Thursday, October 11, 2012

Once Gay, Always Gay?


Gay teens holding hands
(istockphoto.com/Lisa Blue )
A new law in California tells gay teens it’s impossible to change their sexual orientation. But what if they want to change?
I have a confession to make: I have prayed for many people who struggle with homosexual feelings, and I have asked the Holy Spirit to help them overcome those urges. According to the state of California, that makes me a criminal if the person I prayed for was under 18.
California has banned so-called “reparative therapy,” which is used to cure minors of their homosexual feelings. Upon signing the law in late September, Gov. Jerry Brown said such psychological counseling has led to depression and suicide among gay youth, and he added that any therapy aimed at changing a person’s sexual orientation falls into the category of “quackery.”
The law states that no mental health provider can provide minors with therapies to “change behaviors or gender expressions, or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same sex.”
Brown, the majority of California’s legislators and leaders of the gay community say it’s hateful to offer a gay person alternatives if they struggle with same-sex attraction. They believe if young people have gay feelings, they might as well embrace their homosexual identity and get busy acting it out. (Meanwhile, a formerly gay student and two therapists have filed suit against the law, claiming that it is a violation of free speech and freedom of religion.)
We all know homosexuality is a complicated issue, and it requires loads of compassion and sensitivity. I will readily admit the Christian community hasn’t always shown love to homosexuals. But as we develop genuine compassion there are three truths we must never compromise:
1. Homosexuality is not necessarily inborn. The prevailing view in the mainstream psychological community is that if a person feels gay attraction, those feelings permanently define him/her. Change isn’t possible, supposedly, because all homosexuals are “born that way.”
Yet any honest psychologist knows certain factors can trigger gay feelings. I have prayed for many guys, for example, who were haunted by unwanted gay desires because they were sexually abused as children or teens. I have also prayed for women who developed sexual feelings for women after being abused by men; for them, lesbianism provided protection from the men who hurt them.
Some boys develop same-sex feelings because they lack a father figure. A boy’s craving for his absent or distant dad’s affection can lead to sexualization of other men in his life. To ignore such environmental or developmental factors is a gross denial of the obvious. To tell a teenage boy that he must automatically embrace gay feelings—especially when his sexuality is still being developed—is a worse form of quackery than Brown has condemned.
2. The Holy Spirit can heal our broken sexuality. I have known many people who struggled with various levels of homosexual desire before they met Christ—and many who continue to resist those temptations as Christians. Some were in long-term gay relationships; some simply experimented with homosexuality; others got hooked on gay porn. But in every case they found freedom from those urges through honest confession, repentance and healing prayer.
If a young man came to me and admitted he was tempted to seduce women, I would not tell him: “You just have a strong sex drive. Go ahead and have sex with as many girls as you want! That’s just who you are!” That would be crazy. If this teen really wanted to change his behavior I would lead him in a prayer of repentance, deal with the root issues of his problem and encourage him to trust Jesus for the grace to exercise self-control. Why wouldn’t I do the same for a teenager who is attracted to the same sex?
3. Many homosexual strugglers want freedom. Supporters of the California law would probably say I’m being “hateful” if I prayed for a young person who wanted to overcome same-sex urges. But I could turn the argument around and accuse the psychological community of hate because they are not giving gay people any options. Wouldn’t it be more loving to ask a person what they want instead of imposing a lifestyle on them?
One of the most basic truths of Christianity is that Jesus gives us a new nature when we experience conversion.  This is the miracle the apostle Paul described in 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (NASB). Why would we offer that freedom to those who struggle with other forms of sin or brokenness, but not to those who want to be free from homosexuality?
Let’s stop being naive. California’s tyrannical law is not based on science or solid psychological theory. It is mean-spirited intolerance, and it will become federal policy if defenders of religious freedom don’t challenge it.
J. Lee Grady is the former editor of Charisma and the director of The Mordecai Project. You can follow him on Twitter at leegrady. His recent books include 10 Lies Men Believe and Fearless Daughters of the Bible.
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Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Mat Sabu slams UMNO for playing religion cards


