“Orang Yang Arif Itu Berani, Bagaimana Ia Tidak Berani, Kerana Cintanya Akan Kebenaran Telah Menyebabkan Diri Tidak Takut Mati” - Ibnu Sina.

Hadi’s push for Islamic finance gets cross party support

By: Saadon Aksah

Kuala Lumpur: PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang has called for a review of profit oriented products to strengthen Islamic finance in light of the global conventional financial system meltdown.

Abdul Hadi who singled out Islamic finance product al-Bai’ Bithaman Ajil, noted that some of these products also failed to be recognized in the Middle Eastern countries due to its high profit margin.

Al-Bai’ Bithaman Ajil is deferred payment sale where payment is made by the bank in a single payment and customers would pay a certain amount of monthly installments.

Certain quarters have pointed out that even though the high profit margin does not violate the letter of the Syariah it however runs contrary to the spirit of the Syariah to ensure justice for all.

“I’d like to suggest that Bank Islam does not rely solely on (the concept of) al-Bai’ Bithaman Ajil, where its high profit (margin) is questioned by many and needs to be re-looked,” Abdul Hadi said.

“There are those who noted that the total repayment matched interest (plus principal of the conventional system, or even exceeded it),” he said when debating the Bank NegaraMalaysia Bill 2009 in Dewan Rakyat June 1.

Abdul Hadi who is also Marang parliamentary member said the case suggests a flaw in the formulation of the product. “I hope economists will have a detailed look on a better alternative and a more moral way of doing things so there will not be injustice,” he said.

Apart from having to pay a higher amount of profit margin to the bank compared to the conventional system, consumers also ran the risk of running into trouble if the house they bought using the product failed to be constructed on time.

They did not enjoy the current reduction in base lending (BLR) which is beneficial to the user of the conventional system. …

Abdul Hadi also called for the use of the gold dinar to prevent Islamic countries from relying on the dollar.

He also did not discount the possibility of working with the ruling party to improve the Islamic financial system in the country and called on an economic committee similar to the one formed during the administration of former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohamad to be formed.

Extracted from Harakah, English Section, 6-9 July 2009, Bil. 1453.
Transcribed by Malakian: http://malakian.blogsome.com

Alhamdulillah, perjuangan dalam bidang ekonomi iaitu mengembalikan ekonomi kepada Allah seperti yang diperjuangkan oleh antara lainnya Shaykh Imran Nazar Hosein dan di Malaysia oleh Datuk Paduka Haji Husam Musa sudah mendapat tempat yang sewajarnya. Semoga segala al-Dukhan yang menyeliputi langit Malaysia dan negara umat Islam amnya akan hilang dan diganti oleh hujan rahmat daripada Allah; semoga umat Islam yang hidup miskin merana kerana terpaksa hidup di bawah payung Dajjal satu hari nanti dapat bebas daripada belenggu yang menimpa mereka.

Ibn Abbas berkata: “Mereka yang pertama mengikut Dajjal terdiri daripada 70,000 orang Yahudi… dan di antara tanda-tanda bahawa telah keluarnya Dajjal adalah… pengamalan riba.” (Ishaq ibn Basheer dan Ibn Asakir di dalam Kanz al-Ummal.)

Abu Hurairah berkata bahawa Nabi Muhammad s.a.w. telah bersabda: “Riba itu terbahagi kepada 70 macam jenis dan dosa yang paling kecil daripadanya bersamaan seperti seorang lelaki bernikah (iaitu menjalinkan hubungan kelamin) dengan ibunya sendiri”. (Hadith Riwayat Ibn Majah dan Baihaqi).

p.s/: Adakah golongan Elit masih akan mengatakan bahawa idea mengkaji balik Institusi Kewangan Islam dan pengenalan penggunaan dinar emas ini terlalu idealistik dan tidak berpijak di bumi nyata dan akan terus menggasak orang awam seperti saya dan rakyat Muslim Malaysia yang dirahmati Allah agar terus memakan bertih jagung dan dedak ayam yang ditaburkan di tanah?

