Dua peguam Bala terpaksa hilangkan diri

Kematian tragis warga Mongolia, Altantuya Shaariibuu dan kehilangan penyiasat persendirian, P Balasubramaniam menyebabkan rakyat semakin sangsi dan tidak yakin sama ada nyawa dan keselamatan mereka mampu dijamin pihak berkuasa.



Terbaru dua peguam yang mewakili dan membantu Bala berhubung akuan bersumpah yang dibuat beliau pada Julai 2008 kini terpaksa menghilangkan diri akibat menerima ancaman kepada nyawa mereka.



Menurut Americk Singh Sidhu (gambar) beliau berasa dirinya tidak lagi selamat berada di negara sendiri berikutan pendedahan temuramah Bala yang disiarkan dalam laman web Malaysia Today November lalu.



"Saya berada di luar negara sejak November kerana saya tidak yakin keselamatan saya terjamin," kata beliau ketika dihubungi Suara Keadilan di Indonesia.



Tambahnya lagi seorang lagi peguam, Amarjit Singh Sidhu juga terpaksa ke luar negara kerana mendakwa mendapat tekanan daripada anggota Cawangan Khas Polis DiRaja Malaysia.



Americk berkata Amarjit adalah bekas anggota Cawangan Khas sebelum menjadi peguam.



"Beliau juga meninggalkan Malaysia kerana sentiasa diikuti dan diganggu oleh ‘Special Branch’.



"Malah pemandunya juga pernah didatangi oleh anggota ‘SB’ yang bertanyakan dimana bosnya berada," kata Americk.



Seorang lagi peguam, Manjeet Singh Dhillon yang juga bekas presiden Badan Peguam Malaysia mengalami pengalaman menakutkan apabila rumah beliau dibaling beberapa bom petrol tidak lama setelah video temuramah Bala disiarkan dalam Youtube.



Ditanya mengenai perkembangan emel yang dihantar olehnya kepada Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia (SPRM) 4 Disember lalu, Americk berkata Manjeet Singh Dhillon sebagai peguamnya akan berurusan dengan SPRM bagi pihaknya.



Tambahnya Manjeet telah menghantar surat kepada SPRM selepas perayaan Krismas lalu memaklumkan kesediaan Bala untuk bekerjasama dengan SPRM tertakluk kepada beberapa syarat.



Antaranya Bala bersetuju untuk ditemuramah SPRM hanya di Singapura atau London kerana bimbangkan keselamatannya.



"Saya berhubung dengan Bala hampir setiap hari dan beliau hanya menunggu arahan daripada saya apabila sahaja SPRM bersetuju dengan syarat yang dikenakan.



"Bala tidak akan pulang ke Malaysia dalam apa juga keadaan kerana risiko kepada nyawanya amat tinggi," tegas Americk lagi.~freemalaysiatoday





Posted by pemudabesut

Pas bakal hadapi lebih banyak tuduhan

KOTA BHARU – Timbalan Pesuruhjaya III Pas negeri, Datuk Mohd Amar Abdullah menyifatkan parti itu akan menghadapi lebih banyak tuduhan dalam usaha untuk menjatuhkan Kerajaan Negeri Kelantan di bawah pimpinan Pas.



Beliau berkata, sebelum ini sudah banyak tuduhan dibuat tetapi tidak ada yang terbukti malah Kerajaan Negeri sentiasa memberi kerjasama setiap kali ada laporan dibuat.



“Kalau dilihat kepada jumlah tuduhan yang semakin meningkat dalam masa begitu singkat, dari segi takrif politik macam ada satu perancangan halus untuk mencemarkan nama baik kerajaan.



“Bagaimanapun, kita sentiasa memberi kerjasama kepada pihak terbabit untuk menyiasat perkara ini sama ada betul atau tidak dan sehingga hari ini masih belum ada yang terbukti,” katanya kepada pemberita ketika ditemui pada Majlis Ramah Mesra sempena Program Asyura anjuran Perbadanan Perpustakaan Awam Negeri Kelantan semalam.



Beliau berkata demikian ketika diminta mengulas isu berhubung laporan daripada pihak tertentu kepada SPRM berhubung salah kuasa guna kuasa dan kepincangan yang berlaku di dalam Kerajaan Negeri.



Mohd Amar berkata, tuduhan itu dijangka meningkat dari semasa ke semasa terutamanya apabila pilihan raya semakin dekat.

Katanya, Kerajaan Negeri sentiasa bersedia untuk menghadapi situasi seperti ini yang disifatkan sebagai cara kotor untuk menjatuhkan PAS di mata rakyat sedangkan tiada bukti yang mengaitkan kepincangan Kerajaan Negeri berkaitan isu dibangkitkan.

Ini Bukan Cara Islam

Jangan cuba bermain api dengan isu agama di negara ini. Malaysia ada undang-undang. Gunakannya untuk mempertahankan Islam. Perkara 11(4) dan 121(1A) telah meletakkan Islam lebih tinggi di sisi Perlembagaan Malaysia.Walaupun di sana Perlembagaan Malaysia belum sepenuhnya boleh menyelamatkan agama Islam.



Jangan masuk dalam provokasi pihak yang kononnya cintakan agama. Pada hal merekalah yang khianat terhadap agama.



Gambar-gambar di atas adalah gereja yang telah dibakar oleh pihak-pihak tidak bertanggungjawab. Memalukan. Ini bukan cara Islam.



kerabubersuara

Angin membawakan khabar…

shamsuleffendey 6:11 pm on January 8, 2010 Permalink
Reply

Tags: laporan (6)

Angin membawakan khabar…

…



Dengar anginnya ada seorang berjawatan cukup besar di salah sebuah Politeknik negeri Perak sedang disiasat oleh SPRM. Menurut sumber yang berminat mendedahkannya kepada aku, bukan sekali malah dua tiga kali pegawai SPRM telah menjenguk untuk mendapatkan maklumat daripadanya. Beliau dikatakan akan bersara wajib tidak lama lagi. Menurut sumber tersebut lagi, kontrak beliau akan disambung walaupun masih disiasat oleh SPRM.



Dikhabarkan juga beliau yang sedang disiasat SPRM itu mempunyai isteri saling x tumpah seperti isteri PM 1 Malaysia. Suka mengawal suami dan berbelanja besar. Walaupun hanya berjawatan pensyarah, namun kuasa isteri beliau mengatasi kuasa suaminya sendiri sehingga digelar kakitangan institusi tersebut dengan panggilan Ketua Pengarah. Malah isteri beliau berkuasa untuk menukar program yang telah disusun oleh pihak Kementerian tidak lama dahulu mengikut kehendak seleranya. Antara kegilaan pasangan suami isteri ini ialah berhibur. Antara program terbaru yang diadakannya ialha pertandingan antara band-band kugiran yang diadakan tidak jauh dari sebuah masjid.



Disebabkan tempoh persaraan yang semakin hampir, maka Majlis Konvokesyen Politeknik yang menjelang tiba bakal diadakan dalam suasana yang penuh gilang gemilang, walaupun ada soseh² duit penyediaan P & P untuk jabatan hanya diperuntukan sebanyak RM5 ribu sahaja. Berita terakhir yang kedengaran ialah salah laku terhadap duit Alumni Politeknik tersebut yang mencecah ratusan ribu ringgit.



