Sebenarnya Rakyat Malaysia Belum Merdeka

Selamat menyambut hari kemerdekaan yang ke-53 buat seluruh warga Malaysia. Semoga pemberian nikmat ini akan berkekalan hendak-Nya. Negara kita telah 53 tahun merdeka namun bagaimana dengan keadaan rakyatnya? Sedar atau tidak masih banyak perkara yang kita masih belum merdeka atau lebih tepat sebenar-benar merdeka.

Tuan-tuan dan puan-puan sekalian, apakah erti kemerdekaan?

Secara ringkas, kemerdekaan bermaksud kebebasan ataupun berdikari. Apa yang saya nampak ada banyak perkara yang kita masih belum merdeka. Namun, saya simpulkan kepada 4 perkara yang kita masih belum merdeka.


1) Kita masih belum merdeka dari segi minda
Whatever the mind of a man can conceive and believe, he can achieve.

Majoriti rakyat Malaysia masih belum merdeka dari segi minda. Kebanyakkan masyarakat kita masih belum percaya dengan kemampuan diri sendiri. Sebagai contoh, masih ramai yang berfikiran bahawa mereka tidak mampu untuk membina empayar perniagaan sendiri dan memilih untuk terus bekerja makan gaji.

Sedangkan kebanyakkan mereka mempunyai kemahiran yang cukup untuk memulakan perniagaan sendiri. Memetik kata-kata Tun Dr Mahathir, kerajaan sekarang sepatutnya membantu rakyat Malaysia agar melahirkan lebih ramai usahawan supaya dapat mencipta peluang pekerjaan. Bukannya membuka ruang kepada pelabur asing untuk mencipta peluang pekerjaan yang tidak seberapa kepada masyarakat kita. Akhirnya kekayaan negara diangkut balik ke negara mereka.

Beliau berkata kita bukannya berada pada 20-30 tahun lepas dimana Malaysia masih belum bersedia dari segi teknologi dan kemahiran. Tun Dr. Mahathir melihat kemampuan kita semua, tetapi sayangnya minda segelintir pemimpin kita masih belum merdeka.

2) Kita masih belum merdeka dari segi kehidupan
Cuba kita buat ’spot-check’ terhadap kehidupan seharian kita. Adakah kita sudah merdeka? Sebenarnya kita masih belum merdeka. Ramai masyarakat kita hari ini hidup di atas buah fikiran orang lain. Perkara ini saya telah sebut berulang-ulang kali pada entri sebelum ini.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.

Sebagai contoh, majoriti masyarakat kita berpendapat kejayaan sesuatu perniagaan diukur melalui jenis kereta yang dinaiki. Kononnya. Maka kita pun berusaha sekuat hati untuk membeli kereta besar walaupun perniagaan masih belum kemana kerana nak buktikan kepada ahli keluarga, rakan-rakan dan orang sekeliling bahawa kita telah berjaya.

Hey, kamu hidup di atas dasar pemikiran orang lain! Bebanan expenses bulanan kamu yang perlu tanggung dan bukannya ahli keluarga, rakan-rakan dan orang sekeliling!

Beli kereta besar setelah benar-benar kita mampu dan bukannya kerana nak buktikan bahawa kita berjaya kepada orang lain, barulah merdeka. Kadang-kadang kita sendiri masih belum merdeka di dalam membuat keputusan untuk kehidupan kita.

3) Kita masih belum merdeka dari segi kewangan
Jika kita tidak menjadi Tuan kepada Duit, kita terpaksa menjadi HAMBA kepada hutang. – Tuan Shamsuddin Kadir

Mengikut statistik tahap kewangan rakyat Malaysia, sejujurnya kita sedar bahawa kita masih belum merdeka. Majoriti daripada masyarakat Malaysia masih belum bebas kewangan, malah terus menjadi hamba kepada kewangan.

Masih ramai yang berbelanja melebihi kemampuan dan seterusnya muflis di usia yang muda! Saya telah jumpa ramai individu yang hidup hanya untuk membayar hutang. Jika anda membaca buku Hidup Tenang Walaupun Berhutang nukilan Tuan Shamsuddin Kadir maka anda akan tahu mengenai status kemerdekaan kewangan masyarakat kita.

Kita akan merdeka kewangan apabila kita hidup bebas dari hutang. Malah lebih hebat apabila kita mencapai tahap dapat membeli sesuatu tanpa perlu melihat tanda harga dan dapat memberi tanpa perlu mengira.

4) Kita masih merdeka belum dari segi hati dan jiwa
Dari Abu Hurairah RA, Rasulullah SAW bersabda, “Allah SWT berfirman, “Hai Anak Adam, sibukkanlah waktumu untuk beribadah kepada-Ku, niscaya Aku akan memberikan kekayaan dihatimu dan Aku akan menghilangkan kemiskinan darimu. Jika tidak Aku akan memasukkan dalam dirimu kesibukan, sedangkan Aku tidak akan menghilangkan kemiskinanmu” (HR Ahmad, Ubnu Majah).

Kehidupan di dunia adalah sementara dan kehidupan di sana adalah yang kekal abadi. Namun, majoriti daripada rakyat Malaysia yang beragama Islam masih gagal untuk membebaskan hati mereka dari dunia. Jangan kerana mengejar dunia maka kita lupa tanggungjawab kita sebagai hamba-Nya.

Kita tidak perlu menunding jari kepada orang lain. Cuba nilai diri kita sendiri. Apakah kerja seharian yang kita lakukan ini adalah benar-benar ikhlas kerana Allah ataupun ikhlas kerana dunia? Sebagai penutup, renungi dan hayatilah sepotong hadis di bawah:

Anas R.A meriwayatkan sabda Rasulullah SAW, “Barangsiapa yang perhatiannya hanya tertuju pada dunia, dan tujuan hidupnya hanya untuk mencari dunia, ia berpergian untuk keperluan dunia dan senantiasa memikirkan dunia maka Allah SWT akan membentangkan dihadapan matanya perasaan takut kepada kemisikinan dan kelaparan. Dan ia akan menghabiskan waktunya untuk memikirkan dan mengkhawatirkan dunia, sedangkan ia hanya akan mendapatkan sekadar yang telah ditakdirkan untuknya.

Barangsiapa yang menumpahkan perhatiannya pada akhirat dan sentiasa memikirkan akhirat, maka Allah SWT akan menyelamatkannya dari kegelisahan dan kebimbangan mengenai dunia. Allah SWT akan mengurniakan kepadanya rasa puas dan tidak berhajat kepada benda dunia. Allah SWT akan mempermudah segala urusannya, dan dunia akan datang sendiri dalam keadaan hina.”

