2479) MALAY MAIL -07/02/2015 - Misperception — Lim Sue Goan

FEBRUARY 7 — The boycott call by agriculture and agro-based industry minister Ismail Sabri, along with the response of Umno grassroots and Malay NGOs, show their misperception of the Chinese community in this country,

This misperception could be traced back to 2013 general elections, when the prime minister described the outcome as a “Chinese tsunami.” Given their population ratio, there is no way for Chinese Malaysians to stage a remarkable tsunami. Unfortunately this misperception has since been deeply planted in the heads of many Umno members and their supporters.

That also explains why there have been statements and actions targeted specifically at Chinese Malaysians since then. On May 29, 2013, the Muslim Consumer Association of Malaysia (PPIM) called for boycott of products of eight Chinese traders while warning Chinese businesses not to support Pakatan’s illegal rallies and street protests.

We can see the same kind of attitude from the agriculture minister’s statement.

There are three reasons why they have thought this way:

First of all, they think majority of Chinese voters support Pakatan Rakyat and have “betrayed” BN or Umno.

To them, democratic choices and rights are non-existent. They equate Chinese businesses to the general Chinese population, and these traders are seen as the ones financially assisting Pakatan.

Secondly, they think there are ill political motives behind their refusal to lower goods prices in hope of causing public dissatisfaction towards the BN government in justifying Pakatan’s ridicule of BN as Barang Naik.

Ismail’s second FB post said the refusal to lower goods prices despite falling oil prices was a destructive behavior aimed at inciting public wrath towards the government. During an interview with TV1, he reiterated this viewpoint, questioning the hidden agenda behind the traders’ move.

Thirdly, they feel that the status of Malays has been threatened and the community under oppression.

The agriculture minister’s FB post did make mention of this, and the same concern was raised by PAS president Hadi Awang when commenting on local council elections.

Such an attitude is nevertheless extremely naive. Businessmen regardless of race have one objective in common, that is to make as much money as possible. This explains why they have tried to distance themselves from politics lest it would affect their businesses. There must be reasons why a businessman has to openly declare his political stand. The ruling coalition should look into this instead of hitting out specifically at certain businesses.

This kind of thinking is gradually developing into the mainstream thought, so we see 92 Umno divisions standing up to rally behind Ismail Sabri, while the PM has attempted to ‘tame down” the whole thing.

And since Umno has been dominated by this kind of attitude, its supreme leader finds it hard to reproach and rectify. We expect similar conflicts will rise over the next three years until the next general elections.

This attitude also gives our ministers good reasons to be indolent. If they don’t have any idea to resolve a problem, the easiest way is to find some scapegoats. This will only bring long-term damages to the nation.

The first to suffer will be interracial relationship. Malaysians from different ethnic backgrounds become skeptical towards one another.

Businesses and investment environment will also be hurt thanks to deliberate calls of boycott by politicos. They can boycott McDonald’s on one day, and businesses supporting Pakatan on the other day.

Too much politicking and too little real effort to get our jobs done will only create more troubles for this country.

The agriculture minister should focus on addressing the issues of over 6,000 tons of rotten rice, corrupt practices and self sufficiency in food production. If we all do our parts properly, our economy will only get better and our incomes will far outpace the rise in goods prices.

At a time when the country is facing the tough challenges from slumping oil prices, fast depreciating ringgit and the upcoming GST, all we should do is to put our economy on the right track and not create more havoc. — MySinchew.com

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online. 

Credit : http://www.themalaymailonline.com/what-you-think/article/misperception

2295) THE MALAY MAIL - 27/12/2014 - In 2014, Muslim Hardliners Crawl Out Of The Woodwork

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 27 ― Ever did a double take for fear of offending some Muslims? You are not alone.

If the conversation post-GE12 was dominated by Malay rights groups, things went further after the 2013 polls as hardline Islamic groups quickly gained an audience.

Under the guise of defending the sanctity of Islam and its adherents, groups such as Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) and Muslim Consumers’ Association of Malaysia (PPIM) found themselves offended by even the slightest issues: from innocuous Happy Meals to an annual beer festival which they were not even invited to.

While the groups frequently trained their guns at non-Muslims for allegedly challenging the so-called special position of Islam in the country, fellow Muslims also did not escape their attacks, especially those who do not conform to their brand of religion or those who had the gall to love dogs.

Adding to their prominence was the relative absence of alternative views within the Muslim community itself, in addition to the silence from Putrajaya and ruling coalition Barisan Nasional against the increasingly fiery and controversial rhetorics.

Pakatan Rakyat did not fare much better too, as the hardline faction in its component party PAS continued to adopt the same stance as the Islamic groups to further its Islamist agenda.

Here is a selection of things that Muslim hardliners got mad about in 2014:

What will make them angry in 2015? One can only hope that the list would not be as long.

Credit : http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/in-2014-muslim-hardliners-crawl-out-of-the-woodwork

2294) THE MALAY MAIL - 27/12/2014 - #5: The Rise of Muslim Groups

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 27 -- Ever did a double take for fear of offending some Muslims? You are not alone.

If the conversation post-GE12 was dominated by Malay rights groups, things went further after the 2013 polls as hardline Islamic groups quickly gained an audience.

Under the guise of defending the sanctity of Islam and its adherents, groups such as Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) and Muslim Consumers’ Association of Malaysia (PPIM) found themselves offended by even the slightest issues: from innocuous Happy Meals to an annual beer festival which they were not even invited to.

