'Ya Allah, Kau makbullah (kali ini) solat hajat untuk Anwar

‘Ya Allah, kau makbullah (kali ini) solat hajat untuk Anwar’

Oleh Zaini Hassan

 

SOLAT hajat membawa erti yang cukup besar, terutama bagi orang Melayu dan Islam di negara ini. Ada yang melakukan satu stadium untuk memohon kepada Allah SWT bagi kemenangan dalam pilihan raya.
Walaupun kita tahu dalam pilihan raya, matlamat menghalalkan cara sering kali berlaku dan bukan 100 peratus ia bersih daripada piawaian keislaman, solat hajat akan tetap dilakukan.

Budaya solat hajat beramai-ramai ini, kalau tidak salah saya, bermula di Kelantan. Di bawah pemerintahan Pas ia sering kali dilakukan secara massa dan bersaiz mega.

Bersesuaian Kelantan di bawah kepimpinan ulama Pas, solat itu biasanya dilakukan untuk memberikan petunjuk terhadap orang itu, orang ini, kejadian itu dan ini serta untuk menjahanamkan sesuatu kumpulan lain.
Amerika Syarikat dan Israel sering kali dimohon Allah supaya diberi petunjuk keras – setiap kali mereka menyerang negara-negara Islam. Selain daripada itu, UMNO dan kerajaan Barisan Nasional (BN) yang dikatakan zalim oleh Pas dan pembangkang, sering kali dimohon petunjuk yang sama.

Malah, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad pun sering didoakan di mulut-mulut pengikut Pas, ketika itu, sebagai maha firaun, maha zalim dan ada yang berdoakan perkara yang buruk terhadapnya. Malah solat hajat juga diadakan terhadap Mahathir, juga untuk memohon petunjuk kepadanya.
Berita lanjut, sila rujuk edisi cetakan Utusan Malaysia atau langgani e-Paper di http://ebrowse.bluehyppo.com/utusan/index.asp

Registration of New Voters to be focus of UMNO Divisional Meetings

April 18, 2011 23:46 PM

Registration Of New Voters To Be Focus Of Umno Divisional Meetings

KUALA LUMPUR, April 18 (Bernama) -- The registration of new voters, especially among Umno members and other young people, is expected to be the focus when 191 Umno divisions hold their respective annual meetings between this May 1 and June 15.

Party secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tenku Mansor said more than 20,000 Umno branches already held their annual meeting until April 17.

He hoped the divisions would scrutinise their membership list to ensure that those aged 21 and above and eligible to vote, would immediately register as voters.

"The Umno membership is open to those aged 18 and above, so we hope the divisions and branches will get them to register as voters," he told Bernama, here.

He also wants the party which has 3.35 million members to hold more programmes at the divisional level, so as to get close to the people and to explain the 1Malaysia concept.

Tengku Adnan said all Umno members must also understand the new process of choosing the party's leadership to ensure a smooth party election expected in 2012.

He said the party would be using the best method in explaining to members, the party's new election process following amendments to the party constitution in 2009.

On the proposal to organise election trial runs at the branch and divisional levels this year, Tengku Adnan said so far, the matter had not been decided.

However, he was confident that the troubles that erupted during the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) elections last year would not happen in Umno.

"The difference between us and PKR or any other opposition party is that, we are a very structured party. The foundation is already there and we just follow," he said.

The Umno general assembly in October 2009 passed seven amendments to the party constitution, including increasing the number of delegates to choose the party's top leadership to 146,500 from 2,500.

The amendments also abolished the membership quota system, allowing the wings' leaders to accept new members to as to speed up the membership recruitment process, and also gave automatic delegate status to the divisional secretaries to attend the party's annual general assemblies.

However, last December Prime Minister and Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced that the branch, divisional and party Supreme Council elections scheduled for this year be postponed by 18 months.

