PETALING JAYA, April 28 — More than 600 tahfiz schools in the country are not registered with the state religious authorities. The shocking revelation comes following the death of 11-year-old Mohamad Thaqif Amin Mohd Gaddafi in Johor on Wednesday. The religious school he attended in Kota Tinggi was among those unregistered. National Institute of Tahfiz Al-Quran president Mohd Zahid Mahmood said Madrasah Tahfiz Al Jauhar was in the midst of getting approval from the state religious body. He said there were about 1,200 tahfiz schools nationwide, but only 670 were registered. “Those registered are monitored, and their syllabus looked into and funds provided.” He, however, said there was no unif

In a landmark decision, it reminds that judiciary acts as a bulwark of the constitution in ensuring that powers of the executive and legislature are kept within their intended limit. PETALING JAYA: The 1988 amendment to the Federal Constitution to check the powers of the judiciary is contrary to the basic structure of the supreme law of the land, a recent Federal Court ruling said. Justice Zainun Ali said the amendment undermined the principle of separation of powers and independence of the judiciary. “With the removal of judicial power from inherent jurisdiction of the judiciary, that institution was effectively suborned to Parliament, with the implication that Parliament became sovereign,”

It was reported in the media on April 16 that Perkasa, a Malay right-wing group has honoured fugitive Indian preacher Zakir Naik with its warrior award for his contributions towards the struggle of Islam. This comes days after reports that India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) has decided to seek an Interpol notice against Naik citing his “objectionable and subversive” elements in his speeches. Perkasa had previously given the award to former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and former Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin and Naik is the first foreign recipient of the award. Naik was also given the Tokoh Ma’al Hijrah award in 2013 by the Malaysian government. There were rumours for

We wish to take this opportunity to thank the Ministry of Education (MoE) in funding a radical approach towards English, as expressed in Wave 2 of the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025. We hope this funding will continue in Budget 2018 as more schools agree to undertake the Highly Immersive Programme (HIP) and the Dual Language Programme (DLP). It will not be an overnight success nor a fly-by-night exercise but instead, a gradual outcome can be expected as time goes on and confidence grows. Save for 2016, the total education budget has been maintained at RM54 billion. What is alarming is that of this amount, a mere 10% was — and continues to be — spent on primary and secondary education

KUALA LUMPUR, April 14 — Malaysia continues to strictly control religious practices, with an annual study grouping it together with other Muslim-majority countries practising “very high” restrictions, such as Saudi Arabia, Brunei, and Turkey. The study, published on Tuesday by US-based think tank Pew Research Centre, found that Malaysia’s religious controls worsened in 2015, scoring 8.0 out of 10 points on the Government Restriction Index (GRI) compared to 7.0 the previous year. Topping the 2015 list was Egypt, China, Iran and Russia, followed by Uzbekistan and Malaysia which shared the same score. A total of 198 countries were surveyed in the study. Pew said government restrictions on relig

PETALING JAYA: A PAS lawmaker is getting a tongue-lashing from rights groups for suggesting that out-of-wedlock pregnancies be punished by caning. Datuk Noor Farida Ariffin, a mem­­ber of the G25 group of eminent Ma­­lays, said it indicated a worrying obsession with punishment. “They are obsessed with punishment instead of ways to improve the welfare of Muslims. They think punishing Muslims will solve the world’s problems,” she said. She was commenting on Pasir Puteh MP Datuk Dr Nik Mazian Nik Mohamad’s suggestion that caning for zina (illicit sex) should be implemented to prevent innocent babies born from unlawful unions. Dr Nik Mazian, who was speaking in Parliament, had suggested that the

I BELIEVE that taxes on cigarettes are high enough and do not need to be further increased in the next budget because they will make the illicit trade on tobacco products grow bigger and cause more loss of government revenue due to smuggling activities. With every increase in import tax and excise duty on cigarettes, the profit incentive for smuggling becomes more attractive. Profits would be big enough for the crime syndicates to pay off all the enforcement units at the various border points and still make them rich. They are so rich that they can even buy titles from the federal and state awards. It should be noted that Malaysia has more border entry points than other countries like Singap

FORMER Umno MP Mohamed Tawfik Ismail, who recently sent a legal notice to the Dewan Rakyat Speaker and secretary to stop the tabling of the RUU355 bill, today sent them a supplementary affidavit for violating the principles of the Rukun Negara after the bill was tabled. RUU355 refers to PAS president and Marang MP Abdul Hadi Awang’s private member’s bill to amend the Shariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 to increase the maximum punishments for jail, fine and whipping. The bill was tabled last Thursday at the Dewan Rakyat, despite Tawfik filing an earlier suit against Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia and secretary Roosme Hamzah for accepting the bill. In the first suit, Tawfik said the b