Alhamdulillah, pada tahun ini kita menyambut ulang tahun kemerdekaan negara kita yang tercinta di dalam bulan Ramadhan Al-Mubarak, bulan yang cukup mulia. Perkongsian 4 perkara yang kita masih belum merdeka di atas adalah bertujuan untuk menasihati dan memperbetulkan diri sendiri juga

Nikah Gantung Atasi Masalah Sosial Remaja

Proses perkahwinan yang digalakkan oleh Islam sewajarnya dipermudahkan agar generasi muda tidak liar dan kemaruk nafsu, lalu
terjebak dalam kancah seks bebas, kata ketua Dewan Pemuda PAS pusat, Nasrudin Hassan.

Menurut, langkah memudahkan proses perkahwinan boleh dilakukan oleh pihak berwajib, antaranya dengan:

# Memberi peruntukan kepada pasangan muda yang ingin berkahwin.
# Memberi insentif sebagai galakan berkahwin.
# Mengurangkan karenah birokrasi yang menyulitkan.
# Kursus dan khidmat bimbingan perkahwinan secara percuma.
# Menganjurkan perkahwinan beramai - ramai yang menjimatkan.
# Mendidik masyarakat dengan budaya sederhana dalam majlis perkahwinan.
# Merendahkan hantaran perkahwinan.

"Antara kaedah mempermudahkan proses perkahwinan ialah Nikah Khitbah atau dalam bahasa mudah disebut oleh masyarakat kita sebagai nikah gantung," kata Nasrudin dalam satu kenyataan hari ini.

Cuma bezanya, tegas beliau, ialah pasangan pengantin tidak tinggal serumah dalam tempoh-tempoh tertentu kerana beberapa keadaan seperti:

# Masih menuntut di kolej atau univerisiti.
# idak mempunyai kemampuan menyewa rumah.
# Belum bersedia menanggung komitmen kehidupan berumahtangga.

Nasrudin berkata, kelebihan nikah gantung ialah mereka adalah pasangan suami isteri yang sah mengikut hukum agama dan undang-undang negara.

"Andainya dalam tempoh itu mereka bertemu, keluar makan, belajar bersama, bahkan kalau mereka terlanjur sekalipun mengadakan hubungan seks, mka apa yang mereka lakukan itu tidak salah atau tidak haram.

"Andai berlaku kehamilan, maka pasangan itu tidak perlu panik terutama pihak gadis yang hamil kerana ia menghamilkan anaknya yang sah nasab (keturunan).

"Bahkan nanti mereka tidak perlu malu dan menjauhkan diri dari keluarga kerana keluarga pula akan menyambut kedatangan bayi itu dengan bangga dan bermaruah," tambahnya .

Menurutnya lagi, kes buang bayi yang berleluasa hari ini rata-ratanya adalah ekoran rasa panik dan hilang pertimbangan akibat malu dan hilang maruah dari pasangan terbabit.

"Malah mereka juga takut untuk kembali ke pangkuan keluarga justeru mereka mengetahui bahawa hubungan mereka salah dan mereka hamil hasil hubungan terlarang. Ia memalukan keluarga dan mencemarkan maruah bangsa dan agama .

"Akhirnya, jalan pintas dan terdesak yang ada pada mereka ialah buang bayi tersebut dengan harapan selesai masaalah dan beban yang mereka hadapi tanpa mereka menyedari bahawa akan mencetus bencana yang lebih parah kepada sosial negara," tegasnya lagi.

Pattani Little Girl

Cari Gewe

China overtake Japan as world second biggest economy

Aug. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Takuji Okubo, chief Japan economist at Societe Generale SA in Tokyo talks about the nation's economy and central bank monetary policy. Japan’s economy grew at less than a fifth of the pace economists estimated last quarter, pushing it into third place behind the U.S. and China and adding to evidence the global recovery is faltering. Okubo also discusses the impact of a stronger yen on Japanese exports, and the outlook for the global economy. Okubo talks with Bloomberg's Mark Barton on "Global Connection." (Source: Bloomberg)

Japan’s nominal gross domestic product for the second quarter totaled $1.288 trillion, less than China’s $1.337 trillion. Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg

China overtook the U.S. last year as the biggest automotive market and Germany as the largest exporter. Photographer: Nelson Ching/Bloomberg
China surpassed Japan as the world’s second-largest economy last quarter, capping the nation’s three- decade rise from Communist isolation to emerging superpower.

Japan’s nominal gross domestic product for the second quarter totaled $1.288 trillion, less than China’s $1.337 trillion, the Japanese Cabinet Office said today. Japan remained bigger in the first half of 2010, the government agency said.

China led the world out of last year’s global recession with an economy that’s more than 90-times bigger than when leader Deng Xiaoping ditched hard-line Communist policies in favor of free-market reforms in 1978. The country of 1.3 billion people will overtake the U.S., where annual GDP is about $14 trillion, as the world’s largest economy by 2027, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. chief economist Jim O’Neill.

China’s surpassing of Japan “is a marker of its increasingly dominant role in the global economy,” said Eswar Prasad, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former head of the China division at the International Monetary Fund. “The resilience of China’s growth during the crisis enabled a number of other countries, particularly commodity-exporting economies, to ride on its coattails.”

The benchmark Shanghai stock index rose 2.1 percent at the 3 p.m. close today, climbing the most this month.

Tricky Comparison

China overtook the U.S. last year as the biggest automobile market and Germany as the largest exporter. The nation is the world’s No. 1 buyer of iron ore and copper and the second- biggest importer of crude oil, and has underpinned demand for exports by its Asian neighbors.

While China’s output was also larger in the fourth quarter of 2009, Japan’s GDP rebounded to exceed China’s in the first quarter, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News. According to IMF data using purchasing-power-parity calculations to adjust for exchange-rate differences, China overtook Japan in 2001.

Quarterly comparisons between China and Japan are “a little tricky because they do not take account of different seasonal patterns between the two countries,” said David Cohen, head of Asian forecasting at Action Economics in Singapore.

China’s economy is cooling as the government trims credit growth from last year’s record $1.4 trillion and discourages multiple-home purchases to cool surging property prices. July industrial output rose the least in 11 months, retail sales growth eased and new loans climbed less than estimated. China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. said last month that its crude-oil processing increased at a slower pace in the second quarter as fuel demand faltered.

