Juang Atas Melayu Murtad

Dalam keghairahan Perwakilan UMNO seluruh negara berhimpun dalam Mesyuarat Agung Tahunan Pertubuhan Kebangsaan Melayu Bersatu (UMNO) bagi tahun 2012 di PWTC Kuala Lumpur sehingga Sabtu ini, ingin diperingkatkan secara langsung atau tidak langsung dikalangan mereka yang terlibat bahawa ciri pendifinisian Melayu itu (menurut Perlembagaan); Islam, adalah sedang dalam serangan.

Semalam, Timbalan Presiden UMNO Tan Sri Muhyiddin Mohd. Yassin mengingatkan Perwakilan Pergerakkan Wanita, Pemuda dan Puteri UMNO bahawa Islam yang dibawa dan diperkuda oleh PAS sebagai wadah Perjuangan mereka adalah lemah, palsu dan kini diketepikan, demi politik Pembangkang yang dikalangan mereka sendiri amat meragui antara satu sama lain.

Dalam lapan belas bulan kebelakangan ini, usaha mencabar kedudukan Islam sebagai ugama Persekutuan Malaysia, ciri pendifinisian Melayu (sebagai majoriti warga Malaysia dan ‘simpanan tetap’ bagi kuasa) dan proses memurtadkan orang orang Melayu dalam pelbagai tindakan dan gerakan berstruktur dikesan.

Personaliti gereja dan DAP yang terlibat dalam majlis Red Rock Hotel pada 5 Mei 2011 dikenal pasti

Majlis Makam Malam Khas pada 6 Mei 2011 di Hotel Red Rock Jalan Macallister, Georgetown dimana politikus DAP bersama sama beberapa orang paderi Kristian berikrar untuk menjadikan “Seorang Kristian menjadi Perdana Menteri Malaysia akan datang dan Kristian sebagai salah satu agama rasmi Persekutuan Malaysia” adalah jelas DAP memperkudakan gereja untuk agenda melemahkan kuasa orang Melayu. Gereja juga menggunakan DAP seabgai tunggangan bagi memperluaskan evangalism ugama mereka.

Apabila JAIS mendapati hampir 100 orang Melayu sedang diraikan dalam majlis ugama dan pemujaan Isa Al Masih di Damansara Utama Methodist Church (DUMC) dalam bulan mulia orang Islam Ramadhan pada 3 Ogos 2011 serta 12 tangkapan dibuat untuk siasatan, DAP Selangor dengan segera memberikan reaksi. Ini termasuk Setiausaha Agung Lim Guan Eng, Exco Kerajaaan Negeri Selangor Teresa Kok dan ADUN Subang Jaya Hannah Teoh datang memberikan sokongan moral dalam majlis mass pada Ahad pertama selepas serbuan itu.

PAS sebagai rakankongsi DAP dalam pakatan haram Pembangkang, tidak memberikan sokongan kepada Exco Kerajaan Negeri Selangor Dato’ Dr Hassan Mohd. Ali yang mewakili parti itu dalam Kerajaan Negeri Selangor. Malah, Dr Hassan telah kenakan tindakan ‘gam’ agar tidak boleh memberikan kenyataan, terutama yang bercanggah kepada kepentingan pakatan haram Pembangkang walaupun ianya benar bahawa kesucian Islam dan kepentingan orang Islam dicabuli.

Dalam isu Hudud ala PAS yang sentiasa dijadikan ‘modal Perjuangan’ PAS dalam iltizam ‘Menubuhkan Kerajaan Islam’, mereka terbelenggu dengan pembohongan apabila berdolak dalih dalam kedudukan mereka sebagai parti dalam pakatan haram Pembangkang. Akibatnya, mereka mengalihkan pandangan dengan kembali menyalahkan UMNO dan kembali membuat ‘drama’ untuk mendoakan kehancuran UMNO.

Doa hancurkan dan murtadkan Umno serlah sikap ekstrim Pas

20 November 2012

KOTA BAHARU – Tidak cukup dengan mengadakan solat hajat untuk mendoakan Umno dan Barisan Nasional (BN) hancur Jumaat lepas, Pas membuktikan kebencian ekstremnya dengan kenyataan Mursyidul Am Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat bahawa Umno parti murtad.

Hakikatnya Pas dulu dan sekarang tidak banyak berbeza. Suatu masa dahulu, presidennya Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi sanggup ‘mengkafirkan’ saudara seagama dalam ‘Amanat Haji Hadi’ semata-mata kerana politik dan hingga menyebabkan perpecahan ummah dengan kejadian sembahyang dua imam di Terengganu.

Doa itu dibacakan semasa Pas mengadakan solat hajat di Stadium Sultan Muhammad Ke-IV Jumaat lepas yang dipimpin adik Nik Aziz, Nik Razi Nik Mat sempena Himpunan Kebangkitan Rakyat anjuran parti itu.

Nik Aziz yang agak emosional ketika diasak pertanyaan wartawan pada Muktamar Pas ke-58 hujung minggu itu menyifatkan Umno sebuah parti yang murtad kerana menolak hukum Islam manakala Abdul Hadi pula berkata doa itu boleh dibacakan ketika merasa diri dizalimi.

Sejauh manakah Pas mahu berlawanan dengan label Islam parti itu demi rakan pembangkangnya PKR dan DAP telah jelas dijawab menerusi doa kehancuran Umno dan BN yang direstui pemimpin dan diaminkan anggotanya.

Sedangkan sebagai umat Islam, pemimpin dan anggota Pas sedar yang mereka tidak boleh mendoakan yang buruk kepada orang lain, lebih-lebih lagi saudara seagama.

Mereka tahu umat Islam patut mencontohi Nabi Muhammad SAW seperti peristiwa yang dikisahkan Rasullullah direjam dengan batu oleh penduduk Taif ketika berdakwah, tetapi Baginda tidak mendoakan kehancuran kaum itu malah berdoa supaya mereka akan beriman kepada Allah SWT.

Muktamar itu juga memperlihat betapa pimpinan Pas tersepit antara suara perwakilannya dan usaha menjaga hati rakan pembangkang. Ini dapat dilihat melalui isu hukum hudud yang menjadi duri dalam daging Pas dalam usahanya menyulam kerjasama bersama PKR dan DAP.

Dewan Ulama Pas merupakan sayap yang paling lantang bersuara berkenaan isu ini apabila Ketua Dewan Ulama Pas Datuk Harun Taib pada muktamar itu berkata PAS akan tetap melaksanakan hukum hudud jika pembangkang berkuasa pada pilihan raya umum ke-13 nanti.

Walaupun kenyataan Harun itu disanggah Pengerusi Kebangsaan DAP Karpal Singh dan Timbalan Pengerusi Dr Tan Seng Giaw, wakil Pas Wilayah Persekutuan Zahari Arip membidas mereka kerana dikatakan masih berdolak-dalik mengenai isu hudud.

Abdul Hadi sendiri dalam ucapan dasarnya pada muktamar itu mengambil jalan selamat dengan tidak menyebut langsung mengenai hudud.

Namun setelah diasak perwakilan, Abdul Hadi menegaskan hukum hudud adalah hak eksklusif parti itu untuk melaksanakannya di negara ini apabila tiba masanya dan bukan Islam tidak perlu bimbang mengenai pelaksanaannya.

Selain hukum hudud, desakan perwakilan Pas yang mahu Abdul Hadi menjadi perdana menteri turut menyebabkan kepimpinan Pas tersepit dengan kemahuan PKR dan DAP yang mahu Ketua Pembangkang Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim menjadi perdana menteri.

Perwakilan Pas turut mempersoal sejauh mana kepimpinan ulama masih tinggal di dalam Pas. Perwakilan menyuarakan pandangan bahawa kepimpinan ulama dalam parti itu kian terancam dengan kemasukan ideologi yang tidak sepadan.

Muktamar itu menyaksikan beberapa anggota perwakilan seperti dari Pahang, Mokhtar Senik meminta kepimpinan ulama dalam Pas dipertahan dan anasir mengancam kepimpinan itu dihapuskan. Beliau turut mendakwa ancaman itu dibawa mereka yang memasuki Pas.

Naib Presiden Pas Datuk Mahfuz Omar ketika menggulung ucapan dasar Presiden Pas ternyata tidak senang dengan dakwaan kepimpinan ulama semakin terhakis dalam parti itu.

Abdul Hadi pula mengingatkan anggota perwakilan bahawa tidak perlu ada pengacau parti yang boleh mengganggu arah perjalanan Pas dan turut menegaskan mereka yang ingin menyertai Pas perlu mengikut cara parti itu.

Malah dalam ucapan penggulungannya, Abdul Hadi berkias dalam mengingatkan sesiapa yang mahu merampas stering kapal Pas yang bergerak berdasarkan kompasnya tersendiri akan ‘dicampak ke dalam laut’.

Sanggupkan Pas menyingkirkan mereka yang tidak sehaluan dalam parti kerana mahu mengemudi kapal dengan rakan pembangkang PKR dan DAP? Itu kemungkinan yang akan menggugurkan peluang Abdul Hadi untuk menjadi perdana menteri sekiranya cita-cita pembangkang menakluki Putrajaya berjaya selepas pilihan raya.

Ini kerana hanya penyokong Pas yang beria-ia mahukan Abdul Hadi sebagai perdana menteri sedangkan yang lain memperlekeh idea itu. Maka Pas memerlukan sokongan padu penyokongnya dan dalam masa yang sama tidak sanggup diketepikan rakan pembangkang yang tidak gemar dengan haluan kepimpinan ulama dalam parti itu.

Yang tersepit ialah penyokong tegar Pas yang cintakan perjuangan asal Pas dan akar umbi yang mahu pemimpin Pas lebih tegas dalam menunjukkan hala tuju parti itu.

Pada PRU Ke-12 pakatan pembangkang memenangi 82 kerusi parlimen dan daripada jumlah itu Pas merupakan penyumbang tercorot iaitu 23 kerusi berbanding DAP 28 dan PKR 31. – Bernama

************

Konsistensi ketirisan PAS dalam memperjuangkan isu Islam, golongan ulama diketepikan dan peningkatan PAS kearah isu isu liberalism.

Malam tadi Muhyiddin juga membangkitkan bahawa perjuangan untuk memberikan hak kepada isu isu LBGT adalah tidak Islamik, bertentangan dengan ciri Melayu dan norma norma masyarakat. PAS juga tidak bangkit untuk menentang gerakan terbaru yang berusaha untuk menghalalkan hubungan seksual songsang d n luat tabii, yang jelas adalah tindakan jenayaan bawah Kanun Keseksaan.

Kontroversi terbaru ialah apabila Naib Presiden PKR Nurul Izzah Anwar secara terbuka mempersoalkan peruntukan Perlembangaan Malaysia bagi had sebagai seorang Melayu-Islam untuk memilih kepercayaan mereka. Pendapat ini sebenarnya adalah manifestasi sealiran dalam gerakan yang sememangnya makin menular dan aktif memurtad dan mengKristianisasikan orang Melayu.

Gerakan NGO untuk memurtad dan mengKristianiasikan orang Melayu-Islam dan diberikan ‘naungan politik’ sebenarnya adalah sebahagian dari strategi untuk melemahkan jati-diri orang Melayu. Sekiranya jati-diri orang Melayu itu boleh didefiniskan semula, maknanya peruntukan dalam Perlembagaan Malaysia tidak relevan lagi dan golongan minoriti ini dengan mudah boleh menguasai pengaruh majoriti demi untuk berkuasa, melalui saluran demokrasi.

UMNO sebagai rakan kongsi tulang belakang Barisan Nasional sebenarnya tidak perlu apologetik dalam isu isu mengenai kedudukan dan kuasa melaksana Islam yang dicabar. Dalam UMNO sebagai organisasi politik ingin mencari pengaruh tatkala PAS jelas terbukti telah lari dari terrsasar dari ‘Perjuangan Mamartabatkan Al Quran dan Hadith’, perhatian juga perlu diberikan pada gerakan yang jelas menyalahi Perlembagaan Malaysia.

UMNO ditubuhkan pada 11 Mei 1946 untuk menentang Malayan Union. UMNO mempertahankan kepentingan keududukan dan kuasa orang Melayu yang sebelum itu dinaungi dibawah DYMM Raja Raja Melayu. Kini, kepentingan orang Melayu paling utama iaitu ugama Islam telah dicabar, secara langsung dan terancang.

Muhyiddin: Bersama Melakar Kemenangan

Ucapan Dato’ Timbalan Presiden UMNO YAB Tan Sri Muhyiddin Mohd. Yassin dalam Perhimpunan Agung UMNO 2012, kali terakhir sebelum PRU 13:

 

TEKS UCAPAN

 

YAB TAN SRI DATO’ HJ MUHYIDDIN HJ MOHD. YASSIN

TIMBALAN PRESIDEN UMNO

 

DI MAJLIS PERASMIAN PERSIDANGAN PERWAKILAN

WANITA, PEMUDA DAN PUTERI UMNO 2012

 

PADA 27 NOVEMBER 2012; PUKUL 8.00 MALAM

BERTEMPAT DI DEWAN MERDEKA

PUSAT DAGANGAN DUNIA PUTRA (PWTC)

 

 

“BERSAMA MELAKAR KEMENANGAN”

 

 

 

 

 

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

 

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

 

YB Senator Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil

Ketua Pergerakan Wanita

 

YB Sdr. Khairy Jamaluddin

Ketua Pergerakan Pemuda

 

YB Datuk Rosnah Abdul Rashid Sirlin

Ketua Pergerakan Puteri

 

YB Naib-Naib Presiden UMNO

 

YB Setiausaha Agung UMNO

 

Ahli-Ahli Majlis Tertinggi

 

Barisan Exco Wanita, Pemuda dan Puteri

 

Saudara-saudari sidang perwakilan dan para pemerhati sekalian.

 

1.      Alhamdulillah, UMNO kini berada di persada 66 tahun usianya. Negara kita telah merdeka 55 tahun adanya. Ia datang bersama sebuah pemerintahan dari acuan negara sendiri, dari pimpinan anak watan sendiri. Selama lebih enam dekad inilah, parti kita telah mengabdikan diri kepada anak watan, mengubah keadaan, dari selubung kemunduran dan kemiskinan, kepada cahaya kemajuan dan kemakmuran.

 

2.      Kita bersyukur, kerana hasil gabungan kebijaksanaan rakyat memilih pemimpin dan kebestarian pemimpin mengemudi negara, Malaysia kekal aman, makmur dan sejahtera. Rakyat dari segala rentasan kaum dan agama hidup dalam suasana yang harmoni, tanpa persengketaan, tanpa kemusnahan. Pada masa yang sama, kita melonjak ke ambang negara maju dan melakar masa depan yang meyakinkan. Impian kita, harapan kita, hanyalah membina negara Malaysia yang berjaya dari Perlis hingga ke Sabah, dan sentiasa berada di bawah naungan Ilahi seperti yang dipohon oleh Nabi Allah Ibrahim:

 

وَإِذۡ قَالَ إِبۡرَٲهِـۧمُ رَبِّ ٱجۡعَلۡ هَـٰذَا بَلَدًا ءَامِنً۬ا وَٱرۡزُقۡ أَهۡلَهُ ۥ مِنَ ٱلثَّمَرَٲتِ مَنۡ ءَامَنَ مِنۡہُم بِٱللَّهِ وَٱلۡيَوۡمِ ٱلۡأَخِرِ‌ۖ

 

Yang bermaksud:

 

Dan (ingatlah) ketika Nabi Ibrahim berdoa dengan berkata: Wahai Tuhanku! Jadikanlah (negeri Mekah) ini, negeri yang aman sentosa dan berikanlah rezeki dari berbagai jenis buah-buahan kepada penduduknya, iaitu orang-orang yang beriman kepada Allah dan hari akhirat di antara mereka.

 

(Surah Al-Baqarah, Ayat 126)

 

Saudara dan saudari yang saya hormati,

 

Politik Perkongsian Kuasa

 

3.      Menghimbau 55 tahun yang lalu, Malaysia berada dalam situasi yang hampir sama seperti di Sri Lanka, Fiji dan Myanmar ketika negara-negara ini berada di ambang kemerdekaan. Kesemuanya adalah bekas tanah jajahan British yang mempunyai penduduk berbilang kaum dan agama. Apabila British terdesak untuk melepaskan penguasaan ke atas tanah-tanah jajahan mereka, perkara utama yang menjadi persoalan ialah siapakah selain bangsa pribumi yang berhak mendapat hak kerakyatan, bangsa manakah yang akan menerajui pemerintahan negara baru itu, dan apakah bentuk negara yang mahu dibina.

 

4.      Kecuali di Myanmar, negara-negara ini memilih model politik perkongsian kuasa antara kaum. Di Sri Lanka, etnik Sinhalis dan Tamil bersetuju untuk berkongsi kuasa. Namun, persetujuan untuk berkongsi kuasa sahaja tidak menjamin keamanan dan kestabilan politik yang berkekalan. Perbalahan kaum tercetus di Sri Lanka selama beberapa dekad selepas merdeka, sehingga membawa kepada rusuhan, perang saudara, kemusnahan dan kemunduran.   

