The Other Press

PI Bala surfaces to drop Bombshell 3

2009-11-13T15:14:00.005+08:00

I received this in a mail and I am posting it here for those who are looking out for news about PI BALA.

MISSING private investigator P. Balasubramaniam has broken his 15-month silence, claiming that Prime Minister Najib Razak’s younger brother, Nazim, met and threatened him into withdrawing his first statutory declaration.

Bala alleged that carpet businessman Deepak Jaikishan, an aide of the Prime Minister’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, instructed him to meet Nazim on the day he made public his statutory declaration.

He said the first statutory declaration in which he claimed that Najjib had a relationship with murdered Mongolian model Altantuya Shariibuu, a lover of the Prime Minister’s associate Abdul Razak Baginda, was true.

But he withdrew it and signed a second declaration after he was taken to see Nazim at the Curve in Damansara on July 3 2008 when he was told by the Prime Minister’s architect brother to “follow instructions if he loves his family.”

According to Bala, the specific instruction to him was to withdraw the July 3^rd statutory declaration and leave Malaysia immediately.

Hours after that meeting, Bala signed a second statutory declaration which was prepared for him and later issued to the media.

He and his family were then taken by road to Singapore before being flown to Thailand and and Nepal and eventually to India, where he has been hiding since.

Bala gave the startling account of the alleged threats made by Nazim in a tell all interview done overseas which concluded with him saying: “As a family man, I want to have a normal life. I want to put a stop to all this. ”

FreeMalaysiaToday was provided with excerpts of the interview done in the presence of three lawyers including Bala’s.

In the hour long interview, Bala gave an account of money allegedly promised by Deepak, whose orders Nazim told him to follow.

He claimed Deepak offered him a RM4 to RM5 million deal to sign the second statutory declaration retracting his allegation against Najib, and to remain overseas until Najib was installed as Prime Minister.

In the course of their conversations, Bala said Deepak related to him how he came to know Rosmah and even offered to arrange a breakfast meeting with the Prime Minister’s wife.

“(Deepak said) I can come back to Malaysia after Najib become the PM. (Also) he will make arrangements to have breakfast with Rosmah (for her to ) thank me ,” for retracting the first SD, Bala added.

However, no breakfast meeting took place with Rosmah, and Bala said he never received the RM5million sweetener promised to him.

Although Najib’s smooth ascension to power took place as scheduled in April this year, Bala saw little to suggest that he would be allowed to return to Malaysia to lead a normal life with his family.

Bala said Deepak gave him about RM750,000 in total to cover expenses for him and his family during their stay overseas. The money was mostly banked into his account with cheques issued by Carpet Raya Sdn Bhd, of which Deepak is a director.

Another revealation by Bala was his meeting with a Malaysian Police Special Branch team which tracked him to Bangkok in July last year.

Bala said the officer in charge of the Special Branch team, ASP Muniandy, asked him which of the two statutory declarations was true.

“ I told him the first SD was the true SD. Then he just shook my hand and said ‘You are really brave,’” Bala quoted Muniandy as saying.

He said the police team then proceeded to record a statement from him for nearly seven hours on the contents of the first statutory declaration and events leadings to the release of the document.

Given the circumstances of fear and continued harrassment against him and his family, Bala indicated he wanted to start his life afresh overseas with his family rather than returning to Malaysia as long as Najib and his people were in power.

Efforts to contact Nazim and Deepak were unsuccessful.
Free Malaysia Today...

The confident Malay

2009-11-12T23:13:00.000+08:00

The confident Malay

12 Nov 09 : 8.00AM

By Deborah Loh
deborahloh@thenutgraph.com

Corrected on 12 Nov 2009 at 11am

Zainah Anwar

DESPITE stepping down in 2008 as executive director of Sisters in Islam (SIS) which she co-founded and led for two decades, Zainah Anwar has not retired from her commitment to women's rights and justice.

Currently project director of Musawah, a global movement for equality and justice for Muslim families, Zainah, 55, continues to travel the world to advance equal rights for Muslim women. On top of that, the daughter of one of Umno's founders is not one to stay quiet in the face of an injustice. The most recent example was when she lent support to Perlis Mufti Dr Mohd Azri Zainul Abidin following his arrest by the Jabatan Agama Islam Selangor.

A former journalist and one of the pioneering commissioners of the National Human Rights Commission or Suhakam, Zainah has also worked with the Institute of Strategic and International Studies and the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Still, she is most well-known for her work with SIS which has brought her and the organisation both acclaim and condemnation. The Nut Graph interviewed Zainah at the SIS office in Petaling Jaya on 22 Oct 2009, and traces the source of this activist's resilience.

TNG: Can you trace your ancestry?

Lithograph "Abyssinian Slaves Resting at Korti, Nubia" by David Roberts
(all pics courtesy of Zainah Anwar)

Zainah Anwar: I love the story that my great grandmother was an Abyssinian slave whom my great grandfather bought, freed and married. He was an Islamic scholar from Muar who moved back and forth between Mecca and Muar. He brought his Abyssinian wife back to Johor to settle. Supposedly there were quite a few Abyssinians who were brought to Pahang and Johor during that period when religious scholars travelled between Mecca and the Malay states.

My great grandfather and his Abyssinian wife had only one child, who was my father's father. My father was born in 1898 in Muar and he died two months short of his 100th birthday.

My mum was born in Johor Baru. Her side is Malay but I'm not sure about the mix. There might be some Chinese and Indonesian blood.

What are some of the family stories or aspects of your childhood that were formative of who you are today?

With siblings Ahmad Zaki, now an artist, and Zarinah
(right), now chairperson of the Securities Commission

Our family is a story of mixed races. I'm very proud of the fact that we have different bloods in us. There's Malay, Minang, Javanese, Abyssinian, Arab, Chinese and also one extinct race, according to my father. I grew up embracing the pluralism of Malaysian society. I had neighbours who were Malay, Chinese and Indian [Malaysians]. I went to a school that had all races and my closest friends include all races, from young until today. I went to an English school, the Sultan Ibrahim Girls' School where I had a cosmopolitan and liberal education.

My father, (corrected) Tan Sri Anwar Abdul Molek, even though he was socially conservative, was intellectually very liberal. He was part of the Kaum Muda in Johor. He believed in religious reform, was critical of the ulamak and he was against closed-mindedness. He spoke English fluently and was an avid reader. We had subscriptions to Life magazine, the Readers' Digest, three newspapers a day — which were the Utusan Melayu, the Jawi version then, Straits Times, and The Malay Mail. We also had a subscription to Dewan Masyarakat.

So in terms of trying to explain why I am open minded, it's because I grew up in that kind of environment. Books, newspapers, magazines laid all over the house. Breakfast, lunch and dinner could only be served after the BBC world news at 8am, 1pm and 8pm were over. My father had two shortwave radios, one upstairs and one downstairs to listen to world news.

When were you born and what were some of the exciting times you lived through?

I was born in 1954 into a very political household. My father was a contemporary and political comrade of Datuk Onn Jaafar; so politics was very much in our family. My father took part in local elections but lost in the Johor Baru municipal council elections on the Parti Negara ticket.

In my childhood, all kinds of people came to our house, my father's old political comrades and his Malay, Chinese and Indian friends and others who came for help. Our front door was always open and people just came and went. After retirement in 1954, my father sat on many boards — all in a voluntary capacity. He would help the poor and needy irrespective of race.

Family photo, where Zainah is sitting on her father's lap (at the top of the stairs). Her mother (left) is holding her brother
Ahmad Zaki. Sitting next to them is elder sister Zarinah. The two other girls in the photo are Zainah's half-sisters.

As a retired division one civil servant, people needed his signature for this or that government application, for aid, scholarship, or licence. He helped many poor Chinese and poor Malays get stalls when the new JB (Johor Baru) market opened. I remember the flower person, the chicken person and the vegetable person, who were all Chinese. Because my father helped them, whenever we went marketing they would not take money from us. My mother thought this was great! But my father was very strict and he would instruct us to pay or buy from another stall. But during Raya, they would send us live chicken, flowers and durian when it was in season.

I love the fact that my father's friends in Umno who later became rich in Kuala Lumpur would remark to me that they do not make men like him these days. He was a man of honour and integrity. The kind of man who would hand over the receipts of all our Raya purchases in Singapore to the Customs officer at the Causeway so that he could pay all the taxes! He was the chair[person] of the organising committee of the the Johor Baru Grand Prix and yet he would not give his children free tickets to watch. There was an invitation card for two persons and my mother would take one child per day to the grandstand, while the others joined neighbours and relatives on the grassy slopes.

Tell us about your father's links with Datuk Onn Jaafar.

He was private secretary to three of Johor's menteris besar, including Datuk Onn. My father was one of the six men who founded Umno.

Zainah's parents, Tan Sri Anwar Molek and Puan Sri
Saodah Abdullah in the 1990s.

The British effort in 1946 to form the Malayan Union, which would have transferred Johor's sovereignty to the King of England, led to protests among the Johor Malays, and disbelief that the Sultan had signed over his sovereignty to the British Crown.

Protests also erupted in other parts of the country. My father felt the only way the Malays could fight this attempt to take over the country was if all the Malay organisations in the Malay states were united under one organisation. And there had to be one strong leader to lead the protest movement. He felt that that man could only be the fearless Datuk Onn, who was then the Batu Pahat district officer.

My father and two friends, Syed Alwi al-Hadi and Syed Abdul Rahman Abu Bakar, drove there to discuss with Datuk Onn this urgent need to bring all the Malay associations together under one umbrella. It was on that momentous night that Datuk Onn dictated the historic letter to Utusan Melayu calling on all the Malays to come together in one United Malay Organisation.

The name "Umno" which is actually in English — first came from my father. He was inspired by the formation of the United Nations to bring world peace after the end of World War II. Since this was an effort to make every disparate party more loyal to their state and Sultan than to a nation together, he came up with the name United Malays Organisation. It was Umo at first, until the big meeting [the first Malay Congress] at the Sultan Sulaiman Club [in Kuala Lumpur] where [Zainal Abidin Ahmad] Za'aba then added the word "national", and it became Umno.

What role did your mother play?

Zainah in May 2006 at the SIS conference "Trends in
Islamic Family Law Reform". Seated are the daughters
of three past prime ministers, Nori Abdullah, Datin
Paduka Marina Mahathir and Hanis Hussein.

My mother, Puan Sri Saodah Abdullah, was a model homemaker, an extremely capable woman. But I always felt sad that she did not reach her full potential. She could have been a doctor.

She was so interested in medicine; she was in the St John's Brigade, she was in the Red Cross, she knew everything about first aid and nutrition, and she had this huge dictionary of medicine in Jawi that she always referred to.

But she was born in 1922 and there were no opportunities for her further education. She went to a domestic science school where she was an outstanding student, and later gave cooking and sewing classes. During those early days of Umno, she opened her house to women who ostensibly left home to attend sewing classes, but who were actually organising protests against the Malayan Union.

My nationalist father wanted to send us to a Malay school and it was one of the few times my mother held out against him. My father was such a patriarch who expected to be served hand and foot, and my mother was the good obedient wife. But when it came to our education, she had greater ambitions for us. At that time, if you went to a Malay school, you ended up being a Malay school teacher. But she wanted her children to be financially independent and successful professionals.

It's clear where you get your sense of advocacy and value system from.

Zainah (second from right), with other SIS founding members at the organisation's launch in 1991 by then Minister in charge of Women Tan Sri Napsian Omar (left).

My father brought us up with strong values. I remember when Tun Hussein Onn became prime minister, my father received an endless stream of visitors arriving in Mercedes cars. These business[people] wanted my father to be chair[person] or director of this or that company. My father would be totally baffled. He would tell them that he had no money to invest in their companies, so how could he sit on the board.

They just wanted his name because they thought my father would be able to get them access to the new prime minister. So he sent them off packing.

When I went to study at Institut Teknologi Mara, my father insisted on paying a token sum even though pensioners' children did not have to pay fees to study there. In fact, we could even get a small monthly stipend. I remember I was shocked to find friends whose fathers were wealthy business[people] getting the monthly allowance, just because their fathers were also pensioners. But my father felt that since he could afford it, he shouldn't be depriving another poor person of the privilege.

What kind of Malaysia do you want for yourself and future generations?

With Nelson Mandela, "the only man I ever wanted to
marry", on his visit to Malaysia in 1990 after his release
from 27 years in prison.

I want a Malaysia that truly celebrates its diversity and sees this as strength. This is not something difficult because it's in our blood, in our history. We once embraced our Hindu, Buddhist, and Muslim heritage that enriched us.

Nobody felt that we were lesser Muslims because we had wedding ceremonies that adapted practices from the Hindu tradition, or that we performed the wayang kulit. The Malays were once confident and proud of their identity. How did it come to today where Malay [Malaysians] now feel under siege? It's politicians with their short-term interest who have created this siege mentality. "Mati Umno, matinya Melayu". Please lah, this is 2009! Malay [Malaysians] will survive even if Umno is dead! There are more Malay [Malaysian] Members of Parliament now than ever before.

I also want for every Malaysian to have the opportunity to realise their full potential. Especially now, when we are competing globally. We urgently need to do something about the education system. It's creating bigger class divisions. Rich Malaysians are sending their children to private schools, while the national school system remains 90% mono-ethnic. We're losing the kids who have a cosmopolitan upbringing and global outlook to the private school system.

Now the better off Malay [Malaysians] are sending their children to private schools as well, educating them to compete globally. If this regression, fundamentalism, intolerance, the obsession to control every minute detail of our lives and our choices does not stop, if everything continues to be seen as a threat to the Muslims and the Malays, more of the best are going to leave Malaysia, and that includes the best of Malay [Malaysians].

Youngest Surgeon From India

2009-11-12T14:24:00.000+08:00

ABSOLUTELY AMAZING……

WHAT AN INCREDIBLE PHENOMENON THIS BOY IS AND SUCH NOBLE ASPIRATIONS.

This lad indeed has a gifted brain.... His parents used to sell portion of their investments to purchase his Medicine related books that he wanted to study and today he gets everything from people who really want him to fulfill his dreams....

A year ago a footage emerged from a remote village in India . The video showed a young girl receiving surgery to separate her fingers, which were badly burned and fused together. Why did this operation make headlines around the world? The surgery was performed by a 7-year-old boy named Akrit Jaswal.

