I need to keep this article for my references


28/04: Apostasy – listening to the silent voice
Category: General
Posted by: Raja Petra
GUEST COLUMNISTSBy Farouk A. PeruThe issue of apostasy is very serious in Malaysia. Nothing brings out our Malay-Muslims onto the streets in droves more so than the news that one of us has left Islam. Social malaise like the phenomena of the bohsia and bohjan (immoral boys and girls), corruption, racist rants against other races or even sumbang-mahram (incest) can’t provoke us to take to the streets like apostasy can.Strangely enough, in the discourse regarding apostasy, the one source which I find silent – or perhaps silenced – is The Quran. Rather what we find are notions of ‘menghina Islam’ (insulting Islam) and various rehashes on this theme without ever relying on the Quran. Here we must applaud the four imams of the schools of jurisprudence who selflessly declared that any law in contradiction to the Quran must be discarded. I salute their appreciation of Islam’s fluidity. The Quran tells us that ‘there is no compulsion in the deen’ (Al-baqarah, 256). The upholders of the apostasy law have responded by saying that this only applies to the conversion of non-Muslims to Islam, in which there is no compulsion. I believe that they have overlooked certain things in coming to that conclusion, namely:a. There is no exceptional clause ‘illa’ (except). Had God wished, he would have clearly said that there is compulsion for Muslims as an exception to the ‘no compulsion’ rule. b. Although the Quran uses the word ‘tadkhul’ (enter) in other places such as Al-Baqarah 208 (udkhuloo fissilmi kaafah/enter into Islam holistically) it does not use that phraseology in this verse. c. Although the Quran uses the word ‘irtidad’ (ridda, turning back, from which the word ‘murtad’ is derived) it never uses it in this verse. From here, we can see that when the Quran states that ‘there is no compulsion in the deen’ it’s an unqualified statement. There are no exceptional clauses and any words which could have been used to set any exceptions to this law are conspicuously absent. Therefore, we must conclude that there is a total and absolute lack of compulsion in the deen. The rest of this verse also confirms thus when it says: guidance stands out clear from Error: whoever rejects excessive authorities and believes in God hath grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold, that never breaks....showing that faith is something active where one has to reject excessive gods and believe. This is a conscious process which people who do not believe will not undertake. What about people who leave off belief?Anyone who, after accepting faith in God, utters Unbelief,- except under compulsion, his heart remaining firm in Faith - but such as open their breast to Unbelief, on them is Wrath from God, and theirs will be a dreadful Penalty.(An-Nahl, 106)From here we can see that, even though elsewhere in the Quran are commands to fight certain parties who commit crimes, the command to do so is missing from this verse. It is God who judges those who choose to reject faith.This is clearly confirmed by this next verse:Those who believe, then reject faith, then believe (again) and (again) reject faith, and go on increasing in unbelief,- God will not forgive them nor guide them nor guide them on the way (An-Nisaa, 137)How is it possible for a person to oscillate between belief and disbelief if there is no freedom in the deen? Firaun – The CompellerIronically, the one who displays compulsive behaviour in the Quran is none other than the enemy of God – Firaun, who says a number of things to that effect:(Pharaoh) said: “Believe ye in Him before I give you permission? Surely this must be your leader, who has taught you magic! Be sure I will cut off your hands and feet on opposite sides, and I will have you crucified on trunks of palm-trees: so shall ye know for certain, which of us can give the more severe and the more lasting punishment!” (Ta-Ha, 71)So Firaun adamantly attaches the emergence of belief to his permission, conjecturing that it’s something artificial, to which one has to give permission for. Isn’t this the same compulsive disposition which makes us react to people who wish to leave Islam? That they wish to inflict punishment on people for not believing when belief is something inward and not artificial?Said Pharaoh: “Leave me to slay Moses; and let him call on his Lord! What I fear is lest he should change your religion, or lest he should cause mischief to appear in the land (Ghafir, 26)Again Firaun displays the quality of fear with regards to Musa’s religion. His system depends on the compelling of people to adhere to this system. For the believers, they are said to have no fear (Yunus, 62)The claim of Al-Baqarah 217 and An-Nisaa 89Some scholars have interpreted Al-Baqarah 217 which ends with ‘and who returns from you from his religion, so he dies and he is disbelieving, so those wasted/failed their doings/works in the present world and (in) the end (other life), and those are the owners/company (of) the fire, they are in it immortally/eternally’ as an instruction to kill apostates. How can one accept this interpretation when the Quran – although it uses the words punishment (azab), kill (aqtul), harb (war) and other commands to aggress where appropriate – never alludes let alone advocates any action from the Muslims?The other verse which has been interpreted to invoke an apostasy law is An-Nisaa, 89 which states: They wished/loved if you disbelieve, as they disbelieved, so you become equal/alike. So do not take from them allies, until they emigrate in God’s sake, so if they turned away, so take/punish them and fight/kill them, where/when you found them, and do not take from them an ally , and nor a supporter/saviorIt’s a pity that those exegetes who interpreted this failed to see the very next verse which states:Except those who join a group between whom and you there is a treaty (of peace), or those who approach you with hearts restraining them from fighting you as well as fighting their own people.This verse is definitely not about people who leave Islam or stopped believing but rather about people who although have no love for Islam, do have a treaty between them and the Muslims. The reliance on numbersI often hear Muslims speak proudly of their growing numbers in the world, how there are 1.2 billion of them and Islam is the fastest growing religion. Perhaps this is what emotes them when they find people who wish to leave. The Quran however does not teach such a mentality:Assuredly Allah did help you in many battlefields and on the day of Hunain: Behold! your great numbers elated you, but they availed you naught: the land, for all that it is wide, did constrain you, and ye turned back in retreat (At-Taubaa, 25)From here we can see that it’s not the numbers which makes the Islamic struggle fruitful. Another verse goes:If ye help not (your leader), (it is no matter): for Allah did indeed help him, when the Unbelievers drove him out: he had no more than one companion; they two were in the cave, and he said to his companion, “Have no fear, for Allah is with us”…(At-Taubaa, 40)This is a great lesson to learn from the Messenger’s pattern of behaviour. He had faith in God even in a situation where he only had one companion. Yet Another verse tells us:Abraham was indeed nation unto himself, devoutly obedient to Allah, (and) true in Faith, and he joined not gods with Allah’ (An-Nahl, 120)So Prophet Ibrahim is said to be an ummah unto himself. This is the power of pure faith as Ibrahim is always described as ‘a fully-inclined Muslim, never was he an associator’.There is little doubt in my mind that there are parties in the world who wish to disparage the Muslims in order to find support for their own nefarious ends. There are information centres who purposely bend and even break the truth to do this. Muslims have enough real problems to deal with without creating artificial ones like apostasy. It is God in His wisdom to not only not set a law against apostasy, but also to declare that such an mentality of control is anathematic to Islam. We can see this from the fact that it is Firaun who carries such an attitude, not the Muslims. Muslims should rely upon the quality of individuals who are contributive to the betterment of world. This contributiveness was present in early Arab-Islamic history but is missing now. Perhaps when Muslims regain that position, they will see that it’s really not about the numbers of the faithful, but the faith in those numbers.

