Posts Tagged ‘Negeri Sembilan’

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no circular on halal food in vernacular school canteens

November 26th, 2011
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On one hand, if you want to show respect to the rights of the Muslim students, then must provide halal food as per the Ministry guideline. But if you insist “only halal” food, then you are denying the rights of the other students. Being communities from religions that respect everyone, the best is to have a section of the canteen at the vernacular schools to cater for Muslim students and staff. There’s no problem with Tamil schools as they don’t serve pork nor beef based products.  So, good thing that there’s not such circulars from MOE curtailing the food types.

I wonder, how many schools cater for the non-Muslims students by offering the respective food cooked by own community – at least can also help the small operators. Wonder if the ministry has such guidelines.

The best is to offer a variety, as long as the students are aware and don’t mix utensils.

I still remember the char kuey teow in my school, prepared by the Chinese uncle. Delicious!

 

There is no directive from the Education Ministry that only halal food be sold at all Chinese and Tamil primary schools, said its Deputy Minister Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong.

He said while under the ministry’s guidelines, canteen operators must provide halal food if there was a sufficient number of Muslim students in the school concerned, Chinese and Tamil school canteen operators could also offer non-halal food to their non-Muslim students.

“However, in practice, school canteen operators usually offer pork-free food,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby Wednesday.

Dr Wee was responding to a vernacular news report stating that a circular was recently issued by the Negri Sembilan Education Department to schools in the state that only halal food be sold by canteen operators.

Based on initial feedback, he said Negri Sembilan’s Education Director had confirmed that no such directive had been issued.

source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=%2F2011%2F11%2F23%2Fnation%2F20111123175642&sec=nation

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Lawrence cremated amid conversion controversy

September 23rd, 2011
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This gets more interesting. The deceased who allegedly converted 3 days before his death was cremated according to Star article below. So what would the consequences be?

The departments says got recorded proof, but yesterday’s article did not mention anything about such recordings.

Anyway, at least the family managed to get some peace by doing a proper sending off for their loved ones.

 

The family of a 33-year-old businessman who apparently converted to Islam on Monday but died on Wednesday went ahead with his cremation even though state Islamic Affairs Department officials had arrived at his home to claim his body several hours earlier.

The officials came to T. Lawrence’s house, in Taman Wawasan near here, with documents to show that the deceased had embraced Islam minutes before the hearse departed.

The deceased’s family members, however, refused to release the body and police had to be called in to maintain order.

In the end, the family members managed to take his body to the crematorium at Jalan Templer.

It is learnt that Lawrence was found unconscious in one of his vehicles at his store at KM9.6 Jalan Seremban.

The father of one was pronounced dead at Port Dickson Hospital at 8pm.

Pusat Dakwah Islamiyah official Muhammad Zuwairi Baharudin said the deceased, whose Muslim name was Zairy Abdullah, went to the centre with another friend known as Shahul Hameed with the intention of converting.

“I had asked him several times if he was absolutely certain about converting to Islam and he answered in the affirmative,” he said.

Muhammad Zuwairi said he even recorded his conversation with Zairy and took pictures of the deceased for documentation purposes.

Father Clement Lim from the Immaculate Conception Church expressed shock that Lawrence had converted to Islam.

“He was a devout Catholic and an active member of our parish,” he said.

source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/9/23/nation/9556815&sec=nation

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Another disputed conversion case in Seremban

September 22nd, 2011
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We just read about the college student in Perlis whom was converted, and today there’s another case in MK. This kind of problem won’t go away until the laws are tightened and more protection is given to the family institution of the non-Muslims.  Unfortunately, the powers-t0-be are not seen as doing anything to solve the problems. Rulers council, religious councils and the government – we have not heard any positive news for nearly a year now.  I think this is the problem when religions are not given equal footing in terms of administration or when laws are not fair to all.

Just imagine 30 strangers come to your house to claim the deceased’ body. What an intimidation. Will definitely create anger amid the family members. Probably the family should make a police report against criminal intimidation and harassment since no proper profof is provided, but being Bolehland, I guess the report won’t be worth the paper its was written on.

Part of the cause of this problem lies on our lawmakers, rulers and the authorities. Before asking others to be tolerant, to find alternatives or be patient, why not they correct/improvise the existing laws? Don’t simply blame the families or communities.

Anyway, what a weird situation, allegedly converted and died 3 days later.

The religious status of a recently deceased man has sent his family into a tailspin after religious authorities in Negri Sembilan went to their house to claim his body earlier today.

The body of Lawrence Selvananthan, 33, was scheduled to be brought to a church in Seremban at 3pm today for a funeral mass followed by his burial, but his family was stopped by police and Negeri Sembilan Islamic Affairs Department (JHEINS) officials who claimed that he had already converted into Islam.

The deceased’s cousin, who asked to only be identified as Jenny, said they were approached by police officers at the family home in Lukut, Port Dickson at about 12.40pm to inform them that they could not proceed with the burial.

