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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Admin: Insurers are using this excuse to force motorists to convert their third party coverage to comprehensive coverage at an increased premium. Whatever happened to the compulsory Personal Accident policy that motorists were subjected to previously when renewing third party insurance coverage? Bank Negara definitely have to step in and solve the problem and reduce the burden on motorists that own older vehicles, come rain or shine! CIAO! |
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Cars' Insurance Rip-Off
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Kamunting: Detention Without Trial
Some have said it is where they experienced the darkest moments of their lives, others, that it encouraged contemplation. What is life like in the country’s most well-known prison?
BY JUNE H.L. WONG and SHAHANAAZ HABIB, The Star
FOR almost four decades, the place has struck fear in those facing the Internal Security Act: if you were sent to Kamunting, it could mean years of detention without trial.
Originally intended for imprisoning communist terrorists, in recent times, Kamunting Detention Centre has become a rather romanticised prison of conscience, thanks to the detention of political figures like Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Kit Siang, Karpal Singh, Dr Syed Husin Ali, Dr Jeffrey Kitingan, Dr Nasir Hashim, Tian Chua, Ezam Mohd Nor, Datuk Zahid Hamidi and, more recently, the Hindraf (Hindu Rights Action Force) leaders and uber blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin.
The stories told by released detainees have reinforced Kamunting’s reputation as a kind of Alcatraz, Devil’s Island or Guantanamo in our own backyard. Stung by the negative public perception, and at the request of senior editors during a meeting between the Home Ministry’s secretary-general, Datuk Seri Mahmood Adam, and the media, a visit was arranged late last month.
Grim view: The Kamunting Detention Centre’s 230ha are surrounded by double fences topped with barbed wire. – Photos by SHAHANAAZ HABIB / The StarLed by the ministry’s head of corporate communications, Jamilah Taib, a busload of print journalists make the almost four-hour trip from Putrajaya to Taiping, Perak.
There is a sense of guarded anticipation. We realise we are lucky because such a first-hand look is so rare. Yet, we are aware that it will be a carefully managed visit. Right from the start, we are warned that no cameras and mobile phones would be allowed.
We stop in front of Kamunting’s gates, which are flanked by 6m-high double fences topped with barbed wire. Beyond lies 230ha of prison land containing 299 inmates.
Of the lot, only 12, all men, are ISA detainees. (Six of them are Malaysian.) The rest of the prisoners are serving time for other crimes.
Eight of the ISA detainees, including Singapore terrorist Mas Selamat Kastari, are members of the radical militant Jemaah Islamiah (JI) group. The remaining four are being held for forging documents like passports.
The foreigners, who are from Thailand, Pakistan and Bangladesh, are being held under the Emergency (Public Order and Prevention of Crime, or POPOC) Ordinance, 1969.
Since 1973, when the prison was built, it has held 2,706 ISA detainees. The highest number – 1,642 communist terrorists – was recorded between 1973 and 1989.
We can enter this gate only after all the body and bag searches have been done.Guarded visits
On hand to greet us are several senior ministry and prison department officers, including Prison commissioner-general Datuk Zulfikli Omar, Prison (Management) commissioner Hassan Sakimon, Prison Affairs director Haji Abd Wahab Haji Kassim, Prison deputy commissioner (Security) Thang Ah Yong and Kamunting Detention Centre commandant Ramli Osman.
Once we step through the first gate into Kamunting and sign in, we have to leave our cameras, mobile phones and even our wallets in lockers. Then, as expected in high security areas like these, we have to go through a bag check and body search before we are allowed through the second gate.
Our first stop is the visitors’ area where detainees meet their families for their once-a-week visits. (For some reason, the place is painted pink; even the tiled stone benches are pink!)
Commandant Ramli explains that detainees are allowed to meet with family members (a maximum of five people per visit) for 45 minutes once a week, or a bit longer if there is a special reason. Most of the visits are on weekends. Friends are allowed (as one of the five) if a family member brings them in.
