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Chin Koon Siang
Feb 21, 2007, 7:35:02 PM2/21/07
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Books Restricted by KND Johor Bahru - List 1
ISBN
1 1840282509 Well Woman's Sourcebook (Hardcover )
2 9812320822 Beauty of Yixing Teapots (Hardcover )
3 1903816378 The Heart of Tantric Sex (Paperback )
4 9813056223 The missing page (Paperback )
5 9813056703 No Money, No Honey! A Candid Look at Sex-for-Sale in Singapore
6 9813056096 The SPG Rides Again
7 0375756469 Women (Paperback )
8 0811845737 Fashion Illustration Next (Paperback )
9 981305655 X"Ransom" by Douglas Chua
10 0312873077 Knife of Dreams (Wheel of Time (Hardcover)) - Robert Jordan
11 1853755605 Things a Woman Should Know About Seduction (Paperback )
12 9813056606 Revenge of the Sarong Party Girl by Jim Aitchison
13 0099648814 The Private Life of Chairman Mao (Paperback )
14 0521609763 Company to Company Teacher's Book (Paperback )
15 0785378103 Poems & Prayers for Children (Hardcover )
16 0785368760 Read-Aloud Children's Classics
17 1840189096 1001 Nights Without Sex: The Curse of the Single Girl (Paperback )
18 1843401703 Composition (The Photographer's Guide To...)(Paperback)
19 1840725222 Seduce: 100 Tips to Arouse (Hardcover )
20 0749325003 Taking Chances (Paperback )
21 1844425762 "Vogue" Make-up (Paperback )
22 1844422968 Sexual Intelligence (Hardcover )
23 0099591111 Filth (Paperback) - Irwing Welsh
24 1850436665 Al-Qaeda: Casting a Shadow of Terror (Paperback )
25 0716757230 Practice of Business Statistics (Hardcover )
26 0099273675 A History of God (Paperback )
27 0304357278 E-tales: The Best (and Worst) of Internet Humour (Hardcover )
28 1844422968 Sexual Intelligence (Hardcover )
29 9813056363 The Official Guide to the Sarong Party Girl
30 0224077643 Memories of My Melancholy Whores (Hardcover )
31 1412735467 Sea Sale: SpongeBob Squarepants
32 1412733820 Counting Adventures Sound Activity Book, by Disney
33 1412731755 Dora's Fiesta Adventure ActivePoint Book Set! [ILLUSTRATED] (Hardcover )
34 1412735297 MUSIC FOR SLEEPY BABIES
35 1412731747 Count On Me (Spongebob Square Pants )
36 1412735610 The Wiggles Shop Wiggly Jukebo X
37 0719566762 Mao: A Life
38 0572028806 Anatomy for the Artist: They Dynamics of Human Form (Paperback )
39 009189753 XFeel: Robbie Williams (Hardcover )
40 0744586828 Bits, Boobs and Blobs (Paperback )
41 0679463356 Shalimar the Clown (Hardcover )
42 0099283360 Atomised (Paperback )
43 0224060066 Clubland (Paperback )
44 0091795346 The Dirty Girls Social Club (Paperback )
45 0099437880 Platform (Paperback )
46 0749932155 Carolina Moon (Paperback )
47 1844541320 Being Jordan (Paperback )
48 0521539064 An Introduction to Islam (Introduction to Religion) (Paperback )
49 1853755540 Sex Lives of the Famous Gays (Paperback )
50 1844425703 The Dirty Girl's Joke Book 2: Provocative Puns and Laugh-a-minute Gags: Bk.2 (Paperback )
51 0285635549 10 Commandments of Pleasure: Erotic Keys to a Healthy Sexual Life (Paperback )
52 1582380570 How to Talk to Your Child About Sex: It's Best to Start Early, But It's Never Too Late : a Step-by-Step Guide for Every Age (Paperback )
53 1844425991 "FHM" True Stories 2 (Paperback )
54 1841612146 Men ... the Insufferable Sex (Paperback )
55 0091878438 The New Book of Massage (Paperback )
56 0330411500 Divine Secrets of the Ya-ya Sisterhood (Paperback )
57 0752845985 Lip Kisses (Paperback )
58 0749931671 Lip Service (Paperback )
59 0091880688 Little Book of the Kama Sutra (Paperback )
60 0099648814 The Private Life of Chairman Mao (Paperback )
61 1400054788 The Probability of God: A Simple Calculation That Proves the Ultimate Truth (Paperback )
62 0521425387 Life on Earth: And Other Pieces (New Cambridge English Course) (Paperback )
63 1853755540 Sex Lives of the Famous Gays (Paperback )
64 0091815290 Mars and Venus in the Bedroom: A Guide to Lasting Romance and Passion (Paperback )
65 0744586836 Snogs, Sex and Soulmates (Paperback )
66 0749395923 The Malayan Trilogy: "Time for a Tiger", "Enemy in the Blanket", "Beds in the East" (Vintage Classics) (Paperback )
67 1896597777 Scrapbook (Paperback )
68 0969670117 Playboy (Paperback )
69 0340752114 Sex Etiquette (Paperback )
70 0969670141 The Best of "Drawn and Quarterly" (Paperback )
71 1896597440 The Poor Bastard (Paperback )
72 189659770 XIt's a Good Life, If You Don't Weaken: A Picture Novella (Paperback )
73 1896597416 Vernacular Drawings (Hardcover )
74 1896597831 My New York Diary (Paperback )
75 189659784 XClyde Fans: Bk.1 (Hardcover )
76 071532067 XBra: A Thousand Years of Style, Support and Seduction (Hardcover )
77 0099429780 Peoplewatching: The Desmond Morris Guide to Body Language (Paperback )
78 0679463348 Step Across This Line: Collected Nonfiction 1992-2002 (Hardcover )
79 1844424065 "Vogue" Beauty (Paperback )
80 1843308940 Sex,Lies and Stereotypes: Challenging Views of Women, Men, and Relationships (Paperback )
81 0375701958 Breastfeeding Your Baby: Revised Edition (Paperback )
82 1846091586 Addicted to Love: The Kate Moss Story (Paperback )
83 0812577566 Knife of Dreams (Wheel of Time (Paperback)) (Mass Market Paperback )
84 0761535810 Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War On America (Paperback )
85 0330433059 Dining with Terrorists (Paperback )
86 0375756981 The Vagina Monologues (Paperback )
87 0812976533 Midnight's Children (Paperback )
88 0805053115 The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey (Paperback )
89 1857152174 Midnight's Children (Everyman's Library Classics) (Hardcover )
90 0099421860 Fury (Paperback )
91 0224061593 Fury (Hardcover )
92 0099443384 Fury (Paperback )
93 0679783504 Fury (Modern Library) (Paperback )
94 0375759603 Fury. (Paperback )
