提出在这三大领域的改革提议，能够决心迅速付诸于行，以便早日还人民正义以致国内外人士对有公信力的国家体制有信心。
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Malaysiakini: 10,000 people at noon
Malaysiakini: 10,000 people at noon, please refer to http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/85644
From 10a.m to 12.00 midnight, the ordinary citizen are gathering at Kelana Jaya Stadium to protest against petrol hike. At noon there was 10,000 people.
Since petrol hike on 4th June, people have been upset all these while. Then there was shocking news that the aide of Anwar accused his boss for sodomising him. Obviously this was a political conspiracy which served to hit two birds with one stone - to finish off Anwar's political life and to distract attention from petrol hike.
Malaysia has 100,000 police. For an international ratio, a police to 250 people is just nice. As for Malaysia, ours is 1 to 260 which is near normal. But the crimes here are rampant. What are the police doing? They used the police in the wrong place.
We seldom see police around us nowadays. But they are only good at deploying them to set up road blocks, visiting places of rallies. Well, in the past, they used water-canons and tear gas to disperse the crowds on several ocassions. The police were waisting our time by causing unnecessary traffic jams. The road-blocks were meant to delay people from reaching at the destination.
From 10a.m to 12.00 midnight, the ordinary citizen are gathering at Kelana Jaya Stadium to protest against petrol hike. At noon there was 10,000 people.
Since petrol hike on 4th June, people have been upset all these while. Then there was shocking news that the aide of Anwar accused his boss for sodomising him. Obviously this was a political conspiracy which served to hit two birds with one stone - to finish off Anwar's political life and to distract attention from petrol hike.
Malaysia has 100,000 police. For an international ratio, a police to 250 people is just nice. As for Malaysia, ours is 1 to 260 which is near normal. But the crimes here are rampant. What are the police doing? They used the police in the wrong place.
We seldom see police around us nowadays. But they are only good at deploying them to set up road blocks, visiting places of rallies. Well, in the past, they used water-canons and tear gas to disperse the crowds on several ocassions. The police were waisting our time by causing unnecessary traffic jams. The road-blocks were meant to delay people from reaching at the destination.
Malaysiakini: Najib said he knew nothing about it
Malaysiakini: Najib said he knew nothing about it, pleas refer to http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/85631
Najib Abdul Razak has denied speculations that he was behind the retraction of private investigator P Balasubramaniam’s first statutory declaration (SD) which had linked him with a murdered Mongolian woman.
Najib also blamed the people for playing with laws. He said that Malaysian politics is getting dirtier. He said he and his wife were not afraid being hurt by rumours.
Yes, Najib was getting stronger in his spirit. He was unmoved by all these "rumours" which tainted his name. Actually who was playing with laws and dirty politics? If the government does not interfere with the judiciary, ACA and police force, Malaysia is at peace. Bala retracted his first SD in 23 hours and replaced it with the second one. And "coincidentally" all the item that involved Najib were retracted.
As a result, the people have the right to know which is the true one, the 1st of the 2nd? But could the people trust the police for doing an independent and unbias job? Since there is the possibility that the 1st one was the true one, but Bala retracted it after some influential figure's threat. Therefor the attorney-general has the duty to hold-on the court verdict which is on 23rd July, and Bala to be recalled to testify.
Najib Abdul Razak has denied speculations that he was behind the retraction of private investigator P Balasubramaniam’s first statutory declaration (SD) which had linked him with a murdered Mongolian woman.
Najib also blamed the people for playing with laws. He said that Malaysian politics is getting dirtier. He said he and his wife were not afraid being hurt by rumours.
Yes, Najib was getting stronger in his spirit. He was unmoved by all these "rumours" which tainted his name. Actually who was playing with laws and dirty politics? If the government does not interfere with the judiciary, ACA and police force, Malaysia is at peace. Bala retracted his first SD in 23 hours and replaced it with the second one. And "coincidentally" all the item that involved Najib were retracted.
As a result, the people have the right to know which is the true one, the 1st of the 2nd? But could the people trust the police for doing an independent and unbias job? Since there is the possibility that the 1st one was the true one, but Bala retracted it after some influential figure's threat. Therefor the attorney-general has the duty to hold-on the court verdict which is on 23rd July, and Bala to be recalled to testify.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Malaysiakini: PI retracts stunning statutory declaration
Malaysiakini: PI retracts stunning statutory declaration, please refer to http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/85552
It is a stunning news following the stunning revelation. Private Investigater Bala has suddenly retracted his stattutory declaration and replaced it with a new one. The new one had done away with 7 items related to DPM Najib.