Those coming from, say, Sabah or Sarawak, or who are unable to make weekly visits, are allowed extra time with their detained family member.
There are two types of meetings. For new detainees, family visits take place in an area where they are separated by a glass partition, and communication is via an intercom. Those who have cleared two months of detention are allowed to meet without any barrier and can even touch each other.
As expected, guards are present throughout both types of visits, watching and listening. This means there is little privacy for the detainee (his incoming and outgoing mail, too, is read) but the authorities say this is necessary for security reasons.
Ramli says the camp authorities make sure that detainees know and get their rights.
“They can see their family members once a week, they are allowed to meet with their lawyer, they can appeal against their detention, they can file complaints, they can write and receive a letter once a week, they have the right to seek medical treatment, and they are allowed a phone call to their family weekly,” he says.
As we make our way into the separate ISA detention area, we are shown the clinic and introduced to the doctors who work full-time there. One of them, Dr Michael Wong, was formerly an army doctor who left private practice to take up the post in May last year.
Since photography is not allowed inside the prison, we persuaded former ISA detainee Tian Chua to share the sketches he made while he was at Kamunting: These are his possessions in the dorm.Surreal juxtaposition
As for the detention camp area, to get inside, we have to get past another two of those massive gates with more of that 6m-high perimeter fencing.
Interestingly, on one of the gates is a huge sign warning against sodomy, describing it as a condemned act that should be reported to the authorities immediately. A prison officer tells us this is a standard warning in Malaysian prisons and that we should not read more into it.
We are escorted down a path past a large building from which we can hear banging sounds and loud voices. That’s the kitchen, where the detainees’ meals are prepared, we’re told.
As we head towards a section where five or six separate dormitories are located, it feels a little surreal. In front of us is the pleasant sight of the forested Kinta hills and all around us, open, quiet space. If not for the barbed wire fencing, we could very well be visiting a wellness farm!
We are shepherded towards the last dorm, which is empty. The 12 detainees were nowhere to be seen – it’s evident that there is no chance of us bumping into them!
Inside the dorm, which can house 10 people, are the standard facilities that every ISA detainee is given: bed frame, mattress (very thin but clean), bed sheet, single pillow, pillow case, thick grey blanket, towel, soap (brown, non-perfumed), brandless tooth brush and tooth paste, and a set of clothes.
A small “luxury” is the attached bathrooms – certainly not the norm for prisons. There are four toilets with doors and a common shower area.
The floors are bare cement and the walls are painted a grayish white. There are three ceiling fans, a long table with benches, a wooden ledge to store things above each bed and a wall clock.
There are plenty of windows with wire mesh painted white, but they are very dusty. You can’t see outside or look in through them; the doors, which have a huge padlock, are left open throughout the day until 7pm, when detainees have to be inside.
Comfort-wise, one could do worse – but the place is definitely depressing.
While each dorm can accommodate up to 10, normally there are only six or seven people. It is not uncommon for some dorms to have only one detainee, especially if the person is a new arrival.
Terrorist Mas Selamat, for instance, shares the dorm only with his JI buddy Abdul Matin Anon Rahmat. And for security reasons, they are not allowed to mix with the other 10 ISA detainees.
The detainees follow a strict routine that begins with rising at 7am, followed by breakfast. Meals are brought to the dorm. They then attend classes according to their religious beliefs, complete assigned chores, have “play time” – badminton or football – and can move around until 7pm.
During our visit, however, the ISA detainees are confined to their dorms behind locked doors. They are very quiet, and the only visible sign that they are inside are their slippers left outside.
The last photo the media was allowed to take before the tour. The board showing the number of inmates and ISA detainees indicates that 10 of the detainees are separated from the remaining two, presumably, JI members Mas Selamat Kastari and Abdul Matin Anon Rahmat.It’s a prison, not a resort
During the press conference after the tour, Ramli says each detainee costs the Government RM35 each day to house, clothe and feed.