Aku harap ianya sekadar angin yang membawa khabar. Kalau angin itu spesis puting beliung maka bersiap sedialah beliau itu.



i



p/s – Untuk makluman Perak mempunyai 2 buah Politeknik.

Ulasan Perisitwa Bakar Gereja

Bakar Gereja Kejadian Malang Yang Berulang



PERISTIWA pembakaran tiga buah gereja; gereja Metro Taberate, di Taman Melawati, gereja Assumption dan Life Chapel di Petaling Jaya malam tadi sesuatu kejadian yang malang. Gereja adalah rumah ibadat. Pembakaran rumah ibadat sangat sensitif sekali tidak kira rumah ibadat agama apa sekali pun.



Kejadian semalam bukan pertama kali berlaku di negara ini. Sekitar tahun 1986/87 tiga buah masjid pernah dibakar hangus di Pahang. Kejadian itu sungguh menghiriskan hati umat Islam. Masjid yang terlibat ialah di Teriang dan di kampung Bohor Perpindahan Banjir dalam Maran Pahanag.



Rakyat negara ini mengutuk atas kejadian itu. Begitu juga dengan kuil hindu juga pernah menghadapi nasib yang sama. Kalau tidak salah ingatan tiada pula laporan sama ada mereka bertanggungjawab dengan kejadian itu berjaya ditangkap atau tidak?



Kini giliran gereja pula cuba dimusnahkan. Tidak kira siapa melakukannya kita kesal atas apa yang berlaku. Tidak seharusnya rumah ibadat di bakar!



Kita berharap polis menjalankan siasatan dan menangkap orang yang bertanggungjawab melakukannya. Dalam melihat kejadian ini apa yang perlu difahami dan dikaji ialah kenapakah berlaku kejadian malang itu. Mengutuk tidak menyelesaikan masalah tetapi berfikir mencari sebab musababnya paling mujarab demi memastikan kejadian itu tidak akan berulang pada masa akan datang baik ke atas rumah ibadat penganut agama apa sekalipun.



Apakah pembakaran itu disebabakan isu yang berlaku sekarang ini, mengenai tindakan Kristian yang beriya-iya ingin menggunakan kalimah Allah dalam majalah Herald. Apakah itu puncanya. Kita tahu suhu dan darah orang Islam sejati dua tiga hari ini panas gara-gara isu berkenaan.



Pun begitu kita tidak boleh menuduh kejadian itu perbuatan orang Islam. Orang Islam yang bersemangat 1 Malaysia, yang liberal dan memahami akan kesejagatan kalimah Allah tidak mungkin melakukannya. Mereka akan menjaga kesucian gereja dan rumah ibadat agama apa sekalipun.



Jadi siapakah yang bertanggungjawab? Apakah ada anasir lain yang sengaja ingin menimbulkan perpecahan dan menanam benih prangsangka di kalangan penganut agama di negara ini. Yang melakukan tersebut atas niat itu tentulah musuh negara. Mereka melakukan jenayah itu dengan hgarapan untuk menimbulkan pergaduhan antara penganut agama di negara ini.



Zaman semasa Parti Komunis Malaya (PKM) aktif dulu jika berlaku apa-apa perbuatan memusnhkan harta awam ianya akan dikaitkan dengan perbuatan jahat komunis. Hari ini komunis sudah tidak ada. Chin Peng nak balik pun dilarang. Lagpun komunis tidak sesekali bertindak ke atas kepentingan mana-mana agama.



Semua pihak seharusnya jangan cepat melatah dalam membuat penilaian ke atas kejadian itu. Walaupun suasana hari ini darah orang Islam panas, tetapi jangan ada yang terus menunding jari dan meletakkan kejadian itu dalam tanggungjawab orang Islam. Sesiapa juga cuba mengaitkan dengan orang Islam memburukkan lagi keadaan.



Polis kena siasat sebaik mungkin. Pihak Kristian juga perlu memahami kenapa gereja dibakar. Kalau mereka merasakan ia berpunca dari suasana yang timbul hari ini, maka berusahalah untuk mengatasi mengembalikan semula suasana sebelum 31 Disember lalu sebelum Mahkamah Tinggi membenarkan perkataan Allah digunakan.



Penganut Krsitian dan semua orang kena menerima hakikat kenapa perkara malang ini tidak terjadi sebelum ini?



Sesungguhanya dalam masyarakat majmuk seperti Malaysia ini jangan ada niat hendak mencuba atau pun membuat ujian test merket atas apa tujuan sekali pun kerana ia sangat merbahaya. Dan atas semangat 1 Malaysia dan menerima kalimah Allah sebagai hak sejagat rakyat Malaysia harus sama-sama menjaga keselamatan masjid, gereja dan kuil! [wm.kl. 5:25 pm 08/01/10]

Posted by mso.im

Isu Royalti Petronas : Latiif Berunding Dengan Hassan Marican

KETUA Dewan Pemuda Pas Kelantan, Abdul Latiff Abdul Rahman akan menemui Ketua Eksekutif Petronas, Hassan Marican petang ini untuk berunding berhubung tuntutan royalti petroleum bagi negeri Kelantan.



Latiff yang juga Adun Mengkebang dipercayai akan membentang hujah-hujah tuntutan royalti untuk Kelantan yang selama ini dinafikan oleh Petronas.



Ikut sama dalam pertemuan dan rundingan peringat nasional itu ialah dua anggota Exco Kelantan, bekas Pengarah Urusan MAS yang juga seorang peguam berpengalaman, Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman dan penasihat undang-undang negeri Kelantan.



Adalah dipercayai Latiff akan membuat sidang media selepas perundingan itu bagi menjelaskan kedudukan dan hasil pertemuan berkenaan.



Dalam perkembangan lain, Dewan Pemuda Pas Kelantan yang dipimpin Abdul Latif telah mengarahkan anggota Exconya, Abdul Ariffahmi Abdul Rahman agar rihat daripada tugasnya atas alasan menantu Menteri Besar Kelantan masih belum menyelesaikan masalah dihadapinya.



Arahan itu dibuat oleh Abdul Latiff dalam mesyuarat Dewan Pemuda Pas Kelantan di Kota Bharu kelmarin. Dengan arahan itu Abdul Ariffahmi tidak dibenarkan menghadiri mesyuarat dan menyertai mana-mana aktviti anjuran Dewan Pemuda Pas Kelantan.



Seperti mana umum mengetahui Abdul Ariffahmi yang juga CEO Perbadanan Menteri Besar Kelantan (PMBK) telah menjadi topik perbualan hangat di Kota Bharu apabila ada usaha pihak tertentu untuk menyingkirkannya dari kedudukan itu. Rancangan menyingkrikan Ariffahmi dibuat secara teracang dengan menaburkan fitnah kononya beliau terlibat dengan rasuah. [wm.kl. 8:00 am 08/01/10]

Posted by mso.im

زم's Photos - Penguasa akhir zaman disanjung2 (click sini)

isu2 sensitif x boleh diselesaikan melalui demonstrasi oleh 2 NGO melayu, PERKASA dan PEKIDA..




bukankah dialog agama lebih selamat..

sabah dan sarawak x pernah larang guna nama Allah, mengapa tidak dibantah sejak dulu?

