Malaysia Boleh : Medical 'Scholls'....................

27 !!!!!!!!!,at the last count  with the latest addition of diperdana's.
17 private, 10 public.
[ sorry folks, I got it wrong ! it is 30 something at the last count....]

I am not worried too much about the public ones, even then once you get beyond the traditional 'ivy league' stuff of UkM, Mu and USM, and perhaps UIA  if one can stretch one's imagination a wee bit. As for the rest, ...........uitm, putra and etc etc, one can just hope they are doing things right with the correct staffing ratio, experience of teachers, availability of big teaching hospitals etc and etc and etc. 


 [It takes a lot of 'love' to run a decent medical school. That kind of love is hard to come by and on this count I must salute my old professors  and  untiring teachers like Prof TG loh, Somasundram, Khairuddin, Prataph, Marican, Razali, Chan Onn Leng,CK  Lam, Sengupta, Winnie Danaraj, 'Long John' Silva and the rest, some still living, some already dead. The late Prof Tan Sri Danaraj, top of the 'heap', was exemplary of the stuff that I am alluding to.]

With the private ones, mashaallah !!!!.....frankly I do not dare to think or imagine. It is a living nightmare just to think.

It boggles the mind how and where they get their students, at what level of entry they do that; and most importantly, their clinical teachers: what quality of teachers they have , where they get them, with the peanuts they are paying out are they actually getting 'monkeys' teaching 'monkeys' ?..... what level of clinical education and training their students get ?

umno , mic must have one. mca, since they are loaded probably 2 or 3. This and that individuals close to this and that pm and pm's wives must have one. ABIM or ABIM related NGO would like to have one as well. One even get nowadays  'virtual' nursing college and medical school like MEHSA or whatever etc and etc. Getting former DG's to sit on the board just help.

At the end of the day what kind of rojak doctors do we plan to produce ?

Some are probably doing quite well but majority are not .

Medical schools unlike flight schools cannot open today and close tomorrow.

The doctors they produce will be signing prescriptions and mending the sick for generations to come.

it is high time the powers that be review these schools and cut down down those that are just sub-standard and fly by night.

Otherwise we will have thousands of half trained half educated  'wounded' individuals for years to come manning and running around our hospitals. Even now hospital consultants are complaining they have too many housemen under them they dont even who are coming  and who are going. In some hospitals, house officers have  just 'two and half ' patients under their care. My time we have 50 ! At 12 midnight we are still looking just at the 5 pm admissions !

In Malaysia Boleh we can accomodate a few more ' nfc fiascos' , I think, that is all right by our 'malaysia boleh' standard.

But we cannot afford to have young specialists in something and something running around not being able to think and vocalise as well as they should be, and since I have been thirty over years in the business, I have been seeing even this creeping into the proffesion. 

Our DG's in Ministry of Health and their respective think tank have been sleeping on the job too much  and not thinking and not advising their 'political masters' well. And what is our Ministry of Higher Education doing by the way ?

.....and we have a medical doctor as pm for 22 years !
POOR AND 'SHOODY" PLANNING AND THINKING....THAT is what Malaysia Boleh is about !

dr nik howk

class of 72/78 

med school, university malaya




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from Adam,

Salam Howk,

Very aptly described. And that is why I gave my son permission to do his housemanship in Spore, despite comments from some that he was being unpatriotic. As he told me, it is not that there aren't good doctors in Bolehland, but most of them are nearing retirement ( your peers). Housemanship, being part of a doctor's training, I had to let him get about the best  in the region in the expectation  that he will be a much better doctor here when he returns. The powers that be are crazy unleashing half-baked doctors, just like they do half-baked lawyers and other so-called professionals, onto the unsuspecting public. So much for Bolehland!

Wassalam,

Adam


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from dato dc,

The quality and nature of university teaching has changed worldwide. When I graduated many years ago, there were 20 students in my class, discussion groups of 5 students, and tutorials of 1 tutor to 1 student. A few years ago when I re-visited my old College, I found there were over a hundred in a class, discussion groups of 10 students per group, and tutorials of 5 students to a tutor.

Having said that, there were also vast improvements in the technology used in teaching, such as faster access to academic material, and easy online access to one's tutor, etc.