To prove that the prisoners are not fed just bread and water, he shows us weekly menus, which are rotated. Dishes include tom yam, chicken and fish cooked in soy sauce; fruits are served daily.
Ramli says detainees are given more than enough to eat, and this includes rice, fish, chicken, meat and vegetables. “A person can get fat from eating the food here,” he quips.
He also says detainees are allowed to buy extra items from the canteen, such as mee goreng, for up to RM10 a week, and dry food stuff like sugar and milk costing about RM60 a month.
On detainees who go on hunger strikes as a protest against their detention, Prison deputy commissioner Thang says, contrary to public perception, fasts generally lasted for short periods of time only, and the detainees only refused to eat what was served at meal times.
“They still bought food from the canteen to eat,” he says, adding that no Kamunting detainee has ever died from a hunger strike or was hospitalised for it.
Understandably, not all accounts of Kamunting are flattering, especially if they come from the detainees. But, as a prison officer retorts to a comment that the place is bleak and depressing, “This is a prison after all, not a resort!”
The freedom of the hills seems tantalisingly close beyond the barbed wire.Pain of isolation
Batu MP and PKR strategic director Tian Chua spent two years and two months at Kamunting (2001/2003).
For him, the 60-day interrogation period by the police prior to being sent there was the hardest part. But even so, he describes detention under the ISA as being worse than a prison sentence.
“When you are sentenced, you know for how long. Even if it’s 10 years, you can be psychologically prepared for it. But with the ISA, you don’t know for how long because the authorities can keep extending the detention indefinitely. That uncertainty is the most difficult part,” he explains when we speak to him over the phone after our tour.
While Chua (whose full name is Chua Tian Chang) agrees that the meals were decent and detainees could move in and out of the confines of their dorms, he says the isolation from society was tough to deal with.
He says during his two years in Kamunting, he was not allowed to meet other groups of detainees.
“They manage it like an isolation camp. I was placed with the Reformasi group but we were kept separate from detainees from groups with other political or ideological beliefs, like the (local militant group) KMM, the (Filipino) Moro Liberation Front, JI.”
While detainees got mainstream newspapers to read, Chua says they were full of holes, as sections and articles, particularly news on the Opposition, were cut out first.
Chua spent some time during his detention painting, which he says was a struggle to do.
“They were initially against it; they said I might swallow the paint.”
That reaction would have been a result of the prison authorities’ role and responsibilities, which they deem are very clearly spelt out: keep detainees safe and rehabilitate them.
“We do the best that we can,” says Ramli.
The media trip does not satisfy all our curiosity or answer all our questions – for one thing, we are not allowed to speak to any of the detainees and we are shown only a small part of the grounds – but it is a first tentative step towards shedding some light on a place that the public has been kept in the dark about for a very long time.
Time served
WHEN an ISA detainee is first taken to the Kamunting Detention Centre, he can appeal within 14 days, after which an Advisory Board will meet within three months to hear his appeal. During this meeting, the detainee’s lawyer can also be present.
Kamunting commandant Ramli Osman explains that the panel will subsequently review cases every six months.
Most detainees go into Kamunting under Section 8(1) of the Internal Security Act, whereby the Home Minister issues the order for the person be detained for up to two years to prevent him (or her) from acting in a manner “prejudicial to the security of the country, the maintenance of essential services or of economic life”.
After two years, the minister is allowed under Section 8(7) to extend the detention period further.
Of the 12 detainees currently in Kamunting, six (including Singaporean Jemaah Islamiah, or JI, terrorist Mas Selamat Kastari) have been there for less than two years, three (JI suspects) have been held between two and four years, and another three (also JI suspects) have been detained for over six years.
The longest an ISA detainee has been held in Kamunting was during the communist years: a suspected communist terrorist was detained for 16 years before being released!CSL's 2 Faces & 1 Evil Agenda
By I Love Malaysia
Crouching Cat, Hidden Rat
Ong Tee Keat as President, MCA will Die
Ong Tee Keet was elected as president on 18 October, 2008 but he has done nothing and party is going down the drain fast. The PFKZ issue is just a show to make him look like hero in the eyes of Chinese community to cover up him and his cronies from stealing party assets and cash.