She said the police officers showed them what she described as a photocopied document, detailing Lawrence’s alleged conversion into Islam.

“They told us that he just converted three days ago. The name and IC number were correct, but there was no photo. We’re not even sure of (the authenticity of) the signature,” she said when contacted by Malaysiakini.

It is understood that Lawrence, a lorry driver, was found unconscious in his parked lorry by family members, and declared dead on arrival at the Seremban General Hospital sometime last night. The cause of death is unclear.

Both sides in discussion

PKR’s Port Dickson state assemblyperson Ravi Munusamy, who was mediating between the two parties, confirmed that there was a stand-off between the family members and JHEAINS and police officers.

He estimated at least 30 officials went to the house to claim the body, though both sides have since entered discussions, which were still ongoing at the time of writing this article.

Ravi pointed out that the family members are sceptical over the conversion claim as the witness to Lawrence’s alleged conversion did not turn up despite being asked to verify the claim.

“Even the signature on the document is not his. His brother confirmed it is not his (Lawrence’s) signature,” he added.

Jenny stressed that the situation is only making things worse for the family, as they cannot even grieve over their loss.

“The family is very sad. His daughter lost a father and his wife lost a husband.

“They said he had already mengucap (took his vows of conversion) at the department, but by right they should have informed his family immediately. We think this is very unfair to us,” she said.

source: http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/176585

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Posted in BornInMalaysia, Indian, Religion

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former Tanah Merah Estate workers to get land and house

September 13th, 2011
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After waiting for 20 over years, hopefully their dream will come true. If we can provide so much for the proposed refugees from Australia, surely we can do at least equally or better for our own citizens.

 

For the 150 former Tanah Merah Estate workers and their families, news that the state government is to acquire land to build houses promised to them two decades ago is definitely a cause for celebration.

Many of the former workers, who are now renting houses in low-cost schemes outside the estate, had almost given up hope that the pledge made to them years ago would be honoured.

M. Mariamah, 72, a rubber tapper, is looking forward to moving into one of the houses the state plans to build on the 6ha site in Tanah Merah near here.

“After years of waiting and hoping, the homes promised to us will finally be built.

“Many of us were born there and it is where we raised our children, too … but once we retired, there was no choice but to leave the estate,” she said at her son’s house in Taman Jimah Jaya.

MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek said Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan gave him the good news during a meeting at the MB’s office in Wisma Negeri in Seremban last week.

Dr Chua said the pledge to help the estate workers own houses had been made by a former Barisan Nasional representative, but could not be fulfilled due to several factors.

It was learnt that the state government would spend some RM2.7mil to acquire the land from Sime Darby.

R. Govindasamy, 55, said he was glad the long wait was over.

“Almost 80% of the residents of the low-cost houses in Taman Jimah Jaya were former Tanah Merah Estate workers.

“Many of us could not afford to buy our own homes and had no choice but to rent low-cost houses nearby,” he said.

G. Malliga, 52, who was a general worker at the estate, said she had been renting a three-bedroom low-cost home for RM200 a month since leaving her job due to health problems.

Port Dickson local council member Datuk King C.F. Lim, who met with some of the former estate workers and their families yesterday to share the good news, said he was grateful to Dr Chua and Mohamad for making good on the promise.

source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/9/13/nation/9463330&sec=nation

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estate folks get clean water 100 years later

September 5th, 2011
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I’m at loss at what’s to be proud here. Maybe the state exco can highlight it. 100 years (ok, make it 54 years, since before Merdeka it was under colonial rule), last raised in February, settled in September. One wonders what all the previous excos and authorities were doing all this while.  Should have hauled up the estate owner, slap a hefty fine or even jailed some of them. Oh wait, does our law protect such citizens?

Families in an estate here waited a century for clean water supply. And now their dream has come true.

Previously, residents of the Leong Hin San estate had to depend on a small well and an unhygienic pond for water.

However, state exco VS Mogan, who oversees the estate affairs, human resources and environment portfolio, negotiated with Syarikat Air Negeri Sembilan (SAINS) to connect water supply for the residents’ houses.

“The residents received the water supply about a month ago and the cost of the installation for the houses was around RM120,000,” he said.

According to Mogan, this was another example of how MIC and the Barisan Nasional government were concerned about the welfare of estate workers.

“If there are any other residents in the estate who still do not have water supply, please come forward in order for us to help you,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mogan also directed the estate management to carry out maintenance work on the workers’ houses as well as to ensure hygienic living conditions.

FMT highlighted the plight of the estate workers in February.

The estate’s union leader S Murugan told FMT then that residents found snake skin, dead frogs and goats in the pond from which they collected water.

The union had raised the issue with the estate management for years, but the problem was not fixed.

source: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/2011/09/05/100-year-wait-for-water-supply-over/

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