In Medicine, I can see constraints to such rapid expansions, such as availability of cadavers for anatomy students to work on, and good hospitals for attachment. I was pleasantly surprised to note the high quality of teaching of Medicine at the local campus of Monash University. I am a patient of Dato Prof. Khalid Kadir at the Sunway Monash. While examining me (for a diabetic- induced inflamed femoral nerve) he had three students looking on. He taught them well on how to proceed on the clinical diagnosis. I noticed that he taught them how to think. I was impressed by his clear and rational approach, and I think the students there are lucky to have such a world class teacher to tutor them.

We do have good local universities, programmes and teachers. But we also have rubbish universities here that issue degree certificates that state on the back "Valid in Malaysia Only".




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What a pain to hear the devastating state of our medical training .Although I'm not a medical doctor but as a lawyer practising law for more than 35 years and often handled medical negligence cases, I notice even doctors of yesteryears with high standard of admission to medical schools with provision of training of the highest British  , Australian and Commonwealth standards, yet there were serious cases of medical negligence , albeit not many  of such cases.

Furthermore , our courts are generally reluctant to grant high  awards or damages to the plaintiffs. I don't really know what was the reason, most probably is because to avoid a litigious society as in the US.

Some proactive measures must be taken immediately by all parties in the medical industry and the government too.It's never too late to take corrective measures .

Best regards,

Datuk Dr Abdul Raman Saad

Sent from my iPad

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Doc Azman, senior consultant radiologist [ retired] formerly of USM wrote,

It is just money out there to be made NikH! At least $300K-1M per student.

Parents & children attitude - secured jobs, respectable jobs in society, glomour, etc ..... Etc.

Now seem to be low standard & over production!

What were the policy rational then?

I had been MQA official for other courses - I get to know how they run the programs; quality & standards were compromised. What is important is the balance sheets.

Doc Azman

V69 Sulaiman Hs

Sent from my iPhone4 via maxis

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NFC, Kaum Ibu and Rafidah Come Back.....and all that jazz....

http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2008/11/not-so-pearl-gem-malay-dilemma_30.html

The current Leh Budu saga actually I picked some 4 years ago when the election of the Kaum Ibu UMNO was hotting up.

Rafidah was saddled with the unending AP saga and Sharizad was hot on her heel.

Leh Budu, her husband was just 'rewarded' with  a 250 million supersoft loan for the current illfated NFC.

It was ill-fated from the beginning actually, from some insiders info.There was no proffesional input in the NFC except from some 20 and 22 year old 'experts'. No MBA's . No vets etc etc. Just family. That was why  these 'experts' thot having 4 multi million RM apartments in Sinapo and KL is part  and parcel of the lembu business ! 

NFC was never meant to be a success. It was daylight robbery  or piracy from day one as I expected, whatever euphemism one cares to choose.

Now Nadzri the joker has come up with a resounding statement.

Agressive statement but nothing very cerebral from the defacto law minister. He stopped short of telling the lady to resign ,but waste every body's time saying that a loan is a loan..it need to be paid or  be recovered fully.

We do not need a law minister to say that. My form three daughter doing her exam this year knows that.

If one were to read in between the line, Sharizad's days is over.

Leh Budu may soon see the wrath of 'reluctant' justice after his tail....Reluctant because if people like you and me did not make noise in the 1st place, it would quietly be swept under the carpet....another 250 million gone down under for politicians and their their sweet young things ! Malaysia  Memang Boleh !

Just last week we read a centre page whole interview with Queen Rafidah in NST.

Are we seeing her again at the helm of Kaum Ibu. I guess we are....Kaum Ibu is running out of  ideas. Their experiment with the 'Puteris'  failed miserably with the previous Az-apakahnamadiadah.

NTR,as always the 'lalang', is taking too long a time to decide, what should have been a very easy decision if one were to present that to his previous mentor , Dr M....he could have done it while taking a walk to the loo for a pee. 


That is the difference between Dr M and NTR. The former very decisive and definitive, the later, still counting his marbles.

But with even this 'cerebral and character' deficit  NTR may even deliver in the next PRU.

Such is the sorry state of us, Malaysians !

Very pathetic indeed.