But chua soi lek also not a good alternative because of his sex scandal and will tarnish the image of the party further as a president.
So, MCA delagates – the future of MCA is in your hands. Here is a 10- part series to give you information to save the party from Ong Tee Keat and Chua Soi Lek.
1. Party HQ – revonavation costing party a lot of money. Why?
Did you know that during Tun Ling and Ong Ka Ting’s time, he would not enter the building by the front door because he is afraid of being “pantang by their feng shui”. So he gets his driver to go down to basement and he would come up through the car park lifts. He did this for years so now that he is president he wants to change the feng sui of the party and HQ. Please look at his hand and the number of colourful crystal beads he wears.
He consults many sifus. One sifu told him the council chamber on the 9th was no good so he did the renovation and it cost the party RM800,000. Then another sifu tld him that the renovated council chamber was also not good. So he renovated the 6th floor to become a second council chamber which cost the party another RM550,000.
He also changed the front door, the lobby and other floors were also renovated. He dismantled the internal set of stairs connecting 7th, 8th and 9th floor as well.
The entire renovation work done cost RM2 million.
He also wanted to change the way HQ is being managed by replacing our loyal staff with outside people who do not know anything about the party. They are also not members of the party even. These outside people tell our staff what to write and what not to write. How can?
2. Do you know what is happening inside CC and PC meetings
OTK is first concern is about feng shui. His second concern is his life as minister of transport. He flies here and there using government money and so, he has no time to hold PC and CC meetings.
Remember, he was elected party president on Oct 18, 2008 but the first PC and CC meetings only took place more than a month later. This is because he was badly criticized that he finally held his first PC meeting on Jan 2, 2009 and the first CC meeting on the Nov 11 2008. Now, only after one year, he only hold 6 PC and 5 CC meetings.
Last time, Ong Ka Ting’s years, PC meetings were every Tuesday and sure everybody must come so that can talk about issues to prepare for cabinet meeting on weds. In case party decision is needed. And CC meetings held regularly every month and only once in a while that meetings is ever changed. But for OTK, meetings change all the time until we all “kalang kabut” go here and there because he also like to change place last minute.
3. What happens in Cabinet?
The only leader with some Cabinet experience is Chua Soi Lek but he is very “actsy” and “LCLY” in his body language and he thinks everybody is stupid so OTK don’t like it. So to avoid discussing national matters in front of CSL, he form a Pre-cabinet council. Only Ministers and deputy ministers can come for this meeting. Even the Secretary-general and Treasurer-general are cannot attend the meetings. Is this right? This is not the decision of the PC or the CC but the decision of only a few people. How can this happen?
What is the use? He doesn’t talk inside the Cabinet anyway!! He prefer to fight with Ng Yen Yen like last time when he was youth chief and she was wanita chief.
OTK also don’t read cabinet papers. Only after things are passed in cabinet then only he brings up for CC and PC to discuss. What is the use? Too late!! Also many times he is not in the country travelling here and there with government money so no time to attend cabinet. Now we also know from Kuala Dimensi that he also take private jets and don’t pay petrol.
4. Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon
We also have crouching tiger and hidden dragon. Do you you know where? His name is Clement Hii in the Star. This fellow Clement Hii is from Sarawak and not a member of MCA.
He is now the owner of SEGI college. OTK ask Clement Hii to sack Steven Tan as MD for 20 years, and put Clement Hii as Deputy Chairman. Do you know under Steven Tan, the Star made Rm600million cash? And clement hii and OTK working on how to take out all this money. They want to develop section 13 land now rented out to UTAR for small rental. Clement Hii also used stat cash to inject into loss making companies or his cronies. This bastard clement hii also sacked many good people and management who have work very hard for the company for many years. He even replaced the CEO of 988 with a lady whom she herself was sacked formt he same station many years ago for indiscipline. Now, 988 is receiving many complaints that 988 is becoming a station for OTK.