This is for Umno to focus on efforts to restore and strengthen the party based on the New Political Model, to ensure Umno remains relevant and the main pillar of the ruling government.

-- BERNAMA

Malay/Melanaus is 100% with PBB

FACED with the risk of choosing wrongly, the Malay/Melanaus opted to vote in all the 35 candidates fielded by Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), which made up largely of members of the community and a number of Dayaks.

The game plan was simple -- the Malay/Melanau community was not willing to gamble away its dominant role in the state government under Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, who is one of them.

And why should it?

PBB has always played a dominant role in the state Barisan Nasional. The only time the party recorded a poor showing was in 1987, when it won 14 seats and lost nine.

That too, because the issue then was different -- some prominent Malay/Melanau community leaders had left PBB and formed a splinter group called Permas, thus splitting the votes.

But in 1991, PBB lost only four seats, one in 1996 and went on to record 100 per cent success in 2001 and 2006.

Universiti Sains Malaysia's School of Social Sciences deputy dean Dr Sivamurugan Pandian said the sentiment was understandable.

"The community has benefited much under Taib. It did not have any major issues with him, unlike the Chinese.

"PBB is 100 per cent solidly behind him and there is minimal voice of discontent or queries on when he will give way to a successor."

The community was willing to bury its dissatisfaction by looking at the bigger picture, and for the sake of the future generation.

"Yes, I am not saying BN is perfect but it is the best choice when we compare it with others. We can still depend on BN. One must think about the future and the younger generation. Do not follow your heart as the government is doing a good job," said kuih seller Makcik Dayang Jaenah Awang Maadon from Muara Tuang, near here.

As Sivamurugan said, the Malay/ Melanau community has indeed gained much from BN. An example of this is the Malay heartland of Satok, which consists of traditional Malay kampung, situated in the heart of the city.

The number of surau in the area, which are within a short distance of one another and similar to a mosque in size and architecture, is testimony to BN's deeds for the community.

The community is also familiar with its leaders from PBB, who have proven track records, unlike those from Parti Keadilan Rakyat.

Take the case of influential and well-loved eight-term Satok assemblyman Datuk Amar Abang Johari Abang Openg and his challenger -- political greenhorn Ahmad Nazib Johari.

From day one, it was clear that Nazib, despite his confidence which some perceived as being too much, was no match for Abang Johari.

Nazib, although born and bred in the same neighbourhood of Satok as Abang Johari, is not known among the people here. He makes his living in the peninsula, hence the view among the kampung folk that he failed to relate to their issues.

Sivamurugan said the Malay/ Melanau community could not identify with PKR leaders.

"The Malay/Melanau leaders from PKR are alien to the community. Also, PKR does not have any single leader from the community whom the party can be proud of."

This is very true. While PKR projected its state head, Baru Bian, as the designated chief minister, it did not have any names among the party's top leaders who could be the sole voice of the Malay/Melanau community.

"PKR is history as far as Sarawak is concerned. The Malay/Melanau community wants a local voice and not one from the peninsula, as PKR is looked at. The party can never make inroads into these constituencies and its only hope is the Dayak and Chinese areas," added Sivamurugan.

PBB also did very well in the neighbouring Tupong and Samariang constituencies, earlier perceived as grey areas for BN owing to some dissatisfaction with the assemblymen, who were retained in Saturday's state election.

Indeed, PBB improved its majority in most of the Malay/Melanau constituencies. Examples include Pantai Damai, where its vote majority increased from 2,164 in 2006 to 5,071; Samariang from 2,488 to 5,431; Sadong Jaya from 858 to 2,934; Lingga from 1,870 to 2,506; and Jemoreng from 1,710 to 2,926.

The Malay/Melanau community has spoken -- it wants continued stability and is not willing to take a gamble. And as long as PBB listens to the voice of the grassroots, it can be sure of being seen as a formidable party.

