Mat King Leather’s commitment to the Neo Con Jewish agenda

In his most recent interview with Wall Street Journal, Opposition Leader Anwar “Mat King Leather” Ibrahim demonstrated his position as an ‘agent’ and continued commitment to carry on the Neo Con Jewish agenda.

  • ASIA NEWS
  • JANUARY 26, 2012, 11:17 A.M. ET

Malaysia’s Anwar Presses On Despite Appeal

By SHIBANI MAHTANI

KUALA LUMPUR—Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said he isn’t worried about state prosecutors’ move to appeal a court decision acquitting him of sodomy earlier this month, and said he remains confident it won’t derail his campaign to lead a new government to power in elections expected later this year.

ReutersAnwar Ibrahim spoke with supporters as his wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, gave two thumbs-up after the verdict of his sodomy trial was announced in Kuala Lumpur Jan. 9.

“The judgment [in the sodomy case] was very strong” and “difficult to appeal,” Mr. Anwar said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal at his political party’s headquarters here Thursday. He said the appeal process, which began Jan. 20, would likely take at least six months, meaning it could loom over and outlast the election campaign.

Prime Minister Najib Razak has to call an election by March 2013, but under Malaysia’s parliamentary system of government, many analysts predict it will be called much sooner, triggering one of the most fiercely fought electoral contests this resource-rich nation has ever seen. Mr. Anwar said he believes the election is unlikely to take place later than June.

Since the Jan. 9 verdict by a High Court judge—who acquitted Mr. Anwar of violating Malaysia’s strict sodomy laws citing a lack of witnesses and flawed DNA evidence—the 64-year-old opposition leader has begun mobilizing support in this multiracial country, promising reforms to dismantle a decades-old affirmative-action program designed to give a leg up to the majority ethnic-Malay population while also targeting what he describes as widespread cronyism in Mr. Najib’s government. If elected, Mr. Anwar said he will accelerate privatizations and do more to enable free markets to operate more efficiently, such as improving transparency in the bidding for government contracts.

Mr. Najib, 58 years old, is also keen to brand himself a reformer in part to win back ethnic-Chinese and Indian voters who in recent years largely have thrown their support behind Mr. Anwar’s opposition alliance. Mr. Najib has also embarked on a series of sales of government assets to spur growth. Earlier this month, a government state investment fund sold its stake in car marker Proton Holdings Bhd. to conglomerateDRB-Hicom Bhd., and last year government-linked funds swapped shares in state-run Malaysian Airline System Bhd. with budget airline AirAsia Bhd.

“The overall principle is that we want the government-linked companies to sell off their noncore and noncompetitive assets,” Mr. Najib said in an interview two weeks ago. “We are always looking out for how to add value to the country.”

Mr. Anwar, though, criticized the way Mr. Najib’s government pursued these privatizations, saying that without open, public tenders, key companies remain controlled by a well-connected few.

Privatization “looks good, but look again at the procedures,” said Mr. Anwar. “The issue is not about privatization, it is blatant corruption.”

Following the Proton deal, state investment fund Khazanah Nasional said in a statement that it chose the best suitor for the job and the country.

A Malaysian government spokesperson said Thursday the government is “fully committed to openness and transparency in all privatizations and divestments of state-owned assets and to tackling corruption wherever and whenever it is found.” The spokesperson noted that Malaysia has introduced a new online database of government contracts so that anybody can alert authorities to any potentially improper actions.

“We are determined to ensure that all government contracts are awarded through a process that is fair and open to scrutiny,” the spokesperson said.

After being embroiled in the sodomy trial—which he claims was politically motivated—Mr. Anwar is now shifting gears from defending his reputation to fighting to win an election.

Once a high-ranking member of the United Malays National Organization that has run Malaysia since independence from Britain in 1957, he was sacked from the party and lost his post as deputy prime minister after challenging former leader Mahathir Mohamad in the 1990s. He was subsequently charged for sodomizing his driver and his speechwriter, and spent six years in prison before his conviction was overturned.

After leading the opposition to one of its strongest-ever showings in 2008′s national elections, Mr. Anwar was accused by former aide Saiful Bukhari Azlan of sodomizing him, setting in train another marathon, headline-stealing trial which Mr. Anwar again said was designed to end his political career. Mr. Najib and his government have repeatedly denied having anything to do with the case.

Now, after Judge Zabidin Diah acquitted Mr. Anwar, ruling that the forensic evidence presented against the opposition leader was flawed, Mr. Anwar argues that he isn’t just “anti-UMNO” but has his own set of policies geared toward restoring Malaysia’s competitiveness in a global economy where countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia are emerging as alternative magnets for investment.

“We must always compare Malaysia to Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan,” said Mr. Anwar. “That’s what we were.”

If elected, Mr. Anwar said he would speed up the removal of racial quotas for university places and focus on helping lower-income groups regardless of race instead of solely aiding ethnic Malays.

In the interview, Mr. Anwar also clarified his position on homosexual rights and Malaysia’s sodomy laws, and also the Muslim-majority nation’s relationship with Israel.

“I support all efforts to protect the security of the state of Israel,” said Mr. Anwar, although he stopped short of saying he would open diplomatic ties with the Jewish state, a step which he said remains contingent on Israel respecting the aspirations of Palestinians. Malaysia has consistently refrained from establishing diplomatic relations with Israel, although limited commercial ties exist between private companies in the two countries.

In response to recent local reports that he supported gay marriage, Mr. Anwar said they were wrong and that he “believes in and supports the sanctity of marriage between men and women.” The opposition leader is suing government-linked newspaper Utusan Malaysia for defamation, alleging that it implied he supports and wants to legalize homosexuality.

Still, Mr. Anwar said that Malaysia’s sodomy laws are “archaic” and could be amended.

“It is not my business to attack people or arrest people based on their sexual orientation,” he said.

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It is shocking for him to proclaim his willingness to defend Israeli’s ill-gotten and brutally seized border and security, when he is given power as the Prime Minister. Malaysia has had very strong stance against the Zionist state of Israel and had been a consistently strong critic, even in international bodies such as United Nations.

This is against what Malaysia stood for, ever since Independence. When Malaysia hosted the Organisation of Islamic Countries summit in October 2003, then Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad proclaimed that the “Jews rule the world by proxy”.

This latest statement is not withstanding the fact that Anwar is openly willing to defy Al Quran on issues such as sodomy, which provisions made through the Penal Code he classified as “Archaic”.

This is the most revealing statement as an agent of the Neo Con Jewish agenda by the someone who has been dubbed as “Darling of the Zionism”.

Published in: on January 27, 2012 at 17:15  Comments (3)  

Serving the neo-economic master

Land is one and the most traditional factor of production. Wars have been fought for land. Civilisations have been subjected to slavery, when their land is captured and overrun by invading forces.

A major corporate play is said to be brewing in and around Iskandar Malaysia, involving a certain public listed company on an land-bank acquisition roll. Parcels of land have or in the process to be lined up for acquisition or injected into this Plc.

Iskandar Malaysia: East to West, encompassing the JB CBD has been targeted for a massive corporate exercise going towards flipping of land parcels

A property development corporation core business is too look for parcels of land for immediate or short term development projects. If it is long term, then the acquisitions or collaborations, in the form of joint ventures shall be ‘stored’ as land-banks.

Otherwise, they would opt for doing a series of ‘property flipping’. The common definition for this exercise is:

Flipping is a term used primarily in the United States to describe purchasing a revenue-generating asset and quickly reselling (or “flipping”) it for profit. Though flipping can apply to any asset, the term is most often applied to real estate and initial public offerings.

The term “flipping” is frequently used both as a descriptive term for schemes involving market manipulation and other illegal conduct and as a derogatory term for legal real estate investing strategies that are perceived by some to be unethical or socially destructive. The latter usage is typically contested by those who believe the strategies in question are ethical and socially beneficial or neutral.