Mak Enon's Photos - Wall Photos

Kuala Lumpur Church Firebombed over Allah Issue

Would a god by any other name smell as sweet?



Asia Sentinel



Youths on motorcycles firebombed an Assemblies of God church in Kuala Lumpur last night, gutting its administrative offices, and threw a Molotov cocktail at a Catholic church in the Petaling Jaya suburb as tensions continue to rise over a decision by a High Court justice that the Catholic Church could use the word "Allah" to represent the Christian god in the Malay version of its news publication, The Herald.



Police later reported that two more churches were attacked as well although at one the Molotov cocktail failed to ignite. Police stationed police cars at churches throughout the city as demonstrations were scheduled at mosques across the country during the Friday Muslim prayer hours. Officials from the United Malays National Organization and Parti Islam se-Malasia, the two ethnic Malay political parties, condemned the attacks and called for calm. By Friday evening, at least 150,000 protesters have signed onto a Facebook protest, with the numbers continuing to grow.



The ruling by Justice Lau Bee Lan was stayed on Jan 6. at the request of Abdlu Gani Patail, Malaysia's attorney general. Lau's decision has generated massive protest across Malaysia, much of it fomented by UMNO, according to critics. Catholic Church officials agreed to the stay out of national security concerns.



There are increasing concerns that the matter could get out of hand. Musa Hassan, the inspector general of police, warned groups planning to stage rallies that they had better cancel or they could face action. Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has also called for calm although he also said protesters have the right to rally within the confines of mosques.



"We cannot stop them, as long as it is confined within the mosque area," he told a press conference.





The Muslim youth movement Abim and the National Association of Muslim Students were expected to hold nationwide rallies today against Justice Lau's decision.



Kuala Lumpur is also bracing for rising Malay protest in advance of the trial of 12 so-called "cow's head" protesters who are expected to go to court on April 12 for sedition for an incident that happened last August when they were arrested for carrying a cow's head to the Selangor state government headquarters in protest of a plan to relocate a 150-year-old Hindu temple in what was regarded as an ethnic Malay area. Cows are sacred to ethnic Hindus.

Muslimat PAS kutuk serangan gereja

(Harakah Daily) - Dewan Muslimat PAS Pusat (DMPP) mengutuk perbuatan menyerang dua buah gereja iaitu Gereja Metro Tabernacle di Desa Melawati dan Gereja Assumption di Jalan Templer, Petaling Jaya.




Ketua Penerangannya, Salbiah Abdul Wahab dalam satu kenyataan berkata, DMPP yakin perbuatan provokatif itu sengaja dirancang pihak tertentu untuk mewujudkan kekecohan di kalangan masyarakat .



"DMPP juga bersimpati dengan apa yang terjadi, kerana kejadian merobohkan masjid dan surau oleh pihak berkuasa telah dialami sedikit masa dahulu. Perbuatan provokatif kali ini pula sengaja dirancang bagi menimbulkan kekecohan dan rasa tidak aman di kalangan masyarakat majmuk di Malaysia.,"katanya.



Sikap seperti ini juga tegas DMPP menyalahi prinsip Islam dan bercanggah dengan perlembagan Negara yang mengamalkan kebebasan beragama dan Islam sebagai agama rasmi.



"Perbuatan ini sama-sekali menyalahi prinsip Islam dan tidak mencerminkan kesucian Islam. Kerana Islam menjamin kesejahteraan ummah dan menghormati penganut agama lain.,"katanya lagi.



DMPP dalam pada itu berharap rakyat Malaysia bertenang dan tidak melemparkan tuduhan ini kepada mana-mana kumpulan agama.



DMPP yakin kejadian ini dirancang oleh pihak tertentu yang terdesak dan mahu dilihat kononnya sebagai hero mempertahankan Islam ekoran isu penggunaan nama Allah.



"Islam mengajak umatnya berdakwah dan melebarkan kebaikan. Islam melarang sebarang kejahatan dan kemungkaran apatah lagi menceroboh dan merosakkan hak awam. DMPP amat berharap pihak berkuasa memantau dan peka agar kejadian serupa tidak berulang lagi,"katanya.



Tengah malam tadi, gereja Metro Tabernacle, Desa Melawati, dekat sini dibakar oleh pihak tertentu.

Abdul Fatah Karim Apakah mereka sebenarnya memperjuangkan perkataan Allah dari digunakan oleh agama lain selain Islam atau sebenarnya mereka memperalatkan agama kerana kepentingan poilitik perkauman sempit mereka ?

Apakah mereka sebenarnya memperjuangkan perkataan Allah dari digunakan oleh agama lain selain Islam atau sebenarnya mereka memperalatkan agama kerana kepentingan poilitik perkauman sempit mereka ?

Mohd Hafez Sabri's Photos - Foto Dinding

امم Dhamam Berita Sensasi.....

ضامم Dhamam Berita Sensasi.....


Berita awal - KUALA LANGAT 20 Dis. - Menteri Pertahanan, Datuk Seri Dr. Ahmad Zahid Hamidi mengesahkan telah mengambil tindakan terhadap 'orang dalam' yang terlibat dalam kes kehilangan enjin pesawat pemintas F-5E bernilai kira-kira RM50 juta milik Tentera Udara Diraja Malaysia (TUDM).



Berita seterusn...ya - KUALA LUMPUR 6 Jan. - Nilai sebenar untuk sebuah enjin pesawat tempur, F-5E milik Tentera Udara Diraja Malaysia (TUDM) hanyalah antara RM8.5 juta hingga RM28 juta.



Berita terkini - PUTRAJAYA 7 Jan. - Menteri Pertahanan, Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi hari ini menjelaskan nilai sebenar sebuah enjin pesawat F5-E milik Tentera Udara Diraja Malaysia (TUDM) termasuk 'afterburner' ialah RM303,570.

Samun klinik: Seorang ditahan




Oleh MOHD. TURMADZI MADUN, MOHD. ZAINI SAMSU HADI dan ATIKAH MD. DALI

berita@kosmo.com.my





SEORANG lelaki (dua dari kanan) yang diiringi tiga anggota polis dibawa ke Balai Polis Daerah Ampang semalam selepas direman bagi membantu siasatan kes samun sebuah klinik di pinggir ibu negara pada awal Disember lalu.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------





KUALA LUMPUR - Selepas sebulan sebuah klinik di pinggir ibu negara disamun oleh empat samseng Melayu bersenjatakan parang dan kapak, polis malam kelmarin menahan seorang lelaki bagi membantu siasatan berhubung kejadian jenayah itu.







KERATAN Kosmo! 2 Januari 2010.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------







Lelaki berusia 33 tahun itu ditahan pada pukul 9.30 malam ketika dia sedang minum dan berbual dengan tiga rakannya di sebuah restoran di Taman Desa di Jalan Klang Lama dekat sini.



