Sad day for the Malays

Yes this is a sad day for the Malays! I have to question their faith! How Come the so call Muslims adherents could let a 3 year old die of abuse?, not by the parents but by the Mom's boyfriend. The father is currently incarcerated in Kajang Prison. Where is Dr Ma'mor! Where is Perkasa? Where is Mubarak? Where did the Association of Malays Professional Thinkers went? Where are the so call 50 Malays NGOs who met and form an Association about economy but neglect the social responsibility of every Malays for her own brethren?

Where is the infamous Ibrahim Katak Ali? Where are you? I am Mad, Nay furious! How do we let a girl die in pain! Being kick around, My God! in full view! Who is wrong here? We, all of us are guilty! We let these things happen. We neglect them thus they die! We keep talking about economic rights but we never take responsibility for helping those in needs! We never establish a safety net for these people. They too us are non existence! Where are the Tok Gurus, Datuk Harun Din who fought and took arms against non believers for using Allah but left a child to die!
Where are all these mullahs? Where did they go?

All these people are guilty! I hold them so! They incite others to riot! To take up arms for what? To serve their own agenda? I hate them! i hate with all the fibers in my body! Why do the Malays need to politicize everything? Why can't they do good to do good. Why can't they be charitable not for name not for glory for you, for each one of us! Why can't we be unselfish for once. Why is it them against us? Why make life so difficult? Why invoke hate when there is none! Why preach of differences but not accentuate our similarities. Why talk about people but refuse to sacrifice oneself for the greater good. Nobody could answer me? Nobody? Please help me! I am sad, for me the heroes are the couple who open a day care center in Chow Kit for the kids. The ones quietly who establish help programme in red light districts. They are Malaysian heroes! To those who are curious the couple is Malay and for me they are the unsung Malays heroes which the Malays must emulate.

Yes I am angry for if one Malaysia is too work we must embrace diversity in every shape and size! We must welcome good people and look at the greater good. We must be compassionate but never vengeful. These are the values the Malays must have! In Batu Arang, there is a place for HIV sufferers. It was run by the catholic church. It was run as a non profit center. At the home a surau was prepared for the Muslims to pray. It was not about proselytizing the inmates but more a hospice center. The Muslims inmate now has to move, it seems we have to divide them even though all of them are just waiting for their time up. Why? Is faith that important that you have to divide them because you are afraid they die after renouncing their faith? Do you believe the malays are that shallow? Why can't they be together? Why can't you (the Muslims caregiver) work from there. Is it not better to share resources? Why so much ill will? At least the Catholics even provide the Muslims inmate with a Surau, What about us? Getting a church to be approve in Shah Alam was already a hassle for them yet they persevere? The Malays do have all the luck don't they? No wonder there is so much hatred against them yet they can ask why?

In Schools my sister was boycotted for eating chinese food, although the education department has made certain that all government schools and aided one must serve halal food yet she was ostracized! Is this correct in Islam? By golly is this not more than blatant chauvinism! My foot in the name of Islam, my foot indeed!

How come an NGO lead by a Doctor could insinuate that the Ikea Restaurant was non halal and serving pork! It has to be Samak and then it was found out not true, not even an apology came out from the Doctor's mouth! What rude fellow Muslims are?, aren't they?

We saw the Natrah performance. I was not move I was disturb. Natrah or Maria Herthogh story was a tragedy. The riots that happen on 11th December 1950 was an eye opener. I won't question the law because then I have to question the Sharmala case! Thank god the Indians did not riot but if we studied the case we found similarities and if we are unfair to Sharmala then we have not right to question the judge decision in Natrah case! Yes, when we judge it must seen to be fair and thus we must take into accounts other peoples right too which the Malays Muslims have forgotten! Erma fatimah could put up a grand show, Fathini the writer in the magazine could write what she wants, but truth be told Natrah denounce the article as fabrication! And we should know the parties are all dead now Natrah because of Leukemia last year july 8 and Mansor Adabi died some time back!