95 0312422784 The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey (Paperback )
96 0812969030 Midnight's Children (Modern Library (Paperback)) (Paperback )
97 0099578611 Shame (Paperback )
98 0312270933 Shame (Paperback )
99 0099421879 Step Across This Line (Paperback )
100 0333490207 Salman Rushdie and the Third World: Myths of the Nation (Hardcover )
101 0224061615 Shalimar the Clown (Hardcover )
102 0224061607 Step Across This Line: Collected Non-fiction 1992-2002 (Hardcover )
103 0679783490 Step Across This Line: Collected Nonfiction 1992-2002 (Modern Library (Paperback)) (Paperback )
104 0099578514 Midnight's Children (Paperback )
105 0099268132 The Swimming-pool Library (Paperback )
106 1844421791 The Best Sex Positions Ever (Hardcover )
107 1843171961 Sex in Every City: How to Talk Dirty in Every Language (Paperback )
108 9812040978 Bali Style (Hardcover )
109 0393061221 Making Globalization Work (Hardcover ) 
laika
Feb 24, 2007, 8:36:33 PM2/24/07
to sangk...@googlegroups.com
I don't belive it or I don't believe you.
You must be joking, right?
'The Malayan Trilogy' was required reading in the
mid 60s.
And I remember Karen Armstrong's ' A History of
God' was greeted with great fanfare worldwide.
Banning ' Breastfeeding Your Baby' at a time when
the health minister wants to ban junkfood adverts? What does that imply?
Mother's milk is junkfood? Add ' Read Aloud Children's Classics', and
'Poems and Prayers for Children' to this list and what will the world think of
us? That Malaysian parents are so dumb they need to be told what is good or bad
reading material for THEIR children?
Being phobic about Mao's life is now so out. Who
cares how many lovers he had.
Total banning of Rushdie's books regardless of
content shows blind adherence to dogma.
As for 'Beauty of Yixing Teapots' , I REALLY must
get this book sometime in another place where such senility does not exist to
find out how tea drinking can be so hazardous to the people of
Bolihland.
Yes, Malaysia truly
Bolih!
Uriah Ang Moh Khow
Feb 25, 2007, 8:04:37 AM2/25/07
to sangk...@googlegroups.com
http://www.time. com/time/ printout/ 0,8816,1592574, 00.html
Malaysia at a Crossroads
Thursday, Feb. 22, 2007 By HANNAH BEECH
A HOUSE DIVIDED: The battle over the true spiritual beliefs of Kaliammal's
late husband reflects Malaysia?s widening religious fault lines
TARA SOSROWARDOYO FOR TIME
How well do you know your husband? For Kaliammal Sinnasamy, a Hindu married
to a member of the first Malaysian team to scale Mt. Everest, the answer,
she thought, was obvious. "I married a Hindu man, lived with him as a Hindu,
bore him a Hindu child and watched him die as a Hindu," says the now
32-year-old office cleaner. But when Kaliammal went to the hospital in
December 2005 to claim her spouse's body after he died of a protracted
illness, she received another shock. Her husband, Maniam Moorthy, had
secretly converted to Islam before his death, said Islamic authorities.
According to Islamic law, he would be buried in a Muslim cemetery. No,
insisted Kaliammal, he would undergo Hindu rites. Both sides headed to
court. But Malaysia-a multiethnic nation composed largely of Muslim Malays,
Hindu Indians and Buddhist and Christian Chinese-employs a dual legal
system. Muslims are subject to Shari'a law for issues such as marriage,
property and death, while non-Muslims use civil courts. First, the Shari'a
court ruled that Kaliammal's husband was a Muslim. Then, the civil court
refused to intervene. "This court cannot undo, vary or overrule any
decisions made by the Islamic Shari'a court," said Judge Raus Shariff to a
packed courtroom. "We have absolutely no jurisdiction over Islam."
Kaliammal's case, along with several other high-profile legal challenges,
are roiling a nation that has struggled to strike a balance between the
aspirations of its Muslim majority and significant minority populations. As
Malaysia celebrates a half-century of independence this year, faith-based
politics is further dividing the nation's ethnicities. The new mood was on
display at the November party conference of Malaysia's ruling political
party, the United Malays National Organization, during which one delegate
spoke of his willingness to bathe in blood to defend the Malay race and
religion. By December, the atmosphere was so tense that Malaysia's usually
understated Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi called race relations
"brittle"-even though a few weeks before he had defended his nation's
reputation, telling TIME: "At the end of the day, Malaysia is still well
regarded internationally as an advanced Muslim country." Indeed, earlier in
the year, Abdullah appeared so confident about his homeland's spiritual
diversity that he rejected a plea by the non-Muslim members of his Cabinet
to more strenuously protect religious freedoms. "We are at a crossroads as a
nation," says Tian Chua, spokesman for the opposition National Justice
Party. "The extreme religious rhetoric is threatening what we worked so hard
for 50 years to accomplish."
Like Indonesia, Malaysia is struggling to determine how Muslim to be. Unlike
Indonesia, which is governed by a secular constitution, Malaysia already
counts Islam as its official faith-although the constitution also guarantees
freedom of religion. Each state has a fatwa committee that makes religious
decrees applicable to Malaysian Muslims, most of whom are Sunni. In Kelantan
state, Muslim women must wear headscarves in public, while several states
have made forsaking Islam a crime that can result in prison time. "We should
not limit Islam to a few rituals," says Sulaiman Abdullah, former president
of the Malaysian Bar Council. "Malaysia would be better served if it were
under Shari'a law."