Dia yang berbadan gempal dan bekerja di sebuah syarikat pembekal pekerja asing ditahan oleh sepasukan polis Cawangan Jenayah Berat (D9) Selangor dan dibawa ke Balai Polis Ampang.



Semalam lelaki itu direman selama seminggu.



Bagaimanapun, tiga rakan kepada lelaki itu dibebaskan selepas mendapati mereka tiada kaitan dengan kes samun di klinik itu.

ISNA Commends Malaysian Court Ruling that Affirms Religious Freedom of Christians

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE



(Plainfield, IN – January 4, 2010) The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) commends the landmark ruling by a Malaysian Court on December 31, 2009, that affirms the religious freedom of Malaysian Christians. The ruling asserts that Christians have the right to use the word “Allah” to translate “God” into Bahasa Melayu, the Malaysian language. It strikes down a government ban that was placed in 2007 on the use of the term in Christian literature.



The opponents of the use of the word Allah in reference to God have argued that the term “God” is usually translated by Malaysians who follow faiths other than Islam as “Tuhan” in Bahasa Melayu, not “Allah.” They insist that “Allah” should only be used to refer to God in Islam. This argument is contrary to both Islamic understanding and practice.



The Qur’an is quite explicit that Muslims worship the same God recognized by Christians. The Qur’an commands Muslims to declare that the God they worship and the one worshiped by the followers of revealed books, including Christians, is one: “… and say: We believe in that which has been revealed to us and revealed to you, and our God and your God is One, and to Him do we submit.” (Qur’an 29:46)



With regards to actual and historical practices, Christian Arabs have been using the word “Allah” to refer to God in their religious sources since the inception of Islam, and have never been challenged by private Muslims or Muslim governments on this ground. Islamic law is clear that followers of the Christian faith have the right to practice their religion according to their own religious teachings.



Malaysia has long been a good example of Islamic tolerance and we call on the Malaysian government to maintain the tradition of tolerance and uphold the religious freedom of Christians and to let the court ruling stand. We also urge Muslim NGOs to respect Islamic teachings and long-held Islamic traditions, and to withdraw their opposition to the use of the word “Allah” by their Christian compatriots.



Contact:

Louay Safi, Director of Communications and Leadership Development

317-838-8130

louay@isna.net

01.05.10Translating the Names of God

Posted in Biblical Textual Criticism, Concept of God, Hermeneutics at 10:25 am by Kam Weng




TRANSLATING THE NAMES OF GOD: Recent experience from Indonesia and Malaysia

D. Soesilo



Note – This is partial reproduction of the original article. Reproduced with permission from the author



The Situation in Malaysia

The situation in Malaysia in regard to the use of the divine names is different to that in Indonesia in one important respect, which has more to do with politics than with language. It is that some years ago some states and the federal government prohibited the use of the name Allah by non-Muslims.

It is partly fear of this that has led some organisations to make changes in the rendering of the names of God in Malay and Indonesian, in both their own writing and in quoting of Scripture. (Each time the word Allah “God” occurs, it has been consistently changed to Tuhan “Lord”, with the result that there is no difference between the renderings of the two Hebrew names YHWH and Elohim.)

In response to this situation the Heads of Malaysian Churches met in Kuala Lumpur in 1985 (sponsored by the Bible Society of Malaysia) as well as in the 1989 Kuching Consultation of the Heads of Churches (sponsored by the Christian Federation of Malaysia). At both these

meetings there were unanimous decisions to keep the name Allah; and as the servant of the Malaysian churches, the Bible Society of Malaysia honoured this decision when it published the revised Malay Bible (including the deuterocanonical books), Alkitab Berita Baik, (1996).



There are five reasons why it is legitimate to use Allah among Christians.

They are as follows:

1. The loan word Allah is the Arabic equivalent of the Hebrew names of God El, Elohim, Eloah in the Hebrew Old Testament.

2. Arab Christians from before the dawn of Islam have been praying to Allah, and Allah was used by Christian theologians writing in Arabic. So the Christian usage of Allah is actually older than Islam.

3. Allah is the word used for “God” in all Arabic versions of the Bible from the old Arabic Bible all the way to the modern Arabic Bible (Today’s Arabic Version).

4. Christians in countries like Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, and other places in Asia and Africa where the languages are in contact with Arabic, have almost all been using the word Allah as the Creator God and the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.

5. Last but not least, in Malay and Indonesian the word Allah has been used continuously from the time of the first printed edition of Matthew’s Gospel in Malay (A.C. Ruyl, 1629). It was used in the first complete Malay Bible (M. Leijdecker, 1733), and in the second complete Malay Bible (H.C Klinkert, 1879), and has been used in other published Scriptures up to the

present day.



The situation in Indonesia

It is worth pointing out that, unlike Malaysia, in Indonesia Allah is accepted as the Supreme Being for all people. Thus there has never been a prohibition such as the one in Malaysia. The definition of Allah in the Indonesian Dictionary Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia is an all inclusive definition:



Allah Nama Tuhan dalam bahasa Arab, pencipta alam semesta yang mahasempurna; Tuhan yang Maha Esa yang disembah oleh orang yang beriman

“The name of the Lord in Arabic, creator of the universe who is most perfect; the Lord, the one and only God who is worshipped by people of faith.”



Recently, however, 30 000 copies of a translation of the Bible, Kitab Suci: Torat dan Injil were printed by an organisation in Indonesia, where the text of the Indonesian formal translation published by the Indonesian Bible Society has been systematically changed. This has been done by using some kind of consistency table, so that the name Jesus is written as Yesua, “Jesus Christ” is translated Yesua Hamasiah, the name YHWH is transliterated as YAHWE, and “God” is transliterated from the Hebrew Elohim as Eloim. This form Eloim is also used for “God” in the New Testament (Greek Theos); thus readers find Eloim all over the New Testament as well as the Old Testament.



The explanation for this use of Eloim given in the brochure distributed by the organisation is that Allah is a pagan god, the god of the Arabs – thus Christians cannot use Allah. (This organisation is working among communities and groups of people that include Muslims.) Some examples from the text of this Bible are:

Dengarlah, hal orang Israel: YAHWE itu Eloim kita. YAHWE itu esa!

“Listen O nation of Israel: YAHWE is our Eloim. YAHWE is one!”

(Deut 6.4)



Jawab Yesua: “Hukum yang terutama ialah: Dengarlah, hai orang

Israel, YAHWE Eloim kita, YAHWE itu esa.”

Joshua replied, “The most important commandment is: ‘Listen, O

nation of Israel! YAHWE is our Eloim. YAHWE is one.’ “ (Mark

12.28)



Yesua Hamasiah, anak Dawid, anak Abraham

“Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham” (Matt 1.1)



… di bubungan Bet Eloim

“… on the pinnacle of the Bet Eloim” (Matt 4.5)



Roh Eloim “Spirit of Eloim” (1 Cor 12.3)



Yesua adalah Tuhan “Joshua is Lord” (1 Cor 12.3)



After a lengthy discussion with the Indonesian Bible Society Translation Advisory Committee, it was decided that it is important and preferable to preserve the Old Testament usage of YHWH and its translation tradition in the Septuagint. This has been the long term

practice and the established tradition of the Indonesian speaking churches (that is, following the widely circulated Indonesian Bible translations since 1629). Subsequently the Indonesian Bible Society Board passed a resolution on this matter. Among other things it resolved

that: “… when, in the process of translation, there is any significant exegetical deviation from the standard Indonesian Bible Society (LAI) versions, then LAI will not publish the said Bible, even if the translation/adaptation process has been under the guidance of a LAI Translation Adviser or Consultant.”