 

5.      Di Fiji, etnik imigran yang ibu bapa mereka berhijrah ke negara itu semasa penjajahan British telah diberikan hak kerakyatan apabila Fiji mencapai kemerdekaan pada tahun 1970. Dengan hak kerakyatan, mereka juga mempunyai hak yang sama dengan Bumiputera Fiji untuk terlibat dalam politik dan ekonomi. Malangnya, kerana tidak ada usaha untuk meratakan padang permainan, Bumiputera Fiji yang lebih mundur memberontak sehingga menyebabkan perbalahan dan rampasan kuasa.

 

6.      Lebih malang di Myanmar, etnik minoriti Rohingya yang berhijrah ke negara itu semasa penjajahan British tidak diberikan hak kerakyatan langsung. Tanpa hak kerakyatan, mereka tidak mempunyai hak untuk terlibat dalam politik, apatah lagi untuk berkongsi kuasa dengan kaum majoriti. Walaupun Myanmar telah merdeka selama 64 tahun, etnik Rohingya yang beragama Islam dilayan dengan begitu teruk sekali. Mereka tidak dibenarkan bekerja dengan kerajaan dan anak-anak mereka dihalang daripada bersekolah di sekolah kerajaan. Hatta untuk mendapatkan rawatan di hospital pun mereka menghadapi kesukaran. Tidak cukup dengan itu, rumah-rumah mereka dibakar, tanah-tanah mereka dirampas dan keluarga mereka dihalau keluar dari bumi Myanmar. Bagi orang Rohingya, bumi yang mereka pijak ibarat neraka dunia.

 

Saudara dan saudari yang saya hormati sekalian,

 

KEBIJAKSANAAN POLITIK UMNO: MUAFAKAT UNTUK BERKONGSI KUASA

 

7.      Alhamdulillah, kita di Malaysia tidak mengalami krisis politik dan perkauman yang parah seperti yang dialami di negara-negara lain, walaupun kita mempunyai lebih banyak bangsa, kaum dan suku kaum. Negara kita dipagari daripada malapetaka besar yang menggugat keselamatan dan kesejahteraan rakyat. Dengan izin Allah s.w.t kita dapat hidup dalam suasana yang aman, stabil dan makmur hingga ke hari ini.  

 

8.      Kesemua ini pastinya tidak terjadi dengan sendiri. Sudah tentulah ada sebab musabab yang menjadikan negara kita kekal aman, makmur dan sejahtera. Sebab yang utama ialah kebijaksanaan pemimpin kita terdahulu memilih acuan politik perkongsian kuasa yang berteraskan semangat persefahaman, pemuafakatan, setiakawan dan tolak ansur antara parti-parti politik yang mewakili pelbagai kaum sewaktu itu, iaitu UMNO, MCA dan MIC. Apabila Barisan Nasional dibentuk pada tahun 1974, muafakat kita semakin kukuh dengan lebih banyak parti-parti yang mewakili pelbagai etnik dan suku kaum bergabung, termasuk dari Sabah dan Sarawak.

 

9.      Sepanjang lima dekad pemerintahan Barisan Nasional, muafakat yang dicapai untuk memerintah negara secara bersama tidak pernah kita ingkari. Janji untuk bekerjasama dan berkongsi kuasa tidak pernah kita nodai. Prinsip ini sentiasa kita pupuk dan suburkan, dan kini menjadi pasak kekuatan Barisan Nasional.

 

10.    Alhamdulillah, meskipun ada kalanya kita diduga dengan pelbagai cabaran dan tuntutan, meja rundingan Barisan Nasional sentiasa dapat menawarkan penyelesaian kepada semua perkara yang berkait dengan kepentingan semua kaum. Kerana itu Malaysia kekal aman, stabil dan makmur hingga ke hari ini.

 

11.    Meskipun begitu, bagi puak yang keras dan melampau dalam pemikiran dan tindakan politik, mereka sentiasa mengapi-apikan semangat perkauman dan agama yang sempit bagi menagih laba politik. PAS sebagai contoh pernah menuduh UMNO sebagai parti sekular, parti taghut, parti mustakbirin, parti fir’aun, parti kafir semata-mata kerana kita bekerjasama dengan rakan-rakan bukan Islam dalam Barisan Nasional.

 

12.    Begitu juga dengan MCA, MIC dan parti-parti komponen lain dalam Barisan Nasional. Apabila mereka menerima pendirian UMNO dalam perkara yang berkait dengan kepentingan orang Melayu, DAP dengan cepat menuduh mereka sebagai parti yang lemah, atau parti pak turut yang sanggup menggadai kepentingan kaum bukan Melayu, semata-mata untuk mengecap nikmat kuasa bersama UMNO. Malah, DAP menuduh UMNO sebagai parti rasis dan parti ultra-Melayu, semata-mata untuk membangkitkan kebencian orang bukan Melayu terhadap UMNO dan Barisan Nasional.

 

13.    Sebenarnya saudara-saudari, PAS dan DAP berbuat begitu semata-mata untuk menarik sokongan kaum tertentu kepada parti mereka. PAS menggunakan sentimen agama yang sempit untuk menghasut orang Melayu membenci UMNO dan menyokong mereka. DAP pula menggunakan sentimen perkauman yang melampau untuk menghasut orang bukan Melayu membenci MCA, MIC, Gerakan dan parti-parti lain dalam Barisan Nasional,  supaya orang bukan Melayu menyokong mereka. Semuanya ini dilakukan atas dasar kepentingan politik yang jumud dan politik serakah, tanpa mengira kesannya ke atas perpaduan masyarakat berbilang kaum dan agama di negara kita.

 

14.    Hakikatnya, sejak lebih lima dekad yang lalu, parti yang membawa fahaman politik benci dan fitnah, yang membakar sentimen agama dan perkauman bukannya UMNO, bukannya MCA, bukannya MIC, bukan juga parti-parti komponen BN yang lain. Sebaliknya ia didalangi oleh PAS dan DAP. Merekalah yang mengamalkan politik ultra perkauman dan membawa fahaman songsang mengenai agama yang memecah belahkan masyarakat kita. Kononnya undi PAS masuk syurga, sembelihan orang UMNO tidak halal, solat berimamkan orang UMNO tidak sah. Malah, mereka sanggup mendoakan kehancuran bagi orang UMNO yang merupakan saudara seagama mereka. Merekalah yang menyuburkan syak wasangka, merekalah yang membarakan api fitnah, dan mereka jugalah yang membaja benih-benih kebencian.

 

Sutera dilipat habis dicuci

Tersimpul kemas di dalam laci

Kalau hati berkarat benci

Terpacul di mulut nista dan caci

 

PEMBANGKANG TIADA PERSEFAHAMAN, TIADA MUAFAKAT

 

Saudara dan saudari yang saya hormati sekalian,

 

15.    PAS dan DAP masih tebal dengan sentimen kaum dan agama. Mereka masih sangat berbeza dari segi ideologi dan pendirian politik. Setelah bertarung sesama sendiri, kini PAS dan DAP melakonkan sebuah pengkisahan kerjasama politik yang cuba ditiru daripada kejayaan Barisan Nasional. Hakikatnya, watak-watak dan pelakon utama semuanya mahu menguasai plot dan jalan cerita, serta menjadi teraju. Sehingga ke hari ini PAS dan DAP sentiasa bersengketa, bertelagah dalam tiap perkara, dan bercakaran kerana ideologi yang jelas berbeza. 

 

16.    Mari kita lihat tiga senario di tiga buah negeri yang diperintah oleh mereka. Di Pulau Pinang misalnya, DAP tidak mahu berkongsi kuasa pun dengan PAS. Walaupun PAS mempunyai satu kerusi dalam Dewan Undangan Negeri, wakil rakyat PAS sehingga kini tidak dilantik sebagai Exco Kerajaan Negeri. DAP sebaliknya lebih rela menyerahkan portfolio agama kepada PKR. Walhal, sebagai parti yang mengaku memperjuangkan Islam, wakil rakyat PAS lah yang sepatutnya diberikan kepercayaan oleh DAP, untuk menjaga hal ehwal Islam di Pulau Pinang. Nampaknya, DAP tidak percaya kepada PAS.

 

17.    Di Kedah pula, wakil rakyat tunggal DAP tidak berada dalam barisan Exco Kerajaan Negeri yang dikuasai oleh PAS. Hari ini, apabila kerajaan PAS Kedah membuat peraturan atau dasar yang condong kepada Islam, yang menentang bukannya wakil rakyat BN, tetapi DAP. Ini membuktikan bahawa DAP bukan sahaja tidak mahu berkongsi kuasa dengan PAS, malah menentang dasar Islam PAS.

 

18.    Di Selangor, seorang Exco PAS dan Exco DAP pernah bertelagah mengenai penguatkuasaan undang-undang Islam  di negeri itu. Bagi parti DAP yang sekular, bukan sahaja hudud tidak patut dilaksanakan, malah undang-undang pencegahan maksiat yang termaktub dalam enakmen undang-undang Islam negeri juga tidak wajar dilaksanakan. Akibat pertelagahan ini, Exco PAS berkenaan dipecat dari Exco Kerajaan Negeri dan parti, dan portfolio agama Islam yang sebelum ini dipegang oleh beliau, diambil alih oleh Menteri Besar dari PKR.

        

19.    Ternyata, PAS hanya melukut di tepi gantang. PAS tidak berkongsi kuasa dengan DAP dan PKR. Sebaliknya, kuasa yang sepatutnya diberikan kepada PAS dirampas oleh DAP dan PKR. Sungguh malang bagi PAS. Bagai kisah si lebai malang. Di sini tak dapat, di sana pun melepas. Bak kata orang Pulau Pinang, Balik Pulau Bayan Lepas, Sini Terpelau Sana Terlepas. PAS berhempas pulas menarik sokongan orang Melayu, tetapi akhirnya yang berkuasa ialah DAP dan PKR. Bagi DAP dan PKR, PAS hanyalah kuda tunggangan, tukang sorak dan tukang takbir untuk mereka merebut kuasa.

 

 

 

 

Saudara dan saudari,

 

20.    Cuba kita bayangkan, jika sekarang pun PAS tidak mempunyai tempat dalam pakatan pembangkang, apakah ada jaminan bahawa PAS boleh menegakkan Islam menerusi pakatan pembangkang? Saya pasti saudara dan saudari yang berada di dalam dewan ini, dan juga tuan-puan yang mengikuti ucapan saya di luar sana, tahu apa jawapannya. Tidak mungkin PAS boleh menegakkan negara Islam. Sebab itulah awal-awal lagi sekarang ini, PAS sudah mendendangkan lagu negara berkebajikan, bukan negara Islam.

 

21.    Selama ini pun PAS sedar, sepanjang 12 kali pilihanraya umum, bilangan kerusi yang mereka tandingi kebanyakannya kurang separuh daripada jumlah keseluruhan kerusi di Parlimen. Misalnya, dalam pilihanraya tahun 1969, PAS bertanding di hanya 62 daripada 144 kerusi Parlimen, tahun 1990 bertanding di 29 daripada 180 kerusi parlimen, tahun 1995 bertanding di 59 daripada 192 kerusi parlimen, tahun 1999 bertanding di 59 daripada 193 kerusi parlimen, tahun 2004 bertanding di 85 daripada 219 kerusi parlimen, dan tahun 2008 bertanding di hanya 66 daripada 222 kerusi parlimen.

 

22.    Ironinya, jika PAS menang di semua kerusi yang ditandingi sekalipun, PAS tidak boleh membentuk kerajaan untuk menegakkan negara Islam seperti yang dicanangkan. Apatah lagi, pencapaian terbaik PAS ialah memenangi 26 kerusi dalam pilihanraya umum 1999. Saudara-saudari, PAS hanya menang semua kerusi yang ditandingi sewaktu berada dalam Barisan Nasional dalam pilihanraya 1974. Manakala, dalam semua pilihanraya yang lain, jumlah kerusi yang PAS kalah lebih besar daripada jumlah kerusi yang dimenangi.

 

23.    Berbeza dengan UMNO, sepanjang sejarah pilihanraya di negara kita, jumlah kerusi yang kita tandingi dan menang dalam pilihanraya membolehkan kita menjadi parti teras dalam kerajaan. Dengan kedudukan ini, UMNO mampu melaksanakan dasar-dasar yang selaras dengan perjuangan parti berlandaskan musyawarah dengan parti-parti komponen dalam Barisan Nasional.

 

24.    Mungkin PAS akan mengatakan kepada kita tidak mengapa bertanding sejumlah kerusi yang kecil, kerana nanti ahli-ahli parlimen PKR dan DAP akan menyokong mereka untuk menegakkan Islam. Janganlah bermimpi di siang hari. Janganlah berbohong kepada pengundi. Jauh panggang dari api. Takkanlah DAP yang rasis lagi cauvinis, takkanlah PKR yang rosak lagi merosakkan, akan menyokong usaha PAS untuk menegakkan Islam. Cukuplah. Cukuplah sepanjang 12 kali pilihanraya, 12 kali PAS berbohong kononnya parti itu berjuang untuk menegakkan Islam. Janganlah kita biarkan PAS berbohong lagi untuk kali ke-13.

 

25.    Dengan kedudukan PAS yang lemah, agak pelik bagi kita apabila dalam Muktamar PAS baru-baru ini, ada perwakilan parti itu yang mencadangkan Presiden mereka sebagai calon Perdana Menteri pakatan pembangkang. Seperti yang kita jangka, DAP awal-awal lagi tidak bersetuju Presiden PAS menjadi calon Perdana Menteri. Persoalannya, bolehkah Presiden PAS menjadi Perdana Menteri jika jumlah kerusi yang ditandingi dan dimenangi oleh parti itu adalah kecil, dan DAP pula tidak menyokong mereka? Tentu sekali jawapannya tidak boleh.

 

26.    Jika tidak boleh, dan saya pasti mereka pun tahu ianya tidak boleh, mengapa dikemukakan juga cadangan itu? Bagi kita ini menunjukkan bahawa ahli-ahli akar umbi PAS tidak meletakkan kepercayaan kepada DAP atau PKR untuk mengetuai pakatan pembangkang. Mereka tidak percaya kepada Lim Guan Eng. Mereka tidak percaya kepada Lim Kit Siang. Mereka juga tidak percaya kepada Karpal Singh. Mereka langsung tidak percaya kepada Anwar Ibrahim. Ini adalah satu kegagalan besar bagi PAS dalam membentuk kerjasama dan berkongsi kuasa dengan DAP dan PKR. 

 

27.    Sebenarnya saudara-saudari, konsep berkongsi kuasa tidak pernah wujud dalam pakatan pembangkang. Mandat rakyat yang diberikan kepada mereka dalam pilihanraya yang lalu untuk mememerintah beberapa buah negeri adalah satu hikmah yang mendedahkan kepada kita bahawa mereka sebenarnya tidak boleh bekerjasama dan berkongsi kuasa. Satu sebab yang paling utama ialah tiadanya sikap saling mempercayai antara mereka. PKR tidak percaya kepada DAP, DAP tidak percaya kepada PKR, dan kedua-dua DAP dan PKR tidak percaya kepada PAS.

 

28.    Cuba bayangkan saudara-saudari, jika masing-masing tidak percaya antara satu sama lain, bolehkah pembangkang bermuafakat sesama mereka? Bolehkah pembangkang memerintah negara dengan aman? Bolehkah pembangkang membawa kesejahteraan kepada rakyat? Boleh atau tidak saudara-saudari? Jika tidak jawapannya, pastikan kemenangan berpihak kepada kita dalam pilihanraya nanti.|Jangan kita serahkan negara kita ini untuk diporak-perandakan oleh pembangkang.

 

CABARAN IDEOLOGI: ISLAM, KEBEBASAN DAN DEMOKRASI

 

Saudara dan saudari yang saya hormati sekalian,

 

29.    Kita sedang berhadapan dengan tentangan ideologi baru. Kononnya atas nama kemunculan politik baru, politik pembebasan, politik global, politik kuasa ketiga, wacana hak dan kebebasan individu mengatasi lingkungan agama, budaya dan moral. Di kalangan parti-parti politik tertentu, mereka akan mengutip apa sahaja ideologi yang memberi kelebihan kepada mereka, hatta berkongsi ideologi songsang sekalipun.

 

30.    Di peringkat antarabangsa, telah muncul kumpulan yang memperjuangkan ideologi songsang yang berteraskan pemikiran sekular liberal yang bertentangan dengan agama. Misalnya, kumpulan yang memperjuangkan hak golongan lesbian, gay, biseksual dan transgender yang dianggap sebagai kelompok minoriti yang tertindas. Undang-undang negara yang hanya mengiktiraf perkahwinan antara lelaki dan wanita dianggap oleh kumpulan ini sebagai tidak adil, malah zalim kepada mereka.