Read more: Community is 100pc with PBB http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/08melan/Article#ixzz1JsfrIdnW

'Protect MACC officers handling high-risk cases'

'Protect MACC officers handling high-risk cases'

2011/04/11
By Masami Mustaza
masamimustaza@nst.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: The investigation of high-profile cases by Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officers may place them at grave risk, requiring the need for the provision of maximum protection.
Yayasan 1Malaysia Board of Trustees chairman Dr Chandra Muzaffar said this was not something unusual as the MACC dealt with high-profile graft and money-laundering cases.

"They may face trouble from cartels or syndicates that work hand-in-glove with some corrupt government agencies.

"Like the crackdown on the Customs Department, a massive operation such as this may come with a possibility of risk.

"There is surely a lot of powerful vested interests that would want the MACC to slow down, in light of the recent death of a senior Customs officer. As long as the MACC continues to exert pressure, you don't know how they would react."

On April 6, Selangor Customs Department assistant director Ahmad Sarbaini Mohamed, 56, was found dead on the first floor of the MACC building in Jalan Cochrane here.

Chandra said protection of the MACC investigation officers could be in the form of a special police unit or plainclothes policemen assigned to provide security for the officers.

He also urged all parties to cease calling for MACC Chief Commissioner Datuk Seri Abu Kassim Mohammed to resign, saying it was an "ill-conceived move inimical to public interests".

Instead, he said, the opposition should join forces with the government to table a resolution in Parliament to endorse the work of the MACC and to enhance its resources.

Read more: 'Protect MACC officers handling high-risk cases' http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/14mac/Article/#ixzz1JJFHVzMb

Banyan

On the defensive

A bad attack of the jitters among Chinese leaders, and dissidents pay the price

Apr 7th 2011 | from the print edition

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THE rest of the world may gasp in awe at China’s surging economy and cower somewhat in face of its growing might, but its own leaders seem far from complacent. Indeed, to judge from its latest defence white paper, and from a continuing crackdown on its critics at home, China’s government feels besieged.

The white paper, produced every two years since 1998, with the latest dated 2010, did not appear until March 31st this year. Maybe it was late because the world has been changing too fast, in too many unsettling ways. The paper suggests a world resentful of China’s emergence as a global power, and trying to thwart it: “Suspicion about China, interference and countering moves against China from the outside are on the increase.”

The white paper claims “the armed forces resolutely subdue all subversive and sabotage activities by hostile forces.” In fact, that task is being pre-empted by other organs of the Chinese state. They have been conducting the biggest round-up of dissidents, human-rights activists, lawyers and bloggers seen for years.

According to Chinese Human Rights Defenders, an NGO, by April 4th some 30 people had been detained and faced criminal charges relating to the so-called “jasmine revolution”—an inchoate internet campaign to emulate in China recent upheavals in the Middle East and north Africa. Human Rights Watch, another NGO, reports that a further 100-200 people have suffered repressive measures, from police summonses to house arrest. This has been accompanied by tighter censorship of the internet, the ousting of some liberal newspaper editors, and new curbs on foreign reporters in China, some of whom have been roughed up.

Then this week the dragnet pulled in Ai Weiwei, the best-known dissident in China not to be behind bars. A famous artist, with an installation now on display at a gallery in London and a lasting legacy in the “bird’s nest” stadium in Beijing built for the 2008 Olympics, Mr Ai is also, as the son of a revolutionary poet, the Communist equivalent of minor royalty. On April 3rd he was detained at Beijing airport as he tried to board a flight to Hong Kong. His companion was told that Mr Ai had “other business”.

He has been in trouble before. Last year he was prevented from travelling abroad to attend the ceremony in Oslo where Liu Xiaobo, a jailed Chinese dissident, was awarded the Nobel peace prize. This January his studio in Shanghai was demolished, in what he saw as an act of retribution for his political activism.

