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Samy Vellu gave his response on the forum fiasco. He agrees that the forum should be held indoors and in private:

“There should be a more sensible approach to settle the issue and it should not be debated in public.”Such issues should be discussed behind closed doors where Muslims and non-Muslims can raise their grievances. The public forum on Saturday did not benefit any party and angered certain groups.”

He also mentioned that the subject of conversion was discussed at the last BN supreme council meeting while he was a minister (that’s at least 6 months ago). Prime Minister gave assurance to find a solution that will not hurt both parties. Election time, so anything goes.

Thus, Samy Vellu earns the distinction for being the first (and only?) non-Muslim leader who disagrees with the public forum being organised. Well done.

Utusan meanwhile carried calls for ISA (from certain party members) to be imposed on the forum organisers. The reports sounded one-sided since only one group people gave their views.

More amazing is the revelation by Ahmad Zahid that a civil-syariah joint committee being established under Prime Minister’s Department. He said that discussions have been made with Minister Zaid Ibrahim. The committee will focus on divorce, child custody, wealth allocation, etc. Now, the discussion for such cases is to be done out of court between the civil lawyer and syariah lawyer. The discussion CANNOT be revealed in public to avoid misunderstanding and public debate.

Read part 1 and 2.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Tags: conversion, Crime, discrimination, Protest, Religious Intolerance

well, this won’t go down well with the myopic few. Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim said that he agrees with suggestion by state executive councillor for higher
education Dr Halimah Ali, who said there was nothing wrong in opening
up UiTM to non-Bumiputeras. He went further to suggest that 10% of the places are reserved for non-Bumiputeras and foreign students (something like matriculation).

He said the move would be timely as it followed the changes in the education system. At the same time, it would give early exposure to UiTM students to be more friendly towards other races.

“UiTM was set up to uplift Malays and Bumiputeras from Sabah and Sarawak in the education sector. This effort must continue.

“But at the same time, UiTM should think more globally to ensure their graduates are more friendly with people of different races in the nation.”

He said inter-ethnic interaction was crucial for UiTM graduates as they would be better prepared to step into the working world, which was far different from life as they knew it.

I can guess that the responses will be - “there are many other ways to create inter-ethnic interactions, why pick on UiTM”, “number of students in UiTM small compared to private colleges/universities, so not much effect”, “over my dead body”, “don’t dare to question our rights”, “normal Malaysians won’t be interested to join UiTM”, etc etc.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Tags: discrimination, Education, PKR, Selangor

After reading about UMNO being penalised RM218 million in Malaysiakini, I was intrigued by the party’s response. The supplier said items (posters, banners, buntings, flags, souvenirs, mineral waters and other transportation costs) were delivered to UMNO (has UMNO logo stamped on the acknowledgement of receipt of goods), but the election (2004 general elections) was contested by BN. So, UMNO claiming the supplier should sue BN. UMNO is registered with ROS. How about BN?
Hmmm…if BN is to pay RM218 million, will cause a small dent in their coffers.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Tags: BN