“Verily, We did offer the trust [of reason and volition] to the heavens, and the earth, and the mountains: but they refused to bear it because they were afraid of it. Yet man took it up - for, verily, he has always been prone to be most wicked, most foolish”. [Surah Al-Ahzab, 33:72] Many interpreters derive various meanings from the word ‘trust’ that is connected to this verse; but perhaps the closest definition that describes the meaning of ‘trust’ – as per Muhammad Asad’s explanation in his commentary ‘The Message of the Quran’ – appears to be ‘reason’ or ‘intellect’, and ‘the faculty of volition’. Thus, it is primarily the superiority of intellect or the force of reason that allows for t

THE tabling of Hadi’s Private Member Bill RUU 355 on April 6, 2017 has left the general public in a state of confusion with regards to the government’s true intention on Hadi’s Private Member Bill, and the public second guessing of what is the government end game. As a member of G25 from Sabah I think it is very important for the people to understand the arguments of RUU 355 in depth as there are long term implications which may affect everybody. Tun Abdul Hamid Mohamad, the former Chief Justice of Malaya, in his September 29, 2016 commentary stated that some people are heard to say that the amendment will involve only Kelantan. This is also incorrect he says as Act 355 is a federal law. It

PETALING JAYA: Civil society group G25 member Tan Sri Mohd Sheriff Mohd Kassim has urged MPs to reject Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang’s Private Member’s Bill as it is contrary to the legal system that is “fair and thorough for the country’s diverse communities”. In a statement, he said the Bill threatens national unity and would tarnish Malaysia’s image as a progressive nation. “Malaysia aims to build its economy and society with a good system of government and law to ensure the best future for our children and grandchildren in our beloved country.” Pro-moderation activist Mohamed Tawfik Ismail said the Speaker was committing treason if he allowed it to proceed. Tawfik, 66, had filed a suit ear

The recently released Racial Discrimination Report 2016 by Pusat KOMAS, a non-profit social outfit, concluded that there has been a rise in racial and ethnic discrimination in Malaysia. The report’s findings are based on news reports on incidents of racial discrimination in Malaysia in 2015 and 2016. This is an extremely worrying trend that suggests that efforts by the government through various means, including the National Unity Consultative Council, to promote racial harmony and moderation in religion have not been effective. According to the report, “recent incidents of racial discrimination, racism and stained ethnic relations within the Malaysian society have increasingly surfaced over

KUALA LUMPUR: The Parliament Speaker will be committing treason if he proceeds to allow the tabling of the Bill to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act, says pro-moderation activist Mohamed Tawfik Ismail (pic). The motion, which was moved to first place in the Parliament Order Paper on Thursday, has become the subject matter of a lawsuit between Tawfik and Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia and House secretary Datuk Roosme Hamzah. "Today is a sad day for Malaysians. Today Parliament is dead. “Parliament is dead when the Speaker – who took an oath to protect, preserve and defend the Constitution – betrays the very oath he has taken. "The Speaker is disregarding the Constituti

KUALA LUMPUR: PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang's (pic) Private Member's Bill to enhance the powers of the Syariah courts has been tabled in Parliament. He tabled the proposed amendments to the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act or RUU355 at about 12.40pm on Thursday, after question time. Abdul Hadi's proposed amendments to Section 2 of RUU355 are to increase the current "imprisonment of more than three years or fine of more than RM5,000, or more than six lashes" to "jail term of more than 30 years or fine more than RM100,000 or 100 lashes as administered in line with the syariah crimes". Earlier Opposition parliamentarians raised points of order prior to the tabling of the B

JIKA Nazri Aziz diberi peluang bertindak mengikut cara beliau, Umno tidak akan terlibat dengan rang undang-undang Parlimen yang dibawa PAS untuk meningkatkan hukuman kesalahan Syariah yang dikenali sebagai "RUU355". Bekas menteri undang-undang dan hal ehwal Parlimen yang lantang bersuara itu berkata, rang undang-undang itu tidak akan mendapat layanan istimewa sebagaimana yang berlaku, di mana ia disegerakan dan dibacakan di Dewan Rakyat – sesuatu yang jarang berlaku bagi rang undang-undang yang dibawa pihak pembangkang. Nazri, ahli Majlis Tertinggi Umno berkata beliau tidak bersetuju dengan rakan parti dan pemimpin kanan yang menyokong rang undang-undang itu yang bersandarkan demi kepentinga

We, the undersigned civil society organisations warn that if PAS president Hadi Awang’s bill to amend Act 355 is fast-tracked on Thursday and the motion to adopt it is passed, it will be adopted as a government bill as per Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s declaration on March 17. To prevent this, all Members of Parliament who object to the bill must attend the Parliamentary meeting throughout April 6 (Thursday) to defeat Hadi’s Act 355 if it is fast-tracked again by an Umno minister as had happened twice on May 26 and Nov 24 last year. The public and the parliamentarians must remember that Act 355 is alive despite BN’s U-turn on tabling it as a government bill. The BN may just fast