Now the police seem determined to find evidence of some “crime”. Soon after his detention, a dozen officers arrived at his studio. They detained people they found there for questioning, and confiscated computers. Mr Ai’s associates fear that his latest troubles are more serious than previous tangles with the authorities, and that the instructions to take action against him have come “from the top”. After the detention, the official press was at first silent about him, until Global Times, a party newspaper, described him as “close to the red line of Chinese law”. Then, in a terse midnight report, the official news agency revealed that he was being investigated for “economic crimes”. It smacked of “Alice In Wonderland”—detention first, suspected crime later.

In the end, Mr Ai’s celebrity seems to have afforded him no protection, and may even have rendered his liberty more precarious. The party seems intent on showing that it will allow no leeway to those dreaming of a people-power movement or democracy. The higher-profile the victim, the more forcibly that message is conveyed. Mr Ai seems likely to become the latest victim of the use of the law to impose political orthodoxy. On March 25th Liu Xianbin, an activist, was sentenced to ten years in prison for “slandering the Communist Party”.

Even more worrying, however, is the increasing resort to informal detentions, punishments and disappearances. These are outside the law, offering the victim no protection at all. The government now dismisses the idea that one function of the law is to defend people against the arbitrary exercise of state power. On March 3rd a Chinese foreign-ministry spokeswoman told foreign journalists: “Don’t use the law as a shield.” Some people, she said, want to make trouble in China and “for people with these kinds of motives, I think no law can protect them.”

It is tempting to dismiss the current crackdown as just the latest twist in the unending cycle of repression and liberalisation through which China has been spinning for over three decades. Popular uprisings abroad, like sensitive political anniversaries or big events such as the 2008 Beijing Olympics at home, offer pretexts for a round-up of the usual suspects. They provide a stiff but effective reminder that in China’s political system—“a people’s democratic dictatorship”—it is the dictatorship bit that counts.

This bout of repression, however, may reflect more than the usual cycle. For a start, it is a huge overreaction. For all the online chatter, no one thinks China is on the brink of a jasmine revolution. Also, with a leadership transition coming next year, and China’s new rulers mostly already identified, it helps quash any notion that they might usher in an era of liberalisation.

Never taking off

Although the short-term risk of a copycat revolution in China is small, events elsewhere have demonstrated the long-term corrosive effect on repressive regimes of the internet, mobile telephones and social networks. Better, the party seems to have concluded, to crack down long and hard now than to wait and see. In George Orwell’s novel “1984”, an intellectual party hack paints a vision of the future as “a boot stamping on a human face—for ever”. China has updated that. Its vision seems to be of a computer screen with a message that the website you seek is unavailable; or perhaps of a mysterious encounter at immigration, and the interpolation of “other business” between check-in and flight.

Tubuhkan Suruhanjaya Siasatan Diraja Untuk Allahyarham Ahmad Sarbini Mohamad

Assalamualaikum

Kesiannya kes kematian pegawai kastam ini.  Untuk mengelakkan SPRM di tuduh bukan2 saya cadangkan satu Suruhanjaya Siasatan Diraja ditubuhkan untuk menyiasat apa sebenarnya yang telah berlaku.  Ini untuk mengekalkan keyakinan rakyat kepada SPRM.

 

Raduan Md Taib

Anak Burung Merbah Dekat Kebun Rumah Kawan

Senior Custom officer in graft probe falls to death at MACC building

Senior Customs officer in graft probe falls to death at MACC building

 

KUALA LUMPUR: A senior Customs officer being investigated by the MACC for graft involving unpaid taxes is believed to have fallen to his death from the 3rd floor of the MACC Building in Jalan Cochrane on Wednesday morning.

The MACC has identified the officer as Selangor assistant director Ahmad Sarbani Mohamed, 56.

MACC director of investigations Datuk Mustafar Ali said Ahmad was among those detained on April 1 in a nationwide operation and released on bail the next day.

He had arrived at the MACC building here alone on a motorbike at 8.26am and asked to see the investigating officer who, however, was at a meeting.

