The police today recorded the statement of Selangor exco Xavier Jayakumar at his office in Shah Alam with regards to a police report lodged against him.

The report, filed with the Klang district police headquarters, concerned the alleged 'abuse' of RM1.67 million in allocations for Tamil schools last year.

After lodging the report, Klang's Parents Teachers Association chairperson G Jeganathan said the state government had given the funds, meant for upgrading the schools, to three NGOs without a clear explanation.

The three NGOs are Child Information, Learning and Development Centre (Child), Tamil Foundation Malaysia and Educational, Welfare and Research Foundation.

Speaking to reporters after the police left, Jayakumar did not rule out the possibility that the episode could be politically motivated.

"I don't know from what angle this is coming (from) and who is behind this report. I'm sure its not Jeganathan, he doesn't seem to know anything, he doesn't seem to know the issues," he said.

Jayakumar explained that the funds provided to the NGOs were part of a programme by the Selangor government to improve Tamil education

"We took six months to study the proposal from them (the NGOs). We had multiple meetings. The state will have a five-year programme in order to increase the standard of Tamil school education," he added.

Continuous effort needed

Furthermore, he said that it is the prerogative of the state government on how to allocate the funds.

He said that a total of RM4 million was allocated to Tamil schools last year and of this amount, RM1.58 million was given as an "outright grant" to the three NGOs.

He pointed out that the Parents Teachers Association changes every year and therefore the programmes that are carried out would also vary.

"If you don't have a concerted effort of putting a continuos programme over five years, you cannot get results.

"That is why we are working with NGOs who are experts in this, who have hands on experience and they know exactly how the ground works," he said.

Following the allegation, Jayakumar has published on his blog a list of tables detailing how the state's allocations were spent for Tamil schools last year.

Information Communication and Culture Minister Rais Yatim has made a fair amount of controversial statements but his latest views have made him a Twitter celebrity.

Rais was recently quoted in a Bernama piece, 'Muslims must avoid being totally immersed in Facebook, Twitter' exhorting Malaysians to be wary of the popular Internet services.

His comments have gotten Malaysian Twitter users up in arms, with reactions ranging from ridicule to incredulity. Among Rais' critics is Rembau parliamentarian Khairy Jamaluddin.

Twitter users looked on in amusement as Khairy made snide fun of Rais' comments that urged Malaysians to be wary of compromising their culture to Twitterand Facebook's'Western' influence.

Khairy first made a big show of taking a break from Twitterby Tweeting: “Thanks for your views. As a responsible party man, I shall listen to party elders. This will be my last tweet for a very, very long time.”

Not 24 hours later, he posted: “Tried hard to resist the evils of social media as per someone's advice but clearly I'm easy meat forpenjajahan minda (mind colonisation) by dunia luar (the outside world).

In a post to a fellow Barisan rep in Kota Belud, Sabah, Khairy again made allusions to Rais' statement: “Shout out to @mpkotabelud who's (in) kawasan dilanda banjir (flood-affected area). Hope you're on the ground & not immersing yourself in the Satanic WesternTwitter.”

One final rejoinder so far has been this post on Jan 17: “Long day in Rembau. Now going to eat burgers & pizzas. Allowing self to be colonised by evil food. Ya, not letting this go yet, Mr Minister.”

Malaysian Twitter on fire

Rais also became a talking point on Twitter last night when news of a fire in downtown Kuala Lumpur broke first on Twitter. Twitterusers were reporting the blaze before major news services had gotten word.

Twitter users were the first to know, sharing pictures via the service of the blaze and relaying the location to fellow users.

The Twitter posts about the blaze were labelled with the tag #KLfire, creating a thread of sorts where Malaysians posted news and views about the event.

Somehow the thread devolved into a discussion about Twitter'susefulness and Rais' statement about the 'dangers' of Twitter.

One Malaysian tweeted, “Twitterprobably saved lives today by alerting fire dept and media and public quickly. Rais Yatim, saving lives = western influence?”

Another user also directed his Tweetto Rais, saying “Pakcik Rais, you see how fast and effective Twitter is?”

“Thanks to Twitter that Malaysians (are) being informed about #KLfire. I bet Rais still doesn't know about (the) news.”

According to the site TwitDir there are about 3,574 users who registered Malaysia as their location.

Blogger Zhiq, a social media commentator, put the actual amountof Twitter users in the country for 2009 at 21,657 with a likelihood of that quadrupling to over 80,000 in 2010.