Superficially, this general definition of any bonafide property development group doing the property flipping exercise looks rather normal for any other plc. However if specific parcels of land which are state owned and deemed to be strategic are being targeted for acquisition either by outright sale or injected for some corporate deals, then there should be alarm raised on what the strategic intent is. This is because these parcels of land could be ‘flipped’ for targeted ‘external benefactors’, who have had their eyes set within the 6,000 sq kilometres from east to west of Johor Bahru.

This is actually a realisation of a dream of the land-strapped ‘jews of the east’, for the longest time. Recently, there was this talk about a parcel of land deemed highly valuable, which was acquired from a GLC and ‘conveniently flipped’ to a Singaporean property developer. Of course, that rumour did not come without ‘an interference’.

It is expected there are more such deals to come with this Plc, as it has been said the process of the land acquisitions and injections for some corporate play, are already in motion. It is also said that the prowl is also on some of the highly valuable parcels belong to the state government or any of its agencies.

When they promoters of this scheme is done, they would have consolidated RM billions of assets acquired and injected into the Plc, without much cash transacted out. Even if there were ‘acquisitions’. it is strongly believed that the financial backers across the straits would have covered the necessary minimal ‘seed capital’ required.

Many, even those outside Johor firmly believed that the Iskandar Development Region incepted by the notorious ‘Level Four Boys’ during the bleak years under PM ‘Flip-Flop’ Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s weak and scandalous administration, was designed to provide secondary and supporting role to the high value Singapore economy. These series of corporate exercises which involve these parcels of land with strategic value and importance are almost definite about the fulfillment to the needs and demands of the Singapore economy, which include speculative market for property development projects.

The arguments are also almost straight forward. Malaysian corporations would neither put everything into one basket and gamble on a speculative property market nor have the necessary capital to do this exercise, in the narrow window of opportunity. Especially when one do not have the luxury of financial support from financial backers. No other international investors or property market speculators understand more about how Iskandar Malaysia would bring the much appreciated supporting effect to the Singaporean growing and financially-muscled property market and economy.

This is not withstanding the fact that recently, one of the significant players within the ‘Level Four Boys’ and strongest advocate of the South Johor Economic Region proposal and principal policy adviser to PM ‘Flip-Flop’ Abdullah was brought into JCorp Group and now the executive director of Kulim Bhd. One of the planned activity of JCorp Group to reduce and ‘manage’ its RM 3.6 billion debts is to hive off assets, which probably include some of their strategic properties all over Johor Bahru city limits.

Then, there is this bit about energy and oil and gas industry, being planned in the eastern corridor of the state of Johor.

Wednesday May 11, 2011

Petronas to announce RM50bil complex in Johor

By RISEN JAYASEELAN and JEEVA ARULAMPALAM
starbiz@thestar.com.my

PETALING JAYA: Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) will announce on Friday plans to invest around RM50bil in an integrated downstream oil and gas complex in Pengerang, Johor, reliable sources said.

Dubbed Rapid or Refinery And Petrochemical Integrated Development, the project is aimed at building something “larger than Kertih” and will eventually include multinational oil and gas companies as joint-venture partners.

The integrated development will not only include oil refining and petrochemical activities, but include a gas power plant and other “supportive industries” said sources.

Rapid is a project identified in the Economic Transformation Programme(ETP), which is led by the Performance Management & Delivery Unit (Pemandu).

One of the reasons why Pengerang was chosen is because its waters can reach depths of more than 20m, which is what is needed for very large crude carriers (VLCC) and ultra large crude carriers.

The Johor government will be a joint-venture partner of the project and will provide the land.

Sources indicate that Petronas’ Rapid project complements plans for the RM5bil independent deepwater petroleum terminal in Pengerang, which is to be the first deepwater terminal in South-East Asia.

The terminal is a tankage facility for handling, storing, blending and distribution of crude oils and petroleum products with marine facilities capable of handling VLCCs.

Part of the thinking behind Rapid was to replicate what Singapore has already done successfully, sources said. Singapore’s oil refining businesses only started around 10 years ago.

Singapore has an export refining capacity of 1.3 million barrels per day, compared with Malaysia’s 560,000 barrels per day, according to theETP roadmap.

Singapore Refining Company Pte Ltd, which operates a refinery on Jurong Island, is capable of processing 290,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

Other major refineries in Singapore include ExxonMobil’s refinery in Jurong that process about 605,000 barrels of crude per day and Shell’s Pulau Bukom Refinery with some 500,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

Plans for Petronas to develop Johor’s Pengerang into a sizeable force in the oil and gas (O&G) space are not new.

Last November, the Government said Petronas would play a major role in the development of Johor’s south-east areas of Teluk Ramunia and Pengerang into a O&G hub in the region.

It was then said that the investments in the hub would come from Petronas and its international partners and the investments would bring major development into Johor’s south-east areas and could turn Teluk Ramunia and Pengerang into a new Kertih.

Petronas chief executive officer Datuk Shamsul Azhar Abbas confirmed then that Petronas was talking with several international investors to invest in Teluk Ramunia and Pengerang.

Once a sleepy fishing village in Terengganu, Kertih is now a thriving township due to O&G related activities with Petronas as the main driver in the O&G sector there.

The Petronas Kertih Refinery is the national oil company’s first oil refinery in Malaysia, and processes 49,000 barrels of Malaysian light, sweet crude oil per day.

In total, Petronas owns and operates four refineries (three in Malaysia and one in South Africa) with a total refining capacity of more than 448,000 barrels per day.

The Government had also said then that while the investments would come from Petronas and its partners, the Government was looking into allocating money for infrastructure developments in the areas.

Another aspect of the oil and gas thrust in the ETP (and which is linked to the Rapid project) is for Malaysia to venture into the lucrative area of oil trading. Singapore accounts for hundreds of billions of oil trading every year, an area of business that is virtually absent in Malaysia.

According to the ETP roadmap, Singapore, by 2007, had built a significant trading business worth more than RM1 trillion in physical oil trade and RM2 trillion in derivative trade.

Sources said the Government may consider providing additional incentives to attract oil trading firms to be located in Johor.

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Another story literally in the pipeline to this ETP project is a tri-partite power generation plant using gas is being planned to be built in the east coast of Johor, within the area of the recently launched Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) in Pengerang. The whole eastern Johor corridor has been earmarked for this project and all the activities peripheral to the oil and gas industry. State energy producer Petronas, major Malaysian power generation player Malakoff and Singaporean engineering corporation Keppel power plant is set to serve the Singaporean energy needs.

It is obvious that instead of supplying gas to the republic, it would bring about better returns if power is sold instead. Why a Singaporean partner is admitted in the project is not too clear, especially when the ball is definitely in Malaysia’s court in the requirement-for-power-and-energy-of-five-million-people game.

This came as partly emancipation of Johor’s role in supporting lives of Singaporeans with the handover of Gunung Pulai and four other rivers water treatment plants last August.

Addition to the story on the land acquisition game mentioned earlier, a separate party with vested interest is in the play of lining up all the potential oil and gas players to have their facilities along the corridor from Pengerang all the way to Ulu Tiram and Tanjung Langsat. This exercise is believed to be with ‘interference’ too.

Johor is definitely being transformed as the staging ground to serve the Singaporean economy. When the most important, traditional and quantifiable factor of production in the properties and parcels of strategic land are in the process being taken away and gone forever, then the new age of slavery had just begun. Especially when the populous is being geared into serving the more important economy and commanding society. It will come in the literal form of serving the neo-economic masters. The relationship between the two people would eventually be ‘master-servant’.

Philosophically, that is ‘economic slavery’.

Published in: on January 25, 2012 at 12:15  Comments (11)  

Raffles Class for holiday

This year’s Chinese New Year celebrations is almost a whole week long affair, especially when one takes Wednesday to Friday off. Schools are even out for the whole week.