Mat Sabu comes to DAP’s defence

Humayun Kabir
 | October 10, 2012
Umno's claim that the party is out to turn Malaysia into a Christian state is preposterous, says PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu.
TAIPING: PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu lashed out at BN for fanning religious hatred among Muslims by saying that the DAP is out to turn Malaysia into a Christian state.
“It is theoretically incorrect and practically impossible for DAP to turn the nation into a Christian state as the party does not enjoy two thirds majority in Parliament.
“The constitution specifies that Islam is the religion of the Federation and Article 153 safeguards the special position of the Malays,” he told a ceramah in Simpang on Sunday.
Popularly referred to as Mat Sabu, the PAS leader pointed out that the most DAP can command is about 40 parliamentary seats out of the total 222 seats in Parliament.
He said this was a far cry from the two thirds majority of 148 MPs necessary to make amendments to the Federal Constitution for Umno BN’s preposterous claim to come true.
He said that currently, there are 136 Muslims lawmakers while 86 are non-Muslims.
In such a scenario, Mat Sabu asked the 3,000 strong crowd whether DAP can secure a mandate to make such a change. His audience responded with a vociferous ‘No’.
He said it was not DAP which was the enemy of Muslims but Umno as it uses race and religion to keep Malaysians divided for its expediency and continuous autocratic rule of the country.

Malays must change
he ceramah, Mat Sabu told FMT that Umno was initially using its controlled media to propagate that it was DAP and PAS that were working against the interests of the Muslims.
“Then later it changed tactics by alleging that DAP was collaborating with Singapore by using PAS as a puppet to take control of the country,” said an angry Mat Sabu.
He said Umno, in sheer desperation, had tried to break up the unity of the Pakatan coalition by pitting DAP against PAS but has failed miserably.
He urged the Malay community to change their mindsets and instead of taking handouts, question Umno for the draining the nation’s wealth through cronyism and corruption.
He said the Malays must discard their ‘tidak apa’ attitude and take part in the economic progress and well being of the country and urged them to support Pakatan.
He took to task Umno for using MCA to paint the wrong picture to the non Malays, especially the Chinese, that PAS was a fanatical party out to destroy their fundamental rights.
He pointed out that such BN propaganda is outdated now as his Islamic party is for all as seen by the movement of more non Malays joining the party at every PAS ceramah.
On Sunday, about 100 Indians officially joined the PAS supporters club which was witnessed by former Perak menteri besar Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin.
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What’s keeping Malaysia’s Opposition together?