Now 13 years old, Akrit has an IQ of 146 and is considered the smartest person his age in India a country of more than a billion people. Before Akrit could even speak, his parents say they knew he was special.

'He learned very fast,' says Raksha, Akrit's mother. 'After learning the alphabet, we started to teach him joining of words, and he started writing as well. He was two.'

At an age when most children are learning their ABCs, Akrit was reading Shakespeare and assembling a library of medical textbooks. When he was 5 years old, he enrolled in school. One year later, Akrit was teaching English and math classes.

Akrit developed a passion for science and anatomy at an early age. Doctors at local hospitals took notice and started allowing him to observe surgeries when he was 6 years old. Inspired by what he saw, Akrit read everything he could on the topic. When an impoverished family heard about his amazing abilities, they asked if he would operate on their daughter for free. Her surgery was a success.
After the surgery, Akrit was hailed as a medical genius in India . Neighbors and strangers flocked to him for advice and treatment. At age 11, Akrit was admitted to Punjab University . He's the youngest student ever to attend an Indian university. That same year, he was also invited to London 's famed Imperial College to exchange ideas with scientists on the cutting edge of medical research.

Akrit says he has millions of medical ideas, but he's currently focused on developing a cure for cancer. 'I've developed a concept called oral gene therapy on the basis of my research and my theories,' he says. 'I'm quite dedicated towards working on this mechanism.'

Growing up, Akrit says he used to see cancer patients lying on the side of the road because they couldn't afford treatment or hospitals had no space for them.. Now, he wants to use his intellect to ease their suffering. '[I've been] going to hospitals since the age of 6, so I have seen firsthand people suffering from pain,' he says. 'I get very sad, and so that's the main motive of my passion about medicine, my passion about cancer.'

Currently, Akrit is working toward a bachelor's degrees in zoology, botany and chemistry. Someday, he hopes to continue his studies at Harvard University .

Video of the surgery.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQif24jIGWY

Independent Living & Traing Centre Building Fund Charity Show

2009-11-04T23:45:00.008+08:00

On 1/11/2009, I was invited to attend as a special guest by Mr G Sivasangara Rao, President, Independent Living & Training Centre to attend a Building Fund raising event at The Plenary Hall, Kuala lumpur Convention Centre. The event was succesful. I managed to snap a few pictures from the 1st floor, as the ground floor was reserved for VVIP's.

How you become a racist …

2009-11-03T21:30:00.002+08:00

By James Chin
NOV 2 — In the past week, newspapers in Sarawak have been covering a story of an Iban-Chinese girl who was denied a place in the matriculation programme because she was deemed a “non-Bumiputera”. This is what the Borneo Post (Oct 29) reported:

“KUCHING: Getting her Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) result was the best — and the worst — thing that could happen to Marina Undau.The 18-year-old science stream student of SMK Simanggang scored 9As and 1B in the SPM examination last year. She thought she was on her way to university, especially being a Bumiputera and all, but that was not to be. Born to an Iban father and a Chinese mother, Marina’s life was turned upside down when her application to undergo a university matriculation programme was rejected by the Ministry of Education. The ministry determined that she is not a ‘Bumiputera’…

“Seated between her parents, Undau Liap and Wong Pick Sing, the disappointment in the teenager was obvious. Speaking in Iban, she said: ‘Aku amai enda puas ati nadai olih nyambung sekula ngagai universiti (I’m very sad that I can’t pursue my university education).’ With no chance of entering a university for now, Marina has started Form 6 in her old school.

“Asked what she thought of everything that was happening, she replied: ‘What worries me is that will this happen again when I pass my STPM next year? If I get good results, what’s next?’

“In Sarawak, under the federal constitution, both parents must be ‘native’ in order for the offspring to be classified as a ‘Bumiputera’.”

In case you are curious how they play the blood game, this is the official definition used by the Student Intake Management Division, Higher Learning Department and Higher Education Ministry:

You are a Bumiputera if

• Semenanjung — “Jika salah seorang ibu atau bapa calon adalah seorang Melayu yang beragama Islam/Orang Asli seperti mana yang ditakrifkan dalam Perkara 160(2) Perlembagaan Persekutuan; maka anaknya adalah dianggap seorang Bumiputera.” (If either parent of a candidate is a Malay who is a Muslim/Orang Asli as defined in Article 160 (2) of the Federal Constitution, the child is considered a Bumiputera.)

• Sabah — “Jika bapa calon adalah seorang Melayu yang beragama Islam/Peribumi Sabah seperti yang ditakrifkan dalam Perkara 161A(6)(a) Perlembagaan Persekutuan; maka anaknya adalah dianggap seorang Bumiputera.” (If the father of the candidate is a Malay who is a Muslim/native of Sabah as defined by Article 161A(6)(a) of the Federal Constitution, the child is considered a Bumiputera.)

• Sarawak — “Jika bapa dan ibu adalah seorang Peribumi Sarawak seperti mana yang ditakrifkan dalam Perkara 161A(6)(b) Perlembagaan persekutuan; maka anaknya adalah dianggap seorang Bumiputera.” (If the father and mother is a native of Sarawak as defined under Article 161A(6)(b) of the Federal Constitution, the child is considered a Bumiputera.)

Since this story broke, many others from mixed, i.e. native-Chinese background, have come forward to tell their appalling stories about not being able to enter matriculation classes and a direct route to a public university.

Just in case you do not know, to enter a public university in Malaysia, you can either do the one-year matriculation programme or the two-year STPM. But there is a catch. The matriculation is only available to Bumiputeras so all the non-Bumiputeras must take the STPM route. It is also common knowledge that matriculation is much easier than STPM and once you get in, you are almost certain to get a university place. Hence, the desperate rush to get into matriculation (see quoted story above).

Oh, before you get any ideas in your head, according to the government, we practice “meritocracy” in the intake of university students! But don’t ask hard questions like why matriculation is restricted or that there is a separate university for Bumiputeras only.

What really bothers me is not the individual sad stories about how children from native-Chinese marriages are denied their Bumiputera rights, but how the media is only reporting from one side. All the stories tell of how their future is damaged since they cannot get into the matriculation programme, and how they are “forced” to go to STPM or Sixth Form.

It is truly shocking that none of the newspaper dare to write the real angle of the story — how about the thousands of poor Chinese students who are denied a place in university because they are completely shut off from the matriculation programme. Are you telling me that there are no poor Chinese or Indians in Sarawak, or that all poor non-Bumiputeras in Sarawak, or for that matter in the whole of Malaysia, happily go into the two-year, tougher STPM and “try their luck” with university admission?

Why do the newspapers only focus on the children of mixed marriages?

Isn’t this exactly why normal people become racist when they see this sort of shenanigans happening right in front of them? How do you explain to your child that she cannot enter university because she was born of the “wrong” race? Education is one of the most basic human rights and here we using higher education to turn an ordinary human being into a racist — all because someone is obsessed with the definition of race. No wonder Sarawak is the model for 1 Malaysia!

An Extraordinary Indian

2009-11-03T11:06:00.005+08:00

'I don't feed beggars. They can look after themselves. The mentally ill won't ask anyone for food or money,' says N Krishnan who has been feeding them thrice a day for the past seven years.

For more information on N Krishnan's trust, log on to: http://www.akshayat rust.org/

Left 5-star job to feed the mentally ill

N Krishnan feeds 400 mentally ill people on the streets of Madurai three times a day, every day, all 365 days of the year. The 28 year old has been doing this for seven years via a charity called the Akshaya Trust.

A look into the kitchen reveals a spotlessly clean room.. Sparkling vessels stacked neatly, groceries and provisions all lined up in rows -- rice, dal, vegetables, spices -- all of the best quality.. One would think this was the kitchen of a five star hotel.

Maybe Krishnan achieves that effect because he was once a chef at a five star hotel in Bengaluru.

"Today's lunch is curd rice, with home made pickle, please taste it," he says, serving me on a plate made of dried leaves. The food is excellent.

"I change the menu for different days of the week. They will get bored if I serve the same food every day," he says with an enthusiastic and infectious smile.

Image: N Krishnan feeds a mentally ill person on a Madurai street
Photographs: A Ganesh நாடார்

Krishnan feeds 400 mentally ill people every day

Krishnan cooks breakfast, lunch and dinner with the help of two cooks. He takes it himself to his wards on the street each day.

"I don't feed beggars. They can look after themselves. The mentally ill won't ask anyone for food or money. They don't move around much too. I find them in the same place every day."

That morning he put the food in a large vessel, the pickle in a smaller one and loaded it into a Maruti van donated by a Madurai philanthropist.

Ten minutes later we stopped near a man lying on the ground by a high wall. Krishnan put the food next to him. The man refused to even look at it, but grabbed the water bottle and drank eagerly. "He will eat the food later, looks like he was very thirsty," said Krishnan.

At the next stop, he laid the dry leaf-plate and served the food. He then scooped some food and started feeding the mentally ill man himself. After two morsels, the man started eating on his own.

We then crossed a crowded traffic signal and stopped the vehicle. On seeing Krishnan, four individuals moved slowly towards the Maruti van. They stood out in the crowd with their dirty, tattered clothes and unshaven beards. They knew this Maruti van meant food. But they did not hurry, knowing that Krishnan would wait for them. Krishnan served them under a tree and carried water for them. "They are not aware enough to get their own water," he explained.

And thus we went around the city till the Akshaya patra was empty. Of course, it would be full again for dinner later in the day.

Image: Krishnan's wards often approach him when they see his food-laden van

Past 7 years

As we returned, a startling fact hit me. Not a single mentally challenged person had thanked Krishnan. They did not even smile or acknowledge him. Still Krishnan carried on in a world where most of us get offended if someone doesn't say thank you, sometimes even for doing our jobs.

The food costs Rs 8,000 a day, but that doesn't worry him. "I have donors for 22 days. The remaining days, I manage myself. I am sure I will get donors for that too, people who can afford it are generally generous, particularly when they know that their hard earned money is actually going to the poor. That is why I maintain my accounts correctly and scrupulously." He then pulled out a bill from the cabinet and showed it to me. It was a bill for groceries he had bought seven years ago. "This bill has sentimental value. It is the first one after I started Akshaya."

The economic slowdown has resulted in a drop in the number of donors. Earlier, they sustained meals for 25 days. Software giants Infosys and TCS were so impressed with his work that they donated three acres of land to him in Madurai . Krishnan hopes to build a home for his wards there. He has built the basement for a woman's block which will house 80 inmates, but work has currently halted due to a lack of funds.

Five idlis

This, however, is not the sum of his good deeds. Krishnan also performs the funerals of unclaimed bodies in Madurai . He collects the body, bathes it and gives it a decent burial or cremation as the need may be.

He gets calls, both from the municipal corporation and general hospital for the funerals.

He recalls with a little prompting how one day he saw a mentally ill man eating his excreta. He rushed to the nearest restaurant and bought the man five idlis. The man ate voraciously, and then smiled at him. The smile made Krishnan want to do it again and again.

Krishnan has not married and wonders if anyone would want to marry a man who spends his days cooking food for others. He is firm that his life partner has to agree to this kind of life.

His parents were initially shocked, but are now very supportive of their son. They advise him about the cuisine and also about how he can streamline the process.

One wonders why he left his job in a five star hotel to bury the dead and feed the mentally ill. To this he just smiles and says, "I like doing it."

T H A N K you Mr.Krishnan !

2009-10-21T18:15:00.000+08:00

தோட்டபுரத்தில் இருக்கும் போது கூட இவ்வளவு கஷ்டம் படவில்லை என இந்த தாய் என்னிடம் கூறுகிறார்.
படிவம் நான்கு வரையில் காராக், பகாங் இடைநிலை பள்ளியில் படித்தவர். தன் தாயார் நோயில் அடிப்பட்டதால் இவர் மேலும் கல்வியை தொடரமுடியாமல் போயிற்று. அடிக்கடி பெரிய மருத்துவ மனைக்கு செல்லவேண்டி இருந்ததால் இவர்கள்
கோலா லும்பூர் வந்தார்கள். இங்கு சரோஜா தன் மாமனை திருமணம் செய்யவேண்டிதாகிற்று.

திருமண வாழ்கை சில காலங்களே ஆயின நான்கு மாதத்திலேயே சரோஜவிக்கு இழுப்பு ஏற்பட்டது..இவரால் தன் கணவருக்கு முழுமையான சுகம் கொடுக்க இல்லாமல் போனது.மனைவிக்கு உடல்நலம் சரில்லாதபோத்து குஉட கணவருக்கு அதில் தான் மிகுந்த நாட்டம்.. இதனிடையே மகனும் பிறந்தான். இல்லற பிரச்னை தலைதூக்கியது.. கணவர் இவரை விட்டு போய் விட்டார்.

சரோஜா அருகாமையில் அமைந்த டெக்ஸ்கோ வில் கணக்கு வேலை செய்து தன் தாயையும் மகனையும்கவனித்து வந்தார். ஒரு நாள் அதுவும் விடுமுறை நாளில் வலிப்பு வந்து விழுந்து விட்டார். பிறகு தான் தெரிய வந்தது சரோஜாவுக்கு தலையில் புற்றுநோய் கண்டுள்ளது என்று..
அக்கம் பக்கம் குடிஇருப்பவர்கள் சரோஜாவுக்கு மருத்துவ செலவுக்காக பண உதவி செய்தார்கள் .மருத்துவ செலவுகளை ஹர்டமஸ் மஇக செய்து உதவினர்.
பிறகு வேல்பாரே அமாவுக்கும் மகளுக்கும் இன்று வரை தலா நூறு வெள்ளி கொடுதுவருகிறதாம்
வாடகை வீடு மூநூறு வெள்ளி ....தலை அறுவைசிகிச்சைக்கு பிறகு சரோஜாவுக்கு நினவு குறைந்துவிட்டதாம், முன்பு போதல வேலை செய்ய முடியாது, இருந்தும் வீடிலிருந்து சிறு தொழில் செய்து வருகிறார்கள். கோம்மிசின் வொர்க் .