 

31.    Hari ini, mereka semakin berpengaruh. Banyak kerajaan menerima tekanan supaya mengiktiraf hak golongan songsang untuk melakukan perkara yang ditegah oleh agama. Mereka turut melobi supaya hak golongan songsang ini dimasukkan dalam Deklarasi Hak Asasi Manusia Asean di Sidang Kemuncak Asean di Phnom Penh baru-baru ini.

 

32.    Alhamdulillah, Malaysia di bawah kepimpinan YAB Dato’ Seri Mohd. Najib Tun Razak menolak keras cadangan ini, kerana bagi kita amalan yang bertentangan dengan prinsip agama dan fitrah manusia tidak boleh dibiarkan berleluasa. Bayangkan, apa yang akan terjadi kepada anak-anak kita, keluarga kita, masyarakat kita dan agama kita jika amalan songang ini dibiarkan menular. Kita bersyukur, negara-negara Asean lain bersetuju dengan pendirian Malaysia, dan cubaan untuk mengiktiraf amalan yang bertentangan dengan prinsip agama, moral dan fitrah manusia sebagai satu hak gagal.

 

Saudara-saudari yang saya hormati sekalian,

 

33.    Di negara kita, ideologi songsang ini sudah menembusi benteng politik pembangkang. Kerana itu, sejak akhir-akhir ini kita lihat pandangan Ketua Pembangkang agak bercelaru. Satu ketika, beliau tanpa segan dan silu mengeluarkan kenyataan bahawa undang-undang jenayah negara kita yang menghalang perlakuan liwat adalah satu undang-undang yang kolot. Sedangkan kita semua tahu bahawa perbuatan terkutuk itu ditegah oleh Islam, dan juga oleh agama-agama lain. Jika undang-undang itu kolot, maka apakah Ketua Pembangkang hendak mengatakan bahawa hukum Allah juga kolot? Janganlah kerana perlakuan songsang ini dibenarkan di Barat, dan diterima sebagai hak asasi manusia oleh mereka, maka dia pun turut hendak menghalalkannya.    

 

34.    Selain itu, baru-baru ini kita juga dikejutkan oleh kenyataan seorang Naib Presiden PKR. Atas nama kesamarataan hak, beliau mengatakan orang Melayu yang beragama Islam juga wajar diberikan hak kebebasan beragama, sepertimana yang diamalkan oleh penganut-penganut agama lain. Sedangkan kita tahu bagi umat Islam, seluruh kehidupan kita dipandu oleh syari’at Allah. Tidak mungkin hak untuk murtad boleh terpakai untuk umat Islam.

 

Saudara dan saudari yang saya hormati sekalian,

 

35.    Inilah sisi hodoh ideologi demokrasi dan kebebasan yang cuba dibawa oleh pakatan pembangkang. Mereka cuba merungkaikan asas-asas agama Islam yang telah terpahat kukuh di dalam al-Qur’an dan al-Sunnah. Perkara seperti ini tidak pernah berlaku di negara kita sebelum ini. Tidak pernah ada pemimpin Islam yang tergamak bersuara menghalalkan gaya hidup songsang dan murtad. Tetapi hari ini, atas sebab ingin meraih undi dan merebut kuasa, lantaran angan-angan mahu ke Putrajaya, semuanya boleh sahaja.

 

36.    Inilah sebenarnya bahana besar yang dibawa oleh pembangkang. Kita di dalam UMNO tidak boleh alpa. Ingatlah, UMNO adalah parti yang berjuang untuk menegak dan mendaulatkan Islam. Bangkitlah menjadi benteng mempertahankan masyarakat kita daripada diasak oleh ideologi songsang pembangkang. Jangan biarkan mereka menembusi jiwa anak-anak kita. Jangan biarkan mereka meracuni pemikiran masyarakat kita. Jangan biarkan mereka merungkai asas-asas agama kita. Kita yakin rakyat akan terus bersama UMNO dan Barisan Nasional untuk mempertahankan nilai-nilai murni yang cuba dinoda oleh pembangkang.

 

Saudara dan saudari yang saya hormati sekalian,

 

37.    Walaupun pembangkang menjanjikan bulan, bintang, matahari dan cakerawala apabila bercakap mengenai demokrasi dan kebebasan, mereka tidak mengotakan apa yang janjikan. Seperti yang disimpulkan dengan begitu tepat sekali oleh YAB Presiden, antara sisi hodoh budaya pembangkang ialah bila berhutang tak perlu dibayar, bila menerima tak perlu berterima kasih, bila berjanji tak perlu ditepati. Jika saudara-saudari ingat, dalam manifesto pembangkang dahulu, tercatat janji untuk memberikan bermacam-macam kebebasan kepada rakyat kalau mereka berkuasa, termasuk janji kebebasan media.

 

38.    Namun, belum pun sempat mereka berkuasa, pembangkang telah awal-awal lagi memungkiri janji mereka. Hari ini, apabila ada akhbar yang mendedahkan kepincangan mereka, mereka bergegas ke mahkamah menyaman akhbar berkenaan. Jumlah saman bukannya sedikit. Misalnya, nilai saman mereka ke atas sebuah akhbar arus perdana sejak tahun 2008 mencecah 1 bilion ringgit. Dengan jumlah sebesar ini, pembangkang di negara kita mencipta rekod dunia mengemukakan jumlah saman yang paling besar kepada sebuah akhbar.

 

39.    Mereka berharap akhbar-akhbar di negara kita tidak lagi berani mendedahkan hakikat kepincangan dan keburukan mereka. Selain itu, pembangkang juga menghalang akhbar-akhbar tertentu daripada membuat liputan di majlis-majlis yang dianjurkan oleh mereka, termasuk di sidang-sidang Dewan Undangan Negeri. Inilah sebenarnya taktik kotor pembangkang untuk menutup kepincangan dan membisukan pengkritik mereka.    

 

40.    Inilah wajah sebenar pembangkang. Apabila terkena batang hidung sendiri, mereka lupa janji, lupa diri, lupa segalanya. Lebih memalukan, mereka lupa bahawa merekalah yang menabur fitnah ke serata dunia bahawa mahkamah kita tidak adil, mahkamah kita berat sebelah, mahkamah kita zalim. Tetapi apabila terdesak, merekalah orang yang paling awal berkejar ke mahkamah untuk mendapatkan perlindungan. Sebenarnya mereka tahu bahawa mahkamah kita boleh memberikan keadilan kepada sesiapa sahaja termasuk mereka. Tetapi kerana niat jahat mereka untuk memberikan gambaran buruk tentang negara kita kepada masyarakat antarabangsa, mereka sanggup menabur fitnah.

 

41.    Samalah juga dengan tindakan Ketua Pembangkang meminta campurtangan kerajaan asing untuk memastikan pilihanraya kita bersih, bebas dan adil. Dia hendak berbohong kepada dunia kononnya pilihanraya kita kotor. Inilah satu lagi pengkhianatan kepada negara. Semata-mata kerana dengki dan niat jahat terhadap kerajaan Barisan Nasional, dia tergamak meminta campurtangan asing dalam hal ehwal politik negara kita.

 

42.    Bagi kita, ini hanyalah taktik kotor orang yang bermimpi untuk menawan Putrajaya, awal-awal lagi mengatakan pilihanraya di negara kita tidak adil. Barangkali dia pun sudah tahu bahawa pembangkang akan kalah dalam pilihanraya nanti. Jadi, lebih baik dibuat propaganda awal bahawa pilihanraya negara kita tidak adil, supaya apabila mereka kalah dalam pilihanraya, senanglah untuk mereka menuduh bahawa kita tidak berlaku adil kepada mereka. Senang jugalah untuk mereka berhimpun di  jalan-jalan raya bagi menolak keputusan yang telah dibuat oleh rakyat.

 

43.    Kita fikir lebih baik Ketua Pembangkang menjemput wakil negara asing untuk memerhati pemilihan PKR. Kita hendak tengok apa komen pemerhati asing mengenai PKR. Bersihkah pemilihan PKR? Bebaskah pemilihan PKR? Adilkah pemilihan PKR? Demokratikkah PKR apabila Ketua Pembangkang mengangkat dirinya sendiri menjadi Ketua Umum parti tanpa melalui proses pemilihan? Malah jawatan itu pun tidak ada dalam Perlembagaan parti. Apakah sah kedudukan Ketua Pembangkang dalam partinya sendiri? Perkara seumpama itu hanya boleh berlaku dalam sebuah parti yang dikuasai oleh seorang diktator, bukan sebuah parti yang mengamalkan demokrasi. Daripada Ketua Umum, Presiden, Timbalan Presiden, Naib Presiden, parti itu ibarat Parti Keluarga dan Rakan-Rakan (PKR).

 

44.    Kesemua ini tidak membayangkan mereka komited untuk melaksanakan janji demokrasi. Sudahlah komitmen kepada Islam semakin luntur, komitmen kepada demokrasi pun tidak ada. Bagi kita, parti-parti pembangkang tidak ada keabsahan moral untuk bercakap mengenai Islam atau demokrasi.

 

45.    Demokrasi yang sebenar terlaksana apabila kerajaan mendengar rintihan, denyut nadi dan suara hati rakyat, apabila kerajaan melaksanakan dasar yang memenuhi aspirasi rakyat, apabila kerajaan membela nasib rakyat, apabila kerajaan menghapuskan ketidakadilan sosial yang mengancam perpaduan rakyat. Tiada maknanya demokrasi jika masih ada rakyat hidup melarat. Matlamat demokrasi tercapai apabila setiap rakyat dapat mengecap kehidupan yang sejahtera dalam negara yang makmur. Inilah yang diperjuangkan oleh UMNO untuk bangsa Melayu dan seluruh rakyat Malaysia.

 

 

 

 

 

JAMINAN UMNO UNTUK BANGSA MELAYU

 

Saudara-saudari,

 

46.    UMNO terus komited untuk membela bangsa Melayu. Usaha-usaha untuk meningkatkan taraf sosio-ekonomi orang Melayu diteruskan melalui insiatif-inisiatif yang diputuskan oleh Majlis Tertinggi Agenda Bumiputera yang dipengerusikan sendiri oleh YAB Perdana Menteri. Usahawan-usahawan Melayu dan Bumiputera akan terus diberikan peluang untuk mendapat manfaat limpahan ekonomi yang sedang pesat berkembang. Hari ini, dengan pelbagai inisiatif yang diambil oleh kerajaan menerusi agensi-agensi yang diwujudkan untuk memperkasa agenda Bumiputera, pegangan ekuiti Bumiputera telah meningkat dari 2 peratus pada tahun 1970 kepada 23.09 peratus pada tahun 2010, dengan nilai sebanyak 167.7 bilion ringgit. Ini adalah satu pencapaian yang menakjubkan bagi parti kita dan bangsa kita. InsyaAllah, dengan pelbagai usaha yang sedang dilaksanakan pada waktu ini, kita akan berjaya mencapai sasaran 30 peratus pemilikan ekuiti Bumiputera menjelang tahun 2020.

 

47.    Begitu juga dengan perjuangan Islam. UMNO tidak pernah menggadai prinsip perjuangan Islam, malah sentiasa berusaha untuk memartabat dan meningkatkan syiar Islam. Sistem pendidikan Islam kita martabatkan, sistem undang-undang Islam kita pertahankan, sistem ekonomi Islam kita majukan. Hari ini dunia melihat Malaysia sebagai contoh negara Islam yang terbaik. Dengan kedudukan negara kita yang agak lebih ke hadapan berbanding negara-negara Islam yang lain, kita dapat pula membantu saudara Islam kita di seluruh dunia. Kita telah membantu saudara kita di Bosnia, di Gaza, di Myanmar dan di mana sahaja mereka memerlukan bantuan kita. Alhamdulillah, berkat kebijksanaan pimpinan negara kita, Malaysia baru sahaja membantu menyelesaikan konflik Bangsamoro di Filipina. Semua ini adalah hasil perjuangan UMNO untuk memartabatkan Islam.

 

48.    Sepanjang 66 tahun UMNO memperjuangkan Melayu dan Islam, UMNO tidak pernah menganiaya mana-mana kaum. Inilah keadilan UMNO. Inilah kesaksamaan UMNO. Pejuang UMNO tidak perlu merasa berdosa dan bersalah berada di atas landasan perjuangan UMNO. UMNO berjanji untuk terus membela bangsa Melayu dan rakyat Malaysia seluruhnya. Justeru, UMNO akan terus mengangkat suara Melayu di samping tidak melupai agihan keadilan untuk kaum-kaum lain seperti yang dituntut oleh agama. Firman Allah s.w.t. dalam al-Qur’an:

 

 

يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ كُونُواْ قَوَّٲمِينَ لِلَّهِ شُہَدَآءَ بِٱلۡقِسۡطِ‌ۖ وَلَا يَجۡرِمَنَّڪُمۡ شَنَـَٔانُ قَوۡمٍ عَلَىٰٓ أَلَّا تَعۡدِلُواْ‌ۚ ٱعۡدِلُواْ هُوَ أَقۡرَبُ لِلتَّقۡوَىٰ‌ۖ وَٱتَّقُواْ ٱللَّهَ‌ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ خَبِيرُۢ بِمَا تَعۡمَلُونَ

 

Wahai orang-orang yang beriman, hendaklah kamu semua sentiasa menjadi orang-orang yang menegakkan keadilan kerana Allah, lagi menerangkan kebenaran; dan jangan sekali-kali kebencian kamu terhadap sesuatu kaum itu mendorong kamu kepada tidak melakukan keadilan. Hendaklah kamu berlaku adil (kepada sesiapa jua) kerana sikap adil itu lebih hampir kepada taqwa. Dan bertaqwalah kepada Allah, sesungguhnya Allah Maha Mengetahui dengan mendalam akan apa yang kamu lakukan.

 

(Surah Al Ma’idah, Ayat 8)

 

 

49.    Saudara dan saudari yang berada di dalam Dewan Merdeka ini, dan juga yang sedang mengikuti ucapan saya di kaca-kaca televisyen, atau di corong-corong radio di luar sana, pak-pak haji yang baru pulang dari masjid, ibu-ibu yang sedang melayani anak-anak di rumah, pemandu-pemandu teksi yang sedang mencari rezeki di kota, para pekerja yang sedang berbakti kepada negara, para anggota keselamatan yang sedang menjaga keamanan kita, mahasiswa yang sedang mentelaah pelajaran di universiti, pemuda-pemuda yang sedang merenung masa hadapan, inilah komitmen UMNO dan Barisan Nasional, inilah janji UMNO dan Barisan Nasional. Kita sentiasa berusaha untuk mentransformasi negara, dan mensejahterakan rakyat tanpa perlu menggadai prinsip perjuangan yang murni. Inilah bezanya antara kita dan pembangkang. Tatkala pembangkang semakin terdesak untuk meraih undi dan merebut kuasa, mereka sanggup melakukan apa sahaja, termasuk menggadai prinsip moral, maruah bangsa dan kesucian agama.

 

50.    Renungkanlah saudara dan saudari. Tilik betul-betul apa yang dijaja oleh pembangkang dan apa yang dikota oleh UMNO dan Barisan Nasional. Walaupun pembangkang mempamerkan kepada kita bahawa merekalah yang akan membawa sinar kesejahteraan kepada rakyat, janganlah kita terpedaya. Sinar yang mereka janjikan itu ibarat kilauan sekeping kaca yang hanya menanti saat retak dan pecah berderai. Kita pasti rakyat yang matang lagi bijaksana dapat membezakan antara kepalsuan kaca dan ketulenan permata.

 

BERSAMA MELAKAR KEMENANGAN

 

Saudara dan saudari yang saya hormati sekalian,

 

51.    Kita sedang berada di tengah pertarungan politik yang akan menentukan survival parti, masa depan bangsa dan kedudukan negara. Saudara-saudari yang berhimpun ini adalah lambang kekuatan perjuangan di tengah-tengah pertarungan ini. Dalam pusingan terakhir persiapan menghadapi pilihanraya, saudara-saudari di negeri, bahagian dan cawangan telah bekerja kuat untuk memastikan kemenangan UMNO dan Barisan Nasional dalam pilihanraya nanti. Sebagai Timbalan Presiden dan Pengarah Pilihanraya, saya amat menghargai kegigihan, kesungguhan dan pengorbanan saudara-saudari mencurahkan bakti kepada parti tanpa mengenal penat lelah. Percayalah, segala usaha yang dicurahkan oleh saudara-saudari, segala keringat yang menitis ke bumi, akan menyumbang kepada kemenangan UMNO dan Barisan Nasional. InsyaAllah.

 

52.    Pertingkatkan gerakerja bagi memenangi pilihanraya. Sebagai barisan hadapan jentera parti, Pergerakan Wanita, Pemuda dan Puteri adalah pasukan tahan lasak parti. Bergeraklah ke serata pelusuk desa dan kota, harungilah lembah, sungai dan denai, dari Kangar hingga ke Semporna, julanglah panji perjuangan, insyaAllah kita akan mengarak obor kemenangan.