Property Collapse

The country’s property market is beginning a “collapse” that will hit the nation’s banking system, Kenneth Rogoff, a Harvard University professor and former chief economist of the IMF, said July 6.

Still, China is on course to overtake the U.S. as the world’s largest economy around 2020, PricewaterhouseCoopers said in a January report.

With China’s growth surging 10.3 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier and Japan expanding 2 percent, the “gap is going to widen” in future, said Shen Jianguang, a Hong Kong-based economist at Mizuho Securities Asia Ltd. “It is not likely that Japan will retake the No. 2 spot given the likely growth rates.”

Four of the world’s top 10 companies by market capitalization are from China, including PetroChina Co., Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., China Mobile Ltd. and China Construction Bank Corp.

Agricultural Bank

Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. boosted the size of its initial public offering to $22.1 billion this month after selling more stock in Shanghai, making it the world’s largest first-time share sale. The IPO made the nation home to four of the world’s 10 biggest banks by market value, half a decade after the country’s first major state-owned lender went public.

China may be the biggest IPO market in 2010 as companies are likely to raise 500 billion yuan ($74 billion) in Shanghai and Shenzhen, PricewaterhouseCoopers forecast last month.

Since introducing free-market policies, China has lifted 300 million citizens out of poverty, according to the United Nations. The country remains a developing nation, with its per capita gross national income ranked 127th in the world at $2,940 at the end of 2008, behind Angola and Azerbaijan, according to the World Bank.

Cultural Revolution

In the first three decades of Communist Party rule before Deng took power, China’s economy was hobbled by the chaos of the Great Leap Forward, a failed attempt to transform the agrarian nation into an industrial powerhouse, and the Cultural Revolution, a decade of political upheaval led by Mao Zedong’s Red Guards.

“China has a large population, a weak economic foundation, relatively few resources and a large poverty population, which remains our basic situation,” Ma Jiantang, head of China’s statistics bureau, said in January. “Therefore, while we take note of our expanding size of economy and enhancing economic strength, we should also have a sober understanding that China remains a developing nation.”

China’s future influence on the global economy will increase, said Shen at Mizuho. The country’s “double-digit” expansion will contribute a third of global growth this year, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said in March.

“Japan had a huge impact on the global commodities market and foreign direct investment flows in the 1980s” as China is doing now, Shen said. “The major difference is that China’s population is 10-times bigger than Japan’s, its economy is still growing at above 9 percent per year, and Chinese investors are just beginning to invest abroad. You can imagine that China’s impact will be so much bigger.”

Foreclosure Crisis Spread Across USA

Nan Holmes, a senior escrow officer at a title insurer, says her insider’s view of the local market gave her the confidence three years ago to pay $370,000 for a new home in Boise, Idaho. She got a price she liked from the builder and 100 percent bank financing.

That was before the bottom fell out of the housing market in California, Nevada and Florida as borrowers with bad credit began defaulting in record numbers, setting off a recession. Holmes, who had earned $150,000 a year when real estate was booming, saw her compensation shrink by half when business cooled, forcing her to dip into savings and sell jewelry. She stopped paying the mortgage in April and has put the house on the market for $145,000 less than she owes the bank.

“How long will it take for the market to turn so I can just break even?” Holmes, 55, said as she sat in her house in Boise’s tree-lined Collister neighborhood, four miles (6.4 kilometers) from the state capitol.

Home foreclosures are climbing in the Northwest and Midwest, areas that had earlier dodged the worst of the mortgage crisis, according to real estate data firm RealtyTrac Inc. With 14.6 million Americans out of work and consumer spending declining, further weakness in housing could push the economy back into recession, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Aug. 1.

Foreclosure rates in Utah, Idaho, Illinois and Colorado rose in the second quarter compared with a year earlier, and rank among the 10 highest in the country. The number of homes seized by lenders at least doubled in 19 states and more than tripled in seven of them, according to Irvine, California-based RealtyTrac.

Later in Cycle

“The housing downturn started late in the Northwest and now it’s ending late,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Idaho, Oregon and Washington lagged behind the national cycle and will suffer declines after other areas stabilize, he said.

New defaults are declining and appear to have bottomed in states where the crisis began, falling 43 percent in California, 37 percent in Florida and 27 percent in Nevada in the second quarter from a year earlier, RealtyTrac’s data show.

“The worst is over, but it’s going to be a long road ahead,” said economist Steven Frable at IHS Global Insight Inc. in Lexington, Massachusetts.

July Data

Last month, 325,229 U.S. properties got a notice of default, auction or bank repossession, RealtyTrac said today in a report. While that’s an increase of 4 percent from June, the number was down almost 10 percent from a year earlier. One in 397 households received a filing. Lenders seized 92,858 properties in July, the second-highest monthly tally since RealtyTrac began records in January 2005.

“The numbers are exploding due to unemployment and economic displacement,” said Rick Sharga, senior vice president of marketing at RealtyTrac. “We will see them get a lot worse unless we see some job creation.”

Initial jobless claims rose last week by 2,000 to 484,000, the highest in six months, Labor Department figures showed today. Unemployment is near a 27-year high at 9.5 percent. More than 4.4 million people are collecting unemployment benefits and almost 5.3 million are getting emergency and extended payments. Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke told Congress on July 21 the outlook is “unusually uncertain.”

Chicago Jobs Disappear

Chicago lost 76,000 jobs in the year through June, the most in any metropolitan area tracked by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Denver lost 18,900, Detroit 18,700. Employment dropped 4.1 percent in Grand Junction, Colorado, and 2.7 percent in Bend, Oregon, the data show.

Home seizures soared 822 percent in Idaho in the second quarter, and the state had the seventh-highest foreclosure rate, according to RealtyTrac. Boise’s median house price was $140,100 in the quarter, down 34 percent from the peak $212,800 in 2007, the National Association of Realtors said yesterday.

The metropolitan area, home to a third of Idaho’s 1.54 million residents, has been pummeled by housing-related construction and retail job losses, as well as layoffs at chipmaker Micron Technology Inc. and grocer Albertsons, said Michael Ferguson, the state’s chief economist.

Idaho’s jobless rate was 8.8 percent in July, up from 8.2 percent a year earlier and 2.9 percent in July 2007.

“This is an off-the-chart, extreme financial event,” Ferguson said. “I wasn’t around for the Depression, but in the last half century there has been nothing like this.”

Cows and Corn

In Charter Pointe, a development built on corn fields 11 miles from downtown, more than half of the homes listed for sale are bank-owned or “underwater,” meaning the property is worth less than the mortgage. Dairy cows wander in a nearby pen, and baling machines grind into the night.