Clement Hii pay himself RM6.5 million a year and he shares this money with OTK.
The star also owns a house in Bukit Tunku and OTK and Clement Hii has many meetings in this house to plot the future of MCA. Since Star is a PLC, should politicians use the premise for political reasons?
You know how powereful Clement Hii is? Even the treasuere general of the party has to make an appointment to see him and to ask for a board seat for Loke Yuen Yow, our CC member and deputy Sec gen. but Clement Hii rejected him.
Now the star is a laughing stock of the public. So many people say they don’t want to buy the paper anymore because it is the mouthpiece of Ong Tee Keat. It is rumoured that the staff have been told to black out news of other leaders like Ng Yen Yen, Liow Tiong Lai, Wee Ka Siong and Chua Soi Lek.
So Clement Hii is the crouching tiger and OTk is the Hidden dragon and both whacking our party’s money. See Part 6 for details of where the RM10 m went?
During Ong Ka Ting there was a proposal for a Central Board of Trustees (CBOT). If we had this, at least all these can be avoided. With CBOT we could prevent this kind of abuses. So how now, central committee members ?Please wake up and see you mistake! And please do something before its too late.
5. Lim Kit Siang set a trap in PKFZ for OTK
You know how? OTK stupidly took up Lim Kit Siang’s dare and fell deeply, deeply into a tunnel which he himself can no longer get himself out of. PKFZ has been explained already in Parliament four times about the increase in RM4.6 billion. Now he say that he must clean the party of the past because the downfall of Selangor was due to PKFZ. But he thinks we are stupid and forgetful. Actually, the fall of Selangor was because of Khir Toyo’s corruption and his famous brooms. And also Zakaria’s mansion in Klang. PKFZ was not the main election issue like he said now. Now that he has wallop the RM10m he wants to put the blame on everybody like UMNO, Najib, tiong, CSL and also former deputy president to divert attention from his RM10m.
Spin Spin Spin _ that all he knows how to do.
6. So, where is the RM10 million now?
Why does Tan Sri and OTK like to visit Japan so much? Tan Sri Tee has helped to transfer the RM10m to Japan through a Japanese sogashosa closely associated with tan Sri Tee.
It is said that in one bank account alone, between OTK and his wife, they have safe deposits worth a million. It is said that they both receive between RM60-70K a month into their accounts from somewhere unknown.
7. OTK also has deep dark secrets
He likes to sell out friends. TS Lim, a close friend, supporter and advisor for 20 years as well as the former GM of PKA was sacked because OTK has found a new dog to play with – Clement Hii. One person called Tan Sri Ta who supported him when he had nothing – gave him a car and driver so that he could go around campaigning with dignity during his days under Tun Ling. Now Clement Hii told OTK to distance himself from Tan Sri Ta because Tan Sri Ta is a “pai kia” (bad hat).
Despite all the denials and painful pleadings for us to believe him _ yes, he did send his mother off to a home. Nothing wrong if she was well looked after but to deny it?? Why unless it was found that she was badly treated also by her own son?
8. Some more about Clement Hii’s background
Clement Hii’s background as the co-owner of SEGI University College . Back in his hometown in Sibu, Sarawak this boy claims that he was the editor in chief of Borneo Times at the age of 21. Actually, he was just a reporter but made side incomes (huge) by trafficking prostitutes from Philippines to Sarawak. His record still exists in Bukit Aman. He then ran away to the UK and got himself cleaned up by acquiring some sort of degree. Today, he makes money of educating NURSES (of all professions) instead.
He is truly the trouble behind the party’s woes now. He has purposely surrounded and engulfed the President with his own people. The president’s office is surrounded by Clement Hii’s own boys; OTK’s political secretary, Simon Lim ( a lawyer who represents Clement’s companies) and his special officer, Bruce Lim (former lecturer from Segi college). They control the diary as well as the -ins and the -outs of the party president. They record who he sees and where.