While the groups frequently trained their guns at non-Muslims for allegedly challenging the so-called special position of Islam in the country, fellow Muslims also did not escape their attacks, especially those who do not conform to their brand of religion or those who had the gall to love dogs.

Adding to their prominence was the relative absence of alternative views within the Muslim community itself, in addition to the silence from Putrajaya and ruling coalition Barisan Nasional against the increasingly fiery and controversial rhetorics.

Pakatan Rakyat did not fare much better too, as the hardline faction in its component party PAS continued to adopt the same stance as the Islamic groups to further its Islamist agenda.

Here is a selection of things that Muslim hardliners got mad about in 2014:

What will make them angry in 2015? One can only hope that the list would not be as long. 

Credit : http://www.themalaymailonline.com/throwback/article/5-the-rise-of-muslim-groups

2097) MALAY MAIL ONLINE 10/8/2014 - The fault in our boycott - PPIM

The fault in our boycott

AUG 10 — It is a wonder how much McDonald’s and Starbucks have managed to grow in Malaysia in the past decades, considering the seasonal “boycott” and brickbats they get from the Muslim community from their so-called links to Zionists or Israel.

But then again, perhaps the reason why they have stayed this long is because the boycotts themselves have been, well, seasonal.

And right now, the season has returned for the Muslim community to boycott these companies, and many others including Tesco, Nestle and Coca-Cola. Furthermore, the intensity of the boycott seems to be the fiercest this time around as the Israeli armed forces continue their military offensive in Gaza.

There is just something fascinating about Malaysian Muslims’ obsession with the decades-long Israel-Palestine conflict, that elevates it above mere concern over the atrocious crimes of humanity being perpetrated with utmost impunity by Israel.

Is it because most Palestinians are Muslims? Then again this frenzy totally outstrips concern for other Muslims facing calamities all around the world, from the Rohingyas in Myanmar, to those in the Central African Republic, and even minorities under the Islamic State.

Inadvertently, this frenzy has led many Muslims here to jump headfirst, ignorant of their own boycott itself. Many Muslims and Islamic NGOs here have based their boycott on information provided by an anonymous website called Innovative Minds (Inminds), which started out as a company providing Islamic software. The list of boycotted companies was also endorsed by the London-based group Islamic Human Rights Commission.

However, not only is a lot of the information provided by Inminds outdated (it was last updated two years ago), but the list of companies are also invalid in the Malaysian context. This is simply because the Malaysian branches of the companies mentioned in the list, although same in name, are different entities altogether.

Take McDonald’s, for example. A commonly used argument is that any money spent in Malaysian McD outlets will eventually reach Israel through the non-profit charity group Jewish Unity Fund (JUF).

Fact of the matter is, only the US-based McDonald’s Corp contributes to JUF. McDonald’s Malaysia, being a local franchisee and a different company, has no links with JUF aside from paying its parent company a franchising royalty.

For many, this is enough to implicate Malaysian McD as guilty of supporting Israel. They do not really care whether the money spent actually funds the Israeli army. A tenuous link is enough. 

I felt despair when I saw on Twitter young Malaysians producing a crude caricature of a flowchart linking McDonald’s Malaysia to Israel’s army as “concrete evidence” to justify their boycott. There were no sources, no numbers. Just a caricature, probably endorsed by an Islamic figure.

But then again, people do not want to be right. They just want to be righteous.

To be frank, there is a reason why the response to this conflict has always been such a frenzy: because it is being committed by Jews — which many Muslims see as their sworn enemies for centuries.

Unable to compete with the Jewish lobby worldwide, their giant multinational companies, or the Israeli state itself — with their more superior military and intelligence — the Muslim world might have felt that this time it has a chance to hurt the Jews where it hurts, and this boycott is their chance for a ‘jihad’ or a holy struggle.

Therefore, when presented with opposing arguments against their boycott — such as from the non-denominational BDS Movement Malaysia — some Muslims have even resorted to accusing the source or the messenger as pro-Jew or Zionists.

Some, bereft of facts to tackle the absence of evidence to implicate companies, fell back on that common Muslim accusation: that the Jews are born liars and tricksters, and there is no reason to believe these “facts” supplied by them.

The longer this boycott goes on, the more danger it will pose towards our fellow Malaysians who work for these companies.

We have already seen mass protests at McD outlets. We have heard anecdotes of McD and Starbucks staff being harassed and spat on. We have seen some publicly shame their consumers, with the attitude of “if you are not with us, you are with the Israelis”.

The way Malaysians are treating some of our fellow countrymen, it is as if they were the ones selling the bullets, the missiles, or the tanks that murdered those in Gaza. What fault did they commit in earning honest cash?

This is not a boycott. This is a misplaced, misguided show of anger and hatred. We are turning our own countrymen into targets, into proxies of a force that we ourselves cannot face.

Worse still, this is the sort of thing some see as a God-sent religious crusade, and there will be no reasoning with them.

When Muslim NGOs such as Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma), Perkasa, Pembina and the Muslim Consumers Association (PPIM) launch their month-long campaign today to show their rage, it will not be Israel which feels their anger. It will be our fellow Malaysians.

As for me, I will not be joining the boycott, at least not in this guise. I have no desire to be part of something which is steeped in ignorance, hatred, and at its heart is nothing more than a show of anti-Semitism.

- See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/opinion/zurairi-ar/article/the-fault-in-our-boycott#sthash.jvg4TVhI.dpuf