“The neighbors aren’t used to living next to farming operations with manure and flies,” said Richard Murgoitio, who sold 70 acres to Hubble Homes Inc. in 2001 and would like to sell his remaining land to builders. “We’re hoping they take us all out, if the economy ever turns around.”

Micron, founded in Boise in 1978 with early investors including the late potato mogul J.R. Simplot, cut local production and 1,500 jobs last year as chip prices fell. The company has more than 5,000 full-time workers in the area, said Daniel Francisco, a Micron spokesman. It employed twice that number as recently as 2001, Ferguson said.

Budget Cuts

Albertsons cut its local payroll following a 2006 buyout by companies including Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based Supervalu Inc. and private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP of New York. The acquisition ended seven decades of Boise ownership for the grocery chain and its plans for as many as 1,000 new hires, the state economist said.

Idaho lost 6.9 percent of its jobs from 2008 through 2009, compared with the 4.9 percent U.S. average, and its timber industry payrolls fell 38 percent, according to IHS Global.

Government workers and services haven’t been spared. The state budget, which peaked at $3 billion in 2008, dropped by a fifth to $2.38 billion in the fiscal 2011 year that began July 1. More than 200 positions were cut and furloughs imposed in agencies including health and welfare, tax collection and the attorney general’s office, Ferguson said.

The value of residential transactions in Ada County, which includes Boise, declined 62 percent in June from the peak four years earlier, multiple listings data show. Boise had the highest metro foreclosure rate outside California, Florida, Nevada or Arizona in the first six months of the year, RealtyTrac said.

Short Sale Sought

Holmes said her company, TitleOne Corp., is down to 80 employees from a high of 175 in 2007. Her lender, Bank of America Corp. of Charlotte, North Carolina, took the first step toward foreclosure in July.

Holmes, a divorced mother of two, put her house on the market in June and has applied for a federal program that offers incentives to loan servicers, investors and homeowners to complete short sales, in which the bank accepts less than what it is owed on the mortgage.

She’s asking $225,000 and hasn’t had an offer. A third of real estate listings in her area are distressed properties, with seven months of inventory on the market in Boise at her price.

“I was never raised to be in this position,” Holmes said, showing pictures of her 6-year-old granddaughter, as well as the oversize tub in her master bathroom. “I’ve tried everything I can think of.”

Fired for not fasting

TEHRAN (AFP) - – Popular Iranian footballer Ali Karimi, sometimes described as "the Maradona of Asia," has been fired by his club for not fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the club said on Sunday.

Steel Azin FC said on its website www.steelazin.com that it was "forced to sack one of its players, Ali Karimi, for being disobedient and not fasting during Ramadan," when devout Muslims fast from dawn until dusk.

Karimi, who was the Asian Player of 2004, had even "insulted officials of the (Iranian) football federation and the Tehran team's supervisor who confronted him on the issue," Steel Azin said.

His sacking comes after he criticized in an interview on his website the management style of the club's managing director and former official of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Mostafa Ajorlou.

The Islamic republic's state news agency IRNA, meanwhile, reported that the club's chairman, Hossein Hedayati, was unaware of the decision and was against Karimi's sacking.

Karimi, 31, who has been dubbed by some Iranian commentators as Maradona of Asia, is the second most capped player and the third highest scorer for the Iranian national team.

He also had a two-year stint in the Bundesliga, scoring four goals in 50 appearances for Bayern Munich.

Ramadan started in Iran on Thursday and under Iranian laws, all Muslims are required to observe the holy month, while those who do not fast, including non-Muslims, are expected to abstain from eating or drinking in public.

Muslims observe Ramadan by abstaining from food, drink and sex from dawn until sunset. Pregnant and menstruating women, the sick, travellers and pre-pubescent children are exempt from the fast.

Kelantan Introduced Real Money

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – A Malaysian state's attempt to revive use of gold and silver coins common in early Islamic societies has run afoul of the country's central bank, which said Friday that local governments have no authority to issue their own currency.

The gold dinar and silver dirham coins provide an alternative to Malaysia's currency, the ringgit, in the northeastern state Kelantan, which is governed by the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, a conservative opposition group that promotes religious policies in its rule.

The gold dinar was the official currency of Muslim societies for centuries. The value of the coins used in Kelantan can fluctuate according to market prices, but officials say it remains a better alternative to currency affected by the U.S. dollar and other foreign currency.

Kelantan authorities also say the use of such coins is encouraged in the Quran.

State officials have produced coins worth about $630,000 for use at about 1,000 outlets in Kelantan's capital, said Nik Mahani Mohamad, executive director of Kelantan Golden Trade, which mints the coins.

"It's a great, great moment for Muslims," Nik Mahani said. "We are providing an alternative means for the people to trade with."

The coins came into circulation Thursday and can be purchased at various locations in Kelantan. Their worth is currently about $180 per dinar and $4 per dirham.

But the plan hit a snag when Malaysia's central bank said in a statement later Friday that the ringgit remained "the only currency that is the legal tender for payment of goods and services in Malaysia."

The bank said it "has the sole right under the law to issue currency in Malaysia." It was not immediately clear how the bank planned to block the use of the coins for transactions.

The state government also plans to give employees the option of receiving part of their salary in this currency, as well as introduce gold bars for large investments. Muslim alms can also be paid with the coins.

The Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party has governed Kelantan since 1990. Some of its policies over the years include banning gambling, nightclubs and rock concerts, and requiring Muslim female state employees to wear headscarves at work.

Gecko Millionaire

Amazing, this word came out from my mouth after read the headline in my local newspaper. There was a teenager found a giant gecko on the border of Nunukan (Kalimantan Island and Malaysia). His name Arbin. With weight around 64 kilograms. Maybe this was usual news, but there is something make me surprised. This giant gecko worth $19 millions. Tribun kaltim newspaper was covering this news. After that many entrepreneur or business owner make a phone call Tribun Kaltim to get information about this gecko. But unfortunately this giant gecko was sold by someone from Indonesia. Arbin said that this gecko brought to China.

Although this animal has sold but there are many people still want to buy this gecko with the higher price. They don’t get much information from Arbin. Another thing which makes me surprised was there’s a man who want to buy this gecko $2,7 millions per ounces. You can calculate how much money he will spend only for a gecko. His name Andi Makkuraga Hidayat. He is gecko entrepreneurs. Almost three years he ran this business. So far the largest gecko which he was bought around five kilograms. Please take a picture below, how big this gecko.