Many take this nine-days or so break for an opportunity to go for a holiday, which include trips abroad. As of press time, North South Highway has been congested.  There is a massive influx of cars at the Johor Causeway from Singapore. PLUS has been issuing advice for motorists to stagger the use of the backbone of Semenanjung Malaysia highway system.

Singapore Airlines Business Class on B777-200s

Seen recently at Changi International Airport a man who closely resembles Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, who boarded a flight to Italy. He flew in Singapore Airlines business class with a party which could easily pass of as a family unit.

It is also said this trip and the stay at a 5 star accommodation, is being paid by a Tan Sri. Rumour has it he is in the gaming business.

Of course, this has yet to be confirmed. Sources believed to be persons known to the spitting image of the DAP Secretary General leaked the information out.

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng taking a flight on economy class from Penang to KL

If any of this is true, then it is ashamed for people of Penang that their elected leader goes on holiday or business trip with persons believed to be his immediate family in a carrier not the national airlines, but instead a regional competitor. Why he did not insist to support Malaysia Airlines is not too clear, even if the trip is paid by someone else. The choice of airline for this trip very much defies that all of these bollocks publicity relation exercises that “He flies economy class” were just a smoke screen, to depict his DAP led Penang State Government is cost conscious and thrifty.

Anyway, we would like to wish this Lim-look-alike happy holidays for this week long break.

Published in: on January 22, 2012 at 13:00  Comments (23)  

Happy Chinese New Year: Let’s all Malaysian Chinese unite as One Dragon

Happy Chinese New Year, 2012. Its the year of the water dragon.

Its the most important celebration for majority of  seven-and-a-quarter Malaysians of Chinese ethnic for any year. Its the time where the family gathers for the CNY eve dinner and stand united as a family unit.

The next few days are for the remaining Malaysians to stand united as a nation, visit their Chinese friends and associates, to wish them well and have a feast, usually in laughter and the most joyous ambience for a multiethnic and plural but united Malaysia. Malaysians, of different ethnic groups exchange mandarin oranges and pleasantries when they gather within these next few days.

Many corporations whose owners and management are Malaysian Chinese use this season to give away bonuses, popularly in the form of ‘ang pows’.

However, one particular minority Chinese leader who in the past 45 years tried to disrupt that harmony, understanding and unity between races, in his usual tone and brand of ‘politics of hatred’. His wish for the Malaysian Chinese in Twitterjaya:

“Let Malaysian Chinese unite as one Dragon…”?

Dragon is the mythical creature, which is the symbol of the Chinese Empire which has now long gone after the nationalists and after the communists took over, since the past 100 years. Mini Emperor Lim is trying to psyche Malaysians of Chinese ethnic, to re-enact the past of glory of the Chinese Empire here in this tanahair? Isn’t that undemocratic and against the flavour of the majority?

If that is not racism and Chinese Chauvinism, we are not sure what is. Does he and any of his cohorts and Chinese Chauvinist cohorts expect the majority not to react with direct messages like this?

Published in: on January 21, 2012 at 18:39  Comments (12)  

Will he amend the Al Quran too?

Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim who recently was acquitted from the charge under Section 377B of the Penal Code and called the sodomy laws as being “archaic”, now is vowing that these laws would be amended when he gets power.

Anwar will review sodomy law if he’s PM

Leven Woon • Jan 20, 12 12:58PTG

PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim has made it clear that the country’s law on sodomy, which has been used to smear certain individuals, will be reviewed once he comes into power.
He said Sections 377B and 377C of the Penal Code “are archaic and have frequently been used to attack political foes”.
“People asked me whether I will review the laws. Yes, I will (review), to make sure it does not meant to insult people,” the Permatang Pauh MP told some 200 supporters at a thanksgiving prayer ceremony at his house last night.
He said evidence could easily be fabricated under the current interpretation of the two sections of the Penal Code, and he “makes no apology about archaic law”.
“Any ustaz who safeguards these two codes is dumb,” he said in a rousing tone.
Sections 377B and 377C state that whoever commits carnal intercourse against the order of nature, with or without consent, shall be punished with imprisonment up to a maximum of 20 years.

Controversial BBC interview

Anwar is now in the centre of a fresh controversy, after telling BBC in an interview that he would review “archaic laws”, when asked by the host about his readiness to to take “the idea of anti-discrimination as far as gay rights”.

Umno-owned dailies Berita Harian and Utusan Malaysia zeroed-in on the issue, implying that Anwar was now supporting gay rights.
His personal orientation, Anwar told the crowd last night, expressed in private places should be outside the law.
“But I made it clear that (homosexuality) should not be allowed in public domain,” he said.
The opposition leader’s house in the tranquil Segambut Dalam locality was yesterday packed with 200 supporters attending the thanksgiving to mark his vindication in the two-year-long Sodomy II trial.

The supporters, many of whom donned white songkok, performed a total of four prayers in the living room, with Anwar seated in the centre of the crowd.
Also present were NGO Amanah deputy president Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir, PKR information chief Muhammad Nor Manuty and PKR treasurer William Leong.
Touching on the Sodomy II verdict, Anwar said the surprising judgment might from the trial judge himself.
“That’s why he finished reading (the verdict) in three minutes…. Court proceedings lasted nearly three years, but verdict took just three minutes,” he jeered.

Possibly gov’t did not expect outcome

He said the reaction of the “government’s media” on in the aftermath of the verdict also showed that the authorities might not have expected the outcome.
His 45-minute speech was fittingly titled “The importance of confidence”.
In life, Anwar said, there would always be a time when “someone feels a challenge is too huge to overcome, and giving up seems to be the easier option”.
The Prophet Muhammad, too, he said, was puzzled by the series of obstacles before his triumph.
“As a human being, the larger role you play, the more challenges you will face,” he said.
Anwar’s speech ended with a loud chant of “takbir” and the Ishak prayers .

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Malaysian laws prohibit any homosexual activities, even though “consensual between two adults” and punishable with a maximum 20 years prison term, provided under the Penal Code.

This is inline with views of Islam on the same subjected matter and with specific mentions in the Al Quran and interpretation of top Imams through out the years.

Published in: on January 20, 2012 at 14:12  Comments (10)  

Growth, urbanisation and national imbalance

Economic growth is coherent with progress. In a developing economy that is evolving into massive industrlisation from agriculture and primary based activities, that also contribute to urbanisation. The attraction of modern and progressive lifestyle is overbearingly too attractive for them to not forego their mundane country life for a stint in the big city.

China, which is the most promising largest economy in not too far away, saw the sharp rise in urbanisation.

WALL STREET JOURNAL
  • ASIA NEWS
  • JANUARY 18, 2012

China Turns Predominantly Urban

Transfer of Millions to Cities Is Double-Edged Sword; Property Demand a Factor in Land Grabs

By JEREMY PAGE and BOB DAVIS in Beijing and JAMES T. AREDDY in Shanghai

BEIJING—China has announced that people living in its towns and cities now outnumber those in the countryside, making it a predominantly urban nation for the first time in Chinese civilization.
CURBAN

