Category Archives: Religion

And God Strikes Back!

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Just a quick one before I am off for the holidays…

(It was good to see a very familiar face at the helm of, surprisingly a public demo – perhaps it was high time to learn a thing or two on public demo from Hindraf and Bersih. Unfortunately this was done before it was revealed that it was BN and not Pakatan who approved the development plans. It then turned to be a comedy piece from there onwards)

Happy belated Deepavali and happy holidays to all and since we are on the subject of religion & culture, let me tell you a story.

A long time ago or rather more than 100 years old someone “discovered” Batu Caves and decided to open a temple in one of the caves (thank God that no one lives in caves these days; otherwise we would have another cow-head incident). And over all those years, this temple have grown bigger, more organised and became one of the “must have” place for the Hindus in this country to visit and pray – more so during Thaipusam. And it has been so for damn good years until the 2012 when someone discovered that a private developer is going to build a 29 storey condominium project near the temple and started to make some noise. Religion fanatics, opportunists and issue-hunger politicians then decided to put their 2-cents words and squarely blamed the State Government and demanded that the project to be scrapped otherwise to face the wrath of the Indian community (hoo, are you scared now?) and legal suits. After all, Batu Caves is in Selangor and election is just around the corner – so who want to miss this rare opportunity to create some “inconveniences” to the State Government? Well they tried with the water issue and then with the Talam issue but nothing much happened, so this is not so surprising.

Former MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu spearheaded today a demonstration at the Batu Caves Hindu temple, objecting to the construction of a 29-storey condominium project, in what is seen as a bid to pressure the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat (PR) administration ahead of the 13th general election.

The former works minister accused the Selayang Municipal Council (MPS) of having approved the construction project without a proper study. He said legal action could be taken against the council.

“This project is not planned properly and without referring to any professional party,” Samy Vellu told a 300-strong crowd of Hindus and non-governmental activists who had turned up at the famous temple complex this morning to protest the condominium construction, saying the work was an environmental risk and would jeopardise the temple grounds.

(Source)

More accusations flew in the media and the long-lost political party readied themselves to come out from the political wilderness and to champion this great “danger” to the rights of the community. It is not a big secret that some Indians (there’s one in every community) are quite passionate (and brainless) when it comes to religion and any intrusion to their turf (despite having too many unregistered temples at the same place) and how the destruction of temples in Selangor was one of the key factor for the swing of Indian votes to Pakatan in 2008. The plan on paper was rather simple – highlight the great “danger” to the temple due to the development so to “unite” Indians from both divides, give a final option to the Pakatan led Government (well knowing that Pakatan Government cannot keep due to obvious legal implications and short of time) and once that deadline is passed, accuse Pakatan of selling out the Indians in the State and tell the Indians that the ONLY way out from the mess is to vote Pakatan out from the State (as predicted, with the usual I help you, you help me kind of pre-election promises thrown in for good measures).

Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has given the assurance that Barisan Nasional will stop the controversial 29-storey condominium project in Batu Caves if it regains power in Selangor.

In making this promise, the Prime Minister said Batu Caves is a revered and respected site among the Hindu community in the country and worldwide. “I give you my assurance that if Barisan takes over Selangor, we will cancel this project.

“We do not want development of the surrounding area to pose a threat to this place,” he said at the MIC Deepavali open house held at the Batu Caves temple complex. The Prime Minister also said the Cabinet had decided to submit an application to Unesco for Batu Caves to be considered a World Heritage Site.

(Source)

Of course, during this chaos, the so-called community champions will conveniently forget some key questions – why no demonstration and objections when the development was approved back in 2007? It was not like they were kept in the dark. Why nothing was done in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011? Why nothing was done in the first few months of 2012? Why only now the Federal Government has plans to apply Unesco World Heritage Site status despite for donkey odd years BN ruled Selangor? Why only now Batu Caves is “deemed” a revered and respected site among the Hindu community in the country and worldwide? And doesn’t the World Heritage Site status irrespective of who govern the State is good for Malaysia (and the Indian community) as whole?

Of course, none of these questions would be made and heavily discussed in public by the same champions but the condemnation and accusations against the Pakatan led State Government will continue, hoping the Indian community will fail to see the bigger picture and will swallow whatever that is dished out by the crusaders of the community as the gospel truth.

Apparently God has been watching this for some time now and decided that the whack way back in 2008 was not enough. Nothing much has changed since then, nothing much is likely to change in the near future. He decided to throw in the spanner into the woodwork – just for the fun of it.