This was obviously a political tussle on Anwar. I believed that Anwar should retaliate immediately for the verdict of Altantuya's case is soon pronounced on 23rd July.
Was he under pressure from the authorities? Now the people must make sure that a fair and independent royal inquiry be formed immediately. This is confusing. And who can trust BN politicians now?
It is a stunning news following the stunning revelation. Private Investigater Bala has suddenly retracted his stattutory declaration and replaced it with a new one. The new one had done away with 7 items related to DPM Najib.
This was obviously a political tussle on Anwar. I believed that Anwar should retaliate immediately for the verdict of Altantuya's case is soon pronounced on 23rd July.
Was he under pressure from the authorities? Now the people must make sure that a fair and independent royal inquiry be formed immediately. This is confusing. And who can trust BN politicians now?
Malaysiakini: Najib denies affair with Altantuya
Malaysiakini: Najib denies affair with Altantuya, please refer to http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/85535
It is of course natural for DPM Najib to deny. But PM Abdullah should not sweep the whole allegation under the carpet. This is concerning the image of the future head of state. Could the people accept Najib when people are doubtful about him?
I would think that PKR adviser Anwar's call for a royal inquiry into the allegations is the right move. Proverbs said that "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people."
Malaysia is in a chaotic state at the moment. We should not allow this thing to carry on. For any leader who wants to serve the country, his or her credibility is one of the first credentials.
Please pray for Malaysia. Any body who is guilty will never be greater than God. God will not tolerate any misconduct that will destroy the nation.
It is of course natural for DPM Najib to deny. But PM Abdullah should not sweep the whole allegation under the carpet. This is concerning the image of the future head of state. Could the people accept Najib when people are doubtful about him?
I would think that PKR adviser Anwar's call for a royal inquiry into the allegations is the right move. Proverbs said that "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people."
Malaysia is in a chaotic state at the moment. We should not allow this thing to carry on. For any leader who wants to serve the country, his or her credibility is one of the first credentials.
Please pray for Malaysia. Any body who is guilty will never be greater than God. God will not tolerate any misconduct that will destroy the nation.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Malaysiakini: Explosive claims linking Najib to Altantuya
Malaysiakini: Explosive claims linking Najib to Altantuya. Balasubramaniam exposed the hidden secrets about the murder case of Altantuya at 11.30a.m. at Anwar's press reception held at PKR headquarters.
Bala was the private investigator of Razak Baginda, a political analyst for DPM Najib. Bala made a 16-page Statutory Declaration to the police. He revealed that he gave a detailed statement to the police after Altantuya was murdered, but somehow when he testified the attorney general shunned some important details.
These details included that Najib did have intercoarse with Altantuya, and both of them and Razak did have a meal together in Paris.
But when the court case was in progress last year, Najib denied that he knew Altantuya. When Raja Petra made the Statutory Declaration that Rosmah the wife of Najib was at the murder scene of Altantuya, she denied the allegation too.
Was Najib and Rosmah lying? How come they could stay so calm by Rosmah's saying that she would not sue Raja Petra?
DAP veteran leader Lim Kit Siang was right when he said that Najib should go on leave from his DPM duties until cleared of allegations in Balasubramaniam SD (http://blog.limkitsiang.com/2008/07/03/altantuya-murder-najib-should-go-on-leave-from-his-dpm-duties-until-cleared-of-allegations-in-balasubramaniam-sd/).
Najib is PM-in-waiting. He should have a good image in the sight of all Malaysians so that we can trust him.
I hope that PM Abdullah will really make sure the police is given a free-hand to do their jobs. We want to have an independent police force as well as judiciary.
And let us pray that God will do a justice. The court is about to give its verdict on 23rd July. And hope that the court would hold on to that and make sure the attorney general will do a fresh investigation. God bless Malaysia.
Bala was the private investigator of Razak Baginda, a political analyst for DPM Najib. Bala made a 16-page Statutory Declaration to the police. He revealed that he gave a detailed statement to the police after Altantuya was murdered, but somehow when he testified the attorney general shunned some important details.
These details included that Najib did have intercoarse with Altantuya, and both of them and Razak did have a meal together in Paris.
But when the court case was in progress last year, Najib denied that he knew Altantuya. When Raja Petra made the Statutory Declaration that Rosmah the wife of Najib was at the murder scene of Altantuya, she denied the allegation too.
Was Najib and Rosmah lying? How come they could stay so calm by Rosmah's saying that she would not sue Raja Petra?
DAP veteran leader Lim Kit Siang was right when he said that Najib should go on leave from his DPM duties until cleared of allegations in Balasubramaniam SD (http://blog.limkitsiang.com/2008/07/03/altantuya-murder-najib-should-go-on-leave-from-his-dpm-duties-until-cleared-of-allegations-in-balasubramaniam-sd/).