 

53.    Gerakkan jentera di setiap peringkat. Pastikan mereka bersedia turun ke medan perang apabila semboyan dibunyikan. Atur strategi berkesan untuk menangi hati pengundi. Pujuklah mereka dengan penuh hikmah. Mudah-mudahan dengan izin Allah s.w.t., pintu-pintu hati mereka akan terbuka luas untuk menyokong UMNO dan Barisan Nasional.

 

54.    Ingatlah, bahawa perpaduan dalam parti adalah kunci utama kemenangan kita. Apabila kita memilih untuk berada di atas landasan perjuangan UMNO, kita bukan bekerja untuk diri kita, tetapi berjuang untuk agama, bangsa dan negara. Perjuangan ini tidak boleh kita lakukan secara bersendirian. Kita memerlukan sokongan dan dokongan rakan-rakan seperjuangan. Bekerjalah dalam semangat kesatuan hati (wahdatul qalb), kesatuan fikiran (wahdatul fikr), kesatuan matlamat (wahdatul hadaf) dan kesatuan amal (wahdatul amal) untuk meneruskan agenda perjuangan parti yang suci.

 

55.    Yakinlah bahawa kita berada di pihak yang benar. Matlamat UMNO  mempertahankan Islam, membela nasib bangsa Melayu, memelihara kedaulatan negara dan mensejahterakan rakyat tanpa mengira kaum dan agama adalah perjuangan suci yang kita galas hingga ke saat ini. Dengan asakan pelbagai dakyah songsang yang merungkai asas-asas agama, yang mencabar maruah bangsa, yang mengancam kedaulatan negara, maka landasan perjuangan suci UMNO mesti kita perkukuhkan.

 

56.    UMNO di bawah kepimpinan YAB Presiden selaku Perdana Menteri sedang menerajui transformasi yang besar untuk negara kita.  UMNO telah merasai denyut nadi rakyat. Menerusi program transformasi kerajaan, ekonomi dan politik, sentuhan pembaharuan UMNO sedang dirasai oleh segenap lapisan masyarakat. Baik petani, nelayan dan pekebun kecil di desa, pemandu teksi dan peniaga di kota, golongan pekerja, profesional dan penjawat awam, kesatuan sekerja dan pertubuhan bukan kerajaan, remaja, belia dan mahasiswa, malahan golongan gelandangan dan kurang bernasib baik, semuanya sedang merasai sentuhan UMNO.

 

57.    Kita akur bahawa transformasi adalah satu proses yang berterusan. Kita tahu bahawa masih banyak rintangan dan cabaran yang menanti. Walau apapun, demi menjamin masa depan Malaysia yang lebih makmur dan sejahtera, marilah kita redah segala rintangan, kita harungi segala dugaan, kita atasi segala cabaran. Marilah kita berikan sokongan yang tidak berbelah bahagi kepada YAB Presiden untuk memimpin parti dan negara. Marilah kita berikan sepenuh ketaatan kepada khalifah yang akan memimpin bala tentera kita. Firman Allah s.w.t dalam al-Qur’an al-karim:

 

 

 

أَطِيعُواْ ٱللَّهَ وَأَطِيعُواْ ٱلرَّسُولَ وَأُوْلِى ٱلۡأَمۡرِ مِنكُمۡ‌ۖ

 

Taatlah kamu kepada Allah dan taatlah kamu kepada Rasulullah dan kepada “Ulil-Amri” (yakni orang-orang yang berkuasa) dari kalangan kamu.

 

(Surah Al-Nisa’, Ayat 56)

 

 

58.    Kepada Wanita, teruskanlah, perhebatkanlah, semarakkanlah perjuangan menjalin rantaian sokongan. Sebarkanlah kasih sayang UMNO melalui Jalinan Rakyat, Skuad Sayang dan Salam Sayang.  Maralah dengan merah yang menyala, tiuplah ia hingga menjadi obor yang menerangi jalan-jalan kemenangan. Wanita UMNO, engkaulah ibu, engkaulah pembimbing, engkaulah srikandi.

 

59.    Kepada Pemuda, saudara-saudara lah hulubalang benteng hadapan yang akan mempertahankan Putrajaya. Gempurlah musuh kita. Pantang anak muda menyerah. Jangan biarkan walau setapak mereka melangkah. Turunilah ke setiap kota, desa dan lurah. Dekatilah generasi muda dengan hikmah.Berjuanglah dengan tabah. Adat bertarung menjunjung maruah. Membujur lalu melintang patah.

 

60.    Kepada Puteri, permata yang bergemerlapan, sinarilah generasi muda dengan harapan dan keyakinan. Andalah yang memahami suara hati mereka. Rasailah denyut nadi mereka. Menangilah hati mereka. Bawalah mereka bersama kita dalam perjuangan murni melakari masa depan nusa dan bangsa. 

 

61.    Kita tidak gentar menghadapi cabaran zaman. Perteguhkanlah pendirian kita. Perkukuhkanlah tekad kita. Pertingkatkanlah kebijakasanaan kita. Kita mengajak rakyat tanpa mengira kaum dan agama, agar bersama-sama kita mempertahankan benteng negara daripada ditembusi oleh ideologi songsang, dakyah politik jahat dan budaya sesat yang dibawa oleh pembangkang. Marilah bersama-sama kita mendaulatkan maruah agama, bangsa dan negara. Marilah kita berdoa ke hadrat Allah s.w.t. agar kita diberikan kekuatan untuk menghadapi mihnah dan fitnah zaman. Marilah kita memohon pedoman dari Allah s.w.t. agar ditetapkan hati-hati kita untuk terus berada di landasan perjuangan yang suci ini. Marilah kita memohon hidayah dari Allah s.w.t. agar dilembutkan hati-hati kita untuk menerima seruan persaudaraan dan perpaduan. InsyaAllah pertolongan Allah sentiasa bersama orang-orang yang berjuang di jalanNya. Firman Allah s.w.t. dalam surah Muhammad, Ayat 7:

 

يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓاْ إِن تَنصُرُواْ ٱللَّهَ يَنصُرۡكُمۡ وَيُثَبِّتۡ أَقۡدَامَكُمۡ

 

Yang bermaksud:

 

Wahai orang-orang yang beriman, jika kamu membela (agama) Allah nescaya Allah membela kamu (untuk mencapai kemenangan) dan meneguhkan tapak pendirian kamu.

 

62.    Pemuda adalah hulubalang UMNO, Wanita adalah srikandi UMNO, Puteri adalah permata UMNO. Ayuhlah hulubalang UMNO! Ayuhlah srikandi UMNO! Ayuhlah permata UMNO! Rapatkanlah saf perjuangan kita. Berjuanglah dengan penuh ikhlas dan yakin membela agama, bangsa dan negara. Bangkitlah menjulang panji perjuangan. Maralah ke medan perang. InsyaAllah, berkat kesungguhan kita berjuang, berkat kebijaksanaan rakyat membuat pilihan, UMNO dan Barisan Nasional akan melakar kemenangan! Marilah kita sama-sama menadah tangan merafakkan doa:

 

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

 

Ya Allah!

 

Jadikanlah perhimpunan ini perhimpunan yang dirahmati

Janganlah engkau leraikan hati kami dari mentaatiMu

Satukanlah hati-hati kami di jalanMu

 

Ya Allah Ya Tuhan Kami!

 

Terimalah doa kesejahteraan buat sekalian kami

Jauhkanlah hati kami daripada menjahanamkan sesama sendiri

Kembalikanlah mereka yang tersasar ke jalanMu yang diredhai

 

Ya Allah

 

Bimbinglah kami di jalan yang lurus

Redhakanlah jalan perjuangan kami

Tetapkanlah kami di jalanMu Ya Allah

 

Ya Allah

 

Engkaulah Tuhan Rabbul Jalil

Engkau kurniakanlah ketabahan di setiap hati kami

Engkau kurniakanlah kekuatan di jiwa kami

Engkau perteguhkanlah daya juang kami

 

Dengan rahmatmu Ya Allah

Engkau kurniakanlah kemenangan buat kami

 

fai’za ‘azamta fatawakkal ‘alallah

 

Hidup UMNO! Hidup UMNO! Hidup UMNO!

 

Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Walillahilhamd.

 

Dengan lafaz Bismillahirrahmanirrahim saya dengan sukacitanya merasmikan Persidangan Pergerakan Wanita, Pemuda dan Puteri UMNO 2012.

Mazliman Aliman perkudakan pelajar IPT

Demonstrasi dihadapan Ibu Pejabat FELDA

Jumaat lepas, Ahli Jawatankuasa Pusat PAS Mazlan Aliman memperdaya dan perkudakan pelajar pelajar IPTA (yang dipercayai UTM Jalan Semarak), untuk ‘berdemonstrasi’ dihadapan Ibu Pejabat FELDA kunun kununya kerana FELDA mengadakan usaha-sama perniagaan dengan Israel. Manipulasi ini sengaja dibuat tatkala umat Islam seluruh dunia sedang bangkit menunjukan kemarahan kepada Zionis Israel atas Operasi Pillar of Defense baru baru ini, yang mengorbankan 130 nyawa Gaza Palestin.

Mazlan membohongi pelajar pelajar ini, yang menjadi sebahagian dari demonstrasi berasaskan kepalsuan dimana FELDA dan anak anak syarikat yang bernaung bawah FGV. Pelajar pelajar ini sebelum itu berdemonstrasi ditempat lain, tiba tiba dikerah untuk berkumpul dihadapan Ibu Pejabat FELDA. Tanpa sedar mereka diperalatkan, mereka diminta berdemonstrasi atas pembohongan bahawa FELDA berdagangan dengan Israel.

Transaksi RM50.00 sebagai ‘upah demonstrasi’

Selesai demonstrasi, didapati wakil wakil Mazlan mengedarkan RM 50.00 dikalangan pendemonstrasi, terutama pelajar IPTA.

Mazlan merupakan seorang pemimpin ANAK yang gagal, kerana usaha beliau menghasut masyarakat FELDA untuk menentang dan mengagalkan semua rancangan dan usaha Kerajaan Persekutuan untuk membawa FELDA kepada kedudukan yang lebih baik, jauh meleset dan gagal. Beliau menentang penyenaraian FGV dengan menghasut kumpulan peneroka bahawa IPO itu akan melenyapkan hak milik 10 ekar tanah yang sedia mereka milik terbukti pembohongan besar.

Kemudian, ANAK juga berkempen agar warga FELDA menolak ‘Durian Runtuh’ yang sebagaimana diumumkan Perdana Menteri Dato’ Sri Mohd. Najib Tun Razak pada Ucapan Bajet 2012 pada 7 Oktober 2011 adalah hasil langsung dari penyenaraian FGV.

Dalam pembohongan terbaru, Mazlan mendakwa susur-perjalanan pembelian minyak sawit antara FELDA IFFCO, Mewah Olio, Sime Darby Kempas dan sebuah saudagar komoditi global Bunge di Singapura, berakhir dengan barangan dihantar ke Pelabuhan Adabiyyah, Mesir. Apa yang berlaku di pelabuhan asing bukan dalam bidang kawalan mana mana syarikat yang bernaung atau mewakili transaksi mana mana anak syarikat FGV.

Minyak sawit, sebagaimana kommoditi lain, boleh mudah bertukar tangan terutama dikalangan pedagang. Yang paling penting, tiada kawalan dan tidak boleh dirancang dimana kegunaan akhir, terutama oleh pengeluar asal. Sekiranya ialah dikeluarkan dari pembekalan asal dan dipakej semula, amat mustahil untuk dipantau. Jauh sekali, mengawal.

Kain rentang yang digantung sekitar jalan menuju FELDA Jengka 8, seminggu sebelum Majlis Bersama Peneroka 8 Mei 2012

Amat malang sekiranya usaha usaha Perdana Menteri Dato’ Sri Mohd. Najib Tun Razak untuk membawa transformasi kepada masyarakat FELDA ini sentiasa disabotaj oleh pemimpin bangkrap-politik seperti Mazlan Aliman. Masyarakat FELDA layak untuk mendapatkan suara mereka diwakili oleh anak FELDA yang lebih matang dan bertanggung jawab.

Zionist Israelis’ brutalities against Palestinian children

The atrocities committed by the Zionist Isreali IDF troops during Operations Cast Lead in 2009 really casted in stone their butchery-against-humanity in-despicable carnivorous behaviour and attitude. These are what were recorded in the recent Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal:

Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Hearing on Palestine: Witness Testimonies

Source – by KLFCW The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission heard the testimonies of nine complainants

I – KUALA LUMPUR, 20 November 2012 – The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission commenced hearing the testimonies of four of the nine complainants today. The prosecution team had intended to present 11 witnesses at the two-day Commission hearing, but only nine could make it to Kuala Lumpur. Two of the witnesses were unable to make it due to the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The prosecution’s first witness was 33-year-old Palestinian Salah Al Sammouni who testified to the 5-panel Commission that 21 members of his family including his father, mother and only infant daughter were killed during a massive Israeli attack in the al-Zaytoun neighbourhood in the South-East of Gaza on 5 January 2009. The remaining 52 injured members of his family and Salah himself (covered in blood and shrapnel) amid firing bullets managed to make their way out of the neighbourhood and found civilians who were kind enough to drive them to the hospital.

He testified that the Israeli military forces, who had bombed their house three times, had denied entry to the Red Cross and hospital ambulances into neighbourhood to tend to the wounded. The ambulances only managed to make their way into his neighbourhood three days after the attack. During the attacks, a sharp metal piece had pierced his forehead and until today the doctors are unable to remove that metal piece.

Here an excerpt of his testimony – “A short while after the explosion, I heard a very loud explosion about 2 or 3 times. There was dust all over the house. I could not see anything. Later, I saw one missile come through the roof; another from the window and the third one, I do not from where. I then looked around and I saw my mother. I went to her and realized that my mother (Rahma Mohammed Mahmoud Al-Samony, then aged 43) died with half of her face blown away. My father (Talal Hilmy Mahmoud Al-Samony, then aged 49) and my only daughter (Aza Salah Talal Al-Samony, then aged 2.5) also died, with their face disfigured. A total of 21 of my family members died. More than 50 of them were injured. There was screaming, shouting and crying. Blood was everywhere. I lifted my daughter and she had wounds on her neck and stomach. She was dead. Then, I heard my wife calling my name. I went to her. There were a lot of dead bodies on top of her. Then, I slowly pulled her out. She was injured and she was covered in blood. Three of my sons were badly injured and the other one had difficulties in breathing even now.”

Salah’s 15-year-old cousin, Mahmoud Al Sammouni, one of the few survivors of the same attack on that fateful day, also gave his statement at the hearing. However, the young teen could only give part of his testimony to the panel as he had received word that more of his family members were killed in the current conflict in the last few days. He will continue to give his testimony on Wednesday.

Mahmoud who was only 12-years-old at the time of 2009 attacks, saw his father shot in cold blood by the Israeli soldiers. He told the panel that he and his friends were playing football and mud balls around a fruit tree when they saw F16 planes flying in the area and shooting bombs and missiles. He related that there were also many soldiers on the grounds shooting at the walls of homes. He also saw parachutists coming down and landing on the highest buildings in the area and anyone who went out of their homes were shot dead.

Displaying maturity beyond his young age, Mahmoud related the terrifying ordeal he and his family underwent during the January 2009 attacks. The soldiers while shooting randomly at the family shot his 4-year-old brother twice in the chest and once in the head and four of his other brothers in their legs and behind the ear.

He related that they walked barefooted to seek help at the Al Shifa Hospital. “We went to the main road. Along the way we saw a lot of blood on the street, spent bullet shells, shoes. Iron and metal pieces were all across the street so that no one could pass. The soldiers were shooting randomly and people were scared. As we walked along the road, we saw a tank at the side of the road. It was facing the other way. When the soldiers saw us, the tank was turned in our direction and they shot right above our heads.”

The prosecution’s third witness was 22-year-old Nabil Al-Issawi from Bethlehem, West Bank. The 22-year-old former student of the Ahliya University in Bethlehem was part of a peaceful student demonstration near the Azah Refugee Camp when he was shot in the stomach by an Israeli sniper with a Dum Dum bullet (a bullet which expand on impact). As he lay bleeding on the street, the Israeli soldiers refused to give him immediate aid instead took pictures of him and made fun of him.

The use of Dum Dum bullets during a military occupation is a war crime and Nabil confirmed that the usage of Dum Dum bullets were a norm in the Palestine- Isreali conflict.

He was informed by the doctors that the Dum Dum bullet once penetrated in his body had broken into 3 pieces going into 3 different directions: 2 went out of his body through the back and his rectum while the third stayed inside his bladder near the lower spine. He was hospitalised for almost 6 1/2 months and underwent four operations.

“As a result I missed my last semester in the school (namely, from January to Jun 2008). This affected my academic performance, and I scored poorly in the CGPA (Cumulative Grade Point Average). As a result, I was precluded from pursuing the university course of my choice, namely law,” said Nabil who is currently pursing business studies.

