We are Malaysians

Sunday October 26, 2008
We are Malaysians
MIND MATTERSBy RAJA ZARITH IDRIS

Malaysians cannot afford to see one another as ‘them’ and ‘us’: we have to think of ourselves as ‘we’.
WHEN the big floods hit Johor two years ago, they were there. When my family and I celebrated Hari Raya this year, they came to join us. They are a group of caring people from Kuala Lumpur who, I am proud to say, are not just my friends but are also my fellow citizens.
I am referring to Mr Song of Chef-on-Wheels and the Buaya Puchong 4x4 team.
After wishing us Selamat Hari Raya, they sped off to Penang to distribute rice and food items there. And before Hari Raya, while Muslims were fasting and observing the rituals of the holy month of Ramadan, they were in Kelantan and Terengganu distributing rice to the poor.
They do not see race or religion. They just see desperate people who need help.
Malaysia needs people like them. What our country does not need are foaming-at-the-mouth angry orators. We do not need fiery speeches or ugly utterances. Enough.
What we need - and wish for - is proof that we are Malaysians, born and bred. We will help each other. We will celebrate our different religious festivities together. We are not visually or hearing-impaired (the politically correct terms for being blind or deaf, because nowadays we apparently have to be so politically correct, do we not?).
And yes, sorry to disappoint the ravers and the ranters, we are able to see our racial and religious differences. We have done so for hundreds of years and we should do so for hundreds more to come.
Recently, at a formal dinner, I was seated between a senior politician and a young man from a royal family. The senior politician and I spoke about education and how young Malay­sians may benefit from changes in our education system. We grumbled about text messages, which inevitably make our spelling worse.
This perhaps showed our age: that we are fussy about English grammar and spelling. We agreed that “da” is no substitute for “the” or “nite” for “night”. Yes, the politician and I are obviously middle-aged and not hip nor cool.
I went home thinking that if other senior politicians had the same grasp and understanding about the need for change whilst being aware of new social modes of communication, such as text messaging, then the future of our country is not as bleak as naysayers predict.
The young royal spoke about breaking fast in Thailand where the local Buddhist - not Muslim - officials made sure the food served was halal, and also thoughtfully provided prayer mats so he and his wife could perform their Maghrib prayers.
In other words, in a country where the majority of its people are Buddhists, the government officials made the effort to ensure that a Muslim entourage from their neighbouring country was not slighted nor their religious practices ignored. Perhaps there is a lesson to be learnt there.
Colour blind: The writer with her four friends who do not see race or religion. They just see desperate people who need help.
All Malaysians
While Thailand proudly shows off pagodas and gold Buddha statues, Malaysia should take the cue and show off our mosques, our temples and our churches. We cannot afford to see one another as “them” and “us”: we have to think of ourselves as “we”.
Malaysians are made up of Chinese men and women who, when they visit China or Taiwan, miss their sambal belacan.
My husband has Chinese friends who can match him at eating cili padi. I have Indian friends who gobble up gulai assam pedas while I eat the chappati and dhal I asked to be served for them. Almost all of us - whatever our race or religion - have roti pratha and nasi lemak for breakfast.
I long for the long-ago times of my childhood and teenage years when we could make fun of each other without worrying if it would lead to a racial skirmish.
We used to identify each other according to which state we came from, not our races, not our religions. As foreign students, we had a bond because we met up at events organised by what we called ourselves: the Malaysian Students Association.
As a Malaysian, born and bred, I am honestly sick and tired of the print media constantly bringing up race and religious matters.
Our hearts and minds should not be simmering with a fire stoked by racially- and religious-conscious speakers and journalists but by the strong hopes that we can overcome any crisis together because we are Malaysians and we have gone through a lot since the time the Portuguese came to our shores centuries ago.
The writer is Royal Fellow, School of Languages and Linguistics, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

Sunday November 9, 2008
An era of riches but not for everyone
Beijing ExpressBy CELESTE FONG