The Revised Shellabear Bible: sorting out the issues

As we have just noted, the team responsible for the revision of the Shellabear Bible into Indonesian want to keep the original way of rendering the divine names; that is, rendering the Hebrew name YHWH as Allah and the Hebrew term for “God” Elohim as Tuhan. I will mention some of their reasons for wanting to continue in this way and discuss them in the rest of the article below.



Upon closer examination it has become clear that the problem is not how to translate YHWH or Elohim, but it is a linguistic problem in the Malay/Indonesian language. Some of those who favour this Bible and who have some knowledge of Arabic think that Allah cannot be combined with the possessive pronoun even in Bahasa Indonesia.



From the linguistic point of view, it is claimed that the Christian practice of saying Allahku “my God”, Allahmu “your God”, or Allah kami “our God” is quite offensive to Muslim readers who have some knowledge of Arabic. In Arabic Allah is short for Hah “the God” (as are Hebrew ha eloah and Greek ho theos), so you cannot say Allahku, since it will be awkward to hearers, as is the English construction “my the God”. Contrary to the different meanings and functions of the general Hebrew word elohim “god” or “God”, in Arabic Allah is the revealed name of God only; so those who feel more Arabic than Indonesian cannot say “my God” Allahku, “your God” Allahmu, “our God” Allah kita, or “the God of the Philistines” Allah Filistin, and so on. Similarly it will be offensive to say Allah Ibrahim, Ishak dan Yakub “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”. You can say Allah Tuhanku “God my Lord”, but not Tuhan Allahku “the Lord my God”. In the old Shellabear edition, the name YHWH is usually translated as Allah. This is quite acceptable to Muslims among its readers, especially because it goes along with the Islamic creed la ilaha illa Allah which is usually rendered into Indonesian as Tiada Tuhan selain Allah “There is no other Lord besides God” (a more correct translation would be “There is no other deity besides God”, since “the Lord” is the equivalent of the Arabic word Rabb).



Shellabear’s reversal of Elohim and YHWH was most probably an attempt to respond to Malay language usage in the early 20th century. However, as every living language changes from time to time, the present Bible translation in Malay (1996) has reversed the 1912 Shellabear decision. (As already mentioned, this change was based on the recommendation of the Heads of Churches and Biblical scholars in Malaysia.) Likewise the Anglican Diocese of Kuching, Sarawak, asked the Bible Society of Malaysia for a similar reversal in their Biatah New Testament, in which the first edition had followed the Shellabear early version.



What must be taken into consideration is the distinction between the class word and the proper name for “God”. In Arabic ilah is the class word and Allah is the proper name. However, in Hebrew the opposite is true. Elohim is the general word and YHWH is the proper name, the revealed name in the Hebrew Bible.



Another important factor is that borrowed terms always change in meaning when they come into another language. Ilah as a loan word in Indonesian no longer has the meaning of the original Arabic. In Indonesian it means “god”. Moreover the loan word Allah has been absorbed as a true Indonesian word, and thus it can and should follow the current Indonesian grammatical rules. There were two linguists (including one with a Muslim readership background) on a team of Biblical scholars and linguists appointed by the Indonesian Bible Society to work on the revision of the Indonesian formal translation. They both state that in Bahasa Indonesia as a national language, it is grammatical and quite acceptable to say Allahku, Allahmu, Allah kita, and so on. They also state that, linguistically speaking, if a small minority of Muslim leaders who read Indonesian with an Arabic frame of mind are offended by Allahku, Allahmu, Allah kita, and such terms, it does not mean that the accepted current Indonesian usage of Allahku and the rest should be considered wrong.



Over the centuries the Indonesian churches have been translating, teaching, preaching YHWH as TUHAN, and Elohim, El, Eloah and Theos as Allah. In addition all Indonesian Bible dictionaries, Biblical commentaries, Christian books and theological text books, and scholarly journals have taken this historical position. Thus the Shellabear team’s request

for the reversal of Allah and Tuhan in the over 2000 cases will contradict the current accepted Christian usage and confuse Christian communities. The Indonesian Bible Society is not prepared to accept this, as it serves all churches, not just a minority of Christians.



Along with the issue of following or not following accepted Christian usage is the issue of being accurate and faithful to the meaning and intent of the original (Hebrew) biblical texts. It is one thing to attempt to be meaningful and natural as far as the intended audience is concerned, but it is another to adjust to the theology of the target audience. Of course Shellabear’s way is closer to the Islamic statement of faith: la ilaha illa Allah “There is no other deity beside God.” However, it has to be recognised that in the process of making the translation more acceptable to the audience, the Biblical text has actually been changed.



As a comment on this criticism, we should take note of the usage in translation of the Bible into the Arabic language itself. The Septuagint (Old Testament in Greek) was first translated into Arabic during the time of Harun al Rasyid in the ninth century AD. Since then Arabic Bibles have rendered the names of God as follows:

Hebrew Arabic

YHWH al Rabb, al Rabbu

Elohim (and its variants) Allah

Elohim + pronoun or name Ilah + pronoun or name

Adonal Saidi and some other terms



I have already mentioned a discussion with the Indonesian Bible Society Translation Advisory Committee about this revision project…



If the revision team were to follow the guidelines of the UBS Statement on Translating Divine Names (see the opening paragraphs of this article), the following options might be considered:



Transliteration: YHWH Allah kita, Tuhan itu esa, “Yahweh our Allah (‘God’), the Lord is one.”

(This would be suitable for academic audiences.)



Translation as “Lord”: TUHAN Allah kita, TUHAN itu esa, “The LORD our Allah (‘God’), the Lord is one.”

(This is very similar to the form that is in common use by Indonesian Christians nationwide: TUHAN Ilah kita, Tuhan itu esa.)



Translation of the presumed meaning: Yang abadi adalah Allah kita, Yang Abadi itu esa, “The everlasting one is our God. The everlasting is one,”

OR

Yang kita sembah adalah Yang Abadi, Yang Abadi itu esa, “The One we worship is the everlasting. The everlasting is one.” (These are examples of renderings that should be suitable for audiences that include Muslims.)



Thus, instead of revising the existing rendering of Mark 12.29, Allah Tuhan kita, yaitu Tuhan yang esa “God, our Lord is the only God” to Tuhan Allah kita adalah Tuhan yang esa “The Lord our God is the only Lord,” that statement could be modified in line with the principle of translating the presumed meaning, as follows:



Dengarlah, bani Israel! Tuhan Allah yang kita sembah ialah Tuhan yang

Esa

“Listen, children of Israel! The Lord, the God we worship is the only

Lord.”