The common denominator is that there is an overall lack of accountability and real belief of akhirat amongst these people, a day when 'even an atom's weight is accounted for'.
Allahualam.


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Doc Nik,

The NFC is merely a small symptom of a deeper, systemic problem. When it is openly acknowledged that one enters politics "for fame and fortune" the decay in public ethics is pretty obvious, don't you think?

We have much to learn from countries with scarce resources but have become very rich, very open, e.g. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore (that you mock by calling it Sinapo) Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the list goes on, and on. What do they have in common? Superlative public ethics. Honesty and hard work are recognized, respected, and rewarded. 

Not one of them thinks about Akhirat, or about the atomic weights of their actions. 

Not one of them is Islamic. 

What can we learn from these facts?

DC.

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Dato Dc,

I must agree with you on these counts.
They have in common,independent judiciaries,  press and media not cowed into submission by executive power of politicians and most importantly people and population who understand the importance of these two institution and willing to lose their limbs and life for the continued integrity of free press and a free judiciary. Raayats need to be of some nitelligence as well to deserve good governance.
If we choose to remain pathetic, we deserve the shit that we have now.

Nik Howk

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from Dato' Aad, Jubleeintan group.

On Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 7:01 AM, Nik Isahak Abdullah <drnikisahak@hotmail.com> wrote:

 

I must agree with you on these counts.

Do you HowK?  Why apologetic?  Very secular, very shallow argument!  Consider these:

1. He did not answer your question.  Did fira'un think of akhirat?  Ditto Qarun.  Ditto Haman.  Ditto Tha'alabah.  Ditto Abu Lahab, Abu Sufian.  And as for Qarun, (Allah Mentions in the Quraan) the keys to his "Bank Negara" had to be carried by 7 strong full grown men!
2. Leadership of those countries he mentioned "don't think of akhirat", but yes, at least they do think of their "dunya"!  That only puts leaders who think neither of their dunya nor akhirat in the worst category.  But it does NOT make those who "do not think of akhirat" any better!  
3. Sifat ar Rahman that we attribute to Allah answers the question as to why those countries are "blessed" with endless bounties.  But He reserves His ar Raheem only for those who constantly think of the akhirat!  This, we covered under "Tauhid Asma' was Sifaat", did we not?
4. And of course, Allah too did instruct us to think of BOTH, as in Surah Qasas (28): 77;

But seek, with that (wealth) which Allah has bestowed on you, the home of the Hereafter, and forget not your portion of the legal enjoyment in this world....."  (till end)

Note:  a)  "Hereafter" comes before "this world".  b)  The wealth we possess is "bestowed", bukan sebab kita terror.  c)  The          enjoyment that we seek in this world must be "legal".  d)  For akhirat Allah uses "seek", but for the dunya, Allah uses "don't forget". We can take it to mean that for the dunya it is only a "by the way" sort of reminder!

Wallahu 'aa'laam bis sawaab..........Mudah2an ada menafaat kita bersama.

Dato' Aad

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Dato Aad,

 You and I can understand where Dato DC is coming from :
pure  Oxbridge or Nottingham U  etc etc in the 50's or the 60's  without the priveledge of the Quran...Quran if at all come  a wee bit later, even then from orientalists perspective.

Was listening to an ulama' khutbah in my local mosque the other day. He said:
Ilm, Ilm Ilm is of profound important to our  early 'software'  development,but we need to change the order. The order should be Quran first  and only then the book of nature.

Quran first right from the outset,  then only MCKK, SIC, St Mikael, VI or Penang Free or Sri Cempaka ; then you can go to Harvard, Cornell or Cambridge or whatever.
That way one is assured of iman and ilm. Ilm without iman is dangerous for the soul. You get the 'Dunya'  and 'Western' lovers sans the 'akhirat'

Otherwise we get 'yellow mini-skirted young punks or dungaree laden young men going on  in later life,to become PM and ministers and CEo's with little clue and appreciation of their god given Din except for the little that they pick up along the way......when we  get NFC, Maminco, BMF, UMBC , Scorpene and whatever daylight piracy we make a lot of noise. We are responsible for putting up all these'pirates' there in the first place.

Having said that the good Dato has his point:
Iqbal when he visited Paris for the first time said " I come from a place where there are Muslims but no Islam to this place where there is Islam but no Muslims ! ".

