People of all races joined Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin at the Malaysia Christmas open house at SMK Tinggi Kajang, Monday.
Showing posts with label christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label christmas. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Thousands join DPM at X'mas open house
People of all races joined Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin at the Malaysia Christmas open house at SMK Tinggi Kajang, Monday.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Amazing Grace KLpac Orchestra
The “Candlelight Christmas” concert by the klpac Orchestra and Choir presented the “Amazing Grace,” a familiar hymn to almost everyone.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Umno man says ‘Allah’ judgment will stir racial tension -
Herald's editor, Father Lawrence makes his way into the High Court today
A jubilant Father Lawrence holds up an Arabic version of the Holy Bible, said to contain the word Allah
One of Umno’s known hawks, Pasir Salak MP Datuk Tajuddin Abdul Rahman, lambasted the High Court judgment on the ‘Allah’ case today, saying that it would not solve anything but only ignite racial and religious tension.
The High Court today lifted the home minister’s ban against the Catholic church from publishing the word “Allah” to refer to the Christian God in its weekly paper, Herald.
The landmark decision may be of joy for some 850,000 Catholics in the country but for Tajuddin, the suit itself, filed by Herald’s lawyers, is an act of provocation.
“What is their motive (for the suit) ? Why all of a sudden they want to use the word Allah when all this while they have been using the term God?
“This is definitely provocation, they are just using all this human rights, religious rights as excuses. This is sensitive to the Muslims and this will create racial and religious tension,” he told The Malaysian Insider.
The controversy over the word “Allah” has stirred huge debate among Christians and Muslims alike in Malaysia and attracted international attention as well.
The Home Minister, who controls giving the annual mandatory publishing permits in the country, had banned the church from using the word “Allah” outside the Muslim context.
But some have questioned if there can be a copyright over the word “Allah”, which Muslim representatives here say is a special word reserved to refer to the Muslim God, meaning “the one and only Almighty”.
The act of questioning the exclusivity of the word “Allah” for Muslims said Tajuddin is a clear indicator that “certain quarters” have become “bolder”.
“They have dared to do these things because the Muslims have been soft..but if you put some one in a corner, they will bounce back,” lamented the Pasir Salak MP.
“What the High Court thinks is right, may not necessarily be right outside (the court),” he added.
Meanwhile PAS vice-president Datuk Mahfuz Omar said Muslims must respect the decision of the High Court and remain calm.
“We must not be hasty and jump to conclusions. We should let the religious authorities to decide on its next course of action,” he said.
Asked if he agreed with the decision, Mahfuz ignored the question and reiterated that the country’s Muslims must respect the High Court decision and allow the religious authority to decide on its next course of action.
Though it is unclear if the Home Minister will seek to reverse the decision through the Appellate Court but he is likely to do so given the sensitivity of the issue.
Caution celebration over Allah Judgement.
However, despite the optimism, people are still wary as some fear that this may not be the end of it all, as the Home Ministry may still bring the matter to the Court of Appeal.
“We welcome the decision of the High Court because it affirms the constitutional rights guaranteed to religious communities under Article 11 of the Federal Constitution,” said Reverend Herman Shastri, who is the general-secretary for the Council of Churches.
Shastri, in a phone interview with The Malaysian Insider, affirmed that for many centuries Muslims and Christians had been living together in peace in Malaysia, and that the use of the word “Allah” has never been an issue of contention. With the decision, he hopes that Christians in the country may continue with their religious practices because the term itself is embedded in their daily worship as well as bible classes in the country.
“We hope that now that the matter has been solved, Muslims and Christians throughout the country can now focus on bringing peace and goodwill with one another, and contribute to the well-being of our nation.”
Non-governmental organisatios (NGOs) such as Penang-based Aliran who have long fought for liberal ideas of justice and equality lauded the court’s decision, but at the same time chose to inculcate a sense of ‘wary optimism’ as it looks at the decision made today.
“Aliran says InsyaAllah. The High Court has restored sanity to the issue by lifting the ban on the use of the word “Allah” among Christians, which to begin with was an insane ruling in the first place.
“Imagine, if in the past various communities had claimed exclusiveness to their words and prohibited the use of their words, we would be in a ridiculous situation,” said P Ramakrishnan, president of Aliran.