Today is the installation of our new King. It baffles many foreigners about the rotation that is implemented in choosing a king every 5 years among the Malay Sultans, Raja and Di Yang Pertuan. Malaya being such a small country has to contend with 9 hereditary rulers. Some of the Ruler has dubious beginning. The oldest of these State Rulers are the States of Kedah, Perak Kelantan and Terengannu. The others were form surprisingly during the late 19th Century. Basically in the 1870's. In the 1500's part of Malaya and Sumatera were under the Malacca Empire. While Kedah Kelantan and Terenggannu were vassal states or protectorate of the Siamese Kingdom. During that time the Siamese were much involve with their war with Burma thus these states were left independent most of the time. In the 1300's to the mid 1600's there was a Malay Kingdom in Kampuchea. This Champa Kingdom hold sways over most of the northern and east malay States before the Siamese Kingdom stamp their influences. Thus the food and the culture there were highly influence by Buddhism and Hinduism. Perak which basically was the first Malay state to receive a British Resident thus making it a potectorate of the British in 1874, was an old Sultanate that trace herself back to the Malaccan Sultanate. Its First Sultan, Sultan Muzzafar Shah 1, was the son of Sultan Mahmud the last Sultan of Malacca which was overthrow by the portugese in 1511. Sultan Mahmud would die in Kampar, Sumatera in 1528. A vain and pretentious Man who love his woman more than his subject unlike his father Sultan Alludin Riayat Shah who was said to be poison for his independent streak. He manage to create two sultanates, one of Johor which later under his Grandson Sultan Mahmud 2 would later die leaving no heirs. Like his Grandfather and whom her carry the name he was also cruel, fear that he would be murdered like his Dad by his wives, who wanted their sons to inherit the title he forbades his wives from giving birth. Those who are unlucky to get pregnant would be send to the gallows. He would later be murdered by his General, Laksamana Bentan because of the cruel murder of his General's wife for eating a piece of Jackfruit from the King's Orchard meant for the King. The wife then was pregnant. The other Sultanate was Perak which exist until this day. Sultan Mahmud before he dies bequested most of the Royal Regalia to Sultan Muzzafar and now part of the Royal Regalia of the State. That is why the Sultanate of Perak is full with mystical air and during the Sultan's installation or other Malay ceremonies of significant beside pomp and pageantry there is an air of mysticism in the celebration. It is the only Sultanate, that the Sultan is the Sultan of both Jinns and Man, thus the celebration is full of Malayness as it once was a long time ago. There is the court Pawang or Shaman or magician as Merlin was in the time of Arthur who would advice the Kings on matters of the spirit world and the Regalia which is said to be bless by the spirits, yet with islamisation now, these things were not respected. I have always maintain that that culture gave us our identity it is not our faith but it is part of us without it we are not malay. The Malays still don't understand the meaning of culture it is not just the way eat, your food it is also perhaps, your believe, not faith which to me is different than believe. You can believe in ghost, is astrology as long as those do not marginalise your faith. In China for example the Chinese Muslim celebrate Chin Beng or All Souls Day but instead of burning papers effigies like what Taoism proscribe they offer Muslim prayers to the dead ancestors. The have been Muslim earlier than the Malays were, yet the Malays when I try to tell them to assimilate these culture as the Chinese did, they will, as though they are the fountain of knowledge, would say these Chinese were wrong for you can't pray to your Ancestors who were infidels but they forgot when Muhammad Uncle die he did ask God to ease his Uncle's punishement in the hereafter although his Uncle Abu Talib never converted to his belief. Do not quote the Quran on this, the point was Muhammad did offer prayers, for the Quran should not be taken out of the context but should be read by knowing the facts. The Malays have deep reverence to the Ulamaks as though they are infallible but they forgot that in Islam and the beauty of it, because it is highly personalised. When you pray, you are talking to him personally, there is no priest, no go between, it is you with God. They love to qoute the Islamic Empires of bygone days but they forget that these Islamic Empire never curtail Ijtihad i.e. the Ummah rights to form opinion. The Great Caliph Al Ma'moon of the Abassid Empire was a rationalist a Muktazillah, who try his best to impose this believe on his people, he even put Ulamak in jail such as Ibn Hanbal who was against these sort of rational thinking and later on these Traditionalist or Ahlu Al Hadiths won. The Conservative has won and thus set the rot of the Muslim intelectual growth. This happen slowly coupled with their famous feud with the Syiah amd Muktazilah they start brandishing anyone who is not part of the Alhul hadiths as heretics, this includes sufis, which to them are blasphemous to the religion that they advocate. Muslims now, all over the muslim world have to conform to strict ideas, ijtihad which means the ability to make sound judgement yourself were made redundant. Now just like the Iman of Syiah, and like the priest pf the rpman catholic empire, which they despise, the behaviour of these zealots are the same. The need to control and regurtitate what they seem to want and think seem to consume their daily affair, yet, it seems funny, that the enlightened muslims intelectuals are now residing in the west and America, whom they regard as the big Satan but need this freedom of unhindered and unobstruction that is only available with the Big Satan but not their own countries. I call them cowards, who talks but afraid to sacrifice their freedom to stay in their own countries. They sometime prefer to criticise the Big Satan yet you drink it's milk to survive, what hyprocrisy?! Sorry, to digress but since the British came to advice the Malay Sultanate on how to administer her state in 1874, and since the first Darbar(the meeting of the Malay rulers) in 1896, it has been declared that the Sultan , Raja and di Yang diPertuan Negeri, are the Guardian of the Malay Customs and Religion. It is to them that holds the key to Malay Culture and the preservation of the Malay Arts. It is to them that we should seek our salvation and protection for I know if the Malay totally lost it's culture perhaps the Malay that I know would end. I am not a Royalist but am a Malay.

