Thursday, October 28, 2010

Can You Trust The Men In Turbans?

Hantu Laut

If the MACC care to investigate all the Religious Councils in this country Muslims would be in a big shock how and where some of their zakat and fitrah money go to.

In Sabah, the money are collected by MUIS and there have been cases in the past where usage of the money were abused in the form of false claims and corruptions.Since than there have not been a look-in at MUIS.As the Malay proverb say "Jangan sangka tak ada buaya di air tenang", you wouldn't know better until curiosity open the Pandora's box.

If you believe that all men in turbans are god-fearing you might as well believe in the Grand Vizier of Baghdad. Remember the story "The Thief of Baghdad"

Here's something from my favourite ulamak.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2010

Asri: 'Ghosts' in religious councils are robbing zakat from poor

KUALA LUMPUR - The revelation by the Auditor-General's Department that the Federal Territory Islamic Religious Council (MAIWP) had wanted to dispose 70 air conditioner units despite their working condition has left former Perlis Mufti Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin wondering about the state of the country's religious institutions.

"The parties involved must provide an explanation as to how far this is true," said Asri (pic) in a blog posting.

The recently-released report by the Auditor-General criticised MAIWP for its plan last year to scrap seventy air conditioning units acquired in 2007 and 2008 despite not being listed in the evaluation board's report.

It further noted that office equipments worth RM135,265 were simply abandoned at its old premise in Wisma Baitulmal when moving its headquarters to the Perkim building in February 2008.

The report also said 21 units of computers and cameras worth RM45,789 and three motorcycles belonging to the department had been 'lost'. Petrol claims for its fleet of vehicles were also suspicious, it added.

'More zakat, more poverty'

Saying he had always been suspicious about the state of financial management involving Islamic institutions in the country, Asri said he felt compelled to highlight the issue although it could rile up many quarters.

“Why not? When billions collected from zakat and others have been allocated for Muslims, we are still faced with a depressing situation whereby there are families who live under bridges in Kuala Lumpur," said Asri, referring to a recent television exposure about homeless families in the capital.

"Who's that ghost cheating and robbing us of our zakat revenue so that those deserving do not get it? Whose hands could it be? Is it the gnome in the jungle or the men in turban?” asked Asri in some of his harshest comments yet against the authorities.

Saying zakat collection had grown in tandem with rising poverty, Asri called for a revamp of the zakat institution, and urged a proper forum to discuss transparency and proper management of zakat fund.

He questioned whether those entrusted to manage the funds were honest and serious in their job, or were simply siphoning off zakat money on the argument that they were part of the asnaf (those among the eight groups of people deserving help through zakat).

'Tip of iceberg'

Asri said the exposure by the Auditor-General was only the tip of the icerberg, adding that the state of financial management in other states remained concealed.

“But we do know for a fact that poverty exists in every state, and PPZ's (Zakat Collection Centre) wealth in each state is glaring," he said.

Asri said the situation only further eroded Muslims' confidence in the integrity of Islamic institutions, which he warned would make them think twice before entrusting these bodies to manage their religious affairs.

“It's all inter-linked: the interests of politics, the palace, individuals and many others. A total reform can be a solution to turn things around," he stressed, and said only a clean, honest and transparent government could ensure such a transformation.

Zakat is calculated annually and is one of the five pillars of Islam, mentioned repeatedly in the Qur'an alongside such obligations as prayer and fasting. An adult Muslim who fulfils several criteria, among which is owning a certain amount of unused wealth within a span of one year, must set aside 2.5% of such wealth as zakat to help the less fortunate groups in the society.Malaysia Chronicle

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

The Dark Dirty Ugly American

Hantu Laut

American justice has many faces.

We don't do body count if they are not American.

The hypocrisy of it all.Blood on the hands of those who leaked the secret documents endangering American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan says the US Chief of Army.

It is alright for American to kill hundreds of thousand of Iraqis, Afghans or anyone that crossed their path but don't you dare kill American.

Only American lives mattered, the Iraqis and Afghan civilians can go to hell as far as Barrack Obama and his administration are concerned.