Xinhua/Zuma Press

Migrant workers and others line up for trains ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday in Chengdu on Tuesday.
The historic milestone spotlights a trend that China’s government says will be a key driver of economic growth over the next two decades as hundreds of millions more people move into urban areas in search of higher-paying jobs.
But it also points to the challenges facing Chinese leaders as mass migration places an increasing strain on urban housing, transport and welfare, while fueling pollution, social unrest and demands for political reform.
Urban dwellers account for 51.27% of China’s entire population of nearly 1.35 billion—or a total of 690.8 million people—the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced at a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday.
City dwellers represented just 10.6% of China’s population in 1949, when the Communist Party took power, and just under 19% in 1979, when it launched the market reforms, according to official Chinese statistics.
That means that in the economic boom of the past three decades, China has roughly matched what economic historians say took about 200 years in Britain, 100 years in the U.S. and 50 years in Japan.
Many experts expect the trend to continue at a similar pace in China, with McKinsey, the consulting firm, forecasting last year that the country would have one billion urban residents by 2030—its urban population growing by more than that of the entire U.S. in just two decades.
[CURBAN]
The social cost of urbanization is becoming increasingly evident, however, with 253 million rural migrants now living in Chinese cities with little or no access to public services, which they can only access in the villages where they are registered under the “hukou” or household-registration system.
The demand for urban property has also led to rampant seizures of farmland near towns and cities by local officials, who typically pay farmers a nominal fee before selling at market rates to developers who often build luxury housing and shopping malls.
Wen Jiabao, the Chinese Premier who is entering his last year in power this year, called for greater efforts to tackle such illegal land seizures in an essay published this week in an official Communist Party magazine called Qiushi, or Seeking Truth.
China had “lowered the costs of industrialization and urbanization by sacrificing farmers’ rights to land,” he wrote. “No one is empowered to take away such rights.”
Mr. Wen also criticized a widespread policy of moving villagers into apartment blocks so their land can be merged into larger blocs or used for property development.
Growing public anger at land grabs came into focus last month when residents of the fishing village of Wukan in the southern province of Guangdong staged an open revolt against local officials they accused of illegally selling their land to property developers.
Such land disputes account for 65% of “mass incidents”—the government’s euphemism for large protests—in rural areas according to Yu Jianrong, a professor and expert on rural issues at the state-run Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
China’s Land Ministry has also warned that misappropriation of farmland has brought the country dangerously close to the so-called red line of 120 million hectares of arable land that the government believes it needs to feed China’s people.
Mr. Wen said in his essay that China needed to modernize its agricultural technology in order to meet the demand for food from its expanding population despite the shortage of land and water resources.
However, the central government’s efforts to curb land abuses have so far met fierce resistance from local authorities who rely on land sales to maintain growth, service debt and top up their budgets.

Reuters

Job seekers waited to enter a job fair in Yantai, Shandong province, in February 2011.
Finding a balance between GDP growth, urbanization, farmers’ rights and food security is one of the main challenges facing a new generation of party leaders who are expected to take charge later this year in a once-a-decade leadership change.
Vice Premier Li Keqiang—the favorite to replace Mr. Wen as Premier—told a high-level party meeting on the economy last month that urbanization was key to stimulating domestic demand so China can move away from its export-driven growth model.
He also called for increased efforts to build and distribute fairly the 36 million units of affordable “social housing” that the government has pledged to construct over the next five years to help meet demand from migrants and ease property prices.
“The construction of affordable homes will help curb excessive price rises and fuel urbanization, which will in turn unleash consumption and investment potentials and push development of related industries,” Mr. Li said.
Urban migration is also prompting some local governments to provide better services to newcomers, as well as extending city services into satellite towns.
In Shanghai, for instance, Mayor Han Zheng this week said that nonlocals would be permitted to rent subsidized units in certain public-housing projects in the city’s outer reaches, whereas in the past eligibility hinged on their employment.
“Coverage is extended to all migrant workers in Shanghai,” Mr. Han told a press briefing.
Speaking days earlier, Mr. Han also pledged to “encourage and guide the migrant population’s involvement in community affairs, enrich their cultural life and show our genuine care to them.”
Chinese officials and experts say the country will accelerate the urbanization process over the next two decades in order to avoid the “middle-income trap,” a term coined by the World Bank to describe stagnation in a country when per capita GDP reaches $3,000.
The per capita income of China’s urban residents was 21,810 yuan ($3,434) in 2011, while that of rural residents was 6,977 yuan, according to the NBS.
Still, many Chinese and Western economists and demographers say that urbanization can be a double-edged sword.
When rural residents move to urban areas, they tend to do more economically productive work, learn more skills, earn more money, and buy more goods. They also boost demand for urban infrastructure and housing, which can boost economic growth.
Comparing the growth of 18th century England with modern China, Standard Chartered economist Stephen Green recently concluded that “urbanization went hand in hand with economic growth.”
But urbanization, by itself, is hardly enough. Latin America is filled with megacities teeming with shanty towns housing unemployed and underemployed workers from the countryside, whose move didn’t stop those nations from stalling economically. According to Mr. Green, China would need to learn some of the lessons from a rapidly urbanizing and industrializing England, especially the creation of “power-restricting, adequate, market-friendly institutions.”
That’s not necessarily a given in China where the Party claims a monopoly on power and blocks the creations of independent institutions.
Moreover, urbanization is hardly the only demographic trend sweeping over China. At the same time as more workers are moving into the cities, the size of the Chinese work force—those aged 15 to 64—is peaking as the work force ages.
More than 30% of the population is expected to be older than 60 by 2050, producing an increasingly heavy economic burden on those in the work force.
The NBS said Tuesday that the number of people aged 15 to 64 stood at about 1 billion 2011—representing an increase of about 3% over 2010. But China’s overall population grew faster—by about 4.8%—between 2010 and 2011.
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Imagine the demands from an eco-system to support the lives of almost 700 million persons in a nation’s urban limits?
Food, clothing, dwellings, power, sanitation, healthcare, education, communications, entertainment and other modern lifestyle demands created from a modern life, for that amount of persons. The gap of imbalance between the urbanites and rural folks is widening and expected to spiral complicated and chronic social problems.
Malaysia is inevitably heading that way. If it is not properly planned, it would be no longer manageable. The trap of urban poverty would be parallel, with growth of the urbanisation.
Published in: on January 20, 2012 at 04:00  Comments (4)  

Muhyiddin: Promoting Moderation, Peace and Stability for the Wellbeing of Global Community

SPEECH BY

THE HON TAN SRI DATO’ HJ MUHYIDDIN HJ MOHD. YASSIN

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER OF MALAYSIA

“PROMOTING MODERATION, PEACE AND STABILITY FOR THE WELLBEING OF GLOBAL COMMUNITY”

AT THE CLOSING CEREMONY OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE GLOBAL MOVEMENT OF MODERATES

19 JANUARY 2012; 2.30.PM

KUALA LUMPUR CONVENTION CENTRE

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Mohd Yassin addressing the GMM delegates at the closing ceremony

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

Assalamu’alaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh, Salam Sejahtera dan Salam 1Malaysia.

YB Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal,

Minister of Rural and Regional Development, Malaysia.

His Excellency Mr. Mohamed Shihab,

Minister of Finance and Treasury, Maldives.

YBhg. Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Bin Haji Hassan

President of International Islamic University Malaysia

YBhg. Tan Sri Razali Ismail

Chairman of the Board of Advisors, Global Movement of Moderates

1. First, on behalf of the people and the government of Malaysia, I would like to welcome international delegates and distinguished speakers to this conference. I believe your discussions and deliberations at this three-day conference have been very enlightening and fruitful in our quest to promote moderation as a core universal value that contributes to lasting global peace and harmony. I also wish to thank the organizing committee for inviting me to say a few words at the closing ceremony of this conference.

The Historical Context

2. Allow me to briefly mention at the outset the historical context in which contemporary discourse about moderation and the moderates emerge. As we know, at the end of the cold war, many people thought that the war between communism and the West was about to be replaced by a war between the West and Muslims. The Gulf War, the Bosnian conflict, the World Trade Centre bombing and the growing influence of Islamist movements in the Middle-East, Turkey, Central Asia and across the Muslim world gave an impression that there lies an Islamic threat against the West.

3. Throughout the 1990s, Samuel P. Huntington’s seminal work, Clash of Civilizations, generated so much interest in the academia as well as in the media. It seemed that confrontations drawn along the fault lines of ideology and religion were inevitable. In particular, the prophecy of an imminent conflict between two great civilizations, namely Islam and the Christian West sent tremors across the world.