So in Federal Hill when May 13 occurred in 1969, I only remember eating sardines from can for days. I saw army trucks passing by my house at one time later on my family would tell me there was a curfew going on. We were not allowed to go far from the house. Luckily since my father has to go away before the tragedy struck he had stock the house with food if not we won't know what to eat. I was staying at no 4 Jalan Kelantan Federal Hill. There was a jack fruit in the gardens which always bear a lot of fruits. My father made a chicken shed, in the beginning it was an aviary where he kept lots of love birds which my elder brother Pat would release to the wild, which would rattle him. He then kept Chicken, and at one time it was raided by a python and even a civet cat. Sometime we would take a drive to my Grandfather's house in PJ or sometimes we would go to Serdang to see my late Aunt(My father's sister). My Aunt was a teacher. She is the splitting image of my Grandmother in terms of size. She was huge. She didn't get that way I suppose, she was a single Mom. I only remember her and never her husband, she has 3 girls and two boys. Two of the girls were twins. One of the twin girls and the eldest girl were adopted by my grandfather and his new wife. While the rest live with her. I like her a lot but she is a kind that always think that she got the end of the stick in terms of life. She lamented the fact that her ex husband was a 'hitter' although truth be told she was advice from marrying him but like all person who have been in love, that thought don't cross her mind. To her, he is the world where she revolve her life for. Che' gu (teacher) Zaharah was a romantic, her husband Encik Hashim was a punk who have already been married before. If you remember Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday than you remember the Vespa. That film epitomise how cool it was to ride a scooter and Encik Hashim was a cool dude with the scooter like James Dean with his black leader jacket so too were Encik Hashim but he is no Peck and Che gu Zaharah was no Hepburn so instead of roses she got her heart burn. In the end she balloon herself up like me, and she was hefty, very, so it was not a surprise that Mat Sentul one of the comedic film director offer her a part in the film. She have to turn it down, her job in the government as a teacher don't allow her that liberty. She was always afraid of the hospital. She hates it,it would be suicidal for her. In 1982 she pass away suddenly, she was at the time suffering from hernia but due to her fears to go to the hospital it turn grangrenous. My parents were away in Mecca performing the Haj, the fact was we just learn about my brother's cancer and in fact it was he and me who found my Aunt listless body at her home. He wanted to go there for a visit so we we went. It was he who persuade our Aunt to go to the hospital but it was too late. She die soon after. Her life was tragic left by her husband became a single mother raising 3 kids on her own ( the other 2 was adopted by her father),she cuts a forlorn figure. Out of her two boys one would be found drown in a mining pool under mysterious circurmstances (the Eldest) Hashimi being the eldest always try to be an adult before his time. He mixes with bad company and was in and out of drug rehab and jail numerous time. We didn't know that he has drown as no identification was found on him but a faded identity card bearing my grandfather's address. As he was dark they mistook him for an Indian, later on when he was about to cremated they found out he was circurmisize so he was buried as a muslim in an unmark grave in petaling jaya. His other son was a softie who try to find somewhere to belong. He entered Arqam a muslim sect organisation to find himself, even there he found himself being molest as he puts it. He later became a transvertite and an addict and now living somewhere in the city as a Vagrant. His own sister does not accept him and its kind of cruel, but that is life. When you were young all these were people you share your life with but as we got old we drift apart, poles apart, what went wrong? I have no awnser and that is why I cherish childhood, the innocence of being a child and losing oneself in values lost and never will find again, is one I dread being an adult. As for me life has to go on until it reaches the end of the journey,to where ever it takes. May 13 pass and when, we pick up the pieces which will never be the same again. The relationship between races once were open and sincere now will be more guarded than before. The Malays have stamp her superiority in governing Malaysia and it will never be the same again. I yearn for the malay gentlemen of old, one who is a Malay by birth,by right and one who is noble at heart who tamper life with just and treat humans as equal but who knew the responsibilty he has as a Malay a Muslim living in Malaya. That Malay is lost foreverm it now remains a dream, a distant memories of things that might have been and of unrealize potentials. Long last I completed this blog started a month back and now on 19th May will be posted!

Let's go back to my story. In 1968 was the first time I entered school. I was in Kindergarden. We have just move to Federal Hill. My Kindergarden was at Jalan Syed Putra along the Federal Highway. It behind the temple. The Temple is still there but the Kindergarden is no more. I entered proper school in 1969. I went to La Salle Brickfields. That year was watershed in the history of this young nation. They was a race riot where hundreds were butchered and killed, Malay and Chinese were fighting in the heart of the city. The tragedy that struck on May 13 would result in the resignation of the prime Minister a year after. It resulted also in the brain drain that occurs shortly after. Many Non Malays were appalled with the policy of NEP (new Economic Policy) that was introduce after the May 13. It was model after the affirmative Action introduce by President Kennedy in the 1960's to help the blacks in America. This policy aim to restructure the society which was base on colour and creed so that Malays(Bumiputras) could enjoy 30% of the country's wealth by creating and redistributing the wealth to favour the Malays which at that time, although constitute the majority of the population only enjoy 2.4% of the total wealth. Please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysian_New_Economic_Policy for further details. The New Economic Policy itself is not bad, it wanted to structure the societies so that everybody has an equal chance and it also want to eradicate poverty regardless of race colour or creed. These ideas was slated in the policy but over time this was not to be. Abuses in the name of Malay rights and now Islamic rights were trumpeted. I was from that era, I watch close hand at the disparity that exist economically between the races. You can't see Malay businessman be it in the construction or in the retail and if you found any you can count on your fingers. Professionals such as Doctors Engineers are rare and if you are not top Government Official you are nothing. That is way the Malays was, most were in the Government service even than the top positions of the management are mostly non malays because of their credentials. I am not racist per se but this was the fact of life then. I understand the policy because I was there watching first hand my people as they were during the 70's. They were poor, some were gifted but most needed a push and a chance to succeed. When we achieve our independence we have Tunku as the Prime Minister, a fatherly figure but sadly lack the touch of the malay masses. Our independence was not won by war but through negotiation. This was the greatest achievement that the country has achieve but then it sadly lead to lack of National Identity. We identify ourself as Malay, Chinese or Indian instead of Malaysian even now after we achieve our 50th anniversary this coming 31 August 2007. We achieve it through the cunning of Tunku, a prince from Kedah, the son of a Sultan. Even then it was the malay ruling class who got the independence for Malaya not the masses. The Tunku story could be read herehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunku_Abdul_Rahman I was 7 years old then all I know I would stay home for 2 weeks. No school and that's what matters. After all at School the Teacher, a Chinese lady, use to can me for writing with my left hand. Because of that I am adept at writing both in the right and left although I am a left handed.
So having a break was nice. My father was away when tragedy struck, he was in Malacca attending a course at the Customs School ( Later it would be College and now known as Academy- he will head the place and become the longest serving Principal(Director) at the College and retire there). Luckily we were secluded because at that time Jalan Kelantan Federal Hill we were surrounded still with lots of greens unlike now. I could still see hornbill flying by and I remember our pet gibbon "si Hitam" having a good time. Hitam or Blackie would later escape to the hills after being scolded by my father. I remember Pony our dog at the house biting the Bread man and he would go for stitches. This was my idyllic life in Jalan Kelantan and I got my first stitches there too after falling from a bike. I wail not because it was painful but because of too much blood. Yes, I was a big sissy! but it is funny when you look back you realise how everything seem so surreal. So when tragedy struck, to me it was just another holiday. Later, I would realise what have happen but being young I was not aware of the killings and butchering of innocents civilians. I was not even aware of my colour or how different I am than the rest. But 1969 would change all that, malay and malay rights was in the air. Tunku couldn't hold the country any longer so in September 1970 he resign after being the Prime Minister for 13 years. The British would hold him in high regard even the Queen when she visited Kuala Lumpur would insist on meeting him. In 1989 when Tunku was already frail and hard of hearing, and also by that time, he had already a fallen out with Tun Mahathir the Prime Minister, the Queen insisted in meeting him, and she did in Penang. When he died in 1993, he refuse to be buried in the Capital Mausoleum but insisted to be buried at the royal crypt in Kedah. To him the country that he founded base on the principle of fair play has deserted him. I am sorry for his death but I guess the malays buoyed by NEP and after lynching the Chinese, proven their mastery, gave way to greed and more greed. The Malays as describe by Sir Frank has lone gone in return was the new Malays who has forgotten their roots and especially good manners. In their haste to modernise themselves they forgotten their culture and embracing the 'arabise' culture as their own. Some would dissent my point of view but it is the truth. Ask any Malay about Mak Yong, Boria Menora, Wayang Kulit, Main Gasing, Main Wau or Main Puteri etc. They don't know most would associate these as khurafat and totally disregard them but these were your identity. Why can't you be like the Japanese or Chinese evolve the tradition but still maintain them as part of your heritage. Or be like your neighbour Indonesians who are of your root but never forget their culture. Malays in Malaysia are to me like lost lamb trying to find its Shepard.
I lamented the fact that the Malays forgot their culture but try to adopt the Arabs. They forget even up to early Abbasiah period Islam was in fact ban to be preach to non Arabs. It was considered than an Arab religion just like Christians were Jewish originally so too were Islam. They forgot when our forefathers became Muslim about 500 years back the preachers from Arabs never question our culture, in fact Wali Sembilan the 9 preachers from the Malay Archipelago, uses Wayang Kulit to attract the Javanese to Islam but now we throw them out as a use toilet paper but these were our identity. If we believe the saying of Muhammad didn't he foretold about his Ummah which has grown apart from him. This Ummah are from the generation like us, who believe what we doing is right but we are not. Are we saying those learned Man who teaches the way of Islam is not aware of our transgression? If we say yes, then why did they let it occur. Because Islam is in the heart not on what we wear but what we do. I pity my race, because I love my Malay Arts. To me, it is what that give me my identity, My melayu, not my religion which gave me faith but who am I without my culture? A lost lamb in the world of darkness.