But what happens when the state's definition of Islam differs from its
citizens'? The Islamic Development Department, which governs Muslim
practices on a federal level, deems Shia and Baha'i interpretations of Islam
deviant faiths worthy of forced "rehabilitation. " Controversy also surrounds
Malays who wish to convert to another religion, thus defying the
constitutional clause specifying that all Malays must be Muslims. That issue
is being tested by the case of Lina Joy, a Malay who has been barred from
converting to Christianity by Shari'a courts. Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, a lawyer
who has received death threats for representing Joy, hopes the case will be
heard by the Supreme Court in the next few months. "How can we say there is
freedom of religion in Malaysia," says Malik, "if a person who has practiced
Christianity for years is not allowed by the state to make that personal
choice?"
As for Kaliammal, her husband's ultimate choice will never be known for
certain. He was buried as a Muslim, but she wants to move the remains to a
Hindu grave. Kaliammal's appeal, one of several involving alleged
conversions to Islam, is pending before a higher court, though no date has
been fixed for judgment. "My husband never once told me he had secretly
converted to Islam," says Kaliammal, showing off a wall in her apartment
dedicated to her husband's mountaineering achievements for the glory of the
Malaysian nation. "He was always a Hindu and drank alcohol and ate pork
right up to the time he died." His final resting place, though, will depend
upon what the court decides-yet one more challenge for a country caught
between mosque and state.
With reporting by Baradan Kuppusamy/Kuala Lumpur
____
Malaysia at a Crossroads
Thursday, Feb. 22, 2007 By HANNAH BEECH
A HOUSE DIVIDED: The battle over the true spiritual beliefs of Kaliammal's
late husband reflects Malaysia?s widening religious fault lines
TARA SOSROWARDOYO FOR TIME
How well do you know your husband? For Kaliammal Sinnasamy, a Hindu married
to a member of the first Malaysian team to scale Mt. Everest, the answer,
she thought, was obvious. "I married a Hindu man, lived with him as a Hindu,
bore him a Hindu child and watched him die as a Hindu," says the now
32-year-old office cleaner. But when Kaliammal went to the hospital in
December 2005 to claim her spouse's body after he died of a protracted
illness, she received another shock. Her husband, Maniam Moorthy, had
secretly converted to Islam before his death, said Islamic authorities.
According to Islamic law, he would be buried in a Muslim cemetery. No,
insisted Kaliammal, he would undergo Hindu rites. Both sides headed to
court. But Malaysia-a multiethnic nation composed largely of Muslim Malays,
Hindu Indians and Buddhist and Christian Chinese-employs a dual legal
system. Muslims are subject to Shari'a law for issues such as marriage,
property and death, while non-Muslims use civil courts. First, the Shari'a
court ruled that Kaliammal's husband was a Muslim. Then, the civil court
refused to intervene. "This court cannot undo, vary or overrule any
decisions made by the Islamic Shari'a court," said Judge Raus Shariff to a
packed courtroom. "We have absolutely no jurisdiction over Islam."
Kaliammal's case, along with several other high-profile legal challenges,
are roiling a nation that has struggled to strike a balance between the
aspirations of its Muslim majority and significant minority populations. As
Malaysia celebrates a half-century of independence this year, faith-based
politics is further dividing the nation's ethnicities. The new mood was on
display at the November party conference of Malaysia's ruling political
party, the United Malays National Organization, during which one delegate
spoke of his willingness to bathe in blood to defend the Malay race and
religion. By December, the atmosphere was so tense that Malaysia's usually
understated Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi called race relations
"brittle"-even though a few weeks before he had defended his nation's
reputation, telling TIME: "At the end of the day, Malaysia is still well
regarded internationally as an advanced Muslim country." Indeed, earlier in
the year, Abdullah appeared so confident about his homeland's spiritual
diversity that he rejected a plea by the non-Muslim members of his Cabinet
to more strenuously protect religious freedoms. "We are at a crossroads as a
nation," says Tian Chua, spokesman for the opposition National Justice
Party. "The extreme religious rhetoric is threatening what we worked so hard
for 50 years to accomplish."
Like Indonesia, Malaysia is struggling to determine how Muslim to be. Unlike
Indonesia, which is governed by a secular constitution, Malaysia already
counts Islam as its official faith-although the constitution also guarantees
freedom of religion. Each state has a fatwa committee that makes religious
decrees applicable to Malaysian Muslims, most of whom are Sunni. In Kelantan
state, Muslim women must wear headscarves in public, while several states
have made forsaking Islam a crime that can result in prison time. "We should
not limit Islam to a few rituals," says Sulaiman Abdullah, former president
of the Malaysian Bar Council. "Malaysia would be better served if it were
under Shari'a law."
But what happens when the state's definition of Islam differs from its
citizens'? The Islamic Development Department, which governs Muslim
practices on a federal level, deems Shia and Baha'i interpretations of Islam
deviant faiths worthy of forced "rehabilitation. " Controversy also surrounds
Malays who wish to convert to another religion, thus defying the
constitutional clause specifying that all Malays must be Muslims. That issue
is being tested by the case of Lina Joy, a Malay who has been barred from
converting to Christianity by Shari'a courts. Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, a lawyer
who has received death threats for representing Joy, hopes the case will be
heard by the Supreme Court in the next few months. "How can we say there is
freedom of religion in Malaysia," says Malik, "if a person who has practiced
Christianity for years is not allowed by the state to make that personal
choice?"