4. It was rather unfortunate that the tragic event on September 11, 2001 accentuated the images of conflict between Islam and the West. Eventually, the post 9/11 world was marked by growing Islamophobia in the West and across the world. From Osama Ben Laden to the Taliban in Afghanistan, the vision of militant Islam as a threat to the West has gripped the imaginations of Western governments and the media.

5. For more than a decade, the image of Islam as the religion of peace and moderation was hijacked by violent aggressions of militant Muslims and their network of terror. The events in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kashmir and other parts of the world where Muslim minorities are struggling for self-determination, reinforced the image of Islam as a religion that is prone to fanaticism, extremism and warfare. On the other hand, the global war on terror led by Western superpowers has pitted the West against the Muslims in a scale that has never been felt before.

6. Without us realizing it, the instability of the war inflicted regions in some parts of the Muslim world and the growing fear of terrorism fuelled by Islamophobia in the West overshadowed the voices of moderation, peace and harmony within Islam. People tend to ignore the fact that the phenomenon of extremism, fanaticism and militancy in the Muslim world is confined to only small groups of people usually alienated from the mainstream tradition of Islamic moderation.

The Concept of Moderation in Islam

7. The virtue of moderation was expounded in Islam by a key verse in the Qur’an which describes Muslims as an ummah or community justly balanced. Allah the Almighty says in the Qur’an:

وَكَذَٲلِكَ جَعَلۡنَـٰكُمۡ أُمَّةً۬ وَسَطً۬ا لِّتَڪُونُواْ شُہَدَآءَ عَلَى ٱلنَّاسِ وَيَكُونَ ٱلرَّسُولُ عَلَيۡكُمۡ شَهِيدً۬ا‌ۗ

Which means, “Thus have We made you of an Ummah justly balanced That ye might be witnesses over the nations and the Messenger as witness over yourselves

(Surah Al-Baqarah; Verse 143).

8. From this verse, Muslim scholars define Ummatan Wasata, or ummah justly balanced, as the primary characteristics of Islamic community as willed by Allah the Almighty Himslef. In this context, classical Muslim scholars agreed that being ummah justly balanced means essentially possessing a combination of interconnected attributes of justice, goodness, avoidance of extreme laxity or extravagance and being in the middle position.

9. Apart from this, the Qur’an also emphasizes the role of Islam as the harbinger of mercy and compassion to all mankind. Allah says in the Qur’an:

وَمَآ أَرۡسَلۡنَـٰكَ إِلَّا رَحۡمَةً۬ لِّلۡعَـٰلَمِينَ

Which means, “We sent thee not, but as a mercy for all creatures.”

(Surah Al-Anbiya’; Verse 107)

10. With this understanding of Islamic moderation and the message of mercy and compassion that Islam spreads to the mankind, many contemporary Muslim scholars and leaders condemned the act of terror perpetuated in the name of religion. Militant radicalism and religious extremism contradict the very essence of Islam as the religion that promotes the virtue of moderation and peaceful co-existence between peoples of different faiths, creed and color.

11. For Muslims, religious and cultural differences should not be the root cause of hatred and enmity as the Qur’an itself accords spiritual recognition to social plurality and cultural heterogeneity which is part of human nature. Allah says in the Qur’an:

يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلنَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقۡنَـٰكُم مِّن ذَكَرٍ۬ وَأُنثَىٰ وَجَعَلۡنَـٰكُمۡ شُعُوبً۬ا وَقَبَآٮِٕلَ لِتَعَارَفُوٓاْ‌ۚ إِنَّ أَڪۡرَمَكُمۡ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ أَتۡقَٮٰكُمۡ‌ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ خَبِيرٌ۬

Which means, “O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of male and female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other. Verily the most honored of you in the sight of Allah is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And Allah has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things)”.

(Surah al-Hujrat; Verse 13)

The Necessity of Moderation

12. Apart from religious injunctions, the political, social and economic realities that we are facing today necessitate the practice of moderation. On the economic front, Western countries are major trading partners of the Muslim world. As much as the West depends on Muslim countries for natural resources, Muslim countries rely on economic prosperity of the West as major importers of goods and services to accelerate the process of economic development at home. As we know, for decades the peace, prosperous and developed West created millions of jobs and countless economic opportunities for Muslims in their respective countries. It will be folly for Muslims to believe that economic and political destruction of the West will bring economic prosperity and political stability to the Muslim world.

13. At the same time, growing population of Muslims in the West has changed the social and cultural demography of Western society. For instance, in Europe today, a key debate is about how to integrate and assimilate new Muslim population into the European society without necessarily eroding European cultures, traditions and identity. No doubt, the success of this process of integration and assimilation will have far-reaching consequences on lasting peace and stability of European countries.

14. As Muslims are making inroads into the West, bringing together their values and social practices into the fabric of Western societies, the social and political values of the West are also increasingly being embraced by Muslims. The values of human rights, freedom and liberty, which were once associated with the West, now form part and parcel of the life of Muslims. It is not uncommon now to find Islamic groups and Muslim-based political parties together with civil society movements participate in democratic processes and clamor for democratic reform. The political transformation currently underway in Muslim countries shows that the value of democracy can sit easily with the value of moderation, justice and compassion in Islam.

15. The political, social and cultural interactions between the Muslim world and the West, which is now being reinforced by the forces of globalization, brings about new perspective on the relationship between Islam and the West. For Muslims, the classical demarcation line that separates Dar al-Islam (the realm of Islam) from Dar al-Harb (the realm of war) has now become obsolete. It is not proper for Muslims to regard the West as their enemies when the cultural and social demography of the West itself is undergoing tremendous change as a result of its rising Muslim population. Likewise, it is no longer fitting for the West to regard Islam as the new fascism which poses imminent threat to the security of its nations and the future of its civilization. The truth is, the Muslims themselves are becoming more familiar and receptive of the good values of Western civilization.

16. The future path of global peace and prosperity must be built upon mutual understanding and respect between communities which represent the world major civilizations. Be it Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Taoism and other world major civilizations, all must work for the perpetuation of peaceful co-existence between people of different religions and cultures. This necessitates a shift in our perspective from clash of civilizations to civilizational engagement. In this particular context, the practice of moderation and the rejection of extremism is the key to civilizational engagement and global peace. Only by rejecting extremism and embracing moderation will we be able to treat others with dignity, accept our differences and live with each other in peace and harmony. In today’s world, moderation is not an option, but a must.

Moderation in Other Faiths

17. We are fortunate that all major religions and civilizations advocate moderation as a way of life. Christianity and Confucianism abhor extravagance and opulence which symbolize an extreme behavior in the conduct of one’s life. Likewise, in Hinduism, the concept of middle path that calls for divine centered living without renouncing the world is considered the best means to achieve salvation. In the same vein, Buddhism advocates Middle Way between all extremes by avoiding fanaticism and laziness in the journey to nirvana.

18. If we can see the nature of religion through the prism of moderation, we will be able to identify common values shared by all religions. The values are peace, harmony and true happiness which will materialize when the followers of every religion avoid excessiveness in religious practices and in the conduct of worldly life. I believe if everybody can nurture the spirit of moderation, which implies rejection of excessiveness and extremism, there will be no harm done to human kind in the name of religion or ideology.

19. At the same time, we need to address the root cause of extremism and fanaticism which often lead to hatred and enmity between people of different religions and cultures, namely economic alienation, political exclusion and social deprivation. We need to replace economic alienation with equitable distribution of wealth; we need to end political exclusion by promoting political inclusiveness; we need to eliminate social deprivation by upholding social justice and respect for human dignity. We believe that the seeds of goodness will only bear fruit when the root cause of evil are completely annihilated.