We have to have both ilm and Iman....and Iman preceed ilm in importance. Without ilm, iman is on shaky ground. Ilm here denotes both ilm from 'The Book' and ilm from 'the book of nature'.
JMHO

Nik Howk

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Howk,

On Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 7:29 AM, Nik Isahak Abdullah <drnikisahak@hotmail.com> wrote:

 "We have to have both ilm and Iman....and Iman preceed ilm in importance. Without ilm, iman is on shaky ground. Ilm here denotes both ilm from 'The Book' and ilm from 'the book of nature".

Allow me to just summarise, khusus bagi ikhwan kita dalam forum JI ini, dan 'am kepada sesiapa yang ingin bersetuju.

Ilmu. Iman. Amal soleh. Adalah seperti serampang tiga mata yang kita mesti ada untuk menuju kepada "...fid dunya Hasanah, wa fil akhiratu Hasanah...." yang kita ungkapkan saban hari.

Ilmu. Ada yang memenefaatkan, ada juga yang memudharatkan. Ilmu sihir is ilmu, tetapi memudharatkan. To reinforce, apabila Muhammad (SAW) mengajar kita memohon diberi ilmu, Baginda (SAW) mengajarkan "........'ilman na fi'a", or ilmu yang menafaat! Sebagai rumusan, "ilmu" is defined by one mu'alim, sebagai "sesuatu pengetahuan yang mendekatkan kita kepada Allah". Perlu diingat syaitan cukup suka dengan orang yang beramal tanpa ilmu! Ada riwayat yang menyebut bahawa, syaitan tak takut nak acah 1000 orang yang beriman/beramal tanpa ilmu. Tetapi syaitan amat takut kepada seorang yang beramal dengan ilmu.

Iman. Described by (if my 60 year old memory serves me right) Ali bin Abi Thalib, as, "Keyakinan yang tersemat di hati, yang dilafazkan dengan lidah dan dipertuntunkuan dengan perbuatan. Rosak hati, kufur. Rosak lafazan, munafik. Rosak perbuatan, fasiq!" So, it is not enough to say, Ya, saya beriman dengan al-Quraan tetapi hukum hudud is "out of date"! Hukum hudud tak boleh di enforce sebab Bolehland ada rakyat berbilang kaum! Iman (dan taqwa) IS the visa into Jannah. Tidak ada dalam Quraan yang mengatakan orang Islam (Muslimin) yang masuk syurga. Yang boleh masuk syurga (dengan Rahmat Allah) hanya orang beriman (Mukmin)! SO this is very very important. Silap haribulan, rosak iman, TERBATAL lah kalimah syahadah kita (wa 'iyya dzuBillahi min dzaa lik)

Amal Soleh. As opposed to "amal toleh". Pendirian ahlus sunnah wal jamaah: tidak terbatal iman bagi orang yang tak solat, tak berpuasa dan sebagainya. Dia tetap Mukmin, tinggal lagi, seorang MUKMIN FASIQ. But do not take this lightly, because Allah's treatment and view of the "fasiquun", is not a "good one" (for want of a better word). Tambahan, kalau dah biasa fasiq, kemungkinan terjerumus kepada kekafiran! Banyak Ayat Quraan yang menggariskan keseluruhan natijahnya kaum fasiquun ini!

Wallahu 'aa'laam........

--
Salam ISLAH
Sebarkan Salam

Aad.


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Heard , loud and clear Dato Aad.

Nik Howk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gP9IzkM7xeQ&feature=related

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Turning Anger Into Joy

I think it might have been through my early readings of HAMKA's Tafsir Al Azhar or some other religious work somewhere, but I have practised this for years that whenever I am angry or more commonly as in my case 'dissapointed' with someone or something, I would go take an ablution and pray 2 cycles of prayer. Most times, the paradigm changes, my anger or dissapointment well abated and 'problem' seem less of a problem. My attitude to the socalled' problem changed......


There was one instance I recollect that the 'problem on the ground' was so intractable and 'formidable'., I had to wake up in the wee hours of the morning  daily and pray for over a month, suddenly one fine day I woke up with the pleasant realization that 'really actually it is not a problem anymore for me, it is HIS problem ! '. Everything suddenly become bright and breezy.