What is certain, however, is that Malaysians are embracing Twitterand Facebook, whatever a certain minister has to say about it.

PETALING JAYA, Jan 14 (Bernama) -- Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak wants 30 per cent of intake into the Royal Military College (RMC) to be from non-Malays.

Defence Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the 30 per cent quota of non-Malays was meant to show that the RMC as a full-boarding school was open to all races in the country.

"Eventhough the new campus located in Sungai Besi will be ready in 24 months but this year when the Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) is announced, intake into Form Four and Five will begin as directed by the Prime Minister," he said after presenting contributions at a 1Malaysia charity event organised by Vesta here today.

He said presently the number of non-Malay students in the college was less than five per cent.

He said based on the 1Malaysia concept as espoused by Najib he was confident the intake of non-Malays would increase to 50 per cent.

Ahmad Zahid said RMC graduates could make a choice to continue their education in university or join the military service.

"If they choose to join the military service they will be paid an allowance," he said.

Relating to an allegation by Pas that the "Juara Rakyat" programme used government funds, Ahmad Zahid denied it and said the funds to pay for the programme were from Umno.

"The programme is organised by state Umno liaison bodies and involves private organisations and non-governmental organisations.

"Using the going-to-ground concept, the government always finds ways to be close to the people and ensure that we provide services. That is what we want," he said.

After several months of running verbal battles with the Catholic Church , the Umno/Barisan Nasional Government finally conceded yesterday on the Allah issue for Sabah and Sarawak.

Christians in the two Malaysian Borneo states can continue to use the term 'Allah' for God in Malay print as they have done for the last 300 years.

The Federal Government still sees no reason why Christians in Peninsular Malaysia should use the term 'Allah' for God even in Malay print.

However, East Malaysians resident in the Peninsula have to respect the prohibition.

These pronouncements came from Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz (left) in an exclusive interview yesterday in Kuala Lumpur with five journalists from the Borneo Post, Utusan Borneo and the Oriental Daily.

“Christians in Sabah and Sarawak need not worry over this issue because it is a common tradition there. I have been to an Iban church service and I heard 'Allah' used there,” he said.

Asked why the need for two sets of rules on the usage of the word, he stressed that this is not a unique practice as Malaysia also has two sets of laws on other matters, citing the Syariah Court and the Civil Court as examples.

Nazri went on to say that the situation in the Peninsula is different as 'Allah' was only introduced into Christian worship and publication a few years ago.

Going to court is no solution

“Muslims in Peninsular Malaysia cannot accept it as 'Allah' was never used in Christian preaching until recently and they questioned the motive behind the substitution of Tuhan for 'Allah'”.

Nazri cited the Federal Constitution to point out that no other religion can be propagated to Malay Muslims and this article had been enacted in all states in Malaysia where the Sultan is the Head of State.

“So this excludes the Federal territory, Penang, Malacca, Sarawak and Sabah,” explained Nazri. “In these states, for the ban on the use of 'Allah' to be implemented, the Home Minister can use the Printing Act to enforce it.”

He added that Christians should recognize that using 'Allah' in their worship and publications is sensitive to Muslims and that this issue was not going to be solved by going to court.

“The government has a duty to stop acts of disrespect and provocation that inflame religious and racial feelings in the nation even if there was no law that stated that these acts were wrong,” he said.

Nazri pointed out as an example that there was no law against stepping on a cow's head.

Still, when a group of Malays did that in protest against the relocation of a Hindu temple, “we hauled them up and charged them because that act was disrespectful to Hindus”.

Justification for illegal acts

On the same score, if the usage of 'Allah' by Christians was – it certainly is, he said – sensitive to Muslim, the government has to act even if the courts deem it illegal, according to Nazri.

The minister clarified that it was not the Government that dragged the matter to court.

He pointed the finger of blame at Catholic Archbishop Murphy Pakiam (left), leaving no choice for government but defend itself.

The government, he said, is continuing with the case in court and had applied for a stay of execution “which the other party had agreed to”.

The High Court, in its ruling on Dec 31, had contended that “there was no evidence to show that the use of 'Allah' (by non-Muslims) could incite violence”.

Nazri conceded that such incidents had not happened during the hearing and the government could not, therefore, produce such evidence in court.

The subsequent arson attacks on the churches, continued Nazri, “proved that the government was right” (the 'Allah' ban).