Moderation in Malaysia

Ladies and gentlemen,

20. Moderation has been the pillar of Malaysia’s success in dealing with ethnic and religious diversity. Being part of the Malay world where great civilizations meet, Malaysia has been blessed with peace and prosperity that is built upon mutual understanding and respect among its multi-ethnic and multi-religious population. Despite being a plural society from the start, we thank the Almighty God that we have so far been successful in maintaining peace and averting conflict by promoting moderation as a national culture.

21. We promote moderation through active involvement of the government and the civil society in educating the people about the values of moderation and peace. The government working together with religious communities and the civil society have been actively promoting religious harmony as a main pillar of national unity. A Committee on Inter-Religious Harmony was formed with a view to promote common values shared by all religions as a means to encourage mutual understanding, respect and cooperation between different religious communities. I must say that our success as a nation depends on the willingness of the moderates from all religions and cultures to set aside differences and work for a common goal in perpetuating peace, harmony and prosperity for our people.

22. It is my great pleasure today in conjunction with this conference to launch an important work on Islamic moderation as it is envisioned and practiced in Malaysia and the Malay world. Professor Tan Sri Mohd. Kamal Hassan, a renowned professor of Islamic studies from the International Islamic University Malaysia, has come up with a great book entitled “Voice of Islamic Moderation From the Malay World”, which compiles evidences from the Qur’an and prophetic traditions which extol the essence of Islam as the religion of moderation. There are also numerous empirical evidences which epitomize moderation as the foundation of peace, harmony and stability in the Malay world in general and in Malaysia in particular.

23. I am glad to quote a passage in Tan Sri Mohd Kamal Hassan’s book which is of great interest to me. I quote, “The voice of Islamic moderation coming from contemporary Malaysia is a reflection of the Malaysian milieu in which Islamic thought has been nurtured in a multi-ethnic society in which Muslims, though in the majority, have lived and co-existed with non-Muslims of various ethnic and religious groups in peace and harmony … This democratic set-up has molded a national culture which makes political or religious extremism unpopular and uncalled for. The winning formula for all communities has always been one in which there is a realistic recognition of the pluralistic nature of the nation and the need to balance between the particular interest of a community and the larger interest of national stability, national security and national wellbeing, without stepping beyond the limits of freedom as provided for in the Constitution of the nation,” unquote.

24. I believe the value of moderation will continue to provide lasting peace, harmony and stability for Malaysia and for the world community. This requires the coalition of the willing among the moderates of the world to persistently promote moderation as a global value. I do hope that this international conference, the idea of which was mooted by Malaysian Prime Minister, The Honorable Dato’ Seri Mohd. Najib Tun Abdul Razak, and the actions that will follow from it will provide avenues for the moderates from all major civilizations of the world to work hand in hand in the promotion of just and lasting peace for the wellbeing of the global community.

25. On this note, it is my great pleasure to close the International Conference on Global Movement of Moderates and officially launch Professor Tan Sri Mohd. Kamal Hassan’s book, “The Voice of Islamic Moderation From the Malay World”.

Wabillahi al-taufiq wal hidayah wassalamu’alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

Thank you.

Published in: on January 19, 2012 at 15:15  Comments (4)  

Can Anwar explain if Al Quran is still relevant and not “archaic”?

9 January 2012. Much to everyone’s surprise Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim, who has been charged for sodomy has been acquitted by Kuala Lumpur Criminal High Court. Later that evening he flew to Mumbai, as he had planned even though he is now a free man.

This is the BBC interview when he was in Mumbai:

“We will have to review some of these archaic laws. We, Muslims and Non Muslims in Malaysia generally believe and committed to support the sanity of marriage between man and woman. But we should not be seen as punitive and consider the archaic laws as relevant. We need to review them”.

These are the views, supported by specific mentions in the Al Quran and interpretation by the major imams on sodomy, homosexual and carnal intercourse.

So, are these Quranic verses “Not relevant and archaic’?

Could the PAS leaders, who have been adamant in their support of Anwar Ibrahim as the Opposition Leader and the coalition between PAS-DAP-PKR top candidate if they win the next general election as the “Prime Minister of Malaysia”, explain about these “These no longer relevant and archaic laws”?

Published in: on January 18, 2012 at 12:30  Comments (16)  

Tun Dr Mahathir: We should be moderate in global financial architecture

Tun Dr Mahathir @ the Global Movement of Moderates Dinner Talk, 17 Jan 2012

Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad reiterated his consistent call for the use of gold to back world currencies, for better control and stability in the global financial architecture.

“It’s a proven system”.

He spoke during dinner for the Global Moderate Movement in Kuala Lumpur this evening.

He was commenting when US Dollars have been issued into the market without being backed by gold, the currency became value-less. “You need more money (USD 1,690) to buy an ounce of gold now. It used to be USD 35.00 per ounce, when they adopted Bretton Woods“.

Speaking about a uniformed currency for a region or even global level, he said that it would not work. “Some countries such as Greece is now a bankrupt country, after they adopted the common European currency, Eurp. Their initial cost of living was low. After using Euro, everything is marked up. Cost gone up. They started to pay more in wages and their cost of production went up. To make up for the imbalance, they started to borrow in expensive currency. The repayment would be very difficult later because they borrow in expensive currency but productivity is still at their old and cheaper currency”.

He also explained that productivity did not correspond with the cost, which was artificially escalated due to trying to adopt a single currency for different level of economies.

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad

Tun Dr Mahathir opened his speech by briefly explaining the decision for post World War Two global financial architecture, to peg currencies against gold. The Bretton Woods system was adopted. Later, economies such as the British found they produce were too pricey because of their high cost of production, especially wages. “Instead of lowering their cost like wages, which they can’t. Lowering wages would mean that the workers are being hoodwinked. Instead, they devalued their currency. Later it became a problem”.

The Prime Minister whose outside-the-box solution against the 1997-8 Asian Financial Crisis of ‘Capital Control’ and pegging RM against the USD was initially lunged the world financial and capital market community. It was against the tide where International Monetary Fund rescue package, which came with a lot of conditions. However, later  the unorthodox approach was proven successful.

Of course the topic how the Asian economies’ currencies were attacked and manipulated by currency traders, which spiral these economies downwards. Stock and financial markets all over Asia were brought down to their knees. “We all became poor in the hands of the currency traders. But they didn’t learn anything from the Asian Financial Crisis”.

He explained that the Subprime Crisis that the West especially United States suffered recently and unable to recover even after two years, was caused by introduction of new instruments and financial products. “There was no real physical economic growth and new economic activities. The borrow and speculated in stocks and even money, which they consider as a ‘commodity’. They made tons of money!”.

"No new blueprints for financial architecture to deal with the current global economic crisis"

“In East Asia, they were very creative to have new and better goods. In the West, they were creative in new financial and capital market instruments. They were borrowing from themselves and expanded it”.

He explained when the bubble burst, industries had to close down because they sustain operation due to the drop in market demands and unable to service, let alone repay loans. “Common people lost jobs and as a result, they lost their homes as well. It affected so many people”.

“We need a new (financial) architecture by revising the old architecture. We need to ensure money has it worth, with gold as the backing. There is no new blueprint to deal with the current global financial crisis”. In short, the global financial system is now being ‘attacked’ by greedy manipulators which he described as ‘extremists’.

For the record, he called hedge fund player George Soros as a “Rogue”.

He joked about being the ‘unqualified’ person to talk about ‘moderation’ and ‘financial crisis’ as sarcastically, he self-proclaimed to be “An extremist”. As a parting shot, Tun Dr Mahathir reminded the audience with his usual wit, “If we talk about being moderate, then it’s about the global financial architecture”.

Published in: on January 17, 2012 at 21:10  Comments (1)  

PM Najib: Moderation is attending needs of others and not about being weak

“We can’t love and we don’t know”, PM Dato’ Seri Mohd. Najib Tun Razak’s opening call for all to get to know each other and work against extremism. “Moderation has always been our approach”.

“Moderation is the fitrah and the solid bedrock all civilisations have been built. Moderation stands not only for the control of will power”.