This is an article from a penangite Mr Farish A. Noor. I like it

15/04: Talal Asad and the Comfort of Discomfort

By Farish A. Noor
Children cry when they are hungry, but rational adults endowed with free will and agency are meant to grin and bear it. Or so we have been told during our socialisation process. However looking at the world around us today there seem to be plenty of adults doing plenty of crying over a plethora of issues: They cry over representational rights, access to governmental institutions, power differentials, the absence of the rule of law, the tyranny of the majority and the plight of the minorities. Yet much of this wailing and bawling is taking place in the context of plural liberal societies where the individual and individualism are held as almost sacred cows in politics. How do plural liberal societies deal with difference and the relation between the state and the individual? And how do we satisfy the manifold demands of individuals in differentiated societies?Among those who have written at length about the notion of discomfort and difference is Professor Talal Asad, currently at New York City University. During his recent trip to Berlin for the conference on Religion and Its Other held at Humbolt University, he once again re-stated his thesis that we know much less about Secularism and Modernity that we often think. Pointing to the experience of Egypt, he noted that the evolution of modern Egyptian politics – coloured as it was by variable factors such as local tradition and culture, the realities of 19th century colonialism and the demands of nationalism – has taken several turns that were unexpected.If the debate over individual rights and the state in Egypt is so complex today, it mirrors similarly complex realities in many other parts of the Muslim world. From Egypt to Indonesia, the late 19th century witnessed the emergence of a new generation of local Muslim intellectuals whose own political, cultural and educational backgrounds were hybrid and plural. At once embedded in their own societies and plugged into the global network of ideas, they saw the modern state as the end goal of their nationalist projects. Many of them have been cast as reformers and modernisers, and set against their adversaries who were summarily labelled as ‘traditionalists’ and ‘conservatives’.But as Prof Asad has noted in his writings, these vernacular organic intellectuals were hardly secular modernisers who were opposed to religion and ethics: On the contrary they were modernists who wished to use the tools of modernity to put into practice the ethics and morals of their religion, in order to create a new ethical polity that was at the same time rational, universal, consistent, efficient, developed and in keeping with their own ethical sensibilities.The Muslim world today is replete with such examples of a hybrid modernity in the making. Turkish Islamists have sought to use the political process as a means to bring Islam into power while at the same time bringing Turkey closer into Europe. Indonesian Islamists of the Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) – who, incidentally, are avid readers and admirers of Asad as well as Foucault and Weber – have also tried to forge a ‘new politics’ based on ethics and which sees issues like corruption, representation and defence of minority rights as the central issues of Muslim politics. Malaysia’s Islamic party (PAS) is presently grappling with the task of reconciling constitutionalism with freedom of religion for all. The list is endless, proving Asad’s point that secularism can indeed manifest itself in a myriad of different – and often unexpected – ways and forms.This may come as a surprise for those with a teleological bent, and who mistakenly assume that Secularism and Modernity were projects that were linear and with set goals in mind. As Asad has shown time and again, the fundamental assumptions that guide our understanding of Modernity and Secularism need to be constantly revised to take into account the realities of the present.In the present age where political religion in all its variants – Islamic, Christian, Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist – is on the rise, it would be all too clumsy of us to dismiss this phenomenon merely as the ‘revenge of God’ visited upon the secularists. In the Muslim world in particular, many of the Islamist political movements we see now take for granted that their respective political projects need to be couched upon values and norms thatwe can only label as liberal: They accept the reality of the nation state, understand that Society is plural and complex, that history is diachronic, that identities are fluid and multiple and that the focus of modern political life is on the rational individual agent.Where will all this lead us? Of course there is the worry that modern religious politics may take us for a ride to nowhere. Religion may be a source of ethical values, but as noted by the scholar Ebrahim Moosa the same language of religion can also be articulated to suit the whims and interests of the enunciators themselves. Religious texts can be read to justify liberal democracy in the same way that they can be read to justify racism, sexism, xenophobia and religious prejudice too.Faced with these stark reminders of the failings of men, Prof Asad offers no simple solutions. In his words: “We have to live with discomfort, and Europeans must learn to accept that Modernity and Secularism can also develop differently elsewhere.” Such counsel may worry Neo-Con crusaders who want to see a homogenised secular democracy enveloping the entire planet, but in the childish times we live in, it comes as sound advice for adults. Perhaps we should start learning how to be comfortable with discomfort after all.
Dr. Farish A. Noor is a Malaysian political scientist based at the Zentrum Moderner Orient, and one of the founders of the www.othermalaysia.org research site.

Recently the National Fatwa Council of my Country gave out edicts on two matters which to me is laughable. One on ghost the other on investing on the Internet. I will touch on the first one first. To me ghouls and ghost is the staple food of the people here be it Chinese, Malay or Indian. Since the 70's any horror picture was ban to be produce by Malays, until recently. Vampires stories like 'Pontianak' was ban from TV's. So no Dracula for me on terrestial TV, no Christopher Lee, a pity, really because I love good fright. Recently the censorship board relaxes the unofficial ban, we have a watered down version of the Pontianak that was made, since the floodgate was open, all kind of horror stories was in the making. Exhibits about ghouls and ghosts were displayed in the Museum, and believe me, the queue was enormous. Since then the exhibit has gather wide support from the Museum authorities to increase more visitors to their Museums. The State Mufti was up in arms, so it was not surprisingly these fatwa was proclaim. Resulted in the closure of the Exhibit in the Museum in Seremban with immediate effect. The funny part was a similar edict was proclaim about smoking cigarettes in 1993. It was haram but yet since certain religious leader too smoke, so it was never enforce. As I said selective enforcement is the culture of the Malays here, and it is a tragedy. Here is one news that the readers might find interesting


15/04: Pontianak HARAM Sundal Malam?