Ahmad waited at the lobby until 9.30am. Then, an officer took him to a room on the third floor and was with him until 10.15am.

The officer then left the room for a few minutes to call the investigating offier.
When he returned, he found Ahmad missing.

Ahmad's body was found lying on the first floor open-air badminton court at 10.20am, Mustafar said.
Meanwhile, Kuala Lumpur CPO Datuk Zulkifli Abdullah said a special task force has been set up to investigate the case, which has been classified as sudden death.

He said the body has been sent to Hospital Kuala Lumpur for a post mortem, and urged people not to speculate.

MACC'S STATEMENT ON THE INCIDENT
KUALA LUMPUR: Pada hari ini, 6 April 2011 diantara jam 10.15 pagi hingga jam 10.20 pagi satu kejadian telah berlaku di bangunan Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia (SPRM) Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Jalan Cochrane, Kuala Lumpur dimana seorang individu telah ditemui meninggal dunia.
Individu yang ditemui meninggal dunia ini dikenal pasti sebagai Ahmad Sarbani bin Mohamed, berumur 56 tahun, seorang Penolong Pengarah Kastam daripada Jabatan Kastam DiRaja Malaysia, Selangor.
SPRM mengesahkan bahawa penama berkenaan adalah diantara pegawai Kastam yang telah ditahan pada 1 April 2011 jam 1.00 tengahari di Pejabat Kastam Pelabuhan Utara, Pelabuhan Kelang. Penama tersebut setelah membantu dalam siasatan yang melibatkan operasi 3B iaitu satu siasatan berkaitan kesalahan di bawah Akta Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia 2009, telah dilepaskan melalui jaminan pada hari Sabtu 2 April 2011 jam 12.30 tengahari. Penama tersebut telah pun meninggalkan pejabat SPRM Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur selepas dilepaskan melalui jaminan tersebut.

Pada hari ini, Rabu 6 April 2011 jam 8.26 pagi, penama berkenaan telah datang ke Pejabat SPRM Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur bersendirian dengan menunggang sebuah motorsikal. Penama ini telah meminta untuk berjumpa dengan pegawai penyiasat bagi berbincang mengenai kes terhadapnya. Oleh kerana pegawai-pegawai sedang bermesyuarat maka penama berkenaan telah menunggu di lobi pejabat sehingga jam 9.30 pagi.

Penama tersebut kemudian telah diiringi oleh seorang pegawai ke bilik pejabatnya untuk mendapatkan pegawai penyiasat menemui penama tersebut. Pegawai yang mengiringi penama tersebut telah berada bersamanya dalam bilik pejabat pegawai berkenaan.

Pada jam lebih kurang 10.15 pagi, pegawai yang mengiringi beliau telah meninggalkan penama tersebut di pejabatnya dan keluar sebentar pergi mendapatkan pegawai penyiasat. Dalam beberapa minit kemudian, pegawai tersebut telah kembali ke pejabatnya dan mendapati penama berkenaan tiada dalam bilik berkaitan.
Setelah mencari dalam kawasan pejabat, seorang pegawai telah terlihat satu tubuh manusia terlantar di tingkat 1 bangunan pejabat ini.

SPRM telah pun memaklumkan kejadian ini kepada keluarga simati dan pihak pengurusan jabatannya serta menyerahkan perkara ini kepada pihak Polis untuk mengambil sebarang tindakan.
* More on the death of Selangor Customs assistant director Ahmad Sarbani Mohamed in The Star on Thursday

Prosper and love thy neighbour

Ikim Views
By Datuk Nik Mustapha Haji Nik Hassan

The more fortunate should attempt to assist the less fortunate to progress while exploitative mechanisms in all aspects should be minimised and eventually eliminated.