Adakah kita dapat hidup selesa, termasuk selesa pemikiran apabila Allah dan Rasulnya mengisytiharkan perang terhadap kita:

Orang-orang yang makan (mengambil) riba tidak dapat berdiri melainkan seperti berdirinya orang yang kemasukan syaitan lantaran (tekanan) penyakit gila. Keadaan mereka yang demikian itu, adalah disebabkan mereka berkata (berpendapat), sesungguhnya jual beli itu sama dengan riba, padahal Allah telah menghalalkan jual beli dan mengharamkan riba. Orang-orang yang telah sampai kepadanya larangan dari Tuhannya, lalu terus berhenti (dari mengambil riba), maka baginya apa yang telah diambilnya dahulu (sebelum datang larangan); dan urusannya (terserah) kepada Allah. Orang yang kembali (mengambil riba), maka orang itu adalah penghuni-penghuni neraka; mereka kekal di dalamnya. (Al-Baqarah, 2: 275)

New Strait Times says:

It’s been five weeks since the general election. The Barisan Nasional was returned to power, albeit with a smaller majority and the loss of five states.
Despite the shock of the result, it was still a mandate that no one could argue with, not even Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in his wildest allegations of electoral fraud. But what has Umno, the leading partner of the coalition and largest party in parliament, been doing since March 8? Bickering, pointing fingers, baying for vengeance and doing everything imaginable except rolling up its sleeves and getting down to the work of governing.

Enough is enough.

People are getting fed up with Umno’s moaning and groaning, the political wayang and sandiwara its cast of characters is playing up and down the country.

The truth is that the people have long been disgusted with the kind of boorish, loutish behaviour that Umno leaders had exemplified because of their grip on power since independence in 1957.

Brandishing the kris was hurtful to the non-Malays but the party leadership did nothing to take the Umno Youth chief to task for the menacing and insulting gesture. Which was why he was emboldened to repeat it and provide extra impetus for the Chinese and Indians to abandon the BN at the polls.

It also did not go unnoticed that the leadership put up with the racist and inflammatory rhetoric of the delegates at the televised 2006 Umno general assembly.

Then there was the desecration of the temple under the watch of the then Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Khir Toyo which did so much to outrage the Hindus throughout the country and turn them against the ruling coalition. And Dr Khir had the cheek to award a broom to a local council president, when neither he nor the party president could control the warlords who held the party to ransom over the choice of candidates, and stabbed the party in the back when they did not approve of the candidates.

Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is now paying for these and other acts of omission, including the undeliverable promises of change that he made when he first became prime minister in 2003.

Every other day, he has had to deflect attacks by party members and ex-leaders who conveniently have absolved themselves of any fault. But every day that he is sidetracked by party bickering is another day affairs of state are neglected — the nation and the people are the losers.

Abdullah has said that he has got the message; he has accepted responsibility for the unkept pledges; and this time, he vows he will deliver on his promises and set the country in order before he retires.

That is, in fact, the verdict of his mandate, and he should be allowed to get on with it. But all the worms crawling out of the Umno woodwork — especially the retired and those with shelf lives past due who have found new breath in their calls for a party coup — won’t let him.

They don’t get it. Abdullah is not solely to be blamed and everything will not suddenly be all well again if he goes. Umno from the roots to the high branches all have to share the blame for their silence, their greed, arrogance and shenanigans that have turned off voters. So stop the navel-gazing and infighting.

If they have to fight among themselves, at least have the decency to keep it civilised and behind closed doors. They don’t have to drag the whole country through their infernal politicking.

There are more important things than private peeves and settling of scores.

Neither the brewing crisis over soaring food prices nor other major issues are going to wait for Umno to put its own house in order. Now is the time for the grand old party to move on, do the things its leaders have promised and show that it still has what it takes to lead the nation.

UMNO tactics of playing the “Ketuanan Melayu’ sentiment is very dangerous and seditious. UMNO is not protecting Ketuanan Melayu but actually protecting Ketuanan Kroni UMNO. It seems very clear to every people about the message from NST. Lastly, all I want to say is only to repeat the popular refrain, just like what Farish A Noor had said before: “Padan Muka.”