The more the party is messed up, the happier Clement is. He has plenty of time to dig the party’s coffers. RM600m cash in The Star– who doesn’t want that?? Members! Please wake up! This is YOUR money being taken away from you by a NON-MEMBER.
9. Chua Soi Lek’s real agenda; so-called resolution of the EGM
Is Chua Soi Lek the savior of MCA? He has been going around on the ground to seek support to push for his EGM – something he has been threatening to do since he never got the minister post. Now he tells the PM and the public that he will not seek ministerial positions but argues that he is the sole viable candidate to depose and take over Ong Tee Keat.
His agenda is simple; take control of the party and all the assets. Same selfish agenda like the present President.
His first resolution is about removing Ong Tee Keat ( ok, we can support that). The rest of the resolution is about removing all party records of his scandal!! What a joke – you think this is China? Removing records by burning bamboo sticks and edicts carved on stones???
Chua Soi Lek is the last man on earth to take over as our President.
10. MCA under MACC investigation
This week, the party HQ is being investigated by MACC. They demanded to know the list of donors as the party president was under intense media scrutiny that he had taken RM10m from the owner of Kuala Dimensi. This is a shameful event for MCA. Who would donate now to MCA? This would impact the states, divisions and branches. Such are the consequences of the president’s exposure of the PKFZ issue just so that he can become a hero for himself. He is clearly destroying the party for his own selfish gain.
Someone should send MACC to investigate Clement Hii and SEGI instead. Your party is being taken over by the BACKdoor! SEGI is an education institution – should it be so involved in politics? Someone should also alert the Securities Commission on this.
What Next?
1. Ong Tee Keat will continually be blaming the party’s past leadership for the a) downfall of Selangor because of PKFZ and therefore he has to cleanse the party of the past; that b) he is the victim of some conspiracy by Chua Soi Lek and UMNO.
2. Ong Tee Keat will continue to harp on suing Kuala Dimensi for accusing him of taking the RM10million. He is now spreading the rumour that the past deputy president has taken the money instead and not him.
3. The Disciplinary Board has already decided on the verdict of Chua’s case even before it even began. So yesterday kena sack already.
4. Chua Soi Lek will retaliate by organizing demonstrations of support and he will push for his own agenda via the EGM, which is devoid of any interest of the party or the BN.
5. Clement Hii will cunningly carry out mergers and acquisitions to suck up the party’s assets while the leaders are busy and distracted by the internal fights.
6. Finally; the party will be split and bankrupt.
What the Delegates must do?
1. Demand for the accounts of the party be tabled at this AGM; provided under the party constitution.
2. Demand that Ong Tee Keat swear (“cham pak kai”) at the Thien Hou temple that he never took the RM10 million.
3. Demand for the resignation of both the president and deputy president because both have tainted the image of the party and its members. Ask for fresh elections of all the central committee meetings. Those who stand the integrity and scrutiny of the members should not fear for they will stand to be re-elected.
4. Those with appointed positions should resign. You are serving the party against your own conscience. You are helping a self-serving president who is out to plunder the party’s assets and destroy the organization.
5. Dato’ Leong Tang Chong – please look after our RM600 million cash in The Star. The onus is solely on you as the chairman of The Star.
6. Tan Sri Tee Hock Seng and Dato Wong Foon Meng – please resign as treasurer general and secretary general respectively, with immediate effect if you have the conscience.
7. Look for fresh team of leaders!!
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Cow's Head Or Cow-Heads?