முதலில் மஇகா கிளை தலைவர்கள் இவர்களுக்கு மருத்துவ செலவுகளை ஏற்று கொண்டனர். மிகா வின் உதவிக்கு நன்றி உருகின்றார்.இக்கடான நேரத்தில் இவர்கள் உதவி செய்ய வில்ல என்றால் இன்று என்னிடம் உறவாட கூட அவர் இருந்திருக்க மாட்டாராம்.
வருகின்ற தீபாவளிக்கு வேண்டிய செலவு பொருட்கள் வாங்க கூட பணம் இல்லை .இன்று கூட மருத்துவ மனக்கு ஸ்கேன் செய்ய சென்று என்ன காண வந்தார்கள்.
தீபாவளி கொண்டாடம் எல்லோருக்கும் உண்டு எங்களுக்கு இல்லை என வருத்தத்துடன் கூறுகிறார் சரோஜா.
இவரது மகன் பெயரர் தினேஸ் வயதுஆறு பாலார் பள்ளி படிக்கிறான் இன்று தாயார் ருடன் மருத்துவ மனைக்கு உடன் வந்துளான். நல்ல டான்ஸ் ஆடுவானாம் . கவலைபடாதிங்க மா நான் டான்ஸ் ஆடி உங்களை வாழவைக்கிறேன் என சொல்லுகிறான்.
சொந்தம் பந்தங்கள் இருந்தும் இல்லாதவர்களாக இருக்கும் இந்த சரோஜா முள்ளில் வாழுகிறாள் .
அவள் இருக்கும் வரையாவது நல்ல உள்ளங்கள் உதவுவார்களா?

What is Islam ?

2009-10-21T17:44:00.001+08:00

What is Islam ?

Islam is not a new religion, but the same truth that God revealed through all His prophets to every people. For a fifth of the world's population, Islam is both a religion and a complete way of life. Muslims follow a religion of peace, mercy, and forgiveness, and the majority have nothing to do with the extremely grave events which have come to be associated with their faith.
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A Moroccan in prayer Muslims praying in Jerusalem outside
the Dome of the Rock 
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How did the spread of Islam affect the world?

Among the reasons for the rapid and peaceful spread of Islam was the simplicity of its doctrine - Islam calls for faith in only One God worthy of worship. It also repeatedly instructs man to use his powers of intelligence and observation.
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Taj Mahal, India. Hui Shen Mosque, China,
Built in the 7th Century.
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Within a few years, great civilizations and universities were flourishing, for according to the Prophet, 'seeking knowledge is an obligation for every Muslim man and woman'. The synthesis of Eastern and Western ideas and of new thought with old, brought about great advances in medicine, mathematics, physics, astronomy, geography, architecture, art, literature, and history. Many crucial systems such as algebra, the Arabic numerals, and also the concept of the zero (vital to the advancement of mathematics) , were transmitted to medieval Europe from Islam. Sophisticated instruments which were to make possible the European voyages of discovery were developed, including the astrolabe, the quadrant and good navigational maps.

What is the Quran?

The Quran is a record of the exact words revealed by God through the Angel Gabriel to the Prophet Muhammad. It was memorized by Muhammad and then dictated to his Companions, and written down by scribes, who cross-checked it during his lifetime. Not one word of its 114 chapters, Suras, has been changed over the centuries, so that the Quran is in every detail the unique and miraculous text which was revealed to Muhammad fourteen centuries ago.
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  Arabic  English
This opening chapter of The Quran, the Fatiah, is central in Islamic prayer. It contains the essence of The Quran and is recited during every prayer.
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Islam in the United States

It is almost impossible to generalize about American Muslims: converts, immigrants, factory workers, doctors; all are making their own contribution to America's future. This complex community is unified by a common faith, underpinned by a countrywide network of a thousand mosques.

Muslims were early arrivals in North America. By the eighteenth century there were many thousands of them, working as slaves on plantations. These early communities, cut off from their heritage and families, inevitably lost their Islamic identity as time went by. Today many Afro-American Muslims play an important role in the Islamic community.
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Mosque in New Mexico, U.S.A.
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The nineteenth century, however, saw the beginnings of an influx of Arab Muslims, most of whom settled in the major industrial centers where they worshipped in hired rooms. The early twentieth century witnessed the arrival of several hundred thousand Muslims from Eastern Europe: the first Albanian mosque was opened in Maine in 1915; others soon followed, and a group of Polish Muslims opened a mosque in Brooklyn in 1928.

In 1947 the Washington Islamic Center was founded during the term of President Truman, and several nationwide organizations were set up in the fifties. The same period saw the establishment of other communities whose lives were in many ways modeled after Islam. More recently, numerous members of these groups have entered the fold of Muslim orthodoxy. Today there are about five million Muslims in America.
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The Islamic Cultural Center, Washington DC. 
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The Muslim World

The Muslim population of the world is around one billion. 30% of Muslims live in the Indian subcontinent, 20% in Sub-Saharan Africa, 17% in Southeast Asia, 18% in the Arab World, 10% in the Soviet Union and China. Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan comprise 10% of the non-Arab Middle East. Although there are Muslim minorities in almost every area, including Latin America and Australia, they are most numerous in the Soviet Union, India, and central Africa. There are 5 million Muslims in the United States.

Malaysian Latest News

2009-10-02T13:14:00.000+08:00

Malaysia court charges 12 Muslims for parading cow head to protest ...

Malaysia charges 12 Muslims for anti-Hindu protestSHAH ALAM, Malaysia — A Malaysian court charged 12 Muslims with criminal offenses Wednesday for parading a ...
blog.taragana.com/.../malaysia-court-charges-12-muslims-for-parading-cow-head-to-protest-hindu-temple-163228/

Malaysia gives RM1 million grant for Malay Indian tuition centre

KUALA LUMPUR - The Malaysian Government has allocated RM1 million to the Sri Murugan Centre to help poor and deserving Indian students excel in their ...
blog.taragana.com/.../malaysia-gives-rm1-million-grant-for-malay-indian-tuition-centre-172016/

Muslims in Malaysia march with severed cow head to protest ...

Malaysia Muslims protest proposed Hindu templeKUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Dozens of Malaysian Muslims paraded Friday with the head of a cow, a sacred animal in ...
blog.taragana.com/.../muslims-in-malaysia-march-with-severed-cow-head-to-protest-building-of-new-hindu-temple-152589/

Samy Vellu must step down, says Malaysia's Mahathir

KUALA LUMPUR - Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, in a fresh broadside against Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) president S. Samy Vellu, ...
blog.taragana.com/.../samy-vellu-must-step-down-says-malaysias-mahathir-172469/

Malaysia's Mobile Broadband Demand Growing Faster Than Expected ...

24 Jun 2009 ... Soaring demand for mobile broadband services in Malaysia, driven in part by intense competition, will result in higher-than-expected growth ...
blog.taragana.com/.../malaysias-mobile-broadband-demand-growing-faster-than-expected-says-pyramid-research-3575/

Malaysia cancels Intercontinental Cup youth soccer tournament over ...

12 May 2009 ... Malaysia cancels soccer tournament over swine fluKUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysian soccer officials have canceled next month's ...
blog.taragana.com/.../malaysia-cancels-intercontinental-cup-youth-soccer-tournament-over-swine-flu-threat-60002/

No husband? No problem! Malaysia polygamy club to hatch matches ...

Here come the brides: Polygamy club woos MalaysiaRAWANG, Malaysia — When she was practicing law, Kartini Maarof once went beyond the call of duty for her ...
blog.taragana.com/.../no-husband-no-problem-malaysia-polygamy-club-to-hatch-matches-with-already-married-men-180808/

Malaysia court charges 6 Muslims with sedition for parading cow ...

Malaysia court charges 6 Muslims with seditionSHAH ALAM, Malaysia — A Malaysian court charged six Muslims with sedition Wednesday for parading a severed cow ...
blog.taragana.com/.../malaysia-court-charges-6-muslims-with-sedition-for-parading-cow-head-to-protest-hindu-temple-163136/

Malaysia Muslim convert offers olive branch to Hindu wife who fled ...

Malaysia Muslim convert seeks sons of Hindu wifePUTRAJAYA, Malaysia — A Malaysian convert to Islam urged his estranged Hindu wife who fled abroad with their ...
blog.taragana.com/.../malaysia-muslim-convert-offers-olive-branch-to-hindu-wife-who-fled-overseas-with-2-sons-41857/

Tsunami Watch issued for Indonesia, India, Thailand, Malaysia

A Tsunami watch has been issued by Pacific Tsunami Warning Center / NOAA / NWA, following a 7.9 magnitude earthquake off Southern Sumatra, which affected ...
blog.taragana.com/.../tsunami-watch-issued-for-indonesia-india-thailand-malaysia-181202/

BETRAYAL

2009-07-29T09:43:00.000+08:00

BETRAYAL

Should we hate Judas Iscariot?

by Joan AcocellaAUGUST 3, 2009

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Caravaggio’s “The Taking of Christ.” Judas, Christianity’s primary image of human evil, is now the subject of a rehabilitation effort.

RELATED LINKS: Joan Acocella on the Catholic Church’s approach to Mary Magdalene.; David Remnick on Elaine Pagels and gnosticism.; Adam Gopnik on the Gosepl of Judas.; Edmund Wilson on the Dead Sea scrolls.

KEYWORDS: Judas Iscariot;; Susan Gubar;; “Judas: A Biography” (Norton; $27.95);; Herbert Krosney;; “The Lost Gospel: The Quest for the Gospel of Judas Iscariot”;; Codex Tchacos;; Religion

t the Last Supper, Jesus knew that it would be the last, and that he would be dead by the next day. Each of the Evangelists tells the story differently, but, according to John, Jesus spent the time he had left re-stating to the disciples the lessons he had taught them and trying to prop up their courage. At a certain point, however, he lost heart. “Very truly,” he said to his men, “one of you will betray me.” Who? they asked. And he answered, “It is the one to whom I give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” He then dipped a piece of bread into a dish and handed it to Judas Iscariot, a disciple whom the Gospels barely mention before the scene of the Last Supper but who now becomes very important. Once Judas takes the bread, Satan “entered into” him, John says. Is that a metaphor, meaning that Jesus’ prediction enables Judas to betray him? Maybe so, maybe not, but Jesus soon urges him directly. “Do quickly what you are going to do,” he says. And so Judas gets up from the table and leaves. That night (or perhaps even before the Last Supper), he meets with the priests of the Temple, makes the arrangements for the arrest, and collects his reward, the famous thirty pieces of silver.

That is the beginning of Jesus’ end, and of Judas’s. Jesus is arrested within hours. Judas, stricken with remorse, returns to the priests and tries to give them back their money. They haughtily refuse it. Judas throws the coins on the floor. He then goes out and hangs himself. He dies before Jesus does.

Did Judas deserve this fate? If Jesus informs you that you will betray him, and tells you to hurry up and do it, are you really responsible for your act? Furthermore, if your act sets in motion the process—Christ’s Passion—whereby humankind is saved, shouldn’t somebody thank you? No, the Church says. If you betray your friend, you are a sinner, no matter how foreordained or collaterally beneficial your sin. And, if the friend should happen to be the Son of God, so much the worse for you.

For two thousand years, Judas has therefore been Christianity’s primary image of human evil. Now, however, there is an effort to rehabilitate him, the result, partly, of an archeological find. In 1978 or thereabouts, some peasants digging for treasure in a burial cave in Middle Egypt came upon an old codex—that is, not a scroll but what we would call a book, with pages—written in Coptic, the last form of ancient Egyptian. The book has been dated to the third or fourth century, but scholars believe that the four texts it contains are translations of writings, in Greek, from around the second century. When the codex was found, it was reportedly in good condition, but it then underwent a twenty-three-year journey through the notoriously venal antiquities market, where it suffered fantastic abuses, including a prolonged stay in a prospective buyer’s home freezer. (This caused the ink to run when the manuscript thawed.) The book was cracked in half, horizontally; pages were shuffled, torn out. By the time the codex reached the hands of restorers, in 2001, much of it was just a pile of crumbs. The repair job took five years, after which some of the book was still a pile of crumbs. Many passages couldn’t be read.

And then there was the strangeness of what could be read. In the twentieth century, Bible scholars repeatedly had to deal with ancient books—the Dead Sea scrolls, the Nag Hammadi library—that surfaced from the sands of the Middle East to wreak havoc with orthodoxy. These books said that much of what we call Christian doctrine predated Christ; that the universe was created by a female deity, and so on. The 1978 find—called the Codex Tchacos, for one of its successive owners, Frieda Tchacos Nussberger—was even more surprising, because one of its texts, twenty-six pages long, was entitled “The Gospel of Judas.” It wasn’t written by Judas. (We don’t know if there was a historical Judas Iscariot.) It was a story about Judas, and in it the great villain, the Christ-killer, was portrayed as Jesus’ favorite disciple, the only one who understood him.

The Codex Tchacos, like the Nag Hammadi library, was the work of an ancient religious party, mostly Christian, that we call Gnostic. In the second century, Christianity was not an institution but a collection of warring factions, each with its own gospels, each claiming direct descent from Jesus, each accusing the others of heresy, homosexuality, and the like. In the fourth century, one group, or group of groups, won out: the people now known as the proto-orthodox, because, once they won, their doctrines became orthodoxy. The proto-orthodox were centrist. They embraced both the Hebrew Bible and the new law proclaimed by Jesus; they said that Jesus was both God and man; they believed that the world was both full of blessings and full of sin. Of the many gospels circulating, they chose four, called Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, which, by reason of their realism and emotional directness—their lilies of the field and prodigal sons—were most likely to appeal to regular people.

The Gnostics were different—visionary, exclusionary. They scorned the Hebrew Bible; they said that the world was utterly evil; they claimed that the key to salvation was not faith or good behavior but secret knowledge, which was their exclusive property. The Gospel of Judas is entirely in line with this view. In it, most people have no hope of getting to Heaven. As for Jesus, he was not a man but wholly divine, and therefore Judas didn’t really have him killed. (Only a mortal can be killed.) According to some commentators, this Jesus asked Judas to release him from the human form he had assumed in order to descend to earth. Judas did him a favor.

That supposed exoneration of Judas was the most exclaimed-over aspect of the Gospel of Judas. Far more shocking, however, was the book’s portrait of Jesus. We know Jesus from the New Testament as an earnest and charitable man. Here, by contrast, he is a joker, and not a nice one. Three times in this brief text, he bursts into laughter over his disciples’ foolishness. The first time, he comes upon them as they are celebrating the Eucharist. What’s so funny? they ask him—this is what we’re supposed to do. Maybe according to your god, Jesus says. But you represent our God, they say. You’re his son. Jesus now turns on them. What makes you think you know me? he asks them. “Truly I say to you, no generation of the people that are among you will know me.” In other words, Jesus tells them that they are strangers to him. The next day, they ask him about Heaven, and he laughs at them again. Forget about Heaven, he says. No mortal will go there. In response, the disciples “did not find a word to say.”