Now See What Happens When You Play Around With The Keris?

Written by Farish A. Noor
Thursday, 13 March 2008

As the broken remnants of the Barisan Nasional recuperate and recover what is left of their shattered pride, it would be prudent to take a step back and look at some of the factors that have certainly contributed to the dismal showing the BN component parties and the UMNO party in particular.

It is clear to many that this election was, in some ways, a singularly unique event in the same way that the 2004 elections were special. 2004’s election results could be read as a collective sigh of relief on the part of the Malaysian electorate after twenty years of rule under the Mahathir government, which witnessed a host of controversial incidents ranging from the BMF scandal of the early 1980s all the way up to Ops Lalang in 1987. The enormous mandate given to the Badawi government was a sign that the public was thirsting for change and that they were no longer willing to live with the modes of governance and politics that we have all grown sadly accustomed to for lack of a choice…

This time round, the electorate has once again spoken to signal their utter disillusionment after it became painfully evident that none of the reform policies foregrounded by the Badawi team were ever going to come true. Instead this had been an administration long on gimmicks and novelties, but short on substance and delivery. Was it necessary to send a Malaysian astronaut to space on a Russian craft, to make the vain boast that a Malaysian citizen had been there and done that? If this was meant to assuage the anger and frustration of Malaysians who lived in estates and poorly-run low-cost urban housing, it certainly had the opposite effect of driving home the point that this administration was out of touch with reality and totally disconnected with the needs and wants of the people.

But vain boasts notwithstanding, the Badawi government suffered its long-overdue shock due to the vain boasts of some of its leaders and spokesmen. Here is it worth noting the effect that UMNO’s own overheated pyrotechnics had on the sentiments and sensibilities of a significant section of the Malaysian public; namely the non-Malays and non-Muslims of the country. In particular we are referring to the repeated assertion on the part of some hot-headed UMNO leaders who continued to harp on about the notion of Malay dominance in a racially and religiously diverse and plural society.

The abandonment of the MCA, Gerakan and MIC by the Malaysian electorate would suggest that the non-Malay voters have grown fed up with the toothless apologia of the non-Malay leaders and representatives of the BN when faced with the antics of UMNO demagogues and soap-box orators. In particular we will recall the incidents when the leader of UMNO’s Youth Wing Hishamuddin Onn, brandished the keris in public, on stage, and pontificated at some length about Malay pride and the place of the Malays in Malaysia.

The use of the keris as a symbol of racial unity and identity was and is in itself problematic, considering that the keris in Malaysia today is such a politically loaded symbol that is pregnant with meaning and historical connotations. Hishamuddin’s brandishing of the keris did not take place in a historical vacuum, even if the politician had no sense of history (which is unlikely to be the case.)

As we all know, the keris has been transformed into a marker for a particular sort of right-wing ethno-nationalist ideology that serves the agenda of Malay racial and cultural supremacists since 1969 and all the way up to 1987 and beyond. Need we remind the leaders of UMNO that some of them were also present at the Malay nationalists’ rally in Kampung Baru in 1987, when once again the keris was identified with Malay pride as well as the threat of violence? UMNO leaders like Najib Razak were present when their supporters chanted and carried banners with slogans like ‘This keris will drink Chinese blood.

It is against that specific historical context – that was fully engineered by UMNO, mind you – that Hishamuddin’s raising of the keris on several occasions aroused both the fear and anger of many non-Malays and Malays as well. Was this not an act of provocation, where once again UMNO was brandishing its muscle in defiance of the other communities in the country?

Compounding the problem was the MCA, Gerakan and MIC’s relative impotence and quietism when Hisham gave us this theatrical display of misplaced ethnic pride and muscular nationalism. Despite the plaintive appeals of the leaders of MCA, Gerakan and MIC to desist from such soapbox pyrotechnics, neither Hisham, nor UMNO Youth, nor the Prime Minister himself altered course: UMNO Youth was allowed a free hand to make such outrageous ethnic-communitarian demands at a time when MCA, Gerakan and MIC wished to assert their identity as equal partners of the BN. It seemed almost as if by raising the keris in the way that he did, Hisham was indicating that UMNO Youth was more important than the other non-Malay component parties, and this repeated act of defiance drove in the nails in the coffins of the MCA, Gerakan and MIC respectively.