10 Oct 2012
By Bridget Welsh


Oct 10 — What keeps the Malaysian opposition Pakatan Rakyat (People’s Alliance) together? The quick answer often given is the common search of political power.
While power frames the relationships between three disparate political parties - Islamist PAS, secular-committed Democratic Action Party and the umbrella reform-oriented PKR of Mr Anwar Ibrahim - it is not the glue of the opposition alliance. Were this the case, PAS would have left the coalition when UMNO floated the offer of joining the government in 2008 and intense jockeying took place within PAS.
The answer lies in the three parties’ shared moral compact. Pakatan Rakyat is an alliance of profoundly different backgrounds, with secularists, theocrats, conservatives and progressives working together. In a world wracked with tensions over religion and misunderstandings, Malaysia’s opposition stands out in bucking international trends of difference.
CORRUPTION IN EVERYDAY LIFE
Three common principles bind the Opposition together. The first is deep concern with endemic corruption.
The problem of corruption is not new, and while Malaysia’s practices are assessed above many in Asia, including Indonesia, what has become increasingly apparent is that it has crossed the line of acceptability for many Malaysians. Survey results show that an overwhelming majority view their officials as corrupt and believe that their officials do not abide by the law.
Scandal after scandal, from the National Feedlot Corporation and Scorpene, to the recent revelations about the extension of the Ampang LRT, has inundated citizens. While there are many civil servants who work hard to deliver services, there are pressures within the system to conform to predatory practices.
Malaysian corruption was initially concentrated among the elite through the practice of “money politics”. But more and more, it is extending into everyday issues such as school fees, crime prevention and service provision.
Most basic food items, such as sugar and rice, are tied to non-transparent deals of politically-aligned businessmen, as are bigger items such as cars through Approved Permit licence allocations.
These weaknesses in governance share a common moral thread - a privileged minority using the system to their advantage, and this is hurting the majority and widening inequality.
FAIRNESS AND THE PLAYING FIELD
This leads to the second shared principle - fairness. The three political parties each have a different take on what is fair, but there are areas of similarity: Namely, everyone should have a seat at the table; everyone should be treated fairly in a court of law; and social and economic inequalities should be minimised.
This shared view of fairness extends into the outrage over unfair legal decisions and deep-seated concerns about poverty and displacement of many Malaysians. Pakatan’s conception of citizenship has evolved into one in which all Malaysians are exactly that — Malaysians. It is a modern view of citizenship, in which everyone has rights and the government is to respond to the people, not the other way round.
The Opposition’s moral compact is also driven by a mutual interest in expanding democratic governance to level the political playing field.
Calls for the removal of the Internal Security Act (which was suspended and replaced by the more benign but less tested Security Offences Act earlier this year), electoral reform, freedoms of assembly, religion and speech, among other things, all fall under the umbrella of expanding political space and rights.
Ever since the reformasi movement of 1999, opposition activists have joined forces in highlighting democratic deficits and showcasing reasons for an expansion of democracy. Each protest and political crisis has brought the opposition together - from Bersih 1.0 in 2007, to the defections and subsequent takeover of the Perak state government in 2009. The bonds forged by protesting together are strong.
Since 2008, there have been significant efforts to rupture the Opposition’s moral compact on multiple fronts. The charges of sodomy and corruption have been tied to attempts to discredit opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim and raise doubts about his moral calibre to lead. The introduction of issues such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual (LGBT) rights puts pressure on the relationship between the liberals and others within the Pakatan Rakyat.
The sensitive “Allah” issue that rose to the fore in 2010 tested the Islamists’ position. The push for Malay rights under the rubric “Ketuanan Melayu” reflects efforts to reinforce ethnic supremacy over shared humanity and equality, to reimpose the social contract of the past.
Each of these issues has not broken the ties between the opposition actors, and it is in part due to the prominence of the underlying principles that bring them together.
THE PROBLEM OF HUDUD
This is not a moral compact without problems, however. The biggest challenge for the Opposition lies within. It has to do with an issue being negotiated throughout the Muslim world: The place and form of Islamic law, notably hudud.
Globally, Islamist political parties from AKP in Turkey to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt are grappling with how to bring about Islamic governance while maintaining rights. For liberals, the introduction of measures such as hudud violates the shared democratic ideals, as there remains deep mistrust of Islamists in office.
For secularists, hudud violates their view of governance. Doubts persist in some quarters about whether the Islamists will continue to hold to the ideals in office, respect different religious rights and, importantly, tolerate difference within their own community.
Detractors point to Algeria and Iran as testimony to a potential violation of trust. Others more open-minded highlight the negotiated paths of Turkey and Morocco.
For Malaysia, the hudud issue remains on the agenda, unresolved and unlikely to be so before polls. In public remarks, Mr Anwar has stressed the centrality of dialogue and principle of consensus. There appears to be a working agreement to agree to disagree.
Among Islamists there has been a global trend towards greater accommodation of difference and an appreciation of constitutional frameworks for governance. Many in the PAS old guard, nevertheless, are tied to the vision of a religious theocracy that is increasingly becoming outmoded, even in Egypt where the President comes from one of the historically strongest advocates of these measures, the Muslim Brotherhood.
Islamists the world over are having to reprioritise their principles in order to govern societies, and PAS will have to as well. What is important is that it will need to do this on its own terms, rather than respond to ultimatums from allies and opponents alike.
Hudud will remain salient to this campaign, because at its core, it puts pressure on Malaysia’s Opposition to reassess, reaffirm and reinforce their common moral priorities. It is this common ground however, that is Pakatan’s moral compact — and for now it is on firm ground. — Today
Bridget Welsh is Associate Professor of Political Science at the Singapore Management University.
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Monday, October 8, 2012

Utusan report a ‘complete lie’, say clergymen


UPDATED @ 05:02:37 PM 08-10-2012
October 08, 2012
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 8 — Two senior Christian leaders denied today they had attacked Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng for using the church for politics as reported by a Malay paper yesterday, saying their quotes had been taken complete out of context.
Mingguan Malaysia, the weekend edition of Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia, had quoted former Council of Churches Malaysia (CCM) president Reverend Thomas Philips and Lutheran Evangelical Church Bishop Solomon Rajah as saying the church is no place for politics in a news article criticising Lim.
“It’s a complete lie,” Thomas, a priest of the Mar Thoma Church, told reporters today.
Mingguan Malaysiahad claimed Lim(picture) delivered a political speech at a church to garner votes for the upcoming elections. 
The news report had also quoted Solomon and Thomas as allegedly criticising Lim for using churches as a place to win votes.
Thomas, a former vice-president of the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST), said today that a female reporter had called him last week to talk generally about politics in the church.
“My response was it is very hard to define what is politics. All religions teach us to fight against injustice, corruption, abuse of power... and all these things. 
“For some people, these are political values. For some, these are religious values and that’s why the church continues to uphold these values,” he told The Malaysian Insider when contacted.
Thomas said he received many calls yesterday from people asking him about his remarks, and that he was shocked by how the story had been written.
Solomon said he thought Utusan Malaysia was doing a survey about church leaders’ opinions on politics and the church.
“I merely gave a general view on the subject. I said the church should not be dragged into politics.
“During the interview never for once did I condemn or speak ill of Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng,” he said.
In a statement, the CCM urged Utusan Malaysia “to make an apology to both Bishop Dr Solomon and Rev Dr Thomas Philips for misrepresenting their views.”
“This apology should appear in print in their newspaper as soon as possible. The Council of Churches views with great concern the way certain media are seeking to draw the church into partisan politics,” said Reverend Hermen Shastri, the general-secretary of CCM.
Penang church pastors also yesterday refuted allegations that Lim had engaged them in political talk during the recent dialogue session, the latest black mark against the Umno daily in its reporting of the state chief minister.
The DAP secretary-general has been under fire by Umno leaders and Utusan Malaysia columnist Awang Selamat for allegedly telling Christians to stand up to injustice.
“There were no political speeches made during that luncheon dialogue session between the state government and us,” the national co-ordinator of the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship, Pastor Sam Surendran, told a press conference yesterday.
“I was present at the lunch dialogue session and all the pastors here also attended the session and we are refuting any claims that the chief minister had delivered any politicial speeches on that day,” he said.
The dialogue session was held on Friday afternoon between the state government and the pastors of Penang churches to discuss any issues the churches had.
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Migrants, church may end BN’s Borneo vote bank -- Rev. Cindy Jacobs has already prophesied