As for Kaliammal, her husband's ultimate choice will never be known for
certain. He was buried as a Muslim, but she wants to move the remains to a
Hindu grave. Kaliammal's appeal, one of several involving alleged
conversions to Islam, is pending before a higher court, though no date has
been fixed for judgment. "My husband never once told me he had secretly
converted to Islam," says Kaliammal, showing off a wall in her apartment
dedicated to her husband's mountaineering achievements for the glory of the
Malaysian nation. "He was always a Hindu and drank alcohol and ate pork
right up to the time he died." His final resting place, though, will depend
upon what the court decides-yet one more challenge for a country caught
between mosque and state.
With reporting by Baradan Kuppusamy/Kuala Lumpur
____
Need Mail bonding?
Go to the Yahoo! Mail Q&A for great tips from Yahoo! Answers users.
Uriah Ang Moh Khow
Feb 25, 2007, 8:18:52 AM2/25/07
to sangk...@googlegroups.com
Sydney Morning Herald
February 24, 2007
Thais' sense of self threatened by insurgency
Tom Allard National Security Editor
BEHEADINGS, mutilated Buddhist monks, assassinations of secular
teachers, mass-casualty attacks - the Islamist insurgency raging in
Thailand's south is getting more barbaric and effective with each
passing month.
That is the assessment of terrorism analysts and Thai Government
advisers after a spate of co-ordinated and deadly bombings this week,
and warnings of more to come, including in Bangkok.
Even more worrying is the possibility of attacks on tourist resorts
where Westerners, including thousands of Australians, flock.
"The brutality is amazing," said Zachary Abuza, a US terrorism expert
who specialises in a conflict that has simmered for decades. "For the
previous generation, these acts would have been considered unseemly.
No one would have done things like hacking apart monks, blowing them
up when they are collecting their alms, targeting women and children."
Thailand's Islamic minority, centred on four provinces abutting
Malaysia, has long complained of mistreatment. But the ferocity of the
insurgency has stunned the Government, with more than 2000 people
killed since 2004.
There have been about 30 beheadings, and 60 more botched attempts.
More than 60 teachers have died, along with hundreds of bystanders,
police and soldiers.
"This is new to the Thai people," said Panitan Wattanayagorn, an
academic who advises the Prime Minister, Surayud Chulanont. "It's been
quite a shock. Thais are learning about cultural differences. They
assumed everyone was Thai, had the Thai national identity. Apparently,
not so."
The bombs are becoming larger and more sophisticated, and the ideology
underpinning the attacks more virulent.
Dr Abuza said: "It's more Islamist than it's ever been … [but] they
want separate communities, from private Islamic schools to their own
courts. They are convincing women not to go to hospital to give
birth."
The insurgency has received scant attention in the West, which is
puzzling given the scale of the violence and Thailand's popularity as
a tourist destination.
For Thailand's military-backed government, deposing Thaksin Shinawatra
in September was justified, at least in part, by his inability to come
to grips with the insurgency. It was Mr Thaksin who reacted with
indifference when mosques were attacked and when 78 unarmed protesters
died of asphyxiation in the back of army trucks. This infuriated Thai
Muslims and prompted a surge of recruits.
However, a public apology, the dropping of charges against protesters,
even a willingness to introduce a degree of Islamic law in the region
have failed to gain the Government any kudos.
The Thai authorities do not even know who their enemy is, Dr Abuza
says. The insurgents operate in largely autonomous cells, never
stating their goals or accepting responsibility for attacks.
Jemaah Islamiah and other al-Qaeda-affiliated groups have been in
contact with the insurgency - the JI leader Hambali was arrested in
Thailand - but the consensus is that it remains self-directed.
Nevertheless, it has adopted many techniques of the global jihadist
movement, from simultaneous bomb attacks, to the emphasis on civilian
targets. Like Jemaah Islamiah, it also abhors the West, in particular
the nightclubs, bars and others "dens of sin" that are so common in
Bangkok and the tourist towns.
Tourism operators, who are enjoying a revival in business following
the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, are terrified, Professor Panitan said.
Muslims in Phuket "watch anyone who comes up from the south very
closely. It's worked to date, but how long will it hold?" Dr Abuza
says information from Phuket's Muslim minority led to the arrests of a
group of suspected insurgents in November.
For now, Dr Abuza believes the insurgents will stay away from tourist
centres. "It would be easy enough [to attack tourists]. But I don't
think they have to yet, because they are winning. The change of
strategy comes when you are losing.
"If they were backed into a corner, I don't think they would hesitate
for a second."
February 24, 2007
Thais' sense of self threatened by insurgency
Tom Allard National Security Editor
BEHEADINGS, mutilated Buddhist monks, assassinations of secular
teachers, mass-casualty attacks - the Islamist insurgency raging in
Thailand's south is getting more barbaric and effective with each
passing month.
That is the assessment of terrorism analysts and Thai Government
advisers after a spate of co-ordinated and deadly bombings this week,
and warnings of more to come, including in Bangkok.
Even more worrying is the possibility of attacks on tourist resorts
where Westerners, including thousands of Australians, flock.
"The brutality is amazing," said Zachary Abuza, a US terrorism expert
who specialises in a conflict that has simmered for decades. "For the
previous generation, these acts would have been considered unseemly.
No one would have done things like hacking apart monks, blowing them
up when they are collecting their alms, targeting women and children."
Thailand's Islamic minority, centred on four provinces abutting
Malaysia, has long complained of mistreatment. But the ferocity of the
insurgency has stunned the Government, with more than 2000 people
killed since 2004.
There have been about 30 beheadings, and 60 more botched attempts.
More than 60 teachers have died, along with hundreds of bystanders,
police and soldiers.
"This is new to the Thai people," said Panitan Wattanayagorn, an
academic who advises the Prime Minister, Surayud Chulanont. "It's been
quite a shock. Thais are learning about cultural differences. They
assumed everyone was Thai, had the Thai national identity. Apparently,
not so."
The bombs are becoming larger and more sophisticated, and the ideology
underpinning the attacks more virulent.
Dr Abuza said: "It's more Islamist than it's ever been … [but] they
want separate communities, from private Islamic schools to their own
courts. They are convincing women not to go to hospital to give
birth."
The insurgency has received scant attention in the West, which is
puzzling given the scale of the violence and Thailand's popularity as
a tourist destination.