Crucially the one person who could have said and done something to stop the erosion of the MCA, Gerakan and MIC’s credibility was Prime Minister Badawi; who could simply have pulled the reins on the hot-heats and chest-thumpers of UMNO Youth. Yet even Badawi stood paralysed, allowing them to raise the ante further. This apparent paralysis on the part of Prime Minister Badawi rendered null and void his now-vacuous claim that he was the ‘Prime Minister of all Malaysians’. If he was indeed such a universal leader-figure, then why did this ‘Prime Minister of all Malaysians’ do nothing and say nothing when the younger leaders of his own party were raising the spectre of racial supremacy before his very eyes?

Thus it can perhaps be said that the election results of 2008 are an indicator of the extent to which MCA, Gerakan and MIC have been seen as the running dogs of UMNO in a BN coalition that has grown more and more unbalanced in the eyes of so many. Playing around with kerises is something you do in old movies about silat warriors, but not in the context of modern-day Malaysian politics where respect for cultural diversity and the equal pride and status of all communities should be paramount. The hot-heads in UMNO Youth may have been playing to the Malay gallery when they pulled the stunt of drawing the keris in public, but the catastrophic damage they did to the image and standing of their component BN partners was beyond calculation. In the end, however, it is not the keris, but rather the clumsy hand that wields it that is to be blamed. UMNO’s two-faced management of race-relations, which was flawed from the outset, has undone itself and the BN. To quote the popular refrain: “Padan Muka“.

Semalam, di Astro Awani, terdapat wawancara, panelnya Dr. Farish A Noor dan Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Tambi Chik. Lim Guan Eng pernah masuk penjara kerana mempertahankan seorang wanita Melayu yang mempunyai kes dirogol oleh Abdul Rahim. Abdul Rahim memainkan ‘filem-filem’ lama seperti mengungkit peritiwa 13 Mei 1969 dan sentimen perkauman. Farish A Noor tidak setuju. Dia berkata, dia sendiri berada di Kelantan, apabila calon DAP menang, rakyat Kelantan semua bersorak. Jelas beliau, parti perkauman ultra seperti UMNO tidak lagi relevan. Parti bermuka-muka tidak diperlukan. Rakyat bukan Melayu sekarang lebih takut kepada UMNO. Ini terbukti, ramai masayarakat bukan Melayu mengundi PAS dan PKR. Tinggallah UMNO dengan dua kerisnya. Bak kata Sudin “Alif Mim Nun Wau, sarkis.” Kita (termasuk saya) berbangga menjadi Melayu kerana Allah telah mengurniakan Islam kepada kita, sehingga apabila menyebut Melayu, maka sinonimlah dengan Islam. Bukannya semangat perkauman buta.

Maklumat Lanjut.

Rujuk juga suratkhabar Suara Keadilan keluaran 1-12 Jun 2006 yang menjelaskan peristiwa pada hari tersebut dengan lebih terperinci.

Monday March 27, 2006

Brace for water shortages

By DEVID RAJAH AND SA’ODAH ELIAS

PETALING JAYA: Many of the 189 river basins nationwide are in dire straits.

This warning from Department of Irrigation and Drainage director-general Datuk Keizrul Abdullah may sound extreme, but that is the reality of today.

Parts of the country, particularly the Klang Valley, he said, would be facing a water crisis as early as next year unless the agencies concerned and the people started taking serious care of rivers.

“On one hand, we have river basins overburdened by problems brought about by over- development. On the other hand, the number of people dependent on these rivers keeps rising because they are attracted to the development.

“That is a recipe for disaster,” he said.

Keizrul described the problem facing the country as “a classic situation where rivers are under pressure from development.”

(more…)