Yesterday I was surfing a 'sufi' web on the internet and came across this 'gold mine'. I know sufi/ tassauwwuf is a 'no - no' to some individuals.......

Well, if you are partial to tassauwwuf or sufism, or you think they are 'bidaah people', disregard that this is sufi, but listen....

If you love them......also listen

but if you are the great silent majority like me who are 'neutral' to all this name-calling,...do listen

Take just their wisdom, leave the name-calling, and  your  'I am holier and more knowledgeable than thou', common amongst us Muslims...just listen

http://vimeo.com/36200465

[ I  must apologise for some of the poor sound disturbance in the background ]

"I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. "

- Sir Isaac Newton

The Lives of Man....Hamza Yusuf Hanson

Hamza Yusuf Hanson, a Muslim revert at 17, received his early Islamic education mainly from a 'one to one encounter' with a Shaykh in Mauritania [' pondok style'], then later  in Morocco and Egypt,  and is currently the founding dean of Zaytuna Institute in USA.


Here he gave a 'dry' 2 hour lecture to his students on 'The Lives of Man', mainly derived from a  book of a classical scholar, Shaykh Al Haddad, with some anecdotal addition from his [ Hamza's ] own experience and acute observation and present day reading.


Fairly 'dry'  academic stuff but nonetheless quite illuminating.
Hamza Yusuf is certainly not a 'fountain of knowledge' per se but  it is rare in the Western world to find a guy who knows Arabic very well, steeped in early  Judea- Christian tradition, embracing Islam wholly and able to speak excellently to an English speaking audience.
They can be counted with fingers of one hand !
May Allah bless him with a long life to spread the universal good message of Islam...................


part 1 :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5G1Cyj7gt9k&feature=youtu.be

[very profound esp his discussion at 1.04- 1.10 on the spirit of syariah, touching on the spirit of hudud]

part 2 :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiXRHpATKoQ&feature=related

[ 0.15 , 0.16- 0.20 {death and dying in religious traditions }, 0.20 { spiritual death }, 0.29, 0.34 { on boredom and excitement about life, an arena of ecstasy, emotional death } , 0.35, 0.38  { submission as the radical cure to 'imprisonment'} , 0.54 { seeing prophets in dreams } and 0.58 { marthydom }  ]

Living In The Fast Lane

[ musings of Shaykh Hakim Achuletta ]




Shaykh Hakim Achuletta is a different 'animal' from myself.
He practises 'holistic' medicine stemmed from  his background of hemeopathy.
He 'lives', figuratively' from my perspective, in the 'slow lane'. He can intellectualize and has the luxury of time and his practice is sedate.


My speciality is  usually  in the slow lane but oftentimes in the  'fast lane', ocasionaly too fast for my  own 'mental health' : you get to see someone's bp on the floor while 'operating' on him on the  table and you have exactly one minute, not more, to react  and bring it back to some respectable level otherwise things will get catastrophic: his rthym will fast degenerate to ventricular  tachycardia and very soon after, ventricular fibrillation. All hell will break lose thereafter.


In interventional cardiological parlance, 'time is muscle'. We do not have the luxury of time to 'stand and stare'. More time spent in indecision means more  heart muscle death, more subsequent heart failure, translated subsequently to more early premature death.


When our ER team sees a young chap brought in  'technically' dead with a 'sudden cardiac death ' syndrome [ cardiac arrest ]. They have  exactly  30 seconds  or so to 'defibrillate' [ electric shock to the heart ] him to bring his rthym back to normal and your team need to intubate him fast to takeover his breathing etc etc and etc....fast lane needing fast action and decision.  Failure to do so mean the young man may either go home in a coffin via the mortuary  in the basement floor of the hospital, or worse still, his young wife may need to take care of a 'vegetable for weeks or months with very slim chance of recovery.


Than, a quick discussion to be made with family members with respect to triage to active 'endoluminal' [ ptca/ptcsa] intervention, mean a fast transfer to the cath lab for an urgent angioplasty/coronary stenting , or , a chemical lysis of the occluding blood clot, ie a quick transfer to the CCU for intravenous bolus metalyse infusion in the case when family members are rather slow to make up their mind. In such situation time is of the essense, and to me  just 15 minutes  of hesitation is too long. 