‘Modeation is not an ideology of enfeeblement. Moderation is about attending to the needs and frustration of others, as well as attending our own needs”. PM Najib called for everyone to come together in the challenges such as global financial challenges and armed crisis and to face all this encompassing the needs of the various stake holders, in the order and tone peaceful moderation and not less.

“Its never about a conflict between religion. The crisis we often see is about extremists against the moderates”.

He also reminded that moderation is nothing and age old value. “Its the best of options”. He quoted the Torah as “The way of life”. “Extremism has never been welcomed in our mosques, churches and synagogues. It is about not able to respect the rights of others”.

“Moderates can make a difference where ever the make a stand. Its about the moderates all over to stand up against extremists with a firm resounding ‘NO’”. PM Najib spoke against the extremists on their own game. “Violence begets violence”. Persuasion, negotiation is the way to the tackle them. “Extremists are driven by orthodoxism, rather celebrate the sanity of life. They turn their back against progress and choose to remain the same”.

“Extremism is not always about violence. Take the recent global financial crisis. The excesses of Wall Street take the world from its right. USD 14 trillion has been spent on bail outs and recovery efforts, ten times more than the cost of war in Afghanistan. The reckless economic crisis left millions of innocent by standers taken the everyday lives and worldly assets from them”.

PM Najib also said that extremists take many forms and can only be identified in the actions and the effects of their doings.

He also reminded that the world have had this continuous perception that Muslims have been equated to extremism, despite it has been proven in the case of Timothy McVeigh and Andres Behring Breivik.

PM Najib announced the institute of Wassatiyah under Prime Miniter’s Office, in the promotion of moderation in the form via social justice, law and order and understanding. “Its os for us moderates everywhere, to deny the minority at the edge to deny the centre stage of majority”.

“Let us today form the strive and undertake the commitment to work through the moderates”.

*Updated 1030hrs

KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY

YAB DATO’ SRI NAJIB RAZAK

PRIME MINISTER OF MALAYSIA

GLOBAL MOVEMENT OF MODERATES CONFERENCE, KUALA LUMPUR

17TH JANUARY 2012

 

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

 

Your Royal Highness, your excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests.

 

  1. I am delighted to join all of you today at the very first conference of the Global Movement of the Moderates – I know many of you have travelled thousands of miles to be here, and I want to thank you for your dedication and commitment to our common cause. We have a saying in Malaysia, tak kenal maka tak cinta, which means “we can’t love what we don’t know” – and it is my sincere hope that over the next few days we will come to both know and love each other better, and to put that mutual empathy and understanding into the service of facing down extremism in all its forms.

 

  1. Here in Malaysia, moderation has always been our chosen path. It is a testament to how we gained our independence from the British back in 1957; how we restored our relations with Indonesia in 1965; and how we helped build ASEAN in 1967, recovered from the tragic events of May 1969, engaged with China in 1972, and forged the ground-breaking ASEAN security and economic communities in 1993 and 2009. Each was a significant moment for our country, and all were gained through reasoned discussion and debate.

 

  1. But over and above Malaysia’s own achievements, moderation is the fitrah, or essence, of humanity’s greatest heights; the solid bedrock on which all of the world’s civilisations have been built – for without it, we would long ago have succumbed to epicurean pleasures and delights! Yet moderation stands not just in the defence of willpower, discipline and restraint but of acceptance, freedom, tolerance, compassion, justice and peace.

 

  1. Being moderate is not about being weak, about appeasement or about institutionalising mediocrity. And it is not about doing half-heartedly those things that are worthy of our fullest measure of devotion. Far from being an ideology of enfeeblement, as some would have us believe, moderation empowers us to go forward and to leave a mark for good – attending to the needs, frustrations and anxieties of others at the same time as attending to our own.

 

  1. In the words of Robert F. Kennedy, “it is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centres of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

 

  1. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the current we are here to build today – and let us make no mistake, we come together at a particularly troubled juncture in our global history. New faces of war, the global financial crisis and natural disasters on a previously unseen scale present us with challenges the like of which we have never had to face before. But face them we must, and the way we choose to deal with these changes will have a crucial bearing on the future of our shared civilisation.

 

  1. The scale and speed of the events that unfolded across the Middle East and North Africa in 2011 at times felt almost overwhelming, but as the chaos and confusion gives way to calm the whole world is united in the hope that – rather than falling victim to an extremism and intolerance that closes in to fill the void – these countries and peoples can forge a peaceful, democratic moderation that will grant them more freedom of expression, not less.

 

  1. Elsewhere, Nigeria has recently borne witness to deadly clashes between its Christian and Muslim communities. But the Nigerian government has made it quite clear that such behaviour will not stand and that there will be consequences for those who seek to hijack faith for violent ends. Because the real divide is not between Muslims and non-Muslims, or between the developed and developing worlds, it is between moderates and extremists.

 

  1. So we have, each one of us, a choice to make: the choice between animosity and suspicion on the one hand and a sustained attempt to apprehend each other’s world views on the other. Certainly, we should never assume that the oceans and gulfs that divide us grant us immunity to the conflicts of others. Tensions in Africa or harsh words uttered in the Americas can have consequences not only for those who live there but for us all. In today’s world of the information superhighway such conflicts travel quickly – and no-one has a monopoly on truth.

 

  1. Of course – much as it would be nice to claim the credit! – calls such as my own for a Global Movement of the Moderates are nothing new. Moderation is an age-old value, and one that runs right to the heart of the great religions. In Islam, the Prophet Muhammad counsels that “moderation is the best of actions”; in Christianity, the Bible says “let your moderation be known unto all men”; and in Judaism, the Torah teaches that moderation in all things is a “way of life” in the truest sense of Jewish custom.

 

  1. But if moderation has long had a home within the world religions, then the reverse is also true: extremism has never been welcome inside our mosques, churches, synagogues and temples. Perpetuating hatred is, by its very nature, a lonely pursuit, flying in the face of widely held morality – and it is this dangerously untethered animus, coupled with a head-in-the-sand refusal to acknowledge the views and the values of others, that makes extremism such a potent threat.

 

  1. And yet, time and again the side of righteousness has triumphed. History has been made not by those who espoused extremism but by those who, without surrendering their beliefs, stayed true to the path of moderation. We are all familiar with the extraordinary strength of will and leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi, but you don’t have to be a world leader to be an inspiration. Moderates can make a difference wherever they make a stand – and it is time for the massed ranks of the moderates everywhere to stand up and to say to the extremists with a single breath a firm, resounding “no”.

 

  1. Because one thing is clear: we cannot rid the world of extreme views by force. Violence begets violence – so we can best foster tolerance and understanding not by silencing the voice of hatred but by making the voice of reason louder. Persuasion, negotiation and co-operation: these must be our weapons in the face of enmity and malice.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

  1. The range of speakers and delegates here today is diverse in every sense, embracing experts and thought leaders from all continents and walks of life. This can, I think, mean just one thing: that extremism has at some point affected every country, every profession and everyone. No-one is immune, nowhere is out of bounds and nothing is off limits – for the simple reason that extremists, with their totalising world views, are reluctant to leave any institution, sacred or secular, untouched.

 

  1. Extremists, we know, are driven by orthodoxies – a set of messianic ideals characterised by crass simplifications, misrepresentations and outright lies. Rather than celebrating the sanctity of life, as is required by all religions, extremists emphasise the glory of the afterlife. Rather than seeking out and embracing difference they espouse ignorance, intolerance and introspection. And rather than embracing change they fear it and all who drive it, turning their backs on progress and seeking refuge in an idealised world that always stays the same.

 

  1. The essence, and perhaps the attraction, of extremism is its apparent simplicity – so it falls to movements and gatherings like this one to interrogate these easy truisms with subtlety, intelligence and vigour.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

  1. Talk of extremism and extremist acts conjures up terrible images of murder, mayhem and human suffering, but extremism isn’t always violent – and I believe we literalise it at our peril. Take, for example, one of the most extreme yet ostensibly non-violent events in recent history: the global financial crisis.