Najib is PM-in-waiting. He should have a good image in the sight of all Malaysians so that we can trust him.
I hope that PM Abdullah will really make sure the police is given a free-hand to do their jobs. We want to have an independent police force as well as judiciary.
And let us pray that God will do a justice. The court is about to give its verdict on 23rd July. And hope that the court would hold on to that and make sure the attorney general will do a fresh investigation. God bless Malaysia.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
安华寻求平反行动
前副首相兼公正党实权领袖安华最近频频上报于封面及显著版位新闻，令人感到我国政治山雨欲来风满楼。基于安华屡屡透露民联将获得30位国阵国会议员跳槽过来而执政，因此出现安华与国阵的拉锯战。
怎么安华会在此时又出现被指控鸡奸他的助理赛夫的呢？安华点名副首相纳吉夫妇诬陷他，到底赛夫是否当权者的卧底吗？这需要警方公正并且独立去调查了！安华说赛夫揭露他将宣布补选及四位国阵议员跳槽的消息，随着就发生指控他鸡奸助理的事情。
在网上的一些电子报作调查，它们都显示多达90％的回应者对安华有信心，认为这是政治嫁祸的个案。安华经过10年前被警方不公的对待，选择在土耳其大使馆避难是可以理会的。因为他对警方的公正已经失去信心，直至得到三位部长保证他的安全才出来，并且妻子旺阿兹莎也亲自寻求首相阿都拉的承诺才安心。
10年前政府可以操纵警方和司法，导致安华不获得公平的审讯。安华要揭发目前的警察总长慕沙哈山和总检察长阿都干尼在10年前捏造证据，导致他无辜地受牢狱之灾。10年后的今天，掌权者若再使用同样的手段捏造证据，肯定会受到国人的反击的。10年的转变使我国在资讯领域迅速地大步跳，国人对资讯唾手可得，不会轻易被人欺骗的。
我国的确需要恢复司法和警方的独立性，首相改革司法只有小动作，没有后继行动。譬如政府赔偿1998年被革职的6位法官，包括前联邦首席大法官敦沙烈，但却不道歉。可惜之后却没有更大动作，譬如林甘律师的录影片皇家报告出炉了两个月仍然没有调查行动。当阿都拉出任首相不久，关于针对警方的贪污所进行的皇委会报告，后来没有了跟进下文。这都显示警方和反贪局根本不能独立操作，非等首相号令不可，并且政府要作的改革不认真。这样，首相声称我国将要设立一个如香港廉正公署的反贪公署，就令人质疑其诚意了。
安华说他将公布1998年被殴打的真相，为自己的案件平反。这其实是好事，因为若要回复司法和警方的公信力，一切历史不公正的判决必须重新被摆出来。他也声称在2004年他的鸡奸案罪被撤销后，前首席大法官流泪求他宽恕。政府必须愿意面对尴尬，才能够踏出改革的第一步。但愿真理的光在我国照出黑暗的隐情。
最后，相信我国有不少支持政治转变者，不希望安华为了报复而想攀上首相的座位，而是希望他真正为国家的前途而斗争。
怎么安华会在此时又出现被指控鸡奸他的助理赛夫的呢？安华点名副首相纳吉夫妇诬陷他，到底赛夫是否当权者的卧底吗？这需要警方公正并且独立去调查了！安华说赛夫揭露他将宣布补选及四位国阵议员跳槽的消息，随着就发生指控他鸡奸助理的事情。
在网上的一些电子报作调查，它们都显示多达90％的回应者对安华有信心，认为这是政治嫁祸的个案。安华经过10年前被警方不公的对待，选择在土耳其大使馆避难是可以理会的。因为他对警方的公正已经失去信心，直至得到三位部长保证他的安全才出来，并且妻子旺阿兹莎也亲自寻求首相阿都拉的承诺才安心。
10年前政府可以操纵警方和司法，导致安华不获得公平的审讯。安华要揭发目前的警察总长慕沙哈山和总检察长阿都干尼在10年前捏造证据，导致他无辜地受牢狱之灾。10年后的今天，掌权者若再使用同样的手段捏造证据，肯定会受到国人的反击的。10年的转变使我国在资讯领域迅速地大步跳，国人对资讯唾手可得，不会轻易被人欺骗的。