IN our effort to build a stable and dynamic society, we have to adopt the right approach in economic arrangement in line with the principle of “prosper thy neighbour”.
Indeed, this is the right solution to address the economic predicament faced by humanity.
There is a need for everyone to be committed to a principle that individual success and social progress can be attained if everyone works in cooperation and harmony in all economic activities for common prosperity.
This approach insists that there must be a purpose for all in society to achieve economic advancement.
The more fortunate should attempt to assist the less fortunate to progress. Economically, everyone needs each other. The poor definitely require the assistance of the wealthy and vice-versa.

Exploitative mechanisms in all aspects should be minimised and eventually eliminated. Room and space for manipulation should be closed. This applies to all kinds of unethical conduct.
Prosperity should be shared in a just manner if society is to progress. Thus, the basic needs of the less fortunate have to be satisfied. This implies that every member of society has to be above the poverty line. The ability to realise this social justice can be the starting point towards sustainable success.
The Quran has given a clear guideline to mankind that “wealth should not circulate only among the rich”. (Quran 59:7). This guideline places great emphasis on distributive justice where opportunities are made available to everyone without exception.

This healthy environment creates strong motivation for everyone to work and to excel. The natural law of meritocracy will be a motivational force for individuals to excel. At the same, those who succeed should not neglect the less fortunate.
In a lengthy Madinan passage (Quran 2:260-74), the Quran states: “Expenditure on the needy is like a single grain that grows seven ears of corn, each ear containing a hundred or more grains, that those who spend in order to show off or who want recognition from their beneficiaries are like rocks upon which there is a thin layer of earth which is easily washed away by torrential rain”.
The Quran reiterates that “Satan inspires you with (fear of) poverty (for investing in society) and commands you obscenities; God, on the other hand, promises you forgiveness and prosperity (for such investment)”. (Quran 2:268)
God reminds the Muslim that in the absence of concern for the welfare of the poor, even prayers became hypocritical.
The Quran reminds: “Did you see the one who gives the lie to the Faith? It is he who maltreats orphans and works little for the feeding of the poor. Woe betide, then those who pray, yet are neglectful of their prayers – those who pray for show and even deny the use of their utensils (to the poor)”. (Quran 107: 1-7)
Islam, in the clear instruction above, condemns those who propagate a “beggar thy neighbour” approach to social arrangement.

Indeed, the attitude of not helping and not sharing prosperity with others can be a great obstacle not only to spiritual, but also economic, development. This is because subscribing to this principle can lead to social disequilibrium, which ultimately can affect economic and social progress.
The Quran also reminds humanity that civilisation can be destroyed if individuals commit serious vices like economic oppression and exploitation of the poor, political oppression of the poor, and vices of idolatry and permissiveness, as with the people of Noah and Lot.

In a very strong warning, Allah says: “When We want to destroy a town (ie a civilisation), We command its luxurious ones, so they commit unrighteousness in it – and when the judgement becomes ripe upon it, We destroy it utterly.” (Quran 17:16)

In the quest to develop society for the future, Malaysians should try their best to put into practice the principle of “prosper thy neighbour” in economic practices.
Man should work as a team for social betterment and no one should be left out in the development, and no one should be given special preference over the other.

This is where distributive justice should be given priority in economic development, not per capita advancement. In the present materialistic and individualistic society, this seems to be a tall order.
But through the commitment of those in authority, it is possible for all individuals to reject conflict for cooperation. This path requires spiritual and moral enlightenment.

There is no doubt that Islam wants Muslims to establish a political and social order based on fair and moral principles. Islam would like Muslims to realise a moderate society that upholds truth, justice and brotherhood among men.

It is described in the Quran as ummatan wasatan. Such an order should eliminate all corruption on Earth (fasad fi`l-ard) and reform society in all aspects so that the words of God reign supreme.

Thus, the Muslim community, has to go all out in line with the spirit of “command good and forbid evil” (Quran 3:104).

The ability to put into practice all aspects of Islamic principles, including “prosper thy neighbour” in economic organisation, is a holy struggle which requires in-depth knowledge and skill to guide society along the right path.