CHINA’S fast-growing economy has no doubt ushered in an era of riches and sizzling hot growth.
But the divide between the rising middle class in major cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen and the farmers in the countryside has been growing wider too.
According to a report by the state media Xinhua, the income gap between urban and rural populations has widened with an absolute gap of 9,646 yuan to 342 yuan respectively.
In 2007, per capita rural disposable income was 4,140 yuan with a year-on-year gain of 9.5% in real terms.
For 2008, a rise of 6% is expected based on the Chinese government’s annual report issued in March.
Workers in towns and cities earn three times more than farmers. The 2006 statistics showed that net income in the countryside was just 3,587 yuan per person.
And average city dwellers received an income of 3.33 times more than rural residents.
Since 1985, the income ratio has been growing bigger and this reflects an imbalance in social development.
However, the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee announced last month a “breakthrough” in solving this imbalance by issuing a landmark policy document on rural land reform and development.
“Rural land reform is the key to raise farmers’ income. Farmers will benefit from the new policy on rural land reform,” Dr Huang Yanxin told about 30 foreign journalists last week at the International Press Centre here.
Dr Huang, the Department of Sectoral Policy and Law deputy director from China’s Agriculture Ministry, said the newly announced policy document would allow farmers to lease or transfer their land.
“The fundamental right of land remains unchanged,” he said, emphasising that farmers “have the management right, not ownership” of the land.
The farmers own the rights to use land that belongs to the collective, such as the village.
Dr Huang said farmers could lease or transfer land freely but the land must be used for agricultural purposes.
“No, they do not need to go through the village if the transfer or leasing is rightful and does not violate Chinese law,” he said in response to a question.
But Dr Huang added that the transfer or leasing must be put on record, or a record must be filed with the relevant authorities.
He pointed out that the reform would help improve economies of scale, productivity, agricultural yield and competitiveness.
“It’s still the biggest concern of the country to feed its 1.3 billion population,” said Dr Huang.
He also stressed that privatisation of land ownership would not help China as the problem is rooted to a lack of economies of scale, competitiveness and low productivity.
“We have the numbers (people) but not our land as each works on a small plot.
“Therefore, privatisation of land ownership will not solve the agricultural problem facing us,” he said.
On whether the land could be used as collateral to pool funds together, Dr Huang said that based on the policy, the land could not be used as collateral and, in fact, the value of farm land was very low compared to the cost of managing it by the financial institutions.
To solve the financial woes of farmers, he said, the government adopted a series of measures, including a rural micro credit programme.
Since the foundation of the People’s Republic of China, CPC has launched a thorough land reform programme in 1946 and several different land reforms thereafter – from hezuohua (the rural cooperative development) and renmin gongshe (People’s communes) to the jiatingchengbao (rural land family contract system) now.
And with the latest rural land reform, the Chinese government hopes to achieve its target of farmer’s per capita net income to 8,300 yuan by 2020.
Tuesday November 11, 2008
Johor shows the way forward
CERITALAH by KARIM RASLAN