" Madam do I take your husband on plan A or plan B ....please decide ! "
"Doc, I have to check with my insurance..........". 
They have to check with an insurance clerk somewhere based in a Kl office who cannot comprehend the urgency of my problem. That is what it usually boils down to nowadays !
A clerk to decide a life and death situation. Can be frustrating on my end.


That is usually my perspective...... Always on the balls.
Medicine is multifaceted though. Some, like psychiatry, sedate and slow. Orthopaedics despite the fractures and all usually can wait for tomorrow. While others are fast and oftentimes gory and bloody, never as sedate as homeopathy. 


But  someone has to do the 'dirty' work on 'man' in his quest with respect to time, his modern activities [ fast cars, fast lives and fast women all thrown in ] and  the vagaries of aging. 


Having said all that however,  in many ways, I do share  a lot  commonalities with Shaykh Hakim's views on life as a whole.  


Lucky him, sedate, full of wisdom and very intellectual . Do listen to him,


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBH5OZw3_w8&feature=related


Related articles in the blog :
Elixier of youth,
http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2010/12/elixir-of-youth.html
Mixing the profane and the sublime,
http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2009/03/exercise-mixing-profane-and-sublime.html
Longevity: a Muslim's perspective,
http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2008/07/longevity-muslims-perspective.html
Unto Him Is The Journeying,
http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2011/02/unto-him-is-journeying.html

The Long and Short of IT All.....

The long story :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuRcNa87Efs&feature=youtu.be


The short story :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7MZ5YiX_1k&feature=relmfu




Muslims should aim to be like Steve job, Bill Gates or even Obama in term of life achievements.
Today being the eve of our beloved Prophet's birthday [ pbuh ], we need to remind ourselves again and again that Islam is about excellence: excellence in the here and the hereafter.


This world is about black and white.
The dichotomy could be very incisive.
If you die, die in Islam.
Does not matter whether you  die being  just a road sweeper in downtown Manhattan,  having an IQ of 90, son of  black parentage from  underpriveledged background. 
It does not matter you are not an Obama, a Steve job or a Bill Gates.


Without Islam, you are a spiritual bankrupt....that is the short story, in what ever angle you may choose to look at.


A ' soft soft' rebuttal from Estes :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_n_4A754qQ&feature=related

My Personal Journey Thru The Quran : Surah Al Lail

A young 'punk'  writer wrote in malaysianinsider  just 2 weeks ago:
[ it was sent to me by my 'virtual' friend , KD ]

Rejecting religious fascism

January 23, 2012

JAN 23 — It can be quite tough to recognise the emergence and symptoms of fascism in this country, especially in this day and age.

There are neither cadres of people in brown, black, red or wearing scarfs of chequered patterns nor the sound of jackboots marching here and there. Yes, there are those kids in punk gear and hairstyles wandering confused around town and getting mistakenly branded as black metal acolytes and devil worshippers but those guys are really harmless. A little odd but harmless.

It is encouraging that the past week has seen Malaysia sounding the call for the formation of a Global Movement of Moderates. The world is very much in need of moderation in more ways than one. But here in Malaysia, if the call is to mean something more than a public relations exercise, we will need to do some self-reflection and soul searching to see whether we ourselves have passed the test of moderation, particularly when it comes to religion.

In one of my previous articles, I stated that Malaysia is on the verge of religious fascism. It seems that when it comes to religion in this country, we are unable to say no, to argue reasonably and rationally, or to even use common sense. What is even more alarming is the use of religion to intimidate, repress and stifle discourse.

More than ever before, the line between public and private religion has become thinner and in some cases has disappeared altogether. Aspects of religion, specifically Islam, has begun to dominate and dictate various previously secular aspects of life in this country to the point that it is now erroneous and misleading to state that issues pertaining to Muslim affairs do not affect or impact on non-Muslims.

We have seen the enactment of laws which allow for Islamic religious authorities to raid the places of worship of other religions. We have heard and experienced blatant unsubstantiated statements intended to create fear and whip up hysteria by accusing others of proselytisation and conversion.