Its official – all 19 members who attended the full board meeting of the Selayang Municipal Council voted in favour of approving the Dolomite Avenue Park project in Batu Caves in 2007. Despite earlier denials and assertions by some councillors that they were neither party nor privy to the approval process, minutes of the meeting held on Nov 29, 2007 – obtained by theSun – show otherwise.

Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Datuk A. Kohilan Pillai, who was a councillor between 1997 and 2008, had voted in favour of the project. So did the three councillors from the MIC – Rajakupal Sinnathamby, Jayakumaran Govindasamy and Rajandran Muniandy.

(Source)

Wonder who is having the last laugh now? It was interesting to see how the same crusaders and the 300 odd demonstrators are going to spin themselves out of this new found truth. Many thanks to good sensible journalism by theSun, we now know that out of the 19 fellows who approved the development way back in 2007 (before Pakatan came in power),  THREE were MIC councillors and also included Gerakan’s Kohilan Pillai.

As much as Kohilan must be given a chance to give his side of the story, equally important is that he gives plausible explanations.

Are we to assume that the Selayang council at one time or the other operated like a “secret society” keeping vital information away from the residents? Are we to assume that minutes are not recorded accurately? Are we to assume that the minute-taker took it upon himself or herself to “censor” the proceedings and only showed the “good side” of the council reflecting the buddy-buddy working relationship of councillors with no dissent? Are we to assume minutes of council meetings are nothing but pieces of formalities to record what had been previously agreed upon?

Something is certainly fishy. So many questions remain unanswered. The most important is: Why did the council, including its president and the councillors, defy the views of the Department of Environment which stated that development would cause imminent danger to the nearby limestone hills? Enough of pussy-footing. Let’s have some straight answers.

(Source)

In the end this is a story of how some people screwed themselves left, right and center. In the meantime, enjoy the up-coming wayang kulits and a string of memory lapses as the Pakatan State Government gets their hands into the mess left behind by the same community crusaders. Happy holidays to all.

Did You Get The Message?

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“If we have listening ears, God speaks to us in our own language, whatever that language is.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Read these posts first:-

(I have said this before and I will say it again – all you need is mutual respect on each others beliefs, culture and religion and we can get along just fine no matter what happens. Image source: http://www.ausgamers.com)

Read this:-

The 25-year old youth is being probed under Section 4 (1) of the Sedition Act and Section 298 (a) of the Penal Code for deliberately making statements to hurt the religious sentiments of another. Gopinath was alleged to have insulted Islam last week, which prompted several social media users to create the ‘Kami Benci Gopinath Jayaratnam’ page. The page currently has 5,529 followers.

Yesterday, Gopinath’s home in Taman Klang Jaya was attacked by several men, who destroyed furnitures and damaged his car. No one was injured in the attack as Gopinath and his family was not at home.

A group calling itself Jemaah Fisabilillah Klang said it masterminded the attack and even posted on the Kami Benci Gopinath Jayaratnam’s page that they would track down Gopinath’s family.

(Source)

And missing from the police’s list was this:-

A few years back, Shah Kirit was caught when his video came out in the public. In the video, he was speaking in a closed forum ridiculously explaining and insulting Hindu religion to the core and making sexual remarks about Hindu gods.

When the video came out, Shah Kirit apologized to the public, and despite numerous police reports against him, he was never caught. Tell me my Muslim brothers, if someone is to insult your religion like in this video, will you ever forgive him?

(Source)

It is claimed that there are about 4,200 different religion in this world.

When it comes to religion, some people sometimes (some all the time) do not keep in mind that the issue itself is very sensitive and in the history of mankind, minor sparks (cartoons included) have caused violent demonstrations, major conflicts and tragedies. And it sometimes creeps into absurdity too – no, not the religion itself but on how weak some a##holes conduct themselves with the religious issues (the fact that it is creeping to the young minds seems to be worse of the worse). Just imagine if each followers of the 4,200 religion start to hurl damaging statements at each other.

(Eddie Griffin’s simple and yet powerful message when it comes to religion – “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. Think about it for a second. Does it make a lot of sense than some religious zealots shouting that my God is better than your God? )

The law concerning religion hatred and slurs no doubt has to be fair and need to be enforced fairly on all who insult any religion but at the same time, let’s ask a more serious personal question – how will one attacking another’s faith & beliefs makes one own religion look and sound better?

Does your own religion (any religion) or your karma get cookies points whenever you “score” an insult on another’s religion? Absolutely not! Your religion (or faith or belief, whichever you want to name it) or your karma scores cookies points (if any) when you talk well about your own religion and do not make any cross reference to others and in the end, walk the talk. Do goodness to others, do charity to the well-deserving, do sincere kindness to all regardless of race & culture and at the end be humble.