Ramakrisnan, in spite of the happy news, exercised caution in the ruling as he hoped that the matter would not be dragged on any further and be put to rest.
“Aliran hopes that this matter will be left to rest in pieces. It should not be a case of winning round 1 and losing round 2,” quipped the Aliran man alluding to the possibility that the decision of the court may not auger well with the Home Ministry.
Meanwhile, DAP Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua remained somewhat sceptical of the matter, although he initially expressed joy upon receiving the news.
“I am happy but two things need to be asked. I hope that the Home Ministry will not appeal the decision and not alter the freedom of religion to be practiced, and that the High Court judge who made the decision, I hope he would not be transferred to another court.”
Pua attested that the decision made showed a “strong community within the judges of the high court in exerting their influences.”
That being said, the PJ Utara MP feared that should the case be brought to the Court of Appeal, the Home Ministry would have a strong chance of winning as the “Appeal Court at many times functioned to serve the government of the day.”
The government had said that the ban was necessary to avoid confusing the majority Muslims in the country. Islam is the official religion in Malaysia.
But the church claimed the ban violates its constitutional rights to practice its religion freely.
According to Father Lawrence Andrew who edits Herald, the term “Allah” has been used by Christians in the region to refer to their God since four hundred years ago. He added that it is still actively used today.
Lawrence explained that “Allah” in the Christian context is used to refer to the trinitarian concept of “God the Father” which is different from the Muslim use of the verse to refer to the “one and only God”.
Herald’s editor claims the use of the word has not died out and is still being used in church worship among indigenous East Malaysians, who form a substantial number of the Christian faithful in the country.
The church first took the government to court last year after the home ministry threatened to revoke its annual publishing permit for Herald, Malaysia’s only Catholic paper.
It was forced to refresh its suit again this year after its 2008 permit expired without any decision from the court.
Banning Christians from using the word "Allah" unconsitution,court told.
The Catholic Church finally had its day in open court to defend its right to the use of the word “Allah”, arguing today banning its usage to refer to the Christian God was unconstitutional.
Months of legal arguments in the judges chambers and frequent disruptions by major Muslim groups had held back today’s proceedings from happening sooner.
Counsel for the Catholic Church, which publishes a weekly paper called Herald, argued that the Home Minister had gone against the Federal Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, when he introduced new conditions banning the use of the word “Allah” to mean any God other than the Muslim God.
Under section 12 of the Printing Presses and Publications Act, the Home Minister, who has full discretion in issuing a publishing licence and may place certain conditions to prevent abuse, had overstepped his power.
The team of five lawyers, led by Porres Royan, highlighted that the Federal Constitution protects the fundamental rights of religious minorities in Malaysia to carry out their worship freely.
In Article 3(1) of the Federal Constititution, Islam is acknowledged to be the official religion of the country, but at the same time, other religions can be practised in peace and harmony, said Porres.
The senior lawyer added that other parts of the Federal Constitution support the law equally, namely Article 11(3)(a) which states that every religion has the right to manage its own affairs, Article 10(1)(a) which guarantees freedom of speech and Article 8(1) which notes that every citizen is equal in the eyes of the law and entitled to equal protection under law.
Porres also noted that Christianity pre-dates Islam and made references to several early English-Malay versions of the Bible, including one by renowned Malay scholar Munsyi Abdullah who in 1852 filled in the word for God in the Christian sense as “Allah”.
Porres said several states had passed a law to “control or restrict the propagation of any religious doctrine among persons professing the religion of Islam” but had been misread to “criminalise” the use of the word “Allah” by non-Muslims.
“Even if section 9 is valid, the use of the word 'Allah' by one non-Muslim or by a person professing a non-Islamic religion to another cannot by any stretch of the imagination amount to the propagation of a religious belief or doctrine among persons professing the religion of Islam,” he said.
“In the case of the Herald, Herald is a propagation of the Catholic Church meant for Christians and is not meant for persons professing the religion of Islam. In fact, the second condition imposed by the minister, that is endorsing the word 'Terhad' and that only distribution is in churches.
“It must mean there is no propagation among persons professing Islam,” the lawyer stressed.
The Home Minister's decision seems to turn guidelines for getting a publishing permit into a rule by which it may shut down and shut out bodies which publish dissenting views.
