In the name of God

A friend recently wrote this for Malaysian Insider on the issue of the usage of Allah by the Christians Herald.

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/opinion/ziad-razak/48332-polemik-nama-allah--jangan-gugat-keseimbangan-nasional

Because of his background, the comments that he got are typical of Malaysians that are emotional, short-sighted and political in nature. I've even seen comments on FB that this is the ruling party's conspiracy theory. Gosh, maybe these people are not so different from that grape-eating guy (scary to know there's so many delusional people in Malaysia). At least that guy was polite :p

And another thing that gripe me is the fact that when we have issues internally, we started to compare our country with other countries. For this issue, the role model now is Indonesia (believe it or not!) and the Middle East.

So many people (the Muslims actually) were giving the justifications that the Arab Christians had been and are still using Allah to refer to their God, so why can't the Christians in Malaysia do the same as well. Did it occur to them that perhaps its because of the language factor where Allah meant The God (singular) in Arabic? Hence, the usage of Allah could be the same as our usage of Tuhan. So, in translating God to Arabic will be God = Allah. If we were to translate God into Malay, it will be God = Tuhan. So, if the translation of God into Malay that is what the paper wants, then the right word to be used should be Tuhan, not Allah.

"But look at Indonesia, they use Allah in their Bible, and still Islam is the main religion of the country and they are doing well." One of the commentors pointed this out.

Firstly, how many bombing incidents involving religious extremists have they had again? How many religious war between Islam and Christians have they gone through? Really, do we want to use Indonesia as our role model on this?

Secondly, Indonesia is very strict about the usage of foreign/non-Malay sounding names in the country. Hence, even a Chinese will have to use a Malay name. I saw their problem when one guy on FB shared with us the translation use in the Indonesian bible. The Bible says 'Our LORD God'. To translate this into Malay, it will become 'TUHAN Tuhan kami', which can be confusing I guess, hence they had translated it as 'TUHAN Allah kami'. I guess they can't think of any other alternative for it.

In Malaysia, we had never been strict about translating everything into Malay. Hence, if the paper wanted to maintain using God in the Malay section, or in the Malay-translated bible, no one would have said anything about it.

It is also weird for Christians (and a Catholic some more), to make reference to others rather than to the Pope himself. If truly they (the church that publishes the Herald) believe that Allah is their God, isn't this in contradiction with the Pope, who I'm sure would never use the word Allah in their prayers?

I don't intend to question whether it is right or wrong for them to use kalimah Allah. I'll leave that to the scholars. I'm just questioning why do we want to introduce a new definition when all this while (for centuries even!), we, penduduk tanah Melayu/Malaysia have define it as Tuhan = God, Allah = Muslims's God?

Malaysia drops English language teaching

It's been a while since I've read any newspapers, be it UK and Malaysian papers. But one headlines from my iGoogle Newsfeed caught my eye today:

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Malaysia drops English language teaching

Government says education policy failing to create global speakers

From The Guardian - http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/10/malaysia-tefl

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It seems the Government's decision to revert to teaching Maths and Science in Malay again had gotten quite a huge media coverage.

I don't really understand what the fuss is all about. Frankly, I support the decision to revert if the teachers are not well-versed to teach in English. The objective of learning science and maths is that exactly - to learn to be able to do maths and understand the scientific concept. If you want the kids to learn English, then strengthen the English subject instead. Mathematics and Science are a language on its own, hence their concept do not change if you teach them using BM or English or Japanese or Arabic, etc. Look at Japan, the fastest developed nation in the world, did they obtained their technological advancement because they were taught maths and science in English? Heck no, in fact, they can barely speak any English. Yet they continue to dominate the technological world and even force other people to speak Japanese in order to deal and learn from them.

So, let's focus on the main objective - to teach the students Maths and Science. and get them to excel in them. Hence, teach them in the language that the teacher can be most effective in teaching them and in the language the student can grasp the knowledge well.

The Perak fiasco

I haven't been following the news in Malaysia for a while now, partly because I had been focused on the Gaza issue, and partly due to the piling of assignments now that I'm in week 4 of the new term. So I was very surprised by the latest development happening in Malaysia, particularly of course in the state of Perak.

I had two views on it, the straightforward view, which I'm hoping is all there is to it, and the more alarming "conspiracy theory" view, which I hope is just something from my overactive imagination.

If it is indeed a straightforward occurence, of people jumping parties and tipping the seat balance towards the opposition, i.e. BN, then I believe there is a valid reason why the esteemed and wise Sultan Azlan Shah did not decide to dissolve the State parliament. If parliament is dissolved, it is most likely that PR will win the state, and with a bigger majority. So it is highly likely that the Sultan does not want PR to continue to rule Perak. There must be some incidents that had not pleased the Sultan at all for him to make the royal decree on it. My guess would be on the land issue.

Personally for me, I think that in this time of economic recession, it makes more sense not to throw money on organizing more elections. To the people in Perak, I think they can already vouched that there had not been much difference between the previous government and the current one (PR).

On the second view though, if PR is a more cunning party than we thought they are, and Anwar is truly backed by the hated intelligence unit from US as some people are claiming, then this fiasco in Perak could just be his testbed to understand the reaction in making the coup through "frog" politicians. Maybe he is really bidding his time to put in his moves for a checkmate.

Well, I guess we just have to wait and see.

Too many people dreaming of power, yet none is using it for what it is meant to be.

The irony of the fiasco in Perak is on those that had supported whole-heartedly Anwar's attempt to wrest control from the main government through bribing BN's MPs to crossover, but now crying foul when BN had used the same tactic successfully.

While for Nizar, I actually had some high regards for him, but I have to say I wasn't very impressed by his attempts to hang on to his MB position.

I hope that BN would do better than they did previously. They will face tough time as the perception of them are just too low that nothing they do will ever be seen as good at all. But they will have to try as they are also holding on to the position by a thin thread.

Truthfully, I am really tired of the political struggle that we are facing. I hope we will never turn into Thailand that in the end were never satisfied with whatever leader they had chosen.


ps: I am actually intrigued by the idea of having the monarchy back. But only if it is Sultan Azlan Shah and Raja Nazrin ;)