Nation's shield: The ban

He did not touch on allegations that the fire-bombings of churches were stage-managed (to convince the courts).

“Banning the use of 'Allah' by Christians was a pre-emptive move to stop outbreaks of religious violence in the nation,” said Nazri.

Asked how the continuing controversy could be solved, he replied that here had to be a solution soon.

In the meantime, he appealed to the people involved to be calm and rational.

The Federal Government's apparent about-turn albeit in Malaysian Borneo, after 11 churches were fire bombed and a Sikh temple stoned , is front-page news in the Borneo Post today.

The Utusan Borneo also has a Kadazandusun section in its Sabah edition.

The concession is seen here as the Federal Government choosing a face-saving exit strategy recently suggested by a group of Sabah Justices of the Peace who used “compromise” as an euphemism.
These JPs were publicly taking issue with their President Clarence Bongkos Malakun for openly advocating that Christians forgo using the word 'Allah' “to pacify the Malays for the sake of peace”.

The Home Ministry is not expected to withdraw its appeal against the Herald, the Catholic weekly, now in the Court of Appeal.

This is against the High Court ruling on Dec 31 that the term 'Allah' is not exclusive to Islam.

By Adib Zalkapli- The Malaysian insider


KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 15 — Friday sermons in Selangor mosques today reminded Muslims to unite over the “Allah” controversy, and described the use of the word by Christians as an attempt to undermine the position of Islam in the country.

According to the text of the sermon — prepared by the Selangor Islamic Department (Jais) — allowing Christians to use the word “Allah” would create religious tension. It also called on the Muslims to set aside their political allegiance on this matter.

“Although some [of] us may have [a] different ideology, it should not compromise the sanctity of the religion just for the sake of position and power,” according to the sermon, in an apparent reference to Muslim politicians who are deeply divided over the issue.

Earlier this week, the Sultan of Selangor issued a directive to uphold the stance that the word “Allah” may not be used by non-Muslims when referring to God in the Malay language.

“The decision of the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Thursday, Dec 31, allowing the Herald – The Catholic Weekly to use the word ‘Allah’ was shocking to Muslims nationwide,” said the sermon, which was meant for delivery before the start of Friday prayers.

“The use of the word ‘Allah’ by the Christians, especially in writings, must be stopped by the government. According to Islamic principles, the government has the right to take pre-emptive measures to stop [the] expected damage,” it added.

It also reiterated the stand made by Muslim groups opposed to the High Court ruling — that the move would create confusion among Muslims.

“We are worried that all churches will be renamed Baitullah (House of God), the Bible will also be renamed Kitabullah, and more confusion will arise if all religions in the country use the word ‘Allah’ to refer to God.

“Their aim is to equate Islam with other religions in the country. In fact, Islam is the religion accepted by Allah, there is no other religion but Islam. Islam came from Allah, while other religions were man-made,” it added.

The sermon also cited the Cabinet decision in 1986, banning the use of four Arabic words — including “Allah” — by non-Muslim as well as the state enactment which restricts the use of the word. The enactment was meant to prevent the word from being used for propagating other religious views to Muslims.

The first part of the sermon, which discusses the issue, ended with a reminder to Muslims to respect the rule of law, as the authorities are taking action according to the available legal process.

The row over the use of the word “Allah” has been linked to attacks on nine churches, a mission school and one Sikh temple over the last week.

Both the government and the opposition have moved in to defuse tensions, with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announcing financial aid of RM500,000 to the worst hit church, the Metro Tabernacle in Kuala Lumpur. Opposition leaders have also been holding regular meeting with leaders and members of the Christian community.

Meanwhile, the Friday sermon prepared by the federal Islamic Development Department of Malaysia (Jakim) did not touch on the issue. The body prepared two versions of sermon to be chosen by mosques in the Federal Territories today.

One version of the sermon urged the Muslims to control their sugar intake in an attempt to justify the government’s decision to reduce sugar subsidy, while another version discusses the solar eclipse which takes place this afternoon.

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 14 — PAS will always back any cause or issue seen as being Islamic in nature, Malaysian political wisdom dictates.

But the party’s decision to back the High Court’s recent ruling allowing the Catholic newspaper to use the word "Allah" in the Bahasa Malaysia edition of its Herald newspaper has turned such thinking on its head.