Influential Muslim groups, such as the state Islamic councils for the Federal Territory, Selangor and Penang among four others and the Chinese-Muslim association, which had been kicked out of the fight between the Herald and the Home Minister by the High Court previously, returned today in another bid to stop the suit.
They put in a fresh application to be made parties jointly with the lawyers for the home minister before High Court judge Datuk Lau Bee Lan in her chambers this morning, which delayed the hearing from taking place in open court for almost two hours.According to the church's counsel, the judge said she would reserve judgment on the Muslim groups for later.
Hearing will resume with submissions from senior federal counsel for the Home Minister after the lunch break.
Senior federal counsel from the Attorney General's Chambers, Datuk Kamaludin Md Said, argued that the church has no right to sue the home minister after it had applied for and received a publishing permit when it knew fully there were conditions attached.
“Condition is part and parcel of the permit, which is in Form B. Permit without condition is not a permit,” Kamaludin said.
He added that the home minister also has the right to add on or change the conditions at any time and permit-holders are forced to accept those new terms and conditions wholesale.
Pointing to Section 13(a)(1) of the Printing Presses and Publications Act, he told the court it was an “ouster clause” which protects the home minister's decisions from being challenged in court.
“You cannot challenge the condition. You can only challenge if the minister refuse to grant permit,” the government lawyer said.
“If minister refuses to grant permit upon application or subsequently revokes or suspends permit, then there is issue, meaning it can be challenged,” Kamaludin said.
He also claimed that the Printing Presses and Publications Act was among several laws provided for by the Federal Constititution to control the amount of “freedom” stipulated under Article 10, when countering the church's argument that the minister had acted unconstitutionally.
On the same score, the court must reject the church's claim that the state propagation enactments were “unconstitutional”.
“You cannot come to court and happily say Section 9 of state enactments is unfortunate. There must be some reasons for why such laws were enacted,” Kamaludin said.
The anti-propagation law was meant to “avoid creating confusion and misunderstanding” among the majority Muslim Malaysians who have grown up knowing the term “Allah” to be exclusive to their community.
He noted that Muslims all over the world – regardless of their language background – used the term “Allah” as a “special name” to refer to “the one and only God” and described the church's argument as “perverse” because in Islam, unlike Christianity, there is no alternative name.
“The applicant's submission that 'Allah' is 'God' and 'Tuhan' is 'Lord' is perverse,” the senior federal counsel said.
Kamaludin dismissed the church's stress on the historical significance of Christians in the country and region using the word “Allah” long before Muslims did as “not relevant” and added that there was no proof today the word was still being used in its original context among Malaysian Christians.
But he may have gone too far when he tried to counter the widespread use of Arab Christians who also use the word “Allah” to refer to their God.
Kamaludin claimed that Arab Christians believed that God was one, unlike Malaysian Christians who subscribe to the “trinity” concept of “God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost”.
Lawyers for the church appeared so stunned speechless by Kamaludin's claim, they could only shake their heads in disbelief.
Hearing will resume tomorrow morning with further submissions from Kamaludin's colleague, Mahamad Naser Disa.
------------
Monday, December 28, 2009
X’mas gone wrong: Rowdy revellers in remand-CPO warns against repeat of Christmas Eve mayhem
Rowdy revellers attacked 2 Rela officers and newsman in attempt to releash they friend being caught.
Penang CPO Datuk Wira Ayub Yaakob showing
photographs of trouble-makers at the recent Christmas
Eve public celebrations at Gurney Drive in Penang.
Rowdy Revellers turn ugly attacked Rela officers and newsman.
The usually rowdy Christmas eve celebration in Penang turned uglier than ever this year with two Rela members being punched, kicked and attacked with helmets by revellers.
A Bernama TV cameraman was also punched on the lips and pressmen were shoved by unruly revellers who sprayed aerosol foam on motorists and banged passing vehicles at Gurney Drive.
Light Strike Force members then had to intervene in one of the ugliest "celebrations" in the state in recent years.
A group of about 10 men bashed up the Rela members who had earlier hauled up one of their friends for giving passing vehicles a good shake.
They threw punches and kicked the Rela members in their apparent bid to free their friend, in his 20s, from being detained in the 12.30am incident on Friday.