No wonder, for Jesus has just denied what is said to have been his sole mission on earth, the salvation of humankind. Later, he relents, a little: he says that some few mortals may be admitted to Heaven. The text is hard to read here, but it appears that this elect is limited to the Gnostics.

Jesus’ dealings with the disciples occupy about half of the surviving pages of the Gospel of Judas. The rest consists of a lecture that Jesus gives on cosmology—an account quite different from the Bible’s. Briefly, the real God did not create the earth, but he spawned an angel, who created thousands of other angels. Twelve “aeons” and seventy-two “luminaries” also came into existence, and each luminary was supplied with five firmaments, for a total of three hundred and sixty. This cosmos, as grand as it sounds, is described by Jesus as “corruption,” but apparently it is not as bad as the earth, which was brought into being by a violent demiurge, Nebro, and his stupid assistant, Saklas. The text goes on in this vein. N. T. Wright, in his book “Judas and the Gospel of Jesus: Have We Missed the Truth about Christianity?” (2006), says that as a churchman—he is the Bishop of Durham—he often gets letters that sound like the Judas gospel’s explanation of the universe: “Some are handwritten, in which case they are mostly in green ink. Some are typewritten, page after page of interminable cosmological speculation, with increasing amounts of block capitals and underlinings.”

hat use could this bizarre document be to modern Christians? Plenty. Many American religious thinkers are more liberal than their churches. They wish that Christianity were more open—not a stone wall of doctrine. To these people, the Gospel of Judas was a gift. As with the other Gnostic gospels, its mere existence showed that there was no such thing as fixed doctrine, or that there wasn’t at the beginning.

That implicit endorsement of tolerance was probably what American scholars valued most in the Judas gospel, but the discovery gave them something else as well: righteous glee. What a joy to have an ancient document in which the man singled out in the Bible as Christianity’s foremost enemy turns out, arguably, to be Christ’s best friend. Hooray! The higher-ups don’t know everything! This was also the appeal of the new gospel to the political left. For people who claimed that the world was ruled by groups that controlled by marginalizing other groups, the Gospel of Judas was like a keystone being hammered into place. Men had silenced women, colonialists had silenced the colonized, and now we saw the Christian Church establishing itself by silencing other Christian voices.

The gospel’s enthusiasts had a narrower political purpose, too. The most important fact about Judas, apart from his betrayal of Jesus, is his connection with anti-Semitism. Almost since the death of Christ, Judas has been held up by Christians as a symbol of the Jews: their supposed deviousness, their lust for money, and other racial vices. The Bible scholar Louis Painchaud has said that the current fad for rehabilitating Judas is a consequence of collective guilt over these slanders and, above all, over the Holocaust. This must be true, at least in part. For anyone seeking to defend and protect the Jews, disproving Judas’s guilt would seem a good place to start, and here was an ancient gospel that appeared to support such a revision.

A number of people made special efforts to see that these lessons were learned. The restoration, translation, and publication of the Gospel of Judas were paid for, in large measure, by the National Geographic Society. This was an extremely expensive project, and the society wanted the gospel valued accordingly—that is, as a bombshell. In the same month, April of 2006, that the society published the first English translation, it also aired a television special and brought out a book—Herbert Krosney’s “The Lost Gospel: The Quest for the Gospel of Judas Iscariot”—proclaiming the document’s utterly revolutionary character. “It could create a crisis of faith,” one expert said on the TV show. In both that show and the Krosney book, a lot of sensationalist formulas—the voice from the beyond, the race against time, the some may call it treason—get a vigorous workout.

The trumpet calls were not confined to the mass media. Even the gospel’s translators may have felt the need to augment its revisionist credentials. When Jesus, in the gospel, tells the disciples that no mortal, or almost none, will be saved, one assumes that Judas will be an exception, and that’s what National Geographic’s translators said in the first English edition. But then a number of other scholars took a look at the Coptic text and objected that this was a misreading. The translators must have seen their point, because in the second edition of their version, published last year, the line has been changed—to mean the opposite. Jesus now says to Judas, “You will not ascend on high” to join those in Heaven. In other passages, too, the second edition tells a widely different story from the first.

In fairness, no expert can tell us exactly what the Coptic said. That is not just because of the terrible condition of the codex; even when the words are there, they are often enigmatic. But, as April DeConick, a professor of Biblical studies at Rice University, pointed out in the Times in 2007, there was a troubling consistency to a number of the mistranslations in the first edition: they improved Judas’s image. If the gospel was truly the earth-shaking document that the National Geographic Society claimed it was—if it promoted Judas from villain to hero—then to have him denied admission to Heaven would be decidedly awkward.

Other scholars have solved the nosalvation problem—Judas’s and ours—in other ways. In “Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity” (2007), Elaine Pagels and Karen L. King, two prominent scholars of Gnosticism, refuse to believe that Judas is not going to be rewarded for his services to Christ. In a retranslation of the Judas gospel, by King, that they append to their book, Judas is told that he’s going to Heaven, and that’s that. There is not even a note to explain this departure from the revised National Geographic translation, which, as the authors acknowledge, they saw prior to its publication.

“The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot: A New Look at Betrayer and Betrayed” (2006), by Bart D. Ehrman, a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina, came out too early to have to deal with the National Geographic team’s second thoughts, but Ehrman, in his writings on the gospel, obviously did worry about the statement that just about nobody would be saved. He claims it’s not true that Jesus said that; then he says it’s true; then he says it’s not true—all on a single page. But never mind, he concludes: “Some of us have a spark of the divine within, and when we die, we will burst forth from the prisons of our bodies and return to our heavenly home . . . to live glorious and exalted lives forever.” I like that quiet “some.” Maybe not most of us, maybe not you or me, but some of us.

Cumulatively, the commentaries on the Judas gospel are amazing in their insistence on its upbeat character. Jesus ridicules his disciples, denounces the world, and says that most of us will pass away into nothingness. Hearing this, Judas asks why he and his like were born—a good question. Jesus evades it. The fact that liberal theologians have managed to find hope in all this is an indication of how desperately, in the face of the evangelical movement, they are looking for some crack in the wall of doctrinaire Christianity—some area of surprise, uncertainty, that might then lead to thought.

he supposedly good new Judas of the Codex Tchacos of course reawakened interest in the bad old Judas of the Bible. Was he really a villain, or just a scapegoat? Susan Gubar, a professor of English at Indiana University, has labored for years in the service of historical justice. With Sandra M. Gilbert, she wrote “The Madwoman in the Attic” (1979) and the three-volume “No Man’s Land” (1989-94), basic sourcebooks for those who, in the nineteen-eighties and nineties, were trying to put together a history of women writers omitted from the Anglo-American canon. Since that time, she has written on the literature of the Holocaust and of American racism. Now she has produced “Judas: A Biography” (Norton; $27.95). Refreshingly, the book takes a cold view of the Gospel of Judas. Why all this fuss, Gubar asks, about a positive representation of Judas? There have been many such representations of him, she says, together with negative ones. That winding history is the subject of her book.

In the beginning, Judas had no defenders: as Gubar sees it, each successive Evangelist makes him look worse. By the time of John, in the final Gospel, he is called the Son of Perdition, the same words that Paul had used to describe the Antichrist. Also, John adds what will become a crucial detail: Judas’s professional connection with money. He keeps the “common purse”—the small fund that Jesus and the disciples used for their ministry—and he pilfers from it.

It wasn’t just Judas who was being condemned here. Jesus and all his disciples were Jewish, and they saw themselves as faithful Jews. If they disagreed with the priests of the Temple on certain matters—notably, their belief that Jesus was the Messiah—so did many other Jewish sects of the time. The Christian Jews held to their Jewishness for decades after Christ’s death. Then a change occurred. For a century after the Roman invasion of Judea, in 63 B.C., many Jews believed that this was only a temporary affront. They mounted rebellions against Roman rule, but when the fiercest of these, the Great Jewish Revolt (66-73 A.D.), resulted in a total rout of the Jews, and in the burning of Jerusalem’s Second Temple—which was not only the headquarters of the Jewish religion but also the seat of the Jews’ law courts and the repository of their literature—the people lost heart, and the followers of Christ began to feel that it would be prudent to make friends with the Romans, by disassociating themselves from the Jews. Furthermore, most of their converts were coming from among the Gentiles. Why confuse them by making them think they were joining a Jewish organization?

For these reasons, among others, a small, pious Jewish sect began to claim that it was itself a religion, distinct from—even opposite to—Judaism. Such a decision was, of course, accompanied by considerable anxiety. How to walk away from one’s origins, one’s mother? One way was to identify Judaism with a special, external evil, and this is where Judas came in. In early Christian documents, he is like something out of a monster movie. Here is a portrait of him that has been attributed to Papias, a secondcentury bishop in Asia Minor:

Judas was a dreadful, walking example of impiety in this world, with his flesh bloated to such an extent that he could not walk through a space where a wagon could easily pass. . . . His eyelids were so swollen that it was absolutely impossible for him to see the light and his eyes could not be seen by a physician, even with the help of a magnifying glass, so far had they sunk from their outward projection. His private parts were shamefully huge and loathsome to behold and, transported through them from all parts of his body, pus and worms flooded out together as he shamefully relieved himself.

Judas’s physical repulsiveness was generalized to the Jews—for who were they, as St. Jerome said, but “the sons of Judas”?—and so was the love of money that prompted him to betray Jesus. “Shall I tell you of their plundering, their covetousness, their abandonment of the poor, their thefts, their cheating in trade?” St. John Chrysostom preached.

In the Renaissance and after, Gubar believes, portrayals of Judas become more secular, and more nuanced. Some artists, she says, show Judas and Christ as friends, and more. To make this point, she focusses on two paintings of the Judas kiss, the action by which Judas identified Christ for the police. In Caravaggio’s “The Taking of Christ” (1602-03), she writes, the subject is not so much the betrayal of Christ by his disciple but the victimization of both by the state: “We see Jesus as well as Judas overwhelmed by repressive modes of social control that define both of them as delinquent, criminal, outcast, anathema to the morally bankrupt but highly effective policing authority of the civic state.” What is the state enforcing here? She finds an answer in Ludovico Carracci’s “The Kiss of Judas” (1589-90), a lost painting that survives in a copy by a follower. She calls this canvas “possibly the most startling recreation of the Passion scene,” and it is indeed a surprise: a frankly erotic portrayal, with Jesus, in an off-the-shoulder robe, looking beautiful and dazed as Judas embraces him. The picture sends Gubar into an erotic reverie: “It is Judas’s right hand that gives the picture its extraordinary poignancy, for the fingers hold Jesus’ neck with delicacy, the brush of Judas’s fingertips barely touching Jesus’ skin. . . . I linger on the glamorous lassitude of the ephebe or androgyne and his rapt mate.” Jesus and Judas are “enraptured by distinct visions of excess,” she says. In other words, they are having sexual fantasies about each other. Given this, the arrest becomes an act of homophobia.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Gubar writes, Judas was revised according to the leading political passion of the day. He becomes a revolutionary, bent on throwing the Romans out of Judea. This Judas believed that Jesus had the same intention; that’s why he joined up with him. Then he had to listen to a lot of sermons about love and turning the other cheek. In this reading, Judas betrays Jesus in order to force his hand, get him to launch the revolution. That scenario has been popular with twentieth-century filmmakers, including Martin Scorsese, in “The Last Temptation of Christ” (1988), based on Nikos Kazantzakis’s novel.

n the twentieth century, it does notneed to be said, anti-Semitism achieved a climax. Some historians have claimed that the image of Judas in the European mind was central to the Nazis’ decision to exterminate the Jews—that he was, in Gubar’s words, the “muse of the Holocaust.” The Nazis did stress Judas’s Judaism, and tried to forget Christ’s. In 1899, Houston Stewart Chamberlain, an English writer who eventually married one of Wagner’s daughters and took German citizenship, published a book claiming that Jesus was not Jewish. Galilee, Chamberlain wrote, was inhabited in ancient times by heathen tribes, and Jesus was descended from them. German theologians took to making the same argument, and this made it easier to kill Jews. Gubar believes that the image of Judas as a man who would do anything for money lurks behind Nazi propaganda films, above all the popular “Jew Süss” (1940), a tale of the eighteenth-century German Jewish banker Joseph Süss Oppenheimer, who gained control of the finances of the duchy of Württemberg—the movie shows him leering, pop-eyed, as he pours coins out of a money bag—and was later hanged. This film was screened for the S.S. and for the citizens of occupied towns before special “actions” against the Jews.

By the same token, postwar recoil from anti-Semitism (and, no doubt, the widespread abandonment of faith in the twentieth century) was good for Judas’s reputation. Several distinguished writers—Kazantzakis, Jorge Luis Borges, José Saramago—present him, or seem to, either as a hero, of the resistance-fighter sort, or as a suffering witness. In Mikhail Bulgakov’s “The Master & Margarita” (1966-67), written before the Second World War, Judas is just a young man, who, after receiving his pay from the Temple, goes off, in sandals so new that they squeak, to rendezvous with a woman. Meanwhile, Pontius Pilate, pained that he washed his hands of Jesus and wanting to punish someone for this, mobilizes his secret police, who get Judas’s lady to lead them to him. They butcher him. Significantly, this happens in the Garden of Gethsemane, where Judas turned Jesus over to the authorities. As the episode ends, Judas’s body lies forsaken in the dirt, but a ray of moonlight shines on one of the dearly bought sandals “so that each thong. . . was clearly visible. The garden thundered with nightingale song”—a scene both poignant and dry.

Between the mid-twentieth century and the present, Gubar’s effort to make sense of the history of Judas representations breaks down, because the evidence is too sparse, and too ambiguous, in the modern manner. But the book hits trouble long before it arrives at the modern period, and I think this is because it is essentially an amateur enterprise. Gubar is a literary scholar. Judas is far less important in literature than he is in the visual arts and, needless to say, theology. Again and again, Gubar fails to see her evidence in its proper context. Renaissance artists, she says, turned away from the “earlier stylized portrayals” of the Judas kiss, and began producing more realistic representations, with closeups and facial expressions. That would be an interesting fact about Renaissance paintings of Judas if it were not true of all Renaissance paintings. Likewise with the hints of homophilic feeling that she sees in Caravaggio’s “The Taking of Christ.” To Gubar, this means that, by the sixteenth century, Judas is being reconceived as Christ’s equal, his lover. But it may mean little more than that the painting is by Caravaggio. Hints, and more than hints, of homosexuality appear in a large number of his paintings. That’s why many scholars believe that he was homosexual—a fact unmentioned in Gubar’s book.