For Thailand's military-backed government, deposing Thaksin Shinawatra
in September was justified, at least in part, by his inability to come
to grips with the insurgency. It was Mr Thaksin who reacted with
indifference when mosques were attacked and when 78 unarmed protesters
died of asphyxiation in the back of army trucks. This infuriated Thai
Muslims and prompted a surge of recruits.
However, a public apology, the dropping of charges against protesters,
even a willingness to introduce a degree of Islamic law in the region
have failed to gain the Government any kudos.
The Thai authorities do not even know who their enemy is, Dr Abuza
says. The insurgents operate in largely autonomous cells, never
stating their goals or accepting responsibility for attacks.
Jemaah Islamiah and other al-Qaeda-affiliated groups have been in
contact with the insurgency - the JI leader Hambali was arrested in
Thailand - but the consensus is that it remains self-directed.
Nevertheless, it has adopted many techniques of the global jihadist
movement, from simultaneous bomb attacks, to the emphasis on civilian
targets. Like Jemaah Islamiah, it also abhors the West, in particular
the nightclubs, bars and others "dens of sin" that are so common in
Bangkok and the tourist towns.
Tourism operators, who are enjoying a revival in business following
the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, are terrified, Professor Panitan said.
Muslims in Phuket "watch anyone who comes up from the south very
closely. It's worked to date, but how long will it hold?" Dr Abuza
says information from Phuket's Muslim minority led to the arrests of a
group of suspected insurgents in November.
For now, Dr Abuza believes the insurgents will stay away from tourist
centres. "It would be easy enough [to attack tourists]. But I don't
think they have to yet, because they are winning. The change of
strategy comes when you are losing.
"If they were backed into a corner, I don't think they would hesitate
for a second."
TV dinner still cooling?
Check out "Tonight's Picks" on Yahoo! TV.
Uriah Ang Moh Khow
Feb 25, 2007, 8:36:12 AM2/25/07
to sangk...@googlegroups.com
"the Malaysian model is based on managing and preserving rather than completely eliminating racial divisions, which is handy in situations where assimilation is an unrealistic immediate possibility.
.......
.......
Malaysia is therefore at best a successful and enduring accommodation of divergent interest groups, not the harmonious blending that the "Malaysia Truly Asia" commercials on the Cable News Network soothingly portray"
Asia Times
24 Feb 2007
In search of the perfect Malaysian
By Michael Vatikiotis
SINGAPORE - The history of the Malay Peninsula, with its ethnic
commercial enclaves at both ends and torpid factional personality
politics in between, has long been subject to emotional study
revolving around race and religion. This is the burden of the rather
distinct mathematics of ethnic pluralism and the legacy of colonial
immigrant labor policies.
The principal tension is between those seeking an ideal harmonious
balance among the races - Malay, Chinese and Indian - and those
fighting to preserve the special rights and privileges as well as
political supremacy of the Malays. Not surprisingly, the minority
Chinese and Indians (together more than 30% of the population)
champion the former, the majority Malays the latter.
Fortunately, rather than confrontation between these two views, a kind
of antagonistic harmony reigns, similar to the way that muscles of the
forearm work - opposite forces of contraction and expansion producing
a single forward movement. It works like this: members of the Chinese
and Indian minorities are supportive of Malay figures who are liberal
and tolerant - that is, secular in outlook - and open to collaboration
and cooperation with non-Malays.
Meanwhile, the Malays seek to stock their pantheon of heroes with
personalities who stoutly defend cultural and religious values, and
tend to look askance at those who might otherwise be considered urbane
and liberal. It should be recalled that when Jafar Onn, the founder of
the ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO), sought to open
the fledgling party to non-Malay membership, he was virtually
expelled.
In many ways, this existential struggle over what constitutes
exemplary Malay leadership mirrors the contemporary East-West divide
on Islam. The non-Muslim Western world considers the moderate,
tolerant Muslim the ideal, while many Muslims reserve respect for
those who have struggled and sacrificed their lives for principle and
dogma. As Malaysia approaches its first half-century of existence, so
the debate has begun about who the nation's exemplars should be.
A recently published memoir of the late Tun Dr Ismail, The Reluctant
Politician [1] by Ooi Kee Beng, a Malaysian from Penang, sits firmly
in the minority camp. The former deputy prime minister and one of the
founders of modern Malaysia was known in Malay political circles for
his uncompromising stance against corruption and toughness on national
security issues. He was greatly feared, if not loved.
Among non-Malays he is fondly remembered as someone who embodied the
values of fair play and moderation. In the words of Singaporean
Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, who was interviewed for the book, Ismail
was "a source of moderation and common sense, a stable man not given
to extreme views". The key words here - "moderate", "stable" and
"extreme" - reflect the minority's instinctive fear of untrammeled
Malay nationalism.
Implied in the biographical work that has been undertaken on
pioneering Malaysian leaders such as Tunku Abdurrahman (or Abdul
Rahman; 1903-90) and Tun Dr Ismail is the deep respect afforded them
by non-Malays because they generally stood for fair play and equality
among Malaysia's constituent races. The Tunku's political demise was
at the hands of the so-called "ultras" in the ruling UMNO, those who
criticized the country's founding father for being too generous in
political terms to non-Malays.
The trouble is that many Malays regarded these pluralist qualities to
be a political weakness precisely because they threatened Malay
privilege and supremacy. Both the Tunku and Tun Dr Ismail found
themselves at odds with younger Malay leaders such as Mahathir
Mohamad, who saw patronage and privilege as the path to securing power
for himself and the Malays. "I am confident with the passage of time,
the Malays will be quite capable of meeting the non-Malays in normal
competition, without the special position," Tun Dr Ismail said in a
media interview back in 1969.
Enduring racial politics
Half a century after independence, these issues remain just as
relevant. Racial identity continues to be the dominant leitmotif of
Malaysian politics. The predominant political parties remain racially
defined. The coalition of racial parties and the special economic
privileges for Malays that people like Tun Dr Ismail considered a
temporary fix while a more mature multiracial Malaysia developed are
still firmly entrenched.