East Malaysia is leading the change in 13th GE, Rev. Cindy Jacobs has already prophesied recently: http://allenstae.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-three-prophecies-on-malaysia-by-rev.html

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October 08, 2012
REUTERS
Sabah Christians walk during a procession ahead of Sunday Mass to celebrate Malaysia Day in Tambunan on September 16, 2012. With a general election due within seven months, the ruling BN is banking on Sabah and Sarawak state to prolong its 55-year grip on power. — Reuters pic
KOTA KINABALU, Oct 8 — Housewife Fawziah Abdul wants to thank former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad for making her a citizen 10 years after she illegally slipped into Borneo from the southern Philippines in search of a better life.
The 50-year-old lives on the outskirts of Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah, where her tin-roofed shack jostles for space with more than 1,000 others in a slum where children play beside heaps of rubbish.
She is hopeful that her three children will get a new home and identity cards if she votes for the government again.
With a general election due within seven months, the 13-party ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition is banking on Sabah and neighbouring Sarawak to prolong its 55-year grip on power.
But its support in the two Borneo states, which account for a quarter of Parliament seats, is showing signs of slipping.

Residents of Pulau Gaya’s water village, who are mostly Filipino migrants, gather outside their houses on the sea outside Kota Kinabalu on September 17, 2012. — Reuters pic
A large presence of Muslim immigrants, like Fawziah, has fuelled complaints of government discrimination against Christians who have also been a bedrock of government support.
Fawziah said she was a beneficiary of a secret plan said to have been approved by Dr Mahathir that has helped fuel a five-fold surge in Sabah’s population since the 1970s and turned it into a vote bank for the ruling coalition.
“I am part of Project Mahathir,” she said, referring to the plan. “I was told to turn up at an office with two photographs and some money,” added Fawziah, who showed her identity card that lists her as a Sabah-born citizen.
Without support in the two eastern states, the ruling coalition would have lost power in the last general election, in 2008, when a resurgent opposition won a majority of votes on Peninsular Malaysia. Now that support looks fragile.
Residents of Sabah complain about competition from Filipino and Indonesian migrants for jobs in the oil and gas-rich region, whose revenues are mostly channelled to the federal government and where one in five people lives on less than US$1 (RM3.10) a day.
Christians, mostly members of indigenous groups such as the Kadazandusun in Sabah and the Dayaks and Ibans in Sarawak, once made up nearly half of Sabah’s population but now form less than a third of its 3.2 million people.
But they can still give a potentially vital boost to the opposition, which won a majority of votes in mainland Malaysia in 2008 but only got three of 56 seats in Sabah and Sarawak.
FLEXING POLITICAL MUSCLES
The election is expected to be the closest in the former British colony’s history after the coalition lost its two-thirds majority for the first time in 2008.
This is partly due to Christian, Buddhist and Hindu minorities in the mostly Muslim country abandoning the coalition, complaining of discrimination over issues such as the airing of Islamic programmes on state television.
Arnold Puyok, a political scientist at Universiti Teknologi Mara Sabah, says the frustration could translate into votes for the opposition led by Dr Mahathir’s former deputy, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, which could pick up at least 10 seats out of 25 in Sabah.
Opposition strategists say they need to win an extra 10 seats each in Sabah, Sarawak and mainland Malaysia to win the election with a simple majority of 112 seats.
The opposition — a coalition of Borneo parties and a mainland alliance that campaigns for greater transparency — won 15 seats from the ruling bloc in Sarawak state elections for its best showing in 24 years. It got votes from indigenous Christians as well as from the ethnic Chinese minority.
As Christian frustration grows over Muslim migrants, churches are becoming more vocal. Malaysia’s largest evangelical group held a 40 day-fast last month, which included prayers for the resolution of what they see as the immigrant problem.