The more Gubar doesn’t know, the bolder she becomes in her interpretations. Looking at Giotto’s “Betrayal of Christ” (circa 1305), probably the most famous painting of the Judas kiss, she decides that this Judas is overweight—a telling fact, she believes. “The plump face of Judas, as well as his corpulent frame beneath the enveloping robe, warns that the kiss might be an incorporating bite.” It’s not enough that he betrays Jesus; he wants to eat him. Neo-Freudianism is what pushes Gubar down that rabbit hole, but normally the source of her caprices is just postmodern politics:

A male Eve, Judas—rejecting or accepting, promoting or curtailing Jesus’ potency—inhabits a decidedly queer place in the Western imaginary. To the extent that Judas stands for the poser or passer—a person who is not what he seems to be—he reflects anxieties about all sorts of banned or ostracized groups, not just Jews. An apostle in an all-male circle, associated with anality and with the disclosure of secrets, Judas retains his masculinity. . . . At other times and in diverse contexts, though, Judas represents a range of quite various and variously stigmatized populations—criminals, heretics, foreigners, Africans, dissidents, the disabled, the suicidal, the insane, the incurably ill, the agnostic. Members of these groups, too, have been faulted for posing or passing as (alien) insiders. Potentially convertible, all such outcasts might be thought to be using camouflaging techniques to infiltrate, hide out, assimilate, and thereby turn a treacherous trick.

Really? The incurably ill are turning tricks? Good for them!

This is shocking nonsense—argument by incantation—but its import is clear: Judas represents all the oppressed, and Gubar is there to defend them.

et it is Gubar who raises a crucial question unasked in most of the recent writings on Judas: Why shouldn’t we entertain the idea of an archetypal betrayer? In Gubar’s view, the original, Biblical Judas may have had a bad influence on our politics, but he does represent something true about our lives. He testifies, she says, to the “distressing nature of the human condition,” our “capacity for faltering and sinning” and then for despair and self-hatred—which, somehow, don’t prevent us from faltering and sinning again. Many of us, on many occasions, are not going to love one another. If this widely acknowledged fact is personified by one figure in the New Testament, why shouldn’t it be?

The alternative is to revise the Bible. Some religious scholars think that this is a good idea. Regina M. Schwartz, in her book “The Curse of Cain: The Violent Legacy of Monotheism” (1997), argues that the Old Testament’s endorsement of violence—the fruit, she says, of monotheism, with its intolerance—has been so destructive that we should delete it from the text and “produce an alternative Bible . . . embracing multiplicity instead of monotheism.” The religious scholar Willis Barnstone’s “The Restored New Testament,” which will be published in the fall, includes not only the canonical Gospels but also three Gnostic gospels: those of Thomas and Mary Magdalene, from Nag Hammadi, and the Gospel of Judas. But, if we’re going to start rewriting the Bible, where will that end? What is the Old Testament except a story about monotheism? And what is the Passion without a sinner to set it in motion? Was Jesus crucified by people who were being good? And, if Judas is let off the hook, surely we have to reconsider the guilt of the Roman soldiers—not to speak of the mob, for they were Jews, surely a group deserving special consideration here.

All this, I believe, is a reaction to the rise of fundamentalism—the idea, Christian and otherwise, that every word of a religion’s founding document should be taken literally. This is a childish notion, and so is the belief that we can combat it by correcting our holy books. Those books, to begin with, are so old that we barely understand what their authors meant. Furthermore, because of their multiple authorship, they are always internally inconsistent. Finally, even the fundamentalists don’t really take them literally. People interpret, and cheat. The answer is not to fix the Bible but to fix ourselves. ♦

ART: NATIONAL GALLERY OF IRELAND

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Michael Jackson on Fire

2009-07-24T00:20:00.001+08:00

Malaysian Latest News

2009-07-12T08:51:00.001+08:00

Oil falls to near $62 in Asia amid worries over slower-than-expected economic recovery

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Oil prices fell to near $62 a barrel Wednesday in Asia growing concerns over a slower-than-expected recovery in the global economy.

Indian detained in Malaysia, drugs seized

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysian customs police detained a 25-year-old Indian man and seized 25 kg of the drug ketamine, a news report said Tuesday.

Dead man’s religion sparks row: Malaysian judge says law inadequate

KUALA LUMPUR - The row over Malaysian art director Mohan Singh’s religion following his death has led to a judge observing that there is “inadequacy” in the law over non-Muslims converting to Islam.

US admiral denounces NKorea’s missile launches; SKorean says NKorean missiles improved

SEOUL, South Korea — The chief of U.S. Naval operations denounced North Korea on Monday for a volley of weekend missile tests, as South Korea said the launches showed the communist regime has improved its missile accuracy.

Malay parents, teachers want probe into school principal’s karaoke sessions with girls

KUALA LUMPUR - The Parent-Teacher Association of a secondary school in Malaysia is seeking the help of authorities to investigate claims that the school principal held karaoke sessions with female students at the girls’ hostel.

Sikh family loses court battle against conversion of dead man in Muslim-majority Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — A Sikh family lost a court battle Monday in Muslim-majority Malaysia for the right to cremate one of their relatives after officials said the man had converted to Islam years before his death.

Malaysian party to rope in NGOs to woo Indians

KUALA LUMPUR - The Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) wants to rope in a network of NGOs to reach out to the Indian community that it hopes to win back after last year’s poll setback.

MIC to woo Indians with help from NGOs

KUALA LUMPUR - The Malaysian Indian Congress has been moving silently on the ground, wooing disgruntled Indians who are angry with the handling of several issues by the opposition coalition Pakatan Rakyat.

Malay company raided for selling ‘Viagra coffee’

KUALA LUMPUR - A Malaysian company in Gombak has been raided for marketing coffee mixture with a secret ingredient that guaranteed to “perk up” drinkers - later identified as Viagra.

Malaysia’s leader makes bold gambit by rolling back long-preserved affirmative action policies

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The economic downturn is allowing Malaysia’s leader to chip away at an affirmative action program for Malay Muslims that has been considered virtually untouchable in the past.

Seven Indian barbers claim Malaysian boss abused them for four years

PENANG/KUALA LUMPUR - Seven Indian nationals have lodged a complaint with the Indian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur, accusing their employer in Penang of abusing them and failing to pay their salaries regularly for the past four years.

Women using food court in Kuala Lumpur to solicit for sex

KUALA LUMPUR - A food court in Jalan Gelang, off Jalan Loke Yew, in Kuala Lumpur is said to have been turned into a place where women solicit for sex.

Malaysia unveils major liberalization in its economy to woo foreign investors

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysia took a big step Tuesday to liberalize its economy, relaxing a host of restrictions on foreign investment, including a controversial rule requiring businesses to be partly owned by ethnic Malays.

Malay-Indian actress on fast-track to stardom

KUALA LUMPUR - Malay-Tamil actress Shantini Theva used to be a Tamil film fan, but today, she is part of the glitzy industry herself-she is playing one of the main female leads in big budget flick ‘Nadodigal’.

Sultan of Perak applauds Malay-Sikh community’s spirit

KUALA LUMPUR - The Sultan of the Malaysian state of Perak, Azlan Shah, has saluted the Malay-Sikh community for its contributions to the country’s economic, cultural and political fields.

Role reversal now woman circulates mans nude pictures

KUALA LUMPUR - A Malaysian man is appealing to his former girlfriend to stop circulating his nude pictures and to destroy them.

Malaysian Indian woman seeks probe into husband’s custodial death

KUALA LUMPUR - A Malaysian Indian woman having seven children has petitioned parliament to get the government to order an inquest into the death of her husband while in police custody.

Malay robber’s bail posting wife turns out to be sari-clad man!

KUALA LUMPUR - A woman, who appeared in the Sessions Court in Kuala Lumpur to post bail for her husband, caused a major stir when it was discovered that “she” was a “he”.

Lecturer who demanded sex, money to pass students nabbed in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR - The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has arrested a lecturer of a private international university who allegedly demanded sex and money from his students in return for better grades.

Car theft syndicates employing sexy girls to steal amorous men’s cars

KUALA LUMPUR - Sexy women are helping car theft syndicates steal amorous businessmen’s luxury vehicles, says a report.

Malaysian kung fu master punctures coconut with index finger

KUALA LUMPUR - A Malaysian Kung Fu expert has entered record books after puncturing four young unhusked coconuts with his index finger in 30.81 seconds.

When a suspicious wife found hubby’s lover was a man

KUALA LUMPUR - A woman who suspected her husband of having an affair was left gob-smacked when she found out that her rival to be a man.

Malay women queuing for refreshing spa and salon services in jail

KUALA LUMPUR - Women are increasingly queuing up to go to the Kajang Prison (women’s wing) in Malaysia, which has opened spa and salon services.

Malay women warned of voyeur with “shoe-pinhole cameras”

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysian cops have urged women to be more vigilant and be wary of strangers standing near them after e-mail messages showing at least nine pictures allegedly taken up the skirts of women in the country were widely circulated via the Internet recently.

Tamil mooted as subject for Malaysian Indian students

KUALA LUMPUR - The oldest party of ethnic Indians, the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) has proposed that Tamil language be included as the 11th subject in the country’s high school education.

‘India is a good study destination for Malaysian students’

KUALA LUMPUR - Deputy Minister in the Malaysian Prime Minister’s Department, S.K. Devamany, has said that India can be a good option for Malaysian students who want to study abroad, and vice-versa.

Study in India, Malaysian minister tells students

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysian students looking to study abroad have been urged by a minister to consider India as an option.

Malaysian Hindu Sangam wants religious studies to be made mandatory

KUALA LUMPUR - Kedah Hindu Sangam chief R.N. Mohan Shan has called for the religious studies to be made compulsory in Tamil schools in a bid to instill moral values in Malay-Indian students.

MIC to fight for inclusion of Tamil language and literature subjects in curriculum

KUALA LUMPUR - In a bid to enable Malay Tamil students to take Tamil language and literature subjects, the Malaysian Indian Congress has said it wants to extend the 10-subject limit for SPM students to 11 subjects by 2010.

4 men gang-raped teen for 12 days after she accepted lift

KUALA LUMPUR - A teenager, who accepted a lift from four strangers on her way home, was gang-raped and held captive by them for 12 days in a house in Kuantan.

Study in India, Malaysian minister tells students

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysian students looking to study abroad have been urged by a minister to consider India as an option.

Malaysian Hindu Sangam wants religious studies to be made mandatory

KUALA LUMPUR - Kedah Hindu Sangam chief R.N. Mohan Shan has called for the religious studies to be made compulsory in Tamil schools in a bid to instill moral values in Malay-Indian students.

MIC to fight for inclusion of Tamil language and literature subjects in curriculum

4 men gang-raped teen for 12 days after she accepted lift

KUALA LUMPUR - A teenager, who accepted a lift from four strangers on her way home, was gang-raped and held captive by them for 12 days in a house in Kuantan.

Pathetic state of religious school in Malaysia upsets parents

KUALA LUMPUR - The plight of students of a religious school complex in Malaysia’s Jinjang Utara can be highlighted from the fact that they are forced to study in a cabin-like environment, the Sinar Harian reported.

Malaysian banks are refusing to accept Tamil written cheques, says MP

KUALA LUMPUR - An opposition MP has expressed surprise that local banks are still refusing to honour cheques written in Tamil, the Malaysia Nanban reports.

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar seeks to block sodomy trial, calls it ‘complete farce’

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has asked a Malaysian court to throw out a sodomy charge against him, two weeks before the start of a trial that he maintains is politically motivated, his lawyer said Thursday.

Malay transvestites turn to the Pill to become more curvy, girly

KUALA LUMPUR - Transvestites in Malaysia have turned to contraceptive pills to become more of a woman.

Singaporean family includes ‘devoted’ maids’ names in mother’s obituary

KUALA LUMPUR - A Singaporean family has included the names of their mother’s three maids together with other close family members in her obituary published by a newspaper.

Four Malay pupils forced to perform oral sex on teacher

KUALA LUMPUR - A primary school teacher reportedly forced four pupils aged between eight and 10 to perform oral sex on him and made them pose for pictures.

Malay Indian group calls for trade boycott of Colombo

KUALA LUMPUR - The Malaysian Indian Business Association has called for a trade boycott of Sri Lanka in an effort to pressure its government to address humanitarian concerns in the war-torn state.

MIC Youth to help Malay Indian traders get loans

KUALA LUMPUR - The youth wing of the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) has decided to intensify efforts to aid Malay Indian small and medium entrepreneurs get easy loans.

Driver’s ’sexploits’ on bus come to an end after rape claims

KUALA LUMPUR - A bus driver, who has been duping women into having sex with him on board his vehicle at the last stop, has been arrested after a woman lodged a complain that he had raped her.

Malaysian Indian minister to sue party chief for defamation

KUALA LUMPUR - A Malaysian Indian minister who was ‘elected’ by his supporters last month as president of the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) has threatened to sue the incumbent chief for defamation.

AP Interview: Emirates chief confident of staying profitable, no plans to cancel big jet order

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The head of Emirates said Tuesday the airline has no plans to cancel the 160 new planes it has ordered — including 58 Airbus A380 superjumbos — despite the global travel slump.

Malaysian Indian Congress leaders make peace

KUALA LUMPUR - A major dissident leader has ended an unsuccessful bitter battle with Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) president S. Samy Vellu saying it would help make the party relevant again for the Indian community.

‘Too many political parties dividing Malay Indian community’

KUALA LUMPUR - Malay-Indian community leaders have expressed concern over the presence of too many political parties claiming representation of the eight percent Indian population in Malaysia.

Airline chiefs dismiss safety fears over Airbus A330 planes after Air France crash

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Several airline chiefs dismissed safety fears over the Airbus A330 on Tuesday, saying they were confident of the plane’s reliability despite last week’s Air France jet crash.