The attacks took place while the Rela members and a plainclothes policeman were on their way to hand over the suspect to a nearby police base.
The attack which lasted several minutes only ended when the Light Strike Force unit, policemen and other Rela members moved in.
George Town acting OCPD Supt Gan Kong Meng said a 17-year-old factory worker was detained after the incident.
He said five police roadblocks were conducted that day to keep the situation in check.
Passers-by were stunned by the brazen attack on Rela members.
Even pressmen on duty were not spared as some were shoved by the revellers. They were later escorted away from the scene by police for safety reasons.
Bernama TV cameraman Gary Yeap, 20, lodged a police report at the Patani Road police station, claiming that he was punched on the lip.
Yeap said the man also threatened to harm him if the footage of the scene was shown on television.
At the stroke of midnight, thousands lined the popular sea front promenade, with many behaving wildly.
Traffic came almost to a standstill as the road was choked with revellers.
Youths holding snow spray cans sprayed foam onto the windscreens and side windows of passing motorists.
Some even lifted the windscreen wipers to prevent drivers from sweeping away the foam.
Supt Gan said more policemen would be deployed in hot spots and would be beefed up during New Year's eve.
Two pupils were charged in a magistrate’s court here with obstructing traffic policemen from discharging their duties following the Christmas eve celebration at Gurney Drive.
The due, aged 15 and 17, were arrested in the early hours of Christmas Day and brought before magistrate Noor Aini Yusof in her chambers Tuesday.
Noor Aini and the prosecution denied the press access to details of the case, including the wordings of the charge, the plea, and what transpired, because the boys were juveniles.The duo, aged 15 and 17, were held at 1am on Christmas Day for allegedly throwing spraycans at the traffic policemen who were deployed for traffic and crowd control. The remand order expires on Sunday.
Police believe the two were part of a group of 20 youngsters who had stopped cars and motorcyclists at Gurney Drive to spray foam on them.
The youths also allegedly jumped onto the cars and shook them before letting them drive on. Some motorists who refused to stop had salt, empty bottles and cans hurled at their vehicles.
Deputy state CID chief Supt Nashir Ya later confirmed the boys pleaded guilty under Section 186 of the Penal Code.
“They were released on bail and would be sentenced on Feb 9,” he said.
Those found guilty under this section is liable to face a three-month jail sentence or fine or both.
CPO warns of stern action for new year eve celebration not to break law.
Don’t spend New Year’s Day in my lockup – that was the warning issued by Selangor police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar to revellers.
He said police would not hesitate to take action against those who go overboard when celebrating on New Year’s Eve.
He said more police officers would be deployed to make sure there would be no repeat of the Christmas Eve mayhem.
While celebrating on Christmas Eve, thousands of rowdy revellers in Gurney Drive in George Town and Jalan Bukit Bintang in Kuala Lumpur had indiscriminately sprayed foam at passing vehicles.
Some even kicked or stomped on cars which also resulted in two youths being arrested.
“All my men will be on stand-by on New Year’s Eve. We will clamp down on any disturbance to traffic or public order. Stern action will be taken,” he said when contacted yesterday.
Penang police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Wira Ayub Yaakob warned those thinking of repeating the Christmas Eve chaos tonight to think again.
He said police would not tolerate any violence during the occasion.
He said police would try to maintain a balance between allowing people to have fun and keeping public order.
“Everyone is in a New Year mood and I understand it is not nice to spoil the fun. But those who intend to revel must behave and restrain themselves,” he told reporters after attending an Excellence Service Award ceremony at the Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) base in Rifle Range, George Town yesterday.
George Town deputy OCPD (operation) Supt Mohd Soaihami said some 200 policemen and personnel from other authorities would be deployed at strategic locations to monitor the crowd.
Johor police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Mohd Mokhtar Mohd Shariff said he was boosting the number of his men on the ground to cater for the thousands expected at Danga Bay and other places holding countdown parties.
“Besides the Federal Reserve Unit (FRU), we are roping in policemen from other districts to ensure incident-free celebrations,” he said,
On the supposed sex party being planned in Johor Baru, DCP Mohd Mokhtar said: “We will come down hard not just on the organisers but the participants.”
-----------
Previous Celebration near year 2008
------------
-------------
-------------
---------------
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