I wrote this in sadness, I feel someone must knock some sense to the Malays. To strife and work hard. To do good and have an open heart. For it is you(the Malays) who will answer for your deeds not me not the leaders but you!

Here is the article in question

Duo face cohabitation charge

KUALA LUMPUR: A taxi driver who has been charged with abusing his girlfriend’s daughter to death will also be charged in the Syariah Court with cohabiting with the woman.

Police plan to refer the 28-year-old man and possibly the child’s 25-year-old mother to the Selangor Islamic Religious Council for further action.

Hulu Selangor deputy OCPD Deputy Supt Bakhtiar Rashid said initial investigations revealed that the unmarried couple had been in a relationship for six years.

Their relationship produced a child out of wedlock who is 18 months old now.

“The woman has yet to get a divorce from her husband, but they have been living like a married couple,” he told Bernama here yesterday.

Her husband has been an inmate at the Sungai Buloh Prison since 2006.

DSP Bakhtiar said the suspect had been remanded for seven days until March 4 and police would be applying for an extension.

He said the suspect had also tested positive for drug abuse.

Syafia Humairah Sahari, three, is believed to have been abused to death by the taxi driver at their home in Kampung Batu 30 in Ulu Yam Lama, Batang Kali, on Thursday.

Family members of the woman claimed the child’s body from the morgue at 1.30pm and buried the toddler at the Kuang Muslim cemetery in Sungai Buloh.

In Kuala Lumpur, Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun as saying that welfare officers would investigate the competency of the woman and her partner as parents before deciding whether to seek temporary custody of their 18-month-old child.

Saturday February 6, 2010

Stepping back in time

By Liz Price

Need an idea for a day trip that’s easily accessible from Kuala Lumpur? How about one that incorporates forgotten chimneys, an old coal mining town, a historical church and beautiful orchids?

My friends and I did just that — we had a fun outing exploring Batu Arang in Ulu Selangor.

I’d been to that area before and was keen to revisit and see what else was on offer there.

The name Batu Arang means “coal”, and this small town, which lies between Kuala Selangor and Rawang, was the centre of a coal-mining industry in the early 20th century. The 100-year-old town only came into being after coal was discovered in 1911 and became a bustling, rich town where thousands lived and worked.

By the Second World War, it was the second largest town in Selangor after Kuala Lumpur.

St Michael church

Businessman J. A. Russell established the Malayan Collieries in Batu Arang in 1913, and this helped transform what was formerly a jungle into a thriving industrial centre.

Batu Arang had a railway line that was a side arm of the main KL-Rawang line, connecting at Kuang, and extending to Batang Berjuntai. Steam engines hauled trains laden with coal to the main line.

Production of coal increased from 1915 until it peaked in the 1940s. This meant more people moved into the area to find work. Shops and restaurants sprouted in the settlement to cater to them, and a hospital was built to cater for the sick. There was even a small airport used by small planes to drop off the salaries of the huge workforce.

As you drive around the town centre today, you’ll realise how small it is — basically just a roundabout with the police station, two rows of 1920s shophouses and several small restaurants.

The other roads are housing areas, and there is a central football field. Jalan Stesen has retained its name, but the railway line was long ago dismantled by the Japanese during World War II and never reconstructed.

During the Emergency from 1948 to 1960, Batu Arang was declared a “Black Area” because it was a base for the anti-British communist forces. The town is surrounded by undulating hills and valleys, which were ideal hiding places for the communists and from where they could launch surprise attacks. Apparently, they seized the police station in 1948 and held people hostage in the railway station.

However, the real decline of Batu Arang took place when diesel replaced coal as the main source of fuel in the late 1950s. This sounded the death knell for coal, and the mines closed down in 1958. The Chinese miners and other workers left, and the buildings fell into disrepair or were torn down after they became unsafe because the ground had become riddled with cavities and mined passages.

I was disappointed to find no visible trace from the days of mining, although there are supposed to be some ventilation tunnels still remaining.

The huge open cast pits surrounding the town are now filled with water. At one time, the area was threatened by erosion due to dropping water tables as a result of the coal mining.