The major obstacle preventing the development of a full-blooded
multi-racial Malaysian society, in which all component races have
equal opportunities, is the enduring special status of Malays and the
racial character of political parties. The central role played by
Islam in Malay identity has reinforced rather than loosened ethnic
boundaries, while there continues to be staunch resistance to the
membership of non-Malays in UMNO. It amounts to what non-Muslim
Malaysian scholar Eddin Khoo has described as the creation of a
"political racial identity".
So why then is modern Malaysia often cited as a model multi-racial
society? Its constitution was considered a model for South Africa as
it emerged from years of apartheid. More recently, Iraq's wobbly
government has expressed interest in the so-called Malaysian model as
a possible path to national reconciliation. Perhaps this is because
the Malaysian model is based on managing and preserving rather than
completely eliminating racial divisions, which is handy in situations
where assimilation is an unrealistic immediate possibility.
For Malaysia, the preservation of racial boundaries has proved a
successful means of maintaining power for the ruling Barisan Nasional
(National Front) coalition led by UMNO. Malaysia is therefore at best
a successful and enduring accommodation of divergent interest groups,
not the harmonious blending that the "Malaysia Truly Asia" commercials
on the Cable News Network soothingly portray. Malaysian politicians
today have to work just as hard as they did in Tun Dr Ismail's day to
prevent friction and maintain the ethnic status quo.
There are perpetual and often insistent demands from the religious
right to strengthen Islam as the core of Malay identity, which
deeply offends Indian- and Chinese-Malaysians. Why after all these
years are there still quarrels over church building and temple
erection, and why do Malaysia's religious minorities still feel so
threatened? Then there are the concurrent demands from the minorities
to do away with the National Economic Policy (NEP), which mandates
special treatment for the Malays but irks the Malay mainstream.
It's a delicate balancing act and one that Prime Minister Abdullah
Badawi struggles to achieve - just as his predecessor Mahathir Mohamad
did. In his Lunar New Year message, Abdullah reminded Malaysians of
the need to preserve racial harmony and also hinted that the NEP would
not be around forever. Yet at the UMNO assembly late last year,
leaders of the party's youth wing brandished a Malay dagger and swore
to uphold the special privileges of the Malays in a way that provoked
fear and anger in the ethnic-minority communities.
Cultural culpability
Culture is also partly to blame. It is hard in the Malay language to
talk about tolerance and moderation without imparting a sense of
weakness. Malay political culture places great stress on the struggle
for purity of ideals and loyalty to race and religion.
The Tunku, therefore, for all his great charms, comes off as something
of a flawed role model for Malays. He gambled and drank liquor. He was
affable and rather Western in his outlook. The same went for Tun Dr
Ismail, who loved to play golf and drank in moderation. There's a
whole generation of rather clubbable, golf-playing, English-speaking
civil servants who tended to grow up playing with their Chinese or
Indian neighbors and are lionized in pluralist circles.
Mahathir was a famous UMNO ultra, but he comes across rather better
because even though he worked hard to cultivate an image of himself
struggling for the Malays, defending their culture and religion, in
his personal life and actual family background he was less than an
archetypal perfect Malay gentleman. The non-Malays liked him because
he projected a secular image. He went up against the Islamic party PAS
(Parti Islam SeMalaysia) - and lost two states in electoral battles to
Islamic rule - and because he was impatient and wanted fast results,
he dished out patronage to Malays and non-Malays alike.
Yet under Mahathir's tenure the halls of the Putra World Trade Center,
where UMNO holds its annual convention, were decorated with colorful
murals of Mahathir and other Malay leaders in traditional dress, some
brandishing daggers and charging forward as if into battle. Against
whom it isn't certain, but they are certainly not pictured arm-in-arm
with their non-Malay fellow Malaysians. And there is no celebration of
pluralism in the art.
In the end it's hard to find an ideal Malaysian profile that satisfies
both Malay and non-Malay constituencies. Prime Minister Abdullah
appears to come close by combining the qualities of racial fair play
and tolerance with an Islamic outlook on life. Together with Anwar
Ibrahim, a former deputy prime minister and current opposition
politician, Abdullah represents the kind of Malay who has tried to
harness religion and culture to project a moderate image, rather than
embracing Islam as a weapon to shore up Malay identity.
The two men in fact share a mixed heritage - both claim descent from
the southern Malay provinces of present-day Thailand. They appeal to
the Malays because of their non-secular image and are both secure
about their Malay identity, something that many of the ultras were
not. The trouble is that it is hard to imagine Chinese- and
Indian-Malaysians ever really trusting Malays who try to project
modern values of tolerance and pluralism using Islam as a vehicle.
Abdullah's Islam Hadhari, or civilizational Islam, is a brave effort,
as was Anwar's modernist "Asian Renaissance" rhetoric of the
mid-1990s. Sadly, there is too long a history of mistrust and uneasy
co-existence among the races and their religions, and there is far too
little co-mingling in terms of intermarriage and conversion from one
religion to another.
Blame a successfully managed brand of political pluralism on both
sides of the causeway for this - keeping the races apart and
respecting boundaries rather than breaking them down. And therefore
expect continued nostalgia for a generation of Malays like Tun Dr
Ismail who, even though they were nationalist pioneers, were in the
end mostly products of the long-gone colonial milieu.
Note
1. The Reluctant Politician: Tun Dr Ismail and His Time by Ooi Kee
Beng is published by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in
Singapore. The full name of Tun Dr Ismail (1915-73) was Ismail Abdul
Rahman; Tun is a Malay honorific for a senior official.
Michael Vatikiotis is the former editor of the Far Eastern Economic
Review. He is currently regional representative to the Center for
Humanitarian Dialogue based in Singapore.
24 Feb 2007
In search of the perfect Malaysian
By Michael Vatikiotis
SINGAPORE - The history of the Malay Peninsula, with its ethnic
commercial enclaves at both ends and torpid factional personality
politics in between, has long been subject to emotional study
revolving around race and religion. This is the burden of the rather
distinct mathematics of ethnic pluralism and the legacy of colonial
immigrant labor policies.