The group making their way to the Selangor secretariat building after their prayers - Pic by Choo Choy May (The Malaysian Insider)
A symbol of objection?.....The cow's head being paraded by the protesters in their march - Pic by Choo Choy May (The Malaysian Insider)
National unity this is not.....protesters opposed to the relocation of a Hindu temple to Section 23 Shah Alam exhibit the extent of their displeasure by stepping on a dead cow's head in front of the Selangor government building after Friday prayers - Pic by Choo Choy May (The Malaysian Insider)
Ibrahim Haji Sabri, deputy chairman of the Section 23 residents' committee speaking at the protest - Pic by Choo Choy May (The Malaysian Insider)
Poor cow.....a clear case of incitement and provocation and the poor cow becomes the scapegoat! - Pic from Susan Loone's blogFor full details, read here:
Monday, August 17, 2009
Labelled For Life
Baca label dulu?
Oleh Shanon Shah
shanonshah@thenutgraph.com
BILA saya berumur tujuh tahun, ibu kepada rakan sekelas saya amat terhibur mendengar saya berceloteh dalam bahasa Hokkien dengan anaknya. "Kamu ini orang (bangsa) apa?" dia bertanya dalam bahasa Hokkien. "Saya ini orang putih (Inggeris)," saya menjawab. Dia tertawa terbahak-bahak.
Tapi saya serius! Benar, saya boleh berbahasa Malaysia dan Hokkien, tetapi saya bertutur dengan ibu bapa dan adik-beradik saya dalam bahasa Inggeris. Tambahan pula, saya ini kacukan — banyaklah campur-aduk ini dan itu. Jadi, mengikut logik seorang kanak-kanak Darjah Satu, tidaklah tepat saya menjawab yang saya ini "Melayu" atau "Cina" atau "India" atau "Pakistan". Keluarga saya bertutur bahasa Inggeris, jadi bukankah kami berbangsa Inggeris?
Oleh kerana saya bertanya dengan penuh minat dan hormat, para kenalan saya ini jarang tersinggung. Yang "Melayu" kadang-kadang akan mengaku, "Belah bapa keturunan Jawa, belah emak keturunan Minang." Yang "India" kadang-kadang menjelaskan, "Bapa saya orang Tamil beragama Kristian arus Protestan, ibu saya orang Malayalee beragama Katolik." Yang "lain-lain" pula sangatlah menarik: "Belah bapa Serani Portugis, belah emak Cina."
Jadi saya amatlah tertarik dengan saranan Timbalan Menteri Perdagangan Antarabangsa dan Industri, Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir, agar ruangan "bangsa/keturunan" digugurkan dalam borang rasmi. Kecuali untuk perkara yang berkaitan dengan hak istimewa bumiputera. Pengecualian Mukhriz ini sudah dikupas dengan teliti. Tapi saya ingin pula menumpukan perhatian kepada cadangannya secara keseluruhan.
Mukhriz membuat saranan ini pada 9 Ogos 2009. Pada 12 Ogos pula, Zainuri Misfar telah bertanya, Benarkah filem Yasmin karya tanah air paling hebat?, dalam ruangan Fragmennya dalam akhbar Berita Harian. Saya rasa soalan Zainuri memang wajar ditanya, tetapi saya agak terkejut dengan hujahnya menyoal "kualiti" karya arwah Yasmin Ahmad.
Zainuri menulis, "Misalnya, babak gadis Melayu berbaju kurung berdiri di hadapan daging babi salai di sebuah restoran Cina dalam filem Sepet, boleh menimbulkan tanda tanya kepada penonton kanak-kanak." Orang Melayu berdiri depan restoran Cina pun boleh menimbulkan tanda tanya? Tanda tanya tentang apa? Barangkali tentang hakikat bahawa kita di Malaysia terdiri daripada pelbagai kaum dan agama? Bukankah itu saranan Mukhriz?
Label dan stereotaip kaum seolah-olah mencadangkan bahawa di Malaysia, semua orang Melayu sepatutnya 100% Melayu, semua orang Cina sepatutnya 100% Cina, dan semua orang India sepatutnya 100% India, dan seterusnya. Di Semenanjung Malaysia terutamanya, kita mempunyai gambaran stereotaip tambahan tentang "bangsa-bangsa" ini — semua orang India mesti bertutur bahasa Tamil dan beragama Hindu; orang Melayu yang bertutur dalam bahasa Inggeris semuanya "celup"; orang Cina mesti sembah tokong dan makan menggunakan kayu penyepit; dan sebagainya.