But once you start to insult others (no matter was the excuse is), the situation can quickly escalate to worse and before you know it, it will be a tit for a tat. One insult another’s religion, the person insults back (without thinking much) and others gets angry (often in high emotion) and goes to do more damages and this goes on and on. When does this madness stop? What happens when there is no else to be insulted?

After all, what is religion and what is the underlying message?

To many it means many things but the underlying message has to be something positive, laced with love for fellow human and mutual respect and I know that no religion in this world will profess its followers to say anything and act in bad faith or bad intention. No religion in this world had professed that you need to kill or harm others in order for you to spread the religion. Whatever you say or do is between you and God and not to be manipulated to be imposed on others.

This is one of the reasons I don’t usually go to temples – the only time I am “forced” to go is when my wife wants to go too (or when I know I can get good parking spots). My reason of going to temples is simple – I am going to have my moment with God in an atmosphere that is calm, peaceful and conducive. I want to have a heart to heart talk with Him. If I am going to a place that is crowded with people, the queue (in front of the altar) is long & you have wait your turn, waiting hours (for prayers) are long due to the crowd, impression that my prayers becomes “invalid” because I don’t say or do something prescribed by the priests or the priests are more interested on how much collection that is coming for the day (usually during the “special” prayers), forget about it – I rather stay and pray at home. I know God can hear me even though I don’t say anything or I don’t chant anything that sounds exotic. At the end of the day, it is just between me and Him.

Let’s not escalate the seeds of disunity in the country further with attacks on each others religion & faith (we do not add this to the on-going delicate racial issue). Don’t be dumb, don’t be naive too – the world is not made of one race or one religion. There are millions of people in this world who practice a different faith from you and for them, their religion is true and well. If you don’t agree with this, well it is just too bad. Spending time and resources to claim the other religions are false and untrue is pointless and a gross waste of time. The sooner you appreciate the situation, the sooner we put aside the difference and be true to our own faith.

Remember, the underlying message of the day is “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” and not “my religion is better than yours”.

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Trip to Oriental Paris – Part 5

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(Countdown – 322 days to “doomsday”)

Weekends are rest days and it is the best time to catch up on sleep and when that’s done, for the rest of the day, it is time to go around town.

One of the best ways to travel around the city is to use the ever excellent and efficient Metro service and we were just lucky to have a Metro station close to our hotel. Navigating around the station was not that difficult – plenty of large signs in English and color-coded arrows but for those who cannot communicate in Mandarin, you may have some trouble communicating with the Metro staff but then again, you will not have problem communicating with fellow passengers for assistance.

During our time, there were incidents of Metro trains stalling and derailing causing some injuries to some peak-hours passengers. So when some one proposed that we take Metro to go for shopping, we were a bit apprehensive about of safety. But then, we decided to take some chance – we did not think it was that bad. The journey itself was uneventful but it did gave us a good opportunity to see the Shanghai’s young generation in action. They dress well and almost all is playing games on their smartphones or listening to music. The adults on the other hand looks more stressed up. Everyone is rather quiet and minding their own business.

One of the places we decided to go using Metro this time is an old temple in Shanghai. We were hoping to do some shopping along the way as well.

The first place we went was the Jin’an Temple – it was an impressive structure in the middle of the city and next to shopping malls. It is said that it is the oldest temple in the city – built in 247 AD and was the site for China’s first Buddhist organization in 1912, then during the Cultural Revolution, it was converted into a plastics factory. We arrived at the temple early but somehow we decided not to enter inside the temple – the entrance fees or the modern outlook of the temple or maybe the time we arrived may have been the cause – I am not sure. We took some photos outside of the temple and contemplated on what would be the next move.

We then decided to go to another temple – the famed Jade Buddhist Temple that was built in 1882 to place the 2 jade Buddha statues which had been brought from Burma. The temple was crowded with tourists (they were arriving by the busloads which included a couple of Malaysians) and devotees (mostly old people) by the time we arrived. We went there in 2 taxis – it was easy to get a taxi to the temple but it is a different story when you want to leave – there is hardly a taxi on sight and there is a long queue at the taxi stand. We had to pay to enter this temple as well but if I was not wrong, the charges seemed cheaper.

Despite the actual age and compared to the Jin’an Temple, this temple looked older and a bit run-down. Whilst others decided to do some prayers – some of us decided to walk to the souvenir shops for some cheap Buddhist relics and other souvenirs for home (they were selling jade here as well). We knew some of the items on sale were priced higher than usual but we decided that the extra money that we paid for the items will probably go in the end, towards the temple and the administration cost which we did not mind.