The principal tension is between those seeking an ideal harmonious
balance among the races - Malay, Chinese and Indian - and those
fighting to preserve the special rights and privileges as well as
political supremacy of the Malays. Not surprisingly, the minority
Chinese and Indians (together more than 30% of the population)
champion the former, the majority Malays the latter.
Fortunately, rather than confrontation between these two views, a kind
of antagonistic harmony reigns, similar to the way that muscles of the
forearm work - opposite forces of contraction and expansion producing
a single forward movement. It works like this: members of the Chinese
and Indian minorities are supportive of Malay figures who are liberal
and tolerant - that is, secular in outlook - and open to collaboration
and cooperation with non-Malays.
Meanwhile, the Malays seek to stock their pantheon of heroes with
personalities who stoutly defend cultural and religious values, and
tend to look askance at those who might otherwise be considered urbane
and liberal. It should be recalled that when Jafar Onn, the founder of
the ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO), sought to open
the fledgling party to non-Malay membership, he was virtually
expelled.
In many ways, this existential struggle over what constitutes
exemplary Malay leadership mirrors the contemporary East-West divide
on Islam. The non-Muslim Western world considers the moderate,
tolerant Muslim the ideal, while many Muslims reserve respect for
those who have struggled and sacrificed their lives for principle and
dogma. As Malaysia approaches its first half-century of existence, so
the debate has begun about who the nation's exemplars should be.
A recently published memoir of the late Tun Dr Ismail, The Reluctant
Politician [1] by Ooi Kee Beng, a Malaysian from Penang, sits firmly
in the minority camp. The former deputy prime minister and one of the
founders of modern Malaysia was known in Malay political circles for
his uncompromising stance against corruption and toughness on national
security issues. He was greatly feared, if not loved.
Among non-Malays he is fondly remembered as someone who embodied the
values of fair play and moderation. In the words of Singaporean
Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, who was interviewed for the book, Ismail
was "a source of moderation and common sense, a stable man not given
to extreme views". The key words here - "moderate", "stable" and
"extreme" - reflect the minority's instinctive fear of untrammeled
Malay nationalism.
Implied in the biographical work that has been undertaken on
pioneering Malaysian leaders such as Tunku Abdurrahman (or Abdul
Rahman; 1903-90) and Tun Dr Ismail is the deep respect afforded them
by non-Malays because they generally stood for fair play and equality
among Malaysia's constituent races. The Tunku's political demise was
at the hands of the so-called "ultras" in the ruling UMNO, those who
criticized the country's founding father for being too generous in
political terms to non-Malays.
The trouble is that many Malays regarded these pluralist qualities to
be a political weakness precisely because they threatened Malay
privilege and supremacy. Both the Tunku and Tun Dr Ismail found
themselves at odds with younger Malay leaders such as Mahathir
Mohamad, who saw patronage and privilege as the path to securing power
for himself and the Malays. "I am confident with the passage of time,
the Malays will be quite capable of meeting the non-Malays in normal
competition, without the special position," Tun Dr Ismail said in a
media interview back in 1969.
Enduring racial politics
Half a century after independence, these issues remain just as
relevant. Racial identity continues to be the dominant leitmotif of
Malaysian politics. The predominant political parties remain racially
defined. The coalition of racial parties and the special economic
privileges for Malays that people like Tun Dr Ismail considered a
temporary fix while a more mature multiracial Malaysia developed are
still firmly entrenched.
The major obstacle preventing the development of a full-blooded
multi-racial Malaysian society, in which all component races have
equal opportunities, is the enduring special status of Malays and the
racial character of political parties. The central role played by
Islam in Malay identity has reinforced rather than loosened ethnic
boundaries, while there continues to be staunch resistance to the
membership of non-Malays in UMNO. It amounts to what non-Muslim
Malaysian scholar Eddin Khoo has described as the creation of a
"political racial identity".
So why then is modern Malaysia often cited as a model multi-racial
society? Its constitution was considered a model for South Africa as
it emerged from years of apartheid. More recently, Iraq's wobbly
government has expressed interest in the so-called Malaysian model as
a possible path to national reconciliation. Perhaps this is because
the Malaysian model is based on managing and preserving rather than
completely eliminating racial divisions, which is handy in situations
where assimilation is an unrealistic immediate possibility.
For Malaysia, the preservation of racial boundaries has proved a
successful means of maintaining power for the ruling Barisan Nasional
(National Front) coalition led by UMNO. Malaysia is therefore at best
a successful and enduring accommodation of divergent interest groups,
not the harmonious blending that the "Malaysia Truly Asia" commercials
on the Cable News Network soothingly portray. Malaysian politicians
today have to work just as hard as they did in Tun Dr Ismail's day to
prevent friction and maintain the ethnic status quo.
There are perpetual and often insistent demands from the religious
right to strengthen Islam as the core of Malay identity, which
deeply offends Indian- and Chinese-Malaysians. Why after all these
years are there still quarrels over church building and temple
erection, and why do Malaysia's religious minorities still feel so
threatened? Then there are the concurrent demands from the minorities
to do away with the National Economic Policy (NEP), which mandates
special treatment for the Malays but irks the Malay mainstream.
It's a delicate balancing act and one that Prime Minister Abdullah
Badawi struggles to achieve - just as his predecessor Mahathir Mohamad
did. In his Lunar New Year message, Abdullah reminded Malaysians of
the need to preserve racial harmony and also hinted that the NEP would
not be around forever. Yet at the UMNO assembly late last year,
leaders of the party's youth wing brandished a Malay dagger and swore
to uphold the special privileges of the Malays in a way that provoked
fear and anger in the ethnic-minority communities.
Cultural culpability
Culture is also partly to blame. It is hard in the Malay language to
talk about tolerance and moderation without imparting a sense of
weakness. Malay political culture places great stress on the struggle
for purity of ideals and loyalty to race and religion.