A Surprising Business

This was become great business for the people in my country . They have a new job as a gecko’s hunter. But not all the people interested with this animal. People who have passion to get a lot of money and use the good chance. They use their leisure time to hunt the gecko. Most of them who live in the village which there are many trees. And they also hunt this animal in the forest. There are a lot of information which said that this animal worth thousands until hundred thousands dollar. During this time, the voice of gecko is often used to predict the weather. but recently the demand for these reptiles are higher than before. I get some information about the list of the price of gecko:

* 2.5 ounce (250 gramme) worth $550
* 3 ounce – 3,6 ounce (300 gramme – 360 gramme) worth $5500
* 3.7 ounce – 3.9 ounce (370 gramme – 390 gramme) worth $8300
* above 4 ounce (400 gramme) worth $11000 per ounce

Many people hunt geckos because it has become one of Indonesia’s export goods. Each day about 3,000 geckos were exported. There is a farm which produce geckos. This farm located in Probolinggo, East Java.Beside as a farm, the owner of this place also as an exporter. To meets the demand from China, Japan and some countries in Southeast Asia. These geckos have dried in this farm. However, not all geckos can be exported. Gecko which weight above 3.5 ounces.

The owner of the farm is Didik. His father also has gecko breeding business. He always exported geckos in China, Taiwan, even Japan. He got $33000 every month, with 200 employees. He starts his business from 1990′s. Right now he became gecko entrepreneur.

Gecko’s for healing AIDS/HIV

AIDS/HIV is deadly disease.Because theres is no medicine to cure AIDS/HIV. I found an information that gecko can be cure AIDS/HIV. If it’s true, I think this is a wonders of medicine world. But unfortunately I can’t get good reference about that. Many people said that gecko as an alternative solution for AIDS/HIV. But the geckos has meet the limited weight about 4 ounce. the oldest of gecko and the largest one has much more enzyme. I also heard that gecko have booked by Japan and Taiwan people as a medium of AIDS drug research.

Many people believe that gecko also as an alternative for itching and asthma medication. It has believed for a long time ago. I hope it really can be cure an AIDS/HIV. I wish the best for good purpose, especially for mankind…amen

Ramadan Mubarak 2010

Bahasa melayu di selatan Thailand

Bahasa Melayu di kawasan selatan Thailand dikelompok di dalam rumpun Austronesia. Mejoriti pengguna bahasa tersebut adalah orang melayu di selatan Thailand dan bahasa ini juga boleh terbagi kepada dua dialek ialah Dialek Melayu Patani dan Dialek Melayu Satun. Dialek Melayu Patani diguna di tiga wilayah selatan Thailand iaitu Patani, Yala, Narathiwas dan meliputi beberapa daearah wilayah Songkhla. Bahasa demikian hampir sama dengan bahasa Melayu Dialek Kelantan. Manakala Dialek Satun pula ialah dialek yang diguna oleh Orang Melayu di wilayah Satun yang mana pada masa sekarang ini bahasa tersebut berada di dalam fenominar yang hamper keritikal. Oleh kerana jenerasi muda pada masa sekarang tidak beberapa mengetahui bahasa tersebut.

Bahasa Melayu di Selatan Thailand

Bahasa Melayu ialah bahasa ibunda bagi penduduk selatan Thailand oleh kerana bahasa ini sudah diamali oleh Orang Melayu semanjak pada zaman dahulu sehingga pada masa sekarang.

Amorn Thawisak (1987) menyatakan bahawa kawasan yang mengguna bahasa Melayu di Negara Thailand bermula daripada kawasan tengah sehingga di selatan Thailand dan juga di sempadan Malaysia. Penutur Bahasa ini mempunyai merata tempat dan di beberapa wilayah di Negara Thailand seperti berikut.

1. Wilayah Pattani, Yala dan Narathiwas. Bahasa tersebut diguna keseluruh tempat.
2. Wilayah Songkla Bahasa Melayu diguna di daerah Thepha, Sabayoi, Nathewi, Chena, Sadau dan Ranood
3. Wilayah Satun, penutur Bahasa Melayu didapati di kawasan bandar, Bankuan, Cekbilang, Tamalang, Koh Adang dan Koh Sarai.
4. Wilayah Nakhon Si Thammarat Bahasa Melayu diguna di daerah Muang dan keseluruhan mukim di Nakhon Si Thammarat, daerah Thasala, daerah Hua Thaphan dan Mokhlan, daerah Ron Phiboon
5. Wilayah Krabi, Bahasa Melayu diguna di daerah Muang, Koh Ca, Koh Poo dan Koh Pipi, daerah Koh Lanta di kawasan Koh Lanta Yai, daerag Khau Phanom Tampat 6 mukim Nakhau, daerah Aulek di Ban Klang dan Ban Chong Mai Dam di mukim Klang Hin
6. Wilayah Phuket, didapati penutur Bahasa Melayu di kawasan daerah Muang, Lam Tuk Kae, Koh Sire, Ban Sapha dan Had Ra Wai
7. Wilayah Phatlung, didapati penutur Bahasa Melayu di daerah Kong Ra, daerah Chelem dan mukim Jarad
8. Wilayah Trang, didapati penutur Bahasa Melayu di daerah Kan Tang di mukim Kantang Tai dan mukim Koh Li Bung
9. Wilayah Suratthani, didapati penutur Bahasa Melayu di mukim Koh Marid dan daerah Samui

Manakala di kawasan tengah Negara Thailand didapati penutur Bahasa Melayu di kawasan Nong Chok Bangkok, wilayah Samut Prakan, Nonthaburi dan Pathum Thani

Data yang dipapar di atas pada masa sekarng ini. Keadaan penutur Bahasa Melayu di Negara Thailand sudah di dalam keadaan yang berbeza. Oleh kerana data sedemikian sudah lama.Pada masa sekarang keadaan bahasa Melayu banyak dipengaruh oleh Bahasa Thailand bercampur dengan jenerasi baru yang tidak suka bertutur di dalam bahasa Melayu menyebabkan Bahasa Melayu pada masa kini dalam keadaan kritikal terlebih lagi di kawasan penduduknya mejoriti bercakap di dalam Bahasa Thai.