By Farouk A. Peru
I was a little disappointed to read here that the National Fatwa Council had declared that the exhibition about ghosts, ghouls and the supernatural as 'haram' (forbidden) in Islam as they could 'undermine the faith of the Muslims'. I grew up on the delicious chills of these stories and they always brought our family, especially my siblings and I, closer together and yet none of us ever questioned the tawheed of Islam. Are these ghosts, ghouls and the supernatural really antithetical to Islam? Although the rationalist schools in Islam tend to believe the jinn to be a certain kind of human being, traditional interpretations would probably slot our ghosts, ghouls and supernatural beings under the 'jinn' category . The hadith below, approved by Al-Albanee, who once taught hadith at the University of Madinah, goes:Abu Tha’labah al-Khushani said: “The Messenger of Allaah - May Allah's peace and blessings be on him said The jinn are of three types: a types that has wings, and they fly through the air; a type that looks like snakes and dogs; and a type that stops for a rest then resumes its journey.” So the jinn recognised by the Messenger was also of varying shapes. That sounds familiar..So prominent are the jinn in traditional Islamic thought, we get even legal problems as the below:In Al-Ashbah wa An-Nadha'r, Imam As-Suyuti, an eminent Shafi`i scholar, wrote: ''Answering the question 'is it lawful for a human being to marry a jinni?' Imad Ibn Yunus said, 'Yes'.This doesn't sound too different from our pontianak-marrying tales, although a nail in her nape of the neck is included in our case, to be sure!My point in quoting the above hadith and fatwa is to show that even if this information isn't true, the phenomenon exists in Arab culture at least. Descriptively speaking, this exhibition is about the very same thing with the only difference being that this exhibition isn't of an Arabic origin but of a Malay one. Therefore it may be too harsh to pronounce this exhibition to be 'haram'. If we assume this phenomenon of ghosts, ghouls and the supernatural to be part of our culture, we may be able to study them as outgrowths of our collective psychology. We can also perhaps study the comparitive literature about this phenomenon from the olden days up till now. This would yield a further insight into the Malay psyche.Of course there are people who actually do believe in these things but simply banning an exhibition won't help matters. There's also the internet where some Malay horror story websites have existed for almost a decade! Also, emails are often sent out with pictures and videos of alleged sightings of these creatures. Lets not also forget that we had prominent ulamak teaching us about the jinn and some of them claiming they lead the jinn in the sembahyang, not to mention writing books on jinn-affliction and its cures! They wasn't talking about Arab jinn but our local orang halus so I suppose we must consider banning these ulamak as well. Lets keep our culture intact and not let it get eroded by fears like this. The Malays can be sound,rational individuals like anyone else and can tell between reality and the products of the imagination. Perhaps the National Fatwa Council could produce literature defending Islamic monotheism from this phenomenon instead? That would be far more helpful for us to understand this phenomenon from an Islamic perspective.

Saturday April 14, 2007
Ghosts made to vanish
By A. LETCHUMANAN
SEREMBAN: The state government has decided to stop the ongoing exhibition on ghosts, ghouls and supernatural beings at the museum here.
State Secretary Datuk Kamaruddin Siaraf issued the directive after the National Fatwa Council said that such exhibitions were forbidden in Islam as they could undermine the faith of Muslims.
Huge crowds have turned up since the exhibition opened at the state museum on March 10.
Kamaruddin, who is also the chairman of the state museum board, said visitors were barred from going to the exhibition since 3pm yesterday.
National Fatwa Council chairman Prof Datuk Dr Abdul Shukor Husin had said that the council felt that spirits and supernatural beings were beyond the comprehension of the human mind as they involved the “invisible world.”
“We don’t want to promote a belief in tahyul (supernatural) and khurafat (superstition) which we do not know about. So, we do not need to focus on such things or play them up by having such exhibitions,” he said.
Dr Abdul Shukor added: “The issue of such exhibitions, often highlighted in the media, has raised a conflict of interest among certain quarters and this is not healthy for Muslims. Therefore, we hope such exhibitions will no longer be held.”

Some people would wonder why I wrote this blog, I cant deny self indulgent plays a part but it is more than that. I believe in writing this blog it would be a way of letting people now the truth about a lay malay man view about the world, his believe, his family as he sees it. It is an unblemished record, untainted without any political leanings but an honest, as far as the writers understand, ideas about life. So much tension is going on this country I live, unseen but beneath it, it is rumbling. As Lim Kit Siang our opposition leader says a time bomb waiting to explode. We have the Malay elites, anglophile,rich but cocoon in their world, magazine of choice is the Malaysian Tatler. We have the Religious elite which has such a hold on the Malay masses it is suffocating. And the masses as divided as they are by race, colour and creed. I pity my fellow countryman and I pity my race. For once I cannot condone religious prejudice neither I condone act done in the name of religion. I came from a family who is neither here nor there, neither are we elite or representing the Malay masses. We are lost between what constitute malay and what is not. My Grandmother hobbies were doing crossword puzzle and jigsaw puzzle but she is also at ease as a shaman(bomoh) to the family and being the matriarch of the family when they were left abandon by their father. My father was brought up in his early years by his grandma so his friends and families were all the princes and princesses from the Istana but never did he absorb their trait. We have no kampong because we never stay in one. we do not know how to plant padis because our families were formerly land owners so we got workers doing that. During the war we lost basically everything of value, my grandfather wasted his inheritance, throwing it all out by having fun. He also would waste his wife inheritance away. My Great grand ma would always make the remark 'harapkan pagar, pagar makan padi' which means my grandfather was a philandering fool! My Grandma never forget her roots that she was adopted and that her real parents were poor but at times when in exasperation against his siblings she would utter that is your siblings not mine. She share her wealth with them taking in their children when they were gone yet somehow there is the aloofness among her children. Aside than my father who were taught to be the man of the house when his father left, the others are a bit snooty. I never like this snootiness that exist. Perhaps I am the least pretentious of the lot because I have no Mum thus I welcome family members with open arms. True, also my father remarried and the world I know off come crashing down, it does help. That is why I am a bit different, I always taught myself to keep everything inside, bottling this pent up frustration, unlike my brothers, at the slightest slight they will inform my father and he would listen. They always use my mother's death to get their way and they did. I have no one to turn to partly I chose too, partly because there is no one. I trust no one with my feelings and I for once fear betrayal. I have my father in me in that sense, I do not know why, I always care for other people feelings beside my own, yet I am a tyrant to my Friends but not to my family. I make sure my father feelings would never be hurt or he is put in a way to make a choice between my life and his other family. I always give way. When we were in Penang and my Mom's power were reaching its pinnacle I try to make sure that food is left for my elder brother to eat when he comes home at night, after work. Because sometime food were not left for him, and when I remember his face, it was pitiful. He would later die of cancer and I remember that day as it was yesterday. and when I sacrifice my studies to be with him at the hospital so he would not be alone, I didn't do well. When i try to give excuses he says no because the choice was mine and i do it gladly. I was also responsible to put my brother Put in the rehab detention place for drugs when we were ask to study together after Penang. I have to do it or not he be cane and whip because he was caught pushing drugs. I devise the plan with my cousin, my Uncle and my Step Grandfather whose house we were staying in. I gave the green light to trick him and catch him during the fasting month when my parents were away in Sarawak on duty. That pain is still there, whom can I turn too and who could understand. To whom could I pour my heart too, no one. Just like death we will end up alone so is life as precious as it is we always be alone. I am sorry to digress, but my feeling for my people is real. They romanticised so much about the Islamic empire that they forget during the time of Abbasid Ottoman and other empires of Islam lots of debauchery, white slavery persecutions happen in the name of the religion. Surprisingly, since we are Sunnis, it is to note the Sunnis were never the fountain of knowledge in fact they were responsible for the dearth of knowledge in the Islamic realm nowadays. Alfarabi, Averrroes, Ibnu Sina(Avvicenna), Ibn Khaldun were Syiah and some were Muktazillah. A sunni of repute would be Al Ghazali who were ask to rebuke all this rational thinking yet he nearly went mad, of despair. He turn to Sufi to find his path back and from this knowledge to come to his conclusion to come out with his own book. Yet Sufi is panned by the Sunnis as deviant. To me, since I am a Sunni, Sunni thought and ideas are stifling the Ummah. Yet they come to us and on purpose forgot to tell that the great thinkers of Muslims were not Sunnis to begin with but their sworn enemies whom they have already sentence as heretics, liars and citizen of hell! Please take note too Ibnu Sina died of too much debauchery in his blood. He died following a night of wine and woman at the age of 56. This the Muslim historian would never tell, I wonder why? For me, they are humans and being human doesn't make them bad but deny human fallacies are. I do not understand of qouting hadiths and taking it out of context decrying that Muhammad says the Jews and Christians would not rest until you follow them yet they choose to forget that Muhammad also says if whoever of my Ummah who wrong a Jew or a Christian he will have me as a witness in the day of judgement. Whom am I to believe? Osama bin Laden is a Sunni and he terrorise people while Prince Aga Khan an Ismailite is a Syiah and he is a philanthropist. Which is the better gentlemen? Your guess is as good as mine.

