Monday, February 14, 2011

WHERE ARE THE TUAN GURU’S AND PAK MUFTI’S

Datuk John Tenewi Nuek, a former Malaysian diplomat and former Under-Secretary in the Foreign Ministry has drummed up a warning that Malaysia will end up like Myanmar or Ghana, if our political leaders continue to abuse their power. He also claimed that corruption in this country is now beyond redemption. Datuk John Tenewi Nuek is now the newly appointed PKR Vice-President and had served the Foreign Ministry for 33years.

I think, Datuk John Tenewi is the first retired senior government officer to come out openly to criticize the government. Beside Myanmar and Ghana, he cites the Philippines and Nigeria that were at one time countries that were wealthy and prosperous, are now economically backward and poor because its leaders were corrupt and abused their powers.

Earlier in the morning, a group of friends and I while having tea were in deep discussion over the happenings in Tunisia, Egypt, and now a similar wave of people’s protest is emerging in Algeria and Yemen. The reasons for the protest in all the four Arab countries are similar i.e. a government that is corrupt, repressive laws and the abuse of power by its leaders, rampant poverty, high jobless rates within the society that ended up in broken marriages and families, nepotism and the enrichment of cronies an its family members.

As I have mentioned in an earlier article, this country has all the reasons and causes for its people to launch a protest against the government. But unfortunately, officials in the government today seem to suffer from a loss of hearing and sight.

As an example, when we say that corruption is endemic in this country, the response we get is that the level of corruption is not too bad when compared to other developing countries, and statistics says that it is manageable. And when we say that we have repressive laws like the ISA, the response is that such laws are necessary to protect the safety and security of the country. And when we say that our leaders are inclined to abuse their power for their own pecuniary self interest, than the response will be that there is no prove to such an accusation.

We have been fed constantly about the massive abuses of the Chief Minister of Sarawak, but do we hear of any strong criticism from any member of the government. Despite all the evidences that have been posted in the alternative media (read the tale by tale articles in Sarawak Report) nothing seems to meet the interest of the authorities. The MACC and the police play the game of the three monkeys i.e. ‘see no evil, hear no evil and talk no evil’. I think they are waiting for someone to come up with a report written in gold and delivered in silver envelop.

By just looking at photos of the CM’s female family member drinking beer is enough to suggest that she have not had enough religious up-bringing. Now, my question is where are all our Tuan Guru’s and Pak Mufti’s. Not a whimper from any one of them.

Are the beer drinkers not to be lashed, or are they all governed by a special set of Islamic laws, just because they are from families of the super rich? Or are you (Tuan Guru's and Pak Mufti's) too afraid that you might lose your job? You know damn well that you will have to answer all this maksiat and dosa in the hereafter.

Someone from the group that I had discussion with early this morning sums up his frustration with this prediction – “Negeri kita ini akan menerima musibah yang amat dahshat sekiranya pemimpin pemimpin kita masih tidak sedar akan maksiat dan dosa yang sedang berlaku tanpa sebarang sekatan di khalangan masyarakat kita. Padahnya bukan kepada mereka yang mengamalkan maksiat dan dosa, tapi pada seluruh umat di negera ini”.

I do not deny the truth about such a prediction, but I hope it does not occur during my life time.


CRUSADE AGAINST CORRUPTION

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Dato ,kita tanya Dato Harusani n Noh Gadot ADA BERANI KA?

Unknown said...

Salam Dato,
Well Dato,do something or act before its too late.Jangan cakap and tulis aja.As I advised you before involved yourself directly into politics by joining any of the party whether its BN or opposition esp PKR,I am sure DSAI will elect you as one of top ranking officials as you were formally one of ex snr govt officers.In this way you can continue you crusade vigorously and report all the wrongdoings and misdeeds by the govt officers to anyone you wish SPRM,Police,UN and so on.But bare in mind do not just report,produce hard evidence.Nevertheless I know what is going to be you response to my proposal is that all gove agencies are corr......fikirlah sendiri

Unknown said...