Singapore children hiring private detectives to snoop on dads’ affairs

KUALA LUMPUR - A large number of Singaporean children are hiring private detectives to find out about their dads’ ’secret affairs’.

Royal Dutch Shell chief warns of future oil price spikes if investment continues to slacken

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Oil prices will spike in the future without investment in the sector to meet demand once the global economy recovers, said Royal Dutch Shell Chief Executive Jeroen van der Veer on Monday.

Three Indian banks form joint venture in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR - Three Indian banks have put up an initial investment of 86 million dollars into a joint venture to set up a subsidiary in Malaysia.

Airlines to lose $9 billion in global crisis

KUALA LUMPUR - The world’s airlines are expected to lose $9 billion this year due to the deepening crisis in global air travel, a major industry group said Monday.

World airlines seen losing $9 billion in 2009, double previous forecast, IATA says

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The world’s airlines will collectively lose $9 billion this year — nearly double the previous projections — and face a slow recovery as the economic crisis saps air travel and cargo demand, an industry body warned Monday.

American Airlines, British Airways hope to begin cooperation on trans-Atlantic flights by 2010

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — American Airlines and British Airways voiced confidence Monday of winning approval from U.S. and European authorities to allow them to cooperate on trans-Atlantic flights by 2010.

Airline chiefs meet amid worsening global aviation crisis

KUALA LUMPUR - Airline chiefs gathered in Malaysia Monday for an international aviation meeting to focus on strategies to fight off a deepening crisis in global air travel.

Malaysian PM hopes Indian community will work harder to boost their children’s education

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has appreciated the achievement of the Malay Indian students, and hoped that community would work harder to boost the performance of their children.

Malay ‘grandpa of all devils’ raped 5yr-old granddaughter with three others for 3 weeks

KUALA LUMPUR - A sexagenarian man in Malaysia has been pronounced “grandfather of all devils” after he allegedly raped his five-year-old granddaughter with three others for almost three weeks.

Malay Indian widows told to be brave in facing challenges

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia’s Women Development Bureau chief, Vimala Nair, has urged widowed Malay-Indian women to be bold and brave in facing challenges that lie ahead.

‘Salam’ diplomacy: Obama’s words and references win favor with Muslims

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The tone of respect was set from the opening lines of President Barack Obama’s address to the Muslim world.

IATA calls for more open skies as it sees airlines losing more than $4.7 billion this year

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The International Air Transport Association called for more liberalization to bolster the global airline industry, which is expected to lose more than $4.7 billion this year because of falling cargo and passenger traffic.

2009-07-04T22:37:00.002+08:00

These videos have all the recorded conversations of the Pakistani terrorists (including Qasab) with their commanders in Pakistan. They talk about "how Allah will give them martyrdom if they kill innocent people" ... "How they will reach paradise, if they shoot at the back of the heads of two people made to sit on their knees". Qasab agrees on video that "Why he killed so many people". Also, "It is the plan of Let". He says "We just wanted to kill as many people as possible, and make it look as spectacular as possible". A Muslim couple that survived the attack testifies that "the terrorists rulthlessly killed 3 women in front of them. One of them was a young Singaporean lawyer who had come to Mumbai for 1-day seminar. After that, When the muslim couple prayed & read a verse from Quran (which is meant to be said after someone dies); then the terrorists were shocked to hear that. The terrorists said, we wont shoot you. You are brother." A man lost his wife, A boy lost his parents and a mother lost her son; in front of their eyes. They all testify on record of how brutal, inhumane and barbaric were the terrorists who randomly fired at civilians in Cama Hospital, VT Station, Chabad House, Taj Hotel & Oberoi Hotel. In the recorded conversation of the terrorists with their masterminds in Pakistan, they clearly confess that "they did it for Allah, Jannat and Jihad and his religion".

These are the EXACT words.

This video is the most brutal and the most real face of Islamist Jihad. Recorded proofs of How, Why, and for Whom; they wanted to kill innocent people in Mumbai. Jews, Christians, Hindus; they wanted to kill them all.

Kural TV : Seeman Sirappu Santhippu

2009-06-24T13:00:00.001+08:00

Malu Song - Humour

2009-06-17T18:00:00.001+08:00

http://www.google.co.in/transliterate/indic/igoogle/Tamil

200,000 Tamils massacred by the sri lankan army!

2009-06-15T09:49:00.002+08:00

200,000 Tamils massacred by the sri lankan army! Well planned Genocide by the government!!!

Source: www.youtube.com

More than 200,000 Tamil civilians were killed in the final throes of the Sri Lankan civil war, most as a result of government shelling, an investigation by The Times has revealed. The number of casualties is three times the official figure. ...

Cadet Pilot

2009-06-02T13:49:00.005+08:00

Wanna be a pilot? Are you sure you still wanna be a pilot? Ok, fair if that is what you wanna to be, your dream! BUT, do you know how much it takes to be a pilot? You need to satisfy 3 things first. Education, health and money...Most aspiring pilots qualify for the first two quite easily but when comes to money they fail miserably. You know how much it cost you to become a commercial airline pilot? Approximately RM250,000 in fees and accommodation excluding personal expenses. Well, that's real big money for layman's child. So, for those pilot wannabes whose parents can afford are safe. There are two options if you are still adamant to become a pilot, one way is to apply to the government bodies like the arm forces, RMAF, Navy, Army, Maritime & Border Patrol. Vacancies are limited, selection process is tough, and I was told that to some extend racial quota is applied, no wonder I see a single race dominate the flying field in these sector. Anyway, no harm trying.

Next, commercial airlines do have their cadet programmes and of course you have to back once you are trained and accepted as a pilot. Signing a bond is must, and failing in the middle of training for whatever reason will make your parent pay for life. Some say these programmes stinks saying it is just an eyewash to show that they are people friendly. Reason; they say these airline invites application and keep the applicants in the dark. They shortlist some and call for a tough test on the applicants ability. Applicants must pass a series of psychomotor, psychometric, interview and medical test. The problem is that these test are not fixed at specific dates. The airlines fix them as and when they like. The whole process may even take a year or two to be selected. Waiting in the dark is the order of the day. Some die hard applicants miss their college & university entries while waiting. Airlines have yet to fix this problem. I do not understand why it takes such a long time to process entry to qualify as a cadet pilot. The airlines must be professional and matured enough to finish their process within a month so that an applicant who do not qualify can opt to take a different route to study something else. There is no reason why an applicant should be made to wait for a long time without knowing the results. It is like holding an applicant to ransom.

To all those pilot wannabes, do you still wanna be a pilot.....I wish you every success in your dream to become a PILOT.

Unprincipled, shameless, "Orwellian" UN resolution ever - Prof. Boyle

2009-05-29T16:05:00.000+08:00

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 May 2009, 23:31 GMT]
"This is one of the most unprincipled and shameless resolutions ever adopted by any body of the United Nations in the history of that now benighted Organization. It would be as if the U.N. Human Rights Council had congratulated the Nazi government for the "liberation" of the Jews in Poland after its illegal and genocidal invasion of that country in 1939," said Francis Boyle, professor of International Law at the University of Illinois College of Law, referring to the resolution passed at the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Sri Lanka war.

UN Adopted Resolution on Sri Lanka

"This Resolution simultaneously gives the imprimatur of the U.N. Human Rights Council to the ethnic cleansing, genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes that the Government of Sri Lanka has already inflicted upon the Tamils in the past , as well as the Council's proverbial "green light" for the GOSL to perpetrate and escalate more of the same international crimes against the Tamils in the future," Boyle said.

Prof Francis Boyle, University of Illinois College of Law

"The U.N. Human Rights Council and those member States that voted in favor of this Resolution have thereby become ACCESSORIES AFTER THE FACT to the GoSL's genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and ethnic cleansing against the Tamils in the past, as well as AIDERS AND ABETTORS to future acts of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and ethnic cleansing that the GOSL will undoubtedly inflict upon the Tamils thanks to this Resolution-all in violation of the Genocide Convention, the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Two Additional Protocols of 1977 as well as the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court.

Swiss Resolution on Sri Lanka

Text of Sri Lanka Resolution

"Sri Lanka, together with these other Council States, are contracting parties to some or all of these International Criminal Law Conventions and therefore must be held accountable for their violation and international crimes against the Tamils," Boyle added.

"History shall so judge them all!

"Orwell stands vindicated by the U.N. Human Rights Council: WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS FREEDOM, THE U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL LOVES BIG BROTHER," Boyle said, indicating he is deeply disturbed by the U.N. action.

Chronology:

28.05.09 Unprincipled, shameless, "Orwellian" UN resolution..

26.05.09 “Glaring hypocrisy, blatant sophistry” Boyle slams..

23.05.09 "Accessories after the fact to acts of Genocide"

22.05.09 300,000 Tamils held in Nazi-style concentration ca..

20.05.09 Sri Lanka destroys evidence, prevents ICRC, UN acc..

13.05.09 "Klerk risks repeating Netherland's criminality on..

12.05.09 Prof. Boyle: hold Emergency Meeting of UNSC to sto..

12.05.09 US violates Geneva Convention by permitting Sri La..

10.05.09 India should sue Sri Lanka in ICJ for massacre of ..

08.05.09 UN violating Charter obligation to promote, encour..

07.05.09 Green light to rid Tigers while 50,000 lives at ri..

05.05.09 Slow-motion genocide to exceed horrors of Srebreni..

04.05.09 India obligated to bring Sri Lanka's genocide to U..

30.04.09 Prof. Boyle calls for humanitarian airdrop to star..

30.04.09 Miliband's statement obligates UK to take immediat..

22.04.09 Stalling, obfuscation mirror UN's actions before S..

22.04.09 Nambiar reluctant to brief UN Security Council on ..

18.04.09 Colombo shouldn’t block UN visiting safety zone: N..

20,000 Tamil civilians massacred by Sri Lanka – The Times

2009-05-29T15:31:00.001+08:00

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 May 2009, 00:54 GMT]
Evidence gathered by The Times newspaper has revealed that at least 20,000 Tamil people were killed on the Mullaitivu beach by Sri Lanka Army shelling. Aerial photographs, official documents, witness accounts and expert testimony collected by the newspaper “present clear evidence of an atrocity that comes close to matching Srebrenica, Darfur and other massacres of civilians,” the paper’s editorial says. Confidential UN documents acquired by The Times record nearly 7,000 civilian deaths in the ‘no-fire’ zone up to the end of April. UN sources said that the toll then surged, with an average of 1,000 civilians killed each day until May 19.

Times photo gallery of Tamil slaughter

“These figures are not even complete yet,” the UN source told the paper. “It’s going to end up way more.”

Three independent defence analysts who examined photographs of Sri lanka Army and LTTE firing positions taken over the no-fire zone confirmed that the range of the LTTE weaponry and the narrowness of the zone make it unlikely that LTTE munitions caused significant civilian casualties.

Times video of Tamil slaughter

The Times reported acquisition of the evidence of the “hidden massacre” of Tamil civilians by Sri Lanka’s Army in a set of articles Friday.

The paper also slammed the UN Human Rights Council’s resolution Wednesday congratulating Sri Lanka’s conduct of the war.

The full text of The Times editorial, titled ‘Slaughter in Sri Lanka’, follows

“Deeply disappointing” was how a human rights group yesterday described the vote in the United Nations Human Rights Council hailing the victory of the Sri Lankan Government. This is a breathtaking understatement. It was an utter disgrace. The 47-member body, set up in 2006 to replace the previous corrupt and ineffectual UN Commission on Human Rights, has abjectly failed one of its first and most important tests.

It was asked by its European members to investigate widespread reports of atrocities and war crimes committed by both government troops and the Tamil Tigers in the final weeks of the conflict. The council chose instead to debate a one-sided, mendacious and self-serving motion put forward by the Sri Lankans. This welcomed the “liberation” of tens of thousands of the island's citizens, condemned the defeated Tigers, made no mention of the shelling of civilians and kept silent on the desperate need to allow the Red Cross and other humanitarian groups into the camps where some 270,000 Tamil civilians have been interned.

Support for this deeply flawed resolution came from the usual suspects - China, Russia, India, Pakistan and a clutch of Asian and Islamic nations determined to prevent the council ever investigating human rights violations in their own or any country. It was sad to see Israel, for obvious political motives, joining in this charade, claiming that massacres, violence, repression and internment are an “internal affair”.

To her credit, Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, insisted that there needed still to be an inquiry into “very serious abuses”. Those abuses, it now emerges, are far, far worse than the outside world imagined. The UN estimated that 7,000 people were killed in the first four months of this year; the figure now appears to be at least 20,000. Thousands of these victims died as a result of the shelling by the Sri Lankan Army of the strip of coastline where the final remnants of Tiger resistance were trapped, along with at least 100,000 civilians.

Photographs taken by The Times present clear evidence of an atrocity that comes close to matching Srebrenica, Darfur and other massacres of civilians. In the sandy so-called no-fire zone where the trapped Tamil civilians were told to go to escape the brutal army bombardment, there are hundreds of fresh graves as well as craters and debris where tents once stood. This was no safe zone. This was where terrified civilians buried their dead as the shells landed - after the Government had declared an end to the use of heavy weapons on April 27.

Some civilians were probably killed by the Tigers, whose brutality and ruthlessness over the past 28 years has fully justified their depiction as terrorists. Finding out what happened, however, is impossible: the army has barred entry to all outsiders. Food is short, sanitation appalling; wounded and traumatised civilians are in desperate need of help. That much is clear from those who have been able to escape. More sinister reports are now circulating of systematic “disappearances”, of families separ- ated and young men taken away. But until the Government allows in aid workers, the presumption must be that it wants nothing to be heard or seen of what is going on.

This tactic was used in the final push to beat the Tigers. The army wanted no witness to the onslaught, no journalists to alert the world to human rights violations, no photographers to record the suffering. Sri Lanka, now basking in its victory, may set the pattern for other nations battling against insurgencies. For them, victory is all that matters. Most of Sri Lanka may rejoice at the end of a bloody civil war. But the UN has no right to collude in suppressing the appalling evidence of the cost. The truth must be told.