A Sabah Christian reads from a prayer book with the Arabic word ‘Allah’ in reference to God, at a church in Tambunan on September 16, 2012. — Reuters pic
The National Evangelical Christian Fellowship also held prayer meetings across the country for Malaysia Day on September 16 — a holiday marking Sabah and Sarawak’s entry into Malaysia 49 years ago. The Borneo states agreed to join Malaysia on condition that religious freedom as well as the protection of native lands and cultures were guaranteed.
“There are quite a few unhappy Sabah people. Sabahans do not usually show it openly, they are doing it through prayer,” Stephanie Rainier, a Kadazandusun among 7,000 worshippers at a stadium in Kota Kinabalu, said of people’s frustration.
“They are taking over businesses. They are everywhere,” she said of migrants.
INQUIRY, INTOLERANCE
The ruling coalition can still rely on an election system that is skewed in its favour, particularly in Sabah and Sarawak. Seat allocations are weighted heavily in favour of rural constituencies with smaller populations compared with urban centres that are more likely to favour the opposition.
But in an apparent sign of concern over his coalition’s chances in Sabah, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak bowed to pressure in June and formed a royal commission of inquiry into the granting of identity cards to illegal immigrants.
A survey by independent pollster Merdeka Center found that immigration was the number one concern among Sabah voters. The survey also found scepticism over Najib’s motive for announcing the inquiry, with only 46 per cent of respondents believing it was a genuine attempt to address the problem.
“Only because there is an election around the corner, the government decides to do an inquiry,” said Wilfred Bumburing, a lawmaker in Sabah who quit the government coalition over its handling of the immigrant issue.
Government sources say the inquiry panel has yet to meet due to opposition from the dominant party in the ruling coalition, Umno, that controls Sabah, and from the still influential Dr Mahathir.
While repeatedly denying links to Project Mahathir to the media, Dr Mahathir said in his blog that the Filipinos and Indonesians were qualified to become citizens as they had stayed in Malaysia for more than a decade and spoke the Malay language.
The influx of Muslims, who can largely be counted on to support the ruling coalition, would appear to bolster the government. But despite that, some Christians worry about what they see as Muslim authorities’ growing intolerance.
An example, some Christians say, is the unease over Christian congregations in Sabah and Sarawak using the Arabic word Allah to refer to God.
While these Catholics, like their brethren in Indonesia, have used “Allah” since converting to Christianity in the 19th century, the government says the use of the word is subversive and is aimed at converting Muslims.
Mindful of votes, Najib has not stopped Christians in Borneo from using the word in prayers. But the government has appealed against a court ruling that allowed a Catholic newspaper to use Allah in its Malay-language editions.
“I hope there is tolerance. In reality, not publicly, subtly, you can feel there is some erosion of religious tolerance,” said Catholic Bishop Cornelius Piong after Sunday Mass in the rice-growing region of Tambunan.
“If there is no balanced leadership, people will think and they will decide,” he said, referring to the election. — Reuters
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前锋报影射林冠英教堂宣扬政治，2牧师澄清，谈话遭扭曲