Kawasan yang mengguna Bahasa Melayu di atas, dapat bahagi jenis Bahasa yang diguna di kawasan berikut kepada tiga jenis bahasa iaitu Bahasa Urak Lawoi, Bahasa Melayu Dialek Patani dan juga Dialek Satun. Bahasa Urak Lawoi ialah bahasa yang didapati di pulau dan pantai di sebelah barat, selatan Thailand bermula dari wilayah Pang Nga, Ranong Krabi Satun sehingga Victoria Point Burma. (Hasnida Chekha, 2008:48) Bahasa Melayu Dialek Patani pula diguna di kawasan empat selatan Thailand iaitu wilayah dalam bentuk bahasa dialek dan bentuk standart. Dalam bentuk bahasa dialek pula dapat dibahaghi Pattani Yala Narathiwas dan sebahagian di daerah Songkla seperti daerah Cana, Sabayoi, Thapha, dan Nathawi (Worawit Baru ,1990) Manakala Dialek Melayu Satun pula secara khususnya terdapat di dua kawasan, iaitu kawasan persisiran dan kawasan luar bandar wilayah Satun. Kawasan persisiran merangkumi mukim Tammalang, Che Bilang dan Tanjung Gabus, sementara kawasan luar bandar meliputi mukim Bankhuan dan sebahagian mukim Ban Chalung (Kamaruddin Esayah, 1999).

Peranan Bahasa Melayu di selatan Thailand

Bagi penduduk selatan Thailand. Bahasa Melayu adalah bahasa yang berperanan penting di dalam kehidupan mereka tidak kurang daripada Bahasa Thai. Oleh kerana bahasa Melayu dapat melambangkan jari diri orang melayu di kawasan sedemian. Dengan hal ini bahasa Melayu di kawasan tersebut memain peranan penting di dalam pelbagai aspek semenjak zaman dahulu sehingga pada masa sekarang. Terutamanya dalam kehidupan harian, , politik tempatan, media semasa dan pendidikan agama lain-lain.

Bahasa Melayu dalam kehidupan harian

Di tiga wilayah selatan Thailand dan sebahagian daripada wilayah Songkla mejoriti 80 peratus penduduk beragama Islam keturunan Melayu. (Amra Pongsapich, 1999) bertutur Bahasa Melayu Dialek Patani. Jika melihat peranan Bahasa Melayu di kawasan ini. Bahasa tersebut berperanan penting dalam kehidupan harian mereka lebih daripada kawasan wilayah lain di selatan Thailand, seperti wilayah Suratthani, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Phuket, Trang, Krabi, Phatlung dan Satun. Oleh kerana kawasan lain daripada tiga wilayah. Penduduk Melayu di kawasan tersebut hanya sebagai penduduk menoriti sahaja jika berbanding dengan tiga wilayah selatan Thailand. Di kawasan tiga selatan wilayah, peranan Bahasa Melayu dapat dilihat dengan jelas di dalam pertuturan harian seperti bahasa yang mengguna semasa bertutur. Mereka akan mengguna bahasa Melayu Dialek Patani berkomunikasi sesama sendiri lebih daridapa mengguna Bahasa Thai. Oleh kerana bahasa ini sudah diamal semenjak pada zaman lampau hingga pada masa kini, lagipun bahasa ini memudahi dari segi kefahaman bagi orang tempat dalam menyampai maklumat apapun sahaja yang ingan disampaikan kepada orang ramai. Namun peranan Bahasa Melayu yang lain dari tiga wilayah tersebut. Peranan Bahasa Melayu dapat dilihat dalam sebutan nama tempat sahaja tetapi dalam segi komunikasi harian digunakan dalam Bahasa Thai (Dialek Thai Tai ).

Bahasa Melayu dalam politik tempatan

Politik tempat di selatan Thailand. Jika kita melihat peranan Orang Melayu dalam politik tempatan pada zaman dahulu tidak memberi kepenting daripada pihak pusat atau rakyat tempat sendiri .Numun pada kini keadaan tersebut sangat berbeza daripada dahulu. Oleh kerana sistem pentadbiran pihak kerajaan pusat yang memberi peluang kepada rakyat menjadi sebahagian dalam sistem pentadbiran tempatan sedemikian. Dengan hal ini pada masa sekarang mulculnya organisasi pentarbiran tempatan seperti oraganisasi pentadbiran wilayah( อบจ.) dan oraganisasi pentadbiran daerah (อบต). Dengan sebab ketubuhan organisasi ini, menyebabkan Orang Melayu ada peluang untuk melagunkan watak sebagai pemempin bagi Orang Melayu sendiri. Oleh kerana demikian peranan Bahasa Melayu mula diutamakan, cotohnya dalam medan pilihan raya tempatan. Bahasa Melayu akan digunakan dalam beberapa cara, tidak kira dengan cara verbal dan nonverbal. Bahasa Melayu dalam verbal yang kita sering mendengar seperti dalam cerahmahan mencari suara. Manakala nonverbal seperti papan iklan ahli politik tempatan.

Dengan hal ini, Bahasa Melayu bukan sahaja diberi kepentingan kepada Orang Melayu tempatan, bahkan pihak kerajaan sendiri pun mula mengambil berat dalam hal sedemikian, menyebabkan timbul buku panduan rakyat untuk kemudahan cara-cara pilihan raya tempatan dan lain-lain.

Bahasa Melayu dalam media semasa

Dengan sebab peristiwa di yang tidak tenteram di wilayah selatan Thailand. Menyebabkan pihak kerajaan mengambil berat penduduk di kawasan ini,secara memahami keunikan tempatan. Dengan hal ini kita dapat melihat kemunculan pelbagai media semasa yang berbahasa Melayu pada masa kini. Tujuan penyebaran itu untuk memberi maklumat kepada penduduk tempatan dan kepada penduduk wilayah yang berhampiran yang mana mempunyai penduduk yang bertutur Bahasa Melayu.

Bahasa Melayu yang mencul di dalam media semasa di selatan Thailand mempunyai pelbagai bentuk, tidak kira dalam bentuk kaca TV, media Radio, media cetakan, dan lain-lain.

Bahasa Melayu melalui kaca TV yang ada pada masa sekarang ini, mempunyai beberapa saluran seperti di cainal 5 cainal 9 dan cainal 11
Maklumat yang dipaparkan melaui kaca TV mengenai berita harian. tidak kira berita dalam negara dan juga luar negara tetepi masa yang dipapar akan berbeza. Masa mengeluar di udara berlain seperti di cainal 5 akan mengeluar di udara pada waktu 4.00 hingga waktu 5.00 pagi dengan mengguna masa 1 jam, cainal 11 dikeudarakan pada waktu petang setiap hari. Manakala satu cainal lagi ialah cainal 7 tetapi cara pembaca berita akan berbeza dengan dua cainal tadi iaitu cainal 7 pembaca berita akan membaca berita di dalam Bahasa Thai seperti dipaparkan maklumat terjemahan mengenai data sedemikian di dalam Bahasa Melayu telisan Jawi.