War Crimes Committed By Government Of Sinhalese Lanka

2009-05-29T10:07:00.004+08:00

Sri Lanka High Commissioner,

Damn you, your fight is with the LTTE and not the Tamils; how you fight, capture and kill the brave LTTE soldiers whom you cowardly call terrorist is your business, BUT now you have committed a heavy & the worlds most worst heinous crime against your own citizen, the Tamils; and for that you and your stupid government have to pay a heavy price including that of sending your president to be charged in Haque for genocide. Each and every member of Sri Lankan government involved in this massacre and bloody bloodbath should be tried for war crimes. The global Tamils will not let you go scott free at any time. The Tamils worldwide will bring this matter to the international forum to crush you, and we will not stop until justice is done to those innocent Tamils maimed and incarcerated by you and your government. You have the tendecy to call this matter a joke only under your diplomatic immunity otherwise you coward would not have uttered a word against the Tamils in our country Malaysia. We, the Malaysians Tamils warned you to behave like a diplomat failing which we will condemn you with worst repercussions. Damn you, dumb Comnmisioner.

* You went missing at the Bar Counsil meet, but you still have to appear somewhere, you cannot hide forever, damn you, coward.

War Crimes Committed By Government Of Sinhalese Lanka (May 25, 2009)

Lee Kuan Yew : Minister Mentor at 84, the fire still burns!

2009-05-29T10:03:00.002+08:00

By Ahmad Mustapha

Singapore’s Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew, who was Singapore’s founding father, has always been very direct in his comments. This was the man who outsmarted the communists in Singapore (with the innocent help of Malaya then and the willing help of the British) and who later outwitted the British and outpaced Malaysia in all spheres.

Singapore practices corrupt-free meritocracy and Malaysia affirmative action. The former attracted all the best brains and the latter chased out all the brains. The Singapore cabinet consists of dedicated and intelligent technocrats whereas Malaysia has one the most unwieldy cabinets. Not only that, brain wise it was below par not even good for the kampong.

With that kind of composition, one that is very brainy, naturally Singapore , with no natural resources could outstrip Malaysia in every aspect of development. Malaysia, on the other hand, was too much preoccupied with its Malayness and the illusory ‘Ketuanan Melayu’ and was also more interested in useless mega iconic development rather than real social and economic development.

Whenever Kuan Yew utters anything that deemed to be a slight on Malaysia , voices were raised admonishing him. Malaysia would never dare to face reality. That Singapore had shown that it could survive was a slap on those who believed that Singapore would fold up once it left Malaysia . Therefore it was natural that these doomsayers would try to rationalise their utterances to be in their favour to combat on whatever Kuan Yew commented. Its political jealousy.

Singapore achieved its development status without any fanfare. But here in Malaysia , a development that was deceptive was proclaimed as having achieved development status. It was trumpeted as an achievement that befits first world status. This was self delusion. Malaysians are led to believe into a make believe world, a dream world. The leaders who themselves tend to believe in their own fabricated world did not realise the people were not taken in by this kind of illusion.

Lee Kuan Yew believed in calling a spade a spade. I was there in Singapore when the People’s Action Party won the elections in 1959. He was forthright in his briefing to party members as to what was expected of them and what Singapore would face in the future. Ideologically, I did not agree with him. We in the University of Malaya Socialist Club had a different interpretation of socialist reconstruction. But he was a pragmatist and wanted to bring development and welfare to the Singaporeans. Well! He succeeded.

Malaysia was so much embroiled in racial politics and due to the fear of losing political power, all actions taken by the main party in power was never targeted towards bringing wealth to all. Wealth was distributed to the chosen few only. They were the cronies and the backers of the party leadership to perpetuate their own selfish ends.

Seeing the efficiency and the progress achieved by Singapore caused the Malaysian leadership to suffer from an inferiority complex. That Malaysia should suffer from this complex was of its own making.

In a recent interview, Kuan Yew said that Malaysia could have done better if only it treated its minority Chinese and Indian population fairly. Instead they were completely marginalised and many of the best brains left the country in drove. He added that Singapore was a standing indictment to what Malaysia could have done differently. He just hit the nail right there on the head.

Malaysia recently celebrated its 50th year of independence with a bagful of uncertainties. The racial divide has become more acute. The number of Malay graduates unemployed is on the increase. And this aspect can be very explosive. But sad to see that no positive actions have been taken to address these social ills.

Various excuses were given by Malaysian leaders why Singapore had far outstripped Malaysia in all aspects of social and economic advancement. Singapore was small, they rationalised and therefore easy to manage. Singapore was not a state but merely an island.

There was one other aspect that Malaysia practises and that is to politicise all aspects of life. All government organs and machinery were ‘UMNO-ised’. This was to ensure that the party will remain in power. Thus there was this misconception by the instruments of government as to what national interest is and what UMNO vested interest is.

UMNO vested interest only benefited a few and not the whole nation. But due to the UMNO-isation of the various instruments of government, the country under the present administration had equated UMNO vested interest as being that of national interest. Thus development became an avenue of making money and not for the benefit of the people. The fight against corruption took a back seat. Transparency was put on hold. And the instruments of government took it to be of national interest to cater to the vested interest of UMNO. Enforcement of various enactments and laws was selective. Thus a ‘palace’ in Kelang, APs cronies and close-one-eye umno MPs could exist without proper procedure. Corruption infested all govt departments, the worse is the police and lately even in the judiciary.

Singapore did not politicise its instruments of government. If ever policisation took place, it is guided by national interest. To be efficient and to be the best in the region was of paramount importance. Thus all the elements like corruption, lackadaisical attitude towards work and other black elements, which would retard such an aim, were eliminated. Singapore naturally had placed the right priority in it’s pursuit to achieve what is best for its people. This is the major difference between these two independent countries.

Malaysia in its various attempts to cover up its failures embarked on several diversions. It wanted its citizens to be proud that the country had the tallest twin-tower in the world, although the structure was designed and built by foreigners. Its now a white-elephant wasting away. It achieved in sending a man into space at an exorbitant price. What for purpose? These are what the Malays of old would say “menang sorak” (hollow victories).

It should be realised that administering a country can be likened to managing a corporate entity. If the management is efficient and dedicated and know what they are doing, the company will prosper. The reverse will be if the management is poor and bad. The company will go bust.

There are five countries around this region. There is Malaysia , and then Indonesia . To the east there is the Philippines and then there is that small enclave called the Sultanate of Brunei . All these four countries have abundance of natural resources but none can lay claim to have used all these resources to benefit the people. Poverty was rampant and independence had not brought in any significant benefits to the people.

But tiny Singapore without any resources at all managed to bring development to its citizens. It had one of the best public MRT transport systems and airlines in the world and it is a very clean city state. Their universities, health care, ports are among the best in the world.

It is impossible to compare what Singapore has achieved to what all these four countries had so far achieved. It was actually poor management and corruption, and nothing more. Everything is done for the vested interest of the few.

Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines and the Sultanate of Brunei need good management teams. They would not be able to do this on their own steam. I would advise that they call on Kuan Yew to show them what good governance is. Why look East to Japan when it is just next door across the causeway.

STOP GENOCIDE OF TAMILS IN SRI LANKA PROTEST

2009-05-25T10:29:00.001+08:00

Thousands of people gathered at the Batu Caves temple this morning to protest against the Sri Lankan government despite a police warning against the rally.

The protest rally was to voice the opposition against the war crimes perpetuated by the Sri Lankan government against innocent Tamils in its ongoing war against the LTTE.

LTTE has been fighting for a separate Eelam state in the north of Sri Lanka. The war reached a boiling point earlier this week with the Sri Lankan government claiming victory with the killing of LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Reporting: K Pragalath Kumar
Camera: Amirudding Abdullah
Editing: Shufiyan Shukur

STOP GENOCIDE OF TAMILS IN SRI LANKA PROTEST

Thousands of people gathered at the Batu Caves temple this morning to protest against the Sri Lankan government despite a police warning against the rally.

The protest rally was to voice the opposition against the war crimes perpetuated by the Sri Lankan government against innocent Tamils in its ongoing war against the LTTE.

LTTE has been fighting for a separate Eelam state in the north of Sri Lanka. The war reached a boiling point earlier this week with the Sri Lankan government claiming victory with the killing of LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran.

In the process, thousands of innocent victims, almost all of whom were Tamils, have been killed and about 100,000 made homeless.

The protest today was organised by the World Tamil Relief and the Coalition of NGOs movements.

Among those who attended the rally included MIC information chief and Deputy FT Minister M Saravanan, DAP’s Teluk Intan parliamentarian M Manoharan, DAP’s Ipoh Barat MP M Kulasegaran, PKR’s Padang Serai MP N Gobalakrishnan , Kapar MP S Manikavasagam and Batu Caves temple committee chairperson R Nadarajah.

Also present were DAP’s Klang MP Charles Santiago and MIC Youth wing advisor S Vell Paari.

Yesterday the Selangor police urged the public not to join the protest as it was being held without a police permit.

State deputy police chief Jamshah Mustafa however said that people can go to Batu Caves to pray but “not for an illegal rally”.

But despite the police warning, there was no strong police presence in Batu Caves.

One of the organisers SP Pathi told Malaysiakini that they had originally expected some 15,000 people to participate today but conceded that the police warning would mean fewer people turning up.

Eyewitnesses said that a few hundred people had gathered by 10am. By noon the crowd size had swelled up to about 4,000. By the time the rally ended at about 1pm organisers said some 5,000 people had attended.

They have committed war crimes

Several posters condemning the Sri Lankan government were also seen pasted in Batu Caves. A platform was set up on the field within the temple compound where fiery speeches were made.

First to speak to the crowd was Nadarajah who said that he was pressured by some quarters not to allow for the rally to take place in the temple compound today.

“But I insisted on it being held in support for the Sri Lankan Tamils,” he said to the loud approval of the crowd.

Saravanan also lauded the presence of so many politicians at the rally despite their political differences.

“I am proud that we can stand united here for our Sri Lankan Tamil brothers,” he said.

He also lashed out at the Indian government, particularly the Tamil Nadu state government, for not doing anything to stop the attacks on civilians in Sri Lanka.

“If one Prabhakaran is killed, thousands of Prabhakaran will rise. If Israel can be formed, a Tamil nation can be formed too,” he added.

He also urged the Malaysian government not to support a draft resolution tabled by Sri Lanka at the United Nations calling for member nations not to interfere in the internal affairs of the country.

He said such a support for Sri Lanka would hurt the hearts of Malaysian Tamils.

Yesterday MIC president S Samy Vellu also similarly called on the government to retract its support for the draft resolution.

Manoharan meanwhile said that the Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapakse had committed war crimes by killing innocent Tamils in the country.

“He is guilty of war crimes and must be charged in the war crimes tribunal,” he added.

Gobalakrishnan also similarly condemned Rajapakse for “murdering innocent children and women”.

He said that the spirit instilled by Prabhakaran would remain even if he was killed.

Kulasegaran urged the Malaysian government not to give any financial aide to Sri Lanka as it would seem like it was supporting the war crimes in that island state.

“The government of Malaysia is going to give RM3 million to Sri Lanka. We cannot allow that. I will raise this issue in the parliament,” he said.

A donation campaign was also launched at the rally to collect funds for the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

The Batu Caves resolutions

Later at a press conference, several resolutions and immediate plans were revealed to assist the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

“We will form a peace team to be sent to Sri Lanka to help rebuild the lives of the war victims,” said organising committee member K Arumugam.

And among the resolutions passed included a call for the United Nations to start a probe on the Sri Lankan government and to institute war crime charges against the Sri Lankan leaders.

Another resolution called for the lifting of all restrictions imposed on the international community to assess the full nature of the catastrophe that has struck the Tamils in Sri Lanka and offer immediate relief.

The protest group also wanted the formation of an independent Tamil state and until then the establishment of a UN peacekeeping force on the island to maintain peace.

“We call upon international community to offer all necessary humanitarian aid through international aid agencies.

“We also call upon the Malaysian government to recognise the plight of Sri Lankan Tamils and institute immediate measures to give assistance and financial support to the Tamils in Sri Lanka,” they said.

They also wanted the government to withdraw its support for the Sri Lankan resolution in the UN.

news :malaysiakini, pictures:mpkapar.com

Supporters throng Bt Caves for Uthaya's hair offering

2009-05-25T00:27:00.000+08:00

Some 3,000 people thronged the Batu Caves temple in Kuala Lumpur to witness Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) leader P Uthayakumar shave his beard and snip off his long locks in an offering of gratitude for his release.

2009-05-23T21:49:00.000+08:00

பிரபாகரனைத் தலைவனாக பெற்ற ஈழத்தமிழர்கள் பாக்கியசாலிகள்!

ஈழத்தமிழர்கள் பாக்கியசாலிகள். தம் இன மக்களின் விடுதலைக்காக தன்னையும், தன் பிள்ளையையும் அர்ப்பணிக்கும் மாவீரனைத் தலைவனாகப் பெற்ற ஈழத்தமிழர்கள் பாக்கியசாலிகள்தானே? இந்தியா, சீனா போன்ற வல்லரசுகள் ஈழத் தமிழர்களை அழிக்கும் இலங்கை அரசுக்கு துணைக்கு நின்றபோதிலும், உறுதியும் துணிச்சலுமாக தமது மண்ணின் விடுதலைக்காகப் போராடவும், மடியவும் தயராக இருக்கிற தலைவனைப் பெற்ற மக்களை நினைத்தும், அவர்களின் தலைவனை நினைத்தும் பெருமிதமாக இருக்கிறது.

ஆறரை கோடி எண்ணிக்கையில் இந்தியாவில் வாழும் தமிழர்களைப் போல ஈழத்தமிழர்கள் துரதிர்ஷ்டசாலிகள் இல்லையே! தன்னையும் தன் குடும்பத்து உறுப்பினர்களின் நலனையும் தவிர வேறொன்றும் தெரியாத தலைவர்களைப் பெற்ற இந்தியத் தமிழர்களைப் போல துர்பாக்கியம், ஈழத் தமிழர்களுக்கு இல்லையே. தேர்தல் நேரத்தில் தங்களை சீட்டுகளுக்கு விற்றுக்கொண்டார்கள் தலைவர்கள். நோட்டுகளுக்கு விற்றுக் கொண்டார்கள் தமிழர்கள். வரலாற்றின் கறை படிந்த காலகட்டத்தில் தலைகுனிந்து தமிழகத் தமிழர்கள் இருக்கும்போதும், தன் வீரத்தால் ஈழத்தமிழர்களைத் தலை நிமிர வைத்திருக்கிறார் பிரபாகரன். அவர் உயிருடன் இருக்கிறாரா? இல்லை களத்தில் இறந்துபோனாரா? என்ற கேள்விகளுக்கு இருத் தரப்பிடமும் உறுதியான பதில்கள் தற்போது இல்லை. ஆனால், ஈழத்தில் உரிமை மறுக்கப்பட்டு வாழ்வு சூறையாடப்பட்டு ஒவ்வொரு நொடியும் அணு அணுவாக செத்துப்பிழைக்கிற அப்பாவித் தமிழர்களின் நிலை அப்படியேதான் இருக்கிறது. இந்த நேரத்தில் பிரபாகரனைப் பற்றிய மர்மங்களைவிட, இந்தியத் தமிழர்களின் நிலைகுறித்து மிகுந்த அச்சம் கொள்ள வேண்டிய சூழலில் இருக்கிறோம்.