 2012-10-08 10:18
（檳城7日讯）《马来西亚前锋报》星期刊今日封面以《不要牵扯教堂》的標题，影射檳州首长林冠英在基督教堂內宣扬政治后，两名被引述谈话的教会领袖已经直接或间接联络林冠英，澄清他们的谈话被该报扭曲。
林冠英今日下午与教会领袖召开紧急会议后，召开新闻发佈会声明10月4日的对话会没有提到政治课题，同时强调活动是在属於中立场所的檳州爱心大厦內举行，不是报导影射在教堂举行对话会。
森姆：对话会充满建设性
出席上述对话会的马来西亚福音联谊会（NECF）北马区协调员森姆说，林冠英没有在会上发表政治演说，更没有宣扬政治，他形容对话会充满建设性，也顺利反映教会面对的门牌税、土地、墓地等问题。
“报导影射在教堂举行对话会並宣扬政治是谬论，而且，檳州的教会非常欣慰州政府愿意主办对话会，由最高行政长官与我们对话。所以，我们希望其他州政府也能够仿傚，瞭解教会面对的问题。＂林冠英本月4日在檳州爱心大厦与教会领袖举行常年对话午宴，获得约300人出席。
《马来西亚前锋报》星期刊今日在封面刊登路德福音教堂主教所罗门拉惹牧师和马来西亚基督教堂理事会会长托马斯牧师的谈话，指教堂不是宣扬政治的场所。
报导也指林冠英在活动上要求基督徒对“不公正＂事件出头，形容这是民联领袖惯用的政治字眼。
今日与林冠英举行会议的教会领袖计有爱檳城网络主席Isaac Chan、经济组主任拿督陈福星、檳城牧师团契主席郑荣辉、乔治市浸信会黄国安牧师等人。
林冠英：托马斯指被报章利用
林冠英透露他与托马斯通话后，对方澄清接受前锋报记者访问时，记者没有说明所针对的课题和对象。
“托马斯牧师强调是在新闻见报后，才发现谈话遭扭曲，还被报章利用来影射我。至於我有没有在对话会上宣扬政治，相信当天出席採访的记者最清楚。＂他说，所罗门通过（木威区国会议员）倪可汉和（士布爹区国会议员）郭素沁，要求他们转告其谈话同样被前锋报扭曲。
他强调对话会当天提起的“不公正＂字眼只是一个笼统说词，完全没有针对任何事情，並谴责前锋报的“谎言暴力＂。
廖炎发：基督徒须仗义执言
乔治市浸信会的廖炎发说，基督徒本来就被教导为不公正事件仗义执言，这是最基本的宗教价值观，况且，首长（林冠英）提到的“不公正＂可以代表任何意思。
他说，州政府有意与教会对话会时，各个教会都觉得很高兴，毕竟基督教徒的人数开始增长，一些教会现有的地方不敷应用，需要新地点设立宗教场所，有的教堂更面对墓地有限的情况。
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Sunday, October 7, 2012

东马带动马来西亚改朝换代，辛蒂·雅各牧师已预言

辛蒂·雅各牧师预言：http://allenstae.blogspot.com/2012/08/2012.html
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林吉祥：改朝换代关键点‧“沙砂2州能令国阵倒台”

 2012-10-07 10:48
  • 林吉祥（右4）和行动党与民联领袖向出席政治演讲的公眾致谢。左起：郑立慷、黄来兴、骆瑞珍、梁卓经、倪可敏；右起：黄云龙、魏添凤及黄文標。（图：星洲日报）
（霹雳‧怡保6日讯）行动党国会领袖林吉祥表示，大马改朝换代的关键在於砂拉越及沙巴，如果东马和西马人民在来届大选站在一起，便能令国阵倒台。
他说，虽然砂拉越及沙巴於2008年“救了”巫统和国阵，让国阵继续执政中央，但这两个资源丰富的州属的人民仍多贫穷。
林吉祥也是怡保东区国会议员，他昨晚出席行动党德彬丁宜区部主办的政治讲座会时，这么表示。
他说，虽然纳吉在过去3年半的执政期间推行一系列的国家转型计划如肃贪，但国际反贪指数却显示我国的情况每况愈下。
他说，既然首相为国际反贪大会致开幕词时强调大马极度厌恶贪污，那就应该有政治意愿，採取行动对付被疑涉及滥权与贪污的3名政府领袖和高官。
在场者包括行动党霹雳州秘书倪可敏、德彬丁宜区州议员黄文標、前金宝区国会议员魏添凤、元老骆瑞珍、黄来兴、双溪古月服务队主席梁卓经、改朝换代红衣队小组主席黄云龙及公正党迪渣区州议员郑立慷等。
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Friday, October 5, 2012