Radio adalah satu media tempatan yang memberi kesenangan kepada pendengar. Kerana media tersebut dapat mengikuti di mana tempat sahaja. Dengan hal ini media Radio mempunyai ramai peminat, lebih-lebih lagi, setesion yang menyampaikan maklumat di dalam Bahasa ibunda pendengar sendiri seperti beberapa rancagan yang berada di setesion di tiga wilayah selatan Thailand. Media ini mempunyai pelbagai rancangan seperti rancangan hiburan, berita tempatan harian, dan ceramah agama.

Rancangan hiburan termasuk juga lagu-lagu tempatan dan lagu-lagu tradisinal yang mengandungi isi menyampai di dalam Bahasa Melayu Dialek Patani. Bagi penyanyi yang menyanyi lagu tersebut adalah orang tempatan yang terkenal seperti Baruding, Dahdong Kampung Pisang dan sebagainya.

Rancangan berita tempatan harian di tiga wilayah selatan Thailand, sudah diadakan dengan masa yang lama. Terutamanya di wilayah Narathiwas. Rancangan yang termashur ialah Rancangan Berita Harian yang disampaikan berita harian oleh D.J Pak Cu yang mana menyampaikan maklumat dalam Bahasa Melayu Dialek Patani. Rancangan tersebut masih berlangsung sehingga hari ini.

Rancangan ceramah agama kebanyakan maklumat

Media cetakan adalah satu media yang terkenal pada masa lampau. Oleh kerana pada masa terdahu media tersebut menjadi satu saluran yang digunakan oleh ulamak-ulamak Melayu dalam menyampaikan ilmu pengetahuan agama kepada penduduk tempatan atau penduduk asing, Ulamak yang terkenal pada masa itu seperti Syed Dawud Alfatoni yang mana beliau menulis kitab-kitab Jawi pada masa itu, yang kitab beliau adalah kitab yang terkenal keseluruh tanah Melayu dan pada masa kini juga kitab-kitab tersebut masih lagi digunakan dibeberapa tempat terutama di ponduk-ponduk belajar agama. Dengan sistem cara menguna tersebut menyebabkan mengaruhan penggunaan Bahasa Melayu dalam bentukan tuliasan Jawi masih digunakan pada masa sekarang tidak kira dalam media cetakan yang diterbit oleh pihak kerajaan atau pihak am. Media cetakan ini seperti buku panduan oleh pihak kerajaan, buku belajar agama, kad undangan perkawinan, akhlan jualan, papan tanda, surat tabung, cacatan membaca khubah dan lain-lain.

Pendidikan di Selatan Thailand
Tiga wilayah selatan Thailand dan juga sebahagia wilayah Songkla yang mana penduduk di kawasan ini beragama Islam. Cara hidup penduduk di kawasan ini mempunyai cara hidup yang rapat dengan keagama Islam. Agama Islam adalah satu agama yang memberi kepentingan dalam mencari ilmu pengetahuan, bukan sahaja mengajar manusia untuk mencintai ilmu pemgetahuan tetapi Islam juga mengkalakan untuk mencari ilmu pengetahuan. Oleh kerana ilmu pengetahuan ibarat satu kunci kejayan kemajuan budaya dan tamadun .

Jika tersebut mengenai tiga wilayah selantan Thailand. Pada zaman dahulu kawasan ini terkenal dengan kemajuan tamadul Islam atau gedung pendidikan agama yang mempunyai jumlah pondok yang terbanyak sekali di ภูมิภาคเอเซียตะวันออกเฉียงใต้
Kalau kita meninjau pada awal sistem pendidikan dalam masyarakat Melayu selatan Thailand bermula daripada amalan harian yang diamal dengan cara turun menurun dari satu jenerasi ke satu jenerasi dengan mengguna Bahasa Melayu sebagai alat penyampaian terutamanya dari aspek cara hidupan harian keagamaan kepercayaan kebudayaan dan lain-lain lagi (Jiraphan Dema : 2008) Dengan hal ini menyebabkan kawasan tersebut menjadi keunikan dalam pendidikan berbeza dengan kawasan yang lain di negara Thailand. Pada zaman terdahulu sistem pendidikan Orang Melayu di selatan Thailand bermula diri rumah sendiri sehingga di masjid-masjid di dalam kampung yang mana institusi berikut bertugas sebagai institusi pendidikan keagamaan pada zaman itu. Pendidikan Orang Melayu pada zaman itu. Walaupuna ada cara mempelajari ilmu pengetahuan di rumah sendiri tetapi cara pembelajaran Orang Melayu tidak dapat disampaikan dengan cara yang sumperna dengan sebab itu mereka menghantar anak-anak untuk mempelari di masjid-masjid di dalam kampung atau di rumah-rumah orang yang berilmu seperti Tuan Guru (Babo), Tok imam atau orang yang berilmu di dalam kampung yang terkenal. Pada masa itu cara pendidikan seperti sedemikian menjadi terkenal kepada orang ramai , dari satu kampung ke satu kampung menyebabkan jumlah pelajar makin meningkat menyebabkan Tuan Guru (Babo) mesti membinakan bangunan untuk menyediakan tempat tersebut dan memperkembangkan tempat mempelajari di dalam kampung ( Community Educational Institution) membinakan asas pendidikan seperti bangunan, cara mengajar menggu kitab dan mempunyai cara pentadbiran yang bersistem dan menyediakan tempat untuk pelajar mengenab semasa belajar dengan membina pondok-pondok kecil menyediakan untuk sesiapa yang datang belajar dalam tempuh masa yang panjang untuk mendiami yang dikenali dengan nama Pondok.

Education without wisdom

Still, this is not to say that everything about the system is bad. Perhaps, though, some things that are bad need not actually be.

Some say the system has just been plodding along with few meaningful modifications since it was inherited from the British.

Students are herded into barns masquerading as classrooms and are kept behind their desks for 10 to 15 years, learning what the authorities want them to learn. Little thought is given to dealing with individual needs and perhaps even less to encouraging individual creativity. Students are churned out like factory products to meet manpower needs in the demand and supply equation.

Everyone knows that education deserves all the attention it can get. That is probably why every new education minister wants new reforms and new approaches, as if students are guinea pigs.