"In some ways this Allah issue is God-send. If the party leadership was divided before now they are united on this," a senior PAS strategist told The Malaysian Insider.

It is understood that PAS leaders expect to lose some support among the Malay on the ground, in the short term.

But in the long term, they feel that by showing a principled stand on such issues they will be able to win over the larger middle-ground of moderates of not just Malays but among all Malaysians.

Instead of PAS, it is becoming clear that Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN) are finding themselves in a spot.

When some Umno politicians stoked the fire and attempted to seize the initiative to portray the party as the real defenders of Islam by criticising the court ruling, the thinking was that this would be an opportunity to burnish BN’s Islamic credentials to rival PAS.

But following the spate of attacks against churches, Umno is now seen as being less moderate, while PAS is looking like a more progressive party.

PAS had already made some gains among moderate Malaysians in the 2008 general elections, but party leaders feel that by showing they are willing to risk their political base then more moderate Malaysians will be convinced to back them.

Sivamurugan feels there is an overemphasis on Umno.
“I do not know why the focus is on Umno, but after March 8, people tend to link all the wrongdoings to Umno,” said political analyst Sivamurugan Pandian.
He said that while Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has been doing the right things, “there is a lack of collective effort” within Umno to properly address the "Allah" issue.

Sivamurugan added that PAS was also seen to be handling the issue better because of the emergence of younger leaders.

“PAS was seen as extreme party back then, but the emergence of younger leaders has helped in garnering the support that Umno had previously,” he said, commenting on the different image portrayed by PAS compared to ten years ago.

While PAS continues to play the moderate role, Umno leaders are now being forced to defend themselves against accusation that their strident stand against the "Allah" ruling had helped fan the flames that led to the church attacks.

Selangor Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Dr Khir Toyo, who opposes the use of the word ‘Allah’ by non-Muslims, pointed out this week that his Umno party did not benefit from the attacks on the houses of worship.

“I do not want to point fingers at anyone, but it is very unusual for a party that used to be very extreme in its approach in Islam but has now become very liberal,” said Khir on his blog.

Dzulkefly finds the development interesting.
“The same party is now linking Umno to the church burning incidents,” he added.
Dr Khir also said that the groups behind last Friday’s protests against the "Allah" ruling, the Islamic youth movement, ABIM and the Muslim students group, PKPIM, had never been supporters of Umno.

“This is strange because these NGOs are known to be sympathetic to an Islamic party, not Umno,” he said.

But PAS’s Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad dismisses the notion that PAS and Umno have swapped political hues.

“I don’t like the term role-swapping. It is just that we have become more mature in understanding plural politics,” he told The Malaysian Insider.

“Not only has Umno been promoting racial politics for five decades, but they are now turning Islam into something parochial,” said Dzulkefly who is also the party strategist.

He said Umno should indeed be held responsible for the current situation as their party leaders had consented to the demonstration against the High Court ruling last Friday.

“They are doing a great disservice to Allah. They are doing a great disservice to Islam,” said Dzulkefly.

LUNAS, 13, Disember – Sekumpulan ahli MIC dan wakil-wakil daripada pertubuhan bukan kerajaan (NGO) telah mengadakan demonstrasi secara aman dan meminta Ahli Parlimen Gopala Krishnan agar menunjukkan lokasi tapak untuk sekolah Tamil baru Paya Besar.

Mereka telah berhimpun di hadapan pejabat Gopala Krishnan. Pehimpunan itu telah disertai oleh 50 orang dan diketuai oleh S. Ananthan, Pengerusi MIC negeri Kedah. Beliau mengatakan bahawa Gopala Krishnan seharusnya menunujukkan tapak tanah bagi sekolah tersebut kepada mereka dan bukannya mengeluarkan notis bagi mencabar Pengerusi MIC kebangsaan, Dato Seri Samy Velu.

Beliau juga ingin tahu sama ada Kerajaan Negeri Kedah sememangnya telah memberikan tanah secara percuma untuk sekolah ini. Semalam Gopala Krishnan telah berjanji akan menunjukkan lokasi tanah yang diperuntukkan untuk Sekolah Tamil Paya Besar. Menurut ahli Lembaga MIC Kedah S.Stalin, Gopala Krishnan telah mungkir janji dan tidak menghiraukan mereka. Dia harus mendapatkan tanah secara percuma buat sekolah ini. “Malah beliau juga harus menunujukkan lokasi tapak tanah buat sekolah ini,” kata L.Thiagarajan Ketua Pemuda MIC Kedah dan Ketua- ketua Pemuda Bahagian S.P Saravanan dan M.A. Ramasami.