 

  1. Compared to the shockingly violent images that were beamed around the world in the wake of 9/11 – scenes of devastation on an epic scale that scarred a generation and seared the collective conscience of the world – the pictures taken outside Lehman Brothers on another September morning some years later were much more ordinary, familiar even.  A young woman, tense and anxious, carries her belongings out of the firm’s headquarters in a box. A disgraced executive, walking quickly, climbs into his luxury car and speeds away.

 

  1. Nothing too unusual or untoward – and yet, without a single bullet fired, the extremes and excesses of Wall Street would in a matter of days take the world as we knew it to the brink.

 

  1. Fast forward four years and it is clear there is no end in sight. The eurozone is still in crisis. Countless millions have lost their jobs, their homes and their security. And in addition to the human cost, some US$14 trillion has so far been spent on the rescue plan – ten times the cost of the wars in Afghanistan and in Iraq combined.

 

  1. So if my call for moderation is idealistic, it is hard-headedly realistic too. Many great Islamic scholars have been concerned with how Islam as a religious, cultural, political, ethical and economic worldview can help solve some of the biggest challenges we face today, and these are also questions that interest me – how moderation can solve not only the problem of violent extremism but can guide us through this global economic crisis.

 

  1. Thomas Jefferson once said that “the selfish spirit of commerce knows no country, and feels no passion of principle but that of gain.” It is a sentiment that has been revisited many times in the years and months since Lehman’s fell.

 

  1. No less a figure than the Pope has blamed the global financial crisis on “the lack of a solid ethical foundation for economic activity.” Britain’s Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks has written of the need for employers, bankers and shareholders to be “guided, even if no-one is watching, by a sense of what is responsible and right.” And for Muslims like myself, the structures and principles of Islamic finance have long put public good ahead of individual gain.

 

  1. So how do we create a truly moderate global economy that works in the interests of the many not the few? How can we devise a system that delivers fairness for “the 99 per cent”, not just those at the top? Quite simply, we can no longer allow the workings of the markets to be value-free or value-neutral. Markets, we all know, are the only route to rising global prosperity and sustained, stable growth – but  we must do away with the unjust, unfair outcomes they can produce when left unchecked, and with the kinds of reckless economic practices that brought our global financial system to its knees.

 

  1. Massive overleveraging. Mind-boggling credit default swaps. Subprime lending. Like the monstrous creation of some crazy scientist, these new and poorly understood financial practices rampaged out of Wall Street and left the devastated lives of millions in their wake.

 

  1. But what of the men and women, the bankers and the traders, who went about their work with such abandon and with so little thought for anything beyond their own enrichment? A line of mug shots of the culprits would look very different to the “rogues gallery” of extremists we have grown accustomed to in recent years – sharp-suited, desk bound and clean shaven rather than dark skinned, bearded and combat-trained.

 

  1. This flies in the face of everything we have been told about extremism – but it also raises the important question: what do extremists look like? How can we come to know them? The answer, of course, is that extremists, like extremism itself, take many forms – and we can only know them by their acts.

 

  1. It is something I believe the world would do well to remember, for too often in recent times we have seen extremism and Islam discussed in the same breath. In the aftermath of 9/11, for example, Southeast Asia came to be regarded as a ‘second front’ simply because it had the highest number of Muslims in the world. And yet terrorism has never gained the same grip here that it has secured in other parts of the world.

 

  1. And when a great evil visited Norway last year, so-called experts filled the airwaves to assert that the attack bore all the hallmarks of Muslim extremists. We swiftly discovered that the awful truth was very different, yet around the world politicians, journalists and commentators remain committed to the idea that terrorism and Islam are two sides of the same coin.

 

  1. After Timothy McVeigh brought mass slaughter to the streets of Oklahoma City, nobody suggested that all Christians were somehow responsible. To do so would rightly have been seen as absurd, yet that is the situation the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims find themselves in today.

 

  1. How did this happen? How did acts of extremism by a tiny minority of Muslims come to be seen as a true reflection of the whole of the Islamic faith – and to overshadow the extremism that is being perpetrated right across the world, day in day out, by people of all faiths and none? Such pernicious views cannot be left unchallenged – and it is not enough to say, as many have done, that the solution to extremism is simply for more Muslims to speak up and speak out. We need to hear from moderates of all religions in all countries and from all walks of life – and when we do, the prize of peace is there for all to see.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

  1. Malaysia has long been synonymous not with extremism but with moderation, tolerance , inclusivity and even acceptance.. In a predominantly Muslim country with substantial communities of Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, Taoists and Sikhs, we know well the “dignity of difference”. We have many ethnic groups, many religions, but we continually strive to be a harmonious and truly united nation predicated on the values of moderation and the spirit of 1Malaysia.

 

  1. We know that we are best and we are strongest when we actively embrace our differences rather than just putting up with them – and it is in that spirit that we come together at the first ever meeting of the Global Movement of the Moderates. But a truly global movement cannot be imposed from above – so we must awaken in all our countries and communities the triumph of truth over ignorance, falsehood and fear.

 

Ladies and gentlemen,

 

  1. To advance our common cause, I am pleased to announce today the formation here in Malaysia of an Institute of Wasatiyyah, operating as part of the Prime Minister’s Office, to further the pursuit of moderation and balance in all its aspects – respect for democracy, the rule of law, education, human dignity and social justice. In the words of the great scholar Al-Imam Ibnul Qayyim, wasatiyyah – moderation or ‘balance’ – “neither being too lenient nor too extreme is like an oasis between two mountains”, and to encourage many more such scholars in the future we will also be creating an academic Chair of Wasatiyyah, operating under Universiti Malaya, with the postholder to be announced in due course.

 

  1. To spearhead this work at an international level, I am delighted to announce the launch of a new Global Movement of the Moderates Foundation as a centre of first resort for the consolidation and dissemination of information and campaign materials to all those who want to join the fight against extremism, governmental and non-governmental bodies alike. Certainly it is essential that, rather than being an exclusive initiative by Malaysia, the GMM complements other initiatives for global dialogue and co-operation such as the United Nations Alliance of Civilisations.

 

  1. It will not be a campaign for the faint hearted, but we cannot allow this moment to be overtaken by extremists, with those who shout loudest gaining the most. In the words of that great advocate for peace, Mahatma Gandhi, “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind” – so it is for moderates everywhere to stand firm and stand proud, to dissipate the pull of the extremes and to deny those at the margins a foothold on the middle ground, ensuring that frustrations, wherever they are felt, are heeded and that voices, wherever they speak out, are heard.

 

  1. Certainly, I hope this inaugural conference will provide an opportunity for us to brainstorm, debate and explore some of the practical challenges ahead – questions like: What does it take for a set of ideas and values to become a truly global movement? How can we inject moderation into our foreign policy decisions and domestic economic measures? And what can we learn from each other in the promotion of understanding, tolerance and peace?

 

Ladies and gentlemen

 

  1. Maybe I am naïve to hope for a world without terror, intolerance and all of the hatreds and miseries that man inflicts on man – but the price of failure if we dream too small is simply too high to pay. So let us dare to dream big, let us dare to imagine what was once thought unimaginable, and yes, let us dare to answer the clarion call to action. Oppression and tyranny can only win out if good men and women stand idly by, unwilling to turn rhetoric into action and opinions into deeds.

 

  1. So let us here, today, together, commit ourselves to change and begin the task of building a new coalition of the moderates for our times – and may I thank you once again for coming and wish you well in your discussions over the next few days. There has never been a more important conversation, and it is one that we must undertake with temperance, fortitude and courage.

 

Published in: on January 17, 2012 at 10:01  Comments (1)  
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