However there are some historical remains. As you approach the town, it is easy to spot a tall chimney standing like a lonely sentinel above the trees. It’s not entirely alone as there is another chimney further away, and also the remains of the old buildings with smaller chimneys. These are all that are left over from a brick-making industry. Today, the tallest chimney, which not surprisingly is made of bricks, has a small tree growing out of the top.

The orchid farm on the way to Rawang at Bt 23 sells cut orchids at a resonable price. — LIZ PRICE

Some of the Chinese miners still live here, and the town has become quite multi-ethnic. And new factories are opening up so people are coming back to the area. One such industry is SME Ordnance Sdn Bhd, which produces ammunition and bombs. Another is Kilang Tenaga Kimia Bhd which also manufactures explosive products.

I had read on the Internet about an old church in Batu Arang so we drove around the small town looking for it.

We stopped at Gereja St Michael but this was relatively modern (1971) and wasn’t the one I was looking for. We talked to the caretaker, and she told us about the old Catholic church up on the hill, and I realised this was the building we had passed on the way down to the town.

So we retraced our steps up the hill. At first sight, the building looks more like a simple colonial building. One only realises it is a church because of the statue of the Virgin Mary and the huge cross on top of the building.

However, we were still a bit confused as there was a guard house at the start of the driveway, ambulances parked under a shelter, and several Malays going in and out.

We were later introduced to the administrator, Anthony Gomez, and he offered to give us a tour of the place — now called Welcome Community. The Welcome Community is now an after-care home for HIV patients run by a Catholic group, the Catholic Welfare Services.

The history of the building is interesting. It was built around 80 years ago (1920s) by the British for use as an army mess for the garrison. That explains why it doesn’t look like a church. Then it was occupied by the Japanese. After the Japanese left, it went back to the Brits until they left. It was then run by missionaries, hence the statue and cross outside. In recent years, it was converted to a home for drug addicts and HIV patients.

The place was taken over by the Welcome Community in April 2008. Nowadays, it’s a bright, clean and airy building where doctors attend to the residents, and foreign volunteers come from overseas to work for short periods.

The beds were donated from the Assunta Hospital in Petaling Jaya. There is room for more than 40 inmates, although currently there are only around 37, aged between 20 and 60. They have been referred to the home from the Sungai Buloh Hospital or the local prisons.

It seems we had chosen quite an unusual day for our visit, as the Muslim residents were being transferred to a new home specially set up for them. Until now the residents all lived as one community whatever their religion, hence the Catholic pictures on the walls, a large crucifix on the top of the building, and one room which has been converted into a surau (prayer room).

The people are well cared for, and many are better physically than when they arrived, due to good food and caring community. The surrounding land is used for gardening and for growing vegetables. It was certainly a nice feeling to see people of different races looking quite content despite the hardships they had been through.

Soon it was time to say goodbye to Gomez and his staff and set off for home. But we made one more unscheduled stop when we saw an orchid farm on the way to Rawang, at Batu 23. We wandered in and the colours of the orchids were really stunning, almost every shade you could imagine. I couldn’t resist taking photos, and before leaving, I bought a large bunch of beautiful blooms for just RM5.

It was a good memento of a nice day out.

Getting there

Batu Arang is located between Rawang and Kuala Selangor. There are various ways to get there from Kuala Lumpur. One option is to go towards Rawang, then turn left onto Jalan Batu Arang which is the B27. After some miles turn left onto the B111 which leads straight to Batu Arang.

Or, from Sungai Buloh, head for Kundang and keep going until you reach the B27. As you approach Batu Arang, the road is winding and hilly and surrounded by green forest and has a nice rural feel.

The Batu Arang Welcome Community is located on the hill on the B111 that leads down to the town.

For more information on Welcome Community Home, call (03) 6035 1463, fax (03) 6035 1009 or e-mail: welcomehospice@gmail.com

The orchid farm, United Malaysian Orchids Sdn Bhd, is located at Batu 23, Jalan Batu Arang, Rawang. You can buy whole plants or cut flowers at very reasonable prices.