“Kami tidak akan berdiam diri sehingga sekolah ini mendapat tanah!”, kata Ko.V.Thiagarajan dari Makkal Murasu. “Tiada sesiapa yang harus mencari keuntungan dari segi politik dalam hal ini.”

LUNAS, 4, Januari - Kekurangan meja dan kerusi di Sekolah Tamil Lunas (Wellesly) yang mempunyai 3 tingkat serta 16 bilik darjah yang telah siap dibina selepas ditangguhkan semenjak 2007 telah menyebabkan rasa tidak puas hati dalam kalangan segelintir ibu bapa. Mereka yang diketuai S.Nilamogan, ahli Parti Kongres India, telah mengadakan satu perhimpunan dengan membawa sepanduk.

Mereka kecewa kerana sempena hari pertama persekolahan bangunan baru sekolah tersebut tidak dibuka. Malah mereka juga menyuarakan masalah kekurangan meja dan kerusi di samping kelewatan pembinaan bangunan baru sekolah tersebut.

Nilamegam menyatakan bahawa Sekolah Tamil ialah masalah kaum India. Jadi masalah sekolah ini harus dilihat sebagai masalah kita semua. Setiap kali Sekolah Tamil menghadapi masalah sebegini Kerajaan tidak harus berat sebelah. Kebanyakan sekolah yang belum siap dibina telah mendapat bekalan meja dan kerusi yang secukupnya tetapi Sekolah Tamil Lunas (Wellesly) yang telah siap dibina pada 19/09/09 masih kekurangan bekalan meja dan kerusi.

“Pada 30/12/2009, Setiausaha Bahagian Pembangunan, Menteri Pelajaran telah berjanji untuk memberikan RM230,000 menerusi telefon dan ia mungkin akan didapati dalam dua minggu lagi”, kata Encik Paramasivam, Ketua PIBG sekolah tersebut.

Menurut Paramasivam dan juga ahli Lembaga PIBG S.Ramasivam, perjanjian pembinaan bangunan baru hanya memberi peruntukan untuk pembinaan bangunan baru sahaja. Menurut dia lagi PIBG telah menyediakan 150 meja dan kerusi dengan perbelanjaan PIBG sendiri sebanyak RM13 ribu. Turut dijelaskan bahawa bekalan meja dan kerusi untuk sekolah ini telah dipohon sejak tahun 2008 lagi.

DAP is prepared to make the first move to mend ties with brothers P Waythamoorthy and Uthayakumar, who lead the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf).

National labour bureau chief A Sivanesan said DAP is prepared to meet Waythamoorthy in Singapore, as the latter faces the threat of detention should he return to Malaysia from London where he is living in self-imposed exile.

Sivanesan is confident that the unity talks can succeed if the Hindraf duo can be persuaded to cooperate in this direction.

"I don't mind going the extra mile if we can reunite the Indian (Malaysian) community to form a formidable force," he said.

DAP's change of heart was triggered after its Kota Alam Shah assemblyperson M Manoharan (below) - who is on good terms with the individuals concerned - proposed mediating between three sets of leaders.

They comprise DAP leaders P Ramasamy, Sivanesan and M Kulasegaran; the Hindraf duo; and former Hindraf leaders V Ganabatirau (now with DAP) and K Vasanthakumar (PKR).

Waythamoorthy and Uthayakumar have crossed swords with Ramasamy and Sivanesan over a number of issues, including the demolition of Kampung Buah Pala in Penang, where the DAP leads the Pakatan Rakyat government.

In turn, both DAP leaders had challenged the brothers to declare the accounts for public donations collected in the name of Hindraf.

The movement, which came to prominence after a massive street rally in November 2007, was banned by the government in October 2008. Five of its leaders - including Ganabatirau and Vasanthakumar - were detained under the Internal Security Act, but were released last year.

On Dec 31 last year, Waythamoorth filed a RM100 million defamation suit in the Kuala Lumpur High Court against Ramasamy, Sivanesan, Ganabatirau, Vasanthakumar and six media organisations.

Just yesterday, Sivanesan had dared Waythamoorthy to return home to face cross-examination during the proceedings, rather than 'hide' in London.

Today, he said this is a separate issue.