“The course of my life has been altered dramatically. As of now, I have an abdominal scar for life and discomfort in sitting upright. I cannot swim competitively as I used to. Apart from this, my family members and I have been prohibited from going to Israel. Further, whenever I go through the Israeli military checkpoints, I am always harassed. I have been traumatised by the incident. Whenever I am about to go through numerous military checkpoints in West Bank, I am in the constant state of anxiety and fear,” said Nabil who also informed the panel that he and his family is blacklisted from travelling to the nearby Jerusalem since he was shot.

He demands freedom in his country, stressing that it is the basic right of human beings not to be harassed by forces that have been placed there illegally.

The fourth witness who appeared before the Commission was 42-year-old Jawwad Musleh from Beit Sahour, near Bethlehem, West Bank. The tourism program coordinator gave testimony of the repeated incidents of incarceration that he had been subjected to since the age of 15 and gave the Commission a clearer picture of the socio-economic outlook of West Bank.

He testified that he was first arrested in 1985 when he was 15-years-old on the accusation that he was a member of the Palestine Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

He said, “I was first taken a place called Elmaskobeya Prison in West Jerusalem for investigation. Later I was taken to Damoun prison located in Haifa and finally I was taken to Ramallah prison in the West Bank.”

He told the panel that the Israeli forces had used different kinds of torture on him. He revealed that they especially used mental and psychological torture and wanted him to admit that he was a member of the PFLP. He was held prisoner for 20 months.

He revealed, “The main charge against me was that I was a member of the Palestine Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). They wanted me to admit that I was a member of the PFLP. They tried to make me believe that they knew everything about me. I refused to confess. Then they began to beat me all over using clubs, sticks, even their feet and hands. The worst part was when there was no interrogation. They put me in confinement with my hands tied behind my back and a hood over my head. The hood was extremely smelly. I could barely breathe. I could not move. My hands were cuffed behind either to a chair or a piece of iron welded to a wall. I had no opportunity to go to the bathroom or to eat. When I did ask for water or to go to the bathroom, the soldiers would blackmail me. They asked me to confess, and only then would they give me water or take me to the bathroom. They prevented me from sleeping or eating or drinking.”

“In the end I did confess. I was just a kid. There was a court hearing and there was a lawyer representing me. However, from what I know the decision is usually made by the Israeli intelligence.”

Since then, he has been arrested a total of 8 times and each time he was tortured when he was incarcerated. During each interrogation, they wanted to know about his activities and his relationship with PFLP. There were various charges against him: rioting, participating in demonstrations, illegal activities, boycotting Israeli goods and inciting others to do the same, that he was security threat and a danger to the state of Israel.

He testified, “In the last 2 detentions in 1989 and 1990, I was arrested for “administrative reasons”. This is a tool the Israelis use for people who are suspected of being active in political activities but for which there is no proof. In such detentions, a person is not entitled to a hearing or lawyers to object to or challenge the detention. You are sent straight to prison. You can only object to the period of detention. The period of detention is usually 6 months. Very often the sentence is confirmed for 6 months. Only in rare cases, it may be decreased to 4 or 3 months.”

He added, “These kinds of arrests are common. Before the advent of the Palestinian authority in 1994, it occurred more frequently and more people were arrested. Now there are more than 5000 prisoners in Israeli prisons.”

The focus of the interrogation was always on his relationship with political parties, and they would also try to find out more about other people, as they wanted to get the names of other people active in the Palestinian cause.

He related, “Twice, I was sent to Qeziot Military Camp located in the Negev desert south of Palestine. It looks exactly like a Nazi concentration camp with watchtowers and fences. It is located in the middle of the desert and completely isolated from the world. There is no radio, television, newspapers or even visits. I had no access to my family or lawyers for 6 months each time. It was very difficult to lawyers to visit us. I only met my lawyer once each time. The situation in this military camp is horrible because I was isolated, and I had very little food, and even what I had was of poor quality.

In Qeziot, we were all housed in tents. These tents were installed on sandy ground. Each section had 10 tents. There were fences all around. In one tent, there would be 20 to 22 persons. It was very crowded. It was always dusty. Dust and sand would get into our food. We didn’t have books or anything to read and write. All we got was some food and a small mattress.”

“I was also held 3 times at the Dahariyeh Military Camp located south of Hebron That is also a very horrible place. The rooms were small and very, very crowded. We used to sleep with our legs over each other. There was no space to move. The rooms also very dirty. We were forced to wear prison clothes that were dirty and smelly. There was no access to any bathroom or toilet. The prison guards would bring us a barrel. All of us had to ease ourselves in the barrel openly in the room. When the barrel was full, we were allowed to take it out and empty it and bring it back. Everything used to smell bad, our mattresses and our clothes. There was no natural light. We were not allowed to leave the room. In other prisons, prisoners are allowed 1 or 2 hours in open space. In Dahariyeh, prisoners cannot go out unless going to court or being transferred to other prisons. I was never visited by my family or lawyer.”

“We were sometimes beaten by soldiers, although no interrogation was being carried out. They would count us 3 times a day. We would have to stand with our faces towards the wall. If anyone moves or talks, we were beaten hard with clubs. If anyone moved an inch or coughed or sneezed, all would be beaten.”

In December 1992 while preparing for participation in a peaceful demonstration on the anniversary of PFLP, he was shot twice in the leg by the Israeli army. It damaged a sciatic nerve in his leg and caused complete impairment and paralysis of his foot.

“Being detained and spending time in prison hardened my resolve to struggle. I became more aware of the cause of the struggle, the history and later I continued being active in the cause. The Israeli forces think that they can kill our soul and patriotism by sending us to prison. However, it is there that our loyalty to our homeland is strengthened.”

He added, “More and more Palestinian lands are being taken away. More and more Israeli colonies are being built on lands in the West Bank and Jerusalem. The situation is more complicated now. There are 700,000 Jewish settlers living in the West Bank and in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is being “Judaised” or “Israelised”. The Israelis are taking more and more Palestinian lands and building more and more settlements around Jerusalem to make it more and more Jewish and to force Palestinians to leave Jerusalem.”

On the subject of the Wall, he testifies, “When it came to building the apartheid wall, the Israelis said it is a security barrier. However, it is actually a strategy to confiscate and expropriate more land. It is not built on the border but inside the West Bank, and this has further reduced the landmass of the West Bank. So Jerusalem, which was part of the West Bank, has now been taken away and annexed to Israel by the construction of the wall.”

He said, “Life for Palestinians in Jerusalem is very difficult. The strategy is to make Palestinians leave and to replace them with Jews to make a Jewish city. Now about 200,000 Palestinians live in and around East Jerusalem mainly, and this number is getting less and less by the day. Israel says that Jerusalem is its capital.”

He further related, “Jerusalem is important for Muslims and Christians. For Muslims, the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa mosque are very sacred places. The sacred places for Christians are the Sepulchre Church the Via Dolorosa. But both Christian and Muslim Palestinians cannot visit these places. Historically, Jerusalem has always been the centre and the heart of Palestine, economically, culturally, historically but now we are not allowed.”

He said, “To move from one place to another in the West Bank, we have to pass through check points. At every checkpoint we have to show identification. There are at the moment 730 checkpoints and roadblocks in the West Bank. This excludes ‘flying checkpoints’, which the Israeli set up at any place at any time.”

He related that the Israeli army control the checkpoints, some checkpoints they can pass with no problem, in some they have to submit ID, while others they have to wait for hours as they are very crowded. He revealed that a journey of one hour could take five hours. And when there is a demonstration, the checkpoints are simply shutdown.

On the issue of water supply, he revealed that Palestinians suffer from water shortages as the Israeli authorities control the control of water. “Water is supplied to the Israeli settlers at a cheaper price, and 5 times more in volume, compared to Palestinians. It is our land, but we pay more and get less water. The water supplied to Palestinians is inadequate for our daily use and causes us great hardship and suffering,” he said.

He further revealed, “Many farmers depend on olive harvests. Palestine is full of olive trees. Many farmers’ lands have been divided by the wall or the farms are located next to Israeli settlements or military camps. Farmers are therefore deprived of access to their lands. In some cases, they are only given permits to go to their lands during harvest in October. But because they are deprived of access throughout the year to fertilise, water and tend to their trees, the harvest is poor. In many instances, settlers have stolen olives from the farms. In other instances, settlers have burned the trees. Most of the Israeli settlements are located in higher land. Sewage water is discharged to the lower lands, where most of the Palestinians reside. This destroys the farms and trees, and damages the environment.” (Read more)

II – KUALA LUMPUR, 21 November 2012 – The Commission heard testimonies of witnesses continuing with the 15-year-old Mahmoud whose 21 family members were massacred by Israeli armed forces under Operation Cast Lead in 2009 where Israeli armed forces attacked Gaza. They also called five other witnesses to testify.

Today, the teenager told the Commission the ordeal his 10-year-old sister Amal endured during the attacks in 2009. Amal who was buried under dead bodies for four days is now visually impaired, her hearing is affected and she has 15 pieces of shrapnel’s in her head that are medically too risky to remove.

Once again the teenager impressed the Commissioners and those who attended the hearing with his maturity and insights into the conflict.

A video animation called Samouni Street, which he was involved in the making off, was shown depicting Mahmoud’s life in a peaceful farming community that was destroyed in 2009. It was a moving account of a child.

He asked, “Why were the young children killed? They are so young and cannot even hold a stone. Like my brother Ahmad. My cousins who were infants were also killed. I have heard that the soldier who kills more – and younger children – moves up higher in ranks.”

He said, “What did the children do to deserve to die this way? What did the women do to become widows and what did the old people do to see all this? Nobody is defending us. It is like we are nothing. We do not have a normal happy life like other children. Where is the human right of the child?”

Even in the recent attacks, some of his neighbours have been killed. He fears for his family and relatives.

Dr. Walid Elkhatib, another witness, who comes from Bethlehem District, West Bank is a qualified medical doctor, with a Masters in Public Health, and Higher Diploma in Health Management, testified on the effects of Israeli occupation on Palestinians, especially children.

He testified, “From 1988 until 1996, I worked as a general practitioner. I worked at an emergency clinic during the 1st intifada. I saw many patients who were brought in with different kinds of injuries as a result of Israeli violence – people with gun shot wounds, who had been exposed to tear gas and people who were physically abused by Israeli soldiers.”

“Today, I am in charge of child health and protection, social health and Palestinian child law and rights,” said the 52-year-old doctor who developed hearing problems due to constant exposure to explosions and has himself come close to being killed several times by the Israeli soldiers.

“I looked at particularly Palestinian children health, not only from the physical point of view but how much Israeli occupation has affected Palestinian children health beyond physical health. It is not merely absence of disease and disability. What I perceived as equally important was emotional, social, mental and environmental health, nutrition and behaviour.”

He said, “According to a survey conducted in Palestine in 2010 in cooperation with the World Health Organisation, which I personally oversaw, 24% of schoolchildren in Palestine have suicidal tendencies.”

He further added, “There is also increased incidents of disability among Palestinians. Among 20% of injured people have become disabled during the 2nd uprising (Intifada). The most recent report from Palestinian Ministry of Health and Ministry of Social Affairs (2011) showed that 7% of Palestinian children are disabled, some because of the intifada. Generally the number is 1-2% higher in Palestine because of the violence.”

He said, “From 2001-2011, there were 2282 cases of disability (93.9% male, 6.1% female). Most of the men were involved in the intifada. 65.6% of them suffered disability as a result of live ammunition. Others were affected by shrapnel, rubber bullet, explosions.”

“As a result of the greater number of disabilities, it means that these persons also have less opportunities for work and end up in poverty. There is greater pressure on the government to support these persons, by way of provision of social services, health services, education etc.”

“Poverty is rife in the West Bank and Gaza. It increased from an average of 20% prior to the intifada to up to 51% during the intifada. Conditions of poverty also mean poor nutrition. We found that during the Intifada, children’s growth was stunted because they did not have enough protein. There are many cases of children with low weight. During the 2nd intifada, the rate of children with low weight (less than 5 years old) increased from 2.5% to 3.2%, the rate of low height increased from 7.5% to 7.9%, and wasting (severe loss of weight) increased from 1.4% to 1.7%.”

“According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), there was a 40% increase of prematurity and miscarriages in pregnant women during the 2nd intifada. Israeli soldiers have also violated international law by attacking hospitals and ambulances with shelling and shooting on the excuse that wanted people or terrorists are in the hospital. Currently 53% of the Palestinian population is below 18 years old.”

He said, “Israeli forces attack hospitals and ambulances on the pretext that there are Palestinian fighters hiding there. Which is not true. I have never seen such a situation. It is my opinion that the Israeli forces allege such incidents but do so to merely justify their inhuman actions of attacking hospitals.”

It is a slow and certain destruction of a society mentally, physically and socially.

He said, “Over the years, the situation in the West Bank and Gaza has become worse. The Israeli authorities have increased in strength. We can only estimate that it will get worse in the future. The Palestinians face a lot of challenges. We are being threatened all the time by the US and Israel – they threaten to cease the transfer of taxes, to strengthen the checkpoints, to stop aid, to completely stop entry to Jerusalem.”

He continued, “Before the 2nd intifada, I believed that Israel was looking for peace with Palestinians. But now I do not believe it. Israel does not believe Palestinian territory belongs to Palestinians. They believe that it is historically Israeli and they are taking it back. They threaten to increase settlements in Palestinian territories if Palestine continues to try and gain recognition as a state from the United Nations (without membership). Israeli actions amount to the extermination of a whole state. Israel believes that eventually Palestinians will leave their lands beyond the walls. Israeli strategy is to deprive the Palestinians of their basic needs to make them leave. The Palestinians are badly in need of support services Otherwise they will have no choice but to leave.”

The prosecution subsequent witness was 54-years-old Chahira Abouardini, a mother of three who is a Palestinian refugee (political refugee) living in Camp Shatila, Beirut. She told the Commission about the events that took place at Camp Shatila, Beirut in the month of September 1982, in the now infamous Sabra & Shatila massacre.

She testified, “On 14 September1982, the Lebanese President Bachir Gemayel was assassinated. After that incident, there were a lot of aircraft flying around Beirut. My husband told me that the situation may get worse, and to prepare the children so that we could leave. On 16 September we went to my father’s brick house on Sabra Street. There were other family members as well – my father, my sister (17 years old), my brother (24 years old) and his pregnant wife and 2 children, and my cousin and his wife and 2 children.”

Chahira who broke down while giving testimony said, “In the evening beginning from about 5pm, flares were thrown to light up the area. This went on throughout the night. The camp was full of light throughout the night. We did not know what was happening outside. We heard shooting and screaming outside. At about dusk, my sister ran out into the street to see what was happening. She was shot dead by armed militia. When my sister was shot, she shouted for my father. My father came out of the house to see what had happened to my sister. He was also shot and killed. Their bodies were left on the street. Later I found out that those who shot my sister and father were Lebanese Phalangist militia.”

In the early hours of the morning, about 16-17 armed soldiers entered her home and shot her husband, brother and cousin dead in front of her and children. She related that militia entered homes and shot at everyone including children and animals.

She said, “Along the way to the stadium, I saw my cousin’s daughter who was pregnant lying dead. The murderers had opened her body and taken out her baby and put the baby on her. The child was dead as well. She was lying on the street.”

“Along the street there were a lot of dead bodies. Hundreds of bodies were strewn all over. We climbed a hill to the stadium. At the nearest houses I could see bodies of children. Between the houses, which had been half destroyed, there were bodies of men, and also women and children and animals.”

She testified, “In 36 hours, up to 3500 to 5,000 people from Shatila and Sabra had been massacred, There are also people unaccounted for who had disappeared. The Phalangist militia worked together with the Israelis. They were known to be puppets for Israeli forces. Israelis used them to go into our houses, because these soldiers knew the place, and could speak Lebanese. The Israelis were afraid to go in themselves.”

She concluded, “What I want is justice to be done and that those who killed my family members and all the people at Shatila and Sabra to be punished for their crimes.”

The prosecution’s next witness was Taghreed Nimat from Nablus, West Bank. Due to Taghreed’s father’s imprisonment for singing nationalistic Palestinian songs, the Israeli forces often targeted her, accusing her for promoting hatred against the Israeli government. In 2004, the Israeli soldiers attacked the Dr Sayed Kamal Mental Hospital in Bethlehem where she was staying and working as a psychologist. The 47-year-old Palestinian’s experiences during the hospital attack caused her to suffer a breakdown causing her to take ASVL sedatives twice and other medication for five months.

She also related how she was often harassed unnecessarily by the Israeli military soldiers whatever she went through checkpoints. They soldiers would detain her at these checkpoints for one or two hours or several hours before allowing her through or sometimes refusing entry.

The prosecution also called Anne Sunde, a 66-year-old Norwegian who is residing in Belgium. She was working as a volunteer social worker for the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Beirut in the Sabra and Shatila Camps.

She related, “On 4 June 1982, I visited my friend at Fakhani. While we are chatting in the building, which housed the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) offices, we heard loud noises of planes flying over. We rushed to the shelter in the basement of the building. Then we heard bombing nearby our building. It was loud. The building shook and I was expecting to die under it. It was my first experience of direct violence. One becomes aware what life is. The bombing seemed eternity.”

