Question For The Lawyers: Letter Of The Law or Spirit Of The Law ?

Hantu Laut

The United Kingdom has no codified constitution.Much of the British constitution is embodied in the written form, within statutes, court judgments and treaties and in other unwritten sources such as, constitutional convention and royal prerogatives.

Unlike Malaysia and most other countries of the world the U.K has no written constitution. She ran by convention. In layman's term it means " a way in which something is usually done".

Can we say the U.K has no constitution whatsoever?

Here, a lawyer, a so called constitutional expert and a member of the Bar Council and who has probably wasted a couple of years at law school says Malaysia has no official religion because the word "official" is missing from Article 3 of the Malaysian constitution in which Islam was prescribed as the state's religion.

Article 3 of the Malaysian constitution, should it be "letter of the law or spirit of the law"? A question for the legal fraternity.

Are lawyers trained to differentiate between the two or were just taught to parrot everything they learned from the law book.

On the other hand, we have dummies who says the prime minister of Malaysia must be a Muslim and a Malay.These dummies probably do not have a copy or have never seen a copy of the Malaysian constitution, let alone read it, but got enough balls to go to the press and say their piece.

Malaysia has a written constitution.We are not governed by convention.Just because historically we had only Malay/Muslim prime ministers it does not mean that is the law of the land.Person of any faith can become prime minister if he enjoyed majority support in Parliament.However, such anomaly is not likely to happen in the near future.

Of course, there are smart lawyers and and not so smart lawyers.

They say, smart lawyers go into private practice and make lots of money and the not so smart lawyers joined politics and make even more money than the smart lawyers.The worst of the lot are bad lawyers, those pretty useless ones in private practice, wanting to keep up with the Joneses but can ill afford it, next thing you know they were doing shady deals and some would run away with their client's money.

So, not all lawyers are smart.

Abraham Lincoln, a self-educated man, who became a lawyer and went on to become the 16th President of the United States said in one of his famous speeches "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt"

It's Time To Bring Out The ISA

Hantu Laut

Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak's feeble warning on the worsening religious and race relations would not be effective enough to stop the troublemakers of wanting to turn this nation into a state of chaos by fanning religious fervour.

By now the government should realise Malaysians are incapable of handling freedom of expression responsibly.Elements from both the oppositions and the ruling party are equally responsible for the deteriorating inter-racial and religious relations.

As much as I hate to say it, former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad was right when he said such racial polarisation and religious conflicts did not happen under his watch.Say what you like about this misunderstood man, we had 22 years of peaceful co-existence under his regime.There were no religious issues or racial polarisation that we see is building up now which could ignite at any moment into something more unpleasant, unless, drastic actions are taken forthwith to arrest it before it gets out of hand.

Mahathir was prepared to take unpopular decision to protect the delicate membrane that separate the different religions and races in the country, which has kept the nation alive in peace and harmony for 22 years.He responded quickly, though at time harshly, to any attempt to undermine our peaceful society that have co-existed for many decades in the harsh realities of religious and ethnic differences.

Hated by politician and loved by the rabble, Mahathir had used the carrot and stick approach to ensure peace and prosperity.His detractors may not agree with his less than desirable approach but it certainly has been for the greater good......keeping the nation at peace.

Though, I am no supporter of the opposition I do not believe the recent claim that the DAP was conspiring with Christian leaders to make Christianity the official religion of the country and to install a Christian prime minister.It is highly improbable and was nothing but mischievous attempt to cause civil unrest.

The bloggers that started the rumours should be investigated, if found guilty, arrested and thrown in the slammer.

Utusan Malaysia that propagate the rumours without checking its facts first should be given a show cause letter why its publishing permit should not be suspended or withdrawn unless it come up with reasonable explanation or give material evidence that such allegations were true.

I believe the leaders in DAP are not that stupid to trot on such improbable and sensitive subjects.No one in their right mind could have believed that the minority Christians have such ambitions and DAP toying with such an idea seemed preposterous.

Is Najib in a Catch 22 situation? Why has he not acted against the troublemakers and show them he meant business.His 1 Malaysia would remained a mere slogan and a sham if he continues to allow such disemboweling of religious issues for political mileage.Is he maintaining his elegant silence because he is afraid of losing the Malay supports if he slammed Utusan and pro-UMNO blogs for the spectre they have created .

The opposition DAP are equally guilty of raising sensitive religious issues for political mileage. The Allah and Malay Bible issues were boldly and loudly accentuated by DAP in their political campaigns in the Sarawak state elections.They were hoping to turn the Christians in Sarawak to vote massively against the BN. However, the swing was not enough to dethrone Taib and the BN. DAP, not Pakatan, was the winner.

Here, another moron from the Bar Council seeking cheap publicity says Malaysia has no official religion.He cited Article 3 as stating “Islam is the religion of the Federation; but other religions may be practised in peace and harmony in any part of the Federation” and pointed out the word “official” was nowhere in the provision.

This learned fool is worse than the man in the street, is he splitting hairs, or just plain stupid? Was it necessary to mention the word "official" in every articles in the Constitution, is it not sufficient that Islam was explicitly mentioned as religion of the Federation.