Barrack Obama is the man with sugar-coated tongue that sweet talked the American people into electing him as president and promised the world global peace but did nothing of that sort, instead, did the very opposite, starts a new war in Pakistan and bring more collateral damage to Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Hasn't he got blood on his hands?

What about the blood of thousands of innocent civilians killed by the US army.The torture and massacre of Iraqis and Afghans with the blessing of the US administration and participated by the US military which came to light only after the exposures by WikiLeaks.

Who has more blood on his hands?

Obama or the whistle blower?

Guantanamo and Abu Gharib are nothing compared to what the almost 400,000 leaked documents will soon reveal of American atrocities in the war zones.

Now, the US hypocrites are asking for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's head on the chopping board, to capture him and send him off to Guantanamo.

Well done! Wikileaks.We need more people like you to expose the atrocities and hypocrisy of the United State government.

From Wikileaks

At 5pm EST Friday 22nd October 2010 WikiLeaks released the largest classified military leak in history. The 391,832 reports ('The Iraq War Logs'), document the war and occupation in Iraq, from 1st January 2004 to 31st December 2009 (except for the months of May 2004 and March 2009) as told by soldiers in the United States Army. Each is a 'SIGACT' or Significant Action in the war. They detail events as seen and heard by the US military troops on the ground in Iraq and are the first real glimpse into the secret history of the war that the United States government has been privy to throughout.

The reports detail 109,032 deaths in Iraq, comprised of 66,081 'civilians'; 23,984 'enemy' (those labeled as insurgents); 15,196 'host nation' (Iraqi government forces) and 3,771 'friendly' (coalition forces). The majority of the deaths (66,000, over 60%) of these are civilian deaths.That is 31 civilians dying every day during the six year period. For comparison, the 'Afghan War Diaries', previously released by WikiLeaks, covering the same period, detail the deaths of some 20,000 people. Iraq during the same period, was five times as lethal with equivallent population size.

"Put lives at risk" -BULLSHIT

You are the biggest killer

Stop the war and get out of Iraq and Afghanistan and let the people decide their own destiny.

Diary Dig

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War Logs

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Tuesday, October 26, 2010

What Stimulus?

Hantu Laut

Why would a naval base be adorned with chandeliers,fancy wall paper and other items of luxury? Read the (AG) Auditor-General's report here. Would the Chief of Navy be upstanding and explain why he needs such pomposity.

Indeed, a very sad state of affair, money that's supposed to stimulate the economy being spent indiscriminately without due care and attention.

Even more deplorable and beyond comprehension is the AG's report here. Paying for goods that have not been delivered and accepting goods of inferior quality. It would not be too far-fetched to think that there may be element of corruptions.It should trigger the MACC to investigate.

This deplorable state of affairs will stymie Najib's chance of recovering lost ground.It's about time the PM use the carrot and stick approach to rehabilitate these good for nothing civil servants, and not the least, some of his ministers.

We need to spend to stimulate the economy is true but prudence should be the core element.Our debt to GDP ration, at the moment, is still manageable but drastic measures should be taken to bring it down.This kind of wastage if left unchecked is going to bankrupt the nation.

The AG reported current debt to GDP ratio of 50 percent of mostly domestic borrowing is a sign that our borrowing is increasing.Malaysia has reduced it foreign debt quite substantially which means we are not at the mercy of foreign currency exchange.However, the increase in total debt is not good sign.

The higher the debt ratio is, the more likely we are going to default because we have borrowed too much relative to the ability for us as a whole to repay.More reflective is the percentage devoted to debt repayment, 5 to 10% of GDP is the acceptable ratio, anything more means the country is heading for trouble.So far so good, we are still in the green zone.

It may come as a shock to you that the US and UK has almost 100% debt to GDP ratio yet still got AAA ratings.These two countries have unassailable institutions, political stability and low sovereign risk.

Unnecessary spending invites inflation which is the percursor to recession.Civil servants do no care how they spend because it is not their money, it is other people's money.

Another, very sinful wastage is the government giving of free computers to villagers.Do the villagers really need such computers to make them more knowledgeable or they would rather exchange it for cash and some people in government would be making tons of ill gotten gains from the excercise?