Likewise the rendering of this verse in Today’s Indonesian Version Alkitab

Kabar Baik (1985) could be:

Dengarlah, hai bangsa Israel! Tuhan Allah kita, Tuhan itu esa “Listen, O

nation of Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one.”



Similarly the rendering in the 1996 Revised Today’s Malaysian Version Alkitab

Berita Baik could be:

Dengarlah, hai bangsa Israel! Tuhan Allah kita, Dialah Tuhan yang esa

“Listen, O nation of Israel! The Lord is our God, he is the only Lord.”



With changes like these we can be faithful to the biblical texts, and at the same time be acceptable contextually. Though the concept is different from what is familiar to Muslims among the intended audience (especially regarding the revealed name), the proposed revision is appropriate and should not be offensive because it does not attach the possessive pronoun to the word Allah.



Other names of God can be handled as follows:

Yahweh TUHAN “LORD”

Adonai Tuhan “Lord”

Adonai Yahweh TUHAN Raja “LORD, King” (TMV). Compare

GNB “Sovereign LORD”, CEV “LORD

All-Powerful”; also TB Tuhan ALLAH, RSV, REB,

NRSV “Lord GOD”

Adonai Yahweh TUHAN Raja yang Maha Kuasa

Zebaoth “LORD, Almighty King”

(TMV).

Compare GNB “Sovereign LORD Almighty”; also

TB Tuhan, TUHAN semesta alam, RSV “the Lord,

the LORD of Hosts”

Ely on Allah yang Maha Tinggi (TB, BIS, TMV).

RSV “God Most High”

….

Conclusion

To sum it up, Bible translators are called to translate the meaning of the text following guidelines of responsible biblical scholarship, and not following sectarian interpretation. They must try very hard to keep their personal views and theological agendas to an absolute minimum. Anything that will distort the meaning and function of the original text must be avoided at all cost. As stated in the working principles and guidelines, the Shellabear revision must follow the most up-to-date biblical scholarship and the most up-to-date usage of the Indonesian language.



Thus, the Bible Society suggests that the Shellabear revision team consider other options, rather than the proposed reversal of Allah and Tuhan in the over 2000 occurrences of the Hebrew words Elohim, El, Eloah and the Greek word Theos when they are used with possessive pronouns – that is, if they want the revised Shellabear edition in Indonesian to be circulated for wider Christian audiences. As discussed by the ecumenical team of biblical scholars in the Formal Indonesian Old

Testament Revision team, and as recommended by the Indonesian Bible Society Translation Advisory Committee, the following are some of the possible options:



1. Following the Arabic transliteration whenever Elohim, El, Eloah (or Theos in New Testament) are followed by possessive pronouns; for example, Ilahi instead of Allahku “my God”, and for the other pronouns, Ilahu, Ilahokom, and so on.

2. Translating the word Elohim with possessive pronouns into Indonesian as Ilah; for example, Ilahku, Ilahmu, Ilah kita, and so on.

3. Though it does not cover all components of meaning, it is still acceptable from the point of view of both interpretation and language to say Allah yang kusembah or Allah sembahanku “God, the one I worship”, which can be shortened into either two

words, Yang kusembah, or one word, Sembahanku.

——————

Written by D. Soesilo, Translating the Names of God: Recent from

Indonesia and Malaysia. THE BIBLE TRANSLATOR

Practical Papers Vol. 52, No. 4, October 2001: pp. 414-423



Reproduced with permission from the author

01.05.10Allah and Tuhan in Bible Translation

Posted in Biblical Textual Criticism, Concept of God, Hermeneutics at 10:40 am by Kam Weng




Why It is Not Possible to Substitute Allah with Tuhan in Bible Translation



Muslims in other parts of the world (Arabs, Persians, North Africans, Pakistanis and Indonesians) have no objection and are not worried about getting confused when Christians use the word Allah. In contrast, some Malaysian Muslims claim to be confused; a strange phenomenon indeed. This observation lends credence to the suggestion that the Allah issue is an artificial Malay issue and not a genuine Muslim issue. The truth is that the current orchestrated protests against the recent High Court decision to allow the Catholic Herald (and Christians) to use the word Allah must be seen as cynical manipulations by Malay politicians to gain votes from their community.

See Malaysiakini 31/12/2009, “Court Declares Allah Ban Invalid” LINK or Malaysiakini 5/1/2010. “Allah Row: Dr. Mahathir Says Law Cannot Solve it” LINK



See Asia Sentinel 3/1/2010, “God and Allah in Malaysia” LINK



I am more interested in going beyond these political maneuvers. Politicians (including government bureaucrats) are happy just to stay at the level of vague suggestions since they have no competence nor care to address real issues of translation. In contrast, Christians must ensure their arguments for the right to use the word Allah are based on concrete evidence supported by a coherent linguistic philosophy of translation of Scripture.



One major demand from the Malay protestors is that Christians stop using the word Allah on grounds that Christians can find a simple alternative, that is, simply substitute the word Allah with the word Tuhan. Unfortunately, this demand only betrays the ignorance of the protestors. I would have thought that any Malay would know that the meanings of the words Allah (God) and Tuhan (Lord, Rabb) are not the same. How can they suggest that Christians simply use the word Tuhan to substitute the word Allah? To express the issue linguistically, Allah and Tuhan have different senses even though they have the same reference.



Both the terms Allah and Tuhan are used in the Malay Bible. Following the precedent set by Arab Christians, Allah is used to translate el/elohim and Tuhan(or TUHAN in caps) is used to translate Yahweh (YHWH). The two words are sometimes paired together as Yahweh-Elohim in 372 places in the Old Testament (14 times in Genesis 2-3; 4 times in Exodus;8 times in Joshua; 7 times in 2 Samuel; 22 times in Chronicles; 12 times in Psalms; 32 times in Isaiah; 16 times in Jeremiah and 210 times in Ezekiel etc.).



More importantly, the word Tuhan is also applied to Jesus Christ in the New Testament. Thus we read of the LORD Jesus as Tuhan Yesus (The word LORD was used to translate the word kurios 8400 times in the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament. It refers to human beings only 400 times and refers to God 8000 times. Of these 8000 times, 6700 are substitutes for the word YHWH). The transference of the title kurios LORD/YHWH to Jesus Christ is testimony to the belief in the deity of Christ right at the beginning of Christianity.



This simple statistical survey shows clearly that the demand by Muslim demonstrators that Christians simply substitute the word Allah with Tuhan is unreasonable since it renders many Biblical references to God and Jesus Christ incoherent. First, the substitution is incorrect since the meaning of Allah and Tuhan are different. Second, it creates an absurd situation when Christians try to translate the paired words Tuhan Allah (LORD God). Are Christians now required to call the LORD God, Tuhan Tuhan? This sounds like committing linguistic redundancy. Worse still, the repeated words Tuhan Tuhan come across to Malay readers as suggesting that Christians believe in a plurality of Lords/Gods (since the plural form in Malay is expressed by repeating the noun and setting them in apposition). Finally, Christians are unable to express the Lordship of Jesus Christ as one who is distinct from the Father and yet shares with the God of the Old Testament, the name that is above every other name – kurios /Tuhan (Philippians 2:9, cf. Isaiah 45:23). In other words, Christians are rendered unable to affirm the deity of Jesus Christ and teach the doctrine of Trinity without the foundational words that maintain the semantic relationship between the words Allah and Tuhan as they are applied distinctively in the Malay Bible.