It took 20 years before a church could be established in Shah Alam due to the unwillingness and resistance put up by local authorities who felt that their own aqidah would be threatened for allowing a place of workship belonging to another faith to be established. Nobody told them that their personal faith should not be a factor in their decision making.

The list is longer when we include what is being inflicted upon the Muslim community itself.

Infants are judged illegitimate as a result of being born prematurely. The parents are married? Doesn’t matter. If the kid was born less than six months from the date of nikah, he or she is considered illegitimate. The Jabatan Agama Islam Selangor (JAIS) is more known and infamous for its numerous vice raids than its acts of welfare and good work helping those in need and poverty.

If you are a Malay woman, Muslim and a civil servant, there is an unspoken rule that you are expected to wear only the baju kurung and if you are not wearing the tudung or headscarf, sooner or later you will be peer pressured into wearing it. Wear any other professional attire such as a pantsuit and you will be quietly spoken to.

Like many others, I have long been concerned about the religionisation of secular mechanisms and frameworks. Have you taken a look at the e-Fatwa website recently? It boggles the mind to see the degree of influence, control and intervention into our lives which has been granted to religious authorities who are largely unelected persons who are unaccountable to the public. It seems that syariah matters are no longer limited to personal law matters as originally underlined and envisaged under the Federal Constitution.

It is disturbing to note that involvement of Islamic religious bodies such as the National Fatwa Council appears to be required and even have the final word on perspectives involving such things as electoral reform (i.e. the use of indelible ink), Mat Rempits, poco-poco dancing, public health policy and even the use of scanners at airports. In recent days, religious authorities have even acted as book critics and declared books haram such as Lee Kuan Yew’s “Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going”.

But the reason why this is all happening is because we are allowing it to happen.

There are many who lay the blame of the religious excessiveness seen of late at the doorstep of Malay-speaking rural communities. But you know what? I believe the problem lies instead among those of the middle class living in the cities, particularly in the enclaves which exist in Shah Alam, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Putrajaya, Malacca and Johor Baru.

In these almost ghetto-like Malay communities spring the many insecurities, intolerance, bigotry and racism which have manifested themselves on the national agenda and championed by persons such as Hasan Ali, Ibrahim Ali, the Perak mufti and the boys and girls of the Perkasa brigade.

The ideas originate from people who are not economically challenged, deprived or impoverished rather they are more likely to be the privileged, well-educated, well-travelled and moneyed. They are more likely to have been educated abroad. Yet, these are the ones who are most rabid about the alleged threats to the Islamic faith. Many of them are in their retirement years, consider themselves devout and recently renewed in their faith. They are influencing the younger generation with their views and values.

Yet among them, religious piety co-exists with superstitious practices.

Consider the current trend of enrolling your kids in tahfiz classes. Parents are racing to get their very young kids into these classes where they are taught to read and memorise the entire Quran. They aren’t taught what the individual words mean or the historical context. Just memorise. So, your son can recite whole chapters but has no idea what the story is about. These kids have become the latest show and tell of parents and the latter’s store for good deeds for the hereafter. In the meantime, daughters are taught that it is necessary to thoroughly wash sanitary napkins to prevent the Devil feeding on menstruation blood and gaining access to one’s soul. Bomohs (shamans) are used for a myriad of purposes from weather control to dealing with business rivals.

These are all symptomatic of a strangeness currently inflicting the Malay community. It seems that there are many who appear to be gripped in some sort of religious rapture. A race to see who can be seen and demonstrate themselves to be the most pious. The extreme manifestations of this have been the loud militant religious rhetoric, threats towards those of other faiths and the enforcement of a single interpretation or religious worldview.

If a person is not a Malay and not a Muslim, that person is deemed as having no right to comment on things affecting Muslims. If a person is non-Malay and a Muslim, we say things are done differently here in Malaysia compared to other countries. If a person is a Malay Muslim, this person is deemed to not know enough about Islam. If a person is a Malay Muslim with the right credentials, he or she could get censored, condemned and even accused of sedition.

The loudest voices (and those who often get their way) are those belonging to the people who are less tolerant and accepting of others, who feel the need to dominate others in the name of religion and ethnicity, and who claim to be champions of the faith.

Taken together, many of these are the budding signs of fascism which are no longer confined to fringe groups and have in fact become mainstream.