Returning to its roots by serving all Malaysians, Umno in its founding state is reaching out to all groupings and communities with the 2012 general election in mind.
WHAT is so exceptional about Umno in Johor that it remains such a stronghold for the party? A good number of national leaders have come from the state, and it will almost certainly be heavily represented in the party polls in March.
The state party has, of course, it’s own ‘dynasties’, but surely that’s not the only thing that prevented it from falling like so many other Umno bastions in the last general election.
Let’s set aside the fact that the party was founded in Johor Baru for one moment – there are in fact subtle differences between the party’s relative strength in the different states, reflecting underlying socio-economic trends.
Political culture: Pulai Umno division delegates casting their votes during the division meeting last month.
A key factor in Johor is human capital. Elsewhere in the country, bright, professional Malays have steered clear of the party. Johor is different. Johor still glitters with Umno’s former glory.
Indeed, the story of its survival down south holds lessons that can, if nurtured, be duplicated nationwide.
The depth and breadth of leadership in the southern state is indicative of Johor’s more positive political culture.
There is, for instance, Halimah Mohd Siddique, a hard-working, racially-inclusive and engaging MP. The only thing that has kept her from the front benches is the fact that talent is in abundance in Johor. The same could be said of the independent-minded accountant and Pulai MP Nurjazlan Mohd.
Maverick-turned-party statesman Shahrir Samad sees history and the grooming of talent as key factors. To him, Umno’s dominance in the state is part of a tradition that links him back to the era of Datuk Onn Jaafar, Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman and Tun Musa Hitam (Shahrir was himself a protege of the former Deputy prime minister).
To these leaders – who happen to be among the very best that the state has offered to the nation – values remain central. Shahrir sums it up neatly: “We lead, so we have to be responsible.”
An emerging Umno leader, Razali Ibrahim, the MP from Muar (known to be close to Education Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, also from Johor) states: “Umno in Johor is as much a way of life. We’ve retained our culture – the zapin and the marhaban – and translated this into something where our culture and Islam are integral.”
In terms of race relations, the state’s administration – unlike, say, in the Klang Valley – has always sought to be even-handed, even cautious.
Abdul Ghani Othman, the Menteri Besar, states: “We avoid unnecessary abuses that would make the leadership unpopular. We also make allocations for temples. I give land for churches. It is only fair to do such things because we are also giving to the mosques and religious schools.
“Administration is about fairness. When you get this right, you can deepen and strengthen the state’s racial integration and social cohesion.”
One gets a sense that race-relations, and therefore relations between Barisan Nasional components in Johor, are more stable due to the long-standing ties that exist between the various stakeholders in the state.
This is compared to states such as Selangor where inward migration from Kelantan and elsewhere in the country has altered the social fabric irrevocably.
The anonymity and the constant flux of Selangor’s faceless suburbs has meant that such communities lack the leadership, cohesion and stability enjoyed by Johor.
They are also very difficult to administer. Indeed, Umno’s failure to adapt to the changing needs of urban and suburban Malays – both poor and middle class – has led to the party’s defeat along the west coast.
More importantly, Umno leaders from Johor are comfortable interacting in multi-racial situations.
It is true that they, too, have had their hiccups. But one gets the sense that genuine ties exist among the various Barisan state leaders, and that they will avoid the baiting and mutual sabotage that have bedevilled the coalition elsewhere.
However, it would be a mistake to think that Umno is impregnable in Johor, and this was shown in the last election. Still, the party has benefited from the state’s relative demographic stability compared with states such as Selangor, where population growth rates have shot through the roof.
There is also a possibility that Umno’s comfortable position in Johor will lead to complacency, even parochialism, which as well all know is downright dangerous.
This means that the Johorean model may not prove to be applicable amid the complexities of the Klang Valley or even east Malaysia (which has better race relations anyway), except insofar as decency and fairness in terms of administering between the ethnic groups.
Having said that, Johor still has the capacity to surprise. Last weekend while driving around Johor Baru with Shahrir’s newly appointed political secretary Mohd Ali Salleh, I realised that I was witnessing signs of the party’s renewal.
For a start, Mohd Ali, a forty-two year old architect hand-picked by Shahrir, had been told not to get involved in the Umno polls. That was non-negotiable. Describing himself as a “non-politician” he explained that his boss had tasked him to network with the local NGOs.
“I have to meet all the mosque and surau committees, all the Parent Teacher Associations, sports and recreational groupings, not to mention all the work-related associations, such as for taxi drivers, factory workers and the like,” he said.
“I have to do this across the board – Chinese, Indian and Malay. I meet them, identify the key players, establish contact, assess their needs and see how we can help. In turn, we are hoping to engage with them and prove to them our value and worth.
“We’re being pro-active. We’ve got the 2012 election in our sights. We want to use this network of NGOs as an alternative basis for registering voters and campaigning.”
As I listened to him explain the strategy, I realised that what he was describing was in fact a response to the failure of the ‘cawangan’ (or branch) system with its 40 Umno members supposedly ready to campaign and vote – the much feared party machinery.
Over the past two decades, as Umno activists had become obsessed with chasing for positions within the party and lucrative government contracts, the fabled election machinery had broken down. In fact it was almost totally gutted.
Smart leaders like Shahrir have seen that the only way forward for Umno is to reach out to the NGO movement and other community associations. Shahrir understands that ‘building bridges’, servicing voters and proving their worth – in short, good old fashioned constituency work – will in turn create the goodwill necessary for victory.
In Johor, Umno is in the midst of returning to its roots by serving all Malaysians. Rhetoric and party-politicking aside,the real business of governance is rolling on.