She said, “After a few days the PRCS set up a hospital in La Houd School, Hamra. Since nobody among the volunteers wanted to do cleaning (janitor), I volunteered. I did this together with Kurdish refugees.”

She said, “Finally I decided to go back to Belgium on 15 September 1982 via Damascus. However, since it was the morning after Bachir Gemayel’s (the then President-elect) death, there were no taxis to take me to Damascus. Great nervousness was felt in town. I returned to the PRCS headquarter in Hamra where most of the foreigners were located.”

She then proceeded to relate her harrowing experiences of the killings at the Sabra and Shatila Camps. She further related that when she went to the Shatila Camp she saw many dead bodies of adults and children, both male and female, in strange positions. I also saw dead animals. The bodies were already decomposing and bloated in the summer heat. The smell, she said, was unbearable and there were flies all over.

She added, “It was a horrible scene and they were digging mass graves to bury the dead.”

The prosecution next called the 66-year-old Italian expert witness Paola Manduca, a retired Professor at University of Genoa, Italy who is an expert Geneticist. In 2011, she conducted and coordinated two research projects relating to the impact of weapons on reproductive health arising from the attacks in Gaza, especially to children. She also personally spent about more then a year from December 2010 to April 2012 in Gaza, conducting research in Pediatric and maternity hospitals.

She said, “The outcome of our research points to the degradation of the reproductive health and increase in major structural birth defects, following and correlated to the military attacks and possibly to the input of toxic, carcinogen and teratogen (development interfering) agents delivered by weaponry in the environment and in the wounds of victims, and of their assumption by the inhabitants.”

She related, “We showed by analytical chemistry methods that in Gaza teratogen and carcinogen metals are found in wounds, in craters since 2006 attacks and in White Phosphorus ammunitions in 2009 and children hair one year after the 2008/09 attacks.”

She said, “Our study of birth defects in 0 to 2 year old children registered in 5 paediatric hospitals in Gaza Strip showed that there is a 1.8 fold higher frequency of birth defects in the first 6 months of year 2010, compared to the same period in 2006.”

She testified that there was an increase in birth defects in Gaza starting in 2005-06. “It is our view that such sudden increases in birth defects are usually associated to significant and sudden environmental changes.”

She confirmed that the start of the increases is correlated in their timing to the military attacks, after the Israeli armed forces left Gaza, and the first news from medical personnel on “unprecedented” wounds, meaning new kinds of wounds from weapons.

She said, “We found that 66% of Gaza parents with a birth defect child were exposed to bombing or /and White Phosphorus shelling during Operation Cast Lead in 2008/09.”

She continued, “Couples with birth defect children reported exposure to White Phosphorus 15 fold more often than couples with normal child.”

She added, “Our studies have presented proof of a rise in birth defects in Gaza, increasing after the attacks in 2006 and continuing increase up to 2011. It showed correlation of birth defect occurrence with exposure to White Phosphorus shelling. In also showed contamination of the soil by teratogen and carcinogen metals. It showed accumulation of these teratogen and carcinogen metals in children’ hair. She also presented proof that teratogen and carcinogen metals are delivered by weapons into the flesh of victims.”

She concluded that there is long-term effect on reproductive health associated to metal contamination by exposure to weaponry during war and by war remnants.

1 KDN Semarak Kedamaian

Please come and give, what ever you can, no matter how small. The lives of Gazans and Palestinians, under siege and harms way, is at terrible odds.

Pillars of Hypocrite Murderers

The unlawful state of Israel is the modern world’s worst tragedy against humanity. Renown British journo Robert Fisk, who was the first Westerner to tell the tale of the ‘Massacre at Sabra and Chatila’ refugee camps on 17 September 1982, came up with his most recent analysis of the Zionist Israelis’ murderous nature.

Robert Fisk: ‘Opening the gates of hell’ and 40 years of other Middle East cliches

Multimedia

VIDEO

Gaza escalation “pointless” – Alexander

The shadow foreign secretary said the dangers of the Gaza conflict were exacerbated by the “fragile and febrile” situation in the wider Middle East, particularly amid ongoing fighting in Syria.

Destruction in Gaza after Israeli airstrikes

The Gaza Interior Ministry said targets included buildings linked to top Hamas officials, supply tunnels in the town of Rafah, which borders Egypt, a three-storey apartment building and the massive police compound in Gaza.

• Related Articles

• Pressure on Israel to hold truce talks as civilian death toll rises
• Gaza family wiped out by bomb as Israel plans invasion

Also in Comment

• James Dempsey: Once bitten, twice shy – Why I’m happy to see the back of Twilight
• Kim Bielenberg: Belfast has the Titanic Experience for tourists – Dublin should have a Troika Trail
• Dudley Althaus: Guns, girls and yoga the life for tech guru John McAfee accused of murder in tropical paradise
• Kate Rowan: Irish rugby going through upheavals worthy of Downton Abbey
• Martina Devlin: Trappings of civilisation can’t cloak our medieval practices

Comment Home

Expatriate Savings Advice

€30k-€1m Or €300+ Regular Savings? Find The Best Interest Rates Today!

www.OffshoreSavingsDesigner.com

Public security

Capgemini Consulting delivers the best border management solutions

www.capgemini-consulting.com

Turning point to new life

Pakistani troops start man on path to improve his outlook on life

www.apdforum.com

Ads by Google

Monday November 19 2012

39 Comments

Terror, terror, terror, terror, terror. Here we go again. Israel is going to “root out Palestinian terror” – which it has been claiming to do, unsuccessfully, for 64 years – while Hamas announces that Israel has “opened the gates of hell” by murdering its military leader, Ahmed al-Jabari.

Hezbollah announced several times that Israel had “opened the gates of hell” for attacking Lebanon. Yasser Arafat too waffled on about the “gates of hell”.

And we journos are repeating all the cliches we’ve used for the past 40 years.

The killing of Mr Jabari was a “targeted attack” – like the Israeli “surgical air strikes”, which killed almost 17,000 civilians in Lebanon in 1982, the 1,200 Lebanese, most of them civilians, in 2006, and the 11 civilians killed in one Gaza house yesterday.

At least Hamas, with their Godzilla rockets, don’t claim anything “surgical” about them. They are meant to murder Israelis – any Israeli, man, woman or child.

As, in truth, are the Israeli attacks on Gaza. But don’t say that or you’ll be an anti-Semitic Nazi.

The new exchange rate in Gaza for Palestinian and Israeli deaths has reached 16:1. It will rise, of course. The exchange rate in 2008-9 was 100:1.

Washington supports Israel’s “right to defend itself”, then claims a spurious neutrality – as if Israel’s bombs didn’t come from the US as assuredly as the Fajr-5 rockets come from Iran.

Meanwhile, the pitiful British foreign secretary William Hague holds Hamas “principally responsible” for the latest war.

But there is no such evidence. According to ‘The Atlantic Monthly’, the Israeli killing of a “mentally unfit” Palestinian who strayed towards the border may have been the start of the latest war.

But is there nothing to stop this nonsense, this garbage war? Hundreds of rockets fall on Israel. True. Thousands of acres of land are stolen from Arabs by Israel – for Jews and Jews only – on the West Bank. But we’re encouraged to ignore that.

There are, we are told, only good guys and bad guys in this outrageous conflict in which the Israelis claim to be the good guys to the applause of Western countries (who then wonder why a lot of Muslims don’t like Westerners very much).

The problem, oddly, is that Israel’s actions are bringing closer the very event which Israeli fears every day: Israel’s destruction.

In the battle of rockets, a new warpath is being trodden by both sides.

It’s no longer about Israeli tanks crossing the Lebanese border or the Gaza border. It’s about rockets and hi-tech drones and computer attacks.

And if Benjamin Netanyahu believes that the arrival of the first Iranian Fajr rockets necessitates the Israeli big bang on Iran, and then Iran fires back – and perhaps at the Americans, too – and brings in Hezbollah – and Obama gets swallowed up in another Western-Muslim war, what happens then?

Well, Israel will plead yet again for the undying support of the West in its struggle against world evil, Iran included.

And why not praise the killing of Mr Jabari? Please forget that the Israelis negotiated via the German secret service with Mr Jabari himself, less than 12 months ago. You can’t negotiate with “terrorists”, right?

Israel calls this latest bloodbath Operation Pillar of Defence. Pillar of Hypocrisy, more like.

******************

Stratfor.com gave an account of the regional power play, United States influence and the Zionist Israelis’ murderous operations since this same time four years ago, when the Americans were deciding who would become President and continued to present day:

Israel and Gaza: Then and Now

November 19, 2012 | 1400 GMT

OLIVIER LABAN-MATTEI/AFP/Getty Images

Palestinian supporters of Hamas wave the movement’s flags as they demonstrate on the rubble of a house in Gaza City on Jan. 30, 2009

Four years ago on Nov. 4, while Americans were going to the polls to elect a new president, Israeli infantry, tanks and bulldozers entered the Gaza Strip to dismantle an extensive tunnel network used by Hamas to smuggle in weapons. An already tenuous truce mediated by the Egyptian government of Hosni Mubarak had been broken. Hamas responded with a barrage of mortar and rocket fire lasting several weeks, and on Dec. 27, 2008, Israel began Operation Cast Lead. The military campaign began with seven days of heavy air strikes on Gaza, followed by a 15-day ground incursion. By the end of the campaign, nearly 1,000 poorly guided shorter-range rockets and mortar shells hit southern Israel, reaching as far as Beersheba and Yavne. Several senior Hamas commanders and hundreds of militants were killed in the fighting. Israel Defense Forces figures showed that 10 IDF soldiers died (four from friendly fire), three Israeli civilians died from Palestinian rocket fire and 1,166 Palestinians were killed — 709 of them combatants.

The strategic environment during the 2008-2009 Operation Cast Lead was vastly different from the one Israel faces in today’s Operation Pillar of Defense. To understand the evolution in regional dynamics, we must return to 2006, the year that would set the conditions for both military campaigns.

Setting the Stage

2006 began with Hamas winning a sweeping electoral victory over its ideological rival, Fatah. Representing the secular and more pragmatic strand of Palestinian politics, Fatah had already been languishing in Gaza under the weight of its own corruption and its lackluster performance in seemingly fruitless negotiations with Israel. The political rise of Hamas led to months of civil war between the two Palestinian factions, and on June 14, Hamas forcibly took control of the Gaza Strip from Fatah. Just 11 days later, Hamas kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalt and killed two others, prompting a new round of hostilities with Israel.

In what appeared to be a coordinated move, Hezbollah on July 12 launched its own raid on Israel’s northern front and kidnapped two additional soldiers, kicking off the month-long Second Lebanon War. As Israel discovered, Hezbollah was well-prepared for the conflict, relying on an extensive tunneling system to preserve its launching crews and weaponry. Hezbollah made use of anti-tank guided missiles, improvised explosive devices that caught Israel Defense Forces by surprise and blunted the ground offensive, and medium-range rockets capable of reaching Haifa. Hezbollah incurred a heavy toll for the fight, with much of the infrastructure in southern Lebanon devastated and roughly 1,300 Lebanese civilian casualties threatening to erode its popular support. Casualty numbers aside, Hezbollah emerged from the 2006 conflict with a symbolic victory. Since 1973, no other Arab army, much less a militant organization, had been able to fight as effectively to challenge Israel’s military superiority. Israel’s inability to claim victory translated as a Hezbollah victory. That perception reverberated throughout the region. It cast doubts on Israel’s ability to respond to much bigger strategic threats, considering it could be so confounded by a non-state militant actor close to home.

At that time, Hamas was contending with numerous challenges; its coup in Gaza had earned the group severe political and economic isolation, and the group’s appeals to open Gaza’s border, and for neighbors to recognize Hamas as a legitimate political actor, went mostly unheeded. However, Hamas did take careful note of Hezbollah’s example. Here was a militant organization that had burnished its resistance credentials against Israel, could maintain strong popular support among its constituents and had made its way into Lebanon’s political mainstream.

Visit our Israel page for related analysis, videos, situation reports and maps.

Hezbollah benefited from a strong patron in Iran. Hamas, on the other hand, enjoyed no such support. Mubarak’s Egypt, Bashar al Assad’s Syria, Jordan under the Hashemites and the Gulf monarchies under the influence of the House of Saud all shared a deep interest in keeping Hamas boxed in. Although publically these countries showed support for the Palestinians and condemned Israel, they tended to view Palestinian refugees and more radical groups such as Hamas as a threat to the stability of their regimes.

While Hamas began questioning the benefits of its political experiment, Iran saw an opportunity to foster a militant proxy. Tehran saw an increasingly strained relationship between Saudi Arabia and Hamas, and it took advantage to increase funding and weapons supplies to the group. Forces from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, along with Hezbollah, worked with Hamas to expand the group’s weapons arsenal and build elaborate tunnels under the Gaza Strip to facilitate its operations. Israel soon began to notice and took action toward the end of 2008.

Operation Cast Lead

Hamas was operating in a difficult strategic environment during Operation Cast Lead. Hezbollah had the benefit of using the rural terrain south of the Litani River to launch rockets against Israel during the Second Lebanon War, thereby sparing Lebanon’s most densely populated cities from retaliatory attacks. Hamas, on the other hand, must work in a tightly constricted geographic space and therefore uses the Palestinian population as cover for its rocket launches. The threat of losing popular support is therefore much higher for Hamas in Gaza than it is for Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. At the same time, operating in a built-up urban environment also poses a considerable challenge for the Israeli military.

During Operation Cast Lead, Cairo did little to hide its true feelings toward Hamas. Though Egypt played a critical role in the cease-fire negotiations, it was prepared to incur the domestic political cost of cracking down on the Rafah border crossing to prevent refugees from flowing into Sinai and to prevent Hamas from replenishing its weapons supply. The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, then in the opposition, took advantage of the situation to publicly rally against the Mubarak regime, but its protests did little to change the situation. Hamas was boxed in by Egypt and Israel.

The rest of the region largely avoided direct involvement. Turkey was focused on internal affairs, and Saudi Arabia remained largely aloof. Jordan’s Hashemite rulers could afford to continue quietly cooperating with Israel without facing backlash. The United States, emerging from an election, was focused on shaping an exit strategy from Iraq. Many of Hamas’ traditional wealthy Gulf donors grew wary of attracting the focus of Western security and intelligence agencies as fund transfers from the Gulf came under closer scrutiny.

Iran was the exception. While the Arab regimes ostracized Hamas, Iran worked to sustain the group in its fight. Tehran’s reasoning was clear and related to Iran’s emergence as a regional power. Iraq had already fallen into Iran’s sphere of influence (though the United States was not yet prepared to admit it), Hezbollah was rebuilding in southern Lebanon, and Iranian influence continued to spread in western Afghanistan. Building up a stronger militant proxy network in the Palestinian territories was the logical next step in Tehran’s effort to keep a check on Israeli threats to strike the Iranian nuclear program.

In early January 2009, in the midst of Operation Cast Lead, Israel learned that Iran was allegedly planning to deliver 120 tons of arms and explosives to Gaza, including anti-tank guided missiles and Iranian-made Fajr-3 rockets with a 40-kilometer (25-mile) range and 45-kilogram (99-pound) warhead. The Iranian shipment arrived at Port Sudan, and the Israeli air force then bombed a large convoy of 23 trucks traveling across Egypt’s southern border up into Sinai. Though Israel interdicted this weapons shipment — likely with Egyptian complicity — Iran did not give up its attempts to supply Hamas with advanced weaponry. The long-range Fajr rocket attacks targeting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in the current conflict are a testament to Iran’s continued effort.

The Current Geopolitical Environment

Hamas and Israel now find themselves in a greatly altered geopolitical climate. On every one of its borders, Israel faces a growing set of vulnerabilities that would have been hard to envision at the time of Operation Cast Lead.

The most important shift has taken place in Egypt, where the Muslim Brotherhood carefully used the momentum provided by the Arab Spring to shed its opposition status and take political control of the state. Hamas, which grew out of the Muslim Brotherhood, then faced an important decision. With an ideological ally in Cairo, Egypt no longer presents as high a hurdle to Hamas’ political ambitions. Indeed, Hamas could even try to use its ties to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood to achieve political legitimacy. When unrest spread into Syria and began to threaten Iran’s position in the Levant, Hamas made a strategic decision to move away from the Iran-Syria axis, now on the decline, and to latch itself onto the new apparent regional trend: the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamist affiliates across the Arab world.

This rise of the Muslim Brotherhood spread from Egypt to Syria to Jordan, presenting Israel with a new set of challenges on its borders. Egypt’s dire economic situation, the political unrest in its cities, and the Muslim Brotherhood’s uneasy relationship with the military and security apparatus led to a rapid deterioration in security in Sinai. Moreover, a Muslim Brotherhood government in Cairo on friendly terms with Hamas could not be trusted to crack down on the Gaza border and interdict major weapons shipments. A political machine such as the Muslim Brotherhood, which derives its power from the street, will be far more sensitive to pro-Palestinian sentiment than will a police state that can rule through intimidation.