Najib, No Time Like Tomorrow


Another budget, more cash handouts and more dithering over an election date

Oct 6th 2012 | SINGAPORE | from the print edition
Najib, coiled for action
THE prime minister, Najib Razak, fancies himself as the Tony Blair of Malaysian politics. Like the former British prime minister, Mr Najib purports to be a progressive reformer, on a mission to “modernise” his country. The British-educated Mr Najib also likes to pay as much attention to the spin on his policies as to their substance. He even hires former Blair advisers to make sure he gets it right.
For all that, Mr Najib increasingly resembles the hapless Gordon Brown, Mr Blair’s nemesis and successor. For years Mr Brown agitated to push his rival aside. When at last he succeeded, Mr Brown blew it by missing the chance to call an early election while he was still relatively popular. Rather than winning his own mandate, Mr Brown, unelected and indecisive, watched his authority drain away until he was boxed into calling an election right at the end of his term—which he then lost.
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Similarly, Mr Najib took over after an internal party coup in April 2009 against the then prime minister, Abdullah Badawi. Talk of an early election for Mr Najib to secure his own mandate first surfaced towards the end of 2010. He himself began to talk up his chances the following June. Then an election was expected towards the middle of this year. All along, Malaysia has been on an election footing, with the cautious Mr Najib ponderously cultivating the voters.
He has crafted new policies for Malaysia’s younger, unaligned citizens while giving away plenty of money to retain his party’s traditional supporters, especially among the ethnic-Malay (and Muslim) majority. In the budget in late September more cash handouts went to poorer households and a one-month salary bonus to all government workers. They usually vote for Mr Najib’s United Malays National Organisation (UMNO).
Would that there were more to show for all the shadow electioneering. Opinion polls conducted by the respected Merdeka Centre (the latest were for June) gave the prime minister an approval rating of 64%, down from the high point of his popularity in the middle of 2010. Still not bad, you might think, but the popularity of the ruling coalition, the Barisan Nasional (BN), is much lower than the prime minister’s own. So now Mr Najib’s options are diminishing fast. He is required to call an election by April at the latest. In the process he has acquired a reputation for dithering, and now has the regrettable distinction of being Malaysia’s second-longest-serving unelected prime minister, just behind his own father, the country’s second prime minister.
Given UMNO’s deep pockets and its practice of gerrymandering constituency boundaries, winning a simple majority has always looked relatively easy for Mr Najib. After all, the ruling coalition, made up of UMNO and several smaller parties, has achieved that in every election since independence in 1957. Yet Mr Najib’s real aim is to win back the two-thirds majority that the BN lost for the first time at the last election, in 2008. In so doing the BN lost its power, among other things, to tinker with the constitution. That failure led directly to the coup against Mr Badawi and the elevation of Mr Najib. The prime minister knows that if he fails to reverse the humiliation of 2008, a genuinely hard task, then he could go the same way as his predecessor. (His chief protection is that personally he remains more popular than the BN.)
Mr Najib has also been spooked by a series of political setbacks. His government mishandled a couple of huge rallies by a coalition of NGOs called Bersih (meaning “clean” in Malay) campaigning for fair elections. And poring perhaps too closely over the minutiae of local-election results, the BN has fretted over a fall in support among Chinese voters. They form the largest minority in the country’s complex ethnic mosaic.
The problem for Malaysia is that the rival parties have been at such a high pitch of combat-readiness for such a long time that the resulting partisanship is poisoning national politics. Pretty murky at the best of times, politics is becoming dirtier by the day. UMNO and its friends in the press and television have been relentless in their assaults on any organisation, such as Bersih, that is deemed to be sympathetic to the opposition. Another target has been an excellent independent website called Malaysiakini. All the old canards about these sorts of groups being in the pay of Zionists, America or George Soros, a foreign financier, have been trotted out. It is not clear whether such slanders still impress Malaysia’s voters, especially its Muslims. They are certainly a sign of desperation.
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净选盟3委员出境遭刁难，安美嘉愤愤不平


2012-10-04 19:14
  • 华商官有缘（左）捐1万令吉予净选盟，由安美嘉（中）代领；右是行动党怡保西区国会议员古拉。（图：星洲日报）
（霹雳‧怡保4日讯）净选盟2.0主席拿督安美嘉说，净选盟有3名委员上个月在机场出境时被官员刁难。
她说，这3名委员分別是杨映波、玛利亚陈及邱进福，其中一人在之前准备乘搭飞机前往曼谷时，在移民局关卡受阻，並花了约15至20分钟才让他出境。
安美嘉昨晚在怡保出席净选盟晚宴致词时说，净选盟另外两名委员也遭遇同样的问题。
她不明白为何有人要骚扰净选盟委员。
其中一名当事人杨映波今日对星洲日报说，他之前出国或从外国回来，在移民局关卡，都曾被刁难。
他说，其中一次出国时，他在移民局关卡交上护照后，有关官员说，根据电脑显示他须被带往办公室。
杨映波：官员复印护照后允离开
“在別无选择下，我被带往办公室，官员打了一个电话后，复印了我的护照，之后允许我离开，整个过程约15至20分钟。＂他指出，在入境时，他也曾遇过类似情况，不知当局的用意何在。
大选或明年举行
最后一次献议凈化选民册
另一方面，安美嘉说，大选极有可能在明年举行，净选盟提出最后一次献议，以协助凈化选民登记册。
她说，在净选盟2.0后，净选盟及其他民间组织献议协助凈化选民登记册，之后在国会选举改革遴委会报告后，又再提供献议，但都被拒绝。
“如果没被拒绝，至今已有6个月，相信凈化工作也完成了。不过，没关係，如今看来大选將在明年举行，所以我们最后一次献议要协助凈化选民登记册。＂她也建议由联合国协助我国进行大选，儘管这情况不大可能会出现。
她也促请所有选民踊跃投票，因为若是投票者数量大，可减低欺诈所带来的影响。
“只要所有合格选民在大选时出来投票，就可让选举公平及乾净地进行。＂安美嘉说，有人指净选盟是亲反对党，但她要澄清，净选盟不是政党，而且欢迎所有人参与，包括来自政府或反对党人士，或非政治人物。
朝野邀演讲都会去
“任何人邀请我演讲，我都会去演讲；民联邀请我，我会去，如果国阵邀请我，我也会去。＂她强调她不会参选，因为她相信民间组织有很强大的力量，並在政府做错时作出纠正，这是民间组织的角色。
“不过，为甚么大马人民之声及净选盟等民间组织却被攻击？＂安美嘉说，净选盟將於10月13日从下午4时至晚上11时，在格拉那再也体育馆举行净选盟八大诉求演唱会。
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Wednesday, October 3, 2012