Religious fascism is a tapeworm in the gut of modern Malaysia. It is time we recognised it for what it is.

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your excellency KD,

try looking at things from a different perspective

it is a positive sign, at any age especially guys your age and mine !

take it positively......................................

with ilm, ilm and ilm of course otherwise we go back to bomoh, shamans, talisman and all

overall increase in religiosity in ttdi, damansara heights or even subang jaya does not cause more heart burns or ulcer 

I take a contrarion view. positive always.....i am sure a more god fearing kd or even dato dc would not do the world at large any harm.

we are having too much of 'ads' anyway......akhirat deficit syndrome....it is a chronic and serious inattention disorder in elderly adults our age.  . .not healthy at our age, if you ask me.

jmho

nik howk

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Howk,

I live at TTDI, or at least at the fringe of it. And I am in my retirement years, or at least at the fringe of it.

And yes, I am from the middle class and for some time now have had my faith renewed. And finally, I make

no apologies for not being a moderate in the practice of Islam. Those who advocate moderation in such matters 

ought perhaps also plead for moderation from the Almighty in His exercise of forgiveness for their sins.

There is one sentence in that article that about sums up its author's mind. It is: 

"It seems that syariah matters are no longer limited to personal law matters as originally underlined and envisaged under the Federal Constitution."

It is apparent that the author thinks that the application of the syariah with all its injunctions, commandments

and prescriptions were intended by God and the Prophet (pbuh) to be circumscribed by what a handful of men

led by the colonizer's representative, Lord Reid, determined in drawing up the Federal Constitution. Originally

underlined and envisaged? Was that what God and the Prophet (pbuh) originally underlined and envisaged for 

the syariah 1400 over years ago when Lord Reid's grandparents were not even born, that its scope and application

should be determined by Lord Reid and a few other men?

To such like him perhaps when the talqin is recited over their bodies when their time comes and they 

are asked by Munkar and Nakir what book they follow, they should answer that the book they follow is the

Federal Constitution.

Wassalam.

Adam.

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Adam,

Well said.

Nik Howk

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Doc,

Well said !? Really ?

   

You reject our Federal Constitution...Agong, Sultans, Parliament, Cabinet, Courts, Federal and State laws, Democracy, Rule of Law, Elections... Because Lord Reid, a "coloniser's representative" drew them up?  And what will you have in its place? A theocracy that will take us back 14 centuries? A Wahabbi monarchy Saudi Arabian style?  Ayatollahs Iranian style? 

No. No, thank you.

DC.

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Dato Dc,

acceptance of the 'status  quo handed to us by history'  with reluctance' is one thing dato'.

[ pas, ikwanul muslimin , justice party of turkey  etc etc are the result of such 'acceptance with reluctance' ]

outright rejection of the 'the god given' alternative is quite another thing.

some would rightfully say this is bordering on the aqidah....i dare not go there or push my friends to play 'brinkmanship'.

we need to 'step back and give ourselves a lot of deep soul searching.

before we sink deeper into this chasm we better stop here.

Nik Howk

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You are right, doc, we all need to think through the major issues we face. A nation's Constitution is a serious matter. Though man made, it is the bedrock of the nation that guarantees the rights of all its members. Its provisions can only be amended a two thirds majority of parliament. A few clauses, the entrenched ones, cannot be changed without the agreement of the Council of Rulers. 

It is well to recognize that our Constitution was not drawn up by a "coloniser's representative." Lord Reid was only chairman of the commission. The commission that drew up our Constitution comprised eminent judges from several commonwealth countries. 

Though Islam is the official religion, our Constitution guarantees that our nation is secular. This is a basic right of all citizens, guaranteed by the Constitution. We will be governed by the rule of law, not rule by law, or rule by man through beliefs. When we think of the issue carefully, these are inescapable thoughts.

Have a great holiday!

DC.

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Howk,

Reading the latest postings, I guess there's another then that should give Munkar and Nakir the same reply,

Adam

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Friends,

Let us take a break from this discussion. My collar is getting heated up.

Let su go listen to some Shaykh.....young Imama Suhaib Webb exposition on Surah Al lail

Part 1,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mrbs24gb07c&feature=relmfu

Part 2,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfKaJLsxaSs&feature=relmfu