In Syria, Israel has lost a predictable adversary to its north. The balkanization of the Levant is giving rise to an array of Islamist forces, and Israel can no longer rely on the regime in Damascus to keep Hezbollah in check for its own interests. In trying to sustain its position in Syria and Lebanon, Iran has increased the number of its operatives in the region, bringing Tehran that much closer to Israel as both continue to posture over a potential strike against Iranian nuclear facilities.

To Israel’s east, across the Jordan River valley, pressure is also growing on the Hashemite kingdom. An emboldened Muslim Brotherhood has been joined by disillusioned tribes from the East Bank in openly calling for the downfall of the king. High energy costs are severely blunting the kingdom’s ability to contain these protests through subsidies, and the growing crisis in Gaza threatens to spread instability in the West Bank and invigorate Palestinians across the river in Jordan.

Beyond its immediate periphery, Israel is struggling to find parties interested in its cause. The Europeans remain hostile to anything they deem to be excessive Israeli retaliation against the Palestinians. Furthermore, they are far too consumed by the fragmentation of the European Union to get involved with what is happening in the southern Levant.

The United States remains diplomatically involved in trying to reach a cease-fire, but as it has made clear throughout the Syrian crisis, Washington does not intend to get dragged into every conflagration in the Middle East. Instead, the United States is far more interested in having regional players like Egypt and Turkey manage the burden. The United States can pressure Egypt by threatening to withhold financial and military aid. In the case of Turkey, there appears to be little that Ankara can do to mediate the conflict. Turkish-Israeli relations have been severely strained since the 2010 Mavi Marmara incident. Moreover, although the Turkish government is trying to edge its way into the cease-fire negotiations to demonstrate its leadership prowess to the region, Ankara is as wary of appearing too close to a radical Islamist group like Hamas as it is of appearing in the Islamic world as too conciliatory to Israel.

Saudi Arabia was already uncomfortable with backing more radical Palestinian strands, but Riyadh now faces a more critical threat — the regional rise of the Muslim Brotherhood. Islamist political activism poses a direct threat to the foundation of the monarchy, which has steadfastly kept the religious establishment out of the political domain. Saudi Arabia has little interest in the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood encouraging Hamas’ political rise, and Riyadh will thus become even more alienated from the Palestinian theater. Meanwhile Gulf state Qatar, which has much less to lose, is proffering large amounts of financial aid in a bid to increase its influence in the Palestinian territories.

Iran, meanwhile, is working feverishly to stem the decline of its regional influence. At the time of Operation Cast Lead, Iran was steadily expanding its sphere of influence, from western Afghanistan to the Mediterranean. A subsequent U.S. military buildup in the Persian Gulf and an intensifying U.S.-led economic warfare campaign slowed Iran down, but it was the decline of the al Assad regime that put Iran on the defensive. An emboldened Sunni opposition in Syria, backed by the West, Turkey and the Arab Gulf states, could spill into Lebanon to threaten Hezbollah’s position and eventually threaten Iran’s position in Iraq. With each faction looking to protect itself, Iran can no longer rely as heavily on militant proxies in the Levant, especially Palestinian groups that see an alignment with Iran as a liability in the face of a Sunni rebellion. But Iran is also not without options in trying to maintain a Palestinian lever against Israel.

Hamas would not be able to strike Tel Aviv and Jerusalem with long-range rockets had it not been for Iran, which supplied these rockets through Sudan and trained Palestinian operatives on how to assemble them in Gaza. Even if Hamas uses up its arsenal of Fajr-5s in the current conflict and takes a heavy beating in the process, Iran has succeeded in creating a major regional distraction to tie down Israel and draw attention away from the Syrian rebellion. Iran supplied Hezbollah with Zelzal rockets capable of reaching Haifa during the 2006 Second Lebanon War. Hamas was limited to shorter-range Qassam and Grad rockets in Operation Cast Lead but now has Iranian-made Fajr-5s to target Israel’s most cherished cities.

Hamas is now carrying the mantle of resistance from Hezbollah in hopes of achieving a symbolic victory that does not end up devastating the group in Gaza. Israel’s only hope to deny Hamas that victory is to eliminate Hamas’ arsenal of these rockets, all the while knowing that Iran will likely continue to rely on Egypt’s leniency on the border to smuggle more parts and weaponry into Gaza in the future. The Hamas rocket dilemma is just one example of the types of problems Israel will face in the coming years. The more vulnerable Israel becomes, the more prone it will be to pre-emptive action against its neighbors as it tries to pick the time and place of battle. In this complex strategic environment, Operation Pillar of Defense may be one of many similar military campaigns as Israel struggles to adjust to this new geopolitical reality.

Comments? Send them to responses@stratfor.com

**************

The world should come to terms for the sake of humanity. The Zionist Israelis are the most brutal and bloodthirsty lot for the past 67 years and they have incorporated the most unlawful state in modern world history, based on murder, atrocity and pillage and plunder.

Stand up for Gazans and Palestinians in condemning the unjust war

In the urgency of recent developments in Gaza, Perdana Global Peace Foundation will be organizing an emergency event on Tuesday morning at Putra World Trade Centre. This emergency event would be held  just before the scheduled Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission on Palestine hearing would commence.

MALAYSIANS CONDEMN OF THE UNJUST WAR IN GAZA

 

 

Date    :           Tuesday, 20 November 2012

Time    :           8.00 am

Venue  :           Dewan Merdeka, PWTC KUALA LUMPUR

Program

8-9oo am  –           Convening of NGOs, members of the public and members of the media

9oo am     –           Arrival of Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad

9.05     –           Address by Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad

9.15     –           Launch of Gaza Emergency Fund by Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad

–                      Hand over of cheque to Medical Aid for Palestine

–                      Pledges of support from NGOs and Corporations

9.40     –           Ends.

Note   :                        All present are invited to proceed to Dewan Tun Dr. Ismail for the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission Hearing on Palestine at 10.00am.

We wish to call upon ALL MALAYSIANS to STAND UP  and BE COUNTED in THIS SUPPORT INITIATIVE.

This is the whole program schedule for the next four days:

We are pleased to inform you that Perdana Global Peace Foundation (PGPF) and its sisters Foundation,  Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Criminalise War (KLFCW)  will be organising a series of International Conference and Commission Hearing from 19 – 22 November as below :

1.  19 November 2012 – Monday (from 9am – 6pm)

     International Conference on “(9/11 Revisited – Seeking the Truth)”

     at Dewan Tun Dr Ismail, PWTC

     YABhg. Tun Dr. Mahathir’s keynote address will be at 9am

     Press Conference will be held at 6pm.

2.  20 – 21 November 2012 – Tuesday & Wednesday (from 9am – 6pm)

     Commission Hearing on Palestine

     at Dewan Tun Dr. Ismail, PWTC

     (we will bring in 10 witnesses from Palestine to give their testimonies on Israelis war crimes towards Palestinians)

3.  22 November 2012- Thursday (from 9am – 12 noon)

     International Conference on War Affected Children

     at Dewan Tun Dr. Ismail, PWTC

     YABhg. Tun Dr. Mahathir’s keynote address will be held at 9am

     Press Conference will be held at 12noon.

4.  22 November 2012 – Thursday (from 7.30pm – 10.30pm)

     Dinner to launch the Children’s Charter to Criminalise War

     Guest of Honour – YAB Prime Minister and wife and YABhg. Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and wife

     at Dewan Tun Dr. Ismail, PWTC where Children’s Charter to Criminalise War will be signed by 17 Children representing 17 countries from all around the world.

All queries maybe addressed to:

PERDANA GLOBAL PEACE FOUNDATION

No. 88, 5th Floor, Jalan Perdana,
Taman Tasek Perdana,
50480, Kuala Lumpur

e:admin@perdana4peace.org
t: +603 2092 7248 
f: +603 2273 2092

www.perdana4peace.org
Find us on Twitter @perdana4peace and Facebook

Opposition will make Rowan Atkinson their idol

Malaysian Opposition is expected to make prominent British comedian Rowan Atkinson, famed by comedy series such as ‘Not the 9 O’Clock News’, ‘Blackadder’, ‘Mr Bean’ and ‘The Thin Blue Line’ as their idol and icon. This is because Atkinson is championing the right to insult others.

Rowan Atkinson: we must be allowed to insult each other

Rowan Atkinson has launched a campaign for a change in the law that bans “insulting words and behaviour”.

Rowan Atkinson Photo: REX FEATURES

7:53AM BST 18 Oct 2012

The Blackadder and Mr Bean star attacked the “creeping culture of censoriousness” which has resulted in the arrest of a Christian preacher, a critic of Scientology and even a student making a joke, it was reported.

He criticised the “new intolerance” as he called for part of it the Public Order Act to be repealed, saying it was having a “chilling effect on free expression and free protest”.

Mr Atkinson said: “The clear problem of the outlawing of insult is that too many things can be interpreted as such. Criticism, ridicule, sarcasm, merely stating an alternative point of view to the orthodoxy, can be interpreted as insult.”

Police and prosecutors are accused of being over-zealous in their interpretation of Section 5 of the Act, which outlaws threatening, abusive and insulting words or behaviour, the Daily Mail reported.

What constitutes “insulting” is not clear. It has resulted in a string of controversial arrests.

RELATED ARTICLES

• Blackadder could have been Queen’s love child16 Oct 2012
• Rowan Atkinson’s brother criticises ‘Left-wing’ Olympics ceremony29 Jul 2012
• Elected police commissioners: a criminal waste18 Oct 2012
• Rowan Atkinson: clerics are ‘smug’25 Sep 2011

They include a 16-year-old boy being held for peacefully holding a placard reading “Scientology is a dangerous cult”, and gay rights campaigners from the group Outrage! detained when they protested against Islamic fundamentalist group Hizb ut-Tahrir over its stance on gays, Jews and women.

Mr Atkinson said he hoped the repeal of Section 5 would pave the way for a move to “rewind the culture of censoriousness” and take on the “outrage industry – self-appointed arbiters of the public good encouraging outrage to which the police feel under terrible pressure to react”.

Speaking at the Westminster launch of the campaign, he added: “The law should not be aiding and abetting the new intolerance.”

He was joined by Lord Dear, former chief constable of West Midlands Police, and former shadow home secretary David Davis.

Mr Davis said: “The simple truth is that in a free society, there is no right not to be offended. For centuries, freedom of speech has been a vital part of British life, and repealing this law will reinstate that right.”

The campaign has united an unlikely coalition of support including The Christian Institute and The National Secular Society as well as Big Brother Watch, The Freedom Association and The Peter Tatchell Foundation.

*****************

The Opposition should be supportive of Atkinson’s campaign and take the same campaign to Malaysian shores.

In their strategy of ‘Politics of Hatred’, they have constantly insulted the Police, including PAS Deputy President calling them as ‘British Lackey’. They also insulted the Bench, whenever  the judgment did not suit their agenda. Like in the case where Federal Court decided that HRH Paduka Seri Sultan Perak acted according to the Perak State Constitution when he dismissed the DAP-puppet Perak MB Nizar Jamaluddin in February 2009.

They constantly insulted Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Mohd. Najib Tun Razak so much so that even a student Adam Adli brought down a flag with the Prime Minister’s photo and a model stepped on a Prime Minister’s photo, on the eve of the 55th celebration of Merdeka.

They also insulted and degraded HRH Malay Rulers. The most recent is when sacked DAP-puppet MB Perak Nizar Jamaluddin insulted HRH Sultan of Johor for the latter’s tender for the plate number ‘WWW 1’ and before that, DAP Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng on the Johor issue.

Recently, Lembah Pantai MP dan PKR Vice President Nurul Izzah insulted the Federal Constitution when she questioned in a church do in Subang, why Malay-Muslims are not free to choose their own religion.

In his zest to express himself, Atkinson clearly insulted every authority or institution in a person’s life; a teacher, policeman, vicar, royalty and even God. Bad enough that Atkinson finds it sporting to attack the integrity of the values and value system of the society he belong. Now, he wants to formalise the right for all these insults.

How would these over-the-top insults of institutions that are supposed to be protected for the preservation of everything what the nation stood for, make the society better?

Hence, what Atkinson is fighting in the United Kingdom should be an inspiration if not the icon for the Malaysian Opposition. It is not surprised if they were to invite Atkinson to come to Malaysia and give a talk, about the ‘Freedom to insult everyone and anyone’.

Should we in Malaysia allow for the likes of Atkinsons-nisation or preserve status quo?

Why Netanyahu wanted the United States to bomb Iran

Israeli Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Nentanyahu wanted United States of America to attack and bomb Iran. The excuse was about Iran nearing complete their nuclear facility, that will enable development of nuclear weapons capability.

He went to the American voters, at the junction where they were voting for their President:

 And then the Zionist Butcher went to the United Nations General Assembly:

Guardian report two weeks ago:

US warns Israel off pre-emptive strike on Iran

Arab spring has left US-friendly rulers in region nervous about possible impact of an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear programme

•  

• 
• • Julian Borger Diplomatic Editor
  • guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 31 October 2012 18.44 GMT

General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US joint chiefs, meets Israel’s defence minister, Ehud Barak, in Tel Aviv. Photograph: Ariel Hermoni/EPA

US military commanders have warned their Israeli counterparts that any action against Iran would severely limit the ability of American forces in the region to mount their own operations against the Iranian nuclear programme by cutting off vital logistical support from Gulf Arab allies.

US naval, air and ground forces are dependent for bases, refuelling and supplies on Gulf Arab rulers who are deeply concerned about the progress Iran has made in its nuclear programme, but also about the rising challenge to their regimes posed by the Arab spring and the galvanising impact on popular unrest of an Israeli attack on Iran.

The US Fifth Fleet is headquartered in Bahrain and the US air force has major bases in Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Senior US officers believe the one case in which they could not rely fully on those bases for military operations against Iranian installations would be if Israel acted first.

“The Gulf states’ one great fear is Iran going nuclear. The other is a regional war that would destabilise them,” said a source in the region. “They might support a massive war against Iran, but they know they are not going to get that, and they know a limited strike is not worth it, as it will not destroy the programme and only make Iran angrier.”

Israeli leaders had hinted they might take military action to set back the Iranian programme, but that threat receded in September when the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, told the United Nations general assembly that Iran’s advances in uranium enrichment would only breach Israel’s “red line” in spring or summer next year.

Israel’s defence minister, Ehud Barak, said this week in London that it was the Iranian decision this year to convert a third of the country’s stock of 20%-enriched uranium into fuel (making it harder to convert to weapons-grade material if Iran decided to make a weapon) that had bought another “eight to 10 months”.

Barak’s comments appear to signal that Israel’s new red line is an Iranian stockpile of about 200kg of 20%-enriched uranium in convertible form, enough if enriched further to make one bomb. Western diplomats argue the benchmark is arbitrary, as it would take Iran another few months to enrich the stockpile to 90% (weapons-grade) purity, and then perhaps another year to develop a warhead small enough to put on a missile. Even then Tehran would have just one nuclear bomb, hardly enough to make it a nuclear weapons power.

France’s president, François Hollande, met Netanyahu in Paris on Wednesday but rejected the push for military action.

“It’s a threat that cannot be accepted by France,” Hollande said, arguing for further sanctions coupled with negotiations. A new round of international talks with Iran are due after the US presidential elections, in which Tehran is expected to be offered sanctions relief in return for an end to 20% enrichment.

Netanyahu argued sanctions had failed to stop Iran’s nuclear programme and claimed Arab nations would be “relieved” if Iran was stopped from building nuclear weaponsa bomb.

Emile Hokayem, a senior fellow of the International Institute for Strategic Studies office in Bahrain, disagreed, saying: “I don’t believe the Gulf states are praying for an Israeli attack.

“An attack would create difficult problems for them on the political level. They will be called on to denounce Israel, and they will want to stay out of it. The risk of regional war to them is huge,” he said, but added that if Iran responded to an Israeli attack by lashing out at the US and its Arab allies, those restraints on the Gulf states’ own response would be lifted.

The UK government has told the US that it cannot rely on the use of British bases in Ascension Island, Cyprus, and Diego Garcia for an assault on Iran as pre-emptive action would be illegal. The Arab spring has also complicated US contingency planning for any new conflict in the Gulf.

US naval commanders have watched with unease as the newly elected Egyptian president, Mohamed Morsi, has made overtures towards Iran. US ships make 200 transits a year through the Suez canal. Manama, the Fifth Fleet headquarters, is the capital of a country that is 70% Shia and currently in turmoil.

Ami Ayalon, a former chief of the Israeli navy and the country’s internal intelligence service, Shin Bet, argues Israel too cannot ignore the new Arab realities.

“We live in a new Middle East where the street has become stronger and the leaders are weaker,” Ayalon told the Guardian. “In order for Israel to face Iran we will have to form a coalition of relatively pragmatic regimes in the region, and the only way to create that coalition is to show progress on the Israel-Palestinian track.”

************

However, the bite to the Zionist Israelis is not in the future but already prevalent. And we are not talking about the bit about Israeli shelling across the border into Syria.