Tuesday November 11, 2008
What knowledge should man pay attention to?
IKIM VIEWS

By DR MOHD SANI BADRONSenior Fellow/Director, Centre for Economics and Social Studies
Man has been overwhelmed by the present-day information explosion, so much so that he has little time to do what is really important to him as a human being.
ESTHER Dyson, who wrote A Design for Living in the Digital Age, specialises in analysing the impact of emerging digital technologies and digital markets on societies.
However, even this most powerful woman of the computing sciences (as some have called her) was uncomfortably overwhelmed by the present-day information explosion, as there are just too many resources and documents which may be referred to on any subject.
“We have too many choices too much of the time,” this so-called intellectual of computer analysts once reported. “What should I be paying attention to? We are getting a diet of empty information calories that is over processed, over sugared, and too bite-sized. While appealing, it leads to a lack of commitment and satisfaction and ultimately makes you less happy.”
Dyson’s remark is not unrelated to another scholarly analysis, by psychology professor Barry Schwartz in his book The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less.
While affluent individuals in affluent modern societies may have too many choices of almost everything, ironically those very same individuals also have too little time to do what is really important to them as human beings.
According to the worldview of Islam, there is a reminder that as an individual human being, one’s sojourn on earth is indeed momentary. The very fact that there is no time for him to waste in fundamental and important matters is compounded by the fact that there is also a limit to his capacity and faculties.
That is exactly why revealed Religion is indispensable in order to educate humanity, to safeguard their spirituality, and to liberate their intellect from doubt concerning the ultimate things (akhirah) as far as the final reality of the life of this world and the ultimate reality of the Hereafter are concerned.
It is exactly this framework which organises information in accordance with a comprehensible worldview of Islam.
History has recorded that when Islamic polity expanded in the 7th Century, there were also spectacular epistemological challenges, to align new data collected from other civilizations, cultures and sciences.
An analysis of the encyclopaedic work, Ithaf al-Sadah al-Muttaqin by Murtada al-Zabidi (d. 1205) makes it clear that the Islamic political conquest of the Byzantine Empire, Mesopotamia and Persia during the 630s was simultaneous with the elaboration concerning the epistemological foundations of religious tenets (i‘tiqad) by erudite scholars such as Abu Thawr al-Kalbi, Dawud ibn Ali, al-Husayn al-Karabisi and al-Harith al-Muhasibi.
At the same time, according to al-Zabidi, in answer to the legal dimensions concerning the tremendous challenges, there was also an elaboration of the fundamental law (shari‘ah) and jurisprudence (fiqh zahir) by the savants of Syria (‘ubbad ahl al-Shamm), as with the principles of business transaction (mu‘amalat) by scholars led by Sufyan al-Thawri and Abu Hanifah.
Last, but far from least, there was also elaborations concerning the basics of ethics and mysticism by Sahl al-Tustari, Abd al-Rahim ibn Yahya al-Armawi al-Aswad of Syria, Malik ibn Dinar, Farqad al-Sabkhi, ‘Abd al-Wahid ibn Zayd, and sages of Basrah (nussak Basrah) like al-Hasan al-Basri.
In the next instalment of our article, we will revisit this fundamental framework of Islamic sciences and education, drawing our cue from the regnant formulations of Abu Talib al-Makki (d. 996) and al-Ghazzali (d. 1111).