Here is another extract that I would like my readers to understand. It is the thought of Sir Frank Swettenham(born 1850-died June 1946) the first Resident General of the Federated Malay States. Carcosa Sri Negara was his abode in Kuala Lumpur, a lover of the Malay Arts and its people, a friend of the Malay and was one of the officials who opposes Malayan Union in 1945.

The Real Malayby Sir Frank Swettenham

To begin to understand the Malay you must live in his country, speak his language, respect his faith, be interested in his interests,humour his prejudices, sympathise with and help him in trouble, and share his pleasures and possibly his risks. Only thus can you. hope to win his confidence. Only through that confidence can you hope to understand the inner man, and this knowledge can therefore only cometo those who have the opportunity and use it.So far the means of studying Malays in their own country (where alonethey are seen in their true character) have fallen to few Europeans,,and a very small proportion of them have shown an inclination getinto the, hearts of the people. There are a hundred thousand Malaysin Perak and some more in other parts of the Peninsula; and the whiteman, whose interest in the race is strong enough, may not only win confidence but the devotion that is ready to give life itself in the cause of friendship. The Scripture says: "There is no greater thing than this," and in the end of the nineteenth century that is a form of friendship all too rare.Fortunately this. is a thing you cannot buy, but to gain it is worth some effort.One of the architects of British Malaya, Frank Swettenham arrived in the Malay Peninsula in 1871 and, in subsequent years, became appointed the British Resident in Selangor and Perak, Resident General of the Federated Malay States and, finally, Governor of the Straits Settlement and High Commissioner of the Malay States in1901. This was in no small part due to his keen interest in the country and its people - he was known as one who lived with them,spoke their language and respected their faith, in spite of his ownEnglish prejudices. These are his thoughts of what is a Malay.
The real Malay is short, thick-set. well.-built man, with straightblack hair, a dark. brown complexion, thick nose and lips, and bright intelligent eyes. His disposition is generally kindly, his mannersare polite and easy. Never cringing, he is reserved with strangersand suspicious, though he does not show it. He is courageous andtrustworthy in the discharge of an undertaking; but he is extravagant, fond of borrowing money. and very slow in repaying it.He is a good talker, speaks in parables, quotes proverbs and wisesaws, has a strong sense of humour, and is very fond of a good joke.He takes an interest in the affairs of his neighbours and is consequently a gossip. He is a Muhammadan and a fatalist but he is also very superstitious. He never drinks intoxicants, he is rarely an opium-smoker. But he is fond of gambling,, cock-fighting,' and kindred sports. He is by nature a sportsman; catches and tames elephants; is a skilful fisherman, and thoroughly at home in a boat.Above all things, he is conservative to a degree, is proud and fondof country and his people, venerates his ancient customs and traditions, fears his Rajas, and has a proper respect for constituted authority - while he looks askance on all innovations, and will resist their sudden introduction. But if he has time to examine them carefully, and they are not thrust upon him, he is willing to be convinced of their advantage. At the same time he is a good imitative learner, and, when he has energy and ambition enough for the task,makes a good mechanic. He is however lazy to a degree, is without method or order of any kind. knows no regularity even in the hours ofhis meals, and considers time as of no importance. His house is untidy, even dirty but he bathes twice a day, and is very fond ofpersonal adornment in the shape of smart clothes.A Malay is intolerant of insult or slight; it is something that to him should be wiped out in blood. He will brood over a real or fancied stain on his honour until he is possessed by the desire for revenge. If he cannot wreak it on the offender, he will strike out atthe first human being that comes in his way, male or female, old or young. It is this state of blind fury, this vision of blood, thatproduces the amok. The Malay has often be called treacherous. I question whether he deserves the reproach more then other men. He is courteous and expects courtesy in return, and he understands only one method of avenging personal insults.The spirit of the clan is also strong in him. He acknowledges the necessity of carrying out, even blindly, the orders of his hereditary, chief, while he will protect his own relatives at allcosts and make their quarrel his own.The giving of gifts by Raja to subject or subject to ruler, is a custom now falling into desuetude, but it still prevails on the occasion of the accession of a Raja, the appointment of highofficers, a. marriage, a circumcision ear-piercing or similar ceremony. As with other Eastern people, hospitality is to the Malay a sacred duty fulfilled by high and low, rich and poor alike.Though the. Malay is an Islam by profession, and would suffe rcrucifixion sooner than deny his faith, he is not a bigot; indeed,his tolerance compares favourably with that of the professingChristian, and, when he thinks of these matters at all, he believesthat the absence of hypocrisy is the beginning of religion. He has a sublime faith in God, the immortality of the soul, a heaven of ecstatic earthly delights, and a hell of punishments, which every individual is so confident will not be his own portion that the idea of its existence presents no terrors.Christian missionaries of all denominations have apparently abandoned the hope of his conversion.In his youth, the Malay boy is often beautiful ... a thing of wonderful eyes, eyelashes, and eyebrows, with a far-away expressionof sadness and solemnity, as though he had left some better place fora compulsory exile on earth.Those eyes, which are extraordinary large and clear, seem filled witha pained wonder at all they see here, and they give the impression ofa constant effort to open ever wider and wider in search of somethingthey never find. Unlike the child of Japan, this cherub never looks as if his nurse had forgotten to wipe his nose. He is treated with elaborate respect if he so desires, eats when he is hungry, has no toys, is never whipped, and hardly ever cries.Until he is fifteen or sixteen, this atmosphere of a better world remains about him. He is often studious even, and duly learns to read the Koran in a language he does not understand.Then, well then, from sixteen to twenty-five or later he is to be avoided. He takes his pleasure, sows his wild oats like youths of a higher civilisation, is extravagant, open-handed, gambles, gets into debt, run away with his neighbour's wife and generally asserts himself. Then follows a period when he either adopts this path and pursues it, or, more commonly, he weans himself gradually from an indulgence that has not altogether realised his expectation, and if,under the advice of older men, he seeks and obtains a position of credit and usefulness in society from which he begins at last to earnsome profit, he will from the age of forty, probably develop into an intelligent man of miserly and rather grasping habits with some onelittle pet indulgence of no very expensive kind.The Malay girl-child is not usually so attractive in appearance asthe boy, and less consideration is shown to her. She runs wild till the time comes for investing her in a garment, that is to say whenshe is about five years old. From then, she is taught to help in the house and kitchen, to sew, to read and write, perhaps to work in the padi field, but she is kept out of the way of all strange menkind.When fifteen or sixteen, she is often almost interesting; very shy,very fond of pretty clothes and ornaments, not uncommonly much fairerin complexion than the Malay man, with small hands and feet, a happysmiling face, good teeth, and wonderful eyes and eyebrows - the eyesof the little Malay boy. The Malay girl is proud of a wealth ofstraight, black hair, of a spotless olive complexion, of the arch ofher brow - "like a one-day-old moon" - of the curl of her eyelashes,and of the dimples in cheek or chin.Unmarried girls are taught to avoid all men except those nearly related to them. Until marriage, it is considered unmaidenly for them to raise their eyes or take any part or interest in their surroundings when men are present. This leads to an affectation of modesty which, however over-strained, deceives nobody.After marriage, a woman gets a considerable amount of freedom whichshe naturally values. In Perak a man, who tries to shut his woman kindup and prevent their intercourse with others and a participation inthe fetes and pleasures of Malay society, is looked upon as a jealous, ill-conditioned person. Malays are extremely particular about questions of rank and birth, especially when it comes tomarriage, and mesalliances, as understood in the West, are with themvery rare.The general characteristics of Malay women, especially those of gentle birth, are powers of intelligent conversation, quickness in repartee, a strong sense of humour and an instant appreciation of the real meaning of those hidden sayings which are hardly even absent from their conversation. They are fond of reading such literature astheir language offers, and they use uncommon words and expressions,the meanings of which are hardly known to men. For the telling of secrets, they have secret modes of speech not understanded of thepeople.They are generally amiable in disposition, mildly - sometimes fiercely - jealous, often extravagant and, up to about the age of forty, evince increasing fondness for Jewellery and smart clothes. Inthese latter days they are developing a pretty taste for horses,carriages, and whatever conduces to luxury and display, though, in their houses, there are still a rugged simplicity and untidiness,absolutely devoid of all sense of order.A Malay is allowed by law to have as many as four wives, to divorce them, and replace them. If he is well off and can afford so much luxury, he usually takes advantage of the power to marry more than one wife, to divorce and secure successors; but he seldom undertakes the responsibility of four wives at one time. The woman on her part can, and often does, obtain a divorce from her husband. Written conditions of marriage, "settlements" of a kind, are common with people in the upper classes, and the law provides for the custody ofchildren, division of property, and so on. The ancient maiden lady is an unknown quantity, so is the Malay public woman; and, as there is no society bugbear, the people lead lives that are almost natural.There are no drunken husbands, no hobnail boots, and no screaming viragoes - because a word would get rid of them. All. forms of madness, mania, and brain-softening are extremely rare.The Malay has ideas on the subject of marriage, ideas born of his infinite experience. He has even soared into regions of matrimonial philosophy, and returned with such crumbs of lore as never fall to the poor monogamist.I am not going to give away the secrets of the life behind the curtain; if I wished to do so I might trip over difficulties ofexpression; but in spite of the Malay's reputation for bloodthirstiness, in spite of (or because of, whichever you please)the fact that he is impregnated with the doctrines of Islam, in spite of his sensitive honour and his proneness to revenge, and in spite ofhis desire to keep his own women (when young and attractive) away from the prying eyes of other men, he yet holds this uncommon faith,that if he has set his affections on a woman, and for any reason he is unable at once to make her his own, he cares not to how many others she allies herself provided she becomes his before time has robbed her of her physical attractions.His reason is this. He says (certainly not to a stranger, rarely evento his Malay friends, but to himself) "if, after all this experience,she like me best, I have no fear that she will wish to go further afield. All Malay girls marry before they are twenty, and the woman who has only known one husband, however attractive he may be, will come sooner or later to the conviction that life with another promises new and delightful experiences not found in the society ofthe first man to whom destiny and her relatives have chosen to unite her. Thus some fool persuades her that in his worship and passion she will find the World's Desire, and it is only after perhaps a long and varied experience that she realises that, having started for a voyage on the ocean, she finds herself seated at the bottom of a dry well'.It is possible that thus she becomes acquainted with truth.
My readers I am a Malay and proud to be one!

