Thinking Aloud

Hi, just to inform my faithful readers that I will not be blogging here any longer.

The new address is uliang.wordpress.com. Now all I have to do is to figure out how to move my old posts to the new one.

Cartoon by Walt Handelsman, Newsday Long Island. He won the 2007 Pulitzer for editorial cartooning. Full list of reciepients here.

From the blog Disquiet, run by lawyer Malik Imtiaz Sawar.

Just remember, we gave the present Government a mandate. Something we are constantly reminded of.

The law requires that the welfare of the children be the paramount consideration. The law also requires that all of us be treated equally. And yet, it would seem that those amongst us charged with the welfare of the nation and its citizens appear to think otherwise.

What justifies tearing a family apart, separating children from their parents? Islam does not. The law does not. How can we even begin to understand the anguish of the father, the mother and the children? How can we even begin to understand that some believe that the law countenances, warrants, such cruelty?

Someone has to be made accountable for this.

MIS

http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/65995
Family torn apart over ‘religion’
Yoges Palaniappan
Apr 16, 07 4:26pm

Rubber tapper P Marimuthu’s life changed drastically when seven officers from the Selangor Religious Department (Jais) came to his house in Kampung Baru Tambahan Ulu Yam on April 2.

The father of six was told that his wife of 21 years Raimah Bibi was a Muslim and that she and their children, aged between four and 12, must be placed in a rehabilitation centre.

The couple’s eldest son was staying with an uncle at that time.

Relating his ordeal at a press conference in the Parliament lobby today, the 44-year-old rubber tapper said he had no choice but to let the officers take his family away.

He also claimed that an ‘ustaz’ (religious scholar) had told him to covert to Islam or threatened to charge him for khalwat (close proximity) with Raimah, 40.

Raimah, who returned to help him with the rubber tapping work two days later, told him that Jais had placed the family in the nearby Kampung Melayu Liga Emas.

She purportedly said the villagers, who are predominantly Malays, have been asked to keep an eye on her daily activities and prevent her from meeting outsiders, especially her husband.

Marimuthu said he felt threatened by the villagers’ stares when he attempted to visit his wife and children.

“My wife was so afraid that she refused to come out and talk to me. I had no choice but to leave that village,” he said.

According to him, Raimah managed to sneak their children over to his house several times without anybody’s knowledge.

“We will be together for some time and then she’ll leave again to the other house,” he said.

Another heart-rendering saga

Marimuthu also does not know if his wife was a practising Muslim before they got married. Since then, he said, the two of them have been practising Hindus.

“We got married in a temple, according to Hindu rituals. All our kids were brought up as Hindus,” he said.

He said Raimah, who was adopted by an Indian Muslim family, cannot remember her adopted mother and her late adopted father had approved of their relationship.

According to Marimuthu, his wife’s MyKad had stated her name as Raimah Bibi binti Noordin and her religion as Islam.

The couple did not apply to the National Registration Department (NRD) to have this corrected either.

Meanwhile, Parliamentary Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang, who accompanied Marimuthu, said the authorities learnt about Raimah’s ‘religious status’ when the couple enrolled their children into a school and copies of their identity cards were submitted to the education department.

“It is a simple mistake that has brought a great tragedy to the family,” he said, adding that the matter must be checked with the authorities in order for the family to be reunited.

“This is the latest in heart-rendering family sagas like in the case of R Subashini where human rights are completely ignored. Such incidents should be stopped,” he stressed.

Posted by Malik Imtiaz Sarwar at 6:28 AM

Of late, cases like these have become common. But notice something: it always always involves Hindus and not just any Hindu, particularly those who cannot defend themselves. The poor, those without economic clout.

This is not an issue of religion or faith. It is oppression. Imagine this, Malaysians are being oppressed by their own fellow Malaysians!

Who can read this and not feel his blood boil.

This article must certainly be one of the most heartbreaking articles I have ever read.

Pearls before Breakfast, by Gene Weingarten.

Busy, busy as a bee, and what has being busy ever done for us?

Dunno where this thought popped out of my head.

” As Christians, we are citizens of every country, and yet of none…”

I wish that I had taken a module on film during my undergrad days. I would have enjoyed 300 better.

Just a thought.

The end of the Holy week was a rather relaxing one. I enjoyed it. Good Friday service in the morning. God gave Pastor Shih Ming exactly the words I needed to hear (not what I wanted to hear…). Headed down to Sim Lim to get and brand new graphics card and a new game. Spent the rest of the day enjoying the fruits of my hard earned money.

Saturday spent cleaning up the house and doing another round of consultation with my student. Wanted to go swimming but the weather was not obliging. Slept early.

Come Sunday. Easter worship service, then home cooked lunch, a swim and then dinner. And I finally cleaned my room. Aaah, nicely relaxed and recharged.

Was thinking how much God has blessed me. It seems almost criminal to say that my life is pretty much relaxed. Amongst my peers, (don’t mean to boast) I think I have the least stress free mind. But is it an Asian thing to define one’s sense of importance by being busy? I have the nagging suspicion that this is so, and if it is then I guess I’m the least Asian amongst my peers.

If Mahathirism was characterized by excessiveness, the Abdullah administration would be chatacterized by idiocy and primitivism.

It just had to come. Deputy Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor just had to say it. He suggested that all locally (Malaysian) hosted blogs will have to be registered with the government.

Well, first it was prepaid card users. Now blogs. And what’s the rationale? After all that is said and done, it boils down to one thing: To prevent commentors and bloggers from criticizing the government anonymously.

Anyone who has the miniscule understanding of human character will recognize this as a plain bully mentality. The might of the government being used for really petty reasons. 

We don’t even have to talk about freedom of speech and freedom from the fear of intimidation. Why? Because the good blogs which bring legitimate criticisms against the government are not anonymous anyway, and the anonymous ones are so downright shitty lousy that intelligent readers simply ignore them. 

Two issues here: The slippery slope that the government is taking (not to mention the patriarchal and kampung mentality). The other is the failure of 50 years of independance to produce a country that is confident with democracy. There is nothing western about criticizing one’s government: It is the whole point of democracy. Bottom to up governance, the citizen taking responsibility for his country. Not lapdogs for the crumbs falling off from BN’s table, but a people whom the government fears. 

Honestly speaking, I’m quite sick and tired of simple minded comments made by ministers who still live in the 1960’s and 70’s. It is just so hard to believe how these people actually get elected.  

Anyways, links are to some of international papers (taken from jeffooi.com ) reporting on this issue. The Sydney Morning Herald and The Jerusalem Post.

Pastor Shih Ming said something pretty significant this morning during Good Friday service.

"…if we can trust Him with our eternity, why can’t we trust Him for our daily needs…" or something to that effect. I can’t remember the exact wording.

It was really a timely word from the Lord, I think. All this while, I have been running on my own steam. Thinking about what I will do after I graduate, how much I will earn after I graduate. Will I be making a living out of the skills that I have or not. Who I will marry in the end…loads and loads of things to worry about. And the net result…more worries.

I haven’t been trusting.

But what stuck me even more was that it is possible that I don’t trust Him because I don’t really know what it really means to trust Him for my eternity.

I guess it is the issue of eternity. Do I really care about eternity? Do I really believe that heaven makes a difference on earth today, as I live out my life daily?

Tough questions to ponder over the weekend.  

I think I’m not crazy enough to be a mathematician. Haha.

But one thing is for sure, studying Analysis (both integration and functional analysis) has really humbled me. Gosh, I wish I had paid more attention to analysis during undergraduate days.