Tuesday, November 27, 2007

the naked truth


Last month, the ethnic Indians of Malaysia had done a great job to prove to the world that despite the so much hyped about "racial harmony" as the government says, the unity between this country's multi-racial people is gradually falling apart.

Yes ladies and gentlemen, as a Malaysian, I have witnessed and experienced many times, how the residents in this country are dissappointed with matters regarding to the race factor. If you ask randomly one question, "what is it that you are not happy with this country?", the famous answer would be the "education quota system".

It has been stated right under the country's constitution - the Bumiputera's (it means "prince of soil" which refers to the ethnic malay people) shall be granted many rewards and advantages apart from other races. One of the advantages will be placements in public / local universities. The most ironic part of this particular part of this constitution is that, many in this country are forgetting the most important factor in this country. People in this country are widely separated by the "Muslims" and the "Non-Muslims". Islam is indeed Malaysia's national religion, and everybody who is a citizen in Malaysia would by right admit the fact that this is an Islamic nation and should know their boundaries. Everybody has taken their oath on this, and if they can't accept this, then why be a Malaysian? Hence, most privileges will go to the Muslims. Favourism of the Malay race is backed by the reason of protecting the rights of the Muslims here. This country is ruled by the Muslims and our country has taken a lot of effort to ensure the Muslim residents deserve a decent, comfortable and peaceful life here.

If we compare Malaysia with other Islamic countries throughout the globe, we know that our country has been very lenient and practices religious tolerance. What i mean by this is that, people are allowed to have different faith and could have any ceremonies that are related to their respective religion as long as the people respect each others religion and live with harmony.

Other than that, this country is hugely affected with racial segregation, corruption, economic disparity... Each ethnic group in this country feels superior. Believe me or not, each one of Malaysian, would have condemned at least once about the other races or would have specific generalization of each one of the ethnic groups. Just enter any universities or schools in Malaysia, the most common thing that you could notice is that each race tends to stick to their ethnic group wherever they are - classroom, cafe, group discussions. This color factor has been the norm for a long time already.

Now coming back to the recent rally, i personally think that the Indians had done a big mistake in choosing the name of their group - "hindraf" . "hind" stands for hindu - and that's a religion - not a race. Anybody could be a hindu in this world, not specifically Indians. Instead of using "indraf", they have choosen "hindraf". I guess their leader needs to rethink of the impacts of using religion over matters of human rights. This is because in our country, the leading and national religion is of course Islam, and people are separated by Muslims and Non-Muslims. And, i guess the leader of the group would have obviously known that not all Indians in Malaysia are hindus, in fact a major percentage of them in this country are actually Muslims. So, this is like blatantly a not so smart start for the ethnic Indians to actually use the name of religion to fight for their rights. Race and religion is totally different and both are sensitive matters.

As i mentioned previously, this country has done a great help in ensuring peace among the multi-racial and multi-religious community in this country. Especially, to focus on hindus in this country - we have vernacular tamil schools, tamil based tv and radio programmes, tamil publications, indian stores, indian food restaurant, the freedom to celebrate religious celebration at home or in the public and they have temples too. What more could a person ask for in a Muslim country?

It's really a shame when people of my country still haven't captured the true essence of UNITY. Long gone were the times of racial segregation and double standards but why are we still living backwards?? We have made so much of contributions to "Malaysians for Peace" campaign, but we ourselves have yet to improve something that is tarnishing the identity of this country.

At the end of the day, we all Malaysians should never ever take for granted the peace that we have right now and be thankful to God Almighty.

posted by eye-catcher @ 4:28 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Stand Up, Speak Up


While at work today, i came across yet another sad story that defy's women's rights. What didn't surprise me was that the story came from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

A Saudi lady who was gang raped last year (14 times by a group of 7 men) would have gone through nightmares and psychological trauma caused by the gang rape itself and now the country's law is giving her an unfair, bias judgement towards the woman's cry for help in public. According to Al-jazeera news today the arabian lady was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment and additional 200 lashes because of the lady's "attempt to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media". in 2006 she was sentenced to 90 lashes due to "illegal mingling" which had led to her being raped. Have the men in Saudi Arabia lost their sense of sympathy?

In an Islamic point of view, an unmarried woman involved in sexual behavior voluntarily would have been severely punished based on Islamic Religious Law (Syaria Law).
Involuntary sexual acts done by married women and in this case a "rape", the Islamic Law does not rule out that a victim should be punished too. Meeting a man in the car is not associated with sexual behavior from any point of view. I'm so curious, i wonder were there any eye-witness who saw the victim and the man that she had a "rendezvous" with in the car doing some lewd acts? It wasn't mentioned it the news.... how could just meeting a man be so "illegal" or a "crime"? I'm baffled ...would any sane arabian lady throw herself to a group of "hungry" men just so that they get satisfaction and she gets nothing at all?

Islamic rules & regulations has always been very protective of women in Islam. There are tremendous amount of rules and specifications on how an Islamic woman should appear and each of them are actually good if it is given deep thoughts to it. But when rules tends to be overprotective, Islamic women especially in middle east countries face horrible suppression by the law and this brings more harm than good. The truth is, in Saudi Arabia it's really not the Islamic rules that they follow, it's actually their tradition itself which is far too backwards from modern day civilization. I'm talking about giving the arabian ladies liberty to express themselves with acceptable restrictions.

Now just imagine what happens to the rape victim after this...

First of all, psychological pain and lost of privacy caused by the global mass media. (she has already attempted suicide)
Secondly, her family would either support her and condone her or maybe they would actually detest her for bringing shame.
Next, the big question of her virginity would prevail since it's a middle east country, what are the chances of her getting a decent proposal from an arabian man to get married? (in Saudi Arabia, men need their wifes chastity to remain intact before marriage)
Then she has to go through several medical examinations just to make sure she's not pregnant or having any sexually transmitted disease.
and last but not least, 6 months jail term and 200 lashes.

How much more could a rape victim handle??

Today, women in Saudi Arabia and the rest of the middle eastern region should really take note of this matter and start learning how to stand up and speak up of their rights. Isn't it such a shame to see foreign interruption appearing to defend the rights of women in the middle east but none from middle eastern countries itself. This kind of situation has actually allowed Women’s rights as a western foreign policy objective in the Middle East. I wonder will there ever be a revolutionary change for a better life for these arabic women or when will their plight be ever heard? Would a lady with authority give this kind of verdict to a rape victim? Take note, Saudi women are not allowed to be legislators too. I feel pity to these arabian women, day by day they are trapped by life's disappointing realities. Arabian women needs to find a solution on defending themselves, change the tradition and stop running away or ignoring what's happening to them.While i've heard many positive news such as the first Saudi woman who became a pilot or 60% of successful Saudi University graduates are women, lots of things Saudi women need to catch up. The most important thing is they need to be heard and treated equally with men. They need to unite to overcome the tight rules made by male chauvinists and sexist in their country.

It's time to wake up ladies, and show them that you are bravehearts and make history.

posted by eye-catcher @ 6:41 PM 0 comments