The hard-hitting question should be: what good does the system do to our young? Is it enough that it should convert boys and girls into factory and office workers or, if they go through tertiary institutions, into bureaucrats, teachers, doctors, engineers, cyber troopers and other professionals?

Or should the system ensure that education, besides preparing citizens for gainful employment, also enables them to seek and recognise truth in all its manifestations?

Unfortunately that is a tall order.

Material world

Drug and chemical abuse, criminal misconduct and sexual irresponsibility have been increasing over the years.

Between 2000 and 2004, the number of juveniles in Malaysian prisons increased from 2,308 to 2,964. Statistics for 2005 showed that on average seven schoolchildren were arrested every day, three of them between the ages of 13 and 15.

According to the National Drug Agency’s statistics, 78.67% of drug abuse cases detected between January and December 2008 were users who had dropped out of school at age 15.

The situation has not improved.

Will Hutton, former editor-in-chief of the Observer, wrote in 2008:

“Families are mini-civilisations. Experience and research show they are the best means of rearing our young into fulfilled adulthood.”

He warned, however, that over-protective families could be like prisons that could deform young individuals for life.

In short, the debate continues over whether either or both the education and family systems have failed to guide children towards happy and fruitful lives.

“Money and material objects have become very important, often to the exclusion of social generosity and cooperation. Theoretical knowledge has become very important, often to the exclusion of adherence to religious beliefs.” This was the consensus of a 1997 forum audaciously advertised as the Future of Malaysia.

Cardinal virtue

When the family institution breaks down and moral values erode in a rapidly changing society, the first victims are naturally the young.

Unlike modern-day parents who disapprove of physical punishment of schoolchildren, our forefathers used to thank teachers for dispensing punishment for misbehaviour and indiscipline.

In ancient China, the purpose of sending children to school was to prepare them to be good human beings, if not to become saints and sages. It was not to pave for them the road to material fortune or vain fame.

Teaching them young was critical in ensuring that they grow into well-disciplined and virtuous citizens.

Many educationists and social workers today acknowledge that there is a fatal departure in modern society from the values that were held sacrosanct in the olden days.

“Yi dai bur u yi dai,” according to an old Chinese saying. Paraphrased, it means: each generation is worse than the one before it.

The fault in modern education can be summed up in another piece of folk wisdom: “shi nian shu mu, bai nian shu ren”— one can nurture a tree for 10 years, but it takes a hundred years to train a human being.

In ancient times, particularly during the heyday of Confucianism, Di Zi Gui was taught as part of the school curriculum. It was a guide to discipline and appropriate behaviour.

It was crucial to teach the young their role in the family and to guide them to be dutiful towards parents and teachers. Filial piety is a cardinal virtue in all traditional cultures.

According to the Di Zi Gui, “When my parents call me, I will answer them right away. When they ask me to do something, I will do it quickly.

“When my parents instruct me, I will listen respectfully. When they reproach me, I will accept their scolding and obey. I will try hard to change and improve myself, to start anew.”

What happens when the parents are wrong?

The forgotten guidance

The guide has an answer to this. “When my parents do wrong, I will ask them to change. I will do it with a kind expression and a warm gentle voice.

“If they do not accept my advice, I will wait until they are in a happier mood before I attempt to counsel them again, followed by crying, if necessary, to make them understand.

“If they end up whipping me, I will not hold a grudge against them.”

The guide also says: “When my parents are ill, I will taste the medicine first before giving it to them. I will take care of them night and day and stay by their bedside.”

The Confucian teachings also show the young the different ways of behaving towards younger siblings, towards older siblings, towards relatives, and towards friends.

Today’s debate on education overlooks the important objective of producing decent and upright human beings. It ignores what is common sense in Confucian thinking, “guo ren hen lan, guo hao ren ken lan,” which can be rendered as follows:

“If it is difficult to conduct oneself properly as a human being, imagine how difficult it is to be morally upright and virtuous.”

In truth, the role of education in modern times has lost sight of that glorious objective of providing a true guide to a happy life. When the family institution, as the smallest unit in a nation, gradually breaks down, society inevitably suffers.

What, then, is the price we are paying for this failure? The answer becomes obvious when we reflect upon the behaviour of the people who are supposed to be our leaders.

RPK the conscience of civil society

The latest concerns a member of the prosecution team for the Sodomy II trial. When the piece about her first appeared in MT, it sounded too good to be true. But now even the AG cannot ignore it and has to respond, implicitly admitting the truth of the episode.

RPK, represented by his website, Malaysia Today, is a phenomenon not just for Malaysia, but also for the world. RPK started his website during the reformasi period just as Malaysiakini, and later Malaysian Insider, appeared on the media landscape to provide the public with a more balanced coverage of news and issues affecting them.

Unlike Malaysiakini and Malaysian Insider which adhere to journalistic norms, MT deviates from the norms; the way it reports courts controversy and often borders on sedition. For all these shortcomings on the part of MT, the readers seem just too willing to forgive RPK, and seem quite pleased to settle for the benefits of knowing about what others would not publish or print. In other words, in this unique case the end does justify the means!

Indeed the readers of MT, needless to say, increase in number by the day for the reason that MT has carved out for itself such an excellent track record (partly also due to the controversy surrounding the person and yet partly also due to RPK being a hunted fugitive). For that reason, the authority has become so afraid of RPK and his website.

They tried to imprison him (yes, imprison him they did) so that he would not be able to spread his 'lies'. But that turns out to be just impossible and even put the prosecuting party in the same league as the comical character of Sheriff Lobo.

Putting RPK behind bars will not stop his torrent of reporting and analyses and communicating issues critically relevant to the people. This is evident from the fact that while he spent his time in Kamunting, his postings kept coming! The authority would, of course, like to banish RPK.

That he is at the moment a fugitive is a consequence of the determination of the authority to prosecute him, in fact, he has been denied his rightful place in this country of his own.

It now seems ironic that it is while he is outside the country, seemingly out of touch with the reality, that is Malaysia, that he posted the said latest explosive piece. So it appears that to silence RPK is a futile effort. No matter what happens to RPK, Malaysia Today will live on.

Of course, some try to discredit his posting by saying they each contains '2% truth and the rest is just lies (read 'you cannot produce the evidence in a court of law)'. But then, it is that 2% which constitutes the fact of the matter that matters, and most people can just do away with 98% which may be just too elusive, being well-protected by the all-too-powerful machinery of the powers- that-be.

Together with Malaysiakini and Malaysian Insider, Malaysia Today may just represent the conscience of the civil society.