The temple complex was quite extensive with several smaller buildings and it took a couple of hours to walk around the place. If you really look hard enough, there is plenty of things to see here – including decorative footpaths and a rather ancient looking pictures. We feel really warm in this temple complex – all buildings that we went did not had any air-conditioner and there is very little place you can sit under a shade. This caused us to feel very thirsty – so make sure you have plenty of water with you (we did not see any stall selling water here but I am sure there is one but is likely to be overpriced). I packed about 3 bottles of drinking water in my bag but still it was not enough. It was quite late in the afternoon when we were simply too tired (and hungry & thirsty) to go further. We walked out (not before being bugged by the beggars outside the temple – I became an easy target for them) for the nearest Metro station (it was quite a long walk from the temple to the station) and looked for a place to have lunch.

To be continued…

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9 / 11 – 10 Years On

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(It may not be the same but the new World Trade Center will bring a closure and sense of new hopes for New Yorkers and with a memorial in between, keeping the thoughts of those who perished in the tragedy forever in our hearts. Image source: Wikipedia)

It has been 10 years and even now as we watched the 911 documentaries such as the award winning “102 Minutes that Changed America” last Sunday, seeing the planes hitting the Twin Towers, innocent office workers jumping down to the death to avoid the burning inferno in the inside and many more perish (some without any trace) when the towers collapsed.

The tragedy caused 2,996 deaths – innocent people from more than 90 countries (including Malaysia) and which included 343 brave firefighters from the New York City Fire Department who despite the dangers of fire, building collapsing and continued terrorists attack, continued to walk up the staircase to rescue the trapped ones and fight the blazing fire. The total deaths also included 292 people were killed at street level by burning debris and falling bodies of those who had jumped from the World Trade Center’s windows.

What a tragedy!

I still remember the day when I first heard about the tragedy 10 years ago – I was at the motorcycle parking bay, just parking my bike when a colleague of mine asked me whether I heard of the tragedy and then passed me the newspaper that showed the plane crashing into the building. As many Americans who were stood dumb-struck after the first plane struck the North Tower, I too stood dumb-struck seeing the photo on the front page. I could not believe it.

Conspiracy theories aside and no matter what the reasons that the hijackers may have had in crashing 4 planes down, it does not justify the killing of almost 3,000 innocent people. And now in place of the old World Trade Center, the new World Trade Center is being built. It is built to last another disaster and to ensure fatality kept to the minimum:-

  • New safety features will include 3 feet (91 cm) thick reinforced concrete walls for all stairwells, elevator shafts, risers, and sprinkler systems; extremely wide “emergency stairs”; a dedicated set of stairwells exclusively for the use of firefighters; and biological and chemical filters throughout its ventilation system.
  • At its closest point, West Street will be 65 feet (20 m) away. The windows on the side of the building facing in this direction will be equipped with specially tempered blast-resistant plastic, which will look nearly the same as the glass used in the other sides of the building
  • In addition to the protection offered by the reinforced, window-less base, a number of other design and security features are planned for the building. For example, all vehicles will be screened before they enter the site via the underground roadway, including for radioactive materials.
  • Visitors to the September 11 memorial will undergo an airport-style screening. 400 closed-circuit surveillance cameras will be placed in and around the trade center site.
  • Live feeds will be monitored around the clock by the NYPD, and a computer system will use “video analytic” computer software designed to detect potential threats like unattended bags and retrieve images based on descriptions of terror or other criminal suspects. New York City and Port Authority police will patrol the site
  • These skyscrapers have steel connections capable of redirecting the path of the upper floors’ load downward through other structural members if one should fail. And sprinkler supply lines have been located within an impact-resistant core–a major difference from the Twin Towers
  • In addition to designing wider staircases and building separate stairs for firefighters (a strategy borrowed from the British, who have long practiced this), architects at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill is pioneering an elevator-assisted exit system that would help people on the highest floors get out faster

(Facts sources: Wikipedia & Fast Company)

The 911 tragedy will remain one of the greatest human made tragedies in recent times and one that propelled the fall of Saddam Hussein and the Islamic extremist regime in Afghanistan and probably propelled events leading to the people’s uprising in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Syria and Yemen.

America as Government may have its fault – who doesn’t? Which country has perfect, good natured, forward thinking politicians in recent times? And its close relationship with Israel and its commitment and policies in the Middle East may be questionable by those working and living in the region but terrorist attacks in the name of religion remains evil and uncalled for – whether it is on an office tower in New York, USA or a fun bustling night club in Bali, Indonesia.

11 September 2001 will always be remembered…

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Names – 911 Memorial

What 9/11 Taught Us about Designing Skyscrapers

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Here We Go Again!