砂首长儿子离婚案，前媳妇：前夫7亿存国內外111户头，“泰益家族或东南亚最富”


2012-10-02 19:16
  • 莎娜姿玛姬一身蓝色马来传统服装，出庭供证。（图：星洲日报）
（吉隆坡2日讯）砂拉越首长丹斯里泰益玛目前媳妇莎娜姿玛姬指出，前夫拿督斯里玛目阿布在国內外拥有111个在其个人名下的私人户头，现金存款大约7亿令吉！
莎娜姿玛姬今日在伊斯兰法庭供证时列出玛目阿布在国外，包括欧洲卢森堡Edmund De Rothchild银行、新泽西州（Jersey）匯丰银行（HSBC）、香港匯丰银行、加勒比海巴哈马Pictet & Cie银行、巴哈马及摩纳哥Safra银行、瑞士联合银行（UBS）等36个银行户头的现金存款，总值达1亿5千910万美金（约5亿8千867万令吉）。
曾与玛目阿布结褵19年又4个月的莎娜姿说：“以上数字还不包括他在公司名下的银行户头。＂莎娜姿玛姬声称，前夫家族是大马、甚至可能是东南亚最富有的家庭。
指一亿“礼品＂为九牛一毛
“玛目阿布的家族，地位非常高、非常富有，並且在世界各地拥有数十亿的財產，包括现金、公司股份、豪华房车超过200公顷的地皮和建筑產业；我所要求的一亿令吉｀礼品’並不会对他造成困扰或令他贫穷，对他来说可能只是眼中的10仙。＂
她说，前夫在旅游时乘坐私人飞机和住进5至6星级酒店，生活品味高尚。
她在辩护律师引领下指出，玛目阿布在112家上市或私人有限公司担任董事，並拥有50家公司的股份。
“他（玛目阿布）来自一个｀太过’富有的家庭；普通人在出国旅游前至少会考虑10次，而他若想到一个地方旅游，从来不必考虑，可以直接出发。＂
辩护律师拉菲沙菲也將一份指“泰益玛目是东南亚最富有个人＂的剪报呈堂，並宣称將传召负责报导的记者，以及上述相关银行的负责人出庭供证。
此案將於10月24日、11月26及28日续审。
指对方身心折磨
莎娜姿单方面要离婚
48岁的莎娜姿玛姬是国內爵士天后茜拉玛姬的胞姐，於1992年1月9日与玛目阿布结婚，並育有一名17岁的儿子拉登慕雅。
莎娜姿在去年2月21日正式入稟法庭单方面提出离婚，她声称，除了与玛目阿布已超过10年没有“亲密＂，对方也在结婚两年后，不断的在身体与精神上折磨她，包括猛击其头部和脸部、踹踢其肋骨和掐她。
伊斯兰法庭在去年5月11日批准两人离婚，並把儿子的抚养权判给莎娜姿，惟她与玛目阿布尚未针对財產分配及赡养费事宜达致协议。
除了离婚申请外，莎娜姿也入稟法庭与玛目阿布爭夺3亿令吉的共同婚姻財產和1亿令吉的“礼品＂。
她在申请书中向前夫索取7辆豪华轿车、在不同地点的房屋、砂拉越土地及公司股票等50%的拥有权，或要求对方变卖所有財產及平分所得；同时，她向玛目阿布要求1亿令吉的“礼品＂，好让她可重新生活。
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