Logik yang mengelirukan
Jeff Ooi (© Joi Ito / Flickr)
Label seperti ini tidak hanya berdasarkan bangsa, tetapi agama dan jantina kita juga. Yang menimbulkan tanda tanya untuk saya ialah apabila label seperti ini dipolitikkan habis-habis. Ambillah contoh wakil rakyat DAP dari Jelutong, Jeff Ooi, yang baru-baru ini mendakwa bahawa Jemaah Islah Malaysia (JIM) merupakan puak Islam pelampau ("religious extremist"). Saya rasa ini memang satu kenyataan yang tidak tepat, malah berniat buruk, tentang JIM.
Yang lebih membingungkan, Ketua Polis Negara Tan Sri Musa Hassan sekarang mahu menyoal Ooi atas dakwaan dia "menghina Islam". Menghina Islam! Mungkin Ooi telah menghina JIM, tetapi adakah menghina JIM itu sama ertinya dengan menghina Islam? Betulkah kalau kita menghina sebuah badan bukan kerajaan (NGO) Islam ia bererti kita sudah menghina agama Islam itu sendiri?
Jika begitu, saya hairan pula Musa tidak menyiasat ahli PAS dan Umno yang menghina Sisters in Islam. Kenapa itu pula tidak dianggap sebagai "menghina Islam"? JIM dan Sisters in Islam merupakan dua NGO berteraskan Islam yang dihormati dan bermaruah. Mungkin pendirian mereka berbeza atas beberapa isu, tetapi dua organisasi ini saling menghormati. Malah, kedua-duanya banyak bekerjasama dalam Gerakan Mansuhkan Akta Keselamatan Dalam Negeri (GMI). Pelik bin ajaib.
Kepentingan label
Label kadang-kadang penting untuk kita menggariskan pilihan hidup tertentu dan kepercayaan kita. Tetapi apabila dipolitikkan, label boleh digunakan untuk memeras, malah melanggar hak rakyat. Contohnya, di Amerika Syarikat dan United Kingdom, label "pengganas" digunakan untuk menyekat hak asasi puak Islam tertentu dan pengkritik kerajaan. Di Malaysia pula, label "Islam liberal" digunakan untuk tujuan yang sama. Banyak label lain yang digunakan untuk menghina atau mematahkan golongan tertentu — "lelaki lembut", "pendatang", "sekular", "pendatang asing tanpa izin", "pengganas", "feminis", "Melayu", "Cina", "Islam", "Zionis", "Taliban", "kafir", dan sebagainya.
Maya Karin (© psyfull / flickr)
Secara peribadi, saya sudah lama selesa dengan label "Melayu", "Islam", "lelaki", "demokrat" dan "feminis". Malangnya, label-label ini tidak cukup untuk mewakili identiti saya yang sepenuhnya. Otak nakal saya tiba-tiba memancarkan idea yang menarik.
Apa kata orang seperti saya semuanya mula mempopularkan istilah "kacukan"? Renungkanlah.Maya Karin merupakan anak kacukan. Jaguh skuasy negara, Mohd Azlan Iskandar, merupakan anak kacukan. Bintang filem tersohor, Hans Isaac, anak kacukan. Keanu Reeves, Halle Berry, Mariah Carey, dan bintang siri Prison Break, Wentworth Miller, semuanya anak kacukan. Presiden Amerika Syarikat, Barack Hussein Obama pun anak kacukan! Kita boleh tubuhkan Parti Ketuanan Kacukan Antarabangsa, dan kita boleh merampas kuasa di seluruh dunia! Muahahaha!
Atau mungkin kita boleh guna saja istilah "anak Malaysia" atau "warga global". Suka hatilah. Saya lebih suka cadangan saya untuk mengambil alih puncak kuasa di dunia.