我国的确需要恢复司法和警方的独立性，首相改革司法只有小动作，没有后继行动。譬如政府赔偿1998年被革职的6位法官，包括前联邦首席大法官敦沙烈，但却不道歉。可惜之后却没有更大动作，譬如林甘律师的录影片皇家报告出炉了两个月仍然没有调查行动。当阿都拉出任首相不久，关于针对警方的贪污所进行的皇委会报告，后来没有了跟进下文。这都显示警方和反贪局根本不能独立操作，非等首相号令不可，并且政府要作的改革不认真。这样，首相声称我国将要设立一个如香港廉正公署的反贪公署，就令人质疑其诚意了。
安华说他将公布1998年被殴打的真相，为自己的案件平反。这其实是好事，因为若要回复司法和警方的公信力，一切历史不公正的判决必须重新被摆出来。他也声称在2004年他的鸡奸案罪被撤销后，前首席大法官流泪求他宽恕。政府必须愿意面对尴尬，才能够踏出改革的第一步。但愿真理的光在我国照出黑暗的隐情。
最后，相信我国有不少支持政治转变者，不希望安华为了报复而想攀上首相的座位，而是希望他真正为国家的前途而斗争。
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
比尔盖茨行善值得富豪仿效
比尔盖茨正式离开“微软”，全力从事公益事业。他目前才53岁，事业如日中天，如是地把商业王国卸下的行动，肯定令不少人惊讶。其实盖茨作得很明智，他早在两年前即宣布这项行动，让世人逐渐认同他的伟大决定。
他的行动，希望能够引起其他富豪仿效。他之所以伟大，，乃是他将把自己580亿美元财产全数捐给名下慈善基金会，一分一毫也不会留给自己子女。其实盖茨靠自己的头脑致富，肯定他也相信“天生我才必有用”的道理，所以他的子女必须靠自己才干在社会立足。
盖茨在学校的数学属于低成就的，初中一即开始接触电子电脑。他很喜欢玩电脑游戏，结果给他玩出一个“微软”来。我们身边的青少年也很喜欢玩电脑游戏，甚至沉迷，无日无天对着荧屏，这是玩物丧志。而盖茨的则是“玩物励志”，他从他的爱好中创作商机。他20岁即与朋友编写和成功出售个人电脑程式软件 Altair Basic。他从哈佛大学辍学，可见一个修完大专的人未必就可以事业成功的。今天90％个人电脑是用微软视窗的。盖茨36岁即成为美国第三富豪，43岁即成为世界富豪，并维持许多年排行榜。
盖茨生平讲了不少独特的名言，这些都值得世人细细咀嚼的。举一个：“人生是不平等的，习惯于这情况吧！”这是他观察世界的情形，导致他决心要为世人做些事情。世上有多少穷人？这世上全球最富有的200位富豪就拥有超过世界一半人口的财富，而有四分之一人口的每天收入少于1美元。
盖茨看透了，人生是不平等的，绝大多数人是无以能力改变它的，所以这就激使盖茨为慈善尽他的本分。人生短暂，即使赚得全世界又怎样，70，80年转眼即逝的了！所以我很佩服盖茨的行动，不再用青春去为金钱拼搏，却把青春献给有需要的人，他的余生会度得更喜乐更有意义。
他的行动，希望能够引起其他富豪仿效。他之所以伟大，，乃是他将把自己580亿美元财产全数捐给名下慈善基金会，一分一毫也不会留给自己子女。其实盖茨靠自己的头脑致富，肯定他也相信“天生我才必有用”的道理，所以他的子女必须靠自己才干在社会立足。
盖茨在学校的数学属于低成就的，初中一即开始接触电子电脑。他很喜欢玩电脑游戏，结果给他玩出一个“微软”来。我们身边的青少年也很喜欢玩电脑游戏，甚至沉迷，无日无天对着荧屏，这是玩物丧志。而盖茨的则是“玩物励志”，他从他的爱好中创作商机。他20岁即与朋友编写和成功出售个人电脑程式软件 Altair Basic。他从哈佛大学辍学，可见一个修完大专的人未必就可以事业成功的。今天90％个人电脑是用微软视窗的。盖茨36岁即成为美国第三富豪，43岁即成为世界富豪，并维持许多年排行榜。
盖茨生平讲了不少独特的名言，这些都值得世人细细咀嚼的。举一个：“人生是不平等的，习惯于这情况吧！”这是他观察世界的情形，导致他决心要为世人做些事情。世上有多少穷人？这世上全球最富有的200位富豪就拥有超过世界一半人口的财富，而有四分之一人口的每天收入少于1美元。
盖茨看透了，人生是不平等的，绝大多数人是无以能力改变它的，所以这就激使盖茨为慈善尽他的本分。人生短暂，即使赚得全世界又怎样，70，80年转眼即逝的了！所以我很佩服盖茨的行动，不再用青春去为金钱拼搏，却把青春献给有需要的人，他的余生会度得更喜乐更有意义。
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