Uploaded from http://www.stratfor.com :

Iran’s Agenda in the Gaza Offensive

November 16, 2012 | 0034 GMT

Summary

EBRAHIM HAMID/AFP/Getty Images

Anti-Israel Sudanese demonstrators in Khartoum on Oct. 24

To begin to make sense of the escalating conflict in Gaza, we need to go back to the night of Oct. 23 in Khartoum. Around 11 p.m. that night, the Yarmouk weapons facility in the Sudanese capital was attacked, presumably by the Israeli air force. There were indications that Iran had been using this facility to stockpile and possibly assemble weapons, including anti-aircraft missiles, guided anti-tank missiles and long-range Fajr-5 rockets capable of reaching Tel Aviv and Jerusalem from Gaza.

One of the major drivers behind Israel’s latest air and assassination campaign is its belief that Hamas has a large cache of long-range Fajr-3 and Fajr-5 rockets in its possession. Israel’s primary intent in this military campaign is to deny Hamas the ability to use these rockets or keep them as a constant threat to Israel’s population centers. This likely explains why in early October, when short-range rocket attacks from Gaza were still at a low level, Israeli officials began conditioning the public to the idea of an “inevitable” Israeli intervention in Gaza. Israel knew Hamas had these weapons in its possession and that it could require a war to eliminate the Fajr rocket threat. It began with the strike on the facility in Sudan, extended to the assassination of Hamas military commander Ahmad Jabari (the architect of the Fajr rocket program) and now has the potential to develop into an Israeli ground incursion in Gaza.

Analysis

Oct. 23 was not the first time Israel allegedly attacked weapons caches in Sudanese territory that were destined for Gaza. In January 2009, Israel allegedly carried out an airstrike against a weapons convoy northwest of Port Sudan heading to Gaza. The convoy included Fajr-3 rockets and was unusually large, with more than 20 trucks traveling north toward Gaza. The rushed shipment was allegedly arranged by Iran to reinforce Hamas during Operation Cast Lead. Iran was also exposed trying to smuggle weapons to Gaza through the Red Sea.

Visit our Israel page for related analysis, videos, situation reports and maps.

Though efforts were likely made to conceal the weapons cache at Yarmouk, it obviously did not escape Israeli detection. Hamas therefore took a major risk in smuggling the weapons to Gaza in the first place, perhaps thinking they could get away with it since they have been able to with less sophisticated weapons systems. Before Hamas responded to the Nov. 14 Jabari assassination, there were two major spates of rocket and mortar attacks over the past month. The first was Oct. 8-10 and the second was Oct. 22-24. When the decision was made to carry out these attacks, Hamas may not have known that Israel had detected the long-range Fajrs. Launching Grad and Qassam mortars may have been Hamas’ attempt at misleading Israel into thinking that Hamas did not even have the Fajr rockets, because otherwise it would have used them. Hamas may have also erroneously assumed that launching mortars and short-range rockets, as it periodically does when the situation gets tense with Israel, would not lead to a major Israeli response.

By the time Israel attacked the Yarmouk facility, Hamas had to assume that Israel knew of the weapons transfer to Gaza. Hamas then quickly agreed to an Egyptian-mediated ceasefire Oct. 25. When attacks against Israel began picking up again around Nov. 10 — including an anti-tank attack on an Israeli military jeep claimed by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and several dozen more rocket attacks claimed by Palestinian Islamic Jihad and smaller Salafist-jihadist groups — Hamas appeared more cautious, calling the main Gaza militant groups together on Nov. 12 to seek out another truce. By then, it was too late. They had already inadvertently provided the Israelis with the justification they needed to get public relations cover for their campaign to destroy Hamas’ long-range rocket program.

On Nov. 14, Jabari was assassinated, and Hamas had to work under the assumption that Israel would do whatever it took to launch a comprehensive military campaign to eliminate the Fajr threat. It is at this point that Hamas likely resigned to a “use it or lose it” strategy and launched Fajr rockets toward Tel Aviv, knowing that they would be targeted anyway and potentially using the threat as leverage in an eventual attempt at another truce with Israel. A strong Hamas response would also boost Hamas’ credibility among Palestinians. Hamas essentially tried to make the most out of an already difficult situation and will now likely work through Egypt to try to reach a truce to avoid an Israeli ground campaign in Gaza that could further undermine its authority in the territory.

In Tehran, Iranian officials are likely quite content with these developments. Iran needed a distraction from the conflict in Syria. It now has that, at least temporarily. Iran also needed to revise its relationship with Hamas and demonstrate that it retains leverage through militant groups in the Palestinian territories as part of its deterrence strategy against a potential strike on its nuclear program. Hamas decided in the past year that it was better off aligning itself with its ascendant parent organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, than remaining tethered to an ideological rival like Iran that was being put on the defensive in the region. Iran could still capture Hamas’ attention through weapons sales, however, and may have even expected that Israel would detect the Fajr shipments.

Visit our Iran page for related analysis, videos, situation reports and maps.

The result is an Israeli military campaign in Gaza that places Hamas’ credibility in question and could create more space for a group like the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which has close ties to Iran. The conflict will also likely create tension in Hamas’ relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Jordan and Syria, since the Brotherhood, particularly in Egypt, is not prepared or willing to confront Israel beyond rhetoric and does not want to face the public backlash for not doing enough to defend the Palestinians from Israel Defense Forces. All in all, this may turn out to be a relatively low-cost, high payoff maneuver by Iran.

**************

At this moment, Iran is one the Palestinians’ last hope for their survival. They are doing what many other neighbouring Muslim nations failed to do.

Nentanyahu call the democratically elected Iran leadership as ‘Brutal Regime’. How are the Israelis acting these past few days and the past 67 years, since the days of Haganah? Weren’t they brutalizing and committing atrocities against the Palestinians, and criminally taking away lands and properties that belong to other people in the quest for  an illegal statehood?

The Hijrah Man

The Syed Mokhar success story; now available in all MPH stores

When his name is mentioned, the quick response would be “One of the richest Malaysian, if not the richest Malay”. Known for a corporate man. A courageous businessman. Some other would acknowledge the fact that he is great philanthropist.

Regardless, he did so many things that changed the lives of many others. His discipline, focus and steadfastness has many times proven his visions, gambits and decisions right. He ventured into turfs and waters previously unthinkable to be challenged. He re-wrote the strategy and tactics of the game.

Yes, it is Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al Bukhary.

His humble beginnings and hardship taught him the resilience, discipline and values such as his tight-knit family, being a Muslim and a Kedahan. These are the key to his success story. He was prudent with his management, careful with his spending, capitalized on opportunities, innovative with his business strategy and bold with business decisions. As a Malay businessman, ventured into traditional turfs controlled by Non Malays. In fact, he ‘Baba-Ali’ed these business turfs’ ‘rules of engagement’.

Syed Mokhtar made strategic partnerships. He insists to be actively involved and participative in all his partnerships. Any proceeds derived from his business ventures either saved or re-invested into the business.

Two great Kedahans

He started as a cattle trader. Then he started to supply meat. That grew into rice trading. From that, he went into partnerships with Chinese businessmen for rice milling. All these opened opportunities for his own transportation. When the logistics networked expanded, he capitalized the value chain for corresponding businesses.

The New Economic Policy (NEP) was launched 1971, at the times where Syed Mokhtar had just got his business incorporated into a formal structure. As a Bumiputera businessman, he was awarded contracts. These contracts were expanded and the operations grew that warrant for him to acquire more businesses. As the business obtained economies of scale, he capitalized these production capabilities and capacities for Non Governmental businesses, which also include outside the country.

Excerpts from the book ‘Syed Mokhtar Al Bukhary: A Biography’:

“Events then took a sudden turn when my Chinese partner declared we needed to increase the paid up capital to RM 400,000.00. He had the funds. I did not. If I did not make up the difference, my shares would be diluted, and he would become the major shareholder instead. I refused to let this happen”.

“I turned to my parents for help. They had two plots of land that were mortgaged to secure a loan from the United Malayan Banking Corporation. I was thus able to raise the necessary funds to retain my controlling stake in Bukhary Sdn. Bhd. In the Memorandum of Association that was later drawn up for Bukhary Sdn. Bhd., I instructed the lawyer to include an additional clause, which stated that the Bumiputera stake in the company should not be diluted under any circumstances”.

Yayasan Al Bukhary

That was in the mid 70s. He made sure his businesses grew and capitalized the opportunities created from activities, that were generated from socio-economic programs to generate growth.

“As a trader, it is important not to just be a delivery boy. The Government made this clear, especially when awarding contracts to Bumiputeras. The contracts required us to pack our products and encouraged us to become involved in manufacturing. I took the cue, and started to set up factories”.

His initial contract from MINDEF to supply uniforms to the Malaysian Armed Forces was expanded into manufacturing. Then he secured deals to supply to American brands such as JC Penney and K-Mart. As this business expand along with his rice trading, milling and wholesale, Syed Mokhtar dwelt into logistics operations. By 1982, Bukhary Shipping Sdn. Bhd. was formed and started operations to utilize Kontena Nasional’s business.

Less than 3 years later, this company bought their first vessel.

Islamic Arts Museum

Within the same time as all these business were being developed and expanding, Syed Mokhtar also got into construction and property development. He was probably one of the earliest Malay property developer in Kedah.

It was without doubt that Syed Mokhtar was one of the most active Bumiputera entrepreneurs in the 80s. This opened more opportunities for him as there were so few Malay businessmen with the necessary capital, experience and business network. Hence, he started to embark on bigger projects awarded by the Federal Government.

The boom on early 1990s opened up opportunities for a Malay businessman who already has made a bit of money. It was the era of IPOs and Syed Mokhtar started his shopping spree as the ‘market is open for business’. He started to socialize and entertain Chinese business owners, winning them over with his business acumen.They were men who wanted to list their companies.

“They found in him a serious investor, who refused to be involved in ‘Ali-Baba’ deals.  He earned their respect, and was recognized as a respectable Bumiputera partner” says Peter Chong, Syed Mokhtar’s accountant and close business confidante “Syed Mokhtar does not sell his shares after listing. In fact, when he buys into a company, it is to add value to the shares. He does not buy and sell shares”.

DRB-Hicom automotive and defense industry complex near Pekan, Pahang

Says Syed Mokhtar,

“I enjoyed this phase of corporate acquisition that occurred between 1990 and 1997. No one knew me, and no one detected main the market. I borrowed from Singapore banks, and my moves remained secret. They were so quiet that even my wife did not know what I was up to”.

By 1995, he was a shareholder in 15 PLCs. They include Elba, Amtek, BCB, Binapuri, Eden. IJM, Latitude Tree, Oriental Garments, Padini, Pilecon, TGL and The Star. It was a mixed portfolio, from garments to food, manufacturing and construction. He was also actively involved in logistics. Even though he was a major player, he remained elusive from public knowledge and media coverage.

Naturally, with these track records and holdings, Syed Mokhtar qualified for privatization programs. In 1995, he won the privatisation of  Kejora’s commercial arm because of better proposal and price, against more notable plantation groups such as IOI and KL Kepong. The company was restructured and listed as Johor Tenggara Oil Plantations at then KLSE. Today, it has been restructured as Tradewinds Bhd.

“In the 1990s, people did not know who I was, what I did, how much I had. The privatization awards were federal projects that were evaluated by the Economic Planning Unit in Kuala Lumpur. I participated in the bids because I am a well-established businessman with a strong credit rating. Nothing was given to me on a silver plate. All my money came from handwork and sweat”.

Port of Tanjung Pelepas

He also privatized Johor Port. Then, he embarked into the most ambitious project at the time, which is the Port of Tanjung Pelepas. He wanted to take on the Port of Singapore. When he presented his ambitious plans to then Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad on his encounter with the Father of Modernisation and Industrialisation for the first time on 16 January 1997, this was the latter’s remarks:

“I remembered him showing me his plans for the Port of Tanjung Pelepas. I admit I found it grand and thought he would not succeed”.

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad also said,

“Syed Mokhtar distinguishes himself from other Malay and Malaysian businessmen because he is a man with great ambition. He is a cattle and rice trader, and there are very few Malays in this business. It is also not common for people with this background to aspire for big projects such as container port”.

Today after 13 years of operations, PTP is handling one third of TEUs that is passing through Port of Singapore. He has proven his worthiness to be a captain-of-the-industry. The man who saw the opportunity to start a lorry transportation company forty years ago, now has his own shipping company and  two respectable ports in the region.

He also took challenges laid to him by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. He developed the Islamic Arts Museum, next to National Mosque. And it was done in record breaking speed. He also developed Kompleks Ilmu Sharifah Rokiah in Alor Setar.

Wawasan Open University, Penang. The blue building is also known as Al Bukhary Building, for the RM 25 million contribution to the tertiary institution

Syed Mokhtar was asked to take over certain companies which is necessary to be rescued, for the strategic importance. In 2001, PERNAS was acquired. He paid much more than it was worth. PERNAS was turned around. The same happened for DRB-Hicom. Before that was Malaysian Mining Corporation. When he wanted to inject Johor Port into MMC, against the advise of a financial consultant who suggested that that he could make a lot of money by keeping it private and farming it out.

“Syed Mokhtar flatly refused. His aim was to raise the value of MMC. If he was selfish, he would have kept Johor Port for himself. Instead, he chose to forgo personal profit for the benefit of his new acquisition. It maybe a related party transaction but there was also a personal sacrifice”.

All these acquisitions were generated from his own funds and borrowings raised. He turned around all these PLCs and now, clearly transformed them into bigger operations and value. In the acquisition of PERNAS, he even put in his own personal money. The investment community was dumbstruck, Syed Mokhtar says,

“It was a difficult deal and people say I was mad. It was technically bankrupt, with RM 2.6 billion of liabilities. I paid RM 500 million for a company that was worth RM 120 million on Bursa Malaysia. Although it was listed as Pernas International Hotel and Properties (PIHP), I saw it as more than just hotels. It also had plantations. There was potential for synergy with my other companies”.

The crown jewel in PIHP (now Tradewinds), Mutiara Crowne Plaza Kuala Lumpur in Jalan Sultan Ismail (formerly known as Kuala Lumpur Hilton)

“I spent RM 1.4 billion cash and assets to stabiles the group. The acquisition cost was RM 500 million, and I injected assets worth RM 700 million, and personal cash of RM 200 million”.

When Syed Mokhtar acquired MMC, it was valued at RM 1.5 billion. After the transformation, which include injections of businesses, MMC rose to a value of RM 8 billion.

The more recent acquisition is Proton. The Federal Government is putting a lot of confidence on him to deliver. His track record of turning around DRB-Hicom and enhanced its operations and value, especially in the automotive and defense industry is the strong testimony to pick up where Khazanah failed to do.

The name Syed Mokhtar is also synonymous to someone who has done a lot of charity. He built mosques. He gave money to the poor, orphans and under privileged. He gave money to schools and education establishments. He top-up savings of poor and old folks who desire to perform Hajj for the first time. He incorporated an international university in Alor Setar. He gave sponsorship not only to Malaysians, but Muslims from other nations.

Al Bukhary Mosque, part of the Kompleks Ilmu Sharifah Rokiah

Today, the Al Bukhary Group embarked into partnerships and business ventures with corporations from Saudi Arabia and gulf states, especially United Arab Emirates. His UAE partner Chairman of Emaar Group Mohamed Ali Alabbar described him as:

“The only Malaysian businessman who is actively engaging with the Arab world on either business or humanitarian projects through his involvement with me. He also known as one of the businessmen to have contributed to the Malaysian economy, which is highly regarded in the Arab world”.

Syed Mokhtar witnessing signing for an agreement to develop a smelting project in Jazan Economic City, 2007

Governor and Chairman of  Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority Amr Al-Dabbagh who appointed Al Bukhary Group as a joint master developer of the USD 30 billion Jazan Economic City, had this to say about Syed Mokhtar,

“My first and lasting impression of Syed Mokhtar was formed during a presentation he gave when we visited him and his management team at Port of Tanjung Pelepas, in south western Johor. After several of his top management team had walked us through presentations of some of the MMC subsidiary companies, Syed Mokhtar gave a presentation of his humanitarian activities, which at that time were many and very impressive. We had already done our due diligence on MMC as a possible joint venture master developer for Jazan Economic City, but it was that point I felt Syed Mokhtar would be able to bring the kind of leadership we needed into our project. In addition to creating a viable product, we also wanted a team that could take a long term, humanitarian view in contributing to both the Saudi economy and society”.

Syed Mokhtar Al Bukhary is someone who has brought a lot of transformation, ranging from the development of the people, landscape of business and Islam. So many people benefitted from his continuous generosity. 110,000 people are employed directly under his group and another 250,000 indirectly. He is the ‘soap-box’ who has made someone from the Malaysian business community at par with world class businessmen of other races.

He is the ‘Hijrah Man’.

The philanthropic Billionaire and the Prime Minister with a Transformation Agenda

Selamat menyambut Awal Muharam 1424H.

*The Syed Mokhtar Al Bukhary Biography is available at MPH stores nationwide