Orang Semenanjung Your Brand Of Islam Not For Sabahans

Holy men, holy women: A look at one kampung in Sabah -

JAN 10 — “Aku nak Islam lama balik. Bukan Islam ini.” (“I want the old Islam back, not the current one.”)

I was in Sabah recently, right smack in a small village of 2,000 people. (I am not naming the village because I feel protective over it.) I was there to assess the socio-economic situation of the village, and after a few days of being viewed as a visitor, my newfound friends finally felt comfortable enough to let their guard down.

We were at the anjung of the homestay I stayed in. A faint scent of the sweet but pungent smell of the palm oil that had muddied the village river drifted over from time to time. The village was quiet; an occasional clanging of kitchen utensils broke up the stillness of the night.

The homestay owner had family visiting her. The conversation was banal at first, and like all conversations, family illnesses, ghosts, the rising cost of living peppered the air. A short acknowledgement about a friend’s death stirred the hornet’s nest: the women became very angry.

The martriach of the family looked hard at the homestay owner, who turned to me to explain.

“We Orang Sungai (the people of the river) have always been Muslim,” she said. “And like the Malays of the Semenanjung (Peninsular Malaysia), we have our customs.”

“The thing is, orang Semenanjung are intent on destroying us.”

The arrival of ulamas (preachers) from the Peninsula over the last few years in Sabah, and especially in the interiors, is tearing apart the social fabric of the villagers.

Young, fresh graduates from Al Azhar University and other Islamic colleges, but with little life experience, these young men come to Sabah, with the intent of righting the villagers.

“Dulu, we could wear henna during weddings but now they say it is haram.”

“We’ve always prayed, but now these tabligh, they come to our houses to check that we pray and tell off our men for praying at home, they must pray in the surau.”

“Friday prayers, yes, men must go but when it’s not Friday, they can pray at home too. So why is it wrong now?”

When there is a death in the village, they have a feast, a kenduri, so the whole village comes as one, to grieve.

“These tabligh, they tell us it’s wrong. But to us it is not wrong – the food goes to people who can’t afford to buy food. The funeral unites us as a village.”

In fact, the homestay owner and her family told me they practised many things that united the village. Solat hajat tolak bala berjemaah (mass prayers to avoid misfortune, illness el al). Prayers for those leaving the village to seek their fortunes elsewhere. Read more.

The Beginning Of The End.....Najib Worse Than Pak Lah

Hantu Laut

It seems Najib is continuing to lose support of many pro-UMNO/BN bloggers, who supported him in the 13th GE. 

Disheartened by Najib's total failure to do what he had promised these bloggers have turned against him.

These are genuine unpaid bloggers, paid only by the belief that Najib can bring about feasible political changes for the benefits of all Malaysians. The man didn't make the cut, he fared worse than Pak Lah. 

As self-consolation, the dickheads in UMNO claimed they have increased winning in Malay areas and as dickheads should be forgot that victory was handed over by Sabah and Sarawak. There weren't enough Malay seats in Peninsula Malaysia for BN/UMNO to win on Malay votes exclusively. In urban areas the Malays have abandoned them.

The nation is now like a ship foundering in heavy seas with a captain unable to steer the ship to a safe harbour. Najib had failed miserably to deliver on his promises.The nation is lingering on the edge of a dangerous racial and religious turmoil.

It is obvious that Najib lent too much of his ears to swashbuckling buccaneers and political prostitutes and ignored the groundswell of public opinion.

I was not wrong when I gave up on the man much earlier than some of these bloggers.

Two of his most avid supporters "Outsyed The Box" and "APANAMA" have started to question his political integrity and performance and I predict more pro-bloggers will follow soon.

Read APANAMA's article on "Najib Worse Than Pak Lah"

If Najib thinks blogs and social media are not pivotal in changing public opinion, he is mighty wrong. The erosion of support for BN/UMNO and its current dilemma are brought about by the new stingers.

Can't Agree More With Kadir Jasin, Najib Not Beyond Stricture

Hantu Laut

I was once his ardent supporter but now filled with utter disgust with the kind of ineptitude, playing with religious fire and an economy that self-prophesying for imminent decline.

I have, on many instances, in my past postings wrote on the need to abolish subsidies and dismantle all monopolies and let prices find its own level. 

A government interference in a free market economy is a sure recipe for disaster, it's only a matter of time before the roof came down on us Malaysians. 

It makes one wonder why a cuppa in a Singapore hawker's stall is cheaper than a cuppa in a Malaysian hawker's stall when our neighbour has the highest per capita income in the world and higher standard of living and we still caught in the middle income trap and in all probability going down further south.

Najib must not forgets, the ball is in his court.

Najib is not beyond criticism for his inaction, only he can make the changes and take full blame for any undoing of his government.

I couldn't agree more with Kadir Jasin in his article reproduced below.

Najib is not above criticism, says former NST chief editor

Pro-government supporters should realise that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is not above criticism for Putrajaya’s cost-cutting measures which had resulted in price hikes, says a former editor of an Umno-linked newspaper.

Veteran journalist Datuk A. Kadir Jasin (pic) wrote that Najib and his advisers were not above criticism when the public react to Putrajaya's way of managing the national economy.

"It was Najib and his advisers during the general election who promised the people that prices will not be raised. So, who is going back on their word?" he asked in a posting in his The Scribe blog yesterday.

He also questioned whether the prime minister was an absolute monarch who could not be criticised or questioned.

"Or is he a living saint who is free from any kind of slip-ups?” asked Kadir, who was the group editor-in-chief of the New Straits Times when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was the prime minister.

Since September, Putrajaya has introduced a series of cost-cutting measures to rein in a chronic budget deficit which includes a reduction of fuel subsidies, removal of subsidy for sugar, allowed an increase in power tariffs and confirmed the introduction of the goods and services tax (GST).

Putrajaya is also mulling a revision of toll rates while the 20% rebate offered to frequent users of tolled roads in the Klang Valley is being scrapped.

The increasing cost of goods and services had also triggered a protest on New Year's Eve by an undergraduate non-governmental organisation, Turun, which attracted more than 10,000 people.

In defending his strident criticism of Najib, the veteran journalist also rebuked his critics who had claimed that he only lambasted the prime minister on “economic management but did not offer advice and pointers”. Read more.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO FAMILY, FRIENDS, ALL MALAYSIANS AND PEOPLE OF THE WORLD, WHEREVER YOU ARE, WHATEVER COLOUR, WHATEVER CREED YOU ARE. LET'S MAKE THIS WORLD A BETTER PLACE, A PLACE WITHOUT BORDERS. THAT THERE'LL  BE SHARING OF JOY, HAPPINESS AND BENEFACTION FOR THE LESS FORTUNATE.