Malaysia is not the only country with such provision in its Constitution, many Christian nations particularly in Latin America and Europe and Muslim nations in Middle East have the same provision in their constitutions.

If it was not so, why the need to mention Islam as religion of the Federation. Article 3 (1) would be simply written as shown below.

"All religions can be practised freely in the Federation"

The learned joker failed to widen the scope of interpretation of Article 3 (2), (3), (4) and (5) which officially makes the rulers of the states and by extension the Yang di-Pertuan Agong as head of Islam.

Article 3 of the Malaysian Constitution is reproduced below:

1. Islam is the religion of the Federation; but other religions may be practised in peace and harmony in any part of the Federation.

2. In every State other than States not having a Ruler the position of the Ruler as the Head of the religion of Islam in his State in the manner and to the extent acknowledged and declared by the Constitution, all rights, privileges, prerogatives and powers enjoyed by him as Head of that religion, are unaffected and unimpaired; but in any acts, observance or ceremonies with respect to which the Conference of Rulers has agreed that they should extend to the Federation as a whole each of the other Rulers shall in his capacity of Head of the religion of Islam authorize the Yang di-pertuan Agong to represent him.

3. The Constitution of the States of Malacca, Penang, Sabah and Sarawak shall each make provision for conferring on the Yang di-Pertuan Agong shall be Head of the religion of Islam in that State.

4. Nothing in this Article derogates from any other provision of this Constitution.

5. Notwithstanding anything in this Constitution the Yang di-Pertuan Agong shall be the Head of the religion of Islam in the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur and Labuan; and for this purpose Parliament may by law make provisions for regulating Islamic religious affairs and for constituting a Council to advise the Yang di-Pertuan Agong in matters relating to the religion of Islam.

It's about time Najib use his absolute discretion to invoke the ISA, fairly and squarely, on the troublemakers from both sides of the political divide.

This is the time to bring out the ISA, without fear or favour.

Singapore's PAP Returned To Power

Hantu Laut

PAP, Singapore's ruling party since 1959 was returned to power in Saturday's general election.

The ruling party won 81 seats while the opposition Worker's Party took 6 seats.

Singapore is a prosperous nation but many voters expressed their worries about the relatively high cost of living and the rise of low-wage immigrant workers.It is also a very authoritarian nation curbing freedom of expression, assembly and harassment of opposition leaders.

Singaporeans are now seeking greater freedom and future general elections would see more erosion of PAP's political influence which have been dominant for over five decades.

Those Awfully Lazy And Stupid Reporters

Hantu Laut

In the world of journalism ignorance is not bliss it's idiocy.The less you know the more idiotic you are.

Lazy reporters, journalists or whatever they may be called, aplenty, in this country.Like the Utusan Malaysia reporter who thought "ultra vires" uttered by Karpal Singh were words insulting the Sultan of Perak.

My English teacher would have recoiled in sheer horror.He would have said "If you don't know, ask! If you are 'bodoh sombong' than that's your funeral".

If you are shy to ask, today there are other alternative in this technological age, there are wealth of information on the Internet and it's free. All you have to do is a click of the mouse and presto! You are there.

But than, "ultra vires" if one needs to get to the bottom of it's meaning is not even English, it's Latin, but has become very English by its broad usage, particularly by the legal fraternity.

Like the student who refused to do his homework many of these purveyors of news are just too bloody lazy to get the facts of the matter right.They are the typical "makan gaji" type that took no pride in their work.

I remember when my family had a tragedy and my father and my grandparents perished in a fire that consumed my father's house Bernama reported that I was an adopted son and studying in Singapore when I am of the same flesh and blood, already married with three children, the only son and running a multi-million dollar trading and shipping business in Singapore at that time.I chose to ignore the report and consider the reporter was just too bloody lazy to do his work professionally.

Till today, I wondered who was the person that he enquired the information from.

Now, I understand why they are called reporters.Their job is just to report without worrying about the authenticity of the information.

Than you get some too smart for their own good.A video (below) shows a TV3 reporter asking Wan Azizah whether Anwar Ibrahim owned an Omega watch and she replied in the affirmative and what come next was a scatterbrain and sheer stupidity, she asked "cuba kasi tengok" asking Wan Azizah to show her the watch there and then.

Real smart ass.



Below is another stupid reporter who hassled Anwar over the same Omega watch which most people knew has not been confirmed to belong to Anwar, asking Anwar if he has the watch why has he not surrendered it to the police.Did the police asked Anwar for the watch?

Is she a rookie, or was coached by her bosses to ask those questions or just plain stupid? The police have not asked Anwar to produce the watch.They need not have to as no crime has been committed.Infidelity is not a crime, it is just something society frown upon.



"I want to show how UMNO operate" insinuated Anwar of the awfully stupid question.

Reporter bodoh UMNO yang kena.

Utusan,TV3 and all GLC media network it's about time you recruit real journalists not some half-past-six reporters incapable of asking sensible questions.