Christians in Malaysia would do their utmost to maintain religious harmony in Malaysia. Indeed, the Christian community has made many concessions to accommodate the concerns of the Malay community. However, it cannot accept the demand that it abandons the use of the word Allah and adopts the word Tuhan as a substitute simply because some ill-informed Malays take offence at their practice – an offence which would not have arisen if only these people set aside emotions and prejudices and examine the historical and linguistic evidence in a calm and rational manner. At the very least, Malays (or rather Muslims) should understand that believers are not at liberty to change the meaning of their Scriptures, the Word of God, to satisfy the unfounded scruples of man.



Postscript

I refer readers to the accompanying post, “Translating the Names of God” LINK published in the learned journal (The Bible Translator) that gives more concrete examples of how the names of God are translated in the Malay Bible. The article also discusses the controversy among some scholars on how the words Allah and Tuhan should be used in the revision of Shellabear’s version of the Malay Bible. In any case, all the scholars in the controversy agree that Christians need to use both the words Allah and Tuhan in the Malay Bible.



Please note that the article is reproduced (partially) with permission from the author Dr. D Soesilo.

Two Korean tourists drowned, one in stable condition after tragedy at Damai Beach

Friends surrounded one of the dead body of a Korean tourist who died while trying to rescue his friend.

KUCHING : A holiday by a group of Koreans to this city turned into a tragedy when two of them drowned and another in critical condition when swept by current while bathing at Pantai Damai, Santubong, near here Saturday.



Kim Sung Hyun, 20, and Jung Yo Han, 24, drowned while trying to save their colleague, a 24-year-old woman who was swept by the current while they were bathing at the beach.



The woman was saved by a Civil Defence Department personnel, identified as Abdul Razak, 45, who was on duty at the watch tower. She was rushed to the Sarawak General Hospital and reported in stable condition.





Damai Beach is located some 30km from Kuching city - a popular tourist spot in Sarawak.

The group of Korean tourists, comprising 24 people, arrived here three days ago in a chartered direct flight from Seoul and checked-in into a resort here at about 2pm today.



About an hour later, members of the group were seen bathing at the beach and were said to have ignored warnings by workers at the resort that it was not safe for them to do so as there was a red warning flag there.



A search party found Kim’s body at about 3.30pm while that of Jung’s about 40 minutes later, not far from where they were reported to be bathing.



Kuching district police chief ACP Mun Kock Keong confirmed the incident. — BERNAMA

Ouch! Bintulu is such a suck, boring place to live

An engineer from Semenanjung recently relocated to Bintulu. Unlike most expatriates who often described Bintulu in a favorable manner, this peninsula expat without mincing his words literally said it is literally such a suck place.



Ouch! Hope Hj. Mohidin BDA General Manger read this post. Let’s quote him in verbatim.



1. Bintulu’s cinema costs me a ridiculous rm9 for that class. once i was not allowed to buy ticket because they have to have at least 4 persons for a show to be screened.



2. The house rental rate is as expensive as KL. Single storey may range from RM500-RM700 and double storey starts from RM700-RM1500.



3. There is no condominium / decent apartment being or has been developed in the past 4 years



4. The ratio of shophouses : shopping mall is 2000:1



5. There is no McDonald and good nasi kandar, let alone high end coffee shops



6. There is no bowling alley



7. There are only 2 or the most 4 sets of escalator in the entire town.



8. The road condition is bad, bumpy and full of potholes



9. Bintulu is an airway distance from hometown, so it is expensive to occasionally come back home



10. There is no specialist medical centre (but soon there will be not 1, but 3!)



11. There is minimal job opportunity offered in Bintulu for the spouses. This relates to the inexplicable policy by my Company. This is also why more and more cases of separated family are taking place.



We wrote him an email asking for interview – but he kind of reluctance and said he “feel unsafe answering interview questions via email.”



Meanwhile, we’re trying to get Bintulu Development Authority (BDA) Public Relations section publication manager Halim Mathew for his comment.

Malaysian Christian publication can use ‘Allah’ says High Court

Malaysia High Court rules that Catholic Herald can use the word 'Allah'.

A Malaysian court ruled on Thursday that a Catholic newspaper can use “Allah” to describe God in a surprise judgment that could allay worries about the erosion of minority rights in the majority Muslim country.



The High Court said it was the constitutional right for the Catholic newspaper, the Herald, to use the word “Allah.”



“Even though Islam is the federal religion, it does not empower the respondents to prohibit the use of the word,” said High Court judge Lau Bee Lan.



Last January, Malaysia banned the use of the word “Allah” by Christians, saying the use of the Arabic word might offend the sensitivities of Muslims who make up 60 per cent of Malaysia’s 28 million population.



Analysts say cases such as that involving the Herald worry Malaysian Muslim activists and officials who see using the word Allah in Christian publications including bibles as attempts to proselytize.



The Herald circulates in Sabah and Sarawak on Borneo Island where most tribal people converted to Christianity more than a century ago.



In February, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur Murphy Pakiam, as publisher of the Herald, filed for a judicial review, naming the Home Ministry and the government as respondents.



He had sought to declare that the decision by the respondents prohibiting him from using the word “Allah” in the Herald was illegal and that the word “Allah” was not exclusive to Islam.



The Home Minister’s decision to ban the use of the word was illegal, null and void, said Lau.



Lawyers representing the government said they would refer to the Home Ministry on whether to appeal.



“It is a day of justice and we can say right now that we are citizens of one nation,” said Father Lawrence Andrew, the Herald’s editor.



Christians — including about 800,000 Catholics — make up about 9.1 percent of Malaysia’s population. Malays are by definition Muslims and are not allowed to convert.



Malaysia was rated as having “very high” government restrictions on religion in a recent survey by the Pew Forum, bracketing it with the likes of Iran and Egypt and it was the 9th most restrictive of 198 countries.



Published since 1980, the Herald newspaper is printed in English, Mandarin, Tamil and Malay. The Malay edition is mainly read by tribes in the eastern states of Sabah and Sarawak on Borneo Island.



Ethnic Chinese and Indians, who are mainly Christians, Buddhists and Hindus, have been upset by court rulings on conversions and other religious disputes as well as demolitions of some Hindu temples. — Reuters

Why students do not finish their school.

Education is an important tool if one wishes to succeed in life. However, there are many unfortunate students who never have the opportunity to finish school. There are several factors which cause this setback.



Firstly, there are many students who live in poverty and therefore, cannot afford to finish their school. These students are deprived of receiving education because of the dire financial state they are in. Those who are from rural areas are more prone to face these problems. It is difficult for their parents to meet up with the school fees and support their life necessity at the same time.



Financial problem is a major factor reason why many students are left out from schooling. In this modern world, almost everything requires money and education is one of them. The money is needed to buy school uniforms, stationeries, and text books which do not come cheap. It is when facing financial burdens that some students are forced to stop schooling just to help their family to earn enough bread and butter.