In the mosque and madrasah, where they belong!
Or should they be loitering around pubs and entertainment outlets arresting Muslims drinking beer, as you seem to suggest?
Come-on Dato', I am sure you are above all that?
Sure beer drinkers are generally raucous and irreligious, to say the least, but are they all bad/sinful and therefore despicable as well?
I tend to agree with you when the label is confined to the context of being good or bad Muslims.
But then again, can we confidently assume that all non-drinking Muslims are good?
A very strainous assumption indeed.
So let us not be too judgemental over the social preferences or habits of others.
To be safe, we should detach ourselves from this narrow and parochial religious perspective.
To me the Tok Gurus and Pak Muftis should remain where they are; confined to their domain.
Bad enough rituals like pre-class 'doa' have put off most if not all non-Muslim parents from sending their children to the sekolah kebangsaan, but calling on Muftis and Tok Gurus to castigate beer drinkers would be considered Talibanisque, to say the least!!
Actually, for practical purposes, if we were to dissect the human race accross the board, only 5% can qualify to call themselves Monotheistic (absolute believers in one God), 2% are die-hard Atheist (absolutely non-believers), the 92% of the rest, are in reality Agnostics(sometimes believe fully-sometimes not or questioningly).
I have disqualified myself from either of the the two extremes, I wonder where do you place yourself?
So, let us stay on familiar territory and focus on corruption!!!

Mohd Arshad Raji said...

Dear Cheng,

I respect your comments, and please respect mine as well. My observation/comment in thhe article is directed at Muslims only; and not the others. For your information, the consumption of alcohol is forbidden in Islam, and if you are a Christians you too should know about the restriction imposed on the consumption of alcohol and pork as well. I do not wish to get in to an argument with you about this because what is your is yours, and what is mine is mine.
I have many non Muslim friends, but I will never touch anything that is religiously sensitive to them. Neither will I ever preach to them that the consumption of alcohol is forbidden in Islam, because they all know this.

john karim said...

Dear Dato,

I disagree with the opinions expressed by Nazaucis. It does not mean that if you want to do something for the country we can only do it politically. Certainly not. Assuming you join a political party, then you will have to 'toe the party line' and thus are no more neutral. Right now your strength is the fact that you are apolitical and hence are more 'objective'. Let me assure you Dato, that in your own small way, you are most certainly contributing to the betterment of Malaysia, which is what we all want. I may not agree with all you write, but I will most certainly defend your right to write and express your frank opinions. So, keep on writing Dato.

john karim said...

Dear Dato,

I do not agree with the views expressed by Nazaucis. It does not mean that if we want to contribute to the country we can only do it politically. Each of us can play our role in different ways. Assuming you join a political party tomorrow Dato, you will cease to be 'neutral' and will have to toe the party line. That in itself will be your weakness. Your strength right now is that you are apolitical and hence will be more 'objective' in your views. I may not agree with all that you write, but I will certainly defend your right to express them freely and objectively.
It is easy to say, jangan tulis and cakap aja, but that is your strength and so what is wrong in contributing towards making Malaysia a better place by doing what you do best!!!!
So keep up the good work Dato and keep in writing.

Unknown said...

To someone like Anwar Ibrahim, politics is life itself.
Take that aspect away from him, he will probably be reduced to nothing more than an ordinary human being, too busy battling his demons to bother anyone.
I believe a person like him cannot even survive outside politics.
A somewhat similar situation is faced by Nik Aziz. If the PAS spiritual leadership is wrested from him, he is likely to capitulate politically.
But at least for Nik Aziz, he can continue with his role as a revered Tok Guru until his dying days.
A similar predicament is faced by most if not all BN politcians..
The point I am making for nazaucis and others like him is that politics is not life or an end in itself; especially for a Blogger like Dato' Arshad!
He can remain a-political and yet be an effective sounding board for the masses.
I am afraid if he were to heed the advise of nazaucis and join one of Malaysia's political factions, he will not fit in.
This is because to be successful in Malaysian politcs, one must be so callous as to be able to 'sell one's grandmother down the river'.
I don't think Pak Chad is such a person.
Furthermore, such a decision will undoubtly be the death sentence for the mind no evil blog!!!

Unknown said...

Salam Wira,
Thank you for yr comments.Missing Capt Longhouse,FM Zam and the regular commenters.Yg tahu berterima kasih dan bersyukur.