Yes that how I was at Federal at the end of the 60's. We stay there until 1971 December where will move to idyllic Terenggannu. It was in Federal Hill that things started to change,bit by bit, without people realising it. It always have been my Family way to welcome families to our home. To give them a roof over their head, to school them if they were to poor to go to school. This was the case as far as I remember. It was a tradition of sort to us beginning with my Great Grandma till my father. I also have that habit, it is difficult to break.It does lead to abuses, sometimes we are kind but in return they turn to be ungrateful. When my Mom assume the new throne in the house, slowly and surely these relative would go to be change by her own relatives, sisters and brothers. My Granduncle who was responsible for this arrange marriage, whose sons were part of the family were send back to the villages some would follow my Grandma to her new abode in Taiping to be school there. That was how it was. I was too young to know this upheaval, they would confide to me later on. She's not ogre, it was just one of those thing to be expected. My Real Mom was an orphan so she would embrace my father's family as hers. It was expected, even now when my brothers wife is concern I don't get along with them. Call me old fashion but I do believe sincerely the adage or believe when a woman gets married she leave the nest and "belong" to her husband. (It is hyphenated by the way) This doesn't mean the husband own her but she must learn to respect the husband side of the family because they have welcome her to their bosom. You need not usurp one to carry the other but learn that tradition does dictates, especially in Malaysia, the husband families should be given more regard. This tension exist until now. But when we young we are not aware of it. It was here too, I was ask to move from my parents' room to sleep with the servants and the cousins. My brother found ourselves off limits from my father's room. It was OK after all in the movies we all have our own rooms but in Asia it was not the same. we have extended families, the servants room were occupied by my elder brothers and uncle.(they were 2 servants room). Upstairs there was two huge rooms the master and the Females room, both have attached bathrooms. I and Put stay with the female, the Servants and my Mom Sisters. I was still bottling then, I have to have my milk in the bottle, my Mom made a scene so I quit. It was I believe I should do, although my father loves me to use the bottle, he has a kick out of it. later on when it comes to his own Son who was born in 1968, she didn't make such a fuss when he was on the bottle until he was 11. It made me wonder,why? But I guess I am not his son and never will be. In Federal Hill is where I grew up, I learn to do everything on my own. I've learn to change from a spoilt brat to something else. To me it was alright, I am growing up now and i have a baby brother, who incidentally I gave the pet name too. I call him Ketet and it sort of stuck. We all have pet names, my father, he love naming or giving pet names to his kids. Starting with, Din, Lat(Bulat or round), Pat, Put, Tot, Ketet, Bab(not Bob), the two last girls were known as Ucuk (Busuk or smelly) and Ucik (kecik the smallest). There was also a neighbour I remember, who stays near Syed house, his wife was very sexy and later got divorce. She was Normah Yuzie, a Malay Starlet who later would die of a tragic automobile accident. At Federal Hill is when I started to go to school. It was a terrifying moment. I step into a kindergarten with my new Mom and Dad and suddenly I found myself surrounded by kids, my Mom and Dad has abandon me!!. My teacher was an Indian lady whom I don't quite remember well, I was still half blind then. In Jalan Kelantan, Federal Hill where we stay we have with us my father's cousin and my Mom's brother and sister staying with us, we also have My father's brother Encik Rashid who works in the Post Office as a clerk and now presently is staying with me. He is a bachelor, never marry so I think I end up that way to. His life is a bit sad, he was my father second youngest siblings. He did well in his senior Cambridge and got an offer to go to the University to further his studies. At that point of time it was a good deal, but you must have a signature sign by your parents or guardian in the application form. And all he wanted was his father's signature, at that time just after Merdeka, my Grandfather has just been release form detention camp. Due to the late Aziz Ishak who intervene his death penalty was commuted to and was sentence as a political prisoner. So in the late 50's or early 60's he was already out and stay with his 'lover' my Aunt in Kampong Bharu, Kuala Lumpur. So my Uncle went to his house to ask for his signature and seek his blessing, after all he wanted so much his Dad's love. The house was bolted shut, the windows were close and they were not in,and it was not that they didn't know he was coming, but he refuse to accept his son! Why, I didn't know? All I can tell you my father did want to sign but he refuse, he lost hope that his father doesn't want him and they were not in talking terms until in 1992 when my father suffer a stroke. It was really a poignant moment when two old man would be hugging at my father's bed in the hospital and made up. It brought tears to my father's eyes that he made a remark that he need to nearly die before they made up. I do not understand why my Grandfather refuses to sign, he has his reason, all I can tell you my Uncle is a bit soft, a Liberace who would deny his preference until when he dies. He will always be in the closet although we know the truth. I have to go now happy reading!