The second reason to why this happened is there are students who are facing serious family problems. Cases such as parents divorce, death in the family, or serious financial crisis may have psychological effects on student are still schooling. These are students who will soon be morally deprived because of the situation such as divorced parents. They feel they are to blame for such cases and eventually they would be disturbed emotionally and also spiritually.



Slowly, they would start to lose faith in living and choose to be rebellious instead. Some would end up taking drug or play truant. Apart from that, these students may turn to the dark side of life, which may include being a gangster and getting involved in other criminal acts. It is these type of involvements that may lead them being expelled from school because they could obey the school rules. Students who are expelled and do not turn over a new leaf would not be able to enter school again.



Nonetheless, if this problem is looked into seriously, there are ways to overcome it. One of the ways is to help those who are living in poverty by offering free education. The government has the role to implement this by building more schools and assign teachers to areas that are deprived of education. Teachers who are willing to work pro-bono should also help out in dealing with these problems.



The government, and also other organizations who are willing, can offer scholarships to poor students to help them to buy all the schooling necessities such as school uniforms. Poor students in urban areas should also be taken into account.



The government should have a policy on “Education for evryone’ where every child gets to receive education without having to worry about their financial state and this must be carried out with a well –planned strategy.



Parents too, play important roles in moulding their children’s behavior. Since young, their children should be exposed to the pleasures of learning and the importance of education in their life. With this advice and care take root in their being, they would surely grow up to be fond of education and realize the benefits of being well-educated.



Parents should portray a good example as children are prone to follow their parents’ footsteps. A strong family bond is a major factor in children’s emotional and spiritual development. As the two saying go, ‘The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree’ and ‘blood is thicker than water’.



In conclusion, everyone should receive education. It is highly imperative if one wishes to succeed in life. Everyone should help in achieving the dreams of our children, our future.

Money – a lot of monies key to winning Sarawak elections – Ku Li

Money and a lot of it is key to winning Sarawak elections says former Finance Minister Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah in exclusive interview with Malaysiakini.




“Money is a big factor there… if you don’t go in with big money there is no way you can change the attitude of the people,” he said and then clarified he was talking from the practical side, not that he encouraging use of money or money politics. “But that how the game is played,” he said.



Razaleigh said being a big state, getting the messages across to people who are scattered in a vast areas is already a daunting task that need lot of money.



“We hear all kind of stories out of Sarawak. It’s not easy to have access. You go in there before the election, suddenly find all helicopters have been chartered, all the boats have been on requisition by the ruling parties.”

“Where you go from there, you can’t even go up the Rejang river. It’s so big a river. It’s so difficult to communicate and the campaigning period is only seven days”.




“How do you get from point A to point B is not easy,” Razaleigh said.



To compound the problems according to Razaleigh Sarawak is also made up of so many different ethnics that speak different languages.



“We [though] could win the people over, but they are all over, so far to get to them.”



“They speak different lingual… the Melanau, the Iban, Land Dayak.. they are all different people. Even the Chinese clans in Kuching are different from Chinese in Sibu”



“It’s not easy.There are so many parties involved,” he added.

World tallest building Burj Dubai to open on Jan 4 – report

DUBAI – Once-bustling Dubai will open the world’s tallest skyscraper on Monday, boasting new limits in design and construction, hopeful of polishing an image tarnished by the debt woes afflicting the Gulf emirate.




Emaar, the giant property firm part-owned by the government and which developed the needle-shaped concrete, steel and glass structure, has declined to reveal Burj Dubai’s exact height.



Apparently wanting to maintain the suspense, the company will say only that the tower exceeds 800 meters (2,640 feet), putting it far higher than Taiwan’s Taipei 101 tower (508 meters).



Bill Baker, a structural and civil engineer and partner in Chicago-based Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM), which designed the tower, said Burj Dubai has set a new benchmark.



“We thought that it would be slightly taller than the existing tallest tower of Taipei 101. (Emaar) kept on asking us to go higher but we didn’t know how high we could go,” he said.



“We were able to tune the building like we tune a music instrument. As we went higher and higher and higher, we discovered that by doing that process… we were able to reach heights much higher than we ever thought we could.



“We learned quite a bit from Burj Dubai. I would think we could easily do a one kilometer (tower). We are optimistic about the ability to go even higher.”



The 160-floor tower, containing 330,000 cubic meters (11.55 million cubic feet) of concrete and 31,400 tons of steel, can be seen from as far as 95 kilometers (59 miles) away.



Burj Dubai contains 57 lifts, which will whisk people to 1,044 apartments and 49 floors of office space, as well as a hotel bearing the Giorgio Armani logo.



A spiralling Y-shaped design by SOM architect Adrian Smith was used to support the structural core of the tower, which narrows as it ascends. Higher up it becomes a steel structure topped with a huge spire.



To reach the final stages, concrete was propelled to a height of 605 meters (1,996 feet) — a world record.



George Efstathiou, managing partner of SOM and the main project manager, said the tripod Y shape provides a stable base.



“We took that basic… plan and used references to Islamic geometries and pointed arches… as we go vertical with that shape we stepped it back in order to mitigate the wind issue,” he told AFP.



“The building is very quiet. There are many storms that you wouldn’t notice at all. This building is a lot quieter than a lot of the other supertalls that came before, even if they are shorter buildings.”



Construction, which began in 2004, is estimated to have cost one billion dollars (694.7 million euros).



It was carried out by South Korea’s Samsung Engineering & Construction, Belgium’s BESIX group and the United Arab Emirates’ Arabtec.



The skyscraper is the centerpiece of a 20-billion-dollar new shopping district, Downtown Burj Dubai, which includes 30,000 apartments and the Dubai Mall, which says its space for 1,200 shops makes it the world’s largest indoor shopping center.



Ahead of Monday’s grand opening, estate agents said there has been a considerable rise in demand for the tower’s residential units, which were sold by the developer several years ago.



Property prices in Dubai have plunged more than 50 percent over the past year, but brokers told AFP that the drop in the tower’s prices has been less precipitous.



“I bought a one-bedroom apartment on the 80th floor for three million dollars in 2008. With the slide in prices, my loss will be huge, at least theoretically,” one Palestinian businessman told AFP.



One square foot in the commercial area of the tower fetched 4,500 to 5,500 dollars at the height of the property boom in 2008, before the global recession hit.



Some believe Burj Dubai will be the last of the giant projects that have brought global fame to Dubai, such as the three-kilometer- (two-mile-) long Palm Jumeirah artificial island developed by the troubled Nakheel company.



Other towers that have been announced but now look doubtful include the 1,000-meter Nakheel Tower, Kuwait’s Silk City tower slated to be more than 1,000 meters tall, and the 1,600-meter Jeddah tower by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.



Efstathiou says he believes it will be 10 years before Burj Dubai’s record is broken.



“When Burj Dubai was conceived, it was a totally different time and the biggest driving force for these tall towers are the economics,” he said.



“If you can tell me when the economy is going to turn around, I would have a better idea about when the next building will occur. But we know that if a building started its designs today it wouldn’t be done before at least seven to 10 years.” — AFP