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I really wonder whether we will ever cross the finishing line to be a developed country if highly political and seditious matters are played on public grounds on regular basis, turning one Malaysian against another based on hearsays, political hidden agendas and highly charged emotions.

(It is ok to fight for one’s religion and beliefs but it should be a fight for the betterment of the mankind and not be used for political means. Image source: http://sathyasaibaba.wordpress.com)

It used to be the crosses on some cookies or the logo on a famed football club or “Christian” names on some schools.

Frankly, I do not know which of this is more serious – a sickening criminal who been going around splashing acid on innocent people whom victims included young students and a year old baby OR the rumors that has been going on that there are certain people in this country wanting to make Christianity as the official religion of this country.

In the case of the acid splasher, the frightening thing of the matter has been this – about 20 people has been splashed with acid todate (one with severe burns that almost blinded her left eye) but the police yet to gain any lead to catch this maniac. Unfortunately the attention of the nation as at now seems to be lying on the other case of stupidity in the horizon. It is rather reckless of the mainstream media to have published this news which even if it is true in one’s wildest imagination, should have been left to the police to investigate and prosecute.

There is a danger that whoever reads the unsubstantiated story in the newspaper may construe it wrongly and may make decisions based on emotions rather than informed facts.

Still remember the 9 churches which were burned down last year over the “Allah” fiasco? Despite having a court order granting the use of the word “Allah” and that too after 2 years legal due process, Malaysia ended seeing the uglier side of religion extremists. After all, no one in their right mind and with strong religion convictions would burn down another’s place of religion.

The parties involved have denied the allegations and even called the reporting as “playing dangerous politics”. Now both sides have made police report and the police will soon have to use it’s already stretched resources to investigate this – valuable resources that could have been better utilized to do other things such as catch the acid splasher. But what happens if the police have investigated and that the claim by the newspaper is not true. Then what happens – will the blogger and the newspaper who published the allegations be made responsible for their actions?

Let’s trace back to 2006 where there was allegations via SMS in the State of Perak that 600 Muslim students is going to be converted into Christianity – apparently started by the Mufti of Perak himself based on hearsays. No doubt, pandemonium broke out and the church was soon surrounded by angry Muslim protestors. Thankfully the police was at hand to keep things in control and in the end, the SMS was found to be untrue. The Mufti disclaimed responsibility by saying he relied on someone else for the source of the allegations and he did not really investigated the truthfulness of the allegations but continued to spread the news to others. Read further here.

There seems to be a similar chain of events here – allegations made and picked up by someone who deemed to have some sense of responsibility (in this case, Government controlled mainstream media).

But the question that arises – can Christianity really be made as the national religion as claimed by the newspaper? Is it really that easy to change the constitution? Can the Christians gain enough seats in the Parliament to even have the votes to make the change? The truth of the matter is it will not happen – not now and certainly not in the near future. Islam will remain the national religion of Malaysia and everyone including the Christians has acknowledged this.

Malaysiakini as mentioned in LKS quotes:-

Renowned constitutional expert Abdul Aziz Bari has dismissed Utusan Malaysia’s article on a supposed conspiracy to make Christianity Malaysia’s official religion as “ridiculous”.

“Constitutionally it is just illogical. It cannot happen, just impossible. Even if Pakatan controlled hundred percent of the Dewan Rakyat.

“Remember that the Senate which has similar powers to the lower house when it comes to constitutional amendments, is not under their control as some of the senators belong to Umno-BN.”

He argued that technically the upper house can block the amendment passed by the Dewan Rakyat. Abdul Aziz contended that the provisions on the subject matters – monarchy, Islam and the Malays – are simply beyond the ordinary political process.

So, even if there were calls for change of the national religion and to have a Christian PM as purported by the newspaper – it is not going to happen for a fact. Christians simply do not have the numbers to make it happen (remember there is still the Buddhists, Hindus and others that they need to content with). So, why the big concern of this in the newspaper and in the blogsphere? Why now?

At this juncture, I have to agree with the former PM’s contention that the current Federal Government has gone weak. But I disagree that the Government is weak due to not having the two-third majority. It is certainly not. It is weak because it failed to act on both ends – act against accusers who spread lies and allegations and act fast against the accused and investigate the truthfulness of the allegations. It has become a Government who put their foot down for the wrong reasons.

Certainly somewhere in our journey after gaining our independence 54 years ago, we have gotten our priorities wrong. No wonder we still have a maniac with acid on the loose. I pray that sanity will soon return to our “Bolehland” in the next few days.

Read Also

Islam Under Attack? What about Christians?

Where have we gone wrong?