சமஉரிமை மறுக்கப்பட்ட தம் இன சகோதரர்களின் விடுதலைக்கும், பாலியல் வல்லுறவுக்கு ஆளான சகோதரிகளின் விடுதலைக்கும், பாலுக்கு அழுகிற பிள்ளைகளை விட பயத்தில் அழுகிற தலைமுறையின் உரிமைக்கும் போராட தன் உடல், பொருள், ஆவி அத்தனையும் தந்திருக்கிறார் பிரபாகரன். சில மணி நேர உண்ணாவிரத நாடகம் நிகழ்த்துபவர்களையும், வாய்ச்சொல் வீரர்களாக ஒரு சீட்டுக்கு அணிமாறிய அசகாய சூரர்களையும், ‘முதலில் அசிங்கமானது அவர்கள்தான். அப்புறம்தான் நாங்கள் சீட்டுக்கு விலைபோனோம்’ என்று கூச்சமில்லாமல் பேசிய சிறுத்தைகளையும் தலைவர்களாகப் பெற்ற எம்மைப் போன்ற பாவப்பட்ட மக்கள் இல்லையே ஈழத்தமிழர்கள். உரிமைகளைப் பெற இந்தியத் தமிழர்களையும், தலைவர்களையும், இந்தியாவையும் நம்பி மோசம் போனது மட்டுமே அவர்கள் செய்தமாபெரும் பிழை. பிரபாகரனைப் போன்றே தமிழகத் தலைவர்களும் இருப்பார்கள் என்று நம்பியதுதான் அவர்கள் செய்த தவறு.

எங்களுடைய தலைவர்களுக்கு கவிதை எழுதத் தெரியும்; அறிக்கை விடத்தெரியும்; மரங்களுக்கும் உணர்ச்சிவருகிற அளவில் மேடைகளில் முழக்கமிடத்தெரியும். ஆனால் அவர்கள் மரத்துபோன இதயத்துக்குச் சொந்தக்காரர்கள். மானம் என்றால் என்னவென்றோ, மனிதநேயம் என்றால் என்னவென்றோ தெரியாதவர்கள். பிரபாகரனின் முடிவுகளிலும், செயல்பாடுகளிலும் கருத்துவேறுபாடுகள் இருக்க எல்லா நியாயங்களும் இருக்கின்றன. ராஜீவ் படுகொலை, இஸ்லாமியர்களுக்கு எதிரான நிலைப்பாடு, மற்ற போராளி குழுக்களைக் கொலை செய்வது... என நிறைய இடங்களில் பிரபாகரனோடு முரண்படவும், விமர்சிக்கவும், எதிர்க்கவும் நிறைய காரணங்கள் இருக்கின்றன. ஆனால், ‘தமிழர்களை அடகு வைத்து பிழைப்பு நடத்துகிறவர்’ என்று யாரும் விரல் நீட்டிக் குற்றம் சொல்லமுடியாத மானமுள்ள வாழ்வு வாழ்ந்திருக்கிறார் பிரபாகரன். வார்த்தைக்கும் வாழ்வுக்கும் வித்தியாசமில்லாத மாவீரனின் மரணம் பற்றிய மர்மங்களால் தவிக்கும் உலகத் தமிழர்களுக்கு எந்த வார்த்தைகளால் ஆறுதல் அளிப்பது?

‘வேலுப்பிள்ளை பிரபாகரனின் உடல் இதுதான்’ என்று இலங்கைராணுவமும், ராஜபக்ஷேவும் வெற்றிச் செய்தியை வெளியிட்டிருக்கிறார்கள். ‘பிரபாகரன் இறந்த செய்தி பொய்யாகிவிடக்கூடாதா?’ என்று மருகிய உலகத்தமிழர்களின் முகத்தில் ஓங்கி அறைய, இலங்கை ராணுவமும், ராஜபக்ஷே கூட்டமும் வெறி கொண்டு அலைகிறது. இந்த வெற்றியில் இலங்கையைவிட இந்தியாவுக்கு அதிக பெருமிதம் இருந்தால் ஆச்சர்யப்படுவதற்கில்லை.

வெளிநாட்டிலிருந்து திரும்பிய ராஜபக்ஷே இலங்கை மண்ணை முத்தமிட்டபோதே, அவருடைய உதடுகளில் ஈழத்தமிழர்களின் இரத்தம் ஒட்டியிருந்ததை கவனிக்கும் மனதிடத்தில் தமிழர்கள் இல்லை. பிரபாகரனின் மரண செய்தி கேட்டு சிங்கள மக்கள் பட்டாசு வெடித்து கொண்டாடியிருக்கிறார்கள். தீர்வு கிடைக்கும் என்கிற நம்பிக்கையை மேலும் பொய்யாக்குகிறது சிங்கள மக்களின் வெற்றிக் களிப்பு. தனி ஈழம் மட்டுமே நிரந்தர தீர்வு என்பதற்கான அத்தனை கொடூரங்களும் அப்பாவித் தமிழர்கள் மீது அங்கு நிகழ்த்தப்படுகிறது. போரின் பெயரால் பல ஆயிரம் தமிழ் மக்களைக் கொன்று குவித்த இலங்கை ராணுவத்தளபதிகளுக்கு பதவி உயர்வு அளித்திருக்கிறார் ராஜபக்ஷே. இறந் ததமிழர்களுக்கு வாய்க்கரிசியையும், இருக்கும் தமிழர்களுக்கு வாக்குறுதிகளையும் வழங்கியிருக்கிறார். இந்தியத் தலைவர்கள் அதை வரவேற்கலாம். வார்த்தை செயலாகும்வரை பாதிக்கப்பட்ட மக்களால் அதை நம்ப முடியாது.

முன்னால் இந்தியப் பிரதமர் ராஜீவ்காந்தியை புலிகள்கொன்றார்கள் என்ற வரலாற்றுத் தவறுக்கு இந்தியா பழிதீர்த்துக் கொண்டது என்றே சொல்லலாம். அதற்காக, பல்லாயிரக்கணக்கான உயிர்கள் பலியாகும்போது மௌனமாக இருந்ததும், ராணுவ உதவிகளை வழங்கியதும் தமிழகத் தமிழர்கள் மனதில் நூற்றாண்டு கடந்த கசப்புணர்வை ஏற்படுத்தியிருக்கிறது. 'தன் கணவர் இறந்த மே21-ம் தேதிக்குள் இலங்கையில் எல்லாம் முடிந்துவிட வேண்டும் என்று விரும்பினார் சோனியா' என்கிற மாதிரியான செய்திகள் வெளியானபோது, அதை அந்த சமயத்தில் நம்பவோ, நம்பாமல் இருக்கவோ முடியவில்லை. ஆனால் இப்போது உண்மை புரிகிறது!

தன் கூட்டணி விசுவாசத்திற்கு மீண்டும் பலமான சில கேபினட் மந்திரி பதவிகளை தன் வாரிசுகளுக்காக வாங்குவார் தி.மு.க.தலைவர் கருணாநிதி.அந்த வாய்ப்பு நமக்கு இல்லாமல் போய்விட்டதே என்று வருத்தப்படுவார் மருத்துவர் ராமதாஸ். தொல்.திருமாவளவனுக்கும் சொல்வதற்கு ஏதாவது ஒரு காரணம் இருக்கும். சினிமாவில் புரட்சிக் கலைஞராக இருந்த விஜயகாந்த் தன் பலத்தை நிரூபிக்க தனித்து நின்று 30 லட்சத்திற்கும் அதிகமான வாக்குகள் பெற்றதில் அடுத்த சட்டமன்ற தேர்தலில் பேரம் நன்றாக நடத்துவார்.

தமிழகத்தின் மிகப்பெரிய போராட்டமாக வெடித்து, திராவிடக்கட்சிகள் ஆட்சி வரக் காரணமான இந்தி எதிர்ப்பு போராட்டத்தில் ஆறு பேர்தான் உயிரிழந்தனர். ஈழத் தமிழர்களுக்காக வரிசையாக இளைஞர்கள் தீக்குளித்த காட்சிக்குப் பிறகும், ஈழத் தமிழர்கள் உயிரிழப்பு மக்கள் பிரச்னையாகவில்லை என்று வாய் கூசாமல் சொன்னவர்களைப் பார்த்து வாயடைத்து நின்றோம் நாம். ரௌடித்தனங்களிலும், மக்களின் வறுமையைப் பயன்படுத்திய குரூர புத்தியாலும் ஆட்சியைப் பிடித்தவர்கள், ‘மக்கள் எங்களுக்கு ஆதரவளித்துள்ளனர்’ என்று வெட்கமே இல்லாமல் சொல்கிறார்கள்.

தமிழ்நாட்டு தலைவர்களுக்கு கொஞ்சமேனும் மானம் இருந்தால், பிரபாகரன் இறந்துவிட்ட இந்தச் சூழலிலாவது, ஈழத் தமிழர்களின் பிரச்னை தீரும்வரை நாங்கள் நாடாளுமன்ற அரசியலியல் பங்கேற்க மாட்டோம் என்று சொல்ல வேண்டும். ஒரு பக்கம் பணத்தைக் காட்டியும், இன்னொரு பக்கம் ஈழத் தமிழர்களின் பிணத்தைக் காட்டியும் ஓட்டு கேட்ட தமிழக தலைவர்கள் தங்கள் மீது படிந்துள்ள வரலாற்றுக் கறையை நீக்க இருக்கும் ஒரே கடைசி வழி நாடாளுமன்ற புறக்கணிப்புதான்.

பிணக் குவியலுக்கு நடுவிலும் சிரித்துக் கொண்டே வாக்கு கேட்டவர்கள், இத்தகைய முடிவு எடுப்பார்கள் என்பது அதிகபட்ச எதிர்பார்ப்பாக தெரியலாம். நம்முடைய எதிர்ப்பார்ப்பு என்பதைவிட அதுவே நியாயமானது. தலைமுறைகளைத் தவிக்கவிட்டு பதவியில் அமர்வது என்பது மனிதநேயத்துக்கு நேர்விரோதமானது.

நடந்து முடிந்த நாடாளுமன்றத் தேர்தலில் வெற்றி பெற்று ஆட்சியைப் பங்கு போடத் துடித்தவர்கள், இனி கட்சித் தலைவர்களாக வேண்டுமானால் வலம் வரலாம். ஆனால் தமிழினத் தலைவர்களாக தங்களை அடையாளம் காட்டிக்கொள்ளும் தகுதி தற்போது எவருக்குமில்லை என்ற வலிமிகுந்த உண்மையை ஒப்புக்கொள்வது நம்முடைய கடமை. வீரமுள்ள தலைவனாகவும், மானமுள்ள தலைவனாகவும் தன் மக்களுக்காக களத்தில் நின்ற அல்லது நிற்கிற, பிரபாகரனை ஜெயித்துவிட்டதாக இலங்கை ராணுவம் மகிழலாம். போர் என்கிற அடிப்படையில் இராணுவம் ஜெயித்திருக்கிறது என்பதும் உண்மைதான். ஆனால், ஈழத்தமிழர்கள் சந்தித்த பிரச்னைதான் பிரபாகரனை உருவாக்கியதே தவிர, பிரபாகரன் இலங்கைக்குப் பிரச்னையே இல்லை. இரண்டு வல்லரசுகளின் ஆயுதங்களால் மக்களையும் அவர்களின் தலைவனையும் கொலை செய்த இலங்கை அரசு, கிளையை மட்டுமே வீழ்த்தியிருக்கிறது. இன்னும் பிரச்னையின் வேர் அப்படியேதான் இருக்கிறது.

இலங்கைஅரசின் மகிழ்ச்சிக் கூச்சலில் ஈழத் தமிழர்களின் விசும்பல் யாருக்கும் கேட்காமல் போகக்கூடும். ராணுவம் வைத்திருக்கும் ஆயுதங்களைவிட அப்பாவிமக்களின் கண்ணீருக்கு வலிமை அதிகம் என்பதை யாரும் மறந்துவிடவேண்டாம்.தங்கள் உரிமைக்காக களத்தில் மகனையும், மகனையொத்த பலரையு ம்பலிகொடுத்தார் பிரபாகரன். ஈழத்தமிழர்களுக்கு பிரச்னை வந்தால் கௌரவமாக சொல்லிக்கொள்ள தலைவர் இருக்கிறார். தமிழகத் தமிழர்கள் ஏதாவது நிகழுமாயின் ஏனென்று கேட்க யாரும் இல்லை. பதவி சுகங்களுக்கு மொத்தமாக மக்களை அடகு வைக்கவும் தயங்க மாட்டார்கள் எம் தலைவர்கள் என்பதை கடந்த நாடாளுமன்ற தேர்தல் நிரூபத்தில் எம்மை உறைய வைத்திருக்கிறது. பிரபாகரனின் நிலைமை தமிழகத் தமிழர்களுக்கும் இது மீளமுடியாத துயரம்தான். ஆனால் அதையும்தாண்டி ,பிணங்களின் மீதும் அரசியல் நடத்த துணிந்துவிட்ட பச்சோந்தித்தனமான தலைவர்களைப் பெற்றிருக்கிறோமே என்கிற துக்கமே எமக்கு தொண்டையை அடைத்து, கண்ணில் நீரை வரவழைக்கிறது.

-த. செ. ஞானவேல்

Dining with terrorists - Divided Island

2009-05-23T11:11:00.000+08:00

In this episode, Phil Rees travels to Northern Ireland and Lebanon and concludes that before the 'war on terror' can have its Armistice Day, the West will have to negotiate with those it considers terrorists.

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