Now let's go back at last to my stories. I suppose when you were young you never knew of jealousy hatred envious treachery and other human failings. You grew into it. Your life and your views will be influence by your surroundings. For me, being left alone most of the time, my surroundings were those within me, I grew up loving those Hollywood movies of yarn like Andy Hardies series (Mickey Rooney) or James Stewart in Mr Deeds goes to town or Mr Smiths goes to Washington. Yes, I more in love with James Cagney in his Yankee Doodle Dandy, Henry Fonda and who could forget the irreplaceable Spencer Tracy. Yes those musicals were wonderful the dancing by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and the enchanting Rita Hayworth. It was a make believe world where one could dance and be happy and a guy who is sick like me it gave an opportunity for me to dream the impossible. I live like this, this was my world, my sanctuary, where I could find peace and understand the world as I know, in black and white movies. But as i said before things started to change when my father got married. I do not harbour any ill feelings for what have happen but I can't deny the truth, my world as I know,will be no more. As I have always been, I welcome my Mom with open arms but I was a spoilt child and it is not easy to deal with me. I try but I guess I don't get along with her although she is Mum, the only one I know of, until she dies. This exuberance in welcoming people, I know, should be curtail but I can't. I love opening my home to others, it is a trait that is me. I remember when I was working in Pahang, I welcome a person to stay in my house and the next thing I knew, he has taken over the entire house as his! When my father remarried at the end of 1967 by that time we already move to Federal Hill to the bungalow built by the government for division 1 officer. We were staying previously in Jalan Templer PJ in one of those single story detached house. My Grandma by that time has retired and she was staying with us. When my father house was completed in Taiping a bungalow in 1968 she would move there. She stays there until my father past away in the house in 1994 before moving to his youngest son house and dying in 1998. She was brought back to the house and buried with my brother and father at the cemetery 500 metres away. That is where I perhaps like to be buried and although it sound morbid but it is where my father is. My Mom is buried in town, the plot there has been fill up so it is OK. I remember the house in Federal Hill well. In Jalan Gasing I really can't recall much, bit and pieces, although that is where my Mom would met her fate. At the bungalow in Federal Hill, there was no highway then passing through the place, now there is this huge Jalan Tun Razak passing through it in the process certain bungalows were destroy not my house that I stay in, it still is standing. My neighbours were the Director General of Civil Defence, the late Encik Rahman whose son is married to Tho Puan Mahani's daughter, a socialite. Encik Rahman was a widower and he married a joget girl, Puan Razmah. They have 4 children and plus 3 with Encik Rahman previous marriage. He past away in 2003. He was residing at Damansara Height when he retired. They was Syed whom later in life I would met. His father was in the public works department. He got a sister and my brother Put and I would spend time together with them bicycling and sometime swimming in the monsoon drain. That time Kuala Lumpur's drain was not dirty. And since the drain leads to the lake gardens which was nearby, there were fishes in the drain. Put always catch fish, the cat fish. That time that fish were considered a low class of fish so people don't eat it. Now it is very popular, 'ikan keli' fish is cook and sold abundantly in the market. Put has always been a leader,trying new things. we got a photograph of him putting his hand in bobby's mouth, a mix breed of Alsatian dog which we use to keep in PJ. That bobby would die after being knife by the robbers in Petaling Jaya(PJ). That was the first time I remember about death, her listless body lying on the ground, by the swing. Yes, we kept a dog too at Federal Hill her name was bobby too. Yes, Tun Suffian the former lord president also stay at Federal Hill in the bigger bungalow. Her wife, Toh Puan Bunny Suffian use to take her dogs for walks there. She was white thus we look at her as one of those Maam or Memsaheeb as the Indians would call them. Tun Suffian was from Kuala Kangsar, Perak the son of a Kadi or Muslim judge in Perak. He studied in Malay College, the Eton of Malaya, and was a brilliant chap. He went to England took up law and during the war years he got himself stranded in India. Contracted Malaria and the nurse at the hospital was Bunny. She nurse him and that's how he fall in love. She was a Jew and they have no children. Why I mention her religion because it would be a point of conflict with his family and the Malays in general. We somehow always blame the Woman. He was an anglophile all the way, he embraces the white's way and love their culture, nothing to do with the wife whether or not she was a Jew. A Judge must always remain aloof far from the maddening crowd, so that his judgement is fair and not coloured by his surroundings. This is an ideal situation and Tun Suffian portray that type of Judge. It offends the Malays so much because to them he was not humble but to me it was his profession and he embrace it like a good servant of the nation should. I think they were also angry that a white woman has snarl a virtuous Malay Man. I wish someone would snarl me!
http://www.malaysia.net/lists/sangkancil/2000-10/frm00071.html http://pemantau.tripod.com/artikel/28Sept-prm.html are articles on Tun Suffian please do read. I have to go now so much to tell so little time. I need to add Puan Bunny died as a christian in 1997, of Cancer she was to be cremated but stop by Suffian own brother. Tun later would also has cancer and died three years later. He was taken care of by the niece of Tunku, Tunku Sofiah Jewa whom he regarded as his daughter http://www.au.malaysia.net/lists/sangkancil/1997-10/frm00383.html http://www.au.malaysia.net/lists/sangkancil/1997-10/frm00402.html please also go to http://www.freeanwar.net/news/tun_suffian.html