The Tunku, therefore, for all his great charms, comes off as something
of a flawed role model for Malays. He gambled and drank liquor. He was
affable and rather Western in his outlook. The same went for Tun Dr
Ismail, who loved to play golf and drank in moderation. There's a
whole generation of rather clubbable, golf-playing, English-speaking
civil servants who tended to grow up playing with their Chinese or
Indian neighbors and are lionized in pluralist circles.
Mahathir was a famous UMNO ultra, but he comes across rather better
because even though he worked hard to cultivate an image of himself
struggling for the Malays, defending their culture and religion, in
his personal life and actual family background he was less than an
archetypal perfect Malay gentleman. The non-Malays liked him because
he projected a secular image. He went up against the Islamic party PAS
(Parti Islam SeMalaysia) - and lost two states in electoral battles to
Islamic rule - and because he was impatient and wanted fast results,
he dished out patronage to Malays and non-Malays alike.
Yet under Mahathir's tenure the halls of the Putra World Trade Center,
where UMNO holds its annual convention, were decorated with colorful
murals of Mahathir and other Malay leaders in traditional dress, some
brandishing daggers and charging forward as if into battle. Against
whom it isn't certain, but they are certainly not pictured arm-in-arm
with their non-Malay fellow Malaysians. And there is no celebration of
pluralism in the art.
In the end it's hard to find an ideal Malaysian profile that satisfies
both Malay and non-Malay constituencies. Prime Minister Abdullah
appears to come close by combining the qualities of racial fair play
and tolerance with an Islamic outlook on life. Together with Anwar
Ibrahim, a former deputy prime minister and current opposition
politician, Abdullah represents the kind of Malay who has tried to
harness religion and culture to project a moderate image, rather than
embracing Islam as a weapon to shore up Malay identity.
The two men in fact share a mixed heritage - both claim descent from
the southern Malay provinces of present-day Thailand. They appeal to
the Malays because of their non-secular image and are both secure
about their Malay identity, something that many of the ultras were
not. The trouble is that it is hard to imagine Chinese- and
Indian-Malaysians ever really trusting Malays who try to project
modern values of tolerance and pluralism using Islam as a vehicle.
Abdullah's Islam Hadhari, or civilizational Islam, is a brave effort,
as was Anwar's modernist "Asian Renaissance" rhetoric of the
mid-1990s. Sadly, there is too long a history of mistrust and uneasy
co-existence among the races and their religions, and there is far too
little co-mingling in terms of intermarriage and conversion from one
religion to another.
Blame a successfully managed brand of political pluralism on both
sides of the causeway for this - keeping the races apart and
respecting boundaries rather than breaking them down. And therefore
expect continued nostalgia for a generation of Malays like Tun Dr
Ismail who, even though they were nationalist pioneers, were in the
end mostly products of the long-gone colonial milieu.
Note
1. The Reluctant Politician: Tun Dr Ismail and His Time by Ooi Kee
Beng is published by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in
Singapore. The full name of Tun Dr Ismail (1915-73) was Ismail Abdul
Rahman; Tun is a Malay honorific for a senior official.
Michael Vatikiotis is the former editor of the Far Eastern Economic
Review. He is currently regional representative to the Center for
Humanitarian Dialogue based in Singapore.
Koon Siang Chin
Feb 25, 2007, 10:12:10 AM2/25/07
to sangk...@googlegroups.com
This was extracted from the silverfish website, a book importer.
Chin Koon Siang
Principal Consultant
Stratfos Consulting Sdn Bhd (542870-K)
2nd Fl., L318 Lrg 12, Jln Rubber,
93400 Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia
(Office Tel) (60) 82 234342
(Office Fax) (60) 82 234454
Chin Koon Siang
Feb 25, 2007, 8:38:42 PM2/25/07
to sangk...@googlegroups.com, laika
Simpler book ban appeal process
Husna Yusop
PETALING JAYA (Feb 26, 2007): It has been more than two months since Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Fu Ah Kiow offered his assistance to book distributors who felt ministry restrictions on more than 100 book titles last year were unfair.
To date, none have approached him although the ministry recently redefined the procedures to make the appeal process easier.
In the meantime, Fu said one of the restricted books -- Salman Rushdie's award-winning Midnight's Children -- has received approval for distribution following an appeal.
Singapore-based publisher Media Masters Pte Ltd also said its book, Faces of Courage, was released for distribution in Malaysia on Feb 9, after an 11-month review by the ministry.
"We have a proper (appeal) procedure now. There is no need for them to bring in the books to us. We know the books are still not allowed entry, so
we do not expect them to do that.
"We now have proper forms and a better recording system. They only have to get the forms (for appeal) and fax that and other things to us later," Fu told theSun.
However, he admitted that the ministry had yet to officially inform book importers and publishers of the new procedures as he was still trying to arrange a meeting between them and the ministry's publications and Quranic text control division.
"We will meet with them as soon as possible. But they don't have to wait for that. If they approach us now, they can get all the information."
Fu had offered his help in December following reports that last year, more than 100 titles were prevented entry into the country by road from Singapore to Johor Baru.
While some of the books restricted by ministry officers in Johor Baru hinted at sexual content, others included classics like Rushdie's novel, as well as children's and educational books.
Fu had earlier said the affected distributors need only provide him with specific information such as the title and the date on which it was rejected, pending the ministry's efforts to streamline ban and restriction procedures.
Last month, theSun quoted Media Masters managing director Ian Ward as urging the ministry to consider allowing Faces of Courage into Malaysia as its contents were not sensitive despite a chapter contributed by former Communist Party of Malaya leader Chin Peng.
Fu said book distributors and publishers have to contact him to appeal the restriction on the more than 100 titles as it would be difficult for ministry officers to look into each title in view of the fact that most of them were older publications.
Silverfish Books owner and director Raman Krishnan, who had highlighted the restrictions last year, said that except for Faces of Courage, he was not aware of any other restricted book having been approved for distribution recently.
Updated: 01:22AM Mon, 26 Feb 2007
On 25 Feb 2007, at 9:36 AM, laika wrote:
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